2014 TypeC Health and Exercise Challenge

[Coriolis]

Sixth weekly update.

1. Improve eating habits, specifically eating between meals.
Back to the pattern of good days and not so good, as before my trip. I find I am at least more mindful of what I am eating and when, so may just have to keep with this and continue to bring it slowly down, rather than expect a faster improvement. So, an adequate week.

2. Get more exercise: at least three times each week, in addition to martial arts practice.
I had high hopes for getting back to the 3 times/week routine, but didn't, mostly due to bringing work home to make up for being gone last week. Only two real workouts, and had to miss martial arts due to work conflicts. So, a poor week all round. It was a real effort to get even those two sessions in, but that's good to the degree that, if I keep it up next week, should have no problem meeting or exceeding my quota.

3. Weight loss.
Still holding at - 2lbs.

 

[Ivy]

I stepped on the scale this week. I haven't wanted to do this since weight loss is not one of my goals and I'm not restricting in any way, but I wanted a peek. Down 12lbs since the challenge started. Holy crap that felt nice. But I'm trying not to get too excited- I don't want to put on the diet blinders. Anyway.

In other news, I've run out of clever ways to say all the elements of my challenge.

Food- 7/7. No binges. Even enjoying meals at this point and not thinking about how awful everything is in them.
Movement- 4/7. Didn't make 5K steps every day and didn't do the bodyweight app. But had a good time and felt good. Noah and I went hiking yesterday, along the Eno river, and it was great. The snow is melting so it was pretty soggy, but we had a nice time together. And the dog got lots of attention. People seem to think he's a good looking mutt, and I guess he is, even if he annoys the piss out of me daily.
Sleep- 5/7. Mostly okay but I still seem to be staying up too late a couple times a week. Can't seem to let go of the late-night solitude altogether. I'll try to keep it confined to weekends as much as possible.
Connections- 6/7. See above for hike with husband. Kids went to my mom's this weekend and I missed them but it was nice to have some grownup time. Saw my dad and grandmother last night when we met for dinner and to pick up the kids. Didn't talk to my mom, though. I thought she'd be coming to dinner last night, but she didn't. She doesn't have a lot of patience for my grandmother (her MIL) who, it's true, does talk about her health pretty much exclusively. She's 94 and has congestive heart failure and has been in and out of the hospital, though, so I guess I figure that's fair, and she won't be around forever, so I want to see all I can of her before then. I guess I'll call my mom today. I hope she's not isolating herself too much. She tends to do that when she's in crisis mode. Anyway, gotta check in with her and let her ramble at me about Jesus. It comforts her and I need to get over the discomfort about hearing it, I think, if I'm going to meet her where she is and fully connect with her.

Anyway, that's it. We'll call the week a 5/7 all told. I feel good about it.

 

[Randomnity]

Week 6 update:

First off, I'm damn proud of myself for sticking to the daily weekday exercise despite the past week of working 10-12h days (and all weekend), most especially last night after a full weekend of work without enough sleep (children visiting = no sleeping in, and I couldn't manage to get to bed early enough, ugh), my computer freaking out and needing an emergency reformatting (which thank god looks like it solved the problem and it hopefully wasn't my expensive video card dying), and related stress/crankiness.

Main goals:

1) bodyweight done 3/3 nights. I also finally got to 10 pushups, which was my goal before adding new exercises. It's a little embarrassing that it took me so long to get there - I really have no upper body strength at all, so that was actually a massive improvement. Up to 20 lbs on the bent-over dumbbell row.

2) yoga done both nights. I'm not really feeling it, though. I might think about this goal and switch to something else, either new yoga exercises or something different.

3) ankle exercises - I've gotten pretty good at linking these to my night-time tooth brushing. I usually make it 6/7 nights which is good enough for me. I've started stretching my hamstrings afterwards, too, in case that helps - I remember it seemed to help ankle pain in the past. I'm still not sure if it's helping - my ankle seems mostly ok, but still hurts sometimes throughout the day. When I have more time I'll go to the sports doctor finally.

Added goals:

4) start exercise by 11 pm - failed miserably, I'm giving up on this goal. I usually start around 11:30 and it's not a major problem so it's not worth the large mental effort needed to stop procrastinating on it.

5) eat one healthy meal a day - I think I passed but I'm scrubbing this goal as well. I'm just not really remembering to think of it on a daily basis, I don't feel like making more of an effort, and from my food tracking it seems like I'm doing OK for getting protein and greens anyway.

So I'm scrubbing goals 4 and 5. I've been tracking my meals (to see calories and protein) most days but am deliberately not making that into a goal because that will make it instantly not fun anymore and I'll stop doing it. I actually kinda like tracking stuff like this when I don't force myself into it, if that makes sense. I'll probably end up tracking some days and not others, which is fine by me (I missed yesterday). And I've stopped weighing everything, so some things are estimated.

For week 7 (day 1 was yesterday) I've added triceps pushups and bulgarian split squats to my bodyweight routine, as kindof an upgrade to the regular pushups and squats. The rest I'll keep the same for now. I might switch up the yoga nights too, not sure how yet though. I'll also think about whether I want to add another new diet/lifestyle goal to replace the ones I'm ditching. I think I'm relatively OK on exercise for now, at least for the amount of time I'm willing to dedicate to it.

 

[Udog]

Here's my update:

This week, frankly, sucked. I'm finally at the point where I've always failed in the past. The cravings for junk food increase 10 fold, while I lose all motivation to exercise and eat better. The why of all this probably goes beyond the scope of this thread. Anyways, I failed at all 3 of my goals, and quite spectacularly at that.

I did only gain a pound, so it wasn't a completely disaster. First and foremost, my goal is to limit the damage that my current mindset does on my long term goals. In the past, I usually gain 10-15 pounds until my body has had enough, and I get motivated to work out again. Not this time. My singular goal is to maintain my current weight until I regain my footing.

I'm modifying my goals a bit. In order of priority.

1. Focus on eating healthy food at every meal. If I must eat junk, it will be AFTER I get a dose of healthy, nutritious food.
2. Sleep 7.5 hours.
3. Change my routine to a shorter, easier 30 minute routine.

I will try to do the workout in the morning, but we'll see. The sleep is the higher priority goal, because my lack of sleep over the past few weeks is causing issues.

 

[Udog]

Thanks to everyone that has already posted their updates. I look forward to the opportunity at redemption this week... but for now, let's talk about our current participation list.

Week 6 Participation List:
AngelLight2012
Coriolis
INTJMom
Ivy
kyuuei
Randomnity
Udog
Urarienev

Here are a few of you that I still need to hear from:
[MENTION=360]prplchknz[/MENTION]
[MENTION=9883]Redbone[/MENTION]
[MENTION=8936]highlander[/MENTION]
[MENTION=10714]Qlip[/MENTION]

How are things going for you guys?

 

[highlander]

As I sit here eating a bowl of ice cream, it occurs to me that I should probably drop out.

I am determined. Just not right now.

 

[prplchknz]

I posted I give up, but i think it was in the wrong, thread sorry for which ever thread that was in. because I wasn't paying attention.so I don't know; I found it and deleted it.

 

[Qlip]

[MENTION=4722]Udog[/MENTION] Reporting in! I'm doing terribly. I haven't lost any additional weight and I ate a pasta sauce with sausage in it home-cooked by a kitchen full of Thai women, my first time going non veggie. Apparently when drinking I make bad choices.

 

[kyuuei]

Getting closer to being on track! Next week I start my more official schedule for the rest of the semester.. that'll be interesting.

Eating has been going well at school with my new little system of ziplock-box meals and disposable oatmeal cups.. I may do that for my house meals as well though.

This last week I started into P90X again, I'd really like to get my hands on the 30 minute workouts they do to test them out vs Jillian Michaels.

 

[Udog]

If you're game, I have a question for those who are struggling. Why do you wish to change to a healthier lifestyle? What are you hoping to accomplish?

(I'll answer the question myself, but I need a day to think on it.)

 

[kyuuei]

If you're game, I have a question for those who are struggling. Why do you wish to change to a healthier lifestyle? What are you hoping to accomplish?

(I'll answer the question myself, but I need a day to think on it.)

- Because I feel better when I am stronger.
- Because I have more energy to do what I want to do outside of the healthy stuff.
- Because I like the way I look when I'm healthy and have muscles.
- Because I feel less attractive when I'm skinnier.
- Because my whole family is sick. I'm scared to be sick too... The only difference between my family, all of their health problems, and me.. is that I struggle to stay healthy. If I slip back and fall too far, I could become sick like they are.. and there's no going back from that.

