Hiroro Gets it Done

[Hiroro]

Nothing new or unusual to see here, but I have pretty clear motivation to keep my eating and working out on track this month. I completely dropped off the last challenge, *sigh*. Would like to document my efforts this month, despite joining three days late I've been working on these things this month. I may or may not continue adding Brooklyn 9-9 gifs despite lack of relevancy.

 

Overarching Quest: 25% Body Fat

Haven't made a lot of progress with this, my weight drifted upwards in Q4 of 2016. But doing the W30 is a good re-start.

  

Mission #1: Complete the Whole30

Started this January 3rd, happily bf is doing it with me this round! So the surfeit of cooking labor is alleviated by his assistance, specifically with dishwashing. I'll put in another post on how it's going so far. The biggest challenge is going to be our trip to Cali for the Spartan sprint...

 

Mission #2: Train for and complete Spartan Sprint

After the marathon last year, November and December were spent recuperating and doing a lot of yoga. I'm getting back into the gym, in preparation for our race January 29th. I was dumb last week and overdid it, inducing a little tricep rhabdo -- and then Thursday I came down with a cold. Today I'm finally feeling better to start getting back at it. Since it's so close to the race I'm going to focus on burpees, grip/hang strength, and hills. We're doing the race with a team, and I don't know that anyone feels/is fully prepared -- so we're just aiming to finish together.

 

Mission #3: Decrease TV watching

This is back again. I started thinking about how I manage my time and rest on Monday, after a small group discussion about the importance and prioritization of rest. What I will allow is TV that actually contributes to feeling happier. Shows: Brooklyn 9-9 (because it makes me LOL) and Dr. Ken (because my cousin is in it) -- since I'm pretty current on those, it's only 1hr/week. No more Netflix/Hulu watching the bazillion hours of entire show seasons. Movies with bf are allowed -- it's not like we watch more than one at once anyhow.

 

Let's do this.

[Hiroro]

Whole 30 Day 8

The first week has gone pretty smoothly. This is bf's first W30 so there have been a few challenges on his end. Apparently the marathon training book he's reading said the author averages 3000cal/day, so bf decided that he should be hitting that...which is difficult on the W30 unless you're doing monster workouts that drive up appetite. Real food is filling. He started tracking calories to make sure he's eating enough, and I got super irked at all the QUESTIONS -- 'how much did that piece of fish weigh?', 'how much oil is in this?', 'I only had ___ calories today, probably not enough'...as the person doing nearly all of the cooking, it makes me feel responsible for his calorie count -- but there is always food available, and he can eat as much or as little as he wants.

 

Dishes I've made so far:

Mexican Beef

Pulled pork

Cracklin chicken

Broccoli with bacon

Roasted Kabocha

Lots of side salads with vinaigrette

Stir-fried brussels sprouts

Turkey sausage patties

Egg salad

Lettuce tacos

Pork belly (modified seasonings)

Pan-roasted salmon

Chilean sea bass

Scrambled eggs, home fries, bacon - this is our standard weekend breakfast anyways, so I just add veggies for me

 

Upcoming:

Wings (sub baking soda/cream of tartar for baking powder)

Short ribs

 

Developments

I've been AMAZED at how quickly we go through prepped/leftover food now that both of us are eating all meals from home. Bf typically buys breakfast and sometimes lunch out or at the work cafeteria, so now when I look in the fridge it seems like I'm always thinking 'where did all the food I cooked go?' Guess I need to up my batch cooking game. In a way it's nice because I don't have to worry about food waste. My belly is already flatter, so that's nice.

 

Shopping

This is my first W30 with the Instant Pot, and I'm definitely getting my money's worth. We got a box of sugar-free bacon from US Wellness Meats, because bf couldn't imagine a month without bacon (Whole Foods carries it but $$$$$). Speaking of Whole Foods, I blew over $200 on groceries there this past weekend -- the restriction on what we can eat seems to erode my willpower to also keep costs low. I splurged on truffle marcona almonds, chilean sea bass, and prosciutto. The meats also added up, but to me the grass-fed beef and local pork is worth it. Doing more chicken in future weeks (and shopping at TJ's) should help with the budget...plus we're hardly going to eat out this month, so it makes sense for grocery spend to go up some. I grabbed a couple RXbars and a Larabar while I was there -- those may be key in bf's marathon training and our Spartan race

 

Travel

Later in the month we'll be near LA for ~3 days for the Spartan, which is going to be challenging for the W30. Thankfully SoCal is pretty health-obsessed, so we should be able to find restaurants that are paleo-friendly. Plus we can hit up Whole Foods, and bring Larabars, RXbars, nuts, and fruit. I'm going to focus more on fueling for the race and less on perfectly following the W30 meal guide during that period -- as long as we stick to the allowed/banned rules it's all good. Going to be sad about no post-race beer or wine (we'll be near several vineyards) though.

