Teri

Wrapping up this challenge. I'm satisfied with the outcome. Here is my overall percentage for each Min Quest #1: Get 7.5 hours of sleep - 66% Mini Quest #2: Eat 2-3 servings of veggies daily - 80% Mini Quest #3: Eat until satisfied - see breakdown for each meal Breakfast - >90% Lunch 76% Supper 63% Life Mini Quest: Do something productive: 69% I broke the "Eat until satisfied" quest into breakfast, lunch and supper. I never overeat at breakfast, but what I found through tracking lunch and supper is that I do much better at lunch, although there is still room for improvement there. Supper is the area where I really need to focus on eating a bit less. What I know is that it's not "automatic" yet so I will keep working on this particular habit. My eat 2-3 servings of veggies daily is at 80% and I'm satisfied with that. One of the things I notice with that habit is I'm getting more than 2-3 servings on the days I'm eating veggies, but it isn't as daunting to approach it with the 2-3 servings. That way if all I get is two servings I feel good because 2 servings is way better than 0 servings. I guess my sleep habit is about where I expected it to be since it was my brand new habit. By focusing on it, I was getting to bed much earlier and getting more sleep than before I started the habit. At times I would be staying up past 9:00 and I'd be thinking, "It's bed time, You need to stop and get to bed." Sometimes I followed through with going to bed and other times I didn't. At least now my mind is thinking about getting to bed at a certain time on weeknights so I'm probably in the process of forging a neural pathway for this habit! My Life Quest was a not so important challenge for me. I did accomplish a few things I might not have, but I didn't force myself to do something every day. Sometimes I have more energy than others and this year has been a grueling one with a higher workload than normal. That means I'm putting in a fair amount of time at home grading and planning lessons so when I do that I simply don't want to do other things and for now I'm okay with that.

Here's a quick update now that I'm starting week 4: This is a cumulative report thus far on the habits I am working on: Min Quest #1: Get 7.5 hours of sleep - 57% Mini Quest #2: Eat 2-3 servings of veggies daily - 79% Mini Quest #3: Eat until satisfied - 72% Life Mini Quest: Do something productive: 71% I find these results intriguing because I've been working on mini quests 2 & 3 for quite some time while mini quest #1 is the new habit I'm working on. It is apparent that I'm doing better with the two quests that I've been working on longer which demonstrates that it is important to work on habits until they become a part of who you are. While having a 57% rate for the sleep habit may not seem very good, I'm pleased with it. It's better than what it was before I started this challenge and as long as I keep working on it, I'm fairly confident that I will continue to improve. I didn't think I was doing very well with my life mini quest, I was at 50 some odd percent until I decided to make a slight change in what I considered doing something productive. At work, I don't take a real lunch break. I eat at my desk and I used to work while I ate. I decided to do something more productive yet, relaxing while eating my lunch so I've been watching a TED talk when I eat my lunch. This has been fantastic. I am learning a lot of cool new information through these TED talks and it gives me a chance to disengage my brain from work stuff for about 25 minutes each day. I'd say that counts as something productive. Now I have to scoot off to bed so I can get my 7.5 hours of sleep!

Hey guys, thanks for checking in. This is a super crazy time of year as I'm just getting my semester started and trying to place 38 students in K-12th grade school observation experiences. Not hard work, but time consuming. I've been keeping track of my habits on habit bull so it reports a percentage. For my sleep habit, I'm hitting it 47% of the time. Not great but I've done better this week. The alarm has been hekping me be aware of bedtime. My eat 2-3 servings of veggies is at about 70% and is getting better every week as life normalizes. Eating til I'm satisfied is about 70% and I can tell that's been going better especially the last three days. My personal goal, do something productive daily is at 59%.This could be better but I'm happy I've gotten some stuff done I wouldn't have except for this challenge. Excuse typos I'm in bed with no glasses on.

Thanks for the advice. Actually, I've done a few challenges. I've completed some of them and dropped out of others. I'm following one person that I found via the NFA facebook group. These challenge forums can get overwhelming at times because there are so many people doing challenges and it's hard to "stop" reading and get off the computer! I'm heading back to work tomorrow (Jan. 4th). I'm a teacher and throughout the semester I don't have a lot of extra time so I have to try to find the right balance. I'm looking forward to this challenge!

Hey Scumspawn! It's Teri from the academy facebook group. I'm just curious, how do you earn points on your Misfit? Looking forward to following your challenge.

I've been focusing on one habit at a time the last year and I've made good progress. I'm going to continue working on one new habit while continuing to strengthen the habit pathways already developed in my brain. Ultimate Quest: I'm not really sure what my ultimate quest is...I just want to stay healthy and be able to participate in the stuff I like to do in my life. I would also like to unpack the boxes of clothes that got packed away during Summer 2013, but this is a journey so as long as I'm moving toward being able to do that then I'm happy. I may or may not get there, but movement in that direction makes me happy. Mini Quest 1: Get 7.5 hours of sleep each weeknight (at least go to bed early enough to get 7.5 hours of sleep every night since I can't really control WHEN I actually go to sleep) This is my BRAND NEW habit I want to work on.I will work on this task until it becomes a real habit.Since habits have a trigger I think I will set my alarm for 8:30pm every night. At that time I will get ready for bed. I will turn off all electronics except the tv and/or my kindle.This is in essence my "fitness" goal. I am consistently doing strength workouts and I intentionally walk at least one mile every day. When it's not winter I spend a fair amount of time outside riding my bike. I love exercising, but my downfall is sleep. Often, I don't go to bed at a decent time and will end up skipping my strength workout. By solidifying a sleep habit with a decent amount of sleep I will level up my workout regime!CON 2, STA 2, WIS 2 Mini Quest 2: Eat 2-3 servings of veggies daily. This was the very first habit I formed and I believe it's a true habit, albeit, it get's derailed at times. I have been sick since Dec. 18th so my appetite has been "off." I'm including this as one of my mini quests because I need to "get back to it" before my veggie habit pathway in my brain fades out.CON 1, STA 1Mini Quest 3: Eat enough food until I am satisfied, not full. This is the habit I was working on when the holiday season descended. I was doing pretty well with it so I want to keep working on it until it gets embedded in my brain and I don't have to think about it as much. It takes a lot of "paying attention" to one's feelings of hunger/fullness to do this. I found that while I was working on this habit I was much more conscious of the foods I put on my plate and consumed because I knew my goal was to stop eating before I got full. During the holidays I never ate so much that I was stuffed. I would have to say, in all of my 52 years, that hasn't happened at the holiday times before. So while I feel like I have a good start on this habit, I think it still needs some more work.CON 2, STA 2, WIS 2Life Mini Quest: Do something productive in the house 15 minutes every day Do something besides job related activities, facebook, or watching tv.Some ideas: stamp a card, write a letter, organize something, make a scrapbook page, clean up my recipe notebooks, create my workout spreadsheet, fix my broken jewelry, make a list of all the productive things I need to do CH 1

Thursday, Sept. 10, 2015 Perimenopause sucks. I've gone 3 months with no mentstrual cycle, then for the last three weeks I've been spotting. The last two weeks I had REALLY tender breasts. Last night I finally began a full blown period and then today...I went to my 9:40 class and about one hour into the class I gushed. I knew my tampon and panty liner were not enough for the huge gush that occured and I could feel the wetness in the crotch of my pants. I let out class a bit early, walked with my bag in front of me, made it to the bathroom and cleaned myself up as best I could. Then I went to my 11:30 class, got the students started on a computer assignment and told them I had an emergency at home that I had to attend to. They were all so concerned...if they only knew! Uhg!!! Well at least the way things have been going I shouldn't have to deal with it for a few more months. So I was kind of off my regular schedule since I stayed home for an hour and ate lunch when I "attended to my emergency." During the afternoon I was getting tired of just sitting there grading papers so I ate my snack mix then. I didn't really need it for hunger, it was more of an emotional eating thing. On the way home from work I decided I wanted buttered popcorn for supper. I decided that wasn't the best option because I would eat more than I should. I decided a bowl of ice cream with some oreo on it would be better than a huge bowl of popcorn because I wouldn't overeat if I had the ice cream. I know it wasn't the best choice but of the two choices I was going to choose from it was the better choice. Workout: None - didn't want to deal with more messy pants! Food: Breakfast: Green beans w/ bacon, watermelon, chocolate protein shake Lunch: 1 chicken thigh, watermelon Snack: 2/3 c. nuts/dried fruit Supper: Ice cream with oreos

Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2015 I didn't get up and workout in the morning. I slept until 6:00am to try and catch up on my sleep. Wednesdays are a super busy day for me so I never like to be really tired on a Wednesday. My plan was to go out for a run when I got home from work and I accomplished that. In regards to working on my eating goals, I'm having to tweak my meals so that I have one snack that doesn't fill me up, but keeps me from getting too hungry before I can actually eat lunch. Normally, I don't snack. Three meals a day work great for me. However this semester my schedule requires that I squeeze a snack in somewhere. These are what my days look like: Every weekday I eat breakfast around 6:30 to 6:45am Every weekday I get to work around 7:15-7:30am Monday, Wednesday, Friday: I teach from 9:10-10:10 and 11:30-12:30 Wednesday: I leave class at 12:30 and drive 45 minutes then teach from 1:30-4:30pm Tuesday, Thursday: I teach from 9:40-11:10 and 11:30-1:00 Everyday when I am not in class I am preparing lessons, grading, working with students, or going to meetings ~ I have very little down time and I rarely take a lunch break. Most days I eat lunch at my desk. Sometimes during that time I'll check facebook, but I try to read one of my teaching magazines or the book we are reading for our book club. I'm never really caught up with all of my work, but I manage to stay one step ahead of where I need to be :-) So, regarding my eating; it works best with my schedule to eat AFTER both of my classes are done for the day. On Wednesday that means I eat in my vehicle while traveling to my next teaching assignment. The thing about waiting until after my last class is that means I'm waiting for 6 to 6 1/2 hours after breakfast to eat. I've done it a few days and not only do I get hungry, but I get to the point that I don't feel well. I feel kind of dizzy and get a headache. So what I've decided to do is to eat a snack at 11:15 before heading to my 11:30 class. I'm trying to eat just enough to take the edge off of my hunger and keep me from getting the headache. My snack is 1/3 c. of nuts/dried fruit. So far it seems to be working. The days I've eaten this snack I haven't been starving and I've felt normal until I was able to eat lunch. Workout Run/Walk - 2 miles For the first mile I ran 3 blocks and walked one. For the second mile I ran 2 blocks and walked one. It wasn't horrible, but I can't wait until I get back into running shape. Food: Breakfast: Chocolate protein shake, green beans with bacon, watermelon Snack: 1/3 c. nuts/dried fruit Lunch: raw veggies, turkey wrap with smoked cheddar/swiss Supper: homemade fried rice w/ onions and cabbage, green beans w/ bacon, tuna w/ may

Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2015 I stayed up too late last night and didn't get up at 5:00am to workout. I REALLY need to work on getting more sleep as one of my habits. However, I know not to try to accomplish to much at one time so for now I'm sticking with the two eating habits. I did a short workout when I got home from work and I met both of my eating habit goals so it was a good day. Workout: Fit Body Blueprint Phase 2 WO A Week 4 Took it easy today and only did one set of each exercise due to lack of time. A1: Reverse Lunges 20# 1x10 A2: Alternating Neutral Grip Dumbbell Bench Press 30# 1x10 B1: Dumbbell Front Squats 20# 1x10 B2: Dumbbell Rows 20# 1x12 C1: 1 Arm Single Leg Romanian Dead Lift 20# 1x10 C2: Dumbbell Pullover 20# 1x15 D1: Palloff Presses Black Band 1x20 D2: Glute Bridge March 1x30 (15 each side) Diet: Breakfast/6:30am: chocolate protein drink, watermelon Snack/11:15am: 1/3 c. nuts, dried fruit mix Lunch/1:30pm: roasted chicken thigh and leg, raw veggies, 1 pecan delight Supper/6:30pm: rice with cabbage and onions. stir fry veggies and shrimp with sweet and sour sauce Stampclub snack/8:00pm - I took two bites of a oatmeal peanut butter chocolate bar. It was delicious, but I had the two bites to taste it but didn't eat a whole bar.

Habit Change #0: Eat Three Servings of Veggies Most Days - completed August 2015 Habit Change #1: Eat Three Meals A Day (start date Sept. 8, 2015) Habit Change #2: Let Yourself Feel Hunger for 30 minutes to 1 hour before eating Habit Change #3: Eat Until You Are Just Satisfied (start date Sept. 8, 2015) I will record the habit number by the date if I am successful with it. At the end of two weeks I will evaluate if I can add another habit. Sept 8 - #1 yes, #2 yes, #3 yes Sept 9 - #1 yes, #2 yes, #3 yes Sept 10 - #1 no, #2, yes, #3 yes Sept 11 Sept 12 Sept 13 Sept 14 Sept 15 Sept 16 Sept 17 Sept 18 Sept 19 Sept 20

I'm finally starting a battle log. My plan is to record my workouts, log my food and track my habits. Here's my back-story: October 2004 I weighed 190 pounds - I'm 5'2" tallOctober 2004-Fall 2014 I belonged to TOPS (Take Off Pounds Sensibly)October 2004-August 2010- during this time I lost down to 155 pounds by eating using the divided plate method and exercising (lifting weights with dumbbells and doing cardio consisting of biking, running and swimming)August 2009 I started working on my masters degree (while starting a new job) and over the next two years I was kind of hit and miss with the healthy eating/exercising. Between August 2010-May 2011 I gained back about 20 pounds of the 35 I lost.From May 2011-June 2012 I was a couch potato. I was so mentally exhausted from the last two years of my master's program that I did absolutely nothing, but sit around for a whole year.June 2012 I finally started exercising consistently again. I fell in love doing work outs. I've always enjoyed working out and I finally felt like I was "back to my normal self."2012 I did a lot of biking, especially in the summer. During the summer I rode for an hour or more almost every day.During the 2012-13 school year I discovered the Paleo/Primal diet and I started following it.During 2013 I did two different hard core 21 day sugar detoxes and during this time I began falling into Orthorexia. I was suddenly a person who restricted a lot of foods because they weren't "good for me." The problem with this is, it led me to binging when I did allow myself to eat "those unhealthy foods."2013 I did a lot of running. I've never really liked running, but I found my groove and ran 4-5 times a week. I run slow, but I run!October 2013 I joined Nerd Fitness Academy. I did some of the lessons and did the dumbbell workouts. I also did the workouts for the 6 week Get Fit Quick workout. That was brutal, but I finished it and got stronger through the process.By December 2013 I was down to 150 pounds, but was still 10 pounds shy of my TOPS goal weight. I was not happy with my life. I was restricting foods, exercising quite a bit, yet I still couldn't get to that elusive goal weight.Sometime right after the beginning of 2014 I found a group called Eating The Food. The premise of the group is that there is no reason to restrict foods unless you have a medical reason for doing so. They claim that restricting brings on binging, which resonated with me. They also talked about people needing to have a "healthy relationship with food." I knew that was something I did not have. I read through a lot of the information in this group and trusting in their process I stopped restricting foods. What I wanted most was to have a healthy relationship with food. I wanted to live my days without constantly thinking about what I was eating. I wanted to go out to eat and enjoy myself. I wanted to have conversations that didn't revolve around food.Early 2014, I started "eating the foods." That means I allowed myself to eat all the foods I'd restricted for since 2004 and especially since 2013 when I started eating Paleo/Primal. Of course I didn't "eat the foods" in reasonable amounts, I ate too much and I gained weight. From the information I read in the group "Eating the Food" I expected that too happen. It took months of "eating the food" before I finally got to the point that I could "eat the food" and not eat too much of it.2014 I put on 30 pounds. I finally stopped gaining and started maintaining my weight.2014 I focused on strength training workouts using dumbbells. I started using Sean Flannagan's Fit Body Blueprint (I love his workouts).2014 I DEVELOPED A HEALTHY RELATIONSHIP WITH FOOD! This is probably my proudest moment. I no longer obsess about food and that is so freeing. This is my view of food: There are no good foods or bad foods. There are foods that are more nutrient dense than other foods and I should focus on eating more of those kinds of foods than those that are less nutrient dense foods, but if I eat something like cake, cookies or chips, it is not going to kill me nor is it going to make me gain weight UNLESS my overall calorie count is above the number of calories that I burn throughout the day.2014: I realized that I don't care what number I weigh, I just want to look like I did during the summer 2013 when I could wear my size 12/medium clothes. I have quit weighing myself on a regular basis.2014-15 school year: I struggled with getting up in the moring to workout. I turned 51 and I am in perimenopause and I think that is affecting my body in ways that I am not used to. I had trouble making the necessary adjustments, like getting to bed earlier so that I could actually get up early to workout. I didn't completely quit working out, but I do 2-3 workouts per week vs. the 4-6 I used to do.2015: I have been focusing on habits. The first habit I worked on was eating more vegetables. I have been doing this long enough that it is now a normal thought for me to think, "How can I get some vegetable servings in my diet today?" It is also normal for me to buy certain veggies when I grocery shop.Today: I am finally ready to tackle losing some fat so that one day I will be able to fit back into those clothes that I have packed away from summer 2013. I will do this by developing some new habits. I will only focus on one or two habits at a time and I will not move on to a new habit until I conquer the current one.

Checking In: It's been several days, maybe a couple of weeks since I checked in. I updated my info though. When I first started the challenge I was doing really well, then I had the hiccup with my mom going to the hospital. It took me several days to get back to normal even after she came home. One of my issues is I got behind on my work, mostly my grading. I still don't feel like I've ever really gotten completely caught up. I'm ashamed to say I'm simply doing what needs to be done to get through the rest of the semester, however I'm not going to beat myself up about it. It is what it is. I'll get through the rest of the semester and regroup for next year. I also feel like I got behind with the challenge and never really got my feet under me. So anyway, I will finish out the challenge. I may redo a couple of them next challenge to give myself more time to solidify them. Onward and upward!

Thanks for the well wishes for my mom. She's doing okay, she's been home for a few days and I've recovered from those long days sitting around the hospital. She got out of the hospital on Wednesday and it took me the rest of last week to recoup (that's hard work sitting around a hospital room all day)! I also had to try to get caught up and a massive amount of grading I'd gotten behind on. So, I'm back and ready to jump in where I left off...just need to refresh my memory about what my goals were, lol!!! Week 3 Goal #1 (Sleep 7.5-8 hours), Goal #2 (Shoulder exercises), Goal #3 (Exercise 15 min./day), Goal #4 (life goal 15 min. declutter/hobby) Challenge 3 goals to maintain: #1 (3 veggies), #2 (track calories), #3 (run w/ HR monitor), #4 (lay out clothes) Monday: Sleep last night 6 hours NO, shoulder exercises YES, Bike ride 1:10 YES, Danie's FAFSA YES I didn't get to bed when I should have last night, but I was on a roll with my grading and I stuck it out until I got it ALL FINISHED!!! Challenge 3 goals: YES, YES 1518 calories, N/A, YES Tuesday: Sleep last night 8 hours YES, shoulder exercises YES, Bike ride 1:10 YES, Hobby Stamp-club night YES Challenge 3 goals YES, YES 1611 calories, N/A, YES Wednesday: Sleep last night 8 hours YES, shoulder exercises YES, Exercise bike 35 min YES, 30 min declutter file cabinet YES Challenge 3 goals YES, YES 1339 calories, N/A, YES Thursday: Sleep YES, shoulder exercises YES, Exercise NO, Declutter YES Challenge 3 goals YES, YES 2271 calories, N/A, YES Friday: Sleep YES, shoulder exercises YES, Exercise 1 hour bike YES, Declutter YES Challenge 3 goals YES, YES 2006 caloires, N/A, YES Saturday: Sleep YES, shoulder exercises YES, Exercise NO, Declutter NO Challenge 3 goals YES, YES 1945 calories, N/A, YES Sunday: Sleep YES, shoulder exercises YES, Exercise NO, Declutter NO Challenge 3 goals YES, YES 2103 calories, N/A, YES Week 4 March 16-22 Sleep 7.5-8 hours: YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES Shoulder Exercises: YES, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO 15 Minutes of Exercise: YES, YES, NO, NO, NO, YES, NO Declutter/Hobby: NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO Challenge 3 Goals: 3 Veggies per day: YES, YES, NO, YES, YES, NO, YES Track Calories: YES x 7: 1460, 1260, 2340, 1966, 2075, 1367, 1728 Heart Rate Monitor: N/A x 7 Lay Out Clothes: YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES Week 5 March 23-29: Spring Break Week Sleep 7.5-8 hours: YES, YES, YES, YES Shoulder Exercises: NO, YES, YES, YES Went to physical therapy on Tuesday and got a new set of exercises 15 Minutes of Exercise: YES, YES, YES, YES Declutter/Hobby: NO, NO, NO, NO Challenge 3 Goals: 3 Veggies per day: NO, YES, YES, NO Track Calories: YES x 3, 1499, 1840, 1467, 1504 Heart Rate Monitor: N/A x 7 Lay Out Clothes: NO, NO, NO, NO

I had to take a break from this challenge right after we got started because my mom ended up in the hospital. It was a very long and tiring 8 days, but she's home now. I'm hoping it's okay for me to make up the challenge from last week. Lunges will do me some good and the week three challenge is great to get me back on track. I had tracked my food for 60 days in a row when my mom went to the hospital. This will be the thing to get me back into the routine of logging my food.