Whole Life Challenge Day 41

Thursday, October 17th

1) What did you eat?

Stuff.

2) Were you active and what did you do?

I was so sore from the last two days of CrossFit that I slept in compression tights and still couldn't move yesterday. Multiple people at work threatened to push me over with a gentle tap into a swift wind because I was so pathetically stiff.  So I took an unplanned off day to get laundry done and recover. Trust me when I say that the trips up and down stairs required for laundry were all of the exercise and mobility that my body could handle.

3) Did you complete the lifestyle challenge and how it it feel?

Feels like this lifestyle challenge is really dumb. It must only benefit people who consume no media at all during the day.

4) Did you cheat lie?

I ate 6 Skittles and chewed gum. Also, after my diligence at ensuring a compliant lunch at Mezza the other day, it turns out that the woman on the phone was full of crap. They replied to my Facebook ingredient inquiry 24 hours later:

So, that's what I get for trying. And I didn't even find out in enough time to purge it and pray for my sins.

5) How do you feel?

Only 14 days left and the end can't come soon enough!

Cumulative Deductions: 24

Whole Life Challenge Day 40

T - 16 Days & Counting

1) What did you consume?

A banana, a Larabar, some grapes and strawberries, a handful of almonds, delicious white bean chicken chili from Mezza and a burger with a fried egg for dinner.

2) Were you active and what did you do?

Squat day always puts me in a good mood. Probably due to the fact that it's the exclusive function of my ginormous thunder thighs. 

3) Did you complete the lifestyle challenge and how did it feel?

Yes, I studied up on some life hacks. None of which I remember. Obviously it was very useful reading.

4) Did you cheat/lie?

Gum. Again. But I actually CALLED Mezza to make sure their chili represented a compliant lunch, so that cancels out the gum.

5) How do you feel?

Is this over yet? I get it. My food is packed with appalling, offensive ingredients that are absolutely going to kill me before the age of 40, especially [gasp] sugar. It's shocking that people live long enough to procreate the human race. Can you BELIEVE that you are healthier for not drinking alcohol? This is shocking news to me.

I'm not sure I need 60 days to figure all of this out. 

Whole Life Challenge Day 39

Tuesday, October 16th

1) What did you consume?

Didn't eat much because work was so busy. I had a Larabar, a banana (I think), an apple, 1/2 of a chicken breast and, for dinner, a small steak fajita salad.

We also found pure almond milk at Jewel the other day in the produce section near the Naked Juice. I had some of that mixed with a little cinnamon and stevia and it tasted kind of like horchata, though didn't blend very well.

2) Were you active and what did you do?

Sometimes a good workout is just the cure for a bad day and last night was no exception. 

3) Did you complete the lifestyle objective and how did it feel?

I perused some articles on the interwebs, now someone please tell me where that goes on my time sheet.

4) Did you cheat/lie?

Gum.

5) How do you feel?

I feel like we're finally nearing the home stretch. Which is a terrible place to be, actually. It's like when you're running a race and nice volunteers who think they're helping tell you that the finish line is "just around the corner" but really it's a mile away. So you let it all out of your tank to kick towards the finish only to exhaust yourself half a mile later in front of another group of volunteers bidding you just around another corner.

Cumulative Deductions: 24

Whole Life Challenge Day 38

Monday, October Something-Or-Other

1) What did you consume?

Back to clean eating. Almost. I ate the last Entenmanns donut for breakfast because everyone knows that you can't leave an Entenmanns donuts in the trash.  What am I? Crazy?

Road trip eating is hard. There aren't many places you can quickly pull off. We stopped into Cracker Barrel and paid an exorbitant amount of money for eggs and bacon. Oh well.

For dinner we made burgers and, because my body was craving vegetables (a rare occasion, to be sure), had a giant salad.

2) Were you active and what did you do?

Not really, I did minimal mobility and didn't work out at all. I might have counted the walk to and from Walgreens to pick up allergy medicine, but it wasn't all that brisk and I'm feeling honorable.

3) Did you complete the lifestyle objective and how do you feel?

Given that we were on a 6 hour car ride and it's the year 2013, I'm taking a leap and saying that audio or visual consumption of content, so long as it's informational or motivating, is permitted to achieve my 10 minutes worth. Podcasts or audiobooks, for instance, should certainly suffice.

Now that I've sold you on audio content...We listened to Howard Stern. Which totally counts. I now know more than I ever wanted to know about the day-to-days of female owners of explicit websites. That it's not "porn" (gross), it's "beautiful erotica" (there, now that's much better, see?). I feel dumber but also infinitely more refined and classy by comparison for having listened.

4) Did you cheat/lie?

I ate the donut and didn't workout, which I am docking points for. I would be shocked if the Cracker Barrel bacon was clean, but I had to eat something that wasn't Arby's or McDonalds and I definitely did the best I could. No deductions there.

5) How do you feel?

I recently was kind of called out for letting things like certain bacons, gum or minor ingredient lapses (i.e. Occasional concession to natural flavors in non-organic meats) fly without deducting points.

Usually, there'd be some sort of witty or scathing retort that comes next, but it made me more disappointed than anything.

I'm not poised to win this thing. Even if I was, there's no real prize or even importance associated with it. Through this blog, I've been clear about my trials and tribulations with the Whole Life Challenge, explaining that the point system is so deflating to me that I would surely quit the whole thing or lose my sanity entirely if I couldn't follow a "reasonable person test."

I learned the "reasonable person test" from my father. And it's really simple. What would a reasonable person, from the outside looking in, say about a situation.

Certainly as the Whole Life Challange is concerned, a reasonable person wouldn't say, "You've done everything in your power to create a compliant meal, but the only meat available at Jewel says it was prepped with natural flavors, and you didn't abort your whole meal for a Larabar. You fail this time."

And so it disappoints me when I see people striking each other down. Calling people out in public or private, presumably to make themselves feel better, rather than lifting each other up.

Whole Life Challenge Day 37

Sunday, October 13th

1) What did you consume?

Christmas finally came! We piled in a car and drove 6 hours to our friends' wedding in Columbus, OH. What did I eat, you ask? Oh, man. It went like this:

- Fish oil (still had to get the supplement point in)

- 3 Entemanns donuts

- McDonalds breakfast - #4

- Kit Kat Bites

- 2 pumpkin chocolate chip cookies

- Arby's regular roast beef with Arby's sauce and curly fries

- 3 pumpkin beers; the fiancé and I mixed a six pack from Binnys and shared them in a pumpkin beer taste test; taste test results below

- I don't know how many vodka tonics

- Champagne

- Chicken and green beans

- A little bit of wedding cake (I was too busy drinking vodka to notice it had come out, so I resorted to a few forkfuls of leftovers)

- 2 hot dogs from the late night got dog bar

- Approximately half of a large pizza from Danatos with sausage and double pepperoni

Pumpkin Beer Taste Testing Results:

- Punk'in - 6/10 more of a bite, subtle on the pumpkin

- Pumpkin Smasher - 7/10 wheat-y, not too hoppy, more pumpkin-y 

- Americas Original Pumpkin Ale - 6.5/10 pilsner-y, a little too sweet

- Horny-copia  - 7.5/10 good wheat ale, great mix of pumpkin spices, not overwhelming 

- Post Road Pumpkin Ale - 8/10, great ale with pumpkin overtones, some hints of spices but nice and subtle, a good overall package

- Ichabod Pumpkin Ale - 6.8/10, the ale itself was too overpowering for a pumpkin beer, in my opinion; in fairness, it was warm by the time we got to it and it didn't get a fair shake

2) Were you active and what did you do?

I'd say I definitely earned my workout points on the dance floor. No mobility though.

3) Did you complete the lifestyle objective?

I read some stuff during the 7 hour car ride. I think. 

4) Did you cheat/lie?

Duh.

5) How do you feel?

It's probably no surprise that all of the crap I Injested made me feel sick by the end of the night. This morning I feel sluggish, but fine. 

I'd say the cheat day was a smashing success. The only thing that I'm disappointed that I forgot to indulge in was the chocolate chai latte from Starbucks. 

Some people who have done this challenge say that the junk they crave doesn't taste the same or as good as it used to after eating clean for a while. I couldn't disagree more. Every morsel was amazing.

I didn't blog yesterday because I was too busy eating and drinking. Sue me. But I did Instagram photos:

Cumulative Deductions: 21

Whole Life Challenge Day 35

Friday, October 11th

1) What did you consume?

An apple for breakfast, a shepherd's salad for lunch, and steak fajitas and half a sweet potato for dinner. Dessert was a sliced apple with natural crunchy peanut butter. 

Our office's Senioir Art Director/Master Baker was at it agian with bite-sized pumpkin oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. They were out of control. As I was I. My original plan was to put 2 in a bag and save them for my epic cheat day just around the corner. But, to confirm they were worth it, I needed to taste test. 

That's when it all fell apart, they were so delicious that I had to eat three, which I felt was a fair serving size for a single point deduction. So, in an epic fail, I lost a point two days before my cheat day. An I still tools some for the road. Typical.

2) Were you active and what did you do?

Yes, went to CrossFit. Mobilized in the warmup. Kind of.

3) Did you complete the lifestyle goal?

Uh-huh

4) Did you cheat/lie?

I started off trying to lie about the the cookie taste test. But it turned into a full-on cheat. Whoopsies.

Also, I ate the vinegarette dressing that came with the lunch salad. I don't know what's in it, but I'm not deducting a point. The salad's not the same with out it and there was no other option. Stop judging me for salad, jerk.

5) How do you feel?

We stocked up for our epic cheat day car ride:

Also stocked up on insulin shots.

Cumulative deductions: 14

Whole Life Challenge Day 34

Thursday, October 10th

1) What did you consume?

Probably too much fruit? Two apples, a banana, and some strawberries. But you know what fruit's not? Pizza. So I've decided to care a little less about my fruit consumption. Also on the fruit front, I've gotten in the habit, when I am craving a dessert-like substance, of peeling and slicing up a peach, then microwaving it for 1 minute or so on the medium-high setting with a little stevia and a lot of cinnamon. It's like warm, gooey peach pie filling and it's delicious.

I also had two buffalo chicken egg muffins that we made a while ago and froze. Made for a good, fast lunch. We modified this recipe from Fast Paleo to include diced jalapenos and red peppers. We also didn't cook and shred our own chicken. Ain't nobody got time for that. We used the canned stuff from Sam's Club and it tasted great.

2) Were you active and what did you do?

Yes, I went to CrossFit and it was a great 7:30 group. The workout was 10 rounds of 10 overhead kettlebell swings, 15 situps and 20 double unders. The movements were definitely in my favor, but my superhero friend (that's you, Mac) murdered everyone. You couldn't even see the rope during her double unders.

3) Did you complete the lifestyle challenge and how did it feel?

I completed it to the dissatisfaction of all two of my loyal readers. I hope I am making up for it now.

4) Did you cheat/lie?

No. But I am cheating/lying as I am writing this, so tune in tomorrow.

5) How do you feel?

CHRISTMAS IS COMING! CHRISTMAS IS COMING!  That's obviously false but exactly represents how I feel about the upcoming wedding this weekend. Just like Christmas, I've made a list, checking it twice, for my day of gluttony. It sits on a whiteboard outside of my office cube as a reminder of what I can look forward to. Here it is:

Also like Christmas, I have to remind myself not to cheat this close to the epic cheat day. "Christy, you can't buy that Barbie now, because what if santa gets it for you for Christmas?" That was exactly the mentality of the fiancé and I at dinner this week when the waiter waved the saliva-inducing dessert tray in front of us.

Cumulative deductions: 13