Mental and Physical Health and Wellness Track, 2022

[Limoncello]

ES inspired me to order a journal thingy and track some things - I think seeing my patterns on paper might help me change things up for the better.

I weighed myself for the first time in a couple of months - and I may have body dysmorphia, as I was WAY off in guessing what my weight would be.

I felt like I had gained 20lbs or more, but my size 8/10 jeans still fit me and I was 155.4lbs on the scale - but in my mind I'm a size 16+ and somewhere around 180lbs I had guessed. (I also feel like I look this weigh - hate my reflection, hate the camera)

Looking forward to the journal and your support. I do have a goal weight in mind, but moreover I need to bring my blood sugar down and be healthier.

[Limoncello]

Originally Posted by Limoncello

ES inspired me to order a journal thingy and track some things - I think seeing my patterns on paper might help me change things up for the better.

It's HERE!!

[viscousmemories]

We had my nephew and his wife over for dinner last night and my sister who lives next door joined us to play some cards afterward. When we broke out the chocolate for the guests I went to town on it. Not happy with myself but today is a new day!

[vremya]

I'm taking a combo sick and mental health day. I feel like crap and I bet it's from work. I'm grateful to have a job that I like, my coworkers very supportive, and I have a great boss (when he comes out of the clouds, that is - but he's there when it counts). But the work has been really, really hard lately. Draining. I'm giving people facing eviction legal advice, and about all I can tell them is how to minimize the damage. I think they expect me to work some legal magic for them, but I can't because they're fucked. This is the day of reckoning we knew was coming, and it sucks. I need a break.

So I'm on the couch, under a blanket with a kitty, and I'm wandering around on the interwebs. Maybe I'll have some soup.

[slimshady2357]

First month down and I managed to lose just over 10lbs.

I would have liked to have lost all 12 I gained in Dec, but it's a start at least. Just 11 more months to go...

[Limoncello]

10 pounds in a month is most excellent

Imagine 10 1lb bricks of butter sitting on your counter - it's a lot.

[Limoncello]

Originally Posted by Limoncello

ES inspired me to order a journal thingy and track some things - I think seeing my patterns on paper might help me change things up for the better.

I'm having trouble getting into it. Hopeful February will be better than January. I feel like I need time alone to do it, but there are always people or husbands around.

[Ensign Steve]

Checking in after the first month of 2022. I journaled almost every day in January, and in the spirit of quantified selfness, I gave myself a score for each goal at the end of the month. No value judgments, just data.

journal: 89%
no sugar: 53%
no alcohol: 87%
water: 68%
exercise: 66%
stretch: 3%

I'm all set up for the month of February as well. bey got some new twisty crayons for his birthday, so I borrowed those and made my tracking pages even more colorful and fun, so I will want to use it.

I have started Couch to 5K, and I have another fun colorful page in my book to track my progress in that (glitter gel pens, for those playing along at home). I'm advancing at a rate of less than one week per week, so I'm still in week 2, but I'm just thrilled to be out there again. I have found some really fun routes around our new house.

Also my weight is down about 5 more pounds. Who knew? Oh wait, I did.

[Limoncello]

So proud of you

[viscousmemories]

My only resolution was to journal every day and I have been doing that. For the first week or so I had to keep doing it the following day because I would forget, but then I started doing it first thing in the morning (instead of whenever the mood strikes) and have been consistent since then.

The eating has not been great... I start off each week strong and end weak. As a result I was down one pound last Monday and up one pound this Monday. I guess it's good that I stopped the upward climb but I'd like to go the other direction. Alas, food soothes me.

[viscousmemories]

I'm not in the mood for a long, detailed post, so here is a short succinct one:

My daily journal writing was consistent but often just a sentence or two until I adopted the "Morning Words" idea from "The Artist's Way", wherein I make a point of writing at least 750 every day first thing in the morning. That has been great because it really forces me to think more deeply for things to write about, and once I get started it's usually pretty easy to hit the goal.

One week ago I started flirting with a new eating plan called "Bright Line Eating", and the first week was a roaring success. I stuck mostly to the food plan but haven't yet adopted some of the other strategies, but their value is apparent and I will be doing that soon. I am a paying member (it's $20 a month) so I have access to a lot of good resources and I'm happy to go deeper into what it's all about if anyone is interested. I weighed in today down 9 lbs. from last Monday without feeling like I starved myself all week so I'm pretty happy about it.

I was turned on to it by this excellent podcast episode*:

Lucas Rockwood Podcast - Yoga, Health & Wellness Show

*Fun fact: I was notified about that podcast because I'm subscribed to the YogaBody newsletter because I signed up for the 21-day Hip Opening Challenge last year, paid the fee and quit after the first day. For reasons.

[JoeP]

Originally Posted by viscousmemories

I'm not in the mood for a long, detailed post, so here is a short succinct one:

A low-calorie post.

