Lowenna

15/4/11 I have officially decided to swap my MWoD goal to a Pilates goal. It's early enough in the challenge to do that I think. On that note, I did pilates this morning; the 15min arms and core workout from ultimatepilates.com followed their 10min post workout stretch. Which I actually really enjoyed. Been a good girl on the diet front, actually didn't even feel tempted to eat anything I'm not supposed to, this is rare and awesome. 15mins of washing up and 15mins on room tidying, the room is looking a lot better. Day fully planned and mostly stuck to. Cycled 5miles to work, worked 8 hours and now I feel amazing. Seriously, I feel great , despite having a hideous cough, I think I may have caught my housemate's chest infection.

14/4/11 Day planned today and mostly stuck to it. Went of a run first thing, better than yesterday's effort but still not great. Did my 30 burpees. I did the post-workout stretching from ultimatepilatesworkout.com, thanks Alethea for putting me on to that one, they have some really good stuff. I've really not being enjoying the MWoD's so I'm seriously considering swapping that goal for daily pilates. I used to do pilates and there is a strong possibility that upw is going to get me doing it again. Spent nearly an hour washing up and it's still not all done *sigh*. Cycled 5 miles to work, worked 8 hours. F1. 2 runs L2. 1 missed

It's definitely my favourite part of it. Progress 13/4/11 The day in a word: Listlessness I felt awful today; exhausted, discontented and entirely unable to summon up any enthusiasm about anything. Often feel like this on my days off, it may be something about a lack focus. I didn't do a day plan, I'm sure that didn't help at all. Did manage to go for a run, a terrible, short run, but at least it got some air in my lungs. Did my two MWoDs, I'm constantly surprised by how tight I am. Spent around about half an hour tidying my room, it's still chaos, but it's better. On a brighter note, I think I spied some slightly improved muscle definition in my arms while I was in the shower this morning. This is the first time I've looked at my body and thought it looked a little better. Written my day plan for tomorrow. It includes another run, which hopefully will go better than the last one. Fitness: 1. 1 run this week Life: 2. Missed 1

Hi Diglett, firefly is possibly the most amazing show ever, I've been on a mission re-watching it the past few days, it has made me very happy. Today was day planned and I... cycled 5 miles, worked 8 hours (was meant to be 9, but it was quiet so I got sent home early). Did 30 burpees, my god were they tough, but fun. Redid MWoD from yesterday, didn't feel like I did them justice last time. Unfortunately burnt the fat I was rendering down , ah well, next time I will know better. Decided to use my stock to make butternut squash and leek soup, it's going to be win. Some idiot at work sent back a perfectly good fish mixed grill, so that was my dinner sorted. IT! WAS! EPIC! Tuna steaks, kingklip, grouper, shrimp and char-grilled asparagus, I don't think life gets any better. Now I'm sitting on my bed with a massive heap of clothes, etc to fold up. On target with everything, but I really do need to go for a run tomorrow. Two days with no running is too many. Anyhoo, it's my day off so running is totally do-able.

Glad you found the hour by hour plan thing helpful too Lynny. I really would recommended it to anyone who's got too much on their plate. It sort of forces you to be realistic about how much time something will take and what you can realistically expect yourself to do. I'm just using pen and paper, means I've always got it with me in my bag. It really does work well when I'm stressed or feeling lost. If I've got either too much to do or not enough to do it totally refocuses me and keeps me on track, but people do look at me like I'm crazy sometimes, especially as I block out chunks of time in the evening as 'go to the pub' lol. Cycled 5miles to work. We've got a new menu starting on Wednesday so we had to taste the new stuff so we could tell the customers about it accurately. This means free food which = win. And even better, I was a good girl and only ate the stuff I was allowed, despite freeness. I'm starting the MWoD from the beginning and I did the first two days today. I found that couch stretch way more intense than I was expecting, I'm tempted to do them both again tomorrow on top of whatever else I've got to do. I feel like they did me a lot of good. Whole chickens were on offer at the corner shop so I bought one, roasted it, stripped it and boiled up the bones. I've now got a box of cooked chicken (enough to last me quite a while), some fresh chicken stock and after I render it in the morning a little jar of rendered chicken fat to cook with. I really couldn't be any happier . Also borrowed another recipe book to copy anything paleo out of. Did about half the washing up and two loads of laundry. So on track with the housework goal. Yes, half the washing up took nearly half an hour... I told you is was bad. Wrote a day plan, didn't stick to it very well, but that's not the main thing. Whenever I write a plan I more done than I would have if I hadn't. Writing tomorrow's plan right now. All in all not a bad start to the challenge.

After epics fails on my previous two challenges I'm going back to basics and doing something totally achievable. Fitness. 1. Run 3+ times per week Self-explanatory really. 2. Pilates Do pilates every day. One of the sub 20min workout outs from ultimatepilates.com followed by 10min post-workout stretch. 3. 30 burpees alternate days. This was going to be squats, lunges, rows, etc but then I remembered that I hate doing that stuff and that burpees are much more fun. Hopefully by the end the push up part will be greatly improved. Diet: 1. Prepare for paleo Sort out all the paleo recipes I've collected, do some meal plans/shopping lists, try out a few paleo recipes. This is so that I'm ready to go paleo on the next challenge. I will also be continuing with my no wheat, no dairy eating. Life: 1. 30mins housework a day. The house is chaos, it would be nice if it wasn't 2. Start doing detailed day plans again. This is where I plan out every hour of every day. No I'm not kidding. I know it sounds a bit crazy but it really helps me get things done and stops me feeling lost and overwhelmed. At the moment I'm feeling a little lost and overwhelmed by life so I think that it is good idea. I'm still struggling to adjust to my new work-orientated routine.

This sounds very interesting and much more achievable than many detox programs. If I were going to do a detox it would probably be something like this rather than a juice detox or similar. But the end of day 1 I'd be looking forward to the protein in the morning so much. It's actually quite tempting to try, especially as it is just one week.

My firm 'natural is better' belief system (hence the appeal of paleo) and the fact that I'm a big fan of lots of little steps in the right direction rather than drastic changes is making me instinctively pretty worried about this diet. But it may work for you and if you want to try who am I to stop you? I'd be very interested to see how you feel on this, so do keep us posted.

Name: Lowenna Brief overview of goals: 1. Fitness: Run 3+ times per week 2. Fitness: Start following Mobility WOD 3. Fitness: Do basic callisthenic alternate days 4. Diet: Organise all the paleo recipes I've collected in to a folder and try a few out so that I'm ready to go fully paleo next challenge. 5. Life: Spend 30mins a day on housework 6. Life: Go back to doing detailed day plans. If you follow a specific way of eating: Avoiding things I'm allergic to. Wheat and dairy. Any other piece of information you think would be useful for team creation: No gym, no scales, sore feet. But these things will be overcome. If you want to be part of a team or if you want to work alone: Hmmm... despite the temptation of zombie fighting I'm going to go it alone this time.

also climbing > the car skip to 4:14

Thanks for posting, these are amazing. The women of crossfit and the martial arts one are my favourites. This is the first time I saw parkour and every time I see it I want to start jumping over stuff. Parkour > the car Skip to 1:05 to miss out all the boring crap at the beginning.

Love that one, also love firefly.

Brief report OVERALL GRADE E As you may notice has not gone well. Exercise. 1. Run 3 times a week. D Not achieved by a very long way. Started off okay, but fell apart when I started my new job. Did, however, manage to run 2.2k yesterday which is a big improvement. 2. Do callisthenics two days on one day off. F Complete failure on this front. 3. Go climbing again. F 4. Make progress towards doing the splits F Diet. 1. No wheat, no dairy C Just one dairy fail. Cheese though art my nemesis Life: 1. Write essays. F Need to get my act together on this. They are due in a month. Life got pretty hectic with my new job and I've been really struggling to adjust to my new routine. I don't cope well with change and this is pretty obvious in how badly this challenge went. But these are excuses and not good ones. Anyway on a brighter note, measurements: Start: Chest 39'' Waist 31'' Hips 41'' End: Chest 38 1/2'' Waist 30'' Hips 40'' Improvement has occurred.

Nope, don't really have any desire to get that much muscle. Also not very competitive. Much prefer stuff like yoga and climbing, hoping to take up a martial art and parkour as I get fitter. The things I like tends to be about beating your former self rather than other people. The only competitions I can ever possibly see myself competing in are martial arts ones, but that is a very long way off and far from certain.

Welcome to the rebellion. Sucks that you got injured, after you forced to take a break it's so tough to go back to it. What's your plan this time round?

Never heard of The Tracy Anderson Method before, that's another one I won't be trying. If I had to live on puréed veg for a week people would die. I don't cope well with hunger. Seriously 700 calories and 3 hours exercise? The calorie deficit on that has got to leave you with the shakes. People do some seriously crazy things for the sake of appearance, surely feeling good is more important.

Welcome to the rebellion. Congratulations on your weight loss, you've made amazing progress. Glad you're enjoying the strength guide, I'm very tempted to get a copy, it looks really good.

Welcome to the rebellion. Gluten-sensitivity. Ah, I know that beastie, not fun at all. I'm moving in a vaguely paleo direction atm, it's going all right thus far, hope it goes well for you.

Forgot to do my measurements earlier. Chest 38 1/2 Waist 30 Hips 40 no change on chest, half an inch down on waist, one inch down on hips. That's what we like to see.

"People are strongly convinced that this hormone will keep them on a 500-calorie diet. And the power of suggestion can be a very strong force" Why the *** would you want to stay on 500 calories a day? You're starving yourself. Your body is going to start eating itself. How are desperate do you need to be to fall for this stuff?

I went for a run today. A post-work-nearly-midnight run. Feet hurt like a *********** but I persevered. I hadn't run for over two weeks so I thought that it was going to be a bit of a disaster. However... I ran 2.2Km!!!! Which is more than twice the distance that I have managed to run before! Either all that cycling to work has done me a lot more good than I thought or my improved running is almost entirely based on improved stubbornness. If this sort of improvement is kept up I might be able to run in daylight, where there is a danger of being seen, fairly soon. Also, today is time for a final report: Exercise: 1. Running, have failed to do even minimum target, however running has still improved greatly. D 2. Callisthenics. Again, hell of a long way off training targets. Just tried to do a proper push up. Range of motion entirely unacceptable. F 3. No climbing. A combined lack of money, lack of time and lack of willpower. F 4. The splits. F Diet: 1. Only one dairy related fail. It was not a creme egg, in fact my creme egg cravings were almost non-existent. Perplexing. Cheese was the main difficulty, but the cheese is awesome. My slip was b/c I was v hungry, late for work and the only thing I could find in the house that didn't need cooking was burger cheese. Lesson for that day: 3 slices of burger cheese does no make a meal. All in all: acceptable. C Life: 1. Distinct lack of progress. I can say to myself that improved diet and fitness are my main life goals as much as I like but it doesn't change the fact that I'm making excuses and need to man up and sort things out. F Overall E Thoroughly underwhelming. Must do better. Said that last time didn't I and I did worse. *sigh* On that note I'm off to eat a banana and some chicken.

"Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever.” Lance Armstrong "The greatest griefs are those we cause ourselves" Sophocles (496BC-406BC) "It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with the problem longer." Albert Einstein "Once you learn to quit, it becomes a habit." Vince Lombardi

Unfortunately my nearest Crossfit gym is 25mi away, which might not sound like much but when cycling is the only option it's not really practical. Also they tend to be quite expensive and money is still going to be an important consideration. -40 doesn't tend to be much of a problem round here. Gets down to -10C/14F at worst. I think I can man-up and take that. If it gets icy I can use the outdoor track at uni b/c they always keep it clear.

Oh, also, feet are a little happier.

thanks sweetie, They really did! The end of the challenge is very close and I'm totally behind on everything. So I'm setting myself two little goals to complete before the end of the 28 days. 1) go for a run. 2) spend 3 hours on my logic essays Working tonight, sat and sun so don't have a huge amount of time. Imagine I'll get a long shift on sun too (rota's not up yet, so not certain) b/c it's mother's day and we're fully booked all day. One of my housemates has bought some scales I've weighed myself at least 3 times a day since they've been in the house. I don't cope well with the presence of scales. Especially not when it's so easy to hop on them while I'm brushing my teeth. Every time my weight fluctuates by a lb I freak out, even though I know that it's entirely normal. Need to ration myself.