Yes trying to find a better coping mechansim is pretty important when we are going through such a difficult time. I’m pretty lucky being in Australia where we have managed to get through relatively unscathed but I still feel anxiety because my bf is going back to work this week and is in very close contact with ppl in his role. Hopefully my anxiety is unfounded but I am having to find other things to do rather than eating my stress away.
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long-undisturbed treadmill no more. just eradicated my previous best, with 4.21 miles in 59:59!
fuji apples are the best
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Thanks Jiggywiggy!
Yeah it’s actually much simpler than intermittent fasting for me (I think). I live in NYC so have been self-quarantining since late Feb. Before that it was so easy to order in food that it was pretty much a daily thing, but now it has all been grocery orders that we got delivered. So it just changed up our diet a lot, and I have deliberately been eating a bit less to a) lose weight and b) not require as many grocery orders to reduce risk.
Changing jobs might have helped too. The new one is on a different schedule so I get to sleep in more, and I enjoy it much more too so my stress levels are not as high. It’s hard to pull apart which particular variable has moved the needle so much, as I guess they have all contributed to some degree. I think the biggest thing has just been a lot more home cooking. Considering myself lucky to be seeing these results as I know just about everyone else has been gaining weight.
Intermittent fasting is something I have tried before and quite like though, so I would probably like to go back to that once we are back to normalcy.
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You’re a beast! I would have zero chance of being able to do that. I really need to work on my cardio when I can get back out.
I will say though that my resting heart rate has dropped by about 10 bpm since February, almost certainly owing to my weight loss.
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I grew up playing soccer, and later in life sorta rediscovered it and soccer-specific training, because you need to be slender etc.
Id consistently run quarter marathons(6.55 miles lmao quater marathon sounds more impressive os) on my treadmill 2 or 3 times a week… one weekend, a T-time fell through, and I ran a half-marathon on my treadmill
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Weekly review - Week ending May 23rd
Weight: 237.8 (was 237)
For the first time in a long time I gained a little. I’m not worried about it considering we got a grocery order in and I wasn’t eating well, plus I have come down over 20lbs pretty fast.
Sleep
8 hrs 13 mins average.
Keeping it above 8 hours average is good. The sleep was a bit broken up, but still this is reasonable and I am ok with it.
Deliberate exercise
0/7
Stretches
0/7.
Meditation
5/7. Another relatively consistent week. This is still something I think about daily, but I still don’t feel like I have got this to a place of “a thing I just do, every day”.
Reading/Podcast
6/7. Really enjoyed adding the option to change things up with some podcasts. I have various kinds of informative podcasts downloaded so most nights I picked one and listened on about 1.5x speed.
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Weekly review - Week ending May 30th
Weight: 239.4 (was 237.8)
OMG PANIC!!! But not really…this is still small in the scheme of things, and I am still down 23lbs for the year. I gained a small amount last week as well, so I do need to arrest the trend if I want to avoid going back up. Doing these reviews definitely does help me keep in mind how I am progressing, and because I am paying this attention to it I like to think I will make some better choices this week and not get back over 240lbs. I have my sights set on 230lbs for my next goal. Given that I have now clearly found a point where the weight won’t just keep falling off, I am not expecting to get to 230lbs quickly.
Sleep
8 hrs 34 mins average. I got 10hrs 10mins sleep last night. My sleep this week has been more broken up than it has been in months. I feel pretty sure there is a correlation with anxiety. I am waking up several times during the night lately, and even though I generally get back to sleep pretty fast I am sure it is impacting the overall level of rest.
Deliberate exercise
0/7
Stretches
0/7.
Meditation
4/7. Meditation has been more of a struggle this week. Like most people at the moment the current world events are getting to me, and when I do try and meditate I am finding it more difficult to get to any point where I can still my thoughts. I know the whole point is to keep working during those times, and I am proud of myself for not cutting any meditation sessions short even if I wasn’t finding any quiet in my head.
Reading/Podcast
6/7. Still going with the podcast thing, and also started a new Dresden Files book this week.
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Weekly review - Week ending June 6th
Weight: 236.2 (was 239.4)
Interesting! A new low here. I am wondering if last weeks weight was an anomaly? I am deliberately choosing not to eat sometimes (outside of main meals) because I want to keep this momentum while I have it. It’s not depriving myself when I should eat, since that is not sustainable and would just cause a worse rebound. I just mean in the evenings after I have already had 3 meals that day and a snack or two, I am opting not to grab something at 9pm if I feel a bit hungry.
Sleep
8 hrs 12 mins average. This takes into account the 8hrs43mins on Friday night and 9hr9mins last night. This seems to be part of a trend of late where I am probably averaging around 7.5 hours during the week and making up some sleep debt on the weekend. While it is still a decent result I would like to not be racking up that debt during the week.
Deliberate exercise
0/7
Stretches
0/7.
Meditation
4/7. Still not the 6/7 or 7/7 I want it to be. But at the same time I have not at any point this year just thrown in the towel because I wasn’t as consistent as I wanted to be. I’ve already meditated more this year than any other year of my life, so I will just keep going.
Reading/Podcast
6/7. Finished another Dresden Files book this week but also mixed in some podcasts. I think I am going to be sticking with this mixing of the two long term.
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Now I know what you’re all thinking; “what about that crazy cat seities…where is his weekly review?”.
