Karin

Thanks!

Wednesday recap: < 70 net carbs: 59g Eggs for breakfast: 1 Mouth guard: Wore it! Exercise: 30 minute walk Today was a success, hooray!

Tuesday recap: < 70 net carbs: 43g Eggs for breakfast: 2, Check! Mouth guard: Wore it last night and will put it on tonight before bed. Exercise: None today. Today has been okay. My jaw is rebelling against the mouth guard but I guess I just have to get use to it again -grumble grumble- and I'm already getting carb flu symptoms, plus I caught a cold. Boo. But aside from all of that nonsense, all is well!

Thanks!

Monday recap: < 70 net carbs: Yes, 55gEggs for breakfast: 2 at breakfast, 1 at dinner. Check!Mouth guard: Will be worn as soon as I take off for bed.Exercise: Workout A from Basic Training: - Push-ups (using dumbbells to grip onto because of my tendonitis laden wrists): 7 / 5 / 3 - Body weight squats: 19 / 19 / 15 - Plank: 60s / 60s - Tried to do the finishing move (Squat thrust) but my knees were having none of that.So all in all, good day!

Good luck with your quest and all your goals, you can do it!

Thanks! And yeah, I feel like I'm at my wit's end with the whole TMJ thing. I finally went and saw a chiropractor recently and found out that my cervical spine in my neck is straight when it shouldn't be which is aggravating my symptoms. So I bought a pillow with cervical spine support! I recommend it, though I haven't fully gotten use to it. However I am finally starting to feel better. Anyways, rambling aside, thank you and good luck to your endeavors as well!

Good luck, you can do it!!!!

Good luck to you! The hunger beast is quite a brute, but you can slay'em if you try.

Thanks, I'm looking forward to it too. Thank you!

Hello everyone, challenge number three! Baby steps seems to be the name of the game for me and for this challenge I am yet again going to focus primarily on nutrition. However, since it's pretty and nice out again I'm also going to up the exercise a bit as well. Mission My long term goal is to eventually weigh 130 to 135 lbs and for general fitness and nutrition to become second nature where I no longer need to fight myself to be healthy. Motivation Tired of feeling worn out and being unable to control myself around sugar and other food. Quest I - 3 CHA, 2 WIS Eat low carb for real this time (less than 70g net carbs). Too many times I'll start on it and then get carb flu and give up immediately. Not this time! A - 6+ days/week - All points B - 5 days/week - 2 CHA, 2 WIS C - 4 days/week - 1 CHA, 1 WIS F - 3 or less days/week - No points Quest II - 3 WIS, 1 CHA Eat at least 1 egg for breakfast everyday. I suck at eating a good breakfast and now that my friend's chickens are laying eggs again I have no excuse to not eat eggs! Plus I'll be full and won't be tempted to snack. EDIT: I'm changing this slightly to eggs OR protein (I just don't like eggs that much to constantly eat them all the time, plus sometimes I feel sick if I eat eggs first thing). A - 6+ days/week - All points B - 5 days/week - 2 WIS, 1 CHA C - 4 days/week - 1 WIS F - 3 or less days/week - No points Quest III - 1 STR, 1 DEX, 1 STA Walk or other exercise. There are trails by my work and it'd be a crime not to use them during my lunch hour. A - 3+ days/week - All points B - 2 days/week - 1 STR, 1 DEX C - 1 days/week - 1 STR F - 0 days/week - No points Life Quest - 3 CON Wear my mouth guard. I hate that thing. HATE IT. But I have TMJ and clench super hard in my sleep so since I can't control what I do in my sleep I can at least protect my smile! A - 6+ days/week - All points B - 5 days/week - 2 Con C - 4 days/week - 1 Con F - 3 or less days/week - No points x = yes o = no Week 1: M | T | W | R | F | S | S AM Protein: x x x x o x x = A Guard: x x x x x x o = A <70g Carb: x x x x o o o = C Exercise: x o x o o o o = B Week 2: M | T | W | R | F | S | S AM Protein: x x o x o x x = A Guard: x x o o x o x = C <70g Carb: x x o o x o x = C Exercise: x x o o o x x = A Week 3: M | T | W | R | F | S | S AM Protein: x o x x x x o = B Guard: x o x x o o o = F <70g Carb: o o x x o o o = F Exercise: o o o x o x o = B Week 4: M | T | W | R | F | S | S AM Protein: x o x x o o x = C Guard: o o x x x o x = C <70g Carb: o x x o o o o = F Exercise: o x o x o x o = A Week 5: M | T | W | R | F | S | S AM Protein: x x x x x x x = A Guard: o x o o o x x = F <70g Carb: x x o o o o o = F Exercise: o o o o x o o = C Week 6: M | T | W | R | F | S | S AM Protein: x x x x x x x = A Guard: o o x x o o x = F <70g Carb: o o o o o o o = F Exercise: o o o o o x o = C ------------------------------- End of 6 Week Challenge ---------------------------------------------------------------- Average: AM Protein: A = 3 WIS, 1 CHA Guard: C (really should be a D ... but I'm rounding up because I have built up a habit partly and my jaw has been doing better, so I'm rounding up for this one). = 1 CON <70g Carb: F ... I suck at eating low carb. = 0 points Exercise: B = 3 STR, 1 DEX

Well this is over now, so lets see how I did. First of all, not that this was part of what I was grading myself on, but I gained a few pounds and went from 145.2 to 148.2. So... oops. Now, for the grading: Quest I - 3 CHA, 2 WIS Maintain a healthy calorie deficit, less garbage food and more good food C - 2 days a week missed - 1 CHA, 1 WIS I think this is probably why I didn't do too well with the losing weight thing. And when I went over, I REALLY went over. I'll have to do better next time! Quest II - 3 WIS, 1 CHA No snacking between meals (work makes this rather difficult). B - 1-2 snacks a week - 2 WIS, 1 CHA I did pretty decently with this one, perhaps next time I can be perfect! Quest III - 1 STR, 1 DEX, 1 STA Do any kind of exercise once a week: I know this isn't much but I have the absolute most trouble with sticking to exercise so I'm starting out really small with this one. If I do more, great! If not, I'll at least make sure I do something. A - 1+ exercise a week - All points Just barely squeaked by on this one. I went hiking, swimming, and walked about 4 times, so exactly once per week. Life Quest - 3 CON Lessen TMJ pain (quit aggravating my jaw problems by no longer biting nails or chewing lip, being more aware of when I clench my teeth when I'm stressed so I can quit it, stretch) B - 85% of the time - 2 CON I'm actually pretty proud of myself on this one. While I haven't stopped completely, I have made a lot of progress. I also made the effort to go and see a chiropractor and my neck and jaw have been feeling amazingly better since. So, all in all, not perfect, but I did make progress!

Good luck with the W30. Whenever I've tried anything like that or even just low carb I get super bitchy apparently (according to my boyfriend at least, haha).

Good job on your progress so far. I really want my goals to someday become habits, so hooray for you! How are you doing now that you only have a couple days left? Probably awesome!

Friday Update: I feel great today. I've had a couple weeks of chiropractic adjustments and 1 week of physical therapy exercises under my belt and it's working! Seriously, this is the first week I've woken up without pain in... well... I really have no idea. It's been a long time. I ordered a fancy pillow so I can go back to sleeping in my bed too (I've been sleeping on the couch lately because my bed is kind of hard and my bed pillows suck) that'll hopefully get here tomorrow. As for snacking, I've been good this week! I bought a bunch of vegetables and ate them all, so hooray on me. Haven't weighed myself in a few weeks and I'm not really sure if I lost anything or not since the start of this challenge but I feel good today regardless. A couple more days of this challenge left to go and I'm still planning on finishing strong and not letting the weekend derail my good streak.

Update: Been a whiiiillle since I've hopped on. Still fighting with my sweet tooth at work but mostly have avoided snacking. Though I must sadly admit that a few days ago I ate cake for lunch instead of my perfectly healthy and tasty chicken curry soup. But, with warmer weather now here (at least temporarily) I've started walking the trails behind the office again. So yay on that! I've also gotten myself checked out by the chiropractor and found that I have some light scoliosis in my back, tendonitis in my wrist, and my cervical spine (in my neck) is too straight. So all of that is basically work/posture related aside from the scoliosis and it's probably all contributing to my TMJ. So I have some physical therapy exercises I need to do 3x/day to fix all of that and avoid giving myself arthritis when I'm older. So hooray for all of that nonsense... Anyways, I'm hoping to finish these last few days strong and cake free!

Thanks! When it's warmer and dryer I'll have to try some more on the grass. Haha, I don't know if she'd appreciate me posting photos of her on the internet lol. You'll just have to take my word for it.

Also, I forgot! Last week I did a handstand for the mini quest! It sucked but I was up for a split second against the wall before I fell back over and my wrists gave out. So once I figure out this whole carpal tunnel thing, I'm going to try and work on that. Also also, I posted my favorite breakfast on the mini quest number 4 page... Avocado and eggs! ... with bacon on the side. Yum.

My favorite breakfast: Avocado and eggs for breakfast! Why? Because it's tasty and filling and relatively quick-ish. Ingredients: - 1 avocado - 2 eggs - salt & pepper - (optional) your favorite cheese to sprinkle on top 1. Preheat oven to about 400 2. Cut avocado in half, remove seed and place on a baking sheet or lodge into a muffin pan. I personally use a muffin pan because it keeps the avocado from tipping over. 3. You'll want to scoop out a little avocado in the middle so you can fit an egg in it without spilling over too much. 4. Sprinkle salt and pepper on avocado and crack an egg in each half. 5. Bake until egg is done to your liking 6. Optional: sprinkle your favorite cheese on top 7. Eat up! If you're still hungry... bacon. Yum.

This last week has been hard. I haven't snacked too much but when I have my meals I've been over doing it by quite a lot. I gained back a few pounds too so that's been a bit disheartening. My jaw has also been trying to claw its way out of my face and my wrist has been acting up for 2 weeks straight. I'm going to see a chiropractor about both this coming Monday because it's getting out of hand and both are starting to interfere with my sleep. So aside from that... Wish me luck about the chiropractor!

Tuesday through Thursday: Ate pretty well though I did give in to some brownies last night but amazingly I stopped waayyy before I normally would have. They didn't taste that great, and even though they were probably a little stale, before, I would have eaten them all anyways. So progress! As for my jaw, spent most of yesterday in agonizing pain. Ugh. I really need to see a chiropractor or something because my dentist basically gave up on anything aside from a mouth guard (didn't work) and I have a few friends who swear by it. However, I'm looking forward to tomorrow because I'm going to the local university with my friend to go swimming! I really really really hope they have a hot tub there. I think a good long soak after swimming would definitely help with muscles in my shoulders and neck to relax and quit irritating my jaw.

I've been doing okay so far with the snacking. Though to be fair, my work hasn't surprised us with any random pizza feasts lately. I've gotten good at avoiding all of the granola bars and cereal and brownie bites laying around though. Monday we're celebrating St. Patrick's Day so I KNOW there will be food everywhere, so that day will be my real test! Good luck with your mini quest. Today winter decided it needed to drop another 8 inches of snow on us randomly (yesterday was in the 50s... crazy weather) so I don't think I'll be hand standing or trying to run for at least a couple days while Spring grabs a foothold. Also, your profile pic looks just like my friend from college. You could be her doppelganger!

Tuesday: Ate just fine today, jaw is all right, tried to cook with sweet potato (tasted kind of weird), made plans to go swimming later in the week, and got my car back (it has been in and out of the shop for 2 months) but it's still making noises so I'll have to schedule it another appointment... Sigh. But aside from car annoyances, today has been fine! Also, I'm trying to figure out my 3rd mini quest thing... Not sure what I "can't" do. I can't do a hand stand really or run very long (or at all... knee issues) so maybe I'll try one of those.

Back from my trip! My Sunday weight was 146.8 so I went up about a pound and a half but all things considered, not that bad. I also got plenty of sleep (no snooze) and only drank water through Saturday, so +2 CON for me, hooray! This morning I went back to eating "real food" and gobbled up 5 deviled eggs. Yum. I also restocked my fridge for my lunches and breakfasts and am going to try a recipe I found on the forums with sweet potato. Never cooked that before so we'll see how that goes. In any case, I feel pretty refreshed after my vacation and I'm looking forward to getting right back on track.

Just noticed the two mini quests. I'm going to try both to earn 2 Con total: 1. Only water for 4 days (starting tomorrow) and 2. get enough sleep for 4 days/no snooze button. I can do that (especially the sleep part because I'm on vacation!).