miss america

It went... PRETTY AWESOME!!!! I ensured my success by: going to the place that was closest to my house, had a class at the perfect time, offered your first class free, PLUS I made my friend agree to go with me, so I had no way out. = SUCCESS The class was pretty challenging, but the instructors were nice. I think I mostly kept up... there were a few moves where I had to pause for a few seconds and re-evaluate the life choices that led me to this terrible moment of pain, but overall I think I did good! Another first-timer in the class actually got nauseous and had to sit out for a bit, so it was definitely pretty hardcore I made it to the end though... all my at-home training paid off! MISSION REPORT - 2/4 (Day 8) Mission 1: Tracked and stayed under! Mission 2: no Daily Burn Mission 3: YES CLASS!!!!!! My Daily Burn trial also came with a personal nutritionist/coach type person, who I've started talking to about my goals, and who will hopefully give me a little more guidance/accountability/butt-kicking power.

YYYYAAAAAYYYYYY HAPPY (yesterday oops) BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!

Yep! I think that was totally it, because I do feel motivated and excited to get working in general! Once I get past this first class session, I think the rest of things will feel a bit easier overall too. Hurdlewise, my plan is basically to start by setting up a routine that plays into all of my natural habits, so I won't have to worry about making big shifts to my schedule at first—just my normal stuff kicked up a notch! Once that starts feeling easy, I figure I can circle back around to see what I need to address to make it more personally challenging... getting up early, working on the weekend, etc. But I'm going to focus on just getting it DONE for now

I'm here, I'm here! OK. First thing first: I did NOT go to the class on Saturday. [sad trombone] I think I did not give enough weight to the fact that that plan involved basically everything I've been challenged with so far in my era of fitness: doing things on Saturdays, doing things in the morning, doing things outside of my normal routine, having to tell IRL people what I'm doing, doing fitness-y things in public, etc. So having to all of those things at once, PLUS it being an unfamiliar new thing PLUS having the only open moment on my schedule be 8am on the Saturday after my birthday celebration was perhaps overly ambitious. I mean—I definitely could have just woken up and actually done it, but I am going to learn from this and move forward!! In that spirit, I am addressing a few of my hurdles to make sure this doesn't happen again. Starting with: I am 1000% going to a class tonight!!!! I have not only told IRL people of my plans, but have harnessed them into going with me! IRL accountabilibuddies ftw!!! This is the more fitness-focused place... I am hoping to do the Sunday class at the other more boxing-specific place (which was my original plan) this week as well, especially now that the seal of classes will be broken. If I do both of those I'll be more or less back on track, and if I keep up 2x/week classes I'll be golden Ok, now where was I... MISSION REPORT - 2/27 (Day 5) Mission 1: no tracking (this was my actual bday) Mission 2: no Daily Burn Mission 3: no class yet MISSION REPORT - 2/28 (Day 6) Mission 1: partially tracked (minus 1 meal out) Mission 2: no Daily Burn Mission 3: no class yet MISSION REPORT - 3/1 (Day 7) Mission 1: partially tracked Mission 2: no Daily Burn Mission 3: no class yet MISSION REPORT - 3/2 (Day 7) Mission 1: tracked all food and stayed under goals Mission 2: did an extra-long Daily Burn Mission 3: no class yet MISSION REPORT - 3/3 (Day 7) Mission 1: tracked food Mission 2: no Daily Burn Mission 3: no class yet I really need to figure out a way to deal with tracking meals out! That is repeatedly my biggest issue for tracking stuff. When possible I'll try to go to "chain" type places that have the nutritional info posted, but sometimes I'd just rather have something designed by a human rather than an advertising committee I do make estimates sometimes, but the recipes can range so much that it feels like a somewhat pointless endeavor—but maybe the estimate's worth it for the habit at least. Anyway, outside of birthday celebrations, I really don't eat out that much—so it's not THAT much of an issue moving forward. I don't like seeing that streak of no-tracking, but I figure I'll allow those as my only non-tracking days... from here on I'm gonna push it!

I'm gonna be joining you there in the wait soon—I just cancelled my cable! Just had to get through Carter Thanks!! I have liked Daily Burn so far, so I think I will combine parts of my Mission 2 (bodyweight workout) + Mission 3 (at home boxing cardio workout) into a singular Mission 2. It works out to about the same amount of time (if not more) and gives me some focus and variety... at least more than watching random YouTube boxing videos. So I'm happy with it for now. Anyway, Mission 3 will now be SOLELY dependent on me actually going to classes!!!! So I really have to do them MISSION REPORT - 2/25 (Day 3) Mission 1: Tracked food and stayed under Mission 2: Completed Daily Burn workout (ouch arms) Mission 3: no class yet but I contacted a trainer to figure out which class would work best for me MISSION REPORT - 2/26 (Day 4) Mission 1: Tracked food and stayed under Mission 2: Completed Daily Burn workout! This was a kickboxing-themed one and seemed a lot easier than the other ones so far—probably 'cause I've been kicking butt on my own for the past few months Mission 3: no class yet but scheduled for Saturday!!

YESSS. I actually got some Rock-themed loot in the mail today (from IRL people) for my upcoming bday. I just wanted everyone to know that he's not only a theme for my NF posts... he's a way of life. I'm not!! I totally stole the idea from you guys but I knew I wasn't going to be able to keep up with the proper days, so I was just going to progress along on my non-daily workout pace. But maybe I will pop in and do whatever's assigned for the day you guys have reached, and be a halfway hero? MISSION REPORT - 2/23 (Day 2) Mission 1: Tracked all food, stayed within goals Mission 2: no BW workout Mission 3: no boxing Kept under even for the Carter finale viewing!!! The key there was switching from wine to a respectable amount of hard liquor. So far so good though.

And so we begin! MISSION REPORT - 2/23 (Day 1) Mission 1: Tracked all food, stayed within goals Mission 2: Did Day 1 of Neila Ray's Hero's Journey for switch-up to my usual bodyweight workout Mission 3: Signed up for Daily Burn and did one of their cardio sessions Things going well so far! I may switch up my missions if I end up liking Daily Burn, and just do a longer session with them each day instead of requiring a separate bodyweight type workout. They seemed to be good about focusing on one part of the body for each day, so I wouldn't have to alternate as much. Plus after doing 100 squats for Neila, I discovered it was BUTT DAY on Daily Burn and I got to do a bunch more squats and lunges Yowch. Also realized I already made another plan for the day my original gym has their beginner sessions—contacting a few others now to see if I can get it in somewhere else before the week is up!! The clock is TICKING!

Hm, well lower percentage overrules the higher one for letter grade purposes, which are mostly only relevant for my self-determined prizes. But for point awarding purposes, I think I'll just divide the CON points into two potential +2's and calculate each half accordingly!

Hello Monks! Can't believe this will be my THIRD challenge, but I'm pumped to start! My challenge is going to be pretty similar to my last one, as I need a little bit more work building up these good habits. I did pretty well overall, but I know there's room for improvement—particularly in keeping myself disciplined and focused. The main difference this time is I'm going to start adding some real live classes to my schedule! I found a good intro class, though I'm not sure if I will do all six weeks at the same place or move on once I feel comfortable. We shall see. Main Quest: Cultivate a healthy level of self-confidence and appreciation! (aka Learn to love reflective surfaces.) --To me right now, this means getting fitter, getting stronger, and dropping extra weight. Mission 1: Track food in MFP every day AND stay within calorie goals for majority of days +4 CON --Food tracking >90% and calorie goal met >60% = A --Food tracking >80% and calorie goal met >50% = B --Food tracking >70% and calorie goal met >40% = C (will receive the lower grade if goal percentages are split) Mission 2: Complete some sort of strength-focused workout three days per week +3 STR, +1 STA --18 workouts = A --14 workouts = B --10 workouts = C (still figuring out if this will be my BBWW/ABWW combo circuits from last challenge, a Neila Ray something or other, something else entirely, or will change depending on my WHIMS) Mission 3: Complete boxing style cardio workout at home twice a week AND one class per week +3 DEX, +1 STA --12 at home + 6 classes = A --9 at home + 3 classes = B --6 at home + 1 class = C

Awesome! Straight and to the point! The Hero's Journey workout looks really interesting. And good luck on Goal 3—I read Thrones, Kings, and Swords in about a month total, and have been "reading" Crows for oh, about... two years.

YYYEEEEESSS!!! BRING IT!!!!!

