hybrid756

BTW my posts are going a bit screwy right now. Posting from tablet is hard! Back to normal later. Updated my starting post with measurements and am going to find a recipe for tonight because I need to go shopping soon. For once I'm excited about that!!!

Hi! I am eating all the things, but I do like paleo recipes because plants and animals. No specific diet, the don't-eat-this lists make me all binge-y! I'll try to make something good if you'll be trying it I have balsamic vinegar but don't know what to do with it yet... So far I've been investigating different ways to bake chicken breast and other random stuff like chili. Going to find something to cook tonight.

*intrigued face*

Ah, impending exams... I feel your pain. PS totally forgot about the cornflakes thing lol

Hahahaa ah crap that's accountability That is some very respectable studying you've done there (I dropped out of a physics degree 13 years ago...). It'll all come back to you! (I'm not promising that that's a good thing, heh). Well, hopefully by the end of this I'll be able to give a confident answer on whether making studying part of a 6WC is a way to make it all the more tolerable

This looks cool. If it helps, I came at calorie counting and tracking (several, several times) via MFP during the last challenge after doing Intuitive Eating for over 2 years (I still do it, tracking is an add-on). So I came at it from a totally different angle, and have finally discovered you CAN combine the two approaches if you want to. It might be a bit too much of a headfuck (I sucked at trying to do this for so long) but it can work. Then again, IE does say screw diets of all shape and form, but it's completely possible to take big concepts from it once you've tried it to find what you like best. I agree with karinajean, conference food would be a perfect testing ground. Plus, a conference is finite so you're coming back to something more familiar after not too long. Give me a shout any time if you want! IE is probably the only thing I can confidently say that I don't suck at

Is unchallenge becoming a thing? Or was it already a thing, and I didn't notice until I did one? Unchallenge was awesome, I bet you'd love it. Or a kinda-challenge, maybe that's halfway. I don't know what that would look like exactly...

Sounds like you're in a similar situation, or have been recently If you need it, good luck! And hey, good luck even if you don't

Ok here goes... I need to study this thread from start to finish! New challenge is about ALL THE FOODS. Thanks for making me want to start cooking, you guys

WHAT THE HECK THAT VIDEO IS AWESOME. Thankyou for showing us your choreography, it's beautiful to watch how all these moves we keep seeing stills of all fit together so beautifully Goddamnit you are strong. That pole climbing looks... ouchy. *applause* And pull ups!! W00T! And skating! <3 You make me want to move country. That scenery is so beautiful, the only similar thing here is the schizo April weather

Thanks everyone! I WILL rock it!! *throws rocks at cie'th*

(I had to!)

Welcome! After a long rest following my journey of stumbling blindly through the Hanging Edge, and restoring my HP during the last challenge, it's time for me to negotiate the Pulse Vestige. I know what's waiting at the end - A GREAT BIG BOSS BATTLE, Fal'cie Anima. So I'd better be ready. That's what this challenge is about - taking on one enemy at a time, refining my paradigms, and stocking up on supplies. Would you just look at the size of the place. That's a whole lot of cie'th to take down. Since I'm not long out of the tutorial level, I'll need to remember to keep healing paradigms to hand, and keep my HP in the green zone. Can't afford to be taking too many risks yet, not until I've built my skills up. I've strategised that for my battle with Anima, I'm going to need a vial of Fortisol. That's my reward for acing this challenge. I need grades of B or above in all challenges to achieve this. If I want to level up, I need that reward! I can fight without it, but there's a good chance I'll get KO'd... probably multiple times. So, here goes - one cie'th at a time. 1. SCORE 1450 HIT POINTS PER CIE'TH Every day is a cie'th battle, and there's 42 cie'th between where I am, and the giant door at the heart of the Vestige, where Anima is waiting to try and kill me. Every cie'th has 1450HP (for the purposes of this challenge, they do). Every calorie I eat in battle knocks 1HP from one of these shambling monsters. In other words, giving a little creative licence, I need to knock back around 1450 calories per day to defeat these 42 cie'th. There are a few I can sneak past, but they're few and far between. I'm doing this on a points scoring system, averaging over the week (updated 8 April 2015 from daily to weekly hit points): < 1500 / day = 70 points1500 - 1600 / day = 42 points1600 - 1700 / day = 28 points1700 - 1800 / day = 14 points1800 - 1900 / day = 7 points1900+ or no tracking = 0 pointsTDEE ~ 1950 (this has served me well so far, over the past month). No negative marking, no eating back exercise. Total points available = 420 Grading: 301 - 420 points = A201 - 300 points = B101 - 200 points = C51 - 100 points = D1 - 50 points = E0 points = F CIE'TH DESTROYED: 100%0000FF; background-image: -webkit-gradient(linear, 0 0, 100% 100%, color-stop(.25, rgba(0, 0, 0, .2)), color-stop(.25, transparent), color-stop(.5, transparent), color-stop(.5, rgba(0, 0, 0, .2)), color-stop(.75, rgba(0, 0, 0, .2)), color-stop(.75, transparent), to(transparent) ); background-image: -webkit-linear-gradient( -45deg, rgba(0, 0, 0, .2) 25%, transparent 25%, transparent 50%, rgba(0, 0, 0, .2) 50%, rgba(0, 0, 0, .2) 75%, transparent 75%, transparent ); background-image: -moz-linear-gradient( -45deg, rgba(0, 0, 0, .2) 25%, transparent 25%, transparent 50%, rgba(0, 0, 0, .2) 50%, rgba(0, 0, 0, .2) 75%, transparent 75%, transparent ); background-image: -ms-linear-gradient( -45deg, rgba(0, 0, 0, .2) 25%, transparent 25%, transparent 50%, rgba(0, 0, 0, .2) 50%, rgba(0, 0, 0, .2) 75%, transparent 75%, transparent ); background-image: -o-linear-gradient( -45deg, rgba(0, 0, 0, .2) 25%, transparent 25%, transparent 50%, rgba(0, 0, 0, .2) 50%, rgba(0, 0, 0, .2) 75%, transparent 75%, transparent ); -webkit-background-size: 23px 23px; -moz-background-size: 23px 23px; background-size: 23px 23px; border-radius: 4px;">100% 2. COOK ALL THE FOODS How do you turn a Blazefire Saber into an Ultima Weapon? By using gil and items found in the environment, of course! So, following on the back of my monumental success with the cooking of the things during the last challenge, I am going to apply my experience of using gil and items found in the environment to make new weapons. And by weapons, I mean meals. During this challenge, meals are my primary weapon, and I intend to make sure they're crafted well. Every week, I will be learning 3 new recipes (averaged over whole challenge) - it doesn't matter what they are, just that I am COOKING THE FOODS instead of buying a ready-to-fight weapon out of a box. Nothing beats being able to do your own craftsmanship. Over the 6 weeks, that's 18 new recipes. Here's the scoring: 16 - 18 recipes = A13 - 15 recipes = B10-12 recipes = C7 - 9 recipes = D4 - 6 recipes = E0 - 3 recipes = F Spicy grilled lamb skewers! [COMPLETED]Spice-crusted chicken with Asian slaw! [COMPLETED] Chicken skewers with satay dip! [COMPLETED] Mustard-stuffed chicken! [COMPLETED] Balsamic green bean salad! [COMPLETED] Easy paleo chicken pepper stir fry! [COMPLETED] Teriyaki glazed chicken kebabs! [COMPLETED] Paleo maple salmon fillets! [COMPLETED] Avocado stuffed burgers! [COMPLETED] Thai spiced turkey burgers! Asian salmon with honey glaze! Coconut ginger shrimp! [COMPLETED] Coconut chicken strips! [COMPLETED] Ginger chicken! [COMPLETED] Crisp honey mustard parsnips! [COMPLETED 19/4/15 - DAY 7] BBQ pulled pork! Easy Thai prawn curry! [COMPLETED] Clementine & vodka-baked salmon with beetroot creme fraiche sauce! WEAPONS CRAFTED: 77.8%FF3300; background-image: -webkit-gradient(linear, 0 0, 100% 100%, color-stop(.25, rgba(0, 0, 0, .2)), color-stop(.25, transparent), color-stop(.5, transparent), color-stop(.5, rgba(0, 0, 0, .2)), color-stop(.75, rgba(0, 0, 0, .2)), color-stop(.75, transparent), to(transparent) ); background-image: -webkit-linear-gradient( -45deg, rgba(0, 0, 0, .2) 25%, transparent 25%, transparent 50%, rgba(0, 0, 0, .2) 50%, rgba(0, 0, 0, .2) 75%, transparent 75%, transparent ); background-image: -moz-linear-gradient( -45deg, rgba(0, 0, 0, .2) 25%, transparent 25%, transparent 50%, rgba(0, 0, 0, .2) 50%, rgba(0, 0, 0, .2) 75%, transparent 75%, transparent ); background-image: -ms-linear-gradient( -45deg, rgba(0, 0, 0, .2) 25%, transparent 25%, transparent 50%, rgba(0, 0, 0, .2) 50%, rgba(0, 0, 0, .2) 75%, transparent 75%, transparent ); background-image: -o-linear-gradient( -45deg, rgba(0, 0, 0, .2) 25%, transparent 25%, transparent 50%, rgba(0, 0, 0, .2) 50%, rgba(0, 0, 0, .2) 75%, transparent 75%, transparent ); -webkit-background-size: 23px 23px; -moz-background-size: 23px 23px; background-size: 23px 23px; border-radius: 4px;">77.8% 3. READ THE DATALOG - BOSS BATTLE PREP! If there's anything I've learned about life on Cocoon, it's that it's full of history and myth. I refuse to blindly stagger about the place knowing nothing about what's going on inside my enemy's head, because I have THE BIG BOSS BATTLE approaching on the 2nd June - my end of year maths exam. This is my degree-related Fal'cie Anima. I'm more than on track for a distinction on the coursework, but I need over 85% in the exam to get an overall distinction. This would open up so many more areas of the map, and additional add ons for me to explore later, like further study and paid placements... and being able to use maths in my battle against not knowing enough about computer science (duh). So, I need to be reading the datalog! This means very, very regular maths study. I want a minimum of 2hrs/day, and this is averaged over the entire challenge. This does NOT include any time I spend working on my remaining assignments - it's exam prep only. Grading:71+ hours = A57 - 70 hours = B43 - 56 hours = C29 - 42 hours = D15 - 28 hours = E0 - 14 hours = FDATALOGS STUDIED: 6%6% POINTS! MEASUREMENTS! ALL THAT STUFF! New and improved points and measurements photo gallery, with pictures of food! Edit! Again! Added progress photos (15 April 2015) Excuse the terrible quality photos. Best camera phone on the market and I still can't take decent selfies in a mirror. Eh well. It's something to measure myself by all the same! 1. SCORE 1450 HIT POINTS PER CIE'TH A = +5 CONB = +4 CONC = +3 COND = +2 CONE = +1 CONF = +0 CON2. COOK ALL THE FOODS A = +5 CHAB = +4 CHAC = +3 CHAD = +2 CHAE = +1 CHAF = +0 CHA3. READ THE DATALOG - BOSS BATTLE PREP! A = +5 WISB = +4 WISC = +3 WISD = +2 WISE = +1 WISF = +0 WISMeasurements to be updated at the start of the challenge: Starting measurements etc from 13 April 2015 Weight: 189.0Scale Bf%: 45.2DoD Bf%: 38.3Scale H2O%: 39.7Lean mass: 102Chest (upper): 40Chest (lower): 34Waist: 35.5Hips: 41.5Neck: 14.5Right upper arm: 13.5Left upper arm: 13Right lower arm: 10.5Left lower arm: 10.5Right thigh: 28.5Left thigh: 28.5Right calf: 17.5Left calf: 18OFF I GO TO GET FORTISOL!

Thankyou!! It really has been absolutely what I needed this time round. Next challenge is... full on battle mode Now, THAT is what I need. I'm excited:

Eeeeek, not what I meant to do... I just think it's super cool the plan you've got to apply everything you've learned to something you created yourself. I don't care if you think you suck even remotely, because I don't! Already in awe of your aerial work, this is just a super-duper groovy application of it!

That is one solid plan! I <3 Mindful eating, and am definitely going down the yoga route too somewhere, eventually. Subbed

This is all so full of wonderfulness! To be able to put to use all the moves you've learned in aerial and craft something out of it... I was getting intrigued about what your challenge was going to be, what a brilliant goal! *pitches tent*

END OF CHALLENGE WRAP UP The link's in my signature for the long version, but essentially: 1. EAT WHAT YOU LOVE, LOVE WHAT YOU EAT Perfect. I started focusing on Intuitive Eating again and inadvertently stumbled across the COOKING UPGRADE (which is awesome, as I had a sworn hatred of cooking before this). Reached the long-awaited epiphanies about my weird-ass relationship with food and found that I could finally track and restrict my calories without feeling, er, restricted. Lost 8.6lbs of fat, 7.5 inches, didn't lose any lean mass, love cooking, eat plants a lot of the time, and a lot of protein. Plus some "food-like" stuff without being weird about it. I haven't binged once. It's been an absolute monumental success of a challenge in respect to this, and something I've been working towards for years and accidentally fell into. Super happy. 2. WALK MOAR Well yeah... kind of. I did this for the first 2 weeks of the challenge then really didn't do it much more because life and because weather and because job hunting and because university papers... And all my head was in the first part of the challenge. I'm cool with this and won't be doing an exercise challenge next time round, it's all about ALL THE FOODS. 3. MINIS! Hahahahaa I didn't do this at all. I think I was wriggling out of trying to set too many goals for myself at the outset because I needed an un-challenge. I'd been punishing myself mentally wayyyyy too much before I started this challenge, and made my focus all about relaxing with it - which has, paradoxically, given me my largest success. It did what I needed it to do. But I didn't actually end up doing this because reasons (see above). For the foreseeable future I'm going to dip in and out of the guild minis when circumstances permit, and not kid myself on that I'm going to make up my own. If I do, I'll do it before the challenge starts. Right now though, I don't need that much fragmentation in my goals, and want to go all out on the big one. So: +5/5 CON on part 1 +2/5 STA on part 2 Whole load of nothing on part 3 In the end, I didn't do everything I set out to do, but what I did, I did really well. I dropped the rest. Now I know entirely where I want to go with my challenges for what looks like the rest of the year, or thereabouts. It's all about the fat loss and the food. I'd love to be one of these people who starts lifting (which I started and loved last year but stopped because trying to manage conflicting goals, and life, and stuff, and BRAIN MELTING) right from the outset, but it's just not me. I want to get small, then get strong. I'm more than happy to take exercise focused challenges in the middle of this, but I need one main focus right now, and it's all about learning to cook awesomely, feed myself well and get smaller. I want that all automated because when I really hit the fitness challenges hard later, I don't want anything detracting from that. Really happy with how much focus I've gained on finishing up this challenge *insert .gif... HERE*

Challenge wrap-up! It's the first time I've done one of these properly, and I've been looking forward to it 1. EAT WHAT YOU LOVE, LOVE WHAT YOU EAT This has been, without a doubt, my favourite part of this challenge. I let other bits of the challenge slip somewhat because I was so focused on it, but it really was necessary. So, to recap, I started out focusing on Intuitive Eating, explored a lot about how I feel about that way of eating, and really broke through a lot of my issues with food (not instantly, but it's been the breakthrough after over 2 years of pretty constant work, something I really hoped and trusted - mostly - would happen someday.) So I learned to cook. Not AMAZINGLY, but I can now confidently say that I can cook my way through most situations. I didn't expect that from this challenge at all. The thing is, a lot of the things presented to me in boxes weren't compliant with the 'eat what you love' part of the plan, so they had to get pared down... about 99%. Eating less crap seems to have been a natural by-product of focusing on eating what I love. That's why I decided to experiment with calorie counting / tracking midway through the challenge. I honestly didn't think I'd pull that off, but I'm still going strong now, eating what I love, exercising good judgement about 80% of the time around food (that's enough for me right now), tracking what I eat, and generally staying around my calorie allowance. I've been over my allowance without flipping out. I haven't binged once. I've loved everything I've eaten, give or take. I've been applying what I previously learned from IE as part of that judgement i.e. mostly don't eat processed carbs on their own unless you want to be attacked by hunger within the next 2 hours. Most of the time I went with my own advice here, some of the time I went against it, but I did it in an informed way, and I don't feel helpless around food any more. Without a doubt, a far bigger success than I ever expected. +5 CON for all this. 2. WALK MOAR Yeah, so I didn't really do too much of this. I blitzed it for the first 2 weeks, then got bored. I need a bigger exercise challenge, but I don't need it yet. Still getting the food part down, and that's cool. I knocked 70.5 miles off my 2500 mile goal, which is fine. That's just outwith what I'd normally do at work and commuting etc. I find it really difficult to focus on two different goals at once, and do them equally well, even if they're related. Which means, I think I should be all about the food until I 1. can run the food thing on autopilot, and 2. shrink down to the size I want to be. I want that part of my life absolutely ingrained so when I start on ALL THE EXERCISE, eating well is second nature. Knowing it was part of the challenge did motivate me to head out at times when I'd normally stay in, so it was a bit useful that way, but was it habit forming? No. It wasn't, because I didn't give it enough focus. That's ok though, now I know I'm a one big challenge kind of person. I haz learned the things. I'm happy to give myself +2 STA for the 2 weeks and the little extra miles here and there that I did for the rest of the challenge. 3. MINIS!!! Yeah, so I didn't do this. Small challenges don't really seem to suit me right now. There seems to be too much going on in my life for me to constantly turn my attention to trying new things, or even think of doing so. I'm taking this off the table for the time being. I've already written up my next challenge and this isn't in it. Though, I will say I'm extremely happy with how things are going with my degree, and I've learned a bunch of stuff about what I want from the job search I've been doing, and I've had some interviews, but wrong place wrong time. Never mind So... +0 anything for this, but there are other things I didn't include in my challenge that I want to reference here that I'm proud of. That 95% result in my maths paper was HUGE, and has given me a whole other world of a confidence boost. For future reference, I need to not do this: THE COMPARING MYSELF WITH MY EARLIER SELF PART, NEW AND WITH GRAPHS!! 23 Feb 2015 to 5 April 2015 Weight: 193.4lbs -----> 186.2lbs -----> -7.2lbs Scale Bf%: 48% -----> 45.2% -----> -2.8%DoD Bf%: 41.6% -----> 38.3 -----> -3.3%Scale H2O%: 37.2% -----> 39.7% -----> +2.5%Lean mass: 100.6lbs -----> 102lbs -----> +1.4lbsChest (upper): 40.5 -----> 40 -----> -0.5inChest (lower): 34.5 -----> 34 -----> -0.5inWaist: 37 -----> 35.5 -----> -1.5inHips: 43 -----> 41.5 -----> -1.5inNeck: 14.5 -----> 14.5Right upper arm: 14.5 -----> 13.5 -----> -1inLeft upper arm: 14 -----> 13 -----> -1inRight lower arm: 10.5 -----> 10.5Left lower arm: 10.5 -----> 10.5Right thigh: 29 -----> 28.5 -----> -0.5inLeft thigh: 28.5 -----> 28.5Right calf: 18 -----> 17.5 -----> -0.5inLeft calf: 18.5 -----> 18 -----> -0.5inAs promised... graphs! 1. Weight, bf%, LBM & H2O% 2. Measurements 3. Calories So. Everything's going DOWN, slowly and sort of evenly. My clothes are looser. I can cook. I miss exercise, but I need to focus. And I'm happy with my progress. My bf% has gone down as my weight has gone down. My lean mass has slowly and consistently gone up a little. I'm not starving myself and I'm not bingeing. I'm happy, and this challenge was a supreme success. I CANNOT WAIT FOR THE NEXT ONE To wrap up: Lost 8.6lbs of fatDecreased bf% on average by 3%Shrunk by 7.5 inchesGained the COOKING UPGRADE

That hangback is super cool. Why do I think it looks relaxing? I'm sure it's not!

Welcome back from your cupboarding adventure That really is extremely brilliant, the way you adapted yourself through this challenge around what life throws at you.

Wow, jungle gym!! That sounds amazing And you never know about the house, perhaps it'll be one of these things that just happens when you least expect it... I'll be keeping everything crossed for you, just in case!

Gah! How does anyone manage to write an entire semester's worth of course material on robotics and make it dull?! All the external stuff I found was excellent, and engaging, but this was written for a 5 year old and I could hardly keep my eyes open through most of it. Had to submit an assignment today which was late due to technical issues (but still in the grace period) and it was one hell of a struggle to write. What a shame, I was all fired up to start it until I got to about page 2 of the coursework. Never thought I'd say this, but: BRING ON THE HEAVY MATHS. In other news, all I've eaten today has been pretty much toast and coffee. It's one bloody problem after another. But hey, at least that's the most eye-wateringly dull part of my entire degree out of the way.