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So, uh, hi. I'm a warrior/monk, but I decided to wander over here for this challenge. I have a weird lumbar back/hip issue that might be just temporary muscle tightness or some horrible thing that'll never heal (I was told to just basically wait and watch it until I see my physiotherapist on 22nd, very exciting), which has forced me to alter my workouts. So I'm saying goodbye to my heavy barbell lifts for a few weeks and doing more work with kettlebells, bodyweight, and other stuff I'm really not good at, as it turns out. Fitness goals: #1: No Pain, No Still Gains I'm used to doing high intensity stuff, nothing else feels like a proper workout to me. And I'm guilty of exercising despite pain as long as I'm technically capable of it. But I need to learn not to do that, because I don't want to mess my back up any more. So the rules are: 1) No barbell squats (light front squats are okay as long as they don't hurt, I'm trying to learn the form). Substitute with goblet squats, split squats, lunges. 2) No barbell deadlifts. Substitute with one-legged dumbbell/kettlebell DLs. 3) Do core work every workout. I've neglected it in the past because I don't like it, but it's really important to both my lifting and taekwon-do. 4) Work on balance at least 2x week, just because mine sucks. 5) Generally listen to my body, and if something hurts, DON'T DO IT. You wouldn't believe how hard this is for me to get through my thick skull. #2: Cut Carbs I'm trying to decrease my body fat, which has been going absolutely nowhere for the past month and a half for reasons beyond my comprehension. For the next four weeks, I'll stick to a low-carb, high(er) fat diet to see if I can get some ketosis going on and melting off some of this annoying fluff. My current carb allowance on MFP is 40-50 grams per day, but I might adjust it along the way. A little more is allowed on lifting days, but even then I'll try to stick mostly to vegetables and the occasional orange juice. (I know that's liquid fructose but it's sooo good.) #3: Cardio Except for running outside, I hate most cardio. I usually get my cardio from TKD, but now I can't always attend the classes due to this back issue, and even when I can, I can't do most of the stuff that develops endurance. So in order to keep my endurance from going worse than it already is, I need to do at least 3x 20-30 minute HIIT sessions per week. Mostly on the elliptical since that's the safest option right now, since it's the most low impact for my hips and back. Life goal: Get Your ST Together I got recently diagnosed with ADD and meds to help deal with it, so I should finally be able to get my s&¤t together Like An Adult. So, during this challenge, I'll read the three remaining (terribly boring) literary studies books for a course, and book and ace that exam like a pro. I'll also read at least one novel I need to read for another lit course, and do one of the essays that's been late since about forever. I'll clean up the chaos that used to be my room and KEEP it clean. And pay my bills on time, which I've been dreadful at because my brain's like a sieve. Shouldn't be too hard. *sweats nervously*

Last challenge ( http://rebellion.nerdfitness.com/index.php?/topic/78224-lydiajaybird-gets-routine/) I focused on building a routine of weighing in regularly, only eating at home, and waking up on time. Did a pretty good job and lost 4.5 pounds to boot! Woohoo! (Dropped another pound as of this morning too ) Main Quest - Improve my routine and maintain it through the move to Florida For this challenge, I'm going to add to the routine some (reintroduce regular running and carb counting!) while refocusing on the trouble areas from last time (waking up on time). The big difficulty for me is going to come after March 18, which is when I'm moving to Florida! I got a job down there (YASSS!!! AT LONG LAST!!!) & am packing up everything and moving on the 18th. So here is the challenge: dont lose my routine in the chaos of moving. It's really easy to say, 'oh the kitchen is all packed up, guess I gotta order delivery', because that is a VERY valid excuse. So I need to find a way around that. Gonna have to eat on the road on the 18th, so I need to have lunch and dinner packed already so I don't stop for fast food. Gonna need to make sure to pack all my kitchen stuff by the door of the Uhaul so I can grab it immediately and be able to start cooking immediately, rather than trying to dig through boxes to find things. You get the gist. Goals 1. Get up & Go - Wake up at 6-6:30 2. Keto in the Kitchen - Eat only from-home food and keep track of carbs. 3. Routinely on the Road - Get out and run/walk three times a week. Life Quest Lose weight! 1 point extra credit/pound Measurements Height: 5'9" Weight: 184.5 lbs Waist: 31" Hips: 44" Thigh: 26.5" Grading Each goal will be graded weekly & be worth 1/3 of that week's total grade. Life Points are unlimited extra credit that can be added to my final score! My final grade will be the average of all four weeks plus my Life Goal extra credit. I need to make at least a B (80%) to pass the challenge. Get up & Go - Last time I was grading based on whether or not I got up on time, but I found that it was making my bed in the morning, reading before bed at night, and what time I went to bed that determined how well I did. So, that's what I'm going to grade on. 1 point for reading before bed, 1 point for going to bed by 10pm, and 1 point for making my bed in the morning. 3 points total. Keto in the Kitchen - 1 point for each meal made at home, 1 point for counting & reporting carbs. So 4/day possible. (Note I'm not grading on HOW MANY carbs I eat, just that I keep track of them. I've found that keeping track is more than half the battle when it comes to keto - if I'm counting, I'm generally in ketosis. I fall out of ketosis when I stop counting and get lazy.) Routinely on the Road - 1 point for getting out and either walking or running. I'm saying walking OR running for two reasons. 1) While I say that that's 3 points/week, there's 7 days in a week, so I COULD get up to 4 points extra credit by going for extra walks throughout the week. Hopefully this will encourage me to get in the routine of getting up in the morning and going outside, even if not to run. And after all, this challenge is all about routine. 2) I have gotten BAD about my runs.... It's cold and I can't stand to go run in the cold. It's miserable. Your body is hot, but your skin is cold. Your nose is running faster than you are, and it hurts to breathe. UGH. So on particularly miserable mornings, this lets me say ok, its freezing, so I'm just going to bundle up and walk instead. Compared to running, that sounds like I'm losing, but considering that otherwise I wouldn't be doing anything at all, I call that a win. Exceptions - my parents are helping move and its my mom's birthday on the 18th!!! So I don't lose home-food points for when we inevitably take her out to dinner. Also, if my parents want to take me out at any other point, I don't lose points for that either. Partly because I think its really rude to refuse when somebody wants to do something nice for you, and partly because my parents are health-nuts, so I'm not really concerned about what kind of food we'll end up eating. It'll be some nice restaurant with good, healthy options. Motivation I don't want to have to start over again after getting settled in Florida!! I want to settle into good habits that I'll keep for the years to come. Also (and this is shallow, but here goes), I want to look good in Florida! I'm starting a new job and I want to look great in my work clothes and make a good first impression with my peers. I'll be joining a new aerial studio down there and I want to feel confident walking in, not intimidated by all the gorgeous girls there. And it's Florida! It doesn't get below 50, so it's practically ALWAYS swimsuit season. My body is not swimsuit season ready, and it needs to be, haha.

So, my new favorite things to do for lunch (inspired mostly by this post on Serious Eats): DIY instant soup lunches! So, you need some sort of small jars to build them all in (I ended up going with these 16oz wide mouth ball jars). I slow cook a bunch of chicken over the weekend (hind quarters this time, but whatever is cheapest for you! Or any other meat that is on sale, slow cooked. Tofu chopped small would work great as well.) You can season them however you like - the Serious Eats post has some suggestions. This week I did a tablespoon of Better-Than-Bouillon stock concentrate (you need some sort of stock concentrate, if you use cubes I'd crush them up before adding), a teaspoon of oyster sauce, and a teaspoon of hoisin sauce. On top of that you put frozen or fresh veggies - mine this week are 1/4C frozen spinach, 1/4C frozen broccoli cuts, and 1 large white mushroom sliced thin. On top of this goes your meat - I suggest slow cooking it because it's easy to rip into small chunks/threads that will warm up much more thoroughly. I add 2.5oz of chicken. On top of this goes your noodles/rice. By far the most cost effect is to get one of those blocks of 0.15$ ramen and split it among your containers after parboiling (parboiling is cooking until it's mostly cooked - these ramen won't cook fully in just added hot water). I'm on a keto diet, so I split a package of kelp noodles into 4-5 jars (little pricey, but low carb ). It's a little bit of prep work, but it keeps me on diet during lunch. I have one with a 2oz chunk of cheese and some almonds. You just add hot water. My work (I work at a university) has a cafe very close that supplies hot water for people to make tea - so I just go down there and use that hot water. Give it a couple mins to saturate fully, shake a little, and voila! The important things to remember - veggies and sauces go on bottom, and your precooked meat/protein goes between the veggies and noodles. If you put the noodles under or in contact with the veggies, they'll absorb the liquid continuously and be soggy by the time you get to it. Use precooked meat, as just adding hot water will not cook, only heat up. And, if you don't have a fridge nearby, you can use frozen veggies and it will keep until lunchtime easily - I have access to a fridge, but I actually prefer this as they've thawed a bit ahead of time and the soup is hotter. That's also another reason to use precooked meat - don't have to worry about spoilage during the day.

I was strongly moving towards the Paleo lifestyle when a friend/co-worker told me about his experience with Keto. I am looking for any opinions you all may have. Thanks.

"But lonely, lost girls like us can rescue ourselves.: I've been obsessed with this show since it was first aired. If people in my life haven't heard of it, they better empty their bladder and strap in for eight hours of television, because it's gonna be marathon time. I picked this as a theme because it has a lot of really powerful messages, and a lot of really hard ones, too. Just Your Standard Magic Bean Contract I have to have important paperwork done by February 16th of this month. I intend to do one piece a day of all this week, starting 2/1. Next Monday, 2/8, the forms will be complete and ready to be notarized. I will make copies that afternoon and deliver them, along with all registry and receipt copies. After it's in, we will work on taxes, which will need to be accounted for but can be added onto the forms when complete. +2 WIS After the 16th, I will have a new project. +2 WIS Go for Walkies! When one of your party members starts out as a dog, well...you do what you have to do. 25 minutes on the treadmill with alternating days. When that same dog gets gold-plated, suddenly, you're hauling a lot of weight. 2 sets of gallon rows, walking lunges, and squats on alternating days. +2 END/STR possible. Love is to Eat Anything Fluffy! Wolf has a troubled relationship with food. I feel that, Wolf. I do. While he wants to gorge on shepherdess and warm milk, I want to eat all the carbs and lots of juice, too. I need to eat more natural/keto than I have been. I blame my bad habits on being unemployed and depressed. My troubled relationship with food sometimes means that even if there is food in the house that I like, I resist eating, until I make myself sick. I need to not do that. The aim here is to eat natural/keto 2x a day. If that means I'm back to protein shakes at breakfast and eggs for dinner, that's still a positive. +4 CON Visit the Kissing Town With Valentine's falling during this challenge, I thought it would be fun to include this. Ifrit has been a near saint during the last few months, supporting me and lifting me up. I'd like for us to either get out of the house or do something planned once a week (even if that means sitting down and catching up on Netflix, so long as it's an active choice.). We're planing on seeing a movie next Friday, to start. After that, I'll try to come up with things ahead of time. His schedule is quite firmly on graves, and mine is up in the air. This goal will be edited to reflect any time available.

Back in a solid groove after the Xmas fiasco! Hooray! 1) Add in a body weight workout in the style of the Bodyweight 666 Beginner, while continuing to do yoga 3-4 times a week. The intial session for all of them will be the first progression as warm up, and advance two for the five sets. The routine for February will be as such: Beginner sample routine (3 days a week):Week 1 – Week 4: Volume phase – recovery periods of 1-2 min between sets.Day 1: pull ups, push ups, squats, abs and coreDay 2: pull ups, handstand push ups, squats, abs and coreDay 3: pull ups, dips, squats, abs and core 2) I have an assortment of odds and ends to do around the house. So each week I will complete one task:Week 1 - put together weight bench and rack that are still sitting in the way in the entry wayWeek 2 - I have been meaning to cut down my book collection. I like books, but I think I've fully moved to ebooks and they are just takingup room now. Get a spread sheet set up with all the books I'd like to sell on ebay, with their weights for mailing, and get pictures taken.Week 3 - The last few pieces for our home gym area will be here. Finish setting all this up, and buy some cheap tall mirrors to put in there. Also get my bluetooth speakers set up in there.Week 4 - Lots of clutter has accumulated in both the kitchen and in my room. Sort through and get rid of seldom used or redundant kitchen equipment, and go through my clothes getting rid of old ones or ones I rarely wear or don't fit. 3) I have been neglecting my plants and procrastinating on setting up seedlings. Water plants once a week, and get one tray of seedlings planted each week (for a total of 4). AND DON'T IGNORE THEM AFTER PLANTING. Heh, Water trays once a week after planting.

This is pretty late, but things have been crazy and I wasn't sure I was going to make another challenge anyways. But better late than never: here I am. So I had a good idea last challenge: get the basics solid. Unfortunately, I still tried to do too much, and crashed and burned. I even gained weight... This time, I'm going to focus on just getting into a routine. For anybody interested, my old challenge is here: http://rebellion.nerdfitness.com/index.php?/topic/76107-lydiajaybird-goes-back-to-basics/ Main Quest - Get comfortable in a daily routine Up until now, my focus was always losing weight. I'm still interested in losing weight as an overall goal in my life (hey, just found my life quest!), but to do that, I need to get some other aspects of my life in order. So I'm going to switch from making losing weight my main goal each challenge, to making things that will help me lose weight my main goal. So this time, that's having a routine. I know that normally people here are really big on having quantifiable goals, but I think getting routine is more important for me right now than measurable progress. Goals 1. Get up & Go - Get up at 6-6:30am (even on weekends!!). On weekends I can stay in bed with my kitty cat, laptop, or a book once I wake up, but on weekdays, I have to get OUT of bed by 6:30 and make the bed. Once I'm up, it doesnt really matter what I do. If i want to get up at 6 and play WoW until it's time to go to work, thats fine. I woke up and thats what matters for this challenge. (Yeah, thats right. Not putting exercise in here. Generally, I've found I dont have a problem going running in the morning. I have a problem getting out of bed in the morning. So I'm going to focus on getting out of bed for now. If I go running too, cherry on top. I'll probably include that in my Life Quest.) 2. Chefs belong in the Kitchen - Eat at home! No more eating out! Too often, when I was doing the diet goal, if I failed, I'd just say, aw, screw it & order pizza or go eat out! Which is so much worse than just cooking something at home that might be outside of the diet. So for this challenge, I'm going to focus on having everything I eat be something I made at home. If I want to cheat on my diet, I'll have to put it on my grocery list. And I'm much less impulsive in the grocery store than I am with online ordering and drive throughs. 3. Check In - This goal is to stay accountable. (Also, hopefully some of you all will pop in more often to offer support if I'm posting more often about what's going on. Shout out to those of y'all that popped in during my last challenge, I'm very grateful!) I have to weigh myself every morning (yes, I know, I'm not going to lose weight every day, and some days I'll gain. But if I don't weigh every day, I find myself going WEEKS without weighing myself, and thats when weight gain happens), and post my weight and any other updates on whats going on. Life Quest Lose weight! This is where I'll get credit for running, doing my pole and aerial silks, and sticking to my diet. Let's say 1 point of extra credit for every pound lost? Measurements Height: 5'9" Weight: 189.8 *crying sounds* Waist: Hips: Thigh: I will put in all my measurements tomorrow morning. Grading Each goal will be graded weekly & be worth 1/3 of that week's total grade. Life Points are unlimited extra credit that can be added to my final score! My final grade will be the average of all four weeks plus my Life Goal extra credit. I need to make at least a B (80%) to pass the challenge. Since I started late, the first week will be just the points from today on. Get up & Go - 1 point each day for getting up on time. On weekdays, I MUST make my bed after getting up for this to count! (Otherwise, I'll just crawl right back in...) Chefs belong in the Kitchen - 1 point for each meal made at home. So 3/day possible. Check In - 1 point/day for weighing in. Exceptions - I'm doing some out-of-state interviewing at the moment, been to Atlanta twice the past couple weeks and will be flying to Florida next week. So when I'm out of town, just try to eat healthy to earn the Chefs belong in the Kitchen point. Obviously, if I'm away from my scale, I don't have to weigh-in, but try to at least put a sentence or two here on my challenge with why I'm not weighing in. If I get one of these jobs and have to move... Well I'll figure out what that means when it happens. Motivation I don't know what to do for motivation this go around. My most successful motivations have been the materialistic ones, but I'm not in a place financially to do that right now. So I don't know.

