2014 TypeC Health and Exercise Challenge

[Udog]

yeah, just to establish better and healthier eating habits mostly. like eating 3 meals instead of 1-2 a day

Sounds good! (Also, just saw your thread.)

 

[prplchknz]

Insane price of books aside, awesome! And good to see ya - I was wondering where you had gotten off to.



Nice, and welcome to the fray! Did you have any goals at the moment?

yeah, just to establish better and healthier eating habits mostly. like eating 3 meals instead of 1-2 a day. And to add more variety

 

[kyuuei]

Specific goals starting the upcoming Monday:
To become stronger and faster than i currently am
To fix my hips with physical therapy
To have healthier eating habits

How i plan on doing that:

P90X at least 5 days a week
Stretching DVD in the mornings
Physical therapy everyday after working out
Run with progressive goals two days a week
Step by step eating healthier

I'll post specifics a bit later

Alright! Back! Anyways, my eating habits. I need good food that requires little cooking because of my soon-to-be schedule so...
- Granola cereal in the mornings with a banana
- Panderia bread during school for sugar (I need sugar when I study)
- Grapes and pineapple to eat at school as well
- Salad and tuna and crackers for protein and lunch
- Chicken fajita meat pretty much for dinner every night adapted into different dinners over the course of 6 days .. Spaghetti, corn tortilla tacos, Shepard's pie from the freezer, etc.

 

[garbage]

[MENTION=4722]Udog[/MENTION] I'm in.

There's some crap that I need to simply keep doing, and more crap that I need to do.

1. Average 60oz water per day (2.5 x my 24oz bottle, which I carry everywhere). I think I already do this, but I don't keep track.
2. One-hour boxing lessons twice per week. I was looking for a good source of cardio and a chance to learn something; bam, there it is.
3. Tone up the ol' abs with crunches three times per week (can't book it for specific days, as my schedule is chaos). I have a cool lil' resistance band for that. Starting at 20 for the first session, then 40, and so on up to 100 per session.
4. Eat 4-5 times per day. I have a tendency to let my blood sugar drop or whatever by not eating enough throughout the day.

The primary goal is to keep a higher and more consistent energy level.

 

[Evo]

I have a tendency to let my blood sugar drop or whatever by not eating enough throughout the day.
The primary goal is to keep a higher and more consistent energy level.

I do that too.

I made a plan a while back to start eating at certain times of the day, but it fell through due to my schedule being all over.

I might try to start it again though

 

[kyuuei]

I just wanted to say I just got the most amazing pull up bar installed in my house and I am so stoked about using it that I keep doing a pull up every time I pass through the hallway.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Perfect-Pullup-Basic/20461387

Fairly inexpensive, and instead of using the chair technique you can swing the bar down and pull yourself up from the ground.

 

[Udog]

[MENTION=4939]kyuuei[/MENTION], that's really cool - I hadn't seen something like that before. I hate using the chair - I feel I'm cheating certain key muscles by bringing my legs into it. Thanks for the link!

 

[Firebird 8118]

Okay, so - this first week kind of threw me off guard here. I needed to get used to my odd college schedule for the spring semester, plus I haven't gotten enough sleep. But I'm glad to be back on campus: I love walking/jogging/running along the wide sidewalk path, whether for my own pleasure or for carrying out any errands during my volunteer service. Once my college routine becomes more "stable" next week, I'll be able to really get into this habit more regularly.

In the meantime though, I have begun implementing some huge changes in my diet, one by one. First off, I now carry a water bottle with me to school so that I drink enough water during the day. Also, no more white flour/white bread for me! My mom has been encouraging me this week to eat foods that contain whole wheat, along with lentils, more veggies and some fruits. With her help, I've started eating more natural foods, so I'm grateful for that.

If there's anything else I think of, I'll be sure to edit this post (or create a new one).

 

[Udog]

Please post your summaries, guys! I'll post the participation list tomorrow night, and if we hadn't heard from you (in this thread) in 7 days I'll throw in a notification.




