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Restarting after a few years away from this site! This year is not off to quite the start I had planned. I had gone off keto from thanksgiving to new years because I can't go through December without egg nog, but I had planned to go right back on Jan 1. Then the start of the new decade rolled around and I came down with a nasty head cold, preventing me from being active, following any sort of diet, or even posting here until now. Oh well, better late than never, right? I will probably add some sort of fiction to my posts as things go along, but I want to get something posted so I don't use this as an excuse to push things off any further. GOAL1: Nutrition. I tried keto last year and found that while it was a difficult adjustment, I felt significantly better. I want to get back into that, cooking regularly, planning my meals out ahead of time, and being very conscious about what I put in my body. I will be using Cronometer.com to track everything I eat and drink. A bonus would be if I could put on a couple pounds, as it has been historically difficult for me to gain any weight at all. GOAL 2: Sleep. My default is nocturnal. Unfortunately, this does not lend itself well to working or otherwise being a functional person. The first thing I'm tackling is my sleep, starting tonight. For now, I am going to aim for a 2am bed time, waking at 10am, no snoozing (this might not sound like much, but last 'night' I went to bed at 6am). GOAl 3: Strength Training. I plan to get back on track with my regular workouts, shooting for 3 days a week. Once I get this re-established I am hoping to add in 2 days a week of cardio, most likely on my indoor bike trainer. LEVEL UP MY LIFE: Finances I am going to die in debt due to student loans, there is nothing I can do about that (I have already consulted a bankruptcy lawyer), but there are things I can do to get my finances in better shape than what they are currently. Part of this will mean continuing to build my case load at work, part will be resisting impulse buys or 'retail therapy' when I am having a bad day, and part will fit in well with my nutrition goal because if I plan my food out ahead of time I have no excuse to eat out. At some point I will need to contact the bank that manages my federal student loans and set up some sort of payment plan with them. I am still hoping to find something I can do about my private student loans, but it looks unlikely that Ii have any options but to just let them default.

Ahoy-hoy friends! Welcome to my first challenge of the new decade! Starting things off with a mix of every-day goals (teeth, bedtime) and by-the-end-of-the-challenge goals (ride my bike, pay off the credit card, chip away at subject readings for class), the last set of 'goals' are really more like 'get-back-to-pre-holiday-weirdness' (gymming twice a week, going to Auslan practice, DnD-ing). Extrapolation of the goals + GIFs!: Bedtime- go to bed at 10pm each night. Have a warning timer at 9.30 to remind me to take my meds and get myself sorted. Buddy-goal: charge my phone on the drawers, so I don't look at it in the night, and so when the alarm goes off I have to get up to turn it off. Ride- I have a new bike-to-work buddy. Ideally I would ride to/from work with her twice a week, but to start things off for success I am aiming for five rides total. These can be split into 'in' on one day and 'home' on a different day as I build up my leg muscles. I am fairly sure after my last ride that my brakes are actually constantly on, so I will check that tomorrow, if they are I may not be as unfit as I feel... I hope it's the brakes haha. Credit card- this was accidentally still linked to one of our food delivery services, and we managed to wrack up $220 in orders and interest before I figured it out. I've chipped away at it, but want to clear the remaining $120 before the end of this challenge. Teeth- now knowing that SLS is what makes toothpaste feel like it is fire, I will buy a brand of toothpaste that doesn't have it in the ingredients, and try again to build this habit. If that means I'm brushing with baby bubblegum toothpaste, so be it. Gym - twice a week. Git swole. 2020 goals are to drop bodyweight to 70kg, then lift: Deadlift 140, Squat 105, Bench 70 (2:1.5:1). This will only happen if I am consistent about going to the gym (holidays to America excepted). Sign/Auslan- this kicks back off next week after the holiday break. I did a little practice over the holidays, but it mainly consisted of watching the live news coverage of the bushfires and trying to follow along with the Auslan interpreter (beardy translator is my favourite, content warning for the faint of heart... our country is on fire) DnD- I haven't been throwing myself whole-heartedly into playing lately, and the reason is a bit silly... Duunack (my half-orc barbarian) made a deal with a devil, which (of course) has led to a bunch of chaos and put the party on the road to hell (literally, we're visiting Dis). I was carrying a lot of guilt about it IRL, in fact I cried about it yesterday while discussing it with Mr. After our chat I feel much better and am focusing on playing the game for the game, not to try and /win/ (oh hello, perfectionist). TLDR, here's my bujo~

Hi. I'm SheriffWolfpool. I've been a member of NF since 2012. No, for real, I've been here a long time. Been Rangering since 2015. Goes under the alias Wolfie most of the time? *Siggghhhhhhhhhhhh* I'm well known for portraying Deadpool and writing kick ass stories???? NOOOOOOOOOO! You know what...never mind. Let's just just start back from the beginning... With a little nudge to "just go for it", I've decided to end the year with a NF challenge that I stick with. I mean...it's only 3 weeks. I can do this, right?? So let's get to it!! Goal 1: Eat like a Boss (and not like an A-Hole) My eating habits have tanked a lot the last couple months. I don't blame Costco, but at the same time, I blame Costco, lol. They have so many sweets there and I have a bad sweet tooth. Heather and I both do, so, that's changing RIGHT now. No more needless sugary snacks or treats just because. I don't wanna wait till the New Year to start better habits. Those good habits start now! Points: +3 CON, + 2 CHA Goal 2: Train like a Soldier 5 months strong is what I had going for me...then I tweaked my right elbow lifting a case of mini-Cokes at Costco. Since then, I've been so spotty with my workouts. Then I got my new tattoo and took almost two weeks off. Basically, I've hit a little slump and I'm not gonna allow that to get me down anymore. Nope, no siree! Bootcamp starts NOW! Points: +2 STR, +2 DEX, +1 END Goal 3: Conquer the Holidays How does one conquer the busy Holiday season?? I doubt there's a perfect recipe for this, but for me, it's getting plenty of rest and taking it one day at a time. I'm not gonna lie, we're going to spoil our kids this Christmas. Like, really spoil them. Last year we could barely get them a $10 gift...and I know what you're thinking; that the amount of a gift doesn't matter. I would agree with you, too. But, as the leader of my family, it's my job to provide for them. I'm not working 2 jobs because it's fun. I have goals for all of us. A house is on the horizon but right now, it's making sure my kids and my wife have one of the best Christmas's ever. My last day for work at my day job is 12/20 and I'm off until 01/02/2020. Basically two weeks off! I still have to work at Costco, but that's not a hard job to work at. During these next three weeks I need to make sure I'm getting plenty of rest to compliment goals 1 & 2. Points: +2 CON, +2 END, +1 WIS So now do you remember me?? You have to know by now...? ..... F*ck it. I know who I am Wolf

Mistr works on foresight My last challenge focused on looking at my choices. Looking back over the past challenges gives me plenty of hindsight. Now I need to put that to use to make better choices moving forward. There are two forces at work here: I have a pretty good idea of how my common actions are likely to pan out. I also know that things are going to happen unexpectedly. I know that I'm happier when I have a plan and when I'm not too attached to the plan. Overall my goal is to make good choices and pay attention to what is happening NOW. That often means looking at how I am feeling. Sometimes the smartest thing to do is give up all my project goals for the evening and go to bed.

