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Brief semi-place-holder. Yup I'm turning up this month. There's all sorts of life stuff (mostly good) trying to take all my time, but no, I'm going to 1) play that bass 2) actually do my morning injury prevention routines (back maintenance, dodgy foot mobility, arm flexibility) more mornings than not. 3) Exercise = make it to yoga, turn up at JJ and kickboxing, do some running All other things are optional (except for making it to work on time, that one is compulsory, oh and playing with cats, also compulsory). Am I all or nothing it again? Maybe..... But I do not like the nothing end of the scale. Good to be back, in preparation I got to the gym yesterday, and did my morning body maintenance today. Feels good. Now emergency practise (mighty hard music to learn by Saturday - a nice mix of Milhaud, Mozart and Schoenberg, but ouch, it is a challenge to learn).

And I'm back! Late for the challenge, but I'm here. And that is the important thing. Life got complicated and busy and I've not been here for a while....... I'm not going to make this a massively complicated challenge - and I'm allowed some wriggle room. After being complicated and busy, I then ended up feeling quite bleugh - tired and not right and a bit post viral (of course after being crazy busy I got sick, cause thats how it works) and generally faded. Not how I like to be. So I've tried to remember to do stuff that makes me feel good, and I've started cleaning up my diet , and all of this has helped. Feels like I'm heading in the right direction...... Goals: 1) MOVE - ideally 6 days a week, the big movements are a selection of martial arts (jujitsu and kickboxing), running, biking and yoga. The little movements are going to be back care exercises, feet care exercises, and stretches (focussing on shoulders, hips and lower back rotation). Monday is most likely to be my don't move much day, aka rest day. 2) Play that bass - ideally 7 days a week, but 6 or 5 is ok, less than that and I never thrive...... Who knew music was addictive? 3) Look after me - if I need more rest, take it. Block out time for baking (I do better on home made gf bread, gf crispbreads and my own muesli, so make them!) and cooking (having a pot of something in the fridge for quick meals works for me). 4) Play time - two strands to this, carving out a good amount of time to spend with my lovely man (who I thought I had an abbreviation for, but it didn't look right here, possibly HP cause he'll hate that almost as much as the bailed from abbreviation), and cat therapy - cause that makes both me and them happy. Walks with the cats definitely come under play time rather than movement, cause yes I'm not sitting down during it, but its on the leisurely side of vertical. Bonus: my next kickboxing grading is approaching (I don't have a date, and the coach is much keener than I am for me to do it, I suspect that she'll win, so I need to get my head around this) and it involves a couple of my own combinations and a 10 opponent kata that I need to work out. Each week I'm planning on sorting out 2 opponent worths of kata. They don't have to be perfect, they just need to be a starting point for further tweaking. They also have to be simple as I suspect I'll have to do the kata at least 20 times in the grading. Knew there were reasons for putting this off........ Phew. Lets do this thing.

This is a placeholder cause I'm not doing any challenge this week (probably)..... So its going to be a three week challenge. Definitely a recovery and rebuilding challenge because of influenza. I don't like influenza....... apparently it likes me enough to have visited and stayed..... Great. So week 1 = get healthy again = sleep loads, eat sensible and DO NOT DO ALL OF THE THINGS sounds rubbish to me. off to bed for me. Night night.

