Rocktober

October is here and I'm doing my little challenge. One thing that was interesting about starting a challenge on the beginning of the month is it made me have to clean up my act on a Sunday instead of waiting until Monday like I normally do. I was ready for it though. I decided I was going to have pizza on Friday and we didn't go to my favorite pizza place but the pizza was OK. We had pretzel bites with nacho cheese while we waited for the pizza and I could only eat 2 pieces of pizza, it was so filling. I wasn't overly stuffed but I ended up getting sick overnight so I probably won't eat pizza at that place again! I told my husband jokingly, "My body rejected the carbs!" LOL Saturday I had a sub with the bread and a grilled chicken sandwich with a cup of Chicken Booyah, and that was it for the day. I had my last flavored drink Saturday evening,a Powerade Zero, then switched over to plain water in preparation for the start of the month on Sunday. I am giving myself the option to have my sugar free sweetener in my drinks with meals, but I haven't done it yet because I just think it's going to make it much harder to not have it the rest of the time. I will say that I am doing much better without it than last time I tried to have less of it. That time, I was allowing it during my entire eating window, whether I was eating or not, and then not having any sweeteners when I was fasting, and it really got to me. I had a few drinks with the allowed apple cider vinegar, lemon or lime juice and I really can't taste the lemon or lime much so I have mostly just been drinking my coffee black and my water plain. As far as exercise, my tentative goal is to do weight training Monday, Wednesday and Friday and yoga Tuesday and Thursday with the weekends free choice of exercise or rest. I joined a Peleton challenge that is to complete 5 strength training sessions in the app. If I stick to my goal of 3 a week, I should end up doing 13 strength classes this month. I'm hoping that will build the habit of working out again so I can keep it going indefinitely. Today I did a glutes and leg workout and I definitely learned some new moves and can tell I will be sore. That's why I am leaving a day in between strength sessions, but I will train different body parts each of the 3 days. Food has been good too. I am eating more protein with ground chicken taco bowls, tuna wrapped in seaweed and carnitas. I am making it work and the carb counts are staying low. I fasted 18 hours yesterday and 15 today, so that is back in place. I am happy to discover that my body pretty much stayed adapted to my 15 hour fast, I can go 15 hours without any trouble. I already did my longer fast this week, but I may do a 24 or 36 hour fast in the coming weeks. I originally wanted to do a 72 hour fast this year but I am not sure I am ready for that yet. Maybe before the end of the year I will try 48 hours. Anyway, the first 2 days are in the books and I feel good about it. My weigh in yesterday was 162.8 so I will be interested to see if I can get down under 160 this month. Even if I don't, overcoming challenges is much more powerful than a number on the scale! Hope you are all ready to rock your October. Or, Rocktober, as it should be called!