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I have never done this before so I am attempting to kinda make this into a story kinda plot line for my own amusement. Maybe it will help me out and actually keep on top of things, My goals are going to be pretty much circus/ strength training. Goal 1: Fitness 5 training sessions/week (usually i am at the studio Monday- Thursday 1-3 classes a day) (3) Run 1x/week (3) Walk 1-3 miles a week. ( I see this as reasonable since Pokemon Go keeps me moving most of the day!) (3) Goal 2: Circus Goals Continue my Monday - Friday schedule (3) Hand stands on the wall 3 days a week (3) Get the ever elusive cross back straddle. (10) Work on Pull overs on Lyra! (5) Work on Pull overs on Trapeze! (5) Goal 3: FOOD! Eat small meals through out the day. ( I am super bad about only eating once a day...) (3) No sodas. Not even Sprite. (5) Eat a healthy meal choice other than crap food. Potato chips are not healthy.(3) Meal Plan. Its a lot easier than me last minute planning cause then i just get junk food.(3) Goal 4: Money My house is always super tight when it comes to budget. Our paychecks seem to disappear before they are even in our hand. Mine goes to gas, food, pet supplies and then I send a whole bunch on crap I don't ever use. My goal as far as money is going to be making our budget stretch farther and save $20 every check. I get the feeling this will fail but it is worth a shot. I am super excited to give this a try. For each goal that i accomplish I will earn points(jewel shards)

Hey everyone, familiar and new I'm a 25-year-old guy living in Cambridge UK, and I like doing: gymnastics (floor and rings) bodyweight work football (soccer) weightlifting bouldering salsa dancing ...and because that isn't enough, I've signed up for a trapeze course, which starts next Tuesday I'm also training to represent the UK at mental calculation at two events in September and November this year. I did a lot of work on this in the Jan/Feb challenges and there will be a small amount during April in order to qualify. I also compose music - here's something I created during the previous two challenges - a piano arrangement of a metal song . Bad news is I need to care good care of myself in order to keep up with my job and these hobbies, so I'll have some goals to that effect. Also I've been lazy recently with workouts so I'm trying to fix that! Goal #1: move every day: my job requires me to spend lots of time sitting motionless on a chair, but I feel much better when I'm moving around. Therefore this challenge, every day I should warm up as if I were about to work out - so elevated heart rate and dynamic stretches, for example. For each of the 5 weeks this challenge, +0.25 STA if I do this on 5+ days and +0.25 CON extra if I do 7 days Goal #2: the list: once again, I have a glorified to-do list, with +0.25 stat points available for each. bar muscle-up: something I've been working towards for some time cartwheels: learn decent cartwheels on each side round-off: learn this gymnastics move front handspring: do this consistently on floor front flip: land this safely on floor front flip: bonus points for landing it on floor handstand walk: do a full 360-degree rotation in a handstand without immediately falling over handstand: 10 second static handstand change phone contract: I should be able to move to a cheaper one and I've procrastinated this for 3 months... cold showers: I've heard lots about the health benefits of these but it sounds ridiculous. Time to try it cold showers: extra motivation points for finding a system to stick to in the medium term. I'll need all the motivation points I can get because I love long hot showers... division calculation: I learned to divide 10-digit numbers by 5-digit numbers last challenge. Now I want to get super good at solving these. Want to get 10 correct in 9 minutes. division calculation: bonus points for getting 10/10 in 7 minutes calendar calculation: get back to 43 dates in a minute (previous PR was 44) calendar calculation: 45 dates in a minute square roots calculation: score of 330 again (previous PR was 330) square roots calculation: score of 360 mental calculation: get some scores verified in order to qualify mental calculation: get 40+ on calendar, 300+ on square roots and 10+ on division when getting verified Goal #3: auxiliary training: last challenge I made lots of progress with pull-ups, but not with other skills because I wasn't working on them. So I'm expanding this challenge so that each week I should be doing: 2 x handstand practice 2 x bar muscle-up training 2 x push-up training 2 x core training 1 x jumping training Each week I should do 6+ of these to get +0.25 and 8+ of these to get +0.50 stat points. Goal #4: rest properly: same as last challenge - sleep before 01:00 every day from Tuesday night until the last Saturday of the challenge (33 days). +0.25 CON for each week. 2 "cheat" days are allowed without penalty. Goal #5: eat clean: last time I ignored this completely. This challenge I'll just do a vague goal, graded subjectively. +1.00 CON available. Good luck everyone!

