blacksheepie

Thanks for the input. I must admit I've tried the dark chocolate route before and sadly it doesn't help with the craving for more chocolate. Only when I have all my other food stuff sorted out is it ok for me to go back to. But your advice in general is very sensible. Not enough protein right now might be adding to my woes as I've let that lapse (vegetarians need to pay special attention or it's easy to fall behind).

Hiya Rebels, I need to enlist your help. I have been trying (and failing) to break the chocolate/candy/sugar addiction. I've tried the eat fewer each week (to no avail) and I've tried the cut it all out (worked for a while and slowly started up again) but each time I've tried on my own. So now I'm posting it out here, hoping that the public announcement works in my favour! I may be late in posting for this challenge, but I have been challenging myself all the same on this thing for weeks. A general day goes something like this: Plan to cut back on chocolates. Get stressed from writing my dissertation. Want to escape by going in search of sugar. Devour sugary thing. Devour another sugary thing. Still feel stressed but now hit a sugar crash and want to fall asleep. Now only stressed and disappointed that I am failing my nutrition goals even though I am hitting most of my fitness goals. So the challenge is simple but not easy: a. Don't eat anything that isn't part of a meal. b. Practice a simple meditation every time I want (a) - like going for a walk, a stretch or breathing exercise. c. Continue my exercise status quo - keep showing up even when I don't feel like it. If it's in the schedule, I'm going. This will cut back on the sugary snacks but still allow a planned sweet thing with meal times where I won't have the major sugar rush/ crash that kills my concentration. The distraction (eg a breathing meditation) will also help develop my concentration skills and give me the break I am probably needing. And all of this will help show off the stuff I am getting right in the gym. Diet is most of the battle for weight loss. Let's do this thing!

Hiya Shen. It's been a few months since your first post stating your goals and I'm wondering how its going. Mostly because I can totally identify with the lack of focus and always doing a little bit of something until something else catches my attention. I've actually just learnt to accept that in myself now, sometimes I will choose certain things to try when the opportunities arise (like circus or krav maga, my current hits because they are close to where I live) but when things change (like time or money commitments or moving city) I fall back to a base program of bodyweight fitness I can do anywhere. I keep up a core programme that gets me stronger (pushup, pullups, squats, stretching) on the days when I don't have all the other stuff planned in. Sometimes I need more core stuff to fill the gaps, sometimes less, like when classes keep me busy 4 or 5 days a week. And while I realise this isn't the fastest way to mastery in anything, it does keep my attention, lets me try new things and my strength still improves.

Hey Jazzie, glad I could inspire someone to do handstands. I absolutely love them! But that might have something to reliving the childhood, feeling young again etc... I recently graduated to doing a few seconds of freestanding handstands - the balance has taken me ages to learn, but I've been slowly increasing the length of time against a wall to improve my strength. With any luck, before the year is up, I might get this one handed thing right. And thanks Ocelot - I've been eyeing the assassins out for ages! You should hopefully see me around.

Hi everyone It's great to finally be here actually posting something after so long skirting the edges. Well here goes my first challenge. At the moment I'm doing field work in Uganda (East Africa, no Ebola, promise) and one of the hardest things for me is keeping any kind of schedule. Each day is very different and I do loads of travelling, so I'm going to make this first quest easy on myself. I could delay another 6 weeks, but that is an endless loop of never beginning. Main goal: Just show up, 5 days a week (3 intense days, 2 stretching days). My longer term goal is to do a one-arm handstand. But that is the future. Right now, just show up and do something. The something to do is burpees, pullups, planks and handstands. Simple but effective. With incremental increases to keep up the challenge. Stretching on alternate days. It's going to be hard. I will be tired. I just have to show up, even if I don't finish, I still get points for starting the workout and doing something. I keep a diary to write down what I do and how many every day, it's tough to cheat that system. At the end of the week you see what you haven't done. My other goal is to try and tame the sweet-tooth tiger. I love sugar and spice and all things nice. It's a problem. I'm fine if I can't reach anything sweet but once I start, I'm done. Uganda is a big help cause my sweet options are limited, but I'm going to go for 1 cheat day a week. The rest is clean eating. Fortunately, being in the middle of nowhere will help me initially. Just to get in the habit and keep it up will be key. When I finish this 6 week challenge, I want a firm exercise and clean eating habit. A just-show-up-and-start attitude to exercise mixed with an awareness of what I put into my mouth. This should set me up nicely for when I get a decent schedule to really focus on improving my strength and skills. Thanks for reading and see you guys around.