[Presea] "A pig that doesn't fly is just a pig"

[Presea]

Challenge #3: "A pig that doesn't fly is just a pig"

 

Welcome back for another riveting challenge of mundane tracking and spreadsheets

 

My name is Presea, I'm a 5'7'', 25 year old nerd.  A simple actuarial analyst on the surface, a tennis-playing, anime-watching, video game playing, fantasy book reading, master chef at heart.  My long term fitness goals for this year revolve around getting to a healthy body weight and body fat percentage.  As I write this challenge, I am sitting around 177 lbs and 34% bodyfat by the calipers at the fitness consultant at work, or anywhere from 36-39% by my bodyfat scale at home. I've lost around 8 lbs since starting NF in mid-February, and hoping to get down to around 160 lbs by the end of the year.  My goal for this challenge, as it has been the past two challenges, is a modest 5lb loss. 

 

My sister and I are big fans of Studio Ghibli/Miyazaki movies, and Porco Rosso is one of our favorites. 

 

Quest 1: Don't eat like a pig, but get enough fuel in the tank to outrace Curtiss

I'm a firm beliver in CICO.  I've been using my FitBit to estimate my TDEE, and shooting for a deficit on the eating side.  My first challenge I only managed a cumulative deficit of 1,125 calories, but I started building steam near the end of my second challenge and managed a cumulative deficit of 16,738 calories over those six weeks.  This time, I want to have a deficit of 500 calories a day (approx 20% of my TDEE), or 21,000 for the whole challenge. 

 

During the last two weeks of my previous challenge, I actually averaged around 770 deficit a day, but I started feeling run down, lethargic, anxious, and cranky.  I am aiming for a lot of activity over the course of this challenge, so I do need to fuel properly as well.  I've also toyed around with more restrictions (macros, paleo, etc.), but don't want to overcomplicate things.  I think Porco would agree, simpler is better.

 

A: Cumulative Deficit >= 21,000

B: 21,000 > Cumulative Deficit >= 18,000

C: 18,000 > Cumulative Deficit >= 15,000

D: 15,000 > Cumulative Deficit >= 12,000

F: 12,000 > Cumulative Deficit

 

 

Quest 2: "A pig's gotta fly"

While it's not the Mediterranean, Minnesota is beautiful in the summer, and I plan to spend as much of it outside as possible.  Of course, I can't control the weather so indoors on the treadmill is acceptable when necessary .  I previously had separate goals for all my activities, but again, simpler is better so I'm just going to aim for 1.5 hours of activity everyday.  That's the average time for a tennis match or drill, and if I bike commute to work and back I'm closer to 2.5 hours.  Where this will really push me is walking days - which are pretty much any day I don't bike to work or play tennis.  My typical walks are 1 hour, but lately I've been pushing for an hour and a half.  Another option is squeezing in 30 min walking on my lunch break and then doing the usual hour at home.  Whatever works!

 

The tricky days will be when I'm traveling for our trip over the 4th.  We're taking megabus/amtrak out to Boston, so that's pretty much 2 full days on the way there and on the way back of being tied down to a seat.  On those days, I will accept 1 hour of activity as passing. 

 

A: 42/42 days

B: 39/42 days

C: 36/42 days

D: 30/42 days

F: less than 30 days

 

 

Quest 3: Kick back in your secret hideout

Porco knew when it was time to put his feet up and get some R&R.  I tracked my sleep for everyday of the prior challenge, so I have an idea of where my weaknesses are.  One goal is getting my weekend nights to be more similar (let's be real, I don't plan on getting up on 5:30 on the weekend anytime soon) to my weeknights.  Weeknight goal is to be in bed by 9:30pm and out of bed by 5:30am.  Weekend night goal is to be in bed by 10:30pm and up by 7:30am.

 

A: 90-100% of nights on target

B: 80-89% of nights on target

C: 70-79% of nights on target

D: 60-69% of nights on target

F: less than 60% of nights on target

 

 

Life Quest: "I don't fight for honor, I fight for a paycheck"

I've been really terrible lately about studying for my actuarial exams.  Here's the thing: I get a raise every time I pass one, and I get a bonus if I pass on the first try.  Here's the other thing: the sooner I stop being lazy and get them done, then I'm done with them forever.  So let's just get on with it, m'kay?  My goal for this challenge is to complete the Financial Economics Module.  But really, instead of trying to be like Porco here, I need to be like Fio:

 

 

A: Complete Module

B: Complete coursework, start end of module exercise

C: Complete 75% of coursework

D: Complete 50% of coursework

F: Complete less than 50% of coursework

 

 

And that's it!  Trimmed it down to 4 quests this time, whereas last time I had like 8.  Hopefully I can manage better than a C this time

[DrFeelgood]

 

Welcome back for another riveting challenge of mundane tracking and spreadsheets

 

 

I wouldn't have it any other way.

