[Shello]

Welcome to my challenge.   As always, I've set up a Roadmap for what I want to accomplish in 2024.  Mine is posted here in my battle log.  Every challenge is aimed at accomplishing some part of the roadmap or furthering my adventure towards this year's goals.  

 

For the most part I've been doing the things that usually work.   I am moving in the right direction but VEERRRYYYY slowly.   I am seeing some non scale victories that I'm tracking in my battle log but the scale has been stuck on a plateau since January.  Obviously there are plenty of slip ups, exceptions, and excuses, but overall I feel like I should be moving in the right direction a little faster.   So I took a look at a few tweaks I could make to clean up some of my routines.  I don't want to make any big changes or change too quickly so overall this challenge is just more of the same.  

 

 

Diet

The data I have from logging calories does not support the plateau.  There are a number of culprits that could be contributing to this.  There could be some bites or swigs here and there that aren't logged; a few M&Ms not logged or estimates could be off.  Perhaps my calorie budget needs to be lower?   Or maybe it's the quality of the food.  Too much sodium?  Inflammatory responses?   

 

The facts of the matter are that I am just not going to log any more precisely than I am now.  I already feel a little neurotic when I weigh my batch cooked foods and I mostly log everything, even estimating the M&Ms.  So that's not going to change.  I also could reduce my calorie target but I'd prefer to just aim to have extra left over every day so that the budgeted calories are there when I need them.  I don't want to feel bad for using them all but I aim to not use them all all of the time.  That leaves quality.  Things that I came up with that could help:

• reduce sugar
• increase protein
• include some anti-inflammatory foods or eliminate some inflammatory foods.  

 

Luckily, I'm a creature of habit and I eat the exact same lunch and snack every single work day.  This is a constant that if I get it right then it sets up those days for success.  So here are the tweaks that I'm making this challenge to see how it affects the scale.    Overall these small changes free up 80 calories a day and have drastic impacts to carbs, fat, and sugar intake.  

• Replace the baked cheetos at lunch with overnight oats.  This increases protein and fiber for about the same calories
• Move the berries, grapes, and carrots that I used to eat with lunch to my afternoon snack, replacing the banana that I usually didn't want to eat anyway.  This decreases calories a little, decreases carbs, and berries have inti-inflammatory properties.  And I am including a little bit of banana in the overnight oats already.  
• Replacing the Reese's mini PB cups with squares of dark chocolate.  This one might be tough but it's the habit I used to have.  This reduces calories, carbs and sugar, and fat by tons.  It does sacrifice some protein but I don't think Reese's are the ideal source of protein.  Besides, I'm making up for it with the overnight oats.  

 

 

Fitnessing

My fitnessing took a dive about 3 or 4  years ago and I've been babystepping myself back since my last respawn.  It's time to make another change and increase the intensity.  I plan to stick to the same frequency for now but look for ways to increase the intensity and get my heart rate up to cardio zone 2.  I'm currently planning 1 cardio per week, 1 strength per week, and then a 3rd bonus session of one or the other.  Here are my current ideas to work in some more higher intensity cardio into my current routine.   There's not a lot of ideas so feel free to throw some at me!  

• Rucking is back!  I can bring a ruck on our walks.  Bonus - on long walks DDG and I can take turns so it will help him too
• Hop on an elliptical for 5-10 minutes after a strength session to add more minutes in
• Increase our pace on walks, especially shorter duration ones to increase heart rate.  
• Focus on Active minutes on Fitbit.  The goal is 150 per week.  In 2023 I average 14 minutes per day.  So far this year I'm averaging 12.  Any increase is good.  

 

 

I'm still tracking my daily goals from my Roadmap as well.  

• Start the day with water
• Fast 15 hours
• Eat at least 1 freggy per day (preferably 3)
• Log food daily using Lose It
• Stay under calorie budget, includes a couple high calories days per week.  

 

 

 

[deftona]

There are some great ideas here, the tweaks, although not saving all that many calories are making a huge difference in the nutritional profile and I bet you will feel less hungry so please report back on this! 

[Sovalis]

Looks good! Following!

