Stealthstitcher is Responsible (ha, can't type it with a straight face)

[stealthstitcher]

All last year my challenges kept getting easier and easier. Last year was crazy, so I'm cutting myself some slack on that, but it didn't move me forward much so I'm going to tighten things up and make it a more challengey challenge this time. (Incidentally, I like the new challenge planning worksheet. I've been kind of picking challenges at random.) 

However, these challenge goals are all sort of ... practical and ... adulty. So after the sensible and mature goals, I want to come up with some crazy and adventurey ones.

First, the Sensible Goals:

 

Goal 1: Create a Weekly Meal Plan

When I don't have a plan, I choose ... poorly. 

So instead, every week I will make a meal plan and do as much prep as possible on Sunday. This meal plan needs to take into account my schedule and any events that are happening during the week.

Goal 1A: Only eat dessert/eat out if it's part of the plan

I'm not going to say no to all desserts and eating out, but it has to be part of the plan.

 

Goal 2: Complete the first four weeks of XTF At Home

I thought I would make exercising a bit simpler so I got a copy of XTF At Home - basically it's workout videos and it's nothing revolutionary. But it's a ready-made plan of cardio, strength, and stretching - you just pop in today's DVD every day for 13 weeks, and there are four levels so you can make it harder as you go along if you need to. 

Goal 2A: Schedule Workouts

Rather than "try to get it done" I will schedule my workouts for the week with a time each day, taking my schedule into account. The one tricky thing is if I have any company or go to visit my parents at any point, whatever workout I'm trying to do always falls apart. So I need to come up with a plan to deal with that, should it come up. Like, letting friends or parents know that at 7:00 I will be doing my workout, and then I need to just do it instead of feeling awkward and weird about exercising while people sit on the couch in the small living room and watch me. (I mean, I'll feel awkward and weird because that's awkward and weird, but I need to do it anyway.)

 

Goal 3: Create, Keep, and Balance the Budget

Yay, finance, I say with no joy. But I really do need to get on track with this. I need to make a biweekly budget and then stick to it and not make any impulse purchases. 

 

Crazy Adventurey Goal(s): TBD (Suggestions Welcome)

[MichiruSedai]

Meal planning, yay!!   I love meal planning and batch cooking, I hope that you come to love it to!  I also choose very VERY poorly when I don't have a plan.  That's been a huge game changer for me.

 

Crazy adventurey goal... hmm.  Is there something in your area you've always wanted to tour/hike/otherwise explore?

[Rebel Pilot Gar]

Happy new year! (This is Garjan btw I respawned with a new name for the new year)

 

I really love your goals it sounds like you have a good plan for tackling the schedule craziness. I especially like that your food plan focuses more on sticking to what you schedule rather than what you can/can't eat.

 

I'm going to go look up XTF videos now - I've found I enjoy doing yoga at home through YouTube videos so maybe workouts will be good too.

[Pine_Wulf]

It would be fantastic if you could convince your people to workout with you. Then less awkward. And more fun!!

[stealthstitcher]

5 hours ago, Pine_Wulf said:

It would be fantastic if you could convince your people to workout with you. Then less awkward. And more fun!!

Sigh ...

I could probably convince friends to join in. My parents, on the other hand ... Dad is a simple, flat NO, which is very hard to argue with. Mom is stuck somewhere in the 1870s, convinced that the delicate, fragile female body is not made to move at a pace faster than a walk or lift any weight. Workouts done in her view are punctuated with anxious "Oh, honey!"s when I do anything "dangerous" (counter height push-ups, high impact aerobics, squats with weight ...). Oddly, it's totally fine to chase a gaggle of toddlers around or carry a crying six-year-old on one hip while doing household tasks. Now I sound snarky. 

