The necessities

[Tobbe]

The necessities

 

Wise from my previous challenge there is one major thing that is necessary for me to focus on, and that is my nutrition. I need to eat more of the foods that fuel my body and mind in a good way! I want to increase my protein intake, and I want to work on my acceptance of fruits as something I can have now and then. I also want to eat some more nut butter, just because it's so tasty! (And yes, the PB should be chunky!)

 

   

 

  

 

 

I'm also feeling a little bad and stressed out about falling behind on the NF Academy quests. So I'll look through the ones I'm behind on and try to align them with this four week challenge.

 

So this challenge is going to be all about what is necessary for me to feel better - improve my nutrition by eating more and better, and lower my stress a little bit by aligning further goals this challenge with my NF Academy quests!

 

I will break it down and make it more specific during the days to come, so that I'm all ready to go on the 17th when the party starts for real! 

 

[Tobbe]

I wanted to get some kind of finess goal in as well, and I just realized another thing that's necessary for me to do! And it'll help both with my fitness, and with stressing less by making my workouts more efficient! I need to learn my warm-up and cool-down routines by heart! I'm doing Steve's warm-up, and Staci’s cool-down:. But I always have to look them up before doing them! After this challenge I won't have to do that anymore! 

 

  

[WolfDreamer]

1 hour ago, Tobbe said:

And yes, the PB should be chunky!

 

This is an important detail! Lol. The only time I don't want chunky peanut butter is if I'm using it in my protein shake. In that case, creamy is best. 

 

Your challenge goals sound great and very specific to your personal needs. Let me know if I can help in any way. 

[Elastigirl]

Welcome to the Rangers!

[Tobbe]

9 hours ago, Wolfen said:

This is an important detail! Lol.

 

I know, right! 

 

9 hours ago, Wolfen said:

The only time I don't want chunky peanut butter is if I'm using it in my protein shake. In that case, creamy is best. 

 

I was wondering why they even bothered selling the smooth stuff, but this does indeed sound like a valid use-case for the creamy version  Have never tried adding nut butters to my smoothies myself. Mind sharing your recipe?

[Tobbe]

3 hours ago, Elastigirl said:

Welcome to the Rangers!

 

Thank you, glad to be here  

[Arkania]

Ooooooh I am soooo glad about your goals!

And very excited! All the best!

[Tobbe]

1 hour ago, Arkania said:

Ooooooh I am soooo glad about your goals!

 

Me too! Can't wait for this challenge to get started so that I can start working on them  

[Arkania]

You can already

You can use this week as preparation OR already start the challenge

 

Oh, btw, regarding Steve's book: I am halfway now I think and I like it a lot. It makes me think of my goals and help me set them up. I am just reading this time and mark it with bookmarks and when I am done I will re-read it and work with the bookmarks. So many ideas already!

[Tobbe]

21 hours ago, Wolfen said:

The only time I don't want chunky peanut butter is if I'm using it in my protein shake. In that case, creamy is best.

 

Got this recipe from the NF Facebook group

 

2 tbsp peanut butter, 2 ice cubes, half a banana, water, cinnamon, and vanilla protein powder.

 

Sounds delicious, but still looking forward to your version as well @Wolfen  

[Tobbe]

9 hours ago, Arkania said:

You can use this week as preparation OR already start the challenge

 

Yeah, I know. But I think I need it to prepare for this challenge. Still need to find what NF quests to tie in to this four week challenge. And to set some SMART goals based on what I have already written down.

[Tobbe]

9 hours ago, Arkania said:

Oh, btw, regarding Steve's book: I am halfway now I think and I like it a lot. It makes me think of my goals and help me set them up. I am just reading this time and mark it with bookmarks and when I am done I will re-read it and work with the bookmarks. So many ideas already!

 

Sounds promising! Keep me posted  

[WolfDreamer]

1 hour ago, Tobbe said:

 

Got this recipe from the NF Facebook group

 

2 tbsp peanut butter, 2 ice cubes, half a banana, water, cinnamon, and vanilla protein powder.