I haven't had a decent challenge this year it seems. Though I mostly have maintained, I really went full on self sabotage mode this last month. I tried to reflect a bit on what was happening. I have the anniversary of my Mother's death coming up on August 20th. That usually that hits me closer to the date though. I know that in the back of my mind, I have been fearful of what happened to me last time I lost this weight. We I first joined Nerdfitness in 2013, I had a great go to start off. Dropped down 257 lbs. Then seemed to bounce between 260-280 the next year. Then everything went sideways, and I gained everything back. I left the forums in shame, but finally found my way back. I had an amazing 2018 run. Losing 110 lbs for the year. Then this year I have been doing the bouncing between 250-270. All the while, that failure still lurks in my head. Today, I am sitting at 280. I seem to keep trying to make things work, but then giving in to whatever garbage at night. Thus erasing everything I am doing. My damn brain is really trying to make me do this crap all over again, isn't it? I am refusing to go back above 300. These last few weeks, I have been listening to some motivation type speeches. I linked one in my last challenge thread. So, I came up with an idea. This challenge, and really the challenges for the rest of the year. I need to Go Beyond, Plus Ultra! I am going to set impossible goals for me to reach this year. By my birthday (November 2nd), I am going to have these goals met. #1 - Be under 200 lbs #2 - Run a 30 minute or less 5k #3 - Do 1 pull up Easy, right? To meet this, I will have to lose over 80 lbs in 4 months. I will have to shave probably 8 minutes off my 5K time. I will also have to actually do a pull up, and the best I can do now is hang from the bar for a bit. Each one kind of fit together though. I lose weight, I will get faster. As I get stronger and lose weight, eventually I will hit that magic point that I can get the pull up done. So why the impossible goals. It seemed like a lot of these inspiration videos had common themes. Setting goals when everyone else said it was impossible. Having that time frame where it must get done. I never had my "big why" moment for why I want to lose weight and be healthy. I have the same "Be around for my kids" answer. Really though, I want to be the best version of myself. I want to be stronger, faster, and just a much healthier version of myself. What I think can drive me forward on these goals, is the idea of what if. What if, I can actually get this done? That will be one hell of a self esteem boost haha. Of course the flip side is what if I fail. That What if has always been there in my life. Kept me from many things. What if I fail? Well, I still succeed. If I truly give this my all, then I can be ok with not making goals. I will be just that much closer to reaching them. I look at it like a bowling game. If I do my very best and bowl a 250 game, but the person I am bowling against bowls 260 I lose the game. Still I gave it my all. I can be mad at the outcome, but not the performance I had. I felt like I wanted to have a little theme this challenge. My Hero Academia shall be that theme. From Crunchy Roll: In the show All Might choose Izuku to inherit his powers that he can pass on. Before he can do that though, Izuku has to improve his body. He has to push his limits so that he can be able to handle the All for one Quirk. Like him, I have to push my limits. Go beyond, Plus Ultra! Goal #1 - Get back to Keto, do Intermittent fasting, track all the things This challenge, I need to get back into the food eating 100%. I am going to use Chronometer to track food. I am going to use LIFE Fasting to track my fasting. I also have looked at my macros, and want to keep a certain calories remaining tracked. This should help a ton with weight loss. Since I have been off the full keto wagon for a bit, I can expect a pretty big drop in weight right away. I also need to check my glucose numbers. Type 2 never really goes away, and I bet my numbers have been spiking recently with my poor eating. 1 point - Calories never above 2100 per day. 1 point - Remaining calories 1000 or above each day. 1 point - Under 20g net carbs tracked each day. 1 point - 18 hour + fasting tracked each day 1 point - Blood Glucose tracked once per day 5 points per day, 35 points per week Goal #2 - Workouts, Running, and Walking I am going to restart the RunDouble 5k improver program. This time I will run every other day. I need to get hitting the weight as well. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday will be the workout days. Hopefully, I can expand this to maybe having 2 workouts during the days. I also want to do other workouts on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturdays, but let's get consistent with 3 days first. My goal is to hit 10,000 steps each day as well. Nothing super fancy, just walking. It will help me mentally as well as physically. Saturday or Sunday will be my "rest" day. I still don't want to just turn into a pile of goo on that day though, so I can still go walk or do something fun. 3 points - Workout 3 times per week. 1 point per workout per day 3 points - Getting in all runs for the week. (4/3 runs per week) 1 point - 10,000 steps per day (5,000 on "rest" day) 7 points per week. 13 points per week Goal #3 - Rest Equally important to all other goals, is to make sure I get my rest. I know in one video Arnold Schwarzenegger said to sleep 6 hours. People say they need 8 hours just need to sleep faster haha. I don't think I quite subscribe to that idea. I have been staying up way to late, and getting up early too. My sleep has not been great. So really I need to get back into the grove. this challenge I am actually going to try a little less reading, in hopes of getting to bed a little sooner. With school coming up soon for my kid, I will have to be getting up earlier again. If I can get use to getting to bed sooner, then I might try getting up sooner as well and getting workouts or whatever polished off before school time. first steps first. 1 point - 10:30 PM off the computer and get reading. 1 point - 11:00 PM off to bed. I do have one exception. I have a later night game session with my friends in World of Warcraft. Usually only running a mythic dungeon or two. So I just need to get myself logged off as soon as we are done. Then ready a little to settle the brain, and then off to bed. 1 point - Saturday off PC when done with dungeons, ready for 20-20 mins, and head to bed. 2 points per day 14 points per week. Goal #4 - Plus Ultra Make time to check in daily. Fit in some meditation and/or positive affirmations from time to time. Kill this challenge, feel great, live up to the ambassador title again. 1 point - Checking in 7 points per week So there it all is. I wanted to use Week zero as my perfect start. Nothing is ever perfect though. So I am up late to make sure this gets posted. So while it isn't perfect, it is a start. tomorrow (Tuesday) I'll be tired, but it's time to engage. I will not let myself regain any more weight. Time for the fit me to win out again, over that other side that is trying to keep me down. Measurements: (Week 1 / End of Challenge) Neck - 17.08 in / Chest - 47.91 in / Waist - 51.37 in / Bicep (R) - 14.56 in / Bicep (L) - 14.48 in / Forearm (R) - 12.08 in / Forearm (L) - 12.08 in / Thigh (R) - 25.66 in / Thigh (L) - 25.31 in / Weight - 268.9 lbs / Points: Week 1 (08/05 - 08/11) - 0/69 Week 2 (08/12 - 08/18) - 0/69 Week 3 (08/19 - 08/25) - 0/69 Week 4 (08/26 - 09/02) - 0/69 Week 5 (09/03 - 09/08) - 0/69 Total: 0/345