[stealthstitcher]

On 1/4/2017 at 6:46 AM, Rebel Pilot Gar said:

 

I'm going to go look up XTF videos now - I've found I enjoy doing yoga at home through YouTube videos so maybe workouts will be good too.

http://www.xtrainfit.com/

In case you're interested. The workouts are basic stuff, but in a very easy-access format, and I like the fact that the instructional book that comes with it emphasizes health and strength over weight loss and points out that exercise is always more effective when paired with eating nutritious food.

 

Amusing/inspiring story for the day - my 90 year old grandpa recently had surgery. The first question he asked the home healthcare nurse who came to check on him after he was out of the hospital was - "So, how soon can I get back to weight lifting?" She thought he was joking. He wasn't.  

[stealthstitcher]

Monday not exactly starting out with a bang, but that's okay. Looking at my calendar, I realized that in the last three weeks, there have only been two days when I wasn't staying at someone else's house or having someone stay at my house. No wonder I feel so exhausted! Yay, the holidays ...

Since I had people staying with me over the weekend, I didn't get my planning done as thoroughly as I would have liked, nor did I get any batch cooking done. I just can't seem to think when I'm around people. I feel like my brain shuts down and I can only focus on the moment I'm actually in. I'm not sure how one can improve in that respect. But anyway, my workout is scheduled for 7:30 this evening and I have at least a plan for meals this week, even if I didn't get any of them prepped ahead of time. Budget for the week is low, since I had to buy groceries for 4 people instead of 1 over the weekend, so I'll be using up the food I already have in the house. 

[Elanor the Fair]

Happy new year Steathstitcher! I feel great being here again and reading you! Great goals, great challenge! Do you plan out each and every meal or just lunch and/or dinner? I've made several attempts to try out mealplannig, but I don't really get it, what really makes sense to prepare and for how many days.

[stealthstitcher]

14 hours ago, Elanor the Fair said:

Do you plan out each and every meal or just lunch and/or dinner? I've made several attempts to try out mealplannig, but I don't really get it, what really makes sense to prepare and for how many days.

What I generally do when meal planning is I have a weekday breakfast and a weekend breakfast (the difference is usually that the weekday breakfast is quick and easy and the weekend is something that takes more effort or is something I don't have very often, like bacon.). Then I make four servings each of three different things for lunches/suppers, and I leave the remaining two meals as wild cards so I can eat what I'm in the mood for. When I'm really on top of my game (not this week) I have everything in individual serving size containers. Some stuff does not prep ahead well, though. Sandwiches would just get soggy. And if I'm doing a salad I usually sort the un-chopped veggies into baggies or containers, because some vegetables go weird if you cut them up and then leave them in a container for a week. Carrots can handle it, but tomatoes and cucumbers - no. And you want the food to be appealing so you don't give up in disgust and go get fast food. Limp and slightly slimy salad is a loud no from me. 

 

Got the workout done, and switched to the morning for today If I can just get enough sleep so I can get up early without wanting to wail in protest, I'd much rather get the workout done. Does anybody else always want to take a nap after a workout? They say exercise energizes you and wakes you up, but I feel more like "Okay, great workout! Back to bed!" 

I was very, very much at level one on the workout. But that's okay.

[Elanor the Fair]

ok, that makes sense because I really tried to figure out how it could be possible to prepare ALL meals one week ahead for more than 1 person, let alone store it!

 

Quote

Does anybody else always want to take a nap after a workout? They say exercise energizes you and wakes you up, but I feel more like "Okay, great workout! Back to bed!" 

 

Maybe do a little less and don't push as hard?  For me this really depends on my level of sleep and food I had and if I overexercised or not.

[stealthstitcher]

17 hours ago, Elanor the Fair said:

ok, that makes sense because I really tried to figure out how it could be possible to prepare ALL meals one week ahead for more than 1 person, let alone store it!

 

I really don't get the people who prep food for a month. I suppose there are things you can cook and freeze, but then you're going to have cooked, frozen, reheated food which does nothing good for the texture of most foods, and also since it will be frozen like a rock it's probably going to take just as long to cook it as it did the first time. I guess it could work if you portioned out individual servings of meats and vegetables, uncooked.  

