Ebb&Flow

Oh geez, the first thing my eye caught when I went there was Pumpkin Cinnamon Muffins and Cinnamon Chocolate Swirl Banana Bread. I think I could learn to love this site very, very quickly. I was at the grocery store earlier yesterday and noticed that Pumpkin flavour everything is starting to show up on shelves and I've had a mean craving since. So far I've been making do with oregano for my chicken and basil for my pasta dishes, but I'll try picking up some of those other ones next thyme I'm shopping ;D! Arghh, thank ye kindly! That thar Batwoman be having some mighty fine tracking skills. May the winds be in your favour Amdhiel! Heya Starsapart! Sorry for the delay in responding! Been crazy busy with assignments and labs, but I must say, I think I've been making some nice progress and stayed rock solid through it (exempting sleep time...). I bestow upon to you my NF logs! My Daily Logs are all up to date and have been updated even when I don't post to here and I put notes in them for what I did for work-outs just so I remember exactly what was accomplished when. I have to say, one of my favourite times in my Daily Battle Log is the Monthly Summaries! It's really neat to compare how I'm doing month to month and it's awesome to see the sum total of what was done in a month just from small incremental workouts. But alas, without further ado! Day 268 [september 25, 2014] Really tired day today, not sure why but just didn’t have much personality going on today. Invited out to karaoke and a couple other things with friends but instead opted for an early night in bed. I pushed out the pull-ups and planks and felt pretty decent about increasing my max time on my plank from a previous. 2:43 plank on Sept. 8. It’s only 30 seconds, but it feels like a nice little boon on a tired night. 3x10 Pull-ups and a 3:16 plank Completed. Daily Logs Updated Day 269 [september 26, 2014] Today was a hard class of Capoeira, we focused heavily on kicks and counters. My legs are still getting back into the game after such a long break from the intensity but the counters to the kicks are what really got them burning. Instant bursts of speed to cover a lot of ground quickly followed up by grounding and countering definitely tuckered me out. Good class all the same and had a lot of fun perfecting the timing of some of my counters. 1hr30min Capoeira Class Completed. Day 270 [september 27, 2014] Spent a nice long time working on projects in the park since it was just so beautiful out today! Going out to a friend’s party to play Cards Against Humanity tonight, so I busted through some push-ups for my daily’s before heading out! I also made Slow Cooker BBQ Chicken from a recipe I found online. So I’ll post the recipe below too. Overall I didn’t mind it, but its flavour was really taken over by the BBQ sauce, which is fine, it just didn’t provide a very dynamic flavour. It did make the chicken gorgeously tender though, which was nice! 4x20 +10 Push-ups Completed. Slow Cooker BBQ Chicken · 2 Boneless, Skinless, Chicken Breasts · 17.5 fl.oz. BBQ Sauce (That’s a lotta BBQ sauce O_O) · 1 oz Dry Ranch Salad Dressing Mix (mehhhh, didn’t taste it at all, the BBQ sauce was too overpowering) · 2 Tablespoons Butter (mmm butter :3) Day 271 [september 28, 2014] After going out the night before and staying up late, this day feels like it was rushed. Wasn’t quite as productive in the schoolwork as I would like to be but, got some solid work done before I called it quits for the night. Also increased the time interval on my planks as I mentioned previously, this provides a much nicer intensity for my third rep and I may stick with it for a few more runs. 3x10 Pull-ups and 3x1min20s planks Completed. Day 272 [september 29, 2014] Updated my Daily Logs today, but didn’t have time to upload them to NF yet. Busy, busy day that covered a lot of ground but not very much workload unfortunately. Still sore after the Capoeira class on Friday, so I incorporated a lot more stretching into my routine between the pull-ups. I also tried some Wall Sits just because it felt appropriate with all the leg stretching I was doing. 