gratednutmeg

Progress, Day 1: Hmmm.... well, not an unqualified success (I wound up working a 14 hour day). So... The dishes rotted in the sink. Which wasn't awesome. But, instead of eating a frozen dinner, mac'n'cheese, or getting delivery, I made myself a wrap with hummus, turkey, cheese and apples (new goal - learn to make my own hummus and get less processed versions of the deli cheese , followed it up with sugar snap peas, and drank three glasses more of water than the zero I normally do. THe wrap is actually a big deal for the girl who doesn't eat if it doesn't come from a microwave of box. Baby steps! And while I didn't do my 1 of 3 weekly workouts yesterday, I did participate in the office 'pushups on the hour' at least five or six times during the day. The soda thing was HARD, especially because I didn't make coffee (boo), and by the end of the day I had a caffine withdrawal headache so bad I wanted to die. I caved and had half a third soda. Finished it this morning, and am only having one other today to make up for it, so that it still averages to two. That feels very... letter but not spirit, but I still drank significantly less soda than a normal workday, assembled dinner and ate something green instead of microwaved. I'm counting that as a positive change, even if I only did one of my challenges, and the second one only counts because it's not every day. Today will be better! Maybe! I didn't actually do anything to make it better so we'll see!

What great goals! Best wishes on your challenge!

Thanks Rebel_Timelord!

Yeah that was a terrible pun. Tried one challenge last year and it imploded. But I made major changes on the job front last year, and traded up from the soul-sucking 'You're an A player but we'll never ever promote you, just the people we hired after you to take over what you do so you could move up' Old Job for New Job starting in ten working days (and counting!). To match my shiny New Job, I'mma add in a focus on a shiny improved more highly functioning body! Old Job takes with it the open season candy-stocked kitchen and six a day diet coke habit, but also the three mile round trip walk to work each day, which is really my only exercise. New Job comes with work from home, so yeah. Fictional Role Models: General Leia Organa, Agent Peggy Carter. Class Presumptive: Ranger or Warrior, eventually. Assistants: Executive Office Qats Velvet and Cato. Future Nutmeg: Satisfies her own competency kink. Challenge, plus two new house rules! (Shamelessly inspired by the recommended level one challenge.) Diet: 1) No more than two diet cokes per day for the two weeks remaining at Old Job, no diet coke ever once working from home/at New Job. To support this I will... Make coffee at home each morning. Bubble water is ok, since I love me some bubbles. Bring my favorite water bottle from home. 2) Not allowed to eat a frozen tv dinner/boxed meal (eg. Macaroni and Cheese) more than one night per week. To support this I will... Eat a lot of scrambled eggs and sweet potatoes, probably. Make a sandwich/wrap or bring the components thereof to Old Job for remaining two weeks, not buy such things once I begin New Job. I will also try at least one of the Nerd Fitness blog recipes this month. Exercise: 1) Nerd Fitness Beginner Bodyweight Workout 3x per week, doing the full circuit by the end of the month. To support this I will... Right now I do shorter reps but still three sets, and incline pushups instead of real ones, so I don't hurt so much the next three days that I can't walk, so by ramping up I hope to be more successful in the long run. Bonus! When Old Job and mandatory 3 mile daily walk ends, add a 3 mile walk 3x week. (This is a stretch goal, since it's cold as balls right now, and the neighborhood is a little sketchy to boot.) Level Up Your Life: 1) Tidy up the kitchen at the end of each day. Bonus! Work on SQL/JavaScript/Code Academy/Udemy 3 non-work hours per week (total) as part of professional growth. House Rules: While I realize this is a bit extra, I spent the holidays setting up my new home office (mostly), and know how much I get sucked into certain mindsets based on activities I do in a given location. To support keeping my workspace pure (former dining room table which has the advantage of facing out over the living room which has mass amounts of natural light and a giant window, and the disadvantage of putting the tv and the temptation of Netflix in plain view), the following two things are Never Okay. Not Once. Not Ever. Not even after 'Office Hours'. 1) TV is only to be used for streaming music (not music videos. Just music) while sitting at the desk. No movies, no Netflix, no youtube, no nothing. Spotify, Pandora, and Google Music. That's it. 2) No games on phone/tablet at The Desk. (Stupid time killers. Why are bubble shooter games so addictive? They suck away hours of my life and accomplish NOTHING.) Even if you yield to temptation, you go over to the couch/anywhere else to do it. Main Quest(s): * Drop two pants size (which is more like two and a half, given how tightly my last remaining pair of pants that fits is ) * Lose/fifty pounds(ish.) That's in the middle of the BMI recommended for me, but lighter than I was even when I was in shape, so as I get closer I'm going to adjust the goal weight based on body fat %, etc, but it's a fair horizon to start. * Join a Crossfit class * Run a 10k * Take a beginner rock climbing class * Whole house (including storage closet and bedroom) unpacked and tidy * Participate in one social activity per week (Open Knitting, Meetup, etc) COME BACK WITH YOUR SHIELD OR ON IT!

