Manic Spider's 77 Day Pre-PAX Log

[ManicSpider]

So I'm going to PAX Aus in 77 days (woo!), and I've also been struggling a bit recently with eating habits and injury so I've decided that I can convince myself to do the right thing in the lead up to PAX. Basically it gives me a window to change my habits while not struggling with the "I have to do this for the rest of my whole life?" thing. Then I'll set another event to aim for and try and do it again, so hopefully keeping one step ahead of my psyche

 

Basically my goals are:

 

1) 2.5 litres of water a day.

 

2) Track my calories every day, never going over 2000.

 

3) Sleep for at least 7 hours a night.

 

4) Do my physio exercises and mobility stretching every day.

 

5) Walk for half an hour every day on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

 

 

When I get home tonight I'm going to put up my measurements and weight so I've got a baseline.

[ManicSpider]

Day 1 - Alternate Title: In retrospect this should have been a 76 day battle log

 

After difficulties with my assignment meaning I was furiously typing and looking up case law till midnight, day 1 was almost a complete write-off. 

 

1) Drank 2 litres of water.

 

2) Calories = *cough* 2,829.

 

3) Sleep = 6 hours

 

4 and 5) Nope. No exercise at all.

 

On the plus side, I took a fairly thorough inventory of measurements:

 

• Weight - 128.3 kg
• Waist - 112 cm
• Hips - 142 cm
• Chest - 126 cm
• Neck - 36 cm
• Thigh (L/R) - 80/81
• Calf (L/R) - 52/50
• Bicep (L/R) - 44/43
• Wrist (L/R) - 17/17

[ManicSpider]

Day 2

 

Food/Water

 

Drank 1.25 litres of water. 

 

Calories - 1,834 

 

Sleep

 

About 5 hours. 

 

Exercise

 

Walked 30m 27s, 2.69 kilometers (pace 11:18/km)

 

I think it might be useful to log why I didn't do certain things:

 

• I drank water at work, but I was really busy and so didn't drink as much as usual. 
• I had planned to do my mobility stretching in the morning and my physio in the evening, but I was running late in the morning and I was exhausted in the evening. Seriously, I really think getting my sleep in hand is going to be the biggest turning point. 

[ManicSpider]

Day 3

 

Food/Water

 

 

I stopped counting. Went to a friend's house for lunch, and then had people over in the evening so it was a complete mess. Also, I drank absolutely NO water. Literally none. I spent the whole day drinking diet coke or red eyes. 

 

Sleep

 

10 hours overnight, then a 2 hour nap in between lunch and people coming around in the evening. 

 

Exercise

 

Shoulder band-exercises (green): 

 

• Internal - 24, 20, 20 
• External - 15, 13, 10

 

Rotator Cuff: 

 

• 5 kilos 2.5 kilos - 21, 20, 15

[ManicSpider]

Day 4

 

So I had people over last night for gaming and they didn't go until about 4am - it always happens, we game, and then we talk, then we watch YouTube, then it's like "Oh shit, those of us with kids have to be up in 3 hours". Then I went to a birthday party for a 1 year old, bought myself some kick-ass but HUGELY too expensive Razer Tiamat headphones, and then came home, fed my bub and cleaned the entire computer room - all papers away, 2 bags of garbage gone and sugar-soaped the walls. I think I was on some sort of sleep-deprivation high. 

 

Food/Drink

 

1888 Calories (woo! Would have gone over if I'd had a piece of birthday cake) 

 

1.2 litres of water

 

Sleep

 

4 hours 

 

Exercise

 

Shoulder band-exercises (green): 

• Internal - 24, 21, 19 
• External - 12, 10, 11

 

Rotator Cuff: 

• 2.5 kilos (5 kilos above is a mistake, I'll fix it) - 15, 10, 8 (should have stopped at 6 as I'm not meant to go to pain but I'm stubourn) 

 

Mobility: 

 

• Clam Shell - 30s x 2
• Hip Flexors - 30s x 2 (each leg) 
• Side Lunge - 30s x 2
• Squat Sit - 30s x 2

[ManicSpider]

My shoulder is really feeling it from yesterday. All the wall scrubbing followed by pushing it a little hard on the stretches. I've got a physio appointment tomorrow morning and I'm really excited to be getting my letter allowing me to go back to lifting.

[Muscle Professor]

I hope you get a chance to catch up on sleep.

[ManicSpider]

Day 5

 

Today was another wipeout. I was sore and tired, and I've lost an important script which is really stressing me out.

