DFTBAmanda

Hello!

I finally have internet again!

I know I've been absent almost the whole first two weeks, but that definitely doesn't mean I've forgotten.

Well, I mean, I've forgotten some things, like what I made for dinner last week, but I know there were definitely 3 paleo options, even if I'm the only one that took that path. This week I made a big mess of pulled pork that I used in a few recipes, once for a hash, once for stuffed potatoes, and Nate was still able to make himself barbecue sandwiches a few times. I also made a pretty good pork stir fry last night, with rice for Nate. Tonight I'll make chorizo breakfast taco bowls (I might sneak a corn tortilla or two) and I have boar sausage to make stuffed mushrooms and a huge pile of zucchini to make into noodles. The rest of the week promises to be healthy AND delicious!

I have one question though, do you guys have any special tricks to make your grocery budget stretch? We're carnivores, through and through, and even with the majority of our other food being veggies, meat is darn expensive. We're on a VERY fixed income for the next few weeks, and I'm having trouble finding places to cut back...

I have been getting workouts in, 3 last week and 2 so far this week. Sunday Nate and I went to the pool and splashed around for awhile. We also took turns giving each other piggy back rides. Now, Nate can lift me like I weigh nothing, he's strong. But Nate is 6'4" and weighs about 315 lbs, give or take. It was a very good workout slogging him from one end of the pool to the other. At one point I walked into the shallows so that only his lower legs were in the water and couldn't actually move my legs anymore but I bet him I could piggy back him and I totally did it!

Of course after that he picked me up and hoisted my entire still sitting body over his head, but some people just have to show off, you know? ;-)

I'm also work on my prep list. I've got a planner and new pens and highlighters, but still don't have my full schedule. Should have that Monday though! Then I can really get cracking. I've already been able to piece together half my schedule based on probability, now I just need confirmation.

So that was my first two weeks, on track for A+ so far. How are you doing?

Just popping in to see how it goin'?

Puppy!!!!! I want corgis SOOOOOOOOO much, you don't even know.

Great challenge and good luck

Thanks! Now that I have wifi I'll have to go check out your challenge

hey! I hope you can chime in a bit with no internet access over the next couple of weeks!

I am super lucky that my husband is willing to eat everything I make (and i make some weird stuff) but I have stepkids who are hopelessly picky and NOT on the whole foods/vegetables bandwagon by any means. I ended up sitting down with them to put together a list of staples that they WILL eat, and I said Pizza is only allowed on the list ONE TIME not ALL THE TIMES, and we try to fit some healthy staples into each meal so they can fill up on the thing they love, without having to cry over being made to eat sauteed swiss chard, for example. will that work for you guys? and once you get him to the table with the staples he LOVES that fit into the healthy lifestyle, then you can trick him into trying and loving the newer and even healthier stuff that you're making.

Haha, sometimes I feel like Nate IS a child... But we sat down and had a good conversation and both decided that as long as I throw him a bone every couple meals, he's perfectly willing to try my zucchini noodles and mashed cauliflower.

Now if I could just get the ice cream out of the house... :-P

Hello Fellow Rebels!

I'm writing this from a Starbucks WiFi connection, still won't have my own internet for another 2 weeks. Last challenge was difficult to keep up with for this same reason, plenty of things happening and victories to track, but no way to alert people! Even now, I'm probably going to have to leave before I can finish, so I'll try to make this quick. Even though I'm a HORRENDOUSLY slow typist.

My main quest for this challenge is to get ready for law school, which will start a month into the challenge. Then I'll have 2 weeks of classes to assess my preparedness and make any needed adjustments before the semester gets fully underway. I want to be able to balance a healthy lifestyle and a full class load, and that means sticking to a plan and a schedule.

I'll actually get my class schedule sometime this week and be able to create (and post many pictures of) a comprehensive calendar to simulate what my schedule in law school will be like. I want to work on making meals, working out, and "studying" only in times that I'll actually have available to me between classes. More on how that will pan out exactly in a future post.

