QengpuBenal

Sunday was a good day. I did session 5 from Zombies!5K and worked up a decent sweat. I went to a party that was a potluck/picnic style. It was hosted by the brother-in-law's church, so everything available was vegetarian. This meant lots of chips and pastas. I ended up eating potato salad and watermelon because that was the only things they had that wasn't full of grains! I also skipped dessert entirely! Making the right food choices is one of my biggest challenges, and doing it at events like this makes in even harder! So, I really feel like I accomplished a lot yesterday! I also managed to squeeze in a little Spanish practice, despite the party going later than I had expected!

Ok. So, I recently had a major change in my main quest. I realized that my goal, while an okay goal, was not enough to really drive me towards the results I want. So, I have decided that I must revamp my main goal. I was planning on doing this for the next challenge when I read a very inspiring post by Grizzy (seriously, y'all should go check it out!). SO, I decided that I would revamp everything now. To make things easier on everyone reading this, I decided to just repost my goals here, as well as revamping the original post. Name: QengpuBenal Race: High Elf Class: Scout Attributes: Strength (STR): 2 Dexterity (DEX): 2 Stamina (STA): 2 Constitution (CON): 2 Wisdom (WIS): 4 Charisma (CHA): 3 Total: 15 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! (July 29- Sept 8) Missions: 1. Run. The first major hurdle that I need to tackle in finish my main quest is my weight. I currently weigh 199 lbs (although this is 9 lbs less than I weighed at the start of the current challenge). Running is great for building up my stamina and for helping me drop those pounds (or inches as the case may be). Since I have revamped everything mid-challenge, I am changing my grading system to reflect the amount of time left (3 weeks). 10 Completed: A 8-9 Completed: B 6-7 Completed: C 4-5 Completed: D <4 Completed: F 1 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. Again, the requirements here have changed to reflect what time I have left in this challenge. 9 days Completed: A 7-8 days Completed: B 5-6 days Completed: C 3-4 days Completed: D <3 days Completed: F 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 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. Throughout this challenge I have been doing pretty good with this challenge. However, this week I stopped keeping track. I am giving myself a pass for week 3 because I feel that I did eat grain and sugar free more often and because of my actions yesterday. Yesterday, I did eat grains and sugar in the form of 2 hot dogs with buns and 3/4 of a bag of popcorn. However, I turned down the Chinese cookies at lunch, the food at the county fair, and the cake and ice cream at last night's welcome home party I attended. Overall, I am very pleased since pre-NF me would have indulged in everything and probably had seconds of most of it! Week One: Eliminate grains and sugar one day. (Conquered!) Week Two: Eliminate grains and sugar two days. (Conquered!) Week Three: Eliminate grains and sugar three days. (Conquered!) 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 (6 days completed!) 0-5 days = F Reward: (+3 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. 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 (9 lessons completed) 0-4 lessons = F Reward: (+2 WIS, +2 CHA)

Wow! This was so inspiring for me! I recently realized that my whole main goal has changed drastically, which has caused some of my other goals to change. I figured I would just wait for the next challenge to start, but now I think I'm going to seriously revamp my goals for this current challenge. Because there is never a better time to start than right now! Thanks!

Yesterday I did Session 4 of the Zombies!5K app. I ate pretty well. No grains, and no sugary foods. I modified my goals again because over the weekend I realized that what I want to be able to do will require more strength than flexibility. I still plan on doing the yoga, but only one day a week.

I love how honest you are with your updates here. It makes me feel like I'm not the only one who isn't perfect at these challenges! Yay for a perfect Internet day!

Ok, I had to take a hard look at my goals and do some modifications to cope with the fact that my pool is closed for the month of August! I am pleased with the adjustments I made, though. I made it through the second session on the Zombies!5K app today. I am feeling way out of shape, but hopefully that will change as I get my workouts in more consistently and as I make the changes to my eating habits!

Ok, I really hope someone can help me out here or at least tell me the best place to post this question! You see, I need to work on strengthening my back. So, I thought I would start with the pull-up progression Steve posted on the site. Level one is too easy, and I can't afford to buy more weights to be able to max out on it. Level 2 I don't have a bar I can use, so I followed the link and figured I would use my table. Unfortunately, my table is not cooperating. The edge of the top cuts into my hands, and I don't have any gloves that I can use to protect them. So, what I need is recommendations for how I can modify the progression so I am working towards doing a pullup. Thanks, guys!

