L'irlandaise tightens the screws

[L'irlandaise]

Main Quest : Get leaner while improving my energy levels. I need to be (more) strict with myself. Hence the screws

 

I think I'm doing a lot of the right things. I just need to do them a little better..

 

Sub-quest 1 Get on the plate The current regime  is 3-4 meals a day. The fourth meal is optional and depends on how hungry I am when I get in after work.  I know I've got back into some old mindless habits again so I'll be sitting down at the kitchen table, focussing on what goes in to my gub, staying off bread, beer (except a little Belgian at the weekend) and processed sugar. There needs to be a little less (i.e. no ) chowing down on uncounted nuts while wandering about the house after work, decompressing.

 

I'm also working on the quantity.  A portion of protein, portion of veg,, portion of smart carbs, portion of fat at each meal. I don't like leaving food on my plate so I'll be working on being more careful about what goes on the plate in the first place.

 

Scoring :

A: Portions observed serving food each 7 days ; B 6 days ; C, 5 days ; D, 4 days

 

Sub quest 2 Get serious about HIIT. My programme at the moment is three days of weight training and two days of HIIT. I haven't been taking the HIIT seriously : too much time on the elliptic and a bad habit of watching trash on youtube at the same time has made it a 'bleh' activity of limited benefit. So my goal is to make it more interesting and more focused. The two sessions need to be different from one another, they both need my full focus for the session and I need to treat them like proper exercise including mobility work and stretching afterwards.

 

Scoring : A,  two different HIIT sessions, given full focus. B,  two HIIT sessions, given full focus.

Anything else,  FAIL

 

 

Sub quest 3 Get mental. I've been playing with meditation but not really adopting it consistently . So I plan to do two 5 minute sessions a day. One at lunchtime. One when I get in from work before I open a kitchen cupboard. Can you see the thought process here?

 

Scoring :

 

A: 10 – 14 five-minute meditations per week B. 5- 9 five- minute meditations per week. C 1- 4 five-minute meditations.

 

LIFE Quest

 

Stop bloody buying ebooks on Amazon 1 - Click.

 

The madness has to stop. Plus I have a big back-catalogue to read.

 

Scoring A: No books bought. F: Shall I state the obvious?

 

 

 

[Sulinar]

Hello my dear!

 

Popping in to say "Hi" and sub to your thread.

 

So that's going to be a grade per week for each sub-goal, is that right? How are you going to score those overall and transform them into stat increases?

 

I'll be really interested to see how your meditation practice works out. I'm still falling asleep even just *thinking* about taking it up! But I think you've picked good times to practice.

 

Suggestion for your HIIT activity - zumba, if you can get signed up for a weekly class. Or any other class-based activity that's equally taxing. If you like I'll be your accountability referee (like, if you sign up for a class and don't make it for a week for some spurious reason I will expect you to donate 10€ to some cause you loathe, for example.)

 

Anyway, great to see you back, and thanks for the prod to get going with my own challenge.

 

Sulinar

[The Borg Queen]

Hello again... Great to see you back!

 

Looks like a well thought out set of goals.

 

Could you remind me of exactly what an HIIT session involves? Is it intervals? If so, one thing you could do it get serious is become meticulous about recording the data from your sessions... either in terms of distance, speed, or calories burned... and then try to beat yourself every time. You could even work it into the goal, by setting a baseline and giving yourself a reach goal to meet after 6 weeks.

[L'irlandaise]

 

So that's going to be a grade per week for each sub-goal, is that right? How are you going to score those overall and transform them into stat increases?

 

...

 

Suggestion for your HIIT activity - zumba, if you can get signed up for a weekly class. Or any other class-based activity that's equally taxing. If you like I'll be your accountability referee (like, if you sign up for a class and don't make it for a week for some spurious reason I will expect you to donate 10€ to some cause you loathe, for example.)

 

Anyway, great to see you back, and thanks for the prod to get going with my own challenge.

 

 

 

And THAT, fellow rebels, is Accountability!!!  I haven't figured out my conversion into final stats; I was feeling awfully pleased that I'd remembered how to change my profile signature so you can see where my head's at ( south of my ass as usual)

 

I'm a motivated bunny for making time for the exercise and my varied weekly schedule means a class is less likely to happen than a session at home. It's the quality of the HIIT sessions I need to improve. There IS, however, a  local political party I could donate to here if I fail to do a session "properly"... 

