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Hello friends and thank you for being here. It’s the start of a brand new Calendar Turn, and whilst I do set Year Goals, I am determined to be part of the minority, those brave and incredible souls, who actually achieve them. Past years have been… well, not good. Still not written a novel, as 20 year old me was certain we would have by now. BUT I am super close to getting my Masters, so I am many steps closer to the academic dream than I was before I had that goal. Hold on to your hats, it's a long one! SO, I sat and thought about that for a bit. New Year’s Resolutions or goals are ‘failed’ so often it’s the object of humour. It’s a meme – crowded gym in January, empty gym in February. And I think I know why I am close to completing this goal and have failed on many others. I made it this far – to get a Masters in History – and not the novel (or losing weight, learning to cook better etc.) for one simple reason – I had to! Well, okay, I could have dropped out of the programme and lost the money I’d paid I suppose. But once enrolled, I had deadlines to meet and supervisors who expected me to meet them. It was something that could be gently laid aside when events demanded it – For which I am forever grateful to my supervisors for being so supportive in the event of my mental health crisis – but ultimately it had to be picked up. It was – and still is for another month or so – part of my life. It wasn’t quite easier to do it than NOT do it, but there would have been real world consequences for not doing it. I’d have failed the course or had to pay a lot of money to get an extension for another year. I would have let down two people I have come to greatly respect. So I had deadlines in my calendar, I set time aside to work on it regularly, I had regularly scheduled meetings with my supervisors to talk, get advice, to correct my course. In contrast, writing a novel was a dream – one that no one would be on my case about when I didn’t write for a day, a week, a year. There were no stakes. And it didn't get written. So, I want to apply that wisdom going forward. I know what works for me: Accountability. Deadlines. Real world consequences for not doing it. Making it part of my routine and daily life. Having a Strong Why. I love History, and I love research. I know I want to follow this path, career-wise. Even when it was frustrating and hard and I didn’t have a damn clue what to write, I loved it. I never wanted to quit, even if I doubted my ability. I have Strong Whys for the Goals I want to hit in 2024 too. How I am going to make sure it happens is with my BUJO. A book I will post pages of here and please do call me out when I don’t. I am going to carry this book around with me everywhere – home, work, outings. Holidays. This book is going to my accountability. Well, hopefully these forums will to. That is step one. Step two is phone alarms and calendar notifications. The plan is to integrate my new habits so well into my life that when I look back in December 2024, I need the early pages to remind myself what my life was like before this year. Still reading? I appreciate you! Here – as promised – are my Bujo pages I am working with. Things like the bookshelf will get filled whenever I finish a book, new or old. The year of workouts gets filled daily. Ideally, at the end of each month I will set up the monthly and weekly pages for the coming month. Weekly/daily pages get filled in on a weekly and daily basis. My 2024 Goals: I started with my biggest flaws, the things I most want to work on and went from there to build goals that feel both important to me and specific. I know what I looked like at 75kg, and how much healthier that is for me. It's also realistic - under 10kg for the whole year. Similarly, a PhD is a dream goal of mine, but it won't be easy. Having this goal keeps me on track - what are the steps I need to take? Proposals, planning and applications come first. Hence, that's what I make my goal. The Spartan and 10km? To force myself not to neglect my training with something I enjoy - but enjoy a heck of a lot more when I am fitter. Reading - obvious! I am a reader, but tend to be drawn to familiar favorites instead of branching out. Then my Fitness Goals have their pages: By requiring monthly and daily check-ins, I keep the goals fresh in my mind. They become part of my daily existence: My Future Log for remembering stuff long term: (sized smaller because less interesting) My January Set up: The monthly log and it's month-specific goals: And my weekly spreads that I will update and refer to daily: Oh, and Challenge Specific Goals? Just One – Be here. Weekly a minimum, more than that if I can. Updates can be long or short, but they must be done. It will prompt me to be accountable, if only to myself.

Hi guys, I have a confession to make: I have a tendency to consume a lot of self-help books and podcasts, but then doing nothing with them. Eating that frog, atomica habits, getting things done, etc., I have read them all at some point in time. I didn't do anything with it mostly because I don't have super concrete goals, and hence I had no idea what to use all those ideas for. I'm pretty happy with my life right now: I just got married to an amazing husband, I have two cats and a good job, plenty of hobbies and my physical health is great. My mental health is up and down as always, but there is not a lot I can do about that (hi autistic brain ). Anyway, I have some vague ideas about what I would like more in life, but nothing concrete. Think of things like "declutter house & design/get new living room", "feel more athletic" and "do stuff back for society/environment". Do I really want to do those? What would it look like if I achieve them? What is most important to me? Anyway, recently I finally stumbled on a self-help book that starts with goal-setting, and the general tone of that goal-setting really clicked to me. It's basically making a 5-year plan with different granularity, where the next month is super concrete and the last years are really vague. I want to try this out, and hence this challenge. There are 7 chapters in getting to a roadmap, and there are 5 weeks in this challenge, so I have slightly more than one chapter per week, which sounds doable. On top of that, I want to make it a habit again to use my bujo in the morning, and to do some yoga every week. I really feel better if I do yoga, even if it is as little as 10 minutes. Things that will happen but not be tracked are KB workouts, strength workouts, hikes, maybe bike rides to work and other fun physical activities .

