Last Martian's Daily Check In

[Last Martian]

Day Zero

Ground rules:

• Daily Check In
  
  Daily Weight Check
  
  Zero tolerance concerning "no sweets"
  
  Sometimes = a treat once a day on regular s-days, twice on special s-days.
  
  No binging whatsoever. A bag full of potato chips or a whole plate of chocolate in one sitting is officially Not Okay, even on s-days. A treat ~= A chocolate bar, a pudding, two scoops of ice cream, a cup of hot chocolate, a donut.
  
  Regular exercise. I am going with moderate daily stuff to start with. Will try out a course or something sometime next week at the latest.

For the record, I am also using some personal modifications which (putting it charitably) stretch the "no snacks" and "no seconds" rules. It should work out okay in the balance, but I'm not pretending it's exactly by the book.

Personal Weight Goal: < 70.0 kg

EDIT:

Preliminary conclusions:

- Eating system is only marginally better than no-s, if at all, and more complex. Probably increasingly difficult to maintain once I start getting my life back on track. Revert to standard no-s rules, possibly with an added afternoon snack.

- Concrete limit for s-days is very good. Maybe change it to something a bit more relaxed. (Two treats for standard s-days, no limits special s-days?)

- Daily exercise, even moderate, probably pushing it a bit. Take two or three days off after the 21 and reevaluate.

- Avoiding binge-like behaviour very important!!!

[Last Martian]

So, I'm back. It has been a while, hasn't it? Anybody remember me? Don't blame you if not. I never got that much involved in stuff around here. And then I just vanished.

I'll try to maybe be a bit less standoffish this time.

Actually, I got a bunch of stuff I want to share. I have done a lot of thinking lately and I am going to change a number things in my life.

But more about that later. For now I just wanted to say hello to everyone.

Hello, everyone.

[reinhard]

Welcome back, last martian! I remember you -- you've got a very distinctive username, among other things.

I've got nothing against personal modifications -- whatever works for you. I'm flattered just to have loosely inspired anyone's success.

Best wishes this time around,

Reinhard

[Jammin' Jan]

Glad you're back. I'll look forward to reading your posts.

[JustAnnie]

Hiya Martian! I'm too new to remember you but your name did catch my eye. I am impressed at the number of people who return here. You must really believe there is value in this program!! Welcome back.

[Last Martian]

Day One: 77.7 kg, exercised

(I'll report success for the day tomorrow since the day isn't over yet. Looking good so far though.)

[Last Martian]

Welcome back, last martian! I remember you -- you've got a very distinctive username, among other things.

I've got nothing against personal modifications -- whatever works for you. I'm flattered just to have loosely inspired anyone's success.

Best wishes this time around,

Reinhard

Hi, Reinhard! Thanks for the welcome. I've got to say it feels nice to be back here again. I've been looking around the site, all, whoa, podcasts, whoa, book deal. Very nice. Congratulations!

About the modifications: It's fairly minor stuff, really. I am including three small, healthy snacks a day (typically two low-fat joghurts and a bowl of raspberries) and allow myself a salad for lunch regardless of any plate issues. On the other hand, I stick with really light lunches. It probably won't matter much either way, I think. The key issues for me are "no sweets" and exercise anyway.

On reflection, maybe I should have just stuck with the basic rules to keep things simple. Maybe for the second round of 21 days.

Oh, right. I didn't actually put this on record yet: I am trying for 21 days right now.

[Last Martian]

Glad you're back. I'll look forward to reading your posts.

Thanks!

[Last Martian]

Hiya Martian! I'm too new to remember you but your name did catch my eye. I am impressed at the number of people who return here. You must really believe there is value in this program!! Welcome back.

Hi there, Annie, and thanks!

I do basically believe in the program, yes. Although in a way that's putting it both too strongly and not strong enough. It's like this: It's a good program. It works. However, that is, for me, not really the important part. It's a fine system, but there probably are lots of other approaches that work too. The real wisdom of the site, in my opinion, lies in the strong encouragement to say goodbye to the fast, easy and perfect answers which only have the minor disadvantage of not working at all and sometimes making things worse.

This is actually something that all halfway decent diet books will admit to, but you have to look closely.

