//Min

It's clear to me this challenge is not progressing and I'm likely having a little burn out various aspects of life. I do not have the mental capacity to deal so I'm stopping the challenge and going to take a break and rest for a while to recharge. The war isn't over, but a break is sorely needed. 

On 7/7/2020 at 7:09 PM, Salinger said:

Yes i can relate to the feeling nauseous when thinking about food....strange place isnt it xx

Haha yea.. the mind is a weird place....

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WEEK 3 - 5 Jul to 12 Jul

❌ Breathing: 5 mins morn and 5 min evening daily

❌ Exercise: 15 mins bicycle HIIT per week 

❌ Dietary: Snack on fruits / nuts only on Tue and Thu

Crazy week. Routines not done. Helped with Elections in a 17 hour work day and in protective gear. It was emotionally overwhelming and quite the experience. I am glad it’s over.

Haha yea! I’m surprised how addicted I was to both the manga and the anime too since I don’t normally go for such gore. I think it’s because the themes are so relatable, fighting hard for something better and freedom.

Ahh… yea diet usually has much higher impact on weight loss/gain than exercise, so it make sense if your diet change your weight would change. Was your diet very restrictive that you couldn’t sustain it? What are you eating these days? I’ve found meal planning and eating at regular timings before I get too hungry helps remove temptations if you need some ideas.

You can do it, we are all here cheering you on!

THOUGHTS

Recording stuff I want to remember.

On breathing: breathing meditation can both be rejuvenating or relaxing, depending on the count and hold. Tummo breathing is rejuvenating as it fires up the body and fits well in the morning. Maybe I will try either mindfulness meditation or just simple breathing in the evening for relaxation instead.

On heart rates: I noticed after having some social calls with friends that my average heart rate and sleeping heart rates went down despite not feeling any difference physically. Guess social time relaxes me more than I realise.

On exercise: My body composition scale says my core and upper body has more fat and less muscle than the average person. Decided to add back wall push ups to my routine and going to have to start more upper body workouts.

Been feeling nauseous these three days and its addling my brain lol. Feel like eating something yet disgusted at the sight of food. It's a weird place to be in lol!

sounds like a plan! you got this! and simplifying the tracking is a great idea if it’s not working, it’s more important to just do. maybe it’s already a habit? haha!

8 hours ago, fearless 2.0 said:

im missing my creative, active brain! feel weighed down by me only caring for my body because I have to. For example I can't do the tarot course right now. I can do it later no problem, but still I wish I had my brain functioning the way it usually does. Good news: Im not dizzy anymore and the 2 walks were pleasant. had a visitor with her dog over for coffee and my pup was soooo happy to play! Feel loved and cared for. Now drinking a glass of bubbly and the off to sleep early tonight

I hear ya! It like wanting to do other things but having to be forced to focus on the physical right? i wish the same too haha

hope your rest is good. that’s one lucky pup you have with a caring owner

52 minutes ago, Salinger said:

i havent eaten very well today need to do better tomorrow. I dont know how to ensure i do better at this.... maybe its just will power???

Food choice is another choice you have to make when you’re already so bogged down with the rest of life. it’s totally understandable it would add to the stress you’re already feeling, it’s not lack of will power. a way round this is to take the choice out of the decision by meal planning or eating the same things everyday? 

sending you healing vibes for ya back

Yea! Attack on titian has the never give up attitude which I find useful on this physical journey haha! Do you read it too?

and aww, awareness is usually the first step to change, for example your relationship with food and the environmental factors around you that shape it. Like It’s good you knew you were thirsty! 

If you’re having a hard time, maybe start even smaller by just focusing on one of the goals till you get it’s gets stable? I recall myself focusing on cleaning my main meals for one month and nothing else cause it was that hard (I am now cleaning up my snacks). what is your plan to not eat sweet things? 

Today is a new day, don’t give up!

There was definitely improvement in week 2, keep it up!!

Emotional eating is hard eh? Today is a new day. 

Great on reducing your screen time!! Eggs for breakfast is a great idea! Protein for muscles building

Happy birthday belated! Welcome and great going, it looks like you're smashing your goals!

This humble Min thanks you for your valuable time to write the other posts to my other thread. m(*-ω-)m

Your posts almost look scientific / like math equations. It's cool haha!

How are things Jarric?

Break and resets (like you did with football) are important, especially when our consistency are starting to flag a little. You're doing amazing for keeping going even when you were feeling a bit low. Keep going!

Haha yea, I used to listen to music from a show that giant eats humans to get the blood pumping... nothing like the fear of being eaten to get you going eh? haha zombie run sounds fun~ You can do it!!!!! 

Hugs, meltdowns are hard... Glad you manage to find a way through it. You writing is so imaginative! There's such a romance around lighthouses...

Sending you big hugs. I'm sorry to hear bout your dad. Remember to breath, you can make it through. 

On 7/3/2020 at 11:52 PM, fearless 2.0 said:

friday:

feeling very weak still. decided to see a doc on Monday. will take a break here until I know what Im dealing with. Mentally Im good. Just feel ill. See you guys on Monday night ! ❤️

 

sending you good vibes and hoping you feel better soon~ drown yourself in vitamins? 

I really liked the values you wrote down for food and fitness. I also think the way you delay having a snack is such a good idea, I'm going to try that. 

What kind of activity are you doing and at what time of day? Also which meals are you eating your veggies in?

Welcome to NF! Better late then never  My first challenge was very similar to yours. You can do it!

@Defining  @Scalyfreak

I took some time to reflect, and I think I didn’t assert myself in front of the professionals because 1) my pain didn’t seem high at that time = not so pressing in my mind and 2) I’m used to solving my own problems and when someone doesn’t look like they can help me (esp with $ involve), I move on or retreat. In this case I didn’t know who to move on to and didn’t have enough info of what to expect backing me to press forward either. That said, thank you for stepping behind me. I think I’m going to give professionals another try, at the very least to at least first eliminate whether there is any serious injury by going to take more conclusive tests (e.g. x-rays/ MRI)

@Harriet

That makes sense. That’s probably the route I’m going to go, high reps/low weight. Muscles~

@Machete

Mmm my ankle dorsiflexion seems alright?  I can only do that video test (with my feet flat on the floor) with legs and feet apart though, I can’t do it when my legs and feet are together. Maybe my dorsiflexion can be better haha. 

@PaulG

This info is invaluable to me. You’re so thoughtful I nearly teared, thank you.

Just a bit of background on my country’s health system that I’ve managed to summarise after some reflection. I have public system - where the fees are subsidised by the govt but the general practitioners give you hurried diagnosis (and the referral to specialists I guess) and the wait time to see specialists can be a month/s and you can’t really choose your doctor/professional unless you know of someone in particular - and there is private - where wait time is much less and you can choose your doc but the fees are much higher (like my physio and I assume there are sports therapists around).

Insurance here is also funny, you either get covered by work which covers outpatient and hospitalisation and surgical, or you can get your own which only covers hospitalisation (warded) and surgical. There is no outpatient insurance you can buy on your own. Since everything I want to do (like tests and physio) is all considered outpatient expenses, I am paying it out of my own pocket unless I make a claim at work which only covers the expense partly if I went public and covers me minimally if I went private. Yea my work place insurance isn’t that great, there are other companies with better coverage and a panel of docs, but I'm not there lol. SO, basically it’s very expensive for me to get medical help at the moment. I’m but a young working adult haha

That said, after reflecting on everything here (I’m still going to go back to re-read your posts to be prepared before I see anyone), I am going to give my public system a try (less $) to get a referral to a physio and will just have to be patient with the wait times. At the very least I want to eliminate if there is any serious cause of concern that only certain medical tests can tell, even if my pain level is low currently. And I think this time I’ll be going in with a better idea. At the same time, I’m going to research private sport focus physical therapists and have that on the ready if the public physio doesn’t work out. And if that doesn't work out, I'll regroup and keep moving along till I find something that works. Yea, that's going to be my game plan. 

Thank you everyone for your comments, I'm really grateful. Muah˜

June 2020.

June was a hectic month with work which consumed most of my thoughts and stressed me out a lot. It’s just as well I decided to focus on researching on breathing this month, as one aspect of it is to help reduce stress levels. In May, I had just started a simple breathing exercise according to the Applewatch app, so now it was time to up it a notch.

This are objectives I hope to achieve through breathing and meditation: -

1. To achieve focussing abilities
2. To achieve optimal physical performance
3. To achieve a positive mindset and be calmer

After research, this is the type of meditation I am doing to achieve my objectives: -

1. Focussed meditation: Tummo breathing - focussing on a single point (fire and body) will help me concentrate better. This is a top priority as I am having difficulty focussing at work. I am glad I found out about Tummo breathing, its cool to think I am practicing like a monk from the Tibetan temples. It is a struggle but I do find that my focussing abilities are improving slowly.
2. Movement meditation: by focussing on my breathing while I do my morning exercise. I do find that helps a more consistent physical performance.
3. Mindfulness meditation: I haven’t started this yet, but it is something I am going to use in future to change my thinking patterns.

There are other meditation types (e.g spiritual, mantra) but I won’t be touching those any time soon.

Overall a good new addition to my daily routines. Oh and woot to breaking the stagnant fat loss and 70.

WEEK 2 // 28 Jun - 4 Jul

✅ Breathing: 5 mins morn and 5 min evening daily

Smashed this goal with Tummo breathing in the morning and evening. Did some research on the types of meditation, there are six popular types of meditation practice and here's where I think I stand: - 

• mindfulness meditation - I'm not doing this yet but hope to try it in future to apply more positive thinking
• spiritual meditation - Not doing this
• focused meditation - What I'm currently doing with Tummo breathing by focussing on a single point (e.g. fire)
• movement meditation - What I'm currently doing with my morning exercises
• mantra meditation - Not doing this
• transcendental meditation - Not doing this

✅ Exercise: Sunday morning 15 mins bicycle HIIT

I did it last Sunday and added one 15 min session on Friday in the evening. I am thinking of shifting this to Fri evening so I have the weekend to recovery. Boy did I perspire loads.

✅ Dietary: Snack on fruits / nuts only on Tue and Thu

This worked, I only snacked on fruits on Tue and Thu. I'm not really a fan of nuts, but wrote it in on the premise it's "healthy". Maybe I'll learn to like it one day.  A bonus on Wed too that I only snacked on fruits. 

Overall a much better week. Pushed myself to do my morning (drink water, exercise, breath, wash face - 45 mins total) and evening (dog walk, journal, foam roll, wash face, breath - 1 hr total) routines every day to really make it a stronger habit. As a result, I found that generally my days went better, even when it was a "bad" day I still manage to be somewhat productive. My average resting heart rate at night (61bpm) and heart rate variability (52ms) is still a little on the higher and lower side respectively from what it was before, which tells me my body or mind is still in a stressed state. I am still physically tired and haven't had much time to be on the forum and other things as I'm so focussed on work Still, it was better than last week so I'm calling it a good week. 

Going slow and staying positive +++ A new day awaits.

@Salinger

Thank you （*＾3＾) - x

@fearless 2.0 Yea! I saw your posts on your thread! ahhh I haven't replied yikes big hugs hope you're doing ok too!

@foxinthenorth haha yea my family is really sweet, though they tend to push a lot of food on me (>_<) still love them though.