snowberry

Woohoo! First day of the challenge was successful. Have been tossing and turning the last couple nights so rather than get up early to workout, I got on my bike when I got home. Really prefer to do it in the morning so I don't make excuses at the end of the day, but I am glad I chose to try and get another hour of rest yesterday. Obviously did wake up early this morning but my stomach is a rollercoaster so working out seems ill-advised. Will do it this evening. How I did yesterday: 1. WW points: pass 2. Workout: pass 3. Water: pass Since my life goal is a certain number of books, I'm just going to tally them all at the end. I did read last night, though. I also took my measurements yesterday morning so I have a baseline to check against besides just weight. It's going to be a long day. Two days in a row with crappy sleep.

Nine days of being active in a row. It feels so good to be moving again. Knee is holding up very well so far, which is a fantastic sign. And diet is coming under control thanks to WW and Shakeology. In other words, feeling a little badass right now. Going to do measurements tomorrow for the start of the next challenge (my first one to complete). Don't want to rely just on the scale showing my progress since we all know that's not the best way to measure such things. Not that I don't care about that number. But I know better than to put too much stock in it. Really, it's going to be how my clothes fit that make me feel the best. So happy to be back in the groove and looking forward to getting back to my old energetic, spritely self.

Got stuff done yesterday. Go me. Moved some (light) furniture around to help with the giant organization mess we've had in the house the last month. Still some more org to do today. Pretty slow day beyond that. First, working out. Then getting hair chopped off. Going for a haircut that's more badass than I feel. Hoping to grow more into it personality-wise . Then some more stuff around the house. Then continuing my newest game: Professor Layton v. Phoenix Wright. >.<

Thanks! Injuries definitely make it all more complicated. But I've been working out since getting cleared (taking it slow of course) and already seeing progress so yay! It's definitely motivating me to get my health back in control and show myself what I can still do.

Lalala. Yesterday may have been a lazy day but I still got in a 90-minute workout and stayed at my WW point goal for the day. So huzzah! Today, though, must be more productive. I have a workout planned (that includes a very intense hour-long...walk haha. Lots of cleaning and some rearranging of furniture in my very near future.

Good luck! Step count is something I've been really trying to improve, too. My average day is also around 3k now that I'm at my new job (my old one had me on my feet all the time) so I need to make time to pick it back up. Can't wait to see how your challenge goes!

Seriously, sword-fighting classes?! Jealous. Love your goals and your grading system. And like the others said, definitely keep in mind that this is a form of self care for you that you deserve.

Great goals and a good plan of attack! I'm all about the visuals too, love Pinterest.

Hi all! Back from rehabbing my broken patella (I don't recommend it), and ready to get through a challenge. I've been building up a plan of attack that has a lot of variety, but I'll keep it rather simplified here because even I have to look at my planner to remember what today is, haha. Essentially, the idea is variety will keep me from boredom and that's been one of my biggest hurdles over the years. Also, a lot of my exercise plans are simple or modified because of my knee, so my plan may change as I keep getting stronger. Main quest: Run a marathon in April 2016 (I've been cleared to do this by medical peeps, so long as my knee cooperates). Side quests: 1. Don't run out of WW points. I'm using WW to get a handle on things, dietwise, for at least three months (cause that's the subscription I bought). Love it for two reasons: it allows most fruits and veg in unlimited amounts so I don't have to decide between being hangry or guilty; and it has weekly flex points, acknowledging that not every day is perfect and that's okay. Seems to be working so far, so I'm sticking to it. A: 38 days B: 34 days C: 30 days 2. Finish at least 3 cardio and 2 strength workouts a week. For cardio I have a stationary bike and treadmill in my house. Yeah, no excuses. Though both are very low intensity for now. Essentially, no resistence on the bike yet and walking on the treadmill. That will change with time. For strength I am using My Fitness Coach which has awful graphics and terrible music but saves me from having to write out my own routines and adjusts to my abilities as I go. And you can do target workouts for upper, core, lower, flexibility, and then also a yoga routine. I used it a few years ago to get back down to a size four. So cheesy or not, it has worked for me in the past and I've dusted it off to start again. A: 27 workouts B: 24 workouts C: 21 workouts 3. Drink 64 oz. of water daily. I'm terrible at this and I know it's not helping one little bit. A: 38 days B: 34 days C: 30 days Life quest: Read! Don't get me wrong, my Kindle gets a lot of use. But it's haphazard lately. My official resolution this year is to read 100 books which is completely doable if I just insist on making time for it. So for this challenge, I'm going to set a goal of five books. Motivation: Pretty simple. I'm not comfortable with how I look and feel these days. Especially since I do plan to be a mom in a couple years and I stand a much better chance of being a good role model if I get things in hand now. Long journey ahead; I'll get there. Feel free to follow, reply, etc. Also, I'm much more able to tweet than get on forums during a workday, so feel free to follow and tweet me up: @ladysnowberry. Have a great challenge everyone! Can't wait to see how much ass we kick.

