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Introduction: I leveled up in a big way my last challenge and proved to myself that I'm a Beast by completing my first Tough Mudder Half. I'm planning to do a Full Mudder in October. My weight keeps fluctuating around the 206-212 range, but I'm learning to not put so much focus on the number. These quests have worked for me so far, but I'm still working on turning them into long-term habits. There's a 5K color run coming up that I want to run, so I need to work on my cardio stamina, which is hard because I've been having foot pain lately (plantar fasciitis). There's also a series of free 5Ks this summer and I'd like to run as many of those as possible. I'm still trying to find my overall purpose and direction — the though of which derails me sometimes. But progress is being made and I'm determined to keep it up. For a full introduction, check out my battle log. Main Quest: My target weight is 180 pounds. I'm aiming for July 4, my seventh year anniversary at my current location/job. But I recognize that my weight is just a number and that it's not absolutely critical for me to hit it by that deadline. The important thing is that I feel good and comfortable and confident, and every quest is designed to get me there. Quest 1: Complete my assigned Bodyweight exercises three times a week and complete a cool down afterward. I will update these daily on my battle lof you want to see details and follow along. A = Complete workout/cool down 3 times a week. B = Complete workout/cool down 2 times a week. C = Complete workout/cool down 1 time a week. D = Complete 0 workouts/cool downs in a week. F = No physical activity. Quest 2: Walk and/or jog every day with my dog Booklet and complete a cool down afterward. I usually track these with the RunKeeper app on my battle log as well. I'm also tracking my miles on my Walk to Mordor. A = Walk/cool down 6-7 days a week B = Walk/cool down 4-5 days a week. C = Walk/cool down 2-3 day a week. D = Walk/cool down 1 day a week. F = No walking/cool downs. Quest 3: Drink less alcohol. A = Have no more than 3 drinks per week. B = Have no more than 5 drinks per week. C = Have no more than 7 drinks per week. D = Have no more than 9 drinks per week. F = Anything more than that. Quest 4: Cook paleo meals more often, eat out less. If I do eat out, I will find healthy/paleo-ish options. A = Eat out no more than 2 times a week. B = Eat out no more than 4 times a week. C = Eat out no more than 6 times a week. D = Eat out no more than 8 times a week. F = Eat out more than 8 times a week. Life Quests: Sleep better. Read more books and power down for bed every night. Less screen time. Motivation: I feel like my lack of self confidence is a big obstacle that gets in the way of enjoying life and taking chances. I'd like to look good, so I can feel good and live life to the fullest.

I need a simple challenge to prove to myself that I can do this. I did really well the first month on NF but then went way too overzealous and it didn't work out. Plus, life has kinda punched me in the face and threw me for a loop. BUT I want to continue striving towards my ultimate goals. Get a flat stomach, strong arms, achieve the splits, read a lot, and Platinum more games. - Rogue Strength - Goal: Complete 5,10,15 routine as found on Pinterest MWF. Stretch, yoga, or dance on off days. - Kitty Pride - Goal: Complete the challenge. Encourage myself and focus on the good things. - Dark Phoenix Empowerment - Goal: Audition, email, or read about career M-F. - Jubilee Gameing - Goal: Continue towards Platinum-ing Rise of the Tomb Raider. - Mystique Nutrition - Goal: Eat at least one fruit and one side of veggies each day. _.-*-._.-*-._

Phoenix is probably my favorite character, so Imma channel her this round. Strength 2 NFA workouts + warmup/cooldown per week. I am still level 1, but I am going to bump up the difficulty of a few of the exercises as I can for this challenge. At 2 weeks, I'm going to try to beat General DOMS again. Total 8pts Cardio/Toning 2 classes per week - preferably 1 Zumba and 1 Pound, however that will depend on babysitter availability. I love having an excuse to get out of the house and get moving doing someting *other* than go for a walk. Total 8pts PT 3 PT leg exercises per week - not on class days. The knee I injured and ultimately needed surgery is not happy with my newfound movement. I need to get back into the habit of doing my band exercises to strengthen the small muscles around my knees so I don't reinjure myself. That would be bad. Total 12pts Food I am adding a goal of 1 serving of fruit per day with a minimum of 5 per week. Total 20-28pts Random Bonuses Since the Cardio and PT aspects focus so much on my lower body, I'm going to give myself bonus points for any upper body workouts I do that aren't a part of the NFA ones. This may include a random set of doorway rows, stair push-ups, baby presses or curls, or anything else that's just a standalone arm exercise. Not more than 1pt per day None of the at-home exercises (NFA, PT) take a super long period of time, so I just need to willpower myself to take care of it when baby naps those days. Everything will be logged in my journal (new journal coming soon because I wanted to give the dot-layouts a try for ease with design and trackers and whatnot, so pictures forthcoming!)

Nightcrawler_Bamff Beats Back The Blob! "Professor? Professor! We need backup! Professor!" The cry came over loudspeakers placed invisibly throughout the facility. Nightcrawler flew off a bar high overhead, flipping, and landing silently next to the professor. "Scott! What is it?" "We're engaged with the Brotherhood, but Blob is missing. I just overheard the police radio that he is across town robbing a bank. I think the rest of the Brotherhood are just the distraction, but it is taking all of us to keep the civilians safe. We cant get over there." Professor Xavier turned to Nightcrawler. "Kurt, I know you just got here and have yet to make a decision about staying with us, but I must ask for your help. I have no one else I can send to stop The Blob." "Heir Professor, I owe you my life. I will help you in this and make my decision later." Charles leads Kurt to a nearby TV screen and turned on the news, where a man larger than any Kurt has ever seen is standing outside a bank with bags of money in each hand. The police have him surrounded and were firing their weapons, but the bullets never penetrated his massive belly. "Mein Gott!" "Fred Dukes' mutant ability allows him to distort his own gravitational field, making him essentially immovable and allows his girth to stop nearly any projectile, as you can see." "How far is zis?" "It is quite close. I believe this is why the rest of the Brotherhood are causing mayhem on the other side of town; to draw the X-Men as far away as they could. This bank is only about one mile from here." BAMF! With a puff of smoke, Nightcrawler disappears from Professor X's side and appears facing The Blob. "Well arent you cute! Xavier sent me a pet!" "Zis does not need to get any uglier zan it already is, mein freund. Put ze money down and ve can all go home." "Show me what you got, furball! Nobody moves The Blob!" Challenge 9 Our hero is up against his first true villain! I felt Blob was an appropriate adversary choice for a fitness challenge! Haha! I set this challenge up a little differently than I've done in the past, so may end up needing some tweaking once we get going. Inspiration taken from previous mini-challenges! Main Goal: Gymnastics! Aerials have been feeling good fairly consistently. Seems mostly at this point that I need to get over the mental block and stop putting my hands down! Also working on back handspring passes. Lost my round off-back handspring-back-handspring-back tuck on the tumble track a few weeks ago and am working to get that back. Also lost my round off-back handsprings on the floor, so working those again too. Quest: Beat The Blob! Blob's HP bar has 150 hit points. Each exercise point earned using the Weight Watchers program deals one point of damage. To encourage real workouts instead of walking the mall all the time, true workouts (which will be subjective deciding what that consists of) will be worth an additional two points of damage. Gymnastics workouts do not get this addition because I don't need that as motivation to go! Don't Feed The Blob! The "crash diet" I did for the first half of last challenge gave me good results and was not nearly as difficult as I had anticipated. I will repeat this for this challenge, with some tweaks. Six WW points allowed per meal One WW point allowed for snack once daily (the rest will be fruit/vegetables, which are free on the program) This makes up to 19 points allowed per day. Each point over these allowances, The Blob is healed for one hit point. I have several events planned during the span of this challenge, so this will happen more than once, and will be allowed! Though I will have to work harder to defeat The Blob! Splits: Still working the splits. Again, I will be doing one stretching session each work day and two on my days off. Each missed session will heal Blob one hit point. Life: Busy again!! 1. Volunteering with United Heroes for Hope 2. American Sign Language Interpreter Program application due next month 3. Emerald City Comic Con is also next month 4. Continue working on Gambit costume - before July, I plan to have armor boots, a homemade spandex body suit, and an extendable bo staff. 5. Start working on Star Wars costume if I have time - will need to be completed by July.

