The Ginger Ninja

Okay...with the holiday to or row I'm gonna have to be mvigilant in what I can eat. I'm going to my mother's for a family cookout and I just know there is going to be pasta salad...and I looooooove pasta salad. And I know there's going to be hot dogs and chicken and ribs and burgers. But all the accessory food is gonna kill me. I did ask her to do salad and a veggie tray so I can fill up on that stuffso we' see how it goes..

Ok...bit of a backslide today. A friend came into town and we went out to dinner and a movie. Dinner I was good but for dessert she wanted Dairy Queen so I broke down and got a very small blizzard. The good news is that I couldn't even finish half of it. I doing know if I was just full from dinner or if my stomach just didn't want the ice cream but after a few bites I couldn't eat anymore.

Yay! Good luck on your potential new job!

Okay quick update...My first week of no pasta or bread or anything was kinda rough. Pasta is (was) pretty much a staple in my diet and for the first few days I think I had withdrawl symptoms or something because i was shaky and weak feeling. That's pretty much gone now and I'm feeling back to normal. I'm down 3 lbs so that's pretty cool...I'm not really tracking my weight but there as a scale in the bathroom yesterday so I figured I'd just check I've been eating a banana or apple for breakfast on days I remember to grab them. I used to not eat breakfast at all because for some reason my stomach does not like food right when I wake up, but an apple or banana is kinda small and if I wait until I get to work to eat it I usually feel ok. I've cut my sweet tea consumption to just lunchtime and sometimes not even then (I'll have sugar free lemonade instead) and I've been drinking two glasses of water at night, one when I get home from work and one with dinner usually. I've been roasting veggies and eating them with some kind of meat for dinner so that's been working and for lunch I usually eat a salad with grilled chicken on it. I'm gonna stalk the threads for some interesting recipes this week it's just hard to get motivated to cook something elaborate when its just me eating it. But I'll figure something out...so far things seem to be going well. I do my elliptical Monday Wednesday and Friday and my Pilates Tuesday Thursday and Saturday.

Wow... You're about the same size and stature that was when I started this challenge (5'7", 156lbs) it will be neat to track how we do together. You seem like you're a bit more active than I am so you have a bit of an advantage there but it will be great to see how far we both go in the coming weeks! Good luck!

Wow 70 oz of water...as a non water drinker that just seems like soooo much to me. I don't know how you don't float away. I totally agree with you on the natural flavor front...I wonder if they figured out how to extract the just molecules that contribute to taste and add them to other things. If so that pretty flipping cool and they should totally figure out how to turn that technology into a powder so I could sprinkle some fettuccine Alfredo taste on my veggies; all the flavor without the side effects! Million dollar idea!

Athena - thanks for the heads up...I totally misread that part of the rules...I thought it meant you could only assign a max of 5 point per skill. The way you broke it out works for me. I figure just getting into the habit of eating better and exercising is a big enough life goal to tackle for my first go so that's why I didn't add anything like that. I know myself and if I try to make too many changes at once I'll freak out and screw it up. I'm using this challenge as kind of a motivator to build momentum for future challenges. So a year's worth of photos huh? Are you a photographer then? I am...I'm actually in the process of starting my own portrait photography business. I'm planning to use revenue from that to fund new gear I want to get and hopefully some trips I want to take. Love to travel.

So cool! I can't stand unsweetened tea...it tastes like dirt water! It's funny that I like it at all because I'm not really a southerner, I'm a transplant, and everyone in my family is like "how can you drink that stuff?!?"

Thanks for the tips, gymell...wow, you can do 10 chin ups?!? I definitely can't do even one. I certainly don't think I'm going to starve, that's one thing I could never do...I get horrible headaches if I go too long without eating.

Awesome GingerWarrior! We can form a Ginger party and venture forth! Good luck!

This is my first challenge and though I'm posting a week late I actually started this last week and I'm incorporating it as part of a longer personal challenge I have going. For this challenge, the focus is going to be on learning better ways of life. I figure I can't just start working out and dieting and expecting it to work without having some clue what I'm doing...this is a tutorial level after all. My main focus is going to be on the switch to Paleo eating and trying to get into some sort of exercise routine. Ultimately I would like to lose around 18lbs by the end of this six weeks, but that's not a deal breaker as long as my shape changes for the better. I plan to post at least once a week but I will be stalking the boards probably every day. Goal 1 Switch to Paleo eating - WIS 2, CON 5 Mainly for this stage I'm cutting out pasta and bread 100%. I already don't drink soda but I do consume a lot of sweet tea so I'm cutting way back on that by only drinking it at lunchtime. Drink more water, since I don't really drink plain water at all I'm going to shoot for at least 2 glasses per day Goal 2 Exercise - WIS 2, STR 2, DEX 2, STA 2 Use my elliptical for at least 30 min per day 3 times per week to get some cardio in and build up stamina (STR STA) Do Pilates stretches every day to regain lost flexibility (DEX) Hopefully this will get me started and geared up for Level 1!

I think it's great that you signed up for a pole dancing class! What a fun way to get a workout! I live in the bible belt and I doubt I could find anything like that arou d here but it would be completely awesome. I actually just watched Rock of Ages and if the strip club scenes in the movie are any indication, pole dancing will give you some serious strength. Good luck!

Mike - your post is making me drool... I knew it was going to be hard, I just didn't realize that it was pretty much my main dietary ingredient. :-p So there's one good thing so far about the switch...it's making me pay attention to what I eat. I'm giving myself as set amount of time without it to kick start the fat loss and then I'll reintroduce it slowly, for like special occasions and such, because I just don't know that I want to go through life without pasta Alfredo...no matter how ripped I get ;-p

Hehe...awesome EightDigit...part of my job is maintaining our MSAG and ALI info! I do the GIS work for emergency management and maintain all the 911 address data.

I dunno...pasta is pretty much one of my staple foods. I was a vegetarian for 15 years and pasta kept me alive (also Ramen noodles, I love Ramen noodles)! I started eating meat about 5 years ago (OMG I love bacon now!) but I still don't eat seafood, I just can't get it past my nose. This makes my Paleo diet even more limited. My first week was pretty tough because pretty much everything I used to get at my normal lunch haunts was either some kind of sub sandwich or some kind of pasta dish...but I made it through week one. I think I'm having withdrawal symptoms or something because a couple of days ago I was really shaky and weak feeling...