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Thanks and thanks! I told my boss I had a personal appointment. I just omitted the fact that it was with a pool. Details, details.

This will be challenge 3 for me. Due to school, I fell off updates in my second challenge, but I hung in there, nerd fam! Stuck to diet, didn't miss a single workout. In fact, one day, I had an evening commitment which would've caused me to miss the gym, so I took PTO to leave work early and get my workout in. That felt amazing. I'm back again for Oct/Nov challenge. Yeah, baby! I'm a return-to-school student finishing up a degree in Communication and this is my second-to-last semester. Until April 21, 2018 (but who’s counting), school is my priority. I’m doing an internship this semester along with classes, which is going to stretch me mentally, but I know I’m up to this as long as I take it in small bites. Fitness, however, is not leaving my radar by any means. In order to balance school and fitness, I’m keeping my goals for this challenge to the basics: simple food goals, my number one workout goal is getting this body in the gym four times a week, and my life goal is reevaluating my budget spreadsheet and making a plan for updating it. Food Goals Sticking to what worked last time, which is reducing processed foods, only eating foods I want to eat, and logging every morsel on MFP (I’m keyrex – feel free to send a friend request!). That’s it. I still have plenty of foods that I cooked in Sept and put in the freezer, which was one of the best ideas I’ve had this semester. Workout Goals Again, more of what worked for me in the second challenge. The biggest change I made was adding variety to my gym time. I’m fortunate to be a member of a workout center that has pools, offers classes, and has great lifting equipment. I’m still struggling a bit with tennis elbow, but it has improved. No lifting until December, per my doctor, but there’s plenty else to do. Weekends are spent writing papers and grabbing a yoga class when possible, so planning for Mon-Fri has worked for me. My schedule for the week: M T W Th F Track walk Swim laps School Spin class Swim laps This schedule offers me variety, and swimming twice a week gives my arm great exercise without triggering the tendonitis. Life Goals My finances have been scattered for months and I’ve been completely passive about doing my budget, tweaking my spreadsheet, etc. This month I’m going to take it back and it’s going to feel so damn good. Here's where I'd add an inspiring LOTR gif, but I'm going to be late for a meeting so I'll save it for later.

So very in.

Thanks! There's eating off, but I ate way off, and for probably three meals. But I did get back to it. My stomach is no longer happy with greasy pizza, which is a great deterrent.

This is great to know! I've been thinking of starting a yoga class at my gym. They don't charge extra for the class. I need to motivate myself out the door for this. Thanks!

Overdue check-in! Life has picked up quite a lot, but I'm still staying with the program. Last weekend was rough with a lot of unexpected commitments. I ate way off my plan, but made an immediate recovery. Today I hit a weight I haven't seen in two years. Food Staying on plan by making sure that my meal plans have variety, but they're all foods I love to eat. Today, I wasn't in the mood to eat what was on my plan and I was able to change it up but keep it to good choices. This is really working. I'm a little nervous with school starting next week, but I've been on this plan long enough to know it's solid and it works, I just need to stick with it. Fitness It's Thursday and I've already hit four workouts. With swimming tomorrow, that'll be five, an all-time PR for me. My hips are a little sore today, but tomorrow is swimming and Saturday will be a rest day. I really need to google up some hip stretches. They get so tight sometimes and it causes me some grief when I'm walking the track at the gym after about 20 mins. Sleep I continue to mostly fail here. Last night was the first night I've had more than seven hours of sleep in a night. Not because I can't sleep, but I'm just not getting myself to bed on time. I'm going to quickly post this and start getting ready for bed.

It's been a few days but I'm still on track with my meal plans and tracking. I even flexed a meal this week from what was planned to something I had more a taste for, edited that for the day's calories, and it all worked out. Fitness, not so much this week. My gym is closed Monday through Friday this week for their annual maintenance (drain and refill pools, clean and replace equipment, etc.) and I'm kinda lost, I guess. I've used some of my workout time to do productive work at home, but some of it I've just sloughed off. I can't wait to get back to the gym on Saturday. Progress is being made, it's a matter of keeping in mind on those days with an increase that the overall trend is what matters. Doing good so far this week. I've fallen off on my water intake this week, so my focus goal today is making sure I get in 64-80oz today.