Yup, that's right, it's time for a Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy challenge! I absolutely love H2G2 - the book series is probably what first got me properly into sci-fi (albeit comedic sci-fi). Douglas Adams was a genius as far as I'm concerned! Quest 1 - A trip to Milliways, the Restaurant at the End of the Universe No intergalactic hitch hiking trip would be complete without a trip to Milliways and it's going to be the inspiration for the diet portion of my challenge. In the last challenge I focussed on increasing my fruit and veg intake, and did better than I expected, so this time I'm going to up the ante a bit. And include points. The aim here is to have a generally more healthy diet and not rely on the work food. One portion of fruit or veg = +1 Taking lunch to work = +1 Taking a snack to work = +1 Fast food/take away/microwave ready meal = -1 Drinking coke = -1 Up for grabs: +3 CON, +1 WIS Scoring (subject to change): 1 to 20 points = 0% 21 to 40 points = 10% 41 to 60 points = 20% 61 to 80 points = 30% 81 to 100 points = 40% 101 to 120 points = 50% 121 to 140 points = 60% 141 to 160 points = 70% 161 to 180 points = 80% 181 to 200 points = 90% 201+ points = 100% Quest 2 - Meet Zem from the swamps of Sqornshellous Zeta! Zem, as you can see, is a mattress, and will be helping with my quest to improve my sleep. There are two parts to this one: 1 - be in bed by 10:30 on school nights. I'd love this to be every night but it's physically impossible on some. I don't have to be asleep, but I do have to be in bed. 2 - take all my meds every night. I have developed something of a habit of only taking partial doses which is both terrible for my mental health and terrible for my sleep. The only exception is if I have been drinking (which rarely happens but Christmas party in a gin establishment...) because alcohol + meds = bad times Up for grabs: +2 CHA, +1 CON Maximum available, will be scored as a percentage: 30 nights in bed on time 42 nights of med taking (subject to change) Quest 3 - There is an art to flying, or rather a knack. Its knack lies in learning to throw yourself at the ground and miss. I love flying! Or at least my version, which is trapeze. There's lots to work on here, but I'm going to focus on things I don't like (drops to ankles), can't do (heel hangs) or need to improve (toe hangs). I'm also going to get a damn routine together to finally audition for performance work! I'm also potentially going to do some ballet classes to improve my general grace and performance (trying a class tonight, so might hate it...). More points here... Work on hocks dismounts = +1 Work on toe hangs = +1 Work on heel hangs = +1 Work on drops to ankles = +1 Work on millwheels = +1 Work on belly spins = +1 Land a hocks dismount well = +2 Manage a millwheel = +2 Manage a belly spin = +2 Ballet class = +2 Hold a heel hang without hands = +5 Complete routine = +10 Up for grabs: +1 DEX, +1 CHA, + 1 STR, +1 STA Scoring (subject to change depending on how the first couple of weeks go): 1 to 10 points = 5% 11 to 20 points = 15% 21 to 30 points = 25% 31 to 40 points = 35% 41 to 50 points = 45% 51 to 60 points = 55% 61 to 70 points = 65% 71 to 80 points = 75% 81 to 90 points = 85% 91 to 100 points = 95% 100+ points = 100% Life quest - "I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by." Douglas Adams I got a bit of a kick up the arse from my supervisors today. Kinda deserved, but hey. Time to get my arse in gear then! This is going to have two parts again. 1 - be in work by 10am every day (exceptions if doctors appointments etc have to happen). I know this is a no brainer for most people, but I haven't been sleeping well (see quest 2...) and that translates into getting into work horribly late. This. Will. Stop. 2 - finish writing this damn paper. It will get done. It. Will. Up for grabs: +3 WIS, + 1 CHA Each aspect is worth 50% of the total Maximum work days available = 30

Just wanted to have a place to start writing things down again. I've been away from NF for about five weeks. Spent most of the month of September either ramping up the school year where I work (CU Boulder), or on vacation in the Pacific Northwest (North WET!), or on a business trip to the greater DC area for work. Mind you I wasn't a couch potato during any of that, though the days with the 12-14 hour drives were pretty rough, non-moving-wise. But since there's a 6-week challenge currently underway, I thought I'd start posting what I've been up to here at least as a form of self-accountability. So, starting with today! 3.2 mile run in 28 min. Followed by a one hour yoga class. Breakfast was cereal and almond milk, morning snack was a banana and a tiny "nestle crunch" bar, and lunch was a half of a burger, leftover from our anniversary lunch on Saturday. Followed by an apple. This afternoon, I'm heading to the physical therapist so she can help me develop a plan to rehab my right leg (hamstring, peroneal tendon, achilles tendon) so I can safely and painlessly (OK, that's a relative concept) run longer distances than six miles. I'm assuming she's going to beat on my legs and stab them with needles, because that's her MO, but it usually works wonders. Also, I did five pull ups at the gym on my way to yoga class today. Which is kind of sad because two months ago I could do ten without a problem. And then a set of six, and another set of six. So I need to get back to work on that. And, I signed up for Trap 3/4 at the aerial gym, starting tomorrow night. And, I scheduled a Lasik evaluation in Denver tomorrow morning, because I'd like to have 20/20 vision for at least part of my life, and it's time to buy another pair of prescription sunglasses, since on our 3600 mile road trip, my glasses broke. I've glued them back together twice now, but when you live in Colorado at 5400' and need to wear glasses, you must have functioning sunglasses. Because UV and all that. So that's all that's fit to report. Oh, and I need guidance: Should I switch over to the Ranger camp? I always felt like a ranger, what with the archery and the distance running, but then there's the circus work. Which I might not want to do much of forever since I'm feeling like I'm old and not very flexible anymore, and being flexible is a BIG BIG DEAL in aerial work. Meanwhile, I'm still an assassin...

One of my all-time favorite movie series was Peter Jackson's version of The Lord of the Rings trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien. Such a rich story, brought to life in a way that was beautiful and amazing on so many levels. Not to mention shot in my favorite place, New Zealand. Anyway, what better way to frame my upcoming challenge than through the richness that is the fellowship of the ring. 1. The grace and beauty of the elves: Music We just got a piano! I used to play... and I want to get better. So I'm going to practice. Five days a week, I'll practice 20 min or more. Starting with some Hanon finger exercises and then working on reading music (I can read music, but I can't sight-read very well) and playing pieces from actual music, not fake books. Once the 20 min is up, I can move on to improv or fake books or whatnot... but the rigor needs to be there first. six weeks x 5 sessions = 30 sessions total. A= 27-30, B=23-26, C=19-22, D=16-19, F=15 or less +3 CHA Flexibility I need to keep at my flexibility regime. Hamstrings, calves and "splits", six days a week. six weeks x 5 sessions = 30 sessions total. A= 27-30, B=23-26, C=19-22, D=16-19, F=15 or less +3 DEX 2. The stubbornness of the dwarves: Keep at it, I say. The dwarves are nothing if not stubborn. I need to embody some of that stubbornness to increase the strength I've developed over that past nine months. I've been going to the same gym for a long time now, and my family and I just switched to a new one. So I need to keep going to the gym, even if I'm not used to it or it's not right next door to my house. I'll go to the new gym twice a week, and create a new habit. While there I'll either work out on the weights or take a class. One or the other. six weeks x 2 sessions = 12 session total. A=11-12, B=9-10, C=7-8, D=5-6, F=4 or less +3 STR 3. The simplicity of the hobbits: I'm going to eat a little more simply over the next few weeks (though it's hard to connect the idea of eating simply with hobbits...), so here goes. I'll eat paleolithically most of the time. Weekends I can take off, and "special occasions" (I'm thinking my birthday, and our forthcoming trip to the Colorado Renaissance Faire) too. But I will eat plants and meat and fats, and plenty of them, and that's it. Not grains (not even muesli, or oatmeal, except maybe on weekends), no dairy, and no processed stuff. six weeks x 2 days = 12 days of non-paleo eating. 12 or less = A, 13-14=B, 15-16=C, 17-18=D, 19+=F. As mentioned, I don't have to count my birthday. +3 CON 4. One does not simply walk into Mordor... One should ride! It's bike to work month, so I'll ride my bike to work three times per week, minimum. That's 300 calories extra per day and a half hour of good cardio. Not to mention I'll probably end up bringing the kiddo home in the trailer which is even more work. six weeks x three days = 18 days. 17+=A, 15-16=B, 14-15=C, 12-13=D, 11 or less = F +3 STA There it is. Rewards TBD.

Working on a show, as usual, has taken its toll on my family life. It was a busy six week rehearsal process, and we have two weekends of shows left. I’m planning on taking Hoop 3/4 at the aerial studio, but I want to use this challenge to focus my energies on playing with my son and taking care of our house, rather than on feats of strength and endurance. Not, of course, that I won’t continue to work out, and eat right, but that I’ll be doing those things while focusing on my own family life and home. 1. Man of Steel Six days a week, mixing it up. I’ll run, ride, lift, dance, do aerial and yoga, and generally try to have fun. Long runs pushing the trailer (or rides pulling the trailer) with Superboy (previously known as “the apprenticeâ€) and Supergirl (aka, Mrs. Mediaguy) are encouraged. Just for fun, I’m going to track my pull ups. Right now I'm doing 5 sets of 5 in a workout. I’ll see how far I can take that by adding one to one or two sets a week. +3 STR, +3 STA, +2 DEX 2. Kryptonite The only time I’ve ever tried to track my calories I lost a lot of weight. Now, I’m not really interested in losing any weight as I’m hovering between 160-165 lbs, which is a great weight to be at for a 43 year old dude. So, I’m going to see about getting my protein up, my carbs down, and being consistent about tracking my foods. Starting in week one, I’ll track the food by estimate using MFP, while I research what macros should look like for an endurance/strength based athlete. In week two, I’ll start cooking and eating for those macros. I’ll also order one of those nifty kitchen scales. Desserts etc are fine, but only if they fit the macros. So no bingeing, and no days where I'm over my caloric goals (for maintenance, not weight loss)--those are kryptonite to me! +3 CHA 3. Fortress of Solitude Stay in at least three nights a week. No rehearsal, no classes, no meetings, no gaming. Just working on the house (cleaning, repairs, whatnot), cooking, and generally making it better, plus being available and present for the family. +2 WIS 4. Superfamily. Make dinner, go on a date, go on a hike, go on a bike ride, or simply do something fun with my lovely wife, Supergirl. Watching TV doesn’t cut it, even if Game of Thrones just started back up again. Of course, she’ll be out of town for ten days during this time, so those days won’t count. Same goes for Superboy. Read to him, bathe, play, whatever. We haven’t been playing together a lot lately and it’s had an effect on our relationship. So, put him to bed three nights a week will be the goal for that. Hikes with all three of us? Pure awesomeness. +2 WIS

It's another new challenge! This time around I want to work on my flexibility, because it will help me with my aerial work, and I want to work on accuracy with my bow, because I really like hitting things with arrows. I've got a solid workout schedule in place, which is good, but I need to tweak it a bit to make it work for me. Finally, I'd like to continue my progress with meditation, because it helps me handle work, life, family, and the balancing act that is all those things. Last time around I realized I don't do well with extended periods of massive dietary restrictions, nor do I love keeping track of a million things. I'm totally addicted to working out, both in the gym, on the road (bike), or on the trails (running and mountain biking). I'm also up in the air all the time with my aerial work, so I really don't need to track that stuff. So here are my goals: 1. Strength training: because I spend so much time doing aerial trapeze, fabric, and rope, I'm going to lay off doing any upper body except for my rotator cuff exercises. However, I really need to keep working my legs and trunk, because those things don't get worked so much in aerial work, and with all the cardio I do they tend to atrophy rather than get stronger. So, I will make sure I work out my legs two days during the week, and one day on weekends. A day of telemark skiing counts, since it's basically squats at G+: Strength: Lift legs/lower body 2/3 days MWFHit gym for full body weights workout either Sat or Sun (If it's a ski day, then add upper body work i.e. pullups, push ups, in the evening)2. Stretching: All that cardio takes a toll on the hamstrings! I spend plenty of time warming up for aerial work, but hardly any time stretching after a run, ride, or just because. Stretching: Hamstring stretches 3x/day, 5x/weekLower back stretches 1x/day, 5x/week3. Archery: I am a pretty good shot! But I could be better. I hear the pros have a "checklist" that they go through for every shot. I'm going to get one, and practice with it: Archery: Figure out “the checklistâ€â€”a mental checklist before taking the shotGo shoot five times in six weeks.4. Snacks: I'd say my downfall is eating crappy food as a reward. I love my chocolate chip cookies, and I love snacks in general. I'm in much better shape when I lay off the snacks, so I'm going to try and limit my snack food intake. Snacks: Snack food two times per week. NOT EVERY DAY.Snack food means popcorn and tortilla chips too.Really, if I'm going to "snack" it should be good stuff! No plain old junk food for me, these delicacies should be delicious! So just say no to stuff that comes in a prepackaged bag or is run of the mill. Make it count. Grading scheme: Strength: 18 total ≥17 = A +3 STR 14-16 = B +2.5 STR 10-13 = C +2 STR 6-10 = D +1 STR 0-5 = F Hamstring Stretches: 15 per week (90 total) ≥85 = A +3 CON 76-84 = B +2.5 CON 65-74 = C +2 CON 55-64 = D +1 CON 0-54 = F Lower Back Stretches: 5 per week (30 total) ≥28 = A +2 STA 24-27 = B +1.5 STA 20-23 = C +1 STA 16-19 = D +.5 STA 0-15 = F Archery: 5 total sessions, and the checklist = +1 bump to DEX 5 = A +3 DEX 4 = B +2.5 DEX 3 = C +2 DEX 2 = D +1 DEX 1 = F Snacks: No more than twice weekly. ≤12 = A +3 CHA 13-18 = B +2.5 CHA 19-24 = C +2 CHA 25-30 = D +1 CHA 31-36 = F Rewards: TBD

Who is the most bad-assed, strong, fearless, "normal" superhero out there? That's right. It's Daredevil. Does he have super-powers? Sure, but they're not physical. He's got his strength, his iron will, and his enhanced senses. Despite the fact that he is blind, he senses are honed to the point where he perceives his environment better than sighted people do. He's the ultimate acrobat, aerialist, and an expert marksman. In short, despite the fact that he is a hero and doesn't generally kill, he is the ultimate assassin. THE MAIN QUEST: To be come a bad-assed aerial assassin like Daredevil. I want to grow my abilities on aerial apparatus (hoop, trap, static trap, and maybe rope) and with any luck, perform at the aerial dance festival this coming summer. 1. CARVE THE BODY During the last two challenges, I focused on making sure I did so many bodyweight workouts, so many cardio workouts, only ate so many non-paleo meals, etc. This left me with six goals I needed to fulfill every week, and feeling like I was constantly checking off boxes. Well, no more. I know how to work out now, and I have built the habit of doing so. Instead, I'm just going to say that: I'm going to sweat at least six days per week, for at least an hour each day. I will engage in as much HIIT as I can stand while working out at the gym or out on the roads or trails. I will continue to do weights, and I will do them BEFORE doing cardio. I will also stretch after every workout. I got myself a fat-measuring scale, and while I don't believe it's totally accurate, it does give me a number for body fat percentage, and today that number is 14%13.6%. I want it to go down. Every quarter of a percent change in body fat percentage over the next six weeks equals a letter grade. I will measure and report progress weekly. +2 STR, +2 STA (note on the edit: checked tonight, and after just one day of not eating junk food and drinking plenty of water I'm down .4%, so I'm setting that as my new starting position). 2. CLEAN UP HELL'S KITCHEN Over the holidays I wreaked havoc on my diet, but Daredevil can't easily swing from fire escapes and perform all kinds of crazy body-weight acrobatics when he's carrying extra weight. I will eat paleo all week, except the weekends (6 NPT/week) I won't look at screens while I'm eating breakfast or dinner Eating paleolithically works really well for me, and I like it too. I really let myself go over the holidays and it shows. So I'll eat paleo all week, with no snacking, and eat non-paleo on the weekends and avoid snacking wherever possible. If some special occasion requires it, I can swap a weekend meal for an NPT (Non-Paleo Token). I will track calories on MFP on non-paleo days. I will need to up the amount of lean protein that I eat because I'm hoping to train even harder and build some more muscle this challenge. As always, game nights will be hard and I will need to bring veggies, fruit, jerky, and nuts because I KNOW I will be nibbly. I will also engage in mindful eating for every breakfast and dinner, and lunches on the weekends. During the week, because I work out over lunch, I have to eat at my desk and do work. Score for paleo for the session will be based off the number 36 (six weeks, two non-paleo days per week, three meals per day, +3 CON), and mindful eating will simply be a tally of the times I fail to avoid screens during meals, +2 CHA. 3. HONE THE SENSES Daredevil's amazing powers stem from the fact that he is acutely aware of his surroundings: He can hear the sound of a heart beat; he can feel the ink printed on a page; he can smell the difference between identical twins at twenty feet. I want to hone my senses, and to do so I'm going to further my practice of archery and meditation. To this end, for the next six weeks: I will practice archery any free Monday and Friday evenings I will meditate five to ten minutes a day. Practicing archery will help still my mind--it's so very zen. Not looking at the phone or laptop while I'm eating is going to be hard, and impossible at work, since I'm expected to work while I'm eating (my lunch hour is at the gym). So, archery practice will be based off of the number four, like last time, +1 DEX, and meditation will be based off of seven, +1 WIS. 4. BECOME THE MAN WITHOUT FEAR I'm signed up for a six-week static trapeze class. I'm also going to audition for the aerial class taught here at the university: eighteen slots, and I'm a continuing ed grad student, so I don't know if I'll get in. Either way, I will focus on working on my drops, ankle hangs, ankle beats, and working up in the ropes or high on the fabric. I will go to every class and try every piece of vocabulary Even when the move looks scary, I will do it at least once. I will remember that I am strong and can take it. Daredevil really isn't the man "without" fear--he's the man who constantly faces down his fear. And that's what I'm after. +4 DEX So, now that I'm at the end of this post, I realize that I'm going to be tracking six things again, every week. But it's only four goals, so I feel alright about that. I'll update this at some point with points and letter grades, and also write another post for rewards. Here are the "before" pictures. Honestly, they don't look a lot different from the previous "before" pics which is a little bit disheartening...

Welcome to my next six week challenge! This time around, I am starting off feeling pretty good about my body. I weigh a pretty consistent 155-160 lbs, and don't have a lot of fat left to burn. Of course the last time I checked I had a 16.8% body fat measurement, and that seemed alright by me. BUT, I'd like to reduce it, while building up some muscle. I also know that the weakest part of my aerial work is my flexibility, so that is going to be the focus of this challenge, all while building and maintaining habits to keep me healthy and strong. Since I'm an assassin, I intend to become more deadly. With that in mind I want to become deadly accurate with my bow. The following goals will help me with these things, and become a better embodiment of my assassin hero, Garrett (from the Thief quadrilogy of games), an assassin so stealthy that he could come and go without a trace, easily blending into the wind. Goal 1: Increase flexibility For the first two weeks, I want to start and or my day with 10 min of stretching, focusing on the legs and back. Week three, I'd like to up that to four days a week, and for weeks five and six, I want to up that to five days a week. I'll log days I stretch in this topic, as part of the daily updates. Also I will attend two yoga classes per week. Week 1-2: Stretch 10 min/day, 3x/week, + 2 yoga classes Week 3-4: Stretch 10 min/day, 4x/week, + 2 yoga classes Week 5-6: Stretch 10 min/day, 5x/week, + 2 yoga classes Goal 2: Wear more black. Enough said. Goal 3: Maintain and build strength I'm going to continue to work out in the gym and build my endurance. I'd like to have one day for lower body, one day for upper body, and one day for full-body. I'll continue to log my progress both on Evernote and here in the forum. Also, I'm going to continue to endurance train. Most likely this will mean running, as the days are getting cold and bike rides are hard to get in. Three days a week, minimum. Finally I want to bust out pull-ups in a major way. I want to work up to 15 pull ups in a row. In summary: Weights workout: 3x/week Endurance: 3x/week Pull ups: 15 in a row by challenge end. 20 equals a bonus. Goal 4: Fuel the progress Getting the right kind of fuel into the system. Eating Paleo has been a godsend for me. I almost never need to eat Tums to turn off my acid stomach. So, I'm going to continue with this plan, and up my goals so that I'm truly 80/20. With that in mind, instead of simply practicing weekends off, I will allow myself one breakfast, one lunch, and one dinner "off" paleo every weekend, and one free meal. If all other goals have been met, I can also have one dessert on Saturday or Sunday to celebrate the previous week. Weeks begin on Sunday and end on Saturday. Also, I need to start drinking more water. I will drink two liters of water per day, and consume .5 additional liters for every hour of workout. Paleo meals: 17 out of 21 meals per week. One free dessert if all physical goals met. Water: 2 liters a day + .5/hour of workout. Decaf coffee counts. Goal 5: On target Make time to practice with my bow. Sometime during the first three weeks of the challenge, I will go to an indoor archery range and sight in my bow again, for 10 and 20 yards. During the challenge I will get to the archery range to practice at least four times total. Target practice: 4x in six weeks Life Challenge: Train the apprentice I have a three year old son (who will turn four in a matter of weeks). It is time to begin his training in the art of assassination. I will read to him three nights a week, minimum. My wife usually handles the nighttime routine, but I think I can convince her that I can do it three nights a week. I will cook with him three nights a week, minimum. He loves to stand on a chair and watch me make dinner, so now it's time to get him involved. I'll try to get him to measure out, pour in, mix, and stir whenever it's safe (that is, not over the frying bacon, not over the pot of boiling water, but definitely stirring the sauteed veggies and possibly helping to flip the chicken on the grill). Reading 3x/week Cooking 3x/week

This is my third challenge and my first with the Rangers! I am working on a little bit of everything so I figured this would be a fun guild to try. Little about myself: I decided to completely overhaul myself around a year and half ago. I had gotten quite overweight in grad school and lacked any athletic ability whatsoever. I have since cleaned up my diet, lost over 60lbs (about 30 to go!), and I am loving finding new ways to be active. I have gone from not being able to run a mile to completing a half marathon and have found a passion for the trapeze and hanging upside down. I am also a huge Star Wars geek, so this essentially my excuse to use Star Wars gifs : ) Quest 1: Run! I completed my very first half marathon during the last challenge and I have another one coming up. In order to complete my quest, I must complete 2-3 short runs per week and 1 longer run. I don’t have a speed or time goal, I just want to have fun and have the endurance to finish the race. During this challenge I will be running two 5K races, a 15K race, and a half marathon (The Avengers Half at Disneyland yay!) I have also started listening to audiobooks while I run (the music was boring me after a while) so this is also my bookworm time. Quest 2: Lift! I am super excited because this is the challenge I will be learning to lift! After I finish my half in a couple weeks, I have training sessions scheduled with a weightlifting coach to teach me the basics and make sure I don’t screw anything up. I have really wanted to work on my upper body strength in particular to help with trapeze. I don’t really have any specifics for this quest yet, except to just try something new! Quest 3: Fly! Finally, and quite possibly my favorite quest, aerial time! I am currently training in aerial silks, trapeze, and rope and take lessons 2-3 times a week. Some specific goals for this quest are: finally complete a straddle inversion with no spot (so close!) on silks; get more than halfway up the rope using a toe climb; and be able to do an egg on the trapeze (essentially stand on my tiptoes on the bar, hold on to both ropes, pull myself into a tuck and hold for at least 5 seconds). Bonus Side Quest: Stretch! I am signed up for a one day Intro to Yoga workshop during this challenge. I have never done any yoga before so it should be fun.

Hello! This is my second challenge and my first as an assassin! MAIN QUEST: Lose fat, gain some muscle, feel comfortable in my own skin. I have already lost close to 65 lbs. (mostly from diet changes, I follow a ketogenic diet and have never felt better!) and I would like to lose another 20-40 lbs. I mainly want to get stronger and feel comfortable in my body so the number on the scale is less important to me than the way I feel. I want to maximize what my body is capable of- use my body efficiently, run faster, and master some cool aerial tricks- and I know I need to drop some weight to accomplish this. Quest #1: Attend 2-3 aerial classes per week. I have been taking aerial classes at a studio for the last few months. I have mainly been working on silks and recently started on trapeze. For the first part of the challenge I will be taking aerial fitness, intro static trapeze, and mixed aerial. When my studio’s new session starts I will be taking stilt walking (new for me), aerial fitness, and mixed aerial. Quest #2: Run 3-4 times per week to prep for half marathon. I have three half marathons coming up- Rock n Roll STL in October, the Avengers Half Marathon in November and the Rebel Challenge (10K and Half Marathon) during Star Wars Half Marathon Weekend at Disneyland in January. I have only run 10K races at this point so I am working on increasing my distance and speed. My goal for January is to rock a slave Leia running outfit for the race. Quest #3: Keep to my diet. I have been on a keto diet for a while and recently I have been slipping up here and there and sabotaging my progress. I am not gaining any but my weight loss has been stalling. So this challenge I am going to work hard to minimize any off-plan foods and really track my food intake. Side Quest: Attend a trampoline aerobics class. I have wanted to try one of the Skyrobics classes at the Skyzone Indoor Trampoline Park, so I will make an effort to try it out at least once during this challenge. Cool, cool, cool.

So its week three and I am restarting my second challenge from earlier this year, because I sort of fell off the face of the nerdfitness planet. I found out I was pregnant (again), had to stop working out, and then miscarried in April. So I spent the last two months trying to pick up the pieces and I'm ready to get to it again. I will post my challenge goals later tonight after trapeze class, but I'm basically going to be focusing on aerial silks, trapeze, and calisthenics this challenge. Peace and love!

Diving in after lurking around the boards for the past few weeks! My starting stats: 249 lbs, chest 50, waist 41, hips 51 Main Quest: Get smaller/ Get Stronger/ Get a baby! I feel like this wording implies I will be using my new found size and strength to steal babies. Edited to add some actual targets here. My goal by the end of this challenge will be to lose 10lbs or 1 inch off of my chest, waist and hips. My overall goal is too lose 50 lbs by then end of August 2014. This is all the weight I gained over the past 10 years since I graduated college and it's time to get rid of it! Mini-Quest 1: Follow c25k/average 3 miles a day/Body weight workout 3x a week Endurance, thy name is… not Ananke. Gone are the halcyon days, aka high school, where I could run non-stop for 40 minutes. I started a C25k late last fall and started to get into it but snow/rain cut my program short at 4 weeks. Now that it’s nice again it’s time to get back on top of this project. Tomorrow kicks off week 2 of the plan and my goal is to finish week 7 by the end of this challenge. Regardless of whether or not it’s a c25k day, my daily goal will be to walk/jog 3 miles a day or 21 miles a week. Supplementing all this cardio, I will be strength training 3x a week using the body weight workout. Mini-Quest 2: Limit dairy, grains, alcohol and processed food I function best when I cut out most grains, processed food and dairy from my diet. For simplicity’s sake, I am not going to be as hardcore with this as I could be but I am setting the rule that if I am going to have something in these categories it NEEDS TO BE WORTH IT! We’re talking about homemade pie, or a bottle of my friend’s home brew that she spent all winter perfecting.. not McDonalds or crappy take-out because I am tired. Mini-Quest 3: Start Aerials! My best friend and I used to belong to the same gym. I loved it because we would take the same classes, push each other to try new things or set new goals and, most importantly, we kept each other honest and made sure the other committed to working out. Alas, the almighty dollar broke up the good thing we had going on. The rates at the gym went up a disgusting amount (Damn you Boston Sports Club!) and we both left. Since then, she threw herself into Ariel arts (aka trapeze) and MMA training. She encouraged me to join too but my fitness hang-ups, specifically my phobia of being the worst/biggest/weakest person in the class, got the best of me. But after getting to a better place physically and mentally last year, now is the time for me to get over myself. Mauy Thai is still too intimidating to join. So aerials it is. Soon I will be flying, well most likely hanging, in the air! Life quest: Get comfortable with myself Basically I want to achieve Zoe Washburne ( aka Gina Torres) levels of self confidence. Some may say this is an impossible goal and that there can only be one but a girl can dream, right?

My overall goal is to be awesome like this: I’m here, making a late start to the challenge! The last month has been full of travel, studying and a lot of life changes. My husband just left for work on the other side of the country and I just started term 4 of medical school, and I am just now getting grounded enough to start this challenge. Last challenge was really good for me in terms of being active, but eating well was a struggle (especially towards the last few weeks). In this challenge, I want to keep working towards my main quest of self-acceptance and being able to do awesome stuff. I still have a packed fitness schedule. Gymnastics is Monday, Wednesday, Saturday; trapeze is Thursday (and maybe Monday); circus conditioning is Sunday; spin on Friday; aerial yoga on some Fridays; and maybe hot yoga on Saturdays. I think I need to add some more cardio in my life again, so I am going to keep a gym bag at school and try to get to the campus gym when I have some breaks. I look forward to getting into a full fitness schedule again – I have fallen off track with my winter vacation and I miss the sanity and happiness that frequent physical activity brought to my life. Goals: Diet: Eat out less! Eat out less than 6 times during this challenge. I can still get coffees at school, but any snack counts towards the total. Success à A = 6, B = 7, C = 8, D = 9, F = 10+. Prepare my food in advance. I did a big freezer cook at the start of January so my dinners are ready for the month. I need to do this again in February. I plan to make my weekly school snack and lunches on Sundays. Smoothies for breakfast every day! 6 Sundays. 1 big cook. Fitness: Do my daily workout – see attached google doc. Success = 6 times per week. Ideally, I will do the work out in the morning BUT I can still succeed if I sleep in and do it at some other part of the day. I want to get strong so I can be MORE AWESOME at gymnastics and trapeze! For those who don’t want to look at the doc, the daily workout includes handstands, kicks, splits, frog, pull ups, push ups, walkovers and bridge stuff. It may get edited down a little if what I have is too much work. Life: I am doing some traveling this year! I need to save money. Eating out less is part of saving money. But I need to start budgeting. This goal has 2 parts: 1. Finish my financial to do list (hopefully done this weekend) · Update my mint.com budget. · Update automated payments to new account · Pay tuition and outstanding bills. 2. Put every expense in my mint.com budget. Including the coffee I buy with cash. And parking. Everything!! Challenge tracker: Restaurant eating: 0 0 0 0 0 0 | 0/6 Weekly food prep: 0/1 0/1 0/1 0/1 0/1 0/1 | 0/6 Daily Routine: 0/3 0/6 0/6 0/6 0/6 0/6 | 0/33 Log Expenses: 0/3 0/7 0/7 0/7 0/7 0/7 | 0/38 Big February cook: Finish my financial to-do list:

Hello fellow assassins! First challenge completed last month, second starts tomorrow! Main quest: as in the title, no one specific goal but lots of smaller goals. Goals below followed by current status: One real unassisted pull-up - six assisted with foot on chair. One real unassisted chin-up - ditto. 90 degree pike on trapeze/pull-up bar - feet are currently about a foot off the ground. Do the splits properly, down to the ground - am about a foot off the ground with hips square. Complete a handstand - hate being upside down, can manage one minutes practise before arms shake. 20 push-ups in a row - at twelve currently. 6 minute plank - at four mins currently. Scoring: seven very high goals have been set. Complete four to get an A, three for a B, two for a C. More than four gets a plus for every extra goal. Path to achievement: 40 mins yoga each morning followed by twenty mins work on the above goals, Monday to Friday. Weekends are for catching up what I didn't get done during the week. Have started circus school last week, so continue that every Wednesday during the challenge. Need to build up some serious callouses on my hands cos they hurt like hell after last weeks class! **************************************************** Food goals - minimum 100g protein, max 100g carbs five days per week. I need something concrete for grading, my first challenge food goals were a bit all over the place. I eat more at weekends but don't worry too much cos am still getting leaner. Scoring: meet food goals five days a week, A grade for that week. Meet goals four days per week, get a B, meet three days get a C. ************************************************** Progress checks: Take photo for current position in pike and splits and take every two weeks. At the end of each week log progress here. Take weight check before and after, and caliper measurements and photos before and after to chart progress. Starting weight 8 st 10, Jackson pollock calipers 16.79% ************************************ Looking forward to meeting you all on this six week journey to awesomeness!! Thepalv EDIT Going to split up the food goals. A for protein, A for carbs. I would like to concentrate on the good efforts, and I rarely make it under 100g carbs, I like too many vegetables and am eating breakfast again, and a lot of fruit. May revise in a couple of weeks.

Hi all This is my first challenge. Fitness was never a pleasure for me when doing it for it's own sake.I am naturally lazy. Dance was my first love! A few years ago I discovered pole dance and aerial silks/hoop/trapeze.I found myself wanting to do pushups/V ups/leg raises and running so that I could get better at my sport! My body type is not naturally agile, however I gain both muscle and fat easily. I wish my starting race was an elf..but I'm more like a cross between a dwarf and an orc?I am naturally quite flexible and if I was a superhero I would be Elastigirl!I used to say I had the weakest arms ever, but noticed improvements in strength after all my circus work! This year I've had a number of injuries/barriers to training this year-disc injury to back,broken nose and recently bereavement in that order. MAIN QUEST My aim is to get back on the horse!!Have enough stamina/strength etc to last 3 hour class again. SMALL GOALS FOR MAIN QUEST 1.Do one core workout per week/one cardio and one strength 2.Take stairs at work every day (5 flights) 3.Up iron intake!(I am vegetarian,don't like eggs and avoid dairy-except for cheese!I forget to take my supplements and end up being anaemic.This does not help with training) LIFE QUEST I'm skipping the life quest since I have a tendency to burn the candle at both ends. Can you do an anti-quest?If so it would be to relax more and slow down! Once I've completed this quest I would probably like to join the assassins guild. Although I'm a druid by nature (even in WOW),my training is more assassin focused. Wish me luck!! Angelyn