Ultimate Accountability Challenge July 2020

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  • TerriRichardson112
    TerriRichardson112 Posts: 18,226 Member
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    I also find it more stressful now that there are more people/traffic out and about.
  • Godsmonty
    Godsmonty Posts: 105 Member
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    @BMcC9 Thank you so much for your inquiry! Let me try to name just one thing contributing to my “No”. Maybe both no’s are the same reason. Extreme(!!!) clutter
    ->broken fridge -> no time to get under 1200 calories and exercise.


    ——-
    BMcC9 wrote:
    BMcC9 Member
    July 10, 2020 11:48AM
    Godsmonty wrote: »
    No
    No
    Yes

    « @Godsmonty ONLY if you are willing (no pressure at all!) would you consider naming ONE recurring thing (trigger food or trigger situation or 'this life factor I cannot currently change and have to work around') thar regulary contributes to one of your No's on the "What's Going On" sub-thread, so that we can offer specific support and maybe alternates you could try or adapt?

    We have such an extensive collective pool of knowledge and experience at allll stages of the Journey to Sustainable Habits - and such widely differing life-style / life-stage / environmental factors that SOMEBODY might have a close-enough parallel to that one factor that could help you identify your own best-for-your-reality approach.

    No pressure - don't share if you feel you would rather not.

    (same " would you consider naming ONE recurring personal block" invitation to all )
    Quote »

  • Godsmonty
    Godsmonty Posts: 105 Member
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    rkr9qie1ye2v.jpeg
  • Godsmonty
    Godsmonty Posts: 105 Member
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    X9 of those type of pics. Now that I say it out loud I see how tremendously blessed we are to have a home with that many rooms! Hopefully our children are old enough now to help me. We have a plan to start on the first 1/2 of the first room Monday. Yaaaay summer!

    God bless you all!💜
  • BMcC9
    BMcC9 Posts: 4,420 Member
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    Quote from the UAC FAQs
    3. What counts as exercise?

    Nearly all physical activity counts as exercise. That includes walking, cleaning your house, playing tag with the kids, walking your dog, etc. This doesn't mean you should do the bare minimum every day if you're capable of much more. If you want results, you have to challenge yourself, but for the purpose of the Ultimate Accountability Challenge, 20 minutes of any kind of exercise will suffice.

    WOW! Insta-resistance training set-up!! If you spend only 20 minutes a day on one tiny corner of that ... the exercise element is always gonna be NAILED! (and I am sure you will spend longer than that per session!)

    I will be back tomorrow, but start thinking "reframing my definition of 'exercise' for now" ...

  • TerriRichardson112
    TerriRichardson112 Posts: 18,226 Member
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    @Godsmonty Clearing that definitely counts as exercise. Any time you are in the move counts as exercise. And you get the double bonus of having an immediate tangible result as well as the gain for your health/fitness.
  • TerriRichardson112
    TerriRichardson112 Posts: 18,226 Member
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    *on the move’ 😂
  • readyornot1234
    readyornot1234 Posts: 1,027 Member
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    @Godsmonty - I know how stressful and overwhelming it can be to even know where to start. Your plan is a good start. Please share your progress along the way so we can cheer you on.
  • Hollis100
    Hollis100 Posts: 1,408 Member
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    I posted this on the July 10 thread:

    >:)>:) Right now, I have extreme diet fatigue. I reached maintenance last November. I'm absolutely burned out on tracking and logging. However, this has been the point in the past when I shrugged it all off, stopped tracking and weighing myself, and gained the weight back. I hope I can slog through this period. In the end, it only takes about 5 minutes a day to track what I eat and exercise, a very small investment in my health.

    **************************

    Two people responded:

    @BMcC9 A good potential discussion-post for the "What's On Your Mind" thread ...

    If you have been at maintenance since last November .... identifying a feeling of "diet fatigue" is a signal that you haven't truly deep deep down been willing to commit "This is my real-life life-style now" and you want to "go back to [pre-diet] reality" which is how you got into trouble in the first place.

    send me a PM or take this to the other thread so that suggestions can be more easily be found again and followed up on.

