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Welcome everybody! I'm a 26-year-old British guy who likes gymnastics, climbing, calisthenics, circus, weightlifting, ... and generally try to do too much. Last August I quit my job as a software engineer to go travelling around the world, volunteering for charities, learning new skills, and generally chasing excitement Brief summary of my journey since starting at Nerd Fitness: Jan 2014: joined the forums and planned to learn backflips outdoors by February. Hahaha that did not happen, but gymnastics and weightlifting happened lots Jul 2014: reached 10 seconds for handstands and recorded my progress [video] Oct 2014: bought gymnastics rings and went through a phase of training lots with these Aug 2015: reached so far my peak in gymnastics and made a compilation [video] in the Summer Aug 2015: moved house and got lazy Challenged with the Warriors and I don't think I even made it to a gym haha Jan 2016: decided that I needed more excitement and that in 2016 I was going to get it Aug 2016: quit my job and backpacked around Slovenia and Eastern Europe Sep 2016: competed in the Mental Calculation World Cup in Germany Oct 2016: studied Spanish in a language school in Valencia Nov 2016: competed at Memoriad in Las Vegas. Flew to Nicaragua to volunteer as a volcano tour guide for 3 months Feb 2017: backpacked around Nicaragua and Guatemala - both really nice destinations May 2017: spent a month in Barcelona learning more Latin dancing and learning to how to create websites - currently working on HyperBirthday Jul 2017: volunteered as an Engineering tutor in a Summer School in Oxford Now I'm back at home with my parents without a plan for the future. Comfortable, but boring and not where I want to be sat for long. Luckily for the duration of this I've got plenty of things going on, so my basic schedule is: finish composing a piano version of Sahara (Nightwish) [video] make plans for the Autumn compete in the Mind Sports Olympiad in London go to two weddings I'm not in the habit of doing any physical activity (except cycling) when I'm at home, so I'll need to put an effort into doing that! Also my social circles aren't really around at the moment so I'll award points to ensure I get as as much as I'd like. My last challenge used a complicated points-based system, and it was pretty effective. This time my plans are more complicated and uncertain, so I'll use a simpler points-based system to allow myself the flexibility. any substantial workout (1 point each) count: 9.5 any social engagement (1 point each) count: 7 find a good place for practising handstands (1 point) find a better place for gymnastics rings training (1 point) try my old hurdle training (!) (1 point) go climbing (1 point) complete figure-of-8 handstand walk (3 points) 10-second static handstand (2 points) pretty au batido (2 points) 12 ring dips (1 point) ring forward roll (1 point) 30 push-ups (1 point) 40 push-ups (1 point) make travel plans until 30th September (3 points) make travel plans until 15th November (3 points) make travel plans until 31st December (3 points) finish Sahara composition & sheet music (3 points) record Sahara composition (2 points) create Sahara video (1 point) create a salsa/bachata routine and use it (3 points) trial MSO calculation paper (3 points) make strategies for all MSO calculation categories (1 point) reliably memorize 20 random words in under 3 minutes (1 point) reliably memorize 60 random words in under 10 minutes (1 point) trial MSO names & faces event (1 point) do any actual practice for MSO order of pictures memory (1 point) basic market research for mind sports presentations (1 point) fix HyperBirthday on mobile (3 points) implement HyperBirthday /result/<date> framework (4 points) third HyperBirthday blog post (1 point) fourth HyperBirthday blog post (1 point) fifth HyperBirthday blog post (1 point) add full moon counter to HyperBirthday (4 points) TimeGhost to HyperBirthday (4 points) Total points: 49.5 That's 60 points + social and workout points, so I'm going to do a simple 6 points <=> 1 stat point award system, maxing out at 10 stat points but it's unlikely I'll get that far Using more lenient grading this time because last time I got only 30% despite a pretty good challenge! I'll start immediately and finish whenever in September seems a suitable end-point. Good luck everyone!

