[DrFeelgood]

First challenge back was a success, time to raise the dial just a little bit.  Goals will be mainly the same with a couple of tweaks, as follows:

 

EAT:  100% Gluten Free (the gut demands it); drink only water, at least 2 glasses per day; morning fruit smoothie twice per week to keep nutrition up; no more than one candy item (<250 kcal) per day M-F, plus as much ice-cream as I want on Sunday; incorporate intermittent fasting a few days per week, eating nothing before dinner.

 

MOVE:  3 days per week (MWF) complete the NF BBWW, starting with 1 and eventually working up to 3 full circuits.  I'll gradually multiply the pushups just because I've already made gains there.

 

BUILD:  3 days per week (TThSa) spend at least an hour in either the shop, the studio, or the household; goal is to make/learn/fix/maintain something in need of my attention.

 

SLEEP:  Power down the house NLT 11:30 pm, complete all rituals and be in bed by midnight.  This is more of a "spend time on self-care" goal as opposed to a deadline.

 

I'll track progress with my usual spreadsheet, everything should be fairly straightforward this time around.

 

And away we go...

[DrFeelgood]

[DrFeelgood]

W1D1 was a very good day.  I woke early, ate a bowl of cereal and got ready for church.  Lunch afterward was a makeshift stew with some beef chuck that MFG canned and a few leftover roasted veggies from dinner the night before.  I snacked on nuts and cheese a bit here and there, then I made smashburgers on the Blackstone for dinner and ate a double with a side of home fries prepared by the lovely MFG.  I had my customary Sunday pint of ice cream in the evening: B&Js Phish Food, which was very good but very rich.

 

I powered everything down around 11:30 pm and completed my bedtime rituals, getting down and out just ahead of the midnight goal.  I didn't sleep particularly well owing to some crazy dreams, but I did my part to meet the goal.

 

W1D2 was a good day.  I made my Monday-morning smoothie and sipped it on the way to work.  I was planning a fast, but I broke it to grab a bag of potato chips with Work Buddy who'd been gone for a few weeks and wanted to hang out a bit (worth it).  When I got home I had a handful of pecans, then dinner was beef in gravy over rice, which I followed with a couple bowls of cereal.  Not the most nutritious day, but still within standards.

 

Since I took the Week Zero off (exercise-wise, that is; diet-wise I kicked butt and managed to lose 1.9 lbs) it was a bit of a chore to goad myself in to commencing the BBWW, but after deferring for a couple of hours I did a quick warmup then completed one full circuit in the living room, using a 10-lb dumbbell for the rows.  One circuit was enough for a start, so I called it and got on with dinner.  My squatters and lungers are griping lightly at me today, so I know I did good work.  Definitely still in better shape than I was at the beginning of 2015 when I couldn't even complete one circuit after which I could barely move for three solid days.

 

The rest of the evening was uneventful.  I did some banking (first of the month and all), watched a few videos, put another coat of finish on the guitar neck I'm working on out in the shop, and then played a little too much Rocket League before bed.  MFG was already sawing logs, so I powered down and quietly completed my rituals before hopping in beside her a little late; but I'm counting it anyways because I'm not just a player, I'm also the rule-maker and referee. 

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Following for make your own rules support.

#teamcalvinball

[DrFeelgood]

19 hours ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

Following for make your own rules support.

#teamcalvinball

Glad to have you aboard, sir.

 

 

W1D3 was a decent day.  I fasted all day until I got home from work, then I ate some cheese while waiting for dinner.  MFG made fried rice with chicken, so I had a big bowl of that with a couple of extra scrambled eggs.  After dinner I ate some pecans, a bit more cheddar, a bowl of cereal, and then a string cheese wrapped in salami.  That's a solid green Eat day.

 

For the Build goal I spent some time in my shop working on the guitar neck, which is coming along nicely.  It probably wasn't a full hour, but I only stopped because I was going to do some guitar practice.  Alas when I got inside my stomach decided to explode.  I'm blaming the kids--surely they brought some infectious nonsense back from camp, as they usually do.   At least this year it isn't covid.  Anyway, I was down for the remainder of the evening due to no fault of my own, therefore it counts.

 

I only stayed up because (most of) the kids are home now and that means I'm readjusting to having noises and activity in my house.  Still, I powered everything down at 10:30 to

complete my rituals, then I shooed everyone off to bed so I could lie down and fall asleep before 11 pm.  All green for Day 3.

