Shaunty

A friend of mine told us she used to struggle with her life and food intake. She switched between different kind of eating patterns and tried everything to reduce her stress level. At one point she was following a strict veganistic diet: she started to feel horrible and her stress-level only elevated. We saw that she was not feeling well, but we didn't know about her struggles because she was not the type to talk about her feelings. Then a year ago she started to look good and we could see she started to enjoy life again. Apparently she began following the paleo diet. It shows that what you eat really changes how you feel. Maybe this story will help you with your opinion.

I´ve been using Myfitnesspall for a month now so I'm starting to see what food I should eat more of and what food I should avoid. I think it's kind of ironical; just half a year ago I was a strict vegetarian (no fish, no meat) and now I eat an average of 100 gram meat and 50 gram fish a day. Kind of a switch. My parents still look surprised if I ask if I may eat their leftovers, or substitute their pasta with a can of tuna. I think it's amazing to eat paleo. Not just because you may eat more, but also because you can switch tasteless grain with tender meat. If the me from a year ago could see me now! My goals are going great. I did spinning and circuit training yesterday. The rest of my PE class hates it, I think I'm about the only one really enjoying it to the fullest. I'm also getting enough sleep and I just finished an essay a few weeks early (planning ahead it key in living as stress less as possible). Life is good at the moment.

Also the fruit sugar. A banana has got around 23 grams of sugar in it, which is a lot if you ask me, and I happen to love bananas! First day and I already passed my limit, this is gonna be hard

My first challenge was a great succes, not because I lost a lot of weight or because I packed pounds of muscle (which I didn't), but because my life became better and less stressful. I want to continue this path and gain some more while doing it. Main quest - veniet, videbit, vincet Side quests 1) Prepare for an unknown enemy +1STR I'm going to do some different kind of workouts during my challenge: - At least one tabata style burbee workout @home - A spinning class, followed by a citcuit training class @the gym - An ±8k run together with my mother. At the end of the challenge I´ve run my first 10k. 2) Be alert for an attack at all time +1DEX I'll have to sleep 8.5 hours a day to get a maximum amout of energy and to give my body time to rest and recharge. 3) Save up on food for harsh times yet to come +1CON I'm going to have to eat less sugar. I'll track my sugar intake on Myfitnesspall. 50grams of suger a day max. (this is the hardest quest for me, I really have a sweet tooth. 4) Get to know the enemy and study new battle strategics (life quest) +1 WIS This year I'm having my finals, so I'll have to do some schoolwork every day. Simple as that.

Congrats on the chin-ups! That is amazing! It looks like you gained a lot of confidence during this challenge (eating, meeting people). It's a big plus that your friends started the Paleo diet too. Now you can exchange recepies and talk about food all day! (and about other things too of course ) Having people that support you is always nice. Succes with continuing this progress!

Amazing how you got confidence eating paleo! It gives a lot of balance if you don't care about what others think about you anymore. I'm also glad to hear people loved the salad. But hearing about your foot sucks. I hope it's nothing to harmfull and that you'll be cleared to run soon. And if that was not enough bad luck, two bikes stolen! I can imagine that your motivation got a major set back. I hope things will get better soon and that you'll be able to do those pullups. But even if you won't be able to do them you should not feel like you haven't accomplished anything. Just as (if my sources are right) Greg Anderson once said: "Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it.â€