 

Thanks for stopping by! I shall return the favour!

 

  

Hello again... Great to see you back!

 

Looks like a well thought out set of goals.

 

Could you remind me of exactly what an HIIT session involves? Is it intervals? If so, one thing you could do it get serious is become meticulous about recording the data from your sessions... either in terms of distance, speed, or calories burned... and then try to beat yourself every time. You could even work it into the goal, by setting a baseline and giving yourself a reach goal to meet after 6 weeks.

(Happy sighs at having two ace women already on the thread!!) Hello to you too!! My reading of HIIT is a repeated pattern of a  period of peak activity followed by a recovery oriented period. My pattern at the moment is three sets  of  two minutes on,  two minutes off.  I've been playing with incorporating this into longer sessions on the elliptic or running (!) and actually the running was working better for me. I'll have a mull over setting myself challenge goals and will update on Wednesday ( also the first HIIT programme day).

[Elleme]

Hi L'irlandaise! (hmm, will have to think up a cute nickname for you, this is a bit difficult to remember!)

 

I especially like goals #1 and #3. I like to clean my plate too, so focusing on what you put on it, is very clever.
And I like the moments you picked for meditation! Perhaps I should do the same. Like, exactly the same.

 

I'll be following your progress!

[yolonaut]

Hi L'irlandaise! Sounds like we have some similar goals as far as mindful eating and HIIT...looking forward to following your progress!

[L'irlandaise]

Hi L'irlandaise! (hmm, will have to think up a cute nickname for you, this is a bit difficult to remember!)

 

I especially like goals #1 and #3. I like to clean my plate too, so focusing on what you put on it, is very clever.

And I like the moments you picked for meditation! Perhaps I should do the same. Like, exactly the same.

 

I'll be following your progress!

I'll answer to virtually anything! So far the early evening meditation is keeping me out of the cupboard AND allowing my other half to escape my work-day related grumbling... 

Hi L'irlandaise! Sounds like we have some similar goals as far as mindful eating and HIIT...looking forward to following your progress!

Aha! I shall explore your threads for ideas to pinch then!

 

Thanks for stopping by!!!

[Erick the Red]

Your ebook goal made me smile.

 

I have a hard time focusing on HIIT unless I am outside or have a circuit that I can rotate through so that I don't get bored.

[Braembel Bera]

I love your goals. They seem so carefully thought through! Best of luck on all of them, though I had to cringe a little at the Life Quest... it's so hard not to be tempted by books! I have a goal this year that I have to read at least one book from my shelf before I can move on to a library or otherwise new book. It's killing me, but it's working!

 

Bera

[The Borg Queen]

Hello! Any updates?

[L'irlandaise]

Your ebook goal made me smile.

 

I have a hard time focusing on HIIT unless I am outside or have a circuit that I can rotate through so that I don't get bored.

 

A smiling Erick is a good thing!  I do need to rotate the activities to keep up motivation so I plan to spend a little time today cobbling my options together and I'll post them on this thread too. 

I love your goals. They seem so carefully thought through! Best of luck on all of them, though I had to cringe a little at the Life Quest... it's so hard not to be tempted by books! I have a goal this year that I have to read at least one book from my shelf before I can move on to a library or otherwise new book. It's killing me, but it's working!

 

Bera

Good idea on the bookshelves too. I took a duster to the bookshelves this morning and reminded myself that there's at least a year's worth of reading in the house already. 

Hello! Any updates?

There are! I've been slow to get back in the habit of updating so here's a late mid-week update:

 

 

Sub-quest 1 Get on the plate

So far 3/4. The meditation habit is helping to stop the hoovering habit when I get in from work which is a result! I am still being lazier than I'd like about cooking and preparing food for  lunch times so I am leaving myself to the mercy of shop and restaurant choices which is less than satisfactory. Now I have 4 days at home (thank you, Christianity) so fewer excuses for being unorganised. 

 

 

Sub quest 2 Get serious about HIIT. 1/2 sessions done. Did sprints. Correction,  attempted sprints for four sets of 2 minutes on and two minutes off but numbers 3 and 4  weren't really deserving of the name. Still I did work at peak intensity throughout and it was lovely to be outside!

 

 

Sub quest 3 Get mental. 8/10 sessions done. The meditation when I get in is definitely at the right time of day, giving me a break between my work head and my home head. It may be my imagination but the boyfriend is looking relieved too. The lunchtime session is after I've eaten (hunter-gatherer instincts don't permit me to think of anything other than food until it's in my mitts) but it is allowing me to empty the old noggin before an afternoon's teaching. 

 

 

LIFE Quest

 

Good news. I haven't bought a book  so far this week. Bad news. I've just finished the book I was reading. Hmmmmmm. 

[Sulinar]

 LIFE Quest

 

Good news. I haven't bought a book  so far this week. Bad news. I've just finished the book I was reading. Hmmmmmm. 

 

Yes, but I believe you made some mention of there being a year's worth of reading matter in the house? Also - LIBRARIES!!! They're usually pretty cheap in France, so get yer bum down there. (Will also improve your French.)

 

I hope you're getting your lunches organised over this weekend; Easter's not there for nothing, you know. And no, chocolate consumption has nothing to do with it either.

 

I'm a bit late checking in because I don't seem to be getting notifications (then again it's a while since I've been on the forums and I have a feeling that's normal). My life is so disorganised that I haven't even managed to get my thread up this week. Sigh. Anyway, I'm still cheering for you, my dear.

[Erick the Red]

Sprints that are hard are done right.  Good effort!

[L'irlandaise]

Yes, but I believe you made some mention of there being a year's worth of reading matter in the house? Also - LIBRARIES!!! They're usually pretty cheap in France, so get yer bum down there. (Will also improve your French.)

 

I hope you're getting your lunches organised over this weekend; Easter's not there for nothing, you know. And no, chocolate consumption has nothing to do with it either.

 

I'm a bit late checking in because I don't seem to be getting notifications (then again it's a while since I've been on the forums and I have a feeling that's normal). My life is so disorganised that I haven't even managed to get my thread up this week. Sigh. Anyway, I'm still cheering for you, my dear.

Better late than never, lovely woman. And thanks for being here! 

 

Sprints that are hard are done right.  Good effort!

Awww, thanks. Deciding to take the HIIT sessions a bit more seriously is half the battle. And my glutes are heartily agreeing with you after session 2. 

[L'irlandaise]

Update time already. Bloody.

 

 

Sub-quest 1 Get on the plate

 

 C, 5 days.  It all goes to pot at the weekends. Actually I haven't been out of control ( says she on her second pilsner of the evening) but I need to address the weekend breakfasts of bread and croissants  if I am to get serious about this. And doubly so if I am going to see the parents for a week ( cue all sorts of potential bread-related misshaps)

 

Sub quest 2 Get serious about HIIT.

 

Scoring : A,  two different HIIT sessions, given full focus. Second session was after an two hour hike.  Once indoors again I did 2 mins mountain climbers, 2 x 2 minutes of fast knees to stability ball and 2 minutes of goat belly lifts with a 12 kg ball (too light but I do so LOVE this exercise).  It wasn't as carefully planned as it could be but it got the heart rate going and took care of a grumbling shoulder. 

 

 

Sub quest 3 Get mental. 

 

Scoring :

 

A: 10 – 14 five-minute meditations per week. 12. As I said, it all goes to pot at the weekends. Luckily my scoring system allows for this. Hurrah!

 

LIFE Quest

 

Stop bloody buying ebooks on Amazon 1 - Click.

 

Scoring A: No books bought.

[The Borg Queen]

Sounds like a pretty good week! Even though you had an interesting eating weekend, 5 days of on-track eating is great. Do you have an idea of how to fix the weekend problem time?

[L'irlandaise]

Sounds like a pretty good week! Even though you had an interesting eating weekend, 5 days of on-track eating is great. Do you have an idea of how to fix the weekend problem time?

REALLY good question. I think if the next weeks were to be normal working weeks, I wouldn't sweat about it, Prime, because when there's just two of us in the house there's not a lot of extra snacky treat food and I can avoid it. But I'm going back to Ireland next week to my childhood environment of tea and bread and jam  and "go on, you do want another spud/ slice of cream cake/Club biscuit:packet of Tayto/pint" conversations  So I need to come up with a strategy.  

 

I'll post the results of my cogitations here on Sunday evening before I go!

 

So, mid-week update from this shambolic wench:

 

Sub Quest 1 Get on the plate. 3/7 days. Fine. just gotta watch the bread.

Sub Quest 2 Hiit session was a disaster this evening. I keep thinking that a short intense session will be easier to do than the hour long weights workouts. So I don't plan and I start it half assed and it stays half-assed. In the end I decided to declare it an active recovery day ( lots of walking today) and I'll move the HIITs sessions to Friday and Sunday to get in the quota. Now to plan for something fail-safe on both days!

Sub Quest 3 Get mental. Only one meditation session on Monday, two yesterday and  two today. Still pleased about the timings - especially the 5 minute adjustment to "homehead" when I get in. 

 

Still no ebooks bought. Hurrah for the small victories!

[The Borg Queen]

OOOooooo, planning a trip! That is so exciting. Are you going to be see family?

 

What's going to be you're HIIT fail safe? You can do it!

[Sulinar]

Hi babe,

 

Sounds like weekends are definitely your black spot. I know those weekend breakfasts extremely well. Is it you that buys the croissants or your other half? Because I find the best way not to buy "little extras" from French bakeries is just not to go into them. Then hubbie buys the bread, which means that he buys just that. Bread. (Alright, I know that this is also a problem, but if it's your dinner bread then you aren't likely to scoff it for breakfast.)

 

Also will be interested to know how you are going to cope with being back in the old country; can you plead a medical condition that means you can't eat bread/cake? Or... um... offend your entire family by saying No? Or is it possible that you can get in loads of exercise to use up the extra calories (I don't know where you come from, but if it's rural there ought to be plenty of excuses for walking). Last time I went home I made a point of not staying with my family (fortunately Ma and Pa are divorced, so I could use the excuse of not offending either by staying with the other). This meant that I could get up and do a run in the morning, spend much of the day walking on the hills and avoid *some* of the cake.

 

Glad to hear the homehead meditations are going well - sounds like an excellent idea. 

 

For HIIT workouts, the Runtastic channel on YouTube has some good recommendations. Lunden, the presenter is very bouncy, but she actually comes across as being really nice (and she can do decline pushups like nobody's business, so I reckon she's worth listening to!)

 

Also, I know you're being successful so far with the e-book thing, but can you remove your Amazon 1-click settings? That would give you a few extra key presses to remember what you're supposed to be avoiding. 

 

Fingers crossed for the trip anyway!

[L'irlandaise]

OOOooooo, planning a trip! That is so exciting. Are you going to be see family?

 

What's going to be you're HIIT fail safe? You can do it!

 

I AM seeing family, Prime: it's the first time seeing my parents , my brother and his family since the end of October last year so I'm looking forward to it.

 

The HIIT failsafe for the next week will be the bodyweight stuff I've done this week, I'll rotate through the following for 6 sets of 2 minutes HI then a minute of recovery. Thanks for asking!

 

Mountain climbers 15

Air squats 15

Push ups 10

Lateral lunges 10 each side

 

I've been checking out the times of the local leisure centre too so I may do a session in the swimming pool or go runniing with my partner and brother. We'll see. For the longer strength training sessions I'm packing bands.

 

Hi babe,

 

Sounds like weekends are definitely your black spot. I know those weekend breakfasts extremely well. Is it you that buys the croissants or your other half? Because I find the best way not to buy "little extras" from French bakeries is just not to go into them. Then hubbie buys the bread, which means that he buys just that. Bread. (Alright, I know that this is also a problem, but if it's your dinner bread then you aren't likely to scoff it for breakfast.)

 

Also will be interested to know how you are going to cope with being back in the old country; can you plead a medical condition that means you can't eat bread/cake?

 

 

For HIIT workouts, the Runtastic channel on YouTube has some good recommendations. Lunden, the presenter is very bouncy, but she actually comes across as being really nice (and she can do decline pushups like nobody's business, so I reckon she's worth listening to!)

 

Also, I know you're being successful so far with the e-book thing, but can you remove your Amazon 1-click settings? That would give you a few extra key presses to remember what you're supposed to be avoiding. 

 

Fingers crossed for the trip anyway!

Thanks for lots of ideas, Sulinar. I checked out Runtastic this morning: my, she IS chirpy. I'll go back and watch some vids but I'm suffering a little from information overload, having bought the Jen Sinkler "LIft Weights Faster"  discovering the HIITs siggestions on Pinterest boards. .

 

I'm just going to stay off the glutinous things on offer and stock up on the lovely meat and veg that will be going.  I've already asked the major cake pusher, my mother, to not go to the bother of baking: she'll ignore that but the groundwork for my general refusal has been laid. I've all but given up milk in coffee and tea over the last couple of months so having a cappucino on its own is a big enough treat if we find ourselves having a stop for a sit down and a sticky bun. However, if I end up going to my friends' pottery/cafe and there's coconut lime cake on offer, I'm having some. Let's not be silly about things.

 

Okay, update time for week 2

 

 

Sub-quest 1 Get on the plate

Scoring :

B 7 days really except for weekend breakfast: one croissant and some lovely hazelnut bread and butter. No protein or veg crossed the table.

 

Sub quest 2 Get serious about HIIT. 

Scoring B,  two HIIT sessions, given full focus.

Did the bodyweight sessions mentioned above. I don't know how good an idea it is to do these on the off days in between longer strength training sessions but it feels fine. And i feel like I'm working hard during both.  I am looking forward to a day off tomorrow tho.

 

 

Sub quest 3 Get mental. I've been playing with meditation but not really adopting it consistently . So I plan to do two 5 minute sessions a day. One at lunchtime. One when I get in from work before I open a kitchen cupboard. Can you see the thought process here?

 

Scoring :

 

B. 5- 9 five- minute meditations per week. My work schedule is undergoing changes so Friday's sessions went for a burton as did the weekends. Given that I'm on holiday next week, I'm going to go for a mediation on waking and one before dinner as these are wehen I'm going to be tempeted by too much food!

 

 

LIFE Quest

 

Stop bloody buying ebooks on Amazon 1 - Click.

 

Scoring A: No books bought.

 

Sulinar's right. I should just disable the button. But so far so good.

 

I'll check in tomorrow morning to see how everybody's done for week 2. I'm away off to eat a bacon omelette and salad. Nom nom nom.

[The Borg Queen]

Good job on week 2! Looks like you're HIITting all the main points

[Erick the Red]

How did your meditation work go?  Is there a particular form or routine that you are using?

[Sulinar]

Are you back yet? How was the trip? How successful were the anti-cake measures?

[L'irlandaise]

I am back!  I got home yesterday evening and started work at the usual time this morning so I'm feeling a little doolally at present. It was a good rest.

 

How did your meditation work go?  Is there a particular form or routine that you are using?

Erick, I'm a bit embarrassed and  for two reasons. Firstly, I should say that I practise mindfulness rather than meditation. It's pretty free-form. I set a timer and then I focus on sensations (my ass on a chair,my  feet on the floor, inside my socks and boots etc) or a view from a window or all the noises around me ( the noisier the better). Secondly. I gave myself the week off last week. Back onto it this week though.

Are you back yet? How was the trip? How successful were the anti-cake measures?

 

Hey there! 1 ordinary slice of an out of this world Victoria sponge filled with fresh strawberries, whipped cream and raspberry jam. One sliver (almost transparent) of the second one. One cappucino to avoid another slice. I'm pretty pleased with myself about that. 

[L'irlandaise]

Sub-quest 1 Get on the plate

 

Scoring :

 I'm giving myself a B for the week. I  relaxed a little bit because I was at home but there was no overeating. Mind you, even the fact that I was eating a little more bread than usual ( Irish wheaten bread, I say no more) means I want more now. The really shocking thing is that I had no beer at all. 

 

Sub quest 2 Get serious about HIIT. 

 

Scoring : A,  two different HIIT sessions, given full focus.  Really enjoyable body weight routine on Wednesday and running/ walking intervals on Sunday. It was first time I've run near my parent's home (they've lived there for 30 years) and 18 minutes took me down to the seashore. For a landlocked continental it was reward in itself. 

 

 

Sub quest 3 Get mental.

Scoring :

 

C 1- 4 five-minute meditations mindfulness exercises. Trains are good for this. Planes and airports are good for this. WAlking on a beach also good. But I did very little otherwise. 

 

LIFE Quest

 

Stop bloody buying ebooks on Amazon 1 - Click.

 

Scoring A: No books bought.