Thanks DJTrippy! It's paraphrased from some of the NF articles and I love it Thanks Amdhiel! I appreciate the welcome, and all the links! Slightly belated accountability update: Ooof. This week is not off to an awesome start. I ended week one Neutral for fitness, fail for both my food goals, and didn't TOUCH cleaning (though I did get 1/2 of the way through my sister's hand-knitted birthday present, which I need to finish by tomorrow...) Healthwise I'm flailing again. Work has been mad stressful, added to a monthly surge of terrible hormones, which means I'm anger eating and functioning on wayyy too little sleep. Gross. I really want to try to make the paleo beef stew I got ingredients for before they go off, even though I'll need to freeze it since I'm going out of town for the weekend. Soda continues to be the devil I just can't keep from dancing with. I need to bring in some bubble water to work to substitute it with. I think that would help my minor oral fixation. (It didn't help that the work coffee maker was down yesterday.) Fitness is my most successful - I've been doing my bodyweight circuits every other day like clockwork, and loving it. My knees don't hurt, and it's awesome. The 'rest' day stuff on that I haven't been doing great on. The the air quality is on par with breathing toxic gasses. I still and always walk to and from work (about 10 minutes, just a couple blocks), but it's not enough to make a difference. And ellipticals are boring. The two things I'm trying to think of to motivate me are I'm thinking of trying to do the bodyweight circuits every day instead of every other, just because I want to do something, and since I'm only able to do one 'round' with minimal/manageable soreness the next day, I think it would help more than hurt. The other option that I need to figure out a way to have happen is to only allow myself binge watch tv episodes if I'm on the elliptical/bike/whatever, but but since I watch everything on netflix and there isn't wifi in my building's workout room, that option becomes expensive quickly. Anyway! I do love me that little muscle ache the morning after circuit day (actually, it seems to take two days to kick in), it's kinda like that sweet burn of really awesome... fondue, and nothing at all like the sheer agony that my knees felt during/after my brief forrays into jogging and running. I still feel like I'm making progress, because I'm inextricably getting my bodyweight stuff into my routine, and if I can keep that up, I will feel like I've made a change, even if it wasn't all the changes I wanted to make. Some progress is better than no progress at all! Nut out.

