Shello 2022: Body, Mind, & Castle: The 300 Day Roadmap

[Shello]

Another year (practically) in the books and it was a reasonably successful one.   I needed a fresh start after some off years and I needed to find a new plan for success for who I am now and my current lifestyle.  I babystepped through the year and found out what works for me now and what doesn't.  I laid a foundation for future success; 2022 is all about building on that foundation with some consistency.  

 

2022 Roadmap

This year is all about consistency.  I just need to make good choices most of the time, give or take a few bad choices, and I'll end up making progress over time.   I'll focus on three aspects during the course of the year: Body, Mind, and Castle. 

 

Body

300 Days of Activity

The focus here is on daily movement, not necessarily high intensity fitnessing.  I just need to make sure I'm active in some capacity every day.  Or rather, most days, 300 of them to be specific.  This obviously includes fitnessing, but also doing things around the house, running around, dancing, cleaning, yoga, or even 'yoga'; anything that keeps me from sitting all day.  

 

300 Days of Calorie Deficit

My calorie target may change throughout the year; sometimes I move it lower or higher, or all the way to maintenance.   But overall, I aim to stay within that target deficit 300 days of the year.  The fine print: Calories within 100 calories of goal counts as compliant.  Not logging food on a challenge day counts against me; non challenge days can be P/F based on mindfulness.  

The finer print: I am also a little torn on this goal as my average deficit challenge in 2021 worked out really well.  Counting how many days I hit a deficit vs staying within the deficit on average over the year will both yield positive results.  Each have their advantages and disadvantages.  I'll track my average daily deficit over the course of the year in addition to tracking days.  

 

There is a weight loss component to the roadmap as well.  I aimed to lose 40 pounds in 2021 but only lost 20.  Although, the last 10 I lost over and over again so that counts for something.  For 2022 I'd like to lose 30 pounds.  That comes out to about three and a half a challenge.  

 

Mind 

300 Days of Reading

This should be an easy goal.  I try to keep a streak going on my kindle but every once in awhile I'll lose the streak.   That's OK.  I just need to hit a total of 300 days during the year. 

 

65 Hours of Creativity

I spent all that time last year building a room in the basement for crafts and creative activities and I haven't done a single thing.  It's time to get back to this hobby and keep those creative juices flowing.  To keep the goal reasonable, I only need 65 hours over the course of the year.  It's a little more than an hour a week.   I got an easel for Christmas so it will be fun to try out some painting.  I could start some crochet projects too or a crazy quilt.  

 

Castle

 

300 Item Purge

I have too much stuff.  I spent 2021 working on some projects around the house (they're not done) and as I did there would be a pile of stuff from each room that never found a home.   And DDG is moving in this year and bringing his stuff too.  I need enough room for my stuff and we need room for his stuff.  I plan to declutter regularly and purge at least 300 items over the course of the year.  

 

65 Hours of Upkeep

My house is reasonably clean to live in but I'm still embarrassed if someone were to stop by unexpectedly.  And we frequently visit DDG's siblings and their places always look so amazing.  I need to keep my space tidy and also find ways to tackle those deep clean items that I never think about.  I will spend 65 hours over the course of the year on upkeep.  That's just over an hour a week.  Routine cleaning counts, as do big tasks like spring cleaning, household maintenance, and projects around the house.  

 

[Shello]

Tracking:

 

300 Days of Activity - 107/300

 

300 Days of Calorie Deficit - 102/300

 

300 Days of Reading - 109/300

 

65 Hours of Creativity - 17/65

 

300 Item Purge - 115/300

 

65 Hours of Upkeep - 18/65

 

[deftona]

I really love this battle log! Good luck with it <4 

[Shello]

1 hour ago, deftona said:

I really love this battle log! Good luck with it <4 

Thanks!  I'm excited for 2022!  I'm glad you're here.  <4

[Shello]

Official starting weigh in is 249.6. Depressing but totally warranted after a night of NYE debauchery. The spreadsheet for my roadmap has a weight chart. The top end is 250 and I WILL NOT need to increase that top threshold. I need to put some distance between myself and that damned 250.
 

