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HAPPY NEW YEAR, ASSASSINS!! I'm here! I'm ready to kick some ass after a solid end to 2017! (To be honest I had a shit end of 2017, including two funerals and a polar vortex. And I still managed to get my workouts done, read my books, save money...I feel good about it.) I'm about 85% of the way through my yearly goal setting activity. I reduced my areas of attention from six to seven, which feels great. I think I'm ready to start tackling some diet improvements, so one goal is to include at least one diet-related quest in each challenge. An overall theme for the year is letting go, of material possessions, of worry, of obligations--and keeping new things to a minimum. Quest #1: Work out three times per week. I've set a slightly higher goal for 2018 (120 workouts for the year, ~15% more workouts). So, once again we have the old reliable of challenge goals. Quest #2: Journal three times a week about food-related subjects. This can be working through the Nerd Fitness Academy diet modules, or some handouts I have about emotional eating, or something new and intriguing. But I'd like to take the start of the year to just do some thinking about what I eat, what I want to eat, and why. Quest #3: Carrots for days. I will make sure I have carrots & some kind of healthy/protein-y dip (greek yogurt/hummus/guacamole) on hand every work day. Quest #4: Finish kickstarter!! The rewards have lingered too long. Get these out the door by end of the month. Remaining tasks: Proof the books Create & proof the cards Print books Print cards Write handwritten versions Stitch the towel versions* (can go into Feb) Write custom poems* (can go into Feb) Alright, team! I'm ready to slay!

At the end of last challenge, @Manarelle pointed out that if maintenance is a challenge, it's a challenge! So not many changes here: Quest #1: Three workouts per week, at least two with full cool down. I know I've been moaning about how this is going to be hard with my sister here and today just proved it. Tuesday, when she was sleeping, I felt a-ok about working out, even after she woke up. Today she was up before me and I was like, 'OMG EXCUSESSSSS'. WHY AM I SO WEIRD ABOUT WORKING OUT IN FRONT OF PEOPLE. I tried to let myself feel the full measure of disappointment that I missed this, so I can remember that and have more motivation not to miss again. In any case, I got over this with my partner and I'll get over it with her. I am going to share my workout schedule with her so she knows so I have even a bit more accountability and maybe even a buddy sometimes. Quest #2: Lights out by 10:15 pm every night plus get out of bed by 7:25 am. Yup, same as before. I'm trying to sort out what my ideal get-out-of-bed time is. I think it's 7:10, for Reasons that are opaque to me. Today I messed up on these, which contributed to my "omg I am going to skip my workout" issue this morning. Quest #3: Go for a 10 minute walk four days a week. I am groot. I am groot. I am groot. Quest #4: 20 mins on kickstarter, five days a week. The kickstarter ended, it was an amazing success, and...now I have fucktons of work to do! I want to get this done ASAP and keep up the momentum here. BONUS: 10 minutes of writing a day. This is what I wanted for my quest, but it also felt like piling stuff on since I know I'm going to be really focused on the KS reward production. I feel like my mental state is a bit unsteady at the moment; I feel really full of fear and anxiety and questions and hopes and dreams and self-doubt. The only thing that reliably keeps me feeling good about life (other than sleep and exercise and getting outdoors, see above!) is writing, whether it's creative or journaling. So I will get bonus points every day I do 10 minutes of writing. Goals check-in for end of 2017: NEED ACTIVE SUPPORT: WRITING: Finish my poetry kickstarter. DANCE: Finish my dance kickstarter reward. CAREER: Finish the sports card project I've been putting off. AUTO-PILOT/SUPPORTED: HEALTH: Do 104 workouts this year. (79/104, behind by 3) FINANCE: Establish $5k of planned savings. ($1650/$5000) LIFESTYLE/ENVIRONMENT: Read 16 books. (14/16) RELATIONSHIPS/SOCIETY: Finish She Should Run incubator.

So my life goal on the last challenge was to start the Kickstarter we were working on, but we had some logistical issues (manufacturer quotes and questions) and it didn't start in February, so my challenge failed, boo. Buuuuut, we hit the Start button last Friday! Hurray! If you'd like to take a look, it's here: Gravity Duels We're also working on a Thunderclap for it so more people will see it. Here's the link to that: CLAP I'm still in the "running around seeing how else I can share it" phase, so if you've got any ideas, let me know I'm also working on keeping my health and fitness up during this - I'm doing well on my eating habits but I need to figure out more ways to squeeze deadlifts into my routine!

