CakeBanisher

Go you! You've just kept going, and have been very inspiring to others (including me ) in the process! Nuts are very easy to eat too many of...I ended up putting little portions in individual bags for long car rides to eat instead of pop tarts, but otherwise try to avoid them. It'd be really cool if you started publishing your music! That's an exciting thing to work towards. Really great work this challenge!

Looks to me like you should be happy with what you accomplished! I shall now sound like a broken record, and say learn from the goal that didn't work, as well as the ones that did We'd all like to ace all our goals, but sometimes it just doesn't work out that way. It gives us something to refine for next challenge. You've done good work on your goals for this one! Go you!

A bad week here and there is to be expected The important thing is to do what you've done, and bounce back from it. Overall, you seem to have done well with this challenge. Making changes is a long-term thing. I tend to hit a threshold of doing things and then just go "hahaha no" if I try to do too much at once. So it might be smart for you to really just focus one one big thing (diet) rather than try to do that and add in yoga. If it works for you, then it's a good thing to be doing My mom was eating totally gluten free for a while, and is still almost gluten free. Just be careful you don't sub another form of junk for the gluten-y foods It certainly helped her feel better, so hopefully you'll see good results, too!

You guys are all great! Seriously Unfortunately, I have not been so great recently...school has started up again, and I am rapidly falling back into old habits. But, I can analyze it more now than in the past. I suspect I tend to relapse, not because I don't have enough time (which I know isn't true) but because my mind isn't trained to handle this much stuff going on at once. I can deal with school. But school and other stuff? Apparently, my brain rebels at the thought. I always two to three classes more than most people seem to consider sane, so I'm incredibly busy. Either I go into "goal overload" and fizzle out, or I simply can't keep track of everything. Usually some combination thereof, methinks. My conclusion is that I need to structure goals differently when I'm in class. But I haven't gone overboard, in fact I'm eating better now than I was a week ago. My tracking and meditation has been sporadic, mostly because I never remember at a time that I can really track or meditate. And my writing has fallen by the wayside as well I also haven't done yoga in what feels like forever (reality check - it's been a couple weeks) and really want/need to. Yesterday, two of my teachers had us do forward bends. I was stiff, but they felt oh-so-good So. Back into yoga I shall go! Anyway. I kind of missed the actual end of this challenge I'll try and read everyones threads, because I have missed doing so, and feel bad that you lot have been giving me all this support and encouragement, and I've been ignoring you... I'll also post my own challenge overview in the near future.

Thanks for the meditation ideas! I've been messing around with them, and they have helped. I've also been doing something my violin professor taught me to do to "speed up/slow down" that has been helpful. Basically, count to ten over and over, at whatever speed feels comfortable, no matter how fast or slow. Then, depending on if you want to "speed up" or "slow down" your mind, you gradually either speed up or slow down your counting, at a tempo that feels comfortable. Sometimes it can take a couple minutes, sometimes longer, occasionally shorter, but I've found it to be beneficial Anyway. The past week has been a pretty catastrophic failure as far as my eating goal. I make no excuses, although I think I can logically say it's because I'm stressed about starting school again (today is the first day back) and I always have a harder time when I'm dealing with allergies. I have been sporadic with my tracking as well, although we had about an hours notice before going out of town overnight where I had zero control over food/sleep/writing/etc. (more music ) so I'm cutting myself a little slack on that front. Basically, I can't seem to get back on the wagon... So, all my non-eating goals have gone pretty well this challenge. My eating one hasn't. I really need to sort out my diet. If I were living on my own, it would be pretty easy, I think, especially by comparison. But, I'm not, so I need to exercise better control. Or something. Anyway. I will try and catch up with you lot as soon as I can. I've missed you.

So, the music festival was a blast Played a lot of music, wrote some, the earliest we ever got to bed was 1:00 in the morning, all that good stuff. Plus I got a ton of writing done. Then I got home, only to discover our internet was totally dead. I kept wanting to google things, only to remember I couldn't. It was somewhat disturbing to realize how much I rely on having internet, and how many other things require internet to work. Also, OMG the junk food...I have not fallen off the wagon this spectacularly in quite some time. And my allergies are so incredibly bad right now, it's like they have leeched away all my willpower. I'm working on getting it back, but it's still being a bit evasive. Grades from last week: Ease into paleo - C Track stuff - A Meditation - A Writing - A Other than the eating front, I'm doing really well. I really think I would succeed better if I were in charge of the food that comes into the house. But I'm not, and can't be, so I have to work with what I've got. And, when I'm in one of my omg eat ALL the things phases, I can go just a tad crazy... Also, I have a meditation question. Well, maybe not exactly a question more a curious observation. I'm meditating between five and six minutes at a time in general, and while my mind would initially leapfrog all over the place if I lost focus (I focus on my breath) it now latches quite firmly onto anything that's worrying me. Which means instead of finishing my meditation feeling calm, like I did at first, I finish with this sort of nagging uneasy feeling. Is that sort of thing "a phase" if you will? Do I just need to practice keeping my mind quiet more? I intend to continue meditation, at a minimum for the remainder of this challenge, so we shall see what happens I'm hoping to catch up with everyone soon, but I'm not exactly sure when I'll be able to. As always, thanks so much for the support!

