Xerla - Almost There

[Xerla]

3.30 AM
There's a girl staring at the mirror in her room. 

 

She is happy with the way she looks right now, but she knows that she's not there yet.
Her body can get better, the way she always wants it to be: athletic.

3.35 AM
She feels a slight pain on her left toe, and then smiled because she remembered that last night she suddenly decided to try practicing wall handstand by climbing the wall backwards, and fell. But she was laughing so hard and couldn't forget the excitement from trying that move.

3.40 AM
She saw the scale in her room, and hide it somewhere. Her habit of weighing herself every morning is unhealthy, because her mood for the whole day depends on the number of the scale. People won't judge other people's body shape by weight (how do they know about the weight if he/she didn't tell?). 
That's why she decided to use photos and clothes as measurements, her new size M clothes are still a little bit tight now, so at the end of the challenge, her goal is to get fit into that clothes perfectly.

3.45 AM
The girl started her morning workout routine, consisting bodyweight or HIIT, her favorite workout types because: 
- It can be done anytime, anywhere, using minimum to zero sport equipments.
- It doesn't consume much time.
- No need to sign up for that expensive, far, faraway gym.
- She's amazed by the fact that in order to do some "simple" movement smoothly and gracefully needs crazy strength, so not just athletic, she also wants a strong body.
- And just because defying gravity is awesome.

Currently, she's following Blogilates monthly workout calendar (6x/week of workouts), which is fun enough for her to stick to the whole routine for 3 months, full of challenging strength and cardio moves, makes her smile, happy and satisfied everytime she finished the workouts. Occassionally, she goes to Muay Thai class near her house.

Halfway throughout her workout, when the plank and push ups start to feel so hard to do, she whispered to herself,今日も頑張りã¾ã™ã€æ¯Žæ—¥é ‘張りã¾ã™ï¼ "Today I'm going to work hard, everyday I'm going to work hard." 
She decided to motivate herself in Japanese language, because she's going to take the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT)  on December 1st, and has lost her interest on learning the language. After that, she's planning to take academic English course, since English is not her native language, she wants to improve it.

At the end of the workout, she feels demotivated because she can't get her legs straight while doing double leg lifts and earthquake moves.  Not just athletic and strong, she also wants to be flexible. So she adds stretching routine on her list.

4.45 AM 
She drinks her water, logging her workout and looking at a photo on her desk.

Whenever the whole workout routine gets too rough and that "should I quit?" feeling hit her mind, she looks at that photo and smiles, thanking her old self who were brave and courageous enough to start this whole diet and fitness journey 8 months ago. 

It started with the sadness when she looked at her out-of-shape body in holiday photos last year, and how her knees prevented her on climbing castles in Japan. 

Her old self took a serious action by participating on NF challenge for the first time in order to look better and climbing those castles like a ninja on this year's Japan trip, and succeeded. 

Never occured on her mind that in her always-obese life she actually can change herself, and keep that determination after she came back from her holiday. She knows her only option is moving forward.

7.00 PM
After a long day, she's facing the biggest challenge on her fitness journey: her mother's bakery and traditional snack shop at her house.

Planning to add more items to the shop, her mother decided to sell toast bread and sweet bread, and asked her to help her finding the best recipe for the breads. The past whole month were full of ingredients hunting, product sampling and recipe experiments. She ate huge amount of "bad" food in order to bake the perfect bread according to her taste.

She's fully aware that eating clean affects 95% of her diet, and she's still gathering info on what works and what doesn't work for her diet. For now, she knows that logging her food helps a lot and she needs to be honest to herself by keep logging even though she ate bad food. 

She's also finally found the culprit of her obesity, she has this weird "food-regret" mindset of "If I don't eat this unique, new delicious food now, I might not be able to eat it ever again." This leads her to overeating and snacking.

Combined with the bread recipe experiment situation, this mindset is the perfect weapon to completely destroy her diet and fitness goals.
There was one night when she got felt extremely helpless because she can't control herself and couldn't find a way to handle the situation of "keep eating clean while baking sweet breads".

She loves baking and cooking, and frustrated by the fact that she can't do her hobby and still maintain a healthy diet. She realized that she needs to train her eating mindset seriously.