 

The Plague

Having a cold on the W30 sucked a little extra, because NO COUGH DROPS -- thankfully my sore throat has only been of the dry and mildly painful variety rather than the 'could I have strep' variety. It annoys me because sugar isn't really a major problem for me, but rules are rules. Plus my usual sick food is rice porridge, which is out. I could have made soup, but cooking extra while sick/tired...nope. So I ate the normal stuff, but less because I didn't have as much appetite.

 

Random side note: I should probably start calling bf FIANCE since we got engaged a few weeks ago. Eek!

 

[Fonzico]

Ahhh! Congratulations! Geez, just casually slip that into the conversation, why don't you That's awesome though!

 

And yay for Whole 30 buddies  My advice is to just feed your BF FIANCE! more root veggies, nuts and avocados. But I also think he's maybe being a little silly about it all. The point is to eat until you're full. If you need more, you should want more!

 

I too find myself splurging on things that I would normally find much too expensive, on the logic that it's the only thing I can "treat" myself with foodwise right now! My bank account is unhappy, to be sure. 

[Xena]

On 1/11/2017 at 0:48 PM, Fonzico said:

Ahhh! Congratulations! Geez, just casually slip that into the conversation, why don't you 

^^ That!

 

Congratulations! So happy for you!

 

Did your BF do some kind of back-of-the-envelope (or better) calculation of his calorie needs or just copy the author's food intake? The first makes sense, the second doesn't. (but I'm mostly just impressed that's he's doing the Whole30 so probably wouldn't push too hard on that front).

[Hiroro]

On 1/11/2017 at 0:48 PM, Fonzico said:

I too find myself splurging on things that I would normally find much too expensive, on the logic that it's the only thing I can "treat" myself with foodwise right now! My bank account is unhappy, to be sure. 

YES I AM DOING THIS. This W30 is making me realize how often I treat food as a 'reward' for things like...getting out of bed to go to work, and working out, and even though they're not necessarily super-unhealthy things and I can (sometimes) moderate my portions successfully, it's...kind of sad. The winter blues are not helping with this. I did eat some truffle almonds last night and it made me feel a bit better.

 

15 hours ago, Xena said:

^^ That!

 

Congratulations! So happy for you!

 

Did your BF do some kind of back-of-the-envelope (or better) calculation of his calorie needs or just copy the author's food intake? The first makes sense, the second doesn't. (but I'm mostly just impressed that's he's doing the Whole30 so probably wouldn't push too hard on that front).

I'm pretty sure he just copied it which was what super annoyed me. Apparently the author averaged 3000 calories over his training, to me that means he probably had really really high-intake days (20+mi run days) and low-intake days (rest days). I'm trying to tell him that he doesn't need 3000 calories on days he runs 3 miles (unless that's what his body is telling him to do, shrug). *eyeroll* But it is awesome he's doing the W30 with me. We've both seen significant physical effects so far.

[Hiroro]

Mission #1: Whole 30 Day 11

So I'm definitely in the 'over it' phase, guess I reached the 'Day 21' early. I had a dream about mac and cheese last night. Tired of doing so much cooking. And not going out to eat at the places I like. Yet it's time to meal plan and go shopping and start over for next week. Grump grump grump. BUT I'm planning to go out to eat for Sunday lunch and I'm super excited because I already know what I'm going to get and it's delicious and compliant. I'll admit that it's pretty rewarding to see fiance really enjoy the food (well really just the meat) that I make. I'm losing my enthusiasm for compliant foods, but hopefully the new recipes queued up for next week will help with this. It felt pretty weird last night when I had short ribs and broccoli and sat there picking at it. It's SHORT RIBS. 

 

Mission #2: Spartan training

Last night I tweaked my back in my sleep (?!). Did a light walk/run earlier this week. Rhabdo is gone, at least.

 

Mission #3: Less TV

Doing fine here. Listening to more music which is nice. Started watching the movie Project Anthropoid last night with fiance. Have more movies on hold at the library, and I made up a crochet blanket pattern which I'm hoping to give my friends when they get married in June so crochet/movie time is upcoming. It will go well with all the rain we're supposed to get this weekend.

