Last week, I didn’t mention in the New Year resolution that I am also doing a challenge for 75 days. New Year resolution isn’t the challenge, though; the resolution was just a habit of tracking aspects of life that I would like to improve. That was discussed last week. I am doing the challenge with a few friends. The traditional one goes like this.

  • Follow some diet?
  • 2 times 45 minutes workout: one outside
  • Drink 3.5 litres of water.
  • Read 10 pages a day
  • Take progress pictures

I have modified mine to my liking:

  • Follow what I consider to be a healthy diet. Be below 8000 kj/2000 calories a day. No eating out, no alcohol, no vaping
  • No sedentary days and go to the gym 6 days a week. A sedentary day is when no gym, no cardio and under 10,000 steps walked
  • Wake up between 6:30 am and 7:00 am. Try your hardest to get 8 hours; get at least 7 hours.
  • Read 10 pages a day, or write 200 words in a journal or blog
  • Take progress pictures: Check my Instagram
  • Meditate 15 minutes a day.

It has been 1 week since the challenge started, and here is my progress.

Diet

This has been good; I haven’t consumed any unhealthy meals. I feel I have set my protein goals too high, at 150 grams. It is difficult to achieve eating under 8,000 kj a day. I also think I am eating a lot more than I usually do. Maybe I eat a lot more junk food and take-outs, adding to the surplus. I always thought perhaps I had metabolic damage, but it would be exciting to see what happens when I actually track the energy intake.

In terms of diet, my routine has been:

  • Morning: Eggs and fruits
  • Afternoon: Varies depending on leftover dinner
  • Night: Mostly chicken breast, but salmon and steak on a few days

My girlfriend is coming back, and she is a vegetarian, so I would have to redefine my diet. But again, as an aspiring vegetarian, this will give me an indication that I can get fit more efficiently with a vegetarian diet. The general structure might look like this:

  • Morning: Overnight protein oats, some fruits
  • Afternoon: Eggs omelette, fruits, maybe protein shake
  • Night: Some protein base (tofu, paneer, beans, fake meat), vegetables and a tiny carb base (rice).

Extra protein shake/bar if I am severely under.

Exercise

Although one of my resolutions was to keep doing cardio, it has been more neglected than I want it to be. Most of the cardio I do is 15 minutes of elliptical at the end of the gym session and daily walks. I have not begun running yet. My knee and hamstring are hurting a bit more because of the increase in the frequency of workouts, so I might postpone running until I get slightly lighter or fitter.

In terms of the gym, I have now completed six sessions of push, pull, and legs. Push has been feeling really weak because of my recent elbow injury, but it has not been that bad. The gym has been going really good, and I knew it would because I generally enjoy strength training. I also played pickleball today and do want to play a lot more of it.

Sleep

I am probably getting an average of 7.5 hours of sleep, at least according to my Apple Watch. I go to bed slightly later, around 10:30, most days, and wake up almost always at 6:30 to go for a walk. One thing I have noticed is that I have a delay between waking up and getting out of bed. I usually go on my phone and browse the net or something. I want to stop doing that. It takes away about 15 minutes.

Other than that, sleep has been going well.

Mind

First, meditation has been very easy. I meditate for 15 minutes every morning. Some sessions are more focused, others are distracted, but I am consistently doing it.

Journaling/writing has also been great; I write about something every day, usually at night before sleep. Been pretty interesting. Some ideas are like these big ideas like the ones I wrote a few blogs ago. The Faith for The Faithless

Reading has been the one that has been kicked to the curb. Here are the reasons and possible solutions:

My current book is not enjoyable. I started reading Plato’s Republic, but it’s not that enjoyable. Maybe it’s the version I am reading. Anyway, I decided to switch to a genre of book I tend to naturally read: pop-sci. I am now reading Chaos by James Gleick.

I think I am wasting too much time near dinner time and right after I wake up. I could be more diligent about this.

Conclusion

I have been doing really well. My weight loss rate in kg/day hasn’t been great. So far, my weight has only fluctuated throughout the day, as expected. But let’s see what happens long term. One thing about tracking things is I get to dial the knob, and we get along based on the results. I will go 2-3 weeks with this amount of calories and then re-evaluate.

I think overall lesson I learnt from week 1 is:

  • Tracking things makes it easier to experiment
  • My elbow does hurt during some workouts, but its tolerable
  • I am not ready for running yet, but I will incorporate once I am lighter
  • I can’t leave reading to last minute.

Ill post again for week 2 update next week.