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I'm a 40yo Assassin who came looking for new ventures on NF about 2 years ago. I've gone through a fair amount of challenges and I am now looking for a different pace to get on with my usual goals. Time for a Battle Log! So what are my usual goals? Persian I spent the last 4 years of my life very close to the infamous Assassin's castle Alamut, and I want to keep up with my Persian. My spoken Persian is holding well as I speak it with my other half, but my spelling is quite poor. My mother tongue is French and I don't always spell the different types of aa and rrr correctly (because French doesn't know those subtleties). The way to go is therefore to read MOAR and on a regular basis. I have kinda been failing at that the past 2 weeks erm... Hand balancing These days my main focus is on honing my press to HS. I get it, sometimes, but very inconsistently and it's not always very pretty either. The second focus is to make my HS foundation as solid as I can (consistency, endurance, starting to get some kind of shape and transitions vocabulary). I train primarily on parallettes but I'm starting to integrate exercises on blocks and/or my hands. Why did I not start with the obvious, i.e. on my hands? Well because I love parallettes and many body weight progressions were impossible for me to do from the floor. I went through GMB P1 and P2. I covered about 3/4 of P2 until raw strength became quite limiting (I could not press to HS from bent arms). This is why I moved onto straight arm press to HS. I did Garage Gym Girl's programme and managed my first press to HS in September or so (after about 6 months of training). All this to explain that I still have a bit of “must complete P2” thread hanging about in my brain. It's not high priority but I still try to include some bent arm work in my training (elbow levers, crows, HSPU progressions). Aerial In September I started going to 2 circus classes, one is cross-disciplinary (acrobatics, juggling, handstands...) and mostly for fun and discovery. The second one is aerial, which I used to do before I moved next to Alamut (where they don't have aerial studios really). I have a home rig that allowed me to maintain some level of conditioning but of course I have lost some. So here is to starting again. I'm mostly into rope and silks. And I like to do aerial with a ball, why keep it simple when you can make it super complicated This thread will be about progressing on aerial skills with that ball again, including throws and rolls. And that's it for now. I have other interests that might pop up every so often: drawing, DIY attempts (I recently started a giant tree for our cat), poetry, science-fiction and I have some moderate druid tendencies (spirituality / gardening). My daily job is tech wizardry. (Like every wizard throwing spells for a living, I have my up and down days).

Hello! I had my first challenge over here (with a wee intro). I do mostly parallettes, low-height aerial (in-house apparatus) and some flexibility/stretching work. My second quest will be some sort of a continuation of that (improve lines/sleakness/stability). This time around I'd like a bit more focus on strength where it's lacking (shoulder/back, hand and knee grip), get into the habit of having a slot for creative work: movement flow/improvisation/choreography/ a bit of physical theatre. Start small but do something. So here we go (I'm testing the format during this prep week to see if it works, might adjust but more or less it would be like this): Goal 1: bent arm press => work on that shoulder angle (can't manage 90 degrees atm) and be more stable 3 sessions a week, with the following 3 sets: slow press negative to tuck hold x3 x4, bonus point if I can link reps. If I can't, I should get back up with a pike press Scoring: points for each rep properly completed, bonus points for linking Straddle bent arm press increase from 3 to 6 reps Scoring: points for each rep properly completed Alternating each session: bent arm press hold up to 120s (sufficient max for the purpose, I doubt I will hold that long anyway). Scoring: hold time. crane hold up to 120s. Scoring: hold time. HSPU negatives x3. With cushions and against the wall... Scoring: number of reps + bonus if I can get back up... Goal 2: aerial drills => increase one-hand grip, knee hock strength, and sleakness... 2 sessions a week with two moves in each session: A - Front balance Basically this move (starting from 2:33 til ~3:10) but a simpler variation after front balance: https://youtu.be/A7VfGi6Lubs?t=2m33s Scoring: pretty scores for 3 runs on each side (right & left) 0 is epic fail. 1 is getting to front balance and back. 2 is sequencing a bit further. And the score is adjusted for fluidity / sleakness (or absolute lack thereof!). B - Knee climb This is a knee climb hocking one knee on each silks from the inside. My apparatus is a bit low so I can't really do more that one step... but it's enough work for now since I can't do a full hang (no hands on) from this. Scoring: pretty scores for 3 runs, move is assymetrical so no need for left vs right scores Best score (2/2) would be hocking, hanging completely from the knees only and going up without using the silks for assistance, all the while being fluid / clean. NB: The scores are just there to measure progress if any, I don't mean to hit 100% on each move by the end of the challenge. Goal 3: assassin level up Create a one-minute (or so) aerial mini-choreography with an assassin-related theme, record it with appropriate music, do some video editing, and see what happens! There is no scoring for this. The objective itself really is to find a regular slot for improvisation, routine work and movement-based goofiness / exploration. It's more likely to happen during week-ends when I'm not in a rush and have a more settled mental & physical space. I want to manage this slot at least once a week. So 5 sessions for this challenge, it's not that much even for a tiny routine. But will see, let's try at least. I want to use the prep week to see exactly what the heck I'm gonna do, get the basic theme and music sorted, and see if I can get some sequencing already.

Dear Community, 2 years ago I came accross the article on Maya who performed aerial silks. I got very intrigued and I decided this week to take my 20 sec of courage and do a class. It was a disaster, I was unfit, I could lift myself and it was a horrible experience. I quit the training after the 2nd session, but I don't call it quit. I am really out of shape, and I would like advice on what I should train to be able to actually take a beginner class. If someone has any tips that could help me, I would really appreciate! Thanks !

