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I've been picking up the pieces of putting my life back together. The fitness aspects have been the hardest to put back into place. I feel like I am starting all over again. According to the scale I am almost back to square one. SInce I am starting over, I figured I go back to what worked in the beginning. We tell newbies to take it easy and focus on just a couple fitness goals. That's what we're for, right? So that's what imma do. 2 goals. Straight to the point. One reason I'm struggling to get back to fitness is that my old routines don't work anymore. I really need to create new routines. For each goal, I'll award points for meeting the goals at various levels, 1 for the bare minimum and 3 for the maximum. In order to create habits, I need to continue to meet these goals day after day. Meeting the goals for consecutive days creates a chain. Chain bonus points are awarded for attaining chains of certain length. Achieving at least 1 point for either goal awards the following points: 5 days = 1 bonus point 7 days = 3 bonus points 10 days = 5 bonus points 15 days = 15 bonus points 30 days = 100 bonus points Achieving at least 2 points for either goal awards the following points: 3 days = 1 bonus point 5 days = 3 bonus points 7 days = 5 bonus points 10 days = 10 bonus points 15 days = 25 bonus points 30 days = 1,000 bonus points Achieving at least 3 points for either goal awards the following points: 3 days = 3 bonus point 5 days = 5 bonus points 7 days = 10 bonus points 10 days = 20 bonus points 15 days = 50 bonus points 30 days = 1,000,000 bonus points Food Goal: I'm increasing the deficit goal and aiming for a 500 calorie deficit daily. The biggest obstacle for meeting this goal has been cooking. I have a particularly difficult time making myself cook real food when the kids are not at my place. It's too easy to grab something on the way home, order a pizza, or just make something from a box. The more I get myself used to cooking for just myself, the better quality my food will be and the more successful I will be. 1 point - maintain a 500 calorie deficit daily 2 points - maintain 500 calorie deficit by eating at least one home prepared meal 3 points - maintain 500 calorie deficit by eating at least two home prepared meals Batch cooked meals are encouraged and home prepared meal points are still awarded if the food was prepped previously. Fitness Goal: I need to get back to working out regularly. I am aiming for 5 workouts a week, 2 cardio, 2 strength, and the last can be anything, including home improvement projects or yoga. The biggest obstacle for this goal is just not having a routine. When working out had become a usual part of my life, I could alter my schedule any time and still manage to get all my workouts in. That isn't working anymore. For this challenge I will follow a workout schedule. I am not as concerned about the intensity or duration of these workouts, just that I get back to a routine. 1 point - be active enough to get at least 8,000 steps 2 points - either active enough to get 10,000 steps or do a make up workout for one missed 3 points - do a workout according to the schedule Workouts can be at home or at the gym. I have a lot of options and I know what to do. Rest days I can only get points for steps but will still maintain chain bonuses. *There are a few days that will be exceptions. Chains will not be broken in those circumstances. I am making the rules up as I go along because I can.