Alanna's déjà vu challenge

[Alanna]

On 5/24/2021 at 7:30 AM, ninjakitten said:

I'm not sure if it will feel like this for you, but I am pretty sure I couldn't have done this all on the side while I'm about to finish... any kind of big project really. So I hope you're still proud of all the effort you put in working on your health goals (or however we can call what we're doing here).

 

3 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

You're doing fantastic as is by keeping up with anything other than your thesis, like exercise. My thesis writing time I did nothing other than writing, drinking coffee all day, then wine to wind down enough to sleep.  It was not a good time.

 

Thanks, I'm not beating myself up about not meeting my challenge goals. This writing up period has been a marathon, not a sprint, so I know if I don't keep at least some habits up, I won't have the energy to do the work I need to. 

 

3 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

My thesis writing time I did nothing other than writing, drinking coffee all day, then wine to wind down enough to sleep. 

 

I found your thesis-writing alter egos:

 

 

I actually don't drink either - maybe that is my issue with this write-up  . The wine would go well with my whine at least! 

 

On 5/24/2021 at 7:52 AM, Harriet said:

 

 

Did you make any thesis progress? if so then the week is not a loss at all. I wish you great focus for this week!

 

Yes, but largely on that annoying last 5% that takes 25% of the time. I also had job application busy work that took some time away from my thesis, unfortunately (I've already given you my CV with my education and job history - why do you need me to enter all of that info again??).

 

 ----------------------------

 

Week 3, Monday

 

Sleep: 12:04 am (15/4 early/late)

Exercise: Went for a walk

Sweets: None 

Social media ban: yes

 

Week 3, Tuesday

 

Sleep: ~1:15 am (15/79 early/late) - up late making mooooore figures. I'm nearing the end figure-wise, though.

Exercise: Went for another walk (edit - also realised I hadn't done any strength training for a while, so just did a few sets of push-ups - I am back up to sets of 8 again).

Sweets: None 

Social media ban: yes

 

Interestingly when I was feeling very rough last week, my Garmin was also reporting that I had very high stress levels and struggling to rest. My "body battery" is back up now. 

[Scaly Freak]

31 minutes ago, Alanna said:

I actually don't drink either - maybe that is my issue with this write-up  . The wine would go well with my whine at least! 

 

Whine goes well with cheese and/or chocolate.

[Alanna]

16 minutes ago, Scaly Freak said:

Whine goes well with cheese and/or chocolate.

 

That explains why I've been having so much goat cheese and hot chocolate.

[Harriet]

9 hours ago, Alanna said:

Yes, but largely on that annoying last 5% that takes 25% of the time.

 

Nice, though, you're getting close.

 

9 hours ago, Alanna said:

Interestingly when I was feeling very rough last week, my Garmin was also reporting that I had very high stress levels and struggling to rest. My "body battery" is back up now. 

 

Fitness gadgets can tell how stressed you are??? Impressed.

[ninjakitten]

19 hours ago, Alanna said:

(I've already given you my CV with my education and job history - why do you need me to enter all of that info again??).

 

As convenient as a lot of online application stuff can be, that must be the most painful part. Thanks for uploading all your things. Please enter everything again.

 

9 hours ago, Harriet said:

Fitness gadgets can tell how stressed you are??? Impressed.

 

It seems to be based on heart rate variability (while at rest) to gauge how stressed you are, which can be a decent enough marker as far as I know. I am a bit curious how well they work. But then I also don't know what to do with the knowledge that I am stressed at work...

[Alanna]

11 hours ago, Harriet said:

Nice, though, you're getting close.

 

 

Last 5% of that chapter - now I'm working on the last 5% or so of another chapter and then I still have some non-research chapter bits to finish    .

 

11 hours ago, Harriet said:

Fitness gadgets can tell how stressed you are??? Impressed.

