Stretch 10 min a day. 2 pauses allowed. Day 3
No beer, Day 4 2 pauses allowed.
Daily salad, Day 1, 3 pauses allowed.
20 minute Stuff unload, purging what ever you want to call it. Day 0, 3 pauses allowed.
I think I may have felt a little better stretching last night. I can't believe how tight I am. Stress I guess.
I found a half marathon in March, but I don't know if my husband will be home, and I might have a conference I need to be involved in. Ack. I'll look for another....
Hi Red, good save on the cleaning, and I'm glad to hear that you are making progress!
Ufi, Red is right, you may need some trial and error to find the "right" challenge. Although Red also reminded me that it's not supposed to be easy, it's supposed to be challenging!!
Welcome CJ, simple challenges, but pretty important ones! Good luck!
Hi Tex! Be careful. You are eating well, aren't you? Hope you were able to get the exercise in.
See y'all for now!
Well, got through another one. I even went to the sports center for lunch break from work. Bicycled and worked up a great sweat (the place is hot though) and did some weights. Really makes the day go quickly and gives me a LOT of distance from the poisonous office and my thoughts about it. It feels SO good to get away. That said, I almost didn't go. Then I read a column about getting a beer gut and it just forced me to get up and go! (after looking at my own gut...)
Well, I have two weeks behind me on cleaning (minimal, minimal) and a full 10 on no booze or sugar. Not bad, my chickadee.
Sunshine Challenge (cleaning )
Day 14 completed no pauses allowed
No Booze
Day 10 complete no pauses allowed (started Nov. 5)
No Smoking (Started Nov. 5)
Day 10 complete no pauses allowed (started Nov. 5)
No Sugar
Day 8 complete no pauses allowed (started Nov. 7)
Write-it-down Challenge
Day 4 completed no pauses allowed (started Nov. 11)
**************
miriam -- Back on the horse with you!
Apple -- Good going. I like your "Stuff Unload" challenge!
Well, I wasn't able to exercise yesterday - I just felt terible. The dizziness finally went away, but then I was exhausted and felt drained. I went to the dr for some blood work on Wed and they took 7 tubes from me. I am severly anemic to begin with, so I think that is what messed me up!
Sooo ... back to day 1! Oh well - like exercising is really going to hurt me right?
I am going to restart both my challenges on Monday - we have a packed weekend - DS's birthday party s tonight - we've got 10 boys coming to spend the night tonight :shocked:, DH and I are going out tomorrow and then DS is showing cattle on Sun I will check back in with you gals on Mon!
red - thanks for the get well wishes! I appreciate them!
Apple - I am eating well, I really think the blood work is what messed me up. I do have a sinus infection, but that is normal for me this time of year. Thanks for checking up on me!
Stretch 10 min a day. 2 pauses allowed. Day 4
No beer, Day 4 1 pause left.
Daily greens, Day 2, 3 pauses allowed.
20 minute Stuff unload, purging what ever you want to call it. Day 1, 3 pauses allowed.
Changed daily salad to daily greens. Had bok choy (and lots of other veggies) last night.
Attacked a closet last night.
Had a beer. DH opened one for me to have with dinner. Since it was already open I just couldn't waste it.....
Tex, 7 vials of blood is a lot! No wonder you were dizzy. I'm glad you are back to normal. Get back to work!
Hey Red. You are doing great!
CJ, you are out of the starting gate!
Hello to everyone else!
Jolly-post us a hello if you can! I'm sure school has you real busy, but we'd love to hear from you!!
Well, it's the weekend and I am having a lazy morning. It feels so good to be able to do this.
My weight is up and down but I think it is dropping. It's just that I've done this so many times before. How I wish that this time could be different, that I could actually make changes and have them stick.
The no-alcohol is going well, though every day I find times when I am saying, "I really want a ." But, the difference these days is that I then think of what I can do instead or I simply learn to sit with my feelings and not act on them in the old way.
I have a party to go to tomorrow and I have told the host I am not drinking and she sweetly said she would support me by steering me away from all alcohol. I told her that the killer is really up to me. If any doubt as to whether I really have decided NOT to drink worms its way into my psyche then I am a goner. I have to be absolutely 100 percent resolute. Drinking is simply NOT an option.