 

Edit: my coworkers were going out to lunch, they were talking about getting Chinese food...but then the plan changed to the Mediterranean place that makes it super easy to be compliant, and they talked me into going. Baba ganoush with veggie sticks, chicken mishwi salad, and mint tea. So yum. That's probably what I'm having Sunday too, and I'm STILL looking forward to it.

[Fonzico]

I'm not there yet, but I know it's coming... Being done with cooking, done with eating and done with compliance - it's hard! I feel for you, for real. Going out to eat will totally help with the deprivation thing (I intend to go out for sushi around Day 15 in anticipation of this - salmon sashimi and coconut aminos will fix everything).

I wish I had better advice for you right now, but "riding it out" is about all you can do. (Other than the previously discussed tactic of spending way too much on compliant treats...)

That Mediterranean place sounds fantastic though! Enjoy

[Xena]

I briefly checked, and real actual fruit is ok, right?

 

Maybe there's a way to cheer yourself up with some good fruits. Especially if you prepare a couple days worth (peel, chop, whatever) so it will be all nice and ready for you.

 

Super proud of you for sticking with it!

[Hiroro]

Real fruit is allowed! I have a pear ripening on the table at home right now, yum.

Whole 30 Day 16

Halfway done!

Just went through my monthly cramps/bloating/blergh and it was NOT any better with healthy healthy foods. I drank lots of tea per usual, but really missed being able to comfort eat - which I realize is an emotionally/physically unhealthy habit, sigh. My stomach was angry, which is typical. 

 

Bloating is finally going down, but it does seem like the super rapid visible changes (aka stomach getting flatter) are not happening like in Week 1. Nbd. My skin has cleared up some, yayyy.

 

I spent a ton at Whole Foods over the weekend again, heh. But I really do thing it's still going to even out...I'm realizing how often I grab a snack/baked good when out and about, and not doing that now means my grocery spending is ALL of my food spending (except for one lunch out so far). 

 

Unfortunately, the Whole 30 is stirring up a little bit of mental unhealthiness - when my appetite isn't huge, I find myself thinking "Oh! If I eat less then I'll lose weight faster!" and then not eating a full meal. Sometimes I'm legitimately not feeling great and don't want much food and that's fine...but sometimes I know I could/should eat more (like last night, after a solid workout) and don't because a little voice is saying I'll get results faster by eating less.

 

Workouts are going well in general. I missed a couple over the weekend due to worse than usual cramps. This week I'm doing a step challenge with my coworkers, it's really motivating because they're super competitive. 11 DAYS TO SPARTAN SPRINT EEK! I'm a little disappointed in myself for not being more consistent with December workouts to be stronger now, but at this point I can only do the best I can with the time remaining. Some strength, running, rock climbing (grip!).

 

I've successfully stopped watching TV shows. Somewhat replaced with movies, it was a rainy weekend and I had tons of movies out from the library so we watched a few. I started and made good progress on my crochet blanket so no regrets there. One negative is that it's football season, so even though I'm not pulling up my shows on Netflix, fiance wants to watch the playoff games -- which I enjoy also (I still have to ask him lots of questions because FOOTBALL HAS SO MANY RULES)...my total TV time may not be much decreased. But after the Superbowl I expect this to fade out naturally.

[Fonzico]

I'm glad to hear that shark week is over - hopefully it'll be a bit smoother sailing from here!

It can be hard to find the line with the Whole30 sometimes, I definitely get that pull to try to amp up your results... It's so much easier to eat less when you're feeling sated and not riding the carb coaster. That being said, maybe shifting the focus to performance, especially since you've got a race coming up? You'll do better if you're properly fed!

[Hiroro]

Whole 30 Day 18

Really nothing to report, the W30 is fine. Fiance super duper loves the chili I made over the weekend. 6lb of meat makes a lot of chili, even without beans.

 

This weeks workouts happened (excepting crampy fatigued Monday). I'm getting tons of steps in.

 

Fiance and I are in a crazy crossword phase, and there isn't as much football on lately, so less TV. He likes having it in the background, but I find it entirely distracting. I can watch something while crafting, but not while doing anything that requires actual thinking.

[Fonzico]

Day 18 Whoopa! Good job lady!

6 lb meat chili... That is intense. I don't know if I have something big enough to make that in!

