Elinox: There is Druid & Druid Not

[elinox]

Main Quest
To live a healthy and balanced life by exercising and trying to eat healthy.
 
My motivation
As it’s the new year, full of promise and potential, I thought I’d go big or go home, right out of the gate. I need to get back to my regular calorie counting diet with healthy doses of exercise as I’ve fallen out of practice with both. 

 

I’ve maintained the 1200 calories per day, M-F with blow meals on the weekends and have been going to the gym for about 45 minutes M-F, but I’ve found loopholes and caved in more than I should so I’m knuckling down again, mostly to be better, but also because I’ve got my first real physical at the end of January and want to drop some pounds before then.

 

Even though I enjoy weight lifting, I feel like I need to drop some weight first before being able to properly tone up. 

 

Smaller Quests

1. Walking

This seems to fit well into: 
1. What I am willing to do for exercise (ie. NOT running!) and 
2. What I can do for exercise over my lunch break without making me too exhausted or too sweaty. 

 

Scoring: x/40 miles in 4 weeks 
Reward: +4 to STA (+1 for every 10 miles completed)

 

2. Yoga

I enjoy yoga and so to add some balance to my walking, I will be doing the 30 Days of Yoga from Darebee again.

 

Scoring: x/30 days of yoga
Reward: +3 to WIS (+1 for every 10 days completed successfully)

3. Eating Better

This is the big one for this challenge as I’ve done both #1 and #2 before with other challenges.

 

I’ve cut down on my processed sugar in challenges before too, but this time, I really need to buckle down so it sticks long-term. 

 

No sugary snacks M-F and more veggies instead and only 1 blow day on weekends!

 

I will be cutting out the processed junk food and as many carbs as I can while eating healthy. I will also be trying to limit my blow meals to 1 weekend day, rather than Friday night through Sunday. This worked when I first lost the weight, so it should hopefully, kickstart this again for me!

 

I’m also going to attempt to cut out my weekday soda as it’s wasted, processed sugar. If I need a caffeine boost in the afternoon, I will have more coffee or a Bai. 

1. No soda (save for ginger ale, as it helps my digestion)
2. No processed, sugary junk foods M-F and limited on the weekends
3. More veggies
4. 1 blow day per weekend

 

Scoring: x/5 weekends of only having 1 blow day 
x/25 of not having sugary snacks M-F
Reward: +4 to CON for weekend success & +4 to CHA for sugary snacks weekdays
 

[elinox]

Walking: 2/40

Yoga: 1/30

Blow Meals: 1/5 - I was good on Saturday!

[Tobbe]

On 1/6/2020 at 11:03 PM, elinox said:

2. Yoga

I enjoy yoga and so to add some balance to my walking, I will be doing the 30 Days of Yoga from Darebee again.

 

Darebee, such a gold mine! Didn't even know they did yoga as well! And you said you're doing it again, which means you've tried it before and liked it enough for a second round. Awesome! I won't be joining in right now since I'm doing another 30 day yoga thing myself, but I'll remember it for the future  

[elinox]

Walking: 4/40

Yoga: 2/30

Snacks: 1/25 - I had popcorn and cashews last night. I also had a mushroom (cheesesteak) sandwich for dinner, woohoo!

[Tobbe]

On 1/7/2020 at 1:11 AM, elinox said:

Blow Meals: 1/5 - I was good on Saturday!

 

Yes, I'm sure you were good on Saturday. But not because of what you ate, or didn't eat In fact, no one is good, or bad, because of what they eat or don't eat!

 

 

This, of course, applies to every single day, not just Christmas. And feel free to replace "not guilty"/"guilty" with "good"/"bad".

 

Please remember this if you ever eat something you didn't plan to eat You are not bad because of it

[elinox]

@Tobbe It's easier to simply call it "being good" as opposed to "I was able to control myself and my calorie intake enough that it fell within the parameters of what I have envisioned for this quest and my weekly M-F caloric allowances" though, ya'know? 😋

 

Walking: 6/40

Yoga: 3/30 - meditation day, yay!

Snacks: 2/25 - cranberries & cashews

[elinox]

Walking: 8/40

Yoga: 4/30

Snacks: 3/25 - cashews & an orange

[elinox]

Yoga: 5/30

 

I wasn't good last night because it was my husband's birthday so we went out to a nice dinner. And then there was ice cream! (I'm not sorry either! 😋)

[elinox]

Yoga: 6/30

Snacks: 4/25 - cranberries & cashews

[elinox]

Yoga: 7/30

Walking: 10/40 - walked around Valley Forge yesterday afternoon!

[elinox]

Yoga: 8/30

Walking: 12/40

Blow Meals: 2/5 - I was mostly-good on Sunday, so I'm counting it!

[Tobbe]

On 1/8/2020 at 11:59 PM, elinox said:

@Tobbe It's easier to simply call it "being good" as opposed to "I was able to control myself and my calorie intake enough that it fell within the parameters of what I have envisioned for this quest and my weekly M-F caloric allowances" though, ya'know? 😋

 

Interesting way to look at it. (And thanks for taking my comment the right way )

 

Why do you have to "control" yourself and your calorie intake around food? What would happen if you didn't?

[elinox]

8 hours ago, Tobbe said:

 

Interesting way to look at it. (And thanks for taking my comment the right way )

 

Why do you have to "control" yourself and your calorie intake around food? What would happen if you didn't?

 

In 2009, my husband and I decided that we needed to lose weight and be healthier. So we did research into modifying our diets and settled on the 1200 calories/day idea, with a blow meal on the weekends so we could still enjoy our favorite, non-healthy foods. We did this and it worked, so we also added in exercising too. At my lowest, I had managed to drop 65 pounds! 

