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Hi there It's been a while ... and I'm not sure I can call this a comeback or resurrection or whatever, because I've been absent from the forums quite a few times already and then come back and then fallen off the planet again and ... oh well you know what I mean What I love is that so many of the friends I made here are STILL HERE - you guys are absolutely amazing 😍 I was looking for a little re-inspiration and it makes me so happy to see Lady Hatter, the Lady of the Shay, Elize and Elastigirl and so many more still rocking on - ahhh the joy of coming to a fabulous place that still is Funny how my itch to check back in collided with the 10 year anniversary, so of course I have to be in for this again and tbh it's really high time again anyway!!! RECAP: I'll try to do a thorough recap here in honor of the 10 year anniversary thing, so it might get a bit long, sorrrrrrrrry I joined the NF Forums in November 2014 when I had started dabbling in pole dance and wanted to level up my game, plus find a better work-family-fitness life balance. Also I wanted to shed some more of my mummy-tummy that seemed to grow with the kids instead of diminishing with time 😉 I had a job I passionately loved and that kept me very busy and the challenges helped me to prioritize movement as much and enjoy it with a community of absolutely lovely people. Over the years I did loose the mummy tummy (mostly) and gained a lot of strength (up to two full pull ups from hanging woot woot and lots of push ups and inversions, whooooheeeeee) I struggled more at work and had some stuff creep in that took the joy out more and more, so eventually I stopped a big part of it and "only" continued working in my own praxis as a healing practitioner. Started diving deeper into meditation and found a solid ground in that, that will always catch me now no matter how deep I fall (even if I don't feel the improvement straight away everytime - it does come and I am learning to trust it) Due to the work shift, my budget changed, I stopped taking pole classes and as a result trained less and less on the pole overall. Sad thing that, but we won't dwell on that. My weight kept piling up again and then I'd manage to get it down for a while, but it does still nag at me, because the ease with which I gain has increased a LOT over the past few years. What bugs me about it, is that it's visceral fat mostly and I am not keen on developing a metabolic syndrome or have it develop any further if that is what's already happening here. In October 2018 I started going to the gym with hubby and picked up strength training where, which is great fun and I am super happy to do it together with him. By now our boy even joins us from time to time, when he's not working (time flies!! Can't believe one of my babies is studying already, the other working as an apprentice and youngest already a teenager in grade 8 ) Also started playing a bit with Intermittent Fasting but not very consistently and fell off again later on in the year. In spring 2019 I had gotten down to 67 kg which is not my ideal weight, but still feels quite fine to me, managed to keep it at 68 - 69 kg over summer but from October to December my weight went up to 74,5 kg and that was NOT going to go on!!! So end of December I started experimenting with Intermittent Fasting more seriously again - I'll expand on that a bit more later, if you don't mind - and am thrilled to be at about 70 kg again at the moment. Best part being that the dreaded belly fat reduced significantly. After 7 weeks of IF I am hitting a motivational slow down and even though I can see the continuous improvements, I somehow don't get that excited about them and am feeling a bit tired of the whole effort and all. I think part of it is the lack of inspiration and knowledge about what I WANT to eat when I eat and what would be ideal for my body. Also I have taken on a new job beside my healing work again - and it's awesome, I absolutely love it, buuuuuuuuut it's a lot of desk work and I am becoming too stagnant again. So frustration might also just stem from inertia and how unfit I feel when I do exercise. I find myself out of breath on hikes, that used to be a walk in the park and unable to do even a single full on push up what is this?!! What now: I want to enjoy my days thoroughly with a healthy body, happy spirit and plenty of fun time as well as productive work time - is that doable? I don't know, but I'll keep going for it My goals for this challenge are therefor: DO SOMETHING Do some form of exercise 6 days out of 7 Be it a workout at the gym, a walk, a hike, using the 7 minute app - whatever - do SOMETHING EAT NOTHING Stick to those fasting hours!!! Eat nothing an average of 18h / day over the course of each week keep tracking my stats and progress on that EAT AND GROW ALL THE THINGS Make sure I get plenty of goodies into my dear body when I do eat Grow all kinds of sprouts and nut seeds to eat Keep tending my Scoby for Kombucha and try to eat mooooore veggies (how hard can it be?) LIFE GOAL uncluttering the basement to free my pole from all the clutter monsters and get it ready for a new challenge to come That's my plan for now and I guess I will only find out if it makes sense, if I stick to it for long enough 😛 I can promise pics of sprouts and scoby, haha, and hopefully of the occasional hike. Next challenge after this might be more exciting again