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The 7th Doctor is the unsung hero of Doctor Who. (This doesn't have a ton of spoilers, and if it does, they go by pretty fast. If you don't watch it immediately before an episode, it should be pretty safe. Also, zero clips from one of my fave stories, which is good, because any of them would spoil that wonderful madness.) Unsung, because after a flawed first season for the 7th Doctor, the young production team took a neglected show slated for cancellation and reshaped it into a new sort of Doctor Who, steeped the same genre-aware pop culture, punk, politics, and chaos magic fusion that was influencing the indie comics scene coming out of 1980s London, like Watchmen and Hellblazer and Swamp Thing and Sandman. It brought the mythos back into Who, and turned it into the modern show it is today, where the companions were true lead characters with stories of their own, where the Doctor was dangerous and had a hidden past that sometimes came to get him, where time was suddenly a more fluid thing, where the show was faster-paced, high-concept, self-referential. Old school fans, or at least half of them, were not ready for this, and loudly panned it. This, plus that first season that hadn't quite gelled (most of the scripts had been written for the previous actor in the role), turned into a poor reputation for what is easily the strongest and most innovative era of classic Who. Despite this, everything Doctor Who is today was shaped by seasons 25 and 26. Those seasons contained at least six utterly classic stories out of eight. (And there's a good case to be made for one of the others to be up there, and the remaining one is pretty decent, even if it pales beside its mates.) Two of these stories are complete defining powerhouses, the best of the best of old Who. Several of them are utter madness, sheer ambition and chutzpah thrown onto video. Who has never been this ambitious or opinionated, before or since. It is admittedly made on a budget of one pound sixpence, two paper clips, and as many tea bags as they could smuggle out of the BBC canteen. We're currently light on a schedule, but we'll be starting with Remembrance of the Daleks this weekend, and thinking of moving on to the rest of season 25 and maybe 26.

Usually, my challenges tend to have a Lord of the Rings theme. But I thought I’d change it up this time. Contrary to the opinions of some (not here), I do actually have a few other interests! Right now, my Masters dissertation/thesis is taking up an extraordinary amount of my time and energy. That is on me. I didn’t plan my time properly, and when my mental health nose-dived in May and June, I lost a lot of ground. I also want to get better at prepping for D&D sessions (my players tend to be very understanding when I wing it, but I want to have all the fun little bits I used to have time to do). I’ve had to shoehorn important info in where I’ve forgotten to plan it in at times, and that’s not the DM I want to be. And I’d also quite like to have some semblance of not losing whatever hold I have on daily routine when things like this occur. I want my gym routine back, I want to have time to meal prep again because I eat like someone who doesn’t know what an oven or hob is when I don’t. And no, I don’t mean I eat a lot of salads, sadly. What this means, is I need one goal. One goal to bring them all and in the darkness… ahem. Sorry, couldn’t help myself. Old habits and all... One goal, and all of the above focuses on TIME. Time to do things, Time allocated, Time to breathe. Time to change. What do I need? I need a Time Lord. I am hanging up my Dunedain boots for a little bit (tbh, they could use a clean, might need to resole them too, poor things) and joining the Doctor on his travels for a little bit. The Goal: Travel in the Tardis, Explore Space and Time (Make a schedule, stick to it) I struggle with to-do lists yet gravitate towards them. I get fidgety if a task does not absorb my entire being. So, I am going to trial a schedule. Loose enough to provide an element of flexibility and move things that need moving, but I need to stick to it as faithfully as I can to succeed in this. I’ll post my schedule each week or day (ha, like I remember to post daily) and that will give me a clear indication of how I’m doing. I’m itching to add more, but I shall refrain.

I am back! I need to work on follow through for this sort of thing! I've fizzled out on my last challenges, but travel had a bit to do with that. Travel exploded my world in the most delightful of ways. What are my goals for this challenge? Be vegan for a month. I've done it off and on, and I just want to try it, actively, for 4 weeks. I rarely do dairy, so it's not too far a jump, but being vegan forces me to focus on what I am eating, and I often am making my food anyway. Tonight starts 4 weeks of meal prep! In the Japanese bento style! I'm going to make little bento for my lunches each week, see how that works. Why Japanese? BECAUSE I AM GOING BACK, MOTHERFATHERS! I got a scholarship to go study Kuruma Ningyo puppetry there, attend a giant international puppet festival, and teach my own workshop in Tokyo! I am literally vibrating with excitement... but I don't speak Japanese so hot. I mean... I do alright, but not "hot". I have a subscription to a learning website (multiples, really), a tutor, and rampant ambition. I want to clock 10 hours of study a week, at minimum. This is not so much, but also a lot. I need to find where it fits in my routine. I joined a Doctor Who themed mini challenge which is about running around looking for The Tardis (oh, my hearts) and that will keep me physically active. Though on dreary winter days I am going to stay in a do yoga. Anyone have a suggestion for a good yoga class app? Or youtube video series? I had Yoga Studio, I bought it any everything, but they clawed it back and now want more money via subscription, which makes me want to watch it all burn. Not very enlightened of me, I know. So I am open to suggestions. Alright, a day late to the party, and I must dash, but I am in! What are you doing?

