Solstice Tiger, heading upward

[Solstice Tiger]

Heading Upward

 

Last challenge I worked toward establishing a baseline by tracking my food intake, continuing my workouts, and smoothing out my sleep patterns.

 

This time we'll take some things just a little bit further, all in pursuit of my giant life quest of being able to do just about anything.

 

Quest 1: Stay within caloric goals

I have a pretty good idea of my eating habits now, thanks to the last challenge. What I want to do now is eat better. Eating better will help fuel my workouts and hopefully help with general day to day feeling as well. I'm using MyFitnessPal to count my calories and track calories burned through exercise, so I will be using their pie chart tool as well for this quest. The percentages are 50-30-20 carbohydrates-fats-proteins. Since I'm new at trying to hit these things, I'll be allowing myself a couple percentage points leeway one way or the other.

Grading: hit percentages within 3 points averaged over the week (Mon-Sun) = A

hit within 5 points averaged over the week (Mon-Sun) = B

hit within 7 points averaged over the week (Mon-Sun) = C

 

Quest 2: Workouts

This isn't about doing the same workout over and over again every day. Whenever I do that for too long, I end up getting bored and annoyed and stop working out because of it. So, I've decided, the best way to combat that is to allow myself to do whatever I want for my workouts! I enjoy the Advanced Bodyweight Workout that I did for last challenge, I like running and doing some pull ups and push ups, and DareBee has a whole bunch of bodyweight workouts available online. So, I will probably keep to the ABW mostly, with some running thrown in, and when I get bored I may pick up a new superhero themed workout from DareBee.

Grading: 3x/week = A

 

Quest 3: Paleo-ish

I know it's easier to stay within my pie chart goals (as outlined in Quest 1) when I'm not eating a lot of pasta and frozen pizza and boxed macaroni. I also tend to feel better about myself (and just feel better in general) when I'm eating lovely, healthy food that I've cooked. So here's the goal: find paleo recipes online and make 2 per week. Any other meals can be whatever, since sometimes I like to make the fiance cook and his go-to standard is pasta with vegetables. I also don't feel like going out and buying funny paleo ingredients like almond flour or whatnot, so any recipes I find will be made with the stuff that I have on hand.

Grading: 2 paleo recipes/week = A

 

Life Quest: Read books

OK, I've been reading a lot of comics lately, and I mean A LOT, and while that's great and all, I have a bunch of other books on my to-read pile that just are not being read. So, so many... So this challenge I'm going to make a dent in that pile! The goal will be to read one book every week.

Grading: finish 1 book/week = A

 

I'll be thinking about these last two quests during the day tomorrow and will hopefully have something to edit in here. It's just the end of Sunday and that always makes me sad and unproductive. 

 

[miss america]

Whoo hoo! Excited to follow you again and excited to see what you come up with for those last two goals! I also just realized ULTRON is gonna come out during this challenge... hopefully you'll get some good Hawkguy (or I guess, just Hawkeye in this version) action to inspire you ))

[Solstice Tiger]

Duuude, that's what I'm hoping for too! The drive-in theater by me is opening May 1 with Ultron and I am SO EXCITED I CAN'T STAND IT. I just hope they play another good movie with it.

[Solstice Tiger]

Aw yes, I finally got myself my other quests and we're all set up to go!! Six weeks, here I come!

 

April 13 Quest Log

While my normal workout day, I opted to move it to Tuesday so I could have a dinner date with the fiance which means I didn't make my own dinner, workout, or do some reading.

 

April 14 Quest Log

3 circuits of modified ABW! (Which is cool cuz I only worked out twice during the bye week.) Didn't make a paleo meal (had potatoes with my pork chops and Brussels sprouts) but I have some planned for the rest of the week. Man, I feel like such a nerd, but I'm just so happy about having a good dinner and a workout! And, bonus, leftovers for lunch at work tomorrow. Good day today.

[Space Monkey]

Yayyy you're back! Excited to see what you're going to do with the big data you gathered about your eating habits!

