100 Day Experiment: Day One

Consistent Tiny Goals = Magic

I did this once before.

In 2013 I took a ten-day trip to New York City with my daughter Adrienne. We went to Book Expo America and it was so much fun.

The only problem is that I came home nearly non-functional. My body hurt so badly, I struggled to get dressed by myself for months.

My first novel had just sold to Penguin and I was too sick and in too much pain to enjoy what was happening.

I was in so much pain when my daughter took this picture, I had to sit down on the steps right after.

I had to do something. That something ended up being a 100 Day Experiment. I found this calculator that helped me figure out my Total Daily Energy Expenditure. Here’s what I came up with:

What that calculator said was that my body was using 2284 calories a day at total rest. That’s no eating, no showering, no moving at all. And that even with zero activity put into the equation, my body was burning 3506 calories a day.

I went into a little tailspin at first. No way. NO WAY I was eating that much. Clearly, my metabolism was broken. Clearly, I was really gaining weight eating 1800 calories a day.

Couple of things. First, I really did believe that I was eating about 1800 calories a day. It took a giant paradigm shift for me to understand that I really was eating a lot more than I thought I was. (A little aside: I had my metabolism tested before my surgery and these numbers were spot on. No broken metabolism.)

Second, once I started to make that shift I realized that one thing that was happening (that had been happening for my whole adult life) was that I was in this cycle of eating far too little (1500 or fewer calories in a day for a little while) followed by far too many (clearly, 3500 or more.)

So, I decided that for 100 days I’d eat at least 2300 calories a day. No upper limit. I wasn’t trying to lose weight, I was looking for some kind of balance. All I really wanted at that point was to feel better.

The second part of my challenge was to exercise (translate: move) for 10 minutes a day. See how in that calculator, there’s 7 hours of sleep and the rest is sitting. That wasn’t far from the truth. I was too miserable and in too much pain to even grocery shop. Standing long enough to make dinner hurt. A lot.

That’s it. My 100 Day Experiment consisted of eating at least my Basal Metabolic Rate and exercising for 10 minutes.

I used My Fitness Pal to track my eating. And I blogged at Tumblr every day. The first week? Walking to the mail box and throwing a ball for my dog to chase counted as exercise. Going to the store counted, if I normally would have sent my husband or daughter.

In week three I joined a gym with a swimming pool. That first day, I barely got through 150 meters. I had to stop after each of those six laps and rest, so that I could breathe again.

Day 1, after swimming 150 meters. Day 100, after swimming 2000 meters. Not much weight loss, but I felt so much better.

By the end of the 100 days, I was a new person. I was able to swim 2000 meters. I’d gone three months without binge eating. I didn’t lose much weight, less than 20 pounds, but I felt stronger. And my pain was, not gone, but more manageable.

So, all of that is to say that I went to the gym today, like I promised you yesterday that I would. I meant to swim, but there was a water aerobics class going on, so I joined that.

Photo proof of Day one!

I figure, this is a good time to try another 100 Day Experiment.

I don’t feel the need to track calories this time. So, 10 minutes of exercise everyday for 100 days.

I want to make something clear. The goal isn’t to exercise only 10 minutes a day. It’s to exercise for AT LEAST ten minutes a day. Today’s water aerobics class was an hour long. It’s not like I got to minute ten and got out of the pool.

The magic of this 100 days of tiny goals challenge is that it gives a little shove over the hump between not-doing and doing.

I’ll be documenting my 100 Day Experiment here. I’d love for you to join me!

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Shaunta Grimes is a writer and teacher. She lives in Reno with her husband, three superstar kids, and a yellow rescue dog named Maybelline Scout. She’s on Twitter @shauntagrimes, is the author of Viral Nation and Rebel Nation, and is the original Ninja Writer.