GothDetective

Thanks so much for these tips! I'm out of the woods so to speak for now haha. But I've always gotten really bad cravings, so I will definitely keep those tips in mind. Usually I will do that last tip and sort of question myself - mostly with Starbucks lol - before I actually eat. One big thing I've been doing is logging whatever treat I want into myfitnesspal before I actually eat it. Sometimes the calories blow my mind and that's enough for me to put it down haha. Also it is so cool to hear about so many other teachers and people studying to be teachers! I had a good day today! Made a little egg bake with a potato, turkey bacon and eggs for breakfast which was delicious. Ate some leftovers of that over salad for lunch and then chicken for dinner, so definitely healthy! And I got in 10, 000 steps and three Beginner Bodyweight circuits. On that what I'm working on is getting my rest period between circuits down since I've been taking quite a recovery time lately. Also on doing proper push-ups! I can't seem to get the form right when I try regular push ups so I've been on my knees so far. But I could barely do one of those at the start so I'm still pretty happy with that. In personal news, I am so ready to be done with Uni for the year and get to go back home over the summer! I've been rewatching Gavin and Stacey and it makes me a little homesick. And in off-scale victories, both of my usual workout shorts are feeling reeeeally loose on me which I'm very, very happy about. I'm going shopping for a swimming suit soon and I'm hoping to get back down to a large but we'll see.

Thanks guys! I've been back at it the past two days despite not really updating yesterday. Sorry about that! So yesterday I got in my 10,000 steps and three circuits of the Beginner Bodyweight which was my number one goal so I'm proud of that! I stuck totally to fruits, vegetables and meat yesterday to sort of feel less gross after eating junk. Then today I ate a fruit salad for breakfast, a salad for lunch, and we went for sushi for dinner. I know it's not necessarily the best thing to eat, but as far as eating out choices I think it's healthier. And today I got in about 10,000 steps too so that was good. This week coming up I'm just focusing on keeping my momentum up and meeting all my goals. I already feel a lot healthier from cutting out the junk food these past two days again. So yeah! Feeling pretty good. I'm going to try to update every day the next week coming up.

Hey! Thanks dawnwings! I'll admit I fell off the wagon a little bit today. I ate pasta salad for dinner which I know is about as far from paleo as you can get, and definitely not very healthy, plus my sister made homemade donuts and brought me one by which I ate for dessert. The only positive there is that I kept it to only one. I also only got in about 3,000 steps. Which is no where near what I've been managing the past few days. That being said. I did at least meet my goals and I'm trying not to feel discouraged. Those 3,000 steps got me to 30 minutes of exercise and that was my goal even if I've been exceeding it lately. I still do feel like I ate at least 80% healthy. And I definitely didn't go out to the store, so at least there's that. And I went to the movies with no snacks! Which may sound small but it is HUGE for me! Tomorrow is my Beginner Bodyweight day so I'm focusing on not letting this permanently derail me, getting through three circuits of the Beginner Bodyweight, taking at least 10,000 steps tomorrow and eating all healthy to get myself back on the tracks. I really want to not beat myself up about this one since I know that one day is not going to ruin my progress. So tomorrow I am focusing on eating really only meat and vegetables to sort of cleanse myself of the bad day and just get back to it! I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow!

So yesterday I succeeded in not giving in to my cravings! I did have a starbucks today, but I kept it pretty healthy, and it was way more because I was just so exhausted than because I was craving sweets. I ate pretty healthy today. I made hibachi for dinner, no rice, and fruit for breakfast again. A salad for lunch. Other than the Starbucks everything was healthy so I consider that a success! I walked almost 15,000 steps! This is a personal best for me and a huge deal! AND as if that wasn't good enough, I managed to get through all three circuits of the Beginner Bodyweight which I have NEVER done before and didn't think I'd be able to do today. So I really feel like I've had a great day. I've been super motivated and just pretty pleased with my results for the day. I didn't go to the store, either, so that goal is going well!

Hi everyone! I've been lurking on Nerd Fitness for a loooong time (although mostly just reading articles and looking for tips) but this is the first challenge I'm in! I'm Noel, I'm twenty-two, from England originally but I'm living in New York now while I'm in University. I'm studying to become a primary school teacher back home because I love kids and I love to teach! I pretty much nerd out about everything, and I'm looking to get back to my roots when I loved to hike and go on walks and just spend time outside. I haven't done any of that in a while, so I really want to embrace that part of my life again.

