Last Martian's occasional Check In

Counting carbs/calories is a drag. Obsessive scale stepping is a recipe for despair. If you want to count something, "days on habit" is a much better metric. Checking off days on a calendar would do just fine, but if you do it here you get accountability and support. Here's how. Start a new topic in this forum called (say) "Your Name Daily Check In." Then every N day post a "reply" to that topic as to whether you stayed on habit. A simple "<font color="green">SUCCESS</font>" or "<font color="red">FAILURE</font>" (or your preferred euphemism if that's too harsh) is sufficient, but obviously you're welcome to write more if you want. On S-days just register that you're taking an S-day. You don't have to do this forever, just until you're confident you've built the habit. Feel free to check in weekly or monthly or sporadically instead of daily. Feel free also to track other habits besides No-s (I'm keeping this forum under No-s because that's what the vast majority are using it for). See also my <a href="/habitcal/">HabitCal</a> tool for another more formal (and perhaps complementary) way to track habits.

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Last Martian
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Last Martian's occasional Check In

Post by Last Martian » Thu Mar 23, 2006 10:26 am

Day 1, Monday SUCCESS
Had very light lunch, making it harder to stick to the "no snacks" rule. Not really a smart thing to do on the first day. Probably just got into "insanely disciplined diet mode" from habit.

Day 2, Tuesday SUCCESS
Had a decent breakfast, which was helpful. I should probably keep doing this.

Day 3, Wednesday SUCCESS
Had rather late lunch (3.30 pm), whiche made it hard to stick to the "no seconds" rule.

"No sweets" rule was tough all the time, but it's the big one for me so I stuck with it. (Seconds and non-sweet snacks aren't really the issue for me.)

Just put away the scales, which felt good. I'm going to stick with this for the 21 days and then I'll weigh myself again. (Current weight: 78,5 kg. Stage One goal: < 75 kg)

I will have some chocolate on the weekend, I think. Possibly more than some. We'll see.

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Post by reinhard » Thu Mar 23, 2006 2:34 pm

Welcome, Last Martian. Glad you toughed out the initial difficulties to rack up three successes. It gets easier -- pretty fast, if you're strict.

Looking forward to more occasional updates,

Reinhard

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Post by ceu » Thu Mar 23, 2006 5:32 pm

hi there! I like your idea of weighing in after a 21 day run. I think I'm going to appropriate the idea. :)

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Post by Last Martian » Sat Mar 25, 2006 6:24 pm

Hi. Thanks for the comments!

Day 4 Thursday Success.

Went jogging. Out of shape.

Day 5 Friday Success

Woke up with upset stomach. Not sure why. Was fine the next day anyhow.

Day 6 Saturday S-Day

Went a little crazy, but not disgustingly so. (So far.)

I am thinking long-term I might need some kind of limit for the s-days too, but for now I'm taking it easy.

I am liking the system so far. I am not sure I am actually losing weight right now (big, full plates), but my attitude towards food seems to become sane again.

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Post by Last Martian » Tue Mar 28, 2006 10:28 pm

Day 7 Sunday S-Day

Had Guilt-free pancakes. Pretty nice.

Day 8 Monday Success

I might go for daily check-ins for the rest of the week. It's getting to be kind of difficult, but in other ways than I expected.

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Post by Last Martian » Wed Mar 29, 2006 3:49 pm

Day 9 Tuesday Failure

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Post by Last Martian » Thu Mar 30, 2006 10:50 am

Day 1 Wednesday Success

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Post by Last Martian » Fri Mar 31, 2006 7:00 pm

Day 2 Thursday Success

Day 3 Friday S-Day (Special)

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Post by Last Martian » Fri Apr 07, 2006 9:19 am

Day 4 Saturday S-Day
Day 5 Sunday S-Day
Day 6 Monday Success
Day 7 Tuesday Success*
Day 8 Wednesday Success
Day 9 Thursday Success

*some bread on the side at lunch, which wasn't actually physically on the plate at any point, but it would have fit.

Something unexpected: Sweets aren't really a problem. I can just dream about the weekend. Snacks are, however. I am not sure why. I think it's part habit part just an... irrational urge to fail. It was actually a rather healthy, wholesome snack which tripped me up last week. I didn't even really notice until I went here the next day.

Really shows why the check-ins make sense, I think. It's one thing to rationalize stuff for yourself, but it's different when you write it down. I was like "Yeah, I totally kept to the 'no snack' rule! Except for the snack. Did I say snack? I didn't mean snack! I meant something that, to the layman, has a superficial resemblance to a snack, but but it's different because it totally doesn't count. Because I say so. You'll understand when you're older. Um."

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Post by Last Martian » Tue Apr 11, 2006 12:47 pm

Day 10 Friday Success
Day 11 Saturday S-Day
Day 12 Sunday S-Day
Day 13 Monday Success

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Post by Last Martian » Thu Apr 13, 2006 3:45 pm

Day 14 Tuesday Success
Day 15 Wednesday Success

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Post by gratefuldeb67 » Fri Apr 14, 2006 10:35 pm

Martians Rule!!!!!!

Peace and Love,
8) Deb
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Post by Last Martian » Mon Apr 17, 2006 5:36 pm

Thanks for the encouragment, Deb. It's appreciated.

Day 16 Thursday Success
Day 17 Friday Success
Day 18 Saturday S-Day
Day 19 Sunday S-Day

Almost at 21. Whee!

Also, I figured it was about time to get on the scales again.

Result: No gain, no loss.

Which is pretty much what I could reasonably expect, but I was kinda secretly hoping.... Ah, well. It's still good news.

Nevertheless, this'll need some tweaking at some point

Probably the best course of action would be more exercise, but I'm not sure I can handle that right now. Hm. I'll have to think about it.

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Post by Last Martian » Wed Apr 19, 2006 4:15 pm

Day 20 Monday Success
Day 21 Tuesday Success

Ha!

Not too shabby. 8)

I have decided I'll keep counting days on habit. It really is encouraging. I want to see if I can get to triple digits....

Still undecided about how to proceed. For now I'll just cut down a little bit in general, and use the "letter of the law" kind of way I've been following no-S (which is to say: big portions and pretty crazy weekends) as a fallback position.

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Post by reinhard » Wed Apr 19, 2006 5:49 pm

Congratulations on making it to the 21 club and thanks for checking in there. You've got a solid foundation here, and I'm glad you're planning on sticking with and building on it, despite the "no loss" so far. It won't take much to get you over the tipping point. The biggest bang for your buck now might be a tad more exercise. The tiniest little bit might be all it takes. I don't mean to goad you; status quo, if you hold out long enough, will probably be enough to do the trick by itself, but if you feel your patience being tried, the output end might be the more effort-effective angle.

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Post by Last Martian » Fri Apr 21, 2006 11:11 am

reinhard wrote:The biggest bang for your buck now might be a tad more exercise. The tiniest little bit might be all it takes. I don't mean to goad you; status quo, if you hold out long enough, will probably be enough to do the trick by itself, but if you feel your patience being tried, the output end might be the more effort-effective angle.
I tend to agree. My current approach of "sort of generally cutting down" is already starting to annoy me and it's only been two days. It's getting a bit too much like my dieting days: Technically successful, but setting myself up for failure in the long term. I'll stick with it for today just so I've given it a fair try, but I think I'll go back to sticking to the rules and not worrying about anything else then.

So yeah. More exercise it is.

(Actual concrete resolutions coming... soonish)

Also:

Day 22 Wednesday Success
Day 23 Thursday Success

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Post by Last Martian » Sat Apr 22, 2006 11:05 am

Day 24 Friday Success

Gah. That was a close call. If it hadn't been friday I probably wouldn't have made it. Definitely too early to mess with the system, at least if you've got my tendency to push too hard.

Now to enjoy my s-day!

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Post by Last Martian » Wed Apr 26, 2006 12:07 pm

25 Saturday S-day
26 Sunday S-day
27 Monday Success
28 Tuesday Success

Lots of sweets on the weekend. Huge dinner on Tuesday. Fit all on one plate, so not a failure, but I'm not that happy about it regardless. Ah, well. It was within bounds and that really was a kind of wacky day so I'm cutting myself some slack.

Overall, it's going well though. Getting a little bit easier day by day, though there are still longish periods where only thinking about the weekend keeps me on the path of righteousness.

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Post by Jammin' Jan » Wed Apr 26, 2006 1:32 pm

You are really doing well, and it is going to pay off for you. Just be patient and keep it up.

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Post by Last Martian » Sat Apr 29, 2006 11:11 am

Day 29 of 100, Wednesday Success
Day 30 of 100, Thursday Success
Day 31 of 100, Friday Success

As of now I'm making 100 days on habit an official goal. Watch me do it. Or witness my failure. Oh, the suspense!