This is Stronkey Kong here to tell you that I’ve got a real problem-- a set of problems really. And these are problems that you’ve all probably faced, and will face again. BUT! – Lucky for you... Lucky for me, lucky for us all, I’ve got a plan to combat these problems. And if you’ll stick with me, you can combat them too. Problem #1: I am too fat. Really. I weigh 300 lbs. It’s out of control. I have been fat all my life. Is it a slow metabolism? Is it because I’m lazy? Or just too busy to focus on eating right and exercising consistently? Problem #2: I am in too much debt. Student Loans. Credit Cards. Car Payment. Sure. I could work overtime like a dog at my job, but then I’d have no time left for me, for my friends and family, or for YOU! Scrimping and scraping pennies isn’t gonna get me that nice little piece of land. Now, it’s time for... REAL LASTING CHANGE. Problem #3: I want to work on my own terms, my own schedule, from wherever I want. If I had the freedom to set my own schedule, do what I love (writing), I’d have the extra time for more activities, spending time with friends and family, and traveling. Without a job tied to a desk, sapping my willpower, I’d have the energy and drive to work out more. And more time to focus on writing fiction and other creative hobbies that charge me up instead of draining the life from me. Can you relate? Have you, yourself, faced one or more of these problems in your life? Do you anticipate seeing them in the future? If so, at the beginning of this challenge, I’ll show you the ONE SIMPLE TRICK to making all of these problems go away. DON’T MISS OUT!!! Hit that “Like” button and SUBSCRIBE NOW!

hi! I’m KB Girl, 34, homeschooling mom of two (6&2), dietician, gym owner, kettlebell sport coach, wannabe athlete and amateur food grower. I am very happy with and grateful for all the things in my life and I am also very overwhelmed. I keep a bullet journal to remember all the good stuff, track my goals and hopefully give my head some space/peace. This challenge I plan to keep up with the following; - 4 training sessions a week (+a kettlebell competition on the 26th) - taking my vitamins, brushing my teeth and making reasonable food choices - going everywhere by bike (averaging 100km a week) - reading to the kids every day - using my bullet journal daily And I plan to add the following; - A weekly goals setup for tracking and reporting on things. (food prep, writing my training program, some work stuff, some one-off things, maybe cleaning things) - More evening walks or short hikes with the kids, lets say 2 or 3 a week. - No phone-games around the kids- I tried no phone around the kids before but failed, it was simply too hard, so breaking it down this way. (also I do very stupid things in my chess games when I try to play around the kids) Bonus goal; - spring is coming! it's time to sow the first things inside or under cover so I want to do that We also have a second garden to set up (it's all grass now so there is plenty of work to be done). And I want to set up a new journal specifically to track what needs to be done and what we have done in the garden(s).

Last challenge one of my goals was to reflect on and review my goals and priorities. I didn't talk about it much, but I did spend a lot of time on it and wrote a lot of it down in my bujo. My overarching goal for the next decade or two will be to be the best parent I can be, which in my opinion also includes being the best person you can be, so that still leaves a lot open. One of my main problems is that I could easily write a list of 5000 things I want to be working on so I've decided that I have to pick just two to focus on for each quarter of the year (aka 2 NF challenges). And they have to fit in the theme for 2023, which is mental health (or rest, rhythm, routine, reflection). For this quarter my first goal will be to improve my physical health and performance, I already got started with taking my training very seriously again, now it’s time to improve food intake. My second goal will be to become a better boss, even though I'm just my own boss and kinda Jaap's boss and then the interns/volunteers, but I want to improve there. So the goals for this challenge; Goal 1: Physical health and performance daily: take vitamins, make intentional choices about food, review/reflect weekly: write out my training program in my battle log, make a meal plan, prep some food just once: make a doctors and a dentists appointment, make healthy non-perishable food available at work Goal 2: Become a better boss daily: weekly: review plans, make to do list, check on clients just once: flesh out the daily/weekly things, set up asana, make a cleaning/maintenance list, figure out an opening and closing routine for the gym, review interns/volunteers needs Side note; I'm also allowing myself two fun goals for 2023, one of which is to ride 5000km on my bike, which is an average of about 100km a week. The other is to read a lot of books- I'm not sure how many yet, I'll figure that out in the next couple days.

Intro: Preparations indeed. The second half of 2022 was a rollercoaster and 2023 has a big change in store for our family: a new baby boy. Pumpkin and Sweet Pea are very excited and will be amazing siblings. Pumpkin is excited he's getting a brother this time and Sweet Pea wants to meet 'her' baby already. 🤣 The last couple months have been,,, rough. I'm feeling more myself now and I feel the need to get back to my habits so I can stay in this much better headspace. (Though running is now on the back burner, obviously. Switched to walking for now.) 1. Set up the 2023 BuJo. I've picked up a new journal already. Some of my 2022 spreads were really effective but others are embarrassingly blank... I need to evaluate what worked and what didn't. I also need to put some thought into what I need from my journal for the next 6 months. Its going to look different from last year's journal. And that's okay. This is also lowkey 2023 goal planning with Bard. We do this every year in December. It's good, we really bond over excitement for the new year. The goals typically influence some of my spreads. 2. Start Konmari Method. This is probably nesting, but it's really overdue. We moved into this house when Sweet Pea was 6 weeks old. We've been here 2 years and if I don't put the house in order before baby gets here, it will be 2+ more years before its done. I can't handle another 2 years of barely contained chaos. Bard is on board and enthusiastic so we're diving in. Clothes start this weekend. The KonMari spread will be in the 2023 journal.

For this holiday challenge I'd like to focus on being present with my family, giving my gratitude practice a bit of extra attention, reflecting on the previous year(s), evaluating goals and prepping for the new year. Which seems like quite a bit for just 3 weeks but it's really just two things; 1. Put down the phone My elbows and thumbs have been hurting, which is at least in part due to my increased training volume, but it did get me thinking about my behaviour around my phone. I've been playing too many silly games or reading on my phone around my kids. Reading is an example I'd like to give them, but they can't see that I'm doing that when I'm on my phone.. so; - severely limit phone usage around my kids - pick out a physical book or two to read 2. Set up my new bujo I've ordered a new notebook which should arrive soon. I've been thinking about what I use it for, what I want to use it for more and how to make that happen. These thoughts need to go on paper so I'll be more intentional with it and to help me setup the new journal in the best way possible. - write down these reflections - review my goals and priorities - make a list of spreads that would support my goals - set it all up - get back to daily thankfulness, highlights and ❤️ notes I also intend to keep up and report on my previous two challenge goals; doing everything possible by bike (I've done 400km in the last 4 weeks!) and my resurrected training for goals plan. I made a battle log to keep track of my training in detail, I'll just mention notes/thoughts/highlights here.

