Health and Fitness

[Morkle]

Yea, I agree with the routine. CICO for me is honestly like working out. You have to train and get your body adjusted to the changes in calorie intake.

The major bad mental habit that I have to break is that there are going to be nights where I'm going to eat something bad - or simply drink extra water and my body is going to add a pound or two. It comes off the same day or next day of, but I've gotten paranoid about that because I don't want to swing to far in the other direction, I want to be just right.

[beerman]

I went to weighing myself weekly, it's easier to not obsess that way. I don't have to worry about getting discouraged due to a night out or having a dessert or whatever, it's easier to hide it/make up for it over the course of a week.

[Morkle]

Yea, so I'm a little OCD about that. I do it daily usually once in the morning and just track it in the chart. I feel like if I go to once a week - I need the reassurance it's working and if there's a week that I'm up - I would find that disheartening. If that makes any sense.

[skullman80]

Yea, I agree with the routine. CICO for me is honestly like working out. You have to train and get your body adjusted to the changes in calorie intake.

The major bad mental habit that I have to break is that there are going to be nights where I'm going to eat something bad - or simply drink extra water and my body is going to add a pound or two. It comes off the same day or next day of, but I've gotten paranoid about that because I don't want to swing to far in the other direction, I want to be just right.

I think one of the biggest things is to not look at certain foods as good or bad. Food is food. Some obviously have more nutritious value or may keep your fuller longer, but I've learned you't demonize food I guess. Not saying that you are. I just had to look at it like.. it's ok if I go out to the bar and pig out with some wings and fries etc. One day won't ruin me, and its ok to live life. I've gone up like 5lbs in one night after eating lots of salty foods and have water retention. 2 or 3 days later that is all off of me and things are back to normal.

So many people think you have to restrict certain foods, and foods are good or bad. Food is food. Find what fills you up. Obviously if you have a medical condition then other rules apply.

[dodint]

My philosophy is the exact opposite. If I only weighed myself weekly and happened to have drank a lot of water the night before or something that's 7 more days I need to obsess about 'what if?'

I weigh myself every morning when my body is most stable. I record the weight on my Google Calendar. I glance at where I'm at relative to this day last week and have a look at how I'm trending over the month. About once a week I transcribe that data into an Excel spreadsheet I have that compares it against all historical data as well as my goal-line. Then when I record my food in MFP I'll put it in there as well if I remember.

This really helps me a lot, I mean, a ton. I panic on the scale all the time, but the data soothes me. Last week I dipped hard down to 271 which really disrupted my expectations, particularly when I swung back up to almost 276 through the weekend. I was back to 273 this morning and all is well in the world because I'm still down over last week and really down through the month.

It sounds like a lot of work but all of those actions are part of my routine now. Every time I've ever lost it and started gaining weight again it's because I stopped daily weigh-in and stopped CICO recording.

[skullman80]

When I weighed frequently I used to do it once a week on Friday mornings. I know some like to have daily points so they can see how weight fluctuates from day to day and based on what you eat etc. All comes down to personal preference. Now I probably weight myself once a month since I've been doing this for so long now I have a pretty good idea on what I need to do on a daily basis. I'm also just maintaining now and just trying to tone up rather than lose though.

[Morkle]

Yea, I agree with the routine. CICO for me is honestly like working out. You have to train and get your body adjusted to the changes in calorie intake.

The major bad mental habit that I have to break is that there are going to be nights where I'm going to eat something bad - or simply drink extra water and my body is going to add a pound or two. It comes off the same day or next day of, but I've gotten paranoid about that because I don't want to swing to far in the other direction, I want to be just right.

I think one of the biggest things is to not look at certain foods as good or bad. Food is food. Some obviously have more nutritious value or may keep your fuller longer, but I've learned you't demonize food I guess. Not saying that you are. I just had to look at it like.. it's ok if I go out to the bar and pig out with some wings and fries etc. One day won't ruin me, and its ok to live life. I've gone up like 5lbs in one night after eating lots of salty foods and have water retention. 2 or 3 days later that is all off of me and things are back to normal.

So many people think you have to restrict certain foods, and foods are good or bad. Food is food. Find what fills you up. Obviously if you have a medical condition then other rules apply.

Oh I totally eat what I want. It's just a matter of only eating enough so it doesn't break me. There are times where booze gets in the way and totally wrecks a day haha.

[dodint]

Also, the CICO non-believers are the flat-earthers of the nutrition world.

You can apply CICO to any diet you want, as skullman says. It's not incompatible with anything, it's just math. But I see folks on the MFP forums screaming that CICO is a myth. Boggles my mind, honestly. Some of it is people with medical conditions with legitimately poor metabolisms who struggle with trying to get nutrition at such low intake numbers. The rest are just looney-bin types that are the nutritional equivalent of Crossfitters.

