Key: Experience tranquility

[-Key-]

 

Tranquility, I will find it with this challenge. As a Zenyatta main, it's my primary goal. Primarily because I have a few weeks of break from school after a year non-stop. *happily takes deep breath*

 

This is technically my third challenge, though I think of it as my second. School turned into a beast with multiple accelerated classes at the same time work ramped up. It was the worst timing ever. I've been waiting for this break and challenge. 

 

Based on previous experience, I'm going with the KISS rule here, keeping it super simple. In the past, I've tried to tackle too many goals at once, and then when I failed on one, it felt like a huge overall failure when I had such lofty goals to start.

 

Fitness Goal

- Hit the gym four times per week, one of those being Sunday so that I can take the one-hour stretch class. It feels amazing and I'm always so happy I went. 

 

Food Goal

- Track all of my food on MFP. I tend to stop logging when I go over cals or blog sugar on a day, and I fall off from there. All days must be logged or I can't see my progress. If anyone wants to join me on MFP, the link to my profile is in my sig - I'd love to add friends there!

 

Life Goal

- Be conscious of my sleep time and ensure I get enough. 

- Update NF. I read so many amazing updates with awesome stories and RP and so much creativity, and I feel pressure -completely of my own doing- to feel like I should or need to commit to the same. It's ridiculous, I know, totally of my own making. Maybe because I'm an artist and I feel a need to add flair everywhere. :-P So simple updates at least once every three days, and they need be nothing more than brief updates on my three goals.

 

Speaking of responsible bedtimes, I'm heading off. Wishing everyone well on their goals this challenge!

 

[Cheetah]

Really solid goals!  I'm looking forward to following your progress!

 

[Elastigirl]

Nice challenge,good  SMART goals

[jonfirestar]

Nice challenge with simple attainable goals. Following!

[-Key-]

11 hours ago, Cheetah said:

Really solid goals!  I'm looking forward to following your progress!

 

 

5 hours ago, jonfirestar said:

Nice challenge with simple attainable goals. Following!

 

11 hours ago, Elastigirl said:

Nice challenge,good  SMART goals

 

Thanks, everyone! I really appreciate the support. <3

[-Key-]

Day one down, and I stayed on target with food and life goals. No gym because it was my rest day for this week. In the "It's the little things" dept: New food portion containers arriving today. I can set up all my snacks for home and work in the fridge. I'm ridiculously geeked about this.

 

Today:

Stay on track with food - I did it on day one, I can do it again on day two.

 

Hit the gym and get my total walk distance for the day up to 5K.

 

In bed by 10:30PM.

[jonfirestar]

23 minutes ago, -Key- said:

I can set up all my snacks for home and work in the fridge. I'm ridiculously geeked about this.

I totally do this. It helps keep me sane!

[-Key-]

2 hours ago, jonfirestar said:

I totally do this. It helps keep me sane!

 

Yes! Especially with weighing my food for portions. It's nice to do it all once and be done. I do this already with breakfasts and lunches. It's my Sunday night ritual. I enjoy the processing of cooking so I make dinner every day. Snacks can be dangerous and this is so overdue. 

[-Key-]

Day 2 update:

 

Food:

On track for day 2. If I can do day 2, I can make it to day 3.

 

Fitness:

I have so many foot an ankle issues. I don't have depth perception, so it's been a lifetime of falling and breaking things, and it's starting to take a toll. I was fit for orthotics and now it's just a matter of tweaking them until they're just right. Got the right foot fixed, but the left foot is being a pain. I've broken the foot, the ankle, and had foot surgery for a screw and pins in there, too. Feet are not to be messed with. They're totally stumped on fixing the last orthotic, so they did a fitting for a new one today and tried to do some tweaking inside my shoe by adding a support and a wedge. It's the best my foot has felt in ages. I walked at the gym for 3km and no major issues, just fatigue from the new fittings. I'm feeling pretty good about this being the right fix.

 

Sleep: 

I came up with 10:30 as my bed time. I play a bit of Overwatch with my gaming buddy until 9:15, watch an hour of TV and snuggle with the kitties until 10:15, and then lights out by 10:30. 7 - 7.5 hours is my magic sleep number. 

 

[-Key-]

Day 3 went really well. 100% on my food plan. I'm going to be completely honest here: I have never, ever started a food plan and made it for three days. Not just staying within my calorie limitation, but staying on plan with what I'm eating. This morning, I left my morning green smoothie at home, and someone brought in Timbits to the office. I resisted, and had an orange instead. Normally, my mindset would be "well, I was going to have 250 calories in a smoothie, so I can eat 250 cals of Timbits." It felt good to turn them down. And now that I have a good string of days going (day 4 is ace so far), the pressure is on to continue. A good pressure. 

