Journey of a Moisture Farmer - Leaving Tatooine (RogueWelkin)

[RogueWelkin]

Howdy

I've been a long time NF reader but haven't participated in the community until now. Around two years ago I was heavily focused for a few months and decreased my weight and increased my strength. I had never felt better in my life. However after some unexpected and fairly large life changes I lost my focus and fell hard. I'm still not at my all time worst, that was back in 2008/2009 right before I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes, and I've manage to keep myself primarily to just Water and Iced Tea for my drinks since that time. So with my introductions out of the way into the nitty gritty for the contest.

 

Edit: Added RP

 

 

 

Goals:
Goal 1: Perform Body Weight Exercises 3x A Week. (2 Week Sedentary into Rebel Fitness Rookie) [STR:3|STA:2]

• A - 3x A Week - 6 Weeks
• B - 3x A Week - 3 Weeks - 2x A Week - 3 Weeks
• C - 2x A Week - 6 Weeks
• D - 1 x A Week - 6 Weeks
• F - <1x A Week - 6 Weeks

Goal 2: Closer step to Paleo - Remove Grain Based Bread From Diet [CON:3]

• A - No Grain Based Bread for 6 Weeks
• B - 2 Cheats over 6 Weeks
• C - 2 Cheats per 3 Week Period
• D - 1 Cheat per Week
• F - >1 Cheat Per Week

Goal 3: Track Exercise and Food Intake [WIS:2]

• A - Track All Meals and Excercise
• B - Miss 1 Meal Per 3 Week Period
• C - Miss 2 Meals and 1 Exercise per 3 Week Period
• D - Miss 1 Meal and 1 Exercise Per Week
• F - Miss >1 Meal and >1 Exercise Per Week

Goal 4: Improve Personal Hygiene by showering every day and changing all clothing articles every day  [CHA:3|CON:2]

• A - Shower and Change Clothes every day
• B - Miss 1 day of Shower or Changing Clothes
• C - Miss 2 days of Shower or Changing Clothes
• D - Miss 3 days of Shower or Changing Clothes
• F - Miss >3 days of Shower of Changing Clothes

Hopefully these are efficient and effective goals that will make suitable use of the 6 week period.

Starting:

Edit: So I did my measurements today (Sunday 06/02), and I think that it'll be my measurement day going forward, because it is one of the easiest for me (and also close to Monday). Hopefully I got them all done correctly.

 

• Age: 32
• Gender: Male (Though I'm not expecting this to change anytime soon ;P )
• Height: 5'8" (More or less)
• Weight: 226 lbs
• Waist(Measured at Belly Button): 47.25"
• Hips: 42.5"
• Chest: 45"
• Shoulders: 44.75"
• Neck: 17"
• Thigh(Left): 22.5"
• Thigh(Right): 22.5"
• Bicep(Left):  14"
• Bicep(Right): 14"

         

 

Additionally I'm tracking all the above information (including the pictures) in a Google Spreadsheet. Originally I had planned the spreadsheet to only cover June's dates, I instead opted to cover the entirety of the Six Week Challenge measurements to better track my progress during the challenge.

 

For those that are curious about my regular logging, here is where I'll be doing most of my tracking.

Food Log | Exercise Log | Measurement Log

 

Mini-Challenge #1: Complete  + .5 WIS | .5 CHA

 

Mini-Challenge #2: Complete  + 1 CON

 

Mini-Challenge #3: Complete + 1 DEX

 

Mini-Challenge #4: Complete + 1 STR

 

Mini-Challenge #5: Complete + 1 WIS | .5 STA

 

Mini-Challenge #6: Complete + 1 WIS

[Blaidd]

Welcome Rogue.  Your goals are nicely set out and your grading scale looks effective.  Good luck with your challenge.

[RogueWelkin]

Thanks Angel! Looking forward to the Challenge!

[BruceHeat]

wow! very well planned! good luck!

[RogueWelkin]

Thanks Bruce! I've done a lot of weight loss attempts in the past, I even ran a weight-loss/healthy living contest/challenge in an online community I'm a part of. While I've had limited success and usually a lot of failings, I've found that planning and laying out everything in advance gives you at least one less thing to use as an excuse and sometimes even use as motivation to follow through. I'm hoping it works out that way.

 

I've got myself set up with three spreadsheets right now. A weekly Food Log (with different tabs for each week), a weekly Exercise log (the same), and the above linked Measurement Log. Hopefully they'll help out.

[snark]

That measurements spreadsheet is great, grabbed a copy for myself to potentially use, so thanks! Good luck with your challenge goals!

[RogueWelkin]

Awesome! Let me know if it's useful for you and if there's any changes you think it needs.

