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I recently read a tweet where someone said the best era of Doctor Who was when the production team was young, angry, and reading Swamp Thing. Honestly, 100% agree. That was way pithier than the way I said it a month ago to @Jarric , and also that is a real mood. Then I realized that I was also better when I was young, angry, and reading Swamp Thing. I lost my way. I am not the adult version of that person. Why am I not the adult version of that person? I had one job, guys. One job. So I'm doing what any sane person would do in that situation. I'm sticking Swamp Thing, retrofuturist cyberpunk vibes, Doctor Who, and Japanese jazz cafés into a blender and coming up with a challenge. What I'm gonna do this challenge is work on a morning routine. It's gonna be painful and I'll hate it. Welcome to surviving the dystopian future with some dignity intact. It'll also be good for me, and the appropriately mellow use of cool early hours when everyone is asleep, which I need to use now that I'm a retrofuturist jazz hipster with a coffee habit in an scientific-magical eco-horror universe. One half hour of walking. One half hour of meditation. One half hour of making art. That should blast the brain cells with some anti-ADHD juice first thing, and help it chill a little about braining the to-do list later. Then work. And even if I'm too exhausted from lack of sleep to go on living after that, I'll have done the main things for good future decision-making, hopefully. Maybe I'll even get my evening routine back on track. I'll lose sleep at first, probably, but I'm losing sleep now, so I might as well lose sleep the way that involves getting some self-care knocked out early in the day. Yes, that is 90 minutes of new morning routine before work. Fuck moderation, we're doing the thing. No one in a 1980s graphic novel or cyberpunk book ever approached things by making ten-minute incremental changes. I have a reputation to uphold here. An ethos. I'll spend the rest of my time being angry and reading Swamp Thing.

For this challenge, I am focusing on getting myself into a strong routine so that many of my good habits become automatic and consistent. I am also reading Aubrey Marcus's new book Own the Day, Own Your Life as well as going through the Youtube videos that partner well with the book, so as I progress I will probably be modifying my challenge a bit. Goals: develop and practice consistent morning and evening routines that build on the following: prayer/meditation study scripture bodyweight exercises make the bed drink more water cold shower brush/floss shave read more journal prepare for Spartan Daily: at least 30 burpees Mon: Sprints; interval training Tues: Strength -- WOD, HIIT, bodyweight training Wed: Sprints; interval training Thurs: Rest (yoga, meditation, brain training) Fri: Strength -- WOD, HIIT, bodyweight training Sat: Endurance -- distance/trail run Sun: Rest (yoga, meditation, brain training)

AERI CHASES THE WORMHOLE DAILY MORNING: 45m Workout 10m: rope 2m, w-up 2m, w-out 3m, stretch 3m Meditate 10m Tidy up & Get Ready 15m Check-in 10m: affirmations, review today For this challenge I will focus on my first morning hour. ... May add more details soon

This challenge is mostly a continuation of the last challenge for me, since I came in late and the things I was working on are still in progress ^^; There are some modifications though. Main Quest - Grasping the sword (getting up and fighting back against my mental and physical issues) Sidequest 1 - Daily yoga - I have my yoga set for 11am right now, which means I need to be up a bit before that to eat something (before you ask - I work 3:30-midnight, hence the weirdness of my schedule. I'm trying to roll back my timing so I'm up earlier and in bed before 4am) and I want to roll this back slowly over this challenge to between 9:30 and 10am. Oh boy. Ultimately I'm hoping to get enough of my muscle tone and movement back to be able to confidently get back into martial arts, and starting parkour again this spring. Bonus points if I get 2 runs in in a week now that the second gym at work is up and running again. SQ1 Tracking - 1 point/session of yoga, aiming for 7 points/week 1 bonus/grace point for 2 runs Sidequest 2 - Food tracking - I'm on Whole30 until the 15th, after which I'm going to try to keep a close eye on my intake of convenience and junk food and make sure I'm cooking for several days at a time so I have cooked food available that doesn't involve a drive thru. SQ2 Tracking - 1 Point/1 day food tracked (LifeSum), aiming for 7 points/week. 1 point lost for each weekday trip through a drive through / fast food spot Sidequest 3 - Community building - both for my own accountability and to help others in this community, I want to make sure I'm getting out in there and encouraging others <3 so I want to make sure I get at least 10 comments per week on threads that are not my own. SQ3 Tracking - 1 point/comment on a separate thread - can't be 10 on the same couple of threads ^^; Aiming for 10/week Lifequest - Organization - since the Bujo, schedule, and my house organization have become entwined, this is just all getting lobbed together on my challenge. LQ Tracking - 5 points for getting one room done over the week - aiming for 5 points/week Point scale - 29 points - A+ yaaaaay! 25-28 points - A- - not terrible, but could be better 20-24 points - B - ok, we're going to work on this a bit >20 points - I need to take a look at what other factors are causing avoidance and stress, and get back on track. I'll be editing this sometime later to give everything a more measurable way to track progress, I have to go to work right now (Edited to add trackability)

