Search the Community

Okay, I lived through The Conference and am now trying to get back into the swing. Throwing another exciting happy wrench into the works is the fact that my brother-in-law got to come home from his deployment early! This is such great news but I am feeling a little off-kilter and need to just get back to basics. Habits I'm maintaining: Daily salad for lunch at work. 96 oz of water daily. 8 hours of sleep minimum. Q1. 3 workouts per week It's baaaaaaack. With my new roommate + a lot of recent travel + my workout partner hurt her sternoclavicular joint (who even DOES that), my workout schedule has slid hard. I've still been active but my regular bodyweight workouts have been really intermittent. And I can feel it. I've started having weird numbness in my left leg, back pain, arm pain, the whole meatsack is just falling apart. Q2: Daily $$ checkins on YNAB I used to be really good at doing weekly reconciliations of my personal account on YNAB, but that's fallen away as my money situation stabilized. This month I'd like to do a daily check-in on YNAB, to import & categorize any new stuff and then to tweak the budgets as needed. I'm working really aggressively on my credit card debt and when my YNAB stuff is in good shape, it's easy to find a little extra to put towards that bill. And then NEVER HAVE IT AGAIN. Q3: Daily writing I've been having some resistance around my current #the100dayproject and I want to get over that. Part of it is just feeling like I want to spend more time on my poems than a daily cadence allows, and part of it is not wanting to publish stuff so I can send it out to publishers, which is SUCH a different way of thinking than I'm used to. Anyway, I'm not allowed to quit a creative project when I'm out of practice with it, so I need to get up to speed before I can even decide what to do about that situation. Q4: Food journal! Salads are going pretty well, so this month I'm going to do a FOOD JOURNAL. I've done these before (mostly that picture taking app one) to some effect. I need to reconnect to my big why on this, it's feeling sort of arbitrary. I am not planning to track calories, at least not at first--just a journal of what I'm eating. Totally open to thoughts/suggestions about how to do this. BONUS: Submit poems to at least one publisher. Challenges: I am going to be traveling the first day of the challenge, but I'll be on my way home. I might be going camping mid-challenge. Everything is just hard right now. I don't know why.

In this challenge, Ashe (me!) will take on each lane and the jungle to complete her quest. Ashe must also battle her way through the enemy turrets, which are stronger as she edges closer to the opposing base. At the end of the challenge, if all lanes are cleared and all turrets are defeated, Ashe will do battle with the Nexus within the enemy base. Once a week, Ashe will also be GANKED by a random champion. A random roll of the die will add Ashe’s weekly side quest which you can check out HERE. Completing each gank successfully will unlock one of Ashe’s in-game abilities to contribute to her strength in the final battle at the enemy Nexus. AND LAST, we’re starting with a Zero Week cause I’m too antsy! Week zero will unlock Ashe’s in-game moves, which will naturally help her defeat more turrets and the Nexsus in that they are just necessary training Will victory be forged, or will defeat come to the Frost Archer?... 1. Faster than my arrow? I think not. a. PIIT28 Round 2 b. 4 points per week – 20 points total c. TOP LANE - Cleared by 2 consecutive weeks of all 4 PIIT28 workouts 2. No, really, put that apple on your head... a. Log Daily and HONESTLY on MyFitnessPal/Instagram b. 7 points per week - 35 points total c. MID LANE – Cleared by logging 3 consecutive weeks of food on MyFitnessPal/Instagram 3. Avarosa guide me. a. Heart Rate Training Runs b. 2 points per week - 10 points total c. BOTTOM LANE – Cleared by achieving 6 heart rate training runs 4. For the Freljord! a. Desk Stretches 2x Per Day b. 10 points per week – points total 50 c. JUNGLE – Cleared by completing two consecutive weeks of 2x per day 5. Take a good look; it’s the last you’ll get. a. Survive the Ganks b. 1 point per week – 5 points total c. GANK’D – Cleared by completing each surprise attack

1) Keep a food journal and post for 30 days 2) Keep track of macros: proteins, carbs and fats in food for 30 days. 3) Do an established work out routine for 30 days. 4) Read a book for fun at night before bed.