I've been radio silent again. Whoops. So, I've done well with the challenge since getting home. But we left again today for another music festival. I knew going into this that I'd be pretty much at the mercy of whatever food was available, as we are completely unable to bring our own food to this one. I'm doing my best, but there is no way I'll be really paleo until I get home Sunday evening. Oh well. This is the last big festival until next summer, so I plan on enjoying myself I also plan on doing my best with the rest of my goals, in particular writing and meditation. I'll keep general notes about what I eat as well. The food wagon they have this year is mostly Greek food, which is miles better than "Joe's Fries" that we've had in the past. And the canopy we jam under has enough lights that I'm pretty sure you can see us from outer space

It was a lot of fun And I agree that I wish I couldn't remember the things that I ate...I wish my body couldn't remember the things that I ate... But oh well, it was a fun time The occasional cheat day isn't too big a deal, and I agree that I can remind us of why we're doing this. It certainly drove home to me why I prefer not to eat junk food I'm trying to find a happy medium between just going with it, and stressing just enough to stick with it when the going gets tough. I only seem capable of one extreme or the other just at the moment... I ate pretty well paleo while I was home after the party...but now I'm at another music festival, and am totally at the mercy of whatever food is available because we were unable to bring our own. So we'll see how that goes... I like Scrivener because it really does help organize stuff, but also because you can set things up exactly as you want them. I can be both extremely linear and incredibly abstract in my thought processes, and have always needed multiple documents to keep everything straight. Scrivener lets me put them all into the same document, and has a lot of little features that make everything much easier. Thanks! The pain is doing a lot better. In fact, I was called away in the midst of packing my violin and my shoulder rest (which I NEED) was left behind. I used a folded up jacket instead, and in the past would have been in incredible pain within two songs, but was able to play all evening with almost no pain. Huzzah!

Hey, Joe! We've missed you! Good job with your writing! 20k is good number Meditation takes time to get used to, at least for me. My brain won't shut up. But I think it's starting to learn. And even if you only get to yoga once a week, it's better than not going. Also nice work in cutting bread, and replacing your old breakfast of bread. We're all experimenting Just keep messing around, sooner or later you'll find something that works for you

You're doing well, sticking to your guns even with your hip. It's so easy to say "but I'm injured" and everyone just goes "oh, okay." It's the perfect excuse to just give you, which you are very determinedly not doing, so congrats! Here's hoping PT helps!

You seem to be doing really well! And even if your progress always feels achingly slow, just remember, it's still progress. Think about where you are now versus where you would be if you hadn't been diligently working on leveling up your life. Probably, you wouldn't be in as good a place. So a year from now, all that hard work will still be paying off Anyway, keep up the good work!

I'm not surprised you're tired! My feet used to be almost dead flat (and now I magically have arches, for no reason anyone can explain to me...albiet they are still very weak ones) and so I can understand having your feet hurt almost right away. Glad to hear you were able to dance all night without pain. And good for you staying mostly low carb, even given the circumstances. I remember getting dropped off at college. "Excited and scared to death" sums it up pretty well. Here's hoping your son finds some new friends, and enjoyes all the fun stuff before classes begin. And good luck to you, as well Keep up the good work!

So. Update! Writing and meditation are still going well. However, I had a slight kink thrown into my plans over the weekend in that I found out Friday night we were going to a friends party and potluck Saturday, and coming home Sunday. I had no time to come up with a decent plan of dealing with the junkfood. So, I just kind of went with it, and tried not to go too crazy. I wasn't realistically able to track things while there, so only have a vague record of things, not specifics. But that's okay Now I'm home, I am looking forward to returning to cleaner eating, as I can feel the junk I ate yesterday and this morning and will be quite happy to have that feeling go away. I'm also looking forward to a good yoga session

I have come to realize that what works for other people may very well have no bearing on what works for me, and I am okay with that So I fully plan to continue tweaking my routine to find/maintain something that works for me. Thanks for the encouragement! Thanks! For me, these challenges are really good because they put a solid sort of grounding on my goals. Otherwise I get excited to do a million things at once, then just sort of lose track of them all. Thanks so much, Fearless! Overal, I think I'm doing pretty well. And the stuff I'm doing is making me happy, so that's always a good thing Thanks One exam down, two to go... I agree that little things build up to big ones if given the time to figure out how to get them to work. And listening to my body has really helped me regain a lot of confidence as I realize I am not, in fact, going to break myself, which is nice