[DarK_RaideR]

17 hours ago, Shello said:

baked cheetos

The world never ceases to amaze me. Is that a thing?

[WhiteGhost]

25 minutes ago, DarK_RaideR said:

The world never ceases to amaze me. Is that a thing?

My favorite thing about Shello challenges is discovering the amazing world of foods that exists beyond my imagination  

[Shello]

17 hours ago, deftona said:

There are some great ideas here, the tweaks, although not saving all that many calories are making a huge difference in the nutritional profile and I bet you will feel less hungry so please report back on this! 

I'm hoping it's just the nudge I need.  

 

10 hours ago, Sovalis said:

Looks good! Following!

Thank you.  Welcome!

 

5 hours ago, DarK_RaideR said:

The world never ceases to amaze me. Is that a thing?

Indeed.  I'm sure if I  taste tested them together I'd prefer the real thing but only eating Baked Cheetos I hardly notice the difference.  Game Changer. 

 

4 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

My favorite thing about Shello challenges is discovering the amazing world of foods that exists beyond my imagination  

I recently put an easter package together for Peach.  I found Oreo Dirt Pie flavored Oreos.  They have two layers of chocolate creme filling but then have 'gummy sprinkles' baked into the cookie to simulate the gummy worms in a dirt pie.  I was skeptical but they were very tasty - mostly because you can't taste the gummy sprinkles.  

[DrFeelgood]

25 minutes ago, Shello said:

Indeed.  I'm sure if I  taste tested them together I'd prefer the real thing but only eating Baked Cheetos I hardly notice the difference.  Game Changer. 

I presume we're talking about the White-Cheddar Simply Puffs?  Those are indeed outstanding, the only drawback is that they're slightly more expensive where I live.  Bonus for me is that both versions are gluten-free, so when I'm away from home and in need of something safe to eat that's my go-to snack.

[Shello]

38 minutes ago, DrFeelgood said:

I presume we're talking about the White-Cheddar Simply Puffs?  Those are indeed outstanding, the only drawback is that they're slightly more expensive where I live.  Bonus for me is that both versions are gluten-free, so when I'm away from home and in need of something safe to eat that's my go-to snack.

I haven't seen those.    I get these.  Probably more expensive but we get the individual sized variety pack of baked chips in snack bags because I've learned I can't trust myself with an entire bag of chips. 

 

[Shello]

Day 1 - Monday

Successful day 1.  The new tweaked lunch was good.  Overnight oats were a little dry.  I'll have to work on my recipe a bit.  I didn't have the correct chocolate substitute so I had 2 squares of something else and then a single mini Reese's.  Coincidentally, according to Lose It app I was over my sugar goal by 19 grams and there are exactly 19 grams in a single mini Reese's.  I have the right chocolate sub for today so we'll give that another try.   My planned snack was a little light so I threw in a granola bar. 

 

Then the test goes awry because I got a migraine.   I left work early because I didn't have any meds with me.  I went home, took my meds and then immediately took a 2 hour nap.  Woke up headache free but some lingering migraine hangover symptoms.  I took a hot bath and then joined DDG for dinner.   We just threw some chicken fingers in the air fryer and then cut them up and threw them in a salad.  Finished the day with a Yasso frozen yogurt bar and 150 calories left over.  I was just a little peckish still when I went to bed but it's hard to tell if I really ate too little or if I just needed a little extra fuel for the migraine.  I didn't wake up hungry and lost another half pound of Week Zero Bloat so I'd say it worked out quite well.  

 

No fitnessing but none was planned.  Calorie burn was low but I left the Fitbit on the charger for some time in the evening and I'd give myself a pass for a migraine day anyway so I'm considering the goal met.  

[athousandwords]

Your challenge setup is so similar to where I was last challenge - little tweaks really did help me get through my plateau, so I'm hoping the same works for you!

 

Sorry your first day was disrupted with a migraine! 😞 Hopefully you don't have any more setbacks this week!

 

[Cheetah]

You can do it!

