Search the Community

Written 2016-05 I'm starting my battle log because I want somewhere to record my progress when I'm not in a challenge. I think my first challenge will be the one coming up in June (2016). Written 2017-05-25 I'm putting the rest of the original post of this battle log in a spoiler and starting with a fresh first message, written in May 2017. So a year after joining the forums and a year after starting this battle log which I barely used because I've done a year of consecutive challenges. If you want to learn more about where I started, here is my original introduction thread. Otherwise you can find links to all my past challenges in the post right below this one. ~*~*~*~*~*~ Written 2017-05-25 With all that out of the way... Hi! I sold my home on May 2 and became voluntarily homeless at that point. I am technically residing at my parents' address in Stockholm, Sweden and will return there periodically, but most of the time I am traveling the world. Now, when I say traveling the world, I mean slow travel. I go to a place and stay there for 2 weeks to 3 months or so. Or that is how I travel most of the time. There are exceptions, of course. In the post below this, you might also find an up-to-date travel schedule of where I will be. If I remember to keep it up to date. And if you at any point would love to meet me when I am in your neck of the woods just post or PM me and we'll see if I have plans to be close by soon or if I'll just add you to a list I have that I always check before I travel somewhere to see if there is anyone I know in the area. This battle log will basically help me challenge myself. My travels make it hard to follow the normal challenges since my life will be chopped up into blocks depending on where I am at the time and those blocks might not at all correspond with the normal challenge dates. The post right below this one (aka the first reply or the second post depending on how you see it) will be a post that holds links for organization of this battle log as well as previous challenges and such. So if you keep track of that post, you should be able to find the goals I'm trying to currently follow and such. I also tend to keep my signature up to date so you should be able to find the latest relevant links there. I most often do daily reporting with some lag (especially on travel days, aka when I move from point a to point b). The easiest way to find the most relevant posts, beyond going to the last page, would be to go to the latest goal post or whatever I call it below and to read from there. Feel free to read the whole battle log but the first couple of pages span my first year on the forum and that was all before I became nomadic. Bon Voyage and See You Around the Forum Block!

This is me over the next challenge. I'm turning from a home owner to a nomad. I'll vagabond around the world. I'll become a traveling fictioneer. Fictioneer is my made up word for someone who writes and reads fiction. This challenge will have two stages: Before the Move First Stage of My New Life Style My goals will change enormously between the two stages, but I also expect the goals to be pretty fluid during the second part. ~*~*~*~*~*~ Introducing myself or whatever Hi! I'm Dagger or Felicia. I am a fiction writer on the verge of selling my home and living in many places of the world. I'm Swedish. The fiction I write is in English. I have two publications coming out during this challenge, two anthologies that I have stories in. Beside writing, I love reading, gaming (both console/computer, broad games and role playing), being out in nature, walking, gymnastics/calisthenics skills, crime TV-shows, and much more. My next few stops on my travels are: Costa Rica, Boston, and Sweden (yes I go back home repeatedly, especially the next few months). If anyone would like to meet me when I'm in your area, please tell me what area you are in and if there is a better way to contact you then the forum (depending on how active you are). You can easily do this in a PM. I have a list that I maintain over friends who've said they'd love to see me and I will make sure to check it anytime I travel somewhere. ~*~*~*~*~*~ Before the Move My specific to do list related to getting everything done before the move are too long to share here. Plus not that helpful to all you guys. I currently have a loose plan for the next week and a half (so rest of zero week, all of week 1 and a couple of days of week 2). The Big Day is May 2nd. That is the day at 10:00 (am) that I will sign the last contract, hand over the keys and become effectively homeless. Considering, my parents let me have stuff with them and stay with them when I'm in Sweden, I do have somewhere to stay in a pinch. Plus I have friends in many places in the world who have offered a guest room or couch if I need or when I'm in the area. The basics of what I'll do in the next week and change: Decide what to do with the rest of my stuff, basically: travel (if I'm taking it with me), charity or trash. The items that I keep with my parents have already gone with them so I can't add more to that pile. Get my financial papers in order. This is to make sure I don't have to travel home to Sweden in case I need access to specific papers and such. This means putting them in order, scanning them all in and then putting them in folders (and these will also go to my parents). Same thing with receipts as with the financial papers. Trying to sell my more expensive items that I'm not keeping. Running the last few errands related to travel such as: vaccination appointment, recycling, getting the stuff to charity. Cleaning the house right before selling. Beside this I hope to keep up with my self care which includes but isn't limited to: Meditation Tarot card readings Coaching calls with Kate Marolt Playing games Reading Taking walks Stretching Writing ~*~*~*~*~*~ First Stage of My New Life Style So this stage in some ways officially start around noon May 2nd since everything around the house sell should be finished by then. Some might however argue that it doesn't really start until May 5th when I actually leave any place I've lived before. (I will be staying with my parents between those days.) But why go into semantics? ^____^ Here are three things I hope to start on May 3rd (let us just say that): Start using this journal I bought a while ago: Nomatic Planner and Notebook. I don't know how it'll work for me or even if noting things down on paper will be useful for me, but I thought I might as well use it if I own it, right? Journal about a place every day. This might also be shared as part of my travelogue (it won't be here on the forums, if I actually start this online I'll give you guys a link), but mostly this is a practice to build skills for my fiction writing. I'll be writing down what my five senses notice once per day. Movement every day. I want this to be beyond the walks I know I'll take. Stretching and more. I don't want to say more because then I probably won't do it, but when I get it started (almost wrote if) I can tell you all. Of course, I will also still be doing my self care. Same activities as in part 1 of this challenge. However, my coaching calls with Kate will have ended by then (I only signed up for four). That is the only change though. One thing I'll definitely take up more seriously is the weekly mission I get from Kate (another program of hers that doesn't seem to have officially launched yet). On Tuesdays I'll start the mission (I receive it on Monday, but since I'm in a very different time zone from her, it might not arrive until late afternoon or evening in Europe time) if it is daily and if it is once I'll schedule a time for it. So those are the basic goals of this second part, but I mentioned fluidity and that is because on May 6 a retreat with Kate Marolt and Amy Clover (stronginsideout.com) starts in Costa Rica, and I will be there. So during that week long retreat, I will go with the flow of the retreat. I already know movement and self care will happen as a part of the retreat. The journaling goal might or might not happen. My goals for the retreat is basically two fold: 1) Go with an open mind and no expectations. Live in the movement. 2) Give myself space to transform metamorphose into the new version of me that has the whole world as her home. Anything not in service of that will not happen during that week. [Between here I have a couple of days of integration of what happened at the retreat while staying in Costa Rica. Basically I will pamper myself at a good hotel right beside the beach. Thereby getting a lot of thinking time and also staring at the ocean time.] The second time I'll definitely need fluidity is when I visit Boston and stay with our wonderful @Severine. She and I will also meet up with @fleaball. And then on the last day of the challenge (which will be May 21 for me since I do Monday-Sunday challenges), I will land back in Sweden for about a week before going to Italy. ~*~*~*~*~*~ So that is basically what my challenge will be. During the first part I will report my success or failure with accomplishing what I set out to do that day. I will probably also discuss what I've been doing because I like to talk. During the second part I will report on my three new initiatives (tracking on paper, journaling, and movement). Plus talk about anything else that comes to mind. Also realize that during the retreat and my visit in Boston, my internet time will probably be limited (mostly because of choice). A lot will happen during the second part and one of those things I'll be doing is finding new balances for thing such as how much time I spend on the forum. There are many things that will have to adjust and it might just get somewhat painful. Also to calm curiosity and keep my family informed of where I am and how I'm doing, I will have to find a balance of reporting that. Probably some combo of facebook, instagram and my blog. Anyone interested in following me there, please PM me and I'll give you all links. I'm a little too free talking here to want people to easily find my talking here by a simple google search, lol.

I've returned from the wilderness and am back in society!! If you saw my earlier challenges, you might remember that I quit my desk job in Wisconsin in January and lived in a tent in the desert working for the Arizona Renaissance Festival during February & March. My time as a tent-dwelling nomad has come to an end, and I'm now getting settled in my new home: Portland, Oregon! How overwhelming is all of this? Hella. I'm tired of feeling like I'm "okay" in several areas -- I'm pretty fit, I eat mostly decent, I know a few things... granted, I have high standards and lofty goals, but I really want to narrow in on one thing for this challenge: consistency. My life has gone through some major changes in the past year, and they've been great, but I like having somewhat of a routine, and now that I'm starting a fresh chapter in my life, I'd like to develop some strong habits and routines right out of the gate. (All in my effort to be like the Lara Croft of the 2014 Tomb Raider reboot game, of course.) So: Goal priority #1: Track my food intake in My Fitness Pal for the entire six weeks. I've known for years that I don't eat enough or balance things properly. I'm a healthy weight and ideally would like to increase it by gaining some more muscle and losing some excess body fat. I'd like to get a better picture of the balance of fuel that best allows me to perform, feel, and look better. Ideally this goal will also result in me better balancing my food intake, but for at least the first three weeks I just want to track everything. I'll re-evaluate later on whether I want this goal to specifically include hitting certain macros, or if just tracking & trying is enough for this round. Either way, it'll