CourageousKate

Thanks guys! Yeah, it looks like the little bit of sugar wasn't a derailment (no new cravings or anything today), so that's good! Also, funny, I reread what I wrote yesterday. While I was writing it I felt super negative, like I'd really messed up and was annoyed at myself. This morning reading it, I'm like, oh, NBD. Obviously that's not a setback. Perspective, man. Update Okay, back on track. Got to bed by 10 and didn't have sugar yesterday. That said, it was SO HARD getting up this morning. I'm going to attribute it to my intense run yesterday. I was pretty wiped. But I got up and got to the gym. Yay! I'm definitely starting to see a little visual progress. My muscles are looking stronger and more defined under a very even layer of fat I think my posture is better too. On Monday, and again today (weight days), I realized that apparently my arms are bigger when I flex now. I kept hulking my phone's arm band off while lifting weights. It was kind of hilarious. Just glad it wasn't my pants. Small willpower victory: Last night, I went out for happy hour and got a juice concoction instead of a cocktail. Very proud. (It was basically a virgin pina colada: coconut milk with pineapple, a little lime juice, and some nutmeg. It was super tasty!)

Hey Terra! Just checking in to see: how did your weekend go and how has Week 3 started out for you??

Awesome Day 1! Great job stretching and getting pushups in, plus tracking. I love your sub goal to not weigh in for 2 weeks. This kind of progress is so slow, and it can definitely be discouraging to not see it reflected in the numbers (or to see it one week, only to see it go back up the next). You've got the right idea! Oh, how our loved ones can be so wonderful and create a challenge all at once! Nice attitude though. Resisting bread and pancakes = exercise in its own right Good luck studying for finals this week! Looking forward to your next update. Day 2!!!

Spontaneous hikes are kind of the best! Hope you had a lovely picnic! Glad you are enjoying spinning so much, btw. It's great finding a new exercise to love!

IMPRESSIVE! Looking forward to more pictures after the event WOOT slow cooker! I've had success with Nom Nom Paleo's slow cooker recipes. I haven't tried all of them, but I've had enough success that I recommend them! The Korean Short Ribs are actually the best thing I've made in that thing. (However I don't recommend the Cheater Pork Stew... it didn't work for me.) I love your idea of cooking up breakfast in it, too! Share what you make, please? I'm always looking for new slow cooker inspiration!

VIGILANTE IN THE HOUSE. That does sound like a lot of new stress, but it's awesome that you are already aware that it could affect how you approach diet and exercise. You have a much higher chance of success just by recognizing that. Keep it up. You've already had crazy new stressors thrown at you and you're handling them like a champ. You know you're on the right path here, and that continuing in this direction will totally help you handle the added financial stress. Yo Joe! Sidenote: Arrow is my favorite show on TV right now (or, well, free Hulu... we're always a week behind because we don't have TV or Hulu+).

Ooh! Charts charts charts. Did you fit in any of your "make-up" exercise time yesterday/this morning? Also, how far are you with Zombies? I just finished Week 3, Workout 1 this morning (I'm running about 2 days a week, and I started the program before this challenge), and MAN, it was a bump up in hard. I went from about 35 minutes of actual training to about 45, and I was running a LOT more. That said, I felt ready for it despite feeling a little rundown this morning. It was hard (in the training program itself, definitely the hardest so far... like a couple of steps up from Week 2 rather than one step up) but manageable.

Thanks Tateman! Yeah, I used to wear heels daily, but now it's reserved for special occasions. I was not ready for that! In a way I think the pain helped me say no to the food I was very distracted. I'm hoping no wheat helps. I really had way less overall muscle fatigue, pain, and knots during W30. I've been attributing it to the wheat, so we'll see! Update So, while exercise has been going GREAT this week, everything else was a bust on Day 1 of Week 3! I totally didn't get to bed until almost 11 last night (instead of 10) because I had to do laundry to go to the gym this morning (win!) and because I'd slacked off earlier in the day and had work to finish (fail.)... And on top of that, my husband, in a very nice, non-sabotaging way, gave me this little snack/treat that came in his Graze box that he didn't want. It wasn't the worst thing I could've eaten and had a lot of protein, but it did have added sugar, making yesterday a fail. At least it was tasty and I wasn't totally derailed. (Actually, I didn't even get indigestion from it, which is the worst problem I have with sugar outside of it being a trigger food.) If I can make it through today, no damage done! Feeling good about today. Great and hard run this morning at my best speed and longest time yet! Now, I just have to get everything else managed today, and I'll be set!

Such good weather this week! It's too beautiful to stay inside Oh no! Take care of your knee. It was wise to rest it. Make sure you are doing hip, calf, hamstring, and quad stretches... for me, hip and calf especially are the places that always make my knees go wonky. Listen to your body tonight. (If it's still bugging you, this is a definite splurge, but I know a really excellent sports massage place in the City. They've helped me out of non-critical knee pain/performance in the past! Message me for more info!)

Yes! Glad to see you are back swinging. So great you have a little respite this week before finals. Looking forward to your Day 1 update today or tomorrow!

THANKS! Helpful

I. KNOW. Also, you did really well this week. You are on an upward trajectory in your success against sugar. Give yourself some credit! I don't HAVE to ask. I know. Awesome Week 2 overall! It sounds like you really only had 2 bad sugar days, which isn't terrible out of seven! You are doing it my friend. It was never going to be easy. Great job on your housework, especially. It sounds like that is really coming along! Things you are honestly working at = progress being made. A C is still a passing grade and a B is above average, I'll remind you. And you are still progressing. Even if you do look at it from an all or nothing perspective (not that I recommend that... I just do it too. Perfectionists unite!), ignore things like frequency and look at the fact that you are doing ANYTHING at all! And then look at HOW MUCH you are doing on TOP of doing ANYTHING AT ALL. I mean, that's progress. Let's give credit where it's due, shall we? And what do you have left after that? Room to grow! Room to improve! Thank goodness, really, because if you didn't have that room to grow, that would mean you were already working to your full potential with no where to expand. How depressing is that? All of that being said, evaluate how you do this challenge at the end, and if you made less progress than you hoped, see if maybe some of your goals were unrealistic for you this six weeks, or if one conflicted with another, or one wasn't specific enough and it threw you off. I'm not seeing that as an outsider, but for example I've realized it's not great for me to have both a hardcore food goal and a hardcore fitness goal in the same challenge. It divides my energy too much. I can't focus on both and succeed, but other people can. SO MUCH YES. Ooh! Shall we have a book club? That would motivate me to read it faster Thanks for sending me over to sugarstacks.com. I haven't checked it out yet, but have a feeling I'll be wasting part of work day learning new things today. And yes, that comment is SO spot on. Love it.

Great job on your DoA and meditating this week. I guess that's why shaving with a straight razor is your meditation time? Concentration! Ouch! That's so cool that you were able to guide your sil to a change that really works for her. That's fantastic! Good luck this week! Especially with eating. I'll bet the Easter candy is pretty much gone now right? Maybe that will help

YES! Love the progress you made in your evaluation! Hooray for good burpee form and congrats on running the full half mile!!!! That's so great! You can totally handle week 5 of C25K. You are on your way I also have internal debates. Last night it was just packing my gym bag for this morning. How hard is that? I almost talked myself out of it. EXCELLENT work convincing yourself to run in the rain. That's amazing. Also, that Monglian BBQ pic is making me super hungry. The 14-day challenge model really does seem to be working for you! How cool! I think you are right on focusing on getting in the gym visits and walking time instead of adding more. Good luck this week!

Looking good Leeroy! It looks like you are on track for water. Are you mostly feeling appropriately hydrated? (Except when you were feeling hungover, of course). LOVING THE COSTUME!!!!!! The textured belt is very cool. Is that boning in the front? Have a great time drumming this week!!!

Yay Week 2! Good job on your food, sleep, and foam rolling, and cool that you can catch up on your exercise. Sounds like the wedding was a great time Excited to hear what you think of kettlebells! Do you mind sharing what weight got to start? Thinking of getting one, and I am not sure where I want to begin. Week 3!!!

Thanks guys! Just curious Thanks Vortex. I appreciate the vote of confidence! Oh whoopie pies... why are you so delicious? And yeah, the project finally got done, so I feel like the almost-all-nighters were okay in the end... Fortunately they are getting harder and harder for me to pull off, so that's promising for more sleep. Curse those fine Cadbury Eggs! I had one before the challenge started as a fond farewell. Update This weekend was pretty busy: marathon sewing Friday night (another 4am night), more sewing and baby-sitting Saturday, six hours and miles of walking in heels for an event (with CAKE and GELATO) Sunday. I didn't eat the cake OR gelato. SO PROUD. This morning, my body and feet felt pretty wrecked from all of the walking in heels and adrenalin pumping of working an event, but I got to bed on time last night, so I was able to drag myself into action this morning for a weights day at the gym. Woot! For kicks today I calculated my macros. I have a feeling I'm not getting enough protein, so for fun I might keep an eye on that this week. Anyone have tracking suggestions? I've used My Fitness Pal in the past, so I can do that again. Week Two Summary ENGAGE: 4 / 4 days of planned fitness. NO MORE SUGAR: 6 / 7 sugarless days. (So close...again!) 10pm BEDTIME: 4 / 5 days in bed by 10. (Improving!) MINI-CHALLENGE #2: Doing it today! All in, not too shabby. I was actually hoping to get another run in last week, but my late night Thursday put a halt on that. I still made my challenge goal, though, so that's okay. My only sugar was the hot cross bun I ate last week, so that's not too bad either, and the late night was REALLY late, so I feel like generally I'm getting better on bedtime. I had a surprisingly hard time getting in the kettlebells for the mini-challenge this week, but I'm going to figure it out tonight. Going forward, I'm done with alcohol for the rest of the challenge, and I am actually going to put effort toward cutting out wheat too. When I did the W30 reintroduction, I noticed that wheat made me feel achy. I've had a knot in my shoulder that's interfering with my overhead press for like two weeks now. It's kind of a problem. I'm hoping that cutting wheat will help me as I try to work that out with a foam roller and tennis ball. WEEK 3!!!

Yes! Glad you're excited about it When I say class, I mean "class" (self-instructed!). Love this idea! Bathroom squats are such a good idea. And so great that spinning invigorates you! Keep it up!!! Have a great Week 3.

I would like to commemorate that I am now a Separatist! I didn't really care for being a Recruit (I thought Rebel, Rogue, and Renegade were WAY cooler). Does anyone know what these titles are based on?

Jumping in late. My squats have definitely improved. I didn't realize my parallel wasn't parallel until last week. I just thought my thighs needed to be parallel with the ground, not that my hip creases needed to be in line with my knees. Getting SO much more out of them now. Worst is overhead press. I have a lot of shoulder and neck tension, so I have to be careful with this one to make sure I don't use bad form and pull something. (Same with pushups, but that I'm making progress on.) Gonna keep working on it!

Yay PR!!! And yes, I think you can totally stick to Paleo while eating Mongolian BBQ. You just get more of the good stuff that way! Great work! Looking forward to seeing your evaluation results! Have a great weekend!

OMG SO GOOOOOOOD!!!!!! I was literally flailing while reading your amazing action. I'm very impressed, lady. I know it never feels like it at the time, but resisting that cookie was SUCH a kindness you paid yourself!!!! Okay, as promised. I haven't quite finished reading this NYT article on junkfood (see: reading a super-long article while at work... I'm on page 10 of 13, though), but so far it's a great read! It's actually adapted from Salt Sugar Fat, which has been in my Amazon queue for, like, a year. (I love nonfiction, but I only work through one book at a time because I'm SO SLOW at reading it. Fiction, however, I devour.) The bit about sugar in Yoplait vs. Lucky Charms is half way down on page 2. The paragraph begins, "What happened next was not written down." Would love to know what you think when you get around to reading it! It's articles like these that really inspire me to NOT eat prepackaged foods...

AWESOME job on working through your play list. That's super cool. And I love your squatting solution. Maybe having to go will just speed up your squats I think that it's still great just to observe your calories and track how you feel at different levels of caloric intake, you know? You've got a lot of really great goals going on, so I'm totally with you on not worrying about making your macros.

YEAH! KILL IT JOE!!!! Nice work

Interesting! Thanks for the detox insight. I didn't realize there was an actual correlation. Also, YES on the financial (and caloric, for that matter) win! Raxie, did you get your workout in last night?