PhoenixRising

Better late than never! This week is the first week of my new life! My youngest is starting preschool tomorrow. I wil Officially had ove part of her care to another person! I have been caring for my kids as a full time caregiver (aka stay at home mom) for almost 7 years now. I am very sad to see both of my children set off on their own journeys to discovering who they are, but I am ready to support them and begin caring for myself again! I have not been very good at making sure my needs are met. I always used the excuse of having to take care of my kids first. While they still come first in my heart, I have no excuses when they are being well looked after in school! So, off I go to start the next chapter in my life! Goal #1 Lose 10 pounds. Goal #2 Do 20 regular pushups. Goal #3 Run a 5k in under 40 minutes. Life Goal Stick to my schedule and keep my house in order. I will add my starting weight and measurements, along with how I will meet and grade my goals tomorrow while my little one is in school!

Sorry guys! Rough weekend with back to school for my kids! I will update this tomorrow while my little one is in preschool. Don't forget to count your pushups starting today! Post your totals on Sunday!

http://recipes.womenshealthmag.com/Recipe/no-grain-coconut-cookies.aspx Eggs, honey, coconut! my kind of recipe, easy and to the point. I have also seen a date and coconut cookie (more of a ball than a cookie), but I can't find the recipe. The dates provide the sugar, so not added sugar to that one at all!

Be sure to check the original post for updates! Your name should be there. I will put your totals on that list and the winners for each week below!

Add a new post to this thread when you have your totals!

We talked about this in Base Camp, and I need to post this before I forget! This is for anyone to join from the Adventurer's Group. Most of the posts I saw about goals for this challenge had something to do with pushups. This challenge will help motivate you to get your practice in! This will run weekly from Monday to Sunday. You do not have to have a pushup goal to compete. Every week, keep a running total of your pushups. Woke up and busted out 10 pushups? Write it down! Waiting for the oven to preheat? Bust out 20 pushups and add that to your tally! Your favorite show went to commercial? Get down and give your tally 8 more! Get the idea? Now what if you can't do a real pushup? It doesn't matter! You can do incline or knee pushups. Just be sure to note how you did your pushups when you post. That doesn't mean you should take it easy on yourself, though! I could do 1000 incline pushups a day, but that wouldn't help me level up my pushups. So be sure to try and do what is most challenging for you! Below I will write out a list of all the people competing. Next to your name I will write your total pushups for each week with your total for all weeks at the end. Week1+week 2+week3=a lot of pushups. If you start early you will have a better advantage for the end of the challenge! Below that I will announce the winners of each week. At the end of the challenge, there will be a pushup master! If you want to do this, please post below so I can get a list of people. I will try to update this every week. Please try to get your totals in on time! 1. PhoenixRising 2. kimblitz 3. allirep 4. Froggiesrock 5. Alpha Bookworm 6. jmbrunson 7. AngelCastaneda

I have run maybe four times since the fourth of July. I really thought I'd never be able to run again! I tore my ACL 9 years ago, had to wait four years for the surgery, and it hasn't felt "right" since. Well, I found out that after losing 30 pounds (actually down 50 from my heaviest) I can run! Yay! So, I started out at the beginning of July to see what I could do. I did a mile in 16 minutes... Ugh! Most of that was walking. So, I ran yesterday for time and I ran a mile in 12! Holy crap! I have been walking, but I have only run four times in total! I can't believe how much better I did. Of course I almost puked and I thought I couldn't breathe when I stopped ( I played sports long enough to know what is too much and what I can work through). Now to start the challenge next week! I want to do the c25k program, but start a few weeks in. I am doing a 5k in October!

I wish I would have read this post earlier! I saw the title and immediately thought "maybe in fairy fantasy land". I am built the same way. Unfortunately, I also gain my fat in those places! Skinny jeans are a joke. Long sleeves are like tights for my arms. Forget about boots! I wear ones that sit just below the calf. I am in a 12 or 14 for pants, but I wear an 8 for skirts. I can't get smaller pants over my thighs! Anyway, I have decided I will just get into body builder shape. I gain super fast and I know I will look like I have done some 'roids in a few months! But, I want to be fit. If that means looking like a body builder, that is what it means. I put on muscle from running, so it's not like I can really avoid it at all! I can't really control what my body looks like, but I can control what my body can do. Ooooh... I am so going to put that baby on Facebook! Anyway, you do what feels right for you, and don't worry about what other people say. My husband is a hard gainer, too. But he has been working all summer to bulk up so I don't out muscle him by Christmas! He will always have better abs and shoulders than me, though! But my legs are killer!!!

