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Hello all! I am considering embarking on the Whole 30 train. I would like to plan things out as much as possible so I have no excuses if when I get busy. What are your favorite recipes/snacks/advice for this new journey? Thank you!

Hey friends, I'm Tyler and I'm a glutton. I eat too much. Now, it's good food — real food! But too much of a good thing is still a bad thing. If I'm not tracking my food intake, I default to eating twice as much as I should. So I'm asking: What are the best strategies you've used to help limit portion sizes, track your food intake, and not just destroy everything in your fridge?

The Holy Grail: I’m running my first ever Spartan and second ever OCR on April 23rd with @Slates in Italy. The concept: I have created a complicated set of rules that plays out much like a manager game. It is set in the Shadowrun world and due to its nature, it makes more sense to portray a Fixer rather than the runners themselves. [Fixer: A Shadowrun term for an intermediate between the shadows and other parts of the society. Most Mr. Johnsons, regardless of whom they represent, will contact a fixer to set up a meet with shadowrunners.Fixers often know many powerful secrets, like the real identities of Mr. Johnsons, the runners, and such. However, they will not easily part with this information, as secrecy (plausible deniability) is part of the services they provide.] Nutrition goal: No processed sugar, grains or dairy (with the exception of light yoghurt). Also no caffeine, as I've been converted to rooibos/redbush tea, green tea and a malt product that substitutes beautifully for instant coffee when I get the cravings. Workout goal: It's there, but non-specific and not tracked. I'll carry on with my usual crossfit workouts and some custom stuff to improve weak points in my OCR game. Summary: I have created runner characters for several members of the NF Rebellion. Every Monday, I get a new mission with certain parameters and a deadline for Sunday. Working out earns me money, which is spent to recruit runners for a mission. Once the recruited team’s attributes fulfill the mission parameters, it is successfully carried out and I'm allowed to take up another if I want to, with the deadline still being Sunday. Completion earns me part of the monetary reward and (usually) +1 Street Credit/Reputation. Mission failure and every Nutrition violation cost me 1 Street Credit. Runners also earn part of the reward, as well as 1 XP and 1 Heat. Obviously, XP is used to raise their Attributes but takes them out of action for a while. A high Heat score prevents them from undertaking certain missions, as they need to lay low for a while. It will all make more sense once you see it in action!

The Green Poison. That’s what they’re calling it. No one knows where it came from, who made it, or why. It swept across the city, devouring block after block. Life as we know it broken down, most of the population dead or dying. For those of us left, it’s a fight to survive, to keep from being exposed. Some went at it alone, while others had friends or family left to help scavenge. There’s only one rule: You get sick, you die. You don’t get sick, you live. At least until the Rikers get you. Or you get caught in the burst of a Cleaner’s flame. Sure, there was the JFT, but they were becoming fewer and fewer, losing ground to the more vicious groups. They didn’t have the firepower, or the skill, to hold them off forever. They needed help. There was a buzz, the smallest of vibrations against delicate skin. A faint glow through fabric. The end of the sleeve was pulled up to reveal a much brighter glow. An orange circle encased in cool black metal. Activation. ______________________________________ "When we were activated, we knew the situation was bad, worse than anyone knew. We are an elite, highly skilled group of embedded agents. They only call us when everything else has failed. We have no rules, we have no limits. Our job is to protect what remains. We are your co-workers. We are your neighbours. We might even be your friends, but when we get the call, we leave everything behind. We are The Division." It was a signal...that the normal lives we led...were gone. As you may know, I am not the only one doing a Division themed challenge this time around. I probably am the only one doing a Division theme across 6 challenges, though. Yup, you read that right - 6. Is this crazy? Yeah, probably. I can only hope that I don't get sick of it before it's all said and done. If that does happen (or I just really want to do something else), I have a way of combining and shortening my current plans. Easy peasy. These next two months are going to be quite laid back compared to what I have been doing, at least so far as fitness. On April 4 and May 2 I am going in for surgery to have my ICLs replaced, one at a time. For those unaware, these are permanent contact lenses I had inserted in my eyes last fall to correct my vision. The problem is that the current lenses are not sitting properly, and there’s a chance that this could cause cataracts down the road. With cataracts would also come a loss of some of my vision. To avoid that whole lovely situation, I’m having them replaced now with a smaller set. What this means for the challenge: Week 1 - zero activity, except walking. No bending over, no getting water near my face. Driving will be pretty much impossible the first 3-ish days post-op. I will also be away from the boards up to a full week while my pupil contracts back to normal. Screens are not so much fun to use during the first week due to lingering light sensitivity. Week 2 through 4 - I will be pretty limited as to what I can do. I won’t be able to lift weights or overexert myself (boo, no crossfit), but I should be good to do bodyweight exercises, some light cardio, and yoga type activities. I will move forward with this plan so long as I get the ‘OK’ from my doctor during my 1 week follow up. Goal #4 will be tentative until that time, and possibly adjusted. Over the course of these 4 weeks, I will be racking up experience points; these will help me level up in anticipation of the next challenge. As with all games, I will be starting at level 1. Each goal has it’s own rules and point system. At the end of each week, I will also have the chance to collect various item drops (supplies, ammo, etc.) - a tally of these will be kept in this spreadsheet for future use. I may or may not update/adjust this system as I go. Depends on how it all ends up working out. Here is the current Leveling system: Lvl 2 50 EXP Lvl 3 70 EXP Lvl 4 90 EXP Lvl 5 110 EXP You guys should check out The Division: Origins videos Mission 1: Sleeper Agent Hack my sleep | CON 3 | WIS 3 | Complete at least 5 days per week (Sun - Thurs) I will be following the short-term recovery tips/advice I found in this Lifehacker article. EXP (per night) Wk 1 - No caffeine after 5pm Week 1 = 2 pts Wk 2 - No alcohol less than 2hrs before bed (plus all above) Week 2 = 3 pts Wk 3 - Minimize/eliminate screen use 30 min prior to bedtime (plus all above) Week 3 = 4 pts Wk 4 - Adjust body temp, AKA: hot/cold showers (plus all above) Week 4 = 5 pts Other: Go to bed 15min earlier each week until I find the best time for me to go to bed and be well rested. Week 1 will start at 11:30pm. Mission 2: Consumables Hack my diet | CON 2 | CHA 2 | More Veggies/plant life (1 meal per day) EXP More Protein (100-116g/day) - 2pt per category (protein, veggies, water) per day. 6pt per day combined total. More Water (>60oz/day) - Can gain 1 extra EXP point per day when I eat veggies at a more than one meal. - EXP points determine drop chance Special Drops: Drop Chance: Canned food (veggies) - increases healing effect 6 pts - 20% chance Energy Bar (protein) - instantly removes negative status effects 8 pts - 40% chance Water (water) - increases damage dealt to elite enemies 10 pts - 60% chance Soda (water) - reduces cool down on skills 12 pts - 80% chance 14 pts - 100% chance 50/50 chance of getting water or soda when collecting a Water drop. Goal 3: Encounters Walk for at least 30 min | DEX 2 | STA 1 | Week 1 - 3x walking EXP Week 2 - 4x walking 5pts per walk completed Week 3 - 5x walking Week 4 - 5x walking Special Bullet Drop (random): Explosive Bullets Incendiary Bullets Drop Chance: Wk 1: Wk 3 & 4: 5 pts - 30% chance 5 pts - 20% chance 10 pts - 70% chance 10 pts - 40% chance 15 pts - 100% chance 15 pts - 60% chance 20 pts - 80% chance Wk 2: 25 pts - 100% chance 5 pts - 25% chance 10 pts - 50% chance 15 pts - 75% chance 20 pts - 100% chance Goal 4: Skills Follow exercise plan | STR 1 | STA 1 | TENTATIVE UNTIL CHECKED WITH DOCTOR Week 1 - OFF due to surgery EXP Week 2 - minimal to no activity (check with Dr.) 5pts per workout Week 3 - 4x exercise Week 4 - 4x exercise Grenade drop (random): Drop Chance: EMP 5 pts - 25% chance Flashbang 10 pts - 50% chance Fragmentation 15 pts - 75% chance Incendiary 20 pts - 100% chance Shock Tear Gas