Hey there! Time for my second challenge in the Assassins D8< The last time around I made some pretty good push-up gainz, as well as mental gainz. This time around, I will take care of my brain, and work with my body to live a happy, balanced life 1. Create the Fox-Box look at this random picture I found and how well it fits this!! I've lived most of my life harbouring toxic thoughts and not dealing with failures very well :'D Things have started to turn for the better during the past few years, and this year has been especially fruitful: I became aware of my unhealthy relationship with food, and how my willingness to please everyone has lead me to keep up relationships that are no good for me. I have decided to forgive myself for my past mistakes, and keep going for a more balanced future. I'm not a religious person, but I do believe that since we as a species have evolved the capacity to ask questions about our existence, it is a part of my mind that needs to be acknowledged and taken care of. So, I'd like to build a daily ritual, and the Fox-Box will be a part of it. The Box will have a journal, stickers, pencils, pictures and postcards, and other items that make me feel good. There will also be luxurious chocolates or other sweets, and I will have one every evening ** Evening Ritual - Take the Fox-Box and sit in a chair. Put on some nice lights - Forgive yourself the mistakes you possible did during the day - Meditate for 5 minutes - Wrap up in a blanket and have a chocolate - Spend a few minutes journaling. Answer these questions: How am I truly feeling today? How is my relationship to my life today? What did I achieve today? Who did I meet today? What am I grateful for? Spend a few minutes journaling freely - Go through the inspirational pictures and other materials that are in the box, spend some time daydreaming - Check the next day's schedule - Thank yourself for the day well lived ** I hope to do this one every day, and I wish this ritual to ground me and give me a better sense of myself and to change my thought patterns that don't serve me well. 2. Fuel! My issues with food came from the fear of gaining weight and black-and-white thinking (good and bad foods). After a few months of ditching calorie and macro counting and instead practicing intuitive eating and eating a ton of carbs, my relationship with food and my body have completely changed! I have started to figure out my own way of eating, and I have a few guidelines that I wish to follow. 1. Eat 5-6 meals a day 2. Have most of the daily energy before 4 PM, preferably at breakfast and lunch 3. Breakfast, lunch and dinner are punches, and snacks are light jabs that keep the hunger at bay before an actual punch 4. Stay mindful while eating. Focus on chewing the food. No Internet or TV while munching 5. There are no good or bad foods, but stay aware of how different foods affect your energy levels 6. Don't think: "I will eat less now so that my overall energy intake will be low", but instead, "The more I eat now, the less I need to eat later." I will stay mindful of these guidelines, and do my best to follow them. I will also follow some rules that I learned from @Terah's challenge: uhh easy there 3. PUSH-UPS!!! Well, not only push-ups, but other bodyweight exercises, as well...! I will do some tests during this week, and fill in a proper plan before the actual challenge starts. This is the most Assassin-y goal of my challenge, and I'm happy to say that working on push-ups during my previous challenge made me feel really good about the way my body performs and looks. ** Here we go! Have yourselves a good challenge!

The last challenge went so well, I'm gonna keep doing similar stuff, with just enough change to keep it interesting: Fitness - Endurance: Average 8000 steps/ day across all 28 days. Fitness - Strength: Keep up with the twice weekly Get Strong workouts, and the once weekly gym times Nutrition: Cook one healthy, low-budget, large-batch recipe a week. Suggestions welcome! LUYL: Read the highlights from all books I've read on Kindle by October 31; prayerfully consider connections and actions for each one. That's all for now. Will likely change it up more in the following challenge, when the weather gets colder and I maybe have a membership to a different gym... (I really don't like that my current one doesn't have simple bars for chinups/ pullups. Anyone else bothered by that?)

Welome one and all.. .. To my humble Battle Log. It's here that I'll be posting my daily workouts and routines (if I'm following one) here to keep myself accountable - I'll endeavour to keep it entertaining and informative as well as holding me accountable. I'll be posting any tips and tricks I stumble across on here, even if they're nonsensical ramblings. STATS: Height: 6ft Age: 23 Weight 183lbs/83kg (Starting weight 83kg) CURRENT GOALS & PROGRESSIONS: Max pullups in a single set ( 11 / 20 ) Max muscle-ups in a single set ( 1 / 5 ) 10% BF (Currently sitting at ~16%) Max L Sit ( 0 / 10s ) ACCOLADES / PERSONAL HALL OF FAME: +45kg Dips x 6 +15kg Pullups x 6 My current focus is calisthenics, I'm currently setting my foundation and working towards some more complex/exciting movements. I'm slowly cutting weight with the hope it'll make the progressions easier, even if it doesn't - I'll look better whilst doing them . Feel free to question, follow my grind and comment as I go .. Or just pop in and say hi ! Leggo'