Let's get this challenge thing going

[Tobbe]

First challenge

 

I've been wanting to do a challenge since I first found these boards, but have felt the bar to entry be a little too high. Finally @Mad Hatter convinced me that it doesn't have to be as hard as I thought it was. And with @Arkania's great example (https://rebellion.nerdfitness.com/index.php?/topic/110831-first-challenge-to-get-back-on-track/One reason I found it hard to start was that I felt that the example challenges didn't really fit me. See below.

 

 

 

Diet (pick two)

• Swap out one soda per day with water
  • I've never had a habit of drinking soda. Especially not with sugar in it. (TBH I have been drinking way more sugar free soda than I ever have before. But still not even one every day.)
• Eat a vegetable with one meal every day
  • I've always done this. I now eat vegetables (or berries or fruit) with pretty much every meal
• Reduce fast food consumption by 50%
  • I've never had a habit of eating fast food.
• Take one processed snack you have each day and replace it with a healthy protein, fruit, or vegetable
  • I did eat too many of the free cookies by the coffee machine at my last work. But since I'm not there anymore, and we don't usually have cookies where I work now, this is not a problem any more.
• Substitute one sugary coffee drink per day for black coffee or tea.
  • I've never had sugar (or milk or cream) in my tea. And I don't drink coffee at all

 

As you can see, none of the above diet challenges resonate very well with me. So I'll have to make something up for myself! To keep it really simple the goal for this challenge will just be to eat at a deficit. 

 

Fitness (pick one)

• Walk every day (5 minutes) - this could even be in the form of standing up at your desk and walking around the office.
  • This is something I've started doing thanks to NF! 
• Complete the NF bodyweight workout at least 1x a week
  • Just started following the NF bodyweight workouts this week
• Participate an active social game, like frisbee or kickball, at least once a week (preferably with your family or friends who are also trying to get started!)
  • I'm not in to team sports at all, and I don't know anyone who is that I could join.

 

I see lots of potential challenges here for the future  Again, I find it hard to follow the rules though, and will just pick what works for me! So even though I already walk every day, I still don't feel like it's a 100% natural thing for me to do. It's still a conscious decision every day. So I'll make it a goal this challenge to walk at least 1 mile every morning. And since I've already just started the NF BW workouts I'll include that in my goals as well.

 

As for the active social game I think I'll pick something I can engage my kids in. Need to keep them active as well! But that's something for a future challenge.

 

Level Up Your Life (Pick One)

• Put $1 in a jar (or savings) every day
• Notorious for being late? Start with making Mondays special - on Mondays you are never late for anything.
• 5 minutes meditation daily
• Say one positive thing to yourself each morning when you look in the mirror
• Have troubles keeping the kitchen clean? Clean for 2 minutes each night before bed or first thing in the morning (when you're waiting for your coffee to brew, maybe?). Focus on one small area and keeping that one clean, and then once you're good at that one, start to expand it.
• Floss at least 15 seconds each day
• Reduce caffeine consumption by 50%
• Make small talk with at least one person each week (or day!) you wouldn't normally (could be on your commute, at work, in line at the grocery store)
• Have a 5 minute dance party each day
• Go to bed 10 minutes earlier each week

 

This right here is the main reason I joined NF Academy. I have so many areas I need to level up my life and work on my mindset. For this first challenge it's just too overwhelming to choose where to start. So I'll skip this for now.

 

So, to sum it up...

 

Goals

 

Diet

 

My goal is to eat at a deficit until I reach the weight I had before going on vacation to the United States.

This means I need to lose 1.4 kg (3 lbs). If I don't reach this goal this challenge I'll continue the next.

 

I'll reach this goal by only eating three times every day (breakfast, lunch, dinner), except for days I workout where I'll allow myself to have one of my protein smoothies if I want.

 

I'll also measure/weigh all my food at least three days to properly be able to calculate how much I eat (kcal and macros)

    I will do this at least two days before end of Sunday this week (September 2)

 

I will allow myself to eat how much/whatever I want one day during this challenge. That day is September 8 when I will celebrate my brother's birthday.

 

Fitness

 

Walk at least 1 mile every morning

Complete the NF Bodyweight workouts according to my schedule (3 times every week)

[Mad Hatter]

Great goals and good luck on your challenge!!  

[Arkania]

I like your goals!
Walking everyday should be a part of my future challenges because I let that down over the past months. (I am so! lazy!)