First 4 Week Challenge 4 Me! I'm excited. This is my first challenge, but I've been doing the NF thang for a few months now and have leveled up to Diet Level 6 and Bodyweight Workout 3A, so i sort of took the sample challenges and beefed them up a bit. The below quests are long term habits I want to build, and this seems like the opportune time to start! I've been binging a lot of Doctor Who lately, particularly during workouts, so I've decided to tailor my first 4 week story based on the wonderful wibbly wobbly stuff. 11th Doctor/Amy & Rory will be the stars of this one (along with my Wolfie alter-ego, of course). I may go a little overboard with the story, but I love writing and don't get a chance to do it often. So apologies in advance! -~-~-~-~-~-~- The Doctor peered at the creature, not at all frightened by its matted, bloody fur and frothing jaws. Rory, on the other hand, was shaking like a leaf. "Are -- are you sure it's not dangerous?" Rory stuttered. The Doctor scoffed and pulled out his sonic screwdriver, making a few passes at the heavy breathing animal. "No, this here boy's just a wolf --" he paused and squinted at the screwdriver, puzzled. " -- with some very strange additives in the soup, I must say..." He spun around suddenly, startling Rory, and declared "Not dangerous at all, but quite ill, quite ill indeed. Very weak. I should be able to get him fixed up in no time, and he can be off on his merry way, howling at the moon and scaring peasants -- " He stopped as he caught Rory glaring at him -- "Sorry. Anyway. what shall we call him, hmm? I've never had a pet on the TARDIS before!" He grinned and excitedly rubbed his hands together. As Rory and The Doctor regarded the wolf, it drew itself into a tall, proud posture, lifted its head, and stared unwaveringly at the Time Lord. "I am a female," she snarled, "and I don't... howl." As Rory's jaw hit the floor, a wide smile crept over The Doctor's face. "Hello," he said softly. "I'm The Doctor. What's your name?" The wolf hesitated, but was already starting to tremble from holding posture for so long. She lowered her head slightly. "Roo." "Nice to meet you, Roo. What say we have a look at those injuries, hm?" The Doctor held out his hand, and after a long, unsure pause, Roo reluctantly padded towards him. -~-~-~-~-~- As The Doctor calmly worked on treated the many wounds plaguing the lonely wolf, he explained to her why he had come to her planet. "And then Amy says 'well sorry if you boys can't handle the heat, I'm going to go out and get myself a lavender tan from this lavender sun!'" He chuckled and shook his head. Rory rolled his eyes, bouncing nervously. He watched The Doctor heal a particularly nasty gash with the screwdriver. "What happened to you?" He asked. Roo winced as the screwdriver moved over a piece of raw flesh on her rib cage. "A few days ago, strange creatures started invading our clearings." The Doctor giggled with delight, never taking his eyes from the wound. "Oooooh strange creatures! I love strange creatures, don't you love strange creatures, Rory?" Rory rolled his eyes again. "What kind of strange creatures? You mean like other... animal people?" Roo sucked in air through her teeth as a jolt of pain hit her. "No. Not flesh. They were sort of like the work robots they keep on the southern continent. Except they are powerful, and evil." The Doctor turned off his screwdriver and slowly brought his gaze to meet Roo's. He bored into her, suddenly more serious than he had been during their entire encounter. "What kind of robots? What did they look like?" Roo seemed a bit taken aback by the sudden change in The Doctor's countenance. "I don't know what kind. They were metal, shiny, and they had powerful weapons hidden inside of them. They kept repeating a word --" "What word." The Doctor was now slowly rising to his feet, his voice cold and measured, as though he already knew the answer. She looked at him and sort of shrugged. "Exterminate." Rory's eyes widened as The Doctor turned to him. "Amy!" He shouted. They took off towards the door and The Doctor held out his hand towards Roo. "I've sewed up most of your wounds; are you well enough to run? We need your help." The wolf was flabbergasted. "My help?" The Doctor stopped just short of the door as Rory bolted outside. "We need you to take us to your clearing. Are you well enough?" Roo got to her feet, shaky but determined. Her tail wagged slowly from side to side. "You helped me. It's only fair I help you." The Doctor smiled, then ran out the door, his new... Wolf Person friend trotting at his side. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ To successfully complete this 4 week challenge and help The Doctor and Rory find Amy and defeat the Daleks, The Lonely Wolf must complete the following four quests with increasing difficulty each week (aside from the running goal, which is overall): DIET - NAVIGATE THE FOREST. Maps, strategies, and planning will help get through the thick wooded areas in the dark. Week 1: Meal plan (AND STICK TO) lunches at work. 5+ days. | # MEALS PLANNED: - - - - - A - 5+; B - 4; C - 3; D - 2; F - 1 or 0 Week 2: Meal plan for work lunches AND dinners at least 3x. | # MEALS PLANNED: - - - - - - - - A - 8+; B - 6 or 7; C - 4 or 5; D - 2 or 3; F - 1 or 0 Week 3: All of the above, plus 3 more dinners for total of 6. | # MEALS PLANNED: - - - - - - - - - - - A - 11+; B - 8-10; C - 5-7; D - 2-4; F - 0-1 Week 4: All of the above, plus at least 3 weekend meals. | # MEALS PLANNED: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - FITNESS - WORK THROUGH THE PAIN. Though her wounds aren't all healed, Roo can feel strength returning to her ravaged body as she jumps and dodges through the forest. Week 1: In addition to regular workouts, add 25 box jumps this week. | # BOX JUMPS ______ Week 2: In addition to regular workouts, add 50 box jumps this week. | # BOX JUMPS ______ Week 3: In addition to regular workouts, add 75 box jumps this week. | # BOX JUMPS ______ Week 4: In addition to regular workouts, add 100 box jumps this week. | # BOX JUMPS ______ Cumulative grades: A - 250; B - 200; C - 150; D - 100; F - 99 or less FITNESS - ARRIVE AT THE CLEARING. Faster running will increase the odds of finding Amy before the Daleks harm her. The Daleks have erected a device that prevents organic lifeforms from sleeping. Complete the first four weeks of C25K and log miles. | LAST DAY COMPLETED _________ A - C25K Week 4; B - Week 3; C - Week 2; D - Week 1; F - None LIFE - CONFRONT THE DALEKS. The evil little cans of hate have trapped Roo's pack, along with Amy Pond, and have not allowed them to sleep in days. Defeat the Daleks, destroy their REM Disruptor Array, and help the wolves and the Girl Who Waited get much needed rest. Go to bed 10 minutes earlier each week. BONUS: Use of new sleep mask/earplugs every night will bring one other grade up one level. | SUCCESS: _________ OUTCOME: Average grade - A. The Daleks are screaming and running, the wolves and Amy get some blissful shuteye, and The Doctor and his new friend talk about time and space. Average grade - B. The Daleks are defeated, but the REM Disruptor Array still sends out pulses every few hours. The wolves are getting testy. Average grade - C. The Daleks are defeated, but Rory must sacrifice himself in order to destroy the REM Disruptor Array. Amy hates The Doctor now. Average grade - D. The Daleks win, enslave the wolf pack, and the time travelers only just manage to escape with their lives. Average grade - F. The Daleks win, and they blast searing lasers into both of The Doctor's hearts. This basically means I have singlehandedly destroyed my hero by not honoring a commitment. GERONIMOOOOOOO!

Last Challenge, I didn't have many concrete goals because I was living a bit vagabond-ish. This Challenge is going to be about going back to the basics of my life: sleep, practicing, food, and foundational gymnastics skills! The format will be a @maegs-style checklist of things to do every day. And the theme is going to be Tenth Doctor gifs, because, idk, that's the kinda mood I'm in. Sleep I am totally in the swing of using my sleep cycle app! My sleep goal for this Challenge is to get 8 hours or more of "time in bed." (i.e. since the app can tell when you physically fell asleep, it tells you how long you spent between putting the app on and the alarm.) Ideally, this would always mean getting to bed early, but realistically it might sometimes mean sleeping late. Right now my average time in bed is 7:07. i hope to have it approaching the 8 hr mark by the end of the Challenge! Checklist item: Was I in bed for 8 hrs or more the previous night, yes or no. Practicing This is something I haven't talked about much on here, but I am a freelance classical musician and finding the time/motivation to not only retain your skills but hopefully actually improve while not having a fixed schedule and travelling a lot is hard. Most musician my age/position basically go back to school for multiple post-undergrad degrees (masters' of music! Artist Diploma! Performance diploma! Chamber music diploma! So many options!) just to have the institutional support of a school or conservatory while they practice and hope they win a job some time soon, and I chose not to do that because I just really don't like being in school all that much and, well, didn't want to. (Also I won a one-year full-time orchestral position for last year, so partly I didn't have to.) So I have more professional orchestral experience than a lot of my peers my age, but I don't have an official teacher or a nice practice room or the motivation of regular placement auditions in school ensembles to keep me going. Basically my career right now is an exercise in being hella self-motivated. Checklist item: 2 hrs of practice and 1/2 hr of reed work, every day. Food One of the houses I stayed at in Thunder Bay was a friend who has a bunch of roommates and they are all very into fermentation! They eat lots of rad food and I am inspired to try to make friends with some bacteria this Challenge. For now, the two foods I want to try are yogurt and sourdough. Yogurt because I eat a ton of it so why not make it healthier and super cheap. Sourdough-- I had actually never tried non-commercially-yeasted bread before two weeks ago? And it was ind of a revelation, in that I always thought I just didn't like bread, and that bread was a tasteless substance that went down like sandpaper and made me feel heavy and lethargic and I was just not into it. TURNS OUT bread is actually a magical food that has actual taste and texture and nutrition and is filling and awesome. I dunno how to turn this into a checklist... once I get the sourdough started, "feed sourdough" will probably be the item! Making yogurt will be more of a once-a-week thing, but I aim to always have homemade yogurt on hand. Handstands For someone who's been going to gymnastics multiple times a week, I sure can't hold a handstand for very long. It's actually pretty pathetic... I can't hold it at all, basically HANDSTANDS ARE KIND OF IMPORTANT IN GYMNASTICS. Checklist item: Every day, a 1 min wall handstand and 5 attempts at holding a freestanding handstand for as long as I can. And that's it! I'm going to keep lifting 3x/week and going to gymnastics when I can, of course, but those aren't really things I ned to Challenge myself to do any more Oh, and I am visiting a friend in Montreal this week, so I am probably going to keep week 0 as week 0 and post a bit but only technically start counting stuff at week 1.

And in three gifs, I sum up how my life over the past two months. I decided to quit my job to help my mental health. I experienced a whole lot of chaos with last minute job interviews, a nail biting, down-to-the-wire job offer. A much needed vacation. More chaos as I watched the perils of small start ups interfere with if I had a job. And finally, a beginning to settle down into a new circumstance, at the core the same, but now with some definite new quirks to figure out. So clearly I regenerated, and I need to learn to live with a dislike of my kidney color. Added to this, I have three major physical activities coming up at the end of the year. Camp NF from September 21-25. My 30th birthday Ruck November 11th. And I plan on testing for first kyu in December. All of them are going to push me to my limits in some way, shape, or form. I want to up my strength and PR my big three lifts at Camp. The Ruck is going to involve me having to embrace the suck and work on my endurance. And the first kyu exam is going to require a build up of a good library of techniques reliably, including being healthy and mobile enough to perform them well. So, how's this challenge going to go? I'm thinking something like this: 1) Wibbly Wobbley Timey Wimey Stuff: Figure out a new work and exercise schedule. Aim for 5-6 classes aikido, Stairs on Wednesday, and two lifting sessions. So right now, my goal is to attend 5-6 aikido classes a week, plus Stairs on Wednesday, and I would like to lift twice a week. The complicating factor in this is I'm also taking public transit to get to work now, rather than my car. Which changes the dynamics of some things. Notably the "I need to have everything packed before I leave the house" part. Aikido is probably the easiest. I was given permission to park at the dojo during the day on Monday and Tuesday (not allowed usually), where I can then walk a mile to work, do what needs to be done, and then walk the mile back to the dojo to train. I then get to leave class with my car waiting for me, and not have to stress about trying to take make two buses to get home. Sunday and Tuesday are two classes, Monday and Saturday is one. The Saturday class I'm willing to skip, provided I'm doing something worthy in exchange. Mostly more workout things, sometimes social stuffs. Stairs just happens. It's ingrained at this point. If I can find a way to optimize my timetable getting to work this challenge, cool. At the moment, it's looking like I'll get to work at around 9:15 in the morning, which is practically on time for most scientists anyway. It's super late for me, but hey. Whatever. The lifting is the hardest for me to fit in right now. I have to take a different bus to my gym, work out quickly, shower, and then another bus closer to home. In nice weather, I could also walk home, but if I'm working out hard, that may not be something I want to deal with. Really I need to see how much I'm going to do the lifting, and how miserable I am trying to catch a bus that is different from my usual route. Also I need to figure out a new lifting program. Because I think I'll be lifting Wednesday and Friday, and I'll do an upper body workout on Wednesday and a lower body workout on Friday. Suggestions welcome. So yea. Figure out how to schedule all the things. 2) No Fish Fingers and Custard: Limit caloric intake to 2200 most days. A limit of 2500 on Stairs or lifting days. Limit snack foods taken from work. So, new job is going great so far. The building we are working out of has a lot of perks, including a LOT of free snacks. Most of the snacks are things I'm not sooo thrilled with, so I'm not too worried this time. The stuff I do like is also hidden in a giant cabinet, so one of my major problems (RP sees food. Suddenly food is gone because RP ate the food) is definitely curtailed. We do have some giant cereal containers, but even then most of the time I'm not thrilled with the choices. So the goal is to no eat like an asshole, do my best to pretend that the cereal things do not exist, and also limit my smartfood popcorn intake to only 3 bags a week, and we have string cheese that I want to limit to only 6 a week. Really, my vacation caused me to gain a few extra pounds, and I feel it on me. The difference I feel at 206 (where I current am) and 203/4 is amazingly large. I feel bloated, and I'm currently sitting at a point where previously I would be quite pleased. But I can do better and feel better at a weight around 200, even if my body loves the 206-208 range naturally. I want to see if I can train it to like the lower 200's more. 3) Universally Recognized Mature and Responsible Adult: Do the adulting list. Car oil change Car Inspection Figure out health insurance things (cheaper to buy own or get through the contract agency) Track all money using Mint to figure out how being an hourly worker influences me Input 4 book series into my library inventory Some other stuffs that I forgot? Just a general adulting list. Things to do. The car stuff should be easier since I don't need it ALL THE TIME any more. The health insurance I've already taken the first steps, I just need a bit more info. Mint I already use, but I need to try and pare down the extra purchases, or at least label them in Mint so that I know they are atypical. And I need to keep up with my library inventory. I was lazy about starting it. I'm sure I forgot some other things, so I am sure it'll get updated soon. But these things are the major goals over the next month. So lets get started, yea?

Yup... last challenge went swimmingly until the last couple of weeks. Don't get me wrong, progress was made and I'm actually pretty happy with how the challenge turned out, but I just plain wasn't done with it. So with a few mods, it's going to look a lot like a repeat. Main Quest - slaying the anxiety dragon part 2 - poking the health problems SQ 1 - Running. Zombie Run Couch to 5K will be my coach on this, I had to stop on week 6, but it's been a couple of weeks since I ran so I'm going to go back to week 3 or 4. I'm thinking 3, less chance of injury and joint stress. SQ 2 - Food. I need to keep planning my meals at least 1 day in advance, then sticking to them. This will take a bit of adjustment on my part, not only in planning and prep time but in allowing extra calories on the days I'm going to need them so I don't over restrict my caloric intake after runs, or protein after strength. By the end of this challenge I hope to be several steps closer to having me week pre-mapped. I'm also taking part in a CSA this summer, only a half share because a whole share is friggin' ENORMOUS, but I get a bag full of local fresh veggies every week and have to figure out how to eat them - NO WASTING! First batch came last Thursday SQ 3 - Strength. THIS WAS MY BIGGEST FAIL LAST CHALLENGE AS A WHOLE. Seriously, feel free to poke me with a stick over this one. Or even a baseball bat. I'm crazy weak, and I HATE it! 2x/week this challenge because I'm not sure my body can take 3 right now. This was probably the thing I did worst on last challenge, so I'll need to focus extra on it this challenge. Each strength day will have a core/balance component (yoga/Pilate's) and a bodyweight component that I need to set in stone by sometime tomorrow, and will put on here once that's done. Life challenge - Meditation and devotions. SECOND BIGGEST FAIL. These went awesome 2 challenges ago, but I seriously dropped the ball on them last challenge. Sadly, I need to implement bedtime again. Not making it part of the challenge because it's just part of my life right now. (Alas, not this challenge, as I have very little to no free time) Also, last challenge I didn't write my silly little green posts. At all. Sad day. This time it will be better. Plus I can promise pony pics

