Week 1 Challenges! Here we go!!

Excellent job on "just saying no!!" Debbie! I had salad today too. I find that if I just make a huge one in the biggest bowl I own, I can grab a quick bowl anytime I want (before dinner, when I'm "snacky", etc) - much easier than having to make a whole personal-size salad every time you want one.

And I agree!! Water intake is getting easier.

Squats: 34 (Level 4)
P/U: 27 (Level 4)
S/U: 30 (Level 3)

For my 30 minutes a day, I stuck mostly to dumb bell exercises but went for a run on 2 of the days this week. The water challenge was definitely a mountain to climb, but after a few days it didn't turn out to be as much work as when I initially started.

Hello. Updating with my benchmarks.....

Push ups: 11 (very modified)
Sit ups: 16
Squats: 40

I found the push ups extremely difficult since I am only 6 weeks post op from abdominal surgery. I find having my stomach touch the floor too painful & it's tough to hold myself up. I started walking again this week. Slowly building up speed & distance. Slow & steady wins the race.......

Lee - you're a friggin rock star. I'm SO proud of all your progress!! Down 7 inches almost 6 full pounds in your first month! That's 100% YOUR hard work and discipline in the kitchen and home workouts as well as showing up to every workout with me and giving your all. It's really cool when you get a client who understands the big picture, believes in the programming and takes it seriously. Stick with me kid - we're going places. Lol

Hey Danielle! GREAT start on using MFP. Tracking to identify one's issues is definitely key to starting a good program and finding solutions. So woohooo for you!!

I don't doubt that the chocolate eggs could be helping your head pain. Chocolate contains caffeine. Caffeine helps the body absorb pain medications more quickly which may make them more effective and bring relief faster. And caffeine seems to help migraines to an extent in general. To explain, I found this from LiveStrong.com:

"Migraine Headaches
Migraine headaches have complex and poorly understood causes, but widely fluctuating blood vessel diameters within the head lead to most of the symptoms, as stated in "The Mechanism and Management of Headache." Initially, due to a variety of causal factors, the blood vessels that supply certain parts of the brain constrict, or become too small, which can cause strange visual phenomena to occur, called auras. Shortly thereafter, the body overcompensates by dramatically dilating the same blood vessels, which causes pressure and pounding head pain that can last for hours. Caffeine interferes with the actions of adenosine, a brain neurotransmitter that promotes vasodilation and blood flow in the brain and throughout the body. Consequently, caffeine can cause vasoconstriction and reduce blood flow to the head by up to 30 percent, and abort or reduce the painful stages of most migraine headaches, according to "Human Biochemistry and Disease." Obviously, dark chocolate with its high percentage of cocoa powder would be best type to combat these headaches."

So in knowing that, I would suggest trying a "cleaner" chocolate than the eggs (like something with purer ingredients - Whole Foods has a whole 1/2 aisle) that has a higher caffeine content. Generally, the higher the cocoa content, the more caffeine there is.

Now, THAT being said - you also know that a good organic herbal tea ALSO contains caffeine. Which is, of course, the lesser of two evils here.

So - baby steps. I don't want anyone to get overwhelmed making too many lifestyle changes overnight. But those are a couple suggestions for you. I'd say to ALSO keep in mind that a side effect of sugar detox is headaches and migraines. So if you're doing really well cutting down on your sweets, that might be playing a role as well.

Too nice of a day to be inside. Just went for a nice walk with my lovely wife Bree and my dog Neela. 3 miles in about 50 minutes. Now a quick ball workout before shower and bed. Busy week starts tomorrow. Keep up all the hard work everyone.

So excited for good weather!!! Love that you guys are taking advantage of it and getting outside. Dave and I went to the park in Downtown Rochester yesterday and walked around for about an hour. Not sure how far we went - but it was so nice!!

Week 2 challenges start tomorrow - woohoo!!!