Better late than never? At the end of this challenge we'll get the keys to our new house. I'd very much like a fresh start in the battle against chaos and clutter, which means that we should not move all of our stuff with us. While prepping for the move I'd also like to maintain my tenuous grasp on sanity and not completely lose all the progress made against chaos and anxiety* these past few months, which means keeping up with the things that help with that aka exercise, gardening or otherwise being outside and attempts at bullet journaling. Decluttering: - block out time for some major work together with Jaap - tackle clothing (mine and the kids) and paper clutter on my own - throw away 5 random things every day Maintaining grasp on sanity: - run, lift kettlebells and strength train twice a week each.. but try to be content with at least once - do 5 min of work in the backyard or the garden every day - just brain dump in my bujo, anything else is bonus, but just brain dump as often as possible *The good news is that last Monday during our holiday I spend 4 hours catching up on admin stuff that I've been avoiding for literally months. I had build up a nice block against doing some of the things and somehow broke through all of that in one sitting. If only I could bottle some of that magic!

Hi! I'm KB Girl, 33 years old (34 this month), mom of 2 kids (5 and almost 2), dietician, small gym owner and kettlebell sport coach (and sometimes athlete). The last 2 years have been rough (post partum depression, long covid, lockdown related burnout) but I am doing better and better, of course with ups and downs. February is going to be a busy month with a competition this Sunday, lots of birthdays including my own and lots of post-lockdown catchup activities. I learned from last challenge that I shouldn't take on any new projects, but working on my sleep is still a high priority. I also need to get on top of some things I've been hiding from that stress me out (both work and private stuff), hence the frog stomping title. My bujo should help with this, it disables hiding. My new custom build KB rack- when all the KBs are home these are full (some are visiting with people in quarantine so they can train online with us). A new thing; build an evening routine (to make sleep gainz) While I have a good bed time routine it has occurred to me that my evening routine is lacking. On days I'm tired I'll just crash on the couch and scroll through my phone- which does not make me happy. When it's time to go to bed I will still feel like I have things to do so I feel that I can't go to bed yet but I'm also too tired to do those things so .... I scroll through my phone some more? yes. Very smart, I know. When I'm done taking the kids to bed I will clear the high table, grab a drink and work in my bujo* (*fill in my trackers, gratitude journalling, check+update my to do lists, wish list and deadlines, prep for tomorrow) Then I will decide what to do with the rest of my evening Bonus points for doing more cleaning and/or hotspot clearing More bonus points for screen free evening activities OR useful screen use (like sorting photos or learning to video edit) Things to keep up with that I will also track; The personalised zone missions and daily cleaning habits Exercise magic (strength 3x a week, kettlebell class on Friday evening, extra cardio work once a week and 3-5 walks/hikes a week) Reading to the kids, dance parties, extra hugs, vitamin D Bonus fun: We've started in our garden and community plot by building some raised beds and a compost heap and pre-sowing beans and spinach. There are loads of things to do and really this is Jaap's project, but I want to try to keep up and contribute. make a spread in my bujo tracking what we've sown and what needs to be sown next and anything else useful make (kid-free) space for Jaap to do his thing and join him with the kids whenever possible

It's 2022 and I'm ready to shake off the fog of holiday/family time and tackle new (and old) challenges! Intro in spoiler Our word for the year, as mentioned in a previous challenge, is Nourish. WM defines nourish as "to provide with the food or other substances necessary for growth, health, and good condition." So for the year, we are focusing on healthy habits for us and the kids including: cooking more and making healthier meals, gardening, keeping tidy etc. I know it's pretty vague. We are still hashing out exactly what that means for us in this year. But we have the start! For this challenge: 1. Sunday planning meeting. Bard and I meet Sunday during naptime or after kid bedtime to map out the week. Specifically, all the appointments and scheduling our workouts accordingly, complete with dry erase boards to put up in the kitchen and gym. Eventually this will also be the meal planning meeting. This funnels into goal 2... 2. 5-6 Workouts a week I've committed to a long-term workout schedule with Bard. I might write more about it later but I'm basically earning a shopping spree for my birthday in 7 months. I'm tracking all workouts and I get a certain amount of cash per month based on the completion percentage. Below 80% is $0. Payout is August 1st. Bard has been wanting to help me create a training plan for my running goal (30 min) 5k so I'm going to let him. 3. TV-free Tuesday and Friday (for the kids... and us!) Pumpkin is a little too attached to his shows and we get sucked in by the dumbest stuff after bedtime. So the TV is off all day on Tuesdays and Fridays. I'm hoping it will make us a little more selective when we do watch stuff. Like, we only watch stuff we're actually enjoying and not just ALL THE POP CULTURE because phantom internet peer pressure. And hopefully I will get more reading done too! My TBR pile is long neglected and large. There's other stuff but that's the challenge. By next challenge we'll have more concrete ideas on the rest.

Hello. I am Stronkey Kong. Umm... Been on NF over seven years. I'm still fat and making the best of it. Which means I'm tempering my goals, accepting what is and what is not (feasibly and sustainably) possible. I eat as healthy as I can while enjoying my food. I move as often as I can while enjoying movement. I think. I create. I devise elaborate plans for challenges and eschew all rules as soon as convenience dictates. <sigh> This challenge is inspired by a recent dream I had. This is one of my stress dreams. It came after spending a week switching to day shift, rather abruptly, after having been on night shift for over a year, going to a training course across town, then coming back to work to find out that someone more senior than me, and training/guiding me at work is leaving in another week and then I'm pretty much on my own kinda. Idk. This is gonna get tough. I suppose the point/meaning of this dream, if they do have meanings, is that I need to avoid quick fixes and work on my coping mechanisms ahead of stressors. Then there's the fact that I'm turning my attention back to mindfulness and my Buddhist practice. I have dabbled and practiced with varying degrees of seriousness in Zen. I'm currently learning about Tibetan Buddhism and reading and meditating on Way of the Bodhisattva by Shantideva, and am planning to get back into my meditation routine. If you've never heard the term, Bodhisattvas are beings who have attained enlightenment, but rather than pursuing full Buddhahood (where you get to just chill out in Nirvana for eternity, free from suffering) they choose to return to Samsara (the eternal cycle of life, suffering, death, and rebirth) to guide other beings on the path to enlightenment. Hence, they are good examples to follow for freeing oneself from suffering and helping others. I could go on on this topic, but I'll leave it there for now. I just thought I'd let you know why I named my challenge as I did. And then there's the Big List... which I made during the Holiday challenge as a set of goals to pursue long term. From this list I usually create a goal or two from something on the list to work toward, and lately I usually focus on Intuitive Eating, Exercise, Creativity, and buying a home. My goals are listed in order of general priority. I'm putting the TL;DR up front and spoilering the details to tidy things up here: TL;DR Mindfulness: daily meditation with increasing session times Lotus Position: stretch to improve lotus posture during meditation Nourishment: Eat mindfully and watch out for GERD symptoms Movement: Qigong Abode: spring cleaning Creativity: Knit a Beanie or Finish part one of my fantasy novel Wisdom: Study The Way of the Bodhisattva Knowledge: study Tibetan language

Ok so I'm not ready for the new year yet.. it's not that I don't desperately want 2020 to be over- it's just that I've yet to process everything that has happened and I haven't even begun to recover! How am I supposed to get all excited for big goals?! It's not happening. So, I'm going to give it some time and get all excited for the new year on February 12th. REST & RECOVER - do some journaling/talking to deal with all the grief from 2020 - bestow extra love on the cranky left hip and wrist - go outside, seriously- go outside PREPARE - fix up the bases of operation, i.e. big declutter/cleanup both at home and in the gym - revive daily bujo practice to act as my brain backup so I don't have to think things 3million times - start sport specific training just in case we can have competitions in 2021

What a weird year! I'm feeling kind of ambivalent about Christmas this year, but I'm excited about New Year's. I don't have some kind of Pollyanna thing about everything being better after 2020 is over. I just really love the hope and promise of the New Year holiday. It's probably my favorite night/day of the year. I've got a couple goals for this mini challenge but will probably add some more...or maybe not. 1. PUSH-UP challenge! A couple friends and I made our own push-up challenge that runs from Thanksgiving to Christmas. The idea is you do as many as you can in one set on Thanksgiving (scaled however necessary), train like a beast, and then re-test on Christmas day. I did 14 negatives for my test. I'm doing a training plan I saw in an old issue of Trail Runner magazine. Basically 40 negative push-ups each workout (every 2-3 days) in sets of 7-10 with decreasing rest intervals each workout (starting with 1 min). 2. BuJo/Art Journal Set-up. I've gotten into sketching/doodling in a BuJo-like format. This is the first time I'll be setting up a journal for a new year. I'm not sure of all the pages I want, but I know I want a 2021 cover page, year calendar, monthly future log, and then NF challenge overview section. I'll try to at least get those done during this mini. 3. Clear out the old. I just went through a big flooring and painting project. While doing that, I piled up a lot of stuff in the spare bedroom. Now I'm wondering if I even need all that stuff. I'm gonna treat this as a "sushi list" project. I'll make a list of 10 or so things to deal with, and then I'll take care of them when I can. It might not all get done during this mini challenge, and that's fine. 4. Kindness. I want to think about being kind rather than nice (although in most cases you can certainly be both). I don't think I'll write much about it here, but it's something I want to think about. 5. Mobility. I'm going to try sitting on the floor for at least 30 minutes every day. I did this for quite a while and somehow got away from it. It's super easy to do (e.g., while eating or watching tv), and I think it's good for me. I basically need to spend less time slouched on my couch or sitting at my computer station. Some other things I'll be doing (not making them specific challenge goals) Decorating for Christmas. I'll definitely be home a lot to enjoy it, so I should do it. The sooner the better. Quick Strength program...I just finished going through the 8-week program. Gonna re-start it. Have pages set aside for it in the new BuJo so I can track how I improve on specific workouts over time. Running...lots of running. "Last mile." A couple of us are going to do a hard mile some time between Christmas and New Years. The specific day will depend on weather and our schedules, so it might be this challenge or might not. I got this idea from a friend who does it. He was talking about how it lets you put everything out there on the track and kind of symbolizes leaving behind the old year. It appealed to me.

