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Better late than never, I'm jumping back into the fray because I need the extra accountability. of posting my progress here. For 2023, I've chose the word 'Worth' to be my motivational focus. I've done this in previous years, sometimes successfully and sometimes not so much. Last year's word was 'Dare', and I don't know how much I lived up to it, but I did dare to buy my own home after decades of renting, so that was a pretty big move to make. What does 'worth' mean to me? It means asking myself important questions every once in a while. Like, is what I'm doing at this exact moment really worth my time and attention? And telling myself, when I need to hear it, that I'm worth more than I let myself believe. Matthew 10 says 'Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father's care. And even the hairs on your head are numbered. So don't be afraid. You are worth more than many sparrows." God thinks I'm worth something. So I need to start believing that myself. W = Read the Word of God daily O = Organize, clean and otherwise keep your surroundings in good order. R = Follow regular bedtime and morning routines. T = Track your food and water intake daily H = Do something that makes you happy every day. Trying to come up with a clever, nerdy theme for a challenge is tough and has held me back in the past. So I'm going to quit trying to be clever and just stick to my goals for this year that I already laid out above. The hardest so far in this new year are the routines and the tracking. And sometimes even the 'happiness' aspect. To give myself more time for these activities, I've taken the worst offenders of time wasting off my phone - Facebook and this Harry Potter game I've been addicted to lately. My goals for the last 4 weeks of the current challenge then are as follows: Routines Follow your bedtime routine and lights out by 11pm at the latest Follow the Nerd Fitness Gym General DOMS Bodyweight Workout 1 (4 week program) Tracking Track food and water intake daily. Aim for 8+ cups of water and tracking at least 66% of your food daily. Happiness - Spend at least 10 minutes a day reading, writing, playing ukulele, crocheting, learning to watercolor, or working on voice recording Not at all clever, no fancy gif to catch the eye. But if you've noticed my post and read this far, let me know what you think! Any tips?

