Fiddle eats less (and fiddles!)

[fiddle-on]

I haven't been here for a year, but I'm back for the sake of the challenge accountability. 

 

I want to focus on diet this time around. I've started picking some of my bad food habits back up, and since January I've regained a couple of the pounds I lost in 2016/2017. I want to lose another 15-20 pounds instead of gaining more.  This challenge is going to focus on improving my eating habits and losing weight again. Specifically, I want to cut down on sugar and stop snacking between meals.

 

I've been better about fitness than diet. I haven't really had much direction this year, but I'm fine with what I'm doing. I'd rather spend my mental energy on my new job and on music than improving fitness. So my fitness goal is to continue as is: get at least 10,000 steps a day, do two strength training workouts a week (30-60 minutes each), and at a minimum get 30 minutes exercise every other day. 

 

Finally, I'm taking violin lessons after a long hiatus. Finding time to practice is hard.

 

Extra challenges: Memorial day weekend, a week-long business trip, a long weekend trip, a going away party for a friend moving out of the country, and all the usual little celebrations and occasions when there's social pressure to overeat at least a little.

 

I've got a list of other things that I'd like to do, but I want to prioritize weight loss and music right now. I'll mention the others and may use them for mini-challenges.

• No screen time for an hour before bed time.
• Get up an hour early to walk, do yoga, or otherwise work out.
• Speed walking workouts. I did a 4k speed walk race and finished with just over 9 minute miles, faster than I've ever run. I want to see if I can translate that to 5k walked in under 30 minutes.
• Make online dating profiles.

 

 

Specific Goals:

I'll be printing out a calendar to track my progress on paper.

 

• Diet: 
  • Sugar: 
    • Less than 5 g of added sugar in a day and no cookies/candy/chocolates  is excellent, worth a sparkly sticker.
    • 5-25 g of added sugar and a single small cookie/chocolate/etc is pretty good, worth a non-sparkly sticker.
    • 25-50 g of added sugar or 200 calories of cookies/chocolate/etc is significantly more than ideal, but it's the most I can eat and still have a not-too-bad day nutritionwise. I get a black squiggly mouth face. I want to limit this to one in the whole month.
    • More than 200 calories of cookies/chocolate/etc: I get a big red frowny face.
  • Regular meals:
    • Two/Three meals and no snacks: Sparkly sticker.
    • Small healthy snack because I didn't adequately plan for meals and get distractingly hungry between meals: non-sparkly sticker.
    • 1-2 snacks of fruit, vegetables, or something healthy and under 100 calories between meals for no good reason:  black squiggly mouth face.
    • More than 1-2 between meal snacks, too many calories, or junk food as snacks: big red frowny face.
  •  If I'm not eating regular meals because my schedule gets screwy, I may change this up.

 

• Tracking:
  • If I track the day on the LoseIt! app, I get a smiley face.
  • If I don't track, I get a frowny face.
• Fitness:
  • Meeting minimum steps and workout goals: Smiley face.
  • Not meeting minumum steps and workout goals: Frowny face.
• Violin:
  • Practice 60+ minutes: Music notes.
  • Practice 30-60 minute a day: Gold star.
  • Practice less than 30 minutes: Squiggly mouth face.
  • Don't practice: Frowny face.

[Annabelle]

Oh man.. right? This weekend is going to be the starting test. Memorial Day, I've got a wedding this Friday for a friend of mine, parties, etc

 

You can do it! Mindfulness > Impulse, yeah?

[fiddle-on]

On 5/21/2018 at 5:39 PM, Annabelle said:

Oh man.. right? This weekend is going to be the starting test. Memorial Day, I've got a wedding this Friday for a friend of mine, parties, etc

 

You can do it! Mindfulness > Impulse, yeah?

 

I just need to make sure I've got barriers between myself and Impulse as often as possible.  Good luck holding strong through the weekend!

[fiddle-on]

I've had 2 very good diet days in a row. On Monday I had a mini chocolate chip muffin (100 calories, 6 g sugar) because my breakfast was way too small, but that's the only junk I've had and it kept me from spending the 3 hours until lunch thinking about my coworker's chocolate filled candy jar. I've gone 2 full days without touching that chocolate, which has to be a personal record.

 

I didn't do as much of a workout as I was supposed to yesterday: 10 minutes of stretching yoga followed by about 15 minutes of bodyweight. Should have been at least 30 minutes of more intensive strength training or an hour long walk.

 

Today I'm signing up for Body Pump at the gym, so that'll be an actual workout.

[Inazea]

I love the stickers you're giving yourself! And your violin part of the challenge reminds me that I wanted to get back to playing piano ages ago... Good luck with your challenge!

[fiddle-on]

19 hours ago, Inazea said:

I love the stickers you're giving yourself! And your violin part of the challenge reminds me that I wanted to get back to playing piano ages ago... Good luck with your challenge!

Thanks! I want to end the challenge with the most colorful calendar I can.

[fiddle-on]

I got my first frowny face for yesterday. After dinner, I just started snacking. At first because I was still a little hungry, and then because I just had trouble stopping. I ended the day a hundred or two calories over maintenance, so not horrible, but enough that I need to start my streak over.

[Annabelle]

13 minutes ago, fiddle-on said:

I got my first frowny face for yesterday. After dinner, I just started snacking. At first because I was still a little hungry, and then because I just had trouble stopping. I ended the day a hundred or two calories over maintenance, so not horrible, but enough that I need to start my streak over.

 

Never two in a row

[fiddle-on]

17 minutes ago, Annabelle said:

 

Never two in a row

Words to live by!

[fiddle-on]

My long weekend was frowns in everything but exercise: I really didn't even try to exercise control over my eating, which is a usual problem for me on weekends. I need to come up with a strategy for next weekend.

 

But today's a new day and a new week. I've got chili for lunches this week, and I'll be making a big batch of oatmeal tonight for breakfasts. 

 

[Annabelle]

23 minutes ago, fiddle-on said:

My long weekend was frowns in everything but exercise: I really didn't even try to exercise control over my eating, which is a usual problem for me on weekends. I need to come up with a strategy for next weekend.

 

But today's a new day and a new week. I've got chili for lunches this week, and I'll be making a big batch of oatmeal tonight for breakfasts. 

 

 

What's your normal weekend look like in terms of meal planning? Are you normally a grazer? I have a terrible habit of grazing on the weekends, just eating on whatever is around me if I'm not careful. I will admit that making myself drink water before I grab food has helped out