Midweek Check-In and The Battle Against The Holiday Creep

Well, I’m finally rolling on DOTH again.   Chances are good that I won’t finish by my self imposed deadline of the 8th (the 1 year mark), which is really not a big deal other than the notion of taking more than a YEAR on a single book (even a seriously long single book) makes me a little bit crazy.  But it is what it is.  I’m still chugging along and should finish SOON, in some form or fashion.  Merry Christmas to my CPs…

Once that goes out, I’ll be diving back into Riven again to make up the last however many thousand words I need to write for the year to make the WIP500 goal of 183k.  Presently I lack just under 19k.  With 26 days left in the month, I’m feeling pretty confident about this goal.  I’ll also be moving forward in a big way on the plotting of my next project, which I’m super excited about (and hope to find generally simpler and easier to write than DOTH has been–my brain needs a break!).

On the Operation GIT front things are…not going well.  I got up the guts to weigh this morning for the first time since end of October.  I knew my jeans were a bit tighter, but I underestimated the Holiday Creep.  I’ve got one of those fancy pants scales that allegedly tells you your body fat.  I weighed after my workout and about stroked out at the percentage body fat it quoted me.  Did it again after my shower and while the weight stayed the same, the body fat percentage (owing to the fresh hydration) was massively lower.  I ended up splitting the difference as my body fat estimate for my records.  Either way, I’ve gained weight and we’re only halfway through the holiday season.  If I don’t want to start 2013 bumping up against the next 10s (which I haven’t seen in 3 years), then I’ve got some SERIOUS work to do.

First up, I must get my appetite and portions back under control.   This is an issue for me all year, but particularly at holidays.  I enjoy good food and I’m not good at limiting myself outside my own home (and there is lots of eating outside my house during the holidays).  So it’s back to measuring and counting calories.  I’m going to bump my budget down about 100 calories.  Not a lot, and invariably I’m going to go over on the days when there are holiday festivities, but slightly lower budgets on the off days should help balance that out.

I need to build more muscle.  I’ve been back to lifting weights twice a week for…IDK, about three months now I guess.  It’s time to bump that up to 3 and do an ABA, BAB split.  Hello Saturday workouts!

It’s back to lunchtime workouts.  This is probably the single biggest thing that ends up helping me year round, helping me burn usually around 500 additional calories a week for just a brief 15-20 minute workout on my lunch hour.  I’ve been blowing it off for the last month or two so I could FINISH THE DAMN BOOK.  So no more of that.  If I’m home for lunch (which I am usually 4 out of 5 workdays), it’s back to the lunchtime workout.

I’ve got a mini stair stepper that lives in my office at work.  I need to start pulling it out again.  I had good success with this a few years ago (when I bothered to stick to it), doing mini workouts a few times a day, either 5 minutes every hour (for a cumulative total of about 30 minutes at the end of the day after meetings and phone calls and things I can’t stop for), or a session in the morning and a session in the afternoon.  I think I’ll start with the latter and shoot for 10 minute sessions for my break.  Or walks with my coworker on non rainy days.  She moved offices about six weeks ago, and now that she’s not right next door, we haven’t been walking like we used to.  We need to rectify that.

So I’ve got just over 2 weeks to employ all that before I’m properly OFF for the holidays for  2 weeks (yes, the joys of working for a university–it is awesome!).  Once I’m HOME, I can kick up the workouts in a big way because I’ll just flat have more time.

I know better than to set a specific weight loss goal for this time period, though I’d really LIKE to say I’ll lose the weight I’ve put on since Halloween.  So instead, I’ll just commit to kicking up the healthy and sticking to the things I know work for me, ending the year on a good, healthy habit note.

2 thoughts on “Midweek Check-In and The Battle Against The Holiday Creep

  1. You have just inspired me (& reminded me) to add a proper SCALE to my bday / xmas wish list. I keep putting off purchasing one, since it’s not really a “necessary” expenditure, but it’s the perfect item to buy for myself this month. Thanks for that! — oh, & good luck with your goals! 🙂

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.