"Tempered by the fires of Hell, his iron will remain steadfast through the passage that preys upon the weak. For he alone was the Hell Walker, the Unchained Predator, who sought retribution in all quarters, dark and light, fire and ice, in the beginning and the end, and he hunted the slaves of Doom with barbarous cruelty; for he passed through the divide as none but demon had before." - UAC Report File 9REIZDUR Hello fellow Warriors!! Some of you already know me, but for those that don't: my name is SheriffWolfpool or Wolfpool or Wolfie, lol. I've been around Nerd Fitness since 2012 and challenging pretty consistent since 2015. I've been a Ranger during the last 4 years because my focus was on being a jack-of-all-trades. I did a little bit of everything. I've ran Spartan races, dabbled in parkour, done lots of calisthenics and even played some Quidditch and Gaelic Football. My main focus was to be as active as possible and trying my best to be the most badass version of myself. Now, my focus has shifted a little. My focus is now on gaining size and strength and I thought there was no better place to achieve that than the Warriors Guild. There's still a level of badassness I want to achieve, but it involves gameifying my life and harnessing the "rage" of a video game character called, the Doom Slayer. Recently, I've become obsessed with the Doom Slayer. I played through and beat DOOM (2016), (the remake to the classic 1993 Doom), on the medium difficulty called "Hurt Me Plenty" and loved the game. Now, I'm streaming Saturday nights with a buddy of mine as we play through the next hardest difficulty called, "Ultra-Violence". I call it #SlayerStreamSaturday ;). Believe it or not, there are two more difficulties after that lol. One of them, the last one, being called Ultra-Nightmare is a permadeath play through. One death sends you back to the beginning...unless you beat the level you're on and save. No checkpoints. No respawns. Plus, the enemy A.I is just stupid hard. Anyways, DOOM Eternal, the sequel to the hit 2016 remake, comes out November 22nd of this year, a week after my birthday! I actually had the chance to go hands on with the demo this past weekend at QuakeCon and was just blown away by how awesome and gory it is! The game devs have redesigned the Praetor suit for the Doom Slayer in Eternal and this is the "bulk" of my inspiration... As you can see, the dude is JACKED! #curlsforthegirls Last challenge I started training harder in the gym than I have in over a year, hitting certain PR's I've yet to achieve in my short lifting career. I've always sucked at deadlifts but that's because my form sucked. I've since fixed that and have brought my 4RM up to 225#. It's the most I've ever deadlifted and that's without testing my 1RM, lol. I've been consistently kicking butt the last 2+ months, but really dialing in with nutrition and workout consistency the last 5 weeks. I want to continue that trend with an added dose of intensity as I start the journey of a brand new program from Athlean-X called: BeastX. It's a 12 week program focusing on hypertrophy, athleticism and strength gains, and I'm soooooo excited to start! I have a good baseline now and I'm ready to take my "Unchained Predator" mindset and completely unleash the beast within. There are also some other crazy changes happening in my life. I'm getting a second job at Costco. I'm pretty excited about it because I love Costco and I actually used to work for them about a decade ago. Being the father of 5 beautiful kids and having an amazing wife that watches after them is just one reason for needing this second income. I want to get us into a bigger place, possible a house in the next year or less. I also want to get debt free and have a little more cushion with our finances. Working 2 jobs and still wanting to maintain a training schedule is going to be physically and mentally demanding, so, I need to be on my A-game. The last 2 challenges, I have been focusing on 3 qualities: Relentlessness, Focus and Calm Under Pressure. Combined together, I have been able to set goals, achieve them and kick ass in the process. This challenge is no different. In other words, "Don't fix what aint broken!" Goal 1: A Predator's Mindset-Relentless It's no surprise that juggling the many things I have going in my life is going to be tough as hell. But, with the right mindset, I can (and will) be victorious. The nice thing about the BeastX program is the workouts are no more than 60 min long. Training at the gym is therapeutic for me and something that needs to continue even in the midst of working two jobs. Fueling my body and my mind is going to be just as important for all the "in-between" stuff. To have a Predatory Mindset, I need to: Keep up with weekly training on the new BeastX program. Get swole. Fuel my body and meal prep/plan better. Post pic. People like food porn . Have a good attitude about it all. Don't be a dick. Possible Points: +4 STR, +1 DEX Goal 2: A Predator's Restful Slumber-Focus Sleep. Ohhhhh, how sleep is going to be the most important goal of this whole challenge. Not just sleeping at night, but napping during the day and taking advantage of the opportunities to get some shut-eye. There may be nights where I don't get home from Costco during the week till almost 11pm...and then I want to get up by 4:30 AM to be at the gym so I can make it to my other job in time? Yeah, it's gonna be nuts. I'm salary at my day job which gives me a little leeway on sleeping during lunch, which, needs to be a daily thing. I always eat at my desk, so, I will continue doing that, but take the time to nap during my actual lunch break. Possible Points: +3 CON, +2 CHA Goal 3: A Predator's Might Roar-Calm Under Pressure I'm a member of the Toastmasters Club at my day job and I love it! Public Speaking has always been a big fear of mine since I was little but I am overcoming that fear and really enjoying giving these speeches. I am about to complete my level 1 pathway for my focus on Presentation Mastery with this weeks Toastmasters meeting when I evaluate one of the members on his speech. After that, I'll dive right into my 2nd level pathway and begin knocking out those speeches/goals as well. During this challenge, I want to "lean in" and make sure to fill a role for every meeting over the next 5 weeks. I also want to give at least one speech in that time frame. Being calm under pressure is crucial to the success of this goal. Possible Points: +2 CHA, +3 WIS And there you have it folks! Thanks for letting me hang here for the next challenge+!! I I look forward to kicking some ass and making the Warrior guild proud of all my gainzzzz Wolf

I was feeling a bit bummed out at the end of the last challenge because my weight had ticked back up over 330lbs. I decided to take a step back and see how well I was doing so far this year, and I'm feeling much happier with my progress. Date 1-Jan-19 6/24/2019 Change Weight 361.4 330.8 30.6 Neck 19.5 18 1.5 Chest 60.6 54 6.6 Bicep R 17.75 15.5 2.25 Bicep L 18 16.5 1.5 Gut 60.25 55.5 4.75 Pants 49 45 4 Hips 50 48 2 Thigh R 27 27 0 Thigh L 28 27 1 Calf R 19 19 0 Calf L 19 19 0 We are 26 weeks into this year, and I am doing slightly better than a pound a week overall. While part of me is screaming that "I want to change faster, damn it!" the more sober part of my mind is like "Good job, a nice study pace is going to serve you better in the long run" I am largely going to continue with the goals set in my last challenge, but making some important adjustments. Self improvement: Continue with established habits: 1 Point for all 3 Brush and floss before bed Read from Bible every day Take meds Add new habits: 1 point each Improve my space: Clean something every day. Until boxes are done, go through at least one box each day. Play something on the violin (way too prone for not playing for over a week if not scheduled to play publicly.) Bonus Goals Read Base Ringer's Handbook Find a budgeting system that works for me. Nutrition: I'm planning to stick to a keto-ish eating plan for breakfast (bulletproof coffee) and lunch, but am going to put my major focus into accurately tracking everything. My experience has shown me that forcing myself to keep track of even my "bad" eating choices helps me make fewer of them. Even on days where I have decided to eat whatever I want, looking at the nutrition information has helped me decide that I don't actually want something. My biggest struggle is with mindless eating: open a bag of chips and eat until they're gone. I'm also wallowing in ignorance about how much I'm eating for dinner. So for this challenge I am going to MEASURE things BEFORE I eat them. 1 point for accurately logging breakfast 1 point for accurately logging lunch 2 points for accurately logging dinner 1 point for accurately logging snacks / dessert 1 point for limiting to a single, moderate, sweet each day. Bonus Goals Try a Keto / Vegetarian recipe Try a Keto / Vegan recipe Sleep Things are studly getting better, but I'm still not as consistent with things as I would like. I'm going to make a big push this challenge to get up out of bed and touch the ceiling as soon as I wake up at 4, every single day. On days off, after doing that I can go back to sleep if I really want to, but I have to at least do that first, and hopefully that'll be enough to keep me out of bed... 1 point for Xbox off by 6pm, (I've added a reminder alarm) 1 point for all electronics off at 7:30 1 point for electronics stay off until 4:00 2 points for sleep start by 8:15, 1 point for sleep start by 9 1 point for not staying up if I wake up during the night. 2 points for physically up by 4:05, 1 point for 4:15

Late to the party, whoops, but I did just return from vacation on Monday. I trailed off on the last challenge but don't feel terrible about it because it was insanely hectic - not the most stressed I've ever been, but definitely the most major events in a month. Plus at the beginning of the challenge I wasn't planning on the Italy work trip, and then that happened in the middle of everything. My healthy routines were thoroughly disrupted, but I still squeezed in a little exercise and some vegetables. I'm thrilled to be home, and in my own kitchen and bed again (not at the same time, obviously). After eating out most meals for three weeks, I am excited to cook balanced, delicious meals at home. Overall Goals My general life goals have changed a bit because, uh, I'm pregnant and all - so weight loss is no longer the primary aim. I weighed myself this morning and was unpleasantly surprised by the number on the scale, but the internet tells me it's normal to have gained 4-6lb at this point even though the baby is only the size of a raspberry, so I feel better about it now. I'm going to stop weighing myself at home because it makes more sense to focus on make healthy choices each day. I've cancelled my NF Coaching because I already feel a bit overwhelmed, and through work I'm going to be assigned an RN who will advise on healthy eating and exercise throughout my pregnancy. But I have even stronger reasons to eat healthy, and I won't be drinking ha, so I'm going to focus on paying attention to how I feel - more frequent, small meals seems to sit better with me these days. I am currently working to use up a lot of my pantry/freezer food which has been accumulating for...a while. I also want to declutter since we mayyy buy a house and move before the baby comes. Goal #1: Cook all the things Make (nearly) all our food at home, avoid relying on processed food. I'd like to get in a good pattern of meal prep and eating at home pre-baby. Document food here. Goal #2: Feel the burn Work out doing whatever feels good. Right now that's barre but I'd like to try to get running again if I can do it without chest pain. Aiming for working out 3x/week minimum, and walking on other days to aid digestion and circulation. Goal #3: Feed the fire Take extra kind care of myself. Give myself an 8-hour sleep window. Nap if needed. Meditate daily. I have FIVE WEEKS before our family vacation when we tell the family, and I have already told random coworkers in Italy (because finding out I was pregnant the week before the trip was anxiety-inducing), a couple coworkers I am closer to (because we were on vacation for a week and they wouldn't have figured it out from the not drinking anyways, and this way I was able to talk to a friend who had twins last year about it), and another friend (who I stayed with on the way to and from the Florida vacation, because we're close and it was nice to do it in person). Between now and the official family announcement at which point it will be public, I will probably tell a couple more friends because as an external processor keeping secrets is not my strong suit. It still feels completely surreal, but in the best way.