 

I've been eating 1200 calories/day usually M-F with blow meals on weekends since then because it worked. That has slid back to Friday nights so I need to go back to the original plan that worked to help me lose some weight. 

 

If I didn't manage my calories and just went back to eating whatever I wanted all the time, I would gain weight back and I don't want that. 

[Tobbe]

2 hours ago, elinox said:

In 2009, my husband and I decided that we needed to lose weight and be healthier.

 

I know this is not what you're saying. But just to be really clear here, losing weight does not mean you're healthier. And being healthier does not necessarily mean you'll lose weight   Have you looked in to HAES (Health At Every Size) at all? (Important, it's not "healthy at any size", it's "health at every size")

 

2 hours ago, elinox said:

So we did research into modifying our diets and settled on the 1200 calories/day idea

 

I'm sorry you felt you had to do that. 1200 kcal is not enough for any adult to sustain on. It's fine for a while (heck, even 0 kcal is fine for a while). But in the long term your body is not going to like that.

 

2 hours ago, elinox said:

We did this and it worked

 

Yeah, diets do that. They work for a while. And then your body will start protesting. And it will not work as well any more. So in order to keep the weight loss up, you have to lower your intake even more, or increase what you burn

 

2 hours ago, elinox said:

so we also added in exercising too

 

Like adding more exercise  

 

 

 

I used to think I really had to control myself around food too. That I had to "sit on my hands" as one girl I follow like to say in interviews. 

If I could just eat what I wanted I'd forever gain weight. And if I had candy or cookies in the house I'd just eat them all, so better get rid of everything like that.

 

But then I realized that I like having a glass of wine with my dinner at weekends. I really like the taste of a good red wine.

It was, however, no problem for me to have a bottle of red wine in the house. I didn't just constantly drink wine, even though I really liked the taste. And even when I did have wine, I never felt the need to empty the whole bottle. Which was way different to how I felt when I started eating apple pie and I felt like I couldn't stop until the whole pie was gone.

 

Can you relate? If not with wine, is there anything else that you really like to eat or drink that you can keep in the house without constantly having to fight an internal battle to not eat/drink?

[elinox]

8 minutes ago, Tobbe said:

I know this is not what you're saying. But just to be really clear here, losing weight does not mean you're healthier. And being healthier does not necessarily mean you'll lose weight   Have you looked in to HAES (Health At Every Size) at all? (Important, it's not "healthy at any size", it's "health at every size")

 

I weighed almost 200lbs at 5'3", so yes, being that heavy was unhealthy for me. I got out of breath easily and my cholesterol was very high due to eating mostly sugary, and high in fats, foods. 

 

I understand where you're coming from in not wanting people to fat-shame, but in this case for me, I was unhealthy and overweight. They were directly related, so I changed that.  

 

I'm sorry you felt you had to do that. 1200 kcal is not enough for any adult to sustain on. It's fine for a while (heck, even 0 kcal is fine for a while). But in the long term your body is not going to like that.

 

Actually, 1000 is the lowest an adult can safely eat calorie-wise. As I said, we did research on losing weight in a healthy fashion and settled on counting calories. Eating only 1200 calories is hard, but not unobtainable or unhealthy. To lose weight you have to eat fewer calories than you burn in a day and exercise. 

 

Yeah, diets do that. They work for a while. And then your body will start protesting. And it will not work as well any more. So in order to keep the weight loss up, you have to lower your intake even more, or increase what you burn.

 

Which is why this was never a "diet" but rather a lifestyle change. It's worked for me for over 10 years now so I'd say it's fine. It hasn't been working for me lately because I have slacked off from my routine.  

 

Can you relate? If not with wine, is there anything else that you really like to eat or drink that you can keep in the house without constantly having to fight an internal battle to not eat/drink?

 

It's not control I have a problem with, it's simply that I crave unhealthy foods with processed sugar and carbs. If there are Oreo's in the house, I will eat them while counting their calories. 

 

This pattern of eating 1200c M-F has helped me maintain a lower, healthier weight overall. It's not for everyone, just like how Atkins' or the Paleo "diet" isn't for everyone. But it has worked for me so I'm sticking with what I know works for me.  

[elinox]

Yoga: 9/30

Walking: 14/40

Snacks: 5/25 - popcorn & yogurt

[elinox]

Yoga: 10/30

Snacks: 6/25 - cashews

 

I have not had my usual afternoon soda for 7 days here at work and I would really like my diet Mt. Dew now...think I'll try brewing a cuppa tea instead. 

[elinox]

Yoga: 11/30

Snacks: 7/25 - yogurt & cashews

 

I haven't been able to take my lunch break at the gym because it's closed for some reason until tomorrow. Because of this, yesterday seemed to stretch on forever here at work!

[elinox]

Yoga: 12/30 - aaahhhh, meditation!

Snacks: 8/25 - cashews and a banana

Walking:16/40 - walked to the store last night since the gym was still closed

[elinox]

Walking: 18/40

[elinox]

Yoga: 14/30 - I did today's and tomorrow's since tomorrow I'm diving all day. 

Snacks: 9/25 - popcorn

[elinox]

Yoga: 15/30

[elinox]

Yoga: 16/30

Walking: 20/40 - halfway!

Snacks: 10/25 - popcorn

 

I did not succeed for my weekend goal; too much cookie temptation, oh well. 

[elinox]

Yoga: 17/30

Walking: 22/40

Snacks: 11/25 - cranberries & cashews

[elinox]

Yoga: 18/30

Walking: 24/40

Snacks: 12/25 - popcorn