onyxrose

What is your motivation? I found that every time I ever tried to lose weight/get healthier I would quit after a few days because losing weight just to be prettier or healthier wasn't really a big motivator for me. This past winter I made a realization that if I didn't do something about my weight and habits I would end up like my nana; obese, diabetic, joints falling apart, can't even bathe herself. That's my motivator; not to grow old like Nana. What's your motivator?

I'm going to follow this thread because I just watched my Nana struggle with hip surgery so I've seen how tough that is. I'm really going to be rooting for you! Don't let an injury get the better of you! Also, congratulations on your upcoming wedding! That's coming up really soon.

Deerskin- Thanks for the support! I'm trying to go for goals that are a little harder with this thought in mind: "Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss you'll land in the stars" - Les Brown. This is why I don't mind if I only get C's Teros- I'm starting with really low weights and moderate intensity. I'm not a big sweater but if I get just a little "slimy" then I'm satisfied with my workout at this point. I'll add more weights and intensity as I feel capable. So far just making a public declaration and knowing that I have to report to the NF community is helping me stay on track but I'll check out those links. Thanks. My favorite eeveelution is flareon (although I would be super excited if they ever came out with a steel eeveelution). Grades Tuesday Menu:Coffee, breakfast smoothie, potato soup, bbq chicken, corn, carrots, ranch dressing (1215 calories) Actual: I ended up snacking on a cheese sandwich instead of carrots and the chicken was so yummy I couldn't help have seconds (curse you jack daniel's honey smokehouse bbq sauce!) (1582 calories) Grade:C- Drinks:A Exercise: A I got almost a full hour exercise in! Wednesday Menu: Coffee, breakfast smoothie, chicken salad, chili rellenos, carrots & ranch (1206 calories) Actual: no bananas for smoothie so I had cereal & milk, ate an orange instead of carrots and had and extra half portion of chili rellenos and forgot to include sour cream on the menu. (1161 calories(OMG I cheated and lost calories!)) Grade: C+ Drinks: A Exercise: A I'm using a skip day today because I didn't do my morning exercises but I did take a short walk with a friend.

I'm familiar with the SMART system so made my main quest with it in mind. (although honestly I could probably achieve it in half the time I've given myself if I was dedicated.) Questions: Is your overall quest achievable (over a short or long period of time)? Is it reasonable? Lose 50lbs in one year...actually it might be too easy, I could technically be done in 6 months but I dunno.... Do your 3 quests all build towards your main quest in little ways, or are you taking on too much? Do your quests have sub-quests or is it just one thing to focus on? My first quest is a touch intense but I did that with the idea that even if I fall short I'm still making progress. All three definitely fit (plan meals, exercise, eliminate soda & alcohol) Are your main goals realistic? Can you scale them to smaller steps to fit your life better, even if it will make it take a little longer to achieve them?They are realistic and set up so that even I don't complete with 100% success, I'm still making progress. Are your goals able to be measured and tracked? What will you use to track them? Yep, I put the grades for each day right in my discription. How are you grading your goals? Are they pass/fail (“every dayâ€, “not even once over the six weeksâ€)? Is there a reward for the effort, or are you only grading yourself on whether or not you “lose the weight†or “run the distanceâ€? Each day I get 3 A-F grades and just like college was "D's for Degrees", this is "C's for....um...low calories?" I'll give myself both a final grade (based on averages) and weigh in. What is your plan for continuing/altering/grading those goals if you become ill or injured? If I get sick I won't worry about it. There is nothing wrong with free days. Did you take into consideration any special occasions (Labour Day, Independence Day, birthdays, anniversaries, etc) that may occur during the challenge? What modifications do you need to build into your goals for those? Every Thursday we have family dinner with the grandparents. Those dinners are an assumed 600 cal and there is a wedding in October that will be a free day. Do any of your main goals conflict with each other? Will one goal make it hard to do another? Nope Do you already have the time in your schedule to actually complete the goals you’ve set? If not, what are you planning to do to make time for them? I'm setting aside 2 hours on Saturday for meal planning and I'm making sure I hit the hey at 10pm so I can wake up at 6am to exercise (actually I end up exercising at 6:15 because it takes 15 minutes for my brain to boot up.) Are you trying to build multiple habits, or is all your energy focused on your main quest? Multiple habits. Menu planning is great for many reasons, not just weight loss, same with drinking water and exercise. Granted I don't plan on being quite as specific with my menu planning as I'm going to be this six weeks, but it is still a good habit.

