JulesPaxton

WELL HI THERE! It's been awhile, but I'm pleased to report that from Dec 2014 - April 2015, I cut back my body fat % and went from about 141lbs to 128ish. Woot woot. I've been working on some other goals, but will be focusing on my journey again soon. BTW, I did join that volleyball league - we finished undefeated. I also really enjoyed my ballet class and made a new friend, kinda. I need to reach out to her and see if she's still at that studio.

I have earned 10 stars in the last 2 weeks! Super proud of myself! This week it included 2 ballet classes, 2 yoga classes, and I hope to get in a lifting sesh tonight before dinner. I'm finding it really frustrating that I sort of went in a loop after the first challenge. But my new rule about "must do this til Christmas before you can say it isn't working" is probably good. That will let me see a trend, and if nothing is budging, I will need to modify my plan. I know that I wasn't suuuuper consistent after challenge 1 ended, and I definitely wasn't as dedicated to exercise. Interestingly, though, even a low-cal burning workout like hatha yoga does wonders for me mentally and keeps me focused on feeding myself well and thinking positively. Combined with cardio and weight workouts, I'm definitely feeling the success coming... If I get below my current weight, I will be the lightest I've been in 6 months! (I gained 15 pounds between January and fall....for a total of 25 pounds over 5 years...and since then have been hovering in the top range of my weight) Steve's half-assing post came at a timely moment. I can't complain in December that it isn't working if I haven't given it my all. I'm excited to see where I'll be at Christmas. "Six months from now, you'll wish you had started today."

So sorry to hear about your dog I really feel for you....it's heartbreaking, especially when you've had a dog for that long. They really do hold onto a piece of us.

Sorry to hear about your grandmother. I just read your initial post and wanted to chime in on this: "It takes me 6 weeks of work and less than 6 days to destroy it all." I've totally been there. And then it makes it harder to start next time - like, what's the point? But this time I'm giving myself a new rule: three months (or 100 workouts) of dedication to better eating and exercise. It takes time to see progress, and I just have to be persistent. I have to form new habits and get a new baseline. Anyway, just do what you can and take care of yourself, but don't forget that it's a journey and that you will have some ups and downs....just keep swimming!

Hi guys! UGH, now I feel like a super-failure for asking for some encouragement and not logging in that often. Sorry guys It's going great right now, but I'll be honest - I've kind of abandoned my original layout in favor of a different approach. I'm still doing goals 1, 2, and 3 every week, but I'm thinking of it differently. Every workout is worth one gold star on my calendar (I'm easily motivated by stickers). I have fitness-related prizes set out at 30 (Nike Pro shorts) and 60 (sports bra) stars and one "ultimate reward" (dinner at Fogo de Chao when I reach my main goal). Seeing each day as just ONE day really helps. It doesn't matter if I worked out / ate well yesterday; I can't rest on my laurels because today's a new day. Similarly, if I screwed up yesterday, today is a new day. I've been making better choices and finding that I don't HAVE to eat crappy. Last Saturday I spent a ton of time watching college football and was worried I'd be in a prime binge situation. I don't get cable, so we usually watch at a bar, which means that I feel obliged to buy drinks and when we get hungry there's only crappy bar food. HOWEVER, we had the great idea of watching at my apartment's clubhouse cabana, which is outdoors and has a TV. I drank Perrier lime waters all day, worked out in the morning, had a Verts Kebap beef/lamp salad for lunch, then grilled steak, veggies, and 1/2 baked potato for dinner. Win! I'm squatting about 90 right now, but I wasn't super diligent about squats in September. I think I can push this to 95 by the end of challenge easily. Today I biked to work. I have ballet tonight, and I am getting a yoga video in the mail today. I'm pretty excited to start yoga for flexibility/balance, and then I want to move into acro yoga with my boyfriend. I'm also telling myself just to sustain the effort and be as consistent as possible. If I am truly making the right choices, I"ll see results.

Hi rebels! My first challenge was part good, and part kind of blah as I fell off towards the end. I'm not beating myself up. I feel like this is probably common. PLUS, I made some small steps towards my goal to get to a body that I"m proud of. I lost ~5lbs and learned some new recipes. I have to view this as a journey; otherwise I get complacent midway through and stop pursuing my goals. Main quest: Get to 22% body fat and be able to run 5K without stopping before Christmas. Call it an end-of-year resolution. Side quests: Bike to work at least 1x a week Lift weights at least 1x a week...I'd love to squat over 100lbs and work out with 20lb dumbbells Healthy eating. I'm going to define this as 6 or fewer items from my List (see last challenge) and 3 or fewer drinks for the weekMy #1 problem is sustained effort. I KNOW I can achieve #1 and #2; I've never done them at the same time though. Plus, I'm taking ballet 1x a week too. If I can do those two and clean up my diet reasonably, I should be on a good trajectory. Side goals: Cut my grocery spending to $150 a month. Go 4+ weeks on one tank of gas.Motivation: I'm 24 years old. Being flubby is not acceptable, nor is eating junk food all the time. That's...gross. I should be able to fit into my clothes and run a few miles [zombies] and participate in things I enjoy. And call me vain, but I want to look good in wedding/engagement/honeymoon photos. Please please offer your support by following/checking in! I found that to be invaluable to sticking to my last challenge. When I stopped logging in...I stopped really putting my best foot forward. And it helps to have someone asking you how your challenge is going! I'll be happy to reciprocate.

How did your challenge finish up?

Congrats on finishing this challenge! looking forward to continuing. You DID make progress. Personally I'm trying to come to terms with being the hare instead of the tortoise. Next time, slow and steady for me.

Hi everybody! Thanks for checking in on me. I really appreciate it *SIGH* The last 2 weeks of the challenge were a struggle. I saw that small progress and went "WOOOOO" and gave myself a lot of excuses to not log in. And the longer I went without logging in, I thought, "Oh, it'll be so mortifying to log in now..I should just wait til the next challenge..." Well, here's the summary. - Lost about 5 pounds. (Hard to tell bc of fluctuations) - My sleep schedule is pretty regular. - I discovered lots of tasty new recipes to make that don't involve marathon-style carb loading and struggled with my taste for rice and noodles. (I did fine without bread and most of the sweets, actually.) - I was exercising OK until the tail end of the challenge. This had a lot to do with me not spending time at my own place, which has a gym. Ballet's started, though! That will go all through the next 6 week challenge. I turned 24. Yay! I think overall I get a C+ for this challenge. That's kind of arbitrary, but I did prove that I CAN make the right choices. My downfall is throwing up my hands and going, "What's one more day?" and "This is good enough".

Raspberries taste fuzzy to me! I face the same dilemma...

I saw your Woot post and then noticed we were following some of the same Rebels! So, hello, and good luck. Grad school is definitely an understandable time to gain weight. Eep. Keep going; you're clearly getting results if you can start getting back into old clothing! I look forward to that more than ANYTHING (OK, I want to be healthy, but I'm also vain...).

I actually LOVE it! Something about the challenge of moving around heavy stuff. It also gets my heart rate up in a fun way. I am going today after work. I was most sore after my first workout of the challenge, but I DO still feel challenged in the gym (~8-10 reps, 2-3 sets)...this is normal, right? Like, during week 1 I could barely walk around normal because I was so sore. My ballet class starts Sept 8 (one hour once a week) so I'm super excited to be getting back into that! Mixed with 3x lifting session a week that will be a great amount of exercise. Well, this is kind of embarrassing, but we had Indian yesterday (lunch date) AND then the chicken I'd bought had gone bad, so we had tacos. Aye, I do love good ethnic food. However, I've found that I only go for the "carb-y stuff" when I'm out, mostly on the basis of opportunity. I can't make myself good croissants or samosas in a reasonable time period, so it seems best to spend my indulgences on these and NOT food I make at home. Tonight my friend Kate is cooking cilantro lime chicken, which I'll have sans taco. But I had a TWO WEEK spree of no eating out whatsoever during this challenge, which is practically unheard of. I won't disclose how much $$$ I spent on eating on in May, but it was a lot, and a lot of it was basically lazy mindlessness. Basically, I can feel my will wavering a little bit. My brain's holding onto the last remnants of the eat-out-all-the-time habit. I'm forcing myself to continue to check in on the NF boards because most of the people in my life aren't on a similar quest, so it is easy to just say "F*** it" and revert. Semi-related restaurant info One of the awesome things about this challenge is that I designed it so I could NEVER just eat with reckless abandon. I'm not someone who can eat clean during the week and binge on weekends because I just never get back on track. Instead I aim for eating right ALL the time with the occasional indulgence sprinkled in. In doing that, I also notice the amounts I should *normally* be eating at restaurants I like to frequent.....which will mean nothing to anyone not in Houston, so this is for posterity. Canopy: 1 pastry, 2 eggs, bacon, fruit. (Before: 1 pastry, 1 croissant egg sandwich with bacon, potatoes) El Tiempo: ~1/4 lb fajita meat, 1 tortilla, 1/2 serving rice, 1/2 serving beans, handful chips with queso. (Before: as many chips as I could eat until my food arrived, 3-4 tortillas, 1/4lb fajita meat, 2 servings rice, 1 serving beans. I always left feeling kind of miserable) Neeta's: 2-3 triangles of naan, 1/2 chicken korma, 3T rice (could've gone w/o), 1 samosa. (Before: 4-5 triangles naan, 1/2 chicken korma, 1 full cup of rice meant for 2 people, 1.5 samosas) Torchy's: Little Wrecker or one Trailer Park taco, handful chips with queso. (Before: 2 specialty tacos, brown bag of chips + 1/2 of the full-sized queso) <--- The tacos here are an awkward size but I finally discovered the awesome kids' menu!

Amen. Week 3 is over, I give myself a B-. Goal 1: A. Meant to get in a bonus round. This week it ramps up to 3x a week, so I will have to! Goal 2: C. Again, I'm sitting more at like, 10 and I want to be around 3-6. I made some really good progress: ordering roast chicken at an Italian restaurant, not having garlic bread with dinner on Saturday, hardly ever drinking, but there are improvements to be made - namely, only eating things because I WANT to, not because it's there! Goal 3: A So now it's time for week 4. (OMG is this challenge almost over?!) Last night we had pizza for dinner, which I've not had in weeks and enjoyed, and I had a brunch date that involved a croissant. So, that's two down. I'm less on cooking duty this week since it's boyfriend's turn. My only meal plan is some green chile chicken, though I'd like him to cook up some lemon caper tilapia. Mmmm. Reaching my 3x week goal seems very doable (M, W, Sat). That's all my lifting goals and then i'll add in days of just plain exercise (running, walking) in the next challenge. I've lost about .5 - 1" off my waist to keep me motivated! Progress is progress even when my week isn't perfect.

I suppose it's motivating, but on bad days, it's really irritating. There's a dude who comes in and does burpees, but instead of just jumping, HE JUMPS UP AND DOES A PULL-UP! What a badass. I fell off the wagon the last 2 days (even tho I did get in my workout on Wednes). The problem is, none of the food choices were mainly mine! I know it's up to me to choose whether to eat it or not, and it's only a slip if I trip and fall into a plate of spaghetti, but: W dinner: Kate cooked me spaghetti, green beans, and garlic bread. <----- Could have done w/o the bread. I DID forego dessert and alcohol though. Small victories? R lunch: My apt complex gave out free dinner the night before and mine was a gyro. I couldn't bear to just eat it sans pita; I have them so infrequently.... R snack: Jimmy John's came by giving out free samples, so duh. I ate one of them open face. R dinner: ....But then my friend wanted Greek for her bday, and guess what I had? A gyro. And then I stole some of her seasoned fries. I don't care for fries all the time but theirs are amaaaaazing. R late snack: My boyfriend's friend is back in town and hosted a huge Indian dinner. He brought me home a samosa. I didn't want to throw it away. it's time to get it under control...I've just gotten so much free food for the last 2 days, and I hate throwing that out when all you'd be left with is a piddly amount of meat I guess the next two days, I'll be back on track! That would put my weekly total at 8, which is like a B, but next week I want to cut back to 4, so.....gonna have to make some improvements...

Well, keep at it! It'll come. When I started I didn't think I'd ever be able to do it, and I guess 6 years of 3+ sessions a week...and eventually I just was able to do it. And my left came before my right. Oddly it was actually more comfortable when I could get down fully because then my body weight was sitting on the floor! Daily stretches, and warm up. Got it!

Congratulations! You're definitely moving forward. Not about perfection...just improvement. I read somewhere about the 10% rule. For most people to perceive a difference, there has to be a 10% change....so I bet it IS noticeable. (Not sure how many senses/dimensions that rule applies to.) You will get there!

Soooo awesome! Congratulations! Getting back into older [smaller...lol] clothes is def something I'm looking forward to.

As someone who struggles to apologize...I only realized just HOW bad I am at apologizing once I read Gary Chapman's book, When I'm Sorry Isn't Enough (I think). Turning it into some sort of roasting of the other person is definitely not a real apology. It's something that I hate about myself that I'm working on. I'm too proud... Um, anyway, kudos to you for putting up with her.

NEW FRIDGE?! Jealoussss. The appliances in my apt aren't mine, so I settled for getting kick-ass knives instead. Hehe.

WOW, amazing sketch! If there's one positive thing about Robin's death...maybe it can help the world be more aware that depression is a real thing. And it's not logical. And we need to be compassionate and open to the idea, not insist that people just "Get over it". I almost lost my mom to it, but luckily her friends broke in to the house and got her to a hospital.

Quick excerpt from my health insurance newsletter: wait whaa....? In other news, last night's dinner was some delicious (although overdone) steak, zucchini, and 1/3 of a potato. My new knives came in from Williams-Sonoma, so I was all ready to chop stuff up. Also, I *may* have lost 1/4" off waist. Too early to tell. Tonight's my 2nd lifting sesh of the week.

Thanks for the encouragement, everybody! Week 3 is going even better than 2, so that's great. I don't even feel "guilty" over the 1/2 dessert from Sunday, and I had a normal-size serving of cornbread last night - I just had to use a token. I've not got too many other hurdles, so I'm not overly concerned about going over my limit this week. Lunch at Mom's Saturday, birthday dinner for someone Thursday, but it's Greek food, and I can do gyro w/o pita. I got in my scheduled Monday workout, too. I was the biggest person in the gym. I told myself that everyone respected that I was working, and the ones who don't can screw off. No one looked at me weird though, and it was motivating having fit people around me doing their thing. I swear the median age at my complex is 28 and they all eat kale and do crossfit. *sigh* I want to add to my motivation: my 24th birthday is in three weeks (Sept 4!) and we're taking a little trip that weekend. I want to feel great! AND, our anniversary is in 6 weeks. He's taking me on a surprise trip to somewhere, and I want to feel confident! I don't expect a proposal *quite* yet, but sometime within the next 8-10 mos, and I want to be comfortable with myself. I'm supposed to be in my prime, dammit. After that, I will be working on my "Christmas" self. I made a resolution at the beginning of the year to "get in shape", and I'm gonna keep it.

Whaaaat, no dinner?! My menu for the week has firmed up, so I'm feeling confident about this week - even though I couldn't drag myself out of bed to do the morning workout. I have no option but to do it before I cook dinner. I'm feeling a real mental game difference between now and a few months ago, where I was faced with a temptation and would consume it immediately. Like "eh, what's the point? It's just ONE chicken fried steak...". It feels good. I wish my progress was faster though. I'm struggling with expectation, too, because since high school I've gained 25 lbs ...but was I really fully grown then? what numbers/measurements can I even expect? guess I'll have to see.

Hey, cool goals! Gymnastics is one of the many things I was interested in a kid and just....never got good at. Haha. Have you got any tips for someone looking to be able to do the splits? I did tae kwon do for 6 years and by the end could split all three ways, but I don't want to take 6 years to get back to that level if I can....I actually had a dream about doing the splits recently. I feel like it's meant to be. Plus, I'm starting ballet soon, so flexibility would be nice to have.

Hi there! I just found your thread and I took a long break as well. So I'm right there with you! i'm going to follow your thread for the rest of the challenge because I'm still looking for buddies to keep me interacting on this site. I'm really sorry about your grandmother. And all the family stuff in general. Long story, but I can relate. (Also, not cool of your sister to out you, I don't think you can "overreact" to something like that, IMO.)