For now, I have 3 goals for myself, to feed my body, my mind, and my soul. This may be the only "me" time I get for quite some time (three years if my lawyer friends are telling the truth). It's very important to me to not let my physical vessel suffer while I hone my mind. This is the only body I've got, after all. Toward that end:

GOAL 1: I want to do bodyweight workouts 3 times a week, this is the BARE minimum. If I want to, I can take an off day and go for a walk or kayak on the lake or whatever, but I ABSLUTELY CANNOT slack on these workouts. I'm not giving myself a way out this time. I have literally nothing weighing on my time these days since quitting my job and moving, so there's no reason not to carve out the 3 hours a week it requires. If that. If I pick up a good pace I can get a 4 set circuit done in 30 minutes. It's about time I stopped babying myself and got back to the Amanda I was this time last year. This means a total of 18 workouts, which is not really that much of a commitment. The grading is as follows:

A= 12-18 workouts, with some extra ones thrown in such as cycling and urban hikes

B= 9-15 workouts with no extra time put in

C= 6-10 workouts

F= less than 6 workouts. This is not an option.

GOAL 2: I want to make delicious and nutritious meals for me and my tiny family of one other person. We've been doing very well in making our own food (I cook, Nate cleans up) and I want to keep it that way. The thing that kills me currently is keeping in line with Nate's tastbuds and still keeping it Paleo. Right now, I don't really. There are a lot of white potatoes and rice, used to keep Nate's culinary attention and to keep him eating my food instead of going to a fast food place after I eat dinner. He's committed to eating more healthfully just like I am, but he's hopelessly picky. My real challenge is in finding whole food meals that he enjoys and doesn't realize are good for him ;-)

I'll do this by making dinner at least 3 times a week, realistically it'll probably be more. If I'm meeting this goal too easily I'll adjust for difficulty later. This equals 18 dinners in all, so grading is:

A= 15-20 nutritious and completely paleo meals

B= 10-15 paleo meals, a few that cheat slightly

C= 8-12 meals, most have some form of simple carb

F= less than 10 cooked meals. If this happens, heaven help me.

GOAL 3: I want to be ready administratively for when law school comes, this means making out a budget, getting textbooks, notebooks/pens and such, and arranging my workspace. This is more of a tiered system than letter graded, I'm going to have 6 tasks that need to be met by the end of the challenge. They are, in no particular order:

• Sort out official files and paperwork so that it doesn't drown my study sessions
• Create a budget that takes into account student loans and Nate's impending new job
• Buy textbooks, get vaccinated, and upgrade ID (all on campus)
• Get new study materials, all pens and highlighters were accidentally tossed during the move
• Find syllabi, transpose due dates into NEW date planner
• Create database of recipes to draw form that can be made in less than an hour or in a Crockpot for multiple meals

These are the tools that will enable my overly engaged mind to rest easy on a cushion of over-preparation. I've already been told that trying to do supplemental reading before starting classes is mostly useless unless it's requested on the syllabus, and my tendency to overthink things is going to rear it's ugly head very soon if I don't have something productive to occupy my time.

So that's this challenge in a nutshell. Bring on August! I can't wait to read what you guys are tackling this time.

Hey Rebel Family!

So I've been off in a land with no Internet, a land called Moving Apartments. I haven't forgotten my challenge! It's just that time warner cable won't be setting up our internet until the first week of August. I have been trying to maintain healthy habits, it's just been a crazy month and no ability to catch up on here. I'm typing all this out on my phone and my hand's already cramping [emoji39]

So in the last month I have trained an entire new division at my job, left that job, moved 300 miles to Austin, and now we're unpacking everything and getting ready for me to start law school in a month. It's intense how different everything is here from Dallas, but more on that later.

I haven't been getting in body weight workouts in the traditional sense, but moving is a very physical endeavor. I actually had to take a few rest days after we loaded everything off the truck just because I agitated my sternum somehow. I woke up Sunday morning and it hurt to breathe. I couldn't even get my tshirt off by myself. I was utterly useless in the unpacking efforts, but luckily it's gotten better everyday since then and right now it just twinges a bit when I lift something over 70 lbs or so. Keeping that in mind, my book boxes are HEAVY. I'm definitely still getting a full body workout.

One thing I'm very excited about is my new complex's fitness center! There are barbells and hand weights and space to do push-ups and it looks utterly deserted. I've promised myself to finish unpacking before I start beating myself up with DOMS, but I'm excited for the prospect.

