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So hello again; I'm respawning after an NF hiatus. This is my first challenge in the new 2016 format so please bear with me if I don't get it quite right in the beginning. My challenge for this month goes something like this: 1. Moderation! When it comes to chocolate, I practice moderation. I eat no more than 50g of chocolate per day. 2. Breakfast! I eat a healthy breakfast after I work out. 3. Treadlift! I follow the Treadlift workouts. 4. Alarm! I make use of my smartphone alarm app to organise my life and maintain discipline / boost mindfulness.

If video game characters just had one chance to fight the boss,video games would suck. But we get to respawn any number of times. Just like I am doing now. Hey,it's just my second try. After my respawn about a year ago,which started off tremendously great(http://rebellion.nerdfitness.com/index.php?/topic/65325-skinny-nerd-completes-25-push-ups-in-a-single-workout/), I got sidetracked by a number of reasons all of which I won't bore you with here. I guess my colossal undoing was mostly because of my constant need for motivation to do something. If I didn't feel like it, I gave up. So,I guess,in my first try,the boss won after all. And now I'm hitting 'RETRY' again. I won't say that I'l defeat the boss once and for all this time. Instead, I'l just say that I'm ready to fight the boss one more time.I won't say that I won't fail like I did last time. I'l just try something different this time. Instead of relying on motivation, I think I'l stick with discipline. I'm going to take emotion out of the equation. Maybe I won't be able to do it this time. Maybe it isn't as easy as it sounds. But I'm gonna try nonetheless. Today, after almost months of half-assing my vastly aberrant intermittent workouts, I finally did a workout that almost made my tongue drop out. Push ups:5,4,4,4(17) with 40 second breaks Squats:10,10,5,5(30) with 40 second breaks Planks:25 seconds,25 seconds(50) with 40 second breaks And it felt good!! Previously I used to dread that feeling. But today it was great. Maybe I'l just be passed out on my bed the next two days.But it definitely will be worth it. Like the title suggests, I just visualized how Tyrion would handle the fight with the Skyrim boss dragon Alduin. Weird crossover indeed, but I guess it would be fun nonetheless Although, in my story, Tyrion uses a Nightingale Bow to fight Alduin instead of the crossbow which he used to kill his father Tywin in the finale of season 4. And he fires the first arrow right at Alduin. And he isn't giving up yet

I wanted to get something down so here is a short- I am starting a re-spawn. SMART draft 1) Regular sleep schedule 2) Exercise Bike swim 3) choose fruit, vegetable or whole grains (popcorn w./o toppings) for snacks. Bonus a) Yard work or fix stuff with toddler Past Saboteurs- Stress eating when kids scream. Inconstant schedule so habit don't follow.

Howdy. This is my second shot at a 4WC. After really tanking on two of my goals, my takeaway is: make your 4WC even simpler. To give you a rough idea of what kind of a backdrop my 4WC is set against: I'm two months away from turning in my final project to graduate from our school of architecture with a Bachelor's degree. It's a three-year program, but an encounter with depression delayed me for a little bit so it'll be four years for me when I graduate. The intensity is steadily increasing, and with it my level of anxiety. Another phenomenon that occurrs when stress levels rise: I let my usually fairly balanced diet turn into crap. Not necessarily because I'm a stress eater and have to fight off cravings, but rather because I hate cooking. Generally the whole process that revolves around planning and preparing food takes a whole lot of energy on my part. But I really really like tasty, healthy food. This tendency is especially unfortunate right now, as I'm stuck on campus with very little in terms of affordable and healthy takeaway options. On many days, I end up eating chocolate bars and crap for dinner. So within a few short weeks I've gone from feeling energetic and bouncy to feeling like a sandbag. THIS MUST STOP! Now that the stage is set, here's what the ideal plot for this month's story looks like: A ) I work out a battle plan for food and see it through. It involves preparing super simple meals and snacks to take to campus, plus a few healthy takeaway meals purchased on site. Thus, I don't spend huge amounts of time, energy and worry on meal preparation, but keep myself on even keel - nutritionally and financially speaking. B ) My doctor recommended practicing PMR (Progressive Muscle Relaxation) to bring down axiety levels. In the ideal plot, I set aside 15 - 30 minutes each day to practice PMR. C ) I've found myself stalling a lot during studio hours lately, not making the most of my time. I can do better, I had a pretty good work routine in place for a while and I'm returning to that. Meaning I put in a focused 8 to 10-hour day, regardless of how I feel, and after that, I put work aside and let it be. (If you are familiar with the dynamics of architecture school, you might know that this is not always an easy thing... both peers and instructors tend to expect you to stay on long and view it as lack of dedication if you leave earlier than the rest - which doesn't exactly encourage a healthy lifestyle) So, to me a workday will look like this: 7:30 - 12:00 // lunch break // 1:00 - 4:30. When approaching deadlines, I allow myself to stay until 6:30. Helluva plot, right? No seriously, while browsing through other assassins' threads I've been really impressed by how creative some of the nerds here get in writing up their challenge! Makes me all envious and think "I wanna be that cool too!" Sorry you guys will have to put up with a rather lame thread from a non-gaming, tech-challenged, clueless rebel here. Who knows, maybe writing a kickass challenge will be my challenge a couple of challenges down the road... Looking foward to sharing another challenging month with you guys. Cheers! - and more power to ya for yours. P.S.: my character sheet + epic quest, right here.

