There but not Back Again: From Hobbit to Elf

[Theria]

I've decided to start a Daily Log to help myself with my need for accountability. I'm also rolling my introduction bio in here as well because, why not. I'm not sure what the overall format of this log will be but I realize I need to at least get it started.

 

About Me

 

Starting Stats

Age: 34

Sex: Female

Weight: 254

Height: 5'3"

Occupation: Teacher, Grad Student

 

Character

Current Race: Hobbit

Goal Race: Elf

Current Class: Rebel

Short Term Goal Class: Scout

Long Term Goal Class: Ranger

 

Health Difficulty Level: Crushing

Academic Difficulty Level: Easy

Social Difficulty Level: Hard

Personal growth Difficulty Level: Normal

 

Favorites

Movies: Breakfast Club & Lord of the Rings

TV Show: changes too much. The Expanse, The Goldbergs, Brooklyn Nine Nine,  GoT, Westworld, Rick & Morty,

Book: Harry Potter

Video Games: Story of Seasons (neé Harvest Moon)

Anime (all time): Blue Seed

Anime (currently): Dragonball Super

Hobby: Crafting

 

Labels

Hogwarts House: Hufflepuff

Four Tendencies: Obliger

Myers BS: ISFJ “The Defender”

Health/Psychology: ADD, PCOS, possible ASD

 

 

Brief

 

As you can see above, I definitely started life as a hobbit. I'm short, chubby, and most comfortable hiding away inside my hobbit hole, watching TV, playing video games, reading, and spending time with my sister and boyfriend. I really want to improve my personal health and fitness so that I can feel comfortable taking more risks and pursuing a more fulfilling life. You can see my epic quest and Level 50 goals on my character page, but overall I want to travel more, be a solid runner, and pursue more creative endeavors.

[Theria]

Small win today with my bullet journal. I took time to fill in my week last night and looked at it first time this morning. That prompted me to actually fill up my cup with water before I even had coffee, and to go over all of my upcoming assignments a get a bunch of work done.

 

Gave some serious thought to my tendency to meet outer expectation but not inner expectations (from Four Tendencies) and it's really hard to come to terms with the fact that I can meet all of these deadlines and requirements at work, but do nothing for myself. But rather than wallowing in that feeling, I have to use this knowledge to hack my life. In this case I need external accountability. So I am going to register for a 5k in September. This will give me a solid window to finish Zombies 5k with a little leeway but not so much that I can slack and put it off. I've also asked my sister to sign up with me so I have the added accountability of not wanting to disappoint her.

 

I haven't finalized which 5k to sign up for yet. There's one at my local zoo that gives you a free pass for the zoo after, but there's also one in the evening which is a glo run. I'm hoping I can get my boyfriend to sign on for that one since it doesn't involve waking up at some ungodly hour. He's never done any kind of public race though so he way say no right away which will suck but I can't change the choices of others, only my own so that's okay.

[Seraphina]

I haven't read the Four Tendencies, but it kinda sounds like I need to. I definitely do just fine with outer expectations, often to the detriment of myself. 

 

Glo run sounds fun!!! I've never done a nighttime 5k, I bet it's a blast

[Theria]

Yes, the Four Tendencies has opened my eyes quite a bit. I first heard about it on Gretchen Rubin's podcast and immediately recognized myself as an Obliger. I'm listening to the audiobook now and it has helped to hear that a large percentage of people have that tendency of meeting outer obligations but not inner. I don't feel as guilty and can shut down the voice saying I should be able to just do things. It's also helped me understand my boyfriend who is a questions, so I can better communicate with him.

 

The glo run does sound fun. BF immediately said no at first, citing concerns about me running outside with my asthma, and that public runs are often terrorist targets.  I discussed my tendency with him though and he agreed to be my accountability person and help me stick to my plan. Then said maybe he'd do the 5k too so that's progress. Although the run in the zoo sounds fun too. *pout*

[Elastigirl]

I loved The Four Tendencies. It gave me lots of insight into motivation.  I liked the way she  explained whether you were motivated by things inside yourself or outside. I am a questioner. As long as I understand why, I will comply. I can be very good at motivating myself. My weakness is that if I start making more and more rules for myself, I start to rebel. Being aware of that weakness has helped me. When I start feeling myself get into an attitude of not wanting to do something, I  step back and see if I am making it too hard on myself.

[Seraphina]

I'm glad you're making progress with getting the bf on board with the 5k. These days, everything you do makes you a potential terrorist target if you want to get technical. They want everyone to live in fear of them, but the odds of it actually happening are so incredibly low. Live your life and do fun things.

Sent from my E6603 using Tapatalk

[Theria]

On 6/15/2018 at 12:42 AM, Elastigirl said:

I loved The Four Tendencies. It gave me lots of insight into motivation.  I liked the way she  explained whether you were motivated by things inside yourself or outside. I am a questioner. As long as I understand why, I will comply. I can be very good at motivating myself. My weakness is that if I start making more and more rules for myself, I start to rebel. Being aware of that weakness has helped me. When I start feeling myself get into an attitude of not wanting to do something, I  step back and see if I am making it too hard on myself.

 

I think that insight is so helpful and it's funny how spot on it can be. I 100% follow the Obliger tendency, even the Obliger rebellion. I love having a name for it because my rebellion always came in ways that hurt myself, like eating junk food when no one was around to see, even if I didn't want it, or refusing to brush my teeth before bed (I really don't get this one. It's gross). So having a name for it and a reason let's me see it for what it is and avoid it.

 

 

On 6/18/2018 at 4:32 PM, Seraphina said:

I'm glad you're making progress with getting the bf on board with the 5k. These days, everything you do makes you a potential terrorist target if you want to get technical. They want everyone to live in fear of them, but the odds of it actually happening are so incredibly low. Live your life and do fun things.

Sent from my E6603 using Tapatalk
 

 

Thanks so much. Yeah I've explained that to him but it's in his mind. I'm a teacher so he's already paranoid about school shootings. I think the fact that I can't remove myself from that potential situation makes him more paranoid about other settings. But at least he is opening up.

[Theria]

Gotta get back into posting here regularly. I can do this.

 

Ugh. Why is figuring out an eating plan so hard! I want something that will generate a plan for me based on general guidelines, but not create a plan full of difficult cooking or exotic ingredients. I don't need instagram meals, I need realistic ones. Sigh. Back to searching until I inevitably realize that what I want isn't out there and i need to put the hard work in to just make a plan myself.

[Jean]

Hi Theria,

 

Here's to getting to Rivendell without ending into the Brandywine. Congrats on getting back to posting.

 

I'm no nutritionist, nor fitness trainer or anything, just a very curious guy who likes cooking but often forgets to do so who's needed to put together easy to cook, with cheap ingredients, healthy meals at some point in his life (which got me looking more deeply into what was into my food to build my eating plan from back then).

 

Out of curiosity, then, what are your general guidelines, for how many are you cooking and how many meals a week ?

[Theria]

lol thanks Jean

 

9 hours ago, Jean said:

Out of curiosity, then, what are your general guidelines, for how many are you cooking and how many meals a week ?

 

We have 3 adults in the house, no kids. We prepare food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I ideally we would do that seven days a week, but I have evening classes 3 days a week which can make that difficult. Typically we have something quick for breakfast like cereal, but on good days we make spinach & fruit smoothies. On weekends we might do eggs and toast, or oatmeal. When we cook dinner we do a double batch and save half for lunch the next day. My sister is a great chef and does most (all) of the cooking, but we all work full time so we try to find quick prep foods that won't leave her standing in the kitchen for hours.

 

My PCOS causes insulin resistance so I know I need to limit carbohydrates, but I've found conflicting info on how much to limit them. In the past I lost weight when I cut out all carbs, and maintained the loss when I added complex carbs only. So I guess the happy medium would be no simple carbs at all, and occasional complex carbs so I don't feel too constricted. My cholesterol is good, but I need to raise my LDL Cholesterol so I need to add more unsaturated fat to my diet, without also taking in more saturated fat or an insane number of calories.

 

We don't eat much beef or pork, so our main protein source is chicken. We're fine eating tofu but I can't have too much soy because it can mess with my hormones. We also eat fish but tend to save that for Friday or Saturday when we don't need to save it for lunch the next day since it doesn't heat well. I considered adding beans for protein, but they have more carbs then protein so that may not be a good idea.

 

My sister is allergic to tomatoes and shellfish so those are out, and I can't eat raw onion. 

 

Sorry that's way longer than I intended it to be ^_^()  On the bright side, answering your question is helping clarify all of this for me : )

[Jean]

:-)

 

I find that writing things down helps me to better understand what is really at stakes and take some distance from the fight to see how to tackle it better. Glad it's working for you too.

 

It's good that you can sometimes alternate the one doing the cooking to keep everybody motivated, there's nothing worse than being tired of cooking and resorting to fast food orders to ruin a diet (and a budget). You seem to be doing mostly fine though I can understand it if you're getting tired of eating the same meals over and over again. I'll try to see if I can come up with some easy to cook tasty recipies of my own for a healthy weekly plan though I'm afraid that beyond the novelty factor, I'll not be able to do much.

 

I used to get my proteins mostly out of milk, eggs, liver (full of nice vitamins too, though you have to cook it tender in order to avoid it being all dry and chewy - and it's not going to do it if you're avoiding beef and pork) and chickpeas (there's a lot of carbohydrates in those but they're the complex variety so they may be ok for you - plenty of tasty ways to cook them, too).

 

Anyway, keep keeping at it, you seem to have it pretty well figured out. :-)

[Theria]

 

6 hours ago, Jean said:

Anyway, keep keeping at it, you seem to have it pretty well figured out. :-)

 

Thanks for the feedback. Yeah I just have to be more conscious of my choices. Today we were out taking care of several projects so we ate out for lunch and dinner  Since I couldn't change that I decided to try tracking what I was eating. It didn't change my lunch choice much since we were eating at a new place and I wanted to see how their food was, but for dinner I entered my food before ordering to help me decide what I should get. Got salad instead of fries and less other food so that was good.

