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Hello friends... my name is Katrin [cut-reen]. I go by Morag around here, and Katrin Morag almost everywhere else. I have been around these forums since April 2016 (2015?). Last challenge was the first challenge in all that time that I missed entirely. I am a 35 year old mother of two lovely boys, ages 8 and 15. We live in Kiel, Northern Germany. I weigh in at 97kg, which is a problem, but it's currently so far down the list of priorities, that I don't even have time to worry about it. My husband of 16 years is in the process of moving out. Actually he is almost entirely moved out, but the books and boardgames we collected over the decade-and-a-half of marriage, which turns out neither of us wants to keep, are a forest in my entryhall/diningroom. I am still in therapy. This break week is the last week of school before 6 weeks of summerbreak. I have a PILE of paperwork to do to get all the running costs to be send to my name and run through my bank account. And just a "minor aside" I need to find a job, so that I can indeed continue to rent our apartment, our home. I started sorting out my bedroom and library first, cant pour from an empty pitcher, and it is almost done. I have a tendency to make a floordrobe. I can't get myself to put worn-but-still-fine clothes back into the wardrobe. To keep that in check I have plans to build a kind of coat rack / silent butler in my bedroom. The space is there, I just need wood. I moved some furniture around, now I am finally sleeping under the windows again and the former space where the bed had been is a library reading corner. Which BabyBoy and I have been using quite a lot already. Next: livingroom. Still to be unearthed from all the clutter, need to decide if I keep the coffee table or get the other one out of the hall closet. Besides being able to walk through the room again would be nice. I dream of vacuuming. Second week of summer break, Wed 10th through Sun 14th, the kids and I will be out for a much needed camping break. Hubby and I never went camping with the kids. It's not so expensive. And the kids and I deserve a treat after all this bullshit. Hubby and I are in a weird place. He doesn't want to break up with me, but he doesn't want to continue living here either. I thought I knew what I wanted. I am not entirely sure any more, beyond "the apartment sorted" and "all this chaos out of my living area". The kids are stressed, confused. Yesterday hubby was here most of the day, putting things on ebay and taking boxes/bags to his place. Afterward the elder kid asked me, why Papa doesn't sleep here any more (because he's moved out). And BabyBoy has been sleeping in my bed for an entire week now. They suffer, but it will be better once the living arrangements don't resemble a garbage pile any more. I have plans for living room and entryhall/dining room. Both need a few things which I can't budget for yet, might not even be able to this challenge, but the kids are very brave and we will be okay. I am FLYing, have been for a while. My energy levels are iffy during shark week, but that's almost over now, and I am starting to get back into things. BabyBoy made a list for himself too, things he wants to do every day, tick off... it's cool. I gotta get the three of us moving. I have a lot on my list for the week, and I WILL make a dent in it today, so that I get a good solid start. Life is different than Hubby and I had planned, different than I had worked towards for the last 16 years. But maybe I get less compromises and more what I myself want afterall now... time to see what is possible.

I think I may have done a Harry Potter themed challenge semi-recently BUT I'm doing it again because I have a dance performance coming up and it's to Hedwigs Theme so I'm feeling pretty Hogwarts inspired right now However since I probably exhausted all the good old fashioned Potter gifs in my challenge a few months ago, this challenge will be hilarious and no-good HP gif themed. #sorrynotsorry Yeah we will see how long this lasts. Some background on me - my two main pursuits are powerlifting and ballroom dancing. Powerlifting I've been doing for a long while now and ballroom dancing I just got into back in December. I did ballet for 15 years when I was growing up so dance isn't super foreign to me but ballroom is SO FREAKIN' different and it's been 13 years since I've danced at all so it's definitely a challenge. I've actually got my first ever competition coming up in September (AHHHHHHHH), even though it's a super friendly not serious between some studios competition and not like... a real one. I did something similar with a performance team back in March but this one it will be just me doing a showcase (it's the Hedwig's theme dance I am basing this challenge around mentioned above). I'm ascared. But also still pretty darn excited. Lifting wise I've been more or less doing as a maintenance activity but the past 2 weeks I've been starting to step my game up again because I want to be stronger and I am finally feeling I am in a place where my body is used to how much dancing I am doing and it won't exhaust me. So far so good. As far as my challenge goes I usually end up using them kind of as a glorified battle log but I here are some goals anyway: Goal 1: Clean Fly Lady Daily Tasks 5x/week Last challenge I mostly focused on decluttering and making my apartment presentable and I succeeded! I have had people over semi-regularly and don't feel a wave of nausea inducing panic anymore at the thought of house guests. My first goal this challenge will be to maintain this as the status-quo. Honestly, I've been trying to do the Fly Lady thing for 3-ish years but I've never had a good baseline to go off of and it always just feels so overwhelming. Now that I've got a clean baseline apartment I feel like I can *gasp* actually do some maintenance cleaning?!?!?!? Should be interesting. Goal 2: Lift Strength workout 3x/week I have generally failed every darn time I tried to re-up my strength training from 2 to 3 days a week over the last few months and I think it was because I was still adjusting to my new dance schedule. The last few weeks I've been actually doing it super successfully and feeling pretty great about it so I want to keep this up. Goal 3: Dance Private lesson 1x/week I probably don't need to make this a goal because I'm going to do it anyway, but it's an easy win and I want an excuse to talk about it so there you go. So there you have it, a few days late but what are you gonna do. Time to do the thing!

(yeah I know that title sounds real intense and then it's just a cartoon hahah - bait and switch!) Background: For those just joining - I'm Raxie! This will be my 33rd challenge here. I recently got really into ballroom dancing and have been focusing a lot on that, but my other love is lifting. I have three kitties that I love dearly and I have a severe case of RangerBrain(TM). So! I really love how I set up my last challenge where I went hard on the goals, but also gave myself a lot of cushion to fall back on if I needed it. I ended up really needing that cushion in the last week, and that's fine! I passed, and I had a high bar that was quite ambitious that inspired me throughout the challenge. This challenge I am going to do kind of the opposite. I am going to set up some really rigid rules that are simple and not too ambitious... but I'm not going to give myself much leeway in terms of a grab bag of freebies. I find jumping back and forth between these two approaches has really helped me up my game slowly over time and I love it! Part of my problem with a lot of my goals in the past is I have an x times/week goal and I'll push it off and try to squish it all in towards the end of the week, but then it's the weekend and then I either don't do it or rush it. This time around I'm going to assign specific tasks to specific weekdays. If I don't do them, I can't "make them up" later. I just didn't do it, move on and I will do the task for the next week day. AND THAT'S OKAY. My inspiration for this challenge is Rick and Morty's Get Schwifty song -- two of the most inappropriate non-musically talented people on the planet went for it and created a song that won an intergalactic song contest, saving the earth from certain doom. If they can do that... my sometimes uncoordinated self can certainly go out on a limb and do The Scary Thing that is different dance styles and start competing in the future! (OK so that's a stretch - real talk I actually I don't have a theme that relates to my goals for this challenge and just wanted to throw some Rick and Morty gifs around because I love that show.) Big Picture Stuffs: I will be dancing. A lot. My goal is to do a non-group competition before the end of the year. That may be under ambitious but knowing me and my imposter syndrome that line in the sand needs to at least be drawn somewhere. As long as that line is there I could be convinced to move it to sooner, but I want to have it far enough away for now that I don't feel like I need to push it back if that makes sense. I want to focus on Foxtrot, Jive and a yet-to-be-determined Latin dance (I'm thinking maybe Rumba because it's so darn pretty). I will also continue to lift because I love it so. I re-started the beginner Strong Lifts progression for my OHP and Rows last challenge since I've been not doing them, the other lifts (DLs, Squats, Bench) I'm in intermediate Strong Lifts, but I'm shopping around for a more progressive intermediate program that I'll probably move on to either this challenge or the next. ROMWOD has become my backbone throughout the last two challenges and I will keep on keepin' on with that as well. Cleaning. Ugh. My eternal enemy. I feel like I would be the perfect adult and have my life together SO HARD if I could just keep my freakin' place clean! Why won't it just stay clean?! I am going to go full Fly Lady this challenge in terms of daily tasks so I have more of a direction in my cleaning, since last challenge I feel like I cleaned every day but nothing really... got done. Food. I've been eating kind of boarderline bad lately. I was away a bunch last week and am feeling I need to be more accountable about it, so I'm thinking I will report every day what I eat. No calorie counting, no paleo-compliance, I've just got to say here what I ate. That's it. The accountability will inspire me more than trying to meet macros and probably forcing "compliance" upon something that I know I'm just trying to game a system with. Goals: Under the spoiler is my "skeleton schedule" that is my baseline. Each Monday I will post a slightly altered schedule based on travel or volunteer meetings I may have to skip stuff for (I'm traveling almost every weekend this challenge so that will probably be the biggest struggle for sure). Grading: Points for each week will be out of 14 - basically each day I did the things I said I'd do I get a point, and each day I report what I ate I get a point for a total of 2 possible points a day. At the end of the challenge I need to have accumulated at least 55 points out of a possible 70 to pass! I'll be starting now, in week zero. Let's do this thing!

2018 Challenge 1 After mostly completing the Design Your Destiny workshop, I feel like I have a handle on what I want 2018 to bring me, so I'm ready to jump in, tie up some loose ends, and get this year started with a bang, so I'm diving right in. That will make it a six week challenge for me, so while this seems like a lot, I've got plenty of time to accomplish it all. Elimination diet I'm curious to see how food affects my body so I'm going to follow the elimination diet, not because I think I have allergies per se, but because I want to know what makes me feel good and what doesn't, I ordered the book but haven't gotten it yet, so this will become more specific when I have the book Follow the diet Record my findings Lymphedema Exercises I'm trying to manage my primary lymphedema (swelling of the extremities) so I'm doing specific exercises to see what effect they have, it's hard to find specific workout routines so this is all cobbled together based on a lot of internet research. Later this year I'll be working with a therapist for more devoted help I hope, so this is just trying to build the habits 1 yoga workout/week (6) (specific exercises identified as good for moving lymph, 20 minute session min.) 1 strength workout/week (upper/lower body Darebee workout, level 1) (6) 1 aerobic workout/week (6) (2o minute session min. again specific aerobic exercises identified) Breathing exercises - working up to 4 times/day, 1/day counts for this challenge Week 1 - 3 days/week Week 2 - 4 days/week Week 3 - 5 days/week Week 4 - 6 days/week Week 5 & 6 - 7 days/week Personas This is a work related task but it's become important to me that I treat my work the way I treat my own personal growth so I can see progress, so this is my starting point. FLY Lady Baby Steps (31) I am tired of CHAOS in my bedroom specifically, so I'm going to follow the program, but focus on my bedroom only to start with. With a master bathroom, a closet, a sleeping area, it's like a small apartment so I think I can make it work. The exact steps are in spoiler because it's 31 items and long... Submit manuscript to WOTA I need to finish this and call it done, even if it means I work on it every single day, which at this rate I may have to. Even if I don't ever write another story, I want to have finished this all the way through. So I have a lot of revision left. Critiques and more revision. Then FINALLY submission to the anthology, so wish me luck! Bonus List of Doom - complete something off the list PO Learning - substantive learning; an exercise based on an article/blog, notes from a webinar shared with team, etc. Idea to Draft class - complete a module Healthy, Not Boring - post or engage in group Tracking Habits 5 habits to track, step count goal (avg 4,500 steps/day) and one post in forums 3x/wk (at least one is a full update) It seems so much simpler on my grid! To date Committed Reached Elimination diet 0 33 0% Lymphedema Exercises 0 50 0% Personas 0 11 0% Baby Steps 0 31 0% Submit to WOTA 0 30 0% Bonus List of Doom 0 0 PO Learning 0 0 Idea to Draft class 0 0 Healthy, Not Boring 0 0 Daily grade Habit tracker Sole 0 0 Meds 0 0 Steps/Amerithon #DIV/0! Avg Steps Forum 0 18 0% Write 0 0 The last year was about getting in the habit of working on habits. This year is about actually solidifying the good habits and retraining the bad habits, and maybe leveling up a level or two. Onward!

Emboldened by all the returning rebels, I'm putting myself in the game and coming back to play. I missed the structure and the accountability, but most of all, I've missed you lovely people. So hopefully, and slightly shamefacedly, I'm going to try - for the third time! - to finish my last challenge. A few tweaks for the new goings-on and priorities in my life, but mostly the same. I'll include the original challenge below in a spoiler, but here's the basics: Exercise: Muay Thai 3x/week. One of the changes that happened this year is that @Bighara and I switched from our school's Fitness Kickboxing class to their Muay Thai class. We've been going for four months now and I am completely blown away by how incompetent I feel at it. Physically, it's not much more challenging, but mentally....whoa. I need to practice practice practice because I am just sad out there, people. Strength Training 3x/week. On the days I don't go to class, I'm switching things up - normally I've been doing a bodyweight routine, but I got to a certain point with my progressions and just stalled. And I think the problem is that I'm simply not strong enough. So I've started lifting weights with Phrak's Greyskull LP variant, which is recommended for total beginners, which I am. Do a cartwheel. I could do these as a kid. But then I stopped, because...grownups don't do cartwheels, I guess? So now this grownup *can't* do a cartwheel. I plan to fix that this month. I'm going to go slow and do stupid-looking ones until I can do something that a person would look at and go, "I *think* she might be doing a cartwheel!" I'm not going for perfection, is what I'm saying. Extra bonus points if I manage to do cartwheels from either side (which I have never been able to do, I'm strictly a left-handed cartwheeler). Diet/Health: 75-100g protein per day. 35+ hours sleep/week. Life: Spanish. So, this past May I fulfilled a very long-awaited dream and took my kids to visit my family in Argentina. We were there for 4 weeks and it was everything I hoped it would be and I'm so very happy we did it. But now I need to solidify the gains in Spanish the kids have made by continuing to speak it. My eldest especially has gotten so much better and I want to encourage both her and her younger sister to keep it up. But it's on me, and I need to really push myself, because it's just So. Darn. Easy. to speak in English instead. FlyLady. Doing the Babysteps, oddly, was part of what made me fall apart last time. I just couldn't keep up. And so this time I'm going to be even more basic than that, and just commit to spending 15 minutes each day either decluttering or taking care of a Job Jar item that I've been putting off. Later I'll worry about systems, but right now I need to get out from all these 'shoulda-dones' staring at me all the time. Coding. One of the best things I got out of the challenges before was doing steady work on my freelance coding. And that's one of the things that has totally fallen apart. So this is a big one, I want to spend at least 25 minutes a day working on code. More is better! But that's my daily minimum. Wish me luck - I'm seeing this one to the end this time, come heck or high water! (this is some seriously high water, though, guys)

