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So as small of a success as this was, it still impressed me. Throughout my entire college career and even into my job, one of my biggest gym problems was forgetting my socks at home. I would bring my bottle, headphones, cushy supps, and my whole outfit, but my socks would always be conveniently left behind. This posed a problem when i wouldn't have worn any that day, and my mind always immediately used that as an excuse to turn back home and not work out. After all, i don't wanna wear sweaty tennis shoes with no socks right? Flash forward to today when i leave my non-dress socks at home again and, where i normally would have just gone home, i didn't. For the first time, i overcame that excuse and did something with my gym time anyway! I think that deserves a sizeable woot.

For almost a year now, I’ve been on the quest to travel to foreign lands and find the healing herb that can save my husband. For the last half of that journey, I’ve been sitting in a horse-drawn carriage, eating my way through the enchanted cotton candy forest. I can see daylight break through the pink clouds of sugary hell, so it’s time I prepare myself for the rest of the journey - I’ll be no use whatsoever in my current state once I get out of here and actually have to walk and possibly even fight monsters. Oh the horror! [My husband got really sick last year. He’s had three surgeries and is taking medication, but so far it’s not gotten any better. My apprenticeship ended in December last year, and I’ve not been able to work since then, in parts because I had to stay home and take care of him/be his translator at local doctors’ offices and hospitals, and because I haven’t been able to find a job. I tend to embrace laziness in times like these instead of using my time to better myself. Aka eat my way through cotton candy forest while letting the carriage do the moving for me. That needs to stop now.] Main Goal: Get ready to leave cotton candy forest [stop being lazy and get back into the habit of actually doing things] Life Goal: Find a good side quest line to replenish the funds for my journey. All that sitting and eating hasn’t exactly helped replenish my little chest of gold, and my benefactor has forgotten about me! It’s time I help someone herd their kittens or farm some crab meat to fill up my chest again. [Check job adverts. Send out applications. Ideally, find a job. But mostly, don’t give up hope and keep putting myself out there.] Diet Goal: Cleanse my body with the orange potion of gut health All the cotton candy has wreaked total havoc on my body and the wizard I’ve met along the way has given me a big cauldron full of orange potion. It looks quite vile, and I need to gulp down a lot of it at a time or it won’t work. But I gotta be strong clear out all the remnants of sugary webs the cotton candy spiders have spun in my body. [Drink fiber at least twice a day, ideally three times. Before meals. Add laxatives to one drink per day. I started that to help out my husband, since he has to do it and that’s one small way I can support him, and noticed that it makes me feel a lot better, so I want to stick with it.] Fitness Goal: Shake out those stiff bones and get out of the carriage! I’ve been sitting for so long, I don’t even remember what standing up feels like. Or walking. And dear god, don’t even get me started on running or pushing the carriage out of the sticky cotton candy puddle it’s currently glued to. I’m going to have to start moving if I want to make it out of those forest - especially if I want to continue with my quest! [I’ve been lazy. I haven’t exercised properly in forever. Rather than setting myself two different fitness goal, my goal is to move. Every day. In whatever way feels good that day. I’d rather have a five minute dance party with myself and make that count than getting frustrated with myself for not doing a certain workout on a certain day and giving up because of it. Any movement counts, but I want to focus on the following especially!] Train like a warrior! [strength training at the gym] Run circles around the carriage! [go for a walk/run/any combination of the two] Dance among the stars! [have a dance party with myself - e.g. dance a couple songs on Just Dance or turn up the music and dance around the house while doing the laundry] Stretch like a cat! [Do yoga or any other stretchy thing that looks good to me, like floor ballet] Seek guidance from my coachmen and -women! [Attend a class at the gym] There is no one way for me to start moving again and fight my way out of this darned forest. The only way I can continue instead of returning home without the cure is to just start moving and not stop, and to take tiny steps on days where the big ones seem like too much. TL;DR: Life goal: Actively try my best to find a job Diet goal: Drink fiber drinks Fitness goal: Move every day I am still tweaking my workout. I am aiming for a full body workout rather than split workouts at this point, because chances are I’m not going to be going to the gym every day all of a sudden, so I want to make the most of it when I do. I would appreciate any advice you have on how to improve that workout! Right now, I’m going for lower weights/more reps so I can get used to the movements and learn to do them correctly with lower chance of injury. I’m planning to change that up once I’m more comfortable with the exercises. Gym workout plan: Warm up on bike/run a couple laps 3x10 shoulder press (machine) 3x10 chest press (machine, the one that’s sorta like a bench press but without having to have someone spot you) 3x10 butterfly (machine) 3x10 triceps pushdown (cable machine) 3x10 wide-grip lat pulldown (cable machine) 3x10 1-arm bent-over rows (each arm) 3x10 (decline) crunches 3x10 deadlift 3x10 glute bridge variations (add weight, incline or lift a leg - or all of it!) 3x10 dumb bell lunges 3x10 inner & outer thighs machine If any of you have suggestions, recommendations or advise regarding that routine, please feel very free to let me know. I would appreciate it! I'm going to the gym with a friend today and will do each of those exercises so he can check my form and give me advice and help where I need it before I just try it all on my own and screw up my back. I'll add my starting weights to it afterwards. Time to channel my inner Xena and escape this sweet, sticky forest!

Here I am, fashionably late. Goal 1) Strength Training Right now I'm going to aim for 2x per week. Gym if possible, body weight if not. Goal 2) Endurance Training I need to work on my endurance so I'm going to aim for running or other cardio type activity 3x per week. Goal 3) Foods When I try to be really stringent about food, I do really well for a maximum of 3 days, then I go off the rails again. So I'm just going to focus on a more intuitive eating style. I know what's good and what isn't so for this challenge I'm just going to try to have more good days than bad days. Goal 4) Positive Thinking I got a brand new journal the other day. I immediately sat down and wrote a page about horrible everything is. It sort of hit me how self-perpetuating that is. By writing down all the things that are wrong, I'm reinforcing those bad brain patterns. So I'm going to aim to journal 5 times per week and focus on positive things that are happening. I'm still going to allow myself to chronicle the daily ups and downs but I'm not going to get locked into a litany of how stupid my brain is sometimes.

So, last challenge I did ok. By week 4 though I was having difficulties. I've been crazy stressed by school. It's to the point that I"m looking for an online tutor to help me. I've never had a class THIS hard before. So, I began to stress eat. Starting today though, I'm calling on the Winchesters to help me fight my demons!!!! So, with Sam and Dean at my side, I can totally kick this challenge's ass and get back on track!!!!! Demon #1: Ruby (HP: OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO) As Ruby fed Sam's addiction to demon blood, so has she fed my addiction to sugar and high calorie foods. With Sam and Dean's help, I will vanquish Ruby back to hell by limiting my sugar intake to 2 sugary snacks per week. Demon #2: Alastair (HP: OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO) Alistair... the demon who tortured Dean and taught him the tools of the trade in hell. To withstand his torturous blades and then kick his ass with the Winchesters, I will need to be strong and resilient. Every time I go to the gym and work out is an attack on Alistair. I will go to the gym and work out at least 2 times every week. Anything above that is a bonus attack on Alistair. Demon #3: Crowley (HP: OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO) Crowley, the King of the Crossroads and the King of Hell himself. His power is the power of temptation and deals. He makes his deals so tempting by trying to make us give in to our desires. I refuse. I will not let him get the best of me. I will resist having a variance in my diet more than twice a week. I can't let the bastard win! Join me in this demon hunt! We will get there! With the Winchesters at my side and my NF friends cheering me on, we can make this happen! Demon 1 (Sugar): 0/2 Demon 2 (Gym): 0/2 Demon 3 (Variance): 0/2

hello there brothers , I am beginner and want to buy iOS app for gym workouts , but there are too many of them which do you recomend? thanks

