The one where jstanlick keeps doing his thing

[jstanlick]

I will edit this with more details, but I wanted to get this out here now before the challenge gets too far along.

 

I liked some stuff that happened during the last challenge and I learned a lot more things about me and what makes me tick. So, my challenge won't be much different from an underlying plan, but the goals will be structured a little different as a way to keep me motivated.

 

• Run 40 miles - I know that number doesn't look like a whole lot, but as the temperatures dip I'm always less motivated to go outside and run. But, that number does require that I pretty much run 3x a week since it's rare that I run more than 4 miles at a time.
• 10 lifting sessions - I managed 8 last challenge, so I'm upping the ante to get to 10 this challenge.
• Gratitude journal - So, meditation helped me relax and not be so stressed about things last challenge. I'm getting better at it. But, I also want to turn that into action somehow. So, I've decided to start a gratitude journal. Each night (or at least 16 nights for the course of the challenge), I'll review how may day went focusing on the good things. Each morning, I'll write down what I'm hoping to accomplish for the day.
• Diet hacking - I'm not sure how I'm going to grade this one. But, I noticed my best success at not eating like an asshole came when I focused on the meal at hand. I had to set aside previous meals otherwise it was too easy to take one bad meal and let it spiral the rest of my day into lots of bad choices. Simply put, more plants, less crap, try to keep meats at the same or just a little less. It will all be based on the idea that each meal needs to be better than the previous. This will not always be so, but I will not beat myself up when it's not. Because that takes me longer to recover from than just putting it in the rearview. I do need a way to score this, but I haven't figured that out yet.

 

That's it for now, but that's the general outline of this challenge.

[maegs]

following again  

 

[Infinity.Creates]

The diet hacking sounds really cool! Though I'm sort of the opposite, where I will quickly forget any bad food I ate, and use that as an excuse to still eat more bad things. But the idea of trying to make your next meal better than the last sounds really effective.

[Xena]

I like everything about your challenge, as I'm sure you could guess :-)

 

I don't have a great idea for how to make the diet goal score-able. The best suggestion I have is to play with it during zero week and see how it feels.

[jstanlick]

On 10/24/2016 at 5:26 PM, maegs said:

following again  

 

Well, hello there! Good to see you!

 

On 10/25/2016 at 3:08 AM, IAmInfinite said:

The diet hacking sounds really cool! Though I'm sort of the opposite, where I will quickly forget any bad food I ate, and use that as an excuse to still eat more bad things. But the idea of trying to make your next meal better than the last sounds really effective.

Ha! See I remember the last meal and tend to say, "Well, this day is already screwed, might as well pile it on." Same thing works for weeks and challenges. So, I'm trying to give myself a shorter memory.

 

17 hours ago, Xena said:

I like everything about your challenge, as I'm sure you could guess :-)

 

I don't have a great idea for how to make the diet goal score-able. The best suggestion I have is to play with it during zero week and see how it feels.

So far, I've just been kind of grading the day. I know that's not quite meal based, but yesterday and Monday were good days all around. So far, today is not. Don't get me wrong, lunch was absolutely delicious, just not the healthiest thing in the world as my team went to the burger and frozen custard stand to celebrate coming through last week unscathed because we rock! But, to live up to my goal, I need to try to reset and start over with dinner.

 

Let's week zero updates...still haven't got the gratitude journal thing ready, but I did eat really well yesterday and Monday. I also got in 3.3 miles running at lunch yesterday. What else? Ah, while not part of my goals, I did manage to get in a massage last night after a long absence. Man were my calves and hamstrings tight. That makes sense with all the sitting at work combined with the increased miles running and the complete lack of foam rolling. My therapist told me I probably don't drink enough water (how can a massage therapist tell if you're dehydrated, even if they might be right) and thought I should look into trying yoga. Hmm, for now I'll stick with getting the knots rubbed out of muscles. But, perhaps I'll consider the yoga suggestion.

[Xena]

3 hours ago, jstanlick said:

 my team went to the burger and frozen custard stand to celebrate coming through last week unscathed because we rock!

Sounds well-deserved!

 

I'm getting a massage tomorrow (first time in years) totally looking forward to it! Decided it would probably help keep my back healthy and would help with stress management. Such a wonderful thing :-)

[jstanlick]

22 hours ago, Xena said:

I'm getting a massage tomorrow (first time in years) totally looking forward to it!

How'd it go? The worst part of mine was how difficult it was to find a time that worked for my next appointment. Man I felt really good afterwards. Totally worth it!

 

I think I might have a way to judge the meals. For example, yesterday I ate only 2 meals (I'm on the same pace for today). One was a delicious bacon, chicken sandwich with a large thick flavor of the day shake. There also may have been some french fries involved. That would be categorized as a -1 meal. However, dinner was some grass fed beef and a ridiculous helping of brussel sprouts. None of the kids like them, so my wife and I split theirs. That would be a +1 meal. At the end of the day, I add up the total and I either won that day or didn't. So, this week would currently grade out with a +1 on Monday, +1 on Tuesday, 0 on Wednesday, and I'm currently sitting at +1 today. Monday and Tuesday had what I would call -1 breakfasts due to their preponderance of carbs and lack of protein and plants. But, lunch and dinner were good, so they graded out as good days. I think as I go along week 1 needs to finish +2 or higher, week 2 needs to be +4 or higher, week 3 +6 and week 4 +8. Why the +2 increase each week? I dunno. Seemed like a good number.

 

Today I had a good run with co-workers. 4.1 miles. Bringing me to 7.4 on the week. Since I usually run on weekends, if I can keep that up, I should hit my goal for the challenge no problem.

[jstanlick]

Yesterday ended up as another +0 meal day. Kids had a ridiculous amount of stuff going on last night and work ran late which just compressed everything so food choices were made based on easy availability rather than nutrition content. Bummer.

 

I just found out I'm taking my daughter and 3 of her friends to the SMART team qualifying test early tomorrow morning and then racing them back home right after to get them to their volleyball game (yes, they are all on the same volleyball team). These are all good things, yes. But, that time of on a Saturday is usually when I'm out on a longer weekend run. I'll have to figure out when to get in my run, and I still need to lift tonight. On the plus side, while the kids are at the university taking their test, I should have access to wifi and I can get some work type work done since it's starting to pile up. Ah, good times. Yeah, I definitely need to lift tonight. Need some stress relief.

 

[Xena]

I like your meal tracking idea. Definitely sounds worth a try.

 

The massage was great, and I definitely want to get another one scheduled, even if it's a couple months off. The only sort of downside was that I was traveling straight afterward. I would rather do it during a more normal week so I can better evaluate how it affects my body. 

 

Your weekend sounded CRAZY! Hope you got to fit in some exercise...if nothing else, as a way to take some time for yourself.

[jstanlick]

20 hours ago, Xena said:

Your weekend sounded CRAZY! Hope you got to fit in some exercise

It was. The week is still running a bit out of control. I'm glad I changed my goals from weekly to for the entire challenge. Well, everything but the meal goal. Because all I've managed from an exercise standpoint is a 3.5 mile run on Sunday. With the pouring rain today, the very little sleep last night and the Feast for all Souls (for the non-Catholics in the crowd, its an annual mass of remembrance for those who have died) tonight, the outlook is not good for more running tonight. Maybe I can fit in some lifting.

 

So far on the meal front, we went +1, +1, -1 and today is sitting at 0 so far. So, I guess +1 for the week thus far.

 

In the gratitude journal, I've filled it out in the morning and reflected on the day each night. I haven't done a great job of actually completing my top 3 tasks each day. Yesterday was the first day I accomplished my goals, but they were admittedly less lofty than the previous 2 days.

[Xena]

Journal and daily goals seem to be working well. Small steps are often still important

[maegs]

I find that I make my daily to-do list too long a lot of the time. Learning to make one that I could actually accomplish took a while for me, lots of trial and error!

[Mr_Willes]

I like your +1 / -1 idea for grading days. Though i'm also instantly thinking, that maybe it would come in handy to have a scale that's a bit larger for those times you're not quite sure if it's 0 or +1. On the other hand, simplicity is a powerful tool! No overthinking, it's a good, meh or bad day.

 

Hmmm, maybe i will be stealing this for my own purposes...  

 

 

[jstanlick]

On 11/2/2016 at 6:02 PM, Xena said:

Journal and daily goals seem to be working well. Small steps are often still important

They are, as long as I don't get too over zealous on the goal setting. Otherwise, they aren't such small steps

 

13 hours ago, maegs said:

I find that I make my daily to-do list too long a lot of the time. Learning to make one that I could actually accomplish took a while for me, lots of trial and error!

It's not easy setting daily goals that make you stretch and push yourself a bit, while not making them unrealistic for a single day. Likewise, you don't want to set the bar too low either. It's much harder than it seems like it should be.

