Sweet Pea

Finally checking in! Here's my progress report: Fitness Quest: Increase morning walks to at least 30 minutes each time and increase frequency to 6 days/week (right now I am managing 5 days/week, between 15-45 minutes but mostly 15-25)Week One: 3 days of 30+ minutes = really failed on this one! So far this week I have not missed a day though. Diet Quests: NO fast food. Period. <--done!Only have one dessert/sweet per week. <--such a fail! I think I snuck a treat every day last week except Friday! Working harder at it this week. Life Quest: Study world geography for 15 minutes per day. (I am working towards taking more exciting vacations to places I can explore and hike, and I feel that this will help me make decisions about where to visit.) <---Epic fail! This only happened twice last week. Okay, so not stellar! But after feeling discouraged a little bit, I reminded myself that even if I don't hit my goals every week of the challenge, I think the point is to reach those goals by the end, right? I hope so!

Phew! It's been a bit of a rough start for me this challenge, but that's nothing new! I missed my morning walk both Monday and today, so I will not make the 6 days this week. The one I did so far though was 30 minutes, so at least I don't think I'll have any issues managing that rather than only 15. The main reason I miss walks sometimes in the morning is if I sleep too late (aka hit the snooze button too many times). Funnily enough, I've consistently found that if I go to bed earlier than usual, I have a harder time waking up in the morning and am more tired the next day. I think I must be used to my usual amount of sleep, even if it is slightly less than recommended. (6 1/2 hours usually) No fast food so far, doing good on that one. I have overdone my dessert/sweets this week, although not by too much. I had hot chocolate on Monday, 3 cookies yesterday after dinner (homemade by my niece, how could I resist!?), and a small york peppermint patty today. So, nothing too crazy, but still consistently having "just a little" which I'm trying to do less of. Will try to finish the week strong! My life challenge is going ok so far, I've studied a world geography textbook today and Monday, but missed yesterday. *** All in all, a good challenge so far. Today was really stressful (both work and personal stuff) and I felt like skipping my workout and curling up on the couch with some ice cream or brownies, but I didn't! After my workout I said to my boyfriend "Well I really wish I hadn't done that workout...said me never!"

Stick with it Anniebox! Very smart to modify the workout, it's the habits we are trying to build more than anything. I definitely recommend walking, I do lots of it myself!

Amazing way to handle your first day! Woohoo! With meditation, I find it helpful to think of something I read in a book by Dan Harris. He is talking about how when he first started meditating, his thoughts were constantly wandering and he spent the whole time redirecting himself. So he was thinking he wasn't doing it right. But the act of continually redirecting himself is meditation. I find that very reassuring when I meditate!

Harley Quinn! Suicide Squad version

Checking in for my first challenge in a very long time! Last time I participated they were doing 6 week challenges! I have a tendency to overdo these so I think I will like the 4 week time frame better. I am currently working on the following Epic Quests: complete 10 full push ups, travel to far off locations to hike, complete a half marathon in October 2016. I am also hoping to dress in costume for comic con in March, and to help me feel confident, I am doing the 6 week get fit quick plan from the NF Academy. Since I have not had any trouble so far completing the circuit workouts, in fact I really really enjoy them, I am not including them as part of this 4 week challenge. I'm keeping this challenge focused on the things that I feel I need more help with. Fitness Quest: Increase morning walks to at least 30 minutes each time and increase frequency to 6 days/week (right now I am managing 5 days/week, between 15-45 minutes but mostly 15-25)Diet Quests: NO fast food. Period.Only have one dessert/sweet per week. Life Quest: Study world geography for 15 minutes per day. (I am working towards taking more exciting vacations to places I can explore and hike, and I feel that this will help me make decisions about where to visit.)

Hi Anniebox! These look like good goals! I will follow to see how you do! I first started on NF almost 3 years ago now, and have done challenges off and on. Sometimes I get discouraged, thinking I have not reached that "perfect place" that you imagine you will reach someday. But when I look at where I was at day one of my first challenge, and where I am now, I cannot begin to list all the ways NF and the community has helped me grow and change. I applaud you for "Starting small but dreaming big," that is the way to go!

Thank you! So far I love the convict conditioning program, although it requires patience and dedication. It was slow starting, but I felt like once it clicked, there was no question it was the right path for me. Thanks!

Day One: -No workout, rest day -Unclean Food: I had two chocolate chip cookies, a glass of red wine, and some caramel/cheddar popcorn. Other than that it was clean. Yes, I had a small meltdown that caused the cheats. (But look at day two, it's so much better!) Day Two: -Sprints workout: 1 minute sprints and 1 minute walking, 8 rounds. -Strength workout: Vertical Pulls 3x40 Wall Pushups 3x30 Knee Tucks 3x20 Wall Headstands 1xx35 seconds -Food: All clean except for ONE (yes only one) almond Hershey's kiss.

Challenge Goals: Nutrition- Eat Clean! I'm going for 42 days of clean eating. What does clean eating mean to me? Unlimited fruits and veggies, nuts, healthy fats, and full fat dairy in moderation. Organic or grass-fed meat when possible. That's the basics, obviously there's more to it than that. I've been doing really well so far, so it's not a drastic change but a continuation of what I'm currently doing. Fitness- Sprint! I'm going to 24 sprint sessions, which is an average of 4 per week. I also do one "long" run per week. Fitness- Bodyweight workouts! I'm basically following the convict conditioning program right now, and it's been almost 2 months, so I'm going to keep that going. I've failed a few challenges before, so my main goal this time around is to simply follow through, not just on the workouts and clean eating, but on keeping updated here.

Former smoker (who's also been inactive on NF for too long, yikes!) and this might not be as helpful to you as it was to me, but something that helped me quit was letting myself mourn. Seriously, it sounds so weird, but I love love loved smoking, and quitting felt like I was losing a big part of my identity. So I let myself treat it that way, as if I was mourning the loss of something. And I still treat it that way...I'm past the cravings but I still miss it, so I just recognize that I miss it, and it sucks, but it's gone. Alternatively, when that fails, I think of a particular someone I don't like who is always saying they are quitting, but they never do, so now I get to one-up them because I actually did quit. Not a worthy motive, but hey, if it gets you there...

Today's Workout: Walk ~ 25 minutes light stretching afterwards That's all, folks!

Hey-oh! Good to see you again as well! Hi Teirin! Do ehhhhht. Turrible. Indeed. *** After some heavy thinking and budget forecasting, I decided to quit my second job. The payoff was not worth the price in the end. The start to my challenge has been slow this week. I'm going to still use the same format, but make a couple tweaks to it. I'll add the changes to the original post. I'm not gonna lie, it's difficult for me to do this, because in the past I would possibly already be giving up on the challenge just because I wasn't quite ready when it started and I've had a rough week. But I want to get away from that kind of behavior and thought pattern. If I'm going to forgo extra income for the sake of my sanity, I want to make the most of my time and take care of myself, not just physically but mentally and emotionally as well. There are things in my life that I want to let go of (for example - negativity) and I'm going to try and be very honest with myself about what works and what doesn't. Here are the reasons behind the changes I'm going to make to my challenge format: Diet - I changed the point system because I could not find the note cards I had used that challenge. I know what I based it on though, so I made some new ones, and I must have done something differently because the way I'm doing it now gives me 10 points for each day. I'm not going to count the first few days because I don't want to get down on myself by starting out with a low score, and I was very preoccupied during those days trying to make up my mind about the job thing. So now I'm going for 390 points. Fitness - I'm changing my strength training goal from 3x per week to 2x per week. I'm using Convict Conditioning and starting at the very beginning, so I plan on making it 3x per week next challenge if I successfully complete 2x per week this challenge. For cardio, I'll mainly be walking, so I'll leave that at 5x per week for a goal. Preparation an Life Goal - samsies. Changing the total points for Preparation to 39 rather than 42. *** Meanwhile, today has been great. 25 minutes of walking, recorded my meals in MFP, and 10 diet points earned today!

Thanks! That's what I'm hoping for, it was my favorite and also most successful challenge. Well I'm a server at a bar/tavern, not the bartender, so no lifting kegs for me. It's cash out the door, which is why it's hard to leave. But it's a very slow place, with terrible owners and management, and unpredictable hours as far as whether I will work til 10pm or 2am. Which makes a big difference when I have to be at work again at 8:30am the next day, then go straight back to the bar at 5pm once that is done, and again not know how late I'll be working...and repeat. See the dilemma? It's just stressing me out, and I feel like a tired zombie most of the time.

So I'm going to make this easy on myself, and literally copy and paste from one of my previous challenges, what I would consider my most successful challenge. *** [The following content copied from here] Goals: Diet- Nothing is drastically changing here. I have a chart of foods to choose from, and each meal and snack is a combination of different foods from different groups. Simply put, I get a point for each food that falls under my plan, and a negative point for anything that is outside of the plan, as in extra food, sweets or alcohol. Unlimited non-starchy vegetables are allowed, so no worries about going hungry. My point goal for each day is between 11.5 - 12. The total points for the entire challenge will be 483-504 for a perfect score. Now, as long as I follow the plan 80% of the time, I will still pass the challenge. (CON 2 STA 1 WIS 1) Like I said, I've made up note cards and have the points all broken out so it will be easy to keep track of. And it's not that different from how I eat most of the time now anyway. Point goal for each day = 10. Total points for perfect challenge = 390. Fitness- Focus on strength training, while continuing my cardio to show results. As far as which workouts I will do, that I will not be including as part of the challenge, only because I plan on trying some new things soon. For the purpose of the challenge though, just making sure I do include strength training 3 times per week is what I want to focus on. I also plan on keeping a journal to track progress. (CHA 1) Strength training – 3x per week = 18 workouts (STR 2) If I manage 2x per week = 12 workouts (STR 1) Convict Conditioning Cardio – 5x per week goal, 3x per week pass = 18-30 cardio workouts (DEX 1, STA 2, CHA 1) Preparation – Planning is everything. I’ve found that how well my day goes, at least weekdays, depends almost entirely on how well I prepared for it the day before. So, point for every day that I make all necessary preparations for the next day. Total points = 42 39. (STA 1, CON 2, WIS 1) Life goal: Update more, and include more detail in my posts. *** *** I'm dealing with a different set of challenges this time around though. Well, I possibly am. Let me explain. I work a job, Monday - Friday, 8:30am-4:30pm. That was what I was doing earlier this year when my challenges went fairly well and I was focused. Now, I work that job, but I have another job. Typically I work second job Wednesday - Saturdays, 5 or 6pm to anywhere from 10pm-2am. It's at a bar, hence the undetermined schedule. Suffice to say, this is difficult, even when I'm not trying to work out and eat well. I had decided on Saturday that I would quit, that the little bit of extra money I've been making has not been worth the physical and emotional exhaustion I feel almost constantly. But I'm not sure yet, and I'm still trying to make up my mind on that. I'd like to give this challenge a go either way, and I feel like whichever choice I make will definitely affect how well I do. I've been thinking non-stop about this today and yesterday and will continue to do so.