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Hello all, I’d previously completed about one and a half Challenges here at the end of last year. Then my final semester at university and my health challenges got the better of me. I didn’t really backslide from anything that I had accomplished, and I successfully graduated in May, so I wouldn’t really say I’m respawning. I guess I was just falling through the world for a while. Anyway, I’m excited to be back and to pick up where I left off, but thought I would post in the Level 1 Challenge section while I get back into the flow of things (if that is all right). Me: I’m a 39 year old female with about 13 more pounds to lose to get to my goal weight (Epic Quest 1). I also really need to rebuild strength and flexibility lost due to serious problems I experienced over 2 years ago with Crohn’s Disease (Epic Quest 2). My 3rd Epic Quest is to successfully complete the CPA exams and become certified. 4 Week Challenge Goals: Diet Goal: Reduce trend weight by 2 pounds for the month (by logging all food in MFP and maintaining an 1800 calorie deficit each week). Fitness Goal: Complete 3 bodyweight strength sessions each week. I am using a program called Body By You by Mark Lauren. It is similar to his YAYOG program, but has more structure and smaller progressions. Life Goals: Start applying for the first section on the CPA exam with my state accountancy board. Try free trials for the 4 most interesting looking CPA review programs. Good luck to everyone on their challenges!

Hi, I had my very first challenge last month and managed to get really sick during the final week. I still did pretty well overall, but hopefully I can do a little better this month. I’m starting my last semester of college on January 9th so I need to factor that in to this and the next three challenges. Me: I’m a 38 year old female with about 10 more pounds to lose to get to my goal weight. I also really need to improve my fitness and rebuild strength lost due to serious problems with my Crohn’s disease. Diet Goals: 1. Log all food for the month in MFP. 2. Reduce trend weight by 1.5 pounds for the month. 3. Eat at least 50 grams of protein 5 or more days each week. (I know that’s low, but it’s still an improvement) Fitness Goals: 4. Continue my bodyweight strength program (3 days per week). 5. Go walking for at least 5 minutes every day. Life Goals: 6. Use the accountability group “Monkey Tamers United” to combat my procrastination. 7. Attend ALL my class sessions this month (Excluding legitimate reasons). 8. Lights off by midnight every day on week 1, & 10 minutes earlier each subsequent week. Good luck to everyone on their challenges!

Hello all, I actually signed up a week ago and have started a personal challenge in the Rebel area, but figured I should introduce myself. Long story, I’m a 38 year old female and I’d been able to maintain a healthy weight of about 125 to 130 my entire adult life until about a year and a half ago. That’s when the intermittent abdominal pains I’d been having stopped being so . . . intermittent and I noticed I was losing my appetite. I made a doctor’s appointment but, of course, the soonest they had available was three weeks out. About a week later my clothes were so loose I could pull my (non-stretchy) pants off without undoing them first so I stepped on the scale and my weight was down to 116. That, combined with the fact I could no longer even look at food despite feeling hungry, led me to the emergency room. A CT scan showed massive amounts of abdominal inflammation. I was admitted to the surgery ward and put on fluids and multiple antibiotics. For the first three days they were fairly convinced I had a ruptured appendix, but it turns out it was Crohn’s Disease (two of my uncles have Crohn’s so I was familiar with it, I was really rooting for the ruptured appendix). Nine days later I was released, still on antibiotics with an additional 100mg of Prednisone per day and weighing 112 pounds. Being on a high dose of Prednisone for four months really did a number on me. That stuff is like kryptonite for humans. Anyway, the Prednisone combined with the very rapid weight loss I’d had, and the fact I was still very sick for quite a while after getting out of the hospital, really destroyed a lot of my muscle mass. Then there were the side effects of the biologics I’ve been put on for long term control and the rather counterintuitive diet changes I’ve had to make (veggies and fiber are bad now!). About 3 months ago I weighed in at 145, just into the “overweight” category on the BMI charts. I was still feeling pretty crappy in general but just couldn’t deal with being in such bad shape, so I started tracking on MFP and have managed to lose 9 pound in that time. Now I’m trying to introduce a bodyweight routine to maintain what little muscle I have left while I lose the last 11 pounds. I really like the challenge format of NF and think it will help me keep on track. Hopefully once I lose the weight, I can use NF to help me rebuild some of my lost muscle and get a little closer to my pre-Crohn’s self. Short story, I was a healthy weight until a year and a half ago when I got really really sick with Crohn’s Disease. I lost a bunch of weight, and then gained a bunch and got slightly fat. I’ve lost about 9 of 20 pounds in the last three months and am hoping to utilize NF to help me lose the rest and to maintain/rebuild my muscle mass. Anyway, I’m not normally so long winded but I figured I’d get that all out there just this once. Thanks everyone!