 

Workout done this morning. I used resistance bands for the first time - I like them and don't like them all at the same time. I love the fact that they're compact and portable and when I'm done I can roll them up and put them in a cabinet. And they do seem to be effective at my level, although I'd imagine at some point they stop doing much for a person who has built a lot of strength. However, it seems harder to control the movement? Like if I'm doing, say, a dumbbell fly with weights, I generally do it with at least nearly correct form. With the resistance band, I had to really focus to keep my arms from going above or below shoulder level all through the movement. I suppose that could be a good thing? 

 

I'm sticking to my meal plan for the week, but I made it easy on myself this week rather than jump straight into ultra-healthy eating right after the holidays.

 

Budget, ditto, but then the plan was basically to just use food already in the house and not spend any money. If you don't go anywhere and don't do anything and already have groceries, not spending money is pretty easy.

[Sylvaa]

Hey! I am here!

 

First of all:

 

Second of all, yay for meal prepping! I also, am mega impressed with people who can do so for more than a week in advance. I'm also jealous of people who are able to prep dinners (my kids are not all about that life). 

[MichiruSedai]

What I generally do when meal planning is I have a weekday breakfast and a weekend breakfast (the difference is usually that the weekday breakfast is quick and easy and the weekend is something that takes more effort or is something I don't have very often, like bacon.)

 

That's me for breakfast, haha!  On Sundays, I prep all my work food (that I can) for the week, so I cook chicken, sweet potatoes, and turkey bacon.   I batch 120g chicken + 150g sweet potato for each day (I know it is not recommended to let it go in the fridge that many days, but I've been doing it for like 8 months and haven't gotten sick), and 4 slices of bacon for each work "break time" breakfast.   In the mornings before work, I eat some of the extra chicken OR turkey sausage OR string cheese (nothing that takes more than 30 sec microwave) and a sliced apple OR a box of raisins.  At break, I eat the bacon.  At lunch, I eat the diced chicken and sweet taters, and raw veggies (I prep those the night before, I don't like to chop them in advance).

 

I don't typically meal prep dinners because I like variety in the evening since I eat the same breakfast and lunch all work week long!  But I do cook ahead and do freezer stuff sometimes, or I freeze stuff if I have too much leftovers.  I like doing soup for the freezer because it doesn't seem to lose much in the reheating process.

[stealthstitcher]

How can I be out of momentum six days into the challenge?

(Warning: There may be whining included in today's post.)

Yesterday was a rest day on the exercise plan. Today I just overslept. I can still do it tonight, but I must MAKE myself do it tonight. I have such a struggle getting up early, especially in the winter. On the other hand, if I leave exercising till after work I really won't want to do it and it's very easy to talk myself out of it. 

I know we're headed towards the part of the year when it won't be dark all the time and I only see daylight on weekends, but arghhhh ... so tired of it being dark when I get up in the morning and dark when I get to work and dark when I leave. And cold, of course. Dark and cold. Dark and cold and I'm not a bear. If I were a bear, I could just hibernate through all this. 

Anyway, as long as I get a workout in today I'm good on the exercise goal.

Meal plan, still going along fine. Although I'm down to the odds and ends of what was left, so there are going to be some interesting meals over the weekend. (Tomato soup with chicken meatballs and brussels sprouts, anyone?)

Budget - next week the challenge will really start as I won't be relying on leftover food already in the house but will have to buy food for the week without overspending. 

[Violetta]

I struggle a lot with the "dark all day" syndrome as well. Especially as my favorite workouts involve being outdoors (hiking, kayaking, etc.) and are eminently distastefully during a Michigan winter. 

[MichiruSedai]

Ugh I hear you on no sunlight except weekends.  So ready for spring!

[stealthstitcher]

We could all live in Tahiti, and yet for some reason we don't. 