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Hope you get well soon.

[deftona]

Following along! And hoping you feel better soon. 

[DrFeelgood]

7 hours ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

Hope you get well soon.

 

1 hour ago, deftona said:

Following along! And hoping you feel better soon. 

 

Thanks for the well wishes, and welcome, Def--always an honor to be followed by the queen!  I'm feeling better today, thanks.  I think it was just a passing stomach bug or a mild FBI since MFG and the boys all had similar issues that are pretty much gone now.  I'm nearly done with my exercises and about to tempt fate again with an omelet for dinner.

[DrFeelgood]

W1D4 was an okay day.  I fasted all day until I got home from work, then I had a quick handful of pecans before doing my exercises.  For dinner I made a salad (lettuce, tomato, cheddar, and salami) and cooked a 3-egg omelet with ham, cheddar, and tomatoes.  In the evening I had two bowls of cereal, some more cheese and salami, and a small pack of trail mix.  That's green for Eat, but it's not quite where I want to be.  Seems like right as I started having success with intermittent fasting MFG stopped planning large and heavy dinners.  I don't want to be bulking out every meal with tons of cereal.

 

Before dinner I did a full circuit of the BBWW in the backyard, using a concrete block for the rows.  I need a kettlebell.  After a brief rest I did 20 more bonus pushups and called it good.  I probably could've done more, but I'm building up slowly to the full 3-circuit BBWW with whatever extras I can tack on by challenge-end.

 

Sleep cratered pretty hard.  I finished watching a movie around 10:30 and was going to power down and get settled, but I ended up going on a Frasier binge and gaming spree that ran until nearly 3 am.  I guess I just wasn't ready to go back to work.  That's a big red Sleep goal, but I'll recover and make it work next time (no more Sleep goal until Sunday).

[Shello]

I see you sliding in with 4 green days in the bank already.  Following!  

[DrFeelgood]

7 hours ago, Shello said:

I see you sliding in with 4 green days in the bank already.  Following!  

Welcome!  One of those green days was iffy to begin with, the other was premature.  Spreadsheet is telling the truth now.

[Shello]

10 hours ago, DrFeelgood said:

Spreadsheet is telling the truth now.

There's still a whole lot of green.  

[DrFeelgood]

On 8/5/2022 at 9:35 AM, Shello said:

There's still a whole lot of green.  

Hopefully with more to come!

__________________________________________

 

W1D5 was a good day.  I fasted until lunch then ate a bag of Cheetos puffs and a Hershey bar with almonds--not the most nutritious, but still within standards.  For dinner MFG made oven-roasted potatoes, bacon strips, and garden salads (I think the idea was BLTs, but the boys ate all the bread and didn't tell her).  I ate some of all that then added a couple of scrambled eggs with ham, cheese, and tomatoes.  Once again my stomach exploded a couple hours after dinner.  The common denominator seems to be eggs, so I'm going to cut them out and see how it goes (so far so good).  That was all for Eat, so it's green.

 

For the Build goal I applied another coat of finishing oil to the guitar neck in my shop.  I didn't do anything else after my stomach exploded, but I'm still counting it green for the day.  The rest of the evening was spent packing and getting everything ready for a weekend trip to Texas.  No Sleep goal since I took Friday off work.

 

W1D6 was a great day.  I fasted until lunch when we stopped at In-n-Out and I ate a Double Double with grilled onions, light spread, protein style.  I also dad-taxed the kids' fries a bit.  For dinner my brother grilled huge strip steaks and served them with roasted asparagus and mashed potatoes (yum!).  Later in the evening we all went out for dessert, and I had a small rocky road milkshake.  All compliant for another excellent day.  I juggled all other goals since it was mainly a travel day.

 

W1D7 was an excellent day.  I fasted until dinner, for which Texas Brother baked a trio of gluten-free frozen pizzas from Costco that were actually really good, and I ended eating an entire one by myself.  Only other thing in my day was ice water.  Fully green.

