Whole Life Challenge Day 12

Wednesday, September 18th

1) What did you consume?

A veggie omelet, a banana, a Larabar a handful of nuts and a shredded beef salad. I also thought it would be okay to dock a point to have a delicious pumpkin spice cookie that our office's senior art director/master chef brought into work (thanks, Linda!). The universe repaid me by making me forget to record my score for the day prior. Ugh.

2) We're you active and what did you do?

AMRAP laundry and cleaning house for ~4 hours. Scored 5 loads, 1 bag full of shoes to donate and a 1/2 reorganized kitchen. I'm definitely counting it.

3) Did you complete the weekly lifestyle objective?

Barely squeaked by today, but I did it.

4) Did you cheat/lie?

For the balsamic dressing I made for the salad, I needed a couple cloves of garlic. I was too in a hurry to win my laundry WOD that I used the stuff in a jar, which has phosphoric acid. It's such a small quantity I didn't count it (nor did I tell my WLC-militant fiancé-Whoops). But I'm sure I could definitely score some phosphoric acid somewhere, put it in my cooking cabinet, and make the whole thing legal. That's how this works right? As long as it's in your cabinet? I'll find some sodium nitrate while I'm at it to legalize my bacon.

I think I also chewed gum.

How do you feel?

I am super annoyed that I've now missed 2 days of full points. So now the cookie I ate is 3/22 points to makeup, and I'll never recover to full points, which I otherwise could have accomplished. "Christy, that's not the point of this," you say. Don't care. This is a competition that I paid $50 for, and I'd prefer not to be such a screw-up. Oh well, I guess.

I've hit a bit of plateau in fat-loss and just feeling fitter. Probably because due to the bevy of  nuts I've been consuming. I feel confident that it will resume at some point, though, and I don't feel any worse. Except for the mental anxiety of not getting points, which is stupid, like this Challenge. It's stupid. Everything's stupid. I hate it.

Whole Life Challenge Day 6

Thursday, September 12th

What did you consume?

The banana, a barbacoa salad from Chipotle, a handful of almonds, a handful of grapes, a handful of cashews (Shut up–I have small hands!) and, for dinner, delicious hot wings and a sweet potato with butter and cinnamon.

Were you active and what did you do?

It was an off-day for CrossFit so I walked extra briskly during my commute. It's roughly a 2 mile round trip and is definitely more than 10 minutes. I also rolled out my back on our new rumble roller (ouch!) and did a little PT for my jaw/neck/shoulder. I'm learning that a benefit of forcing myself to do mobility is that I wind up doing the PT I'm supposed to do everyday, which dramatically reduces my chronic pain, but I'm such a lazy, worthless human that I usually skip the PT and just grin and bear it.

Did you complete the weekly lifestyle challenge and how does it feel?

Yes - I'm on autopilot for the water and it seems like my body has adjusted to monsoon season.

Did you cheat/lie?

I can't remember if I chewed gum, so let's just assume I didn't. The chicken that I bought for dinner from Aldi, which was probably definitely horse meat anyway (slow clap for Aldi), had a label that read "minimally processed" and "natural flavors." And I was like "Hell no, self. You've got to be better than than that. Walk over to that farm next door and get the grass-fed good stuff." Then, I remembered that I live in Chicago, there is no farm next door and I was hungry urgently, so I picked up the chicken and b-lined to the checkout. No points deducted because, come on.

How do you feel?

Office Torture, Part Zwei

Some more office fun today. Our Creative Director sent out an invite for our office to lunch at the Berghoff's Oktoberfest across the street, which is always delicious and festive. He included fun body copy in the invite, but it didn't phase me nearly as much as the cookies. I think the mid-week panic I felt is subsiding and I'm feeling pretty good overall.

Whole Life Challenge Day 4

Tuesday, September 10th

Before I start complaining and moaning about how sad my life is now that I'm trying to eat well, I want to first acknowledge this day in history that marked unprecedented national pain and suffering of the real variety.

What did you consume?

The banana, Adobo Bacon Chicken (delicious, except that the sauce took about 10 times as long to make as the dish itself), a reasonable amount of cashews (FTW), a Larabar, and a burger with a fried egg and guacamole.

Were you active and what did you do?

Did the daily CrossFit workout, which was beastly. And also did mobility for my neck/shoulder/jaw and hip (thanks for the stretches, Maas).

Did you accomplish the weekly lifestyle objective and how did it feel?

Yes - Lots of water. Feels super.

Did you cheat/lie?

More gum. Sorry, I'm not sorry.

How do you feel?

I didn't eat excessively today and hopefully am starting to get used to the change in diet in terms of the decrease in sheer volume of food. However, I am seriously craving sugar. It's only day 4 and feel like I would punch a hobo for a cookie or literally steal candy from a baby. This is weird, because I don't usually consider myself a sugar-fiend. I guess since it's literally in almost every packaged food, I'm just as addicted as everyone else. Seems like a pretty cruel thing for the food industry to do. Why don't they just put nicotine in everything next. Or booze. I vote booze.