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Hey Monks and Monk-ettes! (and any non-monk fellow rebels who grace us with their presence). I took off on my own last challenge but I’m back for some of that motivation and encouragement that only Nerd Fitness can give! During my last challenge, I learned that I tend to run into a lot of trouble when I focus on on NOT doing things - when I set hard limits on the amount of food I eat or tell myself that I will not eat this certain food. I do much better when I focus on adding healthy things rather than subtracting unhealthy things. When I’m doing the things that keep me healthy and happy, avoiding the harmful things seems to come easier So with that in mind, onto the challenge! Challenge Objective: Master my habits and remove the destructive ones. Goal #1) Relax the right way. My relationship with leisure time is not good. I tend to overdo it. Watching a half hour show tends to lead to watching a few hours of TV while absently snacking on whatever food I have lying around and making myself sick-full. This is a pretty destructive habit. I want to develop some healthy habits around my leisure time so my relaxing actually re-energizes me instead of making me feel like a lump. Eat all food while reading or doing nothing. Not in front of a screen or listening to an audiobook. Goal #2) Dealing with Emotions. As mentioned above, I tend to abuse leisure activities. I often use food, TV, and games to deal with boredom, stress, anxiety, etc. I want to learn to deal with unpleasant feelings in a healthy way. Keep an Emotional Coping Journal for 6-weeks. Track unpleasant feelings, what caused them, how I dealt with them. Try to deal with them in alternative ways (like meditation, exercise, going for a walk) as challenge progresses. Journal can be viewed here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1LAydFBrXL3UBTyLi2MeTyo2EfCwsPhMBnaABYLKwzaA/edit?usp=sharing Goal #3) Energy Conservation. To ensure that I have enough energy and willpower to pursue my goals, I’ll go to bed by 10:30 on weekdays, 11:00 on weekends with 8 minutes of meditation right before bed. There will be nights where social events may keep me up later, but outside of these exceptions, I’ll get to bed on time. On nights where social events keep me up, I’ll go right to bed afterward. Side Quest) Find a New Job. I’ve been feeling “meh†about my current job for months now. Not really learning anything new or progressing. I think it’s time to start on a new venture.

Hey Folks, I could use some advice on a habit I'm trying to change right now. I've noticed that I tend to eat between meals a lot, especially when I'm bored. This tends to be a problem especially on weekends. On Friday nights I'll get home from work and fix myself a nice healthy dinner. But even though I'm satisfied from my dinner, I still feel like eating and I have a strong desire to take some snack with me as I read/play video games/whatever. It often ends up that after dinner I keep snacking off and on until 8 or 9 o clock. In addition to the fact that I'm just eating a lot of extra food that I'm not hungry for, I tend to desire junk food a lot more when snacking. All of my main meals are paleo, but when I'm bored and snacking, I tend to crave Ice Cream, peanut butter, or something like chips and crackers that I can just munch on. Has anyone else had a similar issue with eating out of boredom? Any tips for changing the habit?