And so another thread for whats probably the longest respawn ever (man what a lag ) I started my respawn the last challenge and it didn't worked at all (at least according to my challenge goals but more about that later. First what's going to be my accountability list throughout this year and my self choosen mantra for challenges and life in total: PMA! FIND REALISTIC WAYS TO IMPROVE WHILE KEEPING ALL THE POSITIVE THINGS IN MY LIFE IN MIND! My Overall Goals for 2018: Fitness: - Run a marathon in 4:30 (Status: Marathon booked for October) - make running a habbit again - do speed-work (interval sprints and all that annoying stuff) - Make Powerlifting a habit (Status: Gym found, form and technic needs a lot of work) - change Gym payment to automatic wire so money isn't an excuse anymore Finances: - Invest money for my future (Status: Planning at around 80%) - read up on the ETF - purchase a ETF - clean up insurrances - Read 5 books on finances - "Souverän investieren mit Indexfonds und ETFs: Wie Privatanleger das Spiel gegen die Finanzbranche gewinnen" - "Kümmer Dich um Dein Geld, sonst tun es andere: In nur 15 Minuten pro Woche zum Geldprofi" - "Antifragilität ‒ Anleitung für eine Welt, die wir nicht verstehen" - "DIE DIVIDENDENFIBEL" - „Lean Startup“ - „Das Kapital im 21. Jahrhundert " - „Investment Punk: Warum ihr schuftet und wir reich werden" - „Das Tao des Warren Buffett: Folgen Sie dem besten Anleger der Welt auf dem Weg zum Börsenerfolg!" -"Cool bleiben und Dividenden kassieren: Mit Aktien raus aus der Nullzins-Falle" -"Dividenden Investor: Die Krise des Geldes und wie Sie mit Dividenden ein Vermögen aufbauen - überarbeitete Auflage" Job: - Decide work goals for the next 2 Years (Deadline May 2018) - Go to at least 5 networking events - Facebook and events "class" - Reeperbahn Festival (booked) - Most Wanted Music Berlin - Read 5 books that help finding a job you enjoy - " 4 hour work week" - " Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life " - "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change" - "Build Your Dream Network: Forging Powerful Relationships in a Hyper-Connected World" - "How to Win Friends & Influence People" -"Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One" - Magic Cleaning - Kondo Alexander Osterwalder & Yves Pigneur: Business Model Generation Ed Catmull: Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration Roger Fisher: Getting to Yes: Negotiating an agreement without giving in James Gleick: "Die Information" Maren Lehky: "Leadership 2.0" Kevin Dutton: "Gehirnflüsterer" Manfred Höfler u. a.: "Abenteuer Change Management" Personal Grow: - Learn Spanish - talk to the receptionist in spanish - try to order a table/meal in spanish - Make time for Date-Night at least once per week (and try to make something special twice per month) - Use Nerd Fitness Academy - DM a P&P round - prepare write up and coming event in advance (1-2 hours) - Try Wrestling training - Start a positive & achievement journal - update at least every second day - start preparing SMART goals - Participate in more VCA charity events - check helper pool once per week So for this Challenge I decided to start working on my mornings and my morning routine like I tried last month but this time I plan to do it more slowly and take in account what worked and what didn't worked: Challenge 1: Starting the day right Last time I tried to do a "how my morning should be plan that in retrospective totally failed this time I'll try to reverse engineer my mornings and based on that will try to incorporate changes. First week starting today till 18th February - Write down how the mornings actualy happened (when did I get up, what did I do, how was I feeling and so on) Second week: - monday try to create a weekplan that sets a wake-up time for every day and has 3 morning workouts in it - track how the days actually go Third week: - depending on the second week, when the workouts worked and I see that there has been free time. Try to add meditation to it. If not try to make week two goals work Last week: - track and evaluate, make goals/plans according to evaluation Challenge 2: Run to the Hills RUN FOR YOUR LIVE!!! (sorry not sorry since Maiden are the best band ever) I still have time to train for the marathon without getting in panic mode and to keep it that way I have to start training sooner rather than later. So for this challenge there will be some running goals - Find a running rout (20min) near my place and near my girlfriends place - Look for running groups that could fit my goals/tempo - Try if thursday running training can be part of my weekly plan (and where to move the movie day in that case) Challenge 3: A good breakfast I started preparing my breakfast sandwich in advance (using self made mayo (still needs improvement) and sandwich toast) and it's definitely and improvement on my wallet as well as my daily calories nonetheless there's still work to do - find a paleo bread alternative - prepare breakfast in advance - find out if putting fruit into my breakfast will increase my morning - reduce coffeee and more importantly coffee sweetener Challenge 4: Community work I really enjoy the supportiveness of the NF community so I want to participate in that again - Follow 2 NF rebels (will follow @Jonesy and 1 more ) and check in and leave a supportive message from time to time. - update my thread at least twice a week - participate in the mini So new goals, hoping to get more results than last time Still need to work out how to give points for this challenge, if you have good ideas please let me know

Formerly, Curl Brogo... It's time to chill out and seek my center again. The one constant this year has been painting and developing my artwork. There's gonna be a lot of that. But my morning routine, exercise, and diet have been all over. I'm gonna focus this in the morning routine. That's the part of my day when I am the least drained. Mega goal 1: Build a good morning routine: M_Goal 1: Up at 4am. If I'm gonna get stuff done in the morning I'll need time to do it. So I gotta get up earlier and stop hitting snooze until the last possible minute. If I get up at 4, that gives me an hour and 45 min to do the rest. I think I'm gonna grade this by counting the minutes from 4 to 545 that I gain. M_Goal 2, morning exercise. First damn thing! ... well after I pee. Do a set of something, then make the coffee, do another set while it brews. I just need to build a habit of exercising in the morning. I don't care of its 100 burpees or 10 crunches. My first goal in the morning is to move. M_Goal 3: Breakfast - whole 30 style Gotta get a good solid breakfast for the day. No more last minute gas station food cuz I'm in a hurry. Mega goal 2: complete another Whole 30 Mega goal 3: Meditate Good Ole zazen. If it won't fit in the morning, I'll do it in the evening. LUYL goal: Keep making art.

Hello again, all! I'm back for another air-installment to try to build awesome habits. Last time around, my challenge was simple, but I still bit off more than I could chew. My new job, an online course (just finished up!) a surprise Whole30 with coworkers and some other challenges really threw wrenches into my system. Not great! I'd like to do this challenge again (even though I did alright last time!) to really solidify these habits and build on them. I'll also be emphasizing daily morning rituals. When you're taking care of an Air Temple, you've got to start the day off right! Equinoxe's Airbender Challenge: Part II Mindful Study: Morning Practice Start the day with 15-30 min of morning meditation at 5am. I have found that reading in the evening is better than starting with reading in the morning; I get into a groove, and don't want to stop! That's better to save for when I don't feel the time pressure to get out the door for work... Mindful Moving: Morning Exercise Pretty self-explanatory. I've been ramping up my exercise routines, but want to aim for more frequency rather than harder workouts. My biggest challenge will be making time for exercise every day, instead of getting a head start at the office. (My #1 excuse for skipping a workout) But now that I have the Movement Space set up, I want to use it! I'll be focusing on yoga and weights/rowing, alternating every other day. Mindful Eating: Eat (and drink!) Like an Airbender Alright, this goal will be separated into two parts: First part, finish my vegetarian Whole30 with my coworkers (done the last week of October). Second part: Continue eating primarily whole-foods plant-based through the rest of the challenge. I've ID'd some great foods that seem to do really well for me, and I want to favor them. (I'll probably get more specific about this goal when the second stage rolls around) As for my mindless snacking, I've been eating a LOT of nuts over my Whole30, which has actually been making me feel pretty ill. Instead of snacking, my plan is to reach for herbal tea! That seems good enough for now. Let's keep training! Boom!