On the eating front, I've had candy probably once a week, which is much better than it was before the challenge, and I've been able to start cooking my own food again, which is awesome. You know how moving always inevitably leads to not being able to find the silverware, and ordering takeout for three days in a row while you marvel at the sheer magnitude of what you have to do? Well this time we made sure that everything was labeled and easily accessible in the kitchen boxes and the second day we were able to unpack that entire room, do a major grocery trip, and have a pork roast in the crockpot by 2 pm! And I have a small container of 80% dark chocolate covered almonds in the pantry, and everything else is wonderful fresh paleo fare. Well, except Nate's junk food shelf. But we're working on that.

I've also only had 2 small coffees since leaving my job. Booyah.

I'm going to be honest, I'm not even using an alarm clock these days, since I'm a jobless layabout, but I wake up around 9 am on average, which is soooooooo much more fun than 5:30. There's really no comparison.

I could just fall into that picture, what a beautiful hike!

Happy vacationing! Can't wait to hear all about it when you return

You know, it's actually pretty easy to make your own larabars, they're basically a half and half mix of dates and nuts with whatever dried fruit you want thrown in for flavor. The high sugar content mostly comes from the dates.

Gotta love a good crockpot recipe! It seems like you're rocking out so far, I bet it feels good to be back in the swing of things

Hey Ems! How long does it usually take you to cook for the week? Do you have a routine to save time? It always takes me hours of planning and a full day of cooking just to have food for 3 days :-P

Amanda=mesmerized

What you've been doing is so freaking cool! I have to look deeper into GMB.

So... multiquote isn't working on this tablet. Neither is linking in my signature. Come to think of it, neither is picture loading. This could just be another one of those fun little quirks that Windows 8 has, or... it could be fixable by adjusting the settings? Anyone know?

Aaaaanywho, This week has been full of both highs and lows. There have been great triumphs! And dismal, dismal failures.

Let's start with goal #1. I actually did both workouts that I set out to do, one on Thursday, and one just a few minutes ago. While my rep number was very very small compared to where I was once upon a time, I was able to scrounge up some lat pulldowns, and I pulled 100 lbs! I have no doubt that once I've stuck with it a few weeks, I will be 100 times better than I am now. Currently, my arms can best be described as "pillow". It's the first place I gain weight, and it's always a great indicator of when something's amiss. With any luck, in a few months that'll be a thing of the past again!

Cut out the crap: didn't do so hot on this one. I have actually gone entirely without coffee since Thursday. However. Friday, Nate had a late show, and we've just got the one car now, so it was up to me to hang around from the time I got off work at 4 until Nate was ready to leave the theatre, which was supposed to be around 7 but ended up being after 10. I did not have any food with me, and my avenue of salvation was a Target next to the theatre. I bought a bag of m&ms, because I was hungry and annoyed. And then Nate bought me dinner to make up for things, and it was Whataburger. And I got a soda. And then Saturday was completely awful.

I went into a sneaky hate spiral of melancholy and self loathing and ended up in the fetal position in bed for a few hours. After the obligatory full day of work on a Saturday. It's a long story that is mostly attributed to it being shark week and just hating my job with the white hot fury of 1000 suns. Nate was understandably a bit freaked out and rushed to the store and got at my insistent behest a pint of dairy free chocolate icecream and gluten free cookie dough that I then smooshed into a cake pan and made a giant cookie sundae from. So now I still have a slightly gooey half a pizza sized cookie sitting on my stove and over half a pint of icecream in the freezer. And a lot of humble pie on my plate. I should probably not have tried to go cold turkey and go from eating candy and processed food everyday to eating completely home prepared Paleo again. Especially if I'm not even going to be at home.

This week will be much better planned.

Overall, mixed bag. But hey, at least I'm doing something again, at least it's registering, and that's something.

Yey you're back! I have similarly simple goals this time around, sometimes you need to build yourself back up slowly

I'll have to track down your thread! It's definitely good to be back. Keeping it simple for the win!

simple and elementary they might be, but sometimes it's totally necessary! Good luck hun!

Thanks Blaidd! I'll probably throw in something spicy if I can keep up with this for a few weeks, I'm excited to see how it goes!

Glad to see you back. One step at a time and you will be all on track and fighting Wonder Woman style

I hope so Tate! I'm so glad to be back, it just feels right. I'm disappointed that it's been a year since my first challenge and this is where I am, but I'm so happy that I get to see you doing it the right way!!!!

Glad to see you back! Those look like great goals.

