[Chronosus]

Hi everyone!

 

It seems that I last posted ...checks... about four and a half years ago 🧐 So, I suppose this counts as a respawn...!

 

As a very brief re-intro, I'm an almost-30 year old guy living in the UK who finally wrapped up a six year PhD towards the end of last year. Over the previous six years, I've had an on-off relationship with physical activity, and had an unfortunate rendezvous with anxiety. While I've managed to improve some things over time, I want to recommit to having a stable, holistic base of general health. I was hoping to post last week, but I got struck down with a (seemingly non-infectious) gastritis which sorta ruined my week. I'm still recovering from this, so I'm going to keep this challenge very straight forward.

 

Longer term, I'd love to get back to doing some strength work again. For a time, I used to powerlift and loved bench + deadlift. Not squats though. Seriously, 🤬 squats. As a result of hypermobility, some of my joints have compensated with a reduced range of motion, including my ankles, which makes squats tricky. While I'm building up (and getting the resources together) to doing that again, I have a medium term goal to cycle 1,000 miles in total this year. I'm currently at 88.2, so not doing too shabbily right now!

 

Goal I: Praise the sun ☀️ 

Or, at least, praise as much sun we get in the UK. The aim for this goal is to get outside for some daily exercise. I'm not going to be prescriptive about how long this will be for or what this exercise should be. A commute to work by bike counts, as does a five minute walk around the block. I'll track these with ☀️ (for did the thing) and ☁️ (for didn't do the thing).

 

 

Goal II:  A little less Smough, a little more Ornstein
So, I'm not the best at eyeballing food amounts. Or, maybe I just have a big appetite. Either way, I'm always somewhat shocked when I measure food out and it ends up being more mass than I expected. So, in an effort to be more conscious of what I eat, I'm going to weigh out rice and oats (which are my main carb sources). It also means I won't give my wife @Alanna too much food, either (the excess of which she then offers to me 😅).  I'll track this one using squares.

 

🟩 = All rice and oats weighed/measured

🟨 = Weighed some, but not all

🟥 = Didn't weigh any

 

 

And that's it! Time to git gud.

 

Spoiler

 

[Sloth the Enduring]

Welcome back. 

[athousandwords]

On 2/14/2022 at 5:56 PM, Chronosus said:

It seems that I last posted ...checks... about four and a half years ago 🧐 So, I suppose this counts as a respawn...!

 

Welcome back! Forums have changed a bit in 4 years, but hopefully you'll settle right in!

 

On 2/14/2022 at 5:56 PM, Chronosus said:

I have a medium term goal to cycle 1,000 miles in total this year. I'm currently at 88.2, so not doing too shabbily right now!

 

Not too shabby at all! Love your goal to get outside and keep it up - you'll hit 1K in no time!

[Chronosus]

On 2/14/2022 at 11:25 PM, Sloth the Enduring said:

Welcome back. 

 

59 minutes ago, athousandwords said:

Welcome back! Forums have changed a bit in 4 years, but hopefully you'll settle right in!

 

 

Thanks @Sloth the Enduring and @athousandwords! I'm quite liking this new structure, it's nice having all of the challenges in one place and being able to have multiple tags per challenge.

 

1 hour ago, athousandwords said:

Not too shabby at all! Love your goal to get outside and keep it up - you'll hit 1K in no time!

 

Thank you for the encouragement! I can't wait for nice, comfortable weather for biking. Outside of commuting (on days when I'm in the office), it's rare that I have a chance to bike where the temperature is above 5°C 🥶 Being of the nerdy variety, I wrote a Python script so I can graph my actual progress against the 'expected' progress if I made linear progress throughout the year (~2.75 Mi per day). A little behind right now, but nothing insurmountable 😄

 

 

Spoiler

 

[Chronosus]

Week one progress:

I started the challenge on Monday, so there'll only be six boxes for this week! Haven't added today's yet, since the day isn't finished, but will do soon!

 

Goal I:

☀️ ☀️ ⬜ ⬜ ⬜ ⬜ 

 

Goal II:

🟩 🟩 ⬜ ⬜ ⬜ ⬜ 

 

[Harriet]

On 2/14/2022 at 11:56 PM, Chronosus said:

Hi everyone!

 

It seems that I last posted ...checks... about four and a half years ago 🧐 So, I suppose this counts as a respawn...!

 

As a very brief re-intro, I'm an almost-30 year old guy living in the UK who finally wrapped up a six year PhD towards the end of last year. Over the previous six years, I've had an on-off relationship with physical activity, and had an unfortunate rendezvous with anxiety. While I've managed to improve some things over time, I want to recommit to having a stable, holistic base of general health. I was hoping to post last week, but I got struck down with a (seemingly non-infectious) gastritis which sorta ruined my week. I'm still recovering from this, so I'm going to keep this challenge very straight forward.

