And, here’s my first post on this blog of a weekly summary! So, lemme take you through it. Besides the dates …
First up is the summary of food. For the week as a whole, I averaged 1728 calories of my 1740 goal, so I was within 1%. My goal of a 30/35/35 fat / carbs / protein split was close, though I was a bit high on carbs. Snacking was bad this week, I need to remember that I have foods for snacking: Ice pops (15 calories per pop, and pickles (which I count as 0 calories)). I need to stop having that slice of bread, or that handful of cereal. Still, all things considered, this was a really good week of staying mostly on track with food. I hit my calories and all of my macros to within 5%. Actually, to within 4%. But 5% is the goal. That makes this the fifth week in a row I’ve done it, and that means that this is the longest streak I’ve ever had since I started to track, which was in 2006. So, longest streak in 14 years. That means I gave myself a 🙂 rating for food.
Next swim lane in the infographic is exercise. I list the exercises that I would do, and the 🚫 means I didn’t do it. I keep things on even if I don’t do it so I can easily flip through weeks and things line up. For stuff I did do, I have the time, rounded to the nearest half-hour. So, for example, 🕑 is two hours. I also have the approximate calories expended. Next over I have number of steps, rounded to the nearest hundred. Next is all the Apple Watch rings. And next over is the rating. I gave myself 😐 this week because, even though I did do a fair amount of exercise, it’s all cardio. I need to be doing core exercises and I need to be lifting. It’s the end of week 5, so, come on.
Third swim lane is sleep. I really need to get ≥8 hours of sleep a night, otherwise bad things happen. The last several weeks, I was very successful at that. This week, I failed twice. The first was because I was bracketed by telecons: One that ended at 2am and the next started at 9:30am. I didn’t have a choice there. The next one was I just went to bed too late and then went into work and had to leave at a certain time to make a telecon while I was in the office instead of driving. Still, I averaged 8.4 hours per night, so 🙂 on sleep.
Next are the metrics. I’m down 6.5 lbs so far for week-to-week average. I’m actually down 9.2 lbs max-to-min for when I started at the beginning of Week 1 to the lowest this week, but I’m trying to be more honest about fluctuations and do week-to-week averages. The dip in the middle of the week is great, the up on the next two days is because I was over-doing snacking. The pie chart shows what I started at with bodyfat percentage in Week 1, where the goal is (≈10%), and the green sliver is what I’ve lost since Week 1. So, I am still on track with losing 0.7% of my body weight per week, so I’d still say that this week got 🙂 for measurements.
Finally, at the bottom, I mention my goal, and then I have a bar for points. I was a member of the John Stone Fitness Forum (now defunct) for 15 years, and something in the old days was that John would post a monthly “100 point challenge.” You chose what your goals were and what you would lose points for, and you started at 100 points, and tried for the month to stay high.
I’m all about tracking things and giving ratings and points, but I wanted a weekly system, and I wanted it based on my specific goals. So, I can range anywhere from –100 to +100 points. I start the week at –86 points.
- I can get to –100 if I nap too much: I’m allowed to nap 4 times, but only 1 of those can be ≥2 hours. So, I can lose 14 more points if I nap too much.
- I get 1.75 points per day that I weigh myself and record it. Negative that for days I don’t.
- 4.75 points for measuring and recording my bodyfat percentage. Negative that for if I don’t.
- Up to 2 points per night for getting ≥8 hours of sleep. Fewer points based on a second-order polynomial for getting fewer hours, and it can go negative if I get ≤4 hours of sleep in a night.
- 3 points per day that I track my food during that day, including all calories. This is critical because I have found that even if I just write down what I eat and fill in the calories later, I over-eat. I have to record the calories to stay within my goal. Negative that for days I don’t.
- 0.5 points per day for hitting each: ≤105% calories, ≤105% fat, ≤105% carbs, and ≥90% protein. Negative that for days I don’t. The reason this is not a trivial component and it’s to be done daily is that I tend to get into a nasty habit: I will have a bit extra on Sunday or Monday, or when work was open on Wednesday, and then by Friday and Saturday I’d only be allowed 50% of my carbs and have to eat 150% of my protein to make it for the week. Repeatedly. This way, trying to stay at my goals daily prevents that sort of Current Me hating on T-6 Day Me for eating too much popcorn or whatnot.
- 2 points per day that I do at least 15 minutes of stretching or core exercises, or cardio like rowing (full body) if I have already done the cardio for the day. This is supposed to be every day, so it’s +2 per day I do it, +1 if I do <15 minutes, and –2 if I don’t do it.
- 2.5 points per day I do weights, up to 3 times per week, for at least 30 minutes each. Half that if it’s less than 30 minutes, and negative that if I don’t do it. No extra points for doing more.
- And, 2.5 points for doing ≥40 minutes of cardio per day, up to 5 times per week. Half that if I do <40 minutes, and negative if I don’t do it. No extra points for doing more.
So … complicated? Yes. Why all the weird values like 4.75, or 0.5, or 2.5? It’s to get a relative scaling that I place on things and also get it to sum to +100 if I do everything I’m s’posed to. So, exercise is worth up to 34 points. Hitting calories and macros is worth up to 14 points because day-to-day doesn’t matter too much, but overall is important. Meanwhile, tracking food is critically important to me, as mentioned above, so that’s why it’s worth a whopping 21 points. Sleep is worth up to 14 points, while doing weight measurements daily and bodyfat measurements weekly is worth 17 points, since I tend to get into a habit of if I don’t like the numbers, I won’t write them down … but 6 months later I’ll look back and wish I had more data to work with.
So, it’s been kinda useful and if nothing else it’s a nice visual scorecard of how I’ve done that week.
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