Thanks Elastigirl! I'm going to go find your challenge thread, can't wait to see what you've been up to

*runs away to add lots of cool GIFs to her challenge* don't mind me, I'll just be mesmerized by all the pretty colors in your thread...

AAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!! Tate! Your year in review makes me want to cry! I'm SO proud of you! You inspire me every time I look at your thread. I'm so excited for this challenge, I'm back for good this time

Hey Blaidd! Long time no see! I'm so excited to follow your challenge this time around and I'm glad you were able to get over the hiccup you had the first day. And your food pictures make me HUNGRY! I remember in my first challenge you were there for me every step of the way, and it's so cool to know you're still helping people out that way.

Hey fellow Rebels!!!

So I'm christening this the Grand Re-opening of Amanda's Nerd Fitness Challenge. I've been gone for much longer than I realized, with almost no memory of how this came to be. Last I remember I was working on close-hand pushups and gearing up for a Whole30.... and then I woke up and it was 4 months later.

In keeping with this phenomenon, I'm modeling my challenge after the Wonder Woman series "The Twelve Labors" (an oldie but a goodie!). In it, the champion of Paradise Island wakes up from a seemingly short nap with no memory of the last two years of her life. In order to regain her position on the Justice League, she must face 12 trials, much like her countryman Hercules back in the day. (BTW, if you haven't read the New 52 WW series by Brian Azarello, DOOOOOOOOO IIIIIIIIIIITTTT. What has your life even been up to now?!)

***End of interruption***

In all seriousness, I'm ready to get back to being me. I am not a person who blows off a workout to stare into space and brood about the shifty hand I've been dealt, but for the last quarter of a year I have been. Wow. It sounds like such a long time when you put it like that. I've also been the person that eats dessert everyday and tells herself she deserves it for making it through the day. And the person that doesn't even pick up fast food but orders delivery because going through a drive thru seems exhausting. I'm ashamed to say these things and let you all know just where I've been for awhile, but the first step is admitting, right?

The only reason I haven't undone EVERY SHRED of work I put into the last year on myself is that I'm still very much aware of how gluten kills me, and I stayed away from it for the most part. But I have climbed back on the sugar train and right now I'm having a swordfight on top of it with the conductor. And that goes double for caffeine. I haven't set out and done a workout since March, and I haven't lifted since I got laid off from being a flight attendant. I can't accurately remember the last time I broke a sweat....

All this changes now. My anniversary with Nerd Fitness was last month and I missed it. I have a lot to make up for. It's time to prove to myself that I have what it takes to see this through. It's time to take up my lasso and join the Rebels once again. It's time for The 6 Labors.

There are 6 weeks in the 6 week challenge (shocker, I know), hence 6 Labors. Six things I want to prove to the judge-y Justice Leaguers in my mind so that I can move past this setback and become the superhuman I was meant to be.

I want to prove that:

• I am not ruled by caffeine
• I am a morning person
• I don't need sugar to lift my spirits
• I am a person who eats real, whole food
• I have time in my day to work out
• I have the energy to accomplish fun things after work

There are three specific and reachable goals I've set for myself in order to prove these statements.

1. Bodyweight workout 3 times a week instead of (or while) watching Netflix with Nate

Nate and I have gotten into the habit of sitting on the couch as soon as I get home and then not moving from that spot until it's time to go to bed. We're both uncomfortable with it, I think both of our bodies are constantly screaming at us to go just DO something already, but I keep telling myself that I DESERVE it. That it's a reward to sit on the couch 6 nights a week doing nothing productive and watching Nate eat chez whiz (ew) and triscuits.

No more. I'm not going to try to make Nate do this with me, even though he's expressed interest, but I will make the decision for myself to make that time count for something. Even if I'm only moving for 2 hours a week, it's something I can build a foundation on. Now, it's already Thursday and I haven't done any workouts this week, but I can do one tonight and one on Saturday and that gives me a perfect start into next week, so I'll be ok with it.