 

Sounds delicious, but still looking forward to your version as well @Wolfen  

 

My usual:

 

Chocolate or vanilla protein powder

1/2 banana

Two raw eggs

2 tbsp peanut butter

1 tbsp honey (optional)

Water (or for even more protein 1 cup of unflavored/unsweetened plant-based milk instead of water)

 

Obviously, this is a lot of protein, so it's usually my meal replacement shake for breakfast.

[Tobbe]

Very similar to the recipe I got on Facebook. Must mean it's really good!  

Definitely something to add to my recipe collection.

[Tobbe]

So I've been looking through the NF Academy quests a bit. I still have quite a few "easy wins" to check off  I'll try to schedule the quests per week of the challenge.

 

Official description in purple. My comments in turquoise.

 

Week 1

 

Complete 10 Assisted Squats - 25 XP

 

Mindset: Gimme The Loot! - 25 XP

To complete this quest, first brainstorm some healthy loot (rewards), choose a specific goal you’ve broken down and attach a realistic timeframe to it to unlock your new “loot”.

 

Nutrition: Determine your starting NF Diet Level - 25 XP

To complete this quest, look at your logs from the last 3 days and determine what level of the NF Diet you are

I'll go through the criteria for each level, starting at level 1 and check them off one by one. So might add more sub-quests related to this one later.

 

Nutrition: Pack Your Lunch - 25 XP

 

Week 2

 

Mindset: NaNaNaNaNa BATCAVE! - 40 XP

To complete this quest, you’ll need to make 3 new changes to your daily environment that will remove steps to build a new healthy habit you’ve selected. You’ll also need to add 3 new barriers into your life to keep you from falling back on a old unhealthy habit you are replacing or limiting.

I'm having a hard time coming up with ideas for changes to make here! Any ideas anyone?

 

Nutrition: Don't drink liquid calories - 60 XP

 

Week 3
 

Do 10 Elevated Push Ups - 25 XP

Complete 10 push ups with your feet on an elevated surface, increasing the difficulty.

I'll find something at least 25 cm / 10 inches tall to put my feet on

 

Go for a 15 Minute Walk - 40 XP

 

Plank Practice – Intermediate - 40 XP

Get down and hold a tight, steady Plank for :30 seconds straight! You’re starting to show off now, aren’t you?

 

Week 4

 

Nutrition: Cook More - 40 XP

To complete this quest, make all of your meals for one week (do not go out to eat for one week)

 

Complete the NF Beginner BW Workout 1x Per Week - 60 XP

To complete this quest, complete the NF Beginner Bodyweight Workout 1x a week for a month.

I won't be doing the beginner workout, I'll be doing the level four workout. And I'll be doing it more often than once a week. But as long as I've worked out at least once for each of the four weeks in this challenge I'll mark this one as completed.

 

Bonus quest: Nutrition: I Hate Vegetables #2 - 60 XP

To complete this quest, eat a vegetable with at least two meals per day (we suggest lunch and dinner) for one week.

Since I'll be cooking all my meals for this week, and since I'm already committed to eating at least three meals per day for this challenge, this should be no problem

 

Totals: Approximately 100 XP per week, with an extra 60 XP bonus opportunity last week.

All should be very doable unless my schedule changes from what it looks like now. I'm a little worried about the Batcave upgrade, just because I don't have enough ideas on what to do. I'm also a little worried about being able to cook all meals for an entire week. It's not many weeks we're at home for all meals all seven days of the week. 

[Tobbe]

On 9/11/2018 at 11:06 PM, Tobbe said:

I need to learn my warm-up and cool-down routines by heart!

 

Thanks to @Arkania I've decided to do the warm-up and cool-down/stretch routines every* day for this challenge. Repetition should help me with learning this stuff by heart!

 

* I'll give myself a little slack here. I only need to do it every day that I'm home. If we're away somewhere I don't have to do it.

[Arkania]

Quote

I'm a little worried about the Batcave upgrade, just because I don't have enough ideas on what to do.

 

Do you have any ideas?

I would first think about your unhealthy habits, what are these?

Eating to much candy when it's there? -> Ask someone to put it away after you had one or two.

