harimad

Being sick really threw me off on the last challenge, hope you feel better! Great idea on the just "do something" goal, I also like to do a little bit of everything, tend to over-plan, and accomplish pretty much nothing...

February got crazy and I kind of fizzled out the last two weeks. I spent the first week of March getting back to a normal sleep schedule and trying to get back into the swing of things. But now I'm ready to suck it up and try this again for what's left of the month. Fitness goal #1: By the end of the month, be able to jog through my neighborhood twice without stopping to walk (except for my warm-up and cool down). My neighborhood is about 1 mile, so that will get me up to about 1.5 miles jogging and currently, I can do it with two walking breaks. Do this by jogging every Tu/Th and trying to go a little longer every day. Fitness goal #2: Get stronger and bendier. Do a squat/plank workout M/W/F, and be able to get through it without stopping or modifying it by the end of the month - had to stop about five times my first time through it today. Since that's only 10 minutes, do 15 minutes of yoga after the kids go to bed those days (starting with the doyogawithme Core Primer) Diet Goal: Eat at least two servings of fruit and three servings of vegetables every day, ideally different types for each serving so I get lots of good nutrition. Life Goal: Don't get burned out again! Do at least 20 minutes of cleaning, 20 minutes of relaxing (beyond my yoga/exercise), and 20 minutes of work/schoolwork every evening, Sunday-Thursday.

You definitely do need your sleep and lots of rest, but I promise you'll feel better during and after your pregnancy if you get at least a little something in there. What worked for me was setting a timer for 15 minutes. Yes, it's exhausting, but I could manage fifteen minutes, right? I still use that trick now when I need to do cleaning and don't want to. If you need more motivation, just remember that you'll be much more comfortable during your third trimester if you keep active, and it's even supposed to make labor go easier. During my first trimester, walking was the ONLY thing that would hold my nausea at bay, at least once I got over the nausea at the thought of pulling myself off the couch. Later on, it helped with heartburn and digestion. It's really not worth it to skip the exercise, as tempting as it is.

Thanks, that's what I needed! Doing a couple shorter things not only lets me hit multiple buckets, but also will be easier to fit into my schedule now that work is so busy again. JPrev is probably dead on with why I keep getting stuck with yoga - I start with the intro level and get bored quickly, then try out the hard stuff and can't do it. I'll try to do something a little more progressive and less hit and miss.

I started putting together a workout plan for March, but have scrapped it about fifteen times. I either try to include everything or pick a focus and then don't like it. I'm hoping someone here can help me figure this out, since I can't be the first person to deal with it. Here's where I'm at - we were going to start trying for kid #3 this month, so I've been focused on getting my abdominal fat and overall weight down for the last six months. I'm only 2 pounds away from my goal weight, and we are putting off trying for another two months while my husband finishes his semester, so the weight loss will happen. Now that I don't need to focus primarily on weight loss, I'm not sure what to do. I've never been in great shape, so I like the idea of continuing to work on strength training and cardio. Things have been really stressful and I've been having trouble with my knees when I jog (kneecaps pop, especially going up hill) that may be tied to my really tight hamstrings, so more yoga seems like a good fit. Stress and weight are both risk factors for pregnancy complications I've had in the past, and a strong core and good cardiovascular health are both really helpful for a comfortable pregnancy. Should I try to hit all of those pieces or pick something and stick to it? Any ideas on an activity that hits multiple buckets? I've tried doing yoga regularly to build my strength before, but didn't find it too effective. I've also tried doing different things each day, but I think I was doing so much that I never really got better at any of it.

So, life got crazy. I have done almost nothing in the last week and a half. My eating habits are still better than before, but it was my son's birthday this week, work was really stressful, the weekend involved sick kids and not enough time to cook ahead, my in-laws just came into town, and I have a final exam on Sunday. So bleck. Surviving this week, even though that meant using my exercise time to make work deadlines. Eating slightly more Paleo than before, but I've gone back to cereal and oatmeal for breakfast and my son wanted waffles and pancakes for his birthday dinner, so waffles and pancakes it was. Things will calm back down after this week and I'll get back into it.

Thanks, the reminder is good. Yeah, I'm not doing as well as I intended to, but I'm doing way better than I was a couple of months ago and that's pretty fantastic.

