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I'm still here. And I'm still pissed that I can't complete a challenge to save my fucking life. So here we are with another challenge made of stupid baby steps toward the stupid things I haven't been able to achieve in the 8 years I've been here. Yay? Feed the cats every day - cheating taking an easy win here because it's not like I can not feed my cats. Drink 8 ounces of water immediately when waking up. Do pigeon pose every day because every muscle in my legs hates me. Purge 3 things every day, doesn't matter physical or digital there's just too much shit all over the place. Use stupid prescription toothpaste I'm supposed to use.

I disappeared last challenge. Sorry about that. Things got worse in multiple ways, and I shut down. I became a hermit. I had no good news to post, so I disappeared. I hate being all bad news, depressing and no upside, and I hate when I bring other people down with me. So I disappeared. I tried to take time to regroup and get better. Didn’t quite work much since work is still a mess after the whole “Let toxic guy quit suddenly and without turnover and nothing works.” OT is a thing for much of this challenge and let’s hope they actually hire someone to help me now and not in August (Note, I am thinking at earliest, August). They just posted the job, so I might have full time official help in August. Mom is still an issue as she is still not talking but now mad that I didn’t come over to see brother when he was in town for a few hours when my notice was literally 12 hours before he was coming and I was working OT when he got here. No one was even sure what DAY he would be there. In other news, the washer and dryer died Sat night, and the stove is acting up. New washer and dryer ordered, but now I need to clean to get them from outside the house to where they go. It may not be too bad, but it means I can’t come home after OT every night this week and do nothing. I will say part of my return is due to @fleaball. We had been emailing, and we agreed to both come back and try to do at least something. I know I need the accountability and the friendship and the reminder that I am not as horrible as I think. One wonderful thing I have found here, a friend that is going to make me do stuff, and I am going to remind her to do stuff. My walking is fairly good, but that is mostly because 6 Mo puppy Agent Ninja needs it to be less crazy. I am not really cleaning or organizing and I can tell I miss the stretches and exercises. I need to get things straight in my own head so I can sleep. The end. Main point of this challenge is DO SOMETHING.. ANYTHING… besides just exist. I cut the number of boxes/pts whatever down to 26. 2 exercises (out of 17), 3 stretches (out of 24), 10 life and family (mostly done just by living) (out of 36), 3 Fight Chaos by cleaning (out of 16), 2 fight Chaos by organizing (out of 16), 2 for walking (out of 8) and 4 for food (out of 17). So do the thing. That’s the plan

Hi Everyone! I'm excited to be starting this next challenge. I think I learned a fair amount about myself over the past six weeks and I'm looking forward to seeing what I learn this time. Things I'm going to bring forward from last challenge: 1) Walking 5,000 steps or more a day 2) Writing 3 pages a day, reading a bit each day. 3) Not weighing or measuring myself for the duration of the challenge in an effort to be more focused on the process rather than the results. Things I'm going to add daily: 1) Eat breakfast and lunch. Only one of these can be protein powder based, the other must be real food. Real food for both is a double win. 2) Doing a set of something on the Bowflex to build my confidence using the machine. 3) Restricting my sugar intake to one item a day (in my oatmeal or as a dessert, but not both). This one isn't super hard for me so I might change this goal if it's not pushing me enough. I want shiny gold stars this time around, so I'll be using the star sticker to reward myself for meeting my goals. Ideally I'll update here every day or every second day. Looking forward to learning more this round and cheering everyone on! Snuggly Sax for tax.

Decided I need to find a way to be more consistent with my goals, especially my vitamins and finishing The Silmarillion. Goals Reading As mentioned above, it's been my goal for some time to finish reading The Silmarillion. Last challenge, I got pretty close to finishing it and I'm hoping it won't take me long into this challenge to finish the book. - I need to start setting the book in more visible spaces so I remember it more often than I have been with it out of sight. > Finished The Silmarillion during Zero Week. Stretching Now that BabyG is here and we've established somewhat of a routine, I'd like to get back to stretching. (Really I'd like to get back to working out, but want to ease into it because of healing and stuff.) Tummy BabyG needs her tummy time, but sometimes I forget it during the day (not that she doesn't get it during snuggles sometimes, but that's not exactly the same. lol) - The goal is 5 min each day when possible Vitamins Also mentioned above, I would like to be more consistent with taking my vitamins. - The plan is to count them out over the weekend and place the vitamin holder in a visible spot so I don't forget about them. ----- Maybe I should put my vitamins and The Silmarillion in the same visible spot. lol.