The nice part about an ambitious goal like this is that it gives some intermediate milestones. On Monday I'll have managed the first third of that goal, then it's not much longer until the second round of 21 days, then it's little more than a week until I've managed half of it.

Withstood severe temptations on Wednesday. Some borderline stuff on Friday. I went shopping while hungry which led to buying more stuff for the weekend than was really necessary.

Been thinking a bit more about where I want to go with this. I am really happy now with the way I eat on non-s days, which is great. Weekends--not so much. The whole gluttony of it starting to annoy me. It'd be fine for special s-days, but not twice a week. I'm not putting any restrictions on it right now, but I am wondering what I really want there in the long term.

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Post by Last Martian » Sun Apr 30, 2006 2:43 pm

Day 32 of 100, Saturday S-Day

Okay, S-day or not that was... not good. Hrm.

I can't seem to work up the willpower for a resolution about regular exercise, so here's a mini-resolution: I'll exercise tomorrow, right after breakfast. Nothing big--half an hour should do.

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Post by Last Martian » Mon May 01, 2006 9:09 am

Day 33 of 100 Sunday S-Day

Did exercise today, though not quite right after breakfast. Bit of jogging. Was reasonable about it too, despite some slight frustration over being out of shape. I used to be reasonably fit for a while there. Still, it'll come back with time I suppose.

For now I've got enough of a motivaiton boost to to make another small resolution: Tomorrow, the same thing again.

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Post by Last Martian » Wed May 03, 2006 2:36 pm

Day 34 of 100 Monday Success +Exercise
Day 35 of 100 Tuesday Success +Exercise

Might be seeing some weight loss there. Maybe just dehydration. Still, going well. Exercise seems to be getting me out of my funk.

It's funny, though. With the resolution on record, I could get myself to exercise. Today, where I thought I was going to keep on doing it just for fun (I actually do enjoy exercise once I get started.)--no dice. Completely apathetic. Seems I just need that little extra push. Whatever works, I suppose.

New resolution: Exercise...right now. And tomorrow morning.

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Martian foods

Post by Samurai » Wed May 03, 2006 3:17 pm

Love the avatar and the handle.

Any Martian recipes you'd care to share? :wink:

I like your idea of continuing to count days on habit after the 21. Maybe if I ever get to 21 I will do the same! :D

From the tone of some of your posts, it seems like you were like I was, a hard core by the rules take no mercy diet dictator, when you were following a diet. If so, I'm glad to see that you've let that demon go, because life is far more enjoyable without him around!

Good job and good luck!
One should not be envious of someone who has prospered by unjust deeds. Nor should he disdain someone who has fallen while adhering to the path of righteousness. - Imagawa Sadayo (1325-1420)

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Post by gratefuldeb67 » Wed May 03, 2006 4:34 pm

Go man go!!!
Martians rule! :lol:

Peace and Love,
8) Deb
There is no Wisdom greater than Kindness

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Post by reinhard » Thu May 04, 2006 2:42 am

I'm so psyched that "days on habit" continues to be a useful metric to you. I bet a lot of people could benefit from doing this. It's so unobtrusive, and yet it gives an extra little nudge of accountability. It keeps you from getting complacent -- who wants to break that kind of winning streak? The more days you accumulate, the more precious the tally, the less you want to break it -- it's a virtuous circle.

I think you got two things right with your exercise resolutions:

1. make it modest
2. make it public

Accountability, or even just the illusion of accountability (no one here is going to track you down and punish you), is a powerful thing, but only when applied to realistic goals.

Of course, you need to do it more that just 2 odd days, and that's the tricky bit... I don't know, maybe just continue your one day at a time approach until something sticks. One thing I'd recommend considering big picture is a really small minimum/maximum temporal commitment. That way it doesn't require much activation energy to start, and because you only allow yourself a short amount of time, you'll actually view it as a precious chance, something to look forward to and not squander. It's a little like the "one chance to do each meal right" ps

Reinhard

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Re: Martian foods

Post by Last Martian » Thu May 04, 2006 8:01 pm

Samurai wrote: From the tone of some of your posts, it seems like you were like I was, a hard core by the rules take no mercy diet dictator, when you were following a diet. If so, I'm glad to see that you've let that demon go, because life is far more enjoyable without him around!
Oh, yes, absolutely. Been there, done that, got the hair shirt.

I started out with a pretty reasonable approach. I just couldn't handle having to decide on whether a certain "borderline food" was okay at each meal and after a while I was erring on the side of caution each time. I got carried away. Not so that'd it'd be unhealthy, but enough that, mentally, I was sort of drawing on long-term reserves of willpower. Just wasn't sustainable and not really worth it even if it had been.

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Post by Last Martian » Thu May 04, 2006 8:20 pm

reinhard wrote: Accountability, or even just the illusion of accountability (no one here is going to track you down and punish you), is a powerful thing, but only when applied to realistic goals.
Definitely. Also, there is, well, bragging rights. No fun in managing to keep to the program through another day and being all smug about it when nobody knows. :wink:

Seriously, recording a success is always a small reward for me and it's nice to have that.

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Post by Last Martian » Thu May 04, 2006 8:42 pm

Day 36 of 100 Wednesday Success +Exercise

(also exercised today)

New resolution: Three consecutive days of exercise, either Friday/Saturday/Sunday or Saturday/Sunday/Monday (might be scheduling issues).

Still not sure about the long term approach wrt exercise.

Couple of special s-days and... debateable special s-day coming up. Gotta think about how I'll handle that, too. :?

I'll figure something out.

...

The weekend is coming up. I wonder where I can get some good chocolate cake. :) (Best diet ever)

Not to forget: Thanks for the support, everyone!

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Post by Last Martian » Sun May 07, 2006 12:53 pm

Day 37 of 100 Thursday Success, Exercise
Day 38 of 100 Friday Success, Exercise
Day 39 of 100 Saturday S-Day, Exercise
Day 40 of 100 Sunday S-Day, Exercise

S-days kinda bad again and Sunday's not even over yet, yaddayadda...

I was thinking about putting some kind of limit on s-days, like only two snacks or what have you. I have changed my mind about that. Instead of doing that I am offically declaring s-days to be completely freestyle, do-what-you-want, guilt-free go-crazy time. I think I need that to make this work. I am pretty damn tough with myself about non-s days anyhow. More pressure and I'll just snap at some point. Also, every time I start thinking about whether this or that is not too much even for an s-day the craving just gets worse and I start to argue with myself over it and I start to get miserable and it just...gets stupid. :roll:

So: S-days are s-days are s-days and that's all I'll say about that. I'll try this approach for a while (say at least until the end of the month) and see how it works. My s-days really haven't been all that bad anyhow and the exercise ought to well make up for it.

Speaking of exercise, I have had an idea about that. I've been thinking about reinhard's suggestion of setting a minimum and maximum time. I have come to the conclusion that it's not something that would exactly work for me in that form. Thinking about a very short time for exercising doesn't tend to encourage me, but rather leaves me feeling like it's hardly worth it. On the other hand, a maximum time doesn't seem necessary since I pace myself pretty well right now during the time I exercise--neither slacking off nor pushing too hard.

However, it also seems to me there is a fundamental wisdom in the approach so I have been thinking about how I could adapt the underlying principle. And I also have been thinking about what kind of long-term resolution makes sense for exercise.

And then: :idea:

I am going to be aiming for daily exercise, but I won't quite call it a failure if I miss a single day. Instead I am going with a tiered system.

7 days/week: Gold
6 days/week: Silver
5 days/week: Bronze
4 days/week: "Fourth place"
Anything less: Failure.

It's kind of a goofy way to have some imaginary rewards for myself, but I like it. Bronze clearly is not a failure, but at the same time I don't feel tempted to just aim for it in the first place. I might feel tempted to just aim for silver some weeks, but I think that's okay too. One day off wouldn't be unreasonable anyhow. Anyway, I'll try this next week and will see how it goes.

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Post by Last Martian » Wed May 10, 2006 8:04 pm

Monday Day 41 of 100 Success, Exercise
Tuesday Day 42 of 100 Success, Exercise
Wednesday Exercise

Somewhat interesting developments.
The decision to leave s-days completely free seems to have been a good one, although obviously it's to early to say for sure. But for now it seems to have helped me to progress to somewhat smaller portions, although it probably also helps that I haven't reduced things
quite as much as on my last attempt.

On the other hand having different degrees of success doesn't really seem to work for me. It's just a bit too complex. Ah, well. The idea was a bit too Mary Poppins for my tastes anyway. It's too bad, though. I could use some kind of definite goal or challenge for exercising, but I can't seem to come up with a system that is both simple and at least somewhat flexible.

For now I'll stick with a general resolution of exercising daily except when it's really not possible. But I'll continue to record stuff here and if I skip a day I'll be honest about whether I was slacking off or really couldn't manage. That should give me a bit of extra incentive to keep at it.

The real good news: I seem to have lost some weight. I'll weigh myself Monday morning and take that as my official current weight.