[DarK_RaideR]

15 hours ago, Shello said:

Thanks for the image, it explains a lot. As in, I literally thought "baked cheetos" involved you laying out regular cheetos on a tray and baking them in your oven 😅

[Shello]

23 hours ago, athousandwords said:

Your challenge setup is so similar to where I was last challenge - little tweaks really did help me get through my plateau, so I'm hoping the same works for you!

 

Sorry your first day was disrupted with a migraine! 😞 Hopefully you don't have any more setbacks this week!

 

Thank you.  So far so good!  

 

18 hours ago, Cheetah said:

You can do it!

Thanks Cheetah!

 

9 hours ago, DarK_RaideR said:

Thanks for the image, it explains a lot. As in, I literally thought "baked cheetos" involved you laying out regular cheetos on a tray and baking them in your oven 😅

LOL.  That would be something entirely different... but now I am intrigued.  You could top them with more cheese first...and jalapenos and who knows what else.  

[Shello]

Day 2 - Tuesday

Another successful day.  Only a mere shadow of a migraine in the morning that swiftly disappeared.  I remained drained and tired most of the day so I took it easy again.  

 

Had the new lunch of overnight oats and my homemade Lunchable Lite.  It's just barely enough food.  In the middle I feel like I am not going to have enough and start thinking of what I should add next time but by the time I finish, I'm satisfied.  And the 2 pieces of chocolate hit the spot nicely.   I had to leave work early for class and had a busy afternoon leading up to it so I only had the planned freggies for an afternoon snack.  It seemed like enough and held me over until a late dinner.  My appetite was off in the afternoon so that might have been why it was enough.  By 8:00 DDG and I hadn't had dinner yet and realized what time it was.  We had the same chicken salads but a little smaller than usual.  And then skipped the frozen yogurt bars for dessert leaving me with 500 calories left over. 

 

[Snarkyfishguts]

Yay! Following along again!

[athousandwords]

On 3/27/2024 at 12:16 PM, Shello said:

In the middle I feel like I am not going to have enough and start thinking of what I should add next time but by the time I finish, I'm satisfied. 

 

Such a tricky line to walk! Well done recognizing that satisfied feeling instead of fixating on wanting more.

[Shello]

20 hours ago, Snarkyfishguts said:

Yay! Following along again!

As always it's great to have you here.  thanks for your support.  💜

 

20 hours ago, athousandwords said:

 

Such a tricky line to walk! Well done recognizing that satisfied feeling instead of fixating on wanting more.

It is so tricky!   

[Shello]

Day 3 - Wednesday

Stuck to the core menu plan with no extras.  Calories were very low with 447 calories left over (that includes workout calories).  I didn't really feel overly hungry though so I'm not too worried.  There is a spell in the afternoons where I am feeling hungry but I've had my snack and then I get busy.  By dinner I'm not really that hungry.  I was low on energy for the gym though.  It is shark week so that's draining all my energy.  I felt like just half assing it.  Honestly, I felt like skipping it and half assing it was the compromise.  But once I got there I just whole assed it until I got to the core bits and skipped that part.  Got all stretching done and some primal squatting.  

 

Day 4 - Thursday

Appetite seems to be normalizing.  I was hungry during the day but didn't have any extra snacks, even though there was room.  I was banking on something bigger for dinner and eyeing the cheese curds in the fridge with gravy on my mind.  I was low on energy again but wanted to get a walk in.  DDG tried to give me an out but we went for the walk anyway.  We just capped it at 2 miles so we could get home and relax.  When I went to plan some dinner I found some store bought naan that needed used immediately so I popped some chicken fingers in the air fryer and made that gravy.  The gravy was served over chicken atop the naan with side salads.  It was very tasty.  No need for dessert.  Due to exercise calories and a few extra leftover I had total 300 leftover for the day.  

[Shello]

Day 5 - Friday

Extra hunger again.  I had already set up Friday and Saturday to be high calorie days, for no good reason other than I wanted to pick a couple of days.  I grabbed a bag of baked potato chips and followed it up with a single Reese's mini cup.  The Reese's was disappointing.  1 mini is not enough to really capture the flavor and it just made me want more.  That's why I used to allow 2 and that easily became 4 or 5.  So whatever.  Dinner was pizza but we just had Totino's.  I still had 220 calories leftover so I barely used any of the extra.  All goals met including move goal even though there was no genuine fitnessing. 

