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Thus far I have managed to have 2 very successful challenges. I know that this system works for me so maybe it's time to start pushing myself a little harder and kick some serious ass. For this reason, I am making this challenge Buffy themed (and because everything is better if it's Buffy themed!) Main quest - to set a great example to my children This hasn't changed and it probably never will because it is perfect for me. My boys are wonderful but being a parent is hard work. Being a healthy parent is even harder but it's so important to be a good role model to children. They are my motivation. Goal 1 - Kick ass workouts 3 times a week (+3 STA, +2DEX) I discovered last challenge that I need variety in my workouts. Doing the same old stuff 3 times a week meant I seriously lacked motivation. I also discovered that I love to get my sweat on and work hard (contrary to what I would've believed) so that is my focus for this challenge. I'm going to be following the fighter's codex program on darebee.com. This is varied, focused on kicking ass and should get me nice and sweaty. Reward - being fitter Goal 2 - Stop binge eating (+3CON) I know I'm good at succeeding in challenges but I'm also very good at finding the loopholes to allow myself to be naughty. Initially I allowed myself a cheat day from my healthy eating plan but then I became a little ridiculous on that day. My focus for this goal is going to be on maintaining my current weight (10 stone 8). I will continue to count calories and I hope that now I'm allowed 2000 daily I won't feel the desire to binge and go way over. Reward - not being bloated Goal 3 - Complete 20 good form push ups (+4STR, +1STA) (I couldn't find a gif of Buffy doing push ups...wtf?!) This is an insane goal as I can currently only manage about 5 but as I said earlier, I've had great success in past challenges so why not push hard and see what can be achieved?! My plan is to work on them during my sweaty workout sessions but also try 1 day a week (probably Mondays) to do some on the hour, every hour and see where that gets me. Then on a Sunday I will do as many as possible to measure progress. Could be interesting. Reward - total bragging rights Life Side Quest - Have a kick ass wardrobe (+2CHA) With my recent weight loss, I treated myself to some new clothes but I still find myself wearing the same old hoodies every day. The sun is starting to shine (as much as it ever does in England) so I want to sort my wardrobe out and start wearing nicer clothes. The first step is to sort out which clothes are bloody awful (why do I even have these?) and get rid of them. Once that is done, I want to weed out the clothes that don't fit well and then I'll have easier access to all the nice things. Reward - Looking great Unfortunately I'm on holiday for the first week of the challenge so I'm intending to complete it in 5 weeks however I'm prepared to give myself an extra week to work on the push ups if needed.

This will be another quietish challenge for me. After this, I get back to bigger things, promise! First Perspective: Judo Theory and Philosophy I have been terribly remiss in not reading cover to cover several books on Judo in my possession. As there will be two weeks in which I am barred from working out, this will be an excellent time to read them. Kodokan Judo by Jigoro Kano Mind Over Muscle: Writings From the Founder of Judo by Jigoro Kano Judo itself is not going to be a goal this challenge. I will go when permitted to do so and nothing else should be a problem. Second Perspective: Get upside down! Use the GMB guide and work on handstands and their supporting exercises at least 3x/week except when I am forbidden from working out. Third Perspective: My apartment I love the place but being away for a week showed me that it needs some deeper cleanup and maybe some rearranging. Make it sparkly and awesome again. Clean out/handle the items on the following list. Cupboardsclosetson top/inside the fridgemove knitting supplies to the trunkclean out dresser for other storagejunk drawersmove book cases and media to my bedroom?set up computer desk in living room (may not happen this challenge)swap large bookcase and dresser, see how that looksClean stairway walls, with magic eraser if neccessaryFix floor scratches left by previous occupantClean out boxes/misc crap in odd cornersfind all of the cat toys hiding under furnituremove my Grandfather's painting to a better locationreplace the broken blinds in the living roomDust the odd corners that don't usually get reachedGo through my booksTry to clean the bathroom blindsAcquire curtain rod and hang stupid curtains in my bedroom!Transfer my African