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GONE TURBO This is my second challenge in my return to NF. I decided to take a break from NF while I sorted through the pandemic, teleworking, and virtual relationships. It was a good plan, because each day presented new obstacles and challenges while navigating to best ways for finding time and space for fitness and karate training, adjusting to maintaining healthy meals at home, and staying productive at work and in my different self-development programs with the myriad of distractions. Planning a 4 week challenge would have been impossible, because I would be course correcting daily. I took my time and built new routines understanding that they may be temporary. Over time, I developed my new normal with virtual and hybrid Toastmasters meetings, virtual gaming with friends, moved to a new gym, and working a hybrid schedule for work with some telework built in. Some things have been able to return to normal such as karate training, DnD, visiting family and friends, and working on-site but with known risk. The biggest change came in July when I launched my own website: Journey2U.org . I started a blog and coaching business to help others. It is in it's infancy, but it is a project I have been dreaming of launching for a very long time. Having it out there, I am living that part of the dream and building a new future for myself and others. With all these changes, it feels like I am not just in a new world, but like I am playing a whole new game. I'm taking a page from the movie "Wreck-It Ralph". I've Gone Turbo jumping games. So now, here we go with another episode of The Exciting Adventures of JediNickD! It was a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away that I joined this site and started my first challenge. As a Ranger, I tried to Do All The Things in World 1, my first extended stay at NF through 22 challenges where I learned how to develop and pursue health and fitness goals utilizing daily, weekly, and monthly routines. I took a hiatus from NF and came back with a better focus for my goals where I warped to World 2, which I defeated in an Epic Boss Fight slaying some mighty big life goals. In World 3, I hopped over to the Assassins and continued to develop my fitness, getting my body in the best shape of my life, even with the Degenerative Disc Disease, Arthritis, Disc Fissures, and more. Through physical therapy exercises and karate, I have maintained my core and back muscles to ease the pressure off my spine, but in the end I defeated World 3 by transforming my life into a new form. With chiropractic care healing my spine, reaching the high ranks at karate, blazing through the new Toastmasters education program called Pathways, and working to complete Novice rank at IJRS, World 4 was something new everyday. I have moved over to the Monks to reach for more diversity in my workouts and culture as my physical and mental training focus has been more on my karate training. As I actively took on more responsibility of coaching, mentoring, and teaching in all aspects of my life, I formed a different me on World 5. Now, I have Gone Turbo into World 6. Every day, I just keep on L-I-V-I-N: fighting the good fight, lighting it up, and leveling up my life!  Challenge Lesson: "Relearning" I like themes so I'm going to continue with my karate dojo's creeds. The next one is for our Green belt rank. The creed is below: At Green belt, my dojo requires students to attend spar once a month. This is to introduce them to spar at a point where they have gained basic skills and need to start applying the skills. Students are also allowed to sempai classes at Green belt, though it is not required until Purple (3 belts higher). Here is where they start to learn basic skills in teaching. Teaching is not an easy task, because all students are different. Teaching is also easy, because you are essentially regurgitating what you know. If you listen to your own teachings, then you won't learn anything new, but you will solidify your understanding and enhance your recall of the information. This is what the creed means by relearning. Relearning is just practicing, or getting more reps. It is nothing special, but it is rather important when you want to build muscle memory or you want to improve your recall of information. The second aspect of this creed is to point out that discovery happens when you are silent and listening, because your brain can digest information and take time to wonder about it. You learn new things in your silence. If you are talking, then your ears will miss things. If you are talking, then your brain is focusing on things you know about. If you want to learn something new, then your first action is to ensure you remain quiet, so your brain can focus on new thoughts. These concepts are pretty straight forward for an adult, but for kids, they need to hear it, say it, and understand it. We have many young students who like to jabber all class and they struggle to pick up new information. Part of learning martial arts is learning discipline, where discipline applies to controlling yourself in all sorts of ways. Quieting the mind and focusing on what is important in the moment is one of the hardest lessons for young students to learn. My Main Quest and Mission: My mission is to be the best Jedi I can be. My main quest is always to enhance my overall health, fitness, and knowledge to be prepared for whatever challenges life could throw at me. As a Jedi, I need to be able to help people, whether that is a life threatening situation or just a charitable one. There is no end in Jedi training for every light cast a shadow somewhere. Instead, it is a journey of self-discovery and compassion for others. World 6 Level 4 Challenge: FITNESS: Cardio: Speed and Stamina - Run twice a week. Include sprints and distance. Get on the treadmill if I have to. I may have to throw the stationary bike in every once in a while to reduce impact. STA +1, DEX +1 Walking: Fortify the Spine - 10+ min with good posture, daily. Do some stairs too. CON +1 Exercise: HIIT, Weight Lifting, and Bodyweight - 20+ min twice a week. STR +1, STA +1 Flexibility: Stretching and Physical Therapy - Daily exercises. Focus on hips, hams, and splits. DEX +1 Karate: Training and Practice - Three classes a week plus every spar class I can attend, practice for 20+ min twice a week. DEX +1, STR +1 DIET: Lean Body - I need to lose some weight, which starts with what I eat. 5+ cups of fruits and veggies. Cut down flour and corn based carbs at lunch and snack time. Fill up on spring mix. Time to start tracking the weight loss and body measurements again. 163.2 lbs yesterday. CON +1 LIFE: Write for Journey2U.org website, Facebook, and blog every day. Publish a blog article once a week. WIS +1, CHA +1 Record gaming videos. Practice editing and publish videos. Record speeches and talks to build a Vlog library. Find a time to live stream on a schedule, even if it is just once a month. WIS +1, CHA +1 Epic Quest - Complete something EPIC! I want to be able to look back at my four week challenge and say, "that was the challenge I did X". My challenges tend to be a lot of the same old. I've given myself plenty to improve in small steps, but I also want to see big strides in the things I've been working on. What box can I check? What have I been procrastinating? What am I focusing on? WIS +1, CHA +1

GONE TURBO This is my second challenge in my return to NF. I decided to take a break from NF while I sorted through the pandemic, teleworking, and virtual relationships. It was a good plan, because each day presented new obstacles and challenges while navigating to best ways for finding time and space for fitness and karate training, adjusting to maintaining healthy meals at home, and staying productive at work and in my different self-development programs with the myriad of distractions. Planning a 4 week challenge would have been impossible, because I would be course correcting daily. I took my time and built new routines understanding that they may be temporary. Over time, I developed my new normal with virtual and hybrid Toastmasters meetings, virtual gaming with friends, moved to a new gym, and working a hybrid schedule for work with some telework built in. Some things have been able to return to normal such as karate training, DnD, visiting family and friends, and working on-site but with known risk. The biggest change came in July when I launched my own website: Journey2U.org . I started a blog and coaching business to help others. It is in it's infancy, but it is a project I have been dreaming of launching for a very long time. Having it out there, I am living that part of the dream and building a new future for myself and others. With all these changes, it feels like I am not just in a new world, but like I am playing a whole new game. I'm taking a page from the movie "Wreck-It Ralph". I've Gone Turbo jumping games. So now, here we go with another episode of The Exciting Adventures of JediNickD! It was a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away that I joined this site and started my first challenge. As a Ranger, I tried to Do All The Things in World 1, my first extended stay at NF