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I have ALWAYS, ALWAYS, wanted to be Batgirl. Not just any Batgirl, but 1960's Barbara Gordon librarian-by-day and badass-by-night Batgirl. I used to watch re-runs of the old Batman show when I was little and found a hero in Batgirl. I would ride my bike around the neighborhood pretending it was a batcycle and I was catching bad guys. So, I'm calling upon this dream to be my motivation for the challenge. _____________________________________________________________ Goal # 1: Get a part-time job as a Library Assistant. I have an interview this week for a library assistant job and an application out for a similar position. If I don't get either of these jobs I will continue to track openings and apply for any that fit my schedule and skills. In the meantime... I'm getting ready to start a new freelance business as a writer and transcriptionist. I have a little work lined up and am just waiting for the library interview before I move forward. Either way, I will be adding 15-20 hours of work per week to my challenge. A+ = 20 hours a week of work including time spent applying for work/freelance opportunities Goal # 2: Boff! Thwack! I've come up with a schedule that will allow me to fit in 4 workouts a week. I'm going to use Startbodyweight.com for most of my workouts; adding in kettlebell deadlifts with each strength session. I can always sub-in 100 KB swings and 3 sets of TGU's if I want to. 3 strength workouts & 1 anything goes exercise option Goal # 3: Rock the unitard! Batgirl's outfit leaves little to the imagination. If I'm going to rock the unitard I have to eat and drink like a crime fighter. So, I'm going to follow Primal/Banting with a focus on no sugar and no grains. 6 days a week: No grains and No sugar 7 days a week: 4 cups of Not Coffee 1 Food Prep day a week

Well, I've decided to go with a battle log. I may do some challenges later, but for now I'm going to stick with this and I think it's exactly what I need. Somehow doing challenges changed the way I viewed my journey and it wasn't until today that I realized exactly how. I had a really good day today. I was playing around with my morning and afternoon routine trying to figure out/decide exactly how much and what I want to get done every day. I felt good at the end of the day though there were still a lot of things on my list that hadn't gotten done. When I stopped to think about it though, I realized I'd gotten a LOT done, but I didn't feel like I'd worked hard all day. Instead I felt happy and relaxed. When I started trying to figure out what the difference was I thought to myself "I did what I wanted to do". That's when I realized what's been going on. In my mind my challenges meant I "had" to do certain things. And that meant these were things I didn't "want" to do, so when I started feeling like a two-year old I didn't do them. Today I did yoga, my startbodyweight workout, morning routine, daily cleaning and several other things. In other words all the things that have been part of my challenges, but they weren't things I "had" to do. Instead they were things that I was choosing to do because I wanted to. I've been feeling stiff, so I wanted to do yoga, I didn't want to lose the progress I'd made in the startbodyweight workout, so I did that, etc. So, no challenges, in fact I'm not even going to put goals here in the battle log yet. For now my only goal is to turn my thinking back around. I'm going to continue to play around with my routines until I have ones that I think can become habits and I'm going to do workouts/exercises because I want to. I'll chronicle everything here and we'll see how it goes.

