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Snuggles has successfully infiltrated the Blue Water Academy for Higher Learning and has fully adjusted to her new daytime schedule. She has arranged a meeting with Professor Lott to discuss her academic goals and plan of attack. The last leg of her journey was not sucessful though. She completely failed with her physical therapy and struggled to find enough fruit to meet her daily requirements. Although she didn’t reach her goal with regards to entertainment, it was not a failure. She halved her lazy time and has come up with a plan to improve on this in the coming weeks. Snuggles struggled greatly with her physical therapy, but there is hope. She has scheduled the use of the Wellness room at work and will be doing her physical therapy every workday before lunch. So her fitness goal is to continue to develop her Physical Therapy into a daily habit. For this challenge she will aim for 5 days/ 1 full set, 2 days some PT. Spinal rock 10 times Bridge 10 times Spinal stretch, Hold for 15 seconds 3 times both sides Dog to Camel pose 10 time Trunk Rotation 10 times Quadriceps Stretch, Hold for 15 seconds 3 times both sides Squat 10 times Shoulder Rolls, forward and backward, 10 count each Week #1 of my challenge = .75(STR) & .75(DEX) bonus 1 Butterscotch Root Beer Week #2 of my challenge = .75(STR) & .75(DEX) bonus 1 Butterscotch Root Beer Week #3 of my challenge = .75(STR) & .75(DEX) bonus 1 Butterscotch Root Beer Week #4 of my challenge = .75(STR) & .75(DEX) bonus 1 Butterscotch Root Beer An unexpected challenge of Snuggles undercover work is, now that she is working days, she has greater access and temptation to eat unhealthy. This challenge will focus on making sure she has health meals and snacks ready for during the workweek. This goal will be developed each weekend for the following week. Week 1: Plan 3 different, healthy, lunches for work Week 2: Actually eat lunch every day! Week 3: Plan snacks for work! No buying snacks during the week! Week 4: Week #1 of my challenge = .5(CON) Week #2 of my challenge = .5(CON) Week #3 of my challenge = .5(CON) Week #4 of my challenge = .5(CON) Snuggles has also been struggling with her hydration. She is doing well at work, but after work and on the weekends she is slipping. So this goal is simple, 8 cups of water or tea a day! Week #1 of my challenge = .5(CON) Week #2 of my challenge = .5(CON) Week #3 of my challenge = .5(CON) Week #4 of my challenge = .5(CON) For personal development Snuggles still wants to decrease her TV time. However, instead of a goal to decrease TV time, the goal will be to replace TV with other activities. This goal will also be developed over the course of the challenge. I average 5 shows a day during the week and 8 shows and 1 movie a day on the weekend. My goal will be to see what I can do instead of TV. Activities to replace TV: Reading Journaling Letter writing Learning to knit Learning to crochet Learning French Learning Latin Game Night Lockpicking Tango Parkour Ideas from peers… Rate will be calculated by the time not spent watching TV, but doing something else. There will be no penalties for watching TV, but I won't earn points unless I replace activities. Points will be calculated based on my activities. Week #1 of my challenge = Week #2 of my challenge = Week #3 of my challenge = Week #4 of my challenge = Builder Goals- Continue to track healthy habits Take time to write 2 times a week Take 5 minutes, 2 times a week to meditate Walk 7 out of 10 times to/from work Follow healthy eating from past goals Practice lock picking 30 minutes weekly Pass- Gain 1 (WIS) Fail- Lose 1 (WIS)

Ok. So after my few challenge break i'm ready to start hitting it again. My three goals are as follows: Drink More Water - i need to start drinking more and tracking my water consumption. I'd like to get back to 64oz per day avg. Primal Movement - I want to practive more of the primal movements www.uncagedman.com This i will do in two parts. Part 1 will be at least 5 minutes average(to be upped if 5 is to easy) of squat per day. Part 2 will be doing the primal movements at least 1 time per week. Move more - For this part of my challenge i will be working out in some fashion at least 2x per week. Biking to work ect will count for this. I've set up a spreadsheet to track everything. The spreadsheet can be found <HERE>.

I've never been a big water drinker. On the pee chart, I tend to fall between "dark yellow" and "honey." Gross. Anyway, I read the NF article on hydration and, like some other commenters, was disappointed to see a lack of weight loss research and the effects of increased water intake, since the old "drinking water makes you lose weight magically" rumor has been floating around even when I was in high school. Googling it for myself, I found this interesting NIH study that suggests not only does drinking water before meals lead to faster satiation and therefore reduced caloric intake during the meal (which one would logically assume, and which Steve does mention in the article) - weight loss is promoted by the digestion (thermogenesis) of the cool, calorie-free life-sustainer. The women in the study weren't actively dieting/exercising differently, yet lost an average of 3 lbs. (1.5 kg) over the 8 week study. The science seems solid, yet I'm skeptical because it sounds like another magic bullet that was flying around for a while in the 2000s - the "negative calorie foods." The idea behind this was that some low calorie, high fiber foods (like celery, cucumbers, and most low-carb vegetables/fruits) require more calories to digest than they actually contain. Taking this premise to its logical conclusion: the more of these foods you eat, the more calories you'll burn...digesting food! Sounds awesome! And fake as hell; the premise of a net caloric loss is false. Of course, even if the 'water effect' wasn't supported by some studies, and even though the 'negative calorie' food effect definitely isn't true...drinking 6 glasses daily (what NIH study chicks had) and as many fruits & non-starchy veggies as you want is still good advice, so it's not as if the pseudoscientist-charlatan who came up with the negative calorie gimmick has any blood on their hands, right? Let me know if you find anything with a large sample size - 50 isn't terrible, but it's not great. The general summary seems to indicate that the effect exists, but is negligible compared to the simple "fill-up" effect. So what do you healthy, sexy people think about water's effect on your personal fat loss? How much do you drink per day?