TimovieMan's Daily Struggles on the Road

[TimovieMan]

My log for yesterday (Tuesday October 23rd):
 
 
Sleep
  
Slept 6 hours 5 minutes.
My daughter was up coughing for a while, which meant she yet again spent the night in our bed. And the youngest crawled in there as well sometime during the night. Not the most relaxing sleep again...
 
   
Food
 
- Breakfast: skipped
- Lunch: a bowl of onion soup and 3 slices of white bread with filet américain filling (@Arkania, yes, again )
- Dinner: a plate of pan-fried potatoes and bell peppers, and grilled sausage (made it for two days yesterday)
- In-between meals and snacks: a handful of Nic-Nac cookies right before dinner (leftovers from my daughter's school snack)
 
 
Intermittent fasting
 
Fasted for 17 hours and 35 minutes.
 
 
Drinks
 
2.6 liters of water
Other drinks: none
 
 
Activity
 
Running/walking 2 km to the doctor's office, walking 2 km back
 
  
Bed time
 
23:40

[TimovieMan]

My log for yesterday (Wednesday October 24th):
 
 
Sleep
  
Slept 7 hours 10 minutes.
My daughter was up coughing again in the evening, so she spent yet another night in our bed. Fortunately my son remained in his own bed for most of the night. He only crawled in with us at 6 am or so.
 
 
Food
 
- Breakfast: skipped
- Lunch: 3 slices of white bread with garlic sausage and ketchup
- Dinner: a plate of potatoes, broccoli, sausage and cordon bleu¹
- In-between meals and snacks: a handful of M&Ms²
 
(1) Wait, two pieces of meat? Yeah, we had some sausages, but it wasn't enough for both the kids and me, so most went to the kids. We also had some cordon bleu but that was for two people, so the missus had the bigger one and I had the small one. The amount in my plate was less excessive than it might seem from my description.
 
(2) Some colleagues went on a business trip to our department in Kansas, and it's become tradition that upon their return we get treated to some M&M flavours we can't buy here. So I had to try some.
They brought peanut butter, pumpkin pie and Oreo cookies flavoured M&Ms. The peanut butter ones were by far the best of the three, but I still prefer regular M&Ms.
 
 
Intermittent fasting
 
Fasted for 18 hours and 15 minutes.
 
 
Drinks
 
3.4 liters of water
Other drinks: none
 
 
Activity
 
None.
But at least I got some gaming in for the first time in over a week.
 
 
Bed time
 
23:40

[TimovieMan]

My log for yesterday (Thursday October 25th):

 

 
Sleep

 

Slept 7 hours 10 minutes.

My son crawled into bed with us in the middle of the night, but I only noticed upon waking, so no biggie.

 

 

Food

 

- Breakfast: skipped

- Lunch: skipped¹
- Dinner: a large bowl of vanilla custard (made with skimmed milk), and 3 hard-boiled eggs²
- In-between meals and snacks: 2 profiteroles (with custard filling and chocolate topping)¹

 

(1) Technically, I skipped lunch, but the 2 profiteroles I had as "snacks" were treats by colleagues, and I had them around lunch time, so basically I had snacks for lunch. I'm a bit torn on how this will affect my challenge. Did I really skip lunch, did I really snack?
I'll be bending the rules here, I feel...

(2) It's the end of the month, which often results in "eating whatever we have left in the fridge or freezer". We had some custard left over (the kids have been eating it as dinner dessert / snack before bed) and it had to be finished or we'd have to toss it. So I turned it into my dinner. And I boiled some eggs, so I at least had some protein in me today.
 

 

Intermittent fasting

 

Fasted for 16 hours and 30 minutes.

 

 

Drinks

 

3.1 liters of water

Other drinks: none

 

 

Activity

 

25 minutes of walking

Archery practice (around 48-54 arrows - half of which were with 2 pounds of increased draw weight)
 

Bed time

 

0:25 am

[TimovieMan]

Weekly weigh-in:

 

Weight: 102.2 kg (-1.7 kg)

Body fat: 28.9% (-1.2%)

Visceral fat: 13% (=)

 

 

Considering what I ate last weekend, a superb result. Proof that one (and a half) bad day doesn't undo what you've built up?

[TimovieMan]

My log for yesterday (Friday October 26th):

 

 
Sleep

 

Slept 6 hours 25 minutes.