It should be obvious what the theme is this challenge. I'll be working on four goals, plus writing story. The story portions will have their own posts. I'm planning on six parts, one at the end of each week, plus the opening. This time I'm starting the challenge at the beginning of zero week. AKA, today! Goal #1: Poké Chef! Cook one *new* family meal a week. Goal #2: Catch that pokémon! Work on job hunt four times each week. If I get the job I interviewed for last week, replace job hunt with study. Goal #3: Walk, walk, and walk some more! Walk 25 miles (40 km) each week. Goal #4: Wake-up Slap! Follow the morning routine five times a week. Meditate -> Daily Dare -> Bullet Journal -> Nerd Fitness

Back to the Shire, a Gardener's tale. Wikipedia: Samwise Gamgee - Hobbit Families Now many of you may know that my grandfather Samwise Gardner, was originally known as Samwise Gamgee. Yes, thé Samwise Gamgee that traversed the world with his friend, Frodo Baggins. Oh how he enthralled us as little urchins with many a tale of adventure! Spiders as big as houses! Trolls! Orcs! And daring fights! Fearsome creatures, but also breathtaking Elves, scary Dwarves, and fighting Boulders! Our best times however, was spent in the garden. While teaching me to nurture the plants, just so, he would tell of the The Lady of the Light, Lady Galadriel. Oh how she had my head spinning with awe. The braveness of Queen Arwen, was also often mentioned in his tales. But there were more tales than just the one about The One Ring! Oh so many more... I'm no way near as good a gardener as my grandfather was, but ours is the duty to look in on those trees that he planted so many moons ago. As my boys and I take to the road once more, to visit these places near and far, I hope to entertain you on some of those tales of old. It is nearing winter solstice here in The Shire, the best time to leave on such an adventure. First we must get to the Ents, to help us persuade some plants to move to new homes; spread their roots, literally, to rest, then start new green pastures. Each place we venture to should have a little box, a treasure chest of sorts, where we place little trinkets as keepsakes, to show that we had indeed been there. Our hope is to find all these treasure chests, and be able to leave this generation's trinket as well. MORNING ROUTINE Now grandmother Rose taught me to always have my ducks in a row, from sunrise till the dark of eve's. So for this coming adventure we will have to start a new morning routine. I'm focusing on making the green points part of my routine. The rest is pretty much set. (5h30) Make coffee and stretch my joints Bible study (6h30) Make breakfast - feed animals - clean and tidy up (7h30) Family Devotional (with aunt and mom) over W.app Prayer Group (8h30) School work and/or sport AFTERNOON ROUTINE There are various things I need to do every week. Some preferably on set afternoons, but I can chop and change depending on the weather, etc. for some. Sunday (first day of challenge) - Gardening Monday - Laundry Tuesday - Walk (Playball/Soccer) Wednesday - Gardening Thursday - Laundry and D.F.D. Friday - Walk/Geocache TO DO's Finances: April and May Proof Reading SLEEP Now a gardener cannot work if she has not had sufficient sleep. I know this, and my gift does not come to the fore if I don't sleep enough. Lady Galadriel was very adamant that enough sleep strengthened her "Gift for the Earth", especially after long arduous days of walking from planting to planting. It lifts the mood and gives energy, enough to spare, and then entice little seedlings and saplings to push their roots deep. 21h00: Shower - Tidy kitchen - final prep for next day (get meat out to defrost, pack and switch dishwasher on, etc.) 21h30-22h00: In bed - Go to sleep!

Edit: New goals I'm putting weight loss above everything else. It was the reason I started this journey, and I'm just done being overweight. This is gonna suck. I'm going to be tired. I'm hoping to have to give up some things I enjoy. But it's time to fix it. Goal 1: No caffeine This used to be getting up early... I've changed it to no caffeine because caffeine is what causes my late, ass dragging mornings. +1 point each day Goal 2: Zazen Zazen routine: Yoga/stretch Zazen >= 10 min. every morning Goal 3: Eat paleo, plan and budget +1 each day of paleo. +1 stick to grocery shopping plan. +1 good prep/plan Goal 4: 100,000 steps per week. Most work days I get between 12 and 20k. I just want to make it so I get more in in the weekend. What I will do is start going for morning walks around the neighborhood on weekends to get top 84k... maybe even a jog. +1 point / 10k steps LUYL1: No alcohol until I hit 199.9 pounds. Draining my wallet and bloating my gut. I have to give it up. LUYL2: Get a tech cert. 1) Save for it. 2) Study for it. Sidequests: Go to the damn gym +1

I'm back for my second challenge! What's changed? Well, I have decided to say farewell to the Rangers and join the Warriors! Thanks everyone for your support and encouragement. I am looking forward to working on this one for the full 4 weeks, as I joined my first one a few days late. THE GOALS: Write weekly blog posts Create a content calendar by 4/25 and post it to the NF thread COMPLETE 4/25! Share links of weekly blog posts on NF thread to keep me accountable Finish setting up website Finish setting up footer, social media threads, related posts, and all miscellaneous template stuff by 5/7/17. Website is www.kaylamaeanderson.com for those of you that are curious. Hit macros 5/7 days/week I downloaded the MyMacros + app to help me track Current Macros are: Protein 122 Carbs 152 Fat 59 Calories 1623 Make macro-friendly snacks over the weekend to have on hand throughout the week Complete morning routine 5/7 days per week M/W/F up at 5:15am T/Th up at 6:15am M/W/F 5:30-7:00 Gym 7:15-7:30 Shake/coffee 7:30-8:15 Journal and Meditation 8:15 Get ready for work T/Th 6:15-6:30 Coffee/Walk Dog 6:30-6:45 Breakfast 6:45-7:15 Journal and meditation 7:15-8:15 Work on blogs/performance pieces