**************
Apple -- Nice progress on two of your challenges. Did you stretch? Gosh, that's one I have to do. I am getting tighter and tighter because I exercise with NO stretching except what is part of the weight training. Too bad on the beer. Isn't your husband supporting you in this no-beer challenge? That seems rather mean of him to open a beer for you if he knows you're trying to stay away from it. There is a place out by the racetrack where they always pull beers for me free. The times I have actually not wanted to drink, well, am trying not to drink, it has been a real battle. They insist on giving me a beer and no matter how much I protest they put one in front of me. I have decided that I am sick of this and last time out to the track I went home another way (which is a pain) just to avoid going to this place. I never have this happen except there and it infuriates me. I hear that a lot of people have this problem with others trying to push food and drink on them but I never have it and it is always myself that partly wants to have it and then easily gives in. I find that when I am very clear on not wanting something then I am fine (except for that one place). Any thoughts on this and what you can do when someone wants to "be nice" to you?
ceejay -- Congratulations on liftoff!!
econ -- Moving right along there as well. Good for you!
tex -- I'm glad to hear you're feeling better. Yeah, I agree with Apple that seven vials of blood is a LOT. Too bad on the challenge (you could have just taken an extra pause .... ) but, really, it doesn't make a difference and if you're not disappointed and are able to hop back in and start over, then I have no worries. Good for you!
Well, it's the quiet, lonely weekend again when no one is around to post and I have lots of time. Saturday night and I will be turning in soon....very sober. Big party tomorrow though and I have been dubbed as the one in charge to take people out on the town afterward (guess why....because I know the drinking holes best.... ). And that when I'm not drinking!!! How, how, how am I ever going to manage this??!?! My gosh, it's going to be tough....jeez.
Anyhow, today went well. Got to the gym and jogged for 30 min, then did weights. A lot of walking too. And I ate good food and not that much of it! Hurrah for me! Did my bit of cleaning as well. God, I HATE cleaning.
Well, on alcohol, I'm trying to go through the rest of this year sober. Hmmm. Is it possible? I think I have to link it to something else, something other than just "I said so." Let me think. Probably a weight challenge, something impossible to reach before the year's out...
Later all!
Sunshine Challenge (cleaning )
Day 15 completed no pauses allowed
No Booze
Day 11 complete no pauses allowed (started Nov. 5)
No Smoking (Started Nov. 5)
Day 11 complete no pauses allowed (started Nov. 5)
No Sugar
Day 9 complete no pauses allowed (started Nov. 7)
Write-it-down Challenge
Day 5 completed no pauses allowed (started Nov. 11)
Last edited by redballoon; 11-15-2008 at 05:41 PM.
Hi girls!
I have been thinking of all all of you with guilt this week as I exercised and then packed myself off to bed. It has been the week from ****, jobwise. Lots of drama going on and a student calling me a "f'ing b with an itch" because I refused to change a grade that she clearly earned...and it was a C, not a D or an F. The trials of being a teacher to teens. We've all been there, as teens I mean, but I don't ever remember feeling entitled to be abusive to teachers. It makes me want to have another career, sometimes. My husband and I joke about what the definition for masochism is...it has high school teacher in there somewhere!
On a lighter note, I have managed to stay on track with the exercise this week, mostly because it helps me work off the tension that has been building so I can sleep at night and not walk around during the day with knots in my shoulders and creases in my brows. I have not quite achieved a serene smile, but I am somewhat relaxed! So, I am on day 12, which is really good for me!
Another interesting note; I had observed in the last couple of years that my eyebrows were getting so thin that in order to keep from looking startled, especially in the brows at the center of my browline, I needed to pencil them in a bit. What has happened is that my face has lost so much weight that my brows have come back together and they have thickened back up because of shrinkage of my face and I now have a full browline again! I did not even relate the thinning brows to my face expanding; I thought they were thinning due to age. So, thanks for small miracles. The fat roll at the back of my neck is totally gone, too. Of all the fat parts of my body, I hated that fat roll the most. I do now have furrows between my eyes and little wrinkles along side my eyebrows, but, oh well. My skin is still pretty resilient, so perhaps that will settle out a little, over time.
Today is a gloriously sunny, golden leaved day and after I finish up my posts here I intend to work in my garden until entirely exhausted. Perhaps I will burn a burn pile, doesn't that sound like fall?
