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Welcome to my challenge! Quick recap on the last challenge, I do really well during the week, when I'm home half the day and at work the other half, and I'm pretty good about making my own food and everything. I work every other weekend from 7a to 11p saturday and sunday and i basically am a garbage disposal and they have so many good homemade foods. SO! since starting the last challenge I have lost 6 lbs, BUT i gained 3 back. Which is fun. but not really. ANYWAYS. So my challenge for this month! I have a calorie intake goal that I'd like to hit daily, but I'd also like to fill that goal with healthy, homemade foods. I'd like to be making food to bring to work instead of eating food made at work. my next goal is to hit the gym twice a week. Day one is arms and back, day two is legs and abs! Lastly I'm going to be doing intermittent fasting at least five days a week, starting my fast at 5p and ending my fast at nine! So those are my goals for this month! I'm excited to get my poop in a group.

So today is the first day of the rest of my -I hate that quote. So I learned a lot from my previous challenge. I learned that maybe just maybe, I wasn't eating enough. It's still funny, I think, that I can't just stop eating completely and the fat go away. It almost feels logical- food = fat so less food = no fat. But the science behind it makes that completely false. I started eating more to lose weight, I started walking and continuing my body weight workouts. The ONLY thing I changed was the started walking and the amount of calories I consumed. I went from 267 to 261. I had energy up the wazoo. Could it be that I found my miracle? Possibly. I found an old journal from when I lost weight the first time. I didn't have a cell phone then, so no MFP to go off of. But I talked a lot about eating and didn't include calories. I DID however include that I was "so damn full" -to quote myself- and maybe that's one reason why I lost so quickly and felt better. So this challenge I'm going to do 2 new things. 1. Walk. I used to walk practically every day. Rain, cold, sun I was out walking. 15 minutes on my break is what I did around the parking lot. Back then I was in an apartment and I didn't even do any workouts at all except that and occasionally dance central 2. I may lower my lifting to twice a week, and go back to dancing Friday nights to DC3 (they need to make a damn sequel already). 2. Eat to feel full. I hate eating. It fills me with anguish and frustration that I even deserve to eat considering I'm a fatty. I hate eating in public for this reason. But I have learned that I have to eat. It's apparently necessary. So even though I feel terrible for doing it, I've increased my calorie intake to 1900 and I'm going to try to meet that every day. I'm still going to keep my carbs low, not ketogenic low, but around 50, and see where that gets me. The last thing I'm going to do isn't new, really, but I'm going to include other things with it. at the beginning of the year I said I was going to start doing things just for me. To quit sitting in my chair feeling like crap and hiding because I'm fat. I'm going to be 35 if I make it to that point this year and while I know I have issues with the fact that I'm no longer in my 20s, I have to let that go and move on. So I'm going to do fun things. I'm going to continue to meditate 3x a week like I enjoy doing. I'm going to probably be more ritualistic about it, and incorporate some Tai Chi in the mix. I wanted to get to start my Wing chun class but the car said that he needed brakes instead so there goes that. But it's not a lost cause, just a delayed one. To round this out I'm: 1. Walk at least 3 times a week (weather permitting) 2. Lift 2-3 times a week 3. Eat more fewd 4. Relax and do more fun things That's it!

So I've been reading Nerd Fitness for a while, and gradually making a few changes... And then I saw this challenge. Kind of nervous about it... I'm 40 years old, mum to a 7 year old boy, and live in the UK. I mostly work from home which has its upsides (flexibility to fit in exercise) and downsides (proximity to refrigerator). My goals for this challenge are:- - To swim two whole length of the pool freestyle with a racing turn. It's my weakest stroke and I don't practise it because I look like a drowning spider when I swim freestyle... and then I sink. But because I don't practise I get worse. Right now I doubt I can swim quarter of the pool. A: Two lengths fast freestyle with racing turn, no stops B: Two lengths freestyle, some kind of turn, bit drowning-spidery but got there C: One whole length freestyle without stopping D: Half a length E: Practised my freestyle every week even if only a couple of strokes Fail: Wussed out completely Plan - every week in my swim add in a couple of strokes of freestyle, building up number of strokes until I'm doing a full length. For this I also need to get to the pool every week... - My diet is about 40% Paleo at the moment - for the challenge I'd like to up that to about 80% Paleo. So almost entirely but with the occasional bit of flexibility. I'll start a food diary to keep tabs on it. My version of Paleo does include some dairy (small portions and whole goats milk only) and whole fruit (but not juice). A: 80-100% Paleo B: 60-80% Paleo C: 40-60% Paleo Plan: I've done a meal plan for this week. I just need to plan my food in advance and then stick to it. And avoid sharing my son's treats at his birthday party... and stealing his chips... and... and... and... - Lose 3cm from my waist. I don't usually carry weight there but I did a lot of stress eating over the past six months and ... there it all is. I'm aiming low on this as I think I'll lose more if I stick to it, but I don't want to discourage myself by aiming too high. A: 3cm or more B: 2cm or more C: 1cm or more D: anything less than now... Plan: Paleo diet and extra swimming should do the trick, but it's an added motivator for extra exercise! And my 'Level up my life' goal - Get the latest book I've written ready to publish (gulp...first time publishing anything beyond a blog post!) A: formatted for Kindle, facebook page in place, agent and editor's feedback incorporated and either published or ready to publish immediately Fail: There is no try. Plan: Schedule time through my working week to get this done, starting with four hours this week. Hope I can do this. Reading other peoples' goals has been really inspiring...