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Yeah, yeah. Those of you who've been around a while have seen THAT before LOL. Right along with "and this time I mean it". But, I'm gonna keep laser focusing on that because it truly, truly is that LAST key piece to my fitness struggle. So, my challenge is raising my step count on my fitbit to 5k and hit it 5 days a week. I'd love, love to hit 10k a day at some point. My body is capable of it. It's cooling off and there's no real reason I can't walk twice a day other than weather (rain and avoiding sun rays). Can't do a WHOLE lot about rain, but I have "sun sleeves" and hats - so I need to stop using "I can only walk in the shade" as an excuse - because that's what it is..... an excuse. Enough challenge stuff LOL. In other news, I just made it back (and am recovering) from DragonCon - where I totally averaged > 10k steps a day. Every year we do a little less - getting older SUCKS - but we hit a few panels, saw some old friends and were amazed at everyone's Cosplay. If ya'll are interested in seeing pictures - Search FB Groups for Dragon Con (Official) and Dragon Con (Unofficial). There will be a lot of cross-over as many folks are in both groups - but tons and tons of pictures - some by pros. I think my personal favorite costume was Marvin the Mandalorian - a crossover Marvin the Martian as a Mandolorian character. Brilliantly done (and he was in the "masquerade" where you have to show that you constructed the piece, so yes he designed and did all of the armor himself). Barbie and Ken were EVERYWHERE - and everything you can imagine was Barbiefied - from a Barbie Mandalorians and Storm Troopers to "Hungover DragonCon Barbie". Folks are so brilliantly clever and talented. I've always loved Cosplay but never was good at designing my own stuff. I'm CONSIDERING working with Mom to design a kind of universal wrap dress pattern, then using fabric and fabric paint to design some nerdy nods in dress form which would work as something cool\comfortable for Con and if not too in your face I can wear it outside of Con too. I really, really want a skirt out of the Dr. Who van Gogh pattern.

I've been in this really annoying cycle for the past few years. The cycle goes like this: 1 Getting a wake up call about how far my fitness has fallen, 2. Diving into workouts that are too intense for my current level of fitness, 3. Getting hurt, 4. Having to rest for several weeks, to heal 5. Getting comfortable with laziness, and ceasing healthy behaviors. And repeat. Let's just try it again. The goal right now, is just to workout ..... at all. I don't care the schedule, frequency, style, program. Just to workout at some point in the week and to let that build.

I hate business jargon, but I do like fruit. The last four years have been tough all ‘round, and I’m pretty sure I’m still bouncing back. So while I love a lofty goal, this challenge is all about baby steps. —No, smaller than that. — No, even smaller than that. What are the easiest possible things I can do to move slowly in the direction of my big goal?* Hydration- glass of water in morning, at night, and with/before each meal. I used to be great at hydration! Now I suck at it! See, that’s what happens if you ignore the little things that seem to be below notice, you become cranky and dehydrated. Movement- 500 active cals/day. (I don’t even know how many steps that corresponds to, maybe like 12000 or so, but a lot of my favourite activities are things like biking and swimming and yoga that are not very steppy). Sleep- ugh, I used to be a champion sleeper, but during the last few months that’s been going by the wayside. From experience, two things I can do to sleep better are to avoid alcohol and drift off listening to a sleep story (currently digging Sherlock Holmes). Flex- wear tank top whenever the day’s agenda and temperatures permit it. Honestly, catching glimpses of my new muscles in the mirror is the most motivating thing to keep me from slacking off the strength training or eating like a jerk. This goal would involve short shorts too if we weren’t moving into Canadian November. Skin- I finally found my perfect sunscreen and holy grail nighttime routine. But apparently they don’t do much good if I don’t USE THEM. Do so, everyday. *Big Goal = to continue evolving into a hot and happy badass. For now this means body recomp, killing it on the important things and earning mad respect at work, while ALSO eluding enough garbage tasks to have fun and feel happy.

