Peelout restarts KH2

[peelout]

Weekly 4 Summary:

7 days of exercise (total of 10 w/o's)

7 days of eating pretty well.  Although I did eat at McD's for lunch 4 times + 1 lunch Mexican, but all other meals were excellent. 

About 2 hrs Solid Works training.

1/1 191.6

1/7 188.2

1/14 186.4

1/21 184.8

1/28 184.0

Still can't button my size 34 pants, but much easier to zip them up.

[Hazard]

5 minutes ago, peelout said:

 

7 days of exercise (total of 10 w/o's)

 

1/21 184.8

1/21 184.0

 

 

Building that daily exercise habit nicely.  

Looks like a typo on your last date.  You’ve got 1/21 listing twice there.

 

[peelout]

2 minutes ago, Hazard said:

 

Building that daily exercise habit nicely.  

Looks like a typo on your last date.  You’ve got 1/21 listing twice there.

 

Thanks.  Seems to pop into automatically.  And I fixed the typo. Thanks

[Manarelle]

This challenge is 5 weeks so people who were out for the holidays at the start of the year could still get 4 weeks in, I believe. Grats on the weight loss, workouts, and unexpected toe lifts.

[peelout]

1/29

Wt: 182.8

Was my day a success?  Yes. Eating right and 5 w/o's over the weekend paid off.  New low wt of 182.8.  Hope to solidify the 182's by end of challenge.  Added another core exercise to my cardio/core.

3 min tread, 10 crunches and 10 flat Vees, tread, incline situp, tread, machine twists, tread, ab machine, tread, hanging leg raises, tread, plate raise reverse curl.  Definitely getting the core back in shape.  Managed to start the week off right by skipping McD's for lunch and had a chicken and bacon w/ romaine and spinach lettuce and touch of peppercorn ranch on spinach wrap.

 

Dawned on me on the way to work why people constantly lose wt, reach their goal, then gain back.  All has to w/ the habit loop.  If you put a maze where a rat can enter, then ring the bell and place a treat at the end, the mouse will eventually learn that if it hears the bell and follows the right path, it will get a reward.  It will become a habit and each time the rat hears the bell, it will repeat the process.  For someone losing wt and checking the scale daily, each drop in wt is the treat.  Once you reach the goal wt, you no longer get a treat.  Seeing the wt stay the same does not give you the rush that losing the wt did.  With any habit loop, if you take away the reward, there is no drive in the brain to keep following the loop.  So what is the replacement?  Hell if I know yet. Rewarding myself w/ candy sure isn't the answer.  Have to think about this.  Once I get past the hard part of starting to eat right and exercise, losing wt is easy for me.  Once I get to my "ideal" wt, maintaining is the hard part.

 

Workout: Cardio/core.

Breakfast- Protein shake

Lunch- Wrap

Dinner- Salad + pork chop + 1 strip bacon

Before bed-  Probably a pear later.

1soda

[Xena]

On 1/27/2018 at 11:20 PM, peelout said:

 So I decided to substitute hanging leg raise.  I've been doing the cardio/core everyother w/o, and knew my abs were strengthening, but I was surprised at how easy it was to do 10 reps w/ legs straight.  Core should be in fine shape by start of kayak season.

 

This is excellent!!

 

 

1 hour ago, peelout said:

Dawned on me on the way to work why people constantly lose wt, reach their goal, then gain back.  All has to w/ the habit loop.  If you put a maze where a rat can enter, then ring the bell and place a treat at the end, the mouse will eventually learn that if it hears the bell and follows the right path, it will get a reward.  It will become a habit and each time the rat hears the bell, it will repeat the process.  For someone losing wt and checking the scale daily, each drop in wt is the treat.  Once you reach the goal wt, you no longer get a treat.  Seeing the wt stay the same does not give you the rush that losing the wt did.  With any habit loop, if you take away the reward, there is no drive in the brain to keep following the loop.  So what is the replacement?  Hell if I know yet. Rewarding myself w/ candy sure isn't the answer.  Have to think about this.  Once I get past the hard part of starting to eat right and exercise, losing wt is easy for me.  Once I get to my "ideal" wt, maintaining is the hard part.

 

I think it can work to reward maintenance. If the weight loss itself is the reward (the satisfaction of seeing the scale drop), I think it just takes a little mental re-programming. It should be possible to associate positive feelings with maintenance.

[Cataleya]

I think part of the problem is we reward weight. That might be part of why NFA advises against weighing yourself, at least for a bit or whatever. Shifting goals can help. Reward yourself for losing weight, sure, but once you're maintaining it's important to have other goals, like lifting more or more flexibility or faster run times or whatever. Like I have a rough weight loss goal but once I feel fine with how I look my focus is gonna be lifting and maybe something fun like gymnastics or dancing or something. Something that can become its own reward. I just know my doctor gives a shit about weight so I'm playing that game for now.

[peelout]

After work I had to do something outside my normal routine which meant dinner was late so I didn't do shit w/o wise. Not!!!!!!!!!

1/30

Wt: 182.0

Was my day a success?  Yes. Boom chucka lucka boom!!!  New low wt.  Probably will go up some tomorrow morning though as I had a late meal and ate 2 small porkchops on bread (w/ lettuce and tomato of course) on 2 slices of bread + 10 potato chips (how dare me).  Since dinner was late and I was tired, I just did 10min tread + stretching routine.  If you want to have daily movement as a habit, you have to have a plan a, b, and c.  Focus on following the pattern regardless of how many days a week it is, then have back up plans for when you can't get the normal planned w/o in.  

 

Workout: Cardio/core.

Breakfast- Protein shake

Lunch- Wrap

Dinner- Sandwich of 2 small porkchops on bread w/ lettuce and tomato, 10 chips.

Before bed-  Probably a pear later.

1soda

[Xena]

21 hours ago, peelout said:

After work I had to do something outside my normal routine which meant dinner was late so I didn't do shit w/o wise. Not!!!!!!!!!

 

Such a trickster! You are right, back-up plans are important.

[peelout]

2/1

181.2

Been really busy.  Missed posting yesterday.  Worked out both days of course.  Gotta go.
Oh yeah, today marks 3 months of no M.

[Sloth the Enduring]

I think you’re finally gonna beat meth this time.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Elastigirl]

On ‎1‎/‎29‎/‎2018 at 5:42 PM, peelout said:

1/29

Wt: 182.8

Was my day a success?  Yes. Eating right and 5 w/o's over the weekend paid off.  New low wt of 182.8.  Hope to solidify the 182's by end of challenge.  Added another core exercise to my cardio/core.

3 min tread, 10 crunches and 10 flat Vees, tread, incline situp, tread, machine twists, tread, ab machine, tread, hanging leg raises, tread, plate raise reverse curl.  Definitely getting the core back in shape.  Managed to start the week off right by skipping McD's for lunch and had a chicken and bacon w/ romaine and spinach lettuce and touch of peppercorn ranch on spinach wrap.

 

Dawned on me on the way to work why people constantly lose wt, reach their goal, then gain back.  All has to w/ the habit loop.  If you put a maze where a rat can enter, then ring the bell and place a treat at the end, the mouse will eventually learn that if it hears the bell and follows the right path, it will get a reward.  It will become a habit and each time the rat hears the bell, it will repeat the process.  For someone losing wt and checking the scale daily, each drop in wt is the treat.  Once you reach the goal wt, you no longer get a treat.  Seeing the wt stay the same does not give you the rush that losing the wt did.  With any habit loop, if you take away the reward, there is no drive in the brain to keep following the loop.  So what is the replacement?  Hell if I know yet. Rewarding myself w/ candy sure isn't the answer.  Have to think about this.  Once I get past the hard part of starting to eat right and exercise, losing wt is easy for me.  Once I get to my "ideal" wt, maintaining is the hard part.

 

Workout: Cardio/core.

Breakfast- Protein shake

Lunch- Wrap

Dinner- Salad + pork chop + 1 strip bacon

Before bed-  Probably a pear later.

1soda

It's interesting.There is so much written about weight loss, but not about maintenance which is just as hard, if not harder. I think others have a good point, you put in new goals. I think the reason I've been able to maintain my weight loss is the focus on getting stronger, or skill goals, or just finishing a program. 

[peelout]

23 hours ago, Elastigirl said:

It's interesting.There is so much written about weight loss, but not about maintenance which is just as hard, if not harder. I think others have a good point, you put in new goals. I think the reason I've been able to maintain my weight loss is the focus on getting stronger, or skill goals, or just finishing a program. 

Thanks. I agree with the having new goals, and I tried to create habits for eating which last longer than goals for me.  It's just that when you are losing, your brain rewards you w every little drop.  You get that little buzz, reward, or whatever you want to call it.  Then when you get there, there is no longer the little buzz.  You've taken away the reward.  I can set new goals, but the buzz, which was never the goal, but the brain gives you a little endorphin rush just because thats what brains do, is no longer there.  All the new goals, get stronger, roll kayak better, whatever, are not related to weight, and since there is no longer an endorphin rush, the brain starts to let you slide down the poor eating path again.  It would be nice to lose wt w/o weighing, but my daily weighins are an important part of the feedback loop, at least for me.  If I don't see a little loss every couple days, I know I need an adjustment.  We will see if I learn something new by the time I get to the ideal wt in about 3 months from now.

[Elastigirl]

11 minutes ago, peelout said:

Thanks. I agree with the having new goals, and I tried to create habits for eating which last longer than goals for me.  It's just that when you are losing, your brain rewards you w every little drop.  You get that little buzz, reward, or whatever you want to call it.  Then when you get there, there is no longer the little buzz.  You've taken away the reward.  I can set new goals, but the buzz, which was never the goal, but the brain gives you a little endorphin rush just because thats what brains do, is no longer there.  All the new goals, get stronger, roll kayak better, whatever, are not related to weight, and since there is no longer an endorphin rush, the brain starts to let you slide down the poor eating path again.  It would be nice to lose wt w/o weighing, but my daily weighins are an important part of the feedback loop, at least for me.  If I don't see a little loss every couple days, I know I need an adjustment.  We will see if I learn something new by the time I get to the ideal wt in about 3 months from now.

Agreed. And it gets really hard to eat smart to maintain that weight without that buzz. This fall, I went through an I don't care time, and just ate whatever. And now I am losing that weight I gained, and I don't really like eating less, but I do like the buzz of seeing the scale less. 

[Xena]

On 2/2/2018 at 7:16 PM, Sloth the Enduring said:

I think you’re finally gonna beat meth this time.

.

And Malibu rum

[peelout]

2 hours ago, Elastigirl said:

Agreed. And it gets really hard to eat smart to maintain that weight without that buzz. This fall, I went through an I don't care time, and just ate whatever. And now I am losing that weight I gained, and I don't really like eating less, but I do like the buzz of seeing the scale less. 

Weight loss - the healthy buzz.

On 2/2/2018 at 6:16 PM, Sloth the Enduring said:

I think you’re finally gonna beat meth this time.

But meth helps w/ weight loss. lol. 

 

[peelout]

Just now, Xena said:

.

And Malibu rum

Yes, that is it.

 

[Manarelle]

13 hours ago, Xena said:

And Malibu rum

 

And Mayonnaise. We all have our theories.

 

How'd the week go? End strong? Grats on 3 onths (that's months but with no M, couldn't resist). Here's to it turning into 4. 

[peelout]

Monday at 07:42 PM

2/4

Wt: 182.8

Was my day a success?  Yes.  Wt still hovering in 182's so ate light today.  Just a salad for lunch, just trout for dinner.  Good cardio/core w/o.  Anxious for next challenge to start.

 

Workout: Cardio/core.

Breakfast- Protein shake

Lunch- Salad

Dinner- trout

Before bed-  Probably a pear later.

1soda

[peelout]

Weekly 5 Summary:

7 days of exercise (total of 8 w/o's)

7 days of eating pretty well.  Although I did eat at McD's for lunch 4 times. 

About 2 hrs Solid Works training.

1/1 191.6

1/7 188.2

1/14 186.4

1/21 184.8

1/28 184.0

2/4  182.8

 

[Hazard]

About 1.75 lbs per week for the challenge.  Nice rate of loss.