Tex-I am sorry to hear that you fell off the exercise plan and that you are so aenemic. Take care girl, get in that iron and maybe give yourself a little more wiggle room on your next challenge. I remember being aenemic when my boys were little. They just run you ragged, those kids, and everything else you try to do when you're a mom. Do you take vitamins? I think they are really important when dieting. I am also including a link about superfoods. I try to get these into my diet often so I can stay healthy while I lose.
This is a printable PDF file that I have printed and put up on my refrigerator so I remember to get them into my diet. If you already know this or do this, yeah! But, it really does help me, I think. I am here for you...we started together and I aim to see you through to the 21 days on this challenge!
Red-I quit drinking entirely when I turned thirty. I was having blackouts, humiliations and plummeting self-esteem due to my drinking. I had no training in moderate drinking. So, I appreciate your struggle with not drinking. So much social life revolves around drinking; it takes courage and restraint to not drink in social situations where everyone else is drinking. However, being the sober one, you could set up a veritable blackmail business if you wanted to. There are a few things about drinking that I have observed as a sober person: drunk people aren't as funny as they think they are; drunk people sometimes turn into someone else entirely; drunks don't always want to see the sober person in the morning because they may tell them what they did and don't remember they did; drunk people keep doing it no matter how much they prey to the porcelain god in the morning; and drunk people sometimes destroy friendships and lives. Mind you, I am speaking about myself here. Not in judgement of others. So, if your goal is to avoid calories or to avoid the path I have travelled, well, they are both worthy goals and I applaud you for loving yourself well enough to take either path. By the way, I hate cleaning, too. My house has some serious dust bunnies that I intend to do war against this weekend. But, it is going to take some knuckling down and getting to business. You have inspired me!
CJ, Econ and Apple on your challenges and welcome, too! I will be looking for celebrations of success from you both!
Miriam-You are an honorary Scarlette O' Hara, "...tomorrow is another day!" That's how we keep on keepin' on!
Gardening is calling! I will check back in tomorrow...
Sheri
Sigh. Rainy Sunday morning and I am feeling defeated. I know I shouldn't be but I am. I see how much work remains on my room and on me and I just feel overwhelmed and as if I will never accomplish this and then I just want to (and do) sit down and cry.
They say looking at pictures of fit people leads more to depression than motivation and I'm thinking that's true. I have two photos of lean women on my refrigerator, which is right next to where I sit at the computer, and I tell you, it is so utterly depressing to look at them and then to see myself in the mirror. That, coupled with the fact, that my weight is way up today after all my hard work yesterday, just makes it seem all the more impossible that I can ever reach my goal. I question whether I have any idea of what needs to be done. Sometimes, I think I don't, that I'm just kidding myself.
I know, I know, I'm just having a bad morning, as is often the case. I don't know what it is, probably my disgusting room and having done little things for two weeks now to try to fix it I feel like I have made NO progress that matters. When you have a goal that is so visible, in other words, you can see where you stand now and where you want to go, it's so disheartening. Other things spare you the realization because you either don't really have a grasp of what it will be like to get where you think you want to go or you don't realize where you are now. Sorry if I'm not making sense. It's like with riding. I know what a good rider looks like but I don't have any idea what it feels like to be one. Thus, I don't really know how far away I am, in other words, where I am now in relation. So....it's not so disheartening.
But this weight stuff. My God, I can see the fat. I can grab it with my hands. The room, likewise. Why is this so disheartening? Shouldn't this make it easier. Maybe, the room, but the fat. The scale doesn't drop because I have a good day. And I need it to to continue. I need to feel better now. Oh, heck, shut me up, somebody, please!!!!
************** miriam -- Good luck on your new challenge!
Quixotica -- Wow, nice long post! Sorry to hear about the troubles you're having with outraged students, but, heck, it's only one (well, that you mention). Don't forget to think of all the students who DON'T abuse you and yet don't get any recognition for that. Don't allow one mouth-off to get you down or to question being a teacher. It would figure that the grade wasn't all that bad. This kid is probably used to making good grades and the thought that she is "lesser" is probably playing havoc with her ego. It sounds like she may just need a reality check, so your bringing her down a notch may be just the thing. I would just tell her how she could have earned the B or A and leave it at that. Drama queens, eh? I remember back in school and the last thing I would ever done was talk to a teacher. They were not human for me. They were hated authority figures. It has nothing to do with the person. It must have been so hard for them.
As for the drinking, great kudos to you for having given up the booze. I think I am one of the quietly abusive types, abusing alcohol that is. I don't black out, I don't do anything that is embarrassing to myself or others and I am never abusive to others. In fact, I am a happy drunk and people love me drunk. The thing is that, nonetheless, I am not helping myself. I spend money I don't have. I stay out too late and then miss valuable opportunities the next day to do things that I really like. I find my resolve is less because I am mentally spaced and physically weakened (thus mentally weakened) and I regret more often than not just wasting time. This is because I NEVER want to stop once I start. And that does, I admit, make me look desperate and needy, which I hate. And, of course, the calories I can drink on in a night out are awesome!
You're so right about the skewed perception though when we're drunk. So maybe, I'm actually not as happy a drunk as I think! But, too, things that seem fun drunk really aren't that fun. I remember in the summer when I did 38 days with no drinking that I would go out and be with friends who were drinking but I wasn't. I started noticing how they started not making sense or jumping frenetically from topic to topic and it puzzled me until I realized, THIS is what getting drunk looks like when you're not on "the inside" getting drunk too. Hmmm. Not that pretty.
The bottom line is, I do a lot of work, I put a lot of effort into things and I am getting dang tired of not having that effort show. A lot of it is nullified by drinking. I think finally the pride I think I have in abundance is finally kicking in. Just maybe. Good luck on your cleaning! If all I had were dust bunnies, I'd be in excellent shape.
ceejay -- Sorry to hear you were sick. Hope you're better now. Too bad about the challenge but I'm glad to see you're back in here fighting. Fiber it is!
Red! Wassup with you?! You know the analogy of the person climbing the mountain and despairing how much more he has to climb, but if he takes a moment to look back behind him and see how far he has already come then....!!! Come one baby - so it's rainy - and dreary - make your own sunshine! Have some purple gloop for breakfast - put on some music and GET WORKING! Make you own sunshine baby - you can do it!
Heh, miriam, how dare you call my luscious, vitamin-packed eclectic oatmeal "purple gloop!!!" Oh, you should see what I'm eating now. Yellow lentils over purple "brown" rice. It is SO good.
No, I had to laugh at your message. THANK YOU!! Your encouragement is just what I needed. Just to laugh. I already pushed my way to the gym (50 min. walk) jogged 30 min there and did leg training with weights then walked back home. Now, I'm quick downing some yellow gruel and then out to a party (I'm eating in case there's nothing I want to eat there....vegetarian currently off sugar and booze is tough in Tokyo.)
I don't know about "how far you've come." That's part of the problem. I don't feel I've gotten anywhere much. But, I will push on.
A perfect 10 on booze and sugar!
and worked up a great sweat (the place is hot though) and did some weights. 
Really makes the day go quickly and gives me a LOT of distance from the poisonous office and my thoughts about it. It feels SO good to get away. That said, I almost didn't go. Then I read a column about getting a beer gut and it just forced me to get up and go! 
(after looking at my own gut...) 
)
Back on the horse with you! 
I will check back in with you gals on Mon!
starting out Saturday here....
." But, the difference these days is that I then think of what I can do instead or I simply learn to sit with my feelings and not act on them in the old way. 
How, how, how am I ever going to manage this??!?! 
My gosh, it's going to be tough....jeez.
CJ, Econ and Apple on your challenges and welcome, too! I will be looking for celebrations of success from you both!
danger ahead!
Sorry to hear about the troubles you're having with outraged students, but, heck, it's only one (well, that you mention). Don't forget to think of all the students who DON'T abuse you and yet don't get any recognition for that. Don't allow one mouth-off to get you down or to question being a teacher. It would figure that the grade wasn't all that bad. This kid is probably used to making good grades and the thought that she is "lesser" is probably playing havoc with her ego. It sounds like she may just need a reality check, so your bringing her down a notch may be just the thing. I would just tell her how she could have earned the B or A and leave it at that. Drama queens, eh? I remember back in school and the last thing I would ever done was talk to a teacher. They were not human for me. They were hated authority figures. It has nothing to do with the person. It must have been so hard for them. 
Oh, you should see what I'm eating now. Yellow lentils over purple "brown" rice. It is SO good.
Your encouragement is just what I needed. Just to laugh. I already pushed my way to the gym (50 min. walk) jogged 30 min there and did leg training with weights then walked back home. Now, I'm quick downing some yellow gruel and then out to a party (I'm eating in case there's nothing I want to eat there....vegetarian currently off sugar and booze is tough in Tokyo.)
