Silmarilliane's Nineteenth Challenge

[Silmarilliane]

Greetings fellow nerds!

 

I am back after a many-year hiatus but am needing a kick up the proverbial to get back on track. I've got some good habits ingrained over the years, and as in previous challenges, my main issue is overeating because food is delicious. At my last challenge (early 2018) I was just under 12 stone, and I'm now hitting 13 stone pretty consistently on the scales. Also I have a lot of great clothes I'd like to fit back into rather than chucking them to charity.

 

Main goals: reduce body fat % and get stronger

 

Existing good habits:

• Run before work (M-F) up a nearby hill: 0.7m total with ~50ft incline
• Pilates before work (M-F) the Hundred with straight legs ribcage closure every 20 beats
• Weight training, 3x10reps of each unless stated:
  • Monday PUSH: Bench press, Military press, push-ups (elbows in, on knees)
  • Wednesday PULL: Gym ring pull up angled with bent knees, 10x Negative chin-ups, Barbell rows
  • Thursday LEGS: Squat, Lunge, Romanian Deadlift
• Pilates class most Monday evenings
• Walking: on days I'm in the office, I get off the tube early to walk a mile over the Thames because pretty, I also sometimes walk to the station at home which is another mile with a hill (this used to be daily back in the day but the bus has been consistently used for a few years now)

 

THE CHALLENGE

 

Exercise:

• Maintain pre-work run - ADD sprint last section of the hill
• Maintain pre-work pilates hundred - ADD moving to lower legs closer to the ground consistently
• Keep on track with existing weight training plan - ADD upping weight after three consecutive weeks of full reps
• Continue Pilates classes - ADD an online/youtube pilates session in any week I'm not able to attend class
• Walk to the station and over the river every office working day (2 miles)
• Walk 2 miles every WfH lunchtime
• Walk 2 miles every Saturday and Sunday (some weekends have been VERY lazy)

 

Foods:

This is going to be much more tricky to manage. I have previously tracked calories on myfitnesspal, which is all well and good for basic food, but any meals out etc become more difficult to track and therefore I give up, go overboard and eat all the foods. Any help/suggestions on how to manage this will be appreciated, especially on the days where things aren't structured! To note, I don't eat because I'm hungry, it's literally bcuz food.

During this challenge (from today to 16th October) I have the following things which are likely to scupper/lead to overeating:

17-19th Sept: three day wedding

25th Sept: Birthday party

1st Oct: Quartet fancy meal out

Actually, writing them down makes me feel a bit better as, other than the wedding being multi-day, it's only three things!

So, I'll be counting calories on mfp with the goal of staying under 1600 each day. 

 

 

POINTS AND SCORING

 

• Complete all morning workouts in a week = 100pts
• Complete all weight sessions and pilates in a week = 100pts
  • Any of the above missed = minus 25pts each
• Complete 2 miles of walking every day = 100pts for the week
  • Any missed day = minus 25pts

Max exercise points = 1800pts

EDITS 04/10/2021

• Under calories every day for a week = 100 points

• Under calories six days out of the week = 75 points

• Under calories five days out of the week = 50 points

• Day over 1600 but under 1700 = minus 5 points

• Day over 1600 but stayed relatively health = minus 10 points

• Day over 1600 and splurged = minus 25 points
• Two weeks of 100 points in a row gets me 25 bonus points
• All weeks 100 points in a row gets me 75 bonus points (won't happen but makes the total a rounder number!)

Max food points = 700pts

Total possible points = 2500pts

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

I love a good return-to-the-forums challenge.

[Silmarilliane]

1 hour ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

I love a good return-to-the-forums challenge.

 

thaaaaaaaanks!

[Harriet]

When I was counting calories I tried to avoid takeaway and restauarants, but still had some. I ate half my takeaway meals and put half in the fridge, and assumed they were still 700-800 calories. With restaurants you could skip bread, appetizers and drinks, write up the meal as 1000 and just make sure your weekly numbers average out. For the special events I might do a modest breakfast and lunch, but not so tiny that you feel super hungry cos that's counterproductive. But yeah, you'll be creating that deficit with the meals you eat three times a day. Assuming it's a 500 cal deficit every day, and that a restaurant meal takes you 500 or even 1000 over, you'd need to eat out more than twice a week to ruin that, I think. So make some heuristics for yourself to limit the damage, then relax. Good luck!

[Silmarilliane]

21 hours ago, Harriet said:

When I was counting calories I tried to avoid takeaway and restauarants, but still had some. I ate half my takeaway meals and put half in the fridge, and assumed they were still 700-800 calories. With restaurants you could skip bread, appetizers and drinks, write up the meal as 1000 and just make sure your weekly numbers average out. For the special events I might do a modest breakfast and lunch, but not so tiny that you feel super hungry cos that's counterproductive. But yeah, you'll be creating that deficit with the meals you eat three times a day. Assuming it's a 500 cal deficit every day, and that a restaurant meal takes you 500 or even 1000 over, you'd need to eat out more than twice a week to ruin that, I think. So make some heuristics for yourself to limit the damage, then relax. Good luck!

 

Thanks, these are some good strategies! I don't actually feel hungry all that often - I just eat anyway... I don't usually have breakfast anyway, more because two meals a day works better for me (plus I need to wait after taking thyroxine in the morning anyway) so I usually have a brunch around 11:30-midday, and then dinner 5-6pm. Obviously that's easy to do on a standard work day as it fits with what I'm doing! I'll definitely use your strategies for those anomaly days though

[Silmarilliane]

So day #1 was successful - I had a social after work, so had a lime & soda, and picked up a wrap that I knew the calories for in advance, and then left the social early to go to pilates (I'd already paid for it!)

Got the bench out when I got home and did my Monday weights, kept within calories, and walked to the station/over the river on the way to the office.

 

Day #2 is going well so far - I'm wfh so just did a swift 2mile walk in the 30min gap I had between meetings, and have already tracked my calories for the day to make sure I'm under. Added a sprint to the morning run too, woop!

[Cheetah]

 

Keep it up!

[Happienumber]

1 hour ago, Silmarilliane said:

I'm wfh so just did a swift 2mile walk in the 30min gap I had between meetings

 

"Just"

Just two miles.

Friend.

That's fantastic!

That's on your goal list and you're smashing it!

 

[Rookie]

Following for camaraderie over overeating and hoping to get inspiration from your exercise habits.

[Silmarilliane]

17 hours ago, Happienumber said:

 

"Just"

Just two miles.

Friend.

That's fantastic!

That's on your goal list and you're smashing it!

 

 

Hahaha thanks ☺️

[Silmarilliane]

16 hours ago, Rookie said:

Following for camaraderie over overeating and hoping to get inspiration from your exercise habits.

 

Overeating is the most annoying, right?

[Rookie]

2 hours ago, Silmarilliane said:

Overeating is the most annoying, right?

So annoying lol I wish my body would just be like "Ok we have reached our limit for today... no more food" 

[Silmarilliane]

18 minutes ago, Rookie said:

So annoying lol I wish my body would just be like "Ok we have reached our limit for today... no more food" 

 

Yeah, I'd like an internal sensor to track it + expended energy (accurately)

[athousandwords]

Welcome back! Following along as well - I love all your exercise goals! And +1 to wishing there was a magical way to stop overeating... why does food just taste so good??

[Silmarilliane]

15 hours ago, athousandwords said:

Welcome back! Following along as well - I love all your exercise goals! And +1 to wishing there was a magical way to stop overeating... why does food just taste so good??

 

I know... sometimes I wish I was one of those people who wasn't that bothered about food. Sometimes...

[Silmarilliane]

Workweek nearly done and food/exercise has gone well so far except wow, not snacking all the live-long-day really affects my mood...

 

I've been under calories every day, and done my two mile walks - walked to the station and over the river this morning as I'm in the office.

 

Doing an abseil for charity after work today which will be fun - hoping any post-work drinks stay minimal for me calorie-wise.

 

I'm also going to a medieval festival day tomorrow, but am confident I can be sensible with foods

[Silmarilliane]

I've also realised my point scoring is probably unnecessarily harsh, given if I miss one day a week, I miss the week score AND get a minus... I also only gave bonuses for combined weeks for the foods.... We'll see how it tots up haha

 

Currently I'm on 200pts for the morning exercises and pilates/weights, and expecting to get a further 100 for weekend walking 👌

[Harriet]

On 9/8/2021 at 2:15 PM, Rookie said:

So annoying lol I wish my body would just be like "Ok we have reached our limit for today... no more food" 

 

Alas, I love the idea of intuitive eating, eat when hungry stop when full. But I swear certain foods are evilly designed to be intuition breaking mind control substances.

