Chronosus

I'm back! For some reason, I've had real trouble managing to sign in to NF using Google Chrome recently 🤔 Thanks! I'd say I'm about 80-90% the way towards feeling "normal". There are some foods that can still make my stomach hurt, but my diet isn't as restricted as rice and chicken anymore 😜 (Some of the available gifs for "Sun" are nightmare fuel...) Haha, me and @Alanna watched all of those the other day. They're so good, and pretty much always on point! I've been rediscovering all of those lessons with Elden Ring, too. Anyway, challenge update! Since I last posted, I've managed to go for a walk or a bike ride every day, which has been good! I've really enjoyed getting out, especially now that the weather is starting to get a bit milder, and I think it is helping my general wellbeing. On the food weighing front, it's been a bit hit-and-miss. Some days I do well and measure everything, whereas other days I don't measure anything. I think it really comes down to two things: my mental state and how easy the weighing actually is. The kitchen, right now, doesn't have much counter space, so it's not uncommon that the scales are behind something or underneath something. If that's the case, and I also don't have motivation to weigh (e.g., because I woke up early and alert but tired), then that's when I tend to skip it. I'll have to think about ways of making the habit easier.

Thanks! Now that I have the energy to start going through other people's challenges, I look forward to checking out your challenge!

I couldn't agree more -- at least there's light at the end of the tunnel for your thesis!

Hi @Harriet and @Chesire, thanks for checking in! The past two weeks have been really quite rough for me. Between some issues managing the gastritis flare up and concurrently having some withdrawal effects from some medications I was removed from, I kinda went into a "just do what you need to do to get by" kinda mode. I have still been walking and getting exercise, but not every day -- there were days when I could barely keep my eyes open at ~2 pm 🙄! Similarly, there were days when I didn't have the mental energy to even measure out food on some scales. However, I'm feeling better now, so I'm hoping to get back on track starting tomorrow (...excuse me while I touch all of the wood in my house 😅 )!

Week one progress: I started the challenge on Monday, so there'll only be six boxes for this week! Haven't added today's yet, since the day isn't finished, but will do soon! Goal I: ☀️ ☀️ ⬜ ⬜ ⬜ ⬜ Goal II: 🟩 🟩 ⬜ ⬜ ⬜ ⬜

Thanks @Sloth the Enduring and @athousandwords! I'm quite liking this new structure, it's nice having all of the challenges in one place and being able to have multiple tags per challenge. Thank you for the encouragement! I can't wait for nice, comfortable weather for biking. Outside of commuting (on days when I'm in the office), it's rare that I have a chance to bike where the temperature is above 5°C 🥶 Being of the nerdy variety, I wrote a Python script so I can graph my actual progress against the 'expected' progress if I made linear progress throughout the year (~2.75 Mi per day). A little behind right now, but nothing insurmountable 😄

Hi everyone! It seems that I last posted ...checks... about four and a half years ago 🧐 So, I suppose this counts as a respawn...! As a very brief re-intro, I'm an almost-30 year old guy living in the UK who finally wrapped up a six year PhD towards the end of last year. Over the previous six years, I've had an on-off relationship with physical activity, and had an unfortunate rendezvous with anxiety. While I've managed to improve some things over time, I want to recommit to having a stable, holistic base of general health. I was hoping to post last week, but I got struck down with a (seemingly non-infectious) gastritis which sorta ruined my week. I'm still recovering from this, so I'm going to keep this challenge very straight forward. Longer term, I'd love to get back to doing some strength work again. For a time, I used to powerlift and loved bench + deadlift. Not squats though. Seriously, 🤬 squats. As a result of hypermobility, some of my joints have compensated with a reduced range of motion, including my ankles, which makes squats tricky. While I'm building up (and getting the resources together) to doing that again, I have a medium term goal to cycle 1,000 miles in total this year. I'm currently at 88.2, so not doing too shabbily right now! Goal I: Praise the sun ☀️ Or, at least, praise as much sun we get in the UK. The aim for this goal is to get outside for some daily exercise. I'm not going to be prescriptive about how long this will be for or what this exercise should be. A commute to work by bike counts, as does a five minute walk around the block. I'll track these with ☀️ (for did the thing) and ☁️ (for didn't do the thing). Goal II: A little less Smough, a little more Ornstein So, I'm not the best at eyeballing food amounts. Or, maybe I just have a big appetite. Either way, I'm always somewhat shocked when I measure food out and it ends up being more mass than I expected. So, in an effort to be more conscious of what I eat, I'm going to weigh out rice and oats (which are my main carb sources). It also means I won't give my wife @Alanna too much food, either (the excess of which she then offers to me 😅). I'll track this one using squares. 🟩 = All rice and oats weighed/measured 🟨 = Weighed some, but not all 🟥 = Didn't weigh any And that's it! Time to git gud.

