31-Day Challenge

Day 9 Challenges

Diet – Track Macronutrient Intake: Write down everything you eat. Use an online tracker to calculate daily protein, carbs, fat, and calories. Mark recommends fitday.com. I have used Livestrong.com to do the same thing. Both provide free online tracking tools and an iPhone app (we Android users seem to be out of luck on this front, but I’ll be checking.)

Exercise – Increase Daily Movement, Part 2: Find more ways to incorporate movement in your day: move every 30 minutes, walk instead of drive, stand instead of sit, take a play break, take the stairs.
Janet: I’ve got our department doing the Plank and Squat Thrusts before our daily stand up meeting. Today my boss took a picture of us planking. I’ve tried to convince him to send me an email with the pix, but I think he wants to protect the butts of the innocent. One of my colleagues said, as he started his Plank, “I’m going to try to do this for the whole meeting. Casey, don’t talk too much!” He didn’t last, because of course, Casey immediately started talking. A lot. But it’s a worthy goal. Perhaps, some time in the future, I will be able to Plank through the whole stand up meeting. I also took an extended stroll at lunch break and worked in extra sets of stairs. I stopped pushing myself when I realized my legs were all hurty.
Betsy: The best thing I’ve done so far is stand up and walk around every time I get a phone call.  Sometimes I even hold the phone.

Lifestyle – Media Fast: Read news/media/entertainment info in only two 10-minute increments in the morning and evening. Build awareness of the battle against over-stimulation to sharpen your performance on peak awareness tasks.
Janet: This is not an exercise meant for a bullpen workplace, where links fly fast and furious. I’m not saying I don’t agree with the concept. Just sayin’ it isn’t going to happen on a work day.
Betsy: This will be hard for me!

Day 9 Journal

Track Macronutrient Intake

Janet: I admit to a total fail on this one today. I will do it Friday.

• Protein grams:
• Carb grams:
• Fat grams:
• Total calories:
• Areas to improve:
• Worst part of results:
• Best part:
• Comments

Increase Daily Movement, Part 2

• Ways you increased movement today: Stairs and organizing colleagues into planks and squat thrusts
• Hardest part: Not too hard, but I stopped pushing myself when I started to hurt
• Best part: Hearing the rest of the department laugh while five of us planked. JOY!
• Comments

Summary Comments

• Daily Energy Levels 1 – 10:
• Hunger level between meals 1 – 10:
• Satisfaction level with meals 1 – 10:
• Struggles today with Primal efforts:
• Benefits noticed from Primal efforts:
• Daily highlights:
• Daily needs-to-improve:

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Day 8 Challenges

Diet – No Labels Challenge: Eat foods with no nutrition labels–i.e., fresh, farmer’s market, etc.
Janet: I went for a turkey cobb salad at lunch–it had no nutrition label. I’m calling that a win, 
Betsy: Ooh, I like this idea….

Exercise – Sprint Workout: Scale to your level. Warm up, and if you’re inexperienced, use a low/no impact exercise at 80% of maximum heart rate.
Janet: This one isn’t happening today. Very tired, trying to find the balance between pushing and pushing too hard.
Betsy: Streets are slippery wet today; not sure about the sprinting!

Lifestyle – Tiptoe into the Barefoot World: Try to go barefoot for at least 60 minutes
Janet: The weather cooperated! I wore sandals all day.
Betsy: Not a problem; I LOVE going barefoot!

Day 8 Journal

No Labels Challenge

• Hardest part
  Tough one for a work day–Whole Foods, where I usually go for lunch, now puts nutrition labels on everything!
• Best part
  The salad was tasty!
• Comments
  I’m going to keep this one in mind in my general efforts to eat more healthfully.

Sprint Workout

• Location
• Activity
• Reps
• Duration
• Rest Interval
• Total Duration
• Comments

Barefoot Challenge

• Time spent barefoot
  Not so much standing, but I’m going to take credit for wearing sandals all day!
• Longest single stretch going barefoot (standing/moving only)
• Hardest part
• Best part
• Comments

Summary Comments

• Daily Energy Levels 1 – 10:
  My levels were on the low side today, around 3
• Hunger level between meals 1 – 10:
  I got hungry around 3, snacked on macadamias
• Satisfaction level with meals 1 – 10:
  7
• Struggles today with Primal efforts:
  Fatigue–perhaps from doing too many squat-thrusts with my colleagues!
• Benefits noticed from Primal efforts:
  Not so much yet.
• Daily highlights:
  Being barefoot feels great!
• Daily needs-to-improve:
  Probably my attitude overall. I need to figure out more ways to say I can do something than to make excuses as to why I can’t.

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Day 7 Challenges

Diet – Intuitive Meals: Eat whatever you want! Have a non-Primal favorite. Notice the effects on your body. Let go of any guilt, anxiety, or negative emotions associated with eating. Goal: Achieve maximum enjoyment from your food.
Janet: This was kind of easy for me yesterday, I wasn’t very hungry after a lovely dinner the night before.
Betsy: I ended up being rather Non-Primal yesterday–truffles and ice cream–so I think I’ll go with my craving to be Primal today!

Exercise/Lifestyle – Grand Play Outing: Celebrate the great outdoors with family and friends. We’ve got rainy weather on the way, but I’ll plant my remaining tomatoes.

Day 7 Journal

Intuitive Meals

• Hardest part
• Best part
• Comments

Grand Play Outing

• Location
• Activity
• Comments

Summary Comments

• Daily Energy Levels 1 – 10:
• Hunger level between meals 1 – 10:
• Satisfaction level with meals 1 – 10:
• Struggles today with Primal efforts:
• Benefits noticed from Primal efforts:
• Daily highlights:
• Daily needs-to-improve:

Week 1 Reflections

• Week 1 success score
• Diet success score
• Comments on diet challenges
• Exercise success score
• Comments on exercise challenges
• Lifestyle success score
• Comments on lifestyle challenges
• Weekly highlights
• Weekly needs-to-improve
• What specific steps can you take to address your needs-to-improve list?
• Overall comments on week 1

Janet’s Week 1 Reflections

I’m skipping the bullet list and going for the paragraph here. Overall, I’m finding the Primal thing much harder than I thought. The food part isn’t hard; but some of the challenges are simply difficult to work into my life (I suppose that’s the point, duh!) and I’m having a hard time figuring out the starting point without going too far past it and exhausting myself.

One of the things I like very much about Martha Beck’s Four Day Win is the concept of setting achievable goals. Tomorrow’s challenges include a sprint. The thought of this makes me ill. I kind of want to spend the first month figuring out how, exactly, I can do ANY of this rather than all of it.

And so, that will be my path moving forward: To do what I can and not feel horrible about the rest. Today, at work, I was thrilled because I cajoled some colleagues into doing squat thrusts with me! Hilarious! Especially when we got to the Plank! I love the idea of taking and doing what I can and having fun with it. Today: fun!

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