Stag

Biking - I've biked 7 of the 70 miles for the challenge. Hit the gym for the first time in at least 4 months the other day. I really tried to turn inward to the sensations of pedaling and the content of the positive psychology podcast I was listening to, and tune out all the stimuli of the gym. It was a gentler and more enjoyable approach to fitness than I've taken in the past. More going with the flow of fitness than straining against it. I plan to go bike again Thursday day, and Friday before my work shift. Mindful Eating - I've eaten two meals a day over the course of 25 minutes each since the challenge start. Since I've become somewhat detached from my hunger and fullness signals, I try to ask myself between each bite how full I am feeling. I hope that by becoming more aware of my body, and mindfully choosing wholesome / nutrient dense food options and moderate portions, that I will move toward a healthy weight without having to obsess over calories. So far so good. Here is a video on mindful eating that introduced the concept to me. Out of Class Course/Career Work - I've completed 1.25 of the 14 required hours for this week, so I'm going to need to step it up on this front. I need to average about 3 hours of course work every day for the rest of the week if I want to hit my target. It might be tricky because my week is getting pretty packed: Valentines day stuff, being recorded for my friend's podcast, going to a friends book release party. I'm behind most because I've been getting distracted by the idea of coding an app, so I've been spending silly amounts of time trying to hack the MacOS onto my windows computer so I can code for IPhone in Swift. Making a commitment here: No more coding focus until I've hit my goal hours. As for my whole complicated skills tracking system, it's going pretty well. I have a spreadsheet that I'm keeping track of everything with. I'm sensing some areas that will need tweaking as I refine it. Stuff like: Can I add new skill trees based on new interests (ex. coding). Am I really going to track my relationships like it's something I could level up like digital art skills? Should big achievements play a part in leveling, or like unlocking "perks" or something (ex. Open a private practice). Etc. Etc.

@akaviri katana Thank you! Much of the art work was traced, tweaked, and bedazzled from various icons I found on the internet, but lots of fooling around in adobe regardless. In another life I could have easily followed the graphic design career path, but I find it a wonderful hobby to come home to.

Respawning 5 years his after last post, with starting stats 50 pounds heavier than his last character, Stag looks to the sky and finds inspiration in the form of a technicolor nebula: 18 constellations, 18 skills to level up. He picks a few stars to follow for 4 weeks, and sets off on a journey toward holistic vitality. Goal 1: Bike Across Connecticut. Go to the gym and stationary bike for 6 miles 3 times a week. Gain ~6 EXP Hours toward Biking. Goal 2: Day to Savor the Flavor. Mindfully eat for 24 hours: Mindfully savor 2 meals a day for at least 25 minutes each. Gain ~20 EXP Hours in Nutrition. Goal 3: Counseling Apprentice. Complete 14 hours of course work and career development outside of class each week. Gain ~50 EXP Hours in Research and Counseling. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ How Does This System Work? Why Are You Doing This? Rational: When I used to use the use the forum, it was cool to role play 6 week challenges with D&D'esque RPG stats. I enjoyed the role playing and leveling up, but I never really played D&D, so it always felt a little detached for me. I also didn't like how stats leveled so quickly with each challenge, and how these inflated stats felt very arbitrary. My 20 STR could like very different than your 20 STR. I resolved to make my own system based on the RPG I know best: Skyrim. This was a blast to design, tapping both into my digital art and spread sheeting interest. I enjoy emphasizing the Nerd in Nerd Fitness. Why these skills?: These are just skills that I enjoy perfecting and/or are important to maintaining my vitality and health. If someone else were inspired by the system and wanted to try it, they would pick there most important 18 skills. Starting Stats: In Skyrim there are 18 skill trees. The dragonborn always starts with twelve level 15 skills, five level 20 skills, and one level 25 skill. Although I have some experience in all the skills with my skills nebula, I allotted the twelve level 15 skills, five level 20 skills, and one level 25 skill based on my relative past time investment in each skill. Skill Leveling: Skill leveling is set up such that a skill begun at level 15 will take at least 10,000 hours of effort to reach level 100. The 10,000 hours is based off of Malcolm Gladwell's 10,000 Hour Rule, a proposed number of hours of deliberate practice required to reach "expert level." It is an oversimplification of what it takes to master a skill, but it still provides an aspiration rule of thumb. Every time I invest time honing or engaging in a skill, I earn EXP Hours. However now all skill practice is created equal. I created a formula to account for this: F = Level of Focus. It is measured on a scale of 1 - 10, with 10 being perfect, absolute focus, and 1 being no focus. D = Level of Deliberate Practice. It is measured on a scale of 1- 10, with 10 being highly conscientious and deliberate skill building and practice, and 1 being engaging with improving not even on the radar. R = Relevance of activity to the given skill tree. It is measured on a scale of 1 - 10, with 10 being extremely relevant, and 1 being only the slightest smidgen relevant. P = Percentage of the time spent engaging in the activity. It is measured on a scale of 1 - 10, with 10 being 100% engaged in the activity, and a 5 meaning only actually engaged in the activity 1/2 of the time. T = Time spent engaged in the activity in minutes. EXP Hours = F * D * R * P * T / 10,000 / 60 True to Skyrim skill leveling, skills level on an exponential curve. It takes significantly fewer EXP Hours to level a skill from 20 to 21 (13 EXP Hours) than 86 to 87 (224 EXP Hours). The formula for skill leveling is the same used in Skyrim's leveling system, but with an additional divider so it takes exactly 10,000 EXP Hours to level from 15 to 100, rather than 528804.0234 EXP Points: L = Current skill level. EXP Hours Required to Level Up a Skill = 2 * ( L ^ 1.95) / 52.915 Outputs from this formula are rounded to the nearest whole integer. Character Leveling: Character leveling is set up such that by leveling 13 skills to level 100, the character will reach level 100. 13 skills is kind of arbitrary, but it makes the XP Character math easy, and the 13,000 hours required is ~1.5 years worth of cumulative skills practice: An impressive feat. Just as in Skyrim, a character levels up in the Nebula Skill System by accumulating enough XP Character to cross a level up threshold. XP Character is gained every time a character levels up a skills. It is a simple formula: S = Skill level the player has just leveled up from. XP Character = S * 2 The formula for amount of cumulative XP Character required to level is unaltered from Skyrim: C = Current character level. Amount of cumulative XP Character required to level up = (12.5 * ( C ^ 2 ) + (62.5 * C )) - 75 Whoa, This Seems Pretty Complicated: It is definitely a lot, but this spreadsheet will make keeping tabs all the maths easier. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Quick About Me Hey! I'm Nathan. I'm a 26 year old counseling graduate student from CT, USA. I'm hoping to lose about 60 pounds, develop an enjoyable relationship with eating wholesome foods and moving my body, and generally improve at the things I enjoy doing. It's nice to be back. Thanks for reading!

