Chelsea's 6 Week Challenge Oct 24 - Dec 5

[cacodaemonia]

Yep, and having tried them both now, I officially put out my position that I like kabocha squash a liiiittle more, but honestly could probably happily sub one for the other.

I know I adore kabocha, and now I'm not sure if I've ever actually had real buttercup squash. I'll have to be vigilant.

+++

DIET/FITNESS:

- Consume no sweets/candy. CHECK, but omg I want candy corn. ;^;

- DO THAT PULLUP, DAMMIT. Greasing. Did some chinups.

- Follow the Rebel Running Guide starting with week 5 of the Recruit level. Today was a rest day, but I did yoga anyway because there's no way I could do nothing but walk for two days in a row. I'd die. Running tomorrow!

- Snap and upload photos of every meal. Only one noteworthy photo today, but all the fooding is listed below.

LIFE:

- Get rid of all but 300 (personal) possessions and make a list of them. Did some more organizing and packing today.

- Ten minutes of meditation each day, starting out with gratitude and moving into mindfulness. CHECK

- Finish that illustration job I've been putting off. No

- Do/say something nice for/to Nick every day. Made him some banana-oatmeal pancakes and woke him up with them.

- Keep up on Shelter Sketches despite the move-associated chaos. Good until this weekend.

BONUS FAILURE GOAL:

- Read an actual book (or National Geographic!) at least 70 minutes per week (or 10 minutes per day). Nothing yet today but I'll probably read in bed tonight.

+++

Breakfast after yoga was a smoothie and the remainder of the roasted kabocha seeds, and about an hour later I ate the two small pancakes I completely mangled when I was making some for Nick:

Later I had a small handful of soy nuts, a banana with homemade almond butter, an apple, a bowl of homemade pesto with celery, and leftover kabocha-apple curry with a little brown rice. I've already posted photos of all those, so I thought it would be silly to put them up again.

[cacodaemonia]

DIET/FITNESS:

- Consume no sweets/candy. CHECK

- DO THAT PULLUP, DAMMIT. Urgh, still working on it.

- Follow the Rebel Running Guide starting with week 5 of the Recruit level. CHECK. This morning I did the warm up, ran 2 miles (8:53 pace) + 6 Strides with Azu, and went to hot yoga for the core workout.

- Snap and upload photos of every meal. Below

LIFE:

- Get rid of all but 300 (personal) possessions and make a list of them. Not too much progress here today, but I did do some more packing.

- Ten minutes of meditation each day, starting out with gratitude and moving into mindfulness. CHECK

- Finish that illustration job I've been putting off. Nothing

- Do/say something nice for/to Nick every day. I made an attempt, anyway. Walked the dogs to where his dr's appointment was so we could hop in the car and ride back with him, but I didn't realize he had ridden his bike. Fail.

- Keep up on Shelter Sketches despite the move-associated chaos. Still doing okay.

BONUS FAILURE GOAL:

- Read an actual book (or National Geographic!) at least 70 minutes per week (or 10 minutes per day). Last night I read for almost an hour! I think it was about 45 minutes, though I'm not totally sure. New issue of Nat Geo came in the mail today, too, so I'm pretty excited about that.

+++

This morning before the run I ate a couple dates to give me some energy, between running and yoga I had maybe 3 almonds and 3 dried apricots, and after yoga I had a thinkThin bar and smoothie.

For lunch the owners of the yoga studio I go to took me out to my favorite restaurant in town and I had the most delicious salad - the Nutty Hippie! It was a huge pile of spinach with sprouts, grilled or roasted tofu, tomatoes, a bunch of different seeds and nuts, and vinaigrette dressing. I only used about half the little cup of dressing. On the side I had a mug of Thai Basil Peanut soup or something like that. Also super yummy. Of course, because those were the only noteworthy things I ate all day, I forgot to take a photo of them. :/

Afternoon snack was homemade pesto with 4 small green peppers from the garden:

And dinner was the last of the kabocha apple curry with a little brown rice:

[cacodaemonia]

DIET/FITNESS:

- Consume no sweets/candy. CHECK

- DO THAT PULLUP, DAMMIT. Still greasing

- Follow the Rebel Running Guide starting with week 5 of the Recruit level. CHECK

- Snap and upload photos of every meal. Below

LIFE:

- Get rid of all but 300 (personal) possessions and make a list of them. Made more progress today, organizing and adding stuff to the list. I think I'm at 260 or 270.

- Ten minutes of meditation each day, starting out with gratitude and moving into mindfulness. CHECK

- Finish that illustration job I've been putting off. CHECK! UNF, take that! I may still have to send different file formats to the client, but it's pretty much done.

- Do/say something nice for/to Nick every day. Foot rub.

- Keep up on Shelter Sketches despite the move-associated chaos. Good until Friday.

BONUS FAILURE GOAL:

- Read an actual book (or National Geographic!) at least 70 minutes per week (or 10 minutes per day). I'm probably going to read the new Nat Geo before bed.

+++

ThinkThin bar and a banana with homemade almond butter after yoga; F-Factor with raisins, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, dried apricots, and almond milk; two roasted sweet potatoes with cinnamon;

an apple with peanut butter;

a smoothie;

and celery with homemade pesto.

[scotticus]

I'm amazed at how on top of documenting the challenge you are, especially with all the stuff that you've got going on. Great work! I'm looking forward to seeing that pull-up success post

[Skirler]

DIET/FITNESS:

- DO THAT PULLUP, DAMMIT. Still greasing

Ok .... stupid newbie question .... what does greasing mean??

Your goals are so focused and you are so focused. Very impressive. Thanks for posting on my thread.

[nightlight]

i love apples and peanut buttter. so good.

[Brandon Wolfe]

"- Do/say something nice for/to Nick every day. I made an attempt, anyway. Walked the dogs to where his dr's appointment was so we could hop in the car and ride back with him, but I didn't realize he had ridden his bike. Fail"

Heh heh.

How it usually goes with my wife:

Her: "You're a dork"

Me: "I know"

Her: "I love you"

Me: "Love you too, babe"

And then we walk home together.

[cacodaemonia]

Scotticus - Thanks. ^^ Hopefully I can continue to be so diligent during and after the move!

Skirler - I wondered that too! "Greasing the groove" basically means that, instead of doing multiple sets of an exercise all in a row or during one workout session, you do them throughout the day. For example, I try to do a few negative or assisted pullups every time I come out of the bathroom (my pullup bar is down the hallway near the bathroom).

nightlight - OMG YES OM NOM NOM. I could probably eat 10 apples with peanut butter every day. Forever.

Brandon - Haha, yeah, that sounds pretty close to our relationship too.

+++

DIET/FITNESS:

- Consume no sweets/candy. Sort of? I realized today that I still have about 8 daifuku in the freezer from when Nick bought some for me a few months ago. They are pretty much the yummiest thing in the world, and they won't keep in the car, so I had one after yoga tonight and am going to try to give away/eat the rest before we leave for Las Vegas on Monday. I refuse to let something so delicious go to waste, even if I'm not supposed to be eating sweets!

- DO THAT PULLUP, DAMMIT. Working on more variations of assisted and neg pullups. Did 4 - almost 4 - chinups again.

- Follow the Rebel Running Guide starting with week 5 of the Recruit level. CHECK. Ran 2 miles in the freezing, pouring rain this morning, and did all the warmup and core exercise stuff like a good little doobee.

- Snap and upload photos of every meal. Below.

LIFE:

- Get rid of all but 300 (personal) possessions and make a list of them. I think I'm at 273 items right now!

- Ten minutes of meditation each day, starting out with gratitude and moving into mindfulness. CHECK

- Finish that illustration job I've been putting off. CHECK

- Do/say something nice for/to Nick every day. Neck rub this morning.

- Keep up on Shelter Sketches despite the move-associated chaos. Picked out the dog I'll feature for this week, will draw her portrait tomorrow.

BONUS FAILURE GOAL:

- Read an actual book (or National Geographic!) at least 70 minutes per week (or 10 minutes per day). Nothing today.

+++

Let's see, today I had...

oatmeal with a sweet potato, cinnamon, raisins, dried apricots, and unsweetened almond milk:

a pear with homemade almond butter:

handful of soy nuts:

smoothie, a few almonds and a couple dried apricots,

celery, peppers from the garden, and homemade pesto:

daifuku:

[MakeItSo]

You're doing awesome -- at everything! You're going to have a ton of positive momentum to get you through this move.

[cacodaemonia]

You're doing awesome -- at everything! You're going to have a ton of positive momentum to get you through this move.

Thanks. I hope so!

We're in the final couple days before the move, so I've been busy packing and generally running around like a crazy person. Now it's time to lie in bed and drink some tea and go to sleep early after all the hard work.

+++

DIET/FITNESS:

- Consume no sweets/candy. Had one more daifuku today and gave the rest away! They're seriously the best things ever.

- DO THAT PULLUP, DAMMIT. Greased a little today.

- Follow the Rebel Running Guide starting with week 5 of the Recruit level. Good so far.

- Snap and upload photos of every meal. Below.

LIFE:

- Get rid of all but 300 (personal) possessions and make a list of them. I got rid of a couple more things today, but haven't come across much else to add to the list.

- Ten minutes of meditation each day, starting out with gratitude and moving into mindfulness. Just meditated. I seem to have a lot more success meditating in the mornings.

- Finish that illustration job I've been putting off. CHECK

- Do/say something nice for/to Nick every day. After I mailed stuff at the post office I stopped by Taj Palace and got a couple of their vegetarian dishes for Nick and I. A nice surprise, I think.

- Keep up on Shelter Sketches despite the move-associated chaos. Finished it today; the post will go up tomorrow.

BONUS FAILURE GOAL:

- Read an actual book (or National Geographic!) at least 70 minutes per week (or 10 minutes per day). No reading yet today but I've got Nat Geo sitting here next to me just waiting to be opened.

+++

I ate a ton of food today. I just kept feeling like I needed more fuel, so did what my body was telling me.

Small banana and almond butter before yoga, daifuku directly after,

then a smoothie,

a pear with peanut butter, a few almonds, and later a huge apple, then I had to run some errands and got an "apple chai infusion" (chai and steamed apple cider, no milk or anything) at Starbucks, which was waaaaaay good:

And dinner was some chana saag and mattar paneer curry from Taj Palace. So good:

[cacodaemonia]

Suuuuuper busy today. We spent pretty much the whole day boxing stuff up and filling the Ubox. It's getting shipped off tomorrow morning, and then we'll be leaving for Vegas very early Monday morning.

DIET/FITNESS:

- Consume no sweets/candy. CHECK. Even though everyone around me is eating Halloween candy and chocolate right now.

- DO THAT PULLUP, DAMMIT. I actually managed to pull myself up a ways today! Farther than I've gone before, anyway.

- Follow the Rebel Running Guide starting with week 5 of the Recruit level. CHECK

- Snap and upload photos of every meal. Only got a couple today. Below.

LIFE:

- Get rid of all but 300 (personal) possessions and make a list of them. I'll have to go through stuff again when we unpack, but I'm still below 300 personal possessions!

- Ten minutes of meditation each day, starting out with gratitude and moving into mindfulness. CHECK

- Finish that illustration job I've been putting off. CHECK

- Do/say something nice for/to Nick every day. Brought him a yummy snack while I was boxing and he was packing the Ubox.

- Keep up on Shelter Sketches despite the move-associated chaos. CHECK: http://iloverescueanimals.org/2011/11/shelter-sketches-meet-sissy/

BONUS FAILURE GOAL:

- Read an actual book (or National Geographic!) at least 70 minutes per week (or 10 minutes per day). Read Nat Geo for about 25 minutes last night. That brings me up to 70 minutes for this week!

+++

Breakfast was F-factor with unsweetened almond milk, raisins, dried apricots, sunflower seeds, and pumpkin seeds:

After yoga I had a thinkThin bar, then a smoothie. For lunch we went out and I had a veggie and red pepper hummus sandwich on wheat bread with an orange and some coffee, but forgot to take a photo. :T

Later while I was packing my blood sugar started to get really low, so I had a handful of soy nuts and a couple dates.

Dinner was a huge pile of celery and pesto, and one slice of mushroom pizza:

[nightlight]

i'm jealous of that slice of pizza

[cacodaemonia]

i'm jealous of that slice of pizza

Eh, it was okay. Better once I put Sriracha sauce on it.

[cacodaemonia]

Posting now but I've still got dinner to eat in a little bit. It's our last night in Bowling Green, so we're going to our favorite Tex-Mex restaurant. I'm sure I'll get the veggie fajitas (sans the tortillas), and will try to remember to take a photo and post it tomorrow or something. Waking p at like 4am to get on the road tomorrow!

+++

DIET/FITNESS:

- Consume no sweets/candy. CHECK

- DO THAT PULLUP, DAMMIT. Actually got about 2/3 of the way up today... and then had to pack the pullup bar. T^T I'll have to try to find things to hang of off for the next week or so until we have access to the U-Box again.

- Follow the Rebel Running Guide starting with week 5 of the Recruit level. CHECK. Ran 2.5 miles today with a warm-up and core workout level 3.

- Snap and upload photos of every meal. Below.

LIFE:

- Get rid of all but 300 (personal) possessions and make a list of them. Tentative CHECK.

- Ten minutes of meditation each day, starting out with gratitude and moving into mindfulness. CHECK

- Finish that illustration job I've been putting off. CHECK

- Do/say something nice for/to Nick every day. Shoulder rub!

- Keep up on Shelter Sketches despite the move-associated chaos. Good until next Friday or Saturday.

BONUS FAILURE GOAL:

- Read an actual book (or National Geographic!) at least 70 minutes per week (or 10 minutes per day). CHECK for this week.

+++

Breakfast was F-factor with unsweetened almond milk, raisins, dried apricots, sunflower seeds, and pumpkin seeds:

Banana with almond butter:

Half an acorn squash roasted with just a little avocado oil:

ThinkThin bar and a couple almonds.

Smoothie:

[nightlight]

when you had the apple chai infusion, did they use a chai tea bag, or the boxed chai liquid?

[Midoriconcept]

Hi, to be honest I have the impression you are not eating enough and starving yourself. Are you vegetarian? (as far as I can see yes).

Maybe you should add some more fat like avocados or little bit more nuts (not peanuts ;-)...

[MakeItSo]

Safe travels!

[cacodaemonia]

when you had the apple chai infusion, did they use a chai tea bag, or the boxed chai liquid?

I have no idea! I didn't think to look. Is there a bunch of nasty crap in the boxed liquid or something?

Hi, to be honest I have the impression you are not eating enough and starving yourself. Are you vegetarian? (as far as I can see yes).

Maybe you should add some more fat like avocados or little bit more nuts (not peanuts ;-)...

Haha, I eat sooo much almond butter and peanut butter. I'd say I have anywhere from 3-8 tablespoons per day, plus sunflower, pumpkin seeds, and roasted soy beans. The smoothies I have every day are about 700 calories just by themselves. It's just weird because I've never had the problem of unintentionally losing weight before.

+++

DIET/FITNESS:

- Consume no sweets/candy. CHECK

- DO THAT PULLUP, DAMMIT. While on the road today we stopped at a gas station in Arkansas. I found a tree to use for pullups and chinups, and didn't realize that there was a NEST OF FIRE ANTS at the base of the tree. So I totally got bitten by fire ants in the pursuit of fitness, lol!

- Follow the Rebel Running Guide starting with week 5 of the Recruit level. Rest day, check.

- Snap and upload photos of every meal. Below, plus dinner from last night.

LIFE:

- Get rid of all but 300 (personal) possessions and make a list of them. Tentative CHECK.

- Ten minutes of meditation each day, starting out with gratitude and moving into mindfulness. CHECK, though I didn't have much success doing it in the hotel room this evening. Still, it was good practice with all the distractions.

- Finish that illustration job I've been putting off. CHECK

- Do/say something nice for/to Nick every day. Cracked his toes!

- Keep up on Shelter Sketches despite the move-associated chaos. OK

BONUS FAILURE GOAL:

- Read an actual book (or National Geographic!) at least 70 minutes per week (or 10 minutes per day). Nothing so far today, though we listened to most of an audio book (The Forever War, by Joe Haldeman) on the ride.

+++

Last night's dinner at Garcia's: veggie fajitas (no flour tortillas) with extra guacamole, enough corn tortilla chips to put Mt. Everest to shame, and like 5 gallons of salsa.

Breakfast on the car this morning was three slices of sprouted grain bread with peanut butter and homemade jalapeno jelly (only 2 slices pictured here).

During the day I also has a banana, a huge apple, a package of peanuts (410 calories), a couple handfuls of soy nuts, and a smoothie.

For dinner we got delivery from a Chinese restaurant near the hotel. I ordered steamed veggies and tofu with spicy garlic sauce.

And at all of it (that's only about a third of it in the last photo), OMG SO FULL. I also had a lot of white rice with more of the sauce. :/ Ginger tea time now!

[cacodaemonia]

Second day on the road today. In Albuquerque now, where the most amazing vegetarian restaurant lives! Annapurna's World Vegetarian Cafe. I want to live there. T^T

+++

DIET/FITNESS:

- Consume no sweets/candy. CHECK

- DO THAT PULLUP, DAMMIT. Did a couple chinups and half pullups on a bar I found at a rest stop.

- Follow the Rebel Running Guide starting with week 5 of the Recruit level. Mostly CHECK. Ran 2 miles on the treadmill at the hotel, plus warmup and core workout. Couldn't find anywhere to do Strides though.

- Snap and upload photos of every meal. Below.

LIFE:

- Get rid of all but 300 (personal) possessions and make a list of them. Tentative CHECK.

- Ten minutes of meditation each day, starting out with gratitude and moving into mindfulness. CHECK

- Finish that illustration job I've been putting off. CHECK

- Do/say something nice for/to Nick every day. Got his water at the restaurant? Also said "I love you"s quite a bit. Not sure if that really counts.

- Keep up on Shelter Sketches despite the move-associated chaos. OK

BONUS FAILURE GOAL:

- Read an actual book (or National Geographic!) at least 70 minutes per week (or 10 minutes per day). Nothing.

+++

Breakfast was F-factor with cow milk from the hotel, plus some raisins and ground flax seed I brought. Oh, and a little yogurt cup.

Snacks throughout the day were a banana with homemade almond butter, a few handfuls of soy nuts, a couple dried apricots and a date, and a Macintosh apple.

Lunch was a salad at Subway with just a little oil and vinegar dressing:

Dinner was the most delicious, perfect food the world has ever known:

The soup was a sweet potato ginger thing and the meal was quinoa with roasted red pepper, eggplant, and artichoke hearts over salad greens and feta with a lemongrass dressing. And Kapha tea. SO. GOOD. ALL SO GOOD.

[Mama T]

seriously, you're amazing. moving is SUCH a pain in the butt, and you're making it seem like it's just another part of your day, NBD. you've got such a good momentum on this challenge - i feel like if i were ever in a stressful or hectic situation, i'd want you by my side to make it all seem so easy, ha. great job on continuing to push your way toward those nasty pushups!

