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I have been MIA on NerdFitness for quite some time. A few days ago I got a random bug to plan an introvert adventure. Some where nature like. Alone. As I've fleshed this idea out I'm leaning towards a rustic (hike in!) cabin, or maybe camping + hiking. This kind of trip would require some training and planning. I'm kind of out of shape and have never done anything like this before. A four week challenge is perfect for getting me started on prepping for my adventure. Move your feet I will go on a walk once a day. It can be long or short - just so long as I do it. Condition/Endurance Twice a week I will do some combination of: run/walk intervals, hiking, or rucking (bad weather sub: rowing machine) Strength Training Twice a week I will strength train: weights at gym, body weight at home, or rucking. I can't count the same rucking session for both Condition/Endurance and Strength Training. Life Goal: Plan the Adventure Pick a date and location, make a plan of what to do while I'm out adventuring, figure out what gear and supplies I'll need & make a packing and shopping list. Let the adventure prep begin! Edited to Add: I have some on going self improvement projects that I didn't include as part of this challenge, but still want to update on! 100 days of Fiddle/Violin Practice Any length practice so long as I do it, can be fiddle music or classical music. Sick and travel day contingency plan: listen to pieces currently working on, or use a music theory app to do some music theory study. Read 24 books in 2018 Pretty self explanatory! I'm going to at least partially work through Book Riot's Read Harder challenge to help expand my reading choices.

A new challenge! It's time to pick up the pace. My DIY sandals have evolved to their final form, so I am ready to start my journey to running! This challenge is threefold: the first part is going to focus on running progression, the second part will be about diet and the third part will be about flexibility. I want to increase my running time, lose weight and stop neglecting the stretching. Running objectives Week 1: 2 minutes running/2 minutes walking Week 2: 4 minutes running/1 minute walking Week 3: 6 minutes running/ 1 minute walking Week 4: 8 minutes running/ 1 minute walking I will adjust based on how I do. We'll see how it goes. Diet objectives 1- Consume between 1600 and 2000 calories a day. 2- Include a vegetable or fruit in each meal. 3- No alcohol and no potato chips. Diet soda is permitted, but only one can a day. Flexibility objectives 1- Stretch thoroughly after every run. 2- Do a stretching routine before going to bed. That's it! Here's to another beating another challenge!

I guess I'm used to having a week between challenges and am behind on setting this challenge up. So, let's get to it. A cold derailed my last week of the last challenge, but I have found the path I plan on following back to fitness. Doing what I felt like doing helped me (re)discover what type of training fits me. That includes circuits with lots of volume for my lifts and sprint intervals. I like running, but for me its more of an enjoyment of being outside and communing with nature. Using it as a form of exercise doesn't work. I'll still go for some runs, but they are not going to count towards any kind of training. GOAL #1 - Diet Zero late night snacking. Last challenge I limited myself to 2 nights a week with eating after 9 PM. This challenge there will be no exceptions. GOAL #2 - Diet No soda at all. Lent starts during this challenge so I might as well start a little early with what I was planning on removing for Lent. Last challenge I allowed myself to have diet soda, but this time no soda at all. GOAL#3 - Training Following Back to Fit program that involves 4 days of weightlifting circuits, 2 days of sprint intervals and 1 rest day. I will maintain compliance with the program for the course of this challenge (and hopefully more challenges to come) GOAL #4 - Level up 1 post a week in the blog. I respawned my blog last challenge. Now I need to get consistent with it. So, 1 new post each week.

Challenge Goals 1. Skill: Parkour training (20 minutes+ sessions) x2 weekly (M/Th). Start with rolls, precisions, and QM to crab (to help with safety vault pass-through); build from there (vaults next) as able. 2. Speed: Interval training x2 weekly (Tu/F) 3. Strength: Body-weight x2 weekly (W/Sat) replacing dumbbell rows with jack-knife pull-ups (reps TBD). Also, I will be away from home on strength days twice so the jack-knife pull-ups will be omitted those days. Keeping it simple and straight-forward right now but I need to think of a Nerdwarts School of Assassincraft & Ninjary tie-in!

Hello Fellow Rebels! I'm starting from scratch. The last few challenges I've to structure "just so" and failed. Well, I've learned from those failures; I've learned that I need to be simple. What does that mean? It means that I'm focusing on one thing and trying not to get sidetracked. The One Thing? Running. I signed up for the Philadelphia Rock 'n Roll Half-Marathon this year. I ran that same half-marathon two years ago on a broken foot (suffered at mile 3) and I want to do it again - just not with the broken foot. I need to stick to my schedule. So, shortly, I'm going to post my schedule here and, I'm hoping, you guys will hold me accountable. FOR THE REBELLION!

So I've got two goals with my running. I wan't to be able to run a 5K, but I also know that I need to work on my intervals/sprints. My body "type" seems to be naturally inclined to long distance running. I'm not in shape yet, but I've managed to work up to a 5K in about 40 min. on the treadmill (outside is a totally different story, but I'm working on it). I've also got an alternate training workout of doing interval "sprints" on the treadmill for 20 minutes: 1 min. walk-1 min. run (which is actually a jog - but at least I'm doing it). I started with the Academy Body-weight routine, and the warm up calls for 30 seconds of knee highs. So here's my question: Why if I can run a 5K for 40 min do the knee highs kill me in about 15 seconds? - I'm totally out of breath and my quads are burning! Any info about what is going on? Any insights, suggestions, recommendations to improve my ability to do the knee highs?

Introduction: Hi all! I recently completed my first challenge and am ready to try another one! In my first challenge, I sought to lose a bit of pudge, continue running despite the heat and start up some body weight workouts. Overall, it was a success and now I'm going to try building on that success. The extra challenging bit this time will be that my main job has started back up so I'll be busier than last challenge, but I think I can manage (and will re-evaluate if it seems like I've taken on too much). Without further ado, here's what I had in mind. Main Quest: Lose the pudge. Get down to a 68 cm waist. Grading: A = 68-70 cm, B = 70.1-72.0 cm, C = 72.1-73.5 cm Reward: +1 CHA for loss of 0.5 cm or more. Quest 1: Go farther, faster. Farther: Increase my weekly distance to 25 km. I was running 20 km a week for the last challenge, but since I slacked a bit during the break, I'll spend the first half building up to 25 km and in the second half, I'll just run 25 km each week. Week 1: 20 km Week 2: 22 km 20 km Week 3: 24 km 22 km Week 4: 24 km 20 km Week 5: 22 km Week 4 5-6: 25 km 24 km Grading: Will be done for distance over the course of the challenge. A = 113-141 km, B= 112-99 km, C = 85-98 km. A = 110-136 km, B = 97-109 km, C = 83-96 km A = 24 km in the last week, B = 22-23.9 km in the last week, C = 20-21.9 km in the last week Reward: +3 STA note: Revised due to a minor hamstring issue at the end of Week 1. note: Revised due to an unrelated blister acquired during Week 3. Faster: Eventually, I'd like to run 5 km in under 30 minutes. To start working on that goal, I'll be making one of my 5 km runs each week an interval training run. Grading: A = 5-6 interval runs, B = 3-4 interval runs, C = 2 interval runs. Reward: +2 DEX Quest 2: Get stronger Do a full-body body weight workout 2-3 times a week and do some core workouts 5 times a week (to be incorporated into the body weight workouts on overlapping days). By the end of the challenge, I should have completed 15 full body strength workouts and 30 core workouts. Grading: A = 12-15 full body and 24-30 core strength workouts, B = 10-11 full body and 20-22 core strength workouts, C = 9 full body and 18-19 core strength workouts. Reward: +3 STR Quest 3: Prevent injury and burnout. This one is all about keeping myself in good working condition. So I will do some recovery yoga twice a week and also meditate for at least 15 minutes twice a week. Grading: A = 20-24 yoga + meditations, B = 17-19 yoga + meditations, C = 14-16 yoga + meditations. Reward: +2 CON, +2 DEX Life Quest: Learning Japanese. Last time, I tried focusing on getting a better job, but the problem with that is that a lot of the jobs around here require some amount of Japanese language skill (which is fair enough because this is Japan). I'd personally rank myself as having basic skills, but that sometimes feels pretty generous. So I'm going to work on this some more and possibly sign up for the JLPT 5 in December (based on how confident I feel about it by the deadline at the end of September... if not then I'll study for the JLPT 4 next July). This is what I'll be doing: Daily review of flash cards using Anki (both kanji and vocabulary).Spend 1 hour a week studying grammar.Spend 1 hour a week reading manga and looking up words I don't know.Spend 1 hour a week focusing specifically on JLPT vocabulary.Grading: Each task will be evaluated individually based on completion, then weighted equally and averaged together. A = 80-100%, B = 70-79%, C = 60-69%. Reward: +2 WIS Starting measurements Bust/waist/hips: 91.7 cm / 74.0 cm / 94.0 cm Ribcage/navel: 81.5 cm / 85.0 cm Thigh right/left: 54.0 cm / 53.9 cm

