Dusk

Hi Rurik! Your goals look awesome. Subbed - I look forward to seeing your progress! I might have to borrow some of your ideas... What are you thinking of changing your username to? Can you change usernames without having to create a new account?...

Shadri stood before the imposing Ranger. Short though he was, his reputation added at least ten feet to his height. But Shadri wasn't afraid of him like most people were. She greatly admired his skill and looked on him with awe. Tempered with a hearty dose of respect, as she nervously eyed the throwing knives at his belt. Perhaps she had been too bold, though. She had seen him puttering around by his cabin, and the urge to talk to him had been too much to refuse. Before she knew it, she had babbled him into a shocked silence and - to her own surprise and horror - asked him to take her on as his apprentice. He pursed the corners of his mouth in thought. "That's a bold move, girl," he said gruffly, and Shadri's heart sank. She ought to have known - not just anyone could be a Ranger, and to just walk up to the greatest Ranger the kingdom had ever seen and ask him to train her - it was preposterous. "I'm sorry," she mumbled. "I shouldn't have said anything. And anyway, I'm a girl. There aren't girl Rangers. I'm sorry. I'll, um..." But Halt waved a hand at her to stop her, the gears of his mind still whirring. "It's true that we don't have any female Rangers," he mused. "But we simply never have before. It doesn't mean we couldn't." Shadri's yellow-green eyes met his cold grey ones, and hope swelled in her chest when she saw curiosity there. "I like your attitude, girl," he said. "What did you say your name was?" Mae govannen, mellyn nin. Thank you for welcoming me into your midst. I am so pleased to finally be a part of the guild! (Also, thank you for humoring my little fan fiction! I couldn't help myself ) (Also also, the above fan fiction is based on a book series. I know there are girl rangers here. ) Okay, here's the low down. I want to be awesome. I want to be strong, look better as a consequence, and feel energetic and antifragile. I want to be strong enough that I can, oh, hypothetically, lift a cooler of ice and not have the boys yell at me to put it down because it's too heavy. (Yes, that actually happened to me. It was pretty heavy, but nothing I couldn't have handled. I was not happy. In fact, I was seething for at least 7.43 minutes.) I made some good progress in my first challenge, but I know there's so much more I'm capable of. During the first challenge it was important to be (very) easy on myself, while I got into the swing of things; but now it's time to take it up a notch. 1. Do a bodyweight circuit M-W-F (or 3 days/week, if I can't do it on those specific days), and some kind of cardio T-TH (or 2 days/week). I gotta be aggressive! I won’t be any sort of effective ranger by putting in minimal effort. Stat points awarded: 3 STR, 2 STA, 2 DEX 2. Get off my butt, stretch, and move everyday for at least 30 minutes (separate from my workouts). Play more! Run around with the dog, ride my bike, jump rope, go hiking more when the weather permits. Walk more vigorously between classes. Walk on the elliptical if I have to. I just need to spend less time on my butt, because it's contributing a little too heartily to my sucky cardio and inflexibility.Stat points awarded: 1 DEX, 1 STA 3. Focus on/refine what I eat, not just how much. Last challenge one of my goals was eating more, as I suspected I was so exhausted because I wasn't getting enough to eat. I ate mostly good food (80/20), but it was too carb-heavy at times and there was not nearly enough protein involved. This time I am going to keep that goal of eating at least 1500 calories/day, but try to refine what I actually put in my mouth. I especially need to invest in some more meat, and a wider variety of vegetables (carrots and broccoli are getting pretty boring).Stat points awarded: 2 STA, 2 CON Life quest: Keep reading my Bible - 5 pages every day (even though I'm behind and need to catch up, aaah). It's my overarching goal to read the entire Bible in one year, and 5 pages per day will get me through the whole thing by December 31st. (IF I CATCH UP ARGH) Stat points awarded: 1 WIS, 1 CHA Grading: I will calculate the letter grade based on the actual percentage, and then I will curve it thusly:A = (points) x 1B = (points) x 0.8C = (points) x 0.75D or below = (points) x 0.0 I am so excited to take part in this challenge with you all! I have been looking forward to the day when I could join a guild even before I started doing the challenges, and it feels good to finally be here.

Oh good! I was about to freak out - "Nooo I finally decided on my guild and its goooone" Thank you Hammi! *makes coffee and waits patiently by the Ranger tent*

Noice! I've got my challenge planned out too. Just have to wait for the forums to be updated. Too late for my burpees today - everyone else in the house is asleep, and burpees are not a quiet endeavor. I'll make them up tomorrow.

Ok, cool. Thanks!

So, does anyone know when the forums are going to be reset?

Goodness gracious, burpees are harder than I remember them being. I haven't done them in forever! But I did my fifteen. Slowly, but I did them.

Congrats to all who finished thus far! To those who are still going, KEEP GOING! YOU'RE ALMOST THERE! How'd we do? I passed - not as well as I'd like, but I finished something for once! That's change enough for me. There are plenty more challenges in the future in which to kick serious booty. I'm excited to move into my guild, how about y'all?

Well, this week kinda sucked. I totally lost my momentum. On the bright side, my hair experiment is going fairly well. Wearing lots of hats and headscarves though, so who knows ;P I don't stink though, hair or mouth or anything. On a related note, I tried out using lemon juice on my underarms today instead of deodorant (I like the idea of cheap AND weird-chemical-free), and now my pits smell vaguely like brown sugar. But they have been stank-less all day! So, woohoo. Maybe this works after all. Experience, anyone? Ok, here's the week's stats. Goal -- Description -- Grade -- Average Goal 1: 3 workouts/week: 67% -- 89% Goal 2: Eat more/clean: 85% -- 90.8% Goal 3: Move every day: 85.7% -- 88.8% Goal 4: Read Bible every day: 57.14% -- 78.6% Average grade for Week 6: 73.46% Average grade for the Challenge: 86.8% So, yay! I passed! Level up once more. LEVEL 2 RANGER - + 4 more stat points. 1) +0.8 STR 2) +1 CON 3) +0.8 CON 4) +0.7 WIS Bonus Quest: +1 WIS I didn't finish as wonderfully as I wanted to, but I finished, which is new for me. Usually I would have quit long before now. So, I'm happy with the progress I have made. I can always try harder next time Challenge #2, here I come!!

Well, I'm still passing But I could be doing better. Next challenge I'm gonna push myself to actually put in maximum effort - I've been really lazy and barely meeting my goals this challenge, and that has to change if I'm going to continue making progress. How is the rest of your challenge going?

Yikes! Hope everything's okay. Though by the sound of things, it's a pretty minor surgery, yes? Anyway, I'll be praying for you. Hope all goes well.

Oh, ok. Wow, those are some expensive applications! Yikes! Well, I wish you best of luck!!

Sounds awesome! I definitely need something to do during that week that keeps the momentum up and gets me in gear for the next challenge. 100 burpees in a week is about 15 burpees per day! That would even put you over 100. 105, to be precise. That's doable, methinks. Perhaps I'll try that!

Nice! I'm happy for you!! Congrats on your awesome scores! So what's next after you get your scores back? Applying to grad school, or...?

That is one of the many reasons I don't do burpees

Day... oh, what day is it now?... thirty-seven? Day thirty-seven has gone well so far. Walked quite a bit between classes and ate fairly well today, except for a sip of some fancy flavored water my mom got (idk, does this count as soda?). Bean soup for dinner again. Yesterday I put like a tablespoon of butter in mine, as well as some cheese, and ohhh was it good. I plan on doing it again tonight. Have yet to read my Bible today... my free time at school was spent doing homework. Aaand I'm going to be doing homework tonight as well. And finishing up an internship application that's due TOMORROW! EEP Hopefully if I budget my time wisely, I'll have time for a bodyweight circuit tonight as well. We'll see, I guess. (I really need to get this procrastination under control.... I am far too skilled a procrastinator for my own good! )

Yeah, something like that is really more of a mental battle than anything. You have to retrain your brain to be okay with meat, and the brain is viciously stubborn! Try going a little easier on yourself next time, like annaraven said - maybe include meat in x number of meals per week to ease into it, or some such. And definitely look for some other sources of protein until you're comfortable with meat. Here's a post Mark Sisson wrote about how to get enough protein - it's really handy, it lists a bunch of food groups in addition to meat where protein can be found. Maybe it will help?

*hug* I'm sorry your challenge hasn't gone the way you wanted. These things take time, though. I have tried this and other similar things so many times before, and it took a long time for me to be in a place where I was ready to really go for it. But the key is, even when you mess up over and over (because we all mess up - we're human, after all), keep going. Keep trying new things, new strategies, find new motivations, find new ways to work with/around your weaknesses, and never, ever give up. Because like many people on here and other places have said: failure is a learning tool, too. Eventually you will discover all the things that work for you - and all the things that don't. Sometimes it takes tedious trial and error, but the end result is so worth it. What went wrong for you, if you're comfortable sharing? Maybe we can help you brainstorm new things to try next time! *hug hug hug*