Getting fit before I'm 30 to make it into a lifelong habit - 190 days that matter!

philolog65

New member
23.12.2015
Day 0 - Setting priorities

I've just written an inconveniently huge and narcissistic post summarizing the years of my way downhill, it can be found here - think of it as an introduction to this diary:

http://weight-loss.fitness.com/thre...bit-Warning-a-long-intro!?p=922820#post922820

The way I'm going to write my diary is the following: I will be writing notes on sleep, food and exercise on my smartphone every day, ticking the checklist and being very honest with myself and then post them here, starting on the 24th of December - no exceptions! As of now, I don't have a way of weighing myself at home, so I won't be posting weight updates for a couple of weeks until I join the gym in early January.

My goal:

To weigh less than 120 kg by the end of June 2016.

My sub-goals / daily checklist:

1. Eat healthy food and drink mineral water (+no more than 1 energy drink a day)

By healthy food I mean vegetables, fruit, muesli bars, rice, diet bread, dairy products and many other things that aren't artificial, too sweet, too salty or fatty. The only exceptions are the times when there are rare family holiday dinners which is not more often than 10 times a year, and even then I stick to the healthiest food I can get.

Speaking of drinks - no sodas (even the diet ones) or juices (can't really afford the real fresh non-sugary juice every day, so I'm going to ignore them altogether), mineral water only. I'm an energy drink junkie, but as of now I'm not going to quit - just cut down to 1 can per day since I often work 12+ hours a day, so it's hard to wake up in the morning - consider it to be my early morning cup of coffee.

2. Exercise daily - it means doing sports either in the gym (swimming for an hour counts as well, but cardio and weights should become 2 or 3 times a week norm starting late January as I get fitter). Some days are going to be easier, which means a simple 15-min workout late in the evening - using my dumbbells and the yoga mat. The only exceptions are when I'm seriously ill (ironically, now is the time, but I wouldn't have had a realization otherwise and wouldn't have started this diary).

3. Get 6.5+ hours of sleep - 95% of evenings it is manageable, my goal is to have at least 6.5 hours of sleep (can go up to 8-9 hours on the days-off) so that I don't want to compensate the lack of sleep with overeating. The only exceptions are the times when I have urgent non-postponable paperwork (which almost never happens - usually such things are just results of my prior procrastination).
 
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Day 1 - A decent start, got to keep going

1. Eat healthy food and drink mineral water (+no more than 1 energy drink a day) - Failed

There is no such thing as "almost succeeded", but I would have written that if I could go easy on myself. I started the day with the promised energy drink (actually, today I have had a couple of them, but now I'm thinking of quitting them altogether), had some yoghurt and muesli and two handfuls of cashew for breakfast - not a bad start, also had 5 grams of dried salty seaweed, but that hardly counts (except that it got me thirsty).
For brunch I had a sugarfree fruit snack - that's alright although it doesn't feel as food - more like a poor excuse for it. Here is one great achievement, though - I bought a bottle of mineral water (non-sparkling! I can't believe it!)
Then I told myself that I had to get a good and powerful lunch so I looked up how much three kfc strips would cost me in calories along with a chicken salad (no soda, though - just drank up the bottle I already had - it's amazing how long a 0.5 litre drink can last if it's not fizzy and has no sugar in it) and said to myself that it would work for the first time, but then I would have to find a much healthier alternative.

Afterwards I spent a lot of time looking for presents (procrastination is a horrible habit, no doubt about it), got a bit nervous about this situation and stumbled upon too many exotic Japanese drinks machines throughout the day, buying a 0 calories bitter green tea (a nice once), diet cider (if it had been the only bad drink for the day, would have been forgiven) and finally, sugary ice cocoa (that's a horrible thing to drink). Even worse, I then drank the second can of Red Bull - the one that was meant for the next day.

My dinner consisted of lettuce and haricot, which is quite an achievement for me.

2. Exercise daily - Exempt
Still haven't recovered from my flu, so I can be forgiven this time. Three more days to go and the perk will be removed.

3. Get 6.5+ hours of sleep - Completed
Did it with ease since I had only slept 4.5 hours the night before, putting aside all the paperwork I had.

