Lullaby88's Revamped 2nd Challenge

[lullaby88]

I'm BACK!!! ^.^ I barely completed my last challenge, back in last July, and decided it was best to take a step back for a while. Even though I completed a challenge, nothing stuck. I gave up walking and trying to eat better. Everything. But I never stopped visiting so I figured it was time to give this another shot.

 

Main Quest

·    Lose weight and get healthy. To feel happy with myself again.

 

Goal 1: Food Tracking! (+3 WIS)

Track what I eat each day. I know the things I need to change (breakfast!!). So I'm hoping by tracking each day, I'll help myself get away from the normal, carb-filled breakfasts of bagels and muffins. 

 

Goal 2: Eat more Veggies! (+4 CON) (+2 CON)

This is a two part goal that I'm hoping to accomplish. Part one is adding more salads to my life. I love salad and it's an easy way to get more vegetables in.! I tend to get lazy nights/days and just make dinner and don't add a salad to my meal. Let's change this!  I'm aiming to have 5 salads a week.(2 points for this part) I'm cutting the salad part out of this. I'll probably still eat them but it's not going to be a focused goal. It sounds stupid to me now. Not sure if I'll add anything in with this. 

 

Part two is cook with a new vegetable each week. Part of the problem I get with cooking is that I get tired of cooking with the same things. So this should help prevent that! I'll track what vegetables I try and if I like them or not. Will also add notes of trying it different ways to maybe make it better. (2 points for this part)

 

Goal 3: Exercise! (+1 STR & +2 STA) 

I failed here last time. I made too many excuses. I'm still making excuses. BUT now, with this written out, I can be held accountable!   Add movement to my day. (I have a desk job so I sit for long periods of time and it's frustrating. I end up with sore muscles most days. Sore, from sitting! Ugh...) The goal is to walk everyday at work. If not at work, I can take the puppy out when I get home. I also want to add in a body workout routine. This can should be done once or twice a week.

 

Life Quest: Be an active forum member. (+5 CHA) (+3 CHA)

This is to help me be a better communicator. I tend to stalk fellow rebels without leaving comments and supporting them. I can't want support without giving it. (Need to figure out how to grade this still.)

 

I could use some help on the attribute points, I think this is set up decently enough. ^.^ If not, let me know. I lowered some of my attribute points. I believe I went too high with 2 of them.

[lullaby88]

Tracking:    7/7 6/7 6/7 7/7 4/7 5/7 | 30/42
Salads:       5/5 0/5 0/5 0/5 0/5 0/5 | 5/30
Veggie:       1/1 1/1 1/1 1/1 1/1 0/1 | 5/6
Walking:     5/5 4/5 4/5 5/5 6/5 4/5 | 24/30
BWW:         1/2 1/2 2/2 2/2 0/2 1/2 | 6/12
 
Vegetable of the Week
Week 1: Artichoke - I made this last night. It was good but there's not much to an artichoke. Soo....not sure how often I'll be making artichoke. Probably not often. Not much reward for the effort ^.^ Though my husband did request me to try a spinach and artichoke dip...will probably do that in the near future.
Week 2: Parsnips Turnip - I added turnips to my Sunday hash browns. They were a good addition but I did not peel them so I could tell the difference between them and the regular potatoes. Husband didn't say anything so I'll say he didn't notice. ^.^ Definitely will have to try these again.
Week 3: Parsnips - Last night I made roasted carrots and parsnips. The parsnips were good but they had a woody center that I should have scraped them out to make them better. My husband didn't mind. He enjoyed them. Then again, he enjoys most of what I make.
Week 4: Eggplant! - I made Ratatouille with eggplant last night. Thanks to Mini Quest 4! It was good. Though I was worried because my pot was too small to do the whole recipe and I wasted a bit of zucchini and eggplant. Other then that, it was yummy. I had plenty of leftovers, which I'm using on top of pasta this evening (by request of the husband).
Week 5: Rutabaga -  Soo I barely got this one in. So last night I made mashed potatoes and rutabaga. You can just make mashed rutabaga but I decided to mix it with some potatoes since I wasn't sure how it would taste. It tastes kind of like sweet potatoes but with less carbs. It also doesn't mash as easily but you don't even notice any chunks. You also need less milk. Will definitely do this again.
Week 6: 

[Mega-Puffin]

These all look like great goals! It's been ages since my last challenge too, trying to get back into this whole fitness thing.

Best of luck to you!

[lullaby88]

These all look like great goals! It's been ages since my last challenge too, trying to get back into this whole fitness thing.

Best of luck to you!

Thanks! Best of luck to you as well.

[lullaby88]

Soo....I decide it was best to have my Day 1 be yesterday, instead of Monday, since I technically started yesterday. I didn't want to have 2 negatives for me on the tracking sense. ^.^ 

 

I didn't get any exercise in and I have an excuse, which I don't even want to hear.  So I'm just going to keep on going and make today a better day. 

 

I made chicken with zucchini and artichoke last night. The zucchini tasted amazing and the artichoke will go through a redo. Probably in the form of a dip.

 

There's not much meat in an artichoke or maybe it was just the two I got yesterday. Either way, it was worth trying. Last night was probably the second time I've had artichoke in my life. This doesn't include artichoke hearts that are normally in pasta salad but I also avoid those like the plague. 

 

Well, day 2 is off to a decent start for me. Had leftover zucchini and bacon for breakfast.  TGIAF!

[formymonkey]

Your goals are great and fairly similar to mine. I feel the same about salads, horrible to make great to eat.

Artichokes in general don't have much to them, you didn't get robbed of the meat.

Nice job starting today of right!

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[lullaby88]

Your goals are great and fairly similar to mine. I feel the same about salads, horrible to make great to eat.

Artichokes in general don't have much to them, you didn't get robbed of the meat.

Nice job starting today of right!

 

Thanks!

 

For such a big (heck, medium-sized) vegetable, you would think there would be more edible goodness inside. Oh well. I tried it and that's what counts.

[bluekiwi1]

Rawr!    Looking great so far!  Keep going!

 

Yeah, eat better always seems one of the first steps toward good health.  At least for me!

 

I don't really like to eat salad mainly because I like food to be cooked...  But I make salads for hubs.  I would put some canned salmon and sprinkle some cracked black pepper with some capers on top.  For some crunchies if you like, add some nuts.  And then drizzle some really good olive oil or whatever salad dressing suits your mood.

 

Good Luck!  Rawr!  Rawr!

[formymonkey]

Never thought of using canned salmon, great idea!

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[lullaby88]

I like cooked food too, which is why I could never go on a complete raw style diet. That sounds too insane/intense for my tastes.

 

Salad is also an easy lunch for me since my husband doesn't always leave me leftovers. ^.^

 

I might have to try the salmon bit...but I'm slowly getting into seafood. Never ate it growing and don't like the fishy taste or smell. Need to learn how to cook it right or get good non-fishy tasting fish. haha

 

RAWR! Miss that! 

[Tinessael]

Hey, I also find the exercise goal very difficult! Do you have a fitbit? I found it helps me a lot to walk more!

[bluekiwi1]

Baked chicken is good on salad, too!

 

If I got time on the weekend, I would season some boneless chicken breast really well.  Drizzle some olive oil on some baking dish (coconut oil works great, too) and place the seasoned chicken pieces on it.  Cover with foil and bake until done.

 

After they are cooled off, you can chop them up into smaller bite size pieces and store them in containers.  So yummy to add to salads or wraps!

 

Rawr!

 

Good Luck and Have Fun this Weekend!  Rawr!

[lullaby88]

I usually do that with chicken now. ^.^ Or if I have some leftover chicken from dinner. It works out for me. 

[lullaby88]

My Day 3 Update: Still got a lot of my day left but I already got a walk in as well as my salad. Ha! Take that! hehehe....I'm having a bit of trouble with the tracking bit. If I'm rushing, I forget to do it for my meal and have to do it at a later time. I'm still doing it, I guess that's a plus. Been using MFP for that. I don't really like the phone app or it for that matter. But it does help me make better choices for breakfast. Though I need to find things that are easy to cook or heat up without a microwave. 

[formymonkey]

Nice job getting your workout in early. 

If you precook any meat, breakfast burritos are a great quick meal or just make the scrambled eggs.  I also keep boiled eggs around.  If it doesn't have to be hot, a few strawberries and a good protein powder make a good smoothie.

[lullaby88]

I forgot about breakfast fast burritos! Then again, I'm used to getting them back in San Diego, not in Florida. Hehe...that's something to try. Thanks, Monks.

I haven't ventured into the world of protein powders just yet. But I'll keep that in mind.

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[lullaby88]

Day 4 update:
I walked my dog and did a modified body weight workout yesterday. It's modified because I lowered the reps in order to do 2 circuits. It felt good to complete it. I'm going to have to pick another day to do it. Saturdays are just easier because my husband is working and not many people on in my house in the mornings.

Hope everyone is having an awesome weekend! Keep it up!