Greetings, and welcome to all! I’m a married parent of 4 kids aged 0-8. I’m ultimately an adventurer at heart, though I train similar to a lot of Rangers (and I’m something of a Druid Paladin which is also something of an equivalent to a Ranger). I love hiking, exploring, traveling, and other fun things with the family. Since shortly before joining Nerdfitness, my physical training is typically built around injury rehabilitation (which happens a bit more often due to autoimmune arthritis) and training to be able to travel, explore, and play with my family. I have a pretty effective Disney World training system, and try to ensure that at any point I’m strong enough to carry my whole family somewhere. That has become more difficult as the years go on but I can still do it for the most part. I am also an enthusiastic suburban homesteader bent on establishing an orchard and vegetable garden, so things can get pretty out-doorsy depending on my goals. My needs mean I do a variety of types of training, and my earliest two physical training goals were “run fast” and “be able to competitively play any sport I come across.” I prefer to avoid gyms and do a lot of body weight training. At the beginning of the year, we welcomed baby 4 into the family, my cat was diagnosed with feline dementia a few months ago, we adopted a kitten (our third cat and Rex’s first), and we have returned to school. At the beginning of this year, we started shopping for an existing business with a professional kitchen to give a physical location to our small bakery. I’m not at liberty to discuss much more at this time, only to say it’s a thing that we are working hard on and I expect this challenge to bring several major changes to our lives. The fruit trees and bushes are all doing well, minus the Methly Plum tree which is alive but a deer broke the largest, tallest branch AGAIN and that part is dead. The rest of the branches are healing well. Last challenge we had our first fig, which was awesome. I’ve never had a raw dig before and as Bo Peep almost immediately ate said fig, nothing has changed. Deer chomped my kumquat tree, , my serranos, and my Carolina Reapers a couple of challenges ago but they appear to have regretted that and haven’t bothered anything on my front porch since. I have 2 serranos, my all-time favorite peppers, ready to pick. I am losing hope on the Carolina Reapers; the plant seems to be ok but no fruit . We have several wild pumpkin plants growing including one enormous one that started under our deck and has grown around the stairs. No pumpkins and sadly, I don’t think we have any female flowers. My dreams of a fall homestead surrounded by a bountiful crop of squash will likely need to wait at least another year, though if I possibly can I’ll make it happen this year. The other fruit trees in the back are going fairly well. The Rainier’s replacement will arrive the week of September 19th and I am looking forward to that. Our next door neighbors said they’re looking to get a peach tree, too. Yes, yes, come to the Dark Side (we have orchards!). Their Apple tree is doing well too, and apparently it lost all its leaves last month. The vegetable garden is basically dead. I have only myself to blame. The weeds got totally out of control and choked out pretty much everything. I have some surviving tomatoes and that’s it. The berries are all doing well and provides a decent harvest this year, enough to reasonably blunt out fruit bill. I think we’re going to torpedo the veggie gardens after this season and try again when we can get the cinder blocks and seal off the bottom; the weeds have been atrocious and I don’t think I ever really blocked the root systems underneath them. I want a veggie garden but what we’re doing isn’t working well without a larger amount of maintenance than we’ll be able to provide with society being restarted. Jessie wants to move the whole thing to the deck, which requires more care as far as watering and soil quality go but is virtually weed free. Part of the problem this year has really been mosquitoes. They don’t touch me but they persecute the rest of the family and le bébé is not fully vaccinated against stuff and the love him so I can’t even really wear him in the harness for anything less than actively mowing the lawn. Which, I might add, has looked more like a field or jungle. Between those, the wasps I finally got rid of, and the vicious dogs living behind us, we haven’t really been able to use our back yard this year and that makes me sad. There IS and update I can share, though. The people with those dogs sold their house and they’re moving. They had an open house Sunday and received a pending contract almost immediately. This brings a great relief to me and basically all the neighbors. For those who don’t know, we were warned about the dogs when we moved in. Then one of them came over the fence and attacked my dog out of the blue, and my precious Mama Dog lost half her ear. Turns out that the pair of dogs 1. Gets out regularly and 2. Attacks other animals, children, and even adults. 3. The owners take zero responsibility and gaslight people about it. These are the only neighbors here I don’t like, because they’re an actual danger. I am relieved they’re gone, because it means soon I’ll be able to remove the rabbit fencing I’ve kept at the very back to keep our dogs and kids several feet away from that back fence. I’ll have the freedom to establish a real garden at the back, since my attempts to grow an espaliered tree hedge have largely failed. We do have a thriving Crapemyrtle and blackberries along the back and I look forward to basically making those and the lilac bush a full hedge without the threat of a dog attack. Healthwise, we’ve been living the keto lifestyle for a little over 6 months, and we’ve found it to be incredibly easy to stick to 99% of the time, meaning we’re seeing more success and I’m burning less willpower on food-related stuff. I am past my arbitrary goal weight, and I’m focusing hard now on maintaining around this weight while achieving my goal composition. The last time I was this weight was before I met Jessie and when I was in my student teaching (yeah, before the wrestling coach gig!) That is, one of the best shapes of my life. I want to be lean and strong, not skinny and weak. (Tried that and hated it). I fell off the wagon a bit when it comes to strength workouts. I do push-ups in people’s name as a form of prayer and last challenge saw a lot of sickness and worry, so it sort of took over everything else. I would like to get back into doing squats and deadlifts at the YMCA gym but I think it’s going to take getting the house and routine into order. I have, quite frankly, been struggling with the return to school. Jessie works really long hours, the kids have their school and activities, and I have my job as well as the responsibility to clean and organize everything possible at home. We’re not yet at something sustainable. Further, therapy has been generally going well but I still have been snapping and yelling at people, and that has to end. It isn’t healthy for anyone, including me, and I need to practice healthier ways of expressing myself. So that is a new challenge goal. Feel emotions, and express them in appropriate ways at appropriate times. Goals: 1. Sleep. As best as possible. I’m a nonfunctional mess without sleep and can sacrifice it for a few days ok but then I have to make it a super high priority to regain it. This is critical to managing my emotions as well. 2. Basic calisthenics routine at the least. Preferably with 1-2 big weights sessions at the gym, and I’d like to find home alternatives to the barbell squats and deadlifts. Woody is practicing and building his upper body strength for a ballet lift in his winter duet. The older boys are both in cross country. The oldest 3 are taking dance classes and Rex is back in gymnastics. Jessie and I proposed working out remotely with Marinara since his girlfriend takes zero initiative and doesn’t give him the boost he needs to do it. So we might start that as well. 3. Take one concrete step forward per day- at least one tangible, visible thing to make life better. This ranges from things as small as “dig out the replacement toaster” to as big as “reorganize the playroom.” I don’t have to complete the bigger ones as long as I make progress. 4. Take one concrete step forward per day career-wise. I need my job but I’m not satisfied in it and otherwise need a change. I need to hone/adapt skills and look for other opportunities. -> Currently, this involves working towards dramatically expanding a part-time business into a full-time business, which would have Jessie running that business full-time and likely have me also working it full time within the next few years. I’ve also continued to interview elsewhere to help give us options. I really want the business to work though. 5. I need to retake the yard and the garden. It’s been overgrown for too long and I want it back. 6. Therapy. I have a new diagnoses and new medication that have been, it feels, pretty life changing. I finished intensive therapy that was also insanely helpful prior to that and I am continuing with less frequent sessions. My goal is to better learn how to manage ADHD and how to be a more connected, present, and supportive husband and father. I think I have been progressing well. I feel healthy. I am excited about how this has gone. I am working on anger management and taking a page from the book of Mr. Fred Rogers. I had no idea that he struggled with a strong and volatile temper. He never wanted to be remembered as a saint because he didn’t want his example to be unachievable but I do think he is probably the best person who ever lived a full life. I will be looking to him as an example and we’ve decided to introduce the show as a regular part of our kids’ lives. Gods know it’s as helpful to me as it is to them. The kids love D&D and making movies. Woody destroyed my workstation this weekend and built an art and stop-action animation studio. He and Rex made a short film AND layered voiceover so I’m super proud of him. I am excited for this challenge and what life has to offer next.

Basically, I'm tired of Kathryn Janeway not being the most awesome thing ever, so it's time to go back with a rewatch and see if we can change that. This challenge: Captain's Log - Stuff is going on in my life, and I need my brain to work on it, so I will write it all down and create documentation. This is the "pics or it didn't happen" of the thinking process. Starfleet Fitness Training - Does what it says on the tin. Vulcan Meditation - Having Vulcan officers makes this hard to avoid. Ship Routines - Routines are hard, but ships run on them. I will try again. What Would Janeway Do - Take advice from Janeway during my rewatch.

What will our Lock-down Fitness Routine ?

Let me start this challenge with the following. I am not right in the head. I am grieving/stressed out/burned out and am having a hard time. My situation is complicated due to family dynamic and the fact that not all families are healthy ones. And in the end, I am just trying to get all of us through to when stuff isn’t blowing up EVERY DAY. For those new here: Okay, so the last few weeks were a mess. On top of having had 8 Christmases since Dec 20th (2 were planned with less than 2 days’ notice), Youngest Agent having gotten sick with a scary high fever (104) and now I am fighting the same thing. I am done. People keep telling me how “HARD” this Christmas was, like that would help. It didn’t, it made it worse because now you’re forcing me to deal with it instead of just enjoying what was in front of me. Honestly, I found myself wishing I could go back to work last night. It meant that my routines would be used and this “wait, what do we need to do today?” would go away. I did really well the challenge before the holiday challenge. I was doing well. Time to return to that. I still have the estate to settle since I am at the mercy of others to do there. I graduate in May and would prefer to not look like a killer whale at graduation (Note, the scale read over 300 again, alas the weight lost from my nose adventure). I also feel like over the holidays I just hid. I came and read the forum, but I didn’t post or even log in because I had nothing good to say. I have new issues to deal with, and people that were trying to be helpful/sweet just made things worse. In general, if we didn’t have a Holiday with you, I tried to avoid talking to people. The problem is, it allowed me to avoid the things I NEED to do. I need to get my life straightened out, I need to get my thought processes straightened out. So here’s a repeat of basically my holiday challenge. I took out a couple things (Christmas prep, work on estate), but added a few things (Check dad’s email, prepare seed starting stuff). It is really time to move forward, and while I can’t force anyone to let me finish the estate, I can focus on my stuff. Would love to have people here to cheer me on and remind me to post. But I also know there will be family grumping and grieving and very little “Hey I got to the gym for an hour” but maybe a “Hey, I was on the treadmill for 20 minutes” Goal Value Description Strength 1 Balance ball crunches 1 Squats 10 1 Wall Sit (sec) 1 Side kicks Do 2 1 Leg lifts 2 1 Reverse sit ups 1 sit ups 1 Knee to Elbows 1 Push ups 1 Balance Ball push ups Flexibility 1 Wrist Extension Stretch 12 1 Upward dog/Child pose 1 Meditating Groot 1 Lord of the dance Yoga (ankle above head) 1 Butterfly 1 Bridge Do 4 1 Ballet/toe Touch 4.00 1 Sitting Fix/Shoulder stretch 1 Warrior 1 1 Warrior 3 (Eagle bird thing) 1 Side stretch 1 Forward bend Life and Family 1 Play with Cats 1 NF time 1 Look at seed starting 1 Use lotion on legs daily 15 1 Spend time with Agents 1 Water a plant 1 Do something for me (Stardew, read a book, date night, ect) 1 Plan 1 Be in bed by 11:30 1 Floss in morning Do 7 1 Floss before bed 1 Check Dad's email 7 1 One good thing 1 Give Agent K9 5 minutes of training 1 Homework time daily/Prep new semester Fight Chaos 1 Pennisula/Island Clean all these daily 1 Table / Half wall 9 1 Desk 1 Bathroom up 1 Clean off file cabinet Do 3 1 Bathroom down 3 1 Clean off door to basement 1 Clean off Dresser 1 Counter over dishwasher At least 5 minutes per room (at least one) 1 Kitchen 1 Family room 1 Computer room 9 1 Basement 1 Clean 1 thing in file cabinet Do 3 1 Clean off nightstands 3 1 Clean 2 papers out of paper organizer 1 File 1 thing a day 1 Purge 1 thing a day Walking 1 Walk 7000 steps 4 1 Walk 15 minutes a day 2 1 7 hours with 250 steps do 2 1 Walk to Mordor Fuel 1 No eating after dinner 13 1 No stupid sugar 1 Track breakfast 1 Track Second breakfast do 6 1 Track Elevensies 1 Track lunch 1 Take Probiotic 6 1 < 3 bottles of tea 1 Eat Bananas Daily 1 Eat dried Apricots 1 Eat Breakfast 1 Eat Lunch 1 120 oz of water

Hey everyone! To those who frequent my challenges, welcome back! To those who are new, welcome to my crazy rantings. Feel free to introduce yourself, I love meeting new people. I was looking over my New Year's goals from 2019. Many of them I at least attempted at some point this year. Some I realized just were not for me, others I just didn't prioritize, some I stuck to all year, and some I started and stopped throughout the year but am finally getting them to stick. I noticed that most of the weightier of my goals, the ones that should have been highest priority and were of most value to me were the ones that actually received the least priority. In other words, I prioritized the easy stuff that didn't matter as much instead of focusing on the things that would really propel me toward where I want to be. One of those things is fitness. I have put going to the gym on my list of goals every year, and every year I make very little progress towards that goal. It is not for lack of interest. I have gone to the gym, I know a good workout session feels good, I WANT to be a person who goes to the gym, but I always have a (rather pathetic) excuse not to go. I have a lot of life goals that I want to work on next year, and I don't want to be fighting tooth and nail with a gym habit, so my goal is to use December to at least start to get into the swing of things so that by the time New Year's hits, I don't have to focus as much energy on just convincing myself to go. I also want to continue solidifying some recently introduced habits (twice-daily skincare routine, twice-daily teeth brushing routine, daily flossing routine, intermittent fasting) so they are more secure before I add new resolutions in January. The recently introduced habits all had great streaks last challenge, so they are definitely getting closer to where I want them, but I am not yet ready to take the focus off of them. And finally, I want to finish up my reading goals for the year. Challenge Goals: 14:10 Intermittent Fasting during the workweek (attempt on weekends and during holiday travels, but not required) Gym Week Zero: Get a gym membership at pre-selected local gym and workout at least once Week One: Get to the gym at least twice for weight training Reading - Finish last book to hit my goal of 30 books in a year (complete) Daily Routines 2x Skincare 2x Brushing Teeth 1x Flossing Let's finish this year out strong!!