 

I woke up earlier than everyone else on Saturday, so I found a nice clear spot by the back window and did my exercises.  I started with a thorough dynamic warmup since I hadn't been out of bed very long yet.  Then I did a full circuit of 20 squats, 25 pushups, 20 lunges, 2 lengths of farmer walks with a 5-gal water bottle (~40 pounds), a 40 second plank (super-strict), and 30 jumping jacks.  That I deemed adequate to finish out Week 1 on course to begin pursuing 2 circuits in W2.  I considered doing a little more work, but we were planning to go to Topgolf so I counted hitting balls as a bonus workout.

 

I shuffled the Build goal to Sunday, and even that's going to be a little abbreviated since I only got home from our trip a little over an hour ago.

 

Week 1 Check-in:  Traveling preempted my usual check-in, so all I can do this week is summarize my goals.  I got 14 out of 16 in the green, and only missed with Sleep goals during the week.  I'm fairly confident that those happened because I'm really resenting my job right now, and I'm irritated that it's monopolizing all of the best hours of my week.  If I could have mornings at home to work in my shop then go in and spend all the deathly hot hours in my office then that would be ideal.

 

No progress photo or weigh-in until next week.  I'm feeling pretty good and it looks like the man in the mirror is slimming down nicely, but we all know that mirrors are liars.  On to more Lean & Strong in Week 2.

[Elastigirl]

Nice work at hitting your eating goals! I hope you figure out what's bothering your stomach. I know from sad experience that it can be very frustrating to not know what is causing issues.

[DrFeelgood]

13 hours ago, Elastigirl said:

Nice work at hitting your eating goals! I hope you figure out what's bothering your stomach. I know from sad experience that it can be very frustrating to not know what is causing issues.

Thanks!  I've had mild issues with eggs in the past, so it wouldn't surprise me to find that this particular carton was especially egregious.  I'll leave them out of my diet for a while and see if those stomach symptoms (easily distinguishable from gluten symptoms) don't recur.  I'm perfectly okay with not eating eggs, but it's just another restriction that makes planning more difficult for MFG. 

_______________________________________

 

W2D1 was a very good day.  I fasted through the morning at TX Bro's house, then for lunch they wanted to go to In-n-Out, which I'm always happy to oblige.  And since Sunday is my free day I had a magnificent meal--4x4 with grilled onions, light spread, protein-style; fries with ketchup; and a chocolate milkshake.  We drove back to Oklahoma and got settled back in at home, then MFG made tacos for dinner.  Later in the evening I ran out to the mega-mart with MFG and scored a pint of Cherry Garcia for my weekly ice cream.  All good for a green Eat day to start the week.

 

My Build goal I pushed from Saturday got done after my ice cream.  I applied another coat of finishing oil to the guitar neck, then I took Butch's bass body off the paint rig to check the coverage--it'll need a couple of touchups.  After that I sat at my studio desk for another half hour and did some refresher playing, mostly just noodling fun riffs to keep my callouses after not playing for almost an entire week.

 

Sleep is yellow.  I had a lot to catch up on when I got home from the trip, then after the boys went to bed I took an extra hour to play some games, watch a few episodes of my current show, and generally unwind before beginning the workweek.    I powered down at midnight and skipped the rituals to just get right to sleep (don't worry, I caught back up on them this morning).

[DrFeelgood]

W2D2 was a good day.  I started with my morning smoothie then fasted until I got home from work.  I had a small handful of pecans and a string cheese for a quick afternoon snack.  For dinner MFG made pulled pork in the slow-cooker, so I piled that high on a few slices of GF white bread and covered it all in my favorite sauce.

Before dinner I completed my exercises, doing two full circuits (verbatim) of the BBWW.  Those lunges are brutal.  I definitely need something heavier for rows, the 10-lb dumbbell is practically nothing.

Sleep is green.  I powered down at quarter to 11, completed the rituals, and was in bed with lights out well ahead of schedule.

[DrFeelgood]

W2D3 was an okay day.  I broke my fast early when I was craving some potato chips.  Lunch was a small portion of smoked meatloaf with mashed potatoes from the deep freeze followed by a Hershey bar (with almonds) from the mini-mart.  For dinner MFG made GF pasta with meat sauce, and if I had stopped there like I planned then the day would've been green.  Later in the evening I ate two huge bowls of rice krispies, and the rest of the leftover pork with barbecue sauce.  Even then I would've counted it reasonably okay if it had been due to genuine hunger, but I was irritated at the day's events and was just trying to drown my feelings.