3x10 Pull-ups and 3x1min30s parallel wall sits (Apparently these are called Roman Chairs?) Completed. Day 273 [september 30, 2014] So another month comes to a close. September seems to have gone ridiculously fast and I’ve managed to keep up the daily logs with strong regularity. The daily workouts have been doing their job in creating a space for exercise and being used to expand or experiment on different things. Midterms are looming in the near future and the time to kick into high-gear before frantic-gear engages is now. I worked late on some homework tonight but the exercise I do before bed has a wonderful habit of stimulating me for an added hour or more, so it was quite productive work. 3x30 Push-ups Completed. MONTHLY SUMMARY Total Push-ups: 1040 Total Pull-Ups: 367 Total Plank Time: 24 mins 14 s Total Roman Chair Time: 4 min 30 s Total Capoeira Classes: 3 Day 274 [October 1, 2014] Very late night working on a lab report today. I used my work-out as a stimulant once I started getting tired and lazy and found that it worked very nicely yet again. Got the work that was required done for the next day but will definitely be paying the price for losing so much sleep for the next two days. 3x10 Pull-ups and 3x1min20s Planks Completed. Day 275 [October 2, 2014] Attended a meeting to try initiate a capoeira club within my university and it looks like it will be a feasible thing to accomplish. This is excellent news as it both allows me to have an extra class a week, but will also begin bringing me back up to my previously skill levels. Due to surprise social events, I was left scrambling at the end of the day to complete my workouts but I managed to get a reasonable minimal amount in before bed despite the late hours. 1x15 Pull-ups and 30 Push-ups Completed. Day 276 [October 3, 2014] Two nights in a row of minimal sleep is starting to pile up. That’s the crux of the problem isn’t it? I want to perform well in school (which is difficult on minimal sleep) but being my final year of university I want to enjoy the time I have left with the amazing people I’ve met. A friend once told me that, “Nobody remembers the nights they got a good sleepâ€, and in many ways it’s true. So I’m definitely going to fail my life challenge: Riverbed. But given that I’m out enjoying my time with friends, I feel like prioritizing a balance over a perfect GPA may be more appropriate at this point in my life. Capoeira class was good, but between a small head cold (sore throat and cough) that popped up and the lack of sleep, I felt out of my element and it showed in my games. 1hr30mins of Capoeira Class Completed. Day 277 [October 4, 2014] Very lazy Saturday. Caught up on a lot of rest and sleep. Also watched the Amazing Spiderman 1 and 2, which I figure is a pretty decent role-model for when I join the Assassin’s next challenge! 3x10 Pull-ups Completed. Day 278 [October 5, 2014] Wellllll, I almost missed out on my quest: Swim Through My Veins this week just due to the crazy workload, lack of sleep and sudden onset of a cold at the end. But ALAS! I found a quick and dirty recipe (yup, from the grocery store) that I’ll be om-nom-noming on tonight! Pulled (Pork)Chicken here I come! I almost feel I’m cheating because I took 2 really easy ones in a row but I’ll make up for it by cooking something neat or 2 neat things this week in that bad boy. Today has been dedicated to homework, but my focus has been broken at best, so I’m going to buckle down and keep grinding. I’m definitely getting a flu though, which is draining at best. On the plus side, the Pulled Chicken waiting for me when I got home was the most glorious of godsends. The chicken was super tender and when served with rice and veggies, filled me right up and made me feel human again. 3x10 Pull-ups and 3x1min20s Planks Completed. Pulled Chicken · 1 Packet of Pulled Chicken Spices · 1 Cup of Ketchup · ½ Cup of Brown Sugar · ½ Cup of Water