Lessons were learned. I planned to have an eat out day every other Friday (paydays), and I knew I wanted to get Mexican. I logged my planned dinner before I went, knowing it was hugely over my usual kcals for a meal, and then went for an extended swim beforehand to burn extra cals. I used to eat those nachos all the time - and eat all of them. I'm not sure why I did yesterday other than habit and going overboard with a favorite meal. I ate every bite, which was way too much food for how I've been portioning food for the past few weeks. Ugh. It was delish, but my tum was pretty unhappy. I'll continue to have my biweekly dinner out, but it will be a half portion from now on. It really would've been enough. And it wouldn't completely blow my cals for the day. I weighed up .5lbs today as a result, but we'll see how it evens out. Monday mornings are my weekly weigh and measure check-ins. Other than that, I'm staying on track. Tomorrow is my first grocery shop on the new meal plan-and-shop thing I'm trying. I'm choosing at least one recipe to try every week (trying to prevent food boredom which leads to me falling off my plan. Then I incorporate it into my meal plan for the next week. I found a great template for Excel that seems to work perfectly for me. And then I make a grocery list which includes anything I don't have. Last week I had to make a second run for a couple of things I missed, so hopefully this time around I've got it down.

I'm just starting my weightloss journey, with some weight yet to lose before I can run safely, and you're truly an inspiration. And you're living my taco dream! All the workouts will be worth it if I can get to the point you have reached where I eat tacos as part of the plan. Congrats!!!

Loving your goals! That cold shower though - brrrrrrrr!! A bit late to the party but following!

I forgot the coolest thing today. I worked at an ice cream social event for my workplace today and didn't have even a taste of ice cream. Not even an Oreo topping crumb. I tried to focus on helping others get ice cream and not think about it. It seemed to work pretty well.

New pants = THE BEST ACHIEVEMENT!! So geeked for you!!

Staying on track. I'm feeling kinda hungry tonight, but I know I just need to ride this out and I'll wake up tomorrow morning not feeling hungry. Today was the first day I felt like the bad influence voices in my head started talking loudly. I had to make a run to Target for something and I was so tempted to buy something off my meal plan. "Just something small" the voice said. And I probably could, but I just don't think I should. I need to forget what all that stuff tastes like. It reminds me of when I quit smoking. I wasn't the person who could have any cigarettes around at all. I was only successful once I went cold turkey. Even when I stuck with the plan to have just 3 or 5 or whatever in a day, remembering what I enjoyed about smoking just made it too fresh in my mind. I needed to walk away and forget as much as possible. I feel the same method is likely to be most successful for me with food outside of my plan. I get to have a meal out every other Friday with food that isn't on my plan, but even that has to be a reasonably-sized meal. So two days from now I'll have that meal. In the meantime, I need to earn it. Still on plan with exercise. Today was to be a day at the gym, but I volunteered at a work event that kept me walking and standing for three hours, and my hips and thighs were really feeling it by the end of the day. Plus, I'd already hit my 10k steps for the day, so I came home, took Ibuprofen, and called it good. As far as my bedtime goal, my fitbit says I'm sleeping just about 6.5 hours every night, which is not reaching my 7 hour goal. My bedtime goal has been 10:30, but I think I need to back that up to me getting into bed at 10:15-ish, so that I'm falling asleep by 10:30 (I blessedly sleep like a stone and am usually asleep within 10-15 mins). I'm going to try this starting tonight.

Yesterday's update, which I found in drafts when I logged on this morning... Super quick update cause today was long and busy. On track with everything again today. Weigh-in was a shock. The scale said 7lbs down in the past week. I realize that likely, there was water weight involved in my weigh-in from a week ago, but this is definitely some downward weight movement. The journey begins. Keeping on track with everything. My best moment of the day was definitely when an event in our building ended and leftover pastries were left in the department kitchen. I avoided the kitchen entirely and managed to avoid any temptation. Not the call I'd normally make. /flex

Got distracted yesterday, so today, checking in here throughout the day to cross items off my list. I got an idea for setting up my food plans for the week so I'm going to create a spreadsheet for that Make spreadsheet for Overwatch Summer Event items Update budget spreadsheet Read Beren & Luthien Make fresh pesto and zucchini bread (made pesto but couldn't find a zucchini bread recipe that wasn't ridiculously high in calories - going to have to research that cause I have a huge zucchini to use up) Laundry vacuum change litter box Change bedding Set up bullet journal for the week Food prep for the week Gym Sunday: stretch class, walk (if Toe of Doom allows), shower Grocery shop