This week was weird. I did OK on diet and exercise but not great (B-?). My weight hasn't really changed since I started the challenge, which is frustrating, but I haven't been doing great at drinking water and wonder if that's part of it. That said, I took my waist measurement at the end of last month's challenge and had 35". Today, I took it and got 29". I have no idea what to do with that, because losing 6" in about 3 weeks seems really unreasonable. My pants DO fit better, and I was expecting to see it go down an inch or two, but not six! Here's this week's update: Exercise: Follow couch to 5k (starting week 4 since that's about my current level) M/W/F. Do BBWW T/Th, and yoga on Sundays. --Meh. I had a fever last Tuesday and Wednesday. Started to feel better by Friday but my son was off school and not really interested in jogging with me, then yesterday I got a cold. I've spent a lot more time on my feet and moving this week, but I only got in one jog and that one was cut short by a torrential rain storm (got in 1 out of 2 miles). I did one run through the BBWW this morning and will try to work in two more during the day, but I'm trying to balance staying active with not sabotaging my recovery. Diet: Do a Mediterranean/Paleo hybrid: tons of veggies and fruits in a variety of colors, extremely limited grains (and what I eat is unrefined - oatmeal, rice, etc.), protein with every meal including fish/beans at least once per week, and about half the dairy I used to eat. I'm also limiting myself to two glasses of wine a week, and everything else i"m drinking is either water or homemade smoothie. No added sugar. --With me being sick, we did a bit more takeout than usual. I stayed pretty close, but didn't exactly stick with it (ex: my carne asada was all meat and veggie, but came with flour tortillas). Sunday night is usually my cheat day (homemade pizza with half oat flour crust, wine), but this week was extra-cheaty because I had 1/3 bottle of champagne instead of red wine plus I ate two cupcakes for dessert. Life: Follow the UfYH daily/weekly cleaning checklist to keep my house fairly clean and get into a good routine (checklist is here: http://www.unfuckyou...g-checklists/) --This, I did pretty well. Since my house was already clean(ish) from last week, it was a lot easier to maintain. Still didn't make it through the whole checklist every (any) day, but I was generally happy with the state of my house. We went to Ikea on Saturday to get some furniture to make the living room and music room flow better, and spent all the time I usually spend cleaning and cooking over the weekend shopping and furniture assembling. I was home with my son on Monday, and managed to get caught up then. So we're in good shape and this is at least en route to becoming a habit.

Also, week one update: Exercise: Follow couch to 5k (starting week 4 since that's about my current level) M/W/F. Do BBWW T/Th, and yoga on Sundays. --Done. I had to cut my Friday run short because work has been crazy and I needed to get in early, but I made up for it (more or less) by spending Friday night and Saturday morning cleaning the house instead of sitting on the couch. Glad I decided to focus on the jogging, my face was beet red and I was out of breath all 3 days, I think the intense aerobic exercise is good for me. Diet: Do a Mediterranean/Paleo hybrid: tons of veggies and fruits in a variety of colors, extremely limited grains (and what I eat is unrefined - oatmeal, rice, etc.), protein with every meal including fish/beans at least once per week, and about half the dairy I used to eat. I'm also limiting myself to two glasses of wine a week, and everything else i"m drinking is either water or homemade smoothie. No added sugar. --LOVING it. I'm seeing a difference in my stomach fat, and I feel fantastic. Friday was our weekly dinner out as a family, and we split a huge pizza. Felt like crap afterwards, and I think next time we go out to eat I'll be more careful. It was like drinking too much - it felt good at the time, but probably wasn't worth the after-effects. Followed except for two cheat meals (the other was a family-style Chinese dinner with 3 appetizers,4 entrees and 1 vegetable to celebrate Chinese New Year with my husband's Tai Chi class - totally worth it, and a lot closer to my diet goals than the pizza was). Life: Follow the UfYH daily/weekly cleaning checklist to keep my house fairly clean and get into a good routine (checklist is here: http://www.unfuckyou...g-checklists/) --Ugh. My house was messy and I was hoping the daily/weekly checklist would help me not only maintain but also get it clean. Total failure. They have an emergency cleaning checklist, and I managed to get the place in shape over the weekend by using that one instead. Using the daily/weekly was making me feel like a failure every single time I used it since it seemed like I kept doing the same work and not getting anywhere. Switching checklists was key, because it took about 30 minutes of working with the emergency checklist to feel like I was finally getting somewhere. I've been getting about half of the daily checklist done (make my bed, keep the kitchen clean, put away clothes every day), and just a couple of the weekly items done. This may need further tweaking, but it's still progress. Will keep working at it. I think this is a good rhythm.

