hellonurse

Thanks for the feedback! I got off to a good start yesterday: I worked out in the morning (I need to work on my pushup form but other than that it went pretty well -- I think I've done more pushups in the past week than I have in years), and had a big salad with kale, chicken, avocado, egg, tomatoes, carrots, cucumbers, and walnuts for lunch. Dinner was a little challenging because it's restaurant week in New York, so we went out, but I stuck to the plan with steak and sauteed spinach (and two glasses of red wine) and skipped the bread and dessert. I just knocked out my reading for today, so we're starting off on a high note. I'm not grading this challenge because I'm already under a lot of pressure at school, and I think it would drive me crazy. I did take before pictures and planned to post them this morning, but I seem to be too shy... maybe I'll post them at the end with the "after" pictures

Good luck with your graduate school applications and studying for the MCAT! I definitely share your eventual goal of helping your patients by educating them about nutrition -- I'm studying to be a nurse practitioner and that's definitely one of the things I want to incorporate into my practice after I graduate. It's so frustrating how little many healthcare professionals are taught about it, I'm right there with you. I like your goals (I wish I had more time for yoga!) What do you usually do during your workouts?

Been lurking around NerdFitness since last year but this is my first challenge! A little background: I've been cleaning up my diet since October of last year, and I've been doing pretty well -- I had lost about 12 pounds since going paleo, but I've found a few foods that I had eliminated creeping back in lately (potato chips! ice cream! cannoli! pizza!) and I want to get back on track. I also want to get back in shape -- I'm in grad school three days a week and I'm also working full time as a registered nurse (3 7am-7pm shifts per week), so while I used to work out 3 or 4 times a week my really busy schedule has definitely gotten in the way of that, and I haven't seriously exercised since last summer (and I miss it!). My main quest: I'm at between 27% and 28% body fat right now (according to a couple of calculators), and I'd like to get to 24% or below eventually. I hesitate to say "I want to be at X weight" because I know that's not necessarily indicative of how healthy anybody is, and my new year's resolution was to not weigh myself anymore because it was making me CRAZY and that's working out pretty well for me. Goals: 1. Do the beginner bodyweight workout 3x/week 2. No excuses paleo diet with three "cheat meals"/week (this can be either in one epic "cheat day" or spread out over the week, but not "three cheat meals plus one of my coworkers brought in cookies" -- if it's not paleo, it counts as a cheat meal) 3. 7 or fewer drinks per week (I have a pretty active social life and my boyfriend and I go out a lot, so this is actually really cutting down for me). Life Quest: I am a TERRIBLE procrastinator, and it's been making my life unnecessarily difficult since before I can remember, so my life goal is to study or read or write for school for at least half an hour a day, every day on top of my regular homework (I have class on Mondays, so I'm excepting them) -- it doesn't have to be for a specific test but it does have to be "in the field" (I'm doing child psych). Age: 24 Height: 5'8" Weight: (the last time I weighed myself -- on 2/18 I curiosity got the better of me): 161.0 lbs Waist: 31" Hips: 37" Wish me luck!

Too true -- curse you, pizza, for being so cheap! I'm in grad school too and it would definitely be nice to connect with people who relate to my level of sleep-deprivation. I'm in!