~Dark~Lady~Link~

Fantastic job keeping a daily log!!! It looks like you're keeping right on things keep it up!

Those burritos have been a life saver for me. I HATE taking forever to make dinner... they're super easy and not high in calories so it's my go-to now! Yoga has been interesting, it's a new form of movement for me but I like yoga. Yoga ;P Definitely going to try that dance! Thanks for the video Thanks everyone for popping by I love when my thread has visitors! QUICK UPDATE! I'm a wee bit behind schedule, but that's okay. I've got one yoga and one guided meditation down. I've been a bit out of it and I think this challenge will help me refocus. Prepped another container today: I threw the onions, peppers, and rice on a frying pan and mixed in the salsa. I made a big batch of it so I can just pull out one container and throw it in a burrito shell. Lazy healthy(ish) food FTW! I'm going to be visiting a new gym location tomorrow. I usually go to the one on my BF's side of town, but it's a bit of a drive so I've convinced him to come to mine so I can check it out... I have a tiny bit of social anxiety and don't like going to new places alone. Once I've checked the place out I'll be more comfortable going on my own so I don't always have to work with his schedule. That's about it! I need to try out that dance video and look up my old teacher, and then I'll be right on track hope you all are doing well on your challenges!

It looks like you have the right motivation! Great job on taking the first steps! I do suggest making smaller goals that will build up to completing your big goal, but if you don't roll that way then that's totally alright there's a whole community here and we're all different! Welcome to the rebellion Mr. Smash!

I like your goals! And it's really good to learn from challenges even if we don't complete them. I didn't complete my last (2nd) challenge either, but I learned a lot from it keep going! You can do it!!

First update!! 1 Meditation done! AND I prepped 4 containers last night!! I cut up an onion, green pepper, lettuce, and made some rice and put them all in separate containers. Now all I have to do is grab a tortilla, make a meat, and heat up the rice and BAM! almost-instant burrito! I'm planning on doing a yoga tonight too so yay! Off to a good start!

WHAT'S UP REBELS!!! Last month's challenge ended in a complete flop... but that's okay. I knew I had set the bar higher than would be advised, and I tried my best. I failed, but I learned from it. Let's do this again guys, and this time we're going to fly through it like falcons or something cool like that. Rad. THIS TIME AROUND I'm going to focus more on getting into focus, which to me means less worrying about exercise and more getting my brain into check. Of course, I'll still be hitting the gym and whatnot, but my challenge will be focusing on focusing. I'm thinking probably yoga/meditation as the main points. So let's get to it! - READY PLAYER ONE - My Main Quest: Lose to 175 lbs: I considered making yoga my main, but decided to keep this one instead of yoga. This is the same main quest as last month. I'm keeping it as my main quest for two reasons: 1) so I can do the dang thing and 2) because even though I'm teaching myself new things during each quest, my underlying goal is still to lose weight. My birthday is still a while off, but if I don't buckle down I won't reach my goal weight by then! So I'm keeping my main goal as weight loss. COMPLETION = 25 EXP!DAILY Training: Yoga! Either from my DDP Yoga dvd's or from a youtube clip, I want to do yoga at least twice a week. I'll probably be going with slow, stretch-type yoga (as opposed to hot yoga). I wonder how many times I can type yoga before you guys start to get annoyed. Yoga. COMPLETION (8 DAYS) = 25 EXP! ; -3 EXP per day missed.Meditation! Same as yoga, I want to do at least two meditation sessions per week. Meditation takes too long to type out to see if I can annoy you by saying it a bunch of times over like I am with yoga. Yoga. COMPLETION (8 DAYS) = 25 EXP! ; -3 EXP per day missed.Skill School: Sunday Food Prep: I say 'food prep' because I'm not going to make all my meals that day, I'm just going to prep the ingredients, AT LEAST THREE CONTAINERS PER WEEK. Again this is a repeat task from last month (unlike yoga and meditation, which I didn't do last challenge). I've knocked the container count down by 1 per week, because I failed this last time. Hopefully I'll be able to manage it this time around! 12+ CONTAINERS = 20 EXP ; 7-11 CONTAINERS = 15 EXP ; 6- CONTAINERS = 10 EXPSide Quest: Dance Dance REBELLION! I miss dancing, so this challenge I want to make a point of learning new dances because putting it in here gives me an excuse to learn new dances! Yoga doesn't count as dancing, although some yoga is like dancing and yoga instructors are sometimes dancers. No experience points for this one, just happy points! If you have suggestions for dance tutorials post them in the thread!! I'm planning on just watching videos made by my old line dancing teacher, but I'm always open to new suggestions! Yoga.