[K-Prime]

Well I'm most happy to be following YOU again! Hey pal! Great goals, and I look forward to cheering you on as you completely crush them!

[Solstice Tiger]

Yayyy you're back! Excited to see what you're going to do with the big data you gathered about your eating habits!

 

Me too!! I've been talking a lot with a serious weight lifter friend of mine about food and meals, so I've been getting some good ideas from him. He's gonna start sending me pictures of all his food, lol. And I've found it really interesting (and obsessive) to check my pie chart after meals, just to see what happened with what.

 

Well I'm most happy to be following YOU again! Hey pal! Great goals, and I look forward to cheering you on as you completely crush them!

 

K-PRIME!!! YOU ARE BACK!!! I am super excited!!!!11

[Solstice Tiger]

April 15 Quest Log

No workout needed, which let me go have coffee (decaf, lol) at 7:30p with a friend I haven't seen in months after I prepared a paleo dinner! Italian sausage, zucchini, onion, carrots, tomatoes, all shoved into a pan and baked. I love delicious and easy food. So there's meal 1 for the week! I'm planning meal 2 for Saturday since it needs some marinating time and I just don't feel like doing that during the week. And I took some time during lunch and before coffee to get some reading done in my book (Better than Before by Gretchen Rubin. Fitting to read a habits book as my first book of the challenge, yes? I thought so too ).

 

And, bonus points, my pie chart is looking good so far for my weekly average! I'm spot on with protein, and I'm just 5% off for carbs and fat each.

[Space Monkey]

Me too!! I've been talking a lot with a serious weight lifter friend of mine about food and meals, so I've been getting some good ideas from him. He's gonna start sending me pictures of all his food, lol. And I've found it really interesting (and obsessive) to check my pie chart after meals, just to see what happened with what.

 

oooohhh exctiting! I'm also open for good foody ideas *hint hint*

 

I told you the pie chart was super addictive!! Welcome to PCA - Pie Chart Anonymous

[miss america]

Oh man, that dinner sounds SO GOOD

 

 

Also! I've never used it, but you might look into an app called Two Grand. It's a food tracker, but you just post pictures of your food instead of the actual data entry, so it might work well in addition to your normal tracking. But the cool thing is you can follow other people on it, and see what they're eating to get ideas... I think they have people sorted by nutritional plan/goal weight/activity level/etc. so you can see a daily sample of how other people are getting to 150g protein or whatever

[Solstice Tiger]

oooohhh exctiting! I'm also open for good foody ideas *hint hint*

 

I told you the pie chart was super addictive!! Welcome to PCA - Pie Chart Anonymous

 

You did! And as soon as I saw it I knew I was sunk, haha. Proud PCA member, now.

 

I will definitely be posting good foody ideas here as I am told about them or find them on the internets. Because we're all in this together

Oh man, that dinner sounds SO GOOD

 

 

Also! I've never used it, but you might look into an app called Two Grand. It's a food tracker, but you just post pictures of your food instead of the actual data entry, so it might work well in addition to your normal tracking. But the cool thing is you can follow other people on it, and see what they're eating to get ideas... I think they have people sorted by nutritional plan/goal weight/activity level/etc. so you can see a daily sample of how other people are getting to 150g protein or whatever

 

Duuuuude, recipe is here. It's super easy because you can pretty much use whatever meat and veggies you want, whatever you have on hand or want to get. And it is always delicious.

 

Hmm.... That does sound like an app I might be interested in. Protein is always the hardest for me, so it'd be nice to get some more ideas for how to get more. I think I saw it when I was cruising for food tracking apps at the beginning of last challenge and passed it by because I needed numbers. But now that I have them..... *downloads*

[tundralily]

Following you over from House Baratheon, you have some awesome challenge goals! Ours is the fury!

 

[Solstice Tiger]

VIVA LA BARATHEON

[Solstice Tiger]

I wanted to show you guys cuz I'm so proud:

Now, that's just Wednesday, but I am still SO PLEASED [emoji1]

[Space Monkey]

Yeaaayy you're even slightly over your protein goal!!!

