Feowyn

Hey, hope you're doing ok

Jenn- Thanks so much! I couldn't imagine myself doing half of what you've done. That's amazing! I did try the simplifying for one of my goals and it's working great! I have even overachieved quite a few days so far. I decided to change up my workouts a bit to five short ones instead of three long ones and that's been working well too. This is definitely my best challenge so far. Thanks again for the encouragement.

Breakthrough for me: I actually did all five of my workouts last week. I'm behind this week but I can make them up over the weekend. Oh a villain! I really need to set aside some time to do this. I've had the beginnings of a fiction project for several years now. This may force me to work on it.

Back is back and that's what counts. That workout sounds killer so that's quite a return. You've inspired me. My leg day was yesterday and I'm walking normally today so I think I should push myself more. I read it earlier, but I didn't get to reply...pagers?! HAHA! I had a sweet one back in the day. It was transparent green.

I hope you can get some answers with your new doctor. It sounds promising.

These are all great goals. Hope you're doing ok.

I'm in Ohio too! Welcome aboard!

It's great you're doing this together and I love your matching pictures

Oh no, Great Captain! One little set back easily puts me in a downward spiral if I let it, which I almost always do. This section is mind games. You've conquered the Mountain of Uncertainty. You've swam the River of Fear. You have now entered the Dark Forest of Defeat. There will be obstacles and distractions, but you can get through if you keep going. I haven't passed this level yet, but I will. Be strong! Every day is a new day. The past is behind you. Things won't be perfect (preaching to myself here), but you can still do this. Maybe you can do some slow cooker meals so you won't be standing too long if it's painful or some bodyweight stuff at home until you feel a bit better?

Thank you! I decided to have a new costume made to go with this wintery challenge haha Updates: Food: ​Surprisingly, the last two days I've gotten 2100 calories. I guess my meal plan is working haha. I'm super excited about this. Now just to keep it up and get groceries when I need to and not use too much of our food money too early in the month. I had missed my morning snack both days so far so I just lumped it in with breakfast today so I should get in even more by the end of the day. I think I'm a bit short on protein but not too bad. Water: I drank 4 cups Monday and then refilled my giant cup and forgot to drink the last 2 before I went to bed. Oops! I did make it yesterday though. Workouts: I've done both of them so far. Last night's was pretty late because we had some family stop over for a visit but I got it done. Fun: I did some little things Monday but I'm not sure that I'd call it real quality time so I'll count it as half. Yesterday we watched Beauty and the beast together.

I was a week late too this round. No problem! This sounds like a plan. I haven't hiked in quite a while. I miss it.

I'm actually already there! I tried to find you, but it looked like you had some settings on private so I couldn't see you? I'm Snayll. I've had an account there for a few years now. I really like how they do their tracking. My problem is when it gets to be 8:00 at night and I'm still 400 calories short, sometimes I just say screw it and get the kids to bed and go to my room in defeat. I really try to eat good food, but spinach doesn't have a lot of calories haha. I do use steel cut oats, bananas, and brown rice though. I'm still working trying to nickel and dime 100 or so calories several times throughout the day to help. I'm also not great in the kitchen so it takes me longer than it should to make a meal.

Hey Allons-y, hope to see you back soon. It would be just plain wrong for someone with a name like that to not be here.

Hey Em! Nice to see you back. This is definitely doable and great reward idea.

It was quite a year for you. I'm glad you're keeping the momentum. I'll be following.

Hey Gobs! Sorry I'm late. I'm working on the whole cooking and cleaning thing too. Every day is a new day and a fresh start!

Hey Randa, glad you're doing well. I'll be following along. I definitely need to get my butt up in the mornings and I would totally get all worked up about a sewing machine...emotions (sigh). Sorry, you're not having much luck with your digestive issues. Finding what foods aren't agreeing with you can be a frustrating process. I hope you start feeling better soon.

Sorry I'm late! I'm here and I'm staying this time. Getting up to a healthy weight is still the biggest thing for me. I'm going to be tracking my calories and doing bodyweight workouts. strengths- I don't just jump into things. I spend hours researching and really try to make informed decisions. I also spend hours making up the perfect plan (that if I could actually follow it, I'm sure it would work) weaknesses- if it looks like a might fail, I quit and I tend to overcomplicate things like picking out these great healthy recipes that have me in the kitchen all day and then I don't get anything else done

Looks good, I won't bail on you this time.

Looks good Artemis!

Well, a bit late but I'm back again. Last time was a flop, so I'm trying something a bit different. For those of you who don't know me. I'm 32, married, mom of two boys-5 and 10 months, and one girl-almost 3. I've put myself on the back burner and I'm actually underweight by about 30 lbs. I've always been fairly thin naturally, but this is unhealthy and I'd like to gain my weight back and hopefully find some energy and strength too. 1- Eat 1800 calories a day of real food. I know I should have more than this, but I've tried before and failed, so I'm lowering the bar a bit this time so I don't get discouraged and give up. 2-Bodyweight workout 5x a week. I've tried three longer ones in the past so this time I'm breaking it up into 5 shorter ones. 3-Drink 6 cups of water a day. I've done this one before, but I've been slacking so it's back. 4-Do something fun with my kids every day. I get so caught up in the have-to's. I don't want to spend so much time doing things for them that I completely miss being with them. That's about it so here we go!

