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I’m formerly Ann of Vries, often Adventurer and sometimes Ranger. In summary: a 41 year old American emigrated to the UK. Mum of Enting, a 2.5 year old agent of chaos. Kitchen witch, gamer (mostly LARP and TT RPGs), knitter/spinner, writer. On November 17th, my family (finally!) completed an Epic Master Quest—to move from central London to our woodland dream property. Now we’re settling into our new home—dubbed Owlshire—in a beautiful part of the Wye/Dean. The Challenge My goals for the challenge is transitioning from the moving/unpacking phase to settling in to my new environment and the lifestyle changes that come from it. I suppose there’s a milestone in mentioning this is my 1000th post! Seems fitting given change of chapters. WARNING: There will be picspam of Owlshire, surrounding areas, and Enting. Find a daily rhythm for my family We’re in a new home in a new place in a new lifestyle—while still under pandemic Lockdown restrictions. This is not your normal relocation situation, and we need to make the best of it and find our rhythm to live our best lives under our circumstances. Continue local explorations I’ve begun to investigate local footpaths, and I want to continue this. I want to find a footpath route to the farm shop in a neighbouring village and similar route to the shop in our village. As an added difficulty, these routes also need to be toddler-friendly—either with him walking or my being able to carry him. We live on a steep hillside amongst many hills it can get treacherous to manage in places, especially with a toddler along. Some routes are overgrown and unused and—as I’ve been learning—some local routes in use aren’t on the OS maps at all! Build my PAI score I’ve been doing mileage/step goals for a while, but after discovering and discussing PAI with @oromendur, I want to give it a try. (I will still track mileage for my journey to Mordor, it’s just not a specific challenge goal.) My goal for this challenge to build up to a 50 point average. I want to do this primarily by daily activities: the continuing process of salvaging the grown over garden so we can plant in it next year, leaf removal (so many leaves....), errands/local exploration, housework, etc. A returning focus to creative activities 2020 has been preoccupied with trying to make this move happen and a living amid a pandemic. Now we’ve moved and are nearing the end of unpacking, I’d like to use some of that “moving” energy to invest in my neglected practices, such as (but not limited to): Needlework (knitting, spinning and embroidery) - Pick a project, cast on, get on with it. Writing Interactive fiction - 5 min day/ 3x week “Tales of Owlshire” stories 3x a week posted on my thread. (Inspired by @KB Girl‘s storytime.) Homecooking: I love making homecooked meals, baking my own bread, etc. but things moved in a more “convenience” direction given the chaos of the last few weeks. Make at least 1 loaf of bread a week 3x homecooked meals a week (does not include leftovers) So, here is a prelude to what I hope will kickstart a set of challenges in the new year....

Hiya, guys! ^-^ I was here years ago (I wish I remembered my username but sadly, I don't!) and then had some health issues that put a halt on a lot. Just on the absolute off-chance that anybody I did know comes across this, I was put out of commission (and well, into hospital) due to unmanageable seizures and the chronic pain that resulted. Its been a while and not only am I back in tip-top shape again (between treatment, surgeries and more!) but I've since moved to England and have a steady career (in the nerdy field! Ay!) I swear, how time flies. I remembered this place a few weeks ago and decided to, rather than as an excited teen, try again as an independent adult. So; hi guys! I'm CJ, I'm based in England, and I'm 21. I'll be partaking in the 4-week challenge (I remember these being 6 weeks! I'm excited for a change of pace... and trying to work out how this all works again I'm aiming for mainly life/career based goals, and right now my goals seem to align mostly with adventurer, but for now I'm back in the rebel camp so I suppose we'll see!

Hello! My names Mike, I'm overweight and no longer as fit as I was 5 years ago. After much faffing I've finally joined and set up my 'character'. And, as sharing is caring, here is my Acadamy Profile. This is me!