Woot for you, rocking your goals! Still going strong, I see Glad to hear your back is almost back to normal. Here's hoping it hurries up and does that final bit of healing. And I'll be curious how your "eat to 80% full" experiment works, so as ever, keep us posted

First, I have to say congrats on your 10 mile run! Consider me impressed! I sometimes have weird dreams about something if it's been on my mind all day, even if it's associated with something positive (in your case your run?). I'm not really sure why...either way, hope the level of weird in your dreams decides to dial back a bit And yeah, as far as motivation, or lack thereof, goes...I wish there were some magic solution. Sadly, I do not have one. So I'll just echo what everyone else has said. I think you've been doing a great job of rocking your challenge, so keep it up!

Thanks for the explanation Good luck as you continue working through this! Also congrats on the run Keep it up!

I had it once, but all the other times I've gone low carb, I didn't have any negative symptoms. And I've done it enough times. I had a dietitian advice me to basically eat Atkins, so did that a number of years ago, and have experimented with it on and off over the years, and never had low carb flu. Which is probably why it didn't occur to me that maybe that's what was happening. I'll try the salty trick this time I do like salty things... I haven't been doing it for too long, but thus far am quite taken with IF. Much more so than I thought I'd be. I thought I'd stick with it for at least a week, just to try, and hate it, but I'm actually thinking I may adapt it and work it into my life in a much more permanent way. We'll see. I'll try and keep doing it for the remander of the challenge, and let you guys know what I think I'm a weird combination of not being able to accept that what works for "everyone" doesn't work for me, and tweaking my habits almost obsessively. I think I'm finally finding a happy medium between the two Because I'm tracking what I eat, I can passively look back later and say, okay, this is good, something is weird with this, what should I try differently, etc. And I discovered we have carrots, which is also helping on the diet goal front

Feel better, Faery! Good for you, still keeping up with your goals! I can imagine the Tai Chi might need to take a back-burner for a few days, until you've sufficiently recovered from being sick.

Glad to hear PT went well! It must be encouraging that you don't have to stop running, I know that's always something people worry about when dealing with pain/injury. If I may ask, what exactly does "stuck" mean? Is it just due to lack of flexibility? And how does one go about strengthening weak hip flexors? Sorry, curiosity is getting the better of me Woot on the paleo! And double-woot that the doughnut/pastries don't look appetizing! That's always satisfying, to look at a piece of junk food and go "bleh, why would I want that?" Go you!

I agree with Prime, that's a really good quote. And it sounds like you're doing really well with this challenge! I wish I had a fraction of your self-discipline... Also, sorry to hear about your son. I wish I could offer some brilliant advice, but, alas, all I can do is sympathize. Unfortunately, I understand only too well the "alien-like" description teenagers seem to like taking on. Has he explained why he wants to drop out? Best of luck, and continue being incredibly awesome!

I'll have to look up that book, it sounds really interesting. Glad to hear you're figuring out how to make it work for you!

Nerves can do strange things, even to a well-polished piece. And they can sometimes just come careening out of nowhere, which can be a tad disconcerting. I imagine the vast majority of people didn't have any idea you were a little off And good job with the low carb thing. It can be really hard during stressful times to remember things like that. Saying "I eat low carb" instead of "I don't eat carbs" seems simple, but that language change did wonders for me. Keep rocking this challenge!

Still plugging successfully along, I see Glad your foot seems to be improving. Keep it up!

Challenge update! I tend to forget about meditation. But I really like doing it, so I'm hoping this challenge will help me work it into my life I am continuing to track stuff, so that goal is going well. And my writing has kind of taken over in the past couple days, which is fun. I signed up for nanowrimo, which is exciting and somewhat terrifying I've been experimenting with intermittent fasting. Basically, I've not been eating before 2:00 p.m. or after 10:00 p.m. Originally, I tried noon to 8:00, but this seems to work better for me, even if it does seem a bit odd. I actually like it. I thought I'd hate it, but figured I'd give it a try, just to see. I think it's working for me. At least, I feel better than before, even though I haven't changed my eating too much. It keeps my energy higher throughout the day, which is not something I expected to happen. I'm curious to see how it feels if I do it long term. Anyway, I just took my geography final, and will have about 99% in that class, which makes me happy I'm almost finished with my other two classes as well, and trying not to think about how close that means the start of the fall semester is. For now, I'm about to head off to do some swing and ignore anything school related