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*waves* Hey y'all! Veyva here and this is my first challenge. I'm really trying to create some good habits and routines to get through my day, feel better physically and manage my time. I'm a busy girl who does ALL THE THINGS but I need to get more organized. Especially with organizing my time. As its my first challenge, I'd like to start pretty simple. Here goes: DIET -Drink 64 oz of water at work a day. I'm TERRIBLE about drinking water so I need to get my hydration on. -Eat a salad 3x a week. I need more leafy greens in my diet FITNESS -Hula Hoop for 15 min a day for 5 days a week. i love to hula hoop but have fallen off the wagon. It's festival season so I need to get on that. LIFE -Be on time at least 5x a week I am late ALL THE TIME and it's starting to bug me. It's trickling down to work and to social outings. This is a huge challenge for me as I do so many things and dont manage my time. Let's see how this goes. I will post thoughts and small victories as well as weekly updates! Veyva

Quick intro! I'm karinajean, 38, live in NY state, commute to NJ about an hour each way (so lots of time in the car). I joined the NFA in October 2013 and over the last 2 years I've gone from 206 to around 180. I practice tae kwon do several times a week, take weapons and boxing classes in addition, and have an overarching fitness goal of doing good form push- and pull-ups. I have a crazy mean (yet super sweet) cat and live with my husband full time and my stepdudes 1/2 time. I motorcycle, knit and spin, and am endlessly ignoring how messy the house is. I'm an ASSASSIN because I like doing all the things, and because I want to be able to do push-ups and pull-ups -- these seem like very efficient movements that will exercise my upper body and core, and if I can do those and run and do martial arts (NINJA) I will feel totally strong and fit and capable. The MERMAID comes in because I saw it in a dream when I was a very young child and I believe it. And! it's my 39th birthday on April 15! challenge backstory! I've been here at NF for just about 2 years (nerdiversary on april 14th!) and lately I've been working on my SHOWING UP. I'm trying to believe that my baseline level of activity is actually worthy of being considered ACTIVITY (can you believe I have imposter syndrome around this?) and that I just need to show up and keep on keepin' on to stay healthy, happy, and fit. Goals! Goal 1: keep eating and tracking I still don't have hazard-quality information about how my body uses food. Honestly, I may NEVER have hazard-quality information about how my body uses food... but I want to grow the karinajean database of information. but! I need to add to this. progress status photos and measurements on a weekly basis, please. Goal 2: keep using my calendar tracking system and keep doing the things and telling you about them. I like this calendar tracking plan. it works for me pretty nicely. Goal 3: Show up and have fun! it's spring, y'all! I need to just show up and have fun! like, here, in my back yard, at my birthday party, on the weekends, in the library with a candlestick (oh wait).... Larger items to pay attention to: * having a birthday party with hula hoop instructor on APRIL 16. * 4th degree black belt test still tentatively scheduled for MAY * currently training for a 10K to be run on MAY 15 * it's spring and my yard is a mess and I need to BUY AND PLANT SOME BIG TREES * I need to get my attic dry-walled. it's a big deal and is going to be a huge pain (because there's currently things in it) but it is TIME. you know what will be fun? when this is OVER. * oh, and my motorcycle! we got the tarp off of them last night (thanks strong winds) and I need to FIX THE THROTTLE CABLE and RIDE IT EVERYWHERE.

Hello everyone! Many assassins will know me, because I have partaken in quite a few of their challenges. I haven't finished them all, and sometimes the 6 week challenges are hard for me to keep up. Which is why I want to try out a battlelog. When I'm not here, I miss you guys. But the challenges can give me a bit too much pressure. I still hope that I will once in a while participate in challenges, but for now a battlelog it is! Meow! What I will do in my battlelogs: Every Sunday/Monday I will give a summary of the previous week. The summary consists of all the activity I did (workouts, stretching, play time). It MAY contain how much fruit/vegetables I ate, I will try out how that works for me. Logging my food can get me back into obsessing too much about food and I don't want that. But I will just try to figure out what works for me! I am very happy to be back even though it's not in a challenge as per usual <3 Oh, and in case you guys wanted to know what inspired me to come back RIGHT NOW as opposed to every other time…. Two days ago I went poledancing with a friend. And all you crazy assassin friends that are into pole, or aerial, or circus… I get it. It finally COMPLETELY clicked. Playtime. It was SUCH fun! I need playtime. I need to make my body a hobby, do fun things..! I did a standard spin around the pole that I don't know the name of, and the fireman spin, and I even went upside down in what I think is the standard inversion, just kick your legs up basically. In the end I dared letting go of one hand even, and I was probably firmly enough in position to release the second but I didn't dare. But it was HUGE for me. Before the lesson I thought there was possibly no way that I would dare going upside down. But I talked to my friend (not about that concern per se) and she said the first thing that really helped her in poledancing was just DOING it not being scared because it really stagnates your progress. And I'm usually a wuss, but I decided not to be a wuss that day. Did I already mention how much I loved it?! It was SO MUCH FUN! I'm going to Paris, so I don't have the money and also there's no point starting lessons when I'll be leaving in a few months anyway… But when I get back I might have to get pole lessons! One day right?

It's me again! The people who have been following me last challenge know I didn't complete it. In fact I disappeared, going into full blown hiding. Which I am really good at! And although I am quite proud of that assassin skill, it is important not to hide from fellow assassins! So that's why I'm coming out of hiding again, and making sure I will stay out of hiding for the duration of this challenge! Uhhh... Nope still hiding... Wait I know how to unhide... I can do this! Close enough? I suppose so... So right, yeah, goals! Not too many this time, I wanted to do a bazillion things. Because I'm great at planning intricately busy things. And then the 'doing it' part comes along and I feel like meh.... So! Not too many goals this time. Just two. WOOOOO JUMP RIGHT INTO THE GOALS Goal 1: GMB Focused Flexibility (and any extra work I want to do ) DAILY Goal 2: Wrist Warmup + Frogger (at least 3 times a week) Video link for the wrist warmup: https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=235&v=mSZWSQSSEjE Page link for GMB frogger practice: http://gmb.io/frogger-handstand/ During the challenge I will still be doing Stronglifts, which I definitely still am in love with! So you might get updates of that. I will also keep doing hiking training, because I just need to. And and and I will also do some hooping! But the good thing is, I don't have to update on those, and I don't have to do them. But I can! Things are more fun when you don't have to do them right? HIGH FIVE! LETS DO THIS! Pssst and a little bit of motivation for everyone!

Time for some déjà vu: What do you do when your 2014 resolution was to lose 10 pounds and then you end up gaining 10 pounds instead? Pick yourself up and try again. So here I am, picking myself back up and continuing on my goal to get healthy. Overall, I want to be smaller. I know that my measurements will become smaller but the scale could go up. This is something I constantly struggle with. Since 8th grade I’ve been trying to get the scale to go down (yup, I was an 8th grader drinking SlimFast for breakfast). And with doctors constantly hounding me to lose weight, it is ingrained in my head that the scale needs to go down. So, yes, I want to lose weight, but I want/need to become stronger. My goal is to be 2-3 inches smaller in all my measurements (waist, arms, thighs, hips). If I lose weight in the process, yay! If not, well, you may need to talk some sense back into me. So here we go for Challenge Number 7: Main 3 goals: Track food 5 days a week This is to see if I’m actually eating healthy and the right portion sizes. Obviously something isn’t working. Strength Train 3x a week (MWF) Hey guys! Remember when I couldn’t even do it once a week? I’m now doing it 2x consistently! Go me! Now to add another day Swim at least 1x a week, 2x if body can handle it (TTH) If not swim, hoop! I really, really want to start hooping again, but being insecure at the gym I just haven’t. So, if I’m not swimming that week, I need to hoop! The weather is starting to get warmer so I can start doing it in the garage again. Scoring: Each Main Goal will be graded on a scale of A-F. Fully completed will get an A while never even attempted will get an F. Partially completed or half assed attempted will get somewhere in the B-D range. EDIT 4/10: Adding in a mini challenge!!!! I'm going to see how long I can go without peeling off a fingernail. When I get bored or stress I start picking at my fingernails and then end up just peeling them off. So, I bought nail polish last night when I was at CVS and my hope is that maybe it will curb this habit if I actually have pretty nails. Just going to take this one day at a time. No pass or fail. But I will reward myself with something if I can go all 6 weeks

Meow! As a fierce assassin cat you need to be able to blend in anywhere.... And Lilith's next assassin assignment is to defeat Team Rocket, in their attempt to control the region! The way to come closer to them is to cartwheel, because that way Lilith's dodge skills are highly increased! Also, it looks so cute of course that Team Rocket will be lured into NOT attacking, like this: Then the little assassin cat also needs to be strong, in order to do a lot of damage! Soooo how will I achieve those things? Well here are my goals: Goal 1: Do Stronglifts 3x per week. Goal 2: Do Third World Squat every day. Goal 3: Finish my Cartwheel Checklist (scroll down for the checklist) every week Goal 4: Hooping 1x per week. Quite a lot, no? Cartwheel checklist is based on the things written in http://gmb.io/cartwheel/ Hollow Body Plank 1x Frogger hopping 1x Wrist exercises 1x Triangle Pose 3x Half Pancake Sidebend 1x Pancake 1x Cartwheel 1x Obviously more would be better, but I don't want to overdo it. If I WANT to do more that's fine obviously, but I don't have to. So that's it!

Hello, I’m Tami and this is my first challenge! Over the past couple of years I’ve been consistently adding on the pounds. Currently, I weigh 25 pounds over my ‘normal weight.’ I lack motivation to do anything. Usually start off great with most things and lose steam mid-way! This time I am really going to try to accomplish something (six week challenge) with results (losing 5 pounds)! I like the idea of ‘accountability’ and hoping this will help me stay on track and focus on what I want to achieve. Main Quest To lose 10 lbs by the end of the six week challenge. My Plan to do this is: Do the Beginners Body Workout (Mon-Wed-Friday) Do 15-30 mins yoga (Tue-Thu) Swim or Surf (Sat & Sun) Practice hooping daily 10-15 minutesSide Quests: Side quest #1: Track what I eat – keep a food log, starting with the six week challenge Side quest #2: Learn how to hoop. I’ve always wanted to learn to hoop and finally got around to buying one yesterday! Motivation I’m finally tired of feeling tired & being lazy I want to look & feel good, get strong, fit and more active!

Lilith the Assassin Cat wants to get STRONG A proper assassin should be able to fight, to pounce, to kill. Lilith the kitten grew up to be a stealthy, agile, smart cat. However, not a very strong one. Her latest assassination of the stealer of boxes ended up like this: Which tired the target out some, but didn't make him unable to breathe, or steal Lilith's favourite treats afterwards. So Lilith realized she had to learn how to channel her inner lion. And how do you do that? By getting STRONG. Lilith undercover to learn from lions: ------- Okay in all seriousness now guys. I am an assassin. I just know it, I just feel it. However, I have ALWAYS (alright, probably not always, but for a very long time now!) wanted to do weightlifting. I just like it, I want to have great abs and booty and everything nice and muscular and I want to be strong! Assassins are all about workout at home, workout everywhere. I ordered/build my own homegym and I am going to follow Stronglifts 5x5. If that is not enough to remain assassiny, I am also going to work on my third world squats and I still do climbing, hooping, yoga, all the craziness you can expect basically! So my goals are: Stronglifts 5x5. So weightlifting three times a week. My lifting days will be Monday, Wednesday, Saturday but I go to Paris for an interview soon and that will wreck the schedule completely, so I will try to fix that by being creative on which days I workout then. Third world squat. Work on it every day. Python programming: work on it for at least 1 pomodoro (25 minutes) every week. Non goals but definitely things I will be doing: Hooping Stretching Yoga Bouldering Toprope climbing I missed you guys so badly! It's hard to log challenges and spend the time on it etc etc and I will do my best not to flake but your company is the thing that really matters to me. <3 Together we will conquer the world! I love you guys!

So, I'm back. Or at least trying too and with a real challenge for a change. I've been in a dark zone these past few month, well, I'm still am. For reasons, I stopped gradually reading my mails, using skype, going out to see friends because I want to avoid the "How are you doing?" question, visiting my forums, reading my emails and finally not even opening my inbox anymore. I was once a developer and recently I couldn't even see a line of code without freaking out, no need to say, my professional life is not good at all. But that's part of things I don't want to speak about right now ANYWAY, challenge #IHaveNoIdea, the theme is: Getting my life back on track! My weapons are: Take it slowly! Crawl, don't try to run (seriously don't)! Life goal: I will start with that because it's the most important thing for now. To get my life back on track, I need to know what I want to do. Quite difficult task because when you're in the dark nothing really tempt you. For now I have to catch on all that I should have done when stuck in my dark zone, meaning I have some people to re-contact and that will be really hard. Easy start: - Contact people that I have not avoided until now a bit more. - Be more active on the forums - Give frequents news to my family (especially because they are freaking out because of the terrorists attacks in Paris.) Goal #1: Determine if I want to have my Bento business on. Friends are supportive, people are happy with my services but I see it slowing down and am not sure it's worth it. So I have 6 weeks to start or drop. Goal #2: Hoop, hoop and hoop more. IF I decide to keep on the bento business it's unlikely that I'll make that full time. My target customers are people in offices, so it would be only for lunches and I would have part of my afternoon free. I usually hoop at the climbing gym and many people there asked me if I was giving any lessons. Well, obviously not now because I'm but a beginner but that could be fun to do. But to start teaching or even showing off, you need to get better at it. Unfortunately, it's not the right season for hooping because it's cold and too many clothes are not good. Still, there are still things that I could learn and train for in a limited space (aka: my apartment) So my goal is: Hoop 3 times a week minimum! And learn a new trick/week! Week #1: XXX New trick: Smearing Goal #3: Climb more /!\ This goal is on hold for a few more days due to a elbow tendinitis! I have kept on climbing 3 times a week all this dark time but I have seen no progress at all. I'm still stuck on blue problems and I know I need to push myself a bit more to finally level up. The plan is to add to my bouldering workouts some exercises that will make me: - Work on my flexibility! - Work on my grip! - Work on dyno! Dyno is my nemesis, but considering my height I really NEED to be good at them to be able to solve some problems. Well that's all for now, let's do well this challenge . (and damn it was harder to write than expected..)

My father died the day after Christmas (deep breath). People following me know I had a lot of family health drama last year. His death was not unexpected, but compounded my desire to be better than my genetics. BADASS WOMAN Part of my level 50 involves reducing my consumption. I did very well last challenge, and this time I am taking on one of my biggest problem areas: the kitchen. Cleaning out the worldly possessions of someone you love does something to you. It certainly reminds you that stuff is just that. I had already started my decluttering journey, and I'm ready to deal with my kitchen - my largest problem area and something I've been avoiding. I've already started. I even got my husband on board. I will have this area livable, presentable, and comfortable by the end of the challenge. When I think of what I want to BE, there are two physical capabilities that stick in my mind: a fire hoop dancer, and competent in self defense. For this challenge, I'm going to focus on the Hoop Dance aspect. I am at the uncomfortable mental hump of being able to work tricks in to flow. It sucks. I have joined a new Facebook group that focuses on this, and I hope to make significant progress in this area. I need to learn 1 new trick a week, and spend some time working on weekly dance flow areas presented by my group. I'm having a hard time deciding on my third aspect towards my Level 50 Baddassness. My diet is on point. My exercise is great - in fact, I've been doing intentional movement 7-days a week for a group challenge. So I'm working on increasing strength in a different way. Nothing else has worked, so I'm doing it with reps instead of actual dumbbell weight. I have a plan worked out and will focus on getting stronger to see if I can, or if I'm having a physical issue in this area. SIDE QUESTS Something is going on with me, and I need to stop ignoring it. In December, my hands and feet started going numb during workouts. That hasn't stopped. I also am experiencing a ridiculous amount of muscle pain and soreness, to the point I can't handle anyone touching me, and I never stop getting extremely sore after EVERY workout. I looked through my workout log, and I haven't significantly increased strength since last FEBRUARY. And now my sciatic is starting to act up (I have a traumatic spinal injury). So, I'm going to actively seek help to figure it out my medical issues, now that I have new insurance and a fully loaded Flexible Spending Account. I need to get a BodPod scan. For real. I need to see what's going on with my body, and get an update a couple times a year. It's free for me. It's right down the street. Stop making excuses. I need to make an appointment for a BodPod scan and have it completed.MOTIVATION PROGRESS I usually do points, but I don't have the energy. All of my goals will be Pass or Fail for this challenge. Each week I must do the following: - Make progress in my kitchen, and update the details Week 1: Pass. Week 2: Pass and DONE. Now for upkeep. Week 3: Pass, upkeep is going well. Plus new washer/drier Week 4: Pass and upkeep is going well. Did some maintenance picking up over the weekend. Week 5: Pass. Super proud of this due to sick household and overworked spouse. Week 6: Pass. Kept my kitchen fairly contained. TOTAL 6/6 - Learn 1 new Hoop Trick and do work towards the weekly hoop challenge Week 1: Pass. Up and down elevator Week 2: Pass. Overhead palm spin Week 3: Fail. I was able to get hooping in, but no new tricks. Week 4: Pass with a condition - I started to learn TWO new tricks. Week 5: Fail. Sick. Boo. Week 6: Pass. I actually worked on two tricks this week, a Hoop Hug and an Iso Pop. TOTAL 4/6 - Increase reps in the gym for 3 workouts Week 1: Pass. Finish 8/10/12 reps Week 2: Pass. Finish 10/12/14 reps Week 3: Pass. Start 6/6/8/10 reps (gym days are off due to life, but I'm getting in the reps when I do the routines) Week 4: Pass, finished 6-6-8-10. I'm moving on to 8-8-10-12 Week 5: Pass, got to the gym 4x last week. New sets are hard, yo. Week 6: Fail. Super sick last week. Missed the entire week at the gym. TOTAL 5/6 Goal-long specific goals are: PASS - Make appointments to figure out what's going on, and take steps towards getting better First appointment and bloodwork week 2. Blood Work came back "pretty good" on 04 Feb. Have appt on 16 Feb to go over results. Genetic Test of Hereditary Cancer came back "normal" on 05 Feb. Testosterone came back VERY low. Will be starting biodentifiable hormone replacement soon. Allergy appt with Food Testing scheduled for 10 Feb No new obvious seafood allergy. Have to follow up with blood work after I'm well. Had to do a breathing treatment and get lung steroids due to sick. Was appropriately chastised. Promised to come back yearly for maintenance, or as needed. PASS - Complete baseline BodPod scan Done week 2. Can follow-up after 16 Mar (written on calendar).

Hi. I'm Nymeria, and I'm accepting my path as one of the shiny object chasing, Jack-of-all-trades, do-all-of-the-fun-things types of assassins. I climb multiple times/week. I also love power yoga/handbalancing, martial arts, playground parkour, hooping, rings, and other random fitness stuff I also NEED my soundtracks to operate in life. Whether I'm exercising, cleaning, taking a relaxing bath, or whatever, I need music to get into my groove. It's at times been a bit of a hinderance to me, since I can't handle a lot of exercise videos or classes where I have to endure crappy music and a teacher yammering on and on. (yoga stuff and hooping at 4x and 2x speed, because it's kind of boring otherwise. All of the indoor clips were filmed in the last week, and the outdoor stuff was from the autumn. It feels great to get back into the groove of posting training videos!) 2014 was a really rough year for me, both personally and fitness-wise. Very late in 2013, I had a catastrophic fall while climbing, tore my ACL, MCL, and broke 2 bones in my knee. Then I had surgery and spent the better part of 2014 dealing with physical therapy and rehab. I'm ready for 2015 to be an injury-free year, so I can focus on being awesome and not on just regaining ground. For my part, the "Awesome mix" isn't making a great playlist (although I'm always open to music suggestions. I gravitate most toward progressive metal stuff). Instead, it's the formula of eating habits, exercise stuff, and daily routines that help me achieve the things I most want. In this challenge, I'll focus a lot more on eating habits, since they got a bit out of hand over the holiday season. I also have gained about 5 lbs of flab over the last few months, and I really need to lose it. Goal 1: Awesome eating for an awesome life (diet). I don't do tracking, so instead, I'm using a point system to encourage healthier choices and discourage destructive ones. Goal edited, to make things simpler. I eat 3 meals/day, so... +1 point for any meal that is filled with wholesome food, veggies, proteins, etc. and only a very modest/minimal portion of carbs/starches. +1 point for drinking only water or tea in a day +1 point for choosing healthy evening snacks, like carrots and hummus, celery+peanut butter, or other veggies in the evening. I will permit myself to have a modest snack in each day and a small portion of a sweetened drink (like 4 oz of orange juice or lemonade). I'll also permit myself to have a beer on football gamedays for no penalty. -1 point for anything beyond a modest snack -1 point for caloric drinks beyond what was set forth ^^^ -1 point for unhealthy meals. Goal: 21 points/week. If that becomes too easy by week 3, I'll increase the goal. Goal 2: Batch cooking (diet) For me, bad choices are often made because I either let myself become so hungry that I want to eat NOW, or because I'm just feeling too lazy to cook. The solution for me is to batch cook something healthy, so I have plenty of leftovers to reheat. Goal: 6 batch cooked meals during the challenge (nominally 1/week). Goal 3: Shore up some climbing weaknesses (fitness - climbing) - I'm pretty comfortable with my workout routine, but there are a few tweaks that should help me progress faster. My raw strength is great, but my muscular endurance is fairly poor. This is a huge problem with climbing, where I'll climb beautifully for 2/3 of the route, and then I'm out of gas for the end. To fix this, I'm going to do some high rep, low weight work with DB rows, bodyweight inverted rows, grip training (focus on hanging loooong periods of time on some very easy grips, rather than short holds on really small ones). Goal: 2 sessions/week of the endurance stuff. Goal 4: Keep things fresh and exciting (fitness - yoga) This is a 2 parter. The first I'm shamelessly stealing from starsapart. 1x per week, I'll try a new pose from the Yoga Journal advanced poses blog. I would hate for yoga to become stale for me. The second part is that I'm toying with the idea of becoming a certified yoga teacher at some point. The problem is that I'm 99% a home practitioner, largely because I enjoy playing my own music and because I'm afraid that most yoga classes would be kind of boring for me. But, I need to suck it up and at least try out some classes for informational purposes, if nothing else. Before the end of the challenge, I want to attend at least 4 formal yoga classes at my gym. Goal: 1 new yoga pose/week. 4 formal yoga sessions/challenge. Goal 5: The boring, dreaded cardio (fitness - general) This one is simple: 60 minutes of pure cardio action. Whether it's HIIT style, cycling, jogging, elliptical, I need to keep my heart rate up there. I generally find cardio to be boring, but getting back into some cardio action would help me lose some flab, improve my stamina, put the finishing touches on my knee rehab, and would probably be good for me. So, I just have to suck it up and do it. I'm not counting lower heart rate cardio stuff for this goal, so no credit for hooping, walking, etc. Goal: 60 minutes/week. Yeah, this challenge isn't necessarily going to be fun, but at the moment I'm filled with ambition and resolve. I'd rather push myself and come up short than just do another space filler, coasting type of challenge.

I tried to beat the sad pandas last challenge, but I didn't realize I was PLAYING INTO THEIR HANDS. See, you might not know this, but sad pandas are pedantic, points driven, and very metric based. They want you to try things that don't always make you feel better. they are not totally interested in letting you be a happy panda. so I ended up feeling more sadder, because playing the game by Sad Panda rules meant you are always going to be a sad panda. I don't want to be sad panda! I want to be a sparkly assassin! No more mopefests for me! (bonus halloween photo!) So I need to structure this challenge for LOGGING SUCCESS. my MAIN QUEST is to be a FLASHING NEON ARROW pointing to HOW AWESOME I'm DOING. like this: MY SUCCESS BECOMETHEARROW. First, let's talk about grades. I hate grades. So I'm going to use NOT SO HOT / GOOD / BETTER / BEST to rate myself. GOAL 1: MAKE A LIST / CHECK IT TWICE Every Monday I'll have a workout schedule and every week I'll check off my points. There. Simple. Things that go on the workout schedule may and will likely include: going to physical therapy. arm day at the gym. tae kwon do. extra bonus points (i.e., boost my non-grades up a scale) will be given for massive groups of sit-ups in one day, or similar bulk exercises. tl:dr - write up a weekly exercise calender, track it here, and check off the boxes. bonus bump! do a bunch of extra exercises in a day, like, 100 sit-ups or something torturous. GOAL 2: PLAY WITH ALL MY TOYS So far I've accumulated a bunch of toys. SWORDS. A SPARKLY HULA HOOP. NUNCHUCKS. I have to make time to play with them! I'm not 100% sure yet how this will work. but it'll go on the schedule, and be rated as a separate goal. I'm thinking 5 minutes a day for x days with the hoop or chucks. I don't know enough yet about swords, so that will involve going to weapons class to practice. tl:dr - make a special point to schedule in toy time and hit that goal. GOAL 3: USE MY OWN DATA TOOLS / TAKE THAT UGLY SAD PANDAS I have been doing really really well with tracking all my calories. even when I'm not doing great, I've been tracking for over a year. I know it's a huge part of my success. HOWEVER. better than that success is actually staying under my calories goal. When I look back over the last challenge, I didn't do that. so every week, that's what I'm going to do. (I'm giving myself one exception, for [American] thanksgiving week. I am in a blended family and I think I have to have 2 thanksgiving dinners. I do pretty good with these meals but I like to taste everything and that adds up. Last year running a 10k on thanksgiving saved my bacon, but I can't count on that this year with my wonky knee so I get a pass. tl:dr - Continue to track calories every day AND ALSO stay under my calories goal for the week.. bonus bump! for tracking caffeine too, using the jawbone coffee app. LIFE QUEST: NO REALLY BECOME THE NEON SIGN. I know, it's nuts to want to be stealth assassiny creature yet be a neon sign. but who wants to be a sparkly assassin anyway? ME, that's who. but it's hard to crow on your successes, and I need a little more of an explicit boost. I'm feeling a little slumpy. I had my first nerdiversary during the last quest and while I'm doing super good, and seeing good, long-term results, they're slow, and I'm bored and a sad cupcake, and I don't want to be a sad panda because their panda games are boring and their rules suck and everyone is totally emo and boring (did I say boring?). for my life quest I'm going to really focus on the best most awesome things I'm achieving. and I'm going to report them back. Some of them will be fitness related, some will be body size related, some will be skill related. Some might be totally random and related to things that I've finally completed in my regular life. This is where I'll be giving myself all the presents. I need them right now, yo. tl:dr - look forward to me posting lots of crowing posts. I need to highlight my accomplishments a little more and remind myself how awesome I'm doing. FIRST! | WK 1 | WK 2 | WK 3 | WK 4 | WK 5 | WK 6