So update for today! I've logged all my food so far today - a light fruit salad for breakfast and leftover chicken and dumplings for dinner - but I'll level with you guys. I am having a real struggle today. First and most annoyingly, I am having major PMS cravings. I woke up wanting sweets so badly which is why I thought eating some fruit for breakfast might get rid of it. No go on that so far. If anybody has any tips on dealing with this please let me know! I feel like I want to eat nonstop! The good news is that I walked 5,000 steps already today (probably about 40-45 minutes) so I met that goal! And I'm actually planning on walking some more later. Exercise so far has been the least problematic goal for me. It's really easy for me to just keep going forever once I get started. The other good news is that I don't have any chocolate/sweets/craving food in my house right now, so if I stick to my third goal and just eat what's in the house, I should be okay. Wish me luck because willpower supplies are running dangerously low!

Hi! Thanks so much for the encouragement and how cool to find someone so similar! (In addition: I also very much love Dragon Age) What are you planning to teach? I'm hoping to teach primary school back home so for me it's a bit of everything haha.

Update on Day One! I did really well logging my food today, I already ate breakfast - eggs, veggies and turkey bacon - and a little fruit salad I made as a snack and I logged both of those things. I also logged my dinner in advance because I'm making chicken and dumplings for myself and a few friends in the crockpot and I just put it in. I loaded it full of carrots, broccoli and celery and went a little lighter on the dumplings so it should be pretty healthy still. I already did two cycles of the beginner bodyweight, which ended up taking about twenty minutes, but I'm going for a walk pretty directly so I'm confident I'll get over thirty minutes. As for the Bodyweight workout, I tried to get the third cycle done, but my legs were not having it after like two squats haha. So I'm going to try that again on Thursday. And I haven't gone grocery shopping since I went before this challenge started on Friday or Saturday I honestly forget which day I went. But I haven't gone since, I'm sticking to what's in the house! So far I feel pretty good and even though I didn't manage to get to the third cycle of the Beginner Bodyweight today, I can definitely feel it becoming easier which is so motivating for me.

Hi everyone! I guess I should start by telling everyone a little about me! Well, I'm a lady nerd who is very, very new to healthy living. You can all call me Noel. I'm twenty-two and I'm still in university, studying to become a teacher! I nerd out about basically everything: video games, movies, comic books, music, I have a very eclectic taste. Also I'm really friendly and definitely hoping to utilize this site to find some similar friends since a lot of my fellow nerds aren't necessarily concerned with healthy living. I'm a long time lurker here, but this my first time posting, so hopefully I'm doing everything right, and feel free to throw tips my way! So, how did I get here? Well, I have a story pretty similar to a lot of people. I was always kind of a chunky kid but when I was younger I spent 99.9% of my time outdoors and ate pretty healthy, I never felt out of shape or tired or anything. I started to go out less in high school, but I was still in pretty good shape. On weekends I loved going on hikes with my friends or just walking around the city. Then, uni happened. I put on more than the Freshman Fifteen and I'm heavier now than I've ever been in my life. More importantly, I feel depressed and rundown all the time. I love being outside, but I haven't been able to enjoy it as much because I'm so out of shape, and I feel unhealthy every day. So those are basically my reasons for wanting to get back to living healthy. Although I'm posting this thread today, I'm actually on my 7th day of healthy living without any lapses so far! I'm already starting to feel better and I really want to keep the positive momentum going. I weigh 220 now and my big, overarching goal is to get to 170 in the next few months. I was actually a little higher than that when I was at my healthiest, but I think I can get there. But for this challenge I have smaller goals! 1.) Log everything I eat on myfitnesspal! And be very honest about it, even if I ate something I shouldn't have. The first step to recognizing patterns is recording data, right? 2.) 80-90% of the time eat whole food. Basically paleo. Meat, vegetables, fruits. I'm also including soy meats in this, and regular potatoes. The other 10-20% is for reasonable treats! I incorporate them into my everyday diet rather than having a specific 'cheat day'. 3.) Get some form of exercise totaling at least (hopefully more than!) 30 minutes each day. 4.) My lifestyle goal sort of ties in with my weight loss, but it is to go grocery shopping at the most once a week. I often go on a big grocery trip and then go out again multiple times throughout the week. I'm hoping to stop this and I know my wallet will thank me if I do! So far I've made some great progress from when I started! I've been up to walking almost 10, 000 steps a day, and I can do two cycles of the Beginner Bodyweight! When I started this I couldn't even get through one! I'm definitely hoping this progress will continue and hope to update everyone day by day. Thanks for reading this and wish me luck!