[Ensign Steve]

Oh man, I have a lot to say today. I could do three posts, or just one high-calorie post.

Journaling

Originally Posted by vm

My daily journal writing was consistent but often just a sentence or two until I adopted the "Morning Words" idea from "The Artist's Way", wherein I make a point of writing at least 750 every day first thing in the morning. That has been great because it really forces me to think more deeply for things to write about, and once I get started it's usually pretty easy to hit the goal.

I was watching Servant, and Dorothy was encouraging Leanne to keep a daily journal, but she was only managing to write the day of the week at the top of each page. Just writing the day of the week is a step in the right direction, though. She's at least putting pencil to paper and reenforcing the behavior and making it part of her routine. But I wanted to yell at the TV, "Dorothy, you need to give her a prompt!" She needed to tell her something more helpful than just "write about your feelings."

I used to at a minimum try to write one thing I'm grateful for and/or one thing I'm looking forward to. That would often be enough to get the juices flowing and more words would come out after that. And if not, it was still something to write each day, to keep up the habit and put at least one thought down on the page.

My haircut, and why it's a big deal.

Before today, the last time I got my hair cut was in January of 2020. The reason I waited so long is that my last haircut was pretty traumatic. I had been walking home from work and a guy jumped me in the park. I was only a little bit hurt, some bumps and bruises, but he had pulled me to the ground by grabbing the back of my hair, and he ripped a big chunk of it out. I had to go to the salon for an emergency angled bob first thing the next morning.

I had been wearing my hair long for years at that point, and I am really vain about my hair, I don't mind saying. I felt super violated and resentful that I had to cut off all my hair thanks to this asshole. The scrapes and bruises were healed in a week, but the injury to my hair would take years to grow back.

As fucking annoying as traumatic as that all was, it was at least great timing as far as quarantine went.

Anyway, it did grow back, and I've been meaning to get it cut for ages. I was planning to keep it long, but I was still way past due for a trim and some layering. Finally this morning I was in a great mood (scatalogical shenanigans aside), and I was like fuck it, I'm going to get a summer cut. So I did, and I'm glad I did, cuz it feels great.

This podcast I heard about

I haven't actually listened to it yet, but that hasn't stopped me from recommending it to others. I have heard good things.

Losing 100 Pounds with Corinne on Apple Podcasts

Finally the actual post for the thrad

Happy end of the month! My February was mostly okay, excepting the part where I lost my fucking job. I did not let the bad news push me immediately into self-soothing with food or alcohol, but a week later during my first few days of actual unemployment, I did regress to some unhealthy habits.

I'm back to "working from home" but now "working" is the job of finding a job. There are all the same challenges, but at least now we're in the new house, we're out of the depressing-ass quar house, and I have a dedicated office that I'm having fun making cute for video conferences.

My weight is down an even 5 pounds in the month of February, and I have advanced to week 4 in couch to 5k.

[slimshady2357]

I'm afraid I didn't fare as well as ES and vm

We had a few days in London helping our daughter move into her new house and had both an Indian and a Chinese over the weekend. We got back home in time for Valentine's Day and had a lovely homemade deep dish pizza and banoffee pie. It was fantastic, but it certainly didn't help the weight loss.

So the last 2 weeks of Feb were basically recovering from that week of putting on nearly 5 pounds.

In the end I'm down 0.9 lbs so technically still keeping alive the New Year's Resolution, but Feb was a bust basically.

[Ari]

Since the pandemic I’ve been mostly cooking for myself instead of eating pre made food and I’ve discovered I don’t get enough salt. I’ve discovered this by feeling funny and shakey and only feeling better after literally lapping salt of out my hand like a horse. My brain was calibrated to presume I was getting insane amounts from snacks and soups, but when I don’t, I guess it’s gotta come from somewhere!

Doubling the amount of salt I use in everything has been good. I don’t generally mention it as I know how difficult weightloss and food plans can be but I often have the opposite problem of forgetting to eat and then wondering why I feel run down. The idea of shoving components of a dish into my face because it’s food and I need it now, only 75% works, turns out there’s reasons for all that cooking and seasoning.

So now I’ve been trying to make large batches of freezable things in reheatable sizes to make it easier to eat a full meals worth of meal.

[viscousmemories]

When I was on that crazy "Quick Weight Loss" plan back in... what 2015? I was advised to use Morton Lite salt because it's half sodium, half potassium. I've been thinking about starting it again since it tasted fine and I have greatly reduced my salt intake on this current food plan, but I also recently started taking Losartan-Potassium for cardiomyopathy and I don't want to overdo it. I'll talk to my doctor.

Meanwhile, I didn't adhere to the Bright Line Eating food plan perfectly this week, but damn close to it. I weighed in down 3 lbs. today so I'm pretty happy about it. The best part is with few exceptions I was not starving all week; I felt very satisfied most of the time. I only broke the plan in any significant way once, and that was by having some General Tso's chicken and an egg roll. I had planned to bend the rules for the General Tso's but once I did that it was a slippery slope to the egg roll. I'll do better this week.