Alas, tonight we are celebrating Christmas with DDG’s boys and probably ordering pizza.  Time for a workout! 

[Snarkyfishguts]

Its just a blip! Nobody is at their best after NYE, and you have an amazing plan for 2022. I am really excited for you! You are going to sail away from 250 💜

[Shello]

1 hour ago, Snarkyfishguts said:

Its just a blip! Nobody is at their best after NYE, and you have an amazing plan for 2022. I am really excited for you! You are going to sail away from 250 💜

Thanks!  I'm so tired of seeing 250.  I'm completely over it!  

[Snarkyfishguts]

1 hour ago, Shello said:

Thanks!  I'm so tired of seeing 250.  I'm completely over it!  

I completely get it! I was there a month ago, and you helped me get through it. Your highest weight will just keep getting lower and lower now that we're past holidays, and 250 will be a distant memory!

 

You totally got this Shello. 

[Shello]

11 minutes ago, Snarkyfishguts said:

You totally got this Shello. 

<4 💜

[ReturnOfTheDad]

6 hours ago, Shello said:

Thanks!  I'm so tired of seeing 250.  I'm completely over it!  

Another member of the 250(ish) club here. This is our year! Following.👍🏼

[Shello]

10 minutes ago, ReturnOfTheDad said:

Another member of the 250(ish) club here. This is our year! Following.👍🏼

Welcome!  I hereby declare 2022 the 250 buster! 

[Shello]

I totally forgot about my reading goal. I figured this goal would be easy and I put no thought into it. But this is precisely why it’s a goal. I try to keep my streak on my kindle app but once I lose the streak it can take forever to pick it back up again. I had a streak in 2021 for NOT reading that was longer than the streak I lost.   Recently I lost my streak when I was sick right before Christmas and I figured I’d just pick it up again after traveling for the holidays. And here I am already down 3 non reading days. But I can report I now have a 2 day streak. 

[Shello]

It's nearing the end of the first challenge of the year.  I'm consistently weighing in around the 245 mark so I'm steering clear of 250!  I got just under 243 early this week but then had a last minute night out involving too much pizza and garlic bread.  We'll see where things land at the end of the challenge.  

[Shello]

Part of my goal for the first challenge was to get an idea of what daily activity looks like.  I have a general idea in my mind of what counts but I want to discourage half assing activity routinely that 'counts' but has no impact but also allow the freedom to aim for something reasonable and encourage consistency.   So I dug through my first challenge data... yay Data!  

 

For all the days I went for a walk I averaged over 2800 calories burned.  

For all the days I did a workout from my app I averaged over 2600 calories burned.  

The days I reported some other non fitnessing daily activity (or bare minimum fitness) I averaged 2481 calories burned.

 

Looking at what counted so far, I reported 22 days with at least bare minimum daily activity.  If I more clearly define the criteria as either intentional fitness (at least 10 minutes of some workout) or burning at least 2400 calories I end up with 23 days.  I lose some of the days I reported as bare minimum but some days I didn't report doing anything I clearly burned as many calories as a day with fitness.  That surely counts too!  So alas, new criteria:

 

Daily Activity counts if I either do at least 10 minutes of intentional fitness (including yoga, but not 'yoga') OR burn at least 2400 calories.  The only disadvantage is I don't know the calorie burn for the day until it's over and then it's too late to add more activity.  I still need to focus on finding ways to stay active but I have much clearer parameters.  Just in time for a new challenge! 

[Sloth the Enduring]

‘Yoga’ should count for something.  

[Shello]

10 hours ago, Sloth the Enduring said:

‘Yoga’ should count for something.  

It counts for many things but just nothing related to my goals here.  

[Sloth the Enduring]

May I suggest an additional  goal?  “300 Days of ‘Yoga’”

[Snarkyfishguts]

5 hours ago, Shello said:

It counts for many things but just nothing related to my goals here.  

I think sometimes it’s nice to have something that doesn’t count. It just is. 

[Shello]

3 hours ago, Sloth the Enduring said:

May I suggest an additional  goal?  “300 Days of ‘Yoga’”

+

52 minutes ago, Snarkyfishguts said:

I think sometimes it’s nice to have something that doesn’t count. It just is. 

