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Times are hard and A wandering bard lives and eats on the mastery of their craft and the sharpness of their memory. No one likes tripping over the notes after all, or (heaven forbid) forgetting the lyrics half way through. So, in an effort to give their best performance this musician should endeavour to keep their fingers nimble and their tunes fresh in their mind. Especially as i play more than one instrument, most especially as I'm susceptible to distraction by the newest shiny musical object. Therein lies a deep dark hole filled with lost plectrums my friends. essentially keeping up the skill level with a few of them is something i need to work on. I want to be able to play them in front of people without crippling stage fright or self consciousness. ….i mean, there is going to be both of those things anyway, id just like to keep them to some sort of manageable level of terror. (Maybe i will make that a future goal sometime, try to reduce my stage fright 🤔) I used to practice mandolin most mornings. It was part of my routine and something i really enjoyed, over the last year or so its just something I've fallen out of the habit of doing. so this month I'm going to try to - practice twice a week for half an hour.( If i manage more. That is super. I just dont want to overload myself) also, this last month it became very evident that i really needed to sort two things in particular. - drinking enough water - going to sleep at 10-10:30pm Not doing the two above is messing with my meds and general wellbeing in various directions and needs sorting asap. to this effort I'm going to start using a water jug again and endeavour to get through 2 of them a day. Which evens out at about 6mugs worth (i probubly need to measure things at least once, just to know where i stand) For the sleep, I'm going to get back into the habit of setting an alarm so i don't read for too long. strait forward, so hopefully achievable. And, left over from last month we also have -finish sorting room (this is going to take a while, clearly. But its getting here) Already ongoing - try to go for 3 walks a week -stick to healthy snacks in between meals oh, incase anyone is curious. My mandolin is a 100+ year old bowlback. It is awesome and has amazing tone. I found it in two pieces in an attic and its had major neck reconstruction surgery. It plays like a dream 98% of the time but sometimes the original tuners are a bit crotchety

T-11 days and counting... So, first of all, fair warning - I'm going to do an awful job of posting during this challenge. You know, because I'm having a baby in the middle of it! Currently scheduled for a December 11th c-section but have been warned by multiple doctors that I might need to go in earlier, so there's no guarantees. Because of that, I was going to sit this challenge out completely, but I have been finding myself wanting a spot to keep track of everything and, well, why not, right? Of course my goals are not really whole challenge goals, on account of the fact that prepartum and postpartum will have very different needs, but here's where I'm starting: Quest One: Fuel I finally started getting a bit better at this at the end of the last challenge. I need to keep up my water intake (or even increase it) and keep up my weight gain/eating enough. I have been just barely skirting the very, very bottom of the measurements every week for several weeks now. For example, yesterday our goal was that I would weigh at least 177 pounds and I was 176.8. So it's close enough that I'm not getting scolded anymore (well...for that!) but these last few weeks are super important to help the baby pack on body fat to help regulate her own temperature after birth, so I can't get lazy just because we're in the home stretch. Also the water will help ensure that my false labor cramps don't get worse than they have to be, even though my doctor agreed with me yesterday that my contractions are like weirdly between false and real labor (they're not producing any labor progress, but they're matching the pattern of real labor which false labor is not "supposed" to do and common remedies for false labor cramps have all failed to work). And I'll need to increase my water again after the birth if I want to try breastfeeding, so I might as well try to shore up the habit now. Quest Two: Work Prep Of course a major source of stress has been prepping for maternity leave. Here's what I have left to do before the 11th: 1. Semester 1 Finals Week: So far I have 2/5 preps 100% done and ready to go: French 1 and Spanish 2. Spanish 3 and 4 have stuff from last year I can build from. French 2 has nothing, as it has never existed before and I haven't started anything for them yet. 2. French 1 Unit 6*: I have 6/13 lessons complete and 1/4 extras done. Lessons 7 and 8 are both started but need finalizing. I have been starting on video lectures as well but still have a minimum of 3 more planned (will probably add more once more lessons are done too...) and I haven't started on their bellwork prompts either. 3. French 2 Unit 6*: Not started. It will have the same length goals as French 1 though: 13 lessons with 4 extras, complete with video lectures and bellwork. 4. "To Finish Later" List from the summer: Over the summer when I started prepping Spanish 2 in particular, there were a few things I couldn't do yet because the classes weren't set up on our tech at the time (this is all either setting up speaking assignments or making grading keys). It's a short list, but an important one! Without bothering to look right now, I think it has like 7 or 8 things on it. 5. Semester 1 grading: I only have 2 more assignments that have been due so far, but I am accepting late work for credit through tomorrow. Also all my classes are taking writing finals tomorrow and speaking finals next week Tuesday/Wednesday that I will need to get posted. (They are doing the listening and reading finals with the sub, because I can leave answer keys for those modes much more easily!) *Both French units could be shortened if necessary, as this plan gets me prepped through March 27th/the first day of Spring Break and I expect to come back somewhere around March 18th. But it would be nice to not have to worry about prepping classes immediately during that transition back to work, and some buffer for changing dates is always smart. Quest Three: House and Personal Prep We are getting so close! So one of the most important yet difficult things to do is get some rest. This is also a major help with the false labor cramps and also one of the only things that we can do that has any potential medical backing to help with the polyhydramnios situation (for anyone who didn't see my last challenge, I have way too much amniotic fluid, which is likely just bad luck but it does make the delivery more dangerous). I also have just a few things left to do to be ready for her birth: 1. Finish sanitizing plastic stuff: breast pump parts and bottles. I've done two batches so far (because I can't fit that much into my stew pot at once), but there is at least one more left to do and then a whole other bowl of plastics that need to be soaked and washed before they can be sanitized. 2. Set up changing pad area: this is largely done, but I need to add some extra clothes in case of middle-of-the-night blowouts (her clothing is going to be temporarily in my son's room until we can get his new bedroom finished, so I don't want to accidentally wake him up if we need something) and I need to get the trash can/diaper pail situation sorted. 3. Scoot our bed over slightly: this really means "annoy my husband into scooting our bed over a few inches" so the bassinet will fit next to the bed instead of at the foot of the bed, which would be an incredibly obnoxious spot for it to stay. 4. Laundry: this is two fold - I will likely need to wash a few more items of baby clothing and also keep my husband from dumping the clean laundry into the bassinet, which has become a weird makeshift closet between the time we put it together and now. Obviously the baby can't be sleeping in the laundry pile, and gods know we won't want to deal with putting away a giant pile of clothing right after getting home from the hospital! 5. Make a hospital bag: Finally, I still need to get the things we are bringing to the hospital together in one spot! At the very least, get it together enough that we can grab it, throw in a few toiletries, and go - especially if there is a good chance she'll come early and semi-unexpectedly. A lot of this can't be packed too far in advance because we will need those things in the meanwhile, but like a set of pump parts, her first outfit, etc. can definitely be put together now with little impact on our daily lives. ...Not going to lie, seeing all of it written out like that is more terrifying than I thought it would be, but I can definitely dig deep and get this done in time. Right??? Right. Of course I can. Now it's time to drink my daily single cup of coffee and get to work making it happen. 💪☕

Better late than never, I'm jumping back into the fray because I need the extra accountability. of posting my progress here. For 2023, I've chose the word 'Worth' to be my motivational focus. I've done this in previous years, sometimes successfully and sometimes not so much. Last year's word was 'Dare', and I don't know how much I lived up to it, but I did dare to buy my own home after decades of renting, so that was a pretty big move to make. What does 'worth' mean to me? It means asking myself important questions every once in a while. Like, is what I'm doing at this exact moment really worth my time and attention? And telling myself, when I need to hear it, that I'm worth more than I let myself believe. Matthew 10 says 'Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father's care. And even the hairs on your head are numbered. So don't be afraid. You are worth more than many sparrows." God thinks I'm worth something. So I need to start believing that myself. W = Read the Word of God daily O = Organize, clean and otherwise keep your surroundings in good order. R = Follow regular bedtime and morning routines. T = Track your food and water intake daily H = Do something that makes you happy every day. Trying to come up with a clever, nerdy theme for a challenge is tough and has held me back in the past. So I'm going to quit trying to be clever and just stick to my goals for this year that I already laid out above. The hardest so far in this new year are the routines and the tracking. And sometimes even the 'happiness' aspect. To give myself more time for these activities, I've taken the worst offenders of time wasting off my phone - Facebook and this Harry Potter game I've been addicted to lately. My goals for the last 4 weeks of the current challenge then are as follows: Routines Follow your bedtime routine and lights out by 11pm at the latest Follow the Nerd Fitness Gym General DOMS Bodyweight Workout 1 (4 week program) Tracking Track food and water intake daily. Aim for 8+ cups of water and tracking at least 66% of your food daily. Happiness - Spend at least 10 minutes a day reading, writing, playing ukulele, crocheting, learning to watercolor, or working on voice recording Not at all clever, no fancy gif to catch the eye. But if you've noticed my post and read this far, let me know what you think! Any tips?

