TimovieMan on the Road to AwesomeDad™ - Pt. II

[TimovieMan]

So, a new challenge, and not as a First Timer, but as a full-fledged Ranger this time! Better make it good...
 

 
 
Epic goals
 
The overarching main goal is still "lose weight, gain fitness", so we'll keep those two in mind. But since "any amount will do", I'm mostly looking at the long-term for these two.
 
Having said that, my weight on Saturday was 105.1 kg, and my last burpee AMRAP was up to 15. Both need to improve.
 
I want to achieve the following at the end of the challenge:
 
- Weight: under 103 kg
- Burpee AMRAP: 20 or more
 
 
 
Challenge goals
 
I will attempt to reach my epic goals by focusing on a couple of challenge goals, divided into 4 categories:
 
- Exercise
 
   - 3 Bodyweight Workouts per week (including warm-up and stretching)
   - Perform my dumbbell routine after every other bodyweight workout (so 3 in 2 weeks)
   - 3 off-days with activity (biking to work, rope jumping, yoga, walking, etc.)

 

- Nutrition

 

   - Intermittent fasting
        - Achieve a 16+ hour fasted state at least 6 days each week
        - Skip 7+ meals each week
   - Eat less
        - Don't finish any of the food that the kids (or the wife) don't finish themselves
        - Max 3 days with snacks each week

   - Don't drink calories

        - Max 1 liter of soda and/or fruit juice each week (that's 3 or 4 cans, depending on their size)
 
- Sleep

 
   - Curfew

        - In bed by 1:00 before workdays, 1:30 on Friday and 2:30 on Saturday
        - In bed by 0:30 before workdays, 1:00 on Friday and 2:00 on Saturday (5 days of compliance/week)
        - In bed by 0:00 before workdays, 0:30 on Friday and 1:30 on Saturday (2 days of compliance/week)
   - Length
        - Average 6 hours 15 minutes per night the first two weeks
        - Average 6 hours 30 minutes per night the last two weeks
 
- Life

   - Walk the kids to school each day, instead of driving them

   - Take the kids biking at least twice

   - Go swimming with the kids at least five times

   - Plan an evening with the missus without the kids

 

 

Exposition:

 

The bed curfew is going to be important (and it's going to be tied to the length on most days). The idea is to aim for the earliest bedtime, with the middle one being acceptable and the latest one being the absolute latest.

The amount of swimming with the kids might seem like a lot, but there's no school on the second week of the challenge, and the missus and myself will take the week off as well. We should go swimming four times that week, together with some friends, as well as doing a bunch of other activities. I'm going to have to be less strict with my challenges that week because social activities have their merits as well.

 

It may seem like a massive challenge, but I've been doing some of these things for a while now. The exercise rate is very similar to what I did this last week, I've already been fasting intermittently for most of the past two weeks, I've averaged one breakfast per week for the last couple of weeks so that's already 6 skipped meals now, the soda is the same amount I've been drinking during the previous challenge, etc.

The sleep challenge is going to be the biggest hurdle, because I tend to stay up late. And I mean *LATE*. But maybe I can learn to curb my night owl tendencies a bit more...

  

  

 

Just for fun:

 

Two years ago, I made a personal "All-Time Top 300 Songs". I'm going to join some of the others in posting a song occasionally. I'll be pooling from that list at random. Unless I get a request (even if it's something like "a song that should've been on there but isn't" - because if I made that Top 300 again now, it'd probably be vastly different).

 

My random numbers generator threw up #203 today, which is surprisingly fitting for a challenge in a medieval themed RPG-like setting...

 

The song was a rather big hit in Belgium back in 1998 (it was absolutely massive in France), and apart from this famous song, I quite liked the entire "Panique Celtique" album this came from. The mix of Celtic folk with hip hop was original, but most of all: it worked! If you don't speak French, you can find translated lyrics here.

 

 

[Arkania]

Even I know this song

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Following. Welcome officially to the Ranger Corps.

[Elastigirl]

Welcome. Nice, well rounded goals. Maybe your feats of jump roping will inspire me to continue with the jump rope. 

[TimovieMan]

 

1 hour ago, Arkania said:

Even I know this song

 

I wasn't aiming for obscurity in the least, but then again, I really have no idea how well-known the song is outside of Belgium and France...

 

13 minutes ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

Following. Welcome officially to the Ranger Corps.

 

Thanks!

 

1 minute ago, Elastigirl said:

Welcome. Nice, well rounded goals. Maybe your feats of jump roping will inspire me to continue with the jump rope. 

 

The main thing is: I want to do something that's a little more akin to cardio, but I hate running. Rope jumping seems like a good alternative.

And it intrigues the kids which is a plus as well.  

[Elastigirl]

2 hours ago, TimovieMan said:

he main thing is: I want to do something that's a little more akin to cardio, but I hate running. Rope jumping seems like a good alternative.

Same here. Only I have a hard time being consistent with it (or any fast paced cardio thing) 

[Kestrel Grey]

Welcome, and following!

[Arkania]

Most germans don't hear music with french text. Because no one understands it

 

[TimovieMan]

7 hours ago, Elastigirl said:

Same here. Only I have a hard time being consistent with it (or any fast paced cardio thing) 

 

That's why we make it part of a challenge, to force ourselves to be consistent.

 

3 hours ago, Kestrel Grey said:

Welcome, and following!

 

Thanks!

 

2 hours ago, Arkania said:

Most germans don't hear music with french text. Because no one understands it

 

 

One of my favourite bands, In Extremo, are German, and they have a couple of songs in French.

Unfortunately you need to see the lyrics to realize it, because the singer's pronounciation is atrocious.

That, and most of the time you don't even need to understand the lyrics to enjoy the song.

[Arkania]

5 minutes ago, TimovieMan said:

One of my favourite bands, In Extremo, are German, and they have a couple of songs in French.

Unfortunately you need to see the lyrics to realize it, because the singer's pronounciation is atrocious.

That, and most of the time you don't even need to understand the lyrics to enjoy the song.

 

They do? I had a time where I heard some In Extremo but didn't know they have also songs in french. Will search for them, thank you!

That's like english songs as a kid. No understanding of anything but still awesome

 

[TimovieMan]

Well, they started out by taking authentic traditional folk songs and turning them into medieval metal before they mainly used original material.
That means they have songs in German, Latin, English, Spanish, Swedish, French, Galician, Old Icelandic, Old High German, Occitan, Old Norwegian, Gaelic and Hebrew. Among others.

 

They appear in my top 300 with 7 songs, btw.
Three times in German, once in Occitan, once in Old Norwegian, once in English and once in Swedish.

 

Yes, I had to look this up.

[Mad Hatter]

11 hours ago, Elastigirl said:

Same here. Only I have a hard time being consistent with it (or any fast paced cardio thing) 

Me three! I love dancing too but it's hard to keep up the pace and then it just feels forced.

[Shello]

Following! 

[TimovieMan]

4 hours ago, Shello said:

Following! 

Thanks!

 

 

 

 

So, I did the NF Gym Workout Level 3A this evening, followed by my dumbbell routine (minus the one arm dumbbell rows because those were in the workout already).

I also tried doing regular push ups instead of elevated ones for the first set (but not the other sets because I only managed 8 before needing to switch to elevated push ups).

 

I also had breakfast this morning because a colleague treated us with croissants, and I couldn't resist one.

Doesn't fit with the "skip 8+ meals" challenge, but that only starts next week, so meh. I'm not really tracking it this week. I feel like I'm doing great with the eating.

 

 

My random numbers generator gave me #224, so here's that entry in my Top 300:

 

(not a bad workout song, btw)

[Rinna]

16 hours ago, Arkania said:

Most germans don't hear music with french text. Because no one understands it

 

 

I lived in Germany for 2 years, in a flat over a German family.  We became friends, so I asked her what they were saying in Muppet Treasure Island.  (There is a stretch in one song where they sing in German). She looked at me like I was nuts and said “What?  The whole thing is in German!”  That’s when we discovered that they change it all depending on the country you are in.  It was a hoot.

[TimovieMan]

10 minutes ago, Rinna said:

 

I lived in Germany for 2 years, in a flat over a German family.  We became friends, so I asked her what they were saying in Muppet Treasure Island.  (There is a stretch in one song where they sing in German). She looked at me like I was nuts and said “What?  The whole thing is in German!”  That’s when we discovered that they change it all depending on the country you are in.  It was a hoot.

Yep, everything gets dubbed. Same in France.

 

I'm glad we have subtitles for everything here. Original version FTW!

[Mad Hatter]

At least they dub it properly, as opposed to Poland where there’s just the same one guy talking over the characters in the same monotonous voice whatever the topic.

[doctorake]

Following. 

 

Have you considered slowly switching to diet soda? 

[TimovieMan]

1 hour ago, doctorake said:

Following. 

 

Thanks!

 

1 hour ago, doctorake said:

Have you considered slowly switching to diet soda? 

 

I have many times in the past, and I refuse.

 

For just about every soda that I like (Ice Tea, Coca-Cola, 7 Up, Canada Dry, etc.), I've tried the "Light", "Diet" or "Zero" variant. In *all* cases the taste was nowhere near as good. At worst they're nigh-undrinkably bad *cough* Coca-Cola Zero *cough* and at best they taste like a stale version of the original.

For this reason alone I refuse to drink diet soda.

 

But also because aspartame and the likes are just as bad for you as sugar, but at least sugar is quite upfront with that. Sugar doesn't try to deceive you by dangling a "zero calories" sign in front of you. You know it's bad and there's no flimsy excuse.

Basically, I don't want to end up being the guy who orders a super-size burger menu instead of a large one, because at least he's drinking Soda Zero.

 

Which reminds me of this:

 

 

Anyway, when starting out, I drank about 12 cans of soda each week  (on average, it would probably be 5 cans one week, 20 cans another because I'm random like that). It boiled down to 1 can each evening, with three cans per day during the weekend.

Over the past two months I've dialled that back to 3 cans per week max, which I consider a vast but sustainable improvement.

 

I don't want to dial it back to zero. I *love* the occasional Ice Tea.

I had just one single can of Ice Tea in the entire week last week. I was sitting on the couch and decided that an Ice Tea would sure hit the spot, and since I hadn't drunk *any* soda at all that week, I grabbed a can without shame. And I enjoyed it.

Heck, I enjoyed it more than I would have back in the "12 cans per week" days.

 

 

All of this, just to say, "no, I'm not considering switching to diet soda, I'm quite happy with the current situation".

Pardon the verbosity.

[Elastigirl]

6 hours ago, TimovieMan said:

on't want to dial it back to zero. I *love* the occasional Ice Tea.

I had just one single can of Ice Tea in the entire week last week. I was sitting on the couch and decided that an Ice Tea would sure hit the spot, and since I hadn't drunk *any* soda at all that week, I grabbed a can without shame. And I enjoyed it.

Heck, I enjoyed it more than I would have back in the "12 cans per week" days.

 

Sounds like a great attitude. Not banning things, but really taking it as a treat and enjoying it are keys to sustainability. 

[TimovieMan]

1 hour ago, Elastigirl said:

Sounds like a great attitude. Not banning things, but really taking it as a treat and enjoying it are keys to sustainability. 

Exactly. Previous diets have been about banning this or banning that. And they all failed after rapidly losing 5-to-10 kg, and I wound up regaining everything and more in less than a year.

Now I don't ban anything, I just consume less of the unhealthy stuff because I choose to. And I keep telling people I'm not on a diet. Because I'm not.

 

I like to think it's more a lifestyle change than anything, which I hope will mean it's far more sustainable.

 

[Mad Hatter]

11 hours ago, TimovieMan said:

Exactly. Previous diets have been about banning this or banning that. And they all failed after rapidly losing 5-to-10 kg, and I wound up regaining everything and more in less than a year.

Now I don't ban anything, I just consume less of the unhealthy stuff because I choose to. And I keep telling people I'm not on a diet. Because I'm not.

 

I like to think it's more a lifestyle change than anything, which I hope will mean it's far more sustainable.

 

Perfect!!!

[TimovieMan]

The good thing about a Week Zero in a challenge is that you can use it to reassess things a bit and tweak the challenges where necessary.
 
 
I've made some slight adjustments to the challenge.
 
For activity, I'm counting biking to work as well (since it's over half an hour there and over half an hour back), and I'll lump that and rope jumping and yoga in the same "off-day activity" category.
 
For intermittent fasting, I reworded the 16/8 schedule to "achieving a 16+ hour fasted state" instead. Works better with the way I'm logging things.
And I've lessened the amount of meals skipped from 8+ to 7+, so I have a bit more margin to fit it into my life.
 
As for the sleep curfew, I've changed the % of compliance to an amount of days of compliance, for clarity.
 
 
Minor tweaks, but more realistically manageable, imo.

[deftona]

On 10/15/2018 at 9:20 PM, TimovieMan said:

Two years ago, I made a personal "All-Time Top 300 Songs"

 

Ok I so need to do this. 

 

Following! 

[TimovieMan]

38 minutes ago, deftona said:

 

Ok I so need to do this. 

 

Following! 

Thanks!
 
It contains a wide variety of genres, but is mostly rock-centric. But it's also a good mix between mainstream hits and some more obscure stuff. And I probably won't be able to resist commenting on most of the songs.
 
 
 
So, I tried my hand at "full day" intermittent fasting, meaning that the meal I had for dinner last night was my first meal since dinner the day before.
I was far less hungry than I had expected. Maybe the couple of weeks of 16/8 or 17/7 fasting have already made my body adjust?
 
I biked for 33 km, and went to archery practice. A good off-day, imo.
 
 
A cool thing happened at archery practice, btw.
I had missed weekly practice the previous two weeks because of a late-night meeting the missus had at work (leaving me in charge of the kids for the evening) and because of a parents' evening at the kids' school.
When I put on my quiver for the first time in three weeks, I noticed that I had to tighten its belt around my waist!
 
I'm suddenly very much looking forward to taking my body measurements this weekend!
 

 
 
 
Since that deserves a song, I looked at my random numbers generator and wound up with #12:
 

 
 
I'm a big fan of Godsmack, and they feature 5 times in my top 300. This is obviously their highest ranking. Only 4 bands appear more, and frankly, the amount of times a band appears is pretty representative for what I consider "favourite" bands.