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Briefly, a Who I Am: I'm a 44 year old American woman living on a 10 acre woodland property in rural England I call Owlshire with my partner and 5 y/o son. I work in gamedev, our son is home educated (by ourselves and outsourced help), we have a bouncy adolescent golden retriever pup, a flock of plucky rescue hens, and as a family we enjoy nature and gaming. We moved to Owlshire not quite three years ago in the midst of the Global Pandemic/UK Lockdowns and we're still trying to find/form our tribe of fellow misfits and geeks. This challenge looks a lot like the last one, but with more travel. I turned 44 at the end of the last challenge, and my intention is to embrace the unknowns of our unique and quirky life and not worry so much that just because something changed that everything is "bad" or "wrong." Because it isn't at all! It just doesn't look quite what a past me thought it would look like! We are living an off-the-road-most-traveled adventure, and here be dragons. Dragon Form Building my strength and stamina and getting a sleeker dragon shape. Continue to aim for 80,000 steps a week. My weight at same or lower by the end of the challenge. Also, reduce snacking. This has become a real problem, I'm nibbling on something between nearly every meal and I'm not even hungry. I suspect it started as stress eating and has now become a habit I need to break. Dragon Wings Exploration and adventure at home and beyond. I have two overnight trips known for this challenge: A two day business trip to London. A three night trip to Devon for pleasure (my annual "Mum's holiday") There are some more in discussion but not yet defined. I decided not to do the cruise I was pondering last challenge, as it was causing me a lot of stress to decide on and figure out, and the whole point was a holiday plan that didn't stress me out. I haven't yet decided when or what I'll do instead. I also need to set up arrangements for trips which will happen later this year: Dragon Heart Vision, community, and mental health. Update Vision Statement One things I realized during the last challenge is that I was feeling out of sorts because life had deviated from The Vision. But actually, life was going in good--even great--directions. I'm still walking toward the same Mountain, it turns out; I'm just approaching from a different route. So I'm updating The Vision. I'm still working to align it and make the verbiage pretty rather than just a bunch of haphazard bulletpoints, but I'm already feeling better. Complete the Vision 2023 Update. Be more social Reach out and arrange things with local people. This includes with my family! Arrange regular games and outdoor activites with Enting Arrange regular date nights with Mr. Spirituality/Pagan Studies Spend more time on spiritual activities. It always ends up the first things sacrificed when things go sideways, and that's probably when I need it the most! For this challenge I'm focusing on lessons and learning as part of the pagan groups I'm in because it's easily measurable and pleases my inner Hermione Granger. Complete 3 lessons (including the one in progress) for my coven. Reinvestigate the Hearthkeeper's Way (ADF) to integrate in my practice. Dragon Horde Taking care of Owlshire, creating a comfy place to live. Continue the decluttering project. Look after my autumn garden. There are pumpkins!

I leave for my yoga teacher training in about a week. This course is 200 hours spread over 30 days in Canggu, Bali, Indonesia. I’m excited and anxious. I’ve done just about as much of the pre-reading I can handle - non-fiction self-helpy type books + my brain absolutely do not mesh. I’ve mostly figured out what I’m packing and have most of what I need for that. Visas are done, I’ve booked a hotel for the first 2 days I’m there before class, I’m working on getting airport transport from the hotel, and I think I know what I want to do about a SIM. DH has been briefed about all things I can brief him on - and he more or less has a plan for what he is going to do with the dogs. In the run-up, I still need to: Go to 6 yoga classes Hit the mall for a new notebook and pretty pens - + maybe stickers for my water bottle so it doesn’t get mixed up. Plus my medications, Prep some frozen foods for the pups. Finish setting my last couple recipe blog posts. Continue to work on what I want to work on - right now, that’s informational Instagrammy posts for my new teaching venture, picking a name to go under, etc. Ooh. And I want nice colored pencils so I can color my yoga anatomy book. Not sure exactly what I’m doing challenge-wise, but I’m sure it’ll be packing, prepping, going and doing related.

Literally, but more on that later. Hi lovelies! How are you all doing? 🤗 Feels a bit strange to be back. Back to the forum I mean, not back to real life. 😄 I’ve been traveling around south east Asia since January and it’s been quite awesome and quite eye opening. I’ve been to Bali, Singapore, Borneo, Brunei, mainland Malaysia, Thailand for rock climbing and pole dancing and now I’m in the Philippines where I did marine conservation volunteering for two months and where I’m now going to learn to freedive for the next 3-6 months! I’m super excited and super scared because I have no idea whether I’ll be physically or mentally capable of doing it and could do with moral support. My goals for now are 1 do the training to the best of my ability and try not to get frustrated or pressured by benchmarks and numbers. 2 keep a detailed log of the training That’s it for now, maybe I’ll add something more specific later when I better understand what I’ve gotten myself into. 😅

Amandaba's Quest for Half Dome Part 2 Photo of a part of Half Dome (not my photo) My last challenge I did well in remembering to bring my water bottle to work, brought lunch about half the time. Started off well with cardio but had a few set backs the last couple of weeks and only got a few strength training sessions in, so I'm going to try again with most of my goals. My goals are centered mostly around getting healthier so I can complete the Half Dome hike at Yosemite National Park next summer. My previous challenge goes into my injury history but long story short I've had back, knee, and ankle injuries in the past (all on my left side) that can make going up a steep incline difficult (not to mention my cardiac fitness not being up to snuff to tackle that hike) Incline trainer or hike twice per week. Now that the leaves have come in snakes won't be so common sunning themselves on the trails, so I can start hiking again. I know they really aren't a danger as long as I pay attention where I'm stepping. I cannot help that my monkey brain gets freaked out when I see a snake, so I tend to avoid the trail until mid-late June. However, since July can get hot and humid (and air quality has been an issue lately) I have the option to use the incline trainer at my gym. Strength Training twice per week. I am continuing on with the My Peak Challenge Ignite program. If I am not finished with the beginner month by the time this challenge starts I should be really close. Then I'll be starting the actual month one of the Ignite program. Bring lunch to work twice per week. In an effort to not only eat healthier but to save money for hiking trips I want to continue to work on bringing my lunch to work at least half the time. Use face treatment twice per week. -I've recently started an IPL treatment for my face. In order for it to be effective I need to use it twice per week consistently for at least 6 weeks. I was recently notified I won the parking lottery at work so I get parking from July-September so that should help with the exercise goals the ramp I will be parking in is the same ramp I use to park at the gym, so I will be walking past the gym to get to my car instead of taking the bus to my car then driving back downtown to go to the gym or walking in the opposite direction to a pay to park ramp to then drive out of my way to go to the gym. I might even try out my strength training at the gym so I don't have to rely on my being able to workout at home after driving 40 minutes. We'll see if it works out ok. The program I am following has videos to workout alongside-which is a big perk for me vs just going off a worksheet. I'm not sure if I'll be able to find an area, I would have everything I need in one spot either and the workouts thus far are timed rounds without much break between sets and pausing to move elsewhere each time also doesn't seem like I'd enjoy either. BUT I think I am going to try at least one at the gym to just get my workout done on my way to the car. Previous challenge: Amandaba's quest for Half Dome - Previous Challenge: 5/7/2023 to 6/10/2023 - Nerd Fitness Rebellion

