It's Sunday night and I had to wait for my husband to go to bed to be able to write this article on his computer because - as I said before on my Vlog - my own computer broke down on Friday.
I'm so glad I already had saved all my files and tomorrow morning I will be calling the company concerning the hard drive's warranty - until everything is solved I will then be reduced to check my e-mails and Facebook on other family member's computers which means, as I'm a graphic designer, I won't be able to work neither to make my Vlogs and stuff ... sigh ...
Okay, so let's talk about fitness and weight loss again so I can distract my mind a little.
(*clenches teeth because Myfitnesspal won't allow myself to connect via Facebook on this computer ...*)
Even though my weight loss progress scale wise is minimal and I can't really track my day neither on MFP nor on Habitica without having to log in and out every few minutes, I start to see progress. I really struggled with my farm work in the past few week but finally my body seems to have adapted to it. I need to take 1-2 days off per week, but I'm no longer at the limits of my strenght and endurance everytime so I gain hope for the future.
My plan is to add more of the following to my daily activities: gardening (yummy healthy food), dancing, strenght training.
The Nerdfitness challenge ends today and I'll have a whole week to decide on new goals and I will definetely start in incorporationg more exercise into my day via the mentioned activities.
I also will find a way to cut out grains more and more and restricting my snacks even more, starting to pay attention to my macros. What the exact goals will be to achieve this is not yet decided though.
I think I'll leave you with this short update for today - you might read more on Wednesday because even though the challenge has ended, I will update here twice a week as usual.
Thanks for your support - please give me a +1 or leave me a comment if you like what I write to show me you're there.
Although I really had a stressful day where only little went as I planned I'm just amazed about how well my goals have worked out. I started creating those really small lifestyle changes in November - relying on what I had learned throughout the year before.
Many adjustments had to be made - I was really glad of finding out about habitica - a RPG-style habit creator where I can make lists, rewards, challenges etc. it's really fun and definetely helps me to keep track - I can't imagine where I'd be without it.
My Habitica today
In focusing only on small changes I seem to have learned more about myself and really started to change. I was able to stick to all of my daily goals today with very little effort and even though I felt depressed and longed for food to fight the feeling in the afternoon.
I'll leave you with only these short words for today, I'm tired but in a good way: we just finished gaming night playing League of Legends and I hope I'll be able to edit and upload the next Vlog tomorrow as I've recorded it already last Saturday.
Hello my dear readers!
A very ... special ... week has just ended and I don't know yet, where my mind is at the moment. Most of it is fitness/weight loss related - but there are a few other personal things that changed too.
The scale wasn't very kind to me today - seems that I've gained weight again - aliments with wheat really seem to make me bloated even though I stay within my calorie goal ... gluten sensitive? I don't know - there are so many sceptic people about it - but I'll stick to my opinion, that the paleo diet is the best for me so I won't worry too much about.
So, this was my first "discovery" of the week: it ALSO matters WHAT I eat, not only, how many calories it has - sigh. Second: I'm still thinking about how to integrate more exercise into my day but on the other hand I feel exhausted also. I hope I will build more and more endurance - I do quite a workout everyday in the stables but I really would love to do more!!!!!!!!!
Then my sister's finally got her driving license! She's so proud because driving was one of her greatest hobbies and now she's finally allowed to do it with any normal vehicle on normal roads. It really will be a big help for all of us.
On the other hand it reminded me of the time when I made my license - how much difficulty I had to put everything into practical. I really feel comfortable learning theoretical stuff but never really found my place in anything physical - often because I was so heavy. It's not that I need to be better than others but I would really love to enjoy moving again - not feeling to have to push myself but that everything flows ... just because of the fun of it ...
... omg, I'm nearly crying now - I didn't expect this - but it is true: I struggle to move this heavy body everyday and the best it gets is still so much less than any "normal" person - it's so much easier for them ...
...
Let's look at it in a more lighthearted way:
So, while I'm gulping down my water I still need to drink for today I have to say, that I'm happy overall - I just need to digest everything. So much is coming to the surface of my mind at the moment that I'm sometimes just sitting around and thinking.
But I know this will pass and that my comittment to this blog, my fitness and diet will help me.
I've prepared a better shopping list so I will make sure to have enough protein and veggies around for next week and I want to incorporate some squats, planks, push ups and inverted rows into my daily work, as well as added some clear goals to my habitica.
Please excuse me for this random ramble today and I hope you check in again!
Hello all!
Yes, I'm one day late, but I've so many new things inside my head that are digesting the new knowledge of the past week that really need to come out - I hoped that I would be able to make a more "organized" post yesterday but for the moment, there's still only chaos - so chaos will have to come out - hehe.
