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So for the next 2 weeks(9/11 - 9/25) I will be leaving sunny wonderful Florida to spend time at my cabins in Wisconsin. Highs in the 60s and lows in the 40s. It is going to be quite the change. Goals for the challenge Workout of some sort daily 10k steps daily Eat whole foods(mostly paleo with limited dairy and maybe one whole grain serving daily). Two travel days are cheatish days(morning food and some beer). Also some freeze dried camping food reviews for content. I may choose to have whiskey once while up at the cabins but other than that strict. Daily hobby 50XP of Duolingo daily Read 10ish pages Post a picture of dinner Examples of WODs Ruck Run Circuit training Weight lifting Hobbies Minis Content creation(youtube videos and launch channel) Fishing Model rockets Building things(fish tank stand) Board games Currently also running a PvP warm up for Rucktober. I need to market Rucktober and get some sign ups. The PvP for the warm up is here if anyone is interested.

It’s 74. 74 challenges. *insert Count* 74 Cycles of varying levels of having my shit together-ness. As it looks like I’m not quite finished languishing, I’ll be continuing on my slow roll toward better habits (yet again) and going the simple route. Goal The First Nutrition, Nutrition, Nutrition Keeping up with macro tracking has proven to be too much in the realm of effort for my brain again, so I’ll be edging toward that way again. Gotta hit those things side-on. Actual macros have not changed in ages, though off the top of my head I can’t remember what they are. Maybe I need to re-institute weekly weigh-ins for a little kick in the pants. We shall see. Aside from that, eat in a way that doesn’t kill my GI system, with a mind toward more veggies in my life, and not over eating. Or at least limiting the over eating, since I *still* can’t control myself around Indian. Goal The Second Movement in a way that feels good and does good. Zoom yoga 2 - 4 x a week as the schedule allows - as many classes as the schedule permits. The goal here is at least 1 functional-based class, 1 joy in movement class, and 1 handstand practice class. Keep the TRX straps up during the day - on yoga days do squat pull sets of 10 every time I pass the straps; on non-yoga days do at least 2 run-throughs of my full-body set per day + squat pull sets. Go for walks on Saturday and Sunday. Saturday in the sun; Sunday in a mall. Goal The Third Fulfillment. Do something to feed myself each day, be it something with digital art, graphic design, or one of my physical crafts. Something. Also: keep up with the social media stuff for DH’s Twitch thing & my blog. Also chucking redecorating and Spring cleaning the apartment in this slot. I’m tired of looking at our shit and tired of having the shit we have shoved in drawers that I literally never see. Since the move is off, I need to find a way to make this place annoy me less for the next 13 months. List Of Fulfillment Work with the dogs on some sort of training goal Digital art tutorial Digital art freestyle time while listening to a podcast Big projects on my Animal Crossing Island Creating images for WTFGaming Instagram & channel banners Taking pictures for Gastography Instagram Creating, writing, photographing & publishing recipes for Gastography Finding a way to include more food content on Gastography Instagram feed Creating & posting Pins for Gastography recipes Lucet cord making Tablet weaving Sashiko embroidery The quilt project I’m supposed to be doing but have put off because it’s a pain to find fabric Lace crocheting And that’s all I can think of for the moment; I’m sure there are more things. We also need to plan some sort of getaway - a staycation is fine; as long as it involves the dogs at the boarder + suitcases. When things open back up a bit here (i.e. we won’t have to stay in our room if we visit one of the resorts here that are still hella expensive even with zero amenities open), we shall make that happen. We’ve got at least a semi-portable setup for DH’s Twitch channel, so we can at least stream our Bad Game on a Saturday from the “road” if we don’t want to take a week off in this early stage with like 6 followers. We had intended on doing that for our anniversary in April, but (light) lockdown happened, amenities closed and some of the less bonkers places were reclassified again as COVID hotels. I mean ... we *could* have gone to the resort offering massive iftar catering all Ramadan for their private villa rental residents ... but we are not spending $1,000 a night for anything, let alone a villa in a resort with no amenities open. Hellz to the no. Even if we had the money. That’s ridiculous. Or, the brand new water park hotel - with the closed water park and nothing else open. That’s an option. Yeah. My ass is not getting into a pool in this weather, let alone going to a just-opened water park in the middle of a pandemic. That may or may not be dodgy. It’s a Hilton, but .... I don’t really trust it. We did hear something about more travel bubbles for vaccinated people flying Qatar Air opening up - Georgia is on the list, as are Turkey, the Maldives, and Greece. Out of those, Tbilisi Georgia is tops on our list for being affordable, pretty and having great food. Greece is definitely on the list as well, but they’ve got their own drama to deal with at the moment - I have no idea how they got on the travel bubble list, and from what I’ve been seeing (from @DarK_RaideR and others), I worry that that’s going to be a shitshow for them. Maybe Tbilisi is less of a mess? I don’t even know what we would want to do on vacation, at this point. Eat in a restaurant. Be in a Western city with modern Western morals (i.e beer, democracy(at least ish) & side boob). Drink a beer on a terrace. Look at some old shit; hike a bit ... Which, tbh, is what we generally do on vacation anyways. We’re not ones for doing crowded and popular things unless those things consist of walking around and not interacting with other people that aren’t chatty shopkeepers. Mostly just ruminating, there - it’ll be at the bare minimum a month before we can even contemplate leaving the country, and then it will be a 99% chance of DH flying out for work with a 15% chance of me being able to follow for Week 2 of his trip like we were doing. We will lightly contemplate, but actual firm planning is a recipe for those plans being immediately cancelled.

Brains are interesting things, and the persistence of ones’ past experiences is super fascinating. Case in point: It’s February. I spent my early childhood in the Midwest USA, where we pretty much always had snow this time of year. I split my remaining childhood between the Midwest and Southeastern US, where it was always cold - but not usually cold enough to snow - and potentially rainy this time of year. I moved to the extreme Southeastern US, where winter meant the dry season and temps would dip down to jacket territory. I moved to the Northeast, where the biting wind and snow would occasionally cause the City to freeze, resembling a snow globe. I currently live in the Middle East, where it’s sunny every day with an average temp in the high 70s F. Winter here means the freedom to enjoy the outdoors and (usually) an increase in festivals and other cool things to do. What does my brain think about all this bouncing around? My brain takes the calendar month and the deep shade that is my balcony (my apartment doesn’t get direct sunlight at any time of the year) and translates that into: whelp, it must be cold. Probably with howling winds. Never mind that it’s 23C in the house; you want to hibernate with your gathered nuts. Cabbage & potatoes with kielbasa sounds great. I’m continually shocked that it’s warm outside. Shocked and disappointed that it’s too warm for a jacket (most days, and then the wind kicks up and I’m freezing to death). I’ve spoken about this disconnect to friends from other climates (mostly regarding holidays), and their feeling is the same: my Australian friends fare pretty well - and are more surprised when it’s 50C here in July - friends from snowy climes are confused in similar way to me. Friends that are less hiberatory (just go with it) see less of a disconnect because they deal more in actual reality - whereas I have theory and feeling to inform my brain. Super interesting stuff and has shitall to do with my goals this Cycle, but is a drop in the bucket to explain my seasonal need to pad my ass with fat (lol). More contextual stuff: There is also a rumor that we may imminently be going back into lockdown here. They’ve increased restrictions a bit again (with at least lip service being paid to mask enforcement), but cases are still rising (we are currently at 427 new daily cases). We are also in the midst of the FIFA World Cup 2020 (or something like that) tournament with a big tennis tournament later in the month set to start. And it’s winter - when things usually happen around here. Aaaaaand the blockade just lifted, and with it - a slight lift in travel restrictions (quarantine is still required and tourists aren’t allowed in - but citizens and residents can, at least at this moment, move with some amount of guarantee they can get back into the country if they leave. We’ve also got at least 1 travel bubble in place). So. That all is a conflicting pile of info and it’s unclear what that all will come to mean for day-to-day life. Whatever it is, I shall adjust accordingly. Updates coming if needed. Goal 1: Nutrition Staying the course on my more recent nutritional guidelines: Smaller portions, less meat, more veggies, nutrient dense food options, no GI issues. Drink enough water. Eat with an eye toward Base MFP goals for slow weight loss: 1,260 calories, 20% protein, 50% carbs, 30% fat but without judgement if I go over or under on calories. Basically, eat what I’m going to eat - but by the fact of tracking, that tends to be more reasonable. I’ll also be adding in some probiotics and digestive enzymes in an effort to help with gut issues. Goal 2: Fitness Staying my Druidy course of action (shocker) with 4-5 yoga classes per week - hoping to continue my M vinyasa /T functional/W detox/F handstands schedule, with a 20 minute walk to and from the studio. Goal 3: Fulfillment This goal encompasses a bunch of small things I have going on a daily basis already - with a couple tweaks. Some bloggy stuff, some creative stuff, some dog stuff. Checklisty Stuff Daily [ - ] Duolingo Arabic classes [ - ] Physical craft project (currently sashiko, lucet cord making & planning another quilt) [ - ] Digital art practice [ - ] Enrichment feeds for the pups [ - ] Training for the pups [ - ] Yoga class [ - ] Breakfast: [ - ] Probiotic & Enzymes Lunch: [ - ] Probiotic & Enzymes Dinner: [ - ] Probiotic & Enzymes Snacks: [ - ] Picture of the Day + Daily meal collage Weekly/Challenge [ - ] Finish W30 recipes e-Book [ - ] Post W30 recipes e-Book for sale [ - ] Work on Paleo recipes e-Book [ - ] Post weekly recipe [ - ] Create February/March Pins [ - ] Schedule & post February/March Pins [ - ] Schedule February/March ‘Grams [ - ] Review Q1 financial shit in prep for taxes send off [ - ] Stay connected with the world outside my little bubble - be it through keeping a regularly scheduled chat up (my local bestie is moving to North America next week - so my now-usual Tuesday coffee morning will likely be spotty at best as our remaining coffee friend has a newborn and spotty attendance) or attempting to forge new connections. Or, if restrictions go the other way, who knows? We may just see a return to forced scheduled socialization

It's been a minute, and the world has changed quite a bit in 2020. I'm here and I'm well. Numbtongue's Language Lessons I'm in an odd place with linguistics, between covid stealing some of my spoons and me being happy in an unprecedented way, language study fell in my priority list over the last 4 months. This challenge is part of finishing 2020 with a daily German news and duolingo habit. 2021 has me adding French again, and slowly working on my Icelandic vocab, but for now this challenge is about daily success with my old workhorse friend, Deutsch. Grimalkin's Cruel Tutelage This project is to set end of year targets for the big four lifts, and hit my mid quarter goals by end of challenge. Garden of Sanctuary This project is to track minutes per day spent in sitting practice. For this challenge, I'm only counting minutes spent in seated meditation or prostrate in seid-work; sleepily drifting while I'm in bed at night doesn't count, nor does sneakily counting yoga time. The larger goal is to grow my practice, but I'm not setting target metrics yet, just tracking. Octavia's Workbench I have a few backlogged orders for mediation beads and percussion instruments I'm behind on. This goal is to log what projects I have outstanding, get them all completed and mailed before holiday shipping craziness locks everything down. Olesm's Chess Journal I'm playing a few tabletops via video call during covid. A dear friend is running a small forgotten realms 5e heroic tier, and I'm running a Dresden RPG campaign set in milwaukee. Expect to hear nonsense about either campaigns in this section.

It's been two years since my last challenge, so I was pleased to log back in and learn about the 10th anniversary! Looking forward to checking out everyone's challenges Two years ago I started getting coached remotely in olympic weightlifting. At the same time, work got kinda crazy, so I didn't have the energy to do NF challenges as well as my lifting program. But now I am back with a new challenge! And I have officially made myself a Warrior instead of a Ranger! I am still prioritising weightlifting - my 3rd comp is on the final day of this challenge YAY - but next year I'm hoping to shift focus more to strongwoman, as that was why I started learning the olympic lifts in the first place. So my main goals on top of weightlifting 4xweekly are to drop my bodyweight a little and work on grip strength. (I have extra tiny hands...) A post with my quests to follow shortly

I have been planning on making a battle log for a while now. I have been in and out of the challenges for 3 or 4 years now. I have enjoyed them but I think for now I am done with them. I used to be bigger into lifting and rucking and then shifted into the world of IRONMAN. In 2017/2018 I finished two full IRONMANs struggled through a couple of GORUCK challenges and generally was not too happy with my fitness. This past year(2018) I have kind of been lazy and not focused much on a goal, I did a few sprint triathlons and a GORUCK light. For 2019 my new game plan is to hit the triathlon disciplines pretty hard while maintaining rucking and beginning a new linear lifting progression. In general I want to become stronger, fast, quicker, and improve my flexibility. I want to achieve a WOD daily with stretching. I have always followed a mostly 80/20 healthy eating regiment. I find this is not really good for me, I like to eat healthy during the week and then I would do an 80-100 mile bike ride on Saturday which would be followed by binge eating then usually a night of binge drinking. Sunday would be a "refeed" day. In order to really achieve what I am hoping for I need to follow a 100% healthy eating rule and maybe see it slip into the 99/1 range. I have a large amount of goal distances and weights I am shooting for. I won't post them until I achieve them. Same goes for other(mental)aspects of my year. For now I have a GORUCK light scheduled in two weeks, a tough/light in may, and a heavy in September. Tri's are just some sprints and a tune up half IRONMAN in march. I do want to get my "A" race sometime in the late fall for the half distance. I have no intentions of doing a full this year, that is for sure. I will post some book reviews as I finish them since I have reading goals as well as any other aspects of my hobbies that I feel like(gardening, cars, fishing, etc).