Hey all, my challenges have been a little loosey-goosey lately, and I think I need a little more structure, so I have plans for next year's first challenge, and we're going to transition back to themes with a little Christmas mini-challenge. If the weather cooperates, I'll get some more barn work done and share pictures, but we're not going to focus on that. Instead, we're decking the halls with HOLLY: Hydrate I was doing really well with this through the summer/fall, but as soon as the weather changed, my water intake tanked. Also my alcohol consumption has been slowly creeping up, which isn't a good combo. The goal here is simple enough: fill my water bottle every morning and empty it by bedtime, plus no alcoholic beverages unless I'm at least 75% through my water bottle. Organize My parents made us clean our rooms really well right before Christmas because they said we shouldn't be getting new stuff if we can't take care of what we already have. So I always get the urge to clean this time of year. I had the house pretty clean before Thanksgiving - a large influx of company sort of destroyed that, but it won't take much to whip it back into shape. So I'll take care of that and then do something about my desk, which has been buried under papers for months. Lift I am bound and determined to finish this chin up program before the end of the year. I have lifting plans for next year, and not only do I want to get my chin ups back, but I also want to start developing some workout consistency. Liturgy We are closing in on my one year anniversary of coming to the Anglican Church, and I am loving it. Advent (which started yesterday) is also the start of the church year, so I've decided it's a good time to start doing Morning Prayer. This will also be helpful as part of the spiritual direction process that I'm starting to determine whether or not I should pursue ordination as a deacon. I'm also still more or less following the Bible Eater plan I started in October. Yule 'tis the season after all. One of the things I really want to get away from is spending evenings on my phone, which I believe is the leading contributor to my recent sleeping problems. Therefore the plan is to pack my evenings full of Christmas activities such as decorating, baking cookies, watching Christmas movies, playing Christmas carols, etc. I also have a stack of Christmas books and Christmas jigsaw puzzles. This is supposed to be fun, so there's no real plan here, except that I cannot open games or social media on my phone after 5. Possible exception for NF, which I never really think of as social media anyways. You guys are way too wholesome for that.

I hate business jargon, but I do like fruit. The last four years have been tough all ‘round, and I’m pretty sure I’m still bouncing back. So while I love a lofty goal, this challenge is all about baby steps. —No, smaller than that. — No, even smaller than that. What are the easiest possible things I can do to move slowly in the direction of my big goal?* Hydration- glass of water in morning, at night, and with/before each meal. I used to be great at hydration! Now I suck at it! See, that’s what happens if you ignore the little things that seem to be below notice, you become cranky and dehydrated. Movement- 500 active cals/day. (I don’t even know how many steps that corresponds to, maybe like 12000 or so, but a lot of my favourite activities are things like biking and swimming and yoga that are not very steppy). Sleep- ugh, I used to be a champion sleeper, but during the last few months that’s been going by the wayside. From experience, two things I can do to sleep better are to avoid alcohol and drift off listening to a sleep story (currently digging Sherlock Holmes). Flex- wear tank top whenever the day’s agenda and temperatures permit it. Honestly, catching glimpses of my new muscles in the mirror is the most motivating thing to keep me from slacking off the strength training or eating like a jerk. This goal would involve short shorts too if we weren’t moving into Canadian November. Skin- I finally found my perfect sunscreen and holy grail nighttime routine. But apparently they don’t do much good if I don’t USE THEM. Do so, everyday. *Big Goal = to continue evolving into a hot and happy badass. For now this means body recomp, killing it on the important things and earning mad respect at work, while ALSO eluding enough garbage tasks to have fun and feel happy.

S’up folks! Long time no see 😂 I am currently in Texas, flew in on the 18th, here until giftmas. Mx is the “best person” in a friends wedding mid Nov that’s been delayed since Nov 2020 so we decided to make use of all that banked up leave I’ve accrued and make a real trip of it. We’re ping-ponging all over the place for the next few months so keeping this challenge relatively light. Rough itinerary: Austin, KC Missouri, Florida (Orlando), New Orleans, Las Vegas, NYC, Canada (Niagara Falls), Pennsylvania(?), Los Angles. Short: Hydrate, don’t diedrate (drink a bottle of water a day) Team Green (eat a vegetable a day) Sweaty Betty (workout in some form twice/week) Kick Jetlag (meditate instead of napping, bedtime & wake up time) Long: So far been sampling some excellent food (think BBQ, Burgers and Burritos) but the fibre has been a little lacking and I’d like to be a little more regular as well as look nice in my dress with no pooch 😅 Bevvies are all around and while I am partaking, I need to include some water as well. While I’m in Texas I have access to a quite well outfitted Home Gym and I’d like to get a couple more lifting sessions in before we’re relegated to hotel ‘gyms’, after which I’ll probably be squeezing in bodyweight or yoga when I can (who knows, maybe they’ll have a kettlebell). The flight over was 15hours and we arrived before we left so that has wrecked my sleep schedule and I’ve succumbed to more than one midday nap. I’d like to switch the body clock over so I’m not wide awake at 2am again, especially since we’re here so long. Advice is to meditate instead of napping, get sunshine in the morning, bedtime and getup semi-regular (noting that I technically am on holidays, so, y’know). One off side quests: ✅ see a squirrel ⏹ see a raccoon ⏹ see a Vegas mermaid ? ⏹ ren faire ⏹ try a pumpkin spice latte ⏹ do a Halloween ⏹ do a Thanksgiving ⏹ Disney World ⏹ Grand Canyon ⏹ paintball ⏹ American football game ⏹ Niagara Falls

I have struggled for years with depression, lack of self esteem, and lack of motivation but I am ready! I actually have exercised 3 days already! I have to exercise & focus even on days I feel really down..etc. Male Age: 34 Height: 5'1 Weight: 192 My main goal for this 5 weeks is to lose 10 lbs My ultimate goal is to be healthy, but also there is a walking track near me..I would like to be able to run around it without losing my breath. I am a little bummed that on Saturday and Sunday I exercised (30 min each on the bike) but today I weigh 192 lbs, I weight 189 yesterday morning. Though I did eat an hour before I weighed. 1. Exercise bicycle - 30 minutes per day. I have a stationary bicycle, I have always intended to "walk" for exercise but I always got sidetracked by either the weather (way too hot or way too cold), motivation, and how bad I feel. When I walk, my lower back hurts. The stationary bike is much better! 2. Box steps. I have a box which is 5 inches high, I plan to do steps. 20 steps per starting leg. Meaning I will start my ascension with my right foot 100 times, then start on the left 100. 3. Drink 20 oz of water a day. Since I am short, I want to first see how my body reacts to 20 oz a day. If I feel I need more I'll add later. I plan to try and cut out cokes during the week and have 2-3 on the weekends. My other favorite drinks are 2% milk and sweet tea. 4. Food log

New challenge to be found on a later post.... For Bouncer's Golden-Eye Dragon Curse Challenge. More info on old challenge below: Bouncer has a Spreadsheet challenge put aside.

I've been in this really annoying cycle for the past few years. The cycle goes like this: 1 Getting a wake up call about how far my fitness has fallen, 2. Diving into workouts that are too intense for my current level of fitness, 3. Getting hurt, 4. Having to rest for several weeks, to heal 5. Getting comfortable with laziness, and ceasing healthy behaviors. And repeat. Let's just try it again. The goal right now, is just to workout ..... at all. I don't care the schedule, frequency, style, program. Just to workout at some point in the week and to let that build.

I think i have To go super simple - drink 3 litres water each day -my gym just reopened and i will go two times a week i forget how this all works!

