Artemis

So, I'm a bit late to the party, but if you'll still have me then I'm definitely in. I've struggled to lose weight for a while and have finally managed to find some decent motivation through my interest in costuming; Star Wars is coming and I will be ready. That gives me a deadline of late November, early December and I'm aiming to weigh in at 160 by then. I've made some progress lately (finally succeeded in cutting soda last week) and am working to rapidly improve my diet as I believe that will have a huge impact on the amount of weight I lose. My weight hasn't shifted too much yet, but most of my recent changes are slowly making a difference and I'm hoping that as I get my diet really cleaned up that things will begin to snowball. Anyways, that's my story and I'm excited to be joining you all on this adventure.

Got paid today!!!!! My bank account is steadily rising, though I still don't have a 'real' job. As I am only home for a few more weeks I am probably going to transition to job applications back at University.

Week 4 Progress Report Goal 1 - Keep a Food Journal Six out of seven; I wasn't been as consistent as I should. I did however succeed in cutting soda completely these last few days (today is day 4!). The next step is to transition to more Paleo eating. Mini goal - 90+% Paleo by the end of the week. By the end of the challenge want to make it to 100% paleo if possible, so I need to do some serious shopping/food planning to make that happen. Grading: B - 6 days Goal 2 – Bodyweight workouts Grading: C: 3 workouts. Goal 3 – Walk 8 hrs minimum a week Grading - A - All the Walking! Life Goal - Get the Summer Job Situation Sorted Out Grading: A- - I had a slow week with the internship but did well with the cookie side job and the housesitting. About $150 this week and I've building a ton of legos that should translate to a decent extra bit of cash. Mini Goals to help keep me on track: - Post a weekly update on my goals (check.) - Follow a minimum of five other challenges to keep my inbox flooded with fitness inspiration (done!) - Participate in at least 3 of the mini challenges (DO THE AMRAPS!!!!) - Fiddle with costume design for episode 7 (Still building Legos) Upcoming Goals Summary - Exercise more - Post more on NF -Transition to 90+% Paleo

Woot! I didn't have any soda at all today. This is a pretty decent breakthrough as, while I had a bit of a headache, I powered through and proved to myself that no, I don't need diet coke. I've been working towards eliminating soda and this is a fairly significant step. Now all I need to do is stay away. perhaps I will try marking my calendar up with each day I am soda free and see if I can get a streak going...

Week 3 Progress Report Goal 1 - Keep a Food Journal Five out of seven; I slacked off a little bit. This week I'm aiming to cut the soda from my food intake and eat more healthily. I want to make it to 100% paleo if possible, so I need to do some serious shopping/food planning to make that happen. Grading: B - 5 days Goal 2 – Bodyweight workouts Grading: C: 3 workouts. Really bad and my weight hasn't moved much at all this last week. I'm going to be adding an excercise alarm to my phone and penning it onto my whiteboard to try to keep focused this week. Goal 3 – Walk 8 hrs minimum a week Some walking got done, but again not enough. Lots more standing tough, since my part-time cookie job is all standing. Grading - A - Lots of walking the dogs that I'm housesitting so I've definitely aced this goal Life Goal - Get the Summer Job Situation Sorted Out Grading: C - Had a slow week for the internship and I did about $50 through my internship plus a good bit of random work for other people (yay!). It's looking like I might not have a steady summer job, so I need to keep on top of all the random work. I kick off my dog sitting job on Friday and am very excited to get a week with a house to myself. Mini Goals to help keep me on track: - Post a weekly update on my goals (check.) - Follow a minimum of five other challenges to keep my inbox flooded with fitness inspiration (done!) - Participate in at least 3 of the mini challenges (DO THE AMRAPS!!!!) - Fiddle with costume design for episode 7 (Working on it. I have transitioned to star wars lego assembly. I have a ton of old legos that I'm reassembling and hoping to sell to help fund this costume.) Upcoming Goals Summary - Exercise more - Stop drinking soda - Post more on NF

Also LOTR. Having read LOTR multiple times and suffered through the first 2 GoT books, I'd say start with LOTR for sure. Hobbit can be a good place to start, but you can also definitely start with Fellowship and that book will be a much longer audio version than Hobbit will.

Last Weeks Progress Goal 1 - Keep a Food Journal Seven for seven, so this task is going really well. I'm also slowly improving my food intake and it's getting pretty good. My goal this next week (June 8th-) is to cut down my diet soda intake. I believe this is the one area where I am possibly suffering the most. While I'm not sure how much diet coke influences fat lost (I need to track down that NF article) I am pretty sure that I shouldn't be drinking 2 cans a day. The goal this upcoming week is to cut down to one can and then elimiate that the next week. Hopefully this will help stave off any caffeine headaches, though I get bonus points if I brave the migraines and eliminate the soda ahead of schedule. Grading: A - 7 days Goal 2 – Bodyweight workouts Grading: B: 4 workouts. Bad Artemis. I need to get the floor in my room cleaned up so I can get back to work. I started cleaning and then left the place looking like a bomb went off. (oops). Anyways, no excuses, I should have done better and I will strive to do so next week. Goal 3 – Walk 8 hrs minimum a week Some walking got done, but again not enough. Lots more standing tough, since my part-time cookie job is all standing. Grading - B - 6-8 hrs a week Life Goal - Get the Summer Job Situation Sorted Out Grading: B - I did about $50 through my internship plus a good bit of random work for other people (yay!). It's looking like I might not have a steady summer job, so I need to keep on top of all the random work. I kick off my dog sitting job on Friday and am very excited to get a week with a house to myself. Mini Goals to help keep me on track: - Post a weekly update on my goals (check.) - Follow a minimum of five other challenges to keep my inbox flooded with fitness inspiration (done!) - Participate in at least 3 of the mini challenges (i need to do my max-rep excercises sometime in the next couple of days.) - Fiddle with costume design for episode 7 (progress is being made. I've got a thread going on the Mandalorian mercs boards and am chipping away at the mountain that needs to be done.) Also, yay! The challenge has officially started! Time to get more active on these boards (goal: one post a day somewhere on the site) Mini woot: I weighed in at 193 today!

These guys nailed it, I just wanted to chime in and welcome you to the rebellion. I 100% agree with the advice they gave you. Fitness has to be done for you - if you want a six pack then you'll be more motivated to get it done. If you're just trying to accomplish it for someone else then it's less likely to happen (not impossible, but motivation tends to come more easily for personal reasons). In six months, you could definitely see some major changes if you decide to commit. However do it for you not for anyone else. You don't have to have a six pack if your goal is just excellent personal fitness. It's okay to change tacks if you actually don't want to do it anymore. If you do want a six pack, sometimes it can feel that a goal is just to big to achieve and in that case I'd recommend mini goals that get you started in that direction but that feel more achievable. Once you make a few of those goals you'll find that momentum will build and you'll make huge progress quickly. Best wishes in your fitness adventures. -Artemis

Last Weeks Progress Goal 1 - Keep a Food Journal I did a pretty good job with this. My day to day account isn't super accurate (ex. oz, cups, etc.), but it's giving me a baseline to improve upon. Grading: A - 7 days Goal 2 – Bodyweight workouts Grading: B: 5 workouts. I was slacking a bit and will strive to do better next week. Goal 3 – Walk 8 hrs minimum a week I'v e been walking the dogs places and getting in some quality podcast time. There is still room to improve however and hopefully I can get a bit more walking in next week. Grading - B - 6-8 hrs a week Life Goal - Get the Summer Job Situation Sorted Out Grading: C - Didn't reach $150 a week at Course Hero or acquire a second job, but I am making a decent bit of cash doing odd jobs for people. I'm helping out a family friend with a cooking business and have a week long dog sitting job lined up for the 12-19th. I'm hoping to improve the cash flow from week to week. Mini Goals to help keep me on track: - Post a weekly update on my goals (it's a bit late, sorry.) - Follow a minimum of five other challenges to keep my inbox flooded with fitness inspiration (done!) - Participate in at least 3 of the mini challenges - Fiddle with costume design for episode 7 (progress is being made. I've started making small design adjustments and have a few parts on order. Some small work has been begun with belt items and weaponry.)

I'll be watching this challenge. Good luck!

Things are mostly going really well, but I have had a small wrench thrown into the larger plan. Apparently, I have a final the morning of the Episode 7 release and since I go to school in N.Y. and had planned to see the movie with friends in CA, well.... we have a problem. I'm frantically re-planning my school schedule and attempting to get other time slots for my classes. I won't sacrifice academics for a movie, however I might be able to do a bit of manipulating and clear this whole thing up. You should have seen me though - I was spitting mad when I saw my finals schedule (not available until after registration for courses, so I didn't even realize this would be a problem). Nothing to be done; now I just have to wait and see how it all works out. On a more positive note, my week has otherwise been great and I've been really enjoying being home for the summer.