I recently followed someone else's lead and made a plan for 2016. These are the goals I want to accomplish during the year. They are intentionally not SMART goals. All of my challenges in 2016 will be aiming for the goals laid out here by setting smaller SMART goals along the way. This will serve as a dedicated place to keep track of my progress. So here are my goals for 2016 Or you can jump right into 2017 1. Get weight under 200, even better 180, or bf under 25% a. Stabilize meals. I've gotten into the habit again of weekly variances. They tend to be big variances that undo all the work I've done and I end up trying to outrun my fork. I need to incorporate smaller variances more often rather than have big variances. Other than birthday dinners and a few holiday dinners, I would rather be evenkeel with eating b. Follow macros but adjust as needed to fit fitness plan 2. Badassery. It's time to level up again. a. Conditioning. There are three events in 2016 that I will be specifically training for. 1. GoRuck in July 2. 5K in August 3. HammerRace in October. b. Strength. I need to make this a priority. It will help me lose the rest of the fat, reach BAMF level, and help prepare for my events. 1. Start some lifting with the barbell. I've put it off too long and let my anxiety increase. 2. Work on pushups. I can barely do a regular pushup. I want to move from incline pushups to real pushups and be able to do a least a set of 25. 3. Pullups. I would feel pretty badass if I could do a single pull up by the end of the year. 3. Be the Best Me a. Read more. Fiction, non-fiction, classics, anything. b. Keep a clean house, routinely. c. Be anti-fragile. Be Smart, don't get injured. Don't forget the stretchy bits. d. Balance - basically mentally anti-fragile. relax, be kind to myself and others, be positive, and be productive. This to this to this

NNNNNEEEEEEERRRRRRDDDDSSSSS <3 <3 <3 My goodness it has been FAR TO FREAKIN’ LONG! After Nerd Fitness being blocked at work, losing my personal computer to cat aggression, and then slipping a disc in my neck my NerdLife™ has been severely lacking. But I finally got a new computer, am more or less recovered in terms of my neck, and am ready to start moving forward again. I need to get over my mental hurdle/fear of lifting again since I’m so terrified to put weight on my back again. Mind you, I messed up my neck SLEEPING, because sure that’s a thing now. But barbells are looking awful scary to me these days. And if I know you Nerds I know I can get some support in helping to get through this fear here For those of you who don’t know me – HI! I’m Raxie! I have been on Nerd Fitness since September 2013 and did not miss a single challenge cycle up until December 2016, when I dropped off for the above reasons. I am a sufferer of RangerBrain™ but my primary fitness focus is power lifting. I supplement this with rowing and yoga, and once I get back into the swing of things again will be trying out boxing! I went to Camp Nerd Fitness in 2015 and 2016 and it was life changing. And I just returned from Tank’s wedding in TX feeling extra inspired and full of NerdLove™ and needing to get back on here by any means necessary! I have a tendency to go really above and beyond for my challenge set ups, but since it’s been a while I need to ramp up a bit slowly. This challenge I’m going to go simple and straight forward. I need to start really working on my strength again – I’ve been primarily just been doing yoga and walking since I hurt my neck in February. Next month I can hopefully get my normal challenge on and do some fun nerdy D&D kinda stats and storyline. I figure for now I need all the energy I can get and no one brings energy and sick dance moves like the Backstreet Boys. (Except for myabe NSYNC. *shrug*) The plan is to do 2 weeks of body weight work to build up to getting back to the barbell, and then taking up Strong Lifts again. I also need to get my brain back in the game so I want to make this challenge about participating on the forums, and keeping my home life in order to make sure I am always in the zone! So without further ado – my goals are below. EVERYBODY -- ROCK YOUR BODY {get moving} Beginner Body Weight Workout + NF Rings/Handstands 3x/week for the first 2 weeks Strong Lifts + NF Rings/Handstands 3x/week for the second 2 weeks OH MY GOD THEY'RE BACK AGAIN – BROTHERS SISTERS EVERYBODY SING! {communicate with my nerds!} Post to my thread 3x/week Post to mini challenge 1x/week Post to guild hall 1x/week GONNA BRING THE FLAVOUR SHOW YOU HOW {eat dat good healthy food} Eat out only 1x/week GOT A QUESTION FOR YOU BETTER ANSWER NOW {create a positive environment for my fitness adventure kick-start} Clean per Fly Lady plan 6x/week Meditate via HeadSpace 5x/week ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ And that's that -- let's do this thing!!

I am going with Kiki this month. Kiki is Ghibli's heroine of 1989. She is honest and cheerful, hardworking and loyal, and honestly a little lost. She isn't an awesome witch, and when she leaves home for her mandatory year of training away she only really can do one witch thing. Flying. And she's not really good at that either. But she goes and does it anyway. And in way we all know, at least I do, she looses that thing that makes her her, and has to relearn magic from scratch, and she has only herself, and the friends she makes along the way and she figures out how to be what she knows she has to be. A witch. A good one too. So I really could use her spirit right now. I am hitting the books hard, learning what I can about being a trainer and I am not entirely sure if I can do this. But I like giving people tools to make themselves less fragile. And encouraging them to find a healthier person inside themselves, doing good things for themselves... Work. 8h / week. Do something productive for me being a trainer. Plan classes, read school material, work on homework. FlyLady. 15min / day. Do some adulting at home every single day. No doing heaps one day then lazying off for days on end. Act like the badass you know you can be. Drink water. (every day) Eat well. (a good choice each day) Move daily (DailyDare or yoga 5 days per week = non-class days) That's the plan so far. I will log in my bujo (bullet journal), and from time to time I will dazzly you with the pretty of it... Or with food porn... or you know, being spring, with nature being pretty. You have been warned. I do love this community. And the amazing people in it. Katrin

So. Got a bit lost in the reeds for a bit. Still sticking to some goals but fell way behind on others and with keeping up on the boards and then after a bit, there was just too much to catch up on and I kinda covered my eyes and went, "LA LA LA LA EVERYTHING'S FINE HERE!" You know, useful adult coping mechanisms. But. I missed you guys and I know that the lack of structure is what's keeping me from achieving my goals and then I feel cruddy about that, and in the end the *not* doing of stuff makes me feel bad enough that I'm willing to stop with the procrastinating and ignoring the problem and take up this freakin' challenge again. Okay. I'm going to pick up where I left off, and complete the challenge I didn't finish before. I've included it below in a spoiler so as not to bore those who already saw it. During my time away, I did well with exercise and diet, kinda okay with sleep, not as great with FlyLady, and totally fell down with Spanish. Seeing as I have less than 3 weeks before I leave for Argentina, this last goal is more of a Hail Mary play (or would it be María?) than anything else. All right guys, enough gabbin' and more goalerizin'!

Thank you, thank you, thank you, spirits in the machine, humbly we thank thee. This thread will have loads and loads of bujo (bullet journal) pages posted to it. As well as all kinds of gifs and pictures. I am adapting a bit from various Rangers and Rebels, thank you to you wonderful people, these roads we travel, this life we forge, it's better for the company and inspiration shared on these boards here. Talking about inspiration... @Terra You are an inspiration. Always adapting, pushing, improving. Your year of superheroines, I'm copying it - with my own twist: This Challenge I will incorporate Studio Ghibli's Arrietty @Tanktimus the Encourager Sometime, somewhere you mentioned (I hope I remember it right and it was actually you) making the mental leap to do Healthy Person Things because you are leaving behind who you were and are becoming the Health Tank. I am stealing that. Kinda. Also with a twist. I always think "when I grow up, I want to be able to do that too". I'm grown up. I am going to do three specific Badass Person Things each day this challenge. Move: attempt a freelatics workout or on bad days do a Yoga with Adriene quicky. Eat: mindfulness, good choices. Drink: water. I currently drink way, way too little water, so I'm fighting my way back up to a (0,7l) bottle a day, eventually up to 2 per day, increase on consistent success. I am doing self-care in form of daily Sits with Tea sessions to log, sit in my favourite chair and soak up some sunlight (in my living room, still too chilly outside) and enjoy inactivity and absence of schedule related pressures. And lastly I am grading the 15' of FlyLady decluttering / cleaning / whatnot daily. I have a pile of partially incorporated habits that helped me to FLY for a while, but I lost my step, and I am now choosing to go back and at least do something every day. Every. Day. Only with timer counts, conscious choice to work and rest. No stressing about the apartment all day long. Work, rest, breathe. Repeat as energy permits. I'm tracking but not grading classes, 'cause I'll go to all of them, if I'm healthy. No excuses. Running, I'm growing to love running, we run thursdays during class, even though I'm not a huge fan of running in circles indoors. I am aiming for one additional run per week, outdoors. No beating myself up if plague protocols interfere. Weight, daily with trend's moving average and rarara... I'll try to summarize Arrietty briefly. She's tiny, but fierce. Because of her size and upbringing she has a unique perspective on the world surrounding her and her family. Seeing the world differently, is something I think I could really use sometimes. When her life is turned into upheaval she doesn't lament, she confronts the responsible party, whose unasked-for help brings disaster. When her mother is caught, she makes an ally, asks for help, but not like any kind of damsel in distress. When her possible extinction is proposed, she shows some backbone.

About me: Hokay… so I have been a part of Nerdfitness for almost 5 years (!!!). I have mostly been a lifter and paleo person, but since my move to Alaska and pregnancy and new motherhood all really threw off my routines and habits. I haven’t been around as much this past year, but I’m determined to change that. I’ve been in Alaska for 3 years, my husband is military. But we are fortunate enough to be staying here for another 5 years! I love to hike year round, so this place is perfect for me. My kiddo is almost 11 months old, and a little hellion! I also have a german shepherd who I do obedience competitions with. My overarching goals are to get stronger and lose the baby flab. If I lose weight, awesome, but I know better than to think just seeing a certain number on a scale is going to make me happy. I want to look and feel fit, and gain back the strength I lost while life has been so crazy and hectic. I also want to be developing good routines, because in July, Mr. Princess will be deploying overseas so I will be taking care of things at home solo. Current stats: Weight 163.8 BMI 29 Body fat % Waist at Belly Button 38" Natural Waist 35" Hips 42" Calves 15" Arms 11.5" Neck 13" Goals #1 Lifting with NROLW and Core Program #2Whole 30, No exceptions https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/5ztkZUPLqzJddYbi38QTKfObn3jcT3ATUg753sYjFc0YLX51M6-uzrecHoLRIptE04iSPTIXS7ilfbwGQalVSzRhs1yIeQfD7sLfQycUCUNyG-uzXQfNSGDzMuUjvu6-EmSIWXr3 #3 Home Routines Meal Planning Dishes Laundry Bathrooms Here's to a beautiful, whirlwind of a 2017!

Well. it’s taken me all week to get back in here, but I finally posted last month's challenge wrap-up and here I am! And ready for the new challenge. (I haven’t been entirely slacking off, I’ve been test driving this thing, kicking the wheels, running up the mileage...wait, I think my metaphor has just gone off-road.) I don’t know if many, or even any, of you have seen the movie the 13th Warrior with Antonio Banderas and Omar Sharif. It’s full of anachronisms and silliness and a Spaniard playing an Arab, but, ignoring all that, it’s one of the best dungeon crawl movies ever made. You have a party that meets at an inn, is given a quest, fights monsters and goes into a cave to beat the final boss. Essentially. There’s lots of funny bits and thrilling bits and it’s a great popcorn-muncher of a movie. The main character goes from being a courtier to a warrior and learns a lot along the way, and I hope to do the same this challenge - or at least get further along my path. My Goals Exercise: Grow stronger This will pretty much stay the same as last month. I’m going to vary the PT exercises at home a bit, as that was the only sticking part last time. 3 kickboxing days 2 Start Bodyweight days 1 BollyX day (or other cardio) 2 PT sessions 4 foam rolling or PT exercise days Diet/Health: Calculate what you can’t see 75 - 100g Protein intake Last month, for the second month in a row, I did well staying to my calorie counts, eating my fruit/veg, and drinking my water. I’ll keep doing those things, but since they’re already established habits, I feel I can let them go as goals. Now, as I end the “weight loss” phase of my diet and start the “muscle gain” part, I’ve set my daily calorie limit higher and I’m using the extra calories to try to get my daily protein intake to at least 75g, and, if possible, 100g. To this end, I’m now tracking the numbers. Since I don’t have weight loss to guide me any more, I’ll have to use body measurements and functional stuff like “how many X can I do now?” to figure out where I am. In other words, LOTS of tracking. Average 7 hours sleep per night So, I *thought* I was sleeping well. Turns out, I often was getting 5-6 hours of sleep a night. How do I know? Got a FitBit. And the numbers don’t lie. I am very bad at sleeping. Less than 7 hours of sleep makes for a very grumpy me. So I’m going to aim to have a weekly 7 hour per night average. Since it’s weekly, I can catch up during the week if I’ve had a bad night, but I need to meet the goal by the end of each week. Life: Do what you ought Spanish Later this year, I’m fulfilling a *very* long-term goal of taking my kids to Argentina, where my family is from. They have never been, which means there’s a bunch of their family they’ve never met. Last year I lost two of my uncles one day after the other, and I realized my time is short and I have no more excuses not to take them. Money, time, travel complications...these are stupid reasons to not go. So we’re going. The tickets are bought and everything. The only problem? My girls don’t speak Spanish. Or at least not well enough to be comfortable with it. They *understand* it, but since I’m the only native Spanish speaker in the house, and growing up here means English is still my stronger language...well, let’s say I’ve been slacker mom when it comes to making them speak it. It’s just so much easier to speak English. Well, that crap ends now. My goal is to spend as much time as I can speaking Spanish to them this month. I’ll encourage them to do the same, but right now they just need to hear a lot of it. Spanish radio, Spanish movies, Spanish games...whatever I can do. I’m having a tough time figuring out how to quantify this, but I’m going to start where I am and work things out as I go along. Any ideas for how to ‘grade’ this one? FlyLady Years and years ago, I joined FlyLady.net. For those of you who’ve never heard of her, FlyLady helps you get your house organized, even though you are are a chronically disorganized person. Which I am. The program really helped me get my house under control for the first time in -ever- and I’ve since fallen off the wagon and, though things have never gotten as bad as they were, my house is no longer a place that makes me happy. Too many unfinished things, too much chaos, too much stuff. I plan to start back at the beginning with her 31-day beginner baby steps program. I’ve already done the first 4 days during this Week 0, so I should be able to finish by the end of the challenge. That’s the challenge, folks. Wish me luck!