I LOVE how you have your motivation taped to your steering wheel. Oh and can I get some tickets to that gun show your hosting there? They are looking hot!

Oh wow Indonesia! Sounds so cool! Your goals definitely sound achievable, you have a specific plan and they seem well within reach. I wish you the best of luck!

Thanks for the encouragement guys! And thanks Blaidd for adding the adventurer's tag. I wasn't sure if I could join one of those guilds since it is my first time and don't worry, I do have a plan for injuries and overworking. This one time I overworked my quads doing squats and I learned that when my muscles get crazy sore (it was hard to go from sitting to standing) that I shouldn't just stop exercising, that makes the pain last longer. Instead I plan on reducing weights and/or just stretching super sore areas and I'm going to take Sundays off from exercise. I'm bummed that I couldn't get on yesterday but oh well I'm here today. Saturday I did take 2 hours to make a very detailed meal plan and checking the caloric values on SparkPeople.(OMG I didn't realize how many calories are in ground beef alone!) Each day I'm getting 1200-1300 cals. But I never got around to making the potato soup which has already thrown off my menu plan How did I do? Sunday grades: Menu: Coffee w/cream (32 cal), Breakfast Smoothie (319 cal), Leftover Potato Soup (464 cal), Orange (61 cal) Tilapia (108 cal) rice & barley pilaf (172 cal), peas (55 cal). Total: 1211 cal Actual: For breakfast I was spot on but for lunch I was with a friend and ended up going to taco bell for lunch (870 cal) (ouch!) and the rice at dinner was so yummy I couldn't help having extra! (add 172 cal) (1789 calories total!) Grade: C- Drinks: C, I had a small pepsi for lunch but water after dinner. Exercise: B I got in a full half hour. Monday grades Menu: Coffee w/cream (32 cal), Cereal & milk (165 cal), leftover potato soup (464 cal), orange, (61 cal), spaghetti (576 cal). Total Cal: 1298 cal Actual: accidentally skipped breakfast and ate a snickers. Didn't eat the orange BUT only had one helping of spaghetti with no extras! (1322 calories total) Grade: C+ Drinks: B, Bought a pepsi BUT DIDN'T DRINK IT (I'll save it for a rainy day!) Exercise: C, I've timed out 17 minutes of exercise throughout the day but I'll try to get 5-10 more min before bed. Conclusion: First two days I'm in the C ranges but I'll get there if I just keep trying. Diligence is key at this point!

Wassup? So I joined NF a couple weeks ago and I was really looking forward to this challenge coming up. I made an introductory post about how I am being motivated to lose weight so I won't grow old like my Nana (diabetic, obese, joints falling apart) so I won't get into that too much. Main Quest: Lose about 40-50 lbs and reach a HEALTHY 130ish lbs, ideally over the course of a year. Missions: 1) Plan a menu and stick with it. Saturdays I will take an hour or two to plan out meals for the upcoming week, with calorie counts. I will then stick with the meal plan and measure out each portion. A - I knew what I was going to have and I stuck with the plan. I measured everything. B - I stuck with the plan but I just eyeballed stuff. C - I generally stuck with the plan but I don't really know how much of each thing I ate. D - I ate the right dinner but everything else was off. F - Plan...What plan? 2) Exercise 30-60 minutes 5-6 times a week A - I woke up early and did a full 45-60 minute exercise before starting the day. B - I got a 15-30 minute exercise in before my shower and was active most of the day. C - Didn't get a real work out in but I was active and did a few curls or whatever. D - I'm using today as a rest day. F - I didn't leave the couch 3) No sugary/fake sugary or alcoholic drinks (special occasions and morning coffee excluded) Life Quest: Find a job I actually like. Get my portfolio around and put in my applications. Follow up with the applications. So that's it for me for now. I will post some stats and maybe pictures later. Hopefully I'm not biting off more than I can chew.

Thanks for all the love guys! In what other fitness community can I be encouraged by the fabulous Doctor Who. Love it! Maybe I will start a battle log, I was just going to wait till the sept 15th challenge start a log there. I guess I could do both.

Thanks for the replies.