I don't like starting my challenges on a Sunday, so this challenge starts on Monday August 22. Last challenge went really well and helped me get things back on track after a couple of months of floundering. I'm continuing on with those habits this challenge, while adding a little to most of them to make sure I keep moving forward. I've decided to change how I do my challenges though. When I was doing this on my own I had managed to get rid of the "all or nothing" attitude by just striving for progress. Unfortunately having challenges with grades has undone that and anytime I'm not doing a challenge or things aren't going perfectly I'm sliding back into old habits. I really like doing the challenges and I love the camaraderie and support here, I just need to change how I do (and view) the challenges. So I'll be treating the challenges more like a battle log. I have healthy habits that I've created and others that I'm working on. I'll be keeping up with how I'm doing on those habits here. I'm also going to start having a list of things I want to do or try with the intent of completing one or two of those every challenge (thanks for the idea Elastigirl!). I'm going to try a point system as a reward (for habits and the extras), though points are ongoing. They don't have to be earned during a specific challenge and they'll be earned between challenges as well. I'll also be running my first 5K this challenge. It's a virtual 5K started by fellow NF rebels called the Rebel Run and it seems like a good place to start. Being able to run a 5K was one of the goals I set a few months ago. Fitness Habits: Exercise every day. A 5 minute walk or 20 squats can be used if I'm tired or short on time. This is a pretty firm habit. I earn one point for every day of exercise Run once a week. There is no time or distance limit on this, but I have been working my way up to a 5K and I need to continue that at least until the Rebel Run. I would like to run 3 miles once a week after the Rebel Run, but I'm not going to make that a requirement, at least not yet. This will earn me an extra point on top of the usual point for exercising, so two points. Strength Train twice a week. I'm still doing the Startbodyweight program, but I'm not going to limit myself to a specific program. This will also earn an extra point so two points for each strength training day. HIIT session once a week. This month I'm adding a HIIT session to the week. I'm not sure yet how well this will go, so right now it can be any type of HIIT session. I could do a walk with sprint intervals, a Tabata type workout or a 10-20-30 workout. This will also earn an extra point, so two points total. Yoga/Mobility/Stretching every day. I've put a minimum time limit of 10 minutes on this because the usual stretching I do after my strength workout lasts almost 9 minutes and I don't want to count that. I'll earn one point for every day I do this. I also want to try some of the intermediate routines this month, but I'm adding that to the list of things I want to try. Average 11,000 steps/day every week. I thought about increasing the step average, but sometimes it's still tough to get enough steps so I'm going to stick with this number for at least a little longer. I'll earn 5 points for every week that I meet this average. Healthy Eating Habits I'm not attaching any points to the healthy eating habits, because I still think I do better when I'm just treating these as habits with no reward or punishment attached. I am going to discuss how these are going though, so I still want to make them a part of the challenge. Eat at least one fruit or veggie with every meal and snack. I generally try to get 2-3 with every meal and 1-2 with each snack, but I'm working on making it a habit to have at least 1 (and potatoes don't count) no matter what. Put my fork (spoon, sandwich or whatever) down between bites and don't pick it up until I've swallowed that bite. I'm still in the first stages of this habit and I still forget, but I usually remember after a few bites. It definitely helps me be more mindful while I eat and I recognize when I'm full a lot better. Other Habits Do the pared down version of my morning routine with the daily cleaning added. There is no daily cleaning on Sundays or Tuesdays because those are hubby's off days. There's still one more part to add to morning routine so I'll earn 0.5 point for the pared down routine and an extra 0.25 point for the daily cleaning. That way when I'm doing the full routine it will earn one point. I'm still keeping up with the produce goal as well, but I'm not assigning any points to it. I'll continue to measure it the same as before. I'll make a note of each of the