Search the Community

I am restructuring this for clarity, both mine and others. I am also tweaking some goals to be more honest with myself about capacity. Balance Exercise: Crow Pose Baseline: 6 seconds Weekly: train and record 3 to 7 days per week Weekly win: at least 3 days of training Challenge win: any progress above baseline Strength Exercise: Turkish Get-ups 16 kg kettlebell Baseline: 1 set of 1 rep performed 3 days per week Weekly: train and record 3 to 4 days per week Weekly win: at least 2 days of training Challenge win: at least 3 weekly wins Coordination Exercise: Weighted Juggling 5 lb sand balls Baseline: 11 continuous tosses without dropping Weekly: train and record 3 to 7 days per week Weekly win: at least 3 days of training Challenge win: exceed 50 continuous tosses without dropping Challenge party: exceed 100 continuous tosses without dropping Conditioning Exercise: Weighted Juggling 5 lb sand balls Baseline: 22 accumulated successful tosses without rest Weekly: train and record at least 2 days per week of accumulated total successful tosses, or juggling for time Weekly win: at least 2 days of training Challenge win: exceed 200 accumulated successful tosses without rest Stretch goal: exceed 500 accumulated successful tosses in a single session (rest allowed) Play My space for whatever. Not required, but may be fun for me to do, or fun for you to watch.

At the end of week 1, my job will be moving up to London, and I've decided to follow my job which is going to be a big change in my life. I'll be going from a short drive to work to over an hour on the train each way, I'll be working in a new office with new people I don't know, the work itself will likely be changing (although I've got no idea on the plan or timescales for that). It's going to be a busy month, but I want to keep a challenge running to keep me from going off the rails, and also to give me more excuse to keep up with you wonderful people. Going to try and keep it simple and just keep checking in. Forewarning that this may not be the most upbeat or cheerful thread this challenge, so if you don't like listening to people whine it may be one to avoid. Keep Lifting - Lift 12+ times this challenge - 15XP This one shouldn't be too hard, I really enjoy my lifting program so I should be able to keep up with it. I will need to cancel my gym membership and join a new gym in London, because the current place doesn't open early enough for me to go there before I would have to get on the train. So gym shopping in week 2 could be fun! Don't drink like a dickhead- 15XP Since I found out my job was effectively being sold, I've been depressed, stressed and so very very angry. Unfortunately I do have a tendency to drink my feelings when things aren't going well. Add into that that insurance, and particularly the London market, is an area where heavy drinking is actively encouraged as part of building professional relationships. Then add in working with new people and needing to get to know them which will undoubtedly lead to office drinks. All in all the best outcome if I drink like a dickhead is that I make myself ill, and sad, and fat. Worst case I do that plus I do or say something so stupid I live to regret it. I have a vague mental list of things that count as drinking like a dickhead, including drinking at home (either before or after a night out), drinking beer that I'm not enjoying. If I have more than 5 pints I may well be drinking like a dickhead. If I have more than 6 I almost certainly am. If I find myself getting morose or getting angry I am to stop drinking and take myself the fuck home. Skill Work - 12+ times this challenge - 15XP I've been kind of inspired by the handstand stuff going on with NF at the moment. I haven't bought the programs, but I do want to work on wall walks and crow pose this month as progression towards a handstand. I've also been looking for a chance to work on L-sits for a few months now, so that will count too. Please send me any resources you have on these things. I will definitely be referring to these two: https://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2016/10/17/a-beginners-guide-to-handstands/#more-1342745 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUZJoSP66HI (floor l-sit progression) Bullet Journaling - Daily - 10XP I really like the idea of this, it looks to be a simple way to keep track of life (and of challenge goals!), to keep a to-do list running, and hopefully make me a more productive human. I played with it last challenge before everything fell apart a bit, so I thought I would make it a goal this time to see if I can stick with it. That's all folks, wish me luck!