Good Afternoon Fellow Assassins, Welcome to yet another wonderful challenge. May I first apologize for my lateness in posting my challenge and also for my complete disappearance in the last challenge. I was sick for a large part of March and way super stressed the whole month so I just didn't do a challenge. There are other things but we'll get to that shortly. Anyway, the Respawn Assassin is back again because that's how a Respawn Assassin do but this time I won't be writing any stories. Do not fret, however, as my story will be written at some point just not this month. Anyways, onward to this challenge! The Problem: I am simultaneous super ambitious and super lazy. This frequently results in periods of high productivity and energy followed immediately by periods of nothing but sitting around and wallowing in my own self-pity. This needs to stop. Seriously. This is what happened in February and March. Furthermore, I need to stop doing Nerd Fitness Challenges in such a way that I either try to break myself or torture myself until I dislike doing these at all. Not good either. The Solution: My answer to this problem is to use this challenge to interject several habits into my life that I call "Too Easy To Fail." By that I mean that these habits are so easy that it would be harder for me to convince myself to not do them than to just do them. I've also chosen not to keep working on the story I was composing in my last challenge due to the fact that having to keep adding on to it put a greater deal of stress on me than I would have liked and led me to not updating my challenge as much. Though I plan on eventually continuing that story, I'm putting it off for now. ...Gets Managed So this challenge is highly based on a quote that I really like which goes: "What Gets Measured, Gets Managed." This basically means that if you want to change or improve something, you should keep track of what needs to be changed. My goals for this challenge are all keeping track of various things that I want to change. These goals are: 1. Keep a Food Journal - Write down everything I eat and drink 2. Record Stair / Elevator Usage - Keep a tally of when I use the elevator and when I use the stairs 3. 5 Jumping Jacks every morning - Make a red X on a calendar everyday that I do them 4L. Record Study hours - Keep a tally of the number of hours spent studying each day The important thing about each of these goals is that, with the exception of the jumping jacks, all I have to do is keep track of things. I don't have to eat healthy, I just have to keep track of what I eat. I don't have to always use the stairs, I just have to keep track of when I do or don't. Even the five jumping jacks is way too easy to not do. The thing is, however, keeping track of these things, as the quote suggests, will lead to their improvement. By keeping a food journal, I will be more likely eat healthy because I'm thinking about it more. So yeah, this is my challenge. Super simple, super easy. So yeah, here we go.

Sleeping got much better with my last challenge, and now I want to work on things that bring focus to my life. I have a terrible tendency to flail around, wondering what I should do. I've been working on taking care of the basics, and doing so has made me more centered. I've also recently had a breakthrough on some things I am the most indecisive about, and I want to work to encourage myself to stick to this path (yes, I'm being terribly vague. I'm not quite ready to discuss it yet). So this challenge, I'm working on turning off all the noise and getting focused. So for this challenge, I will focus on the following four things: Nutrition: Food journal daily. Track emotions, make note of what I eat depending on how I feel. This is to ultimately disconnect emotional eating. Body: Yoga at least 3 days a week. Mind: Meditate daily. Wealth: 5 job applications per week. Challenge met instantly if a job is found.

Main goal: Work toward weighing 125lbs by Jan 1st. This challenge: It's all about the "Secret Window". A fantastic story and a wonderful movie, I <3 "Secret Window". It tells the story of writer, Mort Rainey, as he falls into psychosis and doesn't find his way out again. Since more people may be familiar with the movie, and it affords me visuals, I'll be using the movie for reference. This time my challenges are going to be embodied by the characters: Mort Rainey (Johnny Depp), John Shooter (John Turturro), and Amy Rainey (Maria Bello). Mort Rainey The successful author Mort Rainey is going through a difficult divorce from his wife when he moves up to his lakehouse for some solitude. Mort is characterized by stymied writing and sleeping a lot. He spends a good portion of the movie in his bathrobe sleeping on the couch. In order for me to complete my Mort Rainey challenge, I have to write successfully and sleep adequately. In short, write a lot and get to bed by 10:30 pm on weeknights. How will I score this: I must post 2k completed words everyday throughout November as part of NaNoWriMo (this will continue in December to finish the manuscript) and bedtime is 10:30 on weeknights so that I can get adequate sleep. John Shooter John Shooter is a man with a chip on his shoulder. According to him, Mort stole his story and no matter what else happens, Mort is going to pay for that. Driven and intense, John Shooter is not a man to play with. He is characterized by taking everything too seriously and a streak of violence that is just waiting to come out. To complete my John Shooter challenge, I have to make sure that my intensity is not doing violence to others. To complete my John Shooter challenge, I have to take time to relax and find my inner peace. To that end, I will spend time in prayer everyday. I won't put a how long on that because there's no telling exactly how long I will need. How will I score this: Yes or No, did I pray today? Amy Rainey Amy Rainey, Mort's ex-wife, is just trying to move on with her life. She wants things over and done with regarding her, Mort, and the life they had together. She is doing the best she can to take care of herself and see things through. Admirable. I think I'll follow her example. I intend to watch what I eat and exercise on a regular basis. I'll be using MyFitnessPal to log my meals and exercise 3-4 times a week. How will I score this: How many calories did I log today and Did I exercise today? I've mostly made my grading yes or no this challenge in order to keep from being overwhelmed while I'm busy creating a manuscript, which I will be posting for others to read throughout the month. "All that matters is the ending, that's the most important part of the story."

Day 1: about 7 hours sleep Breakfast: Kinda forgot to eat before leaving for work.. bad idea... just a banana for breakfast >_< Lunch: Chicken Breast, Sweet Potato and Almond Butter Snack: 1/2 Apple Dinner: Ham, 1/4 sweet potato, 1 small potato, LARGE helping asparagus (I have no control over what is for dinner, hence the double helping of sweet potato today xD) Dessert?: Water: 6 cups Exercise: BBWC - 1 circuit in 6m59sec (with the baby running between my legs during the jumping jacks, was so adorable xD) KPop Zumba - Mr. Simple, Turn it Up, Electric Shock, NalinA, I Am the Best - aprox 20 minutes Day one wasn't the best, but it's a start and that's all that matters. Goals for the week: Decent helping of Veggies EACH MEAL, less fruit. NO ICE CREAM Sleep a full 8 hours AT LEAST each night Drink at least 8 cups water

Normally I would have posted for the challenge the day it started - or maybe the day before. My wifi is out, and since my husband is the nerd in the family and currently extremely busy, I have been without internet. I have however already started the challenge. A ranger is the life for me - currently. I love to run and can currently run a 5k in about 30 minutes, but I also enjoy the results from weight lifting, so to pick one to focus on more than the other is impossible. This is why I chose this guild. As for may challenge... Part of what I'm doing in my diet is getting rid of the things that would cause insulin spikes naturally. My mom has both diabetes and hypoglycemia. Due to this, she has to be very careful about what she eats. Besides flour, the thing that causes the highest spike in her insulin is corn. That is a very starch food and not paleo anyway, so that is the thing I am focusing on for the diet part of this challenge. This will include anything that contains any type of corn product in it. This will be added to my current status of keeping flour and sugar out of my diet. I will, however, allow myself 2 days to "cheat" on this strict diet due to Thanksgiving. - An A will be anywhere from perfection to 10 days of having corn, sugar, flour (CHA+4) - A B will be anywhere from 11 to 21 days of having corn, sugar, flour (CHA+3) - A C will be between 22 and 32 days (CHA+2) - A D will be 32-41 days (CHA+1) - An F would be having these nasty things every single day. I have been successful at keeping up with a 30 minute workout 5 days a week. During this challenge, I plan to increase four of those workouts to an hour long. These are my P90X strength training workouts, and the Yoga workout. I'm hoping to add a 6th day exercise, but it will not be included in my challenge. - If I manage to miss less than 5 workouts during the challenge, I will have an A (STR+3; DEX+2) - 13-16 missed workouts will earn me a B (STR+2; DEX+2) - 17-20 missed = C (STR+2; DEX+1) - 17-20 missed = D (STR+2) - I will receive an F if I miss more than 20 workouts during this challenge. I've always had the occasional heart palpitation, but have just recently discovered that Cardio arrhythmia runs in the family. I do know that msg aggravates this condition, but I don't eat that stuff anyway. In order to have a healthier heart, and to test to see if anything else might cause palpitations, I have decided to keep a food journal. - An A will be anywhere from perfection to 10 missed entry days (WIS+4) - A B will be 11-21 missed entry days (WIS+3) - A C = 22-32 missed days (WIS+2) - A D = 32-42 missed days (WIS+1) - An F = 0 entries into my food journal for the entire 6 weeks I have never done a side quest before, but there are so many things that I want to tackle that I though I would give it a try. Last week, I read the blog post about learning to do a handstand and thought, "Why not?" By the end of 6 weeks, I plan to be able to do a handstand. I will work on this daily. If completed: (STA+1) Now for a Life Quest. When I home schooled my children, we had Bible study daily as part of school. Since they've started public school (3 years ago), I'm ashamed to say that I've seriously dropped the ball. For the next 6 weeks, my goal is to have a Bible study once a week. Small beginnings... If completed: (WIS+1) My main quest in these adventures is to reach a size 6 in clothes, and to obtain the best health possible. My motivation? My family. I don't want my husband or my children to have to care for me as I age. I also want to be a good example to them.

