Aug 1 - Oct 30 * Day 13

Weigh-in/Activity/Supps/Sleep: done
Gratitude journal: done
Food tracking: journal

Eating:
Gold days: 1
Green days: 7
Yellow days: 5
Red days: 0

Transportation costs saved: $40

Ken, welcome back. Best of luck on your (not-so-)new WOE. Cheers to your DDs for doing well, also.

Practice: Incorporate ~1 fasted days per week (ADF) and at least one >=20 minute sitting meditation/day until Oct 1 2018:

WeekEnding | Meditation20min [M,Tu,W,Th,F,Sa,Su] ; DaysFasted [X]
0708 | Su - Tu - W - Th - F(X) - Sa - Su
0715 | Tu - W(X) - Th - F(X) - Su
0722 | M - Tu - W(X) - Th - F - Sa - Su
0729 | M - Tu - W(X) - Th - F - Su
0805 | M - Tu - W(X) - Th - F - Sa - Su
0812 | M - Tu(X) - W - Th(X) - Su
0819 | M
0826 |
0902 |
0906 |
0916 |
0923 |
0930 |

Looking forward to viewing your practice schedule Ken

Day 1 of 90

I'm not exactly sure how to define the parameters of my next challenge. I want to mix things up a bit with short term tweaks and experimentation. I'm starting off with an egg, cheese, and fat fast for a few days. Then I'll move on to a higher protein, fewer net carb version of LCHF for a while. After that, who knows? Surely there will be a few IFs inserted here and there. I may even include a few 'on plan' relaxed eating days -- few rules, no tracking -- but still keeping the macros in line with LCHF. The caveat is that I will have a plan for the day before it begins, then do my best to stick to it. This will be an exercise of staying in control of my WOE. So what it will boil down to is this... Did I stick to my eating plan for today or not? It will be a pass/fail thing. I will tally the result for the next 90 days.

Stuck to plan: 1
Off target: 0

For as much whining and complaining as I do about my reoccurring bad habits, problem foods and inconsistencies with my diet since reaching goal more than two years ago I am encouraged by this... I'm still wearing my size 34 goal jeans. They've been tighter. They've been looser. Still, I've been wearing the same size pants for 30 months! That's a record for me. My body composition has changed some. I am a little heavier than my lowest weight. I have more muscle now. I have more fat. I was wearing size medium shirts 2 years ago. Most don't fit me anymore. The problem isn't my belly, though. Medium shirts are too tight in the chest. But again, those goal jeans... they still fit. So while my eating habits are far from perfect, my macros have stayed consistently LCHF nearly everyday. Eating right enough has been good enough to keep me a normal sized, healthy, active person. There is nothing wrong with working at making my good WOE even better. That is why I am here. Plus, I love the company. Rock on Thud, Kristine, and ImOnMyWay!

Make the Most of Summer; Get Ready for Fall

Be active for 20 minutes (or more) every day.

21 June through 3 August: sloth

04 Aug - walk, 20 minutes
05 Aug - 75 minutes gardening, 10 minute walk
06 Aug - 20 minutes cleaning, moving boxes, 10 minutes walking
07 Aug - 20 minute brisk walk
08 Aug - 120 minutes gardening: and it's only noon!
09 Aug - 75 minutes walking. 2.6 miles!
10 Aug - 15 minutes walking, 5 minutes stair climbing & high steppin'
11 Aug - missed
12 Aug - 20 minutes walking (warm up) and 20 minutes salsa dancing!
13 Aug - 80 minutes gardening.

*

This is perfectly put and is my aim as well. So far it's "Good Enough" I've stopped striving for perfection and weight loss - it is happening by itself as I avoid GPS and, by some strange chemical and or psychological reaction to this change in diet and size, am compelled to be active without effort.

I think it was helpful early on that I thought I was controlling what was happening to my body, mind and spirit but the only thing I really did was eat a certain way and avoid, as best I could, a few food groups. Things just happened. I also proved to myself that they can go the other way too, no matter how hard I exercised and active I was, my body size and composition changed as I experimented eating almost exclusively the 3 food groups I had avoided for 2 years. I'm convinced!

"Good Enough" is a beautiful way to think. When a thing is done, like a day, or a meal, or a task, and we made what we think is a good go of it, "Good Enough" can be said and accepted and then move on to the next thing, task or thought and do "Good Enough" again - This can free us from the torture of reliving the past over and over and mitigate any fear of the future since we know we will do as well as we can and that it will be "Good Enough" then too.

100%, Perfection, Beginning, End, Start, Finish, Never, Forever.

Are fictions.

(sorry, didn't mean to ramble, just jazzed up about your "Good Enough" idea as it resonates with me and some recent learnings)

The planning-ahead-to-stay-in-control strategy works for me. I can handle the odd treat at a restaurant, special occasion, or other random situation where it's worth it to spend a few carbs. I like to believe that we can heal our metabolism to an extent. Mentally/emotionally can be a different story - my inner two-year-old who wants to binge will always be there, but I can, for example, enjoy one of the pears that my DH's boss gave us from her tree with no guilt and no particular physical consequences.