Without further ado…
Weekly review - Week ending June 13th
Weight: 236.8 (was 236.2)
This is close enough for me to consider it no real change. I am happy enough with that.
Sleep
8 hrs 12 mins average. Exactly the same as the previous week. This past Monday (not counted in this report) I slept for over 10 hours, so I think that is still a sign that averaging 8 hrs a night doesn’t quite cut it for me.
Deliberate exercise
0/7. This coming Monday I have scheduled a virtual appointment with my physiotherapist. I have had some soreness around my right SI joint, which is a regular problem area for me.
Stretches
0/7.
Meditation
2/7. Yikes. I want to do better than that. I have started using the Insight Timer app for some unguided meditations to mix in with the guided meditations from the Balance app. I think it’s a good idea for me at this point to explore a bit more on my own and see if I can have a more fruitful session without any interruptions from a guide. Insight Timer is really good because its unguided functionality is free and allows you to customize chimes and intervals really easily.
Reading/Podcast
3/7. Kinda slacked off in this area too. But this week I have started White Fragility, which seems a good way to educate myself some more about racism in general and how I can better recognize my own privilege and be a better advocate for minorities.
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Interesting times. I am based in NYC, and my wife and I literally have not left our studio apartment since late February (except for when I take things to the garbage room which is about 10 feet down the hall). It sounds perhaps overly cautious but we have additional risk factors to consider and…well everyone knows how things have mostly been here.
But we have found a new apartment and are moving next week. I am very excited because the apartment itself will be much better to spend time in, and it has a washer/dryer and dishwasher. I’ve been handwashing clothes the whole time we have been quarantined and it feels like I spend much longer than I actually do each day washing dishes, so those two changes alone will be huge, but there are a number of other huge improvements.
Anyway, this is all bringing about some additional anxiety for various reasons. I am trying to be deliberate in utilizing various things I have learned about managing my anxiety but it still feels like it gets the best of me. Reading the meditation and mental health threads on this forum also help remind me how common it is to grapple with these feelings. I just really want to improve this area of my life. I feel like its already taken a lot away from me. But at the same time I really have seen massive improvement in the last 12 months in particular, and it has instilled a belief in me that as long as I keep working at it proactively then I can keep getting closer spending more of my life in a state of equanimity.
Weekly review - Week ending June 20th
Weight: 235.8 (was 236.8)
Nice to drop another pound. I expect I will probably drop another this week as I am eating less as we whittle down our remaining groceries before the move.
Sleep
7 hrs 40 mins average. I don’t know if it is the heightened anxiety or something else, but for the last week or so I have started waking up hours earlier than usual. Sometimes I manage to get back to sleep after 15-30 mins and sometimes not.
Deliberate exercise
1/7. I had a virtual appointment with the physical therapist as planned. It was good to feel like I was doing some work to improve some ongoing lower back issues, even though we spent the majority of this session doing a reevaluation since I hadn’t been in so long.
Stretches
1/7. Did a few stretches as part of the PT session.
Meditation
4/7. Did a bit better with this. After getting some feedback in the meditation thread I guess it really just seems like I need to increase my session length. Something I have spoken about doing previously but never implemented for any long period of time.
Reading/Podcast
4/7. A bit better here than the previous week as well. Still slowly working through White Fragility, and mixing in some podcasts and some more Dresden Files.
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bro, I’m down to 235. just got off the scale 10 minutes ago. think I’m going to try and walk as many holes as possible today at my local course after 3 p.m. The twilight discounted rate lol
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Thats great Riv! Are you noticing your clothes fit differently? Some of my larger shirts definitely look baggy on me now.
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mos def lol
I ballooned up to close to 280 at my worst ( think it was 278), and I was noticing its affects in numerous ways. Shedding the weight, you notice a reversal of those myriad things that the additional weight imposed.
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Weekly review - Week ending June 27th
Weight: 233.2 (was 235.8)
I first started recording weight in MyFitnessPal in 2013. By that time I had already put on a good chunk from my fighting prime, but regardless, todays weight is my lowest since I started recording it 7 years ago.
Sleep
7 hrs 38 mins average. Almost the same as last week. Lots of inexplicable early morning wakeups again this week.
Deliberate exercise
0/7. I have another virtual appointment with the physical therapist late next week. I am going to aim to start doing more regular exercise after that.
Stretches
0/7. See above
Meditation
5/7. A more respectable number this week 
Reading/Podcast
2/7. Not much progress here I’m afraid.
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No pressure, obviously, but I’d be up for a buddy read if you want. We could pick a pretty chill goal like 50 pages per week and post a few thoughts here. I’ve found that motivating in the past.
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Yes I am up for sure (if thats beneficial for you too).
Cool. Do you have to read the Dresden books in order? If not, I’d be up for one of those.
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Dude, just been out working in the yard, and crawlin’ on my belly in the crawlspace, clearin’ out what could’ve been replacing an outside hydrant, spigot etc… came in, got on the scale buck nakey… 230.
I’ll gain 5 with dinner and hydration, since I sweat my ace off out there, but not too shabby
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So you maybe could, but you will miss a little bit of context. But I have a really long list of books on my “to read” list. So if you are still keen to do something like this (assuming you want some motivation to read more) maybe we can just figure out something out of the broad mix I have on that list that would be new for both of us?
Lmk, and no pressure if you aren’t feelin it anymore :-)
Riv you wildman! You’ll have a sixpack in no time.
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