The measure/weigh-thing is a great idea.
I am so tired of tracking all my meals everyday (I do this for 3-4 years now....) so I think I will do the same approach. Having some standard meals (I always get the 'omfg I am not allowed to eat whatever I want'-crisis and then my inner self rebels and i overeat... but I should give it a try again), knowing the cals for that, just having 4-5 meals (Mark Laurens recommendation)

 

May you do well, Sir!

[Tobbe]

2 hours ago, Arkania said:

just having 4-5 meals (Mark Laurens recommendation)

 

Do you mean 4 - 5 meals every day? (Breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner)

Or do you mean that you have 4 - 5 recipes that you rotate between for your meals? (Like 4 - 5 different breakfasts and 4 - 5 different dinners to choose from)

[Arkania]

11 minutes ago, Tobbe said:

 

Do you mean 4 - 5 meals every day? (Breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner)

Or do you mean that you have 4 - 5 recipes that you rotate between for your meals? (Like 4 - 5 different breakfasts and 4 - 5 different dinners to choose from)

 

4-5 meals a day.

I have had a standard meal plan some time ago and had 5 recipes for breakfast and 6 lunches. That worked okay, maybe I can adapt that for the amount of protein I want to eat.

[Tobbe]

Today's update on my goals

 

Diet

 

My goal is to eat at a deficit until I reach the weight I had before going on vacation to the United States.

 

Only ate 730 kcal today, so definitely less than I burned. My phone says my BMR is 1404 kcal, and that I burned 801 kcal by being active today. So that adds up to 2205 kcal, which means today's deficit was approximately 1475 kcal.

 

This means I need to lose 1.4 kg (3 lbs). If I don't reach this goal this challenge I'll continue the next.

 

Down 0.3 kg this morning compared to yesterday. So I'm on the right track!

 

I'll reach this goal by only eating three times every day (breakfast, lunch, dinner), except for days I workout where I'll allow myself to have one of my protein smoothies if I want.

 

Only ate twice today, and didn't eat enough protein

 

I'll also measure/weigh all my food at least three days to properly be able to calculate how much I eat (kcal and macros)

    I will do this at least two days before end of Sunday this week (September 2)

 

730 kcal, 50 g protein, 43 g fat, 31 g carbs (and 9 g fiber) today. One more day to measure this week, and two more days in total. On track with this one!

 

I will allow myself to eat how much/whatever I want one day during this challenge. That day is September 8 when I will celebrate my brother's birthday.

 

On track

 

Fitness

 

Walk at least 1 mile every morning

 

Walked 1.86 miles this morning

 

Complete the NF Bodyweight workouts according to my schedule (3 times every week)

 

Rest day today, so no BW workout

 

More details on exactly what I ate, how far and fast I walked etc are in my Daily Battle Logs thread, as always

 

 

 

 

[Arkania]

Looks like you are good on track, nice

[Mad Hatter]

18 hours ago, Tobbe said:

Only ate 730 kcal today, so definitely less than I burned. My phone says my BMR is 1404 kcal, and that I burned 801 kcal by being active today. So that adds up to 2205 kcal, which means today's deficit was approximately 1475 kcal.

 

Dude you have to eat more! 

 

Spoiler

I trawled through your battle log and honestly I'm a bit concerned as there are many signs of disorderly eating behaviours just from reading those posts. I know we only just "met" and I'm just a random stranger on the internet, but I really felt I had to say something and I really hope it won't scare you away! But I think it could be worth for you to read up about disorderly eating patterns and binge eating etc or even talk to someone. There's a also a thread somewhere here on the topic. I would like to help but I'm only just learning about this myself and coming to terms with my own food/body image issues so I'm probably not the right person, though I'm happy to share what I know/my own experiences if you want. But just to be clear, I'm not suggesting you have a full blown eating disorder or anything like that, just that there are behaviours that seem to cause more harm than health in your life. Maybe it's worth spending some time focusing on self acceptance and improving body image and self worth/confidence as part of your overall health, rather than focusing so much on numbers that seem to cause you more grief than joy?

 

One important thing though - if you have to cut calories this drastically in order to lose weight I wonder if your metabolism hasn't taken damage from prolonged restriction. A healthy, active man your size needs A LOT MORE food. Even when you're cutting. I know not every day is like this low but looking through your pictures your caloric intake does look extremely low. If you find that you're struggling with maintaining weight even at a low calorie level it could mean that you're eating too little overall and your body simply rebels against you by putting on weight as soon as you feed it properly. If that's the case a nutritionist might help with slowly bringing up your metabolism. You also mentioned binges - I don't know about the severity of them, if you mean "proper" binges or just overeating, but just to be clear - binges are the body's natural reaction to food restriction. If you feed your body enough they will stop too.

 

Having said all that - your food looks suuuuper tasty and I want to eat it all! I'm loving all the fresh produce and the farm eggs and all that, it looks fantastic. <3

 

[Tobbe]

16 minutes ago, Mad Hatter said:

Dude you have to eat more!

 

Yeah, I know. And I will, as soon as I reach my goal weight I'll focus on gaining weight through more/harder/heavier training, and more food.

Problem is that when I eat this little one part of my brain says "You need to eat more", while the other part says "Way to go! You rock! The less you eat, the better!" and to be honest I feel better/more accomplished by following the latter part of the brain. I feel good, I feel successful for doing something not everyone think they can do (skipping meals). I get better and more positive internal feedback in my brain by going down that path, than when I simply just eat what I need...

 

24 minutes ago, Mad Hatter said:

I trawled through your battle log and honestly I'm a bit concerned as there are many signs of disorderly eating behaviours

 

Very apt* of you to pick up on that. (* there must be a better word, but my English vocabulary is failing me here...)

 

27 minutes ago, Mad Hatter said:

I really felt I had to say something

 

Thanks for caring enough to write all that 

 

Please do share your own story, and any hints or other comments that you think might help me. If you can find that thread I will gladly read it!

 

34 minutes ago, Mad Hatter said:

A healthy, active man your size needs A LOT MORE food.

 

I haven't mentioned my length or weight anywhere, and there's a reason for that. I'm simply too ashamed of how little I weigh. It seems most members here are struggling with losing weight. Even more so in the NF Facebook group where it seems most people who post selfies weigh three to four times as much as me (no kidding!). Now that I'm also trying to lose some of that fat I gained while on vacation I feel like I can relate to a lot more posts here and on Facebook. I feel more like I belong here.

 

37 minutes ago, Mad Hatter said:

I don't know about the severity of them, if you mean "proper" binges or just overeating

 

I do both, and I have full understanding of the difference, and I know exactly (at least the day after) if it's one or the other. Proper binges are scary. I feel as much out of control as if I was really drunk!

 

40 minutes ago, Mad Hatter said:

I know we only just "met" and I'm just a random stranger on the internet

 

Thanks again for writing. I feel really humbled that a "random stranger I just "met" on the internet" cares enough to reach out like that. Reading what you wrote, and writing this reply really brings up my feelings and almost makes me start crying.

[Tobbe]

Today's update on my goals

 

Diet

 

My goal is to eat at a deficit until I reach the weight I had before going on vacation to the United States.

 

Ate 975 kcal today. 718 kcal burned according to phone.

 

This means I need to lose 1.4 kg (3 lbs). If I don't reach this goal this challenge I'll continue the next.

 

Down 0.1 kg this morning compared to yesterday. So I'm on the right track! But a little bit surprised I didn't lose more weight. An almost 1500 kcal deficit should be at least 0.2 kg down.

 

I'll reach this goal by only eating three times every day (breakfast, lunch, dinner), except for days I workout where I'll allow myself to have one of my protein smoothies if I want.

 

Ate three times today. (Yeah, I'm not going to care about that tiny amount of protein milkshake. Plus I did allow myself to have a protein smoothie when I workout, if I wanted)

 

I'll also measure/weigh all my food at least three days to properly be able to calculate how much I eat (kcal and macros)

 

975 kcal, 80 g protein, 54 g fat, 32 g carbs. Two of three days completed!

 

I will do this at least two days before end of Sunday this week (September 2)

 

This sub-quest is done!

 

I will allow myself to eat how much/whatever I want one day during this challenge. That day is September 8 when I will celebrate my brother's birthday.

 

On track

 

Fitness

 

Walk at least 1 mile every morning

 

Walked 3.14 km this morning (π ). 1.95 miles.

 

Complete the NF Bodyweight workouts according to my schedule (3 times every week)

 

Completed NF BW workout 3C today. Actually did a little more than required!

 

More details on exactly what I ate, how far and fast I walked etc are in my Daily Battle Logs thread, as always

[Arkania]

Quote

Down 0.1 kg this morning compared to yesterday. So I'm on the right track! But a little bit surprised I didn't lose more weight. An almost 1500 kcal deficit should be at least 0.2 kg down.

 

Your body isn't a machine

It may take some days to see it on the scale. Maybe you drank more yesterday or you had more still in your body etc etc.

I have sometimes variations of several kgs (ok, more hormone and water and stuff because i am a woman) so no need to be sad.

 

[Tobbe]

I'm getting stuck here on the computer... So, inspired by the post linked below I'll write a todo-list for today to get some accountability and motivation to get off my ass and do something  

 

 

Morning mile

Go to the gym

Eat breakfast

Do all the dishes in the kitchen

Empty and put away iron and ironing board

Hang laundry to dry

Play a table top game with my boys

Eat lunch

Work (probably 3 hours)

Watch some semi-educational/inspirational video on YouTube

Cook dinner

Go for a walk outside

Watch a movie with my wife

 

[Tobbe]

Before

 

 

After, 1 h 30 min later

 

 

Morning mile

Go to the gym

Eat breakfast

Do all the dishes in the kitchen

Empty and put away iron and ironing board

Hang laundry to dry

Play a table top game with my boys

Eat lunch

Work (probably 3 hours)

Watch some semi-educational/inspirational video on YouTube

Cook dinner

Go for a walk outside

Watch a movie with my wife

[Tobbe]

Table top game

 

 

We're playing Catan Junior. It's a really great game! It's rare to find games that both the kids and the adults (me) can enjoy!

 

Morning mile

Go to the gym

Eat breakfast

Do all the dishes in the kitchen

Empty and put away iron and ironing board

Hang laundry to dry

Play a table top game with my boys

Eat lunch

Work (probably 3 hours)

Watch some semi-educational/inspirational video on YouTube

Cook dinner

Go for a walk outside

Watch a movie with my wife

[Tobbe]

On 8/31/2018 at 6:19 PM, Mad Hatter said:

There's a also a thread somewhere here on the topic.

 

@Mad Hatter Did you have a chance to look for that thread yet?  

[Arkania]

Omg Catan <3

I played this for days! when I was a kid. I have an adult version and the card game in the living, may play a bit soon

On 8/31/2018 at 7:05 PM, Tobbe said:

 I'm simply too ashamed of how little I weigh.

 

I completely overread these posts (sorry!), but I have one question.

You are underweight, when you are having your "normal" weight right?

Are you already underweight with these 1.something kg?

[Tobbe]

1 hour ago, Arkania said:

You are underweight, when you are having your "normal" weight right?

Are you already underweight with these 1.something kg?

 

Yeah, I'm underweight. The thing is, I think I've always been underweight. I mean, I didn't even used to care. Didn't own a scale for most of my life. But I've always been skinny. So I don't really know what my "normal" weight is. I weigh more now than I did a year ago. I think I weigh less than I did two years, or three years ago...

[Arkania]

10 minutes ago, Tobbe said:

 

Yeah, I'm underweight. The thing is, I think I've always been underweight. I mean, I didn't even used to care. Didn't own a scale for most of my life. But I've always been skinny. So I don't really know what my "normal" weight is. I weigh more now than I did a year ago. I think I weigh less than I did two years, or three years ago...

 

With "normal" weight I mean the weight you had before your vacation.

You can calculate your normal weight, BMI and ideal weight

I like this calculator: https://tdeecalculator.net/

Under FAQ you can see what they mean with the activity level.

 

E: Being (slightly) underweight must not be bad. I know some people that were underweight there whole life. Just slightly, BMI around 18. They were healthy (enough, healthier than some normal weighing skinnyfat people). Some of them were picky eaters. Some just ate "normal". They were just skinny and hadn't a hard time to (or didn't want to) get more muscles.

You have lived xy years now with beeing underweight and you are healthy (enough) to still be alive in a good (?) shape.

 

But for getting muscular you need to eat
No shit (chocolate bars en masse) but good food and more calories than 800. But you know that

So you can prepare yourself and your nutrition/training for getting strong after this hell of a 1.x kg

 

Maybe one of my next challenges will be a Less Shit/No shit/Clean eating challenge. I did one last year and it was really good.

[Tobbe]

Thanks for your reply @Arkania. Will reply tomorrow, have to go to bed now

[Arkania]

5 minutes ago, Tobbe said:

Thanks for your reply @Arkania. Will reply tomorrow, have to go to bed now

Have a good night!

[Tobbe]

11 hours ago, Arkania said:

With "normal" weight I mean the weight you had before your vacation.

 

Right. Yeah, I was underweight before I left for vacation (BMI < 18.5), and I still was when I came back. "Problem" is that I think my BMI has always been < 18.5. I think I just have a skinny body type. BUT my BMI is now < 17, and that's definitely not healthy. I need more muscle to bring that number up.

 

11 hours ago, Arkania said:

You can calculate your normal weight, BMI and ideal weight

 I like this calculator: https://tdeecalculator.net/

 

So according to the BMI numbers my normal weight is about 56 - 76 kg. My ideal weight according to that page is 69 - 72 kg. My BMR is 1435 kcal and my maintenance calories are somewhere between 1700 and 2000 depending on how much I move around

 

11 hours ago, Arkania said:

Being (slightly) underweight must not be bad. I know some people that were underweight there whole life. Just slightly, BMI around 18. They were healthy (enough, healthier than some normal weighing skinnyfat people). Some of them were picky eaters. Some just ate "normal". They were just skinny

 

I think you hit the nail on the head right there. That's exactly me.

[Tobbe]

11 hours ago, Arkania said:

Have a good night!

 

It was alright... Kept dreaming I ate a lot of food. And the problem wasn't that I was eating all the food. The problem was that I didn't know/couldn't track the kcal/proteins/fat/carbs properly for this challenge  

[Tobbe]

Final update on the TODO list progress

 

Morning mile

Go to the gym

Eat breakfast

Do all the dishes in the kitchen

Empty and put away iron and ironing board

    My boys were doing bead patterns that they then wanted me to iron, so they could keep them

Hang laundry to dry

Play a table top game with my boys

Eat lunch

Work (probably 3 hours)

    I only worked like one hour. Then I fell asleep for 1.5 hours...

Watch some semi-educational/inspirational video on YouTube

Cook dinner

Go for a walk outside

Watch a movie with my wife

    We watched half a movie, then she fell asleep, so I turned it off. But it was good, so we'll hopefully see the rest tonight.

 

 

[Tobbe]

Day 3 goals update

 

Diet

 

My goal is to eat at a deficit until I reach the weight I had before going on vacation to the United States.

 

282 + 372 + 243 = 897 kcal in today. Out? Who knows... Phone says I burned 622 kcal during the day through moving around. But then I also lifted some weights at the gym, and the phone doesn't know about that...

 

This means I need to lose 1.4 kg (3 lbs). If I don't reach this goal this challenge I'll continue the next.

 

Showing some real progress on the scale now! Only 0.5 kg to go  

 

I'll reach this goal by only eating three times every day (breakfast, lunch, dinner), except for days I workout where I'll allow myself to have one of my protein smoothies if I want.

 

Ate three times today

 

I'll also measure/weigh all my food at least three days to properly be able to calculate how much I eat (kcal and macros)

 

897 kcal, 67 g protein, 44 g fat, 54 g carbs. Day three of three!

 

I will do this at least two days before end of Sunday this week (September 2)

 

This sub-quest is done!

 

I will allow myself to eat how much/whatever I want one day during this challenge. That day is September 8 when I will celebrate my brother's birthday.

 

On track

 

Fitness

 

Walk at least 1 mile every morning

 

Walked 1.35 miles on the treadmill

 

Complete the NF Bodyweight workouts according to my schedule (3 times every week)

 

Rest day on the schedule today, so no NF Bodyweight workout. (But I did a NG Gym workout, just for fun and XP )

 

More details on exactly what I ate, how far and fast I walked etc are in my Daily Battle Logs thread, as always

[Arkania]

I now read "bad patterns" 3 times in a row and was like "huuuh?!". I think I need to get more sleep

 

Quote

We watched half a movie, then she fell asleep, so I turned it off. But it was good, so we'll hopefully see the rest tonight.

That is so! me

(Maybe most of the women )

 

May I ask you what your bf is?

Great scale progress! And regarding the weight training: Unfirtunately this burns not that much calories (wow, some of this emojis are creepy). I love weight training and am not a fan of endurance but for weight loss I should better do the last

 

Are you done with eating for today?