Athaclena here - sliding into a new Challenge. I've ticked a LOT of things off of my life to do list with the "if only" and "if just". Welp, I've had that fancy job that lets me live anywhere (with internet) and good $$ for over 9 years. 2 years ago we made it up to the Chattanooga area and FINALLY last year sloughed off the houses that were draining all of our finances and we have settled into our dream home in the mountains. Along the way I've finally formed a few habits I've worked on FOREVER - like going to bed with a clean kitchen - but there are a LOT more I'm working on and now's the time to finally form them - and this time I think I have a shot at it as I didn't realize how much stress, anxiety, etc. were really tied to my living situation that are now gone.... and I feel actually free and in a better headspace than I have for.... well... maybe ever. Only took me 50 years..... Anywho..... as I've found I really do need to start small - that's what I'm going to do. Small, consistent changes. 1) 10 min of moving every day. It really doesn't matter if it's a walk, stretching, gardening, etc. But just 10 minutes EVERY DAY - going to try to work this into my AM before work. 2) I've been terrible to my teeth during the pandemic - so I'm adding in using my Water Pik and brushing my teeth every night before bed. 3) Now that I'm not living in a dungeon setting (blackout curtains required to block "city" lights so I can sleep) - actually set a realistic schedule. Starting my go to bed routine by 10:30p (tidy kitchen, run dishwasher, feed kitties, etc). Up by 7:30a. I hope to inch that back a half hour over the challenge and up my morning moving. But that's it - those 3 things.

Hi all. Callanthae here. I had a previous account on Nerd Fitness a long time ago, so I decided to skip the Level 1 Challenge and come straight to the Rangers. My challenge doesn't really have a theme, but it does have an inspiration. My favourite anime of all time, the reason I got into tennis, Baby Steps. For those who haven't seen it, Baby Steps is a tennis anime. What makes it so fantastic in my opinion is a host of factors: - Maruo Eiichiro, the protagonist, doesn't have impossible skills. He starts out as a complete beginner to the sport. While his eyesight and his studious nature are big strengths, they're strengths that need to be honed and trained to be of any real use. Because of this, we see his journey from the very beginning. - Maruo loses. Like...a lot. You really never know how any match, no matter how important or plot-crucial, is going to go. Maruo could easily lose at any time, and it makes it all the more thrilling when he wins. - The realism of the anime shines through in a thousand other small ways. The shots and feats of athleticism are almost never superhuman, they're very much achievable for skilled players. Maruo's a very analytical player, and you get to understand his thought process as he plays. When he ascends to a new level, it's never because of just "powering up" or "wanting it more"...it's always a result of some useful insight that occasionally even proves useful on the court in real life. You really feel like you're in a match, and you get an understanding of how strategic tennis really is. - Last but not least is the title of this challenge. "Baby steps to giant strides" sums up the mentality of this anime perfectly, and it's an expression that appears in Season 2. The protagonist doesn't have lofty goals...he just wants to get better at tennis, and over time, as he keeps working hard, he end up doing better and better in competitions. That's how I'd like to do as well. A series of baby steps that lead to giant strides as each one is steadily accomplished. Because of this, a week or two after I watched Baby Steps for the first time, I found a local tennis club and started playing. That was about six months ago. I now want to add in off-court training, getting back to running and lifting on a regular basis - and that's why I'm back. So, Baby Steps gets full credit for getting me active again, which is yet another reason I'm such a fan of it. Goal 1: Practice my serve twice a week. I don't think you're legally allowed to have a challenge here without at least one GIF. I already practice tennis with other people a couple of times a week, and on Fridays I compete with the juniors (12-14 years old). Being 5'4" and relatively new to tennis, I'm a pretty fair match for them despite being an adult. So that's 2-3 sessions a week already, and I need no motivation to keep attending them. However, sometimes you need to get some solo practice in and really drill something, and for me that's my serve. It lags significantly behind my groundstrokes, and I really need to dial in the new serve I learnt a few weeks ago - a solid pace on the first serve, and a spinning second serve that manages to be reliable without being easily attacked. My current first serve misses too much, and then I have a weak second serve with no spin or pace that's easily taken advantage of by better opponents. Goal 2: Lift weights at least twice a week. (Ideally 3x) For weights, I'll be following Phrakture's Greyskull LP variant. The Big 4 compound lifts, plus pulling added in as Pendlay Rows and Chin-Ups. (Assisted chin-ups for the time being.) I'll be tracking it using the Personal Training Coach app on Android, which has a bunch of workout templates, including the Greyskull variant I'm doing. I've started relatively light, but over the last couple of weeks the workouts have gotten harder. I'm still getting 10 reps on the last set for all the exercises except Chin-Ups though, so I've got plenty left in the tank. Over the next few weeks I expect that to change as the weights climb back up to my old levels of strength. Goal 3: Run at least twice a week. (Ideally 3x) For running, I'll be using Zombies, Run! to keep things interesting. For the first two weeks I'll be running 4 km (2.5 miles), and for the second two weeks, I'll be running 4.5 km (2.8 miles). At my peak I was running 5-6 km 4 times per week, but I went from 3 days a week to 4 too fast and got injured. I never really got back into it. The goal is to run at an Easy pace (Based on an estimated 27-minute 5k time from a recent max-effort run I performed) 2 days a week. On Saturdays, I'll be doing story runs, where I run faster. I allow the Zombies Run story to determine exactly how fast I do run, though I don't plan to run faster than Threshold pace (Comfortably hard) except at the very end of the challenge, where I'll be doing an all-out max-effort run if everything works out, probably a 5k time trial. I could fill plenty of words with various details, but I figured I'd leave it nice and short...and it'll give plenty of stuff to talk about throughout the challenge this way. Looking forward to the start of the challenge!

I'm improving... Only about a week and a half late this challenge. I had an elaborate, old style Shadowlion challenge nearly ready to post at the end of the zero week, then realized that it just didn't fit the current reality. The work crazy hit and, well, here we are. This challenge is focused on continuing what was working from the last one, and adding just a little bit more. I will also do some theming, as I have time. That should help fill in some of the gaps in my challenge history over the past few months, as a way to gain some perspective for myself and in the hope that there might be something of value in it for others. Some of you might remember the series of challenges I did last year that were Tarot themed. I am picking that back up where I left off, at the High Priestess. Why will become clear later. The High Priestess is an archetypal image of a wise woman and spiritual guide. Whether she is seen as the traditional figure of a woman in blue, seated between two pillars and holding a scroll: Or in her wilder shamanic form Or in a multitude of other artists' concepts She offers the seeker a glimpse through the veil that hangs between this life and the mysteries, and acts as a conductor of souls into and out of the depths of the unconscious. Not a bad energy to have on your side when you're working your way out of a depression, shuffling your way out of the Underworld! With the aim of applying a little wisdom in my life, here are my goals for this challenge: Food shakeup - Try one new recipe per week. Bonus if it uses a new or unusual fruit or vegetable, or uses an old favorite in a new or unexpected way. Move that body - Take active breaks at work, stretch, move around hourly. Take a daily walk, preferably for at least 15 minutes. Leave the cave - Spend at least 15 minutes daily outdoors and enjoy the sunshine. Get out of the dark cave that is my workplace. Get stronger - 3 or more bodyweight strength sessions per week, consisting of at least wall or counter pushups, ring rows, and triceps extensions; 2 or more sets each basic exercise, 8 - 10 reps. Explore how to modify BW squats without irritating right knee. Try some kettlebell exercises? Dream, explore, observe - Take time to read, journal, do art or music. Minimum of 10 minutes daily.

Keeping it very simple. From March 3 - 11, I will lay the groundwork for the next challenge by: Daily - Track all food intake in a food diary to use in setting next challenge's food goal Daily - Take a walk, preferably for at least 15 minutes. May be combined with #3, if necessary, to defuse excuses, rationalizations, or other extraneous, self-defeating B.S. Daily - Spend at least 15 minutes daily outdoors and enjoy the sunshine. (Or whatever weather... It's Phoenix, Arizona, after all.) May be combined with #2, same reasoning as above. Complete three or more bodyweight strength sessions consisting of at least wall or counter pushups, BW squats, ring rows, and triceps extensions; 1-2 sets each basic exercise, 8 or more reps. Document totals for use in establishing a strength training baseline for next challenge Daily - Report back here. "If it isn't documented, it didn't happen." ~ Old EMT saying

BackStory: Hello, again my fellow Rangers! I've not been around at all this year despite multiple failed attempts. Truthfully this has been one of the most trying times in my life I have ever experienced. Within this past year, I've moved to a different city, put final preparations on my associate's degree, and had the most severe family problems. To top things off, I've been in a terrible haze of depression these last six months that I am only now starting to come out of. Since finally regaining a moment of clarity this month, I realized that depression had been my main foe all along when it comes to me being successful. Realizing this, I decided that I wanted to do something about it. My doctor recommended I take antidepressants and that is what I will be doing. However, I realize that medication is only a supplementation and I must put in the effort to achieve my goals as well. And so that is the point of this challenge, to simply start taking the small steps each day that will build into success. There is more to the story but for now, I just wanted to get this posted Without further ado, the challenge theme! Quest 1: Go Swole 4 days a week at 9pm (gym 4 days a week) Quest 2: Meditate every day at 5pm Quest 3: Knock sleep back by 5 mins every day Quest 4: Do anything related to my life's goals everyday (at the moment this is coding, writing, and cartography) Ranger Challenge Strength Feat: Complete 4 days in the gym Speed Feat: Row 1800 m in 10 minutes* Distance Feat: Run a full 2 half laps in park Combat Feat: Sign up for Archery Range Ranger Feat: Complete 4 mile Hiking trail despite the cold

SPARTAN RISING So cast off whatever fears arise at the armoured legions they’ll muster before you, hedge yourselves round with hollow shields, and learn to love death’s ink black shadow as much as you love the light of dawn. Arete - Tyrtaeus of Sparta (sometime between 650-37BC) “This is not a disaster, this is an origin story.” - a surprisingly reassuring thing to tell the mirror every day Adversity builds character, or so the cliche goes, and right now I’m facing a mountain of it. Living below the poverty line has never been particularly fun, but I’ve always managed to scrape by and wriggle my out of whatever bad situations come my way. This current one, though, this is a little different. This is projected to be the coldest winter in five years and I can’t afford heating. I can’t afford anywhere near enough food. I can barely afford my rent and bills. And my income is not stable. At all. I’m living in constant anxiety and I don’t know how things are going to turn out in the end. But you know the great thing about rock bottom? I’ve got solid ground below my feet and from down here I can see every route that leads right on up. Each of these routes will be a long, hard climb, and I may well slip and fall at any point, but ultimately it is possible to escape from this place of misery and self-pity. The question: How will I do this? The answer: Go full Spartan. The idea is in no small way inspired by the fact that I’m running a Spartan Sprint in July 2017. That said, I think I could benefit from developing some of that incredible mental fortitude necessary to stand on the battlefield, armed and ready to fight, and be at peace with the prospect of imminent death. A Spartan body wouldn’t be half bad either. Usually this would be the part where I would say the only thing standing in the way of this is myself, but for once that isn’t strictly true. Yes, there are external factors, and yes, those have the potential to get seriously ugly, but when it comes down to it, I can only do so much to sway those factors in my favour. I can do so much more to build myself up and prepare for whatever comes. That’s why I’ve switched over to a battle log and will be staying here exclusively for at least a month rather than stressing myself out with challenges. Don’t get me wrong, I love the challenge format, and it has worked well for me in the past, but right now it isn’t what I need. Right now what I need is to drag my sorry ass back on track and drill in good habits, because I am a mess, and being a mess is not conducive to moving forward with my goals in any respect. Most of what will be in here to begin with will be simple check-ins to confirm my dailies and weekly boss fights and summaries. Sometimes I may go off tangent depending on just how badly I need to get something out there and not have it bottled up. Most importantly it will be accountability, no matter who does or does not read it. I do the thing, I post about the thing. I don’t do the thing and I have to explain why. Baby steps, so many tiny little baby steps, because when it comes down to it, a mountain of adversity isn’t so bad. After all, I climb mountains for fun The story so far… i / ii / iii / iv / v / vi / vii / vii / ix / x / xi / xii / xiii / xiv / xv / xvi / xvii

Overview\A bit about me I'm an IT Consultant (yes - lots of travel at times) who has been at least a bit overweight most of my life (ok, a few years in HS\College I probably wasn't - but was surrounded by skinny people and felt I was). I'm essentially a mesomorph - I will NEVER be "skinny". I can only hope for a muscular\athletic build. You know the 5' Mexican Olympic gymnast that was dubbed "fat" at 99 pounds? That was me in HS. I don't ever expect to see 99 pounds again - but an athletic 130/140 I could totally live with. And yes - I was 99 - 115 pounds and "fat" through college. I've been - somewhat desperately - trying to find the right balance\things I need to do to get back to a heathier weight\lifestyle. I'm tired of being tired. I'm tired of being overwhelmed by life\work. I'm just tired. As I recently read from someone's weight loss journey - I'm not fat because I'm lazy (trust me - my co-workers know I'm not lazy LOL) - I'm lazy because I'm fat! So - I'm working on finding those little things that keep me motivated, that will keep me on track on making those little incremental changes that will have big impacts on my energy and life in general. Increased energy = get more done - and have fun doing it! But I have to have the energy to get started. Vicious cycles suck! So - I've found a couple of little things I can do that make me feel better - so I'm more likely to keep up with them and hopefully lead to other little changes and so on. This is tweaked from the tail end of the last challenge (where I just jumped in - not wanting to wait another 2-3 weeks for this one to start)! I'll be tweaking this as I go - and what I focus on may change week to week - especially when I travel - and there's Dragon*Con in the middle (so getting exercise from walking won't be a problem - I'll be focusing on food). So - here we go! Diet Yogurt - one per day when it's available (I'll be looking for a good pro-biotic supplement for those days it's not) I've been doing good here - but need to keep it in focus Veggie - at LEAST one serving per day Take the supplements that I've found to give me a boost - DAILY rather than when I remember because I'm wondering why I feel like poo Fitness Move - every day - at LEAST 5 minutes - work on strength, mobility/flexibility, cardio. Some ideas: Get out and walk (easy enough when I travel and schlep through airports - not likely to happen while at home until late Sept when it's not so frickin' HOT) Body weight workout Yoga Squats Stretching SOMETHING Level Up Your Life In bed by 11pm "school\work" nights - midnight on the weekend. Stop staying up so dang late! Every day - take 1 task I've been avoiding - work on it for at least 15 minutes. There's enough work\life stuff that applies here to go several challenges - I need to stop avoiding and get stuff DONE so we can get our life in order and move where we WANT to live.

Here we go, next challenge in the making! I'm picking up where I left off last week, working on some basic struggles that I faced in the last 4WC challenge: 1.) Tracking progess. I would forget to log my daily progress and within two or three days I would have no idea how I was doing anymore. 2.) Lack of structure and focus throughout my day. I'm stuck in a funky phase of transition, having just finished school and looking for a job. One of the challenges is staying focused and eliminating distractions (yes facebook, I'm talking about you). It doesn't help that I have the attention span of a goldfish combined with the operational speed of a slug... a lot days I feel (and act) like crossbreed between Dory and a sloth. Despite the fact that I currently have minimal obligations and ridiculous amounts of time, I end up going to bed most days thinking "What on earth did I do today? where did all those hours go?!" 3.) probably one of the most common struggles in the book: forming the habit of regular exercise. I enrolled in the NF Academy and am currently at level #3 of the bodyweight workout track. To complete one of the Bodyweight workout routines (including warmup, cool down and showering) takes me somewhere between 50 - 60 minutes. Meaning I have to figure out a routine where I can carve out an hour of excercise every other day. In the last challenge I found that when I schedule that hour of excercise later in the day, it tends to not happen. My overall goal this time around: Creating the framework (habits) for awesomeness, carving out regular times that are reserved for practice/excercise/me time. To me, this is an especially important step because I'm the kind of person that tends to work around everybody else's (be it family, boyfriend, roommate) preferences and habits, letting my own needs fall by the way side. This challenge is a step to counteract that tendency, creating my own routines and sticking to them. Here's what I have in mind: 1) HABITS get up and take a 5 minute walk around the block, first thing in the morning. after that walk, make a cup of coffee and take 10 minutes of reading time (a specific book or topic I'm interested in). then another 10 minutes for reading the days news. after dinner, take 10 minutes to log day's progress and check into NF. 2) DIET (last challenge's quest continued) no sugar. treats are limited to 1/2 a pint of Ben&Jerry's week and 2 beers per week. (last challenge's quest continued) cook one healthy meal each week. 3) EXCERCISE nothing specific other than the 5 min walk listed under 1). I'll return to excercise quests once I have some of the smaller habits in place. The goal is to focus on these little steps and do them daily.

Instead of challenges I'm switching to this method for a bit. That way I can have some kind of accountability and still be part of the forums. I have a respawn post I made if u want a back story. So let's just jump right in. Today I had coffee, heavy cream but no sugar. Keeping sugar out of my coffee is ONE good thing I have stuck with. As a hungry as I am now, I am fighting the urge for fast food and just eat the healthier lunch I brought. And I had a delicious breakfast of pecans, banana, and cottage cheese. Better than the sausage and biscuit I've been craving. A few good things today.

Introduction: Hello! I'm Traaki, and this is my first challenge! Hooray! I joined Nerd Fitness Academy last week. I am a life-long dancer who has also dabbled in martial arts and barefoot running. I like activities that occupy my mind as well as my body (which is why I like dance classes) but I have a lot of history/baggage around dancing, which means I can talk myself out of class in the blink of an eye. I've gotten out of shape and want to feel more confident and powerful in my body again, so that's why I joined the rebellion. Main Quest: Lose 10 lbs by the end of the challenge. Quest 1: Walk for 13 minutes a day, 5 days a week. Measurement: A = 30 days, B = 24 days, C = 18 days, D = 12 days, F = 11 days or fewer. Quest 2: Touch my toes, every day. Measurement: A = 42 days, B = 36 days, C = 30 days, D = 24 days, F = 23 days or fewer. Quest 3: Do one 45 minute workout each week (break a sweat!) Measurement: A = 6 workouts, B = 5 workouts, C = 3-4 workouts, D = 1-2 workouts, F = 0 workouts Life Quest: Make an appointment with my doctor, dentist, optometrist and hair salon. I recently moved across the country and I've been putting off setting up those appointments because I don't know where to go. Measurement: A = 4 appointments, B = 3 appointments, C = 2 appointments, D = 1 appointment, F = 0 appointments Motivation: I have learned in other areas of my life to use small, concrete steps to build trust in myself and want to apply this lesson to my health and fitness (which as I mentioned earlier is a bit of a struggle). I want to have my old strength, flexibility and stamina back!

This is a log of the things I am doing, to try to get myself to do anything. Depression: being pretty well treated at this point with therapy and meds, but always up for reevaluation. Exercise: other than what I do at work (standing, intense breath work) and walking to the subway (20 mins/day total), basically nil. This needs investigating. Yoga: abandoned after scary-seeming-though-ultimately-benign-thank-god health issues last year. Still problematic because of head and neck things. This needs to be restarted in some way that is healthy for my body. Other relevant items: meditation and mindfulness (not existent at this point, but could be investigated). Massage and physical therapy. Voice lessons (bardic training?). Others to be added. Food: I don't even want to go into it right now. I know this is the 80% thing, and I feel it, but I'm not ready to really go there. Okay, here's one change: no sweets at work for the rest of the week. And I get myself through work via sweets. So that's a solid life choice. *** So today, instead of sitting on my couch playing Baldur's Gate 2 and studying - even though I am in the Underdark, my favorite place in all the Forgotten Realms - I'm going to go for a walk while studying, even though it is kind of gray out and even though I don't feel like it. I'm going to walk for at least a half an hour. Baby steps, Eilistraee, baby steps. You'll be dancing in the moonlit woods with your fellow drow in no time.

The things about rocks is, they aren't really that fast. They just sit there, unchanging, steady, strong. Those are all words that served me well for a while. I needed to be steady, strong, and constant. It does get boring, though. And lonely. On the other hand, changing a rock can be pretty difficult. I'm thinking the approach should be less strip mining and more sculpting. We'll take things slow. Really slow. My Goals: 1) Get up and move most days of the week. Just a little. 2) Meal Prep once a week. 3) Post progress every day. And that's it. Goal 1: Move I get up early and usually sit with my coffee for 30 minutes before the kids get up. I plan to use this time to do some basic things. I'm thinking 3 days a week, I'll get out my yoga mat. I don't have big plans for what I will do on my yoga mat. Some days I may just do savasana or cobbler's pose. The point is that I'll be on it. The other 3 days I'd like to do a few simple strengthening moves, like a wall push-up, a squat, and a plank. That sounds pretty simple, I think I can manage that. Goal 2: Meal Prep I have in my hands an actual 8-week meal plan with grocery lists and meal prep directions and all I literally have to do is follow directions. Except I don't. So for the next 6 weeks, I will muster up some energy and spend a happy hour or two in my kitchen stirring things, smelling good smells coming from things baking in my oven, and packaging up meals for the week, so I'm not hungry. Goal 3: Post progress. There will not be pictures, or points, or fanciness. But there will be accountability. So there you go. Off to get this rock rolling!

Introduction: I'm Tyolka, and I've lived too long ignoring my own health to cram my schedule with things for other people. I want to take care of myself WHILE trying to take care of other people so I can help take care of other people better. Though I consider myself an assassin, circumstances in life (and time flying by so flippin' fast!) have turned me into the inevitable blob. Becoming this blob has made life harder, quality of life is beginning to deteriorate, and I've recently found out it's the reason I haven't been able to have kids. So it's time to change it all. I'm 37, going on 38 in April, and it's time to take back control of my own life in a way that I feel happy about. My schedule is unbelievably packed - and not just me making excuses packed. I'm going to be making TINY changes to begin this life long quest of change - finding the time to do this is going to take me a bit to rework my schedule, but I'm committed to doing so. I'm a high school choral director, and this semester I'll be doing spring tour that has me out every weekend, after school rehearsals almost every day because we're putting on the Wizard of Oz, and then all of the other little things I've committed to do. But I'm going to make changes. I MUST!! Main Quest: Lose 10 pounds in 2 months Quest 1: Walk at work at least 10 minutes everyday. Measurement: A = Walk 10 min Every day during the week; B = Walk 10 min. 4 days out of the week; C = Walk 3 days out of the week; D = Walk 2 days out of the week; F = Walk 0 days out of the week Reward: Still working on these Quest 2: Drink at least 2 bottles of water a day Measurement: A = Drink 2 bottles ; B = Drink 1 1/2 bottles; C = Drink 1 bottle; D = Drink 1/2 a bottle; F = Drink No water Reward: Still working on these Quest 3: Sleep 7 hours a night. Measurement: A = Sleep 7 hours ; B = Sleep 6 1/2 hours; C = Sleep 6 hours; D = Sleep 5 hours; F = Sleep less than 5 hours Reward: Still working on these Life Quest: To make it through Spring Semester still accomplishing goals that lead toward weight loss and a better quality of life. Measurement: A = Loss of 50 lbs by graduation; B = Loss of 40 lbs by graduation; C = Loss of 20 lbs by graduation; D = Loss of 10 lbs by graduation; F = No weight loss or weight gain (unless pregnant!) Reward: Still working on these Motivation: I don't want to end up like my father who died a very miserable, prolonged death because of heart disease and diabetes. And I want babies before I get too old to have them.

So here I am. Previous to this attempt, I have failed to complete any other challenge I started. After a few days of getting my thoughts together, I've decided to approach my goals differently. Posting from mobile, I'm mostly getting my quest down and will edit the rest of the information in when I get home from work. MAIN QUEST: Shadow Manifestation lvl 1. In order to defeat one's enemies, they must be identified. Shadows are never truly destroyed, but they can be lived with. Once you identify and understand what drives your shadow - it can be forged into something greater. 1.) Keep a food journal: Shadow: I'm too busy to do all this mindful eating and drinking business. Besides its good that I'm actually eating, right? The TRUTH: Counting calories makes me twitchy and does weird things with my ED. But mindlessly trying to satisfy hunger is not helping me. The first thing I need to do is adjust to tracking my food WITHOUT judging myself. (Keep a food journal every day of the challenge. Just the food and drinks I consume.) 2.) Research how to make a gluten free diet work for me. Shadow: This isn't fair bread is cheap and easy to find and I'm sick of having to get rid of things I like why I don't want to how am going to pay for this this isn't faiiiiiir. The TRUTH: This goal, the whole making a gf diet workable for me. This is going to be the hardest thing I do. Bread is a big comfort food for me and it is the first thing I get if I get really hungry because it fills you up. However, if I keep doing this, I am going to make myself ill. So I have to find what I can eat that lacks gluten and won't break my finances. I should have a working list of food three weeks in that does not include any 'bready' gluten free things. At the end of the challenge I should have my staple foods and accommodating grocery stores listed in full. (Find 3 staple foods that I can afford, find three close stores that I can get groceries from.) 3.) Get. Moving. Shadow: This is stupid and it hurts, why are you trying to do all this stuff it takes years to get the physical conditions to do all this moving around, you really think an ex-smoker is gonna be able to do any of this? Take it easy. The TRUTH: I may never get to the point that I can do cool Assassin-y Parkour. Going at full tilt in the name of quick progress is going to do nothing but hurt me. I need to stop forcing my body to do something that is too strenuous and go slowly. Start with finding stretches that I can do, walking. Actually do them! (On days that I only go to school/entirely off from work I need to go on a walk. Included in this is research about basic stretches. By the end of the challenge I should have a list of 10 stretches that I have tested to make sure I can actually do them.) [bonus awesome, Aria of the Soul started playing in iTunes towards the end of the construction of this post.]

I've started two challenges and am yet to finish one. This time around, I'm going for the smallest of baby steps to keep me on track to getting fitter and eating healthier. Step one: walk to mordor! Walk one kilometre every day. That's it. One measly km. every day. I'm tracking this on runkeeper, where I have a goal set up with 2,846 km—the distance to Mordor and back, from the Shire. ATTRIBUTE POINTS: STA 3 CON 1 Step two: yoga every damn day I want to get as flexible as I was when I was younger. Well, not quite. I want to be better than I was then. I want to be able to do a proper handstand. I want to do the things I see on my Instagram feed. (I follow a lot of yogis). So my goal is to do yoga every day for at least ten minutes. ATTRIBUTE POINTS: DEX 3 STR 1 Step three: paleo central I was a vegetarian for eight and a half years. I recently got back to eating meat (a personal choice) but I want to do it the healthy way. I want to eat real food. I'm allowing dairy for this challenge because I'm fairly sure my digestive system is okay with that and also because it's my way of easing myself into the new way of eating. I'm giving myself a score out of ten for every day, depending on how well I eat and how I feel physically and mentally about it. ATTRIBUTE POINTS: CON 3 Extra motivation My life quest is to be a better person. I know this isn't a quantifiable goal so I'm using the medium of SuperBetter to express it—I want to get more resilient. SuperBetter is a game designed to help you level up in life. You can power up at any time, fight bad guys, complete quests and make allies to improve your resilience and get happier. My resilience started at 280 and, based on the max points you can gain in a day, my goal is to get 470 points, so up to 750 at the end of this challenge. Some of the power ups and quests will be a part of the goals I've already outlined, and some will be extra credit. ATTRIBUTE POINTS: CHA 2 WIS 2

As part of my challenge I have been cutting out gluten from my diet. i haven't been eating healthy I decided to start with baby steps and just focus on cutting out the gluten. It has been a week and a half and this morning when I put my belt on I was able to tighten it TWO NOTCHES!!! That's a crazy amount of bloating! As a plus my boyfriend is becoming more aware of what has gluten in it and last night he wanted to get a frozen pie at the grocery store and tried to find one with out gluten (there weren't any) and then decided that "If you can't eat it I figure I shouldn't eat it either."!! This is a huge step for him! I haven't been able to figure out how to encourage him to be healthy and now I am realizing that it was happening without me noticing!

Will work out a nicer title in time. Trying to lose weight - ideally, 10kgs - in time for my half - which is 13 weeks away - (and in time for my birthday in April). Starting stats: Height 1.69 m Weight 75kg Waist 72.5cm Belly 74.5cm Chest 90cm Hips 101.5cm Neck 34.5cm According to army body fat calculator I have 27%BF, ideally I'd like to lose 5%. I don't want to just recomp however - I did that last year - but that's not enough for me, I'd like to lose volume. Rules: - stay below 1400 kcals/day (track) - 98% low-carb paleo (with one cup of milk a day and allowing some condiments like soy sauce, a teaspoon of honey, etc) and carbs <80g/day. - follow half marathon training plan (3-4 runs a week - Tue, Thu, Fr, and Sun) - do beginner bodyweight workout 3x a week (Mon, Wed, Fri morning) - one obligatory optional "cheat" day (Saturday) with lots of carbs and sweets - one rest day (Saturday) No snacking: - eat only at meal times: 7:45-8 am :: 1-2pm :: 6-7pm My hunger patterns should adapt to this within a few days. Rewards: - work out diet-friendly rewards for each weeks - that is a total of 13 treats over the course of the challenge! I am using Anathemas reward system - you get paid a pound for each goal that you achieve every day - so a maximum of two pounds a day. This means I get a maximum of £14 to spend every week. Reward ideas: compressions socks chin up barnew running shortsnew technical longsleevegig rowing club membership (3 weeks)hot air ballon membership (2 weeks)foam roller EDIT: I have changed this to be more low-carb and include more strength training as I have found that this really helps my weight loss. I can only ever keep to the 1400 cals threshold if I do low-carb anyway, so why not say it.