Apfelstrudi apprenticizes with the Starks Quick TL;DR: Main goal: Study with Tony Sub-Goal 1: The path to MIT (Ace all my exams (Grades allowed: 1/A and in emergencies 2/B)) Sub-Goal 2: Take care of Tony's law suits (Study for English exam (6 units in 6 weeks)) Bonus Goal: Join Tony's research and invention team (Write down 5 ideas about something every day) Side Goal 1:Own your body with Arya Sub-Goal 1: Dine with the Hound (Breakfast and tea, every day.) Sub-Goal 2: Water dancing with Syrio Forel (Funcercise) Sub-Goal 3: Deep, calm breaths (Continue easing off of smoking) Side Goal 2: Off to King's Landing with Sansa Sub-Goal 1: Embrace the traditions (Keep up with the skin care) Sub-Goal 2: Make demands (Assemble (and share) skin-care wish list) Sub-Goal 3: Quality time with Shae (regular salon visits) Here's my story: After mixing up with pokémon and Hogwarts witches and wizards, a recent break-up has left me trying to hold it together, and failing utterly. My last challenge has been relatively successful - in fact, I only really sucked a bit at the fitness goal, but I'm still having a super hard time commenting and supporting others. It feels to me like nothing makes sense, and as I have to be super friendly at work all day, I'm exhausted and not in a good mood by the time I'm home. And if I can't support other people, then I feel bad for posting on my own thread - thus it all fails. Here goes another try. This time, since my dual education has to be a raging success this time around, I need to focus on just that - and still feel good about myself, my body and all that jazz as well. So one teacher/role model isn't gonna cut it this time. I need a whole (extended) family - the Starks! Long version of my goals: Main goal: Study with Tony Sub-Goal 1: Path to MIT I'm the nerd in my class. Seriously, all the girls come to me for help. It's mildly annoying but also proves I've been working my butt off. I need to continue with that. I have the habit of starting out super strong and then getting lazy. This can't happen. I'll have a big, big exam in almost exactly 11 months - this exam will decide how long I have to do this apprenticeship. If I get a good grade, I can shorten it by half a year, or perhaps even a whole year, which I'd absolutely love to do. This semester is really short. We've already had one exam (I'll know the grade after fall holidays) and there are 8 more to go. Here's the schedule so far: Nov 20: People & Companies (seriously that's what it's called) Nov 24: Politics Dec 1: Payments Dec 4: Economy Dec 11: Typing & Editing And there's also criminal law, excel and German exams coming up. All of this between the start of this challenge and christmas. Ideally I want to be the best in class for every single one of those exams. I'll settle for having a 1 (German equivalent of A) in every exam. And if all goes wrong, I'll be kinda okay-ish with a 2 (German equivalent for . If it gets any worse than that you may as well just shoot me. This may sound harsh, but seriously we just started this, we've got 1 lesson per class per week, there's not much that we can even have the exam about and it should be fairly easy, I can't get a bad grade and miss this opportunity. Sub-Goal 2: Take care of Tony's law suits There's an English exam specifically for apprentices. You cannot take this exam after or before an apprenticeship, it must happen during it. There are a ton of different ones, for different jobs and stages. I'm currently preparing for Legal English Stage 2 (out of 3 stages). I'll take the exam end of Jan/start of Feb and I've got a book called Legal Matter for preparation. It has 10 units and I want to work through 1 unit per week. It should be easily doable as I reckon I could get a pretty good grade even without preparation, as stage 2 isn't exactly hard. But I want to ace this as well, so preparation can't hurt! Bonus Goal: Join Tony's research and invention team I read this thing about how it'd be super useful to write down 5 ideas regarding one topic/matter/whatever every day. So that's what I'm gonna do, only I'll tone it down to 5 instead of twenty. I'll get a notebook and fill it with 5 ideas every day = 35 every week = 245 during the challenge. I'll at least try This is a bonus goal that I'd love to do, but won't force myself or feel bad about it should it fail. Also making a spreadsheet for topics to have ideas about, as 42 topics seem just a little much right now! So if there's a topic you want me to think about, please put it riiiiiiight here! Side Goal 1: Own your body with Arya Sub-Goal 1: Dine with the Hound Two habits I'm already getting into. I drink tea at work every day, and I also eat breakfast. Now, I've never been a breakfaster, so this makes me ultra happy. I gotta stick with it! Sub-Goal 2: Water dancing with Syrio Forel Can be done with the hoop or other things. I just need to find joy in movement again because I'm currently lacking both. There's no set parameters for this, as I want it to be fun and not because I need to do a certain number of sets. Side Goal 3: Deep, calm breaths I recently tried to stop smoking. My blood pressure didn't like it and I very nearly fainted. I had to leave work early because I was seeing black spots until I couldn't even make out words anymore. It was bad. So, cold turkey is obviously not for me. However, I've transitioned to an E-cigarette. It tastes sucky, but it's cheap and doesn't stink/make a mess, plus you can lower the nicotine-percentage. I'm at 12mg currently, and would like to be at 6mg or at least 9mg by the end of the challenge (ideally I'll not smoke at all, but as this is my side goal, I don't want to set myself up for failure). Side Goal 2: Off to King's Landing with Sansa Sub-Goal 1: Embrace the traditions I'm doing great with this and I'm feeling it turn into a habit - and I love it so much. I'm also starting to see changes - good changes - and need to keep doing this. I also like the ritual-feeling it gives me every evening before going to bed. Sub-Goal 2: Make demands My grandmas each give me 50€ for christmas. They give it to my mom before christmas so that she can buy me something that they can then give to me so they're not empty-handed. This year, I'm ordering more Korean beauty products. I've assembled a wish list on amazon, but I'm at something over 150€ at the moment, which is too much. So my small sub-goal is trimming this down to what I need most/what's best for my skin and what isn't just "omg a face spray in a kitty container I so need this" and then ordering it so it arrives in time for christmas! Sub-Goal 3: Quality time with Shae This includes: Getting eyebrows plucked and lady-stache waxed. But it also includes modeling. I'm the model for this super nice girl who's a first year apprentice (just like me!) in my hair salon. She did my eyebrows the other day and then asked if I'd like to model for her - because she can't do anything on customers but needs someone she can try things on. This will mostly be make-up and waxing/plucking right now, as she's not advanced enough for hair-cutting yet, but she might dye my lashes or something like that. Either way, it'll be loads of fun, it will most likely make me feel good and it'll be nice social interaction - all things I can use really well at the moment. I want to go to the salon at least 3 times during the challenge, no matter what for. This looks extensive. But it really isn't. Apart from the third sub-goal, my main quest consists of things I need to do anyways. The first side goal is just the same - maybe apart from sub goal 2. And the second side goal is seriously just for making myself feel good. Have a happy challenge, guys and gals.

I spent my last challenge over with the Warriors, which was quite lovely. I really focused on getting back into my lifting routine, and buckling down on my macros. I am back in the gym 4x a week, and feeling pretty good. However, I realized what a mess my flexibility is right now. My hamstrings, in particular, are a mess. So I'm back in the assassins for this round, and I expect I'll bounce between the two depending on my goals for that timeframe. BADASS WOMAN Flexibility is as important as strength to be an overall healthy and capable person. I have two goals for this challenge: be able to do a full heel stretch, and be able to do the front splits. This means I need to consciously stretch every day five days a week. There are no specifics to this, but I need to focus on hip flexors and hamstrings when possible.In order to make my healthy eating a complete lifestyle change I need to be able to maintain it regardless of what life is like. In that vein, I will NOT track food during this challenge. I need to focus on keeping carbs low, except for one day for glycogen refill. My weight is a little stuck, and I'm hoping that the mental break will help me with my plateau.Continue to focus on decluttering, reorganization, and redecorating. My big goal for this challenge is to have all of my framed photos taken care of. I still have a pile of them on my bedroom floor, and my photo shelves are bursting at the seams because I need to hang some of them up in another area.SIDE QUESTSDiet Side Quest: W A T E R. Drink more of it! Seriously been bad in this area lately. I bring two jugs of water to work every day. I MUST drink them! Every day! DO IT!Fitness Side Quest: Hooping. I need to do more of it. Also dancing in general. 2x a week I need to have some kind of dance party.Take a class I haven't taken before. Either rock climbing or pole.MOTIVATION PROGRESS 3 Points a week for Lifting 5 Points a week for stretching and working towards splits/heel stretch 7 Points a week for eating appropriately 7 Points a week for drinking enough water 2 Points a week for joyful movement (hooping or dancing) 24 Points/week possible for base points. 10 Points for taking a bonus class 10 Points for getting all my pictures hung 10 Points for being able to successfully do splits and heel stretch Week 1: 24/24 Points Week 2: 22/24 Points Week 3: 17/24 Points Week 4: 23/24 Points plus 10 Points for getting all pictures up Week 5: 19/24 Points Week 6: N/A Emergency Surgery Total: 115/120 Unable to complete Bonus Class or Successfully do Stretches. Will consider moving those to another challenge.

Previously on my journey, I was a Pokemon master, who fell out of her universe to land in a strange place she now has to learn to call home. It’s called Hogwarts, nobody knows me here, and since I look kinda weird and don’t fit in, I have to rely on other things to get where I want to be. To quote the headmaster: “Really, Hagrid, if you are holding out for universal popularity, I'm afraid you will be in this cabin for a very long time.†I’m not channeling my inner Hagrid though, pleasant as that would be. I’m currently tiny little Snape, trying to get in with the cool kids, find a new home outside of the old one, a place to call home, and a place in the world. If I manage to do meet my goals, I’ll allow myself to slip into the skin of another person. I won’t do it the GoT House Bolton way, I’ll instead use a Polyjuice Potion. Which is only slightly less disgusting. There will be a lot of goals. But many of them are just things that I need in daily life. Habit building on a small scale. History of Magic: History of magic is boring. So is the school I’ll be going to. But I need to ace this. I’m smart. I really am, despite the decisions I sometimes make. It’s usually easy for me to learn things, but I’m lazy. I’m also not really looking forward to school because I’d rather just work, and because all the other people there will be 16-18. A big issue I need to tackle is the shame I’m feeling, and the feeling of being a big fat fail. Which will be put into big relief when 23 year old me is thrown at the same stage as all those little 16 year old girls. I need to get over myself and not let that put me down, I need to focus on what’s important, bring home good grades, study and make the most of this chance. I also need to not skip school or be annoyed at the classes I have to take (I need 120 hours of typing class. Which seems ridiculous to me in the age we’re living in, but I might just be the only nerd in that class that types more than she talks). I’ll have 2 days of school per week, which really isn’t much when I think about it. So! Goals: Do ALL the homework. Take notes in class & participate. Keep a tidy folder for school. If there’s an exam or other thing, ace it. Rewards: Knotgrass Powdered bicorn horn Potions: I’m eating healthy. However, I also need to eat smart. All the time I’ve put into researching bentos and whatnot can now finally be put to the test. Ideally, I’d like to have a meal plan. In fact, I might just type it up and add it here (since I’m writing this a week before the new challenge starts, chances are I’ll have it done by then). My mom is making all the dinner and whatnot, so there’s nothing for me to worry about. But I have to bring lunch to work/school with me now. I have a 90 minute lunch break, which means technically I’d have more than enough time to go out and buy a pizza. But I’m not earning nearly enough for that, and it’s lazy and unhealthy. I just bought a two-tiered lunch box that can keep food both cold and warm (we don’t yet have a kitchen at work, so no microwave or fridge) and I need to use it. Goals: Make a “Rosie Projectâ€-ish standardized meal plan. Bring lunch with me to school/work every day. (possibly not fridays, as I get off work at 1) Take pictures of the lunch. Rewards: Leeches Jogwarts club: Exercise. Life has just gotten a hell of a lot busier. I’d like to exercise three days a week, which isn’t much when you think about it. Ideally this means gym 3 times a week, but I have to see whether I’ll actually manage to drag myself to gym after work. If not, I’ll have to quit. I can’t afford to pay 50 bucks per month and then not go. Whatever the outcome, I need to do some form of exercise 3 times a week. Even if it’s just 5 minutes of hooping or a quick crazy-dance. Goal: Exercise 3 times a week. Rewards: Lacewing flies Astronomy: It’s a huge pain in the bum, having to get up in the middle of the night to stargaze. Or, in my case, go to work. My alarm wakes me at 5.30am, so I need to be in bed early. This has worked fabulously the past week, as I was always so pooped after work I just fell straight into bed. I need to keep at it. I remember this being one of my very first goals on Nerdfitness, and I function so much better when I go to bed at a healthy time. Goals: Sleep. Sleep a lot. Read more books. Find good books to read (suggestions very welcome!) Rewards: Fluxweed (picked at full moon) Herbology: I really don’t want to end up like Eloise Midgen and have my nose, big as it already is, be off center because I tried to curse my skin pretty. So I’ll go with the traditional route - diluted bubotuber pus. Also known as a good skin care regime. I’ve fallen back in love with a proper routine thanks to those awesome Korean cosmetics I ordered. And more are on the way, straight from San Francisco’s Face Shop. They’re incredibly light, look super cute and are a joy to put on the face. I’m currently using a wildberry foam cleanser, sparkling water apple juicy toner, peach sake serum and mushroom BB cream, all from Skinfood. But, as I said, more is on the way from the good friend that also introduced me to NF, who went and bought me a busload of stuff. I also do face masks more often now, because I bought a kilo of healing earth and can’t not smear it all over my face. Goals: Skin care every morning. Skin care every evening. At least 3 masks per week, ideally one every night (but I don’t want to overload my skin/have to buy even more products, so the minimum will be healing earth mask 3 times a week!) Rewards: Shredded boomslang skin (because obviously that's what you want after you've followed a strict skin care regime for 6 weeks) Hair from someone's head. This looks like a lot at first glance. But really it's just basic survival skills, be it for Hogwarts or muggle life. I've thought a lot about the things I want to do, and challenge myself to do, and things I'd like to experience, do or make. But what it comes down to is this. Habits that I need, desperately, to survive. And I need Nerdfitness in my life to help me with all of this. Because you’re awesome. Grading is as usual in Hogwarts: Outstanding Exceeds Expectation Acceptable Poor Dreadful Troll

For my last few challenges, I have been hanging my hat in the Assassins guild. While checking out the new Women's Academy, I decided that a Warrior class was a better choice for me quest-wise, so I figured I'd try this challenge in your area for something different. I'm having a hard time deciding what I'd like to do with this challenge. I know that it ends two weeks before Camp Nerd Fitness, so I'd really like to buckle down and focus between now and then. I've been having a great time with more fun challenges with the Assassins, focusing on hula hooping and decluttering. It's been wonderful, but in the process I kind of lost focus on my gym stuff, and my diet has slipped a little bit. I have 5 lbs to lose in the next 8 weeks to meet my goal before Camp, and if I lose just 2 more pounds than that, I'll be at 75 pounds lost total. THAT would be amazing. WARRIOR WOMAN My main goal for the last 3 years has been to become strong. Strong enough to handle life. Strong enough to overcome chronic pain. Strong enough to be confident. I need to refocus on my strong, lifting 3x a week. If I have to miss a day at my work gym, I have to do a comparable bodyweight workout at home that night. No more excessive rest periods. I have to have the last 13 workouts of my new superset routine done before camp.Track food every day. Only exception will be any days without cell range when camping. My life is not a free for all. Keep carbs <50g a day, except for one meal for glycogen refill. I can be a little looser when camping for after dinner treats, but the rest of my food must be on point.Continue to focus on general decluttering, reorganization, and redecorating. One thing a day at least.SIDE QUESTSDiet Side Quest: W A T E R. Drink more of it! Seriously been bad in this area lately. I bring two jugs of water to work every day. I MUST drink them! Every day! DO IT!Fitness Side Quest: Cardio. Oh how I hate thee. I've been slacking. I want to up my daily step average to 8,000 a day, with bonus points for any 10,000 step days, or days I actively do cardio on purpose.MOTIVATION PROGRESS 3 Points a week for Lifting. 13 points total for superset routine workouts 7 points a week for decluttering 7 points a week for eating (either tracking, or eating appropriately when I can't track) Bonus Points for water and cardio 17 Points a week Total + specific workouts + side quest (1 for getting all my water, 1ea for cardio). Week 1: 22/17 Points Week 2: 23/17 Points Week 3: 22/17 Points Week 4: 22/17 Points - all 13 superset points achieved Week 5: 18/17 Points Week 6: 19/17 Points TOTAL: 126/127 WOOT

Wait wait wait! I'm here! Am I late? Shit, I'm late. At least I made it I dropped out of the last challenge a mere 2 weeks in feeling overwhelmed, frustrated, and sick of beating myself for not meeting the challenge goals. Tortillas were eaten. Belts were loosened. Lessons were learned. Lesson #1: Make realistic goals. Lesson #2: Work hard, but don't strive for perfection. Perfectionism haunts me in many areas of my life. Sometimes I won't even attempt something in anticipation of the stress that will follow if I can't get it perfect (part of me wanted to skip this challenge for that reason.) But dang it if that isn't a recipe for mediocrity and some seriously sad living. Back in April when I joined Nerd Fitness I said... “I don't just want to lose weight. I also want to get really fit... to be an outdoor badass. Climb rocks and trees and hike and backpack and cycle and swim in rivers. I want to feel vital and healthy, and embrace life more fully.†And that holds true. But man, there's some work to be done and it ain't gonna do itself! Step one: in keeping with a theme of some of these posts... suck. it. up. Alternatively: just show up. Main Quest: Lose 70 pounds (long term)/keep up with Mijo (puppy!) Goal 1: Nutrition! Log food 6 days a week. Emphasis on whole foods. (6 pts/week) Goal 2: Strength and flexibility. BBWW 2x/week. 20 minutes yoga 3x/week. (5 pts/week) Goal 3: Walk, ride, hoop. 150 minutes/week. (1 pt per 25 minutes, 6 pts/week) Life Goal: PUPPYLOVE Spend 1 ½ hours each day actively playing with/training pup each day. Obviously we spend more time together than this, but I'm talking playing fetch/chasing each other around the yard/going on walks. This will overlap with goal 3! (7 pts/week) Extra Credit: Meditate! ½ a point for every 10 minute session. I'll add a point breakdown later! In the meantime, a photo of pupperoni: ]

Here I am again. If you've followed my last challenge, you know I've had a pretty rough time. I'm nowhere near recovered and just got pretty sucky news from the doctor as well - I might have leukemia. I'm waiting for my blood to be tested, they're all backed up. I'll probably know more by the end of this week or start of next week. My boyfriend broke up with me, I had to quit my job, move back in with my parents and lost everything that was important to me. It may sound silly, but it's true. My whole life was there, all my plans, all my dreams. I didn't have every bit of my future planned out, but the general stuff? There was no doubt about that in my mind. Now there's not only a doubt, it's a fact that everything will go differently. I hadn't planned to go this challenge. But earlier today, I was listening to the radio and I thought "hey, I should pick up my hoop." So I did. And I danced and it was fun and it was the first time I was kind of happy since boyfriend left me. (I really need a new alias for him but I can't bring myself to call him my ex.) All that aside, my current situation is as follows: I live with my parents. I have to get used to that because it's not gonna change in the next few years. I'm searching for an apprentice position. I had one job interview so far and have sent countless apps, but the region where my parents are from is pretty rural and there's not too much to be had here. I'm apparently about to join my mom's all-ladies-gym so I don't sit around all day, because I seriously have nothing to do here. I watched all Game of Thrones episodes in 5 days or so. I have no friends here, no job, no nothing. But I can't not do anything. It's driving me nuts. I need to do something. I've accidentally lost nearly 10kg because I couldn't eat and hardly drink for over a week. So maybe this is a good place to pick back up. I don't want to lose any more weight, but it'd probably be easier to maintain this than to eat it back on and then try to lose it again. I'm not in a place for anything strict though. This will be a different type of challenge. I need to focus on what's good for me, find new things to focus on. Find a job, which is the main focus. There will be no grades. This is me trying to breathe again. Reheat the love affair with my hoop Music, dancing, hooping. Those are things that easily make me feel good. I need more of this. Make my room suitable for life While I was gone, my parents transformed my room into storage. I sleep on a broken bed, which isn't doing my back any favours, and for being DIY and decoration obsessed, this room sucks balls. I'm struggling with this. A big, big part of me doesn't want to admit that this is permanent. It feels like if I make this room pretty, even in the smallest way, I'm surrendering and losing the fight. But there is no fight to be lost. I need to realize this and get on with it. Do sportsy things I'm not in charge of my diet anymore. But my mom cooks healthy, so that's no issue. I can do the sportsy stuff though. I'll be trying out her gym, and while it's a weird type of gym, it's something. App. App app app. And then work I've got 4 apps to send right now and the app generator I use (just puts it into a pretty format and saves CV info and the like) is malfunctioning. Again. It seems to be dying. I'm hoping to get them all out today and look for more tomorrow. Here's another part of me struggling with it, because I keep finding myself factoring in the needs-a-new-alias in my search, and I need to stop this. Finish this book Maybe not finish it. But do something with it. Finish this book is an interactive book that I bought quite a while ago, and I just re-discovered it when moving my things. It's a small project and I've never really gotten far with it. But it's fun and it's time to get on that. Find a newspaper that needs volunteer writers I love writing. I keep telling myself that one day I'll do this. But we all gotta start somewhere, and the earlier the better, right? Find a way to express yourself Just something. I don't know what. Painting, writing, making music, something. Just some type of outlet. These are the things I'd like to focus on. These are things I feel can help me. Some have to be done, like the job thing, others don't. I just need to do something. I'm not GLing this challenge and I won't be able to follow as many people and update my thread as often, simply because accountability seems like a huge mountain for me right now, and I just can't handle it. But I plan to be back for the next challenge, so best to ease myself into it. Have a happy challenge, nerds.

Lilith the Chubby Kitten - Hoopstravaganza! Level 5 Assassin Kitten Lilith and the Mysterious Cat walked for a long while. Lilith was purring in the beginning, but as she realised how far from home she really was now, her purring stopped. Instead she was silent, resilient even. Just one paw in front of the other. Keep following the Mysterious Cat. After a while the Mysterious Cat broke the silence. “You might be wondering why you were chosen…†Lilith’s ears immediately turned to the Mysterious Cat, YES YES SHE WANTED TO KNOW! “Well… You are born a shapeshifter. You probably don’t know this yet, but you’re not a kitten per se… It’s just the form you were born in.†Lilith: “ ….. “ Mysterious Cat: “Yes, don’t stare at me blankly. You will just have to experience it for yourself. You can train to shapeshift in multiple forms, to be more flexible, stronger or more courageous! And that is why you would be an asset to our assassins guild.†Suddenly, she was not walking with the Mysterious Cat anymore, but with a bunny! The only thing Lilith knew to do was instinctively.. well.. poke! Quickly, the Mysterious Cat turned back to a cat again, but slightly different than before too. “Teach me, please teach me!†Lilith cried out. The Mysterious Cat grinned. “Absolutely. You’re going to be a Circus Cat….†To help Lilith achieve her first shapeshifting form, I’m going to have a hoopstravaganza! Goal 1: Hoop Cardio! Spend at least one hour a day on body hooping. Goal 2: Hoop Trickster! Practice the listed tricks every day. Doesn’t matter how long, as long as I practice them all every day. If I feel I’ve mastered a certain trick it will get replaced by another. Obviously I can practice other tricks as well. But I HAVE to do those. - Revolving door - Vortex - Knee hooping - Chest hooping - Shoulder hooping - Duck out - Floating - Standard isolation - Two handed lasso - Bounce Goal 3: Hoop Flow! Practice hoop dancing on at least one song every day, or if I’m outside without music, for at least 5 minutes. I find this difficult because I feel awkward and I feel like I can’t do a lot of stuff with the hoop, but those are just excuses. I’ve seen people dancing beautifully with the hoops and they didn’t do any elaborate tricks. Goal 4: Pilates Abs! I have a list of ab pilates videos to follow along, many are plank based (those are my nemesis). I have to do at least 3 videos a week.

The earliest parts of 2014 were some very trying months for me, where I had to deal with a knee blowout, surgery, and tons of physical therapy. But now I'm free and ready to take flight once more. And in honor of dealing with feeling crapped on by the world, but persevering, I'm going for a fun, Firefly theme. (and bonus geek points to anyone who can tell me who said each line and in what episode/context) Goal 1. "I am a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar" (physical) Now that I've been cleared for sports and such, I want to test myself with some new fancy flying tricks (well, hanging and balancing moves with my legs off of the ground). I plan to work on these moves at least 3 times per week, with the aim of mastering at least 3 5! new moves by the end of the challenge: yoga balances: firefly , dragonfly, 8 angle pose, shoulder press, leg forward crow variation, flying crow variation, forearm stand bar or misc stuff: tucked leg front lever, tucked leg back lever, tucked human flag, and/or dragon flag. Current status: can balance a forearm stand 10 seconds if I wall balance first (will need a solid, 20 second hold for challenge). Can hold tucked leg front lever 3-5 seconds (will need a solid 10 second hold for challenge). I can hold peacock/elbow lever, side crow with legs extended, flying crow, and scissor pose. I haven't really tried or succeeded at any of the rest of these. I would need a 10 second hold for the move to "count". Goal 2. "I aim to misbehave" or behave. (le sigh). (physical) Yeah, I still have to be a good girl with the PT stuff and the climbing rules. So, Leg day must be done 2 times per week (can be split into more days, depending). I must do squats, split squats, balances, knee ROM stretches, lunges, my jumping sets, the leg press machine, the hamstring curl machine, and 30+ minutes of some sort of leg endurance building cardio, like cycling, elliptical, jogging, or swimming. For climbing, I need to follow my rules, which are: -No letting my right leg get more than 3 feet off of the ground while bouldering. (basically, I can only do traverses and the bottoms of routes) -I'm not allowed to do drop knee or heel hook moves with the right leg. -If the knee hurts at all, stop. It's not worth it to push through the pain just to make it to the top of a route. -No knee brace = no climbing. No exceptions. -No whining. Just enjoy being able to climb again. Goal 3 - "The living legend needs eggs" (diet) -I've been doing a lot of strength building stuff. But, as a vegetarian, it's tough to be sure that I'm getting enough protein. So, I need to track my protein and reach 100g each day. I'm expecting to eat lots of eggs. Goal 4 - "What the hell's goin' on in the engine room? Were there monkeys? Some terrifying space monkeys maybe got loose?" Life goal #1 Yeah.. That's how the home often looks, largely because I do have two terrifying space monkeys wreaking havoc on everything. I was pretty successful when I did Flylady a few challenges ago, but I don't find her chores especially relevant for my house. Instead, I made my own chore list and randomizer (yay, iOS programming). The goal is to do 6 of these cleaning chores each week. Goal 5 - "Also, I can kill you with my brain." Life goal #2 This is kind of an extension of my time management goal, but I'm going to improve my brain by learning iOS development. My goal by the end of the challenge is to completely go through my tutorial book. Also, I need to paint at least 4 images for some apps I'm planning on making, as well as record at least 3 piano songs to use for background music in said apps. I've already started one of the apps, which is my cleaning chore manager and randomizer. I'm hoping to add a lot more front end features and make it a professional looking app by the end of the challenge. Bonus "flying" goal (maybe I'll turn this into a PVP): Pull ups in odd places: Yeah, there's a poses in unusual places PVP, but I want to try doing pull-ups in random places or on random things. I already kind of look for odd things to pull up on, but this time, I want to take videos and make a montage of weird pull-ups. Anything other than a standard horizontal bar or rings would "count". Hey, I'm a climber, so I always have to work on my grip. I'll still be hooping. I'm just planning on putting on music and just going with it, rather than specifically learning new moves. And I'll still go swimming with the kids or do it as part of my endurance-building physical therapy. And I'll still be cooking. i'm just not planning on specifically focusing on any of these.

I have been doing very well with my diet/exercise/fitness portion of leveling up my life, and have been struggling to conquer my CHAOS. The declutter queen FlyLady defines CHAOS as: Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome, and I have it BAD. I have an 1100 square foot rancher-style house, a 3-year old, and too many hobbies. I ended up with a good amount of my childhood crap when my parents down-sized, and I'm tired of feeling like I'm drowning in my house. I have done very well getting rid of stuff every day (even if it's one thing), but I have to step it up, and now is the time to get things really moving. I'm going to flip-flop my priorities for these 6-weeks, and really work on a Life Quest, with my Diet and Fitness Quests being side quests. BECOMING MORE MINIMALIST Part of my Level 100 "what does Teddie's life look like" goals is to live a clutter free life.My friends are letting me sell stuff at their garage sale at the end of the month. Part 1 of this challenge will be spending the next 3 weeks getting everything I want to try to sell ready and over to their house. I must do something notable towards this goal every day for the next 3 weeks.Identify and list higher-priced items online for sale. One item a week, minimum. Bonus if I list more than 6-items over the challenge.Continue to focus on general decluttering, reorganization, and redecorating. One thing a day at least. Major strides can go towards both decluttering and the garage sale. SIDE QUESTSDiet Side Quest: Track food every day. Only exception will be any days without cell range when camping. Bonus for estimating ahead of time.Fitness Side Quest: Work on mini-hoops 3x a week. Goal is to see if I can pick it up with 2-beat and 3-beat weaves.MOTIVATION My home is not a container for my stuff, but rather a place for joy and connection.PROGRESS I'm not going to count specific points in my challenge this time around, I have a lot going on still and I don't give myself stat points anyhow. I am going to do a Pass or Fail on how the week went, and work on making significant progress on decluttering, and enjoying my hooping. Week 1: Pass Week 2: Pass Week 3: Pass

That's right. The game, my friends, is on! We've finally got a case again! The last several weeks have been so quiet... peaceful... Wasn't it just hateful? Fitness Goals Goal 1- "I Said FOCUS!" All fitness goals this challenge are smaller since they are being added on top of my current work out routines. So, on we go! My mind is generally going multiple directions at once. Last challenge I found that practicing handstands has a fantastic effect on the chatter in my brain because I have to completely focus on doing them. I also just discovered that I can do bridges/wheel pose. These have the same effect. SO... Goal 1- Practice handstands and bridges at least 32 days out of the 42 day challenge. If I do more, great. This goal is all about building strength and focus mentally and physically. STR- 3 Goal 2- Legwork... We all know how much Mycroft hates legwork... So this challenge, I have to do it for him. Goal 2- Walk at least 32 days out of the 42 day challenge. It has to be over 1.5 miles to count as a walk. I'll be keeping track of my distances to see how long my total distance is at the end. (No real reason, just for giggles.) The actual reason behind this is to give my body gentle exercise between my rounds of lifting and to give myself a little more mental clarity. STA- 2 Goal 3- Always the Addict You can't have a Sherlock without having some kind of addiction... And that I have. To hooping. It's been a secret passion for years. Thanks to some of the people in this lovely guild, I'm finally going to be letting it out in the open more. It's time to UP THE STAKES. Goal 3- I have to learn and perfect at LEAST 6 new moves. A move a week should be doable. Ecstatic? Manic? I am. (Do I actually dream about hooping? At least one night a week!) Links with the moves that I will be learning will be coming in the next post. There will also possibly be videos of yours truly appearing here and there! DEX- 3 Life Goals Life Goal 1- "The Police Don't Consult Amateurs." We all know that the professionals only go to the best. My skills need polishing! It's time to leave the amateur title behind! Life Goal 1- Write or practice some aspect of it for at least 84 hours throughout the challenge. I am already trying to work 2 hours of daily writing into my life, so this one shouldn't be too hard to stick to. On top of that, I have to write for two of my internships, so I spend time doing that for them already. WIS- 4 Life Goal 2- Urban Camouflage! I am moving from an agricultural science career into an urban environment. I must have camouflage to blend in with the natives... This goal is different and something I've never tried before. However, I KNOW it's going to have hilarious results. The field I was previously working in required me to spend all day in greenhouses or outside and involved at least 8 hours of manual labor per shift. I'm not in that particular field anymore but now I'm facing the fact that the one I'm entering actually requires me to look... *gasp* put together. (Meaning I can't go to work in men's work jeans, steel-toed boots and ancient t-shirts.) My hair can't be shoved up under a hat. I will actually be judged by how I present myself. Soooo... Life goal 2- Learn at least 6 new hair and makeup styles in 6 weeks. At the end of the challenge I should, ideally, have 6 new hairstyles and 6 new makeup styles that I can do with some level of... non-panic. (Non-panic may take longer to develop. However, having some vague idea of what I'm doing would help.) CHA- 3 Those of you that followed my last challenge, I've got a new battle this round. I'll be telling you more about it soon. However, this whole challenge was crafted to help! There will be more info coming your way soon! Here's my spread sheet/sock index for this challenge! The game, my lovelies, is on!

I have traveled from my previous guild, The Adventurers, to join the mysterious Assassins. I've been lured over by circus tricks and hula hoops. My main quest is the same as last time, however my goals are drastically different. I've also taken walking out of my goals this challenge but it is a habit that I have kept up these past two weeks so I will continue walking. It feels good to be out in the sun during the day. Main Quest To love myself for who I am and gain my confidence back. Getting healthy will be a bonus to feeling confident again. Goal 1: Daily hooping practice (+3 STR) I really want to get this down. Hooping is a lot of fun and I enjoy the time spent outside. I want to aim for at least 5 minutes of waist hooping each day. This way I can actually waist hoop. I've been avoiding waist hooping because I haven’t figured it out yet. After the five minutes of mandatory waist hooping, I can move on to hand hooping and other trick learning. I’m also going to try and record at least one session a week, to track progress and correct my form. Goal 2: Focus on the movements (+2 DEX) Once a week, on Saturdays, I want to learn how to belly dance. This will help me with my hooping goal since you need to know how to move your body. I’m not very coordinated when it comes to dancing so this should definitely help. Goal 3: Focus on the positive things. (+1 WIS & +1 CHA) I’m doing a repeat of this one. Spend five minutes each day to write down the positive thoughts. I have a journal this time around so I feel this will be better than my last challenge. I may post some of these thoughts up here. That way I’m more active on my own thread. Life Quest: Put aside $1000 (+2 WIS) This is something that I need to do. I have a ‘bill’ that needs to be paid in July and I rather not deplete my savings account by taking care of it. I’m putting it here so that I keep myself aware of it. I have a tendency to forget about things I don’t already pay on a monthly basis. Diet Quest: Avoid Eating Out (+2 CON) This is partly to help save money and partly to eat better. My husband is on board with idea. Actually, it was his idea. Limit eating out to once a week. We were able to do it this week. Let’s give 6 weeks a try! Here's to an exciting challenge with my new guild!! Tracker Goal 1: 6/7 5/7 5/7 2/7 0/7 1/7 | 19/42 Goal 2: 1/1 1/1 0/1 0/1 0/1 0/1 | 2/6 Goal 3: 7/7 7/7 6/7 3/7 2/7 1/7 | 26/42 Life Quest: 92.5%92.5% Diet Quest: Week 1 1/1/1/1/1/1/1 7 Week 2 1/1/1/1/0/1/0 5 Week 3 1/1/1/1/0/1/0 5 Week 4 0/1/1/0/1/1/0 4 Week 5 0/1/1/1/1/1/0 5 Week 6 0/1/1/1/0/0/0 3 Total = 29/36

Main Quest 6 months ago, my epic quest to become a badass rock climber, superb yoga handbalancer, and maybe potential Ninja Warrior competitor was seriously derailed by a horrible climbing accident. The gory details of how the accident occurred and my progress from then through now are under the spoiler. I won't be medically cleared for climbing, any sort of tumbling, real jumping (rather than exercise/controlled jumping) or many other fun things until at least July 9. So, rather than moping about what I can't do, I'm trying to view this as an opportunity to expand my horizons and try a few new things. We'll ride the spiral to the end.. Goal 1: Finish my PT I was released from formal physical therapy a week ago, but my rehab is still incomplete. I need to keep myself honest and continue strengthening my leg according to my therapist's guidelines. I created a spreadsheet of all of the exercises I need to continue doing. Each week, I must do each exercise 3 times. This is still a pretty significant time expenditure, as I'll have to include 30 minutes of endurance training, 30 minutes of yoga, lunges, squats, agility drills, my jumping circuit, a bunch of stretches, and more in my spreadsheet. I will give myself a weekly grade corresponding to how well I'm keeping myself honest and accountable for my PT. ...And may just go where no one's been.. Reaching out to embrace the random. Reaching out to embrace whatever may come. The rest of my goals are based on exploration and trying new things. Since I can. And since I can't climb. Goal 2: Learn some new tricks with my hoop. I'm a total noob with the hoop, but the movement is somewhat intuitive and easy for me to pick up, probably due to the weapons work I did when I trained in martial arts. I haven't spent a lot of time hooping, but I'm hoping to focus on it and have a greater opportunity to play around. So far, I can do waist hooping, hip hooping, waist to hip and back, waist to lasso, lasso to waist, a weave, and a sloppy vortex. Each week, I need to watch and try to follow along with at least 2 hooping videos on youtube. I also need to learn a new trick. The trick doesn't need to be perfect, but I simply need to have the basics down. Goal 3: Suck less at swimming I've never been a strong swimmer or much of a water person. On top of that, the last several years of wearing my glasses in the pool as well as having to mind my children in the pool has led to a lot of really bad habits. But, now we're heading into pool season, my daughter can swim (so I don't necessarily have to be glued to a kid), I have prescription swim goggles, and swimming is actually great physical therapy for the knee. The goal is that each time I'm in the pool, I make a point of working on holding my breath underwater, proper breathing, and doing actual, proper swim strokes. There's no time like the present for fixing my swimming issues and becoming a stronger swimmer. Goal 4: Continue expanding my cooking horizons This goal is a continuation from the last challenge. I really enjoyed becoming a more confident cook, and I'd love to continue with my kitchen exploration. Each week, I need to either try cooking one completely new recipe or I need to do one non-trivial cooking project. Life Side Quest: Mental healing I've been thinking about my productivity goal from last challenge, and I've come to the realization that I'm not really unproductive so much as indulging in anxiety creating behaviors rather than emotionally balancing ones. So, this quest is simple: Each day, I'll spend at least 30 minutes on an activity that leaves me calmer and more emotionally stable. These activities include (but are not limited to): yoga, reading for fun, playing the piano, meditation, or taking a long walk in the woods. In each case, the activity needs to be done when the kids are not bothering me or in my space. Each day, I'll also avoid one of my destructive behaviors (compulsive phone checking) by setting my phone aside and out of reach when I'm at the dinner table, out with the kids, or spending time with my husband. Had I known at the time of my injury just how long I'd be sidelined, I would have been devastated. But oddly enough, I'm very okay with everything at the moment. It's been an intense journey, but I've learned a lot about myself and my ability to persevere. And since I stole a bunch of lyrics from Lateralus (one of my favorite songs!), I should post the song here.

Lilith the Chubby Kitten - And the Journey to Somewhere Level 4 assassin kitten (not yet a Cat, Tiger, or...) Lilith had worked very hard on her kitty training, she worked on pouncing, running in circles, chasing her tail, contortion (getting in weird shaped boxes) and overall flexibility. She had done a great job and she knew it. She was faster, stronger and more agile than all her brothers and sisters. Now, she was waiting to show the mysterious cat how awesome she was and how she did as the cat asked. But... The cat never said when she had to be done, nor whether he would come or she had to meet the cat somewhere... Then some random day outside, the cat appeared. This time she wasn't startled (okay, she was, but her tail didn't explode as much as it did that time before at least). Then the mysterious cat said something that made her purrrr and make a huge happy face. "You did great, almost purrrfect really! Now, you have to come with me" Compliments always made Lilith happy, so she was ready to go! But... to where? She asked, and the mysterious cat simply beckoned her to follow. "But will I come back home....? " Lilith muttered. The cat simply kept beckoning. Lilith looked back at the portal to the warm fuzzies inside... To her brothers and sisters and her mommy cat. And followed the mysterious cat. To help my alter ego Lilith go on the journey, she and I will need consistency. I proved my ridiculous awesomeness last challenge, but if at some point during the journey Lilith disappoints the mysterious cat, she might not be taken to the destination at all! These are my goals for this challenge: Workout at least 3 times a week. This is pretty self explanatory. I will be climbing, race cycling and doing bodyweight based workouts. But any type of workout counts for this. Flexibility and mobility work at least 3 times a week. I can do yoga, mobility WODs, stretching and anything that can benefit me. Handstand practice at least 3 times a week. Do 5 minute practice sessions. Hooping every day. No matter how tiny the session is, I have to pick up my hoop every day. I love it so it actually won't be hard I want to get so good at it! EDIT: Due to essay writing taking a higher demand on my willpower than I expected, I will continue only with the hooping every day goal. All the other activities will be bragged about under "bonus". I will grade myself every week and then average the weekly grades for the overall challenge grade. For each session or workout I do less than I should, I lose one grade. I'm looking forward to this challenge! In fact I'm kind of doing it this week already, but I won't update and start posting weeks until the challenge really starts! Oh and just because I am obsessed with hooping.. Hooping skills mastered Static waist hooping to the left (my good side) Turning with the hoop Turning against the hoop Waist hooping to lasso Lasso to waist Hooping skills currently working on Static waist hooping to the right(my bad side) Chest hooping (left and right) Waist hooping on one leg Weaving (front, back and side) Circling hoop around you with hands (not sure how to call it) Basic isolation 'draw a circle'. Barrel roll isolation Walking forward while waist hooping Walking backwards while waist hooping 1st vortex variation (on body start) Hooping skills wants Vortex (4 variations) Helicopter Barrel roll Angle hooping Shoulder hooping Shoulder duck out