[Theria]

Really happy I finally got my Fitbit fixed (it would not sync no matter how much troubleshooting I did). As soon as I got it to sync I challenged my friend and cousin and it's motivating all of us to move more. Hurray for outside accountability.

 

I also started tracking my food in the Fitbit app. Since I'm opening the app periodically it's easier to remember to log my food than using a seperate app. Still working on not letting perfect be the enemy of the good. I feel like if I'm taking the time to log it, the numbers should be perfect but then I'm too caught up in confirming every bit of nutritional info that I get burnt out and stop so trying really hard to not do that.

[ladyofthebog]

LOVE this log. i too am questing in middle earth. also a fan of the expanse! looking forward to seeing how you do! i also started tracking macros again but with myfitnesspal. my fitbit and myfitnesspal are linked which i find immensely helpful. macros right now carb 45, fat 35, and protein 25, curious to see how it does me.

also struggle with the perfectionism in the tracking but trying to see it as trends and then also a reminder to have a protein powder if i haven't gotten enough protein in the day.

looking forward to see the amazing that you do

[Theria]

Fitbit Challenge is still helping. Yesterday when my professor gave us a ten minute break I took a walk and grabbed another 650 steps instead of just sitting at my computer the whole time. Then when I got home I was way behind my friend & cousin so I hopped on the treadmill for half an hour. I almost didn't because I was perseverating over if I should get started on Zombie Run even though I have that scheduled for next week. I didn't want this walk to not "count" towards that. But I don't have music on my current phone, and listening to podcasts during Zombie Run is sort of weird because two narratives mash together. But then if it didn't count towards Zombies Run then should I even do it? And if I do...

 

Yeah, I spiraled for a while in the car ride home, then said F it, I'm just gonna get on and walk. Tried playing 3DS while walking but it was disorienting and I hunched my back so I opted for an audiobook instead and I was glad I did it.

 

 

21 minutes ago, ladyofthebog said:

LOVE this log. i too am questing in middle earth. also a fan of the expanse! looking forward to seeing how you do! i also started tracking macros again but with myfitnesspal. my fitbit and myfitnesspal are linked which i find immensely helpful. macros right now carb 45, fat 35, and protein 25, curious to see how it does me.

also struggle with the perfectionism in the tracking but trying to see it as trends and then also a reminder to have a protein powder if i haven't gotten enough protein in the day.

looking forward to see the amazing that you do

 

Thanks, I'll be following you too.

 

 

[ladyofthebog]

gosh, i did zombies run a long time ago! season 2 i think? i should check out again? does it still have the deal where you can have it set up with gps and you actually run away from the zombies at certain points? that was fun!

[Theria]

On 7/11/2018 at 11:21 PM, ladyofthebog said:

gosh, i did zombies run a long time ago! season 2 i think? i should check out again? does it still have the deal where you can have it set up with gps and you actually run away from the zombies at certain points? that was fun!

 

Yeah it does. I'm still working on their 5k training program but I hear they're up to season 7 now.

[Theria]

I really want to start checking in on here more frequently to keep myself thinking about my goals and progress. It's too easy for me to not think about it for a day or two and then weeks will go by before I realize it.

 

The last few days have been all over the place.

 

On Thursday my diet was bad. Like lots of coffee, donut, cookies, and little in the way of nutrition bad. I didn't even log my food because I knew it wasn't gonna be pretty. I was out running errands for hours and just stopped thinking about my food choices.

On the bright side, when I got home I chose to get on the treadmill, aiming to get in my one Zombies Run I had in my week one challenge list. Well my phone crashed 3 times, each when I was 3 or 4 minutes into the app session. I chose not to try launching it again because I was already 15 minutes in on the treadmill and didn't want to overdo it adding a full session on top of that, so instead I just walked for another 15 minutes. Not as good as getting some interval jogging, but I'm glad I didn't use the crashing as an excuse to just stop.

 

Yesterday my diet was a bit better, but spent most of the day at the computer. Need to work on getting up from my desk more regularly.

[Theria]

The struggle is real. Got my period yesterday and my brain has pretty much completely shut down (in addition to depression), which is great since I have 2 critical assignments due in my classes. Can't even think about food choice and exercise right now...

[Jean]

If you're dealing with depression and stressful deadlines, I'd say you're having your hands full already and should not aim for too high exercise and food targets.

 

Focus your energy where it's needed, go for small targets (like 10 min walks and eating an avocado a week). It'll allow you to keep habits and, more importantly, reaching them should give you small victories to help with your other fights.

 

And, most importantly, take care.

[ladyofthebog]

depression feels like a full time job. sending love.

[Jean]

How's the fight going in warrior land ?

 

Here's a thought for you. Take care of yourself and all the time needed to get both down to the bottom and up again. Mordor sure seems like a desperate hell but there's still a Shire standing and a Valinor to go to once the ring gets destroyed.