through 22 challenges where I learned how to develop and pursue health and fitness goals utilizing daily, weekly, and monthly routines. I took a hiatus from NF and came back with a better focus for my goals where I warped to World 2, which I defeated in an Epic Boss Fight slaying some mighty big life goals. In World 3, I hopped over to the Assassins and continued to develop my fitness, getting my body in the best shape of my life, even with the Degenerative Disc Disease, Arthritis, Disc Fissures, and more. Through physical therapy exercises and karate, I have maintained my core and back muscles to ease the pressure off my spine, but in the end I defeated World 3 by transforming my life into a new form. With chiropractic care healing my spine, reaching the high ranks at karate, blazing through the new Toastmasters education program called Pathways, and working to complete Novice rank at IJRS, World 4 was something new everyday. I have moved over to the Monks to reach for more diversity in my workouts and culture as my physical and mental training focus has been more on my karate training. As I actively took on more responsibility of coaching, mentoring, and teaching in all aspects of my life, I formed a different me on World 5. Now, I have Gone Turbo into World 6. Every day, I just keep on L-I-V-I-N: fighting the good fight, lighting it up, and leveling up my life!  Challenge Lesson: "Keep On Trying" I like themes so I'm going to continue with my karate dojo's creeds. The next one is for our Orange belt rank. The creed is below: Failure is the road to success. I've written about this many times and so have all sorts of professional writers, industry leaders, self-help advocates, etc. We learn in moments of failure, we gain momentum in moments of success. But how? Well, sometimes we fail because we lack experience or necessary skill. Through practice and preparation in a consequence-free environment, we can gain the experience and skill to succeed. When showtime comes, we are ready to perform. Other times, we may be successful in an overall capacity, but there is room to improve, or smaller areas where we failed to hit the mark. This requires evaluation to see the areas to improve. Self-evaluation may not be enough to catch all the errors. A second or third set of eyes can give you new perspective. Game-tape can be crucial for evaluating, because then we are not relying on memory or interpretation. Now, we understand how to achieve success learning from failure. Let us better understand what this creed is saying about success and failure. It starts off with "I am not judged..." The fastest way to quitting on a learning enterprise is to compare yourself to others, because there is always going to be someone better to put yourself down. It is demotivating. Instead, we should always compare ourselves to our self from the previous day or week. Focusing on our own progress is a great measure of success while building confidence and momentum. Progress is also about failure, where you have understand where the starting place compared to the current place is to know when you have achieved a level of success. My dojo takes the same approach, focusing on progress, consistency, and effort for considerations towards rank elevation. Perfection is never required. These considerations get tighter the higher one ranks, but the instructors and leaders of the dojo would never judge one person against another for rank. The last three words, "Keep on trying!" ties the creed together. This isn't the same try as Yoda refers to in "Do or do not... there is no try," or Mr. Miyagi's "Karate guess so" grape analogy. This try is about persistence, because success, failure, and progress are all part of the process of never giving up. Persistence to achieve your goal is a requirement to succeeding. Without persistence, you give up when you meet failure. Without persistence, you won't keep practicing to make progress. Failure is inevitable. It is what you do after that matters. To be successful, we get back up, we learn from to failure, and most importantly, we keep on trying. With persistence, progress is inevitable. With persistence, success is only a matter of time. I like the way Jason Nesmith from Galaxy Quest says it: "Never give up, never surrender." My Main Quest and Mission: My mission is to be the best Jedi I can be. My main quest is always to enhance my overall health, fitness, and knowledge to be prepared for whatever challenges life could throw at me. As a Jedi, I need to be able to help people, whether that is a life threatening situation or just a charitable one. There is no end in Jedi training for every light cast a shadow somewhere. Instead, it is a journey of self-discovery and compassion for others. World 6 Level 3 Challenge: FITNESS: Cardio: Speed and Stamina - Run twice a week. Include sprints and distance. The goal is to get faster and build stamina, but I have to set a starting block to decide where the finish is. Time to measure where I am for my 40 and 100 yard dash, 1 and 2 mile jogs. STA +1, DEX +1 Walking: Fortify the Spine - 10+ min outside with good posture, daily. CON +1 Exercise: HIIT Lifting and Bodyweight - 20+ min twice a week. STR +1, STA +1 Flexibility: Stretching and Physical Therapy - Daily exercises. Focus on hips, hams, and splits. DEX +1 Karate: Training and Practice - Two classes a week, practice for 20+ min twice a week. DEX +1, STR +1 DIET: Lean Body - I need to lose some weight, which starts with what I eat. 5+ cups of fruits and veggies. Cut down flour and corn based carbs at lunch and snack time. Fill up on spring mix. Time to start tracking the weight loss and body measurements again. 166.6 lbs yesterday. CON +1 LIFE: Write for Journey2U.org website, Facebook, and blog every day. WIS +1, CHA +1 Epic Quest - Complete something EPIC! I want to be able to look back at my four week challenge and say, "that was the challenge I did X". My challenges tend to be a lot of the same old. I've given myself plenty to improve in small steps, but I also want to see big strides in the things I've been working on. What box can I check? What have I been procrastinating? What am I focusing on? WIS +2, CHA +2

I suppose you could say I'm here as a mentor? (If that doesn't sound too pretentious or anything...) I've done a good number of challenges, not always successful, not always at my best, and rarely in one guild for too long. A bit of an introduction would probably be good... (It's spoilered because it's long and a bit of a brain dump, and some people already know a lot of it.) So I've narrowed it down to four goals to focus on this time around. I'm also grading this challenge, which I haven't done in awhile. Hydrate Drink at least two liters of fluid five times a week. Engage Post at least once on this thread and on someone else's thread five times a week. Hunt Work on job hunting stuff at least four times a week. Explore Go outside and explore at least once a week. Grading Each success will count as 1 point. So, if I 100% this, that makes 15 points a week, for a total of 60 points. Bonus points are also possible. Rewards are to be determined. I have to be creative since I can't really buy much. A+ = 65 or higher A = 60 - 64 B = 50 - 59 C = 40 - 49 D = 30 - 39 F = 29 or lower

Original post: Challenge goals: 1. Minimize room. 2. Stretch every morning. 3. Exercise every day. 4. Serve less food at mealtimes. Details: 1. Let go of excess clothing, books, papers, miscellany, mementos, etc. Marie Kondo-style. Except she gives clients 6 months and I'm going to do it in four weeks (or five if I spill over a bit into zero week) because challenge timeframe. And because I still basically live like a college student with all my life possessions stored in a single room, so I don't have to do the whole house. 2. Greet the morning with a full-body yoga session. I've gotten really stiff and lost a lot of my flexibility from lack of stretching lately, and I want it back. Although I pretty much stay hidden in my room first thing in the morning, regardless of how much mess I make with goal #1 I should still have space for a yoga mat in here. 3. Two part goal, first part is do something active: swimming, walk 2 miles, do a day of Elements, do a dumbbell workout. If I come up with some other workout plan I like, I might consider adding it, but I think I already have so many options it's probably better to stick with what's here. Second part is just put pull up bar up in my doorway every day after Mom leaves the house (and take it down when she comes home). Usually having it up is enough to remind me to spend some time playing with it, but I can't keep it up 24/7 because the door doesn't close and my mom hates the sight of it. So just while she's not here! 4. Try to down-adjust "normal" portion sizes by serving a bit less at every meal. If it wasn't enough, go back for more, but check in and make sure it REALLY wasn't enough first. Does not apply to salad. Title: It would be more accurate to say "Wobbegong Cleans It Up" because exercise habits, physical space, and diet habits are all getting tidied this challenge. However, "Makes a Mess" sounds like more fun, and at the very least step 1 will result in a mess (temporarily).