These books go:

"YOU CAN LOSE 10 POUNDS IN SIX WEEKS with strict self-discipline and constant, unwavering attention to what you eat. Here are 100 pages of advice about that. Here are 100 pages of recipes. Here are 10 pages of charts and 10 pages of unfunny cartoons. Here are 50 pages about the history of food. Here are 50 pages about my personal life philosophy. Here is a needlessly complex, color-coded schedule for the six weeks. Here are some inspiring quotations. Here are some irrelevant personal details about my life, which I feel like sharing for some unfathomable reason.

You are now prepared to LOSE 10 POUNDS IN SIX WEEKS.

"Oh, and I almost forgot, obviously after those six weeks you'll have to permantly change your eating habits and exercise regularly for the rest of your life or you'll regain everything and then some. How? Oh, sorry, we don't have room to really go into that. Just wing it, okay? Bye."

[Last Martian]

Day One 77.7 kg, exercise, success

Day Two 76.5 kg

Whoa. That's gotta be mostly dehydradation, I suppose. Still makes for a nice start though.

Again, something for the record: As I said before, I am taking the long-term view this time. I am staying with this for at least the entire year, in some form or another. Probably won't be able to stick with daily exercise in the long run (heh), but I'll figure something out.

More about my weight goals. I am aiming for < 70.0 kg, which is ambitious but achievable. In fact, the lowest weight the scales ever showed for me before was exactly 70.0. So getting a bit below that should be doable.

Going by BMI my healthy weight range is between 60 and 75 kg. So I am only mildly overweight right now. I am out of shape though. Also my eating habits have been terrible lately. Lots of fast food, skipping regular meals, lots of sweets, and most worryingly really uncontrolled binges of fast and joyless eating. This is going to change.

Still, all thing considered weight loss and even fitness are not my biggest problems by far. There are other areas which need improvement. I will talk more about that later. I am starting with this because it's something I have done before with some degree of success and also because there is something basic and fundamental about it. Most important here, again, is the regular exercise. I have been in a somewhat depressed state lately and yesterday's exercise has really helped with that. Keeping at it today and tomorrow should amount to a really notable change.

Incidentally, when writing about this stuff I am careful to put things confidently and optimistically. I sometimes go back and change "I am going to do my best to really try very hard to mostly keep to the plan this time" to just "I will keep to the plan." and like that. I figure if I get all weasely just announcing my intentions that's probably not a good sign. Fake it till you make it, as the saying goes.

Also, it's good exercise for catching yourself at making preemptive excuses or reservations or excuse slip-upw in advance. Not that an occasional minor slip-up is so terrible, but the default starting assumption should really be strict adherence to the plan, right? Anyhow, I just wanted to mention this because this sometimes makes me feel like I am misrepresenting myself. So now you know: I am not quite as confident and optimistic as I pretend.

Yet.

[Last Martian]

Still Day Two. Exercise has been done despite bad weather conditions.

[david]

I like your approach, LM.

Best of luck!

--david

[Last Martian]

Thanks, david!

Day Two Success

Day Three 77.1 kg

Yeah, that seems more plausible.

Weather seems okay today, thankfully. Gotta remember to buy better training clothes for bad weather soon.

[Last Martian]

Still Day Three.

In a somewhat risky move I bought weekend treats. It was interesting. Just allowing one treat really focuses the taste buds. Many of my usual temptations seemed kind of mediocre. Also, it was difficult to find stuff which comes in reasonable portions; I don't quite trust myself with a box of cookies at this point. But I found some nice treats, looking forward to that.

I have been listening to the podcasts and just came to the Urban Ranger one (Skipped the Shovelglove ones. That system never appealed to me at all for some reason) Been pondering it. I tend to go by bike a lot anyhow, and just taking a walk is kind of boring to me, but with a bit of preparation... hm. Never been much of a fan of audio books, but I could look around the net for radio plays and podcasts and the like. Yeah, I'll do that.

...

Temptations... come in many forms. I have not been tempted that much by specific foods or occasions, but I find it comes hard to me to bloody well leave the freaking system alone already. I keep alternating between ideas to make it a bit more relaxed and those to make it more strict. But no thanks. I am not falling for that again. The current approach might not be perfect, but there is nothing wrong with sticking with it for three weeks.

[Last Martian]

Day Three 77.1 kg, exercise done

The wages or procrastination are having to jog in the rain again. Let this be a lesson to me.

[gettnbusy]

I relate to your optimistic take on it all. I enjoyed reading your posts.

Enjoy your weekend and remember that smiles are always here for you.