Build is where it mostly went wrong.  I got out in the shop and applied another coat of finishing oil to the guitar neck, then I got started level-sanding the clearcoat on Butch's bass body.  That was going awesome until the palm sander got away from me for less than a second and burned through the finish on the edges in two of the most obvious spots on the whole guitar.   Frick.  With the accumulation of flaws in the finish these were just a bridge too far, and now I'm going to have to take it all the way back down; so that's many dollars and several weeks wasted.  And on the fitness front it was the only green goal for the day, but it contributed to the others turning yellow.

Because I was so annoyed afterward I just sulked at my desk for the rest of the night eating food, watching videos, and playing games.  I went on a super-rad losing streak in Rocket League and just had to stay up long enough to undo the damage and regain my rank.  That meant I didn't power down until a bit after midnight, when I paid lip-service to the rituals then got under the covers for a decent night's sleep with a few crazy dreams--in one I was my current age (44) but had gone back to high school and was participating in football camp as a player for the team.  Weird.

[deftona]

2 hours ago, DrFeelgood said:

I was irritated at the day's events and was just trying to drown my feelings.

 

Urgh, I feel this. I'm trying to find ways to stop doing this but so far the answer eludes me. 

 

Sorry about all the annoyances. I hope today was better.

[Shello]

Rough days are rough, especially when one thing brings down the rest of the day.  May today be sunny and bright.

[DrFeelgood]

2 hours ago, deftona said:

Urgh, I feel this. I'm trying to find ways to stop doing this but so far the answer eludes me. 

 

Sorry about all the annoyances. I hope today was better.

I like to think that if I had a rack then I'd be able to to lift my feelings away instead of eating them.  I sure do like eating, though.

 

Today is better, thanks.  I think I may have solved the paint problem in a cool way, just gotta run it past Butch first.

[DrFeelgood]

W2D4 was a better day.  I broke my fast around lunch time with a bag of Cheeto's puffs.  For dinner MFG made a sheet-pan of roasted veggies, sausage, and spam; and for dessert she made a no-bake cheesecake in a GF crumb crust.  I ate two slices of that because I'm a good person and I deserve a little happiness from time to time.

Move goal was a beast (well, relatively speaking.  It's not like I'm power-lifting 1000 lbs anymore).  I did two full circuits of the BBWW, with extra pushups (+5), longer planks (+15 sec), and heavier rows (+10 lbs); then I did a bonus set of 20 or 25 pushups--I legit can't remember.

Sleep was a touch late since I was busy carrying a couple of Diamonds in a 3v3 tournament that ran long, but we won and I had a good time playing while watching some shows.  Rituals were cursory and bedtime was pretty immediate.

 

Not feeling super great this week; I don't know if I underdid it last week with food, but I had regained a belt notch by Sunday only to have lost it again already this week.  As much as I feel stuck in terms of weight (really just "size") loss it is still good to be rebuilding my physical stats and making steady gains.

[DrFeelgood]

Shaking off a couple of not-wins, will be back to regularly scheduled program momentarily...

[Shello]

On 8/16/2022 at 7:03 PM, DrFeelgood said:

Shaking off a couple of not-wins, will be back to regularly scheduled program momentarily...

I had a rough week week 3 too.  How is the shaking it off going?

[DrFeelgood]

On 8/22/2022 at 10:11 AM, Shello said:

I had a rough week week 3 too.  How is the shaking it off going?

That poor bottomless Tay-Tay... 

 

I'm okay, just on a slight hiatus.  I was doing well to shake off a tough weekend, then I was sidelined by a "flare-up"

 

 

and in an effort to not further anger the Grapes of Wrath™ I've stopped doing everything strenuous.  Unless you count the way I've been eating, I suppose...

[DrFeelgood]

Well the evil has somewhat subsided, and I've managed to wrangle my eating back in.  I'm still not going to be working out until I'm more fully recovered--no estimate, I'll just take it a day at a time.

After three weeks on the sidelines my weight crept back up to 241.6.  This week it's back down to 240 on the nose.  Not an overly successful challenge given what I set out to do, but I'm not dead and there's movement in the right direction again.

 

Sorry to have dropped out on y'all--even though I wasn't making gains I still tried to keep up with your threads, but the Cloudflare thing really doesn't like my office network.  I'm sure at this point I've successfully trained whatever AI is going to nuke us all how to recognize every low-res bus, boat, plane, train, horse, and dog picture on the entire web.