Wollio

I totally agree about the eggs probably not negatively affecting your cholesterol...4 hamburgers not so much lol. Here's the problem with the mindset of people like that...they aren't using the diet to get healthy, they are using it as an excuse. Paleo is a great diet and a lot of people get healthy, stronger, etc. on it, but as has been noted on this website before it can be used to help you gain weight OR lose weight. Paleo food isn't magically calorie free just because its natural, its just that a Paleo diet generally contains a much higher concentration of excellent nutrients and foods that trigger your body to stop eating when it is actually full compared to all of the processed crap that is literally DESIGNED to make you addicted to it and never feel full. If you eat 5000 calories a day of Paleo food, you will gain weight (unless you are Michael Phelps training for the olympics).

Wow congratulations! That puts you way ahead of schedule for being able to complete your goal, fantastic! Now you won't have to work yourself as hard either on the extra shifts and not feel too guilty about it.

I forgot to mention, on days that I work out before work I bring a greek yogurt with me to eat in the morning as my "breakfast". Working out fasted isn't huge for me, but afterwards I feel like I could eat an elephant if I don't bring something with some decent protein in it.

I've pretty much been a non-breakfast eater forever. The only time I have any issues is if I've been on a long weekend or vacation where I do eat breakfast and then go back to none...hungry by 9 o'clock for sure. After a day or two I'm usually back to normal though. However, this year at the beginning of the year I tried doing 24 fasting on Mondays (nothing to eat between dinner Sunday to dinner Monday.) I did that for a few weeks and didn't have too much of a problem with being overly hungry, but it really affected my concentration and mood by the afternoon to the point that my husband asked that I not do it anymore. (Literally got in a small car accident because my focus was not doing too good on the way home from work.) Ever since then I haven't tried doing any more 24 hour fasts, but no breakfast really isn't too hard once you get used to it.

This happened to me all the time when I was in high school! It was infuriating! (Of course I was underweight then, but still ate a crap ton of junk all the time.) It's like if you try to take care of your body then you must have some kind of eating disorder because "normal" people aren't skinny. Well, I'm sorry that I would rather not die of a heart attack when I'm 50 or get diabetes in my 30's like "normal" people.

I think people in general aren't very good at dealing with other people trying to better themselves. It seems like they either think that you have a bad self image (the "you look great now" comments) or they assume that you want to be better than them in some way, etc. Weight/health/diets seem to be getting ranked right up there in the non-PC world as religion or politics. It sometimes feels like unless you are looking for an argument, don't even bring it up. Hopefully, you'll start getting a better response along the lines of, "Wow Fai, you look fantastic! Have you been working out?" Those are the best!

I think its a good idea to limit your focus if you can tell your willpower is low (lack of sleep can do that to anyone!) You can still make great gains by working on your diet and rest is an important factor in being able to make big changes!

Thanks for the encouragement SASX and AniKing! So I tried doing a normal one again last night, still a no-go. BUT, I did make the switch this morning to the knee push-ups and did a lot better than I thought I would! Also, I think I will start doing full planks to help strengthen my arms and core. I had been doing planks on my forearms for a while, and actually have been neglecting those the last 2 weeks because I had progressed to the point that I could do a full 5 min of planks in 2 sets. I was just getting super bored of those planks. I think moving up to straight arm ones is a great idea though! I'm going to get these done!

I would vote having the points all add up to the end. That way if someone got some votes in multiple weeks but didn't necessarily win that week, they still have a chance to win in the end. What do you guys think?

You know, I've been kind of a wimp about trying a normal one again. When I first started, I could only do counter height push-ups and once I completed 40 in 2 sets, I thought maybe I could try doing a normal one. It was a total no go, so I had to move all the way back up to 24 in before I could even progress to 18 in (chair height). I haven't tried a real one since, probably because I'm afraid of getting discouraged when I feel like I'm making progress. However, if I don't get the chair height ones completed by the end of this week, I will definitely try normal push-ups and move up most likely to knee push-ups even if I can't complete 20 chair height in 2 sets. (I feel like I'm plateauing there a bit.)

So, should we all send our votes for the week to Shotgun Sally in PM? I think the categories were Main Goals, Lifestyle Goals, and Most Encouraging. Each is worth 1 point and can all be the same or different people, just whoever you thought did the best for that week.

Added Week 1 summary to original post.

E_Mo, the biggest thing to think about when you over eat is the mindset that you use when you work out the next day. Don't use your exercise as a punishment, because that can lead to an unhealthy attitude towards your workouts making them not fun at all. Try to think about it like, "well yesterday I ate so many calories that I'm going to use those as fuel to beat some personal records today!" Also, it may help to journal to identify what some of your root causes are for the binging. Maybe if you can identify when you are most likely to fall into a binge, that will help you to avoid those situations or at least move toward being more conscience about having an escape plan ready.

