athousandwords

Hey, I've seen you around a bunch and wanted to come say hi! Glad to see you're back to it, even after a midchallenge slump. The week 3 curse hits everyone at some point. Good on you for getting back to your challenge and best of luck with the second half!

Hope you don't mind if I respond here instead of your thread, I feel bad about thread-jacking! And because my response relates to Adventurers as a whole, and this seems as good a place as any to weigh in with the whole group. Reading your post, I know exactly how you feel, and there are times when NF feels like a popularity contest, or like being back in high school. That's so weird to me, since I suspect most of the people drawn to this community were slightly shy/awkward/misfits and wouldn't consider themselves 'popular' at all. But, like you, I look at people who have dozens of pages to their threads the first week of the challenge and wonder what's wrong with me that I only get a few comments a week. I wonder if I need to be more engaging, post more gifs, more funny nerd references - but it's exhausting when I'm trying to keep up with the rest of my life as well. I've been on and off NF for about 4 or 5 years now, and every time I come back for a challenge I tell myself that I'll make an effort to meet more people and forge friendships. I fully understand that community involvement is crucial for keeping myself engaged and successful. Yes, I do this for myself, but I do better when I remind myself that my NF friends will give me shit if I don't get that workout in! But it's disheartening when you follow along a dozen threads and don't get that many people following you. It's disheartening when people who were following you last challenge don't come back. And it's hard not to take it personally, even though (logically) you realize that everyone has their own lives and it's impossible to keep up with a dozen threads a day and make meaningful comments on all of them! But I do think Adventurers has some support problems. In fact, I've been toying with leaving the Adventurers and switching to Rangers after this challenge, not because Rangers really aligns with my goals, but because the other classes seem to have a better community. I joined a Rangers-aligned accountabilibuddy group this challenge got a huge outpouring of support from Ranger Ambassadors. Yes, being in an accountabilibuddy group really does makes the difference, but it would be great if there was more Adventurer interaction outside of those groups. Maybe it's because we're a transient class? I suspect people think of Adventurers as a stepping stone, rather than a final class. We're the Hufflepuffs of NF, in a lot of ways. I was reading what Teros wrote on everanything's thread in response and I wonder if there is more we can all do as Adventurers to step it up? Maybe an official Adventurers spreadsheet or using the Tavern more often as a way to say "Hey, I'm not getting the support I need", or "I'm actually a really friendly person and want to talk to more people!". A lot of the people coming into Adventurers are straight out of Recruits and often aren't comfortable commenting on someone else's thread or PMing them, or even joining some of the more established buddy groups. We're a large group, and it's easy for people to get lost in the mix. It totally sucks that the first time Teros tried to create an organized Adventurer ambassador system he got shut down, but I think we need to try again. With ambassadors, or a spreadsheet that allows us to share interests, or a chat room, or something. We need to make the Adventurers the community we want, rather than relying on accountabilibuddy groups to fill that gap. Anyway, tl;dr - I think Teros needs more help in strengthening the Adventurers community, and I'm happy to help brainstorm ways to do that, or put plans into place. Edited to Add: I'm opening up a conversation about community engagement within the Adventurers in the Tavern thread if anyone is interested in joining in.

I've heard people swear by these push up bars, they rotate as you go so that your wrists don't get as strained. I've never used them, however. Sometimes there can be sneaky things preventing your weight loss - a couple beers on the weekend that negate your deficit during the week, starchy vegetables adding more calories than anticipated, misjudging how much you burn during a workout, etc. Being meticulous about calorie counting could help, but I hate counting calories so I'm loathe to recommend that to anyone! A cleanse could be good though - focusing on clean eating and cutting out anything that could mean sneaky calories.

Sorry to hear about the knee injury. Hard to say exactly what caused it, but definitely take it easy! Working out 6x a week is stressful on your body, especially if you weren't moving much before. Be good to yourself and take the time to heal. Can you swim or do something less intensive to your knees in the mean time?

Congrats on the slimmed down waistline!! Have fun at your Mexican fiesta this weekend!

Just remember, it's a marathon, not a sprint. Instead of focusing on how you'll look for one milestone, focus on changing your life for good! Have a great time at your birthday and don't let some gains keep you from having an awesome time!