That's fair.

Love it! Can't wait to watch your progress.

Hi! So glad to have you with us. Don't be nervous, we don't bite.

So! I'm almost scared to post again. Each time I try to start a challenge here I get incapacitated. For instance, in August I busted my patella. Just finished PT last week and have been cleared to workout so long as my knee cooperates. Going to do the challenge starting next week. Still wary, haha. Will figure out exact plans later. But I've been on WW for a week just to help me get my diet back on track. Things got way too bad after my injury.... Happy New Year everyone! 2015 is going to kick ass.

The whole office was sick this week. And of course none of us took a sick day. Share the love right?? Still got in some walking but not daily. But I kept my diet in line which is awesome cause normally when I'm under the weather I eat EVERYTHING. Just keep swimming.

Weeee haven't posted in a couple days but I've hit the step and diet goal every day so far this challenge. And just got in my first strength session today. Tired but happy with my progress.

Made it to 10,000 steps for day 3. Gotta get a substantial dinner in though cause I was nauseated so much of the day that I've barely eaten. No bueno. Chilling with my kindle for the rest of the night. Clearly my back is angry at this sudden urge to get off the couch and I'm going to appease it tonight. Hope to feel better in the morning. My goal is to go to bed early so I wake up feeling up to walking before work. Then I can fit in strength training tomorrow night. At least I know moving around helps with the particular pain I've been in the last two days. I swear it's so much trial and error lately. Getting kind of old.

Finally feeling a bit better. Walking around seems to be helping but of course I have a desk job so I must choose between being productive and feeling alive. Definitely going to do my walk first thing when I get home. Since standing and moving for some reason help, worth a shot to kill two birds with one stone. Wish I had a standing desk at work. Might look into that. Birthday is coming up and all.

Day 2 was rough and day 3 isn't looking much better. Went to bed with a migraine and it's still here. Made it to 10,000 steps and kept my intake in the proper range. Honestly not sure how I'm going to do today. Will do my best. Diet will be easy. I'm too nauseated to be interested in junk food. But I may come home and take the migraine meds that knock me out so walking may not be in my evening plans. It's hard to say no to this plan on day 3. But I have to learn to listen to my body and not do stupid things like make myself worse. Playing it by ear today.

I think that's a good idea to start with only twice a week for strength. I really don't want to risk overreaching and ending up benched yet again. Thank you! Day 1 went really well. Hit 10,011 steps and didn't go over FitBit's calorie allowance. Tomorrow will be a strength-training day so I just have to do what I did yesterday again today. A little sleep-deprived, though. That's a red flag. This typically leads to serious snacking.

So I've tried a couple times to get a challenge underway. I stopped because of medical issues. While I had a temporary illness that's all better now, I have discovered in the process of being poked and prodded that my scoliosis has gotten worse and that's why I've been feeling so bad the last few months. After some medication trial and error, I'm back on the horse. It's not easy, so I'm probably going to be needy on this and anyone looking for a support team is more than welcome to message me or tweet me (ladysnowberry). It'd be so easy to say, well I have a chronic issue that makes even walking a challenge so screw it. But my quality of life will just keep getting worse. So here's my really basic plan for Challenge 1. Main quest for life: Get healthy. It sounds vague, but I want to be strong and fit and maybe even reverse the most recent progression of my s-curve. It is possible, I did it before. But it's hard work and no matter what, I'll always have some of this problem to deal with. But for this challenge my goal is simple: Finish the challenge and prove that I can maintain the healthier lifestyle with exercise. At this point I really just need to prove to myself that I can do this. I'm not looking for big results or anything like that. Just completion. I know many people here, for different reasons, can relate to needing to finish something this long. Mini quests: 1. Track all my food and stay under whatever FitBit tells me is my daily goal depending on activity. 2. Walk 10,000 steps each day. I am lucky enough to have a treadmill so I have zero excuses. 3. Do three strength training workouts a week. This is really important for my back but it's also what causes the worst flare-ups so....fun. But the longer I stick with it, the better my back will feel. Life quest: Get back to reading for pleasure. Lately it feels like I don't get any time to just unwind and now that there's this awesome Kindle Unlimited thing, I'm picking this as my daily self-care task. Like I said, everyone is welcome to follow, harass, tweet, or message. I have a good support system irl, but to be honest they tend to encourage me to take it easy more than get active and doctors say different. And I know from experience that being active may hurt a lot now, but will be so worth it in the end. ~Snow