 

[Redbone]

[MENTION=4722]Udog[/MENTION] I'm still here! Had to take off with being sick last week.

Foodwise...doing well with portions. I've experienced an uptick with eating out so I'm going to have to watch it there, too. Unfortunately, I think I'm eating too many carbs again so I dug up some stuff on low-carb diets (not the ketogenic diet I was doing) because I think that will help me a lot. I just don't feel that well when I eat a lot of them. Tired, achy, and brain-fog. I haven't lost any more weight doing this but it's good training for me so that I don't regain what I have lost.

Exercise...I'll start back with that when I feel better.

Edit: Your question. I want to feel better. As much as it's possible to feel better. I have rheumatoid arthritis and Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. I'm trying to stave off the need to take something for the RA and to lessen the pain and fatigue from the EDS. It also helps me not feel helpless or that my situation is hopeless. And I do not trust my HCPs to do much except be a kind of support system in this...it's mainly on me to help myself.

There's other stuff, too but it's hard for me to put into words.

 

[Firebird 8118]

If you're game, I have a question for those who are struggling. Why do you wish to change to a healthier lifestyle? What are you hoping to accomplish?

(I'll answer the question myself, but I need a day to think on it.)

I wish to change to a healthier lifestyle mostly for one reason: because if I don't do it now, I will suffer even more, and by then it will become much more difficult (if not impossible) for me to change. I've seen what PCOS has done to my mom, and I know she doesn't want the same (or worse) things to happen to me.

There are two other reasons, though: 1) I want to feel better about myself, and 2) if I get married and give birth to a daughter later in life, and she either has PCOS or is at risk of it during my pregnancy, I wouldn't want my health choices to make her life any more difficult.

With that said, here's my update:

Starting to carry other fruits with me as well for daytime snacks, such as grapes and pomegranate seeds. I also found an article last night that mentioned how apple cinnamon water can be a healthy way to detoxify the body, so I'll try that and see how it goes.

I'm not eating as much meat as before; on one hand it's good since I don't feel sick as often, but on the other hand I have to compensate for the loss of protein (which is where lentil soup helps). Cutting down on sweets helps as well, since before I would often have periods of hyperactivity followed by a sugar crash during the daytime.

Whenever I'm moving around on campus nowadays, I'm always speed-walking/running. It feels nice, especially with the adrenaline rush and all. I'd like to do that more often.

One last thing: I find myself exhausted at night, to the point where I tend to oversleep. It might be due to my schedule and coursework load this semester, but in any case I need to do something about this.

 

[kyuuei]

This week has been much better! Eating well, exercised regularly (though not up to 5x a week. .. I feel like this won't happen until the days get longer outside) this week, and I've been getting more rest especially seeing as how this week was short for school days.

This upcoming week starts my normal schedule.. but soon the days will be warmer, and longer, and I'm slowly freeing myself of constraints and tiring aspects.

 

[INTJMom]

Glad to see others have been doing well also.

I did it again this week!
As a matter of fact, I upped my game today and did a harder workout with heavier weights and I wore ankle weights for the first time ever!
I really felt the burn today!

I was toying with the idea of getting a rowing machine to get some aerobic exercise while I watch tv, but they're too pricey - for a good one,
But after today, I see how some weight lifting can get my heart going, too!

I'm going to reward myself with a nice steak dinner and a soak in a hot bath!

 

[Redbone]

Update: I lost 5 more pounds!

This is hard though...carbs make me feel so freaking hungry.

 

[Randomnity]

week 7 update:

1) bodyweight done 3/3 nights. However the last one was done a day late because I kinda totally forgot about it until 12:30 and I wanted sleep more. heh. I'm liking the new bulgarian split squats but as expected, I'm terrible at the tricep pushups. I can really only do one and probably not ideal form. I might downgrade to knee tricep pushups for this week. However, I'm happy that I've kept up with being able to do 10 regular pushups.

2) yoga skipped both nights. fail. I need to find something I enjoy a bit more, I think. Until then though, I need to force myself into sticking with the stupid yoga.

3) ankle exercises ok, missed 2 nights this week.