Day 268 [september 25, 2014] Really tired day today, not sure why but just didn’t have much personality going on today. Invited out to karaoke and a couple other things with friends but instead opted for an early night in bed. I pushed out the pull-ups and planks and felt pretty decent about increasing my max time on my plank from a previous. 2:43 plank on Sept. 8. It’s only 30 seconds, but it feels like a nice little boon on a tired night. 3x10 Pull-ups and a 3:16 plank Completed. Daily Logs Updated Day 269 [september 26, 2014] Today was a hard class of Capoeira, we focused heavily on kicks and counters. My legs are still getting back into the game after such a long break from the intensity but the counters to the kicks are what really got them burning. Instant bursts of speed to cover a lot of ground quickly followed up by grounding and countering definitely tuckered me out. Good class all the same and had a lot of fun perfecting the timing of some of my counters. 1hr30min Capoeira Class Completed. Day 270 [september 27, 2014] Spent a nice long time working on projects in the park since it was just so beautiful out today! Going out to a friend’s party to play Cards Against Humanity tonight, so I busted through some push-ups for my daily’s before heading out! I also made Slow Cooker BBQ Chicken from a recipe I found online. So I’ll post the recipe below too. Overall I didn’t mind it, but its flavour was really taken over by the BBQ sauce, which is fine, it just didn’t provide a very dynamic flavour. It did make the chicken gorgeously tender though, which was nice! 4x20 +10 Push-ups Completed. Slow Cooker BBQ Chicken · 2 Boneless, Skinless, Chicken Breasts · 17.5 fl.oz. BBQ Sauce (That’s a lotta BBQ sauce O_O) · 1 oz Dry Ranch Salad Dressing Mix (mehhhh, didn’t taste it at all, the BBQ sauce was too overpowering) · 2 Tablespoons Butter (mmm butter :3) Day 271 [september 28, 2014] After going out the night before and staying up late, this day feels like it was rushed. Wasn’t quite as productive in the schoolwork as I would like to be but, got some solid work done before I called it quits for the night. Also increased the time interval on my planks as I mentioned previously, this provides a much nicer intensity for my third rep and I may stick with it for a few more runs. 3x10 Pull-ups and 3x1min20s planks Completed. Day 272 [september 29, 2014] Updated my Daily Logs today, but didn’t have time to upload them to NF yet. Busy, busy day that covered a lot of ground but not very much workload unfortunately. Still sore after the Capoeira class on Friday, so I incorporated a lot more stretching into my routine between the pull-ups. I also tried some Wall Sits just because it felt appropriate with all the leg stretching I was doing. 3x10 Pull-ups and 3x1min30s parallel wall sits (Apparently these are called Roman Chairs?) Completed. Day 273 [september 30, 2014] So another month comes to a close. September seems to have gone ridiculously fast and I’ve managed to keep up the daily logs with strong regularity. The daily workouts have been doing their job in creating a space for exercise and being used to expand or experiment on different things. Midterms are looming in the near future and the time to kick into high-gear before frantic-gear engages is now. I worked late on some homework tonight but the exercise I do before bed has a wonderful habit of stimulating me for an added hour or more, so it was quite productive work. 3x30 Push-ups Completed. MONTHLY SUMMARY Total Push-ups: 1040 Total Pull-Ups: 367 Total Plank Time: 24 mins 14 s Total Roman Chair Time: 4 min 30 s Total Capoeira Classes: 3 Day 274 [October 1, 2014] Very late night working on a lab report today. I used my work-out as a stimulant once I started getting tired and lazy and found that it worked very nicely yet again. Got the work that was required done for the next day but will definitely be paying the price for losing so much sleep for the next two days. 3x10 Pull-ups and 3x1min20s Planks Completed. Day 275 [October 2, 2014] Attended a meeting to try initiate a capoeira club within my university and it looks like it will be a feasible thing to accomplish. This is excellent news as it both allows me to have an extra class a week, but will also begin bringing me back up to my previously skill levels. Due to surprise social events, I was left scrambling at the end of the day to complete my workouts but I managed to get a reasonable minimal amount in before bed despite the late hours. 1x15 Pull-ups and 30 Push-ups Completed. Day 276 [October 3, 2014] Two nights in a row of minimal sleep is starting to pile up. That’s the crux of the problem isn’t it? I want to perform well in school (which is difficult on minimal sleep) but being my final year of university I want to enjoy the time I have left with the amazing people I’ve met. A friend once told me that, “Nobody remembers the nights they got a good sleepâ€, and in many ways it’s true. So I’m definitely going to fail my life challenge: Riverbed. But given that I’m out enjoying my time with friends, I feel like prioritizing a balance over a perfect GPA may be more appropriate at this point in my life. Capoeira class was good, but between a small head cold (sore throat and cough) that popped up and the lack of sleep, I felt out of my element and it showed in my games. 1hr30mins of Capoeira Class Completed. Day 277 [October 4, 2014] Very lazy Saturday. Caught up on a lot of rest and sleep. Also watched the Amazing Spiderman 1 and 2, which I figure is a pretty decent role-model for when I join the Assassin’s next challenge! 3x10 Pull-ups Completed. Day 278 [October 5, 2014] Wellllll, I almost missed out on my quest: Swim Through My Veins this week just due to the crazy workload, lack of sleep and sudden onset of a cold at the end. But ALAS! I found a quick and dirty recipe (yup, from the grocery store) that I’ll be om-nom-noming on tonight! Pulled (Pork)Chicken here I come! I almost feel I’m cheating because I took 2 really easy ones in a row but I’ll make up for it by cooking something neat or 2 neat things this week in that bad boy. Today has been dedicated to homework, but my focus has been broken at best, so I’m going to buckle down and keep grinding. I’m definitely getting a flu though, which is draining at best. On the plus side, the Pulled Chicken waiting for me when I got home was the most glorious of godsends. The chicken was super tender and when served with rice and veggies, filled me right up and made me feel human again. 3x10 Pull-ups and 3x1min20s Planks Completed. Pulled Chicken · 1 Packet of Pulled Chicken Spices · 1 Cup of Ketchup · ½ Cup of Brown Sugar · ½ Cup of Water

Heyo folks! Ebb&Flow dropping in and scooping up some Charisma! I've decided to follow PiRX and Syren for the time being and will probably pick up a few more topics as the challenges progress. Looking forward to seeing ya all in the next mini-challenge!

Hey PiRX! I noticed that you wanna join the assassin's too, so I came and checked out your topic! I'm a huge fan of rollerblading too and your main goals are rock solid (like those abs you're gonna have)! Been thoroughly enjoying reading your topic and looking forward to more! Keep up the good work man!

Hey Syren! We've been chatting in my thread so I came and checked out your challenge thread! I like the challenges, especially the Study Experimental Design one haha! I know the feel of taking a gross course like that and I'm hoping to keep my own head above water during exams too. I might try your method of dedicating a small chunk of time each day and incorporating the study into a wider forum like this! Anyways, I hope the test went well for ya and that you go for a good hard swim to shake the brain friedness! I know a good workout always helps clear my head too. ^*How I feel during a hard exam. I may or may not do the flailing too....*

Ohh super fun! I'm guessing that your focus is in biology (not statistics) then? Hope it went well! From the looks of those snazzy looking bars in your signature it seems like you've been putting some good effort in so It'll be awesome to hear the results!

Hey folks! I was linked over here by Lullaby and have gotta say I think I found my new home once my first challenge is done! I feel like my spirit animal is doing a good job of relaying how I feel! Check 'im out! *Ebb&Flow Enters the Fray*

@Syren: Oh god, that's so soon! I'm kinda at that phase in the semester where I'm realizing that I'm still keeping ahead in my work, but the conceptual knowledge of the material is falling behind a bit. I think I need to spend some good time reinforcing some idea's in my head before I start down that slippery slope. If you don't mind me asking, what's your exam on? @Lullaby: This is wonderful news =D! I've looked into the paleo meals and I think it's an interesting concept but I know I simply wouldn't be able to cook meals with enough "OOMPH" to keep me energetic throughout the day. I'm a pretty lanky guy as is, so I need all the calories I can get haha. You hit the nail on the head for why I didn't use it XD! I'm not sure what herbs I want to involve in my new cooking regiment so buying parsley seemed silly to me but now that I know it comes dried it may be worth the investment. Side note: Also I realized last night that I hadn't been taking my life quest, Riverbed, seriously because I haven't been taking note of the times I'm going to bed. So I don't actually have a clue on how I've been doing in that respect! So now that I'm aware of that little derp, I think I'll adjust my Daily Logs to include bed times. Other than that I feel like I'm doing a pretty decent job of keeping these habits firmly in hand. I just need to pick up some supplies for a slow-cooker meal tomorrow so I have lots of good energy for my Capoeira class after school. Day 264 [september 21, 2014] Today I spent a lot of time grinding through work at a library so needless to say, by the time my daily work-out came around I was so ready to stretch out and get the body moving. Mentally exhausted but physically cramped from sitting at a library desk all day, these pull-ups felt like a godsend. I even added (and increased) my planks to this workout to just straighten everything out again haha. The last set of pull-ups went to failure and I sadly couldn't finish another full set of 5 pull-ups. The planks I feel are at a decent difficulty but could probably be increased incrementally. 10, 5, 5, 5, 3 Pull-ups and 5x 75s planks (between each set of pull-ups) Completed. Day 265 [september 22, 2014] Do ALL THE THINGS! So today I juggled a bunch of assignment and group work and managed to sneak my daily's in while running around doing laundry (my apartment is on the fifth floor, the gym is on the third and the laundry room is on the second). So I did three sets of 10 pull-ups and was very happy that I managed to complete the second set of 10 with lot of energy left for the last set of 10.This is probably because I was doing the sets at about 5 minute intervals instead of my usual 30s-60s since I was doing them between my runs up and down the stairs. 3x10 Pull-ups Completed. Day 266 [september 23, 2014] In class all day. Quite literally stuck in classes or project work until 22:30 today. Once I got home, I had one more assignment to polish off before the next day and it drained my motivation to drag my butt down to the pull-up bar in the gym. Instead I opted for an alternative workout that I haven't done in quite a while: Push-ups! Hurray! Since I consider push-ups easier to do than pull-ups I opted to double-up plus some before dropping dead into bed for the night. Felt good to work the different muscle groups after going hard on the pull-ups over the last few days. 4x20 Push-ups Completed. Day 267 [september 24, 2014] This is where the Level-Up mentality of NerdFitness burns strongly! Today I wanted to do my minimum of 15 pull-ups and move on. Instead I remembered that earlier this week I had a limit at 10,5,5,5,3 and decided that I was going to do one more. Why? Because I was curious :3. Turns out it worked and it felt pretty great! 10, 5, 5, 5, 4 Pull-ups Completed.

Day 264 [september 21, 2014] Today I spent a lot of time grinding through work at a library so needless to say, by the time my daily work-out came around I was so ready to stretch out and get the body moving. Mentally exhausted but physically cramped from sitting at a library desk all day, these pull-ups felt like a godsend. I even added (and increased) my planks to this workout to just straighten everything out again haha. The last set of pull-ups went to failure and I sadly couldn't finish another full set of 5 pull-ups. The planks I feel are at a decent difficulty but could probably be increased incrementally. 10, 5, 5, 5, 3 Pull-ups and 5x 75s planks (between each set of pull-ups) Completed. Day 265 [september 22, 2014] Do ALL THE THINGS! So today I juggled a bunch of assignment and group work and managed to sneak my daily's in while running around doing laundry (my apartment is on the fifth floor, the gym is on the third and the laundry room is on the second). So I did three sets of 10 pull-ups and was very happy that I managed to complete the second set of 10 with lot of energy left for the last set of 10.This is probably because I was doing the sets at about 5 minute intervals instead of my usual 30s-60s since I was doing them between my runs up and down the stairs. 3x10 Pull-ups Completed. Day 266 [september 23, 2014] In class all day. Quite literally stuck in classes or project work until 22:30 today. Once I got home, I had one more assignment to polish off before the next day and it drained my motivation to drag my butt down to the pull-up bar in the gym. Instead I opted for an alternative workout that I haven't done in quite a while: Push-ups! Hurray! Since I consider push-ups easier to do than pull-ups I opted to double-up plus some before dropping dead into bed for the night. Felt good to work the different muscle groups after going hard on the pull-ups over the last few days. 4x20 Push-ups Completed. Day 267 [september 24, 2014] This is where the Level-Up mentality of NerdFitness burns strongly! Today I wanted to do my minimum of 15 pull-ups and move on. Instead I remembered that earlier this week I had a limit at 10,5,5,5,3 and decided that I was going to do one more. Why? Because I was curious :3. Turns out it worked and it felt pretty great! 10, 5, 5, 5, 4 Pull-ups Completed.

Hey folks! I figured I'd throw my own assessment in here too. It's been a week in the challenge and I figure it's a good time for me to take a moment and review! Is your overall quest achievable (over a short or long period of time)? Is it reasonable? ​My overall quest: Laminar Flow is very reasonable given the long period of time I'm taking to develop some pretty basic but extremely helpful habits. I'll need these habits more than ever during exam periods and mid-term season will be an excellent time to beta-test and tweak anything prior to the next challenge! Do your 3 quests all build towards your main quest in little ways, or are you taking on too much? Do your quests have sub-quests or is it just one thing to focus on? My 3 quests take on three very important pillars in my life: nutrition, physical activity and mental/accountability. They all build towards a strong base upon which I can build more elaborate future challenges on, while still giving me a baseline to always return to in times of stress. Are your main goals realistic? Can you scale them to smaller steps to fit your life better, even if it will make it take a little longer to achieve them? I believe that logging activities each day can be unreasonable so I've chosen to readjust that to having a log of each day. Essentially that gives me some extra time to let a day or 3 go by before needing to update my logs. My other two are based around feeding myself properly and maintaining a bare minimum baseline of physical activity, so I don't believe these should need to be scaled at all. Are your goals able to be measured and tracked? What will you use to track them? Tracking is actually a quest for me, I've been using Evernote to keep my daily logs and short records of my physical activity up to date, and using my Daily Battle Log here on NerdFitness to track my physical and nutritional adventures. How are you grading your goals? Are they pass/fail (“every dayâ€, “not even once over the six weeksâ€)? Is there a reward for the effort, or are you only grading yourself on whether or not you “lose the weight†or “run the distanceâ€? My goals are pass fail. There is no reason I should drop below the minimum physical activity I laid out for myself besides laziness and that's not an acceptable excuse for me. The other two quests are either completed or they are not, there is no real middle ground in making 1 slowcooker meal a week or whether a log exists for the day. What is your plan for continuing/altering/grading those goals if you become ill or injured? Even when I'm sick, I should be able to continue these. In fact, the slow cooker meals may become lifesavers because they require so little work input and guarantee I'm eating properly to recover quicker. Did you take into consideration any special occasions (Labour Day, Independence Day, birthdays, anniversaries, etc) that may occur during the challenge? What modifications do you need to build into your goals for those? Special occasions won't affect my quests for this challenge or in the future, the days are long and 15 pull-ups are a very short minimum exercise, additionally slow cooker meals can be popular when shared =D! Do any of your main goals conflict with each other? Will one goal make it hard to do another? Ideally I've arranged them to compliment each other! Tracking guarantee's I continued doing them, slow-cooker meals ensure I have leftovers to guarantee I'm eating properly as I slowly toggle up my exercise regime (which will make me hungrier). Do you already have the time in your schedule to actually complete the goals you’ve set? If not, what are you planning to do to make time for them? I've been finding the time right before bed, or en route to somewhere is typically best for the work-outs, while days that I'm extremely busy seem best suited for slow cooker meals! Are you trying to build multiple habits, or is all your energy focused on your main quest? Multiple habits are being formed but they all contribute to the creation of Laminar Flow. The smooth navigation of intensive testing in the coming months! If all three habits are firmly in place, I will have a great deal of control over minute aspects of my life that can crumble quickly and cause stress to pile up. Thanks for listening folks! It's been great reading through the responses posted up already and I look forward to seeing the responses to the next Mini-Dungeon.

Hey again folks! Ebb&Flow back with an update from the week! The challenge is moving along nicely and I've been keeping to my daily habit-forming goals quite nicely if I may say so myself. I've continued to challenge myself physically and the realm of cooking is opening up before me. I've experimented with Lemon Garlic Chicken (I would totally make this again), learned how to bake cookies from a friend and am generally just enjoying the feeling of letting these habits find a cozy little home in my life. @Lullaby: Thanks, I'm definitely going to be bothering ya for more yummy recipes and places to find them then! Are you currently focused on Paleo recipes (I know it's an extremely popular lifestyle here at NF) or do you pull resources from all over? Haha thanks! I just checked out your challenge thread and it's looking pretty sharp! I'm especially a fan of the ground beef on a plate recipe =D! Day 260 [september 17, 2014] Sometimes these daily's are just too conveniently place in my life. On my way out of my apartment (I live on the 5th floor and always take the stairs down) is a gym on the 3rd floor with a really sketchy looking pull-up bar rigged up to the second floor of the gym railing (I'll take a picture one of these days, it's actually kinda funny...). So on my way out for the evening it's easy to make a quick stop, pump out my daily physical requirements and keep on moving. Today I noticed that the strength is very rapidly returning so I added another 5 pull-ups to my regime. 1x10, 2x5 Pull-ups Completed. Day 261 [september 18, 2014] Stayed over at a friend's place and they were kind enough to lend me their pull-up bar to complete my Daily's! It was one of those pull-up bars you set up into the top of a doorway and it felt pretty good. It felt rock solid at the very least. I'm too tall for doorways like that though, so needless to say, it was interesting doing pull-ups while maintaining a kneeling position the entire time. Additionally I added 5 more pull-ups to the workout. I also learned how to bake cookies from a friend today. I figure if I continue to build on my current skills and expand my repertoire beyond just simply meal based cooking I'll probably get more confident experimenting in the kitchen and just generally enjoy the experience a bit more. So far, so good! 1x10, 3x5 Pull-ups Completed. Day 262 [september 19, 2014] CAPOEIRA DAY! Hoo-RAH! Awesome class with a heavy focus on some more physically demanding acrobatics which I thoroughly enjoyed! Sparring was high energy and the class provided an excellent workout for my day! Additionally I chose today to make my Lemon-Garlic Chicken in the slow-cooker since I knew that I'd be needing quick but high energy food for the evening. Turned out great! I'm not usually a fan of garlic, but I love lemons and the chicken turned out excellently when combined with some rice and a little soy sauce. Here's the recipe for anyone interested! 1hr30min Capoeira Class Completed. Lemon-Garlic Chicken Slow-Cooker1 teaspoon Dried Oregano.5 teaspoon Salt.25 teaspoon Ground Black Pepper2 Tablespoon Butter1 teaspoon minced garlic1 teaspoon chicken bouillon granules [Won't lie, had to find someone in the grocery store who knew what this was. Let that be an indicator for my newb-level cooking skills.]1 teaspoon freshly chopped spinach [This was supposed to be parsley, but parsley is silly and I never use it so I substituted spinach. I'd add more than a teaspoon in the future.] .25 cup water3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice [Mmm...Generous Tablespoons...]2 lb skinless, boneless chicken breasts Day 263 [september 20, 2014] Family visited and brought me some yummy treats. Other than that no extraordinary physical or challenge based goals completed besides updating my daily logs and sharing them all with you fine folks here at NF! The planks felt good as a rest between the pull-ups but I may increase the time-interval next time to challenge myself further. 1x10, 3x5 Pull-ups with 60s Planks between each set (4x60s Planks) Completed. Daily Logs updated for Sept.17 to Sept.20.

Day 260 [september 17, 2014] Sometimes these daily's are just too conveniently place in my life. On my way out of my apartment (I live on the 5th floor and always take the stairs down) is a gym on the 3rd floor with a really sketchy looking pull-up bar rigged up to the second floor of the gym railing (I'll take a picture one of these days, it's actually kinda funny...). So on my way out for the evening it's easy to make a quick stop, pump out my daily physical requirements and keep on moving. Today I noticed that the strength is very rapidly returning so I added another 5 pull-ups to my regime. 1x10, 2x5 Pull-ups Completed. Day 261 [september 18, 2014] Stayed over at a friend's place and they were kind enough to lend me their pull-up bar to complete my Daily's! It was one of those pull-up bars you set up into the top of a doorway and it felt pretty good. It felt rock solid at the very least. I'm too tall for doorways like that though, so needless to say, it was interesting doing pull-ups while maintaining a kneeling position the entire time. I also added 5 more pull-ups to the workout since I had an audience and I do love to perform for spectators! 1x10, 3x5 Pull-ups Completed. Day 262 [september 19, 2014] CAPOEIRA DAY! Hoo-RAH! Awesome class with a heavy focus on some more physically demanding acrobatics which I thoroughly enjoyed! Sparring was high energy and the class provided an excellent workout for my day! Additionally I chose today to make my Lemon-Garlic Chicken in the slow-cooker since I knew that I'd be needing quick but high energy food for the evening. Turned out great! I'm not usually a fan of garlic, but I love lemons and the chicken turned out excellently when combined with some rice and a little soy sauce. Here's the recipe for anyone interested! 1hr30min Capoeira Class Completed. Lemon-Garlic Chicken Slow-Cooker1 teaspoon Dried Oregano.5 teaspoon Salt.25 teaspoon Ground Black Pepper2 Tablespoon Butter1 teaspoon minced garlic1 teaspoon chicken bouillon granules [Won't lie, had to find someone in the grocery store who knew what this was. Let that be an indicator for my newb-level cooking skills.]1 teaspoon freshly chopped spinach [This was supposed to be parsley, but parsley is silly and I never use it so I substituted spinach. I'd add more than a teaspoon in the future.] .25 cup water3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice [Mmm...Generous Tablespoons...]2 lb skinless, boneless chicken breasts Day 263 [september 20, 2014] Family visited and brought me some yummy treats. Other than that no extraordinary physical or challenge based goals completed besides updating my daily logs and sharing them all with you fine folks here at NF! The planks felt good as a rest between the pull-ups but I may increase the time-interval next time to challenge myself further. 1x10, 3x5 Pull-ups with 60s Planks between each set (4x60s Planks) Completed. Daily Logs updated for Sept.17 to Sept.20.

Hi Lullaby! It's a pleasure to meet you and I'm super excited that an Ambassador of the Assassin Guild made the first post in my topic =D! Because you guys are the guild I hope to join in the future! Thank you for all the links, I've been checking them all out as I get time between classes! Also a big thanks on the recommendation for slow-cooker/freezer meal websites! The websites I've been trying have been shoddy at best and I usually end up wasting a lot of time before finding something that I can reasonably cook. I'm going to be trying a lemon-garlic chicken recipe in the slow-cooker this Friday so look forward to some...interesting responses haha! [Challenge Updates] Day 258 [september 15, 2014] So in the interest of starting off the challenge strong, I performed these push-ups while writing up my Challenge post. I figure it's only fair that I go above and beyond the minimum of 15 pull-ups (or equivalent) in order to kick it off with a bang! 6x20 Push-ups Completed. Daily Log kept up to date. Day 259 [september 16, 2014] Busy, busy, busy day today! But two important tasks for my challenge got completed. The first is that I picked up supplies for a Lemon-Garlic Chicken recipe I found online and the second is I got my 3x5 pull-ups in along the way to the grocery store! I'm a huge fan of finding new places to work out and luckily there was scaffolding en route just asking to be used for pull-ups! I was actually decently surprised by how difficult I found these pull-ups to be after taking a break from them for a while. It looks like I'll have to be more diligent in finding pull-up places since push-ups don't work seem to work the same muscles. 3x5 Pull-ups Completed. Daily Log kept up to date.

Day 257 [september 14, 2014] Tomorrow marks the beginning of a new 6-week challenge here on NerdFitness and I'm excited to say that I'm jumping in feet first and seeing if I can maintain some pretty standard habits.The first one will be cementing what I've already done here into permanent habits even in times of immense stress (ex. during university, particularly exam periods). 4x20 Push-ups Completed. Daily Log kept up to date. ~6-Week Challenge: Laminar Flow~ [sTART] Day 258 [september 15, 2014] So in the interest of starting off the challenge strong, I performed these push-ups while writing up my Challenge post. I figure it's only fair that I go above and beyond the minimum of 15 pull-ups (or equivalent) in order to kick it off with a bang! 6x20 Push-ups Completed. Daily Log kept up to date. Day 259 [september 16, 2014] Busy, busy, busy day today! But two important tasks for my my challenge got completed. The first is that I picked up supplies for a Lemon-Garlic Chicken recipe I found online and the second is I got my 3x5 pull-ups in along the way to the grocery store! I'm a huge fan of finding new places to work out and luckily there was scaffolding en route just asking to be used for pull-ups! I was actually decently surprised by how difficult I found these pull-ups to be after taking a break from them for a while. It looks like I'll have to be more diligent in finding pull-up places since push-ups don't work seem to work the same muscles. 3x5 Pull-ups Completed. Daily Log kept up to date.

