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I needed a challenge off to get some aspects of my life together and figured out, but while always imperfect, I’m such a better person when I’m doing a challenge. So here I am with the Adventurers once again.... Who am I? (Yes, this image is to show off my awesome new hair.) I am Ann of Vries, aged 40, diarist, LARPer, stitch witch, traveler, walker, and an aspirational forest fairy living in the city. I’m an American living in London, UK; married to my true love and brilliant partner (Mr of Vries) and my main job/labour of love is raising our adorable toddler son (Rowan of Vries). Which is mostly fun, but occasionally harrowing. (You wouldn’t know he had a total tantrum meltdown on this same train a few days before....) I immigrated to the UK from Seattle three and a half years ago. I love it here, although I’m still trying to find my tribe (outside of the House of Vries, of course). I long to live in the English countryside, in a stone house with a large garden that grows most of our herbs, vegetables, and fruit. But that time is out in the future—for now, we are city folk and I aim to make the best of that. Not every person gets a chance to move abroad and live in one of the most famous cities in the world! To that end.... I am the Dream Look at my short summary up there. I am, by many people’s standards, ~living the dream~. But a tendency toward Hedonic Adaption, some much wished for (and worked for) dreams that didn’t come true, and a history of depression (which gets much worse in the darker part of the year) means I often forget this. The Challenge There’s no reason to let these dreams turn into a nightmare. So to help keep the darkness at bay and remain living the dream, I will be: Practicing gratitude/journaling Write and post about something I’m grateful about at least 3 times a week. Many will be about my general status of life, but least one of those per week should be something current. Keep up on my personal journals in between. Meditation and spiritual practices I’ve recently started a course to help motivate me out of being an occasional witch and more of a regularly practicing one. Practice grounding/centering/meditation at least 5 days a week. Every day is better, but every day doesn’t always happen. At least two more lessons completed for the pagan degree course I’m in. At least once a week, work on book study or a branch class assignment. Get outside/stay active RoV is now a walker (although not particularly fast or with a destination in mind), and he doesn’t want to be carried all the time. In fact, he doesn’t much like carriers at all anymore and I’ve had to give and buy a stroller if I want to get him around (I’m not sure why he prefers the stroller to the carrier, but he does). This means my days of hours and hours of walking have become more challenging as has my use of public transport (my nearby stations aren’t step-free accessible), despite that RoV needs to go out 2 or 3 times a day to burn off energy. Go outside at least once a day, even if it’s just the back garden Embrace and enjoy going out. 10k steps a day; more is better. Engage in mind-healthy pursuits (and cut back mindless ones) I’m finding myself wasting a lot of time on mindless Facebook scrolling, news rubber-necking and other such activities. Cut back to only checking a couple of times a day and for no more than 5 minutes a go. Spend that time on reading, appreciating the outdoors, journaling, embroidery, knitting, and playing with RoV. I may resurrect my Instagram account. We’ll see. Don’t (always) eat the croissant I’m at a healthy weight and I’m generally a healthy eater, but the last few weeks has seen me engaging in a lot of indulgent, often junky eating (made worse by a two weeks cold I’m still recovering from) and my weight has crept up just enough to concern me about the beginning of an ongoing trend. My household consists of foodies, and I’m not a calorie counter, but sometimes I just need to resist the croissant. (And I definitely need to resist the junk food!) Sometimes, I’m allowed to have the croissant but it needs to be a conscious choice. There’s a lot going on in this challenge, and you guys know I’m not a huge fan of collecting the metrics. My general intent is that by striving for these things with some accountability, I will do them more often, and I’ll try to update a couple of times a week with how it’s going. Except! I’m going on an adventure during this challenge! We’ll be headed to Wales for 2 weeks shortly into the challenge. I haven’t decided if I’m taking my laptop or if I’m just going to go with a notebook and my phone and have a bit of tech break. Depending on how this goes, I may go silent for a couple of weeks. But I’ll be back. Cheers, AoV

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!

