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Hi, friends! I know someone started a thread about this on Facebook, but I can't find it anywhere. Who's on Habitica? Has someone already started a Nerd Fitness party on there for questing?

I never managed to complete my first 6 week challenge last year due to failing my exams and pushing everything aside to prep for the resits (I passed btw!). So now that I'm in a better place and not so depressed, I've decided it's time to stop wallowing in junk food and get back into gear with baby steps whilst still keeping my grades as my focus. The thing I struggle most with is food. Like many people here, I love the taste of all foods that are unhealthy. I tried the paleo diet for two days and I guess the transition was too abrupt, but it was horrible. Growing up with strong flavours with heaping amounts of salt, sugar and rice, I can safely say that diving into the paleo lifestyle was doomed to fail. So baby steps starts with simple goals. I won't start with exercise, because I know my diet requires the most work and the phrase "you can't outrun your fork" is gospel around here. I want to sort that out first. So in 7 days, I want to proudly say I have achieved the three following goals every day: 1. Avoided the traditional midnight junk food binge at work 2. Say "I don't eat [insert unhealthy food here]" instead of "I can't" or "I shouldn't", in particular I want to avoid cakes, chips, overly processed meats (frankfurter sausages and salami are great examples), pies, biscuits and chocolate drinks. Considering I don't eat them much (maybe 3-4 times if they're available) it shouldn't be too hard to do. 3. Reduce my portion size by NOT seeking second or third servings of my meals. (and not grabbing the extra large plate from the cupboard and pile that up instead) I'll keep track of any problems I meet whilst trying to achieve these goals here each day, along with how I overcame them or how I plan to eliminate that problem in future so it doesn't happen again. As with NF's post on willpower, these goals are really going to challenge that. As baseline, I'm currently BMI 27.5 (female who doesn't do a smidgeon of exercise). I aim to be BMI 20 as is appropriate for my genetics. I am aware that I shouldn't put too much stock into BMI considering it can be inaccurate with regards to muscle mass, however considering the distinct lack of muscles that I have right now and my focus on fixing my dietary habits, I'd say it's an accurate enough tool for me right now. I will change how I measure my progress once I start adding in exercise to my goals.

[Oh crap, I thought I had another week to get ready! o0! - ed.] Main Quest: Become My Own Hero In celebration of the recent completion of my first (and certainly not last) career in Mass Effect, I’m joining N7! I briefly considered going for one of the “pure†classes, but quickly thought better of it and rolled up a Vanguard - ME’s answer to the classic fighter/mage. My Shepard was a real sweetheart, friend to all living things, and a synthetic’s worst nightmare. Naturally, I relied heavily on the assistance of my crack engineering team, Tali and Garrus, but this challenge is based on the Vanguard skills that got Shep the farthest in his mission. tl;dnr Throw -3min Kip Up practice, 5 days/week Charm - 30 min/week creative writing practice Unity - Loving-Kindness Meditation, 2x/week Barrier - Stomach Vacuums, 4x15s 3x/week Shotguns - All HabitRPG Dailies complete everyday. Let’s get versatile!

Main Quest: Become My Own Hero In my last challenge, I assembled a ragtag team of freedom fighters to stand up against their oppressors, who happened to have the support of the galaxy-renowned peacekeeping and security contractor “The Beast of Eschatonâ€. We won the battle, but there is still much to do before we win the war.... In light of its recent defeat and the news that our rebellion has acquired backing and new weapons from a group of fabulously wealthy and equally anonymous donors, the BoE has called in reinforcements from off-world to wipe us out. We’ve managed to hack their database and get some intel - it’s not much, but what we’ve seen isn’t pretty. These guys are good - real good. A straight-up spec-ops team, armed to the teeth and covered in kill-silhouettes. It’s kind of flattering, really, if you think about it... Anyway, it’s going to take tactics, preparation and a whole lot of nerve to pull this one off. Let’s take a closer look at what we know about the enemy, and how to deal with them. tl;dnr Artillery Ape: Prop-free skills training sessions, 2x/week Gatling Raptor: Prep 1+ build/week for Repubrick.com Phantom Mantis: Mindful Coffee 7 days/week. The S.W.A.R.M.: Complete all HabitRPG Dailies 7 days/week. Yeeeeaaah, this is how we roll. Let’s get versatile!

[i think there should be a prize for having the longest challenge intro post. I think I’d be a contender... -ed.] Mobile Frame Zero is a tabletop war game played with lots of multicolored dice and customized robot armies made of LEGO, engaged in a full-contact capture-the-flag battle (there’s so much Nerd-Force in that sentence, I blew out three keyboard trying to type it. o0;). The rules and setting are suitably dorky and complex, so I’ll leave it to you to decide how much you want to try to understand them, but the important part here is that customized LEGO robot armies are awesome. I think we can all agree on that. Confession: I’ve never actually played this game, but I love the concept so much that I’ve made a hobby of designing mobile frames and sharing them on Flickr. Main Quest: Become My Own Hero If you’ve been to one of my threads before, you probably know where this is going. My Red Mage balance-lust can never be sated, so when thinking about how I might build a company of frames to field in a game, I was compelled to create a group of specialized individuals that add up to a well-rounded whole. There are risks to this approach, of course, but those can be minimized with flexible tactics. I love me some tactics. tl;dnr Front-Liner: Explosive drills 5x/week Fire Support: Foam rolling 2x/week Assault: Rope Dart Target Practice 3x/week Scout: Sleight of hand tricks 2x/week Rifleman: HabitRPG goals met 7x/week Generalist: Mini Challenge Let’s get versatile!

Hey Guys! So, I'm back and ready to start this challenge. I would definetely call my last challenge a success, but I was not so great at updating my thread. I hope that by incorporating that into one my mini-quests, I can be more successful on that front. I'm finding that I am least successful when my quests include home workouts. I'd like to change that. So, I'm looking for lots of accountability on that front and in order to get that accountability, I kinda need to update. So yeah . . . .without further ado . . . Main Quest: 1 Unassisted Pull-up Mini-Quest 1: Long story short - I have a severe anxiety disorder which I only recently got back under control. In order to help with that, I had to make a med change. The med change means that I'm on a high dose of a med which is a known weight-loss inhibitor and weight-gainer. Not. Cool. The only thing that "may" counteract this (according to my doc) is high-intensity endurance training, so I am working on a couch to 10K program. While I am certainly not new to running, having completed a half-marathon less than 18 months ago, I figured this would be a great way to kickstart everything. I will award myself 3 Stamina points if I can finish the zero-10K program (i.e. run 60 minutes non-stop) by the end of this challenge. Mini-Quest 2: Accountability! I started using HabitRPG and have fell in love with it! So, I added updating NF to my dailies as an every-other-day task. While this will give me an immediate consequence if I don't update (i.e. lost health), I'm hoping that it will eventually lead me to update all the time here and get more support for those at-home workouts which seem so difficult for me! I've decided that if I can post 32 times during this challenge, (after this), I will consider it a success and award myself 3 Charisma points. Mini-Quest 3: Dove-tailing with at-home workout difficulty, I plan on doing either band-assisted pull-ups or push-ups every day throughout the challenge. 3 Strength points. Mind-Body Quest: Stretch and/or meditate at least 3 x's a week. 1.5 points each dexterity & wisdom. I'm hoping to increase flexibility and calm my mind. Life (i.e. stay-sane) Quest: Read (or listen) to at least 1 book that is not a presidential biography for 3 Charisma points. ***** Well, I must say I am a little worried about fitting everything in during the beginning of the Challenge as my wife is away at grad school for the first 9 days of the challenge. . . Solo parenting! As long as the kids get healthy (and stay healthy) I think I can do it!

Two weeks until the next challenge? Challenge accepted! MAIN QUEST To neatly pack my mental baggage for the next challenge period... Strip my calendar and HabitRPG of low-priority activities. Replace them with my current schedule of training [including blocked off times to train at home] and add to fill holes in practice. Ensure there is one day of recovery.Define goals in aerial hoop, contortion, and dance. Write daily homework to approach each of these goals (and if not already doing, start), brainstorm positive reinforcement reward systemsTake daily notes (even if minimal) in order to get into the habit of checking in with the world. Take pictures/video to illustrate SIDE QUESTS Life: Take photos - I require more pictorial evidence for alibis, progress tracking, promotion, and pleasureStudies: Continue studying ambitious rigging standards for weird, life-supporting art projectsFitness: Self-care - daily foam rolling, monthly massage/PT appts, hot packs MOTIVATION Haley Viloria, Sabrina Aganier, Bunny Holmes, Seanna Sharpe, Mike Estee, Karl Gillick Be the freak you wish to see in the circus