Stepping out of my comfort zone...

I like to refer to Lifestyle as the "I need to read labels and remove all sugars from my diet" level. The Lifestyle Level is the middle ground of the WLC nutrition levels. You need to pay detailed attention to your food choices but you will have more flexibility especially when it comes to eating out. In order to try to prevent having 53155 blog posts on the WLC nutritional levels, I have condensed the Lifestyle and Lifestyle Vegetarian into one list.  So I ask forgiveness from our veggie friends for the inclusion on meat and dairy products in the list. NOTE:  Like my Kickstarter review, these rules apply to the January 2018 WLC as it applies to Team BFF. What CAN you eat with no deductions: -- Meat including bacon (even if sugar is an ingredient) -- Deli meat that is only meat, water and seasoning -- Fermented soy (tempeh, miso) -- Vegetables (with the exception of the yucca and taro) -- Legumes with the exception of soybeans (including tofu) -- All fruit...

The nutritional levels and what is compliant/not compliant has the biggest learning curve when it comes to the Whole Life Challenge (WLC)  because its not a one size fits all approach.  WLC requires the players to commit to 1 of 3 levels of nutritional play prior to the start of the round:  Kickstarter, Lifestyle and Performance.  Each nutritional play level is focused on making healthier food choices with Kickstarter having the fewest rules to Performance having the most. On forums and FB you will see the rules of each level debated endlessly.  So in order to keep everyone on Team BFF on the same playing field, we will all play using the "team" rules outlined in here.  The Team Captain believe these rules fulfill the intent and mission of WLC and if something seems odd, let me know and I will reach out to WLC for clarification.  Note:  The levels and what is allowed/not allowed changes from WLC round to WLC round so be sure to review your nut...

For the last two plus years, I have the Captain of a Whole Life Challenge  , Team BFF.  Whole Life Challenge (WLC) is a 6-week challenge focusing on 7 habits - nutrition, exercise, mobility, sleep, hydration, well-being and reflection.  Players commit to these 7 habits for the 6-weeks, score daily and earn prizes along the way.  WLC provides an app for the day-to-day game play and Team BFF has a Facebook group for team support, motivation and questions.  I have either been doing a series of posts on the background or a virtual kickoff meeting on how-tos for each challenge but it clutters the FB group and convenient scheduling can be difficult.  For this round (starting January 20, 2018), I thought I would use my rarely-used blog to "host" these posts.  Hopefully in the next week or so, I can find some time write a blog post on my experiences with WLC and why I continue to play.   Here is the Team BFF summary on each habit, how it is scored ...

Photo Credit:  Yankee Springs FB event Way back in October, MM decided that we should put a trail race on our calendar for December/January as an incentive for her to start running again after her bike accident and to keep me motivated through the cold temps we knew we were coming.  We had originally decided on the 1 loop at the Huff Trail Run but a conflict with dates had us searching for another option.  We found and tentatively agreed to the Yankee Springs Winter Challenge  in Middleville, Michigan.  But no actually money was put down. I knew next to nothing about the race other than I had once been on the Yankee Springs mountain bike trails a few years back on a bike in the summer.  That was a pleasant experience so when a FB notification alerted me at the end of November that  price increase was coming and there was only 1-2 cabins left for the event, I texted MM and within minutes we were registered and had secured a cabin.  My coach, ...

Way back in November, a fellow Team SFQ and Team HPB teammate, Mary , post about a 21-day mediation challenge that Jess and Goldlyn  were leading.  Mary had attended a clinic with Jess a few weeks before and she had posted about her experience on her blog and I was intrigued.  My prior experiences and views on mediation were not favorable.  I thought it was all hocus pocus or as  the boy refers to it "voodoo magic".  While meditation or mindful breathing would periodically show up as a lifestyle practice during the Whole Life Challenge (WLC), I would mock the entire practice and never really fully try to focus on my breath while I listened to a 10-minute guided mediation.  All I cared about was being able to say I mediated for 10 minutes so I could get my points.  The 7 days would go by and my mediation "practice" (along with all of the associated whining about having to mediated) would be done until it was forced upon me again by WLC. ...

This past Saturday I was supposed to complete my final long open water swim of 8 miles prior to "To the bridge and back".  So around 9am I gathered my wetsuit, body glide and nutrition and headed to Ohio Street Beach.  While getting a late start is never ideal for Lake Michigan conditions (as it usually gets waver the later in the day it gets), I wanted to wait for the sun to come up since its been getting cool at night.  On my walk from the car to the beach, I saw the following: A man in a puffy coat with a toque A women in a knee length Northface jacket and Uggs Several people in gloves and winter hats Many people shivering in hoodies (with the hoods up) So in other words, while I was going to swim, the rest of Chicago was hunkering down for winter. I arrived at the beach to find less than ideal conditions.  The waves were rolling in and the swells were crashing above the seawall and onto the running path.  And there was no other swimmers to be fou...