 

Got the workout done ... kind of. It was not a good workout to do in the evening. Today's was a 90 minute cardio/bodyweight circuit and I barely managed the first round with modifications and lower reps. I think if I'd done it in the morning, I'd have done better. But I still don't think I would have been able to finish the thing. It was pretty intense. However, the instructor kept saying "If you can't do this much, if you have to do fewer reps or even just march in place, that's fine. The only thing you can't do is stop moving!" and while I partly wanted to throw something at her perky face, it did help. Rather than shut the video off, I walk/jogged around the house until it was over and did some of the exercises when I thought I could. Next time I come to this one, I'll try to get a little further. But today I'm annoyed by the fact that I'll have to workout again tomorrow ... and the day after ... and so on in order to get anywhere. I know that's how it is. I just feel annoyed.

[Pine_Wulf]

You're doing great!! Huzzah for walking in place!

 

If we all lived in Tahiti, we'd still be stuck inside unless we like to workout in the rain. They have forecast of lightning storms all next week.

[Elanor the Fair]

Oh, I wish you all the best! You have a break at noon so you can at least glimpse out? Next thing would be a solarium wouldn't it?  

 

 

[stealthstitcher]

6 hours ago, Elanor the Fair said:

You have a break at noon so you can at least glimpse out? Next thing would be a solarium wouldn't it?  

 

 

Alas, no. I'm in the very very back of the basement in a building with very few windows anyway. The closest I can get is walking upstairs and standing in the lobby airlock, which is not exactly a comfortable place to hang out. There are some classrooms with windows, but they have classes going on in them. 

[stealthstitcher]

Goals over the weekend - 

Took an extra rest day on Saturday. I'm adding a few into the schedule until I get used to these workouts, because I'm pretty sore. I think after the first few weeks I'll be able to use the provided schedule but to start out with I need a little more recovery time. That means it will take more than 12 weeks to complete the 12 week program, but I'm okay with that. Got my workout in on Sunday.

Also got my meal prep done - I feel like it takes me forever, though. I made two kinds of soup and bagged up vegetables into individual servings for stir fry, made tea, and then washed the dishes. It took a solid three hours. Am I just slow, or am I underestimating how long it takes to cut up vegetables?

Budget - eh, well ... I went $6 over budget, which doesn't sound like that much but that means I have $6 less for next week. However, I did have to buy dog food this week which I won't next week, so it'll probably work out. Nothing seemed to be on sale. Hopefully there will be sales next week!

[Violetta]

Great job on the meal prep! That is something I really need to work on more. Do you use a plan or just do it freeform?

[stealthstitcher]

I have a set of stock recipes I usually choose from, though sometimes I mix it up and do something different. I usually make a salad, a soup, and a regular meal (casserole, or meat and veg) type option although when it's cold sometimes I do soup, soup, meal. And sometimes when it's really hot I go with salad, salad, meal. 

[stealthstitcher]

And now, for the struggly part of the challenge:

I did well on Sunday.

Monday was a rest day.

Tuesday was ... not supposed to be a rest day.

I started out by oversleeping and got to work late. I had a meeting and two of my coworkers were bickering. And then my shop was full of cheerful but noisy students who just wanted to hang out. So I abandoned my packed lunch and got lunch out in the peace and quiet ... which is okay, I leave myself two wild card meals for that very reason. But now I'm even more over budget than I was. And then I had two more meetings and the same two coworkers were just fighting and arguing throughout. It practically devolved to "Yes it is! No it's not! Yes it is! Moooom, he's looking at me!" Why is that so tiring? I feel like it's worse when it's grown adults; you expect it from children. And how does a couple of people arguing all day translate to me feeling so tired it was hard to get up the stairs to go home at the end of the day?

I had planned to work out that evening, but when I got home I said NO and put on pajamas and wrapped up in a blanket and watched Ore Monogatari (it's really good, by the way) for literally five hours. 

So today I need to go back to being an adult and accomplishing things. Which is going to be challenging as I have to work late. 

[MichiruSedai]

Sometimes you need to put on jammies and curl up in a blanket though.   I hope today was better!