Sunday, September 18: Pause day 2. DH made dinner and served me French fries. I could have turned them down, but having no plan for feeding myself, I ate them. Unhappy with my choices. :(

Good Morning Dr. Geri and Seemyfeet, will have to join with a challenge in a day or two. Three challenges come to mind, all needed. :o

Starting my favorite challenge, No PM snacking = Go to bed Hungry! I need 3 pause days cause I have been eating nightly. Wish me luck :dust:

Sept 24 - Day 1 - (will report)

One of those personal crises so bad that neighbors and church members are bringing casseroles to our house has hit my life. Just as Diana comes back to join us, I regretfully need to step away from my challenge. I am eating whatever's in the casserole of the day. I hope to come back when life returns to some semblance of normality.

Dr Geri ~ May peace be with you!

Dr Geri, I'm sorry to hear you are experiencing a life crisis. Sending prayer for you and your loved ones.

Challenge, No PM snacking = Go to bed Hungry! Allowing 3 pause days.

Sept 24 - Day 1 - No SNACKS!
25 - Day 2 - No Snacks! - I Can do this!


Who else wants to join us?
LETS DO THIS

This challenge is brilliant! I somehow never clicked on this thread before. My eyes always focused on just the "21 Day" part, and I assumed it was connected with that Beachbody routine. I think it's called 21 Day Fix or something like that?

Anyway, now that I know what this really is, I'm in! :D

EXERCISE GOAL
To do my Baby Exercise (BE) ;) every day. I call this Baby Exercise b/c due to health reasons, I'm not currently capable of much w/o my body making its protest very clear to me. :^: So the exercise I'll be doing is very minor: a walk around the block (it's a pretty big block :lol: ), or a 10 minute cardio/light weights workout. It's more than I'm currently doing on a daily basis and should be doable w/o making me feel sick. :) I'll allow 3 pause days.

I will start Wed, 9/28.

Good luck to all participating :wave: and prayers to Geri. :grouphug:

Sept 28th - Day 1 :D ... I went with the "walk around the block" option. It took 11 minutes. I've been consistently feeling sick at around 20-30 minutes into walking, so this length was good. Didn't feel sick at all. :) It's a gorgeous day today, so the walk was a real pleasure.

Sept 29th - Day 2 :D ... Walked in the rain with my snazzy umbrella. No singing.

Sept 30th - Day 3 :D ... I went with a 10 min cardio/light weights workout. I'm glad I signed up for this challenge bc it's the only reason I moved my butt today.

Oct 1st - Day 4 :D ... Did my 10 minute cardio/weights workout while watching a travel vid. :)

Oct 2nd - Day 5 :D ... I did the same activity as yesterday. I almost forgot all about doing this today! I definitely haven't formed this as a habit yet.

Oct 3rd - Day 6 :D ... As a travel nut, bribing myself with travel vids while I exercise is proving effective. I learned today that London's Great Fire started in a bakery. Carbs are the source of even more mayhem than I'd realized.

Oct 4th - Day 7 :D ... Perfect weather today so I took a walk.

COMPLETED THE FIRST THIRD OF THIS CHALLENGE. :carrot: I'm curious to see at which point this behavior becomes automatic for me and even something I crave doing each day. I'm certainly not there yet. ;)

Oct 5th - Day 8 :D ... Another glorious day so I walked.

Oct 6th - PAUSE DAY :o

Oct 7th - Day 9 :D ... I was able to do a 45 minute walk on a nature trail w/o feeling sick! I am exhausted now though, but I'm happy about the progress. :) :) :)

Oct 8th - 2nd PAUSE DAY :o:o
... Bad sign! I need to learn from this. My biggest barrier to forming this habit is lack of routine. I need to develop one and work this activity into it. I'm a full-time grad student. I've decided that I'll start each weekday doing 3 hours of my reading, and at that point always take a break to do this activity. I haven't decided yet how to tackle this on weekends. I think, to reinforce the habit, I'll do the same thing but allow fewer reading hours before the break.

