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Nettis Clovenmark felt the aches in zer knees as ze squatted in the brush, observing the narrow animal trail leading down to the river. Ze had been out in the forest for days, ever since the sickness came to the village. Ze knew that the link must be in the meat the hunters brought back, but Nettis was no hunter. Zer attempts to find the deer and geese were all ending in frustration. In order to solve the mystery Nettis would have to work on getting quiet, being still, finding calm inside zerself. Ze would have to make zer body flexible enough to fit into small spaces and remain still while the animals approached zer. Nettis stood and stretched, shaking zer head hard enough for zer ear tips to flap, chasing off the gnats. A deer snorted and dashed off through the underbrush, startled by zer loudness. Ze sighed in frustration. This was going to take some work. --,--'-@ @-,--'-- 2020 finds me coming back into NF in order to get some structure and accountability for my quest to get my mobility and active lifestyle back following grad school, a depressive episode, two moves, and a double knee injury. I am a clinical psychologist, Heathen magical practitioner, and giant dork, so I am using the story of a DnD character I made to journal my trials and tribulations in getting healthy. GOAL1: Nutrition. I am going to be working the NF Academy 10 level system in order to move towards level 7 as a long term stopping point. This month I am shooting for level 3. I will track my calories and macros on MyFitnessPal 7/7 days with the goal being to have at least 1 vegetable in every meal and limited liquid calories 12/14 days. The challenge gives me 2-ish tries to get it right. GOAL 2: Meditation. I used to have a robust daily meditation practice and I miss the mental clarity and the ritual of it. I will meditate at least 10 minutes daily, 7 ays a week. GOAl 3: Movement. Due to the knees I am keeping low-to-no impact until I lose 50 lbs. My movement goal will be yoga for 10 minutes 5 days a week. LEVEL UP MY LIFE: Creativity I neglect my creative development all the time. I am a fiber artist and a writer. Both of these passions are things that I want to grow, but that I never seem to find the time to do properly. I have finally been given my own office at work and I want to put some of my weaving up. I also have several writing projects including a short story collection, a DnD campaign, and 2 professional CEU trainings to work on. As such, I will plan to spend 5 hours on each of these passions weekly.

Nettis Clovenmark felt the aches in her knees as she squatted in the brush, observing the narrow animal trail leading down to the river. She had been out in the forest for days, ever since the sickness came to the village. She knew that the link must be in the meat the hunters brought back, but Nettis was no hunter. Her attempts to find the deer and geese were all ending in frustration. In order to solve the mystery Nettis would have to work on getting quiet, being still, finding calm inside herself. She would have to make her body flexible enough to fit into small spaces and remain still while the animals approached her. Nettis stood and stretched, shaking her head and making her ear tips flap and chasing off the gnats. A deer snorted and dashed off through the underbrush, startled by her loudness. She sighed in frustration. This was going to take some work. --,--'-@ @-,--'-- Coming into this spring and this year with two injured knees and limited mobility made it a bit challenging to figure out how to move forward into a new challenge following my reboot. I have decided to continue some goals from last month focusing on meditation and yoga in order to keep working on being comfortable in my body. As well, I am working to attain NFA diet level 3 this challenge. In terms of leveling up my life, I plan to focus on creative space and enrichment in my life. GOAL1: Nutrition. I am going to be working the NF Academy 10 level system in order to move towards level 7 as a long term stopping point. This month I am shooting for level 3. I will track my calories and macros on MyFitnessPal 7/7 days with the goal being to have at least 1 vegetable in every meal and limited liquid calories 12/14 days. The challenge gives me 2-ish tries to get it right. GOAL 2: Meditation. I used to have a robust daily meditation practice and I miss the mental clarity and the ritual of it. I will meditate at least 10 minutes daily, 7 ays a week. GOAl 3: Movement. Due to the knees I am keeping low-to-no impact until I lose 50 lbs. My movement goal will be yoga for 10 minutes 5 days a week. LEVEL UP MY LIFE: Creativity I neglect my creative development all the time. I am a fiber artist and a writer. Both of these passions are things that I want to grow, but that I never seem to find the time to do properly. I have finally been given my own office at work and I want to put some of my weaving up. I also have several writing projects including a YA novel, a DnD campaign and 2 professional CEU trainings to work on. As such, I will plan to spend 5 hours on each of these passions weekly.

I am a 36 year old genderqueer person who lives in Chicago . I am a clinical psychologist who loves fantasy novels, table top role playing games, and fiber crafts. I used to be extremely active, but between schooling and working, the active hobbies have fallen by the wayside. I hope to move to commuting ot work by public transportation and walking in the spring and as such, I need to be able to walk a mile comfortably. I need to be able to move my body and do so with confidence and without hurting myself. I also miss cute clothes and having a style that better matches my gender. It is really hard to find stylish clothing when you are fat that is not hyper feminine. So yeah, that's me, taking a crack at being accountable. I am back here at NF to get some support and accountability and community GOAL1: Nutrition. I am going to be working the NF Academy 10 level system in order to move towards level 7 as a long term stopping point. I will track my calories and macros on MyFitnessPal. GOAL 2: Meditation. I used to have a robust daily meditation practice and I miss the mental clarity and the ritual of it. I am going to start with 5 minutes daily, using this singing bowl track. GOAl 3: Movement. I am recovering from a knee in jury and I am afraid to rush into things, so I am keeping low-to-no impact until I lose 50 lbs. My first movement goal will be yoga for 10 minutes 5 days a week. LEVEL UP MY LIFE: Training. I want to advance professionally and keep myself growing clinically. As such, I need to keep accessing training and keep growing my clinical tool box. I will work this month to make a training schedule for this year including a budget plan for travel and expenses. I finally have enough income to do this stuff, I should plan it or it will never happen!

Quest 1: Lose 150 Lbs. I am very unhappy with how my body looks and with the exhaustion and general discomfort that carrying all this weight around with me entails. I want to have more freedom of motion, more options at the clothing store, and less self consciousness in my skin. Challenge Goal: Lose 4% of my body weight Log food on myfitnesspal daily Pack my lunch for work 5/5 days Goal 2: Get fit for my Sister Trip. In August my sister and I are going to England. I want to be able to keep up with her on hikes and tours and I want to be comfortable on the plane and on rides or buses. No matter what I need to raise my endurance and cardiovascular health by then. Challenge Goal: Complete Darebee: "Foundations Light" daily Goal 3: Become fluent in Spanish. This will be a career asset for me, and I was fluent in college, so methinks it will come back faster than picking another language to focus on. Challenge Goal: Do one Duolingo Spanish lesson daily Goal 4: Write a Novel. I love stories and I have been writing in some from or another almost as long as I can remember. Depression did a pretty good job of eating all my creative juices in the past 10 years and I know that if I will ever complete this dream, I have to get back in the habit of writing again. Challenge Goal: write at least 100 words from a writing prompt 3 x per week.

As a morbidly obese man for as long as I've been a man, it's been my time to change. This is my second challenge, the first one was a little shaky, but I saw results. I can walk further without cramps, have a smaller waist, and am enjoying life even more. Main Quest: I have certain family members that I only see at major holidays; Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas. My main goal is to drop enough weight and gain confidence and stamina and just blow them away at Thanksgiving. I believe that 40 pounds of weight loss will both Shock and Stun them. This breaks down to losing 10 pounds of weight every 4 weeks until Thanksgiving. Goals: Goal 1: The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. -- Laozi Walk 10,000 steps a day. I can keep track of this using Excel, and is a very track-able goal. +2 Sta, +2 Str, +1 Con Talked with doctor, this is edited to 5K average week one, 6k average week two, etc until 10K average week 6. Doc says 10K is too lofty a goal to start with given current health. Goal 2: It's clearly a budget. It's got a lot of numbers in it. -- George W. Bush Keep track of daily calories. No matter what: Be open, honest, and accountable. +2 Wis Goal 3: Mens sana in corpore sano. -- Juvenal Do the Rookie Level 1 Workout A three times per week. This is a yes or no idea. + 2 Dex, +2 Str, +1 Con Life Side Quest: Have I mentioned that I need to work on some other things? I've stolen this idea from joedog. I've created a checklist of things I need to do every morning before work/school and at night before bed. Chores, personal care, etc. I will get 1 point for each checklist completed. Scoring will be out of 90 possible points (42 mornings, 42 nights, 6 weeklies). +2 Wis, +1 Cha Motivation: Last week, after completing my first 6 week challenge, my dad hugged me, and said he was proud of me. We've always been close, and been very open in our relationship. He's not only my dad, but one of my closest friends. It felt good to have him smile at me and screw around and try to pull my pants down (they have 6 inches of slack in them now). Then he said something that made my heart ache. In the past 15 months, my father has lost his dad and his brother. He said he was glad I was doing this because "He doesn't want to bury a son." That's my motivation...to keep my dad and by extension my family proud of me. However, a selfish part of me wants to knock their socks off and watch their jaws drop when i walk in.