ooblik2

Hey, was told to drop in here and introduce myself! Looking forward to joining the battle against our previous selves! I study some form of Aikido. The class that I have recently decided to opt out of for a few weeks is Bujinkan, but am now focusing on the "Sword and Staff" class that is taught. I have copied and pasted some of the lineages from the website, but I am a white belt and I don't really know specifically what any of these are. It is said that as I go up in belt levels, more scrutiny will be applied in the different lineages, and I will have to know each application (I assume) for when I earn black belt. One difference I have noticed so far is that the "Sword and Staff" class is MUCH more intense than the Bujinkan class, as one of the primary things I like about the class is that it is teaching me to harness my warrior spirit. Since I am a pacifist by nature, this is something that is new and exciting for me. I will continue to focus on this school of training. Oh, and here are the lineages. If it matters. I don't really know. Shinden Fudo Ryu Dakentaijutsu Shinden Fudo Ryu Jutaijutsu Takagi Yoshin Ryu Jutaijutsu Itto Ryu Battojutsu Kukishinden Ryu Happobikenjutsu Kukishinden Ryu Bojutsu

Thank you, Teirin, I will be visiting the courtyard momentarily. As for an update, with week 1 complete, I can share with you my progress. Last week, I did not maintain a perfect attendance in martial arts. I had 3 pops (and I'll tell you why it wasn't more in a minute.) and I pretty much tanked my sleeping schedule. Avengers 2 came out, and as a movie theater employee in a hot kitchen, the pressure was on! This weekend I would have drank ALL the free soda if not for my saving grace... I took the advice of Emerald Dragonfly and started preparing my delicious and attractive fruit filled water (here we have lime, strawberry, cucumber, and mint!) that made it through thursday, friday, and saturday. With such success, I have brewed up another batch with lemon, strawberry, and basil for tomorrow's activities. I see the progress I've made in one week, and I'm excited to keep it going. My next difficulty will be making it through Election Day unscathed. My sleep schedule will no doubt take a serious hit (as I have to be awake at 5am), but by the good blood I'll be sporting this fruit water!

An update on my quests. My willpower definitely needs refinement, as I have suffered on all three of my quests. I did miss a dojo day because I was feeling lazy. I need to make that feeling disappear I am technically failing my sleep schedule as well, not because I'm not getting enough, but because I'm getting too much. Also, I caved and drank pop 3 times this week due to a certain movie I got to screen. For a first week, I'm looking at a C/D range in my success. Now that I have a baseline, I will seek to be more effective. Emerald Dragonfly, I think I will try your fruit+water method, as that may help me in my quests.

Thank you for the advice! I'm glad someone else enjoys traditional martial arts! I will look into these drills as the thought of injury is not something i'd like to deal with. (yet here I am in the MA world!)

This is a Ted Talk, and this particular video is extraordinary relevant to your life. Usually an expert in a field will come to a Ted Talk to have a session where they teach the viewer something, whether it be informational, and in this case ethical and emotional. They have so many videos of different subject, it's definitely worth a watch. I'm going to follow this thread because I believe in you, friend. It sounds like you've got the knowledge to succeed, and knowledge is power.

Mini 2: My signature is updated, although I have had some frustrations with the progress bar, I will tackle that another time. Further, I posted in Evilwalrus and Yoshi1116's threads, shared support and words of encouragement, and followed their threads so that I may look upon their success at a later date.

Evilwalrus! Your challenge inspires me! I too am plagued with free crappy food at work. Being a line cook at a movie theater, I have unlimited access to food as well as unlimited access to soda (MY NEMESIS). I must say, your resolve against sugar is refreshing, and even though you sliced off a piece of that donut, at least you didn't eat the whole thing! I too also recently took up playing the guitar, although it is of the bass variety. I noticed that your progress with practicing the guitar has been a constant N. I want to see at least one Y from you next week my friend. I will even play set aside time to play at the same time, if it helps you achieve your goals. You got this, friend, there was never any doubt.

Yoshi! I too fear diabetes, as it runs in my family. I wish you the best of luck and the knowledge that I stand with you in the battle against sugary drinks! It wont be easy, but we WILL defeat this glorious evil that is known as soda! I'll be checking back in to see how you fair in the upcoming weeks.

Mini 1: Is your overall quest achievable (over a short or long period of time)? Is it reasonable? My main quest to become more than a white belt is achievable. I have seen members of my dojo do this, and there is no reason I should not follow. Do your 3 quests all build towards your main quest in little ways, or are you taking on too much? Do your quests have sub-quests or is it just one thing to focus on? My 3 side quests do build towards my main quest. Going to the dojo is directly influencing my success, while a lack of sleep will lower my chances, and kicking the soda habit will make me feel better, allowing personal growth that is needed for my test. Are your main goals realistic? Can you scale them to smaller steps to fit your life better, even if it will make it take a little longer to achieve them? My main goal is realistic, and it can not be scaled down further beyond what is taught at the dojo. Are your goals able to be measured and tracked? What will you use to track them? My goals are measured personally, written down into an excel sheet for every time I receive a lower score, such as if I drink more than 1 pop a week. How are you grading your goals? Are they pass/fail (“every dayâ€, “not even once over the six weeksâ€)? Is there a reward for the effort, or are you only grading yourself on whether or not you “lose the weight†or “run the distanceâ€? My goals are graded weekly, which will be averaged out at the end of the 6 weeks. What is your plan for continuing/altering/grading those goals if you become ill or injured? Accepting that an illness or injury may change my goals, I have no problem reassessing them if that event ever happens. Did you take into consideration any special occasions (Labour Day, Independence Day, birthdays, anniversaries, etc) that may occur during the challenge? What modifications do you need to build into your goals for those? I have already modified my sleeping grade to reflect Pathfinder nights, and also I have taken into account that I may cave and drink 1 pop every week due to my soft willpower. Do any of your main goals conflict with each other? Will one goal make it hard to do another? None of my goals conflict with each other, as the success of each goal only promotes the others, and the main quest as well. Do you already have the time in your schedule to actually complete the goals you’ve set? If not, what are you planning to do to make time for them? The sleep one might be tricky due to my fickle needs, but if it were easy we wouldn't call it a challenge/quest Are you trying to build multiple habits, or is all your energy focused on your main quest? All of my energy is focused on my main quest. Achieving these 3 quests will promote my main quest, and therefore building multiple habits lies under the focus I apply towards achieving 8th kyu.

Day one is complete. I have not had any pop (even though it was staring me down in the face all day at work) today. Tomorrow will be even harder, as it is Pathfinder night, and my sleep schedule will be compromised due to epic game nights, and the temptation of pop will be real. I will attempt to curb this desire by brewing coffee, or my own tea perhaps. Further, I went particularly hard at the gym today, and my Sword and Staff class awaits for me tomorrow. Pray for me!!! ;')

Thank you for the support, Emerald! I read up on you're recruit challenge and I am very impressed with your resolve. It is that kind of willpower I'm looking to acquire in regards to the destruction of my soda nemesis, as that will be the hardest part of this challenge. I am following you so that every time I crave that seductively evil flavor of my fizzy enemy, I can see your success and bolster my strength of will. Day one begins now.

Hello, I'm Douglas, or Ooblik2 in the gaming world. I've spent my youth taking it easy, finding ways to do the bare minimum. Now, as a line cook for a movie theater/restaurant, the past year and change I have spent drinking more than my share of free pop and eating free fried foods. I've gained twenty pounds and went up a waist size, and I've noticed my recent lack of physical activity since I have begun to drive has sent me over the edge! I'm looking to get back into the game with fitness, and have since enrolled in martial arts to help me build discipline. I'm joining two weeks late to my recruiters challenge, but I am here, and that's what matters. My main quest is to learn my 9th kyu (white belt), master it, test, and gain access to 8th kyu in the Sword and Staff class I am enrolled in. This may take months of training, as tests are hard and belts are not handed out easily. Since I joined late, I will track the three weeks from today and allocate my stats accordingly, continue with the 4th week, and then start the next challenge as a Level 1 Recruit, unless I must be ushered into the Monk Challenge. Quest 1: Attend the Dojo - My attendance at the dojo is required for me to master Budo. Class meets 4 times a week. A: 3 weeks of perfect attendance. B: 2 weeks of perfect attendance. C: 1 week of perfect attendance. Quest 2: Soda - It is my number one nemesis. I must destroy it. A: 1 soda a week. B: 2 sodas a week. C: 3 sodas a week. D: 4 sodas a week. Quest 3: Sleep - My schedule of sleep is volatile. It must be controlled! 7-9 hours per night is required! (Pathfinder night exempt) A: 6/7 nights well rested. B: 5/7 nights well rested. C: 4/7 nights well rested. D: 3/7 nights well rested. Life Quest: Due to the expensive nature of martial arts, I require my own blade, which will be about $500 to make one custom. Therefore, I must save my money to earn the right to bare steel. Success will be measured in 4 weeks, or 2 paydays. This will likely carry on to the next challenge. A: Save 100 per payday. B: Save 75 per payday: C: Save 50 per payday. Motivation: In the dojo, we sat in a circle at the end of class. Sensei noticed that the class' energy was higher than usual, and that the techniques were being performed sloppy in favor of strength and speed. After about five minutes of relaxing exercises, I achieved a state of being I had never before experienced. When I opened my eyes, the dojo was brighter than I had remembered, and my mind was more clear in that moment than I had ever known it to be. For the first time in 24 years of being, I knew exactly where I belonged, and the fog that clouded the path ahead was briefly lifted. It is moments like these I strive for, and they can only be achieved through training. A note my new fitness family: If you have any advice on how to change up my goals or the structure of this post, I welcome your input!

Hello all! I'm new here and excited to have a place to type down all of the physical things I have decided to focus on. 6'2, 200lb and ready to rock, my metabolism has naturally started to diminish, but I'm just getting started. A month ago I signed up for two martial arts classes (same dojo) that pretty much teaches me in the ways of Samurai in feudal Japan. More recently I have realized that intense leg strength is required for much of the sword kata, so I have also gotten a gym membership at Planet Fitness to get my legs in gear. Further, on Friday's I would like to start going to open gymnastics for 2 hours to work on my flexibility as well as being comfortable while in the air. There are definitely things I need to work on, such as commitment, discipline, and proper eating habits. My worst enemy I have discovered is that I am entirely too lazy. Often I will sleep anywhere between 10-15 hours a night, or dip down to 5-6 when I'm feeling really good. Any advice for a lvl 1?

I'm not sure if this is even still a thing but I'm going to post anyways. Looking to clear the advanced level and destroy all soda, but starting at day zero!