 

TMI: Fitness: I'm dealing with an ingrown toenail, which I've never experienced before, and this SUCKS. It's taking longer than I thought it would to heal. It didn't help that I was on my feet for four hours for work today. My toe was purple and seriously unhappy, so I came home and cleaned, to keep moving. My toe will live to fight another day! Some good news, though: the swimsuit I ordered has arrived, so I can swim at the gym tomorrow. I'm geeked for that.

 

Life goal: I got to bed 15 mins late, and could not find restful sleep. I usually sleep like a stone, it's just dragging my behind to bed on time that is my personal challenge. So today, I felt pretty run down. I feel like I could sleep right now, and I'm supposed to have four hours until sack timezzzzzzzzzzzzz

[Cheetah]

55 minutes ago, -Key- said:

TMI: Fitness: I'm dealing with an ingrown toenail, which I've never experienced before, and this SUCKS.

 

 

Been there.  Yes, it does suck.  You have my full sympathies.

 

 

I don't know what that means, but I like it!

[Elastigirl]

Woohoo for sticking to your food plan!!! That is awesome. 

This won't help your ingrown toe, but it may help strengthen your feet and ankles I've found it helpful

https://gmb.io/feet/  It's an article with videos attached on some foot and ankle exercise to improve your foot and ankle mobility and strength

[-Key-]

1 hour ago, Cheetah said:

 

Been there.  Yes, it does suck.  You have my full sympathies.

 

 

I don't know what that means, but I like it!

 

I don't know what it means either, but I would LOVE to feel like the boss of my big toe right now, plz.  And I'm digging that yellow polish.

[-Key-]

10 minutes ago, Elastigirl said:

Woohoo for sticking to your food plan!!! That is awesome. 

This won't help your ingrown toe, but it may help strengthen your feet and ankles I've found it helpful

https://gmb.io/feet/  It's an article with videos attached on some foot and ankle exercise to improve your foot and ankle mobility and strength

 

Thanks SO much for that link! I'm coming back from a broken metatarsal and torn ligament in my foot. It's been a few months but it takes some doing to recover 100, I'm learning. I'm going to work on some of those exercises in the morning. 

[-Key-]

On 8/8/2017 at 10:45 AM, jonfirestar said:

I totally do this. It helps keep me sane!

 

Yes! Especially with weighing my food for portions. It's nice to do it all once and be done. I do this already with breakfasts and lunches. It's my Sunday night ritual. I enjoy the processing of cooking so I make dinner every day. Snacks can be dangerous and this is so overdue. 

[jonfirestar]

10 minutes ago, -Key- said:

Yes! Especially with weighing my food for portions. It's nice to do it all once and be done. I do this already with breakfasts and lunches. It's my Sunday night ritual. I enjoy the processing of cooking so I make dinner every day. Snacks can be dangerous and this is so overdue. 

Yeah I spend large parts of Sunday afternoon sorting out breakfast, lunch and all my snacks for the week. I like to have grab bags for my mornings. It just makes life so much easier.

[-Key-]

Wow, I had an update for day 4 and it's not here. Noooo idea, but I did post it from another computer. I must've done something wrong. :-/

 

I'll do a quick update on days 4 and 5: Nailed it! I'm so excited that I've stayed on plan for FIVE days. A food and fitness PR for me. Every time I finish my day in MFP it gives me a number for weight in five weeks that makes me giddy. I am going to hit that number in five weeks, or be as close as possible to it.

 

I'm a bit concerned that the ingrown toenail is still causing me grief. Googling says that treatment should show improvement in 2-3 days and tomorrow makes a week for me. I have a new patient appointment with a new doctor next Friday, so at least I'll have someone to look at it if it's still a problem. I still can't believe what a huge annoyance it is, and how painful it gets at times. Ugh.

 

Got a swim in today. So good to be back in the water. Fridays will be my swim days from now on. 

I was thinking earlier today that I'm a little worried for the weekend because that's when I completely fall off of any eating and exercise program, but I'm in control. I make the decisions, and I can make the choice to stay on plan. I'm going to stick with the food plan I have and not eat outside of it. Sunday, I WILL be at stretch class and walk the track a bit if Toe of Doom is feeling well enough. 

 

 

 

[Cheetah]

22 minutes ago, -Key- said:

Wow, I had an update for day 4 and it's not here. Noooo idea, but I did post it from another computer. I must've done something wrong. :-/

 

I'll do a quick update on days 4 and 5: Nailed it! I'm so excited that I've stayed on plan for FIVE days. A food and fitness PR for me. Every time I finish my day in MFP it gives me a number for weight in five weeks that makes me giddy. I am going to hit that number in five weeks, or be as close as possible to it.

