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Rolling Stoney changes her shape This challenge is all about change for me. 2017 was going to be a big year, but it happened in a way I didn't quite expect. My plan was to cross-train hard, eat well, do the derby, work hard, buy a house... but literally none of those things happened. I broke my ankle. Derby, cross training, working, and being able to cook my own food all went out the window. My partner got made redundant so our house loan got canned. And my boss is selling her cafe so I may not even have a job in a few months. But as of last month I can walk without a limp again and I'm so close to getting back to derby training that I can at least throw most of my focus that way and still feel like I am moving forwards in life. My long term goals look like this; Walk again sans limp. completed 23/3 Be cleared to skate again. (planned 19/4) Skate a whole 3hr training session. (planned early May) Re-Pass my Minimum Skills. (planned June) Play a full Roller Derby Bout. (planned August) Find a new job. My goals this challenge are focussed on adapting to the change that I'm currently experiencing in many parts of life while still trying to complete my current long-term goals. I need to prepare my physical form for my triumphant return to roller derby by cross-training what I can and eating well to fuel said training increase. So going to the gym is a thing. Between working and training I burn energy like a wildfire so I need to prep food accordingly so I don't eat like shit at work when I can't be fucked getting something rounded and healthy. I need to prepare my resume and a portfolio for if or when my job goes kaput so I am ready to attempt to jump into a new job. As a teenager and an adult I've always been a design oriented person and I loved jewellery design. There are two in-house jewellery studios in town that I aim to approach for training and hopefully a job, but I can't do that without a portfolio. And finally I need to keep myself accountable and organised so I'm trying out this whole bullet journal thingo. It's working good, even if mine aren't pretty like the ones on instagram. Change of Body Gym 3x week. (Lower body, Upper body, Core, Cardio & Yoga) I had great plans at the start of the year to continue the cross-training I had been doing in my derby off-season, but that plan got de-railed after I broke my ankle. After 3 months of being immobile I have to start back at the start, but that's okay. I have a gym membership and a plan. I had to split my workouts into upper, lower and core because I was spending too long at once at the gym and it made me reluctant to go more then once a week. My lower body workout it pretty short right now because of my limited ankle strength and mobility, but I need the habit to be there. Yoga can be done at home. Change of Job Work on jewellery/design portfolio, post daily My job is on tenterhooks right now. Potentially my boss may sell her business and the new owners may or may not keep me on. With that and my partner's recent redundancy I have found myself needing a change. After having 3 months off work I realise that hospitality is no longer what I want to do. I cannot do the work for so little thanks anymore. Back in school I was really passionate with design and specifically designing and making jewellery. I don't know what it was about melting bits of metal together but I loved it. There are no jobs available right now but I plan on getting together a portfolio of sorts and approaching the two local studios in town and seeing about a job. I figure I can't do that without some substance so I'm going to use this month to work on some designs. I will post the designs as evidence. If I happen to not want to draw jewellery specifically I can draw anything else and it still counts. Change of Food Meal prep 1x weekly Meal prepping healthy meals was another thing I was getting really good at before I broke my ankle, and sticking to the food I planned to eat was also working really well for my energy levels. When I broke I wasn't totally in control of what I could eat and as I didn't have to leave the house I just ate what I could carry with one hand. Going back to exercising and work means I need all the energy I can get and I can't keep grazing on whatever I can find at work because it inevitably ends up being cake or pancakes or just coffee. It makes me sluggish and bloated and I am perfectly capable of prepping food to take with me. Change of Habit Bullet Journal Daily I'm testing out the whole bullet journal thing, and I think so far it's working for me. While I do tend to drool over the beautiful instagram ones, I don't have the handwriting or the patience or the funds to pay for all the beautiful stickers and many pens to make it beautiful. Thankfully it's also a functional thing so I'm going with that. I'll work on my penmanship later. I need to update my journal every day and use it for anything I can think of. Adding in to-do jobs, writing down my gym sessions, planning meal prep... So far it's working really well for everything and I want to continue feeling organised. It's something I've struggled with my whole life.

After a year-long hiatus from the Rebellion, I've made it back here to start my fitness journey all over again. Not by choice. The long version of the hows and why's are here if you feel like a read. The short version; Aussie Roller Derby player / hospitality professional. Broke an ankle, am now housebound. Gone from SuperActive to CouchSurfer. Non-weight bearing for another month on my right leg. Then have to learn to walk and skate and play and work all over again. Without my usual routine I've lost everything that defines me and I want it back. Starting from the beginning because if I have to sit on the couch like a sloth for another month I'm gonna lose it. Long Term Goals; Walk again sans limp. completed 23/3 Be cleared to skate again. completed 19/4 Skate a whole training session. Again, preferably without too much pain. Re-Pass my Minimum Skills. All of the skills a roller derby player needs in one simple test. Play a full Roller Derby Bout. I'm aiming for September for this to become a reality. The long weekend in September is the state tournament for all the teams and I wanna play. I feel this also gives me more then ample recovery time to rehab my broken ankle and be able to skate safely on it without fear of re-injuring it or anyone else. Find a new job that I am excited for. Not hospitality. If further study is a thing then so be it. Not hospitality. Can't do it anymore. Feb 2017 Goals. Mar 2017 Goals Apr 2017 Goals Gym 3x Daily Meal Prep 1x Weekly Design Daily Journal Daily

Hello everyone, it's been a while. I stopped logging onto NF after being here for nearly 2 years - all the things it taught me about creating a healthy lifestyle had well and truly sunk in. I was putting in time at the gym, getting better at my chosen sport of Roller Derby - passing my skills and becoming a fully-fledged bouting skater, something no one thought I had the guts to do - and was managing somehow to eat healthy and balance my 40-hour-a-week job as a waitress with all of the above and somehow not dying of exhaustion (although I'm sure I came close a few times!) 10 days into 2017 and I was kicking its butt. Meal prepping every Sunday, doing all those things, feeling good. On the 11th day I had a day off from work. It was a beautiful day, so I went for a skate with a teammate. Our plan was Skate park --> Beach Skate --> Pub. Awesome way to spend a day off, right? It would have been, had I not rolled slowly backwards up the slight incline that is the skatepark bowl, lost my balance, and crumpled into a heap right on top of my right ankle. I knew as soon as I landed that it felt wrong, so after a green whistle, an ambulance trip to the hospital, some x-rays, and a phone call to my mother, I learnt that I'd snapped my ankle in two places. All my well-laid plans to have a kick-ass 2017 shattered in front of me. Like my ankle. Haha. After an interesting cocktail of drugs and (the longest) 6-days in hospital, including surgery on my ankle to install 8 screws and a plate to hold the bones together, I was sent home and told to stay off it for 6 weeks, with at least another 6 weeks of re-learning how to walk and re-strengthen the muscles in my leg. From being on my feet 40 hours a week + going to the gym + skating 5 hours a week, being non-weight-bearing and stuck at home was NOT IDEAL. After two weeks I went into my first post-op appointment with the Orthopaedic surgeon and everything was looking great, bone and wound-healing wise. I however, was shocked and saddened; my once strong roller-derby-crafted calf was deflated and bruised all over. The bruises I can handle, the soon-to-be scars I can handle, but how quickly my leg had deteriorated after only two weeks had really got to me. I love my legs, they literally hold me up through all parts of my life. It doesn't look like my leg anymore. I want my old leg back. I am 16 days into my non-weight-bearing recovery period and I'm bored. Mentally, I'm sort of enjoying it. Dr. Who marathons and catching up on all the video games I've only half-played (Witcher 3, I'm looking at you) are great, but I miss the endorphins from exercising, roller skating, hell, I even miss the challenge of being at work, busting out coffees and doing a hundred things at once like only good waitresses can do. I really miss roller skating. I've lost my routine, my sleeping pattern (thanks for that, uncomfortable moonboot) my ability to leave the house, and all my reasons to get up in the morning. So I've come back to the rebellion to give myself some goals that I can aim for, some semblance of a routine that I can follow, something I can look forward too that I can do at home while I'm stuck here passing the time. I can't have the rest of my body wither away like my right leg is. My plan is to start small. Doing a few basic bodyweight exercises daily, starting at one rep, and adding one daily. I was never great at committing to exercise at home, hence I ended up with a gym membership, but now I have literally no choice. I have to stick to things I can do without the use of my right leg, so for now I'm going to limit myself to core and upper body workouts. I also need to stay involved with my Derby league community if I ever hope to get back to my old level of skills, which means I'll be going to training despite the fact I can't skate. As a fully cleared skater I can help the newbies, take notes on things the coaches are teaching the veterans, and get my social fix with my teammates while I'm there. I'm also a committee member of the league so while sitting at home I have no excuse not to get things done that I can do while sitting in front of my computer (filling in grant applications, making phone calls, etc.) And I need to look after myself while I am healing. This means warming up before exercising, taking rest days in between bodyweight days if I plateau or can't hit the reps I am up to, taking breaks while marathoning video games or netflix or being on the computer (and going for a "walk" or getting outside or doing housework) and eating home-cooked food most of the time (even if it is like an episode of cutthroat kitchen while cooking on a knee scooter) Come the February challenge I am going to knuckle down on all of these things, but as it's Feb 1 today I'm not going to wait three days. Today is the day to do the things. I will be able to walk again. I will get back to bouting skater level. I will get back to the gym and lifting weights. I will get back to working at my fullest capacity. But it is going to take time.

Hi everyone This is my first post on the forum but I've been following the NF blog for a couple of years now. I'm 23yo and last year I started going to the gym with a friend for strength training. He is a strength training veteran (rugby player for many years) so he acted as my coach in the beginning. Seeing as I hadn't done any sports in my life up to that point, I was apprehensive at first but after a couple of sessions the training really grew on me and became a really important part of my life. My body started to change and I started getting more confident and more motivated. I even kept training during my summer vacations last month. Enter disaster: three days ago I broke my left arm . The stupidest way possible, climbing on a tree. I had a fractured humerus and had an operation to place a plate and screws to repair the damage. The good news is that the surgeon told me there was no damage to any nerves or joints during the operation, so I should regain 100% range of motion and the bone should be completely healed in about three months. I will need about 6 weeks of physical therapy. The bad news is I'm feeling really overwhelmed and depressed about it and I don't know how to deal with it. I had planned to start a 5-day training program next week and on top of that I had a lot of activities with friends planned all around the country (I live in Belgium) for my last month of summer. Now I have to stay in bed with a sling around my arm. In the same time, I've read several horror stories round the net from people who have had similar accidents about how weak they were when they got back to training and how painful it was and how they couldn't train certain muscles etc. etc., which really freaked me out. I keep thinking about what I could be doing right now if I hadn't had the accident and how I destroyed my summer and the next few months of my life. I know this is not the way to go about it but I need help turning this around... Sorry for the WOT, thanks in advance to anyone who read through it