[redballoon]

Okay, everyone, as is the tradition, I start a new thread when I personally start a new challenge.

Below is a short explanation of how this challenge works so all you newcomers can take a look and decide if you're game or not! I hope you are! Hop aboard and enjoy the ride. We've got a great bunch of supportive people, so I hope you'll give us a try. A lot of people try for a while and then disappear.. I hope some of you will keep trying. There is NO shame in starting over. Remember, it's not over till you give up. And our motto around here is:

NEVER GIVE UP!!...Just start OVER!!

EXPLANATION AND RULES:

It works like this: you decide you'll do something for 21 days straight, every single day, so keep it doable. Then you count ....one through 21.....and if you flub it, you MUST go back to zero and start over again. Everyone will be on different days. You can start anytime. At the beginning of the challenge you declare what level it is -- Level 1, 2, or 3. Level 1 means you feel it's a relatively easy challenge for you and means you only give yourself ONE pause day (see explanation of pause days below). Level 2 would give you two pause days and so on...
And taking NO pause days is what I'm going to call "aceing a challenge," as in "I'm aiming on aceing this one!" Yowzah!!

With a pause day you pause in your counting and continue the next day with the number you left off with. Pause days are NOT substitutes for days, i.e. Day 12 -- Day 13 -- Pause Day -- Day 14..... I suggest taking a pause day late in the game (better to go back to Day 1 early on) if you need a break or screw up when you're well into the challenge, meaning, when you're on Day 15 or something like that.

In any case, the trick is to keep going. The momentum builds and it's great incentive to stick to your guns, cause if you don't.........back to START you go. And the really great thing about this challenge is that you are forming new habits that will wipe out the old! AND, you get to do it with a great bunch of really supportive people to whom you are accountable!

THREAD GUIDELINES:

In the interest of maintaining structure, a sense of solidarity and facilitating support I ask anyone who wishes to join this thread to please strive to follow the following guidelines while participating in this challenge and in posting.

1. Although this is a fabulous support group, the focus is to be on your CHALLENGE/S and/or other people's challenge/s AND weight loss, whether your challenge is about it or not. Please keep the challenge a priority, although we welcome chattiness! This means tell us what day you're on when you post and it's a good idea to make regular mention of just what your challenge is. This an action-based thread. Our members are ON a challenge, RESTARTING a challenge, or just in between and looking to start up again REAL SOON. We also welcome posts from admirers, encouragers, and old friends!

2. Please refrain from posting food logs or recipes, except where you are really looking for help and advice on your eating. If journaling is your challenge, please keep the journaling off the thread and in a notebook or blog and just tell us if you've done what you set out to do. We have ALL types of dieters here, low-carb, high-carb, low-fat, high-fat, vegetarians, meat-lovers...please use simple mentions if you have something you want to share and then links and/or private messages to do so.

3. Please do NOT go into glowing accounts of any slipups, food indulgences or binges, what we here call "food porn." Simple mentions are fine, but use of smilies etc. as substitutes where possible is encouraged.

4. Please keep this a secular thread. Of course, passing references to your beliefs, a bit of introduction about your beliefs, brief faith-related words of encouragement are fine.

5. Please show support, support, support! This is key. You can waffle on about yourself but please, at least occasionally,come up and look around at others and what they are doing and MENTION it with words of encouragement and/or praise or sympathy. We understand "busy," poor computer connections, and bouts of self-pity and life problems where the focus turns to "me" and dealing with those problems, but these should be temporary, not a habit! ('cept in the computer case.)

In conclusion, let me say, the above are just that, GUIDELINES. Please realize that these guidelines have been added in an attempt to keep this a supportive and beneficial thread, at the LEAST, to those who need it MOST, those for whom weight loss is the hardest and, more often than not, the most crucial as well as for those who still, perhaps despite great success, know all too well that the road they walk will always be a slippery one.

The guidelines are also meant to cultivate an atmosphere of consideration and concern for ALL, not individually, but AS A GROUP.

Well, all's said. Please join us!!

[redballoon]

OK, people, hope you find us over here. I started a new thread (and stuck with the song theme for the subtitle...) since I finished my one challenge. Up and at 'em, everybody! Lights, cameras, SMILES! Let's get this show on the road!!

[Quixotica]

Yeah!
Well, I am keeping my hard earned days from the last challenge and I have made it to day 16! I think I might make it this time! Today was one of those scudding cloud, sunny-between-the-storm days and it was warm. All the kitties were sleeping on the porch and the crows were raiding the compost pile. I took a long walk down the lane behind my house that leads to a big ranch at the foot of the local peak. It is a windy down hill and then a huffing and puffing uphill return. I think it is about 1.5 miles down to the private entrance to the ranch. I have not walked that way for a long time because the road is all private easement, but the neighbor who was unhappy about people walking the road has moved away and it seems okay again. The robins are back and the red-winged blackbirds, which means it is truly winter here. I saw a pileated woodpecker, which is rare and very local here. It scared the dickens out of me as it shrieked and swooped right next to me. They are very loud. I got a little sun on my face; I was starting to look a little wan and ghostly. I will come back later with personals. Our son is off to a friends for the weekend and I am making a nice dinner for DH and I. Pozole, which is a Mexican hominy stew. It's yummy and low carb. Talk to you soon.
Sheri

[redballoon]

Quix -- Nice post. Will write more later. I was just looking up "quixotic" on the Net dictionary and this is what I found. Not "idealistic."

2. extravagantly chivalrous or romantic; visionary, impractical, or impracticable.
3. impulsive and often rashly unpredictable.

I like this better and it makes more sense, coming from Don Quixote....sounds like a perfect fit for me! Whaddya say, teach?

[schmalger]

Hi redballoon and quixotica! I've never done one of these before, any challenge at all for that matter. But I've been hoping to join one once a new one started. Suffice it to say that I am very nervous, but I will be honest with how well I do or do not do with my challenge every day. Okay, here goes...

Schmalger's 21-Day Challenge:

Start Date: Sunday, November 23, 2008

Level 3

Exercise on the elliptical every day (will aim for at least 30 minutes - but the key is to establish a daily habit of exercise so duration won't be strict on this first challenge)

And I will be sure to report when I pause and if I fail and have to start over again.

Thanks, redballon, for starting this up. Since this is a new thread, I feel more comfortable jumping in. And please let me know if I misunderstood anything.

[redballoon]

schmalger -- Welcome to our humble thread!! So glad you could join us and you're very welcome for the thread. I've been doing this for years and we do seem to have more new people start in when a new thread starts even though the threads are continuous, on-going, like a loop. Everyone is doing her own thing. I just start new ones when I start a new challenge after completing one (or when the old one gets too long).

There is NO reason to be nervous, no one here is nasty (except me sometimes when I'm reading someone the riot act for some tough love encouragement ) If anyone gets nasty I bump 'em off the thread! So don't you worry. Your first challenge sounds great and I'd say you understand everything just fine. Thanks for reading. Your not focusing on the duration is perfect for a new challenge. So many people start up all fired-up and disappear because they've set the initial bar too high. I just finished a "cleaning challenge" and I did not demand that I make any sort of significant progress on the..um...condition of my living quarters. I just forced myself to do something. And, wow, it was eye-opening. It made me feel a LOT better too.

I read some of your blog and I like your attitude. You sound like you're making some major changes in your life and good for you! When I first went to Europe (I was 16) I was quite hefty and I felt miserable. England wasn't bad, but I felt it in Europe. I could hear people saying things. It made me utterly miserable. I just felt constantly that I had to apologize for myself. (Well, no more of that! ) Here too in Tokyo I see big Americans here as tourists and they always look extremely self-conscious (the women do) because things are small here and they really stand out (no pun intended). I feel sorry for them. I just wish I could take a magic wand and give them what they want and put big smiles on their faces. It's such a waste to be feeling bad, but it's inevitable. It puts so much more fun into things when you like the way you look, truly. Not that I have that body yet, but I'm much further along. I do remember so, so well.

Well, that said, I am going to force this far-from-perfect booty to the gym now. I haven't decided on a new challenge yet. I still am doing four others, but I may redo the last one...cleaning.

Good luck on the exercise. You can do this!!

[modcat44]

schmalger! Excellent first challenge, and very doable! Best advice I can offer is try to post even a tiny comment every day--helps keep you accountable. I can't always, but I notice how much more likely I am to stick to my plan and succeed if I do........

Well, exercised hard today, did my 5K run at the gym, and followed with a serious set of weight training. Just read an article on the advantage of doing cardio, then follow up with weights, supposedly being ideal to get into shape fast. Of course, then I read another article that said only weight train every other day for maximum benefit, so like tomorrow, when I swim, that's all that I will do (usually go about 80-90 minutes anyway, so pretty wiped after).

Then we went outside, for a moderately-long walk and sit at the beach, for my sunlight (yes, I wore my sunscreen!) b/c I read another article about how important it is to try to get some every day for optimum serotonin and moods levels--may help with the winter/holiday blues I can get sometimes.