I'm Brogo. I haven't done an intro in a while. I've been on NF for over 4 years, and if you've seen any of my previous challenges you know fondness for consonances in my titles. I still weigh about the same as I did when I started even though my main goal when I started and often throughout has been weight loss. I mostly try to lose weight by lifting weight. I was a warrior initially, but now I just kinda bounce around from guild to guild trying to maintain a balance of things. I'm a disgraced geneticist trying to fix my situation with underemployment. Right now, I work 30 hours a week in a warehouse, and I'm a full time (12 cr hours) student at a community/tech school (after a PhD's worth of time getting a Master's at one of the best Universities in the world) trying to learn about machining/metalwork and controlling CNC machines to make stuff. I'm also an artist and musician, and I'm trying to get back in shape. Right now, I'm dead set on losing weight. I'm at around 255 and dropping from a bloat at the moment. Pre-Christmas I reached 244, the lowest I've been since I joined NF. I'm going to shoot for a new weight loss PR, and get below 244 during this challenge. The rest is all based on terminal "o" asonances, my growing interest in learning Spanish which my main go to is Duolingo, a slightly older interest in learning to play Flamenco guitar, and my even older appreciation for great Spanish artists, such as: Picasso, El Greco, Joan Miro, etc. Goal 1, Cardio: Go to the gym at least once a week. I have to go at least once within 7 days for each week of the challenge. I can't make up for it, or make excuses on that. Twice a week would be good. Three would be great. Four means I'm probably slacking off on other things. Do at least 2 KB circuits. I've been doing circuits with kettle bells the last couple of workouts. They are kind of a beast, and I sweat and pant like hell. Today's workout was: 3 KB circuits; KB Swings, 2x12kg 10, 20, 20 KB Front Squat, 2x12 kg, 10, 15, 15 KB Press, 2x12kg, 10, 10, 10 Plank (breaths), 10, 15, 15 KB Rows: 2x15kg, 10, 10, 10 Russian twist: 4 kg ball, - -, 10, 10 Jump Rope: (17,20),(13, 20) (- -) No rest until I get through them all if I can help it. I'll continue doing the same or similar with slight variations. Goal 2, Paleo: Well not strict paleo. Here's my rule. I will only eat things I make from scratch, from whole foods and basic ingredients. With that, I can eat bread, but only if I make dough and bake it and shit. Rice and oats are easy to make from scratch, and I know from experience my body handles them well. More often, tho, if I want carbs I'll probably grab a banana. That said, this makes not eating paleo a pain in the ass. So long as I batch cook meat, and keep vegetables and fruits handy I'll be fine. Goal 3, No bebo vino: o cerveza. Alcohol is my perennial nemesis when it comes to weight loss. Extra calories, diminished inhibitions and planning. 1 drink usually becomes 4 or 5. I gotta stop for a bit. Plus I usually have a dry month every year just to prove to myself that I'm not an alcoholic. LUYL 1, Duolingo: Don't break my streak. I've been on Duolingo and done at least one exercise every day for the last 22 days. I want to see if I can maintain it till the end of the challenge. Read one chapter in my Spanish book each week: I also recently bought a set of books and CDs (Living Language, Spanish, Complete Edition) and I should be using that too. Duolingo is great for quick drills, but it doesn't present a whole lot of info or nuanced details of expression and grammar or variation in exercises. So, I need other stuff. Practice Spanish during my commute twice a week: The audio CDs are in my car, and the first one is in the stereo. Just gottta hit play once in a while. If I get bold, maybe I'll start an embarrasingly simple conversation with a Mexican coworker and count that here too. Write a new sentence in Spanish every day, post it here. Just some simple thing I did that day or whatever. I need to practice finding my own words more. LUYL 2, Flamenco: I ordered a new guitar and it is supposed to arrive Thursday. My first nylon string guitar, which is necessary to play flamenco properly. Daily: Fingernail maintenance: Flamenco players depend on long well maintained fingernails to play guitar well. They have to be the right shape to pick the strings, they must be clean with no rough edges, and they must be strong for playing golpe and making other percussive sounds and other fast strumming techniques. This will be done before practice. Daily flamenco practice: 15 min. a day. No excuses. This is really nothing. Once I get going there's a good chance I'll be losing sleep to guitar practice. But, I'm going to stay focused on learning flamenco. No more Metallica and Deep Purple covers. No more noodling around on the same old blues scales. Learn new shit, don't fuck around. Study a new technique every week. New strumming/picking technique, new chord, new scale. The technical stuff. Study a new palo and its compas every week. Flamenco music is made up of a collection of styles, palos, and each has its own compas, the rhythm, meter, and chord changes, that define the palo. LUYL 3, Picasso: There's a lot going on, I don't want to forget about my artwork. Finish one painting or 8 hours of painting (whichever comes first). Aye, Dios mio!

I’m going to do this right now, before I get swept away with my week and forget about it. Over the last year, I’ve been working on meal prep (and eating it), stretching more, and trying to maintain my outdoor activities. This year I’d like to really nail down these habits. With this, I ultimately want to work on cutting some excess weight. I don’t really know exactly where to put my goal, but I plan to chunk it out 10 pounds at a time to make it seem attainable. As far as life goals, I officially hit my first savings goal. My main focus in 2018 will be turned to paying off as much of my student loans as possible. I also would like to be conversational in Spanish, and keep reading through the books I have (it’s like meditation, so not necessarily for learning purposes). so for challenge #1 Fun story, I’m actually out of town starting January 31st until February 15th. Lifting: lower the weight being used for Wendler’s and work on the Boring But Big program for added volume. For this challenge, I’m just looking at completing 1 cycle. Stretching: Make this part of the morning routine somehow, whether it’s after the gym or while coffee is brewing. Should be every day. Ideally I’ll also foam roll 2-3x per week. Food: No takeout at all. I’ll start here. January is cold so the threat of physically going out to eat is pretty low, but I’ll allow it on occasion for social purposes. Weight: I’ll weigh in on my first Gym morning next week. From there, I’d like to lose 5+ pounds during this challenge. Duolingo: 30 minutes per day. Ive been enjoying reading and doing it regularly, but if I find that I haven’t in the first week I’ll adjust to add that goal as well. I just don’t want to get carried away. Same with bikes, although I suspect with walking dogs and the cold I won’t really have the capacity for a consistent 2 fun rides per week.

Life is calming down into a more manageable tilt as we get settled into the new place and a stable routine. I'm back to tracking calories and macros, and there should be language and meditation metrics reported here, let's just see how thorough this durn contraption is.

Remember Romney? That champion of feminism with his sensitive remarks about how much he values hardworking women? One day, I'll be that on point with my phrasing. Until then, I'll be reporting on my daily progress this month with the help of a pantheon of female comedic greats. Warrior lyfe 531 programming 4x a week Chiropractic weekly MFP daily Assassin nonsense Modified PLP (handstand practice in lieu of push-ups) Ranger nonsense Running and accessory circuits 4x a week Druid nonsense Daily meditation, yoga, and journaling Adventurer Nonsense Daily language practice Read a trashy German novel Mess with pencils and sketch pad at least weekly

Time for bed, deets tomorrow Mmk, technically bedtime now but I should do this to so... Last challenge: didn't take holidays into account, didn't end up tracking food at all due to not making my food for probably half the challenge cause I was home, continued sleeping not-enough, etc. etc. So, time to try and do the things that I've been trying to do for ages? Previous Challenge Stats STR - 31.75 | DEX - 47.5 | STA - 41.75 | CON - 72 | WIS - 41.5 | CHA - 44.5 Weight Waist Belly Hips Thigh Body Fat Goals Cardio I have a 5k coming up in a couple months, so that and rugby starting up again are my cardio motivation. I should do a "long" (5k-ish) run once a week, and intervals once a week. Sleep This is the big one. Bedtime is 10:30, gotta figure out how to meet it. Mobility Gotta do this 5/7 days a week to keep my body happy Food Food prep + IIFYM are gonna be the order of the day here. Aiming for 5/7 days of IIFYM. Mini Challenge Week 1: You Must Gather More Resources Before we can begin rebuilding the Guild Hall, we need something to build it with. So for week 1 we will be quarrying stone, chopping down trees, and gathering dirt for mortar. This will be represented by several activities from which you can choose. Wood Choppers will represent cutting down trees and milling them. Kettlebell Swings will represent mining for stone. Shovelglove workouts will represent gathering supplies for mortar. We will track it by multiplying reps times weight. It would get to technical trying to keep the three separate, so any of the three, in any combination, counts toward the goal. Keep track of how many reps you do at each weight, and post your totals in the mini-challenge tracking spreadsheet. Week 2: Return To Base We have gathered all the supplies we need to re build the guild hall. Now we need to get them to the construction site. This weeks feat is a distance feat. We need to log 220 miles as a guild to get all the wood, stone and mortar supplies to the fort so we can use them. The barkeep is getting positively giddy with anticipation. Apparently the rubble we cleared from the old hall was organized in our absence, which means the new hall will be even bigger and more impressive than the last. Any mileage counts, whether its real world stuff or on some sort of cardio machine, just log your miles on the tracking spreadsheet. Count anything from 12:01 am Sunday morning your time to 11:59pm Saturday night your time. Week 3: Construction Commencing We have gathered all the supplies we need to rebuild the hall and transported them to the construction site. Let's build this thing! To represent moving the supplies into position, shaping them, and actually assembling them, we will work with over the head weighted exercises. By that I mean anything that involves moving something weighted over your head. That could be any of the Olympic lifts or their variants, over head press, push press, thrusters, squat thrusters, squat press, Turkish Get Ups, any of it. Again, multiply weight times reps to get yours score and post it on the tracking spreadsheet. We need 50000 lbs to finish. Week 4: Putting The Tent Away Well done everyone, we've got the project done on time and under budget. The only thing that remains is to give the guild tent a thorough cleaning before folding it up and putting it away one last time. That's right, it's time to do your Domestic Rangering feat. When you finish, put a 1 in the week 4 column by your name in the tracking spreadsheet. At least twenty of us need to get our feats done to get the tent cleaned and fully packed into the cart. To Do List 2017 Roadmap Mitts for Dad Kitchen Organize cupboards Work on Imagining Other Earths on Coursera Shrink sweater sleeves Stretch NY shirt Rugby team website/image gallery/design Account/password list Finish white skirt Drawing Change address Tidy Closet - started Grey drawers - started Bed drawers - started Clean green purse Get watch button fixed Living Room TV out Magazines - working through the stack Tray on coffee table (actually a trunk) Mending (socks + leggings) Send @Wild Wolf that prehab stuff (I promise I didn't forget - I scanned the stuff I had and then realized that it's not super helpful without visuals so I have to find videos/pictures to go along with it) The Road So Far Week 1: Cardio 1/2 Sleep 0/7 Mobility 4/5 Food 4/5 Week 2: Cardio 2/2 Sleep 1/7 Mobility 5/5 Food 5/5 Week 3: Cardio 2/2 Sleep 0/7 Mobility 3/5 Food 5/5 Week 4 Cardio 2/2 Sleep 0/7 Mobility 5/5 Food 5/5

After a packed holiday season, including 1rm testing to find opening numbers (fueled by Christmas cookies of course), my first competition is 27 days away. This challenge will entail me posting battle log style updates for my last normal training week (2nd-6th), overload week (9th-13th), taper week (16th-20th), liiiight week (23rd-25th) and comp day (28th). Outside of slinging iron, I'll be blerping (exciting new verb) on weekly chiro visits and yoga classes, and daily Mint/MFP/Duolingo/Meditation/yoga practice. There could be check boxes, stay tuned. Less quantifiable output will be ramblings on books, recipes, cracked philosophy, and puppy pictures.

Seriously, how do normal people do it? Ever since I've started my second job in august and have been working full time for the first time in my life, I'm in awe of people who manage to work a regular job and still find time to work out, pursue their interests, socialize, learn new stuff... when I get back from work, I'm just exhausted. I've been sleeping more than ever these past few weeks (and I've always needed more sleep than other people) and feel like working 150% more than before requires 150% more energy than I have. There were days when I got home and lay down on the couch for a while just to wake up 1,5 hours later, eat something and go to bed. Ugh. But, I will not let this new situation control my life. Partly because I don't want to believe that I'll only live on the weekends from now on, but also because I've come so far this last year with NF that I don't want to let all these gains and skills and experiences slip out of my hands, just because I work regular hours now. I want to get those free standing handstands. I want to learn crazy new yoga poses. I want to see my body change and get stronger and healthier every day. I want to get back at drawing and singing and also learn new stuff (calligraphy and brush lettering being very high on that list). I want to do things that I enjoy doing. Not that my new (or old) job isn't enjoyable, but I don't want it to be all I do with my life. Lately, I've let things slide. I stopped bullet journaling, stopped working out, gave up on my morning yoga practice, didn't eat as healthy (but managed to stay away from the fast food for the most part) and let my flat become a mess. This has got to stop. I'll take baby steps this time, little steps that I'll be able to stick to. I won't go over board and plan to do all the things (and some of you know how hard this is for me). Easy does it. For starters, I'll get back to my 3x15 plan that worked pretty well before the evil forces of working full time pulled me back into the Empire's grasp: Move. Learn. Tidy. 15 minutes of moving a day. I'll do yoga, go for a walk, run, bike, skate, swim or even do a workout if I feel up to it. Any kind of movement for the sake of movement counts. I'll do this because I know I feel better when I do. My lower back has been bothering me a bit lately and my knees are still not quite right, and I know that light movement helps. Yoga definitely helps. And I feel accomplished when I've finished my daily dosis of moving my body. I want to feel proud of my body and what it can do. So I'll move. 15 minutes of learning a day. I'm studying french on duolingo just because I feel like it (and I've been able to stick to that one thanks to morning commutes and mobile access), but I might also read stuff for work, practice existing skills or try out new ones. I want to always continue learning and growing. There are so many things to know and learn. And if I exercise my body I should not forget to exercise my brain. So I'll learn. 15 minutes of tidying a day. I have a list of housekeeping chores that need to be done to keep our flat clean and somewhat presentable. There have been a lot of arguments about this with my boyfriend but I know from experience that 15 minutes a day is enough to get my share of chores done and make both of us feel more relaxed and comfortable in our home. 15 minutes is a small price to pay for nice surroundings and peace of mind. So I'll tidy. I'll track these in my bullet journal. For further motivation (and because I'll never get anything done otherwise), my computer is OFF LIMITS until all three of these are done. If I decide I don't have 15 minutes for moving on any given day, that's fine, but then I' don't have time for facebook, either. If I manage to get these done 80% of the time, I'll reward myself with a new fancy water bottle that's lightweight enough to take with me. If I manage to get these done 95% of the time, I'll reward myself with a flex nib pen for calligraphy practice. Oh, and guys... I'm back!!

Hi all, first challenge with the Rangers. Excited to be here! Had a bit of a mixed bag last month (link in my signature if you're interested) so doing some more of the same, and a couple of new bits as well. My Quest To be fitter, stonger, healthier and to look better naked. Challenges Swim More, Swim Better (15XP) - Did exactly this in the last challenge and failed miserably. Also haven't been swimming since the last challenge. So I'm upping the XP and trying again. Swim at least 3 mornings per week before work, with at least one drill day (bonus 5XP for 5 times a week on at least two weeks). Get Hiking (10XP) Going for a hike across Dartmoor on the last weekend of the month so I want to get back in hiking practice. Two long walks over the course of the challenge (10 miles plus) Parle plus en français (15XP) - Didn't do badly on this last month, but I want to get it perfect this month. Switching to a weekly goal rather than a daily goal to give myself some leeway in case fate intercedes with my progress. 350XP on Duolingo each week. Take care of your teeth! (10XP) - It seems ridiculous as a 27 year old man that I can't do this reliably, but for some reason I avoid brushing my teeth all too often. Simply brush teeth twice per day every day for this challenge. Does not have to be morning and night; can be any time (but must be a meal or sleep between each time). Keep track (10XP) - I ran into a few problems with the last challenge in not remembering if I had completed things, so this challenge is to complete my battle log every day for the duration of the challenge. Exception allowed for end of month hike if I can't get on the internet. No compromises (10XP) - I have the above challenges, the ranger mini-challenge and a PVP to do this month. These must be done in addition to my normal Gym routine (at least 2x per week) and badminton routine (as often as it can be booked in with my partner), and not at expense of them. The hike at the end of the month will be day 1 of this: http://www.carfreewalks.org/walks/75/dartmoor_north_to_south, and then we're thinking of heading east to Haytor and getting picked up from there as we're staying in that area afterwards. Also, Haytor is awesome, and I want to climb it again: Still quite new to this, so comments, criticisms and advice always welcome.

Arrr.. . I felt like sticking with pirates, but I'm branching out and recruiting a bunch of famous pirates to help me with my quests. This will be a 5WC, since I prefer just continuing along with things, so the points are intended to encompass that. Main Quest: Parkour all of the things!!! Climb all of the things!!! Balance in mind-bending ways! Play with weapons! Sail to new horizons! Loot, pillage, plunder. Pirate #1: Edward Kenway (parkour)- Naturally, I'm turning to Assassin's Creed and the Pirate Edward Kenway to help me with my parkour. My goals with this are twofold: One of the bits of feedback I received at my rank testing was that I was trying to go too fast, and as a result, I was adding stutter steps right before most of my vaults. Also, now that I have full open gym, I want to expand my horizons a bit by trying new things or new configurations for skills, rather than just recycling things that I've already done in classes. So, I get 5 points whenever I do parkour class or open gym and work on slow, smooth flow runs without adding stutter steps. I get another 5 points for doing class or open gym and trying some new skills or new moves. I also can get 5 points for taking my parkour outdoors and trying techniques in new ways (vaulting over benches or picnic tables in ways I've never before tried). The goal is to reach 100 points by the end of the challenge. Pirate #2: Guybrush Threepwood (strength) *well, he says he's a mighty pirate. Who am I to argue? Really, none of the pirates are overly strength-y, and I wanted to include some monkey island goodness. I want to get stronger for both parkour and climbing. And so far, my approach has been very haphazard. Ideally, I will insert some combination of these exercises at the end of parkour sessions, climbing sessions, or yoga, so I can increase my strength: Pull ups, Flag progressions, Dragon Flag negatives, toes-to-bar, one leg squats, HSPUs, plyo push ups, cat hang pull ups, and dips. Obviously, sometimes my muscles will be so trashed from climbing or parkour that I won't be able to do anything. In that case, I can get credit as long as I at least try to do the exercises and verify that there's nothing left in the tank. +5 points for every day I go climbing, do parkour, or do yoga and then after that do a strength mini workout. +5 points for each Darebee workout (providing it's primarily strength based). +5 points for every full strength workout. Edit: + 7 points for every day in which I completely fry out all of my muscles, whether it's just from a full strength workout or whether it's from parkour/climbing/yoga classes + a supplemental strength workout. Goal is to reach 100 points. Pirate #3 - The Dread Pirate Roberts (Discipline/ Diet goal) The Dread Pirate Roberts is a disciplined swordsman in full control of himself and his body. So, I'm turning to him to help me rein in my diet. Vacation was great, but it left me with the tendency to eat entirely too much, drink entirely too much, and consume way too much sugar. Easter and the abundance of candy in the house isn't helping with that, either. So, the plan is to eat relatively healthy meals every day, with only one modest dessert (100 calories or less) per day. But I also get 3 variances/week, where I can eat out, have an alcoholic drink, have a less healthy meal, or have a bigger dessert/sweet. I get 20 points/week for full compliance, but -5 points for each additional variance. And situations where I hang out with friends, have an unhealthy meal, extra sweets, and hit the booze can easily count as multiple variances. Goal is 100 points. Pirate #4: Captain Jack Sparrow (Adventure/Life goal) I need more adventure in my life, and I'm recruiting Captain Jack Sparrow to help me sail to new horizons. Last challenge, I intended to create my own adventure guide, with all of the local hikes, day trips, weekend trips, etc. within a 4 hour driving radius that I'd love to do. Normally, a large part of my goal would be to actually get out and do at least one of these adventures, but I am pretty bogged down in the next month with birthdays and other big events. But I'll do the best that I can. I get 2 points for every entry into my adventure spreadsheet (each entry can be a hike that I want to do, a nearby city + attractions that I've researched, a climbing spot that I want to try, or an event that I'd like to attend, along with the distance, estimated time needed, and other data). Since learning languages is helpful for exploration, I'm also getting 1 point for every 50 XP in Duolingo. And since reading is an adventure of sorts, I get 10 points for every book completed. If I do manage an actual adventure, I get 10 points for every new place explored. The goal is to reach 100 points. Bonus goals: Bonus #1: Ship maintenance - Keep my ship tidy by doing the flylady mission for each day (or a 15 minute substitution if the mission isn't relevant for my house). Bonus #2: Ranger Mini.

I HAVE ALLOWED MY BASIC HUMAN VEHICLE TO EXPERIENCE THE EMOTIONAL HIGHS EARNED IN THE LAST CHALLENGE. READ ABOUT IT HERE. THE BEST BLACKBOARD MONITORS ARE NOT EFFICIENT - THEY ARE EFFECTIVE. THEY DO NOT WIPE WELL, THEY WIPE THE CORRECT THING AT THE CORRECT TIME. SO I SHALL TRACK MY DIET VIA THE MEDIUM OF PHOTOGRAPH. I SHALL NOT LOG RUTHLESSLY AND EFFICIENTLY - I MERELY NEED TO KNOW WHAT IS ON THE PLATE, BEFORE IT ENTERS MY ORAL CAVITY. ALL WISE BEINGS PLAN. AS IN SELF-HELP BOOKS, SO SHALL IT BE UPON ENGLAND. I WILL PLAN ALL EVENING MEALS ON EACH SUNDAY, AND I WILL PLAN AT LEAST 2 OTHER MEALS PER WEEK (SNACKS CAN COUNT AS MEALS). I ENJOYED TRAINING ONCE PER WEEK FOR THE PREVIOUS CHALLENGE. I TRAINED 3 TIMES MORE OFTEN THAN PLANNED. SO THIS CHALLENGE I WILL TRAIN AT LEAST TWICE PER WEEK. FINALLY, I WILL AIM TO GAIN 100XP PER WEEK FOR DUOLINGO SPANISH. THAT IS ONCE PER DAY, PLUS THREE EXTRA SECTIONS. THERE WILL BE A BRIEF, PLEASANT CHEMICAL REACTION IN THE SIMPLISTIC ANIMAL BRAIN OF THE FIRST HUMAN THAT GUESSES THE MYSTERY BONUS TASK I HAVE SET FOR MYSELF.

This challenge is going to be a bit weird. I have a parkour rank testing in a week, so I'll be a little bit deload-y the first week. I'm on vacation the last week. And I still kind of have whiplash from doing so many short challenges back to back. I also tend to have a full schedule with all of the parkour, climbing, and yoga, so any specific exercises have to be kind of opportunistic rather than scheduled for me. Thanks to all of this, I'm going to embrace and love the pirate code this challenge: Main Quest: Parkour all of the things!!! Climb all of the things!!! Balance in mind-bending ways! Play with weapons! Look like someone who could compete on ANW. 2016 goals Goal 1 - Raise the Black Flag Last challenge, I played around with Human Flag progressions, and now I'm hooked. I can do the first progression, which is a quasi one-armed lever, pretty well I'm okay-ish with the second one, which is an armpit tucked flag lever. I have started working through the third, which is dragon flags. Goal: Take advantage of any reasonable opportunities to work through these progressions. Goal 2: Hang on the rigging - I've neglected my dead hang pull ups, and I haven't really made progress in the last many months. Goal: take advantage of any reasonable opportunities to focus on the pull ups. For both goals 1 and 2, if I'm not completely sore and destroyed after parkour class or a climbing session, I need to do these progressions. If I'm already pretty spent, I can skip. If I have something major the next day and don't want to risk DOMS, I need to just do a minor GTG approach. I'm just grading these on vague, mushy feelings of whether I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing. Goal 3 - Get rid of the rum. (diet) I'm going on vacation in 3 weeks to a resort with free booze. So, in the meantime, I'm giving my liver a bit of a rest and reset period. I've played around with going dry in the past, but I generally have ended up just cutting back because I enjoy booze and don't truly care enough about being dry. The difference this time is that my husband is going dry with me, rather than taunting me with tasty drinks. Goal - Dry until vacation. On vacation, don't overdo it too much (which I won't, since the kids will be there too) Goal 4: Swab the deck (domestic Rangering) Domestic Rangering went okay last time. This time, I'm going to keep up with daily chores as well as doing a Flylady (or substitute) cleaning mission every day. Goal 5 - Learn the Language of the Land (Duolingo spanish) I don't want to be an asshole American tourist, so the goal is to amass 1000 xp in Duolingo Spanish before my vacation. On vacation, the goal is to at least make some attempt to read or speak spanish. Bonus goals: Bonus 1: Swim like a pirate captain Before vacation, brush up on swimming and get the kids ready to swim a lot. On vacation, swim a ton. We are planning on swimming in a cenote, and there's the beach, hotel pools, and some other great swimming sites. Bonus 2: Stop culling the herd (videos and media) Yeah, I totally need a goal to encourage myself to post more media... Really, though, the goal is to post pictures or videos that are technically sound, even if I think I look flabby, my hair is messy, or I'm otherwise nitpicking the way I look. And after I post those pictures or videos, I'm not allowed to say anything negative about my appearance. I also have kind of promised piano video for ages, but I tend to overly nitpick any recordings and then just don't post them. So, the goal is to post something, even if it sounds (to me) like a steaming pile of cat vomit. Bonus 3 - make my own adventure guide (travel) I need more excitement and adventure in my life. And now that springtime is approaching, it's the perfect time to look into day trips and long weekend trips. My goal is to research all of the best attractions in all of the major cities, the national parks, and the climbing sites in about a 6 hour driving radius (which is A LOT), and then come up with a bunch of 1-day, weekend, and 3-5 day trip options. The goal is to add 6 little trips to my list (which currently sits at 2). So. um.. yeah. This is a lot of stuff for a kind of burned out challenge. But I have no doubt I can prevail, because of this: And this:

Hi rebels, Anyone of you using Duolingo to learn a language? Want to connect with me? I am looking for a few active language learners to add to my leaderboard for a bit of motivation and friendly competition. I'm currently learning Spanish, but your language of choice doesn't matter as Duolingo works with XP. Fun tidbit about Duolingo: they're currently working on Klingon (Star Trek) as well as Dothraki (Game of Thrones) to add to the list of available languages. If you're on Duolingo, I'd appreciate a connect: https://www.duolingo.com/Chris2Brooks

For this challenge, I'm going to focus on fully living in the present, rather than dwelling on the past ("before my knee blowout, I could do whatever thing but now I can't") or punting things toward the future ("It would be really nice if I could do...") without taking the steps right now to have any realistic hope of achieving that. As always, I will be doing and logging my usual rock climbing/bouldering, playground parkour, yoga, hand balancing, weapons, hooping, etc. 1. (Fitness)Respect the progressions: There are several yoga moves I'd love to do, but I'm not quite flexible enough. There are also several parkour moves I'd love to be able to do, but I'm not strong or flexible enough. So, rather than just giving up and doing nothing at all to get there (which has kind of been what I've done over the last many challenges), I'll instead dial things backward and work through some easier progressions until I have a solid enough foundation for the full move. The moves I'd love to focus on are: (yoga) Firefly pose- currently need to improve flexibility to get my shoulders under my legs. I can either balance a few seconds with my legs really bent, or I pick up and fall right back onto my rear. So, I'm going to focus on the deep squat with my shoulders under my legs to improve the mobility. I'll also just try to get better about holding with my legs bent. There's no point yet in trying to pick up all of the way and getting frustrated with my repeated failures. (yoga) - wheel to standing or wheel kick over - My backbend/wheel is okay, but in order to stand from it or kick my legs up and over, I need my hands and feet to be closer together. So, I'm going to focus on pushing my torso closer over my shoulders and walking my feet in toward my hands. (parkour) Kong vault - I can't confidently even do a ground kong without having my knees flare out such that they're outside of my arms. I'm also horribly paranoid about clipping my legs, especially since my knee still isn't quite 100%. I'm going to work on good form ground kongs, the kong jump-ups, and just jumping over low-ish obstacles. (parkour) rail balance - While it's still cold, I have parallettes I can step upon. When it's warmer, there are plenty of playgrounds with rails. Rather than getting fancy and trying to move around a lot or do QM, I really just need to practice standing around or walking very slowly. I may come up with a few more things to add to the list. I'm not going to grade based on practicing a certain number of times/week. Instead, it's going to be whether I feel like I'm putting in the honest effort to follow the progressions, rather than giving up or hiding from the skills in question, and whether at the end of the challenge I'm seeing some progress. 2. (Fitness) Tons of Handstands: I've always wanted to have a solid handstand, but I've been stuck at 3-5 seconds freestanding for a long time and have never really put in the effort to improve with that. After some personal training with this, I learned that my shoulders aren't engaged properly when I do handstands. I've instead been doing lazy, loose handstands. Now that I've started practicing really pressing upward, engaging my shoulders, and keeping my core very tight, I feel like I have so much more control. I want to ride this success and finally make some progress with the handstands. Goal is to do 100 handstands/week, but to count, all of the handstands need to have solid form. 3. (Life) Positivity and Gratitude: I truly believe that being positive and grateful is a habit and mindset. Each day of the challenge, I must come up with and post something for which I'm grateful, something that made me happy, or something generally positive. Goal: 42 daily postings. 4. (Life) Learn a new language -For years, my husband and I have been saying that it would be nice if I could speak German, so we could have our own adult "secret language" that the kids can't understand. And for years, I've done nothing on that front. I recently downloaded Duolingo. My goal is to add 250 XP to my total each week. I'm at 659 right now, so assuming I'm around 700 at the start of the challenge, that means I should aim for 2200 XP by the end. Extras: There's no way to grade these, but they're just things I'd love to work on and be reminded of frequently through my challenge. (Fitness) Form comes first: I have a few yoga moves in which my form (shoulder alignment) is off. I also am guilty of taking some shortcuts, or squeezing out a few extra reps even after my form is starting to fall apart. I've spent the last year assuming that everything would eventually work its way out, but realistically, I'm just perfecting bad form. This goal is more about shelving the ego and dealing with not managing as many reps or as much hold time, or having to step back in some of my progressions. (Life) Control the clutter: No one in my house (including myself) puts things back where they belong after using something. So, we're always fighting clutter. Rather than just setting things down out of place and assuming I can put it away later, I'd rather stop generating the clutter in the first place. (Life) Get over it: I'm one of those people who gets upset or over-analyzes things long past the point where I should just accept that things are over and done. So, I want to reach a point where if I'm foolishly getting worked up about something, I can take steps to calm down (whether it's doing some cardio kickboxing, weapons, yoga, meditation, taking a walk, playing piano), and then learning to just let it go.

Welcome to the Castle of Lord Helix. Take of your shoes. It might sound sad, but I don't know what my mission is - I don't know what I want. I just know I want to create these few habbits, because they will help me. Goal 1: +CHA Reach level 20 in French in Duolingo. (I am level 14 now) Goal 2: +INT Read 6 books. (about 250 pages each) Goal 3: +STR Be able to do 30 pull-ups. (i can do about 25 now) 30 - 3 STR, 28 - 2.5 STR, 25 - 2STR. Daily Tasks: - Continue my Duolingo streak. - Continue my Lumosity streak. - Read 40 pages. - Meditate for 5 minutes. - Stretch legs for 5 minutes. - Listen to a new music album. - No unhealthy food. Life Goal: +WIS Get a job. For that, I need to apply for jobs. For that, I need to get my photo taken. For that, I need to feel good. It's complicated. I want to learn french, so I have been trying for months. I want to read more, so I can be a better company to people and to have more topics to talk about. I want to listen to a new musical album for the same reason, and because for a while now i've had the feeling that I am listening to the same music over and over again, like I am stuck on the same place. And music is life. Lumosity is a site that develops the mind, and it takes 5 minutes per day. Stretching and meditations would also take 5 minutes per day, so I want to try and make them a habit. // MiniChallenge 1 of L1 Guild - Done. +1WIS // // MiniChallenge 2 of L1 Guild - Done. +1CHA // // MiniChallenge 3 of L1 Guild - Done. + 1WIS // // MiniChallenge 4 of L1 Guild - Done. (reaching lvl 1) //

So, I don't know about you guys but the holiday season stresses. me. out. I absolutely adore my family, but we are definitely one of those families where the drama level is usuall high (hooray for being Italian-American!). Like seriously, I end up hiding in my cousins room with a bottle of wine 99% of the time on thanksgiving/christmas at my grandmas. This year there will be none of that! I will take care of myself and my mental health. I also have a lot going on the next few weeks. My birthday is this weekend, next weekend I'm going to visit my friend in the Carribbean (because that's where she lives. That jerk.). The weekend after that I'm visiting my high school friend. Then it's Thanksgiving, and then we're going camping, and then my boyfriends birthday. Ahhhh so much stuff. I have been finding some real comfort in finding a routine, and doing things every day from my last challenge. So I am going to basically do the same thing as last challenge, (which was my most successful yet!) except focus more on the calming factors of working out, meditating, and having a routine even while traveling. Main Quest. Keep going with my regular routines, working towards my epic quests and KEEP CALM. The Challenge. The way I'm setting up this challenge may seem kind of complicated (and definitely not the normal NF challenge set up), but it really worked for me last challenge so I'm just expanding upon that. Instead of just having a list of every day things, I'm breaking it down to every day, every week day, and every week tasks. Things I Will Do Every Day (1 pt/day): Move. Preferably doing my 30 day challenges, but since a few of them require equipment I only have at home I am OK with doing something else when I'm away. Especially if it's hiking related Or just this: Eat. And eat consciously. I've also been doing really well with for the first time in my adult life stopping counting my calories. Or even my macros. I have been doing both those things for so long, I know what is good and what isn't. Having calories and macros to fall back on almost hurts me because then I can eat a pizza (or 20 of my grandmas deviled eggs) and somehow finagle the numbers to "fit" in my calorie or macro goal. I know if it's not healthy, and if it isn't I will eat it with purpose and because it is enjoyable, not in an uncontrollable food rage. Things I Will Do Every Week Day (1 pt/day): Clean. I may bring Fly Lady back into my life, the site helped me out a lot when I first started on NF. Not sure yet, but every week day I need to do something to improve the space around me. If I'm not at home I can help clean up where ever I am, or straighten up my car, or even declutter my purse. Just something. Meditate. With Headspace. This meditation program is amazing and has really helped me ground myself the past few weeks. Sleep. I always get enough sleep on weekends and try to tell myself I get enough because of "making it up" during the weekends. So I'm removing weekends from the equation and just saying I need to get 7 hours of sleep a weeknight. No exceptions. Things I Will Do Every Week (1 pt/wk): Duolingo: I have been progressing with my spanish a lot lately and would like to keep on top of this. I'd like to do this 4 times a week. Lumosity: I love Lumosity. I know the science is questionable but I have been really enjoying it so I don't really care hahah. Plus it takes like 10 minutes and its free. And it really seems to help curtail my stress if I do it during lunch at work. And destressing is the theme of this challenge! Also 4 times a week. Foam Roll. 2x/week. It needs to be done. This can count as my movement those days if it is a rest day. Bonus! Bonus Activities (1pt/wk): Handle Snakes. My pet snakes are lacking in the love department. They are really good pets in the sense that they don't need a ton of attention but I'd like to make it a point to hang out with them when I can. Pamper. Do something for myself. A bath, a face mask, get the bf to give me a massage. Even finding time to relax and reading a book. Whatever. Something to add to the destress action. Extra Bonus (1 pt/challenge): Volunteer. If the opportunity presents itself I will volunteer again with HRC. They are an amazing bunch and I love every time I volunteer with them. Scotland Trip. I was supposed to post something here about my Scotland trip back in September and never did. I was also supposed to finish going through all my photos and put them on FB and haven't either. If I have time I will do both of these things before I don't do it at all. Cross Something Off My Epic Quest. Some of the things on that list are pretty doable in the short run. It's unlikely I'll have time for any of it right now, but I'll throw it in here just in case. Grading. I will start with 200 points. For every daily, weekday, or weekly task I miss I will lose 1 point. For every bonus I will gain 1 point. I will distribute the 15 stat points at the end of the challenge based on the areas I feel I've improved upon most. A: 199+ (15 stat points) B: 180-199 (10 stat points) C: 165-184 (8 stat points) D: 150-164 (5 stat points) F: <149 (1 stat point IF I stick with the challenge to the end, even if I do horribly and fail. Otherwise 0 stat points) Now, if at any point I become overwhelmed by the challenge instead of it helping me destress, I reserve the right to totally change my daily goals. Holiday Zen, here I come!

Since my life is going to remain pretty busy with both work and pony-sitting until mid-October, at least, I simply don't have the energy for an elaborate new challenge. The best I can do right now is to not fall off the wagon entirely in regards to stress eating and neglecting exercise. So this is going to be a pretty unexciting holding pattern, trying to keep me from sliding back into bad habits. Goal #1: Beat that Sugar Monster Number one on this list is still my fight against the Sugar Monster. It turns out that even if I reduce the days when I eat the sweet stuff, I can still go totally overboard (there was that 250 g Ritter Bar that didn't last even an hour, poor thing). Goals: * Remain candy free at least 21 out of 42 days. * Don't eat more than one 100 g bar of chocolate (or an equivalent if the Sugar Monster is of the baked goods variety) in one day. Goal #2: Hit that target Keep the overall amount of calories in check. Tracking my food intake alone doesn't seem to do the trick. So I'll set again a limit on my weekly average. Last time I did have that target, an average of 1600 kcal max seemed to work quite well. Goal #3: Do yoga Don't forget to keep moving. While I'm still figuring out how to proceed with my KB classes, I can't really set a realistic goal there. But I did sign up for the 30-day yoga challenge on doyouyoga - so far I have made it to day 4. I'd like to make a bit better progress than the past two weeks... So I'll aim for an average 3 videos per week, or a total of 18 over the course of the next six weeks. Which should at least bring me to day 22 at the end of this challenge. Goal #4: Practice French And then I'll continue to brush up my mad French skillz via duolingo. I'd like to progress at least one lesson per week. Stat points and grades will follow... Just wanted to get this up so I'll have a new place to crash here for this round. Also still need to update my sig. I know. ... and for the Brigade... JUST WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK I AM???