So, I am choosing one habit per challenge this year and focusing specifically on developing and exploring that one habit. Then each challenge, I am maintaining the old habits while tackling a new one. At the end of the year, if all goes well, I will have TEN GREAT HABITS. Challenge 1: Walking daily (aiming for 16 miles per week) Challenge 2: Morning routine Challenge 3.... It's food time. Here are some misc. things about me and food: So, that's me and food in a nutshell. What works for me seems to be limiting my food enough that it's a little boring, and getting plenty of fiber/vegetables. It's a challenge because food is also such a hobby for me that I don't want to limit it in that way. So I think what I need to do is somehow find a balance. And I want to avoid setting excessive rules or tracking overly much, because even when it works, I don't think it's totally sustainable. And I want healthy eating to become something I do on autopilot, just like exercise is. So. I think for this challenge, I'm going to experiment with a hypothesis. The blog nomeatathlete mentions this concept at one point: I think there's something to this. Although I'll add protein to the salads because I'm not aiming for no meat. So, I want to experiment. If I have a smoothie every morning and a salad for lunch every day, then eat whatever I feel like for snacks and dinner, will that balance me out? Details The smoothies and salads can vary, obviously. I have a basic green smoothie formula I use a lot, but I can also just tinker with other options. I have a roasted veggie salad recipe and a cobb salad recipe I really like. I'll need more variety than that to keep salads interesting, so please do share if you have any favorite salads! I do want to experiment with black bean pasta salad, but loaded with lots of veggies. Oh, and there's that Mediterranean salad I like too. So that's 4. And thai steak salad with goat cheese and raspberry vinaigrette. I think I'll use the term "salad" loosely here. Like, if I make a ton of ratatouille or something, that's a large pile of vegetables, which is basically a salad. I can also make an omelette and chop it up on top of a salad. I just need enough variety that I'm not like "ughh, salad" after a few days of this. I like craisins on a salad. And caesar with avocado. And so on and so on. Mark over at MDA also eats a big ass salad for lunch every day, and swears by it, so there's another basis for this to work. The other thing I kind of want to do is build up my salad database. When I have a tasty salad somewhere, I want to figure out how to recreate it at home. I've had two at the cafe where they hold a gaming meetup that I really liked - a spinach bacon salad with tomatoes, creamy balsamic, and sunflower seeds, and a caprese salad with tomato and mozz and balsamic glaze on greens. I haven't quite figured out a good creamy balsamic dressing yet. Or a balsamic glaze. Dressing is going to be the key to success here. Other good ones I've had...there's one I don't remember that well, but I think it had arugula and goat cheese and some sort of crispy topping that didn't feel super unhealthy. Hrm. And there was one at a pub with figs, portobello mushrooms, and either feta or goat cheese, which was also amazing. Planning There are a few things I need to prepare for. What if I don't want breakfast one day? Does skipping the smoothie and just having a banana mid-morning count against me? I don't think it should. That will be allowed. And also, I think there will be times when I just really want some eggs or some pancakes. Or get a chance to go out for breakfast and have something other than a smoothie. And I think for now I'll just observe what happens without judgement if it does. I'll see how often this variance actually happens, and then adjust from there if I need to. There's also travel. It's harder to make a smoothie when I'm staying with friends or the boyfriend. I guess I can do it at the boyfriend's. Although sometimes we don't eat breakfast and lunch is our first meal of the day. I'm not worried about the time with friends. It's not so common that it's an issue. The time with the boyfriend will need some care though. We both like eating out as a hobby, so it's hard to say I'm just going to have a salad, especially when there are so many salads I don't really like at restaurants. So, I'm not sure. I don't want this to turn into deprivation or forcing myself to eat a mediocre salad when there's something else amazing in front of me. It might be dangerous, but I kind of want to play this by ear too. Maybe have a salad for at least one meal out of every three days I'm with him? Or maybe focus on just getting a certain quantity of vegetables in general? Or on eating paleoish? I don't know yet. There will probably also be times when I end up having something other than the planned salad for lunch. In those cases, I think I'll just try to adjust by having it for dinner instead. I don't like eating salad for dinner unless it's amazing, so I won't plan for this to happen. I'll just be prepared to adapt when it does. Other Stuff So none of this is a specific goal, but I have other ongoing habits / fitness stuff that I'll often report on here: Yoga 3 workouts / week 2 runs / week Meditation Shopping ban running Jan - March (and maybe longer) - no eating out unless travelling or socially, no shopping unless I need to replace something that runs out Aikido

Pimples here and there, Waking up is difficult to bare, No more time for work to go, Oh, sleep! Just love me more, y'know! Welp! So much for doing my challenge with a theme, LOL. ( I suck at this I'm sorry.) But basically, what I'm trying to do is to form a sleeping habit, for the reasons above. So, hopefully, I will go from being like this: to waking up like this: A dream is a wish your heart makes. Late in creating my challenge as usual.

You know that screen after you get a GAME OVER, where it says press START to continue? That's where I am now. I've more or less fully recovered from the accident. I'm ready to start exercising again, and I'm ready to start stepping away from the comfort foods. But I've lost a bit of progress, so it feels like I've been thrown back to the last checkpoint. I don't have my notes on me, but here's the basic plan: --> Workout 2/week. I was originally thinking 3/week, but I don't want to ramp things up too fast. It likely won't the the same days every week, cause my schedule depends on when events are. Mondays are my normal off day, so that and some other day (not Tuesday). The weather was getting nicer when I started planning this challenge so I was going to resume my playground workout. This will be a weather permitting why is winter two months late kind of thing. Indoor routines I'll pick from Darebee. Because doing the same routine quickly bores me. --> Morning routine. Doing the daily dare every morning has worked out well. And I've seen other people have success with morning routines, so I'm going to come up with something. I'm pretty sure this part of my notes is filled with giant question marks. --> Adulting. The approach I used last time worked out really well, so I'm going to continue with that. For this challenge the goal will be to get all of the dishes washed. --> Job search. I moved this over from my previous challenge. With the caveat that I approach this with a game plan. I had to work really hard to limit this to four goals. I wanted to include nutrition and hydration stuff, but nope. I cut it out, cause I don't want to get burnt out. More details later. When I'm not waiting for my therapy appointment.