Alrighty guys... Final Update: Pretty much flunked this challenge.... I almost made it but a weekend trip kicked me off the 30DoC. I didn't want to post my failure but here it is. BUT that just means I can only get better I have some catching up to do and I need to keep working harder on discipline, but I have a bit more experience under my belt and they always say that you learn more from failure than success so here's to the next challenge!!! Good luck everyone! I hope you do well this time around!

Side note: so as some of you know I'm doing a reddit challenge too, and last week there was a death in the family of our team captain... so I've decided to help take over conversations (no one else was posting since no threads were being made) so she/he doesn't feel like they have to hurry back. I'm working with our rival team to get a competition going, and though it's been a sudden task, I've enjoyed rallying the troops hopefully my team won't fall too far behind from the week of silence. UPDATE! I'm still up to date with my darebee challenge! Though I went into a minor coma (slept 20 hours today.. I was tired..) and had to catch up on half a day of exercise. I think I'm going to try to do two days tomorrow too, so that if I slip off this weekend I'll still be on top of things. I've also devised a way to catch up on new foods and meal prepping!! I'm going to make a bunch of containers with (healthy) burrito toppings, and so I can make new foods (I've never thought to make burritos till we got them at work) and meet my container criteria. I'm going to find out the calories and serving sizes for all the ingredients (EXAMPLE: 1c chopped lettuce = X calories) and that way I can mix different toppings and still know how much I'm eating. Plus that way I don't have to eat the same thing all the time, even if it's very similar. I've been very bad about eating healthy lately (partially because I've been busy and partly because my mom gave me a bunch of chocolate for V day.. but it's all gone now so that's a problem gone). Hopefully the burritos should help and since I only have 3 work days this week I won't have any excuses for not counting calories correctly. WE'RE IN THE LAST WEEK GUYS!! Keep going towards your goals! We can do it! Even if you don't meet your goals, do the best you can if you stumble down while climbing a mountain, you'll still be higher up than if you didn't climb at all!

As long as you keep working towards it, you're doing well! Cleaning and dusting... blagh >.< I strongly dislike those things... good on you for doing it! Take care of your body, even if you have to back off on the gym and work back up... better to take your time and get there than rush it and get injured!

Hello fellow Zelda fan!! Love the last quote on your signature!! Goodness though, you're making me blush Thanks for the encouragement!!

Hey!! How's it going?! Did you ever get your book?

Oh dear, I've been so bad at posting... sorry y'all!! UPDATE: (Finally) I'm halfway to my weight goal since starting the challenge!! So that's good! I should easily be able to get off the other 2.5lbs as long as I don't slack off. I'm still on top of the 30 Days of Change!!! Which is an honest shock! 2/3 done!! I'm really happy about my progress, even though I've really fallen behind on the food prep stuff. I did make a new meal this week though (a breakfast burrito we learned to make at work.. we have a fresh food kitchen at my gas station), though I didn't eat it because I don't like sausage. I'm honestly not too upset about that since my focus is aimed totally at the 30DoC, and I'm meeting that goal. My big challenge will be next weekend. My bf and I are going to be celebrating our 1 year (EEE! I'm so excited!) by going to the beach for the weekend!! I won't gush over details, but I know a lot of the food will be fast food places... so I'm going to have to be super vigilant on my calories. PLUS working out will be the last thing on my mind, so I'm also going to have to be careful to still do my daily task... though the first day pretty much requires a gym so I'm not sure how I'll manage it, but I'll find a way! Sorry again for poor updates, I'll try to be better about that

Sorry!! Posting hasn't been my strong point this week.. but here we go! Update! So this week didn't go so well, but I'm using this weekend to prep EVERYTHING for next week ahead of time... especially food stuff. Hopefully planning ahead will help me catch back up with the challenge. However, the one point that I have stayed on top of is the 30 Days of Change. To be totally honest, I didn't think I'd make it this far. I'm super proud of myself for that, even if I've let the rest of the challenge slip. Yesterday's exercises were brutal too... but I did all 3 reps. Granted, I took frequent breathers, but I did it. So, in my opinion, everything is going well. This will be a big cooking week but I'm looking forward to it. <3 Happy early Valentines Day everyone! <3