I'm really unsure where to post this topic, so feel free to move it if I decided on a wrong place. Anyhow. I'm travelling to the UK soon, and will be staying in a small town/village in Leicestershire for about a month and a half. The thing is, I'm fairly set in my ways of where and what fitness-related stuff I buy in my own country, but in the UK... I have no clue. So, UK nerds, please educate me! I'm mainly looking for online store recs (Amazon and eBay sellers included), but I'll also welcome tips about shops in Leicester, Nuneaton, or somewhere around that general area. Some things I'm looking for, hopefully in student-budget-friendly price range: Supplements, the usual creatine, citrulline, caffeine, etc. Also if you know a pre-workout that tastes good (I'm very partial to lemon and bitter flavors in general) and that you can order without enormous postage, do sharae. Protein bars. This is a tough one, since I'm quite picky about the taste and composition, so I need options to try out. I like them soft and not too sweet (many chocolate and berry flavors are sooo sweet). The bars I regularly eat are some combination of chocolate, orange, and lemon (yes, there's a pattern here.) In Finnish Lidls, there's this sport supplement brand called Sportyfeel that has really good and cheap protein bars, do they have that in the UK as well? Fitness clothes/shoes/gear, because while I'm bringing my own, let's face it, you can never have too many workout tops. Lifting and running gear mainly, as those are my drugs of choice. Especially if there's a secret Diagon Alley where they sell affordable lifting or running shoes, you need to tell me. Non-fitness clothes/shoes. Ok so not fitness-related, but if I wanna head out and buy some affordable summer clothes, which shops do I hit? Hair products and cosmetics. Another thing mostly unrelated to fitness, but as I started packing, I realized how many of the brands I usually use are Finnish. Not because I'm particularly patriotic, they just make products here that work for egg white pale skin and fine* hair here. (*Not fine as in 'gorgeous', but fine as in 'if I cut bangs, the size of my ponytail will shrink in half') Also, while I'm there, if anyone lives in the area and wants to meet, hit me up. And, in case I get lucky: if you happen to live near Gatwick airport and wouldn't mind lending a fellow nerd a couch to crash on next Sunday night, I'd be very grateful. (Stupid flight schedule is stupid - my plane will arrive too late for trains and buses, so it's either couchsurfing or sleeping (not sleeping, in my case) on the airport floor.)

I'm traveling a lot over the next few months for some exciting work projects, but I really want to make sure I'm not sliding backwards in terms of fitness. In fact, I'd like to be stronger and fitter by the time I return, so I'm ready to get right back into sports and cycling when I arrive home again. I'm starting this battle log to keep me accountable.

This is a story about Schaengel, who went out of his comfort zone to find adventure and capture his dreams. It will be a long story. A story with setbacks and triumphs. So if you like a (hopefully) interesting story, follow allong... This is Schaengel our main-character. Even though not really out of shape (anymore) he is still working hard to become better everyday to achieve his two life goals ,living a happy life and leaving the world a little better place. I know what you might be saying, "what a dreamer". But like Son Goku the result justifies the means. And if the means are being a dreamer than that's okay. Like Son Goku Schaengel will go on a big adventure and you can follow him the next 8 weeks (or two challenges on this adventure)(Of course this is stretching the normal 4-week-chalenge but like the wise monk lu-tze once said: “Look, that's why there's rules, understand? So that you think before you break 'em.†) (Week) 1.Preparing for the travel: Like Goku, our hero will need some equipment and preparation before he can go on such an big adventure so week 1 will be dedicated to prepare for the travel. Goal one: Getting the Dragon Ball Radar Son Goku (or more precisely Bulma) got a Dragon Ball Radar to keep him on track. Guiding him and showing him directions and what to do. That's what our adventurer will need To do's: - Finish the travel itinerary for the China & Japan trip (China is provided by the university, Japan needs to be done) - Finish the two week plan (Tokyo & Kyoto) - Find the best way to use phone in Japan (and by that having a navigation-system) Order - Book ticket's that can be booked from Europe - Book bus and hotel - Buy the last travel things (padlock, SD-Card, new jacket) Goal two: Finding the first Dragon Ball The first Dragon Ball might be nearer than our hero thinks. So leaving home should be done the best way, and that way is with the dragon ball. For that our hero will have to look everywhere he normally goes without thinking... To dos: - briefing the university project team (so that the team can work without the dearly missed hero) - write 6 articles for the football club (1 nearly done 5 to go, every missed article will lead to a blank page in the stadium-magazine) Moved to week 3 - leave the house in a presentable way - look for a body weight workout that can be done in hotel/hostel while traveling - pack everything (This Quest will be completed when 4/5 tasks are done, the university goal is mandatory) Goal three: Finding two star Dragon Ball the second Dragon Ball will bring our hero to the far away city of Beijing. To stay positive and relaxed our hero will have to do the following things to rule weeks three and four to get his second Dragon Ball. - write 2 articles for the football magazine on the flight - Meditate daily (even though your traveling and the rest of the university traveling party probably won't understand) - 3 Workouts (body-weight, since running in Beijing won't be a good idea (smog)) - Take lots of pictures (and post instagram pics for friends at home) - Write a travel log every evening (Goal is achieved when meditation and travel log are done and workouts need to be at least tried twice) Goal four: 3 Stars Our hero needs to do things that will scare him or seem strange to him to become more powerful. Since our hero often has a problem with eating food he isn't used to (unlike Son Goku who will eat everything everywhere) his challenge will be to try one new thing to eat per day while away... (Goal achieved when tried 20 new things (that way travel-days where I might be to grumpy to try something new)) ...to be continued. Our hero will Continue his quest in march, when he will travel to Japan to find the remaining Dragon Balls and use his wish to start in an awesome new semester at his university training session with Muten Roshi. Finding Shenlong: To find Shenlong and get his wish granted our hero will have to find all seven Dragon Balls (measurements for the goals will be added later today). If he does he will get his wish (a chalk set for bouldering) granted (even though the travel is a wish coming trough already)