This time around, I'll be tackling a morning routine. How I spend the morning really sets the tone for the day, so every day I want to think about what kind of story I want my day to have and let the morning routine help put me on that path. (Actually I just like Oasis and wanted to make it fit shhhh) For any new friends who follow this challenge - I am focusing on developing one new habit per challenge, for a total of 10 habits for the 10 challenges scheduled this year. I made some great progress on a morning routine last challenge, completely unintentionally. My mobility work has filled up my mornings in a lovely, relaxed sort of way that works really well. The problem is that depending on the day ahead, I don't have consistent mornings right now. On Monday-Wednesday I'm pretty consistent because I wake up and go into the office at the same time. But on Thursday-Friday I usually work from home, which means that I can sleep in, which means that I usually skip the full routine. And the same issue pops up on weekends, but not always. I've had trouble establishing morning routines in the past because I tried to be too restrictive. The morning routine can, and should change depending on the story for each new day. So my challenge this time around is to figure out how to: Have some sort of morning routines and rituals that set the tone for the day Allow for variation while keeping the essential habit in place Still get to sleep in enough on days where my schedule allows My laptop battery is almost dead, so I'll post more about what this means and how I can measure it later. I will also be continuing with some things that are not actual challenge goals, but that I will report on here: Continuing to track my walking mileage each week, as a continuation of last challenge's habit forming. 3 workouts + 2 runs per week Daily meditation Mobility work The 31 day yoga revolution challenge + Wednesday night yoga class (to the end of February) Aikido 2x/week 3 month shopping ban through March, with pre-defined rules and exceptions. This month is espcially important to me, because it will be my 3rd year doing Frugal February, though I've extended it to three months this time. I have to buy a bridesmaid's dress this month for a wedding I'll be in this summer, and pay aikido federation annual dues I bought a birthday present for my sister No eating out, unless it's social or on the road I can replace anything that breaks or runs out I can buy any gear that I decide I need for the winter Spartan race I'll be doing in March

For once, I'm keeping things short and sweet. I need to focus a lot more on being more organized with my life and being more efficient with my time, and a lot less on chasing shiny things. Of course, I'll still be posting about parkour and my normal stuff, and I'll still be eating right + exercising. I just don't want to make that a huge focus. Goal 1: The morning routine - Each morning, right after sending the kids to school, I will complete the following morning routine before letting myself get distracted by other things: -Brief (or longer, if I feel like it) yoga flow -Take care of any dishes or laundry that need to be done -make the daily to-do list Goal 2: The To-Do list: Each Monday, I will make a List of the things I'd like to accomplish that week. Also, every day during my morning routine, I will make a list of things I want to accomplish that day. This list will hopefully keep me focused on the important things. Goal 3: Decluttering and purging: Each day, I will declutter some area in the house and throw away as much as I possibly can. I have too much random junk, and the only way to bring a bit of order to the house is to start throwing things away and stop decluttering by relocating things from one part of the house to another. Goal 4: Coding and piano - Each day, get at least something accomplished or spend some time with each of these. No slacking and no excuses. Goal 5: Batch cooking or complicated cooking project - At least twice/week. This should ensure that I'll have healthy food without necessarily requiring a huge time expenditure per meal. Goal 6: Stay connected - I've been feeling a bit less connected to NF over the last many months, so I'm going to make a huge point of posting at least every day in my thread, and posting in at least 3 other people's threads each day. I'm also going to try to stick with the mini challenge and any PVPs people post.

Hey there, guys. Remember that last challenge? I do. It was great. I didn't show up to put a proper end to it, but the gist is that I kept up my training, ate well, passed the test, kept the job, got to double digits on pull ups, fixed my knee, and botched my writing goal in the process. And, as if that wasn't enough fun, one morning, I woke up, got out of bed and got a real bad case of dizziness for my trouble, which didn't go away until I ate something. I think that's a sign that I've burned the candle down even farther than I thought, and that's not ideal. We got to fix that. No more about morning routines and esoterica. Back to basics - eating well, sleeping well. There'll be plenty of time to get a morning routine again when I get to an actual unit and start on a standard schedule. Up at 0600, work at 0900? Oh yeah. But 'til then... Anyway. We get to some of my favorite fictional badasses in this book. That's right. The Aiel. Fighting Irish meets Native Americans meets Zulus. These are hard, hard people, who will run 20 miles and fight a battle at the end of it, and they will make it look like dancing. You will not find fiercer friends or more implacable enemies. And frankly, I think they're cool enough that I can give the Big 3 a break. Sleep More I've been getting by on less and less sleep, and the authors who romanticize that crap clearly never did it for a living. Goal is 7-9 hours per night, and cutting back the morning routine when necessary to make this happen. Eat More (and better) I... cleaned out my junk food again. Except for the Arctic Zero and Halo Top ice creams, which it turns out are right in the freaking Kroger just around the corner, and not just in Whole Foods all the way away from me. Yes, even the Arctic Zeros are good, if you can find the ones that are 300 calories or so in the pint. Those actually have some flavor to them. I know, right. Anyway, I refigured my caloric intake so that I'm averaging 1800 or so, as opposed to the 1650 I was averaging before. Have I ever mentioned how happy a problem it is to learn that I'm going to have to eat more rice and fattier grass-fed meat? It's true. Train More This is going to be a trickier one to manage until the end of this month. I'm not really wanting to do much more at this point so much as I'm wanting to wave S&S up a bit. So, basically, keep every thing else up, and just go from 2 S&S sessions to 3 per week. My back's loving this load so far - that near-perpetual tightness has finally released, thanks to a fairly steady application of divebomber push ups (another experiment in anti-frailty that's been fun). I think I'm ready to take a step forward and plant myself again. Once the month is over and I'm reassigned to something with reasonable hours... I think I'm going to go back to judo officially. Sensei's been going back to the original dojo, and if I can swing the sleep, I think it'd be a good investment. The only trick to it is, if I keep up with IF, I'd have to manage another day of low food. And while I can make the math work, I just don't know what that's going to do to me. Write Reading and writing. I got a thing I'm working on. I finished Guards, Guards! before I started again (thanks, @sarakingdom!) and the story shows some evidence of influence already. A friend of mine's got me listening to China Mieville as well - he was dismayed when I mentioned I was going through the Wheel of Time and said I needed something good to balance it out. Bastard. But I like how it's shifting my tone, so I'll run with it. I'm going to try to creep my way back to being a part of things around here, now that the worst is behind. But sleep and challenge have to come first. But dammitall, I miss my Nerds. I wanna be back here too.

Balsquith brings back the routine My last challenge was rather amusingly titled ‘Balsquith doesn’t give up’ and saw me disappear from the face of the earth after barely 2 weeks. The challenge itself wasn’t badly set up and I will be keeping parts of it here. This time around I will have 1 key goal, 2 goals to support it and a couple of additional goals. Key goal: Get up to my alarm everyday This goal is the key to everything, it is less about me being a heavy sleeper and groggily hitting my alarm clock and more about me already being mostly awake but just not wanting to get up, due to having no desire to and no plan. As such, success in this goal reflects me having actually got my life a little bit in order. Supporting goal 1: Morning routine. In order to give me something to get up for, I want a little bit of a plan. As such I want to re-establish a morning routine. I have many plans for this, but for the purpose of this challenge I will keep it very simple. Every day I will do the following upon getting up: 1. Say ‘Today will be a great day’ 2. Drink a glass of water. Supporting goal 1: Evening routine. As with the morning routine I have a number of ideas of how I want this to be, but will start by ensuring that I have a nice tidy place to live in. So every night before bed I will do a least a bit of tidying (no minimum). This can be clearing the table or doing the washing up. This will settle me down in the evening and ensure that I have a nice clear space to wake up to. Fitness goal: Exercise 3 times per week. I started going to a crossfit-esque gym recently and have spent much of the time recovering from muscle soreness (even with almost a week between sessions). Hopefully this will get better enough that I can do 3 sessions in a week. Money goal: Create weekly budget and stick to it. In a previous challenge I started recording my daily expenditure, which is great except for the fact that I haven’t changed how I actually spend my money. In this challenge I will set a reasonable budget and stick to it, allowing me to actually have some money to put in savings at the end of the month.

Hi fellow nerds! This is my first post here so ermm.. hey there? I'll post in the intro section soon but i wanted to ask some opinions. I'm trying to decide which to use as an absolute beginner morning routine, tai chi or yoga? Pros of yoga - Improving flexibility ( i need SERIOUS work on this!) Cons - I've never actually been interested in yoga. Pros of Tai Chi - posture, relaxation, moving meditation, i've actually done energy work before (reiki). and probably others. And i've always wanted to learn it. Cons of Tai Chi - The debate on "you can't learn this without a class" vs "it's fine, teach yourself". (I'm on a no job/benefit income, i can't afford classes..) , Also, i'm not sure how helpful tai chi is when it comes to flexibility. I look forward to thoughts, opinions etc. I'm very new, please be gentle lol! Limitless Limits are things other people have

As the header says, this challenge is about commitment. I've taken a look to what I've done this year, and I see an on and off pattern, specially with exercise. It's true that many times bad health was involved, but I also see that I kind of use it as an excuse to postpone a restart. So, from this moment, I commit, I'll put exercise first for the next 4 weeks (yes, 4 weeks, that's correct. Am I a rebel or what?). I will only be excused if I have to work extra-hours off my schedule or if I feel sick (but I won't!). This means that there are other goals, but they come in second place and some of them are there to help the exercise goal. So: Goal 1. Being active. I'll allow myself a rest day, full rest day, but the other 6 days some kind of exercise must be done. I think in such a way I'll see results and that will encourage me to follow through. I hope my morning routine will help too (goal 2). First week: Establish the routine of walking a mile every morning (it's part of the morning routine). DONE! Go for a run at least once. Better if twice. DONE! 1 strength workout. DONE! In fact I did TWO! Second week: A mile a day. DONE! Go for a run at least once. Better if twice. Two days of tap practice at home. DONE! 2 strength workouts. DONE! Weeks 3 and 4: A mile a day. Or more if I've got time. Week 3: DONE! Week 4: DONE! 2 running days. Tap practice at home. Week 3: DONE! Week 4: DONE! 2 strength workouts. GMB Integral Strength. Week 3: DONE! Week 4: DONE! Workouts, both strength and running, include Focused Flexibility. What about tap? I am not sure whether I'll be able to take lessons this year, my schedule is not clear yet. If I can't go, then I'll try to practice at home now and then. Neighbours are going to hate. Points: 2 STA points max. for completing all the running workouts. 2 STR points max. for completing all the strength workouts. 1 DEX point max. for tap practice or lessons. Goals to help with exercise: Goal 2. Establish a morning routine. If I don't give myself the opportunity to think and chose to be lazy, maybe, only maybe, I won't be. The routine will organize my morning from waking up til it is time to go and prepare lunch. I want to create the feeling that tasks are somewhat linked and one leads to the next, so there's no room for procrastination and/or laziness. The routine starts with no snoozing in the morning and moves through meditation, walking, breakfast, reading, tidying up, music practice and exercise and many other little tasks, like taking my vits or feeding grumpy cat. If I don't waste time and follow the schedule I will have around 1 hour free before lunch to do whatever I want (like checking NF threads?). First week: DONE! Second week: DONE! Third week: DONE! Fourth week: DONE! Points: 2 WIS max. Goal 3. Eating. Tasks to be done: meal planning. Breakfast DONE!, lunch DONE! and dinner DONE! find a place that would supply me of bones for making broths; I only prepare them when I buy a whole chicken, that's not enough. And I want to try beef stock; DONE! put on fire the candy-bread kiosk on the ground floor; or maybe not, not everybody would understand my decision... keep on reading “Nourishing traditions†and think what I want to apply of what I read there; SOAKED DOUGH BREAD (done!)/MUFFINS (done!)/SCONES AND FERMENTED VEGETABLES (done!) stay away from sugar and bread: 3 days on the first week DONE!, 4 the second DONE!, 5 the third DONE!, and finally 6 the last one DONE! . If I get there, then I could try the following challenge to stay at 6-7 clean days. The better I eat, the more impact my exercise routine will have in my body. Once more, commitment. Points: 2 CON points max. for completing the suggested tasks (0.5 points each). Goals unrelated to exercise: Goal 4. Music practice and stage fright. Either “The hibbiee-jibbiees†or the “Sonata Appassionataâ€, or both, will be uploaded to soundcloud before the trimester ends. This way I'll have to commit (that word again!) to everyday practice and won't let stage fright aside until concerts season. Points: 2 CHA and 1 WIS points max. To obtain when one or both pieces are uploaded to soundcloud. Goal 5. Personal projects. I'd like to work on “Metabolic regulation†and “Hobbitinn†regularly. I won't decide a fixed schedule for them because they are part of leisure time. I hope my morning routine will establish well and help me find some moments for this during the week. If not, I'll work on weekends. Also, they can go in my “rest breakfast while reading†space in the morning, though I don't usually feel awake enough for that (maybe the previous walk in the fresh morning will put a remedy to that). 1 Metabolism regulation chapter per challenge (unless it is a difficult or long one, then half) and 1 paragraph of Hobbitinn every week. Points: 1 CHA max. Goal 6. Autumn is cool too. I can't go out everyday or hike the whole weekend now (why not, indeed?) but I'll try to plan some activities to keep enjoying being outdoors. First week: 2 activities. Second week: 1 activity. No activities during weeks 3 and 4 Wrong! Went to the Cervantian fair at the end of week 4! Points: 1 STA and 1 WIS points max. GOAL IN THE BACKGROUND. ANXIETY There are a lot of goals here. I have to go to work, too. Anxiety can appear. Probably will do. So, as I did last year, if I feel anxiety starts to pile up -because it's too much, because I have some trouble at work, because whatever- challenge stops and only the anxiety related activities go on. That includes my daily habits of relaxing, breathing and resting, and meditation, walking in the sun (so not necessarily right after I wake up), and aerobic exercise. Anxiety peaks. First week: none. Second week: one. Third week: three. Fourth week: three. Anxiety attacks: First week: none. Second week: none. Third week: none. Fourth week :none. Each time I realise anxiety has piled up and I get to stop it before it goes too far, I get an extra 0,5 WIS point. That's it. I think that's what I need. Now let's get the job done! SECOND 4-WEEKS CHALLENGE: http://rebellion.nerdfitness.com/index.php?/topic/70900-commitment-zenlara/?p=1673956