On a related note, I've been wanted to take up martial arts again for awhile and have started looking into schools in my area. The main thing holding me back is it's REALLY expensive on a student budget - most places are well over 100$/month. I technically have the money but I'm not sure it's the best use of it. I already pay about 100$/month for my currents sports (usually 3 nights/week) so doubling that would be a bit painful. However many places offer a free trial session so I could probably do one of those every week for a month or two before running out of places. I'm especially interested in trying BJJ, or another fairly "martial" oriented one. I got bored with kung fu after a few years because it was just general fitness/learning techniques and never actually using them in combat.

edit: also I'm having elbow trouble with the tricep pushups and bent-over rows, left elbow hurts to straighten sometimes. I think it's because I often lean on my left elbow while at a computer, which is way too much. Hopefully just that and not something more serious. Really need to remember to stop doing that...

 

[Coriolis]

7th weekly update. (Seems like I just posted the last update yesterday.)

1. Improve eating habits, specifically eating between meals.
Very similar to last week - good days and bad, though evening out a bit. The bad days are really not that bad, and the good ones not much better. I need to keep concentrating on being mindful of what I eat and why, and making conscious decisions rather than eating by habit or reflex. So, an adequate week.

2. Get more exercise: at least three times each week, in addition to martial arts practice.
I succeeded in getting back to the 3-times-per-week routine - good. In the next couple of weeks, I will concentrate on working with the new workout video, which is a challenge, but definitely doable, and seems to be a good combination of what I need. As the weather improves, will try to work in 1-2 outdoor exercises each week, like cycling or hiking - my favorite.

3. Weight loss.
Still holding at - 2lbs. If I can make more progress at the above, should come down some more.

 

[Evo]

Week 7

-Weekly Rate: 6/10

I'm still doing ok with the fruits and veggies. I started out this week badly, but it eventually got better. Also the exercise once a week is improving because the yoga teacher came back to my job. Yay. I am really excited about her. She is awesome. She seems very SF to me. She is so relaxed and gentle. And at the same time, she's not scattered. I need a good teacher like her, cause otherwise I am just spending the whole hour thinking about how the instructor could do better. But she is perfect. Not too fast, not too slow, and she's not afraid to help each individual.

A couple things that could improve:
- Stretching. I would like to do it everynight after work. But I have not even been doing it once a week
-Eating habits. I have been looking into the psychological details that could help identify the reason I'm struggling. Its as if I need to remind myself that I'm eating to survive, not surviving just to eat, lol.

So I guess psychologists say that we have 6 basic needs. They are: certainty, variety, significance, connection/love, growth, and contribution. I have identified 2 out the 6 that I can attribute to my eating habits. I think that I eat to get a sense of certainty/security, and I also eat to get a sense of variety. And quelle surprise, security relates to enneagram 6 and variety relates to 7. Lol

So I am going to try to remind myself that I can get these 2 needs fulfilled by other healthy habits. Now just to think of which habits to replace them with.

 

[Ivy]

The weeks are flying by. This was a decent week.

food: no binges, tracked all week. 7/7. I really feel like I've made a good and sustainable change here. Removing the value judgments I had about foods has been a sea change for me. No more guilt about eating the "wrong" stuff in moderation and eating the "right" stuff no longer feels like a chore. It seems counterintuitive but my diet is objectively 1000% better than it was when I was striving for only the best all the time.

movement: make 5K steps on 5 out of 7 days- yesterday I hit 12K (we went to the zoo). No bodyweight app- I think I'm giving up on that one. Maybe just not ready for that yet. So, with that subtracted from my goals, 5/7.

rest/stress/sleep/etc: pretty good. Still with the staying up too late a couple days- and napping a bit more the following day. It probably all evens out, but I don't feel great in the mornings when I do that. 5/7.

connections: great week. it was my son's birthday yesterday. He loves animals, so we took him and his BFF to the zoo. My daughter made him a Minecraft cake. A good time was had by all. My mom had a CT scan and is still cancer-free, and we made plans to celebrate that and my son's birthday with them this week. Good connections marriage-wise, though we didn't get a date night this week. Texted a lot with my niece and she said "you make not having a mom less hard," which made me cry like a big dumb baby. Trying to be there for my nephew too, but he's less forthcoming. I just hope he knows I'm in his corner. It feels funny putting a score on this one but it was a goal I had, so 6/7.

I'm giving this week a 6/7. You guys might think I'm engaging in grade inflation- I prefer to think that I set and reassess my goals realistically.