Also, since this worked out so well last time another small experimental resolution: Tomorrow s stands also for surfing, which is to say I'll try to forgo any pointless surfing for the day (e-mail is okay). This will be a real struggle, which if you think about it is really damn sad, but there you go.[/b]

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Post by gratefuldeb67 » Wed May 10, 2006 10:42 pm

Go Martian go!!!!

Glad things are going well for you :)!
Peace and Love,
8) Deb
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Post by Last Martian » Fri May 12, 2006 5:41 pm

Again, thanks for the encouragement, Deb. :)

Things continue to go well on the no-s side. I've been experimenting a bit with plate sizes. It seems that three big plates is actually a bit too much for me to feel good about while three small plates is not enough. Two small plates/one big plate or vice versa seems to work out.

Yesterday's experiment turned out well, although I added an exception (listening to Internet radio), but that seems reasonable. It did drive home, however, how much time I actually spend on the Internet, which I have been somewhat in denial about. Tried to just cut down a bit today, which worked about as well as with exercise. So, another formal announcement:

Next week, Monday to Friday no surfing the Internet for recreational purposes(with some small exceptions, including recording stuff here).

Will also try to keep up with exercise. (I'll consider 5 out of 7 days a success, but unlike no-s off-days are flexible.)

And naturally I'll keep recording stuff here since this seems to be key.

...

I am starting to see some patterns in how things work for me.

Note to self:

Resolutions ought to be

- for a specified time
- based on behaviour, not results
- simple success/failure
- public
- modest
- allow for off-time/occasional failure

Also, resolutions to refrain from something are much easier for me to deal with than those which require activity. Something needs to be done about that.

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Post by Last Martian » Fri May 12, 2006 5:44 pm

Wednesday, Day 43 of 100 Success, exercise
Thursday, Day 44 of 100 Success, exercise, "offline"

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Post by Last Martian » Sat May 13, 2006 6:42 pm

Friday Day 45 of 100 Success, exercise
Saturday Day 46 of 100 S-daily, exercise

Still frustrated about being so out of shape. Nothing to be done but keeping at it, I suppose.

Day 50 is not so far away now and I feel pretty good about that.

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Post by Last Martian » Mon May 22, 2006 9:30 pm

Sunday Day 47 or 100 Success, exercise, offline
Monday Day 48 of 100 Success, exercise, offline
Tuesday Day 49 of 100 Success, exercise, offline
Wednesday Day 50 of 100 Failure, no exercise, offline

:oops:

Thursday Day 1 of 21 Success, exercise
Friday Day 2 of 21 Success, no exercise
Saturday Day 3 of 21 S-day, no exercise
Sunday Day 4 of 21 S-day, no exercise
(Monday, no exercise)

Dang.

Didn't get a decent lunch, so I took seconds at dinner. More due to poor planning than lack of willpower. But it was discouraging all the same.

But actually, I feel more sorry about neglecting exercising and my net-related resolution. There were other resons for that besides general discouragement, but no doubt that was a factor.

On a positive note, last week's failures don't seem to get me down quite as much as is usually the case.

I am going to get back on track, I swear. I am not giving up on anything either. Maybe some changes in approach are in order, but I really, really want to make these lifestyle changes and stick with it.

There is a phrase that has been coming up in my thoughts lately: "Not good enough to smile, not bad enough to change." I don't know where it's from, but it seems to describe where my has been for a while now, and that's just not good enough.

So I am getting back on the horse. No moping about failure, just take the lessons and move on.

No-s: No fundamental changes necessary, I think. The 100 days goal was probably too ambitious though. I'll stick with 21 days for now.

Exercise: Just been pushing too hard there, I think. However, I have started to get back into shape a little bit, so I think I can go for a slightly different approach that'll be more fun overall. Basically, I'll aim for exercising three times a week, but go for a slightly longer route when I jog and maybe mix things up a little by going swimming or something.

No surfing: Not sure what went wrong. Maybe by looking at it as "just an experiment" failure just didn't seem bad enough. Also, I found it difficult to draw a clear line between legitimate research and just goofing around. I'll try to stick to just really necessary stuff this time.

Resolutions:

- Keep to no-s rules for 21 days

- Exercise at least 3 times / week for three weeks.