This will be my seventh challenge and in honor of that I'm looking back over my past six and pulling inspiration from them. Its a time traveling theme ... just go with it My six previous challenge have an interesting theme when you look them over. I'll leave the list under the . The theme is fairly simple ... I run, I bike, I do bootcamp/TRX, I try to limit booze, I do photography. This MIGHT have to do with my Scout philosophy. I mean really I keep doing the same ole same ole and expect to get different results ... I might be insane Well not really ... when I was marathon training - which was far more intense than any challenge I've done here - I got down to 210lbs though my muscles weren't what I wanted. So I'm hoping to land somewhere between where I am now (~235) and where I was (210) I think 220 or so would look good on me. I'm not looking to do another marathon but do want to hit that sub-2 hour half goal I was robbed of last year. Overall QUEST! Get to 220lbs with the muscles I want! You know while training for my fall half and being awesome for camp NF! Quest 1 I need to start getting miles under my feet. I'm going to shoot for 20 miles this time around. I'll allow bike miles to count though I doubt I'll do any as I just prefer running to biking. A - 20+ miles (+2 Sta, +2 Dex) B - 15 miles (+1 Sta, +2 Dex) C - 10 miles (+1 Sta, +1 Dex) F - under 10 miles Quest 2 I need to keep logging my food and adjust my intake to keep up with my activity. I'm going to borrow from shaarawy and focus on my protein intake. I'll be logging via MyFitnessPal and keep my fingers crossed. A - 90+ grams (+3 Str +1 Con) B - 80+ grams (+2 Str +1 Con) C - 70+ grams (+1 Str +1 Con) F - 69- grams Quest 3 Limit the boozing ... I keep trying and failing at this but dang if I'm not going to give it another go. Seriously booze is my enemy as I enjoy it and in a social situation I tend to have a drink or three too many. Time to summon the willpower! A - 5 drinks (+2 Sta, +2 Wis) B - 6 drinks (+2 Sta, +1 Wis) C - 7 drinks (+1 Sta, +1 Wis) F - 8+ drinks Life Quest Keep up with friends ... I'm failing at this as I'm being a bum. A - I hang out with 4 friends (+2 Wis, +2 Chr) B - I hang out with 3 friends (+1 Wis, +1 Chr) F - I hang out with less than 3 peoples

157 Verbal and 158 Quantitative on the exam, but I may have those values switched; I was super exited to see those two values on the screen as the requirements of the school I am looking at is 153V/148Q for the GRE, so in either case I definitely smashed it! One step closer to getting my Masters! ((If I do get a Masters...can I be called 'The Master'? I will have to find a way to make or steal a TARDIS though, maybe that will be my thesis...)) /WOOT!

I'm a new Assassin!! Newly assassinated? This is my second challenge on Nerd Fitness First challenge is here, which was focused on building a workout habit. This 6 week challenge is all about leveling up on strength and kicking my bad eating habits in the ass. Accountabilibuddies wanted. Workouts Sun, Wed, Fri: Stronglifts 5x5 program Mon, Tues, Thurs, Sat: yoga, swing dancing, or BOTH Goal: 18/18 weight days, 20/24 yoga/dance days Food Paleo as much as possible Non-veggies carbs are okay 2-3x/week, but cannot exceed more than one meal in one day Added sugars/desserts not allowed (72%+ dark chocolate okay) Fruit okay, but not too frequently 1 free day a week is okay, but try to avoid it Goal = 35/42 days Paleo Life Quest Financial stability and time management My nerdom: Doctor Who (and any other British TV show) and the MCU. I also cosplay and table top. Future goals: aerial silks and pole dancing Really excited to get strong!! Love weight lifting, love dancing, now's the time to commit to doing it right instead of half-assing it. Encouragements, advice, critiques are all welcome.

I'm taking inspiration from Doctor Who for my fitness training. Companion training Necessary abilities: running away, thinking quickly, throwing the occasional punch Fitness plan: Sprinting, Yoga, Beginner Body Weight Motivation: - To run with the Doctor - Depression is a thing and if I started exercising, maybe the endorphins would help me through that - My dad was diagnosed with Type II Diabetes and I don't want that to be me Goals: Lose 2 inches on waist (or 10lbs) by Feb 15th The end of this challenge corresponds with the Gallifrey One convention and my River Song cosplay did not fit me so well at Comikaze. Alex Kingston will be at Gally this year and I'm so excited about the opportunity to meet her! It's seriously motivating me to want to look good for a photo op. Longer term goals: lose 5 inches total by June, lose 8 inches total by end of year (and keep it there). Measuring my goals in inches makes more sense to me because I care more about how clothes fit and I want to gain some muscle too. Currently 5'10" 190lbs 35in waist Known weaknesses: allergy/sinus problems (running can aggravate this, especially outdoors), money issues, getting lost on the interwebz, french fries Known strengths: swing dancing, flexibility, weight training, thriving with people/social activities =========== Since I'm posting late, here's what I did last week: Fitness - yoga class on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, 1hr each Food - haven't sat down to create my food plan yet, but I took salads to work every day for lunch and snacked on almonds and cutie oranges while at the office. Breakfast and dinners followed Paleo 70% of the time I am currently using a Groupon for unlimited yoga classes that goes through the end of February and I have another Groupon for a month of martial arts classes that I need to activate by the end of January. I am going to do the Beginner Body Weight through this month and then switch it out for the martial arts training. Beginner body 3x week Yoga 2x week Sprint training in between Swing dancing nights may replace sprint training on occasion, as it's still an amazing cardio workout. And if I watch a Doctor Who episode, I have to follow this: I am going to slowly go into eating Paleo again. I did a full speed ahead Paleo diet a year ago with my sister's wedding as the goal and stuck with it for about six months. Because time and money got in the way, towards the end of that six months, I ended up eating chicken and broccoli for almost every meal. I got tired of making every single meal and wound up either not eating enough calories or binging on fast food. I'm looking at how I can do a weekly meal prepping as part of my schedule so I don't eat unhealthy things because I'm too hungry to wait to make something. I'm not entirely sure which class or profession I fit into yet, so we'll see.