Hey guys, I kinda feel off the face of the earth fitness wise. Sorta went on a full blown junk food and sedentary life binge for the past few weeks. Mentally, I'm pretty far removed from the mindset that I started with. So I'll take no points this challenge. New goal: start moving again, at least 1 run in this week.

Week 2 Update TrackTracked the 3 times this week. Grade: ACookHad the recipe picked out, bought stuff. Didn't execute.Grade: FTrainPretty much pain free. Will try training again Friday.Grade: N/ACareWas supposed to volunteer at a no kill cat shelter this morning, but my point of contact/ride bailed out. So that was a no go.Grade: FUhh, next week is Spring Break, I'll do better I'm sure.

Stock piling them. All of them. First one today =] This is incredibly perceptive. I like that. Thank you. Haven't left the compound in a week, but will hopefully be soon! Week 1 Update TrackTracked the 3 times this week. As I was suspecting, I don't eat enough, to the tone of a 1000-300 calorie deficit daily. I spent last year in a government volunteer program (AmeriCorps NCCC, basically the American Peace Corps). My team got by on 4$ a day per person for food. Not much. I got used to eating so little that now that I am out, I have to become aware of what a good serving size is again.Grade: ACookCooked Southwestern Bean Chowder.Cook/Prep time: 1 hour 30 minutes. For a competent cook, more like 40 minutes.8 servings. 200 calories per serving.Most processed ingredient: Vegetable bullion cubes for broth.Taste grade: B. Has a nice spicy/cream balance.What would I do different next time? Double the recipe. I eat 2 servings at once.Grade: ATrainStill in pain, less though. The ultrasound and samples taken have come back normal, so the doctors don't know why I'm in pain. If the pain continues to reduce at the rate it has been, I should be good to train again by end of week 2 or 3.Grade: N/ACareMy mom and I are on rough terms due to an ugly childhood, but she was just diagnosed with cancer again, so I'm trying to put my bitterness behind me. On her last hospital visit, she lost her IPod. I have an extra IPod I never use because of my IPhone. I picked her up a big bouquet of flowers, and stuck the IPod to a flower vase. I left it all in her apartment with a nice note for when she came home from work. She was extremely pleased.I've planned out a couple of cool things for upcoming weeks. =]Grade: A

Aww, this is my proudest moment! Pride is a thought crime. I fear for and thank you all in equal parts.

Thanks, I try =] Thank you! You as well! Thank you! I find that I often get caught up in myself, I neglect others, when focusing on my goals. This is an attempt to re-prioritize other people. Thanks =]]! Bahaha, I just have a little experience in photoshop and making a fancy page makes me excited to hit my goals. No one is amateurs, I'm just a design geek =] Pre-Challenge Update TrackDownloaded MyFitnessPal, it seems pretty intuitive. I like it so far.CookI haven't started looking for meals yet, but will start the search after I post this.TrainSo I've suddenly started having moderate-severe pain in a somewhat personal area. Doctors don't know what is up yet. I'm scheduled for more testing. So I'm not exercising, and I'm not going to start until the pain is in treatment and under control. I'm not going to penalize myself for this.CareCurrently brainstorming ways to touch people in my life. Or ways to brighten others day. Is the merit of an act of kindness cheapened if that act is planned ahead?