2. Cut out the crap

I want to break the sugar/caffeine cycle that I've gotten myself into: coffee in the morning to start the day, candy in the afternoon to reward myself for not blowing up my office that day. Not even kidding. It's almost too tempting sometimes. I've actually taken big steps in curing this particular problem. For the last month I've been ratcheting my caffeine intake down from 3-4 shots of espresso to 1 cup of weak break room coffee. I have also stopped purchasing candy for myself. If I can keep it up, I'll be in business. My goal is that by the end of the challenge I will be drinking green tea in the morning at work and having maybe a cup of good coffee on Saturdays and NO candy. The only problem that could arise with this plan is my propensity for caffeine headaches and the general sluggishness that accompanies withdrawals from a stimulant drug (which is what caffeine is). I have every confidence that I can break the sugar cycle if I just stay committed to it for enough time for my tastebuds to change back to what they should be. I'll be compounding that by eating as much real food as possible, until I learn to love it again.

3. Don't be a slave to the alarm

I wake up in the morning 5 minutes before I have to leave for work. I end up scrambling to throw on vaguely matching clothes without brushing my teeth, half the time I forget to grab the lunch I packed, and don't even think about putting on makeup or fixing my hair. This is because I have to be at work at 7am every morning but Sunday most weeks, so I leave my house at 6:15, and in order to get up in time to really get ready for the day I would need to wake up by 5:30. This seems an impossible task. BUT. I know that part of the reason I'm so sluggish is my sedentary state these days and that will be helped by the exercise I'm going to be getting, and my appearance will be helped by having the time to comb my hair and wash my face in the morning :-P My goal is to wake up the first time my alarm goes off in the morning, instead of the 5th. That Isn't even an exaggeration. I have to set 6 alarms. This from the girl who used to wake up at 3am just to get in a workout and a nap before getting on the plane.

I know these are really simplistic and elementary goals, but I need to make myself believe that I've still got what it takes. I reserve the right to level up my goals as the challenge progresses, sadly this is the level I'm at right this moment. But you know me, I could decide to take up kite flying tomorrow. You never know

Hey Orc! Thanks for digging me out of the archives and bringing me to the present it's going to be a great challenge and I can't wait to see what happens.

I'm so sorry to hear about all this sucky illness Tate! Just focus on feeling better, your challenge won't suffer as long as you're moving forward in your goals, and right now your goal is a have a sickness free body and family.

Your flexibility goal especially looks to be moving along smoothly! I lurked on some of your previous challenges when I wasn't posting *sneaky* and I've started those myself a few times, so I know how easy it is to say "well I'll just skip one day, it won't really matter". You seem like you're well on your way to finishing this time!

Pictures of bento pretty please?

Hello heroes and heroines!

This week was an exercise in ingenuity. To begin with, I've made 3 separate paleo meals and eaten paleo every meal but 1 this week! Monday night I got home around 8pm again, but instead of swinging around to some fast food joint and stuffing my face I went to boston market and got half a chicken and some steamed veggies. Then Tuesday I worked through lunch, stayed at work 2 hours late, and was ready to gnaw off my own arm by the time I got in my car. Then I drove through the first place I saw (Schlotzskys) and got a giant ass sandwich. And then while I was curled up in the fetal position with grain induced stomach cramps I typed out a grocery list on my phone. And Wednesday morning I went to Trader Joes while it was snowing and everyone was hiding in their houses, mostly because I had been on my way to work and the roads were impassable. But I got two huge bags of groceries for slow cooker meals and some odds and ends, and I put a beuf bourginion in the crockpot (is red wine really that bad on paleo?) and I made portobello mushroom crust pizzas for lunch and had the beautiful smell of simmering beef around me all day. I made 4 meals out of that stew and still have one in the fridge. Last night I was a bit tired of stew and mashed cauliflower, and I ended up at the Thai place by my house. But! Instead of getting pad thai, I got a curried seafood broth soup and took it home and it was delicious. And totally in the rules.

I think my idea of cooking 5 times a week is a bit unrealistic given what my schedule is shaping up to be. I've got the crockpot and that'll definitely help, but I probably need to have a prep day and do most of the pre-pot cooking done, since I'm not someone content to throw in a bag of frozen veggies and a "sauce" with some chicken and call it good. I've got ingredients for two more crockpot meals and by tomorrow I hope to know everything I plan to cook next week and I'll post it here. Organization is the name of the game from here on out.

I put another $500 into savings this week, which felt really good. Nate has also decided to send his savings to my account to accrue interest together, which is awesome and much easier to keep track of than sitting down every paycheck and comparing our numbers.

Now I'm going to go make a scramble, get my protein on, and then move my body around in pushing and pulling motions! Yay weekend!