Alocin

Sigh. Last week was a fairly abject failure. Ds all round - so much crap I've eaten, yuck! - except for the having friends over life quest. It may be my only A this challenge. Complete plot loss all the way around really. Back on the horse this week.

Hey - whereabouts in Argentina do you live? I spent about a week in Buenos Aires a couple of years ago and had a wonderful time I'd like to see more, especially the Iguazu Falls.

Hmmm. Having a rocky start to week 2. Today has not been a good eating day... chocolate and cheese and croissants. I feel a bit sick, actually. Need to rein it back in for tomorrow. Big time... I have after-work appointments and plans to head out with friends later in the week, so fitting in exercise is going to be tricky. But, it can and will be done.

Is there an indoor heated pool near you? Walking up and down the pool and gentle swimming might be good. Or some sort of Aquafit class? Being in water takes a lot of pressure off your joints. It probably won't be a big calorie burner, unless she's a decent swimmer already and can power through a decent number of laps, but I suspect It might help with rehabbing/mobility. There are also a lot of yoga poses and practices that don't require great balance (at least of the standing on one leg/balancing in downward dog variety). As you identified, there's chair yoga, but I did Yin Yoga classes for a while and those classes all involved a sequence of seated/lying down poses and we were encouraged to make use of bolsters, blocks and blankets so we weren't hurting ourselves holding a pose even though we got a good stretch. (Although it might be problematic if she has difficultly getting down on the floor in the first place.) If you do a bit of investigation locally and online, you might turn up a yoga class and/or yoga videos that are aimed at people with limited mobility?

I had my big blowout weekend in Melbourne. I knew it was coming, and I enjoyed every single moment of it, particularly the charcuterie plate in a gorgeous Yarra-side bar and eating Peking Duck and salt and pepper squid and spring rolls and drinking far too many glasses of sauvignon blanc (let's not mention the 2am greasy pizza slice). I did do a lot of walking - I did at least an hour each day I was away of incidental walking with two very tall, long-legged friends, so I needed to really leg it to keep up! But it's time again to get into the challenge mindset. I pondered grabbing a greasy bacon and egg roll on the way to work for breakfast, but instead I had oats. I pondered grabbing a chocolate bar for morning tea, and had a mandarin instead. So, I think I'm going to get back on track just fine. I did have a bit of a miss in that I didn't do yoga this morning but as long as I do it this evening I'll still be on track for my challenge. But, disregarding the weekend's shenanigans, it's time to grade week 1, from July 26 to August 1. __________________________ Report card: Week 1 Quest 1.1 (calorie tracking) 1/6 weeks tracked and goal met (on target for an A) Quest 1.2 (no fast food, no solo binging) A Quest 2.1 (30 days of yoga) 12/30 consecutive sessions (on track for an A) Quest 2.2 (3xC25K sessions) A Quest 2.3 (2xswim sessions) A Quest 3 (sleep by 10pm on a school night) A Life Quest (inviting friends around for more meals) 0/3 (but friends invited for Sunday lunch this coming week)

@awesomesue I listen to a Sleep With Me podcast every night to put me to sleep - specifically their Game of Drones episodes which riff on Game of Thrones. So I put that back on and drifted off again. I just needed to do it a few times @wanderingcavegirl thanks!

Just about to get on the mat for day 12 of yoga. Terrible night's sleep last night. Took forever and I kept waking up... But I didn't cave and watch telly in the middle of the night. Oh, and I'm trying not to focus too much on the scale, but I jumped on this morning and I'm 91.1kg, so 1.1 kg down in wk1 of the challenge. Feeling very pleased with myself this Friday morning if a bit tired

2 x C25K sessions done and dusted this week

Day 11 yoga done. Pleased my heels are much closer to the mat in downward dog than they were 11 days ago. And in a bonus - my winter coat buttons up properly again without really unflattering pulling!

That's my two swims done for the week

Hi there - I'm a new recruit and completing a 30 days of yoga program is part of my challenge... is it ok to come hang out here?

@deidara I would argue that if you start out as fairly apple shaped, losing weight definitely does make you look more stereotypically 'feminine', as your waist becomes more defined. Not all women are hourglasses or pear-shaped. However, women with a tendency to carry weight around the middle are probably never going to be the curvy Marilyn Monroe type anyway without substantial corsetry. @large and in charge, that said, I would guess that if you are able to present as either gender at the moment it means you're not classically 'curvy' anyway (me either!) as far as your waist to hip ratio goes. If my experience is any thing to go by, that probably won't change all that much as you get fitter. You'll just be leaner overall and have a good set of shoulders . Even when I've been slimmer I need to pay attention to how I dress if I want to give an illusion of the hourglass because my bust and hip measurements are usually about the same size and my waist is not that much smaller.

Not yet 7am, and day 10 of yoga challenge complete, breakfast eaten and lunch ready to go for the day ahead. This getting decent sleep thing seems to be working!!

If you are otherwise reasonably fit, swimming for a sustained period is all about technique. An elite marathon runner with crappy swimming technique would probably be easily beaten/outlasted by a fairly average swimmer with decent technique. (Former competitive swimmer here.) If you aren't a strong swimmer already maybe get some lessons. Now this is going to sound really simple but I see people do this all the time... so sorry if this comes across as insulting But if you are a beginner/not experienced swimmer, I have to ask if you are you breathing out/blowing bubbles when your face is in the water? If you hold your breath underwater and try to breathe both out and then in when you surface, you won't get enough oxygen in and you'll get tired more easily (ie you should only breathe out when your face is in the water, and breathe in when your face is above water). Given you are getting exhausted so quickly, I wonder if this might be your issue? Anyway hope this helps - glad to see another swimmer!

Have to say - feeling better for eating more fruit and vegetables. Today I've eaten strawberries, some banana, an apple, kale, beans and sweet potato, and by the end of the day, onion, peas and asparagus will be consumed.

Mini challenge: Is your overall quest achievable (over a short or long period of time)? Is it reasonable? Yes. 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 quests all align. I do have sub quests but I think they are all do-able and again, aligned. My exercise quest will be the toughest. 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? Are your goals able to be measured and tracked? What will you use to track them? I'm tracking on the metrics, not the quality or progress made for my exercise. Just getting myself on the mat, on the treadmill and to the pool. And am using my fitness pal for the eating one. I have gone for a bit of shock and awe on this challenge. 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€? I have a system to grade myself, and I still am rewarded for doing better even if the scale doesn't shift. What is your plan for continuing/altering/grading those goals if you become ill or injured? 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? I am not grading one weekend away even though I am going to track calories and try to do one long walk to make up for missing a c25k session. Same if I get sick. Do any of your main goals conflict with each other? Will one goal make it hard to do another? No and no. 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? Yes. Less time on the sofa and getting out of bed earlier will work wonders. Are you trying to build multiple habits, or is all your energy focused on your main quest? Building good eating, exercise and sleeping habits is my quest

Jumped on the scale this morning... Challenge start weight is 92.2 kilos. About to get up and do day 8 of my yoga challenge. The getting to bed to sleep by 10 is going well. I suspect it may be the most beneficial bit of the whole challenge?

Just come back from dinner with friends. They had pizza, I had salad. I have eaten an awful lot of rocket! (Aka aragula) Fun fact... Aragula autocorrects to 'seagulls' which is a verrry different meal!

Thanks awesomesue... one thing I've been meaning to ask (and maybe the tavern is a place for it?) is whether the Scouts guild is a good fit for someone who's more a sprinter rather than a long distance type? I was a sprint swimmer back in high school, and once I have a decent level of base fitness back, I think my goals are more likely to be things like decreasing my 50m freestyle time rather than doing open-water distance swimming or something like that. It seems from a bit of a poke around most Scouts are focused on distance/endurance types of goals...

Bonne chance Marie! (I learned French in high school and remember a teeny tiny bit.) I am in awe of anyone who has ever completed a marathon

Good luck - enjoy Zombies Run. I did it for a while last year but stopped when I went running one morning and it got foggy and I got a little unsettled by the moans and groans in my ear ;-)

Sigh - crappy, unfocused yoga practice this morning. Still, I got on the mat and did it.

Hey Kasey - a fellow Aussie! I'm in Canberra As far as lunches for work go I find if I prep as much as possible on the weekend and have things ready to grab from the fridge I do much better than remembering to make/pack something in the morning.

Good luck... I'm getting back into yoga this challenge as one of my quests Is it one of your workouts ?

DOMS like a motherbleeper today. Sore thighs, core, underarms, triceps, forearms and wrists... Lots of kicking drills today in the pool but at least I got my butt there.