Violets to a larger planterLife Goal - Improve my wardrobe Purge wardrobe of things that don't fit, I never wear, or are just in too bad shape to keepWardrobe diagnostics - look at the breakdown of what I need versus what I haveFigure out style(s) that I like - post pictures, read advice and check out what's availableIdentify minimum number of needed items to allow me to dress well for my regular activitiesBudget some money for clothing each monthBuy and hang a mirror - would be nice to not need to stand on my toes in the bathtub to see my upper body in the bathroom mirrorBuy and hang a hook for longer dresses/skirts - I have nowhere to store longer items as my closets are too lowMaybe make a nice cowl? Completed but given to my Mom since she loved it so much. Complete the second one :-)

Fiscal year end is coming. Year-end is normally a very busy time at work. Everyone in my life generally gets warned that all plans are subject to cancellation if I need to work late in December. It affected my challenge to a noticeable extent last year and I should have planned for it. Doing so this year. It's set up as a two phase challenge so I can have standard goals and pursue those but the backup set of goals is there for if everything goes to pot at work. If all goes well, I will be in phase 1 for the whole challenge. It's possible but history tells me to plan for everything to get very busy at some point. Phase 1 - Business as usual Judo & Studying: x/18 overall Judo Class twice/week unless class is cancelled x/11 (No Judo on Remembrance Day) Study at least one high belt technique or aspect of Judo each week x/6 Physical Balance: x/42 overall Recent challenges have involved trying to work out a good balance of all of the aspects of exercise I consider important. It's had mixed success. Last challenge had the downside of de-valuing my Judo, since it was weighted the same as anything else but dominates my work week. So Judo is out of the balance goal and on it's own now. Here's my latest idea: split strength training and do a little each morning. Better than deciding that I just don't have the time for it. Then do a few bigger things on the weekend. Monday to Friday - Short morning BW workout (pullups, squats, pushups, bridges, HLRs) Saturday - striking practice, preferably with Chris. Sunday - yoga session In addition, I stretch before bed and walk most everywhere so I'm also getting in ~5 hours of walking per week. Keep these up. Running is out until spring unless there's a nice day with no slow on the sidewalks and I get better sneakers. Make Presents x/6 Make at least 6 small gifts with yarn knitting, maille knitting, crochet, cross-stitch or cooking. I love to make people gifts and they seem to like them. Priority: Dad's Socks! Edit: decided that the life balance one is crap this time of year any way and changed it to making Christmas gifts :-) Life Balance - Version 2: x/30 overall Each item is pass or fail/week. It lets me keep an eye on life in general and how well I'm handling things. It also reminds me to prioritize sleep and meditation. SleepMeditationFoodChoresWork Supply Chain Management Course: Complete/Not Complete This course is teaching me great things and will definitely help at work. It's eating 6 to 10 hours per week but that's what it takes to get the material. The course is finished on December the 16th and I'm keeping up so far. If at all possible, complete this course. Additional Long Term Life Goal - Improve my wardrobe (probably will not be finished this challenge) I tried doing this before but I went about it in some inefficient ways. I bought dresses that I like but don't really have anywhere to wear. As much as I like them and they may be useful in the future, they were not practical. Do it right this time. Purge wardrobe of things that don't fit, I never wear, or are just in too bad shape to keepWardrobe diagnostics - look at the breakdown of what I need versus what I haveFigure out style(s) that I like - post pictures, read advice and check out what's availableIdentify minimum number of needed items to allow me to dress well for my regular activitiesBudget some money for clothing each monthBuy and hang a mirror - would be nice to not need to stand on my toes in the bathtub to see my upper body in the bathroom mirrorBuy and hang a hook for longer dresses/skirts - I have nowhere to store longer items as my closets are too lowMaybe knit a nice cowl? Would be a good relaxing Christmas break project. Phase 2 - Don't Panic Phase 2 kicks in if work gets very busy and I'm doing a lot of overtime. Admittedly, my version of a lot of overtime is about 16 extra hours per week. 56ish hours/week at work overall. I know a lot of people work more than that, but it's a lot for me. These goals sub in for the ones above. Goal 1 - Do whatever is most important right now Remember Essentialism and try to keep a handle on everything by focusing on one task at a time. Not a SMART goal, true, but it will be the best thing I can do. Goal 2 - Take 30 min before bed to calm down and relax. Meditation, reading, whatever. It will pay off in improved sleep. Goal 3 - Get up from my desk every hour and do something. During the standard work day I can go and check for mail or packages. After hours I can do whatever if nobody else is there. Stretch, work on one of the striking techniques or Judo turn-ins, pushups/whatever else. The little bits of exercise will let me feel better and be more focused the rest of the time. Goal 4 - Still try and finish the Supply Chain Course

This challenge is Batman themed, in honor of Batty's 75th. Overarching Goal: Building A Better Bat My continuing and overarching goal for this entire NF journey has been to build a better/more healthy/more fit/whathaveyou version of me. What does that look like? I don't know. There's the image in my head and then there's the more modest and realistic goal - and I'm guessing reality is going to lie somewhere in-between. (vaguely - 15% body fat & guns ala Linda Hamilton in T2) To achieve this goal, I've leveled up my food (mostly and some cycles better than others), I've participated in a couple of muddy obstacle courses (and plan to do more), "run" a "real" 5k (also plan to do more), followed a few fitness-oriented programs, and have made working out a priority 4-5 times a week. I still have a ways to go, but I think I'm on the right track - I just need to keep this trajectory going + add some more specific challenges into the mix. Goal 1: Fitness - aka be capable enough to escape the Joker whenever Always fitness. I like my 4-5 days a week workout schedule, so I'm sticking to that. The Spartan WODs seem to be working well for me so far, so I think I'll continue down that path with yoga worked in on the days I don't want to do the WOD/can't because it's raining or something. This is dangerously close to one of those pick your own adventure plans that I suck so horribly at, but since I've been able to keep it up for a week, maybe I can keep it going? I would also, ideally, like to work in one of my other side goals here - like being able to do an unassisted pull-up - but we will see how drained this kinda intense workout plan makes me. Goal 2: Metrics - aka Sciiiience! Like Poison Ivy? (go with it) Metrics make me happy and they work for me, so I'm sticking with them. As a refresher, my metrics are: 100 grams or under of carbs, 70 grams or over of protein, under 100 grams of fat and around 1500 calories. Water is the recommended by FitBit 64 ounces, and on the weekends I like my step count to be over FitBit’s recommended 10,000. I track food with My Fitness Pal and exercise, sleep and water with the FitBit Flex. Weight and BF are tracked with my FitBit Aria scale. Although I don't eat cow dairy any more, this was too great not to share Moving on. Goal 3: Socials - Like With Superfriends & Shit Ok, so I'm not really talking about social media here, but stick with me I feel the need to force myself to be more social. Mostly because my comfort zone is warm and snuggly … also because I realize that snuggling in my comfort zone doesn't really get me what I want in life. I'm not 100% sure what that is, mind you, but it most likely involves someone paying me for doing something I find more fulfilling than what I'm currently doing. So I should probably speak to humans. In meatspace. Life Side Goal - Get My Wardrobe Dialed-in Like Harley Quinn Wardrobe restructure. I've been really into building a minimalist wardrobe lately and think I might be ready to make the jump. Sites like this and Pinterest are fueling this current obsession. My need to purge crap from my house is also driving this desire. Diet Side Goal - NaNa NaNa NaNa NaNa I'm pretty dialed in here. More 'Batman Does Not Eat' shenanigans here. More Bats And More Bats Starting Measurements Neck: 11.5 inches Under Bust: 29.5 inches Waist: 26.5 inches Hips: 38.5 inches Arm (left): 9.5 inches Thigh (left): 19 inches Body fat (calipers): 19.6% Weight (at wake up): 119.3 lbs

Teirin’s Summer of Kata: I tried to come up with a cool Dresden Files theme for this and failed. It may be edited if I come up with something cool. Goal 1 - Work on higher level techniques and Kata at the unofficial summer Judo classes. No grading on this one. Just work on lots of techniques and kata and help my clubmates learn the same. We don't normally get to work on these during the normal classes but the unofficial summer classes are all brown belts all the time. We've made a pact to spend the single class per week working on kata and the higher level techniques. It'll be awesome. Goal 2 - Prasara Yoga continued - updated Learn and be capable of at least roughly doing one three of the series A flows from Scott Sonnon’s Prasara Yoga: Flow Beyond Thought. Updated goal is to learn Diving Dolphin, Tumbleweed, and Flock of Pigeons while working on the techniques required for Forest and Spider Monkey. If they go well, I'll work on some of the flows Tacfit has developed. Spider Monkey - admittedly not likely yet, but I will work on it! Forest - this is a bit modified but the only video I can find Diving Dolphin Tumbleweed Flock of Pigeons Goal 3 - General Training Cheerfully stealing Twilight’s point system but limiting it to workouts: Short workout - 1 point Longer workout - 2 points Sprint session - 1 point (Edit: changed to 1 point) Judo class - kata - 1 point Judo class - hard workout - 2 points Yoga session - 1 point I am aiming for 8 points/week. Grading will be a percentage. This also leaves me some flexibility to mess around with my workouts and try different things if inclined. Edit: Revision to workout/points goal: I'm changing the weekly goal from 8 to 10 points. The A level of full points should only happen when I get an ideal number of workouts in - 5 short workouts, 1 Judo class, 2 yoga sessions, and a sprint session. That would be 10 points. If I set a low bar, I'll likely meet it. See last challenge :-/ Life Goal - Sleep Redux from last challenge. Drag bedtime back to or before midnight. Preferably before. Similar grading to last time. Largely eyeballed but I will be tracking my bedtime and sleep quality. Settled by 11:30 5 out 7 nights per week = A. Settled by 12 = B, by 12:30 = C. Extra Life goal - Wear tank tops/sleeveless dresses in public. I have some acne still and a fair bit of scarring on my arms. I’m overly sensitive about it. Very few people have actually commented on my arms but the rare ones tend to be remembered more than the vast majority of people who either don’t notice or do notice and don’t care. I’ve been wearing more T-shirts lately and that’s been going well so this is just a bonus sort of thing. I am continuing to use a spreadsheet and am very happy with that. New one is linked in my sig.

Motivation: I need to love myself so I can let others love me. My over-arching Main Quest is to: Turn my body into something I'm proud of (work off excess fat, unleash my strength). My three missions: Use rest as a weapon. 3 CON Be in bed for 8 hours, which should allow me 7.5 hours of sleep nightly to re-fuel my body. Pump up the iron. 3 CON; 2 STA I learned last challenge that I need more in order to function. I hate keeping track of it, so I'm forcing myself to do so with this mission. Hopefully this will re-train my eating to keep my iron levels at optimum. May 5 edit: removed Move onwards and upwards. 2 DEX; 3 STA I want to be able to run up the outdoor stairs which pepper the hillsides around me, no stopping, by the end of this challenge. This will require that I start running regularly again, as well as strengthen my legs for the long, upward journey. I think the route I've selected around my new place has such varied terrain that I will get a lot out of it, and I'll try the stairs at least once a week. May 5 edit: added Re-introduce regular exercise 2 DEX; 3 STA I cut back a lot because I didn't have the energy. Now that I'm feeling better (just sleepy as I adjust to my longer days) I need to get workouts back into my life. My back will suffer if I don't, and I'm sure I'll start to gain weight again (fingers crossed that hasn't happened). I am going to do 3 days a week of cardio for 20 minutes minimum, as well as try to pepper some body-weight exercises into the week, hopefully every second day but at least twice a week. Life Side Quest: Dress to impress. 2 CHA Organize, purge, figure out what elements are missing or over-represented in my closet. I have items I love, hate, wear often, or wear never. A few fit nicely, the rest fit a bit too tightly (over the course of a few years, I've gained a smidgen too much weight). The madness will end! Suggestions for tackling this side quest are highly encouraged! Player Stats: Apr 9, 2014 (green sports bra) Total weight: 146.2 lbs Body fat: 30.3% Lean mass: 101.9 lbs Fat mass: 44.3 lbs Natural waist: 84.5 cm Lower abs: 97cm Hips: 98 cm Thighs: R 60.2 cm, L 59.6 cm Challenge History: pattycake118, Engage! current If you have any suggestions for the grading scale, please let me know! I'm considering whether I should add some points for WIS to my sleep mission, as it will help me to be more aware of my surroundings.

Flexibility. (DEX +3, STA +2) I bought Focused Flexibility from GMB so I should definitely use it. Stretch daily (total 42 days). (We stretch during silks class, so on Mondays, that totally counts). Also, I need to the basic assessments before the challenge starts. A 37-42 B 33-36 C 29-32 D 25-28 Fail <25 Bulking. (STR +2, WIS +1) Slooooow bulk. I’ll aim for ~1 lb/month, so by the end of the challenge, I should be up about 1.5 lbs. Ultimate goal is to bulk until the end of the year. That should get me a good 9 months of slow growth that will hopefully partition mostly as muscle and not fat. Starting weight: This morning: 118 lbs. Yesterday: 116 lbs. Let's call it 117 lbs to start. Pass: Gain 1-2 lbs Fail: Gain nothing, or gain 3 or more lbs Work out like a beast. (STR+3) If I'm going to eat more, I sure as hell need to take advantage of it. As of challenge start, I’ll be on week 11 of 12 of the Strong Curves program. I'll finish that out, then move on to a program based on it, but of my own construction and without all the silly “switch all your exercises every 4 weeks†nonsense. It’ll look something like this: Workout A A1 3 x 20 Single-leg glute bridge A2 3 x 8 One-arm DB row B1 3 x 5 BB squat B2 3 x 8 DB incline press C 3 x 5 BB Romanian deadlift D 1 x 20 Cable standing abduction E 1 x ALAP Plank F 1 x ALAP Side plank Workout B A1 3 x 8-20 BB hip thrust A2 3 x 5 Chin-up B1 3 x 10 DB walking lunges B2 3 x 8 BB military press C 2 x 12 Back extension D 1 x 20 Band seated abduction E 1 x 20 Wide-leg sit-up F 1 x 20 Russian Twist Workout C A1 3 x 20 Single-leg glute bridge A2 3 x 8 Seated row B1 3 x 10-15 DB goblet squat B2 3 x 15 Lateral raises C 3 x 8-12 Good morning D 1 x 10 Side lying hip raise E 1 x 10-20 Reverse crunch F 1 x 8-12 Woodchoppers General Weekly Plan Monday Silks (class) Tuesday Rest Wednesday Silks (open gym) Thursday Lift A Friday Rest Saturday Lift B Sunday Lift C 5 workouts/week for a total of 30 workouts/challenge. A 27-30 B 24-26 C 21-23 D 18-20 Fail <18 Curate my Closet. (WIS +4) For a (long) while, I seemed to be doing a lot of online shopping. It's tapered off a bit, but it still could be a worthwhile goal. My problem is clothes: I always feel like I have nothing to wear, despite a closet and dresser full of stuff. An honest assessment of my clothing is in order. Starting with work-appropriate clothes, to reduce the “I don’t have anything to wear†panic that occasionally crops up in the morning. Some questions to ask while sorting: · Is it work appropriate? If no, save for later assessment. · Does it fit/flatter? · Have I worn it in the last year? (To account for seasons, a shorter timeframe wouldn't really work) · Can I make at least 2-3 different outfits with it? · How many of X (article of clothing) do I need? Hopefully I can take an honest look at my clothes and either: know that I have enough to not wear the same 5 outfits every week, or: be able to have a targeted search to fill in the gaps with some controlled shopping. No idea how to grade this one, just mostly a pass if I spent some time doing it and didn’t mindlessly assault the online shops.

Hi everyone! I'm trying to declutter my wardrobe and I've found a huge trouble with the "fitness" module! I don't know how many shorts, T-shirts, shoes... are the "basics". So I've thought that maybe asking here I'd find some inspiration. How many clothes do you have in order to do exercise? Winter/Summer, it doesn't matter!