Jacey

Day 6 done at level 1. I dreaded seeing "push-ups to failure" almost as much as the amount of running I had to do for the bow. Day 7 done at level 2 without the bonus quest. My arms could not be talked into that. Day 8 will be done later today.

Going to the beach with my mom tomorrow so I'm going to try my hardest not to fall off the bandwagon. Because of the trip, I'm dropping the meal planning from this month's challenge. I'm just going to research nutrition and recipes so that I can start meal planning for real for next month's challenge. Hero's Journey Day 6 was a nightmare for me. There was running (I did terribly) and then push-ups to failure. Well, I think I failed a lot earlier than they probably anticipated. My arms are still a little achy. I didn't do the bonus quest on Day 7 because of this. And I'll finish up Day 8 later today.

@elinox That's awesome! It's always great to go back and revisit characters/storylines. Now I want to dig through all of my old stuff... Progress: So my life has been crazy this week (of course). Nutrition: I'm still working on getting myself to plan meals. I'm failing the hardest on this end. I've found a lot of great recipes on here though that I'm excited to try out! I've been doing some research and have jumped in on the nutrition forum here with some basic questions. I've been eating pretty clean though. Now if only I could get my husband to stop buying Costco croissants...the temptation is just too much for me. Fitness: I've been keeping up with the Mutu program, but haven't always done my 20-minute walk but I've done some kind of cardio for at least twenty minutes each day. I've been keeping up with the Hero's Journey and man, it's getting seriously hard, but I love it! Well, except for the running part. I hate running. But it's something I've always wanted to start doing so I'm going to try and stick with it. I've done six days so far and still have to do my seventh later today. Accountability: Well, I've been terrible about updating this every two days. I'll have to try and get better at that. Since I found accountability buddies online here, I just started taking steps to try and find someone to workout with in my area. I signed up on a site called Leisure Clique and posted up an ad for a workout/accountability buddy. Fingers crossed!

Sorry, there are a lot of questions in this thread. Growing up, everyone always said that eating three square meals a day was the way to go - with a heavy emphasis on breakfast. I recently bought a nutrition guide that said we should be eating five smaller meals a day instead. I've seen this elsewhere too. Is that the best way to go? How do you space out your meals? Do you eat the same amount of calories for each one? I've been trying this out and I've been having a hard time figuring out a good time to workout because it always seems like I've just eaten. I'm prone to feeling sick when I workout so I'm keen to wait a while after a meal before exercising. This usually has me exercising a few hours after dinner and then I'm all jazzed and have a hard time getting to sleep at a decent hour. I haven't really played around with the wait time between meals and exercise since I've started eating less at each meal. With smaller meals (~300 calories), how long should someone wait before cardio, HIIT, and/or resistance training?

Ugh, things have been going crazy at my house. I've been able to keep up with my workouts but haven't been able to update here. You guys are all doing awesome! On day 3, I realized I'd already done 30 minutes of rowing so I added the bow and arrow...which I'm seriously regretting today because I'm not a runner. AT ALL. But I'm supposed to be challenging myself, right? I'm going to go for that part of my workout later today. (And all of the rest of today's workout.) Day 4 has been my favorite day so far. It burned in all the right ways. Did Level I on day 5 because those jumping lunges were really starting to hurt my knees. I don't know if my form is off or if I've just got weak knees; they've always had some issues. Does anyone know a good alternative for those if we have to do them again? I'll be honest, I only got through three rounds of the jumps.

Day 3: I went for the magic ring since my core is what I'm the most concerned about. I started vibrating toward the end of this. I felt super out of shape at the time but my body is feeling pretty great now. (PS. I hate side planks.) I don't know how a ribbon is a weapon either. It must be one heck of a ribbon. That's always a good thing! I think that's what happens with most of the exercises I do from all of my years of gymnastics/ballet. Obviously, that wouldn't work for me so well with things like jabs.

What I've done so far: 1) Researched nutrition, but I'm still going. Will check out all of the links you awesome people have shared. I've been crap with my planning though. I've been planning the morning of (still better than a minute before I start cooking but not great). 2) Done day 1 and 2 of the challenge. Day 1: Level I. Day 2: Level II, "mind your own business" workout. Also did 20 minutes of HIIT on a stationary bike at the gym yesterday. (I signed up for a gym membership yesterday too which is new for me.) 3) Signed up for the accountability buddies challenge and adjusted my fitness goals accordingly. Still trying to find ways to find some workout buddies locally.