[Xena]

More than halfway through! Great job. Do you have a transition strategy for after day 30?

[Fonzico]

That was the most dramatic, edge-of-your-seat step competition EVER! I think we kicked each other out of first place about a dozen times, only to end with a 100 step difference!?

A rematch is most certainly required.

[Hiroro]

On 1/21/2017 at 8:21 PM, Xena said:

More than halfway through! Great job. Do you have a transition strategy for after day 30?

No...I should probably do that  Previous ones I've tried to do the careful introduction, but really struggled to find post-W30 balance. I've been thinking about trying a 6-days on, 1-day off 'plan'. This is really too labor intensive to maintain, and also excludes a lot of social activity.

 

1 hour ago, Fonzico said:

That was the most dramatic, edge-of-your-seat step competition EVER! I think we kicked each other out of first place about a dozen times, only to end with a 100 step difference!?

A rematch is most certainly required.

YES! It was exciting being so close  though I don't know if you did any extra steps because of the challenge. Seeing my Saturday count got me out the door for a Sunday walk to catch up.

[Hiroro]

Whole 30 Day 21

Two-thirds of the way there! 

 

Mission #1: Whole 30

So yesterday I was SUPER grumpy because for my dad's retirement party he rented out my family's favorite local Japanese restaurant. There was an amazing spread of Japanese food, beer, and wine. Fiance and I ate ahead of time, and there was sashimi which I could have. But having to pass up the tempura, yakitori, sushi, really good wine, etc made me so sad -- and if we weren't on W30 we would have taken home some killer leftovers. Grump grump grump. I also find that alcohol lowers my social anxiety, and talking to old family friends who I haven't seen in ages made me feel extra awkward (do I call them by their first names now that I'm an adult? So used to saying Mrs. or Mr. ). It was one of those occasions which at any other time I would have said WORTH IT and eaten a little of everything (and, ya know, not paying for it myself it always nice). Fiance pointed out that we could go back post-W30, but there won't be the same spread (because normal people order one dish) and it can get pricey. We left pretty early...fiance had work to do (and a football game to watch), but I wouldn't have wanted to stick around anyways...watching everyone eat and drink everything was making me sad.

 

To throw something positive in there, I made the Momofuku pork belly over the weekend and it's pretty good -- wish I'd gotten meatier belly pieces though, but it's very easy and yummy. Starting to plan for the weekend in California! Thank goodness we're going to be done with W30 for Superbowl Sunday.

 

Mission #2: Spartan training

Did tons of walking/running last week so that was good. This week going to do a little running in the trail shoes I bought to test them out, and a bit more bouldering and burpees. Not going to go too hard though because the race is SUNDAY and my primary concern is being at 100% for the race.

 

Mission #3: Less TV

Meh. I'm watching some football, and fiance tends to turn the TV on more than I'd like. Movie time is also blanket-making time, so that's been fine. Though we watched one foreign film last week and it made me a little crazy not being able to multitask - I had to read the subtitles!

[Fonzico]

YES! It was exciting being so close [emoji4] though I don't know if you did any extra steps because of the challenge. Seeing my Saturday count got me out the door for a Sunday walk to catch up.

I definitely took the dog for a longer walk than I would have last night!

[Fonzico]

Sorry about the food situation... I was having a time with my own restaurant situation, and it was not nearly as tempting as yours! So hard! But good for you for staying strong... At least your belly thanks you!

[Xena]

What kind of trail shoes did you get?

 

Sorry you were kind of deprived at the Japanese restaurant party. That doesn't sound fun at all. The whole social aspect of it is very tricky.

[Hiroro]

I got the inov-8 X-talons, they were pretty good but the race ended up not being very muddy anyhow. We got muddy/wet at the end, and that was when I discovered the shoes don't drain like people say (very sloshy)...but at least I didn't have to go far in them like that. The grip on the bottom was nice to have for the slip wall.

 

[Hiroro]

In case anybody is curious, the guy on the right (yellow shirt) is my fiance.

 

So my goals this challenge round were different since I had very definite plans, which means I'm basically done before the 4 weeks is up. But I actually ACHIEVED THEM ALL which is pretty exciting. I've been awful at updating, but life is happening over here in my little corner.

 

Week 4 Day...3?

Mission #1: Whole 30 DAY 30!!!!!!!!!!!

