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A big shock from the last Challenge Cycle was getting a letter from the American Red Cross saying I have low iron. My hemoglobin tested high enough, but later they tested ferritin and that turned out to be very low. So they informed me. My initial reaction was how this could be possible. I eat lots and give blood often, so how could it be possible I am low on iron? And within the question lies the answer: Apparently regular blood donations is very hard on the iron supply. So over the next couple of months, I will be popping iron pills and getting my levels tested again in April. Speaking of a shortage in iron supplies, I forgot about my Baldur's Gate game from a couple of months. Here is a short piece from Wikipedia. We left this game very early in Chapter 5, and basically I was trying to find places to grind out easy experience points. Then I got very busy. Again. Most recently I have been laying out the next six weeks and picking out what is most obviously up and coming so that it does not hit me by surprise. It helps me plan. So here are the next six weeks: Week 0: February 4 to February 10 - Waiting for Spring, Week 5 Week 1: February 11 to February 17 - Waiting for Spring, Week 6 Week 2: February 18 to February 24 - Waiting for Spring, Week 7 Week 3: February 25 to March 3 - Waiting for Spring, Week 8 Week 4: March 4 to March 10 - Waiting for Spring, Break Week 0: March 11 to March 17 - Waiting for Spring, Week 9 Not much. A whole lot of waiting for spring. February 5 did mark my second Nerdiversary! On to my recycled goals! Quest 1 - Solve the Iron Crisis! This is pretty straight forward. The biggest part of this is behind me already. That would be accepting that I have an iron shortage and take steps to deal with it. Just keep eating and popping those red pills. There is no retest until April and that will be somewhere in the next Challenge Cycle. But it is presented here because this is apparently the foremost issue I am dealing with. Other than that, maybe I will be lucky enough to notice some changes as we deal with the iron crisis! Quest 2 - Waiting for Spring, Part 2 Right at the start of this year, I got new programming to follow. I named the program after one of my favorite winter activities: Waiting for spring. It is a 12-week cycle, broken into three blocks of four weeks each. We will be completing the second block in this Challenge Cycle. Going from memory, it kind of looks like: Day One: Snatch complex, Hang Snatch for heavy singles, Clean and Jerk complex, Cleans for heavy singles, Squat and Push Press 5RM with backoff sets. Day Two: Paused Overhead Squat 3RM, Paused Deadlift 3RM, Overhead Press 5RM with backoff sets, Farmers Carry, Lower back extension and lateral raises. Day Three: Snatch complex, Snatches for heavy singles, Clean and Jerk complex, Clean and Jerk for heavy Singles, Front-Squat 1RM with backoff set. Day Four: Snatch Complex, Hang Snatch for heavy singles, Jerk complex, Clean and Power Jerk for heavy singles, Deficit Clean Pull heavy 3x3, Squat 3RM with backoff sets, Lunges and hollow holds. Day Five: Squat 8RM with backoff sets, Deadlift heavy triples, Dumbbell bench press, pull-ups, and dumbbell rows. This should keep me well distracted while I wait for spring. Quest 3 - Don't Die In Baldur's Gate, your main character may not die. That meant you had to reload. Of course, this just happens until we learn to actually play the game. Cheesy tactics also help. Over here, it is the same time as before. Track the number of times I die. The last time I died was on January 22, 2017. So. Number of Cycles: 1 Number of Deaths: 1 Quest 4 - Tracking This is almost a copy and paste of the previous cycle. Just adjusting a couple of things. Still working on IfItFitsYourMacros and being a little bit less extreme on IfItFitsYourMouth. We have approximately one year's worth of data showing a slow increase in weight at 3350 Calories per day. Setting my goals slightly lower and using slightly less than 0.9 g Protein / pound bodyweight and splitting the rest of the calories in a 3:1 ratio, I get something like: 3240 Calories 360 Carbs (300 to 420) 120 Fat (100 to 140) 180 Protein (160 minimum) So we are not shooting for any kind of precision here. Let's just see if we can hit the broad side of a barn. When we miss, then I can go looking for the culprit and evaluate from there if I should be making a different choice in the future. We will come up with a list of things we can get away with and things we cannot! Meal prep once per week. One outing per week, even if MB would have me become a hermit. One dessert between now and the end of the cycle. Try to be original and post the picture! Track weekly weight over 2017. Track open, high, low, and close. The candlestick chart from last year was fun! Last cycle we hit 28/35, or 80%. So I will take it! Quest 5 - Life Hax - February Edition List things to do for February and cross them off. It's still Tax Season! And I finally have enough information to start assembling it! Maybe I will be early this year! Update Last Will and Testament. More stuff as I think of it. The last cycle, this worked out nicely - for a week. It was a reminder that there was stuff I needed to do and I got some action items done! Quest 6 - Plan and Execute Zero Week in the Program The program consists of three four-week blocks and we have Zero-Weeks between each block. The NF Challenge Cycle and this Program are off by one week in alignment. So Zero Week in the Program corresponds to Week 4 of this Challenge Cycle. I have made it a Quest to come up with things to do over this Zero Week. Last cycle, we did a widowmaker at body weight, and I was told it was supposed to be done at a much higher weight. x.x International Bench Bro Day was a disaster on my shoulders and I had to shamelessly admit I sinned against Broki by sacrificing my gains on Brodin's Altar of Bench Press. And we did a little virtual meet. Zero Week came early because I died sooner than expected. So far I am thinking: Widowmaker rematch! Max out Overhead Press! Virtual Meet. Quest 7 - Other Quests as they Appear And that's it.

Just shooting straight with myself and anyone who cares to follow. I'm starting late, but I'm starting. I'm angry and upset, not at a certain friend who busted my chops, not even at the calling to the carpet that was mostly on the mark, but at the fact that it's true and I've let it get to this point. I've been doing "enough" for a challenge to get a challenge done and pass, but I haven't been challenging myself since a couple of failures back for one reason or another. I can talk a good talk, but if I don't really stick with what I'm saying, what's the point? Yes, we're not perfect this side of Heaven, but I need to get back to progress that maintains itself. This isn't easy and I shouldn't try and game the system, nor should I be hard on myself for failing, that's part of progress. I'll post goals and clean them up before the day is over.

Motivation: I need to love myself so I can let others love me. My over-arching Main Quest is to: Turn my body into something I'm proud of (work off excess fat, unleash my strength). My three missions: Use rest as a weapon. 3 CON Be in bed for 8 hours, which should allow me 7.5 hours of sleep nightly to re-fuel my body. Pump up the iron. 3 CON; 2 STA I learned last challenge that I need more in order to function. I hate keeping track of it, so I'm forcing myself to do so with this mission. Hopefully this will re-train my eating to keep my iron levels at optimum. May 5 edit: removed Move onwards and upwards. 2 DEX; 3 STA I want to be able to run up the outdoor stairs which pepper the hillsides around me, no stopping, by the end of this challenge. This will require that I start running regularly again, as well as strengthen my legs for the long, upward journey. I think the route I've selected around my new place has such varied terrain that I will get a lot out of it, and I'll try the stairs at least once a week. May 5 edit: added Re-introduce regular exercise 2 DEX; 3 STA I cut back a lot because I didn't have the energy. Now that I'm feeling better (just sleepy as I adjust to my longer days) I need to get workouts back into my life. My back will suffer if I don't, and I'm sure I'll start to gain weight again (fingers crossed that hasn't happened). I am going to do 3 days a week of cardio for 20 minutes minimum, as well as try to pepper some body-weight exercises into the week, hopefully every second day but at least twice a week. Life Side Quest: Dress to impress. 2 CHA Organize, purge, figure out what elements are missing or over-represented in my closet. I have items I love, hate, wear often, or wear never. A few fit nicely, the rest fit a bit too tightly (over the course of a few years, I've gained a smidgen too much weight). The madness will end! Suggestions for tackling this side quest are highly encouraged! Player Stats: Apr 9, 2014 (green sports bra) Total weight: 146.2 lbs Body fat: 30.3% Lean mass: 101.9 lbs Fat mass: 44.3 lbs Natural waist: 84.5 cm Lower abs: 97cm Hips: 98 cm Thighs: R 60.2 cm, L 59.6 cm Challenge History: pattycake118, Engage! current If you have any suggestions for the grading scale, please let me know! I'm considering whether I should add some points for WIS to my sleep mission, as it will help me to be more aware of my surroundings.

My name is Joy. My good friend's name is also Joy! (JoyfullyMe on the forums) We're both lifting Iron for the first time in our lives. This is my chronicle of the Joys of IRON. Welcome to my 3rd NF Challenge... and this time I'M bringin' it! Goal the First: Discover the Joy of Iron I'm following Steve's Barbell Battalion for the next 6 weeks. Going with lifting 3x a week in the morning before breakfast. Yup, that means getting up at 5am so I can get my morning off on the right foot. HOO RAH! The actual goal: complete the full 6-week, 3 workouts/week program. +3 STR, +1 STA Goal the Second: Discipline The Good: I truly enjoy eating Paleo. The Bad: I don't have a lot of discipline over food. I also am in the process of reconditioning my binge & bored eating habits. The Ugly: My weekends are crap. When I'm home with a plethora of unhealthy choices staring me in the face, I tend to say "it's okay" and return to my old eating habits. THAT NEEDS TO STOP! The PLAN: Take Control of my weekend eating and exercise some discipline over what I ingest. I'm lifting Iron now... I need to fuel the machine properly otherwise all my hard work will be for naught! The HOW: Eat Paleo from waking through dinner on Saturday and Sunday. Dinner is my pass to eat non-Paleo but still keep a focus on eating real, healthy food. After dinner I will pick up my Paleo torch again. +2 WIS, +1 CON Goal the Third: Sapling in the Wind Get flexible. Bend like a sapling in the wind, instead of breaking like a stiff, old tree. Perform a set of (at least) 3 Sun Salutations (at least) 3 times per week. +3 DEX, +1 CHA Goal the Fourth: Get some rest, woman! SLEEP! I don't get enough... and with lifting heavy weights now, this is imperative! I'm going to be assigning things a point value to keep track easier. <6 hrs = 0 6-6.9 hrs = 1 7-7.9 hrs = 2 8 hrs & up = 3 Scoring to happen based on a percentage of max possible points (126). A = 80-100% +2 CON, +2 WIS B = 60-79% +2 CON, +1 WIS C = 40-59% +1 CON, +1 WIS F = <39% (gotta make an effort!) LET THE CHALLENGE BEGIN!!!