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OH HI. I ghosted after my last challenge. It was a really busy time, I was really stressed out. let me recap: * mid-april - when I was here last - had a great birthday. * the guy I was working on this huuuuuuge proposal with got his dream job and checked out. * I had to finish the proposal by myself and it was horrible and fraught. Submitted early May! * deep breaths. * ok let's do the regular day job you've been putting off for 6 weeks to get this proposal done. * oh right, there's a presentation requirement for the proposal. DO THE THINGS. present mid-May. * questions from client come in and each one is a stomach-in-throat adrenaline-fueled party of second guessing all the decisions we'd made previously. lather rinse repeat, for 2 weeks. * oh wait I have to go to denver for business trips? for 2 days one week, and 3 days the next week? oh, ok. AAAH. * oh, it's june. NOW can I catch up at work? at home? personal things? no? try anyway? it's been a lot. a whole lot. through this whole time I've still been teaching tkd and taking my cross-fit classes (did I mention that he started as functional fitness and then got his cross-fit certification/franchise? so I accidentally am now doing cross-fit?) (oh except for those 2 weeks in denver). I miiiiiissssssss youuuuuuuuuu. I'm dealing with the inevitable fall-out of having worked so hard for months, and I've got what I hope is just a summer cold making my throat feel dreadful. I'm working from home today and didn't make it to exercise party for thursday and friday last week (which HUGELY bummed me out because I'm an overachiever). how are you all? I can't wait to pop over to your threads to see!

Hello Everyone, I'm new here and I'm working on getting back into my fitness routine. I used to workout regularly doing martial arts and power lifting but the past 2 years I got a new job with longer hours, and my wife got pregnant and needed my help as much as possible. Now I'm becoming unsatisfied with the shape I'm in and so I'm going to do something about it. This time I want to work up gradually to a more sustainable fitness routine since in the past I've gone hammer and tongs from the start and crashed out after a couple of months. To work towards that my challenge this month is: Fitness: 1 Gym workout per week. Big weightlifting workout. Daily bodyweight workouts. Push-ups, Tricep dips + baby assisted Kettlebell Swing, Goblet Squat and Torso Rotation. (She LOVES working out with me btw, it's awesome.) I've chosen this routine since I can schedule one weekly workout without damaging my family life and I can do the daily bodyweight exercises in a small amount of time while looking after the baby. Diet: Avoid take-away food. This is a regular struggle in my house, we make an effort to plan 14 meals in advance but last fortnight we had 5 meals remaining which means we ate too much take-away. Management: I'm going to try to make an effort to post on here so that I can maintain my motivation and culpability for my goals. I look forward to being part of this great community.

Respawn again... (I wonder just how often this will happen.) I first thought I'll join for the next challenge, but then worried I might lose all momentum again. So I came up with 3 ridiculously easy goals for the remainder of this challenge to hopefully bridge the gap to the next. 1. Count calories every day. 2. Post something every day. (Anything, not specifically to this thread.) 3. Move for 30 minutes every day. Now I'm off to stalk some of your threads. Awful pun to start this off: " A friend of mine tried to annoy me with bird puns, but I soon realized that toucan play at that game."

This may be giffed up later, or not. Maintenance goals: Judo twice per week as much as possible Stick to budget, track expenditures Walk 70k + steps per week Talk a day/evening off per week to spend at home Incremental goals: Stop being late to bed, and therefore late to work - in bed by midnight at latest every work night. Hand stand practice - every day, however brief Pullup practice - every day, even if only one Guitar practice - 3x per week? Minimum 15 minutes. Bonus: Get out more. Judo tournament this Saturday - if others are going. Plus another thing this month. Will expand later, but that's the core of it.

Hello. I'm Dreena. This is my first challenge. I realize I'm late to the party, but no matter, there is still plenty of time left in this challenge! I'm 56 years old, Mom to 5, Jack of all Trades, Paraprofessional in Special Ed Main QUEST: Lose 60 pounds and become a certified Special Ed teacher; transform from an Adventurer to a Ranger. (Thank you Nuala for helping me figure out who I am and where I'm going through your class finder!) For this challenge, I have these sub-quests Fitness Quest: Lose 3.5 pounds (2 WLP, 3 CON) by eating paleo; I'm very close to this lifestyle already, just have to divorce myself from sugar and grains Increase my steps per week by 3000 (1 STA, 1 END) Train 6 days/week: 3 days running or swimming (1 STA, 1 END), 3 days strength (3 STR) Life Quest: Get started on my first course for certification (waiting on approval to begin) (2 WIS) If approved prior to July 1, complete 2 courses (1 WIS) What the heck, I'll throw in a fun quest too: Take my little ones camping at least once during the challenge (1 CHA) Yes, I know that makes 16 points. I am doing that! Dreena Level 0 Adventurer STR.2 DEX 0 STA.0 CON.0 WIS.0 CHA.0 END 1 Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength. Arnold Schwarzenegger