 

Also: Thanks!

[RogueWelkin]

So I'm kicking off the challenge interestingly. So far I've been able to keep to my goals even while having some intriguing new things be offered unexpectedly (a spicy homemade tomato juice, and a new pickling mix for pickled kohlrabi made my a co-worker's daughter.)  Earlier this morning I added links to my tracking logs in the main post, so if anyone wants to view details you can feel free to visit those.

 

I used to try to do my exercise in the past on a MWF schedule, but that fell apart for me a couple years ago. So at least at the start I'm going to be trying a  Tu-Thu-Sat schedule and see if that works better for me. If not then I'll definitely try other ones out and see what works best.

[GunnJay]

Amazing goals!

 

I wrote mine out before I headed out on a night train.  You've encouraged me to delve a bit deeper into mine. 

 

I also joined the Squadron. 

 

Thanks!

[JohnnyConfidence]

Reading your challenge post is like looking in the mirror You and I are in a very similar space, and with similar goals. We're both doing the body weight beginner routine. Look forward to seeing your progress my man! Stay strong and fight long!

[RogueWelkin]

Reading your challenge post is like looking in the mirror You and I are in a very similar space, and with similar goals. We're both doing the body weight beginner routine. Look forward to seeing your progress my man! Stay strong and fight long!

Y'know what, I was thinking the same thing while looking at your challenge!

[RogueWelkin]

Update: I guess we could say that I've completed the first Mini-Challenge by creating/joining the Acountibilibuddie group Rogue Squadron and have thus netted myself .5 Cha and .5 Wis, which I've already applied to my stats. 

[RogueWelkin]

So I feel I did decently today. I did not eat any grain based bread and I also tracked everything I ate and drank. I hadn't been planning to track the drinking aspect (since I usually drink 0 Calorie drinks) but it may be something that's useful to know going forward.

 

I've also changed Goal #4 to something that I realized after my original post is something I'd much rather focus on, my hygiene. I will admit that ever since I was a child I've had major issues being hygienic, or at least clean. I feel that pushing myself to do this will go a long way to increase how I feel about myself and is a superior goal to what I had initially set. It's been a subject that's always embarrassed me and I've always tried to avoid it so it's a major thing to have it here.

[SirHammerlock]

Hey RogueWelkin,

 

just took a look at your goals, since we're in the Rogue Squadron together now . Great goals btw, somehow similar to mine (paleo and workouts, although I'm doing the standard rebel fitness workout lvl 3). Regarding your hygiene: I had that problem somehow myself, when I was a child - hygiene needs to become a routine, than it won't be a problem for you anymore and it becomes as normal as breathing. So, perhaps a few tips from a fellow rebel here: Try to find out when the best time in the day is for you to take a shower - I myself prefer showering in the morning, because I feel much more energised afterwards. Don't see showering as a necessary evil but try to relish the water pouring down your body. Try to feel it and realize, that showering is a great way to get some relaxation. If you do have a bathtub, use this with some herboils provided for bathing after a workout - this will work wonders and your personal hygiene especially after your workouts will become something to look forward to. Another little thing that helps is putting a deodorant in your back and take it with you, so that you can use it several times over the day, especially when you begin to sweat easily. The secret here really is to make yourself feeling good when you care about your hygiene. And regarding your clothes-changing: Just put out the clothes you want to wear the next day in the evening before you go to bed and put the dirty ones in the laundry basket, so that you don't get tempted to wear the old clothes the next day. Thus you can for example take an energizing shower in the morning and jump right into your new clothes.

So, that's it from my side for now, hope it helps a little.

[silly_steph34]

i really like your goals! I'm trying to do body-weight exercises and eliminate grains from my diet as well. I look forward to seeing your progress!!

[RogueWelkin]

Hey RogueWelkin,

 

just took a look at your goals, since we're in the Rogue Squadron together now . Great goals btw, somehow similar to mine (paleo and workouts, although I'm doing the standard rebel fitness workout lvl 3). Regarding your hygiene: I had that problem somehow myself, when I was a child - hygiene needs to become a routine, than it won't be a problem for you anymore and it becomes as normal as breathing. So, perhaps a few tips from a fellow rebel here: Try to find out when the best time in the day is for you to take a shower - I myself prefer showering in the morning, because I feel much more energised afterwards. Don't see showering as a necessary evil but try to relish the water pouring down your body. Try to feel it and realize, that showering is a great way to get some relaxation. If you do have a bathtub, use this with some herboils provided for bathing after a workout - this will work wonders and your personal hygiene especially after your workouts will become something to look forward to. Another little thing that helps is putting a deodorant in your back and take it with you, so that you can use it several times over the day, especially when you begin to sweat easily. The secret here really is to make yourself feeling good when you care about your hygiene. And regarding your clothes-changing: Just put out the clothes you want to wear the next day in the evening before you go to bed and put the dirty ones in the laundry basket, so that you don't get tempted to wear the old clothes the next day. Thus you can for example take an energizing shower in the morning and jump right into your new clothes.