Last challenge saw me wrapping up my study abroad semester in Italy, participating in a traveling seminar in Greece, and returning home to the U.S. Yeah, I was busy. Nevertheless, I lost around 5lbs last challenge (yay!) and have made some progress with my eating habits. This challenge I am going to primarily focus on the same goals as last time, as there is still definite room for improvement. I also have some other side goals I am aiming to complete in order to consider the next seven weeks a success. Both my normal goals and my side goals are going to be more rigorously measured than in the past challenge. The main theme here is of course STAR WARS. 'Cause who doesn't love Star Wars? Episode 7 is just over 6 months away, so I have my work cut out for me. The plan is to be an official member of the Mandalorian Mercs costume club by the movie premier so that I can attend the local theaters first showing in costume. That gives me a rough timeline of five months to drop around 30lbs and then another month and a half to finish off a costume. I am totally using Star Wars as fitness motivation and I plan to do this properly. I don't simply want to lose weight, I want to gain strength too. Overarching Goals: Lose weightGet in better shape Mission for this Challenge - Self-Improvement I'm beginning my challenge a bit early - on 5/26 and concluding on 7/19. That gives me 55 days in total. Goal 1 - Keep a Food Journal I've been sort of doing this, but I really need to be better. Since returning home, my diet has been 90% Paleo except for the last few days where I really fell off the wagon. To encourage cleaner eating and accountability I will keep a dedicated food journal for the duration of this challenge. Rules: Keep daily entries Grading: A - 50-55 days B - 45-49 days C - 40 - 44 days D - 35-39 days F - 0-34 days Goal 2 – Bodyweight workouts To keep up with my fellow Mandalorians I need to up my personal fitness levels. We can't all use jetpacks after all. The goal for this challenge is to log 7 workouts a week on the fitness app Seven. These workouts are mini (seven minutes), but the main aim is to build a habit of exercising and figure out what I find fun. Rules: Exercises must be spread over a minimum of 3 days a week (can double up workouts in a day if needed. Grading: A - 50-55 workouts B - 45-49 workouts C - 40-44 workouts D - 35-39 workouts F - 0-34 workouts Goal 3 – Walk 8 hrs minimum a week This college aged Mandalorian is too broke to buy a speeder, so I need to continue my walking habits so I don't lose that newfound stamina. I was pleasantly surprised by the effect all of the walking I did abroad has had on my legs and I'd really like to keep it that way. Rules - Minimum 8 hrs a week. Grading - A - 8+ hrs a week B - 6-8 hrs a week C - 4-6 hrs a week D - 2-3 hrs a week F - 0-1 hrs a weel Life Goal - Get the Summer Job Situation Sorted Out So, I've got a summer internship in sales for Course Hero and I'm enjoying it so far. But, I either need to get a second job somewhere in town or get my Course Hero internship up to $150 a week. Whichever comes first/gets my parents off my back. Rules: Start hitting the pavement and find that job!! (or hit the digital pavement and hit those sales quotas) Grading: A - Either acquire a new job or hit $150 a week with Course Hero. F - Didn't reach $150 a week at Course Hero or acquire a second job. Mini Goals to help keep me on track: - Post a weekly update on my goals - Follow a minimum of five other challenges to keep my inbox flooded with fitness inspiration - Participate in at least 3 of the mini challenges - Fiddle with costume design for episode 7 Here goes! -Artemis

Everything is going great currently and I'm doing my best to keep it that way. There's one week left in this challenge and I'm already looking forward to the next one. I'm seeing some improvements already in general fitness. Last weekend I went to the local Renaissance faire with some friends and we tracked our mileage through a jawbone one of them was wearing. I never wore a pedometer while abroad, and it was kind of nice to realize that we did 5 miles at the faire within a few hours and it felt like nothing. It was kind of nice to realize that it wasn't all in my head, my legs are actually in better shape then when I left for the semester. I've had to take the last couple days, and probably the next few, off from my normal mini-workouts. The last days my lower back has been giving me some trouble, so I'm trying to avoid straining it any further. Hopefully it'll be fine in a few days and I can get back to work. I've also begun planning for the next challenge and am thinking that I may start a battle log. That or I will set a goal of posting to my thread 4-5 times a week. Mainly I'm just looking for more accountability and to have enough information widely available that if I start to make obvious mistakes someone can get me back on track.

Meals over the last 2 days have gone pretty much according to plan. I'm eating really cleanly overall since I've been primarily sticking to my own brand of soothies and leftover pot roast. I haven't been 100% Paleo since I'm working my way through my families leftovers, but the next pot roast and other meals should be entirely Paleo. Tonight or tomorrow morning I'll be restarting my walking routine and begin torturing my puppies by dragging them with me. They're miniature dachshunds so they view walks as fun for the first part and then evil torture once their little legs get tired. Italian is now officially over and I passed the class with a B-. Not my best ever, but I'll take it. I probably won't do much with the language for the next few weeks and then we'll see about picking it back up again. I'm just going to set it aside for a bit of a mental break and if nothing more important comes up, then I'll get back to work. I'm also looking for some advice: I've always had a tendency to roll my ankles on accident and this has ended badly for me in the past. By on accident I mean that my foot slips or rolls slightly and if I'm unable to correct I sometimes end up twisting my ankle. Last summer I managed to do this at Disney world and spent the better part of a week limping around theme parks with a very badly sprained ankle. I have continued to roll my ankle throughout my study abroad adventures, though thankfully never quite this badly (Pompeii was particularly terrible). Anyways, I'm looking for specific exercises I can do to strengthen any muscles or tendons in that area in order to prevent this from happening in future. Working on my balance is probably also in order. Suggestions of any kind would be wonderful.

