#75Hard: The First Two Weeks

I have made it through the first two weeks of #75Hard. If you are not sure what I am talking about check out this post about my 75Hard journey.

Let’s look at all the mandates of the challenge and see how each one is going rather than me babbling on with no where to go. I will do that later in the post.

Just to add a little side note about this post. By the time I actually completed

Workouts:

As mentioned in the previous post, everyday there needs to be 2 workouts, one outside, spaced 3 hours apart and one must be done outside. With this current heat wave, trust me when I say the outdoors have been a struggle. Heart condition, swelling, all that fun stuff really likes to come out and play in the humid heat. Anyway, that is neither here nor there. It’s been rough, but going out at night has definitely helped.

This part of the challenge has not been terribly difficult, other than the aforementioned heat issues. I was already basically doing two a days and one was usually outside. I tweaked the timing and voila, it worked out. Not including my teaching or training other individuals in my workouts is perfect. I decided rather than try to do the 3 hour spacing from my teaching or leading classes, I would time it to be three hours from my first workout. Which logically makes sense but part of me thought maybe I was cheating the experience of 75 Hard by doing so, but there is literally not enough hours in the day to make that happen.

On days where I am not weight training, because those muscles still need a rest day, my friends, challenge or no, I did an hour of yoga for one and I did about 45 minutes of heavy bag training. Yesterday I double walked and did an ab class for 30 minutes.

The ab workout has been a bit of an issue for me somehow. I keep forgetting to add it in and end up doing ten minutes of abs work before bed. At least I am getting it in, but I would like it to flow more naturally. By the end of my lifting sessions, I am exhausted and forget. Going to have to push the abs a little more. Only because I like doing abs. I have several compound movements that work my abs anyway, so there is not a “need” for me to focus on my abs training, but I do find that it helps my back and strengthens my control when doing my martial arts training.

Diet:

I have not cheated, there has been no alcohol, no chocolate (other than protein powder), no pastries, cakes or cookies, etc. Granted I was following this before, but still let’s enjoy the moment of success. I have kept my calories under 1650, actually closer to 1500. I did start to split my meals up. I am now doing 5 meals every day to avoid some stomach/digesting issues I have been dealing with. (Not related to this challenge, but the challenge made it clearer.)

Water:

4 Liters every day, at least for the last ten days. What have I noticed? I pee a lot. Like a lot a lot. I have had to pause my walks to take care of things. I thought I had the timing down but looks like no!

I find myself chugging down one litre of water at a time. I am pretty sure this kind of goes against the idea behind the water, like it should be drank consistently throughout the day. This is working for me and I am keeping it going.

Reading:

I actually forgot how much I enjoy reading before bed. I struggled with focusing solely on the reading. I “need” background noise. My heart ticking is very annoying to listen to. I don’t think I have discussed my mechanical valve here yet, we will. Anyway, constant ticking noise in my head. I made an effort and have successfully read without adding in background noise, like a podcast or music. Ten pages is a great number, a few days I read more. It’s been wonderful. I managed to complete my first book and am now looking for a second one. I am sure there are a few on my shelf however I am thinking I will check out my local bookstore to see what they may have.

Daily Progress Picture

I have taken an image every day. Usually at the gym, a few times I completely forgot and had to do it from home (very bad lighting and not a large mirror). I don’t think I will be posting these until the end of the challenge. I think it will be far more dramatic in a before and after style of progress picture. I may change my mind, we’ll see.


Some Thoughts So Far

I managed to gain weight the first week. How? Who the f*ck knows? I am thinking it was the increased water intake combined with humidity. It was actually a significant number like over 2 kg over the course of a day. It has since evaporated or whatever, and weight loss has since continued. I cannot possibly explain to you have frustrating that was. Rationally, I understand fluctuations are normal and increased water intake, humidity, and cardiac patient usually equals weight gain from water retention. But when the scale goes up, all attempts at rational thought tend to fly out the window. I even had moments of “should I decrease my calories even more?” I did not because that would be a first class ticket to coocoo town. I don’t like visiting there.

Speaking of calories, I am actually thinking mine are too low. But because of that weight gain, I cannot tell what the trend is. So I am going to continue watching. Ideally, I want to only be dropping body fat and not start eating into my muscle mass. I have far less room to play with lower calories than I did when I started this journey. In looking at my calculated TDEE, (not completely accurate, by the way, you have to do your own experimenting to really get proper insight) I should be consuming something like 750 calories more than I am currently eating. Since TDEE calculators are not super accurate I am not going to change just yet. I will be watching the scale to see, I would like to avoid losing more than 1 kg a week.

So let’s take a moment to get a little personal… The constipation is a real issue. I don’t understand it. I am drinking tons of water, getting lots of fibre and still things are not on track. They are stuck in the track. I am at a loss in what to do here. I have changed my eating so that I am eating more frequently.

I have not been doing any IG story check-ins, cause I am a bad person. This week I will start. I don’t really want to load up my feed with just 75Hard stuff, and this seems like a great opportunity to learn how to use stories. Yes, I am an old lady. I don’t know how social media works.


Summaries from the Last Two Weeks

I know these are not too exciting at the moment, working on my excitement skills as we speak.

See you in the next one.

Nic

Day 7, 8, and 9: Where is this energy coming from?

Week 4 Day 1 and 2

I don’t know if it is my insane coffee consumption (I have always drank large amounts of coffee) but I have so much energy. Despite not eating for, I think yesterday was just about at the 24 hour mark, I managed to teach 90 minutes worth of karate classes, 60 minutes of kickboxing, on top of a 45 min jog-walk session and 30 minutes of my own karate practice. I did not feel lethargic, I was pumped. Honestly, could have done another class. Not quite sure how this is happening, perhaps it took this long for the increased protein to kick in when I changed it last Monday. (See Week 3 and 4 Goals) Or if maybe the majority of my protein coming from plant-based foods. I really am amazed with myself.

Checklist:

TaskSundayMondayTuesday
Karate30 mins120 mins135 mins
Steps13,92311,03117,714
StrengthKettlebells
StretchingFailSlightnone
Walk7.2km (indoors)4.4km (indoor, jog-walk intervals)9.4km (outdoors) however my watch seems to think I travelled a different route, so… guessing closer to 7.5 or 8km.
Water1,2502,2502250
Fasted20h26h21h
Protein34% (plant-based)36% (plant-based)35%
Carb42%39%40%
Fat24%25%25%
Yay or Nay

I planned this week to be far more structured where the water and my personal karate training are concerned. Failed on the water right out of the gate… ooops. This is all for a Monday start. However, karate was good. I now have much clearer daily objectives, which makes things much easier for me. I will likely write a post about it in the near future.

For water, I have now set alarms on my phone to go off every 2 hours between 7h00 and 13h00. In theory, each alarm means I should start a 750mL and have finished the previous one. Fingers crossed this does the trick! I failed yet again on Tuesday but I blame that on my brilliant idea of walking back home from an appointment, in the snow, that was not cleared, for almost 2 hours.

Tuesday is normally my kettlebell day. I ran out of time, between the walk and the shovelling there was just not enough time to get home before curfew. I will make up for it on Wednesday.


Learn About This Week’s Goals

Week 3 and 4 Plan

Week 3 and 4 Plan

Read

Day 3, Tuesday Teaching and Early Starts

Lessons learned yesterday. Start getting your steps in earlier in the day so you are not pacing in circles (unless you like pacing, you do you). Since I have a bunch of work that will need me to be sitting, the goal today is to get an outdoor walk in this morning. I will be saving my stretching for after my Kettlebell workout. I also have 2 classes to teach and a practice to lead. So time is most definitely not on my side.

Continue reading “Day 3, Tuesday Teaching and Early Starts”

Day 2, Monday is for Motivation?

Week 1 Day 2

Well all see them #motivationMonday quotes and pictures, and tips and tricks, oh my. I have a love hate relationship with Motivation Mondays, some times, my favourite thing and I am all in. Other days they just seem like a slap in the face or some sort of attempt at selling me the latest fad diet craze, protein smoothie thing.

Continue reading “Day 2, Monday is for Motivation?”