Kobnach

Good for you. I like your idea of posting daily totals; mind if I copy it? Which activity tracker have you got? I've got an underestimator and a suspected overestimator. It would be so nice if they were accurate ;-)

Found a bug in my goals - due to complex history, I now have 2 activity trackers - a basis band and a fitbit force. The force is new - just started using it yesterday. It appears that yesterday my left arm (wearing the basis band) took 6669 steps and my right arm (wearing the fitbit force) took 9646 steps. I knew the Basis band tended to miss some steps, but this is ridiculous. If the difference persists, I need to revise the goal - to either "6 K on the basis band" or something like "9 K on the fitbit force". Not sure that there's a neat conversion factor however - after my second walk yesterday, the fitbit was only reporting 6612 to the basis band's 4412, i.e. it was only ahead by 1/3, not 1/2. FWIW, the basis band is known to under report unless fairly tight, and it's uncomfortable when tight - so I try to push it way up my arm while consciously exercising, to make it tighter. But I was particularly conscientious about that in my evening walk yesterday, and that's when the comparative underreporting was at its worst. Also, the fitbit has me climbing 2 flights of stairs, or equivalent yesterday - based on the 3 or so steps up to my front door, traversed only 3 times, + maybe a couple of trips up the 2 steps at my back door, and whatever slopes I found on several fairly flat walks. So it may be overreporting in general.

I've joined the Christmas challenge with a goal of 6000 steps every day. Food and sleep need attention too, but my theory is that exercise will tend to help with both of those, whereas the reverse doesn't work. That said, while I did my 6000 steps yesterday, I foolishly tried to mix too much running with my walking, made myself sore, then followed up by staying up late *and* getting up early. Looks like my "wisdom" stat needs some work. And no running for me today or tomorrow; just walking. How broad a goal makes sense in the main challenge? E.g. level 1) get fit enough to not be creating health challenges for myself level 2) basic core fitness + adequate daily walking + sane eating + enough sleep level 3) do specific core fitness exercises + 10K steps per day + at least 5 servings of fruit and/or veggies + at least 7 hours sleep I see level 1 as my motivation for doing any/all of this, but completely unmeasurable. Level 3 looks like challenge goals - except I'm taking small steps towards them, given where I'm at today. So what would an apppropriate main quest look like? My first inclination would have been to pick one of the items at level 2 (the walking, in particular), but that doesn't break into 3 actions.

I'm brand new to NerdFitness, but too impatient to wait until the next full challenge. My _long term_ goal is to increase the number of steps I take per day to 10,000 (6 days a week unless ill). My holiday goal is to manage 6000 per day, as measured by my Basis Band, every day of the holiday period. This is an increase from the 5000 I can manage fairly reliably. Running is strictly optional - this is a walking challenge. (I got over-enthused yesterday and did too much running, now my IT band hates me :-( Making myself "too sore to walk" is not part of the plan :-() Update: Because of the disparity between my new Fitbit Force and my old Basis Band, I'm using the pessimistic Basis Band as the arbiter - except that if I do 10K steps according to the Fitbit, it counts as 6 K on the Basis Band. Update: I saw that Grizzy has a table of daily results, and decided to be a copycat. Because of the conflicts between my activity trackers, I'm going to have rather a few columns: Basis Band Fitbit Force Day Steps Active Walking Steps Miles Floors Dec 23 6719 26 min ??? ??? ??? ??? Dec 24 7013 35 min ??? 10254 4.55 2 Dec 25 6530 46 min 59 min 11328 5.03 1 Dec 26 6864 44 min 57 min 9019 4 1 Dec 27 6395 23 min ??? 8872 3 8 I'm finding 8 floors implausible; 3 or 4 seems more real Dec 28 2807 0? ??? 5605 2.49 1 exhausted; slept from 7 PM till 8 the next morning Dec 29 6523 37 min 54 min 8393 3.72 1 Dec 30 6194 26 min 52 min 8584 3.81 1 Dec 31 6224 24 min 54 min 8510 3.78 2 major battle to complete this Jan 1 3076+ 19+ 25+ 9837 4.36 2 Basis band was charging (not worn) during Am walk.... Jan 2 6927 32 min 55? 9289 4.12 4 back to work (i.e. less free time) Jan 3 6322 11 min 56 min 4702+ 2.09+ 1+ This time Fitbit spent much of the day on its charger

Thanks for the encoragement, citizenkade. I'm hoping this community will help me deal with the team-of-one problem. Most fitness sites seem to target one of two things: - people whose issue is excess weight (I'd happily keep my current weight, if more of it were muscle). - budding athletes, whose idea of a warmup might be appropriate for my 6 month goal :-( It's not lack of will power that has me dropping out of communities like that ;-) My RL character class is probably wizard ;-) I think my race is probably half-elf, perhaps dark elf (for the tendency to nocturnal habits). With wizard irrelevant to nerdfitness, I figure scout - or maybe just adventurer. So far my team of one has made it back up to 5000 steps per day, most days, and enough strength to handle 30 pound bags, but I fear it will take community to get me farther. I've had 6000 steps as a daily goal for several weeks, and I'm hitting it maybe 3 days a week after an initial bout of enthusiasm. How long is it likely to be until the next challenge starts? Somehow I suspect it won't start until after the holidays.

Hi, I came here because I identify as a (software) geek, which is pretty close to a nerd. No idea if the group and methods will suit me. I believe that the sane way to good health involves an active lifestyle and real food rather than focussed gym time, calorie counting, and the fad diet of the month. Unfortunately my lifestyle is nowhere near as active as would be healthy, and I somehow never "have time" to cook. Net result - a prescription for statins (cholesterol control drugs) and another for anti-depressants. Can I get myself moving in spite of sidewalk-averse suburbs, poor balance (I don't belong on a bicycle), and a moderately stressful desk job, plus a lot of sedentary hobbies (MOOCs, face-to-face games) etc.? And in particular, will this community work for me? I've dropped out of 2 or 3 fitness communities so far, but had some benefit from HabitRPG, activity trackers, a personal trainer, and a dinner-delivery service. Still on the drugs though, and not managing 10K steps per day, or 7 hours sleep a night. So I'm still looking for additional ideas and motivation. Any ideas for good starting goals within this challenge system? --Kobnach