Hi Rangers! After a bit of wandering around, (hi warriors, adventurers, and druids!) I've settled into Rangerdom. Rangerhood? Rangerness? This will be my 4th challenge 1st in the Ranger thread, and may be the toughest yet. I've been working with a personal trainer, last month my first PT transferred to a different location and I just started working with a new one, which upset the flow a bit. So new PT focus is going to be on my eating habits (which tbh are pretty good, but we're still establishing the best current caloric/nutrition balance), losing body fat (currently sitting around 30%, I don't have a specific goal yet in mind at the moment), and gaining endurance ('cause I still get winded pretty easily). That's the easy part. The hard part is that I'm starting a Kickstarter on the 20th, so work/life/projects/Kickstarter balance is going to be waaaaay out of whack, and I need to make sure I don't over stress, over commit, over kill, over sleep, over etc. - it's a very druid goal perhaps, but I need to make sure I don't burn out, or overcompensate and turn into a potato. Potatoes don't get stuff done XD CHALLENGE 1: 30 minute intermediate level cardio workout 3x a week PT recommendation, and I want to stick to it. So not just walking, but either faster pace, uphill, some sprinting, indoor constant activity, etc. I'm at the point where I can pretty much walk forever, but I need to kick it up a notch. Definition of intermediate for this is: can say a sentence or so, but need to catch breath afterwords. As luck would have it, my last round involved doing this once a week, so Hurray! Incrementing! SKILL INCREASE: Stamina CHALLENGE 2: Photolog food daily PT wants to see what I'm eating and what the Carb/Protein/Fat balance is. I'm already pretty good at logging daily on MyFitnessPal (100+ day streak, woot!), so this is another daily step. It will also help me to see what I'm eating (lots of protein shakes/bars and chicken/veggies, lol). These are goals I can make up on a different day, so long as I do log and send it w/i a few days. SKILL INCREASE: Wisdom CHALLENGE 3: SLEEP. Make sure I get to bed by midnight daily. I want to make this 11, but I need to be realistic about my work habits... but also not go to bed in the wee hours working on things XD So extra points if I'm in bed by 11. Extra point will cancel out decremented points. And yes, this includes weekends, 'cause I'm old (not really). SKILL INCREASE: Constitution I will also be going to PT at least once a week and going to the gym with my brother once a week, but not goals 'cause they're established now, yay! :3 LIFE GOAL: START A FREAKIN' KICKSTARTER! Not to worry, this will be my third rodeo for this (1 fail, 1 successful), so I know what it entails, and my business partner is also helping out. The good news is that we have an established fanbase through Flip Hue and a pretty awesome local community that's super helpful, but we'll still need to branch out in marketing to get a larger client base, and also we need to kick in to high gear for the logistics (like, you know, graphics, making the Kickstarter video, finishing the product lol). The ultimate goal is to get everything done and out before GenCon, so we can have 2 games to sell, and that's the beginning of August, so a pretty lofty goal with manufacturing. And by all means, if anyone has any questions about this, feel free to ask! SKILL INCREASE: Charisma I will post my stats in my signature spoiler area :3

I've been unemployed for quite a while. I'd been a stay at home mom, and then after my divorce, I was unable to find any work, and it just stretched on and on. I applied wherever I thought I had even the tiniest chance of being qualified, and over the course of several years, got a grand total of one interview. I ended up getting turned down for that job because of my credit score. While struggling with the job search, I started making jewelry to keep myself occupied, since it was something I could do to keep myself somewhat busy. Eventually, I decided that if I couldn't find a job, I'd make my own. So I began listing my jewelry for sale on Etsy. So far I've gotten a few sales, though not a lot. I'm struggling with finding ways to get out there where people will see my jewelry. It's especially hard to do when I've pretty much tapped out what assistance my family can offer. Currently, I'm attempting a kickstarter to raise the money to set up a booth at my local farmer's market, though with just 6 days left, it really doesn't look like that's going to work out. I'm looking for any advice that might help. I've tried so many places in those "free places to advertise" or "tips for free marketing" type articles, but honestly they seem to just lead to places where tons of people are posting ads (mostly for scams or direct sales) without ever really looking at any of the other postings. I just don't know what to try now. Sadly, most advice I get is "borrow the money from someone" but that's really not an option for me. Does anyone have any suggestions?

I was just um...kind of down an internet black hole. But anyway, I found this! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1965740681/lumafit-worlds-first-fitness-tracker-for-body-and What do you think? I think it's an interesting concept but doesn't do some of the stuff like the wristbands do (sleep tracking, etc...) Would you try one? I might...I'm considering. I'm also considering getting a wristband tracker thing. Especially for my sleeping, as I am not feeling 100% on that lately. Interested to hear other Nerds chime in on this one.

I was told about this by a friend here on NF, and wanted to share it with more like minded folks, just in case you weren't aware. It is an online yoga program that has 16 different courses based on interest and level of proficiency (over 200 different classes total), and you get rewards and can "level up" like Nerd Fitness and there is social sharing with other members. So it seems like its a Yoga version of Steve's Academy to some degree. It is the highest funded Yoga Kickstarter ever, and it's only been live for about a week! I'm really excited about it and thought y'all may be too So check it out!! My Yoga Pro

One of my life goals has been to get a novel published. Well, this evening (November 6, 2013) I launched my kickstarter project with a thirty day window to fund the printing and distribution of a completed novel. But, there is a catch. The catch is I cannot complete this life goal without help. The only way I can publish the novel is to come up with the project funding and reach my pledge goal on the kickstarter project. I cannot do that without you. Please go visit the kickstarter project found HERE or paste this link in to your browser and check out the details http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1163624572/rise-of-the-herald-the-debut-novel-by-mark-e-malco . Thanks for your time.