That sounds delicious to me, but my hubby is rather picky about what he will let me try to make. I'm not the most fantastic cook in the world, but I try haha. Also, I know that AniKing mentioned the Rebel Fitness Guide on her thread. Has anyone else tried this or the Rebel Strength Guide? I haven't bought either one yet but I've been considering getting the strength guide. My biggest question is whether there are many good bodyweight workouts and other options for people with no gym access. I could technically afford a gym membership and/or home weights, but I really want to get into a workout system that I can continue once my family starts sailing. Limited fixed income, travel, and limited storage space means no gym membership or space for a lot of heavy weights for me. There are a few sailors that I know of that use a TRX on their boats, which I've also considered. Any first hand advice?

Actually the cash program is what a lot of people have moved back to. I'm not a huge overall fan of Dave Ramsey, but that's how he advocates budgeting. Each month you have an envelope of cash for each category in your budget (food, clothing, bills, etc.) and when you run out of cash for the month no more spending! I have a hard time with that though because we buy everything on our credit cards for the rewards and then pay it off every month, so we almost never use cash.

Do what you can with what you have, right? So if eating at home really isn't going to work while moving, try to at least eat out somewhere that you won't be tempted to eat anything really awful. And keep it up with the soda...soda=poison!

Sometimes being blunt is the best policy. If people are truly your friend then they will want you to be healthier and letting them know how they can help you is empowering a lot of times. No one wants to be the one to make you fail (unless of course they have some kind of twisted self-esteem issues, in which case I'd say find some new friends).

Good luck Ani! You can do it! As far as the knee situation goes, mine doesn't give me trouble with the squats or running (I don't run so that could have something to do with it ) but mine was giving me some serious pain while bike riding a few weeks ago. I started doing some research about it and besides the obvious "lay off for a while" I also found out that a big part of the issue causing it was that my ankle flexibility was considerably worse than it should be and so was transferring force to my knee in a harmful way. Generally, if you are experiencing serious pain out of the ordinary (we all know it when we feel it) then something probably needs to be fixed either in flexibility like my issue, stance, posture, etc. Just laying off for a while will let you heal but isn't going to fix the underlying issue that caused the pain in the first place, making it more likely to happen again. My number 1 suggestion is to visit a physical therapist. My husband works for a PT company and it is amazing how quickly they can diagnose and treat most issues like this and help you from doing more damage in the future.

Great work so far E_Mo! Hopefully your knee will be feeling better soon!

As someone who spends 8 hours a day in front of a computer screen at work, I highly recommend getting outside for some of your breaks as well (weather permitting). I've found that studying on the computer is nice, but my eyes and brain get really fried after a while and need a real break and there's just something relaxing about fresh air and natural lighting.

Totally agree with the mrmoneymustache recommendation! That blog is awesome!

I know exactly what you mean about saying you have a budget and never following it. I use mint.com to track all of our spending and I think in the 4 years we've used in, we've never officially been in budget /fail. I always have hope for next month though! For example, our normal food budget is $400/month. In July, we spent $933 ... yikes!!! Hence the eating at home part of my challenge lol.

Those are a great idea! We have a ton of eggs in the fridge that I keep meaning to boil for a quick snack and then I always forget...until I'm starving at work!

Push-ups are ... coming, lol. I'm currently working through the "Angry Birds" format so I'm trying to accomplish 20 reps of chair height in 2 sets. Then I'll move to knee push-ups and then hopefully to real ones. My last 2 workouts were 7,7,6 and 8,7,6 so I'm getting close but not quite ready to move to the knee yet. I'm hoping I'll be able to "level up" in the next 2 workouts or so to keep on track. Luckily, my goal is to do 10 push-ups in one workout and not in 1 set, so I'm pretty sure that I'll be able to make it by the end. Cleaning the house is certainly a challenge. Working full time with a 2 year old in the house makes it feel like 1 step forward, 2 steps back sometimes but I just keep fighting the good fight ! I love that my hubby and I spend so much time together, but it certainly makes it hard to find time to organize. He is totally on-board with my 6 week challenge, though so I can't use him as much of an excuse, haha.

It seems like the eating out goal is struggling a bit so far, but the others are doing great! Good job on keeping yourself off of soda even when you do have to go out. A couple of tricks that I use to help with eating at home Have a list of meals that you like to eat at home and grocery shop off of these. I have a hard time with the "make-ahead" concept, but we do much better if I have a list of good things that we can make at home that I already know I have the ingredients for. Try to plan ahead for the next days meals. If you have time the night before, prepare something in your crockpot before bed. That way even if you have a lot going on, just serving dinner takes a lot less time than making a whole meal. I've also found that just the action of thawing meat in the refrigerator gives me the extra motivation to actually cook...don't want it going bad!If you have the problem that we do, a lot of our problem of going out revolves around social events. Try inviting people over instead, you'll save money, eat healthier, and have more fun!