Alright, last challenge was pretty descent with all holidays etc figured in, but was also a laid back one given that holidays make certain things more difficult and I didn't want to overload my self-control bar. Main Quest - Looking at the new year (yes, I know, I hate NYResolutions too. Oh well) I have a handful of items I want to accomplish. - GRE taken & grad school aps in, resulting in starting grad school this year - Pull-ups and basic parkour by this summer. This is less aimed at the fact that I really just want to do them, and more at the fact that if I don't set a deadline and goals I won't get in shape period, and if I don't get in shape my body will probably fall apart. Literally. My shoulders and my hips/lower back need a ton of muscle to keep them together. While I don't feel ready to do either of those things right now, I can build the foundations to build them from. - Get finances organized. - SQ1 - Fitness goals - stabilize. Yoga or Pilates a minimum of 3 times per week to rebuild core strength and flexibility/balance, and a PLP substituting inv pullups for the real deal. Sadly I live in a frigid, snow-invested zone, plus cars terrify me in good weather let alone in winter, so no biking for me until spring Also, 1 session/week of MA, anything I can remember weapons or non. SQ2 - Studies need to be addressed. Guitar is restrung, so music can start this time around rather than me pouting that I can't get to a practice room for a piano. I also have a G.R.E. study manual out from the library (because that's where broke people go to find useful info - thankfully psychic paper doubles as a library card!) which will mean a crazy amount of sit-down studying to get ready for the test. GRE - 5 hours/week of studying prep work Music - min 3 hours/week, can be 6 1/2hour session, 3 hour sessions, or whatever. To keep this from getting complicated I'll leave piano for later in the year. *JPN - 2 hours/week; if it's too much to keep up with everything this will be the first thing removed for the moment - I love it, but it's currently the least feasible thing on this list. SQ3 - Food - I need to keep an eye on 3 things - raw plant intake, protein intake, and eating out. So I need to make sure I'm recording meals, keeping protein intake at least over 60g/day, preferably closer to 100, getting at least 1 salad in per day, since I've been eating more like 1/week, and cutting eating out to an epic treat once in a while rather than a quick meal when I'm running short on time. So more like sushi once a month rather than Taco Bell twice a week, or sometimes more... Life Quest - Neatness. I lost all of my neatness - the room exploded. The T.A.R.D.I.S. may have an infinite capacity, but my room certainly does not, and currently looking for items in there qualifies as a quest by itself. Here's 2015 - let's drop anything from 2014 holding us back and destroy this year with awesome wins!

Sorry guys, TARDIS landed a week late (i.e. my computer died last Monday, so this is my first time heading to the library to catch some screen-time.) First things first - I'll put my challenge plan up, then tell y'all how last week went. Main Quest: Even in a time machine, I'm running late. Switching back to dayshift is awesome, but I need to be keeping up with everything through the next few weeks that I've let slide through my shift-transitions up till now, and that also means fewer "I'll do it later" excuses. SQ1 - Make timey-wimey, wibbly-wobbly stuff happen - be active, mentally and physically. If today is horses great. If it's not, make sure something physical happens - pull-up practice is always a quick option, right? Oh, and weapons training too! Let's face it, traveling with the Doctor is incredibly dangerous, so I need to be armed to the teeth. So yes, back to the studying. But some of it is physical studying - primarily the horses, where I'm learning better riding, how to drive, how to train, and new levels of horse body-language, and my martial arts that are rusting slowly in the corners of my mind. The Doctor may not approve of guns, but seems pretty ok with non-lethal force the rest of the time. Other aspects do need study though, so I'm going to try to keep a minimum (per week) of 2 hours MA training, weapons or non. 1-2 hours JPN 1 hour music 2-3 hours SCI At least 1 hour of riding/working with my teacher at the ranch/b&b. and going to add sign up to take my GRE early next year. None of this is master-level training, but it's better than nothing. SQ2 - Down to business. Exactly what it sounds like, I need to take time to build an income that doesn't involve me going to a job 40 hours a week that, while I'm blessed to be there, is not a place where I'm using any of my strengths. So I need to work on building a steady income doing things that tap those strengths; I have the opportunity, I just need to take the time and work on it. 'Cause sadly, these things don't work on themselves. SQ3 - Take some time out for me every day. 1 hour, I don't care if I'm gaming, reading, watching a movie. I get 1 hour of playtime minimum. LyfeQuest - Food prep ahead of time, with a menu of what I will eat when in the week. OK, and last week - SQ1 - Awesomely physical .Did quite a bit of studying, no music though mostly 'cause I kept walking by the music practice rooms where I work thinking how awesome it would be to bring in my old pieces and see if I could relearn them on my breaktimes. So bringing those with me. Got to play with a friend's double-bladed spear (HEAVY sucker!!!) SQ2 - ...yea, failed miserably. Had Monday set aside, was asked to go help one place, set aside Tuesday instead, then got asked to come in for overtime since we're short subs. So yea, that basically didn't happen :/ SQ3 - Did better on this later in the week, early in the week was just too crazy which is part of why I added this in. LyfeQuest - planning happened, followed the plan pretty ok, but it was only so-so healthwise. Sorry for the rushed post, I'm off again.

Another successful journey completed. Since becoming a Time Lord companion earlier this year, I have journeyed to find the missing Tardis and then spent some quality time finding balance between Tardis maintenance and time travel. And so, here we are, on the brink of a great disturbance in time and space, and a respectable milestone of centuries. We have made it past 2002, close to crossing centuries, but something is amiss. There is danger lurking here. As the Tardis is prone to do, we have stopped in a strange place. We found ourselves aboard another ship referred to as Discovery One by its few inhabitants. The Doctor is being elusive but he is quite suspicious of the computerized brain of this vessel, calling itself HAL. I fear something will have to be done before we can get any further on our own journey. There is a secret plan to reset the vessel’s brain, saving its inhabitants and I have my part to play in this mission. (I know I’ve mixed by science fiction but I just couldn’t resist) This challenge is about resetting the programming of my brain. I’ve done well on challenges so far but I need to be more anti-fragile. For this challenge I am not expecting to lose as much as the previous ones. The goal is to break down some mental barriers to prepare for future travels. I would be happy with 6 pounds. Main Quest: Reach 1992 to find my true self. Goal weight – 160lbs. Quest 1: Avoid the scale. I am addicted to my scale. Sometimes this dependency gets me through rough times and sometimes it creates rough times. I need to experience a little distance from the number from the scale. I am now below 250 and it has been so long since I’ve been below this milestone I feel like I am in unchartered territory. I don’t want to get weirded out by the number on the scale. I will weigh at the beginning of the challenge, and again at the end of week 1 since that’s when my YAYOG PVP ends. I will weigh again at the end of weeks 2, week 4, and finally at the end of week 6. Measurement: +3 WIS A – 0-2 peeks B – 3-4 peeks C – 5-6 peeks Quest 2: Reset button, aka Food Battles I’ve been eating practically the same thing every day for 2 challenges. It’s not that I need variety, but when I eat something outside of what I am familiar I lose all capacity to think through the decisions. I prepare too much and don’t realize I’ve eaten too much until it’s too late. Some foods I avoid at all costs because I don’t feel capable of handling those in a smart way. I must find ways to incorporate variety into my meals without sacrificing sanity. This challenge has 2 components, one is to introduce more variety into my menu, the other is to confront foods I have a history with and reset my thinking so that I can be in the same room. I’m not planning on logging my food everyday on MFP, but I will use it as a tool in food battles. Food Battle Variety – I will cook something other than my go to meal at least once a week. This can be for any meal of the day and it doesn’t necessarily have to be a new food, but new since doing challenges. These meals should have about the same calories and macros as the ‘go to’ meal. Food Battle Control – I will also attempt to confront 1 food that taunts me and try to work it into my calories and macros. There are a variety of ways to do this and I’m not really sure what will work best. This is really new territory for me and I’m sure I will learn a lot from this. This could entail eating these foods on a cheat day but still controlling portion size, or re-creating the dish to be healthier, or possibly just a portion control thing. These foods in particular wreak havoc on my portioning skills. I enjoy these foods too much and I eat purely to enjoy myself – even when I am so full I am no longer enjoying myself. Measurement: +2 WIS, +2 CON This will be measured with a point system. For any battle attempted, +1 point for a success, -1 point for a failure. The max is 12 points and min is -12 points. A – 9 pts B – 7 pts C – 5 pts Quest 3: Astronaut Fitness Since I am stuck in space with other Astronauts, I need to stay fit. My YAYOG PVP will end after week 1 of this challenge. I haven’t been focusing on cardio due to the PVP but I really enjoy the bodyweight workouts. In an effort to retain the balance from last challenge, I will replay the last 4 weeks of the YAYOG program but only 3 days a week, doubling up the core workout with one of the arm workouts. Then add in cardio activity 3 times a week. For the cardio last challenge I found I was just skating through. I want to focus more on intensity but that’s not an excuse to but the workout short. This time I will be measuring a combination of time and intensity using a point system. Intensity measured on a scale of 1-3 and then multiplied times the total number of minutes. I’ll be tracking on this spreadsheet. Measurement: +3 DEX (Cardio), +3 STA (YAYOG), A – 22/25 YAYOG; 1140+ cardio points B – 17-21 YAYOG; 960-1139 cardio points C – 13-16 YAYOG; 840-959 cardio points Life Quest: Get Creative The holidays are coming and I like to make gifts. I have many creative outlets but I just haven’t had time to dabble in any of them. I like jewelry making, painting, crazy quilting, random art projects, and your run of the mill DIY repurposing projects. It’s time to get something accomplished. At least once a week, I’d like to do something creative. Measurement: +2 CHA A – 5-6 B – 4 C – 3 Measurements Starting weight: 240.4 Body Fat (calipers): 43.4% Body Fat (fancy machine at gym): They got rid of it *Shakes fist*

A simple Hobbit in Hobbiton, Kareesh never thought about going on an adventure like the well-known Bilbo Baggins. Yet, as is usually the case, adventure finds one whether they want it to or not. For Kareesh, it happened one afternoon as she was outside tending to her herbs. A strange sound reached her pointed ears. She straightened herself and looked around to see what on Middle-Earth could be making that noise. She could scarce believe her eyes. Just a few feet away from her, a giant blue box was appearing out of nowhere. It could only be this strange object that was making that strange sound. Blue eyes watched with curiosity, and with a touch of healthy fear, as it came fully into view. Before she could do anything more than close her gaping mouth, a door suddenly appeared and swung open. Out jumped a male human wearing clothes Kareeh couldn't identify. They looked to be something of a suit, but it's likeness had never been seen before in Hobbiton or the entire Shire. "This is new," the man said pulling on a pair of dark-rimmed spectacles. He peered around before finally noticing Kareesh. "Ah! A native! Could you by any chance tell me where I've landed?" It took her a few moments to find her voice to answer the stranger. "Uh…oh, yes. You're in Hobbiton," she said as politely as her shock would allow her to. "Hobbiton, eh? Never heard of it. And that's strange…" A look came across his face which Kareesh couldn't quite tell what it was. Worry? Confusion? Excitement? Or perhaps a bit of all of them? Before she could contemplate it any further, it was gone replaced by pure excitement. "Anyway, I'm the Doctor, and you are…." "Kareesh. Kareesh Greenhand, sir," she replied. And, though she hardly knew it at the time, this was the start of Kareesh Greenhand's adventures… And with that, I've started on my third challenge. I decided to do a theme this time around, though I couldn't decide if I wanted to do something relating to Middle-Earth or Doctor Who, so I figured "Why not both?" I've never written the Doctor, so sorry if I butchered him. He's surprisingly hard to write about. Anywho, onto the real reason you're here. My challenge. I've taken bits of information from my previous challenges and hopefully I'll do a lot better this time around. Some of the things I've made a bit more broader, which I'm hoping will keep away the discouragement that I often run into about halfway through. Main Quest Get down to 125-130 pounds. Quest #1 - What About Elevensies? As a hobbit, I love to eat. But, once I'm out travelling with the Doctor, nutrient-dense meals are going to be more important and I won't have time to eat chips and dip. For this challenge, I need to track my food intake with MyFitnessPal. I also need to stay in the 1400-1500 calorie range. I'll take a look at this around week 3 and see if I need to do any adjusting on that. Quest #2a - The Road Goes Ever On and On Before the beginning of this challenge, I'm going to be getting myself a pedometer and start tracking how far I've walked in a day. My overarching goal is to walk to Mordor from the Shire, and from Mordor to the Grey Havens. It is very unlikely that I'm going to accomplish all that in 6 weeks, but this is a start. Quest #2b - Run! Okay, I'm not going to be running, but I am going to be moving in that direction. For 5 days a week, I need to be doing something active. Whether that's a long walk, dance cardio, yoga, anything! If I want to be a good companion for the Doctor, then I need to be able to handle myself in dangerous circumstances. Quest #3 - Pop is Rubbish. I Hate Soda Pop. Okay, no, I actually love it, and that's a problem. So, this challenge, I'm going to limit myself to only drinking 2 sodas a week. My husband "has" to have soda in the house, so it's going to be a little bit difficult, but as I found in the past challenge, I can go days only drinking water, so I'm going to do that. Maybe a bit of juice or something if I get the sweet tooth thing going. Life Quest - Pedil edhellen? Though most of the time while travelling with the Doctor, you don't really need to know any other languages thanks to the translation circuit, but sometimes it doesn't always work. Which is why I'm going to be taking this time to learn Japanese. I know a tiny bit, but not a whole lot. So, for 5 days a week, I'm going to be studying Japanese with some text books that I bought.

This challenge is a bit inspired by Doctor Who. For anyone who has seen it: you know that he is great at running, doging and jumping over stuff when there is a dangerous enemy. Furthermore, he always manages to stay relatively calm during stressful situations. For those of you who have not seen it: please find some episodes to watch, it is an awesome show. I want to be more like the Doctor: I want to be able to run/dodge/move whenever I want, whether there are obstacles or not. And I want to be able to calm myself down in stressful situations. So clearly, I have to start learning parkour and meditation. Since I'm very injury-prone, I'm going to ease myself into it. This leads to the following quests: 1. Learn some parkour skills I want to learn to roll and fault properly. I will practice this twice a week, outside if possible, inside if necessary. I will look for some good instructions on youtube. Reward: +1 DEX, +2 WIS 2. Become stronger Twice a week, do at least one bodyweight exercise of each category (push, pull, legs, core). Reward: +3 STR 3. Get more endurance Every morning, starting 30-7, do the "Nederland in beweging" workout. During the weekend, I may choose which past show I'll repeat. Reward: +3 STA 4. Don't get injured Every day, choose two of the following activities 10 minutes of yoga10 minutes of self-massage with foam roller and/or tennis ball10 minutes of stretching and/or balance exercisesexercises against flat feetexercises for finger-mobilityReward: +1 DEX, +2 CON 5. Learn to calm down Every day, meditate for 1/2/3/4/5/6 minutes in week 1/2/3/4/5/6. Reward: +1 CON, +2 CHA