Thursday Recap Goal 1: 4 points Breakfast - 2 softboiled eggs with brussels sprouts, asparagus, and bacon Lunch - Pumpkin chili Dinner - Pan Seared chicken with curried parsnips, steamed broccoli That recipe is sooo good and so easy too! Definitely going into the regular rotation at our house. Goal 2: Six o'clock Goal 3: Complete - walked around the neighborhood, 15 min yoga. I've been focusing on restorative yoga this week, rather than more intense stretching. It's that time of the month and I found a great yoga channel with sessions specifically for PMS and during your flow. It's been nice for relieving the back aches and cramps particularly. Goal 4: No progress

Wednesday Recap Goal 1: 4 points Breakfast - 2 softboiled eggs with brussels sprouts, asparagus, and bacon (yes, again!) Lunch - Pumpkin chili Dinner - Peruvian chicken, side salad, plantains (yes, again!) Okay, I'm definitely a creature of habit when it comes to food. Goal 2: Borg workouts - kind of a cool workout, exercising 3 different kind of muscle movements! Goal 3: Complete - walked around the neighborhood, stretching after workout Goal 4: 11 points - Thanks to some terrible traffic yesterday, I managed to listen to 2 podcasts: Adventures in Angular: Ui-Router and AiA: Advanced Directive. I also read a blog on importing data into MongoDB from one of the guys on the podcast because it caught my interest.

Basically, lol! I make a batch every Sunday to last me through the week. I keep thinking I'll get bored of it, but it's sooo good! Thanks! You're right, the progress pics really do help. Hope your end challenge photos are great!

Sorry to hear about the slow progress. I think going to the Dr and getting checkout out is a good idea, especially if you weren't losing while on the Whole30! Sending positive thoughts your way that there are no issues!

Nice progress! I think you're going to be amazed to look back at the end of this challenge and see how much your workouts have improved!

Did you get that ST workout in?? Great job making a plan for the week, but don't beat yourself up too much! As long as you get right back on track next week, you'll be fine.

Nice progress! Bets of luck with the 2 a day workouts.. that sounds exhausting!

Sorry to hear you weren't feeling well! Being good to your body (and your back!) is important. Great job staying on track with your food intake and meditations!! It's so easy to let everything fall apart when one thing does. Best of luck with week 4, glad to see you're sticking with it!

Tuesday Recap Yesterday I was fighting with some terrible sugar cravings. It was a mix of people eating cookies at lunch, then snickers bars came out, then there were free cupcakes in the break room...ay yi yi. Overall, I did okay - I posted to my accountabilitbuddies group who helped me get my head back on straight, and I drank some herbal tea to give myself something to do. I went to my brother-in-law's house for dinner, and he had homemade mead for us to try, and since I've been good about my 'cheats' lately, I had a glass. It was super strong and dry though (I was feeling it after only one glass!), so it didn't really hit that sweet spot. Since it had been several hours and I was still getting sugar cravings, I went ahead and had two small pieces of chocolate when I got home. I don't really feel guilty, since I didn't give in to the immediate cravings, and I had something that wasn't too far off my diet plan. Felt like a reasonable compromise to me! Goal 1: 3 points Breakfast - 2 softboiled eggs with brussels sprouts, asparagus, and bacon Lunch - Roti salad - steak, cucumber/tomato, cabbage/carrots, roasted veggies Dinner - Taco salad, cucumber/tomato/onion salad, mead Weird, looking back at my day, I basically had the same thing for lunch and dinner, but they tasted completely different! My BIL made tacos, but didn't really know what to make for a paleo eater. So I whipped up a cucumber/onion/tomato salad with a vinegar/lemon dressing, and it went over quite well! Goal 2: Rest Day - ugh, I didn't intend to take a rest day, but I overslept. This shouldn't throw off my workout plan too much though. Goal 3: Complete - walked around the neighborhood, 15 min yoga Goal 4: No progress

Thanks! And I hate warming up with jumping jacks when I'm starting out cold, but doing them after or midway through a workout isn't so bad. Monday Recap I'm having a hard time getting up in the morning this week. Last week, I was really good about not going back to bed after turning off my alarm, but this week I've just been so tired. I think tonight needs to be an early night - and no playing on my phone in bed! Goal 1: 4 points Breakfast - 2 softboiled eggs with brussels sprouts, asparagus, and bacon Lunch - Fajita salad Dinner - Pumpkin Chili Goal 2: Back & Biceps Goal 3: Complete - walked around the neighborhood, 10 min yoga after workout Goal 4: 2 articles: Lazy Loading with AngularJS, and Compile, Pre, and Post Linking in AngularJS. I'm in the middle of implementing a lazy page loader for a book reader project at work, so I was reading and then applying at the same time. Good way to learn!

Sounds like a good week 3! Way to stay on top of your exercising goal! It sucks sometimes that getting healthier can't just be done by itself, and you get back to real life after - like going to a fancy bootcamp where you lose all the weight and develop healthy habits and then come back a new person. But realistically, learning how to manage exercise and batch cooking alongside your studies and other commitments is so important. You'll never be able to maintain your healthy habits unless they work with your total lifestyle. Best of luck getting the GPA up, even if your fitness has to take a backseat for a while. Sounds like you'll still be able to maintain the progress you've made!

I swear, I need something like Plant Nanny, but in a way that reminds me to actually water my real plants... they're all dead and dying. Great progress so far, you're really hitting your marks with food! Let us know how the Heros Journey is going!

YES YES YES! Do it!! You've got this! Also, awesome job on those 15 chin-ups - just the thought of chin-ups makes me want to cry, so I'm truly impressed! And I think your burger justification is just fine; you rarely 'cheat' and knowing your boundaries and what will make or break your diet is important! Best of luck with the Mexican feast, sounds amazing!

Yay! Congrats on getting through your first half of the challenge and reaching Level 1! You're really doing a fantastic job on this challenge! You'll be in One-derland in no time, and moving on to bigger and better weights... on your dumbbells of course.

You've got the right idea - leave Week 3 behind you and start fresh with week 4! Maybe it's a good thing you're out of drink days for the challenge, that way the carbs can't catch up with you and lead you astray... Here's to a new and better second half of the challenge!

Sunday Recap Goal 1: 4 points Breakfast - scrambled eggs with kale and spinach, 1/4 avocado, Chai Lunch/Dinner - Lettuce wrap fajitas Weekends are so awkward for getting 3 meals in, especially when you don't get out of bed til nearly 10am. After breakfast, I didn't really get hungry until around 4pm, so we did an early dinner and called it a day. The fajitas were amazing, too. Goal 2: Rest Day Goal 3: Complete - walked around the neighborhood, 20 min yoga Goal 4: Read 2 more chapters of O'Reilly AngularJS. I was really, really hoping to finish the book on Sunday, but didn't quite get there. Only 2 chapters left though! Week 3 Summary This was basically a perfect week! 5 workouts, full points for eating every day, lots of life goal progress. Look at this chart: GLORIOUS! I hit the mini-challenge this week, too: 50 jumping jacks on Thursday, 75 on Friday, and a whopping 300 jumping jacks on Saturday! Yep, you read that right! During the bike ride on Saturday, my husband and our friend were periodically stopping to play Ingress, so every time we stopped I did a set of 50 jumping jacks. Kept my heartbeat up and gave my arms something to do. I'm feeling totally on fire this week, and my results are showing it, too. My weigh in this week was 161.2, which means... I am officially over 25lbs down, and HALFWAY to my ultimate goal weight! To mark the occasion, I took new progress photos. These are the first progress photos I've taken since I started in January at 187 lbs. Check it out under the cut: And now I realize why people always say to take progress pictures, because here I've been thinking you couldn't even see a difference. Also, look how long my hair has gotten! Even better - as of today, there are 90 days (or 3 months, or ~13 weeks) til we leave for Harry Potter World, Orlando. I have another 11lbs to lose to hit my main quest goal of 150 lbs by the time we leave, and I am right on track! Whew, okay, massive update over.... Onward to Week 4!

Lazy weekends FTW Thanks! I'll have to try those parsnip fresh fries, sounds good!

Mmmm that salad sounds amazing! Definitely going to have to steal some of your tips! This is my go-to guide for salads - in fact, I generally do chopped salads, with the lettuce and all veg in little bite size pieces, to maximize scoopage and getting everything into one bite. I'm not a fan of unwieldy salads where you're basically eating a veggie tray with a fork.