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Aha! I didn’t to look for her website. I bet I’m going to love some new recipes. I will look for the slow cooked bolognese first!

I was thinking of you guys out on this thread as I started listening to a cooking audio book “Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat” by Samin Nosrat. I’ve been thinking more about flavor and cooking things yummier since I started thinking about food more intuitively. I’m curious if anyone here has heard of the book...or has food cooking philosophies that they have discovered since starting IE.

July hike is a nature trail at scout camp. The trail itself was short but peaceful. All of scout camp seems like a big hike! Lots of reasons to walk and enjoy being outside. I am struggling a bit with healthy habits and choices. Gardening is a great active hobby, but it has replaced (instead of enhanced) morning exercise. Food choices are often rushed lately, too. Knee pain is annoying. Good things to report include active days (average step count is still up above 10,000) and eating garden fresh fruits and veggies every day.

I’ve been wavering between two things. Piano tuner is that one thing literally on the top of my to do list because it’s been undone for so many months. But that seemed too easy. Summer budget seemed more important, and I have been avoiding it like crazy. Today was an unusual free day...and I did both!

I’m having a real hard time adjusting to the new summer schedule. I thought I’d have more time to focus on exercise in the morning since I don’t have to get my kids on the bus. Somehow, I lost that old exercise time when I lost the structure of the old routine. I do feel good about being active and feeling healthy lately. Goals are just not working out as I had planned.

When I tried meditation a few challenges back, I found the most helpful part was pausing throughout the day to just breathe and recenter myself. So I’m adding pauses this week. Only a few so far, but the more I do the better I feel.

June hike at the lake. Doing great on step count and mini challenge. The rest could use some work. I am trying some extra reminders to see it they will help with the exercise and fruit. Biking is scheduled for tomorrow...as long as the weather cooperates.

Push-ups are my all time favorite exercise for building confidence! How did your first week of your first challenge go?

Procrastination is half conquered. Did my 3rd strength workout at a weird time today. I still need to get a second one in this evening to reach my goal of 4 a week. Next week I do them earlier!!!

It’s pretty convenient to walk during kid lessons of various sorts. Piano and parkour so far this week. Plus one day at lunch. This week of walking is flying by!

I kinda think I would starve if I waited to be hungry for broccoli every time I ate. But it is an interesting idea. A little more realistic for me would be “Would I enjoy eating these cookies more if I balanced my plate?” That kind of pulls on the gentle nutrition part of IE without threatening a life sentence of broccoli.

Thanks to the mini challenge, my average step count bumped up to 10,109. One goal met...now I just need to keep it there.

Looks interesting.

New challenge. Time to revisit goals and post them for accountability. 1. 8fit workout at least four days a week. These are only 10 minutes. Surely I have 10 minutes a day for strength and stretching. 2. Bike to work once a week. Surely I can plan one day when I’m not carting kids or supplies to work. Unless it’s storming. I’m exempt from this goal if my planned day is stormy. 3. Fresh fruit for dinner. It’s been a while since I sneaked in a healthy habit for the whole family. 4. Step challenge. I’m shooting for a monthly average of 10,000 steps. This is a lot for me, but since the weather turned nice, I’m hitting a 9,000+ average. I bet I can do it! Piano practice and monthly hike goals are sticking. I will continue these. I’m glad prior challenges helped me make them habits.

May hike through lovely buttercups. Looking forward to an actual start to the next challenge. I’ve rediscovered the 8fit app on my phone and it will be nice to commit to 4 weeks of accountability so I make it a habbit.

Second hike in April. This one was a steep climb to a scenic overlook. It was a pretty windy day for a lovely vista. I stayed close to the rock!

Wrapping up this challenge with an April hike today. It was a short one, but really nice to get out on the trail. I had some mild success using an app called YouAte to photo log variances. I’m still not consistent with the photos, but it’s good to have a process in place. Lenten challenges are so-so. The meditation kind of fell by the wayside, but I have a reminder for the gratitude prayer when I pack lunches. Even if I’m having a crummy morning, there’s always SOMETHING to be thankful for. Sadly, the scale has not budged over the past week. Ok. It nudged ip slightly, which was not the direction I was shooting for. Next challenge will need to be a little less forgiving and a little more productive.

My epic quest is calling to me. The gym down the street is re-opening under a new name this summer. One thing they offer is crossfit which is on my epic quest. Just one lesson. I already feel comfortable in this place because I joined it with my 10 seconds of courage a few years ago. I was lifting heavy things before they closed. Now I have one more thing that seems possible if I just ger back on track!

It’s been a rough week fitness wise. A few days of overdoing it in the garden have left me pretty sore. It doesn’t really take too much to overdo it these days. The lack of resilience is frustrating.

Best news first. My son’s parkour teacher opened his new gym today. Being in it makes me remember and want fitness again. Taking an adult class is still on my epic quest, so this summer is a real opportunity. Now the mediocre news. Week one is kinda chugging along. Good feels for daily meditation, hiking last Friday, and split squats. Photo log was supposed to give me a moment pause before eating off plan. That hasn’t happened. But I still feel like there IS a pause before I eat snacks. There was only one day where the emotional eating really took over. I’ve gone back to the scale, and eating feels more under control than the IE way. I think incorporating some IE ideas of checking in with hunger, identifying emotions, and being gentle with my mistakes has helped me stick to my non-IE eating plan better.

For the next challenge, I’m going back to some old habits and goals. 1. Healthy eating plan. Points for eating fruits/veggies for meals/snacks. Points for reasonable portion sizes. Points for exercise. 2. Photo-log snacks that are not fruits/veggies. 3. Plan (and do!) one hike every month. Exercise is still ramping up. I will add split squats to my strength days this challenge. And this challenge falls over lent. My lenten goals include a gratitude prayer and beginner’s meditation every day.

I liked the first book best. I enjoy reading magical stories, but it’s too easy to make impossible things happen when magic solves every plot twist. It’s hard to pick a favorite, though, because I like the character Rowen...and he’s only around in the later books. Which one do you like best?

Yeah. Luckily for him, the “people” is a teenager in my family and he has guaranteed unconditional love. Still drives me nuts! I’m reading the Throne of Glass series by Sarah Mass. It’s in my library’s teen section. I’m glad I’m reading the whole thing. Now I know to recommend it to older teens. After the first book, it seems more and more adult. I’m getting a little antsy for the next challenge to kick off. I’m ready to take some of the ideas of IE with me, but start a more structured eating plan again. I spent some time looking through old photos, and I remember how good I felt when I prioritized fitness and healthy eating.

The food police confuse me all the time! I think it comes down to reflecting on why you ate the foods you ate. It’s ok to eat a couple donuts. Did the donuts give your body a sugar boost that helped you get through the afternoon? Did they help you enjoy time together with coworkers? Did they satisfy you? If the donuts actually made you feel pretty crummy, you might be hearing a nurturing inner voice telling you that you don’t want to feel crummy. So next time, maybe you take a little pause after each bite. That will help you decide whether your body will enjoy one more bite. It’s so much easier to type these words than actually follow my own advice! I feel like I’m on a similar road wih you. My biggest challenge isn’t food restrictions like some folks on this thread. My challenges are emotional eating and trusting my body’s hunger/fullness signals.

This is important to me, too. So much of IE is approaching life with a positive growth mindset. I like it when we use that approach on this thread, too.