Chaddington's Quest Log

[cagibson]

Hello anyone and everyone who decides to read this! Ultimately I wanted to have a place to keep track of workout logs, and NF quests, so I thought this might be the best place. Without wasting any more time (or vitual space), let's get to it.

[cagibson]

Mindset: Share Your Epic Quest

 

Epic quests can be found on my character page: https://www.nerdfitness.com/character/55792.

[cagibson]

Adding week 1 missions for the sake of logging and completion transparency (plus I tend to lose things like notebooks).

 

Week 1 Missions

1. Before Photos - Taken and stored on my phone
2. Measurements - Stored on phone, also on here as my next post
3. Find big "why" and share - in next post
4. Walk 5 mins a day for 1 week - I've been doing this for almost three now
5. Log food for 1 week - I've been doing this for almost a month now

[cagibson]

From Week 1 missions...

Measurements

• Weight: 334 lbs
• Neck: 18.5 inches
• Chest: 55.8 inches
• Biceps: 17.5 inches
• Waist: 55.5 inches
• Hips: 46.5 inches
• Thigh: 31 inches
• Calf: 17.5 inches

 

Big Why

 

Every day I waver between habitual eating, due to stress and neverending hunger, and shame of my weight and lack of fitness. I want to end this vicious cycle. I am tired of feeling shameful when looking in the mirror at the end of the day before going to bed.

 

I also feel bad that I don't have the stamina to play with my daughter, during her youngest years. I want to be there for her now and for years to come. I don't want to die early from diabetes, heart disease, or any of the other conditions that have been in my family. I want to live long enough to support my family - financially, spiritually, and socially.

 

I want to have kick-ass sex with my wife, without feeling disappointment for her. I want to fit into rollercoaster carts/seats and be able to enjoy riding amusement park rides again. I want to be able to tie my shoes and put on my belt without huffing and puffing. I want my body to feel like it used to, without all the aches, pains, and pops that I have now. I want to get rid of this horrible indigestion. I want to feel good to be alive.

 

Lastly, I want to be living to experience the awesomeness that the future and technology holds, including the singularity event, and when things like autonomous cars and bionic enhancements are commonplace.

[cagibson]

Week 2 Missions

1. Break Down Those Goals and Start Your Epic Quest
2. Gimme the Loot
3. Complete the Benchmark Test
4. Read Workouts FAQ and Getting Started & Leveling Up modules
5. Read through the NF Diet Levels to figure out what level you’re at (and mark off those quests for the levels you’ve already passed!).Take a look at the NF Nutrition Module.

[cagibson]

Break Down Those Goals

 

I'm the type of person who goes home and lays down on the couch for the rest of the evening.

• By the end of 2016, I will be going home everyday and finding something active to do, like walking with my family, playing a game, or just dancing around the house.

 

I'm the type of person who snacks on junk food during the day, every day.

• By the beginning of summer 2017, I will be the person that eats healthy food every day and snacks on fruits and veggies (but will still allow myself a break, once a week, if needed).

 

I don't know how many calories I eat and I lie to myself about how often/hard I work out.

• I will be tracking every piece of food that I eat within two months. I will continue doing so until I lose enough weight to be comfortable with myself again.

 

In addition...

• When I decide to eat out, I will rarely waste it on fast food, except when there is no other option.
• I will walk at work during at least one break every day, to help hit my step goal.
• I will be the person that stands while working everyday.
• I will be the person who looks for a reason to go outside or do some fun activity indoors, as opposed to playing games on the computer or on my phone all the time.
• I will be someone who runs in at least three 5Ks and a half-marathon every year.
• I will introduce my children to new and fun activities that will help continue my tradition of fitness through future generations. THIS WILL BE MY LEGACY.

 

[cagibson]

Gimme the Loot

I don't really want to associate my 'loot' with the goals from above, so I'd like to define some hard weight and fitness goals and assign rewards to them. I will be adding on to this as time goes by. In addition, I will discuss these with my wife and may alter them to account for budget or other things.

 

• Get down to 275 lbs --> Earn "THINK" T-shirt from Homage (https://www.homage.com/products/think)
• Workout/Walk every day for 6 Months (with 3 free days) --> Earn Spinning Bike
• Every 10 lbs lost --> Fun activity, like game day at Dave and Busters
• Hike for 4 miles on three separate occasions/days --> Random piece of hiking gear
• Run for 3 miles, nonstop --> Entry to 5K
• Run a 5K --> Sticker for car or some other small reward
• Run in 4x 5Ks --> Entry to half-marathon
• Run a half-marathon --> New 13.1 sticker for car

[cagibson]

Take a look at the NF Nutrition Module

It turns out that I have already been eating at an NF Diet Level of 4! I have eliminated carbs from breakfast for the most part. In addition, I try to eat nothing but fruits and veggies throughout the day. I'm not as good about fruits and veggies over the weekends, but I still make an attempt to be and I don't eat carbs for breakfast. So far, my goal has been to eat at least three fruits and two veggies during the day. This is such a drastic change from the way I used to eat (carb loading is all I can say). I also don't drink my calories during the week and opt for things like unsweetened green tea during the day. I'm not stingy about it: if I really want an iced mocha with no whip, I allow it, but this is extremely rare and has only occurred once in the last two weeks.