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[lullaby88]

Soo...thanks to yesterday's NF post, I realized that I'm not doing squats properly. I always kind of thought I wasn't doing them right but now I know. (I have never looked up videos before.) I'm not going deeper enough to reach that parallel point. So I think I'm going to put some focus into building that bit of strength up. I also am unable to do a proper push up so I'll probably add that in. After I try how to do a proper squat (at work and can't), I'll decide on if I can do one. If so, I'll keep the body weight work up in my goal. If not, I'll adjust my goal to working on proper technique...somehow. Haven't figured that out yet. ^.^ 

 

Hope the day brings good vibes! 

[lullaby88]

Week 1 Update:

 

Tracking:    7/7 0/7 0/7 0/7 0/7 0/7 | 7/42
Salads:       5/5 0/5 0/5 0/5 0/5 0/5 | 5/30
Walking:     5/5 0/5 0/5 0/5 0/5 0/5 | 5/30
BBW:          1/2 0/2 0/2 0/2 0/2 0/2 | 1/12

 

This week went well. I met all of my goals, with the except of getting in a 2nd body weight workout but I'm okay with that.

 

Losing weight is all about the eating habits, which I still need work on. I way under on my protein intake and also under in calories. Though this really isn't news to me. I've known it for a while but have yet to do anything about it. I still eat processed food and am no where near eating clean. I'm trying to not let it frustrate me to the point of giving up. It doesn't help that my husband doesn't want to change the way he eats. He loves his pizza and junk food and sweets and ice cream. I also have 3/4 roommates that use the kitchen and 2 of them eat junk. 1 is a vegetarian but eats the weirdest combinations of food so he's not much help and also uses the kitchen the most (besides me).

*sighs* <end rant >

 

I'm gonna keep truckin along because what's stated above is just an excuse and I always fall back on them. 

 

Part 1 of my 2nd goal is pretty lame. I might change that. Haven't really decided yet. *shrugs*

 

Overall, Week 1 was decent. Wasn't good or bad just in the sticky, muck middle ground. Let's have a good week 2!

[lullaby88]

I modified my goals slightly. I wasn't happy with them. I'm still not the happiest with them but I'm unsure on how to change them. I also removed the stupid salad goal. It just seems dumb now. *shrugs*

 

This change is also the result of a mini meltdown this morning (slowly working myself out of it still). The crappy thing is I don't even know what set this meltdown off. I need mental work done.

[lullaby88]

Hmm...mini meltdown...probably hormonal, not mental. Still though, leads me to think I need to research bc again...

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[formymonkey]

I hope you are doing better now.  I hide or stick my head in the sand when overwhelmed so congratulations for owning it.  If you hate salads, it is defiantly not a great goal to have, maybe changing it to xxx servings of veggies which can be cooked or raw. 

 

My husband likes the way he eats too.  I tend to make what I want and modify it so it is healthier for me.  (lettuce buns on hamburgers, thin crust pizza, sweet potato fries...)

 

Keep up the great work

[lullaby88]

I'm doing better now. Just had a bad emotional moment yesterday morning. 

 

I actually love salads and I usually eat a couple a week. (I actually ate 2 yesterday. hehe..) When I made it a goal, I don't believe I thought it through. It just sounds odd to me now. I haven't decided what I'll change that goal to yet. 

 

My husband likes the way he eats too.  I tend to make what I want and modify it so it is healthier for me.  (lettuce buns on hamburgers, thin crust pizza, sweet potato fries...)

 

I need to do this!!! I did it for a little while but gave it up. Partly due to laziness, partly because he would look at me weird when I ate a hamburger or taco wrapped in lettuce. I think I still need to find how I want to eat. I tend to over think and gather "underpants" when it comes to food and health. I need a heart to heart with myself. lol.

 

Thanks for the support!

[lullaby88]

This weekend was a fail. Slept for most of it. Had a cry-fest on Saturday over my squats form and size. I made a video to check on how deep my squats are and noticed that I can't hit parallel. I felt fat watching the video. Promptly deleted it, laid in bed and cried for a couple of hours until my husband got off work. Didn't walk, didn't do anything else for the weekend. Just felt like a waste of a weekend, I guess. Also didn't track my food on Saturday. Can't remember what I ate either. Oh, well.

 

I'm hoping this week is better. 

[formymonkey]

Bad weekends suck. I work with a physical therapist that has clients sit down onto a chair that is close to 90 degrees, barely touch it (not actually sit) then stand back up. This does 2 things, 1 tells you if you are close to 90 and keeps you from falling backwards. Even if you can't do a great squat at this time, keep working at getting lower and it will quickly improve. By the way, were you using weight?

Sending positive thoughts your way. Have a fantastic successful week 3!!

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