different types of fruit and veggies I buy and then decide how much of each type I throw away. For example let's say I bought 10 different types of fruits and veggies. Then I threw away half the broccoli, a quarter of the lettuce and all of the oranges. That would mean I threw out 17.5% of the produce. Freezing stuff (if it's freezable) before it goes bad is allowed. --[I haven't finished coming up with the list of things to try, but I wanted to go ahead and get my challenge up. This is a work in progress and hopefully I'll get it finished in the next couple of days. Things to Try/Do I'll earn one point for each of these that I do. Try an intermediate yoga routine]-- Rewards I'll earn a reward for every 100 points that I earn. I may try to come up with more specific rewards later, but this is the general framework. Buy a new class on Craftsy Spend $20 on craft supplies Spend $20 on clothes Spend $20 on Exercise/Fitness (equipment, classes or whatever)

This is my No Frills, No Theme, Stupid-Simple Challenge. I will not chase shiny things. I will not get fancy with my workouts. I will not fret over macros, micros, fat percentages, etc. Food: protein, produce, fats no grains low sugar (approx. 10g of added sugar a day to allow for things like ketchup and my favorite protein powder) Exercise: Strength training (startbodyweight.com) 2-3x a week Slow cardio 3-4x a week with an occasional high intensity work out. Mobility: Wrist mobility daily Any other flexibility work 3x a week Adulting or Gratitude List With every update I post

Hi! I'm NTB and my special talents are oversharing, bop-it extreme, and getting headphones really tangled in a very short time. Let's do an icebreaker! What are your special talents? And also, will you remember that I asked this by the time you get to the bottom of this post? I was planning a slightly different challenge for this month, but after my post-vacation struggles with food last challenge, I haven’t been feeling as aggressive. So. I read an article a few years ago that mentioned a culture where people consider anything that is too perfect to be an insult to the gods, because only gods can be perfect. I thought that was neat, and the idea stuck with me even though I remember literally nothing else about what I read. I’m not a perfectionist like some people around here, but I do get frustrated easily when I start to backslide. My only benchmark is myself, but I have had some pretty awesome challenges in the past, so there’s still a lot to live up to. Last challenge I tried to be a king, and that failed miserably. So I guess this challenge my goal is still to do pretty much all the same stuff as usual, but also to remember that not every week will be my best week, and that’s the way it should be. Goal 1: Food Goal 2: Maintain Fitness Workout 3x/week (usually two at-home bodyweight workouts and 1 bootcamp class) Run 1x/week - After the Spartan is over, I’m going to resume experimenting with sprinting. I also get points for remembering to do ankle alphabets before and after each run. Walk. My walking is usually really strong, but that’s suffered lately too. So instead of walking 16 miles/week this challenge, my goal is just to walk deliberately every day, even if it’s just a loop around the block. Goal 3: Movement Focus I don’t actually have any formal goals this time. This is just kind of a mishmash of things I want to do and might potentially get around to: Leading up to the Spartan: prioritize frequent yoga, excessive walking, miscellaneous burpees, and trying to climb stuff September: I’ve been daydreaming about trying out a GMB program for months now, so I am thinking of trying either their elements or flexibility program. I have 0 plans for integrating this into my current exercise schedule and complete #doallthethings rangerbrain about it. I would still like to haul the bike out and get riding, even if it’s just in the parking lot next door. Goal 4: Life Goal - Swimming This should be the easiest life goal ever. I’ve been wanting to take swim lessons for ages since I never learned to tread water. I don’t even have to sign up for anything yet. I just have to contact at least once place and get moving on this goal already. Bonus Goals: I get a bonus point for each week I accomplish one of these goals, but I cannot complete these goals at the expense of others: Meditate daily Yoga 4x/week Clean the sink 4x/week Go to bed around 10pm on Sunday nights