 

Day 6 - Saturday

Fasted until empanadas from the neighbor for lunch.  And he sent an extra one.  I offered to share with DDG but he declined.   I took one for the team on that one.  😉  We planned to do some work around the house but after relaxing all morning I got us off the couch to go out for a walk instead.  I retested my VO2 max using the 1 mile walk (rockport walking fitness test).  After making some corrections to my formula my VO2 max went from 21.25 at the end of challenge one to 23.71.  I finished the walk 30 seconds faster and my heart rate was a little lower when I finished.   95th percentile for my age group is 41.7 but I'm looking for any improvement and happy with my results.  On our way home we stopped for some groceries.  I found a pink pineapple so I bought one to try it out.  It tastes like pineapple. Go figure.  But its PINK!  I had that for an afternoon snack with some cheese and crackers.  Dinner was open with no plans and I was really craving the box of mac and cheese in the pantry (not Kraft but Goodles.  My new fav).   I did have a salad with dinner.  I didn't use any of the extra calories or any of the exercise calories so I had 429 extra at the end of the day.  

 

Day 7 - Sunday

Turned out to be a lazy day.  I did declutter a few boxes and piles but it didn't add up to much activity.  No move goal for the day.  I spent all the rest of the free time binge watching Yellowjackets with DDG and crocheting the blanket for Peach that I started before Christmas.  Breakfast was a bomb breakfast chili with hashbrowns and eggs.  We had some strawberries on the side to even it out.    A banana with some baked chips for afternoon snack.   Then we made some creamy chicken enchiladas for dinner.  I logged the recipe ahead of time and stuck to those portions since it's the batch cooked meal for the week and I'm hoping to have another successful weight loss week.   They turned out amazing.  

 

 

[Shello]

Week 1 was a success.  I was well under calories every day with 2320 leftover for the entire week.  I lost just over 3 pounds which busted the plateau I've been stuck on most of the year and back in the 250's.  The 250's have always been a set point for me but it felt like my body was trying to claim a new notch and reset in the 260's.  I wasn't having it.  Despite a great week it definitely stalled again over the weekend despite continuing with the deficits, although quality wasn't really there over the weekend.   Last week was shark week and I typically lose well on shark week.  It's the first one in months and months.  I'm hoping I don't have to wait for the next one to have another good week.  

 

All goals met though I had trouble with fasting early in the week because we kept eating so late.  

 

[athousandwords]

3 minutes ago, Shello said:

Fasted until empanadas from the neighbor for lunch.  And he sent an extra one.  I offered to share with DDG but he declined.   I took one for the team on that one.  😉

 

We had unexpected empanadas from our neighbor this weekend too! I usually don't eat breakfast, but who can turn down delicious empanadas? 🥺

 

Congrats on busting through your plateau!! It sounds like staying under your calorie goals this week really paid off!

[Shello]

1 hour ago, athousandwords said:

but who can turn down delicious empanadas? 🥺

I can't even imagine.  They are so tasty!  

 

Thanks!  I was getting really frustrated!  

[Snarkyfishguts]

I cheered when you said you weren’t having it for 260 being a set point. Yeah!! Kick butt!!

 

[Shello]

22 hours ago, Snarkyfishguts said:

I cheered when you said you weren’t having it for 260 being a set point. Yeah!! Kick butt!!

 

Thanks for the support! 

[Shello]

Day 8 - Monday

Weekday routine is working well, another pound or so down.   Stuck to the meal plan, 246 calories leftover.   I'm sitting around 1300-1400 calories per day.  It seems low, and around 200 calories fewer than I was using before this challenge.  But it seems to be enough and I have the wiggle room if I need it.  And it's working.  So I'll ride it as long as I can.  Dinner was a salad with creamy chicken enchiladas.  They were very yummy.   No fitnessing but my fitbit did register some active minutes from various activity.