 

6 hours ago, mr_willes said:

I like your +1 / -1 idea for grading days. Though i'm also instantly thinking, that maybe it would come in handy to have a scale that's a bit larger for those times you're not quite sure if it's 0 or +1. On the other hand, simplicity is a powerful tool! No overthinking, it's a good, meh or bad day.

 

Hmmm, maybe i will be stealing this for my own purposes...  

 

 

Well, technically the scale can go much wider. The daily total is the sum of your grade for each meal. The meal is simply pass/fail. I seem to fail at least 1 meal/day. And the pass/fail is completely subjective. I don't have any specific criteria on calories, macros, etc. Afterwards, I look back on it and decide if I did alright or could have made better choices. Goal #1 with this is to build a short memory and not let that poor meal choice snowball into a week of poor choices. Goal #2 is to hopefully build on the good choices and hope they become motivation for more good choices. Oh, and feel free to steal away! Feel free to steal and meld to your own purposes. Then I might steal the latest revision back!

 

Alright, Week #1 did not go exactly as planned. I'm glad I changed up my goals so they weren't all per week goals. Otherwise, Week 1 might have doomed my entire challenge. Well, maybe doomed is a bit strong, but it wasn't good. And the nasal and chest congestion I'm battling through is not helping Week #2 start very well either. But, I may have done that to myself. On Friday I powered through a long run despite feeling a cold coming on and Saturday I would stop between sets lifting to have a coughing fit. Those were probably not the 2 best decisions in the world. It's not like the workouts were super great or anything. I would have achieved far more by simply resting and not dragging this out any longer. Especially since I'm still behind on the challenge goals anyway and less ready to catch up while I fight through this. Although, my daily goals are much simpler. Like, make it until 2 so I can leave without taking PTO. Oddly, that feels like a stretch goal at the moment.

 

Week #1 Summary

 

• Run 40 miles: I managed only 2 runs last week for a total of 7.7 miles. Leaving me 2.3 miles behind the pace. Very doable to make up at this point if I can get this cold to go away.
• 10 lifting sessions: I managed but 1 lifting session this week and as I stated earlier it wasn't great. It was a battle to complete. Leaving me with 9 more before the challenge is done. Still doable.
• Gratitude journal: This I've been doing. I think by the time this challenge is done I might have a better handle on what is and is not a realistic expectation for the upcoming day. I feel like if I can get this down, I can get a lot of stuff done and feel good about myself in very small daily chunks. Then looking back over a large period of time I will be amazed by what has been accomplished. At least, that's the hope.
• Diet Hacking: Wednesday finished +1, Thursday was -1 and Friday was a push and Saturday was a +2. I only ate 2 meals on Saturday, but they were both good. It's amazing how easy it is to avoid crap when you feel like crap and are trying to get you body to heal itself. Why I don't make that connection all the time, I don't know. So, I actually finished the week at a +3. 

So, half of my goals are going pretty well. The other ones will get better unless this cold hangs on longer than it should.

 

[Mr_Willes]

Soldier report in, hopefully the cold will be gone and i would like to see about 11 miles ran, 3 lifting sessions, and some excellent Diet Hacking!

 

 

[jstanlick]

1 hour ago, mr_willes said:

Soldier report in, hopefully the cold will be gone and i would like to see about 11 miles ran, 3 lifting sessions, and some excellent Diet Hacking!

 

I so wish this was the case. This cold has been kicking my ass for almost 2 weeks. No, strike that, the cold is mostly gone, its the cough that won't go away. Every time I start anything strenuous, I can't breathe for a good hour or so. As the cold subsided last weekend I attempted some lifting one day and running the next. I then decided I would be better off in the long run waiting until the cough got better. But, in about 3 hours I'm going for a run with my co-workers as I haven't taken anything for the cough (other than tea & honey) since Tuesday. The cough is still there occassionally, but wasn't so bad yesterday. Plus, it's supposed to be mid-sixties and sunny today. November 17th in Wisconsin and it's supposed to be over 60 degrees! Meanwhile, there's snow predicted for Friday night. This might very well be the last warm day of 2016 in Wisconsin. Cough or not, I'm going running. So, the official tally since the last check-in was 3.3 miles and 1 lifting session on the exercise front. I'm obviously way behind on those two goals. I don't think I'll make the 8 more lifting sessions in 9 days. My body can't recover fast enough for that. 29 miles is 9 days is also beyond what my body can normally handle when I'm feeling healthy. But, we'll see. With the weather changing, I may need to employ the treadmill at work and I'm debating doing shorter daily runs. 

