Search the Community

Hi! I couldn't wait to post this. Despite thinking that I didn't like 3 continuous months of challenge, it turns out it actually really worked better than the old format to establish habits. I woke up this morning and wanted to carry on as usual. So, here I am. I hope Celebrate gets stuck in your head every time you visit my thread, since it is stuck in mine forever now. For those of you who don't know me, hello! I am NeverThatBored. My current goal is to lose the last 10-12 pounds I have left, though lately I've been more focused on fitness stuff than making progress on that goal. My biggest challenge struggle is food. Some of my favorite things are cats, training montages, and sitting outside next to running water. I am nerdiest about anime, fantasy novels, and rpg / indie games. Now I feel like that should be an icebreaker where everyone says their goals, struggles, favorite things, and favorite nerdy things. (I hate icebreakers in real life.) Goal 1: Maintain Fitness As usual, this goal involves maintaining my existing fitness routine (and continuing to progress during regular workouts, etc.) 3 workouts/week (usually 1 bootcamp class and 2 bodyweight workouts at home) 1 Pushup AMRAP/week to maintain pushup strength Walk 16 miles/week (64 total) Practice holding a deep squat daily (42 total) 1 run / week (either 5K, slower paced run with coworkers, or sprinting) Goal 2: Movement Focus – Long Walks During the past few challenges, I’ve been focusing my secondary fitness goal on specific movements (pushups, squats). This time around, I want to focus on walking longer distances with the goal of eventually working up to a 35 mile walk on the local bike path. I will mainly be able to do this on weekends, although theoretically I might be able to do it after work now that the light is nice. We’ll see. My goal is to do this once per week, going a bit further each time. I don’t think I’ll have time to do this on travel weekends, however. My recent max is 7 miles. I’d like to work up to at least 20 in preparation before attempting the full distance. Goal 3: Food I tried the minimalist approach last time and it was an epic failure, so this time I’m trying the maximalist approach. Part A: Maintain things that work Last challenge I stopped counting these things for a week, and immediately stopped doing them. So, even if I’m focusing on macros this challenge, I need to hold myself accountable for this stuff too. Don’t eat after 8pm (or within 3 hours of bedtime) (-1 point for failure) Don’t eat more than 1 bad food/meal in a day. Desserts are counted separately from meals in most cases. (-1 point for failure) Eat primalish most of the time (19 meals / week allows for 2 variance meals) (-1 point per failure, +1 point for extra primal meal) NEW Aim for primal snacks on 4 days/week and then non-primal snacks ok 3 days per week Aim for at least 1 primal meal and 1 50% meal per day when travelling or hosting (-1 point per failure, +1 per success) Plan/prep meals over the weekend and prep/freeze meals for weeks when this doesn’t happen (+3 points when done successfully) Write down bad reactions to food choices in an ongoing spreadsheet to dissuade myself from making that choice a second time. Out of 23 points per week Part B: Measure macros Week 1 – measure protein intake, but no need to try to hit a certain goal Week 2 – start aiming for 75-106g of protein per day (more is ok) and start measuring carbs without aiming for a certain goal Weeks 3 and 4 – start aiming for 75g or so of carbs / day (anywhere below 100g ok) and continue working on protein Part C: Continue to practice conscious eating Think about what I’m about to do before eating something. Ideally, pause and take a few deep breaths. At the least, recognize and acknowledge when I’m about to sell out my future self. (4 points per day – 3 meals and snacks) Goal 4: Life Goal – Deep Work I would like to spend 30 minutes / day (except travelling/hosting days) focused on work I care about. I’ve also been neglecting adulting lately, so there are two parts to this. Part 1: I have a list of about 14 things so far that I’ve been putting off or need to take care of. I’m going to work on one of these per day until they’re done. Part 2: Once my list is finished, I’ll spend 30 minutes per day on any activity of my choice (reading, writing, drawing, whittling, career stuff, etc.). Bonus Quests These are all things that are nice to have, but I do not get points for them if I do them at the expense of any of my main goals. Meditate daily (1 bonus point for every 7 days) Ankle alphabets daily (2 set minimum – 1 bonus point for every 7 days) Knees in pose / child’s pose / another internal hip rotation stretch daily (1 bonus point for every 7 days) NEW Clean kitchen sink before bed 4 days/week. I’ve heard good things about what this does for you mentally in the morning, so I’m interested in trying it.