The FastDay Forum

I am doing a mid week report on my challenge to say I have done one light day as per my challenge conditions. That is the first light day I have managed in at least 2 weeks, and I am sure the challenge has helped me. Thanks again @cblasz!

Btw what is a YA book? I am taking a brief break from crime to read "Olive Kitteridge". It was recommended by a friend and is excellent. I have seen some of the TV series that is based on the book, that also is marvelous.

Happy reading! And good luck fellow challengers.

And @Hazelnut20, I should have said that your challenge is an excellent one, and totally in scope!

Hi there

Congratulations @Hazelnut20 for getting to bed so early! Give yourself permission to do it every night

YA is Young Adult - books for teens. Many authors write for both an adult and teen audience, and teen books these days cover the spectrum and also address current issues (refugees, bullying, equality etc) There are some great reads.

@Zesty haven't thought about house cleaning to get off to sleep! Clever
I still like to curl up with a book rather than the digital version - but do read those when I am on holiday. Old fashioned I know! But also very happy to listen to audio books in the car or on a plane.

cheers
Merry

Ah, thanks for clarifying that, Merry! I see now...obviously I've been out of the habit of reading for so long that I don't know any of the terms for the different genres these days.

And thanks also for your support re the sleeping issue. Gosh what a novelty it was to be in bed by 11! Mind you, right up to the wire I was trying to sabotage myself! It's all about the conversations I have with myself...or should I say "battles"! Last night, by about 9pm, I was dog-tired. The sensible thing would've been to go to bed there & then....but since when did I ever do the sensible thing? Like never!

Though I tried nagging myself, the other side of me was having none of it! I have to say, the thought of having to admit failure to the other challengers definitely helped propel me to bed eventually! I am a very open person - it's impossible for me to be anything other than truthful...so if I had failed, I would definitely admit it.

What is interesting though, is that so many people have tried to encourage me to get to bed - by phoning or texting me to remind me, getting me to set alarms to get off the sofa and so on, but to no avail. I have even lied on occasion about my bedtime when questioned - which is so not me! Somehow, I resent anyone trying to influence me into doing something - even though I know they really have my best interests at heart. What's that about??!! Perhaps committing to a challenge on here changes the dynamic somewhat - I'll take it whatever it is quite frankly!

Have a great day!

Well done @sassy1 for managing a light day - that's great news! These habits of ours are hard to break...but success breeds success I always find...so a big pat on the back to you!

Like you, I'm really grateful to @cblasz for having the idea of a weekly challenge to help us all along. They say a habit takes 21 days to break, so I suspect I won't be committing to a new challenge until I've got the sleeping totally sussed - but honestly, if I can crack it, I will be a very happy bunny and I'm sure there will be knock-on effects for my weightloss and overall health too. But hey - there are 52 weeks in a year - so plenty of scope to achieve other things too!

Thanks @MerryMelb for explaining YA! It's probably a bit of an American term, maybe? As a teacher, I use the excuse that I have to keep up with the kids, but really I enjoy them too!

Anyway, I'm so glad you are all doing well on the challenge. Ironically, my challenge is not going as well this week. Monday I was off from work and had a ton of stuff to do, but didn't feel great and was tired from skiing on Sunday, so basically did almost nothing. And yesterday was a very busy day at work and it was raining outside. So I didn't get a walk in either day (although I still almost got to 10K steps.) But I will try again today and hopefully the rest of the week. So 5 out of 7 days will still be good and hopefully it will start the habit going forward!

How wonderful to see so many old faces back here! Welcome back to you all! I love this challenge idea! Mine is always the same at the moment though - to stick to my low carb 800 cal days - I do ok during the day but come the evening I tend to indulge at a horrendous rate. I wonder how I'll get my mojo back?! Well having you lot back will certainly help!!

I may even do a fast tomorrow - who knows?!!

Bean

So it was another rainy and busy day here and I wasn't sure how I was going to get my walk in. I was leaving my regular job to go to the bookstore cafe to work on my other job and was thinking about it on the way. I ended up stopping at the mall nearby and walked quickly for 15 minutes through it. Luckily it was like a ghost town, so there was no problem with people getting in my way or anything! There's no way I would've done that if it weren't for the thought of being so embarrassed to report here that I didn't do it! I would've just chalked it up to a bad week and tried again next week!

While I'm here at the bookstore I'm getting in my nightly green tea as well. I just hope I can resist all the amazing sweet treats they have here!!

Thank you all for joining and keeping me motivated!

Good for you @cblasz and thanks to you, @hazelnut20 and others for your support as well. So far the challenge does seem to be helping! Great to hear you had an early night, Pernelle, good luck for more!

I ate no chocolate yesterday, so that is another of my weekly challenges done. (Not today tho, "had" to taste some Cadbury chocolate log left over from Christmas that was past its use-by date to see if it was still edible... It is, but hopefully OH and S will eat it now!! We have so much Christmas chocolate left over - partly because I have not eaten it at the rate I normally would. Also have a stash of chocolate that my dad used to have, but he is not allowed it at the moment, if ever.)

@Nursebean, hi! If you are having trouble getting/staying motivated, perhaps make your challenge more specific. Can you work out why you are having evening indulgences? (I can totally empathize!!) Could your challenge be something that specifically addresses that? Maybe "the kitchen is closed after xpm" (though that is too severe for me) or, like I am trying to do, allow yourself a limited list of things you can have during the evening, ideally only if you are actually hungry. Sometimes knowing you have allowed yourself to have something is enough to stop you having it!

Hope everyone is going well with their challenge this week.

I accidentally posted the same message twice when the iPad froze - don't know how to delete a whole post...

Hello Beany @nursebean - so lovely to be back in touch!

I have a question for you: what time of night did the "Weetabix incident" happen...or start and stop? Had you had a particularly difficult day in some way? We both know that chomping through the majority of the Weetabixes was not down to actual hunger...but maybe it served another purpose, I'm honestly a fine one to talk....as I never really analyse why I eat what I do...but I do know it's for various emotional reasons rather than hunger. Knowing it is the easy bit though! It's the catching yourself about to do it and diverting your attention to something else that's so very hard...

My challenge for the next few weeks is all about getting to bed before midnight. Not only will it get me more sleep...but I'm hoping it will also take away the opportunities to binge after my dinner. Night-time is my enemy really...but if I'm asleep, I can't be eating, can I? So Win/Win...I'm therefore wondering whether you eat late at night?

Can you please bring me up to speed on how things are in your world? I've been AWOL for a number of months...so am out of the loop. Where are you with weightloss at the moment? How's the job going? When I was last here, you were about to go off to Canada and had been for a bit of training for your new job. So, what's new in Beanyworld??

Re my challenge for this week - I need to admit that I pushed it right up to the wire last night...and only just got to bed at 11.59pm...tut tut. I knew exactly what I was doing - think it was a rebellion. Am cross with myself now....

You still did it @Hazelnut20! So maybe each week, you set the time a little earlier. Can I ask what you do while you are up that late? I'm the total opposite, I go to bed too early, when I have things to do! But I'm just so tired a lot of the time! I am hoping that walking and some other things I'll be doing will give me a bit more energy!

Great job on the chocolate @Sassy1! Too funny about having to "test" it! I'm pretty sure it takes a lot longer than that for chocolate to go bad.

Welcome @nursebean. I agree with Sassy, that specific small goals are the way to go. I have to say, if you are eating that much at night, maybe the 800 calories isn't enough. Maybe you should try 1000 and then work your way back down. Or just do a couple of days at 800, something like that?

This week is a little stressful for me, because my college job is starting up and I am being observed by my principal on Monday and just in general there's a lot going on. But I feel good that I'm sticking to these small goals so far. I did not cave and have any of the amazing desserts last night. I did settle on a chai latte!

Have a great day everyone!!

[Tracieknits]

Nice to see everyone is doing so well with this challenge. And yes, @Hazelnut20 you're still doing better than you had before, even if it is down to the wire.

I'm holding on and sticking to plan. I've been doing a lot of knitting, which keeps my hands out of the food LOL I have to go to the grocery store soon, so I may have yogurt first in order to not be ravenously hungry, which leads to buying the wrong thing. But eating those calories now would mean fewer calories at dinner. I think I can handle that.

I was "officially" down 1.4 lbs this week at weight watchers and that's helping a lot with my motivation to stick to my plan and my light days.

Oh @/Tracieknits I really must learn to knit. It's so therapeutic isn't it! Mind you, I have painful hands at the moment so that might not be ideal!!

I am so glad that you're back my nutty friend @Hazlenut20! Yes! I guess a lot has happened since we last conversed. I had an absolutely fabulous time with my sister and her family. She has an idyllic (if hectic) life in Montreal and I would just love to be able to live near her. She looked after me so well and even booked us a weekend away in a place called Lanaudiere where the autumn trees were just breathtaking and our lovely lodge overlooked a beautiful lake!

Then, when I came back from my holiday I started my new job as a receptionist for a chiropractors. It's only 4 hours a week as well as holiday/sick cover. This is just perfect for me to be able to gauge how much work I can do. Some days I believe I can re-train to be a nurse and then other days I feel like hell and realise that is just a pipe dream! Its probably these off days that lead to me eating way too many Weetabix and just gorging! Blimey, if I could disappear out of myself and look at myself eating like that I'd be horrified. I must try to find something else to occupy my evenings - other than food!!

So how are things in nuttyland? Are you ok?

Bean

[Tracieknits]

OK, I get it now. I was confounding your vacation and your new job, @NurseBean! In my defense, this autumn I was so distracted because I was so worried about my mom >.<

Yes, I think this is a lovely part of the world. I just love the autumn colors. It's my favorite season, especially living here. Amazing how many different colors the trees can produce, isn't it?

well knitting with painful hands is no fun at all. If you ever do decide to take up some sort of needle work, try it with real wool first. Cotton, silk and other non-springy fibers are really hard on your hands and can make me feel arthritic, even though I'm not. But crafting in general is a great way to keep yourself out of the wheetabix! You could try scrapbooking, or perhaps take up painting or drawing

oh man, I love knitting too. But since moving to Florida, US - where it's unbearable hot and humid all summer and just a tad better during winter, I kinda gave up on it since my hands sweat too much.
I can probably do it during our pretend-winter when at least the humidity is not as high.