For now, what works for her is the "Three Bites Rules" when doing food sampling (eat only 3 bites and leave the rest alone/give it to someone else/simply throw it away, just get it out of her sight), and eat healthy, good, real food before sampling "bad" food.
Finding the best strategy to overcome this situation is definitely the most challenging goal on her current challenge.

9.45 PM
She prepares her breakfast, lunch and outfits for tomorrow. She needs comfortable clothes because she has to run and do a little jumping with some dashing here and there in order to catch the morning train. 

She's happy because now she's more agile and not so out of breath than last month. Finding the quickest route to get herself inside the train becomes a fun activity.

QUICK SUMMARY
MOTIVATION
Get that strong, flexible, athletic body.

MAIN QUEST
Fit into UNIQLO store's clothes size M perfectly.
Action plans
1. Ditch the scale, use photos and clothes as measurements.
2. Choose real food over bad food (most often: grilled fish over sweet breads).
3. Stretching after each workout routine.

SIDE QUESTS
1. Life Side Quest
Finish the last 9 chapters of Japanese language textbooks (Minna no Nihongo 2) and 250 Essential Kanji for Everyday Life volume 1 & 2.
2. Diet/Fitness Side Quest
Log all the food on MyFitnessPal, including the bad ones.
3. Mini Quest
From guild.

REWARD
New haircut

 

---

Hello all!
Finally I let myself graduated from Adventurer guild, and joined the Assassin for the first time. I'm so excited!

[Elastigirl]

Welcome! Love that you tried a wall handstand yesterday. And I know how your toes feels, my poor toe has been banged on the descent (some would call it a fall) too. Great goals. You are going to do awesome

[Paradigm]

Welcome to the Assassins! You are doing INCREDIBLE. I don't even know you yet and I'm so proud! Really looking forward to watching your journey continue

[Bekah]

Xerla!!! Hi :) Glad you are here!!

[ApfelStrudi]

Wow! What a transformation! You look absolutely stunning and amazing!

Your haircut reward idea is great, I might steal that from you

Can't wait to see your progress through this challenge!

[Waldgeist]

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[Hisme]

Welcome to the Assassins and good luck on your goals! Eating right is a challenge for me, too, especially when it comes to sugar. I think your three-bite rule when trying new, tempting things is something I'd like to try as well. You can do it!

[Mad Hatter]

That's an incredible transformation! And yay for handstands!

[Xerla]

Thanks for the warm welcome guys! So glad to be here XD

 

Elastigirl

Yeah my poor, poor toe, which still haven't healed perfectly from nail extraction minor surgery, is still hurting until now lol I'm working on my upper body to make the handstand practice easier XD

 

Paradigm

Thank you for your support!!

 

Bekah

Bekah!!! We meet again! Let's rock this challenge again XD

 

ApfelStrudi

lol yeah, looking at my messy hair every morning remind me to keep going without stopping lol

 

Waldgeist

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Hisme

Yes the most challenging one is eating clean! I will keep on practicing three-bite rule because it requires huge amount of self-control XD We can do it!

 

Mad Hatter

Thank you! I think I should make handstand as one of the goals for the next challenge XD

 

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First day!!

Started out pretty smooth, stalled at the afternoon.

 

Exercise

Following the Blogilates calendar, it's cardio day and these were the hard moves for me:

From some variation of the burpees, these are the hard ones:

- Hopscotch burpee

- Single leg burpee

It's getting harder to lift my body with just one leg.

- Hollow rock

Getting better at this, I can put my elbow near my ears, but still can't get my leg straight.

- Lateral Jump Overs

Oh my legsss loll

- Plank Rows

 

Tomorrow is going to be HIIT day XD

 

Stretching

I can barely touch my toes lol

 

Diet

Fail, fail, fail.

Still in the middle of sweet bread experiment, so I bought different kind of sweet breads from different shops and ended up eating most of it. 

Once I started eating, especially breads and desserts, it's so hard to stop.

I will practice hard on my three-bite rule, and stop that food-regret thought immediately by either not buying any "bad" food (which was hard for breads, but doable on desserts) and get rid of my plate immediately after I tasted the dessert.

 

Being such a visual person (eating any food that sits within my view), right now I'm creating a weekly vision board, and putting red X marks on the calendar, following Steve's recent post about Hard Hat. Unfortunately today I can't put the red mark yet, and hopefully I can go with the "Never Two in a Row" rule.