Hallo everyone!!! How are you?? This is going to be my second challenge for the Rangers & I'm super excited about it! For those of you who followed me the last 6 weeks, my goals this time around are gonna be similar. For those of you who are new, HI!! Main Quest: Maintain my Health and Fit Into A Dress - Long story short, I've spent the past 2 challenges working to get my health back after a debilitating knee injury in July 2013. Now that I'm almost back to 100%, I'm ready to take my workouts to the next level. I'm a bridesmaid in a wedding in June, and I purposefully bought my dress a little smaller, so now I'm on a mission to get myself ready to look fabulous in it Supporting Quests: 1. Nutrition is still going to take center stage for me - but this time my main focus is going to be staying gluten-free ALL the time. I made this change about 4 weeks ago and I feel SO much better, so I want to keep it up!! Normally, this means I eat mostly paleo & primal - but without the emphasis on the higher saturated fats. It works well for me - so I want to keep it up. I'm not focusing on counting calories - I'm focusing on eating high quality, whole foods & creating a natural deficit by exercising 2. Begin Training for my First 10K!!! Hubbs and I signed up for a 10K, which happens to be the weekend BEFORE the big wedding in June. I think this is gonna be a GREAT motivator to keep moving and stay in shape. We ran a 5K a few weeks ago, so now we're gonna bump up our training to the next level. Due to the knee issues, I've got to run intervals (right now I'm at 60 seconds run/60 seconds power walk and am averaging about a 13-14 min/mile pace) but I'm happy that I'm at least moving again. On non-run days, my goal is to get some mild cardio in the form of walking at least 2 miles over the whole day - just to stay moving. 3. Strength train to help benefit my running goals! I tried doing other programs around my running & it just didn't work. so I decided to focus more on my end goals. Ultimately, I love running - so I found myself a program created by an endurance running & triathalon coach that will have me lifting twice a week and optimize the muscle groups primarily needed for running. I'm thinking this will be the most solid way for me to incorporate everything. Now - workouts might be sporadic due to my work & school schedule (school changes quite regularly) - but I figure as long as I get 2 lifting workouts a week and 3 running workouts and 4 days of walking, I'll be happy. Realistically, I can't fully start this plan until April 21st - so expect the first week of the challenge to be a little *off* but I will hit at least 2 miles every day and it will hit the 10K training plan on the 21st. Just like last challenge: I'll give myself 33% a day for each of my workouts (2 miles/Cardio and strength training) and 34% for my food. I'll add them all together and get a percentage out of 100% - at the end of the Challenge, I'll have a solid average for how I'm doing. And on days that are Rest Days from Strength training - I shall default to the 33% as long as I hit my other goals. As far as food goes, I'll consider that a "34%" if I stay on point, eat healthy, with no processed junk foods or gluten. My "before" measurements & pics will be the "after" pics from the last challenge - and I'll post them here sometime soon so that I have something tangible to track numbers & progress. I've had issues in the past with the "neurotic scale tracking" and so I'm really just focused on getting healthy & strong and will use my workouts & measurements to track my positive changes Anyways, can't wait to get started on this one & hope to hear from all of you in the upcoming weeks!!

