This week: Success. On track for 8/52 weeks so far.
I hit a nice milestone this past week. I’ve now lost over 20 pounds. So this is a double-win week.
Also, a surprising improvement at the gym. I ran my sprints today and they were every bit as hard as they usually are. However… my recovery time was kick ass. My heart rate dropped back to normal in no time. So, winning.
I know I still need to write my review about my Fitbit. (Short review: I love it and it loves me. I know this, because it told me that once.) But I do have something to say around measurement and accuracy. And I’ll have to bring the Fitbit up because it is doing a lot of that measuring for me, bless it’s wee little heart.
In my attempt here to lose weight and be a healthy size (finally), I am using a few different tools for measurement:
1. A Withings scale – to track my weight, BMI, fat mass and muscle mass
2. The Fitbit - to track my food, activity, sleep
3. Runkeeper and Fitocracy - to track my exercise
4. A kitchen scale and all the little measuring cups and such
5. Measuring tape.
These are my measuring cups. Cute, eh?
None of these things are always 100% accurate.
The Withings scale I know is weighing me light. When I went to the doctor’s office, I weighed in heavier. And I don’t completely trust it for the body fat percentage either.
The Fitbit doesn’t know my heart rate, so how can it measure my caloric burn exactly? And some of the time when I enter food, I over-estimate. Or I over-simplify… surely not all “chef salads” are the same, so wouldn’t there be some caloric variances from that salad from the salad I ate if I choose that?
Runkeeper and Fitocracy are as accurate as the information I put into it. But I think the GPS on Runkeeper gets lost sometimes. And I can’t always find the exercise I am doing (like Tabata sprints or reclining rope pull-ups) on Fitocracy, so it doesn’t get recorded.
And the measuring cups and spoons? I may not always fill them properly. I don’t think everyone does. It’s either a smidgen too little or a little too heaping.
And I’m pretty sure I have no idea how to properly measure myself with that tape thing. In fact, I know I don’t.
This is definitely not my body. Yet.
But does this matter? I don’t think so. It isn’t that it is 100% accurate that matters. What matters is that you are getting feedback about what you are doing and how you are doing it. It matters if you are becoming more aware of your actions.
As an example, the scale that (very kindly) weighs me light by a kilo or so… does that matter? Fuck no. What matters is that the number keeps getting smaller. That’s the part I should focus on.
Same with the Fitbit. It doesn’t matter if it is 100% accurate about my caloric burn versus the intake. What matters is that I am paying attention to what’s going into my body and how active I am being. And I can see that it doesn’t matter that I went to the gym that day if I’m going to eat an entire large Papa John’s pizza that night.
I think that’s what I need to keep in mind. It doesn’t matter if I’m measuring accurately. What matters is that I keep things moving the way they should be.
This week: Success. On track for 7/52 weeks so far.
But I need to confess something: I’m not feeling all that good about this week’s “success”. Yes, I am a lower weight since last week… but not that much lower. Which sucks, because I’ve been well behaved.
I’m trying to focus on the fact that I didn’t put this weight on really quickly (although it was rather effortlessly) and that it is dropping. I just wish it was as easy to take off as it was to put on. Stupid fatness.
On the plus side (no pun intended – ha ha) – Fitbit has informed me that it is no longer 16 October that I should hit my goal… but more like 23 September. Silly Fitbit! Don’t you know that I’m going to be a brat some weeks and drink all the beers? You should stick with that October date. I’m sure going to.
Yesterday Tyran bought this mixer machine thing. I’m pretty sure that’s what it said on the box.
like the window full of herbs and lemons?
There it is! It has other marvellous attachments (like a blender… Welcome to Margaritaville : Population – Me).
You can see in the picture I made some mayo (that’s the gloop in the jar, and I’ll write more about that later). But the very first thing I did was cut myself on the fucking thing. Twice.
first boo-boo
second boo-boo (the big cut)
After some emergency first aid (and a hell of a lot of whinging) I used the machine to first make mayonnaise and then the MOST GARLIC-FILLED GUACAMOLE IN THE UNIVERSE.
five cloves of garlics. and a shallot. vampires beware.
Now that I had some deliciousness happening, I decided I should probably pull something together for lunch. I had a butternut squash hanging around, so I thought I would roast that as a start.
I usually buy the squash already cut up (I’m lazy, yo), but this time I had a whole squash to cut up. Fresh-cut butternut squash smells good. It is like pumpkin… but more apple-ly. I was surprised that there were seeds in there. I don’t know why I was surprised. I suppose that’s what happens when you are used to buying all your food already processed.
lookit all those seeds!
Seeing those seeds gave me an idea: Could butternut squash seeds be roasted just like pumpkin seeds? They sure look the same. So I thought I would give it a try. Win! They did roast up exactly the same and were super delicious.
In the end, my lunch ended up being home-made mayonnaise (with chipotle paste – so good) with roasted butternut squash, guacamole (again, home-made – I rock) and tuna wrapped in seaweed with glutton-free soy sauce and with butternut squash seeds to finish. SO YUMMY.
I also had fresh iced tea. I used the blender to crush the ice for it (fancied it up a load, didn’t it?). It is just rooibos tea with ice and a sprig of mint. I’m getting very used to iced tea with no sugar or other sweeteners. Some teas (like rooibos) are fairly sweet naturally, so you don’t need to add anything to it.
nom nom nom
This lunch was WAY too big. It ended up being 1067 calories. I should have had half the amount and saved the seeds for a snack later. But it worked out okay – I ate this late in the day and just didn’t eat again, so I came out ahead of my ‘allotted’ calories that day (thank you Fitbit for tracking all that for me!)
It’s been an interesting month of eating well. It is delicious but a hella lot of work. I would definitely make this again – but would eat less of all of it. Either just the tuna and avocado wrap or the squash… or half servings of both.
Posted in asininity
Tagged awesomeness, change, food, health, new experiences, pain, stuff I like
So, in an attempt to stay accountable to my goal, I’m going to announce if I was successful or not each week.
As I said in my previous post – my weight has dropped each week for the first five weeks. Going forward, I hope to do this each Tuesday.
This week: Success. On track for 6/52 weeks so far. Yay!
Now that I’ve ‘fessed up to what my big goal is (ish) for 2012, I thought I’d start detailing a bit about how I plan to do it. There are three parts to my plan:
1. Eat smarter
2. Move more
3. Measure that shit
Pretty simple, no?
Eat Smarter
For me, this has meant following what is probably most commonly known as the “Paleo Diet” (or Paleolithic Diet or Caveman Diet or Hunter Gatherer Diet). To me, it should be just the “Whole, real foods (sans gluten) diet”, because that’s really what it is. Single ingredient foods for the most part with a few little bits to make life sunnier (red wine, dark chocolate, good coffee).
It goes a lot along the lines of what Michael Pollen says in his book In Defense of Food: ”Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”
It’s a fairly easy rule to live by.
And I’m trying to live by these “rules” about 80-90% of the time. Except this month, during which I’m subjecting myself to DEADLY DETOX FEBRUARY. Same rules as above, less fruit, the wine, chocolate and *sob* coffee (gave that up as of Thursday last week). And I’m sticking to it 100%. Six days in and no one has been maimed. Yet.
I’m going to enjoy the SHIT out of the next glass of red wine I have, let me tell you.
Move more
Actually, right now I’m failing at this pretty hard. STUPID LUNGS – BE LESS STUPID. I’m so tired all the time because of this damned cough so I’m not doing much exercise. I’m hoping that later this week I’ll be back to the plan, which is to walk in the morning, lift weights at lunch, and run in the evening. BAM.
Measure that shit
I’m actually measuring using a few tools that I’ll go into in separate posts:
1. Fitbit (food, sleep, mood, weight, activity)
2. Fitocracy (exercise)
3. Runkeeper (exercise – cardio)
4. Withings Scale (weight)
Some of these connect to each other. Some don’t. Altogether, they ensure I’m totes on top of this shit. Measurement is important – it helps track progress. I’ll give some in-depth reviews on those tools and how I’m using them in later posts.
That’s the quick and dirty outline of what I’m up to. I will try to talk about each in more detail as time goes on, and let you all know how it is all holding up.
Alright. As promised.
My goal for this year is regarding my weight, to wit: To get rid of some of it.
I tried this last year (and the year before, and the year before, etc.,etc., ad nauseam). And in 2011, until all the holidays at the end of April, it was working. I lost nearly two stone (28 pounds). Unfortunately, because I didn’t keep on keeping on… I gained it all back and then some for the beginning of this year. Not too smart.
I’ve tried a lot of different ways to measure success around this, but nothing in the last 27 years (let’s just say I’m 27, okay?) has worked. So I’m trying something different.
This is the plan/goal: For forty of the fifty-two weeks of this year, I will weigh less than the week before.
How much less is not relevant. As long as it is less. If I actually hit my goal weight (which if – IF – I behave the entire fucking year should be early October), I may change “weigh less” to “weigh within two kilos of” so I don’t go too far.
Why forty out of fifty-two? So when life throws things at me (Vegas in January, Irish wedding in April), I don’t have to feel like I can’t enjoy myself because I don’t want to fail at this goal. I’ve built in some buffers so I can stay successful.
So far it is working. It has been five weeks so far, and I have dropped every week, even post Vegas (even though that was only 0.2kg, or just under 1/2 a pound). In fact, as of this morning I’ve lost just over a stone (a stone = 14 pounds, for y’all not in Britain) since my first weigh-in on January 3rd.
So. Here is me being publicly accountable for what I’m doing with/t0/for my poor body. I am not quite ready yet for other confessions (like how much I currently weigh) but may be once I get closer to my goal. I’ll try to keep updating about how I’m doing it and how it is going.
Wish me luck! Here’s to a healthier Jodi in 2012. (Yikes.)
FINALLY.
The Year of the Dragon. I’ve only had to wait 12 years for it. The last time it was the Year of the Dragon was 2000 – 2001. I was 24. I had just graduated Univeristy.
And I would have never dreamed that by the time it came around again I would have travelled all this way, met all these fabulous people and be living in London. No one dares to dream that big.
But here I am.
And although I have come a long way, I still have a long way to go. And I would like to focus on some of that stuff this year.
I don’t know how well a Fire Dragon (that’s me) will do in a Water Dragon year. But I have some plans to get where I want to be.
There are improvements I would like to make in regards to my creativity, finances, health, lifestyle and relationships. I’m putting a big focus on my health, and I’ll post more details about that soon.
I hesitate to call any of my plans this year “resolutions” or even “goals”. I think I’ll stick with “plans”… but they will be measurable plans. And because they are not going to be NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS, I’m going to wait until after the Year of the Dragon officially kicks in… and after I’m back from Vegas (work trip) before I get going on anything in earnest.
Here’s to making this year a good one!
Last week xkcd posted this comic:
Which made me laugh. A lot of fitness tracking websites (I use Daily Burn and Runkeeper) miss out on some of life’s best activities. I probably would have had a chuckle and left it at that… but it was the mouse-over text that caught my attention. It was:
“I felt so clever when I found a way to game the Fitocracy system by incorporating a set of easy but high-scoring activities into my regular schedule. Took me a bit to realize I’d been tricked into setting up a daily exercise routine.”
“I’d been tricked into setting up a daily exercise routine.” That interested me. So I rocked over to Fitocracy to check it out.
Fitocracy (www.fitocracy.com) is still in beta and you need an invite code to check it out. Fortunately, they were excepting “xkcd” as an invite code the day I wanted to try it (I don’t know if they still are).
It is exactly the kind of thing I like. You get to level up when you are active and there are unlockable achievements. There is a lovely sense of humour underlying the site. For example, the quest to run a mile in under 10 minutes is called “Someone is chasing me!” There is an over abundance of zombie references. I joined a group called “Getting Fit for the Zombie Apocalypse”. Not even kidding.
It seems to be pretty nerdcentric, but that also suits my temperament. I need something to motivate me to get away from my computer and out into the wild. And if I find that motivation on a website that will give me “points” for doing so… well, I have no business commenting on the other nerds rocking the site.
There is only three things missing from the site right now that would make it better. The first is a mobile site and/or iPhone/Android app. Apparently the mobile site is in the works, which would be rad. The second thing is that it doesn’t (yet) connect with my Withings scale. All things should connect to my Withings. But that too is apparently in the plan.
The final thing I’m missing is people I know who’s asses I would like to kick. I’ve joined a few groups (such as the aforementioned zombie training group) on the site, but being better than a handful of strangers is not nearly as much fun as kicking the asses of people I know.
I have ten invites (apparently) that I can give away. If any of you would like to give Fitocracy a try, let me know. I’ll send you an invite and start following your ass. And then I’ll start kicking it.
Posted in fatties
Tagged awesomeness, exercise, health, new experiences, stuff I like, tech
>So far, 2011 has been the Year of the Restrictive Rabbit. I gave up drinking (nearly) entirely and with a few devil-may-care weekends, I’ve been following a very strict diet six days a week. I’m even forcing myself to exercise, which goes against the very core of my lazy being.
And now it looks like I will have to add spending to my list of things I have to get under control, which means restricting what I can buy. I made that decision this month, when my pay somehow ran out by the seventh.
The seventh. I didn’t even make it to the mid-point of the month. Sad.
More restrictions. I can feel my inner six-year-old starting to rebel. Something has to give. I’m bad at self-parenting – I’m too cute to tell me ‘no’ for very long. I sense an imminent bad-behaviour explosion unless I let something go.
So I’ve voted to lift the drinking embargo. I made the resolution in the first place to show myself that I don’t need to drink to have fun or to deal with my life. And I’ve proven that to myself. So I’m tossing out the resolution.
But not entirely.
You see… I’ll still have to restrict the drinking. Drinking goes against the diet. Which will be in full effect still from Sunday to Friday. So the only day I will be able to have a drink is Saturday (plus the exceptions, should they fall during the week).
I have a bad habit (just one – ha ha) of going to extremes. Eat “better”? NO! Eat perfectly! Do “some” exercise? NO! Run 5km every lunch! Drink “in moderation”? NO! NO DRINKING.
The trouble with that is how hard it is to maintain. Now, don’t get me wrong… I could finish off the year without drinking. But I worry if I hang on to that one I may let one of the others slide, and the others are more important to me.
This doesn’t mean I’ll see you in the pub this Saturday. But if I do… feel free to buy me a pint and help celebrate my newly discovered moderation.
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