That's a wonderful analogy! I'm sure it's supposed to be a reward kinda idea but at the same time it's not helpful to those of us who are fighting food cravings... I had a few cheese puffs last night (my manager bought a bag to share) and spent the rest of the shift craving more snacks. Pizza would throw me so far back on the temptation resistance it's not even funny. Quick Update: I found a recipe I want to try called Hasselback Chicken (link is to a fb video of it), so I'll hopefully make it sometime this week. I'm still keeping up with the 30DoC... today was not a fun day, but I did it. I'm planning on hitting the gym tomorrow since I won't have work that night, but we'll see if that actually happens. I may even try for the level 2 exercise tomorrow... but of course I'm more ambitious when I'm not in the moment of having to actually do it. This challenge doesn't really give me much to update though, so it's all short and simple. Hope y'all are doing well on your challenges too!

Day 9 Done! The challenge was a repeat of day 5 except more push-ups, so it wasn't too hard. And today I successfully made oats! I say that that way because it took two tries (no one bothered to tell me if you bring a water/milk mixture to a boil the milk reacts like baking soda in vinegar)! If you doubted how bad of a cook I am, hopefully that will clear things up. The reason this is my first time making them is because I hated them as a kid so I never had any desire to make any. Years later, as it turns out, I still hate them The texture just doesn't appeal to me. But hey, I made something! That one totally counts.

What I love about Darebee is that they have something for everyone... especially us nerds. They have so many nerd-stuff based workout programs, it's wonderful! I want to get to where I can do the Link/Zelda one Quick Update! Days 7 and 8 are done! I won't lie... I ended up doing both of them today... which I really don't want to make a habit of because that defeats the whole "discipline" point. But I did it, so that's good. I have been hitting the gym a lot more than I did last challenge, so that's been a bonus. Having the BF is a great help, especially when thEY OFFER FREE PIZZA. Because my gym does that, so I needed someone to drag me away from the sinful cheezy goodness. On Sunday I did make something new... which was ranch popcorn.. I think that two minor/snack new things can = a meal new thing. This may be put up for debate though, so feel free to post your viewpoint on that. That's it for now! My team lost the Superb Owl, but we're still proud of them for an awesome season despite a rough game for them. I'm really glad I'm not that into sports because watching that was stressful...

I've never smoked and running is one of my biggest challenges to overcome... major props to you for doing it!!

GUYS I DID THE THING!!! I managed to do both days yesterday!! I'm really proud of achieving that even though both days were easy. I broke out of 180 today too! Only 4.4 lbs away from my goal! I know this is partially because I barely ate the past two days, but it's been so long since I've seen 17- at the beginning of my weight, it made me happy. Today I have another 30DoC routine and I need to make something new because I still haven't done that this week (I don't count the cream). I'm most likely going to make something for the Super Bowl party tonight since I'm still being careful with my stomach, that way I've made something new but don't necessarily have to eat a meal of it. I actually slept really well last night though (I took extra sleeping pills), I still woke up a bunch but I feel more rested. I haven't even thought about what meals I'm going to be making this week.. I should get on that.. and I need to start looking for a multivitamin.. but besides that everything is going fairly smoothly.

Congrats on the success! Especially WoW! And good luck on your bike goal! You're doing great, keep up the good work!!! Also, another quick suggestion: if you run better when you're scared, try Zombies!Run!. It's a 2 part app, the first is a Couch to 5k that trains you to run and the second is where you run and "collect items" during the run and build your base. The whole thing is an interactive story based on a zombie apocalypse. Seriously fun app if you don't mind the terror of having raspy zombies breathing right into your ear.. here's the original preview video if you're interested.