Hello, Brothers and Sisters. Challenge number three for me. And, I have the opportunity to complete it, something I haven't done yet. The theme of this challenge is Consistency. Main Quest: play soccer competitively Goal 1: consistent cardio. 3 days per week, 20 minutes total workout. walking is fine. failing to walk/run is not. I stick with this goal, because last challenge I was doing great for like, 3 weeks, and then I hit a mental wall. I just couldn't get up and get out, perhaps I was working out too hard, or perhaps I'm jsut a baby and need to man up. whatever the case is, the vehicle on which you arrive on the road of success is persistence, so, I continue pressing on, training for the goals I have to survive. I often times want to get up and run, though, and do intervals with some regularity because they feel great. But I want to get that measurable consistency up. This particular goal is Pass/fail. anything short of 100 percent completion is a failure for me, because I have a degree of fitness already. So, 3x6(w)=18 total workouts. my work schedule is fun, graveyard shift and all, so M, W, and F afternoons are when the workouts will go on. Goal 2: Train for the upcoming soccer tournaments (jun 21st and July 31st). I have 8 drills that I do. I don't want to do each one each day, because that challenge sucks. I tried, and failed. So, I'm gonna say if I spend five minutes working on 2 skill drills (or completion for the around the world challenge) 3 times a week, it'll be ok. I play between two and four games a week during the summer, and while I love it, I have to take it easy if I want to be consistent, My goal is not to break my body, but to consistently build skill. DAY 1: soft touch and around the world. Soft touch is a cones drill (I use rocks, cause I'm broke right now, but maybe that will change.) where you dribble through cones. Around the world is an adaption where you try to build passing accuracy on each side of both of your feet by consistently hitting the same post from nine different positions. DAY 2: Triangles and juggling. Triangles is relatively straight forward, you pass the ball between both feet making a triangle. Juggling, you keep the ball in the air. DAY 3: Shooting precision and shielding: Shielding is the movement of the ball in four directions without changing the orientation of the hips. Shooting precision is working on hitting the same spot on the ball with each kick. I'm not super skilled yet, so the goal is to have the ball roll forwards and backwards with no spin. DAY 4: classic agility ladder and lower leg strength. The classic agility ladder is one that I have seen in every strength training/sports program I've ever been involved in. I don't think it needs a whole lot of explanation. But the lower leg strength is gonna be bodyweight squats and jumping drills, forwards and backwards on a left to right on a line. 15 secs squat, 15 secs jumping forwards and backwards, 15 secs jumping left to right, 15 secs rest, for five minutes for this drill. Two days a week is going to be easy with this drill, as I work at a soccer program (WHICH, BTW, I got paid to do this summer! I wasn't expecting that one) and I can show up and use our equipment before I run our program's games. So, 12 total workouts (2x6(w)=12 total workouts), 3 on each day. Should be easy-peasy, no joke, but I'm going for the easy win here because I've not been able to complete a challenge to my satisfaction to date. A: 12 workouts total (3/d) B: 8 or more workouts total (2/d) C: 4 or more workouts total (1/d) F: 0-3 workouts total. Goal 3: Develop 4 recipes that are 2200-2400 calories. These recipes will be big pot recipes, or something along those lines, that I can cook in the evening and distribute in small portions throughout the following day. This is part of a long term strategy that I'm working on to lose weight. But I don't want a specific fitness goal as much as I want to start building a lifestyle of healthy eating habits that I can then stand on for the rest of my life. I have 2 recipes already, for a 400-600 calories snack, if it becomes necessary. I'll post up a recipes thread, probably somewhere not challenge specific, to keep you informed of what I like to eat, and to talk with you of the many tasty concoctions we can make. so, 6(w)/4 equals 1.5(w) per recipe. Starting on June 9th, the challenge start date, I will have one recipe drafted for each 1.5 weeks of the challenge (252 hours to complete one recipe). A: 4 recipes, 1.5 weeks apart. B: 3 recipes over challenge. C: 2 recipes over challenge D: 1 recipe over challenge F: 0 recipes over challenge And, since I'm still trying to successfully complete a challenge, no life quest, though there are several I'm looking forward to getting underway. If you can, help me out. I get weighed down after some weeks, and can definitely use the encouragement. that mental wall is for real, and its out there for me to find, and overcome. Hopefully, this will be the challenge that I do just that. This challenge also, I'm going to be posting up a signature with progress bars, and all that, so that'll be a lot of fun. And, any suggestion about tags would be helpful, I don't know how to tag this thread at all. AND, I have a theme song for this challenge as well... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHk_Emakefg. "To pass beyond is what I seek. I fear that I may be to weak..." (;

Hello! I am looking for suggestions on how to create leaner legs....in particular leaner thighs. I am in decent shape, a 23 yr old woman 5'1 and about 127 lbs. I am currently living outside the U.S. and I don't have access to a gym or weights. I've been doing a lot of push-ups, plank, squats, lunges, various ab exercises in addition to running (only about 2-3miles) about 3x-4x a week. There seems to be quite a bit of debate online about running long distance versus interval training to create leaner legs so I'm really confused as to what I should be doing. I should probably also mention that I tend to hold most of my fat on my inner thighs but overall I have pretty large thigh muscles.Since I am living outside of the U.S. my diet has changed quiet a bit as access to vegetables has been a bit of struggle. I've more less been eating an unintentionally vegan diet for the past month. Any suggestions would be wonderful!!

Hi Rangers! I actually googled the word "ranger" and found an interesting set of definitions that match my challenge goals. Neato! Main Quest: To run a marathon (plus about 100 other things ) Goal 1: Run faster or "a person or thing that wanders or rangers over a particular area or domain" Before I start training for distance, I need to get faster. Nobody wants to run a marathon in 5 hours because that’s just a long time. I recently ran 2 miles of intervals in about 9:18/mile. So for now, I will run easy on Tuesdays (~3 miles/30mins), intervals on Thursdays (~3 miles/30mins), and a long run on the weekend (~6 miles). Every run earns me a pt. Total pts possible: 18 Goal 2: Eat better or "a keeper of a park, forest, or area of countryside" (kind of a stretch I know. But lots of park rangers know a ton about what's edible and what's not!) Macros! I recently discovered counting macros and realized I was overeating fat, undereating carbs and protein. I calculated my macros from IIFYM.com. Macros are a target and there will be days that I miss my macros because of life. I’m going to say that anything +/- 20% of my macro target is a problem. So that looks like this: Protein 160 g (128/192) Fat: 64 g (51/76) Carbs: 288 g (230/345) If I’m in that range, I get to keep 3 pts per day. If I miss one of the ranges, I subtract a point. Total pts possible: 126 Goal 3: Get stronger or "a member of a body of armed men" (note the emphasis on armed. I want to be an armed lady!) I want to continue to gain strength in my upper body. Right now I’m doing MWF upper body; Chest/Tris, Back/Bis, Shoulders/Abs. Heavy weight, 6-8 reps, mostly dumbbells but some cables as well. Bodyweight abs. Every workout I get a pt. Total pts possible: 18 Life Quest Post up recipes! I make a lot of food and a lot of good food. I often find the recipes from the interwebs but I should post them up and discuss whether they were good, what I changed, etc. This should involve pictures because everyone likes food porn. Once a week, I’ll post up a new recipe that I’m trying (new to this thread) and basically review it. This earns me a bonus pt. Total pts possible: 6 I'm trying to be more lenient this challenge because I'm moving March 1-3 and will probably be eating pizza and not working out. But that's okay, that's life! I'm not going to set "grades" for myself on this challenge, but obviously strive for 100%. First things first, who is your favorite ranger? Strider from LotR? Jon Snow from GoT? Others I've yet to discover?

Greetings Scouts! First off, I'd like to apologise for the confusion last week...this time around I won't be posting from my phone (twice)! As you can tell the effects of my misadventures last month are still hanging around.... Despite the confusion, many of you managed to find the threads and log some great distances, so well done! This week, we're going to work on improving both our speed and endurance, using Intervals. For those of you new to intervals, what they are is basically bursts of speed that you add in within a normal run. They can be structured (for example, 15 seconds every minute), or free-form, where you just go faster at random times. Intervals aren't just for running though. You can use them in pretty much any endurance sport. They key is to keep your base speed at a comfortable pace, then push yourself hard enough to elevate your heart rate during the speed intervals. So, for this week's challenge, we're going to try adding at least 1 interval session in for the week. You can do as many as you like or feel comfortable with, as long as they're in there somewhere. Post back and let us know how they went, what you thought of them, and what you might do differently next time. Good luck!