UPDATED THE FIRST POST with goals for the actual challenge. Anything in blue is updated. My goals this challenge are: 1. Do the physio exercises for my shoulder. That is it. As we have seen, more than one goal is not recommended. I had three goals last time and that was a spectacular failure. HOWEVER, I will add in some side goals, which are things I'll try my best to do but won't beat myself up over if they happen to not get done. I fucking swear, I was about to join the Also Doesn't Wanna theme. Okay, I still might. Anyway. The side goals are: a) Track the amount of alcohol I drink, and the amount of $$ I spend on alcohol (use a Google sheet or w/e). b) Track my bed time (leave a notebook next to my bed to make this low-effort to the point where I can't NOT do it). c) Continue the Window Quest that will likely not be completed during Week Zero (see the text in black). Not drinking for the whole challenge would ideally be a goal, but telling myself "you CANNOT have this substance!" just makes me want it more, and then not having it depletes willpower and then there's no willpower left for other, more important things. Same for bed time: "you MUST be in bed by this time!" just makes my brain go "NO!" and then blow past my self-assigned bed time. (Are there actually people out there who aren't constantly at war with themselves? What's it like?") Ideally I'll stop wanting to drink because tracking drinks is additional effort and many moments of "ugh, I could have wine but then I'd have to write it down" will likely happen. Then my alcohol tolerance will go down and drinking to excess will feel like shit and I'll want to do it even less. ALSO, in the event that I end up going through the whole 5 weeks with no alcohol (Canada Day being the only exception), I'll buy myself something worth $400 to $500 at the end of the challenge. Why this amount? Because I got my credit card bill yesterday and decided to add up all money spent at the liquor store and it was $457 😐 Awakening didn't work too well last time, so let's continue going in the opposite direction. What is the opposite of awakening? FUCKING SLEEPING. Week zero will consist of NOTHING except un-fucking my sleeping situation, because I keep getting told that everything else somehow falls into place if one gets enough sleep? Seems fake, but what have I got to lose. I especially need to deal with the blinds and curtains situation. There were some extensive renovations made to my room in 2016. Windows were replaced, walls got new insulation, the electrical was re-done, and a hardwood floor was put in. It was quite nice to be able to not fucking freeze to death in the winter time and also to have more than one electrical outlet available. Fancy $300 blackout blinds were ordered and brought home and...are still not installed. In 2022. Curtains? Lol, forget about it. So, since then, I've just been jamming the end of some towels in the top of the windows to make blinds. The towels need to be fairly thick to keep the light out, but apparently this messes up the top of the windows and they won't close, or something. This was never a problem before, but as of one week ago mom insists that it is, and she has replaced the towels that actually kept the light out with a thin sheet of fabric (pale, see-through) in one window, and a darker piece of fabric (short, leaves a gap close to where my face is) in the other window. The result is that I now wake up at 5:30 in the fucking AM every day. Every time I suggest that HEY, WE SHOULD INSTALL THOSE BLINDS THAT WE PAID $300 FOR YEAH? I am met with "No, not now!" ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Combine that with a late bedtime and trouble falling and staying asleep, I've only had between 3 and 4 hours of sleep every night this week, even less on the weekend, and I am going absolutely fucking crazy and I'm constantly exhausted and OMFG this needs to fucking end. Step 1. Remove the mold from the bottom of the window frames. Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention: there's mold on the bottom of the window frames because the windows were left open during a thunderstorm less than a month after the renovations were completed. Step 2. Put painter's tape around the window frame areas. I also forgot to mention: the window frames were not painted. Step 2.5. Do we even have paint? If yes, great, skip this step. If no, go buy paint. It's going to be white paint, so there should (in theory) not be any arguments about what paint color to get. Step 3. Paint window frames. Step 4. INSTALL THE FUCKING BLINDS. Mom is going out of town this coming weekend, so I'll be able to do this both a) without having to ask for permission, and b) without being micro-managed the whole time. Step 5. Buy curtain rods and curtains and install those too if I'm feeling extra motivated. Ugh, I forgot step 0.5 where I'll need to un-clutter the spaces below the windows, and now I'm looking at this whole list of steps and am realizing that I will probably not be able to do all of this within one week. I'll try, but I'm also not expecting miracles. Or very much sleep 😕 The other part of the Week Zero challenge: don't have any booze during Week Zero. This doesn't require that I actually do anything, so hooray for what should be an easy win and huge pre-challenge momentum boost. Boy oh boy did that not happen 😅 But this will be addressed during the challenge. Will come up with challenge goals later.

Hokay...now that the work front is somewhat stabilized, here goes. Broadly speaking, I want to build on the successes of the previous challenge. The waking up early was a huge boon, so that's going to take center stage with this challenge. Keeping up with the lifts has generally been successful (though that was when they were easy), so those stay put as well. Piano has kind of fallen by the wayside. For now, as much as it pains me to admit this, I need to put that one down. I expect that I'll pick it back up later (I intend to, at least), but I'm starting to get overloaded with other things that need to be taking a higher priority for the time being. One of those higher priority elements is beefing up my coding chops. Now that I'm using a home built application to track my lifts, I need to spend some time getting better at coding so that I can improve its functionality. So I'm swapping out regular piano practice with a regular React study. This is temporary until I can beef up my coding abilities, at which point I plan to bring the regular piano practices back. French language practice on DuoLingo stays. As does keeping the budget updated. And for now, that's where we'll start, though I anticipate this will all get changed by the end. In other news...I really ought to make these challenges more interesting. Maybe build a storyline around them or something. I keep mulling over it, but haven't really settled on any ideas I like yet. Nope...not adding complexity now. Complexity hurts progress. Just move forward. Hash out the details later. So, the challenge as it stands: 1. Wake up by 7 am each morning. 2. Lifts 3 days per week (using a modified Starting Strength program). 3. React study for a minimum of 5 minutes each day. 4. French study on DuoLingo for a minimum of 5 minutes each day. 5. Update the budget daily.

For awhile now I have kind of felt like I am just following the ebb and flow of life because that is easier for me when things start getting complicated. I have got a lot accomplished with my yard and house which I am very proud about... but I feel that I have been neglecting my weight loss journey for awhile now. To the point I have been questioning why my weight loss journey is so important and if its even possible. Despite being 75lbs overweight, for whatever reason I am just not feeling the urgency at the moment. But alas, I should do something right? I won't lie...calorie tracking and exercise are not on my radar but what I can (and want to) do is to continue making progress on my house and yard (free exercise), lessen my spending and order less take away (lower calorie count). Quests: - Pack breakfast and lunch for when I am in office - 1 Starbucks allowed a week - Meal plan once a week - Do a chore every day - Floss every day - Drink 2L water daily Side Quests: > Review 1, 5, 10 year plan > Deliver camp stove to brother > Finish the rock garden removal > Finish setting up planters > Finish Percy painting > Stain shiplap wall > Install 3 new lights + smoke alarm

