RedPanda

I love that point about balance, thanks RES! Status report: days 5-7 I think I must be hormonal because the food cravings have been alllll over the place, but I'm feeling really good about these workouts. I pulled up a Power Yoga workout and wow, did that feel good! Running got postponed in favor of a few long walks this weekend but I'm going to hit the treadmill after work tomorrow. Yoga definitely has its hooks in me right now, though!

Status report: Days 3 and 4 Things got a little dicey the past couple of days. We had car trouble on Wednesday, didn't have time to cook dinner, and our Thai takeout (mmm, curry) put me well over on calories. I still did my yoga workout, though, and was full but feeling satisfied. Yesterday...was bad. Things got stressful at work this week, and it finally caught up to me yesterday. My Garmin watch can verify: Anyway, I intended to eat a light soup for dinner after going for a run, but instead skipped the run and followed the soup with a glass of wine, a bunch of chips and salsa, and a piece of pie. Le sigh. Two steps forward, one step back. I guess that makes Day 4 a "rest day"? Back on track today, hopefully. Planning on a long yoga workout tonight and starting C25K Week 3 tomorrow. Dinner tonight is Thanksgiving Pizza on a cauliflower crust. I'm disappointed about yesterday's setback but feeling optimistic again today. Thank you guys for the supportive comments, it's made it much easier to keep feeling motivated. But seriously, TGIF!

LIFE TWIN! That's pretty much exactly how I got into my own current squishy state of being. I feel ya. I'm fortunate to be doing a postdoc that has mostly-regular hours, but it means exercise has to be squeezed in either before 8 am (NOT) or after work. What helps me is doing at-home workouts as much as possible. I tried signing up for gym memberships, swimming at the Y, going for long walks...but everything around here is a 20 minute drive away and that time sink was too much for me to actually get out the door. Now I'm running on a treadmill in my apartment complex instead of at the park, and doing Yoga With Adriene videos instead of going to a studio. NerdFitness has all those great bodyweight workout plans available, too, but if bodyweight training isn't your thing you can pick up a set of resistance bands for relatively cheap (Christmas present request?) to do more focused strength exercises at home. Gotta figure squeezing in a 10 minute workout on a busy day is better than doing nothing.

Hey, congrats on sticking with things even when work is busy and it gets tough to keep trying! I just wanted to say, I saw this in your challenge post a few days ago: and that phrase has really stuck with me. I've been thinking "proactive, not reactive" all week. Thanks for putting that mantra out into the world. Intentionally or not you're already motiving people around you!

Oh me too, I'm incapable of working out in the morning! Well, except that one time when I was on a biology field trip in the tropics and we would get up to go snorkeling before breakfast every day. That had me popping out of bed like a real morning person, but alas, I do not normally live on a tropical island. Working out does at least seem to be a nice way of getting out of work-brain in the evening, though!

Status report: Day 2 was rock solid. Pushed my run intervals a little closer to a 10 min/mile pace for C25K W2D3, chose yogurt over pie for dessert, and still had time to play some Fallout 76 before bed. (Incidentally, am I the only one enjoying that game? The internet is freaking out about it but I kinda dig the whole few-people-repopulating-an-empty-wasteland thing). I had forgotten how much those exercise endorphins help with everything in life. It's been a productive couple of days at work and I found the energy to start looking for the Next Job (ah, the life of a transient academic...), plus it looks like we might have decent weather to get out and do something new this weekend. Funny how spending time exercising makes so much more time appear for everything else. And thanks for the concern, RES, but I should be ok food wise. I'm aiming for 1600 cal/day (which is about sedentary maintenance for 5'2 me) with exercise to get up to ~500 cal/deficit. Not-eating has never been my problem, lol. Happy hump day!

Thanks for the words of welcome and support! I will do my best to take some pics around TN while I am here. Here is one of a yearling bear eating berries I saw when we ventured into Cades Cove in the Smokies. Progress report: Week 1, Day 1 Food tracked, healthy choices made, but I went a little over on calories. 25 minute yoga workout complete, and it's a rest day for C25K. Solid B+ overall, I'd say. Looking forward to getting a run in tomorrow (and being done with Thanksgiving leftovers!)