Eating not enough meals a day? -> Reminder on the phone/from your wife every mealtime

Drinking to little? -> Reminder-App/Buy a bottle with markers

Not enough protein a day? -> To one meal you drink a proteinshake instead of tea/water.

etc

[Tobbe]

2 minutes ago, Arkania said:

I would first think about your unhealthy habits, what are these?

Eating to much candy when it's there? -> Ask someone to put it away after you had one or two.

Eating not enough meals a day? -> Reminder on the phone/from your wife every mealtime

Drinking to little? -> Reminder-App/Buy a bottle with markers

 

I'm not sure those qualify as "Batcave upgrades". Especially not the first one. I see those as more habit changes. "Batcave upgrades" are more "static". An example in Steve's article is for example hiding the TV in a closet so that it requires more effort whenever you want to watch TV instead of doing something active.

 

Sorry for being so negative  

 

5 minutes ago, Arkania said:

Do you have any ideas?

 

One thing I'll do to improve my batcave is to clean my desk. "Clean desk - Clean mind". And I also want to keep a clean desk so that I can fit a piece of paper to write down notes on as I'm working.

 

Another thing is to permanently hang a pull-up bar in a doorpost so that it's one less step to do my home workouts.

 

Those are both things "that will remove steps to build a new healthy habit you’ve selected". I.e. clean desk and more efficient home workouts. I need one more like that. But then I also need three to put "new barriers into your life to keep you from falling back on a old unhealthy habit". I have no idea what to do for this right now...

[Arkania]

You mean this article?

https://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/how-to-build-healthy-habits-that-stick/

or this one

https://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/how-to-build-a-batcave-for-habit-change/

?

[Tobbe]

I mean this one: https://academy.nerdfitness.com/level-up/mindset/custom-batcave/  

But I think you need to be a paying member to read that

[Jett]

On 9/11/2018 at 1:12 PM, Tobbe said:

I'm also feeling a little bad and stressed out about falling behind on the NF Academy quests.

 

Yes, me too! I think we started around the same time? I'm on week 9, but I'm probably actually working on stuff from week 6 still. I think there's a way to re-start the emails, and I want to do that so I can coast on 'easy mode' for a few weeks while I'm tackling the ones I got stuck on, and hopefully be ready for the later weeks by the time the emails get back to that point.

 

13 hours ago, Tobbe said:

Mindset: NaNaNaNaNa BATCAVE! - 40 XP

To complete this quest, you’ll need to make 3 new changes to your daily environment that will remove steps to build a new healthy habit you’ve selected. You’ll also need to add 3 new barriers into your life to keep you from falling back on a old unhealthy habit you are replacing or limiting.

I'm having a hard time coming up with ideas for changes to make here! Any ideas anyone?

 

Like Arkania, my first thought was the 'moving the candybowl' thing. Although it isn't something to do in your batcave, making a habit of asking people to keep snacks away from you would be a way of changing your environment to help you keep from falling into an old habit.

 

Something to think about with this is that you don't live alone, you live with your family. So a lot of changes you would want to make might involve asking them to do something differently. If you haven't already, maybe it's a good time to talk to your wife about why you struggle with her baking. Maybe there's some way she could pre-portion the things she makes, so that one small portion is left for you, and the rest is put away out of sight, out of mind to help prevent binging?

 

I do a similar thing with my wife: if we buy a box of cookies, I put a servings (usually 3 cookies) into individual plastic bags, so she can't take the package and just eat them mindlessly without stopping. Having to go get another bag and open it to get to the next serving of cookies helps to remind her that she's supposed to be limiting how many she eats. And if she's really struggling, I'll hide the rest of the bags so she literally can't eat more than one serving.

 

And on a 'building healthy habits' things, is there a healthy activity you could do with your family? Maybe going for a walk or playing a sport together?

 

12 hours ago, Tobbe said:

Thanks to @Arkania I've decided to do the warm-up and cool-down/stretch routines every* day for this challenge. Repetition should help me with learning this stuff by heart!

* I'll give myself a little slack here. I only need to do it every day that I'm home. If we're away somewhere I don't have to do it.

 

I really like how you are making this goal flexible, so you can build a habit without punishing yourself for missing a day due to other circumstances.

