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[posting from my phone so forgive my typos & grammar] Life story; CURRENT GOALS 1. Get out of bed when your body wakes up. When I'm on work time I generally need to be out of bed by 6am to have enough time to cruise through my morning routine, but I've often woken up earlier then my alarm and tried to sleep more and made myself feel worse when I do finally get up. I'm going to make a point of hauling ass out of bed when I wake up if it's within a few hours or so of my alarm going off. 2. No screens in the morning before work. This is well-known to be counter-productive. I try to lose myself in social media or pinterest to avoid thinking/getting anxious about going to work and then I feel like shit physically and mentally. I can do anything else with this time; read, write, draw, crochet, exercise, etc... I'm constantly feeling guilty for not spending time on any of my many hobbies and the morning time is supposed to be great for productivity. As a well-known night owl, we shall see. 3. Track food; Stay within +-500cals of 2000calorie target and aim for 100g of protein. I've neglected my food tracking because I was stuck on the couch for 3 months and feeling sorry for myself. And the last two weeks I've been on holidays; no one needs that sort of stress on holidays. For those interested in how I decided on 2000cals; 4. Burpees in the morning. I have not historically loved burpees. But they work literally everything. And if I can get through burpees before doing anything else I can tackle anything else that the day throws me. Thats the plan. And I need to work on cardio and strength for derby. I still have my gym membership so I still plan to use it, but I need a baseline of exercise to focus on. I am late to this one but better that then not starting at all. I plan on starting this on Tuesday the 6th because I won't be home until then. *hi fives self* Go team!

So then. It has been a while. The last time I was on the Forum was over a year ago. A lot has happened since. Anyway, now that I have returned form my year living in Switzerland, I still feel the need to travel, and see new land. That and my bucket list are the reasons why I now have chosen to go on a journey and not just any old one, but a trip around the globe. This trip will start in three years, probably at the end of July 2017, and it will take me to countries such as Ireland, France, China, Australia, Chile, Ecuador, Brasil and the USA. It is in nature similar to the one Steve did. Not only will this thread show my progress in preparing for it, but it is also asks the readers of it to give advise and help. Help I need mostly in understanding and finding a flying miles (living in Estonia I have not heard there is one, so if you live nearby and know about any, please say). Also, I'd like to know the cheapest ways of transport and living in those countries or in general, because I probably won't have a large budget. Thirdly, can anyone recommend places to visit in the mentioned countries. I'm more interested in nature and landscapes than in cities. This is a really big project and it will take me a lot of time to prepare so any advise given will be appreciated.

Everything old is new again. I'll be revisiting some old goals which I've had success with in the past, and which have helped me succeed in other areas of my life (mostly in the Life Goal section). The 3 exercise goals are nothing new, but do contain some new details. Overall Challenge Theme: Be Consistent Goal #1 - Run Ok, so I'm getting really sick of this goal, but it's one I still have to stick with whether I like it or not. So, as usual, run 3x/week. Focus is on improving my 2k time to 10 minutes or less. Goal #2 - Strength This isn't so much an old goal as a continuously evolving goal. There are several things I do that fall under this umbrella. I'll post a tentative schedule at the end of all this, which will hopefully help make it seem a bit less crazy and overwhelming. Climbing 2-3x/week, as per usual. Other strength stuff 3x/week - consists of incline pushups, something core-related (either plank thingys or knees-to-elbows(ish)), Bulgarian split squats Pull-up practice 3x/week - consists of band-assisted pullups (with the smaller of my two bands), flex hangs at the top of the ROM Rice Bucket - Iron Fist Goal #3 - Stretching I'm terrible at this, but it makes me feel 81% better when I do it an 117% better when I do it regularly. Instead of 'just stretching', which I absolutely won't stick with, I'm going to give yoga another go. In the past, I've always (ALWAYS) hurt myself when doing yoga, which is why I've never really stuck with it, but, in an apparent attempt to disprove the theory that insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result, I'm trying again in the hopes that some routine will stick. I've picked a few videos from the Do Yoga With Me website which are in the 'Beginner Studio' and seem like they shouldn't be too intense (and therefore less likely to injure me). I'll also be changing this up by making it a morning thing. Not first thing, I really am non-functional until I've had a coffee, but it will be a post-first coffee, pre-second coffee thing. I usually spend this time doing absolutely nothing of any importance, and then wonder why I don't have time to do stuff later. I'm also shooting for this being a daily thing, but I won't fuss too much if I miss a day. I will make an attempt to fuss a lot if I miss 2 or more days in a row, though. Life Goal - Multi-Stage i. Sleep No TV and no computer after midnight on non-work nights, after 1am on work nights. I can be up past these times, but I must be reading (or possibly writing, if the spirit moves me), and I can only read magazines or short stories. Work towards my alarm set for 9am (currently set for 9:30am with at least 20 minutes of snooze indulged in). ii. Unplug Related to my stretching goal, but also to general time management, I aim to unplug myself a bit. I spend a lot of time in the morning wasting time on the computer. While I'm drinking my first coffee, I can do things like check Facebook and read my programs, but that devil known as StumbleUpon shall not be touched. After my first coffee, I shall stretch, and then during my second coffee I can have more computer. After the second coffee is done, I get my arse out the door. This will probably lead to me being on here less, since I also spend a lot of time lurking and reading, though it probably won't make much difference to my posting rate. iii. Adapt Day shifts at work screw with my workout schedule. As previously mentioned, I'm a not-morning person, so early mornings followed by 8 hours on my feet (not to mention dealing with the giant steaming pile of bullshit that is my workplace) leave me tired, hungry, and not even close to motivated to work out. So I will pay more attention to my work schedule at the beginning of the week and adapt my workout schedule as needed. I'll do my best to just rearrange things and try not cut anything out, even if it means climbing 2 days in a row. iv. Record I want to keep up with my goal of writing stuff on my calendar. It's not been overly helpful to me, but I also wasn't super consistent with it. It literally takes 10 seconds, so I don't really have an excuse not to. Potential Workout Schedule Daily - yoga/stretching Sunday - climb, pull-up practice, rice bucket Monday - run, other strength stuff Tuesday - climb, pull-up practice, rice bucket Wednesday - rest Thursday - run, other strength stuff Friday - climb, pull-up practice, rice bucket Saturday - hockey (and/or run), other strength stuff Comments/questions/advice welcome!!