Just like last month its several days into the challenge and I'm finally starting..... But this month I'm slightly less vague about what I'm doing. Mostly because I'm recycling last month's challenge. Problem 1 = I did something not good to my back in november...... Mostly very much better, but still needs care. Compulsory challenge component = back care exercises every morning plus arm stretches (because arm locks at the moment are rather too easy for opponents to apply). Building up components: a) yoga 1-2 times a week b ) run some = parkrun every saturday (this saturday is my parkrun number 49, so I'm only two away from a free teeshirt (celebrates 50 parkruns!), build up to another run each week (not sure if this will fit in my 4 weeks, or belong to march). c) martial arts = 1 x kickboxing, 2 x jujitsu (but allowing for life clashes - only 2 kickboxing classes in february, oops) d) double bass playing -loads of music to learn and a paltry tally of reward stickers in January, this month is going to be better..... PLAY THAT BASS!!!! e) get to work early enough to justify vanishing for lunchtime yoga. f) late february, GET ON YOUR BIKE - its going to be chaos, the road from where I live to work (and bass teaching, and park run, and thursday late night jazz, and thursday jujitsu) is shut for something ridiculous like 8 weeks. This transport hell starts in late february. As far as I can tell, cycling is going to be the quickest, least stressful way of getting to work. So, weather permitting, and double bass transport permitting, cycling is the way forwards. All activities are dependent on back health..... Only one of them absolutely has to happen - yep, morning back care. Plus, I'm going to try to log in here a little more. Last month exercising went fairly well, logging in here, hmmmmmm, nope. This time, I'll try to play nicely with others........

Ah yes, several days into the challenge and I'm finally starting..... And I'm still vague on what I'm doing. Oops. Problem 1 = I did something not good to my back in november...... Mostly much better, but still needs care. Compulsory challenge component = back care exercises every morning (remarkably I have done this mon, tues, wed, thurs, PHEW) Building up components: a) restart yoga (did this yesterday, back was happy about it despite me being scared in places, took it slightly gently, think I'll keep doing that for a while) b ) run some (started back at parkrun on christmas day - there was secret santa and fancy dress so how could I stay away?), since then have run another 2 parkruns and 1x 5k on a treadmill (today), seems ok c) restart martial arts, but do it gently!!!! Opted for no jujitsu this week, aiming for kickboxing on sunday. d) restart double bass playing - its the carrying of it that is more of a problem than playing it, but I've got a monstrous mental block going on with this right now...... I need to get this year's sticker reward calendar going. So far this year have only earnt 1 sticker for bass playing. PLAY THAT BASS!!!! All activities are dependent on back health..... Only one of them absolutely has to happen - yep, morning back care.

Last challenge I tried to keep things fairly simple, and that went mostly ok. So I’m trying again. Simple goals. 1) Keep moving run at least 2x a week go to martial arts classes – 2x jujitsu, 1 x kickboxing cycle to work at least 2x a week (with allowances for weather because, scotland) at home technique or bag work 2x a week Dark days option – if the days get too short on me then I’ll switch from cycling to work to hitting to the gym. All depends on daylight and temperature and dampness…….. And I want a life priority music opt out….. If I get a gig, then that wins over training. Sad but true. Unfortunately I’m already missing 2 of this challenge’s kickboxing classes. All the more reason to do at home technique! 2) Food Key guidelines for me = gluten free, dairy light, mostly AIP compliant but with some rice and other gf grain. I gotta keep getting this right, cause I keep getting it wrong at least once per challenge….. Trying really hard to have no diet related illness this challenge. Funnsies = post at least 2 recipes in the monks kitchen! 3) Music Play that bass 6 days a week. Funnsies = jazz session - once a week. Bonus points = have a trio rehearsal. I am super excited about this - we're 2 gigs in and have already been asked for our CD!!! Perhaps its time to actually rehearse...... We had such a blast in those two gigs, if this could turn into something semi-regular, that would be superb. But organising jazz musicians = herding cats, so one rehearsal in 6 weeks sounds about right. Keeping track: Runs: 0/12 Cycle: 2/12 Technique practise: 0/12 Bass: 1/36

Keeping it simple for all of the reasons. 1) Keep moving run at least 3x a week martial arts when there are classes (they're a bit sporadic due to summer) cycle to work at least 2x a week (with allowances for weather because, scotland) bonus exercise = yoga and/or at home technique or bag work 2) Food I've notice that I can't stomach much processed food at the moment, so cook from scratch. Key guidelines for me = gluten free, dairy light, mostly AIP compliant but with some rice and other gf grain. For funnsies cook one new recipe per week. 3) Music Play that bass 6 days a week. Bonuses (funnsies?) = aural training app, tuba and flute - once a week each please. That should keep me nicely out of trouble - I'm just hoping we have some mornings without rain cause this morning, no way was I running or cycling, and there wasn't even that much rain! I kind of got ahead of myself already on the food - made a "danish rye bread" containing no rye (from http://www.friendsofadam.se/brodbok/friendly-bread.html), and it is the best gf bread I have ever ever made!!!!! Tasty tasty - but made it on sunday.... ooops. Along with belly dancer beets from Well Fed 2. All tasty, all good. Need to make more recipes from both cook books. Challenge is go!

Goals: 1) Stay healthy 2) Play more music 3) get fitter/faster/stronger So, goal 1 = food and handwashing. I've had this one for a few challenges - but I'm keeping it, cause if I eat any gluten, then that is pretty much me gone for 6 weeks. No gluten containing food, read labels, don't take food risks. Wash my hands whenever I'm in doubt about what I've recently touched. All of this is starting to feel more like routine behaviour, but I want to consolidate it. To make this more fun I'm also going to try new recipes - not as fixed this time as a compulsory recipe a week, but I still have a huge list of recipes I want to try pinned to the side of the fridge. Yum! Goal 2: Play more music. Yep, do what it says on the tin. My double bass playing lapsed in December - I'd been practising towards some gigs, and after the gigs I stopped. My bad. So, get going again. My sticker reward calendar system is on the go again. Everytime I practise = a sticker on the calendar = happiness. Play at least 5/7 days. That way, one day off is not a failure, simply a rest day. Again, build this back into a routine. Especially because it makes me feel like me. Goal 3: Exercise...... This is where my goals are a bit muddy. I've signed up for edinburgh 1/2 marathon in late may (sodding peer pressure). So, its time to build a running base - this is going to be a mixture of outdoors and treadmill. My current thinking is: saturday = 5k parkrun, sunday = long run, wed and friday treadmill work, one day intervals or hill intervals and the other a steady run. Looking at this, I don't like having runs friday, sat, sun, but my running workouts are slotted in around martial arts training and bass practise (tues and thurs are evening martial arts classes, so my only double bass playing is before work). I'll have to see how this goes. I'm currently planning monday as my rest day (day after long run and rehearsal in the evening). I also want to do some bodyweight strength work - based around the academy BW workouts, somewhere level 3/4 ish. This is looking like only being 2x a week (wed and friday) but maybe also on saturday after parkrun. But I'm here not because of running or strength training, I'm here because my favourite exercise sessions are all martial arts training! I have classes to go to: sunday night, tuesday and thursday. So yep, I'll go to them. But...... ideally I want to do at home work to build on my technique..... especially as I might be doing my 3rd Dan kickboxing (our club fits under a sports karate banner) grading later this year. Soooooo, make it to training and somehow, at currently unscheduled times of the week fit in 2 or more at home training sessions. Ahhhhh rubbish, this doesn't look like building a routine, it looks like Lou does all of the things............. But I like doing all of the things......... and I've not even mentioned lunchtime yoga! That doesn't need to be a goal cause I love it very much indeed.

Eeeeeekkkkk! New challenge, already one day over and I didn't notice - soooo..... COMPLETE PANIC! Stress stations! Total disorganisation..... But I'm due a challenge - there is gonna be some food stuff in here, there's going to be some flexibility stuff in here, some punching and kicking practise, and I need to learn my techniques for my next jujitsu grading. Hmmmmm, that looks like i'm doing all of the stuff. First week of challenge now = make realistic goals for the other 5 weeks. Get to the gym 3 x (running, BWBL3 workouts), yoga 2x, jujitsu 1x and kickboxing 1x. Must away to sleep so that I get up in time tomorrow morning.

When I grow up I want to be a monk - gotta kick butt at this challenge first. Back story = 43 year old female, day job = science, play job = music (double bass), already love martial arts - I'm a 2nd Dan black belt in kickboxing/sport karate, and an orange belt in jujitsu, but my training is slightly more sporadic than I like and I have a life goal which is a bigee for me for this challenge. I've been hiding out in the nerdfitness academy for a while, and it now feels like time for a challenge. Big goal = get fighting fit What is fighting fit? 1) healthy I have coeliac disease (yippee!) so I have to completely avoid all gluten, this means a lot of food preparation and a lot of care when I eat food that I haven't prepared, and when I get it wrong I'm ill for about a fortnight, then ropey for longer, so I absolutely must avoid all of the gluten. And when I've made bad poor choices then the range of food that i can stomach drastically reduces. I want to feel that cooking healthy food is a tasty and delicious choice, and to help it feel like fun I have a food goal of trying one new recipe a week. Two grades for this as staying healthy is a huge goal at the moment: Gluten - complete avoidence = A, any consumption = Fail 6 new recipes = A, 5=B, 4=C ,<4=Fail 2) Fit Trained in martial arts i Kickboxing class is on a sunday ii Jujitsu classes are tuesday and thursday (hopefully there will be a grading in the next 6 weeks - if there is then my jujitsu goal is to pass my grading from orange to green belt) I will get to these classes and ideally have one or two consolidation sessions each week at home. Plus, I will cross train to improve my fitness, my flexibiltiy and my strength The cross training is: i yoga twice a week ii Body weight training three times a week (currently in a slightly modified level 2 of the Academy BW, in the 6 weeks, get to level 4) iii Running for CV fitness (treadmill running on the same days as the BW training, and a longer outdoor run in the weekend) Complicating getting fighting fit is that in the last 5 weeks I ended up eating gluten twice (oh the joys of cross contamination and bad food labelling) - so I'm feeling convalescent. I'll have to build up to a full load of exercise gently. Sliding scale for exercise (reflecting recovery from convalescence) week1) 40% of goal exercise = A week 2) 50 of goal exercise = A week 3) 2/3 of goal exercise = A weeks 4,5,6) I get a C grade for doing 1/2 of the exercise listed here, a B for 2/3 and an A for anything over 3/4. 3) Life goals Yep, that is plural, I'm aiming for two - the first I've been good at since november, the second I've been avoiding for years...... 1) Play that bass - can't have the play job without practise. Specifics = practise for more than 30 minutes, it can be jazz, it can be classical, it can be extended technique, it just has to happen. Fail = playing less than 50% of the days, C= 50% of days, B = 2/3, A > 3/4, amazing = every day. 2) Write that paper..... Evil paper for naisty ex-boss. The work almost broke me, then last time I worked on the paper coincided with a bad break up which involved emergency services (such a soap opera!), so I have a few issues with managing to finish this work. But I have to do it. So, I promise as part of my challenge to work on the paper three times a week (usually wednesday, saturday and sunday), each of these sessions has to be a minimum of an hours work. An A grade = getting a draft of the paper to naisty ex-boss. A B-grade = working on it three times a week and getting it close to passing on to n-e-b. A C-grade = managing most of the working on it sessions. I want to set up a couple of get out of jail free cards: 1)If I get a gig this takes over from all other goals - including training the morning after - so if I have a rehearsal, then next morning is a rest morning, and I get a pass slip wrt missing evening training, but not paper writing - the paper writing then needs to transfer to another day. 2) Gluten - worst case scenario is that I eat gluten during the challenge....... if this happens I'll have to do a complete re-boot. Usually the best I can do is no exercise in week 1, 3 very easy sessions (a 10 min out door walk, or 30 min v light yoga) in week 2 and then increase from there - so if I gluten, then I can still get a c- to c grade for the challenge if i get back into some exercise from 7 days after gluten. Wowser, I am going to need a complicated reward chart for this lot. But I already do most of it when I'm healthy - just not the paper writing in the evenings........... Any account-a-buddies out there for paper writing?

When I grow up I want to be a monk - gotta kick butt at this challenge first. Big goal = get fighting fit What is fighting fit? 1) healthy I have coeliac disease (yippee!) so I have to completely avoid all gluten, this means a lot of food preparation and a lot of care when I eat food that I haven't prepared, and when I get it wrong (crosscontamination eating out - grrrrr), I'm ill for about a fortnight, then ropey for longer, so I absolutely must avoid all of the gluten. To help me do this I have a food goal of trying one new recipe a week. 2) Fit I will get do cross training to improve my fitness and my flexibiltiy and my strength The cross training is: i yoga twice a week ii Body weight training three times a week (currently in a slightly modified level 2 of the Academy BW, in the 6 weeks, get to level 4) iii Running for CV fitness (treadmill running on the same days as the BW training, and a longer outdoor run in the weekend) 3) Trained in martial arts i Kickboxing class is on a sunday (I'm a 2nd Dan in kickboxing/sport karate) ii Jujitsu classes are tuesday and thursday (hopefully there will be a grading in the next 6 weeks - if there is then my jujitsu goal is to pass my grading from orange to green belt) I will get to these classes and ideally have one or two consolidation sessions each week at home. Complicating getting fighting fit is that 3 weeks ago I ate out, and there was some gluten somewhere in the food (they sounded so much like they knew what they were doing) - so I'm still recovering from the gluten. I'm back to yoga, kickboxing and jujitsu, but my gym workouts and running haven't happened for three weeks - I'll have to build these back in a little gently. I get a C grade for doing 1/2 of the exercise listed here, a B for 2/3 and an A for anything over 3/4. Life goals Yep, that is plural, i'm sneaking a second one in..... 1) Play that bass - my day job is in science, my play job is music, can't have the play job without practise. Fail = playing less than 50% of the days, C= 50% of days, B = 2/3, A > 3/4, amazing = every day. 2) Write that paper..... Evil paper for naisty ex-boss. The work almost broke me, then last time I worked on the paper coincided with a bad break up which involved emergency services (such a soap opera!), so I have a few issues with managing to finish this work. But I have to do it. So, I promise as part of my challenge to work on the paper three times a week (wednesday, saturday and sunday), each of these sessions has to be a minimum of an hours work. An A grade = getting a draft of the paper to naisty ex-boss. A B-grade = working on it three times a week and getting it close to passing on to ne-b. A C-grade = managing most of the working on it sessions. If I get play job work (like the chance to play my bass outside my house), then this takes over from all other goals - including training the morning after - so if I have a rehearsal, then next morning is a rest morning, and I get a pass slip wrt missing evening training, but not paper writing - the paper writing then needs to transfer to another day. Wowser, this looks shockingly horrid. But I already do most of it - just not the paper writing in the evenings........... Any account-a-buddies out there for paper writing?

Hey guys, short intro: since I was little boy I was huge fan of "martial art" movies - mostly those with JCVD and I always wanted to learn how to fight and defend myself. But somehow my nature of procrastinator and shy-guy always stopped me from taking even first step towards it. Now I am bit older (29) and movies with JCVD are not as good as they use to be. I am also pretty weak and not very muscular. But I would still love to learn some martial arts...and I think I am finally ready to at least make a first step. So I check around my city what options do I have. I found 2 classess: Taekwondo and Ju Jitsu (yes I live in small town ). And so I have few questions for ya who knows smth about these arts: 1. Which art is more practical for real situations if I have to defend myself (or others)? (cause I dont mean attacking anyone first ) 2. Which art is less dangerous for a guy with weak joints, skinny body and minor injuries: elbow and knee? 3.Which art builds more strength alongside with fighting skills? I'm asking cause I would love to focus generally on building strong body that is capable of facing different challenges of life (not only fighitng bad guys ) looking forward to your answers and/or other tips/questions I should ask before choosing the right class. Panczo