Briniel finds her focus

[Briniel]

 

 

 

Hello everyone for the challenge where I turn it all around!!

 

I've been on this journey for 9 months now and I made great progress, especially last challenge where I learned lots of new things and cemented some important habits. But my weight has been stalling since the beginning of the year. Worse - the last reading had me at 67,7kg, more than halfway back to where I started I know I didn't really follow diet protocol during week 0, but I didn't think it would be this bad. To be honest, my weight has been going up for a while now, I just hoped it was just a pleteau or something. I don't know what I'm doing wrong, I feel like I'm doing great on the adulting, but not so great on the weight loss/muscle gain. Something needs to change.

 

I was planning to count calories and macros this challenge and up my protein intake, but I tried it the last few days and hated it. I don't want to write down everything I eat, it's so tedious. Plus, I haven't really found a way of tracking that I'm really happy with, none of the apps I tried really work for me. So, I've been looking for an alternative...

 

Those of you who followed me last challenge know that I visited a place called FitClub a while ago to get a body fat % (which came out at over 30%!) and get an idea of what they do. I wasn't impressed and you guys weren't either, but yesterday I talked to a neighbour of mine and she told me about her experience with them. She's about the same weight and height as me, so results should be comparable and she is amazed by their program. She's been following it for a little over a month now and couldn't stop talking about how great it was. They have the protein shakes, the aloe vera stuff, coachings on nutrition and grocery shopping and exercising and she really liked the community there. She also lost 7kg and 5% of body fat in her time with them! I hadn't seen her in a while and she looks great! She says she substitutes one meal a day with their drink and goes to their meetings regularly. She's not been feeling hungry, has more energy and just feels a whole lot better. This really got me thinking. I know the whole weight loss thing is 80% diet and 20% exercise, so maybe it's time to tackle those 80% from a different angle? I want to stop the recent increase in weight and body fat and desperate times call for desperate measures, right? If my results are anything like my neighbour's, I'll have reached my dream weight in one or two months. How awesome would that be!?

 

So, I visited their place again this morning before work (they open at 6am for all the early risers!) and got set up with everything I need for this endeavor.

My quests for this challenge:

 

• visit FitClub every morning to get a good start into the day
• have a protein shake instead of lunch every day
• have an aloe vera drink at breakfast ( @Aeri-sand & @NeverThatBored you're right, it is quite tasty!)
• go to at least three meetings every week
• continue my habit tracker for adulting habits
• figure out an alternative to the bodyweight workout I've been doing (I kinda lost momentum there and have been substituting with darebee exercises and the Assassins' mini, so maybe it's time for something new on the exercise front, too)

 

I know this is a bit... unorthodox to most of you, but I'm willing to give it a try. Wish me luck!!!

 

Hahahaha.... no.

 

 

I was going to blow this up into something even bigger, but the weather outside is way too nice to stay inside and photomanipulate my habit tracker to include "protein shake", "aloe vera drink" and "FitClub". So you got the smaller, picture-less version of April Fools

Yes, I have gained some weight (but I'm only at 64,4kg), yes, I have tried calorie counting and it is annoying, yes, my bodyweight workout routine needs and update and yes (it's really true), my neighbour is with that FitClub place. But she's definitely not an inspiration for me to go there, too

 

My real challenge:

 

Briniel finds her focus

 

 

Last challenge, I learned a lot of new things. I found out what works and what doesn't, learned a lot about procrastination, about bullet journaling, about what makes it difficult for me to stick to my goals and what makes it easy. This challenge I want to build on what I've learned and focus on what works for me. I contemplated adding lots of new stuff (new workout routine, new diet plan, new rangerbrain), but I think it would be nice to have a challenge where I just do what I've been doing so far, strengthen the habits I've made and kinda build the foundation from where to try new things.

So, I will continue what I've been doing because it is working and because I believe it's the right path. I have set up another habit tracker for next month which includes all my goals. Last challenge I felt like my goals were all over the place. Some in my habit tracker, some on my challenge spread in my bujo, some only here on NF, some only in my head... so this time I will focus them all on one page so I can see at a glance what I need to be doing. I'll walk you through it:

 

 

The top part is my housekeeping tracker. At the end of the month there will be checkmarks (me) or x-es (boyfriend) between all of the dotted lines. I added things that I want to do once a month at the bottom.

 

The bottom part is my habit tracker. I divided it to include both daily tasks and things that I want to do 1-5 times a week.

• do my miracle morning (details can be found here)
• do a darebee gravity HIIT workout (I will probably adjust these in the end because they get a little rep-heavy towards the end, which I really didn't like with the last of their programs that I did, changed this to HIIT, because gravity was a little rep heavy from the beinning , star: did more than one workout)
• do the daily dare (star: with extra credit)
• drink more than 3l (raised from 2,5l last challenge)
• avoid added sugar and white flour (avoid, not cut out, so there's some wiggle room here; half-filled: had a little snack/treat but no complete outside the rules meal)
• eat veggies with two meals (half-filled: veggies with one meal, star: veggies with all meals)
• be outside for the sake of being outside (half-filled: went oustide only because I had to bike somewhere or had errands on this part of the river)
• play with the cats 2x (half-filled: played once or when they weren't really in the mood, star: had a clicker training session)
• write down my spendings in an excel spreadsheet

 

Then there are things I'd like to do regularly, but not daily

• do one hour of job hunt work (this could include finding open positions, writing applications or getting info on further education, 5x/week)
• read for work as part of TMM (5x/week)
• volunteer at the local donation center, by collecting garbage at the river or by other means I can think of (at least 1x/week)
• call my parents, grandma and/or brother (at least 1x/week)
• meet friends in person (at least 1x/week) and host a social event at my place (2x/challenge)
• declutter some area of my flat (I've got a long list of things that need to get done and want to cross of 6 things by the end of the challenge)
• practice singing (additionally to any lessons or rehearsals, 2x/week)
• floss teeth (every other day)
• do some sort of physical activity for at least 30 minutes (workout, running, biking, inline skating, badminton, swimming... could be anything, 4x/week)

 

 

So this is a lot of stuff, but it's all stuff that I've been successfully doing last challenge. This time around, I will focus

• on moving forward - my priority is the job hunt. I've been making more and more progress here every challenge, but it's time to give this my all. I know there's a lot more that I can do and I will go and do it. I will work on this as much as I can. I don't know whether I'll have a job by the end of this, but I know I will have done all I can.
• on what's been proved to work - I will use my habit tracker daily. I will figure out something for the pomodoro timer which was a great tool last challenge to tame the monkey. I will also remember to enjoy my time off, whether I've already done everything for that day or not.
• on being in the moment - what bothered me most last challenge were half-assed bricks - when I wasn't really productive, but not really relaxing either. So there won't be any more of those. I will either focus on work or focus on play, but I won't do any multi-tasking. This includes eating in front of screens or using NF/fb at work. When I work, I'll work. When I sit, I'll sit. When I relax, I'll relax. There was a quote about this somewhere, but I can't find it right now.

 

When something goes wrong... when I find myself losing focus, when my thoughts wander, when I loose ground...

I will use buddhify to refocus. It has lots of different meditations for all kinds of situations. I will sit down for a few minutes, take a little time off to remember why I'm doing this and what my focus is and continue being awesome

[Briniel]

Reserved for results

[NeverThatBored]

Following! Don't worry too much about what other people think about your experiments. That guy you described meeting last challenge did sound pretty questionable, but sometimes you just have to try things and find what works for you. I think we have to self-experiment to understand our bodies and figure out what's best for us.

[Briniel]

50 minutes ago, NeverThatBored said:

Following! Don't worry too much about what other people think about your experiments. That guy you described meeting last challenge did sound pretty questionable, but sometimes you just have to try things and find what works for you. I think we have to self-experiment to understand our bodies and figure out what's best for us.

Thank you very much for your support. Please refer to the post above yours for further information.

 

 

[deftona]

Following along Briniel! I hope you find success with your plan, I am waiting to cheer you on

[Luciana Valerosa Culming]

1 hour ago, Briniel said:

• visit FitClub every morning to get a good start into the day

I totally read "visit FightClub" at first. I guess I'm too much of a monk. hehe

 

Good luck for your challenge. So you couldn't wait for week zero to end, too. ^^

[Shello]

Visiting FightClub daily would certainly be a good workout.  . . 

But what do you do when you go to FIT Club daily?  

 

I support you.  You know what you're doing so go ahead and use any tools available to you for success and skip any parts of their program that seem gimmicky.  Good luck!  

 

[Aerisand]

58 minutes ago, Luciana Valerosa Culming said:

I totally read "visit FightClub" at first.

[Briniel]

 

1 hour ago, deftona said:

Following along Briniel! I hope you find success with your plan, I am waiting to cheer you on

 

1 hour ago, Luciana Valerosa Culming said:

I totally read "visit FightClub" at first. I guess I'm too much of a monk. hehe

 

Good luck for your challenge. So you couldn't wait for week zero to end, too. ^^

 

51 minutes ago, LadyShello said:

Visiting FightClub daily would certainly be a good workout.  . . 

But what do you do when you go to FIT Club daily?  

 

I support you.  You know what you're doing so go ahead and use any tools available to you for success and skip any parts of their program that seem gimmicky.  Good luck!  

 

 

You guys are way too nice and supportive I expected people trying to stop me from turning to the evil empire. Maybe I should have done the full-blown version after all (by the time I was finished with posting my real challenge, it was too dark to enjoy the lovely weather, anyways. Stupid computer erased my progress when I was almost done... I need the "reverse" function back!!)

 

Anyways, thanks for following along again!

[deftona]

6 minutes ago, Briniel said:

You guys are way too nice and supportive I expected people trying to stop me from turning to the evil empire

 

I think this place works better with a 'no unsolicited criticism' clause. It's your journey, you can experiment with whatever you choose and I'd never judge you for that!

[Briniel]

12 minutes ago, deftona said:

 

I think this place works better with a 'no unsolicited criticism' clause. It's your journey, you can experiment with whatever you choose and I'd never judge you for that!

Will keep that in mind for the next April Fools I plan...

[deftona]

2 minutes ago, Briniel said:

Will keep that in mind for the next April Fools I plan...

 

Hey, April Fools doesn't apply after midday! I was giving you the benefit of the doubt

[Briniel]

Just now, deftona said:

 

Hey, April Fools doesn't apply after midday!

where did that rule come from!?

[deftona]

Just now, Briniel said:

where did that rule come from!?

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/35932585

 

"In the UK and some other countries, people are traditionally only allowed to play jokes on others until midday.

A person playing a joke after midday is the "April Fool" themselves"

 

Sorry to break it to you

[Briniel]

Just now, deftona said:

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/35932585

 

"In the UK and some other countries, people are traditionally only allowed to play jokes on others until midday.

A person playing a joke after midday is the "April Fool" themselves"

 

Sorry to break it to you

So glad I'm not in the UK and some other countries then

[Eirlys]

Hi Briniel

 

I was regularly sneaking a look at your challenge last month and there's lots of things I like about yours this month.

 

You mentioned job hunting, are you happy with your CV?  Are you on LinkedIn or the german equivalent?  (Lots of recruiters have found me that way so I would recommend it!)

 

I'm curious what steps you are taking with your job hunt

 

Good luck with everything!

[NeverThatBored]

2 hours ago, Briniel said:

Will keep that in mind for the next April Fools I plan...

 

So sneaky!  But we were all supportive anyway, so we win.

[maegs]

Some day, someone will be researching internet forums, and there will be a note in the data: "Nerd Fitness is an outlier and should have not been counted"  

[Briniel]

13 hours ago, Eirlys said:

Hi Briniel

 

I was regularly sneaking a look at your challenge last month and there's lots of things I like about yours this month.

 

You mentioned job hunting, are you happy with your CV?  Are you on LinkedIn or the german equivalent?  (Lots of recruiters have found me that way so I would recommend it!)

 

I'm curious what steps you are taking with your job hunt

 

Good luck with everything!

Welcome! Glad you came out of lurking, I can always use more people to cheer me on

I am pretty happy with my CV. I rewrote it a little everytime I sent a new application, ironed out some kinks that didn't sound right and have come up with something that reflects my work and abilities pretty well, I think. I'm on xing, but I don't really use it that much. I don't know whether there are many recruiters in my area (healthcare), at least none have contacted me yet.

The next step on the job hunt is to get an overview on which places I have already in mind, which I have contacte, which I have applied to. I have this info, but again, it's all over the place and I'd like to see it all at a glance. I already set up a page in my bujo for that. I probably should get to this today.

Are you looking for a new job, as well?

 

13 hours ago, NeverThatBored said:

 

So sneaky!  But we were all supportive anyway, so we win.

Thanks. I do feel a bit foolish, though, so maybe deftona was right about the noon thing. You guys definitely win. I'm so glad to be part of this community, I should have known you'd support me no matter what. Love you all!

 

10 hours ago, maegs said:

Some day, someone will be researching internet forums, and there will be a note in the data: "Nerd Fitness is an outlier and should have not been counted"  

This is so true! Along with HumansOfNewYork (the only facebook page where you can read the comment section without losing faith in humanity).

 

 

Yesterday was a work day. I did my miracle morning routine before work but didn't really get around to doing anything productive when I got home... well, not until about 10 or 11 pm when I decided that I was not going to have such a bad start into my challenge and would at least get all my daily tasks in. So I played with the cats, did a darebee workout (and decided the gravity program has way too many reps for my taste... I switched to HIIT instead) and the daily dare, emptied the dishwasher to be able to do a kitchen counter zero and got into bed at around 1.30 am. Success!!

 

Today was a kinda slow start... I slept until 8, then had breakfast (scrambled eggs) and did my morning routine, then went to singing practice (my boyfriend dropped me off because I was running late), then walked the way back to the refugee donation center where I dropped off some clothing hangers and running shoes, then helped sort some stuff there for a good hour, then walked back home. I think it was 1-1,5 hours of walking (all the running around at the donation center not included). Now it's 2pm and I'm back home. Hm, it doesn't sound so slow when I write it down like that. Maybe it's just because I got out of bed late for my (new) standards. Oh, I also indulged in the first ice cream of the season. Blood orange and salted caramel. It was probably not the wisest choice, but it was delicious!

 

My plan for the rest of the day:

• bake some cupcakes for a birthday party tonight
• get started on the job hunt quest
• get some housekeeping stuff in
• do all my daily tasks

[iatetheyeti]

Following along again

 

[EVEArgent]

Following as well! 

 

[Briniel]

1 hour ago, iatetheyeti said:

Following along again

 

Yay, welcome back!

10 minutes ago, EVEArgent said:

Following as well! 

 

Thanks, glad to have you on the journey

[Terah]

Following

[Miw_Sher]

Hah! Finally you are here. Following!

[Jayniana Jones]

I'm cheering you on and following along. It's great to see you are finding things that work well for you.