Hello, everyone. After spending quite a lot of time bouncing around the NF site, I think I've finally figured out what I need to include in my thread. I haven't used message boards since I was in college (2003), so I'm pretty rusty, but here goes: "Doctor Song" Main Goal: Drop 70 pounds. 1. Do the beginner bodyweight circuit 3 times per week. 2. Do at least 30 mins on my elliptical 3 times per week. 3. Reduce my carb intake so that carbs are only a small portion of my daily diet, rather than the majority. Motivation: To rock a River Song cosplay at DragonCon, either this year or next. Race: Hobbit Intended Guild: Monk Starting weight: 188 Size: 16

Ello, Darling! I'm Auraphlia Xero, or Aura for short. I found you guys by googling for nerdy plus size clothes. Maybe now I can just google nerdy clothes. A Little Bit About Me: Gamer: Mario, Sonic, Final Fantasy, Pokemon, Prince of Persia, Super Smash Bros, Soul Calibur(Tira), Kingdom Hearts, World of Warcraft(Blood Elf Priest), Guild Wars 2(Sylvari Elementalist), and so many more, but my current obsession is Skyrim(Imperial/Onehanded/Restoration). RPGs over everything. Fandoms: Doctor Who, Supernatural, Once Upon a Time, Lost Girl, Sherlock, Once Upon a Time in Wonderland, and add some anime to the mix. And a major Disney obsession; especially Peter Pan. I have a Tumblr.( My OTP is Rose and Ten. Education: Originally went to college for Graphic Design, but decided to follow something that was more important to me (since I'm a total romantic) and study Wedding Planning and Design. Planning to get my certificate and start my own business. Pinterest makes the world go 'round. Oh, and I love astrology. Totally obsessed. Tell me your birthday and I'll know everything about you. Beware. <3 Fitness: Current I'm 5'8 and 245lbs. My goal weight is 160lbs by the end of 2014. I'm too broke atm for a gym, and too socially awkward to go to one in the first place! I'd be totally terrified. But, luckily, my apartment complex has workout equipment. ^.^ I've looked over the guilds and I think I'd probably fit best with Adventurers for now, and maybe in the future I could move to the Druids? (My boyfriend already wants to be in the Monks. He's all about Martial Arts. Hopefully he'll sign up.) I haven't started the New Years off right, but my birthday is Feb 25th, so after that I think I'll start. The next 6 week challenge is on the 24th, so that's the perfect time to start! Planning on dieting and exercising, but I'm not interested in gaining muscle really. This muffin top has got to go though! Also, I'm a smoker (1 pack every 3 days or so) and I really need to cut that after my birthday. (Turning 21 so being drunk makes you want smoke, so I know I won't be able to quit until afterward.) Why I'm Here: Nerd Fitness seems to have the perfect environment for what I need. I'm terribly flaky when it comes to sticking to a diet and exercise plan and being surrounded by people who share similar interests as myself pushing me to do my best and stay on track is exactly what I need. Plus, I'm really food picky so I can't wait to delve into that recipes forum. I'm planning to keep track of my progress here and I'm probably going to drown you guys in healthy food and progress photos, just a heads up. ^.^ I really hope to meet some awesome people and help others along the way to reaching their goals and being the healthiest they can be!

Running with the Doctor can be very tiresome, especially when you have a Cyberman on your tail. Your life is literally on the line when you have a Sontaran running at you, flailing his plasma weapon in your general direction. And when a Dalek performs a temporal shift and materializes right in front of you, the stress is enormous! So that’s why I’m going to work to get back into shape, and de-stress myself over the next six weeks. My life has been full of stress, which has only served to worsen my health. Most recently, I have become unemployed while dealing with health and financial problems. So the stress has been overwhelming. I am not at all whelmed. So over the next six weeks, I am going to make changes in my life to overcome my stress, and get back into shape. MAIN QUEST To De-stress, and manage my health better. PRIMARY OBJECTIVES Perform heavy workouts three times a week, and light workouts three times a week. Stabilize my blood sugar. (I am hypoglycemic.) Take one day off for “me time.†LIFE QUEST Begin working towards my “Home Inspector†license. These objectives and goals will characterize future six-week challenges as I aim for better health overall. And perhaps, I’ll be able to start running with the Doctor again by the time Peter Capaldi takes the reins. -------------------------------------------- As a reward for myself, for every six-week challenge that I complete successfully, I will crochet two feet of the Fourth Doctor's scarf, until I get the entire scarf in all it's crazy long glory. As I make the scarf, I will be sure to post pictures of it for all to see. -------------------------------------------- *Edit: due to some injuries and health issues.* Instead of three heavy workouts at the gym every week and three light workouts in between, I'm changing both to two times a week. Hopefully, this way, my injuries can heal without me aggravating them.

I wanted to start a Daily Battle Log for my future use, and to post stuff that is not really relevant (necessarily) to the Nov 11 Challenge. So here it is - my battle log. I don't really want to write a long introduction about myself... I'm 27. I'm an attorney. I eat food. I should move more. Paleo is good. Doctor Who. Stargate. Harry Potter. Ender's Game. Futurama. Sharkbait oo hah hah! Yap... Okay, so I'm pretty new to NF, but I'm really digging it so far. My only problem is that I'm very "omgeez what if that person who is obvs super cool doesn't like me because I say something supes stupid?!@#%Rgfadgs." And I'm trying not to be like that, because that attitude is the very thing that stops me from saying "hello" in the first place and prevents me from making friends and meeting people. Isn't that what the community here is about!? C'mon! And also, this is how I feel about some of you: http://www.buzzfeed.com/katieheaney/what-its-like-having-an-internet-crush

Hello Everybody!!! I'm excited to be starting my second challenge here in the magical forums of NF. I loved the first challenge and got a real taste for what can be achieved if I just stick with a healthy and active life style. MAIN QUEST I plan to loose 5% of my overall body fat, thus fitting into my "motivational pants" of which I have two pairs. I plan to achieve this quest by building lean muscle and eating a healthy mainly Paleo diet. SUPPORTING QUESTS Strength training: 2 days on 1 day off (+5 strength to earn)Sprint at least 2 times per week (100 meters) (+2 stamina to earn)Meditate for around 20 minutes each night before bed (+2 wisdom to earn)Yoga everyday (morning or night) for at least 10 minutes (+2 dexterity +2 charisma to earn)6 alcohol free days a week (bonus earned for 7 AFDs in a row) (+2 constitution to earn)> For my point system, I'll be giving myself a grade at the end of each week for each goal (a, b, c, etc) and the number of points earned per goal at the end of the challenge will be based on the average grade. LIFE QUEST My life quest is to finally perfect my new website, it's a digital wedding artwork site with templates and fun things, specifically I want to hit 200 templates added by the end of the 6 weeks (currently at 35 templates) and earn at least $100 from the site's sales. MOTIVATION I'm getting married in August (yay!) and want to solidify healthy habits (particularly around exercise) so I don't slack off during busy times leading up to the wedding, the honey moon, or our move to the US in the months following. Looking forward to getting to know fellow adventurers! Any advice regarding "plans" around sprinting (is it better to do more shorter faster sprints or do a few longer sprints as fast as you can? does it matter?) as I have been a long distance runner in the past, but never a sprinter. Good luck everyone, I hope week 1 is going well!!!