As for my summary:

Week 2 was about on par with Week 1. On the plus side, I woke up earlier and did 3 of my exercises in the morning. I'm also still eating significantly less junk food than I was last month. On the down side, I only did 3 out of my 5 workouts, and had 3 days where I cheated on my diet and ate a significant portion of junk food.

Summary:
1. No sugar; moderate flour: 4/7 days.
2. Exercised 3/5 times.

My major lesson learned: I have 1 day of pure willpower where I can force myself to not eat junk that's right in front of my face. After I am forced to use that day, I have no will power and will pig out on any junk food someone puts in front of my face.

I'm going to give it one more week. If I don't make it, I'll be making a significant adjustment to my first goal.

 

[Randomnity]

Week 2 summary: met my main goal of brief exercise (bodyweight or yoga, ~20 min) every weekday. I missed 2 days of ankle stretches for no good reason, though. I've also been cutting back to 1 circuit instead of 2 most days. In my defense, I've been pretty active otherwise (soccer Thurs, skating today) and haven't been great at getting to bed on time, so I've been a bit tired/sore from that. I still want to step it up a bit, though. I videotaped myself tonight to see if that helps me get the form nailed down - looking in a mirror is difficult and probably counterproductive, as I'm twisting around my head all the time! I'm not sure if I learned that much, although it did illustrate that I have a serious case of forward head posture. sigh. My back is still doing weird stuff with the squats and I'm not completely sure how to make it stop, but I'm working on it...

I'd like to add some kind of dietary goal for Feb, assuming I'm still doing OK with my exercise goals by then. Will think about what, but it'll be something pretty small but hopefully still meaningful.

 

[Qlip]

Week 2, I gained 4 pounds to be 166. I think it was done entirely today, as I was 162 3 days ago, manically biked into dehydration yesterday, and then super hydrated myself today and stuffed myself with legumes, nuts berries and all that kind of vegetarian food mass. I'm kind of on schedule with my pushup goal, need more situps.

 

[Coriolis]

Here is my second weekly update.

1. Improve eating habits, specifically eating between meals.
Had one day that was not very good - filled with stress and distractions, and too much nibbling. Unlike last week when I had several days of no eating outside of mealtimes, this week I seemed to eat something between meals, but much less, and less frequently. I suppose that's good. I'm trying to watch when and in what circumstances I eat, so I can break the habit by changing the circumstances, or distracting/otherwise heading off the impulse. So, acceptable but not great.

2. Get more exercise: at least three times each week, in addition to martial arts practice.
Only 3 times this week, so not as good as last, but still meets the goal, which is 3 times. The main point at least for the first 4-6 weeks is just reinforcing the habit. After that I will focus more on the content of the exercise itself.

3. Weight loss.
None yet.[/QUOTE]

 

[Ivy]

Oh, hmm, I missed the summary thing.

Week 1:

Eating the food- 7/7. No binges. Tracked every day.
Taking the steps- 5/7. Hit 5K steps on 5 days out of 7. A couple of those days I hit 6 or 8K. 10K is much harder than I expected- it's 5 miles, I discovered, and I rarely take that many steps in a day. But I'm hoping to start hitting 10K at least once or twice a week by the end of the challenge.
Sleeping the sleep- 7/7. Got 8 hours a night all week. Somehow I'm still tired- how long does it take to clear a sleep deficit?
Love the fam- 5/7. Not enough sexytimes and I fussed at my kids a bit more than I wanted. But I did see my BFF twice that week.

Week 2:

Eating the food: 7/7. No binges, tracked daily. There is something to be said for setting the bar low, folks- success is nice even if the goal isn't amazing.
Taking the steps: 6/7. Hit 5K steps on 6 days out of 7. Again got some 6K and 8K days in there too. I got the Marathon badge on the Withings HealthMate site for walking the equivalent of a marathon since starting the challenge.
Sleeping the sleep: 6/7. Stayed up a bit too late one night and paid for it the next day.
Loving the fam: 6/7. Good week. Helped niece with some application essays and she was so sweet and grateful. Saw extended fam this weekend and helped calm down a budding conflict between brother and niece. Saw mom, loved on her. More sexytimes at home, less yelling at kids.

 

[Udog]

Thanks for the updates, guys! It's pretty cool to read about other peoples' progress (and even struggles - it's nice to see I'm not alone and inspiring to read you guys work through them).

Sleeping the sleep- 7/7. Got 8 hours a night all week. Somehow I'm still tired- how long does it take to clear a sleep deficit?

Sleeping the sleep: 6/7. Stayed up a bit too late one night and paid for it the next day.

Do you feel as if you are catching up on sleep, yet? I've read that you can catch up on a moderate sleep deficit over the weekend, but don't know how long a much longer one would take.

 

[Udog]

Week 2 Participation List

Thanks again to those who have posted summaries! So far we've heard from:

Coriolis
Ivy
Qlip
Randomnity
Udog
AngelLight2012
garbage
kyuuei
prplchknz
Urarienev

We still need to hear from a few of you, though:
[MENTION=1125]INTJMom[/MENTION]
[MENTION=8936]highlander[/MENTION]
[MENTION=16139]Honor[/MENTION]
[MENTION=9883]Redbone[/MENTION]
[MENTION=18559]SophiaDeep[/MENTION]

Please post a summary of how you guys are doing. There are some great examples above, but it doesn't need to be long. We just want to hear how you are doing. And if you didn't make as much progress as you'd like, that's okay too. We are striving for improvement, not perfection.

As a reminder, I'll post the next participation list Feb 3rd.

 

[highlander]

The good news is last time I checked, I was three pounds less and that I'm eating more healthy meals and less in general. The bad news is I haven't started working out yet.

 

[Evo]

Weekly Rate: 8/10

I went way above what I expected this week. I may be revising my goals sometime in the future, cause they're pretty low.

But I've been working out, and eating veggies only when I feel like it....

and I didn't expect to be so gung-ho about it, but it's pretty great

I still can't stop myself from eating fast though. It's a very bad habit for me.

 

[Ivy]

Thanks for the updates, guys! It's pretty cool to read about other peoples' progress (and even struggles - it's nice to see I'm not alone and inspiring to read you guys work through them).



Do you feel as if you are catching up on sleep, yet? I've read that you can catch up on a moderate sleep deficit over the weekend, but don't know how long a much longer one would take.

It's hard to say. I still feel like I need a nap at midday, and I was hoping to wean myself off of that by sleeping 8+ at night. But I do feel a bit less sleepy during the day, peppy enough to take walks, and I don't feel like I need to eat everything to keep my energy up.

I did also find out that I have mild sleep apnea, and that my blood oxygen level got down to 83% for a few minutes the night of my sleep study. So that's probably affecting my wakefulness. I need to get back with the neurologist and see what she recommends for me. I don't know if mine is severe enough to need CPAP or not.

 

[Udog]

It's hard to say. I still feel like I need a nap at midday, and I was hoping to wean myself off of that by sleeping 8+ at night. But I do feel a bit less sleepy during the day, peppy enough to take walks, and I don't feel like I need to eat everything to keep my energy up.

I did also find out that I have mild sleep apnea, and that my blood oxygen level got down to 83% for a few minutes the night of my sleep study. So that's probably affecting my wakefulness. I need to get back with the neurologist and see what she recommends for me. I don't know if mine is severe enough to need CPAP or not.

Oh, that definitely could be a factor. Good luck figuring a way to treat it.

Also, experiencing some drowsiness around the 1-3pm time frame is pretty normal. I'm pretty sure people are meant to nap, or at least relax and take it a bit easy, around that time frame.

 

[Redbone]

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

I finally got a formal dx of EDS/hypermobility syndrome from a geneticist. I needed one to get with a PT...that was done today! I can start to exercise with her next week. I have to call around to see about a membership to a pool as well. I haven't started my hula hoop(ing?) but I have been doing my stretching every morning and evening.

Eating...meh. I bounced back on to a modified ketogenic diet and I'm actually having trouble eating. I'm not hungry eating like this so I may not realize that I need to until very late in the day. Not very healthy.

Soooo...
1. Call around tomorrow for a pool membership and set it up by the end of the week.
2. Get my PT appointments set up.
3. Make a meal schedule.