Search the Community

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.

Hello friends! I am not dead! Just been a busy bee while simultaneously being a sloth to cope with some emotional stuff. So I'm late, but not without gumption to make this challenge a great one! My inner television character is Leslie Knope, from the best television show ever Parks and Rec. In the show, there's this mondo rich and evil company called Sweetums that manufactures (you guessed it) candy and other diabetes-causing nom-noms. Throughout the show, there are several efforts to thwart this evil establishment of sugar and this challenge I am pursuing something similar! Primarily, the challenge this round is focused on slaying the sugar dragon! I've been building up some good habits with diet and exercise, but the thing that still gets me is sweets! Glorious sweets! The terrors of afternoon snacking and social events. I've tried quitting cold turkey and wowza, that was a bad idea for me. I had anxiety attacks, headaches, mood swings, etc.. I was a nightmare to be around. So I'm going to take it in levels! Each level may last 1 to 2 weeks, but hopefully after 2 weeks the symptoms (listed above) will be manageable enough to progress to the next level. Level 1: 1 sweet a day Level 2: 1 sweet every other day Level 3: 1 sweet twice a week Level 4: 1 sweet once a week Through this process there are three concepts I'm going to focus on: Patience with my body and how it decides to handle the withdrawals. It might take me longer than one challenge to complete this, and that's okay! NOT being a drama queen about it. Coming to terms with the shame and guilt I have attached to sugar and sweets. Minor focuses: Get 8 hours of sleep. I always make better decisions and feel better when I make myself sleep 8 hours. Log onto NF daily! ~15 minutes a day should be easy to squeeze in. I just need to make it a habit. You all are huge inspirations to me and I love love LOVE reading your posts. They help me stay centered. Use my stupid BuJo! It helps me keep track of life and this is another thing I just need to make a habit. Blog once a week. This is a sort of experiment to see if it's something I want to actually pursue and work at. Some habits I'm keeping: Meal prepping (I've been making mason jar salads, stocking up on high protein snacks, planning healthy dinners for my husband and I) Working out regularly! (modified yoga once a week, cardio and strength training 2x a week) Drinking a whole lotta water Reading scriptures and prayers in the morning In closing, for your pleasure, a drunk Ron Swanson indicative of what I'm like when I've had too much sugar. Enjoy.

Yeah, so I didn't die or anything, things were touch and go for a while there though due to lack of sleep because we now have a four month old. I had pretty much given up on anything related to fitness for a bit there. I didn't even touch a barbell between last November and the beginning of April. I had done some various bodyweight exercises during that time, but I couldn't ever get into a routine. Now we're getting into some nice sleep patterns with the baby and things have been going better the past few weeks. But for now I'm going to continue going at this easy. Goal 1: Lift 3X a week. I'm doing stronglifts for now because I want to make sure my body is used to moving again and most of my mobility is back before I start doing any extra weight or movements. Another reason though is that I don't want to have to think about what I'm doing anything beyond "What did I do last time? Ok, add ten pounds to that." I want to keep this to a MWF routine because that will help me discipline myself better and not be as likely to let myself sleep in and tell myself I'll move everything back a day. Also, these days... Goal 2: Saturdays are for yard work. I grew up on a farm, I know how to raise vegetables, my parents yard was pasture that we just happened to use a lawn mower on. Now I have to keep my yard manicured, and take care of bushes and plants. The other day I was having conversations with coworkers about what the best grass to use in shady areas would be... I have no idea who I am anymore... Between moving in and the early pregnancy stuff last year, the yard wasn't a high priority for me. I want to do better this year. At a minimum I want to keep it mowed and trimmed nicely. My goal for this is to do that once a week, and I have a few extra projects that I want to work on, but I won't use them as part of the goal. Goal 3: Eat pretty good. Right now pretty good is about all I can do for food. I don't have full control over my dinners, so I can't plan everything out as well as I'd like to. I can control breakfast and lunches pretty well, so I'm pulling them back in a little to give me a little more wiggle room at night. My weekends aren't as easy, I tend to go overboard and snack a lot throughout the day, I definitely need to tighten that down. My goal for this one is to track everything pretty good throughout the week, and track everything on the weekends. Goal 4: Mystery goal!!! There is no goal four, I have a newborn, I don't have time to be doing anything extra. (Did you really think I was going to make a parks and rec challenge and not put Ron Swanson in?)