Embracing the small changes

[woodandbronze]

A running list of the small changes I've made since May 2018:

• no alcohol at home (if I want a drink, I go to the pub)
• no taking a candy from the reception desk when I leave the gym, i.e. no food rewards
• measure my food portions
• do a chore as soon as I notice it's starting to get out of control
• drink less liquid calories -> this morphed into the more specific no sweetener in my coffee/tea
• add 1 rep to bodyweight exercises every 2 weeks
• eat greens 7/7
• participate in the NFA -> and now here in the forums
• 20 minutes of cardio 7/7
• don't compare myself to others
• walk a minimum of 10 minutes/day -> now 20 minutes minimum
• mindful eating, i.e. must be sitting at a dining/kitchen table
• bodyweight exercises 3/7
• practice ukulele 7/7
• work on organizing my recipes - just 1 recipe/day
• no grains at breakfast -> I've been trying this one out for 2 weeks and have decided it's a keeper
• don't buy pasta, cookies, bread, foods with empty calories*
• Knit at least 1 row/day and/or work on the finishing of a project (Fall/Winter)
• drink 1-2 glasses of water before meals
• eliminate snacking
• dessert=fruit/cheese/nuts (no more low-carb mug cakes)

 

I attribute these changes to the success I've been experiencing so far with losing weight and generally levelling up my life.

 

* Lots of foods have empty calories, so to be more specific, I don't buy foods that contain both solid fat and/or added sugars (cakes/pastries, energy/sports/fruit drinks, pizza, ice cream). Butter for cooking and parmesan cheese are not foods that I am willing to give up, since they are used sparingly.

[woodandbronze]

21 hours ago, Ambera Wave said:

• no grains at breakfast -> I've been trying this one out for 2 weeks and have decided it's a keeper

 

God help me, I really miss toasted baguette along with my egg!

[woodandbronze]

Outcome of my first 4WC:

 

[woodandbronze]

Starting the Sep 17th challenge early to keep up the good habits I've developed. It was cold last night, and colder weather makes me want to sleep more, so it was difficult getting started today. Fortunately, it was one of my days off from rowing so I focused on getting my body in gear to do my new bodyweight routine - I'm training to win my first Boss Battle. I've failed it twice - can't do more than 3-4 knee pushups, so I need to focus on getting better.

[woodandbronze]

After managing a win last week I'm struggling with getting better at knee pushups - could only manage 4 on Monday and today I failed on my 7th. On the diet front, I've plateaued for the last 2 weeks, gaining a little bit, and I won't be able to attempt levelling up to 5 in the Nerd Fitness Diet (no pasta, no sweets) until mid- to late-October as I'll be celebrating my birthday, then Canadian Thanksgiving, and then I'll be on the road for a couple of weeks. Give me strength!

[Jean]

6 hours ago, Ambera Wave said:

Give me strength!

 

May the Strength be with you. ;-)

 

I love your approach. If you're anything like me, the fact that you can't do many knee push-ups is a good sign, it means you're doing them right (so, on the long run, they'll show progress). When I was in the army, people were able to do hundreds of them in a row, but they didn't put their weight on the arms, didn't go full down, didn't keep their body straight and so on. It's way easier to do 20 quick push-ups in a row than 10 mindful slow ones. My take is that the later are more effective than the former.

 

Have fun with your changes. :-)

[woodandbronze]

Second challenge done! While I got off to a very good start, my stay with the family during Thanksgiving was counter-productive for diet and exercise. Whaddayagonnado? Here are my stats:

 

[woodandbronze]

Third challenge done! Abstaining gradually from pasta/bread/cookies/empty calories went better than expected. My stats: