TyrantLizard

Definitely dig up the sax and give it a try! It's amazing how easy it is to move away from the things we enjoy doing when routines and habits get in the way.

Got a great start on my challenge yesterday! A 40-minute walk in the morning and climbing in the evening. About three quarters top roping and a bunch of bouldering as warm-up and to get the last of my strength out of my fingers at the end of the night. I did a really underhangy 5.8 that I thought would be hard but was actually quite easy for me, and made fantastic progress on two brand new 5.9 routes - I'll beat them as soon as I can get up over the lip of the underhang, hopefully next week. I'm getting way better at maintaining body position on underhangs and at creating enough momentum and flow for dynamic movements. Raptor friend and I also played a sort of game where we didn't look at the route ratings for a bunch of climbs and just tried to assess them by looking at the route. It was fantastic because we ended up trying things way harder than we normally would have tried, and actually did surprisingly well in certain places. Got almost three-quarters of the way up a 5.10 slab, for one. Also did my clarinet practice (just some boring scales, but it's a start) and did well on food goals. Need to work on more protein, as usual.

Subbing! And good usage of the word "wobble." Such a fantastic word. Good luck on all your goals. I think your challenge sounds like a lot of fun, especially the handstand one. And since I am contemplating a job change myself (same career, but different place) that goal definitely hits a chord for me. Good luck with it!

Congrats on getting in to UMass Amherst! That's fantastic! I'm always happy to geek out about soil science or insects or foliar disease or whatever else, so if you want to take nerdy about farm stuff, you know where to go. Good luck on the first week!

Hello again Ciara! Not sure if you remember me from Level 1 days, but I found you! I'll be following because obviously but also because I also have a food aspect to my challenge and we can help keep each other's heads in the game. Oh, and good call on the journaling goal. Writing is an important source of balance and stress relief for me and I think it'll be really beneficial! Even just a few moments set aside each day for reflection and introspection can make such a huge difference.

Yay for a climbing challenge! Your points system is fantastic and thank you so much for helping my stumble upon the yoga for rock climbers video. Not sure if you can hear the YOINK! all the way from Boston but I am definitely stealing them for my own nefarious purposes. Definitely subbing for rock climbing solidarity and inspiration.

Definitely following along! I'm back after taking last challenge off. It feels good to be officially an assassin and tackling a new set of goals. I can't wait to see what you do this time! Edited to add: congrats to you and your dad on the 5K! And that picture is how I probably look every single time I run. I love it

Hello Nic! I followed your level 1 challenge but I skipped the last one. I'm back and it's good to see you still in the assassins :-) I'll be following your challenge! It sounds like you have a lot on your mind but hopefully with a plan and some support you'll have a successful challenge and a successful run at finals. Oh, and I feel you about morning. This is how I sometimes feel when I wake up:

Wow, flashbacks to my Commodore 64 days! I'm definitely in for this mini-challenge. It'll be a good warmup before climbing.

Nice to meet you! Grip strength is the thing that takes longest to develop, so while it's definitely essential to work on it, don't neglect other areas: flexibility and balance are really important, and the strength in your legs, back, and core as well. Core strength is particularly important for underhangs and is an area I am trying to work on right now. One of my favourite things about climbing is that there are many avenues for improvement. And remember, while grip/arm strength definitely matters, don't neglect your feet! Good climbing technique means good foot positioning and it's easy to think that climbing is all about upper body when it's really not. Your legs are your most powerful muscles, and it's smart to use them effectively. Watching people climb is definitely helpful because you pick up a lot of strategies about body positioning, use of momentum, and other techniques. I find most people at the climbing gym to be really friendly, so don't be afraid to strike up a conversation with someone if they seem interested in talking strategy. A lot of climbers are willing to give helpful advice to people just starting out. I'll come check out your challenge and follow along. We can encourage each other as needed

I skipped last challenge and, to the great surprise of nobody, the lack of a concrete plan meant I had a stagnant couple of months. I've proven to myself yet again that I need structure and mindful focus on goals to progress (what can I say, I'm a true empiricist, and need to keep checking...) so I'm back here doing my first challenge as an assassin. My career has seasonal variance, and winter is our quiet time. That means I'll have plenty of time this challenge to dedicate to myself and my epic plans. Main Quest: A happy and active mind in a healthy and active body. A life full of joy. Experiences that push me to constantly improve and make life better for the people around me. Mission 1: Eat better. No, but seriously. I'm an assistant manager at an organic vegetable farm. We grow more than 50 different types of produce, so you might think I'd have a really healthy diet. Most farmers I know eat like crap, however. A 65 hour work week doing physically demanding tasks leaves you so exhausted that cooking is the last thing you want to do when you get home. After a 13-hour day on the farm it's easy to convince yourself that a cheeseburger and a pint of ice cream are a great idea. I don't gain weight in the summer because of my insane levels of activity, but it's still not good for me, and if I don't get my shit together in the winter it's going to mean bad things in dinotown. HOW: Track my food and stick to my eating goals (I have targets for fruit/veggie intake, limiting sugar, and cooking at home). A: 37 days or more tracked with goals metB: 33 days or more tracked with goals metC: 30 days or more tracked with goals metD: Bad dinosaur! You get to repeat this mission next challenge. Mission 2: Climb things and stay active In the winter I need to make exercise a priority because I don't have the luxury of getting it automatically at work. I want to make sure to get active in some way every day. On top of that, I've been climbing for a couple of months now and really love it, and want to dedicate more time to improving this winter. HOW: Climb and do bodyweight workouts regularly. Do something active every day. A: 37 days or more with some significant daily activity. Climbing 1-2 times per week.B: 33 days or more with some significant daily activity. Climbing just once per week.C: 30 days or more with some significant daily activity. Missed climbing one week, but no more than one week.D: How embarrassing. What, too much free time was too overwhelming? Mission 3: Relearn to play the clarinet Once upon a time, I played the clarinet. For nine years. I was actually fairly good, and then toward the end of undergrad I stopped playing and sold my clarinet. For years I've wanted to get back to it, and recently I decided that wishes and intentions weren't going to get me very far, and I did some research and found a place to rent a clarinet. I want making music to be part of my life again, and that means relearning everything I've forgotten and practicing regularly. And yes, I know this is technically not a health/fitness goal, but 33 years of field research has taught me that when I'm happy and balanced in general, I make much better decisions about my activity and eating. I'm going to consider the benefits of creativity and music as an investment in my overall wellbeing. A: 37 days or more with 15 minutes of practice or moreB: 33 days or more with 15 minutes of practice or moreC: 30 days or more with 15 minutes of practice or moreD: Really? You're paying for this rental, you know. Life Quest: Learn some Dutch and Icelandic! I'm going on vacation in January: Iceland, Belgium, and the Netherlands. I already have a decent level in French, but I want to learn a bit of Dutch and Icelandic before I go. I'd like to get through the beginner's courses before we leave.

Absolutely!

Almost two months since I updated this thread! I successfully completed my first challenge (hurrah!) but then work got really overwhelming and I haven't been posting on Nerd Fitness or keeping up with the forums at all. I've noticed that as I get busier and more stressed out (and don't have/create time for little self-care things like NF) my habits slowly get worse. I don't want to regress, so I want to get back into the habit of posting on here and thinking actively about my goals. What have I been up to the past couple months? I've been climbing every week and getting better. That's the fitness area I feel best about over the past couple months.I've run a few times, but nothing serious and no progression really.I haven't done strength training in about six weeks (other than climbing and lifting stuff at work).I've been working my ass off at my job, doing 10-13 hour days and collapsing into bed exhausted every night. Things at my job are not fantastic - there's some upheaval right now and I am contemplating starting a search for a new job. I love what I do, but right now I don't love everything about the place where I do it.My eating habits have definitely suffered - I've been cooking less, eating more takeout/convenience food, and having more sugar and junk. Boo!My weight has stayed the same, which isn't awesome since I want to be losing weight.I haven't been getting enough sleep and when I do sleep it's not very restful. This is largely due to stress, I think, and it's having a negative impact.Socially things have been great. I reconnected with some friends and started going out more. Very good for me!Looks like the next challenge starts November 10, so I'll get in on that. In the meantime I'll update this thread. First priority is to clean up my diet again and be more intentional about my food choices in general. I'd also like to reduce stress and sleep better. Will keep climbing and see about adding some strength training back in.

So I realized that I never officially graded this challenge. Despite the belatedness, this seems like a sensible place to do it, and I want to put it all down in writing before I update my forum sig with the stats etc. You may recall that I tracked things day by day on this google spreadsheet. All that remains is to assign grades/stats. So, without further ado: Mission 1: Climb at the climbing gym at least once per week Grade: A! I went climbing once every week. Mission 2: Food! Eat quality food, limit junk, and keep a moderate calorie deficit Grade: B+ Four weeks I earned all three available points; two weeks I had only two points. This gives an average of 2.66 repeating. I said an average of 3 would be an A and an average of 2 would be a B, so I'm going to call this a B+ Mission 3: Work on pullup progression and strength training twice per week Grade: A- I missed one session, which I said would take me down one notch from A Life Goal: Write at least 500 words per day on any topic Grade: A I only missed three days out of the whole six weeks, which means I get an A by the rubric I set up! Overall, pretty decent! I'm happy with how that challenge went. My starting stats at level 1 (total of 10 points to be allocated) for completing half the challenge: STR 2 DEX 1 STA 2 CON 1 WIS 2 CHA 2 On top of that, for completing the challenge: I am awarding myself +1 DEX for completing the climbing goal. I definitely think my agility has increased and my climbing is getting better. I am awarding myself +1 CON for completing the food goal. My eating wasn't perfect but it was a huge improvement and I felt healthier. I am awarding myself +1 STR for completing the strength training goal. I definitely progressed closer toward pullups and saw strength gains. I am awarding myself +1 WIS for completing the writing life goal. I originally said it wasn't going to be worth any stats, but it made a huge difference in my mental clarity and happiness during a stressful time and I think it's just as worth recording as a concrete accomplishment as the physical stuff. So, as of now, I am a level 2 assassin with the following stats: STR 3 DEX 2 STA 2 CON 2 WIS 3 CHA 2

Hey all! Sorry for so much radio silence. My challenge has been going pretty well, but I've been working long hours (things are pretty crazy on the farm right now due to a big harvest crunch - looks like we're going to have almost 20,000 pounds of winter squash this year!) and when I get home I am exhausted. Writing in the evenings--which I have kept up with, almost every night--is helping me stay sane despite my lack of free time. Work is actually somewhat complicated at the moment, but I don't feel free to talk about it on a public forum. Suffice it to say that things are very busy and change may be coming, and both of those factors mean I have spent a lot more of my non-working hours thinking about work than usual. I am happy to say that my challenge completed almost entirely successfully. I'll do a formal evaluation post later tonight or tomorrow. Oh, and I never posted about my last climbing session, this past Monday, but it was really great. It felt like the first time in a couple weeks that I progressed significantly: I climbed two underhangs (one a 5.8 and one a 5.9) and finished both! I did a few other climbs too, and some bouldering, and felt strong. I'm also getting to know more people at the climbing gym, and it's great to see familiar faces and have people to say hello to when I'm there. I sprained/twisted my ankle at work on Wednesday (my boot got caught as I was stepping down off one of the tractors, and I fell awkwardly) which sucked, but it's healing pretty well. It does mean no climbing on Monday (good thing the challenge is over!) but I think I should be able to climb the following week as long as I baby it a little.

I've been taking more pictures lately and really enjoying it. Might incorporate photography into my next challenge somehow. This afternoon we clipped all of our delicata squash and winter luxury pumpkins and laid them in wind rows in the field to cure. Here are the delicata (my favourite winter squash) with one of our crew members in the distance for scale. Squash forever, into the horizon!

Very quick update before I collapse into bed: Climbing last night was fantastic. I finished two 5.8s with really hard underhangs and felt amazing since those are my weakest type of climb right now. I made a new rule: every time I go climbing I have to climb at least one underhang route. Raptor helped me do some work on dynamic moves and now I know that I need to focus on using my momentum better. Plus I need to not stop for so long to think before moving. Other than that I did a bunch of good bouldering, pushed myself on top roping and left feeling tired and happy.I worked 13.5 hours today and I am completely knackered. I love my job but it's demoralizing to leave work and realize you have to be back in 10 hours and you haven't even had dinner yet.My mum's visit was exhausting but went better than I expected. I'll update a bit more on it tomorrow when I'm more awake.I've started a concerted effort to take more photos and it makes me happy. My non-farmer Instagram friends are complaining good-naturedly about the percentage of my photos devoted to really interesting insects.I'm really happy with how my eating has been this challenge. Have been filling myself up with fruits and veggies and quality protein and enjoying treats in very sensible amounts. No doubt related to the above, I've lost another pound. I'm going to take measurements again when the challenge is over.I am hoping tomorrow to have an hour to catch up on everyone's threads. I know you're probably all doing well but I want details. Details, damn it!

Strength workout last night - did another intense circuit and really felt strong. I'm seeing progress. Woo! I've not been great about documenting the specifics of these workouts, and I'd like to be better about tracking, but honestly with work so busy I'm just happy I'm doing the workouts. I don't want to make it feel like a burden, so if not bothering with tracking is what makes it easier to get into the basement and work out, then so be it. I've been doing surprisingly well with food this challenge. I think a lot of the reason for the success is that I'm so busy. I never snack at work - there's just no time, and I'm too focused on managing the crew and getting stuff done. By the time I'm home and showered it's time for dinner, and then the evening is about relaxing and going out and spending time with people, etc. I tend to snack when I'm bored, so it's less of a problem when there's a lot going on. My winter challenges should probably be structured to take into account that snacking is likely to be more of a problem then. In life news, my mind is currently stuck on one thing: my mum flies into Boston tonight and is visiting until Monday night. My relationship with my mother is complicated, and not fantastic. She's fundamentally a good person, and she has some very positive qualities, but she can also be frustrating and difficult to spend time with. There's also a lot of unpleasant family history that's hard for me to put aside. We've cut off contact a few times before (my general approach to people is that if they make me unhappy, they are no longer part of my life) but we're trying one more time to repair things. Since we live in different countries, I don't see her often, but when she does come to visit it's challenging because it's a big chunk of time. At least when I was back in Toronto I could see her for an hour or two and leave while things were still enjoyable. Hopefully this weekend will be a relative success.

Nice difference with the lounge. Isn't it funny how you put something down in a corner "temporarily"...but then the longer it sits there, the harder it is to move it because it seems like that's the place it's always been. It becomes part of the way you picture the room and moving it starts to seem like a big step. Just need to shatter that illusion and don't let that clutter intimidate you. "You're just a chair. You go where I tell you!" Looking forward to reading more of your zombie story/ARG.

Climbing update! It was a challenging night! I got some good climbs in, but I also tore up my right index finger when I jumped for a hold. I made it, but ouch. It was painful during climbing but worse during work today because I can't wear work gloves for harvest. I need to get some climbing tape. I did quite a few different routes, all 5.8s and 5.9s, and a really fun (ungraded) traverse route up the underhang tunnel. I now have TWO nemeses, however, as I didn't finish every climb I attempted, and I am looking forward to battling them next week. My shoulder and back are pleasantly sore today. Now that I'm climbing all 5.8s and 5.9s, there's a wider range of skills to work on, and progress has slowed down a little. For example, I got halfway up the cave route I'm working on, but there's this one section where my reach is a real problem. I'm going to have to compensate for that...somehow. Balance and flexibility? Dynamic moves? Not sure. I've not seen a woman complete that climb yet and both the guys I saw do it were a fair bit taller than me and had no trouble reaching the hold I was struggling with. I'm 5'5", for reference. The exciting thing is that I'm now at a point with my climbing where I have a solid arsenal of basic skills and I get to start developing more advanced techniques and strategies. I like having an actual list of concrete skills for progression, as opposed to an amorphous desire to "get better." Things I most need to work on improving: - heel hooks - pinches - core strength to help with underhangs - balance - grip strength (of course) I also got some bouldering in toward the end of the night. I can now do V1s pretty reliably, but just like with top roping, underhangs add a lot of difficulty for me. I was thinking of maybe trying the easiest of the routes in the bouldering underhang tunnel next time I go - it's one with a bunch of lovely jug grips just to give you practice climbing upside down. One of the things I love about bouldering is that it makes it easy to focus on training certain types of skills, and you don't need a belaying partner or a big time commitment.

Time for a challenge update! I felt strong in week 3 and I'm generally happy with my performance, although I also learned that saving my second strength training workout until the last day of the week is a bad idea. Raptor friend ended up coming over yesterday and staying until midnight, so I didn't end up getting my workout done. Instead there was curry, Sentinels of the Multiverse, walking around the neighbourhood, and much talking and joking around. We had lots of fun, so I don't mind - I just should have done it earlier in the week. I'll try to apply that wisdom from now on. On the bright side, work this week was extremely physically demanding, and I've been doing planks/pushups/negative pullups at random times whenever I'm home, so despite the lack of a set workout yesterday I have been making progress. That does take me down to an A- on the strength training, but so far I'm still sitting on straight A's for everything else. Also, since I successfully completed week 3, I get to level up and am now officially level 1. I'm going to wait until the end of the challenge to reward myself with stat points, however, because the problem I had last challenge was that I made it to week 4 or 5 and then got distracted, and I want to make sure that doesn't happen again. Upon full completion, I'll do the stat allocation. Oh, more good challenge news: I've lost another couple pounds and I've lost about an inch off my waist and an inch off my thighs. Seeing some nice muscle definition in my thighs, too. Of course, my calf measurement has actually increased by half an inch because my body's standard response to physical activity appears to be ZOMG ENLARGE THE CALVES! I don't know why, but this has happened every single time I've made a concentrated effort to increase my fitness. It doesn't bother me but it is a little odd. Climbing tonight should be fun times. Hopefully will have good things to report back!

Did something a little different for my strength workout tonight: did a speed circuit targeting upper body and core. Exhausting but I was surprised how much of a momentum factor there was when transitioning from one exercise to the next as quickly as possible. I didn't stop to record everything as I went (going for speed) but it was most of the exercises I usually do, at the intensity and weight loads I most recently did them. Focus was on endurance and flow - constant motion - instead of trying to hit a higher number of reps or a higher weight. Not something I'll do all the time but it was an interesting change. I also came up with a good way to train for underhang climbing strength: my pullup bar is close enough to the basement wall that when I'm at a deadhang I can reach out with my toes and just touch the wall. I walk my feet up the wall and then once my body is parallel to the ceiling I brace my feet against one of the rafters and do a decline inverted bodyweight row on the pullup bar. I can only do a few of these, but damn if it doesn't work all the muscles I need to work on. Plus I feel like a kid on monkey bars. Tomorrow is my Friday (my work week is Tues-Sat) and a friend and former co-worker is dropping by the farm for a visit. Weekend is going to be fun, although it's my turn to take care of the greenhouse over the weekend, so I won't be completely off the clock. Not much in there at this point in the season, though, so it's not like July when watering takes an hour and a half. Speaking of the season, it's so much like autumn outside that I'm already thinking about the end of the farming year and getting the travel itch. I think the plan for this winter is either Belgium and the Netherlands, or Germany. Need to choose, make some travel plans, and start learning a new language.

Let's make a pact. Add 5 pounds at a time, and verify (with merciless standards of quality!) that our form is good before adding more.

I wish I were shocked to see how many of you have partners who assume that the house will magically clean itself, but I'm not shocked because I have more than a half-dozen female friends who have had this exact problem in the past or still have it. I have seen it get so bad that it literally ends relationships. Why? Because it's actually a relationship issue. It's the other person saying, perhaps unconsciously, "I expect you to clean up after me and I won't even appreciate it because I just assume it's supposed to be that way." That kind of thing can build up resentment that poisons the rest of the relationship. One of my favourite blogs has talked about this issue more effectively than I can without a pot of tea. Forgive me for getting all serious, but I strongly suggest you sit down and have a talk about it with your guy. This shit is not going to magically get better. The longer it goes on, the more deep-seated his assumptions about it not being his problem will become, and the harder it'll be for him to change his habits. Don't do it when you're mad. Do it when you're both calm and in a good mood and there's no current cleaning emergency. Point out calmly that the house has recently been getting dirty enough to bring you both down, and say you really want to come up with a plan to keep things cleaner - as a couple. Make it very clear that it's a joint problem and you need to find a solution together. Make a list (together, if possible) of the stuff that reasonably needs to happen to keep the house running smoothly, and the frequency with which those things should happen. Then figure out how it'll work. Maybe you make a cleaning schedule, or just divide up responsibility for different rooms. Maybe you tuck away some extra money and hire a cleaner for a few hours a week. Maybe you take turns cooking and then you do the laundry and the dishes and he does all the yard work, shopping and errands. Whatever. The solution doesn't matter as long as it's a solution that's actually fair and both people feel good about it. Agree to revisit the plan in a month or two and adjust it as needed. A lot of guys are not given cleaning responsibilities as a kid, so if it's his first adult relationship and he's still figuring shit like that out, that's forgivable (although indicative of an uninspiring level of introspection and self-awareness) but if you point out that he's been unconsciously assuming that the cleaning is your job and getting irritated with you when the place is a mess, and his reaction isn't instantly, "Wow, that was really messed up of me. I'm sorry; let's figure out a plan that's fair to both of us" then that's not a good sign.

I only have a few minutes before work, so I'll respond to this properly when I get home, but one quick thing I'm curious about: I haven't been around long enough to know precisely what situation you're referring to with your wife, although obviously I have some information from your mentions of dating and polyamory. If it's not up for discussion my apologies and I won't ask further...but if there's an old post where you outlined the situation, I'd be curious to read it.