First of all, when I joined the forums and started challenges I never considered what it would be like to turn 30-challenges old. It seems like so many and like it went by so fast! But of course we all learned time has no meaning over the last few years. What will the goals for this one? I don't know. I'm at a loss for telling myself stories this time around. I guess stick with the basics until one comes to mind. Back to earning points Standard points list: Su M T W Th F Sa 3️⃣pt ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ 4 times for 12 pt wkly 2️⃣pt ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ for 8 pt 1️⃣pt ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ for 4 pt 1️⃣pt ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ for 4 pt To earn those points. Major thing for 3 pt; fitness. continue with DB Hero's Journey and running (forgot about Zombies, run!) second thing for 2 pt; stretch and/or foam roll minor thing for 1 pt; avoid alcohol (will be telling my housemates aka parents aka kind people letting us live here while we sell our house) and probably have tea as a non-water option minor thing for 1 pt; do something productive. Very vague but can be anything that isn't internetting, ie sewing, crochet, cleaning, cooking, reading, tech training no-point but important thing; check in regularly with rebels. (And this falls perfectly in line with the Mr.Willes mini challenge, though my gif game is no where as developed) Things I need to do: reschedule a dr appt since I'll be away at tech training that week. check out the Happify app (through our health benefits) see if its 👍 or 👎 find a book for betterment/edification (suggestions of all kinds welcome) update my battle log

Hi! I'm Athaclena and if you're new - I've been around a hot minute. I've slowly made some POSITIVE changes in my life - even with all of the chaos of the last couple of years (and throwing in a couple of moves in there). Now, we've bought a (hopefully) forever home, in the mountains, with high speed internet. I survived the pandemic fully employed. We've moved ALL THE STUFF for hubby's side gig (well, our side gig, his main gig which we're hoping to be more than a hobby) to the new home since there's space (big workshop + house). First big show since the COVID shutdown is DONE - and I have no travel on the horizon (well, a week in September for a meeting of all of the Sales Engineers). AT LAST I don't have 20 bazillion things getting in the way of what I need to do for ME. To that end, while there's certainly a bazillion things to do that are related to our (not so little) homestead project, we're taking a much needed BREAK and will be starting to tackle those things (slowly - not all at once) in a few weeks - but for the CHALLENGE, I'm going to work on a few things that I can't seem to get the hang of. 1) 15 minutes of movement EVERY DAY 2) Get enough dang sleep 3) At least TRY to include veggies in one meal per day 4) One thing to improve the house per day - Run Rosie the robot in a room, do a load of laundry, etc. 5) Keep the kitchen clean (it's ok to yeet that from the list a couple of times a week, but I need to not let it get bad) - basically try to keep the place "company ready" - even though we're a hike from everyone and it's HIGHLY unlikely someone is going to swing by for a "surpise" visit - but I also don't want to have to spend 2 hours whirlwind cleaning to feel like I can let someone in the door either. Granted, that's not been a big problem for the last 2ish years - but I need to NOT slide back into how things were when I felt like I was drowning in Atlanta..... I'll try to keep up with check-ins. Sometimes I do - sometimes I don't LOL. But I'll try!

Daily Quests Molding Mobility 5x/wk I was only able to achieve this one week of five last time, so I’m going to keep this as is and see if I can get there. Commitment: Molding Mobility 5x/wk Daily steps (avg 6000) - My steps decreased on average over the last challenge, so I need to keep focusing on this. I’m going to try to break it down and work towards 425 steps an hour to see if that makes it easier Commitment: Daily steps (avg 6000) Read in Kindle - I’m starting to use Kindle Insights. My goal is to break both my daily and weekly streaks. Current: Weekly - 24 weeks, Daily, 30 days. Goal: Weekly - 104 weeks, Daily, 51 days. Commitment: Read in the Kindle every day Quests Gain clarity on one of my strategic milestones by shifting gears to focus on my mission more. Deliverable is to rewrite my strategic milestone and identify some tasks and objectives. To do that I plan to interview hobbyists, host a conversation amongst hobbyists, and keep up my weekly newsletter and the book club. Commitment: Newsletter plus one activity per week My mission states that I see myself becoming a creator of shared, adventurous experiences of craftiness, creativity, learning, and community. I want to keep track and see how much I’m doing that. Commitment: Participate in 1 shared experience per wk of Craft Lunch, Book Club, SF, etc. Update our home living spaces to match who we are and how we’re living now. I was trying to do too much, so I’ve simplified this and set up motivation. Our daughter is coming home for a visit in September, so while most days the space I’m working on is my home office, while she’s here it will be the guest room, so I need to get it ready. Commitment: Complete 1 item from the list in the home office per week List Consolidate paperwork in the file cabinet Put Neotropolis craft supplies and props away Organize things from my old work office to keep, throw away, donate or sell Organize and store office supplies Organize the closet Bring elements of adventure into life in big ways and small. One of my values is adventure, last quarter I tried to do something adventurous every week. If I’m honest that got to be a bit much, so I’m dialing it back, even though I believe it’s what helped keep me sane. This time I’m looking at one adventure each month. An adventure counts if it is multi-day and involves travel. This month I’ll be spending 4 days and 3 nights in the San Diego area enjoying some fun in the sun, a wedding, and cheering for my husband and friends at a triathlon. Commitment: Complete a monthly travel multi-day adventure Prepare for a retirement that will allow us to live comfortably with funds for regular adventures. Our next adventure is a family cruise including my parents, step-siblings, and spouses. It will not include our children. I want to make sure that IF something should happen I’ve done the pre-work to make that go smoother for our adult daughter if she should have to deal with that. Commitment: 20% progress from the wizard/tutorial to complete Will each week before we go to Alaska Commit to mental, physical, and spiritual growth so I can be content, active, and aligned. My objective is to create a toolkit journal that I can thumb through when I have time or need to practice self-care. Commitment: Add 1 self-care practice to my journal per week Bonus/Side Quest Stretch goal: Start adding in the new Strength & Mobility workout I found Zero Week Progress Newsletter plus 1activity per week ☑️☑️ 1 shared experience per wk of Craft Lunch, Book Club, SF, etc. ☑️☑️ 1 item from list to in home office per week ☑️ Complete a monthly travel multi-day adventure ❌ 20% progress in wizard/tutorial to complete Will ❌ Molding Mobility 5x/wk ☑️☑️☑️ Daily steps (avg 6000) ❌ 4,459 avg. Add 1 self-care practice to my journal per week ❌ Read in Kindle ☑️☑️☑️☑️☑️☑️☑️ Strength & Mobility workout ❌

For a long time, my work has consistently ran about 50 hours a week, and I've been kind of burned out. The last 4 weeks, we're getting closer to 60 hours, and I'm really really burned out. I've been recognizing troubles with basic self care getting worse, and I haven't managed to keep up with challenges for a while, but I do better with taking care of myself when I'm at least trying to do a challenge, so this time, the challenge is the challenge. A little bit of setting myself up to take care of myself, a little bit of moving when I tend to be overly sedentary, and a little bit of being here. Fill pill containers every Sunday. Fill water bottle every morning. On any day off, walk around the block at least once. Read someone else's post daily. Post something weekly.