[Last Martian]

Thanks, gettnbusy!

Day Three 77.1 kg, exercise, success

Day Four 77.2 kg

So I guess I could get in my exercise a bit earlier today. Yes, that definitely seems like something I should maybe perhaps sort of resolve to try to set as a possible... oh, all right. I'll do it in, uh, half an hour. Ish.

My mp3-player seems to have given up. Bad timing, mp3-player. You couldn't wait three weeks? Shame on you.

Actually, maybe it's just the headphones.

...

Ha! Yes, that seems to have been the case. Thank goodness. For a minute there I thought I'd have to go without entertainment for a bit over half an hour. Of course I still have to bear the hardship of using inferior headphones. But, alas, we do not chose our lot, and I will bear this fate with stoic dignity.

[Last Martian]

Day Four 77.2 kg, exercise

It's more fun without the rain. Was more exhausting today for some reason.

Tomorrow I'll do it before noon.

Also, I am going to talk some other issues. Possibly I'll TMI you. Or I might just be extremely vague. Don't know yet.

[Jammin' Jan]

Your posts are fun to read! Best wishes to you!

[Last Martian]

Day Four 77.2 kg, exercise, success

Day Five 77.3 kg

Having one treat on s-days seems to have been a good idea. I think I enjoyed that one thing more than anything I've eaten during the holidays put together. Really interesting. I think long-term I am going to stick to some kind of rule for s-days, though maybe something a bit less strict.

I am not 100% happy with the weight check. I think it's worth it in balance, but it's got disadvantages. Possibly I could round or something? Dunno.

Again, I am sticking with the current system for now. It's really to early for evaluations. (I am going to repeat this a lot probably. The desire to fudge around with stuff is strong.)

I am a bit worried about next week, but not too much. Actually, I am more worried about temptations today.

There alwas is a particular difficult balance:

I don't want to mentally threaten myself not to fail. Psychologically, that makes me want to rebel against the system (Stick it to the man! Rage against the machine!), and objectively it's overstating the importance of a single instance or a single day, as opposed to long-term issues.

On the other hand, clearly failure is bad and should be avoided.

What I have found useful is to avoid thinking about it in terms of good and evil or reward and punishment. Really, that kind of thinking doesn't quite apply anyhow. You could contruct an argument for how breaking the rules in this case is morally wrong, but that'd be more of an intellectual exercise. And a "reward" about which you feel miserable later is obviously flawed in concept.

A better way of thinking, for me, is to think in terms of cause and effect. This is the result I want. This behaviour will go against that result. Therefore, I won't do it.

Also, I find it useful to distinguish between the immedate urge to snack and the greater wish. Instead of "I want to keep to the plan, but I also want to eat this piece of cake" I say "I have a craving for this piece of cake, but I want to keep to the plan". There is still a conflict there, but it's more clear-cut somehow.

[pangelsue]

Welcome back, Martian. I don't post as often as I used to and I only now saw you were back. Love your ramblings and you just gave me a wonderful piece of armor in the battle. I want to stay on plan but I want that piece of cake leaves me with thoughts of cake. I want that piece of cake but I want to stay on plan leaves me with thoughts of my goals. Good thoughts!! Hang in there and tweak your plan until it works for you. Reinhard's ideas are good and work for many but in my opinion his best advise to us was to give up everybody elses ideas of the perfect diet for you and believe in yourself and your own body enough to find your own perfect plan. No sugar--good for everyone. No seconds/one plate-- good for everyone. No snacking, he allows you to make your own working version of this one. Awesome. The weekends weigh our own commitment to our lives and our health and give us a weekly chance to catch our breath, raise a glass or eat a treat and bomb out if we aren't ready yet. All within the context of success. Personal achievement is a moving goal. Good luck.

[Last Martian]

Hiya, pangelsue!

Just a quick note:

Day Five, 77.3 kg, exercise, success with some funny stuff

Was kind of on the fence on whether to call it a success. But then I thought, what does it matter what I call it anyhow? It's not like it'll either change the behaviour in retrospect or magically removes any calories. So this is a fair asessment, I think. It's a bit debatable, but these days I don't really find this kind of thing to be worthy of debate. So, gut feeling: it's a success with funny stuff, move on to plans for Day Six:

- No funny stuff

- First, tentative steps to deal with Issue #2: Procrastination. Two hours of work on whatever in whatever way. Doesn't have to be the most important stuff, can be kind of half-hearted. Just not complete bullshit.