This past month was full of things that would have made it difficult to keep up with a challenge, so I skipped it. Because I wasn't focused on keeping up with my challenge I had time to think about what was and wasn't working and really reevaluating things. The big thing that hasn't been working has been any and all eating restrictions. I had already decided that to some extent, but I was still making eating quests in my challenges. All that is doing is reinforcing the good/bad mentality that makes me act crazy when I decide to be "bad". For the past couple of weeks I've been working on undoing that. I am working on eating mindfully and paying attention to my body, but nothing is off limits, not even overeating. This is definitely not a quick fix kind of thing, but there will not be any quests related to it. At first I tried to come up with some way to measure it and include it in the quests, but that would just turn it back into a good/bad sort of thing. Hopefully eventually my emotions won't control what I eat. I don't think the fitness quests and habit quests have the same effect so I'll be sticking with those. I think the accountability helps with those instead of turning me into a screaming two-year old. Quest 1: I want to exercise every day and I can still employ placeholder workouts. I want 1 of the workouts per week to be a run and 2 of the workouts to be strength workouts. I'm still doing the Startbodyweight.com strength workout and I'm going to stick with that. Measurement: A = 26-28 workouts, 8 strength workouts and 4 runs, B = 23-25 workouts, 6-7 strength workouts and 3 runs, C = 20-22 workouts, 4-5 strength workouts and 2 runs, D = 17-19 workouts, 2-3 strength workouts and 1 run Quest 2: I had a daily yoga habit but let it lapse when I started having issues with one knee. I think the yoga was exacerbating it but wasn't the cause of the problem. I've been doing yoga at least once a week for a while now with no knee issues. I want to start the habit back because I liked the increase in flexibility and I think it will help with some of the soreness that the strength workout can cause. Just in case I start having knee issues again I'm going to make it a yoga/stretching/mobility habit. I want to do at least 10 minutes of yoga, stretching or mobility work every day. Measurement: A = 26-28 days, B = 23-25 days, C = 20-22 days, D = 17-19 days Quest 3: I've upped my average weekly steps to 11,000 steps, though it's been hit or miss the last few weeks. Now that things are back to normal I should be able to keep it up for the whole month. Measurement: A = Average 11,000 steps all 4 weeks, B = Avg 11,000 for 3 weeks, D = Avg 11,000 for 2 weeks Life Quest: With this past month being so not normal my routines have really been thrown off. I've been trying to get back to my usual morning routine but I haven't been able to so far, at least not reliably. Rather than trying to do my full, usual morning routine (which is what I've been trying to do) I'm going to shoot for a pared down version just to get back into the habit. If that is going really well after the first couple of weeks I might switch to my full routine, but if not I'll work on that in the next challenge. Measurement: A = 24-26 times, F = 23 or less times Even though the produce goal isn't one of my quests this time, I am going to keep up with it here. It won't be graded, but I do want to keep up with it, so I might as well put it here. It does have some bearing on what I eat, but it isn't an eating quest and doesn't trigger the same feelings. I'll continue to measure it the same as before. I'll make a note of each of the different types of fruit and veggies I buy and then decide how much of each type I throw away. For example let's say I bought 10 different types of fruits and veggies. Then I threw away half the broccoli, a quarter of the lettuce and all of the oranges. That would mean I threw out 17.5% of the produce. Freezing stuff (if it's freezable) before it goes bad is allowed.

Last challenge, my theme was “to be a cat, or to stop being a cat?” The answer was quite clearly to continue being a cat, so this seemed like a good follow-up theme. #scientificmethod Last challenge was not my best challenge. I continued my workout and meditation streaks, and learned some things, but my overall scores were kindasorta not very good. Near the end of my challenge, I found myself suddenly feeling very worn out and uneager to do anything. I suddenly felt like I was fighting with myself just to do basic things. But, y’know… I thought about cutting things out so I’d be less rangerbrainy about everything. But when I listed all of the things I’m working on, there was nothing I really felt like I could cut out. There was no one thing that was really causing me stress or exhaustion. I’m doing a bunch of different things, but I genuinely don’t think I’m doing TOO much when I put it all together. There are the 4 building blocks of physical