Hi! I'm GratedNutmeg, level 0 dwarf ranger, and I looooove me some parentheticals. (Also, First Post, think I'm following all the rules and guidelines but let me know if I'm doing something wrong!) I realized that my previous introduction was reaching epic proportions, so I'm trying to scale it into the tl;dr version (And more than a little tl;dr itself) I've never in my life felt like I was one of the 'athletic' kids. The healthiest I ever was was when I was in college, working a job that required lifting 45 pound boxes a LOT of the day and living with someone who loved to cook healthy, and even then I wasn't climbing mountains. I always associated being healthy and fit with being able to run. Don't know why. Definitely something that I couldn't do and, after MANY half-assed attempts, something just clicked in my brain in the last couple weeks. I don't like running. I love Zombies Run, love power-walking, but my knees are crunchy, the air quality here makes me feel like dying, and running just isn't FUN for me. But in the last couple weeks, with a brain flip click that I can't even really explain, something changed in what I want. Part of it was reading some fanfic with these amazing women (sometimes they had to be genderflipped to be women, but that's ok, that was better. It's Nerd Fitness. Don't judge) that were strong and wonderful and I wanted to be just like. I want to be able to spar and throw a punch and be STRONG. Annnd, I dabble in tarot a bit, and my favorite artist put out a new majors deck this fall that had the single most amazing depiction of the Strength (originally Fortitude) card I've ever seen. Strength is meant to represent a combination of inner and outer strength, and often is depicted as a lovely maiden, holding back/taming a ferocious lion. But not this Strength. She is a chimera, furred and broad and walking tall, a heavy pillar slung over her shoulder and snakes for her hair. Her face is so... content and she seems so PRESENT as she's hefting a stone pillar over one shoulder. She's *working*, and capable, and everything I want to be. Which leads me to my Quest, Goal, Mission! I want to be STRONG. Mentally, emotionally, and damn straight, physically. I know the BMI isn't perfect by any means, but right now I'm at my highest ever weight, 40 pounds over the highest 'normal' range, and it is definitely not muscle. My clothes don't fit, and I don't like how I look in or out of them (I always liked how I looked naked, even heavy ). And I want to change that. SO this year, halfway through being 30 is the year I'm STRONG. And that's my main quest... To support this quest! I've got my SMARTish (they're a little intricate) three goals below 1) Just Punch Through the Door: The NF Beginner Bodyweight Workout. Currently I can do one circuit (with modifications to the pushups). My goal is to build up to three full circuits by week six, including at least one 'real' pushup per circuit. This means building up to two circuits by week 3, three circuits by week 6. On alternate days, I'm doing cardio. That means 40 minutes powerwalking (at least) or the elliptical if the terrifyingly toxic inversion I live in is bad. I get one rest day per week! By week, I Pass if I do the above, I get a Neutral if I miss two days, and I fail if I skip more than two. At the end of the challenge, I need at least 4 passing weeks to consider it a success. I CAN DO IT! (I know i'm starting late, and this week is a Neutral already, but if I can do a circuit at ten o clock at night alone in the office conference room because I had to work 24 hours in two days with 5 hours sleep, I can do this!!! 2) The Strong Do Not Escape Their Fork: I do not cook. I subsist on take out, boxed/microwaved meals, and super unhealthy restaurants. I can't afford it, financially, emotionally, or for my health. So, baby steps!!!! Brown bag to work/come home and make lunch at least TWO days a week. Non-restaurant leftovers and crockpot meals count, microwave/box meals DON'T. Additionally, cook at home for dinner 1 meal per week (at least) up to week 4, and two dinners per week for weeks 4 through 6. Crockpot and non-restaurant leftovers count, microwave meals obviously don't. Try to make the meals healthy and fulfilling, of course (beef stew tonight!) This one is a straight pass/fail. I need at least 4 passing weeks to consider this goal achieved. Initial week is a fail Next week will be better! 3) Sodas Were Made By Hydra: I mainline it, and I shouldn't drink it at all. While I'm not forcing myself to give up unflavored or vodka flavored Perrier/seltzer ever (love me my bubbles), no more than 1 can of soda (or equivalent) per day, with one cheat day per week, up to week 4, and 1 can (or equivalent) per WEEK for weeks 5 and 6. I'm allowed unlimited coffee. Beer and vodka sodas are not soda (I don't really drink enough for this to be much of a factor). Rum and Coke is soda. And nasty. Skip the coke, leave the rum. This one is a straight pass/fail. I need at least 4 passing weeks to consider this goal achieved. Initial week is a fail Next week will be better! Side Quest! My apartment is so messy I am embarrassed to have people over. Making progress every week, it needs to reach acceptable levels of clean by week six. This means I have to make a little bit of progress EVERY week. Pass/Fail, but weekly progress is as important as the final result. To support these goals, I'm keeping a daily journal/log for goals succeeded etc, and while I'm not writing down everything I eat (I've tried that before, it gets overwhelming), I want to build some healthy habits around cooking before I stress too much about exactly what I'm cooking. They're not deep fried butter or anything though. LET THE GAMES BEGIN!