Hi Ryan! It sounds like you're making some great choices to start the new year. Keep it up!

Hello everyone! I am so glad I found you all. I have been terribly frustrated. I almost didn't even do this challenge at all. Actually, I didn't start yet. I'm starting tomorrow. I've been trying this since last April and I've not passed a single one yet. Something happens every dang time! I suspect this will continue but darn it, I just want to scream sometimes. I have my workouts and meals planned out so I always think I'm all ready, but it always just falls apart after about 2 weeks and I get nowhere. I'm kind of an oddball. After having three kids, they've apparently sucked the life out of me and I'm about 30 lbs underweight. I have several issues because of it. Honestly, I really want to give up, but I can't. I have to gain this weight back. I need to be in a better place this year with my health for my family. Thanks so much for listening

Thanks so much for the encouragement guys. It really means a lot. How's it going? Well, it's not. There were several big issues this time around and I just didn't deal with them very well. 1) I've been doing this about 6 monthish and I have had no gains. Zero. It doesn't matter what I try, something always happens. I was very disappointed with my last weight check and I let it get to me. I'm still quite upset about it. 2) We went overboard in Nov and did not plan well for it. We made food for two Thanksgiving meals and we had a friend from out of state stay with us for three weeks. Our food budget was blown early on this challenge. We still had food but I couldn't follow my meal plan and I really struggle when I'm just trying to throw meals together with what we have on hand and have it be what I need. Big oopsie there. 3) Hubby was less than enthusiastic about the workouts. We didn't manage to squeeze them in during the day and by night time, he was too tired. I had switched programs so I wasn't familiar with most of the exercises. If I went on without him, we would be on two different days. Taking forever to look up each individual exercise for two different days would take way too long so I didn't do mine either. I think we only did two or three nights. So, basically, I gave up on all of it. I didn't want to read any of my email updates, because I didn't want to think about it. The kids have all been sick this week and now I feel like crap. I did read a FB post today that was quite encouraging and exactly what I needed. I figured I should come on here and let you all know I'm still alive. Right now, I really feel like I will never get there. Every challenge something happens and things get all messed up. As much as I don't want to, I think I might give it another shot next challenge. New Year, New You or something like that, right? I will end on a good note. After I quit, a while later just on his own, Hubby started tracking his food. I'm not sure where it can from and I don't know if he still is, but I'll take it.

Ugh, guys, I am so sorry. I feel like I'm disappointing everyone. This, so far, has been the worst challenge week ever. The food has been crap. I haven't made my goal in 4 days straight. I think I have a decent breakfast when we don't run out of things. Dinner is ok enough. I have a protein shake with whole milk before bed. Lunches get me. I like to have a salad with nuts and cheese, but that's not enough. My other issue right now is the sugar. I'm not even a sugar person. I don't even really care for chocolate. We have a friend from out of state that has been staying with us for two weeks and he keeps buying candy. My husband's parents also buy sugary things, but mainly keep them in the bedroom so I don't walk right past those. Just to clarify, I don't count junk food toward my calorie goal. Then his sister goes and makes chocolate chip cookies yesterday. I had three of them... I also have been sleeping in and that throws off the rest of the day. I'm going to try to get little guy to sleep better at night instead of sucking the life out of me all night long, which really isn't necessary at almost 9 months old. I also feel really tired and drag through my day when I eat foods with sugar and gluten in them. I have mostly been off gluten and I feel much better that way physically and mentally, but I recently went back because I hadn't gained any weight in the last 6 months. I don't like it and I think I'm going to try to go without again and make it work. Oh, and because of all the crap, I'm missing my son's last basketball class to stay home with the younger two because they're sick. The workouts have been slow. My husband knows he needs to lose weight and he wants to. He likes running, but just doesn't get it in during the day. He's not a "workout" kind of guy. One night he fell asleep early. Another night he was too tired and didn't want to. Yesterday, he moved a bunch of furniture down to the basement so I knew that one was out too. We're following a new program that's I'm not familiar with, as in look up a video of how to do each thing. I thought it would be too confusing and take forever if we were on different days, so I haven't done mine either. At this point I feel like they're pointless since we're only working each muscle group maybe twice a month. My husband and kids are on board at least verbally. The kids actually like a lot of healthy food, but they won't turn down the candy. I think after our friend leaves I'm going to make a rule that they can only have sugary things on Sundays. Obviously the two year old wouldn't understand that, but the five year old would and he's not one to push the limits. Hubby? I don't know. He likes a lot of healthy food. If I could totally be on top of my game and do all the shopping and meal prep on time, he would eat what I made, so I just need to step it up there. Otherwise he'll just grab whatever is around and that's usually not good. To end on a good note, we got some snow this week. Although not really for a theme or topic, here are a few shots. I took these with my phone because I can't find the charger for my camera battery. I will be finding it soon. Well, I was going to end this on a good note. I started this post yesterday. Last night our faithful Miniature Pinscher died at 10 years old. We had him since he was 6 weeks old. This week sucks.