Orcwarrior here.... have done two challenges as a warrior and evolving into doing strength/running cross-training, so decided to move my hat over to the rangers. Had several rangers in my accountibilibuddies group last challenge, good folks. Glad to be here and looking forward to experiencing the joy of rangerness. Life Quest: Get under 200 lbs. Haven’t been under 200 lbs since shortly after left the Air Force in 1996, 17 years ago. When I began my NF journey in April I was at 308 lbs, the heaviest I’ve ever been. Since then I’ve been shockingly (for me) consistent and motivated with diet and workouts, and have lost 49 lbs in about 14 weeks. I want to get back to where I was at 30, weight-wise, and then set some more goals related to raising my performance in running, biking, lifting, or whatever my physical passion is at that time. 1. Steve says that success is boring…. About doing the same effective thing over and over and over again. So my first fitness goal is easy – it’s the same one I’ve had in the last two challenges, because it is the core of my success to date. Goal: I’ll keep a food log of what I eat and calories, every day, with goal to keep calories under 13K/wk (down from 14K last challenge). This is about 1850/day, and I’ve been averaging about 1700-1800 fairly consistently. +3 Con, +1 Cha (because as I lose weight Cha goes up, right?) Graded <13K A, 13-14K B, 14-15K C, 15-16K D, >16K F 2. Workout format is in flux. I’ve been doing strength workouts using bodyweight, first with the Basic Bodyweight Workout, and then the Angry Birds Workout. I’m going to incorporate more advanced bodyweight exercises to start, shooting for an exercise that will allow me to stay in the 8-12 rep range for three sets to keep increasing strength. More specifics on this later. But I’m also shopping for a weight setup, so I may shift over to lifting sometime during this challenge. +4 Str Goal: Do 3 strength workouts/week, formatted to work on increasing strength. Graded 18 workouts A, 16-17 B, 14-15 C, 12-13 D, <12 F 3. I’ve experimented with steady cardio, intervals, then running (which was low-intensity cardio as I was just starting out with Couch to 5K), and found I really need to focus on intervals to keep my metabolism up and running. Goal: Do 2 or more interval workouts/week, either by doing running intervals or on my elliptical (which I’ll start on during the challenge, as I’m working off a good case of shin splints I picked up running on asphalt). +3 Sta +1 Dex Grading 12+ A, 11 B, 10 C, 9 D, <9 F Life Side Quest: [Edit 7/25/2013] I'm going to get my finances in order. Once upon a time I was a militant budgeter, but over the last year or two I've gotten sloppier and less motivated about keeping track of my finances carefully. Recently got latest Quicken but haven't started using it, just downloaded bank transaction info. Completing this quest will involve going through and classifying the last seven months of financial transactions into proper budget categories, and getting the Quicken set up to track credit card transactions as well so I can stay on top of my budget carefully and much more easily. Ideally I'd complete this during the first half of the challenge, but by end is acceptable. Fitness Side Quest: When I started my NF journey in April, I knew I’d need an intermediate-term goal to work toward, and the timing falls beautifully into this challenge for my side quest. On August 11 I’ll be running my first-ever Warrior Dash at Clay’s Park in NE Ohio! Hoo-Rah!!! Can’t tell you how pumped I am! Goal – to keep running and going through obstacles consistently without stopping or walking aside from when I have to wait at obstacles. (From what I hear, there’s enough waiting there that this should be relatively easy, but I can’t think of a better way to quantify doing well here. Ideas welcome!) My Motivation: I don’t want to be the grouchy fat guy at home; instead, I want to be a hero to my wife and my 2 kids – in my fitness, in my leadership, in the example that I set to them in all areas of my life. They are my mission. Challenge starting info: [edit 7/28] Weight: 257 R thigh 28" L thigh 28" Waist 42" Hip 47.75" Navel 47.5" Chest 46" Neck 17" Body fat % 34.76% per the linearsoftware body fat calculator - at 257 lbs this means I have approximately 89 lbs of fat. Tracking fat loss as part of weight loss will help me evaluate how successful I am with losing mostly fat as I hopefully continue to lose. Question by relative newbie – how do you post pics with the “spoiler†button to hide them as desired? Thanks in advance….

Okay so the main reason I'm not participating in the current challenge is because I have like 50,000 goals. Here are some: pushups! pullups! get faster (i.e. 9 min mile), eliminate the gym membership and do bodyweight exercising (I do live next to a park), re-learn to run with minimalist shoes and/or correct form (this probably needs to come BEFORE I start trying to get fast). This past weekend I went on a lengthy bike ride and started talking to myself about how I was going to work out. Of course, I forgot when I got home but it involved something like running 2x a week (Tuesday and Sat). Tuesday would be 20-30 minutes of intervals, Sat would be long-ish run (~4miles or so). Wednesday and Friday would be bodyweight/ HIIT type things (mostly done in the park, step ups, lunges, squats). Sunday I could chill out or go for a bike ride and Thursday I could chill out or do some yoga. The long term goal is to run a half marathon on March 1 (already checked out the race). I've run two previously in about 2 hr 30 mins and I'd like to crush that time. Official half marathon training wouldn't start until mid-Dec, so I have from now until then to get fast and get my form better. Oh wait... This Sunday I'm doing a sprint triathlon (my second one), that I've done approximately 0 training for. Other than the 1.5 hr bike ride last Sunday. And also I have unlimited yoga classes until August 13th. I've been going and they're great but it's literally a 20 minute drive one way. Not cool and not sustainable. And also I want to start walking or biking to work. Google said it would be a 30 minute walk OR a 10 minute ride. And also I need to get back into making food from home on the regular. I still get salads from the store so I'm not eating greasy burgers, but I know it's not as healthy as homecooked awesomeness. And also, I'm trying to be more presentable and feminine. This involves NOT wearing my hair in a ponytail every damn day AND occasionally switching it up with some makeup. So how do I cut down on this stuff and "prioritize"? A lot of this stuff, like biking to work, involves logistics like: how do I pack food that stays cold when it's 95 degrees at 7:30 AM? How am I going to shower? How am I not going to offend my coworkers with my disgusting ass clothes hanging in my office all day? A lot of it I've tried and failed at in the past (pushups, bodyweight, HIIT). And by failed I mean, I still can't do a pushup. How do I not do that again?

The ultimate goal is just what it says: harder, stronger core and better concentration/focus. I've got to make me some additional progress before I'm in the pool this summer with the kids at swimming lessons. Yeah, I'm vain, self-conscious, narcissistic, etc. whatever word and degree you want to attach to someone who wants to look better than they currently do. So what? Goal #1: Intervals and ab training 3x/week. If I'm doing the intervals properly, my body won't be able to handle them more than 3x a week. I can't think of a faster way to burn fat than intervals and I've got a boatload of interval circuits I can do to keep from getting bored. Additionally, I found a bunch of ab "finishers" to tack on the end of any workout. Doing them in concert with the intervals just seems to make sense. DEX: +2, STA: +2 STR: +1 Goal #2: Kettlebell circuits 3x/week. I've found some KB intervals that I may throw in from time to time to kill 2 birds with one stone, but primarily, this is to build better all over strength. I've found in the past, when I do compound KB movements I need to utilize a lot of core muscles as well. So, working on strength and still hitting the core. STR: +2, DEX +1 Goal #3: I need to eat healthier to see more abs. What does that look like? What makes this goal successful? No pre-packaged foods. Nothing containing High Fructose Corn Syrup or any other syrup that sounds like it was made in a lab. I was reading the ingredients to a Kashi granola bar today and stumbled across: brown sugar syrup, cane sugar extract crystals, cane sugar extract syrup and molasses. I'm not even sure exactly what the first 3 are. And that's something that's supposed to be "healthy".So, if I don't know what's in it, I'm not eating it.I've also discovered I'm dehydrated way to often. So, at least 70 oz of water a day. Any less than that and I seem to get headaches, feel light-headed, sluggish, sleepy, etc.CHA: +3, CON +2 Goal #4: I've got to plan better. And, most importantly, I need to make it a priority to execute the plan. No more getting easily distracted or thrown off my game because life has thrown me a curve ball. I can be stubborn about a lot of things. Now, it's time to channel that stubbornness appropriately. Sundays will become my day to re-center, re-focus and come up with the plan to take on the upcomning week. Meals will be planned for the week. Workouts will be planned for the week. The kids schedules will be laid out for the week. My work schedule will be filled in and blocked off for the week. Then, it's up to me to stick to those plans for the week and reset everything on Sunday. Life happens and things come up, but I believe that if I lay out a schedule and focus my energy on the right things at the right times, I'll be more productive and have more time available to be flexible when those big curve balls come my way. 80% compliance with my schedule is what I'm shooting for because that would reduce a tremendous amount of chaos and stess in my life. Less stress and chaos should (I hope) lead to less stress eating. WIS: +2 Overall: How do I know if I've succeeded? If all the planning of workouts, meals, etc. around a single minded goal have worked? If in 6 weeks I've lost more than 1" off my waist, then I'm making good progress. If in 6 weeks I've lost more than 1.5" off my waist, then I'm make excellent progress. I finished the last challenge with a waist measurement (around the navel) of 37 3/4". If that first number is in the 36 range, then it will all have been worthwhile. If not, then I hope I've learned something.

Okay, here we go. My second challenge. ... Feels good to be under the pressure of a challenge again, it gives me motivation because I know this is my own self-imposed pressure. No culture demands, family assumptions, or perfection seeking going on here! ... I'm searching for self-congratulations and personal responsibility. I feel like I'm at a tipping point in my life. I have gained amazing goals in my mental health and my contentment gauge is usually steady. It's refreshing and makes the challenges enjoyable. I feel like I'm doing an experiment instead of a chore. I want to work hard. Now, I'm trying things to see if they work. It's awesome to be so active in my life. I hope to keep this battle log going especially around my food goal. Food is the last bastion of pain in my life. I have gone to it so often for comfort and escape that my brain knows little else about calming itself down without it. This will be a time of important conversations with my mind and my memories. The young ones in me are angry, scared, and still living in the pain of the past. I need to reach them, protect and reassure them, bring them to the present with me so they know I'm taking care of things now. That way they can relax and have fun as they were meant to. I got their backs now! With my recent experiences, my friends, and my fellow Rebels, I can do this!

By mid-winter, snow covered most of the ground; the flat gleam of white crystals was only broken by the wide black rivers of black rock along which the metal beasts hunted during the day. Any hope of a feast of grain-based grub or sugar-laden mush had long ago diminished with the onset of the frozen season. For Lydieboo, the only hope was to hunt, and hunt well; to feed and strengthen herself against the inevitable attack by starving bears or, worse, the voracious yeti. Only through her prowess against her prey of small furry creatures vegetables, and by learning to escape up a snow-laden pine tree or icy rock face, could she survive until the warmth returned to her mountainous homeland... The Challenge: Lydieboo the Barbarian has gotten complaisant and chubby during her long lifetime of 33 years, but the winter has made her a prime target for carnivores and size-14 clothing. To survive in the competitive Rocky Mountain winter, she must lose the extra fat she has gained and learn to effectively escape from predators that will eat her alive (or make her look really awful in a rabbitskin bikini), as well as continue to feed herself and keep up her strength the most efficient way possible. The Tasks: 1. Sustenance. I will go Whole30 for the first 30 days of this challenge. No cheating. After that time, I will stay Paleo, but will allow a non-paleo treat occasionally (read as: no more than 1 time every 3 days). A perfect grade will get me +2 CON/+1 WIS; a "B" grade - 1 slip-up or less per week - will get me +1 CON/+0.5 Wis, anything else will result in no points. 2. Shed the Skin. I will do some form of cardio intervals 2+ times per week. This can be anything: running fartleks, sprints, stationary bike sprints...um...other things I can't think of. An average of 3 times a week (with no more allowed than 4 in a one-week period) will get me +2 DEX/+1 CHA, an average of 2 times a week (at least 1 every week, no more than 3 counting in any given week) will get me +1 DEX, anything less than that is no points. 3. Escape! I will climb and/or do strength training (ie. BBW 3 circuits minimum) 3+ times per week. There is no leeway on this one, it must be 3 times in a week or it doesn't count. Achieving this goal gets me +2 STR/+1 STA. No Partial Credit. 4. LIFE GOAL: Slay the Yeti: Pay total $2,000 combined on Emergency Fund and Sallie Mae over the course of 6 weeks. +1 WIS. No partial credit. (May have to reduce due to inconsistent bonus schedule, but if I can pay $1,781 it will still be a huge win for me.) Week 1 Update Strength: 3/3 Intervals: 2/2 Whole30: 99.9% (Stuck my finger in some honey last night after not eating any fruit for a day and a half. I'm still counting this as a solid win. Yes, my pants are looser this morning.) Yeti: $337.56. $120.64 pending...need to get to UPS to make a deposit. 10/10 so far.