Meow. My last challenge was declared the unofficial NF cat appreciation club, so I figured I might as run with the theme. This will be my 10th challenge, which is pretty cool! Double digits! That means something, right? Here’s the basic structure I use for my challenges: Everything is worth points. Some things are worth bonus points. Bonus points can be applied to any category, to help remind me that health is hollistic. I’m slightly concerned that rangerbrain is creeping in this challenge, but I’m trying to be conscious about it. I removed some things from my goals that I was tired of doing, and I’ve tried to prioritize and value things in a way that keeps me from getting overwhelmed. I’ll also be travelling from May 4 - May 11th, so I’m initiating specific travel protocols for that period before moving into my main challenge goals. I realize some of this falls on Week 0 anyway, but I try to keep going on most stuff through Week 0. I plan to use Week 0 to calibrate my goals - I’ll be lenient with some of them, ignore some of them, and do others in full, but nothing will count towards my challenge score. Goal 1: Maintain Fitness This is where I stick all of my ongoing fitness stuff. These are mostly the same every challenge, but tracking it as a challenge goal still helps keep me motivated. I’ve been doing a daily squat hold for a few challenges, but I don’t think it’s helping me so I’m dropping it this time. Work out 3x/week - usually 1 bootcamp class and 2 bodyweight workouts Run 1x/week - 3 points available 1 for running at all 1 for doing something extra to prep for the Spartan in August (hill runs, extra distance, whatever) 1 for doing ankle alphabets before/after the run. I got sick of doing these every day after 3 challenges, so I’m going to see if I can get away with doing them just on run days. Walk 16 miles per week (64 in 4 weeks), 1 bonus point per extra 5 miles. 1 Pushup AMRAP / week Goal 2: Movement Focus - Spartan Training I usually do a movement focus where I do some dedicated practice for something I’m working on improving, like pushups or squat holds. This time around, I’m doing a variety of things to train for the Spartan I agreed to run with Sylvaa and fleaball in August. Not gonna lie, I love training for things so I'm going to milk this as much as possible. 30 burpees/day challenge. Done all in a row, with rest breaks only as necessary to maintain form. I’m not allowed break them up throughout the day. Ideally done first thing in the morning. No make ups. I don’t want these to pile up. The goal is to do it daily, so if I don’t do it I don’t do it. Half points available for doing 15 instead of 30, but through Week 2 only Take this one with a grain of salt. It’s a challenge, but I’m deliberately going to assign it fewer stat points/lower priority because it’s more difficult than most of my other goals and I don’t know how it’ll go. Running Points for this are covered under my running goal, but I’m aiming to increase my base distance from 3.1 miles to 5ish miles over the next several months. Bear crawls I’ve been wanting to work on bear crawls anyway, so this is a good excuse. If I tack these onto my bodyweight workouts as a warmup or cooldown, I get a point. 2-3 points available per week. Pullup work I’m going to finally order a pullup bar. The only place I can put it is on my bathroom door, so I’ve been avoiding buying one. But my pulling strength is my weakness and I’m getting to the point in several progressions where it would be good to have one of these. Add pullup progression to workouts. 2 points available per week from the time I get the bar set up. TBD - add in 1 extra day of pullup work or practice grip strength by hanging. 1 point. Climb stuff / Stop Being A Cat I LOVE climbing. I get the urge to climb things all the time, but when I get a few feet off the ground I freeze and have trouble getting back down. Because I am exactly like a cat that gets stuck in a tree. So, I want to work on that. Find stuff to climb. Jungle gym at the park. A nearby rock gym. Miscellaneous walls. Whatever. 