Figlet

My next challenge will definitely include a part to force me to come over here as much as possible. I have the women's NFA Facebook and an accountabilibuddies group off of that so that is where I end up posting most of the time. I remember from my last challenges that I got a tons of support and met lots of cool people over here, especially when I was very involved in the guild. I want to have that back. Water is terrific, a big change for me. That water chart is awesome, thanks mom2sjm! On target with the bodyweight work outs. Today I did the warm up, the work out, and the cool down for the first time in forever. Often it is just the work out, sometimes it includes one or the other. I can't remember the last time I did all 3. Checking voicemail is going well. Checking work email is a big fail. Any suggestions?

Week 1 done and I met most of my goals. Maybe a B for the week? 1. NFBW x 2, check 2. 2 glasses of water a day, check. 3. Voicemail, check! Email....um, hm, look over there at that shiny thing! Will check email this week - I've told my husband and he will hold me to it. The others should be do-able. I've done them once, right?

I'm back after a long, long hiatus. I've been active on the FB group and on my own but haven't done a challenge in now, literally and sadly, years. I used to be an assassin but rebel fits me better at this point. I'm starting small so it's achievable. I rocked my first couple of challenges and then stepped it up too much, couldn't achieve my goals and stopped because I was obviously the biggest failure of anyone who had ever failed. Now a new state, a new job, and a new baby later I'm starting from scratch. 1. NFBW 2x a week 2. 2 glasses of water every day 3. Check my work email and my voicemail at least once a week (I avoid both which isn't good for anyone)

I'm still here! I'm still going!! And my challenge is going well even though I'm not posting. I'm pretty sure that for my next 6 week challenge I'll have 'post at lest 3x a week" as one of my goals. Eat clean - I"m rocking it. Exercise at least 6 days a week - usually I'm more like 5. Run or pull up - I've "failed" by my goals, but some is more than none and I've done some. I am signing up for a turkey trot to encourage me to run more. Life quest - going great, actually. I've been very responsible about tidying consistently and feel great about it. Lots of non scale victories: 1. I've gone from a size 22 to a size 16 over the last year 2. I went kayaking yesterday and wore a large (not extra large) life jacket for the first time in 5 years. Go me!

It turns out that on days that I don't have time to turn on the computer, I also am really pressed to find time to work out and clean! I work an hour away from home, my shifts are usually about 11 hours long. I *have* to get 8 hours of sleep in a solid block or I greatly increase my likelihood of seizing. People always think the fact that I have a medical reason to get sleep is awesome and they are jealous. Don't be, it is a huge pain in the butt. Then there is about an hour of getting ready/eating a meal plus coming home/unpacking. So now that's 22 hours. It seems like I should easily be able to fit exercise and cleaning in the remaining 2 hours but somehow it disappears. Getting the kids up, dressed, and walked to school. Dinner and bedtime. Somehow the day disappears When I look back at the day I try to figure out where I squandered time. If I see that I was on FB, then I have no excuse for not working out. If I remember forcing a shirt on my 2 year old (clearly abuse, just ask him) while yelling "Getonyourshoesrightnoworwerelate!!!" to my 5 year old and attempting to pee at the same time I probably didn't waste a lot of time. I did well this week. Not perfect, but well. When I realized I wasn't perfect I A. Wanted to give up B. Wanted to re-set my goals so I could be perfect. Here I am, posting about not being perfect and NOT resetting my goals. This is huge for me, everybody be impressed. Eating: great. A. In fact, better than great. I misremembered and thought I could choose to eat not-so-great-for-me things once a week. My dinner with friends was cancelled so, I ended up eating clean every single meal this past week. Exercising: 5/6 days. very few of the days were as exercise-y as I wanted. But 10 minutes of jogging around a soccer field while my kids had fun counts and so does core exercises. Running or pull ups: 2/3. Harder. Silly roadblocks. Running requires a running bra (or two black eyes). Pull ups require walking down to the basement and getting a chair. For some reason these are actually obstacles! I now keep my bra on top of my running shoes placed where I can reach both from my bed. Cleaning: 6/6 So, not terrible and not worth quitting over. This week I'm working fewer shifts so I should be able to do even better. (yes, I know it is ludicrous that I thought about quitting after missing a couple of exercise sessions. I'm trying to get over needing to be perfect. Quitting because I missed a couple of exercises session does not make me more likely to exercise.)

It's a new nationwide mandate but not Obamacare. It's a huge hassle for us (doctors) because we're used to calling in prescriptions to pharmacies and now we can't for narcs. It makes patients angry and often delays them getting the medication they need I understand why there is the change, prescription narcotics are the most abused drug in the US and it is scarily easy to call a pharmacy and pretend to be a doctor, BUT it really penalizes people who actually need the meds. Anyhow, off my soapbox. You're doing great! I'm jealous of the horses as well. I used to ride a lot and haven't in years. Good work with both the diet and the Japanese. That grey blob is a muscle I often forget to work out.

It is unbelievably gorgeous weather in Michigan now. 3 days with blue cloudless skies, no humidity, and temps in the 60s. It makes me want to be outside all the time. Yesterday I took the kids to a restaurant where we could eat outside and a chose to have a beer with my meal. It was awesome. I took a 2 miles walk for my exercise. Just as I started to fall asleep I woke up in a panic - I had forgotten to clean! But, no. I had done 20 minutes first thing in the morning, before I was even properly awake because I was worried I wouldn't have time later or would forget. Go me! Today my eating has been excellent and I've done 10 minutes of cleaning (and know what I'm going to do for the rest of it). My plan is to jump rope this evening. I bought one when I started NF and have been terrible about using it because I'm not good at it. Do you know what *isn't* going to get me better at it? Continuing not to use it. There is no way I can jump rope for 10 minutes, but I can totally do 10 minutes of tripping over it and cursing a lot.

I *love* a cappella! I sang all through college and medical school and I miss it *so* much! What did you get at TJs?

How was the apple crisp? Great start! Your workout inspires me.

How was the apple crisp? Great start! Your workout inspires me.

Go you! Great first week! Rationing a chocolate bar over four days is some serious willpower.

Ugh. Hang in there. Having a baby and trying to get in shape at the same time is BRUTAL. I'm glad you're feeling a little better.

I agree about the push ups before pull ups. My first or 2nd challenge was to do push ups every day. Some were knee push ups, some were full push ups, some were definitely half assed push ups, but I did them and now I'm a lot better. If someone said "Drop and give me 10!" I could without difficulty. I'm a long, long, long, LOONNNNG way from being able to do a pull up…but if I don't work at it I'll stay that same distance. Some days I just hang. I've moved from hanging for one nanosecond to hanging for 5-7 seconds. I do a lot of my pull ups on a machine at the Y that has a counterweight. I've just gotten to where I can pull up 1/3rd my weight. I got a pull up bar (the one that Steve recommends that mounts over a door) but I'm so far from being able to do even a reverse pull up that it is just kind of depressing. I use it for hanging. Well….ok! since you asked so nicely. Thanks. I think it will help keep me sane and prevent me from going "augh, I have to do X tonight. Bleh. Why don't I eat a bag of potato chips instead?" Ate well today, did the flylady thing (got trash out of my bedroom), and did my 10 minutes exercise including pull up work - I'm going to be sore tomorrow (yay!). I even turned down my husband's offer of Sex!** **M. Lawrence "Sex" Brut Rose - it's my favorite sparkling wine. (http://shop.lmawby.com/sex-750ml-p13.aspx) Everyone should have some.

Please, please, please share all your good recipes. I'm always looking for new things to cook.

I'm really excited to follow you! We've got a lot of the same goals and you're really progressing!!

My life quest continues to be: become fit (i.e. not overweight and not skinny-but-weak), strong (with an emphasis on bodyweight exercises and functional fitness), and flexible. I finished my last challenge but I was so far behind in posting that I didn't post that. Given that I didn't tell anyone I was done, I also didn't adjust my stats, so we'll just pretend that one never happened. Looking back over my last several challenges, I realized that I had tried to do too much too soon in my last one. Once I realized I couldn't hit all of my goals I felt like a failure and stopped posting. Once I stopped posting, I lost my support system. I didn't quit, but I certainly didn't give it all I could after I realized I couldn't do it all. I need to be able to reach or come close to my goals or I lose my drive - this is a good thing to know about myself. I also realized/remembered that I very quickly become focused on scale number to the exclusion of all sorts of other important things. I would like to lose weight, but it won't be part of this challenge - possibly a byproduct, but not something I'm grading myself on. This challenge: 1. Eat "clean" 90% of the time (indulge 2 meals a week) (CHA = 2, WIS = 1) I've discovered that I feel better if I avoid most grain products so that won't be a problem. Staying away from social drinking will be the challenge. If I have a meal that would otherwise be clean but also have alcohol it isn't a clean meal. 0-1 extra meal = A 2-3 extra meal = B 3-4 extra meal = C 5-6 = D >6 = F 2. Exercise for at least 10 minutes 6 days a week (STR = 3, DEX = 1) This can be anything. 10 minutes of stretching or 10 minutes of burpees or anything in between. It has to be above baseline: e.g. 10 minutes of walking counts, but walking the kids to and from daycare doesn't count since I'd do that anyhow. Skip 3 or fewer days = A 4-6 = B 7-9 = C 10-12 = D >12 = F 3. Run at least 15 minutes OR do 3 sets of 10 pull-up practice at least 3 days a week (STA = 4, STR = 2) Yup. There's a lot of overlap with #2. That's ok. These are two skills I want to work on and this prevents me from sliding into 10 minutes of gentle stretching or casual moseying every day while not eliminating the probability of casual moseying being needed some days. Miss 0-2 = A 3-4 sessions = B 5-6 = C 7-9 = D 10+ = F Life Quest: To enjoy walking into my house Do the Flylady plan OR spend 15 minutes cleaning 6 days a week. (WIS = 1 CHA = 1) Skip 3 or fewer days = A 4-6 = B 7-9 = C 10-12 = D >12 = F

I'm here! I'm here! I haven't died, I haven't quit, I've just been ridiculously busy and prioritizing things like sleep over posting. I ran 4 miles the other day so I signed up for the detroit half marathon and a 5 K this coming Sunday. I failed my last 2 weeks because I was either at work or at home with kids with no spouse. I discovered that while I can run and push a stroller my 5 year old has no interest in joining me and is too young to be left alone. My eating is great. A for every week I haven't posted. Cleaning is actually going well. B each week. Pull ups are…enh. For some reason I keep putting it off all day and then remember after I've gone to bed. I now have big post-it notes in various places reminding me. I live in an old house with big lintels so the only place a pull up bar fits (without drilling into nice wood) is in the basement. This is just far enough away to be out of sight/out of mind for me. Thanks for everyone who sent me PMs or reminders on here checking on my progress. This community keeps me going!

I just ran 3 miles! Without stopping! At a <15 min/mile pace

The shifts are truly random. The shifts are 6a-3p, 7a-4p. 8a-6p, 10a-7p, 2p-11p, 3p-midnight, 5p-4a, and 6.30p-3.30a. While I never would have a 5pm shift followed by a morning shift, they are random throughout the month. It's pretty horrible. I love my job, but the schedule flipping is miserable (and this is AFTER I gave up working any of the shifts that started at 10, 11, or midnight!) Yesterday I ran 2 miles and could have done more! The only reason I didn't go further was I was running with a friend and that was where her husband was picking us up. I'd like to be able to run 4mi by the end of the challenge which now seems very reasonable. If I get to 4 before the end of the challenge, I'll re-goal.

Bleh, what a week. My cat died (the last of 3, they were all very old), I got closer to signing on a house, and I worked a ton of the 5pm to 2 am shifts that in reality mean I leave my house at 3.45 pm and get home at 5am. These shifts mess with my schedule SO much. I don't mind true overnights, but these "late evening" shifts just kill me. But, I've done well. Not "I've done well, considering" just "I've done well." I ran 3 times I ate cleanly other than 2 meals I did my pull up practice every day. I did not get to clean the house every day but, I have decided (unlike my last challenge when I got a little insane) to be nice to myself. If the only time I spend at home is sleeping or rushing around to get ready for work I can reschedule those times. However, if I have time to check FB at home then I have time to clean so that is my cut off. So far I need to reschedule 2 days of cleaning. Not terrible. I'd give myself a B+ for the week

So, 2 days in - doing well. 20 minutes cleaning the house both days Worked on pull ups both days Ate well both days Ran yesterday for 21 minutes (longest run yet this year - up from 5 minutes. I'm doing great) and am running again tomorrow. I've dusted off my habitrpg account and am tracking with that as well.

Thanks!

Chin ups are pull ups with your fingers facing towards you?

I was going to follow: http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2011/04/25/do-a-pull-up/ I can do bent over rows with the best of them and have been practicing bodyweight rows. I've managed to go from nearly vertical to nearly horizontal over the last 3 months. Now I think I'm going to do a combination of chair-assissted, negative pull ups, and continuing with bodyweight rows. Do you have any suggestions or hints?

Good luck! I look forward to following your progress. I also have about 90lbs to lose, so you can be my inspiration to keep at it.