Bottom line:
The food I had today bordered on the verge of being acceptable - I have to forget about even popping to fast food chains - even the healthiest foods they have there are poisoned with tons of sodium. I didn't bring any junk food in-house and didn't eat any sweets/snacks, but that's not an achievement, that's the lack of horrible self-destructive actions which is only normal for the new me.
However, drinks are a no-no, have to stay away from everything, even the innocent-looking tea - everything that's a pleasure to drink is potentially dangerous.
Going to bed in order to get 7+ hours of sleep is nice.
No exercise and no weight control yet, but I still have three days to get a more or less healthy momentum, then we'll talk.
 
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I just read your diary & your intro. It's Christmas day here in Australia already- 9am. Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays Phil. Here's to some big changes for you! Cheers, Cate
 
Thank you very much Cate! My best wishes to you as well, may the New Year bring happiness to you!

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Day 2 - Double healthy portion= unhealthy portion?

1. Eat healthy food and drink mineral water - Failed

Hooray, some tremendous progress today, maybe I'm even being too harsh with myself because I didn't eat absolutely anything sugary today - didn't even have the energy drink I thought I would allow myself to have. Nevertheless, I can't pat myself on the back just yet because if I did, that would be accepting it as a norm, as an ideal day, which it wasn't.

In the morning I had my 3-minute breakfast again - some yoghurt and muesli and a handful of cashews. Added a cup of black coffee and it worked quite alright - no sleepiness. Actually, I realised a long time ago that saying to myself that energy drinks can energise me when I'm hopelessly tired or haven't woken up is just self-deception, so there is no reason to come back to them. At all.

There was only 1 midday snack today because I didn't have a lot of work unlike I usually do. For that snack I chose a bottle of water (carbonated, although I think that still is the better choice - going to change that in the future) and bought a small pack of cashews.

Then I made a small mistake (even though it's negligeable) and went to KFC again to get a salad and strips as a takeaway meal. And was alright because it was only 6 PM - still very far from my bedtime. The problem was that I also bought a sandwich for my wife, which she ate, and another salad, which she didn't. As a result, I ate both salads. In terms of calorie intake it was tolerable, but I got really angry because this meal should have been replaced with a healthier veggie or rice dish.

I really have to think of a healthy, fast enough (so that it doesn't take more than 25 mins to order, have it ready and eat) not incredibly expensive and hot food that I can have during a long working day. Seems crazy, but I'll try to find a way to do it.

On the plus side, I didn't eat ANYTHING at all after these chicken pieces and salads and went during the whole day without a sugary drink.

2. Exercise daily - Exempt
Two more days to go before this checkbox kicks in. This one is going to be tough, I know, but I hope to get back to being a fitness enthusiast.

3. Get 6+ hours of sleep - Completed
No problem today - I went to bed at 2.30 AM, but I still have plenty of time to sleep

Bottom line:
Almost perfect - just replace the KFC meal with a healthier alternative. Great resistance to all I wanted to snack on today and good job not drinking anything sweet. Went to bed a bit too late, but that's not the worst thing I could have done.
 
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Hi Philolog, great work ditching the energy drinks! Don´t you have access to a microwave at work so you can bring real food and heat it up? Good luck on your journey!
 
Hi Philolog, great work ditching the energy drinks! Don´t you have access to a microwave at work so you can bring real food and heat it up? Good luck on your journey!

Hi LaMaria! Thanks for your support! Yeah, they are so evil! Unfortunately, we don't have a microwave oven at work since most people only come there for 5 hours, just like I do, but being a freelancer, I travel to as many as 4 places throughout the day, and the schedule is so tight - I probably have to change it next year, giving myself at least half an hour for a proper lunch.

Welcome and good luck on your weight loss journey!

Thank you very mcuh Butterfly! It's only been 3 days since I registered and I have already found so much support here, that's just amazing - never expected that, thinking that everybody has moved to social networks and blogs instead of the good old message boards (yes, I do sound old - just like people who praised BBS and newsgroups sounded to me in the late nineties).
 
Day 3 - the last day of self-justification

1. Eat healthy food and drink mineral water - Failed

The morning was really good - nuts, coffee, kiwi, a banana.

Then I was looking for a healthy snack and I did find it - a salad and salmon roll + a bottle of mineral water did the trick. However, I also bought a small baguette and ate it for some strange reason. It's not that it was really bad, but now I understand that I shouldn't buy more than 1 thing at a time.

The most horrible thing was that in the same supermarket I saw my favourite gourmet lollipops and that had been out of stock for months. So I just bought five of them and devoured them all throughout the day. In terms of calories and sugar, it's the equivalent of 2 big energy drink cans that I used to have every day, but it's still a disaster.

In the evening I also bought and ate two packs of greasy and salty seewed and also ate some chicken nuggets.

I feel horrible - my head is spinning and it pains me to think that I used to eat two or three times as much and feel okay. Could it be that I experienced a horrible sugar spike only made worse by my 36+ hours abstination from sugar?

2. Exercise daily - Exempt
One more day to go before this checkbox kicks in.

3. Get 6+ hours of sleep - Completed
I guess that 6.5 hrs weren't enough, though - today I'm going to go for 8 hours. It's barely midnight and I'm really sleepyand have a long way ahead...

Bottom line:
In terms of nutrition I failed many times today. The only good thing is that I didn't drink any soda, but this is the last day of warm-up - tomorrow is going to be entirely different, I swear.
 
P.S.I even managed to get two small éclairs that l had in the fridge for three days and never wanted. They were just as disappointing as the whole day. Never again.

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My mom would say: "it's only a disaster when over 1000 people die, this was a small mishap." Don't beat yourself up; try to find out why you slipped up and move on. Sleeping enough is a major factor for me: if I don't manage that I will have much less self control during the day. Your body may just be trying to adapt to life with much less cafeine. A new day, a new chance to do a little better!
 
My mom would say: "it's only a disaster when over 1000 people die, this was a small mishap." Don't beat yourself up; try to find out why you slipped up and move on. Sleeping enough is a major factor for me: if I don't manage that I will have much less self control during the day. Your body may just be trying to adapt to life with much less cafeine. A new day, a new chance to do a little better!
Exactly! You're right, today I slept for 8 hours and I feel much better. On the other hand, I missed my coffee today and wanted to buy an energy drink but resisted the temptation.
Today is the day that I will make an example of for myself!

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You know...it's easy to swap out that energy drink with a vegetable smoothie and maximize your results and lose weight whole lot faster. ;) Good luck to you!

You're right, in fact, I can now safely say that I quit them after almost 3 years of daily consumption! Today I didn't even resort to caffeine.
 
Day 4 - a lesson in expecting the unexpected

1. Eat healthy food and drink mineral water - Failed

This morning I didn't get anything to eat. In fact, counting from previous meal, I had a 16-hour delay between meals. Maybe that's too much.
Anyway, in the morning I bought a 1-litre bottle of pure water. Unfortunately, it didn't boost my energy levels and I was sleepy at work in the morning and must have yawned 100+ times - really embarrassing. I can blame it on the weather, though.

Later on I had a proper guilt-free meal of salad with some shrimps and chicken.

Then I had a big break and was offered a box of chocolates. Out of curiosity, I decided to try some. That's the only reason why I can't say that today was a proper day of dieting - I had some dark chocolate. It's not as bad as yesterday's sugar rush, but still a bit too much.

In the evening I had a tiny salad with some steamed chicken again (that might be too much chicken) and a diet paella as a side dish. I got these from an amazing supermarket, which is, unfortunately, too far away from my home. Anyway, I can go there from time to time and buy some stuff in advance - it's simply amazing how attractive and delicious they can make diet dishes. They aren't expensive either.

I also had some grapes in the evening - just because I noticed that had almost gone off. Fruit sugar (fructose) is amazing, much more pleasant than something I had in junk food.

2. Exercise daily - Exempt
The last day when this still works. Tomorrow I'll come home and work out for sure.

3. Get 6+ hours of sleep - Failed

Oww, too bad. But then again, I've only got myself to blame for my procrastination - I should have prepared for tomorrow beforehand. Now after a lot of preparation I'm going to bed only hoping to get 5.5 hrs of sleep.

Bottom line:
This is one more "almost perfect" day. Now I know what kind of challenges await me and I have to concentrate on overcoming them just like any obvious obstacle. Tomorrow is the first day of a no-nonsense diet along with some physical exercise.
 
Perfection is a goal to strive toward, something to give you direction, not something you must achieve before being a worthwhile human being. This was obviously a much better day than your average thus far, so it a good day and you get to pat yourself on the back. In the long run that makes for a more positive attitude toward healthy living, which in turn makes it easier to keep up for a lifetime. Great job!
 
I would never live a day without caffeine :) but I learned to drink black coffe
So did I! Although I sometimes skip my morning coffee, I can still feel energized after washing my face with the coldest water I can get and drinking enough water.

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Too bad I skipped my diary entry yesterday, but it was the last busy day before my vacation, so I'll catch up on later today

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