To be fair, 'yoga' is going to happen whether its a goal or not.  😊

[Shello]

Challenge 1 Update

 

 

Challenge 1 is complete.  Challenge summary is here.   It was a very strong B+/A- challenge.  Despite the struggles during the challenge I am right on track for the 2022 Roadmap.   I backtracked a little on weight during the final week of the challenge but then was able to maintain over the Weekend 0.   Total loss so far is 4.6 pounds.  

 

Where am I on the map?

 

Body:

• 300 Days of Activity: This wasn't clearly defined early.  I initially counted any workouts and then any other activity that just keeps me from sitting on the couch all day.   That proved more difficult than I thought on some days to determine what counts and I landed on a fall back of calories burned.  Hitting 2400 meets the daily criteria but I'll continue to monitor to see if that's too low.   To stay on track I needed 30.5 days of activity.  I got 29 plus 2 migraine passterisk days, just barely exceeding goal. 
• 300 Days of Calorie Target (or alternatively keeping average daily calories at or under goal):  Achieved by either measure.  I stayed within 100 calories of my goal 30 days with 1 migraine passterisk day.  The overall average daily calories were 5 under target.  

Mind:

• 300 Days Reading: I struggled the most with this goal which is quite contrary to my expectations.  I kept losing my reading streak on my kindle but did end up with 30 reading days.  Close enough! 
• 65 hours of creativity:  I need to get 8 hours this challenge to keep up with this goal.  I exceeded it with 13 hours.  Each project took longer than expected so those hours added up easily.  

 

Castle:

• 65 Hours Upkeep:  I was thinking I only needed to hit 6 instead of the 8 and I came in a little short on this goal.  I logged 7 hours including routine cleaning and working on projects around the house.  But I honestly did a terrible job keeping track of time so I'm guessing there was more that got done.  
• 300 Item Purge:  56 items gone!  Woot! 

[Killashandra]

@Shello I absolutely LOVE this battle log. Is it a template online? Or something you came up with? Either way I'm going to do one for myself. Probably with most of the same goals and categories! Love it!! I've learned more from this forum in 24 hours than I have in the last month. 😄

 

[Shello]

On 2/19/2022 at 9:03 PM, Killashandra said:

@Shello I absolutely LOVE this battle log. Is it a template online? Or something you came up with? Either way I'm going to do one for myself. Probably with most of the same goals and categories! Love it!! I've learned more from this forum in 24 hours than I have in the last month. 😄

 

Awesome!  I have learned a ton on this site over the years.  I do a roadmap every year now for a few years.  This year's template is just based on what I needed to work on this year.  I hope it serves you well!  

[Shello]

I weighed in at 239.8 this morning!  What universe is this?!  I've hit a critical weight and must be changing sizes.  All my clothes are loose.  My jeans will start to fall off if I put my phone in my pockets.  I feel like I've swimming in my work clothes.  Luckily, I'm going through my closet so I spent some time over  the weekend sorting through the piles of clothes that were too small.  I found 2 pairs of jeans that fit plus some other clothes for work!  I went through everything and donated some that I don't even like anymore and  sorted the rest by size so I know which pile to look through next.  Plus my closet looks amazing!  I can't wait to get it finished.  

[deftona]

5 hours ago, Shello said:

I weighed in at 239.8 this morning!

 

Woohoo! AMAZING! 

[Shello]

My scale has been unreliable lately.  It hasn't moved as much when I expect it to go down and then suddenly yesterday it went down 10 pounds from the day before.  I was just at the doctor and my weigh in there was appropriate for the ballpark my scale has been in up to then.  

 

This morning the scale was no longer showing 10 pounds under but instead a few pounds heavier than I expect.  In the ballpark at least but I've had a good string of great days and it's definitely on the high end of the ballpark.  We replaced the batteries and weighed in at 236.6.  Score!  I don't entirely trust it.  It's just a bit lighter than what the scale has been telling me but perfectly within reason, I think.  I'll wait and see what the scale says over the next few days but I'm tickled to see that number.