Sorry for not updating for the last week and a half. My precious little laptop gave in and I had to order a new one. Now I´m the proud owner of an ASUS, jeej! I really hate to spend money, so this is the most money I spend in one time ever. It was hard for me, but without a laptop I wouldn´t know what to do. XCO was awesome! And very different than my normal workouts. IF we had to do that every week than I would not complain. But no, we do different things every week. The trainer asked us if we would like to do yoga sometime, so we did that this week. I have to say it was less laborious than XCO, but it was nice for once. If I wouldn't want something to exhaust me more than I would like to do it every week. Luckely me walking barefoot has lost it's novelty. I don't get comments on it anymore, and some students even apologised for the comments of others and cheered for me. That really gave me courage to follow through. I think that this showes that even though people are different, and even though some protest and opposition comes along, eventually people will accept another. Last two weeks I had trouble finding a spot to do the third workout, so I only did two. I think three workouts durning workdays and running on sunday is a bit to much for me if combined with school and social life. Two workouts are enough. I'll continue that pattern, even now that this challenge has ended. Here are the measurements and scores of the last two weeks. week 5: 64,0 kg and 76 points --> C week 6: 63,7 kg and 80 points --> C I started the challenge with the following measurements These are the measuremenst I have by now. Weight: 61,7 kg 63.7 Waist: 70 cm 69.5 Hips: 90 cm 89.5 Upper arm: 27 cm 26.5 Neck: 31,5 cm 32.5 Average BF according to my scale: ±20% ±19% BF according to US Navi calculator: 20% 19% I'll add a my before and after picture later to see if I changed visibly. I didn't get my bonuspoints as I didn't play the violin EVERY day. But I have to say I only skipped one day a week, so I didn't do a bad job at all. Furthermore I had a few days that I stayed up a bit to late (never more than one hour later than I usually go to bed) and a few days that weather was bad. Nevertheless I have to stick to my grading systhem. I have to say that challenge really gave my life quallity. At this point a year ago I had some problems with my daily life. I had difficulties with schoolwork while I normally had none at all, and I had problems with my body and food. Now all that has been solved! Paleo eating gives me balance: it makes hunger disappear, it challenges me to cook different twice a day (breakfast is almost the same every day) and it gives me more energy. If you add that to getting enough sleep than you get a very energised me. I'm able to concentrate better and focus my mind on important stuff. While before my days concisted of a lot of stress and useless worries, nowadays it contains a lot of happiness. There, I said it. I'm happy. Overall I think I only gained from these last six weeks and that I lost nothing (although I lost a lot of stress ). I think I have accomplished my main quest and achieved the goals that skirted along. I have succesfully leveled up my life.

YEAH! Nice prospectives! Boot Camp and exercises are great. Having plans for after this challenge it good too! I think I'll have to start planning ahead also. I can empathise on the being busy part. School is keeping me occupied. Last year I neglected my homework and still got good grades, but if I want to get into Uni I'll have to do better. I guess I can't play computer games as much any more.

Day 29-33 So my laptop broke down.... yea... that was not in my schedule. But here I am again. Laptop fixed (I hope) and all well again. I'll give a little recap of this week so far. Monday started of quite normal, although almost every classmate started to ask questions about me walking barefoot. That bothered me a little. Almost all my peers think it's dirty to walk barefoot and think I'm stranger that I was already. The ones that never thought high of me think I'm crazy by now. Tuesday I had PE again, spinning and circuit training (although this time it was XCO, something to do with strengthening your core and with a tube filled with sand). I'm very glad that I switched to circuit training! This was way better than dancing! On Wednesday my Dutch teacher commented me on my bare feet. She asked if maybe I left my shoes in my locker. When I answered no she asked if I was pulling her leg. My classmates said that confirmed that I was waling around barefoot for a few weeks now, and my teacher just lit up. She thought it was really cool that I dared to leave my shoes at home. She even started a discussion, me against the rest of the class, about walking barefoot. I had to explain why I do it and the rest had to explain why they thought it was weird and not acceptable. I always thought that one should let the other do whatever they want and accept the way they think about things. By now I emphasise even more with people society frowns upon. I myself only differ one minor thing, wearing no shoes, and already classmates cast me out. Luckily my friends and my family accept my decisions and support me. Think about people who have everyone against them! I already feel bad because my classmates look down on me. And I'm not going to give in to peer-pressure. If people don't learn to accept others, than that is not my fault. On Thursday nothing really happened, and that's the problem. It's getting harder for me to do my workouts because I don't have time or I don't have the energy (sometimes both) but today (Friday) I did my workout using a different version of the 20 second berserker. I did the 20 sec JUST DO IT and did my workout. I'm to lazy to write it down, so I'm going to quit now.

Day 27 Together with some friends and my sister I went to an animecon called Abunai. I've been to another animecon once before, which I found disappointing, and I had high hopes for this one. Sadly it wasn't as fun as my friends said it would be. They said that because this one was larger and had more visitors than the last one, there would be more stuff to do. Eventually they proved to be right, but the fun stuff had a price tag, and I´m very economical and I don´t like to spend money on useless things. We had a buffet-lunch in the afternoon, so I had to break my paleo pattern and eat some bread and cupcakes. Eating SAD for one meal after a lot of Paleo meals is no fall from grace or something, so I told myself to enjoy it, which I did. It was fun after all, but after I did everything I wanted to do I wanted to go home at 5pm. My friends wanted to stay until 8pm so that was a problem. Eventually me and my sis went with public transportation and ate a late dinner at home. Sadly I didn't get to play the violin today because I was away most of the day. There goes my bonus! Day 28 This morning me and my mother ran 8k without pause. That is a nice accomplishment of the week to close of the fourth week. This week was not my best one. I only did two workouts because I had to reschedule everything. Because school started again I was very busy (if you compare it to my last three weeks) so I couldn't do my workouts in the morning and a lot of times I didn't have time in the afternoon and evening either. I have an overall score of 76 points (100-20 because of the skipped workout and -4 because of the lack of sunshine) so my grade is a C. My weight is 62,8kg (again) and my other measurements didn't change either. Although last week was a bit of a struggle, next week will be better because I had a time to try out and fit my plans into my new schedule.

Day 25 I had my first violin lesson again. I got some positive feedback on the concerto: I have to change some little things, but overall my tutor was impressed. I'm finding myself forgetting to go out into the sun. Maybe I have to set an alarm myself. My friends at school complain about getting to little sleep while I wake before my alarm goes of. My sleeping pattern is really paying of. Day 26 Finally, I did a workout again. I've struggled to find a good time to do my workout and I've been putting it of to the next day, but yea. School takes up more time than I had anticipated beforehand. I'm also not very proud of this workout, it was a little short. But then again, I do feel my arms a bit so it does work. Plan Reality Stars 40 one arm rows (x2, 25 lbs) 40 in two sets * * * 200 sec plank 215 in three sets * * 100 sec side plank (x2) 115 in three sets * * 40 inclined push ups 45 in three sets * * Thanks for the arch raises. The nice thing is that I can do them anytime.

Aahrg needles! I hate them! But a small price to pay if you may start running again, congrats

I also see no change in my body, but I can feel it. I feel my abs getting stronger and I can feel that my biceps grew bigger. Maybe you can feel some changes? I also liked the article. It really gives you some motivation doesn't it?

Day 23 So PE started today. It consists of five different sports. You follow two sports for half a year and than switch to two others. I was places in dancing and spinning (in half a year I'll switch to cardiovascular and strength training). I really hate dancing, so I asked if I could be transferred to the circuit training. Fortunately I was able to persuade the teachers to transfer me to the other group, although I had to follow the dancing class for this week. Spinning was an awesome experience though. I'm looking forward to PE next week and to my first circuit training. I count the spinning class as a workout. Two more workouts this week. Day 24 Because vacation is over cardio-training starts again, normally on Tuesdays and Thursdays but this week on Wednesday. We went to the park to run on a dirt road (±660m x6) as fast as possible. The thing is, I've been walking around barefoot for the last few weeks (the reason I was getting stared at by my classmates and got questions like "Where are your shoes?") and wearing my running shoes was not comfortable. Because we were running on a dirt road I thought, why not run barefoot? So the last two rounds I ran without my shoes on (but with socks). I have to say that It was very pleasant to run without shoes while running, but afterwards I don't think I should have run two rounds on my socks. My feet are sore! I guess tomorrow I'll have to minimise the walking and go to school by bike if I want to walk as comfortable as possible as fast as possible. I think I'll continue running barefoot (or with socks on, depending on the road), but maybe shorter distances at a time to let my feet get used to it. @ Mandelbaum I plan to go to Utrecht University to study Veterinary Medicine. They have numerus clausus, so I have to graduate cum laude if I want to be accepted for sure, which is my goal for this year (I know that I can do it, but I'll really have to push myself to work for it)

Yea, working out in a group gets more out of you than working out alone (most of the time). I'm also a big fan of structure, during this first week of school I encountered some things that I had to get used to and I had to figure out how I would fit this eating and working out pattern into my schedule. But after a few weeks (I hope) we'll get used to it! My sister also forgets to eat very often. Mostly I'm the one to tell her to eat something. Maybe you can put up an alarm that tells you to eat? It might encourage you to eat.