Huzzaaaaahhhh the threads are opened up! The plan is set, I already logged food and goals yesterday and am eager to get started. It's still dark outside. But this season's bout of depression and endorphin-depletion was broken around Midwinter. It was broken easier than ever before and I am happy and eager to get started with the christmas gift I made myself: new journal. The goals are: Log everything. Note down what I eat. Include quantities, where possible, do not stress if not possible. Go for runs (or >30min walks) 3× per week. Go to classes. (FKS (Fitness, conditioning, sports-games), tue+thu, if it happens) (Bellydancing, wed, schedule permitting) Workouts at home to stay at 2× or 3× per week. Figure out if cancelling studio membership would be right choice or wrong. Figure out a way to stay emotionally healthy. No running myself into the ground and then starting to cancel workouts, ending in me being depressed. Rest. It's not optional. Gorrammit. Will add some nice theme-y pictures once on the PC. But I'm not yet and I am planning a run/long walk along the coast at dawn... things to look up and get ready.

October 8th, 2016 All these people are sooooo young and fit and wow.... scary obstacles too.... but I have the ticket hanging on the fridge. I'm going. Fear be damned. So better get the training on track, summer lull is over. It's time to move! Details will follow. love you folks.

Challenge number... 14 I believe it is for me. If I'm not mistaken, that is. I have had a decent number of good-ish challenges. These usually start out quite well, I make huge improvements. But usually around mid-week 3 I start to... "fall of the wagon" sounds like a big event, when it is more like a lull in the momentum. A dwindling of enthusiasm. I have become stronger and gained endurance as well. This time around I am going to go for a more sedate improvement. Week 1 FlyLady - my apartment will thank me Do something nice for yourself. Second half week 1 Daily exercise - picking up "darebee ab challenge" at day 30 (70 sit ups, lots of flutter kicks and some planks) and continuing on into level II. Potentially some form of pushup challenge - no specific plans yet. Next week is the last week of normal training before Summer Break. - So train while you can. Week 2 Daily dare challenge - if there is such a thing, I have to look, will aim for silver again, eventually I will get there. And some more foruming - as in mini challenge and socializing on here. Second half week 2 And lastly nutrition - logging food EVERY SINGLE DAY. Slowly getting back to paleo-ness, and eating carbs as a reward for exercise. This is a lot, and I feel overwhelmed just by looking at the list. So I will build up my task list slowly. With week 3 and 4 just for maintaining. Kindest Regards Katrin Continued gratitude practice. I am thankful for Netflix. So many shows I could never afford owning... I am appreciative about pure cashmere yarn. Such a wonderful luxury. And lastly I am thankful for kids being in daycare most of the day, they are chewing on the bit as is... I would never be able to keep up, were they not powered out during the mornings and early afternoons....

Respawning, Rowing, and Rangering The last challenge (and frankly the two before that as well) have pittered out rather pathetically for me. Some family drama I've been dealing with somehow morphed into my spiraling into a super-down-on-myself-really-dark-time, the likes of which I haven't had to deal with since high school. I've been treating myself so poorly, eating awful foods, not sleeping, not cleaning, not meditating, etc etc. Though somehow I've managed to continue lifting through this (I guess that habits locked in haha) which is a positive. I physically and mentally feel awful. Over the weekend I caught myself. I knew I was not doing well but I hadn't realized how much time had gone by since I started letting myself have "a break" from my routines. Then I ate 3 White Chocolate Linder Truffles (I HATE WHITE CHOCOLATE I THINK IT'S VOMIT WORTHY DISGUSTING WTF) just because they were there and I kind of saw what I was doing to myself and had a reality check moment. I realized how much I missed my nerds and how much I missed my routines and how I was totally making up my anxiety that you guys would judge me for falling off the wagon. So, I did an overhaul of my routine and my goals and instead of trying to distract myself from my problems (which is what I've been doing for the past couple of challenges causing me to ghost out) I'm going to use this challenge to gently ease back into things with super simple and straight forward goals, the number one goal being accountability and brainspace check-ins daily. So be warned, there might be a lot headspace stuffs going on here over the next five weeks! And then onto the fun goal! I have been trying to get through Zombies, Run! 5k for over 2 years. I just can't freakin' do it. I HATE running. I've gone through this a few times where I think once I'm fitter I'll try again, and maybe I won't hate it so much, and hit some in-better-shape bench mark and try again, and I just can't. I dread it. It makes me hate going to the gym or going outside depending on where I'm running. But over the last week I've discovered rowing! I know a bunch of rangers do it and I can't believe I haven't tried it before now but I LOVE IT! The main reason for me trying to get into running is because of how much I love the Zombies, Run! plot. Solution? RANGER THAT SH*T AND TURN IT INTO ZOMBIES ROW! I'm basically envisioning that the entire plot of Zombies Run is happening in a swamp, where I have to row away from zombies treading through the water, instead of running away from them. Kinda like this: but more rowing less poking with sticks. I'm going to start out with a 3 minute split time for "walking" and a 2:40 split time for "running" on a 4.5 resistance and see where it takes me. Maybe by the end of the program I'll have a halfway decent 5k race time! Right now I am slowwwwwwwwwwwww so I know even those speeds will be a challenge. I also want to make it a point to go outside with intention every day. It can be anywhere from 30 seconds and up, but I have to be outside with the intent of being outside, not darting between meetings, or running out to the grocery store. I will acknowledge that I am outside for a reason, because that is where humans are really meant to be, I will breathe the air, and I will take the time to enjoy it. I can expand this into a walk, a hike, reading a book outside, choosing to walk to a meeting instead of driving, whatever. Just something that isn't otherwise necessary and will bring me the happiness that being outdoors brings. TL;DR - GOALZ 1) Accountability: Post on this thread every damn day. EVERY DAMN DAY! Address what I've done (or haven't done) that day and my current headspace. This can be a quick "things are good" on tapatalk or a verbose essay about how I feel about my dinner (this probably won't happen). Maybe even a screen shot of my Google Fit profile from the day. I don't care, just something, every day. 2) Zombies, Row: Use the Zombies, Run app with the erg! 2x/week at minimum. 3) Find Joy Outside: Go outside with intent every day. Any amount of time will do, it's the intent that matters. I'll be continuing with my strong lifts, but I don't think I need to track that specifically. I'll probably mention it in my daily updates but beyond that I'm pretty locked in on that habit... considering it was the ONLY one I managed to maintain during the last few months of spiraling off the wagon. Also, as I am pretty excited about this and I'm SO READY to get the momentum going, I'll be starting this challenge during zero week and continuing on through to the end of the next challenge. Tally ho! Swamp zombies, here I come!

The Introduction Hello, dearies! If you can't tell from the above gif, I have been watching a lot of Once Upon a Time lately. At first I thought of it as a guilty pleasure, but then I started to realize that this show is actually quite good. Modern takes on fairy tales, not only having kick-ass strong female characters but the entire cast essentially being strong female characters, having Disney characters being gay, amazingly creative costuming and makeup, and overall incredibly imaginative plots that totally switch everything up that you thought you knew about fairy tales is completely inspiring from all angles. I love how they address a lot of the issues with fairy tales and make fun of themselves too. (At one point, in reference to Beauty and the Beast someone says "not that I'm saying you should love someone who is keeping you prisoner, what kind of message would that send to girls everywhere?"). So refreshing. And don't even get me started on the villains. The characters and backstories they create are so imaginative I have a lot of respect for the writers who take something so old and used and turn it into something so fresh and exciting. Also, Snow White's character is SUCH A FRAKKIN RANGER IT'S RIDONKULOUS. So anyway, the more I thought about this the more I realized that in all honesty, fairy tales are quite nerdy. In fact, fairy tales were possibly one of the first things that were ever nerded out about. I started looking into the origins of modern fairy tales and discovered that the Brothers Grimm were some of the first fantasy nerds to really make a name for themselves. They didn’t *write* fairy tales. This would have made them authors, not necessarily nerds. But they were obsessed with the fantasy stories of German folklore, they not only wanted the story, but they became cultural explorers, researching at a collegic level the cultural affects and representations of folklore. They developed a methodology for collecting, recording, validating, and researching folklore. They not only were nerds, but they opened up a whole new area of study for others to nerd out about in the future. And at its core, they were fantasy stories! If that’s not nerdy, I don’t know what is. Also, for a lot of us fairy tales were the first kind of fantasy we were exposed to. Think back to the first time you heard a story that took you away to another place. When you were a tiny child, whether it be a movie, a radio broadcast, a TV show, a book. Chances are it was some sort of fairy tale (Disney-version or otherwise). As you grow up, you transition to stories that fit your likes, dislikes, and age. But at its core, fantasy and science fiction stories are really all their own kind of fairy tale. So here I present to you without further ado, a throwback from a way old school nerdom themed challenge with a modern twist – Once Upon A Time in Raxie’s Enchanted Forest.

Pre-Challenge Spiel So my previous challenge was meant to reset my body and my mind for the upcoming year. It did that to an extent. It forced to make more time for myself in my busy (and getting busier) schedule and also to really focus on what I am putting into my body. I have upped my water intake significantly and aside from slipping up on a business trip week, did not drink alcohol for the whole month of January. I feel pretty great and refreshed and am so ready to start hitting things hard again! But going hard is uh... hard. For those of you who haven't been following me, I had a hip pre-injury (not quite an injury but a pain that told me to stop what I was doing and figure it out or an injury would basically be guaranteed to happen) and got pretty freaked out about it. My sister has serious hip problems (she is 20 and has already had to have hip surgery) so I took this very seriously. I figured out my issues were a result of glute amnesia - my glutes were not doing the work they were supposed to during DL and squats, and allowing my hip flexors to do all the work. Hip flexors are tiny muscles, they are not supposed to be taking on so much stress! But my glutes just werne't firing. I essentially put a halt on my lifting program and spent the last 6-ish weeks (basically ever since the end of the challenge of 2015) doing connectivity drills I learned at Camp Nerd Fitness from the lovely Kate Galliett and also some other glute strengthening isolation drills I found online. I also began doing a lot of core exercises to help protect my lower back from the same fate. Apparently lower backs are over acheivers too. Plus, core strength = better everything so why not? Anyway, I'm now feeling pretty confident with my glute amnesia being banished (I notice them firing when I walk and go up steps and basically do anything, and I even had a dream about squats where I noticed my glutes activating properly so they've definitely finally decided they want to do some work) and it is time for me to return to Strong Lifts! I'm going to have to deload a bunch, but I am so pumped to get back at this. I am also taking 2 classes as well as working full time. Typically I take one class but this semester I decided to really lean forward on my degree. Wow was it a lot more to take on than I expected. Basically, between beginning SL again, wanting to maintain my occasional glute activation drills an dother mobility drills, continuing to make sure my core gets some love, keeping up with my classes, my job exploding more and more and wanting to keep up with you nerds as much as possible because you are THE BEST I need to seriously work on my time allocation. Unfortunately I do not have a time turner to get more hours from my day. I know what I need to do, and what I want to do. I have the motivation and the habits. What I need to do now is take both of those and be flexible with my schedule in order to get in everything I want. So this challenge won't have very complicated goals from the outset, but each week will be treated individually depending on what I've got going on, work travel, homework, etc. I'm going to continue with the Fly Lady baby steps as well and hopefully finish out all 31 by the end of this challenge but if I get held up on a specific day again that's fine. I want to integrate this into my life slowly so it sticks. I'm currently on day 15 - and have been for about a week now. Main Goals 1. Every Sunday or Monday I will post my schedule for the week to include major items that may affect my productivity on a given day for the next seven days (ie - class) and what I will be doing for each of those days BROKEN DOWN BY THE HOUR. This sounds crazy, I know, but I only have a few hours between when I get home from work (6PM) and when I need to get to bed (9/930PM) so I truly need to plan out how to utilize each of those minutes to get the most done I can without trying to do too much and blowing my bed time. Non-work days are a bit more flexible but I still want to list what I want to do on those days. This includes homework, cleaning tasks, meditation, reading, and of course work outs. 2. At least 3 times a week I will update my thread on my status of if I hit my to-do goals for each day. 3. Each week I need to fit in a core work out and a glute drill workout. This can be the same workout. (I won't do this if I don't make it a separate goal). Food Goal 4. Continue to not eat dairy. 1 minor slip up a week is allowed (ie some melted cheese on some meat. Eating 1017 cheese cubes from an appetizer tray does not count as a "minor" slip up). Life Goal 5. Sleep at least 7 hours a night. No on average, but actually legit, 7 hours a night. This will prevent me from expecting too much of myself in (1) and (2) above. My final grade will be based 20% on the success of each of the above. Planning, execution, special work outs, dairy consumption, and sleep. Goal 2 (posting updates) will be half based on posting 3x/week and half based on actual completion of my schedule items. I'm aware this is going to be quite the strict challenge with no bells and whistles but I needs it. Bad. SELF DICIPLINE FTW! Also, I've made the commitment to watch through Xena. Girl power also FTW! I debated making this challenge Xena themed but I didn't have time. I'd rather spend my time making my rounds here than thinking up a way to make this challenge more themed....but feel free to post Xena gifs as they will bring me joy

Main Quest: My main quest has taken on a new form. After the end of the previous challenge, I made a roadmap for 2016. It encompasses my goals for 2016. All my challenges for this year will be geared toward getting me closer to those goals. This is the first challenge of the year and it follows a fairly undisciplined winter break. I need to get on some solid footing during this challenge. Luckily, the challenge is only 26 days long so I don't really feel like I am 'wasting' a challenge. The format for the last challenge worked really well for me. And I have found my spirit animal in Wonder Woman so I will be continuing the same format. The following will serve as my foundational goals. Not all of them are graded. In addition, each week I will Face-Off against a villain, represented by another rebel where I will declare additional goals that push me beyond the foundations. Bulletproof Bracelets These serve as a defense for both Wonder Woman and her foes. In order to keep them in working order I need to stay within the ‘sweet spot’ under 1600 calories. I also need to manage variances better. I struggled with this for all of last year. I think the key is to allow for more variances but to keep them small. This might take some experimentation. 1 small variance per week that doesn't undo any progress for that week would not be a problem. I just need to figure out where the line between a small variance and a big variance is. There is 1 exception for LordShello's birthday during this challenge. Amazonian Strength She’s an Amazonian princess for crying out loud. It's time to step up here and channel that Amazonian strength. I want to start StrongLifts but I am not ready to commit to running to the gym three times a week. I've grown accustomed to doing my workouts at home and I think this will be a tough transition. For my strength foundation I need to at least do 3 strength workouts a week. I have primarily been doing Shovelglove at home but this should be more of a warmup to some other workout. I'm going to set up a session with my trainer to get started on lifting. We've worked out a schedule that should allow me to go to the gym on Wed, Fridays, and Sundays. I would love for the 3 workouts a week to be at the gym with some pushups for a warmup. That would get me an A but at least doing something at home would get me a C Lasso of Truth This was how Wonder Woman got shit done. For this goal I will work on conditioning. I have some races to train for this year. I had trouble keeping up with this once winter started. I've got some new gear to test out now. For a foundation I want to get out and do some cardio or endurance training 3 days a week. This will balance out with the 3 days of strength training and give me 1 rest day. At a minimum, I want to ruck the route by my house. Doing this 3 times a week would get my just over 5 miles. It's not a ton but I'll use the Face Off goals to push this even further. Tiara Did I mention Wonder Woman was a princess? Princesses have to be the best they can be and I have a list of things I want to improve on. There are two many goals on my roadmap to accomplish in one challenge so I've had to edit my RangerBrain a little here. For this challenge I want to focus on the following goals: Read the Konmari book on tidying up. This will get me started on the tidy and organized house goal and the reading goal. It might even help with getting enough sleepTry FlyLady again. I liked the program last time but I had a hard time making it fit my lifestyle. I want to give it another try and not be afraid to modify it to fit my needs. Even doing something it better than nothing. Stretching and foam rolling. If I am going to increase my strength workouts let's try not to get too sore or injured. Just do it. Villain Face-Off Battle Last challenge Wonder Woman battled many of her villains. Now she is ready to take on more. This time she'll be helping out the Justice League battle theirs. This challenge's Face-Offs will feature The Injustice League Villains. Each Sunday Wonder Woman will encounter a randomly selected villain by a roll of the dice. Each villain is represented by another NF rebel. In order to win the battle against the villain, I will need to declare 2 additional goals from the 4 goal categories above and compete against the supervillain’s own goals. I will declare my goals at the beginning of the week once the villain is selected and challenge my fellow rebel to set their goals. Highest score or closest to 100% wins the Face-Off. 1 stat point awarded for every Wonder Woman win and whichever skill best matches the goal category. I’ll be posting the villain sign up sheet shortly so if you are interested in a Face-off battle, stay tuned.

Happy New Year Nerds!!!! I am so excited about 2016. 2015 was an amazing year for me, I went to Camp Nerd Fitness and it really reshaped the way I view my life, my goals and fitness. I also was luckily enough to join an amazing team of Ranger Ambassador’s on the boards here and get more involved in NF which I am really enjoying. I finally started power lifting, something I’ve been working up to basically since I joined NF via body weights and dumbbells. Real world related, I went to Alaska and got a new cat. I got engaged. My fiancé and I got our own place when our roommates moved out. All in all, a great year. I am so ready for 2016 to be even more amazing! This year, I decided to set yearly goals, which I have never done before. I’ve admittedly been neglecting my epic quest, not because I haven’t been doing stuff on it (I have been ever so slowly crossing stuff off) but because I’m not sure how to use it. So I’m converting it into an overarching epic quest list AND using it to track my yearly goals as well! Then I can use those yearly goals to work out the details of my 4-week challenges. My epic quest/yearly goals link is in my signature but I’m also adding them here for reference: 2016 GOALS >>Read 30 books >>Squat my body weight >>Deadlift 200lb >>Apply to join Big Brother Big Sisters of America >>Climb Mt. Washington >>Climb Mt. Marcy >>Climb Mt. Katahdin >>Make Borderlands Cosplay >>Pay off Discover Card >>Create a will & a living will Now this may seem contradictory to everything I just wrote, but the majority of my specific missions this challenge are not going to be directly correlated with my 2016 goals. Winter break was tough for me, I had some personal headspace stuff to deal with in addition to redoing EVERYTHING in the apartment. This still isn’t quite done actually. So I am going to use January as a mental and physical cleanse month, so I can have a clean plate to start out on and really start building towards my goals in February. I need to clear my brain clutter as well as some physical clutter (which is directly contributing to my brain clutter) and I also need to detox my body of some of the holiday crap I just kept shoveling into my face (and I can only use “winter bulk†goals to excuse a very small portion of that). Seriously, this was me the last week of 2015: And I can feel my body being really sad about it. Time to get my energy back! I struggled with a while to decide on a theme for this challenge. I had about 5 different ones that I wrote up complex scoring systems for, utilizing variations on the boss system I did last challenge (which I LOVED), and one where it was really writing based since I had a ton of fun writing up my story last challenge as well, but decided that since my goal for this challenge is cleansing and simplicity… I am going to go with no theme. Just me, myself and my goals

I'm chronically overbooked with my fitness stuff, and this challenge is going to be more about scaling back a little bit and addressing the non-glamorous, not-so-fun foundational work that I'm always neglecting. I'll still be doing 2-3 parkour classes/week, 2 or so climbing sessions/week, and filling in around that with yoga, hand balancing, swimming, hiking, playground workouts, and a little extra strength training, because that's what I always do. And I'll still log all of that, post videos, etc. in this thread, because that's also how things run around here. This challenge is also coinciding with a 10+ day vacation, as well as the start of the school year for the kids, so it's especially important for me to keep things kind of simple and unchallenge-like. Goal 1: Foundational work. Between the parkour, climbing, being 1.5 years out of major knee surgery, and being kind of middle-age-ish, I need to take better care of my body if I want it to continue functioning at optimal levels. 1a) Do a mobilityWOD video, one of GMB's unbreakable series videos, or any other similar mobility work at least 4 times/week. If I find any particularly good or useful videos, I'll be sure to post the link. 1b) Prehab - stick with 5-10 minutes of prehab work at least 5 times/week. This includes rolling my IT Band, shoulder stretches, quad stretches, soleus stretching, and some of my other leg PT stuff. 1c) Be a good leader - My husband also does the parkour and climbing, but he can never self motivate to do the stretching and mobility work. So, at least once/week, I have to nag him into joining me for a quick stretching session. Goal 2: Clear the mind. The goal is to meditate, do meditation focused yoga, or do some directed breathing for at least 5 minutes every day. I'm hoping that this improves my mental well-being quite a bit. Goal 3: Mudhole? Slimy? My home this is. Yeah, the house is chronically cluttered and messy, largely because the children are underfoot all of the time. I've had success in the past with following Flylady, so I'm going to start it again. Goal is to do all of the Flylady weekly tasks + the weekly cleaning, with substitutions if there's something in Flylady that isn't particularly relevant or useful for my house. Edit: Goal is to get maximum points in the cleaning/adulting PVP for my non-vacation days. Goal 4: Anger, fear, aggression; the dark side of the Force are they. I made a lot of progress in the last challenge with just enjoying what I'm doing without letting jealousy over people who are better than I am or general frustration get in the way of my enjoyment. I really do believe that constantly comparing myself to others, letting myself become insecure, or letting myself become so frustrated that I'm flat out angry are poisonous attitudes to have. After all, I'll always find people who are much better than I am, and I'll always have off days here and there. The goal is to just have fun with everything. Goal 5 - Let the wookie win. While I love the Assassin minis, I think they've become a little too epic for me to handle with everything else that I have going on. Last challenge, I got a little carried away, to a point where the minis were adversely affecting my parkour, climbing, and actual challenge goals. While I hate sitting out and feeling excluded from what I feel is a major part of the guild, I really either need to make the choice to do exactly that, or to establish very clear boundaries for myself as to what I'm willing to do for the mini, and then learn to stick with that. If I go that route, I need to learn not to be swayed by the feelings of letting down my team, and I need to learn to just say NO if the mini isn't going to be conducive to meeting my actual goals. The vacation grading will be: Goal 1 - Just stretch a little every day. Goal 2 - Still meditate. If that's not possible, then take a moment to catch my breath and re-center myself each day. Goal 3 - Not really relevant on vacation Goal 4 - Let's face it, people in large crowds are pretty obnoxious and rude, which in turn tends to make me angry. Since I'm going to be at the "happiest place on earth", I need to take a lesson from Elsa and just Let it Go. Goal 5 - Not really relevant.

Bekah's 2015 Challenge #1 The backstory with these goals is here and here to save time and space. The short story is I am going to have 4 year long goals based on developing consistency in the things that are important to me in my everyday life. Then hopefully I will have a strong foundation to move forward and accomplish badassery on a much larger scale for 2016. I guess this makes for a rather boring challenge updating, but if you know me, you know that this is more like a diary of sorts than a challenge thread, so anything is bound to happen. Feel free to stick around for the ride 2015 Goals Wake-up time/Bedtime 251/365 (number of days to be done/days of the year) Morning Yoga 251/365 Cooking Dinner 275/365 ​Morning/Evening Routine 275/365 I will be keeping track of my challenge goals via my marker board in my bedroom and my mini planner in my purse and posting here (hopefully I will be consistent in that as well).

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!

Last challenge I decided to stop doing what I thought I should, and just do what I enjoy and love. After my surgery, I have to start over with a lot of things, and being back with J and healthy again, means a lot of things have changed recently...and I need to go back to basics and build my castle the way that works for me, rather than how someone's else's castle is built, from the ground up. My things that I enjoy: 1. Yoga (but I have realized that in order to "do" yoga, I need the perfect surrounding space...which makes me not "do" it.) 2. Reading 3. Cleaning and organizing and decorating my house (but I can't get the process started on my own...stupid Executive Functioning!!! grrrr! so I never actually do it either) 4. Climbing, jumping, running, generally acting like a child outdoors (I don't ever do this either, because I'm afraid of hurting myself mostly, and trying to get someone to do it with me is like pulling teeth around here and I don't like going alone, so I dont do this either) 5. the beach 6. Quiet (which is more of a need than a want, but I have teenagers, so you can imagine how much I get of it) 7. Cold weather (and I live in Florida...grrrrr) 8. Not having to worry about money (hahahahahahaha like this EVER happens ) 9. Helping people 10. Games (video, computer, board games etc.) 11. Making things colorful (decorating them, coloring them, crafts...whatever, I love looking around me and seeing lots of color) 12. Learning new things (which I am not sure why I shy away from this so much...fear of failure is the only thing I can guess, because I really love learning in general) Goal 1: Practice at least ONE video from MyYogaPro every day (the videos vary in length and can be as little as one pose length, so doing one per day is not difficult, but it will get me started back on my "doing yoga" path) A: All of the yoga all of the days! B:36/42 C:30/42 D:24/42 Fail: Less then 4 days/week! Goal 2: Do the Mutant Money Makeover PvE to tackle the dreaded money problems. Bonus: I had already set up a meeting with a Dave Ramsey Certified Financial Planner and our meeting is July 9th...so that will make me stick with this even more (I hope) Complete each assignment each week and stick to my budget. 6/6: A 4-5/6: B 3/6: C 2/6: D 1/6: F Goal 3: Biggest Loser 3.0 which will involve changing my food and exercise too. Lose weight and complete weekly challenge: A Lose weight or complete challenge only: C Neither: F Goal 4: More Organizing/Decorating/Cleaning a la Flylady Do my morning and evening routine and daily mission every day A: All of the cleaning all of the days! B:36/42 C:30/42 D:24/42 Fail: Less then 4 days/week!

Why yes, yes they are. That being said, what the hell am I doing? Relaxation and Recovery are NOT my strong points, so it could be argued that I never stop "doing something", and that may be true, but why do I never "feel" like I do anything??? Perhaps because I don't "do" what is important to me. Why not? you ask. That IS the question. I have said before and I will say it again, I feel like my life is nothing but a series of chaotic events that I just manage, rather than actually living and enjoying my life...and I am starting to REALLY hate that. So, the ever present question in my head is "What do I enjoy?" and I have a few answers, and some of the realizations I have come to, aren't very pleasant, because well, I am not really a princess as much as i want to be...so I have to live in a world not structured for be to be a princess...and that is not how I like it! So...what do I enjoy: 1. Yoga (but I have realized that in order to "do" yoga, I need the perfect surrounding space...which makes me not "do" it.) 2. Reading 3. Cleaning and organizing and decorating my house (but I can't get the process started on my own...stupid Executive Functioning!!! grrrr! so I never actually do it either) 4. Climbing, jumping, running, generally acting like a child outdoors (I don't ever do this either, because I'm afraid of hurting myself mostly, and trying to get someone to do it with me is like pulling teeth around here and I don't like going alone, so I dont do this either) 5. the beach 6. Quiet (which is more of a need than a want, but I have teenagers, so you can imagine how much I get of it) 7. Cold weather (and I live in Florida...grrrrr) 8. Not having to worry about money (hahahahahahaha like this EVER happens ) 9. Helping people 10. Games (video, computer, board games etc.) 11. Making things colorful (decorating them, coloring them, crafts...whatever, I love looking around me and seeing lots of color) 12. Learning new things (which I am not sure why I shy away from this so much...fear of failure is the only thing I can guess, because I really love learning in general) So, my challenge goals are going to be to actually DO some things I enjoy, and not make excuses. The last time I did anything fun outdoors was when I was doing challenges for BL 1.0, and that seems like a lifetime ago, and i can't really do much physically at the moment anyway bc of my recent surgery...so those will have to wait. I am going to participate in BL 3.0 but it's not going to be part of my challenge this time. Probably next time for sure since it usually goes for more than one challenge round. Challenge Goal #1: Cleaning, Organizing and Decorating: Make a PvS (or PvP if anyone is interested) for doing Flylady daily routines, missions and zone work. and settle definitively on what I want as far as decor changes (I need new curtains and bedroom stuff mainly). I get a rainbow sticker for doing this everyday before 9pm. Challenge Goal #2: Quiet Time: Do the Mediations from the Mat and finish up the WoT series and use my earplugs in the house ALL the time if I need to. Spend 10 minutes after my breathing doing the Meditations, and just read before bed like I have been doing. I get a star sticker for the doing the meditations. Challenge Goal #3: Helping People: I have really been slacking on my Ambassador duties around here, granted I had a good reason, but it doesn't make me feel good to have committed to doing something and then not done it. I have done the same thing with my son's Scout troop and both make me feel terrible about myself. So I am going to go to his Scout meetings every week during this challenge and take on the training coordinator role that I have been assigned, and I am going to spend no less than 30 minutes, 3 days per week here helping out new and potential Druids. Challenge Goal #4: Learn something new: I need to learn how to do the various yoga breathing techniques correctly...and I really have put it off, because I don't ever feel like I'm "doing it right" and so I just quit...but I can't practice any asana right now, but I can damn sure sit on my mat and breathe...so I am going to spend 10 minutes a day just learning to breathe. I get a big smiley sticker for doing my breathing.