My son crawled into bed with us in the middle of the night *again*, but luckily I only noticed upon waking.

 

 

Food

 

- Breakfast: skipped

- Lunch: a bowl of fish soup, 2 slices of brown bread with strawberry jam, and 2 hard-boiled eggs
- Dinner: 3 bell peppers stuffed with minced meat and topped with grated emmental cheese, and 1 hard-boiled egg
- In-between meals and snacks: 1 chocolate¹

 

(1) Again, a treat by a colleague. Does 1 single chocolate really count as "snacking" though? I don't really feel like refusing much when offered. Especially since I'm in Belgium. Chocolate is what we do best.

 

 

Intermittent fasting

 

Fasted for 16 hours and 05 minutes.

I actually held off eating the chocolate for ten minutes, to be sure to reach the 16 hour mark.

 

Drinks

 

2.5 liters of water

Other drinks: none

 

 

Activity

 

Bodyweight Level 3B + one set of dumbbell exercises (incl. warm up and stretching)

 

Bed time

 

0:40 am

[TimovieMan]

My log for yesterday (Saturday October 27th):

 

 
Sleep

 

Slept 6 hours 50 minutes.

Three guesses who got in bed with the missus and me, and the first two don't count.

 

 

Food

 

- Breakfast: skipped

- Lunch: a plate of sweet-and-sour wok (chicken, leek, onion, paprika, soy, rice)
- Dinner: a small pack of fries with ketchup and mayonnaise, and a Mexicano
- In-between meals and snacks: 2 hard sausages¹, a large waffle with whipped cream and a small piece of apple pie²

 

(1) While my daughter was at her swimming class, I went to the butcher's shop for charcuterie. The one I go to has amazing hard sausages (lightly smoked). I can't resist them. They were still very fresh, so not all that hard yet, and I *should* have dried them for a couple of days more. But I just can't resist them at all.  

(2) We had a day out with the kids, and went for waffles/ice cream. The kids had an ice cream, the missus had apple pie and I had a waffle with whipped cream. A very tasty waffle. But also an insanely large waffle (especially for its price). And then I finished the small piece of apple pie that the missus had left over (because I wanted to see if it was any good). It was not as tasty as my waffle, since the base was more like frangipane which isn't my favourite. And then I had to finish my daughter's hot chocolate milk as well. Finishing their leftovers is more an at-home thing, not something for when we're out.  

 

 

Intermittent fasting

 

Fasted for 16 hours and 50 minutes.

Well, at least I let the hard sausages dry for about two-and-a-half hours before I ate them. Not that long before lunch. At least I had a smaller lunch as a result.  

 

 

Drinks

 

1.7 liters of water

Other drinks: 1 cup of coffee, 1 glass of hot chocolate milk

 

 

Activity

 

An entire afternoon and evening of walking. We totaled close to 6 kilometers, which made me very proud of the kids since they didn't complain at all.

 

Bed time

 

1:25 am

[TimovieMan]

Because I only had my smartphone to access the internet these past days (I was at a holiday resort with the kids), I couldn't really log anything.

And since we were with a group that loved to break out large amounts of crisps and other snacks, it was a disaster.

 

Still, a quick summary:

 

Sleep:

Got into bed around midnight every night, with one night where it was 1:45 am.

Slept until 8 - 8:30 am every day, so I made the 6 hour 30 minutes average with ease.

 

Food:

Skipped breakfast 4 times out of 5.

Lunch: ate like a normal human being (no excessive amounts)

Dinner: ate like a normal human being (no excessive amounts)

In-between meals and snacks: this was a disaster. I can't say no to crisps, and when several bags get opened at least once per day (also cheese cubes, salami cubes, paprika peanuts, etc.), I tend to binge.

I aimed for damage control. I failed because of these.

 

Intermittent fasting:

Failed, because of the snacking in the evening. Even skipping breakfast doesn't get the necessary time in-between meals.

 

Drinks:

Mostly drank water, but had 3 rum-and-cokes and 2 gin-tonics, and about 5 or 6 cans of Ice Tea during the week. More than in recent weeks, but not more than I anticipated for this particular week.

 

Activity:

Went to the pool 4 times, did 1 long walk (4+ km), and spent a session of "chasing after the kids in an indoor playground" which was pretty intensive.

Counts as activity every day for me. Just no actual workouts.

[TimovieMan]

Weekly weigh-in:

 

Weight: 105.7 kg (+3.5 kg)

Body fat: 27.5% (-1.4%)

Visceral fat: 13% (=)

 

[Jean]

No shame to have, missteps happen and you are still on your way. Your progress so far amaze me, congrats!

 

By the way, %body fat decreased. Is it just the precision of the measurement or is there something else afoot, in your opinion?

 

[TimovieMan]

7 hours ago, Jean said:

No shame to have, missteps happen and you are still on your way. Your progress so far amaze me, congrats!

 

By the way, %body fat decreased. Is it just the precision of the measurement or is there something else afoot, in your opinion?

 

It's still two weeks worth of progress down the drain in five days. But I'm hoping part of it is variance and that the weight will drop rapidly again.

 

The body fat % is measured by sending a current through my feet to my hands. Having a bit more fluid in you can easily skew the results, so I think it's just the measurement that's off. There's an error margin of 3-4%, so I'm not really paying much attention to what it says. I measure it, because the scale measures it, but I'm just keeping tabs for the sake of statistics. As long as the general trend is down, it's all good. One week's going to be a lot higher than another week. It's very inaccurate, even if you measure it at the same time each week, in as similar circumstances as possible.

For instance, after this week, I'm a bit more constipated than usual. I'm pretty sure that's part of the reason why the scale thinks the body fat% is down.

Hopefully it also partly explains why the weight was up that much...

[TimovieMan]

Now that I'm back home, I'm logging again. Here's my log for yesterday (Saturday November 3rd):

 

Sleep:

8 hours.

Despite averaging over 7 hours the entire week, I still needed some recuperation. The bed at the holiday resort wasn't of the same quality as my own, which meant the sleep was of less quality. That and spending a few hours in a car is tiring in general.

 

Food:

Breakfast: a bowl of chocolate milk and 2 "klaaskoeken" or "Stutenkerle" - something very typical here this time of year

Lunch: a plate of pan-fried potatoes, bread-crumbed chicken burger and beans in tomato sauce

Dinner: 2 brown sandwiches, one with filet américain (hey, first time in a week ) and one with ham and cheese

In-between meals and snacks: a small slice of chocolate cake and various snacks (crisps, cheese, sausages, etc.)

 

We had breakfast rather late (you could almost say it was early lunch) so I fully intended to skip lunch, but the missus was very much opposed to the idea. Again, zero support, especially on the intermittent fasting front. It's almost like I have to be sneaky about it to get it to happen.

On the plus side, I didn't finish what the kids left over, and there was enough left over for a full plate for tomorrow. This is something that I would have finished myself a few months ago. Now it'll be a completely separate meal instead. Overeating has always been my main vice.

A lot of snacking again in the afternoon because we were at a birthday party for a friends' son who turned two. Last day of "social snacking" for a while, so I can focus on losing weight again...

 

Intermittent fasting:

16 hours 20 minutes

Had early dinner the day before and very late breakfast (more like brunch), so managed 16+ hours.

 

Drinks:

1.8 liters of water

Other drinks: one bowl of chocolate milk, two cups of coffee and two cans of Ice Tea

 

Activity:

None

[Arkania]

You mean a "Stutenmann"

[TimovieMan]

46 minutes ago, Arkania said:

You mean a "Stutenmann"

If I translate the Dutch/Flemish word in German, it's literally "Klaaskuchen". What's in a name?

 

One of the hardest parts of logging my food is finding correct translations for all the local dishes that don't necessarily have an English counterpart...

 

Also, our variants are without the sugar pipe, and more often than not without raisins or chocolate.

[Arkania]

In Germany it has different names

We normally eat it on St. Martin's Day (11th Nov.) where we also have a parade where the kids go with their self made lanterns etc.

Where I live we call it "Stutenmann" and it sometimes has the pipe (out of porcelain) but raisins normally just as eyes.

[TimovieMan]

5 hours ago, Arkania said:

In Germany it has different names

We normally eat it on St. Martin's Day (11th Nov.) where we also have a parade where the kids go with their self made lanterns etc.

Where I live we call it "Stutenmann" and it sometimes has the pipe (out of porcelain) but raisins normally just as eyes.

Did you mean 'marzipan' instead of porcelain???

 

 

Here they used to be available for the entire November - early December period (leading up to Saint Nicholas on December 6th). Usually they're in the shape of Saint Nicholas.

 

A few years ago they also became available for Easter (and the month leading up to it). They're most often shaped as the Easter bunny in that period.

 

But frankly, you can get them all year round nowadays. Shaped as pretty much anything.

[Arkania]

5 hours ago, TimovieMan said:

Did you mean 'marzipan' instead of porcelain???

No

You can't eat the pipes here.

They look like this:

 

And I just read they are out of plaster, not porcelain.

[TimovieMan]

15 minutes ago, Arkania said:

No

You can't eat the pipes here.

And I just read they are out of plaster, not porcelain.

Wow, I had seen pictures and assumed they were made out of sugar...

It didn't occur to me that they wouldn't be edible.

[TimovieMan]

I'm making a small adjustment to the logs. Instead of logging the bed time for the day at the end, I'll log the bed time for the previous day at the start.
 
That way I can post these logs in the evening if I choose to instead of having to wait until the next day.
 
Do note that "bed time" and "time slept" are not necessarily related. Often I take the time I got into bed and the time I woke up, and subtract 10 minutes to get the "time slept", but on nights where I was awake for longer, I'll give an approximation of how much I *think* I slept.
Once I get an activity tracker, "time slept" will be what the tracker says. I'm hoping that'll be more accurate.
 
 
 
 
Sunday, November 4th
 
Sleep:
Bed time: 2:00 am
Time slept: 6 hours 30 minutes
 
Food:
Breakfast: skipped
Lunch: a plate of spaghetti with ham and cheese¹
Dinner: a plate of pan-fried potatoes, bread-crumbed chicken burger and beans in tomato sauce²
In-between meals and snacks: none³
 
(1) This was supposed to be macaroni instead of spaghetti, but we realised too late that we didn't have any in the house. Since we have lots of spaghetti, we took that instead. Pasta is pasta.
(2) Left over from yesterday. I had to share most of the burger with the kids, though, so I compensated that lack of protein with a few cold cuts of chicken filet. Similar enough.
(3) Finally! I'll be making more of an effort this week.
 
Intermittent fasting:
Fasted for 18 hours and 15 minutes.
 
Drinks:
Water: 1.8 liters
Other drinks: 1 cup of coffee
 
Activity:
None. Will need to pick up the slack this week.

[Arkania]

11 minutes ago, TimovieMan said:

Once I get an activity tracker, "time slept" will be what the tracker says. I'm hoping that'll be more accurate.

 

I can send you a Fitbit Charge 2

[TimovieMan]

4 hours ago, Arkania said:

 

I can send you a Fitbit Charge 2

Nah, keep it as backup.

 

Give me a few weeks. I'll be getting a Fitbit Charge 3. Either as a Christmas present or I'll just get one on my own accord.

[Jean]

4 hours ago, TimovieMan said:

Pasta is pasta

Heresy!

 

Otherwise, still rooting for you. A two-weeks' setback can be overcomed by a three-weeks' progress.

 

[TimovieMan]

On 11/5/2018 at 4:57 PM, Jean said:

Heresy!

The *real* heresy was the missus breaking the meter-long spaghetti before boiling it.

 

On 11/5/2018 at 4:57 PM, Jean said:

Otherwise, still rooting for you. A two-weeks' setback can be overcomed by a three-weeks' progress.

Why stop at three weeks? I intend to push on until the Christmas holidays. Then it'll be a few iffy weeks again. 

 

 

 

My log for today:

 

Monday, November 5th

 

Sleep:
Bed time: 23:50
Time slept: 6 hours 30 minutes

 

Not the best night. The missus has tonsillitis which is making her snore, and for some reason both kids wound up in bed with us. They did so well last week, but now that we're home, this trouble is starting all over again. Anyway, I could probably have had half an hour more sleep without that.
 
Food:
Breakfast: skipped
Lunch: skipped
Dinner: a large plate of spaghetti with ham and cheese¹
In-between meals and snacks: none
 
(1) Yesterday's leftovers. I took all of them because I was hungry, but since it was my only meal, I could handle the calories...
 
Intermittent fasting:
Fasted for 23 hours and 30 minutes.
 
Drinks:
Water: 3.5 liters
Other drinks: none
 
Activity:
25 minutes of walking

Bodyweight Level 3A workout variation (replaced step ups with one-leg Romanian deadlifts), 4 sets of my bodyweight routine, and 60 seconds of front planking.

Including warm-up and stretching, of course.

[TimovieMan]

Tuesday, November 6th

 

Sleep:
Bed time: 23:55
Time slept: 6 hours 30 minutes

 

I had to put the youngest back in his own bed when I went to bed myself. I had to do it again at the missus' request at 3:45 am. And when I woke up, he was *again* in our bed.

Good thing I fall back asleep easily.
 
Food:
Breakfast: skipped
Lunch: a bowl of onion soup and 3 slices of brown bread with filet américain
Dinner: 1/2 stir-fried chicken breast¹ and a plate of rice and chicken with cheese and sun-dried tomatoes
In-between meals and snacks: none
 
(1) We had a pack of vegetables and soybean sprouts that was out of date for a single day. It still looked good, and smelled okay, so I tried it. It wasn't good any more. Of course, I only found out *after* I'd stir-fried it with some chicken breast. So I "rescued" as many chicken breast pieces I could, and made a replacement dish with rice, chicken breast filled with cheese and sun-dried tomatoes and a pack of raw vegetables we had in the fridge.

Unfortunately, the pack of raw vegetables had been lying too close to the back of the fridge, and part of it had been frozen, so we had to toss that out as well... which meant no vegetables this evening.  

At least I had my share of protein...  

 
Intermittent fasting:
Fasted for 18 hours and 20 minutes.
 
Drinks:
Water: 3.4 liters
Other drinks: none
 
Activity:
Biking to work (23 km)

[TimovieMan]

Wednesday, November 7th

 

Sleep:
Bed time: 0:00
Time slept: 6 hours 50 minutes

 

The youngest wound up in our bed yet again.

 
Food:
Breakfast: skipped
Lunch: 4 slices of brown bread with garlic sausage and ketchup, and an additional piece of garlic sausage
Dinner: A piece of bread, a small "stutenkerl"¹ and a plate of Lasagna Bolognese
In-between meals and snacks: 2 pieces of candy
 
(1) My daughter went to a children's farm with school, and she baked some bread and some "stutenkerle". I absolutely had to try them. They were quite delicious too. Yay, TimovieGirl!

I had quite a big meal because of that (and two pieces of candy afterwards), but since I'm skipping breakfast and lunch tomorrow, I figured it couldn't hurt.

 
Intermittent fasting:
Fasted for 16 hours and 45 minutes.
 
Drinks:
Water: 3.8 liters
Other drinks: none
 
Activity:
Biking to work (23 km)

A few minutes of burpees and planking²

 

(2) I had hoped to use the pull up bar I had bought, but it hasn't arrived yet. So I went with one of my shorter but intenser routines. I hadn't done burpees in a while. Will need to do them more often if I'm ever going to build up to 100 consecutive ones...

[TimovieMan]

Thursday, November 8th

 

Sleep:
Bed time: 0:55
Time slept: 5 hours 40 minutes

 

The youngest wound up in our bed yet again. I'm getting tired of commenting on this.  

 
Food:
Breakfast: skipped
Lunch: skipped
Dinner: 2 slices of brown bread with ham, cheese and tomato, and a small "stutenkerl"¹
In-between meals and snacks: an apple and a handful of M&Ms²
 
(1) Leftover from yesterday. My son wanted it for breakfast, but quickly decided to have a slice of my daughter's bread instead. This evening my daughter wanted it, but left it as well. I quickly claimed it mine! But my daughter was really cool about it, because I had only eaten 1 yesterday. Apparently she had made 8 of them, so 2 for each of us.

I didn't get another taste of her bread, though.

(2) Skipping lunch made me hungry so I ate an apple. And then my boss treated us to some imported M&M flavours, so I had to try them.

 
Intermittent fasting:
Fasted for 18 hours and 45 minutes.
 
Drinks:
Water: 3.7 liters
Other drinks: none
 
Activity:
Biking to work (23 km)

25 minutes of walking

Archery practice (around 54-60 arrows)³

 

(3) The 2 pounds of increased draw weight don't bother me in the slightest. I don't even notice the extra draw weight. Getting 6# heavier limbs will probably be manageable.