Back home in the states!! I've still got a paper to finish up and some other documents to do in order to use my semester in Florence for credit, but I'm nearly done. 5 flights in 36 hrs and I was back in CA, so I splurged on some in-n-out (totally worth it). I also weighted in immediately afterwards - 201.9lbs. This is not a perfect measurement since I'd just eaten, but it gives me a rough starting point. I also fell off the exercise wagon while in Greece, now it's back to work. There's a lot that needs to be accomplished by December.

Climbed a huge hill to this castle in napthilion Greece. I think it was around 1,000 stairs (not kidding, someone googled it to check) and that adventure was definitely exhausting. I felt terrible cause I was going so slow and had to keep stopping. I know I shouldn't, I just don't like holding people back. Everyone was super nice, I just felt bad. Nothing to be done, my heart just got going to fast and it was getting hard to breathe. When the world starts to spin or sway, it is time to sit down. I have a heart condition and this sort of thing is not unheard of when I'm working really hard I just have to know my limits. Things I can do to improve these situations in future: lose weight. More cardio. Muscle wise I was actually pretty ok which is good since that means my problem wasn't entirely lack of muscular fitness and is probably more heart condition. Nothing I cand do about that except practice similar scenarios more often and see if improbent occurs and lose some mass in order to lessen the worky heart has to do. That's the first order of business when. I retired to the states next week: lose weight. The current plan is to focus on reducing mass in order to make it easier to do harder excercises. So, no lifting or anything until I've cut down to at least 160 labs of body weight and then we'll see.

I'm traveling in Greece for a class over the next week and have found that I'm much busier than expected. Most days I'm barely getting 8 hrs sleep and some of that is achieved on bus rides. Rapidly becoming exhausted and I don't have the ability to excercise here. I'm hoping that archaeological exploration and all the walking will balance that out. The food here is amazing and I'm loving the increase in veggies from some of the florentine dishes. I'm very excited to head home and have 24/7 kitchen access again (baked carrots....😃). That's the recap for now. Sorry if this post seems abrupt - I'm typing it out on my phone

Final day in Florence and I'm just about ready to refuse to leave. I love this city and will truly miss it. Honestly, I think going back to the states is going to be more culturally shocking than coming to italy was. There are things that europe does quite a bit better (not everything, but some things). For instance,clod quality here is phenomenal. Mini woot - weighed myself last night since we were weighing all of our luggage. I admit to being concerned about weight gain with all this pasta and food awesomeness, but I actually lost weight! Not a lot, but after i multiplied out the kilograms I was about at 200 lbs, and considering that was about 5 minutes after a huge going-away dinner, I'll take it. Side note- I was 210 ish before I left (though some of it was probably holiday season bloating). Victory!

Back from my adventures in Naples (Pompeii/Herculaneum) and fighting my way through finals and essays. I've also got to get ready to leave as Wednesday I depart for Greece right after my last final. Still a ton much to do, but my head is still above water so it's all good. I admit that I am looking forward to being home in two weeks and being able to start eating more cleanly. I really want roasted carrots, and mushrooms, and avocado. Ok, I need to stop thinking about all the food.Finals are here, but I'm ready. Bring it on.

Here's the link to the article I was thinking of: http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2012/10/18/a-college-guide-to-eating-healthy/ Making to many changes at once is hard, so I agree that it's a good idea to pace yourself so that your changes stick and become permanent habits.

Hey, how's it going? Exams are the worst, I feel your pain. Hope everything's going well and welcome to the rebellion, Artemis

Congratulations on all of your progress! It sounds like you've already accomplished amazing things and your upcoming goals all sound fun. I've always thought SCA would be pretty neat. How awesome is it?

Welcome to the rebellion! I understand the college food struggle, that's one of the hardest things when on a meal plan. There's an article somewhere on NF about eating healthy in college, I'll see if I can track it down for you tonight. Good luck with your goals! Are you thinking about joining this challenge?

Finals have hit full force here and there was a bit of birthday madness, so I admit to being slightly distracted. Food tracking and italian are going the strongest right now (hard core cramming happening... Oops). Excercise, not so much, but as I've been out and about climbing 400+ step towers and zipping around the city, I think I'm breaking even on that front. Still, I shall strive to be better this week.

Excellent! I just wanted to check. Many people get on the forums for the first time with ridiculous expectations that, when not reached, cause them to give up hope. I was pretty sure you meant long term goal, but thought it might be good to verify. Sounds great and good luck. -Artemis