Eat Clean: 1/4-1/12. Stay on Keto during work days. Plan out supplies for all meals. Non-work days will not be Keto, but will also not allow for junk food. No cereal, chips, cookies, pop-tarts, can teas, or can coffees. +3 to STA Weave Silk: I am still very, very new to Tai Chi, having only just picked up a step-by-step book, and watching a few videos on the background, history, and mentality of the forms. I'm really excited to try it out because it sounds like it will be good for me. I will begin daily practice, and see how far it takes me. +3 to DEX Make Things: There are a few fairly ambitious projects on my cosplay docket for this year. I intend to finish one complete outfit for this first challenge. Duelist!Utena will require only shorts and a jacket. I will need to purchase shoes and part of her armour. +3 to CHA Self Care: Something that's always been a struggle for me. This can be several different things, and I'm working on a list as I go. Cuppa Tea: brew, prepare, sit quietly until done. Bubba Baff: candles, salts/bubbles/bombs, book/magazine, Paige (if needed). Skin Care: face mask, moisturize, body moisturizer. +1 to CON Read More: Hi, I'm Ever, and I collect books. There's a shelf full of stuff I haven't touched, and have had several of these novels for far too long. I'll try to cover one book a week. (LifeQuest^)

Here's to hoping I don't get walking pneumonia this time around, heh. Getting back in the swing for a bright new year! Quest 1 - Food does a body good Ever since I got sick, I've been pretty lackadaisical about my diet. We're getting back to the basics with strict keto. I'm aiming for under 30 net carbs, and I've got a one week plan set up for repetition. Eventually, for variety, I'll work in more meal options, but this first four weeks will be strict sticking to a plan. Quest 2 - Get that blood moving again Three times a week do a full session of Nerd Fitness Yoga. On weekends where the windchill is above zero, take the dogs for a walk. Also, add in some grip strengthening work - hanging from my pull up bar every morning for increasing lengths of time, and increasing amounts of fingertip push ups. Quest 3a - Routine makes the mind and body happy Get out of bed when my alarm goes off! That means - weekdays at 6am. I'll need the time to make breakfast and take care of the cats before work. 9am on weekends - I let my schedule get too FUBAR'd on weekends, making Monday brutal. Quest 3b - Routine makes the mind and body happy Stick to the budget set out for my month. I let me Xmas spending get out of control per usual and need to get that back under wraps. Step one? Actually stick to a budget for 1 month. Also, to keep myself checking in here, I hereby promise to post at least one picture of at least one of my pets a day. Cats and kittens and doggies and fishes! <3 <3 <3

Introduction: I'm doing my second Ranger challenge after over two years in the Warriors. Last challenge, I was focussed on keeping together my diet and exercise after moving back home to Indiana to reboot life and get a fresh start. I managed to stay active and got back on the low carb and meaty glory of the ketogenic diet. Doing so I managed to lose about 5-10 pounds. I want to maintain this rate of weight loss. Right at the beginning of the challenge I start my new job. I'm working a temporary position at an Amazon warehouse. I'll be on my feet for 10 hour shifts, 40-50 hours a week... on the night shift. This is a big transition from my grad student desk and computer work and being home most of every day. So I've got to adapt to the new level of activity and being nocturnal. Further, I want to maintain my barbell training and use it to maintain strength and burn extra calories. This is going to put a lot of stress on my body so managing stress will also be key. Motivation: "There are only three types of motivation: money, fear, and hunger." -- Ron Swanson Goal 1: Ketogenic nutrition. First off, avoid those carbs. I might be tempted to indulge given the constant energy output, but I need to keep them gone. I need to pay attention to snacks, supplements, and water to make sure I stay well adapted. I'm staying round the clock on this one. 42 pts. total. Goal 2: Maintain a regular workout routine. I so, so, so want to pull a 4 plate deadlift, but... I'm cutting on the standard ketogenic diet and a lot of my energy (and pateience) is going to be used up at work so heavy work will be limited if even existent. I'll be mostly doing barbell complexes and circuits 30 min a piece at least 3x / week. Shoot for 4x, and hope for 5x. Partly to burn extra calories, So do at least 18 days to pass, up to 30 lifting days if I feel awesome. Partly to burn extra calories, but I just don't want to break the habit of lifting something regularly. Goal 3: Mobility "Doctor: Do you have any history of mental illness in your family? Ron Swanson: I had an Uncle who once did yoga." I neglect the shit out of mobility work. I'm going to use my work schedule to stay on top of this. Just before/after work and during breaks, do some stretching. I know I'll be dying to stretch out my calves when I'm on my feet all day. I'll aim for an average of 3 every work day to pass. Shoot for 4x, and again hope for 5x. I'll allow bonus points for before/after workouts. Life Goal 1: Makin' bacon. "Capitalism: God's way of determining who is smart, and who is poor." -- Swanson Pyramid of Greatness Basically, the more I work, the more money I get in the form of bonuses during this holiday period. No need to grade. The bonus is its own goal. But I'll keep track of how much I'm getting to stay encouraged. I don't like the idea of posting my own wages, so I'll track this in a fictitious currency, the #, as in # of bacon. I currently owe #1796. Potentially, I can earn #470 after I take out gas money, food money, and the regular bills. That's not as much as I hoped for (when is it ever) but that's quite a dent for 6 weeks. I'll grade this goal as a percentage of the #470 paid off. Sidequest 1: The Swanson Pyramid of Greatness. Mainly for shits and giggles... I wrote a short program that randomly selects the entries on the "Swanson pyramid of greatness." There are 45 entries. So if I start on Friday we can do all of them. I say we because I'm inviting you to do them all. I'll do my best to post them daily. Part of this is for accountability to get me to post daily. I think a big part of the last challenge's success was that I was on here (almost) every day posting. So I'll post a random selection from the pyramid and incorporate the "lesson" into my day somehow with the goal of inspiring and improving the efforts toward my goals. The entries are: This is just for fun and these are open to wild interpretations. No points awarded, but they should inspire "Greatness" which will incur improvements in my efforts. Sidequest 2: Draw the Nerds. "Creativity is for people who wear glasses and enjoy lying." -- Ron Swanson Last challenge I had some fun by drawing this owl portrait which also had Rurik in it: That was all part of renewing my interest in drawing and painting and pursuing art again. I thought it would be fun for this challenge to make more drawings inspired by the people of the rebellion. You people inspire me, so I thought I'd show you the fruits of that inspiration. A good artist is well practiced in human portraits/figure, landscape, and still-life. I don't have time or money to take classes or anything. So I'll be lurking on your threads and drawing from your Swolfies and PR pics, snapshots from your adventures, and your food porn. Don't worry. No progress photos will be drawn. They are for personal assessment and not artistic purposes. Unless you really want me to. Also, if you want to request such a photo of yours to be "arted", feel free to post it on my thread. I'll accept most of these challenges. I'll add a bonus point for each drawing I do to be distributed about my goals. Sidequest 3: Stress management/meditation I'm always making a goal of getting back into my meditation routine. Well, here I can earn bonus points. One for every 30 min of meditation. It may be that workouts will be missed, extra calories consumed, or stretching neglected because I'm too damn tired and stressed. Meditation can be used to make up for it. Every minute counts as long as I'm on the cushion, or some place purposeful, breathing with unattached thoughts. Are you ready?

Super excited to not be a recruit anymore! Can't wait to start my path to awesome assassin-ness! So, after being successful at my recruit challenge, I'm gonna put myself out there a bit more and let people view my measurement tracking (here) and my meal tracking via MyFitnessPal (here). Feel free to check out! Though I don't play WoW anymore, I'm going to take my theme from there, a nod of sorts to my 6 year addiction to the game. Main Goal - Preparation, +3 CON (A=206lbs, B=208lbs, C=210lbs)- As you can see below, I originally (in July) set a tentative goal of reaching 200 pounds by the New Year. Well, it'll be pushing it, but to my excitement this is still within reach! I will have to get my ass into gear, but after the surge of excitement of continuing diet success and finishing a challenge, I feel I'm up for it! For me to be on track for this, I should try to hit 206 at the end of the challenge. Both of these are pushing it, but if I stay strict to my diet and stick to the planned exercise I want to do, all should be well. Originally, I had been planning on giving myself a diet vacation for about a week, starting a week prior to Thanksgiving, but I no longer have a desire for this! I will make a dessert for myself and mashed cauliflower instead of potatoes to stay in my keto diet for Thanksgiving. The one thing I've decided will stay is in terms of 'vacation' is a beer tasting day on November 12th. Many friends will be in town, and I will have the chance to try many beers that are hard to come by. As an exchange for this, I will stay keto-adherent the next day (a tailgating day) and the Sunday/Monday following do a two day fat fast to get myself back into ketosis as quickly as possible. (I would do this immediately after beer tasting, but I'm going to be outside/away from home all day and I don't want to chance cutting myself too short nutritionally that day) Quest 1 - Cut to the Chase, +2 STR +2 DEX (A=6 weeks of compliance, B=5 weeks of compliance, C=4 weeks of compliance)- I'm ready to fully integrate some exercise to my routines. This will serve the dual purpose of 1) helping my weight loss and 2) keeping my energy levels up. I'm quite susceptible to vicious cycles of feeling a little low energy one day and skipping, then feeling even lower the next day and so forth. I will continue to use NF yoga, doing 3 full sessions a week (with one day being Water B by week 3) and one day with all the mini sessions. The other three days will be doing BBWW. Ideal week would have alternating days of full session yoga and BBWW, but life happens so I can make up a day by doing a double day of yoga/BBWW. I will edit in later any mods I will be doing with the BBWW after a test run later this week. Quest 2 - Assassin's Resolve, +2 STA (A=6 weeks of compliance, B=5 weeks of compliance, C=4 weeks of compliance)- In further interests of keeping myself moving and working on stamina, I am setting a goal of 25 miles of walking a week. If I walk from my car to work and back to my car after work, that will net me 15 miles already. That 10 miles? I'm aiming to get myself off my ass on weekends; I'm far too lazy, far too content to sit around in my pj's binge watching Netflix all weekend. That's a habit that needs to be broken! In the interest of weather potentially interfering, 'compliant' will mean I can subtract 3 miles from my total needed for each weather day. Weather day = any day with a wind chill warning (Which if I remember right is if the windchill falls below 0 degrees F, but I can't remember the exact value) or any day where freezing rain is falling or has fallen recently enough that taking outsides stairs might cause me to brain myself. I'm very, very hopeful that won't be necessary, but one never quite knows what you'll get with winter in Iowa, so best to be prepared! Rainy weather - if the weather forcast for the day is >60% rain and I don't bring my umbrella or rain proof coat, that's on me and I have to make it up. If it's 'unexpected' rain (<60% chance) and I don't have my umbrella, I don't have to make up the mileage, but I'd still like to. If it's super windy during rain, windy enough that it will flip my umbrella inside out, I get a pass. Quest 3 - Vendetta, +2 STA +2 DEX (A=6 weeks of compliance, B=5 weeks of compliance, C=4 weeks of compliance)- More movement! This is for knee/ankle joint stability and health. One of the biggest things I noticed in my recruit challenge was how much happier my knees got after I started taking the stairs more often. So, I want to really start hammering this. I work on the 4th floor of my building; I walk in at ground level. That's 4 flights. I want to do 4 sets of up/down the stairs 6 out of 7 days a week (for those keeping count that's 6 days of 16 flights up and 16 flights down.) I now do 2 sets a work day. Goal is to add in one as a mid morning get-up-and-move break and one set of mid afternoon get-up-and-move break. Occasionally, what I am working on in a work day will interfere with either the mid morning or mid afternoon set. If that occurs, I can either plan ahead and do an extra set at lunch or the opposite break, or make up the set at home. I will also have to complete one set at home on the weekends. ***Note, my home stairs are shorter than work stairs, so 1 flight of work stairs = 2 flights of home stairs*** Life Quest - Recuperate, +2 WIS (A=6 weeks of compliance, B=5 weeks of compliance, C=4 weeks of compliance)- Lately, I've been spending far too much time doing little to nothing on the internet. I want to try and redirect that time into reading, a longtime love/hobby of mine that I seem to be neglecting. Goal is 7 hours a week outside of the reading I usually do over my lunch hour. I'm picturing a spread of 4 hours on the weekends and an additional 3 during the week. I also hope to stay in my accountabilibuddy group, Order of the Stick (on Facebook, so I've got another avenue of communication to keep me on track), and I also hope to make some new assassin friends ^.^ I'm also trying out a lot of new keto/low carb recipes so if interested let me know! (I often post Instagram pics of my food adventures, since Instagram is for food, as well as nail art pics and pictures of my dogs and cat. Hit me up also if you'd like to know my user name!) I'm out of time right now, but tomorrow I will edit in quest tracking into my measurement tracking worksheet for accountability!

So last time my challenge got almost completely derailed and I didn't lose any weight at all... (See trainwreck here: http://rebellion.nerdfitness.com/index.php?/topic/70676-lydiajaybird-gets-back-up/) I might have even gained some, I've been scared to weigh in, so I don't really know right now. I was doing alright, then I had a bad week, and then my state (SC) got wrecked by the storms and flooding, and my life was crazy and ugh. I tried to keep on keeping on, but I didn't do too well, and my lack of results shows it. But life is calming down now, so I just need to refocus and I'll be fine. So now for the important bit - my quests for this challenge! Main Quest - Lose 12 Pounds I need to weigh myself before I can put a number up there, but I want to get back into the 160's! Last challenge my goal was to get to 165 - what I weighed before I broke my foot - but I have to admit, that was really ambitious... I would've had to lose 12 pounds. So maybe calm down, recognize that slow progress is better than no progress (which is what I had last challenge) & just shoot for at least 169. Goals 1. Exercise - Run three times a week, and pole three times a week. I used to run MWF, but my pole classes are Wednesday, so I think I'm going to run TRSa instead. Then Monday can be upper body day for pole and Friday can be core/lower body day. 2. Rise and Shine - Wake up with my first alarm!! I've been getting worse and worse about this - It's to the point that I have incremental alarms set for a few hours before I finally get up. And of course, if I don't wake up on time, I don't have time to exercise before work! So one of my goals this challenge is to GET UP at 6:00am M-F and 9:00am on the weekends. 3. Keep Calm and Keto On! - My roommate has gone from being somewhat unreliable at cooking to COMPLETELY unreliable. I can count on one hand the number of times she's cooked in the past month. So I just need to plan and cook for myself... which will only be difficult because my roomie refuses to believe she's not doing this diet anymore... Everytime I mention that I'm going to the grocery store or try to cook for myself, she gets offended. So that'll be awkward to get around. Also, I'm changing my carb intake. With her, I did 25 net carbs or less a day, but you really only need less than 50 net carbs to stay in ketosis. So to make it easier to find yummy recipes (since I am simply not as good a cook as her), I'm going to aim for that. I've got ketone test strips, so I'll be able to tell if I can't stay in ketosis with that many carbs, and can adjust accordingly. [1645 calories or less, 50 carbs or less] Life Quest Become Desirable! No, not romantically/sexually desirable (I've already got a boyfriend, I'm fine in that department) - desirable for employers! I've been trying to get a job with my shiny new degree since I graduated in May, and I'm getting NOWHERE. And since the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results, I'm going to change my approach. I'm going to keep applying places and networking, of course, but I'm also going to try to add to my resume. For example - the temp agency that placed me has lots of online courses for their employees where you can learn new skills. And I can always go to the bookstore and get one of those [sKILL] for Dummies books. So everytime I can add something to my resume - I earn a Life Point, which will be extra credit added to my final score. This means that this extra credit won't be limited by the number of weeks, so I won't be tempted to not do anything just because I already did one thing earlier that week. (Which is what happened last challenge... Oh, I'll apply NEXT week - I already got my Life Point this week.) Measurements Height: 5'9" Weight: 182.8 Waist: ? Hips: ? I need to weigh & measure... I'll edit all these before the challenge starts. Grading Each goal will be graded weekly & be worth 1/3 of that week's total grade. Life Points are unlimited extra credit that can be added to my final score! My final grade will be the average of all six weeks plus my Life Goal extra credit. I need to make at least a B (80%) to pass the challenge. Up till now, I've always said I only needed a C to pass, because that's a passing grade in school. However, even in school, I never felt like a C was an acceptable grade; and last challenge I technically passed, but I made no progress and I didn't feel good about it. So I'm making it more difficult to pass. This might mean I'm just going to fail myself out and will need to ease up next time, but it might also mean that I'll work harder to get there. Exercise - percentage of completed workouts. Rise and Shine - percentage of successful wake-ups. KCKO - 1 point each day for meeting calories and another point for meeting carbs. Total points/Total possible for the weekly grade. Exceptions - If I'm sick or injured (please noooo not again!), then workouts are excused. Motivation As for rewards, I've got money now, so I'm gonna go pretty hard on these. I'm going to reward myself with something big (and undecided, I'll edit this later) if I pass the challenge AND have at least some progress. It's okay if I don't make it all the way to 169, so long as I've improved. And for each week that I make an A, I'll reward myself with something too! At the start of each week I'll post what the reward will be, and will use that to motivate myself to DO AWESOME. Not just good enough to pass and claim the big prize, but AWESOME. HONORS STUDENT LEVEL AWESOME. DEANS LIST OF NERDFITNESS.

Here at La Maison de Anything, November has passed, and not without its usual catastrophes. An impatient woman ran a red light, striking Ifrit in his Smart car. He was lucky enough to escape with severe bruising to his shoulder, elbow, wrist, and ribs. The muscles in his back may have torn. (The clinic hasn't said so yet.) Ifrit also just started a new (full time, off schedule) job, so he needed a car, immediately. We spent a day shopping around, and found Red Sonja. She has heat seaters, good giddyup, and not bad mileage. In the upcoming weeks, Ifrit will go to small claims in order to have his car and injuries covered. We obviously expect to walk away with millions. Now, in an attempt to turn the corner on this month, I'm working on going back to keto almost full-time. I like the food. I like that it forces me to cook for myself, which is often more time devoted to any sort of self-care than I might do, normally. One minor complication has been Ifrit's schedule. He currently works 45 minutes away, so even if his store closes at 9, I don't see him until nearly 10. This has not been good for my sleep schedule. If his shop changes, the sleep goal will also change. Winter also means that my poor scooter has been put up for storage in the back corner of the garage. This means I'm often walking home from work, but I also lose the 'meditation' time that those daily rides gave me. So, on days where I'm not coming home from the bus stop, I'll commit treadmill/podcast time once I'm home. Eat! Stay on Keto below 50g of carbs each work day. Aim for <100g carbs on days off. Cook at least once a day, even if it's just eggs for myself. NO MORE: chips, cookies, cereal, juice, canned tea/coffee. Sleep! I will have a 'tea and quiet time' alarm for 2230. Ifrit is often home a half-hourish before this. If we are sitting and talking, that's fine. NO MORE SCREENS. No, Ever, not even TsumTsum. Hopefully bedtime will be 2330. Walk! Saturday, Sunday, and Monday are my bus days. I walk approx 15 mins to the station, and another 10 home. This is enough time for a NightVale episode. Tuesday and Wednesday, whether I took the car or Ifrit picked me up, I will go walk on the treadmill for roughly the same amount of time. If this means I watch 2BrokeGirls as motivation, that's okay. As this isn't a full challenge (but I will complete this for the month) I don't think I'll assign any points. This is mostly about getting back to a healthy routine.

Goal: 10 lbs lost. Chase Youma. I'm trying hard to mix it up this challenge. I'm bored of the BBWW. I'm not doing yoga when I said I would, because several of the poses don't seem to 'do' anything for me, and videos just confuse me because I don't have them memorized. However, I do have a treadmill now. And lots of podcasts. And running seems to shut off my brain, which can be nice. Goal: 3x/week, 20 mins minimum. .2 to STA for each day. 3.6 Keep Calm Kill Witches. I don't care how powerful her magic might be, Mami's got to be incredibly strong to lift her Spiro Finale gun. And ridiculously agile to turn and shoot like she does. So, this is a two-part target. Goal: 2x/week, 3 sets of dumbbell rows, interspersed with two sets of leg lifts, with starting and finishing stretches. .2 to DEX and STR for each day. 4.8 Take Time for Donuts! I'm pretty stoked to admit that I lost 13 lbs in the second half of the last challenge. I had a few more cheat days than intended, but that's ok. If I wanted to indulge, I was going to have fruit and expensive chocolate and fresh sourdough bread, and not 'cheap' or 'junk' food. Keto feels pretty simple, if a bit dull. But that's ok! I'm finding new things that I like all the time. I'm buying avocados on a rotation so that I always have some perfectly ripe ones in my crisper. I plan to keep doing this until I'm satisfied with the results, I guess. I have one planned bad day each week, being Wednesday, since it's the start of my weekend. Each day of sticking to my macros will be .1 to CON. 3.6 Read or Die. I've got no cons coming up soon and way too many books languishing on my shelf. I will finish 3 by the end of this challenge for WIS points. 3 The Sea of Despair. I'm in the de-clutter PVP for this round. I'm supposed to get rid of 1 thing on day 1. Then 2 things on day 2. And on, and on. I am honestly not sure how far I will make it, if there are really that many things to get rid of throughout my house, but I will try. Each day that I can't, however, I will put that same 'amount' into my piggy bank. I'd like to think that eliminating clutter will probably show me that I waste a lot of money on junk. So, if instead I make myself save money, I will avoid accumulating new junk. I solemnly swear I will set up nice things to get based on how much money I save overall. These numbers are for me to budget my pocket money for the week. 1: clear! 2: clear- 3: ~clear 4: clear. 5: 57 Rewards: purchased an additional dress and a petticoat for the trip.

Hi everybody, I'm LydiaJaybird. You can call me whichever part of that you prefer. This isn't actually my first challenge, though... About a year ago I did a couple challenges as ElfiKay - got up to running nine miles a week - but then I broke my foot. For a little while I tried to keep up with my diet and some non-foot-related workouts, but my foot took a long time to heal [and gave me a couple cruel periods of false hope where I thought it was better and then it got worse again... even got put back in my boot in February] and I lost heart. Stopped coming on here, stopped trying to diet, gained a bunch of weight, and got pretty depressed. Eventually my foot healed all the way back up and I was able to start running again this summer! But I had trouble keeping up with my runs, so I've come back to you lovely people with a new account. During that whole messed-up foot time period I made a couple attempts at different low-impact exercises to stay in shape - pilates [got bored], rock climbing [discovered a fear of heights... while 80ft up a cliff], and pole dancing [LOVE ITTTT]. So now I have a new passion - very similar to my old passion, actually. I danced [ballet, jazz, hip-hop, etc] until partway through college, and quitting is one of my biggest regrets. So now I have dance back in my life and I couldn't be happier about it! Due to a bunch of stuff that'll take too long to get into, I actually had to quit classes, but I've got a pole in my living room now, so I can still workout on it and practice. Yay! So now for the important bit - my quests for this challenge! Main Quest - Lose 12 Pounds I've managed to drop most of my broken-foot-moping weight, but not all... Right now I'm 2 pounds above what I was when I started in the forums last year... 12 pounds above where I was when I actually broke my foot So, I want to drop the rest of that weight. It's a lofty goal - I'll need to lose 2 pounds every week - but I think I can get there. Goals 1. Pole Dance - Do two strength workouts a week on the pole and practice tricks at least one other day. I've already figured out an upper body workout for Tuesdays, and a core/lower body workout for Thursdays. I'll use Saturday for that extra practice day. I'm also going to try to start recording my practices so I can see what I need to work on and see my progress. Assuming that I don't look like a harpooned whale, I'll post those here for accountability and moral support (I'm super critical of myself when it comes to dance... I need to make sure I don't beat myself up too much over not being good. Calm down, me, I've only been doing this since January!) But we'll see, hahaha. 2. Run - Run three times a week, using the return to running progression that my physical therapist gave me. 3. Keep Calm and Keto On! - My roommate and I started the keto diet together a couple months back and I love it. We plan our meals and get groceries together - then she cooks and I do the dishes. And she's an AMAZING cook - everything she makes tastes like Jesus himself blessed it. The only pitfall that keeps tripping me up is that she isnt very reliable... On the weekends in particular she's more reliable at being unreliable than anything. Which is incredibly frustrating because she doesnt share the spices part of her recipes with me (she generally just makes it up on the spot anyways), just the ingredients that have nutritional value, so if I try to make them myself it tastes awful. Also, I generally won't find out that she's not making a meal until it's past time to eat, so then I'm really hungry and end up just eating whatever I can get my hands on. So I need to start being prepared to cook meals for myself on short notice. I figure if I keep some extra eggs and frozen vegetables in the fridge, then I'll always have a quick, keto-friendly meal on hand. If anybody else knows some fast and easy keto meals that I can throw together last minute when Roomie falls through, please let me know! The gradings for this goal are to stick to my calories and keep it keto, no matter what. [1645 calories or less, 25 carbs or less] Life Quest Work towards Employment! I graduated this May... but I can't get hired. So I'm a part-time cashier. [it's not a problem of qualification, I graduated as an honors student with a double major in International Business and Management and a double minor in Japanese and Portuguese. 3.5 GPA couldve been higher, but thats what I get for studying two languages.] But I've got to keep trying. I keep hinging on opportunities that seem like they'll turn into something, and then when they fall through, I haven't applied to anything new in weeks. Ex. I recently interviewed at a bank, and have a company that's emailed me asking for an interview, and out of positivity/confidence in one of those positions turning into something, I haven't applied to anything in two weeks. So I need to make sure that I'm constantly working towards getting a job, not just sitting around waiting. Every week, I need to be able to list concrete things I've done to try to get hired until I receive a job offer. No more twiddling my thumbs while I wait for responses. Measurements Height: 5'9" Weight: 177.6 Waist: 30 Hips: 42.5 Grading Each goal will be graded weekly & be worth 1/3 of that week's total grade. Each week I get the chance to earn a point of extra credit by completing my Life Goal, so that's up to six points of extra credit possible! My final grade will be the average of all six weeks plus my Life Goal extra credit. I need to make at least a C (70%) to pass the challenge. Pole - percentage of completed workouts/practices. Running - percentage of completed runs. KCKO - 1 point each day for meeting calories and another point for meeting carbs. Total points/Total possible for the weekly grade. Exceptions - If I'm sick or injured (please noooo not again!), then workouts are excused. For rewards, I'm a little bit torn. Last year I rewarded myself with workout shirts/games, but right now I don't know if I can afford to do that. With my current situation, I'm on a very tight budget to avoid bleeding money from my savings on a monthly basis. I'd love to say that I'll buy myself some pole shorts or a new workout top, but I just dont know that I can afford it. I'd say that another good reward would be to let myself ask a weekend off to go hiking with Andy, my... uh... romantic interest? I hate modern dating..., but we're not allowed to ask off Fridays or Saturdays. Those are truck days. I could always completely cut extra spending during the month (what little I do... >.<) and use that to buy something? Idk, what do you all think?

Try 2 at this Lost motivation in the middle of my last one, battled it out with my depression again beginning of this year, got on some new meds (and wow, should have tried new meds sooner!), and found a diet plan that seems quite sustainable for me, keeping me full, happy, and very few cravings. Been on the new diet since just after the 4th of July, been working out quite well thus far (as you can see from the meters in my sig). Main Goal I want to continue sticking with my current diet plan (with hopes to drop below 220 by the end), and start to add in some more activity to up my strength (namely the Nerd Fitness Yoga program, since I shelled out the $$ for it). Current diet is ketogenic diet, I've really been enjoying it quite a bit (my main source thus far has been ruled.me for recipes). Adding in activity will likely be tricky at first, don't want to go to quick and send myself into a spiral of craving anything for energy. However, I do believe I have the hang of snacking for this diet now, so I feel as though I'll be able to manage it. Quest 1 - Yoga! Add in at least two full sessions and two mini sessions each week of the challenge. I'm free to add more than that after the first week if I desire. Quest 2 - Sleep again Get 8 hours a night. Sleep is apparently a never ending battle for myself! Every time I fix something with my sleep habits, it seems like I pick up a new bad habit. Snoozing is still an issue - I've been using a sleep cycle alarm that is supposed to wake me up when I'm sleeping lightly/in an ideal part of my sleep cycle, but honestly, I don't think it helps. Instead, I'm just going to use the function on the alarm to use a slowly increasing volume wake myself up at the designated time. I've also taken up the bad habit of cruising twitter for like, 15 minutes on my phone before I actually get out of bed. I'm not going to try and cut this completely, but I'm going to try make sure I get myself up from the bed and at least in front of my computer to do this. Weekends (Friday night and Saturday night) I will allow myself 10 hours if I feel I need it, but no more. Quest 3 - Take the dogs for walks I've got two large dogs that we usually just play with around the yard to get them some exercise, but I'd like to get them something a bit more formal, and also will give myself a bit of activity. 3 days a week take them for at least a 15 minute walk (while wearing tennis shoes). I'm sure the 15 mins seems short, but some days they are worse than toddlers, so it's merely the minimum allowing for puppy tantrums. Hopefully this will also get them to be a bit better leash trained as well, as this has certainly lapsed. I'd like to get this to be early morning walks eventually, but first I just want it to happen, period. If I get up with enough time to do it in the morning, great, but if not after work is fine as well. Life Quest The urge is to fill this up this time with alllll sorts of stuff I want to fix. Last time, I wanted to do a writing themed one, and this is something I'd like to stick with, as the nebulous urge to do so is still there, just having a hard time, you know, actually doing it. Also, I want it to become a hobby that I use to fill time. This time, I simply want myself to write SOMETHING. it doesn't have to be anything with a goal in mind. It can tie into a previous weeks work, or just be something fresh. It can be fiction or diary style. Just something to get me typing! One full page single spaced a week. This is minimal, I'm sure it seems like small fry. But I want to get a small habit of just doing SOMETHING to do with writing. Once that habit is there, I can build it and morph it as I want it to. Also, I'm going to add vacuuming the house in to this as well. Because I own two dogs and a cat that shed, I need to freaking vacuum more often! Twice a week go around cleaning up the hair bunnies that collect in the corners (we have wood floors), and once a week a good vacuuming on the couple area rugs we have placed. Class - I think I'll just stick with recruit for now One of my pratfalls with trying stuff like this is looking too far ahead and getting overwhelmed and bogged down in 'what ifs' and 'wouldn't this be cool!' So I'll have picking a class as a reward for sticking it through to the end this time.

AWESOME!!! Well, it wasn't ben and jerry's, but it was really good. Better than many regular grocery store brands I've had, and better than ALL grocery store low-carb offerings. When I woke up I was at the same level of ketosis as when I went to bed. When I weighed myself the next morning I still lost my usual quarter pound for the day. We made 2; one from Kimmy Moore's keto cookbook, and one from the ice cream maker's recipe catalog with erythritol substitution.I made the keto cookbook recipe with the base of eggs and butter (can do coconut cream for paleo) and my wife made the other with heavy cream for a base. I added some mixed berries and extra artificial sweetener, she added natural peanut butter. Both were less than 5g carb per serving and very fatty. Mine was good, but more like a marriage of ice cream and sorbet. Hers was better. Pure Ice cream goodness - yay cream! Real sugar helps ice cream stay soft in the freezer, so today they were both really hard. But after sitting for 15 minutes they were both soft every bit as good as last night.

Was going to wait to officially start on the start date, but I stepped on the scale this am and saw a new low number, so let's do this! Down to 227 now, from 247 when I started in July! /fistpump 20 pounds feels like such an accomplishment! I'm thinking my weight loss goal for this challenge is too low now, but I'll wait until a week or two into the challenge to adjust the goal. I discovered last night that if I'm not careful how I stand with my hands in my pockets, I can slip my jeans over my hips on accident. Heh. Glad I discovered this at home, might be time to get a new pair of jeans and/or a belt. I find myself still talking myself down a bit after I discover something like a new low number, or think my thighs look a bit smaller when I sit down. I'm used to trying to keep myself from getting cocky, because that's usually when I lapse my efforts, but it's kind of frustrating, I'd like to just be able to tell myself some days, "Hell yeah, you are looking good!" I shall have to work on this ^.^ Tonight is a batch of weed pulling, because this has been sorely neglected since mid July due to an unfortunate incident with a mandoline (the veggie slicer, not the instrument, heh). Or at least, that's the plan assuming it doesn't rain. If it does rain, I'll go with a yoga session and a dog walk (if the rain lets up long enough) instead. I installed a red filter app on my phone and it was remarkable how much of I difference I felt I noticed last night (of course, that may be some placebo, but hopefully!). I think I'll have to add a dose of melatonin before I head to bed though, I seem to have issues staying asleep while in ketosis, for whatever reason. If that doesn't help enough, may have to add something with a few carbs as a snack right before hitting the sack, I've heard that's helpful to some other people on a ketogenic diet that suffer this issue. I made it up this morning with only one snooze! But I think I need to push back my wake up time, I'm still cutting it too close on getting to work on time in the AM. I'll try pushing it back 10 minutes and see how that works tomorrow.

For the first time since late 1999 / early 2000 I managed to get my weight below 210. A few years ago I stalled around 215, and recently I've been fighting to get it to move from around 212. I've been doing strict keto for the past month, but when I cut out cheese and other milk products I was able to drop nearly 5 pounds in a matter of days. I don't know if I'm actually lactose intolerant but it's definitely a possibility, as I know of 2 other family members who have had problems with milk. I'm going to stay dairy-free for a couple of weeks, then reintroduce a small amount to see what happens. Onward and downward to 195!

Clearly the machines are preparing to rise against us. They've invaded our civilization. They're in our homes. The are even forming parasitic attachments to our heads that cause us to behave in bizarre ways. Before we all get sucked into the matrix, we must take down the robots and live free of there wires and false realities. Main Goal: Learn to Survive in a post-Robocalyptic wasteland. Unfortunately, the battle has already begun as the robots are well poised to destroy us and the damages they will pose to civilization are already happening. Food is becoming scarce. But the fight against metal and circuitry must continue or we are doomed. I must learn to survive on little food, maintain or gain strength while doing so. Perhaps, even, I may be able to find and exploit weaknesses in their circuits to gain the upper hand. Edit: read: I'm starting on a long cut that is likely to last the rest of the year. Goal 1: Lift Heavy Metal: Robots are made of metal. So the more I can lift the more control I potentially have over the bots. Everyone knows that if you can flip a robot onto its back its at your mercy. Get a big three total of 1000 lbs. I've already moved 1000 lbs. in one day. I just need to get the technique strong and correct. I couldn't claim it right out because my technique was bad. This is partially due to some weaknesses I'll need to annihilate by lifting. I'll be using a compressed cube program until I hit 1k. Some strength priorites: Squat: bring up quad strength, squat with better form, do more front squats Bench: get stronger off the chest, do paused reps Deadlift: Just get stronger and pull more. Maintain a tight lower back arch. Edit: I'm currently running a compressed version of the cube. I may go back to 5/3/1 when I'm done with that. Goal 2: Relearn to lift with good technique: The robots have already corrupted my brain and motor reflexes with poor motor patterns causing faulty form that prevents me from utilizing my maximum strength. Especially on squats and bench press, at the moment. Meet "Bro-bot." Reset form errors by doing a total of 4000 low bar pvc squats, and 4000 pushups and/or bench presses over the course of the challenge. This goes hand in hand with Goal 1. I need to fix form by practicing more. They say 3000-5000 reps. I figure 100 reps/day should get me there. I practice my squat with a pvc pipe on my back. Pushups should sub for the bench. I mainly need to add more volume to work those chest and arm muscles. Goal 3: Survive on oil: The robots have already destroyed most of the world's human food supply. There are a few leftover human food stores, but mostly what's left is oil. Follow a ketogenic diet with IF, and occasional Carb meals. I'll be on a ketogenic diet and doing IF daily by skipping breakfast or at least eating no calories (tea and/or broth) until the afternoon. But, pre-1000 lbs., I'm going to allow a carb meal on workout days. Post 1000 lbs., I'll reboot my keto diet and switch to carb nite -- carb meals every 4-5 days. Life Goal 1: Learn to break the robot's circuits and software. Robots with defunct circuits and programs cannot annihilate the human race. So if I learn to interfere with their circuits and break the programs that control them I can take them down. Or just find a way to make them hornier so they stay distracted. Finish one book about embedded real-time systems. (I have about 200 pp. left) Start reading my main text about software QA testing. (at least 100 pp.) As I finish my masters I need to prepare for my future intended career in QA testing. A friend of mine likely has a job for me at his company doing testing for embedded wireless systems. I'm also looking into getting certified for QA and whatnot. So, I need to start boning up on the fields. Life Goal 2: Be mindful during times of peace. The robots may in fact destroy us or absorb us into a vegetative state while the supplant our natural reality with their own virtual reality while they exploit our brain circuitry for bio-quantum computing. So I must learn to take respite when I can and enjoy what's left of reality as I currently know it. Do one mindful activity everyday. Be it meditation, eating mindfully. Just make at least one deliberate attempt to spend a few moments in mindfulness. I've also installed a mindfulness bell on my phone. It makes a meditation bell like ringing sound randomly, about an hour between rings. When it goes off, I stop and take a few breaths and re-center myself and try to take in the moment.

So I'm doing some prep work getting ready for my first challenge in April, and I decided to put together a sort of personal recipe binder/nutrition guidebook. (Which is actually a challenge in itself for me, if you saw how I lived you would know organization isn't my forte!) Using recipes from cookbooks I love, stuff I've pinned on interest, and other sources, I'm attempting to organize a easy reference for myself. The thing is, doing this from scratch is a pretty big task. I've got a publisher format I like, as well as a binder ready to hold all of my print-outs, but I'm still sorting some things out resource-wise. My question is does anyone have any links to good: print-outs for keto based OR basic nutritioninexpensive shopping listseasy keto/paleo recipes templates for personal nutrition management other resources related to binder organizationIf any of you keep similar binders/documents for yourself, I would love to hear about your experience maintaining one as well.

Right, so anyone that knows me on the forums or in chat knows that I have a target painted on me that only motorists seem to be able to see. This led to 5 cycle accidents in 2014, 4 of which were serious enough to have me off training for weeks. Hilariously, the last one was on 3rd November, the first day of my new training routine after some time off to recover from the previous accident (oho!) The most recent one actually knocked my confidence a little, because not only did the guy hit me doing twice my speed, but he drove off, leaving me for dead in the middle of a dual carriageway (injuries weren't that serious. Dramatic effect. But how would he know I wasn't dead if he didn't stop); but I'm over it now. Got a replacement bike. Got two hella bright lights for the front, two hella bright lights for the back, a helmet light, fluoro backpack cover, new white helmet, bright colour knee high sport socks, jacket with white on the upper arms, and my personal favourite: a front wheel light (I can't do this justice with a description, so I'm going to try and take it out to get some video when it's dark out!) - Basically if anyone hits me and claims they didn't see me, I'm pretty sure I'm legally obligated to gouge out their eyes. Onto me, current stats, goals, how I intend to get there! Current stats (will update in a bit) Height - 5'9 Weight - 163.4lb Bust - 37" Waist - 29" Hips - 39" Thigh - 24" Bicep - 12.5" Calf - 16.25" Food targets, and penalties: Calories: no target Protein: 145g / day Carbs: <50g net / day (changed because otherwise I'm going to freak out about MFP's vegetable carb calculations) Fat: Til I'm full Penalty for non-compliance: 50p / day (rising to £1 a day after week 2) Tea: 2 cup / day (reason: tea = milk+1; tea = carb+carb) Penalty for non-compliance: 50p / cup Water: 1ltr / day (rising to 1.5ltr / day by end week 2, 2ltr / day by end week 4) Penalty for non-compliance: 50p / 500ml (miss a litre, pay £1) Alcohol: 2x pub measure a week. Pub measure: bottle beer / 125ml wine / 35ml spirit - no guessing. Penalty for non-compliance: £1 / drink Exercise targets, and penalties: Cycling: 3hr / week (rising to 5hr by end week 2) Turbo trainer: 30min / weekend (rising to 1hr / weekend by end week 2) Running: 1.5hr / week (rising to 3hr by end week 2) Penalty for non-compliance: £1 Bodyweight exercises (per day): 25x pushups (from kneeling to full by end week 2) 25x flat leg raises (add in 3min of plank by end week 2) 25x pullups (negatives to supplement as I still can't do them) All rising to 50x by end week 2; when I can easily do sets of 10, I'll evaluate and modify. Penalty for non-compliance: £1 / day Other things: Swim for 30min in first two weeks Take climbing lesson in first four weeks Setting financial penalties should hopefully motivate me a lot more, as I'm entirely skint this month, and all non-compliance penalties will be donated to charity. GOALS! The reasons for all the things! Running: trying to build up to running to and from work by the end of March (just one day a week) which is 7.5 miles in either direction. I can do 2.2 miles in 30min atm, and I can obviously run a Tough Mudder so there's no reason this should be unreasonable. End game: Tough Mudder, early May - wish to run twice on the same day Cycling: I just fucking love cycling. I'm hoping to get into the 3 cities charity cycle challenge this year, which requires me to have raised £750 by February, so I'm not sure I'll make it. Worst case scenario I make half and pay the rest, I guess. Also, I need to renew my passport so there's another goal! Other things: I can't swim, and I'd like to be able to. Currently I skip any swimming related Tough Mudder obstacles; I'd like to familiarise myself with the water so that I can finally do them! Climbing: Upper body strength sucks, climbing is meant to supplement that and will hopefully make me more confident with heights. Roll on 2015, I guess.

This challenge is quite simple... i need to get back to training regularly and back to eating better. so this challenge will be pretty cut and dry train a minimum of 2 days a week eat keto 6 days a week, allowing for 1 cheat day per week. since i feel like i've fallen behind in the last month i will allow myself one null week if necessary. meaning if something happens that keeps me from training twice in a week, which let's be honest- shouldn't happen, it's ok. for the keto part, if i slack on a second of the week that's ok once. if it happens on a third day... that week is a fail. goal is to lose at least 10 pounds in the next 6-8 weeks. this will give me a good foundation to meet this goal. i'm keeping this short and sweet, i feel if i start off reaching too far too quickly it will only lead to me failing. as always, i'm open to suggestions and feedback

My third challenge - it's almost like this is becoming a habit now This time I'm doing something that wouldn't normally be something I would try - I'm adding goals that are way outside my comfort zone. This time I want to add a meditation habit for every day after work. I need the meditation to help mitigate the large amount of stress I'm under. I'll also be working on handstand progression - it really scares me, and it will help me feel confident that I'm getting better at something, there's a lot in my life that feels stagnant right now. I will still be working on my hooping, but this time it will be because I want to, not because I feel obligated to. I just re-taped my LED hoop and it is SUPER PRETTY now. I'll have to post some photos. That in itself makes me want to play with it more, it's a super yummy yellow/orange/white/red color changing opaque tape. Best $5 I've spent in a long time. Epic Main Quest is: Become a performance LED/Fire hula hooper (long term goal) Goals: Work on Handstand Progression. 3x a week. 5 minutes at a time. Meditate every day after work. 5x a week. 5 minutes a day. Keto on. <50g of carbs 6/7 days a week. Points for tracking all of my calories in MFP every day. Side Quests: Record daily miles walked into "Walking to Mordor" spreadsheet. Life Quest: Work on decluttering my tiny house. Throw away or donate at least one thing a day. By the end of the challenge, have costume clothing out of my main closet and in my costume chests. Motivation: "It's never too late to become what you might have been." Grading: I will give myself a total each week, based on how well I do. I will then assign my total grade at the end based on how many points I earned. Week 1: 15/15 Week 2: 14/15 Week 3: 16/15 Week 4: 14/15 Week 5: 16/15 Week 6: 14/15 TOTAL: 89/90 or an A

Aaaand I'm back. Well, I was always around, lurking/creepin' on the forums and dutifully reading my biweekly NF emails, so let's say I'm back and actively participating. So, let's get down to business, shall we? Main Quest: To lose 10 pounds and/or 5% bodyfat. Bikini season is soon upon us, ya'll. SUMMER IS COMING! Current stats: 142 lbs, 28% body fat, 5'5", single white female (j/k j/k). How to do it? 1) Ketosis. Can I get an "Amen"? I'm pretty much in love with the ketogenic diet. After going full paleo since the beginning of the year, I started playing with ketosis for a month now and love my results. I've been following a "paleo" version of it, so no dairy but lots of coconut and olive oil, fish, fatty grass-fed goodness (I'm salivating), etc. I'll follow a paleo-ketogenic diet 97%. By 97% I mean, one "off" meal a week that will probably throw me out of ketosis, but it better be so worth it. I've tried having "weekends off" or even one "off" day a week, but have found that my weight jumps up 5 pounds, then takes all week to get back to my pre-cheat-day weight. Yes, I do weigh myself everyday. Yes, I know doing that doesn't give me the most accurate information about true weight loss. But I like to start my day off knowing I'm making progress, cos usually it's a good number. So anyway, paleo-keto 97% of the time. I'll be tracking my macros and calories on myfitnesspal, aiming for 1400 calories a day (this is surprisingly hard for me to hit. I find myself eating coconut oil off a spoon sometimes to get that high). 2) Drink a gallon of water a day. A ketogenic diet is naturally diuretic, so keeping a close eye on hydration is key. I know I don't drink enough water daily. After I left my water bottle at a doctor's office a few weeks ago, I've haven't been putting effort into my water intake. 3) Follow Barbell Battalion Lvl 1 Started this last week and am OBSESSED with the barbell! So basically for this challenge I'll be at the gym 3x/week following the workout plan. Gotta get dem stallion legs. Motivation: Again, SUMMER IS COMING! More specifically, I'm taking a river trip down in Austin in June with a huge group of folks. I want to look hella good in that new bikini I'm going to get myself when this challenge is complete. #epicloot