After a few weeks of browsing, I've finally decided to sign up and make an introduction post! I'm a 30-something lawyer living in London who wants to take back control of her life. Specifically, I want to survive the apocalypse (hence the username). I've been a lifetime fan of horror movies, post-apocalyptic fiction, and stories of lone wilderness survival: last year I spent a fascinating and very very fun few months as a cast member in a popular zombie immersive theatre event, running around and throwing myself against walls (and audience members). However, when Secret Cinema announced that it was bringing 28 Days Later - possibly my favourite film - to London, and all my fellow cast members banded together to attend, I couldn't bring myself to go. Why? Well, I was told pretty early on that I'd be chased by zombies up several flights of stairs, and my immediate reaction was, "I can't do that." Not "wow, my favourite film!" or "that sounds super exciting!" but: "I can't do that". I couldn't imagine keeping it up for more than a few moments. I worried about being slow. I worried about looking lame in comparison to my friends. And I realised, painfully, that I don't have any of the basic skills to survive the apocalypse: - running - jumping - pulling myself up onto things! - hanging from things! - carrying heavy things! beyond, of course, the skills we all have as nerds (like avoiding the hospitals in the event of a suspicious outbreak of "bitey corpses"). I am also making it unnecessarily difficult for myself to do the above things, by carrying unnecessary body fat. So I joined a gym a few minutes away from the location where I'm doing some short-term contract work. But I'm scared as anything, because all previous gym attempts have failed after a few months, as I've failed to integrate fitness into my lifestyle, and failed to see progress, and have stopped and let life take over. I'm challenging myself to use my next few months having a reasonably steady job to create healthy habits, and make exercising both fun and desirable. Please do hold me accountable! I'm currently going to the gym for bodyweight/weights-based strength training 3 x a week, with cardio sessions mixed in and Pilates to try to strengthen my core and improve my (very sucky) flexibility. I had some great success last year with the 5:2 intermittent fasting regime, but this time I'm trying to make it super simple for myself by skipping breakfast and eating within a defined window each day. Oh, and I'm vegan, so you might see me hanging out in the recipe boards and posting protein-high plant-based suggestions - I absolutely love cooking and normally make everything from scratch. Now off to set up my goals for the current challenge!

I am an American law student who was accepted to study in Switzerland this coming semester. Classes ended here in December, and start there in mid-February. I'm using my extended break (we usually restart in mid-January here) to fit in some traveling. The best deal I could get on a ticket has me landing at Heathrow at 0600-something on 21 January, and departing at 0700ish on 1 February, which thrills me no end. I've always wanted to explore the U.K. Of course, the rub is that I don't know anyone outside the U.S., and I'm not terribly good at striking up random friendships with people (Mommy always told me not to talk to strangers…). I'm going to change that. I know we have Rebels in the U.K.; I've creeped on some of your threads in this sub-forum. I'd like to meet as many of you as I can! It helps that my travel plans are really quite vague. I'm thinking about going straight from Heathrow to catch a train to Edinburgh and explore Scotland first (for indeterminate time) and do London (for indeterminate time) right before I leave. Everything in the middle is fuzzy. So, if (1) you are a Rebel, and (2) you live in the U.K., I throw myself on your good graces. If we can meet while I'm there, I'd love it. If we can't, but you have suggestions for me, that would be equally great. Even if it's nothing more than "If you're in Edinburgh, you need to train at X," I'd appreciate it. I'd rather take the advice of Real People than read the guidebooks for tourists (although I'm starting a list of things-to-do from internet sources). Hope to hear from you!

Hey Everyone! I'm back for my second challenge after slipping up quite a bit towards the end of my first I'm not very creative but I've seen a few people 'theme' their challenges so - why not! X-Men has been close to my heart since I was a kid so it's only fitting that I apply it here! MAIN QUEST: Ditch The Brotherhood and return to The Institute (NF) aka Lose weight and feel better about myself Goal 1 - Don't eat like Blob! I'm going back down the Paleo route with this one because I didn't quite stick it out on the first challenge but I felt the benefits and want that again. Following RogueWelkin's advice I'm gonna do things gradually and for this challenge I'll be removing grains from my diet. A - No Grains with 1 Cheat Day a week C - No Grains with 2 Cheat Days a week F - No Grains with 3 Cheat Days a week Goal 2 - Get in the Danger Room! I'm gonna introduce the BBWW into this challenge so I can maximise my weight loss ability alongside eating clean: A - Complete circuit 3x a week C - Complete circuit 2x a week F - Complete circuit once a week Goal 3 - Become Pyro's Enemy! Ok maybe not his enemy but at least annoy him. And what annoys a fire manipulator - water! I failed the water part of my first challenge so I'm bringing it back! A - Drink at least 1.5L of water daily C - Drink 1L of water daily F - Drink <500ml of water daily LIFE QUEST: Visit Uncle Nightcrawler I was actually born in Germany (but not a national - military brat, long story) but I love the language and enjoyed learning German at school. So now I wanna get back into it and I've got the duoLingo App on my phone. A - Complete 1 lesson 3x per week C - Complete 1 lesson 2x per week F - Complete 1 lesson per week

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