It Begins....Again

After many failed attempts at launching this blog I have discovered that writing is just not my thing. As such I have decided this will not be a vlog.....podcast.....thing. I am recording my thoughts as audio to YouTube and will add it here as the blog post. This installment covers the purpose of the vlog, my new plan of attach, and my reward system for staying on target. Without any further ado, here is the 1st entry in the new format. Please be kind, I am just figuring this stuff out.

January Mission Review

January Mission Summary

The Mission has suffered a major setback. January was not as productive as one would have liked. There were a number of missteps and a lot of bad intel. The original plan was to do Yoga in the mornings and cardio in the evenings. That was a complete failure. However, after regrouping and coming up with a new plan things seem to be progressing.

Mission adjustment 1: morning workout of Yoga was not….working out. After much research it was decided that the problem was a morning workout should be more energetic like cardio. Many people, including The Rock, hit the road (or treadmill) early morning and start the day with a good cardio session. This adjustment has been implemented and seems to be working.

Mission adjustment 2: any evening workouts were being impeded by an unstable schedule between myself and my commanding officer. Her schedule is constantly in flux. Here is an example of my weekly maneuvers:

• Monday - pick up the Recruit at daycare, home by 6pm if no complications. I am home with him until well after 7pm. Dinner is usually not before 6:30pm. By the time the Commander gets home it is time to get the toddler ready for bed. By the time all this is over I am too exhausted to work out. 
• Tuesday and Thursday - after school program keeps me at work until 5:30pm, sometimes 6pm. This puts me home around 7pm most of the time. Eating dinner that late makes a workout difficult. 
• Wednesday - I can go straight home and get dinner at a reasonable hour. This is the only day in the week this happens 
• Friday - Similar to Monday. Commander has work obligations that require me to pick up the Recruit, however this is somewhat sporadic so it is hard to plan around. I also have the Junior Agents to pick up from their barracks. 

Since consistency is key to any program like this I have adjusted the maneuvers schedule to hopefully work around these issues. Any evening workouts will now take place as soon as I get home.

Mission adjustment 3: the implementation of Mission adjustment 2 required that diet be adjusted as well. Before my meals increased in size and substance throughout the day with dinner being the heaviest meal. Based on the advice of a certified personal trainer friend and several articles on the subject I am inverting this plan. I will be adjusting my diet as such: breakfast will be much more substantial to help with morning cravings and sustain until lunch. Lunch was already fairly decent but will be slightly improved. Dinner is where the major change will come. I will be working out BEFORE dinner now and will have a light, protein-based meal. This will accommodate eating later in the evening and will help with recovery from the workout.

The 1st major challenge of the overall Mission will be the 1st week of February. I will be at a work conference all week. I will still be able to get my scheduled workouts in but I will have to be extra diligent with my diet. I will update the Mission log after the trip with its success or failure. Below is a full update on Phase I through January.

Phase I Operations - Quarter 1
Fitness 

• Complete DDP Yoga 
• Various starts and stops. Averaging 2 sessions per week out 5. 
• Complete C25K 
• Just completed week 1, doing well
• Get below 300
• See February Accountability Update for current progress on this goal

Diet 

• Track as much food as possible
• I am exploring myfitnesspal as well. I am about 75-80% compliant with this objective.
• Minimal sugar intake (including carbs)
• This is still going well save for the occasional snack size candy bar. I have had only one full Coke this year.
• No bored/stress/travel snacking
• Other than coffee stops this has gone well. There have been many days I have actively NOT stopped despite being very hungry

Life

• Less frivolous spending
• There has been a few slips on this front but nothing over $5-$10
• Improve time management/make better use of time/stay on task
• I am still struggling with this.
• Do something creative just for me for at least 1 hour a week
• I am not sure if it balanced out to 1 hour per week but I did do some creative things. I wired an f/x Disney Infinity 3.0 Yoda figure to light up off the game base. Continuing with Infinity I spent a few hours playing around in the Toy Box, which it very under rated. It is a fully functional game engine. I am interested in exploring this a bit more.

Stay tuned for more updates. Until then may the Force be with you and may the Power protect you

\m/ THERE IS NO TRY \m/

Mission Update 001

Mission Update 001

The Mission got off to a rocky start. The early part of the Mission seemed like things were going well. I worked out Monday and Tuesday. On 2 separate occasions I was treated to Italian, my favorite food in the world, and chose a large grilled chicken salad over a carb-heavy pasta dish. I turned down a birthday cake. Things were looking great until mid week. That’s when my depression started creeping and I started feeling like crap emotionally. I was upset and bogged down with the feels and did what I always do in said situations: I sat around, dwelling on everything, and eating my feelings. Every good food decision I had made earlier in the week was undone by angry eating. It was horrible and I felt horrible doing it. It did not make me feel any better it just changed what was messing with my head.

By the weekend I had stopped working out and was eating all the crap. Honestly, other than the occasional snack size candy bar out of the leftover Halloween candy, what I ate was not all THAT bad I just ate for the wrong reasons and way too much. I began to think about why I was doing this I had an apostrophe. People who battle with depression tend to find a coping mechanism. Not everyone chooses a healthy mechanism. This is where cutting, drugs, alcohol, and other destructive vices come into play. Clearly my emotional eating is a coping mechanism but I am beginning to question the motive behind it. I am not eating to feel happy, because it doesn’t make me feel happy. Perhaps I am eating to have some kind of control in the absence of such.

Back to the Mission. Monday the 10th was better. I worked out, though I was not really into it. I did really well on the food but that was about it. My on-going depression was the biggest roadblock this week. I have done pretty well with my food, save for the belated birthday cake someone gave me. The deliciousness of that cake equaled the hate I felt for myself for having eaten it, but I did not want to be rude. It did not take me long to realize that I have lost the self-discipline needed to work out at home right now. I need some way to jump start a routine to help make it a habit. I have looked into a few options. I really like the DDP Yoga program but with my schedule, making the time is difficult. I need to do something soon since I am already behind schedule.

Looking at the specific Mission Objectives for Phase I, things are not going well to start:

Fitness

• Complete DDP Yoga
• I’ve only done about half of the workouts for the last 2 weeks
• Complete C25K
• have not even started
• Get below 300
• no idea, only weigh in once a month

Diet

• Track as much food as possible
• about 80% of everything tracked
• Minimal sugar intake (including carbs)
• not terrible other than a few emotional snacks and the birthday cake
• No bored/stress/travel snacking
• had a few setbacks as mentioned above and slipped a few times on breakfast

Life

• Less frivolous spending
• this has been really good, save for a few QuikTrip stops for breakfast/coffee
• Improve time management/make better use of time/stay on task
• not great, I am easily distra HEY LOOK A DUCK!
• Do something creative just for me for at least 1 hour a week
• not even a little bit, though I have a project to work on I just need to get the materials

The entire reason for the slow start is my depression. As I have explained before I have very bad seasonal depression and it is taking longer than usual to come out of it. I am not sleeping well so I am more tired than usual, and emotionally I just do not feel like doing anything. I just kind of am. Hopefully things will pick up soon, because Phase I Ops are vital to completing the overall Mission. Until next time may the Force be with you and may the Power protect you.

\m/ THERE IS NO TRY \m/