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After a brief mental health hiatus, I'm back in business, reps flailing and diet accidentally in a fully compliant paleo spot. In person community building is trucking right along and I'm even finding some odd moments of not-unhappiness. It's an odd feeling. This challenge is about doing the things that make for more moments of not-unhappiness; sleeping (sleep log in hours, no two consecutive days of <= 6 hours) and fitnesspal logging (daily, post the macros n shit here).

I'm back for a challenge. I NEED this challenge. Also. Goats. I'm taking a nutrition class, where we used the Hamwi method to determine my BMR of 1350 calories. THEN determining if I exercise and stay moderately active throughout the day, my calorie range could be up to 2050 calories. But I want to LOSE weight, and we all know a pound is equal to 3500 calories so that means I could take 500 calories off and lose a pound a week if I eat 1550 calories a day. MY GOALS Eat 1350-1550 calories a day. Never going below 1350, and never going above 2000. In the past I've tried eating anywhere from as little to 800-1200 calories to lose weight, and now I realize how eating too little can impact my health. Eat more oatmeal, yogurt, fruits, and vegetables. Also drink more water. No food is restricted at this time, just focusing on getting as much nutritious food as possible within that calorie range. Exercise daily. Aim for 300 calories burned a day. That equals about 3 miles of walking, for example. Exercises I love are dancing, walking, and yoga. Get strong- resume strength training and build more lean muscle mass. Bonus goal: Keep a personal journal of feelings, thoughts, and experiences to aid in managing everyday stress. I won't be sharing this with the group. How I'll do it: I'm going to use My Fitness Pal to track calories. I'm aware it's not a perfect system, often overestimating calories burned for exercises, and underestimating calories consumed. But it is more effective than the nothing I'm doing currently. Plus, I'm counting on building more lean muscle mass to counter any caloric miscalculations from the app. I'll share highlights with you here at the end of the day. Rewards: In this, doing it is the reward. That and the delicious smugness when I'm putting on a size smaller jean one day

For those following along I have two main goals for 2017 and each of my challenges will be based on them and build on the one before it. Body recomposition. Get under 183# and stay there, while also getting tough as nails. Be awesome at my job. Be the one that people say “she gets shit done.” New addition to this visual image: be a productivity ninja! My theme for this challenge is “YEAR OF THE MOUNTAIN GOAT”. Strong, flexible, resilient, tough climbers. To achieve body recomp: I need to be strong, flexible, and disciplined! I want to climb mountains in my fitness. And I need to work on my mobility to get there. Inflexible mountain goats fall off mountains. To achieve my work goals: I need to be strong, flexible, and productive! What do lazy mountain goats get? the bottom of the mountain. And I want the panoramic top of the mountain views. I want to climb mountains at work. Challenge Goals Fitness Goals: 7x per week: Daily mobility, defined as doing at least 3 stretches/holds per day (Repeat from last month. I’m still working on this.) 3x per week: Review my squat form notes before every workout (Should be easy…) 3x per week: Tracked in 5 min chunks, do 15 minutes total of abs/glutes per week (New goal, I will have to work on this.) 2x per week cardio: 1 hike and 1 other cardio per week. If weather dictates I can do 2 random cardios, but only if weather says so. If I want to be a mountain goat I must HIKE! (I have been doing the 1x week hike, so I’m building on that with 1 extra cardio, no time goal at this point for either, just build the habit.) If I’m smart, I would try to do all 15 min of abs/glutes before or after the 1 cardio session at the gym. Work Goals: These compound each challenge. To achieve my daily work goal I must do all three. Maintain a daily to do list (January) Use last 30 min of each work day to catch up on any old emails I have put off. (February) Spend at least 1 hour per day on focused work. No task hopping! Do each task until done. FOCUS. (NEW) Gardening Goal: Do weekly care of houseplants and work plants, track with other goals as 1x week goal Bonus Mountain Goat Checkbox Goals: [ ] By the end of the challenge: Go to the thrift store to look for new cubicle decor. Bought workout/hiking stuff instead. [ ] By the end of the challenge: Create a visual map of my work projects / responsibilities. [ ] In the last two weeks of the challenge prep garden beds for spring seeds Tracking notes:

We Meet Again... The Goats are BACK! I mean, did they leave? No. But they're back like, officially back. Edited: after a week and a half of the reality of my life hitting me in the face, I've edited this challenge down to my top priorities: Work and Health. Baby steps to the end goat. Maybe later I can incorporate those other goals, but my plate is full. Goat 1: Draw 2 hours, 5 days a week -I’ve had major artist block this summer. This is #1 for a reason. If I don't draw, I don't work. I need work! Van Goat Goat 2: Cardio 4x a week – I stopped exercising during Whole 30, because I was so damn tired. And I feel so much better when I do! I’m not setting a time limit for a cardio session because I can walk for a really long time, but I can only keep up with a dance video for so long. The goal is to move and make it a habit. I'll get better the more I do it! Goat 3: Strong Workouts 2x a week- I’ve gotten a head start on this, but it often gets left to the side when life gets stressful. Not this challenge! 3x a week for a full body strong workout . This goat works out. Goat 4: Yoga 3x a week- yoga is a restorative practice. I feel stronger in body and mind after a good session of yoga. Yogoat Goat 5: Continue using a food log/ journal to track meals, snacks, water, and thoughts for the day. I think this will keep me from stress-eating cookies. Okay. This is good enough. Let's go!

I was writing out my goals. when I realized, I was typing "goats" instead of "goals". So I scrapped my old theme and went with goats. Because having Life Goats is a great way to start a challenge, right? RIGHT!! Goat 1: Use the schedule. I'm happier when I'm productive, and having the schedule provides just enough structure to help me do that. It's not an hour by hour schedule, but just a "This morning, clean the basement before you take Dad to the gym." Pretty easy stuff. But without the schedule, I stare into space and fill up with panic that I'm never going to do anything with my life. Boundaries are not a bad thing, even for a creative. Goat 2: Stop counting calories and focus on eating well. After gaining 10 pounds counting calories, I realized that once again, I needed boundaries. 1600 calories of cheetos wasn't helping me. And I feel like crap a lot. So I'm going back to what works: Low sugar, high fiber, lean protein, healthy fats. I've been toying with cheat meals and indulgences, and I decided Sundays I would have a meal that didn't follow the PCOS diet guidelines. This time, I think I will succeed because I'm cooking more. BUT there will be obstacles to jump over....goat style. Goat 3: Meditate and breathe deeply through stress-eating triggers. This summer will be filled with stressful situations for me. I mean, my family is great, but I find having extended visits stressful, and I usually snack cake my way through them. This time, I'm going to start and end each day with meditation and gratitude, and when I feel overwhelmed, just walk away for 10 minutes and breathe deeply. This goat looks so satisfied. I'm going to embrace its goatiness and say at the end of the challenge this will be me.