jstanlick works on his NEST

[jstanlick]

For those of you who haven't seen my recent challenges, they have been a bit...scattered. Mostly they end up reverting to running and counting net carbs. The start of the year everything was more focused - beat the blood sugar monster and reverse Type II diabetes. While I'm still working on that one, the end of this last challenge had my blood sugar numbers averaging under 100 for the last couple of weeks. This despite the fact that my exercise goals have been ping-ponging all over the place and the ability to focus has been non-existent. So we're going to try to change that with more of a plan. I don't know if it's already an acronym or not, but as I laid these out I realized they spelled out NEST. Hmm, not sure its a good acronym as I'm not sure what it gets at (building a foundation? a new life home? a comfy place??????) but what the hell, let's go with it! 

 

I'll even move it into the title and bold the first letters of each category! (stream of consciousness goal setting  and I wonder why my mind has been scattered lately)

 

Nutrition

This is working for now, so I'm not going to change too much initially. If I'm too tired or not recovering as well as I think I should, I might look to add more to some of my macros.

• Total carbs under 100 grams per day, protein around 150 grams per day and the rest will be fats (no trans fats and poly unsaturated fats should be kept to a minimum).
• Find/create some quick and easy low carb smoothie recipes for breakfasts on the go. This will be especially helpful when the kids go back to school in September and my mornings get crunched for time.

+1 point for each day the macros are hit and +1 point for each new recipe tried. 36 points possible (28 for macros and 10 for smoothies)

 

Exercise

The context here is that the running and net carb counting has helped me drop 30+ pounds over the last 9 months. While my heart, lungs and blood-work are much improved, my strength (as well as my ability to do things other than running) is lacking. So, I'm going to try to set the foundation for the upcoming months of getting stronger.

• Resistance training 3x/week - This could be body weight training, weight lifting, etc. But, something that requires me to use more muscles than my legs, heart and diaphragm.
• Running 2x/week - I'm cutting this back but not out. I enjoy it too much to get rid of it. Could be some sprinting, slower distances or a temp run. But, just get outside and move quicker than walking from point A to point B.
• Interval/circuit training will be some component in each of the above workouts. I will somehow integrate them together to keep things fun and interesting and then post them here to be kept honest.

+1 point for each instance of exercise completed. 28 possible (I'm not counting zero week)

Sleep

I've been bad lately about staying up too late and then getting up and expecting to function. I've done okay in the mornings but run out of steam as the day wears on. Could be caloric intake, but during a week of vacation last challenge where I got almost 8 hours of sleep a day, I didn't have that problem. During vacation I slept in. Now I need to go earn a living, so I need to go to bed earlier at night.

• Be in bed by 10:30 each night as a goal.
• No phones/tablets/computers after 9 PM.

+1 point for each nighttime routine completed successfully for a total of 28 points.

 

Time management

I can't stay focused without being organized. Being organized is something I suck at. So, baby steps.

• 10 minutes each day checking/planning the day's calendar. Can be simply looking it over to make sure I have things set in my mind, or it could be time boxing my day planning it out. But, this is to avoid not being prepared when something pops up on my screen saying I have something going on in 15 minutes.
• 15 minutes each week checking/planning the week's calendar. Ideally, this will be Sunday night (starting at 8:45 PM at the latest) getting the week mapped out.

+.5 point for each day and week for a total of 16 points.

[Salinger]

Cool challenge, following along to support you and cheer you on!! x

[Sylvaa]

Your last challenge totally got away from me, but I am back and here to follow!

 

 

[jstanlick]

17 hours ago, Salinger said:

Cool challenge, following along to support you and cheer you on!! x

As always, thank you for being here!

 

9 minutes ago, Sylvaa said:

Your last challenge totally got away from me, but I am back and here to follow!

 

 

No worries. You were on vacation for half of the last challenge. I wouldn't expect someone who was pretty much unplugged for a couple of weeks to be hanging out here. But, I'm glad you're back!

[jstanlick]

Yesterday included too many carbs, the first MetCon circuit, a failure on sleeping and a start at getting organized. Hmm, good thing it's zero week.

 

First the carbs. Fresh. Picked. Blueberries. Sooooo good. That's pretty much what happened there. I got home to find my wife and son had come home with 5 pounds of fresh picked blueberries. They also had a bunch of peaches and pecans from Georgia. Not local, but sure are tasty. But not as much of a weakness for me as blueberries. The goal was to freeze the blueberries for future use. This is still doable and I couldn't possibly eat 5 pounds of them before they start to go bad anyway, but there's a lot less than my wife had planned on freezing.