be on my radar. After I successfully record my food intake, this will result in +2 CON, +1 STA, +1 WIS, and +1 CHA (because I'll hopefully be looking better after over a month of conscientious food choices!). Secondary goal: Consistent movement; also a struggle for me as I've changed schedules, gyms, and routines so often in the past year. I have a 4-pronged approach as I settle into my new life here: I'd like to go to crossfit 2x a week, lift on my own 2x a week, go to krav maga 1x a week, and include a daily practice of a skill I'm trying to work on (strict push ups, handstand, falls, crow pose, etc). It's going to be awhile before I find the right crossfit gym for me (there are 14 local to my area, and my boyfriend and I might be moving soon), so I'll add that in as I can but get the others going ASAP. For creating consistent workout practices, I will assign +2 to STR, +2 to STA, and +1 to DEX. Third goal: Finances have been a focus of my past few challenges as well, and this one will be no different. Moving across the country is ridiculously expensive, so this time around I'd like to finish paying off one of my credit cards (I paid it off with my tax return, but had to charge a few moving expenses) and re-establish regular savings deposits by the end of the 6 months. +2 to WIS. I don't have a fourth goal this time around; the above will be quite enough to keep me busy and honestly I'm really overwhelmed at the moment: new city and the headaches of moving (how to get the rest of my stuff here from Wisconsin; the $300 I have to drop at the DMV for a new license, plates, and emissions test; a new bank account since my old one is only in the Midwest; changing my mailing address; etc....), new job (exciting announcement incoming, I hope - I verbally accepted an offer but am awaiting written confirmation!), newly cohabitating with an awesome nerdy boyfriend who is playing Torchlight II while I type this, the stress of not knowing anyone else yet... So, yeah. Anxiety is rearing its head going hey girl what is UP? Didja miss me? I'm here! Let's wallow! The remaining 3 points will go to WIS, CHA, and CON for remembering to breathe, enjoy the process, and stay calm during a turbulent transition, provided I feel like I did my best with that at the end of the challenge. It's all really exciting, though. Just a LOT on my plate at the moment. And not enough protein. Let's do this!

Hey Rebels! Let's do this My main Nerd Fitness quest, while still being developed, was inspired by the Tomb Raider video game reboot last year. I loved "new Lara's" relatability as she struggled to become a tough, strong survivor, and I'd like to do the same! Young me read books about adventures instead of going on them, and I hated sports. It's only been in the last 2 years or so that I've really found my way to fitness, beginning with this site and garage crossfit workouts. I'm still having a hard time seeing myself as fit/athletic, but I'm working on it! In January this year I quit my desk job in Wisconsin and hit the road to live in a tent in the desert and work for the Arizona Renaissance Festival. (It's AWESOME so far.) When the Faire ends in March (also when this challenge draws to a close), I will pack up and move to Portland, Oregon -- and hopefully begin working as a personal trainer! I passed my NASM CPT exam in late November last year and also have my CFL1, but my own workout history began only recently and has been pretty inconsistent, and I do NOT feel ready to start training others. Therefore, my overall goal for this challenge -- especially since I essentially only work Saturday and Sunday and have the whole week off to work out and pursue things that are important to me -- is to build a consistent and active lifestyle, and prepare for the intimidating challenge of leaving Receptionist Me behind and showing up in Oregon ready (well, readier?) to start looking for coaching jobs. So: Goal 1: Activity. My tribe and I go on 3 mile "perimeter walks" of the Faire 4 days per week. Three days per week we do bodyweight crossfit workouts (15min or less of dips, squats, push ups, and sit ups, primarily) and another day or two we'll work with kettlebells (no barbell access out here, sadly!). I'm also doing self defense lessons 3-4 times per week, and the odd yoga class or hike thrown in there. I'm still working on more defined parameters to stick to, but if I keep to the overall active daily schedule I've created in the past week, I'm giving myself +1 STR and +1 DEX at the end of the challenge. I'm working on handstands, safe falls in combat, and being able to do more than one strict pull up - maybe I'll work those into the grading process. Goal 2: Mindful fuel. It's tough to eat paleo out here -- we have a propane camp stove, but an unreliable cooler. Does anyone have advice on how to get enough green things in my diet?? I don't want to live off of beef jerky and clif bars for the next month. Anyway, I'm going to do my best to eat paleoish, and I haven't been hydrating enough, so I'm going to shoot for getting through 3 water bottles per day. +1 CON if I am successful! Goal 3: Study/practice. I have my NASM textbook with me and tons of training/coaching resources online to go through. I also have a tribe member who wants me to help her lift when we go to the gym (which we really only use for showers... shhhh). I led some "squat therapy" and gave some technique pointers on squats before one of our crossfit sessions and will keep learning and practicing while I'm out here so I'm more prepared for the next chapter! +1 CHA. Goal 4: Saving. Moving across the country is expensive, and I'm going to do my best to be at Camp Nerd Fitness this year (YAY!), so I need to be setting money aside. I'm obviously not making much out here right now, but I'm going to set aside at least $50/week if not more. +1 WIS. I'm nervous about all of my larger goals, but optimistic. Let's do this!