Eating was pretty good, not the lowest calorie/fat, but all-in-all, I'd say it was a good day. Water was good. Now, off to bed!!

[redballoon]

Yup, another day done and clear on all challenges. I am NOT letting me not do these challenges, it's as simple as that and because three of them are about NOT doing something, I have no excuse whatsoever. The only way I could not do them is if someone forced beer, sugar or a cigarette into my mouth and forced me to swallow. That said, it is not going to be easy because I am sworn off booze til the new year. I need the momentum and I need to see that I can hang out with people who are not insisting I get drunk. I also think it is greatly helping my body and mind get healthy. I am not seeing weight loss but I think I will. I have been weight training a lot and getting some muscle back. If I maintain the level of weights and keep at it AND watch the dreaded calorie intake I think, I think, oh I do think, I can lose weight! At the gym this afternoon I felt there was something missing around my stomach area and I think I have lost fat there. It's not something that would affect clothes where one could easily tell. I'm not wearing corset-like things, or tight jackets (they are always open ) just big shirts, so the fat above the pants waist can expand considerably. Another thing, I uncovered some pants that are not stretchy. Stretch material is the bane of my expanding backside. I mean, it's great to be so comfortable and to allow for some expansion, but I realize that I have been expanding over a whole size and not noticing it. I am going to use these pants, which used to be big on me, as a measure. Now, I can't even get the top button done. There is about a 2 inch or more gap. Yikes!

No Booze
Day 19 complete no pauses allowed (started Nov. 5)
No Smoking (Started Nov. 5)
Day 19 complete no pauses allowed (started Nov. 5)
No Sugar
Day 17 complete no pauses allowed (started Nov. 7)
Write-it-down Challenge
Day 13 completed no pauses allowed (started Nov. 11)

Sunshine Challenge (completed Nov. 22)
Day 21 completed no pauses allowed

**************
Quix -- Lovely post before. I guess this is what you call a "walking post." I wish I could feel relaxed enough to write one. I am always in a rush to get somewhere. I need lazy days, lazy time, never have it. Always use the walk as a workout or just getting from one place to the next. You are up to 16! That is great. Can't believe how the days fly as the momentum builds. In the beginning they seem to crawl.

mod -- You certainly did have a good day. That was a LOT of exercise. I think articles have been written on every order of exercise. I always heard that it's better to do cardio after the weights and that's what all the bodybuilders I know do. I think it totally depends on where you are to start with and where you want to go. If your priority is muscle AND getting ripped I think weights first is the only way to go. The builders are dying before a contest because they eat so few carbs. The muscles are depleted of glycogen which gives you energy and strength. If they do cardio they will lose muscle as they simply don't have the strength to go heavy. I used to do it this way but now do the opposite. I like to get all sweaty from running and then do weights. Feels so much more intense. Also, I am in big danger of canning the cardio if I do weights first and I know this, so I do the cardio first and then weights because I enjoy doing weights and always get into them no matter how awful I feel at first. I think so much depends on what is easy for you, which is hard. For a lot of people, the weight training is the chore. For me, it's the fun. The boredom is the cardio. That is sheer torture. I listen to music. I count steps, really. It's the only way I can push myself to continue is to count off the steps to go. Really, I kid you not.

[modcat44]

Day 6 in progress.......

Red--yeah I totally agree with you. And yes, I always thought it was the opposite as well, but the latest article I read said to do cardio first, which, like you, I always hate and have to push myself to do. So I was generally doing that anyway. I also have to listen to music, alternating with counting steps, anything and everything to get me to push on through. The weights--I have fun with--it really feels like I'm accomplishing something. And I like to venture into the free-weight area in between some "machines" and work alongside some real cuties! Hardly any other girls in that room, whereas both are using the treadmills and machines, etc.

I mean, just casting the surreptitious glance every so often out of the corner of my eye at some rippling pecs or lats, or whatever.....

So got done with my swim--an intense 90 minutes. I was on such a high, though, I came home and vacuumed the entire upstairs for another 45 minutes, before having lunch! Getting a bit of a rest now watching football (so far, Jets are doing awesome--yaay Brett Farve! But Dallas very disappointing....) Another gorgeous week-end here, not going to last but we've had 3 great week-ends in a row! Very sunny and decent temps.....

So I may get off the couch later this evening for a meditative stroll around the neighborhood--before Monday comes!

Catch everyone later!

