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Any rebels out there in the Emerald Isle?

Originally I wasn't going to post a challenge thread. But I will just miss y'all too much. I will be working some of the time while I am overseas (three weeks out with two weeks of vacation, so I cut a deal with the devil...) So if I'm already working, I have to check in. :-) Bae and I are going on an ADVENTURE most of this challenge. We'll be hitting Copenhagen, Berlin, Cinque Terre, Florence, and Rome. We have been together for 6 years and never taken a vacation (aside from traveling to visit family and some weekend camping trips.) This was supposed to be our honeymoon, but that's a whole crazy story I won't bore you with. The point is we are happy and doing what we want to do. I want to accomplish four things while away: Consciously make the choice to be present. Travel is stressful for me, but once I'm there I'm good. I don't need to get overwhelmed. Just make space and take a few breaths. Write every damn day. This will be a great opportunity for me to reflect and get some clarity. I bought a new bujo and a little field notes book with the Chicago flag motif on the front. No excuses. Only check email and work during the time I have agreed on w/ my job (Mondays and Tuesdays ONLY) Do bodyweight exercises 3x/week. If I can find a gym to train w/ barbells, cool. But I'm not going to count on it.

Sup Nerds, I'm going to Europe next month. Specifically, London, Paris, and some city in Ireland. We're not 100% sure where in Ireland yet. We're going to be there from May 19th - June 2nd and I wanted to check with the travel nerds for any activity or restaurant recommendations. We're planning to do some of the obvious stuff, but hey, we don't wanna miss anything that we just completely forgot about, so feel free to suggest things like The Eiffel Tower or the Changing of the Guards or a tour of Winterfell. Thanks in advance!

It's that time again! The Scottish Nerds are putting on a European meet-up and inviting everyone else to come play with us. There will be lifting and yoga and walking and gaming and drinking and eating and cooking (and hopefully some sleeping) and all in the gorgeous and fantastic city of Edinburgh. The dates are provisionally 7-9 October following a Doodle poll and ideas for the weekend are currently running as follows: Friday night: meet, eat and game - Possibly at Wings Edinburgh (they do have veggie options, but the main thing they have is multiple retro gaming consoles and lots of very unhealthy foods and drinks)Saturday: options for lifting, yoga, walking, climbing, running, cooking and eatingSunday: brunch and farewells.We'll be putting together a little organising committee (and will add their names to this post once confirmed) but there's no limit to the fun we can have!

Take a good look, because that is just ONE of the awesome places I'm going next month. So, I totally fell off during the last challenge. Had some old issues come back up and kick my ass real good. Knocked me off my feet for a couple of weeks and set me back hard on just about every one of my goals. The only thing I was able to hold on to was the control over my diet, which has been pretty okay. I've managed to keep making my own lunches regularly, and keeping my caloric intake down has kept me hovering right around the 200lb mark. Fortunately, I've also managed to mostly hold on to my routine of getting to class. It's become almost the background noise of my life... doesn't matter how much the day sucks or how awful I feel--if I can walk, I make it to Kung Fu and do the best I can. I've also done some regular-ish walking around the office park at work, trying to keep my activity up in a low-bodily-impact manner until my body decides to stop being a bitch. I'm now two weeks from departure on my five-year-late European honeymoon. Wife and I have been planning this trip for the past 18 months. We'll start by flying into Copenhagen, Denmark, and spending two days there before hopping a train (which, I kid you not, gets on a BOAT) which will take us to Germany for the remainder of the two weeks. In Cologne, we will attend the final farewell concert of our favorite German band (Unheilig), and then set off for a week in the Moselle river valley. We'll cap things off in the place pictured above, by attending a Medieval Market (and meet up with a certain other Rebel!), and generally enjoying quiet German village life for a couple of days. Since the issues that are plaguing me still have not subsided, and I'm leaving in two weeks, I'm not really going to be pursuing a challenge-as-such this time. The next fortnight will be filled with a whirlwind of preparations, packing, printing, and making sure that everything is in place so that I can leave my house alone for two weeks without any problems. In that time, I will still be attending class of course, at least until 9/2. (I might go on 9/5; it will depend on how well I do packing that weekend.) In happy news, there is a tentative plan for my first sash testing(!) this Saturday. I'll confirm it tonight, but Sifu wants to test me before I leave, and there's very little time left for that! So, I'm not dead, and still very much looking forward to my upcoming travels. I miss you guys--once I get back, I'll be hanging out here more again as I try to sort out post-trip blues and get my life back on track again =)

Welcome to the adventures of the Queen of Diamonds, otherwise known as the Other Red Queen! Don't worry, I'm the good one ;-) I'm full of love and enthusiasm, with just a hint of snark. None of that "off with her head" garbage from me! Unless you deserve it.... Anyway! My journey brought me to live in Bavaria, Germany this year. While I've been here I've refocused on creating a shiny new and exciting life for myself, which involves losing 60lbs or so and developing some cool hobbies. Status: I'm 30 lbs down, and have been adventuring around central Europe! Primary Goal: Lose Weight This challenge I want to focus on getting from 195 to 185 before I leave for my 2,000km cycle tour on August 10th. Dropping that will make the ride easier! To get there: 1. Continue "Keto-Primal" 90% of the time. I started a "primal" diet in January, but have been very inconsistent. I dropped from 225 to 210 in one bout of seriousness, and from 210 to 205 in another....but they were months apart and involved gaining much of the lost weight back inbetween. All I felt was tired and unsuccessful. Its been a couple weeks on the Keto version of that real-food primal diet, and I finally feel great! I also started crossfit at that time. I finally fit into some smaller clothes! Note: The 10% is the odd day with 30-50 total carbs not a carbtastic extravaganza! 2. Track all the food! 3. Crossfit 3x a week (okay okay this isn't really for weight loss....It just makes me happy and feel strong! I'd rather drag muscle around the North Sea than Fat!) 4. Walk every day Goal 2: Learn some more German: I live here for another year...I need to take advantage of it 1. Enroll in classes (check) 2. ATTEND classes (follow through!) 3. Use Duolingo and Memrise daily 4. Set Rosetta Stone up. Use it. 4x a week. 5. Suck it up and actually speak to people. In German.

Since there has been lots of talking about European meet-ups, spread all across a dozen challenge threads, let's plan here instead! Or we'll all end up at each other's houses while the others are away visiting someone else somewhere else! Note: Might be helpful to put into your first post where you are and what people could do, should they choose to visit you. Just for refreshers!

So I've got this plan to go to Norway next summer (I'm Portuguese), and hitchhiker wiki says a bit of bad things about it. I would love to hear your experiences and thoughts. To give you an Idea about what to say, I've been a Viking culture fan from as long as I heard about them. Recently I took a deep dive into viking mythology and as it should be, I'm loving it. I haven't got all that much money, about enough I guess. So, I would like to know what kind of places you recomend, what and where to eat, how much is it, should I stick to supermarkets and stuff like that, and mainly, How's Hitchiking? I would love to hitchhike just to know a bit more personally the people who live there and to know their thoughts on places and overall to make new friends. Thoughts?

Hey there! KB Girl and Pretzle (that's me) have decided it's time for a dedicated topic to organise this thing! So here goes. If anyone feels like they should be the official organiser, please do step up and say so, even though I opened this thread I'm not too great at those things, haha. (I hope I'll be able to add a poll later on... we'll see ). First of all I'd like to know who would be interesting in having a meeting (nerds not living in the Netherlands are also very welcome!). To decide what to put in the poll (in order to decide when/where) I'd like hear have some ideas first. When would be a good time for you (weekends? weekdays? Any specific dates as suggestions?) and where? Let's just make sure this actually happens and doesn't end up as one of those 'oh, yeah, once we had this idea.........' thing So please get involved and share your suggestions/ideas! ------ As for me, Saturdays would probably be best (that, or during the May break (but that's very soon!)). Weekdays when I don't have to work would be fine too (free travelling ) but that's probably difficult for other people. Place? Someplace active would be fun (although I promise I'll be awkward at pretty much whatever we decide to do ). What's left to say... oh yes, I'm really looking forward to meeting some of you nerds!

So, thinking about the Netherlands this fall, possibly with a stopover in Belgium (I do love my Belgium style beers). Does anyone have any insight or any favorite places?