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So I've been thinking a lot about how I never think before I eat. Or rather, I never think about what I'm going to put into my mouth and how it will affect me. As a gamer, I'm aware of the idea of incremental progress. You gain your experience points, you slowly improve in your skills, you gradually master your attack rotation for your frikkin' Frost mage. Or, you know. Whatever. >.> The point is that food works the same way, with the added attraction of negative progress. Some foods are clearly good for humans. Some foods are clearly not good for humans. There's a lot of gray area, of course, where it comes down to moderation. Friends and neighbors, I suck at moderation. I've mentioned a few times that I hate to include cheat days on my diets because I know that one cheat lead to another, and suddenly I've eaten an entire bag of flour. I've been giving some thought to the idea that the best way for me to short-circuit the road to flourville is for me to actually think about what I'm going to eat before I eat it. I'm going to take the time to think about what the calories are like, what the ingredients are and how they've been prepared, and what a particular piece of food will do to my body. It's a simple concept, Spark, what of it? Sure, it's simple. All habits are simple on paper. The fact is that I've almost never taken the time to think about what I eat before I eat it. The last challenge had me counting calories, which was a hell of a big step in the right direction for this fat guy. Now I'm taking another step and thinking about the results of eating...well, everything. For six weeks. And just so I don't fudge (OMG fudge I make such good fudge no shut up shut up), I'm going to write it all down as well as think about it. Therefore, my goals for this six week challenge cycle! 1. A hero who thinks will win out over a villain who does not. Before I eat anything...anything, I will think about the results. I will consider calories, carbs, and protein. I will look at the micronutrients, and consider what I know of them. I will think about whether I am actually hungry, and whether I am considering a piece of food for the pleasure of it, or for its nutritional value. This will also involve me keeping track of my calories again (1800 seemed to be a reasonable daily thang) and cooking for myself more often. The goal is to make myself more mindful of what I'm eating rather than just stuffing in food by reflex. 2. I can't find anything in this damn Batcave. I got the clutters, folks. I have a lot of crap that I never see, never use, and will never need again. I have places to store things, but they're overflowing with the aforementioned crap. I need to clean my room, my truck, the back porch, and the shed outside. I need to box, sort, dust, vaccuum, wash, and tidy. I need to figure out what I have that I need and don't need, and send the stuff I don't need to the farm, which in this case is a local secondhand store. To that end, I hereby pledge to spend an hour cleaning every day except on the weekends. Cleaning encompasses tidying, moving, breaking down, dumping, and even actual cleaning. 3. The Never-Ending Battle. I lost about nine pounds during the last challenge cycle, bringing me down below 440 lbs for the first time since Hector was a pup. I honestly don't know how long it's been since I was that "light," since for a long time I couldn't find any scales that could weigh me. The goal, though, is 400 pounds by my birthday in late October. I'm at 438. Therefore, the battle rages onward. a. Work out. Weights on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. Home workouts on Monday and Friday, including the sloshing and the kett'ling. Bare minimum: Walk a mile on those days. And that's if I'm bleeding from the ears. b. Stick to the Whole23.4. That's my version of the Whole30, which is basically "Whole30 with some cheese." Because dude, CHEESE. c. Check in here every day. Knowing that people are going to check in on me, even if it's a couple people, helps me a lot. 4. I should write my memoirs. During my last challenge, I wrote the first half of my second book, which came to about 81k words. This time? The second half. Oh, and I plan to join DarK_RaideR's Optional Ranger Mini-Challenge, both because I think it's awesome and because he was crazy enough to base it on a book that I wrote. Cheers!