Fishface

I still haven't got the hang of being a girl and I'm a "grown up" mother (I use quotes advisedly!). Glad you got a different class. Sometimes those evening classes are pretty good - a lot of people are more awake at that time rather than early morning classes. Hope it goes well for you.

I like HoBuJo too... You've been so consistent in this challenge - no wonder it's paying off on the scales! I've flagged a bit in the middle of my challenge but you've inspired me to get back to it.

You've achieved so much through this challenge! Like how you've tracked all your progress too.

Love it deathbybadger! Thanks, and thanks NY153 too. I caught a nasty cold and took a break from swimming for a few days. Still tracked my food. But you're right - writing is the biggest thing left for me to crack this challenge. I'm just about to open up my manuscript and write for a half hour or so. And back to the pool tomorrow now that I've stopped being such a phlegm-monster!

Swimming Just back from the pool. I'm now at 75 lengths - target was 64. So I am now twirling about all over my challenge thread. Twirly twirl twirl. For the rest of the challenge I'll stick with the mini-challenge of practising freestyle more and just see how many lengths I can clock up before 17th September. Diet Tracked everything I've eaten so far this challenge. Read 'Brain over binge' last night and it was really helpful. Writing Ugh. My downfall. Realistically I won't have any time to write tomorrow as I'm working a ten hour day then out for dinner. But from then on I should be able to grab a half hour or so each day. I just need to figure out a way to sneak up on myself and trick myself into starting!

Bonnes vacances! Great adaptation of your challenge to fit with your holiday. Swimming in the sea is so good... I'll swim in the sea on Friday but it will be the North Sea - brrr!

Average grade 98% - wow, you are aceing this challenge!

Hey! <Waves fishy fins at the lovely people dropping by to read my posts> Post-weekend challenge update Swimming My challenge was to swim 64 lengths of the pool over 4 weeks - and yesterday I hit 63 lengths. Yasssss! I'm going swimming again with Fishface junior tomorrow so I should hit my target then. So... let's just see how far I can swim by the end of week four. And I'm setting myself a mini challenge. I swim breast stroke usually because that's my strongest stroke by far. So I'm challenging myself to do more of my lengths freestyle from now on just to get some practice in. Tracking my food Tracked my food every day of the challenge so far. One small issue - I wanted to track in the same notebook so that I'd get an overview of my diet. Instead I've tracked in three different notebooks - basically whatever came to hand. Mini challenge - finish reading 'Brain over Binge' before the end of this challenge. (it's about binge eating/bulimia - just started reading it and I think it's really helpful). Writing Haven't written for four days - partly due to looking at my list of tasks and getting overwhelmed (my procrastination gets worse when I'm overwhelmed). I'll see how it goes next week but after I've completed my mini challenges for diet and fitness I might put a mini challenge in on my writing before this challenge finishes just to push it back up the priority list.

Love your challenge. I've always suffered with insomnia so you have my sympathy. I'm going to read that Mark's Daily Apple post from @Vibrantella too just in case there is something new in there that can help me too. Yes those veggie steam packs are great. I cook for the family every night, so that forces me to make something healthy! I often cook double portions so that I can freeze half to save me cooking another day. Chilli con carne freezes well and it's easy to cook a big batch and then freeze a bunch of individual portions.

You're doing great on this challenge! Hope your week gets less stressful.

I know what you mean about taking breaks wilkymouse - I have always struggled with that. It's the same in my industry - everyone eats at their desk, lets their coffee get cold on their desk because they didn't have time to drink it, checks their email on the weekend and from the beach on vacation, etc. So if I pop out for a walk at lunch time and eat my lunch in the park I feel like such a slacker! But it's on my list of 'things to work on' because I know how important it is.

Wow - what a great challenge! Making a note of those podcast recommendations. How's the foot now?

Thanks deathbyshiny! That's good advice - I am so like the dogs in 'Up'. SQUIRREL! 'Okay, I'll start doing my taxes. Oh, look laundry, I'll just-- Oh, I haven't made fishface junior's packed lunch-- but why is my computer on the kitchen table - oh yes I was doing my taxes." I think it would be better if I didn't try to do everything at once. Yeah NY153 - implementation is HARD! Thanks for the encouragement, it really does make a difference to me. Challenge update - I just took Fishface junior and his friend swimming today. Good fun - and going to the pool is starting to feel more like a habit (eg I had the right coins for the lockers, I know which is the good shower etc.) I've tracked my food every day - and it makes slightly depressing reading. But rather than do my usual extreme approach, I want to continue just tracking this challenge. Then maybe in another challenge I'll identify a small positive change that I can make. Writing is really hard - I skipped it yesterday in the end, even though I had the file open on my computer and I had time to do it.

Thanks for the support fleaball! Great advice. So I've gone through the list and just marked the ones that are really important (like getting my taxes done, and booking tickets for my work trip). And I've made a start on one of the big tasks. Still a bit freaked out by how much I need to do but ready to get some sleep now. I guess I needed this challenge to wake me up...

Day Four No swimming today, but tracked my food. My novel is open in the background and I can write a little this evening after dinner as my husband will be late back from work. I just did a 'brain dump' of everything I need to get done at the moment. Yikes - too many things. Work stuff, financial stuff, family stuff, all kinds of stuff and so much of all of it. I think doing this challenge has caused me to pull my head out of the sand and take a look around... A bit overwhelmed now.

I wrote 27 words. After three hours of procrastinating.... I just hope that if I refuse to quit on this challenge that I'll start to get some flow back into my writing.

Love the way you've built your challenge around attributes! Procrastination is my nemesis. For every hour I spend writing/working/doing what I planned to do I spend four hours avoiding doing it. And the really stupid thing is that I enjoy writing, I love my job etc. Good luck on beating it - we'll battle it together this challenge!

Thanks Neeko! Update for yesterday - Day Three (Tuesday) Rest day on swimming Diet - Tracking - Tracked everything I ate (terrible day for overeating ) But I tracked it anyway. Level up my life - Writing - wrote 9 words. Yes, only 9. I really struggled to open the document and write something - if you guys weren't here I wouldn't have done it. And if I'd set myself a big target like 1000 words or something I would have found it impossible too. Just those 9 words kept me in touch with my story so I'm really glad I did it. Update for today - Day Four (Wednesday) Fitness - Swimming - 10 lengths of the pool with Fishface Junior. We had such a good time together. I'm over halfway to a mile already... I'm going to keep that as my target but it would be great to go over it. Diet - Tracking - Tracked everything so far and dinner is planned. Better day than yesterday. Level up my life - Writing - Haven't started yet today although the document is open in the background right now! I have to write some words now so that I can update my thread - hurray for accountability!

Sounds like you might need to time that water intake carefully! I love that Marie Kondo book too. My closet is Instagram-worthy thanks to that system. I even watched her Youtube videos to learn how to fold everything so that it looks pretty. But don't tell anyone because... Oh, whatever. Everyone already knows what a dork I am. Tell whoever you like Podcast recommendations - oh man, I love podcasts. My all-time favourites are... Reply All 99% Invisible Oh No Ross and Carrie (the Gorgeouspil episode made me snort coffee out of my nose on a crowded underground train...) Death Sex & Money But are there any particular subjects you want to listen to? There are so many good ones out there. I use the BBC's "In Our Time" instead of Ambien. Not good for train journeys but great for insomnia. You're doing great on this challenge already and you've inspired me to go out for a walk now.

Thanks wilkymouse, fleaball and NY153! It helps so much to have your support on my thread. The apartment where we live is 5 minutes walk from a good pool so I have no excuses wilkymouse. It's kind of embarrassing that I need to set myself this challenge to get myself to the pool. Before we moved in I figured I would swim every day if we lived here. Reality - I hadn't been to the pool in over a year until yesterday. And yet, swimming is one of my favourite things to do, so why wouldn't I do it? Because Netflix, because snacks, because I can't possibly take a half hour break from work to go swimming (even though I seem to find time for breaks to mess about on the internet and make grilled cheese sandwiches...). Yes NY153 - he's a great coach! No doubt he'll kick my ass again tomorrow... But he does give me good tips and lots of encouragement. Glad I'm not the only hardcore procrastinator fleaball! And you're right, the challenge is helping with that already. I filled in my food diary after opening up the thread, and I just opened up the Scrivener file with my novel on it now to write a few words. If you guys weren't here I'd still be watching Paralympic warm up on Youtube. It's all very inspiring but it's no good being inspired unless I actually get off my butt and do something! (Or in this case sit my butt down in a chair and write something!)

Knowing that you're covered whatever the weather is really smart. Good luck - I'll be cheering you on!

Day Two update Fitness - Swimming - 18 lengths of the pool with my new training buddy - "Fishface junior" kicked my ass as usual. He swam 24 lengths in the time it took me to swim 18. He's ten years old... But he gave me some good tips on technique and didn't let me quit. We're going to swim together again on Wednesday afternoon. Diet - Tracking - tracked all my food today which was hard because I've eaten too much and I hate writing it down when it's bad. But I've got a healthy dinner planned. And I have to remind myself that my goal is to track and observe. Level up my life - Writing - Wrote 288 words and started a scene that I've been procrastinating on for ages. It took me about two hours of making excuses to sit down to write. And only about 20 minutes to actually write. That's what I need to work on... But I wrote something - yay, go me!

Good luck! What exercise will you do?

Great challenge! Totally identify with the 'wildly unrealistic goals' vs making a 1% better decision thing. That's something that I'm learning too... These all look like sustainable changes - habits that you can build on. Good luck with it.

Thanks for dropping in on me. Love your challenge thread - this is going to keep me entertained for the next four weeks...