[skullman80]

Also Coke Zero(now coke zero sugar) has been a life saver for me. I still crave pop alot, and simply switching from Coke to Coke Zero probably saves me 400+ calories a day easily.

[Morkle]

My philosophy is the exact opposite. If I only weighed myself weekly and happened to have drank a lot of water the night before or something that's 7 more days I need to obsess about 'what if?'

I weigh myself every morning when my body is most stable. I record the weight on my Google Calendar. I glance at where I'm at relative to this day last week and have a look at how I'm trending over the month. About once a week I transcribe that data into an Excel spreadsheet I have that compares it against all historical data as well as my goal-line. Then when I record my food in MFP I'll put it in there as well if I remember.

This really helps me a lot, I mean, a ton. I panic on the scale all the time, but the data soothes me. Last week I dipped hard down to 271 which really disrupted my expectations, particularly when I swung back up to almost 276 through the weekend. I was back to 273 this morning and all is well in the world because I'm still down over last week and really down through the month.

It sounds like a lot of work but all of those actions are part of my routine now. Every time I've ever lost it and started gaining weight again it's because I stopped daily weigh-in and stopped CICO recording.

You described my exact thought way better than I could. I'm a data nerd. Logically - once a week makes me feel like I'm only caring about it once a week - and if I'm going to change a new habit - I need to give it a daily focus.

[Morkle]

Also Coke Zero(now coke zero sugar) has been a life saver for me. I still crave pop alot, and simply switching from Coke to Coke Zero probably saves me 400+ calories a day easily.

I've switched to diet teas and water with lemon/lime juice in it with a sweetener if I need it.

I get annoyed when my wife brings diet pop home, because it gets that craving back - but I'd love to just figure out a way to make my mind think pop doesn't exist.

[iamjs]

Got my instructions for the Red Bull climb this weekend. A few key things that I thought I'd post.

* 820 people signed up. 760 individual runners and 60 relays.
* Thirteen waves before the finals: a King Aux heat (looks like it's invite only), seven initial waves for the men, four waves for the women, and what looks like a relay wave. Guessing it's a x2 relay. Once those are completed, there is a men's and women's final later in the day. I'm not running until the final wave, so I could probably show up late, do my climb, and watch the good stuff immediately after.
*By the looks of the Q&A that was sent out, there's a midway point to bail. Once you commit past the midway point from the hill to the ramp, you are all-in and there's no turning back.
*12 minute to complete the course. I would like to think I should be good on this, but with the elevation who knows.
*If you touch another competitor, there's a chance of being DQ'ed.
*Slow runners (that's me) to the right.
*No GoPros are permitted on the course without prior approval from Red Bull.

[skullman80]

Also, the CICO non-believers are the flat-earthers of the nutrition world.

You can apply CICO to any diet you want, as skullman says. It's not incompatible with anything, it's just math. But I see folks on the MFP forums screaming that CICO is a myth. Boggles my mind, honestly. Some of it is people with medical conditions with legitimately poor metabolisms who struggle with trying to get nutrition at such low intake numbers. The rest are just looney-bin types that are the nutritional equivalent of Crossfitters.

I love the people on there who are like " I ONLY EAT 900 CALORIES A DAY WHY AM I GAINING WEIGHT".. it's like listen.. no one is gaining weight on 900 calories a day unless you are like 3ft tall and are like 90 years old. People don't want to take responsibility for what they put in their mouth. It's always someone elses fault. I realize this cause I used to do that all the time when I was fat.

[skullman80]

I also keep forgetting I have to run a 6.6k in a few weeks. FML.

[dodint]

I also keep forgetting I have to run a 6.6k in a few weeks. FML.

I'm currently only conditioned for about 5.5k right now which is not a recipe for success.

I ran a fast (for me, ~7:37 min/mi pace) two miles yesterday because I wasn't feeling well and wanted to jump start my system. Hoping to get out to North Park Thur/Fri for a long outdoor run. We'll see, this heat needs to break or that's not happening.

[dodint]

Source of the post People don't want to take responsibility for what they put in their mouth. It's always someone elses fault. I realize this cause I used to do that all the time when I was fat.

The best response to that I've seen is "Are you doing tight or loose monitoring?" Usually doesn't get a reply.

I only read about one thread a week there but it's comedy gold every single time. I wish they'd take that 'top 5 threads' widget out of the MFP web interface.

[beerman]

Yea, so I'm a little OCD about that. I do it daily usually once in the morning and just track it in the chart. I feel like if I go to once a week - I need the reassurance it's working and if there's a week that I'm up - I would find that disheartening. If that makes any sense.

Yeah makes sense, once a week is definitely more pressure when you're really trying to take weight off.

For me I made the choice that I'd be happier trusting what I was doing and if I went up over the course of the week it wasn't because of one night it's because I slipped up a bunch throughout the week. I'd make sure I weighed on like Wednesday morning so the weekend was behind me and the chance that I was going to eat/drink obsessively the night before was incredibly small.

Plus, I really started to get anal about the daily tracking, I always wanted to see progress and I didn't want to get to the point where I'd decline going out and having a few beers/dinner because of what the scale may say the next morning. I think there's drawbacks to each way just as long as you find the one you're happiest with.

I've gone through several periods where I lose, plateau a bit, maybe even add some back on then lose again eventually, but it's amazing to think back to what my diet was 6-7 years ago when I first started trying to lose weight.

[Morkle]

Yea, so I'm a little OCD about that. I do it daily usually once in the morning and just track it in the chart. I feel like if I go to once a week - I need the reassurance it's working and if there's a week that I'm up - I would find that disheartening. If that makes any sense.

Yeah makes sense, once a week is definitely more pressure when you're really trying to take weight off.

For me I made the choice that I'd be happier trusting what I was doing and if I went up over the course of the week it wasn't because of one night it's because I slipped up a bunch throughout the week. I'd make sure I weighed on like Wednesday morning so the weekend was behind me and the chance that I was going to eat/drink obsessively the night before was incredibly small.

Plus, I really started to get anal about the daily tracking, I always wanted to see progress and I didn't want to get to the point where I'd decline going out and having a few beers/dinner because of what the scale may say the next morning. I think there's drawbacks to each way just as long as you find the one you're happiest with.

I've gone through several periods where I lose, plateau a bit, maybe even add some back on then lose again eventually, but it's amazing to think back to what my diet was 6-7 years ago when I first started trying to lose weight.

Oh I totally understand. That's the great thing about weight loss - while the solution is eat less, work more. Getting to your desired goal is absolutely different for every single person.

Also I think it was @skullman80 above who said you have to take responsibility for what you put in your mouth (TWSS), I always said my mom forced me to eat and I'd lose weight after I moved out. Obviously I gained even more weight than I did when I lived at home, and that really forced me to tell myself that this is all my doing, and it's only going to be all my doing to get the weight off.

[iamjs]

I also keep forgetting I have to run a 6.6k in a few weeks. FML.

I keep forgetting to sign up for the 6.6k in a few weeks.

I know you can sign up day of the race, but they also say no guarantee of a shirt. Kinda weird because every one that I've been to always had old shirts to sell and always had my size. In fact, there's a replacement shirt I need to buy if it's available for $5.

[shoeshine boy]

Also Coke Zero(now coke zero sugar) has been a life saver for me. I still crave pop alot, and simply switching from Coke to Coke Zero probably saves me 400+ calories a day easily.

you've got to be careful with the Coke Zero though. I used to drink it but something in the artificial sweetener didn't react well with one of my meds (I didn't know at the time that was the cause) and I had 5 kidney stones in 2 years. I went back to regular coke but just drink much less of it.

[skullman80]

Also Coke Zero(now coke zero sugar) has been a life saver for me. I still crave pop alot, and simply switching from Coke to Coke Zero probably saves me 400+ calories a day easily.

you've got to be careful with the Coke Zero though. I used to drink it but something in the artificial sweetener didn't react well with one of my meds (I didn't know at the time that was the cause) and I had 5 kidney stones in 2 years. I went back to regular coke but just drink much less of it.

I've had no issues. I've had kidney stones in the past(not fun), but all my checkups/bloodwork/health markers have been good. The sweetener doesn't seem to bother me much. Everything in moderation obviously, but it's been good to me for the past year +. I think my body is happy being 200+lbs lighter that it will deal with artificial sweetener. The new coke zero sugar format they just changed to I honestly haven't even looked to see what they changed. Regular Coke tastes too sweet to me now honestly.

[dodint]

For some reason this doesn't go at all the way I thought it would:



Ran it through one of my route mapping apps. Seems fairly level, not counting the arc of the bridges which isn't bad.

The Armstrong Tunnel is the toughest climb, about 120ft in about a quarter mile. Wish it was earlier in the run. Not terrible though.

My best outdoor run so far has been 3mi in 31 minutes. I can't see that I'll be able to run the 6.6k in 39 minutes like I want. Going to go run 4 miles tonight at North Park to see where I actually stand.

[llipgh2]

Also Coke Zero(now coke zero sugar) has been a life saver for me. I still crave pop alot, and simply switching from Coke to Coke Zero probably saves me 400+ calories a day easily.

I quit soft drinks cold turkey about 4-5 years ago. Don't miss is at all. I will have the occasional ginger ale on a flight (don't know why, it's just something I do LOL), but other than that no soft drinks.

[mikey]

1. Read that as "I quit soft drinks AND turkey" and was super confused...what a weird combo of things...
2. I also order ginger ale on planes almost always...

[columbia]

I've cut soft drinks out of my diet. I never had it at home and switched to the fancy fruit waters at the cafeteria.