goose [he/him]

Hell yes. Dropping alcohol is hard but it basically turns most aspects of existence down a full difficulty level. I have a cabinet full of good bourbon and no desire to touch it anymore because I can remember how shitty I felt back then

If you don’t start assembling the drawers, you’ll never get to find out which piece is missing or bent

It’s been rough lately! I woke up with intense pain in my right foot a couple of weeks ago, and that combined with my other injuries resulted in zero workouts for ten days, which was a real bummer both mentally and physically. I’ve been stress-eating and going over my calorie goal, but it’s below maintenance level, so that’s still progress!

The thing I’ve learned about this process is to just be stubborn and log everything you eat, even if it feels silly or like the current day is a bust. Chances are it’s not as bad as it seems, and you can see that day as an outlying data point rather than “well I’m off the wagon now, time to give up.”

Once I get the physical issues sorted out with a doctor this week, I’ll try to figure out what to do about this new “moderate depression” screening result. Marriage has been very difficult lately, but I don’t know if the depression is cause, effect, or both. Having such a foundational part of life in jeopardy is extremely stressful, but it’s all the more reason to practice doing a good job with the things that I can control.

Streaks are still going for both exercise (4 weeks) and nutrition tracking (2 weeks)! The latter is very useful because it shows that I’m eating less than I should be.

This app (Foodnoms) adjusts the daily target based on how much energy I expend exercising. The idea is to keep the muscle I have and burn fat, then start building muscle back up once I reach a target weight. I should be more or less hitting the target line, but I’m consistently a bit below. Too severe of a calorie restriction coupled with an over-reliance on cardio exercise can result in muscle loss, and that’ll be me soon if it isn’t already.

No good! I now have a bunch of nuts, dates, and figs handy for snacks and will aim to go over the calorie goal at least three days per week. Just gotta replace some cardio with resistance training and get things dialed in.

That sounds like a really nice way to be. Do you do time blocking for scheduling activities, or is it more of a checklist for the day?

A nice ten-minute run (or jog, or even walk) in the morning before showering is so great. Even if the run itself isn’t the best, the feeling of being ahead of schedule and energized for the rest of the morning almost feels like cheating.

Thanks for making these threads! It’s a great motivation to keep things going.

I’ve been successfully tracking everything I eat over the past week and fine-tuning my calorie goal. Averaging 1625 kCal per day, on track to burn ~1.5 lbs per week at this rate. I remember the first couple weeks of this process being the toughest, so… fingers crossed.

Some very stubborn shoulder and toe injuries have made hitting my modest daily workout goals difficult, but the three-week streak is still alive (barely)! A TENS device and stretches have been helping with the shoulder pain. If you are young and don’t have some level of constant background pain, I am begging you to enjoy it while it lasts.

This week is gonna be about getting the kids moving their bodies outside in the mornings before it gets too hot. I want my oldest daughter to get enough stamina to bike over to her friends’ places.

I’m using Foodnoms which is a nice little iPhone app with one of the best “AI” functions I’ve seen: if a food isn’t in the database, it can take its best guess at the nutritional info.

Mad Max is a good one; it’s really satisfying to take the Magnum Opus from a frame on wheels to a machine of legend. I never did beat it; let us know how it holds up at the end

Thanks for sharing that video; I have a much better understanding of good bird dog form now!

I’m gonna finally complete Astro Bot Rescue Mission and then move on to wrapping up a nearly-finished Cyberpunk 2077. What are you focusing on?

After a long nine months of juggling homeschooling and part-time work, the kids are starting summer day camp tomorrow, which means June-July-August is officially Work On Myself Summer™

• Closing all the movement/exercise/stand rings on my smartwatch every day (14 day streak so far)
• Logging all the food I eat so that I don’t just mindlessly grab small snacks throughout the day (2 days so far)
• Biking the kids to and from summer camp when weather permits (final year for this as they’re getting too big for the bike)
• Getting back into Synth Riders as a quick, fun workout
• A daily shoulder/back stretch exercise routine so that the aforementioned workout doesn’t wreck my shoulder
• Picking a video game to focus on until I’ve beaten it, then moving on to the next one

Even with work ramping up, I’m gaining at least 20 hours of time per week of time from this summer camp thing. I am so excited for this. Honestly, the biggest risk is that I overdo it and mess up my knees or something during this first week.

Last time I started a routine like this, it lasted for 500 days because it just felt so good to just refuse to stop getting a little bit better every single day. I’ve let life claw back so much of the gains I made over the last four years, but at least for the next three months, I’m back in control of this thing