calypsofalls

Actually, I was considering this today. Hopefully this next week will be easier (since we don't often have dairy in the house except milk and I don't like milk), but I'll see how it pans out. If I can't make it through three weeks, I'll change the challenge up a little and cut out different forms. I want to give myself a chance at the stricter side first.

Okay guys! I'm back home from vacation, and as you can see from the above post, I did pretty well for the first week! Again, dairy is my downfall. I went to Hershey, Pennsylvania and had A TON of chocolate. Chocolate has milk, so yeah. I also spent a lot of time with family, went to a whopping three birthday parties in a week, and had New York pizza and bagels with butter. The world is against me (or maybe I'm just weak - probably that). My yoga is going well, although it's mostly basic stretches. I'm working on reestablishing my former mobility after a year of tightening up. In one week I've seen plenty of improvement, but my hamstrings are still very tight. I want to be able to touch my toes while sitting down. I used to be able to. I will again. Meditation and journaling are helping to clear my mind. I've had some pretty bad days mentally, and putting my thoughts on paper helps a lot. That's all I have to say. More updates tomorrow!

Goal 1: Go Dairy-Free A – no dairy or dairy meals B – 1-3 dairy meals C – 4-6 dairy meals D – 7-9 dairy meals F – >10 dairy meals Goal 2: Meditate Daily A – 7 days of practice at the weekly minutes (4 + week #) B – 5-6 days of practice at the weekly minutes C – 3-4 days of practice at the weekly minutes D – 1-2 days of practice at the weekly minutes F – 0 days of practice at the weekly minutes Goal 3: Practice Yoga Daily A – 7 days of practice B – 5-6 days a week C – 3-4 days a week D – 1-2 days a week F – 0 days a week Life Goal: Journal Daily A – Journal daily B – 5-6 days a week C – 3-4 days a week D – 1-2 days a week F – 0 days a week

Wow! So I haven't updated at all this week because I've been on vacation, but I feel like I'm doing okay. I've readjusted some of my goals, which I'll update later, and things have been going well. I'm not home until Sunday, so that's when I'll update again with all my stuff. See you guys then!

It's for weight loss. I've always known I'm not a baby cow - it's time to eating like one. I added the extra points, and I'll be sure to check out those resources! Thanks. It's probably still accessible if you're putting away a dollar per child a week if you have a job. My parents managed to do it (they only have one kid), and they have some of the worst money skill I've ever seen. These challenges are meant to be life improving. We all can finish. Thank you!

Prologue Alright, so although the last challenge [link] didn’t go well, I’ve decided that I am ready to move up to level 2 and the “real worldâ€. My dream is to be a monk or druid, but right now I’m on the adventurer course. I think considering my current fitness level and need to build solid habits, this is the place for me to start. Here we go! Starting Stats Weight: Neck: Bust: Chest: Bicep: Forearm: Waist: Hips: Thigh: Calf: Goal 1: Go Dairy-Free This is a goal for my last challenge that I failed miserably on. I hope by giving myself more leeway and being at home I can complete it successfully. This will be judged on a weekly score. It’s a meal-based tally so everything that has dairy counts against the weekly total. My main flaw last challenge was that I never looked for dairy before I ate, and then I would check and see. Now that I have more experience, I know I need to be sure I’m clear of it. A – no dairy or dairy based meals B – 1-3 dairy meals C – 4-6 dairy meals D – 7-9 dairy meals F – >10 dairy meals +3 STA Goal 2: Meditate Daily In my yoga class last semester, I found a lot of peace in our daily meditation. I want to continue this in my life and foster a mindfulness of the world around me. For this challenge, I’m starting week 1 with 4 minutes and then adding a minute every week. A – 7 days of practice at the weekly minutes (4 + week #) B – 5-6 days of practice at the weekly minutes C – 3-4 days of practice at the weekly minutes D – 1-2 days of practice at the weekly minutes F – 0 days of practice at the weekly minutes +2 WIS +2 STA Goal 3: Practice Yoga Daily As part of my future druidic nature, I want to be in touch with my body, my breathing, and my mind. Yoga was probably one of my favorite parts of my freshman year and I’m upset with myself that I haven’t continued it outside of class. I’m correcting this mistake now. I’m going to attempt to do 10 minutes per day, preferably in the same chunk. A – 7 days a week B – 5-6 days a week C – 3-4 days a week D – 1-2 days a week F – no yoga days +2 DEX +2 STR +1 CHA Life Goal: Journal Daily Much like meditation, I have found that journaling helps bring me to peace with my thoughts. I’ve been wanting to develop this habit for a while now, and since I’ll be visiting my family and wandering around one of the coolest cities in the world, I figure this is a great time to start. I’m not going to give myself an amount of time I have to do this. I want it to be a flow of thoughts and ideas, so any journaling, even for a few minutes, is better than none. A – Journal daily B – 5-6 days a week C – 3-4 days a week D – 1-2 days a week F – 0 days a week +2 WIS +1 STA Mini Goal: Begin the 52-Week Challenge [link] This is a very simple, pass-fail goal. While I can’t start paying off my student loans until I get a job, I can at least start on a fund for paying for field school or supplementing future study abroad endeavors. If you want the short version and don’t want to read the link, I’ll basically save $27 by the end of the challenge since I'm starting this week. No big deal, but it’s a start. I can’t wait to see where this takes me. Summary So there it is! My second challenge. Hopefully I don’t fail as badly as the first.

I'm adventuring next challenge, I think, although I might just jump into the druids since my goals focus on yoga, meditation, and trying to be dairy free again. I'll have to think it over some more, I guess. Man, I make SMART goals all the time for my school life. I don't know why I didn't think of it for fitness. And I do love lifting, but right now I want to build up my habits before making any long commitments. I'm not sure how much gym time I can get over the summer, so I'm going to focus on building up my strength and flexibility with yoga. If only I could be a druidic warrior. That would be great.

Okay guys! I totally forgot this challenge ended this week (I though I had another week to go). So I'm disappointed with my results. I stuck with it (mostly) and feel like I improved mentally, but physically? Not so much. Let's go through my grades. Lose 12 Pounds Sadly, I did not. I think I gained some weight. I've bounced between bad school food and eating out with my parents and friends, so I really didn't make a dent in that last fifteen pounds. Still, I didn't gain a lot of weight (I'm a little bloated right now, so I think it's just that). Final Grade: F Do Body Weight & Strength Exercises I did really great for the first five weeks, then slacked off this sixth. Even though I slacked off, though, I learned that I love weight lifting and have seriously improved my outlook on gaining strength. Final Grade: A Cut Out Dairy I completely failed on this. Every week has had dairy. It's really hard, and I now have a lot of respect for vegans! I think I'm going to keep going after it, and maybe try to make it easier. It's better to try and fail than to never try, right? Final Grade: F Write 3 Short Stories . I didn't do this at all. Wow. I completely gave up on this. BUT! I did start a blog and begin de-cluttering and posting about it. You can read it here. Some of you asked for my writing, and while it's not fiction, it's 100% me. I wrote three posts, which resembles my original goal of three short stories, so I'm going to take some leeway with my grades and give myself a C. Final Grade: C TOTAL GPA: D+ So yeah. Not the best first challenge. I suppose I'll write up my stats and move on to level two, since I at least did half the challenge somewhat well. Now that I know the taste of it, I think I can (hopefully!) do a little better. Time will tell.

I would love for you to do it! We need more actual science behind these things. Then maybe people will stop killing their children (by denying vaccines) to "prevent" autism and start realizing maybe they shouldn't be feeding their kids crap.

A Long Time No Update! News: I'm really sorry I haven't been keeping up with this. With exams and my parents wanting to catch up and reading the first fourth of A Storm of Swords, I haven't had time to keep posting. However, I've actually had time to do better with the challenge. Weight Loss: So I haven't been keeping up with tracking this, and so I'm going to go for a "big reveal" at the end of six weeks for both me and you guys. We'll see how much I've lost then. Dairy Free: Home has made this A LOT easier. After going out to dinner last Thursday (when I came home) and probably having some dairy (didn't check), I can proudly say I'm free again. My dad also showed me this cool video, and now I'm really inspired to get this shit out of my life. Exercise: Actually also going well. It's not been an every day thing since I got home, but I've started doing my old stuff again while I look up good gyms in my area. I've also started walking three miles every morning with my dad, and it's pretty fun. I need to incorporate more leg stretches into my routine, but other than that, I feel might confident. Writing: This is probably my strongest failing point. I sat down to write and had a humongous block. Seems like writing twenty pages of critical papers will fry your brain (who knew?). For now, I'll just start focusing on journalling and try to get my brain back on track. It's supposed to inspire creativity, so while I may fail here, I can definitely make myself more productive later. Fingers crossed.