 

[peelout]

End of challenge summary:

2/4

Daily Exercise Habit - My main focus was to restart the habit of daily exercise, which I did.  Continuous daily exercise from Jan 1 to today.  Since I had already developed that habit once (first 4 months of last year), restarting it was less difficult than the first time.  Habits can be created and then stopped.  But just like bad habits (smoking, M, etc), restarting starting something that was once a habit is less difficult than starting from scratch.  Once the brain maps a key-routine-reward process, it may not use it, but it never forgets it.  It make take effort to clear the overgrowth in front of the entrance, so to speak, but once a little effort has been put forth, the brain will quickly become re-accustomed to following the routine to get whatever reward it sees at the end.  What was really interesting was that the daily eating of salads started up almost automatically. I developed that habit early last year as well.  At the start of this habit, even though my focus was only to restart the exercise habit,  my brain had made eating daily salads a part of the same process as eating daily salads.  I still keep my gym bag on my passenger seat of my car, that is the key.  The routine that is associated with it is exercise and daily salads.  The reward is the little drops in wt that occur every 2-4 days.  Habit formation is fascinating.  

 

Had to make quite a few modifications to my w/o's since the last time I worked out regularly.  I've eliminated the bench, which started causing shoulder pain almost immediately.  I've trouble w/ shoulder pain throughout my life, it comes and goes.  So I switched to dumbbell bench presses which allows me to keep my elbows in, and that seems to make my shoulders happy.  I've also had to make adjustments to my stretching and the machine twist against resistance.  I was getting some lower back pain which I think was the result of overbending the spine when trying to do stretches like toe touches.  I also reduced the resistance on the twist machine for the same reason.  In addition, I had to reduce the intensity of my w/o' due to my desire to exercise daily.  At 57, I can't exercise intensely every day.  Going forward, I'm going to either focus more on my cardio/core days, or my strength training days.

 

Diet - Eating better was not a focus, but as I said, daily salads started automatically with the exercise.  I did wind up making some other changes to my diet as well.  I've focused on not eating much sugary, starchy, or processed foods.  To do that, I've been grilling every weekend so that I can have just a salad and plain meat for dinner, which I did about 95% of the time.  Having the meat already cooked was a big help.  About half my lunches involved some form of salad, either a regular salad or a wrap w/ lots of lettuce and tomatos. For the wraps, I also cooked chicken and bacon on the weekend to last through the week.  It's hard enough to eat "right",  so no need to make it more difficult by requiring special cooking during the week.  I still need to address eating at McD's for lunch, which I did at least half the time.  I think the main reason for eating McD's for lunch is simply to satisfy my need for nicotene, which I can satisfy by smoking to and from McD's.  Eliminating smoking will be addressed in the near future.

 

Weight Goal - I set a goal of losing 5lbs, which I thought was a modest drop.  I believe in making modest goals, rather than shooting for the moon and seeing where I wind up.  I've seen way to many people shoot for the moon goals like "eliminate all sugar, eat only Paleo, lose 2 lbs/wk, etc", then get demotivated when they see the goal isn't doable and just quit.  I'd rather set a goal that requires some effort, but very doable.  That way, I stay motivated, and finish the challenge.  Motivation is key, and setting ones self up for failure only ensures failure.  My goal was to lose 5lbs, and I dropped from 191.6 to 182.8.  Several of those lb's were just going from the old "normal" of having a very full stomach to the new normal of the stomach getting or reaching empty prior to the next meal.  So assuming my empty stomach wt when I started was around 189, I lost 6lbs.  A good showing which I am pleased with.

 

Learning Solid Works - I think I set a goal of only 2hrs for the month.  I did more than that everyweek.  Now that I've decided which route I'm taking for learning it (Found an awesome sequence of 1hr training videos on u-tube, I'm going to be more specific on my goal, and specify the number of modules I want to finish.

 

M - Reached the 3 month mark of no M, which is very satisfying.

 

Next Challenge -

Habits - No new ones. Not starting any new habits, I want to fully re-embed the current 3 of No M, daily exercise, and min 5 salads/wk (I will normally eat them 6-7 days/wk, but like I said, set yourself up for success, not failure. 

Goal 1 - Lose an additional 5 lbs.  Very achievable. 

Goal 2 - Specific # of Solid Works training modules to complete. (# TBD)

Other - It won't be a goal, but I tend to procrastinate with home projects that are not spelled out as a focus.  Seen several people here list things they want to get done.  I'm not going to set a goal with that, but just having a list here staring me in the face everyday should annoy me enough to work on them.