Okay, so still kinda figuring things out. LONG TERM GOALS Get back under 200 lbs. Hopefully somewhere around 150 lb or less, although if I get the right muscle mass like I'd like to do, then it'd be higher, right? Who cares about the scale anyways? Why do I keep rambling? WHO KNOWSEither overcome my depression or learn how to live with it and defeat it's ploys.Overall, be healthy physically, mentally, emotionally, and spirituallySMART GOALS FOR THESE NEXT 3 WEEKS CONSIDERING I'M A LATE DUMBASS Grading: A: 22-24 | B: 19-21 | C: 16-18 | D: 13-15 | F: 12 or less days Cut out pop from everyday. No more of it. - 3 CON Drink at least 2 liters of water everyday. - .5 STA Eat 2 cups of fruit everyday. - .5 STA Eat 3 cups of veggies everyday. - .5 STA Eat 6 oz of protein everyday. - .5 STA Be active for at least 30 minutes each day. - 2 STR/1 DEX Meditate each morning for 15 minutes. - 1 WIS/1 CHAI will create a spreadsheet where I can keep track of these and post screenshots as I go.

Well, I guess this is where I need to be. I'm starting a little late, but oh well. The semester just ended (woot woot!!) and I'm ready for summer. However, I did gain the freshman 15 last year--only add 5 to that. I'm thinking that I need to make some changes before this spirals out of control.... therefore, my May 24 goal is: Get set back into the PST (along with waking up early, and getting enough sleep) Establishing a 5k running plan (and see how far I can make it) Complete a thirty day strength training challenge (doubling most days) Let's see...main quest? Get strong, healthy, and fit Work as hard as I can, as much as I can, so that college bills will be easier Stay close to the people I love I know, pretty generic, but I think that's good for now

Late again! I promised myself I'd start this thing on time! Anyway, My goals remain mostly unchanged from my last challenge. 1) Main Quest- Weight loss: I'm cutting down to 1200-1400 calories a day along with keeping track, and on track, on Weight Watchers. I'm also exercising whenever and wherever I can, as well as playing DDR and working in the Hot Foods kitchen for schooling. Two pounds a week, here I come! 2) Life- School: I'm going to finish Hot Foods by doing everything I need to do. Furthermore, I will go a bit ahead in my workbooks so I can work on that research paper on Food Sustainability. It has to be four pages long, include something about fish/seafood and it's due January 9th. Lateness won't be accepted in this case, so hopefully I'm not tardy in this respect as well. 3) Fitness- DDR: I want to get to Standard/Difficult levels of awesome. I'm actually doing really well, right now. I'm doing fours, fives and beginning on sixes, when I have my energy. I'm going to be grading myself DDR style, just for fun.

Noob with a Late start... I went gluten free in December 2012 and felt awesome. So many problems I was having dissappeared. I went Primal/paleo after that and have mostly stayed that way, but I've drifted more to 50/50 than 80/20. Gluten-free junk food is still junk food! I initially lost 30lbs going primal/paleo but I've been stuck a year and half with about 20 more lbs to go. MAIN QUEST: Lose 20lbs or thereabouts. I'm not set on the number but I want visible fat rolls to go away. Side Quests: 1 - Do beginner workout 3 times a week 2 - Refocus diet to primal 80/20 goal. 3 - Take at least 1 walk a day at work. Motivation: Look good naked, or at least mostly naked.

Is that a bird? Is that a plane? NO! It's Firstmatenora!! Back from the evil realm known only as the Dissertation of Doom, she comes having fought her way valiantly through three months of horror. She was stuck in a wasteland of writing and no exercise for months, having nearly given up hope of finishing, and lost track of almost all of her health goals. Yet, when the deadline came, she was prepared and turned in her dissertation, and boy did she kick its butt! Though she did not come away unscathed, she stands ready to get back to the basics and build again. Her body and mind are prepared for the journey ahead! Backstory: I fell down in my goals during the last challenge when my schedule became overwhelming. I had family and friends visiting me for nearly two months straight, and a 15,000 word dissertation to write, while looking for employment in the fall. Had I been a better manager of my time, this may not have been as worrisome. However, I turned in my dissertation on Monday (yay, me!) and found a job that will let me stay in this fine country (also, yay!), plus a place to live until I move down to London in late September. Even though I didn't exercise at all these last couple of months (I mean I ran maybe twice, it's embarrassing), I haven't gained any of the weight back because I kept to fairly strict paleo diet (with the exception of ice cream a couple times a week, because sometimes you need sugar for those all nighters when coffee just won't do. Oh and I ate a donut one time, but I felt gross afterwards and avoided doing that again.). My goals for the next week: Unfortunately, I am extremely late to this challenge, and I am by no means settled. I'm crashing at the moment with a friend, trying to finish moving out of my flat, and trying to keep everything organized for when I move again in less than a month's time. However, I would like to get back to a regular schedule of my runs and bodyweight workouts. So, with that in mind, I'm going to take it pretty easy and just set the goal of eating right, running at least four times in the next week and a half and doing at least 3 bodyweight workouts. I'm not going to set an overarching goal because of the short timeframe, but generally I want to restart my healthy habits and get back to a normal routine. Eating: Paleo, with less than 3 occasions containing gluten: A 4-6 glutenous indulgences: B 7-10 no-no foods: C More than 10: F Running: >=4 times: A 3 times: B 2 times: C 1 time: D 0 times: FFFFFFFffffuuuuuu Bodyweight workouts: 3 times: A 2 times: B 1 time: C 0 times: Nope, no points for you. And with that I say: It's time to boogie woogie!

Sooo... I actually began posting a challenge thread a couple times, then didn't finish. Shame on me. Part of it I blame on being overwhelmed with the end of the semester, part of it I blame on general laziness and lack of inertia, and part of it I blame on my boyfriend. Fortunately, the semester is over and with Tough Mudder on the horizon I have gotten moving again. I'm even working on the boyfriend. I asked him to go completely paleo with me and he got all waffley/noncommittal-y. I got so discouraged I completely gave up on the entire challenge post I was writing. Boo on him for not being supportive, boo on me for not going through with it anyways despite him. Now I decided, even though I'm hella late, that I'm just going to post one anyways. I need something to keep me accountable. Starting May 2nd, exactly one month before I run Tough Mudder (June 2), I am abiding by the following rules: Rule ONE: Eating 100% paleo (or as near to it as possible. That shiz is hard!). Due to a couple events coming up, I'm allowing two necessary exceptions. The first is the day of Rugged Maniac (tomorrow!) because I think after running a 5k muddy obstacle course I deserve to indulge a little on beer and festival food. The second is my friend's wedding, which I am in. We are going out of town for the weekend for the wedding, and there will be much food, drinking, and debauchery to be had. With that in mind, I will try to make more intelligent food decisions while there. Sub-goal: Absolutely NO going out to drink for the month (with the obvious aforementioned exceptions). Having a drink or two with dinner at home is acceptable, since I don't do it every night and I rarely drink more than one at home before falling asleep. Also trying to restrict this to wine and vodka sodas. Rule TWO: Stick to the ol' workout regime. Mon/Wed/Fri run, Tues/Thurs/Sat weights Maybe Mudder Boot Camp. Sunday is rest. Added subgoal: Sub-goal: Rule THREE: Every day, do assisted pull-ups. No more wimpy noodle arms. Rule THREE: Time to activate beast mode and get outside my comfort zone. Initially, my entire challenge was going to be focused around beast mode, but obviously I have deviated. This goal was also going to be to sign up for and attend some type of martial arts class once a week, however money has gotten a little tight so re-vamping this one. New goal: Add one new bodyweight/calisthenic workout per weight day. It's about time I try something new and up my agility. Day one will probably be burpees, since I've never really done them as part of a workout. This sounds really simple, but doing new unfamiliar workouts is really difficult for me, I have serious anxiety about doing something wrong or looking like an idiot. I will probably start working through and learning the exercises from the Tough Mudder Bootcamp, although suggestions are always welcome. (Adding Maybe Mudder boot camp to rule two kinda negated this one.) Rule FOUR: I also have a lot of social anxiety, which I only seem to be able to overcome through alcohol. There has to be ways to meet people outside of work and bars, it's about time I learn. Over the next month I am taking part in at least two athletic events, and I need to start striking up conversations and making friends. One new friend per event is passing, with a bonus for keeping in contact with them afterwards. I need to surround myself with healthy, active people. So, better late than never, and I'm going to go ahead and run my challenge through to June 2, since I am not really officially participating anyways.

Okay, I have a problem. I am chronically late to anything that starts in the morning. Yes, this includes work. I am late, late, late. This is a problem, and I HATE it. Luckily, my boss 1) loves me, and 2) understands having ridiculous sleep problems. I've never been what you'd call a morning person, but I could get up and into a routine after a few weeks of practice. For some reason, it is not working right now. Here's the issue: I do not hear my alarm in the morning. I've tried it right next to my bed, far away from my bed, and it just doesn't matter. Until my body is ready to wake up, I will not hear the alarm. I've noticed that when I fall asleep to when I wake up is usually right around 8 hours. This is encouraging, because I believe that if I can get the schedule back on track that waking up will become less of an issue. The other problem: I don't fall asleep until 2am. Not for lack of trying. I'll go to bed early with every intention of making this problem better...and lay there awake for hours. Finally, I've decided to just read until I'm starting to nod off. Anyone got ideas/tips on how to adjust this sleep schedule so that I'll go to bed at a reasonable hour and wake up early?