 

1 hour ago, ninjakitten said:

It seems to be based on heart rate variability (while at rest) to gauge how stressed you are, which can be a decent enough marker as far as I know. I am a bit curious how well they work. But then I also don't know what to do with the knowledge that I am stressed at work...

 

Yeah, it uses the heart rate variability measure and possibly some other things (like heart rate and activity) to give an overall measure of your "body battery." Note when I say stress, it's not just "aaah this project is stressing me out," or "moving house is stressful" type stress - it's capturing whether your body is reacting to and recovering from various physiological stressors over short and long timescales. I've found it to be fairly accurate. Right now it says I'm recharging when I do rest (e.g., at night), but my "battery" gets depleted fairly quickly - simple things deplete my resources. So I'm not running myself into the ground, but only because I'm carefully managing my resources. That aligns pretty closely with how I feel. At the end of last week, I was struggling to recover and recharge fully. 

[ninjakitten]

5 minutes ago, Alanna said:

Yeah, it uses the heart rate variability measure and possibly some other things (like heart rate and activity) to give an overall measure of your "body battery." Note when I say stress, it's not just "aaah this project is stressing me out," or "moving house is stressful" type stress - it's capturing whether your body is reacting to and recovering from various physiological stressors over short and long timescales. I've found it to be fairly accurate. Right now it says I'm recharging when I do rest (e.g., at night), but my "battery" gets depleted fairly quickly - simple things deplete my resources. So I'm not running myself into the ground, but only because I'm carefully managing my resources. That aligns pretty closely with how I feel. At the end of last week, I was struggling to recover and recharge fully. 

 

Oh it's so interesting to read feedback from someone who successfully uses the feature. Thank you for going into detail!  I don't use a watch that has that feature, so I have no insight of my own and so far have only met two or three people who actually use it (even if they have one of the watches that does provide that data) and those said the accuracy wasn't all that great for them. Stress at work was a bad example, I wasn't thinking in terms of the types of stressors, but rather of it being unavoidable in my case. I like the idea of using it more for management, though. And sometimes it just might be nice to know why you're having a hard time with things that normally are easy. 

[Alanna]

3 minutes ago, ninjakitten said:

Oh it's so interesting to read feedback from someone who successfully uses the feature. Thank you for going into detail!  I don't use a watch that has that feature, so I have no insight of my own and so far have only met two or three people who actually use it (even if they have one of the watches that does provide that data) and those said the accuracy wasn't all that great for them. Stress at work was a bad example, I wasn't thinking in terms of the types of stressors, but rather of it being unavoidable in my case. I like the idea of using it more for management, though. And sometimes it just might be nice to know why you're having a hard time with things that normally are easy. 

 

Yeah, I might get more use out of it because I have more fluctuations in my energy levels due to health issues. Some other responses that it has caught have also impressed me . Most notably, it caught a delayed food reaction that I had to peanut butter - my stress levels went waaaaay up as soon as I had a snack with peanut butter, but the fatigue didn't kick in until a couple hours later. It was only when I was looking back at the stress levels over the days that I had peanut butter that I realised that was why I was exhausted.

 

I'll also note that even though I've been tired when I wake up in the mornings recently, my body battery says it is fully charged, so from that perspective alone the data may seem unreliable. However, 1) the rate of change in my body battery does seem accurate, and 2) when I'm not fully charged in the morning, I feel even worse! So the measurements in isolation don't necessarily make sense.

 

There are some high level powerlifters, and probably many other athletes, that use heart rate variability to monitor training recovering, too (Stefi Cohen is one).

[Alanna]

Week 3, Wednesday

 

Sleep: 1:00 am on the dot (15/139 early/late)

Exercise: nada

Sweets: None 

Social media ban: yes

[Alanna]

I had to put my challenge to the side for the last half, unsurprisingly.  A lot has happened recently:

• We said goodbye to our last rats a couple of weeks ago. I really, really miss them. 
• My thesis is now submitted. Waiting to hear back regarding a date for my viva.
• My reward for (almost) finishing up my PhD was to buy inline skates. I managed to get a really good deal on an almost-new pair, and I just ordered protective gear today.
• My partner and I got our first jabs of a COVID19 vaccine, and on the way there we took a nice walking/biking route that looks like it might be great for longer skates once I have the skill set.  