I'm keeping this one really simple and focusing on eating habits. For the last year, I've been trapped in this vicious workout cycle, where I push too hard because I want to do the things I used to be able to do, I strain something, and then I'm sidelined for a bit. So, I'm backing away from pushing myself in the physical arena and instead pushing myself with better eating. Also, the kids start (virtual) school next Thursday, so I need to keep things easy and loose this challenge. Goals: 1. Delay the meals. Whenever I have a yogurt and coffee at 7:00, lunch around 1:00, and dinner around 7:00, I end up not needing an evening snack. The evening snack has been a huge source of extra, unneeded calories, so eliminating it would be great. Right now, the kids and I swim around noon and around 5 or 6 each day, so that has helped tremendously with pushing back meals. 2. If I'm hungry, I need to drink a glass of water, wait 30 minutes, and then only get a snack if I'm still hungry. 3. Eat more veggies! My husband got a green egg, so we've been grilling. Grilling is a great way for me to fill up on veggies for dinner. I've also been trying to eat more salad, and we've also started our garden. So, the plan is to eat at least a couple servings of veggies for both lunch and dinner, and turn to carrots + hummus first as a snack. 4. Exercise wise- Do stuff, but don't push. In the last 4 months, I've had problem areas in my lower back, left elbow, and hip/glute. The plan is to continue trying to do things, but the moment anything hurts at all in an unhappy way, rest and let it heal. My back was finally okay enough to do some yoga today, a full 3 weeks after my first issues, largely because I didn't rest it right after straining it. 5. Complete things in my nerdy checklist: -Learn the piano part for the 2nd movement of the Breval sonata in C, so I can do the duet with my son. -Record at least some piano piece. Ideally, it will be the first movement of the same Breval sonata, but it might be something else. -Have at least 2 outings where I drive somewhere with less light pollution and stargaze. -Focus on Saturn with my higher mag eyepiece (already managed with the lower mag one). -Find neowise -Research other cool things to view with the telescope. -continue coaching my kid for math contests. He's also trying to self-teach high school level geometry. -Get antifog, nearsighted goggles so I can truly swim while still seeing things. -Research what my family needs to do to get scuba certified. -Get the 3d printer working again, and print cool things. -Finish my Norbert the Dragon crochet.

No one is obligated or expected to actually read all of this lol. Just wanted to log everything for my daily workouts and basic plans. It changes often, so I'll be updating and revising here and there. The more I do a routine, the more I find gaps, or things I need to adjust and will do so as they come. Also, any outdoor activities or swimming, or other adventures that happen away from home gym I will share in thread to keep track of my activities with pics 💖 'MOON'DAY - ELEMENT OF WATER 5:00 AM - Wake 5:10 AM - Monday's Meditations: Moon energy, healing, self love, focus on feminine energy, and water energy. Accompanied by: Moonstone, rose quartz, snow quartz, clear quartz, selenite 6:30 AM - Recumbent Bike for 20 minutes or 5 Miles +2 for additional minutes or miles 7:00 AM - Strength Training - Light Full Body Workout 7:30 AM - Core, obliques workout (Coincides with Monday - Moonday, Goddess energy) 8:00 AM - Shower, then quick breakfast. EGGS. ALL THE EGGS. 8:45 AM - Leave for work 9:00 AM - Arrive at work 12:00 PM - Lunch followed by 10 minutes of meditation. 12:30 PM - Back to work 3:00 PM - 5 minutes of jumping jacks and stretching in back office to perk up and get blood flowing again. 5:00 PM - Released from the land of the dead - I mean work. (It's a cemetery. Literally the land of the dead so it's actually legit af.) 5:15 PM - Home. 6:00 PM - Head to the home dojo. Recumbent Bike for 20 minutes with 3lb weights, 5lbs, and 10lb kettlebell. Strength training with kettlebell and body weight exercises for 15 minutes. Core focused exercises for 15 minutes. 6:30 PM - Cook dinner/Eat 7:30 PM - MCT Protein Blast with Collagen >Insert mundane $#!% here< 8:30 PM - Recumbent Bike for 20 to 30 minutes with highest resistance for the day. Yoga/Tai Chi/ Qi Gong/ Meditation Accompanied by: Moonstone, rose quartz, snow quartz, clear quartz, selenite 9:30 PM - Read for 20 minutes, something inspiring and uplifting, comforting, and familiar. 10:00 PM - Set intentions for Tuesday manifestations, review planetary orbits, visualize my day, write keywords for how I would like to "feel", and how I can do something with that day to improve that. Journal for 10 minutes. 10:30 PM - Bedtime 🌊Bonus points today for taking a swim indoors or outdoors or just spending time with or by a natural body of water. +8 👽✨Bonus points for taking telescope out and spending quality time with La Luna +5 WARRIOR TUESDAY - ELEMENT OF FIRE 5:00 AM - Wake 5:10 AM - Tuesday's Meditations: Warrior energy, Mars, Masculine energy. Focus on strength, courage, empowerment, honor, loyalty, protection. Accompanied by: Smoky quartz, black tourmaline, obsidian, carnelian, pyrite 6:30 AM - Recumbent Bike for 20 minutes or 5 Miles +2 for additional minutes or miles 7:00 AM - Strength Training - Light Full Body Workout 7:30 AM - Shoulders, Back, Arms (Coincides with Tuesday - Mars Day - Warrior Energy!!! YEA!!!) 8:00 AM - Shower, then quick breakfast. EGGS. ALL THE EGGS. 8:45 AM - Leave for work 9:00 AM - Arrive at work 12:00 PM - Lunch followed by 10 minutes of meditation. 12:30 PM - Back to work 3:00 PM - 5 minutes of jumping jacks and stretching in back office to perk up and get blood flowing again. 5:00 PM - Off work. 5:15 PM - Home. 6:00 PM - Head to the home dojo. Recumbent Bike for 20 minutes with 3lb weights, 5lbs, and 10lb kettlebell. Strength training with kettlebell and body weight exercises for 15 minutes. Arms, shoulders, back focused exercises for 15 minutes. 6:30 PM - Cook dinner/Eat 7:30 PM - MCT Protein Blast with Collagen >Insert mundane $#!% here< 8:30 PM - Recumbent Bike for 20 to 30 minutes with highest resistance for the day. Yoga/Tai Chi/ Qi Gong/ Meditation Accompanied by: Smoky quartz, black tourmaline, obsidian, carnelian 9:30 PM - Read for 20 minutes, something empowering, heroic, courageous 10:00 PM - Set intentions for Wednesday manifestations, review planetary orbits, visualize my day, write keywords for how I would like to "feel", and how I can do something with that day to improve that. Journal for 10 minutes. 10:30 PM - Bedtime 🔥Bonus points today for having a sacred fire and/or fire scrying, incense making, smoke scrying +5 👽✨Bonus points for taking telescope out and spending quality time with corresponding planet +5 MERCURIAN WEDNESDAY (Weigh-In Wednesday) ELEMENT OF AIR 5:00 AM - Wake 5:10 AM - Wednesday's Meditations: Messenger, Intellectual energy, Mercury, Masculine and Feminine energy. Focus on outward energy. Promoting positive thought patterns, banishing negative thought patterns, contemplate how I use words with myself and others and if I do that in the healthiest most positive way and how I can improve that today. Accompanied by: Ametrine, obsidian, pink botswana agate, lepidolite, clear quartz 6:00 AM - Weigh-In 6:05 AM - Log weight, set new goals, make any necessary changes to nutrition and fitness plan, make grocery list and write out meal plan. (Wednesday's Mercurian Energy is great for all the intellectual, mathy, tedious stuff. Here's to Gemini's and Virgos!) 6:30 AM - Recumbent Bike for 20 minutes or 5 Miles +2 for additional minutes or miles 7:00 AM - Strength Training - Light Full Body Workout 7:30 AM - All limbs lifting and resisting today, and breathing exercises. (Coincides with Wednesday- Mercury Day - lungs, hands, arms, legs, feet) 8:00 AM - Shower, then quick breakfast. EGGS. ALL THE EGGS. 8:45 AM - Leave for work 9:00 AM - Arrive at work 12:00 PM - Lunch followed by 10 minutes of meditation. 12:30 PM - Back to work 3:00 PM - 5 minutes of jumping jacks and stretching in back office to perk up and get blood flowing again. 5:00 PM - Off work. 5:15 PM - Home. 6:00 PM - Head to the home dojo. Recumbent Bike for 20 minutes with 3lb weights, 5lbs, and 10lb kettlebell. Strength training with kettlebell and body weight exercises for 15 minutes. Arms, shoulders, back focused exercises for 15 minutes. 6:30 PM - Cook dinner/Eat 7:30 PM - MCT Protein Blast with Collagen >Insert mundane $#!% here< 8:30 PM - Recumbent Bike for 20 to 30 minutes with highest resistance for the day. Yoga/Tai Chi/ Qi Gong/ Meditation Accompanied by: Ametrine, obsidian, pink botswana agate, lepidolite, clear quartz 9:30 PM - Read for 20 minutes, something witty, clever, intellectual, thought provoking, science related topics such as theoretical physics, astronomy, etc. 10:00 PM - Set intentions for Thursday manifestations, review planetary orbits, visualize my day, write keywords for how I would like to "feel", and how I can do something with that day to improve that. Journal for 10 minutes. 10:30 PM - Bedtime 🌌Bonus points today for writing a short story or poem. +6 👽✨Bonus points for taking telescope out and spending quality time with corresponding planet +5 JOVIAN THURSDAY - ELEMENT OF AIR/FIRE 5:00 AM - Wake 5:10 AM - Thursday's Meditations: The day of the "Luck Planet" Jupiter. Philosopher energy. Divine wisdom. Abundance. Wealth. Luck. Accompanied by: Amethyst, smoky quartz, clear quartz, Preseli bluestone, carnelian, obsidian 6:30 AM - Recumbent Bike for 20 minutes or 5 Miles +2 for additional minutes or miles 7:00 AM - Strength Training - Light Full Body Workout 7:30 AM - Hams and Butt day (Coincides with Jupiter- Jovian Thursday - Thighs and butt. I have to admit that the biggest planet getting butt day is hilariously ironic) 8:00 AM - Shower, then quick breakfast. EGGS. ALL THE EGGS. 8:45 AM - Leave for work 9:00 AM - Arrive at work 12:00 PM - Lunch followed by 10 minutes of meditation. 12:30 PM - Back to work 3:00 PM - 5 minutes of jumping jacks and stretching in back office to perk up and get blood flowing again. 5:00 PM - Off work. 5:15 PM - Home. 6:00 PM - Head to the home dojo. Recumbent Bike for 20 minutes with 3lb weights, 5lbs, and 10lb kettlebell. Strength training with kettlebell and body weight exercises for 15 minutes. Hamstrings and butt focused exercises for 15 minutes. 6:30 PM - Cook dinner/Eat 7:30 PM - MCT Protein Blast with Collagen >Insert mundane $#!% here< 8:30 PM - Recumbent Bike for 20 to 30 minutes with highest resistance for the day. Yoga/Tai Chi/ Qi Gong/ Meditation Accompanied by: Amethyst, smoky quartz, clear quartz, Preseli bluestone, carnelian, obsidian 9:30 PM - Read for 20 minutes, something philosophical, financial and budget planning, entrepreneurial 10:00 PM - Set intentions for Friday manifestations, review planetary orbits, visualize my day, write keywords for how I would like to "feel", and how I can do something with that day to improve that. Journal for 10 minutes. 10:30 PM - Bedtime ⚡Bonus points today for participating in any kind of arts for 1 hour. +6 👽✨Bonus points for taking telescope out and spending quality time with corresponding planet +5 VENUSIAN FRIDAY - ELEMENT OF WATER/EARTH 5:00 AM - Wake 5:10 AM - Friday's Meditations: The day of love. Love, compassion, self love, marriage, friendship, mother energy, healing from water energy, stability and growth from Earth energy. Accompanied by: Amazonite, rose quartz, clear quartz, snowflake obsidian 6:30 AM - Recumbent Bike for 20 minutes or 5 Miles +2 for additional minutes or miles 7:00 AM - Strength Training - Light Full Body Workout 7:30 AM - Chest, abs, leg day (Coincides with Venus- Venusian Friday - Chest, breasts, do I even need to add womb here lol, legs) 8:00 AM - Shower, then quick breakfast. EGGS. ALL THE EGGS. 8:45 AM - Leave for work 9:00 AM - Arrive at work 12:00 PM - Lunch followed by 10 minutes of meditation. 12:30 PM - Back to work 3:00 PM - 5 minutes of jumping jacks and stretching in back office to perk up and get blood flowing again. 5:00 PM - Off work. 5:15 PM - Home. 6:00 PM - Head to the home dojo. Recumbent Bike for 20 minutes with 3lb weights, 5lbs, and 10lb kettlebell. Strength training with kettlebell and body weight exercises for 15 minutes. Chest, abs, legs focused exercises for 15 minutes. 6:30 PM - Cook dinner/Eat 7:30 PM - MCT Protein Blast with Collagen >Insert mundane $#!% here< 8:30 PM - Recumbent Bike for 20 to 30 minutes with highest resistance for the day. Yoga/Tai Chi/ Qi Gong/ Meditation Accompanied by: Amazonite, rose quartz, clear quartz, snowflake obsidian 9:30 PM - Read for 20 minutes, something romantic, or about friendship, companionship, motherhood (even though I'm not a mom, I can't resist a Gilmore Girls - esque tale. I do happen to still be a daughter ) 10:00 PM - Set intentions for Saturday manifestations, review planetary orbits, visualize my day, write keywords for how I would like to "feel", and how I can do something with that day to improve that. Journal for 10 minutes. 10:30 PM - Bedtime ♥️Bonus points today for taking a bubble bath with essential oils, candles, flowers, music. Treat yourself. +6 👽✨Bonus points for taking telescope out and spending quality time with corresponding planet +5 SATURNIAN SATURDAY - ELEMENT OF EARTH 5:00 AM - Wake 5:10 AM - Saturday's Meditations: Father Saturn, Capricornian energy, the teacher Accompanied by: Amethyst, citrine, or ametrine, smoky quartz, rainbow obsidian, black tourmaline 6:30 AM - Recumbent Bike for 20 minutes or 5 Miles +2 for additional minutes or miles 7:00 AM - Strength Training - Light Full Body Workout 7:30 AM - Focus on mobility and joint health today as well as breathing exercises (Coincides with Saturn- Saturnian Saturday- joint health, flexibility, breathability) 8:00 AM - Shower 9:00 AM - Breakfast - Chia bowl with berries, a mini-chaffle size of palm(an egg waffle) with tomatoes, peppers, onions. 1:00 PM - Lunch followed by 10 minutes of meditation. 6:00 PM - Head to the home dojo. Recumbent Bike for 20 minutes with 3lb weights, 5lbs, and 10lb kettlebell. Strength training with kettlebell and body weight exercises for 15 minutes. Flexibility and low impact focused exercises for 15 minutes. 6:30 PM - Cook dinner/Eat 7:30 PM - MCT Protein Blast with Collagen >Insert mundane $#!% here< 8:30 PM - Recumbent Bike for 20 to 30 minutes with highest resistance for the day. Yoga/Tai Chi/ Qi Gong/ Meditation Accompanied by: Amethyst, citrine, or ametrine, smoky quartz, rainbow obsidian, black tourmaline 9:30 PM - Read for 20 minutes, something insightful, educational, motivational, self improvement, even home improvement! (Do some Dad things. Done.) 10:00 PM - Set intentions for Sunday manifestations, review planetary orbits, visualize my day, write keywords for how I would like to "feel", and how I can do something with that day to improve that. Journal for 10 minutes. 10:30 PM - Bedtime ☮️Bonus points today for learning a new trade, or for researching *opposing* political views. +8 👽✨Bonus points for taking telescope out and spending quality time with corresponding planet +5 SOL SUNDAY - ELEMENT OF FIRE 5:00 AM - Wake 5:10 AM - Sunday's Meditations: God, Sol, Sun, Divine Masculine energy, Leo energy, Fire, self love, ego Accompanied by: Citrine, smoky quartz, clear quartz, pyrite, shungite, lemon quartz, carnelian 6:30 AM - Recumbent Bike for 20 minutes or 5 Miles +2 for additional minutes or miles 7:00 AM - Strength Training - 10,000HP Full Body Workout!!! GO HARD BISH. YOU A STAR. Literally, be a star. It is "Sun" day after all ) 7:30 AM - Focus on total body, calisthenics, then follow up with something light and calming such as stretching, slow flow yoga, Qi Gong (Coincides with Sol- Sunday- perfomance, endurance, stamina, and cool down, plus a bit of "ego check" ) Fuel the fire, then cool the fire. 8:00 AM - Shower 9:00 AM - BIG BREAKFAST TODAY YES. 10:00 AM - Go say hello to the sun. Take in that glorious fk'er. Get outside and get some D. Vitamin D. 1:00 PM - Lunch followed by 10 minutes of meditation. 6:00 PM - Head to the home dojo. Recumbent Bike for 20 minutes with 3lb weights, 5lbs, and 10lb kettlebell. Strength training with kettlebell and body weight exercises for 15 minutes. Flexibility and low impact focused exercises for 15 minutes. 6:30 PM - Cook dinner/Eat 7:30 PM - MCT Protein Blast with Collagen >Insert mundane $#!% here< 8:30 PM - Recumbent Bike for 20 to 30 minutes with highest resistance for the day. Yoga/Tai Chi/ Qi Gong/ Meditation Accompanied by: Amethyst, citrine, or ametrine, smoky quartz, rainbow obsidian, black tourmaline 9:30 PM - Read for 20 minutes, something insightful, educational, motivational, self improvement, even home improvement! (Do some Dad things. Done.) 10:00 PM - Set intentions for Monday manifestations, review planetary orbits, visualize my day, write keywords for how I would like to "feel", and how I can do something with that day to improve that. Journal for 10 minutes. 10:30 PM - Bedtime 🌄Bonus points today for going on a hike, going fishing, bird watching, boating +10 If it's raining and you still do it, +3 more cuz you rock and stuff. 👽✨Bonus points for taking telescope out and spending quality time with corresponding planet +5

Hello again, friends. My name is annyshay, and I'm a challenge veteran working on intuitive eating and movement. If you're new and want more information about my backstory, feel free to check out the battle log pinned in my signature. Those that have been following along at home know that the last few months have been pretty challenging for me on quite a few different fronts. I just moved across the country to a new city where I knew nobody. My Grandpa just passed away. I've been struggling to get my feet under me in this new normal. So, this challenge I'm going to focus on just that - settling in to my new normal. Goals: Water - fill my water bottles each day - track my intake Food - distraction free eating - challenge the food police Coaching - work on the tools that my health coach assigns me

Building Habits 2.0 It's time for refinement Quest: Lose 5lbs (SW: 282, GW: 277) Subquest 1: Food tracking: Track calories and 3 days not exceeding calorie goal - 1 point / day tracked - 1 point / day for hitting calorie goal Subquest 2: Water: Drink 2L - Drink 1L [ 1 point ] - Drink 1.5L [ 2 point ] - Drink 2L [ 3 point ] Subquest 3: Physio: Complete at least 5 assigned physio exercises 2 times a day - 1 point / day this is completed Shoulder stretch [1 min] Neck stretch [1 min] Bicep curl while laying on my back and arm hanging down. max 5lb weight. [10 reps] Stomach lay robot thing.... (on stomach, arm bent at 90 degree angle, rotate down, then back up slowly) [10 reps] Sitting straight arm non-curl? Arms start in curl position, instead of bending like a curl, bring arms up straight up to shoulder level.. then back down. [10 reps] While sitting in a chair, raise leg until leg is straight. Cross other leg over top as dead weight. Bring leg down slowly in 5 secs. [10 reps] Wall squat with medicine ball between legs [10 seconds] Life Quest: - Finish bathroom reno - Clean art desk - Deliver brother his tools [Week 2] - Attach mailbox back onto the wall [Week 2] - Get Haircut - Clean all dust out of basement from reno [in progress] [Week 1-3] - Work on shark painting [in progress] [Week 1-3] - Deliver dad his tools [Week 2] - Sort clothes - Organize ensuite drawers - Work on painting apple + horse - Fix upstairs fire detector - Clean dishwasher filter - Regrout upstairs bathroom - Add floor transition for M.Bedroom + fix office one - Add transition between bathroom tile and carpet in basement - Add weatherstripping to cold room door - Fix cement outside of basement bathroom - Carpet over the cement outside of bathroom - Caulk the vent outside of the house [Week 2] - Do taxes Week 1 Weigh In: 280.8lbs SQ 1: Food tracking (8/10) SQ 2: Water (12/21) SQ 3: Physio (6/14) Week 2 Weigh In: Didn't check after this crazy weekend SQ 1: Food tracking (7/10) SQ 2: Water (10/21) SQ 3: Physio (4/14) Week 3 Review Weigh In: 280.8 SQ 1: Food tracking (7/10) SQ 2: Water (9/21) SQ 3: Physio (2/14) My pride and joy <3 My motivation

Oh heeeeyyy guys! Only been, like, FOREVER since the last time I showed my face around here. A year and a half if I remember correctly. I'll catch you guys up a little bit before getting to my respawn challenge. 2018 was a fucking year - there was a lot of growing up and self acceptance. Certain events earlier in the year forced me to do some serious introspection: figuring out who the fuck I am, who I want to be, what I’m willing to accept in my life, what I absolutely will not put up with, and where I want to go from here. For the most part I think I’ve figured it out, and things have been a lot better since doing so. Summer and fall went smoothly and everything was going well, but as we all know, life likes to take us by surprise. In November I got laid off, but thankfully I was only unemployed for a month and a half. I love my new job - it’s definitely one of the better ones that I’ve had, even if I had to accept a bit of a pay cut. It’s also way closer to me. I had an 80mi round trip commute at my last job, and this one is only 12mi. Literally the next town over from where I live. It’s super convenient. As far as fitness goes, when I left you at the end of 2017 I was at my heaviest - almost 180lb. I put myself on an intermittent fasting plan, and over the the course of 6-8mo I lost ~30lb. I did gain back a few pounds over this past holiday season (so much delicious, delicious food), but it doesn’t bother me. When I started my journey with NF in Oct 2014, I was 152lb. I was miserable about it and the goal was to get back to my high school weight (139lb). While getting back to that weight would be pretty cool, it's definitely not my goal any more and I can honestly say that I have no problem being in the low 150s. In fact, I’m pretty fuckin comfortable in/with my body right now. Seeing how my mindset and views have changed over the last 4.5yrs is mind blowing; I never thought I’d get to the point where I actually kind of love myself and my body. That just about catches you all up on my absence, so on to my respawn challenge! Usually I like to have a theme or something, but I’m going to be keeping it pretty simple so I don’t get distracted.. 2018 involved a lot of mental growth, so I'm dedicating 2019 to physical growth - fitness, hard skills, and putting plans into place. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Self care: Journaling There were a lot of anxiety attacks and depressive episodes over the course of last year. I get overwhelmed with my own thoughts very easily, and it consumes me. I used to journal regularly back in the day, and that’s something I want to make a habit again. Getting stuff out on paper just makes everything that much more manageable for me. Frees my mind up a little bit. Usually I find a blank sheet in one of the many random journals I have, but I bought myself a new notebook so that I can start this habit fresh. *Goal: Write in journal at least 4x/wk. Can be anything from a few words to a few pages and everything in between. I just need to get something out in order to manage my stress level. Diet: Water No soda I’ve managed to cut down my energy drink intake a lot (oh Redbull, how I miss you), and some of my soda intake. Now I need to work on increasing my water intake. I joke that I’m a cactus and don’t need much water, but I know I really should be better about it. Now I need to cut out that soda habit completely - end of story. *Goal: Drink 60oz of water 3x/wk (Mon, Wed, Fri) *Goal: Stop. Drinking. Soda. C'mon Ruth, it's not that fuckin hard. Use that stubbornness for something good for you. Fitness: Routine While I spent a lot of time reigning in my diet and getting the weight off, I never got back to working out. Other than urban exploring (which, to be fair, does involve a lot of walking, stairs, and climbing of stuff), I haven’t done shit. I’ve been feeling really weak and easily winded lately and it’s driving me nuts, so fitness is going to be a big focus. *Goal: Full body routine 3x/wk (Beginner bodyweight or NF kettlebell) Skills: Photography Since getting back into the afore mentioned urban exploring a few years ago, I have taken up photography a fair bit as well. They kind of go hand in hand. Christmas 2017 I was gifted a lightly used Nikon D3300 and kit lens so that I could take my photos up a notch (I had been using my phone). I bought a guidebook so that I could learn to use it, and eventually learn to use the manual settings. While I did figure out how to use the camera in auto mode, I never got around to learning manual. For the last few months I haven’t even touched the camera, if I’m totally honest. I just haven’t been out and about, but I want to get back to using it and picking up the skills to use it properly even when not exploring. *Goal: Each week learn a new step/skill and perform 3 practice sessions (at least). At end of 4 weeks, review each skill/technique. (Zero week will be used to break down the guidebook into weekly skills/techniques.) Week 1, Chapters 1&2 - A.) Back to basics: reset camera to factory settings, then update to book recommended settings. B.) Back to Basics 2: Get a feel for the camera in it's 'out of the box' form to use as a control. Can compare photos down the road as I learn more. Week 2, Chapter 3 - Auto Modes: take some time to try out the auto modes available on the camera. Week 3, Chapter 4 - Professional Modes A: begin practicing using the manual settings and adjustments Week 4, Chapter 4 - Professional Modes B: continue practicing using the manual settings and adjustments Zero Week - Review Other: Updates Keeping up with my challenges in the past has always been difficult for me for whatever reason. So, I’m going to try and correct that by setting aside specific times each week that I will use to update. You may or may not see me update outside of these times, I can’t promise anything. In addition, I’m going to set aside tentative times during the week to try to catch up with everyone else. *Goal: Challenge updates on Mondays and Thursdays @ 7pm (I will start typing up my updates at 7, so expect posts after 7:30pm) *Soft goal: Catch up with others on Sundays and Wednesdays xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx I still have a bit of finalizing to do on the side, so I will not be counting zero week towards the challenge. Anything that I do end up doing this week is a bonus. Down the road I would like to count zero weeks as part of the challenge, but I find that it's a good time for me to do planning. I try to start while the current challenge is going on, but then I get distracted/excited and Ranger BrainTM kicks in. So, at least for the first few challenges that I'm back for, zero week will be a planning week and continuation of the last challenge.

Back to the Island of Basics... Where There be Dragons 1. Pray - Read - Talk Spend proper, peaceful time with Father. At least 15min. every morning before exercises. 2. Be good about food and water You cannot have one without the other: just keep an eye on what and how much I eat, BUT drink at least 1x bottle of water/day. 3. Sleep, wonderful sleep Even fierce dragons need their sleep: before 22h00 every night. 4. Train like Astrid and Fishlegs, with passion. Put some passion back into training: LEGS- Monday, Wednesday, Friday Squats 3x10 X-over lunges 3x10 Deadlifts (start 28.5kg) 3x10 Plank2Pushup core - start 3x5 ARMS- Tuesdays, Thursday, Saturdays Pushups 3x10 Shoulder presses (start with bar @ 6.5kg) 3x10 Inverted rows 3x10 Abs wheel 3x10 5. Do finances studiously! As required... Finalise slips. (Aug-Nov). If finance-work felt like activity sheets, I'd have no problem doing them. Change my attitude about doing finances, and GET IT DONE! -------------------------------------------------------- IN SUMMERY -------------------------------------------------------- 1. Pray - Read - Talk 2. Be good about food and water 3. Sleep, wonderful sleep 4. Train like Astrid and Fishlegs, with passion 5. Do finances studiously! No, we haven't seen the 3rd movie yet, we are waiting for the dvd to come out. I have no problems with spoilers.

This challenge I am mostly aiming for just keeping up the momentum. Last challenge was not perfect, but a really good start back into training, so now it's time to keep going. Goals are therefore pretty similar: GOAL 1: workout 2x / week GOAL 2: no food for min of 14h over night, few carbs, 2 Liters of water per day GOAL 3: edit and upload all meditation recordings (morning meditations and retreat meditations) GOAL 4: finish reading "Atomic Habits" and reflect with a little journaling on it daily (4TW streak) Goal 1 and 2 are basically the same as last challenge. I do want to build up to 3 training units per week, but at the moment I have still a lot of appointments for the kids with the orthodontist and youngest checkups after her operation, for my parents with their regular doctor and my dad for his eye operations plus helping with their shopping while he can't drive, so between that and work and helping the kids with their school stuff (it's a busy exam time of the year) I don't think 3 are realistic just yet. I am glad and proud if I get those 2 in every week. The 14 hours food break over night are slightly more than the 12 I had scheduled last, but considering I regularly had days with 16 hours it should be doable to increase the daily goal here. I don't want to set myself to 16 hours every day because if I don't manage, I'll feel like a failure and might drop the whole idea. Rather smaller steps and go for long term improvement. Goal 3 is a work goal that is easily procrastinated on, so here is my continuation of the monster battle and I am determined to do better this time round!! ROAR Goal 4 is aiming at improving my daily routines in general. I started this book and find it very inspiring and helpful, but then I end up listening to interviews with the author on youtube while playing puzzle games, in my recreational times and never put anything into action to actually make it work for me collecting underpants ... well, it's not entirely true. I do observe my day differently already and have noticed some of the decisive moments during my days already, that come up routinely. I'll put the ramblings on that behind a spoiler, so that it doesn't clog up too much of this intro My current training takes place at the gym and looks like this: 10 minutes on the rowing machine (equals 2km) followed by 3 rounds of 40 sec exercise each with 50 sec break in between - kettlebell swings (2 handed) - quick step ups on a big tire (more like a mixture of running and hopping in place) - bodyweight rows on rings (12 reps) at about 45 degree angle - weighted lunges (bulgarian bag weighing 10kg) - running in place and punching the punching bag - pushing a power sledge (light jog and on 2nd and 3rd round walking) - swinging the big ropes - push ups on gravity trainer (set at medium height and comes to about 9 reps per 40 sec) - knee tucks while hanging from pull up bar (I do 10 lifts at the moment, disregarding the time here) then I do some stretches, which is my favorite part only that I noticed today my shoulder mobility is shocking, but otherwise I feel really good about this part So that's it! If this goes well, it will be time to bring the pole back in, squeeeeeeeee

Hey there, I finally made it back again (again) and aim to stick around for a bit longer again, squeeeee This will be a proper respawn as not only did I take a break on forums, my less to little training slimmed down to none, which still shocks me tremendously and my body lost any hard achieved slimness instead (which kind of makes sense) It got so bad, I finally did the thing and set foot into a fitness studio (gasp). Not that there is anything wrong with regular fitness studios, but they really aren't my thing at all, so this is my first time contract with a studio ever. In my defense it's a pretty cool fitness studio though. It's got all those different stations for circuit training, free weights, boxing bag to punch, sling trainer or whatever it's called for assisted pull ups or rows, ropes to swing, medicine balls, and the like. There's only two treadmills and two rowing machines for warm up, no other machines and the mood is very different to what I have glimpsed from in regular studios. So I decided to give it a go Main reason is that hubby goes there (or used to and is respawning with me now) and we can go together, yay. For starters the trainer took an hour to show me around and spot me on the currently set up circuit training, plus he weighed me with one of those fancy things, taking body fat percentage etc and ... well, it confirmed what I already knew: too much fat, not too much muscle and too little water to top it off, meh. My metabolic age would be 7 years older than I am In numbers: weight 70,5kg of which 24,7kg is fat (35%) and 43,5 kg is muscle the water percentage was at 46,4 % which is apparently way too little for women My BMI is at 25,6 All in all this doesn't seem so horrible, but being someone who used to be underweight while eating whatever I wanted for half my life, it feels horribly wrong. Time to get active again! I've done it before (am practically at the weight again I had when I started with pole training in 2013), so I can do it again. I can't afford pole classes right now and am frustrated how much I can't do anymore, so why not try a different tack. Action Plan for workouts is simply: - go to the fitness studio 2x / week and workout with the circuit training for at least 2 rounds (until I manage 3, then 3 rounds) This isn't very much, but I figured, if I keep it that simple, but really do it for the next 3 months, when it comes time to step on that fancy scale again, numbers should look different already. Best of all, I should feel different! If not in size, at least in stamina and strength again. Ideally, I will expand this to a third workout per week at home with the pole and see how I can get myself to have some fun there again. For now I'm glad if running up the stairs to catch the phone doesn't have me wheezing Now I know diet is the bigger part for the weight balance and to have a simple strategy there, I will PROCRASTINATE. Sneaky, right? Something I am good at anyway Seriously though, counting calories is simply not my thing, I don't keep up with it and I can't believe it as a necessity. Rather I will focus on what to eat and especially when to eat instead of counting how much. You can't call it intermittent fasting really, it's not as drastic as that, I'm rather easing into it somewhat. Action Plan for improving my food intake: - eat less often, meaning max 3 meals / day and having at least 12 hours no food intake over night, ideally more - eat more healthy fats and veggies, meaning feeling full with less carbs - drink at least 2 Liters of water / day I started doing this (not the water part, but the other two) for about 10 days now and went from an average of 73 kg down to 71 kg (the 70,5 at the fitness studio were a happy surprise low) with a few cm circumference less as well. Both came off within the first few days and have stagnated since. I want to see what happens over a longer time. The third ingredient for this challenge is upping my pride, joy and happiness. For some reason I keep slipping into phases of procrastination, distraction and waste time where I had originally planned some cool (or necessary) action. This is very unsatisfying long term. I feel guilty about it, frustrated with myself and in my bad mood look for more distractions to make myself feel better. Late at night I am full of good intentions and ambitious plans, once the kids are at school and I would have the time to get started, it all fades away into various modes of procrastination and hiding. It's become a habit and it's time to kick it! That's all there is to it. So the third part of my challenge will be counting battle points against the procrastination monster: - every time I am tempted to not do something (delay or skip or whatever) and do it anyway it's a point for me - every time I don't do something I know I would prefer having done, the procrastination monster wins a point First win: I finally set up a challenge again

Barking up a different tree... I'm taking a leaf from how I'm feeding our dogs and cat (balanced raw), because macro-counting and I don't mesh. My main aim for this challenge is to check how much I eat. Too much, too little, just right? I think I'm getting the balance of macros mostly right, most of the time. I want to eat what I feel like, without guilt of following some or other 'diet' with no subconscious guilt talks about why I should swap my batter-covered fish for plain fish... I still like a bit higher protein and fat to carbs though. But back to the dogs... When you work out how much to feed dogs and cats, you go on a formula of 3-3.5% for working dogs (1-2hrs serious work+30min. play per day). [2.7kg food - way too much for me] 2.5% for some exercise (30min.-1hr per day) [2.25kg food - still too much], and 2% for a sedentary lifestyle (<30min. exercise per day) [1.8kg food - little bit too much for me still], 1.5% for this human's experiment [1.35kg food - just right?] Dogs/cats are NOT fed this low, ever! I added this for myself as I found 2% a tad too much still. Now I'm not a dog, I'm built differently, my body works differently, and the amount of exercise I do with my not so compact and sleek body, is very little compared to what they pull off with their bodies. Think of a sausage dog jumping onto a bed 3x his height! No way can I jump 3x my height/length. I just like the uncomplicated way of measuring balanced food eaten. So I'm starting off on LESS THAN SEDENTARY amounts. Thus aiming for: 90kg body weight at 1.5% I should be eating less than 1.35kg of food per day. This does not include water, black coffee or tea. I'm literally plopping my plate of food on the scale, weigh it, and let my little spreadsheet do the calculations for me. Thus far I had one day with 1.41kg of food (I felt it was a bit too much) and another day with 1.18kg of food (weight of plate not included ). In the meantime I'm trying to make peace with the fact that I'm a woman with some big muscles, and a good, strong and able body. This is not a scientifically formulated experiment. Do not try this at home! Now on to the other topics of the day... Those who checked in last time, may remember that we've started our boys on an exercise routine 3 mornings a week (Mon/Wed/Fri). Between hubby and myself we try to help them w.r.t. form and encouragement, while doing our own routines. Youngest (Rocco) has taken to it like a dog to a bone, while Oldest (Adam) wasn't as enthusiastic at first. But it seems both are now keen enough, and both are excited about our upcoming hike (10-12Nov It will be their first, and our first as a family - if the weather permits) and some future Waterra obs.course races (family fun, not big league). Anyway, on to this challenge's goals for myself: Bible study (5x/week); Exercise (BW - Mon and Thurs)(Walking Tue, Wed, Fri afternoons); Dry fire practice (Wed); Food (as explained above)(7x/week); Water (1-2bottles of 750ml every day, min.); Sleep (<21h30 every night). See, nothing new. I'm just struggling to get my exercise in on a Monday morning if I do bible study first, because I tend to leave my own routine to help the boys, and obviously don't get my exercise in then. And space is a problem if we all train at the same time. If I can fit in a big chunk of my routine before Rocco gets up (5h30), it should work. The boys need to exercise before they are allowed on the computers that day. Exercises: BW - Mondays and Thursdays Joint Circles (warm up) Jumping Jacks (Star Jumps) 20x Push ups (try for full - improving every week) 4x5 Abs Roll Out 3x10 (left, straight, right) Goblet Squats 2x10@10kg X Lunges 2x10 Inclined Pull Ups 2x10 Sit-Twist Stretch Shoulder and Chest Stretches Touch Toes Stretches (Yeah! I can touch my toes again!) Walking - Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays Tuesdays: walk during lunch time (12h00-14h00) with hubby in the plantations behind his office block. It's normally around 5km serious hill work. Wednesdays: walk during boys' Lego course (13h00-14h00) on flat farm road, mainly in the sun. Work on speed, maybe a slow jog *gasp*. Fridays: walk with boys and dogs (new) (14h00+) in the field close to our house. Not sure of distance as I've never walked here before. Hubby and the boys have and they tell me there are sometimes farm goats and some cattle grazing there, which we have to be careful of, but otherwise it should be safe enough. The rest of my days are still the same: home school - mornings, finances - afternoon or evening, household chores - during the day, boys' extra murals - afternoons... I've had my say... Your turn!

I finally got a new laptop. It's been 2 years. So, hello, forums. You look different! Jumping back in with a super basic 4 week challenge. 1. Orangetheory workouts- 5 to 6 a week, with one designated a green day. Track on activity app on watch 2. Keto (20-30 g carbs) 6 days a week at least Track on MFP 3. Water - 100 oz a day Track on MFP 4. Six Sigma - Complete Data Analytics for Six Sigma on Coursera by end of challenge

THE PRESSURE IS ON! Respawn, because I have been a slack lately. More nerdy references (and some kind of story line and D&D references) to come in the next few days. There is a Pole Sport competition I will be going to in about seven months, where I will need to be able to move, climb, flip and be awesome like a ninja. In order to not be a disappointment at this competition, I need to do multiple things. Increasing flexibility is the main priority, and getting my ass back into some kind of workout routine is a close second. 1 - Increasing flexibility MUST ABSOLUTELY HAPPEN AND IS NOT NEGOTIABLE (daily except Sundays) 2 - Following the Gymnastics Bodies program on a regular basis (5x/week) 3 - Going for 20-30 min walks at lunch now that the weather is less shitty (5x/week, unless there's a staff event at lunch or something) 4 - Doing the pole workout given to me by Coach (daily: full workout if at pole gym, partial workout if at home) 5 - Drinking more water daily--at least 72oz/day (72oz, because I have a 24oz cup and 3x24 is 72 and I didn't feel like doing any more math than that) 6 - Tracking food intake and rough calorie total (daily, also requested by Coach) 7 - 10 min meditation & journal on a daily basis (I already do this, but want to keep going) 8 - Eat less cheese (this will probably be the hardest item of the challenge) Implied goals: 9 - I will lose some pounds (fat) as a result of all of the above 10 - I will drink less alcohol because I'll be too fucking busy to do so 11 - I will check in to this thread on a regular basis to brag/whine as necessary ;P BONUS task: Working on my cosplay(s). PRE-CHALLENGE LIST, to remove the emotional/mental load: 1 - Cancel the expensive gym membership that I no longer use It's a good place and I've been there for years, but the schedule is no longer working for me. 2 - Booking appointments that I keep procrastinating on booking 3 - Contacting people that I keep procrastinating on contacting (0 of 2) 4 - CLEAN MY FUCKING ROOM so I have space to work out, work on cosplay, etc. 5 - Change my user name on NF, because using my RL name on the Internet is probably not a good idea May will be particularly difficult, because I will have the usual work hours (8AM to 4PM) and then coaching hours from like 6PM to 10PM from Monday to Thursday. This will result in VERY LITTLE FREE TIME and probably a lot of complaining. I want to have all my ducks in a row as well as some momentum before May so that I'll be less likely to fall off the wagon.

In honor of Earth Day I'm going to: After a little reflection I realized that I've been too cute with some of my challenge goals. So, I looked over past challenges and made a list of things that worked/felt right and pushed aside the things that stressed me out or made me judge myself. None of these things are truly hard, I just need to be consistent and make a lifestyle shift. So here are my recycled goals... 5 servings of fruit and vegetables Fiber Probiotics Water/Tea 24oz Body Weight 3x a week (with cardio mixed in) Weekly Meal Planning Food Prep 2x/week Pack healthy snacks Mindful eating (going to try taking pics of meals for accountability/reminder) I will use my bullet journal to track my challenge. I actually have a chart that I made for a past challenge, but never used, so I'm going to recycle it and use it for this challenge.

I'm still pondering my exact goals but I am looking at something like this: Drinks water - DRINK MORE WATER. Aim for finishing two 16 oz water cups at work and 16 more oz in the evening (so 16 oz x 3 minimum per day!) I could probably also bump up my usual 8oz glass with my pills in the morning to be a 16 oz if I want to be extra! Does cardio - I have not done SHIT for cardio lately except dance and when my trainer decides to make me do HIIT every now and then. Which consequently HIIT feels terrible because my body is like WTF ARE YOU DOING, DUDE?! Cardio 3x per week. This can be as basic as going for a lunch walk to doing an HIIT video. (I'll count dance in this area unless we are doing something super mellow and slow and flowy that doesn't get my heart rate up!) THIRD GOAL OF MYSTERY - Tracks calories? Grip strength? Pull up stuff? HMMMMM. TBD! I am leaning towards doing grip again because it still sucks and my intuitive eating plan seems to be going well; I'm losing fat while not being totally dead for workouts. If I feel that "YOU NEED TO EAT MORE" hanger and grumpiness I make myself eat more and I generally eat more on training days/ days after training days and less when I haven't had time to get in workouts. Life Goal: Declutter - need to decide on specifics but I am thinking I need to require minimum of 30 min declutter per week. But I am almost thinking if I make myself do smaller chunks vs one big chunk all together that will help it become more of a habit. Hmm. Basically I've been BUSY so what declutter progress I had made is now all gone and my room looks terrifying. (admittedly I did intentionally sort of spread around my clothing piles to make my room look ransacked when we were getting the house fumigated so if anyone broke in they'd come in and be like NAAAAH. Hahahahahaha.)

Water... Earth... Fire... Air. Long ago, AThousandWords lived in good health and fitness. Then everything changed when a new baby arrived. Only good eating habits and occasional exercise could have saved her waistline. But when her world needed these habits the most, they vanished. A an entire year passed and she discovered new motivation: an awesome Avatar themed challenge. But although her gif skills are great, she still has a lot to learn before she's ready to call herself healthy again. But I believe... AThousandWords can save the world. Hi, I'm Yvonne, and it's been a year and nine months since my last NerdFitness challenge. I'm an inconsistent Rebel; I've started about fifteen challenges and fully completed about 8 of them. But NerdFitness is my happy, get-shit-done home. I always come back when I need a kick in the pants, so here I am. I lost over thirty pounds the last time I was participating on NF but stopped joining challenges when I got pregnant. I switched to Battle Log format, hoping to keep up during my pregnancy, but vanished like the Avatar after only a few weeks. Last week I celebrated that baby's first birthday and realized I couldn't keep eating and slothing like I'm pregnant/breastfeeding anymore. With a baby who (mostly) sleeps through the night and doesn't need me to be a milk-machine anymore, I have no excuse not to start cutting back my diet and getting my butt off the chair. There have been some HUGE changes in the last year - adjusting to life as a mom, starting a new job where I work from home, and moving to a new house! - and I let myself get complacent and kept gaining weight even after giving birth. It's time to turn that around, be a healthy role model for my family, and start feeling like myself again. AThousandWords Book 1: Water I've been wanting to do an Avatar themed challenge for ages (I have so many gifs to use!) but it feels especially appropriate now that I am returning after having been gone for so long. My plan is to focus on a different element for each challenge, starting with Water - the element of change. I want to remind myself that I am mutable and fluid; I can change my story at any time; I can adjust easily to new shapes and new challenges; and I am powerful and capable as well. I also plan to be flexible this challenge - there are no absolutes or firm lines here. If a certain kind of exercise or food isn't working - change it up! I don't thrive eating the same food or doing the same exercise every week, so I don't plan to. Diet (CON 3) My diet is in serious need of change. If you followed my pregnancy battlelog (or have ever been around a pregnant woman - ha!) you'll know that first trimester nausea hit hard and all I was able to stomach were simple carbs. For most of my pregnancy I ate bread and sugar (I'm fairly certain my son was born 90% PB&J) and my brain got addicted to all that delicious carby badness; I kept eating junk waaay after pregnancy was over. I'm going back to a Primal eating plan - protein, fat, and plant-based carbs only. I'm embracing flexibility and following the Primal Blueprint Carbohydrate Curve recommendation to stay between 50g – 100g of carbs a day. This worked out great for me during my last challenge, and I'm optimistic I'll succeed again. I’m using the Banting Green/Orange/Red lists as a guideline; each food has a cost in points: Green List: 0 pts (free!) Orange List A: 1 pt per serving Orange List B: 2 pts per serving Red List: 5 pts per serving Goal: 3 points per day, +5 flexible points per week A: < 104 points | B: < 116 points | C: < 128 points | D: < 140 points | F: > 135 points Movement (2 STR, 2 DEX) A waterbender has to practice to increase their skills! And I am badly in need of some movement. I'm focusing my exercise on two main areas: steady and flexible. Anything goes as long as I keep moving. Examples of exercise are listed below each movement type. I’ll be recording time spent, with total time counted at the end of the challenge. Slow, Steady Movement (STA) Walking Hiking Cycling Goal: 3 hours a week A: > 12 hours | B: > 10 hours | C: > 8 hours | D: > 6 hours | F: < 6 hours Flexible Movement (DEX) Yoga Dance/Pole Stretching Goal: 2 hours a week A: > 8 hours | B: > 7 hours | C: > 6 hours | D: > 5 hours | F: < 5 hours Water (2 CON) This is a no brainer in a water based challenge, right? I'm not drinking enough water currently, I need to be. Plain ol' H2O, sparkling water, fruity (no sugar added water), or caffeine free tea all count (Uncle Iroh would be proud). Goal: 8 cups every day A: >= 100% | B: >= 85% | C: >= 70% | D: >= 50% | F: < 57% Money Management (1 WIS) After doing taxes I realized I'm doing a terrible job of tracking and investing our savings. I have a number of tasks I need to do to get control of our income and debts, these can be done all at once or spread across the challenge as needed: Update our Net Worth spreadsheet with current values Determine how much we can afford to save each month Determine how much we can afford to give charitably each month Decide where to invest our savings and set up auto-deposits into savings accounts as needed Decide where to give money and set up auto-deposits for those charities as needed Evaluate my 401k plan at work Goal: 6 tasks A: 6 tasks | B: 5 tasks | C: 4 tasks | D: 3 tasks | F: < 3 tasks Tracking Spreadsheet

Hi all! I'm Fedaykin, a 25 yo bookworm and tea enthusiast from the beautiful PNW! Last challenge was all about building healthy habits. This challenge is about doing the things that make me feel good and refraining from sabotaging my positive attitude! Limit snacking/desserts Snacking and desserts are where I lose self control and that brings my mood down. I'm limiting myself to having a snack or having dessert, not both in the same day. Drink 100 oz of zero calorie liquids a day Last challenge I was drinking more water and it felt great! This challenge, I'll increase the amount. Follow exercise plan opening shifts (Mondays and working weekends): body weight workouts, Tuesdays/Fridays: rest, closing shifts (Wednesdays): cardio, days off (Thursdays and off weekends) : bike or run on local paved trail Complain less I've noticed recently that I've been complaining too much. I am going to change that negative self talk and improve my outlook! Question: Anyone know of a great way to drink lots of water at work without toting around a giant water bottle? I work retail (front lanes manager) and can only really step off the floor and into my office every 2-3 hours.