Congrats! I remember when I got my BS...then quickly realized in my field everyone wants you to have a minimum of a Masters! So, back to school I went! Sounds like you picked a better field, since I know that computer scientists have plenty of positions they qualify for with a Bachelors! Also, way to go on the down 10 lbs thing!

Ok. I know I did not end up getting a post up on Sunday. I have no pictures because it was my husband's birthday and we were busy celebrating so I forgot to ask him to take them! Week 1 on the challenge went pretty well. However, it has become clear to me that my goals need to be modified. Trying to run and swim is not going to work out. It's just too much too quickly. I need to remember that I'm basically starting from scratch. I haven't modified my goals yet, though, because I need to double check something. Last night I noticed the pool's website gives the hours through August 9th. So, I need to see if the pool is going to be closed for a couple weeks after the 9th, since that will affect how I modify my goals. I'm planning on finding that out today. I'll post what I find out, as well as the goal modifications I make,this evening. Yesterday was an ok day. No exercise. I had sugar and grain, but I don't think I overate calorie-wise. I did practice my Spanish. Not the best start to the week, but not completely unfortunate either! Last week, I swam 10 laps on 3 days. I had one grain and sugar free day of eating. I did not run at all because my body was giving me signals that running was going to be too much when combined with the swimming. I did Spanish lessons at least 3 times (maybe more). Really, the only goal I am not on track with is the running.

Good luck on the test!

I know, I know! Unfortunately, our food stamps didn't show up this week like they were supposed to, and neither did my husband's paycheck! I ended up getting very stressed out and ate the cookies. But, I'm not going to feel guilty. I can't go back and change it, and I'm proud of myself for stopping after four cookies instead of eating a bowl of ice cream as well!

Yay for too small pants falling down! That's always an epic feeling!

Day 6: no workout today. I ended up having to pick my husband up at 3am in the morning, so I slept in and don't feel guilty about it! Breakfast: tater tots and sausages Lunch: four cookies Dinner: no dinner

Day 5: No workout today. I should have gone swimming, but I just never got the motivation to do it. Instead, Im hoping to get to the beach this weekend. I can't count laps, but I think that it will be a good new experience swimming in Lake Michigan instead of in a swimming pool. Breakfast: 2 egg/bacon/sausage muffins with a bit of cheese Lunch: oops, no lunch today Dinner: I made a yummy stew. I didn't have enough prepackaged seasoning, so I added paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and pepper. I used beef for the meat and added kale, broccoli, carrots, onions, and parsnips! I've been having a really tough time with my narcolepsy lately. I've been oversleeping a lot and then having insomnia late into the night. I am really hoping that I can get my sleep back on track before starting my internship on the 19th!

There's some great goals there! I know you're going to kick butt in this challenge!

Looks like some great goals there! I thought about doing the Whole 30 this month, but it's my husband's birthday and I think it's going to be enough of a struggle cooking him a paleo birthday cake without having to not eat it myself!

Looks like some great goals there! I'm sure that you can conquer this challenge, no matter how much travelling you have to do!

I'm loving your goals! Especially the Internet goal! I've actually installed that software before, but stopped using it when I realized it was not working with the fact that I'm a college student! Even now that I'm going to start my internship, I still need to be on the Internet at home looking up stuff for work. I can totally relate to wasting hours on the computer, though! I know you can rock this challenge!

Rested: Yep, I definitely did that! In fact, I'm pretty sure I overdid it on the resting! Investigate your goals: I reviewed them and I'm happy with all but one of them. I had running and swimming as separate goals, and I think that's going to be too much for my body to handle at this point. (Gotta remind myself I can't go from no exercise to triathlete instantaneously!) So I will be changing the running goal to a drinking water goal instead. Explore: I haven't done this yet. Between classes and the fact that my swimming is done in a pool, I haven't gotten out much. I'm hoping to take care of this part sometime this weekend.

