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Ba BAYUM. While I've always "wanted" to be healthier, physical fitness and clean eating always drops in lue of "the other thing." But today, rather than chasing this abstract goal, I've created a plan. I am going to do an Iron Man triathlon in Kona, and I am going to train my butt off to get there. I'll start with running and biking. I'm beginning on my mom's bike from Germany, meaning it's 20+ years old. On Tuesday I'm running with a local club to practice running with a crowd. So that's a 5k every Tuesday night. If I feel I'm ready, on October 18th I'll enter a duathlon. Once I've paid off my student loans in a few months, I'll do one of two things: buy a proper road bike (for competitions and practical travel) or buy a membership at the Y for ~$50 month to use a pool. One thing that always threw me off schedule is my constant back-and-forth between my house and my best friend's house. *Not a problem any more! When I sleep at my house, I'll go for a bike ride. When I sleep at his, I'll run. It'll be a pretty even distribution. I might just get a new pair of shoes so I have one at each place. Bonus: SInce I've been considering the Iron Man, it's been so much easier to turn down the crap food. Yay! I like feeling healthy. So, time to start making my Battle Logs.

So I recently respawned and have taken up swimming! And I have to say it surprised me how good an experience it's been. You see normally I'd go to the gym and lift weights or do cardio, the usual stuff really. But after getting injured the last time I was there I kind of fell off the wagon for a bit. I tried really hard to get back into it but it was rough because things kept coming up (my grandpa passed away so we had to miss the gym for a while in order to arrange that) and before I knew it my month's membership was up and my financial incentive wasn't there anymore. This made forking up another monthly membership fee a difficult decision for me, especially since recently I haven't had a trainer to work with and all of my personal attempts at exercise felt either unsatisfactory or left me in pain. Then the idea of swimming came up. Now I'd normally turn down something as far out of my normal routine as swimming, but given that I'd seemed to have run out of options I tried it out for the heck of it, and I was not disappointed. I ended up getting the same type of muscle burn I would feel from lifting weights at the gym without the strain that would come from lifting. In addition to that it was almost always a total body workout so I did not feel like I was missing out on anything I could have done at the gym. Plus, my new swim coach is great and he immediately picks up on my strengths and weaknesses and has really helped me to improve my swimming. And...it's fun! And not at all as burdensome as the Saturday morning boot camps I used to do or as lame as though dance aerobics classes gym trainers seem to ALWAYS encourage women in the gym to do. I'm mainly writing this article though, to send a message. Don't be afraid to try new things, or even pick back up some old ones. I haven't swum this hard since the 6th grade and I had no idea how much my body missed it. So who knows? Step outside your comfort zone or respark an old flame. You'd be surprised at what you might discover.

Hi West Coast Rebels! Looking for people in the Greater Vancouver area to swim with. My goal for the end of the summer is to swim across Buntzen Lake, which is about 3km long from beach to beach. We will have a canoe available to save people if anyone gets tired or gets a cramp. Also, in case you don't want to drink lake water, the canoe will be stocked with water bottles. This is Buntzen Lake in Ioco. I'm thinking late summer so it's nice and hot. Felt the water yesterday during my hike and the water at the shore is already fairly warm! There are no motorboats allowed, so no risk of getting run over. I'm looking for places outdoors to swim throughout the summer as well, so if anyone wants to check out local swimming holes with me, I'd love that! Also definitely looking for suggestions. I used to do trail 6 down to wreck and swim there all summer when I lived in Vancouver, but now I'm in Surrey, so I'm thinking of checking out Crescent Beach/ White Rock Beach as soon as the weather is behaving. Definitely available for hikes in the area as well. www.vancouvertrails.com is a great resource.

Alright so for my last challenge I ran into some difficulties. The main one being I did not really put in anytime for active recovery (who needs to recover right?!) When I did take some time off, I ended up making huge improvements on my running time. So this challenge I am going to build recovery time into my workout plan. I am also noticing that nutrition is..... lacking. I am also going to try a point system for tracking my progress this challenge. Goal #1 - Create a workout plan, and stick to it, that involves a recovery week. The plan will focus on time active, with a couple specific workouts done on certain days. Each week the amount of daily active time will increase, and than drop for a week of recovery. It might be 2 hours a day week 1, 3 hours week 2, 4 hours week 3, and than 1.5 hours week 4. The point is recovery, but it is called ACTIVE recovery for a reason. Each week I stick to my plan = 100 points! Total possible score = 600 points! STA = +3 STR = +2 Goal #2 - Pick 1 day each week, track my calories, and find 1 thing to improve. For me I just feel better when I am eating healthier, and it turns out you can still be unhealthy when your a vegetarian! I want to be able to know what is healthy, but teach myself to do it intuitively. Every day I track, I need to pick one thing I could have improved, and post about what I have decided to improve. Each day tracked = 100 points! Each improvement = 100 points! total possible score = 1200 points! CON = +2 Goal #3 - Reduce weekly screen time (not related to fitness goals) If I am going to be spending more time active, I need to cut out time somewhere. Each week I will monitor the amount of time I spend in front of screens (not bug screens) and reduce that by 15 minutes. Reading books on kindle does not count towards screen time, as long I only read 1 book every 3 weeks. each 15 minutes reduced = 100 points! total possible score = 600 points! Wis = +3 There's no major changes here really, which is what I am going for. Although I do have a goal I am working towards, part of the point of this is to be healthy, and smaller changes will be easier to try and sustain than larger changes.

I am back and ready for my 9th Nerd Fitness Challenge! My theme this time is mermaids and swimming because I want to get into the best scuba diving shape I can be in preparation for my upcoming dive trip to Cozumel, Mexico starting May 16. I've been a fan of mermaids ever since I was a little girl, swimming at the local pool with my fins on. My top two favorite mermaid movies: Disney's The Little Mermaid and Splash. While Ariel wanted nothing more than to give up her voice for a pair of legs, I want to give up my landlocked state for a pair of fins and gills! I'm already an avid scuba diver, having gotten my open water certification in Cozumel back in 2014. For this trip, the husband and I will be there for 2 glorious weeks filled to the brim with nothing but diving. We're hoping to get as many as 25/26 dives in during that time including a wreck dive and night dive! Main Quest To live a healthy and balanced life by continuing to exercise and eat healthy. Motivation I've successfully dropped weight by counting calories so my diet will mostly be staying the same with 1200 calories per day M-F and then blow meals on the weekends. I've managed to put on some muscle in an effort to become stronger by weight lifting and that will continue this challenge along with my smaller quests. 1. Swim once a week a. Start getting into scuba shape by swimming as part of my cardio routine once per week. b. Reward: +3 to STA & +2 to DEX c. Results: /6 2. Sweet treats a. Cut down on processed junk food by only having sugary snacks on the weekends with my blow means. b. Reward: +2 to CHA c. Results: /25 3. Strength training Wetsuit Workout a. Tank Lift (bar squat) = 120lbs {current: 100lbs} i. or bar sled = 260lbs {current: 240lbs} ii. or barbell squat = 50lbs (each hand) {current: 40lbs} b. Lateral Tank Lift (lateral raise) = 15lbs {current: 12lbs} c. Ladder Step with Weights = 25lbs i. Reward: +2 to STR d. scissor kick i. Reward: +2 to DEX 4. Spanish a. Study and practice Spanish daily during week for at least 20-30 minutes in preparation for Cozumel. b. Scoring: /22 c. Reward: +4 to WIS Current Stats Age: 33 Gender: female Height: 5’3†Weight: 139.4lbs

Unchallenge time! I'm in a good groove with food and activity. I'm sticking with the No S-Diet, swinging my sledgehammer regularly, and doing bodyweight workouts. I'm hooping, swimming on a nearly regular basis (not laps, but not just messing around, either), walking home from the subway again now that the weather is lovely, and have been starting to lift weights thanks to a handy curbside find and encouragement from a big muscly friend. I'm doing rope on a pretty regular basis as a bottom, and am seeing progress in my stretches and balancing. I'm trying some new stuff to generate some extra income in addition to my day job. I'm too busy to add anything else, and between all of that plus a full-time job, being a parent, and a very, very full social schedule, any extras tend to fall off! So this is an unchallenge. I'll keep up with my battle log (World Conquest) for the daily updates, and will use this thread for general updates in regards to how things are going. If something shiny catches my eyes, I will give it a try and post here about how it went. Things I'd like to try: Climbing/boulderingParkourPoleAerial yogaPartner yogaCool new yoga posesTo see how many burpees I can do in a day/week Things I'm likely to be doing: Playing outside with my kidsPhotographyModellingRope!UKULELE ... MAYBE???Painting my house??Getting a bike and starting to bike to work in MayGardening LET'S DO THIS! Fair warning: I am queer, agender, poly, and kinky. I will warn you if any content or links I share is NSFW, and put questionable stuff behind a cut.

Hi everyone! I'm Crar, a brand new Adventurer, running on the momentum of successfully finishing my first challenge with the recruits! Hopefully I can do even better this time around and smash the next six weeks! A little bit about me - I'm a 22 year old British student. I was a competitive swimmer throughout my teenage years. On stopping swimming when things like jobs/studying/social life got in the way, I piled on the pounds by keeping on eating like I was a swimmer. I'm now determined to use the final 18 months of my university life to make good healthy habits that will last a lifetime. So without further ado - the challenge! Main Quest My main quest is, as it was in the last challenge, to fit into some awesome jeans that I've had forever but never been able to wear. To do this I need to lose a couple of inches here and there. I also want to be generally fitter/harder/better/faster/stronger Specific Goals - Two days per week, all the meals I eat must be paleo. In the last challenge, I made a new paleo recipe every week and I really enjoyed discovering new tastes and adapting my cooking to some different ingredients. This time around I want to take it further, increase the amount of paleo foods I eat and force myself to look at paleo options I can take as a packed lunch, something I avoided last time around. For this goal, I am going to award myself +4 CON points (A = 12+ days of paleo throughout the challenge, +4CON, B = 9 - 12 days of paleo, +3CON, C = 6 - 9 days of paleo, +2CON, F = less than 6 days paleo, no points, challenge fail) - No junk food alone. What this means is that I will never eat junk food (sweets, crisps, chocolate, cake, pastries, biscuits, the list goes on) by myself. For example, if I meet up with some friends for lunch and my sandwich comes with crisps, I will eat the crisps. But I cannot go out and buy a packet of crisps and scoff them by myself. I have decided on this goal because I know that eating treats with other people means I will do a better job at regulating how much I eat while still getting to enjoy some tasty treats. This is following on from my last challenge, where I ate no crisps (even though I really love them) for the whole 6 weeks. Points! +2 CON and +2 STA (for the resolve to continue resisting the cravings) if I never binge on junk while alone! No points if I cave in to the urges! - Exercise! Specifically, 6 workouts per week! At least two of these must be running (5km+) and at least two of these must be the legendary Beginner Body Weight Workout. Other workouts could be a fitness class, a swim, a yoga video, whatever takes my fancy. Points available: +2STR for the BBWW, +2STA for the running, +1 of an attribute most appropriate to whatever other workouts I do. Weighting of points may be adjusted if I have an injury that prevents/limits me doing a certain exercise (like I did in the final week of the last challenge). Points will be docked appropriately for each workout missed - if I miss a run/BBWW on more than 1 occasion, that's one point lost for the available attribute, if I miss them on more than 2 occasions, that's two points lost. Life Quest Although my degree course is pretty busy in terms of work, I find myself facing a fairly light few weeks. I'm going to use that time to do one hour of self directed study each day, six days per week. I know I won't regret this when it comes to my exams later in the year! For this, +2 WIS if I achieve more than 90% of study sessions, +1 if 75% achieved. TL;DR - Two days per week fully paleo (+4CON) - No junk food alone (+2CON, +2STA) - 6 workouts per week (+2STR, +2STA, +1 undecided attribute point) - 1hr per day, 6 days per week, self study for my university work (+2WIS) That's me. Looking forward to meeting some other sexy sexy Adventurers and starting our challenges together! (Also over the next few days I should get my tape measure out and take some starting measurements, so I can see some improvement over 6 weeks, and maybe chuck in a starting photo as well!)

Time for some déjà vu: What do you do when your 2014 resolution was to lose 10 pounds and then you end up gaining 10 pounds instead? Pick yourself up and try again. So here I am, picking myself back up and continuing on my goal to get healthy. Overall, I want to be smaller. I know that my measurements will become smaller but the scale could go up. This is something I constantly struggle with. Since 8th grade I’ve been trying to get the scale to go down (yup, I was an 8th grader drinking SlimFast for breakfast). And with doctors constantly hounding me to lose weight, it is ingrained in my head that the scale needs to go down. So, yes, I want to lose weight, but I want/need to become stronger. My goal is to be 2-3 inches smaller in all my measurements (waist, arms, thighs, hips). If I lose weight in the process, yay! If not, well, you may need to talk some sense back into me. So here we go for Challenge Number 7: Main 3 goals: Track food 5 days a week This is to see if I’m actually eating healthy and the right portion sizes. Obviously something isn’t working. Strength Train 3x a week (MWF) Hey guys! Remember when I couldn’t even do it once a week? I’m now doing it 2x consistently! Go me! Now to add another day Swim at least 1x a week, 2x if body can handle it (TTH) If not swim, hoop! I really, really want to start hooping again, but being insecure at the gym I just haven’t. So, if I’m not swimming that week, I need to hoop! The weather is starting to get warmer so I can start doing it in the garage again. Scoring: Each Main Goal will be graded on a scale of A-F. Fully completed will get an A while never even attempted will get an F. Partially completed or half assed attempted will get somewhere in the B-D range. EDIT 4/10: Adding in a mini challenge!!!! I'm going to see how long I can go without peeling off a fingernail. When I get bored or stress I start picking at my fingernails and then end up just peeling them off. So, I bought nail polish last night when I was at CVS and my hope is that maybe it will curb this habit if I actually have pretty nails. Just going to take this one day at a time. No pass or fail. But I will reward myself with something if I can go all 6 weeks

Dantilla kept her eyes low as the caretaker walked past, pretending to study the pattern on the mosaic table in front of her. Once he had passed, she resumed her actual task--sharpening a blade she had swiped from the kitchen. She frowned at her makeshift whetstone and at the inferior weapon. In her previous line of work, she had become accustomed to much better. But, what was an assassin without her blade? A voice from behind her startled her, and she hurried to hide her items, but knew it was too late. It never ceased to amaze her how silent her caretakers could be. "Oh Young One, do not think it is a secret that you long for your own land. We have no desire for our home to become a prison for you. If you were to feel trapped, you'd never come back!" The caretaker held out one of Dantilla's daggers, which she had not seen since before the...incident. Dantilla eagerly took the blade. “Come.†She led Dantilla out of the solarium, down the winding road through the orchard, to the lake at the edge of their dwelling. "This lake separates our dwelling from from the world you knew.†Dantilla could only barely see the land across the great expanse of water. “When you can cross it, you will be ready to leave." Dantilla looked longingly at the land beyond the lake. She knew this task would require strength, endurance, awareness of her limits, and a leap of faith. Challenge: Some progress in my recovery has been made, but I lost a lot of my previous fitness. I want it back. I have to be really diligent with my disciplines. I need to make my physical therapy things a real habit. All my PT stuff as one chunk—6 days a week CON Meditate 5 min Foam rolling—all of it Transverse abdominus exercises—regular, toe tapping, and butterfly Calf work—calf raises, balance and stretching Hip stretches Sight-singing practice—3 days a week WIS & CHA I must sight-sing SOMETHING. I have to keep this skill sharp, like my blade. Gratitude practice—6 days a week min WIS Everyday I write down 5 things for which I am grateful. A little something I learned from the Caretakers. Exercise—Swim 2x week minimum, 2x week black widow workout STR & STA I WILL CROSS THE LAKE

Goals for this Challenge: Swim once per week Train with weights once per week Train with my bodyweight once per week Do a sun salutation every weekday Ukulele practice three times per week I'm not tracking food this time since I feel like I've got that under control. I want to swim more, I want to start weight training with my big muscly friend. I want to keep up with bodyweight training. I want to keep my flexibility. And I want to actually learn now to play my uke. So there you have it. I am feeling very uninspired. Going to do it anyway.

The Batman villain pantheon is one of many of my true loves -- particularly that of the Batman Animated Series of 90's era. With villainesses such as Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn, and Catwoman... well women on the comic stage have been downplayed a bit on the ingenuity and power spectrum. However, it was the 90's so the plots of Poison Ivy and Catwomen really struck a chord in me and my whackadoodle burgeoning hippiness. Such is my challenge this round -- Bring on the Whackadoodle Hippiness! Or, you know, keep trying to get fit so I stop creaking so much when I move, by being inspired by the femme fatales of Gotham City! Step 1: Fall in love with the color of green food. Eat something green with every meal -- bonus if it is a dark and leafy green. Step 2: Give up on my unstable and unreliable relationship with Starbucks. Step 3: Study the end objective before going in for the kill. (Study for Wetlands Ecology and rock it!) Step 4: What do these Ladies have in common? Well agility, strength, daring and what have you! While maintaining my current workout regime, I will add in one balance and flexibility workout each week. (I am going to keep swimming, this is just an important part of strength training that I have been ignoring). *Bonus* Step 5: Keep moving throughout the day -- Park far, far away from the necessary access building

It's January so that means only 4 months till Tough Mudder! Time to kick it up a notch. The idea of adapt to survive is 2 fold, to adapt my workouts if needed to fit in with life or obstacles that get in the way (instead of just dropping completely) and to adapt my way of thinking so I can finally do something I've been too afraid to do for a long time. Quest 1 LIFT or, body-weight exercises Continue lifting 3 times a week. As it's January and the gym I go to is cheap, I'm expecting it to get quite busy in the next few weeks. If I get to the gym and I can't do the lifts I want to do, I will sub lifting for a body-weight workout. BW exercises yet to be decided. Quest 2 RUN I haven't done any running since October (naughty me) so I'm aiming to do twice a week to get back into the swing of things. Any running counts, outside or on the dreadmill. I'm not worrying about distance or time, the focus is just to get myself running again. Quest 3 SWIM A more accurate description would be LEARN TO SWIM PROPERLY, this is something I've put off my entire life and it's time to get over the fear and get it done. I can sort of swim (as in, I can keep myself afloat and do something resembling swimming to get to the other side of the pool), but have big water confidence issues. I have my first swimming lesson booked for next Saturday. This quest is a bit vague at the moment. I'll update it after I've had my first lesson and I know what the plan is. UPDATE - Have one swimming lesson a week and go to the pool and practice once a week Side Quest ALL WORK AND NO PLAY.... This is basically just making sure I have some downtime for myself that doesn't just include slumping in front of the TV. Last year it felt like I didn't get to do as much as I could have, it was just a constant work, home, eat, sleep, repeat. This year I want to get out and do more stuff or just simply enjoy myself a bit more.

It all started with a toothbrush and a mirror... That was the first time I realized that eating as much as I did when I was younger and fitting as much sports as I could into the rest of my hours definitely doesn't work if you stop the whole exercise aspect. It especially didn't help that drinking every single day for a year because I was on a Erasmus year in France was an acceptable, nay, required activity. There's nothing that can explain Newton's 3rd law quite as well as when your toothbrush brushes to the right and your man-boobs go to the left... I also don't think there is anything quite like the first time you finish your obligatory chest dance and then go "hehehe...aw wait, crap, I have man-naries!" It's been a couple of years since then and I had managed to accomplish one certain thing since then. The art of espionage. Taking a line from South Park and Steve, I had my underpants. Thanks to talking the gym talk and wearing the right **cough** baggy **cough** clothes, I had even gotten as far as the point where you wouldn't notice the man-boobs and I just came across as a "big guy". Then last week I bought a new toothbrush... A combination of living independently for the first time (i.e. too tired to cook, lets get take-aways), a 9+ hour Software Support job (i.e hunched over the desk all day with only breaks being the vending machine walk) and a new gym membership (counter-intuitive I know, but me going gym = "meh I'll work off the 3rd helpings") had slowly being building up. Next thing I knew it was last week and I was in the physio, being told I'd torn a shoulder muscle (from a fall but if anybody asks I was wrestling sharks) and had to take the next month off anything except running. Suddenly I'm in my bathroom yesterday moving my moobs up and down, singing "oh eh, oh ah ah, ting tang, walla walla bing bang" and slowly feeling the deja-vu hit me and I know I need to change. I'm not the best with the one to one but I knew I needed the accountabilibuddy. I had heard great things about the rebellion forum so figured I could keep my daily grind progress up and have whoever else would like to keep me accountable, keep me accountable. So....here goes nothing...

Alright, here goes. I decided to start my battle log over. My goals have shifted, I have shifted. I have found the focus and the groove I was struggling so hard to find before and my old battle log doesn't really reflect where I am at now. I am 8 months deep into the biggest transformation and evolution of my existence. At the end of March, I set forward on an epic quest to put my life back together and transform into the best version of myself. I wanted to see how far I could get in one year. There is 19 weeks left for me to reach that one year landmark. This battle log is to document these last weeks and what I am able to achieve in that time. So here are the details as far as my body image goes: I've lost 120 lbs. I've gone from a size 24-26 (3-4XL) to a size 12-14 (L-XL). I need to lose another 50 lbs to meet my goal weight ~ 2.6 lb loss per week - somewhat wreckless but not impossible. I want to fit into a size 6-8 dress size. Fitness wise this is where I am at now. Here's my benchmark: Squat: 150 lbs Deadlift: 180 lbs Benchpress: 90 lbs Chinup: 61lbs assist Dips: 40 lbs assist Best 5K time: 29:43 Best 10K time: 62:35 Swim 2000m: 55:00 I haven't been keeping an accurate logbook of all my workouts so I'm not sure on where I am at right now for everything else. Logging is going to start tomorrow. I really want to develop my workouts and keep better data records in the coming months. I am starting whole30 tomorrow. I have been eating mostly whole30 for the last while so this should be a fairly smooth transition. These last 19 weeks of my quest are going to require some refinement and my diet has to be seriously on point. Also need to figure out a better workout plan. I've been working out fasted (with the exception of coffee+almond milk) and that's been working out quite well so far. My day to day routine right now is 45min-1hr HIIT cardio per day + 1-1.5 hours of lifting alternating days between legs/ass - chest/back - arms/shoulders. I've been doing that about 3 weeks now and it's paying off but I feel like I need a bit more direction and structure in my lifting routine. Maybe a 3-4 week alternating plan to keep variety in there. Something I'll be working on in the next few days. “A warrior does not give up what he loves, he finds the love in what he doesâ€