THE WAYS OF FUTURE PAST Part 1 – Finding My Way Again Last summer when I first found and joined Nerd Fitness, I embarked on a journey that awarded me fantastic results that were both very noticeable, and also came pretty quickly. I have stumbled since then, and it has caused me great regret and disappointment. I MUST find my way again. More importantly, I must find my Hope that this is an achievable lifestyle that I will sustain. Goal: Check in on NF at least 4x/week for all 6 weeks. Part 2 – Beast Mode No more worrying about my body shape. This is what it is. I’ll exercise it to keep it healthy, strong and full of life. …and whatever it ends up looking like? I will accept it. Starpuck and Proud! Exercise goals: Lift 3x a week Mobility 3x a week Other (hockey/bike/run/walk) 2-3x a week Rest –MUST incorporate an actual rest day! Part 3 – Eat, don’t Freak Last summer when I did so well? I wasn’t tracking. I was simply eating what I playfully dubbed as PaleoALMOST. It was more Primaly maybe? I dunno. Basically. Limit the stuff that comes in boxes and plastic wrap, eat more things that have only itself as an ingredient, and most of all, don’t freak out about every last calorie and macro. I know when I am being on track and when I’ve said fuck it. I MIGHT copy Wufkar and get me an Instagram account JUST as a way to take pics of what I am eating and post it for accountability. We'll see how it goes. Goal: 6 weeks of eating without obsessing. Part 4 – Find all the Mutants This is a side project I want to work on because I keep thinking about it and want to start actually DOING it. I love traveling and I have a goal of hitting all 59 National Parks in my adult lifetime. Sine 2006 I have visited 24 of them. I would like to pick a picture from each park to have nicely framed, with a placard showing the year visited, to hang in my office at work. I need to go through all my old albums, and pick out which picture should represent each park. I might even recruit some Nerd help and do it poll style! Goal: Pick out 22 pictures (2 parks will not be visited until after this challenge) for use in this project. Start Weight 155.9

Brand New Level 2 NF coming through. After having a successful Noob challenge and spending some time reflecting upon myself, I decided to join the Assassin’s Guild. I look forward to mastering my body weight, increasing my abilities and continuing to hone my diet. As before, I will work to keep all of my measurements up to date and will post on my responses: My Measurements Here are photos of my adventure: Why now? I’m getting married Aug 31 and I finally have time and energy to commit to the adventure. I’ve always been somewhat health conscious, but now I am working on being a bit more of a health nut. Quest: Decrease naval measurement by 2 inches, increase agility and strength Goals: Sweat! [ +2 dex | +1 sta ] Work out 5 days a week. Most likely alternating between body weight (BW) and interval (I) training. Grades: A: 5 days a week B: 4 days a week C: 3 days a week D: 2 days a week F: 1 day a week Climb! [ +2 str ] By the end of the challenge, be able to do 2 pull ups Grades: A: 2 hanging pull ups B: 1 hanging pull up C: 2 assisted pull ups D: 1 assisted pull up F: 0 pull ups Fuel! [ +2 con | +1 wis ] Decrease soda and grain intake: Grades: A: 0 sodas and 0 grains B: 0 sodas and 0 grains M-F C: 1-2 fails D: 3 fail days F: 4+ fails Life Quest: Sleep! [ +1 cha ] Get an average of 8 hours of sleep throughout the week. CHA points may seem weird here, but trust me... I'm much more amusing and likable with enough sleep! Side Quest: Ride! [ +1 sta ] Bike to work at least once during the challenge (towards the end, when it’s not crazy cold in DC)