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I've had limited success over the last couple of challenges, so I want to keep this one nice and simple to focus on the basics for a while. I tended to over-complicate things the last couple of times, and it didn't really work out as I'd hoped. So this is six weeks of working on the fundamentals. 1) Diet Quality: +3CON, +1WIS Looking back on things, the most success I've previously had was when tracking my diet carefully, logging everything in a food journal and keeping an eye on the total calories while trying to ensure I eat whole, unprocessed foods wherever possible (I have to eat GF anyway so it's pretty much paleo, really). So that's what I'm going back to! According to the various online calculators and reference books, my BMR is currently approximately 2200. Daily life out here in the desert doesn't tend to include much activity, so my Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) is approximately 2600. I'll track everything I eat each day, totalling everything up using caloriecount.com, and use this to ensure I hit a decent calorie deficit every day. If I'm training regularly and staying under 2500 calories/day, weight tends to fall off steadily. If I go too low, I get really hungry the next day and end up bingeing. And I'll have a guilt-free treat once a week - not an entire day of cheating, just one extra-nice meal or snack as a reward. Alcohol will be limited to once a week - it's not a massive feature of life out here at the moment anyway to be honest, although I do enjoy a nice cider/bottle of wine/wee dram at the weekend. Just not both nights. I shall *not* be weighing myself every day - I hereby designate Thursdays as weigh-in day. I've taken my starting photos, my starting weight will be done on Thursday morning, and I want to see if I can get back under 100kg by the end of this challenge. I'll be visiting back home for one week of the challenge which will screw things up a bit, but I'll deal with that as best I can at the time. With a bit of care I should be able to just maintain the same weight for a week. 2) Move heavy things 3x a week: +3STR, +1 CON I'm booked in with a really good PT at the gym for three times a week. He's teaching me how to lift with correct form, while also working on my atrocious lack of flexibility. The workouts tend to end with a Crossfit-style WOD as well - the last couple of these kicked my arse well and truly. If for whatever reason I don't have three sessions with him, I'll either do a weights session on my own or do a bodyweight workout (I definitely count as something heavy). 3) Cardio twice a week: +2DEX, +2STA This can consist of any kind of cardio; static bike, running (although not far or fast due to the heat), tennis, squash, football, swimming - anything that gets the heart-rate up and keeps it there. LQ) Learn the ukulele: +2CHA, +1DEX I had good success with my re-learning the piano challenge a little while back, so this time I'm following the same method with the ukulele, albeit starting completely from scratch. A minimum of 10mins practice a day - if I feel like doing more I can, but if I don't I can stop after 10mins with no penalty. The other commitment I'm making is to write a detailed weekly round-up at the end of every single week so I can spot any trends or problems and stop them before they escalate. I'm really looking forward to getting started with this challenge. I'm going to start posting in this thread from now as I seque into it from my last one, but the actual scoring obviously won't start until the beginning of my week (Sunday). Best crack on then!