TimovieMan becomes a Time Lord

[TimovieMan]

It's time to tackle the new year (preferably with a well-executed slide tackle) and recover the ball. The Timey-Wimey Ball!

 

 

 

A lot of what I've been doing these past months has become my standard way of life. By that I mean that several changes and habits have become permanent.

Sugar in coffee is a thing of the past, even soda drinking has been reduced to an absolute minimum without effort. Intermittent fasting is something I just do without thinking now. Drinking enough water in the weekend is not an issue any more.Taking walks during my lunch break at work is a regular thing that I'm not stopping anytime soon. Et cetera.

 

The main challenges lie in avoiding overeating (just saying "no" when I'm full instead of eating that last piece on my plate), actually doing my exercises/workouts, and...

 

finding more time for myself again.

 

This challenge will be about "time management", gaining back some more time for myself. In other words: becoming a Time Lord!

 

 

 

That means:

 

- no more tracking (not weighing myself for a month, no longer keeping track of how much I drink, how long I sleep, etc.)

- making a weekly planning (for meals and planned activities - to avoid miscommunication between me and the missus)

- actually planning one evening per week without distractions, just me and the missus

 

 

 

To compensate, there are some things that I'll do less of. And unfortunately, that also means visiting these forums. I very much enjoy my time here, but I have a tendency to want to keep up with far too many threads, and posting things myself always takes far longer than it should, so the plan is to do less of that for a while, and then seeing what the results are in a few weeks...

 

 

And if the challenge fails, then I can always regenerate...  

[Elastigirl]

Sweet idea to have an evening just for you and your wife.

[TimovieMan]

1 hour ago, Elastigirl said:

Sweet idea to have an evening just for you and your wife.

It's been an idea that's been on the table for years. Execution however, has been extremely spotty. At best we just watch something together on the telly, with distractions (smartphone, laptop) still very much present.

Even our planned monthly "evening without the kids" has only been quarterly.

It's time to fix that. We're husband and wife, not housemates.

[Salinger]

Good luck Timo xx

[Tobbe]

Time together, alone, with your significant other is so important! It's easy to forget/down prioritize when life gets busy. But you have to remember to tell each other "I love you", and give each other a hug, and some quality time together! It's what going to keep the relationship strong and lasting!

[TimovieMan]

On 1/7/2019 at 11:15 AM, Salinger said:

Good luck Timo xx

Thank you!!!

 

23 hours ago, Tobbe said:

Time together, alone, with your significant other is so important! It's easy to forget/down prioritize when life gets busy. But you have to remember to tell each other "I love you", and give each other a hug, and some quality time together! It's what going to keep the relationship strong and lasting!

^ This.

 

It just gets overlooked / postponed easily when you have kids, since they become the priority.

We're both very well aware of this hence why we try to have one evening each month where the kids sleep at their grandparents so we have the evening just to ourselves (and with no other social obligations), and why we try to have one evening each week where we actually spend time together without distractions.

It just needed to be reinforced again now, because we have a tendency to neglect this after a while.

[Arkania]

On 1/6/2019 at 9:29 PM, TimovieMan said:

To compensate, there are some things that I'll do less of. And unfortunately, that also means visiting these forums. I very much enjoy my time here, but I have a tendency to want to keep up with far too many threads, and posting things myself always takes far longer than it should, so the plan is to do less of that for a while, and then seeing what the results are in a few weeks...

Know that feel.

I follow so much threads I need hours(!!!) 2x per day to stay on track and I can't do that. So time consuming.

[Rurik Harrgath]

13 hours ago, Arkania said:

I follow so much threads I need hours(!!!) 2x per day to stay on track and I can't do that. So time consuming.

 

This speaks to me.  Back in 2016 I literally followed every single Ranger challenge, posting in each AT LEAST twice a week.  It was insane, a pace I couldn't hope to sustain, and eventually burnt myself out.  Now I'm still keeping up with everyone but at a much more relaxed pace.  Gives me the time and clarity to devote time to actually considerate comments and to follow friends outside of the Ranger forums too!

[TimovieMan]

Heh, looks like I tapped into something here.

 

I'm at a point where I realise that following the amount of threads I'm following will lead to forum burnout, so I'm looking for a balance between time spent and threads followed. It will probably take some experimentation.

Forums have always been my preferred media (I don't do Facebook, for instance), so I'm definitely not stopping. It's just a matter of coming to terms with the amount of posts that are made and the amount I can realistically follow without sacrificing too many other things.

 

If only there were more hours in a day, eh?

 

[Salinger]

Have a great day Timo xx

[TimovieMan]

My last weigh-in was the Saturday between Christmas and New Year's Eve, and the Christmas festivities had put the weight back at 99.1 kgs (+2.0), the body fat at 24.7% (-0.4) and the visceral fat at 11% (=).

 

That was two weeks ago, and there was a New Year's Eve with lots of food and a New Year's Day with moderate food after that, so my curiosity got the better of me this morning.

I wanted to see if my efforts since New Year's Day had undone the holiday damage.

 

Weigh-in this morning:

 

Weight: 96.1 kg (-3.0)

Body fat: 23.2% (-1.9)

Visceral fat: 11% (=)

 

Not too shabby, methinks.

 

 

 

I'm particularly happy with my efforts yesterday.

There was a department lunch at noon, so I had Chateaubriand steak with fries and a salad bowl.

My colleague next to me couldn't finish her steak and offered her leftovers to me. I gladly accepted. I love steak, and since the missus prefers chicken or fish, I rarely get to eat red meat at home so I indulge when eating out.

But here's the thing: I didn't get a second serving of fries!

 

That may seem trivial to you guys, but that's actually quite an achievement for me!

 

And then yesterday evening my brother-in-law wanted to treat us at takeaway pizza, and I refused, having had a solid meal at lunch and not being overly hungry.

So yesterday evening, all I ate was some garlic bread, a few chicken nuggets and one slice of pizza that the missus couldn't finish.

 

For a day that could have turned into a massive calorie-bomb binge, I managed to eat very acceptable amounts.

 

 

 

So to celebrate, I'm going to post another song. Instead of the RNG, I'm just going to pick my opener, #300.

Although it's a song I cheat with, because if I had made a Top 500 or a Top 1000, it would have been #500 or #1000 instead, because I feel that it's a song that was made to serve as an epic opening.

 

From Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana", it's "O Fortuna"!

 

And for added hilarity, I'm posting the "misheard lyrics" version, because ever since I saw that one, I can't listen to it anymore without hearing these lyrics, and I want to spread that joy.

 

 

[Kestrel Grey]

Thank you, that version literally made my whole day.

[Tobbe]

4 hours ago, TimovieMan said:

And for added hilarity, I'm posting the "misheard lyrics" version, because ever since I saw that one, I can't listen to it anymore without hearing these lyrics, and I want to spread that joy.

 

Not sure I dare to click "play" on that video  

[Arkania]

Oh I loooove misheard lyrics <3

[TimovieMan]

7 hours ago, Tobbe said:

 

Not sure I dare to click "play" on that video  

The song's still the same, nothing's changed.

The lyrics that are shown, however, are not the correct Latin ones.

[Salinger]

What a song! Not heard for a long time. Thanks  

 

You had a boss day, well done! xx

[Elastigirl]

Chiming in late, but woot for saying o to more fries. This is a massive victory. I love fries so much, anytime I say no to them I think I deserve a medal

[SkyGirl]

Hey Tin, how's it going? I'm so hyped about your eating successes earlier in this challenge - making good decisions on the spur of the moment is a huge deal and you're right to be excited!!

[TimovieMan]

Hey, thanks for checking in.

Haven't been updating much, because I haven't been on the forums much (as part of the challenge).

 

Weigh-in on Saturday was:

Weight: 95.5 kg (-0.6)

Body fat: 21.6% (-1.6)

Visceral fat: 10% (-1)

 

So even without accountability, I'm actually doing pretty well.

The eating has become an actual habit that I no longer have to think about.

 

Good example: this Sunday we were invited at some friends' house, which means snacks, appetisers, large meals, desserts, the works.

We were there from noon till 6 pm.

I had less snacks and appetisers than I normally would have (but still my fair share), I had two moderate plates (which is still too much, but less than my usual on this type of event, and no third plate just to humour them or to make sure they have less excessive quantities left over), and while I sampled everything from the desserts, I refused second servings for everything (with the exception of half a waffle that one of my kids didn't finish that would otherwise have wound up in the bin).

It still qualifies as a binge, but a smaller one than usual at social events like this, but I at least had the common sense of doing a strength workout in the morning, and I had skipped breakfast and I skipped dinner on Sunday (and breakfast on Monday).

As a result, I don't think the scale will be up on my next measurement.

 

 

Exercising is a bit more spotty and less frequent than I'd like, but that's pretty much on par with all previous challenges, and so is the sleep. All in all, I'm doing quite well, I feel.  

 

And the whole "Time Lord" thing is definitely allowing me to watch more TV shows with the missus, and to play games more.

 

It's a shame I had to quit these forums to make that happen. But on the other hand, without these forums, I don't think I'd have reached as far as I already have and I don't think I'd be as convinced about the sustainability of it all as I am now...

[Tobbe]

Good for you not eating as much as you might have done in the past

 

9 minutes ago, TimovieMan said:

It still qualifies as a binge

 

Actually, from the way you describe it, to me it doesn't sound like a binge. It seems you were pretty present in your mind, and in control of what you ate. So to me it sounds more like regular overeating than a binge. And overeating is totally normal at events like that. Nothing to beat yourself up about. Sounds like you had a great time and could really enjoy the food! In those situations it's okay to eat more than you usually do. It's the everyday mindless overeating that's a problem for most. Not events like these  The body is built to handle feasts (and famine). I bet you didn't feel as hungry the day after as you might do on a regular day, right? That's what the body does without us having to think about it

 

Great work doing the workout! Movement is something the body generally likes  And I bet the extra fuel from the food the day before helped too  

[TimovieMan]

1 hour ago, Tobbe said:

 I bet you didn't feel as hungry the day after as you might do on a regular day, right?

I've been doing intermittent fasting for quite a while now. After the first couple of weeks, it became standard to fast for 16+ hours (and occasionally 23+ hours). That also means that I almost never get hungry anymore. Which is a massive plus if you're doing groceries in a fasted state - less impulse to grab junk food.

 

1 hour ago, Tobbe said:

Great work doing the workout! Movement is something the body generally likes  And I bet the extra fuel from the food the day before helped too  

The workout was before the social event. Like, an hour before it.

In an attempt to get the excess calories pre-assigned to recovery.