Thanks for the help @DarK_RaideR! I found a great challenge in the accountability groups sub that I'm using for this challenge. I'll have to go check out those recipes! Thank you @elinox! You're right about that. It can be frustrating finding a plan that works for you but it's less frustrating when you stop buying into the idea that there are systems out there that work for everyone. Thanks for the encouragement! Sadly, it's been a while since I've gotten to write fanfiction but it's mostly been HP. I like writing more "prequel" stuff, like the Marauders' or Founder's era. I'm glad I'm not the only one who can't stay away from IMDB. I just want to know everything about everyone. @titsworth Thanks! Haha, fair enough! Oh man, thank you so much for sharing those links! I love the idea of planning and meal prepping but it's a little daunting. Those look awesome. I've been using My Fitness Pals but I've seen mixed reviews about the app. I was also one of those people who had my data hacked so I haven't really used it since. I don't know what they'd really do with that info since I had the free version but still... Are there any apps you'd recommend? I would do it by hand but I don't trust my math skills (if you can even call them skills).

Days 1 & 2 complete! I did Level I on day 1 since I haven't been exercising regularly. I minded my own business for day 2. Since it was the easier option I bumped it up to Level 2. @WhiteGhost I always find myself having better form toward the end of exercises too. I'll make sure to watch my shoulders if I end up doing those jab squats. And a late welcome, @BullyIdol!

If it's not too late (and okay for newbies to join), I'd love to take part in this challenge! I'm a 30-year-old woman who really wants to trim my waistline and tone up. I love that this challenge has a lot of variety, and it seems like it can be done in a reasonable amount of time each day. I've been having trouble finding a program I like enough to stick to (they can get so repetitive), so I'm hoping this one will do the trick! I also think having accountability buddies will help me out a lot. @Hazard A Quidditch-themed PVP sounds awesome! My challenge thread: Jacey's serious this time

Hey everyone, I'm Jacey. Someone recommended Nerd Fitness to me on Reddit. I checked out the site, bookmarked it, and told myself, "I'm going to sign up for that tomorrow." Four months pass. I've finally gotten around to committing. You see, I used to be pretty lucky... I did gymnastics for several years when I was younger. I had to stop at 16 because of a stress fracture, but I rode that high metabolism for way longer than I should have been able to. I ate like crap, slept like crap, and was only sporadically active. In other words, I'd get really into exercising for eh, a week, and then forget about it entirely. Then, at 29, things changed. I've slimmed down for the most part, but I still some belly fat I'd rather not have.Thanks to all of the Instagram "fitspo" I've come across in my (fruitless) hunt for a "get a flat stomach in two days" solution, I've also realized that I have basically zero muscle definition anymore. I've never really dieted before this year. I'm terrible at self-control and sticking with things. I'm hoping that by putting this all out in the open, online for all of you to see, that I'll be better. Maybe my sense of shame will kick in and save me. All jokes aside, I really want to try and make things happen. I want to look better, feel better, be better - for the long haul. Some of my favorite things: Star Wars (namely the original trilogy), Harry Potter (this doesn't include The Cursed Child), writing, making to-do lists, loud keyboards, N64, Kingdom Hearts, researching random topics, watching a movie and reading its trivia page on IMDB, board games, laser tag, Will Ferrell, writing and reading fanfiction, song mashups, Buzzfeed quizzes, and - unfortunately - procrastinating. Main Goal: I want to feel good about myself. I want to not be hesitant about going to the pool/beach because I don't really like how I feel in a bikini. I don't need the perfect body, but I want one that makes me feel confident. What I think it's going to take to get me there: 1) Get a better, cleaner diet: To do this I'm going to need to read up a bit more about healthy eating. I don't want to do any kind of diet that makes me cut down extensively on carbs. I just want to learn what the right kinds of carbs are. By the end of this, I want to make meal plans for the entire week on Saturday and go grocery shopping on Sunday. I'm going to start small though and try to schedule three days at a time with all kinds of good things. So I need to find some recipes! - Research nutrition - Find recipes - Meal planning 2) Fitness: Hero's Journey 60-day challenge Diastasis Recti (Mutu Mama*): Daily - 20 minutes of walking, 10 minutes of low-intensity core exercises. * Mutu Mama is program is for diastasis recti which I'm like 85% sure I have. Even if I don't, it's good for tightening up the pelvic floor and conditioning the core, so there's nothing to lose. I've been doing this on and off for a bit, so this is really more about starting the program over and being consistent. 3) Accountability - I'm going to try and find ways to hold myself accountable. Joining this site and the challenge was the first step. - Update this post regularly (at least every 2 days) - Find accountability buddies online and someone offline, preferably someone I can workout with!