Ultimate Accountability Challenge April 2021

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  • znaoiec
    znaoiec Posts: 1,996 Member
    Yes, yes and yes
    Walking the dog and lots of activity calories around the house. I decided to not do my normal exercise so I would have plenty of energy to tackle some house projects. I was on my feet most of the day and burned plenty of calories. It was a good trade.

    @biketheworld I relate to the vacation problem. I am getting tired of putting forth this good work, going on vacation and then seeing a five pound gain on the scale when I return. And doing it all over again. I keep giving thought to my next trip and how do I change my habits? What can I do differently? It is a real struggle for me. My normal day to day is pretty good but it is like all common sense leaves when I depart from my home. Ready for change.
  • SModa61
    SModa61 Posts: 3,098 Member
    APRIL 2021 ULTIMATE ACCOUNTABILITY CHALLENGE

    Start weight, April 1, 2021: 124.6
    April 1, 2021 – 124.6 (+1.4)
    March 1, 2021 – 123.2 (-3.0)
    February 1, 2021 - 126.2 (-5.8); Tanita BF scale at 6 am 126.5 and 26%BF
    January 1, 2021 – 132 (-3.6)
    December 1, 2020 – 135.6 (-5.2)
    November 6, 2020 – 140.8 (-7.0)
    October 2, 2020 – 147.8 (-5.2)
    September 14, 2020 – 153.0
    Thoughts and Goals for April:
    April has arrived and I am sitting here reflecting back on this month. It is the first month since September that I have closed the month with an “up”. That said, an up had to come at some point since at some point one is no longer trying/needing to lose weight, and I had passed my original goal back in January, I believe. The up on its own would be fine, but the habits, or lack thereof, that crept into my March are the concern. So, for the month of April, I will be focusing on returning to preplanning/pre-tracking as much as is possible and to not just thrown in the day it does not go as planned. I know that I know how to re-group and I need to make sure I find the time and energy for that. I want to up my cardio. Yes, I am “group walking” every day which burns calories, but honestly, I could walk at that pace for hours and hours without effort. I need to push myself, here and there, again. I will also be trying to maintain the social aspect of the group walks as well, so juggling all those time commitments will take a little focus. Lastly, I need to return to adding back exercises. I have not planked in a month, and rarely done exercises other than walking, running, or biking. So I need to figure out how to include bodyweight or dumbbell workouts. Here’s to April.

    Wishing everyone a great month!
    April History
    Date: 3/1
    Weight: 124.6
    Exercised?: Yes, 0:54:43 group walk at 17’10” pace for 3.18 miles
    Calories?: No
    Tracked?: No
    Rings Closed?: Yes, 1 of 30
    Apple Watch TDEE: 2184

    *** so not the way to start a new month. Did not respond well to another curve ball thrown at me. Going to pre-track tomorrow. It will be a belated 60th birthday dinner for my husband since his mother will have arrived and be able to join us for the dinner.

    Date: 3/2
    Weight: 125.6
    Exercised?: Yes, 0:21:02 Apple Fitness Spinning; 0:32:29 Indoor cycling to Youtube CV19 news
    Calories?: Yes, 1411/1590 + 314 exercise (net 493)
    Tracked?: Yes
    Rings Closed?: Yes, 2 of 30
    Apple Watch TDEE: 2340

    *** This is the way I like to handle my day! And this included dining out. :)

    Passes remaining: 2
  • SModa61
    SModa61 Posts: 3,098 Member
    edited April 2021
    One thing that I certainly missed out on in March was the keeping up with everyone's daily posts.

    @summerskier Photo bombing Monarch!

    @biketheworld On your vacation, I don't know if you are staying in a hotel setting or a condo/house type property. But one thing I try and do is at least control the meals I know I can control to offer more flexibility to the other vacation meals. For me, that typically means breakfast and potentially lunch. When possible, I will pack items in my suitcase to assist.
  • MadisonMolly2017
    MadisonMolly2017 Posts: 11,152 Member
    edited April 2021
    @biketheworld and @znaoiec

    The HalfSizeMe podcast lady is the sanest advice I have seen on vacation strategies.