Last challenge was a great success. Status report: I am 95% rehabilitated from my tweaked back. Only occasional pain when moving quickly into the edges of my range of motion. It needs a little warmup. I can put my hands on the floor! I can get my pants on without flailing! I can do yoga sun salutes without holding on to the door frame! It is very exciting. My car is still in the shop. You know the saying, "You can have it fast, cheap, or good - pick two." Well, I picked cheap and good. He's an old man, and he takes his time. This means getting to the gym is unlikely to happen for a while. I will have to work out at home. That is fine - it just means lighter weights & higher reps, because without a rack at home, I can only squat what I can clean. My calorie restriction experiment went well. I am happy with where I am at now. I'm still tracking and eating more protein & veggies, but basically eating when hungry. For this challenge, I wound up with three goals, that each have three parts, and just a lot of threes in general, so I ran with it. WEEKLY ROUTINE: (Goal 30pt/week. For each activity, 4x=15pt, 3x/wk = 10pt, 2x/wk=5pt, 1x/wk=2pt) Barbell workout (at home or at gym) 3x/week. SQUAT 3x5 OVERHEAD PRESS 3x5 CHINUP 5x3 (or just 15 total) Hike (1-2hrs) 3x/week Violin practice (at least 1/2 hour) 3x/week DAILY ROUTINE (Goal 30pts/week, 10pt each) Morning Routine ( every day = 10pt, 6x/wk=8pt, else 1pt each) FIRST THINGS: Before leaving my room, turning on computer, checking phone, etc: Look at my list for today Take all meds/inhaler/etc Do 10-15m of yoga, including 5x sun salutes. BREAKFAST: oatmeal, fruit, and finish my 1st liter of water. GO OUTSIDE: generally walk in the woods with the dog. (At least 15m, but can be one of my 1-2hr hikes) Lunch - whenever we are both home at noon, make eggs & greens to eat with Raven. ( 10pt/wk if done on every available day. miss 1 = 5pt, miss 2 = 2pt, miss 3=1pt) Evening Routine - ABBREVIATED (every day = 10pt, 6x/wk=8pt, else 1pt each) CHECK IN: Look at calendar, talk to Raven, make tomorrow's list. Take pills/etc Prayers FOOD (Goal 40pt/week, out of a possible 49pts) WATER: (1pt/day) 2 quarts plain water or "weasel-ade" (homemade unsweetened electrolyte drink) THREE "PN-STYLE" SMALL MEALS: (1pt each, max 3pt/day) Roughly follow Precision Nutrition guidelines ~1/2c each meat, starch, two veg. Mostly whole foods, healthy fats. TRACK: on myfitnesspal, OR in notebook (using same ballpark method as last challenge). (1pt/day each, if within 10% of target) Calories: ~2000kcals, plus whatever MFP calculates for exercise OR: 8x vaguely 250kcal portions, plus one for each 1/2hr vigorous activity or 1hr moderate activity Protein: ~120g, OR: at least 3 good sized servings of meat/eggs. Fiber: ~40g, OR: total of 2c fruit, 3c veg, 1c legumes, 1c oatmeal. 18 PREVIOUS CHALLENGES:

Welcome to 2018 A7X is one of those bands whose music rarely fails to get me off my ass and get shit done. Been struggling a bit coming up with a theme, so I decided to forget it for this challenge and just start doing good things. In the end, that's really all that matters, right? Big Why: Feel good/confident in my own skin Be strong & fit enough to do all of the cool things for a very long time I've been pretty undisciplined lately in most of my activities. There's a laundry list of things that I'm annoyed at myself for. And I can do two things. I can sit here and stew in how annoyed I am. Or I can pull my head out of the sand and start doing something about it. And it's not gonna be easy. Some of the mindless habits have been going for a while, so I'll need patience and baby steps to start to break them for once and for all. I feel insane every single time / I'm asked to compromise 'Cause I'm afraid and stuck in my ways / And that's the way it stays 1) Tracking Log (Bullet Journal) Water (Build up to 2.4 Liters/day) Produce Servings (Breakfast: 1, Lunch: 2, Dinner: 2) Alcohol (How many days do I have 0 drinks?) Movement (5K steps, 10K steps, Cardio, Mobility) Bedtime (10PM, 11PM or 12PM) Mood (Happy? Sad? Angry?) I'm not insane, I'm not insane / I'm not insane I'm not, not insane 2) Get to work on time (at my desk by 8AM) No internet in the morning, unless I'm on the stationary bike Brush teeth, wash face daily "Long" dog walk each morning Come back to me, it's almost easy / Come back again, it's almost easy 3) Marathon Pre-Prep 60 min cardio weekly 60 min mobility work weekly (yoga, stretching, etc... but mostly yoga) Follow the plan ~Alright, let's do this~

JK it’s me Jonesy! Netflix finally added Moana to their streaming and I think I’ve watched this movie 3 times in the last week, It’s like I’m 5. Since the songs have been stuck in my head, I decided to use it for my challenge theme. I’m also going to incorporate my game into this challenge. The points for activities at least. Overall Passing Points Goal = 584 Stronger than you think I like improving on my dead hangs so I want to keep that going. For other workouts, I need to do at least 2 a week. I failed pretty hard at having regular workouts last challenge. Dead Hangs (PR 10s) Bodyweight Workouts Cardio Workouts Wayfinding for the soul I love the idea of a routine but I struggle following them. I want to change this. Part of me wants the structure but the other part wants to do what I feel like I want to do...not necessarily what I NEED to do. Again, I want to change this. So for both zero weeks I’m going to work on creating some routines and then seeing how well I follow them for the challenge. create a workout routine to follow create a morning routine to follow create a nightly routine to follow create a household routine to follow Week 1-4 TBD Points awarded for routines Don’t be tricked by shiny things With the increased Regional transit authority (RTA) tax for my car this year ($250 more than last year) I really need to save up for my Sept/October bill. I also realized that I spent WAAAAY too much money on take out. Like embarrassingly too much. Zero week I’ll spend some time, not money, creating a monthly budget and possible the weekly ones. Create a Monthly and Weekly budget Bills identified and paid Set spending for week and stay equal or under Unplanned spending on food will result in negative points

1. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. School's out on Week 2. And even so, week 1 will be administrative work only, child-free. These things will mean a lot of changes to my routine, added to the relentless chaos my life's in. I want to focus on following my bookending rituals like the challenge before, and tweak them if necessary to adapt to my summer vacation's routine. Goal: Bookends Daily Rituals Week 1 ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐ Week 2 ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐ Week 3 ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐ Week 4 ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐ 0/28 2.“Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?” Another thing that I've been trying to change is my IF schedule. I still do 16-8 IF. But since I'll have more time in the mornings, I'll switch dinner for breakfast. Nothing makes a morning good like a good breakfast (while watching cartoons in your underwear). I'll still workout in a fastened state (since I workout first thing in the morning). I'm taking one day of the week from this goal for the occasional social gathering, hangout, etc. Goal: Changes in Intermittent Fasting Week 1 ☐☐☐☐☐☐ Week 2 ☐☐☐☐☐☐ Week 3 ☐☐☐☐☐☐ Week 4 ☐☐☐☐☐☐ 0/24 3.“It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.” I live in beautiful (but dangerous) valley. I've always lived in the shadow of a mountain. A mountain that greets me every day and dares me to fight it. I constantly say I live in Mordor, but how can you live in Mordor without climbing Mount Doom? The thing is, I'm in not condition to hike this mountain.So, every week I'm taking one day to practice, walk the city and find a place (I have a park in mind) in which I can have breakfast, read, study or simply lay down on the grass and do nothing, nothing at all. If I've done a good work during the week. I'll reward myself! (probably with food, which I know I shouldn't but... it's like the most affordable thing I can think of right now) Also, I'm doing this for my mental sanity. Too much time trapped indoors writing like Bilbo Baggins is starting to affect me. Goal: Going out the Door (The Road to Mount Doom I) Week 1 ☐ Week 2 ☐ Week 3 ☐ Week 4 ☐ 0/4 AND, of course it wouldn't be a Shogun's challenge without some post-apocalyptic Venezuelan horror story. By the end of this month I'd know if I'm gonna live in the next North Korea, my own personal Sauron is promising to turn the country in a communal state, which is absolutely no bueno. So, if I go AWOL, you know that I joined a deep underground resistance movement or something and that I don't have access to the interwebs until we hire a decent Felicity Smoak-level hacker. Know anyone?

Hey guys I am new here. I 've got the following routine: 1st day legs and delts, 2nd day chest and triceps and 3rd day back and biceps. I want to level up and try some strength exercises such us: deadlifts, bench press, squats, shoulder press, sled drag etc. Do I have to change exercise routine? Or I can add them to right day? (e.g.: squats to the leg day and bench press to the chest day). If yes, how to put the others that require the whole body (e.g.: deadlifts, sled drag) ?

Balsquith - Dragon Slayer I love following-along with themed challenges but have never braved one myself, so this will be a themed challenge for beginners (read: slightly half-hearted). I have recently started reading an excellent book by Markus Heitz titled ‘Die Mächte des Feuers’ (something like – The powers of fire), which is set in 1925 in a world just like ours with the big difference being that Dragons have survived and are not very likeable. The book follows the dragon slayer Silena, a descendent of Saint George, who works for the church to hunt dragons. For me the big catch here is that I will be trying to read this book in German. Over my past few challenges (and in my life in general sadly) I have been somewhat lacking in motivation and drive. Therefore for this challenge I will be introducing something external to fight against (rather than myself!) – namely dragons! So for this challenge I will be Balsquith Dragonslayer, from the line of Saint George, dedicated to hunting down the terrorising beasts and bringing peace and harmony to the land. In order to keep myself entertained I have scribbled down some rules to make the challenge much more complicated than it should be – hopefully they will keep me engaged! I will be facing 4 dragons in this challenge, which are largely the same goals as in my previous challenge, I figured that a budget dragon would mean instant death for me, so he gets to sit in his cave a bit longer! Dragons 1. Sirath the somnolent – Getting up to my alarm (Health = 50pts) Getting up to my alarm = Success Delayed but still got up = Parry 2. Bredolth, bane of the Morning – Morning routine (existing routine + daily German study cards) (Health =30pts) Reviewing for at least 5 minutes = Success Reviewing at least 1 card = Parry 3. Tavorth the unbending – Evening routine (existing routine + stretching) (Health = 30pts) Stretching routine from GMB 'focused flexibility' = Success Any other stretching effort = Parry 4. Cenolth the abeyant – Exercise/injury rehab (Health =40pts) Either crossfit upper body session or injury rehab (leg) = Success Any other 'exercise' = Parry Hero Balsquith Dragonslayer – Starting health = 10pts Rules I will fight all dragons daily with the following combat rules: Success – Dragon loses 1 health point Partial success – Parry, no change in health points Fail – Balsquith Dragonslayer loses 1 health point Bonuses for chains Chain (7 day+) => Success = 1.5 points Chain (14 day+) => Success = 2 points Chain (21 day+) => Success = 2.5 points Bonuses for completing all daily tasks Frenzy (4 tasks/day) => Success = 1.5 points Wrath of the Gods (4 chain tasks/day) = 3 points Recovering health Reading ‘Die Mächte des Feuers’ = maximum 1 health point daily Healing potion => In dire need I have a list of unpleasant tasks which I can complete = 5 health points

1. Decluttering My MIT (Most Important Thing) at present is to create space so that I have time and energy to spend on the things that matter most to me. So this month I aim to: a - advance the decluttering in the spare bedroom, b - organise all my cupboards downstairs, this includes: food cupboards (kitchen), under-sink cupboard (kitchen), non-food storage cupboards (kitchen), bathroom cupboards, bathroom-stuff drawers (lounge), understairs cupboard c - organise all my paperwork: file away required paperwork, remove unnecessary paperwork d - get my email & information inflows under control (began unsubscribing from email things last week, will also want to trim down my bloglovin' feed too) 2. Heal Hands I'm probably washing my hands over 50 times a day, and they're in a bad state at the moment as well as looking 20 years older than the rest of me (sob). To counter-act this I want to: a - moisturise before bed every night b - track every time I wash my hands & the reason(s) why c - evaluate whether I can eliminate this reason for handwashing or find an alternative solution (e.g. gloves, using handwipes instead) 3. Heal Body For years I've known I should be taking my "brown inhaler" and never have done, as my asthma has been relatively minimal. However, since baby has started at nursery, things have been going downhill. Last week I ended up at a walk-in doctor's surgery barely able to breathe and wracked in muscular pain around my ribs due to the constant coughing/sneezing. A high dose of steroid tablets immediately relieved the problem and now I am wondering why I didn't start taking my inhaler months ago. Anyhoo, time is good now. a - take brown inhaler twice a day Baby and I also need to up our vitamin doses to fight off these constant infections. Pre-prep: order some vitamin drops I can mix into baby's breakfast cereal b - give baby daily vitamin drops at breakfast c - take daily vitamin tablet at breakfast (after taking 8 steroid tablets a day at breakfast for 5 days, I feel I can now manage the 1 vitamin tablet required) 4. May Mini Habit Last month I set out a mini-habit challenge to take my yoga mat out of the wardrobe every evening and put it on the floor. Evidently I set the bar too high as I did not do this once. So now I am making it even easier to do: a - open wardrobe door fully and touch yoga mat 5. Overall Wellbeing I need to build in "rest/recharge time" into my weekly routine, as it's foolish to continue to attempt to plough on at any cost trying to get stuff done every night without a break. I've been doing that now for 5 months and my health has really suffered for it. a - Figure out how & when to best rest b - Think of fun activities to do while baby sleeps upstairs I also need to make sure I'm eating as well as I can. To this end, my short-term plan is: c - Buy ready-made healthy foods and fruit snacks d - Don't buy any more crisps e - Don't buy any more chocolate That's a lot of stuff, but if I do even 40% of this I'm sure I'll be feeling a heck of a lot better! Here's to a healthy May

Originally I had no idea what I wanted for this next challenge. But, after talking with a wise and true friend on Sunday, my brain started working. What are the things I need to accomplish during the time frame? Key moments are: - April 16, Boston Athletic Association 5k - April 24, PAXEast Great. So, I know I'm running, and the next week there will be a long Sunday with good friends, where I will hopefully discover some fun and interesting games. Which means I really need to step up my running game over the next two weeks. Other than that, I have a big problem. For much too long, I have been allowing myself the idea that I have no control when free and available food is offered, and simply doing whatever in those moments. This wasn't such a problem when I was being less social overall, but recently my number of social encounters has gone up, which means that this idea is now directly opposed to my wants, desires, and progress. Thus, the theme of the challenge. I decided a little Mass Effect wouldn't hurt. Goals for this month are as follows: Run 2x/week starting right now. There is no time to waste on this, the race gets closer and closer every day. Fortunately I already know that I can run a 5k, which means that all I'm doing is making sure that I do so respectably. Forge a morning routine that includes at least 10 minutes of meditation. Every day is better when I do this. It's necessary, and I need to stop allowing myself to think that it's not. Practice mindfulness around eating at all times, with particular attention to social encounters where food is available. The idea that I have no control in these situations is hereby once and for all declared FICTION, and has absolutely no relevance to real life going forward. I know that I will struggle, and I know that I will fail as I fight this life-long fiction, but dammit, I WILL REWRITE THIS STORY. That's it. All of this is surrounded of course by my attending martial arts class as much as possible; a habit and activity at which I am already well-accomplished. In May we've got our Pride Day demonstration coming up (sounds like I might get to be on the drums this year!), and then in early June the Wu Dao tournament to attend. There's also a book to write, but I've decided against making it part of my challenge here. Added pressure is not helping with that process right now, as the alchemy of my brain is actually getting more resistant under pressure, where usually the opposite occurs. So it's just a thing I'm working on, that's all. A project which deserves completion.

My last challenge was a mixed bag, but a mixed bag that actually saw me moving in the right direction. So this challenge will see me trying to keep working on developing these habits. I will also be pushing out into 2 new areas, one where I don't know much and I will be investigating and another where I know what I should be doing but there is a lot of baggage holding me back. Goal 1: Exercise - 3x week Parallettes, 2x week getting moving and having fun. I really enjoyed getting into parallette training in the last challenge and was well on my way to forming a 3x a week habit. I also need to get myself out and doing something active. I started to take ice skating lessons last challenge and I want to keep up with this, either expanding it to twice a week or adding something else fun. Goal 2: Maintain habits - Sleep 8 hours a night and get up to my alarm everyday in the morning. It is maybe going a bit far to call this one 'maintain habits' as these aren't habits yet, but I want to continue building on what I started in the last challenge. As with last time the rules are easy: sleep for 8 hours and then get up when my alarm goes = 1 point. Goal 3: Food - Maintain a food log, assess log, decide what I want to do, implement strategy. This goal is a bit vague and probably needs tidying up. In principle I don't really have a clue what I want to do with my diet. I don't really have a grasp of what I eat, or what this equates to it calories or general macro composition. I also don't really know what I would do if I had this information. Therefore my strategy is as follows: 1. For the first 2 weeks of the challenge I will keep a daily food log. I am not sure what is useful data to record, but hopefully this will become clearer over these 2 weeks. 2. In week 3 I will assess the food log and make a decision whether anything needs to be changed and if so, then what and how. 3. For the last 3 weeks I will start to implement the food decision made in week 3. Goal 4: Life Goal (overcoming inertia) - Finish the data analysis for my project so that I can send it off for the next step. Daily small steps. I have a project I worked on for a long time that has never been finished due to overwhelming inertia that arises from it being connected to a bad period of my life, a terrible working environment surrounded by people who basically pschologically abused me. It wasn't nice and I didn't know how to deal with it. I have now escaped the environment but find myself unable to tackle the project as it is still connected to all of these feelings. On the other hand not completing the project is one of the things that keeps me up at night. I want to be a finisher and I want to complete the project for myself regardless of what comes out of it at the end. I just need to get it off my back so I can stop thinking about it. I know what I need to do, but I need to get myself back into it (it is a year since I have touched it), do some data analysis and then send it on to someone who can do the next step. It makes me sad and uncomfortable just thinking about this goal, so I really do need to get it done so that I can get back on with my life.

Balsquith's 10th Challenge Sadly I have let myself go a bit of late and all of the useful routines I had developed have disappeared. This challenge is therefore a bit of a much needed reboot. I will be keeping it simple. Goal 1. Get up when my alarm goes off – every day I like this goal even though it has been my eternal nemesis. When I do get up to my alarm instead of dozing I generally feel less tired and have more time to do things. That said it is a fiendish habit that I have never quite got going in the long term. Requirement: Simple. Get up when my alarm goes. The time the alarm is set for does not matter, although this links to goal number 2 in some ways. Goal 2. Get 8 hours sleep - every night This is in many ways more about being organised than anything. I need to plan my days out better and being more consistent with when I go to bed and get up is a good basis for this. Requirement: Simple. Go to sleep, get up 8 hours later. Goal 3. Exercise - every day This sounds like a stupid goal that is not very feasible in achieving, but my definition of exercise in this case just involves doing specific exercise of some sort with no lower or upper time limit. I just want to get into a habit of doing something active every day. On top of this I do actually have a more detailed plan of what I want to achieve, but the important part is to start making it a thing I do often, rather than once a week or once a fortnight. Requirement: Simple. Exercise every day. Goal 4. Courage – Every day I tried to get this goal to work a while ago but it only half worked as I wasn’t as well planned as I should have been. That said, it was a great goal and really pushed me so I want to have another go at increasing my courage. The strategy is to talk to someone in German every day. This is potentially easy as I live in Austria, however, it is actually incredibly difficult as I tend to shy away from ever trying to speak in German. To make sure that this works I have created a list of situations that I can put myself in so that I always have the opportunity during the day to speak German (this is where I failed last time – it is much easier to cop out if you wait for an opportunity to present itself). Requirement: Simple, but very tricky. Speak German to a stranger every day.

Bekah's 2015 Challenge #1 The backstory with these goals is here and here to save time and space. The short story is I am going to have 4 year long goals based on developing consistency in the things that are important to me in my everyday life. Then hopefully I will have a strong foundation to move forward and accomplish badassery on a much larger scale for 2016. I guess this makes for a rather boring challenge updating, but if you know me, you know that this is more like a diary of sorts than a challenge thread, so anything is bound to happen. Feel free to stick around for the ride 2015 Goals Wake-up time/Bedtime 251/365 (number of days to be done/days of the year) Morning Yoga 251/365 Cooking Dinner 275/365 ​Morning/Evening Routine 275/365 I will be keeping track of my challenge goals via my marker board in my bedroom and my mini planner in my purse and posting here (hopefully I will be consistent in that as well).

Greetings fellow nerds! I had been weightlifting 2-3 days a week until I badly sprained one of the myriad number of lower back muscles right above my sacrum while using horrible form during RDLs. Since then I discovered the beauty and importance of the core and my entire life has changed... I have reached another turning point in my exercise life as I have started to incorporate lower body weight lifting back into my routine. My current splits are push muscles/pull muscles/cardio/core training/leg muscles. However I am lacking consistency and structure in how to go about what. Additionally, my core day consists of mostly core tightening exercises like planks, v-sits and other holds. My core "strengthening" exercises like sit-ups, leg lifts, back extensions have been scattered throughout the ends of the various other split days, without much organization. I don't really have an end goal in fitness. When people ask me I simply tell them I want to maximize and reach my complete physical potential. I've come to understand that my body is geared more towards fast twitch muscles and explosive movements rather than endurance based workouts/exercises. I would like to lose body fat only as far as it will assist and improve my physical function. My question to you other nerds is how do I set up my splits to maximize the gains from each respective workout? I try to stuff my cardio and core days in between lifting days to minimize the continuous stress on my core and muscles in general. I can post my workouts if that info would be essential to any suggestion. I guess an overall theme of this post is how do I properly incorporate core training into an existing weight regimen? I've heard different things from different trainers about being able to tear your abs up every day due to their resiliency but I definitely notice soreness and weakness after certain ab workouts. Additionally, I'm also concerned about spacing the core workouts/exercises away from the leg lifting days, as I can't imagine how you can perform exercises like squats and weighted lunges with compromised core energy. I am also confused as to how endurance and non-endurance based cardio training affects the leg muscles and their performance in relation to anaerobic training. ***As a final note, every opinion I've put in here is my pure speculation/experience and I am open to trying anything. Thanks!

This challenge in some ways follows on from my previous ones but also has a couple of tiny changes. Once again I'm basing my workouts around the progressions in Convict Conditioning- they worked for me so far so I don't feel the need to mess with the formula. I'm also carrying on with the daily handstand practice although I have to admit that I've missed a lot of days between the end of the last challenge and this one but not anymore. I'm also adding in a few more daily tasks as I've found that practicing skills daily really works wonders. Enough rambling, here are my goals: GOAL ONE: Work out 6 days per week. Last challenge I tried doing three full body workouts per week but it didn't pan out too good. The on one day, off one day thing really didn't help with building up a steady routine and several days were either skipped or postponed until later in the week. Also, a full body workout takes quite a bit of time and I had to get up too early in the mornings to fit it all in before work. In these cold winter months, it's tough getting up at 5:30 when you know that you could stay in bed for another half an hour and not work out but still get to work on time. So, I'm now trying the CC Veterano programme- six days straight but each day focussing on 2-3 sets of only one exercise. A pretty intense warm up followed by very specific exercises can be done in less than half an hour if I push myself hard (which I really plan to do) so I have big hopes that I'll find it easier to stick with this programme than the last one. STR +2, STA + 2 GOAL TWO: Daily handstand and crow stand practice. I had pretty good success with the handstands on the last challenge until I over did it it pulled my shoulder so I'm going to carry on with them again but with the addition of working towards a 15 second crow stand too. One of my goals for the year is to learn to do handstand presses and being able to do 15 second freestanding handstands and 15 second crow stands are pre-requisites for having the strength to do them so this goal is primarily working towards that larger goal. DEX +4 (+2 per stand) GOAL THREE: Six weeks of healthy living. Another goal for the year is to reduce my % body fat down to 15 or lower. I'm currently hovering around 18-20% so I'm really going to be focussing on shedding the fat and adding lean muscle mainly through good diet. Following on from the usual holiday orgy of bad eating and drinking this goal is all about cutting out the alcohol, unnecessary sugars and general rubbish from my eating. So, no booze, no liquids apart from water or green tea, no chocolates and other sweet treats. CON + 3 GOAL FOUR: More Haikus! I really enjoyed writing them last time and over the Xmas period I unpacked the last of my books from when I moved house back in July and I found my copy of 'The Haiku Handbook' a guide to writing and reading haikus. My goal is to read the book cover to cover and to try to write at least 3 good haikus per week bug hopefully more. It's a bit of fun really but it feels great to exercise my creative mind. WIS +3, CHA +1. In the past I've tended to record my workouts on my battle log but from now on I want to be more a accountable so I'm going to post them on here instead and try to record more details of what I'm actually doing. I've started a new paper workout journal for this year so I'm already being a lot more thorough in my records so I've got them for reference so I see no reason not to bore everyone on my challenge thread too! Challenge on!

Main quest: the simplest, healthiest, most holistic daily routine for my vagabond life Missions which will propel me toward my quest: Work out 3 times/week in the morning before breakfast for at least 30 minutes. 2 STR Do one stretch every night before bed. Just one, for now. It can be something different each night, it can be the same thing every night. Just stretch SOMEthing! Research stretch routines. Find specific ones for bad backs? Whatever. Just STRETCH. 3 DEX 2 STA Use the oil cleansing method on my face 3 times a week before stretching. 3 CON 2 CHA Fitness side mission: Increase resistance band weights on squats and one-arm rows. Must buy extra bands to add weight. 3 STR Written-out motivation pic to eventually follow.

So I've come to discover I don't have much of an attention span. I like to keep changing things and keep progressing. I've been doing the same workout for about 4 weeks now. I'm to the point where I can start upping my weights or adding more reps to make it more challenging, but I'm a little bored with my workout routine. I still have the drive and ambition to continue working out and I've already got a plan for a 'new' workout figured out. But what do you all do to beat the boredom? I'd like to not change my workout entirely every month, so any suggestions would be awesome!