[Last Martian]

Day Six, 77.0 kg, exercise

Daily exercise is getting more exerting than expected, both physically and psychologically. Will stick with it for the 21 days, since it's not disastrous, but right now I am disinclined against this as a long-term thing. Also, will probably get difficult organizationally.

Listened to more podcasts.

Still thinking about Urban Ranger and Weekend Luddite. Not really convinced about either, but I don't really seem to have a good argument against at least them a try. Hm.

Glass Ceiling: Kinda interesting, but of no personal concern to me.

Habit Management: Ah, now this stuff is pure gold. Excellent advice.

[Last Martian]

Day Six, two hours of work: Done, if pointlessly late. But I got some things done, more than expected actually.

Tomorrow I will do the same, one hour before lunch, the other in the early afternoon.

Also, I will come up with a concerted plan to deal with this.

[Last Martian]

Day Six, 77.0 kg, exercise, success

Day Seven, 76.6 kg, exercise

Dealing with procrastination: definite failure. Not discouraged though, just annoyed. More later.

[Last Martian]

So, okay. New approach with more focus and more dedication. The central problem for me is really getting started when I don't have any external structure.

So I will keept this at the most basic level: Half an hour of work each day, at the earliest possible opportunity (after breakfast etc. and optionally exercise), starting Thursday. Duration of the experiment: Till the end of the current 21 days, to keep things simple.

I am ashamed to admit that I am not certain at all if I can manage this. I think I can, if I really make a conscious effort. Which I will, so... I think I am going to succeed, but it might be a close call.

[Last Martian]

Been listening to the podcasts and considering the systems. Still thinking about stuff, but I'll just put down my impressions.

No-S. Currently using it in modified form. Will soon do the basic variety (and rejoin the 21 club).

Shovelglove. Doesn't appeal to me. Also, building upper body strength is pretty far down on the list of priorites right now. Might use the 14 minutes thing for something though. I kinda like that.

Urban Ranger. I am seriously thinking about this. Not so much as an exercise thing, but because I think it might help with anxiety issues. But I am not at the point where I'd commit to it.

Weekend Luddite. Also thinking about it, but I don't like it as much. For me, it's probably a better approach to focus on doing more worthwhile stuff, instead of forbidding activities. Then again, there doesn't seem to be any reason not to at least try it for a weekend.

Glass Ceiling. Seems good, but is irrelevant to me. Just not one of my issues, for once.

Habit Traffic Light. Excellent. The failure/success/day off distinction is very useful to me because it works both against perfectionism and the revenge/punishment cycle.

Negative Tracking. Not relevant yet. Will consider it later. Probably will need longer than 21 days until it makes sense to adopt it. Seems fine.

Monthly Resolution. Another excellent one. Only time I ever managed to hold to New Year's resolution was when I limited to January. Will definitely use this.

Personal Olympics. Probably not right for me. My perfectionism'd get in the way and I'd see anything less than gold as basically a failure. What I like: Taking the lowest reasonable goal as the bronze goal. Eg. holding the weight. Unfortunately in contradiction with the principle of picking one goal and being definite about it. Hm.

Chain of Self Command. I like this one a lot. Like the military metaphor too, for some reason (it's usually not my thing). Will adopt this in some form.

Personal Punch Cards. I only kind of like this. It seems worth trying out though. And I happen to have whole bunch of colored index cards lying around....

[Last Martian]

... while you are busy making other plans.

Change of plans, due to medical issues. Nothing major, but doctor says actual dieting is not a good idea right now. And what I am doing right now is pretty much dieting. It's as reasonable as that gets, but...

On the positive side this is a legitimate reason to abandon a plan which I am no longer completely happy with anyhow. But right now, I am feeling pissed off. I'd really hoped to quickly get to the point where I am not technically overweight.

Anyhow. Nothing to be done. Will restart with basic no-s or something very close to it. Focus on behaviour and long-term results. Scales will be put away again.

Also dropping daily exercise while I am at it. Just been pushing myself too hard, as usual. It's time to get completely reasonable instead of semi-reasonable about this stuff. Will figure out something else.

I'll start a new thread to give myself a fresh start. (NOTE: Please don't reply to this post.)

In other news, I have played around with index cards and I seem to like that. That might help me to get organized.