Hi folks! First time challenger, but I've been following the site for years. I'm looking forward to meeting some goals while finding like-minded accountability buddies. My Main Quest is to achieve a lifestyle of fitness and adventure times. The Reason: I've always wanted to be one of those people who has fun outdoorsy adventures like backpacking, trail running, cross country skiing, and taking pictures of new places while traveling with likeminded friends, but I am also a big honking nerd with a touch of social anxiety who has chosen to prioritize higher education over my other goals these past few years. Grad school came with opportunities for some excellent travel and adventures, but it was also a lot of sitting around not exercising while my weight went up and my fitness dropped off, particularly at the end. Time to re-focus on eating well and moving regularly so I can do the fun, outdoorsy things that I want to do! My Support Quests for this challenge are... Making a conscious effort to make good food choices for the next month. For me, that means paleo-informed nutrition focusing on meat and veggies, and also logging my food every day using the LoseIt app to keep ~ a 500 calorie daily deficit. Be able to run 1 mile without stopping. I am doing this by following the Couch to 5K program, running 3x/week on the treadmill in our apartment complex. I hate the treadmill but we lack sidewalks, so I'm pulling up my big girl pants and embracing my inner hamster. I'm on week 2 right now, so week 5 (which has the first 1 mile nonstop run) should coincide with the end of the challenge. Sub-quest: avoid injury. I've made it through the first 5-6 weeks of C25K in the past, but always seem to get hampered by injury. I ruptured my plantar fascia in early 2017, but after physical therapy my feet were actually feeling really good. But I need to stay on top of stretching, icing, and deep tissue massage to keep myself healthy so I can keep running. Yoga with Adriene for bodyweight strength and mental clarity, 3x/week. I've had an at-home yoga practice in the past but have been inconsistent with it. I need to do something physical on my off-days from running, so yoga it is. And that leaves 1 day a week reserved for a hike or long walk or recovery day or whatever else strikes my fancy. About Me I'm a 34 year old post-doc currently living in eastern TN with access to amazing outdoor spaces (The Smokies! Rivers! Lakes! State Parks!) that I have not really taken advantage of. We'll be in TN one more year and I want to remedy that! I've been following NerdFitness on and off for many years: dabbled in the Academy, have read all the articles, but haven't been active in the forums before now. I recently pulled up Steve's old "exercising around the world" video for a bit of inspiration and instead found myself crying over my morning spinach-and-eggs because I was so far away from my very deep-seated desire to lead an active lifestyle and see the world. (Yeah, that video was a real kick in the pants). I had been on track to do both 6 or 7 years ago but instead I went to grad school and picked up a PhD and an SO - both major life goals, and I am a happier person today than I was when I first discovered NF - but my other deep desires took a back seat these past few years. My partner is theoretically down with both health and travel, but we are both postdocs and life has gotten in the way. I'm here to break the rut of going to work, coming home, and letting myself be talked into too many indulgent meals out and too many nights spent playing video games or working on paper edits. I'm looking forward to using these next four weeks to jump-start my fitness goals so I am physically ready to make use of the natural resources available here. Good luck to all of you!

Hi folks. Been following NerdFitness on and off for many years. Dabbled in the Academy, have read all the articles, haven't been active in the forums but I'm a big fan of the way everything runs around here. I pulled up Steve's old "exercising around the world" video for a bit of inspiration this morning and instead found myself crying over my morning spinach-and-eggs because I've fallen so far away from the things I most deeply want. Namely, leading an active lifestyle and seeing the world! (Yeah, that video was a real kick in the pants). I was on track to do both 6 or 7 years ago but instead I went to grad school and picked up a PhD and an SO. Which is awesome, and I am thrilled about! But my other deep desires took a back seat these past few years. My partner is theoretically down with both health and travel, but we are both postdocs and life has gotten in the way. I'm in such a rut - go to work, come home, let myself be talked into too many indulgent meals out and too many nights spent playing video games or working on paper edits. My weight has crept back up and I can't remember the last time I traveled somewhere new. So this is me, rededicating myself to figuring out how to re-prioritize my time so I can level up. Take some points away from Int and put them into Str, as it were. :) More cooking meat and veggies, more gym days, more hikes. We live an hour from the Smokies, for crying out loud! We should be outside every weekend! Anywho y'all seem like good people and I expect to spend a lot of time around here in the near-future. See you around the forums!

Two and a half year respawn point - you and I are on a very similar timeline. Good luck to you!

The respawn post came at an excellent time for me, and I am glad to have a reason to get my game back on! This Panda is a third year slightly non-traditional PhD student. I started my program when I was 28, and when I began I was in excellent shape - eating paleo, cooking delicious meals from scratch, walking all the time, working out every day, and feeling super-healthy with oodles of energy. I knew that I had become a big unhappy blob back in college but I thought I had left that well behind me. Being fit felt so good that I (naively) assumed I would easily continue being awesome when I went back to school. But then school started, and I've been moving backwards ever since. All my willpower has been getting used up on school and research, so when I get home each night I've been caving to the temptation to laze on the couch reading books or playing video games while eating restaurant food or pre-cooked meals. I used to love running, but I've been fighting a flare-up of plantar fasciitis for the past five or six months that has knocked that option out entirely. And this past February I gained a new boyfriend - he is a wonderful human being, but he has a serious addiction to fast food and overindulgence, and sometimes the temptation is just too much to resist. Right now I have ~170 pounds on my 5'2 frame, and that is just too much weight for a little Red Panda to carry around! I have a closet full of clothes that don't fit, and I want to be able to wear them again. I want to run again, and get back into ranging throughout all the beautiful rolling hills and mountain trails here in central Pennsylvania. I want to learn to snowboard, and take up kickboxing. I want to kayak and snowshoe and go for long walks just for fun. And I want to have a healthy body to keep my brain going when school seems overwhelming. This Panda is ready for a reboot. A renewal. A respawn! So I'm ready to leave my setbacks behind me and get on with getting in shape. RedPanda is aiming to level up to being a bad-ass Fire Fox. Back to cooking meals from scratch, cutting out grains and sugar, and working out for at least 10 minutes a day. And - go!