[Shello]

 

Family vacation is the last week of this challenge.  I'm still trying to lose the weight from my last vacation.  Last challenge I worked on some baselines for my goals so it's time to step things up a bit and get ready for vacation.   All my challenges this year follow my 2023 Roadmap posted in my Battle Log.  

 

Goal 1: Log Food Daily

I've been taking a break from logging food.  It was much needed.  However, 1) it's not working that well and 2) I think I'm ready.  In the last week or two I've been checking in to log a few meals here and there to see where they land.  It's time.  

Tier I - Log food and stay stay within Noom calorie budget by 100 calories

Tier II - Ultimately keep the average calories under budget over the course of the challenge

 

Goal 2: Fitness

Last challenge I averaged 40%  of the fitness goals.  The roadmap goal is 150 minutes of cardio, strength 2x a week and stretching/yoga 2x a week.  The goal for this challenge will be to hit 50%

Tire I - 75 minutes of cardio, at least 1 each of strength and stretching.  These can be bundled on the same day.

Tier II - Cardio at least 2x a week, regardless of how many minutes.

 

Goal 3: Fitness Snacks

Even on non fitness days I should do some movement daily.  It should be so easy.  It only takes a couple minutes but I had trouble working it in last challenge.  I figured it'll be easier if I have some options lined up ahead of time so I don't have to think about it.  Hence the fitness snack.  1 minute of stretching and 1 minute of on of these exercises: squats, half jacks, primal squat, plank, or just go up and down the stairs.

Tier I - Fill in with fitness snacks to hit move daily goal 75% 

Tier II - At least do 1 fitness snack a week (I'm lowballing it here but baby steps while I build habits)

 

Goal 4: Tidy daily for 5 minutes or purge 1 item

This was one of the hardest goals from last challenge. I did hit 70% so I'd like to get it to 75%.  The strategy is to work it into the routine, particularly weekdays.  When I get home from work, I chat with DDG before going up to change.  Then typically end up joining him on the couch and that's it.  Doing some tidying after changing but before settling for the night is the best chance.  

Tier I - Tidy 75% of the time

Tier II - There is no tier II.  Just do it.  

 

The Other Stuff

I also need to keep up with the daily and weekly goals from my Roadmap. Some of those overlap with the goals above.

Daily goals

• Start the day with water
• Fast 15 hours
• Eat a freggy
• Move Daily
• Read
• Tidy 5 minutes or purge 1 item

 

Weekly goals

• Cardio 150 minutes (For this challenge focusing on 75)
• Strength 2x week (focusing on at least 1)
• Stretch or Yoga 2x a week (focusing on at least 1)
• Batch cook weekly
• Prepare a meal plan weekly

 

 

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Following.

[Snarkyfishguts]

Happy New Challenge Day! 

 

I like your tidy strategy for getting it done in that transition between the day and settling in for cozy couch time.  And fitness snacks are the best snacks!  

[Shello]

19 hours ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

Following.

Happy to have you around, as always! 

 

16 hours ago, Snarkyfishguts said:

Happy New Challenge Day! 

 

I like your tidy strategy for getting it done in that transition between the day and settling in for cozy couch time.  And fitness snacks are the best snacks!  

I mean, chips and dip are pretty awesome snacks.   Definitely less helpful though.  

[Snarkyfishguts]

10 minutes ago, Shello said:

 

I mean, chips and dip are pretty awesome snacks.   Definitely less helpful though.  

Yeah, you're not wrong...  

[Darciana]

Shnacky shnacks 🤤

 

I definitely like the tidy/purge idea. I really need to do that and I keep telling myself I need to go through my closet and get rid of things I no longer wear, especially working from home. I might steal that as a side quest here soon. 

[Shello]

1 hour ago, Darciana said:

Shnacky shnacks 🤤

 

I definitely like the tidy/purge idea. I really need to do that and I keep telling myself I need to go through my closet and get rid of things I no longer wear, especially working from home. I might steal that as a side quest here soon. 

It definitely helps with all or nothing thinking.  I would normally put off going through my closet because it's a big job.  But if I only need to do 5 minutes worth or find 1 thing to donate then I'm one step closer each day.  

[RES]

I like snacks....learning to like exercise snacks is a bit harder though! Here for the habit building! 

[TimovieMan]

Here for the snacks!

 

Wait...

 

[Shello]

15 hours ago, RES said:

I like snacks....learning to like exercise snacks is a bit harder though! Here for the habit building! 

I'm on that exact page.   Here's to more exercise snacks and less real snacks.  

 

41 minutes ago, TimovieMan said:

Here for the snacks!

 

Wait...

 

Oh there will be food.  That's why we also need fitness snacks.  

[Shello]

Monday - 8/8 goals met.

Day 1 and I'm off to a good start.  I logged all my food.  Instead of religiously logging in my Noom app, I used it to log specific meals and snacks and I'm keeping a log in a spreadsheet.  This way I don't really have to actually log when I eat the same meals repeatedly since I already have the data and I can keep track of how the calories are used over the day.  I particularly interested in what portion of calories are used for snacks and sweets.  

 

Dinner was leftover pizza from birthday night.  It was a little higher calorie but we made it out for a walk at the lake so I still came in 100 under my calorie budget and got 45 minutes of cardio in. 

 

Once we got home from the walk and showered my head started to feel squidgy with a migraine brewing.  I took some meds for it right away and we relaxed for a bit and ate dinner.  I went to bed early and woke up with no head pain.  Hopefully that means I bypassed the migraine but I'm definitely taking it easy today.  

 

Tidying worked well too.  We went for the walk right away so we could finish before dark but then I tidied after my shower but before settling in and just put away some of the clothes laying around the bedroom.  

[Shello]

I realized there is no context in this challenge for the 8 daily goals.  Logging food and staying with budget are 2 new ones added on to last challenge.  My other specific foals goals for this challenge just piggy back on the goals already set.  The other 6 are the daily goals from my Roadmap:

• Start the day with Water
• Fast 15 hours
• Eat a freggy
• Move daily (Now includes fitness snacks when I'm not fitnessing)
• Read 
• Tidy 5 minutes or purge

[TrashcanCarla]

Following!

[Shello]

2 hours ago, TrashcanCarla said:

Following!

Welcome!  

[Shello]

Tuesday - 7/8 goals met.

I didn't fast due the migraine recovery.  I grabbed some cubed potato hashbrowns and some bacon from the work cafeteria.  I still stayed well under my calorie target for the day.  Dinner was reheated baked crispy hot honey chicken with some instant mashed potatoes and some green beans.  It wasn't quite as good as the first night I made it but overall a killer dinner.  I wasn't feeling up to a workout so I tried out a fitness snack.  It felt weird.  But I got in 1 minute of stretching and then tried a minute of half jacks.  I do half jacks to avoid jumping and hurting the knees but the half jacks hurt my shoulder so I switched mid stream to some knee ups and then, switched to plank, and then some donkey kicks.  It doesn't really matter what I do but having a plan got me started and I did a thing.    

 

Wednesday - 6/8 goals met

I had full intentions to do some workout or a fitness snack when I got home but I had to run an errand and then I think a think happened at home and I felt too busy and wanted to relax so that's what I did.  Tidying got skipped too.  Errands should maybe count for something.   Dinner was leftover hot honey chicken but on a bun with bacon and cheese and it was glorious.  This time I reheated the chicken in the air fryer and it helped a lot.  I went over calories a little but not so much that I didn't meet the goal.  

 

Thursday - 7/8 goals met

I had class after work and then we had to rush to get to DDG's grandson's school music concert.  We expected to eat out but it was done early enough that we just headed back home and made food there.  We were out of leftovers but had buns left so we used frozen premade chicken patties to make chicken sandwiches.  Peach needed help with homework so I skipped the tidying.  No fitnessing or snacking but I hit a high enough burn goal from being busy to count for a point.   

[Snarkyfishguts]

Errands are exhausting and totally count. 
 

stupid migraines. I hope you are fully recovered. 
 

speaking of, how is Peach’s recovery going?

[Shello]

On 2/10/2023 at 6:18 PM, Snarkyfishguts said:

Errands are exhausting and totally count. 
 

stupid migraines. I hope you are fully recovered. 
 

speaking of, how is Peach’s recovery going?

The migraine came back over the weekend but it was mild and a good sleep took care of it.  Peach is improving and back to school and work but taking it easy otherwise.  Still no chewing for a few more weeks and she's getting bored of her food choices.  

[Shello]

Friday - 5/8 goals met.  

I was hungry in the morning so I didn't fast.  I went down to the cafeteria for some sausage links.  There weren't many good options to have with it although theoretically its a possibility to just eat the sausage links.  But there was a caramel pecan roll that was from the day before that they had meant to toss but offered it for free.  Yes Ma'am!  Turns out I was full enough after the sausages and saved the pecan roll for later; not enough later since it was staring at me all morning.  I skipped the baked Cheetos with my lunch and ate much later to help offset but ended up eating the Cheetos later in the afternoon anyway.   Dinner was pizza night; we could have skipped it but the day felt like a bust already anyway.  We went with the pre-portioned pizza Life Hack and had totinos frozen pizza.   It's always enough even though it doesn't look it at the start.  I did manage to skip sweets (except the pecan roll).   I somehow also forgot to read Friday.  

 

Saturday - 8/8 goals met.  

The weather was lovely so we made it out for a walk at the lake.  Not quite 3 miles, 60 minutes.   We did spend the rest of the day relaxing on the couch.  I had breakfast after a 15 hour fast and just had a toasted english muffin with peanut butter.  The only freggy for the day was a banana; it was blended with milk and ice cream and served with grilled cheese for lunch.  Dinner was frozen chicken patty sandwiches.  

 

Sunday - 8/8 goals met.  

I slept in ridiculously late and it felt marvelous.   We made breakfast burritos for breakfast and wasted a few hours on the couch.  I needed to stop at a clothing store to try on a dress I found online.  They didn't have it in stock but I was able to order it to the store.  I did try on another dress from the clearance rack.  Peach had also got me a couple giftcards to other stores at the mall so I checked those out and wore myself out trying on clothes.  No one can convince me trying on clothes is not a workout.  I counted it for the movement for the day.  And I found some good deals.  I had to relax once I got home before I did anything else.  But then I did a face mask and a hair mask before showering.  I spent the evening working on a powerpoint for class while DDG watched the Superbowl. 

Dinner was stuffed french bread.   Browned lean hamburger with garlic and onion, then added a can of cream of mushroom soup, some cheddar cheese sauce I had left over in the fridge, some milk and Worcestershire.   We took a french bread loaf, sliced the top off and dug out some of the bread to make a space for the meat mixture.  Some of the pulled out bread went into the meat mixture.  Then we added it to the loaf, covered with cheese and then topped with the top half of the bread and baked until the cheese was gooey.  It was pretty good but I think it was missing some acid.  I'll add some to the leftovers.  

 

 

[Shello]

Week 0 Recap

 

Food logging

Under calorie target: 86%.  Missed one day but went way over that one day.  Average daily calories over budget by 21 calories.  There's plenty of time to fix that.  Although probably not this week.  See below.  

 

Fitness: Cardio 105 minutes, 1 stretch session.  Missed 1 strength.  I meant to do it Saturday but my head was bothering me so I took it easy. 

 

Fitness Snacks - Move daily 86%.  I supplemented with 1 fitness snack but missed it another day due to being busy.  

 

Tidying: 71%.  A little behind the goal still.   It was missed on 2 busy days.  

 

I expected to lose a little more weight this week since I was back to tracking but Friday was not helpful.  I managed 1/2 pound and I'll take it.  Next week is likely to be very difficult.  A coworker is retiring.  Tuesday is a department food day, with her retirement cake plus DDG and I are going out to the movies and likely eating dinner out there.  Wednesday is a retirement lunch with our other coworkers and then a retirement happy hour after work with her team.  

[Snarkyfishguts]

6 hours ago, Shello said:

No one can convince me trying on clothes is not a workout.  I counted it for the movement for the day.

There is a lot of bending and reaching and carrying armfuls of clothes that get really heavy! I totally agree. 

 

Your week zero looks pretty great in the summary!  

 

 

[Shello]

On 2/13/2023 at 8:42 PM, Snarkyfishguts said:

There is a lot of bending and reaching and carrying armfuls of clothes that get really heavy! I totally agree. 

Agreed.  I like the Torrid fitting rooms.  Each room has a fan you can turn on if you get hot.  They understand the struggle.  

[Shello]

Monday - 6/8 goals met

I didn't fast.  Peach works at Panera and she is trying to be nice and brought home cinnamon crunch bagels.  They are very difficult to resist and that would be wasting Peach's efforts.  I tried to wait a bit to eat it thinking I'd be able to prolong lunch.  I did prolong it a little and didn't quite eat all my lunch.  I still snacked a bit and had a single piece of chocolate (funsize) and a banana.  Dinner was stuffed french bread.   I hit the calorie target by the skin of my teeth.  I went over by 80 calories.  Close enough to count.   No fitnessing or fitness snacking but calorie burn was high enough to count.    I skipped tidying too but spent a good portion of the evening prepping for Tuesday night's class. 

 

Tuesday - 5/8 goals met

Food day at work and DDG and I had dinner out at the movie theater.  I didn't even both logging food so I missed 2 points already.    It's just too hard to log unfamiliar foods and just didn't seem worth the trouble.  I knew I'd be over so I still had to focus on being mindful and making good choices.   I did a decent job.  I did most of the eating early so I didn't make a 15 hour fast either. I couldn't use the same life hack as last month since most of the foods were brunchy.  I made croque monsieur rolls.  They have all the basic ingredients as ham and cheese Hawaiian sliders but I made an enriched bread dough and made them into rolls (similar to cinnamon rolls).  They were very good.   I did try a few strategies and mindful guidelines to keep me honest.

• eat half portions
• Make a plate and walk away ( MAPAWA) Essentially don't graze all day.  It helped that I had a lot of meetings.
• Stop early.   
• Include Freggies

I ate primarily in the morning up to lunch time and held back in the afternoon to make sure I wouldn't get too stuffed and so I'd be hungry at dinner time.   I started with half of one of my rolls and half of a pecan roll.  Closer to lunch I had a plate with another croque monsieur roll, cheese, crackers, and apples (also some caramel dip but we don't need to focus on that).  Then just a cookie in the afternoon.   For dinner I poured over the menu.  The lightest thing that was enough to count as dinner was 900 calories.  We decided to split a thin crust pepperoni pizza and some boneless wings.  I was full but not stuffed.  I'm sure I went way over calories but it could have been a lot worse.  

No fitnessing or fitness snacking but it was a busy day and calorie burn was high enough to count.  

 

 

[Shello]

Wednesday - 5/8 goals met

I didn't bother logging again.  I had a lunch with peers for the retiree and then a surprise retirement party for her after work where I had dinner.  I also didn't tidy since I got home later than usual because of said party.  

Lunch went well.  I fasted until nearly lunch and then had a banana to get a freggy in.  But once I started eating I had trouble waiting until lunch so I grabbed some cheese and crackers from the leftover stash from the food day the day before.  Knowing I was going out for an early dinner I ordered a Caesar salad for lunch.   I did use that as an excuse to have a cookie once I got back to work and a mini Payday candy bar.  The party after work was early enough that I certainly could have avoided food and waited until I got home but that's not what I did.  I immediately grabbed some seasoned tortilla chips, some sausage queso, and a couple slices of pizza.  I also ordered a basket of tots for the party and ate some with the queso.  And a drink naturally.  

None of that was completely unreasonable and I expected to go over but once I got home, I hung out with Peach for a bit and then went for a late night snack.  DDG had pizza and there was some leftover.  I had a slice of that and a couple of peanut butter lovers Reese's cups.  

 

No fitnessing or fitness snacking but calorie burn was just barely high enough to count.  

[Snarkyfishguts]

Oh a surprise party! Nice! And payday bars, that’s clever. 
 

Panera cinnamon crunch bagels are little crack rings.

[Shello]

Ugh.. I got behind again.  Last week was kind of a dumpster fire.  Food day and went out to eat 4 times.  I ended up with a migraine Friday and let dinner up to DDG.  He ordered Dominos and I enjoyed it.   The weekend was fairly sensible but I didn't log food so who knows.  We did have some hashbrowns in the fridge to use up (the shredded kind; my favorite) so I was excited for that.  We made breakfast burritos Saturday and then grilled cheese, egg, and bacon sandwiches Sunday with hashbrowns on the side.  But I did stuff some into my sammich and that was very good.   For the whole week there was only one day where I both tracked food AND stayed near my calorie target.  I still went over that day but was just barely within 100 calories.  Otherwise tracking has been a disaster.  

 

No fitnessing happened.  No fitness snacking either.  But there were some weird migraine days.  Non sequential so just as I'd think I'd kicked it, it would start up again.   Activity levels and calorie burn were high enough at the beginning of the week to count towards goal, then not.  

 

Start the day with Water - 100%

Fast 15 hours - 71%

Freggies - 86% (changing my usual lunch to include mutliple freggies has really helped with this)

Move daily - 71%

Read daily - 100%

Tidy - 57%

Log food - 43%

Stay under 100 calories over - 14%