Remember I started tracking my daily activity? Remember I ended u paround 2,5 hours a day and how I wondered if this was much or not (I honestly don't think it's enough)?
Well, tracking something you do every day changes EVERYTHING! It changes our consciousness and therefore influences our actions. So many new possibilities already sprang to my mind how to improve my daily acitvity but I really want to finish this challenge with only tracking what I'm doing normally: there's always time to start getting better, but if I have no knowledge about the point I was starting from, I won't be able to compare the improvements.
That said - and it's really hard, because it goes completely against to what I'm used to think - of course there are a few very obvious plans building up inside my mind, wich I just want to write down here so I can come back to them in the beginning of February:
Warm up before the farm work! - this will improve my overall wellbeing during the work and I will know that I'm safe regarding my muscles and joints.
Add variations in work intensity - getting more conscious about what I'm doing and working special muscle groups or cardio whilst I'm at work
Increase the active time of the day - I will add more and more minutes everyday and if I don't fill them out with my usual work I will clean the house or go for a walk.
So, there's a lot I can do and I'm really happy to have my farm so I can work as much as I want - there's always something left to do! I also want to sign up for a class of any kind - maybe Tai Chi or Chi Gong - but that's not decided yet - just to write it down here.
Ah, and I wanted to make some things more clearly understandable: I don't have a real farm, I mean, one where I have to gain my living. I'm a graphic designer and illustrator but we have a private farm and I'm additionnally working with horses. So I have 3 own horses and we have 2 more, a pony, a donkey, dogs, cats, sheep, rabbits, chicken, guinea pigs, fish and also a ferret - so, I think I can call this all a farm and you might imagine, there's a lot of work everyday. I'm doing this together with my sisters, my husband (we don't have any kids yet) and my stepfather, so we are sharing the chores, but I plan to do more and more for my weight loss.
Ok, I think I'll leave it for today - you'll read me soon anyway.
Thank you so much for reading and check out also my log in the NF-forums, where I log on everyday!
Hello together!
I hope everyone had or is having a great Sunday!
First of all: I rocked the scale today having lost already 1,7 kgs so I'm again below 130!!! This is how I jumped around after weighing (my husband was at his work so he didn't see me ;) ).
I'm sorry no new video has come out yet - I still have to learn to scedule the time to make it - but I filmed it already and it's in the process of being edited.
So, how's it going? I'm tracking my daily activity without fail and for the last 4 days my average time moving was a 143 mins per day, making it 2h23. Okay, I won't put much on this number yet and wait till more days are gathering up so I can have a more accurate average number.
My goal would be to be able to easily do at leat 3 hours per day - because if I'm talking about moving, this means I included all household things where I was standing around too, which probably isn't burning lots of calories.
So, beginning with the last week of the challenge, I will start to also track my gross calories burned by my daily activities - I'm not doing this because there's really a need to it - I know that I should move more - but I like tracking it and it gives me a better feeling about myself.
I'm really curious about the results - is 2,5 hours of work much everyday or not? I don't have much comparison but my husband can easily do so much more! I haven't been around people doing sports a lot, so if you'd like to share your experiences this would be nice!
Ok, I'll check in with you again on Wednesday and I hope my next video will be finished by tomorrow - thanks for reading!
Hey! It's Wednesday again and though I didn't make any video yet (we had a storm and I was outside all day with my animals), I'm right on time to write this blogpost.
In my Nerdfitness-Forum Challenge log you can find more details about how my days went since Sunday but I want to fill this blog with more than pure data. I want to write down what moved my head in those 3 days.
It's hard for me to admit, but I really have to rescedule my biking goal - I would so much love to go for a ride, but I'm so tired every night and I just don't want to see any outdoor's rain, mud and wind anymore. I'd rather make body weight exercises. But yet a smaller goal came to my mind, but you'll read about it a little more below.
John, from the Obese to Beast YouTube Channel is a big inspriation for me. Not only because he's lost such a big amount of weight but also because his videos are so helpful. Some days ago he posted this very cool video - you might only understand it if you've been through what he's talking about yourself: how weight loss and willpower ride like a rollercoaster up and down and you never really get it. People in the comments argue, that there is no proof scientifically for metabolism damage, but if you've been there, you know exactly what John is talking about.
Here is the video:
So I realised something important about the weight loss equation that wasn't as clear before in my mind: "Calories in versus calories out" doesn't mean the same thing as just cutting out calories!!! It's all about balance!
My body has a certain ratio in which it burns calories everyday - this ratio depends on my body fat percentage and also on my level of activity. Eating less than I burn will FORCE my body into burning his stocked energy - Ok - I think, this is an obvious thing.
