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Talvi makes tactical decisions Hi there, I'm currently a final year PhD student who is not entirely happy about how things are going in general. I haven't been on NerdFitness for a year and it has been a fairly static one at that. Previous challenges had me running, racing, doing bodyweight workouts, yoga, climbing, learning Spanish and doing programming - I had my shit together (pardon my French) and I liked it. I want to be like that again but I feel stalled and overwhelmed. This challenge is going to be small and simple but hopefully a step in the right direction. 1) Wake up at 7:00am on weekdays Rise and shine like Lux My goal here is to make the most of my most productive morning hours. Ideally, I want to sleep around 8 hours a night so going to sleep between 11pm and 11:30pm will make this goal much more bearable. I don't have any *good* waking up routine at the moment - I wake up at different times every day with many snooze buttons and I waste a lot of time on my computer and phone. I don't know whether it is a seasonal problem or maybe work-related stress, but I hate waking up right down and I'm finding it damn difficult. Sleeping enough, having a set wake-up time and building a good morning routine should help me start my day better and more productively whilst get out of this slump. 2) Exercise twice a week I’m not and haven’t been motivated to do any exercise for … like a year…. Ouch! I remember it being so beneficial to my body and my mood (unsurprisingly) and I’d like to get back into the habit of exercising. The twice a week can be anything: running, yoga, hiking, ice skating, roller blading, climbing.. as long as I’m moving. I want to want to exercise so the more fun I have the better. I'm also signing myself up for two 10km races at the end of March and April. I like the ambiance of races and I hope that the goal of setting a new 10km PR will get me training again. In March 2015, I managed to run 10km in 51.09 minutes. 3) Look at my 2017 epic list every week This is the smallest goal, but I will use it for inspiration and gauge what I should be spending my time on. It'll help me progress on what matters to me. *** See you around the forums and good luck everyone!

I did pretty decent last challenge, but I feel like I was getting pretty shaky on always getting in my runs, on always staying under my carb count, etc. So. For this challenge, I'm reinforcing the basics of my fitness instead of adding lots of new things to try to do. (well, imma add one new thing, but one is easier to do than three!) For anybody interested, my old challenge is here: http://rebellion.nerdfitness.com/index.php?/topic/73739-lydiajaybird-shakes-it-off/ Main Quest - Lose 6 Pounds Since the challenges are shorter now, I've decided to cut my weight loss quest in half. Yes, I know, the challenge isn't 50% the length it used to be, but I never hit that 12 pounds during the six week ones, so this might be a more reasonable goal. Goals 1. KCKO - Always stay below 50 carbs a day, but aim for below 25. (I don't want to lose points for having 30 carbs in a day, when you really only need to stay below 50 to keep in ketosis, but I still want to try to be below 25) Always stay below 1645 calories. 2. Get up & Go! - this one will be a combination of my old Rise & Shine and Exercise goals. I noticed that even when I woke up on time - I would just stay in bed. So this time, I need to not only get up (6am during the week, 9am on weekends), but get up and do my workout as well. (Run MWF, Aerial Silks class R, Pole + RLNA TSa) And of course, bedtime will be a part of this goal as well. 10pm weeknights, 1am weekend nights. 3. Get Flexy - I used to be super flexible. I miss that. So I'm going to start doing heavy stretching once a week (with photo documentation! wont see much of a difference during this challenge, but if I keep this up long-term I'll have a nice progression to look at) and stretch on my exercise days as well. Life Quest Soul Health. I'm still job hunting, but given that this is a health/fitness place, I decided to focus on another type of health for my life quest. A type I've been neglecting - soul health! (mental health, but soul health is catchier) I want to start putting more time into playing piano and cross stitching. Every hour I spend on the arts is a point of extra credit. Measurements Height: 5'9" Weight: 185.6 Waist: 30" Hips: 42.5" Thigh: 25.5" I will put in all my measurements Monday morning. Grading Each goal will be graded weekly & be worth 1/3 of that week's total grade. Life Points are unlimited extra credit that can be added to my final score! My final grade will be the average of all four weeks plus my Life Goal extra credit. I need to make at least a B (80%) to pass the challenge. KCKO - 1 point each day for meeting calories and another point for meeting carbs. Total points/Total possible for the weekly grade. Get up & Go - 3 possible points/day. 2 points for a morning workout, 1 point for meeting bedtime. Partial credit available for waking up on time (1/2 point), but not exercising, or making up workouts in the afternoon (1/2 point). On thursdays, since my class is in the evening, I'll substitute stretching for the morning workout. Get Flexy - 1 point/day for stretching, an additional point available on my heavy stretching day for photo documenting. So 8 points/week. Exceptions - If I'm sick or injured (please noooo not again!), then workouts are excused. Pole is excused until I can get my pole installed at the new house, but I still have to do my RLNA workouts on those days. Just no practicing moves. Motivation Last challenge I let myself buy myself something each week that I got an A, which was a HUGE motivation for me, but I dont think I can afford that anymore (just moved, and rent is higher). So I'm going to give myself a budget. I earn $10 for each B, $15 for each A. $20 if I pass, $40 if I pass with an A. I can either spend as I go along, or save up until the end and buy something big.

So last time my challenge got almost completely derailed and I didn't lose any weight at all... (See trainwreck here: http://rebellion.nerdfitness.com/index.php?/topic/70676-lydiajaybird-gets-back-up/) I might have even gained some, I've been scared to weigh in, so I don't really know right now. I was doing alright, then I had a bad week, and then my state (SC) got wrecked by the storms and flooding, and my life was crazy and ugh. I tried to keep on keeping on, but I didn't do too well, and my lack of results shows it. But life is calming down now, so I just need to refocus and I'll be fine. So now for the important bit - my quests for this challenge! Main Quest - Lose 12 Pounds I need to weigh myself before I can put a number up there, but I want to get back into the 160's! Last challenge my goal was to get to 165 - what I weighed before I broke my foot - but I have to admit, that was really ambitious... I would've had to lose 12 pounds. So maybe calm down, recognize that slow progress is better than no progress (which is what I had last challenge) & just shoot for at least 169. Goals 1. Exercise - Run three times a week, and pole three times a week. I used to run MWF, but my pole classes are Wednesday, so I think I'm going to run TRSa instead. Then Monday can be upper body day for pole and Friday can be core/lower body day. 2. Rise and Shine - Wake up with my first alarm!! I've been getting worse and worse about this - It's to the point that I have incremental alarms set for a few hours before I finally get up. And of course, if I don't wake up on time, I don't have time to exercise before work! So one of my goals this challenge is to GET UP at 6:00am M-F and 9:00am on the weekends. 3. Keep Calm and Keto On! - My roommate has gone from being somewhat unreliable at cooking to COMPLETELY unreliable. I can count on one hand the number of times she's cooked in the past month. So I just need to plan and cook for myself... which will only be difficult because my roomie refuses to believe she's not doing this diet anymore... Everytime I mention that I'm going to the grocery store or try to cook for myself, she gets offended. So that'll be awkward to get around. Also, I'm changing my carb intake. With her, I did 25 net carbs or less a day, but you really only need less than 50 net carbs to stay in ketosis. So to make it easier to find yummy recipes (since I am simply not as good a cook as her), I'm going to aim for that. I've got ketone test strips, so I'll be able to tell if I can't stay in ketosis with that many carbs, and can adjust accordingly. [1645 calories or less, 50 carbs or less] Life Quest Become Desirable! No, not romantically/sexually desirable (I've already got a boyfriend, I'm fine in that department) - desirable for employers! I've been trying to get a job with my shiny new degree since I graduated in May, and I'm getting NOWHERE. And since the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results, I'm going to change my approach. I'm going to keep applying places and networking, of course, but I'm also going to try to add to my resume. For example - the temp agency that placed me has lots of online courses for their employees where you can learn new skills. And I can always go to the bookstore and get one of those [sKILL] for Dummies books. So everytime I can add something to my resume - I earn a Life Point, which will be extra credit added to my final score. This means that this extra credit won't be limited by the number of weeks, so I won't be tempted to not do anything just because I already did one thing earlier that week. (Which is what happened last challenge... Oh, I'll apply NEXT week - I already got my Life Point this week.) Measurements Height: 5'9" Weight: 182.8 Waist: ? Hips: ? I need to weigh & measure... I'll edit all these before the challenge starts. Grading Each goal will be graded weekly & be worth 1/3 of that week's total grade. Life Points are unlimited extra credit that can be added to my final score! My final grade will be the average of all six weeks plus my Life Goal extra credit. I need to make at least a B (80%) to pass the challenge. Up till now, I've always said I only needed a C to pass, because that's a passing grade in school. However, even in school, I never felt like a C was an acceptable grade; and last challenge I technically passed, but I made no progress and I didn't feel good about it. So I'm making it more difficult to pass. This might mean I'm just going to fail myself out and will need to ease up next time, but it might also mean that I'll work harder to get there. Exercise - percentage of completed workouts. Rise and Shine - percentage of successful wake-ups. KCKO - 1 point each day for meeting calories and another point for meeting carbs. Total points/Total possible for the weekly grade. Exceptions - If I'm sick or injured (please noooo not again!), then workouts are excused. Motivation As for rewards, I've got money now, so I'm gonna go pretty hard on these. I'm going to reward myself with something big (and undecided, I'll edit this later) if I pass the challenge AND have at least some progress. It's okay if I don't make it all the way to 169, so long as I've improved. And for each week that I make an A, I'll reward myself with something too! At the start of each week I'll post what the reward will be, and will use that to motivate myself to DO AWESOME. Not just good enough to pass and claim the big prize, but AWESOME. HONORS STUDENT LEVEL AWESOME. DEANS LIST OF NERDFITNESS.