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Heya, nerds My name is Katrin, I go by Morag on various internet platforms. I am 36 years old now, single mum now (since june this year) of two beautiful boys (9 and soon to be 16). I am located in the real north of Germany. I work with demented elderly (since Sept this year), I started lifting barbells (dito), but the later makes my hip/something twinge painfully, so I need form adjustments at the very least. It hurts so much that I haven't been to the gym in weeks. I am 1,7m tall with just under 100kg for weight, which is ridiculously too heavy. Both my kids have their birthdays in December, a life choice I am still kind of unhappy about, and kind of not. You know? I just cast on a hat for myself in black fluffy yarn, something I had sworn to myself NEVEREVEREVER do again, but sadly Hufflepuff is black and yellow, and so is my gorgeous xtra-warm-xtra-long skarf, so there. I am taking an evening class of beginner Korean, which is fun and challenging and one of the few things keeping me sane. My therapist of several months brought up the BTW Therapy Is Almost Over convo, which is kind of scary and kind of exciting. I struggle with nutrition most of all. Consistently making decent enough choices (or these days it's more of an At All) and finding and sticking to humane portion sizes. I feel like my food choices are limiting where I am and where I'm headed in a VERY dramatic way. But calorie restriction is a stressor I have avoided for a while now, and consciously too. Separation has been a bitch even though it was kind of a mutual thing. This christmas season I am nesting. I will buy a tree one of these days, for the first time in possibly 10 years, we already have some decorations up. We will not celebrate xmas at my in-laws house for the first time in years and years. I made a memory board with maps and fotos and things. And I will keep adding to that. Most of all I have to keep keeping my stress levels in check. I am the whack'a'mole queen for a reason. And it would be hell'a nice if my physique reflected how much better I am all over, so I am thinking about what to do regarding food. Because I liked myself at under 90kg... I looked and felt amazing... I remember it being hard work, getting there: HIIT once a week, focused training to fix my abysmal posture (not sure how much of that bad stuff has come back, since my hip is acting up a lot lately), counting calories, weighing EVERYTHING that went on my plate, 500-1000kcal deficit (starting out with too much, and learning about healthy deficits lateron). Eating a limited number of veggies, still not being a fan of the things I ate too much of back then... So yeah, I want to restrict my eating, get that all sorted out, but on the other hand I do not want to fuck up my mental health with going down that rabbit hole of super-über-perfection. I also feel though, that I am paralyzing myself by over-analyzing here... so that's awesome! A coworker is sick, so instead of 4 days off next week I work every day but one. But then I have Wednesday through Chrismas off, which is nice. Plus all the extra hours bring extra money too, so that's potentially nice (unless they tell me I should take extra days off, that's not cool) plusplus it's short notice extra hours, so I get a bit more money per hour too, it's not a lot, but some months it's those small things... I bought myself a couple of japanese eggplants (I think. They are long and slender, but I didn't ask, so they may be from somewhere else), which I've never seen outside of my Korean cookbook before. So I am looking forward to soy marinated eggplant 가지 나무 (?) Gaji Namu without substituting the main ingredient. Maybe. Plus today is my 9yo son's bday party, which he is super excited about. We'll see how it goes. Plus knitting black yarn... what was I thinking?! Enough of my ramblings. Thanks go to @Terra, for messaging me privately and pushing me to make a challenge. Sorry, my friend, for being so late. I'm here now.

Hello fellow Rangers, hello Rebellion, I am here. And I am not going anywhere else, except forward. These last two weeks, as I looked back over my last year, I had a different feeling brewing in my gut, different from the last few year's end of year melancholy. This time it was a distinct "roll your sleeves up"-kind of feeling. I've had enough on a lot of levels and something just has to give. So here goes: I am DONE waiting for miracles I have three things I want to get into my life this coming year. Thing 1 I want to lift heavy sh!t up and put it back down. Fitness places that are affordable and have free weights are beyond walking distance and I can just not afford them AND the bus 2-3 times a week / month pass. It'll be a stretch as is. If When I get a pass for either center and start lifting regularly, I need to have at least a bike. I have asked around inside the family for a bike. I will put more pressure into this, and if it doesn't fruit, I will, by the end of this challenge, visit at least three used-bike-places and buy a bike. Also looking into buying a used barbell, but that sh!t is expensive, if I want an olympic bar. For starters a standard would do, really cheap and not uncommon, just incompatible with later investments, that's what I stumble over. I should just get a cheap handmedown and get started... shouldn't I? Thing 2 I want to "grow up" - aka get my finances sorted to a place where I at least am in the black, start saving instead of always growing debt. First step: income (next step), budget (done) , save and pay off where possible (to come), save and get a weekend away or other vacation. I need to feel safe. I have a few things to summon some courage for and make appointments for, this is not negotiable. During this challenge I have to: * call someone about classes to take to get a better standing, and make it possible to get hired part time (=no more "on an hourly basis" sh!t), * call someone about the future situation of the classes I give (get information about how likely and for how long the "on an hourly basis" shit may still continue before it dies around me), * get a printout of what I have earned 2018 (and what hubby did), * and get an appointment at the finance place and sort that sh!t out. * Also sort out if quitting sports club is a valid next step or not. Thing 3 Aerial silks and/or bouldering/climbing There is 2 places that do aerial yoga, not sure if they offer silks per sé, need to check that out. And there is a climbing basement in walking distance from our flat, and I never checked it out, scary meeting people, but I wanna, so I gotta. That's the things I want to get sorted ASAP. Following are the things already on my plate: * I am currently in therapy for something that's called Neurasthenie in German, it just means I am emotionally, physically and mentally tired all the time and during rest periods I do not recharge as I should. I have mental loops that keep me stressing myself out while I am supposed to enjoy a movie and knitting or whatever. It fucks with my sleep. It is wearing me down. The therapy, as they do, is in parts really healing and good, but usually frikkin painful and difficult first. * I want to lose some weight, to prevent health issues later (diabetes, heart issues etc) and to make my body look like I feel I should look, which is not how I look right now. I am sure I am at least 10kg if not 20 kg above where it should be. But I don't know if eating under maintenance is a stressor I can endure right now. I think working out (bodyweight routines (and pool dates with myself) until I figure out the fitness center situation) and getting stronger, would help with my mood (yay endorphines) and getting stronger and maybe even slimmer (yay muscles) would help give me the confidence about myself that a ) I am a strong and beautiful ranger and that b ) I get the things I set my mind to achieving. I think about doing a few low-key changes, not start counting (mfp) again, but drinking water and fizzy water and maybe a glass of juice once in a while, and stay away from lemonade altogether. Reduce pasta to zucchini pasta, buy and prep paprika or another veggie as snacks at least 3 times a week. Do one workout once a week (2-3 is better, I know, but let's start small), and aim for those 10000 steps at least on sunny days, I dread them so much. no lifting goals yet, but lets get things sorted so those can happen, too, eh? It looks like a lot of "priorities" again, doesn't it? grrrrr And how is all of this water related? I have no idea. It may or may not be, actually. These challenges, that I do, elements air fire earth, now water, and finally love, they feel like "my thing". I am a shaman and a witch at heart and I am primal, so going to the elements, that's a language I understand on a deeper level. Water is my element. It has been as long as I can remember. For the elemental magic: * Wear blue and blue-greens, * drink more water than you think you need, * eat water-rich instead of salt-rich snacks, * two pool dates in four weeks, * sweat again. * And of course: constant dripping wears away the stone: keep going towards the three (five?) main things with consistency and selfcare.

2018 is a year of big change for me and a lot is happening during this challenge. During the last challenge, my husband and I decided to divorce and I've struggled to stick to my goals. I need to keep my goals simple since I have so much going on. I also want to continue to make some progress on my 2018 Roadmap so I've got a simpliified goal for each area of my Roadmap. Weeks 1&2: The Cocoon For the first two weeks of the challenge, my husband and I are continuing to share the same house. So far things are amicable but obviously a bit tense. I am in a space of avoidance and I am OK with that and plan to embrace it. I will use these two weeks to just exist in my own space, on my own terms, and try to focus on my goals. Weeks 3&4: A Beautiful Butterfly By week 3 LS should be in the process of moving into his own place. I'll have the space to emerge from my cocoon, spread my wings, and explore my new reality. The goals will be the same as the previous 2 weeks but my challenges will be different and I'll have to find my new 'norm' to address them. The Goals The plan is to keep it simple. I have a single goal for each area from my Roadmap. I will not even pretend that I will be able to manage all of them, all the time, all at once. A day counts as a pass if I accomplish at least 1 of the following goals. There is no food goal this time around. In the past, having a weekend on my own with my husband was always a trigger to eat whatever I wanted. SInce all my time will be on my own I'll need to learn how to handle that trigger. Between that and still trying to not eat my feelings I am anticipating a lot of challenges with food. But rather than trying to reign them in, I'm just going to allow myself the space to eat what I want but try not to eat like a dickhead. (This starts week 1 - I am spending my week 0 eating like a complete ass) Rangering Goal: Move Daily We've put our membership at the fancy gym on hold for the time being so deadlifts are not in the cards at the moment. I still have a strong cardio focus I need to incorporate more strength routines too. My core is getting really squishy so that will likely be a focus as well. It doesn't really matter what I do, as long as I do something. Domestic Rangering Goal: Tidy Home I've created my own modified version of FlyLady's house cleaning schedule. I have some daily and weekly cleaning tasks as well as some targeted area tasks that I'll rotate. This is really a dry run to see how the plan works. One of the things I like the most about FlyLady's philosophy is not to worry about missed chores. Each day is a new day, with a new task list. There is no going back to 'make up' missed chores. It will all come around again the next day, next week, or the next month. Relationship Rangering Goal: Strong Mom This is going to be a rough month for the kids so I need to make sure I am taking care of their mental well being. I have no idea what this goal should look like but I know it needs to be done. Financial Rangering Goal: A New Budget So much for the budget I came up based on last year's data. We are in the process of splitting our finances so I need to pay close attention so that all our money is directly to the right place fairly, the bills the get paid, and I am prepared to pay all my own bills with all my own money by week 3.

LadyShello Does NOT Eat Her Feelings. This isn't actually the theme of my challenge. However, currently my life looks like this and I expect this to be an even more difficult month. Every notification I get from my thread will be a reminder that I do not eat my feelings. So every time you like something or comment on my thread you are helping me reinforce that I do not eat my feelings. If It Ain't Broke, Do More of It. Last challenge was pretty successful. I'm just going to keep doing what I was doing but work on some new habits and get more workouts in. Goal 1: Get MoAR Workouts In Last challenge was good but I dropped the strength goal and usually only worked out 3 times a week. It's time to get back to 5 workouts a week. I'm taking a break from a formal lifting program but I'd still like to incorporate more strength workouts. I'm also practising being kind to myself so I'm allowing some freedom with this goal. Work out 5 times a week, 3 of which must be cardio. The other 2 can be anything else. Part II - get 8,000 steps daily. I tried for 10,000 last challenge and just couldn't make it happen. So I'm setting the goal more reasonably. Goal 2: Don't Eat Your Feelings Do I need to say this again? Probably. I am a person who does not eat my feelings. My food goal remains unchanged. Following clean-ish eating, log food for any day not entirely clean (which turns out to be most days). If I log food, stay under 1600 calorie goal. 1 variance allowed per week - for this challenge that's 5. Goal 3: Get Enough Sleep I did pretty well with my goal last challenge but I was just barely getting the bare minimum amount of sleep. In the spirit of doing more, I'll bump the goal to 7.5 hours of sleep. Goal 4: Wild Card This is a hodge podge of other habits I'd like to work on. These are mostly weekly goals or just ongoing goals. Financial Rangering: Stick to the budget. This is pretty self explanatory. Domestic Rangering: I've tried following FlyLady a couple years ago to keep the house tidy but it didn't work for me. With everything else going on I can't do as much daily as she prescribes and her system doesn't take into account chores for kids and they should be helping with chores. I'm going to work on personalizing her system into something that works for my family. Some kind of Rangering: I had a goal to do three tasks daily from my bullet journal last challenge. I did work on doing 3 tasks daily but I never actually used my bujo. Same goal this time only using my buj0. Relationship Rangering: I'm going to focus on my relationship with myself this time around and practice kindness. I want to spend more time reading and doing self care. This challenge begins imediately! Onward Nerds!

Time for a new thread to go up... I am late. Later than usual. With the thread, you know, and I even had this amazing theme idea... now I'm just gonna try to make it make sense to you, see what will come of that. It's that time of year, you know? The dark time, it's almost Winsol (you know this reference?), it is that crazy time of cookie baking, childrens birthdays (yes both my kids are born in December, what was I thinking?!) and wait for it to get cold outside. I'm located in the far north of Germany, that little nub between northsea and baltic... no not Denmark, just south of Denmark, actually we were Danish at some point in the past... anyway, unimportant, so we have the baltic right outside our doorstep (kinda) and that's a big body of water, fed mostly by rivers out of scandinavian mountains and Belarus, so imagine: cold, but huge body of water, now on the other side of this piece of land we have the north sea, fed by the golf stream going by, even bigger body of water. Now imagine what happens when temperatures change: yeah, not much, the bodies of water take the heat out of our summers, and the bite out of our winters, we get lot's of humidity year round though, and that can be a bit... English, if you know what I mean. But anyway if you are into that kinda thing Kiel is a nice place to live and I wouldn't change it for the world. and since the profecies of Shadowrun didn't come to pass so far, I'm pretty hopeful it'll stay a nice place until further notice. Where was I going with this? Oh yeah, the dark and cold season. Winsol not too far away now, the first-born's birthday looming (this WED) I can almost feel that break up ahead, that I have been waiting for. And for me that means rereading favourite stories. Binging on Anne Bishop, Kevin Hearne, Kelley Armstrong, Neil Gaiman (fict) and Phyllis Curott, Julia Cameron, Marian Green and Ute M Schiran (non-fict). Lot's of chores, cleaning and cooking/baking. Return to introspection: a desire to journal again. And shopping for and wrapping the last presents. Challenge: Log food 3x/week Sleep 7 1/2+h each night, stay close to the 8h a night I've reach last challenge be on the forums, either reading (and supporting) others' threads or updating my own 4x/week start journaling again bullet journal Find a way to recharge that doesn't include binging on Netflix or comfort food Thank you for those reading on in my little corner, I am sorry for the wall text tendencies... maybe with journaling that will clear itself up too... Katrin Gratitude washing machines - imagine doing the laundry at a river or in the Kiel Bay... shudder music of (almost) all kinds good stories read on a dark night in a home with central heating. (being read to or reading myself both count)

So I'm still distilling the challenge down to its essence by simply bragging about what I did. I'll try to be better about telling you what I made for dinner.

I was reading my threads from this time last year... I'm in the same damn rut except that my depression is different. So I'm going to start off small again... still. My goal is to find something to brag about every day. Usually it'll probably be what I cooked for dinner.

HI! I am Deftona and this is my 24th challenge here on Nerd Fitness. I was going to sit out a few weeks of this challenge because EVERYTHING IS HAPPENING! in my life right now but I decided NAY, I SHALL PROCEED but I am going to be taking a Week Zero for the first time in a long time. Mostly because I am going on holiday for a few days to somewhere that has magical places to eat, but also because I am moving house albeit really freaking slowly, and while it's wise to set aside a couple of days to ensure this runs smoothly, I need to get my shit together at some point and I think this challenge will help me keep all my crap together. I am expecting to be incommunicado until I get my internet connected which will not be in time for the start of this challenge but maybe I can be that hipster in Starbucks who bogarts some free wifi. Who knows? Not me. Onto the challenge goals! Life, much like the Johnny Karate Super Awesome Explosion Show, is all about learning, trying, helping and having fun. And with that, there are Five Karate Moves to Success: make something, learn something, karate chop something, try something new even if it's scary to you and be nice to someone. Make Something With Carpenter Ron I want to do something every day towards making my habitat better. This could be unpacking a box, turning up the curtains or cleaning something. Every single day I am not at work, I want to be making my new home lovely because I plan to start as I mean to go on. Learn Something with Professor Smart Brain For this one, I want to learn a new fact every single day. About anything at all, but I have to report a fact every day. Karate Chop Something Every day I am not at my out of the home job (which is just a couple of days a week), I want to be doing some exercise. Given that my new dedicated gym room won't be set up immediately, a Darebee daily exercise will be sufficient but I am expecting to have the gym done by mid October at the latest so I will have access to my elliptical and my barbell. EEEEEEEEEK! Try Something New With Leslie Knope Since I am moving to a new area it will be nice to explore my immediate surroundings. Maybe check out the local library and pool, walk around the neighbourhood or do something like try a new recipe. It doesn't really matter what it is as long as it's new to me. Three new things every week. Be Nice to Someone I am slightly changing this. Not because I don’t want to be nice to people because I do, I just don’t want to be nice to people simply because I made it a challenge. So instead, this ‘someone’ is going to be my cat. And I am going to focus on giving her lots of fuss, attention and cuddles with lots of play time which usually involves her watching me play with her cat toys because I guess that’s funny to her, making her 31 and 36 year old humans play with her fuzzy cat toys while she watches us like we’re mentally inferior to her. And like this episode of Parks and Rec, I am going to end on John Cena. New challenge. Gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Boring Backstory Progress is not linear. We've all heard this before; we know it's true. The challenge is in accepting it. I've really been struggling the last few challenges. It doesn't feel like I'm making progress but habits are being reinforced, attitudes are changing, and mindfulness is becoming easier. The GoRuck that was to happen at the very start of this challenge has been cancelled. The next event is the 5K Milk Run at the Minnesota State Fair. So it's time to switch gears on training and start running. I have been travelling a lot this summer with 2 more trips coming up during this challenge. When travelling sometimes workouts get skipped; sometimes they get replaced. I figure as long as I am in control of my food choices then missing some workouts won't make a huge difference in meeting my goals. I'm tired of taking two steps backward all the time and I know this is due to my food choices and my relationship with food. So this challenge is basically similar to the last umpteen challenges with a few exceptions... I've tried to simplify it a bit; the primary focus of this challenge is food choices, and the training focus has changed from rucking to running. FOOD I've mapped out the challenge days, starting with today, and noted travel days so I can account for them. Last challenge I adopted a modified calorie goal so that allows for more on weekends and travel days, rest days, and recovery days. I've added the calorie goals for each day on the Magic Spreadsheet of SuccessTM (MSS). For each day I'll document the actual calories, logged with MFP. Scoring will occur in 1 of 2 ways, I haven't decided which yet until I have some data and see how it shakes out. At the end of each week, I'll have a projected Average Daily Calorie intake (ADC) an actual Average Daily Calorie intake. Scoring option #1: The calculated percent difference between the projected and actual. Scoring Option #2: the number of days of the week that actual stayed within projected. I think I prefer Option #1. This will account for whether I go over a little or a lot, same with staying under goal, rather than just not getting a point if I go over by a respectable amount of calories and then go under the same amount another day. What I want to avoid is trying to make up calorie overages on another day. I'm OK using some short calorie days to average out some over days but I don't want to end up cutting too much on some days to account for variance days. This will send me right into a spiral of variance days that will never end. TRAINING Training has been mapped out on the MSS, accounting for travel days. For the most part each week follows this plan: 3 Run Days. distances determined by Runkeeper 5K training plan. Weather will be a factor as it has been a really hot and humid summer and this makes running suck. 2 Lift Days. using training plan from my trainer. 1 Active Rest Day. This can be 10 minutes of yoga, 10 minutes of Shovelglove, rucking, hiking, walking, swimming with the family, biking, catching Pokemon, anything. I don't care what and it doesn't have to be much, just don't be a Blerch. and now for some gratuitous gifs..... This challenge has been brought to you by:

Deffy The Vampire Slayer Season 2 Deffy vs Angelus: Deffy Finds the Passion "Passion... it lies in all of us. Sleeping, waiting, and though unwanted, unbidden, it will stir, open its jaws, and howl. It speaks to us, guides us... passion rules us all. And we obey. What other choice do we have?" This challenge will pick up where the last one left off. I successfully defeated The Master but because I set myself so many tasks to do outside of health and exercise I got a low score despite doing ok with the exercise goals because I got addicted to Arkham Knight. I'd like to say I have learned my lesson but I haven't and probably never will so I will have to work around the weird obsessions I get that pop up from time to time, and also learn to live with setting myself lofty goals I have few intentions of meeting So the challenge will follow the same format as the last - I have a different special opponent every few days and I have a special task I have to complete to beat said opponent. I am not running any special opponents during weeks 3 and 4 because work is about to go seriously crazy and I will have zero time for myself for that fortnight. The Main Goals Don't Eat Like A Dickhead Whenever I calorie count for a long time my diet gets crappier and crappier. I focus on calorie load instead of nutrition and my diet gets filled with stuff I don't want to be eating so I am going to half forget about calories and focus on eating good nutritious foodstuffs and stay the heck away from the chemical shitstorms. This is back to the heady days of 'Don't Eat Like A Dickhead' but with more rules than I used to follow when I first started doing this. I have a list of contraband items ('contras') with portion sizes worked out and I am allowed thirty contras across the challenge. Some examples of contras are: White bread (per slice/bagel half/mini bagel etc), chocolate with stuff in (chocolate without stuff in doesn't really appeal to me so don't eat a lot of it), all cake, fizzy drinks, biscuits and cookies, sweets and anything else that is clearly frankenfoodstuffs masquerading as food. All alcohol is included in this too (except alcohol I cook with) with the exception of red wine. Because give me red wine or give me death. Move that Body I want to do 50 kms and get 750 fitness minutes. This has been heavily scaled down to account for those two weeks of being really busy. Chase the Booty I am done messing around, I want a great ass and I want it now. But I can't have it now so I am going to focus on working on it for this challenge so I can have it soon. I want to do 2,016 standing splits or heel kicks in this challenge period. And to say there are at least eight days when I won't be able to do any exercise at all, that averages out at more than 80 per day. If that doesn't help me achieve my bubble butt goals I should probably give up on them. Passion That's it. I am not going to set myself any extracurricular goals except my villain battle focus challenges because if last challenge is anything to go by, I set these goals and then laugh in their faces while I sit on my non excellent ass and play video games. But what I am going to do is approach everything in my life with more passion. No formal grading for this, just an attempt to keep it at the forefront of my mind. The Prize If I get 85% or above for this challenge, I get this. Lower that 85% and I get a kick up the arse. I think that's it. New challenge.... goooooooooooooooooooo!

This Challenge--- I have no idea yet. Rambling brainstorm coming in - music at the bottom: I want to get "Them" to give me a confirmation for a spot in the licence class I wish to take in September (I got the sponsoring settled, but "they" (=not them) took their bloody time.) I will be in Vienna, Austria July 6th through 10th. I have already organised and tentatively looked up knitting meets that fall withing the time frame (I have wool shopping plans) and am hoping the trip will be as awesome as I think it'll be. Mum booked the whole trip (bus: shudder - and hotel: 4 stars) as a package thing, including sight seeing tour of the city on day one there (which because of the bus ride through all of Germany to Vienna via Prague taking 16 hours or thereabouts is actually day two of the trip). I am much excited, I don't think you can read it in my words here, I am actually, truly, utterly psyched. I haven't traveled since I went to sweden with friends the year I graduated AND was pregnant with my now 12 YO son. Mind Blown. I will take as much of that trip in as I can, take some pictures (but more looking and experiencing than watching it through a camera) and I will take some wool with me, something that'll keep reminding me for months to come, while I knit, and years (hopefully) to come while I wear, whatever it'll become.... I'm a tactile person like that, this really speaks to me. I need to cook better. Log more. And that is not negotiable. I need to get my legs to work properly. PT and all that. And I need to start really training for the Mudrun in early October. Sustainably. That is my first braindump of a thought for next challenge. I will run my challenge June 13th 'till July 10th, making my vacation the long straight before the finish line... I should look up fitness options in Vienna... maybe they have indoor playgrounds there... *research mode engage* Speak soon Katrin

Deffy the Vampire Slayer Season One Deffy vs The Master: The Harvest I may be taking a break from wrestling challenges but it doesn't mean I am going to stop ass kicking. In fact, there are some throwbacks in this challenge to stuff I started this time last year. More on that later So this series of challenges will take a different format to how I have been doing my challenges recently. There are 6 challenges left of 2016, one for each season of Buffy if we forget Riley existed. Which we do. There will be some minor spoilers so if you haven't seen Buffy yet why are we friends? you might want to reconsider following this challenge but dudes and dudettes, it's been, like, TWENTY YEARS the statute of spoiler limitations must have run out by now. So for this challenge my main foe is The Master as he was the Big Bad in Buffy season one. Deffy's nemesis is carbs. They have been the downfall of many a hot booty and this hot booty is no exception. To defeat The Master, I have to keep eating my bastardised version of paleo, but The Master is not the only villain of this season. I will battle two or three different foes each week, split into different days ahead of time so I have a proper schedule. The Main Goals Fitness Goals 1. Continue following the bastardised version of paleo but also count calories too. I want a total deficit of 25,000 calories by the last day of the challenge 2. Do 100 elliptical KMs 3. Lift 15 times 4. Get 1,500 total fitness minutes by the last day of the challenge. Life Goals 1. Finish my online Panini Euro 2016 sticker album, preferably before my boyfriend (The Heron, or TH from now on) currently at 71% vs TH's 67% 2. Finish all outstanding gifts. I had a fault on my sewing machine but now that's done I can crack on. I'm only a whole month late.... 3. Make sure my books are up to date and submit my tax declaration for the last tax year. 4. Finish current book (The Dust that Falls from Dreams by Louis de Bernieres) and read another one in full. 5. Get to at least 80% on my huge History of the World book on Kindle. 6. Oil pull 15 times (it's a coconut oil/mouth thing) Kicketh Some Ass Also this challenge I will be roughhousing with TH again. We tried wrestling each other last year and we had a lot of fun but this year I want to kick it up a notch and actually learn some self defence. I have wanted to train with TH for ages but his fitness level is not what mine is and he isn't too keen on the idea of attending classes so I am going to try and tempt him with some home lessons and online tutorials in the hope he gets the bug and we can move to bigger and better things. At the very least I am going to buy some boxing punching mitts so he can help me with drills. I am also continuing my quest to get a majorly hot booty. I want mine to rival Jen Selter's: and I will not stop my mission until it does. I have this weird thing where I make TH judge my butt and give me a 'Percentage to Jen Selter' score and I currently stand at 42% Seltered. I'd like to reach at least 50% by the end of this challenge. Another challenge! LETS GO!

...like no one ever was!!! That's right, this challenge is pokémon themed. And spreadsheet fueled. And all kinds of awesome. Of course I'm doing all the things again, so I thought I'd hop back in with the Rangers to see what you guys've been up to but I've really been focusing on balance practice lately and I want to get more bodyweight stuff and gymnastics going on, so I've decided to move to the Assassins at long last. I've been slipping into their minis for the last few challenges anways I'll start a new job this month (and will also celebrate my 1 year nerdversary this saturday!) so this challenge is designed in a way that lets me adjust the difficulty easily and take a rest if I feel like I need it. I'm using week 0 to figure out the details, so expect some things to change around here (we're currently on version 2.0). But let's get started... I used to play a lot of pokémon in my teens. A lot. I started with blue, then yellow, then silver and then I kinda grew out of it... (yes, I was around when all of these came out first, I'm that old). I was never really one for trying to catch them all, nor did I have a specific type that I liked and would collect... I just tried to get the most balanced, versatile, powerful team I could. So this challenge, I will put together a team of Pokémon and train them by fighting other pokémon I come across. Each member of my team will represent a certain area that I want to improve on and each of their attacks will correspond to a certain task or activity that I want to do. These are mostly things I've done before or am currently doing, this challenge is just designed to keep me motivated and accountable. Because if I don't do these things straight away, my Pokémon will pay the price! A new wild pokémon will appear each day and will attack a member of my team (these will be scheduled, I just have to make made a plan). Fights last until one opponent is defeated, so there can be several fights going on at once. In order to not over-complicate things, the game mechanics will be fairly simple: I chose which attack my pokémon is going to use and also the level of the wild pokémon, which determines how much time it will take to defeat it: each level equals one tomato/brick (25 minutes). So if a wild Lvl 3 Pidgey appears and Charmander uses Ember, I will have to do 75 minutes of bodyweight workouts to defeat it. If I manage to do that on the same day, my Charmander defeats Pidgey and possibly gains a level (getting to lvl 2 takes one successfull fight, lvl 3 takes two fights, lvl 4 takes three fights and so on). If I don't defeat the pokémon and for example only get 60 minutes in, Pidgey attacks and damages my Charmander for the number of minutes that still remain, so 15 HP in our example. If this finishes my Charmander off, it loses a level, the Pidgey scurries off back into the tall grass where it came from and I get to try again the next day. As we all now, the number of fights in Pokémon is largely determined by your willingness to walk around in tall grass for hours on end. So whenever my daily opponent is defeated and I feel like doing a little bit extra, I will walk through tall grass and find some more pokémon to fight. Which means that this option is only available if I have completed my "enjoy the outsides" habit for the day. That suffered a bit last challenge and maybe this will motivate me to do this more often (you know, if I don't go outside, the yoga I've done in the evening might not count as a fight and I'll miss the opportunity to gain a level *gasp*). In theory, I can fight as many pokémon as I have team members at the same time, but once I decide to fight extra, I need to defeat them and they'll behave just like the regular ones. I can't change my mind if I realize I've put too much on my plate In addition to these fights, I will have other options to support my pokémon: Every day where I show perfect eating habits (no white grain, no refined sugar, three meals, one of them warm, 2 of them with veggies, more than 2l of water) I will gain a health potion that heals 50% of the chosen pokémon's health. Every day where I have a perfect habit tracker score I will gain a health potion that heals all my pokémon for 5% of their health. Every week with a perfect housekeeping score will reduce half of the remaining HP of any enemy still in fight. For everyone who hasn't followed my old challenges and who's confused about what a housekeeping or habit tracker is: lengthy explanation in the spoiler Here's a list of all attacks/ things I want to do, sorted by type. For now I've chosen one attack for each pokémon on my team. As pokémon level up and gain new attacks, I will have more options to choose from on how to beat a wild pokémon. Fire: Feel the burn. HIIT or any other type of bodyweigh training. Water: The river goes on and on and on. I'll either swim with my pokémon or cheer them on from the (dry) shore. Swimming, running, biking, skating and anything else endurance goes here. Bug: Lie on your bag and flail your legs. This will either be a leg workout I got from a friend or something along the line of Deftona's P:BA Electric: Focus your energy! Work related adulting, mainly reading for work (and taking notes!), office work for my dad's company and any other paper work that comes along. Flying: See the world from a different perspective, even if this just means being upside down Balancing work or other gymnastics. Normal: Sing, sing, sing. Singing practice for choir or lessons. There are some types missing because I couldn't match them to things I want to do or because I things I came up with weren't really important enough to me to include them here. But one type is missing because I won't use it in my team at all. It will still make an appearance, though: Poison: Whenever I eat something bad, a poisonous wild pokémon will appear and attack me. Level depends on how bad I misbehaved All my pokémon are allowed to help out and defeat it. If unsuccessfull, it will poison my team and drain 10% of their health per level each day. And of course there's badges to be won!! As my pokémon grow stronger and stronger each day, they will need a little bit of an extra challenge. So whenever I feel like it, I can attempt to take down a gym leader and own a badge. Here's what I need to do to defeat them Boulder Badge (Rock): Go bouldering (duh). Friends of mine go and I've always wanted to go along. I'll have to trim my nails for this, but I think it'll be worth it Cascade Badge (Water): Follow the river. Run 5k in under 30 minutes along the riverside. Thunder Badge (Electric): Resist the magnetic pull of my computer. Stay off the internet until noon for 10 days in a row. Rainbow Badge (Grass): Go for a hike in the nearby mountains/woods that are really famous but that I've never been to for some reason. Soul Badge (Poison): Stay away from the bad stuff. Follow my eating habits for 10 days in a row. (The normal kind, not the special one that gains me health potions.) Marsh Badge (Psychic): Let the Sky fall! Hit that high e in a concert. Volcano Badge (Fire): Get sweating. Find a HIIT workout that I can do 1 round of. Come back to it later and do 3 rounds. Earth Badge (Ground): Get close to the ground. Then get away from the ground. Do 10 push-ups in a row. I intend to keep the pokémon theme around for a while so these won't all happen this challenge. These are not set in stone yet, so if you guys have any other ideas for these, feel free to let me know. Here's where the spreadsheet magic happen. This is and old version though, I'm currently figuring out the best way to set things up and calculate most of the things automatically. I don't think I'll stick to the attacks they have at lvl 1 as I originally intended, because I'f like to have special type-corresponding attacks from the start. Way too much office work otherwise So, I think I've covered everything you need to know to understand what's happening. If you have any questions, drop me a note. For now, route 1 awaits Charmander, I choose you! Charmander attacks Pidgey with Scratch (1 hour of office work today). Charmander is defeated! Geodude gains 1 lvl! Tadaaaaa And I see a Rattata lurking around the corner, so I'll be ready for it tomorrow! (Don't be confused, I changed some things around, so this doesn't really make sense anymore )

And so it begins again.... The boring backstory Main Over-arching Goal: My goal is still to lose bodyfat and gain strength. I still haven't been to Onederland but my ultimate goal is somewhere over that rainbow. Main goal for this challenge: The main goal for this challenge is to prepare for the GoRuck next month. I also have no time to waste this summer so I want to enjoy every minute of it. I really liked the structure of my last challenge. I'll continue tracking 6 core goals that all work together for success though each one may be tracked a little differently. I've mapped out the challenge and out of the 33 days (since my challenge starts today) I am travelling for 11 of them. I do like the idea of strictly tracking my compliance on the core goals regardless of what life is going on but I did modify them this time to make sure that my goals match my actual expectations. In addition to the travel schedule, I also realized last challenge that I need a day off. My current standard rest day is on Monday only because I am so busy that I don't usually have time to get a workout in. Well then I don't really have time to rest and enjoy my time either. I made a list last challenge consisting of how I want to spend the summer and I need to have time to get to those activities. So I've scheduled in another rest day that could very well end up being a pretty active day but I'll be free to spend quality time with the family instead of putting the gym before them... the same with my summer hobbies. Ruck Like a (Badass) Girl (STA) I need to ruck more, a lot more. I've had side goals for the past several challenges to do Ruck WODs and I've only done 1. Now it is a necessity. I've decided to get 2 rucks in a week at minimum. No distance requirements but I'll be keeping track and trying to increase the distance or work on speed. I find it really difficult to hit the 15 min mile benchmark without doing a bit of running. The plan: Ruck 2x week. Any distance, increase speed each time, Each ruck counts as 1 pt 4 Rucks with coupon (carrying a tire). This can either be part of the 2 weekly rucks or in addition. Each ruck with coupon counts as 1.5 pts 4 Ruck WODs. I've got one scheduled with my personal trainer already. I'll be incorporating more into the lift goal below. 1 Long distance ruck. I'm not sure what that long distance is. At least 5K but I'm thinking more like a couple hours. Long ruck counts as 2pts Lift (STR) I want to maintain my 3 lifting days per week. The problem is the travel days cover a lot of lift days. There are 14 lift days scheduled. 6 of them are travel days. I may be able to get some lifting in before I go or as I return but I can't say that now. Since it's much easier to get a ruck in while travelling I can substitute a Ruck WOD for any lift day on travel days only. This gives me more than ample opportunity to hit the goal for Ruck WODs and maintain my strength schedule. Each lift day or RuckWOD substitution counts as 1pt Demolish (WIS) The goal is to accomplish 3 productive tasks each day, travel days excluded. I made some improvements last challenge but still procrastinated tasks I don't like to do or are out of the ordinary. This time I will make a couple of changes. I will not commit to 3 tasks at the start of each day but rather be mindful of tasks and ensure I get 3 of them done by the end of the day. In addition, I will keep a bullet journal style to do list in my Passion Planner. Any tasks that sits in the back of my mind taunting me will get written on the list. I will also include a list of Flylady tasks for the week. Each day, as I am finding things to do I should consult the lists and see if I can at least accomplish 1 thing from each list. So the 3 daily tasks will loosely consist of 1 cleaning task, 1 long term To do task, and 1 daily task. I say loosely as I am not required to do any of the items on the list. But at the end of each week, I will have to migrate any leftover tasks to the following week's tasks. tsk tsk. Each day with 3 tasks accomplished counts as 1 pt. Occasionally partial credit awarded. Sleep (DEX) Continue working on getting at least 7 hours of sleep each night. This counts for all days, travel or not. 1pt per night with at least 7 hours Macros (CON) Meet MFP macros each day. This includes travel days. No variance days are worked in but I am not necessarily expecting 100% on this goal. But 90% would be really nice. 1 point for staying within calorie goal, .5 points for staying within +10% of calorie goal. Leisure & Enrichment (CHA) I want to continue to make this a priority over the summer. I have a tendency to waste the summers away and I want to enjoy the time and make memories with the kids. The goal is to set aside time each day to do something leisurely (that's not multitasking with a chore and not procrastinating a chore either). Things that count are quality time with the hubby or kids, spending time at the pool at the gym, going to a movie, watching a movie at home, knitting, quilting, sitting in the sun, reading... I do want to make a distinction from mindlessly watching TV before bed or from actually being lazy. Sometimes drawing the line is difficult for me. I want to enrich my life, not waste it away. Travel days are excluded since leisure will be built in. 1 point per day.

I'm intimidated by the forum change, so this challenge is all about just coming here every day, trying to follow threads, and posting in my own thread.

Briniel finds her focus Last challenge, I learned a lot of new things. I found out what works and what doesn't, learned a lot about procrastination, about bullet journaling, about what makes it difficult for me to stick to my goals and what makes it easy. This challenge I want to build on what I've learned and focus on what works for me. I contemplated adding lots of new stuff (new workout routine, new diet plan, new rangerbrain), but I think it would be nice to have a challenge where I just do what I've been doing so far, strengthen the habits I've made and kinda build the foundation from where to try new things. So, I will continue what I've been doing because it is working and because I believe it's the right path. I have set up another habit tracker for next month which includes all my goals. Last challenge I felt like my goals were all over the place. Some in my habit tracker, some on my challenge spread in my bujo, some only here on NF, some only in my head... so this time I will focus them all on one page so I can see at a glance what I need to be doing. I'll walk you through it: The top part is my housekeeping tracker. At the end of the month there will be checkmarks (me) or x-es (boyfriend) between all of the dotted lines. I added things that I want to do once a month at the bottom. The bottom part is my habit tracker. I divided it to include both daily tasks and things that I want to do 1-5 times a week. do my miracle morning (details can be found here) do a darebee gravity HIIT workout (I will probably adjust these in the end because they get a little rep-heavy towards the end, which I really didn't like with the last of their programs that I did, changed this to HIIT, because gravity was a little rep heavy from the beinning , star: did more than one workout) do the daily dare (star: with extra credit) drink more than 3l (raised from 2,5l last challenge) avoid added sugar and white flour (avoid, not cut out, so there's some wiggle room here; half-filled: had a little snack/treat but no complete outside the rules meal) eat veggies with two meals (half-filled: veggies with one meal, star: veggies with all meals) be outside for the sake of being outside (half-filled: went oustide only because I had to bike somewhere or had errands on this part of the river) play with the cats 2x (half-filled: played once or when they weren't really in the mood, star: had a clicker training session) write down my spendings in an excel spreadsheet Then there are things I'd like to do regularly, but not daily do one hour of job hunt work (this could include finding open positions, writing applications or getting info on further education, 5x/week) read for work as part of TMM (5x/week) volunteer at the local donation center, by collecting garbage at the river or by other means I can think of (at least 1x/week) call my parents, grandma and/or brother (at least 1x/week) meet friends in person (at least 1x/week) and host a social event at my place (2x/challenge) declutter some area of my flat (I've got a long list of things that need to get done and want to cross of 6 things by the end of the challenge) practice singing (additionally to any lessons or rehearsals, 2x/week) floss teeth (every other day) do some sort of physical activity for at least 30 minutes (workout, running, biking, inline skating, badminton, swimming... could be anything, 4x/week) So this is a lot of stuff, but it's all stuff that I've been successfully doing last challenge. This time around, I will focus on moving forward - my priority is the job hunt. I've been making more and more progress here every challenge, but it's time to give this my all. I know there's a lot more that I can do and I will go and do it. I will work on this as much as I can. I don't know whether I'll have a job by the end of this, but I know I will have done all I can. on what's been proved to work - I will use my habit tracker daily. I will figure out something for the pomodoro timer which was a great tool last challenge to tame the monkey. I will also remember to enjoy my time off, whether I've already done everything for that day or not. on being in the moment - what bothered me most last challenge were half-assed bricks - when I wasn't really productive, but not really relaxing either. So there won't be any more of those. I will either focus on work or focus on play, but I won't do any multi-tasking. This includes eating in front of screens or using NF/fb at work. When I work, I'll work. When I sit, I'll sit. When I relax, I'll relax. There was a quote about this somewhere, but I can't find it right now. When something goes wrong... when I find myself losing focus, when my thoughts wander, when I loose ground... I will use buddhify to refocus. It has lots of different meditations for all kinds of situations. I will sit down for a few minutes, take a little time off to remember why I'm doing this and what my focus is and continue being awesome

Hi! I couldn't wait to post this. Despite thinking that I didn't like 3 continuous months of challenge, it turns out it actually really worked better than the old format to establish habits. I woke up this morning and wanted to carry on as usual. So, here I am. I hope Celebrate gets stuck in your head every time you visit my thread, since it is stuck in mine forever now. For those of you who don't know me, hello! I am NeverThatBored. My current goal is to lose the last 10-12 pounds I have left, though lately I've been more focused on fitness stuff than making progress on that goal. My biggest challenge struggle is food. Some of my favorite things are cats, training montages, and sitting outside next to running water. I am nerdiest about anime, fantasy novels, and rpg / indie games. Now I feel like that should be an icebreaker where everyone says their goals, struggles, favorite things, and favorite nerdy things. (I hate icebreakers in real life.) Goal 1: Maintain Fitness As usual, this goal involves maintaining my existing fitness routine (and continuing to progress during regular workouts, etc.) 3 workouts/week (usually 1 bootcamp class and 2 bodyweight workouts at home) 1 Pushup AMRAP/week to maintain pushup strength Walk 16 miles/week (64 total) Practice holding a deep squat daily (42 total) 1 run / week (either 5K, slower paced run with coworkers, or sprinting) Goal 2: Movement Focus – Long Walks During the past few challenges, I’ve been focusing my secondary fitness goal on specific movements (pushups, squats). This time around, I want to focus on walking longer distances with the goal of eventually working up to a 35 mile walk on the local bike path. I will mainly be able to do this on weekends, although theoretically I might be able to do it after work now that the light is nice. We’ll see. My goal is to do this once per week, going a bit further each time. I don’t think I’ll have time to do this on travel weekends, however. My recent max is 7 miles. I’d like to work up to at least 20 in preparation before attempting the full distance. Goal 3: Food I tried the minimalist approach last time and it was an epic failure, so this time I’m trying the maximalist approach. Part A: Maintain things that work Last challenge I stopped counting these things for a week, and immediately stopped doing them. So, even if I’m focusing on macros this challenge, I need to hold myself accountable for this stuff too. Don’t eat after 8pm (or within 3 hours of bedtime) (-1 point for failure) Don’t eat more than 1 bad food/meal in a day. Desserts are counted separately from meals in most cases. (-1 point for failure) Eat primalish most of the time (19 meals / week allows for 2 variance meals) (-1 point per failure, +1 point for extra primal meal) NEW Aim for primal snacks on 4 days/week and then non-primal snacks ok 3 days per week Aim for at least 1 primal meal and 1 50% meal per day when travelling or hosting (-1 point per failure, +1 per success) Plan/prep meals over the weekend and prep/freeze meals for weeks when this doesn’t happen (+3 points when done successfully) Write down bad reactions to food choices in an ongoing spreadsheet to dissuade myself from making that choice a second time. Out of 23 points per week Part B: Measure macros Week 1 – measure protein intake, but no need to try to hit a certain goal Week 2 – start aiming for 75-106g of protein per day (more is ok) and start measuring carbs without aiming for a certain goal Weeks 3 and 4 – start aiming for 75g or so of carbs / day (anywhere below 100g ok) and continue working on protein Part C: Continue to practice conscious eating Think about what I’m about to do before eating something. Ideally, pause and take a few deep breaths. At the least, recognize and acknowledge when I’m about to sell out my future self. (4 points per day – 3 meals and snacks) Goal 4: Life Goal – Deep Work I would like to spend 30 minutes / day (except travelling/hosting days) focused on work I care about. I’ve also been neglecting adulting lately, so there are two parts to this. Part 1: I have a list of about 14 things so far that I’ve been putting off or need to take care of. I’m going to work on one of these per day until they’re done. Part 2: Once my list is finished, I’ll spend 30 minutes per day on any activity of my choice (reading, writing, drawing, whittling, career stuff, etc.). Bonus Quests These are all things that are nice to have, but I do not get points for them if I do them at the expense of any of my main goals. Meditate daily (1 bonus point for every 7 days) Ankle alphabets daily (2 set minimum – 1 bonus point for every 7 days) Knees in pose / child’s pose / another internal hip rotation stretch daily (1 bonus point for every 7 days) NEW Clean kitchen sink before bed 4 days/week. I’ve heard good things about what this does for you mentally in the morning, so I’m interested in trying it.

Backstory I have not been seeing the progress I’d like. As far as fat lost, I’ve gone a little backwards. Overall I am making better food choices but I am just not consistent with it. My variances have been too frequent and too large. I keep undoing any progress I have made. I’ve got a solid workout schedule in place but diet is 80% of the success. And I am not succeeding in that area. So this challenge will focus on diet. I’m not giving up on the workouts. I still have 3 planned events for this year that I need to train for. But it’s still early enough in the year that I can focus on specific training for those events next challenge. Though running will start to make an appearance during this challenge. Eat right. Lift. Ruck. Run. Sleep. Fight Villains. Repeat. Bulletproof Bracelets Eat Right. I just recently bought these new containers for batch cooked meals. I absolutely love them. I’ve been batch cooking for quite a few challenges now but we usually just store each item separately in larger containers and then for dinners everyone serves up their own plates and we eat. But I’ve found that we either run out of food too early in the week and then scramble to come up with something mid-week or we overcompensate and make too much food. Part of the problem is there is no governing the portion sizes. I log my recipe on MFP and then say it makes 6 servings. But there isn’t a reliable way to know that my plate is 1 / 6 of the whole. So now I will plan each week’s meals ahead of time on the weekend. Sunday is batch cooking day, and then all meals will be pre-portioned in the new containers. I’ll know exactly how many I need for me and the rest of the family. It may not be glamorous, but it’s effective. The Plan. Each weekend I will prepare the menu for the week and batch cook all the meals and plan the macros for the week. This should make it really easy to stick to it and allow little room for excuses. And my portions and food logging will be more accurate, allowing me to make better decisions. My current macro goals are 1600 calories on most days, 1700 on recovery days. Protein should be at least 100g but preferably in the 120’s. I don’t have a specific carb goal but it should be lower than the protein for any given day. Macros are subject to change but only as part of the weekly plan. Variances are allowed but with restriction. Variances must be planned ahead when I make the weekly menu. 1 spontaneous variance allowed for the entire challenge. Another tweak: The menu will consist of 3 meals and 1 snack per day. This still leaves room in the macros for more. I don’t have to use them but I suspect using them will alleviate cravings down the road. I will prepare a list of pre-approved snacks that can be added, on the fly, on any given day to accommodate hunger or energy levels. Each snack has the macros predetermined so I can easily select one that fits the day. And everything must be measured. Amazonian Strength Lift. 3 days a week. I have a trainer for the time being and he gives me 2 new workouts each month to move into my rotation. Currently I am on a nice schedule with 1 upper body day, 1 lower body day, and 1 full body day. But this is subject to change. I am also working on accessory work for a combination of personal projects - Best Ass of the Midwest (P:BAM), pullup, and shoulder rehab. At the moment the shoulder rehab is the top priority. Lasso of Truth Ruck. or Run. The plan is to ruck or run three days a week. I am thinking the best combination now is to run twice during the weekdays and then a ruck on the weekend. But I will fiddle with this ratio a bit I’m sure. Bonus Points: 1 Ruck WOD during the challenge, 1 Ruck with coupon during the challenge, 1 Long Ruck (4 hours?) during the challenge. Tiara Sleep and a Few Other Things. This is where I focus on all the other aspects of my 2016 Roadmap and just trying to be a better adult, have more fun, and be happy with myself. I’m still working on being more productive. The format from the last challenge was a good start but it didn’t really work for me. I’m still planning on making a list each week but I need to make a distinction between adulting things that need to get done and things that I would like to get done as part of my roadmap. The latter are typically enrichment activities that I need to make a priority in order for it to become a habit, but they aren’t necessarily To-Dos for the week. I’ll continue with the pomodoro method but rather than dedicate 1 pomodoro to each task category, I’ll just pick 2 or 3 things each day from the weekly task list that need to get done and work on all them for a tomato. I’ll keep working with the goal of 5 for this challenge until I find out what works best. I’ll also track pomodoros for enrichment activities (reading, duolingo, music, art, etc). Perhaps a goal of 2 a week would round this off nicely for a total of 7 pomodoro’s a week. The evil monkey and the Dark Playground metaphor from this article is still helpful. If you haven’t read it (including part II) I think you should. Plus I’ll refer to it and it will only make sense if you do. Konmari. I have most of the books and movies done. I still need to do my Philosophy books and some of the cookbooks in the basement. Then I’ll be starting on the kids’ clothes. Villain Face-Off Battle This is where the magic happens. If you are new to this, other NF rebels sign up to represent a villain. Each week I randomly roll for a new villain who brings with them a particular skill set that I must defeat. When a new villain is selected, each of us set our own goals in the given categories and compete for the week. The closest to reaching their goal at 100% wins the week. I get 1 stat point for each villain I defeat or that ends in a draw. I really dug the new format for last challenge where you guys get to pick your own villains (or in some cases good guys or somewhere in the middle) and then select the goal category as you see fit. Afterall, each villain brings a unique battle and Wonder Woman is prepared for them all! If you are interested, please sign up here. Try and stick to DC villains, though exceptions have been made. Then select two of the goal categories to be your specialty. I am being pretty strict on food already so you will notice that food is not one of the categories. I’ve tried to spread things out a bit to replace it with a different category so there is more variety.

This is a continuation of my Epic Quest for 2016, where I beat Nikki Bella's Diva's Title reign record whose reign was 301 days. To continue my streak, I have to perform on every TV show (Raw, NXT and Smackdown), as well as every televised special (eg Beast in the East) and PPV. In order to perform, I have to complete a cardio session - currently a 5K elliptical session for every day the TV show airs. I can move these days around if I need to but the idea is that I will 'perform' every Monday (Raw), Wednesday (NXT) and Thursday (Smackdown). I have created a roster of 50 female wrestlers, all the current batch, along with some important ones from yesteryear and each person has an exercise session attached to them. For every show I perform on, I roll dice to determine if it will be a title defence, and if it is, I have to do a 10K instead of a 5K. I also have to perform at every PPV and televised special where there is always a title defence. I have to do this for at least 302 days beginning 4th January so this challenge should take me up to 1st November 2016. These rules will stand even when I am not on a challenge. The challenge at hand: Goal One: Deftona Harnesses The Power of Positivity I had a pretty good challenge last time and I stuck well to all of my health and fitness goals but stress was a little harder to handle. So the focus for this challenge is looking after myself, looking after the people around me and generally making efforts to remain positive despite stresses I may encounter. I have come to realise that some people are just dickholes, and that is ok. I like to think I am not a dickhole, and I make efforts to not act like a dickhole, but in the world of dickholes, this is pretty much where my control in this matter ends. I cannot force my anti-dickhole agenda on other people. I can only be the kind of dickhole I want to see in the world around me. And that's an un-dickhole. So every day I am going to make efforts to be positive and generally be lovely and patient with myself and people around me, whether they are a dickhole or not. Although I am awesome, I am still human so the goal here isn't perfection, but if I find my state of mind slipping I have to make efforts to improve my mood and my outlook. Goal Two: The Hall of Fame I was considering making different little goals for P:BA sessions, KMs, freggies, water and continuing The Rock goal from last challenge but really, this is stuff I just do. So I am going to continue doing what I do and track all of this as part of The Hall of Fame. These are as follows, all values are for the whole challenge (so almost 5 weeks) 30 P:BA sessions 200 KMs 250 portions of freggies 350 cups of approved fluids Days stuck to 'IF YOU SMEEEEEEELLLLLL!' goal Stuck to Macros Stuck to Training Plan Goal Three: Demolition Briniel has inspired this aspect of the challenge and instead of trying to be generally productive, I am going to be more targeted. I am going to wake up in the morning and think of three tasks I should achieve today to consider the day a success. This can't be something I would do anyway, it has to be distinct (so no P:BA sessions if they are already scheduled in my Passion Planner) but every day there will be an Ax, Smash and Crush goal and I have to demolish these three tasks to pass the day. Goal Four: Gold and Stardust I have a morning (Golddust, for the sun duh) and an evening (Stardust) checklist that I have to complete every day. The morning one will include basic self care but also making the bed and cleaning up any clothes I have hurled onto the floor with gay abandon the night before. The night one is all self care but things I don't always do like hand cream. I have made a new P:BA programme for this month and it's a killer. I have also re-started 100 Days of Excellence from today and sticking to all my macros and my training plan will be tracked as part of the Hall of Fame goal. I think that's everything. Week One..... GOOOOOOOOOOOOO! ETA - Women are people too now so no more divas.

New Challenge I want to do all the things. All the time. But my plate is constantly too full. The plan for March is to make doing-less-but-doing-it-right a thing. This is the last full challenge before I'm here for a full year. I have a lvl 50 25 dream, getting there will require training, training that requires some organisation. Furthermore it encompasses a moderate fluency in at least 2 languages I'm not fluent in yet. Grinding those skills up will have a place too. I'm in the weight room twice a week (if the kids are in daycare or hubby is home), at FKS class twice a week (except late shift week), and at the pool at least once oftentimes twice a week. All of these exercises are fun. It's when I have something come up and I feel a workout at home should happen that the plan is not followed by action. Yoga and walking are not a thing yet either, against multiple challenges to try to implement them. Food was slipping at the end of February. Need to work that over. And while we're at it, I agreed to write a commission for a friend's business. It's obvious I can't post work-in-progress stuff here of things that will be sold as exclusive stuff lateron. But I have a history of being too afraid to write because I know someone is waiting for my words. It's actually my favourite way to block myself. So I said yes, before I could find arguments against it and will have to find a way to be accountable here, without actually giving you any of my writing. Sorry. How is any of this minimalistic? you might ask. That's a good question. I don't know either, but I feel like slowing down is the right next step. We will have a mini, there's stuff that's not going to need 4 weeks of constant effort. Those will be my mini challenge goals. signing up for classes (including all the behind the scenes organisation) will be oneresearch of one fun topic or other will be another. (mead brewing? traveling?)increasing number of lunges and planks every day will be number 3.and 4... I don't know yet.Everything else will be sorted in one of my favourite things: A Spreadsheet. thank you, @Briniel, for the inspiration (yes, I stole heavily from you, but all the formulae are my own doing). Good behaviour on this month's challenge will get me a day in the SPA with a dear friend of mine. Workout, sauna, the whole shebang... (no massage though, that I need to save up more for.) I think it's time for a cut. TL'DR Do less. But do it well. Anyone feel like explaining how to embed this stuff to me? EDIT Picture and music. PS There is a weekend event at a small lifestock zoo not too far from here. Stoneage / Equinox Celebration. We'll be there, the whole family: my mom, the kids, hubby and me. It'll be fun, I'll give you pictures.

Edit: I decided to switch over to the Druids for this challenge, since it's all about personal development this time. I'm excited about this and genuinely believe it can change how I live my life. So here goes... Okay, bear with me. This challenge is going to be a crazy mash-up of several things that I came across during the last few weeks, all of which have convinced me to give them a try. And what better way than to try them all at once!? So. My goal is to be the best version of myself that I can possibly be. This includes getting my life in order on several different levels. What has gotten in my way a LOT lately (who am I kidding, always) is procrastinating, being mindless instead of being mindful, not prioritizing (properly), getting too little done in too much time and therefor not being able to actually enjoy my free time and relax properly (because there are always things that I should be doing instead). I came across this wonderful piece of imaginery on waitbutwhy.com and instantly fell for the idea behind it. I could go on explaining it here, but I advise you to read the article instead (be sure to read the second part, as well), it will be well worth your time. Since reading it, the evil monkey has been appearing in my thoughts all the time, but luckily, I now see it for what it is and can take action when it tries to take hold of the steering wheel. I feel that while the basic idea behind the article isn't new (we feel better when doing our chores first and enjoy our leisure time without a bad conscience about what we still have to do), the images used are really helpful to drive the message home and help taking the action I want to take (no, evil monkey, you're not tempting me into browsing on fb, that's dark playground territory and you know that's not the place to be!!). So, my main quest this challenge will be: DEFEAT THE EVIL MONKEY!!! Do not procrastinate. Do the stuff I plan to do when I plan to do it. Do not let myself be distracted. If I get distracted, go back to the task at hand as soon as I notice. Enjoy my time off when the chores are done without feeling guilty about it. Now, how do I do that? According to a book I just finished reading today, the best way into a successfull day is by having a successfull morning. I'm talking about The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod. The basic idea is to start your day with 6 life SAVERS: Silence, Affirmations, Visualization, Exercise, Reading and Scribing (writing). These can be done in any order for any length of time (there's even a version with 1 minute each), but it's supposed to be done first thing after waking up. I plan on making a full-blown routine out of this, so some of my goals for the day (yoga, reading, journaling, tracking) are already done in the first hour (or so) after waking up. But how to make sure that my perfect morning is followed by a perfect day? That's what the pomodoro technique is for. I will work on a certain area for a certain amount of time, non-stop, no distraction, no excuses. I will then take a short break and tackle the next stretch of time (apparently, earning a tomato in the process ). I'll start with 25/5 minutes and see how this works. I can totally see myself changing it to 45/15 or something, depending on what works best for me. Alright, I hear you say, so you'll defeat the instant gratification monkey by having perfect, miracle mornings, followed by uber productive pomodoro timeslots until you're done for the day and can relax and enjoy your free time. But what are your goals anyways? Glad you asked! My goals for this challenge come from another idea out of Hal Elrod's book which is the "Level 10 Life". You assess 10 areas of your life and judge how happy you are with your progress in these areas on a scale from 1 to 10. Then you try to imagine what a Level 10 Life in each of these areas would be like and come up with steps that you can do right now to get you closer to that goal. I read about it before (mostly in bullet journal posts *spoiler*) but didn't realize it was out of the Miracle Morning book until today. So, as part of finding my Miracle Morning Routine, I did all that assessing today and figured out the areas I want to work on over the next few weeks (not all 10 areas are covered. For once, I have absolutely no idea what spirituality is about for me). It's a LOT, but some of these are habits I already made and some of these require very little time and effort. More importantly, I believe I can do anything I set my mind to if I commit to it fully (and don't go for absurd stuff like "I want to be invisible" or "I'll do 100 one-armed pull-ups every morning". That's not on the table. Yet.). So, here's what I'm up to: Family & Friends call my mom & dad once a week and hear what they're up tohave one dinner and one boardgame night over the course of the challenge with my friends Personal Growth & Development do my Miracle Morning routine every single day (details will magically appear in the next post tomorrow)log my chores, tasks & spendings every day Health & Fitness (these are all habits (more or less ingrained) from the last challenges) drink 2,5l or more of water or tea every dayavoid white flour and added sugarhave one warm meal a day and veggies with 2 or more of my mealsdo some sort of physical activity 3 times a weekfloss 3 times a week (New! Time to follow my dentitst's advice) Finances do not let any food rot, it's like throwing money in the trashtrack my spending and income via an excel spreadsheet (have been doing this for two months) Career find a job so I work 4 or 5 days a week (instead of 2 right now) (don't wait for open positions, take the initiative)do office work for my dad as soon as possible. make it a priority Physical Environment set up my chores calendar and stick to itkitchen counter zero (habit from last challenge) Fun & Recreation practice singing two times a week in addition to any lessons and rehearsals (adapted from last challenge)learn to bake my own (delicious) wholegrain bread from F.play with my cats every day (I'm so ashamed I even have to put this here) I think I forgot some stuff, but I'll re-assess every week and see whether I need to update or scrap stuff. I'll choose what to work on every morning as part of my Miracle Morning Routine. The first week I plan on just seeing how things go. I won't set myself a goal on how many tomatoes to earn or what to spend my time on. I'll see what happens just with the systems I've set in place, as a sort of base-line. Depending on how that week goes, I will adjust for the next week. Maybe I'll set myself a goal of earning more tomatoes than the week before or choosing one or more areas that need to be worked on every day (the job-hunt comes to mind). I totally plan for this whole thing to be adjustable to what I want and what I need. I won't go easy on myself but I won't be afraid to admit if something doesn't work, either. Failure is just a chance to grow. Now Briniel, that's all fun and games, but where's your sexy spreadsheet? There. Isn't. One. Sorry! This is way to varied and complex to stuff it all into one spreadsheet (I'm just making this up, I haven't even tried). Plus, there's still one thing missing from my epic lists of anti-monkey weapons. It's the bullet journal! This is another recent find and I've spent countless hours on youtube and blogs and pinterest to really figure out the best way for me to use it. It's a combination of calendar, habit tracker, diary, to-do-list and anything else you want it to do. I will use it to track everything I've mentioned above. I'll show you the set-up once I'm done, it should arrive tomorrow. I'll show you my Miracle Morning Routine and Bullet Journal Setup in the next two posts. But I probably won't get to that until tomorrow. My challenge goes from February 29th to March 27th, but I'll start on my Miracle Morning tomorrow morning. Thanks for reading along so far. Have a great challenge, all of you. May you reach everything you've set out to do and become the best you that you possibly can be. TL;DR: I'm doing awesome stuff.

Subtitlted: Wonder Woman battles the Dark Playground and the Clutter that attempts to control her life Since joining NF I’ve been able to take control of my food choices and my fitness. I obviously still struggle with these but I have come a long way in building good habits. I've lost 80 pounds since joining and started doing new activities that I never would have dreamed of before. Life is getting pretty awesome. But now that I have accomplished so much and have a different mindset in those areas, there are some other negative habits I am ready to tackle. Boring Backstory Present Day: So I found this article on Briniel’s last challenge. The way it portrays procrastination is really helpful in visualizing and tackling this bad habit. I spend too much time in the Dark Playground and never focus on the work in the Dark Woods. I should be able to get more done and have more time to actually enjoy my free time in the Happy Playground. using this metaphor really helps me visualize the enemy and work on this habit. Tied up with this habit of procrastination is my tendency to create clutter and then procrastinate its demise. Tackling these habits also aligns with my 2016 roadmap. Battling procrastination will not only help me be more productive but it should allow for more actual free time to do some of the epic quests things I never seem to have time for. My other goals aren’t really changing. Eat. Lift. Ruck. Sleep. Fight Villains. Repeat. Bulletproof Bracelets Macros. Calories under 1600, at least 100g protein, preferably 120g carbs or less but this is not as strict. All subject to change. And change it has. I'm going to use this challenge to try and unlock my macros for optimal performance. Attempt #1: Stay at 1600 calories except for recovery days. Recovery days will be 1700 calories. Also, per trainer, use all the calories. If I have calories leftover at the end of the day, use them...but use them well. Amazonian Strength Lift 3 days a week (and whatever else the trainer throws at me) Lasso of Truth Ruck 3 days a week, still no distance or time requirement. Just get out there. Tiara Battle the Dark Playground. I identify so much with this article on procrastination. My biggest issues are either just putting things off that have to get done until the Panic Monster comes out or I ‘multitask’ by doing some of my work with the TV on in the background or pretend that I can play Sims at the same time. Each week I'll make a To-Do list for each category in my Passion Planner and prioritize. I know I can’t just jump in and be productive all the time so my goal will be to spend at least 5 tomatoes a week on my to-do list items without distractions. The goal here is to train the instant gratification monkey to behave with little time-outs in the Dark Woods so i can get some work done. The Dark Playground Based on my 2016 roadmap these are the items that I need to spend more time on: · Reading - I have not yet selected a book for this challenge... · Keeping the house tidy (Fly Lady) · KonMari – This challenge’s focus is books. (I’m a little frightened) · Being productive o Being prepared for class o Boy Scout treasurer duties o Personal paperwork and tasks o Being less distracted at work Some rules and exceptions: Villain Face-Off Battle Since my fitness and diet goals are pretty consistent there will be a heavy emphasis on productivity. As in the past, each villain has 2 categories of goals that are required to defeat them. Other NF rebels sign up to represent a villain. Each week, I’ll randomly select a villain and both myself and the villain will select a goal in each category. Highest score or closest to 100% wins the Face-Off. I award myself 1 stat point for every win (or draw) representing the skill that best matches the goal category. This challenge’s villains: Pick Your Own Villain!!! In order to sign up, please select a DC villain and sign up with your name and your villain’s name on the sign up sheet. Posting your own villain pic is optional. Please limit yourself to existing villains, thanks. Also, select your categories.. At least 1 category must be Epic Quest or General Health. For the second goal you can also select from Food, Strength, or Conditioning. We will each pick our own goals, but the villain picks the category. Wonder Woman does not get to pick her villain’s strengths so she must be able to defeat whatever presents itself.

Little steps have worked some, but I've decided no matter what I am jumping in with both feet and finishing everything this challenge. I keep hitting days where I don't feel like I care, and it's the wrong mentality. I know I can do 4 weeks... Right? Less than 100 days until the wedding. Super excited, but starting to get really stressed out with wedding+ work+ school. Fun stuff going on this challenge: This coming weekend doing the food tasting with the caterer wine tasting Belt test March 12 Ending the challenge with a long weekend camping trip in Death Valley! Now for the goals: Workouts: Bringing back the Kung Fu vitamins from a few challenges ago- at least 1 set/ 2 days a week outside class. Kung Fu Vitamins set 1: Kung Fu Vitamins set 2: Kung Fu Vitamins set 3: Kung Fu Vitamins set 4: want to come up with an additional strength routine. Will be mostly body weight, I don't have access to many weights (I think i have a 3, 5, and 12 lbs free weights, and a 7.5lbs kettle bell, and some bands) Biking: 2 days at least 20 mins, either on the trainer or outside Mobility: 2 sessions of NF yoga per week 5 mins of foam roller work 5 nights a week before bed Eating right Life is crazy, and it's only going to get worse. Eating bad is easy, and sometimes the only thing that sounds good, but that shouldn't be an excuse. Made a month long menu (see posts below) and I"m going to stick with it. Need to figure out breakfasts, but at least dinners are taken care of. Sleep: This should be way more of priority than I've been making it lately. Hoping stress at work will allow me to get to sleep earlier, but this should help electronics off by 10:00, lights out by 10:30

Just from this partial-week... Limiting screen-time at my mother's house was easy because when I got bored, there were other things to do. It was her house, so helping to tidy was a definite case of "pull your gloves on and do this." Or there were clean-enough areas to work on fun projects half of the time. (Having a puzzle-area set up was nice. I got a cheap canvas kit mostly-painted. I built one of my dragonfly kits and left it there for her to turn into wall-art.)Here, I'm not sure what to do first, and retreat into the computer to get away from not having the room to enjoy kits. I think that I should just focus on reporting what I've done instead of worrying about expectations for this challenge.

I am really, really bad at remembering to set up my challenge for these new, shorter challenges. I'm interested to see what comes of the surveys! Hopefully I'll be able to clean this up a little on Thursday. Sparks joy. (Again.) My goal is to get the boxes of things I plan to donate OUT of my house at the end of this challenge, so every category that might result in donations has to be sorted through and boxed up. I want my yoga room back! Use the KonMari method... electronics [5]cats and garden [4]games and toys [4]photography [4]yoga/fitness [3]Schedule a donation pick-up. [5] Builds a Bridge For this challenge, I've decided to dedicate a little more time to backbends, including cobra, bow, bridge, wheel, camel, and king pigeon. Three yoga sessions featuring backbends each week. [25xp] Exceeds Expectations Due to a bit of a reading slump, I fell one book behind on my Goodreads challenge, and would like to be one book ahead by the end of this challenge. (I am currently halfway through the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin and the workbook below.) Be at least one book ahead at the end of the challenge. [25xp] Is a Social Caterpillar. Continuing from the last challenge, I'll be finishing up the social anxiety workbook. Complete the last four weeks of The Mindfulness and Acceptance Workbook for Social Anxiety and Shyness. [25xp]