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I debated using a theme for this challenge, something to do with time, do-overs, or epic battles. But nothing quite sums up the extent of the epicness of the do-over that is this challenge. I'd like to just forget 2016 ever happened. I almost could except I have to re-lose the 25 or so pounds that I gained during last year. Last year I let a lot of habits go. Some habits still stuck with me and I worked on some others. I feel like I got derailed but found a detour and I'm back on the road, but a few miles back. I did it once; I can do it again. This year is going to be different. The first step is to re-build some habits. No, wait. The first step is my 2017 roadmap. In order to follow the roadmap, I need to rebuild some habits. That's what this challenge is about. FOOD I'm going to try something a little different this time. My food hasn't been terrible, well OK maybe, but I've been sticking to my batch cooking during the day, and suppers have been decent 70% of the time. It's the snacking that is out of control. So instead of focusing on logging my food, I'll focus on snacking, rather not snacking. The goal for Monday - Thursday will be to avoid snacks. Once I make a meal plan for the week, I pretty much eat the same thing every day. On days after lifting I'll allow either one healthy snack or I can have a larger meal. Saturday and Sunday I'll log food and stick to the calorie goal. Saturday's goal is 1900 calories, Sunday's is 1600. I don't usually eat at routine times so snacking is allowed as long as I don't go over the goal. Friday is a bit of a beast. It's not realistic to avoid snacks on a Friday night but I am eating the same thing during the day as the rest of the week. My calorie goal is 1900 so it'll be something like if I don't snack then I don't need to log anything. If we eat something extravagant then I'll log and can only snack if I stay under the goal. TRAINING Rebuilding old habits. Any workouts count but it has to be 30 minutes, moderate intensity, at least 4 days a week. THE INNER CRITIC My inner critic got really out of hand last year and I don't want to let it happen again. For this challenge I want to spend a little bit of time each day to visualize what my success looks like write out one affirmation a day. SLEEP I'm going to babystep myself to better sleep habits. For now I'll focus caffeine intake. I used to be able to drink caffeine until very late and still have no trouble going to sleep once I decided to sleep. But I suspect now it is having more of an impact than I care to admit. So I'll curtail the caffeine after supper, or after 8pm, whichever is later. I probable need a bigger buffer between caffeine and bedtime but babysteps remember. FAMILY TIME I'd like to be more present with my family and take time to have fun with them. Each week I'll have the following goals: - spend some time one night a week doing some family activity, even if it's just dinner at the table - Spend one on one time with LordShello and each kid FINANCES 2017 is the year of austerity. To get the ball rolling I have 4 tasks to be completed by the end of the challenge: - Start a budget on the YNAB app This is actually done already. I couldn't resist. - Cancel cable We started streaming. - Pay off one credit card - Pay off some medical debt - Take care of that student loan paperwork I've been putting off forever In addition to these goals, I'll be using my kitty jar to track successful days. I'll be using this the entire year to see how it adds up. Quarter - a great day, not perfect, but pretty much hit every goal Dime - a good day, hitting most of my goals Nickel - a mediocre day, hitting enough goals for some credit Penny - a pity penny, for days when no goals are hit but for a decent reason. Some Exclusions May Apply The challenge is supposed to end on 2/4 but I usually end my challenges on a Friday. The last Friday of this challenge is my birthday so I'll my challenge the day before that. One other exclusion is for LordShello's birthday that falls during week 2 of the challenge.