I'm late but I'm here! I took an extended week zero thanks to traveling. I got home a couple hours ago so figured I should put up a challenge thread. My spreadsheet will be added to this post when I create it, lol. I'm actually going to be doing my challenge officially for the month of June, but since the NF challenge started yesterday (oops) I'll still post along. I knew starting a challenge on vacation just wasn't going to happen. My depression has been bad, and I've identified one reason was my efforts to date go in waves and the current waves have been super crappy. So I am taking a break from attempting to date for the month of June. If I meet someone organically, cool, but I'm not going to try (dating sites, etc). That should help with my depression. I'm also going to try a little less hard to do ALL THE SOCIAL THINGS. That will also help with my depression. So, goals for the challenge: I now have a 24 hr access pass to my gym. Huzzah! This means I don't have to avoid going because I feel guilty for giving up time with my son (which was a cop out, since he's out on his bike anyway). I can go after he's in bed if I want (since my mom lives with me, he wouldn't be unattended). So the goal is going to be hit the gym three times a week, and I'm roughly targeting Tues/Thurs/Sat, with allowances that life happens so I can reschedule if need be. While I would love to lose weight after spending the last two months re-gaining a bunch of what I had lost, instead of eating at a deficit I'm going to make my nutrition goal be to not go above maintenance calories period. No eating back the calories I "earn" from activity/exercise, no exceptions for special occasions. If I do lose weight, I will readjust MFP to recalculate my new maintenance level. If I do well with this, I expect to lose some weight just because of the activity level I have on a daily basis at work. This will seem really weird to put as a goal, but, I will play at least two hours of video games per week. Because I keep avoiding playing WoW with my family and friends due to stupid anxiety/perfection/depression reasons, and I want to get back into it. I also still haven't touched the Steam games I got for xmas/bday. So yes I am actually setting a goal to play games! LOL! Side benefit: video games are the one indoor hobby I have that I don't like to eat during, because I don't want to get food on my keyboard/mouse. So the more I game, the less I snack, which is a score. My fourth goal is going to be to read for at least two hours a week. I have barely read a page in the last month. It's been all Netflix all the time. I'd like to get back to reading. My fifth goal is going to be to get at least one hour of outdoors exercise a week. This can be walking, hiking, biking - but I know I feel better when I am getting out in the sunshine. I think five goals is enough, so, now I will build my spreadsheet, edit in the link, and then I'm all set to unofficially start tomorrow. Edited to add: Challenge Spreadsheet

Hi guys! I alternate a 3 day routine, 5-6 times a week, (never less than 3 on a bad week). Day One - Arms, Chest & Shoulders Flat bench 25kg (3 sets x 8) Incline bench 20kg (3 sets x 8) Pec Flys 5kg per arm on a flat bench (3 sets x 8) Dips with a resistance band (3 sets x 5-8, depending on strength) Superset: Shoulder Press (10kg) and Dumbell Lateral Raises (2kg on either arm) at (3 x 8) Push ups (3 sets of 8) (1 set being Diamond Variation) Day 2 - Back & Arms Dumbell Curls (5kg on each arm) (3 sets of 8) Reverse Fly (5kg on each arm) (3 sets of 8) Chin Ups (bodyweight resistance band on a bar) (3 sets of 8) Pull Ups (bodyweight resistance band on a bar) (3 sets of 8) T-bar row (20kg) (3 sets of 8) One-Arm Bent Over Dumbbell Row (9kg) (3 sets of 8 both arms) Day Three - Legs Squats Smith Machine (30kg) (3 sets of 8) Lunge Smith Machine (30kg) (3 sets of 8) Leg Press (80-100kg) (3 sets of 8) Calf Raises (60kg) (3 sets of 8) (different variation: toe pointing inwards, outwards and forwards for each set) Deadlifts Trap Bar (36kg) (3 sets of 8) Hip Thrust (20kg) (3 x 8) I'm 5"5 and 9 stone 9 pounds. I used to be 8 stone 9 pounds. I followed the same routine, but also ran regularly (20 minutes 5 days a week) and ate better and was interested in calisthenics, so pursued that a lot too. I'm looking to lose weight but it's not as important to me for the moment as building strength. I'm on the brink of being able to do an unassisted chin up! I'm concerned my workout isn't what it could be...I would appreciate anyone's advice about how I could build on my strength and fitness. Thank you!

This challenge I will be channelling one of my favourite Disney women: Fa Mulan. While not technically a Princess, she is brave and strong and beautiful. She starts weak and works on herself to become a strong enough soldier to defend all of China. She’s pretty damn BadAss. As such I will be theming my regular goals around Mulan. Eat like a warrior (freggies, protein): In order to perform I need to maintain good eating habits. Continuing the 5-a-day freggie habit and bringing in the a-protein-with-every-meal habit. This could take many forms… meat, eggs, cheese, protein shake etc. Haven’t decided if we’re bringing back the Whole30, not likely seeing as we have a wedding to go to, my birthday, a concert which we’ll be staying with Mr’s Mum and sister… Actually thinking about it that’s going to be a ‘no’ on the Whole30, but good choices where possible. Marked x/5, x/3 daily. Training to defeat the Huns (gym): In 2.5 weeks will be my 25th birthday. I want to lift my bodyweight (70kg). I’ve been making steady increases in my weekly deadlift (46kg, 57.5kg, 65kg), and expect to continue this trend to at least 1RM my bodyweight. Only 5kgs to go, totally possible. Other than that, I will continue going to ROAR 3/week and BigLift+Boxing 1/week. Where possible I’ll tag along with Mr to any weekend sessions he goes to. Note: I will be aiming for 70kg even if my bodyweight goes down between now and then (I’ve lost 10kg since when I started at the gym in August down from 80kg, technically I should lose another 5-10 to fall in healthy for my height, but I want to start packing on some muscle, and we all know the scale lies about that). Marked running total x/4 per week. Birthday Deadlift PR is its own mark. Notes… in case I forget something (studying): As of Wednesday of zero week I will have completed the Business subject, but will have the second half of my Chinese Mandarin class to go (through to 5th June). I will continue to keep up with classes and homework too. I have two written tests upcoming and plenty more to learn, online quizzes and the such. Marking: All classes attended (3/week). Homework on 5days a week marked x/5. Side note: She's doing this with her left hand, which is hellah hard... you're almost better to just learn to write characters with your right because its so hard to follow the strokes and not get mega-smudged. Side-side note, I don't know all of these characters, but I see the depictions of woman, fire, people/person and sun. Huzzah for knowing some tiny things! Bonus goal~ Who is that girl I see? Skin-care erry day. I get topical eczema in one of my eyebrows and on one of my ears (lovely). It's not very noticeable, but goes away when I take proper care of my skin, so proper care I shall take. Daily cleanse and moisturizing cream to banish the eczema and the beginning of lines from living a quarter century. Mark daily Y/N.