 

Are you just trying to hit your macros or also stay within the calorie restriction?

[Solstice Tiger]

Yeaaayy you're even slightly over your protein goal!!!

Are you just trying to hit your macros or also stay within the calorie restriction?

The goal is graded just on macros, but I've found that I want to keep within my calories, even without a grade attached to it. It's personally satisfying, like playing a game against myself. I probably should be taking a look at how many grams of protein I'm eating though, since I'm not sure how I'm doing at that.

[Tkdgirl]

Sounds like it's going well for you so far. How are you finding monitoring macros? I've done calorie counting but not sure whether I'd get totally bogged down in detail by looking at macros.

I'm with you on varied workouts too. Last challenge I did the same thing 3 times a week and it nearly killed me. Variety is the spice of life

[Solstice Tiger]

Sounds like it's going well for you so far. How are you finding monitoring macros? I've done calorie counting but not sure whether I'd get totally bogged down in detail by looking at macros.

I'm with you on varied workouts too. Last challenge I did the same thing 3 times a week and it nearly killed me. Variety is the spice of life

 

I actually really like the macro. For me it feels less detailed than counting calories, much more big picture. I can feel bogged down sometimes with individual calorie counts, so percentages are nice to have at times like that. It's fun to think "OK, what kind of food would help me hit my percentage?" instead of only "What food has x number of calories?"

 

Yes, variety! I used to think that I'd be OK doing the same thing over and over. And I can, just not for forever. It's freeing to have set workout days but to be able to do whatever I want on those days to work out.

[Solstice Tiger]

And updates!

 

April 16 Quest Log

3 circuits of my modified ABW done Extra lunges thrown in during the day for the Assassins mini. Read in my book on lunch at work.

 

April 17 Quest Log

Took myself to see Furious 7!! (And also parked farish away from everywhere I drove to so I could get some extra miles in for the mini, bwaha) Read my book at lunch, dinner, and before the movie started.

 

April 18 Quest Log

I WORKED OUT. ON A SATURDAY. I do not usually end up doing that, so I'm pretty pleased. Lat pull downs and push ups in the apartment complex gym, then a turn on the treadmill to get some more miles for the mini. Finished my book!!

 

April 19 Quest Log

Today isn't over yet. But I have my chicken marinating in the fridge for the 2nd paleo meal of the week: chicken with garlic-roasted sweet potatoes. I'm quite excited.

[K-Prime]

Great job on the week! And congrats on the macros. I don't run my diet by them but I try to keep aware of where I'm at and when I have good days like that I want to high five someone.

That recipe looks delicious! Let me know what you think of it! And did you cover the chicken/sweet potatoes when you were baking it? Looking forward to a review. 

[marvelfangirl]

I wanted to show you guys cuz I'm so proud:

Now, that's just Wednesday, but I am still SO PLEASED [emoji1]

 

This is so awesome!! What app/ program are you using?

[Solstice Tiger]

Great job on the week! And congrats on the macros. I don't run my diet by them but I try to keep aware of where I'm at and when I have good days like that I want to high five someone.

That recipe looks delicious! Let me know what you think of it! And did you cover the chicken/sweet potatoes when you were baking it? Looking forward to a review. 

 

I will definitely be back with a review! They're baking right now, uncovered. The marinade was pretty thick and covered the chicken really well, so I'm hopeful for some very lovely chickens.

This is so awesome!! What app/ program are you using?

 

Thanks! I'm using MyFitnessPal for all my tracking. It has been super handy and useful.

[Tkdgirl]

You're doing so well - I'm going to take a look at macros. Can you look back at past days? Could be an eye opener!

[Solstice Tiger]

You're doing so well - I'm going to take a look at macros. Can you look back at past days? Could be an eye opener!

 

Yep, you can! I can scroll backward through weeks or days, whichever I want. Very handy

[Solstice Tiger]

Macro for the week. I'm off by 5% at the largest end, so that's a B for the week. But hey, not bad for my first week trying this!

 

ETA: omg why is this so big? >.<