Oct 9th - Day 10 :D ... I'm actually glad I struggled with this bc I needed to recognize the need for a routine. It helped me out today, and I know it'll keep doing so. What's really great is it makes sure I don't procrastinate with my school work either. :cp:

Oct 10th - Day 11 :D

Oct 11th - Day 12 :D ... Incorporating this habit into my routine was exactly what I needed. :dance:

Oct 12th - Day 13 :D

Oct 13th - 3rd PAUSE DAY :o :o :o ... No more pauses left!
I debated whether to let this one slide, but I decided to label it a pause day. My schedule was different this day. I was on campus most of the day, much more than usual. While on campus, I did more walking than I require in my BE, so that's why I considered maybe going ahead and counting it. Ultimately I decided not to count it. My goal is to carve out time specifically for exercise. Incidental daily living exercise is great, and I absolutely want to increase that as well, but that's not my focus with this challenge. So that's why I'm not counting my walking around campus. I got home kinda late and was too tired to exercise at that point. So I'm going to need a strategy for dealing with days like this in the future.

Oct 14th - Day 14 :D ... I took a 20 minute walk. I think that can be my normal walking length now. Yay, my Baby Exercise has progressed to Toddler Exercise. ;) (Ha, I just noticed that due to Pause Days, the calendar date now matches the number of my challenge day.)

PART TWO IS COMPLETE! :carrot: :carrot: Only 7 days left, but I'm all out of pause days. The suspense!

Oct 15th - Day 15 :D ... 30 minute walk on a gorgeous day.

Oct 16th - Day 16 :D

Oct 17th - Day 17 :D

Oct 18th - Day 18 :D

Oct 19th - Day 19 :D

Oct 20th - Day 20 :D

Oct 21st - Day 21 :D

I DID IT! :carrot: :carrot: :carrot:
:cheer2: :cheer3: :encore:
:D :D :D

Chunkahlunkah, :welcome2: to this thread. You are doing great with your BE's. I have used this strategy before with baby steps, cause it was an improvement from nothing. So I went on a mini-vacation and know that I blew the challenge. Give me a day or two to think about my next challenge. I may break my pm eating habit down to baby steps and allow a fruit or something. I love my pm snacks, but need to cut out calories some where.:o

Thanks, Diana!

I think fruit is a great idea. Good luck! :)

Challenge, Journal all foods for 21 days, starting today. Allowing 3 pause days.

Oct 3 - Day 1 - This was a great idea. I have been overeating and was more focused with having to journal what went in my mouth!
Oct 4 - Day 2 - Success
Oct 5th - First Pause Day!(a potluck that got out of hand & memory)
Oct 6 - Day 3 - Great start ..will report in later.
Oct 7 - Day 4 - Success, although I either am eating too much or not exercising enough cause I am gaining - not losing. Frustrating.
Oct 8 - Day 5 - Success
Oct 9 - Day 6 - Success, eat too much in the evening again, darn!
Oct 10th - Second Pause Day
Oct 11th - Third Pause Day, Not focusing on the challenge. Will reassess and try a smaller challenge. Chunkahlunkah, Doing good... keep going!

I love this idea! I challenge myself to stop eating sweets.

Day 1 of 21, October 6th

PERUNNING, :wel3fc: and to this thread! You picked a great challenge. :D

Thanks, Diana! I like the reflection and reassessment that this challenge encourages. Participating in it really made it clear to me how much I need physical activity to be built into my daily routine. I'm not good with timed routines, like saying I'll always exercise at 4 pm or whatever. But attaching it to another daily activity, like always doing it after work or during my first break from school work, works well for me. It's probably the only texhnique that could make regular exercise a habit for me! I'm grateful to this challenge for making that so clear to me. :D

Have you chosen your new challenge yet? I still think your idea to limit your nightly snacking to fruit is a great idea!