Wow, I haven’t updated this in forever. This sheet is from the week of April 3-April 9. I went to the beach for that Friday, Saturday and part of Sunday, so that’s why I didn’t put anything down for those days.

Then I ended up not keeping a sheet last week and I don’t think I’ll keep one this week either. I’ve had a lot going on, which isn’t a very good excuse but I can’t say that going to the library to print out a new standards sheet has been a really high priority.

I also haven’t been exercising that much. I’ve been running a lot, but have only been to the gym a few times. I’ve been pretty good about push-ups but sit-ups have been really boring lately. I think it may be cyclical, because last summer I remember saying that push-ups were getting really boring and that I was loving sit-ups.

So far, I think this is shaping up to be one of the best months ever. I wish I had been more diligent about recording everything. I’m going to try to do this from memory so I’m sure I’ll miss something, but here’s what I’ve done this month (chronological order):

• I don’t remember if this was in April or not (I didn’t record it previously), but I had dinner at Portobello with B and it was one of the best dinners I’ve had in Portland.
• Watched the Final 4 at Claudia’s
• Went to Rocky Horror at Clinton Street for the first time
• Had a great Thai dinner courtesy of The Intrepid Herbivores who I met at Portobello and on Kickstarter
• Sat in the 100s for a Blazers game for the first time (free!) but they lost
• Went to the beach and rode bumper cars for the first time
• Saw Francis and the Lights
• Went to Wolf Haven. I can’t recommend this entirely because it is a 2hr. ride to the middle of nowhere, but the wolves are pretty cool.

Anyway, that’s been my month so far. I don’t think I’ve had a single bad day so far. It’s felt pretty great. Even working, getting sick and paying my taxes hasn’t been able to slow me down. Everything’s coming up Paul!

This weekend, even though I’m going to be very busy, I’m going to make time to print out a new sheet so I can get back on track. Maybe I’ll try printing out a few weeks worth of sheets at a time and see how that goes.

10:06 pm  •  18 April 2011

I was really lazy last week and didn’t post.

Things to Remember (3/20-3/26)

• Tuesday - Poker game
• Thursday - Watched the Gators beat BYU at Claudia’s.

Things to Remember (3/27-4/2)

• Monday - Went to S’s reading at Powells
• Wednesday - Played toepen with M and B
• Saturday - Watched the Final 4 at Claudia’s then went to Rocky Horror at Clinton Street.

Working has definitely made it harder to find time to do interesting things.

This week my back was really sore for a few days so I skipped sit-ups and push-ups. It’s feeling better now so I think this next week should be better.

Not a whole lot to say about this week. Hopefully next week will be more interesting.

1:28 pm  •  3 April 2011

I just did the first ever chin-up of my life, hanging from the shower curtain rod in my bathroom.

This is seriously the most exciting thing that has happened to me in years. I have never done one in my life, ever, until now. When I was in high school, my dad (who was insanely good at them until he hurt his shoulder) put me through a program he came up with and I never even came close.

I hadn’t even tried one in maybe 6 or 8 months. For some reason I felt like giving it a shot tonight and made it! Everything’s coming up Paul!

10:58 pm  •  21 March 2011

Overall this week was very up and down. More ups than downs I guess, which is good.

I definitely don’t like going to bed early or getting up early. Not once did I manage to get up at my 7:00AM alarm to work or exercise. It made it a challenge to fit in both after work, but I managed.

I did much better at exercising this week. I missed one day of cardio (but I did bike 10 miles that day) and skipped one day of push-ups and two days of sit-ups. Definite improvement. I also set a new personal best on the elliptical machine on Monday. I did 5500 steps in 30 minutes (cross-country setting). I believe my old high was 5300 or so.

Things to Remember

• Sunday - None
• Monday - Elliptical record and played online euchre with J1
• Tuesday - Went to the Blazers game with A
• Wednesday - Had dinner with J2
• Thursday - Gators win!
• Friday - None
• Saturday - New haircut, Gators win again, saw Blue Valentine with K

I’m going to stick to this same sheet for at least the rest of the month, which I am now realizing isn’t too much longer. Then I’ll make some changes based on my first month of working again.

1:48 pm  •  20 March 2011

OK, it is official. It’s going to take me longer than a week to get used to working full-time again. I really didn’t work (editing job) or exercise enough, and was just tired all week.

I think I need to reevaluate my Standards sheet. It is too open to interpretation without enough specific set goals. So I took a few of the more difficult standards off, set a better, more specific exercise schedule, set bed and wake-up times and am hoping that those changes make a difference in the coming week.

Things to Remember

• Sunday - Had brunch at Sweetpea with B
• Monday - Had dinner and dessert from Blossoming Lotus with L (also cake)
• Thursday - Played a bunch of Euchre at L2’s house with the old game night gang.

Not really a whole lot else to say. Hopefully next week will be better.

5:35 pm  •  13 March 2011

Things to Remember

• Sunday - Went to an Oscar party and won the pool!
• Monday - Free Thermals show and bingo with L, B, C & M
• Tuesday - Made dinner for K1& A
• Wednesday - Sharpened knives for J, ate soup, cookies and watched a movie
• Thursday - Started my new job
• Friday - Nothing recorded
• Saturday - Saw King’s Speech with K2 and went to Lovecraft

Ugh, sit-ups are getting to be more annoying than taking medicine. Push-ups are still fun, even though I had to take 2 days off because my arm was really sore.

I started a new temporary job this week. It was a pretty big shock to my system to switch to such a structured schedule after nearly a year of complete freedom. I think it’s very difficult to not eat after 9 while working full time. I’m pushing it back until 10 this week and will see how that goes.

Also last week, I removed “No junk before 4PM.” I don’t think it’s as necessary as it once was and just felt like it was adding clutter to my routine.

My dream journaling experiment is really fun. I used to think the most interesting thing about dreams were the people in them. Now, I think the settings of my dreams are fascinating and the things I notice most. Some are places that I’ve been, some combine multiple places (like step out a door in one place into a second), some are places I’ve never been and some are places that as far as I know don’t exist. I really like waking up in the morning and typing as fast as I can so I don’t forget anything. I really don’t re-read them that often, but I definitely have improved recall of my dreams now, even days later.

I started weighing myself again this week. Down about 7 or 8 pounds from earlier in January. I’ll keep tracking this for the time being just to see if any trends emerge. Weekly calorie counts:

• Sunday - 1430 plus snacks at Oscar party
• Monday - 1225
• Tuesday - 1950 plus macaroni and cheese (vegan)
• Wednesday - 1560 plus soup and cookies
• Thursday - 2035
• Friday - 2065
• Saturday - 1315 plus macaroni and cheese (again)

Total - 11,580 plus 4 uncounted meals, 15,580

I think I’m overestimating my calories out but since I don’t have a good way to calculate them, it’ll have to do.

5:35 pm  •  6 March 2011

Things to Remember

• Sunday - Helped M1 move into his new apartment
• Monday - Went to bingo with B1, C1 and M2. Won a $35 blackout and ended up +$21 on the night
• Tuesday - Made chili. Swapped some with J1 for cupcakes. A and Y also came over for some.
• Wednesday - Watched the Blazers/Lakers game with M1.
• Thursday - Went to yoga and on a bike ride with L. Also watched CSI with B2 & I
• Friday - Had lunch at the food carts with C2. Went to Drive Angry 3D with K, J2 and R
• Saturday - Forgot to write this down, but I made black and white cookies for the Oscar party tomorrow then went to the Ted Leo show at backspace. Basically everyone I know was there so I won’t bother with the initials.

I did pretty poorly on sit-ups this week. I don’t know how to keep them interesting (doing 500 gets pretty monotonous). They really have helped with yoga though. Basically anything that requires a lot of core strength I am really good at. Anything that requires flexibility I’m really bad at.

I didn’t work very much either. This has been a February pattern for me. I think it’s the shorter month. I tend to take an equal number of days off every month (because I’m just that lazy) but with only 28 days total, I don’t have the extra days I need to catch up.

I’ve also gotten more flexible with not eating after 9! It’s very easy to slip when someone comes over after 9, or if I’m out late and have a quick snack after I get home.

Calorie Counts

• Sunday - 1980
• Monday - 1955
• Tuesday - 2320
• Wednesday - 2365
• Thursday - 650 (plus snack after yoga and piece of carrot cake for dessert)
• Friday - 715 (plus sandwich at food cart, peanut butter cup for dessert, olive and pepper plate for dinner, and a bit of an Indian food cart meal)
• Saturday - 1140 (plus the remainder of the Indian food cart meal)

Total - 11,125 + 3 meals out (rough estimate based on quantity of food eaten) = 14,125

Again, right around 2,000 a day. It’s probably a bit lower but I can’t come up with a good estimate for the food I ate while out and my standard calculation is 1,000 calories per meal out. I’ll start weighing myself at the gym on Tuesday. I’m very curious.

Edit:

I forgot to talk about writing down my dreams. It went really well for the most part. There were two days when I woke up and couldn’t remember anything (interestingly, they were both on days following nights when I ate after 9 PM).

The rest of the week I had pretty good recall. My system was to wake up, grab my keyboard and start typing before I could forget anything. On the advice of K, I wrote in the present tense, which is supposed to help trigger memory.

I tend to be pretty open about most aspects of my life, but dreams feel really private and I won’t be putting them online (at least for now). Maybe I’ll become more comfortable with it over time.

10:40 am  •  27 February 2011

alyhancock:

Currently reading: Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers

by Robert M. Sapolsky

..how stress affects sleep and addiction, as well as new insights into anxiety and personality disorder and the impact of spirituality on managing stress.

so good.

Just bought this for my kindle based on your description. Stress, addiction, anxiety and personality disorders are some of my favorite topics.

(via alyhancock-deactivated20120316)

1:56 pm  •  24 February 2011  •  9 notes

Things to Remember

• Sunday - Watched the Blazers game with A at the Spirit of 77, made pizza for dinner
• Monday - Made soup
• Tuesday - Got my bike fixed
• Wednesday - Played ping pong with J and M
• Thursday - Went for a trail run up by the zoo, watched CSI (Bieber!) with B & I
• Friday - Watched a few movies with K
• Saturday - Made cookies

I kept up with my exercises pretty well, even though I didn’t do too many sit-ups. I slept through my yoga class on Thursday but I ended up going for a run instead to make up for it.

I started writing down my dreams which has been fun. I added it to my sheet for this coming week so I’ll have some level of accountability.

It is really really hard to keep track of calories when I bake. I eat so much dough and little pieces of chocolate that I think my numbers this week are off by maybe as much as 500-700 calories.

• Sunday - 1960
• Monday - 2070
• Tuesday - 1960
• Wednesday - 2365
• Thursday - 2445
• Friday - 1050 + 1 meal out
• Saturday - 1895

Total - 13,745 + 1,000 (meal out) + 700 (estimated miscellaneous) = 15,445

This is definitely my highest average yet at just about 2,200 calories a day. I think this still represents a caloric deficit based on my size and activity level. I haven’t weighed myself recently, but will start again in a week or two.

3:10 pm  •  20 February 2011

I was really lazy this week and decided to take a week off from Standards. I really slacked off in a lot of ways and it felt good to have a bit of a break, but at the same time I realized how much I need something to focus on to fill my time.

I am doing this from memory, so if I interacted with you in a meaningful way and forgot I’m sorry! Email me and I’ll add it. Because so many initials are the same I’m going to start using numbers to differentiate between people. The number is not based on any kind of ranking system, just the order that they showed up in the list).

Things to Remember

• Sunday - Still at the beach. Watched the Super Bowl and cleaned up (in the gambling rather than housekeeping sense)
• Monday - Rode back from the beach with D1, K1, D2 and M1. Stopped at Skyline Burger. Also stopped briefly at the flight museum for another peek at the Spruce Goose. Went to bingo at The Woods with B1, L1, and M2.
• Tuesday - Took plate of treats to A at Backspace. Had a soy latte (rare treat) and bought new jeans.
• Wednesday - Helped J&M3 move into their new house. Had lunch at Portobello with B1.
• Thursday - Went to yoga and on a bike ride with L2. Watched CSI and 30 Rock with B2&I.
• Friday - K2 came over and we made pizza and watched Freaks and Geeks. Then went out to see No Strings Attached (not as good as Tangled but still good).
• Saturday - Went to a show at backspace (courtesy of A) with L2.

I also may have spoken too soon about my achilles. It alternated between very tight and kind of tight for most of the week. Yoga seemed to help a lot as did some new stretching exercises I looked up on the Internet. I don’t feel like it’s worth it to cut back on any exercises yet, but I will if it doesn’t improve soon. I’m thinking it might be shoe-related since I checked my records and my current sneakers are about a year old. I ordered some new shoes online so I’ll see if that helps any.

Also, just this morning I reached 100 push-ups in only 2 sets!

12:50 pm  •  13 February 2011

Since I didn’t do a full week of Standards (yay beach vacation!), I’ll just throw my calorie count into this post.

• Sunday - 805 + Sweetpea brunch
• Monday - 1968
• Tuesday - 2095
• Wednesday - 1920
• Thursday - 930 + 1/2 Blossoming Lotus lasagna + Whole Foods miso cabbage salad + rice krispie dessert

Total - 7,718 + 2 meals out = 9,918

The counts this week aren’t very accurate at all (I’d estimate I undercounted by up to 7.5%) because I made so many desserts and licked the heck out of the spoons. Those little spoonfuls of fudge and cookie dough and toffee trimmings can really add up.

I didn’t track anything on Friday or Saturday. I spent most of Friday and all of Saturday at the beach eating like CRAZY. I had so much food, it was out of control. Since getting back yesterday afternoon, it has been hard to reign in my appetite.

I went shopping for new jeans today and am down 2” from the last pair I bought in March of last year.

Things to Remember

• Sunday - Got comped at Sweetpea brunch in exchange for a burned disc of FNL season 5
• Monday - I bought a ton of marshmallows at Food Fight. I’ve read reviews online that say those guys are surly and have bad attitudes, but they’ve never been anything but very nice to me. I love that place!
• Tuesday/Wednesday - None recorded
• Thursday - Went to Whole Foods, Ole Ole (left because their guac has sour cream in it) and Blossoming Lotus with L. Then went and watched CSI with I&B.

I’m not sure why I didn’t check any boxes off on Thursday. Now it’s been so long that I don’t remember what exercises I did (I remember running and push-ups but I’m not sure if I did any sit-ups).

Sit-ups are getting kind of boring again. I’ll probably just do an easy week or two then get back into a more serious regimen. I like doing 100 push-ups a day though. My new short-term goal is going to get to 100 in two sets. I’ve done it once before (55/45) but not recently. My left achilles tendon has been sore lately, but I’m thinking it’s pretty minor. It’s noticeable when I run but just as a dull ache that’s easy enough to run through.

The real highlight of the week was going to the beach. I met a bunch of new people who were uniformly great. I already mentioned it once but the food was amazing.

6:39 pm  •  8 February 2011

The second week of calorie counting went a lot smoother than the first. Since I ate a lot of the same foods, there was less calculating to do. I still weighed everything, but it’s getting a lot easier to eyeball a serving.

• Sunday - 840 + Burrito out
• Monday - 1,665
• Tuesday - 1,430
• Wednesday - 1,935
• Thursday - 1,684 + Pizza (thin crust, cheeseless) out
• Friday - 2,415
• Saturday - 1,985

Total: 11,954 + 2 meals out = 13,954

It really feels like I’m eating very well, so I’m surprised that even with eating out twice a week for the past two weeks, I’m still averaging barely 2,000 calories a day. I haven’t weighed myself at all in quite awhile, but I do know that my smallest pair of pants fits better than it did a few weeks ago.

This next week will be pretty difficult, though. On Sunday (this morning) I went to Sweetpea for brunch and ate two very full plates. Then this coming weekend I’ll be at the beach and don’t see myself weighing out portions while there.

I also found out that my lentil soup recipe has far fewer calories than I thought. I was going off of the information on the recipe’s website and it turns out to be way lower. at most 175 calories per serving instead of 230-250. A significant difference, but I don’t want to bother going back and correcting my numbers now.

4:55 pm  •  30 January 2011

Things to Remember

• Sunday - Watched football with a bunch of people
• Monday - Saw Tangled 3D with K (highly recommended, especially in 3D)
• Tuesday - None recorded
• Wednesday - Gave a bunch of Sports Illustrated back issues to A, went to the Winterhawks game with I (they scored 9 goals)
• Thursday - Watched the Blazers game (they lost)
• Friday - Went to see Groundhog Day with M,L & C
• Saturday - Made soup, finally got around to taking my longjohns in by a few inches, watched a bunch of Grey’s Anatomy

I skipped working out on Friday. My building’s fire alarm went off at 3AM so I had to stumble outside in my pajamas waiting for the fire department to show up and turn it off and it threw my whole day off.

I haven’t been running much lately (only one day this week) but I still feel really good. I wish I had kept better track of my elliptical machine statistics from the past year. I remember that for most of last year, I really had to push to take 5000 strides in a half hour and often wouldn’t make that goal. For the past month or so, I’ve been hitting that mark at least 75% of the time and I think I did 5200 once.

I kept up with the calorie counting again and I’ll do another post about that.

4:35 pm  •  30 January 2011

Daily totals:

• Sunday - 1,795
• Monday - 1,893
• Tuesday - 2,130
• Wednesday - 1,212 + dinner at restaurant
• Thursday - 2,280
• Friday - 1,545 + lunch at restaurant
• Saturday - 1,770

Total: 14,625

Rather than drive myself nuts trying to calculate calories at restaurants, I’m just going to count each restaurant meal as 1,000 calories. This seems to be a fair number that balances the actual calorie count with the idea that restaurant meals should be special treats rather than everyday occurences.

Other than meals out, I think these numbers are very accurate, probably to within a few percentage points, assuming accuracy in food packaging, my digital scale and a few online databases I consulted for unlabeled (mostly fresh fruits/vegetables) items.

I definitely ate less than I would have normally. I think this is due partially to the observer effect and partially to the fact that I weighed everything I ate and tried to stick to the suggested serving sizes very closely.

I really cut down the sizes of my PBJ sandwiches. In the past I would’ve used two slices of bread (260 calories) a huge amont of peanut butter (300+) and a lot of fruit spread (45+). That ends up being a sandwich of nearly 600 calories. This week I used one slice of bread (130), a half to full serving of peanut butter depending on my hunger level (100-200 calories) and a half or full serving of fruit spread (10-25 calories). So I ended up with lots of sandwiches that were as few as 180 calories! And I really didn’t find them any less satisfying.

Never in my life have I used my hunger level to determine when to eat. I wouldn’t say I’m an emotional eater, I just eat often. It would be rare for me to go more than an hour without a snack of some kind. This week though, I really only ate enough to stop from feeling “very hungry”. I think I only felt “full” a few times during the week and only once or twice “really full.” I never felt “sickly full” which is a feeling that I’ll shamefully admit to feeling at least twice a week in the not-too-distant past.

Even with a somewhat restrictive diet, I had more than enough energy to get through every workout I wanted to without feeling tired. I never ate something I didn’t want to just because it was lower in calories. I never passed on eating something that I wanted to just becase it might have too many calories (although I definitely opted for reduced portions many times).

I also gave a lot of thought to how I cook as well. I baked tempeh instead of frying it in oil. I spent time thinking about how to trim calories from my cookie dough recipe and am really excited to try out some new reduced calorie recipes next week.

This isn’t a nutritionally ideal diet and I won’t pretend that it is. Honestly, I don’t even really know what that means. From what I’ve read on nutrition, very few people (even those who write books) have any clue as to what they’re talking about, especially when it comes to plant-based diets. I don’t want to sound too much like I’m putting down the information available, but I haven’t found a decent, readable, reliable resource. There’s just way too much folk wisdom, bad science and pandering to dieters out there.

Recording calories wasn’t as cumbersome as I imagined. I used my scale at every meal and would just tare it as I added something else to my plate. Overall, I think it added maybe 10-15 minutes a day to food prep and eating. I think it’s a good investment and definitely one that I’ll keep up for a bit.

1:53 am  •  24 January 2011

It is kind of amazing how just writing down the good things that happen makes every day seem more fun. Without a written record of what I did and what I enjoyed doing this week, it’s too easy to forget and just focus on the negative.

Here’s what I wrote down for each day this week (I use initials just in case anyone has hang-ups about privacy):

• Sunday - Saw Season of the Witch with K & R
• Monday - Bike ride with J
• Tuesday - Nothing recorded
• Wednesday - Went to a storage unit auction, had dinner with J
• Thursday - Blazer game with A & Y, plus the night’s new TV shows were awesome
• Friday - Lunch with B at Portobello, walk with J & M
• Saturday - Went to a high school production of Lord of the Flies with L & E, then went dancing at Rotture

Just looking at that list, I feel like that’s a pretty solid week.

I did skip a few days of sit-ups and I didn’t work that much, so those were a few small failures.

I did do 100 push-ups on Friday, I just didn’t write them down. I think I’m going to try for 100 a day this week and see how that goes. I’m able to knock them out pretty quick now, usually two sets of 30 and a set of 40, or one 45, one 35 and one 20, depending on how I feel. I also ran twice and felt really good both times.

Mostly though I was really excited by my calorie counting experiment. As someone who has completely changed the way I eat over the past few years, I wish I had done this sooner. I think I’ll devote a whole post to just calorie counting because I’ve got 7 notecards filled with lists of food that I ate and a lot to say about the whole thing.

11:18 am  •  23 January 2011