LittleWitch

End of Week 1 Update Succeeded in not eating bread stuff. Cooked 3 proper meals. Did interval training on 2 days. Life Quest Update Sorted the main kitchen cupboard to clear out a load of unused baking stuff and tupperware. Added 3 pairs of shoes, a pile of clothes and a few odds and ends to charity pile. Threw out an old coat. Created a pile of pc cds for shredding.

Off for a rummage through my freezer, I know I have garlic bread in there that should go, not sure what else is lurking around....

I started my challenge a week early on 4th Nov, but it's taken me this long to get to writing it up here. I couldn't wait for the official start date to start because the two weeks off between challenges was turning into an excuse for me to eat rubbish all the while and not do any exercise. Main Quest Become "normal" weight, and feel fit, healthy and confident. This is my main goal at the moment that I'm carrying over from the last challenge. For my short height being within the normal weight range would be weighing 126lbs at the most, and I haven't been under this for at least 10 years. For now though I want to work on getting fitter and eating healthier for this challenge. For the next 6 weeks, my goals are: 1) Not to eat any bread-y products. This includes bread, danish pastries, cake, crumpets, crossiants etc. (A - ate none, B - ate them on 6 days or less, C - ate them on 12 days or less, F - ate more) 2) Cook 3 proper vegan meals a week. These must not include pasta or rice and must not be salad unless it is very different to normal. (A - cooked all 18, B - cooked at least 15, C - cooked at least 12, F - cooked less) 3) Exercise 3 times a week. I will mostly do interval training on my cross trainer, but swapping for 3 x BBWW is okay too. (A - did all 18, B - did at least 15, C - did at least 12, F - did less) Life Quest Get rid of clutter. Not sure how I can measure this, but it needs to be done! I save/keep all sorts of things I know I don't need, and really need to work on getting rid of it.

Hi All, I'm a bit late joining the forums (again), but I started my challenge on time (well a week early really!). This is only my second challenge, and have just moved to the adventurers. I think I fit in here best for now. Just off to write up my goals now from my notebook.

End Of Challenge 1 Report 1) Record everything I eat and not go over my daily calorie allowance, averaged over each week - 1480cal per day. I recorded everything I ate, I did go over my daily allowance on some days, but overall, over the full 5 weeks (I joined a week late) I am only over by 3 calories! 2) Do the beginners bodyweight workout 3 times a week. Completed. Swapped one for a 2.5hr walk (as previously mentioned on my thread). Started off being able to only do 2 1/2 circuits slowly and then no more, by the last one I completed all 3 circuits in under 15 minutes. Squats - started being able to barely do 20 whilst holding onto the bed for help with weight and balance, ended being able to to 20 easily and quickly. Pushups - started with wall pushups, ended being able to do 10 on a waist high windowsil. Finding it hard to imporve these - I have very weak arms! Lunges - started with them being so so hard and needing to hold support couldn't do 20, ended can do 20, still hard but much better and do not need to hang onto anything. Dumbell Rows - started with 5kg weights, ended using 10 kg weights. Plank - started with hardly being able to hold for 5 seconds, ended with being able to hold at least 25 seconds (haven't tried to see what my maximum is) 3) Do interval training 3 times a week. Completed using cross trainer. :-) Started with a near-death experience 1st time - did 5 min warm up then 3 intervals @ 30sec fast, 2 min slow. Had to stop, felt sick with earing ringing and blurred vision. Ended doing 3 min warm up then 10 intervals, 30 sec fast, 1 min slow. Best distance over the challenge of 4.66km (I think it's km, but cross trainer doesn't show units). Also increased the intensity from level 4 to 5 over the challenge Overall I would say that Challenge 1 has been successful even though I did not achieve my weight-loss goal. I've achieved a lot more on the exercise than I expected, but unfortunately a lot less than I expected on the diet side. For next time I'm going to look at improving the quality of my food rather than counting calories, as although I pretty much stuck to the calorie allowance I have eaten all sorts of unhealthy stuff and hardly lost any weight. Points & Grades I am going to grade myself with an A. I did do everything I said I would - unfortunately my first goal was not a wise choice but I'll learn from that for the next challenge.

End Of Challenge 1 Report 1) Record everything I eat and not go over my daily calorie allowance, averaged over each week - 1480cal per day. I recorded everything I ate, I did go over my daily allowance on some days, but overall, over the full 5 weeks I am only over by 3 calories! 2) Do the beginners bodyweight workout 3 times a week. Completed. Swapped one for a 2.5hr walk (as previously noted). Started off being able to only do 2 1/2 circuits slowly and then no more, by the last one I completed all 3 circuits in under 15 minutes. Squats - started being able to barely do 20 whilst holding onto the bed for help with weight and balance, ended being able to to 20 easily and quickly. Pushups - started with wall pushups, ended being able to do 10 on a waist high windowsil. Finding it hard to imporve these - I have very weak arms! Lunges - started with them being so so hard and needing to hold support couldn't do 20, ended can do 20, still hard but much better and do not need to hang onto anything. Dumbell Rows - started with 5kg weights, ended using 10 kg weights. Plank - started with hardly being able to hold for 5 seconds, ended with being able to hold at least 25 seconds (haven't tried to see what my maximum is) 3) Do interval training 3 times a week. Completed using cross trainer. :-) Started with a near-death experience 1st time - did 5 min warm up then 3 intervals @ 30sec fast, 2 min slow. Had to stop, felt sick with earing ringing and blurred vision. Ended doing 3 min warm up then 10 intervals, 30 sec fast, 1 min slow. Best distance over the challenge of 4.66km (I think it's km, but cross trainer doesn't show units). Also increased the intensity from level 4 to 5 over the challenge Overall I would say that Challenge 1 has been successful even though I did not achieve my weight-loss goal. I've achieved a lot more on the exercise than I expected, but unfortunately a lot less than I expected on the diet side. For next time I'm going to look at improving the quality of my food rather than counting calories, as although I pretty much stuck to the calorie allowance I have eaten all sorts of unhealthy stuff and hardly lost any weight.

All exercise finished for this week. Exchanged one of the bbww for a 2.5hr walk with lots of hills - seemed like it was at least equal in effort required to complete. Eating goals still not so good, only just staying on target, and it's hard to keep going when there's bread everywhere. This is definitely something I'll be working on more next challenge, perhaps more on the eating healthier rather than eating less. Only 8 days to go!

Thanks rrababit and jtpowell for your encouragement. I am so bad at writing in forums, only getting round to it now! Maybe I should add that as a life challenge for the next challenge, lol. I am now almost at the end of my 1st 3 weeks (as of end of tomorrow). So far I have kept to all my exercise goals - so really pleased with that side, especially as I always used to avoid exercise like the plaque. And now I rarely have to have an internal battle with myself as to whether I should skip it, it's almost becoming a just one of those things I have to do type of thing. Hope I can keep it up. I'm wondering if I should do the bbww and intervals on the same day so I only do every second day, but I'm not sure because although it would be more practical for me it might give me more reason to want to skip sessions as the duration would be double. Food wise, I am doing so-so. Calories are averaging about right, but for the 1st two weeks I added the interval sessions to my calorie counter which then gave me extra calories to eat - and so I ate them. Basically didn't loose any weight. So 3rd week I haven't added them to the counter. Apparently loosing just 5lbs is much more difficult than I thought. I am trying to be more careful with my food choices, in particularly reducing the bread and junk food, and this is going well. I guess I'll only lose a few lbs if any this challenge - but I'm not as de-motivated by that as I would normally have been and it's not going to make me quit this time. It's taken 10 years to get fat, I'm not going to get skinny in a few weeks and that's fine. I feel fitter and healthy and that's great.

Thanks for the support. I've been trying to cut down on the junk food this week, so far I haven't eaten any (I count junk food as sweet things only like danish pastries, cookies and chocolate), but I have eaten too many calories and to much bready stuff. On the exercise side I've done well and completed every single one planned, and it's even getting easier. :-). I've even got it done when I haven't felt like it and when I had a massive pizza hangover, ugh. Must remember never to eat that again!

It's now Sunday night, end of week one. All quests past successfully. Ate 7 items of junk food this week so will try to reduce that next week too.

Finished all the exercise planned for this week (tomorrow is my day off). I am seeing improvements already even though I've only done these 6 days! Might do a bit of yoga tomorrow to keep up the good habits of doing something everyday. Unfortunately the eating hasn't been so successful. So I have two days left to try to rectify this. The junk food has been sneaking in and I really need to get away from eating this and bread products - I have serious trouble keeping the calories down when I eat these things.

Wow this is well thought out and detailed. The Grand Canyon crossing sounds amazing. Good luck with your quests :-)

Congrats on your great start . It's great that you have someone to do the workouts with. I've been trying to reduce my bread consumption too and I'm wrapping veggies and salad in nori seaweed sheets a lot now - it's my new sandwich alternative.

Thanks Fauve. This is really the first time of doing any exercise for me apart from a few measly attempts to use a cross trainer or treadmill for a few minutes at a time. Did the bodyweight circuits again today. Changed the push ups to on the wall, think I was doing them wrong before, so this should help with getting proper form. Completed all three circuits today, yay! Strangely this strength training stuff is helping me eat healthy too, it seems working on a mental level to stay away from junk food and such. Will soon be invincible!

Interval training done for the day. Managed all 6 intervals although at a lower speed than the last attempt two days ago, but I'm happy with that. My aim is to increase both the slow and fast speeds a bit at a time throughout the next few weeks. :-)