Good Day! I've joined Nerd Fitness because I absolutely love the ideas behind an RPG-esque lifestyle and after reading through many of the blog posts, I must say that I am quite taken with both the high energy personalities and straightforward approach to health, fitness and ultimately happiness. It is a blog that I've stuck with for a couple years and I just now decided to make a jump into the forums and force myself to make certain that the goals I've had in mind are actually accomplished through measurement. I am a firm believer in: 'That which is not measured, is not improved upon.' But until very recently I haven't bothered to measure much of anything. I'd just continuously push until burn-out in my workouts and never look back at my progress. Now I would like that to change. In addition to my health and fitness goals, I will have some very heavy (and incredible) life based quests that I will need to accomplish over the next few months, and I figure this is an excellent way to ensure that I am striking a proper balance in my life. So without further ado: ~Main Quest: Laminar Flow~ Laminar Flow is defined as: Fluid flow in which the fluid travels smoothly or in regular paths. The velocity, pressure and other flow properties at each point in the fluid remain constant. Laminar flow over a horizontal surface may be thought of as consisting of thin layers, all parallel to each other, that slide over each other. This challenge ends on October 26th. This is right in the midst of my midterm exam season and I want my life to be like a laminar flow during such a turbulent time. To ensure success in my exams, I will need to travel smoothly over the many paths taken to get to that point in the term. Historically components of my life fall to the wayside during exam periods and this continues to compound until the craziness and stressful exam period passes. This year that will change, I will be cultivating habits up to this point and I will hold my life's flow properties (ex. eating, sleeping, exercising) constant. Finally the thin layers in parallel are an excellent allusion to the habits that I will have embedded in my life by this point in time. Each habit/layer is essential to the flow and should one begin to experience disturbance it will no doubt affect the habits/layers around it. Thus it is my goal to move through my midterm exams successfully (good grades) while holding tightly onto the many habits/layers in the flow of my life. Success will be determined at the beginning of the next 6 Week Challenge, as my midterm season should be completed by then. ~Quest #1: Flow Analysis~ 'That which is not measured is not improved upon.' In order to properly measure the many parameters in my life, I will be trying to keep a Daily Log of my activities, life events and health based endeavours. By reviewing these at the end of the week, I can properly evaluate where tweaks need to be made and what habits I should be forming moving forward. Keep a Daily Log. [+3 WIS] ~Quest #2: Stagnant Waters are Poison~ Stagnant waters experience no movement, they rot where they stand. Water possesses the power to destroy mountains but a standing pool becomes nothing but poison. This fact is no different for humans, and in accordance with this I will endeavour to add daily turbulence to my life. This will take the form of daily exercises to ensure that I maintain and grow my body in positive manners. At least one exercise must be completed per day and it must be of equivalent to the difficulty of 15 pull-ups as a hard minimum. [+3 STR, +3 DEX, +2 STA] ~Quest #3: Swim Through my Veins~ The human body is a beautifully complex network capable of operating over an immense range of conditions and environmental stresses; everything from feast to famine and beyond. But each person requires their own diet to continue to function properly, a proper diet successfully delivers precious components to strengthen and maintain the body. When I first began living on my own, I did not understand the sheer importance of food and suffered as a result. Since then I have vastly improved my repertoire of cooking skills but I still feel the desire to improve and experiment more! I recently acquired a slow cooker and want to learn more recipes to use with it! Cook at least one new slow cooker meal every week. [+2 CON, +1 STA] ~Life Quest: Riverbed~ I'm a huge proponent of sleep. I love the stuff. But I'm really good at slipping into terrible sleeping habits (aka. staying up late doing nothing), after which I will nap throughout the next day to catch up on sleep. Now this has given the super-awesome ability to catch a 9-minute nap and wake up feeling refreshed for intense mental/physical activity for the next 2 hours, but excessive napping and sacrificing sleep at night with no real reason seems like a silly thing. Especially when there are so many tasks to do in a day! Create a hard cap on how late I can stay up when not working on something and slowly work towards bringing it closer to midnight. Current Hard Cap: 01:30 [+1 STA]