[Preamble] Welcome to Owlshire, a beautiful woodland property in the Forest of Dean, England. I’m a 42 year old American woman living here with my British husband (Mr) and pre-school son (Enting). I work in gamedev and when I’m not doing that, I’m tending to my garden, doing needlework of some sort, writing, playing games (of various sorts), and exploring our local woodlands. However, this challenge will involve a lot of time away from home…. [Challenges] Zero Week we are headed off across the country for a wedding and will be away for 4 days. During Weeks 2-4, we will be headed across the globe to attend my father’s memorial hike in the US, staying a bit extra to reconnect with family and friends that we’ve been separated from due to life and pandemics. And in the spaces in between we’re going to be preparing and catching up on what’s fallen behind at home. … so I’m keeping this challenge very simple. Organize: Keep using the planner every day. I started it again a couple of weeks ago and it’s been so helpful. Keep on top of travel-related organization. This has its own planner… Continue to Mordor: I will aim for 30 miles walked on a week (average). 435 miles left to Mordor… my goal is to reach it by November. Hobbit in Attitude, not in Width: I’m starting this challenge with a BMI of 22. My goal this challenge is to be the same or less by the end of the challenge. I have a longer term ambition to get to 21 BMI, but at the moment I’m focusing on maintenance. I will check in weekly on Mondays or thereabouts, optional when I’m traveling.

Here be a thread where anybody with RVing, vandwelling and/or camping experience can share their RV travel experience and tips; and anybody with related questions can poll the community. I couldn't find a pre-existing thread like this after a quick search; if one exists, somebody let me know, please. First, my background: I've been living with my husband in a bumper pull camper since we were married in 2016. He had been traveling full time for at least a couple years before that. A lot of that time we were "dry camping" (no power, water, or sewer hookups). We've also "mooch-docked" (camping on a relative's property, using their utilities), and we have experience in state parks and other established campgrounds where full- or semi-utility hookups were available to us. We started out in a 13' fiberglass Casita pulled by a Chevy Astro van. Both had quite a few modifications done by my husband (the van had a front-bumper winch, a battery bank, solar panels, and a TV). We've upsized and changed tow vehicles - currently we're in a 24' Coleman 202RD bumper pull, using an older diesel Dodge dually to take our house with us. We've abandoned the solar charging system for now. Anything I share is "how we do/did it", never "how it should be done". Like anything in life, it's trial and error, and you base future decisions on current needs and past experience. Please feel welcome to share any RVing, camping, or traveling experiences you might have - whether you've gone tent camping once, or are a full-timer, or somewhere in between. One individual's experience will never cover everything there is to know about the lifestyle. Also, please don't think this thread is limited to people with campers or motorhomes or caravans. If you have car-, van-, or tent-dwelling experience, that's valuable knowledge, too. Anybody with tiny or small living experience please chime in, too. Hopefully there's some valuable info exchanged here!

Back to another ‘I won’t be home for most of this Cycle’ challenge. It’s back to hotel life for a few weeks, and a movement shift is in order. I’m still looking to see if there are any good looking daytime yoga classes anywhere near where I’ll be, but thus far - nada. It looks like people are sliding from Ramadan timings to Summer Hours. Boo. That’s fine. I’ve got some inversion homework from one of my teachers, another that has moved to the UK has posted a host of YouTube flows, and I’ll have access to a fairly decent gym if I remember correctly. My big challenge is going to be doing what I need to do motivation-wise to ensure I get a good workout in (i.e. forcing myself to get ready out of order by wearing contacts + workout clothes to breakfast and showering after the gym), and not eating anything too crazy. Or at least not too many crazy meals. Alcohol won’t be an issue. Movement Get something done each day. A trip to the hotel gym, a yoga class out in town, a flow in my hotel room, a mall walk - something. Nutrition Simple breakfasts - most likely back to my egg/spinach/mushroom combo; if I remember correctly, this hotel has soy milk for coffee but that’s it on the dairy-free front. I *think* they also do eggs. At least scrambled. Don’t go too crazy at dinner - watch my hunger cues if I’m getting any that day, otherwise aim for 80% of my plate. Err on the side of veggies when possible. Other I’m bringing a big crochet project and my iPad for drawing, so should be good there. I had intended on bringing a sewing project as well, but didn’t have *quite* enough fusible fleece to complete 1 bag. Boo. I got everything I have cut though. I think that’s mostly it while we are gone. I need to do some scrapbook stuff finding/scrap filling once I get another book - it looks like my Smash Book journals may have been discontinued (at least on Amazon), so I need to find an alternative. I also want to continue working to step up my wardrobe game a bit and may look for some more “fun” pieces while we are gone. I got a super cute but plain orange sun dress while in Paris (I was excited to see a Uniqlo) and a really pretty silk scarf from the Van Gogh Museum I can use to zhuzh up an otherwise basic outfit. Hopefully I can still get away with the jeans I bought right before we left for at least most of the trip - I’ll mostly be living in lounge wear, but we will be hitting the mall pretty much every night. Should be enough a/c so I don’t melt completely. It’s only in the low 90s. I think that’s it for this challenge. The last week or so will be spent rebuilding my yoga schedule, snuggling the pups, and re-acquainting myself with the current grocery stock.

credit: Old Door by Stefano Aneto CHAPTER 3: AThousandWords Alights (Chapter 1, Chapter 2) I used to think that Doors were rare and mischievous. After all, finding an ephemeral passage between monotonous reality and the tingling prospect of adventure isn't something that happens everyday, right? A lifetime could pass by before the opportunity presents itself again. I was wrong. It turns out that Doors — like cars with one darkened headlight or a word you swear you've never read before — appear far more often after you've noticed them once. As if acknowledging their existence brings them bubbling to the surface. Once upon a time I saw a Door at a train station and walked away, fearing I would never see one again. Instead, the persistent openings pop up in the corner of my eye at every turn. A broad-slatted blue Door out of place in a stone wall; a fairy Door tucked away in the roots of an oak tree; an inconspicuous louvered Door when I stop at a red light. "I liked that one," my son says idly one night, marching a chicken nugget through a trailing doorway of ketchup on his plate. "The green one we saw at the playground. I bet it had dinosaurs on the other side." Across the table my daughter shrieks in delight and chomps down on her fork with a loud roar. I smile at her but my eyes dart to where my husband sits with a raised eyebrow. I shrug in return. It's a conversation that's been played out after bedtimes and in passing a hundred times with no real answer. We've been putting it off, but it feels insistent, inevitable. And if I'm honest, exciting. "A dinosaur Door? Wouldn't you rather open a Spider-Man Door?" my husband teases and I start the lists in my head. What to pack - snacks? Probably. Diapers, for sure... And I wonder what the next door we find will be. Spring is sprouting! And while currently we're still in grey chilly days (and I have a seasonal, non-covid head cold to go with it), I'm starting to look ahead to sunnier and more exciting days. Last challenge, I had a long weekend break with my husband, celebrated my 36th birthday, and ran my first ever half marathon! What started out as a longing for change manifested in a lot of adventure coming my way. In 2 weeks we're hosting my son's first real birthday party, then two days later driving to North Carolina to see my sister's new home, and during week 5 of the challenge I'm flying to Georgia to meet my coworkers for the first time at a developer's retreat. I'm anxious and excited and ready for something new. So this challenge will be flexible (there's a lot of travel days in there!) and hopefully fun. I'm looking forward to not spending my Saturdays doing long runs every week, but I still want to do something active. My next running goal is a sub-30 5k, so I'll be doing more interval runs. And I need to take a closer look at my diet because my cholesterol is up and honestly I've been letting a lot of unhealthy habits slip in because I was running enough to not care what I was eating. In particular, I need to cut out the afternoon snacking because I've gotten reeaal comfortable eating cheetos and girl scout cookies at my desk... Habit 1: Run 3x a week for at least 30 min Follow training plan for improving 5k times Ideally running Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday -- but can move around days if needed due to travel, daycare schedules, etc Habit 2: Endurance Activity on weekends Options include: 5mi+ run, 10mi+ bike ride, 2 hour hike, or similar level of activity Include the family as much as possible! Habit 3: Stop the Snack Follow IF 16/8 (usually 12pm - 8pm) for 6/7 days a week Coffee + creamer or water allowed outside this window (I can't give up my morning coffee!) No after-lunch snacking (eat enough to be sated at lunch) Habit 4: Follow Meal Plan (Weeks 1,2,4*) Meal Plan for the week every Tuesday Cook from the meal plan 6/7 days a week * Weeks 3 and 5 are exempt for this goal, but make every attempt to meal plan and cook on the days I'm home Bonus Points: Eat Well No more than 1 red meat dinner per week Eat 4+ servings of vegetables a day Drink 8 cups of water a day

This challenge, I’ll be starting off by getting back into whatever passes for my usual swing - again - and will take us through the only big holiday I’m doing this year - Thanksgiving. Nutrition While traveling: Do what I can to not kill myself - Georgia is known for its wine & cheesy bread; wine is fine - cheesy bread: not so much. I know I’ll have to have it at least once, knowing that I’m going to have a bad time. Let’s not roll that into reckless abandon, yo. While home: Veggies & protein first - carbs to fill in the gaps. Movement While traveling: Should have that covered on this trip While home: Yoga 4x a week; contemplate picking up a 10kg kettlebell; keep thinking about barre - after re-establishing my yoga schedule Others While traveling: Do the things and have fun with DH While home: Dog enrichment, hit the fabric store for supplies, finish crochet projects, finish corset, jump on other bag project(s) Pretty simple stuff overall - I’m coming off of a 3-week trip while writing this and have another 6-day trip right at the start of challenge. I feel a bit bloated & chubby - and my liver is a bit tired. Will address all that when challenge starts in earnest. Until then: And (try to avoid):

This challenge cycle will mostly be spent traveling in the US. Still not sure how I feel about that, aside from being excited about consumerist shit, but I’ve cast that lot and it’s happening regardless. As such, this challenge can’t just be SSDD on coast mode. Which is probably a good thing, tbh. Here’s my plan to cope with “vacation”: Managing Anxiety I’m sure crowd, travel and people pandemic-ing wrong anxiety will be a thing, and not jumping into reflexive judgey bitch mode to cope with said anxiety is going to be a definite issue. Timelines, time zones & travel time already all have my anxiety at 11. Management: Deep yoga breaths, and reminding myself to get a grip. Not my monkeys, not my business. Also stocking up on hand sanitizer & antibac wipes if I feel I need more control over the situation. We’ve also got disposable masks for that 12+hour plane ride & will have our normal masks on us as well. My general abhorrence of feeling trapped always rears it’s head when forced into social situations I don’t want to be in. Management: Staying in Air BnBs, having a rental car at all times, planning things to do that aren’t just sitting on the couch at a relatives house staring at their damn eyeballs. Family dumbassery. Talking to some family members over the phone is exhausting; seeing them in person is going to be more so. I’m also not interested in 3 weeks of continual bitching about COVID from everygoddamnbody I see. It’s exhausting. Management: Tell said family member(s) that I don’t have the damn bandwidth for this conversation. Change the subject. Leave early if necessary. Hubby and I need to settle on a ‘get me tf out of here before I start screaming’ code. Too damn bad we don’t still smoke. Trying to fit everything and everyone in limited time - especially when everyone only wants to meet up when it’s convenient for them. Management: Not doing that, and not feeling guilty for doing so. Giving people clear guidelines of when I have available slots and when I do not. This I always do, but it’s still always a shit show. I generally don’t feel bad about it, but i inevitably still end up anxious. Those should be the biggies, but I’m sure more will pop up. Nutrition Whelp, this one is going to be a curveball. Body was on a less carb trajectory - aaaand then the stress of planning this trip hit. A few ground rules to help myself not feel quite so bloated and terrible by week 2 of travel: Don’t finish the fries. Start with the main, eat half of it, and then go in for bites of the sides. Don’t eat all sides one by one and then tackle the high dollar item. Eat slower and take stock of when you are full. You’ve already paid for the meal; you’re on vacation - wasting $ is to be expected. Remember that the clean plate club is not a thing. Don’t eat shit I know is going to kill me. If family members are drenching everything in cheese, either just eat sides or pick around the cheese. I don’t need to leave full. Remember that even though we’ll be hitting up some favorites and going in for some primo meals (on top of straight garbage), I’ve had good food before and will have good food again. I don’t need to gorge myself to enjoy the meal. Drink what you damn want but attempt to not go for 2 days in a row & limit shit that’s going to lead to a hangover. Body Care Realistically, I won’t be hitting any yoga classes in the 3 weeks we will be gone, and pressuring myself to do a hotel-style daily workout before leaving each day is not conducive to good mental health for me. I know I don’t sleep for shit while traveling, and often have to get up too early. Do what I can, when I think of it. If I’m bored and feeling trapped, suggest a walk around the neighborhood instead of trying to hide in my phone with DH. It’ll be hot and I’ll be in the ‘burbs, but it may still be doable. Pull up some simple bodyweight routines that can be done whenever - and keep them in the forefront of my mind so maybe that actually happens. And that’s it for this Cycle. Or at least most of it. I will reassess once I’m back and settled. Yoga will definitely return.

The air temperature hovered just above freezing and a steady rain was falling, beading off my oilskin cloak and moistening the short blonde hair that escaped from my hood. It had been dark for four hours and I felt vaguely angry trudging through heavy piles of wet leaves and straggling up slippery wet hills. I wanted to be home by my own fire, not out in the woods on a rainy December night. Start a fire, my subconscious begged. Please, it's getting late. Can't we rest for the night? Try harder tomorrow? "Nope," I answered myself, leaning on my bow to pull myself up a steep hillside. "Rested too long at the inn at dinner. We've got ten miles to go yet tonight and we won't get there by making camp." The winter holidays were the time of rest for many in the kingdom, but not for the archers of the Movement. This year, my assignment would take me far across the country to the Golden Sea, where the legends said it never rained or snowed; but before I could embark, I had to complete the tasks I had left undone before my journey home to Middle Earth just a week before. The next month would be grueling and I would rarely be home. The hours of bouncing for hours on a public coach or sitting cramped with dozens of others on a boat would wear on my body; the days of conducting my business with strangers and deferring rest and recuperation would wear on my mind. The coming weeks would be a test of my endurance in every way. I shook myself as I reached the top of the hill and extended one hand, generating a burst of yellow light to illuminate the rocky path down. The balance between my shadowy ice powers and warm healing powers was unpredictable, but for now, the light was winning out. It was time to make as much progress as I could before the ice overtook me.

While we were in Wales, in a rare moment we actually had phone signal, a call came through. It was our community nursery that RoV had been on the waiting list for since the beginning of the year. They had a part-time opening! Would we like it? Mr and I needed to discuss it—but eventually we decided we should get a foot in the door while we had the opportunity. Unfortunately, several days passed before we could get strong enough signal to call back. I promised myself then, that if this worked out, I would use that time to return to the fiber arts. We got the spot and now I have childcare 4 mornings/20 hours a week (including his existing childminder), and I’m going to make good on that promise. The Return of the Stitch Witch I’ve signed up for a program called the Artist Residency in Motherhood (ARIM) which is a framework designed to help new parents get back into the arts after the shock of adding a small child into their world. I’m currently signed up for 3 months (and can extend), and so this will be ongoing. My focus will be exploring and developing a fiber arts direction that’s been invading my imagination all year (but I’ve lacked the time or space to explore)—embroidery as a medium for storytelling. 10+ “studio” hours a week on improving technique, creating designs, and the actual stitching related to my residency projects/goals. (Due to the holidays and related trips, there are weeks when I may not be able to do 10 studio hours, but those should be known in advance rather than... accidental.) Take a trip to the V&A to look at embroidery exhibits. (Adventure!) Those who follow my Instagram will see it repurposed as an accountability space for the residency. Continue Spiritual Studies Resume meditation practice at least 5 days a week. Mornings are ideal, but I need to get flexible about it. Perhaps I’ll do it at the start of studio time. Finish my outstanding assignment, plus 1 other class assignment (and associated activities) I’m backing off on progressing this course a little bit to make more space for the arts practice. Tame the Hearth Flame 4 childcare hours a week for household chaos reduction and outstanding domestic projects. Be an Adventurer! In the summer, it’s easier to follow up on “I’m going to go out every day!” But it’s no longer summer and with RoV spending most mornings in childcare, I think it’s even more important to spend quality time with him in the afternoons. And embroidering and associated tasks is a lot of “bum in chair” time, so I need to make a point of being active at other times. Aim for one outing each day with RoV. Preferably outdoors, but if it’s really miserable out an active indoor activity like the soft play centre is great, too. This won’t happen every day, but it should most. We’ve also got a couple of trips planned during the span of this challenge, so adventure during those, too!

(With apologies to @oromendur) I'm Ann of Vries, aged 39; a diarist, a fiction writer, a fiber artist, a LARPer (also TTRPG, board games), a traveler, a hiker, and a first time mother. I’m madly in love with my partner, Mr of Vries and my son, Rowan of Vries. I live in London, after having emigrated from Seattle three years ago. I love it here, although I’m still trying to find my tribe (outside of the House of Vries, of course). I've been spending a lot of time with the Rangers Guild of late, but as @Sciread77 says--once an Adventurer, always an Adventurer. Although in many ways my adventuring goal of late feels more like "coming home" (or maybe it's "finding home") that is still part of that pesky heroic journey. (Also, I love you Rangers, but I cannot keep up with your forum.) I blinked, and suddenly I went from having a sleepy newborn baby to an energetic toddler! Being a curmudgeonly wizard who wants to sit cosy in my tower with a book and maybe I’ll go out tomorrow or next week or next year, I’m finding it a stretch to keep up with this little creature of chaos that wants to eat five times a day, frolic out of the house, get into mischief, and generally enjoy every moment of life… right now! I feel like I’m living with Merry and Pippin rolled into one cute package. Or maybe, I should see it as the pair of us being Merry and Pippin. I could fight that, but it’s not a very fun way to live, so if you can’t beat them, join them. As such, I’m heading back into the Shire for this challenge, except.... This Challenge Starts with a Proper Adventure! Part way into Zero Week into most of Week One, we’ll be taking Rowan on his first trip to America. And his first plane flight. 10 hours each way. Yikes! We’re on our way to Austin TX to spend a week with my paternal family. Talk about an adventure! I don't have specific goals for this trip except enjoy the time with my family. Once we’re back from that, the rest of the Challenge kicks into full swing. Frolic and get into Mischief Today Summer is coming, the weather is great, so lets get out, get active, and have some fun! Enjoy playing with my little hobbit. Get out at least once a day—to soft play, the story centre, park playgrounds, playgroup, etc. (Usual free pass for illness or particularly inclement weather.) Play with him at home, too! Clock in 10k+ steps a day. Eat Well Today Much like the hobbits, the House of Vries enjoys gathering around the table and eating good food. Cook healthy, diverse meals for the family on the weekdays (Mr cooks on the weekends). There may be food writing. I’ve been going through one of my “rely on sugary coffee drinks in the morning because I’m tired” phases. (This is the only way I like coffee.) I want to cut down to one sugary coffee drink in the morning, ideally eliminating it entirely, except on the worst of days. I can drink all the tea (as I don’t add sugar or milk to my tea) and fizzy water I want. Live Well Today Gratitude lists don’t really help me much, but I still need to remind myself I’m living a charmed life. I haven’t always. There’s been some really difficult times in my life. But right now? This chapter? A bit challenging, but absolutely charmed. So love it and live it to its utmost. At the minimum, mentally note things that are going well each day. Ideally, write them down. Going out all the time for toddler activities cuts heavily into getting any housework done, though, and we like having a tidy space to live in. So I want to utilize 5 minute tidies to try to keep up so everyone can get to the fire exits in case of emergency! 2-3 short tidies a day. Love Well Today The first year with a baby had our marriage functioning in basic survival mode most of the time. Now that Rowan is getting older, I want to spend more time with my husband and work on higher level aspects of our relationship. Make better use of the time after Rowan goes to sleep. Play games together, at least once a week. Make time to talk, at least once a week. Try to get some walks in green places in, at least once this challenge. (Ideally, more.) Be a Wizard, Sometimes We’re currently negotiating with a childminder, which should start in early June and will afford a few hours of “me time” a week. (Final schedule TBD.) I want to make good use of that time—working on my writing, my knitting, other enriching activities, and also on some family projects that fall by the wayside chasing my little Merry!Pippin around. At least 20 minutes of “Wizard” activities during a nap time during the week. At least 1 hour on childminder days (once he’s in full attendance). Now, let's get on this adventure!

I haven’t exactly been rocking my goals lately, but I find that I try harder and ultimately do better for myself when I have them. So… I’m back again! The most recent "about me" can be found in my previous challenge. Otherwise, we'll figure it out as we go along. For this challenge my Inspirational Witch is Tiffany Aching, or, really most of the witches of Discworld. I adore these no nonsense ladies, and this line in particular has me right now: I'm not the sort of person who generally casts fault but I could do better at dealing with things. It’s the holidays which is always jam-packed and in addition, I have three trips of 5+ days in the diary during this challenge which doesn't make anything easy, let alone taking care of myself. So I’m going to start by dealing with my own self-care (because I can't help others if I'm not functional, and the Enting only has one mummy): Some way, some how, get in that 10k steps. Some way, some how, get in that 2L of water. Some way, some how, write 100 words a day on fiction or nonfiction. My aspiration is every day. Spoiler: I won’t hit every day! But by trying to do it every day, I’m going to hit it more often than I would otherwise. Let's go deal with things.

This challenge sees me on vacation for most of it, so I'm not going to set up a real challenge, but I wanted to have somewhere to check in and track a few things, so this will be really low key with hopefully some good travel photos and stories. Goals: Travel blog - daily I want to record places we've been, and places we've eaten and I want pictures everywhere so that I can write a travel blog as we go instead of waiting for three years to do it like I did for the Kauai blog. Work out - on vacation I'm going to give a pass. But I have saved a bunch of videos so I'll have them. There will be swimming, walking and hiking to help with that. Once we're back I'll have to get back to the gym, so I'll have four workouts to track then. Reflection - my last challenge I realized that writing is not the way I want to level up my life. Now I need to figure out what is the way. Hoping two weeks on vacation will help with that. Tangible activities for this are to Finish my month reviews for May, June and July Search out challenges on instagram (crafting, drawing, photography, hand-lettering, etc.) Journal Lurk on Craftster to find swaps or challenges to inspire me Come up with a level up your life goal to try for next challenge Since I've changed my goals here this will effect what I'm doing with my master mind group so I need to make a new plan for that as well List of doom That job never got posted, so when it becomes available I want to apply and hopefully land an interview. I still need to polish my resume and write a cover letter for that. That should do it for me this next time, I don't want to overdo it. Aloha!

I am a little late to start this challenge, but I sort of started it yesterday... when I bought the e-Book of the RBG Fitness Routine. If Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg can do it at 85? Damnit, so can I. But baby steps, yeah? I'm starting a shortened version twice a week, 30 minutes, as I don't have the time to do more right now, but yeah, it's a cute book, and why not? Which brings me to.... TIME BLOCKING. As I get closer to my trip to Japan, my time is more and more valuable. I have two major puppet builds to do this month, a day job to keep on top of, and learning Japanese throughout. So I need to make a nice obvious easy to follow time blocked schedule and then I need to STICK TO IT. Wish me luck. But I need to EAT to have the energy to do all this, so I figured I'd try a vegan/vegetarian version of Whole 30. I've been vegan off and on, and was thinking to keep that up, but I might being in eggs from the local farmers here, as they are local, good for me, and cruelty free. It depends how I feel about eggs at the time, I guess. So far I've been starting my day with frozen fruit, kale, protein powder, and chia blended to death smoothie, lunches seem to be lettuce wrap based, and dinner I've been making insane fusion tacos that are kinda brilliant. I will mix things up, but I'm going to try to do Whole 30, but the vegetarian version (so lentils, peanuts, tofu, that sort of thing are okay as protein sources.) That's about it, besides massively studying Japanese. Which I'm doing alright with. I am going to start using tutors to talk to in June and July, as I leave end of July and need to be able to base level function in conversation. That and I'm making a delightful puppet to accompany me, and I will share him with you all when he's done!