News: I went to a concert of my favorite band this weekend, so sorry for not updating. I kind of went crazy - me and my boyfriend ate out and I had a milkshake. Not exactly a good start to the week, but I must move on. Workout: Well, my workouts I planned haven't been going as planned, but I've been working out, so I guess I'm doing good? What I'm doing is more intense than what I had set up, so it definitely doesn't count against me and my goals. It's looking like an A for this portion of the challenge. Writing: I'm falling a tad (as in, a whole freaking lot) behind on my word count. In my defense, I wrote half of a research paper, then scrapped the idea, and then today I wrote four pages (out of eight) on my new topic. I also have a five page paper due and I need to study for my exams and it looks like it's going to be a C for this challenge. Diet: Dairy free continues to elude me, as I've stated above. Being in college and having limited options while on a meal plan with no kitchen to cook in really puts a damper on the whole situation. I know I can do it with a better situation, and I'm going to keep trying, but it's an uphill battle that I may lose. However, I'm confident I'll win the war. Conclusion: I have high hopes for this challenge. I'll try and update my stats tomorrow, but if that doesn't happen, I'll be home soon and have a go at it. Now to apply for jobs.

News Exercise Swimming Today's swim went well until I got a nasty charlie horse and had to stop. It was diagonal and one of the worst I've ever had. Like, it's been an hour and it's still aching. Yoga will not be fun. Friday - Arm Day Word Count Yesterday's word count was concentrated in writing up rules and story concept for a role play I'm running next fall. It's Highlander and I'm super excited to GM it. Today's word count was 389, but I'm a little over 2,000 words. Diet Yesterday wasn't the greatest. I had a cupcake, so there was definitely dairy there. Oh well. Guess I get a C for this week.

I like it, but I need something more nutritious since I'm working out so much. Weight lifting is awesome. I'm upset that I waited so long to try it. We really need to encourage girls to lift. I'm fortunate my finals are relatively easy. I think I can make it if I don't go on a rampage fighting sexism because of the research I'm doing.

Thank you! You're so inspiring.

News There's not a whole lot going on in my life besides studying for finals. [sigh] Once that's over maybe I'll have more stuff to say. Exercise Wednesday - Leg Day No workout. Swimming My swim went really well yesterday. I managed to do the entire workout without pause (so I can swim 700 yards with only minor breaks in between 100s, 50s, and 25s). I'm really proud of myself. Let's hope I can keep up! Thursday - Core Day Weight Lifting I did a lot of stuff today. More squats, incline bench press, pull up practice, arm stuff, this weird thing with a pole where I lift weights up, and dead lifts. I'm actually pretty fond of deadlifts. They're getting to be my favorite. Word Count I didn't write any yesterday because I was finishing up Red Dragon for my English class. It sucked. Totally not worth the read, but hey, I had to. This next week may be low on word count because I have a five-page paper to write and a research paper (minimum 8-pages, but I'm already halfway to that so it'll probably be closer to fifteen pages). At least they're not boring topics. Diet My diet has been pretty clean. I'm proud of my dairy sacrifice, but I still really want to go full paleo again. Only a few more weeks of shitty school food before I can finally eat salads that have more than iceberg lettuce. Oh, a girl can dream.

News There's not a whole lot going on in my life besides studying for finals. [sigh] Once that's over maybe I'll have more stuff to say. Exercise Wednesday - Leg Day No workout. Swimming My swim went really well yesterday. I managed to do the entire workout without pause (so I can swim 700 yards with only minor breaks in between 100s, 50s, and 25s). I'm really proud of myself. Let's hope I can keep up! Thursday - Core Day Weight Lifting I did a lot of stuff today. More squats, incline bench press, pull up practice, arm stuff, this weird thing with a pole where I lift weights up, and dead lifts. I'm actually pretty fond of deadlifts. They're getting to be my favorite. Word Count I didn't write any yesterday because I was finishing up Red Dragon for my English class. It sucked. Totally not worth the read, but hey, I had to. This next week may be low on word count because I have a five-page paper to write and a research paper (minimum 8-pages, but I'm already halfway to that so it'll probably be closer to fifteen pages). At least they're not boring topics. Diet My diet has been pretty clean. I'm proud of my dairy sacrifice, but I still really want to go full paleo again. Only a few more weeks of shitty school food before I can finally eat salads that have more than iceberg lettuce. Oh, a girl can dream.

Thank you! You keep on rocking too! Hah. I don't have that much willpower. Paleo is a lot tougher to stick to than non dairy. And man, I wish you could've felt my thighs yesterday. They hurt like CRAZY.

News Exercise Tuesday - Core Day Plank - Side plank (l&r) - Leg lifts - V-ups - Weight Lifting Well, I'm not exactly sure how much I did, but I spent about an hour and a half at the gym doing some weight lifting. I got my squat weight up to 80lbs and my bench press up to 50lbs. It's not a lot, but it's more than I did last week time, so it's an improvement. I also practiced with a pull up machine (because I can't reach the bar to do it without the machine). Then there were some tricep exercises thrown in there and a barbell curl (30lbs!). I'm really excited about this and can't wait until Thursday to do it again. Word Count ~500 (my total count is a little over 1600) Diet I'm pretty dairy-free, only I've been so stressed the past few days (finals!) that I've been eating a muffin almost every day. Gross. This is why I didn't choose paleo for my goal and just am trying for no dairy. Life is hard!

Thank you! I'm really rooting for myself. I want to impress. There's going to be a lot of people I've never met and I want to look good for a first meeting.

I went on fitocracy and that's exactly what it is! Thank you!

News Exercise Monday - Arm Day Knee push ups - 10x3 = 30 Tricep things(?) (l&r) - 20x3 = 60 Dumbbell rows (l&r) - 30x3 = 90 Tricep extensions - 15x3 = 45 I don't exactly know what to call the tricep things. Basically I keep my upper arm still and raise and lower my lower arm. I don't know. They work triceps. I swam today. I swam a whole lot - about an hour and a half. I'm learning endurance right now and trying to build up to a mile. This is the program. I'm (of course) doing week 1. The best part? I'm pretty good at it. Thankfully all my running over the summer has made my legs strong so I can pretty much keep swimming if I remember to breathe. Can't wait to build up more. Swimming is fun. Word Count 557 - "These people needed a protector. These people needed him, a lion among sheep, to save them from the wolves." Diet No dairy today! Hooray!

News It went amazing today! Our parents seemed to really like each other and they even talked about getting together again. Wow. I'm so happy. This is a major milestone in white American culture and I have passed it! Yay! Plus I also have motivation to keep getting fit. I'm going to a HUGE family reunion at the beginning of June and I want to be fit for it. I know I won't be amazing, but I know if I work hard I can be a lot closer than I am now. I'm aiming for being in the low 180s by then. Fingers crossed! If I can gain 30 pounds in four months I can lose it in four months too!

Yeah - I go home in three weeks and I know I'll lose a ton of weight the first week. Once I go paleo at home, all the bloating will be gone. Also I'm really interested in doing a whole 30. Any tips?

News: Happy Easter guys! Today is a big day for me. My parents and my boyfriend's parents are meeting for the first time. We've known each other two years as of Monday, and we've been dating for over one and half, so it's time for it to happen. I'm just really nervous! I'll update after lunch to tell you all how it goes. Sunday - Leg Day squats - 10x3 = 30 wall sit - 20x3 = 60 seconds side leg raises (l&r) - 30x3 = 90 calf raises - 40x3 = 120 Word Count 547 words Diet Ate a hamburger with no cheese, actually pretty good. I think it's better this way. I did have some Easter chocolate so I can't make an A for this week, but I'll watch out for the rest of the week to keep it an A. I'm staying positive. After all, with just a little more exercise, I lost a pound and an inch off my hips. Not bad.

Week 1 Results Weight: 196 Neck: 15 Bust: 42.5 Chest: 40 Bicep: 13 Forearm: 10.5 Waist: 38 Hips: 46 Thigh: 27 Calf: 15.5 Week 1 Exercise Grade A - I'm giving myself an A even though I missed a workout because of my work yesterday. Since the workout I missed was a leg day, and I did leg exercises yesterday (for two and a half hours with weights) I feel I earned the A. Week 1 Word Count Grade No Grade - This gets a grade at the end of the challenge, however this week I've been very lackluster on it. I did some work planning and I had to do school writing. Next week I'll come back kicking. Week 1 Diet Grade F - I ate a lot of bad food, and while I didn't know it had milk products, that was my own fault for not researching what I was eating. I'm giving myself an F because I should have done this. It was my responsibility as part of my challenge and I failed.