Mmmmm. Coffee flavored chia! LOL! Thank you!

If I were you, I'd go to the grocery store and just buy a few days worth of veggies and fruit. Grab frozen veggies (like green beans) and frozen fruit (strawberries). Fish of any kind thaws really fast, so grab some frozen fish filets. Also grab chicken cutlets, ground beef, and thin pork chops. When you get home, make thin burger patties. Freeze all the meat individually (take a sheet pan, place wax paper on it, put all of the chicken/beef/pork on the sheet pan without the pieces touching, freeze). When the meat is frozen, pop the pieces into ziplock bags. When it's dinner time, the thin cuts of meat can be cooked from frozen! Fish can be cooked from frozen, too... Or you can thaw it out on the counter in half an hour. Add veg and fruit to the meal and you are set. This is the no plan meal planning that I do sometimes, but for a family of four. You have options, but only one day of prep is needed. You could take this up a notch and do all of your cooking on Sunday for the entire week. Then it's reheat and eat. This is how I do it. I do all my major cooking on Sunday and small prep stuff during the week. Hope this helps!

One of my goals is to do 20 push ups by the end of the next six weeks. I would love to have someone to "compete" against! Maybe we could post the total number of pushups we complete through the week? So Monday through Sunday I would tally all of my pushups. We could have a thread in the adventurer challenge to see who does the most pushups for the week? Anyone could post their stats! A lot of adventurers have pushup goals, too.

Sorry, I have to! Ch ch ch chia! I miss those commercials! These have to be blended, right? Like flax? What is a good for this? A spice grinder? Brand suggestions?

I was looking at this the other day! Here is what I found: Quinoa is a psudoegrain (I like using big words!) it is not a grain and it does not grow on grass... This should mean ok for paleo... Right? Well, is has this stuff on it called saponin which needs to be washed off before eating. Most quinoa in the states is prewashed, but check the box or ask the retailer if it's in a bulk in. This stuff will upset your stomach! That is where the problem with quinoa comes in. The saponin... or at least that's the only reason I could find for it not being paleo. But a lot of people on paleo do choose to eat it. I don't see any issues with quinoa, but I am not doing paleo! Try it and see if it agrees with you. If you don't seem to notice any adverse reactions, I don't see ant harm! Your body, your choices. Just make sure you know what you are doing to yourself, good or bad. On a side note, have your tried sweet potato wrapped in bacon? Take a peeled sweet potato and cut it into four large pieces (think fat French fry). Parboil the pieces until they are tender but not cooked completely. Let them air dry on a paper towel while you preheat the oven. After the oven is hot, wrap each piece with bacon and pop in the oven until cooked through and bacon is crisp. That should make for some yummy sweet potato! Don't ask me about a temp (maybe 375 F?) or time, I just came up with that in my head... I am sure there are some recipes online? Look up "bacon wrapped sweet potato" or something! You could probably grill these, too! Oooooh... Maybe I will be making bacon wrapped sweet potatos next week?

I am so proud that I uploaded these! Here is the link to my photobucket album... These are the only three pics in there! This is my home gym that I told you about. I forgot to add that I have a step, too. I use it for rehab on my knee, but it is good for box jumps and leg workouts, too. http://s1260.photobucket.com/albums/ii564/Shannon_Kellogg/ I hope this works. I can't get the photos to load through my iPad. Argh! The link will have to do!

Target recycles almost everything! Ours takes cell phones, ink cartridges, batteries, etc... Plus cans, paper, plastic, glass, and grocery bags! Before our city took glass I used to take mine to target. Our city takes all plastics, so that's not a big deal. But I think target takes milk cartons... I need to investigate that further!