Hey! My name's Leafa. I just finished my first challenge last week! I'm so proud! But already I'm falling behind. I stopped doing my exercises on Tuesday and despite having lost 5 pounds over this week, I haven't been paying attention to my eating habits as well as I should either. My initial plan was to join the assassins but I really don’t feel ready to do that yet. So for this challenge I'm going to saddle up with the adventurers and really solidify those healthy habits. So what's my overall goal? I'm graduating in May and I want to look like a superstar in my grad photos. I'm not too big, I lost 10 pounds with my first challenge and I'd like to lose 25 more by May, which should be an easy target, I hope. I also want to make fitness and exercise a more prominent part of my life. For a poor student living in a place where winter lasts 6 months, kinda hard. For now my exercise mainly takes place in the basement of our apartment. Quest 1: Rituals (no goats will be harmed) I really want to develop a morning ritual. I love being up before everyone else and getting to enjoy that moment of silence alone with a hot cup of tea before the day begins. I sort of have my own morning routine but I want to change it to fit my workouts in before I start in the morning Morning 6:30 am Wake up, going to give myself 10 minutes to wake up 6:40 am Work out (100 jumps w skipping rope on MTWRFS, 2 rounds of basic bodyweight training MWF) 7:00 am Shower 7:20 am Hair and Makeup 7:30 am Breakfast, feed fish, make sure I've packed my lunch 8:20 am Leave for work I’ve given myself lots of time in the morning, but I need to make sure I’m done with the bathroom by 7:45 so that my boyfriend can take his shower. That being said, my biggest problem is getting up at 6:30 to even start. So I developed an evening routine to follow as well. Evening 9:30 pm Make sure lunch for tomorrow is made 9:45 pm Write in Journal 10:00 pm Wash face, brush teeth, feed fish 10:15 pm Read 10:45 pm Go to sleep Moreover,10:00 will be by tech curfew, no more Facebook, Reddit, Twitter, whatever. 80% of this stuff I already do,My biggest problems are getting up at 6:30 so that I have the time to exercise, and not going to bed by 10:45 to give myself enough sleep to wake up in the morning. Quest 2: Eat the Way I Know I Should The past few weeks, I've really been cutting down on what I put in my mouth. I'm making healthier choices and cutting grains out when I can, but I want to go further. I'm already working on this in different ways. Ever since September I've managed to cut down on eating out for lunch, so for this challenge I'm going to work on cutting down to eating out overall to one day per week (right now it's about 3-4). So here's how I'm going to do it: Continue to bring lunches to work, usually leftovers or salad in a jar.Start using my slow cooker more often with soups and stewsMake one new recipe a week from the 5 ingredient cookbook my boyfriend brought home.Have frozen veggies and pork chop on hand for easy suppersPlan suppers and stick to the plan Life Goal: Friendship is Magic! I didn’t make enough friends last time! So this time I want to post in at least 3 other people’s threads a week, give them encouragement, and hopefully make some friends along the way. I'm really looking forward to this challenge, can't wait to see how it goes!

Objective: Build up a better self-image to help boost confidence and motivation. Hopefully to gain better mental health and positive attitudes towards exercise, diet, & life. Quest 1: post daily affirmations, in any form (picking something I like about myself or posting a motivational picture or quote). It will be a big challenge for me, I am a very negative person. Quest 2: Daily morning yoga and/or Piriformis muscle stretches and/or meditation. Going back to a staggering-type challenge, waking up 5 minutes earlier. Then I will increase by 5 minutes each week. My herniated disc has healed but having troubles with piriformis muscle. Chiropractor gave stretches I need to do every day. Quest 3: Frequent journaling. I have gotten close to pinpointing the sources of my depression. Journaling has helped me notice triggers and realize which emotions are a result of other emotions. Quest 4: Daily belly to spine posture practice, as recommended by my chiropractor. Gotta strengthen my deep inner core. Life goals: Set up doctor, dental, and hair appointments for myself and my kiddo.