I don't.

I was all ready to come into this challenge with some baby steps to get me going. Well, they may be even more smaller steps as I am starting off just trying to survive. The hits just keep on coming. So last challenge started with our oldest cat being put down, then 3 weeks later our other cat followed. I ended up being sick after coming back from Vegas. Still am a bit, though I am feeling better. Unfortunately, my wife and youngest son have covid. They have been isolated as much as possible, and we are in masks whenever we have to be in the same room. Honestly, I don't know how I didn't get it from my wife. I had been sleeping on the couch, because I was sick and didn't want it to spread to her. I was also coughing really bad, so I wanted her to get some sleep. Finally I decided that I wasn't coughing so bad, and was feeling a bit better. I went back to sleep in the bed. The next day she tested positive. We even shared a dinner the night before. Like eating off the same plate etc. Somehow, I tested negative. Oldest tested negative as well. So we are kind of stuck inside. I've gone out to get mail, and we also got a few supplies. Mask mandate is back in effect in this area as well. Really trying to limit any contact with people. Wife is also dealing with a huge stomach ulcer, and could even need surgery for that. Will see how thins progress. All this, and towards the end of this challenge, I get to have a colonoscopy. I've been joking about getting a alien probing since I made the appointment haha. That is for July 18th. There will be prep I have to do for this too. 3 days before the procedure no Legumes, Corn, Nuts, Peas, Tomatoes, Carrots, or Watermelon. The day before Clear liquids only. They say Be creative with "meals" haha. At 5 pm take 4 Dulcolax tablets and drink one bottle of the Magnesium Citrate. The day of the procedure, I need to wake up 4-5 hours before scheduled time. This will be 2:30 am for me. I need to take 2 dulcolax tablets, and drink the second bottle of the Magnesium citrate, plus drink 24 ozs of clear liquids over the next hour. 3 hours prior to procedure, nothing to eat or dink. Anyhow, let's try to get the challenge started with some thing I can control. Goal 1 - I can get sleep under control Being sick, I actually was sleeping a lot. Took naps and such. I knew I started feeling better when I started staying up past 2am haha. Just going to try to keep it simple enough. Get to reading at 10:30 PM, then get to sleep at 11:30 PM. There are a couple of nights that might interfere. I bowl on Thursdays, and it is kind of late, but most times I would get home before 10 pm. The other night is Friday nights my wife and I usually watch all our shows from the previous week. Sometimes we do go past 10:30 PM. A night like that, I just need to get to sleep as soon as possible afterwards. 2 points every day. 14 points for the week. Goal 2 - Food and testing glucose I want to track and do many things, but I am going to start off simple for now. Just too much dealing with other things. Week 1 I will start off with no snacking after dinner. I've also not been checking my blood sugar levels recently. I want to at least do it once a day. Maybe week 2 or week 3 I can add in calorie tracking or something, but right now this is my start. Week 1 - No snacks after dinner, plus testing blood sugar one a day. 2 points every day. 14 points for the week Goal 3 - Movement, exercise and walking I did have a nice little plan to get in some exercise, and add in some walking etc. Just things are weird for all that now. Just going to focus what I can now. Week 1 I need to get up and move around 4 times a day at least. Each time I get up, I am going to do a set of exercises. So get up and do like 10 squats. Do that 4 times, and I'm good. Next day swap to something else. Each day I can swap out lower body, then upper body next day. Sunday would be a rest day. I had planned on doing a couple of laps around the apartment complex walking area. Since I want to limit my exposure to people (even though I am sure I would be spread out enough), this isn't happening for now. Our apartment is pretty tiny, and I can walk some in here though. As I get up during the day, I'll take a lap or two in the apartment, then do whatever exercise. This way I can get some movement in, and start working some muscle to get everything ready for bigger and better things Week 1 - Get up 4 times a day. Walk the apartment 2 times, then do a set of exercises from the list. 8 points each day, 4 on Sunday (just walking on Sunday). 52 points for the week Goal 4 - Cards & Comics I really need to go though old cards and comics I have here. There is a lot of space taken up since we got rid of our storage area. Some of the comics I got from my friend when he died. Some are not bagged and boarded. Some of my own are not as well, or doubled into one bag. Either way, I bought some new boards and bags to hopefully get then all corrected. I also will need to get them sorted all out to see what all I have. My old cards have been needing to get through for a long time. I have gone through a few boxes, but I have many many more to get though. Plus I have to see what cards I have left, because my brother went through them awhile ago, and stole mostly all of my good one I had. Really what I have left is probably 80-90% junk Anyhow, I want to dedicate time to get though a chunk. If I am going to be stuck inside, might as well, right Spend at least 20 minutes a day working on this. 20 minutes a day spent in the cards/comics 2 points per day, 14 for the week. So there is my challenge. I hope to be able to add more in week 2, but kind of need to see how things go. Let's hope this is a good start up for me at least. Measurements: (will get once wife isn't isolated) Chest - Waist - Bicep (L) - Bicep (R) - Thigh (L) - Thigh (R) - Weight - Points Week 1 - 0/94 Week 2 - Week 3 - Week 4 - Week 5 - Points total - 0/

Hi All! I did up a brief (re)introduction to myself a few weeks ago over at respawn point a few weeks ago, but always feel weird about starting a challenge late, so didn't do much else, but I'm still in time for the new challenge, so here I am doing the things . . . A very wise (video game) woman once complained about people that "stand in a fire and complain that it is hot". And that is what I have been doing. I complain about how I look. I complain about how I feel. I complain about not being able to keep up with my little hoodlum children. And yet at the end of the day, what do I do but plonk myself down on the inferno of my couch, and add the lighter fluid of ice cream to make the flames just that little bit hotter. So these are my first steps to get out of the damned fire. They may be small, but at least they are something. So, without further exposition .. . my challenges; Goal is to drink at least one of my big bottles of water every day. I know, I know! minimum should be two. But one is better then none, and honestly, once I start drinking water, I always end up drinking more, so better to set my goal to "some" and exceed then to set my goal to "correct" and balk and fail at doing it. Doesn't matter when I do it - I can chug the whole dang thing at 11:59 pm and it will still count. Loot: sticker for my sad, un-adorned water bottle. Why do I want to achieve this goal: hydrate or diedrate, amirite? Feel better, feel less hungry, less headaches, more bathroom breaks, and set a good example for the hoodlums Obstacles in my way: water is gross, tea is delicious Actions needed to achieve my goal; become "that" person and carry water bottle everywhere. Make sure to fill the bottle at the start of the day with tap water from home, which is slightly less awful tasting then water from tap at work. Goal is to stretch and walk at least once every day. I sit too much and everything hurts. I'd love to commit to regular multiple work outs a week. I am not there yet. I want to be, but it took me months to work up to that before. I think I keep failing at my attempts to respawn cause I am trying to jump in whole hog. So lets work on the incremental change. Walks can be any time, anywhere - I lose momentum when I try to "schedule" it for early in the morning, then feel bad about not being able to get out of bed. Bonus points if I take the kids or the dog with me. Streching can be morning or night, or even at desk during the day. Loot: fake hair scrunchie (not at all related to the challenge, but really want one, so yah motivation!!) Why do I want to achieve this goal: More movement, less ouchie. More calories out. Get body ready to eventually start work outs again. Set a good example Obstacles in my way: Sleeping in, refusing to get up from my desk at work, stretches that don't suit my needs, Actions needed to achieve this goal: keep experimenting with stretches till I find some that I really like, remember I've got the world's cutest dog who deserves walkies, set alarms on my phone to remind me to take my breaks Goal is to track all the things. It may seem low-tech and harder to do then keeping it in an app, but for now, track it in my paper planner, just so it's all in one place. If I need to, I can log it in various apps in my phone and then mark it off in my planner. But I should be at least trying to log it all in once a day. This includes tracking meals (which will be put into an app, but then checkmarked off in the paper planner) Loot: order my new planner early (my year resets in September) and include some "splurge" features in it. Why do I want to acheive this goal: There is no point drinking water and stretching/walking if I don't see that I am doing it. If I forget to log it a day, I eventually spiral into not doing it. And if I physically see how much I have eaten, it's easier for me to make the decision to not eat more. I can't argue with cold hard data. Obstacles in my way: taking time to put everything in the planner, data spread across too many apps. Actions needed to achieve this goal: keep planner on hand at all times. swap out current watch that I love but that I don't like the app, with one of my old fitbits I will try to post here regularly-ish with updates. Expect Gifs, anecdotes of the offspring, and maybe even pictures of the dog for she is cute and needs a bigger fan club

Hey, nerds, I'm back for a new challenge after missing a few. Life was just a lot the last few months and I had to step away from the forums for a bit. Anyway, giving this challenge a go, the aim being to hang out with you guys and be more present here, and get done whatever I'm able to get done. I have some things on my list (keep doing workouts, work on my novel outline and cook more) but beyond that, right now I will be happy with whatever I'm able to do. Happy challenge, nerds.

I'm hearing Yoda say, "Want or no want. Do." Challenge accepted! Daily professional and leisure reading Daily Prayer Push/Pull 4 days per week Let's get it on!

I haven't been here in a LONG time, But I miss the accountability, and NEED it, so I'm back to try to get back in the habit of moving my body. I went through a program to create a fifteen year plan, and I've been overwhelmed by trying to do all the things, so I'm trying to do a little less... with better balance. Or something. Still figuring it out Stealing Rookie's format because when it works it works. Challenge Quests Do at least 15 min of “Molding Mobility” routine 5x / week Walk 2x / week - to get 10,000 steps in a day Edited Walk Goal = Increase monthly daily average steps by 36% from 4,383 steps to 5988 steps average (In Huawei Health App) Life Goals Update our home living spaces to match who we are and how we’re living now. Commit to mental, physical, and spiritual growth so I can be content, active, and aligned Prepare for a retirement that will allow us to live comfortably with funds for regular adventures Create a program for coaching others based on my own experiences and learning Bring elements of adventure into life in big ways and small Important Dates LA Kings Game 1 5/2/2022 Adventure Ontario Reign Hockey and playoffs 5/4/2022 Adventure LA Kings Game 2 5/4/2022 Adventure Star Wars Day 5/4/2022 Adventure LA Kings Game 3 @home 5/6/2022 Adventure LA Kings Game 4 @ home 5/8/2022 Adventure Mother's Day Brunch 5/8/2022 Adventure LA Kings Game 5 5/10/2022 Adventure LA Kings Game 6 @ home 5/12/2022 Adventure LA Kings Game 7 5/14/2022 Adventure Renaissance Faire 5/22/2022 Adventure More TBD To Do - Important Dates edition Book Alaska Cruise excursions for August trip 5/6/2022 Adventure Make slide show from Neotropolis 5/7/2022 Adventure Make Kinemaster video from Neotropolis 5/7/2022 Adventure Added: SUBSCRIBED list building live class 5/14-6/14 Career Growth Do session with Fidelity to compare to Ameriprise 5/16/2022 Retirement - postponed Added : Master Your Morning workshop 5/16-5/20 Massage appointment 5/18/2022 Growth - cancelled Follow-up with Ameriprise Agent 5/31/2022 Retirement Make a plan or set the goal for adjusting retirement based on recommendations 6/11/2022 Retirement Send out Monday Musings Newsletter - every Monday Career Growth Lead Armchair Excavations Book Club - 5/12/2022, 5/26/2022, and 6/2/2022 Career Growth Fiscal Year Planning for 22-23 6/11/2022 Career Growth Add - International Nature Journaling Week, June 1-7 - one jounal entry per day according to theme Add - Buckland's complete book of witchcraft, 15 lessons - make progress every day - goal to be finished by August 1/Lughnasadh or at least the Autumn Equinox to give me time to plan for the next cycle/ wheel of the year.