Thud, totally agree on your summary of "good enough." Something that revolutionized my thinking that way is Flylady.net . It's aimed at housekeeping, but her main theme is conquering perfectionism. "Housekeeping done imperfectly still blesses your family," she says. I've never considered myself a perfectionist, but you don't have to BE a solid perfectionist to see that perfectionist thinking can stop you from doing things. You'll talk yourself out of things because you think you "don't have time." Well, just because you don't have 3 hours to do something perfectly doesn't mean you can't just do what you can, quickly! I've gone from being a slob to having a clean home and it feels like very little effort. I've also applied that sort of philosophy to LC eating. I've been doing it for 15 years and it honestly doesn't feel like some kind of monstrous effort. Could I be thinner with more effort into a cleaner diet? Yep. Do I care about looking like a fitness model anymore? LOLNOPE. My lipid profile, blood glucose, blood pressure etc are stellar. I'll just carry on livin' my best life, thanks.

(ETA) I also like to remind myself of how far I've come in the big picture. I consider a pear to be a splurge? Ha. When I was growing up, corn, peas and potatoes were the closest thing to a vegetable I ever ate, and that was once a week for Sunday dinner. When I was a teen, french fries and ketchup were my "vegetables." My "good enough" is miles ahead of most people, and miles ahead of where I'd be right now if I never tried LC.

Aug 1 - Oct 30 * Day 14

Weigh-in/Activity/Supps/Sleep: done
Gratitude journal: done
Food tracking: journal

Eating:
Gold days: 2
Green days: 7
Yellow days: 5
Red days: 0

Transportation costs saved: $40

Make the Most of Summer; Get Ready for Fall

Be active for 20 minutes (or more) every day.

21 June through 3 August: sloth

04 Aug - walk, 20 minutes
05 Aug - 75 minutes gardening, 10 minute walk
06 Aug - 20 minutes cleaning, moving boxes, 10 minutes walking
07 Aug - 20 minute brisk walk
08 Aug - 120 minutes gardening: and it's only noon!
09 Aug - 75 minutes walking. 2.6 miles!
10 Aug - 15 minutes walking, 5 minutes stair climbing & high steppin'
11 Aug - missed
12 Aug - 20 minutes walking (warm up) and 20 minutes salsa dancing!
13 Aug - 80 minutes gardening.
14 Aug - can't claim it. AQ was terrible yesterday due to fires all around us. Did some mall walking, calf raises, but... can't really claim it.

*

Practice: Incorporate ~1 fasted days per week (ADF) and at least one >=20 minute sitting meditation/day until Oct 1 2018:

WeekEnding | Meditation20min [M,Tu,W,Th,F,Sa,Su] ; DaysFasted [X]
0708 | Su - Tu - W - Th - F(X) - Sa - Su
0715 | Tu - W(X) - Th - F(X) - Su
0722 | M - Tu - W(X) - Th - F - Sa - Su
0729 | M - Tu - W(X) - Th - F - Su
0805 | M - Tu - W(X) - Th - F - Sa - Su
0812 | M - Tu(X) - W - Th(X) - Su
0819 | M - Tu
0826 |
0902 |
0906 |
0916 |
0923 |
0930 |

I read in here even though I haven't been participating... some good stuff the last few days, guys!

I am moved but still in boxes, my kitchen is functional but not completely set up. The place was a complete trainwreck (landlords DD didn't move completely out and stuff all over) - I still haven't gotten to the real cleaning it needs. I have a job now but it doesn't start til 8/21. Finances a tad rough and visiting my mom at the nursing home is an entirely new trip for me. I am seriously contemplating a rent-to-own option on my place - the landlord is a very decent guy (volunteer fire dept chaplin) who's given me a break on rent when I needed a place to go - and he really just wants rid of it, just wants what he paid for it 18 yrs ago, and has made extremely reasonable terms for me for that option. The place is livable but not finished by any means and needs a lot...my fixer upper? New territory here, especially since I am not handy at all.

What all this rambling means is that I am a bit thrown by things and am not doing what I need to do for my personal goals. Honestly my confidence in being able to do anything food-related is NIL. But, you all are so encouraging and I think Thud, (and Kristine) you tipped it at the Good Enough speech. Ken, you too, you are just wanting to do well and you do.

So it's time. I've been pretty good at keeping up with exercise but I'll add it to do better.

1. 20 min of exercise 5 days a week. Been doing fairly well with that.
2. 15 min of writing 5 days a week. Want to get those projects going again. This involves writing, research, going thru journals for material, outline work, etc.
3. Do something in/for the house and yard. 15 min a day, 5 days a week.
4. Planning ahead for the next day and doing my best to stick to it. Making sure I have food and it's prepared and ready to go.

STAYING LC IS THE HARDEST THING for me with what I feel like an ever-changing kaleidoscopic life...and maybe I just don't wanna (still fighting improvement) .... at any rate - I'll start the challenge tomorrow. 3 guesses why!!
I'mOnMyWay (Ms I) - I am on that cycle of the Solstices, Equinoxes and Cross-Quarter days too, but for this I'll just go 90 days. For simplicity I'll end mid December.
I'll do claps for accomplished and roll-eyes for not accomplished each day... not sure if tallying weekly or monthly yet. edit:**claps are annoying, changing to sunny icon **

Pi, I hope you're safe and the fires stay away.