health that I know work for me – walking, working out, yoga, and eating primalish. Those are my essentials. And then I’ve added some supplemental things more focused on mental wellbeing – meditation, dishes, and the like. None of those things are that strenuous. So, instead of trying to edit my goals, I’m going to try to edit the space around them. I’m going to start tinkering with how I spend my time when I’m not working on goal stuff, and see how that impacts my energy. I’m going to finish this fight. Goal 1: Maintain Fitness Workout 3x/week (usually 1 bootcamp class and 2 workouts on my own) 1 run per week – I’m working on increasing from 5K towards 5 miles. I also need to remember to do ankle alphabets before and after each run Walk 16 miles per week (64 over 4-week challenge) Goal 2: Spartan Prep Burpees I’m going to finish the burpee fight. Last challenge, my goal was to try to do 30 burpees in a row (with breaks as needed) every day. I only got about 12.5 days in. So, I want to get in 17.5 days over the course of this challenge to hit that nice symmetrical 30x30 number. That’s roughly every other day, so I can leave them out on days that are already packed with other physical activity. That might help them feel like less of a burden. Climbing I made great progress on the jungle gym at the park, but I did not actually conquer it. I’m going to keep working on this and try to conquer it this challenge. I won’t require a certain number of attempts. Either I make progress or I don’t, but I can do it at whatever pace that works. Goal 3: Food Food happens in 3 categories: things that work, conscious eating, and some sort of experiment or test I focus on for a month to try to learn more about my eating. Part 1: Maintain What Works (23 points / week) Don’t eat after 8pm (or within 3 hours of bedtime) (-1 point for failure). Exceptions on Thursdays where workouts and Aikido coincide. Don’t eat more than 1 bad food/meal in a day. Desserts are counted separately from meals in most cases. (-1 point for failure) Eat primalish most of the time (19 meals / week allows for 2 variance meals) (-1 point per failure, +1 point for extra primal meal) Aim for primal snacks on 4 days/week and then non-primal snacks ok 3 days per week (out of 4 points/week) Aim for at least 1 primal meal and 1 50% meal per day when travelling or hosting (-1 point per failure, +1 per success) Plan/prep meals over the weekend and prep/freeze meals for weeks when this doesn’t happen (+1 point when done successfully) Write down bad reactions to food choices in an ongoing spreadsheet to dissuade myself from making that choice a second time. Not connected to any points. Doing this is slowly starting to help me make better choices. Slowly. Part 2: Conscious Eating (28 points/week) Think about what I’m about to do before eating something. Ideally, pause and take a few deep breaths. If I eat something unhealthy, recognize and acknowledge that I’m about to sell out my future self. (4 points per day – 3 meals and snacks) Part 3: Experiment – Carbs (14 points/week) Fiber I decided to repeat the carb experiment this challenge, since I feel like there’s still more to learn from doing it. I don’t plan to count carbs permanently, but I want to continue to experiment with it for one more challenge. I hypothesize that I already instinctually know when I’m eating a good quantity of carbs – on the days that I ate well, my carbs were also good. But I want to confirm that through science. I’m aiming to stay under 100g/day. I won’t track during travel or hosting. 1 point for tracking and 1 point for hitting goal. ½ point if I don’t know the nutritional info for a thing, but I still write the thing down. In light of cholesterol issues, I'm changing this to fiber for the challenge. Aiming for 25g at least of fiber per day. Goal 4 (Life Goal): Sleep & Play Here’s where I try to manage my energy. I’ve known for a long time that I should work on my sleep habits, but I’ve also avoided doing so because the idea really intimidates me. I’ll try something small. Sleepy Sundays Get to bed at 10pm on Sundays so that I start the week off with enough sleep. This means I’ll have to wait to watch Game of Thrones until Mondays, since it airs at 9pm on Sundays. Try to clear Sundays so that I have a whole day where I can recuperate / prep meals. I should try to avoid letting workouts fall on Sundays. I should try to get groceries on Saturday so that I don’t have to worry about that on Sunday. I should try to get laundry done before Sunday. Play 1x per week physically – Roll around on the ground, try primal movements, dance, try cartwheels, splash in the pool. Whatever. Cat stuff. 1x per week mentally – doodle, color, whittle, solve a puzzle, etc. Bonus Goals These goals earn me bonus points that can balance out any other areas where I struggle, but these goals cannot happen at the expense of my main goals. Yoga 4x/week Meditate 7x/week Clean the sink before bed 4x/week

Last month I created new goals and refocused my efforts in order to begin making progress again. It has worked really well. I've gotten much stronger, I can run a mile and a half, my eating has improved and my weight is going down again instead of yo-yoing. I'm very pleased with the progress I've made and I'm going to continue with the plan I made last month. My parents are coming to visit for a week and a half at the end of this month which will complicate things. Because of that I'm going to make the goals monthly instead of weekly so that I can try to make up for anything I miss while they're here. Quest 1: I still want to exercise every day (including during the parents' visit) and I can still employ placeholder workouts. I also still want 4 of the workouts to be runs. This month I also want 8 of the workouts to be strength workouts. I have made a lot of progress with the Startbodyweight.com workout that I found through @Lightning so I plan to stick with that for the strength workouts. Measurement: A = 26-28 workouts, 8 strength workouts and 4 runs, B = 23-25 workouts, 6-7 strength workouts and 3 runs, C = 20-22 workouts, 4-5 strength workouts and 2 runs, D = 17-19 workouts, 2-3 strength workouts and 1 run Quest 2: The no bread rule from the last challenge went well and I'm choosing healthier carbs. I'm going to keep that up this month along with the allowed 2 variances. Another key part of the "core" program I discussed in the last challenge was to eat until "satisfied" not "stuffed". I actually think that was the most useful thing I learned from the program and I made that part of my very first challenge at NF. Unfortunately I've backslid from that, particularly in the last few months. I worked on this some last month, but not as part of the challenge. I did well most of the time, but it's definitely not a habit and needs more work. I used this scale in my first challenge and that's what I've been using for the past month. I'll rate my hunger before and after every meal and snack. I won't eat if my hunger is higher than 4 and I won't eat past a 5 or 6. I'll calculate the percentage of time that I stuck to these guidelines to grade my progress. Measurement: A = 8 or less variances, within my ratings 90-100% of the time, B = 9 variances, within my ratings 80-89% of the time, C = 10 variance, within my ratings 70-79% of the time, D = 11 variances, 60-69% of the time Quest 3: I've decided to up my average steps to 10,500 steps. It's not a big jump but since I shoot for an average I didn't want to do too big of a jump. Instead of trying to average 10,500 steps each week, I want to average 10,500 steps for the month. That will give me a little more leeway during the parents' visit. After this month I'll go back to a weekly average. Measurement: A = Average 10,500 steps for the 4 weeks of the challenge, B = Avg 9,500-10,499 for the 4 weeks of the challenge, C = Average 8,500-9,499 steps for the 4 weeks of the challenge, D = Average 7,500-8,499 steps for the 4 weeks of the challenge Life Quest: I'm continuing the produce goal for this challenge. It had a lot of benefits and I want to make sure this has become a habit before I start keeping up with it outside of a challenge. I'll continue to measure it the same as before. I'll make a note of each of the different types of fruit and veggies I buy and then decide how much of each type I throw away. For example let's say I bought 10 different types of fruits and veggies. Then I threw away half the broccoli, a quarter of the lettuce and all of the oranges. That would mean I threw out 17.5% of the produce. Freezing stuff (if it's freezable) before it goes bad is allowed. Measurement: A = Throw out 10% or less of the produce I buy, B = Throw out 10.1%-20% of the produce I buy, C = Throw out 20.1%-30% of the produce I buy, D = Throw out 30.1% - 40% of the produce I buy

Much like the repetitive nature of the Final Fantasy 13 games... Lightning returns with a repeat of the last challenge (with some important changes) MAIN GOAL 135 lbs with an Athletic build and functionally fit _____________________________________________________________________________________ GOAL 1: Cutting Calories Based on my current weight, height, and activity level I need to consume approximately 1500 calories a day in order to lose .5-1.0 pound per week. Since I want to lose fat and not muscle I need to eat approximately 1 gram of protein per lean body mass. I will use carb cycling to keep my metabolism running. Choosing higher carb meals (150g or less) on strength training days and lower carbs (under 100g) on all other days. 1 cheat meal allowed per week. 1 cheat day during Shark Week. The change made here is that I'm not going to use my weight as the gauge for success. I'm losing inches which means I'm getting leaner. The scale just isn't the right tool for this job. +4 CON +1 WIS GOAL 2: Strength & Sweat To maintain my current lean muscle I will perform 3 days of strength training each week. I'm switching to a Push and Pull split and I've upgraded my body weight exercises. To shed fat faster I will do at least 2 sessions of HIIT lasting 20 minutes each week. +3 STR +2 STA GOAL 3: Restore & Replenish 4 Cups of water a day. +2 CON 3 days of stretching/foam rolling a week +1 DEX LIFE GOAL: MOAR numbers! Brand new goals here... Get quotes from contractors on renovating the kid's bathroom. Must speak to 3 contractors. +1 CHA Complete homeschool records/transcripts for both kids for this school year. +1 CHA

This is where I get serious about what I want and what I have to do to get there.... MAIN GOAL 135 lbs with an Athletic build and functionally fit _____________________________________________________________________________________ GOAL 1: Cutting Calories Based on my current weight, height, and activity level I need to consume approximately 1500 calories a day in order to lose .5-1.0 pound per week. Since I want to lose fat and not muscle I need to eat approximately 1 gram of protein per lean body mass. I will use carb cycling to keep my metabolism running. Choosing higher carb meals on strength training days. 1 cheat meal allowed per week. 1 additional allowed during Shark Week Track daily because the Numbers Won't Lie!!!! +4 CON +1 WIS GOAL 2: Strength & Sweat To maintain my current lean muscle I will perform 3 days of strength training each week (Upper Body and Lower Body split) To shed fat faster I will do at least 2 sessions of HIIT lasting 20 minutes each week. +3 STR +2 STA GOAL 3: Restore & Replenish 4 Cups of water a day +2 CON 3 days of stretching/foam rolling a week +2 DEX LIFE GOAL: Data Science This challenge is really ALL about numbers! I'm taking a data science class and need to buckle down and put more time into it. 2 days a week = +1 WIS

Lightning Learns Defense again the Dark Arts Lightning has decided that the best way to Level Up is to learn from the best. Who better to teach her how to defend herself and make herself stronger against the evils of this world than Professor Snape?! The great Professor has several curses, counter-spells and charms to teach the class so I hope everyone is paying attention! Wands at the Ready!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Duro (The Hardening Charm) Rather than letting someone else turn you into stone, Professor Snape suggests turning myself into a hard body before anyone else can! For this, Lightning will be taking the advice of some other great minds... the people behind Startbodyweight.com. She will be returning to her bodyweight progression and working out with an upper body and lowerbody split. 15 total workouts = an A+ (3 STR/1STA) Petrificus Totalus (body binding) Again, the goal is be able to defend myself against this spell and this time I will do it with some Yummy Yoga and potentially tortuous foam rolling. As there seems to be a student that likes to hit me with this curse regularly I will need to be proactive and keep myself loose and nimble. 3 days a week of yoga/foam rolling = an A+ (2 DEX) Reducio (a counter spell) Since I have been repeatedly hit with the Engorgio spell over the span of my lifetime I am very focused on mastering the counter spell, Reducio. This will take practice (no problem) and patience (big problem). Professor Snape sent me to the library to read about the great Muggle William Banting and told me to follow his wisdom if I want to understand the power of the Reducio spell. Follow the Banting Food List. Eat freely from the green food list, eat up to one serving off of the orange list (daily), and no more than two items off of the red list per week. Potential for (3 CON) points. Bonus points for keeping a food journal. Pass/Fail (1 WIS) Agua Eructo What better way to prepare for having water forcibly shot at you from a wand than by drinking copious amounts of liquid?! 6 Cups of caffeine free/ sugar free drinks a day. Pure water worth double points! Pass/Fail (2 CON) Life Goals Levicorpus There are some bullies running around Slytherin and turning students upside down. I have a fear of being upside down and don't want to embarass myself. So, just to be ready, I'm going to practice being upside down. I can use my headstand bench, spend time in the tripod pose, or use the rings to suspend myself. 3x a week (1 CHA) Slytherin Common Room Professor Snape wants me to keep an eye on some of my fellow students. So, I've signed up for the mini challenge and will be sure to participate every week. (1 CHA) The Professor would also like me to infiltrate some of the other houses and check on the 1st Years. So I will be following at least 5 new students and making weekly comments to them. There are a lot of Gryffindors I have my eye on too so I will be following many current students and making helpful comments to at least 5 of them every week. (2 CHA)

Brand-new ranger, still adapting to this hard, wonderful life. Living like a real wood elf, in the trees. Tree living is defensible and disguisable (especially from those walking below), making tree living a useful adaptation to the Swiss Family Robinson, various birds and beasts, and the Ewoks of Endor. Despite the fact that my people have lived arboreally for countless generations (elves belong in trees), my city-dwelling has led me away from this lifestyle and into unhealthy, weakening habits. I will acclimate myself to forest living in four ways: 1.) Climbing practice. Any defensible treehouse must have multiple paces of egress and ingress, preferably only accessible by the initiated. Therefore, a rope ladder or series of graceful stairways is more suited to the Lórien cousins than to my simple life. To be able to get into, out of, and around my home, I must become stronger, better able to lift my own weight. Therefore, three times a week, I will complete body weight exercises, specifically: Starting Body Weight Beginner’s Program. If scheduling becomes a problem, I can abort to another bodyweight program, but hope to manage the SBW for six weeks, and hope to see results. 2.) Woodland Stride. To further defend my home, the ability to move quickly to or away from it to escape, distract, mislead, or just utterly destroy intruders, monsters, or dangerous animals will be paramount. I must improve my speed and stamina, continuing to range across the forest, seeking out evil. As such, I will “range†three times a week. One will be a long sweep (starting at 5K, potentially adding more distance each week), to work on longer-term stamina and note any growing darknesses and looming threats. The other two will be shorter, to clear the areas surrounding my home and places of note within my territory. Each of these will be timed (20-30 minutes), rather than measured by distance. I also hope to include some speed play"* or intervals to increase my speed during these shorter rangings. 3.) Bounty of the Forest. A Ranger must travel light and maximize the space in her caches of food and supplies. Maintaining organized caches will be paramount to my survival and ability to protect this area. As such, I intend to log all food and drink intake for the next six weeks. Hopefully I will need to make few trips to town for staples, and allow the forest, river, and sea to provide for me. I intend to use macros (I presume, a type of small basket) to balance and organize my intake, and have obtained a small recording imp to keep track of it all. He refuses to create pie charts a third of the time, and insists on being referred to by his full title, as my “Infernal Servitor, Servant Abyssal, Scribe of all things Unknowable, Mazik-Clerk, and Fitness Palâ€. I foresee frustrations there, but will do my best. 4.) Preparing my Home for the Dark Winter. As the temperature drops and the nights become longer and colder, more supplies must be brought in to weather the chill. I haven’t much room, so superfluities must be ejected to ensure enough room for myself, my husband, and any lost travelers or wounded animals that may need my care. Daily/weekly cleaning schedule. Reorganizing kitchen, reorganizing electronics, and doing projects for the home (knitting slippers, etc.) would be nice additions, given time. 15 points: Climbing – STR +3 Woodland Stride – DEX +2, STA +3 Bounty of the Forest – CON +2, WIS +1 Home – WIS +2, CHA +2 * I am not enough of an adult to say "fartlek" without giggling.

Hi, I don't know where to ask this, but I've been stuck in my pull-up and my push-ups progression. I have been doing startbodyweight weight loss program for a while now, and I hit 6/6/6 on my half pull-ups and 8/7/7 on uneven push-ups. From there I can't seem to move on. My body just can't follow. Is there anything I can do? Here are possible factors that I considered: I've been eating less for a while nowI'm training boxing/kali in my off daysI'm not quite sure what to do from here. Thanks for helping me out.