Really excited to get this posted and get going on a challenge. I've been semi-around for the last two challenges (didn't even make my own thread for the last one), but I'm feeling really motivated to get going this time and make some visible progress. (I've been refreshing the page all day to see if the this challenge was up!) I've been thinking about this next challenge, and what I think I want to do is purge. Less isn't more; less is air to breathe and space to think and move. I've been in my new place a year now and I'm still choking on boxes. Good chance that most of that stuff isn't really needed, and if it would be useful, it needs to be put away in a place where it can be used, not lost in a box. Also want to go through my bookshelves and get rid of things I doubt I'll ever read. I'm feeling crushed by stuff and mess and feeling so overwhelmed all I can do is ignore it and hope it goes away. Time to make it go away. Other two goals, 1. Drink water at home. Really good about drinking it at work, but all I tend to drink at home is sweet tea. I've got a bottle. I've got cold water, goal is drink at least 1 bottle of water every day off. 2. I need to move more. I've got a yoga DVD around somewhere that I really like. Need to find it. Moved my tv and plugged in my Xbox so I have a way to play it. Goal is to do the first section (about 15 minutes) 3 times a week.

So I have been doing the challenge work for over a week. I started last Saturday. But I couldn’t bring myself to write the post for it. Then Friday through Monday this week I stopped because, well life is hard and I am tired, out of spoons. Just couldn’t. Last challenge took a ton out of me. I am TIRED. I had some major stress happen last challenge and well, I am not okay. Short version is work got TOXIC and Hostile. HR is involved, and while I should not have anything coming back on me as far as discipline, it has made going to work the hardest thing ever for like 3 months. Plus it is all anyone talks about now. And they want to know what happened, and they want to know if I am okay. I will admit, for the 3rd time in my life, I let someone abuse me. I fell for it. I should of known better. I have been trying to heal for over a month. I know this won’t “go away instantly” but I want to be better. Meanwhile, because the source of the issues from work is not currently working, all their work comes to me. I can’t see what they had going, or where things I need are, but I have been told “I am now the lead on coding.” I am 2 years out of college and the only programmer. Guy that isn’t there, is not organized and we have a ton of deadlines that are not miss able in JULY. Boss is at least being cool, but until I see what is going on, I will not not be anxious about this. Yes, it is a different level of stress, and a smaller one, but its still weighing on me. The Mom issue is still well, an issue. Her Texts are getting more passive aggressive. I took her a plant and a card on Moms day, more out of routine, but I didn’t visit or talk. Bio Brother asked 9 days ago if anything had been resolved with Mom, and when I responded he never even sent a 2nd text. I can deal with her, but Hubby’s family asked about her today, and I got all weird and defensive. Hubby said he was sorry about that, and he told them not to, but they don’t listen. I am tired. I have not been sleeping. Turns out I can take 1 mg Melatonin and sleep for 11+ hours, but I can’t do that on work nights. My nightmares are back, I had an anxiety moment at work that I upset boss (I went and talked to him, I didn’t, but I explained I just wasn’t sure and wanted to make sure the air was clear) but I have no confidence. I have no strength left. I am just tired and I need to heal. I need to heal from the trauma at work. It was trauma. I am still asking people to walk to me to my car. I am still walking around making sure he isn’t there. I need to heal from the Trauma of my mom ,and not let someone asking “So how is she doing” upset me so bad. I need to heal from the point before things started to get better where the dark of Depression had no light. I need to heal from being so mad at myself for never stopping any of this. I need to heal from spraining my big toe chasing Agent Ninja when she got out. So that’s what I am trying to do. Yes, I am doing my boxes and trying to do points and I am walking so much (to process and deal with anxiety), but I would love to say “Hey, this is the road to heal real fast” but that road doesn’t really exist. So I am fumbling through healing. I am hoping to be here more, I am hoping I can do boxes to prove I can do things right and that I am not lazy, stupid, old, worthless, ect. But right now, I just want each day to even slightly better than the day before. Really, I just want to be okay. Please don't expect fun gifs or stories here. I don't know what this will look like, but please be kind and supportive. That is what I am hoping for here.

Welp..... last challenge went okay, and if I'm being honest, we'll see how active I am with this one. Considering moving everything to my battle log for this one, but at least putting something here just in case. Baby's due date is tomorrow so I've picked some, hopefully, simple goals. Vitamins As it has been with pretty much all of my challenges, this one is staying again. I didn't do so well with this one last challenge and hope to do better with keeping ontop of things this time. > To help meet this goal, I plan to count out my vitamins over the weekends. Rest This one is simple: Rest when possible. > A lot of resting will be happening when Baby is asleep. Presence On the opposite side of resting will be existing with and taking care of Baby. The goal here is to remain present and not be distracted by my phone. I'd like to get the time spent on my phone down since it's time I could spend doing other things, especially once Baby's here. lol Book This one doesn't matter to me so much, but since I've been working on trying to finish The Silmarillion, this will be a goal till I finish it. lol > Read The Silmarillion at least once a week.