    I went though this after about a similar time-frame interval ... which in my case corresponded with "Office Christmas Snacks Always Around Time"

    ****
    @MadisonMolly2017

    Dear @Hollis100 😘

    When I feel as you describe in your post, I do some combination of the following:

    1) Make sure I’m not falling into “Why me?” Thinking. Several times, I’ve had to come to terms that Even though I am for with normal BMI, my relationship with food is not normal. Gently. Lovingly. Tracking of exercise & food allows me to catch trends in the wrong direction early.

    2) I remember my Big Why. I got to it by asking myself why I want to be thin.
    To be healthy
    Why?
    So I can do more
    Why?
    To engage actively & fully with my husband & son for as long as humanly possible.
    BINGO!
    Everytime I remember that, I happily get back on track.

    3) gratitude
    I used to have to rest halfway try a mile walk
    Now, I can walk 8 miles, without resting, in the mountains.
    Enough said.

    4) I think of the worry my loved ones & friends must have had about me, and my desire to not be a drain on them

    5( I think of my drastically better labs

    6) I think of my hatred of dieting & my commitment to Never Do It Again

    7) I think about my kidney donor, who like Dory, now has one kidney so that I might have a higher quality life.

    Tracking seems a very small price to pay, no?

    ❤️


  • BMcC9
    BMcC9 Posts: 4,420 Member
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    Hollis100 wrote: »
    About my own post above:
    ( @Hollis100 provided context to her personal situation)
    Right now, I'm physically exhausted out of my mind. I'm considered an essential worker and have worked with the public all through the pandemic. My employer told me the state mandates that we disinfect the area after each customer/client. When I go home, I'm often so exhausted all I can do is lie down.

    I can't describe this level of exhaustion. I feel like a donkey that somebody beat all over with a stick.

    No, I can't change jobs. I work in an area where there are few jobs and a large number of people are now unemployed. Yes, I have to work. I'm a widow and live alone, so I do all essential life maintenance tasks myself (housework, shopping, bill paying, most yardwork, car, other errands) while I'm so exhausted I can hardly stand up.

    Illness: I'm not ill, just exhausted. I got tested for Covid-19 and don't have it.

    Tracking and logging: I have a tiny amount of free time where I have enough energy to do things I want to do, and going on MFP is not at the top of the list. I'm still managing to track and log 90 percent of the time, but I've dropped off reading/liking/commenting on my friends' posts. I have no idea if most of them have deleted me.

    Shopping: I'm buying ready-made food that requires no prep (other than shopping) -- packaged salads, Greek yogurt, berries and apples, instant oatmeal, etc.

    Weight: I have not gained weight, probably because of the massive exercise.

    Reasons: I fully understand the health benefits of maintaining my weight. Fully get it.

    Issues: It's essential that I shop and have food to take to work so I don't buy junk. My exhaustion is a factor here.

    Quality of life:: I value my tiny free time. I also value being outside in nature, and connecting exercise with walking meditation and other peaceful activity that enriches my life -- not exercise where I feel like a beaten donkey.
    Sorry for the long post! Have to get ready for work.

    Thank you for being willing to share your context and challenges. Mentally hunkering down to self-support mode is definitely the right thing to do.

    So for right now - hiatus on "MFP for social time" (aka dropped off reading/liking/commenting on my friends' posts ) is perfectly sensible.

    I want to double check how it works first, but - given that you are mostly buying ready-made food that requires no prep (other than shopping) and presumably much the same things each grocery order - and probably falling into common-go-together combinations for what constitutes many of your meals ....

    I hope to be back later today with a trick you may or may not have realized to speed up the time needed for tracking even more.

    Finally, i AM glad-for-you to read that you are connecting exercise with walking meditation and other peaceful activity that enriches [your] life

    As you do so, please imagine / visualize a golden glowing swirl of caring support coming from your UAC comrades all around the world, feeding you support and energy. (or whatever mental imagery for the same effect and mental feeling of replenishing even a little of your energy works for you)
  • Hollis100
    Hollis100 Posts: 1,408 Member
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    @BMcC9 Thanks for your comments and support -- I greatly appreciate it.

    Buying food that I'm willing to eat, requires no prep, and that I can take to work is essential.

    When I fall down here, I don't take enough food, then I buy takeout (like a salad and half sandwich at Panera across the street) that's higher calorie than what I would bring -- plus it's the idea of collapsing for an hour and having somebody else wait on me. I have to stop doing this.

  • BMcC9
    BMcC9 Posts: 4,420 Member
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    Godsmonty wrote: »
    @BMcC9 Thank you so much for your inquiry! Let me try to name just one thing contributing to my “No”. Maybe both no’s are the same reason. Extreme(!!!) clutter
    ->broken fridge -> no time to get under 1200 calories and exercise.

    There seems to be an offered handle on the "exercise - no" block (turns out to be more a "definition" error .... )

    And one more little something to help you on the way with that ...
    SOOOO many people just NEVER even START on a mountain-reducing project of this nature until they get themselves one of these ....
    y07qhhctr6sa.jpg

    Now you have one .... so go to it and as @readyornot1234 suggested, please share your progress along the way so we can cheer you on!

    So I am turning to the "->broken fridge -> no time to get under 1200 calories" part of your post.

    I take it your profile pic of the baby in the high-chair is not your current mirror-reflection? (if it is, do you "type by telekinesis" or have a highly experimental "voice to type" setup that "speaks baby" ? (trying to lighten mood here)

    Point being ... MFP will base its calorie recommendation according to what you put in your profile re age / height / self-assessed average daily activity level (PRE intentional-exercise) / self-chosen desired rate-of-change.

    It builds in a degree of deficit in keeping with the profile rate-of-change setting

    It will also never set a woman's recommendation lower than 1200.

    If you look back through your logs, and can see that when consistently tracking you tend to be over 1200 by a fairly consistent average ... maybe we need to look at adjusting your settings and managing your expectations?

    Without knowing more about where you are (on the physical spectrum / current stats vs target Goal Weight) it's hard to give more specific advice.

    There is ONE insight / recommendation I can provide (without knowing any of the above) ...
    fmgxow4t6m28.jpg

  • MadisonMolly2017
    MadisonMolly2017 Posts: 11,042 Member
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    juliemouse83 wrote: »
    !!!Long post alert!!!

    @Hollis100 I feel you! By the time I get home after pushing beds around all day with that mask on, I just want to sit and sleep. I am about to start putting my home back together this evening. The bedroom, living room, kitchen and dining areas are all done. Guest bath should be done next week.

    I’m getting a very late start, because I’m just beat, physically and mentally. One of the ladies on my team that were laid off came down with the virus, as did her husband. He passed away on Wednesday. 😭 He was only 58. That shook all of us to our cores.

    After dinner, my dining room office will be back together so that tomorrow I can start working on my resume. I’m done with the hospital. I’m officially looking. If it doesn’t happen overnight? I’m fine with that.

    They’ve taken so much from me this spring (salaried to hourly, our hours, five of my team and my parking space), and I smiled and breathed through all of it, but I was several hundred dollars short on my paycheck yesterday because my boss didn’t put the 12 hours of PTO I took on my time card. As a result, I also lost two hours of accrued time off. 🤬

    After having him read me the riot act about a mistake I made on the schedule a few weeks back, and him telling me no less than 3 times that I failed and I need to pay more attention to detail, he does this! 🙄 Also, let me add that this is the second counseling of any kind in my 19 years there. The first was back in 2001, shortly after I started working there, so it’s not like I make a habit of blowing off details. I made a mistake. I owned it, but that doesn’t make me a failure. As an aside, I did send him an email letting him know that he FAILED (and yes, I used that word deliberately) to apply my time off, and as a result I was short on my check, then asked how often did he prefer I email him with details about my time card so that this doesn’t happen again. 😂😇

    That being said, I had a chat with my former boss, (who is now my friend and part time mentor) yesterday. She’s got some self-employment things going on right now, and shared some of the info with me. Now, many of you don’t know that I am incredibly creative. I’m a writer, photographer, soap maker, blogger, candle maker, etc. and because of my 19 year stint at the hospital, I’ve seen a lot of really funny stuff and have an entire book’s worth of stories to write, and I’m going to do just that. 👍🏼

    So I’ve accepted that I will not retire from the hospital in eleven years, and also that I probably won’t make it to see my 20 year service award. A week ago, that would have scared me to death, but today? Not even a little bit. I go forward knowing that every additional day I work there will probably provide me with fodder for my book. When the goals we set are no longer viable, because they start to steal your joy and eat at your soul? It’s time to ditch those goals and set new and different ones.

    It was a rough week, for sure, but I had to live it in order to know that I need to make a much needed change, and that place, while it’s been a part of me for almost 2 decades? I dang sure doesn’t define me or set my worth.

    @juliemouse83
    I’m so proud of you! I remained in a school for way too long despite two serious diseases & a huge commute, high stress, working evenings & 7 days. Too tired to cook we ate out ALL the time, $$$$$$$$ and unhealthy. I was obese, severely sick, and eating high fat/ huliah salt/high sugar.

    You are wiser & stronger than I was. I finally forgot so sick (I was in denial- no one knew I’d been in ESRD for years) that I finally on a whim at end of school year walked into my bosses office and quit. We were both in tears. I thought I was burned out & couldn’t understand why... because I wasn’t. I was sick.

    You won’t regret your decision - and I’m here for you if you need it. 💪🏻

    We MUST place our health first. I’ll never stop saying it because I wish someone - anyone - had said it to me.
  • cjane917
    cjane917 Posts: 688 Member
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    @juliemouse83 that's wonderful! You seem happy and at peace with your decision. It seems like one of those things where just knowing you have that plan for the future helps you get through today.

    @Hollis100 I can't even imagine how exhausted you must be. That must be tough. If you're located in the US you might want to look into easy no-cook meals that are intentionally nutritionally balanced on the macro and micro level. For example, Vite Ramen for dinner or Soylent drinks for breakfast and lunch. When I was working not at home I used to have a Soylent for every breakfast and lunch. 400 cal per bottle with protein, carbs, fat, and vitamins. They have flavors as well and are super easy when work is hectic.
  • readyornot1234
    readyornot1234 Posts: 1,027 Member
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    @Hollis100 - I wish I could offer something helpful but others have already done so. You are facing an impossible dilemma. Please do your best to continue to take care of your physical and mental health while all this is going on as much as possible. Please also know you are not alone. Although I certainly can’t “fix” this, the only thing I have to truly offer is to be here to listen. Please know that.
  • juliemouse83
    juliemouse83 Posts: 6,663 Member
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    Also, @Hollis100 ,

    While I know you are feeling stuck right now because the job market is terrible, I can offer you the following suggestions that I have used daily for the past few months. While they don’t make it all go away, they sure do help me.
    • Take some time out of your day, just three or four minutes, and do some guided meditation. There are a lot of free apps out there that have mini-mindfulness minutes. Even if you have to lock yourself in the bathroom stall with earbuds in, take those few minutes just for yourself.
    • Because life in a global pandemic is crazy overwhelming when looked at as a whole, I found that taking it in smaller bites helped tremendously. Look at it as just one day; this one, and move through it, rather than looking at an entire week, month or season. If you have to break it down into hourly bites, then do that. I did that, as well, most recently as Thursday, when we were doing back to back transports for hours at a time. I could make it until 10:00, then 11:00, then noon, and on it went until it was time to go home.
    • Practice gratitude. List in your head or on paper every single thing in your life that you are thankful for. I used to speak them out loud every morning on my drive to work. It really helped. Recently, I’ve had to dig really deep, but things like my health, my friends and family came up daily, and three things are better than none.
    • Get out in nature whenever you can, even if it’s just to step outside for a moment or two. A few deep breaths of fresh air really make a difference, especially if you can do it with mask off.

    I hope that you find some of these to be helpful. ❤️💖💗🥰

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