Skyfire

I have such a bad headache this morning, and I didn't get my sleep last night. I took a 20 min nap yesterday, but it wasn't enough. The other two nights were good for sleep, and the days were good for water and dessert, but yesterday I didn't quite get my water and had too much dessert. I wonder if that's why my head hurts? I also ran around at the park and went to a party, where I showed Nief what a plank is. This could also have something to do with my headache, since planks are hard on my shoulders. It could also be TMJ, or a combination. If my morning tea doesn't cure it, I'll have to take some ibuprofen.

Husband vacuumed the hallway and kitchen on Sunday after he opened up and cleaned the dust off the computers. Still haven't made Snoo's appointment, but hopefully I'll get to that today. No more appointments for Nief for four weeks, and hopefully she'll be all healed by then. Last night was bad for sleep, but I did go to bed on time Sunday and Monday. I have been getting my water in, and yesterday I didn't have even a single dessert. Nothing about willpower there, I just didn't feel like it. Update: Made Snoo's appointment, wrote it down on the calendar and in my phone! Now I have three weeks to look up which vaccinations she needs.

A good few days for everything but sleep, though I did make up a couple of hours yesterday during Snoo's nap. Now that the sun comes up early, she won't really sleep past 6:30AM, even if she goes to bed late, but on the weekends, I like to hang out with my husband while I can, usually until after midnight. He works M-Th, 5PM to 5:30AM, and has real trouble getting up any earlier than 3PM, even on the weekends. I vacuumed the living room on Fri and cleaned out the vacuum, but I didn't do the hallway or the bedroom. Laundry today, and tomorrow my big goal is to get on the phone to make Snoo's Dr. appointment.

A quick note. I did my phone calls regarding Neif's accident, but I haven't done any of the other paperwork-type-stuff yet. Mon and Tues were good for the other goals, but I didn't drink enough water yesterday and I had two "desserts". I've been getting my sleep in, though.

I'm going to do shoulder mobility work. It makes me feel grrreat! *breaks out broomstick and tennis ball*

I had a pretty good weekend. One dessert a day isn't that hard, I just keep in mind that I can eat ice cream later, and it helps me not eat ice cream now. I did my floor yesterday, so I don't have to today. I haven't been getting my sleep this weekend, but maybe it would have been a good idea to work off days into the schedule, I don't know. I feel pretty good, though. That's saying something. Paperwork for today; I have two phone calls to make about Nief's accident, and then I can slack off for the rest of the day. Well, and I'll wash sheets this evening.

I've been getting my sleep and drinking my water, so at least there's that. But my diet has been crap the past couple of days. I adjusted my goal. I think it was just too ambitious from the beginning. I've been doing a lot of the "paperwork" side of things. Phone calls, wrestling with getting my daughter the care she needs. The doctors have been great, but the business staff side of it has been a real nightmare.

So yesterday Nief (my 12-year-old daughter) fell while roller skating and broke both bones in her left forearm. We were at the ER for 4 hours (not too bad, for being at the ER). Afternoon snack was missed, dinner was late, and when someone handed me a blue powerade I took a big drink without thinking. Literally as I was swallowing, this person said to me, "I like gatorade better because it doesn't have HCFS." Oops. Other than that, no added sugar. I went to bed on time, I drank my water quota. I looked at the website for Husband's health insurance, but navigated away when they wanted me to enter information. Gah! why is this so hard for me? I did most of my regular chores. No laundry, though, because I was going to do that last night while Nief was home. I've got a lot of phone calls to make today with regards to her arm, so that will be part of the "do everything that comes up" goal

Reporting in. My first day went precisely as planned. I ate no added sugar, I drank all my water, I went to bed on time, and I vacuumed/swept all the floors in my apartment. Condiments also contain sugar, so instead of ketchup on my eggs I had a little sour cream and garlic. I thought of grape nuts when I went shopping, the only cereal to which I was permitted to add sugar when I was a child, and behold! they have no added sugar, and they taste just as good without it. I had no trouble with the big urges; they were present and I just denied them, or gave them fruit. It was the insidious ones that almost got me. I was that close to licking the ice cream spoon after making my husband a milkshake, just by reflex. Biggest cravings in the afternoon before dinner and evening after dinner. The vacuum/sweeping only took me 20 min. I didn't move stuff around, I just cleaned what was exposed. I will do it all again on Thurs, but move a couple things and also mop. Nothing to report on the bonus tasks yet.

I've looked at the labels of the things I eat regularly. Two things that are not "desserts" will need to be eliminated: bread (of which I'm not all that fond) and breakfast cereal (I love boxed dry cereal, but that's why they call it a challenge). I've got plain oatmeal (butter and a little salt) for breakfast, as well as eggs and cottage cheese. I've got grapes, apple-pears, bananas, mangoes. The idea isn't to cut out all sugar, but to make sure the sugar I eat is wrapped in actual nutrients. Also, Mother's Day and all the birthdays are after that two-week Cold Turkey period, so I think I can manage it. I do know exactly the candy I'm going to eat on mother's day, and the size of the slice of birthday cake I'll be having. After reading through the mini challenge, I've changed the habitat goal so I'm only adding one thing to the routine. I would have made figuring out the insurance the entire goal, but what if it only takes me a week? I'm thinking of the habitat goal as the main one, and the others as mini-challenges for bonus points.

Goal 1: End the Sugar Binge! Moderate the sugar binge! After the week I've had and what I've done, I'm going to just try to have one official dessert a day, after dinner, and not worry too much about other added sugar for the rest of the challenge (5 weeks), and give myself Warm Turkey points for it. +1 CON, +1 STA Not allowed: Foods containing sugar, corn syrup, honey, maple syrup. Allowed: Naturally sweet things, like fruit and grains. (and, of course, other things that aren't sweet and have no added sugar, like steak and eggs) Scoring: Cold Turkey. Nothing from the not allowed list for 6 weeks. Just kidding! That is soooo not doable. Cold Turkey. Nothing from the not allowed list for the first 2 weeks, then no more than three desserts a week (a dessert is a serving of food with sugar in, by the product label) +2.5 CON +2.5 STA Cool Turkey. No more than three desserts a week (18 total) for the whole challenge. +2 CON, +2 STA Warm Turkey. No more than one dessert a day (42 total) for the whole challenge +1 CON, +1 STA Baked Turkey. More than one dessert a day for the whole challenge. NO POINTS Goal 2: 8 hours of sleep a night Set an alarm for when I need to get up in the morning; set another alarm for 8 hours and 10 minutes before this. I can also nap with Snoo (my 2.5-year-old daughter), and then set my alarm for the following night that much later. Scoring: Every single night: +2.5 CON 5 nights a week: +2 CON 4 nights a week: +1 CON less than this: NO POINTS Goal 3: Drink more water Scoring: Drink nothing but water, milk and plain tea for the whole challenge AND have 4+ pints of water a day: 2.5 CON I've already had other stuff. Drink at least 4 pints of water a day, but sometimes other stuff, too: 2 CON Drink 4 pints of water a day 3/4 of days: 1 CON Anything less: NO POINTS Goal 4: Improve Habitat and do paperwork As far as the habitat goes: stick to the routines I have in place (we all throw away our trash right away, and the dishwasher gets filled/run at night and emptied in the morning, and I do at least one load of laundry every weekday), and a floor-cleaning routine to each week. 1.5 WIS I need to figure out our medical insurance. I've always stopped in the past exactly where I would have to pick up a phone. No more excuses. +1 WIS, +1 CHA I need to make an appointment for Snoo to visit the Dr. and get her Vaxs; she's a little behind. +.5 CHA Everything else that comes up during the challenge must be dealt with (at least begun) within 24 hours of learning of it. +.5 WIS, +.5 CHA Please tell me what you think of these goals!

I'm back, I'm front, I'm both here! A little background, as is relevant to my starting point. Last challenge I began; I put down a placeholder, but started another challenge on another site, so focused on that for 9 days. Then I got a bad case of the flu. Then our larger-than-expected tax refund arrived, and caution was thrown to the wind. My husband ordered a bunch of fine chocolate, and I began an epic sugar binge. We bought new video games, and stayed up way too late playing them. (We did a lot of responsible stuff, too, but that's not the issue here.) I'm beginning to feel a little like this: "Success can test a warrior's mettle as surely as the strongest adversary." You read that in Mako's voice, didn't you. So I must address a few things. 1) I must end my sugar binge. I went from sometimes having a dessert after dinner to basically eating something full of sugar whenever I was hungry (or bored). Milkshakes. Oh, God, the milkshakes! This needs to stop. 2) I must get adequate sleep. 3) I must drink water; tons and tons of water. This will help rinse out the bad stuff and give me something to do with my mouth other than stuff sweets into it. 4)My house is a disaster, and there are phone calls and paperwork that needs doing. I need to work on getting my routines back in place. Unf***ing my habitat will make me feel better, too. Beginning Stats Weight: 225 I'm considering docking my starting CON and STA a few points because I feel so wretched.

So I think I've got the plague. For nearly a week I've been stuck at home, with aches and fever and chills and a cough and sinus congestion. I think I'm going to actually sit this one out and just try to get myself and family better. Thanks for your encouragement, and I'll see (hear from?) you all next challenge.

I'm going to jump in here a little late, everybody, because I've got a writing challenge going on. I'll link to it here, and then come back in 9 days with my goals for this challenge and what I managed to do the first week. See you soon!

I wrote up a post last night but I guess I forgot to hit post. To make a long story short, I gave myself half credit for my walking goal, since I took about 3/4 of the walks I was supposed to, and full credit for my spending more time with family goal. For the diet goal and the mobility goal I gave myself no points, because I did less than half.