[Waldgeist]

Being such a visual person (eating any food that sits within my view), right now I'm creating a weekly vision board, and putting red X marks on the calendar, following Steve's recent post about Hard Hat. Unfortunately today I can't put the red mark yet, and hopefully I can go with the "Never Two in a Row" rule.

 

Maybe you should eat with closed eyes, then?

 

Seems like a good first day to me, keep improving from there!

[Mad Hatter]

Instead of Xs I have pirate stickers  

[Xerla]

Waldgeist

LOL good idea! I'll start with my right eye closed today XD

 

Hatter

Pirate stickers. Oh wow. Why I haven't thought about sticking epic stickers on my calendar?! I should go find some later, maybe ninja would be cool lol thanks for the idea!

 

---

 

Just did today's at-home version of this HIIT workout:

 

 

This workout made me realize that my balance is totally awful lol

I don't like Blurred Lines song so I replaced it with my favorite song. Don't have a treadmill and can't go run outside, so I replaced the Cardio Blast session with another cardio video. I also replaced the tricep kickbacks with tricep dips.

This time I really forced myself to do the Single Leg Burpee with, well, single leg. Yesterday I used two legs several times because I was so out of balance. But today I managed to finished the whole 3 sets with single leg, even though my body was flailing like crazy and it was so hard to regain my balance XD

[Hiraedd]

XERLA!!!!  So glad you made it over  Welcome to the Assassins!  (And I must say you are looking freaking amazing!)

[Xerla]

Hira

Hira!!! I'm so happy to see you again here!

Thank you! My transformation is the result of huge support from your awesome Adventurer guild! XD

I'm sure I'll reach my goal again here in Assassin guild!

 

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Yesterday I managed to eat real food, without sweet breads. Yay!

Even though I ate too much on dinner.. Need to watch my portion control.

 

Today's workout went well, I just realized now I can do the straight legs roll back (I don't know the correct name for it hahah) with 80% control.

I'm planning to find some new stretching moves for the legs.

[WonderNatarella]

Hey Xerla!

 

Thanks for your sweet message on my thread!

 

You transformation is really impressive! How do you manage to insert this "spoiler" on your thread? (I still haven't figured out the way to insert pics)

 

Well regarding food and eating, it seems that at the moment, you are in this sweet bread experimentation, when does it finish? The thing that helped me a lot in cutting processed carbs was the tracking part ... Identifying the causes of eating. For me it was frustration, impatience, boredom and comfort when I was sad. I'd say that the past challenge really helped me reduce the snacking (I barely snacked actually). I tried to find other ways of coping with frustration for instance (working on a vision board) etc...

 

I hope you'll find something that'll help you go through it! I mean when I see where you started and where you are now, you do have great motivation, consistence and mental strength! Congrats!

[Xerla]

Hey Xerla!

 

Thanks for your sweet message on my thread!

 

You transformation is really impressive! How do you manage to insert this "spoiler" on your thread? (I still haven't figured out the way to insert pics)

 

Well regarding food and eating, it seems that at the moment, you are in this sweet bread experimentation, when does it finish? The thing that helped me a lot in cutting processed carbs was the tracking part ... Identifying the causes of eating. For me it was frustration, impatience, boredom and comfort when I was sad. I'd say that the past challenge really helped me reduce the snacking (I barely snacked actually). I tried to find other ways of coping with frustration for instance (working on a vision board) etc...

 

I hope you'll find something that'll help you go through it! I mean when I see where you started and where you are now, you do have great motivation, consistence and mental strength! Congrats!

 

Thank you for your support!!

 

I'm currently re-reviewing my cause of eating and how to handle this situation. I have to be able to eat clean even when I bake "bad" food XD

 

The "spoiler" button is a little bit hidden haha.. It's the 3rd button from the left on the upper set of buttons on the reply menu (Special BBCode).

Click and then select "Spoiler", insert the text you want to put under the spoiler button. If it's an image, don't forget to insert the code.

Here's some screenshots:

 

Hopefully this helps!

[Xerla]

I figured that for the meantime I can't eat 100% clean, so I will try to make it 80 % clean and 20% YOLO (in moderation) daily.

I don't eat 100% paleo (maybe 80%) and I don't avoid dairy. I've tried 100% paleo and non-dairy diet before, and I didn't have any serious health issues by having non-paleo and dairy in my diet, so I only go for 80% paleo and dairy to add variation on my diet now.