This will be my first challenge outside of the Adventurers, and I'm excited to join the Druids for the first time this round! "I Used to be an Adventurer Like You, But Then...." Like the guards in Skyrim, my adventuring career is being cut short because of my knees - though my problem wasn't quite as painful as getting hit by an arrow.... Quick background: A sedentary accountant wants to lose 20 lbs and searches the web. He finds DietBet, MyFitnessPal, Nerd Fitness challenges and the Couch-to-5K program all within a week and decides to try all of them simultaneously. He took the 8 week C25K program and tried to compress it into six weeks to fit the NF challenge, while running a higher-than-recommended calorie deficit to win his DietBet. His knee began to experience moderate pain, but there were only two weeks left. Instead of backing down, training was ramped up. Then the knee decided to become unstable and periodically just stop supporting him without warning, he began to stumble for no apparent reason, and training had to stop due to INJURY #1. Training picked up again during the next challenge, and everything as going well. Then when C25K suggested a 2 mile run, he decided to see how fast he could go. He clocked the fastest mile of his life... Then did a second mile without stopping. Knee issues returned, were ignored again, and he had INJURY #2. Trail running for the first time ever, across uneven loose rocks - Why bother slowing down? INJURY #3. Then this accountant discovers that he has a family history of horrible knee problems and multiple family members who aren't even supposed to climb stairs. Now, I love to run. But I love being able to walk even more, and I don't want to lose my knees to idiocy. So, though I do want to be able to run 5Ks again (and my accounting firm does one together annually), I'm going to take my time getting there and focus my energy on building a better body, not just one that runs farther or faster. MAIN QUEST: My Cousin's Out Fighting Dragons, and What Do I Get? Guard Duty. My goal is no longer to have short term achievements at the expense of long term health: it is to build myself up to have long term health, one baby step at a time. I plan to gradually restore my body to running ability, while doing what I can to prevent injuries and turning more of my focus to my other exercise loves: yoga and hiking. Quest 1: Rehabilitation I currently have a morning routine (that I follow most days) which includes daily stretching of my hamstrings, followed by a brief and extremely basic yoga session. In the evenings I stretch my hamstrings again. This Quest is to amp up my routine to strengthen or loosen (as needed) those parts of my body that are prone to injury: Stretch hamstrings & quads twice daily (not immediately before a run!). Plank daily. Some kind of upper back work daily, once I figure out how to do that (the muscles between my shoulder blades are exceptionally weak due to my usual hunched posture). And continue to grow my yoga routine gradually (I've been adding a single pose every week or two, as I become comfortable with them.) One day I hope to become comfortable enough to start varying the order or content of my yoga routine as my body directs. Quest 2: Realistic Needs: Eating... Food? I don't know if you've noticed, but unless you install a "realism" mod, you can get by in Skyrim for years without eating anything. Or sleeping. And you're rewarded for munching on every random "alchemy ingredient" you come across. Fancy a bite of Giant's Toe, anyone? I need to mod my life and start eating real food instead of whatever's at hand. But my diet has gone wrong in so many ways that I don't know where to start. Extreme levels of coffee consumption, addiction to sweets, lack of vegetables at most meals, not stopping when I'm full, mindless snacking.... I must have redrafted this portion of my challenge half a dozen times, with a different diet approach each time. So... this portion of my challenge will be an adventure in learning where I stand today and planning how to move forward. I will keep a food journal from now through the end of the challenge. Writing down what I eat, and how much, will give me an idea of where I can focus efforts to improve. This could also be an opportunity to practice mindfulness, as it should help to focus my attention more on what I'm eating. I will also record when I go to bed each day or how long I sleep. Sharing my journal isn't necessary, though I may post it if requested. I reserve the right to change this goal to a specific diet goal later in the challenge, or not - to be determined later. Quest 3: Returning to Active Duty Don't overdo! I've started C25K training again (today was the first day of Week 2). And I could make the training my goal. But I KNOW ME. I can't resist the opportunity to go further, faster... And do it today! So I choose the far more difficult challenge: to train SLOWLY. I do not get any credit for training. I will get credit for: - never running without a 46 hour gap in between runs (you know, a 6 am run on Tuesday is okay after an 8am run on Sunday). - never running more than three times in any seven day period - never running "just a little further" after completing a scheduled workout - not trying to time myself (unless at an official race) - never advancing to the next week's set of exercises until I've done the current weeks exercises for at least 5 sessions. - Stopping and walking directly home if I experience any joint pain ....trust me, this goal is going to be the tough one for me. I have run an eight minute mile, and I have run 5K without stopping to catch my breath... And my body wants me to do those things again. Holding back sucks. Quest 4: Desk Duty Do paperwork. I attempted this last challenge (halfway through), but quickly got overwhelmed. I am now going to try a different approach. This is long overdo, and I might as well tackle it while I'm on guard duty! Methodology: My intention is to grow into the Zen to Done method (at http://zenhabits.net/zen-to-done-ztd-the-ultimate-simple-productivity-system/) I am currently very good with habit 1: writing everything down. The other nine habits are all areas to work on. I intend to focus just on habit 2 for now: "process. Habit: make quick decisions on things in your inbox, do not put them off. Letting stuff pile up is procrastinating on making decisions. Process your inboxes (email, physical, voicemail, notebook) at least once a day, and more frequently if needed. When you process, do it from the top down, making a decision on each item, as in GTD: do it (if it takes 2 minutes or less), trash it, delegate it, file it, or put it on your to-do list or calendar to do later." I will give myself credit for preventing additional inbox pileup (not counting weekends) and spending at least some time 5 days a week on reducing the backlog. SIDE QUEST: Exploring Skyrim To bring back a lost love: hiking. I will seek out and learn about local trails for hiking or (when I'm ready) trail running. I will investigate local clubs and groups to find hiking companions. I will ask around NF for local Rebels who know the area's trails or who have the same goals. And I will go hiking at least once before this challenge ends. I have hiked only once since high school, and that was in the Grand Canyon. The beauty of it - of nature, of the companionship of others on the same trail - the camaraderie of strangers who depended on each other's help and were all too ready to offer that help to people they have never met. It made me want to cry. I seek to return hiking to my life, knowing that my life will be better for it.

Hey guys, Does anyone have recommendations for a software program or website that allows users to do ALL the following things: Upload heart rate monitor informationUpload running/cycling information through a GPS device (preferrably watch but a smartphone will suffice)Keep a detailed weightlifting log with crucial info such as exercise, lifts, and sets through a smartphone (Android)Keep a diet journalPost exercise activities on social media sites such as Facebook, twitter, etc.I currently do all these things using FOUR different websites (Movescount.com, Nike+, JEFIT, FatSecret) and I'd really like to streamline this process. I've researched websites like TrainingPeaks, Endomondo, and MayMyFitness but they don't combine all the features I need especially a weightlifting journal and heart rate monitor information. I've been tracking all my activities for the past 2 years and it has been really helpful in motivating me to keep moving and now it's time for me to graduate to a GALACTIC exercise portal where I can upload/enter all this information in one location.