My 1st challenge and back story can be found here. Quest #1 - The Morning CALM, Stretch, & Strength Bedtime 9pm. Period. 8+ hours sleep. 1st week - be up by 6:30, practice one yoga pose/technique correctly for 5 minutes. 2nd week - 6:25, yoga 7 minutes, 1 to 2 poses, focus on technique. 3rd - 6:20, yoga 10 minutes 4th - 6:15, yoga 15 minutes 5th - 6:10 yoga 20 minutes 6th- 6:05, yoga 25 minutes 7th - 6:00 - GOAL! Working that early morning routine! Yoga 25-30 minutes. So far that is all I have specifically. I had it all typed up but left it on my computer at work! I woke up Sunday morning with a terrible pain in my back and hip and today I left work early because the pain was unbearable. No relief for 3 days and getting worse. I've tried stretches, heat/cold, ibuprofen, pillows, Epsom salt baths, hot showers..despite my best effort, it's the Dr office tomorrow (/groan). Sleeping with it has been terrible, which is not helping my first quest at all so far. But I will post the rest of my quests tomorrow, just wanted to get my initial post thru the door and say Hi. Now I have try to figure out how I will sleep tonight. UPDATED 1/9/2015: Accountability Log

Some old things here (my running goal may look familiar) but also trying out some new life goals. Switching up my morning routine a bit...no idea how it will go, but seems worth a try. I had a bit of an Achilles problem, but I've been taking it very easy for a couple weeks, and I think I'm ready to go...so BRING IT! Miles to go before I sleep (in fact 170 of them) I’ll be running a marathon (my 14th state) at the end of the “zero week†after this challenge. I’m going to plot out the rest of my marathon training plan over the next few days. I’ll follow it to the best of my ability and ideally I’ll hit more than 170 miles, but I like this goal right where it is. It keeps me going :-) Pump a little iron: I’m planning to reactivate my gym membership on the first day of the challenge (I suspend it over the summer) and slowly transition into some strength work. Specific challenge goal is to do at least 2 days per week, at least 20 min at a time at the gym. This is in addition to other cross-training unless I really do a LOT. I’ll include some chin-up and pull-up prep exercises, but I don’t think I’m ready to set a specific goal in that area…I’ll make some notes about what I can do during week 1 and see if there is any progress by the end of the challenge. I’m nowhere near doing full pull-ups, but working on that motion would be very helpful when I visit the climbing gym! 180 pushups! …but wait, didn’t you do 750 last challenge?? Sort of. Last challenge I did 115 pushups and a lot of negatives. These will be full-on pushups. Two exceptions: (1) burpees count, as long as they include a full pushup (2) vinyasas also count (yoga sequence contained within a sun salutation) as long as it’s the full motion without knees touching. So far my max set is 5. I’ll try to build up to 3x5 and then see if I can increase from there. WANTED: House elf In case no elves answer my advertisement, I figured out a magic way to come home to a clean house each night…make sure it’s clean(ish) before I leave in the morning. Picked 5 things: bed made (loosely interpreted), no clothes on the floor, living room uncluttered, dining room table clear, dishes done (in dishwasher counts), Housecleaning goal to center on morning routine. I don’t expect to be 100%. Full credit would be 21/30 weekdays. Good morning sunshine! The days are getting colder and shorter, so enjoy while you can! Aim to spend a bit of time outside each morning before heading to work. “Standard†thing might be doing a bit of yoga and drinking a cup of coffee. Running, walking, writing, meditating, photography, birdwatching…anything counts. Goal to average 3x per week (18 times for the challenge). No idea what the weather will be like, but I won’t melt. Not an official goal but…I’ve been inspired by the way DarkRaider threw himself into the Berserker Challenge last time around. I’ll be on the lookout for opportunities…

So last challenge...did not go well. The stress that started with my dad getting injured three days into it came on late and held me back from actually putting the effort to stick with it. I'm not even going to give myself points for it, honestly. I'm going to find myself an accountibilibuddy (or a dozen) and come back better than ever, though! Start-scumming is a terrible habit for players of some roguelikes and similar games; you basically restart over and over until the random number generator gives you a good starting situation. Since I tend to restart "being healthy/finding a job" over and over, I figure I need to break this cycle too. Kawa: L1 Spriggan Assassin STR 1 | DEX 2 | STA 3 | CON 3 | WIS 3 | CHA 3 GOALS: 1. Do thirty or more knee pushups fifteen or more incline push ups a day, at least 30 out of the 42 days. +2 STR +2 STA GRADING: 75 pushups is 1/3 STR 1/3 STA. This allows for bonus points. Push ups can be broken up as much as I want during the day, just gotta do at least 15. EXTRA CHALLENGE: Do ten proper pushups. +1 STR 2. Eat 1400kcal or less for at least 30 of the 42 days. +3 CON GRADING: 1/2 point for every 5 days on target. This allows for bonus points. 3. Do my morning and evening skincare and dental routine every day. +1 CON +1 CHA GRADING: 1/3 point each for every 14 days on target. 4. Spend at least 60 hours out of the 42 days studying for the actuarial Financial Math exam. (That's two hours a day five days a week.) +3 WIS GRADING: 1/2 point for every ten hours. This allows for bonus points. 5. Have 30 "contact points" in the job search by the end of the 42 day period. +1.5 WIS +1.5 CHA Contact points can be won by contacting either someone in HR or someone actually doing the work I want to do (operations research or math education), doing an online application, or attending an appropriate event (career fair, job interview, interview prep training session, etc). The ideal will be at least ten contact points each in my three geographic job markets (New York metro area, Tampa/St. Pete metro area, and Melbourne/Palm Bay FL). GRADING: 0.25 WIS 0.25 CHA for every 5 points. This allows for bonus points. SPEEDRUN TRICK: if actually hired with health insurance offered, all points are earned regardless of how many contact points have been earned.