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I got a little buried under work last time (or two... or three) I tried to do a challenge, so time to give it another try. It would be a lot to try to explain here, but long story short I went from functionally being the only person doing my job (it's a 2 person job and the other person wasn't interested in actually working) to literally being the only person in my job for a few months, which also meant I was pulling some crazy long weeks. This is thankfully no longer the case, and the person working with me now is doing a fantastic job so far and eager to help out, meaning I get to have a life outside of work again! (...now I just need to get my mind to understand that I don't have to work nonstop, because brains are complicated and annoying) Unsurprisingly, my main goal remains the same: RECLAIMING MY TIME (honestly most of this challenge is basically going to be a repeat of my Grumpy Cat one, hence keeping with the silly cat theme. There's also a lot of overlap of the quests because of their relation to time) Quest 1 : Sleep (4 points/wk) Kinda hard to claim time when I'm tired and want to sleep most of my not-work time. I went to a doctor last year right before things went crazy and he gave me some things to try to do to improve my sleep that I want to start doing this challenge: Going to bed near the same time every night (I'm going to be aiming for between 11:30 and midnight) Getting up at the same time every morning, when my alarm goes off - this one is DEFINITELY going to be a struggle, I tend to snooze and I absolutely hate getting up in the morning Exercising 4-5 hours before bed, this is the window the yoga class I want to go to falls into, and I can try to add swimming or walking on days without yoga too with my Y membership that I really need to use one point per day I'm up before 7:30am, I'm not expecting myself to be able to roll that back all days hence not doing 7 points on this one Quest 2 : Food prep (6 points/wk) I've had issues with eating a lot of fast food because I haven't always prepped food ahead that I can eat/want to eat when I've gotten busy, so I need to prep food ahead for both work and outside work so I don't wind up eating more Burger King due to lack of preparation. Get meals made ahead - lots of Instant Pot recipes left to try Make sure lunch and breakfast are packed ahead the night before a work shift (when I actually prep ahead, I throw a frozen breakfast sammich in my lunch bag and leave it in the fridge so I can just run in the morning) Reduce eating out to 1-2x / week, preferably an intentional meal rather than just hitting a drivethru because I didn't have anything better available. 1 point for packing ahead (4 work days/week, 'cause 10 hr shifts) 1 point for batch cooking ahead 1 point for staying under 2x eating out/wk Quest 3 : Schedule outside of work (especially exercise, 4 points/wk) (not Pusheen, but adorable and my cats would never let me do it) So... I'm still enrolled in that yoga class that I have NOT been able to go to for months, some of which was because of it being cancelled for a month because of lack of enrollment (I just had them roll mine forward a month each time that happened) and some of which was the fact that I was still at work when the class was happening. I do also want to get exercise in on other days as well per sleep doc's recomendation, not to mention it helps my ADHD as well and I would definitely get a lot of physical benefits as well. I do also want to get some other things I've neglected back on my radar as well, like crafting and gaming. Attend yoga classes (M,W) work on setting up schedule for exercise besides yoga (T,H,F) - likely swimming at the Y or doing a Zombies, Run! session as a walk set aside time weekly for at least one of the following: solo gaming, painting minis, knitting, playing music 1 point for making a yoga class 1 point for making a non-yoga workout 1 point for planning for and following through on one of the above activities Life quest : Japanese (2 points) Like most other things on my challenge, this got shoved to the back burner (and then promptly dumped off the stove entirely) due to lack of time and energy. Use Duo min 5x/wk Study 1 lesson/wk from my text books (I think I was on the second one when stuff went crazy? I'll be starting back at one though) 1 point for Duo 1 point for studying from the text books So, hey NF community, I've missed you folks. LETS DO DIS!

HI ALL!! Life has calmed down and I finally feel recharged! I actually have the luxury of free time to reel in some things I haven’t had some time to expressly focus on lately, namely FOOD. I did not have time to cook for the majority of the past few months and I miss 1) having a firmer grasp on my food intake and 2) I JUST MISS COOKING. My diet is actually pretty decent, but I’d like to take the time while I have it to zoom in on my macros a bit more and also track what I am eating. I am really really determined to dial in ways to get more veggies AND to increase protein intake significantly w/out going nuts with fats! -----GOALS----- GOAL 1: Track food intake daily for a snapshot of general overall calorie intake and macros. I am playing around with what exactly I am shooting for. Running some basic TDEE calculators over at IIFYM, maintenance would be 2039 calories or so and ideally I’d like to aim for slightly under that and do a slight cut (I’m thinking 1900-ish calories per day, except deadlift days & deadlift recovery because GIVE ME ALL THE FOOD DAMMIT.) Also, my Vegas birthday-cation I am eating as much as I please!!! I really need to get my actual body fat percentage tested some day, but by looking at articles comparing the way different fat percentages look my body looks close to the pictures for 25%, or maybe even slightly less fluffy than 25% but estimate is OK with me as I am just starting in this figuring out Macros game! Estimating out 1g of protein per lb of lean mass leaves me at 108.8 g of protein, which I am going to round up to 109 g. calculator on IIFYM for maintenance (2042 calories per day)= 116G protein (1g protein = 4 calories) 464 calories 22.7% 51 G fat (1g fat = 9 calories) 459 calories 22.5% 280 G carb (1g carb = 4 calories) 1120 calories 54.8 using same percentages, shooting for 1900 calories = protein = 431.4 calories = 107 g fat = 427.5 calories = 47.5 g carbs = 1041.2 calories = 260.3 g Tweaking slightly to adjust for my lean mass calculation — my goal macros: protein - 109g per day, 436 calories fat - 48g per day, 432 calories carbohydrates - 259g per day, 1036 calories Total = 1904 calories GOAL 2: Meal prep! Prep meals at least once per week for your lunches and breakfasts at work. I will also add as part of this goal — making more veggie related snacks to up my veggie intake -- that would be most excellent! To have a more specific quantifiable thing - bring or make at least one veggie related snack from home to bring to work per week. Goal 3: Maintain current training schedule (or even add a bit!) Strength train 3 times per week including once per week with trainer & at least one cardio work out per week (ideally a run or hike, but a lunch walk is better than nothing!) And do some GTG type training every day! (this could mean frequently throughout the day, or it could mean just a few sets here and there when I have time!) Goal 4/ Life Goal - DECLUTTER & CLEAN I am currently dealing with the result of 6 months+ of not having enough extra energy to put into cleaning and decluttering. The clutter in my room especially is SO BAD YOU GUYS I HATE IT. On days when I have at least 2 hours of free time spend at least 5 minutes cleaning! (Once I get started I usually go for more like 10-20+ minutes, but it’s the getting STARTED and doing something I struggle with.)