 

I'm remembering why I liked circuits. They're efficient, they cover cardiovascular training and there's some resistance training involved as well. In 30 minutes or less, you can pretty much train your whole body. This circuit was Tabata inspired with 30 seconds of exercise, 15 seconds of rest between exercises and 30 seconds of rest between rounds with 3 rounds of the circuit. It was the following 7 exercises: Weighted jump rope (got a total of 171), Knees to Elbows (forgot how hard these are, got a total of 21), dumbbell thrusters (we don't have barbells in our work gym, so I used 25lb dbs and got a total of 31), pullups (37), all out on the elliptical, pushups (51) and KB Swings (24kg for 47). This was followed by a core circuit of 30 second on, 10 seconds off of planks, russian twists w/ 10kg medicine ball, mountain climbers for 3 rounds. And I finished things up with some stretching for my back which is still a little stiff from sitting in the car.

 

I was not in bed by 10:30 because I feel asleep on the couch around 10:15 or so. Sometime in the middle of the weather forecast which is what I was waiting up for in the first place. Also, I had to answer some work stuff around 9:30, so I was not off of computer type devices by 9 PM.

 

But, I did scan my schedule for today which reminded me I have an eye doctor appointment today at 1:15. Which means it will be difficult to run at lunch, so hopefully my pupils won't be dilated all day and I can get out for a run after dinner tonight.

[Elastigirl]

Impressive circuit. Nom, I love blueberries too. We have a few bushes in our yard, so I have been eating my fill of them

[jonfirestar]

2 hours ago, jstanlick said:

I'm remembering why I liked circuits. They're efficient, they cover cardiovascular training and there's some resistance training involved as well. In 30 minutes or less, you can pretty much train your whole body.

 

Circuits used to be my thing too. Although I'm talking many years ago. Really should remember why I used to enjoy them so much too. Following a long and hope to do a better job of actually following. 

[jstanlick]

1 hour ago, Elastigirl said:

Impressive circuit. Nom, I love blueberries too. We have a few bushes in our yard, so I have been eating my fill of them

Blueberries are my favorite fruit. Well, berries in general, but the blue ones are at the top of my list. Plus, they tend to be lower in sugar per serving than other fruits. That's not the case when you eat 5 servings of them in 5 minutes however  

 

1 hour ago, jonfirestar said:

 

Circuits used to be my thing too. Although I'm talking many years ago. Really should remember why I used to enjoy them so much too. Following a long and hope to do a better job of actually following. 

I was trying to remember why I stopped doing them because I do enjoy them a bit. I think it has to do with recovery time, or time in general. It doesn't seem like such a short workout would require the amount of time to recover that they do. And that's after you were doing them and thinking, that didn't take long enough -- I'm sure I must do more to make them effective. I'm clearly spending too much time worrying about time.

[Sylvaa]

Random: I just realized you changed your profile picture! When did you do that?

[Salinger]

Look at your handsome profile photo!!!!! x

[Xena]

Great picture and looks happy! (and good job moving toward your goals already)

[jstanlick]

6 hours ago, Sylvaa said:

Random: I just realized you changed your profile picture! When did you do that?

I changed it this afternoon. The other one was from 4 years ago, so I figured it was time to update it. 

6 hours ago, Salinger said:

Look at your handsome profile photo!!!!! x

Aww shucks, you’re gonna make me blush. 

 

23 minutes ago, Xena said:

Great picture and looks happy! (and good job moving toward your goals already)

Happy works. I’ll take happy. And I’m trying to work towards them this week, but I’m failing at the sleep on since I shouldn’t be on a device at this time at night. I finally got the evening chores done and fell back into my habits of cruising the internet.

 

Well, as long as I’ve already failed for today, let’s go see what the rest of you have been up to!

 

BTW - You’re all very observant. You noticed the profile pic right away. I would not have noticed for at least a day or two, probably more. 

[Elastigirl]

Love the new look!

[Salinger]

7 hours ago, jstanlick said:

 

Aww shucks, you’re gonna make me blush. 

 

 

 x

[jstanlick]

9 hours ago, Elastigirl said:

Love the new look!

Right back at ya! The Incredibles logo looks good!

[jstanlick]

The berries of the blue are out to get me. My neighbor stopped by with a gigantic freezer bag full of berries that she wanted us to have. She had just been berry picking and picked way more than she and her husband can eat (they're empty-nesters). She's still not used to three other humans with voracious appetites not being in her house. They are soooo good. But, I did manage to restrain myself such that my macros came in at 100g on the nose for carbs and 62 net carbs. Protein was a little low yesterday, but I was more concerned with not bingeing out on blueberries than getting more protein.

 

There was no exercising because it took a long time for my eyes to return to normal after being to the eye doctor. The doc gave my eyes a clean bill of health, although they aren't the perfect vision they used to be. Still good enough to drive without glasses, but she thinks in a couple of years I might need some glasses for nighttime unless my eyes are still returning to normal after having such high blood glucose numbers. Apparently it can take 3 - 6 months of good numbers for your eyes to get back to normal. So, there was no exercising because I felt vampire-ish and was avoiding the light. Took me much longer to get stuff done at night as a result.