This may seem kind of nerdy, but hey, this is nerd fitness so what the heck. I myself am not a big fan of superheroes (sorry) so when I read about these things like “be like Captain Americaâ€, although I understand, it’s not really my thing. So I was struggling with the notion of channeling a ‘super’ version of myself in order to get hyped. I realized that maybe it wasn’t my way of doing things. I felt like didn’t have any powers, any abilities, I was just a simple girl, but I could feel the potential. What I needed was someone who believed in me and could tap into that potential and help me become my awesome self. What I needed was a mentor. Now, maybe I shouldn’t have used Yoda in the title, because what I’m a really huge fan of is, not Star Wars, but Game of Thrones. Seriously I love that show. One of my favorite characters is Jorah Mormont, who, in all fairness is not exactly the most awesome warrior in the show. But he is a great advisor. So… I decided to imagine he was training me. Like whenever I’m working out I imagine he’s there trying to turn me into a soldier who can fight in the intense fights of Westeros and who can overcome any obstacle, someone who is trustworthy and loyal, maybe enough to be in the personal queen’s guard of Daenerys. It’s helped me so much. Having and awesome personal trainer has motivated me way more. I don’t know if this could help anyone out there, but to me it’s been wonderful. Now I feel this sort of pressure to not let him down and it keeps me going. Sorry for the long post, but I was so happy with the results I thought I’d share it. Maybe what someone out there needs is a mentor

Hello, fellow Rebels! I've already made an intro ( Don't Slay This Dragon! ) to myself, but I'll describe my body type to help set some background- Petite- 4 foot 9 inches tall Bone Structure- Small. Delicate. (Have been 'tiny' all my life). Fast metabolism. Ectomorph. Cons: Too much muscle gives a bulky appearance; I've been there. I end up looking more 'boxy' and get a thick waist. Dietary Restrictions: IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome). Cannot digest dairy. Currently plant based, but have been incorporating animal foods a few times week for dinner for the past few months. Goals: Body Sculpting - Strength, flexibility, and stamina - Tone (there I said it- as any other word escapes me at the moment): Arms (especially the shoulders), core, and calves. - More flexibility; I need to be careful, however, as I am hypermobible in my back. Currently training to become a certified yoga instructor. A lithe physique. Panther like? Lean, strong. Something that can be maintained and not unrealistic (ie, NOTa bikini competitor's body). Some good examples are dancers. Zuzka Light. A body that relatively stays the same all year round, and is healthy and fit. Current Training Schedule: Mon- Strength Training, Abs, Yoga/Stretching Tue- Rest Wed- Body Pump (strength training based) class at gym, Yoga Thur- Body Combat, Martial Arts-Inspired cardio class at gym. Yoga/Stretching Fri- Yoga, Pilates Sat- Strenghth Training OR Body Pump class at gym, Yoga Sun- Yoga (light), active-rest day I was noticing subtle improvments for a while, but now I've reached a plateu, ad it seems as though nothing I can do is going to give me any muscle/tone. Weight range: 7.5- 40 pound weights; I alternate between light dummbell work and the machines at my local 24 Hour Fitness. Ideas and observations are welcome!

Hi! My name is Alan, and I'm currently looking for someone to train with me to get a handstand done for more than one second! I was wondering if there's anyone nearby that would like to train with me/coach me if they already dominate the handstand? I spend most of my time near Scott Carpenter Park (I work at CU Boulder) so we could meet there? I can always sneak out of work for good thirty minutes if needed be. Thanks!

If you answered 'Yes!' to the above question, then I need you to fix me and you need me to let you fix me! I'm a 21 year old gal originally from Toronto, but kind of hopping around the world. Went to college in England, volunteered in Moscow for a year and just got back from a year in California. I'm a travel junkie wannabe and love going anywhere! I'm into entrepreneurship (started my first retail business in 10th grade) and I'm currently working on www.ProjectSWAG.org, an educator's core method to inspiring self esteem, self confidence and character building in students. I hope to make a passive income online in the long term so I can continue doing what I love doing and not have to worry about a job. But, back to this - I'm 5'3.5" and weigh 185lbs. I'd really love to get down to 135 in the long term. Short term goal is to drop down to 155lb. After living a pretty sedentary life for 21 years, I finally started CrossFit about 8 months ago. I absolutely love it and I think it's finally time I start taking control of my eating habits. I'm looking for a weight loss buddy and mentor whom I can text at any time - especially when I have an instant craving and who can say - "Don't do it!" I'm looking for encouragement as well as law enforcement While I love that there's this awesome community here and I'm sure you're all awesome people, I really want to focus and take charge of this change and therefore am only looking for 1 buddy. If you can help me and I can help you, please send me a private message so we can exchange contact info. If I already have a buddy, I will just let you know and please understand that it is not personal. Please, please, please only respond if you are serious about this - and not if you think you want to give this a try, but you're not really sure where it'll go. Let's give Steve and the rest of the NF team 2 epic success stories ;-) Cheers, Stephanie