slcathena

Definitely in for the challenge. Looking forward to it!

*waves* Hi all! I took a bit of a break from challenges while the school year started up. It was purposeful. I'd been dieting/challenging myself for the better part of 9 months straight and I decided to give my body a bit of a break after reading some seriously wise advice to that effect on here... ...now I'm ready to get back in the game for 2013. Looking forward to seeing everyone's goals/progress!

<3 Thank you so much for these! Sorry I didn't see them earlier. The last 10 days I haven't been on NF for a variety of reasons. This helps me a ton with my big boss challenge though (which is so obviously grad school!) so thank you!!! I have been super busy and will try to update more tonight, but I wanted to reply to this. Thank you!!

I've got to do this grad school thing. I have been avoiding it all challenge. By the end of the summer I will have a plan/send in apps to be ready to go. Shmer.

I'm totally in. I'm just going to track my runkeeper runs for now. 17.2 miles since 6/27, which I'm super proud of!

I planned on running 5K today anyway, now I know it counts for the challenge!

Awww, thank you! I am in the Boston area, and basically need a program that isn't super expensive (although I have zero education debt now, so taking out loans for 2 years wouldn't be the worst thing). I also work 7:30-2:30 every day, I am at school 3 days a week until 4pm. I work out (and am not going to sacrifice that b/c I've worked so hard for it) from 5:15 until 6:30 or so every night. I travel 3-4 weekends a year for the program I direct from the second week of September until the first week of May. Basically online program or bust b/c me getting to class would be shmer... I know!!!! It's so incredibly sad. It bums me out to no end. More updates on the food/workout side soon. That all has been going well, at least.

Workout 7/14: Ran 2.66 miles in the afternoon. Super happy about it. Did Insanity later that night for the challenge. 7/15: Recovery day. 2 days with running plus Insanity was too much. Just did a recovery video from the Insanity set that was pretty low key 7/16: Did a Barre class this AM, only one more in the groupon! I think I"ll run later today if it's not too hot. Food 7/14: Was awesome during the day. We went out and did a ladies night thing that evening that was sort of ridiculous. Lots of alcohol followed by impromptu 2 am bacon. I was not the only person eating bacon. It was really fun though. 7/15: Definitely recovered food wise yesterday. Was super good, egg white omelets, chicken, broccoli, lots of win. 7/16: Still trying to recover food wise, had a smoothie this am, and am about to go get sushi. Running: See above! Almost 5 miles in the last week and will attempt to do a full 5K this afternoon. YAY! Grad School: I have no motivation here. I do not want a random education degree and will probably not find a program in political science or comm that has classes that meet when I am free so I'm stuck. I know I'm going to do terrible taking classes I don't want to take. This makes me feel sort of ill. Sleep: Aside from Ladies night (which I still slept 7 hours but it meant I didn't get up until like 10 am...) has been awesome. Yesterday wasn't QUITE 7 hours b/c I feel asleep a little late with reading. Basically Game of Thrones (books and show) is singlehandedly responsible for me messing this up. SO GOOD.

I haven't tried this re: diet, but I had a similar breakthrough re: sleep recently. I realized that I kept waking up in the middle of the night/didn't fall asleep on time b/c the tv was a huge distraction and kept my brain working beyond when I wanted it to, I've slept loads better this summer solely b/c that isn't on. YAY BREAKTHROUGHS! Nice work.

It was so good. I'm going to watch episode two of this season tonight. Will do a more complete update later, but... *drumroll* I JUST GOT BACK FROM A RUN!!!!!!! 2.25 straight miles, pace was 10:40, which is sort of mer, but considering how long it's been and the number of traffic lights, it's okay. Tomorrow AM I'm going to try to do the full 5K. Tonight hopefully when I get home I'll do Insanity for the challenge. YAY RUN!

I agree, what a great way to refocus.

Indeed! My gym is in Woburn!!! I live in Wakefield, about a mile from the lake. I look forward to more pics (and to going home to Utah in August).

I am not paleo, and am also on week 3 of Insanity. I do tend to keep my carbs fairly low though and I haven't had a problem with this with Insanity yet. Energy is still good and I have been getting stronger on the workouts, improvement on the fit test and way stronger with the reps. I'm a little bummed that the scale hasn't moved even though I've been working my butt off, but I feel like I am leaning down a bit, so hopefully it's noticeable in non-scale places (I know, I know, don't focus solely on the scale...)

Congrats on the smoke-freeness!!! SO AWESOME. I am super jealous of your road trip. I grew up in Utah, and that pic of Lake Powell totally tugged at my heart strings a bit. Looks like it was an awesome trip.

The HALTT strategy is awesome. I use something similar, but in addition to questioning, I postpone eating junk for an hour. If I still really want the potato chips in an hour I'll have a few, but I wait an hour to see if something else works. If I do have the chips, I eat them slowly and when they aren't as satisfying anymore (usually 5-10 chips) I put them back. It gives me time to sort out cravings and keep junk food in check. Also, I think Ryan had some good advice, spending time doing productive awesome things away can be a godsend. Good luck!