HA OK clearly my flex goals did not go quite as planned, starting with "post every day." I actually... don't think I fully accomplished any of them, though looking back, I'm not entirely sure why I thought it was so necessary to completely change my schedule when I was actually getting stuff done. Oh well. Onwards and upwards! MISSION REPORT - 1/13 (Day 40) Mission 1: Tracked food, stayed in goal Mission 2: no BWW Mission 3: no boxing MISSION REPORT - 1/14 (Day 41) Mission 1: Didn't track food (partial) Mission 2: no BWW Mission 3: no boxing MISSION REPORT - 1/15 (Day 42) Mission 1: Didn't track food (partial) Mission 2: completed monk bodyweight challenge (same exercises as above) Mission 3: boxing completed! ~*~OVERALL SUMMARY~*~ Mission 1: Food tracking! - 34 days tracked out of 42 = 80.95% (+ 2 CON - 17 days within goals out of 42 = 40.48% © +1 CON Not super great, especially in comparison to my star pupil performance on my first challenge However! A lot of this was due to laziness about tracking when I go out to eat or eat someone else's food. I know that I was still making good choices (even if I was not tracking)—and I partly know this 'cause I'm down about 5 lbs, even with trips to Disneyland, bachelorette parties, dinners out, etc.! I've gotten a lot better about making good choices even when I'm not on the hook for them. But next challenge I'm definitely going to make a better effort in that regard. Mission 2: BWWs! - 17 BWWs completed out of 18 goal = 94.44% (A) +3 STR +1 STA Pretty good here! I'd initially just started out with the Beginner's work out, but after some prodding I incorporated a few of the Advanced styles as well. I liked the feeling of getting up early in the morning to do these, but slipped on that in the last few weeks—not the biggest deal though, and I feel like I was sort of beating myself up over it unnecessarily! Mission 3: Boxing cardio! - 17 sessions completed out of 12/18 goal = 141.67% (A++) [2/week] or 94.44% (A) [3/week] +3 DEX +1 STA My initial goal here was just two sessions a week, but the monks guided me towards more ambitious goals. I did pretty well in either regard! My stamina is much better—I no longer have to pause the video AT ALL. I'm actually pretty sure I could go on a short jog now based on all the high-knee punches I've been doing, which was not the case before starting. I definitely feel ready to start my classes! Life Mission: Self care (A) +1 WIS +2 CHA I didn't really track this so I wouldn't stress myself out over it, but I definitely did really well here in terms of giving myself little treats/indulgences throughout the past couple weeks. STR 3 +3 | STA 3 +1 +1 | DEX 2 +3 | CON 3 +3 | WIS 5 + 1 | CHA 2 +2 = STR 6 | STA 5 | DEX 5 | CON 6 | WIS 6 | CHA 4 FUTURE PLANS: I did feel my motivation slipping a bit in the last few weeks, so I think for my next challenge, I'll have to switch things up slightly to make them a little more exciting. I'm not entirely sure how I'll do that, but figuring that out is now my pre-challenge challenge I am going to start going to classes at least once a week—I think I will start with one of the "lady" gyms that has a beginners' class, then move on from there to one of the more advanced gyms when I'm ready. Whoo hoo!!!

Yessss Konmari!!! I'm a total disciple too Looks awesome. Still a few more days in the challenge to finish up strong!

MISSION REPORT - 1/12 (Day 39) Mission 1: Tracked food and stayed within goals Mission 2: Did the Week 6 Monk Side Quest circuit as my BWW to switch things up a little! I did incline push ups, squat jumps, side plank & then standard plank, the lamest bench dips in the world, curtsy lunge, and a kind of hybrid half-burpee/8-count burpee (I still can't do full push ups but I could do the foot hop thing). Mission 3: no boxing Mission 4: complete

I think it's a short season (maybe only 10 eps or so?) so it should be easy to do in a big chunk! We really love the character (and Hayley herself) so we've been having a lot of fun with it! And thank you for the link! My debauchery is fairly moderate so I really do just need to plan ahead, and know what my limits are at the beginning of the day. I've been playing around with eatthismuch.com which generates a day of meals/recipes based on your specific macro/calorie goals so I can get a better idea of what my alternatives could be even with the wine. MISSION REPORT - 1/11 (Day 38) Mission 1: Tracked all food, stayed within goals Mission 2: no BWW Mission 3: boxing video completed Mission 4: complete Starting to contact gyms so I can start my official boxing (or other discipline) classes for the next challenge. So far seems a bit tricky finding something in between "women's kickboxing so you can look good in a bikini lol ^__^" and "UFC-aspirational NO GIRLS ALLOWED dudebro fighting" (at least my impressions from their websites) but I'm confident I will find a happy medium somewhere

WHOO look at you go with your awesome lifting. I'm excited to see you kick butt on the next level up too! BTW that vacation sounds amazing—maybe you can see if there's an inland airBnB-type rental that you could retreat to for a few nights, at least for now?

(I'm so behind but) HECK YES WELCOME TO THE MONKS!!

Rawr, you're doing SO awesome!! Week 6 is going DOWN!!

Thank you thank you! I'm not sure if I'll use Habit RPG forever, but it was definitely something fun to pick up midway through the challenge And encouraged me to do a couple of to-do's around the house I'd been slacking on, too... Thank you! It felt really good to have fun for a weekend but then be basically right back where I started. I've struggled with the concept of "cheat days" in the past so it was nice to feel like I'm sort of getting a handle on them. I'm in Film Studies, which is a fancy way of saying I'm becoming a certified movie geek MISSION REPORT - 2/10 (Day 37) Mission 1: Tracked food, check. Totally forgot I was making bold "stay within goals" proclamations on Agent Carter night annnnd I haven't quite figured out how to make wine fit within my goals. (I mean, aside from just not drinking the dang wine.) So, um, that one's starting tomorrow I swear... Mission 2: BWW completed! Mission 3: no boxing tonight Did some research and discovered that this school has aikido and kung fu classes, should I choose to go there!

How has it been so long??? Oh my gosh. Ok. MISSION REPORT - 1/30 (Day 26) Mission 1: tracked food check Mission 2: no BWW OK Mission 3: no boxing OK Mission 4: self care accomplished MISSION REPORT - 1/31 (Day 27) Mission 1: did NOT track food nope Mission 2: no BWW OK Mission 3: no boxing OK Mission 4: self care accomplished (Just realized that this "fail" day is probably why I didn't want to catch up on updates here in the first place... even though I was still within my weekly goals for 2 of the 3 challenges, and this was only my second miss on the food tracking. SMH at my past self.) MISSION REPORT - 2/1 (Day 28) Mission 1: did not track food nope Mission 2: BUT I did do BWW check Mission 3: and did do boxing check Mission 4: and self care accomplished MISSION REPORT - 2/2 (Day 29) Mission 1: tracked food AND within goals double check Mission 2: no BWW OK Mission 3: boxing done check Mission 4: self care accomplished MISSION REPORT - 2/3 (Day 30) Mission 1: tracked food check Mission 2: BWW done check Mission 3: no boxing OK Mission 4: self care accomplished MISSION REPORT - 2/4 (Day 31) Mission 1: tracked food check Mission 2: no BWW OK Mission 3: no boxing OK Mission 4: self care accomplished MISSION REPORT - 2/5 (Day 32) Mission 1: tracked food AND stayed within goals double check Mission 2: BWW done check Mission 3: boxing done check Mission 4: self care accomplished MISSION REPORT - 2/6 (Day 33) Mission 1: no tracking nope Mission 2: no BWW OK Mission 3: no boxing OK Mission 4: self care accomplished MISSION REPORT - 2/7 (Day 34) Mission 1: no tracking nope Mission 2: no BWW nope Mission 3: no boxing OK Mission 4: self care accomplished MISSION REPORT - 2/8 (Day 35) Mission 1: no tracking nope Mission 2: no BWW nope Mission 3: no boxing nope Mission 4: self care accomplished MISSION REPORT - 2/9 (Day 36) Mission 1: tracked food AND within goals double check Mission 2: no BWW nope Mission 3: boxing done check Mission 4: self care accomplished **** OK so, overall I did all right for the past week and a half or so—I fell off the tracking wagon last weekend, and then this weekend I was at a bachelorette party so I didn't do much of anything at all, goalwise. That ended up turning out pretty well though, all things considered—we did a lot of walking, and while I definitely had some treats, I was also proud of myself for not going completely overboard and making GOOD choices in some instances! I made sure to have oatmeal and fruit and yogurt for breakfast, and healthy snacks throughout the day... just 'cause I have some indulgences, doesn't mean the entire day is lost and every choice counts I was a little disappointed when I got home and saw my weight had gone up quite a bit, but when I checked yesterday it had all dropped away and I was already back to normal! I guess that's that water weight thing you guys are always talking about But anyway, I seem to be back to my pre-vacation size, so the good choices did work out after all. I also wore some jeans on the trip that had been uncomfortably small a few weeks ago, but were perfect now! Also, per deftona's suggestion I started doing HabitRPG! After that first weekend on non-tracking (and a lot of BWWs being accomplished at night or during the day, instead of actually waking up early to do them) I felt my motivation waning a bit, so I wanted to add something new to keep me going. It's actually really fun, though I only use it for a few of my "habits," so I'm not having to track everything in three different spots. Oh, and if you have been following me since my first challenge, you may remember my life mission last time was to apply to grad schools—well, I just heard back from the first one, and I got in! Still waiting on the others, but it takes a certain weight off my shoulders (so I can put it back on for a shoulder press, obviously). Anyway, for the last week of the challenge, I'm going to add these BONUS BUT TOTALLY MANDATORY CHALLENGES for myself so I know I will finish strong: Post an update here EVERY DAYTrack food and stay within goals EVERY DAYDo all BWWs in the MORNING even if you are SLEEPY and the bed is WARM (I have already failed this for today but like, from now on)Do at least one boxing day on a THURSDAY, FRIDAY, or SATURDAYBE A BADASS

OMG IS IT REALLY WEEK 6?!?!? Wow! I'm still here!! When I don't make myself post every day, everything falls apart update-wise, but I'm still tracking! Will post in a bit

I have trouble with this too! For a long time I even tried to time my workouts only when my boyfriend wasn't home... which... didn't really work But good on you for sticking with it! Your water challenge is so BOSS and I love all your pull up progress!

YES!!!!! It's so ~*~inspirational~*~ My progress has kind of slowed, but that's partly because I did so much all at once that there's not THAT much more to get rid of Ahaha! Touche. MISSION REPORT - 1/26 (Day 22) Mission 1: Food tracked and within goals Mission 2: no BWW required Mission 3: did one more low-impactish video workout, just to make sure all was good! MISSION REPORT - 1/27 (Day 23) Mission 1: Food tracked Mission 2: BWW completed... sort of... (see next day) Mission 3: no video workout MISSION REPORT - 1/28 (Day 24) Mission 1: Food tracked and within goals Mission 2: Admitted that my BWW from the previous day had been totally half-assed, so I did a whole-assed BWW this day! I can now do push-ups from the coffee table... the floor is getting in my SIGHTS! Mission 3: Back to my boxing video. No sign of the knee pain AND I did the whole thing with NO pauses! There are definitely a few exercises where I can still improve my form, but I felt pretty good about this I couldn't even remember all the spots I used to have to pause at. Now to see what else I can do... MISSION REPORT - 1/29 (Day 25) Mission 1: Food tracked Mission 2: No BWW Mission 3: No boxing Eeek I've been really bad about keeping on track of these updates this time around! And I owe y'all some motivation on your own threads too...! This weekend, hopefully....

Definitely went this route!! The pain was mostly gone after about a day, but I switched out the squats/lunges in my BWW for the past couple days, and did a "low impact" cardio workout instead of the bouncey boxing one. I'm taking it slow just in case though—did just a half-set of squats for my last BWW and will increase back to normal if all seems well. Thanks for looking out everyone! MISSION REPORT - 1/22 (Day 18) Mission 1: Tracked all food Mission 2: BWW completed (no squats or lunges) Mission 3: no boxing/cardio Life Mission: completed MISSION REPORT - 1/23 (Day 19) Mission 1: Tracked food and under Mission 2: no BWW required Mission 3: no boxing/cardio Life Mission: completed MISSION REPORT - 1/24 (Day 20) Mission 1: Tracked food Mission 2: one extra rest day for BWW Mission 3: extra rest day Life Mission: completed - new book MISSION REPORT - 1/25 (Day 21) Mission 1: Tracked food Mission 2: BWW completed, half set of squats only Mission 3: Did a low impact cardio workout—thought it was going to be for feeble elderly people, BUT I actually ended up working up a sweat by the end I even found one that was kickboxing themed, so I at least still got my punching in! Life Mission: completed - hair treatment + reading + worked on blog post And here's the visual representation from Habit Bull!