QengpuBenal

Thanks!

Cool! We don't have a counselor at my school. We do have a social worker, though. What's really nice is that because of the preschool program, we have an OT, PT, and speech-path who all work full time in the building as well!

Day 3: Did my Gorilla workout (5 rounds of 5 squats and 8 crunches) Food: apple for breakfast; chicken for lunch; ground beef with veggies (carrots and celery) for dinner Spanish: 1 lesson, 2 practice sessions I ate breakfast today and remembered to pack a lunch, so I think that helped me stay more on track with my food! Plus, now I have my one day for this week done so I won't feel guilty eating the non-paleo foods that are sure to be at my mother-in-law's wake on Saturday! In other news, I'm trying to figure out how to talk my husband into letting me spend $50 to sign up for the Color Run on October 5th! Anyone have a good suggestion?

Good luck rocking the internship! I'm doing my internship at an elementary school myself this year (Pre-K - 4th). I'm not a teacher, though. I have a lot of respect for teachers because that is one job I could never do! I'm loving the school psychologist gig, though!

As a school psychologist, can I just say that I am appalled by the school's reaction! Isn't the psych advocating for him? She/he should be! Stuff like this makes me so mad! Grrrr! Also, do you have any information/resources about the decision-tree concept? My son is on the spectrum and I think that something like that would really help him out!

Day Two: I did Week 5, Session 1 on the Zombies!5K app. Food was not so good. I had a bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit plus 2 hashbrowns for breakfast. For lunch/dinner I had a roast beef sandwich and curly fries. I also had an apple as a snack later. Definitely not my best choices. As a result, I am adding a couple of subgoals that I think will really help me feel better about my food choices. First, I will pack a work for lunch every day. Second, I will eat something for breakfast every day, even if it's just a hard boiled egg. I also did one Spanish lesson and a couple extra practice sessions.

Day One: I started the day with a Gorilla workout consisting of 10 sets of 10 modified push-ups. I skipped breakfast. For lunch my husband took me to this Thai place near my work. I was very good and had a beef salad (beef, cucumbers, tomatoes, and cilantro). I snacked on some Veggie Sticks on the way home from work which turned out to not be a good idea because they still had a bit of grain in them. Dinner was supposed to be a crockpot BBQ pork, but ended up going very wrong. So, I had two Hot Pockets instead. Hopefully tomorrow's dinner will go better! I did one Spanish lesson and 1 practice session. Overall, I'm pleased with how I did today, but I'm looking to do better tomorrow! Highlight of the day: My husband bought me a new pair of shoes! Hot pink ballet flats with gold studs in them! Woohoo!

OMG! I love your write-up! I have got to do a better write-up next challenge! I can't wait to see you own this challenge!

Loving the focus on foods! I also really love the goal about making your kitchen a more relaxing place. I need to come up with some way to do that. Maybe then I won't hate cooking so much!

You have some great "goals" there! Also, just looking at your pics has totally inspired me! Oh, and thank you for the link to the Doctor Who run! My daughter and I are totally going to look into doing that!

I'm loving the motivational pic! Also, it's nice to see I'm not the only one defecting from the Scouts this challenge!

Hey, everyone! I'm joining you all for this challenge from the Scouts as well! Also, loving the PB stuff! Reminds me of my little brother's wedding. His beautiful bride walked up the aisle, they stood before the pastor, and the pastor opened his mouth as said, "Wuv...twue wuv...is what bwings us togedder today!" I had the hardest time not cracking up, and I know my brother was really struggling to not laugh as well!

You've got some great goals this challenge! I can't wait to see you rock it!

Hey, all! I just wanted to pop in and say hi! I am switching to the Rangers for this challenge, but I'll still check in with you guys now and again! If anyone wants to follow me over at the Rangers, the link to my current challenge is in my sig! Have an awesome challenge, everyone!

Name: QengpuBenal Race: High Elf Class: Ranger Attributes: Strength (STR): 3 Dexterity (DEX): 2 Stamina (STA): 4 Constitution (CON): 3 Wisdom (WIS):7 Charisma (CHA): 4 Total: 23 Level 1 QengpuBenal's Main Quest: Complete the qualifying course on American Ninja Warrior This quest is very ambitious, and is more long-term than I think I am supposed to be shooting for. However, it is also something I really want and is turning out to be huge motivation for me! This is my first challenge with the Rangers. I've been hanging with the Scouts, and while I love them and am enjoying my running, I think that the Rangers are where I need to be right now. Since I'm adding in strength training I feel that the wonderful Rebels here in the Rangers will be better able to help me when I need a hand (or some sage advice)! (Sept 16 - Oct 27) Missions: 1. Run. The first major hurdle that I need to tackle in finish my main quest is my weight. I currently weigh 194 lbs, and I'm shooting for 184 by the end of this challenge. Running is great for building up my stamina and for helping me drop those pounds (or inches as the case may be). I am starting this challenge using the Zombies!5K app. When I have completed the remaining runs I have there I will either start over from the beginning or switch to using the Zombies!Run app. 17-18 Completed: A 14-16 Completed: B 11-13 Completed: C 8-10 Completed: D <8 Completed: F (2 completed) Reward: (+2 STA +2 CON) 2. Strength Training Along with losing weight, I need to build my upper body strength. Upper body strength and grip strength are major elements of any American Ninja Warrior course. I know this is going to be an area of major challenge for me, so I want to start off tackling it right away and not wait until I have lost the weight. Right now, I can do half of a full push-up. I can hold my body when I get down, but I can't push it back up. To help with this sad state of affairs, I will be using the Gorillas Workout on my iPad 3 days a week. 17-18 Completed: A 14-16 Completed: B 11-13 Completed: C 8-10 Completed: D <8 Completed: F (3 days completed) Reward: (+2 STA +2 STR) 3. Food. We all know that a big part of changing how you look is changing what you put in your mouth. So, for this challenge, I am going to focus on eliminating wheat and sugar from my diet. I still feel that moving towards paleo is the best thing I can do for my health, my weight loss, and my strength training. First, sugar is just bad. Natural sugars (like pure honey with nothing added are ok as long as I don't overdo it). Wheat is something I really need to eliminate. Every time I eat wheat I end up feeling sick, so this is a change that absolutely must be made. Week One: Eliminate grains and sugar one day. (1 day completed! Conquered Week One!) Week Two: Eliminate grains and sugar two days. Week Three: Eliminate grains and sugar three days. Week Four: Eliminate grains and sugar four days. Week Five: Eliminate grains and sugar five days. Week Six: Eliminate grains and sugar six days. 21 days = A 16-20 days = B 11-15 days = C 6-10 days = D 0-5 days = F (1 day completed) Reward: (+3 WIS) To help with this goal I have two subgoals. 1) Eat something for breakfast every day. 35-40 days = A 30-34 days = B 25-29 days = C 20-24 days = D <20 days = F (1 day completed) Bonus Reward: (+1 CON) 2) Pack a lunch for work every day. 25-28 days = A 22-24 days = B 19-21 days = C 16-18 days = D <17 days = F (2 day completed) Bonus Reward: (+1 CON) Life Quest: 4. Spanish. I am going into a field in which being able to speak Spanish would be a huge advantage! I have a lovely app that I can use to help me start learning the language. Ideally, I want to do at least one lesson three times a week. This goal is also remaining unchanged. In fact, this is one area in which I have really been excelling. I really love the app I am using [it's called Duolingo and can be used to learn Spanish, German, French, Portuguese, and Italian (it can also be used to learn English if you speak French, Portuguese, Spanish, or Italian)]! So far, I haven't learned a lot of stuff that's going to be super useful in my line of work, but I have learned stuff. Plus, my goal with using this program is to establish the habit so I feel more comfortable spending the money to buy the Rosetta Stone program. 18 lessons = A 15-17 lessons = B 10-14 lessons = C 5-9 lessons = D 0-4 lessons = F (3 lessons completed) Reward: (+2 WIS, +2 CHA)

Nope, it's Friday here, too! I've been religiously checking for the next challenge to be posted. I'm glad to see I'm not the only one bothered by this lack! (Of course, one of my pet peeves is things not showing up when I have been told they will show up). Seriously, though, I'm so excited about starting a new challenge and it's not fun waiting extra to get it set up!

1. Run. The first major hurdle that I need to tackle in finish my main quest is my weight. Running is great for building up my stamina and for helping me drop those pounds (or inches as the case may be). 7 Completed = C (+1STA, +1 CON) 2. Strength Training Along with losing weight, I need to build my upper body strength. Upper body strength and grip strength are major elements of any American Ninja Warrior course. I know this is going to be an area of major challenge for me, so I want to start off tackling it right away and not wait until I have lost the weight. Right now, I can do half of a full push-up. I can hold my body when I get down, but I can't push it back up. To help with this sad state of affairs, I will be using the Gorillas Workout on my iPad 3 days a week. 7 days Completed = B (Plus, I can now do one whole full-body push-up!) (+1 STA, +1 STR) 3. Food. We all know that a big part of changing how you look is changing what you put in your mouth. So, for this challenge, I am going to focus on eliminating grains and sugar from my diet. I still feel that moving towards paleo is the best thing I can do for my health, my weight loss, and my strength training. 16 days = B (+2 WIS) Life Quest: 4. Spanish. I am going into a field in which being able to speak Spanish would be a huge advantage! I have a lovely app that I can use to help me start learning the language. Ideally, I want to do at least one lesson three times a week. 15 lessons = B (+1 WIS, +1 CHA) Overall, this challenge was my best one yet! I did more exercise than ever before. I ate better than ever (and was even so inspired that I started a Whole30 today!). I can now do one whole push-up for the first time in my entire life! And, I now speak more Spanish than before...not enough to effectively communicate in my job, but enough to make the student I worked with today laugh! I feel like I did an amazing job (oh, and I went from 208lbs to 193 lbs)! I can't wait to start the next challenge!

I still can't manage even one. However, I am definitely getting stronger, so I am counting that as progress towards my pull ups goal!

Thanks!

So, I was going to post "after" pictures, but they actually made it look like I had gained weight during this challenge! In reality, I started this 6 weeks at 208 lbs. I now weigh 194 lbs! That's a total of 14 lbs lost. Not too bad, considering that I totally bombed the final week of the challenge! Overall, I ran more during this challenge than ever before. I pushed myself more with my strength training! I lost weight. While I wasn't totally successful at eliminating grains and sugar, I did better than I ever have before! I did such a good job eliminating sugar, that I discovered I now love dark chocolate (something I previous hated for being too 'bitter'), and milk chocolate makes me nauseous because it's too sugary! I also learned a bit more Spanish (and even had a thrilling moment where I actually understood something one of the interpreters at work said in Spanish...admittedly it was nothing important, just 'manzana' (Spanish for 'apple'), but it was something I wouldn't previously have recognized! Overall, I feel that this challenge was definitely the most successful challenge I have done yet! I am lighter, stronger, healthier, and smarter! I can't wait to sink my teeth into the next challenge and do even better than I did this time!

I feel you! I was doing pretty good. Then, my kids returned from being at their grandparents' house, and they started back at school. That, plus my internship (which was only in it's 3rd week) completely threw me for a loop! I ended up completely bombing the last week. No working out at all, I ate way too much crap! We can totally pull it back and kick butt on the next challenge, though! If you do decide to go adventuring, message me a link to your thread so I can keep up with you, please!

Yeah. My husband said that once I can do 17 pull-ups he will start building me obstacles to train on! Right now I can only dream of doing 1 pull-up, but I know that I'll get there eventually! I'm shooting for 2 years to complete this goal.

Started the morning with my Gorilla workout. Today was 2 rounds of 15 Supermans and 15 Dead Bugs. My back definitely felt the workout! Breakfast was a cup of tater tots and 4 sausage links. I got in 4 practice sessions and 1 new lesson using my Spanish app while my stepson ran laps (for something where he would have gotten what he wanted and not gotten in trouble if he just hadn't lied about it!). Snack was a meat stick. Lunch/Dinner was 2 Whopper Jr.s (no onions, no cheese), a large French fry, and a 4-piece chicken nugget. Not healthy at all, but I had to eat or risk passing out while driving. Clearly today was not one of my grain-free/sugar-free days.

Oooh! Shiny new website! I will be signing up. I'm trying to get a whole group together to do it, so you might not see the sign-up immediately. Plus, I'm going to use it as motivation to finish the Zombies!5K app, which means I'm planning to run October 6th. That also gives me more time to solicit extra donations! This is an awesome cause, and I am super excited about it! (As a school psych I see this kind of stigma crap happening waaaaaaay too often, so it's nice to be able to do something like this!)

Sounds like you're doing good! Travelling and working out is always tougher, so kudos to you for tackling that head-on! Also, yay for reunions! Enjoy California!