That looks like such a cool place! I would love to take my family there (but the prices get a little bit up there for a trip that would probably only happen once)!

Day 4: No workout today. I think I am going to replace my running goal with something else. I really don't want to overdo it with the working out, and I'm feeling like my body is saying that will happen if I'm not really careful. Breakfast: apple Lunch: skipped (not a good thing) Dinner: spaghetti squash with Italian sausage and tomato sauce. (I love cooking with Italian sausage because it has such an awesome flavour that you don't need to worry about adding any spices to the dish! I use plain tomato sauce in this dish and it was super yummy thanks to the sausage!)

Day Three: I got up pretty much on time today.However, my lack of planning resulted in me leaving 20 minutes after I had wanted to leave. I didn't pack my swim bag last night, so I had to rush around packing it this morning. Not only did that make me late leaving the house, but I forgot some things as well! Still, I got my 10 laps in and learned a valuable lesson about preparing the night before! Breakfast: Two egg/sausage/bacon muffins and water. Morning Snack: apple and water Lunch: apple with sunflower seed butter Dinner: two baked potatoes with butter, cheese, and sour cream; one chicken thigh, a little bit of cauliflower and carrots So, I have conquered one day with no grains and no sugar! Woohoo! Yay, me! We'll see how tomorrow goes with how I'm feeling and doing some running.

Day Two: I did not run today. I overslept so decided to do my run after I got back from class. Then, when I got back from class and was having these pains so I decided to go ahead and use my rest day. Hopefully, I won't have to miss another day this week. However, I would rather take it a little more slowly and not end up injuring myself or over-extending myself. Food-wise, I did ok. I had two egg muffin things for breakfast. Lunch was a bowl of chocolate ice cream (which is now gone and shall not be replaced). Dinner was two chicken thighs with carrots and cauliflower. I also had some oatmeal cookies for dessert. So, not the best food-wise, but not the worst either. Tomorrow is another swimming day, so hopefully I manage to wake up at a decent time!

Day One: The beginning of any adventure is always the most exciting part. Full of motivation and eager to conquer the challenges ahead, we charge ahead into the future. The trick is not to get started, but to continue moving. Too much too soon and we burn out. Too little and we feel like we've failed. The balance between enthusiasm and over-exertion can be difficult to find, but I know I can conquer this adventure (with a little help from my friends and family, of course)! I began the day by heading to the pool on campus. I swam ten laps today. Going to the pool really helps me realize that comparing myself to other people is so harmful. I need to focus on comparing myself to my previous self. Maybe I can't swim constantly for half an hour like the guy in the next lane, but I can swim a whole lap without taking a break and that's an improvement over the half laps I was doing when I first started swimming. As long as I am improving, then what other people can do doesn't really matter. While I would love to be able to swim nonstop for an hour, I know that if I just keep swimming (thank you Dori) I will be able to reach that point someday! I will not be running today. I think that doing too much to fast is a big contributor to my burning out. So, the running and swimming will be on alternating days. Breakfast: Two of my yummy breakfast muffins! Basically, it's sausage, bacon, egg, a bit of onion, and a bit of spinach baked into a muffin! The recipe can be found at Gone Paleo (With the Occasional Faileo). The only modification I made was to add some chopped spinach in with the onion. Lunch: Two large handfuls of grapes. Dinner: Sara decided to cook dinner tonight, so I had beef and Spanish rice with a bit of pound cake with strawberries and whipped cream for dessert. Today is clearly not going to be my one day of grain and sugar-free eating! That's okay, though. She wanted to cook dinner, and I am not opposed to having to eat something I didn't cook! I'm making dinner tomorrow, so it will be paleo! Finally, I did practice my Spanish using my awesome new app! I can now say "The man eats an apple." in Spanish! (Un hombre come una manzana!) At the end up the day I had a few tater tots and about a cup of chocolate ice cream. Not my best day, but not my worst either! Tomorrow is running! Woohoo!

I've tried eliminating sugar before, but I always went with all the sugar all at once! Inevitably, I would end up binging for several days. I'm hoping that easing into it will help soften the blow, plus having at least one day a week where I can have sugar without it ruining my grade should be helpful!