So, that's it from my side for now, hope it helps a little.

Thanks! I've actually been really good about deodorant. I feel a need to put it on every day...or at least every day I actually step foot out of my apartment, so that's a habit I've actually got built. My issue isn't that I have any fear or hatred of the shower or the clothes, but it always seems to be the thing that just happens to fall by the wayside when I get lazy and start waking up as late as possible and everything. Sadly I've got a schedule that doesn't really let my body get used to any particular cycle so that usually doesn't help either.

[RogueWelkin]

So day one turned out to be a success for my goals, except exercise which I plan to start later today, though I'll admit having not done it yet makes me feel like a bit of a slacker and it does kind of weigh on my mind a bit, which hopefully we can get rid of that shortly. I'm debating if I want to just jump right into the Beginner's Bodyweight Circuit or instead do Vic Margary's 31 Day Fat Loss Plan's 2 Week Sedentary plan (this is the plan that I used sucessfully a few years ago before my life changes threw me off).

 

In other news, the "Grain Based" part of the no-bread challenge was put in there for a reason. A local health food store has Paleo Bread, and today I'm going to be trying out a sandwich made with that to see how it works. While utilizing the deli meats is not exactly Paleo (especially since I just picked up some new types of Bologna) I am focusing on the grain breads (and mostly straight up grains by extension, but I generally avoid most of those anyway). I'll admit it's not calorie light (I counted the sandwich out to be around 540+ calories) but we'll see how it works for this week, next week will likely be something else.

 

Either way I hope to at least work myself up to either the Beginner Bodyweight Circuit or Level 1 of the Rebel Fitness Guide (which I just purchased) by the end of this challenge.

[SirHammerlock]

Thanks! I've actually been really good about deodorant. I feel a need to put it on every day...or at least every day I actually step foot out of my apartment, so that's a habit I've actually got built. My issue isn't that I have any fear or hatred of the shower or the clothes, but it always seems to be the thing that just happens to fall by the wayside when I get lazy and start waking up as late as possible and everything. Sadly I've got a schedule that doesn't really let my body get used to any particular cycle so that usually doesn't help either.

 

 

 

Well, didn't know that. So perhaps you should try to take a shower right after you get up, first thing everyday. I got that from a book that was about writing your dissertation - the main point was that if you got something you have to do but don't like doing it or are having problems motivating yourself you shouldn't do anything else before you have not done that special thing.

 

In other news, the "Grain Based" part of the no-bread challenge was put in there for a reason. A local health food store has Paleo Bread, and today I'm going to be trying out a sandwich made with that to see how it works. While utilizing the deli meats is not exactly Paleo (especially since I just picked up some new types of Bologna) I am focusing on the grain breads (and mostly straight up grains by extension, but I generally avoid most of those anyway). I'll admit it's not calorie light (I counted the sandwich out to be around 540+ calories) but we'll see how it works for this week, next week will likely be something else.

 

I tried some of this sort of bread, too, even if it's somehow a grey area since it's kind of a processed food - but in my experience it helps quite well to tackle possible cravings for bread. So, you shouldn't eat it that often because it has that much calories, but every time you feel like you really need a piece of bread, it's quite a good alternative.

 

 

[RogueWelkin]

 

I tried some of this sort of bread, too, even if it's somehow a grey area since it's kind of a processed food - but in my experience it helps quite well to tackle possible cravings for bread. So, you shouldn't eat it that often because it has that much calories, but every time you feel like you really need a piece of bread, it's quite a good alternative.

The bread itself is actually fairly low in calories, only about 60 calories a slice. It's some of the other stuff I put in the sandwich that brings it up high. (The Deli Meats Primarily, which themselves constitute about 420 of the estimated calories). Though admittedly one of them was an impulse (Liverwurst, it's been a while) and I usually do double servings (two slices as opposed to one). So there's definitely room for calorie lowering in the sandwich itself.

[RogueWelkin]

Here's the Tracking Data for Yesterday.