 

However, the gratitude journal is working...I think. Despite feeling like something was missing from my life without exercise and a unusually hectic work and family schedule, I've remained fairly positive. Plus, I think I set reasonable daily expectations for myself given the total lack of energy last week and the inability to breathe this week. On a diet hack front, I finished last week at +5 and I'm currently at +5 for this week. I'm doing a pretty good job with breakfast when I eat it and my lunches are pretty dialed in. The kids schedules have been nuts and the dinner hour has become what can we quickly shove in everyone's pie hole before running off to the next thing. But, taking this one meal at a time has allowed me to let go of the last meal and just concentrate on the next one. They are not building up to an entire day or week's worth of eating crap.

 

So, I've been doing what I can, but still falling behind on my goals. But, I'm going to follow the thread title and just keep doing stuff. We'll see where it shakes out at the end.

[jstanlick]

The run on Thursday went well, albeit a bit of a slow pace. That's okay though as I didn't want to overtax my lungs. The 4.1 miles felt good to be out there even if my pace as off. Yesterday I got in an easy 2 miles on the treadmill for lunch. I was surprised. I don't usually run 2 days in a row because in the past my body has rejected it. But, it felt really good yesterday. Muscles that were tight loosened up and I had more energy for the rest of the day. I found myself at home with just the dog for an hour and 1/2 between chauffeur trips last night as everyone else had places to be and then be picked up. Since my legs felt good and weren't stiff or sore anymore, I decided to push my luck and follow @Xena's lead and lift on a day I was running. Squats, BP and OHP was my next SL 5x5 session. Since it had been over a week since the last lifting session, I dropped the weight back a little bit. Lifting went really well and felt really good. This morning I'm a bit sore, but in a good way. No coughing. Man it feels good to not be sick anymore!

 

Thursday was a +2 diet day, but with all the driving here and there, yesterday ended up being a +0 day. I only ate lunch and dinner and dinner was from a drive through. So, my weekly total is sitting at +7. Goal for the week was +6. So, unless I eat like a total ass hole today, I should make that goal. You know what else? This week, the scale has me down 3 pounds from last week. I've been doing this yo-yo thing for the last month or two and I was sick, but I'm feeling better and the scale giving me a lighter weight is certainly welcomed.

 

It's windy and snowing as predicted (hey, they got one right!), so I'm not sure if I'll make it out running. That might be a good thing, as it would allow me some recovery time and to go on a longer run tomorrow morning.

[Xena]

On 11/17/2016 at 10:40 AM, jstanlick said:

 Plus, I think I set reasonable daily expectations for myself given the total lack of energy last week and the inability to breathe this week.

 

That is impressive!

 

Great job getting back to all the exercise. Lingering coughs are the WORST! You are well enough to go to work, walk the dog, wash the dishes, drive the kids to practice etc, but not well enough to do something that helps relieve the stress of all the other things.

 

How did you like the combined run/lift day? I wouldn't exactly say I "like" it, but it seems to work.

[jstanlick]

On 11/19/2016 at 5:31 PM, Xena said:

How did you like the combined run/lift day? I wouldn't exactly say I "like" it, but it seems to work.

 

Kinda in the same boat. I don't think it's ideal, but it works. I'm curious if I could keep that up long term. I was kinda sore on Saturday, but I'm not sure if it was that much more sore than I would have been anyway -- especially since the run Friday morning was a short, easy one. My hip was a little sore running on Sunday, but I don't know if that was from the combined day still or if my form was breaking down the farther I went. I did feel too tired last night to lift again so...I didn't.

 

So, I did manage a long run (well, for me anyway) on Sunday without too much lung issues. Well, other than it had been far too long since I asked them to work that hard and they were just finally clearing up from the cough. 4.8 miles and a slower pace when my hip started complaining around the 3 mile mark. Not sure if it was form break down, too many miles too quickly after being sick or too many miles in a short amount of time. Probably a little of each. So that leaves me with 18.1 miles left to go before the end of the challenge. The 11 miles in a 4 day span is more than I ever remember doing in a short time span. I would say it's highly unlikely that I will get 18.1 in the next 5 days. I'm also left with 7 lifting sessions in the next 5 days. I'm not even going to go as far as say that is highly unlikely. That's just not going to happen.

 

I finished last week with a +8 on the diet hacking goal though, so I feel pretty good about that one. And I managed to rid my house of all of the Halloween candy that was still sitting around. And no, I didn't make it go away by eating it. Unfortunately, I pawned it off on co-workers. They seemed happy and excited about it, but I do feel a little guilty about foisting the excess sugar on them.

