Kicking *kitten* In Our Twenties - October Challenge!! (One year

Alright... I'm back for a few minutes!

Dinner turned out well. Looked something like this:

Not too shabby for something thrown together without much of a recipe to guide me...

Meg - Welcome back and congrats on the new computer ! :bigsmile: I don't know where I'd be without mine. Must be such a relief! Sounds like you are doing an excellent job staying healthy and on track. Way to go, girl! :drinker:

ima - If you're getting off track, get back here and make yourself accountable! being invisible has *never* worked for weight loss. Make a point to log in every day and set goals for yourself. Post them here or on your profile and stick to them. Sometimes it's hard work motivating yourself but if you know people are watching, it's a little easier to stay on track. Don't let the hubby being away become a convenient excuse. Healthy living is something we have to chose to do every single day.

Abby - How was the trail run today girl? And I hope you're still feeling good about the weight loss. You are such a rockstar. Amazing job, as usual.

OK Well I better make myself scarce. Long day of chores today and still some laundry to do before heading out. Hope you have a great Monday ladies. Tyler and I are heading out for a vacation day to the States tomorrow. Hoping we can make it a semi-healthy one with lots of walking, good choices (bringing lots of snacks) and some measured indulgences too...

Rocktober is still on - Kick your a$$es in gear ladies! :drinker:

Hey ladies - Well I said I'd be in bed by 10pm and it's now 10:09 - I'm in bed, but definitely NOT sleeping. So again, this is going to be quick!

So glad to see things picking up here and folks posting. I love this group and it makes me pine for the early months when I see days going by and no one having the time/energy//motivation to post. I know I am a #1 culprit and offender most days. But I know that it's totally a snowball effect and once we start posting regularly, get invested, and the thread starts moving again, things will pick up :bigsmile: Let's try to keep the momentum ladies!

Cynthia - Thanks for adding Kate to the list! It's nice to know you've got my back, girl sounds like a good thing that you cancelled the jog tonight. It's tough to run when you are working on so little sleep... I know from experience. Ran 5k this morning on about 5 hours and I was feeling it by mid-afternoon...Looks like you are doing great with your goals for the month! Keep at it :drinker:

Leela - you are SO right. I need to start looking again... Just have to make it a priority. Right now working out and just getting life stuff done seems to occupy all my spare time and energy, so it's hard to think about devoting so much time and effort to finding a new job. I know it'll pay in dividends if I am finally happy with what I'm doing but it's just tough to find the motivation. I can hardly find the motivation to run any more and I absolutely LOVE running... If that tells ya anything! NY was great - Thanks! We stopped into a lot of great little local shops and cafes, Ty picked up a unicycle for cheap, and I managed to sneak a few tours around organic co-ops and even a Penzey's spices (which we don't have and is AMAZING). Had some great cheat food too while I was there. No complaints! :bigsmile:

Sounds like you have a LOT of life changes going on which demand some flexibility and giving yourself a break. It's good that you are getting back into a routine of logging but I know it can be very hard when it feels like there isn't any pay off. I think maybe you need to just consider being healthy and eating well as a pay-off in and of itself and find reasons to log, workout and exercise that are not tied to weight loss if you aren't seeing results on the scale. I know how frustrating it can be and I hope that you're able to sort out the source of the issue soon. You work so hard and you deserve to see the results that you're aiming for.

Abby - Months and months ago on this thread (past challenge thread) I posted my weekly weight loss journey from beginning on MFP at 146lbs to my maintenance over 3 or 4 months... Just to illustrate how much fluctuation I saw. Nearly every 3-4 weeks I saw a gain on the scale and would regularly get so discouraged. And then many weeks I saw no loss at all and would feel like I was getting no where. It's only once we're able to look back and see the long term progress that it's much easier to recognize how far we've come and that while our weight loss might not always been amazing (or linear) it's happening and we just have to roll with the punches. I'm glad to see that you are able to keep things together and keep some perspective with your losses as you near your goal weight. There's so much more to this journey than the scale!

Whatever you do - don't be afraid to eat. Heavens I struggled with fear of food and then fear of carbs for a long long time when I finally was nearing maintenance and it took months to get my head back on straight. Food is not to be feared - healthy nutritious fuel is necessary to keep your body in good working order and you need a lot of it if you're going to make demands on it like running on a trail for 7miles! Think of food as the gas in your car and enjoy every bite of it! It's nourishing your body and in many ways it nourishes your soul - food brings us together and helps us share in our lives with one another. Fearing it as intensely as I once did (and still do some days) takes away all of that good stuff and makes you a cranky, lonely, cat-lady. So don't do it! :laugh: End PSA

Kate - Welcome! :flowerforyou: This group is fabulous and all the ladies here are incredibly supportive. Their journeys are inspiring and hopefully we can all serve as motivation for you to keep at your goals and hit your targets for the month of October. Hope to see more posts from you in the future :happy:

Alright - Definitely need to get to sleep! All's good in my world apart from work and time and energy and all that jazz. Going to work hard at taking a deep breath tomorrow any time I feel overwhelmed. If I can do that, I'd say its been a good day.

And this week I'm already 1/2 way to my "take 2 lunch breaks a week" goal - Took one today and it was fabulous! :bigsmile: Go me!

Hey gals :bigsmile: Another late night catch-up post... It seems to be the only time I can find to really devote more than a few mins to posting something substantial. Let's see how far I get tonight!

Emily - Welcome! :flowerforyou: Love seeing new faces on the forum and your attitude is fabulous :happy: I hope that you stick with us and help to breathe some new life into the thread. We could use a kick in the *kitten* sometimes, it seems - hehe. Your goals looks GREAT and I'm so pleased to see another workout queen on our boards! There's a lot of variety in this group - soccer players, runners, bootcamp-junkies, turbo-jam afficianados (I'm looking right at you jyop!)... We're all about the fitness here and I must say, we kick some serious *kitten*! I saw a great post today by a Pal-of-a-Pal about "embracing the suck" and it was so uplifting. If you're interested, take a gander: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/AZTrailRunner

Abby - Sorry for the unsolicited advice - And glad to hear that I was totally off base! Sounds like you know what you're doing, but I think you are probably right that you should be eating more on bigger exercise days. Can you eat breakfast in two waves - 8am and 10am - and try to eat a bit more? That way you're never running on a full stomach. A banana pre-run works great but I usually try to fuel while I run if I am out for more than an hour. I use gels but they can be pricey and are not for everyone. Even just having some gatorade mixed in with your water should help. Gotta get something in to fuel your muscles if you want them to carry you on those runs!

Leela - A unicycle! Yes! I know ... Silly, but fun! And a crazy good core workout, too As for my 2 lunch breaks - I meant 2 breaks in one WEEK, not one day :blushing: I never seem to manage to get even a minute of breaktime at work unless I force myself to step away from the desk, so lunches are a novelty. Trying to force myself for my mental health to clear my head a little and take a break every once in a while. I know I deserve it and I know how much it's needed - Just hard to do when the work never ends!

Meg - Thanks for asking - Work has been, well, workish! Trying to take it one day at a time and very much looking at other options in the future. Extreme World Series jealousy! Oh my oh my - If Gonks or Guam could hear you! You'd be the bell of the ball here. What a fantastic opportunity! Hope you can manage to get out to it :bigsmile: Hope all goes well with the neurosurgeon as well and that things are sorted out soon... Be thinking of you!

AFM - Quick update-y-ness. I'm thinking about taking my last few vacation days to treat myself to a MUCH needed warm-weather last-minute getaway. I have 2 days left to take so I may end up going away for 4 days somewhere all by myself. Possibly New Orleans, or Corpus Christi, or somewhere warm and gulfish. Any suggestions? I'm just going to hop a plane and take off, I think. I've got some money saved from never having the time to do anything good so it's in the cards. I just need to figure out where I want to go that is safe enough to do solo. If you've got any suggestions, lay 'em on me! I'm all ears :happy:

Other than that, just really trying to make it through the week. We've got a huge huge project at work that is due to be finished Fri and tomorrow we're going on a field trip to the fulfillment center to make sure it's all being done according to my plans... Dun dun dun. I expect some major fall-out. Otherwise errands, cooking and eating, and exercising when appropriate. You know the drill.

Have a great Thursday ladies and I'll catch up Saturday when I can ! Much love and all that good stuff
Meag