My calendar gets busier as the weather gets nicer and we welcome spring! I am looking forward to these adventures after such a long winter. We are currently still doing keto though I am currently pushing for us to do more of a “low carb” 80% of the time thing. We agree we like that our blood sugar levels seem more stable so I’m okay not adding carbs back in completely but I’d like the option to be there. Mr.R and roomy are still losing weight so they are happy. I’m holding strong at 269-271lbs. I need to start tracking…. I said that basically all last challenge. Challenge Quests - Do “Molding Mobility” routine 5x / week - Walk 2x / week - Paint 1x / week - Meal Plan 1x/ week Challenge Goals - Make the outside patio area a place we want to spend time - Add some “curb appeal” to our house (front yard/garden freshen) [in progress] - Finish Monty painting - Finish Percy painting [in progress] Important Dates May 3 - patio furniture delivered May 10 - Daisy’s 17th birthday May 11 - Daisy’s hoof X-rays finally + chiro May 12 - Fly fishing lesson To Do - Important Dates edition - get wading shoes - take out cash for Daisy chiro - apply for new Daisy insurance - bundle up horse blankets before May 26 - renew OE membership - print insurance forms (vet appt) - contact fishing guide

...and I'm back. Keys McGee, otherwise known as TheFlyingAccountant otherwise known as... eh...I think that's pretty much been it. Believe it or not, this is my third try at making this post. Let's see if I actually hit the submit button this time around. So, first, let's dispense with the challenge details and then we'll get everyone caught up on what's been going on. The challenge will play out as follows: 1. Starting Strength workouts 3 days out of the week to begin this Saturday*. It's the same A Day / B Day setup that I had the last time. Same workouts and all. Squats, Bench, Overhead Press, Deadlift. 2. NF update at least every other day. Copy pasta screenshots from my task management application are strongly encouraged**. (beginning tomorrow) 3. 15 minutes of piano practice each day. (Beginning tomorrow.) 4. Workday begins at 8 am and ends at 6 pm***. (beginning tomorrow) 5. One cookbook meal at least once per week****. (beginning this weekend) 6. And whatever else happens to be on my daily task list in click up in the screenshot*****. ---------------------- So, what's been going on all this time? Well... First, I'm proud to announce that I succeeded in my "No alcohol for all of 2021" challenge from last year. My wife very nearly persuaded me to cut it off an hour or two early for New Years Eve (because no one would know, right?), but thanks to some timely intervention from my best buds who reminded me just how far I'd come, I made it the full year--Midnight Jan 1, 2021 all the way to Midnight Jan 1, 2022. Of course, at 12:01 am, all bets were off and I poured myself a beer, that, tbh, didn't even really taste that great. I still have a beer every now and then, but now it's more of an "eh, I can take it or leave it" kind of thing. Second, Mrs. Keys McGee got herself a new job, so our financial situation is a little better than when I last left you all. Sure, inflationary economy, we're at the brink of WWIII, never a dull moment, we all know how that goes...but still. It's been nice going back to two incomes. And what else...I've learned a little bit of coding. I can make some rudimentary CRUD applications (another reason why I'm not starting my workouts until Sat is that buys me time to put some sort of basic workout tracker together, but hell, if I need to, I'll just do it old school on pen and paper.) Also, whole new lease on my piano life. After some hangouts and deep talks with one of my best friends (also a very talented musician), I learned that I'd been approaching the instrument all wrong. Or at least, mostly wrong. He gave me some coaching and let me borrow one of his best piano books, How to Play the Piano Despite Years of Lessons by Ward Cannel and Fred Marx. Without getting too much into it, the basic idea is that you play music using a sort of skeleton pattern. Left hand plays a bass note on the 1 and 3, plays chord tones on the 2 and 4 (the backbeat), and right hand is playing the melody. And you build from there with all sorts of variations and whatnot. It's re-kindled my love for the instrument for sure, and has made it feel less like drudgery. So that's about it. Hope all y'all have been holding it down. Sorry I've been gone so long but...eh...what's my excuse...hm...I know...let's go with this one: I'm a Sagittarius and this is just a thing we do sometimes. Yep, that works. ---------------------- *I'm starting it on Saturday as a compromise to myself. Part of me is not really feeling like putting together this challenge. For one, I'm kind of not in the mood for it, and for another, well, flip through my post history and you'll probably find more than a few "respawns." Intellectually, I think that's a good thing. It means that no matter how many times I get knocked the hell down, I keep getting the hell back up. But there's what it is and then there's what it feels. And right now, I don't feel like doing anything that smells remotely close to self improvement. So, I compromise with myself. You don't have to take it all the way, not right now, but you're at least going to take the first step. You can manage that much. **One of the things that led to my falling out of the challenge the last time was having too many task trackers in too many places. Right around my last few challenges was around the same time I started picking up a new task manager. I won't say I "love" it. I'll say that I like it a lot. Problem is that I was keeping track of my daily tasks there, also keeping track of my tasks in my work stuff. Also a paper journal where I would log workout progress. And then updating stuff in NF. As important as I think participating these challenges are for my mental health (hence why I keep coming back to this wonderful and supportive community time after time ), I was experiencing task tracker overload... ...and then I discovered that I can copy and paste screen clips directly into these posts. Problem solved. ***I think it's a holdover from my teaching days where I would mercilessly try to cram my entire workday into 4 hours of non-stop work, then one hour for lunch, and then another 4 hours of non-stop work because I ABSOLUTELY MUST BE DONE WITH MY WORKDAY AT 5 PM!!!!!@@#!@#!#$!. It adds a lot of stress to me and makes me rather unpleasant to be around, especially if something interrupts my workday. I don't even schedule doctor's appointments unless absolutely necessary because OMG I can't take the hit to my workday! Can't get much work done when you're sick or dead, dude. I need to be okay with clocking out an hour later than I usually do, especially if it means that I spread my work out a little more and end the day a little less frayed than I would be otherwise. ****My name is Keys McGee, and I hoard cookbooks without actually cooking anything from most of them. AMA. *****Usually, just "update the budget" and "clean out the inbox."

The half-Elf slowly opened his eyes. His surroundings were unfamiliar, and yet very familiar because everything was in utter disarray--as usual. Comfort, despite lying on the cold stone floor. For how long had he been asleep? There was a ringing noise coming from...somewhere. Either from somewhere in the room, or from inside his mind. "Snooze...where is the snooze button" he groaned as his eyes closed again. Even though this place looked like a train wreck and had a large hole in the ceiling, it felt safe. He sighed and turned and tried to fall back asleep. Wait...where did the pillow go? The blanket? The ringing noise continued, gradually getting louder. "eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE" "Oh my God, shut the fuck up" said the half-Elf as he groggily sat up. He opened his eyes again, frustrated. The frustration was instantly replaced with surprise once he saw the ethereal floating cat hovering only inches from his nose. The cat also seemed frustrated. After an awkward moment or three, the cat finally spoke. "You've been asleep for nearly 40 years!" The cat's voice was dripping with disapproval. "Bullshit. I went on a bunch of adventures and shit, and I vaguely remember training as both a Wizard and a Monk at one point, and then as an assassin and a ranger, and at one point I was also training with Warriors I think? And I made several attempts at being a Druid too! And...wait, who the fuck are you, anyway?" "I'm you." The cat paused briefly. "And yeah, you've done things in the past, but were they always things you wanted to do? Or were you collecting all these achievements to impress other people or to gain approval? In any case, you've been multiclassing in Disappointment for the last few years, and I'm here to stop that." "Wow. Ok. Pulling no punches I see. So what would you, in your infinite genius, have me do then?" "You--I used to enjoy being creative, so that would be a good starting point." "Does writing this story on the Internet count?" The cat gave an exasperated sigh "I guess. Also, you've put on 15 pounds of blubber in the past year, so try to turn that around too. And for fuck's sake, stop getting drunk and sleeping less than 6 hours every night!" ---------- Hi. I'm Ahyar Dreamspark, a new persona and user name created for the NF forums to help me 1) get my shit together, and 2) vent on the Internet while remaining anonymous (my previous user name was my name IRL and that was rather traceable). I'll be (re)starting with fairly simple goals. Goals that I have always failed at in the past. But this time it will be different, because I have a new generic fantasy character user name so my identity won't get all attached to the outcome of said goals and then immediately proceed to sabotage my efforts. The goals: 1 - Do the shoulder exercises that the physiotherapist said I should do, every day. One of my big goals is to be able to press a handstand, and I can't do that if my shoulder flexibility is shit. The physio exercises will make my shoulder flexibility less shit, especially on the accursed left side. 2 - Do at least one thing every day that involves exercise or physical activity. The weather isn't dark and wet and cold anymore, and I have enough workout equipment at home for the days where it does rain, so I have literally no excuse to not do this. 3 - Do something creative daily, no matter how small. WEEK ZERO (more like weekend zero at this point but) GOAL - Sell the 2 sets of golf clubs and WWE figurines on FB Marketplace, because these items are currently cluttering up the sun porch. I need to have this space clear so that my Assault Air Bike can be moved there. The sun porch is both scorching hot in the summer (great for weight loss!) and has a door that can be closed to keep my pets out so they don't accidentally kill themselves by walking under the bike's pedals when I'm doing Tabatas 😐 Also, selling stuff = money.

Last challenge I had a revamp mid-way through when I realized I'd misjudged the demand of my side quest. Big ol' duh on that one. Of course selling and moving is huge. In my defense, we pushed up the time frame a lot. Like by over a year. Once the idea was out in wild we kinda decided to chase it. So packing and moving overtook continuing education as priority. Easy enough. But this last week was a doozy. A major cold, then a huge allergy reaction to spring in general... Felt well, ran 6 miles easily for the first time, then somehow I contracted the plague. Yep, that plague. Tested positive yesterday, the day after the run. So far I'm just a little run down, but not any different from what I'd expect after last week. Fingers crossed it stays that way. That's what's up as of today. Let's look forward instead. This side quest; selling this house and buy another. We plan to transition where we live this weekend. We move to my parents place for the foreseeable future while we sell this house asap and then have some actual money and no contingencies to find a new house. I'm not concerned about living with my parents for a bit. They respect the roommate situation, not the parent/child situation. Here's the challenge. Learning how to apply all the skills I've learned through my main quest challenges to this side quest. I feel like the tutorial didn't sufficiently cover 'how to use this fancy magic or artifact in a highly unusual and specific situation.' Therefore the goals this challenge are deceptively simple. House stuff: - move living situation. Mostly this isn't too hard. Just need to keep clothing and toiletries available. Move MrC's wfh setup. The hardest part is move the sidekicks 🐶 🐱 - continue to move stuff out to the various basements available to us. Sometimes people are very generous like that! This is mostly a time challenge as all the basements are about an hour away. -get house on the market asap keep myself on track: -maintain the progress I've made reducing meat from my life and general nutrition upkeep. This could be a bit interesting. Breakfast and lunch will need to be on point since dinner will be a bit beyond my control, though not bad. Mom is good about balanced meals. -maintain fitness. Different challenges in that I'm losing my pull up gym and a great park for running. We'll see what happens. I had to put my DB Hero's Journey aside last week and this week. I will jump back in when I am able to do so safely. -Don't drink more! I've worked so hard to reduce alcohol and don't want to backslide. If I do it right, mom will follow my lead. other happenings: -wedding 2.0 on May 21 -try to find a house when we can -start my machine tech apprenticeship in earnest No points this time around. I don't know how I'd assign points! Instead I will do a simple checklist in my planner and try to keep up here as I can.

Excited for my SIXTH CHALLENGE! 🥳🥳🥳 I'll be continuing my journey from my fifth challenge: