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TiogaGirl: Focus!


TiogaGirl

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Hi Rangers. I’m back... a few pounds fluffier after a long dark winter... but determined to regain my old lithe self. Keeping it simple this time, all comes down to focus.

Fuel the fire: Track food. Eat to 500 cal deficit. No alcohol (variance allowed for my birthday, coming up towards the end of the challenge!)

Move that body: Walk outside, at least an hour each day (can be broken up throughout the day). Hot yoga, targeting 3x per week. 100 squats (also can be broken up through the day, and just body weight for now, say my knees).

Focus on the positive: recognize 3 good things each day.

 

I’m excited to getting back to my best self! Range on!

 

 

 

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Thanks EG, I do love me a nice booty!

TGP, the Mordor challenge sounds riiiiight up my alley. Don’t have a FitBit at the moment but I am hoping and shamelessly hinting to get one as a b’day gift. So, with luck I’ll be able to start in a few weeks. I will have to hustle to catch up to y’all on the trail if people have been going since January! Ha!

 

Progress so far:

Monday: 

Tracked food :)

did NOT maintain deficit :cold:

No booze :)

Walked outside (closer to 2 hours! Oh my feet. Spring is coming!) :)

Yoga: not today

Squats: not today

3 positives: Yes! :)

(1) an awesome family trip to Italy (just back Saturday night)

(2) My resilient bod maintained same weight that week despite copious wine, pasta, gelato and other dolce every day. I mean, we did hike around a lot, but still, I was pleasantly impressed. Go, bod! What can you do if I stop eating like a jerk?

(3) back to my own house, my own bed, and all the pets (cat, birds, doggos)

 

 

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Tuesday:

Tracked food :)

DID hit that deficit! Thanks, post-dinner yoga class. I’m terrible at keeping cals low but pretty good at stepping up activity. :)

No booze :)

Walked outside :) (easy enough as I hate driving, so generally need to walk or bike if I want to leave the house haha)

Yoga :)

Squats (4 sets of 25) :)

3 positives: yes! :)

(1) Finally submitted a paper I’ve been working on for way too long. We’ll see how it does, but I really like it!

(2) Cold air hitting my hot sweaty post-yoga body felt sooo good, as did crawling into clean sheets post shower, and I slept like a champ

(3) won a $25 voucher at the studio! 

 

 

 

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Wednesday:

 

Tracked food :) 

500 cal deficit: no :cold: — I woulda made it if it hadn’t been for those meddlin kids, er, chocolate chips. Still, about 250 cal deficit. Had things going on this evening or I would have tried to save the deficit with another evening yoga class, Tuesday’s was great!

Keep a sober head (no booze) :) As above, piano lesson last night and I need all the fine motor control I’ve got!

Walking (to Mordor, heh) :)

Squats :) these are getting a little harder as the ol DOMS sets in! Gotta keep the end goal, awesome booty, in mind

3 positives: (1) Good morning in the park with the doggos, their dog buds and other owners, (2) Great piano lesson with my kiddo, (3) most snarky-fun work friend dropped by my office for a gossip. :)

 

Alright! Coffee time. Boy, I’d better work out some scoring system and most importantly, challenge themed loot. Will troll the other ranger threads for inspiration, but suggestions welcomed here too!

 

 

 

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Thursday was not great, in terms of challenge goals. It seems like all my self control got shunted towards making a big work deadline (major presentation today, Friday). I would be okay with that now and again if I had gotten all my work stuff done that needed doing!! Gah! I did hit the flow state for several hours and made some good progress on the presentation, but ended the day eating chocolate, getting sleepy (residual jet lag) and sloping off to bed early :ambivalence:

 

Note for future challenges: my ultimate LUYL quest will be to defeat the procrastination monster. Keeps luring me to delegate things to Future-TG!

 

Track food: yes, eventually (dinner and evening didn’t get logged til this morning but I guess it still counts as a success) :flustered:

Deficit: HAHAHAHAHA nope -about 200 cals over maintenance :cold:

No booze: :applouse:

Walking: yes, plenty :applause:

Squats: nope :cold: But did hit my KB deadlifts, which should have some booty building effect too.

3 positives: :applause: Flow state unlocked for this daggone presentation; got to walk home in the sunshine; fun dinner out with the fam

Onward!

 

 

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Friday was pretty good, all things considered! 

Tracking: yes— even started to hit the swing of pre-tracking :applouse:

Deficit: close enough! 29 over the plan, potato, potahto :flustered:

No booze: yes! A mighty feat for a Friday :applouse:

Hiking around: yes, always :applouse:

Yoga: nope, I considered it but was VERY hungry and tired by day’s end. Good evening chillin with the chilluns (and hubs, and pets), and I can still make 3 this week by going both weekend days.

Squats: yeah! Set 4 was right before bed but they’re done! :applouse:

3 positives: (1) Great time during my talk and lots of positive feedback after. (2) Fun stuff planned for the weekend (at least fun for middle aged nerd ladeez like myself), going to make homemade ravioli!! (3) Grooving to the Beastie Boys with the fam at day’s end, knowing the tough first-week-after-vacation is done. :applouse:

 

Anyway, I felt pretty awesome last night (tired but smug anyhow) but my blasted body weight/ fat scale claims I lost a pound of lean mass and gained two of fat, just yesterday! I know this is all within its range of variation but doggone it would be nice to get next-day feedback for a pretty kickass day. Smarten up, scale, don’tcha know I racked up six smiley emoticons on Friday??

 

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Thanks EG, here’s hoping!

Saturday was strong on movement goals, weak on nutritional goals. Trying not to beat myself up over the latter, but definitely back on track today. I had promised myself a fun day of playing with the pasta machine, listening to opera and making homemade ravioli, as well as baking up some sourdough rye... it was a pretty awesome day in terms of kitchen feats!

 

Tracking: nope, started off as usual but this derailed after lunch....:cold:  paving the way to the rest of my ruination on this front,

Deficit: almost certainly no! The pasta itself probably not to blame, but there were also copious slices of (delicious, warm, homemade, buttered) sourdough, PLUS most of a 100 g bar of chocolate supposed to last me the week! No, even without tracking I’m pretty confident no deficit for the day :cold:

No booze: Had a small glass of red, in the afternoon sunshine as I rested up from my ravioli labours. Hard to really regret it, and it was little enough that it didn’t interfere with my sleep or bring on a headache, but NOT challenge compliant or a planned variance :cold:

 

Walking outofdoors: less than usual (most of my daily walking comes from the trip to and from work) but still racked up an hour, between doggoes and the trip to the yoga studio and working in the garden) :flustered:

Yoga: yes! Yang-yin class was WONDERFUL, just what I needed after a week of unaccustomed squats and kettlebells! :applause:

Squats: yes, as well as herbology mini exercises completed for the week :applause:

 

3 positives: (1) Dogs and I met a brand new chocolate lab puppy in the neighbourhood park! SUCH A FAN of lab puppies. (2) had a paper published that appeared online today, and already generating lots of attention. It’s from a study I’m really proud of, too! (3) I’ve been obsessed with homemade ravioli since trying it in Italy, and I managed to make it and it was fabulous!! Why don’t people make it this way all the time, one might ask? Well, it’s also a ton of work and my kitchen looks like flourmageddon, but fun to try once. :applause:

 

Hydrating now (sleeping always makes me so thirsty) then will check out the scale. I can say my arms and shoulders are looking good relative to a week ago, FWIW!

 

Edited to add: Scale is out of batteries! WHO’S LAUGHING NOW, SCALE? May take this as a gentle hint to do some non-scale measurements, I think they make me less crazy. :)

 

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Sunday report to round out the week!

Tracking: barely (logged dinner this morning, not last night) but it’s done :flustered:

Deficit: :cold:

No booze: :applouse:

Walking: I think so? Definitely had >> 1 hour outside, but much of that was at parks with the dogs or the little cousins. If I count throwing the ball or climbing up on spiderweb structures towards the broader ‘walking’ goal I should be good :flustered:

Squats: :cold:

Yoga::applause: super intense detox-flow class, and I was too sore afterwards for squats! At least the muscles got worked.

3 positives: (1) got together for delicious dinner with the local-ish branches of extended family! (2) skies have been blue all week and the sun is definitely getting stronger... feels good to be out in it (even when the dang thermometer is still sub-freezing) (3) even though my kids are big teenagery kids, they still love snuggling up with me on the couch <3

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Well. Good thing “posting daily” was not a challenge goal! Mon through Thurs were not terrible, but would appear to be lost to the sands of time. I do remember yesterday, despite ranger brain:

Food tracking: nope

Deficit: ?? But probably nope

Alcohol free: nope

Walking outside: so much yes :applouse:

Squats: 25/100 :ambivalence:

Yoga: :applouse:

3 positives: (1) invited to apply for promotion! (2) Holiday yesterday and hit a great mix of catching up with backlogged work plus couching it and playing PVZ2 Battlez (3) yoga was AMAZING, really wrung out all the stress and tension and, certainly, sweat. :applause:

 

Now. Scoring! I am a simple bear and shall go with a simple rubric, 1 point per smiley. Most everything is daily goals (kill me) except yoga maxes out at 3/week. So a perfect week would be tracking + deficit + alcohol free + walking + squats + noticing the positives every day (21) + 3 yogas = 24.

 For the upcoming 2 weeks, max points available are 48, and rewards are as follows:

45-48: favourite but spendy face cream (LUSH’s Gorgeous fwiw)

41-44: spa pedi, maybe with my awesome daughter (but this’ll have to wait til mother’s day weekend as I will be doing field research)

37-40: new sports bra and shorts for hot yoga (perpetual laundry bottleneck as the studio is VERY SWEATY INDEED)

Rewards are cumulative, so a score of say 42 would net me the yoga gear AND pedicure. 

NOW I’m motivated!!

 

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Saturday reckoning. Last day before the 2-week homestretch and points start counting towards loot!

Tracking: :applause:

Deficit: :cold:

Alcohol::cold:

Hiking: :applouse:

Yoga: :cold: [but missed this because I hit the flow state in writing, which is good]

Squats: :cold:

Positives: (1) aforementioned flow state, so I got long overdue comments on writing back to needy student; (2) awesome and smug nap; (3) holiday weekend made Sat seem like Sunday, but the weekend still continues! :applause:

 

So far today, I’ve tracked breakfast, taken the dogs to the park, and started on bread-making. Think I need to get the squats knocked off early in the day to have a hope of making the goal so that’s next!

 

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All right, tag-team reckoning for Mon and Tues.

Tracking :applouse::applouse:

Deficit :flustered::applouse: (half point awarded for Mon as it was still below maintenance. Today (tues) managed it! As long as I stop eating now haha

No alcohol :applouse::applouse:

Walking outside :applouse::applouse:

Yoga:applause::applause:

Squats :flustered::applouse: (half point for Mon for 50 reps; full set today!)

Positives: yes! Park dog friends, flexibility to work from home this afternoon, good student meetings. :applouse:

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Quick check-in for Wednesday. We had a bizarre winter storm, but luckily for me I had no campus meetings, so just worked from home. Not my most productive day ever, unless we expand our definition of productivity to include couch naps with a snuggly black lab, trips to the yoga studio, and so forth. I did however keep on top of the daily squats and knocked off 2nd of 3 days expelliARMus for the mini.

Tracking :applouse:

Deficit :ambivalence: Nearly made it but started starving after dinner (blame shark week) Still a little below maintenance though.

No alcohol :applouse:

Walking outside :applouse: 

Yoga:applause:

Squats :applause:

Positives: Nap! Happy dogs! Introduced to awesome new music!:applause:

17 points for these past 3 days.  

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