Hello, lovely people! I feel honored that you have taken the time to read my daily battle log. Well, at least, the very first post on it! I have been on Nerd Fitness for over a year now, and have been on NF chat for..... probably a year and a half. The past year, I've been doing challenges, and have not been very successful overall. I have, however, learned a great deal about myself during that time. Some of those lessons are: 1. I am terrible at setting realistic goals for myself. 2. I am easily frustrated and disappointed in myself. 3. Those negative feelings about the poor start of a challenge or a rough patch in the middle of a change sabotages the rest of the challenge. 4. I am extreme in my passion, enthusiasm and optimism, but am not as skilled in perseverance and problem solving, nor focus and consistency. 5. I have some serious issues I need to straighten out, namely my eating disorder. The solution? Trying my best every single day, day in and day out, to accomplish as much good and to take care of myself as well as possible EVERY day. I have been trying to think more in terms of every single day, rather than a week or 2 weeks or 6 weeks, and it seems to be helping a bit. My overall objectives are to: 1. Lose weight and gain muscle, strength, tone 2. Become strong and healthy in the physical, emotional and mental sense 3. Pursue my dreams and career aspirations 4. Strengthen my spiritual life and finances Some of the ways I will achieve that is to: 1. Eat paleo (mostly Whole30-approved foods) 2. Eat as close to my BMR as possible and not deprive myself 3. Work out 5x a week (hopefully running 3x a week) 4. Hopefully start lifting soon 5. Drink 100 oz water per day and take my vitamins 6. Find ways to manage my stress, prioritize and become efficient and effective 7. Focus and meet school and career goals 8. Take time to pray 9. Reduce spending and become more organized with my record-keeping I'm hoping to treat this as more of my online confessional than anything else. My posts may have just about anything going on in my life in them, so I hope you don't mind. It's going to be a whole lot of Snow being honest about where I'm at in life Right now, I am exhausted and pulling the billionth all-nighter this semester. I'm just ready for it to all be over. I am putting off working on a paper that is already late, and I have the longest to-do list in the world. I want to crawl under a rock and ignore everything, and sleep for about a week, but that's not possible. In order to get a little accountability, here is my schedule for today. I will be reporting to let you know how much I got done: 5am: 1. Do laundry 2. Pick up the house 3. Do reading assignment for Anarchy 4. Do paper slips 5. E-mail Professor Zeff, Will, Ryan and Rod 6. Write Media Paper #4 9am: Shower, eat breakfast, take vitamins, get dressed, print and fill out transcript request form 10:15: Work on Media Paper #1 11:45: Leave home, mail request, go to school 12:30: Political Research Methods class, 2: Sovereignty and Anarchy 3:15: Meeting with professor 3:45: Graduation dress and heels shopping with Mom! Dinner, homework, sleep by 1am. I expect people asking how much I got done! Hahaha help me out! I need some accountability. I have: 2 more days of regular classes! 8 more days of school! 10 days until my grad party! 11 days until commencement! 14 days until my last concert in Iowa! 15 days until I fly to NYC! Roughly a month before I need to start my new job, whatever it may be! Thanks for reading! I love you for who you are