 

Which brings me to sleep. As I said last night, I didn't get the things turned off earlier enough. But, I was in bed by 10:30. So, kinda win?

 

Time management - Hmm. I reviewed my calendar to prepare for today, but I got up this morning and thought, "What's my schedule today again?" Not the reaction I thought reviewing my schedule would have. Might just be that I need to build a habit, or it could be this habit isn't having the desired effect. This bears some watching over time.

[Elastigirl]

1 hour ago, jstanlick said:

Right back at ya! The Incredibles logo looks good!

Thanks. I changed it last night. I realized it's been a long time since I updated it.

[jstanlick]

Week 0 Review

Looking back at last week makes me glad I decided not to include it as an official part of this challenge. Using the scorekeeping scale I set up I would've achieved 9 out of 27 possible points.

 

Nutrition

End of the workweek went really well. Saturday was downright ketogenic. Sunday undid most of anything gained. We needed to use up produce before it went bad, so there was far more blueberries and peaches consumed than I should have. My total carbs we near 150 on the day. While that may be half of the average American, that's a shit tonne for me. But, fresh fruit is a pretty seasonal thing, so I don't see that being a problem going forward.

 

Exercise

Two runs, one just a run (albeit a fast one) and the other included numerous sprints of the hill kind. One strength training circuit. That was 6 days ago. That's not going to cut it going forward, so I need to clean that up.

Sleep

This...pretty much didn't happen. It's hard to be in bed by 10:30 when you have to pick your daughter up from work and birthday parties at 11 PM. On one hand, I want her to get her driver's license so I can sleep. On the other hand, I don't think it will help as the night she got a ride with a friend had me wide awake until she got home...late I might add. Looking at the calendar for this week shows an absence of those kind of shenanigans. So, currently, I'm looking good for getting sleep.

 

Time management

The few times I managed to do this part of my routine, they really didn't help the next day. However, I'm currently blaming that on the lack of proper sleep. We'll give this another week to see if it is achieving my desired effect or not.

[Elastigirl]

I think having a teenager makes you just as sleep deprived as a toddler. Either you have to get them at some late hour, or you can't sleep soundly until they arrive home safely

[jstanlick]

28 minutes ago, Elastigirl said:

I think having a teenager makes you just as sleep deprived as a toddler. Either you have to get them at some late hour, or you can't sleep soundly until they arrive home safely

[jstanlick]

Week So Far

Monday and Tuesday have started the week in an okay state. Always some room for improvement, but despite a few curve-balls messing with my evenings, I'm okay with how its going. In fact, I dealt with those curve-balls pretty well I think.

 

Nutrition

Monday - 73 Total carbs with 32 net carbs. Blood sugar was kinda high in the morning -- and I have no good explanation as to why -- so I was extra stringent on the carbs this day. I think did pretty good, since the next day the blood sugar was back down to 94.

Tuesday - 99 Total carbs with 74 net carbs. I ate a lot more food yesterday than Monday. 2500 calories vs 1700. 200 g protein vs 100g. Interestingly, if you add the two days together and average them, those macros are right around where a single day should be. So, I'm counting yesterday as catch-up. Plus, I lifted yesterday so I probably needed a little more fuel anyway.

 

No smoothies yet either day, unless you count the bullet proof coffee I made in the new magic bullet blender. Not really a new recipe so much as new equipment. But, it was delicious!

 

Exercise

Monday - All I ended up with time for was some light swimming with the boys at the pool. I was going to lift, but schedules got turned upside down and by the time I was free enough to lift (9 PM) I just didn't care to do it.

Tuesday - Lunch time weight lifting. Man that felt good! Rows, incline press, bench press, high rows, dumbbell flyes, supermans and crossover scissors kicks just to wake up the abs. Changed my mood for the rest of the day.

 

Sleep

Monday - Fell asleep on the couch prior to 10:30 (closer to 9:30 actually) and stayed off the device after 8:30. Does that count? Of course, once I got up and went to bed, I had a hard time falling back asleep.

Tuesday - Winner, winner! In bed at 10:15 and set down the phone at 8:50.

 

Time management

Monday - Planned out my Tuesday and managed to get stuff done and stay focused on Tuesday. I think it finally worked!

Tuesday - Tried to build off the day before. So far today, I've put out a couple of fires, took care of documenting something I've been putting off for far too long, hit all my agenda items in my team meeting to the point that we finished early and got in a 5K run this morning. Not too shabby with the planning.

 

That leaves a current total of 5 points out of a possible 8. It's early in the challenge, but its a good start.

