snark

Week 1 summary: Eat right: 10200/10500 calories and 639/525 g protein. No particularly low/high days. I'm pretty pleased with this overall, but I do think I could take care of myself a bit better. Next week will be challenging because fancy dinner on Thursday (with set courses)--I'd like to just enjoy it, so I'm planning to play it pretty strict for the rest of the week, which includes a couple of free work lunches (yikes). Challenge mode, I guess! Train strength: Three workouts, as planned. (On Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday, which was not quite as planned but will do.) I added a couple of things to the routine yesterday and am experiencing a bit of DOMS today, but things are continuing to go well with me and the dumbbells and such. Move more: 8/8 walks during the week. Again, have a tough and more constrained schedule this week, so going to challenge mode! Be productive: 6/7 days, and I spent the extra time to cancel out bad-start Monday, so 7/7! The DOMS led me to choose other things to do this weekend, rather than clearing out the exercise bike, so I did some things that did not require being so bendy. +1 WIS from the mini-challenge. Overall a happy-making first week.

Another solid day--I actually almost forgot about my productive time because Friday, and then I looked at my tracking spreadsheet before writing this post and had to go clean the kitchen! Got my two walks in during the work day, so I made it to 8/8. And I had a nice little serving of my salted caramel ice cream, delicious! This weekend, I'm planning to use my productive time to at least clear out my exercise bike in my mess of a second bedroom, so that I can add some HIIT time along with the strength training, at least sometimes. We have plans tomorrow, so I have to wake up pretty early to get my workout in to make up for Monday--definitely a punishment to fit the crime.

It's definitely still tough to stay off of it, but having the dumbbells is helping a lot! I can practice lifting heavy(ish) things that aren't me, making progress that really feels good and preparing myself for more fun after my wrist has had a break. It's been in good shape again for about a week, and I'm also just trying to appreciate having a functional wrist day-to-day, since it really is nice! I hope your ankle heals up quickly! Thanks, as always! I'm pretty pumped!

Nice challenge and awesome start so far! I love the perspective that you are adding tools to your toolbox that you can use toward the lifestyle you want. Tracking is annoying, but I find it a lot easier to keep my choices in check than when I try to set rules for myself. Just a better fit for me so far, I guess. Good luck keepin' it up!

I love your mindset for this challenge! They can't all be big wins, and the little ones add up quickly. Good luck sticking with your goals, I'm sure you'll kick butt!

Nice start! Kicking any habit is really challenging, but especially one that involves both caffeine and sugar! (Breakthrough!)

Yay for fitting in delicious baked goods and still hitting your calorie goal! You totally can have it all, if you plan well. Keep it up!

Haha, I was scrolling down and thinking "better get on those pushups!" and then you kicked butt yesterday! Keep it up!

Beer tasting worked out great! I got to eat, drink and be merry because I set myself up to happily indulge a bit. I did stay up a bit late, which made getting up for workout rough, but I did it. I also made two separate dinners tonight because I decided last-minute-ish that the dinner I'd planned and promised to my husband wasn't something that I liked enough for the nutritional value. (Lots of leftovers, so basically preloaded some tasty meals for the next couple of days.) I also had some leftover egg yolks from a meringue that I had made for some friends, so I made some salted caramel ice cream (which I do like enough for the nutritional value, in small doses ). So far, I've been keeping up with everything quite well after my rough start on Monday. I'm at six walking points for the week, so I need to do a long walk or two regular ones at work tomorrow, along with just doing what I've been doing.

Breakthrough-ish things! I got to sleep a bit late last night and DID NOT want to work out this morning but did it anyway. Pretty sure that's going to feel like a breakthrough every time, no matter how many times I do it. I also hung out at an impromptu work happy hour thing drinking tea while other people drank beer, and it was fine after a little ribbing from my coworkers. How's everyone else this doing this week?

I love the life goal, might need to steal it myself in the future! Glad you're having a good start so far, keep it up!

Thanks! Tonight is a beer tasting, so I will get to see how they work in action. We're having grilled sausages and some kind of salad that a friend is bringing, so at least the food part is pretty okay this time.

I'm so sorry for your loss. My dad passed away a few years ago, and I realize in retrospect that I used it as an excuse for a while to not take care of myself--fortunately, my then-boyfriend-now-husband put a lot of effort into supporting me and getting my butt in gear, as well as building a solid support network for future similar situations. It sounds like you're already doing a lot of that yourself and using your various support systems, and I really admire that. Your goals seem perfect to take care of yourself physically and emotionally, and you've had a solid start. Keep it up, and hugs!

Yay for a better day today! Stepping up and starting fresh is hard, and it's one of many new habits that you're forging. Good luck with the workout tomorrow!

My husband has fixed a few situations like that by wrapping copper tape around the plug part that goes into the laptop. (I think it's usually because something internal is a little loose, so making the plug bigger but still conductive helps it connect to what it needs to.)

It's important to take care of yourself and recover! You have a very tough schedule, so don't beat yourself up too much, and go all in when you can.

Sounds like you've had a great start! I love that you make time to get outside and explore your city and nature, opens you up to serendipitous awesomeness like those music groups by the river. Yay, I'm glad I could help! That same stretch is definitely tough for me, too! It's great practice for awareness of hinging from the hips, along with being an awesome stretch.

Today really was a much better day. I felt really great in general after working out, I took two walks at work, and I spent about 45 minutes to make some great progress on reorganizing/uncluttering some trouble areas at home. Food also went well, but that tends not to be an issue except on days with beer tasting parties. That last thing actually transitions quite nicely to this week's mini challenge. I think my goals all qualify as SMART, so the main thing is figuring out how best to handle upcoming challenging functions. This was something I struggled with last challenge, so it's something I've thought about a bit, but this is a good chance to really consider my strategy. There are a few different types of challenges, so I'll attack them separately, although the overall strategy involves continuing my mindset shift to treating treats as treats, rather than all-the-time foods. Weekly(ish) beer tasting parties (including one on my birthday): There are a few different factors that make these challenging. These are (hopefully) going to continue for a while, so I need strategies that are sustainable. - There is a lot of beer, which adds up to a lot of empty calories on its own; to manage this, I've been restricting my drinking on other days, as described earlier in my challenge thread, and I also try to be careful not to take huge pours (which doesn't always work, see next bullet.) I do just acknowledge that these are higher calorie days and plan my week and other treat options around that. - There is a lot of beer, which can get me drunk! This is exacerbated by the fact that I'm limiting my other drinking and not filling up on drunk-mitigation-type foods, and it can lead to poor decision making about what I eat and how much I drink (vicious cycle). I think that managing this will be an ongoing process, but the first thing I will work on specific to this is not finishing things I don't actually like--I'm good about this with junk food, so it's just taking that up a notch. - There tends to be a lot of good food that is calorie-dense, like mac and cheese, pizza, bread and cheese, and so on. I think my strategy here is that when there are going to be things like that, I will eat a nutritional and filling dinner (like chicken breast and broccoli) and then have a small serving of the tasty thing. If that doesn't work, I will cut out the small serving of the tasty thing. Fancy dinner: We're going to a fancy beer-pairing dinner next week, likely replacing the weekly beer tasting. This is a one-off thing that will basically be like an extreme version of the beer tastings, and I'm going to basically plan on the other days that week being lower calorie days (1300ish), so that I have some room to work with overall. Conference: I'm spending the last few days of the challenge out of town at a conference (this will put me at three challenges in a row where there's a trip at the end for me...) I don't know what this will be like really at all, other than that I will have limited food choices, so at this point I think my strategy is to make sensible choices within those limitations and to promise myself that slip-ups will not beget further slip-ups. I will also bring some healthy snacks for the plane rides (I have a habit of 'treating' myself at airports, even when there for short, easy trips).

Guess for quest #2: Drink 4 bottles of water? I also noticed that you've been active both days (nice start to the challenge!), so that's another possibility--I guess any two points can make a line.

Woo good luck starting this challenge! I know that you struggled a bit in the past with getting enough calories and have ended up frustrated--do you have some strategies in mind?

Awesome and impressive approach to the unlimited tasty food situation! I might need to steal that idea in future similar situations. All-day classes are super exhausting (either from info inundation or boredom), which can take up cognitive space that you'd otherwise use on willpower. Plus the sheer variety of foods can lead to eating more, on top of the "get your money's worth" mindset. So much easier to limit your self-control to the simple act of staying away from the food. Love it.

Haha that's definitely one way of looking at it! Bad start, strong finish! Definitely got my butt out of bed and did my workout this morning, so that's a start.

Kind of a meh start because I wasn't feeling well today, which I think is somewhat of a challenge tradition for me at this point. Kind of got everything out of whack, but I'll get back on the horse. The only goal without flexibility is my daily productivity goal (for a reason!). I only spent about 10 minutes taking care of business tonight--I decided that if I catch up on that this week, I won't count it against my total. I may make this exception in the future on days when I am totally booked, but this is a one-off in terms of just not stepping up. Bleh, now I'm off to get lots of sleep and start tomorrow.

Sounds like a good start! How much longer do you expect to be in school, now that you're full-time? Making friends is tough, but a nice thing about school is that some of the other people around you are definitely also looking for new buddies.

Omg you are a fellow Libra--I'm an October 1 baby! I love the part of your goal where you embrace being a student--I think it's important to take advantage of the good parts of that! There's a lot of built-in social life and support system if you take advantage.