EnergizerBunny

My last challenge was fairly successful- I got about 75%. I noticed what helped was keeping it it simple and having plenty of prominent reminders. Accountability helped. Challenge 9/16 - 10/20: Add ab exercises in to my routine- once per week. Can be separate or part of same workout. Record workouts in journal. Tape a scene weekly and watch the playback. Invite someone to do something once per week. It can be literally anything, and they don't have to say yes for this to count! Write down purchases for a month. Once a week, go through them and audit how I felt about them- did I regret them? Were they impulse buys? Or did I feel good about the money I spent? I can see here that goals #2 and #4 will inspire the most resistance. I don't always like watching myself, and I can see how it'd be easy to forget to do #4. I just set up reminders and created a page in my bullet journal to help myself stay on track.

Update: I did it!! Mostly. Goal #1: Done. I made a list of treats and sorted it by cost, so the free ones are for the smaller wins and the pricier ones are for the big wins. Goal #2: uhhhh.... epic fail. I did once or twice. Looks like I need a better reminder system. Goal #3: Done! I've been doing this with my boyfriend, mostly Monday nights. The routine and accountability are really working for me. Goal #4: Yep! To be completely fair, I didn't track this religiously, so it's possible I didn't do this *every* single day. Next time I'll make a bullet journal spread or something. But I was way, way more social than usual, so I'll call this one a win. 3/4! To celebrate I bought myself a new sports bra (and it was on sale!). I accidentally missed the planning period for the next challenge- gotta get cracking ;)

Week 1 Update 1. I made a big list of healthy treats. i haven't yet figured out how often I should get the treats, or which goals they should be tied to, but that's step one! 2. Well, I logged in at the beginning of the week... and forgot to do my quest. I'll set a midweek reminder this time. 3. I did it! It was fairly short, but I went. 4. I managed to do this every day *and* saw friends in person this week. It immediately made me feel a lot more connected to people. Big success.

Diadhuit - Congrats, and good luck! I really like the academy. It has structure, which I like, and a choose-your-own-adventure style setup. It *told* me to set up incentives and get social support... I just haven't done it yet. But if I had followed the instructions the first time I would have probably made some real progress. wondering_piper - Goodness! Good for you! That's quite an undertaking. Hope it's going well :) Tateman - Funny how going *still* seems like 'too much effort'... when it's barely anything. I guess that means excuses aren't actually real. Huh.

I recently moved to an apartment complex with a gym, and am excited to use this clean slate to make some changes! For this challenge I'm focusing on sustainability. I'm an academy member and have tried it before, but always seemed to lose momentum. I think committing to these challenges *and* making sure to do the retrospective will help. Accountability and structure are two things that have helped me make other life changes, so they're what I'm focusing on this time. My goals are: Create an incentive system for working out Log in to the NFA weekly Work out once per week Text someone or comment on a social media post once per day

Whoops! Missed the deadline again. My bad. This is my second challenge, and I'm 0 for 2. Next time I'll actually take a break between challenges so I'm ready to go on the start date. Anyway. For my first challenge I found great success starting small, so I'm going to continue with those incremental changes. Last time I: Did some form of movement three times per week Found ten recipes that feature vegetables Cut back to 2 sugary coffee drinks per week Checked in with my budgeting app once per week As a bonus, I ended up joining a gym, figuring out my 401K, and quitting a side gig that wasn't working out! So yay. This round I'm going to build off of last round's success. QUEST 1 (GET STRONG): Continue moving three times per week, but make one of those an actual workout. BONUS: Do that free introductory personal training session at the gym. QUEST 2 (FUEL MY BODY): Continue sticking to 2 sugary coffee thingies per week. Track what I eat every day. Tally up how much of what I consume is sugar so I can make a plan for slowly cutting back. QUEST 3 (GET CENTERED): Meditate for 2 minutes per day every day. Use Insight Timer so it's tracked. Bonus: continue checking in with my budgeting app every week.

I'm in! Just finished my first four week challenge, and am excited to keep the momentum going. Last time I kept it very concrete and manageable, and it really helped me keep it up all four week.s Fitness Goal: For my last challenge I chose to get up and move three times per week. For the next two weeks I'll keep that goal and add that one of those sessions must be at the gym. I just joined, and am excited but also very scared. Nutrition Goal: I'm going home for Christmas, and can eat what I want when I'm with family. But the other days will be business as usual. Last challenge I kept to a limit of two sugary drinks per week. I wasn't even thinking about alcohol consumption, and will deal with that next round. This time I'll keep that limit but exclude alcohol and will start logging my sugar intake. Logging all of my food would be great too, but for now we're just going to focus on my weakness so I know how much to cut back next round. Lifestyle Goal: Reflect on the year. Set goals. And declutter.

UPDATE: Still sick this week, but did what I could. Movement: Nada. My step average is 7,931 because I walk around so much at work, but I did not really move intentionally. 0/3 Recipes: Finished last week! 10/10. Liquid calories: ....neglected to plan for all of the alcohol this week. I had a Christmas party on Tuesday and my parents came to visit last night, *and* we're going beer tasting tonight. I didn't really make a plan for alcohol because most weeks I drink it so little! I did stick to only two sugary coffee drink things, sooooo... not really sure how to grade this one. Finance: Checked in on Monday and again today. 2/1 - bonus!

Hey, you're making progress! Update?

Woohoo! Just tuning in- you are killing it! How are you handling breakfast? Is it the same egg scramble, or do you change it up?

Yeah, it works super well so far! I stuck to my drink budget this past week too. The bad news is that I got sick on Thursday and haven't moved at all. That personal training session will have to wait. The good news is that I found all 10 recipes, and I checked into my budgeting software!

Woohoo! You did it!

Oh, totally! My weak spot is iced dirty chais. Mmmmmmm....... UPDATE: Movement: I went for two more walks and thought about what to discuss at my training session. I did some great reflecting on what's worked in the past and what I can do moving forward. Yayyy, me! 3/3 Recipes: I checked my usual recipe blogs and am now at 5/10. Time to expand my horizons! Liquid calories: Stuck to the two drink limit last week! Found myself going on autopilot a couple of times, but caught myself. Having a budget is really working for me. I'm viewing it more like having drink tokens than being put on restriction. 2/2; limit resets today. Finance: I did it! I checked in. And it didn't kill me. 1/1

Thank you! Yeah, it's a tough cycle to break. I keep having all these great ideas for more habits to start, and have to just say no! UPDATE: Movement: Moved once so far this week. MUST do something tomorrow and Saturday. On the bright side... I got a gym membership! I toured two different gyms this week and picked one out. I love spin class and would like to try weights, so am looking forward to it. My introductory personal training session is next week. Recipes: No new recipes this week. That vegan taco recipe tasted fantastic though. Liquid calories: Had 1/2 drinks earlier this week. I'm staying strong though! I work at Starbucks, so there's plenty of temptation around, but lately I've been sticking to pretty standard black coffee. Finances: Not yet. Tomorrow!

UPDATE: Movement: I went for two walks this week and did a benchmark workout on Monday, so that's covered! 3/3 Recipes: Found a new salad recipe that actually seems tasty- victory! A quick search of one of my favorite recipe blogs yielded two more. I'm also making a vegan dish for a potluck that features portobello mushrooms, so fingers crossed that it's good. 4/10 Liquid calories: Okay, so I had my drinks budget yesterday without thinking. I tried a coffee drink at a new bakery down the street, and then I got another sweet drink later without thinking. No more until my budget resets on Monday. Finances: I did it! I checked out my Mint.com account and actually found a charge that shouldn't be there, so I spent some time on the phone to get it taken care of. Boom. 1/1