Hi, you can call me Arky I'm 21. I have been commercial fishing for 3 years out of bristol bay. I also have been involved in MMA at C3 in Everett, WA. Right now i'm beating the docks and traveling through Alaska having an adventure. I'ts a struggle not to fall into the drunken sailor stereotypes, but my diet sucks and I'm always on stand by. I have little to no resources so i'm bumming it. I keep myself motivated but I can't do it alone. I am new to nerd fitness and the guilds but I want to keep my health in check. As of now i'm in kodiak Alaska beating the docks. Can anyone relate? HMU 907-346-7294 arkimedes@icloud.com

Where to start, what to say. So here is the dealio, yo. There have been some major changes to my life in the recent months. Some things at work changed for me, and I am traveling quite a bit. This overall is a good thing, but there are a bunch of issues i am having to work myself through, most of it being mental. Let me explain, so when i travel i have very little choice as to what i eat. I am limited to hotel breakfast in the morning, lunch is what ever is provided (typically pizz) or something really fast and so my only choice is dinner. Overall, not horrible, just very difficult to maintain any sort of regularity. Working out is very similar. While i am out traveling i typically work 10-15hr days, so between dinner and sleep, i have very little to no time to work out. My challenge goals will explain it all further. Challenge 1. Eat how much i need not what i want So, i can only partially control as to what I eat, so I think really the name of the game this time will be controlling how much I eat. Lets face it, I can eat a large pizza and a gallon of ice cream in a sitting, and if its there, in front of my nose, i may actually do so. This is a huge struggle for me, portion control has always been a big problem. This will be my goal. Instead of half a pizza, eat a slice, instead of 4 double cheese burgers, have one or two etc. Tracking calories will be hard, as i am not making it, so really i will have to go strictly based of portion. Challenge 2. Just do something If i work insane hours and only get like 4 hrs of sleep, i can't sit there and hope to workout 1hr as well. I just need to wrap my mind around the fact that doing anything is better than nothing. A few minutes early to do some pushups and squats etc, will be better than nothing at all. At the same time though, i need to make sure if i do have the time that i do go to the gym and use the time effectively. There is no plan here, just do what i can Challenge 3. Make the right choices, when i am able to make a choice Doing a lot of traveling make it very easy to excuse horrible eating. Hotel breakfasts have mainly breads, and other carbs sitting out. Lunch is typically something fast and my dinners are company expensed, so why not eat a giant steak with a fully loaded potato right? Well, I am starting to realize this is horrible thinking. Fast doesn't mean horrible, a wrap from MCd's is better than a double cheese burger for example. A smaller steak with veggie sides is better than a 20oz porterhouse with a loaded baked white potato. I can't have a perfect nutrition, but i can make the best choices possible. Side quest Ever wonder what it would be like if our Food was teleported straight from the plate into our stomache? Watch me eat sometime, you may understand. The comments are always there "damn you ate that already?" "No way you could've enjoyed that food" "Did you even breath while you ate that?" I do not know if it will help, but people seem to think if i slow down, i may actually stop eating so damn much. So i will try it out. Though I have no clue how, i have eaten the same way i do, ever since HS. Count every time i chew? Don't load up the fork till i swallow? Hell I don't know, i will try though. Hey, if you guys have suggestions, please let me know. Luckily i start the challenge off being at home, but week 2 will have me in charlotte, NC. And i am anticipating 18hr days because of the work load there, after i don't know where or when yet.

Hey Rebels, My name's Tum. I'm excited to be a part of the community. I am interested in getting lighter on my feet and being more confident. I have to do a lot of public speaking, and being leaner and taller (than my 3' wide 5'6" tall 20 lb overweight frame,) will make me a stronger speaker with more suave and persuasion. Problem is, I travel a lot, and by traveling, I mean 36 hours of train, to plain, to bus. Airport food doesn't give a good choice. Some times, I don't get to prepare or choose my own food. I don't know how I could exercise. My schedule changes every 2-6 months or so too. I know they sound like excuses, but I would love to know if there is anyway I can have a way to fit an adaptable workouts into my irregular change. Thanks a lot for suggestions and support. Best