 

    

 

[RogueWelkin]

So far today has been going pretty well, the schedule is a bit different than it was yesterday...but I woke up earlier, was scheduled earlier for work, ate earlier, and also brought lunch from home and was able to eat lunch when I felt hungry for it, as opposed to when my break came up. I did spend my break getting myself a new workout outfit though, as my exercise shorts from a few years back seem to have mysteriously disappeared on me somewhere, probably buried in a closet. So I purchased a pair of reversible basketball shorts and a t-shirt that will be my "workout outfit". I'm hoping this will help serve to get my mind into a "when I'm wearing this, I work out". Which worked for a short time with my old outfit, but was eventually diluted by my continuing to wear it for sometime afterwards and occasionally sleeping in it, which is something I hope to avoid this time through. Hopefully it will help.

[BruceHeat]

maybe you could buy one t-shirt every week for the next 6 weeks....when you don't buy bread you could put that money apart and buy a new t shirt at the end of the week. So it will be an incentive for your goals plus you will have a new clean "workout" tshirt every week ready to be used!

[RogueWelkin]

Ha, that's an idea! Though to be honest I've plenty of reasons to just toss any extra money I get from savings into a savings account, primarily that I've got a wedding to save up for next year, and very very very small percentage of it already saved.

[SirHammerlock]

The bread itself is actually fairly low in calories, only about 60 calories a slice. It's some of the other stuff I put in the sandwich that brings it up high. (The Deli Meats Primarily, which themselves constitute about 420 of the estimated calories). Though admittedly one of them was an impulse (Liverwurst, it's been a while) and I usually do double servings (two slices as opposed to one). So there's definitely room for calorie lowering in the sandwich itself.

 

Hehe, I myself am really a huge fan of Liverwurst myself . Hm, the bread I get here in Germany has about double the calories per slice (120-150, I can't recall it right now) and we got buns that have about 200kcal per piece. But sure, the calories mostly come from the stuff you put on the sandwich - reminding me of that

and marge makes him to eat those rice crackers: Homer puts everything he can think of on top and says "mmmhmm, only 35 calories..." (sorry, couldn't find a better quality video).

[RogueWelkin]

Day 2 down, I feel I did fairly well. I started off with the two week sedentary workout from Vic Magary's 31 Day Fat Loss Plan, it's amazingly basic I'll admit, but it does show me that I've fallen a bit. Considering I was already sore all day for reasons that are beyond me it felt like it was definitely the best way to start. Next up is Push-Ups...which I've never really excelled at.

 

Food was pretty good for the most part, I got to try out some non-grain Paleo Bread, it was enjoyable but small, which initially threw me off, but it seems pretty decent. I did utilize some deli meats on there, and with those the sandwich weighed in fairly high in calories. For today I'm cutting back (only using one slice of each type of bologna) which will bring it down to 380+ calories, not that I'm calorie counting, but I guess it's good to know. I do have the + in there as I have peanut butter and spinach which aren't in that estimate. The kicker was that the fiance found out about a new ice cream place that's pre-"Grand Opening" and we opted to check that out, I got my favorite flavor which after starting eating it I realized....it has cookies, obvious really considering it's called Cookies and Cream, but I wasn't thinking when I ordered. I've been debating ever since if I want to count it as a cheat for my non-grain bread or not. Most people seem to be saying "don't count it" so perhaps I will not, but if more people here argue otherwise than I will. Either way it's something I don't intend on doing again.

 

So far I've been doing well on goal #4 as well. Though it's a bit rough finding the time to get everything done. I've developed the habit of waking up as late as possible, I used to be happy rolling out of bed five minutes before I needed to leave just toss on my pants laying on the floor (with all my stuff still in pockets), grab a pair of used socks from the floor (or out of my shoes these days to keep the cats away from the laces) and some random shirt clean or dirty, as long as it smelled okay and wasn't from the previous day. Though since the cats have come around I've had to add in feeding them and everything, not to mention that I've also been leaving for work much earlier than usual (I used to do 30-40 minutes before I needed to be at work, now I generally stick to an Hour before hand...and sometimes I need that full hour). My work shift is on a rotation so I work either 8am-4pm, 9am-5pm (This used to be 10am-6pm but changed recently), or 11am-7pm (sometimes with home based check-ins from 7pm-10pm afterwards), and at least one weekend a month I do home based check-ins from 9am-5pm Sat/Sun.

 

The 11am shift I'm generally pretty good with the time I have, I usually wake up around 8am anyway and that gives me plenty of time to do everything I need. The 9am shift requires that I wake up about 30-60 minutes earlier than I usually do for that shift (I usually get up at 7, now I'm trying for 6), and the 8am shift requires at least 30 minutes earlier than my intended wake up time (I seldom woke up at that time), For example today I got up at 5:30am and was able to sneak everything in.

 

So that's my update so far.

 

Edit: And now As always, you can check my current logs down in my signature to keep track (that picture thing I did for Monday is just going to be too much of a pain to keep up methinks.)