Super excited to be almost done. Previous W30's, at the end I've thought I could keep eating mostly W30 and then gradually fallen way off the wagon. My next challenge will be centered around finding balance between health and indulgence...always a battle. Fiance actually said that he's found on the W30 he's had no GI issues during his runs, so I think he'll be open to trying to continue a more W30-like lifestyle. I bought some fancy $$$ chocolate in LA over the weekend, and the woman running the shop felt bad because I couldn't sample anything -- due to that plus me being an out-of-towner she added tons of samples to my bag...so my $25 bag of chocolates came with probably $15-20 of samples (TRUFFLE SAMPLES) which are waiting for me to be done with W30. But the expensiveness and excellence make it natural for me to stretch out the chocolate anyways, so I'm not too worried about a post-W30 binge. I can't wait to be able to eat certain things again: chocolate, gyros, hummus...but I'm most worried about the foods that have no brakes for me -- potato chips, fries, mac and cheese. I'd like to find a way to have those things occasionally without going overboard (fine with eating a box or two of Kraft as a meal, but only once in a blue moon).

 

Mission #2: Spartan training - RACE COMPLETE

The race was awesome! Really challenging (I did 120 burpees total) but doable, and it was great to do it with a team. Fiance and I are already talking about doing another one later this year. We may do it as individuals, which would require me to seriously improve my upper body strength, or be prepared to do more burpees. I had a cold over the weekend and entertained thoughts of skipping the race but am so glad I did it.

 

Mission #3: Less TV

Pretty good. I read a lot over the Cali trip.

 

The weekend in SoCal was amazing - the sunshine really boosted my mood, made it very obvious how much the SADs have been weighing me down here in gloomy gray Ohio. Tough to go back to work; even though we only took a few days off (and the trip was for the race) it still felt relaxing. 

 

I'm fighting the post-race urge to SIGN UP FOR ALL THE RACES...because I vaguely remember making a logical plan to only put a few on my calendar for this year. I want to properly train for each race, and also the registration fees add up. 

 

Current Race Plan

May - Marathon relay

July - Sprint tri (with a friend)

September - Olympic tri

October - Canoe tri (with fiance)

+maybe a half marathon? A Spartan Sprint? A Spartan Super?

 

It's not a lot, but adding another Spartan in there makes it tough, because training for Olympic level distance and Spartan level strength might be mutually exclusive in terms of training time available. I'm sure it's doable, but having done plenty of races undertrained, I don't want to do that anymore. Will try to nail this down before the next challenge starts so I can assemble a training plan.

[Fonzico]

Awesome job! I'm so proud of you for accomplishing everything you did

Haha try not to ranger brain the races, you may regret it later [emoji14]

We are both going to be trying to find some post-w30 balance next challenge... I am nervous, but very determined to find something that works - I am SO done with the backsliding. We can do this!

[Hiroro]

Fonzico - yesssss no backsliding. I'm with you on feeling nervous. Last night I had a dream/nightmare that the first day off-program I ate like crazy and regretted it so hard.

 

Post-W30 Notes

• I lost ~8lb over the past month, which puts me back around 143lb. Next challenge I'm going to be looking to get into the 130's...finally. 
• Fiance is up for continuing to eat mostly-W30, which is super exciting. But he doesn't realize that when he says "yeah let's keep eating like this", what I hear is "yeah keep buying and cooking all this healthy food for me" with no regard for the work involved. I need to either get better at batch cooking or find more meals that he can cook. The effort, time, and $ expenditure of W30 is not sustainable. He'll get groceries if we're out of something, but mostly I think he's spoiled because the food just magically appears for him to eat.
• In that vein, I do love to cook and make fiance foods that he enjoys. But that doesn't mean it's not a chore. If we're going to stay mostly W30, I need to find a way to bring the cost down. We spent...over $900 on food last month, I think. Terrifying. My normal budget is $400-500.
• I'm going to add rice into our regular rotation because (a) I really miss it, (b) it's one of the only foods that always sits well with me, and (c) it's cost-effective
• Day 1 post-W30 my meals are all going to be compliant. But I will eat that chocolate

[Fonzico]

Mmmfph I feel you on the grocery cost! But at least when you're eating whole 30ish you can sub some less expensive but technically non- compliant stuff (I'm looking at you, prosciutto! And sugar free sausages. Geez).

 

Great job on the weightloss! I know we've been kind of in the same realm on that count for a while - i know for me, 140 has been a goal for so long that thinking about the 130s is next level! And now you're almost there! I love it.

[Fonzico]

So... How have the first couple reintro days gone?