sarahschmoe

So long time no see, busy weeks between some travel, work, and an annual festival that my town puts on every year. But anyways, I've done a lot of exercise in the past weeks whether its wandering around town playing Pokémon Go, actually going running, doing bodyweight workouts, playing a lot of soccer, and some softball. I was doing really really well in working on all of my objectives until last night where everything kind of went wrong. I'm now typing this with an ice pack wrapped around my ankle and an ACE bandage rolled up nearby since I sprained my ankle playing softball last night. Hopefully it's minor enough that it'll be healed by next Friday with enough ice and compression but I'm so frustrated that it had to happen now, when I have multiple extremely active weeks coming up. So until I'm feeling 100% to prevent more damage than what's already done I'm going to discontinue the exercise portions of my challenge and boost up my practicing different hobbies and potentially spending a lot of time reading and writing in the next couple days. Here's to practicing a little RICE today....

SO I've been MIA a bit because of spending tons of time with friends any minute I'm not working so far. But, regardless, I have been working towards my objectives. I've gotten a couple levels in Overwatch so I'm getting closer to level 25 and competitive play, I've done strength training multiple times this week, and I've spent a lot of time practicing juggling for soccer. I'm not going to be able to make my running goal this week due to fighting the good fight by donating blood and putting myself out of commission for both yesterday and today in terms of heavy exercise like extended running, but it's for a good cause. So I think I'll give myself a get out of jail free card on this week for the running, but not anymore past this. Also for the mini-challenge I've been doing mountain climbers until my legs fall off so I've killed it this week.

So I just got Overwatch (which might be the reason that I'm making this post a little late because I've been playing so much) and I am completely inspired. What a great game for anyone who likes a FPS game. But, alas, onto the challenge. Objective #1: Hold the point So an important part of most Overwatch matches is holding the point. It gets you points or it progresses the objective, but either way, it's holding steady in a certain way. So my way of holding steady will be continuing to run 5 times a week like I did last challenge. Objective #2: Cheers, love! While I might have just started, I love Tracer even though she has a high skill ceiling. So to get better at her I'm going to need to practice a lot to play her to her full potential. While I will be practicing Tracer over the next four weeks, I'm also going to use the objective to practice one thing each day that isn't Overwatch. Whether that is practicing footskills for soccer, playing guitar, or maybe I'll take up trying to do a handstand this challenge and see how far I can get in it. Objective #3: You have no tank heroes So what I've noticed in the lower levels is that no one likes to play a tank hero and everyone just spams Reaper or Hanzo. I'm not one to talk since I mainly play Tracer, but hey, the occasional match as D.va or Reinhardt isn't really that bad. So I'm going to build up to being a tank by upping the amount of strength exercises I do to truly get the tank-y build like Zarya. My true goal in this challenge is being able to do 40 pushups in one set by the end of 4 weeks. Side Challenge: Since this is a challenge inspired by Overwatch, a side goal for this challenge in to reach level 25 and win at least one competitive match by the end of the challenge. Cheers!

So I've been MIA this week due to planning trips and an obscene amount of work this week causing me to spend all of my time focusing on my challenges instead of getting on and updating every day. However, I finished everything that I wanted to do and I'm so proud of myself for completing all of my challenges considering I'm normally horrible at committing to something past the first week. I hope everyone else did as well as I did and we all have good momentum going into the next challenge.

Wow so I've been so swamped with things that this is only my second post in this thread but I hope everyone is doing well! It looks like the crew is doing well for the meditation aspect even though it's outside of a lot of comfort zones. I've only been introduced to a stricter version of meditation that is the super stereotypical 'sit in silence and clear your mind' form of meditation, which doesn't really work that well for me since I'm a get-up-and-go type of person who doesn't do well just sitting around. Any suggestions to make meditation easier?

The long work week is over and I'm back with an update. Finished the second book from last week, the first book for this week, and have started Micro, the second book for this week. It's already pretty good so I'm sure I'll tear through it with no problem by tomorrow night. This week I also managed my first 24 hour fast which was surprisingly easy, since I wasn't hungry at all for any of the 24 hours, but after I started eating I finally recognized that yes, I was indeed hungry. The huge plate of steak and veggies that I broke fast with could tell you that I was ready for a good meal. This week has also been really nice because I got to hang out with some friends, which included taking their puppy down to an elementary school park and chase after it for a good hour and a half before settling down to play some Skyrim once it was too dark to stay outside and walk on the side of the road safely. This morning was also a very great experience since I had gotten all 10k steps for my Fitbit before noon due to a long run right before an intense soccer practice. Overall, a great week that will probably be the high point of this challenge.

So week 2 was really good other than the fact that I didn't finish my second book of the week due to being swamped with work and other responsibilities so I had to put pleasure reading on the back burner for the week so I powered through as much as I could on Saturday but didn't finish my second book more than halfway. Therefore, I'll finish it this week as well as the other 2 books to get back on track but the exercise and water intake is right on track so this week will be mostly catch up on the reading portion of my challenge

Long time, no post! I've been super busy this week so my time on the laptop has been restricted to give me more time to reach my goals. So far this week I've finished another book, Milkweed, have played a bunch of pickup soccer as well as an organized game (which my team won 2-1!) and spent some time doing some squats for the mini-challenge. I haven't had much time for reading in the past couple days since I've been called into work for an obscene amount of time compared to my regular schedule but it'll all work out in the end since tomorrow is my full day off from work and will be dominated by outdoor sports time. So far, so good on week 2 and I'll keep powering through into week 3.

Ok so yesterday was a great day! Played both soccer and softball and I loved every second of it other than the fact that it was like 90+ degrees on the heat index. But hey, a little sweat never hurt anyone and it was a beautiful day outside. I also finished To Kill a Mockingbird and started the real reason that I decided to read 2 books a week: clearing unread books off of my nightstand. The stacks are getting a little out of hand so I'm just gonna be pulling from the top of each stack, starting with The Way I Used to Be, which is a little young adult-y but it's a quick read, good for a lazy Saturday afternoon of recovery from classic literature.

Hey everyone! This is my first mini-challenge (as well as virtually my first challenge) and I'm using mainly to start building connections on Nerd Fitness. I've been reading the posts for a good 2 or 3 years now but I've never really gotten involved on the forums but it's been a good time so far! Hoping everyone else is doing well if I haven't gone on your challenge post.

Quick update, I'm almost finished with To Kill a Mockingbird, about 50-ish pages left in it. I also just finished a run(/walk because I'm still coming off of a horrid cough) that was pretty smooth other than a brief coughing fit in the middle of it but that's whatever. I also discovered this morning that an excellent way to get in the bodyweight circuit is to do it while food is cooking so my kitchen was also my mini-gym for a brief moment.

Right now I'm reading To Kill a Mockingbird which is dragging on forever and ever so I think once I finish it which will be either today or tomorrow morning I'll read a Harry Potter book or something along those lines just as a quick pick-me-up book

The past couple days have gone great! My cough is almost completely gone which is allowing me to really get down into my fitness goals, since I've gone running the past couple days as well as working on the bodyweight circuit (my legs haven't felt like jelly in so long I almost forgot the feeling!). I haven't gotten much reading done this week in all honesty so I was gonna spend all of tonight and tomorrow chilling and reading but I got called into work on my day off. Oh well, you win some, you lose some. I'll just have to make it up in the time I'll have around work.

Hey I'm hopping on to say hey and finally follow your challenge since I read it when it was first posted but was still super not sure of anything since I haven't really posted anything on the forums so I didn't say anything or follow. But now we're shipmates so its a great excuse for me to finally say something, which is primarily your challenge looks super awesome so far!

Day 2 and I'm feeling marginally better than yesterday. Thankfully the intense sore throat is gone so I could move above a shamble without feeling like death, but the cough is still pretty intense so my run was both slow and short but hey any run is better than no run. Outside of that, I haven't done much reading so far today so I think I'll settle down with a book for the next hour and a half or so before a meeting I have to go to. Hope everyone else is having success in their challenges!

Day 1: So, there's no rain. That's good. Unfortunately I'm sick as a dog and confined to weakly groaning in bed and chicken noodle soup today so I'm predicting little to no exercise. It sucks that the weather is looking up and I'm feeling down but I'll just make the most of it and drink lots of water to hit my water goal and read as much of To Kill a Mockingbird as I can today. Maybe tomorrow I'll be feeling better and can start exercising without hacking up a lung.

Count me in to build connections in the guild

So I've been watching the weather as its being predicted for next week hoping for it to be nice and warm in order to have a strong (and sunny) start to the challenge and all the way through Thursday is raining, of course. Hopefully the forecast is lying because running in the rain doesn't sound like my immediate cup of tea for trying to get back into a routine....

Reserved for Wrap Up/Reflecting

Reserved for Week 4

Reserved for Week 3

Reserved for Week 2

Reserved for Week 1

So last summer I attempted a 6 week challenge that I quickly failed at because of my lack of commitment. So, I'm going to hit the respawn button and make a 4 week challenge based around things that I enjoy doing and focus more on committing myself to actually updating my progress online instead of just going through the motions of the challenge. In fact, I'm going to hold myself accountable this time by tracking my progress in a spreadsheet that anyone can see at this link. So to keep this simple in order to maximize success, this challenge is going to have two fitness components, one nutrition component, and one lifestyle component. Goal One I play soccer in the fall, and unfortunately I am horribly out of shape for it (as evidenced in my metaphorical dying in the pickup practices we've had) and I want to change that. Therefore, Goal One is to complete the Nerdfitness bodyweight workout at least 4 times a week to start building muscular endurance based around bodyweight. Goal Two Goal Two also goes hand-in-hand with Goal One in terms of preparing for soccer, which is that I will go running 5 times a week for a minimum of 2 miles each time. Last summer my training for soccer went excellently and I'm hoping that it will show the same promise now that it did then. I primarily use Zombies, Run! when I go on runs in order to have more than just music to keep me from being too bored, but my distance will be tracked with my Fitbit (which is probably more accurate than my junky old phone). Goal Three Goal Three is rather simple, which is just that I'm going to track my water in terms of milliliters, mainly because the water bottle I use only has milliliter values, and I'm aiming for 2 liters of water per day. I already drink quite a bit of water every day, but I've never tracked how much I actually drink due to my lack of commitment to keeping track of things such as that. Hopefully doing well on this goal will allow me to use it as a springboard into keeping track of other things in my life like calorie counts or macros in a day. Goal Four And now for the goal that I'm sure I will have absolutely no problems with completing each week, which is read two books per week. I'm an avid reader who probably spends an unhealthy amount of time with my face buried in my Kindle or between pages. I've recently been plowing my way through the first two Song of Ice and Fire books and will probably be mixing in a smattering of classic novels as I go. Each day I'll update the amount of pages I've read and will mark on certain days where I finished a book and started another. So those are my four goals for these four weeks. Hopefully I'll stick with updating and completing them this time around and the respawn will be successful. Since this is my first four week challenge that I'm truly focused on completing there aren't really Ranger specific goals, but once I get the confidence from this challenge I'll make more specified goals for the next challenge. As the challenge pans out I'll figure out how to allot myself points on completion, but most of the goals are easily measurable to determine a grade for it. Wishing myself and any other challenge participants some great luck in the next 4 weeks!