[Quixotica]

Hi ladies,
I need some butt kicking! I have not stayed out of the pie, mashed potatoes and I even had a dab of ice cream in the morning! I hope this is not food porn; I think it is fessing up. I can't figure out what is going on besides the fact that my motivation is waning and I am tired of trying so hard to see the scale barely move over the last few weeks. I think I will start a food journal so I can be more accountable about what goes into my mouth. Perhaps I am eating more carbs than I imagine. I know I eat too many nuts when I am hungry and need a quick snack. Maybe that is it! So, now I am on day 17 and tomorrow I will start day one of journaling all the food I put in my mouth each day and the amount of water I am drinking.

I went for another walk today. I have a friend who lives out along the river in the redwoods and we took her dogs for a long walk-about four miles (total) down the road along the river. It was still so cold under the trees that the frost was still on the ground and the road in the darkness of the "tree tunnels" as we walked along. I have been feeling a little shakey and tired lately and one of her dogs, a big lab, almost knocked me down by running past me and brushing against me. I have been overdoing it at work and then not able to sleep. Thanksgiving vacation will do me some good. I need the rest. I am thinking about getting a massage every once in a while. I have a good friend who does massage, but I can't count on "freebies" and I think I may start paying for them ocassionally. I had a therapist (yep, I've been there, done that) tell me that I should consider deep tissue massage, but I am chicken. Evidently, it is quite painful, but I have also heard it really helps. I have had breast cancer, I am missing a breast and my body is out of balance. I am thinking I need occasional muscle and tissue realignment. Part of the reason I have a hard time sleeping, I think, is that I become uncomfortable during the night and wake up.

Tonight I am going to pedal, too. I am also going to start logging my pedaling miles.

Red-I really like your definitions for quixotic better than the simplistic one I have...more would not fit, and yeah, the two you have definitely define Don Quixote better. He is one of my favorite characters in fiction. And, I would say you are very quixotic. But that is one of your charms, and the charm of Quixote. He is daffy, affable and impractical, but in a good, well-meaning way. That's me, too. Some days my DH just shakes his head and laughs. It's a good thing he finds it loveable in me!

About my walking posts...there is nowhere to walk except the country here. So, I walk in the country! I live in a very rural part of Northern California, in the coastal mountains. It is gorgeous, but tiresomely far from "anywhere" sometimes. I have to get a dose of the city every once in a while so I don't feel like an utter country bumpkin. I wrangle my DH into an over night in San Francisco or a vacation that includes a big city or two every so often. I imagine I will be one of those red-hatted old gals who leaves her husband behind to go gallavant with girl friends all over the globe-one of these days!

About those tight pants-hang them up somewhere where you can see them every day, try them on occasionally until you can button them again! I was so pleased when I went through my drawers and found three pairs of almost new pants that I could shimmy into again. And, you can do it, too. That two inch gap could be gone in a month. I dare you!

Red and Modcat-I enjoyed the discussion about cardio and weights. I use very light weights when I use them and mostly use them to lengthen a stretch and high repititions to develop muscle mass. I come from a ballet and modern dance background so far as exercise goes, so I have a "taboo" against bulking up. Heck, I don't want to be any bulkier! But, muscle is good. Osteoporosis runs in my family, too, so developing muscle is important. My DH and I have been talking about getting a bench and sets of weights. We will have to build a new room on our house for it all though! We are talking about doing a garage conversion and then building a new garage...yikes! Another project that costs money!

Hi Schmalger and welcome! This is a wonderfully supportive thread and I have always felt at home here and I hope you do, too! Your little avitar guy is adorable...is it a "Schmalger"? Good luck on your illiptical training work! Do you own one so you can go right to it at home, or are you going to the gym? I broke down and bought myself a recumbent exercise bike and it has really increased the amount of cardio I get.

Well ladies. I am heading up to the cottage in Oregon on Tuesday. Someone asked where it is...it's on the coast just north of Coos Bay, in North Bend. Our oldest son, his girlfriend and one of his band mates is meeting us there for Thanksgiving. I miss him so much and I am really looking forward to this vacation. Gotta get packing, cleaning out fridge and grading papers. Talk to you tomorrow and then I will be gone for five days. But, I will think of you all and try to stay on track!

Until tomorrow!
Sheri

[Sunnigummi]

Hey all, didn't check in yesterday but it was Day 2!! Today was Day 3!! I was actually not in the mood to exercise this morning cause it was so cold but I did it because I wasn't going to let my last two days go to waste.

My challenge within a challenge (watching my diet on weekends) was successful. I didn't overeat, so that's good. I kept to 3 meals a day and didn't overdo the snacks.

So on to Day 4 tomorrow. Previous posters - thanks for inspiring! Reading about you guys exercising hard and watching what you eat motivates me to do the same - thanks!

[schmalger]

Daily Exercise Day 1

Exercise? Check!
Stats? 30 minutes on the elliptical - 4 miles - 135 calories burned (AND I studied for tomorrow's exam while exercising!)
Mood? Ecstatic!

_________________________

redballoon - Thank you for welcoming me so warmly (that goes to EVERYONE!), and I especially appreciate your encouragement and affirmation of my goals. It's so true that having this support makes such a huge difference. I was thinking all day how busy I am, and why oh why didn't I wait to start this challenge tomorrow AFTER this most heinous day?? But then I would think about how important my health is and how embarrassing it would be to come and report having to start over on my very first day! P.S. I'll gladly take KITAs whenever you think I need them!! And WAY TO GO on your many many challenges. I'm so inspired! (Tackling smoking is coming up for me and DH the week after finals!)

modcat44 - Thank you for your warm welcome, too, and the affirmation of my very first challenge! I will be sure to try to comment each day. It helped me just this first day, knowing that I have this great accountability and support here, waiting for a report. WAY TO GO on the super exercise and calories yesterday and today. And I should add that I'm oh so jealous of the beach and swimming you have going on!!!! I'll live vicariously through you!

quixotica - Here's a big KITA for you: You asked for it! Seriously, though, congrats on the exercise, at least you stayed on plan there! And get some rest woman! Thank you so much for your warm welcome, as well. I really do appreciate how warm and welcoming you all are here. I can already feel the love. My avatar actually came from the ones provided here; I picked him because he looks like a little book worm, which is an apt description of myself. (I used to have a glow worm when I was a kid, and he was my favorite toy!) As for "schmalger," it comes from a sort of "inside joke" among the family. (Suffice it to say that someone played an incredibly elaborate trick on my mom when playing Scrabble...complete with a faux entry in the real dictionary. Hilarity! Hopefully, now that I've told you that, I won't be found out!) And I do have an elliptical at home. I actually lost about 15+ lbs a couple of years ago, and then I broke my foot and stopped for about a year. I don't have an excuse for the last year... But at least I'm using it now, right?) And now you're making me jealous, too! I'm gonna imagine that I'm riding my elliptical in that Oregon cottage, right before I go outside to walk in that beautiful scenery.

sunnigummi - Congrats on exercising despite your inclination not to! Great job! And congrats on your min-challenge, too! I'm a huge snacker, so I can really appreciate how hard that is for you!

[texscrapper]

everyone! I haven't disappeared - life has just gotten into the way! Well, I am finally feeling better, but all 3 of my boys came down with strep throat - life as we knew it stopped around here. Needless to say I am restarting my challenges!

Exercise Daily (2 pauses)
Eradicate 1 bag of needless junk/clutter/stuff from my home (2 pauses)

So I am off to exercise. The boys and I are starting to clean out thier unplayed with/outgrown toys and donate them to Goodwill. My mom always did this with me before Christmas and I want my boys to realize that they need to give things away as well. I am also taking them shopping for our Christmas Angels tomorrow so we are super excited about that as well! We love the Thansgiving and Christmas seasons at our house!

Hope everyone is doing well and I'll catch up on personals soon!

[miriam101]

New thread. New challenges. Although - I can see that even when we think we've really rid ourselves from some habits - they're a lifetime challenge.

I'd like to work on writing down my food every day (not planning ahead - just recording - i'll call it the recording challenge), 3 pauses

And: another challenge I'll just call the positive one, 3 pauses

I hope today will put me in day #1...

[TechAlum]

I think I'm going to join in also. I've done this before but it's been a long time. I'm going to set two challenges one "diet" related and one not.

Challenge One (level 3): Write down what I eat when I eat it, even if it's off my program. This tends to be hard for me I start the week fine and fall off by day 4-5, but I do so much better if I have to write it down and "own" it as someone once said.

Challene Two (level 2): Wash and moisturize my face every night. I'm just really bad about this and as I get older.....

I think that should do it for me.

Red - I'm impressed with all the changes you have challenged yourself with. That's a lot to tackle at once.

quixotica - I love walking outside and take it over the gym any day, dh and I do the opposite of you, we camp and hike on vacation because we live/work in a metro area. Yea on day 17 - I assume it's a walking challenge

schmalger - Yea on finding time to exercise even when you didn't want to amazing how much better it makes us feel isn't it.

Texscrapper - Glad your boys are better. Sometimes life just gets in the way of our challenges to ourself. Good luck starting over.

Miriam - Good luck on your challenges too.

sunni - Congrats on getting in the exercise despite the weather, and not overeating on the weekend.

Well, gotta go. Have a great day everyone

-Tech