I used to be all about that show. Love it.

Hey nice challenge! I'm not familiar with supple leopard, what's it about?

My half marathon is just a week or to after yours. Hope you have a successful challenge building up the distance!

I'm not Shukar, but I'm pretty sure if walking is your endurance activity, you'd fit in just fine.

Quest: Build up Abel Township while training for 1/2 marathon and building overall healthy habits.TrackTrack caloric intake 3 days a week for the first 3 weeks. Then track caloric intake & hit goal calories 3 days a week for the last 3 weeks.CookPrepare a healthy, fast, cheap, vegetarian recipe in bulk 1x a week. Post the food porn and review here.TrainFollow training plan weight training/swimming 1x week, biking 1x week, running 2x week.CareGo out of my way to do something nice for others at least 1x a week.

I was going to suggest something like that given it was so close. Good call.

Hey awesome work with the first challenge! And congrats on graduating out of the first timer group!

All in all, I'd say you've built some momentum and taken a step for your 5 year goal. Nice job! Looking forward to keeping tabs next challenge!

As scouts, if someone doesn't eventually make a Night Vale Scouts themed challenge(s), then that's a missed golden opportunity.

Monday 2/17/14 10.) In the quest for long hair, I've just entered another awkward stage. I think with a little product and combing, I can pull of the awkward, and make it at least appear that it doesn't give me fuss. (pictured tugging on one of many curly bits that only grow in the back) Also any advice on making the awkward hair stages more enjoyable is appreciated. =]

I wanted an even more finely tuned version of this, so I made one to satisfy my craving for specific, objective, grading. I think other slightly obsessive nerds out there will benefit from this: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AoRugFL8_cvBdF9DOWI3MGlaRTRSRDhsS0RsRDR6Z1E&usp=drive_web#gid=0

I am super unfamiliar with Google Docs and such. Like I worked in excel and kinda just stuck it in that. But I made this as a public document, so I think as long as you keep the linked tucked away somewhere, you should be able to gain access? I'm also not sure about sharing to drives. I didn't get any specific requests so I think you are good? Maybe? Edit: I got the email. You are all added and such.

Challenge Summary: (Also I made this open doc for anyone struggling with calculating their stats or grades: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AoRugFL8_cvBdF9DOWI3MGlaRTRSRDhsS0RsRDR6Z1E&usp=drive_web#gid=0) Follow the 1/2 marathon running plan: 21 of 24 workouts completed. 88% = A Sta+3.7, Dex+.9 Prevent injuries by doing warm ups and cool downs: 19 of 21 proper warm ups and cool downs completed. 90% = A Con+1.9, Dex+.9 Limit to eating one healthy snack 5 days a week and clean the other 2 days. (Changed part way through challenge to one serving of leafy green vegetables daily): 42 of 42 days hitting diet goal. 100% = A+ Con+3 Floss once a day and brush twice a day: 41 of 42 days hitting dental health goal. 98% = A+ Con+2, Cha+2 First of all, wow. 2 challenges completed in a row. That is 12+ weeks of self-motivated health improvement by a guy who seldom rides a health kick for more 3 weeks. AND its winter! I'm really proud of the work I put in this challenge. I've made habit of flossing for the first time in my life, and I'm doing better with injury prevention and seeking healthier foods. I've got momentum, confidence, and an Abel Township to build up. Bring on the next challenge!

Quick (last) weekly update: Perfect on all goals except for teeth brushing when one night I forgot to bring my tooth brush when staying at another person's house. The final tally: Follow the 1/2 marathon running plan: 21 of 24 workouts completed. 88% = A Sta+3.7, Dex+.9 Prevent injuries by doing warm ups and cool downs: 19 of 21 proper warm ups and cool downs completed. 90% = A Con+1.9, Dex+.9 Limit to eating one healthy snack 5 days a week and clean the other 2 days. (Changed part way through challenge to one serving of leafy green vegetables): 42 of 42 days hitting diet goal. 100% = A+ Con+3 Floss once a day and brush twice a day: 41 of 42 days hitting dental health goal. 98% = A+ Con+2, Cha+2

Hey guys, now that its time to grade ourselves, I wanted an exact percentage to grade converter so I could be objective in my grading. I made this to help myself with that, but you guys might find it useful too. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AoRugFL8_cvBdF9DOWI3MGlaRTRSRDhsS0RsRDR6Z1E&usp=drive_web#gid=0

Hey folks, Cecil here. Harnvin left this page open a few weeks back when he went for a run. Always putting on his riot gear and going for jogs during lunch breaks that Harnvin. Really nice kid, and teeth so white with all those industrial level cleaning supplies he was subjecting his mouth to. Well, he hasn't come back from that run. The words "Help!" and "Dog Park" keep appearing on the mirror when ever we wash the cats, and the bathrooms steams up. Anyway, it doesn't look like he is coming back. So to the internet friends of Harnvin, we thank you for his service to the cause of community radio, and join you in mourning his loss.