[Ensign Steve]

Hey, my thread got stickied!

Just felt like dropping in here with a little bit of what's going on in my home-slash-head.

It turns out that after a couple years of depression, that unfamiliar feeling of not-depression feels like mania.

I find myself doing things like getting my hair cut, going out and exercising, doing a craft project (look for a post soon in the make something every week thrad), cleaning and organizing my house, and I'm like "Am I okay? Is this mania? Is this how healthy people behave?" Yes, weirdo. Healthy people clean their house and groom themselves, and enjoy making things. Don't be paranoid.

[JoeP]

Funny that.

[Sock Puppet]

Now, if you weave a few hundred baskets in 48 hours while skipping meals and foregoing sleep, there might be cause for alarm. That sort of thing should only happen with Lego projects.

[slimshady2357]

March went better than Feb and I managed to lose another 5 lbs. So the NY's resolution is still alive. I'm down just over 16lbs total now, which is encouraging enough to keep me going.

So far I've just been making small changes that I think I can maintain forever. Things like getting in more steps every day*, cutting out a snack here and there, having slightly smaller portions. I've had great success in the past with calorie counting, but it's always only lasted a few months or a year at most. So this time I'm trying to change patterns in ways I hope will last long term. It's slower going, but as long as it's still headed in the right direction I'm happy.

*My fitbit tells me I'm averaging about 15,000 steps a day.

[Ensign Steve]

Happy April Fools Day!

My March was a mixed bag, I guess. The first couple weeks were great, (bordering on manic). Then I traveled to Sacramento to deal with some family stuff, which was fine, and something I was able to cope with well, thanks to the work I have been doing. But it was still a shock to my routine, and it has taken far too long for me to get back to "normal" after returning. I have unpacked and washed my clothes, but I still have a bunch of other shit still to deal with. Also, apparently I am still not able/willing to be around my family and not drink, so, there's that. We had fun at least.

Anyway, the job search continues, and is both exciting and demoralizing depending on the day. I have unemployment-induced anxiety, which is to be expected, but also I remain optimistic that I will be able to land one of these fucking jobs eventually. I'm at least putting in the work, so if it doesn't happen it won't be because of anything I didn't do.

Summary stats for the month: Journaled almost every day, got up to a 20-minute run (and cried my eyes out over it, it was such a beautiful day with the flowers in bloom, and I felt the goddess all up in me, IYKWIM), netted about 3 lbs lost.

Okie dokie, stay well my friends!

[viscousmemories]

I can't say enough good things about Bright Line Eating. The plan and all the content has been tremendously useful and informative to me, and I have been losing weight consistently since beginning the BLE "weight loss food plan". I only weigh myself on Monday's but as of last Monday I was down 20 lbs since the start (~5 weeks). The best part is that I'm rarely hungry and get to eat a lot of good food, though nothing with sugar and flour. For people who have serious issues with compulsive overeating but don't (for whatever reason) dig the 12-step approach, BLE is awesome. A lot of it is informed by 12-step stuff, but the firm basis (reflecting the expertise of the founder) is neuroscientific and psychological. Anyway I genuinely feel like I could stick with this long term with relative ease, and if I keep losing consistently and get to a reasonable goal weight I might even try reintroducing some things I don't want to live without long term ( pizza/ramen )

[JoeP]

Originally Posted by Ensign Steve

Also, apparently I am still not able/willing to be around my family and not drink, so, there's that.

[slimshady2357]

I lost just over 3 lbs in April, bringing the total for the year to 20 lbs. The best result of the month was going to London for the long weekend and still losing 0.5 lbs over the 4 days. We did a lot of walking and I did a lot of DIY for the eldest daughter. Normally we'd have take out food a couple times and I'd gain weight, but we made an effort to avoid that this time.

I would be very pleased to lose 3 lbs a month for the rest of the year. It's not likely, but that's the dream for now.

[viscousmemories]

I'm still following the "Bright Lines Eating" weight loss plan, and still trending down. A total of 30.5 lbs. since I began in late February. There has only been one week where I went up a pound, but such fluctuations aren't too surprising.

Still doing pilates twice a week but really need to incorporate more cardio activity.

As for mental health, I'm building a morning routine that helps me feel like I'm paying adequate attention to my personal development. For months I have been writing a daily journal/brain dump (minimum 750 words), catching up on posts, and reading The History Blog every day. For the past week I have added 30 minutes of piano practice and 30 minutes of book reading. It's great because I often think I should practice piano and/or read more, but because I procrastinate I spend most days just feeling guilty about *not* doing either of those things. Since I've been doing it as part of a morning ritual I feel much lighter for the rest of the day, as though it's all "free time".