deborahjade

Things I've learned from Days 4-7 I still feel good... even though I've been fighting a horrible cold for the last 5 days. I just imagine how much worse I would feel if I was using sugar to try and feel better. And I think I am on 16 days of minimal sugar!! W00T! The longer I stick to my goals, the easier this is. I am totally pumped that I mentally said no to seconds of caramel apple slice at Bible study morning tea this week. I had many many good justifications for eating it.. but I chose not to. Yes!!! Epic water fail! Right now my lips are dry and I feel thirsty. Apparently I tend to drink less than 2.0L of water per day unless I deliberately try to drink more. So for week 2, I will fill up my bottle and then pour it into cups to drink (I prefer cups). That way I can see how much I've drunk. I'll fall back to my trusty routine of aiming for a bottle between 6-9am, 9-12noon, 12-3pm and 3-6pm. That will put me on 2.4L and every three hours will be a mental trigger to check my progress.

Rum-free rumballs are child-friendly and don't require actually having to buy rum!

Things I've learned from Days 1-3 I feel good. My mood is better when I don't overindulge in food or sugar. I must remind myself of this when I am faced with temptation. I was quite pleased with my behaviour on Wed as I made rum-free rumballs for my team at work. I intended to have just one in the morning, but ended up having 2 in the morning and 2 in the afternoon. So I didn't give myself points as as these are the small battles I want to fight as I know the rabbit hole they lead down. I haven't been 100% strictly measuring my water (as that drives me nuts) but I know that I am having at least 2.0L on the days I mark it.. I can usually tell because I get quite thirsty when I drink less. I'll have to measure the drink bottle I use as I am guesstimating that it holds 600ml. Sleep deprivation is not an excuse for saying Yes to Sugar. My brain says Sugar but is never the solution.

Thanks RES. I have been thinking about that sneaky sugar in juice and maybe trying out some other water flavouring like tea infusions might work better. I'll just check anything I use to make sure there is no hidden sugar. The main goal is to cover up the taste of the water as sometimes I really can't stand it.

Hi, I'm Deborah and I'm going to keep this simple (as perfectionism paralysis stops me from doing too much)! I'm also going to not put any pressure on myself to comment on other threads. Hopefully this is all coherent as I'm writing this on 4-5 hours sleep due to a fussy 1.5yo. I figured it is time to stop thinking and just dive in. I have started challenges around 3 times but never managed to complete more than 2 weeks. However, the only way to strengthen my discipline muscles is to use them so here goes my latest attempt. "Big Picture" goal Defeat the Sugar Beast!! I use sugar as my crutch for everything. And I've come to realise that it has negative effects on my mood and how I feel physically. I've been disciplined in avoiding sugar as a crutch for the last 9 days and I want to keep that trend up. I have been telling myself that it is better to be the same weight I am and have great food habits, than to be thin and have awful habits of mindlessly eating whenever I see sugar or free food. 3 S.M.A.R.T. goals (to support this main quest) 1) Drink, drink, drink 2.0L+ water each day - as thirst is a big trigger for eating... all the water and tea and even add some fruit juice for flavour if it keeps me hydrated. 2) Walk outside (of the house and yard) at least 5 minutes each day - I feel better and eat better when I have been active. I participated in Steptember and was really active, but have dropped the habits. I want to rebuild them as permanent life habits. 3) Say no to the sugar beast at least 80% of the time. I'll track how I am eating in the morning, afternoon and evening as the last two are my main trigger times. That way I can at least feel like I've achieved something when I look at the mornings! I've lurked around NF articles, forums and the Academy for a long time and I want to actually put what I learn into practice. Things I like: reading (especially fantasy and science fiction), cooking, eating, crafting, outdoors, gardening, plus a million other things!

Thanks so much for creating a 2018 version. I've been enjoying following along and am around 342kms from Mordor. I'm hoping to get back to the Shire by the end of the year.

Week One - Day 5 This day pretty much is summarised by Strained my side muscles in my side yesterday evening twisting to pick up my son's backpack from the back seat of the car = a night of not much sleep as lying down or rolling over hurt a lot. Around lunchtime, I caught the viral infection my son has had this week and had an afternoon & evening of misery and sleeping sitting upright until it slowly settled down by morning. Apparently managed 1,800 steps and didn't both tracking anything else.

Week One - Day 4 move every day ~ Go outside - Took a break from walking extra steps 3/5 ~ Strength workout - No workout planned. 0/2 fuel for life ~ Drink 2.5L water - Drank 2.5L. 4/5 ~ Prep snacks - Prepped snacks for work.. was still a bit hungry 2/5 grow the mind ~ Read Histories - Skipped it due to feeling unwell and read 'It's Been a Good Life' by Isaac Asimov instead 2/5 ~ Review books - I have one in the backlog that I will work on this week 0/1 create beauty ~ Crochet/sew - Had sewing planning but felt unwell 0/2 ~ Draw - None planned today 1/2

Week One - Day 3 move every day ~ Go outside - Walked to the shops and back to buy some roast chicken for dinner 3/5 ~ Strength workout - After way too much decision making in the last 24 hours, my willpower was sapped, and so I watched Buffy S1 instead. 0/2 fuel for life ~ Drink 2.5L water - Just got this in before bedtime... again, need to start earlier... maybe target flavoured water earlier in the day to get my numbers up. 3/5 ~ Prep snacks - No pre-planned snacks and didn't drink enough in the AM so ate waaay too much chocolate. 1/5 grow the mind ~ Read Histories - Skipped it due to work from home in the evening instead and washing the dishes because we have people over tomorrow night. 2/5 ~ Review books - I have one in the backlog that I will work on this week 0/1 create beauty ~ Crochet/sew - None planned today 0/2 ~ Draw - None planned today 1/2

Week One - Day 2 move every day ~ Go outside - Walked to the library and shops and back, 2/5 ~ Strength workout - Planned for Tuesday morning 0/2 fuel for life ~ Drink 2.5L water - I just managed to do this but need to start drinking more in the first half up the day so I am not up as much at night! 2/5 ~ Prep snacks - I pre-planned snacks, but didn't take into account how hungry I would be after lunch. I ended up eating my afternoon tea early and then paying for a slice of banana bread for charity. 1/5 grow the mind ~ Read Histories - Read 7 or so pages 2/5 ~ Review books - I have one in the backlog that I will work on this week 0/1 create beauty ~ Crochet/sew - Ended up doing some work from home so didn't happen 0/2 ~ Draw - None planned today 1/2

Week One - Day 1 move every day ~ Go outside - Went outside for a 25 minute wander around the suburb with my son on his balance bike and got around 3,500 steps for it 1/5 ~ Strength workout - Planned for Tuesday morning 0/2 fuel for life ~ Drink 2.5L water - Check! 1/5 ~ Prep snacks - Will do for workdays 0/5 grow the mind ~ Read Histories - Read 9 pages (started Book 5, I think it focuses on Darius conquering Thrace) 1/5 ~ Review books - I have one in the backlog that I will work on this week 0/1 create beauty ~ Crochet/sew - None planned today 0/2 ~ Draw - I drew a Brachiosaurus. While I wasn't happy with it when I finished, I'm much happier looking back on it today. Yellow stamps were added by my 2 year old 1/2

My goal tracker

For the third challenge of the year, I've decided to move to the Ranger's guild (from Scouts) based on my changed goals. I also was stoked to just realise that successfully completing two challenges in row is a personal best for me!! My main long-term quest is to run a sub-30 min 5k by May 2018. I'm currently 35 weeks pregnant and want to use the next seven months before I begin running again to develop some new habits so I am healthier, more active and have better core/overall strength. This challenge I have attempted to learn from the past and have altered my goals to be more achievable by aiming to do most of them only 5 times a week. I've also broken them up in to 4 main categories and will be scoring each category based on how well I've done on the underlying 2 sub-goals. We'll see after the first week or two if I've put too much on my plate or not. move every day spend time outside for at least 12 minutes 5x weekly - In the last challenge, I aimed for a specific step goal, but found that I focused on the numbers more than the actual increased physical activity. Hopefully I will see increased steps as a side effect of changing the underlying habit. strength workout 2x weekly (AM) - I will be doing this before lunchtime each day or I found last challenge that I'm too tired/exhausted/sore by evening. And while I will struggle to do it twice, I will keep the goal as I feel that is the minimum I should be doing. fuel for life drink 2.5L water 5x weekly - I developed this habit in the first challenge of the year, and then have slowly slipped and started drinking less and less. So I'm revisiting it to strengthen the habit, especially given how many years I spent reinforcing poor water-drinking habits. pre-plan snacks 5x weekly - As a person who just loves eating, I'm a bit all over the shop on what/when I am snacking and if I'm not organised, I'll start thinking about sugary options. So I'm challenging myself to put in some thought on workdays to bring along specific snacks each day and then I'm less likely to buy snacks. grow the mind read the Histories (by Herodotus) 5x weekly - I am determined to finish reading this book by the end of April (currently at 38.5%), so this goal should help me get there. review all books read - This is my big 2017 reading goal and I've stayed on track so far (reviewed 23/24 books). To motivate me, I'm not allowed to mark the book as read on goodreads until I've written a review, hence why I'm currently one review behind. The goal behind this is to improve my reflective thinking and writing skills. create beauty crochet/sew 2x weekly - I like to do this, but I don't prioritise it. And I have a couple of unfinished projects that have been hanging around for a couple of years. The real challenge is to actually just sit down and make time, so two times a week would be an awesome achievement, and as I see progress, then I will want to do more crafty things. Specifically, I have been crocheting (more off than on) a lego quilt (sorta like this one) for my son.. I started when he was around 6 months for his 1st birthday... maybe I'll be done by this Christmas if I really put some effort into it. draw 2x weekly - I can draw well when I really try and have a picture to work off, but I need to do some deliberate practice so I can draw all the vehicles and animals that my 2yo son requests.

Challenge summary The big win from this challenge is stepping back and looking at what worked and what didn't and then using that to come up with my goals for the next challenged Declutter: While I wasn't as consistent as I hoped, I made good progress in getting through some of the hard decluttering, in particular shredding stuff. 14/20 = 70% Cut out the dairy: I was very successful at this and I think it has made a difference to how I feel, although I won't really be able to tell until after the baby gets here (only 6 weeks to go!). 26/28 = 92% Strength workout: This was quite a struggle as I've been quite tired and found that scheduling it in the evening was just not working. Attempting it in the morning on week four helped, but I still need to be more deliberate in prioritising it. 3/8 = 37% Step goal: This was definitely a bit too ambitious, but on the plus side, I am moving more than I used to! 12/20 = 60%

Week Four - Summary Declutter: Took it a bit easy this week and didn't do much decluttering. 3/5 = 60% Cut out the dairy: Avoided dairy most of the week. 6/7 = 85% Strength workout: Mid-morning workout on the Tuesday worked really well. 1/2 = 50% Step goal: Struggled with doing this one consistently when tired and busy. 2/5 = 40% Recovery feat: Skipped this as I had enough going on 0/1 = 0%

Week Four - Day 7 Declutter: Did a bunch of gardening. 3/5 Cut out the dairy: Another dairy free day. 6/7 Strength workout: And.. didn't do my strength workout. 1/2 Step goal: 6,900 steps, so a bit short of goal but still quite active. 2/5

Week Four - Day 6 Declutter: Didn't do any. 2/5 Cut out the dairy: Another dairy free day. 5/7 Strength workout: None until Saturday 1/2 Step goal: My Garmin ate my steps and only recorded 119, so I'm not sure what I really did. 2/5

Week Four - Day 5 Declutter: Watched some Big Bang Theory and then researched bicycles and stayed up late again. 2/5 Cut out the dairy: Another dairy free day. 4/7 Strength workout: None until Saturday 1/2 Step goal: 7,000 steps today... was rather tired from staying up late and decided to have any easy day. 2/5

Week Four - Day 4 Declutter: Binge watched lots of Orphan Black S4 while washing dish mountain and resting. 2/5 Cut out the dairy: Stayed dairy free. 3/7 Strength workout: None until Saturday 1/2 Step goal: At 11:30pm, I realised I only had 250 steps to go to break 8,500, so I walked around and got the extra steps!! 2/5

Week Four - Day 3 Declutter: None today. 2/5 Cut out the dairy: Ate lots of dairy free chocolate brownies and also remembered not to put cow's milk in my tea! 2/7 Strength workout: After staying up late binge-watching Stargate Atlantis, I did not get up early. But as I had the morning off and worked from home in the afternoon, I did my strength exercise before lunch and feel really great mentally and physically for doing it!!! 1/2 Step goal: .Made some time to go for short rest breaks in the afternoon with some walking around inside or outside and got to 9,100 steps!!! 1/5 Recovery feat: Mmm... I'm not sure if I'm going to do this or not... it is additional and I think I'd rather focus on my main four goals for this week. 0/5

Week Four - Day 2 Declutter: Removed sticky child locks from ensuite bathroom cabinets and decluttered the sewing desk so I can do some craft. 2/5 Cut out the dairy: Avoided the dairy again, although spent the early afternoon wishing to eat chocolate (instead of drinking water) 1/7 Strength workout: Planned for tomorrow morning. 0/2 Step goal: 6,300 steps.. struggled to motivate myself.. it's hard if I'm not active early in the day .. as I feel overwhelemed by the number of steps I need to do in the afternoon / evening. 0/5 Recovery feat: Stayed up late binge watching Stargate Atlantis instead of doing anything planned... 0/5

Week Four - Day 1 Declutter: Decluttered the bathroom cupboards and did a surface clean, as well as removing the sticky child locks from one set of bathroom cabinets. 1/5 Cut out the dairy: I went to a high tea on Sunday so I did have some dairy. I successfully resisted having cream with the scones and only had jam, but then I forgot to ask for dairy-free milk with my tea. I also tried making dairy-free icecream. A fun experiment but too coconuty so I'll try it next time without coconut. 0/7 Strength workout: Planned for Tue morning at 6:30am. 0/2 Step goal: I had a low activity day on Sunday with around 5,500 steps. 0/5 Recovery feat: Looks like I'll be aiming to do stretches 5 evenings per week for this one 0/5

Week Three - Summary Declutter: I managed to keep doing some more decluttering and got through the kids clothes. I'm pretty happy with my progress on this as I am consistently remembering to spend some time doing it = less stress with the final packing in 5 weeks time. 3/5 = 60% Cut out the dairy: I'm finding my groove with this one and am not missing dairy too much. 7/7 = 100% Strength workout: I am ok with this as I understand that it is happening as I am simply TOO TIRED both mentally and physically in the evenings. So, going into week 4, I have decided that I will move these workouts to days where I can do them in the morning.. for now that is Tuesday and Saturday. Doing strength exercise is a priority for me, so I MUST schedule it earlier in the day. And in this particular case, I'm going to get up 30 minutes earlier and get it done before breakfast. 0/2 = 0% Step goal: Aiming for 5 days per week is doing well as it does not feel as much of a failure if I'm not achieving it every day. And on most days that I miss out, I can see that I was quite active and generally doing 7,000+ steps. 3/5 = 60% Strength feat: Nothing happened here, unsurprisingly. 0/1 = 0%

Week Three - Day 4-7 Declutter: On Saturday, I finally sorted through most of the kids clothes, added several bags to the donate pile and packed it all for the move. 3/5 Cut out the dairy: Made it through the rest of the week without any dairy!! 7/7 Strength workout: I was just too tired in the evenings to do this. 0/2 Step goal: I got close to 8,000 steps on Thu and Fri but wasn't paying attention so didn't do extra steps and then did around 8,300 on Sat. 3/5 Strength feat: This did not happen given it was supposed to be doing an extra day of strength workouts!. 0/1

Week Three - Day 3 Declutter: Organised and sorted through half of the pile of kids clothes and was rather excited to find some that will fit my son this winter. 2/5 Cut out the dairy: Another no dairy win! (of course, I have been eating tons of every sweet thing that doesn't have dairy so in some ways, not a healthy choice win :P). 3/7 Strength workout: Planning to do this tomorrow night. 0/2 Step goal: Got 8,300 steps by deliberately taking a short walk during the day. 2/5 Ranger feat: Read 28 pages to finish off Book Four of the Histories. So in total, I read 224 pages which puts me 23.1% closer to finishing the book!! A big win for my Ranger feat . 7/7