Right after this challenge is the kettlebell sport world championship. It's in a giant sport complex just outside of Dublin on 23-26th of may. I'll be competing in second division, which for women uses 2x16kg kettlebells. (First division is 2x20kg, Pro devision is 2x24kg). I'll also be playing representative to my national federation and coaching my team. There'll be around 18 people from the Netherlands, at least 10 from my gym/team. We have no Pro lifters yet, but I do have 2 lifters in first division this year. So... challenge; 1. Train - every week; snatch 2x, jerk 2x, longcycle 1x, oly lift 1x, squat 1x, deadlift 1x - try to accumulate 100km of rowing over the 5 weeks - keep a lunges, push and pull counter 2. Sleep - keep folding laundry before bed - lower green bed time to 22:30, yellow to 23:30 3. Eat vegetables three times a day....... - at least one of which has to be green - and eat fatty fish every week Well I had to add a nutrition goal.. I have reasonably healthy habits that I have relied on for the past 3 years without making any kind of improvement.. I tried to drop some weight last challenge but I guess I'm just really not ready for that yet. I think I'll compete in a higher weight class for worlds and just focus on improving something small. Let's go!

Challenges during this challenge: I'm going to a big old conference for work, which is great, but as we've all seen before, is really tough on me (man I feel like I *just* went through this). I'm tabling at my first zine fest!!! YAY! The day after the conference! BOO! I'm launching a Patreon with an accompanying daily poetry project. Family reunion, too. This challenge will be ripe with opportunities to be over-tired, self-critical, and stressed, so I'm emphasizing self-care: Time spent outside, sleeping, eating veggies, drinking water, reading excellent books, maybe even playing some video games?! All those things. No backlog work. LET'S DO THIS! Quest: Workout 3 times per week...plus one extra. I've been hitting three a week pretty regularly, and I feel sometimes like I could fit in one more. So, I don't want to go up to four times a week, but I *would* like to get an extra one in. Quest: Salad 4 times per week. Still need to make this habit stick. Quest: Set up my relaxing chair outside on the patio and sit on it at least 5 times a week. BREATHE. GET SUNLIGHT. FEEL CALM. Quest: Lights out by 10:30 pm every work night. I'm lights out by 11 right now, so this extra half hour should be okay. As usual, conference week will have its own rules. Since the first quarter of the year ends half-way through the challenge, I also revisited my goals from the first challenge of the year: Feeling okay about these goals, for the most part. On the challenge after this one, I'll be re-focusing on the backlog stuff and will post a new set of Q2 goals. I am not riding my bike much, which bums me out. Not sure how to get that happening more regularly again. I think warmer weather will help. For those tuning in, I'm a nonbinary/genderqueer/woman chronic overachiever type who mostly does body-weight workouts at home, plus occasional forays into other workout types. I also write a bunch (poems, zines, novels) and am going to be launching a Patreon in April. I am headed to a big OSS conference in April, where I'm speaking and doing other terrifying things, and I am also planning a small tabletop game convention for May. Big couple of months. (Thanks, RogueLibrarian, for the idea of a summary!)

Hi, Druids! Still hanging out here because I'm still working on more of an inner discipline/self-improvement challenge! Last challenge I managed to create and stick with a regular schedule for the first time in my adult life. After living that for a month, I have a few tweaks to add to it, and some things I want to flesh out a bit. This is the schedule I want to keep for this challenge: 7:30 AM: Wake up. Turn on sun lamp. 8:15 AM: Exercise with wife (yoga or weight lifting) 9:00 AM: Breakfast, then leave for work. 1:00 PM: Lunch (30 min) - Do DuoLingo. 6:30 PM: Head home (arrive ~7:15). 7:30 PM: Eat dinner. 8:00 PM: Go for a walk with wife. 8:20 PM: Free time (TV, hobbies, art, gaming) - use blue light blocking glasses 9:45 PM: Take melatonin. Get ready for bed. 10:30 PM: Bed time. The biggest change here is that I'm going to try to work out in the morning, and walk in the evening. It seems to take me about 45 minutes to get ready from waking up to ready to walk out the door. I also want to leave 45 minutes for exercising and then showering/whatever afterward. Since I need to leave for work at 9 AM, that means waking up at 7:30 AM, half an hour earlier than I am now. Which means the end of the day has to shift a little to compensate. I think the sense of accomplishment and physical benefits of regularly doing yoga and lifting will make the earlier bed time worth it! I should also mention that I'm not going to start lifting until I start taking testosterone. I've been told that once I start, I will quickly see some major changes re: energy and hunger. So I'm going to need to adapt to that once I do start, which should be in 2-3 weeks. So the latter half of the challenge should be... interesting. There's an order of priority in keeping my schedule, with the highest priority being "stuff that has to happen every day no matter what": 1. Wake with sun lamp at 7:30 AM; take melatonin and get ready for bed by 10:00 PM 2. Eat breakfast before leaving home; eat lunch by 1:00 PM 3. Some form of exercise in the morning 4. Nightly walk; use free time constructively A change in focus this time around is on eating in a regular schedule. With sleep more generally managed than before, I became aware that my eating habits are all over the place. And I'm developing a worrying habit of skipping breakfast and then "putting off" lunch as late as possible - usually after 2pm. The worst part about that is that when I finally do eat, I can't seem to get properly full unless I eat something very heavy in fat and carbs. Also, I just feel terrible, with headaches and lightheadedness. Why am I doing this to myself? So eating regularly is priority 2 now, almost as important as book-ending my sleep time with rhythm-resetting light/hormone cues. Because food also resets the rhythm, and because this quasi "intermittent fasting" thing isn't doing me any favors. (And skipping meals is going to be a LOT worse on me once I start adjusting to a male metabolism! So I gotta nip this in the bud now.) EDIT: And I forgot to add the other important challenge I need to do: Hydration! For now, I am making it a goal to fill and then drink my entire 1.5 liter water bottle every day (including weekends!!) I think part of my low energy/feeling like crap issues are coming from chronic dehydration. I don't look forward to peeing 20 times a day, but it needs to happen. And another, "softer" focus is on using my free time in a more constructive manner. I have about an hour and a half every evening to do whatever, but it mostly gets used to watching TV or YouTube videos. So I've created a loose weekly schedule of what to do each day during that evening time. TV time is still on there, but so is painting with my wife (one of her favorite hobbies) and days where I play video games (a hobby I miss). My hope is that I'll appreciate my free time more if I actually use it for hobbies I like.

Do you find that you constantly fall asleep during meditation? Share your advice, experiences, questions, and challenges in here. Just don't disturb those who are already sleeping.

New Year - New Attitude Looking at the last year, some things have gone well and others are stubbornly the same. Time to look at root causes for the difficult parts. My initial thoughts on this were almost identical to last year. Been there, tried that. Secret of the Samurai #8: More of what's not working does not work. Change it up. Starting from the positive side: Exercise and training are going well. I started weight training last challenge and am enjoying it. Core yoga is still making my abs cry for mercy. Continue with the current mix of aikido, strength training and yoga. Doing evening prep earlier makes a difference. Keep up the good habits. Zen is getting better. Keep doing it consistently. Things that need to change: Stay off the caffeine. Repeated tests prove that even decaf messes with my sleep. I am avoiding tasks I don't want to do by saying that cooking is more important. Useful perhaps, but not important. Back off on the cooking. Keep working with Elf and Dumbledore on sharing responsibility for household stuff. We made a start and then dropped it. Get back on good eating habits. Give myself more time. I do not have to go to all the aikido classes and seminars. I can choose my social events. Our house is living proof that no one will die if the cleaning does not get done promptly. Sleep remains key to having energy to do things and a positive attitude. My overarching goal is stress management. I've spent a lot of time avoiding things and being frustrated about not getting stuff done. So I need to make better choices about what I decide to try to do. I get a lot more satisfaction out of tasks that have a finished product. Things like darning my socks and mending a pair of exercise leggings. They may need attention again, but I can wear them this week and probably for months. As opposed to cooking food and washing dishes. Having a clean kitchen and good food is far too temporary to be really satisfying. For right now I will track doing the positive things. Bonus points for every nagging task that I get done. For this weekend those should include: Replacing the tail light bulb on my car Putting up shelves and rearranging the laundry room so we have space for the treadmill that will be delivered on Monday Cook something for the zen potluck on Sunday Update Gnucash and do filing so I can see my desk

Hi. I want and need to lose weight (while at least maintaining, if not improving, fitness). I was kicking ass the first few months of 2018 and then started traveling and everything fell apart for the rest of the year (although at least I largely maintained rather than gaining significantly). January 2019 was also a bit messy. I don't have any travel planned for February or March, though, so I'm ready to dig back in. I've got a lot of goals, small and large, but right now and right here, I'd like to focus on four daily S's that seem somewhat small and simple but will combine into a healthier lifestyle: Sugar. As in, minimal added sugar. I can have something small (a square or two of chocolate, for example) after dinner each day, but nothing during the day. Exceptions allowed for special occasions (dates with my partner, birthday parties, etc.), but I can't get too loosey-goosey about what constitutes a special occasion. Snacks. No snacks between meals. I'm often a hardcore grazer, especially when I'm working from home, and that needs to stop. Sleep. In bed by 11 pm each night. I have so much I want to get done at night once my daughter is in bed, but sleep is important, too. I've been running low on sleep for far too long. It'd be nice to remember what "well rested" feels like. Sweat. Some kind of workout at least five days a week. Right now I'm focusing on running and Street Parking SHIFT workouts. These are very flexible things that I can easily fit into my day even when I don't have a lot of time. Going to try to check in here once a day. Okay. That's all. Let's do this.

My Story: I have journeyed for 11 years on a path spanning three countries. I have gathered companions in the way of my husband, my two children, my aged parents, and two dogs. We have finally settled down in a stable location with ample space to roam and build. Food has never been scarce but when addressing the needs of others I fail to address my own. Time is another factor that is absent between work and chores. Finally, stress - there is the constant threat of destabilizing forces both imagined and real, internal and external. This is my story.

I am returning to Nerd Fitness after being away since February 2017 (A Journey of a 1000 Stairs) where I attempted to do 1000 stair climbs and lose weight accumulated and maintained post the birth of my 2nd son. I succeeded in getting down to about 180lbs from about 200 lbs. I did not reach my dreamed of 165lbs. Instead, I got pregnant with my third and final child (a dreamed of daughter) and my weight bounced right back up to 220lbs at the height of the pregnancy. For the first time I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes - which made for interesting self experimentation with a blood glucose reader and many meals. I had my baby girl in May of 2018. Recovery was better than it had been with number 2 - at least I did not have drop foot! AND I was super active before and after the birth. However, something about turning 40 and having gained all this pregnancy weight - my weight went down to 190 and then did a massive up turn back to 110. I have been hovering between 202 and 206 lbs ever since. So - given my NF experience... and I signed up to Mutu Mamas and had a physio as well in the early days post pregnancy (diastis rectii). So here I am thinking, I am crossing the T's and dotting the i's and yet.. not a single budge of my weight. This is the least stressed I have been in eons. I am not working, I have the time and ability to go to the gym at max 2 hours per day... I spent a lot of time in an active upright state. I eat wholesome healthy home made food. I work out at least three times a week and I get a decent (if not enough) amount of sleep. I haven't eaten my children yet. I have a weakness for sweets and baked goods but I am not as glutton as I have been in the past. I practice a great deal of restraint. Breastfeeding may play a part and be a factor with regards to hormones that are involved in retaining weight. So bringing it down to basic things that affect my weight - I will make an effort to drink more - I will make an effort to sleep more - I am aware breastfeeding hormones are a thing As far as diet goes, I have started Intermittent Fasting as of last week - too soon to see any difference - and last week I went to the gym for a two cardio box classes, one aquafit class, one yoga, and one anti-gravity restorative class. That's four times! This week I've already gone in for a 20-20-20 class (step meets weights). Plan is to go to the gym at least three times a week. At least one time for a yoga/restorative session. That leaves food - Granted with three kids and a bunch of carb eating junkies... I am pretty good at keeping things home made and nutritious. I started baking my own bread! So given that I started regime above only last week - too soon to tweak anything here. (I did a MFP check and my daily calories are around the 1650 mark.. so not terrible).

Back to the Island of Basics... Where There be Dragons 1. Pray - Read - Talk Spend proper, peaceful time with Father. At least 15min. every morning before exercises. 2. Be good about food and water You cannot have one without the other: just keep an eye on what and how much I eat, BUT drink at least 1x bottle of water/day. 3. Sleep, wonderful sleep Even fierce dragons need their sleep: before 22h00 every night. 4. Train like Astrid and Fishlegs, with passion. Put some passion back into training: LEGS- Monday, Wednesday, Friday Squats 3x10 X-over lunges 3x10 Deadlifts (start 28.5kg) 3x10 Plank2Pushup core - start 3x5 ARMS- Tuesdays, Thursday, Saturdays Pushups 3x10 Shoulder presses (start with bar @ 6.5kg) 3x10 Inverted rows 3x10 Abs wheel 3x10 5. Do finances studiously! As required... Finalise slips. (Aug-Nov). If finance-work felt like activity sheets, I'd have no problem doing them. Change my attitude about doing finances, and GET IT DONE! -------------------------------------------------------- IN SUMMERY -------------------------------------------------------- 1. Pray - Read - Talk 2. Be good about food and water 3. Sleep, wonderful sleep 4. Train like Astrid and Fishlegs, with passion 5. Do finances studiously! No, we haven't seen the 3rd movie yet, we are waiting for the dvd to come out. I have no problems with spoilers.

The last couple of challenges I've been working on my relationship to food. I've stopped binge eating/restrictive eating completely with the help of some awesome rebels in the Intuitive Eating accountability group <4 The last step of Intuitive Eating is "Gentle nutrition". Which basically means: eat like a normal human who cares for their health :p There are some more things that I want to be working on this year, but this time I'm not going to try to do them all at once. As many of you know, I love watching YouTube, and one of my favorite youtubers posted a video yesterday about how to make your goals stick. (Video embedded in the spoiler if you're interested) So this year I'm going to create one habit each challenge. To guide me, I'll use the "Four pilars of health" namely: Stress, Sleep, Nutrition and Fitness Goals to reduce stress in my life: Mediation, walking, dancing, reading, todo lists, yoga Goals to get good quality sleep: go to bed on time Goals for gentle nutrition: Eat in a way that makes me feel good, like: implementing intermittent fasting, eat nutrient dense foods, find new recipes to try Goals for fitness: Strength training, dancing, yoga (Challenge dates copied from Spezzies post) Challenge 1: January 7 to February 3 Stress: meditate every day Duration: at least 5 minutes When: When the kids went to school, or after brushing my teeth when the kids don't have school Challenge 2: February 11 to March 10 Fitness: 2 strength training sessions each week Duration: As long as it takes to perform the workout When: to be determined Challenge 3: March 18 to April 14 Nutrition: Intermittent fasting. I'm thinking 3 18 hour fasts or one 24 hour fast a week. Or mix those two and see what works best for me. Challenge 4: April 22 to May 19 Sleep: Screens off before 21:30 When: Every night except Friday and Saturday Challenge 5: May 27 to June 23 Stress: Do yoga When: twice a week Duration: at least 15 minutes Challenge 6: July 1 to July 28 Fitness: Step it up: get an average of 10,000 steps in a day. SUMMER BREAK (2 weeks between challenges) Re-evaluate the challenges I set out for myself for the rest of the year Challenge 7: August 12 to September 8 (Zero week will begin August 5) Challenge 8: September 16 to October 13 Nutrition: focus on nutrient dense foods. I won't eliminate any foods, but the majority has to be nutrient dense. Challenge 9: October 21 to November 17 Sleep: Be in bed before 22:00 on weekdays Challenge 10: November 25 to December 29 (5 week holiday challenge) Stress: Read every day in an actual, physical fiction book Duration: at least 5 minutes

2018 saw the return to the Nerdfitness Challenges for me. I went full Keto, with only a couple of times leaving it. While I participated in each challenge, they were far from perfect. Still, I made progress.I dropped over 100 lbs last year. I tied my lowest recorded weight of 257.6 lbs, with a couple of more days to get even further down before the official start to 2019! I've been thinking of what I want for goals for this coming year. Last year really was about me getting back into a healthier lifestyle, and trying to drop all the weight I could. I still have plenty of weight left to shed off, but I also have other goals in site. For 2019, I want to focus on 3 main goals. #1 get to 200 lbs (or lower) Now weight loss is a side effect from all the other things I do. I will continue to go on my Keto journey. My first milestone will be to reach 250 lbs. Then 225 after that. I think it will probably be harder to lose this weight, then the previous bunch. Still, I must try to do the best I can. I bowl in a Nationals tournament each year. Last year, people say me at 325.8 lbs. 2019 I bowl at the end if May. I really want to shock them all with how much I have changed #2 Run a 5k I have enjoyed running again, though these last couple of weeks I have not done it. My week 0 for the challenge, I plan on getting back into Week 3 of the RunDouble C25k app. I have only ever run one official 5k race. I want to run one this year. I don't know which one, or when. I should finish the app in Challenge 2. So we shall see then. #3 do a freaking pull up I have always wanted to be able to do a pull up. We had fitness tests when I was in 6th-8th grade. I was able to pull off on cheating pull up then. Never before have I even come close to being able to do a real one. So why not choose to focus my goal there. It might not be possible for me to pull it off this year. I believe that I can though. With this in mind, I want support these goals with my challenges this year. For this challenge: Goal#1: Keto on, IF, and tracking I think last challenge proved to me that I was probably eating too few of calories. I will still be eating at a deficit, but I am going to be putting in more work. I might change this a bit during/after Week 0. I need to see how it feels. For now my goal is to stay Keto, do Intermittent fasting, and track everything in Chronometer. I want to make sure I don't go over 2100 Calories each day. (might need to adjust depending on how much the workout days add) I might try to add an extra "Be in a deficit 250 calories extra) or something. Also Sunday I may eat lighter because it will be my rest day. 5 points per day, 7 day total of 35 points Goal#2: Train for the pull up It is time to nail in some workouts. I've been watching quite a few videos, and training structures. For the most part, I am going to follow James Grage's 20-10-10-15 method of lifting. My previous set of workouts I was usually able to get done in 15 minutes or so. This time, I am adding more variations, and I will have to use the gym here at our apartment complex. I am also going to use some park equipment or in home workouts if I have too. I have this issue. I can plan the workouts, I can talk myself into getting them going. Then I walk in, and see someone else is using the equipment. It is game over for me. It has been the same with walking too. Days my son was out sick, I didn't go walk. It changed my routine.So I need to embrace the change. So this challenge, I am working with a Plan B in mind. This week 0 I am going to be doing some of Plan B. If my planned workout can't be done, then I default to Plan B This goal, I do workouts on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I have a simpler body weight routine to do in the morning after I drop my son off at school. Then I want to do some lifting weight type workouts after I pick up my son from school. 5 points per workout. 10 points per day. 30 points total. Goal#3: Run into 2019 I am starting Week 3 over in my C25k app. I will finish in the week before challenge start. This time, I am doing my run days on the same days as my workouts. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I also want to keep my step goal going. 10,000 steps per day. Sunday, is a complete rest day though. 10 points per run, 5 points for each walking day. 60 points per week. Goal#4: Read and sleep I have to bring the sleep goal back in for the first challenge at least. I have been working on getting back into my routine this week, but I have been off. I will stay up for New Years eve, but otherwise the plan is to get back on schedule for challenge start. Get off the computer by 10:40 PM to go read. Then get in bed by 11:40 PM. 5 points per night for sleep, 5 points per night for reading. 70 points total per week. Total points per week 195 I was going to make a posting goal too, but I will just try to get it in Week 0 is going to be my test week to see if I can make this all work. I know I will be having some serious DOMS, but I must push on! Measurements - Start (01/01/19) | Finish (02/03/19) Neck - 17.28 in | Chest - 47.00 in | Waist - 48.89 in | Bicep (L) - 14.29 in | Bicep (R) - 14.21 | Forearm (L) - 11.92 in | Forearm (R) - 12.08 in | Thigh (L) - 24.64 in | Thigh (R) - 24.37 in | Weight - 254.8 lbs Points: Week 0 (Dec. 31 - Jan. 6) Week 1 (Jan. 7 - Jan. 13) - 0/195 Week 2 (Jan. 14 - Jan. 20) - 0/195 Week 3 (Jan. 21 - Jan. 27) - 0/195 Week 4 (Jan. 28 - Feb. 3) - 0/195

Barking up a different tree... I'm taking a leaf from how I'm feeding our dogs and cat (balanced raw), because macro-counting and I don't mesh. My main aim for this challenge is to check how much I eat. Too much, too little, just right? I think I'm getting the balance of macros mostly right, most of the time. I want to eat what I feel like, without guilt of following some or other 'diet' with no subconscious guilt talks about why I should swap my batter-covered fish for plain fish... I still like a bit higher protein and fat to carbs though. But back to the dogs... When you work out how much to feed dogs and cats, you go on a formula of 3-3.5% for working dogs (1-2hrs serious work+30min. play per day). [2.7kg food - way too much for me] 2.5% for some exercise (30min.-1hr per day) [2.25kg food - still too much], and 2% for a sedentary lifestyle (<30min. exercise per day) [1.8kg food - little bit too much for me still], 1.5% for this human's experiment [1.35kg food - just right?] Dogs/cats are NOT fed this low, ever! I added this for myself as I found 2% a tad too much still. Now I'm not a dog, I'm built differently, my body works differently, and the amount of exercise I do with my not so compact and sleek body, is very little compared to what they pull off with their bodies. Think of a sausage dog jumping onto a bed 3x his height! No way can I jump 3x my height/length. I just like the uncomplicated way of measuring balanced food eaten. So I'm starting off on LESS THAN SEDENTARY amounts. Thus aiming for: 90kg body weight at 1.5% I should be eating less than 1.35kg of food per day. This does not include water, black coffee or tea. I'm literally plopping my plate of food on the scale, weigh it, and let my little spreadsheet do the calculations for me. Thus far I had one day with 1.41kg of food (I felt it was a bit too much) and another day with 1.18kg of food (weight of plate not included ). In the meantime I'm trying to make peace with the fact that I'm a woman with some big muscles, and a good, strong and able body. This is not a scientifically formulated experiment. Do not try this at home! Now on to the other topics of the day... Those who checked in last time, may remember that we've started our boys on an exercise routine 3 mornings a week (Mon/Wed/Fri). Between hubby and myself we try to help them w.r.t. form and encouragement, while doing our own routines. Youngest (Rocco) has taken to it like a dog to a bone, while Oldest (Adam) wasn't as enthusiastic at first. But it seems both are now keen enough, and both are excited about our upcoming hike (10-12Nov It will be their first, and our first as a family - if the weather permits) and some future Waterra obs.course races (family fun, not big league). Anyway, on to this challenge's goals for myself: Bible study (5x/week); Exercise (BW - Mon and Thurs)(Walking Tue, Wed, Fri afternoons); Dry fire practice (Wed); Food (as explained above)(7x/week); Water (1-2bottles of 750ml every day, min.); Sleep (<21h30 every night). See, nothing new. I'm just struggling to get my exercise in on a Monday morning if I do bible study first, because I tend to leave my own routine to help the boys, and obviously don't get my exercise in then. And space is a problem if we all train at the same time. If I can fit in a big chunk of my routine before Rocco gets up (5h30), it should work. The boys need to exercise before they are allowed on the computers that day. Exercises: BW - Mondays and Thursdays Joint Circles (warm up) Jumping Jacks (Star Jumps) 20x Push ups (try for full - improving every week) 4x5 Abs Roll Out 3x10 (left, straight, right) Goblet Squats 2x10@10kg X Lunges 2x10 Inclined Pull Ups 2x10 Sit-Twist Stretch Shoulder and Chest Stretches Touch Toes Stretches (Yeah! I can touch my toes again!) Walking - Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays Tuesdays: walk during lunch time (12h00-14h00) with hubby in the plantations behind his office block. It's normally around 5km serious hill work. Wednesdays: walk during boys' Lego course (13h00-14h00) on flat farm road, mainly in the sun. Work on speed, maybe a slow jog *gasp*. Fridays: walk with boys and dogs (new) (14h00+) in the field close to our house. Not sure of distance as I've never walked here before. Hubby and the boys have and they tell me there are sometimes farm goats and some cattle grazing there, which we have to be careful of, but otherwise it should be safe enough. The rest of my days are still the same: home school - mornings, finances - afternoon or evening, household chores - during the day, boys' extra murals - afternoons... I've had my say... Your turn!

Hey, y'all! Hi. I think (knocks frantically on wood) that we are, for the moment, kind of over it with the destructive weather events and significant life stressors. Post-lightning-strike, post-Florence, post-Michael situation: We have considerable damage to the house, more than we realized at first, but it is livable and fixable and our homeowner's insurance company helped us as much as they could as quickly as possible. With everyone else in the region so devastated, many much more than us, and then Florida needing even more critical help just a few weeks later, I have absolutely zero complaints about how well we were treated. The claim is now resolved, and repairs start next week. On top of the home repair sitch, we are implementing a new curriculum in one of the schools I manage, which effectively triples my workload. And the hubs and I had to move out of the master bedroom - so we are living in the guest room, most of my clothes are in the Hobbit Hole, but all my shower/skincare/makeup stuff is still in the Master Bath ... my routines are a bit disrupted. NaNoWriMo is less than two weeks away and I'm a Municipal Liaison again this year. I have not been to the gym in ... I don't exactly remember how long. I went once since Florence. Couple weeks ago. And my digestion isn't working right. Common stress response for me, but it means that my foodz consumption has been, kind of, a lot of chicken broth, saltine crackers, and "now I'm feeling sorry for myself so I'll deal with the bloated discomfort" junk food. So - for this challenge, I'm gonna need to lean back into the basics. Eat decent food, pick up some iron, manage my stress, learn how to sleep. Food Track The Foods. I did that thing where you get your nutrition completely dialed in and it's all working great and you think "yay, now I don't have to worry about that anymore" ... has that ever worked for anyone? Not me! The wheels have completely fallen off. And I don't know if it is stress, or an actual medical thing, or what (I have a doctor's appointment next month) but lately I have been feeling very bloated and sometimes mildly nauseated after eating. So tracking should 1) help me be more conscious of what I am putting in my face and whether it is nourishing me or just temp-fixing a boredom or self-pity problem, and 2) help me pinpoint if I feel worse after particular foods or food types Input Power Challenge Goal: Track every bite through challenge period. I use MFP. Accountability post here at least 3x/week. Input Power Victory Threshold: Complete tracking at least 24 of the 28 challenge days. Input Power Loot: The Adventures of Tom Bombadil Workout I started off Hurricane Florence with a resolve to at least keep up with 3x/weekly home workouts (suspension trainer/bodyweight work). That lasted through the first week. The stress, the fatigue, the week without power (sleeping without no air conditioning when you are not acclimated is no joke, y'all), the constant vigilance against looters - frankly fitness was a low priority. I did do a fair bit of physical labor - fence repairs, tree cutting, and debris hauling mostly - but it was sporadic. And now that I'm back to my mostly sedentary desk job, I have to pretty much start from scratch to re-establish the habit. I am not quite dumb enough to just jump back into my previous programming. Y'know, lest I die. Also, new curriculum implementation = seriously limited gym time. I'm starting back close where I was five years ago as a complete beginner, with Nia Shanks' "Minimalist 3x3" program. It's a ten-week program, all large compound movements, 3 exercises per workout (basically a Push/Pull/Legs scheme.) Focus - get in the gym and out of the gym in under an hour while building up basic strength in the main lifts. Increase Hard Drive Capacity Challenge Goal: Actually go to the gym and do the thing three days a week for all four weeks. Post here for accountability. HD Capacity Victory Threshold: Complete 10 of 12 scheduled workouts. HD Capacity Loot: Rings , so I can transition back into the NF Rings program that I had just begun to play with before le hurricane. Sleep I am a lifelong insomniac, but there are things that help. If I do them. Hubs and I are setting up our regular mattress in the Hobbit Hole so I have a place to retreat to on my sleepless nights. Whether he is snoring, or I just can't shut down the brain, it helps if I can move to another room. Headspace just added a huge pile of "Sleepcasts" - basically guided imagery sleep meditations - that have helped a lot. My big problem now, new since the hurricane, is just not putting myself in bed and turning out the lights when I should. Being a NaNo ML has compounded the problem. I get caught up in reading - or sending - "just one more" e-mail or forum post or ... well, y'all know how that goes. Power Conservation Mode Challenge Goal: In bed with lights out by nine every night. Power Conservation Mode Victory Threshold: 23 of the 28 challenge days Power Conservation Mode Loot: A new shade of fountain pen ink OGSiP (Other Goals Still in Progress) Having power and internet out for so long broke my streaks on Duolingo, YouVersion Bible, Headspace, and 4theWords. Insane situations with unexpected home repair expenses and travel have thrown our EveryDollar budget tracking and meal planning habits into chaos. Sad Gemma is sad. But we are rebuilding. Current status: YouVersion: 3 Duolingo: 30 Headspace: 30 4tW: 29 EveryDollar budget and meal planning: having a (belated) midmonth budget and meal planning meeting with the hubs tonight to try to limit October's damage so we can be back on point for November. Peripherals Challenge Goal: Just keep all that going. I'm not setting a victory threshold or loot for this, because I'm so attached to watching streak numbers go up I don't need an external reward. But the last day of this challenge coincides with my birthday (52 is the new 25, if you hadn't heard). Happy birthday to me = once we move back into our bedroom I am making the trip to Ikea to buy my Hobbit Hole bookcases!

Step 2.5 In step 1 I made some progress on moving to the next level, which will require getting into really good shape, having good knees, good meditation habits and pursuing internal power in aikido. Last challenge I made only a little progress, so I'm going to keep working on most of the same things. Sustain success: No caffeinated beverages. I'm extending this to include decaf coffee. Apparently the residual caffeine is still enough to mess with my sleep. 1) Deal with my mess (updated) In the last challenge I actually did get the house clean. For this challenge my goal is to get my financial records cleaned up. I made a little progress last time so it is not quite as scary. I still have a lot to do. Get the records current, the files put away and a budget analysis done. 2) Exercise progression - same as 2.0 The last round of physical therapy has made a difference in my squat depth and hip strength. I want to maintain this and continue strength and mobility progression. Do exercises in rotation with PT (bodyweight squats, airplane/kick flow, side-steps with band) at least twice a week Core yoga at least once a week Pick up GMB Elements again. The last time I tried it I got frustrated because I could not do the “frogger” movement because I couldn’t get into a low squat. Now that my squats are much better, Elements will add a variety of movement and strength applications. The Elements program is set up as a 6-day a week series with strength one day and recovery/mobility the next day. Substitute yoga for the recovery/mobility sessions. 3) Level up daily routine Making time for those “just 5 minutes a day” things. Some days life will interfere, so my target is 5 days a week. Stop doing projects and chores by 9:00pm on work nights. Between 9:00-9:30 do: Foam roll legs and do stretches. Hopefully this will help decrease hip and knee pain at night. Dropping this one in favor of relaxing for a few minutes knitting or spinning. Prep breakfast, lunch and clothes for the next day. Can be done earlier in the evening. Sit zen if not done earlier Morning: get up at 5:30am except on bad days. Sit zen Do silk reeling exercises - Extra bonus points for starting this. I've been saying I'm going to do it since June. 4) Juggle everything else Aikido, cooking healthy food, household chores, doing fiber arts and ALL THE THINGS. Life is randori. Make good decisions and keep moving. Aikido has been going really well. Keep that up. Continue to work on better communication with my family. One happy thing there is that Hermes will be working first shift so we might see him and he can contribute to chores. That will mean more cooking, but also another person doing dishes.

I wasn't going to do a challenge. It seemed like my path is fairly set. I mean, unless I decide to go the whole Keto route, my food is fairly set at this point. And I'm not taking on Keto right before Thanksgiving and Christmas. Talk about setting myself up for failure. My exercise is what it is. I lift some, I run some, repeat. Depending on what my body says (and the thermometer) I pick one and go with it. I'm not too worried about falling out of habit at the moment as I go through something akin to withdrawal if I miss more than 2 days in a row of training. So, doing the battle log was where I was going to go and just record where stuff was at. Then it occurred to me that there are a great many other variables that have an effect on blood sugar and can lead to an overall better state of health. So, I'm going to put those in a challenge. I'll still report in on nutrition and exercise, but they won't have actual goals. Those are here: MOAR Sleep - My sleep average is poor. I currently have dipped back down to about a 7 hour average. And that is including the weekends when I sleep in to make up for missed sleep. So, for this challenge, my goal is going to be to be in bed by 10:30 PM. I may not be asleep, but I gotta stop getting into the bed after 11 and waking up before 6. Less Screen time - Wow, that goal looks so easy. 3 words. How hard can it be? It's not like I sit in front of screens for a living or have to be on call every hour of the day periodically...oh, right. Since the evil geniuses at Apple have updated my phone to keep track of how much time I spend on it, we're going to try to make that average go down. Last week I average 2 hours and 45 minutes a day on my phone. I'm going to be shooting for dropping that average 10 minutes each week. Should put me close to 2 hours by the end of the challenge. That on call week the last week of the challenge should be fun. MOAR hydration - Alright, so despite having my macros dialed in fairly well, I suck at drinking enough water. Coffee doesn't count does it? No? Didn't think so. But, the more fluids I'm drinking the better my blood sugar should be. So, shooting for more hydration. I'd love to say, hey I'm going to drink 128 ounces of water every day. But, considering I might get to 32...on a good day...we'll shoot for that old common wisdom target of 64. I'm only counting water mind you. Not coffee or tea or diet soda or...just water. We'll start with that. I'll try to bring in some more for future challenges, but for now this is enough.

During the last challenge, I had a lot going on to distract me from my goals, because my wife was going through a health crisis. This time around, she's doing much better, but I know I have a big ol' work deadline coming up in late September, and it's likely that crunch time will impact my goals. I need to plan ahead to minimize the damage from that week. One thing I really want to focus on is living in the moment and enjoying the day to day business of life. I noticed, during the last challenge and during the stress of trying to take care of my wife, the house, and everything else, that my focus can really narrow down into "did I check off the item from my to do list?" That's a survival method when there's a lot going on, but I don't want to fall into a pattern of that. It's happened to me before, especially during periods of high work stress. Weeks can pass, and I hardly notice any of them because I'm too much in my head. In the end, all I have to show for it is some checked boxes on a piece of paper. I want to combat this by being mindful and seeking out the small enjoyable moments throughout the day. Drinking a coffee, having a conversation with a friend, petting my cats... even just enjoying the view of the sunset while I'm driving home. (It was just that which put this thought into my head a few nights ago.) With that in mind, here's my goals for the mid-term: I want to lose weight, and build an exercise habit that will eventually translate into gaining strength and muscle. I want to get outside more, and gain the functional endurance and flexibility to do pretty much whatever activity I desire. I want to have more time to do things I enjoy. I want to have a consistent sleep schedule that leaves me well-rested. The specific challenge goals that are steps towards these results: Fixing my sleep schedule: I seriously need to improve my sleep schedule. It's gotten very out of whack during my wife's recovery. Due to a weird quirk of my circadian rhythm, it's extremely easy for me to lose a consistent bedtime. (My rhythm is set to about 24 hrs and 45 minutes, as near as I can tell. No idea why. I have to work to reset it every day with light therapy and melatonin, or my natural sleepiness and wakefulness cues quickly shift to nearly nocturnal. It can effect when I get hungry, too, but that's usually easier to correct.) I know from past experience that setting a strict bedtime and wake up time and forcing myself to stick to it is the best way to create a schedule that fits with my job and other goals. For this challenge, my getting-ready-for-bed time is 10pm, and my must-be-in-bed time is 11pm. My wake up time is 8:30am. This should allow me to be at work by 10am, which means I can leave at 6pm most days. So that should give me more time for working out, and other enjoyable evening activities. If I stick to this 5 days out of 7, I will award myself 1 prize token. 3-4 days out of 7 gets 1/2 a token. I will have looser tolerances (about half an hour) towards the beginning of the challenge, but as it progresses I need to be more precise about when I get to bed and when I get up. The ideal is to follow this schedule every day of the week, always. Walking daily after lunch: The trigger for this action is returning from eating out with coworkers, or finishing my lunch and throwing away any trash. The walk doesn't need to be longer than 2 laps around the building, but I want to make it a habit that I do every weekday. For now, I'm not going to worry about the weekends - though I can make up a missed day on the weekend if I want. Each week that I do this, I earn 1 prize token. If I only do 3 or 4 walks that week, I can still earn 1/2 of a token. Working out 2x per week: Three times a week turned out to be too much to start out. This time, I just want to do the 1A and 1B work outs once each during the week. I'm going to target Monday as the first day, and Thursday as the second, but other days are acceptable as necessary. Each week that I do this, I earn 1 prize token. If I only do 1 workout that week, I can still earn 1/2 of a token. No diet soda: I should not drink any diet soda during the challenge month (9/17 - 10/14). If I succeed in this, I get two "prize tokens". I am allowed 2 "slip-ups", and after that I lose 1/2 of a token per diet soda ingested. Which means that if I were to drink 6 sodas total, I would get nothing. I'm also going to check my progress on this half way through, and get the first prize token at that point if I haven't messed it up. EDIT: So far, I have used one of my two "freebies". I got 1 token for the first 2 weeks. Track Food and Water intake: Although this is a pretty good habit for me at this point, I obviously need to keep doing it. And I would like to reward myself for being consistent. So if I track both for the whole challenge, I get a bonus prize of 2 tokens. Much like with the diet soda, I'll let myself miss 2 total days without penalty, then start detracting 1/2 token for each missed food or water record. Like with the soda challenge, I'm checking in at the 2 week mark and getting the first prize then. EDIT: So far, I have used both of my two "free misses". I got 1/2 a token for the first 2 weeks. Outdoor Adventure: As usual, I want to go somewhere I normally don't and explore around. EDIT: Went to the beach on Sept 23. It was a little chilly, but very nice! My prize for doing this is 2 prize tokens. Bonus challenge: Organize and put away important papers! This has literally been on my to do list for two years, and my desk has been unusable for that long due to the mountain of papers on it! If I do this during the challenge, I get 1 prize token. It looks like a lot, but only the first 3 things are things I'm really struggling with. In keeping with my over-arching mindfulness goal, I'm hoping to find the joy in each of these goals. It's not just a checkbox to tic, but something to enrich my life. For example, I'm inspired by Tobbe to log food by taking pictures of it (and making it look appealing in the pics). Walking can be pleasant now that it's not boiling hot outside. Hopefully even working out can end up being an enjoyable experience. My intention is not to add to my stress by upping my expectations around each goal. Instead, it's a mindset I'm trying to cultivate.

Spring has Sprung! Dis heerlike lente, die winter is verby weer vrolik die velde, vir jou en vir my. (It's wonderful spring time, winter has gone) (happy the fields, for you and for me) loosely translated Die Ystervark I realised that some of the funny in the name is lost because of translation, but hubby (Brandt) called this weight plate storage stand he built, "Die Ystervark". Direct translation is "Iron Pig", and we found it appropriate because it is not just made of iron, but holds our iron weight plates and training paraphernalia. There is also a saying in Afrikaans "gooi die ysters rond" (throw around the irons - directly translated) for someone training with weights. And of course the normal comparison with a porcupine - little squat body with all those quills sticking out. Just going on with the normal routine that I've been trying to establish since... for ever. This is the first year where I did manage to train relatively frequently throughout winter. Other years I stopped my morning training for two, three challenges at a time. Bible study: every weekday morning; Strength training: 2x a week (Monday and Thursday mornings); Joint circles (warm up) Jumping jacks 20x (warm up) Plank2Pullups 10x Abs roll out 10x Front lunges 10kg 10x Deadlifts 30kg 10x Flys: front, lateral, bent over lateral (back shoulders) 10x each Bridge & Pinch 20sec Sit-twist stretch 1x Shoulder and Chest stretches 1x each Walking: 2-3x a week (Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons); Tue: with Brandt and the boys +-3-3.5km (up and downhill) Wed: alone +-5km (flat farm road) Fri: with boys +-3-5km (nat.reserve or neighbourhood) Dry fire: 1x a week (Wednesday morning), and 1x a month at club; Food: focusing on what I'm eating: loosing weight by cutting down on carbs/starches; drink 1x bottle water a day; BUT if I really crave something, then I allow myself to eat that as long as I don't overdo it. This goes hand in hand with a lot of brain things going on upstairs about WHY; measurements beginning and end of challenge. Sleep: be in bed by 21h30 every week night. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We had a hiking/rucking weekend planned for 22-24 Sept. which might not happen because all accommodation in the area are fully booked because of the long weekend, private school holidays, and some trail races planned for that long weekend. So we'll have to play that one by ear. In the meantime we are trying to spend more time together as a family.