 

Food/Drink

 

2,800 calories. I was doing alright until the afternoon, when I sat down and calculated how many calories I had left and decided I could afford the piece of cake I'd kept aside from the birthday party. Then after I'd eaten it my Mum called and asked me to come over for dinner, where I had Chinese. Note to self - Prawn Toast is never worth that many calories (238!!). It's nice, but it's not THAT nice. Then I got home, looked for my script for a couple of hours, had a pity party with Pringles and told the whole day to jump off a cliff.

 

• Breakfast: Ham and Cheese Sandwich, Red Eye.
• Lunch: Rice, Cabanossi and frozen vegetables.
• Afternoon Tea: Chocolate Cake.
• Dinner: Chinese Takeaway.
• Self Pity: Pringles and another Red Eye.

 

Water - 1.25 litres

 

 

Sleep

 

6 hours

 

 

Exercise

 

Nope. I thought about it briefly after I finished looking for my script, but was too pissed off and tired.

[ManicSpider]

Day 6

 

I spent all last night looking for that script. You might ask - how can someone spend more than 7 hours looking in their house for one piece of paper? The answer is that I used to be a hoarder. Not just a "Oh, I have a lot of books and ha wouldn't it be funny if I was a hoarder" but literally there were entire rooms that could not be entered because I had papers and books stacked to the ceiling and if anyone tried to get rid of them I would have a massive panic attack. Why I thought I might need a handout from the Communication Theory class I took 10 years ago I have no idea. Then one day I did a Mental Health survey and was like "Wait, that's not normal, is it?". I'm weirdly proud of the fact that you can walk into any room in my house at the moment. Well, not you, but a person could. But my script has disappeared into the sea of paper waiting to be sorted that is my dining room and I can't find it anywhere.

 

Also I went to the physio yesterday. I have a letter that will allow me to go back to lifting (Woo!), and I'm planning to go back next Tuesday once I've finished the house. I'm going to do it all this week, I don't care what else I have to let go in the meantime. I want everything in a place so I don't have to worry about where any particular thing is.

 

Food/Drink

 

1989 calories

 

• Breakfast: Cheds and a Red Eye
• Lunch: Leftover Chinese
• Dinner: Chicken, brown rice, lettuce and mushrooms
• Snacks: 1 banana, 10 M&Ms.

Water - 2 litres.

 

Sleep

 

7 hours (Woo!)

 

Exercise

 

None. Literally by the time I'd gone to the physio, done a full day at work, cooked dinner, put washing on, and then sorted papers for 2.5 hours I was so incredibly sore. Even my cheek bones are sore.

[ManicSpider]

Day 7 and Weekly Analysis (with graphs!)

 

Okay, considering I typed something quite lengthy before and it was deleted I'll make this one shorter.

 

Food/Drink

 

Stopped counting again. Basically I was doing fine until it got to the evening, then we had to go find material to make a Spot costume for Book Week so we got takeaway on the way home. But even after I'd finished I had the most massive cravings and just ate as much food as I could find. I didn't even enjoy the stuff I was eating - it was just there.

 

Water - About 1 litre.

 

Sleep

 

8 hours. In fact I slept through my alarm and woke up as I was meant to be leaving the house, which made for a stressful morning.

 

Exercise

 

30 minute walk.

 

 

So, obviously as far as weeks go this one wasn't great. I weighed in at 129.4 kilos, which is a gain of 1.1 kilos - an actively worse result than when I wasn't paying attention to it. While there are clearly a lot of problems here regarding food choices, sleep, exercise and emotional eating, I am going to try and focus on a couple of small things I think will make a difference.

 

I've made a graph of water consumption vs calorie consumption, using 3000 calories for the days I ate so much I stopped recording: 

 

 

From that, I think it's pretty clear that the days I have complete blowouts coincide with my very low water days. So a priority for this week will be making sure I get enough water. Basically the plan is that I will say to myself "Sure, you can eat whatever you want - as soon as you've finished drinking the rest of your water".

 

I also made a graph of my calorie consumption vs sleep, but I'm not sure if there's really a pattern I can see unless it's that I eat more on days I sleep more?

 

 

Anyways, so the plan for this week is focus on water consumption, have only one Red Eye a day, and incorporate a piece of fruit each day in the afternoon so I'm not starving when I get home from work. 

 

Improvement - go!

[Aminarra]

Always copy your posts before hitting submit because the NF servers are hungry for posts and they'll get eaten more than once, I've learned... 

 

Your progress looks good!! It's a bumpy start, but they always are! As long as the overall trend is in the right direction, then you're golden  

 

I've subbed to your challenge! Best of luck!! 

 

(oh, and update your siggy so that other people can sub too )

[ManicSpider]

Thanks Aminarra! And good idea, I'll update my signature now

 

The other thing I am going to make sure I do this week is to track how many calories I eat each day even if I go way over. I think the blowout days were well over 3000 and if I at least keep track of the actual numbers, while they might be embarrasing now, it's better to have exact numbers so I can see improvement in weekly calorie totals over time.

[ManicSpider]

Day 8

 

I finished my son's costume for Bookweek! I think the proudest I have ever been in my life is when we arrived at school and a teacher said "Oh, we have a Spot the Dog!", because I was terrified people would be like "Are you like a weird Winnie the Pooh?" I had to cut a hole in my doona cover this morning after the crepe paper idea for the spot fell through, but it was totally worth it. I'll patch it up later.

 

Food/Drink

 

2730 calories. Once again, the dreaded parental dinner invite strikes at the last minute to ruin the best laid plans. Alos, it would have been less if I hadn't been literally sitting around waiting for paint to dry at midnight. I ate the rest of the Pringles from last week out of boredom.

 

• Breakfast: Egg and Bacon Roll and a Red Eye
• Lunch: Cabanossi, brown rice, peas and corn.
• Dinner: Mixed grill, green beans, sea salt and rosemary chips, apple pie.
• Snacks: Half a cupcake (thanks Dad!), pringles, 20 M&Ms.
• Piece of Fruit: Banana

Water: 2 litres.

 

Sleep

 

7 hours approximately. Woke up naturally before 7am for the first time in ages, but then spent 25 minutes lying in bed browsing Reddit so was still late. 

 

Exercise

 

Half an hour walk at lunchtime, half an hour walk to the shops to pick up green beans and apple pie for dinner with folks. I'm particularly proud of that because my son wanted to drive down, but I insisted we walk seeing as I knew we were about to blow my calorie plans for the day.

 

Despite the fact I'm still not doing great, I'm feeling fairly positive about the medium to long term.

[House]

Gonna be awesome to watch this thread. Really like seeing how people progress in their long term goals

[Aminarra]

Good on  ya for tracking your foods  Do your parents know you're watching your weight?  My mom was my biggest supporter when I wanted to try to start losing weight and always made sure to have healthy meals when she invited me over  

 

I'm a sucker for tater tot casserole, though, so I have to be extra careful when my brother invites me over to his house

[ManicSpider]

House - *lol* I'll try and actually progress then I'm great at plans - not so great at actually putting them into action. 

 

Aminarra - I had to google what a tater tot casserole was, but OMG that looks insane! In Australia they're mostly known as Potato Gems, and I never thought of doing that with them. Must. Resist. Urge! 

[ManicSpider]

Day 9 - With some deep thinking

 

I had an epiphany! I gave up looking for my script and booked an emergency appointment with my neurologist, and then I remembered that this was what I always was like before I started the tablets, which is how I got so large to begin with (I was 145 kilos, 319 pounds, at my biggest). I was diagnosed with ADD when I was 28 and my life just turned right around. The tablets help me with impulse control ("hey look something shin- no, wait, it's a trap, go back to doing work", or relevantly here "hey look chips - no, wait, it's a trap, go drink water"), and also now that I haven't been taking them I've noticed a return of some anxiety eating because I'm worried I'm forgetting to do things that are objectively important but my brain doesn't care about (like sending in tax forms). For me, having ADD is like living in a Kafka novel.

 

Also, I made a link between the hoarding and the ADD. I used to keep things around so much because I was terrified I'd forget I needed it and throw it out by accident, which is probably why it's been a lot easier for me to change that behaviour since I started the tablets. But the specialist sorted the script out and so I should have everything under control next week.  

 

Food/Drink

 

2333 calories

 

• Breakfast: Cheds and a Red Eye
• Lunch: Nothing. 
• Dinner: Fish and Chips while watching Sleepy Hollow with friend
• Piece of Fruit: Banana

Water: 2 litres. 

 

Sleep

 

7 hours. My body must be getting used to it, because I went to bed too late for 7 hours and then slept right through my alarm till I got to 7. 

 

Exercise

 

None.

[ManicSpider]

Day 10

 

Terrible day. Had a meltdown in the evening and literally just ate things to spite myself. All those plans I had about water consumption just went right out the window. 

 

Food/Drink

 

3645 calories

Plus side - I actually tracked it all rather than saying stuff it. 

• Breakfast: Leftover chicken and brown rice. 
• Lunch (at 2pm - starving): McDonalds (medium chips, 10 nuggets) 
• Dinner: Pizza
• Snacks: All the things. Like three packs of chips. 
• Piece of Fruit: Nope. 

Water: 0. 

 

Sleep

 

8 hours. 

 

Exercise

 

Nope. Got home after driving my son around to activities all day and was just buggered. 

[ManicSpider]

Day 11 - Constantly Hungry and Tired

 

The title pretty much says it all. I ate way too much, but I was soooo hungry, even as soon as I'd eaten my stomach was growling.

 

Food/Drink

 

3124 calories - again, at least I'm getting better at tracking when I'm awful.

 

• Breakfast: Leftover Pizza and a Red Eye
• Lunch: Pork chop and potato gems
• Dinner: Bacon, egg and cheese sandwich with potato gems
• Snacks: Cheese and bacon roll, chips, 1 glass of champagne at party, chocolate doughnut.
• Fruit: Not.

Water - 250 mls. I don't drink water well at home. I think I need a specific water glass and jug like I have at work.

 

Sleep

 

8.5 hours.

 

Exercise

 

Mobility work. My hip is really tight again :-(

[ManicSpider]

Day 12 - Still very tired but not so insatiably hungry

 

Food/Drink

 

1984 calories (double-plus good!) (that's a literary joke for you) 

 

• Breakfast: Ham, cheese and mushroom bread roll.
• Lunch: Chicken schnitzle and chips.
• Dinner: Pork chop, mash potato and corn cob with orange and mango juice.
• Snacks: Cookies. They're 45 calories each and I love them so much.
• Piece of fruit: Banana.

Water: 2.25 litres.

 

Sleep

 

So much sleep! I went to bed as soon as my son was sorted and the washing was in the machine. 9 hours.

 

Exercise

 

No, because I went to bed ridiculously early.

[ManicSpider]

I feel like there is no point today. My script got refused because I lost it - they reckon I can just make do till it would have expired normally in October, I can't focus on my job, I keep crying because I've stuffed my entire life up. Even this log, all I'm doing is demonstrating to the world my inability to meet even the smallest goals. I don't even know why I'm typing this.

[ManicSpider]

Okay, ignore that last. I've worked out why I was extremely tired and hungry for three days, and then collapsed in a puddle of waterworks and emotion. You'd think living the same pattern out over and over again every month for decades would mean you recognised it when it started happening, but no, it catches me by surprise every time I'll update from the last two days shortly. 

[Muscle Professor]

Life is like a muscle. Muscles can only grow when faced with a force that overloads them. Sounds like life met you with force and you pushed back. By reading your posts I see some epic leveling in the future for you. Keep fighting the battle!

[ManicSpider]

Day 13

 

Food/Drink

 

2208 calories

 

• Breakfast: Ham, cheese and mushroom bread roll.
• Lunch: Char Kway Teow.
• Dinner: Sausage, bread, veggies and chips.
• Snacks: Cookies, Cheese Twisties.
• Piece of Fruit: Strawberries.

Water - 2.5 litres.

 

This was a fairly good day.

 

Sleep

 

9 hours. I've been so incredibly tired.

 

Exercise

 

No. I've been so incredibly tired.

[ManicSpider]

Day 14 - Complete with meltdown and lots of graphs!

 

I hate to be a walking stereotype, but it was a very emotional day. Thanks hormones!

 

https://i.chzbgr.com/maxW500/7032014336/h4C39F6CC/

 

Actually, that woman doing the biting looks exactly like my grandma when she was young. 

 

Food/Drink

 

3442 calories - eat ALL the emotions!

 

• Breakfast: Bacon and Egg Focaccia.
• Lunch: Nothing.
• Dinner: KFC
• Snacks: Cookies, Salt & Vinegar chips, Cheese Rings
• Piece of Fruit: Banana

Water: 1.75 litres.

 

Sleep

 

7 hours

 

Exercise

 

Mobility work in the morning.

 

 

So, how did the week go in general? Time for graphs

 

 

Again, there is a fairly clear link between water consumption and calories.

 

 

And again, not so much a link between sleep and calories. Unless anyone better with data interpretation can see something?

 

I've also compared my results for Weeks 1 and 2 in total and as an average per day:

 

 

 

 

 

Overall, my water consumption and sleep have increased, but so have my calories. I think a lot of the calorie consumption this week was hormonal (must. have. SUGAR!) so I think I'll be able to improve fairly easily on this over the coming week.

 

My weight remained steady at 129.4 (though I weighed myself on the morning of day 15 and I'd gone up to 130.2 - still, I'll count as 129.4 given that's the weight on the day and also because there's hormonal weight which I know from experience will be gone in a week).

 

I'm happy with the improvements I've made, and I'll just work a little harder over the coming week on keeping my calorie count a little lower on average.