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Duhigg's habit formation process has been working extremely well for me. So far, I have achieved: KH1: Exercise 7 days/wk. Never missed a day since 11/17/16 KH2: No M (Something private). Kept everyday since 12/28/16 KH3: No RR (road rage). Kept everyday since 02/07/17 Although the above habits were difficult and all required a lot of effort, they pale in difficulty next to my biggest demon, which is smoking. KH4 will be the keystone habit of NOS (no smoking). I quit smoking on Mar 7, 2017 and I will be using this challenge to keep my focus on ensuring that I do not start again. With smoking, its all or nothing, and smoking once is total failure. Keystone Habit Development KH4 - NOS: No Smoking Secondary Goals Although the Keystone Habit development process mandates working on only 1 major change at a time, I will be including some low effort secondary goals as part of my challenge. These are either past KH's that I just want to monitor as a way to continue embedding the habits in my mind, or shorter term projects that I have already been doing for some time. KH1 - Daily exercise KH2 - No M KH3 - No RR Salads 5/wk min (low effort, I already eat more than this, just want to make sure I don't slip off) Night time crap - No goal, just log result here regarding how many nights/wk I do not eat crap. Just doing this to get the subconscious working on this issue. VBA - Spend at least 5min 5days/wk learning VBA coding In order to avoid confusion, please note. For changing lifestyle habits, I strongly believe in working on only 1 major focus at a time. The secondary goals included above are designed to be very low effort. The first 3 are previous KH's that I have already worked on for between 1 month for the most recent to 4 months for the oldest. However, in order for a habit to become as automatic as brushing your teeth every morning, it can requires months of monitoring to ensure the habit becomes a fully embedded routine in the brain.

History: This is my 2nd battle log and I’ve been away and slacking off since around May. I decided to start a new battle log as I feel I’m entering a new phase of my life. Both my children have moved out this year (one graduated from college and one entered college), I’m turning 56 this month, and recently lost my job due to restructuring. I’m fortunate that I have enough credit for retirement health insurance benefits and pension. It’s not enough to stop working entirely, but that and my savings allows me plenty of options. Because of all the changes, I’ve decided to start a new journal as I look at all this as a major life change, plus I’ve not been working out for quite a while. I’ve really let my health and habits go since around May. At 55, the body digresses much faster than it did in my earlier years. I’m no longer interested in developing as much strength as I was earlier this year. There is nothing wrong with pursing strength and muscle size gains at any age, but I’m primarily interested in focusing on body weight strength plus endurance and flexibility. I love white water kayaking, dabble at indoor climbing, hiking, and would like to be able to jog for a mile or two. I’m a huge believer in developing habits above making short term goals. I use the system developed by Charles Duhigg. I will also use short term goals, but the larger focus will be developing the habits which will lead to the lifestyle I want. About me: To put me in a box, I'm a 55 year old, 5'10", 174lb, married, male, social liberal/fiscal conservative engineer from Illinois who wants to hang on to 50 as long as I can. Genetically, I've always been on the lean side. My "ideal" wt is 165lbs. 185lbs has been my highest wt. I'm very active in whitewater kayaking and dabble in indoor/rock climbing. I also enjoy hiking, camping, and downhill skiing. Adrenaline is my drug of choice.

So far this year, I have accomplished the following: Current KH's KH1- Exercise daily - Missed once twice since Dec 27, 2015 KH2 - Salad 6 days/wk - Missed three times since Dec 28, 2015 KH3 - Protein shake every morning - Never missed since Dec 28, 2015 KH4 - OE1 - Office efficiency 1 - Create daily to do list at work. Missed twice since Jan 22, 2016 KH5 - M-less - Never missed since Jan 31, 2016 KH6 - NOS - NO Smoking, Never missed since Mar 11, 2016 2016 achievements: 1) Counting the 3 KH's started in the last 3 days of 2015, I created 6 new habits, including NOS, in the last 4 months. 2) Increased bench press strength from about 2-3 reps at 135lb to 10 reps at 135lb (although need improvement on form). Also 145lb was my 1rm at start of year and have increased that to 175lb. 3) Got started w/ Dynasty training 2016 disappointments: 1) Weight is too high. Started year at 176, dropped to around 166, now currently around 174. 2) Pullups are not where I'd hoped. I can do 3-4 if I don't go all the way down, and the 4th is pretty sloppy. 3) NOS has created some bad side effects. May - a complicated month May is going to be rather complicated challenge/schedule wise. There is a 5 day vacation with family, prepping for daughter to move out , prepping for son to start college away in the fall , and a host of son and daughters HS and college graduating functions. Also, although I'm getting close to 2 months of NOS, it's still a struggle at times. I don't want to get overwhelmed and create an environment of so much stress that I give in to smoking. Disturbances in the force: NOS has created some issues in my life which desperately need resolved. 1) Web surfing too much at work to distract myself from thoughts of smoking. 2) Wt has gone from 165 around the start of NOS (Mar 11) to 175lb today. I've been eating more crap food, with an especially large amount at night. Nicotene is an appetite suppressant and I can really tell the difference in my food cravings w/o it. 3) I'm not getting many projects done at home. This is partially due to NOS as I've been watching more TV than usual, especially right after I get home when I take a nap and watch some TV. My challenge is on the next post.

My first 3 challenges this year were all about prepping for kayak season: lose some wt (dropped from 178 to 168), develop core, general strength conditioning and flexibility through daily exercise (everyday except 1 since Dec 28, 2015). I also wanted to quit smoking (quit Mar 11) and improve my career work performance (developed and used a daily planning spreadsheet every workday since Jan 22). My first major kayak trip this year will be around the 3rd week of April, and I feel I am physically well prepared for it. So far, my battle log has dealt with how I am changing my life through habit formation (Duhiggs process). I've already created and kept the major habit changes I wanted to develop at this point. I've now added a new section which focuses on achieving a "bucket list" of desires/goals I want to achieve. The quests below align w/ the 4 desires I am currently focusing on. Stronger - Get Lean and Mean Quest 1 - The Lean Part: cut the crap. I have a target date of May 30 to reduce my wt from its current 168lb to less than 165.0 (must hit in the 163's 3 days in a row). I've already created the habits of eating a salad 6 days/wk and protein shake 7 days/wk. For this quest, I have 3 objectives: (Vacation days are exempt for all of these) 1. No crap (cookies, candies, cakes, ice cream, etc) after 8pm 6 days/wk (w/ the exception of 2 jelly beans) 2. Eat crap a maximum of 2 times at work during the entire time period of this challenge. 3. Max of 1 small bite size candy per day from the candy bowls at home. Things to track - daily crap intake Quest 2 - The Mean Part: lots of pushing and pulling. I have 2 strength targets by June 30: 10 perfect form bench presses w/ 135lbs and 4 perfect form pullups. I'm currently at 5 perfect form + 3 sloppy 135lb bench presses and 2 sloppy pullups. For this quest, I have 2 objectives: 1. Brutal chest/tricep focus w/o's w/ a goal of completing 7 perfect form bench presses w/ 135lbs 2. Brutal back/bicep focus w/o's w a goal of completing 2 perfect form pullups in a row. Things to track - w/o intensities Faster - Breath Easy Quest 3 - Continue NOS. To reach my full potential at the fasted pace, I have to be able to be able to breath easily. NOS stands for "No Smoking" and my quit date was Mar 11, 2016 (using Wellbutrin to assist). Continuing NOS is my overriding priority right now. Even though its been 16 days since I quit, I need to continue daily focus on this or a trigger could easily derail all my efforts. Things to track - Days of NOS Smarter - Be an even more nerdy engineer Quest 4 - Build a Dynasty Dynasty is a modeling program used where I work to simulate hydraulic systems. I've wanted to learn this for many years to further my technical growth, but I've never done so. I have set a target date of Oct 30, 2016 to be able to create a basic Dynasty model and simulation. For this challenge, I have 2 objectives: 1. Sign up for Dynasty modeling classes at work. 2. Spend a minimum of 8 hours this challenge learning the basics. Things to track - Hours spent on program and my progress

This is my second attempt at posting this new challenge today, as I stupidly put it in the wrong forum first. Goofball. Ack! New Challenge already! Okay, I'm in. But I'm doing this on my tablet so I have no pictures. I challenge all of you to supply me with appropriate gifs. My Challenge will be a weird one because for most of it I will be on my epic Journey to the Florida Keys, where I will kayak (with a group) 63 miles in 5 days from Marathon Key (mile 47 on the Overseas Highway) to Key West, mile marker 0 and the Southernmost point, hopefully not being eaten by a giant marine predator or frying to a crisp in the proccess. The morning after I finish the kayak portion, I will mount my aluminum steed and ride north for three days, covering 80 map miles and 107 physical miles to reach mile marker 80, and will have traversed virtually the entire Florida keys under human power. I bought a special shirt to wear at the victory. THEN, because I am actually, certifiably insane, I will drive home and exactly one week later will do a combination kayak/trail run adventure race in South Carolina on March 26th, which will close out my three-part "Predator Series" as well as my three month work sabbatical in a blaze of glory. And Sunburn. And possibly a pulled hamstring. So my goals on this challenge are: 1: Don't die. This will be graded on a pass/fail basis. 2: See goal one for not dying. 3: if you must die, die biting the throat. I do have some other goals: A: keep leveling up my career via my podcast and webseries and writing and etc B: Don't eat like an idiot C: transition back to work as smoothly as possible I will update these as I can, but the trip will be the main thing. Bear with me. I promise to go back to micromanaging my carb count as soon as it's over. BTW Flamethrowers have nothing to do with my challenge. I was just trying to keep things interesting. Speaking of updates, I just thought I would mention that I wore my jeans out to dinner last night. Imhaven't been able to wear my jeans (I only have the one pair for some reason) in TWO YEARS. Let alone wear them into an eating establishment AND not have to undo the button mid-meal (though I confess my crossfit warrior thighs gave them a moment's pause). My physique may be changing at a glacial pace, but it's getting somewheres.... Spoiler If anyone's remotely interested, when I could last wear those jeans, I weighed 175 lbs after several months of hardcore keto dieting. I now weigh 193, but I'm the same size despite being almost twenty pounds heavier. So that old saw about muscle being smaller amd denser than an equal poundage of bodyfat is apparently true. Or I've developed my own specific gravity in relation to Earth's, which would be interesting. Adventure race deets below if you're interested: Spoiler The adventure Race is a 6 mile kayak and 4 mile trail run in South Carolina the 26th. I fully expect to be the last person finished, and to walk/jog/walk the trail portion. I signed up for it because a friend was talking on facebook about it (his wife is entered) and I was like, "that sounds like so much fun! I wish I could do that." And I just couldn't stop thinking about it, and finally I just woke up in the night and decided there was no reason I *couldn't* do it, and signed up. I must be getting more confident, or at least more adventurous. Or just crazier

Ack! New Challenge already! Okay, I'm in. But I'm doing this on my tablet so I have no pictures. I challenge all of you to supply me with appropriate gifs. My Challenge will be a weird one because for most of it I will be on my epic Journey to the Florida Keys, where I will kayak (with a group) 63 miles in 5 days from Marathon Key (mile 47 on the Overseas Highway) to Key West, mile marker 0 and the Southernmost point, hopefully not being eaten by a giant marine predator or frying to a crisp in the proccess. The morning after I finish the kayak portion, I will mount my aluminum steed and ride north for three days, covering 80 map miles and 107 physical miles to reach mile marker 80, and will have traversed virtually the entire Florida keys under human power. I bought a special shirt to wear at the victory. THEN, because I am actually, certifiably insane, I will drive home and exactly one week later will do a combination kayak/trail run adventure race in South Carolina on March 26th, which will close out my three-part "Predator Series" as well as my three month work sabbatical in a blaze of glory. And Sunburn. And possibly a pulled hamstring. So my goals on this challenge are: 1: Don't die. This will be graded on a pass/fail basis. 2: See goal one for not dying. 3: if you must die, die biting the throat. I do have some other goals: A: keep leveling up my career via my podcast and webseries and writing and etc B: Don't eat like an idiot C: transition back to work as smoothly as possible I will update these as I can, but the trip will be the main thing. Bear with me. I promise to go back to micromanaging my carb count as soon as it's over. BTW Flamethrowers have nothing to do with my challenge. I was just trying to keep things interesting. Speaking of updates, I just thought I would mention that I wore my jeans out to dinner last night. Imhaven't been able to wear my jeans (I only have the one pair for some reason) in TWO YEARS. Let alone wear them into an eating establishment AND not have to undo the button mid-meal (though I confess my crossfit warrior thighs gave them a moment's pause). My physique may be changing at a glacial pace, but it's getting somewheres.... Adventure race deets below if you're interested:

NF7: the Predator Pounces, Part 1 And so it begins... Going to stick with a fairly simple challenge this time out, as I'm just coming off a heavy work streak and am feeling the need to streamline. Since the Challenges are shorter now, I’m going to break a larger challenge into 3-4 smaller sections, as I have smaller goals that will build up to a larger event in April. I'm planning to have extra time to devote to healthiness and such, though, as I'm finally taking a sabbatical from work for a few months. Since I am a freelancer, that just means I either don't answer the phone or I answer the phone and then lie about being booked. It's not like I had to make a tear-stained appeal to Human Resources or anything. I did have to tell one contract client that I wasn't available to take any more work with them, which I'm not sure they actually believed. Anyway! On to the challenge. I have three (yes, only three!) areas to work on, and I'm using one reference as a guide for each. I have a bunch of other things rattling around in my skull, but since I didn't want to do the whole "it's January and I must CHANGE MY LIFE COMPLETELY" nonsense, I'm going to restrain myself to these three. Then I can layer on more on the next time. Clean it up: using the excellent "Eat Like A Predator" essay by J Stanton as a guideline, I want to do a serious Paleo reboot. My eating went to hell in a handbasket after Thanksgiving and I need to feed the machine properly. Very limited grains, no sugar, no proccessed carbs except on bike days. (Then I'm allowed a powerbar and some gatorade.) Goal: there's 21 possible meals in a week, although I tend to only eat twice a day, so I'm aiming for no more than 2 non-paleo meals per week. I’m still pondering if I want to count carbs this time around. Work it out: I'm taking a quote by Kelly Starrett, Crossfit coach extrordinaire, as my inspiration: "What it [crossfit] does is expand the consciousness of what's possible. By the way, you CAN run this mountain 7k AND still be brutally strong - in fact, why aren't you?" I have a new, circuit-training style gym workout which I want to do 3 days a week, and add my cycling in around that. Mobility work at least 4 days a week (my mobility work is a simple yoga routine that takes about 15 minutes). Essentially I'm trying to be more of an all-round athlete; quick, strong, flexible, and agile. Not as strong as a powerlifter, not as fast as a sprinter, but more versatile than both. In other words: Ranger Badass. Goal: minimum of 2x gym, 2x bike. Easy Peasy. Maximize my outdoor time with walking, hiking, etc. Level it up: part of the reason I am taking a sabbatical is to work on some personal projects and turn my career in a more creative, self-controlled direction. I played around with a few ideas and I've finally come up with a web series/podcast combo that I'm going to start making called The Haunted Seas - all about ghost stories, folk tales, and haunted places having to do with the ocean, and where you can go to see and experience them. Think of it as Rick Steves meets Ghost Hunters, with a little bit of Point Break thrown in. (The original, not that piece-of-shit remake.) Also, I need to finish the nature film I made last year and promote it. Goal: one webisode and two podcasts a month. I have no idea how to do a podcast, btw, so the learning curve should be…interesting. But I really want to stretch myself creatively and explore some new ideas. Inspiration/reference: Captain Jack Sparrow. So... Here we go...

My name is Raxie Coricofallapatorius. Prepare to d.... uhhh... I mean. Hi. Soooo I figured it's time to start a battle log of my very own. I've been kind of using my challenge threads as that, but I hate clogging them all with all the specifics. My next challenge is going to be very work out centric so especially for that I'd like to just put all that here. I'll probably also put all my cleaning tasks here, since now that they're a habit I won't be incorporating them into my challenges any more... but I still want to track it somewhere so I can look back at my progress. That's about it

What's around the river bend? This is my second challenge, and my first as a Swing-Dance-Ninja-Assassin. For those who don’t know me, I’m a 25 year old with a desk job and a passion for lindy hop and all other swing dances. My Level 50 is:To wear a size 4 in pants (currently a size 8)To be able to dance all night long and never have to turn someone down because I’m too tiredTo be a recreational whitewater paddler For my first challenge, I focused on maintaining a healthy sleep schedule, exercising 3-4 times a week, and eating mostly paleo but always with a caloric deficit. I feel like I stayed on target really well despite some stressful days and a business trip near the end, so I’m excited to step it up a bit! But before I jump into that, I want to recap some lessons learned: My digestive system does not thrive on paleo dieting. I wish there was a simple solution to figuring out the perfect diet for me, but as far as I can tell, my system likes to function with at least a little bit of dairy and bread. I’m going to be experimenting with other diet habits this time around. Sleep schedules are awesome, and I feel really comfortable that my mind and body recognize the importance of keeping a 10:30 bedtime and 6:30 rise time. I don’t think this is enough of a challenge any more to warrant a mission. Goal accomplished! My weight on a scale means nothing. During the last challenge I gained 2 lbs but lost an inch off my hips. The only measurements I’ll be focusing on are the ones I get from the tape measure and the calipers. I love routine! I love the feeling of getting up in the morning and working out before work! I love the feeling of jogging after a good ab workout – so tight! Yeah, happy things! I also venture into whitewater rafting and kayaking in the summer months. For this challenge, I'm letting the river guide me! The week after this challenge ends I’ll be taking a combined dancing/whitewater vacation (WOOT!). It will be my first time on a river in a hard boat (I've just done single-person rafts in the past), so I want to use this challenge to get me mentally and physically prepared for that! Mission 1:Exercise 4x per week - I'll be continuing my mix of walk/jog intervals in my neighborhood, pilates for dancers exercises, and aerobics with light weights. I'll be focusing a lot on core strength to help with dancing and also rolling my kayak Mission 2:Diet - eat a caloric deficit daily, and drink lots of water! I use a fitbit one to record my calorie burn and sync it with MyFitnessPal to record my calorie intake. The water is a major challenge for me, so I'm going to start with a goal of 2 - 24oz bottles for weeks 1 and 2, and by week 3 I want to be drinking 3 - 24oz bottles of water a day. Mission 3:Devotion - have 30 minutes of devotion time 7 days a week. My spiritual health is just as important as my physical health! I've promised myself for years that I would create a habit of spending time with God as soon as I got a handle on my physical habits. It's time. Side quest:Take kayaking courses. Guys. This is so intimidating. As a child, I HATED getting my face wet, and growing up I would never go underwater without goggles. I hate the idea of being upside down, underwater, with a boat on top of me. You might be wondering, "so why the heck do you want to be a kayaker?!" Well, I love the river, I love the mountains, I love the thrill of navigating the rapids - it's exhilarating and relaxing and beautiful. I just have to get over my fear of being underwater in frigid rushing water. So, I'll be taking a roll clinic so I can learn how to roll myself out of the water. I signed up today. It happens in 11 days. I'm not terrified, but it's going to be tough. I'll keep you updated. So here we go: a new challenge, a new journey! Let's do this thing! (For the record, the kayaker in the picture is not me - but it's exactly the sort of thing I want to do! But that is me in the brown skirt in the dancing picture!)