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Heyo! Decided to revamp my challenge on the 28th, a little more indepth if you read the original post in spoiler. But working on finding a Practicum/Job to finish my degree. Trying to make good choices along with it, and now if I follow through I'll reward myself with the Nintendo Switch and Ring Fit Adventure! Quest for the RING CHALLENGE Feb 28 - Week 3 Day 1 (just using normal challenge timeline now) 1. YNAB Reset - 0/0 2. Applications 0/1 3. Savings: 12% 4. Taxes: Federal done, State to be finished 5. Calorie Tracking: 1/1 Did the math for Dominoes before I ordered pickup (had a solid craving, last out 2 eat on my own for the reset) 6. Meditate: 1/1 7. Journal Daily: 0/1 8. Musuem Job Catch up 0/30 9. Decluttering: Step 3 - Paper 10. Workout 0/1 -- working on getting through a ring fit walkthrough (sadly it is tiring w/o the ring) whelp there we go Orginal:

Sooo holiday vacation was MUCH needed. I mentioned in a previous thread if unplugging from responsibility for most of the break didn't reset my brain I would pull in a pro but it seems to have been the reset I needed despite the Roof Issue (which has been dealt with). This month's challenge is going to be around cleaning up, both literally and figuratively. Splitting into 3 areas: 1. Cleaning up and crafting my habitat So if I don't have ADHD, I at least have a lot of ADHD traits. My sister got diagnosed because she was more classic ADHDer in that she struggled in school - for me everything was chalked up to one part micropreemie and one part gifted kids are weird. One of the ways my symptoms manifest is in a huge difficulty maintaining my space. That tends to be a bad feedback loop for me so I am once again looking for a system that will let me actually keep my space clean. But first things first: I need to dig out of my mess, which I started today with a 6-hour power cleaning of my kitchen (and my partner, who has similar issues with me around keeping things tidy for different reasons helped with power decluttering of a couple other rooms). That's the focus of this challenge: get my space sanitary and down to a functional level of clutter. 2. Clean up my eating habits. Last fall when my mental health started to slide I let my eating go and it's showing on the scale. Lost all my progress since I hurt my back. So healthy food and keeping healthy food on hand and keeping junk food to Sunday game day only. 3. Clean up my Kata and training. Because I am carrying more weight my Kata are affected because my balance and size are different. I need to tidy up my technique.

^ basically how I feel right now lolll I am going to take this challenge day by day... So it seems fitting to have daily goals Dailies - 1700 calorie intake - 2L water - Floss and brush teeth - Do productive adult task A little about me.. I am Rookie and I live in the Rebels guild. I have 3 dogs and a horse (kinda). I ride my horse 3 times a week and it is my main form of exercise and therapy haha. I love painting and I want to eventually transition to supporting myself on painting alone. Oh and I got engaged this year. My main focuses during challenges are food or eating related because I tend to go crazy if left unchecked. I have an inner snack squirrel. I also am extremely lazy and hate spending my free time taking care of my house but I realized in the long run it makes me happy... so I have been trying to make my house more of a priority. And that is me in a nutshell I am a work in progress.

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Topic Title: Snickie Builds a Solids Foundation Topics: Challenge requirements (Major and Minor Goals), Reward System, Commentary Spreadsheet CHALLENGE REQUIREMENTS Major Practice clarinet. Average 40 minutes a day every other day. Concentration on Cavallini Caprice 1 and Hommage a J. S. Bach by Bela Kovacs Scales to rebuild my finger prowess Clarinet in boat pose is always encouraged Follow a set study schedule for Solid Mechanics. For each chapter, in the following order: Jeff Hanson videos Pearson homework and book example problems Lecture videos Practice problems Get solid, using the 22-minute math alarm timer UTR Leg Day Bulgarian split squats with back foot on a footstool. Start 30. Goblet squats with 10 lb dumbbell. Start 30. MWF Triple P Day Pull: inverted rows on my dad's walker, straight legs. Math 1-6 Start 25 Push: diamond pushups on bathroom counter Math 7-12 Start 30 Planks: front and side, bonus for boat Math 13-18 Start 60 S Rest Day Brush my teeth every night sometime after dinner Minor Read my Bible Or otherwise do the homework for the Bible study sessions Finish Dune Start Dune Messiah Write for Flash Fiction Month (July only) Do some crochet (on an existing project only OR start and finish a project in one session) Do literally anything outside Other Eat three meals a day. Do meal planning (minimum 4 dinners and 2 lunches) so I know what to cook and how much to buy. Week 5 of the challenge, I will record myself (video and audio) playing Hommage a J.S. Bach and forward to my guy-I'm-dating-and-has-video-making-experience to edit into a parody Twosetviolin esque video full of memes. General adulting stuff. REWARD SYSTEM Daily Rewards: ~30 minutes of Animal Crossing in the morning For daily town maintenance only - digging up fossils/gyroids, watering flowers, hitting money rock, shaking fruit trees, accounting for visitors, visiting already-awake villagers For brushing and flossing my teeth the night before Animal Crossing in the afternoon/evening Everything I didn't do in the morning For clarinet daily minutes average over 20 For having practiced that day For being on schedule with Solid Mechanics coursework For making progress on at least two of the minor goals There will be no time travel. Midterm Reward Advance my campaign on Heroes of Might & Magic 3 For following the study schedule and earning an A on the next Solid Mechanics test, to be redeemed on the Friday immediately following. Test 3 falls during week zero of the next challenge cycle. This will apply to that as well. The order on the spreadsheet corresponds to how I would like to have my daily schedule set up using these element. Of course, the likelihood of me actually following it is pretty low, but it's a model. COMMENTARY I got a 76% on the first Solid Mechanics test and was literally told by my dad that that was below expectations, which in his mind is equivalent to unacceptable, like I didn't already know that. I'm not Asian and my work ethic definitely isn't (stereotypically) but my academic expectations are. The average was a 44%. The high was 92% and the low was 8%. I happen to know the professor will drop the lowest test grade and may also apply a generous curve. That said, I need this 76 to be the test that is dropped. I can't afford to not have straight A's anymore, and not because of what my dad said. The better I do in classes, the more money people will throw at me to help me finish the degree. Leg Day might get moved from Sunday to Saturday now that I'm working Saturdays again. Saturdays are slow so as long as patients don't bring their families I can do all the squats I want and just use stacks of charts instead of a dumbbell lol.

Starting late! I wasn’t sure I wanted to do one because of the timing of other things in my life. Then one of those “things”, the Irish Festival, gave me inspiration. I was dancing and bouncing around while watching some of my favorite Irish a Fest bands and my friend mentioned what a great workout we were getting. I think we say that to each other every year, but I never put the thought to good use. So this challenge is about music and dance. I am going to use music that motivates me to move and then just go with it. I may dance, do jumping jacks, pushups, etc. Whatever I’m inspired to do I will do for my exercise that week. I got sloppy with my food during the festival and never and never got back on track. So I’m also going to monitor my food with my weight watchers app. I want to be down 3 pounds by the end of the challenge. I may add a weekly adulting challenge here and there, but that is basically it for the next 4 weeks.

I started last month's challenge accepting that when it comes down to it, I am my own boss in life. And I am a shitty boss, so I need to start running a tight ship. I've pretty much narrowed down what needs to happen within the next six months in another post. So my goals will be based on those priorities and what must be done right now, or what would help in doing the others later. 1. Training I have been seriously slacking. I already missed 2 weeks of my program, and can't afford to miss any more. It's 4 weeks to IBJJF, which will be my last competition for this year. I really need to commit to the program. Strength maintenance, cardio, bodyweight movements, solo drills, and mat time. 2. Education My CrossFit Level 1 credential was due to expire this September. I was going to let it go, but just last week my old gym had an opening for a coach. I love that gym and the people over there, and my manager at my current one happens to be okay with me covering some classes, so it was perfect. There happens to be a CF1 course to be held in my city on August 10-11. Everything just seemed to fall in the right time and place. I'll need to save money and register for the course before the last day of the challenge. 3. Adulting Last challenge also pointed out (in cells) how I am barely an adult. I will be doing this again, making myself perform personal hygiene, do chores, and establish a bedtime. So I'll be updating the hygiene and chores, and checking-in every night when I'm in bed, which should be no later than 12. (The reading and creative stuff, maybe later.) I'll also need to write weekly and daily to-do lists. Zero Week: Friday > jiu-jitsu, cardio > 20 minutes of cleaning > dishes Saturday > sprints, jiu-jitsu > video and drills > Sunday > Budget > groceries > lift

Nic walks into the Ranger Headquarters after her last mission. She had hit some minor setbacks, but understood that the setbacks were a result of her strict new training regimen-- her body simply wasn't up to the task because it was growing stronger. But now, it was time to prove herself again. Nodding at the guildmaster, Nic makes her way to the Assistant Quartermaster to return her equipment. "One set of magic rings of levitation, one bow, the short sword, 10 knives." Nic each item on the counter as she listed the item, pulling each one out of her trusty rucksack. "Welcome back," the QM replied. "You're going to need those again. Report to Bev in Assignments, she has a new mission for you." The QM paused, "Come back when you're done with Bev. I have some things you'll need. Leave this stuff here," he gestured to the tools Nic had already taken out, "you're going to want to repack when you get the new equipment." Nic silently raised an eyebrow at this. Nodding, she left the ruck behind, but grabbed a dagger off the counter and put it on her belt. Just in case. You never know when a knife might come in handy, after all. Having armed her self, she then walked over to Mission Assignments, also known as the bar. "I heard you have a mission for me, Bev." Nic sat down in front of Bev, who was manning the bar. Bev efficiently whipped out a coaster and then set a nice tall glass of Harrendahl mead in front of Nic. Nic gave a grin at the quick service. Bev remembered everyone's orders and always knew what suited their mood. "Good to see you again, Nic! Long time no see." Bev was right on that point. Nic had been on a free-lance training mission for the past month, after failing a previous assignment. "Listen, when this mission came up, I had to give it to you. It's perfect. So you know the Mar'saat Raiders in the Western Reach? They're looking for some help. Someone tough, motivated, but unlikely to be stopped by the Warlord's forces. They're short a few members after that battle in the Weir Woods." "The Raiders? Really?" Nic knew of the Raiders. They were some of the toughest of the Rangers-- legendary for their strength and speed. They were a key unit in the Rebellion, great at smuggling supplies into beseiged villages or ambushing Warlord Dzanai's forces. They epitomized what it meant to be a Ranger, in Nic's eyes. "See? I knew you'd be interested. They're looking for someone to help them smuggle supplies from the base in the Reach to a small fishing village at on the coast. They'll be able to tell you more when you get there, but they're expecting you at the beginning of next week. Go see the QM. He'll have what you need." Draining the mead, Nic gave a quick "thanks!" to Bev and headed back to the QM. He had replaced the bow that she had returned with a bo staff. Nic was grateful-- the bo staff was her preferred weapon. In addition to the bo staff and other weapons, the QM had added in a new pair of boots ("Extra light, so that you can run faster, but durable enough for all terrain, and enchanted to drain water if they get wet,"), a map to the base at the Western Reach ("burn it once you've memorized it-- don't want Dzanai's forces to get a hold of it and read it."), and a new half-cloak ("a little easier to run with, than that long one you've got on."). "See you in a month, Ranger. Come back safe." Nic smiled, thanked the QM, and walked out the door. She had a mission to do.

Well, it finally happened - at the tender age of 35, I have finally decided to become a real adult. It was inevitable. I could see it coming years ago, but damn, I put it off as long as I was able. I'm proud of how long I held out... but now I'm excited to finally be wearing my big-girl panties, and exploring the wild expanses of genuine adulthood. To inaugurate my level-up, I am setting a 30-day challenge for myself. My goals are as follows: - Complete the move-in process to our new house (including unboxing and organizing all our shit) - Complete the move-out process from our old house (sign-off all the paperwork & turn in the keys) - Revamp my wardrobe, from the current mish-mash of accumulated crap, to a *purposeful* *functional* *events appropriate* one - ACTUALLY WEAR THE NEW WARDROBE - Update my financial budget - Resume healthy living (cooking at home, prioritizing my workouts, and maintaining self-care routines) I'm setting the challenge dates for 01 APR - 30 APR, simply because I want to do a "30 Days, Before & After" kind of photo collage [and a 1 month timeframe is easiest]. I'll get back in sync with the actual 4WC timeline after that.

I was on a bit of a roll with the previous challenge, but I had a random encounter with the depressions, and before I knew it, it's almost the end of the month. No training, no reading, no writing, no lifting, no hygiene. I even forgot what color my toothbrush is. Welp, reload and tackle this challenge again. I'll be seeing the doc this week to see if we can adjust anything. On a plus side, I've been getting a lot of training lately. Impostor syndrome is kicking in, insisting that this will not last. Whatever. I'll just provide the best service I can and worry about the future when the bills start to suffocate me again. I'll add training every day to the quest list, so it's three. ====================================================================================================================== MONDAY > laundry > grocery > meal prep TUESDAY > jiu-jitsu WEDNESDAY > VA appointment > jiu-jitsu THURSDAY > meal prep > dishes > Skyrim FRIDAY > wake up early > VA appt SATURDAY > jiu-jitsu > curriculum > snatch SUNDAY > early wake-up and work > shoot videos > oil change

I've found out from my previous challenge that my task list was quite difficult to accomplish due to factors that I was unable to take into account. I will be trying a different approach of habit-building rather than addressing specific targets one at a time. The Rule of Three Focusing on too many things is focusing on nothing. I end up looking for small fires to put out rather than addressing the huge ones right in front of me, burning my eyebrows off. Before bed I will write down three things I need done the following day--that's it. The three will be priorities that must be completed that day, and the other shit won't matter. A Morning Routine Unless I do something dumb, my wake-up routine is pretty much the same--check social media for more time than necessary, brew some coffee and Fallout Shelter, and check my HRV. Also pretty dumb. For the next four weeks I'm going to try a better 30-min routine. No social media until everything is done. HRV check, dogs taken out to pee, and 30 minutes of reading a book (which may later turn into writing). Nothing too crazy, but it's shit that has to be done, but I'm not prioritizing. (I will probably gradually add more things as we go.) The Dream Week I've found that if I don't schedule something, I will find a way to waste that time. The goal is to account for my time all week, and schedule all the important activities I need to do. I'm looking to download Google Calendar and allot time on Sundays to put down everything I will be doing that week. Let's see how concentrated efforts play out.

Last challenge, I stopped counting calories and started eating meals, regular-fucking-human-stylez. Yay! This challenge, I am finalllllyyy moving out of my cray-cray house and looking forward to doing lots of cooking now that I can venture into the kitchen without being subjected to cray conversations with cray people. Over the course of this challenge I am also going to be doing some rad things like GOING ON TOUR WITH BUFFY SAINTE-MARIE OMG. HERE"S SOME GOALZ: Make friends! Ever since I finished school, I have been moving at least once a year, sometimes more. Much of that time has been spent long-distance relationship, and after a few years of shipping out as soon as I started to get settled... putting effort into social relationships started to seem futile. Like, why invest in your friendships if you're just going to leave? Now, I have a full-time job in an orchestra, I love my colleagues, and Mr. Tei has decided to quit his job and come join me here. This is a place I could... stay? Maybe for just a little bit, or maybe for the rest of my life? In any case, I am definitely going to be here two years in a row, which hasn't happened recently! So, it's time to start putting some effort into building a social scene. I am... open to suggestions on how to acheive this, lol. My current plan is to aim for at least 2x/week suggesting an activity to someone to inviting someone to something? So this could be texting my climbing friend that I'm going to the gym, or suggesting to colleagues that we grab lunch or drinks after a service, or... something else. IDK! Friends?? Anybody??? Get organized with work. I am doing an audition on May 3rd. I am not at all sure that I actually want the job (see: previous explanation of finally being in a place I could stay long-term!) but doing auditions is part of keeping your skills sharp as an orchestral musician, and I want to make sure that I feel proud of my performance both at the audition and for the rest of the season. Goal for this is to practice 2 hours + at least a 1/2 hour of reedmaking every day that is free or only has one service, and 1/5 hours + reedmaking on a two-service day. Foooooooood! As I said, I have been avoiding the kitchen in the place where I live, due to abnormally high levels of cray. This has actually been decent for my eat-three-meals-a-day goal, because I just go to the store, buy a meal, and eat it. Not great for the bank account, though, or the sense of being a grownup who can feed herself. The goals for this are so many! Once I get into my new place I want to re-start my sourdough starter (or maybe buy some to start feeding because my attempts at starting one from scratch here have been frustrating...) start making yogurt again, and get a gross vat of kombucha going. Also want to get in the habit of buying whole chickens and using all the various bits for various stuff. Woooooo home cooking! Workin' out! I have been getting in the habit of morning workouts, which is working out well for me! (heh.) The plan is to keep that up-- lifting 3x/week, and gymnastics/other stuff 2 or 3x. I alsooooooo stopped in in a super weird gym in my neighborhood to be like "so yo what's your deal" and apparently their deal is that they're moving out of my neighborhood and into the warehouse district, which boooo, BUT for the excellent cause of expanding their acrobatic and parkour offerings and THEY'RE GETTING A SPRUNG FLOOR AND A FOAM PIT!!!!!!!! Sooooo that place is hella expensive buuuuut could be worth it if I could quit my normal gym (and also probably the climbing gym, honestly, because I haven't been going there all that often and when I do I mainly just want to do flips on their mats) and tumble like every dayyyyyyy zomg!!!!! (This is the place, if you want to evaluate its suitability...) Let's do this!

Oh oh, the time has come... looking at the dates of this challenge I noticed I'll have to face a major milestone in my life this time round on Earth, whichever way I turn it, there is simply no denial, at exactly the first day of the next month I'll be turning According to very reliable sources this seems to be the answer to EVERYTHING ... and yet I do feel more clueless than ever before What to do? Well first things first Secondly, maybe I should simply expand my horizons a bit and go travel for new perspectives.... 1) Get myself a good guide book re-read hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy, it's been ages really and it's such a fun story to lighten any mood Fun goals first, right 2) Get familiar with navigation in spaccccccccccce work with Dr. Joes meditations exploring the spacccccce the center of my heart takes up in spacccccce and more (he really does say it like that at times, it's so funny and yet they are simply some of the best meditations I have come across like ever) gotta do those daily, no excuses! 3) Get fluid in languages Maths, history, biology,... you name it. This goal continues on the past challenge with helping the kids study for their exams. No tracking in numbers as I'll have to take it as it comes, more like an honoring of the fact that this is challenging for me and yet I am tackling it bravely and my kids are even braver In addition, I'd like to finish translating hubby's book for easy English learning (so far I have translated 42 pages out of 99, total page number will increase as translation proceeds so don't be confused if it's more at the end) 4) Go FLY Finally get my spins etc on again on the pole Planning a fun pole PvP with @Mad Hatter (TBA soon) and am super excited and a bit scared at the same time so it seems a good goal literally my plan here 5) Random movement points This are treasures scattered all over the galaxy and I can collect them wherever I take the trouble to go move. Walks give 1 movement point (MP), kriya yoga sessions give 1 MP, going for a run gives 2 MP as does going to yoga class (because I really should!!) Every pole session will get another MP Let's hunt down all the points Ah, and yes, in case I haven't made it clear yet: most important rule, especially when it comes to work or financial things or the like ... It never helps, so I might as well skip it With all this, hopefully I will enter the big 42 a bit stronger and well prepared for any glorious adventures to come

So I had this brilliant climbing specific challenge planned for the past 3 weeks (shhh I know) but then I woke up today feeling about 80 years old and decided it's probably not the best idea. On one hand I don't know a single climber that doesn't feel half broken most of the time, but on the other hand I feel I should at least try to do something about it. Before my body decides for me. Because apparently right after you turn 32 you become a responsible adult. Or something. Actually some of the stuff I wanted to do anyway, but instead of phrasing it as a get super strong goal I'm rephrasing it to a take care of myself goal. Much less exciting, I know... Fix my aches and niggles Over the course of the challenge I want to collect 50 Recovery Points spread over all my aches and niggles, 1 MP per exercise/treatment. This is going to be an embarrassing list. Unless you're a climber and then it's a pretty run-of-the-mill list haha. Fingers - this is the one that worries me the most. This morning I struggled with things like tying my shoe laces. (It's much better now though!) Stuff I can try are finger curls, ice baths, voodoo flossing, massage, theraputty. No, climbing less is not included in this list, there are limits to adultiness. Shoulder and elbows - these are not toooo bad, but need regular peanutting. Hamstring - also not too bad but 1) I want to nip it in the bud as it's a recurring niggle and 2) strengthening my hammies will sneakily my heel hooks stronger. Fix by doing hamstring curls, knee hangs, single left deadlifts, peanutting. Knee - the inside of my knee is being stupid, probably from falling down and jumping onto the appalling climbing mats a lot, and it's not going away on its own. I've never had this before but conveniently enough GMB just released a fixing niggly knees guide so I'm going to use that as my starting point. This also has the very sneaky secondary motive of making my legs stronger for climbing. Maintenance This is leftover stuff from the last challenge that I semi-failed at but I want to keep in the challenge so I won't slack too much. Abs 20 MP Backbends 20 MP Pull-ups 15 MP Adulting Pt 1: Get Shit Done Deal with stuff that I've been procrastinating since forever. Like a year for the worst things. Here's the list in no particular order. Pt 2: Squeaky clean Might as well squeeze ALL the responsible adulting things into this challenge. Because if I get it over and done with I won't have to deal with it for the rest of the year. That's how it works right? This second part is about keeping my flat clean, for some reason it's been a constant battle lately. The strategy is if it takes less than five minutes do it now. The grading is per day, from a scale of 1-5 how embarrassing would the state of my flat be if someone came over unannounced. But don't worry my friends, there's still hope! @lucky fire dragon and I are going to do a pole PvP (TBA) which should be super fun and very non-adulty!

Or at least I try. After succesfully completing the longest respawn ever I wanted to start working on my daily structures more (this challenge was planned to improve my evenings) BUT live got in the way so this challenge will all be about doing adult stuff that needs to get out of the way sooner than later. I will keep my year goals and will work on those as well. In part's this challenge is for those goals in other parts it's just stuff that got delayed for way to long. Also it will be a lot of work related stuff. Quest1: "We're all MAD here" This one is all job related. I'm unsure for quite some time now about what to do jobwise. At the moment I have a job at a biger tour booking agency in Berlin. We are preparing concert tours for hardcore and punk bands in Europe. It's a cool job because I'm working with bands that I like. The downside is that I have nearly no opportunities to get promoted because of the company size (not many personsn needed) and so I feel like I can't realy achive my full potential here, also the pay is pretty much garbage... That lead me to giving myself a deadline at the end of May to decide if I want to stay in the job I have and under what premisses or if I try to switch work. Till than there needs to be a lot of stuff done. This month the following things should be done: Analyse the options: - Read a book about how to negotiate your position and payment in a company - Take a look at switching career paths (Marketing or Logistics), do a SWAT analysis for the diffrent career options Talk the talk: - prepare a date and goals for talk with the bosses of my company Be ready to walk the walk: - prepare xing and linked in profiles - update cv and other documents needed for job search - take new pictures Quest 2: "Take the right potion" I've been puting of some health related issues and those came back and are interferring with my workouts... - make appointments with doctor 1 (allergies) - make appointment with doctor 2 (dentist) - update health inssurance - check out other inssurances Quest 3: "to late, to late" I started some projects at the beginning of the year but didn't ended them so since it's get sh*t done month now. - Decide and host my blog (It will be about getting healthy and happy as a Quidditch player) - start paying for the ETF (I put some money aside for bad times and it needs to be invested) - get documents in order Done - tackle the to do list of shame Quest 4: "Run to the hills" (Again) The marathon is sooner than I think so I need to pick up running again - go to tuesday and thursday running meeting - plan training for the comming months - buy new running gear - start tracking food intake again (less weight is easier running at the end ) So far that's it for this challenge. A lot to do so let's see how it goes.

The beginning of this year has been rough. We moved to North Carolina, which is not a nice place to live. It has work and schools (an hour drive away), so there's that. Hopefully I can make the end a lot better, because I'm getting married in October! I'm not certain that I do a lot of Druidy stuff, but I plan on using yoga to attempt to rehab my shoulder. It's not that physical therapy doesn't work. I'm going to school to be a therapist, so I obviously believe in it. However, the VA will only pay for a couple months of therapy, and it takes more time that that to even get an appointment. Last time I went in thinking that it would be a final step to getting well, but we found some pretty severe inflammation in the joint, so it was back to square. I let moving totally disrupt my workouts, so yet again, I have to start over. I'm hoping that yoga will help with mobility and strength in a more gentle way than pushups. 1. Yoga/PT 5 times a week 2. Food journal in Cronometer (gotta fit that dress!) daily 3. Floss! daily

Hey y'all, it's that time of year again - ballroom dance nationals are only a month away, and I'M PUMPED!!!!!! Still a lot of stuff to do, but rather than doing anything that feels like cramming, I'm going to try and stay the course. I had a reasonably successful challenge: Based on what went well and where I still need to improve, I've got the following goals on tap this time around: Comply with calorie and protein targets, figuring out weekends: I'm cutting, slowly, and aiming to get to a point where I'm at a physique I feel really good about for competitive dance; to that end, I need to actually comply with calorie targets - eating it all back on the weekend isn't a productive way to cut (weekends are when I train with my partner, and I've had a bad habit of going hard in the paint on calories every weekend). I'll be experimenting with some strategies here, including planning for higher calories on Saturdays, at least. Allocate 8 hours / night for sleep: I'm not yet sure, I may be someone who functions ok on less sleep; but rest is important, and I should at least have the time allocated to get the rest. One of the important pieces of this will be really knowing when I need to turn things off for the night and wind down / get ready for bed (and then actually do it). Keep working out as scheduled: nothing much to see here - I'm barely doing anything warrior-y but yet I'm still here: it's a mix of gymnastic rings (2x / week), gymnastics floor stuff (2x / week), lower body weights (1x / week), and finished each day with either aerobic or lactic conditioning since I need both for dance comps. Do scheduled adulting tasks each week: as a way of handling my anxiety about how much I had to do, I put my adulting tasks on a spreadsheet with target dates - goal here is to hit those target dates (I'll post which ones I'm tackling in a given week at some point). Make another Mac n Cheese recipe: just for shiggles. Take a walk every work day: It's calming, it breaks up the workday, and it's a sneaky way to up my NEAT during a cut. Win win win.

It is day -2, things are really going to kick off on Monday, and if I said I was anxious to get my research started, it’d be the understatement of the year. Oh, who am I? I’m The Scientist, and a good thing, too! The world is being over run by disease, a pandemic we have never seen in our time or any other. It’s up to me to find the 4 cures and stop the spread, before it’s too late! If there are 4 Infections, or 2 Outbreaks, all is lost, and it’s really getting down to the wire. The only way to win is to stick to my scientific guns, buckle down, and do whatever is necessary to prevent the infection from spreading while my research is in progress. In 4 weeks, I will have all the pieces I need to put together the cures and end this madness once and for all. I am the only hope humanity has. God help us all. A lot has happened lately! I got married a week ago Saturday to the love of my life, and yesterday he went back home to Ireland, where I will be moving in March. We have a fun year ahead of us, including a Spartan Super, a probably a couple more BJJ tournaments, a lot of international travel (all our friends are also with foreign people and getting married throughout Europe, yay!), and lots of board games, including my current favorite, Pandemic! Role: The Scientist Special Ability: I only need 4 cards of each color to cure disease (aka: 4 weeks) Event Card: One Quiet night: Play at any time to skip an Infection or prevent and Outbreak. Objectives: Western World Hit macros 7/7 days Southern Hemisphere Lift 3/3 days, BJJ 2/2 days Mid-East Budget: make a budget, comply with it, check it every week to stay on target to save for Irish car and insurance. Name change: work each week towards changing all official documents to new name, complete process if possible by end of month. Start with SS, go from there. Minimize: 10 minutes, 5/5 days, get rid of stuff I preparation for move. Bonus points if I donate stuff. Far East Journal: 7/7 days, a line or a novel, whatever. Guitar: Practice 5/5 Days, bonus for 6/5, includes music theory practice. Roleplay: Work on roleplay post 10 minutes 5/5 days. Bonus (Complete one or more to earn extra Event Cards): 1. Sodium <2500 4/5 days 2. Steps >8K 3. Finished and sent roleplay post How To Lose: As in the game, there are a lot more ways to lose than to win! Missing one goal for the week causes an Infection cycle, missing more than one in a single week causes an Outbreak. There can 4 Infections or 2 Outbreaks before it’s game over. I have one free Event Card, “One Quiet Night” to prevent an Infection cycle or Outbreak(instead of an Outbreak it would downgrade to only an Infection cycle), and I can earn more Event Cards by completing my bonus actions above. Event cards can be used at any time. How to Win: Make it to the end of 4 weeks without losing via methods above. Each week my “research” progresses and I will fill in a line on each vial, after 4 weeks they will be full and the cures will be completed! I just need to keep the world alive long enough for that to happen.

IM BAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK. I can't believe it's really only been a month or so. SO MUCH HAS HAPPENED. Do you ever have one of those times where it feels like your life has significantly changed in some way even though it hasn't been that long and on the surface things are more or less the same? Yeah..having one of those times! I guess a really stressful year ending with a trial of LITERAL FIRE and then my cat randomly dying is the sort of stuff that changes a person? Oh, life! I am pretty happy with where things are as far as exercise stuff so my only specific exercise related goal is going to be FLEXIBILITY! I am fairly flexible just because aerial and dance both tend to include some flexibility work but I don't spend any dedicated stretching time and I'd really like to. For other things I am currently doing aerial once a week, lifting/rings training with trainer once a week, and at least one more day of wacky bodyweight at home. I want to get back to running and walking more as well but the air is still a little smoky so I hesitate to do anything to increase need to breathe while outdoors! ANYWHO! Goals! Goal 1 - Life Balance: Time has shown I am really good at overbooking myself and I need to not do that! Here are some small goals to try and keep me reeled in: A. LAZY SUNDAY in full effect for month of January (don't you dare make Sunday plans, self!!) B. Lazy weekday evening - at least one evening during the week without plans or a class . This will likely be Wednesday evenings but flexible if something comes up c. Assess Stress Level Once per week - I need to consciously assess how I am feeling about life to determine if I am overdoing it. Lets say this shall currently be something to think about on Sundays since I am making that a designated rest day! Goal 2 - Flexibility: Spend at least 10 min a day stretching (this can be throughout the day or all at once if I forget.) I'd like to get to where I can clasp my hands behind my back again which I haven't been able to do in YEAAAARS. And this has the very practical application that it will help me with keeping sunscreen on my giant tattoo that is now faded way more than I'd like because of negligence with SPF. Goal 3 - Declutter: Overall goal is to remove all excess clothes and random stuff from my floor by the end of this challenge. In practical application I will shoot for at least 30 min a week of declutter work, or alternately make sure I do at least ONE thing per day to work towards this. (If I put a clothing item a day into a to donate bag that's a lot of clothes not on my floor!) This is all for now...I AM pondering adding a lipstick goal since I still never wear any of my collection and this worked for me to get myself actually using eyeshadow. Maybe I will wait until February/ give myself an easy round this time though!!

Main Quest: Foundation Building This one has turned into pretty much a short-term Epic Quest. I'm still working on shelter. I figured out a [constantly-evolving] weekly chore list in the previous challenge, which I will keep adding to. I am thinking timelines and scheduling should be the main focus this time to ensure that they get done. Chore List: Laundry - Wednesday and Saturday morning Dishes - Wednesday and Saturday morning Sweep and dust once a week Grocery and cooking once a week Taking out the dogs once a day Trash once a week Junk mail/email once a week Bathroom cleaning once a week Eliminate tabs on browser Misc: Daily Instagram and Facebook post Bi-weekly Coaching updates Big Tasks: Living Room - boxes of papers, books, old magazines, etc. Closet - sort clothes, throw away other clothes Weekly Schedule - install whiteboard, figure out priorities Side Quest: Order of the Mage Slayers Knowing that the Order might be itself corrupted if exposed to magic, the Vizjerei deemed that the Assassins would have to possess the purest, most focused minds, that they should draw their power from within, not without. I will be embracing the guild's roots in minimalist training to avoid distractions as much as possible. (1) Training in my garage will always be timed and limited to 60 minutes; as I always end up spending too much time playing hee-haw with the fuck-around gang. (2) I will also be focusing on the ever-elusive Handstand, until I can eventually hold it for 60 seconds. Daily 5 minutes of Handstand work followed by 10 minutes of meditation. Ya makasi. ======================================================================== WEEK 1 TASKS ✘ Draft Facebook Posts (5/7) ✔ Update Trainerize ✘ Bathroom ✘ Sweep and Dust ✔ Grocery ✔ Cook ✔ Junk Mail ✔ Trash ✔ Laundry 1 ✔ Laundry 2 ✔ Dishes 1 (delegated) ✔ Dishes 2 ✔ Dogs Sun ✘ Dogs Mon ✔ Dogs Tue (delegated) ✔ Dogs Wed (delegated) ✘ Dogs Thu ✘ Dogs Fri ✔ Dogs Sat Tab count: 31 Handstand / Headspace Sun: Partial Wall 5x6s; Motivation 6 Mon: miss / miss Tue: Partial Wall / miss Wed: Partial Wall / miss Thu: Partial Wall / miss Fri: Partial Wall / miss Sat: Partial Wall / miss

ClaraWho starts small Hi everyone! As someone who has fallen off the wagon countless times, I'm looking forward to starting to structure my goals. Like so many people, I can list you a ton of different goals, and often I do not prioritise sufficiently and try to change too much at the same time. One of the things I love is sports-climbing, and I would like to focus on becoming a better climber for the next few challenges. This is still a very broad focus, as I need a lot of extra strength, mobility and balance, and losing a few pounds also doesn't hurt. Did I already mention antagonist training, general injury prevention, endurance and mental strength? To eat the proverbial elephant one bite at a time, I'm planning to start very small in the next few weeks, and to get out of the 'everything or nothing'-spiral. My goals for my first challenge will be: 1. Show up at the gym twice a week. The only requirements are that I actually enter the gym and change into workout gear. Whether it is a full-body workout or just a 10s support hold on the rings, anything is fine. My unofficial aim here is to be able to do 5 strict push-ups, 5 strict pull-ups, 5 chair-pistol squats and a 15s L-sit on parallel bars at the end of the month. 2. Do any form of mobility/flexibility/foam rolling/other injury prevention at least 4 times per week. This can include any form of yoga as well. I love the sequences of GMB (gold medal bodies), but suffer from analysis paralysis. There are too many resources out there, and I have too many stiff body parts to just focus on something. I just have to start somewhere, and get rid of my 'everything or nothing' approach here. 3. Clean/tidy the house for 5 minutes, at least 4 times per week. I saw this tip somewhere on the internet some time ago, and it is amazing how much you can actually do in 5 minutes. It's a good way to get rid of all those nagging chores that distract me all the time. Let's start climbing towards these goals!

Challenge #31 - Mistr looks back This challenge marks four years on NF. I started as a rookie (with @Teirin!) back in August 2013. This time instead of looking forward, I am going to go back through my old challenges and log books. I will look at how far I have come and what I still need to do. Week one: August 2013-July 2014 Week two: August 2014-July 2015 Week three: August 2015-July 2016 Week four: August 2016-July 2017 Hopefully by week four you will have forgotten what I was doing over the last couple months and it will all seem fresh.

Challenge here, discourse underneath. 1) Carry on Eating Well: Stick with the 80-20 Primal scheme, keep on logging, and do an IF of some measure on days when I know eating is going to be less than ideal. 2) Carry on Lifting: Alternate lifting two times and four times a week. Accept that gains will be slower, but that burnout is less likely to happen. 3) Carry on Keeping Calm: Evaluate the day every morning and see if something can be removed to make life easier. 4) Carry On Adulting: Keep cleaning 5 minutes per day - Priority living room Frame the new prints Frame the Westeros Map Frame and/or find a way to hang the Journey print Hang the Japanese Noren gift Tidy up finances this month

Still pondering my exact goals for this! I realized in early June-ish (or maybe late may?) that I wasn't quite happy with how things were going. I had "needed a break" on my hectic schedule because of my overbooking for the last few years, but then realized I'd cut TOO MUCH out of my schedule, especially exercise and training and I wasn't really happy about it. 1) Exercise makes me really damn happy and I love doing it. 2) My fat loss stalled out because I had stopped exercising but kept eating about the same (luckily no fat gains, just the slow overtime weight loss stalled out on me.) I also have come to realize that I have become SO MUCH better at adulting and managing money but I could be doing SO MUCH BETTER. This might be partially inspired by the fact that I am finally getting quotes on all the home maintenance and repairs we need to do and having an actual budget would be so helpful in the long run for me -- as well as making myself put money in savings both for house expenses, for my own emergency expenses, and for fun times savings. Developing a budget and figuring out how to track it will be a thing! I already track expenses manually though an app but I haven't been applying that exactly towards an overall budget/ I more do that to make me have to think more about where I am spending my money and know how much I have at any given time, but now is time to make GOALS to do with spending teh money and not just tracking it! I am looking into possibly switching my tracking app to something that has a budgeting feature in it (this one tells me how much I've spent in my different categories if I look at it but it isn't the main feature.) If I go with another app I want it to be something I manually have to enter numbers into and not something I have to link to my bank account that will then calculate out everything for me. I am much more conscious of my spending if I have to do the data entry myself! Soooo with these general goals in mind: 1. Running - run 2x per week (can sub a walk or hike in for a run if I want to or need to.) 2. Aerial & Aerial conditioning - Continue with aerial 1x per week and add one aerial conditioning workout per week. This can be included into my required strength training for the days for the week (make sure I add pull up work and core work into whatever workout I am doing.) 3. Strength - strength training at minimum 2x per week. I will opt to NOT include aerial in this so I am doing 2 extra strength days = 3 days overall of strength stuff because of aerial. I do want to get back into lifting but I realized last challenge that the workout I will actually do is better than specifically wanting to go lift, so if at home bodyweight work is what I will actually do then I will take it!!! 4. UPDATE! Adding in macro goal starting week 2: track macros every day, especially on weekends when I decide beer is kind of like water. Life goals: BUDGETING - Phase 1- develop budget. By the end of this challenge I want to have selected which app I plan to use for tracking (or if I plan to use something else figure that out??), and determine my areas I want to track and how much cash goes into each category. ADULTING - Continue with decluttering and cleaning missions. Clean at least 30 min per week. Also - continue progress on house repair plans which is harder to quantify but, by the end of this challenge I want to have figured out our final budget we need for all the repairs and apply for the home equity loan, and then begin scheduling out jobs if I know a firm date when the $ will be available

Last month was my warm up. I'm feeling pretty good about stuff. Let's do this. MOVE: Same as last challenge. Sun Salutes: first thing in the morning, BEFORE breakfast. It is five minutes, no excuses. Kettlebells: Keep on Simple & Sinister program for now. (If the gym thing happens, I'll reevaluate.) Program is a short warmup, 10x10 swings, 10 getups. 30-45m. Currently solid on 35lb swings and 20lb getups, so a few sets are now 50lb swings and 35lb getups. I've got video! EAT: One balanced meal. Goal for this challenge is to have ONE meal a day loosely follow the Precision Nutrition guidelines. Despite their name, they don't advise anyone besides weight-class based competitive athletes and serious bodybuilders to actually weigh and measure food, and then only for a limited period prior to competing. ("Unless someone is paying to see your abs, it isn't worth it.") But it is easier for me to eyeball actual units, so their standard guidelines work out to about 1c or 1/2lb meat, 2c veggies, 1c starch or fresh fruit, and either ~2T fat or 2oz nuts/cheese. For the rest of the day, just make mostly reasonable choices, eat when hungry, etc. I'm still carrying a little more weight than I like, but I'm trying not to worry about it. WORK: Daily check-in AND weekly review. My partner and I work together, travelling and from home. We've got a lot to keep track of. I'd fallen out of the habit for a while, but what keeps this running smoothly is that each evening we check the calendar for tomorrow, and make a list of any appointments and what I need to get done. I did pretty well on that last challenge, but I want to keep it up. Also, my partner is generally good at keeping all the longer-range planning in his head, but he's got a lot on his mind lately, so a weekly review would help things from falling off the plate. Review would usually be Tuesday, to prep for weekend events, but Monday or Wednesday is fine. SPIRIT: Get out in the woods every day, and do prayer beads at night. Same as last challenge. Scoring as usual, passing score is 5/7. (7=A+, 6=A, 5=B, 4=C, 3=D) 15 PREVIOUS CHALLENGES: