apfelstrudi fights off the Yeerks

[ApfelStrudi]

It’s time to turn it up a notch. My last (un-)challenge worked out phenomenally in unexpected ways. Not only have I had a great, awesome, epic time the last few weeks, I’ve also fallen back in love with fitness. Specifically running. God, have I missed running.

 

I’ve spent a long time thinking about how to set up this challenge. I’ve looked at what has worked for me and what hasn’t, and I’ve made a plan!

 

1. Achievements work for me. They work much better than rules or numbers. My most successful challenges were those that made me go for shit and not do a certain thing X number of times a week.

2. I like to accidentally clutter my challenges. I feel like I have to put everything I do into my goals and it’s silly. So I’ll be doing much more than what I challenge myself to do and we’ll see how that works out.

3. I like turtles.

 

So for this challenge I'll have goals, they will be rather broad. Within these goals, I'll have certain achievements I can collect along the way. Please feel very free to add achievements if you think of some that I have missed - I like being challenged by you guys.

 

Enough planny shit, here’s what’s going down.

 

I'm going to get fast and strong and eat and live. That is my main goal.

 

And it is especially important in times like this. Unbeknownst to most, the Yeerks have taken residence not only on our planet, but inside many people's brains. It's time I got them out of there. Luckily, I am an animorph. Oh wait - you didn't know that? Well, now you do. Unfortunately there's only so many animals I can touch, and only so much that can be done in 2 hours (don't want to go down Tobias' road and get stuck, that'd blow!) so I've assembled a few animals in my basement to practice with. They shall help me fight off Yeerks. Every achievement unlocked while animorphed kills off one of the Yeerks. 

 

I plan to litter the floor with the bodies of dead slugs, yo.

 

 

Goal Number 1: Run. 

 

 

Horses have always made me happy. Also when I googled animorph pictures and this showed up I laughed for at least five minutes and so I really had no choice but to get a horse and shut it in my basement and abuse it to run from zombies.

 

I'm not a psychopath, I swear.

 

Anyways, apart from the animorphing, it's simple. I want to run. I need to run. Running makes me happy. It makes me feel free and alive and gets rid of all sorts of things like crappy moods and tiredness. I want it every day all day. This goal includes everything run-related.

 

Here's the list of achievements:

 

- Finish the Zombies, Run 5k Trainer

- Do an air drop mission

- Do a zombie chase and don't get eaten

- Run with another person

- Run trails

- Run through the city park

- Run in a different place far from home

- Run a 8 minute kilometer

- Updated: Run 8 minute/kilometer average on a 5k run

- Do 10 uphill sprints up that really steep hill and don't die

- Run for 20 minutes straight

- Run for 25 minutes straight

- Run for 30 minutes straight

- Find someone to plan an epic air drop mission with and do it

- Run 35km in one week

- Run every day for one week

- Do a lunch break city run

- Do a zoo run

- Do an early morning run before work

- Run through the rain

 

 

 

 

Goal Number 2: Push it. Push it real good.

 

 

Everyone thinks that kangarros are just great at kicking but psh you don't know the half of it. MY kangaroo is a total stud and animorphing into kangaroo form is going to be the best thing ever.

 

The goal is to up my push up game. I recently discovered (and have been overjoyed about it ever since) that I can sort of do knee push ups. It feels like push ups are a thing that are possible and more recently I could sort of feel muscles in my arms - what is happening to me, am I stuck in kangaroo form? I don't know. But push ups shall happen sooner or later.

 

Here's the list of achievements:

 

- 1.30 min plank

- 2 min plank

- 2.30 min plank

- 1.30 min elbow plank

- 2 min elbow plank

- 2.30 min elbow plank

- 3 min elbow plank

- 30 sec low plank

- 1 min low plank

- negative push up

- push up

- 10 incline push ups

- 20 incline push ups

- 10 knee push ups

- 20 plank-to-elbow-plank-and-back-s

- 30 plank to elbow-plank and back-s

- try those spotted push ups

 

 

 

 

Goal 3: Ditch the candy. And the take out. And stay the eff away from the bakery.

 

 

This is going to be a tough one. That's why the third animal in my basement is a cat. Cats are picky f*ckers. They don't eat everything. And if they don't like something, they shove it away. Or kill it. Or puke on it. They're assholes, really. I need to be more asshole-y about my eating.

 

I have tasted candy for the first time in years and the best example of how it has ruined me would be the evening that I spend spooning canned frosting with thin mints. It's bad.

 

I love that I'm eating so much, I hate that there's so much junk in there. I'm also spending too much money on lunches that I can simply make at home. So that's the goal. Healthy eating. Pretty basic, right? (I'm typing this as I'm eating the last bits of the reeses heart that I got for valentine's day).

 

Here's the list of achievements:

 

- Prepare lunches in advance for a week

- Make a meal plan

- Have breakfast BEFORE leaving home every day for a week

- Don't eat candy for a week

- Don't buy any type of food (unless it's groceries. I'm talkig about the 'Oh I'm hungry I should get a kreppel) for a week

- Stay away from the bakery for a week

- Cook. Just, whatever. Cook it.

 

 

 

 

Goal Number 4: Sunday Funday

 

 

Who could be a better teacher to become a party animal than a pug? So much to learn from them.

 

I like fun. I like being busy and never home and just out there. I also like my list of dares that I've not yet completed. There's a lot going on in my life that I could focus on, but as most of those things aren't really a challenge, I just love doing them, and I don't want to overburden myself and set myself up for failure, I'm going to keep this simple. No achievements to be unlocked (currently, I might work on something) but feel very free to dare me.

 

My past sundays have been awesome. Truly awesome. Filled with adventures and amazingness and fun. I want to keep that streak going. Rest days are for the weak. It doesn't matter what sort of fun I'll have on sundays, I just want to use them and not let them slide by. There are too many things to be seen and done. 

 

 

 

 

Do you have any other achievements that would work well with my goal? Please share them with me and I'll make sure to add them!

 

No grading. No stat points earned. No rewards.

 

Actually, I might re-think that whole rewards thing. I like rewards.

[ApfelStrudi]

Quick pre-challenge pre-update thingy! As posted on my old challenge thread, I already crushed two of my achievements (Surviving a zombie chase - psh I survived 4 of them! - and running an 8min/km average) so I've crossed those out, updated the 8min goal. Here's the map of my run for proof and because I want to brag!

 

 

Happy new challenge shiny happy people. So excited.

 

[erosan]

Awww you beat me to being the first thread of the new challenge. Hell, you even beat Spezzy! Well, no shame in being number 3, right?

 

Let me setup my thread and I'll come back and read.

[erosan]

I absolutely love the concept of a challenge in achievements as opposed to hard goals. Best of lucks to you! And congrats on being the first challenge up on the forums!

[Mad Hatter]

Love your challenge! I can't wait to hear about your shenanigans!

 

BUT - rest days are NOT for the weak. Sometimes we need to recharge the batteries and reflect otherwise we crash and burn. Both mentally and physically. So I'm going to dare you to take it easy one day, just chill, do some crafting or whatever and spend some quality time with yourself without going 1000%. 

[ApfelStrudi]

I am the fastest at running and posting challenges

I love and loathe your dare, hatter! I'm all about that rest today though. I'm super hyper because of it and kind of want to tie myself to my chair so i stop bouncing. But i know i need rest today. I want adventure this weekend so I'll just have to bite the bullet

[raptron]

Yup, rest is good. No one said it had to be a weekend day.

 

These animorph finds are hilarious, btw. Excited for your new challenge.

[blkhole24601]

ANIMORPHS! I LOVED those books when I was in 5th-6th grade. Tobias was always my favorite. (and lmfao, those images, love them!!)

 

Love your challenges (list of achievements calls to my inner love of To-Do Lists!), and omg, I do miss Zombies, Run like something fierce!! Best of luck to you!

[Elennare]

Animorphs!  I'm following just for that.   Have fun, and good luck!

[lucky fire dragon]

what a brilliant challenge you have set up here! I love your achievement lists as goals and think they totally rock. Btw if you can hold those planks, you will kill those push-ups in no time If you can do knee-push-ups you will soon be able to do full ones.

 

Your whole set-up is so exciting, it get's me hyper and happy just to read through it.

[Priscillia]

Oh man your gifs and the description of cats..! They are picky arseholes aren't they?

 

Really liking the bucket list/achievement model here

[Mad Hatter]

I love and loathe your dare, hatter!

You're welcome.

[Lilith]

ARE YOU READY TO ROCK THE UPCOMING CHALLENGE?! 

 

[ApfelStrudi]

[ApfelStrudi]

 

The state of my leg

I'm excited to have pole dance class twice next week (beginner class on wednesday but also next level class on monday!) and cannot WAIT for my pole badges.

 

I'm feeling sort of unmotivated and blegh right now and can't quite figure out why. This week has been incredibly slow and boring, maybe that's why. I went out with my two best friends yesterday and it was supposed to be a slutty night of drinks but it turned into me being designated driver with a bit of a headache and us staying in the restaurant instead of going to a pub or club because they had cheap cocktails, which I couldn't drink. No people were met and afterwards they didn't want to go to any of the bars that looked fun. It was super loud in the restaurant and it just wasn't what I expected. I did get one catcall out of it that was sort of nice - just an American dude asking us what's up, but they kept walking. And there were many really uncomfortable catcalls on the way back to the car and some dudes following us almost all the way, so that wasn't particularly fun.

 

I'm not sure what to do today. I'll probably kill myself with a run because that seems like a good idea. Going to see stud muffin tomorrow most likely, but it'll be a day spent studying rather than doing anything fun, so my streak of sunday fundays will be broken! Sadness. Maybe I need to do something amazingly fun in the morning before I go there.

 

Does anyone have ideas for something super fun I can do early in the morning? Can totally be workout-related. The only thing I can currently think of would be a zoo run but I want to do that some other time when it's not as cold. 

[lucky fire dragon]

yay pole kisses And yay for classes twice a week!!

 

When I feel stuck, bored, frustrated and/or blegh like that, I like to put in some totally mixed-up music and dance in a way that probably no one else would call a dance. My friend and teacher Lola calls it non-habitual movement as it's moving in unusual ways, shaking, hopping, dancing without pattern, against habits and what helps, too, is looking as much of a dork as I can in-between.

That is a LOT of fun and kind of a workout, too Especially if you really build in totally unusual movements for you, you will use muscles you normally don't use.

Walking backwards on all fours is fun for me, hopping like a frog or flapping wildly like a spooked chicken,...

[Pretzle]

Familiar faces ftw, glad to have found your thread and I'll be following you during this challenge.

[KB Girl]

Hey good to see you're back! Love the achievement setup of your challenge, i remember the pokemon one which worked well for you

[Lilith]

Wow is that going to be your first higher level pole class? That's nice! 

 

Maybe you should go for a run... You know... If that makes you happy... I would love to do nothing lol but if you are in a great flow you should definitely keep it flowing Derrrrp. Gosh sorry I am so tired I had a concert last night and it was amazing  

[ApfelStrudi]

Yesterday's run after lots of struggling with Motivation. It didn't go very well. I hurt myself somehow and had to limp back about 2km. Feeling better now and having a forced rest day on the army base. I forgot my embroidery things unfortunately but I'm just lazing around in bed while stud muffin is working on a paper. No exercise today unless you count the dancing i did while cleaning for two hours. Which i don't!

[Lilith]

Pfff sucks that you hurt yourself I'm currently laying on the couch because I also hurt from my long hiking trip. Not hurt in a bad way don't worry just sore and tired.

Still amazing you went running without a lot of motivation!

[Mad Hatter]

Here's to a speedy recovery. And two hours dancing is definitely activity.

[ApfelStrudi]

Here's to a speedy recovery. And two hours dancing is definitely activity.

You are the worst! So this is again not counting as my day of total rest? When did being lazy become so hard?!

[ApfelStrudi]

Wait a second i need to get out of this bed then and do things

[obax]

One thing to remember about rest: there's two kinds, physical rest and mental rest. It sounds like you get recharged mentally from the doing of things with people. For someone like me, that'd be fun but exhausting, but it seems like for you, it's fun and recharging. So embrace that!

 

Physical rest is another thing entirely, and definitely important. The trick usually is to know when you really need to rest and when you're just being lazy (or at least, that's the trick for me), but it kinda seems like it's the other way around for you, where you have no trouble getting up and going out. Definitely not a bad thing, but the trick will be knowing when you do need some downtime. That said, hanging out on Stud Muffin's bed while he studies seems like some physical down time, so it doesn't necessarily have to be you cooped up at home by yourself. It's a good idea to embrace the laze every now and then, and it sounds like you won't have to worry too much about embracing it a bit too hard...