My goal this year was to complete as many 4 week challenges as I could, to keep the momentum going from my main, vague goals this year - to lift more, to eat more healthily, to write more, to do more yoga, to declutter my life and to save money for my big trip at the end of the year. So far it has not quite gone as planned but fear not! I will carry on. This is my first foray into the guild of the Warriors! I'm excited and nervous. I don't really feel like a lifter yet. I want to lift heavy but I don't want to hurt myself, and I'm tight on finances so I don't have a coach or anything. But I feel like I have the heart of a warrior. And I know you guys are Nerd Fitness, so you'll be amazingly awesome and nice and all that jazz. To the goals! GOAL 1: LIFTING This is my main goal, so I will be focusing on this one if my willpower fades and I have to drop some of the others. I'm following the Rebel Strength guide (Barbell Battalion) and week one of this challenge will be week 4 of rank 1. Like I said, I don't really feel like a lifter yet because it feels like I'm lifting quite light weights. But I'm going slowly and increasing every week, and I know that if I can keep up this habit, I'll be lifting heavy further down the road, rather than recovering from injury. I hope. (This is mainly what I'm telling myself when I'm in the gym next to someone who's doing reps of full pull ups and I'm over here using assistance bands or whatever. Slowly but surely. Be the hare. All that.) GOAL 2: EATING My aim is to prep lunches and breakfasts every week and to eat everything that I prep. I don't want to waste food, and I want to eat well. This is usually where I fall off the wagon first, because I'm an emotional eater and I eat when I'm bored and I basically have a lot of issues with food. Again: slowly but surely. Yesterday I forgot my lunch. The day before I ate a different (non-paleo) breakfast. I'm giving myself some leeway, so that I don't accidentally eat a whole ice cream cake. GOAL 3: YOGA I have a couple of issues with my neck and back and I'm slowly coming to the realisation that I have to work on mobility all the time because if I just work on it occasionally, I'll feel better for a few weeks and then it gets even worse than it was in the beginning. So I'm trying to do one Nerd Fitness Yoga workout per week for this challenge, with a view to moving to more in the future. GOAL 4: WRITING I have a blog! EatCraftNerd.com. I write it with my sister. It's basically about all the things we like - crafting, beauty, nerdy stuff, food and world issues. I'm probably going to fit in some fitness related stuff, too. I already reviewed Level Up Your Life on there But on the whole my writing is patchy and sporadic. I want to write a blog post a week for the next four weeks. GOAL 5: DECLUTTER I just had a big tidy up of my room, with thanks to my mum for helping out/kicking me up the butt/vacuuming for me. For this challenge I want to pull out and recategorise my fiction books. GOAL 6: SAVING I'm doing pretty well in this area at the moment and I want to continue. My goal is to save $150 per week for this challenge. I have an automatic transfer set up for $100 per week and I want to see if I can do more than that. At the moment I'm only working part time so the challenge is to see if I can pick up a few more shifts and sell some of my old stuff to add to my USA fund. I'm heading to Camp Nerd Fitness and extending my travels a bit so having that as a motivator really helps me. I really love encouragement from people but I kinda suck at interacting on the forums so if anyone wants to come say hi, I'll check out your feeds on here as well and I'd love to connect on Facebook or by email or whatever as well. Feel free to give suggestions and tips! I go to uni and I work and have a social life but I'm determined to be healthy with my weird schedule and limited free time.

A ship in port is safe, but that's not what ships are built for. I’ve finally managed to get down to only having one job! It’s very exciting to actually have free time! And my weekends to myself! I’ve got some of the same goals in this challenge as in the last couple, but I’ve taken away my mobility and work ones and added in grease-the-groove and will be adding a stricter food goal than just “don’t be a dickhead” Previous Challenge Stats Weight 164lb Waist 30" Belly 34.5" Hips 39" Thigh 23" Body Fat 26.93% Goals Cadence to Arms I just got a pull up bar to put up in one of my doorways - time to really kick it into gear with moving towards my goal of being able to do a pullup! The plan right now is to (attempt to) do a pullup every time I walk by/under the bar. The way my apartment is laid out means that this should be a lot! I’ll keep track of how many I’m doing per day, and maybe set a number goal depending on how that goes. Walk Away Running and walking goals (still) here. I’ve discovered that I like running in the morning before work, it’s just getting out of bed that’s the trick! I’m going to try and do my weekly run in the mornings, and go for my walk on the weekend. Weekly 5k Half an hour walk once a week End of the Night Sleep continues to be an issue. I’m really going to work on it this time around 11pm bedtime Do morning prep immediately after work Computer off at 10pm & start getting ready for bed - turn off all the bright lights (kitchen, some living room), turn on my sunrise/sunset light in the bedroom Meditate at 10:45pm Reading, knitting, journalling, drawing, or listening to podcasts are ok after 10pm Socializing exemption still exists To help with this, I'm going to make sure I also wake up early on weekends. I'll set my alarm for maybe 7 or 7:30, and then I can stay in bed but I have to be awake. I'm still working on Saturdays right now (hopefully not for too much longer), so that I'll probably just apply to Sundays for this challenge. During the last challenge I needed the sleep more, and slept in late every Sunday, but in theory if I get my bedtime under control this can happen Captain Kelly's Kitchen The List will get finished! Tidying - things that I have to bung out and get organized Dresser - 1 drawer of T-shirts to go through The Corner of Doom - desk to be cleaned off, side table with my printer to clean off, drawers to clean out, stacks of paper to be gone through - Started Wardrobe - just have to get it organized, now that I have a stool and can reach the shelf in it instead of chucking things up and then barely being able to get them back down Bathroom cabinets - under sink and above toilet. Not too much stuff but needs organized and gone through Cleaning - it would be really awesome if I could get all of my cleaning done so that I can feel like it's done (for a while, anyway), instead of doing one thing and then trying to ignore the 5 other things that I haven't done Get all of these done at the same time Dust - Started, barely Sweep/mop kitchen - DONE 1-off stuff Fridge - DONE Kitchen cupboards Under/behind stove - DONE Under/behind fridge Windows Scrub down shower walls - DONE Minimizing One thing in, one thing out 52 things gone - /52 The Spicy McHaggis Jig Week 1 - Worked out some macros based on IIFYM and the "so you're trying to lean out while doing intense training?" that someone posted a challenge or two ago: 2000 calories Protein 175g (35%) Fat 89g (40%) Carbs 125g (25%) I also get one variance/week. I'll adjust these as the challenge goes on, depending on how I go. The Road So Far Week 1: Pullups - got the bar up (finally!) on Sunday morning, started working on them! Walk 1/1; 5k 0/1 11pm 1/7 - could be 2/7 if I get to bed early enough tonight Tidying? Cleaning? Minimizing? - dusted the tops of the cabinets in the bathroom after getting a look at them while putting up my pullup bar. Cleaned/tidied the kitchen counters and the table, tidied the bathroom counter/shower ledge. Took out the compost and 2 lots of recycling. Floordrobe tackled and laundry away. Totals for week (this includes my plan for dinner but that's subject to a bit of change): 12619/14, 000 calories Protein 978/1225g Fat 607/623g Carbs 814/875g Week 2: Pullups - working on them! Walk 0/1; 5k 0/1 11pm 0/7 Tidying? Cleaning? Minimizing? - Not a lot, got papers triaged in the Corner of Doom, cleaned the bathroom (including scrubbing the walls down), cleaned under the stove. Did a compost/garbage/recycling/shredded paper run. Food for this week wasn't great. A bit high on carbs and low on protein. Pretty sure that's attributable to me not being willing to even think about cooking on Wednesday night (0 energy) and having lasagna instead. Totals for week: 13, 885/14, 000 calories Protein 1006/1225g Fat 671/623g Carbs 1064/875g Week 3: Pullups - continuing to work on them Walk 0/1; 5k 1/1 11pm 0/7 Tidying? Cleaning? Minimizing? - Cleaned out the fridge, did some shredding Food? - only tracked Mon-Thurs this week because I was travelling 7400/8000 calories Protein 501/700g Fat 406/356g Carbs 527/500g Week 4: Pullups - slacked a bit on this during this week. Was sore from rugby on the weekend, then was feeling sick, but I did some today! Walk 0/1; 5k 0/1 11pm 1/7 Tidying? Cleaning? Minimizing? - nope. And the floordrobe has made a reappearance Food? 13, 672/14, 000 calories Protein 711/1225g Fat 738/623g Carbs 1082/875g

Challenge #12 SHIELD Agent Waldgeist in Hydra Prison I Fresh Meat Introduction: Hi, I'm Waldgeist, a 28 year old male German. I used to be very skinnyfat, but I've packed enough muscle on in the last years to consider myself average, not really athletic and I'm still carrying around some belly, but I'm working on it. This challenge will be the first of a three challenge cycle, connected by a consecutive Ring quest, a consecutive S&S KB and generelly being active quest and consecutive nutrition quests. None of these are new. I've been doing similar quests or specifically preparing for those for the last challenges. Hopefully in July I will begin a new cycle, probably concentrating on kettlebells and strength. Themewise this cycle will focus on Waldgeist, agent of SHIELD who (after the rise of Hydra) finds himself surrounded by Hydra agents and gets captured. He is sent to prison at an unknown location, where Hydra sents all sorts of troublemakers: Hydra agents who can't be controlled, SHIELD agents who might be recruited into Hydra later or prove useful in another way, low-level enhanced criminals and other scum. Master of this nightmare of a prison is a former Director of a very weird circus, whos has more than one crazy and saddistic streak. It will require some effort, but he has been in worse situations (actually not, but you gotta keep a positive attitude). OVERALL GOAL: to transform my body into a solid foundation for the life I choose. More precisely: 1) get a flat enough stomach so that I can workout shirtless without feeling embarassed and at the same time reducing the health risks associated with belly fat, 2) be able to move myself around in space as I need/want to Quest 1 - Survive the artistic compound of the Hydra prison [GMB Rings 1 : Phase A1] Easy enough, workout three times per week. This will me my main workout, but obviously improving my muscle-to-fat-ratio with the other quests is gonna be immensely helpful with leveling up on this quest series. Quest 2 - Don't forget your SHIELD training [S&S IV of XII] This has been working good for two of three challenges. Need to get back on the track of regular training here. Quest 3 - Don't fall into the Food Trap [Nutrition Part A: Snacking & IF] Still working on two eating habits here. First is no snacking between meals and second is not eating for a period of about 24 hours twice per week. I've had mixed results last challenge, but with some more work this challenge I'm sure I'll get this habits ingrained. A habit that is working out pretty good though, is drinking a litre of tea every day. Therefore this will no longer be part of my quest, but I will still track it. Quest 4 - Prison work is supposed to break you, but it will make you stronger [Accumulating active minutes every day] Active minutes will be defined as those over my heart rate threshold. Judging from my more active days, a baseline of 120 minutes per day should be a good goal for this challenge. Quest 5 - Avoid prison food, it's supposed to make you weak [Nutrition Part B: Reduce sweets] I've made some progress in cleaning up my diet again, but I haven't started to tackle my personal big boss aka SWEETS yet. This will change this challenge.

"And I will work this body, I will burn this flame Oh in the dead of night and in the pouring rain, Yeah, I'm a workaholic and I swear, I swear, Yeah, and one day I will beat you fair and square" BOSS FIGHT (+1 STR, +2 DEX, +2 CHA) I've got an aerial performance coming up at the end of this challenge, and this time, it's going to be different. Let's do this thing. My main quest is literally just to FINISH THIS DAMN SHOW AND EMERGE UNINJURED. That is it. That is all. I will be working towards this by attending open gyms and private lessons, doing runs of the routine at every opportunity, and trying not to die. This is pretty much the center of my world for the next month BUT I have a couple of supporting backup quests to go along with it, partially because I have a week of travel coming up this week and I won't be able to get in the air. But that's okay - I've got a plan! SUPPORTING QUESTS: don't eat like an asshole, redux (+2 CON) Remember, stars, you don't like assholes. So don't eat like one. At least 22 days of not eating like an asshole, please. 6 days of leeway because vacation. flexibility every damn day (+2 DEX) It's not cool but it's necessary. Even if it's 5 minutes or less of back stretches, it doesn't matter. DO SOMETHING, ANYTHING. life quest: party support (+1 WIS) stillskies has asked me to take the reins of her eating, but I'm kind of lax about this sometimes because it takes A LOT of work to balance two people's macros. But she needs my help and I need to offer it. Trying for at least 5 days a week of complete meal plans for stillskies.

Hey all! I'm a bit late to the party, but that's just me -- fashionably tardy. How is everyone?!? Is anyone else considering going to camp?!? Wouldn't that be AMAZING. I just don't think I could afford it unfortunately. Anyway, we are back at it again. I was doing really well until Easter, where I broke my diet and it has all come tumbling down and I have reverted to old habits. Starting today, I will get my shit together again. I don't want to eat like crap because 1) it costs me too much money and 2) eating poorly makes me feel like bad physically. I delayed coming up with a challenge this time because I wanted to focus more on career stuff, but I am at a bit of a loss of what to do. On the one hand, I would like a whole new job in a whole new field, the problem is that I am not sure what that field would be. On the other hand, I would like to earn extra money on the side until I figure out where to go next. However, what ends up happening is that both seem very overwhelming so I do nothing. It is not awesome. I want to take concrete steps in either direction but am finding it hard. If anyone has made a successful career change or has found a way of making decent money on the side writing/editing, I am all ears. May as well use that MA for something! Anyway, on to the Challenge! MAIN QUEST 1 (Weigh 175 by the end of the challenge) Unfortunately, I have been on such a binge that I believe in only 10 days I have put on 4.5 lbs. This has got to stop. At the moment I right the ship. MAIN QUEST 2 (Career/side job progress) GOALS 1) Track calories using MyFitnessPal and stay below the minimum every day until the end of the challenge. I have no idea why, but I have fallen off COMPLETELY. Today I ate so much that I hurt my stomach and then felt sluggish at BJJ class. Not cool. Time to get back on track. 2) Nutrition: Eat vegetables three days a week and no soda or sweets until July 4. I do wonder if I am the type that doesn't do well with sugar and overdoes it and am too all-or-nothing with 'cheat' days. So, with this in mind, I will have no sweets or soda until July 4. I will make exceptions for 1) Red Sox games and 2) if I am meeting up with the lady friend and she wants sweets. Other than that, I need to get this under control. 3) Meditate 10 minutes every day. I got away from this last challenge. I will bring it back. 4) Take concrete steps toward a career pivot of some sort. OK I had this as a goal last time but nothing concrete. I will have some concrete things I can do by the end of the week. Two things! I will do one for career and one for money on the side. 5) BJJ 2x a week and run 3x a week Pretty self explanatory. I would like to run a 10k in June at the beach and need to start training now for it! 6) Make sure I don't push the hurt elbow too much. It has been sore the last few days which is frustrating. I went to BJJ class tonight and it felt OKish, but I will monitor it. 7) Post to other monk challenge threads at least 2x a week I was a crap forum member last time. This time I will be more active. OK that is what I have for now. I will post tomorrow to update my food just as a way of being accountable to myself. Happy spring!

It's been a very long time since I successfully completed a challenge, so I'm jumping back in here with something like a plan to make sure that doesn't happen again. I've already got some good habits forming, but I think I need the structure of setting actionable goals for myself in order to keep from running out of steam. Though I think it's really cool how NF is growing and changing, I really just want all my updates to be in one place, so I'll be giving myself (old school) stats for accomplishing these goals. Goal #1: Be Prepaaaaaaaaared! I've used my boyfriend's absolutely awful food choices to justify my better-but-not-nearly-as-healthy-as-I-want-them-to-be food choices. To help avoid that, we've made an agreement in regards to meal planning. I work Tuesday-Saturday and he makes way more money and has an extra fridge. Without getting into the rather unfortunate details of my living situation, this is what we've agreed: he'll buy most of what we need to feed both of us for the week and I'll stay at his place during the day on Mondays to actually prep the food. We tried it out yesterday and it was actually pretty great! I really love cooking and having a day off when most other people work allows me to get a lot done. Weeks prepped: 4 => A, 3 => B, 2 => C, 1 => D, 0 => F Progress: 4/4 Goal #2: Grain-Free Livin' My food choices have been less than stellar lately. (I may or may not have eaten half a box of Thin Mints before deciding to come here and write out my challenge goals!) I will maintain a grain-free existence six days out of the week throughout the challenge. Grain-free days: 24+ => A, 22 => B, 20 => C, 18 => D, 14 or less => F Progress: 21/24 Goal #3: Hitting the Gym My personal trainer and I shared some Real Talk the other day. He was basically like, "Aisha, you need to prioritize your health and I don't want to hear your excuses." He's super tough, but he's pretty much always right about stuff like that and he doesn't back down. I felt forced to take an honest look at my own behavior and it hurt to really see and understand what I'm doing to my body out of habit. I already have two appointments with him per week, but I've been avoiding the gym when I don't have a scheduled session. I'll go to the gym at least 3 times per week during this challenge. Gym days: 12+ => A, 10 => B, 8 => C, 6 => D, 4 or less => F Progress: 8/12 Goal #4: Answer the Call There are a bunch of tech conferences out there in the world and I don't have the money to attend them. It's much, much easier to attend a conference as a speaker because my small company doesn't really have the budget to send us anywhere. Since speaking is the only way I'll get to go to a lot of these awesome events, I have to actually take the time to respond to calls for proposals. By the end of the challenge, I'll have applied to: Frontend Conference Zurich CSS Dev Conf (volunteer) Abstractions (GOT A FREE TICKET!! WOO!) The Women in Tech Summit - Raleigh Write/Speak/Code Chicago (WoC scholarship) Forward Web Summit 5 Applications: 5+ => A, 4 => B, 3 => C, 2 => D, 1 => F Progress: 5/5

Between grad school, wedding planning, report cards, testing, and a million things, I had to sit February and March out. But it's spring! Days are longer! Snow is wetter and heavier! Green has begun to appear! And I am back for a new challenge (one which I have already started... shhh) Quest 1: STR ↑ I will attend the gym 3x or more a week. Days of the week will change, but I plan to do at least 2-3 days of Stronglifts and at least 1-2 days of cardio (Zombies Run!) Quest 2: Food LVL ↑ I am using Staci's level 1 lunch plan I already did it this week, but I have some ideas for how to make next week better. Anyway this goal is to do chicken, veggie, sweet potato lunches on work days. Quest 3: Hydration ↑ I don't drink enough water, so instead of complicated ounce goals that I will probably fail at, this one is simple: I will start each morning with a glass of water. Quest 4: LUYL I'm getting married this summer so there are so many fun things I could do for this! Unfortunately I am really disorganized and my formal observation is coming up this month. So my goal for this one is to clear off the long counter around my classroom and either organize its contents, or put them away, or discard them. That's all ETA: measurements:

Well, my competition is done. That one thing that had been driving me since December is over. This is a weird feeling. I have a bunch of rest days now and a week long break from my nutrition plan. I thought that I would be living it up this week drinking beer and eating ice cream. Weirdly, all I want to do is get back to the gym and start meal prepping - I guess I formed a habit? Here is a quick contest recap for those of you following from last month. Overall I am pretty happy with my performance. It was only good for last place out of 8, but a pretty respectable last place (I wasn't last in every event, the one event that I zero-ed was also zero-ed by 2 others, so I feel like I was hanging in there). It was my first Open class contest and I was up against some very strong ladies. Event: Circus DB Press for reps, Clean and press every rep, 60 second time limit 70# (loadable handle) Pre- Contest: PR 60# for reps. I am feeling confident I can get 70. I would like to get 3-4 lifts in contest. Contest: ZERO-ED, but got several reps that were very close. Most frustrating event Event: Max Barbell Deadlift, ­30 second time limit Wessels rule; max 3 attempts,miss at anytime and you are out; 20lb jumps : minimum starting weight 200lbs Pre- Contest: Max deadlift 245 at a slight deficit. I am confident that I can make good progress here and would like to open at 240, hit 260 and attempt 280 in contest. Contest: Opened at 240, hit 260 easy. I only got one more chance so I went for 300 skipping 280. I would have hit the 280 for a 35# PR. I got 300 off the floor though. This wasnt great for points, but it made me pretty darn happy Event: Farmer's Hold max time 155# Pre- Contest: Have hit 155 and held for 20 seconds plus, I want to get as close to a minute as possible in contest. Contest: Got 53 seconds Event: Sandbag carry medley, Carry sandbag 50 feet straight drop, pick up heavier sandbag carry 50 feet back, 60 second time limit, no shouldering, must carry bear hug style 100# 120# Pre- Contest: I did some work at contest weight and was fast. I should do well in this event. Contest: 24 second run, I could have been a little faster with the pick, but overall happy with this Event: Stone over bar series,­ 44" bar for women­ 60 second time limit 150# Pre- Contest:150# with tacky is no problem and the bar is lower than what I have been working with. Looking to hit 6 reps. Contest: Got 6 reps hooray

New Challenge! HUZZAH! I'm breaking it down into a transition program: I'm 20 pounds from my first weight oriented goal, and I haven't decided what I want to do when I get there yet... SO, this challenge will focus on maintaining the good lifestyle changes I've made, while the next challenge will address what I actually decide to do! 1: Ranging. I will walk/jog/hike for an hour at least 6 days a week, with extra credit for a 7th day. The walks have been really good for keeping my head clear, and that's helping me keep the nutritive goals steady! This works out to 25 miles per week, which also helps me stay on track for 100 miles per month, something I've been able to do each month of 2016 so far! 2: Foraging. Continue to maintain daily tracking on My Fitness Pal (citizenkade23 if you wanna be pals!). I am aiming for a daily caloric deficit, and I'm down almost 60 pounds since I got started. The other key component is following the Nutritarian lifestyle, so no processed foods. THIS HAS BEEN A LIFE CHANGER. 3: Fortification. I will work out with a series of body weight exercises at least 3 days a week. This is my least favorite part, but I have been able to drop body fat and build some decent tone, and I know that this is the only way to keep the weight loss healthy. 4: Communion. I need to work on my hobbies, since I enjoy them, right?

And so the journal begins. Aside from a certain faith figure (I am a Pastor) the other idol I worship is Captain America. I've always wanted to be him... except with a mustache. So it is this demi-god figure that I shall aim to level up too. Not just physically, he is quite handsome (I'm allowed a guy crush), but spiritually as well. To be so self confident, but yet so self giving, he is who I want to be. Are the sights high, hell yeah! can I do? I'll die trying. Just kidding, I'll just keep working at it until I succeed. Every victory gets me closer. I've been trying Nerdfitness Academy for a week now and the motivation has been awesome. Now to turn it into results. Hooah! 10 April 2016, Breakfast was a bit rushed, its Sunday and I am a Pastor, go figure. So it was a protein shake an then out the door. I turned around for a much hardier lunch, which was two pork chops the rest of my mini bell peppers and green beans, all sautéed in butter, yum. The afternoon was spent enjoying some time in the sun, free of the wife and kid (out visiting family), breaking down pallets with a hammer and crow bar (I make stuff out of the recycled wood). I made it through 5 pallets (40ish minutes work each). It was really encouraging, I work bent over with the pallet strewn on the floor (I need to step on it to keep the hammer from knocking it all over, doubling the work). Usually my back starts to get real sore about 3/4 mark of the first one. I've been doing core excercises for the last 2 monthsish, I didn't feel anything until I was just about finished with my final pallet of the afternoon. The rest of the late afternoon was spent exploring these forums. From there it was a wonderful dinner of lemon pepper chicken with steamed broccoli drizzled with lemon juice, really awesome. After a little break to allow time for digestion I smashed the weights hard. I've been following the barbell brigades instructions, I am currently still on lvl 1, I am planning on pacing myself to lvl up at the beginning of each month. Nice slow progression to allow me plenty of time to master the forms as I level up. The stats: Bench Press 5x5 at 145 lbs. (I was lifting heavier before but that was on a circuit, with back to back set up, I didn't want to push it to much, I'll build it back up in no time) Squats 5x5 at 105lbs (Pretty easy, I'll be tacking on another 10 next time, see if I find a grunt or two) Decline Pushups 3x10 (push over, I've been working on Push ups for a while now being in the army, so I've been doing the movement slower and slower to up the difficulty) Planks 3x30s (another pretty easy one, the academy has a static time, but I will probably start to up the time in the week to come) Star Power! Squat Thrusts 5x30s 30s rest (Still pretty easy, before I swapped to power lifting I was in the routine of doing burpee intervals) I am thinking of swapping it out for wall hand stands, I want to steal xp from other guilds mwahahahaha! To reward myself for awesomeness, Another protein shake and a banana. And with that, a good night to you all.

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away... Episode III THE JEDI PATH With the help of the Assassins, Starstuff has begun her Jedi training. Little does she know, there are agents of the DARK SIDE among the Assassins, as well. While Starstuff and her fellow Jedi Initiates strive to master the THREE PILLARS OF THE JEDI, the Sith are training, too... Main Quest: Prepare for the Initiate Trials Having gotten my basic fitness habits established, it's time to work on getting stronger, faster, and more agile. Because I've got a bunch of little things I'd like to get better at, I've combined them all in a theme-appropriate Initiate Trials quest list over on my character page. For anyone too lazy to click, I'm working toward milestones in upper body strength, flow staff, handstands, and my half marathon time. Speaking of half marathons, I might have said something crazy about not running any again until the Fall. Seven and a half months without a race? Who did I think I was kidding? I'll be running the El Sobrante Mother's Day Run Half Marathon in May. The First Pillar: The Force Goal 1: Keep up with my Force training I've got a pretty good thing going with my running and strength training schedule, and I want to maintain that, so here's what I need to do to meet this goal. Run five days a week, according to my half marathon training planAcademy Bodyweight Level 2 workouts three times a week, with 5 minutes of handstand practice for the "Bonus Level" portion15/30 50%50% The Second Pillar: Knowledge Life Goal: Add to the Jedi Archives I've been making a lot of progress lately in my fitness and flute playing, but I've also been neglecting my writing in a serious way. The first draft of this novel has just been sitting here, gathering dust for a couple months now, and that's no good at all. So, my life goal this time around is to spend 15 minutes every day editing my novel. They don't even have to be consecutive minutes, as long as I get them all in. 13/26 50%50% The Third Pillar: Self-Discipline Goal 2: Master my diet I've built a great foundation for my nutrition, and now it's time to bump it up to the next level. For this goal, I need to have a protein source and a vegetable in every meal. 13/26 50%50% Goal 3: Lightsaber practice I spent a little bit of last challenge playing with my staff, but now it's time to get serious learning some moves. For this goal, I need to spend fifteen minutes every day practicing moves from the beginner staff lessons on Home of Poi. As with my editing, these minutes do not need to be consecutive. A couple minutes here and there is fine as long as it's quality, focused practice for those couple minutes. 12/26 46%46%

Now that I'm refreshed and relaxed from a two week holiday I think this is a good time to reboot my healthy lifestyle goals for this year. I know what I want, I just struggle to find and/or stick to a routine that works for me XD 1. Leave the house, do some exercise, 1x a week. I went to the gym a few times on the cruise ship and rather enjoyed it! I'd also like to incorporate some outdoor skating to improve my skating skills; these both entail me leaving the actual house; its only the idea of leaving the house that stops me - once I'm out and about I'm happy to exercise! Just once a week is a good start to supplement my 2x week derby training. 2. Clear 1x surface "hot spot" and keep it clean for the week. By the end of the challenge I should be keeping 4 small areas of the house clear of rubbish and dishes and things that are not put away. I hate that my house is never as clean as I want it to be because I am definitely happier when I'm on top of the housework. Starting small and building up does work for me with housework, but keeping the momentum up is the hard part! 3. Something something something... Nutrition. Track what I eat. I'm getting too slack with what I put in my body. I definitely feel better when I eat less refined food and more vegetables and protein. That's it. This can't start until I actually get home from my holiday though; I'm currently still in Singapore. We get home Wednesday so I'll start this on Thursday.

"'Like an astronaut that's scared of heights With a heart that's beating at the speed of light You've been waiting for this feeling all your life Sometimes it's just hard to realize When you're stuck in a moment And your spark has been stolen This is our time to own it So own it Baby, we were born with Fire and gold in our eyes Got lightning in a bottle Hands on the throttle Even in the dust we shine..." Main Quest: Rehab, rehab, rehab. Try not to lose my mind or my fighting spirit while I rehab. Become a better aerialist while I rehab. Improve my lifts while I rehab. And be more fabulous like this lovely lady... Quest 1: you have that lean, hungry look (+2 CON, +1 WIS) I feel you, Jack, I want to eat everything in sight, too. But I really need to stop eating like an asshole. No specifics because I KNOW what eating like an asshole is and isn't, and I'll be honest. I get 4 "fuck it" days over the course of the challenge because sometimes a girl needs a 1200 calorie lunch. Therefore, considering the challenge is 26 days, 22 days of not eating like an asshole. Quest 2: running away with the circus (+3 STR) I'm never going to assist a knife-thrower or allow myself to be chained up in a water tank, but I can keep on with straddle work. Getting a bit lazy so instead of reps-per-session, I'll just require a cumulative number of straight/straight straddles. These can be done on silks or at the gym on the pull-up bar. 50 straight/straight straddles. Quest 3: finding balance (+3 DEX) Balance isn't always easy, just ask Dottie. Fortunately, compared to balancing Father O'Leary, Hugh, and Phryne, I feel like I've got an easier task. I've been playing with forearm stands in preparation for eventually doing scorpion pose, so I'll commit to 8 forearm stand practice sessions. Life Quest: unapologetically fabulous (+1 CHA) I'll never be as fab as Phryne, alas, but I'm really bad at remembering lipstick and perfume - and amusingly enough, when I actually bother with them, I immediately feel more put together and like I can take on the world. So I think I'll just have to MAKE myself take the 5 extra minutes once in awhile. I'll commit to 8 days of lipstick and perfume. Maybe it seems silly, but a girl does want to feel fab once in awhile.... and I do not wake up #flawless, unlike Miss Fisher. I'll even try to post pics because why not? Shall we? Final Check-In Quest 1: you have that lean, hungry look - A I'm one day short of the mark today, putting me at 95%. if I eat sensible today, that'll be 100%. Either way, done deal. Quest 2: running away with the circus - A+ 50 straddles done. And they're feeling super solid now! Quest 3: finding balance - A+% 8 sessions done. I've got brief hints of balance though there's still work to do. Life Quest: unapologetically fabulous - A+ Did the lipstick and perfume thing 8 times. Looked extra fabulous for all my meetings. Am a little more likely now to fuss with my appearance for work, so good things. Next - get back to doing nice things with my hair and wearing pretty dresses. Snow, go away. Overall, this format was a good one for the shorter challenges. I think I'll keep it. BYE WEEK HERE I COME THANK GOODNESS FOR YOU.

I'm having a bit of a hard time wrapping my brain around this idea of 'eat more to lift more and you'll not get fat'. Let me explain. I've been told in the popular culture for decades that you had to 1) exercise + 2) eat a deficit if you wanted to lose weight/be lean and fit and moderately muscular. Not talking competition level muscular, but enough that the muscle definition is noticeable when you move. I use MFP, and in there it says if I am sedentary most of the time but work out 3x a week, that I should eat 1220 calories in order to lose half a pound a week. But NF Steve says, I joined NF 17 months ago. Was eating 1200 ish calories and doing the BBWW. At first things went pretty well. But I noticed that as my reps increased toward the recommended reps for the plan, I was having to take more and longer breaks between each exercise and each set. I attributed it to being older (I'm 50). But now I'm wondering if I should have been attributing it to not enough calories. I started lifting heavier recently. NF friends are saying I'm not eating enough. I really WANT to believe them! But... I'm afraid of raising my caloric intake because I'm only 26 lbs shy of where I was when I considered myself "fat". I know the scale only tells a small part of the story. I know the measuring tape and my clothes and my tracked stats tell a better truth. I just want to know: does it REALLY work that you can raise your caloric intake when you're strength training and NOT get fatter than you already are? [This is assuming you're eating pretty healthy -- limiting sugar and simple carbs, eating plenty of fresh and whole foods, etc.]

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away... Episode II ESCAPE FROM JAKKU Learning basic survival skills was a good start, but Starstuff knows there's more to this galaxy than she can find scavenging on Jakku. With the help of her new friends, the mysterious ASSASSINS, Starstuff plans her escape... Main Quest: Build fundamental fitness habits My partner in crime and I have recently gotten serious about having kids, so I want to build healthy habits that will be beneficial to me when I get pregnant and that I can pass on to our kids. That means cleaning up my diet (working toward NFA Diet Level 6), establishing regular workout habits, and making sure I have fun doing it! Quest 1: Fend off your enemies Whether it's thugs trying to abduct your friend or more insidious villains like poor muscle tone, klutziness, and generally feeling unfit and crummy, it takes strength and agility to defeat your enemies. And, of course, competence with your weapons (or flow tools) of choice. To complete this goal, I must complete 2 Academy workouts and 1 Darebee staff workout every week. I'm only allowed to count workouts if I warm up before and cool down after. 11/12 92%92% Quest 2: Run like hell Sometimes you're outgunned, and when that happens, running is your best course of action. I'm usually pretty good about running regularly when I'm training for a race, but when I'm not actively prepping for a race, and even more so when I've just completed one (like, say, right now), I start to let other things get in the way of my running schedule. Not only does this slow my progress toward my running goals, but it makes everyday life much harder, since running is one of the most effective ways I've found to deal with my anxiety. Not this time. To complete this goal, I must run 5 days a week. I have a base-building schedule I plan to keep to, but I'm more concerned with just making sure I get my sessions in, since getting my butt out the door is always my biggest stumbling block. 16/18 89%89% Quest 3: Prime the fuel pump If you don't prime your ship's fuel pump, you're not going anywhere. Human bodies are thankfully a little more resilient than a jury-rigged Corellian freighter, but they still work best if you start out your day with a good fuel source, so to complete this goal, I need to eat a healthy breakfast every day. For the purposes of this challenge, I'm defining a healthy breakfast as one that contains a good source of protein and at least one serving of fruits or veggies. Six days a week, it also needs to be grain-free, but I want to be sure to include some complex carbs on long run day, which can (but do not have to) be grain-based. 25/26 96%96% Life Quest: Stretch those musical muscles Last challenge, I got back into practicing my flute regularly. Now that my fingers and chops have built up some endurance, it's time to get in a little more practice. To complete this goal, I must practice my flute for at least 45 minutes, 6 days a week. 16/22 73%73%

....always a Jedi? But although I've always been a Jedi, I have been called a grey one and actually had more than one lapse into the void of the dark side. As any great Jedi Master will tell you, the dark side is part of everyone. And emerging from it again into the light is what makes you a true master of the Force, if you emerge again, that is..... Challenge #10 QUEST 1 : Nutrition/Snacking This didn't work out last challenge so I need to change it. Since at the moment I can't really control what I eat, I'll concentrate on quantity instead. Also concentrating on little thing Mission: No snacking between meals QUEST 2 : SIMPLE & SINISTER [ II OF XII ] Continuing the year of Kettlebell. I'm trying to reduce the light days (swinging a16kg) to no more than once a week and start to introduce some one-handed swings on the hard ones this time. Also I usually did two days off per week last time, but I need to reduce that to one day. TGUs ar not going to change for this challenge. Mission: 100 Swings per day (either two or one-handed) 24 or 16 kg 5 Turkish Get-Ups per side per day with a 12kg QUEST 3 : Nutrition/Tea The other little thing to improve the intake side of the equation. Drink at least one litre of tea (additionally to what I usually drink). Mission: Drink one litre of tea per day QUEST 4 : STRENGTH (ENDURANCE) WORKOUT This quest is competely the same as last challenge. Mission: Minimum Strength Workout (one exercise out of two of Push/Pull/Hinge/Squat) 4x per week Strength Endurance Worktout (like EMOM or for time or AMRAP for example) 2x per week Maximum Strength Workout (2 exercises out of one of Push/Pull/Hinge/Squat) 2x per week

[saffronTurtle] Learns to Cook [February 1st to February 28th] Hello and welcome! In this challenge SaffronTurtle will attempt (with varying degrees of success) to get her diet squeaky clean. Or at least start down that path anyways. MAIN QUEST This quest is all about food; (hopefully) delicious paleo-esque food. Food has been a tough one for me in the past and I haven’t quite figured out a way to fix it yet. I hope that by cooking my own food I can control the amount of chemicals, sugar, wheat and dairy that goes into my system. I eat what I eat because it is easily accessible, therefore if I make and have healthier options on hand I can choose them instead. QUEST 1 – COOK A. +3WIS +3STR B. +2WIS +2STR C. +1WIS +1STR Cook a week’s supply of food each weekend. On either Saturday or Sunday cook something, whether it be a batch of healthy sugary treat substitute or a motherload of butter chicken to freeze and last me a week of dinners. Maybe both. I have to refine this quest but the idea is to have options there so that I can turn to them instead of unhealthy alternatives. Success/Failure will be measure weekly, ie. Did I cook this week's food? Yes/No. Score is out of 4 for the 4 weeks. QUEST 2 – LEARN A. +3WIS B. +2WIS C. +1WIS Find and make 1 new recipe each week. Bonus points if more than one recipe. The key here is actually making them; I have oodles of recipes on my computer and in books that I have just never made. The recipes must be dairy, wheat and sugar free. Suck. But not suck because my body will love me for all eternity. Scoring will be as with quest 1. QUEST 3 – DRINK A. +3CON +3STR B. +2CON +2STR C. +1CON +1STR I have recently been informed that calcium stops depositing in your bones at age 21, I’m 19 this year so I have a two/three year window of opportunity to pump myself full of as much calcium as I can so that my bones are nice and strong and don’t break when I’m out doing kickass things like parkour in the near future. So, as part of this challenge I will drink homemade bone broth every day. It’s not as bad as I thought, really. If I’ve learned anything food wise from the walking dead or any other apocalypse movie it’s that I need to a) learn how to hunt and skin/butcher, which I have plans to do, and b ) get used to eating parts of animals that people don’t normally eat. Including the bones. Waste not want not. Scoring for this quest will be marked daily and out of 28. EDIT: Now includes stat points! Max of 15 if I get all As.

Cue the music...we're gonna need a montage 8 Weeks of training before a week of rest before contest time. I will Continue my nutrition programTake progress pics, log workouts, track PRs, log food if I switch to a macro planMaintain consistency of training (4x week plus active recovery)LUYL: Continue to try to get a meditation session a week. Add gratitude journal. Below is my contest info for Delaware's Strongest and my current state updated from last month. Circus DB Press for reps ­ Clean and press every rep ­ 60 second time limit 70# (3†loadable handle) PR 60# 6 weeks ago. I've been working a lot on bench and OHP; I an confident I could hit 70# now and should be retesting soon. I would like to get 4 lifts in contest. Max Barbell Deadlift ­30 second time limit Wessels rule; max 3 attempts ­ miss at anytime and you are out; 20lb jumps : minimum starting weight 200lbs Max deadlift 230 without belt. I did sets of pause deads at 225 last week though. I suspect my max is getting closer to 240. I am confident that I can make good progress here and would like to be able to hit 280-300. Farmer’s Hold – max time 155# I have not done a farmers hold in a long time, but my max was 150, so this needs some work. Once I can pick this weight, I should be good for the hold. Sandbag carry medley ­ Carry sandbag 50 feet straight drop, pick up heavier sandbag carry 50 feet back ­ 60 second time limit ­ no shouldering, must carry bear hug style 100# 120# Yesterday I did 8x100 with 80 lb sandbag. I need to work on my pick speed, but I should do well in this event. Stone over bar series ­ 44†bar for women­ 60 second time limit 150# 150# is my current PR for stones, but it was to a higher platform. I have lifted 75 but could not get it to the higher platform. It has been a while since I tried. Looking to hit 2-3 reps

Hey guys! Long time no see! Yeah, I dropped off the wagon again. …or did I? The last few months have been going great. I started my first semester at university and resolved to really work as hard as I could with my studies. Believe it or not, actually working hard is having some kind of magical effect! My grades are at the top percentile for all of my modules and I have a very disciplined, organised manner of studying now. This is a big deal; it’s the first time in my life that I can honestly say that my academic stuffs are going great. I’ve also kept up to date with training! My main thing is gymnastics and I climb every fortnight, but alongside that? I’ve picked up powerlifting, which I started during my previous challenge. Probably not going to focusing on that this challenge. Now, I was playing with the idea of joining the boxing club. However, it started to get a little tough; I have three hours of gymnastics training the same day that the boxing club meets. Tried going to both and realised training both on the same day would probably mess with my progress in both for the long run.. …and then I found out that we have a breakdancing team. I do not believe that further explanation is necessary. Honestly, when it comes to developing myself, I don’t really think I have a problem. I’ve developed a mindset that keeps me hungry for improvement, mental or physical. So.. why am I on here? Two reasons! First off, I do a crap ton of things in my spare time. It’d be nice to organise some of it! Secondly, and most of all, it’s very difficult to find people who understand why I do the stuff I do. I’m a first year student; we’re expected to drink and go clubbing multiple times a week. Me, I wake up at 5:30AM and spend all my time either working or training. I’m virtually a monk (as in, more like a shaolin monk, not the NF Monks.. for now) at this point… I wouldn’t have it any other way! That being said, given that my training and development is a big part of what I do, it’d be nice to have some people to talk about it with and a place to record the stuff I do. So, here goes! 1. Morning stuff! As I mentioned, I wake up really early in the morning nowadays. It’s not because I enjoy it! It’s really a matter of discipline and one that takes a lot of patience given how annoying my housemates are. I generally have to be at university by 9AM; I use the time I have beforehand to get a bit of training done. I generally stretch out (no heavy flexibility work, more limbering up) before doing gymnastics conditioning or cardio. As it stands, here is my schedule: Mon: Cardio Tue: Gymnastics Conditioning Wed: Cardio Thur: Gymnastics Conditioning Fri: Cardio Sat: Both! Sun: Rest. After this, I shower and get dressed and all, but then I do some focused visualisation. This is a really helpful technique for really complicated technical skills for acrobatics. Occasionally I can’t be bothered to run through backflips a hundred times in my mind I visualise hard maths stuff or chess tactics in my head. Now, the deal is, I need to be more consistent and disciplined with my morning routine. I want to really cement it into habit rather that something I need to drag myself out of bed for. I’ll grade myself weekly to see how things are going along. A - At most 1 failed morning per week B - 1 to 2 failed mornings per week C - 2 - 4 failed mornings per week F - More that 4 failed mornings. 2. Evening stuff! Okay, so I’ve become an organisation freak ever since starting university. Evening for me focused a little on injury prevention and a lot on the more mental tasks I have to do. With injury prevention I do stuff for my wrists, elbows, ankles and neck; the parts of me that are most at risk when training. Thrice a week I do some hard flexibility work; this is also tackled in the evenings. I’m going to start practicing freezes for breakdancing on the days I don’t have flexibility, too; freezes take some time getting used to. After all this I set aside all the training and do some other stuff. I do some more visualisation after stretching, but this time it’s exclusive to mathematics topics. I also signed up to Japanese classes on a whim a few weeks back and I review vocabulary and all during this time. I then update my journals before reading a book until it’s time for bed. This is basically just the evening version of the morning thing. Really no different, just different things to do. Here’s the schedule for the physical bits and bobs: Mon: Freezes, Neck+Elbow Tue: Wrist+Ankle, flexibility Wed: Freezes, Neck+Elbow Thur: Wrist+Ankle, flexibility Fri: Freezes, Neck+Elbow, Sat: Wrist+Ankle, flexibility Sun: Rest! A - At most 1 failed evening per week B - 1 to 2 failed evenings per week C - 2 - 4 failed evenings per week F - More that 4 failed evenings 3. Breakdancing! Not going to hide it. I suck. I’m a completely useless dancer. Of course, I’m okay with the more physically demanding things like handstands and whatnot, but rhythm? Flow? Grace? Nah. Top rock in breakdancing is supposed to be smooth and precise. I’m just.. awkward as hell. Now, of course, the first step to getting good at something is to suck at it, right? That is precisely what I intend to do! I no longer look completely ridiculous when doing top rock, but I still suck. I’m going to do a bit of top rock every day. One day I might log in 10 minutes, the next it might be 30 minutes… but I’m going to be logging it in, definitely. At the end of the challenge I’ll record the total time I’ve spent practising top rock. Check this out! Grading: TBD 4. Nutrition! I used to have my nutrition under pretty good control. I ate good food daily and I kept the sugar cravings under control. All that changed when the fire nation attacked when I discovered this pizza place near my house. A large vegetarian hot with stuffed cheese crust with large fries.. was only £10. Christmas didn’t help either. My parents run a few grocery stores and I get all the junk food I could eat for free at my convenience. I’ve definitely put on weight. No more! I’m going to do a food log. I’ll note down everything I eat in a day right here on this thread. Then, I’ll assess it all at the end of the week. Okay I’ll be honest; I am not going to give up mochas. Everything else can go but not mochas. But yeah everything else will be all healthy and whatnot. I’ll also stick it on MyFitnessPal for the sake of tracking. Grading: TBD Closing notes The aim of this challenge is to build a foundation of good habits that’ll help me in the mad challenges to come. 2016 will be an awesome year and hopefully the routine I get into with this challenge with make it easier to for me to make it more awesome. … IMPROMPTU BACKFLIP!!!1 (This was the fifth backflip I ever landed! ) Wish me luck!

What am I training for? 3/25 3/26 GORUCK Challenge and GORUCK Light Baltimore 4/17 6/12 9/11 Ok, maybe just a little crazy but I am giving it a shot. Goal 1: Triathalon training I want to hit my daily training every day and update this challenge thread with my results, having a battle log in combination is too much for me to handle. These workouts include weights and some light body weight stuffs. Goal 2: Nutrition 2,200 calories daily for now. When I up my training I may add more, for now this works for me. I would also like to cut out alcohol unless it is a very social event. I have a company dinner tomorrow night and a Capitals game next Sunday. That is all I am aware of during this challenge. Goal 3: Rucking Every morning, no exceptions. I only have 2 months to get some serious mileage in before my back 2 back GORUCKs. I want to be ready and recover quickly from this event. Side Quest: Be Productive Yes, I like watching TV and playing video games, but i really need to work on managing my time more, I am hoping to update this thread with some sort of productivity daily.

The official results are IN!!! Over the last 4 week challenge I lost . . . . 3 whole pounds. Whomp, whomp, whomp! I was hoping for better. Not that I had any real reason to, since all I was really doing was tracking my food intake, but still. I had it my head that my recent weight gain was temporary and not a real thing. As a result, I would drop back down to about 175 pretty quickly and then start losing from there. I had REALLY hoped to be below 175. Alas, it appears that I'm going to have to do some real work in order to lose weight. Who made up THAT stupid rule! Hmph! I does appear, however, that I actually lost some inches. Not sure how that happened since a twisted knee has kept me from lifting or increasing my activity for the past several weeks. I have a hard time trusting measurements since there’s human error involved. I figure that any difference under ½†is probably no real change. ½’ or more might be a real thing. The measurement I trust the most are waist and hips – since it’s pretty easy to hit the same spot there. I somehow managed to lose 3 inches in my waist and 1 in my hips. I’ll take it. In fact, my measurements are smaller in most places (except my hips, sigh.) than when I was 11 pounds lighter in November. So I’ll take my little victory and keep going. Since I’m fairly active as it is, losing weight and inches is ALL about what I eat right now. Meal prepping is not something I’m good at. I resent setting aside the time to do it when I have so little free time as it is. Additionally, I eat out for lunch too much. I have a few go to places where I can get a semi-decent meal (Yay Chipotle!), but I know that I need to do better. It’s much easier to control my lunches than my dinners – which are often scarfed down at karate between assisting in kids classes and taking my own class. I reviewed the NF diet levels this morning and I’m currently on Level 4. So my dietary goal is to level up to 5 (adding vegetables to more meals) this month and take a good running start at level 6 (vegetables in ALL the meals). I’m actually pretty close to Level 5 already, so I feel like this is pretty doable. I have a business trip the last week of the month, which will increase the difficulty level significantly. I don’t fly well, and I have found that if I eat carb heavy just before I fly, then I don’t get nauseous. I’ll just have to work around that as best I can. Adding to this is that this will be the first time meeting the customer, so I foresee a couple of social dinners out, complete with alcohol. I’ll have to set limits on my drinking, in particular, since even a small glass of wine often results in a nasty headache the next morning. And then the only way to get rid of the headache involves lots of sugar and caffeine. Given all this, I’m considering weighing myself and taking measurements just before I leave on the trip, with the goal of just maintaining while I travel. Anyone have some tried and true tips for eating healthy while traveling?