 

5 hours ago, Silmarilliane said:

Workweek nearly done and food/exercise has gone well so far except wow, not snacking all the live-long-day really affects my mood...

 

I've been under calories every day, and done my two mile walks - walked to the station and over the river this morning as I'm in the office.

 

Doing an abseil for charity after work today which will be fun - hoping any post-work drinks stay minimal for me calorie-wise.

 

I'm also going to a medieval festival day tomorrow, but am confident I can be sensible with foods

 

Does not snacking make your mood better or worse? Nice job on the movement and diet, and enjoy your medieval festival! Do they have roast oxen and mead?

[Shello]

You've got a lot of healthy habits that have stuck around during hiatus.  That's an awesome base to work from.  Food is so fricking delicious!  When I log food out I just go with the most reasonable item available and accept the margin of error.  I have had the same trouble with just giving up and eating whatever but I've found that logging an approximation that keeps me from chucking the whole thing yields better results in the long run.  Maybe that particular cheeseburger had 300 more calories than what I logged, maybe it was a little lower.  But that margin of error is worth having some guidelines in place.  

[Rookie]

9 hours ago, Silmarilliane said:

I'm also going to a medieval festival day tomorrow, but am confident I can be sensible with foods

Ohhhhhh I want stories or pictures or just ... I want to live vicariously. What a fun thing you get to do.  Me on the other hand gets to go to a buffet ....

 

 

3 hours ago, Harriet said:

Alas, I love the idea of intuitive eating, eat when hungry stop when full. But I swear certain foods are evilly designed to be intuition breaking mind control substances.

I don't know if I could do intuitive eating or not.  I think my signals are all off to be honest which maybe the book covers but maybe not. If I am being honest I am not really sure what "healthy portions" are. I am currently guessing and I think I am doing alright. And I rarely feel "full" but I think full is when you don't feel hungry anymore? Maybe....  Who knows! Not me  

[deftona]

Mmmm, food is delicious. Why's it gotta be so good. 

[Silmarilliane]

5 hours ago, Harriet said:

Does not snacking make your mood better or worse? Nice job on the movement and diet, and enjoy your medieval festival! Do they have roast oxen and mead?

 

I definitely get grouchy without snacking, probably because I'm not getting a sugar rush every few minutes haha.

 

There is going to be a historical cookery person who has said:

You will be able to sample a real 'Taste Of History' between 11.30 hrs and 16.00 hrs and see me preparing various recipes throughout the day. Bread, Butter, Vegetable Pottage, Valencia Orange, Meat Pottage, Sausages, Bread Pudding being prepared for my Lords table.

 

😃

 

3 hours ago, Shello said:

You've got a lot of healthy habits that have stuck around during hiatus.  That's an awesome base to work from.  Food is so fricking delicious!  When I log food out I just go with the most reasonable item available and accept the margin of error. 

 

Thank you and yes I agree with this way of thinking - I went to Wahaca for dinner and got a quesadilla, grilled broccoli and avo salad, but also had some bits of my friend's nachos and corn. I logged as best as I could and likely it was over calories, but we also walked from Westminster to Liverpool Street after so I'm calling it a draw!

 

1 hour ago, Rookie said:

Ohhhhhh I want stories or pictures or just ... I want to live vicariously.

 

If I am being honest I am not really sure what "healthy portions" are. I am currently guessing and I think I am doing alright.

 

I will share some photos!

 

And yeah, healthy portions are going to be different for everyone right?

 

1 minute ago, deftona said:

Mmmm, food is delicious. Why's it gotta be so good. 

 

Preach...

[Rookie]

That’s so cool there’s going to be a food historian. I’m super curious about that stuff. I spent a few lunches watching a mini series on YouTube about what people of the ages ate in the different classes. It’s very neat!

[Harriet]

7 hours ago, Silmarilliane said:

There is going to be a historical cookery person who has said:

You will be able to sample a real 'Taste Of History' between 11.30 hrs and 16.00 hrs and see me preparing various recipes throughout the day. Bread, Butter, Vegetable Pottage, Valencia Orange, Meat Pottage, Sausages, Bread Pudding being prepared for my Lords table.

 

If I were roleplaying medieval stuff, I would want to be the lord. Can I get someone to prepare oranges and bread pudding for me?

[Silmarilliane]

COOL STORY after five days of calorie counting and eating about half as much per day as the last year and a half I have PUT ON two pounds.

I know this largely means nothing but it has put me in a really bad mood for the day.

 

Damn you scales