I invented this thing I am calling the "exercise jar" and there are a few reasons I've made it and I want to know what people's opinions are of it. I haven't seen it anywhere before but maybe there is a reason for that? IDK So what is the exercise jar? I was inspired to make this based off a pintrest post where moms would put a bunch of activities on Popsicle sticks and put them in a jar so over summer break when kids say "I'm bored" they pick an activity and they have to do it. It might be something like, clean your room, ride your bike, do a puzzle, etc. I did the same thing but with various exercises. Sometimes I don't have the time to pop in an hour long exercise DVD or I get so bored with a certain exercise routine (I love P90X but I can only watch Tony Horton so many times). This way it doesn't matter if I have an hour or five minutes, I reach for my exercise jar, pull out some slips of paper and do whatever exercise is written on them and it is different every time. Example: I might pull out "1 minute of jumping jacks X3," "15 hammer curls X3," "30 second plank X3" and "5 minute stretches" and then I have to do them. In my jar I have stretches, strength training and indoor cardio and I included some fun things to look forward to like "Dance like crazy to Spice Girls" and "5 minutes hula hooping." I figure some of the benefits are; 1-it is fully customized to my goals and interests, 2-it is different every time (no muscle fatigue and I can add and subtract to it whenever), 3-it is both fun and challenging, 4-it can fit into any schedule, 5-if you don't really like to exercise it can be a motivator to get to some of the "fun" slips. The exercise jar is more for beginners and not for people looking to seriously sculpt their body at a professional level, however I am upgrading the jar so that different exercises go onto different colored slips of paper (ex: purple for stretches, red for strength, yellow for cardio, etc) which could lead to that possibility and more. So is this the dumbest thing you've ever heard of or are you thinking of making your own jar? Please let me know what you think.

Aww man I have got my "player sheet" all typed out with my main quest and missions and I am pumped to join the next challenge! Can I start early? 'Cause I totally want to start today! (Forget it, I'm starting today. Shh! Don't tell anyone!) Any who, I'm Afton but I guess y'all can call me OnyxRose. I'm on my fitness journey because six months ago I was 9 months pregnant and HUGE! Like uncomfortably HUGE. Like I can't sleep, drive, sit, do anything because I am so uncomfortable. This was a huge wake up call for me because prior to this point I didn't really pay to much attention to my diet and fitness. I don't really care about being "pretty." That's just not a motivator for me and with both my Grandmothers and a bunch of aunts and uncles with type 2 diabetes, I figured getting diabetes was not a matter of "if" but "when" because you can't fight genetics. Well after being that big in February and so uncomfortable, I realize that this is what my 85 year old grandmother lives with everyday. My nana is morbidly obese, has diabetes like I mentioned before, her hips and knees are just falling apart and she is just ready to be done with it all. That's how I felt, only for me "it all" just meant pregnancy, but for my nana, "it all" means LIFE! This is not the future I want at all! I don't want to end my life wishing for death (which my nana kinda does). I don't want to go back there where my life is full of aches and pains with no one to blame but my own stupidity! I want a better death than that. I want a better life than that. It was at that point I vowed, yeah sounds cheesy but vowed is totally the right word, that I would never get over 180 pounds again. Seriously, how do you guys who are 300+ pounds live like that? That s**t sucks! Sorry if that came out offensive, I just mean the everyday discomfort is so intense. I feel for you! Unfortunately despite best intentions and planning, I'm still at 170. If I had to guess, my biggest downfall would be consistency and combination. Sure I can spend all summer working out, but diet AND exercise? Pft, forget it! I fail at that after two days! I've never tried joining a community before and I'm hoping I can really fit in here and maybe by checking in I can give myself some accountability and trade words of encouragement with others. I love the idea of treating fitness like an rpg. The last time I was serious about exercise I really enjoyed weight lifting because there were all these little hurdles, or challenges, to conquer. Like, today I can lift 10lbs 15 times, tomorrow I will try lifting 12lbs 15 times, kinda like beating the high score of a video game. I'm hoping I can get the same feeling from the challenges. This first challenge I plan on registering as an Adventurer but I'd like to try out the Monk and Warrior classes. Well I guess that's it for me today. Again, I'm really excited to be here. I can't wait to share my journey and make some friends and encourage them on their journeys too. Laters!