    She breaks it down into categories (of increasing difficulty.) Has you master one. Then develop & practice strategies for the next over years. In part, they are more difficult because they are more infrequent, so we don’t get to practice as much. So she has a multi-year approach to adding skills to our vacation repertoire until we have “Our Plan”
    1. Regular workdays
    2. Regular weekends
    3. Special celebrations- like Easter
    4. Vacations

    Things she does for vacations & highly recommends:
    1. Come back from vacation a day before you go back to work. She grocery shops/preps lunches, etc. so she can immediately go back into her honed weekday plan. (She notes this is hard to do given the joys of one more vacation day, but she does it.) BTW She preps her grocery list before she goes on vacation!!

    2. She gets an accommodation that has at least a fridge. Stocks foods for breakfast & lunch, thus only eating dinner out.

    3. When they get to the destination, she has her Vacation Grocery List which has items she can even find at a 7-11 type place & she immediately goes & buys them.

    4. She sets her weight goal for the vacation. Decide. Is 2 pounds okay? 3? None?

    5. and here is the most important thing I learned. She chooses ONE of the above to practice each vacation until mastered, and then sets the new strategy to add next time. Growth over time, she notes it may take 5 years to get it all in place.

    I have used the underlying approach ...

    Habits I’ve got in place so far:
    1. I now always bring a cooler bag of already cleaned/cut veg & fruit. Cheese sticks. Unsalted nuts, very dark chocolate. Lots of water & fizzy water chilled. Often some pre-cooked meet. Yes, I bring my food scale.
    (I practiced this in smaller ways for local drives/hikes, which helped.)

    2. If we do book an accommodation for more than a night, I get one with (at least) a fridge & a microwave. For one night i just bring Pre-Cooked a la #1.

    3. I focus on things we can DO — not what I can eat. Eating was a major focus of mine on vacations, sadly. Now, I research beforehand hikes we can do, post-Covid: museums/attractions. I bring some books, sketching/art materials. And love taking photos. If I get bored & want to eat, I go for a WALK & take photos. Drink lots of water! I’m always glad to have the photos when we get home.

    4. What I did on our last outing was a real turning point (and a result of gradual progress over the past 5+ years.) I realized that the food from great restaurants we’ve gone to on vacation in this place we’re calling to me. We had agreed we’d eat from the prepped foods we’d brought except for one meal out. I had an epiphany. The food only tastes good because they use more salt & more fat & the desserts of course more sugar than we eat at home. And they are expensive. SO, I suggested we go to a really nice gift shop associated with one of the restaurants, and look around & use the money we would have eating out, to buy something that we absolutely LOVED a la Marie Kondo. My husband, ever encouraging, said “Great! Because really the food in these places isn’t really that great.” This comment helped me immensely. He’s right. It’s not that great. We are not fabulous cooks, but we do really love what we cook now! Haha!

    We both also knew I only buy things I really really love, I had not bought something at this gift shop the last 8-10 times haha, and it’s a really fun shop to look around.

    So we got home having eaten healthily/deliciously, 3 hikes, tons of photos memories vistas, revisited old memories, and had fun poking around a fascinating gift store. Cooked dinner at home.

    Just so you know, I almost said no to the trip because I was SO worried about re-activating me Eating Out Self. That was really sad for me to realize & motivated me to try this new approach ie replace the eating out with something fun/non food related.

    If I find the specific halfsizeme podcast, I’ll send it along.

    Of ALL of them, this one has helped me the most.

    Warmly,
    Maddie
  • MadisonMolly2017
    MadisonMolly2017 Posts: 11,152 Member
    April 2
    ✅✅✅
    Vaccine #2

    Everyone in our family is now vaccinated except one who refuses. I’m very depressed about this, as I don’t know if I’ll be able to go to family gatherings or if he won’t be invited.

    If you “just don’t feel like” getting the vaccine, please consider doing it for all the cancer & transplant folks who are immuno-compromised for life. Even with the vaccine, we do not mount a full response. We’re at your mercy after already having lost so much.

    Thank you
    Maddie
  • oh_jackie
    oh_jackie Posts: 429 Member
    edited April 2021
    @MadisonMolly2017 It's so hard to understand people who refuse the opportunity of getting the vaccine. :(

    And as always, thank you for your fantastic advice - I could not imagine this group without you! I find it particularly difficult to say no to meals that are only available at the place I am visiting (especially when in France or Italy haha)... Do you happen to have any suggestions on how to manage that? :)
  • Jane2285
    Jane2285 Posts: 187 Member
    Did I exercise for at least 20 minutes? Yes! I jumped rope, I was going to run, but it was 95 and I was exhausted after work.

