athousandwords

Getting the flu right as you start a new challenge is just so predictable, isn't it? 😆 Congrats on getting the extra rest and keeping your goals in mind even while sick! Take it easy on yourself and get better soon!

Happy Mother's Day! Sounds like you had a wonderful weekend! So jealous that you got good aurora coverage where you are (it was cloudy here), but happy for you that you got to enjoy the light show!

1) That is very sweet of him 2) THERE'S A GAME?!?

Week 1 Wrap Up LoseIt: 🧁🧁🧁🧁🧁🧁🧁 Water: 🧁🧁🧁🧁🧁🧁🧁 Read: 🧁🧁🧁 Movement: 🥖🥖🥖🥖🥖🥖 Tidy: 🥖🥖🥖🥖🥖🥖 Bake: 🍰🍰 Lightweight weekly wrap up. I'm feeling really good about all my core habit goals (🧁 goals) - great numbers this week. I got a lot of movement in and the house stayed really clean! We actually had the cleaners come out today and normally it's a frantic pick-up-everything the night before, but last night was a breeze in comparison. And I got two bakes in - the lemon pie late on Saturday night and the GF brownies on Sunday morning. This week in LoseIt: This week in Fitbit, compared to an average week last challenge:

Mar 26 - 175.2 Apr 01 - 174.4 (-0.8) Apr 08 - 173.4 (-1.0) Apr 15 - 174.2 (+0.8) Apr 22 - 177 (+2.8) May 6 - 172.6 (-4.4) May 13 - 171.4 (-1.2) Feeling good with some slow and steady progress! 🐢

Week 1 - Friday/Saturday LoseIt: 🧁🧁🧁🧁🧁🧁 Water: 🧁🧁🧁🧁🧁🧁 Read: 🧁🧁🧁 Movement: 🥖🥖🥖🥖🥖🥖 Tidy: 🥖🥖🥖🥖 Bake: 🍰 The weekend has been really great so far. Yesterday, my husband arranged a date night for an early Mother's Day gift. He bought tickets to one of our favorite musicals that was showing at a local theater (Reefer Madness 🌿) and got his parents to take the kids for a sleepover. We had dinner at an Ethiopian restaurant before the show, which was amazing (and soooo filling). And I got a last minute appointment to get a second ear piercing as a gift to myself. We got home late, but we weren't tired, so I baked a lemon pie for today's brunch at my in law's. Nothing like midnight baking while listening to the Reefer Madness soundtrack! This morning we got to sleep in, then I made some gluten-free brownies. Rave reviews from the family on the desserts. ❤️

Bodies are SO weird.

Week 1 - Wednesday/Thursday LoseIt: 🧁🧁🧁🧁 Water: 🧁🧁🧁🧁 Read: 🧁🧁🧁 Movement: 🥖🥖🥖🥖 Tidy: 🥖🥖🥖 Bake: I'm really digging my movement goal so far this challenge. I have a soft goal for 10k steps a day with at least 4 movement breaks during the work day. That might mean running downstairs for a refill on coffee and doing some tidying up around the house, or putting on a quick 5 min stretch video. So far I particularly like this channel for a quick standing stretch, even though there's something about the movements that makes me feel incredibly middle-aged. 😆 Dinners have been super easy around here. Last night I used some canned shredded chicken + avocado in a quesadilla and the kids gobbled it up. Tonight was the ol' classic standby: hot dogs with mac and cheese. Not winning any food competitions here, but everyone is fed and I'm still hitting my calorie goals. My husband suggested baking something to bring to his mom's on Sunday and I jumped right on board. I need to do a grocery run tomorrow anyway, so I can pick up ingredients and play around with something fancy. My MIL is gluten-free so it's always a fun challenge to bake something that actually tastes good.... (Feel free to send me your tried and true gluten-free desserts if you have any...)

I'm so sorry - that's a big upset in your work and it sounds like they really underestimated the project needs. I feel like you have a really good, sane, healthy outlook on this. Focus on the process breakdowns, where more training can happen, how can you make sure you (and others!) don't end up in a situation like this again. I get the feeling of needing to prove/redeem yourself, but be kind to yourself too. I hope this at least gives you some breathing room - I know how stressful work was for you when you were juggling volunteer duties during the eclipse.

Smart. Those impulse buys simply because it's available will get you every time. Hope to see pics of the obelisk! Your rose is lovely!

I was thinking of you and this challenge today - I think it's such an interesting focus. I scheduled my lunch at 12:30, but definitely was feeling hunger an hour before that (I appeased it with coffee 😬). Then later I had enough spare calories to eat after dinner, but I just wasn't hungry. I feel like it would have been easy to eat a bowl of ice cream to celebrate having a deep deficit, but paying attention to hunger made me reconsider. Anyway, just letting you know I appreciate your challenge goals and your mindful approach!

Welcome back! A new 5-week challenge just started this week if you want to test drive your plan for a month+. Also - friends who will say "come on bike rides" are the best kinds of friends! You are the sum of the people around you and those sound like good ones!

I guess it depends on how much you like reheated soup - for me, that would just end up getting freezer burnt as I ignored it. Nothing wrong with a goblin supper as long as you're hitting your rough calorie goals and not causing problems with inflammation for yourself! Maybe have some go-to goblin foods that are easy to store: boiled eggs, babybel cheeses, veggie chips, etc. Adorbs! 🥕

Moving always makes me avow to be a minimalist. I'm just shocked at how much stuff we accumulate - right before I head to Target/Amazon/etc and buy more. But I'm sorry that in your case packing is also dredging up feelings of insecurity and rough times. It sounds like therapy is helping you get perspective on it, but I hope you can schedule some self-care in there as well amongst all the packing. An orgy maybe? 😈

Oh no, did you pick up whatever Peach had? I hope you feel better soon and can get some proper rest. 🤗🍵💤

He should have. It was a real GBBO controversy - similar to the Baked Alaska disaster of yesteryear...

I loved Janusz!! Frankly I'm still mad that Dan phoned it in with his "PIZZA" bake last year. Since I didn't actually bake anything for our pizza night yesterday (pre-made naan), I will not be trying to present it as a bake, unlike Dan who had no business giving the judges that underbaked train wreck of a showstopper. 😡

Week 1 - Monday/Tuesday LoseIt: 🧁🧁 Water: 🧁🧁 Read: 🧁🧁 Movement: 🥖🥖 Tidy: 🥖🥖 Bake: Week 1 is going really well so far. I was worried it would be hard to get back into tracking calories and drinking water after taking zero week off at the retreat, but it's been surprisingly easy to get back into the groove. Matt's out of town this week, so I've been trying to make dinners pretty easy. Yesterday I just had the kids make their own pizzas on naan - big kid went wild with ham, pineapple, and green apple (?) while little girl just had cheese. I had a very satisfying prosciutto, zucchini, and basil pizza myself. I'm extra proud of how much movement I'm getting in these last couple days. I've challenged myself to find time to walk during the workday - yesterday I took an all-hands call on the treadmill, and on Monday I actually wrote up my challenge while walking! I'm going to go out for a short walk as soon as I finish up this entry, while the weather is still mostly cool, and then probably hop back on the treadmill this afternoon during a mostly-listening call. I'm trying to get over 10k steps every day and break up all the sitting with more stretching. So far, so good. No chance to bake yet, but maybe tomorrow night I'll have the kids help me bake something yummy to bring to school on Friday - it's teacher appreciation week.

It sooo cute! If they had it in 4T I'd be tempted to get it for my girlie! 🥹 Aragorn + Maracas = coolest present ever. Your students must love you!

This is me eating the leftover pasta I made on Monday that the kids didn't like so now I'm stuck with four servings to get through by myself... 😒 Hopefully it's just a pre-summer rush! I'm sure it'll die down once people start taking their summer trips. It's probably similar to Janu-rush. Congrats on your hard work already and adjusting your challenge accordingly! You're going to crush it!

Sov - are you taking a real break over Week Zero? How many weeks in a row are you going hard at your goals (or feeling disappointed when you don't hit them)? It's good to do a reset. If you feel like your resolve is wavering, maybe you need a proper break from the goal setting and expectations. Take a few days off and see how you feel coming back. I worry that you're approaching burnout. ❤️ Thank you for sharing your sketches. Your mushrooms are particularly lovely and your tower feels straight out of a fairytale illustration.

I love popcorn for these times when I just want to eat a lot of something without the calories. WOW! Nice to hit a PR by accident though! Seems like you're moving up at the right time!

And gifs - don't forget the gifs

I spent Zero Week at a work retreat up in Cape Cod and it was an amazing, fun, hilarious, thought-provoking experience in all the ways my company does best. And even though it was work focused (I mean, nominally - it definitely tipped more toward "fun" on the whole) I ended up taking back a lot of insights home about myself, what I've learned over the years, and how I work best. In his keynote address, our CEO said a couple things that stuck out to me: "Stop re-learning what you already know" and "Put your energy toward what you're already good at." I feel like a lot of times I set myself up for disappointment by trying something that didn't work for the twelfth time (Surely this time it will work!) or trying to be someone I'm not. So this challenge, I'm going to put the bulk of my energy into what I already know works and feels easy, I'm going to spend a little time trying to improve some areas where I want to grow, and then I'm going to do something just for fun... CHALLENGE GOALS 🧁🧁🧁 3 Habits I'm Good At: The best bakers don't shy away from what comes naturally. Giuseppe’s immaculate Italian flavors; Kim-Joy's adorable decorations; Nancy's classic baking expertise; Rahul's technical precision; James' scientific background. They lean into what they know works. This challenge I'm going to focus what's already working - this is a solid foundation. Log food on LoseIt every day Drink 8 cups of water every day Read 3x a week 🥖🥖 2 Areas I want to Improve: Of course, we couldn't make it to Week 10 without stretching ourselves. I'm aiming to improve these areas of my life. I'm not striving for perfection here, but even a little progress is better than nothing! Increase daily movement Start each day with a walk/run/weights Spend part of my workday on the treadmill (Meetings? Catch up time?) Take 5-10 minute movement breaks during the day Tidy up the house every evening 🍰 1 New Thing to Try: This is an invitation to be playful, to get creative, to involve the kids, and to make some delicious yumminess. Bake something weekly! Of course, no challenge is perfect. During week 4 I have the misfortune of going on a week-long cruise to Bermuda - womp, womp. So I'm just going to do the best I can while I'm here and enjoy my vacation to the fullest while I'm gone. As for tracking - I'm going to try out Rebel One and tisworth's suggestion and track using The Additive Method. I don't know exactly where I'm going to track, but we'll figure that out as we go. I think that's about it for this challenge, so...

Also, CONGRATS!!! I love the navy blue and the fireplace! Super cute!! 😍