Challenge-wise, my goals were about 50/50 for the last weeks:

• Sleep: Sleep goal was missed. I was doing well at least going to bed by at least 1 am until the last week or so, when I had a lot of late nights and thesis-induced insomnia.
• Exercise: Haven't been strength training, but have been keeping up with walks.
• Sweets: Sweets goal was mostly followed - I had some sweet-ish not-quite-cookies in the last week. Definitely would have been a lot worse without this goal.
• Social media ban: Mostly followed, thanks to automating it. 

 

[Mad Hatter]

On 5/26/2021 at 8:56 PM, Alanna said:

Yeah, I might get more use out of it because I have more fluctuations in my energy levels due to health issues. Some other responses that it has caught have also impressed me . Most notably, it caught a delayed food reaction that I had to peanut butter - my stress levels went waaaaay up as soon as I had a snack with peanut butter, but the fatigue didn't kick in until a couple hours later. It was only when I was looking back at the stress levels over the days that I had peanut butter that I realised that was why I was exhausted.

A bit late, but that's super interesting that it might have caught a bit of a food sensitivity! I've tracked morning HRV for a few periods, but my... everything is too inconsistent to make sense of the data. In the end it only confirmed what I already knew, at best.

 

14 minutes ago, Alanna said:

• My reward for (almost) finishing up my PhD was to buy inline skates. I managed to get a really good deal on an almost-new pair, and I just ordered protective gear today.

Ooh fun!

 

Really sorry about your rats though.  

[Harriet]

23 hours ago, Alanna said:

I had to put my challenge to the side for the last half, unsurprisingly.  A lot has happened recently:

• We said goodbye to our last rats a couple of weeks ago. I really, really miss them. 
• My thesis is now submitted. Waiting to hear back regarding a date for my viva.
• My reward for (almost) finishing up my PhD was to buy inline skates. I managed to get a really good deal on an almost-new pair, and I just ordered protective gear today.
• My partner and I got our first jabs of a COVID19 vaccine, and on the way there we took a nice walking/biking route that looks like it might be great for longer skates once I have the skill set.

 

 

I'm very sorry about your rats. But congragulations on handing in your thesis! That's fantastic! And I hope you have fun skating, yay!

[Scaly Freak]

I'm sorry about the rats. Expected or not, losing pets is never easy. 

 

And congratulations on the thesis! What are you planning to do with all your upcoming free time?

[Rebel Pilot Gar]

Sorry to hear about your rats.

 

Sounds like you adjusted your plan and narrowed your focus where it was needed. Good luck with all of the next steps for the thesis!

[Alanna]

On 6/13/2021 at 5:59 PM, Mad Hatter said:

Ooh fun!

 

Really sorry about your rats though.  

 

On 6/14/2021 at 5:28 PM, Harriet said:

I'm very sorry about your rats. But congragulations on handing in your thesis! That's fantastic! And I hope you have fun skating, yay!

 

On 6/15/2021 at 12:46 AM, Scaly Freak said:

I'm sorry about the rats. Expected or not, losing pets is never easy. 

 

And congratulations on the thesis!

 

On 6/15/2021 at 11:50 PM, Rebel Pilot Gar said:

Sorry to hear about your rats.

 

Sounds like you adjusted your plan and narrowed your focus where it was needed. Good luck with all of the next steps for the thesis!

 

Thanks everyone!

 

On 6/15/2021 at 12:46 AM, Scaly Freak said:

What are you planning to do with all your upcoming free time?

 

Catch up on laundry to start with! I do have a bunch of adulting to do and will also be working as a research assistant still. Should have a lot more time for hobbies and fitness, though, including learning how to skate