yearlongexperiment

I can hardly believe April starts the day after tomorrow! Oh wait, I guess that means tomorrow night is April Fools…crap. Warning – this is a really long post!

Stats

3.30.16

Weight: 214.5
Fat Mass: 91.5
Water Mass:90.0
Muscle/Other Mass: 33
Money Earned This Week: $5
Money Earned Total: $30

I killed it this past week in my health goals! I worked really hard at getting exercise in, and at doing things to promote my intentions such as cleaning my apartment, paying bills, doing laundry, etc. so that by the end of this super long 10 days of working 10 hours overnight would not leave me with a bunch of crap to do that I don’t want to do. I brought snacks and lunch each night to work, and I did a great job of keeping up with water and taking meds/supplements.

Something kind of crazy is that apparently I picked up a nail somewhere (most likely the barn area), and had a flat tire Friday night when I headed into work. I put on the doughnut by myself! Well, with a few WTF calls to Dad, who told me I could not, in fact, break the lug nuts in half (super tough to get the bottom lug loosened!). I had a really proud moment when I pulled into the parking deck at work with my car in one piece, the sad little doughnut was put on correctly!

I had a tough but excellent ride on Thursday, and made it out of the barn on Friday within 4.5 hours, which is an improvement! I walked 4 miles on Saturday, Sunday, and Tuesday. Monday I did a crazy leg workout – maintaining ‘2 point’ for ‘long’ periods of time whilst washing a bunch of dishes (2 point is a squat of sorts that one maintains when going over jumps – super hard)!

I ate breakfast every day, and had at least one snack at work every day. I made the choice  to not to eat a Sausage/Egg/Cheese biscuit from Micky D’s on Saturday (even though I said it was ok), since I was walking with a friend that morning and didn’t want to just burn that off but make actual progress, and it totally helped pay off – down 1.5lbs of fat this week!

I am feeling much stronger with all of my exercise, I’m excited to be seeing some changes happening in my body!

Some things that didn’t work quite awesomely this week were mostly at work. This is where it all kind of…fell apart. I was crabby, and short, and a few days unbelievably scattered. My productivity, efficiency, and ability to help others was borderline abysmal. I made a lot of little mistakes that turned into huge problems, either for me or others. My body was sore and tired, and I was draggy. While I had super awesome accomplishments in my personal life and with my health goals, I really want to be able to do all of this without costing my work life as immensely as it did this week. I mean that’s the goal right? To be able to keep all the balls (or at least the big ones) up in the air at the same time…

I still have 2 nights left in this 10 day stretch, and my goal is to keep up with the things I have been doing with my health goals, but to make some small changes that will hopefully pay off with a more zen, pulled together, focused and energetic ‘work’ Anna.

Step 1 – Get more sleep. All of this exercising and being productive in my off hours has definitely made me more worn out. No question. I need to work towards getting closer to 8 hours of sleep each day. I kept pushing my bedtime back this past week to get more done, and that has to stop. I get done what I can, perhaps a bit more efficiently or a little faster, but bed time is bed time and there’s no moving that.

Step 2 – Getting up, meditating and yoga, and then get ready for work. Several days this week I went to bed early, but then ended up getting up early and working on a bunch of stuff, so that when I actually rolled into work (typically a few minutes late), I was already tired. Getting more done in the morning hours before I go to bed, and then getting up at 7pm will give me the time to relax mind and body, and then get energized for the night ahead…even if I’m tired and don’t feel like doing anything.

Step 3 – Start getting ready on time. I keep giving myself a few extra minutes to do random little things before I have to hop in the shower or start brushing my teeth. Can’t do that. It pushes everything back so then I am rushing around to get out the door and drive like crazy to clock in 3 minutes late. Not only is this frowned upon by my supervisor, it makes me feel hectic and contributes to a negative head-space that I have when I arrive at work, which is then hard to shake.

As simple as all of this sounds to do, this is going to be a challenge. It is hard not trying to squeeze a few extra things in here and there when I first wake up. But I have really seen this week that it is detrimental to my entire night at work, which then impacts my time when I get off, so it is very ‘spiral-y’.

I’ll let you know how all of this goes next week after weigh in at LMC!