- Keep offline for 5 days. (Tuesday to Saturday)

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Post by Last Martian » Thu May 25, 2006 3:03 pm

Monday Day 5 Success, no exercise, no surfing
Tuesday Day 6 Success, exercise, no surfing
Wednesday Day 7 Success, no exercise, surfing

(Thursday, no-s looking good, no exercise so far)

Hrm. :? Staying off the net seems to be the really tough one for me here. Maybe just too many resolutions at at time? Just part of the reason, I suspect. Still I'm calling a rain check on that issue. Will revisit it soon though. Might need a less ambitious goal there, which really bugs me since 5 days should really be doable, but apparently not.

I am thinking maybe I should make the check-in regular, since it always seems to help. Maybe even daily. Will decide on the weekend.

Good news: I've reached my first goal and am now slightly below 75 kg.

Stage 2 goal: 72.5 kg

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Post by Last Martian » Fri May 26, 2006 12:31 pm

Thursday Day 8 Success, exercise

Wasn't quite as exhausting as last time. Might still be a bit much, though.

Very glad the weekend is near. Been a little too hard on myself this week, I think. But I have reached the point where I am now a couple of times before and this was always where I'd yo-yo back and it makes me nervous. Also probably overcompensating for failing my 100 days goal. Will try to relax a bit on the weekend without going completely crazy.

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Post by Hunter Gatherer » Fri May 26, 2006 2:00 pm

You've been doing great! Say no to the yo-yo!
"You've been reading about arctic explorers," I accused him. "If a man's starving he'll eat anything, but when he's just ordinarily hungry he doesn't want to clutter up his stomach with a lot of candy."
Dashiell Hammett

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Post by Last Martian » Sat May 27, 2006 2:08 pm

Thanks for the support, Hunter-Gatherer!

Friday Day 9 Success, no exercise

Confession: I have been gone back to daily weight checks lately. That kind of stuff and the somewhat excessive exercise are just setting me up for failure and I know it.

I have, once again, put away the scales. Will check weight after the 21 days are over. I am worrying that I'll regain the weight I've lost in that time, but I think that's just a sign I've been getting obsessive again. How much weight could I possible put on in two weeks while sticking to no-s, after all?

I think I'll keep that as a general rule:
  • Check weight only every 21 days

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Post by sanity » Sat May 27, 2006 9:58 pm

Weigh yourself as often as you like, just make sure you:

1) Measure yourself at the same time every day, probably in the morning when you wake up. Your weight varies a LOT over a day -- go ahead and try measuring 5 or 6 times a day, you might be surprised!

2) Plot it on a graph. Keeping in mind how much your weight can fluxuate even in the daily process of living life, you want to force yourself to suspend judgement, and if you must weigh yourself every day, do some statistical analysis.

Think of it like the stock market. Don't be a day trader -- you won't lose money, but you may lose motivation.

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Last Martian
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Post by Last Martian » Sun May 28, 2006 9:31 pm

sanity wrote:Weigh yourself as often as you like
Well, that's kind of the thing: I end up weighing myself more often than I actually like or think is reasonable. I don't think weighing yourself everyday is necessarily wrong for everyone. But I've tried it and in the long run it's never worked out for me.

In practice, I think once a week or even twice a week would work okay, but right now I'm erring on the side of caution. If I've gained weight after the 21 days I might go back to weekly checks, but definitely not more often than that. On the other hand, if it works I'll go with monthly checks. After all, months and years are the units of time which really matter with this stuff.

pangelsue
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You are a winner

Post by pangelsue » Mon May 29, 2006 12:59 pm

Thanks so much for the comments on the stress thread I started. Good, solid ideas and they sound like me.
I had never checked your check in site before and I just finished reading the whole thing. You are an inspiration. I love the way you ruminate and assess and set yourself positive goals. I am starting today to do the same.
Regarding the weighing thing. I have lost 8 lbs since I started several monthes ago and what I do, at first seemed obsessive but really works for me. I have a note book page I record my weight in every day. Like:
Sunday 195.5
Monday 197.5
Tuesday 196.5
Wednesday 194.5
Thursday 194.5
Friday 193.0
Saturday 194.5

That is the end of the No S week. I add them up and divide by 7. That total is 195.2. I now know if on the average I gained or lost during the week. It also puts the up and down thing into perspective. The week I listed above had a 3 lb variance during the week. If I had chosen to weigh in on Monday, I would have been depressed and if I had chosen Friday, I would have cheered. I just feel this is a more realistic appraisal. It has stopped me obsessing about the scale because I am seeing it gradually going down even though it is slow. My average weight has gone down each week except one. This last week was my stress mess and that also showed me the relationship between stress and my food choices. This works for me and I just thought I'd put it out there.

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