 

As for today, the 20% YOLO goes for traditional snack experiment: "kue dadar gulung" and "balapis".

It was delicious and I will definitely put it on the snack shop. I ate one serving each and I think I should've gone for half-serving instead.

I'm going to have a walnut bread sampling too. Need to remind myself constantly that I should eat only half (or even quarter) of it!

 

And the 80% for homemade real food:

Vegetable soup with chicken.

 

Pepes Ikan Kembung. It's a steamed mackerel wrapped in banana leaves with lots of spicy traditional herbs.

 

These are the "real" food I ate yesterday:

Ketupat Sayur. Jackfruit (I prefer marrow vegetables version though), fried tofu, hardboiled egg, garlic crackers and ketupat (rice cake wrapped in lontar leaves) with spicy coconut milk gravy.

 

Tahu Campur. Stir-fry tofu with peanut sauce, beansprouts and lontong (rice cake wrapped in banana leaves).

 

Stir-fry Chinese cabbage. Chinese cabbage, egg, garlic and red onion.

 

Add some rice (I usually skip this so I can eat more vegetables), and there goes the common everyday food in my country XD

[Mad Hatter]

That fish looks YUMM! What do you flavour it with?

[SkyeRose]

I wasn't hungry until I saw those pictures, it looks great

[Hiraedd]

Wow, that all looks delicious.  Makes my bacon and eggs look pretty passe, I'm afraid.

[Paradigm]

Mmm it looks good. Now I'm hungry. 

[milythael]

Your first post for this challenge is absolutely awesome. I really loved it.

[WonderNatarella]

Hey Xerla!

 

Are you Indonesian/Malaysian of origin? The cooking reminds me those countries

 

I hope the first week went as you wished!

[Eilyd]

Ahah! Xerla, I found you!

I cannot say enough how EXTREMELY PROUD I am of you for your tenacity! I've just reported you for being awesome, because you are a huge inspiration to me.

 

Your 3 bites rule is a good one. I think I will apply this as well! And even though it sounded silly, the idea of eating with your eyes closed might have merit.

 

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[Xerla]

That fish looks YUMM! What do you flavour it with?

 

Yes it's super yummy!

I use mackerel marinated with lemon and spices: red onion, garlic, ginger, pecan, red chili, tomato, basil and banana leaves to wrap. Some people also add bay leaves. You should try to make one XD

 

I wasn't hungry until I saw those pictures, it looks great

 

Mmm it looks good. Now I'm hungry. 

 

I got hungry too when I saw my own photo haha XD

 

Wow, that all looks delicious.  Makes my bacon and eggs look pretty passe, I'm afraid.

 

Thanks Hira! Bacon is expensive here haha~

 

Your first post for this challenge is absolutely awesome. I really loved it.

 

Thank you! 

 

Hey Xerla!

 

Are you Indonesian/Malaysian of origin? The cooking reminds me those countries

 

I hope the first week went as you wished!

 

I'm Indonesian

Yes the food is very Indonesian and Malaysia has similar food too XD

 

Ahah! Xerla, I found you!

I cannot say enough how EXTREMELY PROUD I am of you for your tenacity! I've just reported you for being awesome, because you are a huge inspiration to me.

 

Your 3 bites rule is a good one. I think I will apply this as well! And even though it sounded silly, the idea of eating with your eyes closed might have merit.

 

ãŠã„ã—ãã†ãªãŸã¹ã‚‚ã®ï¼

 

Eilyd!! I miss you!

Woww thank you for reporting me as awesome XD

I'm so happy if I can inspire you, because you are an inspiration for me as well (I still remember that pull up goal ahahha)

 

3 bites rule is quite effective! But I figured that I have to eat clean until almost full before applying that rule, otherwise it won't work for me because it will be so hard to stop eating those "bad" food XD

 

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Finally I have the time to update!

This week is full of exam, and it turned out that I'll be having exam every Friday for the next several months.

 

Several ups and downs on my challenge, like bread binging, but I managed to overcome the guilt and leveled up my portion control. I found that I lack of self-discipline.

No problem with workouts and stretching, I keep doing it regularly. I'm getting comfortable with planks and push ups, now I'm practicing right side roll.

Finished 1 chapter at Japanese textbook, I have to speed it up.

I need to log my food more accurately, it helps a lot with portion control.