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Hello Rebels, My name is Ellis and I have come back to the forums after a long break, during which I walked far, slayed a few metaphorical monsters and left a few others behind. As this new year begins, I want to make friends of some of my remaining foes; issues that I keep coming back to in dark times, and now feel I have enough energy to deal with. Work Work is not a foe; I love my job. But being a freelancer, I constantly struggle with stress, balance and scheduling. I stay up late, sleep in, work irregular hours and feel that I never have time for anything other than work. My first step in dealing with this will be to sort out my sleep schedule. Sedentariness I like sitting still, all my interests and hobbies are sedentary. But for the sake of my mental and physical wellbeing, I need to move around more. I want to get back in to running, and maybe some sort of strength training or yoga eventually. My first step will be daily walks. Other people I'm an introvert, working a lonely job, and last year I moved to a new town during a global pandemic. I spend a lot of time by myself. But I like people! Once the opportunity arises, I want to make an effort to meet some new friends, and join a community through sports, hobbies or church. As things are, I will focus on keeping in touch with my existing friends, and try to explore this and other digital forums. Myself Eh, there is no specific goal for this. I just put it here as a reminder to be like Barf, and not beat myself up about getting everything right. For this first challenge, my goals are going to be simple: Wake up at 7:30 every day for the first two weeks, then consider changing it to 7 am. I anticipate it being difficult to get out of bed at first, but after a while I think the biggest hardship will be getting to bed on time in the evening so that I get enough sleep. Walk 5 km every day. Check in here fairly regularly. Interact and be inspired. That's it. Those are the goals. We'll see how we go with tracking and such. Happy to be back!

Hello folks! Many years ago, I used to post in this forum. I was a casual poster, but tried a few challenges. A lot has changed since I was last here, so it seems fitting to return to the start line. I have unfortunately dropped the ball on my general health. I got distracted with my career, love life, and anxiety chewed away at my remaining will. I used to be of average health, now I'm back to my pre-fitness levels of obesity & performance. I'm not putting myself down for it. I simply have postponed taking action longer than I'd like. No more of that! Right now is the perfect time for me to focus on my physical health. Because I have such a long journey from where I am starting to where I want to be, I divided up my goals even further than I normally would. For the Biggest of Pictures, I have my Ultimate goal. This will be my compass when the fog of everyday life gets too thick. It will help me remember why I subject myself to these whims. Ultimate Goal: Balanced performance of strength & endurance 20-23% body fat Comfortably bike 30+ miles Comfortably hike 4-6 hours Run a 5K It will take me a very, very long time to get to those goals, especially the body fat %. Because it seems so far away, I created a mid-boss to have an anchor to look forward to in the meantime. When I was at my healthiest, I was still on my journey to that Ultimate Self, but I was also very satisfied with who I was in the moment. I miss those days with a giant dose of nostalgia when I see pictures from that era. It was about 5 years ago, so there's nothing stopping me from returning to that level except my procrastination. Mid-Boss: Novice lifter 170 lb (don't remember my %) Comfortably bike 15 miles 4x/week Comfortably walk 2 hours 5-6x/week Hike 2-3 hours I loved who I was even at the mid-boss level, but I'm not even close to that, either. That's okay, that's why I'm here. Today: No strength routine 240 lb Can bike for 1.5 miles until heart rate spikes (Oof) Walking for more than 20 minutes feels like jogging at mid-boss level Hike? Outside? Can we just take a drive? So. Cat's out of the bag, I have really let myself go. I grew up a fat kid, had a near-death experience, took charge of my health for 3 years, lost a lot of social support in a short amount of time, and mental illness ravaged whatever threads I had left. Over time, it just got a bit worse every year until now. Okay , Okay. Enough rambling. Let's get to the good stuff. Quest 1: Establish a Fitness Routine Establishing habit is my main goal for this challenge. It is the King Bob-omb. I'm not going to look at performance as a metric, although I will keep it in mind as the weeks go on. I haven't decided on a specific strength routine yet, but luckily I have previous experience to draw on before the 2nd rolls up. I'll make a second "pre" post detailing it. SMART translation: Strength train with full-body work-out 2x/week Walk or bike for 20+ minutes, 3+x/week Quest 2: Improve Endurance Okay, I lied. I'm honestly worried about my heart's health, especially with current events. I don't like how obvious my body struggles to exist, so it's my "lighthouse" goal. I need something tangible to feel like I'm doing something productive, because establishing habits doesn't quite do it for me. SMART translation: Increase walk duration by 5 minutes each time Increase bike duration by 5 minutes each time Quest 3: Begin to Lose Weight I'm leaving this one somewhat vague on purpose. I believe that actions come first, results will come later. I have unfortunately had a lot of false starts by expecting to lose weight as quickly & firmly as I did the first time, and gave up after weeks of my weight not budging. I honestly consider plateauing a victory at this point, but I'd like to see my weight go down after 4 consistent weeks of habit-forming. SMART translation: Weight at any point under 240 lb by 9/5/20 Bonus: Record-Keeping My last goal is to journal more often. It helps my mental health. SMART translation: Journal entry 3+x/week Duty calls, so I must depart. But I will be back soon!

Back with the adventurers! I've been with the druids for the last challenges while I worked on a mindset shift that has changed many things about how I live my life. The process is still going on, but now that I've grasped the main points, I'm back to focus on movement. There is still a mindset shift goal, but movement retakes its place of honor. Goal 1: Move all day long Workouts are great, but sitting in a chair for hours and hours is not. So while I'll keep my regular exercise routines, I'll try to spend less and less time sitting and move in short spans along the day. If I'm going to be sitting for a long while, set the timer and stand up every half hour. Use mini-movements during these breaks: Feldenkrais, stretching, trigger points, going upstairs and downstairs, going to drink some water, 5 minutes of decluttering, going on a short errand... “Big” movement at least 5 times a week: self-defense, IS workout, walks. Goal 2: Outdoors Spring is here for sure. So time to get out of the house, as much as possible. Go out there and D-vitaminize yourself! Reading and desk work to be done in the patio. Workouts too if it is not too hot. Go outside everyday (going to work doesn't count). Discover at least 2 new places during the challenge. Goal 3: Mindset shift Meditation. Maintain those 15 minutes 5-7 times a week. Try to reach 20 minutes. Apply describing instead of judging. Allow space for feelings and sensations to be felt. Do not fight them or deny them. Anxiety is included here: anxiety is a part of myself and a part of life, so learn from it instead of fighting, ignoring or feeding it. That's it. No miniquests, side quests, life quests... Just moving, going out and being aware.

I need this challenge! I am the pudgy, slow kid in the back of the gym class. I hate exercising, it reminds me of those times. Besides what is a burpee, plank, ect (I do know I looked them up). I just hate that that no one seems to think that there pudgy slow adults. In NF Academy the suggested body weight routines the warm ups and cool downs are for everyone and the beginner center is okay. Boobs, bounce, sport bras are torture to get out of, exercise makes me tired not any good or happy feelings. Waaahh, Waaahhh, YES I WANT CHEESE WITH THIS WINE. Okay now you know how I really feel but I hate being called Garbage Gut even more (my dad's nick name for me or GG) well not any more as an adult, buuuuut and mine is rather big. Yeah no real self love here. What I am going to do Joined a Monday yoga class goal go to every class, and throw in a belly dance type stretching tape on a different day Walk to Mordor or at least Tempe Yarn and Fiber, a side challenge with my mom 60 miles Track my meals, diet goes better with tracking Life Goal: do homework for online course in a timely manner, Okay I am behind, everything is due at end of term. Diet Goal: Paleo diet, no bread, soda and cut down on sugar in all forms Ultimate goal: self worth and self love Adeveturer str:3, dex:5, sta:2, con:2, wis:3, cha,5 Dragon/human who is chaos

Hello! This is my second challenge, Going to be the first as an adventurer! For challenge one, my missions were: 1) run three times a week 2) do another workout (at least 20 minutes) 3 times a week 3) drink (at most) one pop a week About two thirds of the way through I realized that I HATE running outside. Totally not my thing. I'm asthmatic, so it sucks. Going to have none of it. But now I know that, and we're moving on. This time, my missions are going to be: Mission 1: Calorie Count. I want to meticulously count my calories (during the week, M-F), and report them here. Staying under 1400 calories every day. I used one of the calculators for counting maintenance calories and I was right around 1800. I thought this number would allow me to lose weight but also give me a little leeway. Mission 2: Walk every week, increasing the number of steps by (at least) 1,000 every week. I'm going to go out and buy a pedometer. Week 1 will be my baseline, and every week after that I want to increase the number of steps I take by at least 1,000. I walk a decent amount at work, and I have a pond I can walk at here in Kansas. Once I get to Purdue there are lots of walking and biking trails, and the same can be said for while I'm in Ohio. Mission 3: For 6 weeks I am going to completely cut out liquid calories. I will allow myself I cheat meal a week, but that is it. No alcohol, no pop, for these six weeks. For a life mission I am going to continue the one I started last six weeks, which is to create an emergency money fund of $3,000. I'm currently at $700, which I think is a good start. I also want to start a character, but I need to read more into that, as I've never done any sort of "role-playing" before. But I'm stoked! And really want to do well on this! (I have a wedding to go to 5 weeks into this six week challenge, and I would really like to look better than I do now!!!!) Good luck to all. And let us Adventurers carry on together, being ever supportive of our goals, and let's just kick ass!