Any Whovians on here? Just wondering who will (alongside myself) be weeping into their Christmas dinners when Eleven goes tomorrow...

Just in time for the 50th Anniversary special (and my birthday this month!) it's my wibbly wobbly, timey wimey challenge! TIME LORD style. Ooo eee ooo... (SO excited!) Epic Quest: Reduce my body fat to 24% Motivation: Increase my athleticism to improve my chances of surviving the Attack of the Cybermen, the Dalek Invasion of Earth, the Waters of Mars, or the Horror of Fang Rock To travel with the Doctor I need to: 1. Basically, RUN. "Run for your life!" You might not think it, but traveling in time and space requires some serious cardio fitness. Fortunately, I'm training for my first-ever 10K in January! Goal: Complete 2 sessions of Zombies, Run! 5K Training each week, while completing one Rebel Training workout, and either Pilates or yoga once a week for a total of 4 planned days of activity per week. And I need a failsafe: If I don't train to run twice in a week, it's an automatic fail for the week. [sTA 3 / STR 1 / DEX 1] 2. Just take the stairs. "Great big evil alien death machine, defeated by a flight of stairs! ...Oh my God!" Obviously it depends on when in time I encounter the Daleks, so I need to be ready in case these guys are pre-Seventh Doctor. Fortunately, I have an amazing opportunity work on this every. single. day. There are SO MANY STAIRS in my commute to work, but I usually opt for the escalator. No more! This challenge, I'm taking the stairs. Goal: Take the stairs Monday–Friday on my commute to and from work. [sTA 2 / STR 2 / CON 1] 3. Regenerate. "Am I...ginger?" Last challenge, I learned how important recovery is to a regular fitness routine. And I learned how much I've been neglecting that component. This challenge I'm going to work my way up to 8 hours of sleep on work nights. Goal: Week 1, get 8 hours of sleep at least 2 week nights; Week 2, 3 nights; etc. [CON 4 / CHA 1] Grading System Since I've fashioned each of these goals to be "Yup, I did it" or "Nope. Fail," I'm going to grade on rate of success. So: A 90% Success Overall in Challenge B 80% C 70% D 50% F Under 50% Allons-y! As an adventurer at heart, I’ve long dreamed of taking off in the TARDIS at a moment’s notice. Since I approach fitness from a survivalist perspective, I want to be able to manage whatever situation I find myself in. So I need to be ready. And when you run with The Doctor, well, you seriously run. Like, a lot. So with that in mind, I’m focusing my Ranger training on running while keeping up my strength and flexibility training. In addition to the rest of life, I’ve got a couple of newish things that I’ll be tackling on the side of this challenge. (Just IRL. I'm not doing them as side challenges, but I'm guessing I'll probably end up discussing them here!) I started physical therapy to work on a minor shoulder injury that simply hasn’t recovered since I messed it up in my first challenge in June. Theoretically, the PT will correspond exactly with the timeframe of this challenge. Kinda cool! In addition to that, last challenge I completed the Whole30 and discovered a few food sensitivities. I’m currently trying to process that information and figure out how I want to eat day-to-day. I’m going to chat with my doctor about seeing a nutritionist, but in the meantime, I’m sort of all over the place on eating. Kind of eating Paleo, kind of getting angry and eating the foods I’m sensitive to. It’s not the best. But I really want to focus on running this challenge and give my brain a break from thinking about food nonstop. I’ll save that for after the holidays! Ultimately, all of my goals this challenge can be boiled down to: Ooo eee ooo...

Hello, fellow assassins (and Whovians)! With the 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who occurring during the midst of this challenge, it seemed only fitting to tailor my challenge with a Doctor Who theme. Long-term quest: The Adipose are irrepressibly cute. But they are also 100% fat, and if I’m going to become more assassiny, some of them are going to have to go. “If you love someone, set it free!†Time for these young creatures to leave the nest. Current goals to advance the quest: 1. “Run!†At some point in many an episode, the Doctor's response to a danger is to Run!!! Accordingly, I will endeavor to do sprint/tabatas twice/weak. 2. Doctor Who Episode Workouts –This is going to be fun. For kicks I Googled “Doctor Who Workouts†and found a few drinking game-inspired workouts to perform whilst watching episodes. For instance, every time someone says “Doctor†you must do 10 pushups, and every time the Doctor uses the Sonic Screwdrier you must do 10 lunges. Opportunities abound to connect exercises with recurrent happenings in Doctor Who episodes. After some experimentation, I’ll try to post my favorite version of this game/workout.

When I read books, or watch movies and television episodes, I often find myself wondering how I would handle the life-threatening situations that the characters find themselves in. If I were Simba in the Lion King, would I be able to pull myself back up onto the edge of the cliff before Scar threw me to my death? If I were Sam Gamgee in the Return of the King, would I be able to take those last few exhausting steps up to the Crack of Doom in Mordor with Frodo's weight across my shoulders? If I were Rose Tyler, would I be able to outrun the Monster-of-the-week and make it back to the TARDIS safely? I have actually spent an embarrassing amount of time considering whether or not I would make a good Companion for the Doctor! Do I have the strength, stamina and determination to handle the crazy adventures we would inevitably get ourselves into? In my current state of fitness, if I am honest with myself, I don't think I really do. But I'm keen to change that. And I have a plan to help me do so! My Main Quest: To be Companion-ready! (Read: fitter, faster and stronger) My three fitness-related sub-missions: 1. To do one pull-up 2. To do 100 consecutive squats 3. To run 5k in less than 30 minutes My one side-quest: 4. To keep my home and life clutter-free (If I have to leave in a hurry, I wouldn't want to leave everything in a state of disorder!) Specifically, I want to achieve 5 out of 6 stars on my weekly FlyLady routines. My motivation: To know with confidence that my physical, mental and spiritual health is the best it can be. At the end of my life, I want to be able to say with Paul in 2 TImothy 4 "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith." I will grade myself as follows: Pull-ups: A = at least 1 good-form pull-up completed B = > 5 negative pull-ups C = 3 - 5 negative pull-ups Fail = < 3 negative pull ups Squats: A = 100 good form squats completed B = 75 - 100 squats C = 50 - 75 squats Fail = < 50 squats 5k: A = Run 5k in under 30 minutes B = 5k in 30-35 minutes C = 5k in 35-40 minutes Fail = > 40 minutes FlyLady: A = 5 out of 6 stars B = 4 out of 6 stars C = 3 out of 6 stars Fail = less than 3 stars Overall grade: A = 1 B = 2 C = 3 F = 4 Add my grades together, take the mean and round up or down. Example: Two As, a B and a C would be 1 + 1 + 2 + 3 = 7 7 divided by 4 = 1.75 Rounding up that makes 2 So I would get an overall grade of B for the challenge Note: I will only give myself an A overall if I get A in all four challenges. If I get three As and one B I will still score myself B. Hopefully by the end of these six weeks, if the TARDIS pops up on my doorstep and the Doctor tells me to "Run!" I won't hesitate to jump at the chance. I won't be fazed by the prospect of "An awful lot of running", and I'll be perfectly capable of defending myself physically, even if it's with a broom (Rory is my hero!)