[Tobbe]

12 hours ago, Jett said:

Yes, me too! I think we started around the same time? I'm on week 9, but I'm probably actually working on stuff from week 6 still. I think there's a way to re-start the emails, and I want to do that so I can coast on 'easy mode' for a few weeks while I'm tackling the ones I got stuck on, and hopefully be ready for the later weeks by the time the emails get back to that point.

 

Hmm, I don't think I've read anything about restarting the emails. But if there is a way, and you find out about it, please let me know!  

I've been using this to go at my own pace: https://academy.nerdfitness.com/12-week-missions/

 

If you've done everything up to week 6 you're way ahead of me! I still have stuff from week two and three that I have skipped. There's one in particular from week three that I've more or less given up on, and that's "Mindset: Build Your Dream Team".

 

"You’ll also need more than just a single buddy"

"Of course, your fellow Nerd Fitness Rebels will be here for you online, but we want you to have a supportive group of teammates in the real world too."

 

I have no idea where I'll find two IRL-friends to share this with...

 

12 hours ago, Jett said:

Like Arkania, my first thought was the 'moving the candybowl' thing. Although it isn't something to do in your batcave, making a habit of asking people to keep snacks away from you would be a way of changing your environment to help you keep from falling into an old habit.

 

Thanks for helping me see this from a different angle! When you put it like that I can totally see how that's a valid batcave upgrade! Perfect 

 

12 hours ago, Jett said:

If you haven't already, maybe it's a good time to talk to your wife about why you struggle with her baking.

 

She already hates me enough for "killing her joy for baking". So I don't want to make it even more of a burden on her.

 

12 hours ago, Jett said:

And on a 'building healthy habits' things, is there a healthy activity you could do with your family? Maybe going for a walk or playing a sport together?

 

My wife says she's afraid to do anything active with me. She says she's scared I'd get all obsessive with it and only do it because I feel i "have" to do it, not because I want to do it.

[Tobbe]

18 hours ago, Tobbe said:

I also need three to put "new barriers into your life to keep you from falling back on a old unhealthy habit". I have no idea what to do for this right now...

 

I've finally figured out what to do for this one! I'm going to make changes to my digital/online batcave! 

I need to stop being so distracted by Facebook, and I need to stop wasting so much time there. Especially during work hours. 

Same for email. I get too many (junk) emails that distracts me.

 

So I'll try to make three changes to help with that!

[Mad Hatter]

I have a scary idea as a batcave goal - remove your scale.  

[Jett]

 

8 hours ago, Tobbe said:

If you've done everything up to week 6 you're way ahead of me! I still have stuff from week two and three that I have skipped. There's one in particular from week three that I've more or less given up on, and that's "Mindset: Build Your Dream Team".

 

I haven't done every single one for the first six weeks; there are a few things I'm working on or I have put off because I don't yet have a way to do them. Finding IRL workout buddies/support group is one that I'm having trouble with, too. Now that my wife is getting more recovered from surgery, I will probably ask her to be one of my "team mates", though I am not sure to what extent her fitness goals and desires will match with mine. She does keep encouraging me to join a gym and/or find a personal trainer, though, and that might be how I finally complete this quest.

 

8 hours ago, Tobbe said:

I've finally figured out what to do for this one! I'm going to make changes to my digital/online batcave! 

I need to stop being so distracted by Facebook, and I need to stop wasting so much time there. Especially during work hours. 

Same for email. I get too many (junk) emails that distracts me.

 

Good idea! I should probably do the same type of thing.  (NF is honestly one of my big distractions at work, too... whoops.)

 

8 hours ago, Tobbe said:

She already hates me enough for "killing her joy for baking". So I don't want to make it even more of a burden on her.

...

My wife says she's afraid to do anything active with me. She says she's scared I'd get all obsessive with it and only do it because I feel i "have" to do it, not because I want to do it.

 

Okay. It's your relationship, so I don't feel like I can say a lot about how you should live it. You know better than anyone what will work and what won't. I'll just make the observation that in my own experience, communication about what you're feeling and why you're doing things can go a long way toward resolving problems in the relationship.