I have to be honest with myself, week 5 has been the worst one, in terms of adherence so far. Not only did I bottom out scores on two categories, but I was about fed up with the dietary restrictions of the nutritarian diet as well.
Goal 1: Eat a strict nutritarian diet (A)
Yes I still aced the diet restriction. It’s the one thing that I can really hold on to this entire time, and it is the foundation of this entire challenge. I highlighted how it was getting annoying last week when I’m eating out. This week it was down right infuriating. I had three events that lasted many hours long, all social. I rightfully expected none of them to really allow me any chance for eating, so I pre-flighted each of them. So I enjoyed myself and the company well enough as if I had been participating, but I really wanted to try all of the stuff around me. One was a beer and wine festival, complete with lots of different food booths. I had to subsist on water the entire time. The last two weeks of attending events like that make it clear to me that without cheat days built in there is no way eating this way is sustainable for my lifestyle. I like food. I like sampling things. The problem is when the sampling of things becomes the daily ritual. I’m suffering through yet more of this bullshit for another weekend, but after the challenge I’m opening up the “Free Days” concept full force. I’m already planning my first free day for next weekend to celebrate being done with this challenge.
Goal 2: Sleep at least 7 hours (B+)
I slipped a bit more this week on the sleep. I just had too much work to do that kept me up late but still had an early wakeup call. On one of those days I was able to make up some of that with a nap, but I squarely didn’t get my full seven hours in each day.
Goal 3: Walk (and/or Run) for a total of at least 10,000 steps (A-)
This goal has gotten a lot better this week. I didn’t actually hit 10,000 steps each day, but I did crank up the amount of gym work I have been doing. Some of it is running, but I’m adding a lot of cycling and swimming into the mix. That is, a lot by my standards. They don’t count towards steps, but they do count towards the reason why I put this goal in the first place–to get my butt moving. So on days I worked out at least half an hour I gave myself credit for up to 5000 steps. It worked out well.
Goal 4: Do at least 5 minutes of calisthenics (C-)
I slipped a bit on this front, sadly. I had hoped to do more but I just dropped the ball. Next to the yoga score though it held pretty stable
Goal 5: Do at least 15 minutes of yoga (F)
Yes, F. Out of all the scores from the very beginning this one has suffered the most. Part of it could hypothetically be schedule based. By the way I’ve been working my schedule I just didn’t have time in the morning or evening for the 15 minutes. It’s a bullshit excuse though. There are more meditative yoga routines I could do so that I could do it right before bed. As with the calisthenics it’s just me being a bit lazy about it.
Summary (Overall grade B-):
Things aren’t looking too good for the Gipper. My score for the last three weeks that I’ve been tracking numerically have gone down each one. As I round into the final week I really want to end strong and land an A across the board. I know I’m going to be pressed hard at work which will mean I may have to ditch sleep to land other things. Hopefully I can square that away. As much as I like eating the nutritarian approach most of the time, doing so in social settings with a zero tolerance policy is just far too frustrating for me. I’m looking forward to adding in the slack that one is supposed to after six weeks. I’m also looking forward to adding in some cheat days each month, in a systematic way. More on that later…