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Last challenge I rediscovered Intuitive Eating thanks to @Ensi This challenge I'm going to continue on this path. Quest1: Eat Just eat something when hungry! Don't worry about what is "good" or "bad" foods. Just eat what I'm craving and makes me feel good. I mean, sure eggs are considered "good", but if I eat them my asthma flares up and if I'm really lucky I get bloated too :p Quest2: move Do what I love (dancing and yoga) and what makes me feel good. So no more working out when the sharks are at their peak or when I am dead tired. And I will add a workout at home when I think it will make me feel good. Quest3: life Do what I can, delegate as much as possible and don't stress about the rest. And off course: keep the rhythm I created last challenge alive!

Hi again, everyone. Just in time to make a new thread, as the new challenge starts tomorrow. Strangely enough there's nowhere where I can subscribe myself that I am actually joining the challenge. I don't know how this is possible, but I wanted to join in anyway. Summary of last challenge Last challenge was so incredibly easy, compared to some previous challenges I had done, but I had to get back to the basics, because I let everything slide, I got in a depression and things simply didn't go my way. In the end my challenge became more of a blog where I could express my feelings that were galloping through my body like Epona gone wild. Nothing came from the daily goals I had set myself. I was tired, I couldn't bring myself to do any of it. I had such easy goals and I still managed to fail. However, I did do some other things that weren't part of my challenge, but that definitely helped me grow as a person and feel a bit stronger. My plans for this challenge I want to make this challenge very basic for myself again, just like last challenge, and simply try again. I will pretend I am a level 1 rebel, because that's where my health is at right now. In these 6 weeks I want to make sure I get a bit of rhythm back in my life. This means giving myself strict rules. Having a daily rhythm is very important to make a depression go away, so it could only help with my mental state, right? And I want to prove to myself that I am still capable of winning challenges (it may sounds stupid, but I doubt myself so much lately) and keeping my promises to myself, because that's actually what it is. Goal #1 - Getting a sleeping rhythm This is so difficult for me. Every time I said I need to sleep at least X hours a night, but this doesn't help. I will get my hours of sleep, but the rhythm is nowhere to be found. Therefore, this challenge I have to go to bed between 22:00h and 00:00h and I have to wake up between 07:30h and 9:00h. If it so happens that I won't be able to get these hours, because I have to wake up earlier, or because there's a party and it gets late, I have to sleep at least 8 hours to still make it count. Goal #2 - Fruit and vegetables I find it very hard these days to eat fruit and veggies, so this is going to be a thing. I need to eat fruit and veggies every day. This may be separately the way they are, but green smoothies also count. I am not going to put a minimum amount of this, because that'll be too hard for now. I need to learn to start THINKING about having this every day, so that's where I'll start. As soon as it becomes a habit I can increase the amounts of fruit/veggies I eat, but that will be for a later challenge. Goal #3 - Water A good way to lose weight (or so I've heard) is by drinking lots of water. It will fill you, so you don't get hungry that easily. It'll also make it easier to stay away from snacks. This challenge I need to drink at least 2 litres of water a day and if I have the urge to snack I first have to try and see if I can make it go away by drinking some water. Grading system Like in previous challenges, I will be using my own grading system. But this time I will make it a bit more complex. Previously I used to get my daily goals together and I'd say "I need to win this many per day to win that day", but this had a loophole. I could completely neglect one of my goals, while doing the others perfectly and still win my challenge, but this time it won't go like that. I am not going to neglect my goals. I will not let myself down. So this time I will simply count my wins per goal. There's 42 days in one challenge, so I need to win 30 times for each goal. Every extra win is good and for every 5 extra wins I get a star at the end of the challenge. Extra goals throughout the challenge I would like to get some extra goals throughout the challenge, in order to encourage myself to do some stuff that needs to be done. These are not necessary to win in order to win the challenge, but for every 3 wins in these extra goals I get an extra star at the end of the challenge. - Subscribe at a doctor's practice - Make an appointment with a doctor at the new doctor's practice - Make an appointment with a psychologist at the new doctor's practice - Buy sports bra - Buy sports shoes - Get insurance for my motorbike - Visit grandpa on my motorbike - Get rid of all extra boxes/bags that are still standing in my room - Find a work placement - Make show reel - Download and install Microsoft Office on my laptop - Finish drawing for Guynio (G, if you read this: it's still a surprise what it is, huehuehue) - Bring money to the bank - Sell couch from my room at my dad's place online Log of the challenge Goal #1 - Getting a sleeping rhythm (wake 7:30 - 9:00 and sleep 22:00 - 00:00) Week 1 - 6 wins Week 2 - 6 wins - add up to 12 Week 3 - 5 wins - add up to 17 Week 4 - 4 wins - add up to 21 Week 5 - 3 wins - add up to 24 Week 6 - 5 wins - add up to 29 Goal #2 - Fruit and vegetables Week 1 - 4 wins Week 2 - 6 wins - add up to 10 Week 3 - 5 wins - add up to 15 Week 4 - 5 wins - add up to 20 Week 5 - 4 wins - add up to 24 Week 6 - 7 wins - add up to 31 Goal #3 - Water (min. 2 litres) Week 1 - 5 wins Week 2 - 6 wins - add up to 11 Week 3 - 4 wins - add up to 15 Week 4 - 5 wins - add up to 20 Week 5 - 6 wins - add up to 26 Week 6 - 7 wins - add up to 33 Goal #4 - Medicine (for "bacon and beans", so no real challenge goal, just as a reminder for myself) Week 3 - 5 wins Week 4 - 4 wins - add up to 9 Week 5 - 2 wins - add up to 11 Week 6 - 0 wins - add up to 11 Weight for curiosity Start - 94.0 kg or 207.2 lbs (Monday, 23rd of February 2015) End - 95.3 kg (Tuesday, 7th of April 2015)

