jstanlick tries to get off the ride in one piece

[jstanlick]

Wow. 2018 is almost at the end. In some ways it has been a craptastic year. In other ways, it has been the year that I have been able to move the needle the most and reclaim my life. Oddly, what made it craptastic also served as the impetus to overcome. I guess it gave me a why. But, back on January 15 when the doctor said I had diabetes with my 11.8% A1C, I was plunged into a huge rabbit hole. I don't think I've come out of it yet or if I ever will. But, I have read so many research papers over on Pub Med in the last year, that I have come to quite a few conclusions and more than a few theories, hypotheses and failed experiments. I've also dropped 30 pounds, can now do 10 consecutive pull-ups as well as complete 100 in a single workout, can run 5 miles while maintaining a 7:30/mile pace, can recite to you the carb content of most foods from memory and can unequivocally say that HIIT training is most effective for controlling blood glucose (at least from my n=1 experimenting). Hence my current 5.8% A1C and no medication. It's like having a spectre chasing you around everywhere you go waiting for you to slip up. But, because you know he's there, you stay on your toes. At least that's what 2018 has been. I don't know how vigilant one can stay for, say, 40 years. I guess I'll find out one way or another eventually.

 

But, I digress. Mostly what I want to do with this last challenge of 2018 is make it through the holidays unscathed and hope this roller coaster of 2018 slows down. I managed to survive Thanksgiving. Next up is the gauntlet of holiday parties, Christmas and New Year's themselves, and all of the foodstuffs that will show up in my office. Oh, and all the stress that comes along with plenty of extended family "quality time". So here's my plan:

 

1. Don't forget to train - Amid everything I cannot forget or skip workouts. It is the one thing that actively reduces my blood sugar, stress levels and hands out endorphins. No back to back days of not exercising. I don't care if its a run, heavy lifting, metcons, etc. Something at a minimum of every other day. I'm not so crazy as to think I won't skip a single day, but two in a row is unacceptable.
2. Me time - Whether it is time spent in prayer, meditation or just a quite corner of the house with the dog sleeping in my lap. At least 10 minutes every day to myself.
3. Keep carbs to a minimum - I'm going to let myself eat all the fats I want. Not that its much different than currently, but I figure there will be some of those once a year type dishes. I want my net carbs to stay under 70 grams per day. Which means I need to get back to logging everything in MFP or Carb Manager again so I can look back and remember what I ate or didn't.
4. Sleep - Yep, that same old goal that doesn't want to go away. I will conquer it this challenge though. I know, I know, you've heard that at least 10 times this year already. But, when well rested, those other 3 items become so much easier to achieve because it becomes easier to focus. (Oh, 7.5 hours of sleep per night average)
5. Login to NF - The last couple of challenges I've been lucky if I managed to login once a week. That's got to stop. At least 4 times a week to login and catch up.

 

And I'm going to do something I don't usually do. Rewards. If I achieve my goals, I'm getting myself a Christmas present in the form of wearable tech. I haven't decided on the brand of fitness counter yet, but it will have a heart counter and a built in GPS.

[Elastigirl]

Great goals. I especially like the logging in to NF more. I hear you on the specter chasing you, that's sometimes how I feel with my BP. It stays under control when I do all the things right, which is nice, but sometimes a bit overwhelming on the long haul mainternance 

[Xena]

5 hours ago, jstanlick said:

Rewards. If I achieve my goals, I'm getting myself a Christmas present in the form of wearable tech.

 

oooh, definitely pulling for you to succeed! I want to see what you get :-)

[jstanlick]

5 hours ago, Elastigirl said:

Great goals. I especially like the logging in to NF more. I hear you on the specter chasing you, that's sometimes how I feel with my BP. It stays under control when I do all the things right, which is nice, but sometimes a bit overwhelming on the long haul mainternance 

I hear you. Most days I can stick to the plan. But, there are those days where you feel kind of beaten down. 

 

55 minutes ago, Xena said:

 

oooh, definitely pulling for you to succeed! I want to see what you get :-)

Me too! Although I tend to be a cheapskate which is why I’m setting minimum functional requirements. 

[jonfirestar]

11 hours ago, jstanlick said:

 

And I'm going to do something I don't usually do. Rewards. If I achieve my goals, I'm getting myself a Christmas present in the form of wearable tech. I haven't decided on the brand of fitness counter yet, but it will have a heart counter and a built in GPS.

Ohhhhhh, I am interested to see what you get yourself  Not least because I'm in the market myself. The term 'heart counter' made me smile, because, of course, it counts the number of hearts you have. 

0: ZOMBIE!!! 

1: Normal, optimal range

2: Time Lord

 

 

[jstanlick]

If it doesn’t say 2, I’m returning it for a different one. 

[jstanlick]

Time for an update on the goals for Week 1.

 

1. Don't forget to train - So far, I didn't workout Monday, worked out yesterday and had work interrupt my workout today. I have thus far managed to avoid missing a workout for 2 straight days, but I really wanted to workout today. My schedule was clear and tomorrow's is not. I'm going to have to figure something out later today because I don't have high hopes for tomorrow and having available time for structured exercising.
2. Me time - 10 minutes every day to myself. So far, check, check and check.
3. Keep carbs to a minimum - Monday was 64 net carbs and yesterday was 76. One day goal of < 70 was met and the next day it was missed. Today is on track, but so was yesterday until I went home and discovered foods I thought we had were not there and I was forced to improvise.
4. Sleep - 1 of 2 nights the goal has been met. Fortunately, it was last night...so...progress!
5. Login to NF - Aha! Success!

Monday I missed one goal. Tuesday I missed 1 goal. So far today I've hit them all. Grand total of goals met = 8(13)/10(15). Not a bad start. Not a perfect start, but how does that saying go...perfect is the enemy of progress? Or something like that.

[jstanlick]

I think I'm doing a better job of visiting other people's threads than updating my own. I guess you guys are just more interesting 

 

Wednesday finished off okay. I didn't get a workout in, but Child #1 was super stressed out from tech week and the stress of dress rehearsal the day before opening night. So, she needed some assurances from mom and I needed to see to Children 2 and 3. But managed to stay on track eating and me time. Just failed on the sleeping since I needed to pick her up after they were done at the theater at 11:30. I need to get that kid a car when she gets her license so I can sleep.

 

Thursday went better than I expected. I woke up not feeling well. I think it was the business lunch on Wednesday where I got a salad. Perhaps that warning to avoid more leafy vegetables than just Romaine from the FDA had some merit. Anyway, after fighting -- well, not hand to hand (that might have been less tiring) -- my way through meetings with people who like meetings so they can talk things to death rather than actually doing things, I did manage to fit in a workout. Although, my calf really wanted to cramp up on my during the running portion of my workout. Must've been dehydrated or something. I had the boys again while Mama Bear went to opening night and waited up for them to get home. My daughter's assessment? "I suppose it could've been worse." Ouch! She then went on to recount everything that went wrong. After she headed off to bed I asked my wife (who loves the show they were doing) how she thought it went. "It wasn't that bad. Most of the audience didn't notice the mistakes." More proof that we dwell on the mistakes rather than the wins.

 

Tonight I will finally get to see the show. Not sure if I'll workout as yesterday's thrusters and snatches have me feeling kind of sore to go along with the calf that's being a jerk. Might be a rest day because its the right thing to do anyway. I get to sleep in tomorrow morning so maybe I'll hit my sleep goal. 16/20 so far. At least I'm remaining consistent with that 80% success rate.

[Elastigirl]

I hadn't heard the FDA warning on other green leafy veggies.  

 

Sounds like your daughter is working super hard on the show. Good dad to watch the other  kiddos so wife could encourage her.

[jstanlick]

8 minutes ago, Elastigirl said:

Good dad to watch the other  kiddos so wife could encourage her.

Well, it was either that or let the dog watch the boys and God knows if the house would still be standing when I got home.

 

20 minutes ago, Elastigirl said:

I hadn't heard the FDA warning on other green leafy veggies.  

It had more to do with the potential for cross contamination with romaine than anything else. So, if a place got rid of the romaine, but had previously stacked it in with spinach or other things, it was not to be eaten. Some restaurants threw away all of their leafy greens and didn't use any (or have any salads) until they get a new shipment. Some places got rid of their romaine. So, the warning was to be leery of any of them until they tracked down the location it came from, which they have now done. But, certainly something I ate on Wednesday was not right. Could have been just poor hygiene practice in the kitchen in general I suppose.

[jonfirestar]

3 hours ago, jstanlick said:

I think I'm doing a better job of visiting other people's threads than updating my own. I guess you guys are just more interesting 

 

 

3 hours ago, jstanlick said:

Anyway, after fighting -- well, not hand to hand (that might have been less tiring) -- my way through meetings with people who like meetings so they can talk things to death rather than actually doing things, I did manage to fit in a workout.

It also might ba a lot more productive, much more satisfying and, yes, much less tiring! Well done for getting your workout in despite that. 

[Xena]

On 11/30/2018 at 11:30 AM, jstanlick said:

Not sure if I'll workout as yesterday's thrusters and snatches have me feeling kind of sore to go along with the calf that's being a jerk.

 

Sometimes I think it's funny that we work out to be strong and healthy, but spend a lot of time feeling sore, tired or achy.

[jstanlick]

On 11/30/2018 at 2:08 PM, jonfirestar said:

 

It also might ba a lot more productive, much more satisfying and, yes, much less tiring! Well done for getting your workout in despite that. 

Definitely more satisfying!!

 

2 minutes ago, Xena said:

 

Sometimes I think it's funny that we work out to be strong and healthy, but spend a lot of time feeling sore, tired or achy.

Amazing isn't it? Although, unless you push yourself a little bit past your limits, you can't grow. The tricky part seems to be pushing just far enough without going too far.

[jstanlick]

On 11/26/2018 at 4:03 PM, jstanlick said:

Wow. 2018 is almost at the end. In some ways it has been a craptastic year. In other ways, it has been the year that I have been able to move the needle the most and reclaim my life. Oddly, what made it craptastic also served as the impetus to overcome. I guess it gave me a why. But, back on January 15 when the doctor said I had diabetes with my 11.8% A1C, I was plunged into a huge rabbit hole. I don't think I've come out of it yet or if I ever will. But, I have read so many research papers over on Pub Med in the last year, that I have come to quite a few conclusions and more than a few theories, hypotheses and failed experiments. I've also dropped 30 pounds, can now do 10 consecutive pull-ups as well as complete 100 in a single workout, can run 5 miles while maintaining a 7:30/mile pace, can recite to you the carb content of most foods from memory and can unequivocally say that HIIT training is most effective for controlling blood glucose (at least from my n=1 experimenting). Hence my current 5.8% A1C and no medication. It's like having a spectre chasing you around everywhere you go waiting for you to slip up. But, because you know he's there, you stay on your toes. At least that's what 2018 has been. I don't know how vigilant one can stay for, say, 40 years. I guess I'll find out one way or another eventually.

 

But, I digress. Mostly what I want to do with this last challenge of 2018 is make it through the holidays unscathed and hope this roller coaster of 2018 slows down. I managed to survive Thanksgiving. Next up is the gauntlet of holiday parties, Christmas and New Year's themselves, and all of the foodstuffs that will show up in my office. Oh, and all the stress that comes along with plenty of extended family "quality time". So here's my plan:

 

1. Don't forget to train - Amid everything I cannot forget or skip workouts. It is the one thing that actively reduces my blood sugar, stress levels and hands out endorphins. No back to back days of not exercising. I don't care if its a run, heavy lifting, metcons, etc. Something at a minimum of every other day. I'm not so crazy as to think I won't skip a single day, but two in a row is unacceptable.
2. Me time - Whether it is time spent in prayer, meditation or just a quite corner of the house with the dog sleeping in my lap. At least 10 minutes every day to myself.
3. Keep carbs to a minimum - I'm going to let myself eat all the fats I want. Not that its much different than currently, but I figure there will be some of those once a year type dishes. I want my net carbs to stay under 70 grams per day. Which means I need to get back to logging everything in MFP or Carb Manager again so I can look back and remember what I ate or didn't.
4. Sleep - Yep, that same old goal that doesn't want to go away. I will conquer it this challenge though. I know, I know, you've heard that at least 10 times this year already. But, when well rested, those other 3 items become so much easier to achieve because it becomes easier to focus. (Oh, 7.5 hours of sleep per night average)
5. Login to NF - The last couple of challenges I've been lucky if I managed to login once a week. That's got to stop. At least 4 times a week to login and catch up.

 

And I'm going to do something I don't usually do. Rewards. If I achieve my goals, I'm getting myself a Christmas present in the form of wearable tech. I haven't decided on the brand of fitness counter yet, but it will have a heart counter and a built in GPS.

 

Week 1 was mostly a success. There always seemed to be one thing I missed from my list each day, but it was mostly a different thing each day. No surprise that sleep was my hardest goal to meet. I'm hoping that will improve now that my daughter's high school had their last performance this afternoon. I won't be getting text at 11:30 PM that someone needs a ride home. If I add up my percentages for each goal and average them, I'm at 79.8% completion. Which is pretty much what it was all week. If I can get this sleep thing wrangled I should be in good shape for finishing out the end of the year here.

 

Plus, I've begun reading reviews for Fitness Tracking watches. I'm trying to decide how important the GPS is to me. Since I take my phone everywhere I go, do I need  a watch that does that too? I think it would be convenient to simply tuck the phone in a band or pocket and forget about it while just reading the watch. But, I'm also cheap and wondering if the convenience is worth the extra money. So far the Garmin Vivosport seems to be the closest to my sweet spot of price to feature compromise. But, we'll see. I have a lot more reviews to read.

[Salinger]

Hey J! Good to see you around

 

Loving your 'me time' goal, so important. Have you been meditating much?x

[jonfirestar]

7 hours ago, jstanlick said:

 

Plus, I've begun reading reviews for Fitness Tracking watches. I'm trying to decide how important the GPS is to me. Since I take my phone everywhere I go, do I need  a watch that does that too? I think it would be convenient to simply tuck the phone in a band or pocket and forget about it while just reading the watch. But, I'm also cheap and wondering if the convenience is worth the extra money. So far the Garmin Vivosport seems to be the closest to my sweet spot of price to feature compromise. But, we'll see. I have a lot more reviews to read.

Speaking for myself the GPS is vital. In fact the reason I got a GPS enabled watch in the first place was because I got well and truly fed up of trying to get my phone and non-gps enabled fitness tracker to actually work properly. 

 

For what it's worth my own list of must have features are:

 

GPS

HR Monitor (I don't really care if it's wrist based or strap based. Obviously if it's a day to day tracker wrist based is better). 

The ability to set up intervals sessions. 

Waterproof to a reasonable depth. 

Decent tracking battery life. 

 

The "nice to have" features

"Mapping - very useful for the very long trail runs into places I've never been before. The trail network in the UK is very, very old and can be very difficult to follow without a map. Having that map without having to dig for my phone is really nice! 

Various different sport modes. 

 

TBF the more data I get out of it the more I like it because I like data  whether or not it's actually useful. 

[jstanlick]

5 hours ago, Salinger said:

Hey J! Good to see you around

 

Loving your 'me time' goal, so important. Have you been meditating much?x

Not in the traditional sense of meditating. Prayer? Yes. And some simple introspection on how things are going, what's coming up and anything I can't get out of my head. Trying to simply acknowledge it and if there's anything I can do about it. If the answer is no, then I work on letting it go. Usually by consuming myself with the things I can do something about.

 

1 hour ago, jonfirestar said:

Speaking for myself the GPS is vital. In fact the reason I got a GPS enabled watch in the first place was because I got well and truly fed up of trying to get my phone and non-gps enabled fitness tracker to actually work properly. 

 

For what it's worth my own list of must have features are:

 

GPS

HR Monitor (I don't really care if it's wrist based or strap based. Obviously if it's a day to day tracker wrist based is better). 

The ability to set up intervals sessions. 

Waterproof to a reasonable depth. 

Decent tracking battery life. 

 

The "nice to have" features

"Mapping - very useful for the very long trail runs into places I've never been before. The trail network in the UK is very, very old and can be very difficult to follow without a map. Having that map without having to dig for my phone is really nice! 

Various different sport modes. 

 

TBF the more data I get out of it the more I like it because I like data  whether or not it's actually useful. 

I'm kinda thinking the same thing on the GPS and trying to tell the cheapskate in me to shut the hell up  

The interval tracking is a good one too. I do want to be able to track more than running so the sports modes are almost a must have too. 

[Xena]

I would say the GPS is pretty important. It's nice to be able to look at heart rate and speed together.

[Sylvaa]

17 hours ago, jstanlick said:

Plus, I've begun reading reviews for Fitness Tracking watches. I'm trying to decide how important the GPS is to me. Since I take my phone everywhere I go, do I need  a watch that does that too? I think it would be convenient to simply tuck the phone in a band or pocket and forget about it while just reading the watch. But, I'm also cheap and wondering if the convenience is worth the extra money. So far the Garmin Vivosport seems to be the closest to my sweet spot of price to feature compromise. But, we'll see. I have a lot more reviews to read.

 

FWIW, I love my Garmin. I got the Vivosmart HR+ a few years ago - like two - and it's still kicking really well. I swim regularly while wearing it, keep it on for my OCR's, and generally end up abusing it (I'm pretty clumsy) and it's just started to have issues with over-counting flights of stairs (which might also be related to the way I walk when it's cold). 

[Salinger]

How you getting on J? x

[jstanlick]

On 12/3/2018 at 12:58 PM, Xena said:

I would say the GPS is pretty important. It's nice to be able to look at heart rate and speed together.

Great point!

 

On 12/3/2018 at 2:38 PM, Sylvaa said:

 

FWIW, I love my Garmin. I got the Vivosmart HR+ a few years ago - like two - and it's still kicking really well. I swim regularly while wearing it, keep it on for my OCR's, and generally end up abusing it (I'm pretty clumsy) and it's just started to have issues with over-counting flights of stairs (which might also be related to the way I walk when it's cold). 

Ah, so the HR+ version has the built in GPS. The regular Vivosmart 4 does not. I thought I had compared it to the Vivosport before. Hmm, more models to look into...but, it's good to know the product is holding up well.

 

On 12/4/2018 at 3:33 AM, Salinger said:

How you getting on J? x

I'm doing pretty well actually. I little sore still from yesterday's workout. I little bummed that work got in the way for the second Wednesday in a row throwing off my workout plans for today. Darn people expect me to do some actual work to get paid

 

[jstanlick]

So, as I said above, I'm a bit bummed about how today has gone. I had zero meetings scheduled. Zero. Figured it would be a great day to get in a run outside for lunch. Granted it's 32 degrees outside (0 Celsius for you non-Imperial measurement type people), but it's as warm as it's supposed to be for the next 4 days or so. But, I have done nothing but meet with people about stuff that I was not planning on doing. Everything I was hoping to do, has not been done.

 

But, I'm a little sore from yesterday's 12 Days of Christmas workout (done like the song, 1st exercise, then 2nd exercise followed the the 1st exercise, then 3rd, 2nd 1st, etc). I thought the weight of the dumbbells was too light. Especially for cleans. Until about the 10th day. Around then everything was getting gassed. My shoulders more than anything else. The walking lunges with those over my head were getting a little shaky. But, it was a damn effective workout.

 

Food has been really good. I've hit my marks every day this week so far. I've been doing a really good job in the morning and afternoon of not going overboard so that I have plenty of room for carbs later in the day. Thus far this week I have not needed the extra room to hit my goals. So, I'm happy about that.

 

I'm also happy about the me time goal. This has turned into some time in the morning (albeit the dark morning...stupid winter months) with me pondering all of life's questions/problems/curiosities/etc. Mostly whatever pops into my head. If nothing pops in there (it is right after I wake up), I read the verse of the day from my Bible and ponder the meaning of that. It's a nice way to start the day. Plus, the dog usually curls up next to me and puts her head in my lap which is always a comforting thing.

 

Still working on the sleep. I've managed Sunday night and last night to get in my 7.5 hours of sleep. Monday night was not as good. So, I'm still getting better there. Last night's ability to sleep had a lot to do with the workout. Another reason I'm bummed about missing my run. Maybe I can sneak it in tonight in the dark. Hopefully there won't be any ice getting in the way of things. I don't need to wreck myself for a run.

 

[Elastigirl]

Bummer that your day got booked up and you missed the run. Seems like days like that happen more in the winter since the daylight hours are so few. Woot for nailing  the food!

[Salinger]

Good job J! Food is sounding real good xx

[jstanlick]

On 12/5/2018 at 4:08 PM, Elastigirl said:

Bummer that your day got booked up and you missed the run. Seems like days like that happen more in the winter since the daylight hours are so few. Woot for nailing  the food!

Thanks. It also seems like everyone wants to think of or remember things to get done before the end of the year. Just because you didn't plan well doesn't mean I should suffer for it. But, alas, it does. That's part of my job, cleaning up messes and keeping things working. 

 

On 12/5/2018 at 4:18 PM, Salinger said:

Good job J! Food is sounding real good xx

Food has been going well. This was a good week.