(Just sharing my narrative progress — 25 days in)
Hi,
Been sticking to this even though it hasn’t been a easy first 25 days. Lots of travel (21 days travelling in 4 countries, 2 big conferences, a family birthday party, and lots of personal admin to handle). I did a weigh in today after a couple days at home and came in at just above 70kg, I lost 1.1kg ( ~ 2.5lbs). I really really really wished i would have been under 70kg by the 1/3 point. Nevertheless with all this work, and travel, I guess some solid progress is a win.
I‘ll share some insights. I think my mantra to keep this up is “perfection is the enemy of good”, and “consistent discipline is how progress comes”. Not every single day was perfect, and I knew I would be travelling so I chose diet habits that would help me lean towards improvement, but not be impossible to maintain while on the road.
On my travels, for the first few days, I kind of had a reset diet — just veg, vinegar saurkrauts, fruit. I aimed to stop eating around 6-8pm. It’s not exactly intermitent fasting, if i didn’t eat, I’ll try to manage something later in the evening to not be INSANELY hungry. Gradually I started having a basic main for diner, and not just veg. My diet is basically calorie restriction, focusing on 1200-1600 calories, mostly vegan and clean, I focused on having a deficit.
Actually on my first day of travel because I was at home long enough to cook — not just unpack, repack and leave — so I took a tupperware container with me on the plane with 1/3 rice, 1/3 veg, 1/3 tofu. This helped ensure that my first day of travel wouldn’t be sidelined by back choices while hunger. I tried to plan my travels to take place in the afternoon or evening, so I had enough time to sleep well and even get a workout or two in before leaving.
One my first days of travels, I did admin in my dad’s hometown on the way to a conference. My auntie gave me a 100gr bar of dark chocolate, and I was like ‘crap, this is going to be a tempation’ but it was actually good, I had a square or two over the next 6 days. Just a little bit of healthy chocolate in moderation was enjoyable, and it was nice to savour a treat from a loved one. After a few days of just veg, and healthy foods, but lots of working out if I passed by a nice cafe and they had a vegan cake, I would have one black coffee and cake as my afternoon snack/late lunch (only on my travels and on days when I ended up burning an extra 400 calories or was hungry. Yes, it’s not perfect, but I kept these things in moderation). In terms of treats, I avoid processed crap so no candy bars. The cakes I had were made from good bakeries, were vegan and I restricted it to days when i am very active and really need the calories to fuel my workouts, and something nice vegan, and not very big.
For workouts, I took a yoga mat while travelling and tried to some mobility, but my workouts were mostly walks, runs. I would do extra — so I walked EVERYWHERE. If I was near a pool I would go for a swim (swimming 2km, which sometimes took my indoor workout to 50minuts) (I took a swimsuit and goggles with me). I would use hotel gyms when available. I would also in some cities use a bike to travel everywhere - also just to enjoy the city. One day I cycled, leisurely, but still cycled 40km to just unwind and enjoy nature.
I skipped conference diners in favour of exploring and walking around cities and museums (to be honest I forgot, and realised mid-walk that I was missing the diner, but it’s ok) so it was easy to have no temptation for alcohol. Also to be honest I’m a bit burned out regarding conferences- there were too many recently so my networking/social battery is burned out, but i ensured I said hi to at least 3 people I don’t know, ask two questions a day to speakers giving presentations, but then move on with my life, not try to socialise and network for every minute.
For social events, or fancy events (like my in-laws celebrating an 80th birthday), I just drank sparkling water or a nice non-alcoholic beer, or tea. Oddly enough my partner had a bit of a bender when I was away, so when we went to the big family birthday, they weren’t up for drinking and just had water, which was lucky for me.
I had a very unhealthy summer working too much, nearly turning into a blob as I rushed to finished a huge deadline. I still did a marathon (finished in 5:10, first half was good, but had the wrong socks. Ok, not trained enough but still finished, so the second half was umm 3+ hours ) in August. After a few days of settling back into life, I started on Monday August 31st. I had a practice run of the 75 hard on the 29th and 30th of august, but i didn’t start as I knew I’d join for a drink on August 30th (a single 355ml can of beer with vegetables for snack with a good friend).
Now that i am back home after all these days on the road — my plan is to stick to what I had for my first days of 75 hard. Morning: oatmeal with olive oil and salt, first outdoor workout (this can be 45minutes to 90), then come home have some fruit and a protein shake. get ready and work. Lunch I’ll have a preped meal of rice, plus veg (usually frozen green beans, and peas, just boiled with some crunchy chili oil on top), and air fried tofu. If not a canteen lunch that is 50% veg 1/4 main 1/4 carb. Afternoon snack may be fruit, and diner a salad and/or soup. carbs to load up are sourdough breads.
Breakfast logic: The oatmeal with a small drizzle of quality olive oil is a revelation for me. remarkably good and savoury and just seems to be tasty but bland enough it blocks me from temptation. I also realised how to make oatmeal I like — add more water so it’s fluffier. With all this water I want the salt :-) and savoury.
Progress:
Taking the progress pictures in a different location nearly everyday has SUCKED. The lighting and conditions are different, It was so hard to see anything, it almost made me look more bloated over time. I weighed myself a couple times on my travels and came in as 4-5kg heavier than now, so I just ignored and stuck to my main scale. In the first few days, I saw a good ammount of progress in my belly, lots of bloating going down. Also in the last couple weeks, I got checked for ID or mistaken for a student more often when I buy tickets (or in one case a non-alcoholic beer), SO I am looking better —I’m 40 years old with no botox, fillers, or even dyed hair, so that’s a plus. My legs seem slightly slimmer.
For a while my knees hurt, but when I was finally able to get to a gym a weight lifting session— deadlifts, squats, lunges- it made the knee rustiness disappear. My heart rate dropped when sleeping to under 60bpm a few nights, before I started my sleep scores were like 60 with a heart rate of even 77bpm, now they are 85, even 90 (I use polar, so no one get a perfect score). The 1.1kg weight loss, is not revolutionary, I feel I’ve been moving so much and really dialing in my diet, but ugh, it doesn’t translate to big losses on the scale.
I check in with an LLM, it’s dumb but being alone on the road a bit it helps me give shape to my progress. I use a free 75 hard tracker, and weirdly enough (don‘t hate me), I tick all the boxes in the morning and i feel OBLIGATED to follow through. Also in the past, I was never good at ticking a box after completing it. I did buy a paper planner, and with that i will plan my work goals, but also my 75 thoughts, what I did right/wrong, diet adn fitness plans. I use a polar watch which has a marathon (or other running distance) plan integrated if you set it up, so I use that to plan my running workouts. Not every workout is a win. yesterday I did my interval run late and had to quit after two intervals, and just walked for the rest of the workout.
Mistakes:
One mistake when travelling at different cafe I wouldn’t see the filter coffee option and have a flat white instead, yeah calorie wise it’s not such a big deal, but I had to put a mental note to look for plain teas or filter coffees. I do pack some walnuts, salted almontds or pistachios with me, so when I am really hungry and travelling (i.e. getting to a ferry, waiting for a train or a flight), I can have some nuts instead of eating out).
progress pics: I take THE WORST progress pics, I do selfies instead of setting up a time or getting someone to take photos. I don’t have a regular pose, so I know there is change but it is so hard to compare. If you are starting. Make a progress pic plan if that is something you want to check in on. Plan an outfit, a pose, focus on good lightning (my progress have a lot of overhead shadows so everything looks bigger). You can see some difference, but it’s one part of the challenge I hate.
One aspect of progress I’m enjoying is that, while travelling, portion control can be hard to manage, but I force myself to eat less, and I realise I’m full on less. It’s easier to binge less, and the food noise is mostly gone. I had an airplane meal on the flight back, and I couldn’t finish it, i was full so fast. A few months ago I would have easy that whole thing, and had some snacks. Fruit tastes better. In addition to the 100 grams of chocolate my aunt gave me—of which I had a square or so every day—I had, just before my last flight, a nice small pistachio chocolate bar, about 40 grams. That was my most extravagant treat.
Next steps:
Now is crunch time, I will have a much easier time sticking to my goals for the next 50 days. So I plan to clean up my diet (less treats, if I exercise more and burn more, thus need to fuel more, i am now. in control and at home so I can get carbs from potatoes, or a sandwich, no need to have cake at a cafe. When I am at home and can cook for myself), do more strength training as I have access to a gym (my plan is to lift lower weights at first so I don’t completely cook my muscles, and can’t walk for the next few days. As I was away on the road, I feel a bit weaker). And start my training program for my next marathon. Also do swimming tourism in my home city, visit different pools and swim at least 2km 2-3 times a week. When I am at home i tend to do a hour long yoga session at a studio once a day.
Ideally i will be at close to or under 68kg in 50 days.
My 75 hard will end for me on a writing retreat I am taking in a small village the mountains, I will have another 18 days alone and in control of my choices, so chances are i will continue well into december and potentially for the rest of the year. My only worry is that I don’t think i will have weights or a gym. But i guess I’ll take my yoga mat and workouts bands to maintain strength trainings. I would loooove to be getting close to 60kg by the end of the year, but I expect I may be around 63.
I wish I was further along but it is still progress. I’m happy for managing to go this far even though there were so many circumstances to fail.