Hi! That's cool -- wonder what it was about April that inspired so much juggernauting. No progress with yoga yet, sadly, because it clashed with a meeting today, but I've been reading through Becoming a Supple Leopard, and found some good stretches that seem to work pretty well for me .

Hi all! After having disappeared for a while, I have migrated back to the NF forums -- but this time, as a warrior instead of a ranger! As a bit of background, I'm an 86kg, 25 year old male PhD student from the UK, and I have been powerlifting for almost one year now. Recently, I've started to run into various troubles with injuries (most recently, having problems with my sacro-iliac joint, and my left hip). Currently, I'm on the juggernaut programme (inverted for the 10s and 8s phase, and I've just finished first week of the 10s) -- however, due to my recent injuries, I'm using a toned down version of my actual maxes for my lower body lifts to give things a chance to heal. This also seemed an appropriate time to step back, think systematically about goals / targets and, therefore, a great opportunity to get back on the NF bandwagon! Fitness challenge: Monitoring food / activity This challenge comprises three parts: Keeping my Fitbit charged for the duration of the challenge, in order to track general daily activity. Keep track of food intake (using MyFitnessPal), to ensure I'm eating enough for the lifting I'm doing. Record exactly what I've done in each lifting session (using FitNotes), including any problems / thoughts encountered. Fitness challenge: Mobility To keep my risk of injury as low as possible whilst lifting, I'm going to do aim to ten minutes a day to get into the habit of thinking about it. To help with this, I'm going to read parts of "Becoming a Supple Leopard", and also try to get along to a yoga class on Thursday at the university. LUYL Goal 1: Meditation To help keep stress (from work) under control, I'm going to start meditating again -- aiming to get at least 5-10 minutes, 5+ days per week. LUYL Goal 2: Activity Tracking Related to the above challenge, to make sure I've got a fair idea of how effectively I'm using my time, I'm going to use ATracker to keep track of what I'm doing at a high level (e.g., work, social, games, chores). During the zero week before the challenge actually starts, I'm going to aim to meet these goals too, but also use it as a period to test what works (e.g., timings). Also, since it's my first time on these warrior forums, I just wanted to say I'm looking forward to meeting you guys, reading your challenges, and learning things from you! Chronosus

So, this is the last full challenge before my girlfriend, @Alanna, comes back to the UK (visa permitting). This challenge is all about getting prepared for her coming back to me! Big goals over the period: PhD work: Up the pace, and get more work done so I can ease off a little when Alanna returns. Flat hunting: Continue managing the UK side of finding somewhere for Alanna and I to live. Sorting: Tidy, recycle, donate and consolidate the things in my room to make it easy to move (whenever this may be). My challenges this month are in the spirit of making sure I stay healthy while managing these: Challenge 1: Who needs caffeine, right? No caffeinated drinks for the duration of the challenge. Exception: I will still allow myself to drink decaffeinated drinks (which aren't completely caffeine free). Cutting caffeine out of my life because I find I've been more drinking more tea / coffee of late. A complete cutback will help to make sure I'm getting the proper amount of sleep I need to be on top of the big goals. I went cold turkey from Friday -- most of the withdrawal is over (slight headache, still), and it's like a fog has lifted! Challenge 2: Screen curfew for me, too! Screen curfew at 1 am. Exception 1: I will allow myself extra time past this curfew to Skype my girlfriend, to a maximum of three hours (summed over the week). These extra hours should be limited to Friday or Saturday, so as not to interfere with the working week. Exception 2: I will allow myself to break the curfew in other circumstances too (which I'll consider and log on a case-to-case basis). I have a feeling that, without caffeine, I won't get anywhere near to 1 am as I may need more than the ~6 hours I think I do. Therefore, the 1 am curfew may shift earlier as the challenge progresses (and I'll log that here). However, this challenge is designed to fit in with Alanna's screen curfew, and should ensure that I get the sleep I need to hit the big goals. Challenge 3: CHAAAAAAARRRRGE! I start at 10 points, and lose one each time one of these devices runs out of charge: Fitbit Mobile phone Laptop Electric toothbrush Across the challenge, do not fall below zero points. The Fitbit is the main one I want to watch here, as it's key in ensuring that my eating is appropriate for the activities I'm doing. Challenge 4: Track ALL the things Continuation of last challenge, but formalised to make it easier to track: Track food (MyFitnessPal) and exercise (FitNotes). This includes all warm-up exercises, too. I get a point for each day I track food and exercise (if appropriate) to a maximum of 10 (3 x exercise + 7 x food) points per week. Challenge is considered successful if I have over 30 points by the end of the challenge. Since I've been somewhat absent from the forums for the past... almost every challenge that I've done, I am going to try and hang around the forums more during this challenge, too . I've not built this into a challenge, though, because that's partly dictated by other commitments. Ideally, I'll update this thread at least once a week, and comment on other people's threads as I browse. Thanks for reading, and good luck with your own challenges! Chronosus

*Starts looking up Dr Who flirts to send in response; decides it's not appropriate to flirt on NF forums, nor suggest that girlfriend could be a weeping angel* Thanks! Thanks! My PhD is in bioinformatics - what are you studying as a grad student? If it's in your thread, I'll find out soon when I get a chance to look at it! I have a Fitbit Blaze -- I love it, but it has a lifespan of around 1.5 - 5.0 days, depending on variables that I have yet to determine XD.

Hi folks! I'm hopping into this challenge fairly late, since I've only recently returned from a two week trip to the US to visit my girlfriend, Alanna . Now I'm back in the UK, it's 2017, and I am no longer ignoring the half marathon this May that I've been signed up for. Until now, I've been focusing exclusively on powerlifting -- so, while I was in the US, Alanna helped me devise a training programme (#BestGirlfriendEver) to try and minimise the impact that running training will have on my lifting, and the challenges this month reflect my adaptation towards becoming a true ranger! Diet Goal: 1) Track food intake (calories + macros): I started doing this as part of a previous challenge, when I realised I probably wasn't eating enough (in turn hampering my lifting progress). I stopped, however, once I upped my intake and started to make steady progress again. Given that I'm now running as well, I now want to make sure I have a good idea of what I'm consuming so that I can tweak my diet according to my needs as I progress through my training programme . As an aside, I'm delaying starting this goal until Wednesday, as I've not gone shopping to be able to make food that I can track properly, but that's tomorrow's job! Exercise Goals: 1) Track exercise (AKA keep my Fitbit charged, and record activities properly): I tend to find my Fitbit gives me a good indication of how active I've been, and I use the calories as a fairly good guide. As my activity increases, I want to make sure I'm in the right ballpark for caloric intake. So, to this end, I want to make sure that: I keep my temperamental Fitbit charged (it has a seemingly random battery life) . I make sure it's in the right mode for the activity I'm doing. 2) Do mobility work (including therapy for my shoulder) at least 3 x per week (separate from warm-up / cool down): As I increase my activity levels, I want to make sure I keep my risk of injury low. So, to that end I'm going to add some specific sessions to do some mobility work. Additionally, I went to get some PT and was advised to do some exercises to help out with a wonky shoulder, which will be incorporated into this goal. LUYL Goals: 1) Look for potential flats for Alanna and I to live in at least every three days: Since I'm in in the UK, and Alanna is coming back to the UK, I have the task of finding somewhere for us to live when she comes back! So, this goal is to ensure that I look at least every three days to keep the number of properties I have to look through at once manageable (and so I don't miss anything)! 2) Make at least one significant change to my lab book at least 5 x per week: In my day to day work as a PhD student, I now keep my lab notes on a wiki (which I've only recently got back into doing). Based on some feedback from one of my supervisors (about logging what I'm doing), I want to populate my revived wiki with more information (and do other admin tasks with it, such as backing it up) across this challenge So, that's me for this challenge -- thanks for reading, and good luck to you all in your challenges! Chronosus

Nice set of goals for the challenge, hope they are "prepared to die"! Looking forward to having you back in the UK Following!

It's been a really good thing so far. It's been kinda funny; regardless of when I stop, an hour later I'm ready for sleep (or, in the case on Monday, ten minutes -- that happened). Between that and the caffeine restriction, my sleep and productivity seem to have improved quite profoundly as a consequence. In fact, this morning was the first morning in *mumbles indeterminable time period* that I've woken up not feeling like I need a coffee to be a functional member of society. Sunday night was funny, though -- when everything turned off and went quiet, I did have that brief internet addict phase of 'what the heck am I going to do for an hour?' XD Thanks! I've managed to record my squats this week, and shared them with one of my good friends ( @Alanna ) who's keeping me on track I'm starting to build up a nice little collection of videos so I can see how things are changing over time! My bad habits are tricky -- I think it'll take a while to have much influence on them, because a lot of them have been ingrained over many, many years. My other key ones are nail biting, sleeping with my right arm up behind my head (this has been noticeable when lifting), and sitting on top of my foot with my right hip externally rotated while working. Particularly crossing my legs, though, it's almost like it's a compulsion! The awareness helps but it's also a bit of a double-edged sword, because I then become aware of the fact that I really really want to cross my legs, and have to fight the urge to do so. Willpower normally wins, though.

Hi folks! Through the past two challenges, I've managed to make certain habits a reality, such as going to the gym and starting the stronglifts programme. As part of that, I've encountered a number of habits that I've managed to have a positive influence on (nail biting, posture etc). There are, however, still some habits that I'm finding more tricky to change, though (my sleeping position, crossing legs). For this challenge, I want to tackle some of the habits that are harder to 'just change', and find a healthier balance for them. Diet goal: Continue to make lunches while at university. This is just a carry over from the last challenge -- there's nothing new that I want to work on with my diet, for the moment, however I want to make sure that this is maintained . Exercise goal: Continue to do specific mobility session at least two times per week. Mobility still needs to be a focus for me. When I started squatting to proper depth, my first few squats were very tight on the way down. This has definitely improved over the past challenge, but there's certainly a lot of work to be done. Throughout the last challenge, I started accumulating a list of different exercises that I could use to work on my mobility, and built them into a routine that I can do. Record at least one set of my lifts on a final set each week, and have all five of the lifts in SL recorded by the end of the challenge. Since I've just started SL, a lot of the weights are still pretty heavy for me, and I want to make sure that I don't end up cheating or developing bad habits to get through the reps. In general, I'm pretty good at telling when my form is starting to slip (e.g., my OHP at 25 kg today) . However that's not always the case. Therefore, I want to make sure that I get each of the main lifts on camera, specifically in the last sets when I'm a little fatigued and any form slips will be more evident. That way, I can hopefully pick up potential future problems as they emerge and the weights get heavier, and deal with them before they have a chance to cause injury/problems . LUYL goal: Keep track of 'bad habits'. One of the problems I have some my bad habits is that I'll often start doing them subconsciously -- I'll be doing some work, and suddenly realise that I've put my feet up and crossed my legs, for example. Since I don't think I could manage an outright ban, the way I intend to approach this is by keeping my notebook with me, and keeping track of when I slip into the habit. That way, I'll hopefully become more aware of it, and see a reduction as the challenge progresses. The final two challenges I've chosen this block are to address my sleep balance. Before I started going to the gym, going to bed at ~12:00 am and getting up ~6:30 am was pretty much standard. Since then, I get up at 5:30 am on alternating mornings, and this has been having a bit of a knock-on effect on my productivity. However, this is not only the result of how much I sleep, but also the quality of my sleep. Cut back tea/coffee consumption to two cups per day max, and no more after 6pm. A notorius caffeine drinker, it's time I cut down a bit. Restricting myself to two cups per day is probably a 1/2 - 2/3 reduction in how much I normally drink, and specifically banning it after 6pm should help improve my sleep. Have at least a one hour period without screens before sleep. I'm pretty bad for finishing watching a TV programme / hopping off Facebook and getting straight into bed and going to sleep. To tackle this, I'm going to make sure I come off at least an hour before I try to go to sleep. So, that's me for this challenge! Thanks for reading -- if you made it this far, good luck with your own challenges!

It's fine that you skip coffee -- I drink more than enough for both of us Good set of goals, following!

Rabbit I'm still here! I've just not been as vocal/hot on doing updates this month But, no time like the present, so here we go *deep breath* <essay> Diet Goal For the days I am at uni, bring in lunch. So, for the three weeks of the challenge that I haven't been in India, I've made lunch for 4/4, 5/5 and 5/5 days It's also been incredibly entertaining, and something for which my latent stubbornness has come in very useful XD The first week I stuck with Staci's recipe, but used chicken thighs that had bones in them, and got a bit fed up with how little I was getting off them by day two -- but stuck with it. So, week two I went for tuna instead of chicken, and added a bit of rice because my weight has been generally dropping when I don't want it to; but that was *incredibly dry*, and I was regretting my choice by day two -- but stuck with it. This week I swapped the tuna for turkey mince, because it was cheap, and added a light mushroom sauce to combat the dryness -- and I regretted that choice on day one, because it tastes awful XD But, I'm sticking with it So, success, but I'm not quitting my day job any time soon XD Exercise Goals Continue to go to the gym at least 2x per week. It makes sense to tackle this one first, because I think my progress with the other goals stem from this one in some way For the actual goal, I've done 2/2, 3/2 and 2/2 (intending to go on Friday this week, too). However, what's *far* more interesting is what I've been doing at the gym! Since my intent is to try powerlifting out, I (with Alana's help) have been looking at different powerlifting programmes, and currently I'm aiming to start the Stronglifts 5x5 programme at some point in the not too distant future. This means, though, that I'd need to 1) learn to deadlift, 2) learn to squat and 3) learn to do barbell rows, all of which I'm working on. I've been deadlifting (50 kg) and squatting (empty bar, tried 30kg today) for ~6 sessions now, with the emphasis on focusing on form rather than lifting more. Part of that has been finding ways to record myself lifting so I can see what I'm actually doing, and getting feedback from Alanna. In general, things are going pretty well, and I'm learning lots of new habits that are going to be useful in the long term! Today was the first time I tried a barbell row (just one, in case I was doing it wrong), so there'll be a video heading her way soon for feedback! Flexibility is still an issue; I've been squatting with my heels propped up on a 10kg plate to hit proper depth. I moved down to a thinner 5kg plate today but didn't record myself, so although it felt right, I'm not sure if I still hit correct depth. In trying these things, however, I've learned that my flexibility exercises need to work on most things, with a particular emphasis on spine, hips, ankles, and shoulders to help with the main lifts. Do flexibility exercises at least 2x per week This one has been a little harder to track, because I've found that I tend to do 'little and often' rather than 'short and focused'. This has been 2/2, 2/2, 2/2 -- in week one, one of those was yoga, but the other sessions comprise stretches stolen from yoga that work on what I've identified above (e.g., pigeon and lizard for hips, holding a squat position for hips/ankles). Things are starting to improve -- I don't think I could have squatted so deeply this time last month, for example LUYL goals: Spend at least 15 minutes, 2x per week interacting with the NF forums. So, I have to admit, I've kinda cheated on this one While I've spent time on the forums (and probably to the time limits I've set, but I've got to admit that I've not been timing it), I haven't spent any time posting. I've mainly been browsing to look at other people's form checks, equipment guides (e.g., squat shoes), and checking other people's progress. Next month, I think I'll do the same challenge again, but made the objective specific to posting and being active Track ALL the things Final objective! Tracking all the things has been fun -- I've not been tracking body fat (because I've misplaced my callipers), but I've been tracking my gym sessions, diet and weight. I've also been trying out different apps/methods of tracking, and I've settled on FitNotes for recording my workouts As I suspected, this has been useful, as I can better decide when to add more weight to lifts Diet I've been tracking, but I do feel like I need something a little easier to do this -- I've been pointed at MyFitnessPal, so I'm going to give that a go (starting today). But otherwise, it's just been good ol' fashioned paper! One thing that was useful to note is that my weight has been going down since India (~85.5kg, down to ~82kg, down to 81 kg (added rice), back up to 82kg now). I'm keeping an eye on this -- I've not calculated a TDEE yet, but I want to make sure I'm not under-eating for the training I'm doing </essay> <tl;dr> I'm still here, and everything is heading in the right direction! </tl;dr>

Hey Xena, thanks for visiting! Holding onto a chair is a good suggestion -- I've been doing a combination of yoga stretches and goblet squats, but once I've got enough stability to not topple backwards (even when holding onto a chair), I'll do that too Just a brief update for this month's challenge -- this week of the challenge has been 'disrupted' by my brother's wedding in India (the Sunday the challenge started), and I returned back to the UK on Wednesday. That said, the only challenges affected by that were my diet goal (jet lag + not wanting to take time off meant that I went back to uni on Friday forgetting I'd set that challenge), and the LUYL goal (because I have no idea what half the things I ate were)! All the others are still doable/done for this week, though (I've been to the gym twice, done my flexibility exercises twice, and I've spent one lot of 15 minutes on the NF forums), so all in all I think I've done well, considering! My plan now is to continue the challenge in earnest, sticking more strictly to the goals, as a three week challenge from this Sunday

Seconded! Thirded! I agree with Raxie when it comes to your second goal but, otherwise, roll on 5:43 am Best of luck to you!

Just kidding! If it works for you, it works Solid set of goals you've set out there, best of luck! At some point I should probably take a leaf out of your book and do a screen curfew challenge (*he writes at 1:04 am*)! XD

Haha! Thanks, W0lf! I'm looking forward to reading your (and other's) challenge thread(s) to see what sort of things you guys are up to!

Hi folks! I've just finished my first challenge with the rebels, which was quite a voyage of discovery, and I thought for this chanllenge I'd branch out and join the rangers. In the not-too-distant past, I've been an on/off runner (not particularly fast, I did my first 10k in 1 hour 12 minutes last May). Following that run, I was signed up for a half marathon in May 2017, which I want to have a solid go at Additionally, I've also been quite interested in giving powerlifting a go. To cut a longish story short, a friend challenged me to a deadlifting competition a while back and, not one to shun a challenge, I've recently started going to the gym and doing strength training with two friends (one of whom has weight lifting experience). I'm about 3.5 weeks in now, and I've been finding it really fun I'm quite keen on working on achieving good lifts as well as being able to get a decent (as yet undefined) time for the half marathon, and so I figure that the rangers is the place for me to be right now! My last set of challenges were mainly centred around building up a bit more confidence, trying some new things out, and setting up a foundation on which future challenges could build. My challenges this month are focused around developing this further, to build up some good habits that will help me have a more optimal approach to training Diet goal: For the days I am at uni, bring in lunch. This one has been a long time coming! I've been wanting to do this for a while, just to save a little bit of money. However, more recently, I've been wondering if I have a gluten sensitivity, and so taking more control of my lunches (as opposed to my current, lazy approach of 'What's everyone else doing?') will help me figure that out, save money, and develop an all-round useful habit! Exercise goals: Do flexibility exercises at least 2x per week. Most of what I've done so far at the gym has been about getting good form down, and I've learned quite a lot about myself in that time; most notably, though, is that I can't do a bodyweight squat. This is probably due to a number of reasons, but a key limitation is flexibility in my ankle (for reference, I can only get ~1-2 inches in this test). So, for this challenge, I want to work on flexibility, by identifying a series of flexibility exercises to help with the mobility required for squats, deadlift and bench, and do them at least twice a week. Continue to go to the gym at least 2x per week. This is just a 'keep up the good things' challenge to continue from the last one. In general, I try to go Mondays/Wednesdays/Fridays to keep with a routine (#StructuredDiscipline), but this week I've had to shift everything back by one day to keep up with other commitments LUYL goals: Spend at least 15 minutes, 2x per week interacting with the NF forums. During my last challenge, I wanted to spend more time on the NF forums cheering people along with their goals, plus I only really updated my challenge thread when somebody poked me. This wasn't because I wasn't interested, however, but more because I never ingrained checking the forums as a habit. Therefore, in this challenge, I want to dedicate some time to hanging around on the forums! This will also help me educate myself a bit more, by seeing what other people are doing, and the advice the receive Track ALL the things I started out well, going to the gym with my notebook and recoring everything (what I did, how much, how I felt afterwards, thoughts/notes for next time...). But, about week two, I started to slack, and I regret that because I kept forgetting where I was at for progress. So, for this challenge I want to track EVERYTHING. In addition to my gym sessions, I also want to track what I eat, my sleep, weight, and indicators of body fat (using calipers) so that I can check I'm eating/resting appropriately for the training I'm doing So, that's me for this challenge! I look forward to hanging out with you guys over the coming challenge(s)!

Sounds like you've had a successful four weeks, not just in your challenge but in all the extra stuff you've done on top! So, here's a picture of another high achiever:

Here's another picture of a dog that's glad things are going well

What she said! I think for the next challenge, I'm actually thinking about integrating forum activity into the LUYL challenge! XD I think my lack of activity on the forums is mainly because it's not a habit for me to check the forums, so I end up being busy with work/RL and forget to check on an evening Thanks for visiting my thread again, by the way! Diet goals: My two diet goals are on track, exactly the same as before -- nothing special to report with those! Exercise goals: The exercise goal is where most of the action has been -- I don't think a day has gone by in which I've not picked Alana's brain for *something* related to lifting XD All of the links and solutions I'll talk about further down have come from working with her, so a big thank you there! Last week and this week I've done three days at the gym (Monday/Wednesday/Friday). It's been a very interesting experience, for a few different reasons. Firstly, I concluded after today's session that there is asymmetry in the way I lift -- my right side is definitely stronger than my left side, and I'd say today was the first day I've been sure about it. The way I'm doing my gym stuff is pretty flexible, though, and I notice that it's not an uncommon thing, so more dumbbell work for me! Secondly, inspired by Guzzi's link about squat form, and the fact I'm aiming to give powerlifting a proper go, I gave bodyweight squats a try. And, discovered I couldn't do them with proper form (without toppling backwards)! I can, however, do full squats if I use a kettlebell or a dumbbell (like a goblet squat) to counter balance. I think the issue is probably a combination of flexibility (tight calves; I can do squats facing down an incline, for example) and strength (my glutes were unexpectedly sore after a couple sets of goblet squats)! My plan here is to keep it up with the goblet squats, to try and build up the flexibility/strength, and then gradually start reducing the weight over time until I can do a full, unassisted body squat with proper form Thirdly, I've generally got more confidence, but I'm also specifically more confident in deciding what's right for me (pace, exercises, approach, etc.) given my lifting goals/needs. I'm pleased with the slow-and-steady progress I'm making towards those and, perhaps more importantly, I'm also enjoying the challenge of making that progress. I've had a little think about it. I'm aware of the 5/3/1 programme, but I recall hearing that's a better programme for later when progress stops being so linear? Not heard of the Stronglifts 5x5 before I think it'll probably be a good few weeks/month(s) before I start a programme in earnest, because I want to know I can do squats, deadlifts, OHP, and benchpress with good form before I do do that, so plenty of time for research! LUYL goals: Apart from (I think) two days where I didn't manage to do my the LUYL challenge, I've managed to hit that one -- next time I'll build in some tolerance to account for RL getting in the way XD My room is pretty much tidy now, and I can finish off the last little bits over the few days after the challenge I've got two bin liners filled mainly with clothes to take down to a charity shop tomorrow (probably cancer research)!