I was debating about doing this challenge. I just couldn’t feel it in my heart. However, that all changed last night. I decided to try on my too tight pants (aka: my fat pants) before I went to bed to see if they were still too tight or if they had gotten looser. I could not button them. I cried myself to sleep promising that tomorrow (today) it will all change. Here goes challenge #5. Main Goal: Lose 2-4 inches from arms/waist/hips/thigh/calves. The goal is by April. My friend and I have a bet going. I want to fit into my jeans and my size 10 dress by my birthday, and he wants to fit into his suit for a friend’s wedding. If I win, I get the 13 foot long scarf that he knitted. If he wins, I have to give him a drawing of Supergirl and Batgirl that I’ve wanted to work on. It’s a recreation of this one: Main 3 goals: Do cardio 3x a week Strength train 1x week Track food 5 days a week Mini goals: Swim 1x a week Practice Swedish 30 minutes a weekNot to be confused with a mini challenge. These are goals I want to accomplish throughout the entire challenge, but aren’t as important as my main three. I will not be grading my mini goals. Just a yay or nay each week if completed. Scoring: Each Main Goal will be graded on a scale of A-F. Fully completed will get an A while never even attempted will get an F. Partially completed or half assed attempted will get somewhere in the B-D range. No more crying myself to sleep!

Time to get serious here. Goal: reduce body fat so as to fit in a pair of lovely blue pants. Also: feel strong and in control of my life and fitness. To achieve this goal: 1) Whole30. I thought it might be crazy, but I looked at it closely, and I thought it might work better than what I'd been doing before, namely, giving myself "a day off" from paleo far too often. In practice, this really means for me: eating no rice/styrofoam crackers with butter, no honey or dried fruit, no alcohol. Also: unlimited veggies. I've spelled it out to the husband, so that he doesn't open a nice bottle of red until Dec 9... 2) Time management: already I got my hand on books and resources, and those have been pretty useful. In practice, this means planning ahead, which might kill my sense of spontaneity, but I simply can't continue my life as an improv. (It was fine when I was on my own, but now there's 4 of us). I've started writing down what we've been eating, and just that helps with planning the cooking. I've been planning my daily 17 min of meditation (since week 2 of the last challenge). I've also decided to hire a babysitter who comes in 2 days a week. This will allow me time for myself, and some time for getting back into fitness. 3) Getting back into fitness: I liked the BBWW, so efficient. I bought a membership card for a nice gym (not the closest one, but the nicest), so I have no excuses: I've got the babysitter, I've got the gym, it has to be 3 times a week. Bonus points for going swimming on days off. 4) Sleep: the bedtime of 11pm set last challenge was ok, but can definitely be improved on. 10:30pm. 5) Positivity: this should stem from better planning/time management, reintroducing the BBWW, and getting more sleep. But, inspired by the week 2 mini-challenge of the previous challenge and elsfaire's last challenge, I'm going to put on my schedule to meditate about 17-20 minutes after lunch every day, and also ask myself the positivity questions. Well, to start off with, just the one: what are you grateful for today? This seems like a bit much perhaps. But for the last two challenges, I'd been setting the bar a bit low, so as to guarantee a successful result, and it didn't work that well, things fizzled out at the end, each time. This week end I was listening to a podcast, and two pieces of advice came through that had me stopped in my tracks: 1) work on yourself (do something to improve yourself), and 2) honor your commitments to yourself. So that's what I'm going to do, and I think that stepping up my game in terms of time management will be the key to success.

Edited Quest: Introduction: This is my first challenge. Athleticism doesn't come naturally to me. My weight fluxuates: I have been 185 and 135 as an adult which made me pretty skinny at 5'10''. After reading a bunch of Nerd Fitness materials including the story of Spezzy, I want to experiment with forgetting about weight focus on getting stronger. I haven't had much success with being athletic as I said, but maybe here I will go about it in a more effective way. I am sitting at 160 lbs right now and I want to simply maintain this weight as I work for a while. My husband likes to do lots of great outdoor activities like backpacking and white water rafting. Although I try to be a good sport, I don't come close to keeping up with him. I would like to change that and stop feeling like such a wimp. I also get migraines and feel tired a lot. Maybe these things will improve with increased function and strength. Main Quest: Develop habits that will give me strength and energy Quest 1: Exercise for 1 hour each day with variety (swimming, jogging, lifting) taking Sunday off Reward: 100% = +3 STA +2 STR -- sliding scale with decimals to reflect my actual workouts Quest 2: Get at least 9 hours of sleep/rest per day--catching up the next day is allowed Measurement: A = Missed 0 days, B = Missed 2 days, C = Missed 4 days Reward: A = +3 CON, B = +2 CON, C = +1 CON Quest 3: Cut out Desserts and Candy Measurement: A = Missed 0 days; B = Missed 2 days, C = Missed 4 days, D = Missed 6 or more days Reward: A = +3 CHA, B = +2 CHA, C = +1 CHA, D = 0 points Life Quest: None this time to keep it simple Motivation: I don't want to get tired when working or playing.

KiwiChick’s Hatchling Challenge Part 3: The Little Mermaid Challenge Life Goal: Give birth to a healthy baby (aka the hatchling) in January 2015 Challenge Goal: Become the little mermaid and be able to swim 2km nonstop Sub goals: OK only one is exercise related but walking and gym are in bonus goals. Main focus is swimming and some life improvements. 1: Swim like a mermaid Swim 3 times a week – aiming to be able to swim 2km nonstop in week 5. A=3 times a week, B=2, C=1, F=0 2: Find my voice I reeeeeeally need to improve my Spanish in preparation for both my Mexican adventures/general life here, and hatchlings arrival (since he/she is going to be Mexican!) I will do either 30 mins duolingo, pimslur or converse in Spanish A=5 times a week, B=4, C=3, etc. 3: Banish the evil Ursula (aka my inner sugar demons) I will not purchase any sugary treats, as if I don't buy them I wont eat them. A=zero treats purchased, B=1 C=2 etc. 4: Clean up my artefacts cave Uggh my human junk cave (aka the boat) is in a right state. So. Shameful. I will spend quality time (eg no Downton Abbey on in background) organising. Living in a small space is full of challenges and it is impossible to live in if unorganised. A=5 hours/week, B=4, C=3 etc. Inspired by Eirlys awesome organizing last challenge. Bonus Adventures Find my legs – Walk. Everyday. Even if just a little. Gym/yoga 2-3 times a weekContinue my 3L water intakeIn week 6 Mamabird (my mum) is coming to visit from NZ so I will have to work extra hard to finish my challenge in fine form.I’m taking two MOOC courses! One is chemistry and the other physiology (the science of happiness). On Oct 23rd it will be my second year nerdiversary! Celebrations will be in order, there may even be mermaid dress ups. Gosh NF I <3 u.

I was planning on going swimming today and it crossed my mind that I've never really considered whether the chlorine in the pool is bad for your health or not? A little googling suggests that the skin soaks up the chlorine very quickly and that it's not good for your health. Potentially carcinogenic is the suggestion. Well I don't put that much stock in claims that things are carcinogenic since it seems to me that just about everything is if you believe everything you read. Has anyone done any proper research on this? What's the popular opinion, do you think that swimming in chlorine pools has any negative short or long term effects?

A little late but here goes... So tomorrow marks my 1 year NF anniversary. And while I wish I could say my life has drasitically improved or changed since then, it hasn't. This doesn't have anything to do with NF, it has to do with me and how I've been approaching this journey... my brain has certainly changed dramatically in the way that I look at the world and what I do with and put in my body. But somehow everything I've been working on just hasn't stuck. I've had bouts of sucess and bouts of failure over the year, but nothing really consistent. Going over my past challenges (excluding my most recent) I notice a trend of doing really well in the beginning, and falling off towards the end. Or doing well all the way through only to lose a lot of my progress during the zero weeks. Essentially, habits have not been formed as I had hoped. Basically I've been having some trouble getting through the every day stuff. Even after my vacation I came back and instead of feeling refreshed and jumping back into things I have kind of just been sitting around for 2 weeks and doing not much at all. So now I am switching everything up. Instead of assigning myself specific tasks, I am going to just make sure I do a few things every single day. I have gotten into the habit of meeting my goals on a weekly basis instead of a daily one. I'll cram in 3 different work outs in one day (morning, afternoon, evening) or do extra sets to make up for a missed work out. But, shockingly, my body doesn't respond well to that and I'm really just playing mind games with myself pretending I'm doing what I've asked myself to do. I've also been struggling with how to eat healthily. Mostly because the restrictions I've put on myself (which really do make my tummy feel awesome) my boyfriend has a hard time enjoying. Even if I make something that I think is delicious, he still wants pizza or cheese fries or something of that nature. And it's hard to have to try to stick to my guns and eat what I made and try to convince him to eat it too nearly every day. So I end up giving in a lot and we eat something terrible. So I'm going to back off on some of the restrictions I've had in place and see how I feel and will possibly work them back in at a later date, this is in the interest of cooking healthy things that hopefully the boyfriend will want to eat, and that we can enjoy together. I'll be not considering gluten a failure anymore, as long as it is in whole grain form. I will also not be so picky about dairy, since I have learned I can't not eat pizza, I just need to think more when I eat things that are "bad". If I don't think of it as bad it will hopefully be easier for me to eat a normal human amount instead of like 20 slices. More on this down in my food mission. So. I will do small things. Or big things. Or medium things. My choice depending on how I'm feeling as long as I do something from each category every day. Every day I will focus on myself and improve myself a little bit. Even if I'm exhausted and it's something super tiny, it's still something better than yesterday. Every Day Missions 1) Move. This can be running, yoga, strength work out, swimming, or going for a walk. Or even hopping onto my mini stepper for a bit if I'm super busy. Even stretching and foam rolling counts here if it's a rest day or I'm super sore or sick. Just do something every day. Especially if it's capoeira. 2) Meditate. I started using Headspace before I went away and continued to use it on vacation but I kind of lost track of it since. It's small little meditation sessions that build up over time in length and intensity (ie - become less and less guided) and eventually begin to branch out into different aspects of life that I can focus on. I absolutely love it, so I'm going to make a commitment and really start doing this every day again. 3) Make Healthy Choices. Try to avoid gluten, but when neccessary make sure it is whole grain. Also portion control is key. Don't over eat. I know when I've screwed up, if it's one thing I've gained over the year it's knowledge of what's good and what's bad to put into my body. Actually following through with this hasn't been super sucessfull but I do know. So this is kind of subjective but that's also kind of the point. I want an overall feeling of making healthy choices and really thinking about what I put into my body every day. I'm not too worried about the nitty gritty. 4) Improve My Space. Clean something, or organize something, or make something look a little nicer in my space every day. Even if it's tiny, even if it's just scooping the cat litter. If I'm not home for a day, this can be as simple as organizing my purse, throwing receipts out of my wallet or cleaning my hair brush. Just something. 5) Sleep. Get at least 7.5+ hours a day. This can be supplamented with naps in extenuating circumstances. No excuses. 6) Be accountable. I have tapatalk, I have access to it everywhere. I can get on here every day even if I'm not at a computer. Even if all I say is something like "Today: 1235" beecause I everything on this list except for number 4 sort of thing. It's not that hard. I can do it. This doesn't count towards grading but I'd really like to keep on top of it. Bonus Activities These will make sense once I get to the grading portion. 1) Brain Train. I don't expect to do this every day, but I do want to do it a few times a week. I have a free Luminosity account and also a brain exercise thing on my DS. So either one will work. (MAX 5 POINTS/WEEK) 2) Snake Love. Not sure if I've mentioned this before here but I own 4 snakes. I completely love them but sometimes I don't play with them as much as I probably should/want to. So once a week or so I'll try to take them out and handle them. (MAX 1 POINT/WEEK) 3) Pamper. Take a bath. Give myself a face mask. Get a manicure or a pedicure (or do it myself). Do something nice just for me. (MAX 1 POINT/WEEK) 4) Boyfriend Time. Do something romantic with the boyfriend. We have been living together for 3 years now so the romance is starting to be more like let's lay on the couch all night in our PJs and order in as opposed to going out for a nice dinner or see a movie. I feel the opportunities to be healthy are much better in going-out situations too. Plus I enjoy dressing up and looking/feeling nice. (MAX 1 POINT/EVERY 2 WEEKS) 5) Volunteer. I've been volunteering on occasion with HRC, if the opportunity arises during this challenge I want to volunteer more! (MAX 2 POINTS/CHALLENGE) 6) Duolingo. This is basically a free version of Rosetta Stone. I've been on and off using it for Spanish for about a year now. Hopefully I can find the time to work on this a bit. (MAX 5 POINTS/WEEK) Grading I will start off with 175 points. If I miss an every day task, I lose one point. If I do a bonus activity, I gain one point. But I can't get more than the max points per week from the bonus activities listed under each bonus activity (so I can't just take 20 baths in one week and get 20 points haha) At the end of the challenge I will grade myself based on my end total points. 175 is 35 (days left in the challenge) times 5 (number of daily tasks). So I can't actually get below 0. 210+ points: A (15 stat points) 190-209: B (11 stat points) 175-189: C (8 stat points) 125-174: D (5 stat points) 100-124: F (1 stat point) 0-99: F- (0 stat points) I will award myself the above number of stat points. Since my end grade isn't broken up into how well I did in each category, I will decide at the end what kind of stat points I get depending on what I feel I improved upon the most during this challenge. And I'm off!

I've been working with strength for some time and I now I want to incorporate HIIT to my training. I'm just acquiring the skills for running though, and I can't just go out & run because of a history of injuries (plantar facitis, tendonitis in my heels (both feet), stress fracture on the left knee and ligamentar injury on my lower back) and a lack of skill... That'd be like ASKING for a new injury. But I got to HIIT train, both for better conditioning as for losing weight (I'm overweight *sigh*). I have access to a pretty decent pool in my building, probably a dozen meters long. I'm used to swimming, and I can breaststroke, crawl and backstroke fairly well (butterfly is a challenge, I'm not sure I'm doimg the gesture riht). Can I do high intensity cardio there? HOW do you HIIT when swimming? Thanks for the insight.

Challenge Number 4!!! And no Firefly reference in the title because I ran out of decent quotes I thought could apply, bummer. Main Goal: Lose 10-15 pounds and/or 2-3 inches from arms/waist/hips/thigh/calves. I would love to do have this accomplished by New Year’s Eve. That gives me 3 ½ months - 1 pound per week for the 15 pounds goal. What’s going to make this challenge interesting, though, is that I have challenged myself not to weigh or measure myself until the end of the year. The numbers make me depressed. I’ve gone into one too many tailspins because of the scale or tape measure not showing what I want. So, to make sure I continue this year on a good note (because I sure as hell need it), I’m not going to step on the scale or pull out the measuring tape. I'm just going to focus on working out and cleaning up my diet (yet again). Main 3 goals: Do cardio 3x a week Strength train 1x week Swim 1x a week (with a 1 week exception)Mini goals: Track food 5 days a week Practice Swedish 30 minutes a weekNot to be confused with a mini challenge. These are goals I want to accomplish throughout the entire challenge, but aren’t as important as my main three. I will not be grading my mini goals. Just a yay or nay each week if completed. Scoring: Each Main Goal will be graded on a scale of A-F. Fully completed will get an A while never even attempted will get an F. Partially completed or half assed attempted will get somewhere in the B-D range. I did get overwhelmed last challenge with keeping up with my thread and with others. So I apologize in advance if I go ghost for a week or two. I also may be on vacation the last week of the challenge, but still determining my vacation days for the rest of the year, so of that I'm not yet sure. Let's get this started!!! <---(more energy than I'm feeling)

This is my first challenge with NF, and I'm really excited to get stuck in. This challenge coincides with a big change in my life too - I'll have just moved to London to start a PhD, so I'm looking at this as a new start or a blank slate, and a chance to move away from all the bad habits and routines I've gotten into whilst I've been at home over the summer. Logically, my challenge will focus on establishing patterns, routines, and a healthy outlook which I think will be easier to stick to if I make it part of my 'London experience' to begin with, rather than later adapting my life to fit around fitness goals. I need to incorporate flexibility into my challenge, because I'll be working at the uni bars, sometimes until 3am, and I know that going for a swim at 8:30 the next morning just wouldn't happen. Motivation! I'm running the Wimbledon Commons HM in October, aiming to do the Santa Pola HM in January, and I have a target to do a triathlon in 2015. My motivation for this challenge is to get fitter for these challenges, and hopefully smash some PBs! Main Quest: Establish the fitness base to be a strong triathlete. Quest 1 - Fitness: Stick to my weekly workout routine (3 runs, 2 swims, 3 bodyweight sessions) Measurement: A = 44 - 48 workouts over the 6 weeks, B = 38 - 43 , C = 30 - 37, D = 20 - 30, E = <20 A = 3 STR, 2 DEX, 2 STA, B = 80% C = 60% D = 40% E = 0%. Quest 2 - Diet: NO FIZZY DRINKS - I've recently really upped my intake of these, and they make me, my skin, and my mouth feel horrible. I tell myself because they've got no calories in I'm ok, but can feel the negative side effects raging in my body! Measurement: A = 38 - 42 fizzy drink free days, B = 34 - 37 FDF days, C = 30 - 33 FDF days, D = 26 - 29 FDF days, E = <26 FDF days A = 3 CON, B = 80% C = 60% D = 40% E = 0%. Quest 3 - Socialise: Try out the university running and swimming clubs, and if they're not for me, then local groups. If they're not for me, then hey ho, at least I tried! I think this is quite an important goal for me because I've never seen myself as sporting, athletic, etc. and have always felt like I wouldn't fit in teams or sporting groups. This is a prime chance to banish those thoughts and prove myself wrong! Also, they offer coaching sessions and such which would increase my technical ability (hence WIS points). Measurement: A = tried a running and a swimming group, B = tried either a running or swimming group, C = tried neither A = 3 CHA, 2 WIS, B = 66% C = 0% Life Quest: I'm having a hard time thinking of a life quest, because I don't know what my PhD-life will be like - so my current life quest will just be to achieve my three quests. Measurement: A = Achieved 3, B = Achieved 2, C = Achieved 1, D = Achieved 0.

Hello fellow rangers! I'm looking for a bit of advice or support. One aspect of my six week challenge is based on exercise - 3 runs, 3 bodyweight sessions, and 2 swimming sessions. However, I'm finding the bodyweight aspect really difficult and I'm beginning to lose motivation. I'm following the Start Bodyweight plan, but I really can't get on board with the handstand push ups - I think I have terrible form (but I have no way to check this since I'm working out in my room) and I don't think I'm getting any benefit from it. In fact, I think my form is quite bad for a lot of them (especially the single leg half squats, which is where I'm up to in that progression). What should I do? I'm thinking of cutting out the handstand pushups altogether and focusing on the five areas that I feel like I can do. I want to finish the challenge and get my points, but it's becoming more of a chore than an enjoyable experience. Hopefully, this month I will work enough hours to qualify for the free gym membership for November, where I'm going to try the Stronglifts programme. I'm a bit gutted because I really liked the idea of bodyweight training!

Hey everyone! After lurking around Nerd Fitness for the last few months and living vicariously through my friend Priscillia I've finally decided to partake in a 6 week challenge of my own! A little about me - I'm 23 years old and currently work full time in retail. My whole life I've been on and off fad diets, losing weight and gaining weight. As an occasional gamer (not so avid anymore), I love the concept of NF... if you can spend so many hours leveling up your character in game and making it the best it can be, why can't you do that with your own life? Love the idea! I really think (and hope!) it'll work for me I'd say my biggest problem would be motivation and prioritizing. The sad part is, I've taken anatomy classes in university and college and I know pretty much all the 'rules' when it comes to what the body actually needs nutrition-wise in order to flourish... I just never seem motivated enough to make it a priority in my life. I've always said that everyone's got their vices- I don't drink, I don't smoke and I don't do drugs... I eat! That's my drug. But I think it's finally time for me to have a healthier relationship with food and to experiment with different forms of exercise to find something that I like that I can stick with! Last year I moved away to Winnipeg, Canada where I lived on my own for 4 months. When I came back home I realized that all my pants were loose and no longer fitting me properly. After stepping on the scale, I realized I had lost 20 lbs while I was away without even trying! All I did was buy more fresh produce vs processed, prioritized making my own meals and limiting my fast food/take out intake to once per week as a treat. It was then that I realized that it is possible to lose weight without following a specific diet just by choosing healthier options... And it doesn't need to be soul-crushingly difficult! Haha. Anyway, enough about me! Here goes nothing... Main Quest Lose 10 lbs in this 6-week challenge. Form lasting positive habits in order to fulfill my long term goal of losing 50-60 lbs by this time next year (September 2015). Quest 1 +2 STR, +3 STA Work out for 1 hour 3 times per week (combination of jogging, swimming, weights or yoga class) Grading : A : 3 days/week B : 2 days/week C : 1 day/week F : none Quest 2 + 3 CON Log all food intake and try to eat between 1750-2000 calories/day, preferably the former. Grading : A: Logged 6-7 days/week B: Logged 5 days/week C: Logged 3-4 days/week D: Logged 2 days/week F: Logged once or none per week. Quest 3 + 1 CON Cut out fast food and eating out to a maximum of once per week. Grading : A: 0-1 time/week B: 2 times/week C: 3 times/week D: 4 times/week F: 5+ times/week Life Quest + 5 WIS Job hunt and research online part-time school programs. (I'm currently working full time in a low paying job... I love it, but it order to move along with my life and become more independent I need to make a better income. I'm also thinking about going back to school to broaden my work opportunities). Motivation Weight gain and physical activity has been a lifetime struggle for me... My main motivation is to be able to live a healthier lifestyle, to avoid disease in the future, and to feel more confident and body-positive. Mini Quests : Adventurer Mini Quest 1 = complete ✔ + 1 WIS