The Time Management beast can't be a dragon. It just can't. So it's a gnome. It looks innocent and harmless, and you don't even think you need to wage battle, let alone that it would be a tough one if you do. But gnomeses are sneaky and little and their teeth are sharp. And they are worthy if diminutive foe. And boy oh boy to I have a swarm of gnomes coming down on me! I am just straight up short on time this challenge. I have a LOT of things that need to get done. I have a lot of prior commitments. And I am trying to get a job in a new city, so depending on how that goes, I may have a whole 'nother set of things to take care of! Naturally, what bugs me the most about this is is not KNOWING which immediate future I am planning for... So yes. This challenge is about getting stuff done, but it's also largely about staying sane while I do it. So here are the various gnomic categories that will be occupying my efforts: 1. American Sign Language Class: Every Tuesday and Thursday, except April 27th. I have barely enough time to eat supper after work, and I don't get home until after 9pm, so Tues/Thurs cannot accommodate any further scheduling, unless it's before work. (Blergk!) 2. Workouts: twice a week 3. Disc Golf: I have been bitten by the competitive disc golf bug, and I am determined to get better and do well in tournaments this year! There's a tournament this weekend, and one May 6-7 that will fall under this challenge. Obviously I also need to get lots of practice in - this doesn't have a specific schedule, but will be taking up a great deal of what little spare time I have. This also has a secondary aspect, which is that the hubs and I are 4. Purge the house. If we ARE moving, we need to seriously downsize the absurd amount of possessions we have. If not, this is still a good thing to get done. We have more space that we need in our current abode, and it has just collected clutter, and I'm done with it. So some of these things will be part of my goals, and others are just challenges that I will need to work around to get my other goals done. Without further ado, here are my goals! Eat: But not gluten. Less than 120g of carbs each day. At least 80g of protein. Simple, yes? 1 pt per item per day. Bonus point for carbs below 80g. Bonus point for dairy-free days. A - 84pts B - 74 pts C - 63pts D - 53pts +3CHA Bike: 130 kms. Ease into it for week one, then bike commute daily for weeks 2-4. My bus pass runs out at the end of April, at which point I will switch to bike commuting. It's not far at all (4.2km one way) and takes me about 20 minutes (closer to 15 once I'm in shape!). I need to rent a locker, since I'll be showering at work, and I need to get my stamina back up! The biggest obstacle with this is that I am usually completely wiped out for the first week or so until I get used it again. If I miss a day, I can make up the kms with other biking, that's fine. Weather and sleeping in happen sometimes... I also have a physio appt sometime during this challenge I think, so I'll have to drive that day. A - 130kms B - 115kms C - 100kms D - 85kms +3END Workout: Twice a week. Gym sessions. One on Sundays, one weekday morning. Yes, I'mma have to get up damn early for this. Sigh. A - 8pts B - 6pts C - 4pts D - 2pts +2STR, +2DEX Steps: Take at least 308,000 of them during the course of the challenge. That's 11,000 per day. I have a goal of averaging 10,000 steps per day over the entirety of 2017. I'm a little behind on this right now, so I'm aiming to gain some ground. A - 308,000 B - 299,000 C - 290,000 D - 280,000 +2END PURGE: Get rid of excess possessions. Donate and sell if possible. Throw away if not. Clean as we go. There are a couple rooms that are especially daunting, and so they will be the primary focus of this challenge. 1. Basement Storage Room #1 - this mostly contains camping gear, old shoes, winter gear, supplies for our business and a giant wooden thingy that was rescued from a job site for absolutely no purpose other than to take up room in our house. 2. Basement Storage Room #2 - this is full of recycling, cardboard boxes, tools and assorted building supplies. 3. Craft Room - this one is all on me. I have a LOT of crafting supplies. Like... a lot. The only other thing this room contains is the cat litter and one bookshelf.. and it is full. That being said, every other room in the house needs this treatment, except the upstairs bathroom, which is the only one I've completed so far. So I can still get points for other rooms, but no bonus prize unless I get the 3 big ones done. 10 pts awarded for each primary room complete. 2 pts each for any other room. A - 30pts B - 20pts C - 10pts BONUS PRIZE for 40 pts achieved. TBD. +3INT

Rolling Stoney changes her shape This challenge is all about change for me. 2017 was going to be a big year, but it happened in a way I didn't quite expect. My plan was to cross-train hard, eat well, do the derby, work hard, buy a house... but literally none of those things happened. I broke my ankle. Derby, cross training, working, and being able to cook my own food all went out the window. My partner got made redundant so our house loan got canned. And my boss is selling her cafe so I may not even have a job in a few months. But as of last month I can walk without a limp again and I'm so close to getting back to derby training that I can at least throw most of my focus that way and still feel like I am moving forwards in life. My long term goals look like this; Walk again sans limp. completed 23/3 Be cleared to skate again. (planned 19/4) Skate a whole 3hr training session. (planned early May) Re-Pass my Minimum Skills. (planned June) Play a full Roller Derby Bout. (planned August) Find a new job. My goals this challenge are focussed on adapting to the change that I'm currently experiencing in many parts of life while still trying to complete my current long-term goals. I need to prepare my physical form for my triumphant return to roller derby by cross-training what I can and eating well to fuel said training increase. So going to the gym is a thing. Between working and training I burn energy like a wildfire so I need to prep food accordingly so I don't eat like shit at work when I can't be fucked getting something rounded and healthy. I need to prepare my resume and a portfolio for if or when my job goes kaput so I am ready to attempt to jump into a new job. As a teenager and an adult I've always been a design oriented person and I loved jewellery design. There are two in-house jewellery studios in town that I aim to approach for training and hopefully a job, but I can't do that without a portfolio. And finally I need to keep myself accountable and organised so I'm trying out this whole bullet journal thingo. It's working good, even if mine aren't pretty like the ones on instagram. Change of Body Gym 3x week. (Lower body, Upper body, Core, Cardio & Yoga) I had great plans at the start of the year to continue the cross-training I had been doing in my derby off-season, but that plan got de-railed after I broke my ankle. After 3 months of being immobile I have to start back at the start, but that's okay. I have a gym membership and a plan. I had to split my workouts into upper, lower and core because I was spending too long at once at the gym and it made me reluctant to go more then once a week. My lower body workout it pretty short right now because of my limited ankle strength and mobility, but I need the habit to be there. Yoga can be done at home. Change of Job Work on jewellery/design portfolio, post daily My job is on tenterhooks right now. Potentially my boss may sell her business and the new owners may or may not keep me on. With that and my partner's recent redundancy I have found myself needing a change. After having 3 months off work I realise that hospitality is no longer what I want to do. I cannot do the work for so little thanks anymore. Back in school I was really passionate with design and specifically designing and making jewellery. I don't know what it was about melting bits of metal together but I loved it. There are no jobs available right now but I plan on getting together a portfolio of sorts and approaching the two local studios in town and seeing about a job. I figure I can't do that without some substance so I'm going to use this month to work on some designs. I will post the designs as evidence. If I happen to not want to draw jewellery specifically I can draw anything else and it still counts. Change of Food Meal prep 1x weekly Meal prepping healthy meals was another thing I was getting really good at before I broke my ankle, and sticking to the food I planned to eat was also working really well for my energy levels. When I broke I wasn't totally in control of what I could eat and as I didn't have to leave the house I just ate what I could carry with one hand. Going back to exercising and work means I need all the energy I can get and I can't keep grazing on whatever I can find at work because it inevitably ends up being cake or pancakes or just coffee. It makes me sluggish and bloated and I am perfectly capable of prepping food to take with me. Change of Habit Bullet Journal Daily I'm testing out the whole bullet journal thing, and I think so far it's working for me. While I do tend to drool over the beautiful instagram ones, I don't have the handwriting or the patience or the funds to pay for all the beautiful stickers and many pens to make it beautiful. Thankfully it's also a functional thing so I'm going with that. I'll work on my penmanship later. I need to update my journal every day and use it for anything I can think of. Adding in to-do jobs, writing down my gym sessions, planning meal prep... So far it's working really well for everything and I want to continue feeling organised. It's something I've struggled with my whole life.

TW: depression, anxiety, hopelessness What. An. Incredibly. Shitty. Day. Let me just start by saying that I have depression and anxiety. It's relatively mild, in fact the official term for my level of depression as explained to me by my doctor and therapist is "sadness". It seems to be mostly manageable and I have good days and bad ones. Most of my bad days correlate with work. I really do not like my job. I work in a retail store in a mall, we sell mostly household items. It is a mindbogglingly boring job that mostly involves dusting and human communication, both of which I don't enjoy unless in very certain circumstances. I feel guilty for hating my job so much, after all it's a pretty basic, alright paying job. My boss is kind and some of my coworkers are fun to be around (others not so much) but still I am emotionally drained after each shift and dream of quitting every single day- even though I only work 3-4 days a week! I'm ashamed that I feel this way. After all there are other people in much worse situations complaining much less. But feeling guilt over my sadness because others are sadder is the logical equivalent of not allowing myself to be happy because other people are happier. Now isn't that just ridiculous? I'm tired of my life. I have a BSc in psychology, a field I don't like at all and shouldn't have studied to begin with. I wasted three years of my life and haven't progressed at all towards any kind of meaningful work. I don't know what I want to do with my life but I picture it involving some kind of performance, theater, writing, stand up.. But when I mention that people constantly remind me that performance arts are difficult - as if the only reason I would pursue them would be out of laziness. Then there's the added anxiety of actually being on stage, what if everyone laughs at me? Assuming if I even get into a theater program, which I'm not even sure I truly want? There are three things you need to make it as an artist: talent, discipline and passion. And I am scared that I only have an ounce of each. Passion especially. Life seems dull and grey and I don't even know if I have passion for anything. I just feel like an ungrateful, spoiled little brat who doesn't want to work for anything. I don't know if I have what it takes to be an artist, and if even I don't fully believe in myself why the hell would any producer or director? I just hate this feeling of not having a purpose, a goal, something! Frodo didn't feel like he had a purpose and then bam! Take the ring to Mordor. There's your ultimate life's mission. Can someone give me a quest, please? I want to change my way of life, figure out what I'm supposed to do, and I want to do it right now! Because otherwise I have to go back to work tomorrow and continue leading my boring ass life until I eventually kill myself.

Last challenge went pretty great for me, but after finishing the Whole30 I made a series of poor eating choices. I certainly don't feel like the Whole 30 was negated, but I'm feeling a bit bloated and my skin and digestion are making their displeasure known. Fiance is on board with continuing to eat mostly Whole 30 (WHAT YAY), and I'm thrilled that we're on the same page. Me and fiance. Eating semi-W30 together Overarching Goal: GET LEAN (<25% body fat) GOAL #1: Wake up at 5am every weekday, 7am on weekends. I've been inspired by a blogger to start waking up earlier. I recently had the epiphany that when I don't take melatonin or Benadryl before bed, I feel alert after 7-8 hours of sleep. Last week I found myself naturally waking up earlier and feeling energized (!!!), so want to try out making it a habit. I've called exercise my keystone habit, but the trouble with that is I tend to work out in the afternoon -- at that point work has worn me out mentally, the SADs may have kicked in, and the couch is calling my name. GOAL #2: Gym/Run/Walk daily I'm floundering a bit post-Spartan because I don't have another race until May (and that's just a marathon relay, so ~6mi). The yoga studio I love is running a promotion (3-month membership for 2-month price), and I'm tempted to sign up. For now I'm going to pay attention to what my body is craving, and get my daily dose of endorphins. GOAL #3: Fine tune eating The first two weeks of the challenge I'm going to try allowing non-W30 food every day -- that's allowing a bit of rice, legumes, even gluten, dairy, alcohol. Can I do daily moderation without just going nuts? Not sure. The second two weeks I'm going to try a mostly stricter system...maybe 5 days on, 2 days off. Focus on having a vegetable and protein at every meal.

ERMGAH I AM LATE. I don't have a challenge figured, out, so I think I'll do the same thing last time. it.... kind of worked out? stemmed the upwards weight, anyway. got me back in the habit of gymming. MAIN QUEST LOSE FAT. This could be signified by either losing weight, or using fancy schmancy tracking tools (wifi scale, skulpt device, measurements, photos) to double check. * so.... actually compare photos this challenge, hmmm? Goal 1: Exercise More / Don't Break The Chain I need to do something every day. Running, TKD, going to the gym and doing weights, SOMETHING. If I can't do a formal thing exercise for at least 30 minutes (20 if it's running, plus a cool down at the end), these are my options for not breaking the chain: * do at least 5 sets of 100 jumping jacks * go for a real 30 minute walk. Poke-walking counts. just WALK. * hula hoop practice for at least 15 minutes. * other things that are like these things that will be good for me Goal 2: Eat Less / Eat Better STICK WITH THE PLAN, STAN. I did really good last month, keep it up!!! my loseit plan is still set at losing 1 lb a week, which is a 500 calorie / day deficit over where it thinks I actually am. ALSO I am going to start logging half and half in coffee / milk in tea. --> do better at this, I totally skipped it last month. Goal 3: Put the NERD back in NERD FITNESS. Use the tools! Track food, daily weigh, dust off my nutty excel spreadsheet and fill in the last few challenges. ALSO weekly photos weekly measurements weekly or MORE skulpt readings. * do better with measurements. Fix the skulpt. * and most importantly! USE THIS TOOL! the forums are like my A+ Number 1 tool for success, and that needs to include WEEKLY CHALLENGE RECAPS as well as mostly nearly every day daily check-ins! ok let's get on this.

I'm coming off the high of a wildly successful challenge, and I am so committed to making those changes last! I completed my 3rd Whole30 last round, and it was by far my most successful. I ate like a Queen, I got all my workouts in, I walked, I learned, I journalled. Now I need to find a framework for it all that works in my post-Whole30 world. I find the extreme strictness of the program much easier than exercising moderation - if cheating isn't an option, I won't do it. If it's okay to have just a little of whatever, drawing the line where I stop is SO much harder! So my focus is now on maintaining the good habits that I built to support good decision making going forward, instead of just making a complicated set of rules that I am just supposed to magically follow. Firstmost and Foremost: Diet. I want to keep eating very clean - I felt so good (so energetic, so happy, so NOT bloated) on the W30, and I don't want to give that up. But what does that mean? 1. (5pts/week)Weekly breakfast prep: Take the decision-making out of the first meal of the day. A big batch of protein + veggies will get made on the weekend. If it's there, I will take it to work. If I have to figure out what I'm eating for breakfast in the morning, it doesn't always end well. 2. (10 pts/challenge) Restock Freezer meals: This doesn't necessarily need to happen every week, but I need to have some easy backup food for when my plans fall through. Chicken patties, meatballs and soup have been successful here in the past. 3. (10 pts/week; -5pts for additional variances) Plan and shop for mostly compliant dinners: I have a handy dandy recipe app (Paprika) that I have been using to plan dinners, and then it will automatically generate a shopping list. 3 times per week, this dinner can include legumes OR non-gluten grains. (I take leftovers for lunch, so these things will be eaten again the next day as well.) 4. Don't put cheese on everything! I'm going to aim for 4 non-dairy days per week. Dinner one day through lunch the next counts. (-5pts for each day above 3 with dairy) 5. Macros! Bonus 5 pts per week if average carbs are under 100g, Protein is over 80g, and Calories under 1600. EDIT: 6. I forgot to address wheat. Not gonna lie, I miss bread. I love it so. My short term goal is to not make myself any meals containing it, but to allow it if we eat out (which happens very rarely, so that's not like a carte blanche or anything. And I don't mean fast food, I mean a proper sit down restaurant meal.) 1 freebie for the challenge, then -5 pts for further indulgences. *While I am not technically making these in to goals at this point, I want to be very aware of alcohol and evening snacking. I am feeling pretty okay with not drinking, and I want to keep going for now. I'm okay with having a drink if I really want to, but not just for the sake of it. (Bonus points of 5 for each alcohol-free week.) For the snacking piece, I have rarely felt any desire to snack lately, and if I wanted more food after dinner it was because I was genuinely hungry, and then I ate some appropriate, filling food. I am going to keep up with this, and for this challenge, will just be tracking this item and we'll see how it goes. My logic is that if my daily meals are satiating enough, I shouldn't want to snack. So if I do, I need to recalibrate my other meals.* Okay. Phew. That was a bit of an essay. Hopefully I'm not overcomplicating things, but I think it touches everything I need it to. A : 70pts B : 60pts C : 50pts D : 40pts F : <40pts +4CHA Secondmost and Midmost: Workout. Time to ramp this up a little. 2x workouts per week - formal gym dates (with sister). Body weight and/or dumbbell workouts, with a little cardio mixed in. 1x something else per week - whatever! Yoga, bouldering, and kettlebells all count. Walking doesn't. A : 12pts B : 10pts C : 8pts D : 6pts F : <6pts +7 STR or DEX or END decided upon at the end depending upon mix. Thirdmost and Betwixtmost: Walk. This is a yearlong goal, as I am aiming to get 3,650,000 steps this year! I'm a little behind already, so I'm gunning for 71,250 per week A : 285,000+ B : 255,000+ C: 225,000+ D : 195,000+ F : 194,999 or less. +2END Fourthmost and Aftmost: Talk. I started taking American Sign Language classes last month, and the first level ends Feb 16 and the second starts March 7th, meaning that I will have 4 classes during this challenge. Critically though, I need to get more practice in. There is a casual, student led conversation group on Mondays that I will attend, and I will do some other kind of practice online (watching youtube videos, practicing sign and fingerspelling recognition etc) at least one other time per week. (2 extra times on the weeks with no classes.) A : 10 B : 8 C: 6 D : 4 F : <4 +2INT

I guess I'm doing 3/4 of a challenge this month. But that's okay because it's better than no challenge at all. I'll flesh out my goals a bit but I wanted to make a mark here while my mood was up and I had time. Gym) 3x per week, get back to my program Food) Eat reasonably. No calorie counting, no macros, nothing fancy. Just eat reasonably to promote my goals. Life) Plan things better. On Friday, plan the next week. Food, gym days, etc. Get myself organized and actually pack lunches and gym clothes and all my gear for rugby practice. For the last 2-3 weeks I've just been floating through life like a leaf in floodwaters. The chaotic life feeds the depression/anxiety which locks me up from being organized which leads to more chaos, etc. Gotta turn that ship around.

yo dudes, I am gaining weight again. I mean, I'm still down from my start weight! but, over the last two months I definitely gained a bit. But that's ok, because I am UNSTOPPABLE in the sense that I literally perhaps do not know how to stop. So I am going to UNSTOPPABLY STOP this weight gain. I BELIEVE! MAIN QUEST LOSE FAT. This could be signified by either losing weight, or using fancy schmancy tracking tools (wifi scale, skulpt device, measurements, photos) to double check. In an effort to be more scientific-like, I went back to where my weight dropped again -- last July I tracked a bunch of actual data, and then the August Challenge I tried to put it into effect, with an outcome of some loss. SO what did I do right in August 2016, and how can I keep it up? Well, upon review, I learned that I didn't actually identify any challenge goals in August 2016. I ate less, and I ran a BUNCH. After reviewing July's challenge, I have a hypothesis that I didn't exercise as much as I should for my food intake over the last couple of months, which is contributing to GAINING. I had data for this hypothesis in July, and the hypothesis mildly substantiated with no actual data because literally I did not exercise at all in November and December. SIDEBAR you guys did you know I have a stack of paper notes from many of my old challenges? I'm missing some from the beginning, like, 11/2013-11/2014, but it's cool to have them around - even though they don't have much usable information noted. /SIDEBAR ENOUGH ABOUT THE PAST LET'S TALK ABOUT THE FUTURE. Goal 1: Exercise More / Don't Break The Chain I need to do something every day. Running, TKD, going to the gym and doing weights, SOMETHING. If I can't do a formal thing exercise for at least 30 minutes (20 if it's running, plus a cool down at the end), these are my options for not breaking the chain: * do at least 5 sets of 100 jumping jacks * go for a real 30 minute walk. Poke-walking counts. just WALK. * hula hoop practice for at least 15 minutes. * other things that are like these things that will be good for me. Track this in my new #hobobujo planner. Show you photos. (HEY trying to do some kind of bullet journal planner is ALSO a thing that I am experimenting with and I DO NOT FEAR FAILURE) Goal 2: Eat Less / Eat Better STICK WITH THE PLAN, STAN. my loseit plan is still set at losing 1 lb a week, which is a 500 calorie / day deficit over where it thinks I actually am. ALSO I am going to start logging half and half in coffee / milk in tea. DIRTY SECRET I never logged that. I did decrease my budget by 75 cal to accommodate but the more coffees I drink in a day, the less close I am to that being reality. "LUCKILY," I am also embarking on a version of "no spend january" this month. My husband is going back to school full time and I am the only breadwinner right now. Funds are tight - we have an expensive mortgage. So, I gave myself a few passes for eating out, but mostly, I will be bringing my lunches to work. which means I can EAT BETTER with no problems. Other considerations: DO NOT eat back exercise calories unless I've burned like 1000 exercise calories (i.e., dojo sat.) Goal 3: Put the NERD back in NERD FITNESS. Use the tools! Track food, daily weigh, dust off my nutty excel spreadsheet and fill in the last few challenges. ALSO weekly photos weekly measurements weekly or MORE skulpt readings. it's annoying but the more I do it, the faster I am at doing it. and most importantly! USE THIS TOOL! the forums are like my A+ Number 1 tool for success, USE THEM. DUDE. Check in every day. Say hi. update log. YOU CAN DO IT.

When we last left our hero, she was preparing for her journey. She started off strong, but got distracted by holiday sweets and busy with friends and family that her preparation took a back seat. With the holidays over and a new year on the horizon, it is time to hit the reset button and start a new game. Back to training. Feeling like she has fallen behind and has not made much progress, RhiaWolfe trains to grow stronger. Can’t fight battles with Stalfos and Moblins if you’re not strong enough to swing a sword and take a blow to the shield! Goal 1: Back to Training – go to the gym/workout 4 times a week Eating all of sugars and sweets at the Kokiri Christmas festival leaves RhiaWolfe feeling lethargic and without energy. It’s time to put away the cookies, candy, and other sweets and get back on track! Goal 2: Less Sugar – No more than 2 heavy sweets a week (candy, cookies, cakes, etc.). Without all the carbs and sugar, a hero still has to get energy from somewhere. Instead of stopping by the Kokiri inn and grabbing a meal full of fats, carbs, and high calories, instead maybe stay home and whip up a batch of deku stew? Goal 3: Cooking Skill – Eat out no more than twice a week. We’ve hit the reset button and started a new game. Let’s see if we can get this new year started right!

I have decided to start this daily battle log and to do all my writing in here. I have an intro in the rebel intro area and have an intro in the January 2016 challenge area. This seems the best place to keep everything together and focus on writing in one area. My challenge goals have been a big fail. But I have put things in place to help me get on track and stay there. I am great at starting, I am bad at continuing. In short, I want to get strong and fit and lose weight along the way. I want to be able to say yes to doing things without worrying about looking bad in clothes or not being fit enough to do something. I want to live a long life that is healthy and rewarding. I have goals around eating and fitness but I won't go in to them now. I am trying to put the other posts in to my signature bar but so far have had no luck. Today I have planned 12 meals for this week (lunches and dinners). I know I will have one meal at work this week that will be meat and salad, and that gives me one other meal not planned, but this is the first time I have done this so 12 seems pretty good. Looking at my shopping list, it is much less than what I would often buy but is plenty of food. It will be interesting to see how I go. I have PT this afternoon, so that is my exercise for the day. I also meet my new boss this afternoon to see what she wants me doing this year - I am a teacher, not on class but in charge of a teaching team, so it will be interesting to see what she says. Then back to work on Wednesday, today being Monday.

I mentioned on another thread a theory that is very attractive, which is that as we pass through fall and approach winter we should expect to do less and sleep more and want to be at home more because it's the season for HIBERNATION. ok, LET'S ALL BE BEARS. my interests are shifting pretty rapidly because, you know, ASSASSIN PROBLEMS. also experience has proven that I'm not very good at hibernating or not doing everything I want to do. so this challenge here we go now! * go to the gym. it's cold and dark and I am not interested in running outside right now. shoot for at least 2x a week at the gym. My husband is in! so this should be easier to force myself out of my nice warm den (seriously we keep the house so cold at night in the winter [because we are cheap!] that it's hard to get out of bed) and head out into the cold to go to the gym. while at the gym, I will probably do all the weight machines and also some treadmill stuff. we have a 7K to run in December, and I don't want to be caught flatfooted for it... if you will. LARGER GOAL: the guy who runs my dojo has a weight room and does personal training. He's one of those really kind, goes out of his way to be helpful kind of guys who ends up making a lot of assumptions about what people are going to do and then trying to anticipate their needs. I would like to explore lifting heavy weights with him, but I want to get to a point of some rudimentary capabilities first, because he is so good at revising his expectations I don't want him to revise mine too low when I first start, because that will cause him to anticipate something about me that I am not prepared for. If that makes sense. NOTE it would be a lot easier to pursue this with a stranger, but I am in the dojo 3x a week, and it seems to make the most sense that I do this stuff here. So, next challenge I want to start the dojo weight lifting. * learn the pull-ups. I'll be 40 in April. It would be cool if I were closer to doing pull-ups than I am now. um. so I can scale a tree and steal a beehive for the honey. or something bear related. this looks like: hanging from a bar and pulling in my shoulders every day I'm home. pull-up assist machine / bands a few times a week, or, pull-up negatives. but the key is REGULAR. * track my food more carefully. Hibernating bears don't need to eat, but apparently I am a human. I've been slacking on the lose-it logging, and I need to get back into a habit of doing it more frequently. I still am trying to dial in a little on my weight/fitness/bodyshape. * check in on my goals! hard learned obvious lesson of the summer/fall: if you don't check your goals, you won't actually do anything to achieve them. DO THE THING WITH THE GOALS. no bear context here. do bears have goals? I mean, beside hibernation? regular stuff will occur, that being: running outside when I can, doing tkd 2-3x a week, dojo saturdays etc. Ideally I'm active 5-6 days a week. ONWARDS AND UPWARDS. (RAWWWRRRRR)

Alright, I’m starting my first challenge here with Nerd Fitness. I’m new to the site and have never done this, so bear with me. I’ll try to make it interesting. So, after being sealed in the sacred realm for 7 years, Rhia (Link) has gained quite a bit of weight and is in no shape to become the Hero of Time and save Hyrule from the tyranny of Gannondorf. So now it is time for Rhia to gather her courage and head out on her quest to train and get into shape for the safety of the realm. It does no good for the Hero of Time to be late. While Rhia needs her beauty sleep, sleeping in is not acceptable. Every morning she should be on time and ready train! First step is getting out of bed and being ready to face whatever monsters and challenges are in Hyrule! Goal #1: By the end of the challenge, get up out of bed without hitting the snooze button. While Rhia may cut grass for rupees, she must not forget that vegetables are also important. Vegetables, while at first seemingly distasteful, can give Rhia the energy she needs to train her muscles and sword skills to perfection. Goal #2: Eat vegetables with at least 2 meals each week week. Ok, so we’ve got out of bed and had vegetables for energy. Now it’s time to get serious and train. Strength training is no laughing matter. How can Rhia take on the temples and bosses required to free the sages, if she is not strong enough? Training begins here and now! Goal #3: Go to the gym and strength train at least 4 days a week. Thus we begin the Legend of RhiaWolfe in her quest to save Hyrule and bring peace to the land. Will she make it? Can she fulfill her tasks as necessary to reach her goals? Or will the land be taken over by the darkness… stay tuned for more.

At the end of week 1, my job will be moving up to London, and I've decided to follow my job which is going to be a big change in my life. I'll be going from a short drive to work to over an hour on the train each way, I'll be working in a new office with new people I don't know, the work itself will likely be changing (although I've got no idea on the plan or timescales for that). It's going to be a busy month, but I want to keep a challenge running to keep me from going off the rails, and also to give me more excuse to keep up with you wonderful people. Going to try and keep it simple and just keep checking in. Forewarning that this may not be the most upbeat or cheerful thread this challenge, so if you don't like listening to people whine it may be one to avoid. Keep Lifting - Lift 12+ times this challenge - 15XP This one shouldn't be too hard, I really enjoy my lifting program so I should be able to keep up with it. I will need to cancel my gym membership and join a new gym in London, because the current place doesn't open early enough for me to go there before I would have to get on the train. So gym shopping in week 2 could be fun! Don't drink like a dickhead- 15XP Since I found out my job was effectively being sold, I've been depressed, stressed and so very very angry. Unfortunately I do have a tendency to drink my feelings when things aren't going well. Add into that that insurance, and particularly the London market, is an area where heavy drinking is actively encouraged as part of building professional relationships. Then add in working with new people and needing to get to know them which will undoubtedly lead to office drinks. All in all the best outcome if I drink like a dickhead is that I make myself ill, and sad, and fat. Worst case I do that plus I do or say something so stupid I live to regret it. I have a vague mental list of things that count as drinking like a dickhead, including drinking at home (either before or after a night out), drinking beer that I'm not enjoying. If I have more than 5 pints I may well be drinking like a dickhead. If I have more than 6 I almost certainly am. If I find myself getting morose or getting angry I am to stop drinking and take myself the fuck home. Skill Work - 12+ times this challenge - 15XP I've been kind of inspired by the handstand stuff going on with NF at the moment. I haven't bought the programs, but I do want to work on wall walks and crow pose this month as progression towards a handstand. I've also been looking for a chance to work on L-sits for a few months now, so that will count too. Please send me any resources you have on these things. I will definitely be referring to these two: https://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2016/10/17/a-beginners-guide-to-handstands/#more-1342745 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUZJoSP66HI (floor l-sit progression) Bullet Journaling - Daily - 10XP I really like the idea of this, it looks to be a simple way to keep track of life (and of challenge goals!), to keep a to-do list running, and hopefully make me a more productive human. I played with it last challenge before everything fell apart a bit, so I thought I would make it a goal this time to see if I can stick with it. That's all folks, wish me luck!

Playing off the oo-rah vibe from GI Jane this challenge. Because she is a badass and I also wish to be a badass. Food-rah: I have been improving greatly from where I used to be (see- multiple fast foods/day, 2L lemonade without even blinking type mess), HOWEVER, it is 9weeks into the 12week challenge that I’m part of at the gym and I’ve lost 500g. I know that’s because I’ve traded in a bunch of fat for muscle instead but I really want badass ‘before and after’*ahem* (during) photos and stats at the end of that challenge. As such- I will be keeping a food diary, photographing every single thing that goes in and being accountable to good behaviour with a variance each week for Monday night game night, and 3 ‘spare’ variances across the whole challenge. I can’t outtrain bad eating, so I need to restrict a bit for this challenge (then loosen up a bit to more sustainability for the lifegoals). I will use MFP to track with a goal of 5858kilojules/1400cal per day (MFP’s suggested to lose a kg/week). Gym-rah: Continue on this 100% of challenge days streak. So far I haven’t missed a single one. I want to continue that streak right on to the end. This will be Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays every week until 19th Nov, plus one Saturday in zero week and one in the challenge. That’s 14 opportunities to smash it. I've already smashed 40 so far. Easy peas. Life-rah: I will adopt @Tanktimus the Encourager's weekly domestic rangering list (do laundry, clean bathroom and kitchen and mop and vacuum once per week) a lot of this will be done on Sunday/Monday afternoon as we host the weekly DnD night at our house on a Monday evening. For the purpose of this challenge ‘do laundry’ includes FOLD and PUT AWAY. Sunday evening I will post photos of any piles of shame for people to mock mercilessly. This is not a hard step, and yet it is where I always fall down. I am focussing on improving my life, why? Because I want to have a life worth living. There is no point getting up just to go to work, to come home to sleep. I want to feel good, I want to look good. This is not a punishment, this is a deal: do better, be better. Ooh-Rah!

I think I used the Princess Bride for theme in ages past. Who cares? It's a brand new challenge, and I'm coming off a win for a change. Stayed with it for the whole challenge, didn't fizzle out at the end and officially leveled up and earned money for my Motiva-ca-tion Fund (it's a savings account now, not just a jar ). I've been in the Assassin's Guild for ages before the Adventurers became official (SOOO looking forward to the Assassin's Creed movie coming up), so I have an affinity for men in black. If I ever hope to follow in the footsteps of my favorite man in black - The Dread Pirate Roberts aka Westley - I need to continue my training in the proper direction. Goal 1- Scale the Cliffs of Insanity! I have bought and paid for at least five trips to Adventure Rock, and they've opened a second gym that is shiny new and awesome, and much closer to me than the other location. I've had some back issues this summer, but I've been pretty solid for at least the past 6 weeks, so I think I'm ready to start climbing again. I'm nowhere near 'Insanity' level, but i gotta start somewhere, right? - Go climbing four times - BOUNTY = $10 Goal 2 - Defeat the R.O.U.S.'s I know of no Rodents of Unusual Size in my neighborhood, though of course they DO exist. That's why my R.O.U.S.s are Regions of Unusual Shambles. I'm really quite a messy person with a lot of crap that I need to get rid of. This seems like more of a 'life goal' than a diet and fitness goal, but it's really not. Housecleaning burns calories same as any other fitness activity, and it comes with the added bonus of making my home a better place to work on all my other goals. It's hard to do a work-out in the living room when you can barely walk through it. Hard to cook a healthy meal when you can't find the counter, or clean dishes for that matter. Yes, I suck. I go in cycles on the cleanliness of my apartment and right now I'm on the bottom end of the cycle, my nadir. I can't promise that at the end of the month everything will look House Beautiful, but I intend to make the improvements noticeable. I'll post before and after picture of each R.O.U.S. that I'm tackling. Since this goal needs some extra motivation for me to do, I'm upping the bounty, but I also increased the number from four to five so I get extra improvement for my dollar. - Take down five R.O.U.S.s = BOUNTY = $20 Goal 3 - Survive the Pit of Despair I joined a new gym. I went to it quite often for my last challenge but not at all during my week off. The machines at the gym aren't as bad as the machines in the Pit of Despair, but sometimes I feel a bit like Wesley being tortured. Regardless, that's no excuse not to go. The more often I go, the stronger I'll get, torture or not. - Workout at the gym 10 times - Bounty = $10 Goal 4 - Follow advise from Miracle Max and Valerie Miracle Max and his lovely wife Valerie are way older than most people living in Florin. Why? I think it's because they eat right and they enjoy food. Max appreciates a good MLT, when the mutton is nice and lean, and the tomatoes are ripe. And Valerie wisely knows that a little chocolate helps things go down better. Last challenge I was trying to track my food, which is an important strategy on Weight Watchers. But I really really really hate tracking my food. That's why I'm excited to try a different technique that Weight Watchers offers. It's called Simply Filling and it's basic foods are listed here if you're interested. So I'm looking to follow the plan, with a couple of allowances in the chocolate/sweets variety to help it go down better. I have sugar-free pudding to go with the sugar-fee gelatin, fat free Cool whip, and some fat free cream cheese to help expand my dessert options. I hope to make a few low point goodies to keep me on track. And the plan does allow for 7 points worth of food that doesn't fit the plan per day which can be banked over the course of a week for special occasions (49 points per week), so I'm going to work that to allow for treats here and there. Follow the Simply Filling technique at least 16 days - BOUNTY = $10 BONUS Have Fun Storming the Castle! Just like last time around with the Treat Yo Self bonus quests, I've chosen some other activities that can earn me extra bounties along the way, EXPLORE! - $1 for every new place I visit and explore SLEEP! - $1 for 5 nights of at least 7 hours of sleep FLOSS! = $1 for 5 nights of adding flossing to my bedtime routine DRINK! = $1 for 5 days of drinking at least 64 oz of water COOK! = $1 for each new recipe I try CHECK-IN = $1 for 5 times checking in on my progress MINGLE = $1 for 3 times liking or commenting other people's challenge threads. PLANK = $1 for 5 minutes of planking.

Highmountain: Moose Cows. Moose Cows that are all about balance, nature and keeping those Pesky Harpies and Drogbar in their place. I can't think of anything to do with this one, so I'm calling it my WoW/Fun goal. I am the main tank for my Saturday night Raid team and I need to have gear, food and flasks ready for raid night and I also want to be on my A game when we get shit started. Daily: Heroics, World Quests, One Mythic, one episode of a show to just curl up with my gf and chill Weekly: research the fights so I can be awesome, and down shit faster so we can make progession and not spend two hours on one boss getting angry. As needed: Farming for food, upgrade materials and helping other raiders get shit done Stormheim: If there was ever a place or a race of people in WoW that I have wanted to play more it is the Vrykul. They are heavily Norse themed half giants and very war like. I'm no big on the war aspect of their race, but the super strong giant part seems pretty badass. So I'm making this my strength goal for the challenge. Their homeland in Stormheim is a mixture of cliffs, mountains, valleys and broken multilevel areas of mini cliffs. They have huge grappling hooks set into the cliffs that they use to help them climb and move across deep canyons in the land. I'm going to keep this mostly as body weight work and stair climbing. I'm on the 7th floor and I really hate climbing stairs so I'm going to make a point of doing it on my way home from work during the week. Body weight work: pushups (modified), squats, pull ups, etc 3x/week 7 flights of stairs daily Monday-Friday Gym 2x per week for anything at all, at least 1.5 hours of work each visit. Val'Sharah: The druids of Val'Sharah are currently deep in a battle with a mass of satyrs who are trying to spread Nightmare corruption all over the land from the now horribly corrupted Emerald Dream. I have a terrible track record of getting decent and consistent sleep and while I like knowing that I can go a decade or so on about 4-5 hours of sleep a night for the most part, I'd rather not continue doing so. Sunday - Thursday night in bed at 9 pm, not saying asleep at 9 pm, but aiming for sleep at 9 pm no fucking exceptions. Naps: taken when needed but for no longer than 2 hours or I'll throw off my 9 pm bed time goals. Friday and Saturday night: get at least 7 hours of sleep. Don't care when I go to sleep, but not less than 7 hours of sleep. Azsuna: This place is the most broken looking of the isles. It is filled with undead nigh elves who are unable to really die, murlocks... soooooo many murlocks, Naga, Giants and a decent amount of Blue dragons as well as a few scattered Nightborne elves from Suramar and their Withered. The main group I have been working with is the Court of Farondis, a faction of the undead elves who have been stuck in a limbo of undeath for oh.... 10 000 years or so. One of of their group is a drunken alchemist who is trying to break their curse with insane food. Or he's just drunk as hell and likes to cook, who knows. make my own food as much as possible, cooking sauces are acceptable, fully made meals are not. no ordering out for dinner more than once every two weeks. no cookies at work period. None. Zip zilch nadda. I'm done. no pop at home unless it is a single can/glass/bottle on the night we order out. Suramar: The elves of Suramar are an extremely proud race, they look down on all outsiders and have the most absolutely beautiful city in the game to date. I don't like the insane pride or how messed up and unbalanced their society is, the excesses of the rich and the brutal suffering of the poor, but I do enjoy their city. It is hands down the prettiest place in the entirety of WoW to date. So this is going to be a vanity based challenge focused on myself and my home. My room mates are not reliable for cleaning things often, well or without being kind of bitchy about things, so I'm going to tackle more cleaning around here. They will either notice and start to help, or I'll just become a total boss at keeping shit tidy which is good for me. As for myself, I am just so sick and tired of having terrible skin. I'm 31 and I still get acne flare ups. While I know that this has little to do with my age and more to do with my hormones, diet, general health and environment I still need to make a serious effort towards trying to prevent it from getting horrible. Also I ruin my hands at work and I don't want to add ragged fingernails to the mix. Daily: home: sweeping, dishes, throwing out full trash bins me: full skin care work and flossing my teeth Weekly: home: bathroom, vacuuming, pet areas total clean up me: nail maintenance, face mask and insane moisturizing As needed: home: mopping floors, cleaning windows, dusting less used areas of the house me: maintaining my fabulously colourful hair and trimming the back as it grows back out. I don't think rocking a neon blue mullet is gonna look good on me Tracking: daily post of what I'm up to the five following posts will be for each section of my challenge final wrap up? Maybe we'll see if I'm still around by the end.

As stated, this challenge is about starting again. Albeit a little late to the party compared to most people. I have neglected my health and fitness to focus on being lazy and eating a lot of rubbish, if not delicious, food. It has been a while since my last challenge and I have a habit of doing some challenges and then not doing any for a while. I think this just suits my life. As it stands, I was planning to get back into the swing of things tomorrow (26th) so this challenge is well timed. So today doesn't really count though my partner and I did do a meal plan for the next few nights (until our weekly veg box arrives) and went food shopping mainly in the vegetable aisles. I am going to focus on the following points: Exercise This one I haven't done too badly on recently. But I need to keep building on it. Go to the gym at least once a week Walk at least 10,000 steps a day (as measured by my fitbit) Do yoga once a week I think this is definitely achievable. Going to the gym once a week does not sound like very much but in reality it will just be one week that is like that; I should be going at least twice. I have an Atlas wristband to test out as well which has only had one gym use. So I will use this challenge as an opportunity to test it out and report back. Walking 10,000 steps isn't going to get me fit by itself but it keeps me active and is definitely more of a challenge on days off. So, at least for the rest of the challenge, I am going to get up and dressed to go for morning walks on my days off. I accidentally done this recently and made sure I got stuff done the rest of the day so I am going to mirror it this challenge and see if it helps. Yoga because yoga. It keeps me flexible and mindful. I definitely need to get this back into my routine. Diet This is one area that I have been doing pretty badly on. I have had some good days but then the next day I can eat a ridiculous amount of rubbish. Make lunches for work again. Cheaper and healthier. Track what I eat and make sure I am eating a varied diet (not just carbs unfortunately) Eat vegetables every day (that is a challenge at the moment) Making my lunch for work ties together my diet and life goals together. I do have to do some research and vary what I make though as I tend to make the same thing. I just want to make something the night before work that will keep for the next four days, is easy to make and has a good helping of protein. I don't ask for much, right? My diet recently has mostly just been varients of carbs for a while. I need to make sure I am sticking to my macros and not just eating rubish. Some rubbish is allowed though. I track with MFP with altered calorie goals; I may be small but 1450 cal is not enough for me. I am not too worried about going over as long as I am making better food choices. Life Money - don't spend any money on non-essentials for the challenge. Put spending on my spreadsheet. Writing - plan what I am writing for NaNoWriMo. Attempt to write every day. Time - spend my time being more productive and not just wasting it all on Tumblr or Facebook. I have been terrible with money recently and really need to get myself sorted. It means I can't go to the Edinburgh meet up despite wanting to. I am not going to buy anything I don't need. The only thing I am allowed to buy is a bluetooth keyboard for my iPad as I did buy one but Amazon failed to deliver it. It is for NaNo to enable me to write at work and such when carrying my laptop would be too much hassle. I also need to work a system out to deal with writing on a windows laptop and an iPad. I have my idea for NaNo and it is something I want to develop after NaNo and keep working on so I need to actually plan this one to a degree. I think that is fairly simple and should be able to actually stick to this one.