AKLulu

Good luck! I keep thinking I'll try a Whole30 one of these days for the same reason. I know that there are some effects from gluten/grains and dairy when I get back into them after I've been doing Paleo for a while, but I'm still a little in denial about how bad it might be.

Ruck yeah! You're gonna kill this. And BS, you have arm strength. That gymnasticy stuff is not easy. I -know-, I've been trying... I blame my weight

Oooo, good luck! I'm in Portland currently, but definitely not a runner (yet... it may happen someday). I'm moving out at the end of May though and heading back to Alaska.

You go, Dawsy! Good luck ! I love your back story

You know.... you could try setting a timer on your phone and take pictures that way. I know the Camera Awesome app lets you set the timer for as much as a minute, which would be plenty of time to get in place. Just a suggestion if pictures are really something you'd like to do.

I dislike that gif *makes disgusted face* Also... dancing in butter... who are you to judge what someone calls art?

You and me are in the same boat, lady. Single, don't have a career path, and looking for seasons. Of course... I've already quit my job because my busy season is summer and I can't bear to do that again, so I'm taking the "easy" way out and going back to Alaska to hang out with my family for a while. I'll probably stay in Alaska for a year or two if I can find a job that sounds interesting/pays well enough (not that Alaska has more seasons than Oregon... but at least it has winter), but Colorado and North Carolina are actually both on my list of places to look next too. Twinsies! I know all this isn't very helpful, but I can totally sympathize and if you ever need somebody to lament to/with, I'm always here for you!

There were like 5 different gifs where I pulled this one from. I love it!

Yayyyyy! Love is all I ever needed anyways <3

This has always been a major issue for me. Everyone seems to have some ultimate goal of this competition or that weight or this event... and I don't have any of those. I want to be healthy. That's not a very tangible, quantitative goal. So often my challenges are basically replicates of each other. Do CrossFit. Eat Paleo. Add in something else that seems like it would be a good idea to play with. It's great to have goals where you can have things be bigger, better, faster, stronger, MORE, but it's also okay to stick with what you're doing if it's working for you. I feel like my challenges are boring because of this "stasis," but I'm still making progress towards a fitter, healthier me and that's really the point in the end. Who cares if it's entertaining or epic?

They should be up tonight. Or at least that's what BigM said he'd be aiming for a few days ago.

I'm very much the same. I can't generally just give things up completely or have an every day of the week goal either because it sets me up for failure in the worst of ways. Because if I'm supposed to be doing something EVERY day, the moment I miss I feel very defeated and don't feel like I try as hard for the duration. I'm all for taking baby steps and saying "I'll do this thing x-number of times per week." It may make my goals seem super simple, but having successes with simple goals does way more for me in the long run than feeling like I've failed something. And if it's x-number per week, then everything resets every week and it's just a "failed" week instead of a failed challenge

Good job! Well done on the challenge and I'm glad for your sake that you'll have use of your parents' Subaru until you find something for yourself. I always did like their nice Suby... Plus you get to spend time with your mom. Awesome! You always have so much fun with her. When do you head out for AZ?

Great job on the challenge! Congrats on the job!! YA books have always been my favorite to read, so obviously I know who to go to if I need some reading suggestions

Uhhhhh nopedanope. I think I got a D on the mini-challenges.

I'll be trying to keep track of things over in my log for now if anyone's missing that link: http://rebellion.nerdfitness.com/index.php?/topic/42801-lulus-a-lurker-log It's also in my signature... if you hadn't noticed.

I'm baaaaaack! I'm not going to do the next challenge, but this last one was a pretty solid performance. I'm going to -try- to keep my log updated with workouts... and probably lots of random musing and stressy-ness due to my upcoming move. I've been pretty calm about it all up until now, but at this point I feel like I'm warding off a little anxiety every time I think about it. I have 5 weeks left at my job and need to figure out how much time after I'm done working I want to take to finish packing, cleaning, getting rid of stuff, and probably a bit of fun with Portland people. I think I'd like to fly out of Anchorage to home the week of June 9th. According to Google maps, the drive from Pdx to Anc is 2,436 miles and about 50 hours of drive time. I'd like to have time to take a few little hikes or maybe just some photo breaks somewhere along the way. If I give myself a full week, that puts me at about 7-hour days. That should be plenty do-able, but I might try to give myself a few extra days. If I end up driving more than I "plan" to in a day, it's no big deal if I get to Alaska a few days early. So I might want to move out a couple days before the end of May... Bah. ^ This is what's constantly running through my head right now. Shhhhhhhhh brain. Edit: Also, if anyone is curious why I'm talking about dancing in butter in my signature... it's because I ran across this: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/18/butter-dance-performance-art_n_1434395.html And that's what came to mind. Actually it was the version of this video set to Adele music... but whatever. You live, you learn, you dance in butter.

I think having goals for getting stuff done by will be helpful, but having an actual challenge for getting things done would stress me out. I think first step right now is just finding/buying some boxes to put stuff in. I've got piles of clothes I need to get rid of in the corner of my room, but keep putting off donating them because I don't have anything suitable to put them in. It's funny how you can let the littlest thing stop you from making progress...

The Final Scores Main Quest - B 1. Forgo the Gluten - 85.8% 2. Decline the Wine - 90% 3. Make that Money Matter - 83.2% Side Quests - D 1. Life Side Quest - 42% 2. Fitness Side Quest - 83% 3. Mini Quests - 67% I summed the weekly scores and took the average. Not too shabby... especially with how my challenges usually go. I'm not too disappointed about scoring lower on the side quests and am actually pretty happy that I did as well as I did on the running once a week. Not that once a week is a lot, but I'm not generally very motivated to run. It's getting easier though I don't know if I'll do a challenge this next time. I feel like I was getting burnt out on it a bit towards the end here. I feel like I accomplished the objective of giving myself a kick in the pants to get back on track with things though, so hopefully I'll continue on. I don't think I'll want the pressure of completing a challenge in the near future though because I'm already starting to worry a little about everything I have to do before I leave Portland. 5 weeks left at my job! Eeek! I need to figure out when I'm moving out of my rental... *pushes all the rest of the crazy, stressy mind thoughts back down into the Play-Doh container from whence they came*

Also this:

The final week! It... kind of fizzled out. Had fun at gymnastics on Friday, we were doing back handspring work and played on the trampolines more. I had one very beautiful fail when we were practicing getting our hands on the floor with the PacMan things. Well I guess it wasn't a fail really, because I did the skill, but ALL the things came tumbling down on top of me and I just lay there, giggling at the bottom of the pile. That was fun I didn't end up going to CrossFit for a third time, but I was pretty wiped after alternating CF and gymnastics 4 days in a row, so I wasn't beating myself up about it. Especially because I missed Sunday to have lunch and wander around the mall with Babs. Also, Nightcrawler and I found out at the beginning of the challenge that the drop-in rate for CF is $20, not $10 like I thought it was, so I still made the month worth it Week 6: Main Quest1. Forgo the Gluten - 6/7 days 2. Decline the Wine - 4/5 days (alcohol-free)3. Make that Money Matter - 2/3 CrossFit sessions Side Quests 1. Life Side Quest - Cleaned nothin' 0/1 2. Fitness Side Quest - 1/1 day running 3. Mini Quests - Nope Now I have to go calculate things. Nice thing about the challenge being over is I can get things other than salad when I forget to bring a lunch from home. That sandwich yesterday made me feel like crap, but it was still totally worth it.

If you haven't made the cuts already, is there a place you could rent a skill/circular saw from?

You'll be great!

:( Hope you're feeling better, buddy!