    Did I stay within my calorie budget for the day? No, I was 374 over but I know why. :(

    Did I keep track of everything I ate and drank? Yes! Sadly, LOL. :(
  • calvin20874
    calvin20874 Posts: 1,344 Member
    April 2

    Exercise: 40 min. Stationary biking, 50 min. Weight training, 45 min. Stretching and PT exercises

    Tracking: yes
    Calories: under
  • TennGal85
    TennGal85 Posts: 82 Member
    Did I exercise for at least 20 minutes? Yes, more moving and cleaning
    Did I stay within my calorie budget for the day? Yes, well below
    Did I keep track of everything I ate and drank? Yes
  • _fascinoma_
    _fascinoma_ Posts: 9 Member
    Exercise: yes
    Calories: yes
    Track: yes
  • JTreasures
    JTreasures Posts: 856 Member
    Yes x 3
  • SModa61
    SModa61 Posts: 3,098 Member
    oh_jackie wrote: »
    @MadisonMolly2017 It's so hard to understand people who refuse the opportunity of getting the vaccine. :(

    And as always, thank you for your fantastic advice - I could not imagine this group without you! I find it particularly difficult to say no to meals that are only available at the place I am visiting (especially when in France or Italy haha)... Do you happen to have any suggestions on how to manage that? :)

    @oh_Jackie During my time in the Keys, I am facing much more frequent dining out than at our primary home. One thing I have been doing is I have an appetizer as an appetizer and a second appetizer as a dinner. A lot of those "wasted" calories IMO are the side dishes. Last week, I did a caesar salad (which I love and don't do at home) with a tuna tataki appetizer. Very low calorie. Plus I enjoyed it and got to be social.
  • MadisonMolly2017
    MadisonMolly2017 Posts: 11,152 Member
    oh_jackie wrote: »
    @MadisonMolly2017 It's so hard to understand people who refuse the opportunity of getting the vaccine. :(

    And as always, thank you for your fantastic advice - I could not imagine this group without you! I find it particularly difficult to say no to meals that are only available at the place I am visiting (especially when in France or Italy haha)... Do you happen to have any suggestions on how to manage that? :)

    @oh_jackie Thank you!

    I think if I was visiting France or Italy & food was a big part of the experience I wanted, I would use the “lose in advance” technique. Much like we do with expenditures. Save first, then spend. What most do is go eat & gain (same at holiday times), and then don’t really lose it afterwards. I’ve read most of adult increase in weight over times are pounds gained over the holidays (and mot re-lost.)

    So if you are in weight loss mode, I’d lose 5 lbs before going & mindfully eat what you really love. When you get gone, you will likely be no higher than when you began your 5lb loss!

    With maintenance, I guess it depends if a 5-lb loss would through you into unhealthy underweight category. But if not, the same approach should work.

    The benefit is you really get to enjoy yourself & not face a weight loss stint as well as post-vacay letdown :)

    And of course, TONS of walking!

    When we went to France we found breakfast easy to be moderate & we picked up cheese bread fruits veggies for picnics & then ate dinner out. I guess figure our when & where you want to spend the calories you worked so hard to “earn”?

    I hope this makes sense.

    PS Around where I live in the SF Bay Area we can get authentic French, Italian, Chinese, etc even Ethiopian & Afghani meals, so that takes some of the pressure off us. I know that’s not true for other locations.

    Hugs,
    Maddie
  • ForLangston
    ForLangston Posts: 919 Member
    Yes x 3
  • i_SWEAT_n_SWEAR
    i_SWEAT_n_SWEAR Posts: 3,315 Member
    Did I exercise for at least 20 minutes? ✅ Yes, walking
    Did I stay within my calorie budget for the day? ✅ Yes
    Did I keep track of everything I ate and drank? ✅ Yes

    Passes used: 0 of 3
  • victorious55
    victorious55 Posts: 3,498 Member
    April 2, 2021

    Did I exercise for at least 20 minutes? YES
    Did I stay within my calorie budget for the day? Yes
    Did I keep track of everything I ate and drank? Yes

    Kitchen Closed? Yes
    Pass day 0/3 (this is for accountability to myself and my records)
  • RangerRickL
    RangerRickL Posts: 8,469 Member
    @biketheworld You are 100% right about resetting your goals during a vacation to allow for enjoyment but avoid binge behaviors!! Hurrah for you and your new thoughtfulness!
    Rick

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