MV, welcome back! Good luck settling into the new place. That's a great opportunity if you can arrange a rent-to-own.

--

Aug 1 - Oct 30 * Day 15

Weigh-in/Activity/Supps/Sleep: done
Gratitude journal: done
Food tracking: journal

Eating:
Gold days: 2
Green days: 8
Yellow days: 5
Red days: 0

Transportation costs saved: $40

Practice: Incorporate ~1 fasted days per week (ADF) and at least one >=20 minute sitting meditation/day until Oct 1 2018:

WeekEnding | Meditation20min [M,Tu,W,Th,F,Sa,Su] ; DaysFasted [X]
0708 | Su - Tu - W - Th - F(X) - Sa - Su
0715 | Tu - W(X) - Th - F(X) - Su
0722 | M - Tu - W(X) - Th - F - Sa - Su
0729 | M - Tu - W(X) - Th - F - Su
0805 | M - Tu - W(X) - Th - F - Sa - Su
0812 | M - Tu(X) - W - Th(X) - Su
0819 | M - Tu - W
0826 |
0902 |
0906 |
0916 |
0923 |
0930 |

Welcome back again mviesprite!

Make the Most of Summer; Get Ready for Fall

Be active for 20 minutes (or more) every day.

21 June through 3 August: sloth

04 Aug - walk, 20 minutes
05 Aug - 75 minutes gardening, 10 minute walk
06 Aug - 20 minutes cleaning, moving boxes, 10 minutes walking
07 Aug - 20 minute brisk walk
08 Aug - 120 minutes gardening: and it's only noon!
09 Aug - 75 minutes walking. 2.6 miles!
10 Aug - 15 minutes walking, 5 minutes stair climbing & high steppin'
11 Aug - missed
12 Aug - 20 minutes walking (warm up) and 20 minutes salsa dancing!
13 Aug - 80 minutes gardening.
14 Aug - missed
15 Aug - 315 minutes of light cleaning - inside. got a lot done!

*

Day 3 of 90

Stuck to plan: 3
Off target: 0

I lost 7 pounds on that 3 day egg, cheese and fat fast. I ate well over my carb limit last weekend and had some water weight to lose. I'm back into ketosis and feeling good.

Welcome Kat. I look forward to hanging out with you here over the next 3 months.



I can certainly identify with these comments of yours. I can still over-do -- binge a little -- on OP LC foods, but the consequences of eating a bag or two of pork rinds or half a dozen Quest bars in a day just doesn't have the same bite as those carby binges of the past. While I do have the strength to say no, I don't always listen. I wish I didn't have the desire to dive into a second or third slice of LC cheesecake. I wish that I'd get the overwhelming sensation of "full" like my wife and youngest daughter do after they have a slice. That's not how it works for me, though. Nothing I can do about it but stay LCHF and do the best that I can to deal with it.

I too like to remind myself just how far I've come. When I open the fridge I slide the orange juice out of the way to get to my HWC. I look behind the potato salad that my wife buys to see if there is any leftover meat. I open the pantry, move a bag of marshmallows or tub of cake frosting out of the way to get to my stuff behind it. At the request of my youngest daughter I made some home-made bread (made with spelt & einkorn flour (ancient grains), btw), but did not want any or have any. The junk has lost its pull. It isn't even on the radar of something that I eat anymore. I stick to my food 99.9% of the time. That keeps my macros straight; it keeps me straight. A splurge for me is 1/2 a banana or a small apple, usually mashed up and hidden in a mug muffin. I can do higher carb whole foods, too. I handle savory better that sweet. As long as I keep such indulgences few and far between, I do alright with them. But it is funny to think that I consider it bad day if I eat 50 or 60 carbs these days, when 400+ carbs per day was the norm just 5 years ago.

1. 20 min of exercise 5 days a week 30 min walk nearby park - sprinkling a little but went anyway w/umbrella
2. 15 min of writing, etc 5 days a week 25 min
3. Do something in/for the house and yard. 15 min a day, 5 days a week. 1 hour - yard. ripping out VA creeper on the deck, weeding, moving and planting the volunteer strawberry plants, pulling down grapevines out of the trees
4. Planning ahead for the next day and doing my best to stick to it. Making sure I have food and it's prepared and ready to go. EVERYDAY

Thanks Kristine, Thud, Ken! Looking forward to hanging out here as well. I really stayed focused today and made a list to look at daily to remind myself what I need to do. The food prep has been ongoing all day "oh yeah, I need to boil eggs...oh yeah, I need to cook bacon....oh yeah, I need to make that SF Jell-O, oh yeah, I should cut up the cheddar into cubes...

I haven't been hungry at inappropriate times, when I did get hungry it was real, like time for the next meal - several hours later. I had more energy than ususal, no nap needed today.

Ok I am changing the clap icon - too annoying. I'll do a Sun for accomplished instead.