 

Hi! Happy respawning! Getting a bit of sunlight and weighing your two main carb sources sounds achievably small, yet effective. A good choice.

 

On 2/16/2022 at 5:08 PM, Chronosus said:

Week one progress:

I started the challenge on Monday, so there'll only be six boxes for this week! Haven't added today's yet, since the day isn't finished, but will do soon!

 

Goal I:

☀️ ☀️ ⬜ ⬜ ⬜ ⬜ 

 

Goal II:

🟩 🟩 ⬜ ⬜ ⬜ ⬜ 

 

 

How was the rest of last week?

[Chesire]

Have you been able to get outside?

[Chronosus]

Hi @Harriet and @Chesire, thanks for checking in!

 

The past two weeks have been really quite rough for me. Between some issues managing the gastritis flare up and concurrently having some withdrawal effects from some medications I was removed from, I kinda went into a "just do what you need to do to get by" kinda mode. I have still been walking and getting exercise, but not every day -- there were days when I could barely keep my eyes open at ~2 pm 🙄!  Similarly, there were days when I didn't have the mental energy to even measure out food on some scales. 

 

However, I'm feeling better now, so I'm hoping to get back on track starting tomorrow (...excuse me while I touch all of the wood in my house 😅 )!

[Chesire]

That sounds miserable.  Fingers crossed for you to continue feeling better

[Alanna]

3 hours ago, Chronosus said:

However, I'm feeling better now, so I'm hoping to get back on track starting tomorrow (...excuse me while I touch all of the wood in my house 😅 )!

 

I need to wrap up my thesis and work on my routine so I have time to join you for more of those walks  

[Chronosus]

1 hour ago, Alanna said:

 

I need to wrap up my thesis and work on my routine so I have time to join you for more of those walks  

 

 

I couldn't agree more -- at least there's light at the end of the tunnel for your thesis!

 

[Chronosus]

2 hours ago, Chesire said:

That sounds miserable.  Fingers crossed for you to continue feeling better

 

Thanks! Now that I have the energy to start going through other people's challenges, I look forward to checking out your challenge! 

[Elastigirl]

Hope you are continuing to feel better.

[Alanna]

 

[NightWatcher13]

On 2/26/2022 at 12:25 PM, Chronosus said:

The past two weeks have been really quite rough for me. Between some issues managing the gastritis flare up and concurrently having some withdrawal effects from some medications I was removed from, I kinda went into a "just do what you need to do to get by" kinda mode. I have still been walking and getting exercise, but not every day -- there were days when I could barely keep my eyes open at ~2 pm 🙄!  Similarly, there were days when I didn't have the mental energy to even measure out food on some scales. 

When in doubt, git gud - but don't get upset at yourself for not being "gud" right out of the gate

 

[Chronosus]

I'm back! For some reason, I've had real trouble managing to sign in to NF using Google Chrome recently 🤔

 

On 3/4/2022 at 2:49 AM, Elastigirl said:

Hope you are continuing to feel better.

 

Thanks! I'd say I'm about 80-90% the way towards feeling "normal". There are some foods that can still make my stomach hurt, but my diet isn't as restricted as rice and chicken anymore 😜

 

On 3/6/2022 at 12:34 PM, Alanna said:

 

 

 

(Some of the available gifs for "Sun" are nightmare fuel...)

 

On 3/6/2022 at 8:58 PM, NightWatcher13 said:

When in doubt, git gud - but don't get upset at yourself for not being "gud" right out of the gate

 

Haha, me and @Alanna watched all of those the other day. They're so good, and pretty much always on point! I've been rediscovering all of those lessons with Elden Ring, too.

 

Anyway, challenge update! 

 

Since I last posted, I've managed to go for a walk or a bike ride every day, which has been good! I've really enjoyed getting out, especially now that the weather is starting to get a bit milder, and I think it is helping my general wellbeing. On the food weighing front, it's been a bit hit-and-miss. Some days I do well and measure everything, whereas other days I don't measure anything. I think it really comes down to two things: my mental state and how easy the weighing actually is. The kitchen, right now, doesn't have much counter space, so it's not uncommon that the scales are behind something or underneath something. If that's the case, and I also don't have motivation to weigh (e.g., because I woke up early and alert but tired), then that's when I tend to skip it. I'll have to think about ways of making the habit easier.

[Elastigirl]

4 hours ago, Chronosus said:

nd I also don't have motivation to weigh (e.g., because I woke up early and alert but tired), then that's when I tend to skip it. I'll have to think about ways of making the habit easier.

Maybe weighing it out the night before?  Or just allowing yourself to skip it. If you do it occasionally, youare probably getting a good feel for amounts. Sometimes for me, giving myself permission not to, helps me be a bit more consistent.

[Chesire]

How did your challenge go?  Are you in for the next one?

[Alanna]