 

I'm a bit concerned that the ingrown toenail is still causing me grief. Googling says that treatment should show improvement in 2-3 days and tomorrow makes a week for me. I have a new patient appointment with a new doctor next Friday, so at least I'll have someone to look at it if it's still a problem. I still can't believe what a huge annoyance it is, and how painful it gets at times. Ugh.

 

Got a swim in today. So good to be back in the water. Fridays will be my swim days from now on. 

I was thinking earlier today that I'm a little worried for the weekend because that's when I completely fall off of any eating and exercise program, but I'm in control. I make the decisions, and I can make the choice to stay on plan. I'm going to stick with the food plan I have and not eat outside of it. Sunday, I WILL be at stretch class and walk the track a bit if Toe of Doom is feeling well enough. 

 

 

 

 

It's great you've had a really solid first week!  Sounds like you're all set for the weekend.  Keep your goals in mind; you can totally do this!

[-Key-]

11 hours ago, Cheetah said:

 

It's great you've had a really solid first week!  Sounds like you're all set for the weekend.  Keep your goals in mind; you can totally do this!

 

Thanks! I need to keep all of this in mind. I'm in control. Terrible eating habits on the weekend aren't something that happen to me, they're choices I make. It's crazy how we let these things get carried away!

[-Key-]

Whole Foods has supplements for 25% off all weekend and I just cleaned up on my B-complex and D vitamins, plus whole flax and chia seeds. There's nothing like finding healthy food on a great sale. I'm stocked up until January, which is when they have their next big sale.

 

This weekend

• Grocery shop
• I got an idea for setting up my food plans for the week so I'm going to create a spreadsheet for that
• Make spreadsheet for Overwatch Summer Event items
• Update budget spreadsheet
• Read Beren & Luthien
• Make fresh pesto and zucchini bread
• Laundry
• Change bedding
• Set up bullet journal for the week
• Food prep for the week
• Gym Sunday: stretch class, walk (if Toe of Doom allows), shower

Meanwhile, I'm super excited for my weigh-in on Monday. I'm on track for a great loss. Focusing on this to keep me on track with food and fitness throughout the weekend.

[Elastigirl]

Toe of Doom = sadness, hope it get's better soon.

 

You've been doing awesome at sticking to your plan. You're right, you are in control, and will make great choices this weekend. You've got this.

[-Key-]

Got distracted yesterday, so today, checking in here throughout the day to cross items off my list.

• I got an idea for setting up my food plans for the week so I'm going to create a spreadsheet for that
• Make spreadsheet for Overwatch Summer Event items
• Update budget spreadsheet
• Read Beren & Luthien
• Make fresh pesto and zucchini bread (made pesto but couldn't find a zucchini bread recipe that wasn't ridiculously high in calories - going to have to research that cause I have a huge zucchini to use up)
• Laundry
• vacuum
• change litter box
• Change bedding
• Set up bullet journal for the week
• Food prep for the week
• Gym Sunday: stretch class, walk (if Toe of Doom allows), shower
• Grocery shop

[-Key-]

Yesterday's update, which I found in drafts when I logged on this morning...

 

Super quick update cause today was long and busy. On track with everything again today. Weigh-in was a shock. The scale said 7lbs down in the past week. I realize that likely, there was water weight involved in my weigh-in from a week ago, but this is definitely some downward weight movement. The journey begins. Keeping on track with everything. My best moment of the day was definitely when an event in our building ended and leftover pastries were left in the department kitchen. I avoided the kitchen entirely and managed to avoid any temptation. Not the call I'd normally make. /flex

[jonfirestar]

37 minutes ago, -Key- said:

Yesterday's update, which I found in drafts when I logged on this morning...

 

Super quick update cause today was long and busy. On track with everything again today. Weigh-in was a shock. The scale said 7lbs down in the past week. I realize that likely, there was water weight involved in my weigh-in from a week ago, but this is definitely some downward weight movement. The journey begins. Keeping on track with everything. My best moment of the day was definitely when an event in our building ended and leftover pastries were left in the department kitchen. I avoided the kitchen entirely and managed to avoid any temptation. Not the call I'd normally make. /flex

 

Well done with your weight loss! Doubly well done with avoiding the pastries in the kitchen!

[Cheetah]

8 hours ago, -Key- said:

Yesterday's update, which I found in drafts when I logged on this morning...

 

Super quick update cause today was long and busy. On track with everything again today. Weigh-in was a shock. The scale said 7lbs down in the past week. I realize that likely, there was water weight involved in my weigh-in from a week ago, but this is definitely some downward weight movement. The journey begins. Keeping on track with everything. My best moment of the day was definitely when an event in our building ended and leftover pastries were left in the department kitchen. I avoided the kitchen entirely and managed to avoid any temptation. Not the call I'd normally make. /flex

 

Good job!

 

 

raccoon'd