I really wasn't expecting to feel as good as I do. I'm so busy and tired all the time that it felt like a constant fog in my head, but within a week of switching up my diet the fog is gone. And I'm not even going 100% Paleo - I'm including a limited amount of dairy (max 1 serving a day vs my previous 2-3), eating beans once a week, and eating an unrefined grain (rice, oatmeal, quinoa) 2-3 times a week. Do you have any non-meat main dishes you like? I think my biggest challenge with doing Paleo long-term is that I've been reducing my meat intake gradually for years, and only eating it 2-3 times a week. Now pretty much every meal needs meat or eggs if I'm going to stay full for very long, and I'm worried I'll get sick of it. I also really don't want to go back to the fog so I'd love to figure out a way to make the diet stick!

All of the good vegetarian entrees I have came from bugging vegetarians for what they like to eat - so do you have any good go-tos? One I've used for awhile is to cube an eggplant, mix it with diced tomatoes (about as much tomato as eggplant), add in a can of garbanzo beans, fresh mint, and lots of feta. So good, and one of the few ways I can get my hubby and kids eating eggplant. With the garbanzos it works as an entree, but I've also left them out and used it as a side (to meat, which isn't much help to you...).

It's from The Blue Sword. We got that and Hero and the Crown on audiobook, and have listened to them pretty much every road trip since. Still not sick of either of them Although I find it a little troubling that most of the kick-ass female characters that really get me inspired to get moving do really violent martial arts and generally have some magic equivalent to help them learn at unrealistic rates.

Character Name: Harimad Hogwarts House or School of Origin: Ravenclaw Wand description: cedar with a unicorn tail core Patronus: leopard 1. Charms: Do some organizing - clean out the linens, consolidate all of the games into the same place, and figure out what cleaning supplies I actually have and where they should belong. 2. Potions: I love tea. Why do I always forget to drink it? During this challenge, I will drink at least one cup of tea each day. 3. Herbology: Tackle the yardwork. Get the bushes trimmed, spread out the fertilizer, and spray down all the diseased plants. Bonus points for figuring out what I want to grow this spring and where I'm going to put it.. 4. Transfiguration: Transfigure my stress into sleepiness. Do a 20 minute yoga wind-down before bed each night.

I don't know, your food goals are a lot more black and white than mine, and I usually find that easier to follow. At least as of now I have a pretty clear picture in my head of what my meals should look like.

January was my first challenge, and it went pretty well. I only lost about 3 pounds, but I went from having to do pushups on the fourth stair up to the third stair up - as pathetic as that is, I'm really thrilled to finally see my arms getting stronger. This time around, I really want to make a concerted effort to drop five pounds. I'm about 10 pounds over my ideal weight, but the weight I'm at now is the lowest I've been since my crazy stressful last semester of grad school 7 years ago (there were two kids between now and then, so I've had a lot of fluctuation). I've hit this point before, but haven't been able to get below it before giving up. This time, I really want to succeed: if all goes to plan, we'll be starting to try for kid #3 in March, and with my previous two kids I had some complications during pregnancy, including gestational diabetes with my last. Since weight and stress are risk factors I can control, I'm going to do everything I can to control them. All that to say, here are my goals for this challenge: Exercise: Follow couch to 5k (starting week 4 since that's about my current level) M/W/F. Do BBWW T/Th, and yoga on Sundays. Diet: Do a Mediterranean/Paleo hybrid: tons of veggies and fruits in a variety of colors, extremely limited grains (and what I eat is unrefined - oatmeal, rice, etc.), protein with every meal including fish/beans at least once per week, and about half the dairy I used to eat. I'm also limiting myself to two glasses of wine a week, and everything else i"m drinking is either water or homemade smoothie. No added sugar. Life: Follow the UfYH daily/weekly cleaning checklist to keep my house fairly clean and get into a good routine (checklist is here: http://www.unfuckyourhabitat.com/cleaning-checklists/) I'd like to join up with the rangers since I really want to balance improving my endurance with getting stronger, and that seems right in line with this guild.