Hey, I'm Daniel and if you haven't followed me before, my standard intro is in the spoiler: My newest destination in my nomadic life is Montenegro, the beautiful ex-Yugoslav country of 620,000 people. Picture in the spoiler of the area I'm staying My plan while I'm here is to do two things: learn enough Machine Learning techniques to get a respectable performance in a data science competition hosted by Kaggle.com do lots of Assassin fitness Goal #1: productive routine: some of the 16 days I'll be on day trips to other places, but I need 12 days where I do all of the following: Wim Hof breathing (5 minutes of total retention minimum) cold shower (okay it's boiling here so it barely counts) 2MP of fitness training (those are Mad Hatter points, and 2 means a moderate workout and 3 are a serious workout) actually 3 MP of fitness training 3 hours of focused work on the Machine learning project actually 5 hours of focused work 4 portions of fruit/veg So most of this challenge will be over by 9th June! So compact For every day where I do all of that I get 0.50 points. If I have a day where I do only 5 of those 7 things I can get 0.25 points. Max points: 6.00 Goal #2: achieve great things: setting some goals... finally do a muscle-up (I've been trying for years!) (1.00 points) run a mile in 05:50 / 05:42 / 05:35 / 05:30 (previous record 05:56) (0.25 / 0.50 / 0.75 / 1.00 points) do a set of 40 push-ups (not during Wim Hof retention) (0.50 points) find more paid remote software work (0.50 points) submit a solution with a score of 0.700 / 0.780 / 0.790 / 0.800 in the Kaggle competition (0.25 / 0.50 / 0.75 / 1.00 points) half-write / completely write a Coding course for my summer school (0.25 / 0.50 points) Lots of this is very ambitious, but that seems fair for a shorter challenge like this. There are 4.50 points available so I can get the maximum score without doing everything. Max points: 4.00 Good luck everyone I start tomorrow. CHALLENGE TRACK (updated end of June 4th) productive: day 1: 1/7 => - day 2: 7/7 => 0.50 points day 3: 7/7 => 0.50 points day 4: 5/7 => 0.25 points day 5: 7/7 => 0.50 points day 6: 7/7 => 0.50 points day 7: 7/7 => 0.50 points day 8: 3/7 => - day 9: 7/7 => 0.50 points day 10: 5/7 => 0.25 points day 11: 5/7 => 0.25 points day 12: 7/7 => 0.50 points day 13: 7/7 => 0.50 points day 14: 3/7 => - day 15: 4/7 => - day 16: 7/7 => 0.50 points achievements: score greater than 0.700 in Kaggle competition => 0.25 points ran a mile in 5:50 (o.e.) => 0.25 points planned half the Coding course => 0.25 points did a bar muscle-up => 1.00 points total: 7.00 points

I'm an expat. American living in Canada. I'm still in the middle of the immigration process. It's been harder to adjust than I thought. It also negatively affected my fitness routine and my social life is...gone. Anyone else an expat? Where at? What is your experience?

Challenge ? - Mistr figures things out I was on the right track last challenge. This one is mostly the same with a few tweaks. I need to get a bunch of interlocking things to work together. And get some things done before May 24, which lines up nicely with the end of zero week after this challenge. A) Fit in my clothes. My weight has crept up alarmingly. I have made some progress on cutting back on snacking. That helped a little but not enough. No white sugar, no white flour for the first two weeks. Exceptions allowed for special occasions and desserts I cook myself (within limits). No snacking. Specifically nothing between breakfast and lunch; nothing between lunch and 4:30pm; nothing after 8pm unless I miss dinner completely. No caffeine unless critically needed to survive work. Continue the effort to add mostly vegetable dishes to our meal rotation. Make time for important things. Everything fits better when I get enough sleep. I am vastly more likely to do meditation in the morning than after work. Make that happen. Stop doing things at 9:00pm, get to bed by 9:30pm. On Friday and Saturday nights I can move this back by an hour. Get up at 5:30am during the week. On Mondays when I have aikido I will get up at 5:00am. Do zen in the morning. My follow-through rate on doing zen in the evening is dismal. A short sit in the morning is better than nothing or staying up late. Exercise at lunch or before work. If my work schedule does not have time at lunch, get off the computer and go do other things. Leave work on time. This will give me more time to do things before 9pm. Yes, the traffic is worse during rush hour. That is still better than wasting time on the computer at work. C) Fit in a variety of exercise. I've been very happy with doing yoga and aikido. Strength training and cardio have been lacking. Balance it out. Aikido at least twice a week in addition to classes I teach. I'm backing off some on aikido to make time for other things. Add at least one session of cardio a week. This can be HIIT, biking or swimming. Options open, just get my heart and lungs working. Strength training two days a week. I have Starting Strength and fractional plates. Get on with it. Yoga. I've been willing to do yoga when I'm not motivated to do other exercise. Keep working that. My balance and flexibility are getting significantly better. Download more sequences to my phone and tablet. D) Fit in the important things. Triage time. Several things have been neglected and others are time critical. Let the dust bunnies roam and get these done. Buy mulch and put it on all the landscaping beds. (Should have been done two years ago). Remove major weeds first, ignore the rest of them. Slash and burn if needed. Budget analysis for major purchases. We recently purchased a new refrigerator and dryer. Dumbledore's car needed hundreds of dollars in repairs and is on its last legs. Now the washer is making bad noises. We made a list of all the things that need fixing. Figure out how to finance it all. Plan vacation travel. We bought plane tickets right before everything broke. Figure out where we are going and who we are staying with on our trip. We want to see more of England and France this time. Pack early. That will avoid a rush at the last minute. I will be living out of a suitcase for three weeks, I can live without wearing those things for the prior couple weeks.

All around us, it was as if the universe were holding its breath . . . waiting. All of life can be broken down into moments of transition or moments of revelation. This had the feeling of both. G'Quon wrote, "There is a greater darkness than the one we fight. It is the darkness of the soul that has lost its way. The war we fight is not against powers and principalities – it is against chaos and despair. Greater than the death of flesh is the death of hope, the death of dreams. Against this peril we can never surrender." The future is all around us, waiting in moments of transition, to be born in moments of revelation. No one knows the shape of that future, or where it will take us. We know only that it is always born in pain. Big Why I have respawned more times than I can count. And I think the main reason is that my big why wasn't strong enough, or big enough, or revisited often enough. I always start out strong but then something happens to disrupt the routine, or I get distracted, or lose focus, and it all comes crumbling down again. I was having a deep conversation with my partner and he said, "I wish you could just be happy with yourself the way you are, and I think you would be happier overall if you just accepted yourself as you are, instead of constantly trying and failing." I understand what he was trying to say, but I think there is a fundamental part of me that says, "You could be better." It says, "You weren't always like this, and staying this way is a failure." There's a logical part of it that says, "A healthier lifestyle would be good for your mental health because endorphins are a great remedy for depression," and "Most of your depression and insecurity comes from being unhappy with the state of your health and appearance, your inability to buy clothes, the loss of looks you once had under pounds of extra flesh, and being too unfit to do things you used to be able to do so easily." So, while I appreciate that he was saying what he said from a place of love and with the hope that I would love myself as much as he loves me, and be happy with myself in who I am now, I think that I will respectfully disagree. I deserve to be in the best condition I can be. I owe it to myself to look after my body. When I know what the right choices are, it makes no sense that I keep making the wrong choices. SMART Goals/Quest list This is a master list; I won't work on them all at once but I will work towards these big goals with the challenges. Nutrition: 1. Eating planned meals according to macros: 33P/29C/38F 2. Weighing and tracking food on MFP for at least 30 consecutive days 3. Phasing out carbonated drinks (including diet soda) in favour of water, tea and black coffee. 4. Cutting down on sugar and processed foods over time. 5. Reducing take-out meals to 3 times a week. Mental: 1. Getting control of my depression through meds and therapy. 2. Improving self-care such as brushing my teeth at least twice a day for a month. 3. Meditating every day for a month. 4. Overcoming social media addiction. 5. Updating progress here at least once a day. 6. Using my bullet journal to manage my time effectively. 7. Doing deep thinking about relationship stuff to improve our communication. 8. Tidying the apartment for 30 minutes every day. 9. Completing a konmari of the apartment before we move to Ecuador. 10. Quit smoking. 11. Developing real life, sincere friendships. Fitness 1. Exercising every day (30 day fitness challenge app). 2. Building a regular workout routine (on paper and in practice). 3. Developing a yoga practice routine on my rest days. 4. Spending at least 30 minutes outside each day (once I have left China and its air pollution). 5. Swimming at least once a week. 6. Do a 2 minute plank. 7. Do a pull up. 8. Run a 5k. 9. Climb a volcano. And if anything pops up to throw me off track, I will be prepared. After all,

In recognition of the wacky new year's challenge dates, I have decided to do an epic 6-week challenge starting tomorrow! And yes, the Mt. Doom part is meant literally, I will spend the second half of my challenge on holiday in New Zealand Details to follow....

New Challenge! Or rather a series of challenges because I am trying to do multi-challenge character arc and it will span the course of 12 months. So, in case I have not mentioned it, tomorrow is my birthday! And also Thanksgiving if you're one of us Yanks. Which means I plan to get some extra stuffing and NOT feel bad about it. I turn 49 tomorrow, which is a weird combination of WHOOOT WHOOOT and holy fuck. I want to make my next few challenges all about getting out of my comfort zone, trying new things, and basically revving the engine so I come screeching up to the starting line of 50 with my tires smoking and my helmet on and some other racing cliche that I cannot in this moment think of. Half a century, baby! Bring me the bifocals and the comfortable shoes BECAUSE IT IS ON. I used my ongoing obsession with the movie The Secret Life of Walter Mitty as a framework. In the course of the movie, Walter takes on a whole series of challenges that lead him to the prize and leave him a different person. Or... does it? There's a scene in the movie where Walter, after all his adventures, is sitting in a coffee shop and trying to write his resume - because while he was out having his grand quest, the magazine he worked for folded and he lost his job. It's almost a throwaway scene, but it's always stuck with me, because I watch it and wonder what happened to him after the movie ended. Like, did he get another boring job, and Cheryl get another boring job, and they just went back to being little gray pieces of paper again? I hate that thought. I refuse to believe it. I think - I like to think - that having gotten a taste of life outside his comfort zone, Walter and Cheryl bought an RV, and traveled across country with her kid and her three-legged dog, rock climbing and surfing and selling cupcakes at music festivals, with Walter's mom baking clementine-infused weed brownies whenever they traveled somewhere with legal marijuana. I am 90% sure that Walter's mom makes kick-ass weed brownies. My last couple of years have taken me waaaaay outside my comfort zone, or what I thought was my comfort zone, and I want to build on that and really start to stretch. Think about this: - I started weight training with a 40-pound back squat and a zero-pound deadlift, because I didn't know what the fuck a deadlift was. I now squat 175 for reps (or did, and will again when my knee is back) and my 1RM deadlift is 225. I'm still considering getting that printed on t-shirt, by the way. - I went from 42% body fat to 31%, and I gained 18 pounds of lean mass. I'm heavier, but a smaller size, so I guess I got denser. I'm weirdly proud of this. - I started riding my bike with a 3-mile loop around my neighborhood that was almost enough to kill me. This February I attempted the 52-mile "Brushy Tunnel" ride for the first time (a rite of passage for local cyclists) and was shaking in my shoes because I was sure I couldn't do it. I've since done it 8 times. I've ridden 6 metric centuries (100 kilometers) in the past two years and I have Tyrannasaur quads like Usain Bolt. I never want to wear long pants again. - I planned and did my "Keys Loop" Adventure, I went diving in Hondouras and was not kidnapped by drug lords, and I toured California and spent a week in Yosemite and ate every taco in Los Angeles. I took a sailing class and got certified as a keelboat operator. I bought a decent car. It doesn't seem like much taken individually (just like my resume!) but as a whole it's actually a lot. Now it's time to look ahead and really start to stretch. I made a wish list of everything I wanted to do in the next year, and I'm going to attack a couple of items each month until I get them all. Some will span a few challenges and some will be one-and-done things, and a few can overlap which is good because I am all about efficiency. A few things are goals about accepting my own self, like stopping dying my hair and being embarrassed about my love of nature movies and how much I adore things that are fried. A few are athletic goals that I've been wanting to do but chickened out because I was afraid to fail at them. Some are professional to make my job and my life easier. And some are just things that would give me enjoyment, like starting an instagram for my obsession with street art. But they are all things that have unique meaning to me and will allow me to grow. I'll post a copy of the list on my challenge periodically and cross things off as I accomplish them. I'd put it in my signature but I can't figure out how to make a pretty multi-colored signature with editable items and different fonts like some people have, and godamnit if I can't have the My Little Pony version than I'll just make my own. Given, then, that the challenge starts right after my birthday (I will plug this shamelessly, I am a complete attention whore), here are my items for this month: - 250 pound 1RM deadlift: The Mantis is convinced I can do this, though I find it slightly terrifying. The one good thing about my knee being janked so I can't do squats is that I am really focused on my deadlift and I am frankly kicking some ass there. My most recent workouts were 165 pounds for 3 sets of four reps. - Find a uniform: Like Steve jobs and his turtleneck, or Diane Von Furstenburg with her wrap dresses. I want to have a go-to look that always looks decent so I can stop thinking about what I'm wearing. So far it looks like my winter look is a pencil skirt with knee boots and a long sleeved top, or jeans (actually jeggings; there is no getting my quadzilla thighs in jeans anymore) with the same boots and top. I also promised myself I'd buy a decent pair of winter boots this year; Atlanta is not that cold but it's constantly wet in the winter and I'm always miserable. I want something with traction because I have a phobia of falling. - Revise the side hustle: I had a little ebay business that I ran on the side of my regular job, but it takes a ton of time for some reason and even at it's peak it only made about a hundred bucks a month. I'd be better off finding a different side hustle or just putting in more hours at my regular job. So this month I am going to give myself permission not to think about it or try to work on it. Bonus: more time for gym! Enter a powerlifting meet: I won't actually accomplish this goal over this challenge, but I'm going to attend a powerlifting meet so I can get a feel for it on the 9th, unless I have to work. I want to see how they run and what the competition is like. My gym workouts will continue on the strength end of things because I've discovered that 80 miles a week on the bike and three to four crossfit-style workouts make me want to become one with the carpet. I'm going to be working on my pull-ups a lot because I can't enter the Crossfit Open unless I can do a pull-up (even in the Master's division, where I totally am) and getting back to squatting. I did a couple bodyweight squats at the gym Monday for the first time in 5 weeks and they worked pretty well, just stiff. I'm also going to give myself permission to drop out of the online video bike training program I was using because a) it was killing me and b ) I hate riding the trainer five days a week. I'm going to mix up the trainer and outside. okay this has totally gone on long enough, you're all very patient. Go eat turkey.

Welcome everybody! I'm a 27-year-old British guy who likes gymnastics, climbing, calisthenics, circus, weightlifting, ... and generally try to do too much. Last August I quit my job as a software engineer to go travelling around the world, volunteering for charities, learning new skills, and generally chasing excitement Brief summary of my journey since starting at Nerd Fitness: Jan 2014: joined the forums and planned to learn backflips outdoors by February. Hahaha that did not happen, but gymnastics and weightlifting happened lots Jul 2014: reached 10 seconds for handstands and recorded my progress [video] Oct 2014: bought gymnastics rings and went through a phase of training lots with these Aug 2015: reached so far my peak in gymnastics and made a compilation [video] in the Summer Aug 2015: moved house and got lazy Challenged with the Warriors and I don't think I even made it to a gym haha Jan 2016: decided that I needed more excitement and that in 2016 I was going to get it Aug 2016: quit my job and backpacked around Slovenia and Eastern Europe Sep 2016: competed in the Mental Calculation World Cup in Germany Oct 2016: studied Spanish in a language school in Valencia Nov 2016: competed at Memoriad in Las Vegas. Flew to Nicaragua to volunteer as a volcano tour guide for 3 months Feb 2017: backpacked around Nicaragua and Guatemala - both really nice destinations May 2017: spent a month in Barcelona learning more Latin dancing and learning to how to create websites - currently working on HyperBirthday Jul 2017: volunteered as an Engineering tutor in a Summer School in Oxford Aug 2017: competed in the Mind Sports Olympiad in London Sep 2017: sailed from Spain to Panama on the Nomad Cruise So now I find myself backpacking in Panama without much of a plan or routine. I've tried challenging during my backpacking trips before without much success, so I'm going to set up an uncharacteristically unambitious and unspecific challenge to ensure I'm being a healthy productive person whatever I end up doing on these travels Goal #1: eat fruit and vegetables: the standard Central American diet is fried rice, refried beans, fried plantain, fried egg and fried chicken/fish. With artificial juice drink on the side. Therefore I'm going to need to put extra effort into eating healthily, so 1 point every day I have 3+ fruit/veg and 1 point extra if I have 5+. Goal #2: workout: aside from swimming in the sea and hiking in the jungle I'm not getting much exercise, so I want to focus on the following areas: core upper body Realistically this is going to be in the form of short solo workouts or maybe the occasional hostel yoga class, but that's fine. 1 point for a workout (~20 minutes). 2 points for a long workout. Goal #3: Wim Hof: thanks @zenLara for introducing us to this - I'm going to do what @Mad Hatter is doing and doing the basic breathing exercises as I don't think I'd have the resources now to commit to the full thing. I'll also be mostly taking cool showers anyway because this is Central America we're talking about, not Minnesota Maybe at a later time I'll add in the more specific stuff in the actual course. 1 point for every day I do a session and report the results. Goal #4: purpose: at the moment I'm doing a lot of floating around (literally and metaphorically) without a plan. So each day I want to have some goal for the day decided by 11am and actually do it (or do something better, if a genuinely shinier opportunity comes along). When I quit my job travel it wasn't to sit here refreshing Facebook on the slow internet by the pool 1 point per day. Goal #5: bonus list: I can't help adding some random extra items to my list, so here goes: learn to play + sing a song on the guitar (probably "Nothing Else Matters" by Metallica, or "Stairway to Heaven" by Led Zeppelin (10 points) hit 60 dates/minute in calendar calculations - my target for the 2018 MCWC is 60 **on paper**, aiming for a medal (2 points for 58; 5 points for 59; 10 points for 60) try scuba diving (5 points) take some actual good photos of me, because I rarely have anything good for profile pictures anywhere! (3 points for one; 7 points for three) find a worthwhile professional project to work on while travelling (10 points) Based on a 32-day challenge, doing short workouts and only 3 F/G every day, and doing everything else, that's 160 points, so I'll award 4 points <--> 0.25 stat points. Advice request from anyone with Wim Hof experience: would you recommend doing a workout immediately after, immediately before, or considerably separated from each other?

Hi Nerds, I have had pairs of Reebok Nano 2s, Nano 4s, Nano 5s, New Balance Minimus, Merrell Bare Access... I've almost burned out my current Nano 4s and am looking for a replacement. I'm looking for something low-drop with a big toe box (my toes splay) that I can wear casually or for workouts. I'm looking into the NoBull brand, but am hesitant to buy something I can't try on first. What do y'all like?

I'm back for the upcoming challenge! After a bit of road tripping and a break for summer, I'm hitting the gym again. I finally think I've found my way around the problem... except that for this challenge, I'll be "on the go" 3 of the 4 weeks! Here's the itinerary: Week 0: Home Week 1: SoCal Week 2: Home Week 3: Germany > Czech Week 4: Czech > Austria, home Sept 9. So the challenge will be to somehow fit some growth into this. The issue that I've had in the past is that working out M-W-F doesn't work well with my active weekends. So I'm flipping it around and resting M/F, CrossFit T-W-Th. Saturdays/Sundays are for hiking, paddleboarding, running, tree projects, etc. They aren't "off" days! For Week 0 and Week 2, that's my plan. In the meantime, I have a few other things in the air. Finish >3 books On the 2 weeks I'm home, work out T-W-Th In SoCal, 1 beach workout, 2 hotel workouts Walk a ton in Europe, and do at least 40 of one (or a mix) of the following daily: push-ups, pull-ups, squats, sit-ups, burpees. Eat more whole food. Max 1 "bar" or or other such crap per day. Limit eating to a <10 hour window. If I have breakfast at 7:30, I should be done eating by 5:30 pm. Only water before/after! Even more than practicing IF, this keeps me out of the late night munchies!