Shadowcat1

This is round 2 for me. I started a Level 1 Nerd Fitness challenge in January and absolutely LOVED it! I lost 11 lbs and stuck to my challenge goals as much as I could. Unfortunately I started this journey at one of the most difficult times in my life. Shortly after the first challenge started I found myself working 85-95 hrs a week between school and a part time job. Not to mention commuting, cleaning, taking care of pets, grocery shopping, trying to prepare healthy meals, and all the other puzzle pieces that make up life. I simplified my life as much as possible to keep my head above water and even though I finished my first challenge here, I wasn't able to find the time to continue leveling up. I'm happy to say I'm now at a much better, much more stable place in my life and in spite of all the stress, poor food choices, and constant unhealthy habits that resulted from the chaotic schedule I've only gained back 2-3 lbs since January. I'd like to re-commit to the Rebellion and restart my quest for a healthier life. Since I've been away from Nerd Fitness for so long I've decided to start back at L1. My main goal is to get into really good physical condition in 12-18 months. This will include losing between 80 and 100 pounds, although the number isn't nearly as important as what I eventually want to be able to do: I want to be able to do pull ups, hand stands, and kip ups. I want to try parkour, martial arts, and ashtanga yoga and eventually find a body discipline that I enjoy and can commit to - I've just never been in good enough shape to know what types of physical activities I actually enjoy. Main Quest: Excellent Physical Condition L1 Challenge Goals: 1) 60 minutes of exercise ~ 30 minutes of walking ~ 30 minutes of anything else 2) No eating after 9:00 pm 3) Daily food journal Life Goal: Do one thing for my appearance every day - manicure, facial, hair mask, etc. Looking forward to being a part of the Rebellion once again!

Thank you! that means a lot - I haven't taken the time to just sketch for my own amusement in so long its great to hear that the weirdness that comes out of my head onto the paper is appreciated. Hooray for having the computer back! Internet withdrawal is the worst. Great job keeping up with your goals even then, and two high fives for dragging yourself out of bed four days a week to face all that evilness that is The Morning Class. Thanks Sunnyful - I'll take all the high fives I can get No new drawing from yesterday but I did manage to stick to all my other goals even tho it was a long day and I badly, badly wanted pizza! One more small daily win, right? Grade for 1/23: A So far I feel an amazing difference just with these small changes to my daily routine - I can't wait to see where I am at physically/spiritually/emotionally by the end of this challenge

OH MY GOD MY COMPUTER IS HOME! It got sick and for a while there I thought it was going to go to silicon heaven but its home now and all is right with the world again. In other news, my internet withdrawal symptoms have calmed down considerably. I've been keeping up with the challenge even tho I haven't had the chance to update my progress here, so for organizations sake I'll sum up the past week: 1/14: A 1/15: A 1/16: C Late dinner 1/17: A 1/18: A 1/19: A Grade for the week: A- 1/20: C No walk 1/21: A Also, here are some drawings... So the first week back to school was pretty intense but I still managed to keep up with these habits, and I am VERY happy about that. taking the time to go for a walk and pack a decent lunch before heading to class is making all the difference in the world in terms of my mental health. And its doing some really good things for me physically too. Thanks Sunnyful - the presentation did go pretty well (at least I think it did, might have just been all the caffeine) and I'm looking forward to the day these things are just memories I can cringe at instead of the nightmare inducing stress bombs they are now Thank you for the healing vibes - my computer needed them -I am indeed taking stupid evil morning classes and whats worse is that I spend 45 min. on a bus before I even get to class and it sucks and I hate it and I DO deserve a high five for for even pretending to care that early in the morning so THANK YOU! I only go 4 days/week tho so its not as brutal as it sounds.

Thanks Raxie, you're right the scale is a stupid jerk No new drawings since yesterday, I mean't to but the first day back to school kicked my butt - had a presentation to make at 8:30 am! Who does that?! Who assigns a presentation for the first day back from vacation? Stupid school... But I did stick to all my challenge goals and managed to get a jump on some 3D modeling so I'll call it good. Grade for yesterday: A heading out for a walk now to clear my head before I have to go back and pretend to learn some stuff...

AWESOME job! love coming by this thread for inspiration

Daily Grade: A Grade for the week: B+ Ok! One week down and I stuck with it, but classes start tomorrow and I'm worried that once things get chaotic I'll find excuses not to log in here. But the only thing we can do is plug away and do our best to stick to our commitments right? Right. So we'll see how this week goes - I'm actually looking forward to the challenge Stats so far: Start date: Jan 3rd Start weight: 235 lbs Challenge start weight: 232 lbs Current weight: 230.5 lbs total so far: -4.5 lbs this week: -1.5 lbs I was hoping for 2 lbs this week but I'm not super worried about the number, just keeping up with building these habits - all in all if was a really great week.

Thanks for the inspiration Totally agree about the cape - shoulda put together some reference for that. Welp, back to studying drapery I guess (not my favorite thing to draw) but thank you, its great to do some silly pieces just for myself - I didn't even realize how much I missed doing that. Yesterday was actually an incredible reminder that I can actually go out and do stuff with my body - even tho I'm in terrible shape I've got more staying power than I thought. I've got to switch to working out and drawing in the morning 'cause I'm going back to classes tomorrow but here's a start on Shadowcat with bunny ears running from some daleks (no daleks yet) - only had about half and hour or so this morning so... yeah... soooper rough, but its a start - I'll get the daleks in there for tomorrow

Ok so today had some good points and some bad points. The good point: I went for a 4 hour trek to kick off the weekend and I am sooo tired. The bad point: My boyfriend and I went to Dennys for dinner - he ordered nachos as an appetizer and I ate 4 or 5 chips before even realizing I wasn't supposed to have that today. No huge setback but I can't call it a perfect day either. ...So I'm giving myself a B because it wasn't an intentional cheat but it was a slip up. I went for a 4 hour walk and having eaten before 8 I'm feeling overall pretty good about today. Can't wait to tackle tomorrow!

Oooh ooh me first! Allow me to be the first to say - Great Job!

I fell in love with the thread title too, and can I just say - way to fight for yourself! Too many of us have been held back by the people who were supposed to help us become better us. I'm dealing with this one too, but you know what? We got this! I too have fallen prey to the kitchen trap, and I just tried something new yesterday: instead of aimlessly wandering to the kitchen and then figuring "eh, while i'm here..." I made it a point to do 10 squats every time I found myself in the kitchen. It worked pretty well, just being mindful of where I was, and I'm hoping to re-train my brain into believing that the kitchen is where we go to do squats, not where we go to eat random crap because we're bored. Anyways, AWESOME job on your goals so far - very inspiring!

Man! You've got crazy motivation - I LOVE that you're getting the kids in your life into this as well. I'm right there with you on the food cravings most evenings - its tough when the commercials come on and someone says "hey we should go get a pizza" and then the rationalizations start... I swear sometimes I feel like a junkie trying to get clean. Good luck with your workouts! bouncing back from a surgery can be so ridiculously difficult but your goals sound both challenging and totally doable. I will definitely be coming back here for inspiration.

Oh my GOD! you poor thing - I'm so sorry about the break in. Major kudos on keeping it together and working out! I hope you are able to get things sorted out with minimal hassle and stress. On a lighter note my favorite way to prepare kale has always been to drizzle it with some balsamic dressing and olive oil, wrap it in bacon and throw it in the oven. Its also really good sauteed with some garlic and tossed into an omelet. Oh and good luck with the scary free weights!

Thanks Raxie So I've been inspired by SuNoYo's challenge thread and the self-esteem challenges she's been posting. This week has gone really well for me and I'm loving this community so far, but I didn't pick a "Life Quest" to level up on at the beginning of this challenge and the aforementioned thread got me thinking about what I want to work on in my life other than just fitness (not that fitness by itself isn't enough). I decided that for "extra credit" I will attempt to do one sketch or design per day that isn't for anyone but me. One full week of sketches will be worth bumping up one of my daily grades for the days I might drop the ball a little bit. I spend very nearly all my time drawing, painting, and animating for clients and teachers and it has been ages since I took time to create things for fun (fun being the reason I started "art" in the first place) that didn't have to meet anyone's specifications. So for the sake of accountability and also because I have always been TERRIFIED of showing anyone my "rough" work (i desperately need to get over that) I will be posting my daily sketches here. Please DO give critiques. No artist ever improves without feedback, and with illustration "if it looks wrong, it is wrong" - so please let me know if something isn't working. At the same time keep in mind that I will never have more than an hour or two at most to work on these and they are not "finished" pieces. That said, in the spirit of nerdiness and fitness here is today's sketch. Also I might consider taking suggestions for subject matter if anyone has any good ideas for a picture...

Awesome job keeping up with your workout through the muscle soreness. Sorry about the conversion issues: 1 cup = 240 ml and 300F is (I think) about 149C. I've made toffee a couple of times and its tricky to get it to the right temp. It takes 20 or 30 min. to get it hot enough and you have to watch it carefully to make sure it doesn't scorch but its soooo worth it when its done

Made my night! "Face of Boe, they called me..." Ahh good times. I love the challenges too, rukachan, its some of the best motivation and accountability I've had for doing anything. Glad to hear you pushed through the difficulty tonight - good job! So today was good. Just the small success of hitting all three of my goals and giving myself an A was incredibly motivating - more so than I ever thought it would be. And today I get to give myself another A Daily Grade: A No simple carbs, although I did buy some steal cut oats so I can have some grains in my diet that aren't packed with sugar and white flour. Half hour walk and haven't had anything to eat since before 8. I normally would go to bed early on a Friday since I have the weekend to work on projects but I have a lot of energy right now so I think I'll go back to the gym for a little bit and see if I can burn some of it off.