60-Day Challenge Check-In Day 3

Comments

[Claudia]

It's this check-in that's saving me from utter collapse, goal-wise today.

I'm lounging at home alone today, and only just now got around to a simple T Tapp basic workout. I've been up for 8 hours.

I haven't had an opportunity for sex today, but we'll see about tonight.

I don't even want to begin to discuss what I've eaten, but at least it did include homemade garlic soup for the cold I'm fighting off semi-successfully.

[sue]

Well, it's only 8:30, so I haven't eaten any CAFO mea yet today :-) I did T-tapp last night (on an off-night, even) and mopped the floor, even though I failed to clean the kitchen. I have no high hopes for food today, since I'm going to have to run the cat to at least 2 appointments today, while dragging the kids behind me, and we're sure to be caught out without food at least once. Maybe I'll go pack something now to ward that off...

[Blythe]

1. Took my vitamin
2. Ate all 5 fruits/veggies (good thing avocados count)
3. Utterly failed to stay off the internet. Tomorrow is another day.

[Leah]

1.) I am totally not jogging today because we got 3 inches of snow overnight.
2.) Avoiding HFCS - haven't been drinking pop, and Nutella doesn't have HCFS! ;)
3.) I suck at taking pills, I still having taken them. And I can't just start now b/c my fish oil pills give me fish burps unless I take them right before bed. Argh.

[melissa]

*Drank 68 oz water!
*Snowed yesterday and I already excercised 2x this week so nothing.
*A-ok.

[heather]

i'm doing good so far!
1. exercising 3 times a week-- i did 15 minutes of a workout dvd last night... not as much as i would have liked, but i had to wait till after the little squirt finally fell asleep. i had a pretty active day, so i'm okay with that!
2. no splenda in tea-- i'm not missing it, and i think it's actually made it much easier to cut out sugar the rest of the morning.
3. cut down/cut out refined sugars-- the last few days i haven't had anything that outright screams sugar, though i was shocked to find out 1st ingredient in the dressing i used on my salad last night was HFCS. !!! much better than my usual granola bar in the morning, and dessert after lunch AND dinner.

[Catharina]

1. Crunches in the morning and evening.

2. Did great on breakfast and dinner. Lunch was a carb-feast that left me too tired and full all afternoon.

3. Completely failed at staying away from the internet. But now that I've finished my papers and can concentrate on studying, I hope I'll manage to turn off the computer...

[wynlatte]

1. No soda or artificial sweetener in my green tea.
2. No cookies, candy, or ice cream. I had a Kashi bar for a snack in the middle of the day and raisins before bed. Yea, me!
3. Did no type of exercise. But I was exhausted anyway. Hubby is away for work for two weeks and caring for a 24 pound high-needs 6 (almost 7) month old can be quite a workout. Thank goodness for the Ergo.

[Bobbi]

Somehow, I am managing everything but staying off the internet...I'm amazed that this is my toughest challenge - I expected it to be the simplest. Hmmm...

[hedra]

I did okay on the mindful eating about 75% of the time yesterday. (Best part was mindfully eating some dark chocolate... it's even better that way!) BUT, I noticed and stopped myself twice when I was just munching, not being mindful, which is definite progress.

So far, the exercise isn't happening. Will work on the tai qi today. It definitely helps to know I'm checking in.

[Trope]

I was in bed by 10 p last night! Of course, I didn't turn off the light until 10:45. But we're getting there. Not so good on the other two items yet. We're working.

[hedra]

Leah, fish oil burps are reduced by storing the fish oil in the freezer and taking them frozen. Or it seems to help for me (that was from - I think - Consumer Reports. At least I learned that around the same time as they had their report on fish oil supplements, so they're linked in my head). Even better are the enteric coated ones, but they're more expensive. Try frozen, see if it helps.

[Slim]

1 -- Ate an M&M, but otherwise at real food all day, as long as we can count V-8 as real food. I suspect it's sort of 50/50, but it's not something I'm going to guzzle down mindlessly, which is my problem with crap.

2 -- Did the ab wheel for 40 reps. I don't think I'll be doing it from a standing position any time soon, but my core really feels it even from my knees.

3 -- Sorted and tossed all sorts of crap from the bathroom.

[caramama]

1. I'm reading my labels and there was only one thing I knowingly used that had HFCS. For the recipe I was using, I needed mayonaise, and I used up all of the mayo without HFCS and had to use about a tablespoon of the one with it. But I read the label and was aware and made sure to use all of the other first, so that means I cut back.
2. No time for yoga yet. I plan to do it tomorrow and Sunday and one other evening on Mon, Tues or Wed to count as my 3 for the week.
3. I've bought mostly organic fruits and other foods at Wholefoods. I plan to go to the farmer's market across the street tomorrow morning.

[caramama]

Tip for flossing: When I started trying to floss regularly, my gums bleed too. My dentist suggested I floss every other day until the gums were toughened. It definitely helped, and now I can floss every day just fine.

However, it was harder to remember to floss every other day, and it made it easier to go longer between flossing. So keep that in mind if you decide to try going every other day.

[Nick]

I ran (slowly!) on both Tuesday and Thursday, so that routine is off to an okay start.

Yesterday I ate a lot of candy corn at the office and a scone for breakfast-- sneaking suspicion that items that DON'T list their ingredieents will be my downfall in the reduce the HFCS challenge.

For dinner, I stir fried 10 ounces of veggies and ate them with soy sauce (no HFCS) and Thai seasoning instead of eating raviollini with peas with my daughter. I then spent the next two hours occsionally doubling over with gastric pain as my digetive system struggled to adapt to the infusion of unrefined vegatative matter not buffered by dairy, protein, or highly refined carbs.

Does anyone know if Beano is worth my money?!?!?!? Will my system adapt soon?

[cs white]

1. Did BWO+ (and it happened to be the 5th day in a row for that, so yeah, me!)
2. Put sunscreen on my face.
3. I'm still working on my coffee, so I'm aiming for the water this afternoon!

Have a great weekend!

[Moxie]

OK, yesterday:

One cup of fair-trade coffee, two (2!) cups of green tea.

5 serving of vegetables:
*Huge spinach, roasted red pepper, portobello, and scallion salad at lunch. It took me 25 minutes of constant chewing to finish it.
* Half a pint of pea pods as a snack.

In bed at 10:55. Progress!

[michaela]

1. Went to my 2nd yoga class of the week. Have never done this in my ENTIRE life. Wow.

2. Did not wash face before bed. Felt crappy - a touch of some stomach thing? - and consciously decided not to. It felt kinda rebellious, to be honest.

3. Very little mindless Net surfing.

[gansgirl]

I had three hours of parent/teacher conferences tacked onto my school day, and then a 20-minute drive home that turned into a white-knuckle 45 minute drive because of freezing rain yesterday...so no hour for T-Tapp. Instead I got a little rejuvination from my boys who were in the mood for a cuddly bedtime routine after a long day without Mom.
I did skin brush in the shower in the morning and then tried it dry before bed, which I can take now--it was too rough at first. Hopefully that'll keep my cracking brush from totally breaking up.
Added something to my To Do list. This weekend I'll check a few off!

[Kate]

Exercised yesterday and this morning. :)

[Sarah V.]

1. I was at a meeting where there was cake on offer, so I thought about it, decided I did really want a chocolate brownie, and had one. One. Enjoyed that one and stopped there. *Didn't* sit there obsessing over how I could get as much of the cake as possible, to the extent where it stopped me focusing on the meeting or enjoying the cake I had. Time to face facts – my relationship with food has been unhealthy to the point of verging on an eating disorder, and I feel like I'm now taking a big, positive step back towards dealing better with it. Oh, and I avoided snacking for the rest of the day as well.

2. Did as much as I could reasonably manage of the exercise routine.

3. In bed by 11.36 despite baby apparently going through a growth spurt at the moment – oy vey, I didn't think I would EVER get to the point of the evening where she would stop nursing/wanting to be held for long enough for me to actually get the stuff done that I really had to do before going to bed. But, again, got to bed as soon as I reasonably could rather than letting myself get distracted by inconsequentia, which was my primary goal here.

Again, I feel I successfully achieved the standards I wanted on all three goals. So... so far so good! Two days down, 58 to go... And a big cheer to everyone else!

[veggiewarrior]

1.) I did T-Tapp

2.) I did take my vitamins

3.) I did part of my Flylady routine. Bonus: My husband did the other part that I missed :)

Yeah!!!

[pennifer]

1. Made a dr's appmt for this afternoon to develop strategy for the carpal tunnel.

2. Flossed and washed yesterday.

3. Did a bit better than average on the internet addiction, but need improvement. This good weather sure makes it easy.

Majorly sleep deprived. I have got to either figure out a new strategy for G's sleep OR I've got to just give it all up and nap ever time he naps. At least he's mostly cheerful when awake.

[pnuts mama]

1. drank a huge glass of milk with newly purchased "odorless" fish oil (i decided to smell the capsules to see what 'odorless' means- imo it means "smells like cat breath" but, whatever) and holy crap, fish oil is expensive! if i'm in a super mood all day it will all be worth it.

2. no sex. both way too tired and not in the mood. i have high hopes for the weekend, however.

3. yeah, can i joint he chorus of staying away from mindless internet surfing is hard? i did write yesterday, more than the day before, not nearly enough as i needed to. stayed up waaay too late sucked into political sites again. realized that those sites have worse folks than some mommy message boards i happily gave up after finding places like this. why am i so obsessed? sigh.

***
i would like to give all of you who are working out a huge shout out of support. i hate exercise, and purposefully didn't put it on my list. you all are awesome.

[bazmom]

so far so good...
1. went walking in the snow, carrying groceries.
2. almost ate a huge piece of chocolate cake, but noticed mold on the strawberries in the icing, so I snacked on carrots, instead.
3. forced a negative thought out of my head with a song.

[Nic]

Hanging in there. Did slip a bit and have a glass of Crystal Light before I realized that too is diet (damn it!). Going to work out tonight...So far so good on the lotion. My skin feels better already.

[Jan]

1. Brushed morning, but not evening.
2. Took a nice long walk with my dog after the kids went to bed. This is real progress, because I usually am a total slug in the evenings.
3. No blog post yesterday, but I'm not aiming for every day. I did set the stage for carving out a bit of evening time for it, though, by telling the Hubby about my plans.

(The Hubby says you ladies who are setting sex goals crack him up.)

[Christi]

I'm doing a good job with washing my face and brushing my teeth 1x a day. It sounds so basic I'm embarrassed. :-) But I wasn't always doing it before.

I've amended writing 1x/week to doing something creative each day. I have already done the writing, but the 'something creative' seems to really be enriching my life in good ways. (Yesterday it was assembling a bird feeder with my son - a $1 kit that ended up being a lot of fun). Today it was writing a poem. I'm being kind of lax in my definition of what is creative.

Still not drinking water. Must work on that... (goes to pour some)

[Katie B.]

Drank lots of water. Didn't do much in the way of Kegels. Didn't do a reading. Did have sex. :)

[NannyLady]

w00t! did it again!
i've been leaving the 15 minutes of exercise, flossing, and multivitamin to the very end of the day, which i was feeling a little bad about, as though i was setting myself up for failure (ending up "too tired"). but now i actually find it works well, because if i start with the exercise, i get sleepy in a way where i'm highly suggestible and don't fight the things on my list.

i had a whole bunch of other stuff i meant to do yesterday, and had consciously decided to put it off until today, but after doing my mandatory exercise i just went ahead and did it all anyway!

this is so weird.
my husband is out of town this week, though, so we'll see if it remains this accomplishable when the normal routine sets back in...

[Becky]

1. Up at 6:30, instead of 6, but being up before the 17mo counts as progress.
2. defining exercise as being in motion constantly, I did more than my 15 minutes/day in yardwork alone, plus a few crunches, etc, thrown in for good measure
3. sticking to skincare regimen rather well. Maybe someday my skin won't look like I just turned 15, but with bags under my eyes!

[paola]

Did the abs, read a bit of crap on the train (will start the new book tonight I hope), have a sore throat and a runny nose, so I guess the sex is off the cards for tonight.

[Maureen]

I didn't "sign-up" for the 60-day challenge. Where I am, I just felt that would be setting me up for one more thing I haven't done... but I have to say you ladies are really motivating me. Yesterday, I walked after work while the boys were napping. Felt nice to do it - just need to try to motivate myself to do it more often. Not sure if it is because of reading your updates/check-ins but I also ate a normal dinner and then brushed my teeth before settling in to watch TV/read after the boys went down. This definitely works to keep me from snacking at that point as I am too lazy to have to go back in and brush my teeth again.

Anyway, you ladies are awesome and I am so impressed with your efforts.

[Slim]

Maureen, this is not to make you feel bad! In my case, at least, it was to make me think about three habits I should change. At first I couldn't pick just three, but that's the point: more than three and you're on some sort of Brand!New!You! project that will just make you insane.
Anyway, you don't have to commit if you don't want to, but maybe if you looked at it as thinking about what makes you feel good, rather than what They say you're supposed to do, it would be more enjoyable.
No one's going to come 'round and shake a finger at you, honest.
I mean, Hedra appeared out of nowhere and smacked my wrist as I was eating that M&M yesterday, but I'm sure that was a fluke.
Seriously, I am impressed with your walk and your lack of evening snackage. You'll notice *I* didn't sign up for those.

[Sarah Lena]

1. I did not run last night. But I have free time tonight that I would LOVE to spend running. I did, however, do five flights of stairs yesterday.

2. Today I have had half of my 64 oz of water. I hope to stay on track.

3. I adjusted my direct-deposit paycheck to contribute twice as much to my savings account as I had previously been contributing.

[caramama]

I did a longer post on my blog, but here are my Tips for More Sex in a nutshell:

Early Prep Work:
-Think romantic thoughts during the day about your partner. This doesn't have to be about sex, but could be about sweet things they've done. Just in general, don't get caught up in the go go go of the everyday things you are doing, but take time to really like about your love and the things that make you love him/her.
-Read romance novels. It will help you think romantic thoughts more. Again, not just about sex, but romance novels are all about falling in love. And reading and thinking about falling in love makes you (or at least me) more likely to think about my love and want to express my love.
-Have your partner touch you in sweet and romantic ways throughout the day with no expectation of it leading to anything. I have found that this makes me feel loved and appreciated as a sexy woman without feeling any pressure that would frustrate me. And because I feel that way, I tend to loosen up more and be more receptive to it leading to more.

Setting the Stage:
-Figure out what gets you in the mood, and do those things. If that means lighting candles and playing sexy music, do it. If that means being adventurous in the shower, do it! But take the time to figure it out and set things up.

Just Do It:
As someone (I'm sorry I forget who) said the other day in the Challenge post, sex begets sex. It has to do with the endorphins that get released during sex, and as your body gets used to those endophins being there, you will start wanting sex more to get more endorphins. Biology is cool.

Enjoy!:
-Some of us have discussed trying to be mental present where we are physically present, and this is never more true than for sex. Shake the thoughts of what you still have left to do or that you could be sleeping instead, and focus on what you are doing and what parts of it you enjoy the most.
-Communicate what you like and don't. This may work better when you are not "in the moment" but be open and honest. Your partners generally want you to have a good time and want to do it more, so they will want to know what you like and don't. Even if you are embarrassed, tell them anyway.
-Listen to what they like and don't. And do some of the things they like even if you don't really like it. Try instead to focus on how much they like it, which will hopefully make you feel good about what you are doing. I'm always very proud when I can get a certain response from my hubby. hehe.

Anyway, these don't seem like ground-breaking ideas, but hopefully they can help. :-) If I think of more, I'll try to post them during the challenge.

[Melinda]

Veggie day today

running tonight

blog 20 mins up in 1 minute!

[caramama]

BTW, hubby was like, "you are going to post about WHAT on the internet for the whole world to see?"

hehe.

[hedra]

Nick, beano may help, but it might not be sufficient. Beano helps with some of the starches/sugars found in veggies (I can't remember which ones), and DEFINITELY helps with those.

But the large amount of veggies may also have had a lot of fructans (long chains of fructose with a terminal glucose, aka 'inulin' or Fructo-oligosaccharides), which no amount of beano will help with. Also likely a good dose of fructose itself (found in most plants, though veggies have fewer).

To keep you sane and un-doubled-over, two things:

1) Start slower. Jumping straight to the five serves all at once might be too much of a party for the GI bacteria (they love the FOS and inulin, not to mention fructose), hence the pain. Take two weeks to get to the full level, that's easier on your body.

2) Don't do the massive vegetable matter intake solo - slow it down with the fats and protiens, just a bit. That will give your body more time to absorb the fructose in the upper small intestine, before it gets past the absorption zone.

And yes, add the beano - it might be all the difference required (since the GI bacteria also love the sugars broken down by the beano, so you're stealing their party). But if it isn't enough on its own, try the above, so you don't end up with a functional duplication of IBS just from diet.

OH, and for the FLOSSING thing...

G's orthodontist said it is indeed too hard to remember every-other day, and they only NEED him to floss every-other day (because of the gum inflammation caused by the braces). So they say do uppers one day, lowers the next, alternating. If you blow it and do two days in a row on the top or bottom, no biggie, but you'll more easily remember to do it AT ALL if it is daily.

[hedra]

Nick, beano may help, but it might not be sufficient. Beano helps with some of the starches/sugars found in veggies (I can't remember which ones), and DEFINITELY helps with those.

But the large amount of veggies may also have had a lot of fructans (long chains of fructose with a terminal glucose, aka 'inulin' or Fructo-oligosaccharides), which no amount of beano will help with. Also likely a good dose of fructose itself (found in most plants, though veggies have fewer).

To keep you sane and un-doubled-over, two things:

1) Start slower. Jumping straight to the five serves all at once might be too much of a party for the GI bacteria (they love the FOS and inulin, not to mention fructose), hence the pain. Take two weeks to get to the full level, that's easier on your body.

2) Don't do the massive vegetable matter intake solo - slow it down with the fats and protiens, just a bit. That will give your body more time to absorb the fructose in the upper small intestine, before it gets past the absorption zone.

And yes, add the beano - it might be all the difference required (since the GI bacteria also love the sugars broken down by the beano, so you're stealing their party). But if it isn't enough on its own, try the above, so you don't end up with a functional duplication of IBS just from diet.

OH, and for the FLOSSING thing...

G's orthodontist said it is indeed too hard to remember every-other day, and they only NEED him to floss every-other day (because of the gum inflammation caused by the braces). So they say do uppers one day, lowers the next, alternating. If you blow it and do two days in a row on the top or bottom, no biggie, but you'll more easily remember to do it AT ALL if it is daily.

[Joceline]

1. Flax oil in the smoothie
2. Carrot and spinach in the smoothie, as well as mango, blueberries, and a banana. A grapefruit later in the day. I did poorly overall with vegetables, as I gave into the husband's pleading to order a pizza. He didn't have to bed that hard. I need to go shopping today for more veggies.
3. Walked to work and back instead of driving. Not that much exercise, but better than nothing.

For those of you who are trying to up the vegetable intake, try recipes from a vegan/vegetarian cookbook. You can always add the animal products of your choice, but when you are starting with a plant-based recipe, it makes it so much easier to pack the veggies in. My favorite vegan cookbook is Veganomicon, by Terry Hope Romero and Isa Chandra Moskovitz.

[janel]

So far so good on all of my undertakings. But can someone please tell me that the fact that I made it through the day without any caffeine yesterday has nothing to do with the fact that my son slept all the way through the night?

[SarraJK]

1. Not working out yet, but Monday was my goal to start, so I feel ok about that.

2. No candy!

3. My husband had to go in early this morning, and it took me longer than usual to get out of the house with the boy. But no crankyness. I got to work half an hour later than I'd have liked, and the world didn't come to an end. Imagine that.

[Shelley]

Drank a biiiig bottle of water instead of the soda I wanted at lunch.

On the subject of vegetarian cookbooks -- "The Moosewood Cookbook Cooks Low-Fat" is my favorite -- I've never made a single thing from it that hasn't been absolutely delicious, and I've made a LOT of things, main courses, sides, desserts, you name it.

(You know, my three things are creeping to become more things -- I also exercised this morning even though I desperately didn't want to, and that wasn't even on my list! it's silly, but it almost feels like I have not only encouragement but also permission to prioritize myself.)

[Salexuel]

I want to echo Maureen and tell you all how inspiring you are! Good Job and keep it up! Although I didn't post three things, I've written them down/kept a mental list at home, and reading the check-ins is reminding me to do my three things. I'm so inspired by all of you for taking on three things that you want to improve.
For the internet surfers, I've found that if I approach it as a reward, then it works pretty well: as in, I'm going to clean out the fridge/write one more page/pay the mortgage, and then, to reward myself for getting that done, I'm going to allow myself 10 minutes online. Just food for thought.
Keep it up. Know that you are all doing great!

[WireGryphon]

Three days in and I'm calling it a success so far. I've flossed every day, had no diet soda, and I'm working up to taking the vitamins.

[wendy]

DH and I had a wink-wink, nudge-nudge moment this morning as he left for work. Looks like I'll be fulfilling my sex requitement this evening.

I'm done with two of my three bottles of h2o for the day and...

To fulfill my "me time" promise I cleaned the basement during nap time. I know it doesn't sound like "me time" but I really love to do those types of projects.

I feel all warm and fuzzy about myself today. Yep...I said it.

[Julie]

Hm. Doing okay today. granted it's a man-made food day (yippee!) so I treated myself to my yummy pastrami sandwich for lunch - with TONS of lettuce and tomatoes, so hey, some veggies, right? But I'm feeling crappy today. I was going to sneak in a BWO+ at work this morning between appointments but am feeling crummy so I just came home and ate my sandwich on my cushy red chair. Now I'm drinking tea. Waiting for Alex and hubby to come home so I can feed them lunch and put Alex down for his nap so I can maybe take one myself. Am hoping I'll feel a little bit better by this evening - it's never too late to squeeze in a BWo+.

Funny though.....for the past week I've been reallly good about my 64 oz of water daily. Yesterday I only had 32 oz....still decent, and today I've been a little slow on it, and to be honest, I'm pretty thirsty. Am not that worried I won't meet my goal by the end of the day, or do a decent job of it. I figure anything above 32 oz is pretty good.

[jlg]

Earlier today, I was thinking this:

Wow! I'm doing fantastic! Took my vitamins for my #1, did some cross-stitch for my #2, and substituted unsweetened herbal tea for soda...

as I opened the fridge and took a big gulp of Snapple Iced Tea. (Mmmm....Snapple) Oops! I do love Snapple, but HFCS is the second ingredient. I should probably change my #3 so that I am drinking herbal tea or water instead of any HFCS/artificially-sweetened drinks.