crar4321

Roller derby sounds incredibly cool! It's good for you to have such a solid dream to aim for as well! Best of luck in the challenge

Thanks for the support everyone! You are all the best! I've added my points scoring to my main post so I can keep a numerical track of how well I'm doing! YES. Salty delicious snacky food is the demon but oh gosh it's good. I found a recipe in a paleo book I have which was making crisps out of sweet potato - just slice the potato really thin and then bung it in the oven on medium heat (140ish) with some salt and oil until it goes dry and crispy. It's...okay. Goes part of the way to curbing the cravings I suppose. I don't like eating that much oil and salt though so it's an occasional thing! Thanks for letting me know about the Scouts guild. Haven't really thought about which guild I'd end up in - more focussed on completing my first challenge! I hope so! I've had a look through your challenge thread too - loving the Alice in Wonderland theme!

Hi there! I think using swim fins are a great idea - if you feel like your legs are the weakest part of your swimming (like you've said your's are), using fins will get you to focus more of your effort in that area! But I'm sure you've worked that out already The reason I use fins is because you can achieve speeds with your fins on that you just can't when swimming without them. If you're training for races, this is important. It's good to know how it feels to swim fast, so you can replicate that feeling! I'm aware that this topic is over a month old - has the pain improved any since you started using your fins?

Best of luck! Really hope you succeed this time!

Snacking is the worst! My absolute downfall! Luckily snacking at work isn't an issue for me! I'm a medical student, so usually when I'm "at work" I'm just on the wards, where I can't eat, because it's a clinical area! Every cloud has a silver lining!

Congrats on reaching the end of uni! What do you study?

I really hope it is third time lucky for you!

Ahh another beginner body weight-er! Go you!

Just wanted to wish you luck with your challenge

Rocking life in general is an excellent quest!

Sounds like a good set of challenges! I like how you use a lot of numbers and stuff to rank your challenges; it makes them seem complicated but I can see that it gives you a black-and-white answer to how well you're doing in your challenge best of luck to you!

Here we go! I'm crar4321, long time lurker, first time challenger. A bit about me: I love a lot of exercise, my favourites being swimming, yoga and Spinning, and I'm keen to become better at running (which is why I'm part-way through the couch-to-5k program) and to try and bring some strength training into my program. This all sounds great, right? WRONG. Despite all this, I have no self control with food. Literally, could eat two sharing bags of Doritos and a 200gm bar of chocolate and still be peckish. Because of this, I am currently hovering around 180lbs and not too happy about it. I want to be slimmer, fitter, stronger and quicker. And that's why I'm here So - my main quest! I have these really gorgeous purple jeans that have been sitting in my wardrobe FOREVER because I can't get them over my bum. My quest? Get those jeans on by October! How will I achieve this? 60% of my eating will be paleo.(I figure if I count all the snacks I eat in a day to be one meal, that makes 28 meals per week, meaning 16.8 of my meals - let's just round that to 17! - need to be paleo.) Simple. I want to reduce my unhealthy snacking - this is the real downfall for me. I have decided to allow myself three small snacks of an unhealthy nature. These have to be small, mind! No big crisp packets or giant milky starbucks lattes or any of that. Maximum of three snacks per week. Finally, exercise. I want to do at least 7 workouts per week, at least three of which must be a run (so for the first week or two, this will just be me finishing C25k), and at least two of which must be the beginner body weight workout.Points! For every week of the challenge that I achieve 60% paleo or higher, I will award myself 10 points - there are 60 points up for grabs. If I achieve 50-60% paleo, that's 5 points for the week. I've decided, for extra incentive, to add 5 bonus points for every time I eat only paleo foods for a whole day! Up to a maximum of 40 bonus points for this (so 8 paleo days), giving me a total of 100 points available for the paleo part of my challenge. No points are available for sticking to my snack rules - but every time I go over my "3 snacks per week" rule, I'm going to dock 5 points from my total! So if I have 5 snacks in a week, that's -10 points to me, undoing all my hard work! For my workouts - I'm giving myself 5 points for each week of 7 workouts, 3 points if I manage 5 or 6 workouts and no points for anything less than this. BONUS - if at any point in the next 6 weeks I run 5k in under 30 minutes, I'm awarding myself 20 of my finest points! I can't run a full 5km yet without a short break to walk, so if I achieve this, it'll be a big milestone! BONUS - if I can get those jeans on at the end of the challenge, that's another bonus of 20 points! Again, I think it's unlikely to happen (that's a lot of inches lost in a short time), so it'll be a big milestone that needs rewarding!Grading If I score 100+ points in this challenge, that's an A grade! (This could be achieved with 60% paleo, no slips on my snacking rule and all 7 workouts completed every week, plus one day of full paleo!)90+ is a B80+ is a C - I've never had a C before and I don't intend to start now, so I'm going to consider this a fail in the challenge. Life quest: make a record of all my spending every week, with a view to getting rid of my overdraft by the end of the year! Motivation: I guess I already touched on this - I want to be wearing those jeans before the year is out!