Stats

3.23.16

Weight: 216
Fat Mass: 93
Water Mass: 90.0
Muscle/Other Mass: 33
Money Earned This Week: $ 4
Money Earned Total: $25

This week was super busy! I went to go see the Broadway play “The Lion King” with friends – it was pretty awesome!

Exercise: I had an incredible lesson with Leslie on Thursday, a bit more ‘clinic style’ than usual and we really focused on some very small things that have huge impact. Really can see how to improve my riding now! I also went on a 4.5 mile walk that night with friends and was pretty worn out. Friday at the barn zapped me after all of the activity and I have a low key/sleep a lot kind of day. Sunday I walked 6.5 miles with a friend! We started out doing 1 lap (2.2 miles), and then went on to do another, and then when we got done with that, I was like, “I can do another I think” so we did! Monday I got in another 4 miles, as well as some intense house cleaning on Monday and Tuesday.

Food: Sunday I went to Brixx pizza and ate the whole thing. I wasn’t really planning on it – I was going to take half home – but I was really hungry since I hadn’t eaten for 8 hours (BAD), so I ate the whole thing and was not overly full, which was ok but still it was a bit over the top. Other than that, I did pretty good with eating every few hours, and eating food I cooked.

All in all a good week, and it would have more laughs and detail in it if I had typed this last week!

3.9.16

Weight: 215.5
Fat Mass: 98.5
Water Mass: 87.0
Muscle/Other Mass: 32
Money Earned This Week: $ 4
Money Earned Total: $16

3.16.16

Weight: 216.5
Fat Mass: 95.0
Water Mass:89.0
Muscle/Other Mass: 32.5
Money Earned This Week: $5
Money Earned Total: $21

So this week I have really put in some effort, and it looks like it paid off! The stats from 3.9 are all a little off because I was still rebuilding my water levels from being sick. But the results from 3.16 are pretty on point. This is the first week that I have worked really hard and seen the results from it. I feel pretty motivated to keep it up right now, so hopefully I will continue to ride this wave 🙂

Some things that happened this week:

1. I didn’t end up working a double shift on Friday night/Saturday  since we didn’t switch our laboratory software (happening in April now). I still ended up being exhausted, because I spent a few extra hours at the barn Friday morning, and also went on a 2.5 mile walk on Saturday morning. Work ended up being super challenging thanks to some problems both Friday and Saturday night, so by Sunday I was exhausted.
2. I walked after work Saturday (2.5 miles), Monday (1.5 miles), and Tuesday (2.75 miles) with friends/coworkers.
3. Wednesday (3.9), I cooked a bunch of meals – enchiladas, tacos, Asian beef with noodles – all with veggies too. I ate them all week long, froze some of them, and did really good eating breakfast almost every day. One day I forgot my lunch at home, and made some decent choices when I ordered from work.

All in all I have worked hard this past week, and I hope to continue with the momentum I have going. I finally, FINALLY, feel like I have some forward progression going. Catherine asked me what that meant. I explained that this past week, for the first time since October, I felt like making the ‘good’ choice wasn’t as hard. It was starting to come a little more naturally. Everything isn’t a struggle. That to me is forward progression. Where things come together, and aren’t as hard to get on board with. Where one good decision leads to other good decisions. Where what I really want (being healthy), wins over what I temporarily want (a cheeseburger).

It wasn’t perfect this week, but that isn’t what it is about. I am changing my lifestyle here, not doing something for a few weeks. I felt like there was a tiny shift in my lifestyle this past week, and I am encouraged to see more tiny shifts over the weeks to come 🙂

Here are the Stats for the last few weeks:

2.24.16

Weight: 221
Fat Mass: 95.5
Water Mass:92.0
Muscle/Other Mass: 33.5
Money Earned This Week: $5
Money Earned Total: $9

3.2.16

Weight: 219.5
Fat Mass: 97.5
Water Mass:89.5
Muscle/Other Mass: 32.5
Money Earned This Week: $3
Money Earned Total: $12

More on Sunday, including tomorrows stats! 🙂

Well March started out with a bang. Or rather with a blow. I woke up early Thursday morning, after having slept most of Wednesday (normal after working a stretch of nights in a row), and felt “off.” A few hours in it started…apparently there is a stomach bug going around in my area – multiple coworkers had it, some of my family members from other areas too, and random people I talked to in the past week all knew people that had it. It. Was. BAD. My GI system is already so sensitive and needs extra TLC that anything that impacts it is disastrous. I was unbelievably sick, and the impact lasted for days. Honestly even now, a full 5 days later and I still don’t feel 100%. I lost 6.5lbs of fluids on Thursday, and my stomach still hurts after I eat (again, it’s been 5 days). Talk about madness…

I intended on coming out of my sleep session on Wednesday with vigor and energy to get done what I needed to – formulate a plan, get active, get a ton of things done, etc. I was instead, lethargic for 4 days, completely out of it for almost 2, and accomplished almost nothing for 3.

There were some good things to come out of this. My stomach shrunk! For a few days I could only eat 5-6 Cheez-its at a time, so it not only shrunk my stomach but it helped reset my brain as to what a ‘full’ meal was. I overcame the dehydration that I was still struggling with at the end of February. It started out by getting worse, losing all of that fluid and not being able to regain much, if any on Thursday, but starting Friday it became almost normal to continuously drink throughout the day. Water and Powerade, that is!

The other thing that happened was a lot of recovery. I got pretty run down in February. I had a lot of things going on, and very little down time. I spent 3 days sitting on the couch doing almost nothing. Kitty loved it (sometimes when I’m sick I think he might have poisoned me because he loves it when I just stay on the couch and snuggle). It gave me time to reset, recharge, renew.

The next 4 days are going to be pretty crazy. I have my appointment with Catherine (I’ll get my stats) when I get off work, and then Thursday I have my riding lesson when I get off work, and then Friday I have barn chores when I get off work (3-4 hours), and then Friday night I work 18ish hours, go home, sleep for 4-5 hours, and then work another 10 hours. By Sunday I will be exhausted and worn the hell out.

I have a few goals over the next few days other than survival. I want/need to keep up with the things that I have gained forward momentum in over the past few days (water, small meals), as well as finish cooking the meals I have started and/or bought food to make (tacos, enchiladas, Asian beef stirfry), getting good sleep and exercising.

I’m going to post my stats from the last few weeks since I haven’t, but then I probably will not check back in until Sunday…but who knows!

I can’t believe it is now March!

Sorry for the long delay in posting…it’s been an intense 10 days. I had to push myself really hard to get through all of the things I needed to do, and I ended up with some pretty strong dehydration.

13 days ago I posted about an 8 day challenge. It went so-so. I did great the first 3-4 days, and then the reality of working long hours, handling ‘life’ things, and getting ready for a super fast whirlwind trip to Chicago all caught up with me at the same time and the last 4 days went less great. I earned $5 out of 8, which is pretty good. The last day (Thursday) I earned my dollar simply because Wed-Thurs I recognized I was getting dehydrated and I took action…not quite enough but that act of drinking water on a day I was flying was impressive – I had to pee when I got to the airport, when I sat down on the plane, before I got off of the plane, and when I landed…pretty sure the guy in my row was regretting his seat choice…

Something that was great from that week is that I got a ton of activity in: I really pushed myself at my riding lesson on Thursday, I went hard at barn chores on Friday, I hiked Oconeechee with a friend on Saturday, and Sunday I played tennis for 2 hours. The problem that came with all of the activity is that I wasn’t drinking to compensate and I got somewhat dehydrated, and then I didn’t over compensate in the days following either (except Wed/Thurs), and then Fri/Sat I did poorly with water…so now, I have been dealing with intense dehydration for the last few days. I have hit 125-150 oz of water the last 2 days, but it is going to be another 3-5 days of hitting those numbers to get back on track (possibly sooner if I increase my consumption to closer to 200 oz.).

February was really hard. It brought with it a lot of memories of misery, dependence, struggles, and frustration. I found it difficult to gain traction. With all of the snow and crap weather, it was hard to get outside. In general it was just a challenging month and I am happy to see it go.

I do feel strongly that March is going to be my month to get things off the ground! I have a few things happening that are going to be very stressful and time consuming (new software implementation at work), and are going to be excellent opportunities to overcome bad situations and in the end succeed despite my circumstances! I will post later about my plans for achieving success in March later this week 🙂