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Nothing to see here, nothing to see. Just a dedicated spot for recipes I've tried and like. First up: Hungry Hobby (based) Sweet Potato Pancakes So these are not as easy as pancake mix (which is what I used before our nutrition reset). But they actually taste way better to me. (I have nothing against flour; I'm just doing a little experiment with staying away from it. To see if I miss it, kind of thing.) I think I'd rather have the nutrients of the flax, sweet potato, and oats over the flour. These seem pretty hearty. I've subbed in oat flour for wheat in a few things now. I like it. Anyway, the recipe: ½ C oats 1 Tbsp ground flax seed 1 tsp baking powder 1 Tbsp unsweetened coconut flakes 1/8 tsp nutmeg scant ¼ tsp cinnamon ½ Tbsp olive oil (would probably omit next time and just use it in the pan) 1 egg ¼ C coconut milk 1 tsp ACV ~1/2 a medium to large sweet potato Pulse dry ingredients in blender until well-mixed & oats become flour. Mix milk and ACV; set aside. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients, including milk/vinegar. Mix until smooth. (Do this in a bowl next time – blender is messier than I like.) Fry in a hot pan wiped w/olive oil. YUM! Notes: Batter was THICK. (The coconut milk was pretty thick.) I used it as it was for the 1st cake. I added water to thin it for the last 3, b/c I didn't expect the 1st to be done through. It was! Next time I will try to not add water. Flavor was excellent. Original recipe calls for maple syrup in the batter; I skipped and used it as a topping. Spices were perfectly subtle but present. I don't want my breakfast tasting like a dessert. Could probably add a pinch of salt next time, too. This is a keeper! I like pancakes every once in a while and this one will suit me just fine. Might find a way to prep some stuff the night before – dry ingredients at least? – to shave off some time. Halving the original recipe helps. So does having baked sweet potato already smooshed in the freezer.

Hi! Taking February off was WWEEee --- eeerrdddd! It was necessary, but very strange for me. A quick history -- Terinatum has been gaining momentum with NF since February 2013. She has always felt welcomed here on the forums and is quite happy to come back to the folds of the NF family. She has spent the last 14 months on the injured bench and it has taken a toll on her physically and emotionally. Before she was trail running and working up to a 5k on asphalt (best was 2.4 miles), drinking water like a fish, getting junk for out of her life (lost 96 pounds), cooking for herself (a tiny bit anyway), and enjoying her life as a newly single woman with reasons to smile and feel confident along her path to health and happiness. Then the body got hurt. First it was the feet with bunions now active and fallen arches. The achilles had their say about that. The final piece became a tender heel for unknown reasons and happening at unknown times. So Terinatum did some things to help, even without doctors' help, and she has now: orthotics for her arches, a tiny lift for her right shorter leg, and some exercises to help strengthen the foot and ankle. Terinatum is thankful that this part of the puzzle is mostly solvable. Second came her spine. It was more unstable in a spot she knew to be weak. After many a battle with her PCP (5 months), she got help with it, but not before her hips (likely with the help of the arches) became severely inflamed and her glute muscles stopped supporting her walking. Terinatum could no longer walk on pavement of any kind. She was reduce to a hobble after a mere two blocks on cement and around 3 blocks on asphalt. She was walking on not-yet frozen ground with little difficulty just the week before. It was odd, and scary. But the warm, therapeutic water has been helping her make a bit of progress. While working on her glutes and hip rehab with aquatic therapy, Terinatum went to the pain clinic. After much investigation, she had some answers. Her spine has been deteriorating more than normal, and sooner. Causes? heavy weight, running while heavy, bad posture habits, and several old injuries. She now has osteoarthritis in her spine at two places, a bulging disc, facet disease, and degenerative disc disease. So, now it is time to get relief and build up important muscles so that, hopefully, trail running will again be part of her life. The emotional toll of her medical life was excruciating. After almost 2 years of success, Terinatum was reduced to puddles of tears, balls of anger, and tunnels with no visible light at the end. WTF: why now, why me, why this bad, why, why, why? Why take running from her? She had never fallen in love with any activity, even basketball, like she did with running. It was hard on her to be on the bench. She spent decades on the bench because PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) had forced her to flee life. And now when she wants to be off the bench so bad, she's forced down again. Her earlier successes had not prepared her for this. Nothing had. So how will she motivate herself to get off the bench and do what needs doing, even if it's not hitting the deadlift and running in the woods yet? Meanwhile on the PTSD front, Terinatum had put more rules in place when dealing with her parents. It helped a bit, but not enough. She was starting to wonder what to do next, when an old, trauma memory was recovered unexpectedly. It has thrown Terinatum into a whole new realm of chaos. Now is the time to again mourn the parents she never had, and now the ones she will not have anymore. So for those who know me, that was short! Hahaha Goals for this challenge: 1.) Water! 64 oz daily - measured on MFP using my awesome 3 cup mug I got for Christmas. +2 STR 2.) Cooking at home - 4 out of 7 days per week. Avg. of 3.5 for +3 CON 3.) No sugar junk food - by week 4! No sugar for +3 STA 4.) Stretching each day - calves, quads, hams, med. glutes, piriformis, hip flexors, obliques, and neck. For +2 DEX 5.) Strength exercises - glutes, obliques, transverse abdominals, shoulders, triceps, and feet. For +2 STR 6.) World-building project - continue building the elevation map and get 3 outlines for module stories done. For +1 WIS 7.) Write out and check off daily To-Do lists - at least 4 days per week. Avg. of 3.5 for +2 WIS Alright then! Let's blow this popsicle stand! Good Luck to All Cheers, Teri

We just had a challenge, now to see if I can keep up the progress Maintenance for Life: Swim 4-5 days per week 0%0% Drylands 3 days per week 0%0% Keep eating veggies (at least two cups per day) 0%0% Keep swapping tea for soda & Keep life latte free 0%0% New Stuff: Level up at life: Save Money, Save Calories -- Make Dinner Every Night 0%0% Level up my Diet: Choose Fruit Over Sweets 0%0% Life + Diet Bonus: Save Money, Complain Less -- Make Your Own Coffee and Tea 0%0% Level up my Fitness: Introduce Yoga 2 days per week 0%0% Fitness Bonus: Make sure to walk at least 3 miles per day 0%0%

Just shooting straight with myself and anyone who cares to follow. I'm starting late, but I'm starting. I'm angry and upset, not at a certain friend who busted my chops, not even at the calling to the carpet that was mostly on the mark, but at the fact that it's true and I've let it get to this point. I've been doing "enough" for a challenge to get a challenge done and pass, but I haven't been challenging myself since a couple of failures back for one reason or another. I can talk a good talk, but if I don't really stick with what I'm saying, what's the point? Yes, we're not perfect this side of Heaven, but I need to get back to progress that maintains itself. This isn't easy and I shouldn't try and game the system, nor should I be hard on myself for failing, that's part of progress. I'll post goals and clean them up before the day is over.

Hey fellow rebels. I've been super mega busy lately, things should calm down Wednesday but for now I'm just going to get this challenge up. So last challenge was a rousing success for me. Things were totally freaking unbelievably insane from travelling nonstop for work and some other things. INSANE I TELL YOU. But I used my training program to stay focused and grounded during stressful times. I also think I actually really started my health journey last challenge, even though I've been trying (and moderately succeeding) to do these challenges for over 6 months now. I learned I had to be doing this from a place of self love, and that I have to always remember how good I feel when I treat myself right. I've just got to do it. And making myself do it during the flurry of travel really kept me sane and destressed me. It also helped pull me out of the depression I was kind of sinking into. All in all, I feel great. And I want to keep this momentum going. I'm going to seroiusly switch up something huge in my life for this challenge. Two things in fact, both food related. I'm going to officially stop counting calories. Completley and totally stop. This is crazy for me. I've never not counted calories. I'm kind of really freaking out about it.... Previously I've counted them but set a ridiculously high limit for myself, just to make sure I'm not completely out of control, but when I have it down to a number based system I end up hurting myself. I'm like "oh this pizza only has 1200 calories in it. If that's all I eat all day it's fine" Nope... not OK. I'd rather just judge my food on what it is. And that brings me to the other thing I'm switching up. I'm going to grade myself for my food intake based purely on whether it was "healthy" or not. I know when I'm being healthy, and I know when I'm not. I can spot a healthy meal from a mile away, I can feel it in my stomach almost instantly, I can usually smell it. I know gluten and dairy are no nos for my tummy, and I know I'm trying to avoid soy. I know when I'm BSing myself, and can now be honest with myself and admit it. I don't need to micrcomanage my diet any more (or at least I hope so!) and am just going to try to eat the healthiest I can possibly eat this challenge. No stressing about calories, and no micromanaging every single meal. I'm also going to be listening to my body more when it comes to exercising. I'm cutting my strength training down to 2 days a week, and replacing the third with a wild card. Every week I'll see how I'm feeling and pick whatever exercise I want to do that weekend. It could be another strength session, but it could also be pilates. Or hiking. Or even a meditation session if I feel so inclined. So here's the spreadsheet: Quick explanations: Move pretty self explanatory Strength 2x/week Yoga 2x/week Zombies, Run! 2x/week Random! 1x/week Stay Moving I sit at my desk all day, and do watch a fair amount of TV. I want to stop sitting so much basically. So I've set an alarm on my phone to remind me to walk around and do little desk exercises throughout the day, I'm in the office an average of 3.5 days a week, so I'll try to complete all my deskercise goals that many days a week. I've also purchased a mini elliptical stepper thingy that I will be using 100% of the time during TV commercials and if I'm watching Netflix I'll set a timer to make sure I'm doing it for 5 minutes every 15 minutes (which is the average commercial set up I think). . I watch TV probably most days so I put I need to do this 5 days a week. I might adjust this when I have more time to think about how to actually grade this... maybe deduct points for whenever I watch TV and don't do it? We'll see... I'm going to grade this like I grade eating out. Start at 100% and dock points when I don't do what I plan on doing. Take Care I need to take better care of myself externally. And have more me-time. Nightly Routine: Wash my face, floss, brush my teeth and moisturize every weeknight Weekly Routine: Relax, take a bath, light a candle. Face mask. Monthly Routine: Add a hair mask, a foot mask and a bath bomb to one weekly routine a month. Live it up. Eat Healthy Self explanatory, eat healthy every day. Also stop eating out so much. Eating healthy is positive points I earn, eating out are negative points I dock from a starting 100% when I do it. Keep Clean Staying in line with my listen to my body/intuition goals, I'm going to clean every day... but I'm going to pick what I'm going to do the day of depending on the state of my apartment. Grading Based completely on level of effort, numbers based solely on excel's rounding to the nearest 0.25 calculation (using the MROUND() function if anyone was interested): >87% = A >62% = B >37% = C >12% = D <12%= F Possible points and point types are in the spreadsheet. Sorry this is so all over the place and not at all organized. I swear it makes sense in my head. I'm so excited to be a normal person again on Wednesday and be able to hang out with you nerds via the interwebs again. I also am going to get back to keeping my battle log up to date, because I mega slacked on that last challenge and it makes me sad. So that's that. *Edited to fix spreadsheet errors, update TV stepper grading info and to add grading percentage numbers to letters info (and more gifage because that was seriously lackingand not up to my usual standards)*