The bad news.... I didn't get to do the 30DoC yesterday. I was saving it for right before work as an adrenaline kick-start, and it was going to be an easy workout. But.. I went out to Panera and for some reason unknown, my body rejected the food entirely. This is odd, because I got the EXACT same thing a week ago and I had no troubles. Unfortunately it made me so sick I didn't even make it to work last night, let alone worked out. My stomach is still mad at me and hurts a bit, but I'm not nauseous anymore. Also the doctor visit didn't get anything done YET. I got bloodwork done on almost everything and my doc suggested I get a multivitamin with 800-1000u of Vitamin D. In the meantime I'm going to try taking double of the sleeping pills I have now to see if that helps. The good news: The 30DoC is SUPER easy today (20min walk and stretching), and yesterday's is just punches and a few pushups (which I will be doing modified versions of). So as long as my stomach doesn't reject anymore food I'm going to try to do both. Probably broken up throughout the day just to be safe.. but I'm going to do it all. My day is going to be spent tidying up and hanging out with my teen cousin, so it should be a nice and easy day. Tomorrow will be a big social day, with my grandma coming over for waffles so we can trash talk the game, and then a Super Bowl party (GO PANTHERS!), which I'm really looking forward to! (I'm not into football, but everyone in our state has been in a fantastic mood lately). TL;DR: Got sick, didn't do the easy thing. Doctor running tests. Going to do two easy things today. Lots of social this weekend.

How are you doing on your challenge?!

Brent Weeks was a recent discovery for me, already got my cousin hooked on him too. I haven't heard of Lilith Saintcrow though, I'll have to check her out once I'm done with the series I'm on now!

I totally lied on accident! Sorry! The one I got was the Rejuvenate Wellness Tea, "High-grown Ceylon black tea with silver tips & citrus notes balanced with cinnamon, ginger & cloves spices with a touch of roasted yerba maté." is the official description. THey do have a Rev UP that I almost got, and my brain decided to mix the two... sorry!! DAY 4 IS DONE! Truthfully, today didn't go as well as I had hoped. My sleeping has gotten less and less restful, I wake up almost every hour now.. so needless to say I was low on spoons (link to that reference, in case you haven't heard it) today. I didn't get to do the 5k, or even any cardio after work (I'm counting work again, even though I didn't run). I managed to get out of the house and make a quick errand, and I'm proud of that. Plus I did all 3 sets of part 2 of today's challenge! And listen, I LIVE AT THE TOP OF A STAIRCASE. Leg day is not my friend. But I still did it, low spoons and all. That's something I'm proud of! I actually managed to make something new too!.. Whipped Cream. I made whipped cream. Sure, it's not what I was thinking when I said I'd make new foods, and I probably won't count it, but it's a prepped container! Don't get weirded out, but I made it to put into my scrambled eggs. I hate eggs, but they're good for you so I'm making myself learn to like them... by watching Gordon Ramsay. He uses cream in his, but I couldn't find any so I made my own. I added cheese too, and it turned out much better than the eggs I've tried to make before. So maybe I'll count that as my new meal. I'm not totally happy with today, but it wasn't a complete bust, so it's okay. MY DOCTOR APPOINTMENT IS TOMORROW!! So maybe I'll finally get some help with my sleep and spoons. Who knows, but I'm hopeful that my new (and older) doctor will know a way to at least partially stabilize me. [i know I talk about sleep and spoons a lot on here, apologies for that, it's just a very prominent problem for me, and it makes me feel less upset about not getting everything done if I can write out why.]

Be proud! You've already got one part done this week! AND you're keeping up with your candy intake/outtake! On top of that you mindfully made a good decision that wasn't included in your challenge. I'd call that a Mission Success! Good job keep it up!

I enjoy learning about tea, my fascination with it comes from my obsession with learning herbalism stuff... like how we react to different stuff in tea. It's one of my nerd creds. Quick and Dirty Update: Day 3! I did NOT want to do it. Did it anyway. Right before work. Helped me wake up for work... this may be studied further. Today I'm actually going to attempt a 5k in conjunction with the 30DoC. I know, I'm insane... BUT I HAVE A GOOD REASON! I'm doing the r/LoseIt challenge too, and my team is having a virtual 5k as one of our face-off's with another team. The team with the most participants (I think) gets another win. Winners get to claim the title Time Lords. I CAN'T NOT BE A TIME LORD! [For context: I'm on Team Times Square, and the competition is Team Father Time, so we both have even claim on the name. My team won the first competition, but only by 2 or 3 people.]