starsapart: A Brief and Abridged History I think an anniversary challenge calls for a bit of retrospection, doesn't it? I found Nerd Fitness in summer of 2014 after someone sent me one of Steve's articles. I'd been on a health and fitness journey since April of that year, which had marked an all-time emotional low point for me. I'd latched on to weight loss as a silver bullet of sorts, with this vague idea that if I could just be conventionally attractive, my life would sort itself out (spoiler: it doesn't work like that). Finding the forums really helped me start to find some joy in movement and began my slow journey to mental recovery. I had a serious injury in August of that year after a brief trial of parkour, which forced me to start building my upper body strength while my broken ankle was in a cast. I didn't really know what I wanted to do once I was healed, but around that time, I met @sylph, who opened my eyes to the crazy idea that an adult could absolutely learn to be an acrobat. I started aerial in November of 2014, at which point I was about 50 pounds down from my highest weight and feeling a lot better about life, the universe, and everything. I stuck to the forums, becoming a member (and then briefly the commander) of the Cutlasses, then an ambassador for the Assassins. I was just about 80 pounds down when I was featured as a success story on the Nerd Fitness blog, one year after my fitness journey had started. My mind was much healthier in a lot of ways by then, though in retrospect I realize I had slipped into disordered eating in the form of orthorexia. I never addressed this on the forums, but I ended up having to undo a lot of mental tangle again to fix my broken-in-a-new-way relationship with food. Based on my doctor's insistence in 2015, I actually had to regain a small amount of the weight I had lost. Still, things were going well overall - despite additional injuries and setbacks, my aerial skills improved greatly. I got my first pull-up. I started performing. I became a guild leader for the Assassins. By mid-2016, I felt like I had my health and fitness sorted, and with life getting progressively busier, I left the forums for several years, though I retained some of the great friends I had made here and at CNF 2015. Then 2019 rolled around, and my life changed drastically again: my wife and I adopted a baby! And this was very exciting! But very exhausting!! I lapsed (completely) on lifting weights. I lapsed (a lot) on making good food choices. I lapsed (a little) on training in the circus gym. I came back to the forums in December of 2019 in hopes of finding some support as I tried to right my course. That brings us to today! I survived my return challenge and I'm back for more. I definitely don't have time for the careful selection of song lyrics and themed gifs anymore, because #momlife, but I do have goals! I am performing in a major circus production close to the end of this challenge (the shows run March 13-15) and I've been frantically rehearsing and preparing, which has done a lot for my consistency. Still, there are a few things I need to address as I prepare for the show. As such, my goals are as follows: GOAL 1: NUTRITION GRAB BAG Last challenge, I got back on the food tracking bandwagon, but I didn't address exactly what I was eating and when. I was batting around several nutrition goal ideas, but ultimately, I think I'll do a grab bag. I am aiming to earn 80 points by the end of the challenge, meaning I need to earn 2+ points a day. I can earn (or lose) points in the following ways: Caloric deficit (1800 calories or less) : +1 IF (eat only between 11am-7pm) : +1 Vegetarian day (I already try to do this once a week, but this will hopefully be a nice motivator to do more) : +1 Zero junk food day (no chocolate, no chips, no cookies; a serving of dried fruit or nuts is fine but eating a whole bag of either is not...) : +2 Caloric surplus (2100 calories or more; I can take a bye on this if I've had a very physical day, i.e. 3+ hours of aerial in a row or 10 miles of snowshoeing or something) : -1 Excess sweets (3 or more in one day) : -1 Skipped tracking (lack of best-effort tracking in MFP) : -1 GOAL 2: LIFTING REDUX I had a lifting goal last challenge and I mostly stuck to it, but I don't feel confident that I've built a sustainable habit yet, so here we go again, Lift two times a week, better three. Anything counts, even if I just go down and do a 5x5 of bench press and then call it done. I get a bye on show week - no lifting required at all the week of March 8-14, because I will basically be in the gym or the theater every bloody day and I'm going to be massively fatigued. Depending on how I feel post-show, I may require only one session the week of March 15. GOAL 2B: RECOVERY IS KEY I had to suspend my lifting goal due to changes in my aerial schedule. Instead, starting week 3, I am looking for foam rolling sessions after every practice and performance. GOAL 3: FLEXIBILITY I've been pretty lax on stretching outside of rehearsal warm-ups. My wife and I occasionally do yoga videos together, but that's not super consistent, either. I'm aiming for two flexibility sessions a week. They need to be a minimum of 15 minutes and can focus on splits, straddles, backbends, whatever. Yoga counts. Aerial practice or class doesn't count, unless I specifically take a flexibility and contortion class. GOAL 4: FAMILY TIME I'll run this one grab-bag style as well, aiming for 15 points by the end of the challenge (to be adjusted once I see how this goes). I earn points by: Family meal (everyone, including baby, sits down to eat together at the same time) : +1 Family walk (Around the block or to the park or whatever, but it has to be outdoors) : +1 Fun family outing (anything from storytime to going to the aquarium; going to the grocery store obviously doesn't count) : +1 I think that's plenty to focus on this go around. I have a few big disruptions hitting during this challenge as well: Feb 21-24, we're heading up for a long weekend at my family's mountain condo with a couple friends (yes, we're taking baby), which will include lots of fun activities but also probably lots of food. March 9, my daughter turns one! Cue more food and lots of prep (her party is on the 8th) and general insanity. Finally, as previously mentioned, I've got a show running the weekend of March 13. So, here we go! Sending shoutouts to @stillskies, @blkhole24601, and @Kagetsukai to get their fine asses back here for the anniversary challenge. C'MON LADIES, JOIN THE FUN!

I am still trying to decide on how to round out this challenge buuut the primary focus of this challenge shall be my current weak points that are causing me to flounder and flounce sadly in aerial: grip strength, lack of chin up/pull up., lack of endurance in the air. (I am also still sort of doing a cut in that I still have a little bit of tummy chub I am working on losing, but I would really rather make sure I have enough food to fuel my workout schedule and lack of sleep so I am more doing maintenance + trying to eat more veggies and don't eat like an asshole. I'm more about intuitive eating than tracking and it's been making me lose teh fats so far sooo HEY stick with what works I suppose!) ANYWHO!! GOALS!! Grip training and static holds- Hang from my baby silk for grip training on all my off days from workouts (and also possibly on days when I do something not grip heavy like dance or working with my trainer if I have time/ energy!) When working on grip training also train static hold in both bent arm hang and straight arm/ dead hang, with both silks together and with both silks separately( and also if I have enough juice in my arms do bent arm hang and straight arm/dead hang on pull up bar for extra credit.) Pull up training - 3x per week minimum work on pull up/chin up stuff. This can be negatives, jumping pulls, band assisted pulls or whatever. Aerial day and trainer day will most likely count for 2 of these days and then I need to mix in at least one more day of this in the week (may shoot for 2 days since I am currently doing trainer day on Monday and aerial on Tuesday.) Life Goal- Lipstick - I never wear lipstick and I'd like to because I like the way it looks. SOOOO GOAL TIME! Wear lipstick at least 1x per week. I'd love this to be on a work day but if it is just me wearing lipstick around the house on the weekend to get used to how it feels then that's still something! This totally worked for me with getting myself to wear eyeshadow (which I now do 90% of days) soooooo here's hoping I can get myself to do this at least a few times a week as a habit!

I need something new and shiny to kickstart 2018, so I got myself a brand new battle log! I have a whooole bunch of shinies to chase this year, it's going to be great. My plan is to screw the four week SMART goal framework and chase them on my own terms, i.e. inefficient and haphazard, but with gusto. Everyone keeps telling me you can't do everything at once - to that I say pfffft. Here are things you can expect from this log Handstands Climbing Aerial Pole Flow Acrobatics Flexy things Strengthy things ??? Oh and fooood! Goal thingies 2018 Because what's new year without setting way too ambitious goals? Fitness goals The big theme for the year is to improve my freedom of movement. Upside downness Handstands every day yo! Yup, the whole year. (2/365) Flooow I have a bunch of Marlo Fisken flow videos. I want to master them Scary stuff This is a big one, I'm such a scaredy cat and I've developed a bunch of weird mental hangups this past year Tuck and straddle jump to HS Forearm stand HS to bridge Back walkovers HS forward roll Honestly, pretty much any kind of tumbling Some kinds of pole HS Heel kips Topping out when climbing Stop hurting myself Less fun but oh so necessary. A little more focus on prehab won't hurt me. Other Some other more or less vague goals Climb 3 6cs Become strengthier (better push ups, moar pull ups) Run a little Play on my new toy - an indoor aerial rig Don't take things so seriously Other goals Cook 100 new recipes (0/100) Read 50 books (1/50) Travel somewhere cool To contradict the last goal I also want to increase my savings by €10000 Use my hands more Get a non-movement based hobby I really don't expect to nail many of these goals, but that's not what new year's is about right?

I finally had my Assassin Level Up and have now gained a decent mastery of Teleportation by freeing the little Red Ball from the silks. I also started linking bent arm press reps on my parallettes. But the real grit is yet to come... On the programme: more conditioning (the beatings will continue until morale improves)... some string theory (aerial puzzles)... experiments in fluid mechanics (sequencing, movement quality, improvisation)... ~~ Overall goals – the usual suspects ~~ Increase push/pull strength More back flexibility Up aerial practice ~~ Artefacts and challenge companions ~~ A pair of parallettes Silks hanging from a low-height in-house aerial rig Red ball Teenage tabby cat ~~ Implementation plan ~~ Goal 1: Push-Pull - 3x/week - 12 sessions (Warm-up on floor & equipment) Core sets – 12 sessions: Bent arm press linked reps on parallettes x2+ set 1 Dead hang to inverted pike x3 from bars (no silks / wrapping to catcher Left / Right) Bent arm press linked reps on parallettes x2+ set 2 Long arms straddle up x2+ each side Supporting sets - alternating 2 workouts – 6 sessions each: Support A 1-arm hold progression LR Bent arm press hold on parallettes with ball Support B Meat hook progression on silks x2+ each side HSPUs in sling: 3+ reps working on good form Adding reps / moving to a new progression = bonus Goal 2: Bend - 2x/week - 8 sessions (Warm-up – general/prep stretching) Standing back drop to support / Elevated Jefferson curls Camel bend back drop / Pancake Elbow stand hold to bridge on sofa back to front / Legs behind shoulders/neck Aim at 3+ sets for each Goal 3: Apparatus puzzles - 1x/week - 4 sessions Low-height rig puzzles: find ways to wrap high enough modify / tighten moves to limit sliding / slack find decent exits when the floor is very close Try to solve at least a couple of those issues. Practice on both sides. This will require some prep during the week to get into my session with ideas ready to test. I made a little aerialist paper model to check my knots on a wee string. Here it is in a belay Examples of puzzles: S-wrap entry → helicopter → exit Belay entry with enough height left to hang from Catcher → angel → exit Ankle hang … Goal 4: Movement quality - 1x/week - 4 sessions Practice a mini-sequence but instead of doing plain reps, use each repetition to work on movement quality and improvise on it. e.g. minimalist / slow and sustained / flickery / body part focus / organic vs robotic / small vs big Have some plan for each session and report briefly afterwards about what works / does not, findings, dead ends and so on. Practice on both sides. Goal 5: Sequencing - 1x/week - 4+ sessions Work on sequencing with a bit of music. In my last challenge, I had a similar goal but I got myself entangled into a lot of constraints (theme / story / music / ball taking up space / different video takes to be put together). It still worked out and it was useful to get more training time in but I'd like a bit more freedom on that one. No upfront constraint on theme / music / length / moves. But still take a final video for accountability. Because my week-ends are Thursdays-Fridays, I will start on Saturday rather than Monday. In the meantime, I will continue my prepping to check specifics / feasibility / timing. Have a good challenge everyone!

For the ones that already know me - OHAI! For the ones that don't - Yay, glad you're here! I'm a dabbler in all the shiny assassiny things like circus and pole and climbing. Some say I get easily distracted -SQUIRREL! Oh uhmm... yeah they're probably right. But that won't stop me from DOING ALL THE THINGS (badly). I'll add some more goal type thingies when I feel like it, but for now I want to take off the challenge pressure and just hang out here in this battle log. Hope you're cool with that.

Hi everybody! I'm coming in late for the current challenge but I read somewhere than better late than never Quickly on my background: I'm a 38 yo woman, used to do powerlifting and then aerial dancing (silks and rope). I stopped aerial for 2 years and a half (needed a break and moved to another country). During that break, I kept weight lifting, more as maintenance than anything else. Then got myself parallettes and did about 3 months exclusively on them (GMB parallettes 1, which was very enjoyable). And 2 months ago I got myself an aerial apparatus, not very high (~2m60 or so) but enough for me to train again at home (no aerial classes where I live). I now train about 5-6 times a week, alternating parallettes+aerial and stretching routines. Length and intensity depends on how my body feels / how much rest I need (can go from 20mn to 2 hours, but usually it's about one hour in the morning before I go to work). I'm fairly consistent with my workouts but I have a tendency to go all over the place, and I'm a bit nostalgic of the level I was at, it can be very frustrating. I can do some tricks but I want to be able to start sequencing again and make it look good. I'm hoping to find some focus here, and feedback/support, see what people do with their own training, learn from that. The challenge format looks very promising and I love the guilds idea Let's see how it goes! What else, I'm a typical nerd in some ways (sys admin and developer for a small organisation), shows I like: Battlestar Galactica, Spirals, and I'm currently reading the whole Inspector Rebus series (Ian Rankin). I love languages, be it programming languages, natural languages, body languages... So here we go: Medium term quest (say a few months from now): create a 2-3mn video of a solo choreography on my mini aerial apparatus Challenge quest #1: improve my body lines / gracefulness. I tend to be very forceful or a bit wobbly and it's not a pretty sight. I want to do my usual workouts but focus on alignment / stability / tempo. I'm entering late so it's only a 3.5 weeks challenge for me :~ Goals press lines: 3 times a week: 3 sets of 3 reps of straddle bent arm press on parallettes focusing on movement control and quality (lines). I hope to see improvement in quality rather than just knocking reps. I thought maybe I could grade quality for each set: 0 = ugly, wobbly or less than 3 reps | 1 = passable | 2 = pretty (of course pretty is subjective and my bent arm press is not that pretty but let's say I can feel a difference between: holy crap that was horrid / mhm sort of okayish / not bad at all, and I take a video to check it out) Evaluation on 3.5 weeks: 11 times => 3x11 = 33, maximum pretty score = 66 aerial lines: 3 times a week on silks (sorry for the aerialist jargon, I could get pictures if needed) - drill: straddle up with straight legs from the floor (x3 left/right) - drill: same knee hook from straddle (x3 left/right) - drill: beats from same knee hock to grab the pole above (x3 left/right) - mini sequence: straddle up with straight legs from the floor to same side knee hitch to hip lock and back to floor focusing on movement quality (straight legs at all times, minimize arm movement): 3x left & right. I will grade quality here as well (0/1/2). Evaluation on 3.5 weeks: 11 times => 3x11 = 33 (on each side) for each drill, and a max "pretty" score of 66 for the mini sequence (I don't really need a "pretty" score for the drills). And there will be a score for my right side and my left side (poo!). Always stretch properly after each strength workout, I want to block a slot of 10mn doing various shoulder & hips/legs stretches, and not cut it short because I'm in a hurry or can't be arsed (bad habit!) Even if I have stretching sessions on their own, I feel that this bad habit has been a bit self-defeating. Life level up: smile (genuinely) to people the first time I see them (strangers included) I hope the goal setting looks ok. Goal 2 must be hard to read with no aerial background, basically it's drills and sequencing. The actual action is much simpler than the wording of it :~ See you all soon!

New challenge = new profile photo! Continuing down the PvP road with Hatter from last challenge, plus publicly available PvP ab/core torture videos this time around. Whee! Abs - PvP ridiculousness! +5 points for each completion of a weekly abs vid Inverts - I want a straight arm, straight leg invert on the silks or the rope SO BADLY. To that end, +5 points for focused practice around that. On apparatus or off, but not inclusive of the core PvP stuff above. This is dedicated hollow body work, pike reverse crunches, etc. Also (perhaps not intuitively) this is also some types of lat work--of the straight armed push down variety, so don't be weirded out when these get scored for points. Flexibility & PreHab - Flexibility is important for circus folk. So is staying healthy (shoulders in particular). To that end, I'll finally be taking my flexibility and prehab seriously. (For serious) All kinds of things count for points here--random 5-10 minute stretching at my desk because my shoulders are tight (and similar) +2 points. Actual stretching routine, such as Starting Stretching or What should stretching feel like +5 points. A real and actual prehab routine such as something from CirquePhysio or similar +8 points Choreo & Flow - Stringing together at least two skills in a clean and/or interesting fashion. Specific skill practice +2 points. If I happen to shoot a video of choreo or skill linking? +5 points. (Note: in-class stuff generally won't count for this as most things we do are at least two skills strung together) Diet - I've been hanging on to some extra fluff for way to long. I have about seven pounds to lose. From past experience, counting calories works well for me on this. Track every day, stay within calorie limits +2 points per day. Other things to know: Next week I'll be on staycation, which alters my schedule dramatically and puts a huge cramp on my ability to get to the circus gym, so lots of off-apparatus stuff going on next week. US Holiday, Labor Day is on 9/4. Circus gym will be closed (this is my usual open gym day, so boo) Destiny 2 releases on 9/6. I will be binge-playing this game for many days. Will not be attending circus class on 9/6 (Wednesday is my usual class day) I've also got some cardio work that I should be doing and at least one muggle workout per week (woman cannot live on circus alone, especially if said woman is trying to lean out a bit) Title, in case anyone is confused: tightens up = weight control; stretches out = flexy and prehab; turns over = inverts Official scoring start date TBD, but getting all this down in electrons will get it out of my brain.

Still pondering my exact goals for this! I realized in early June-ish (or maybe late may?) that I wasn't quite happy with how things were going. I had "needed a break" on my hectic schedule because of my overbooking for the last few years, but then realized I'd cut TOO MUCH out of my schedule, especially exercise and training and I wasn't really happy about it. 1) Exercise makes me really damn happy and I love doing it. 2) My fat loss stalled out because I had stopped exercising but kept eating about the same (luckily no fat gains, just the slow overtime weight loss stalled out on me.) I also have come to realize that I have become SO MUCH better at adulting and managing money but I could be doing SO MUCH BETTER. This might be partially inspired by the fact that I am finally getting quotes on all the home maintenance and repairs we need to do and having an actual budget would be so helpful in the long run for me -- as well as making myself put money in savings both for house expenses, for my own emergency expenses, and for fun times savings. Developing a budget and figuring out how to track it will be a thing! I already track expenses manually though an app but I haven't been applying that exactly towards an overall budget/ I more do that to make me have to think more about where I am spending my money and know how much I have at any given time, but now is time to make GOALS to do with spending teh money and not just tracking it! I am looking into possibly switching my tracking app to something that has a budgeting feature in it (this one tells me how much I've spent in my different categories if I look at it but it isn't the main feature.) If I go with another app I want it to be something I manually have to enter numbers into and not something I have to link to my bank account that will then calculate out everything for me. I am much more conscious of my spending if I have to do the data entry myself! Soooo with these general goals in mind: 1. Running - run 2x per week (can sub a walk or hike in for a run if I want to or need to.) 2. Aerial & Aerial conditioning - Continue with aerial 1x per week and add one aerial conditioning workout per week. This can be included into my required strength training for the days for the week (make sure I add pull up work and core work into whatever workout I am doing.) 3. Strength - strength training at minimum 2x per week. I will opt to NOT include aerial in this so I am doing 2 extra strength days = 3 days overall of strength stuff because of aerial. I do want to get back into lifting but I realized last challenge that the workout I will actually do is better than specifically wanting to go lift, so if at home bodyweight work is what I will actually do then I will take it!!! 4. UPDATE! Adding in macro goal starting week 2: track macros every day, especially on weekends when I decide beer is kind of like water. Life goals: BUDGETING - Phase 1- develop budget. By the end of this challenge I want to have selected which app I plan to use for tracking (or if I plan to use something else figure that out??), and determine my areas I want to track and how much cash goes into each category. ADULTING - Continue with decluttering and cleaning missions. Clean at least 30 min per week. Also - continue progress on house repair plans which is harder to quantify but, by the end of this challenge I want to have figured out our final budget we need for all the repairs and apply for the home equity loan, and then begin scheduling out jobs if I know a firm date when the $ will be available

Okay! First, read this. I'll wait. http://www.laurawitwer.com/2017/06/29/post-laura-witwer-ego-smashed/ That blog post hit me preeeeetttty hard in the feels. When my circus gym reopened after >1 year, I somehow expected to pick up right where I left off. Amazingly, this did not happen. I spent a few months bootcamp-ing, aerial style and when i had some strength back, jumped back into a skills class. My ego did not take this well. I'm finally to the point where I'm feeling somewhat strong most classes, but I definitely have the "Comparing myself to myself" moments come back and bite me in the butt. So, it's time to focus on improvement from where I am now rather than comparison to where I was then. To help with keeping my focus in a forward direction, Hatter and I are going to do a PVP-ish challenge. Goals and scoring are below. Structured Circus – Class at least once per week (silks/rope) +5 points per class Stretchiness – At least 2 out-of-class stretching sessions (at least 10 mins each) per week. One of these can be body-maintenance type stuff (foam rolling, etc.) if desired. +5 points per session (additional sessions per week can count for additional points) Abs – Video Challenge at least once per week (alternating who chooses each week or we each choose one each week for both of us to do). +5 points per video completed (each video can count more than once if done in the week it is the Video Challenge) Life goal – Mindful eating. Cut the random snacking. Eat meals. Consider whether you're actually hungry or just bored. Don't eat just because it's time to eat if you aren't actually hungry. Unscored Bonus – Photo or video progress on crow pose. Eventually I'd like to get to firefly, but one thing at a time, here. Unscored Extra Double Bonus – Plan vacation. Huge work stresses mean our usual summer vacation plan has been pushed back. Something not terribly far away or stressful to get to and inclusion of some fun activity and forced relaxation all at the same time. Alrighty, aside from all that, work next week is going to be exhausting as we have a huge inspection/accreditation visit that will take up most of my working hours for the entire week. I'm hoping circus will help keep me sane. And on the fun side, the beta for Destiny 2 is out on July 18. yay! Right after hellish work week, some time to play. Is that it? I think that's it...

This will be a work in progress since I am ultimate stress-panda right now. Hopefully will have some time to breathe post race this coming weekend and then finalize my goals for the rest of the challenge (aerial will definitely be on the list once I have time to brain and breathe again!) For this week my only goals are: UPDATED GOALS as of Week 2! GOAL 1 - ENDURANCE - Run at least once per week and do a good walk at least once per week (hikes also OK, and if I run or walk more than once that is also OK!) GOAL 2 - LIFTING - I MISS LIFTING. Slowly ease back into lifting 1x per week on Sundays, because I like how dead my gym is on Sundays and I am finally over my mopeyness that my trainer left and realize I NEED TEH LIFTINGS. GOAL 3 - AERIAL - Aerial once per week. If I can't make it to my usual day, replace with core and pull up progression work. (If I go back to lifting on Sundays I cant really do open gym for aerial unless I want to do both in 1 day and that sounds like a bad idea.) GOAL 4- Life goal: DECLUTTER - This has been an ongoing goal for forever I know, but yeah. Declutter at least 30 min per week! WEEK 1 GOALS (Already past, but for a refresher!) 1. Run final prep run before race either Weds or Thurs. Trying to decide which day is better. If my sleep is going to be total shit this week I should probably run tomorrow/Weds so I get actual time to recover for a few days pre-race. 2. Pack for race trip earlier in the week so you don't have to stress last minute on Thursday night (key note: I don't want to deal with actual overhead baggage and I am not doing checked baggage so I am strategizing how to fit everything I need in one small backpack) 3. Figure out how to lower stress level NOW. At minimum enough so I can actually sleep. Sleep would be nice. Current strategy is I have cut out class for tonight and any plans I had for tomorrow. May also cancel on nerding on Thursday night. ANY plans are causing me aaah aaah stress give me my time back mode right now.

BEHOLD the challenge in which I pretty much do exactly the same goals as last challenge, but with NEW silly pictures. (SO FANCY!) JUST KIDDING! I added one goal that is totally new! 日本語, bitches! :D! GOAL 1- STRENGTH Strength training at least 3x per week! this can be bodyweight training, aerial, or lifting. OPTIONS, YO. I am especially determined to get my chin up back some day soooo yeah ALL the hanging and pulling and ab work! GOAL 2 - RUNNING Running 1x per week! I sucked at actually getting around to this last round so sticking to aiming for once per week and not ramping up just yet. GOAL 3 - MACROS Track macros on weekdays for duration of challenge! I am happy with keeping track of these during weekdays. It helps me make sure I am getting enough protein, and since I am getting used to seeing about how much food I need to eat during the weekdays I still mostly stick to that on weekends even if I skip tracking on those days. GOAL 4 - JAPANESE OH LOOK I ADDED A GOAL. SO FANCY! Study Japanese every day for at least 15 min (at bare minimum this means doing Anki flashcards due for the day.) I am SO MUCH BETTER at knowing how to develop habits and get better at things than I was back when I was getting my BA in Japanese. I never really did enough work on reading because "it was haaaard waaaah" and go figure I always sucked at reading and it held me back on getting better. Also just in generally I did not do enough practice on the route to fluency and then I just was like whateverrrrr I am out of practice guess I will just stop working on this at all. But yo, I LIKE studying languages and it is super fun and who cares if I don't plan to move to Japan or something; it's still a fun skill to have and to work on. Like...I do aerial and I'm not planning on joining a circus yo, so my whole "meh but it isn't useful enough" excuse is dumb. Also, I occasionally see jobs that want native English speakers fluent in Japanese and I'm always like THAT COULD HAVE BEEN YOU DUDE BUT NOOOO.... Anyway, LOTS OF REASONS. DO THE THING! WOOT! Life Goal: GET SHIT DONE! GET THE THINGS DONE WOOHOO. I copied over my list from last round and will add to it as I see fit. My goal is to get ONE of these things on my list done per week. LIST OF LISTYNESS: Gather 1 bag of stuffed animals or clothes for donations or to trash because no one wants it (depending on the stuff!) I gathered 3 total! Yay! Move box of books into the closet. Declutter the damn floor so you can actually move the desk and the AC unit and vacuum and stuff. - partial! water bottle graveyard is gone! Disassemble your old desk. Trash/Get rid of old desk. Move air conditioner to correct spot once desk is gone. Set up new air conditioner once moved. Move furniture around in more useful configuration. (Even moving one thing or coming up with some schemes will count for this.) Come up with better way to organize clothes and make things more accessible (this will also be a big process.) Deal with water-bottle graveyard in my car -- partially! Reseal leaking window on the studio appt DO TAXES/ Do house finances/rental income info spreadsheet for me and brother Come up with more expanded flea prevention scheme AND enact (last year was flea hell and it looks to be getting hot even earlier this year. DO NOT WANT. I want to do stuff NOW rather than wait until I actually see the little fuckers. I already started the kittehs back up on spot treatment, but I think I also want to upgrade to a better flea comb and maybe do a house treatment with borax..which will be a pain because I have to keep the cats out of the space to use that so I am thinking a room by room process and locking them elsewhere will be the way to go.)

I am sick so this is a super rough draft of this until I am feeling less like death. DAMN YOU IMMUNE SYSTEM AND STUPID SINUSES! Going for something like: Goals: GOAL 1- STRENGTH Strength training at least 3x per week! this can be bodyweight training, aerial, or lifting. OPTIONS, YO. (Want to get in pull work, push work, core work, and SQUATS because I have been neglecting squats and push lately since I no longer work with a powerlifting trainer who makes me do this stuff. And I actually LIKE push ups, so that should be easy to make myself do?) GOAL 2 - RUNNING Running 1x per week! Assuming this rain-pocalypse chills the F out this should be easily do-able. (Would like to ramp this up to 2X per week eventually but lets start small, yo!) GOAL 3 - MACROS Track macros on weekdays for duration of challenge! I am trying to dial this in for a bit again to make sure I am getting enough of the right things. I am chronically under on overall calories and lately I have been craving pasta like OMG PASTA. Once I started tracking a bit and eating more protein that seemed to help a bit. (Although also I think getting some damn SUNLIGHT FOR THE LOVE OF GOD would be helpful. I actually ordered a light therapy lamp so I can give myself some artificial sun time when we don't get sun because WTF CA we have had days upon days with no direct sun and it's seriously effecting my mood. I looked into it and SAD can actually cause weird shifts in dietary cravings as well, particularly a crazed desire for carbs, on top of the emotional shit sooo strongly suspecting I has this but it has literally never come up before because I live somewhere that is obnoxiously sunny 90% of the time... USUALLY!) Life Goal: GET SHIT DONE! I have a huge list of stuff to get done (which is in progress to add here!) Goal is to get ONE of these things on my list done per week. LIST OF LISTYNESS: Gather 1 bag of stuffed animals or clothes for donations or to trash because no one wants it (depending on the stuff!) I gathered 3 total! Yay! Move a box of books into the closet. Disassemble your old desk. Trash/Get rid of old desk. Move air conditioner to correct spot once desk is gone. Set up new air conditioner once moved. Move furniture around in more useful configuration. (Even moving one thing or like, coming up with some schemes will count for this.) Come up with better way to organize clothes and make things more accessible (this will also be a big process.) Deal with water-bottle graveyard in my car -- partially! Reseal leaking window on the studio appt DO TAXES/ Do house finances/rental income info spreadsheet for me and brother Anywho, LETS DO DIS!!

For this challenge, I'm just modifying what I've been doing so that it works a little better for my life. Last time around, I did pretty well, with a paleo-oriented eating plan, and a pretty strong weights and cardio routine. This time, I'm taking the other responsibilities and activities into my life and hoping to work with them to find good balance. 1. Determine the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow! Every week, I've got aerial class twice a week. This includes low-flying trapeze (YAY!) and fabric (um, yeah, whatever). So that's two hours or more of aerial core and strength work, plus warmups and cooldowns. To make the grade, I'll go to both classes, work my transitions really slowly, and for bonus points, head to the open gym at the aerial studio once a week. 2. Continue to Seek the Holy Grail! This is all about diet. I had a very successful five weeks on paleo, and have continued into week zero. But starting week one, I want to expand my options just a tiny bit. Two times a week, I can have whole grain oatmeal or cornmeal mush. No instant anything: I'm talking either rolled oats or steel cut oats, and a little maple syrup. If this doesn't "sit" well in my stomach or triggers GERD, then back off it right away. Also, I'm allowed one extra non-paleo breakfast, lunch, or dinner a week. If it causes GERD, I have to write it down and avoid it. Previous things that caused GERD included: a store-bought slice of pizza, a buttery croissant (mmmm so delicious but sooo very painful). I'll have more things on the list. 3. Ride the length and breadth of our lands This is to make sure I'm saving the planet and getting healthier at the same time. Any day when it's 40F or warmer out at 6:30, and the forecast doesn't include precipitation or wind speeds over 25 MPH, I'll be riding to work. Oh, also, unless I have to pick my son up from school and take him to Karate. There's just not enough time for all that... I know, that's totally a fair-weather plan, but it's fine by me. 4. Say "NI" again! Finally, I'll continue with my PT. It'll be part of my workouts this time, and will need to be done 4 times a week. I'm a lot healthier, and am feeling stronger all the time. Because of this, I've been slacking off on my PT. While I don't think I need to do easy PT 6 times a week, I think I need to keep doing the harder stuff (weighted lunges etc). So four times a week it is. There are some caveats: If I'm traveling, I get a pass on the paleo diet. It's just too hard and/or expensive to always find what I need. I'll still eat healthfully, I just won't be such a draconian caveman about it. Same goes for ski days etc... if we're skiing, it counts as exercise because really, 4-6 hours of doing lunges down a mountain is a LOT of work. So that's it!

I'M BAAAAAAAAACKKKKKKKKK! As you may have noticed I was totally MIA for December because life was NUTS and then I was sick and also I wanted to hermit to get some downtime from life being nuts. OOF. BUT DECEMBER IS OVER MY FRIENDS!!!!! I took my December hibernation break to give a long hard think to what I wanted to work on for the coming year. And my conclusion is HEY WHAT ABOUT ALL THIS OTHER STUFF YOU WANTED TO DO before you got TOO BUSY with all the dance shows and more dance shows and more dance shows. Like, all your OTHER goals? Yeah THOSE! DO THOSE YO. Some examples: 1. Wanted to work towards doing a Spartan Trifecta. Had to eliminate running to save all leg muscle impact for dance. 2. Wanted to be able to do a pull up. Had to stop doing aerial because I couldn't fit it in with my dance schedule or lifting schedule. Stopped any work on hanging stuff along with the aerial. 3. Stopped lifting for 2 months because my rehearsal schedule got too hectic and the human body can only do so much exercise. 4. Stopped doing aerial for 6+ months because of rehearsal schedule. 5. Stopped doing most bodyweight workout stuff including push ups and squats and crazy core workouts because of rehearsal schedule. So basically I was doing gnarly amounts of exercise, BUT NOT THESE THINGS. And I MISSSSS THESE THINGS. I decided to skip the winter show because I need a break to do these things AND I also just need a damn break from having rehearsals. Burn out is bad. We must avoid burn out! Anywho!! Without further ado: !!!!GOALS FOR THIS CHALLENGE!!!! GOAL 1 - AERIAL Aerial at least 1 x per week (long term goal: get back to intermediate level aerialist so I can get to doing creative stuff) GOAL 2 - Bodyweight Training Bodyweight workouts at least 2 x per week and must include pull up progression work/hanging (long term goals: be able to do unassisted pull up, be able to do 30 push ups in a row & long long term be able to do handstand push up) GOAL 3 - Running Run at least 1 x per week -- this will be slow and run/walk for starters! (long term goal: be able to run half marathon distance so I can do longest Spartan length) GOAL 4 - Lifting Lift at least 1x per week (Long term goal: Awesomeness? I would like to be able to bench and squat my own weight on the bar for starters!) LIFE GOALS - Lipstick! Wear at least 1x per week to work. Bonus point if you find that special straw you bought so you can wear lipstick and be able to drink things without it fading and BRING IT TO WORK. Declutter! Continue massive room overhaul project. I can't decide how I am going to set parameters on this. Let's say must spend at least 30 minutes a week on room decluttering. (I usually will keep going as long as I can get myself started so likely will do more than 30 min/week!)

Woo! Let's try this again, eh? After a very stressful end to 2016 both personally and professionally, I'm trying to get back into the fitness habit. My circus gym has been closed for over a year, but is reopening this week and I'll be back in the air on the day this challenge officially starts. Seems like a sign, or something, so I'm going to take another stab at challenges. Why not? Note: if you've been here before, some of these goals are going to look very familiar. I keep not-quite-succeeding, and so keep making the same goals over and over again. 1. Circus, Circus, Circus I've been grounded for too long and with it went much of my motivation to stay fit. Through a combination of open gym sessions and some aerial boot camp classes, my goal is to be airborne at least once per week. I am VERY curious to see where I currently stand. I know I've lost a lot of strength; I hope it comes back quickly. Staying motivated and managing expectations will be big components of this goal. 2. Muggle Fitness Once/week isn't much overall for exercise. Two other workouts per week, whether that's an additional aerial class, time with the weights or even just 30 mins on the treadmill. 3. What Goes In More water/less Coke. Less alcohol. Track food (not necessarily calories). Most carbonated beverages that I drink are Diet, Caffeine-Free Coke, so not terrible, but water would be a better choice. Limits: 2 cans Coke/day No alcohol on school nights Write down all food. 4. Procrastination via Organization @karinajean's thread made me aware of what a bullet journal is. I have an extra notebook lying around, so I thought I'd give it a shot.

Late poster, but I was trying to plan a little differently this time. I want to succeed and I want to believe in myself, so I took a lot of time planning this out. I've tried challenges in the past, but I faded off the track every time. Every part of my life was falling off. It took my partner pointing out what he saw to get my attention. He told me that I was showing signs of depression. At first, I disagreed, then...I thought on it. Yeah, I've definitely been dealing with depression this past year, increasingly worse. It's hard for me to admit. It's not fun or pretty, but once I accepted it things became more clear. I shouldn't hate myself for giving up, I've been dealing with a monster of a boss battle. Depression sucks. That being said, I've taken this holiday break to think about what I really need, really want, and ways to fight this. Here it goes. My big year goal: learn aerial dance. (That hoop hanging from the ceiling thing.) It's a healthy goal option for me than just "lose xx pounds". Hope to join a class in summer. Also, I've decided to make reward cards. I have a stack of index cards with prizes on them for when I complete a challenge well. Challenge Goals: Eat homemade meals 6 days of the week (18 meals) Cardio x3 a week Yoga x1 a week and Body Weight workout x1 a week Glass of water with each meal (3 a day) Good luck on yours!

Happy New Year, beloved nerds! Welcome to 2016. If 2014 was the year of personal transformation and 2015 the year of settling into my own skin, I hope that 2016 will be the year in which I expand my successes into realms other than the physical (while continuing to hone my physical skills and being a BAMF, of course!) I start this year injured and rehabbing but not discouraged. I'm good at being the underdog. Between illness and injury and holiday madness, the last few weeks have been full of gluttony, missed workouts, and stress. I'm not a resolutioner in the traditional sense, but the end of the holiday season, marked by the coming of the new year, does bring with it a chance to settle into routine, which I really appreciate. And I do like the continuity of long-term goals, especially with the challenges getting shorter, so here is my list of concrete goals for 2016: Get my finances under control: cut down my CC debt by at least 1/2Rehab my injured leg to 100%Perfect and perform at least one aerial routine for an audience WITHOUT CATASTROPHIC INJURYPerfect the straight-arm/straight-leg straddle-upBench press 100lbsAnd here is a list of my more amorphous goals/desires for 2016: Make more memoriesWrite moreSpend more time with my familySpend time with my friends, especially those who I don't see as often as I shouldComplete at least one "wish list" remodel on my house, provided it doesn't interfere with my financial goalsIf it works out, become a parentA bit more detail about all of these below: All of that said, I spent some time considering the purpose of my battle log over the course of the last few weeks. With the challenge breaks shortening to a few days, the use of my battle log between challenges for fitness tracking seems unnecessary. Instead, I hope to use it for four things: Tracking my progress towards the big goals listed aboveKeeping an index linking to every 4WC summary so that they're easily accessible in one place at the end of the yearWriting about my thoughts and whatever topics catch my fancy - baby steps into blogging before I decide if I want to get myself a wordpressSharing some of my instagram photosSo hopefully following this thread (for those who choose to do so) will prove interesting and very different from my challenge sprints. Ready? Let's kick 2016 in the teeth.

I've realized this last challenge was an excellent exercise for me in maintaining balance soooo I am going to keep mostly the same goals for this round! NOW WITH MORE CAT GIFS!! :D!!!! Goal 1: EXERCISE Maintain exercise plan for maximum happiness but NOT into oh hey where did my life go? territory. Parameters: work out at least 3 x per week Goal 2: DOWNTIME & FRIENDS Have AT LEAST one evening off during weeknights in order to hang out with friends OR cook stuff/ downtime whatever I need, and at least one day a weekend with at least a 6 hours IN A ROW chunk of downtime/friendtime. GOAL 3: ADULTING Dedicate at least 2 hours per week to adulting pursuits! (Does not need to be in a row.) Cleaning, reorganizing, meal prep, anything adulting related is fair game!! GOAL 4: HEALTH I still never got around to scheduling my dentist appointment before the end of summer...sooo I am keeping this goal just with one thing.. MAKE THE DAMN DENTIST APPT ALREADY!!! Hahhaha Life Goal- BALANCE! Maintain balance!!! I shall strive to be self aware of if the above plan is NOT working and make alterations if necessary.

ALMOST NEW CHALLENGE TIME! This last challenge hit some setbacks in the form of a giant adorable old man kitteh sized hole in my heart (lost one of my dear furbabies.) This challenge I am focusing on how to keep up with all of my various exercise shenanigans WITHOUT totally overbooking myself/ with actually leaving some time for downtime and for socializing...not that I don't get social time when I AM working on a dance show etc., but it is only with dance-fam people and I neglect every other relationship in my life. These past few months I've actually been hanging out with my good friends who aren't just dance people and it has been AWESOMEEEEEEE. And I'm like OH YEAH I HAVE OTHER FRIENDS YOU GUYS! Also, I am seeing someone and I have good feelings about how things are going, so yeah leaving time for that is important! Important note: I am too lazy to pick just ONE theme so expect the theme to be silly shit I find on the internet that suits my mood at a given moment. Buaahahhaha. I am still playing around with specific goals so expect this list to change a bit but: Goal 1: EXERCISE Maintain exercise plan for maximum happiness but NOT into oh hey where did my life go? territory. Parameters: work out at least 3 x per week, including at least one lifting day, aerial day (trying to get this back in my life!) and dance day. Goal 2: DOWNTIME & FRIENDS Have AT LEAST one evening off during weeknights in order to hang out with friends OR cook stuff/ downtime whatever I need. and at least one day a weekend with at least a 6 hours IN A ROW chunk of downtime/friendtime. GOAL 3: ADULTING (I am aware this picture is in no way related to this goal but it made me LOL soooooo....) If you looked at all at my last challenge you know I have a big list of stuff to get done and regular adulting type shit to maintain! Dedicate at least 2 hours per week to adulting pursuits! (Does not need to be in a row.) GOAL 4: HEALTH This could be included under adulting but I have a few specific things I keep neglecting to get around to. In the duration of this challenge take blood pressure once per week, AND actually go do your damn bloodwork (yes I really didn't get to this last time. Oops.), AND schedule dentist appointment for cleaning before the end of summer sessions/ when work will get crazier. AND bonus points for me if I do an eye appointment as well (less crucial and I don't have particularly bad eyesight but I try to do this every few years AND I like to have some prescription shades around for if I am driving a lot. I can do fine with non-script but I have good insurance sooo let's do this?!) Life Goal- BALANCE! This is the overarching goal I am trying to achieve in all the things above, but my specific mantra this round shall be to do my damndest to maintain balance. I shall strive to be self aware of if the above plan is NOT working and make alterations if necessary.

"And I get so overwhelmed till it's hard to tell what I'm thinking We get down down down we feel sorry for ourselves we get down down down we all need somebody's help let's get loud loud loud till there's love and nothing else cuz the more that you give the more that comes back around..." What it says in the title, guys. Life has been pretty chaotic lately - pretty good, but CRAZYSAUCE - and I just need to focus on basic things. Like, wow, super basic. I'm putting my life back in order now, and have been for the last few days, so this challenge is going to be all about continuing that momentum. My goals: Quest 1: Keep Cutting (+3 CON) After eating like an asshole for awhile, I need to cut. Ughhhhhhh cutting. Okay. Easy scoring. Did I eat under 1800 calories? Or did I not? DO THIS AT LEAST 6 DAYS PER WEEK. Quest 2: Keep Lifting (+3 STR) No more travel = no more excuses. Did I lift 3 times a week? Or did I not? Quest 3: Keep Flying (+3 DEX) Work on some aerial thing I suck at at least 1x per week. This oldie but goodie is always a great goal for me and gets me results. Life Quest: Be Present (+1 CHA) Check into the forums at least 2x per week.

I have never done this before so I am attempting to kinda make this into a story kinda plot line for my own amusement. Maybe it will help me out and actually keep on top of things, My goals are going to be pretty much circus/ strength training. Goal 1: Fitness 5 training sessions/week (usually i am at the studio Monday- Thursday 1-3 classes a day) (3) Run 1x/week (3) Walk 1-3 miles a week. ( I see this as reasonable since Pokemon Go keeps me moving most of the day!) (3) Goal 2: Circus Goals Continue my Monday - Friday schedule (3) Hand stands on the wall 3 days a week (3) Get the ever elusive cross back straddle. (10) Work on Pull overs on Lyra! (5) Work on Pull overs on Trapeze! (5) Goal 3: FOOD! Eat small meals through out the day. ( I am super bad about only eating once a day...) (3) No sodas. Not even Sprite. (5) Eat a healthy meal choice other than crap food. Potato chips are not healthy.(3) Meal Plan. Its a lot easier than me last minute planning cause then i just get junk food.(3) Goal 4: Money My house is always super tight when it comes to budget. Our paychecks seem to disappear before they are even in our hand. Mine goes to gas, food, pet supplies and then I send a whole bunch on crap I don't ever use. My goal as far as money is going to be making our budget stretch farther and save $20 every check. I get the feeling this will fail but it is worth a shot. I am super excited to give this a try. For each goal that i accomplish I will earn points(jewel shards)

HI ALL!! Life has calmed down and I finally feel recharged! I actually have the luxury of free time to reel in some things I haven’t had some time to expressly focus on lately, namely FOOD. I did not have time to cook for the majority of the past few months and I miss 1) having a firmer grasp on my food intake and 2) I JUST MISS COOKING. My diet is actually pretty decent, but I’d like to take the time while I have it to zoom in on my macros a bit more and also track what I am eating. I am really really determined to dial in ways to get more veggies AND to increase protein intake significantly w/out going nuts with fats! -----GOALS----- GOAL 1: Track food intake daily for a snapshot of general overall calorie intake and macros. I am playing around with what exactly I am shooting for. Running some basic TDEE calculators over at IIFYM, maintenance would be 2039 calories or so and ideally I’d like to aim for slightly under that and do a slight cut (I’m thinking 1900-ish calories per day, except deadlift days & deadlift recovery because GIVE ME ALL THE FOOD DAMMIT.) Also, my Vegas birthday-cation I am eating as much as I please!!! I really need to get my actual body fat percentage tested some day, but by looking at articles comparing the way different fat percentages look my body looks close to the pictures for 25%, or maybe even slightly less fluffy than 25% but estimate is OK with me as I am just starting in this figuring out Macros game! Estimating out 1g of protein per lb of lean mass leaves me at 108.8 g of protein, which I am going to round up to 109 g. calculator on IIFYM for maintenance (2042 calories per day)= 116G protein (1g protein = 4 calories) 464 calories 22.7% 51 G fat (1g fat = 9 calories) 459 calories 22.5% 280 G carb (1g carb = 4 calories) 1120 calories 54.8 using same percentages, shooting for 1900 calories = protein = 431.4 calories = 107 g fat = 427.5 calories = 47.5 g carbs = 1041.2 calories = 260.3 g Tweaking slightly to adjust for my lean mass calculation — my goal macros: protein - 109g per day, 436 calories fat - 48g per day, 432 calories carbohydrates - 259g per day, 1036 calories Total = 1904 calories GOAL 2: Meal prep! Prep meals at least once per week for your lunches and breakfasts at work. I will also add as part of this goal — making more veggie related snacks to up my veggie intake -- that would be most excellent! To have a more specific quantifiable thing - bring or make at least one veggie related snack from home to bring to work per week. Goal 3: Maintain current training schedule (or even add a bit!) Strength train 3 times per week including once per week with trainer & at least one cardio work out per week (ideally a run or hike, but a lunch walk is better than nothing!) And do some GTG type training every day! (this could mean frequently throughout the day, or it could mean just a few sets here and there when I have time!) Goal 4/ Life Goal - DECLUTTER & CLEAN I am currently dealing with the result of 6 months+ of not having enough extra energy to put into cleaning and decluttering. The clutter in my room especially is SO BAD YOU GUYS I HATE IT. On days when I have at least 2 hours of free time spend at least 5 minutes cleaning! (Once I get started I usually go for more like 10-20+ minutes, but it’s the getting STARTED and doing something I struggle with.)