☙ Preface ⧠In a desk, in an office, there lived a Halfling. She didn't live there all the time - sometimes she socialized and gardened and took walks - but enough of her day was spent there that she forgot that there was a whole world beyond those four walls and instead lived vicariously through Pinterest and other such Palantíri. This particular Halfling was acquainted with an Adventurer guild from the Nerd Fitness Rebellion. Twice she had even joined on an adventure: the first time she took a few wrong turns and dropped out halfway through (the record of which has been purged from even the servers in which they were kept!), and the second she stumbled along til the end and got her share of loot... but as is so often the case, lost contact with these friends and returned to her office and desk, forgetting the lesson entirely. After a few seasons had gone by, she noticed that her rump was expanding exponentially and her satisfaction with her surroundings had grown with it. She realized that it was time to start living outside her office once again. She joined back up with her Adventurer friends for a much longer quest... knowing that if she does return, she will not be the same... Main Quest: Lose weight in order to fit into a size 6 Motivation: Why a size 6? No particular reason. I know that sizing, especially in the US, can vary dramatically depending on where you shop. But I have a pair of size 6 jeans in my dresser that are practically unworn and I'd love to get back into them. Since I'm currently seeping into a size 12, this would mean halving my current size, which is a big deal to me. Plus, having a weight-related goal that doesn't relate to the scale or measuring tape feels more solid and concrete to me. Working toward this goal will force me to reevaluate my fitness and food intake, and will take much longer than six weeks (probably 9 months to a year). I want to use this first challenge in my main quest as a springboard for healthier eating and lifestyle. Goal 1: Track daily food intake and keep average weekly net calorie intake between 1200 and 1500 calories (CON 4) I'll be tracking my calories daily on My Fitness Pal; my food diary is public so feel free to take a look and hold me accountable! At the end of every week, I'll be posting a summary chart that shows my average net calories for the week. The reason I'm focusing on weekly average rather than daily is so that a) I can correct course if I have an 'off' day, and so that I'm forced to log every day. Grading is determined by how many weeks of the challenge I stay in my range. A = All 6 weeks B = 5 of 6 weeks C = 4 of 6 weeks D = 2 or 3 of 6 weeks F = 0 or 1 of 6 weeks Goal 2: Exercise 3 times a week for at least 20 minutes (DEX 2, STA 2) The plan is to do HIIT cardio for 20 minutes on Tues and Thurs, and 'get moving' at least one day of the weekend. Weekend exercise can be: yard work, hiking, dancing, walking, etc - anything beyond routine daily movement. I know this isn't a whole lot of exercise, but it fits my schedule for the next 6 weeks and is way more active than my usual sedentary life. A = 18 or more workouts total B = 14 - 17 workouts C = 10 - 13 workouts D = 5 - 9 workouts F = 0 - 4 workouts Goal 3: Follow the "Real Food Rules" for every meal (WIS 3, CON 1) This will probably be the toughest goal for me, because it involves paying attention, eating consciously, and not being lazy. Since I cook at home 75% of the time, the most important factor is buying real food, though some leeway will be given for eating up food I've already bought (starving kids in Africa, guys, I can't just throw it away). When eating out, I'll stick to places that support real food practices, like Chipotle, or order something with whole food ingredients. * processed meals being my key word for anything that doesn't follow the Real Food Rules as defined by 100 Days of Real Food. A = 6 or fewer processed* meals B = 7 - 12 processed* meals C = 12 - 18 processed* meals D = 18 - 24 processed* meals F = 25+ processed* meals Life Quest: Do something creative for at least an hour every week (CHA 3) What counts: Craft projects, Writing, Drawing, Building, Painting, Sewing, etc. What doesn't count: Browsing Pinterest, Buying home decor, Saying I'm writing but spending 50 minutes browsing tumblr and only 10 minutes writing, Watching TV, etc. A = All 6 weeks B = 5 of 6 weeks C = 4 of 6 weeks D = 2 or 3 of 6 weeks F = 0 or 1 of 6 weeks Starting Stats: LEVEL: 2 | STR 7 | DEX 4 | STA 2 | CON 7.5 | WIS 3 | CHA 5 Weight: 171 Pants size: 12 Waist: TBA Hips: TBA Thighs: TBA Left Bicep: TBA Left Thigh: TBA Mini-Quests Completed: Mini Quest 1: What's a Hero without a Sidekick (+1 CHA)