Day 6 Breakfast - 2 egg omelette with cheese Lunch - 1 slice of pizza (left overs from last night's dinner), 2 apples, handful of nuts/seeds/raisins Dinner - pasta with leftover ratatouille and grated cheese Snacks - 3 coffees About to do the BBWW and will be heading down to the pool for a moderate swim later for an hour

Run today was a challenge. It was 10 mins running, twice, with 3 mins walk in between. I felt quite sluggish and lacking in power, especially in the second set of 10 mins Here are my stats (including 5 mins of warm up and cool down) - Total distance: 3.87km - 7.03kph Have stretched off, will have a day off running tomorrow and see how I feel tackling the big 25 minute run on Wednesday!

Days 2, 3, 4 and 5! Day2: - Muesli and coffee - Beetroot salad with a handful of pasta and a chicken breast - Butter chicken curry plus garlic naan bread - Starbucks filter coffee and lemon and white chocolate cookie Day3: - Cheese omelette and coffee - Chicken salad sandwich with mayo and chips - 1 hour gentle swimming - 1 glass of wine and 2 mini fruit pies Day4: - Muesli and coffee - Homemade ratatouille and baked potato, with beetroot salad, plus glass of Pimms - Slice of wholemeal toast with butter - Cadbury's Dairy Milk (45g) - Run: as part of C25K, 30 mins including 5 mins warm up, 5 mins running, 3 mins walking, 8 mins walking, 3 mins walking and 5 mins running, followed by cool down - Two sets of the beginner's body weight work out Day5: - Muesli with blueberries, a banana and coffee - Wraps with chicken, cheese and beetroot salad - Pizza, garlic bread and beetroot salad - Raw cucumber sticks, an apple, small pot of nuts, seeds and blueberries - About to head out to run

So, I'm here because I want to lose some weight, so that I can swim faster, run further and be fitter. I also am pumped to start doing strength training - have done one day of the beginner body weight work out (I could only manage two sets and it was two days ago so why am I still aching??) But to start, I'm going to put on a completely honest food/exercise diary. I'm carrying on eating normally for this first week - I think this might help me know which areas of my diet I need to change - and I can't be in denial if I've put it all down on paper (so to speak)! Day 1 Current weight 181lb (just under 13 stone for us Britishers) Breakfast: large muesli with skimmed milk and a coffee Lunch: 2 wraps, containing a chargrilled chicken breast, handful of bistro salad (leaves plus beetroot), and some grated cheddar cheese Dinner: Pasta with lentil ragu (homemade by frying onions, celery, carrots and garlic, then adding red split lentils, stock and chopped tomatoes), plus boiled broccoli and grated cheese Snacks: Walkers crisps and half of a bar of Lindt dark chocolate. Plus 3 more coffees Exercise: Today I finished week 5 of C25K! I ran for 20 mins continuously and I feel like I could have gone further (which makes me feel confident of the next week of running) In 30 mins (including a 5 min walk for both warm up and cool down): - 3.73km - 7.47kph average speed There it is, Day 1

I feel like this is a feeling common to a lot of NF fans. It's so easy to fall off the wagon! I seem to constantly be in this cycle of healthy-unhealthy, which is seen so frequently. The only thing we can do is to pick ourselves back up again and keep going as best we can. Best of luck!

Hi there! seems like you have a lot sorted already! You mentioned about tips to curb cravings for sugar? I would recommend distraction! Take yourself out for a walk, eat a small handful of nuts (hang on, are peanuts paleo? I have a feeling that some nuts aren't - but you seem more clued up than me!), that kind of thing. Drinking a big glass of water may help, literally gulp it down. When you've started to see some success, starting to do some exercise helps with cravings too - I found that I'm less likely to snack on rubbish if I've done some exercise! Hope any of these are helpful and best of luck with your journey! Can't wait to see the wedding photos

Ooh you are brave! I'm currently doing couch to 5k - nothing as impressive as your running program, but I can promise you that at some point, you might feel, like I did, that everything slots together and you suddenly find that you seem to enjoy running! And you just want to run faster. It's a good feeling.

Hi there everyone! Thought'd I'd introduce myself, start chatting in forums, as I've just completed my first day of the beginner body weight workout (managed two sets today, so I still have a way to go!) plus I'm on week 5 of my couch-to-5k! I stumbled across this website, which seems like the coolest community going! Could do with the support/motivation/accountability, plus all these inspiring emails to my inbox to give me ideas! It's great to be here and to get started!