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The Mission: UNLOCK DIETARY BEAST MODE. What would it be like to eat food and not worry about getting sick? What would it be like if I had a diet that contributed to a healthy weight but didn't make me sick when I eat? I aim to find out. I'm Melissa. Hi! In addition to the challenge things I am working on below, here's what I'm like. I'm a 37 year old living in the intermountain west. Things I like to do include being outside (mainly hiking, camping, backpacking, canyoneering, and rafting), reading, cooking (currently getting into fermentation and sausage making), baking, board games (word, old fashioned, and strategy games), other people's pets and children, and yoga. I think Ron Swanson might be my spirit animal. My superpowers include anxiety and reading comprehension. That's me five years and at least forty pounds ago on my very first canyoneering trip. Some numbers for the start of my first full challenge (all minuses are since my last weigh in on August 11th)! Weight: 187 (-11 pounds! Body fat: 43% (-3%)! Upper bust: 40.5" (-.5") Full bust: 45 (- 2" yesssss)! Under bust: 36" (-2") Waist: 36.5" (no change) Belly: 45.5" (-.5") Hips: 45" (-1.5") Left bicep: 14.25" (-.75) Right bicep: 14.5 (-.5") Left thigh: 29" (-1") Right thigh 29.5" (-.5") Left calf: 18" (no change) Right Calf: 17.5" (-.5"). So that's 11 pounds gone forever, 3% body fat melted (just using my scale for this), and 9.75" inches returned to sender. While weight loss isn't part of my challenge for now, it is still important to me so this is exciting stuff. On to mission control for this challenge! #1. Conquer my digestion. I've spent too much time letting my faulty digestion be in charge. I am doing an elimination diet in an effort to figure out what my system can handle, and I am committed to doing whatever it takes to turn this dark carnival back into a happy funtime circus. If that means living on bone broth and zucchini, BRING IT ON. Right now, this goal means: stick to my elimination diet 100% until it either starts working, or it becomes clear that it is in fact not going to work, at which point it's time to call in additional professional help. I currently eat very few things (pretty much just zucchini, carrots, bone broth, and plain animal proteins), but one upside is that my very restricted diet has me in ketosis (fat burning mode). I'll take all the fat burning help I can get. This is my circus, and those are my monkeys. #2. Be The Kindly Brontosaurus in dealing with doctors and medical stuff. Be the brontosaurus! Be kind, but don't leave until I get what I need! I need to be more assertive (not aggressive, just assertive) in my dealings with my medical issues. It's my body, no one else will ever have as much at stake as I do, and it's time to stop letting stuff happen or not happen to me. This means: making all my appointments in a timely fashion, being assertive at those appointments (be the brontosaurus! take a dinosaur friend if necessary!), researching all my own stuff thoroughly, getting second opinions, making sure my doctors know what they are talking about, filling all prescriptions in a timely fashion, and pushing and persisting for all necessary tests to get done. To healthy people, that may sound like a lot. For anyone else with chronic illness(es), that list will seem familiar. I have a lot going on, healthwise, and it's important for me to keep on top of things even when I feel horrible. I am done using illness as an excuse for not taking good enough care of myself. Don't feel good? Do the things anyway. #3. Track all the things! Continue to keep a daily journal that includes what I eat, medications, and symptoms. If I don't have my journal with me, just make a note on my phone. There is almost no point in my elimination diet if I don't write down what I eat and how I feel. Weight loss and exercise aren't included in those goals for the simple reason that my elimination diet is very difficult and is enough to be going on with right now, but I am working on both of those things as I can. Grading and loot! I do love me some good loot. #1: Diet. This is pass/fail at the end of each week: did I stick to my elimination diet? Fail=get back on the horse, or get a new horse. Pass=LOOT if I've stuck to it 100%. I'll decide as I go what my rewards will be. I am including some diet vacations for planned travel because it is impossible to go backpacking while on my diet. On travel weekends, pass conditions include that I must return to my diet the morning after I return home. #2. Be The Kindly Bronotsaurus. This is pass/fail at the end of each week. Fail=did very few or none of the things I needed to do, and means it's time to ask for some help to get those things done. Pass=did most or all of the things, and means MOAR LOOT, again to be decided as I go (what can I say, I have whims). #3. Track all the things. Once again, this is pass/fail at the end of each week. Fail=tracked 3 or fewer days, or failed to track two days in a row and means no loot for me. Pass=tracked 4 or more days, and earns me more loot. I plan to earn a lot of loot. Shiny! A reward for anyone who made it through all that: it's the song that inspired my thread title.

I've had digestive problems for many years. I have been actively trying and failing to solve them this year. I am currently feeling pretty discouraged and at the end of my rope as far as finding a way to eat food without getting sick, so I'm asking anyone here to please give me advice. Since May, I have adhered 80-90% to the elimination diet protocol outlined in the book Digestive Health with Real Food. For the past 19 days, I have stuck to it 100%. Despite those efforts, eating still makes me sick and I just want to be able to eat and not be sick. So much. Things that I currently put in my mouth: Water Bone broth I make myself using water, salt, and fancy organic bones Plain animal proteins (nothing aged, cured, or smoked) Two cooked veggies (zucchini and carrots. The diet also allows green beans and spinach but I am not eating those right now) Two healthy fats: ghee and olive oil. The diet also allows the following things that I am not eating right now: ginger (gives me heartburn), fresh herbs. Medications: B12 (for an unexplained deficiency), birth control (to help with endometriosis), antihistamines, and the painkiller tramadol as necessary (usually 3-5 days per month). That's IT. I don't put anything else in my mouth right now. I really thought that eliminating dairy, grains, sugars, and FODMAPS would help, but it hasn't. I tried as many probiotics as I could get my hands on to no avail. I don't even know what to do anymore, I just know that I am extremely fed up with getting sick. I get sick at a minimum every other day, sometimes every day. It is painful and inconvenient, and I feel sad and super frustrated. I am trying so hard to be good to my body, and I just wish I knew what it needed. I have been scoped from here to Sunday, and all the doctors can tell me is that I don't have cancer or an IBD. Things that come up are gastritis and IBS, but without a plan for what I can eat without having symptoms, those are not useful diagnoses. Other medical stuff that may or may not be relevant: I have an inflammatory condition called endometriosis that should not, according to my doctors, be related to my GI problems. I have persistent eczema, severe pollen and food allergies and am unable to eat nuts, raw fruits, raw vegetables, and some cooked fruits and vegetables due to allergic cross reactivity (it's called oral allergy syndrome). I have an unexplained B12 deficiency. My ideas: 1. Something I'm ingesting is still making me ill. It's either food, water, or medicine. Tweak those things, rotate them in and out, maybe get a water softener. 2. Do a 3ish day bone broth fast wherein I only eat bone broth to see if I can stop getting sick. 3. Go back to eating the unhealthy foods that don't make me sick (mostly bland and easily digested carbs like white rice, bread, and baked goods--I've been tested for celiac, and I don't have it). 4. Go back to the doctors and persist until they come up with some kind of plan or something that will help me. 5. Could there be an undiagnosed health issue causing this? I have some unexplained weirdness, maybe it could be related to my GI issues. Get a better GI doctor and persist until there's a plan to rule things in or out. What should I do? Pick a number from my ideas, or come up with your own! It's like the least fun Choose-Your-Own-Adventure ever! What ideas do you have? Throw anything you've got at me, I'm desperate. Encouraging words welcomed here or over in my challenge thread. Thank you from the bottom of my discouraged little heart.

Well helloooo, all you fine and foxy Monks! I'm back and ready for business to bust out this 6-week challenge before Christmas rolls around. Ohh yes, it's that holiday season challenge time. Will we be able to meet our goals while navegating all the craziness that this time of the year inevitably brings? Only time will tell! It's a rather good test for me though, because this challenge for me is all about BUILDING HABITS. If I can make these habits work in November/December, there's no way I can't make them work the rest of the year! Habits are built by taking repeated action, so I'm going to have to REALLY be bringing the action to make these guys stick. Goal #1- Muay Thai Training Punch punch punch. Now that my week has freed up substantially (I'm happy to say that my outpatient program for EDs is nearly complete!), I'll be able to make more MT classes. If the potential is there, it's up to me to realize it! Goal- Attend Muay Thai classes 2x per week. Goal #2- Fitness it Up! Getting those abbbbbs. Alright, not really. But I liked the rhythm I was getting into on the last challenge doing some exercise three days a week in the mornings before work. So Let's make that a habit, shall we? Goal- Interval Training/Conditioning 3x per week (for less than 30 min) (See? I've got a time cap on there and everything! Not only am I super responsible, but I'm gonna make it to work on time. Double super responsible.) Goal #3- Eat for a Happy Belly (bye, FODMAPs!) (Disclaimer; hard cheeses and berries are generally considered fine. Thank goodness, because they're amazing together) So all my life I've had a super sensitive stomach. In fact, it kind of goes beyond that, I have hereditary issues that have crippled myself and members of my family from the inside for as long as anyone can remember. For a long time I just sort of took pills and avoided dairy. But one of the big current advantages of my eating disorder rehabilitation is bouncing things off of a nutritionist constantly; now that I'm comfortable eating (because eating's the best), we're starting to focus on what's up with my insides, how can we heal them, and what kind of foods make me feel good or bad. Turns out there's this way of eating that's supposed to help folks with digestive stuffs, and it's about limiting FODMAPs, which are types of sugars (essentially) found in certain foods. I read the list, and things immediately began to click. So for the third goal, I'm going to give this as good a shot as I can to see if I start to feel better. I have high hopes! Goal- Eat more low-FODMAP foods on a regular basis (and cook at least 1 NEW recipe per week). I'm going to score this day-by-day. A day where I mindfully eat few FODMAP foods will be a win. THere will be some testing thrown in too, just to see how I react. It's an experiment. LIFE GOAL - Back to School Hahaha, alright, not actually going to school formally. A BA's enough for me right now. But I have this job, where I get to do the coolest things, involving making marketing art/designs for video games. I also have this insatiable drive to get better at stuff! So I want to supplement my skills with extra training, and find some great online classes that inspire me! Goal- Start and complete an online creative course. I've actually already chosen one! It's going to be a Learning to Storyboard class (which is super appropriate to my work, we do cinematics a lot), and I can't wait to start! Heck, I can't wait to start on ALL of these! I'm treating tonight as the first night of the challenge; after all, habits are in it for the long haul!

For the next six weeks I have only one goal: Listen to What My Body is Saying. I'm going to focus very hard on the feedback that I am getting from myself in all aspects of my life. Luckily I enjoy sitting retrospectively drinking tea! I've broken my goal up into Nerd Fitness friendly bits: 1. Exercise! [sTR+2] [sTA+1] + 3 points possible 1.1 Exercise while traveling 1.2 Thumb recovery 1.3 Return to bike commuting I am traveling at least twice this challenge. I'm taking a long weekend vacation to New Orleans with my mom! Two weeks later I'm going to a week long conference in Orlando. I hurt my thumb badly in the beginning of February and I still can't use it to "grip" anything. I rewrote my work out plan and have a new "Thumbless" routine that I enjoy. I feel confident that by the end of this challenge I will have transitioned back to the Dumbbell Division workouts. Major priority is healthy thumb recovery. Another side effect of hurting my thumb is that i can't grip my bike's handle bars. I miss biking very much. I think I can return to biking soon, probably before I'll be able to grip a heavy weight I'll be able to put weight on the handle bars. But we'll see. 2. Food! [sTA +1] [CON +2] [CHA +1] + 4 points possible 2.1 Fodmaps 80/20 2.2 Chia + Flax + probiotics 2.3 Add more veggies! Again, I'm traveling, so I'm going to focus on consistently achieving the "spirit" of my diet. I have found that consuming chia and flaxseed daily is very helpful. I'm quite on the fence about probiotics, though I want to believe. Diligence will be required to eat my nastly little chia flax shakes publicly on the road. As for adding more veggies, fodmaps eliminates quite a few vegetarian complete protein options so my diet is the most meat heavy it has ever been in my life. In addition to being in conflict with the lifestyle I desire, my body has been telling me to go vegan for the past several weeks. I'm going to focus on snacking on veggies instead of fruits to see if that helps at all. At the end of the day it isn't about being fodmap free, but about feeling good. I don't want to miss the forest for the trees. 3. Intermittent Fasting [sTA +1] [CON +2] [CHA +1] + 4 points possible 3.1 Determine right fasting length 3.2 Determine the frequency of fasting 3.3 Be flexible Let me be upfront about why I'm experimenting with IF. I'm not in it for weight loss or training benefits I'm in it for less pain. Food will sit in my stomach for longer than normal and in my guy for waaaaay longer than normal. On 'bad stomach' days I might literally have no room in my stomach for more food. This can make eating painful....so why not skip the meal? This has been very successful for me: immediate relief. The first time I fasted, my body's response was 'do this again immediately' I was hyper motivated when I finally measured my abdomen (at the mole by my belly button) on a "bad stomach" day (defined as days I puke or can not push my stomach/abdomen outwards) and I had gained 3 inches. No wonder I couldn't push my stomach out anymore it was at it's max! Also exciting because I now have a better measurement (other than weight) to track "bad days." 4. Anxiety and Depression [CHA +1] [WIS + 2] [CON +1] + 4 points possible 4.1 Honesty - Be clear about how I feel, even if it changes 4.2 Action - Go to the mother ****** doctor Without going into all the details, 500 bad things happened last year and are continuing to happen. My cat is mysteriously sick and probably dying. My husband is taking a job 2 hours away (and moving). My grandpa died after Thanksgiving and my grandma isn't so healthy. I think times are ripe for anxiety attacks and good ole depression. I don't have much experience with either but I know what i would do if it was a physical injury. If I was hurt I'd go to the doctor - duh! So, if my feelings be broken, use the HSA and go to the counselor. Damn the torpedoes! I mean my prejudice! I think focusing on goal # 6 will help. Bonus Goals. 5. Food Diary - form follows function. How to I want to analyze the data I collect from journals? Figure this out and the journal will follow. 6. Say No! - There are a few people (one person in particular) that I can not say no to. Then I get myself into trouble and have to struggle my way out. Last month, I realized this is a major weakness of mine and I made a New Years Resolution on the spot to "say no." While I may mange to do this one or twice during this challenge, this is a major lifestyle change that I will have to revisit several times before it becomes a habit.