Hi everyone, well, I've been gone for quite some time. So here's a bit of a catch-up of everything that's been happening the past few months. I've been studying in Cambridge, England, for one semester. I joined with the 2nd years of Film & TV Production and I generally had a good time there, especially because I learned a lot about film and all the jobs that are needed in order to make a film. It was pretty amazing. The main module there was Documentary and I must say I'm proud of what I've made. The two side modules were Directing Studies (which was also really nice) and Design for the Screen (which I found difficult, but educational). I came back just before Christmas and coming Monday I am starting lessons at my home university again, in the Netherlands. I'm glad to be back, because I get to see everyone again and the stress in Cambridge with school was pretty bad, so I get to have a bit more breathing space here again as well. This is my documentary, by the way During my stay in Cambridge, my mum has been living in Denmark, with her new boyfriend. He's Dutch, but he's been living in Denmark for over 10 years already and my mum is moving there. The house here has been sold already and lots of promises that my mum made were broken, which makes me angry and sad, but most of all frustrated, because I don't feel I can trust the one person I've always trusted a 200% anymore. And that in itself makes me feel quite lonely. Because of all of the above, I've been feeling a bit down. I've done stuff on automatic pilot and, well, it wasn't good. So now that I'm back home and I have had some time to myself I've been sleeping a lot and I've played a lot of games. (I have Steam now, so I get to play stuff) I know this behaviour from when I was in the lowest point of my depression and I am a bit afraid to fall back and get in a nastier part of my depression again, which I really really REALLY want to try and avoid. Pretty logical, huh? Only doing it is harder than stating I will do it. While I've been away I have deliberately chosen not to do any challenges on NF for that time, because I wanted to focus entirely on my studies in Cambridge, as it was busy enough in itself. However, now I am back in the Netherlands, in an environment I know. I have a bit more space, I know what I'm doing here, I feel at home. So here I am, back and ready to start doing something useful again. Let's do stuff! What I want to focus on this challenge is to get back in my daily rhythm, because I know that will help me avoid falling back into a worse part of depression. I also want to get myself a new sports bra and running shoes, so I can go and jog a bit in order to work on my cardio. (Just before I left for Cambridge, I got diagnosed with asthma and they say it helps if you do cardio, to make it go away) And I want to lower the intake on sugar, because that has been going crazy in Cambridge and the past few days. And now in a neat list of what I'll be doing these 6 weeks: Daily goals: - sleep 8+ hours - drink 1.5L water - eat fruit - eat veggies - get star status for a day if I don't have any sugar (apart from fruit) Weekly goals: - do BBWW - make a drawing 6 week challenge goals: - buy sports bra - buy running shoes - find a room in Breda WIN I know it isn't much, right now, but I have kind of fallen back to zero with my fitness and diet and mental health and.. well... everything. So I'm building stuff up again from scratch, okay? Because of this I will definitely not raise a level. I am fighting in order not to lose a level. That's what this challenge is about. If I manage to keep my level, that's a yay. If I lose a level it means I obviously have to do more in order to get back to where I was. I have to win at least 30 days with the basic stuff and get at least 6 days star status. I have to complete at least 5 of 6 weeks with the weekly goals and I have to get everything for the whole challenge goals. Oh, and to let you know how bad my body is right now... I weigh 93 kg or 205 lbs. I got down to 87 kg or 192 lbs before I went to Cambridge. So some change is REALLY needed. I just want to see if there'll be any change in my weight during these weeks. I am not setting a goal for myself with my weight. Not this challenge, but probably future challenges will have a weight loss goal. Progress: Weight on Sunday 4th of January: 92.2 kg or 203.27 lbs Week 1 (BBWW FAIL - drawing WIN) Mon WIN - Tue WIN - Wed WIN - Thu WIN - Fri FAIL - Sat WIN * - Sun WIN Weight on Sunday: 91.1 kg or 200.83 lbs Week 2 (BBWW - drawing) Mon FAIL - Tue - Wed - Thu - Fri - Sat - Sun Weight on Sunday: Week 3 (BBWW - drawing) Mon - Tue - Wed - Thu - Fri - Sat - Sun Weight on Monday: Week 4 (BBWW - drawing) Mon - Tue - Wed - Thu - Fri - Sat - Sun Weight on Sunday: Week 5 (BBWW - drawing) Mon - Tue - Wed - Thu - Fri - Sat - Sun Weight on Sunday: Week 6 (BBWW - drawing) Mon - Tue - Wed - Thu - Fri - Sat - Sun Weight on Sunday: