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Hello again everyone! This is now my fourth consecutive challenge, and after last challenge's significant successes, I feel it's about time to really test the waters. Like, attempt a challenge that I don't know if I'm going to be able to readily complete, but I'm sure as hell going to try my best. More than anything, it's going to test my discipline with foods, my love of all foods and also the temptation of the biscuit cupboard and days of falling into a junk food coma. Backing up a bit... I've sorted out a few habits in my life now which I'm quite proud of. One is that I'm ordering a lot less takeaways (six months ago Dominos considered me a loyal member) and I'm also drinking a lot less alcohol, particularly on the weekdays. I'm now limiting it to occasional 1/2 measures of whiskey, or otherwise for when I'm out socialising. Makes things a lot easier! But now I really want to test myself, and go on a diet. And not a fad diet, but a diet that will give me some solid results in four weeks time if I keep to it. After I've completed this challenge, I'll go back to a more regular food lifestyle, but maybe with less of a need for carbs in my life, or sugars. Maybe with better habits in the case of not doing boredom eating. Let's hope. :0 Aside from the Ab Diet, I'll be continuing with some previous challenges and introducing another new one into the mix. So, let's get things started! THE CHALLENGES: Current weight: 178.2lbs. (7 days old, will update tomorrow morning) 179lbs. Eugh. Some measurements: Bust 40' , Waist 32' , Hips 41' I also found some pictures from last summer to compare myself to, and yup I've put on weight, mostly around the hips. Let's try and get rid of that shall we? >:0 Stick to the Ab Diet every day. Continue with MyFitnessPal! The Ab Diet in question is here, feel free to scroll through to see what I'm getting myself into. It's only supposed to be followed for a limited amount of time, so I'm not looking to make this a permanent habit, but to give my body a kickstart and also teach myself to rely less on food as a reward/anchor, but as another part of keeping my body alive, in a healthy way. I'm not looking for 100% completion here either, I know this is going to be a heck of a challenge. But if I keep things updated here, then at least I'll be held accountable over the weeks, and I might see some positive changes too! I'll also be continuing with MyFitnessPal as I got so much out of tracking what I ate last month. It might also help me steer away from bad decisions and see the results in a more graph-like manner (who doesn't like fitness graphs, huh?). Optional extras: Non-caffiene tea, chewing gum, celery, a small handful of pistachio nuts for optional meals) Any days where I'm not 100% committed to the diet but the majority of it is pretty safe/healthy, I'll count it as a partial win. Go to the gym every weekday! Rest on the weekends. This one went really well last time! I got myself to the gym most mornings, had a solid routine every day that targeted different parts of my body and I felt a change in my strength and also saw it in the numbers I was lifting. This is just a simple continuation of the last challenge, so I'm not too worried about failing this. It should be a good combo with the Ab Diet though if everything goes well! Complete a yoga session daily for my back. Last year I had some bad back pains due to excess coughing from a cold - it put me out of most action for a few weeks and was pretty painful. I also now get some aches when I go to sleep at night or when I'm at work (in fact my posture is pretty bad, I need to sit up right now....ok that's better). I don't think it has ever fully recovered, but with some daily back yoga, maybe some strength and flexibility will return. I'll search for a session on youtube to go through and keep repeating it until the end of the challenge, maybe even take a before/after pic to see if there's been any difference? Either way, it's a slightly easier challenge to do, but with plenty of benefits, so long as I carve out time in my day to do it. LEVEL UP MY LIFE: Make an effort daily to tackle my to-do list. This is quite a broad one. I have a to-do list on my phone that includes things I need to do during the day, the week, the next few weeks or even throughout the year. Some of these things are art commissions (I occasionally freelance), or can be getting towards a fitness goal, cooking something new, travelling, buying gifts or finishing a book. It really varies! Recently I've started to get lazy and put things off until last minute, and I want to nip this bad habit in the bud before it gets any worse. So any progress on my to-do list every day will be great! I might even get around to doing some things I've been meaning to do for a long while! Stick around and see what random stuff I complete this next month! ;D So that's about it - it's not going to be an easy one, and I still feel like I'm slightly overstretching my limits with the Ab Diet, but I'm thinking that the other challenges are a little more manageable to help balance this out, so I don't completely get snowed under. Wish me luck, here's to an improved me in 28 days time!