The name says it all right? Goal 1, Qigong everyday in the wee morning hours. During those predawn hours is when qi energy is on the rise (supposedly), making it the best time to cultivate the qi. Anywho, it's convenient enough that I get home form my night shift job and have a couple hours to do this. And doing some light/gentle movement that's flowy and meditative is good to do at the end of a work day. Goal 2, MWF -- NF Academy Bodyweight workouts -- featuring qigong movement and breathing I also want to get back onto cultivating some strength again, so I'll follow the NF academy workouts. But... I'm going to do them with qigong movements. I think all the movements can be adapted to incorporate a tai chi/qigong feel. Like, slow down and breathe with the movement, do it with a sense of balance and attention, rather than just banging out the reps. For instance, last week I was doing some single leg RDLs... I turned it into a movement where I kick my leg back slowly while extending my arms forward in a push. Pushups, and squats will be done slowly, and I'll probably be adapting movements from my Kung Fu training where appropriate. Goal 3, TRS -- Ba Duan Jin -- Qigong routine Known also as the 8 Pieces of Brocade or 8 Treasures, this is a pretty standard Qigong routine. It will be my 'rest day' routine. Mostly I'm just doing this to memorize the form, and practice the movements. They all look easy, until you do it yourself and start picking out the details of the breathing and movements. In any case, it's a good routine for flexibility, coordination, and balance. Goal 4, Horde Money I've decided to start saving for a house again. I did a little bit of shopping online in the market here. There are some nice little houses for relatively cheap, I'd wind up with a mortgage less than my rent and I'd be earning equity so I ought to do this. I need a few thousand bucks for a down payment and fees to get things rolling. So I need to make myself work more hours and save aggressively. If I can manage that, I should be looking to purchase by the Spring next year. Goal 5, Write 600 words a day. Mostly self-explanatory. I'm working on a novel (one of three actually) and I want to see it to the end. It's a weird Western with supernatural and grim/dark fantasy elements about a gunslinger who can summon ghosts and is pursuing a cult leader who eats ghosts through a mysterious and vast desert where he meets a sorceress and dragon tamer who helps him track the cult leader. Or something like that.

Hi Nerds. Let's begin with a couple relevant background details. I started NF in 2013 in the middle of a PhD dissertation to combat the effects of the sedentary grad student lyfe. I got stronger, at least prevented my weight from blowing up mostly. Unfortunately, I never finished that PhD. I never seemed to get anything done. Fast forward to last challenge, I finally realized and accepted that I may actually have ADHD. It explains A LOT, including the abandoned PhD, my many failed, half-assed NF challenges, my messy apartment, etc. After leaving grad school I worked in an Amazon warehouse for two years, and now I'm working as a CNC machinist. Like the majority of my middle school and high school report cards said, I'm "Not working to potential." Now I'm trying to get another Master's in Electrical Engineering (online) and working on projects at home to turn things around. And to lose weight I'm following a slightly modified version of the Mediterranean diet, and have been riding a stationary bike (hamster wheel) to burn calories. Now I'm realizing I need to fix my flexibility, posture, and retain a bit of strength so I'm going to add in some yoga. I'll be building off of last challenge. If you want to see how I did with that go to my Previous Challenge Summary. Now... On to the challenge: Since, I'm learning Electical Engineering, I ought to do what EE's do best: build gadgets and try to take over the world. And what better metaphor for an EE with ADHD than Pinky and the Brain. Brain represents all my ambition, intellect, and executive functioning, while Pinky is the ADHD part of my brain that just wants to goof around, have fun, and press colorful, blinking buttons. In order to deal with achieving goals, Brain needs to manipulate, distract, and control Pinky. Just for context, all of this is happening in a BuJo to keep Pinky under control. Nutrition: Old stuff: Maintain current nutrition plan. I keep a weekly log of how many servings by food group on Google sheets: Food Log It has a rough idea of serving numbers and describes the serving sizes if you're interested in the details. I post links along with my weekly summary when I update the spreadsheet with what I track in my BuJo. I also track measurements in my body composition log for feedback: Weight Log and Track Record. Question: These two sheets are in the same workbook; Can you access other sheets or just on sheet at a time with these links? New Stuff: Add a daily reflection/challenge. Every day I'm going to reflect on what I ate during the day, look for something to improve on and come up with a challenge. Like, I ate too many grains today, tomorrow when I feel like carbs, have fruit instead. Also, on my weight tracking sheets (see below), I track weekly min and max weights, so if I set a new max or fail to set a new low I might reduce a meal, cut fat, or exercise, etc. Exercise: Old stuff: Do at least two workouts on the hamster wheel each week. New Stuff: Do at least one yoga session each week. These last two are basically some of the bigger Todo's with sub-todo lists that I want to get through. Trying to take over the world (Brain): I need to finish the online course I'm currently taking. I should have finished it last challenge, but I'm close to done. Then I'm going to work on some other projects at home and maybe at work to gain more experience and catch up on some knowledge/skill areas I'm lacking in. Also, I need to plan out how I'm going to pay for more coursework. Finish current online EE course: Finish week 4 Finish final week, project and quiz Start on my minimal retro game, multi-console emulator Pay off a credit card... I can put the next course's tuition on it once i have a zero balance, and that will be my source of 'student loans' for these online courses for now. Managing ADHD (Pinky): Right now I'm only self diagnosed. I have an appointment set up for July 13 to find a therapist to work with. At the moment, I am just accepting that I have ADHD and carrying on as if I did which means getting more organized and finding ways to keep myself focused on getting things done... BuJo! I'm also forgiving myself for my past mistakes. I still get bummed from time to time because I didn't get something done or make the right decision in the past. And the mistakes I'm currently making. I get all uptight trying to control my behavior often or beating myself up. I just have to let go of that. First mental health appointment on July 13 at 3:00 pm Take BuJo everywhere Update BuJo weekly Let go of and forgive mistakes

I am so completely unfocused, lazy, overwhelmed, and under-motivated. So I steal a fantastic quote from Critical Role Campaign 1. I can't think about this too hard, or else it will fail. I really should go through my life and either set better boundaries on my schedule, or, take this challenge and learn how to quit things. The worrisome part of that idea, is that there is 'quitting because it makes sense so I can focus on something else' and 'quitting because I've chickened out'. We only want the former. So. There is one rule to this December challenge. Every morning. Wake up. Write out the plan for the day in BuJo. [And any 'do this week' things too] And then do my best to stick to it. (Excepting reasonable flexibility and sense.) There are things I'd like to get back into better habit of, but if I say I must do them this many times, and I start to fall behind, I will be all the Moop. So we're just going to write them down as 'Think about these things' and if I also do them. Great! Parts of the Plan - Eat better. - Exercise consistently. (Stick to Strong Lifts, it'll work!) - Get back to art stuff. You like it! Keep at it, you will keep improving. - Make time for friends and family. - Invest in church stuff. That's it. Nice. Simple. Not overwhelming.

This challenge is all about.... life after the kettlebell sport world championship. So while I'll be talking about that a lot, the main thing I want to do during this challenge is enjoying the freedom of not having an important competition to prep for! That means it's time to do some serious strength training AND lots of play I'm choosing a journaling theme because I want to reflect, practice my writing, practice sharing AND I'm just really enjoying my bullet journal.. it's been a bit life changing, so I want to share about that a bit too perhaps. Goals: 1. Journaling reflect on experiences at and leading up to this worlds share things about / from my bullet journal and why it's so good for me 2. Training keep track plan (and lift) a serious strength training cycle do something playful/different every week, chase some skills or other shinies (suggestions for this are VERY welcome!) 3. Finish my online course While it's all very interesting the video's I have to watch are SOOO dry and I already know a lot of this stuff which makes it really hard to concentrate and to find the motivation for it- but I want to finish this within this challenge.

Book: Water Also known as the Tale of Tzippi and the Too Many Tags I am returning to the Rebellion after a long battle with a demon of depression. The dark spirit swept in as I was weakened by becoming a mother. I am doing better now, and am just beginning to practice Tai Chi, which (along with the fine spring weather) is inspiring me to respawn here, as a monk. One goal under each bending style is a constant habit, one-two one-time goals under are straight up success if done. Thanks for the help refining my foals, @sarakingdom Goal One: Plantbending ☆ Eat 2 fruits and veg per day. (If this gets too easy, up it to 3). ☆ Research and plan an indoor greens growing system. ☆ Shop for weeStockings sized garden tools, pit on wish list. Goal Two: Waterbending ☆ Exercise every day to support Tai chi. On class days, go to class. Other days, Hammer, walk, yoga . . . ☆ Sweep back deck for morning practice. Goal Three: Cloudbending ☆ Harness the breath like an Airbender by Meditating 5 minutes daily. ☆ DONE. Get reusable travel mug again. A nice ceramic one with a silicone lid. ☆ For week with April 1st, make a new Gratitude BuJo spread. ☆ With first paycheck, sign up for Calm premium subscription.

Road to Oblivion - Part 1 So I've just written up my 2019 road map, and the first 4 challenges of this year will be working towards my first big and scary goal - running 4 laps of Nuclear Oblivion in May. I'm going to need to be able to gain some serious endurance to keep doing that, both in running and in general fitness for the obstacles, so my physical goals will be based around that. Nutrition - 20XP This goal is split into three parts (hence the high XP). The first one is straight eating better - my Crossfit box posted a list of weekly nutrition habits a couple of years ago which I've unearthed on Facebook, so I'll be running through those. By coincidence (or just because they start with sensible things) I already do their first 3 weekly habits, but if you want to play along at home they are: Drink 1 pint of plain water daily Eat a healthy fat with breakfast Eat cooked vegetables in the evening So I'll be starting straight at habit 4, which is: Eat a raw vegetable at lunch I'll be tackling that in week 1 of the challenge, and then adding an additional habit from their list on each subsequent week. The second part of nutrition is alcohol. Leading up to Christmas I was really stressed and not feeling great, and I attributed that to a lot of year end work stress and general Christmas/ohmyGodIhaven'tboughtanything stress. I started thinking the other week however that maybe the amount I was drinking had its part to play in this too. Well, there's only one way to find out if that is the case, and that's to stop drinking for a bit and see how I feel. The goal for this challenge will be to drink no alcohol at all. That'll start from Week 0 day 2 (because day 1 was New Year's Eve, come on!). The final part of this is to track my mood - just a short sentence each day in my bujo is fine, but I'll only know if the above is working at all if I track it. Obviously there's lots of other factors to consider, and conclusions may be hard to draw, but I want to give it a go. Running - 15XP The goal here is simple (thought not necessarily easy) - run 140 miles this challenge. That includes week zero, and is the exact amount of mileage I should hit if I get all of my runs in. The plan is to run 4 times per week - Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday & Sunday - with the long run either on Saturday or Sunday depending on when I'm climbing or doing other things. Whilst the goal is simply the mileage, I'll put the full running plan in a spoiler for info: Climbing - 10XP I want to work on my climbing and my pullups in general, as these have massive transference to OCR, and I've got two parts to this plan in order to do it: a) Continue with GTG pullups - basically I have my pullup bar in my kitchen door and do one pullup every time I want to enter the kitchen. Minimum 10 per day. This starts week 0. b) Hangboarding - I have bought a hang board with some Christmas money, which will allow me to train hanging off very small edges instead of just a bar. The plan is to do hanging sessions MWF, but never on a day adjacent to a climbing day. As I usually climb every weekend this should mean that I usually do 2 sessions per week, but it could be 1 or 3 depending on how the climbing sessions work out. This starts when the hang board arrives. Budget - 5XP This is a difficult one this month as money and spending are a bit strange after Christmas. I probably wouldn't have a goal at all except that reducing debt and saving money is one of my main goals for the year. The goal here is to simply spend mindfully for the month, and write any comments about my spending in my bujo. This starts week 0. Study - 5XP This is something I have been neglecting, but I really need to continue my qualifications for work. There is a time limit on these, and having missed the initial deadline it's going to be tricky to catch up so I need to put in the work. The goal here is to do 2 pomodoros of study (or 4 hours, if you prefer) per week. Bonus 5XP if I get my next assignment submitted before the end of the challenge. This starts week 0. Forum Cardio - Mobile Edition™ - 5XP I don't spend enough time on here and I miss catching up with people and knowing what's going on. A big reason I don't get on is that I usually only sit in front of a computer at work, and so my lunch break is the only time I have to be here. I don't always get a lunch break, and I use the time to catch up on other things as well when I do so that gives me minimal forum time. The goal therefore is to use my phone to visit the forums every day. Even if I don't post anything just being here and catching up is a start. Well I think that's everything. It's loads of XP so i could do realll well out of this challenge if I ace it. I have to dash, so anything I've missed I'm sure will come up later!

I continue to struggle -thoroughly- with the same things over and over and over. So again: Selfcare and taking breaks. Kinda boring, isn't it? more soon

This challenge is mostly a continuation of the last challenge for me, since I came in late and the things I was working on are still in progress ^^; There are some modifications though. Main Quest - Grasping the sword (getting up and fighting back against my mental and physical issues) Sidequest 1 - Daily yoga - I have my yoga set for 11am right now, which means I need to be up a bit before that to eat something (before you ask - I work 3:30-midnight, hence the weirdness of my schedule. I'm trying to roll back my timing so I'm up earlier and in bed before 4am) and I want to roll this back slowly over this challenge to between 9:30 and 10am. Oh boy. Ultimately I'm hoping to get enough of my muscle tone and movement back to be able to confidently get back into martial arts, and starting parkour again this spring. Bonus points if I get 2 runs in in a week now that the second gym at work is up and running again. SQ1 Tracking - 1 point/session of yoga, aiming for 7 points/week 1 bonus/grace point for 2 runs Sidequest 2 - Food tracking - I'm on Whole30 until the 15th, after which I'm going to try to keep a close eye on my intake of convenience and junk food and make sure I'm cooking for several days at a time so I have cooked food available that doesn't involve a drive thru. SQ2 Tracking - 1 Point/1 day food tracked (LifeSum), aiming for 7 points/week. 1 point lost for each weekday trip through a drive through / fast food spot Sidequest 3 - Community building - both for my own accountability and to help others in this community, I want to make sure I'm getting out in there and encouraging others <3 so I want to make sure I get at least 10 comments per week on threads that are not my own. SQ3 Tracking - 1 point/comment on a separate thread - can't be 10 on the same couple of threads ^^; Aiming for 10/week Lifequest - Organization - since the Bujo, schedule, and my house organization have become entwined, this is just all getting lobbed together on my challenge. LQ Tracking - 5 points for getting one room done over the week - aiming for 5 points/week Point scale - 29 points - A+ yaaaaay! 25-28 points - A- - not terrible, but could be better 20-24 points - B - ok, we're going to work on this a bit >20 points - I need to take a look at what other factors are causing avoidance and stress, and get back on track. I'll be editing this sometime later to give everything a more measurable way to track progress, I have to go to work right now (Edited to add trackability)

Heck yeah, MORE, gimme MORE MUAHAHAHAHA Will update with more concrete info here soonest. So life has me by the belt, and is flinging me about. I have no theme, per sé, but I was thinking about taking a photo of my stash yarn. Still not sure if maybe I'll do that. I have a few WIPs that need finishing, a tiny pi-shawlette that needs a border, a gift (old shale triangle shawl) for a friend that needs some love (stitches and beads), a second sock for my left foot, because unequal foot wear is not fun, first ever woolen sock pair I am knitting for myself (the one pair of cotton sneaker socks, 5-10 years ago don't count as knitting socks for myself). If I can knit size 49 (German sizes are weird, I'm on the phone and too lazy to translate that) for hubby, I can knit some socks for myself. I deserve amazing footwear. A few acrylic crochet toy things I am not looking at right now. I stress knit. But I also am finding the joy in fibres, textures, patterns, colours again. So it's not just my son's physical/mental health problems anymore. Not enough? More. I teach Luebecker Modell Bewegungswelten classes twice a week in an elderly home a half-hour walk from home. Good program, amazing people, good money. I am only training once a week myself right now. But that's way enough. Or it has to be for now. (Tuesday night 630-9pm) I should be focussing on all the things. But I am mostly sitting down at some point in the earliesk afternoon, for some knitting and some thinking. I rarely pull out my bujo, but I shall endeavor to do so more often, for it helps keep track of Schiff, if I don't have to carry it in my head, but have it written down instead. I weigh myself daily, for a nice pretty moving average, but I don't look at it too much. Sadly it's currently going in the wrong direction overall. But I have to breathe and go on. Giving up is not an option. I need to take the time and figure out a few breakfast and supper options that I can eat, do eat, and will eat so I don't have to log every ingredient separately every time. I need to make logging so easy I can't not. That's my plan for some of this month. I have someone coming to my class at the end of the month to give me coaching, which is exciting and scary. But I'll prevail. I have all the things on my plate. It'll be fine. Linkage and pics later today when there's natural light and such. Possibly. Did I mention that it's hubby's bday Wednesday and he's turning 40 and I love him and I actually finally have a gift for him? I am giving him a card, telling him of the weekend with no kids, got the car and day of hiking we'll both enjoy like crazy, may even book a room in advance and stay out and make it a weekend-thing instead of a Saturday thing. Never done that kinda stuff before. I pretty certain he'll love it. Nature, walking, no appointments, no obligations, just an easy 10k walk or something of the sort. Gift on Wednesday, actual walk on the 31.March/1.April-weekend. I'll keep you informed. So that's my challenge posted up. About time, isn't it?

Soooo, someone might have just finished watching Soul Eater... The thing is? For being as quirky as it was (it was also very, very good) it touched on a lot of topics that I seem to be struggling with lately (always); like fears and bravery, facing what scares you, learning to be less than perfect and finding your path. I decided it would be a good theme to help me finish off the final challenge of the year. STUDY LIKE MAKA [] Track calories daily, aiming for clean foods, and a calorie goal of 1800. [] Art stuff 4x/week and one must be some kind of tutorial. It's time to stop coasting on both of these goals. I can't discern if the formula is working, if I fudge the numbers every weekend. TRAIN LIKE BLACKSTAR [] 2-3 Strength / Week [] Walk on off days. [] Mobility daily, using Adamas mobility flow (10 minutes) There will be weeks I can do 3 strengths, and weeks where only 2 make sense. I joined my local Strong First gym's Healthy Through the Holidays challenge, and there is a mobility flow in there that can be done daily, in about 10 minutes. Since my knee is feeling better, I am not going to push back into running just yet. I want to determine if it's my weight lifting or running that caused that, so this challenge, no runs. BE CALM LIKE KID [] Daily prayer/quiet time 5m. [] Seek balance. First one pretty self explanatory, I need to learn to slow my roll. It can be a 5 minute focused breathing drill or quiet talking with God. The second one is about balance my schedule. Kid loves symmetry, so I need to be more balanced with my days out vs in, and big planned times vs relax me times. DEAL WITH IT LIKE CRONA [] Identify and face fears, and share them in here when they come up. This one will be less 'active' a goal, and more of an, 'as it comes up'. Hard to track numerically, but easy to share. I also made a pretty fun challenge tracker in my BuJo for this one! (This is because I had hours to do it while on vacation.) ALRIGHT, LET'S DO THIS!!

Hi friends! INTRO (if you were around for my first challenge, this is literally copy and pasted from previous. Feel free to skip) A brief introduction about me: I joined Nerd Fitness last year and was active on the boards for a few months until I got pregnant when I had zero energy for anything besides the bare necessities. I am a chemist by trade. I love reading, podcasts, hiking, and binge watching shows. My personality is a cross between Leslie Knope and Linda Belcher. I have a broken sesamoid bone in my foot that makes some exercises difficult, and I'm working on finding exercises I enjoy that don't exacerbate the pain. I love sugar toooo much. I'm a hyper emotional person, made even more so by all those new-mama hormones. I struggle with trichotillomania, which means I sometimes pull out my eyelashes when I'm anxious. Basically, I have a lot to work on. I have a tendency to use a lot of gifs and memes from whatever show I'm watching at the moment. Currently, it's Bob's Burgers. I organize my life via bullet journal. And I apologize in advance for how much I talk about my baby, cuz I'm low-key obsessed with her and all her baby-goodness. This is my second challenge post partum, and I wouldn't count my last challenge as a total loss...but it was a rocky start. I have a very different outlook for this challenge. I'm going to focus more on the root of my health struggles, many of which amount to decision-fatigue and going too fast and being too busy to focus on the most important things. I really want to be aware of the choices I'm making in regard to my health in hopes of reverting some bad habits. I don't usually like having soft, amorphous goals like this, but I'll get into specifics week by week. Over-specification and broad strokes have been my downfall in the past. OBJECTIVES Post daily on an Instagram account something I did for my health (@durfette.nf please follow me!) Check-in with my bullet journal each day (example on Insta) Log onto the Nerd Fitness forums once a week (cuz this community is bomb, but I can't drop in as much as I'd like) And then on top of that, I will evaluate each week and make an appropriate plan based on the following: PRIORITIES 1. OHANA MEANS FAMILY. If you followed my previous challenge, you'll recall that my schedule got very hectic, very quickly when I started back at work part-time. My husband and I are sharing baby duty, so when I'm at work 3 days a week, he's with the babe, and when he's at work 4 afternoons / nights a week, I'm with the babe. We have these narrow windows when we see each other where we basically high-five and play hot potato with the baby while we each try to accomplish chores and use the bathroom. Spending time with my husband and baby fill me up, and I'm happier if our relationship is in a good place. And happy people don't shoot their husbands make better health choices. 2. NUTRITION IS 90% OF THE BATTLE Eating healthy is probably the hardest thing for me, and a lot of it comes down to making the time to meal prep and plan accordingly. 3. EXERCISE CUZ YOU WANT TO I miiiiiisss working out and I miiiiisss feeling strong. Fortunately, I have a husband who supports me and a sister in law who loves my babe who is willing to watch her so I can go workout. I have already asked my husband and SIL for help. Each week I will evaluate my schedule and my goals for the week and set forth from there! ______________________________________________________________________ WEEK ONE goals (in addition to the three objectives listed above) -Read scriptures every day -Eat healthy snacks first (both at home AND at work) -Go on walk with Baby Girl (BG) 2x (Monday and Thurs/Fri, when hubs is home) -Exercise at gym 30 minutes, 2x (Thurs/Fri and Sat, when SIL visits) Alright, best of luck friends! I'll only be checking once a week (I'm shooting for Sundays, since I count that the last day of my "week") so I'll see you then!

Okay for accountability sake, I'm just posting here. To let myself know I will reward myself with writing my challenge out, when I turn in my letter to help get emergency funds. Writing to people gives me anxiety, and this challenge will be about different parts of writing. So accountability to get this letter turned in within the next 24 hours would be appreciated. (Finished much later than I wished, but at least have it done now and will reap the rewards). (Also returned to Adventurers, after I had a realization during one of my hikes. I have an incentive to help keep being mindful and taking care of myself when I have adventures to look forward to. No matter how big or small they may be....) Week 2 goals: Daily:(Goal is 7/7 each) -Write my to do list daily in my bullet journal (Life Skills) -Track emotions/skills/urges in bullet journal section (Mental Health) -Write 444 words daily (both nonfiction and fiction) (Hobby Skill) This week's goals: -write a quick rpg snipit to add to my challenge... (Due by I have ideas laid out, just need to put them together now) (Due by October 30th) (Hobby Skill) -Move to new apartment (due by November 1st or 2nd) (Base Lvl Up) -Finish/Turn-in application for major change: (Due October 30th) (Career) -Finish categorizing my bullet journal to new section (Due November 4th) (Life Skills) -Study 15 mins x5 of IT (Due November 4th) (Career) -Study 15 mins x5 of RPLS (Due November 4th) (Career) -Do 30 mins x5 of IT Lab work (Due November 4th)(Career) -Return Rental on Time by 5 pm Halloween (Life Skills)