[Robzilla1983]

Jeez,way to eat well on the road! I'm traveling this weekend, leaving right after work tomorrow. I may read your thread a few times for inspiration

[cacodaemonia]

Aw, thanks guys! I was going to just crawl into bed after this, but I think I can at least manage a little yoga. I'm sooooo exhausted, but we are finally at the extended stay hotel in Las Vegas. Apartment hunting begins in earnest tomorrow!

+++

DIET/FITNESS:

- Consume no sweets/candy. CHECK

- DO THAT PULLUP, DAMMIT. Couldn't find anything to hang on today.

- Follow the Rebel Running Guide starting with week 5 of the Recruit level. Today is supposed to be a 'gym workout', but I don't think I have the energy to do anything besides some yoga tonight. We did go for a 2 mile walk at Petroglyph National Monument, at least.

- Snap and upload photos of every meal. Below.

LIFE:

- Get rid of all but 300 (personal) possessions and make a list of them. Tentative CHECK.

- Ten minutes of meditation each day, starting out with gratitude and moving into mindfulness. CHECK

- Finish that illustration job I've been putting off. CHECK

- Do/say something nice for/to Nick every day. Lots of smooches and I love you's.

- Keep up on Shelter Sketches despite the move-associated chaos. OK

BONUS FAILURE GOAL:

- Read an actual book (or National Geographic!) at least 70 minutes per week (or 10 minutes per day). Noooop

+++

Breakfast was the same as yesterday, since we stayed at the same hotel chain. F-factor with cow milk, raisins, dried apricots, and ground flax seed; yogurt cup:

Lunch was a Subway salad with oil, red wine vinegar, and a little salt again:

Dinner was take-out veggie fajitas. I ate about half of this and saved the other half for tomorrow:

Snacks throughout the day were an apple with homemade almond butter, a banana, several handfuls of soy nuts, and a couple dates.

[catspaw]

we are finally at the extended stay hotel in Las Vegas

Woohoo! We probably overlapped for a few hours.

Good luck with the apt hunting!

[nightlight]

i don't know if there's junk in the boxed one -- but i know it's pre-sweetened. i was thinking if i could modify it and try it at starbucks after my 30 days are up.

also, i am jealous of that picture of rice and beans. i LOVE rice and beans.

[cacodaemonia]

...Weeeeeird. I posted to this thread yesterday, and just a little while ago when I loaded the thread the post was showing up. Now it's suddenly gone, so I don't know if something on my end is just being weird and the post is still there, or if the internet has eaten it. Hopefully the former, because I really don't want to write all that up again. :/

Anyway, today...

DIET/FITNESS:

- Consume no sweets/candy. CHECK

- DO THAT PULLUP, DAMMIT. Used a manky set of stairs near our room to do jump pullups

- Follow the Rebel Running Guide starting with week 5 of the Recruit level. Did one of the bodyweight workouts, modified. Details here.

- Snap and upload photos of every meal. Below.

LIFE:

- Get rid of all but 300 (personal) possessions and make a list of them. Tentative CHECK.

- Ten minutes of meditation each day, starting out with gratitude and moving into mindfulness. CHECK

- Finish that illustration job I've been putting off. CHECK

- Do/say something nice for/to Nick every day. CHECK

- Keep up on Shelter Sketches despite the move-associated chaos. Need to do this tomorrow.

BONUS FAILURE GOAL:

- Read an actual book (or National Geographic!) at least 70 minutes per week (or 10 minutes per day). Read Nat Geo last night for about 20 minutes.

+++

Breakfast was the usual:

Snacks throughout the day were a few almonds, a banana with almond butter, and a couple handfuls of soy nuts.

Lunch was a spinach salad with walnuts and tomatoes and a spicy vegetable bulgar soup:

Dinner wasn't interesting enough to bother photographing: yummy soy yogurt with a couple dates thrown in, and an apple with almond butter.