[Xena]

Sounds like you are back in business!

[jstanlick]

On 11/21/2016 at 4:40 PM, Xena said:

Sounds like you are back in business!

Well, I'm trying. I sure am feeling a lot better.

 

So far, I've managed to sneak in 2 short runs on the treadmill at the gym at work on Monday and yesterday. I'm hoping for a longer run today as no one seems to be at the office. So, I've added 4.43 miles these last 2 days and I was able to lift last night without feeling too sore this morning. This lifting and running on the same day is interesting. My body seems to be handling the recovery portion of things as long as the runs are short. Something to ponder for the next challenge and these winter months when slogging out a 4-5 mile run in the biting wind doesn't get me overly excited and neither does running on the dreadmill for long periods of  time. Maybe I can keep my weekly miles up by doing more, short runs.

 

Currently +3 on the week with the diet hacking. Was going to hop on the scale this morning just to see how things look because I'm greedy. But, since I've developed a habit of only getting on the scale on the weekend at the same time, I completely forgot. Probably a good thing.

 

Set some goals for today in my journal, but I'm sitting here in a mostly empty building and lacking any kind of motivation to pound some things out today. I will likely regret not using this time wisely come next week. But, meh.

[Xena]

I feel you on the slow week. It was quiet at work for me too and I didn't take full advantage.

Shorter runs on the dreadmill could be a good solution. Doing intervals helps me get past some of the boredom.

[Mr_Willes]

It can't all be A-grade days! Take with you can. Hope the rest of the week went solid.

[jstanlick]

19 hours ago, Xena said:

I feel you on the slow week. It was quiet at work for me too and I didn't take full advantage.

Shorter runs on the dreadmill could be a good solution. Doing intervals helps me get past some of the boredom.

It ended up being quite the week distance-wise. According to RunKeeper (which I've been using for about 2 3/4 years now), last week was the most miles I've ever done in a single week. I also got in my lifting and felt no ill effects until about mile 3 (again at the 3 mile mark?!? Hmmm...) on Saturday when my right hip started feeling a little sore. I don't know if that was from a week of adding mileage, or running and lifting or just some bad form or what. Everything felt good up to that point. I will have to incorporate the dreadmill with this upcoming challenge given the weather.

 

9 hours ago, mr_willes said:

It can't all be A-grade days! Take with you can. Hope the rest of the week went solid.

It really was a good day as my brain was happy for the break. But, I am feeling it this morning with all the work to catch up on. So, I only half regret it

 

Alright, let's wrap this up. It was not my best challenge in total measurements. The viruses got the best of me in Weeks 2 and 3, but I came back strong in Week 4 and made the totals look respectable. The scale is not happy with me and I'm not too happy with it either. Definitely need to do something with that in December.

 

Goals

• Run 40 miles - I ended up with 35.73 miles, thanks to a killer Week 4. From Sunday through Saturday I covered 18.63 miles. Which just baffles me. I didn't think I had that many miles in me. They weren't my fastest ever, but it was still more than...ever!
• 10 lifting sessions - I did get 3 in during Week 4 by lifting on days with short runs. That brings me to a total of 6 for the challenge. Not what I was hoping for, but I wasn't hoping to be attacked by viruses either. The 50% of the total in one week gives me hope for future, healthy challenges.
• Gratitude journal - I liked this. Sometimes I had to set reasonable expectations, but I feel like it put that meditation time into action. And, I think I've generally been in a more positive mood. I'm gonna see what more I can do with this.
• Diet hacking - Well Thursday was not a positive day. But, +8 for a week with Thanksgiving in it was pretty good. So, I made my goals. However, the scale is not where I want it to be. So, this didn't quite have the desired effect. I like it though. It might need some tweaking for the future. Perhaps my grading of the meals is too lenient.

I think I need to decide where I want to go with my training. The winter seems like a great time to concentrate on lifting and adding muscle. But, I'm so much farther along with my running than I was last year at this time that I don't want to give it up. I do feel like I'm stuck in the middle of the two and neither will progress much farther without concentrating on them. Problem is, I like both of them. Some things to ponder for 2017 I guess.

[Xena]

7 hours ago, jstanlick said:

 The winter seems like a great time to concentrate on lifting and adding muscle. But, I'm so much farther along with my running than I was last year at this time that I don't want to give it up. I do feel like I'm stuck in the middle of the two and neither will progress much farther without concentrating on them. Problem is, I like both of them. Some things to ponder for 2017 I guess.

 

A very rangerly problem!