I did my first challenge back in November ish. I kinda fizzled out during the following challenge- Now I am back. Some may catch the reference But all who challenge (or any condition that may thwart) let them know that other- "Never go up against a Cecilian when death is on the line" In my re-spawn post I started to Build the SMART Goal. I figure I will flesh it out through the end of this challenge to go in strong on the next. To- Flesh-out How to track and celebrate doing stuff Google Forum / spread sheet Little cumbersome auto summarize Easy short cut on phone NF character fuzzy on how to use Form battlelog Simple / quick no summery / progress Write formal SMART goal Define success

(No, it's not a typo). Cool/Funny Pictures will be added for everyone's amusement later. So, I am doing a bit of a respawn - I've been exercising, and working on my food plan with my NF assassin wife, but not been able to put a good challenge together. That's going to change. One of my major obstacles is my feet - I have a lot of pain. I do have Plantar Fasciitis, and I wear good orthotics for that, but I also have had a lot of pain while teaching and standing on my metatarsals. This makes it really hard to exercise, due to pain. Now, with the summer here for me, I can work on that part, and be in better shape for the fall. The first week of this challenge, I will be at a conference, with some vacation time at the end. So, although I plan to do most of what is planned here in that week, I'm not going to be upset if I don't do it all. I also joined a walking group at my work (and got a free Fitbit, yay.) The goal here is to get 10,000 steps daily, which I have yet to achieve. Still, toughening up my feet would probably help a lot. My challenge is made up of the following parts. Morning Start (6 x weekly): 21 minutes of walking (+1 minute for each week of the challenge). NF-Cool Down Stretches Morning Meditation High Protein Breakfast - goal here is 40g Core Workouts (3x weekly): In the morning of MWF, do my core workouts, starting back at the lowest level. Lunchtime Re-Boot (6x weekly): Read NF Forums for at least 10 minutes. Try to post supportive things to my fellow rangers. Take a short walk after lunch Evening Foot Stretches (6x weekly): Alternate between Kate Galliet's foot stretches and physical therapy stretches Food Plans Continue doing NF Level 4 food plan that my wife and I have gotten going Allow only two variances a week - one meal with my wife, and one meal with my friends - period. 6. Bonus Activities (3x weekly): There's a lot of things I would like to add back into my routine, but I'm not there yet. So, the idea is to add them back in as "Bonus Activities". These include: Swimming laps at my gym - something I really enjoy, and is easy on my feet "Adulting 101" - the name my wife and I have given back to basic chores. With her work schedule (4 jobs), and my crazy schedule up to now, a lot of basic things have slipped. De-cluttering our apartment, and selling stuff at a garage sale Learning more about foot pain - trying to look for better solutions Doing much neglected doctor's appointments Doing the NF Flexibility test Doing some NF Yoga Doing enough walking to get up to the 10,000 steps. There are some cool parks around here to ranger in.

Well, I've drifted again and didn't focus on being healthy! I've had some personal issues, been struggling to finish my thesis, some injuries and many many parties. But that has taken me from the road I want to take. It's time to get back on the horse!

My total lack of conditioning and build up of mass attributable to being a slacker during the ensuring months since my last treasure hunt shall no longer be. I am now mentally and emotionally prepared to take the world by storm. After reading an excellent article on Lifehacker, I decided to sign right up. I have the following chains that I shall not break. My rebellious goals align with them directly. I'm going to restart with a fresh mind and make the smallish changes that will last. Goal #1 -Eat Clean and Fuel the Machine +2 CON Booze only the weekend No sugary drinks whatsoever No fast food whatsoever Goal #2 - Work the Machine +2 STR, +2 DEX, +2 STA Sunday is for running Monday through Friday are for T-25 Goal #1 - Enhance Your Calm +1 WIS Evenings are for meditation Week 1: 5 minutes per day Week 2: 10 minutes per day Week 3: 15 minutes per day Week 4: 20 minutes per day

Well, I'm trying another challenge. This time my goals are even teensier. This time, I shall kick challenge booty. I'm not setting any weight goals, as I've stopped focusing on my weight. If I can look back on my day and know that I ate healthy food, not too much of it, and exercised at least one hour, I'm ignoring what the scale says! Food/Fitness Be active for at least one hour per day, 6 days per week Complete 4 weeks of Bodyweight workout without missing any workouts Avoid caffeine after 4 PM Level Up My Life Meditate for at least 10 minutes per day, 6 days per week (more if I can) Good luck everyone!

Hi, Im Bill. A bit more than a year ago I started on this crazy little boat ride we call fitness. After a few missteps and false starts I found Nerd Fitness and CrossFit. I became a devout Ranger and fell in love with the functional fitness community. Everything was roses untill about a month ago. Two of my closest friends and training partners quit our gym for personal reasons. I tried to keep going regularly but I just wasnt having the same kind of fun I had thrived on. Then out of the blue my work schedule changed and I could only go maybe twice a week. I was no longer getting my monies worth out of my membership. Lame. This prompted me to quit and try something new. After some soul searching (and some Google searching), a few at home workouts, and some financial balancing, I decided to build my own garage gym. At first I wanted to make a space that I could do CrossFit on my own. low celings and a limited budget made that impossible. Calisthenics seemed like the way to go. Ive built a rig in the back yard for pullups and dips. Ive boarded up one wall for handstand practice. Ive built a plyo box because why not. Ive even been practicing parkour vaults and rolls. Its so much fun and the heaviest thing I have is a kettlebell. I guess this means Im not a Ranger anymore. Thats cool. I can be just as proud to be an Assassin. Or maybe a hybrid class? What would you call someone who does bodyweight work, dabbles in parkour, runs mud runs, rock climbs and backpacks, and still competes in CrossFit when work allows? For now Ill just call him Me.

I'm not going take too much time write something clever here. I'm just going to say that I faltered for some time and fell into anxiety-ridden funk and allowed myself to wallow in sloth and gluttony. That is no longer the case. Today I embark on the journey once again, ready to face and conquer the challenges before me. Here is a link to my first(ish) treasure hunt: relighting the ancient torch

~ my current 4 Week Challenge ~ about me My name is Maiki. I'm your classic respawner. I've kind of been watching the rebellion from the sidelines over the past year - trying to dive in but not quite getting it. I gave the 6-Week-Challenge a shot (twice) last spring and dropped out thanks to an episode of depression. So over the summer I dealt was mostly dealing that. I slowly made my way back towards Nerdfitness via the Academy, taking baby steps all the while (often having to retrace even those baby steps). By now I'm on much firmer ground as far as my overall situation goes and besides that I've laid the groundwork for my diet and workout routine. So I feel ready to rejoin the rest of you rebels! I'd identify as a full-blooded assassin: I've loved dancing and climbing for as long as I can remember. Not wild about marathons, but I do love a good sprint. One long-term goal of mine is to pick up parkours - I've been fascinated by it for a long time, but have yet to get into it myself. about my challenge By day, I'm a student of architecture - in fact, I start work on my Bachelor's thesis tomorrow! This is why I'm trying to keep this 4WC very simple. I know that the upcoming three months are going to be super intense, so this challenge will be all about maintaining some of the habits I've built so far. ...looking forward to this challenge! and more power to ya for yours.

I've been far away from this group of kindred spirits for too long, but I am back. I do not feel as if I ever was a health zealot, but I cannot avoid thinking I used to be a whole lot more healthy about a year ago when I was fully submerged in the rebellion. (Also, I took a peek at the assassins challenge and had to respawn, because FF). I am going to re-skin this and all future challenges. Not because I no longer like the Dark Tower (I still love it), but because I feel like a proper regeneration has to come with a new face (am I right, fellow whovians?). So, being that I've always wanted to be an all powerful wizard... I re-worked my IRL character sheet, D&D style (because I've found I love playing pen and paper RPGs). Also because I'm going all out full nerd on this. I am a jack of all trades by nature. I cannot focus. Trying to do so has spelled disaster for me in the past. So I am going to play to my strengths... by which I mean do a whole bunch of stuff at the same time, even if I only advance one at a time. But every bit of improvement piles up in the end, right? For this challenge, I wanna make sure I keep working on at least some of these things: Currently Training Disciplines of the body: Running - one run per week at least Calesthenics - bodyweight exercise, 3 times per week Disciplines of the mind: Rationality - Read at least one lesswrong.com sequence per week Technopathy - Practice or learn computer related skills. Linux, programming, digital painting, or whatever. Disciplines of the hand: Cooking - Work on paleo cooking/eating Sewing - Practice! maybe do another dice bag to --bribe-- gift to your DM? Disciplines of the soul: Drawing - keep on practicing! Study some anatomy or something! Tale teller - By the end of this challenge, organize a role playing table for small kids so I can DM for my kid? And also, Imma go check that FF themed mini.

short time lurker, first time poster i plan on jumping on the next challenge, but for now i'm starting on my LVL 1 quests as i go from rebel to ranger! Main Quest: be able to run a 5k in the next 6 months, lose fat and gain muscle and become stronger. bonus main quest - look better while cosplaying. diet: reduce fast food/processed food by 50% i work 4am-1pm at a retail giant, so lunches are more like breakfasts and it's hard to eat healthy. time to start meal prepping at least 3 days a week! replace processed snacks with a healthy protein, fruit, or vegetable adding one extra because i've been trying to do it anyway, so now it's officially official! swapping out one soda a day with water. fitness: complete NF bodyweight exercise program at least 1-2x a week. level up your life: five minute daily dance party floss at least once daily in the next month or so, i'd like to go from a rebel as i respawn (been on and off the fitness wagon a few times) to a ranger.

Respawn again... (I wonder just how often this will happen.) I first thought I'll join for the next challenge, but then worried I might lose all momentum again. So I came up with 3 ridiculously easy goals for the remainder of this challenge to hopefully bridge the gap to the next. 1. Count calories every day. 2. Post something every day. (Anything, not specifically to this thread.) 3. Move for 30 minutes every day. Now I'm off to stalk some of your threads. Awful pun to start this off: " A friend of mine tried to annoy me with bird puns, but I soon realized that toucan play at that game."

It's been about six months since I regularly posted on the forums. When I was in the mode of posting, I was held accountable, and kept my focus. I was eating moderately well, working out 3-5 days a week, and felt great. Then a reoccurring illness took my routine out form under me and I feel into a terrible spiral. BUT NO MORE! My goal for this respawn is to let it go. Let go of the guilt for falling out of my routine. Let go of needing to be perfect and focus on doing what I can do - if that's taking a 20 minute walk instead of a 3 mile run, fine. And letting go of what i can't control (illness) and focus on what I can (healthy eating, regular workouts, mental health). I *might* be making a HUGE move in August and I want to be face that transition in the best of health. I want to kick butt, take names, destroy the One Ring, and blow up the Death Star. I am the WORST about getting into my own head and talking myself out of working out. So, right now I am focusing on baby steps all over again. I have two 10 minute morning resistance routines that I am going to try to do 4 days a week. I also plan to go for 1 20 minute run a week. Small is sustainable for me right now. I am also correcting some disastrous eating habits (nachos are the devil), and am going to refocus on a sustainable lifestyle. Basically, when I got sick again, I just fell into old, bad habits. Now it's time to kick those suckers to the curb and start over. I'm going to try and post at least 2x weekly as a way of keeping accountable for my workouts and eating. Here's to respawning, getting back in the game, and not giving up.

My April challenge has totally gone to hell and I don't want to wait until May to get back on track. I'll start this challenge at the two-week point with modified goals and prepare for the next one. What happened? <rant ahead> March was a disaster and I had to scrap that challenge. My mother-in-law passed away, which is a sad loss. She was 92 and her health took a sudden decline and she passed without long suffering, which is comforting. I am the trustee of her estate, so in addition to funeral/burial arrangements out of state, I was responsible for the business end of things. It's still ongoing, but under control. In the midst of that, I came down with the worst cold I've ever had. Sore throat, chest congestion and cough--the works. Getting sick gets progressively more difficult to tolerate as we get older. I'm two weeks away from 63. (When did I get old?!?) I had great plans for my April Challenge. I had some new ideas and approaches to my fitness goals. I was pumped for a successful kickoff to the New Me. It's my Birthday Month and I intended to devote the month to ME. Wrong. My brother had to go and get sick. Don't get me wrong, I love my brother very much. That said; his contracting pneumonia and going to ICU couldn't have happened at a worse time for me and my challenge. I know--I sound selfish and petulant. When is a GOOD time to get pneumonia? Mom died of pneumonia. My MIL had pneumonia when she passed a month ago. Now my baby brother has it! I couldn't bear losing him, too. The good news is that my brother is at home and recovering very well. He has had to suspend his chemotherapy for a while (Multiple Myeloma and Leukemia), but he will get back on track once his lungs clear up. So…while I'm still worried about him, I'm going to turn my focus back to me. And I'm going to try something totally different: I'm going to manage my expectations. My starting point will be back a few levels, but I know I can make them up fairly quickly. If I can start May at the same point I started February, I'll be pleased. So for the rest of April, I'm keeping it simple: Eat Clean, Lift Heavy (for me), Practice Self Care, and step up my presence on NF forums.

Good Afternoon Fellow Assassins, Welcome to yet another wonderful challenge. May I first apologize for my lateness in posting my challenge and also for my complete disappearance in the last challenge. I was sick for a large part of March and way super stressed the whole month so I just didn't do a challenge. There are other things but we'll get to that shortly. Anyway, the Respawn Assassin is back again because that's how a Respawn Assassin do but this time I won't be writing any stories. Do not fret, however, as my story will be written at some point just not this month. Anyways, onward to this challenge! The Problem: I am simultaneous super ambitious and super lazy. This frequently results in periods of high productivity and energy followed immediately by periods of nothing but sitting around and wallowing in my own self-pity. This needs to stop. Seriously. This is what happened in February and March. Furthermore, I need to stop doing Nerd Fitness Challenges in such a way that I either try to break myself or torture myself until I dislike doing these at all. Not good either. The Solution: My answer to this problem is to use this challenge to interject several habits into my life that I call "Too Easy To Fail." By that I mean that these habits are so easy that it would be harder for me to convince myself to not do them than to just do them. I've also chosen not to keep working on the story I was composing in my last challenge due to the fact that having to keep adding on to it put a greater deal of stress on me than I would have liked and led me to not updating my challenge as much. Though I plan on eventually continuing that story, I'm putting it off for now. ...Gets Managed So this challenge is highly based on a quote that I really like which goes: "What Gets Measured, Gets Managed." This basically means that if you want to change or improve something, you should keep track of what needs to be changed. My goals for this challenge are all keeping track of various things that I want to change. These goals are: 1. Keep a Food Journal - Write down everything I eat and drink 2. Record Stair / Elevator Usage - Keep a tally of when I use the elevator and when I use the stairs 3. 5 Jumping Jacks every morning - Make a red X on a calendar everyday that I do them 4L. Record Study hours - Keep a tally of the number of hours spent studying each day The important thing about each of these goals is that, with the exception of the jumping jacks, all I have to do is keep track of things. I don't have to eat healthy, I just have to keep track of what I eat. I don't have to always use the stairs, I just have to keep track of when I do or don't. Even the five jumping jacks is way too easy to not do. The thing is, however, keeping track of these things, as the quote suggests, will lead to their improvement. By keeping a food journal, I will be more likely eat healthy because I'm thinking about it more. So yeah, this is my challenge. Super simple, super easy. So yeah, here we go.