 

What do I need to work on? I need to cut the addiction to ice cream. I crave ice cream all the time. Last week, I ate it three evenings of the week. Granted, I ate significantly smaller proportions, but I still need to work on my self-control. Last week was kind of a celebratory week for various reasons, however, so it may get better. I also need to try and swap my fruit/veggie goals. I'd like to do at least three veggies and two fruits, but I don't care for that many veggies, especially raw, and I don't have a lot of time to cook the food. Finally, I need to add in a good source of protein with every meal. Right now, I am drinking protein or getting it from veggies, which isn't ideal. Other than breakfast, I'd like to eat a serving of meat at every meal.

[cagibson]

Week 3 Missions

1. Customize Your Batcave #1
2. Building Your Dream Team
3. Don’t Drink Calories
4. Find Your Warm Up and Cooldown

 

[cagibson]

Status update:

Find Your Warm Up and Cooldown: I am still working on the Week 3 Missions. I have, for the most part, found my warm up and cool down, but I am holding off on performing them until I hit a plateau with my weight loss. As of right now, I am about 12 lbs down after around 3-4 weeks, with a steady loss per week. Once I hit a week without losing any weight, I will start adding in some strength training.

 

Don't Drink Calories: This is the hardest challenge I've encountered. It's not so much that I regularly drink my calories, but that I usually allow myself one iced mocha with no whip or a beer on the weekends. Every other day I drink water at work and home. I have even cut milk out of my diet. My smoothies are made using coconut milk (I do not count smoothies as liquid calories, since I am using them as meal replacements). I really should just try to avoid coffee for one weekend, but it is so hard.

 

Building Your Dream Team: I have my wife, who is supportive, and I've posted on the NerdFitness Facebook page, but I don't really have friends or family that I can lean on in most any other case. This is by choice. I may consider this one completed if I reread it and feel that what I've done so far is enough, but I am not sure that will be the case.

 

Customize Your Batcave: I have been doing NerdFitness on and off for a couple years, and this task was initially pretty easy for me, but I've managed to persist the changes that I've made in previous runs of the NerdFitness path, so I don't really know what else to change. As of right now, I sleep in workout clothes, have moved food out of sight, don't pay for cable, and have set up reminder notes to do healthy things. I also am not really unhappy with the way I am managing myself right now, so I don't know if I need to customize my Batcave. But, again, I want to check off this task, so there must be other things I can do. I will check out the forums here to see if I can find some inspiration.

[cagibson]

"Progress"

 

So, I've been trying to accomplish the four missions above with limited success. I recently started my first workout in a long time, but I forgot to do the cooldown, so I'm going to hold off until my next workout and then I will be able to check that one off my list. For the "Customize Your Batcave" quest, I decided to approach it a bit differently. Initially, I was trying to make modifications to support my eating and workout habits. I have since changed my perspective. In a future post, I will describe the changes that I am making to my routine in order to better support myself all around. I realize that by making small changes to other aspects of my life, working out and eating well should fit into place as well. For example, I will create a kanban board or utilize some other visual and physical tool to increase productivity and memory retention. More on that later...

[cagibson]

This last set of quests has not been easy to complete. Still here, but also, still waiting to complete. Decided to take a week hiatus to test some metabolism things, but also to not have to worry about completing quests. Work has been very busy the last few weeks, which takes away from the time that I used to spend working out. Sadly, this is when I need to customize my Batcave the most. With less time to workout or prepare healthy meals, I am finding myself revert to old habits. It's not so much that I eat as badly as I used to, but more so that I snack more. Even too much of a good thing can be bad for you. I was also starting to plateau once I lost 20 lbs. I cut calories by an additional 200, but it only helped me push a little past the plateau and then bounce back up again (hence the metabolism test). To be honest I have not worked out, other than walking, for a few weeks. Now that Autumn is here and Winter will be rapidly approaching, working out needs to become a priority again. My biggest hurdle is that I don't have friends and family isn't close enough to work out with me. Without a "workout buddy", I don't have much of a desire to workout.