As a person interested in Biology I might add: my body's metabolism is constantly trying to find balance and it gets used to a certain amount of food and a way to process it - to loose weight we breaks this balance and we hope, that our body gets used to eating less. We are focused on the result: having a different number on the scale - but do we care to regain balance?
How can we have a healthy relationship with food if we forcefully strain our body and try to imitate having less food available?
At this point exercise comes in - strenght training to be more precise. I never really got this point - as I understood it it sounded like this: everyone talks about calories and that diet is 90 % of the battle - so, eating less equals weight loss - exercise keeps our mind busy, we spend more time doing something else than eating and it makes us feel good and we also build endurance - ok, so I can just eat less/right and loose weight without exercise also?
But I didn't yet pay attention to this tiny detail rarely ever mentioned anywhere: we cannot durably eat less than our BMR!!! Our body will always try to bring us back to it! Even if we do more exercise, we will get hungry for more food!
So, is weight loss a hopeless case?
First of all, I'm still trying - my journey is just on the beginning and everything I write here is just a hypothesis - but I dare to say: no! There's something we can do:
1. Build muscle!
Our body will then spend it's energy into building up the muscles instead of storing it as fat, which will make us even more endurant and strong to take on even bigger challenges. Plus: more muscle means we are spending more calories to mantain them, which means we can eat more, which means it's easier for us to eat less.
2. Eat clean!
There are certain foods that make us feel full easier on one side but there are also those full of minerals, protein, vitamines and healthy fats that really help our metabolism and make us feel great! We don't have to stuff our face with carbs and feel bad all day long because of our sugar levels. We can choose smart foods and not restrict us!!!
The 2 combined can help me to feel full and not hungry but caring about my weight at the same time - I'm curious where this hypothesis will lead me - it's very basic and simple so I can easily track it's evolution.
For 3 days now I started to eat more and more paleo again and I start to feel great again - what a happy moment.
I wanted to come back to my biking challenge: having realized now, that cardio is good but strenght training is having more benefits I'm thinking of changing this part. But I won't go into strenght training right away, there was something else with wich I wanted to start out:
Track my daily level of exercise in my daily life!
Before I make new workout plans, I want to know how much I'm doing already and have a better look at my real life. This is a small step but for the next few weeks I will track the minutes I spend working on the farm, doing grocery shopping, playing with the dogs, cleaning the house, working with m horses etc. I want to know how much of the day I'm active and to be able to optimize this or bring it to a more regular basis.
For example: let's say I find out I'm moving around 3 hours on some days and only 30 mins on others, I could then make the goal of moving for at least 1,5 hours every day so I know, when I'm doing less, I will have to look out for another activity (e.g. work in the garden).
This is my goal-change for this challenge - I will keep you updated on twitter, tumblr and in my NF-Battle log.
Thanks for reading - I will write again on Sunday!
So, it's Sunday night and I'm supposed to write a small article here and I'm gathering the rest of today's energy to stick to it, even if I have the feeling of having screwed - or, let's be more correct: it didn't go according to my plan.
But this is always a valuable lesson for me: letting go of control. My husband said to me some time ago that I really could be a total control freak ... sigh ... I think there's worse than me but I take this feedback seriously.
I'm tired - I haven't weighed myself because the morning evolved differently as I thought and I have the feeling to have totally overeaten. I'll head over to MyFitnessPal to check my calories and then I'm done for today. I hope I will upload the next video tomorrow but weighing will be on Tuesday I'm afraid.
Monday started a new challenge in the Nerdfitness Forums and as it was just the moment I started this blog, I signed up and created my thread there too. It's completely free and just implies wrinting up 3 habit goals you want to achieve during the challenge, one for nutrition, one for fitness and one for other life issues. Go, and check out my thread if you want!
It's my 6th challenge and last year, those challenges really had an huge impact on me and not only that: my husband also joined in and we did some household challenges together. I didn't have the time to prepare one with him this time, but the habits we built stick around for several months now and we have a weekly planner - not only for meals but also for everyone's chores.
Are you interested in knowing my current challenge goals?
1.: Nutrition
I'm working towards restricting to snack - already I do not permit myself a snack between breakfast and lunch - but I went back to having a small breakfast because I'm working in the harsh cold outside in the morning and if I don't eat anything, I'm completely starving at noon and my mood is really bad. For the afternoon I usually have 1-2 snacks but I could do less.
The point here is not the quantity of snacks - it's to take over control of my eating habits - to not always have to take a piece of something, just because it looks good - I can eat to my fill, but I will not allow myself to slip out of control!!!
This is why I additionally track my food and convert the calories!
2.: Fitness
I really got inspired by my father to do some biking - I always liked it and I want just to make a small ride - but because there isn't any nice parcours around my house I always neglect it - so this challenge I want to work towards taking the bike once a week to ride to my workplace (about 3 km).
For this week, I made the goal to a) check and clean the bike and b) make a small ride of about 1,5 km to see how it feels. I still didn't do it, so make sure to check in with me on Sunday!
3.: Other
I decided I wanted to solidify my dental care and be very strict to brush my teeth everyday - i often neglect this. It might seem simple, but it really is so important!!!
So, those are my goals and I'm pretty happy till now - I had some slips, but other things went better than I thought.
Do you want to try a challenge? Did you ever do one?
So, it's start of January again - my Facebook-Page was full with the pro's and con's of new year's resolutions - science says, those resolutions are doomed to fail ... but what does failing mean anyway? Is it even possible to "fail"? Isn't there always a win with any resolution we try to do because we learn more about ourselves?
I absolutely loved a cartoon of lunarbaboon.com that had been shared, because it made me think even more about this topic:
I remember last year ... my motivation at that time - as always I never could have dreamed how this year would turn out. Yesterday I met with my father and we had some champagne and chips and at some point we were talking about fitness and diet and that he wanted to make fitness a priority in 2016, moving more, eating better - and you know what? I really welcome this even though I know what statistics say!
Start of December 2015 I just got out of depression - one reason for it was the feeling I had failed my resolutions - regained my weight - that I had "fallen off the wagon" as it is called. But when talking with my father I suddenly realised, that there is no such thing as failing, because I've grown so much in this one year!!!
Our human mind is a tricky thing - you can't ever trust it. Depression might come, but good feelings do too. Your thoughts don't always reflect reality. In the months where I regained weight, I tried other things, I tracked food and I established healthy habits. I never could have imagined at the start of 2015, that I would be able to have no snack between meals.
Those things are easy for me today - let me give you my list of habits I have at the moment:
- Drink 2 liters of water
- Don't eat more than 1 snack between meals
- Do 5 pushups and squats everyday
- Do 5 mins of walking everyday
- Have vegetables and protein with every meal
- Track food
- Count calories before dinner
- Do my daily chore
- Get up and immediatly get dressed, brush my hair, splash water into my face and do exercise
This is a huge list for me the overweight "fitness noob" and I worked towards it really slowly, but those small things changed my life and not one of them would be possible, if I hadn't decided on January the 1st 2015 that I would do "that weight loss thing". I've completed 5 six weeks challenges in the Nerd Fitness Forums, found many accountability buddies, tracked thousands of calories ... but I also stopped weighing myself, started eating grains again and many more things that I'm not proud of ...
.. but life is never steady - however, my mindset starts to be. With every calorie that I entered on Myfitnesspal my intuitive feeling for nutrition has grown and grown and today, I can't eat a meal without watching out to add some protein and vegetables.
So, New Year's Resolutions DO WORK - just never give up if they develop in a different way than you planned. You have to stay fresh in life - never hope for routine, because routine is dead! Be passionate about something, but let it go when you feel you need something else to motivate you! it's normal to expect more than you can realistically achieve - but don't let this information bring you down - your expectations are the fuel to your awesomeness!
With those words I welcome you to this blog, which I write to stay accountable to myself - something I discovered to be crucial when trying to stick to uncomfortable things. I'm not perfect and never will be, but I'm full of life - I AM life itself! So what can there be more perfect?
I really appreciate your visit on this site and that you read my text until here - if you leave a comment, maybe in telling me about your own New Year's Resolutions or leave me a link to your own "Battle log", this would be so great, because this way I know that there are people out there trusting me to write again every week.
PS: maybe you noticed that I'm no native English speaker, so I really appreciate if you leave your corrections to my grammar and spelling in the comments below also!!
Hi
together!
- yap, this is me writing another Blog. Thinking about New Year’s
Resolutions, I realised I had to write some kind of fitness battle log
anyway and on top of that I needed to make it public, so I would find
folks that can keep me accountable. So, yes, this Blog is about me and
for myself - I will be very selfish here ;-)
What might be useful for you to know is that I’m of German nationality
but not living in Germany - so, I’m no native English speaker.
This is my journey and if you yourself sometimes do not feel very
motivated with your goals, I can totally feel with you - let’s get
motivated together!
I appreciate your likes, subscriptions and shares because they are a
huge motivation!
I’m a freelance artist, I’m married and I live in
France. I have 3 horses and 3 dogs … I love singing and blog-writing …
and food of course … and I start liking to exercise.
I’m member of the NerdFitness Academy and I absolutely love the channel Obesetobeast on Youtube!
Happy 2016 everyone and all the best for you! Thank you for reading -
