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This is the article that has me pumped. http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2015/01/26/why-you-need-to-be-selfish-and-put-fitness-first/#more-24616 No excuses, be selfish and put my fitness first for this 6 week challenge. A little bit about me. Started on NF a year ago. Looking into the Paleo diet brought me here. I was successful for the first 3/4 of the year, lost 25 lbs, started a lot of really good habits and made some great friends. Fell off the wagon somewhat with some illnesses and life happening. Just got lazy. Gained 15 lbs back. I really struggle to exercise. I feel great when I am consistently exercising. I don't have any one passion. Hate the gym. Unhappy with my body. I know what I need to do. I was a very athletic in my youth, high school and college athlete in volleyball and softball. 110 lbs at graduation. Went to boot camp as a U.S. Marine and almost made it to graduation but hip issues got me sent home. 135 lbs of lean mean machine. Worked retail for 17 years. Great on your feet work but as I climbed the ladder and was promoted it was more hours sitting. More hours at work( 60-70)and a varied schedule was my excuse to not be active and eat like crap. Crappy relationships didn't help. Thought I always had plenty of time to get "back in shape". Meet my hubby 10 years ago and started cooking again ( a passion of mine) and didn't look too bad at 170lbs. Really didn't see the weight creep up on me. Slow but sure 40 hit and even though I was cooking pretty healthy meals I ate, and ate, and ate. No exercise and was was pretty sedentary. My arthritis in my hips, sciatica and just overall unfitness kept me from exercising. Last year weighed in at 220. I was devastated. I am a happy outgoing person and found myself not wanting to go anywhere. Working from home kept me sedentary. Yo yo dieted and then finially found NF. Built good habits here. Cut out diet soda, went 80% Paleo, and started doing BBWW and walking. Saw results right away. 198lbs. Got sick with a horrible sinus infection this fall, double ear infections and actually burst an eardrum. Was just sick and tired. Ate like crap dropped off of NF fora few months and ended the year at 210 lbs. Joined the last challenge knowing it was going to be tough. I was drinking diet soda again and having bread far too often along with sugar. I knew I needed to get back to it. And I did. Read the Fitness First Article ( link above) and it just clicked. Boom-----I am an all or nothing kind of person. I need to be all in. So here we are. I will be changing things up as needed each week. This is going to be fun and fabulous. Just a disclaimer. I have referred to my weight a lot in the above paragraphs. I am not infatuated with weight. It is a measurement. When you are as heavy as I am it is good to just plain lose weight. Lose fat and build muscle. Gotta do the first thing first. Me dropping 10 lbs makes a huge difference in my ability to exercise more with my hip issues. I have a healthy relationship with the scales. I know they are sneaky bastards sometimes but I do weigh in once a week. This motivates me. If I am following my program I will lose weight each week. Not everyone can handle this. The fit and feel of your clothes might work better for you. Just saying so you all don't post and tell me scales lie and weight fluctuates. This is what I need to do. Are you bored yet? Posting now and will come back and add more in edit so I don't end up losing what I have so far. http://youtu.be/9EcjWd-O4jI Three goals to concentrate from right from Steve's article. 1. Workout 2. Eat Well 3. Sleep Let's take the easy ones first....(maybe not that easy) Sleep- I pretty much get 7 hours a night. I do a good job of turning off electronics 1/2 hr before bed and I have a nightly ritual that I do 80% of the time. I have gotten to this place because of previous challenges. I have worked hard building habits. This challenge I am focusing on set bed time and set wake up time. This will be needed to achieve the other goals. Shut things off 10 pm, nightly ritual then sleep by 10:30pm Sunlamp goes off at 5:30 in my face then alarm goes off at 5:45am. Out of bed at alarm. No snooze. Grading 100%-95%=A. Nothing below this is acceptable Eat Well. Again this is an accumulation of previous goals and habits I would never be this strict on myself if I had not done this before. I have to take this to the next level. Even though I hate MFP and the time it takes to enter recipes it is the best way to track nutrition. If you eat like crap and buy everything pre made it works pretty smooth or if you eat the same thing all the time. Not me. Total calories aiming under 1500 daily. Will accept 1500-1900 daily. Total carb grams under 100 daily. I am Paleoish. No gluten, no sugar, small amounts of rice, potatoes, cheese and beans, no soda diet or otherwise, and limited fruit.( I really don't care for fruit) Cheats to this must fit into my total calories/carb goal. Any alcohol ( I like wine while I cook) must fit into this also. Limiting cheats to one per week should be doable. I will have 2 days that will not count. My hubby's work banquet on 2/28 and St Patrick's Day 3/17. Tracking daily and not just estimating will be the challenging part. 100%-90%=A. Anything below unacceptable. Workout-- this one is the hard one. I have not done this consistently for any challenge. I will be more specific each week with what the workouts are comprised of. The key here is just doing something. I will work out first thing ( after letting the dogs out) in the morning for at least a half hour. Period, end of story. M-Sat this will be what I do. Looking at strength training 3 days a week, something cardio two days a week and working on flexibility the last day. The most I am allowed to skip for what ever reason is 3 days for the entire challenge. This is pass /fail grading. No excuses. Working on other life goals through out this challenge. Most geared to making putting fitness first a priority but still getting things done. I will post specifics each Sunday on upcoming week. This week I am setting my self up to win by concentrating on this http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2013/10/21/how-to-build-a-batcave-for-habit-change/ Long first post I know, and a little unconventional. But that is why you love me right? Of course as usual there will be music trivia! Suggestions on themes or decades for this are welcome. You feedback is appreciated and please please please be strict with me and do not allow me to give excuses. I need this. I need all the help I can get. Kick my ass please! http://youtu.be/IKqV7DB8Iwg