[Shello]

Awesome looking challenge.  Remember: spreadsheets are FUN

[NeverThatBored]

I love the Porco Rosso theme!

[stupendousme]

I went on vacation last summer to Minnesota and I loved it!!  It was so beautiful outside and I am envious of you.. Probably not in the winter though  

[Teirin]

I wouldn't have it any other way.

 

^^^^^

 

Relevant:  http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2012/11/15/are-you-boring/

[Presea]

^^^^^

 

Relevant:  http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2012/11/15/are-you-boring/

Thanks, I hadn't seen that blog post before!  It's very encouraging, because my challenges are in fact very boring.  I could probably make them less so, but that would involve spending irresponsible amounts of time at work looking up situation-appropriate gifs

[Raxie]

Nerds love a good spreadsheet!

 

Thanks, I hadn't seen that blog post before!  It's very encouraging, because my challenges are in fact very boring.  I could probably make them less so, but that would involve spending irresponsible amounts of time at work looking up situation-appropriate gifs

 

I love that blog post, and is in part the inspiration for my challenge theme so don't feel bad if you think you're boring! Boring is... good.  And also not boring!

 

But seriously, gifs need not be situation appropriate.

 

[Jett]

Oh lord, now I can't stop yawning.... 

[tundralily]

Looks like an awesome challenge! I love your exam goal, I need to add one soon for my professional exam training process. Its a dozy, but seems like the actuary process is crazy!

 

[SomeGuyFromScotland]

I came for the flying pigs and stayed for the CICO. Following!

[brutalbears]

I found you! Good luck on the new challenge!

[Presea]

Happy first day of the new challenge, everyone!  I've updated my CICO tracking and created a weekly spreadsheet to share with all my fellow spreadsheet nerds:

 

 

I managed to stay in a deficit over the two week break, though I ruined a lot of my progress last week with a Sunday night binge pre-challenge refeed.  I am ready to get back at it this week, and am happy to see that, on average, my backwards-calculated TDEE (navy blue column - calculated using actual weight loss seen on the scale) is roughly equal to my assumed TDEE (provided by my FitBit - lime green column).  Given I'm shooting for a 500 cal deficit/day, and my average TDEE is coming out to 2500, I will be aiming for 2000 food calories on most days.  I'm aiming for around 150g protein, and balancing out the rest with fat and carbs, depending on activity.

 

I've also updated my weight graph, which shows I'm keeping up with my modest goal of 0.5 lbs lost per week.  It helps to look at this when I feel like I'm not making any progress, because it reminds me that I am but it's just very slow. 

 

 

Thanks to everyone who's along for the ride - your support and accountability have been and will continue to be immensely helpful!

[Aegle]

You should be proud of yourself for being under your calorie limit over the two week break! Don't worry about the "pre-challenge re-feed" (nice use of words, lol) because one day won't undo all of the hard work you've done thus far. It's great that you're keeping a spreadsheet to help with your quest. Rome wasn't built in a day, but look what it turned out to be. Your progress may seem little but it will truly add up

[Shello]

Wow.  I am amazing by how accurate your calories out turned out to be.   That's some pretty solid data.  You are prepared for success.  

[SomeGuyFromScotland]

Wheeeeeeeeeee! Spreadsheets!

[Presea]

Day 1

 

Quest 1 (CICO)

Breakfast - egg bake (sauteed onions with green beans, eggs, jarlsberg cheese): 459 calories

Lunch - Holy basil chicken (bell peppers, onion, mushrooms, chicken breast): 256 calories

Dinner - Nonfat greek yogurt w/fresh strawberries, PB2, collagen powder: 315 calories

Evening Snack - 4 oz jarlsberg cheese, bread pudding, mascarpone cheese w/honey: 1309 calories   -  So here's what's changed that's caused me to binge the past two nights.  My boyfriend left for a summer research program at MIT on Sunday morning, so he'll be away for 2 months.  His parents are still here staying with me in our 1 bedroom apartment.  Since my boyfriend is not here, I offered to let them sleep in the bedroom on our queen sized bed so that we could deflate the air mattress that has been taking up our living room for the past few weeks.  So now I'm sleeping on the couch in the living room.  The problem is that the kitchen is basically in the same space as the living room, so after they retire to the bedroom, I'm left all alone, and as everyone knows, if no one sees you eat something the calories don't count, right?   So yeah, I need to figure this out, because I've put in a lot of effort over the past couple months and I don't want to get back to ground zero with the binging thing.

 

Totals:

Calories eaten: 2339

Calories burned: 2419

Deficit: -80

Cumulative Deficit over goal: 80 / 21,000

Macros: 177g carb, 120g fat, 145g pro

 

Quest 2 (1.5 hrs activity everyday)

Work was crazy busy yesterday, so I didn't get in a walk over lunch and since I had to stay late I was rushing to get to my tennis match so I had to drive there rather than walk there.  Luckily, I had a really good match-up for the match, and we both pushed eachother pretty hard.  I ended up losing 7-5, 6-2, with 105 active minutes for the day according to my FitBit, so pass for today.    1/42

 

Quest 3 (sleep schedule)

Would've been in bed on time if it weren't for the binge.  9:45pm -> 5:30am    0/42

 

For the life quest, I'll just report progress on days it happens.

[Blonde-E]

As a fellow 25 year old data lover I am going to follow you for this challenge. I love your charts. I have similar ones but am not so consistent with recording. Trying again for this challenge. Im excited to see where you end up!

[SomeGuyFromScotland]

if no one sees you eat something the calories don't count, right?

 

I may or may not have used this line before too. Along with:

 

• Broken biscuits contain no calories, as breaking causes calorie leakage.
• Things licked off knives or spoons have no calories if you're in the process of making something else.
• Food and drink consumed at the cinema are not actually food and drink, they are part of the Entertainment Package.
• Eating from someone else's plate is calorie-free, as the calories have already been allocated to that person.
• Foods of the same colour may be considered to have the same calories: i.e. mushrooms and ice cream.

 

Legal advisory notice: I am not a qualified dietician.

[Presea]

• Eating from someone else's plate is calorie-free, as the calories have already been allocated to that person.

Legal advisory notice: I am not a qualified dietician.

Lol, especially liked this one and the disclaimer ^^  If they're already counting those calories, and then I count them too, then we'd be breaking the law of conservation of energy!

[SomeGuyFromScotland]

Lol, especially liked this one and the disclaimer ^^  If they're already counting those calories, and then I count them too, then we'd be breaking the law of conservation of energy!

 

YES! It's practically scientific! I like how you think!

[Jett]

Ahahah, I'm totally guilty of the "if you lick it off a spoon while baking, it doesn't count." I made cookies last night and surely consumed an entire cookie's worth of batter during the process. >_>

 

I have a weird suggestion, but it might give you an idea that could work: what if you booby-trap the cupboards with little ringy bells, like the kind that ring when you enter a shop? That way, you can't possibly get food out without your in-laws knowing about it. The bells probably wouldn't be a big deal during the day, but in the middle of the night, after they're already settling in for sleep, it would totally bug them, maybe even wake them up. A good reason to stay away from the snacks.

 

Maybe bells aren't the anwser, but making it inconvenient or awkward to snack in some way might help?

[spooky]

I do the spoon thing ALL THE TIME, and I "clean" the bowl before it goes in the sink too.... then i tell myself I'm just conserving water because California is in a drought 

[Presea]

Ahahah, I'm totally guilty of the "if you lick it off a spoon while baking, it doesn't count." I made cookies last night and surely consumed an entire cookie's worth of batter during the process. >_>

 

I have a weird suggestion, but it might give you an idea that could work: what if you booby-trap the cupboards with little ringy bells, like the kind that ring when you enter a shop? That way, you can't possibly get food out without your in-laws knowing about it. The bells probably wouldn't be a big deal during the day, but in the middle of the night, after they're already settling in for sleep, it would totally bug them, maybe even wake them up. A good reason to stay away from the snacks.

 

Maybe bells aren't the anwser, but making it inconvenient or awkward to snack in some way might help?

 

Interesting idea, Jenn!  It would be totally awkward to explain why I need the bells there, but what if...I imagine that there are bells on the fridge door, cupboards, etc?  After all, if I learned nothing else from Spongebob, it's the power of imagination

 

[Aegle]

Congrats to your boyfriend for spending the summer at MIT, but I'm sorry that you'll be without him for a while. It's really nice of you to offer his parents your bedroom. Do they live with you or will they be moving out? 

 

To help with nighttime eating, perhaps you could set a firm rule of not eating after a certain hour. Try turning to something other than food, like reading, walking, or even Skypeing your boyfriend. If all else fails, brush your teeth or eat mints. That way, your mouth feels clean or fresh and you'll be less likely to put food into it, haha.