 

[Salinger]

It definitely is a great start. Good job X

[jstanlick]

Wow, the end of last week got a bit out of hand. Quarterly company meetings should not be held offsite...with sales people...who have expense accounts. At least, I should not be invited to them. Way too many adult beverages. Thursday macros were way off and Friday wasn't much better. And my blood sugars were all over the place even before Thursday and Friday. So, I spent big chunks of Saturday and Sunday trying to atone for my failures. Now, I hurt. At least my blood sugars are back under 100 where they belong.

 

Week 1 Roundup

Nutrition - No new smoothie recipes. BOO. As I said, Thursday and Friday were a bust. Physical demands made me so very hungry, but I did mange to hit my macros on Saturday and Sunday. I just filled up on more fat and minimal other macros until I wasn't hungry. Macadamia nuts for the win! 5/9 points for the week.

 

Exercise - 2 runs (5K on Wednesday and 7 miles on Saturday), 2 resistance workouts and 1 of those fit the interval requirements...Chelsea. Chelsea wrecked me yesterday. It has to be one of the more sinister Crossfit WOD's. It seems so simple. Not easy, but it seemed simple. It didn't need a rower, medicine balls, sand bags, ropes, rings, Olympic weights, etc. Just your body (and a pull up bar). Turns out, not so simple. I can't lift my arms past shoulder height without them complaining of tightness. So, here's Chelsea if you're unaware:

• EMOM in 30 minutes
• 5 Pull-Ups
• 10 Push-Ups
• 15 Air Squats

I actually ended up scaling it as I went along. At the 12th minute, the Pull-ups become jumping pull-ups. at the 19th minute, the push-ups became kneeling push-ups. At the 22 minute mark, I fell behind and was no longer finishing the round in a minute. At the 27 minute mark I tapped out having finished my 24th round secure in the knowledge that I just couldn't get my shoulders to work anymore. 5/7 points for the week.

 

Sleep - Wednesday, Thursday, Friday on Sunday were failures. Wednesday and Sunday were "parent of a teenager" induced. Not that I had any issues with my teenager. She followed all the rules. I just can't sleep until I know she's home safe and sound. My problem, not hers. Thursday and Friday, well, we already talked about them. 2/7 points for the week.

 

Time management - This went better. Only Thursday and Friday were fails. 3/4 points for the week.

 

Point Total - 15/27 points achieved. 2 days really messed with stuff. Half of the 12 missed points were from those 2 days. 2 more missed points for smoothie recipes. The rest of the week was not too bad. I'm gonna see if I can work through this muscle tightness today. Looking at running some sprint intervals since my legs are the least tight of my muscles. Plus, I've got a massage scheduled for tomorrow so that will hopefully loosen up the rest of the muscles. The tricky part this week is going to be that I'm on-call for the week which may/will interrupt my plans.

[jstanlick]

Yesterday was a bit of a mixed bag in terms of goals. I accomplished half of what I set out to do. I guess that's better than nothing.

 

Nutrition - Not. Even. Close. My wife was so kind and put a salad together for my lunch for me because I was busy with Child #1 the night before and didn't get to it. I was honored she'd do that for me. Unfortunately, it didn't work out so well. She had cut some corn off an ear and added it to the salad which added a nice change of pace. But, the whole time I kept thinking there was a lot of corn in there. Then my blood sugars were whack and I was very confused. 140 is incredibly high for me these days. But, that number pissed me off and I just ate a bunch stuff I shouldn't have because this hyper-vigilance is super irritating if it's not going to help. After I got home and talked to her, turns out I should've followed my instincts. It was too much corn. It was not part of 1 ear, but 2 whole ears. That's a lot of carbs at once for me, on top of the Greek yogurt and then the other stuff I threw down my throat in frustration, my macros were blown out of the water. Plus, the scale is up 2 1/2 pounds today. I'm guessing mostly extra water due to the carb intake. I obviously need to not freak out so bad from 1 bad number. Or even a series of up and down numbers and keep my eyes on the averages lest I make things worse like yesterday.

 

Exercise - I got in my sprint intervals. So, I got running and interval points. Plus, I think it has helped keep my legs from getting as tight as my shoulders are from the previous days workout.

 

Sleep - I was on my phone and up too late due to the torrential downpours and the temporary loss of power last night night. Fortunately, it was for a very short while, but I was then up until the rain calmed down and the radar started to clear in case...well, I don't know why. Not much I could do to get the rain to slow down anyway. Should've just gone to bed 90 minutes earlier.

 

Time Management - Achieved, and so far today I've managed to finish some stuff I had planned on finishing. Winning! 2.5/5 points. Yep, half of what I planned to do.

[jonfirestar]

1 hour ago, jstanlick said:

 

Nutrition - Not. Even. Close.

Can't say anything that you don't already know. It'll happen just make tomorrow better.