1x/week - bonus points for every extra thing I work on climbing. Goal 3: Food Broken into 3 parts because rangerbrain. Part A: Maintain things that work Don’t eat after 8pm (or within 3 hours of bedtime) (-1 point for failure) Don’t eat more than 1 bad food/meal in a day. Desserts are counted separately from meals in most cases. (-1 point for failure) Eat primalish most of the time (19 meals / week allows for 2 variance meals) (-1 point per failure, +1 point for extra primal meal) Aim for primal snacks on 4 days/week and then non-primal snacks ok 3 days per week Aim for at least 1 primal meal and 1 50% meal per day when travelling or hosting (-1 point per failure, +1 per success) Plan/prep meals over the weekend and prep/freeze meals for weeks when this doesn’t happen (+1 point when done successfully) Write down bad reactions to food choices in an ongoing spreadsheet to dissuade myself from making that choice a second time. Not connected to any points. Doing this is slowly starting to help me make better choices. Slowly. 23 points per week Part B: Measure Carbs Last challenge, I learned to track protein and found that I hit my goals on most days thanks to meal prep - unless I went on a carb binge. So, I feel like I have protein pretty under control. This challenge, I’m going to repeat the exercise with carbs to get a feel for my intake there. My ultimate goal is just to understand what hitting my macros feels like and troubleshoot weight loss, not to make tracking a permanent thing. Weeks 0-2 – measure carb intake, but no need to try to hit a certain goal (1 point per day) Week 3-4 – start aiming for under 100g a day (2 points per day) Part C: Continue to practice conscious eating Think about what I’m about to do before eating something. Ideally, pause and take a few deep breaths. At the least, recognize and acknowledge when I’m about to sell out my future self. (4 points per day – 3 meals and snacks) Goal 4: Life Goal - Play Outside I have a list of life goals I want to experiment with this year, but this time around I want to keep it light since I’ll be travelling from May 4th - 11th and have a lot of other stuff on my plate. I’m cheating a bit here because this could also be considered a fitness goal depending on how it goes. But in general, my intention is just to play and have fun. I will go on some sort of outdoor adventure once per week - biking, swimming, hiking, climbing, an epic walk, playing on swings, etc. 4 points available. Bonus points available for extra outdoor play. This can totally overlap with my "stop being a cat" goal. Bonus Goals These goals all earn me bonus points, but cannot be done at the expense of one of my main goals. I removed a couple that got annoying and added a new one this challenge. Yoga 4x/week Meditate 7x/week Clean the sink before bed 4x/week NEW Practice crow pose 5x/week

Hello all! Over the course of the last challenge, I kept a list of things that I want to be able to do, primarily inspired my our awesome mini challenge, but also as an extension of my splits and pushup work from last challenge They are: Crow PoseMiddle SplitsRight SplitsPistol SquatDiamond PushupsSo my goals are going to revolve around getting to these things. I'll do basic training for this month and next month's challenge I'll really push on getting these specific things down. I have to tone down the requirements for this challenge because we have my husbands family visiting for two consecutive long weekends this month, right in the middle of the challenge. So I'll keep it flexible with short focused tasks that can be done within my standard workouts. Quest 1: Stretching 4 times a week. With the specific goal of working on middle splits/crow, ie inner thigh flexibility and splits (primarily hamstring for me). Specific stretches to be determined later (probably tomorrow). [+1 DEX, +1 STA] Quest 2: Crow pose training 1 time a week. Probably a yoga flow to crow video, but may vary or include other hand balance work. [+2 DEX] Quest 3: Squat training 3 times a week. To include beginner (and maybe intermediate shrimp squats) 15/leg, weighted squats (probably goblet), and attempts at easier forms of pistol squats [+1 STR, +1 DEX] (this might become 2 times a week depending on how the first week feels) Quest 4: Diamond pushups 4 times a week. I'll start on the 3 step of my staircase the first week and work my way down each week. I'll do 3-5 pushups each time. I'll also do 10 regular pushups to maintain what I have gained the last few challenges. [+1 STR, +1 STA] Quest 5: Alcohol restriction: 6 drinks or fewer per week. It worked well last time, and I want to do even better this round! Not specifically related to my list of goals, but good for me. [+2 CON] Grading will once again be P/F on a weekly basis, earning one quarter of the points each round. Tracking: Quest 1, 0/4, 0/4, 0/4, 0/4 Quest 2: 0/1, 0/1, 0/1, 0/1 Quest 3: 0/3, 0/3, 0/3, 0/3 Quest 4: 0/4, 0/4, 0/4, 0/4 Quest 5: 0/5, 0/5, 0/5, 0/5 Theme tbd, and I'll post some starting stats tomorrow!

Lightning Becomes Supernatural! This is my 5th challenge and I feel like I have a good handle on what works for me and what doesnt. I've made good progress with strength and weight and now I'm ready take everything I have learned and work my way to becoming supernatural (i.e. very fit, strong and badass). This is also a really fun way to celebrate the return of my favorite guilty pleasure TV show, Supernatural. More Like Sam Sam likes to workout and take care of his body. He understands that you have to be in good physical shape in order to properly slay demons and other like creatures. If I'm going to be strong enough to battle the supernatural I better workout.... often. The Plan: Since each supernatural creature is different, it would be best to cross-train and do a lot of different things. So, any type of exercise will count as long as it takes 20 minutes or more. 30 Workouts = 1 STR / 2 STA BONUS: If I complete 35 workouts I will take down Crowley and earn a trophy! (Supernatural T-shirt) Less Like Dean Dean has some food and drinking issues. He stuffs himself with bad carbs like pizza, subs, and pie. He also seems to drink nothing but beer and cheap whiskey. No wonder he is kind of moody! Instead of eating and drinking like Dean I'm going to follow Banting/Primal. High in healthy fats and naturally low in carbs. Plenty of water too. The Plan: 36 days of low carb = 2 CON / 1 WIS Weekly Average of 30 cups of water = 1 CON / 1 WIS Bonus: Each week that I hit my water goal = Trophy of a bottle of my favorite holy (sparkling) water Sometimes like Castiel Castiel just wants to help and be with his friends. I totally understand because I love hanging with my Assassins and helping during minis. I also enjoyed talking to new recruits and offering support, giving out pats on the back and the occasional virtual hug. The Plan: Participate in all Assassin Minis 1 STA/ 1 STR/ 1 CHA (these may change depending on the challenges) Meet and actively follow 5 new Assassin Recruits 2 CHA Become Supernatural Everybody has certain fitness things that they want to achieve, moves that make them feel supernatural and totally badass. The Crow pose is something that I really, really want to be able to do. Whenever I try it I get maybe a split second before I flop onto my head. I think, with regular practice I can dooooooo iiiiiiiiiit! The Plan: Work on wrist flexibility, the tripod pose, and the crow pose. I won't set a time limit. If I get on the floor and work on all three things it counts.21 times = 1 DEX / 1 STR

Past 6 weeks Milythael and The Wolf have been huge inspirations to me and helped me through a great deal of funk!!! The Wolf inspired me to go from an asari assassin to a wolf assassin and I'm feeling more at home with that. Here's what I'm working on: I've listed my goals in the first image, but here they are again in more detail: 1. Make 1 cookbook meal a week +2 Con, +2 Cha I have a number of cookbooks lying around that I'm not using. In my quest to eat better, and learn to eat more types of food, I'll make 1 cookbook meal a week. It's gonna be made on weekends most likely. I will not judge the ingredients, but just try it. 2. Do a crow pose +4 Dex I've been working on this, but can't really get 1 foot of the ground comfortably. Not sure if it's manageable, but I'm gonna do my utmost best! 3. Follow bench press program +3 Str I made myself a program I think I can stick to. Today (Saturday) I'm suppose to do 5 reps of 6kg/hand bench press (I use dumbbells) Here's what I have in mind: Week 1 - Monday: Do 6 reps with 6kg/hand - Wednesday: Do 7 reps with 6kg/hand - Friday: Do 8 reps with 6kg/hand Week 2 - Monday: Do 5,2 reps with 6kg/hand - Wednesday: Do 5,4 reps with 6kg/hand - Friday: Do 5,5 reps with 6kg/hand Week 3 - Monday: Do 6,5 reps with 6kg/hand - Wednesday: Do 7,5 reps with 6kg/hand - Friday: Do 8,5 reps with 6kg/hand Week 4 - Monday: Do 8,6 reps with 6kg/hand - Wednesday: Do 8,7 reps with 6kg/hand - Friday: Do 8,8 reps with 6kg/hand Week 5 - Monday: Do 5,5,2 reps with 6kg/hand - Wednesday: Do 5,5,4 reps with 6kg/hand - Friday: Do 5,5,5 reps with 6kg/hand Week 6 - Monday: Do 6,5,5 reps with 6kg/hand - Wednesday: Do 7,5,5 reps with 6kg/hand - Friday: Do 8,5,5 reps with 6kg/hand This is based on my own experience with what my body is capable off. I've noticed that my body doesn't get strong as fast as seems to be average (looking at other programs), and that's okay. I will get there! 4. Eliminate To Do List / Keep on top of things +4 Wis Weekly chores and the stuff I've been putting off. I have 2 more things to do for work and then I want to get some things done around my house. That's my to do list. Otherwise it's taking care of my home - Complete laundry (black, white, color, red) - Clean the house (toilet, storage, hallway, bedroom, bathroom, kitty, living/kitchen) - Water the plant on Sunday