Hi there. It has been a long, long time since I've done a Nerd Fitness challenge. For a while I needed to clear my head and work out some issues I was having with food. But then I was just cruising and doing well on my own and everything was cool. And then... I had a very bad winter. My lifelong struggle with depression had a recurrance, and my family has been sick an insane amount. I feel like I need to come back to some sort of support for getting my eating and fitness back on track. Here's the thing though... I'm still miles away from the beginning of my journey. About 6 years ago I fell in love with aerial arts and circus, and now at the worst, I still go to classes once or twice a week. I have some health problems that are affected by what I eat, and so I have to mostly eat homemade food (even when I'm sick as hell and don't want to fix anything more than steamed rice). So even in the depths of a rough winter I'm still eating OK and am somewhat active. But... being less active than usual and eating plenty of home cooked food you can still put on weight. So I'm maybe 8-10lbs over where I'd like to be, and a lot of my supplemental training has fallen by the wayside. My goals are going to be fairly basic for this first challenge back: Plan and pre-prep all my meals for the month. I'm a huge fan of the book Fat Loss Happens on Monday and I know planning my food is super helpful. Being too exhausted and depressed to prep meals has been dragging me down for months. This is going to be my main focus for the next 4 weeks. Use a meal grid, plan food, get back in a good grocery routine and pre-cook all my lunches/prep dinners on the weekend. (eating) Spend some time re-thinking my training schedule & supplemental training so that I can transition from a focus on aerial to a focus on handstands and partner balancing. (training) Handstand every day. Stretching my wrists counts as "handstand training" on any day when my wrists are bugging me. (training) Make some progress revising the fanfiction novel I wrote for NaNoWriMo in November. (life)

Well, last challenge went swimmingly. Let's try that again. NightWatcher felt herself shaken awake. She jerked up, nearly braining herself on the overhang of the shallow cave she'd taken refuge in, and saw a young face dressed in the clothing style she remembered from the future. Her first thought was that she'd been caught and she reached for her sword, only to remember it wasn't there anymore. The man placed a hand over her mouth and held a finger to his own lips. "I'm a friend of The Doctor's, he sent me to help you. Hi!" Watcher let herself breathe again. "Hi?" She replied, her mind slowly arranging itself back into order. She remembered stealing the clothes and the satchel from a store, leaving the village and picking up some food on her way before finding this cave around noon the next day. She still felt bad about the clothes. "Where is The Doctor? When will he be back?" The young man laughed. "Well, that's a funny question. He'll be here in about 6 weeks, I'll be where he is in about 5 minutes of my time." As he said this, he reached for her hand. "Oh, mind if I say how lovely your fur is?" Watcher gave him a sideways glance as he fastened some kind of device onto her wrist and quickly put the hat back on her head. "Now, listen closely - the TARDIS dropped you off here, we don't know why, but this watch will bring you back here in 4 weeks of your time, about 6 weeks into the future now. Might be a bit off, it's not the most graceful travel device, but it'll get you close enough." "4 weeks? What do I do until then?" The man chuckled, taking the bag off of her shoulder and couching it under his arm. "You won't be here, or... now, I guess. There's someone we were told to send you to who might be able to help get you ready for what's coming, and well, since you'd be waiting a while anyways, we figured we'd use this to get you there quicker." He pushed a button. "See you in 4 weeks, I'll buy you a drink then." "But wha..." NightWatcher's words cut themselves off when she blinked and the cave, the man and the forest all disappeared, leaving a village in her view instead. People walked, led horses, goats and camels, and seemed to take no notice of her, even in her strange clothes - these were desert people, from the middle east, and a man in white robes with a wide belt and hood was walking up to her. "Ah good, I see you've come with nothing. This was how I started my journey too. Come with me." NightWatcher hesitated, then stood up, making sure the hat stayed where it was on her head. The man in the hood smiled, only his mouth showing. "My name is Altair, and you're in Masyaf, my home city. We're to make sure you're ready." With that, he lead her up a hill toward what looked like a castle. NW equipment stats - No armor, no weapon, no pouch. +1 blend hat This challenge is going to focus on basics so that (hopefully soon) I can build off of those; I wound up taking some time off, but time to get back on the horse that threw me. Last challenge had improvements in all areas except running, but none of them quite hit the marks so this will be similar to last challenge. Main Quest: Reclaiming the health bar Side quest 1 - Food prep. Make meals ahead for work (most likely Sunday or Monday night), and fill pint jars with salad that just needs dressing. 1 jar of each/lunch. Avoid eating out still, allowed 1/week. Have something available with protein and extra calories for days where I burn more calories than I remembered to plan for, either a PB/banana shake or another small, easily available snack. Side quest 2 - Flee the Enemy - zombies, run! Couch 2 5K, 3x/week Side quest 3 - Solid to the core - bodyweight strength training. 2-3x/week, depending on how body feels (3 is a bonus). Pilates, yoga, or bodyweight workout all count toward this. Life Quest - Music to my soul - This is combining 2 goals, but one was pretty close to perfect last challenge and I don't want to lose that progress. Practice guitar 3x/week for at least a half hour, and daily read both a section of the Bible and Morning & Evening (Mom got it for me for Christmas, so far I've read about one in 5 entries.) So far this week - SQ1 - check SQ2 - none yet SQ3 - none yet Life - 1/guitar, 3/reading

I'm back after a rather long hiatus from NF and some of that time was spent on hiatus from exercise in general, but I've been trying to do better recently. I had another Battle Log before I left and while I feel like there are many of those goals I would still like to achieve (eventually), but I've somewhat re-evaluated my priorities more recently and also, some of the short term goals are probably now more like mid- to long-term goals. So I figured that starting again was a good plan. Primary goal: To build and maintain healthy habits, including regular exercise, eating reasonably well, sleeping well and generally leaving time for life. Short term fitness goals: Complete a 30 day yoga challenge. Accomplished on August 10th, 2015!Run 5 km again. Accomplished on October 7th, 2015!Lose 5 cm off my waist (get to 74 cm waist).Make a habit of doing the BBWW 2-3 times a week for a month.Medium term fitness goals: Run 5 km three times a week regularly for 6 months.Keep up doing yoga for at least 6 months.Get to 70 cm waist.Long term fitness goals: Run 5 km in under 30 minutes.Run at least 5 km three times a week regularly for one year.Run in a 5 km race!Learn some arm balances.Short to medium term goals (life): Get better at poilearn beginner skillslearn intermediate skillsProgramming goals:Learn Pythonfinish tutorialstart to work on learning NumPy, SciPyimprove program I've been writingLearn R (find tutorial, complete tutorial).Learn some JavaScript.Get a job in data analysis.Finish knitting the sweater vest that's been on my needles forever.Knit the batshawl.Knit a squid hat.I'll obviously be updating this as I go and as I figure things out. I will also try making small goals at the start of each week to sort of plan out what I'll be doing. Note: Items added and organized as some get completed.

The respawn battle plan died at first contact with the enemy... Back in November, or was it early December? Anway, back then I was in need of a respawn; so I drew up the following plan of attack: Oh, did I fail. Something snapped in my mind and I realised that after years of being on anti-depressant, I was no less depressed and at the same time less engaged emotionally with everything and everyone around me. That started a battle to get off those damn tablets. The result was the above respawn went by the wayside. Kicking the meds was harder than I thought it would be, even with the Dr's guidance. The result was a success, but backwards progress (is that a thing?) on the fitness side. By years end I'd lost 2 stone, yes I put 2 of the 4 lost back on. But that has since evened out, no loss since early Jan but no gains either. Considering the emotional rollercoaster I've been on, I consider that to be ok. 2016 so far... I've kept up with the walking - it's my go to thing for fitness. The fitbit is gone - seriously the replacement unit wouldn't sync, so was no use. Replaced by the Apple watch. Which ticks so many geek boxes lol (I can even use it for geocaching). Alcohol intake - we went to Dublin, need I say more. Food intake - not been great with a new liking for sausage rolls Gym - kept a regular routine, with some gains in the deadlift and squats. Didn't go back to Barbell lvl 1. 2016 Going Forward (aka the Respawn of the Respawn)... Keep on walking Focus on food and alcohol intake - log it, reduce it, make a habit out of good Gym - I'm looking at barbell lvl 4. Lvl 3 is fine, but its becoming mundane. I'm even considering trying bodyweight stuff. This is the part of the respawn I'm not entirely sure how to proceed on. Mental health - This is the part I need to really knuckle down on, no going back to those meds. I've been working on meditation the last couple of weeks and am loving it.Reading - educating myself on why I make the choices I do when it comes to food etc. Yoga - ok its physical, but I understand it can be good for mental health. Its also something new to me. I can't keep going with what I was doing and expect different outcome, right?Writing it down, it looks a lot to focus on. But it's happening in stages. The gym has and always will be there, just in what form is to be developed. Meditation and reading fall into my gym routine easily. I have 30 minutes before the gym opens, so I sit in the quietest place I have (the car) and meditate for 10 minutes and then read for 15 minutes - thats been so easy to incorporate doing it that way. The Yoga, well not so easy in a house with 6 people and yoga classes all seeming to take place at weird hours (work time or 7am on a Sunday - no excuse, it just wont happen then). So NF yoga comes to the rescue. I get slots at home in the week when the house is mine - small slithers of time - I'm looking to use. Plus, I may just dip in to one of the empty work out rooms at the gym (20 seconds of courage does not cover 30 minutes of me swearing and farting my way through a yoga session). Its exciting know I have things to work on. It used to be intimidating and frustrating when I couldn't do things right the first time. Something changed in my mind last year. So, now when I tried yoga for the first time and was crap I knew I'd get better. What changed? I went from walking around the block hurting so, so, so much to it being so easy and enjoyable. Walking changed my mindset for so many other things.

After a year of intermittent travel, three month total away from home accompanied by an unfortunate return to drinking and poor dietary habits I believe I am finally back on track post a few false starts. Sleep I think I'm beginning to correct, insomnia plagued my younger years and I noticed a disturbing creep back to around 2-3 hours of sleep a night if any at all. I've managed to build it back up to five to six hours a night, with the occasional bout of sleeplessness. Lifting... not where I was for sure on the bench, and my chinups/pullups have suffered but my deadlift has gone up at least! My lower back has recovered, but my calluses have definitely softened with a tear stopping me short of a PR on my final set weekend past. Four lifting sessions a week has always worked for me in the past, I've dialed this back to three sessions a week with more cardio thrown in. About to start phase two of a four phase program aimed at correcting my particular postural issues. After a jocular conversation with my sister and brother in law regarding Tough Mudder, they went ahead and unexpectedly bought us all tickets without realising the extent of what awaited us.Two odd months to go! It's not the obstacles that worry me, it's the 18 odd kilometer run I'm not looking forward to. One of nature's long distance runners I am not, I downloaded the Zombies Run! couch to 5k app and am quite enjoying the voice acting. My only complaint is the lack of integration with Spotify. I've also taken up Krav Maga, great conditioning for the groin I assure you. Successfully graded to P1 two weekends ago, and will be continuing on. Three hours of training every Monday, absolutely brutal cloth soaking masochism. Post Tough Mudder I'll likely up it to two sessions a week, kicking back running. Flexibility has definitely increased, aided by the new program accompanied by physio and a shift to cardio/Krav. Hell I actually managed what could be best described as a snap kick to head height yesterday, the guy may have only been 5ft7 but it still counts damnit! Keeping this momentum up, and fixing my sleep patterns are going to be key. Looking forward to the jumping on the next challenge, previously I would've run with the Warrior guild but I'm unsure if that would be the correct choice now.

I failed. Epicly. I had set goals for myself and let the flow of life (and mostly WORK) completely take over and destroy me. Or rather, I let myself destroy me with Cheesecakes and junk food. Ok. End of pity moment. Let's use the challenges well and respawn. Few objectives in this challenge: just to recreate good habits and kick the bad ones. One day at a time. I often feel like overeaters should also have chips for every day they don't overeat, AA-style. I know it's not as hard, but it is not easy. Ultimate target (expected achievement in the best conditions: end of July) Get under 70 kgs Reward Will go to the hair dresser and dye my hair blue! I have ALWAYS wanted to do it. This will be my ultimate reward. I won't care about the corporate naysayers (because of which I gained weight). Objectives 1- Eat more balanced meals, in the right amount 2- Limit snacking, or make it healthy 3- Exercise five times a week 4 - Start dance class again Means 1 and 2 will be monitored with Weight Watchers. This will help me get a grip on things, while still having the opportunity to enjoy some of the food I've been eating lately. It will help with the moderation. 3 I will monitor on an excel file. 4 may be difficult as I feel particularly FAT right now and already missed two classes... But I'll go for fun! I will come to NerdFitness to get inspiration from you and courage from your epic successes!!

Hey there NF team! Ken the Brave here returning after a long hiatus to get married and take a honeymoon. Now I'm back and looking to keep leveling up my life. A little info about me: I'm a Colorado Vault Dweller who found a beautiful woman to spend my life with, and recently realized that I need more of a life to share... Most of my friends who I grew up with moved away (why anyone would leave this state is baffling to me) and I haven't really made many more friends since college (which I graduated from 8 years ago). So, long intro short, my new mission is to get more in touch with myself. How? Well, that's what I'm looking to find out here... How did you meet your best friend or friends? They say strangers are friends you haven't met yet. What do you like most about them? What helps you feel like yourself? A good book? A long hike? Drinks or games with friends? Have you found your calling in life? How? And what is it? I'll refine my quest for this challenge soon! Good to be back!