Good morning everyone, Warning: This post is essentially one long vent. Yesterday sucked. Rather than do my normal job, I got stuck stuffing, sealing, stamping, and addressing a few hundred brochures. So why does that suck so hard? Because my spine looks like this. (This isn't my actual spine, but the degrees of curvature are similar enough.) Mine actually goes the other way, but whatever. I don't remember where I stashed the most recent X-rays of mine so this is good enough. Most people think this is an excuse I use to be lazy. No. Those people have no idea what they're talking about. That's why I usually don't tell people I deal with regularly about my back. It's not worth it to have to explain what it is and what it feels like. And they usually still look at me like I'm making it up. Just look at that X-ray and tell me it can't possibly cause me any pain. It messes with muscles, nerves, everything. I've learned over the years how to exercise without aggravating it too much. After a few years of constant pain, you start to learn to deal with it. Just got to listen to my back and respect my own limitations. I can do a lot, but I have to be smart about it. It's not an excuse to be lazy. It's just something to deal with. So back to yesterday. Seven hours of mailing stupid stuff meant I was in tears driving home. I tried laying on the couch. No go. Ended up in bed around 8 last night. Didn't eat dinner because the pain upset my stomach. Didn't sleep well. Dreading taking a shower because the top right of my back is still on fire and the thought of washing my hair just sucks. Yesterday sucked. Today won't be great either because it usually takes two to three days for this to calm down. It's been a long time since I had such a bad day. When I have a choice of what I do, even exercise, I can keep my pain level at a tolerable level and keep on trucking. When I have no choice, though, I end up crying. So why the rant? Because I'm sitting here watching Bob's Burgers (been up a few hours) and am considering surgery for the first time since my diagnosis (9 years ago). I've taken a huge step: I scheduled an appointment at one of the best scoliosis centers in my area. I'm getting my records from other doctors transferred. And May 7 I'll be getting a new set of X-rays and talking about my options. There are really three options: PT which helps with pain and can stablize a spine but is something that stops working when you stop doing it. I did this for a few years and it helped a lot. But giving up 3 hours two to three times a week is, frankly, depressing when you have to do it, well, forever. Then there are pain meds. I don't even like taking Aleve. Then there's surgery. If I'm not a candidate now I probably will be in a few years at the rate I'm progressing. But the surgery is extremely invasive and risky and takes months to fully recover from. And it doesn't always go well. I'm proud of myself for getting into a better doctor and facing the truth. But it's been a really hard 24 hours. So about my challenge. I obviously missed my treadmill date last night. If I'm able to take it easy at work (I think I'll be able to), I should be good for a walk tonight. Just a walk. But that's still exercise and I'm going to be okay with that. Tomorrow night I will be back to normal and able to do some strength training. Stomach is still upset, but I'm going to make myself eat today. All healthy of course. I'm sorry for this incredibly un-cheery post. But it was either not post, or just get it out. To me, it's more important to acknowledge the situation. It'll mean much more to me in 5.5 weeks when I see how far I came. Have an awesome day everyone.

Nice! Well above your step goal. That's awesome! Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

Morning everyone! Day Three My legs are indeed angry at me from last night's workout. I'd say I'm gonna sit very still at work today, but that's just unrealistic and, besides, I don't want to add stiff to sore. And tonight's cardio is gonna hurt less if I keep moving today. Allergies are a serious pain this morning but should be fine in an hour or two. Ugh. I miss living in Brooklyn on days like this. Limited plant life means my sinuses are happy. Plan. Go to work. Eat only prepped food. Drink at least 64 oz. of water before I head home. Get on my treadmill when I get home. (This is mainly walking/power-walking with some jogging mixed in. I have about zero endurance for running at the moment. Working my way up.) Make dinner (something involving pork). Get on the forums for a bit. Get to bed between 10 and 11 (since I wake up at 6). My cat is now getting into stuff because I'm not giving her attention. Off to play a bit before work. Have a great day!