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Argh. I typed most of this, hit the Enter key and for some reason Google Chrome decided that meant "go back." Starting over... *grumble grumble* Main Quest: Obese No More. This requires that I lose almost 100 pounds. My current weight is 261, and in order to no longer be obese according to the BMI, I must weigh 169 at least. Quest 1: Heavy lifting workout 3 days a week (3 exception days permitted). I'm permitting exception days because I know that real life can get in the way, and there's also a much greater chance of me getting sick this time of year, which would prevent exercise. Also, 2 days a week of a good weight lifting workout is still good. But for the best results in this quest, 3 days a week is ideal. Quest 2: Tracking food every day (3 exception days permitted). Stay within daily food allowance limits. Again, real life may get in the way. In my experience, especially when eating out it can be hard to track food. I want to strive for tracking every single day, though, and if I can't track something I want it to be because it's a meal that is very hard to accurately track, and not because of laziness. Also, last quest I stuck to tracking only, but could eat whatever I wanted, because I was just making myself get into the habit of tracking daily. This time, I need to stay within daily allowances and stick to healthy choices most of the time: good sources of protein, healthy fats, and of course lots of fruits and veggies. Quest 3: Lose 6 pounds. Quest 1 and 2 should lead to this goal. This is low-balling possible weight loss quite a lot - considering my weight, I wouldn't be surprised if I lose 10 or even a little more. But a pound per week is good healthy weight loss, and accounts for any plateauing that might occur. Life Quest: Complete one wearable garment for my costuming. DragonCon is at the end of the summer, which is closer than you might think. I have a bad tendency to start my costuming in June, and that means I spend the entire summer rushing to finish costumes. Things that I have a very hard time doing while rushing to finish costumes include having a social life, getting to the gym, and prepping healthy meals. So this year I'm striving to get started early because I know at least one costume will include a lot of leather work, and the other is an existing costume that I'm altering to make it look much cooler. And since "get started on costuming" isn't really a SMART goal, I've decided I should strive to complete one wearable item. Could be a leather gauntlet or armor. Could be one of the two jackets I need to alter. Just so long as I can wear it by the end of the challenge. And yes, everything I'm working on this early is either not relevant to size or else adjustable, so that weight loss won't prevent me from using it. Editing to add point distribution for each goal. Quest 1: Heavy lifting 3 days per week: +3 to STR, +2 to STA Quest 2: Track food every day: +3 to WIS Quest 3: Lose 6 pounds: +2 to CON, +2 to DEX Life Quest: Complete one wearable garment for costuming: +3 CHA Point distribution in case of failure to complete any part of the challenge is as follows: A - 100% B - 75% C - 50% D - 25% F - 0% I will also only award myself an A in lifting and tracking if I do these the set number of times (3 times a week for lifting, every day for tracking). I really only added the exception days in order to give myself permission to make a few exceptions, but still put a limit on the number I intend to take.

Hi all! I've done a bit with my daily battle log, and it's been up and down, as I try to work out how to get going. You know how in The Fellowship of the Ring (the book), Gandalf tells Frodo about the ring, and Frodo proceeds to sit around his hobbit hole for a few months eating a lot of breakfasts, and even once he truly gets going on his quest, he still spends way too much time chilling with Tom Bombadil? It's been like that. I need a challenge - something I can fail at to drive me to succeed. I need Black Riders running after me. Main Quest: Obese no more. This means losing about 100 pounds. Quest 1: Stop drinking sodas and sugary drinks by the end of this challenge. Currently I have about a 5 a week soda habit. I plan to taper off as follows: 4 sodas in week 13 sodas in week 22 sodas in week 31 soda in week 4last two weeks NO SODAS. Two whole weeks without a soda is better than I've done for about 3 months. Quest 2: Exercise 3 days a week - at least 15 minutes for high intensity (BBWW) and 30 minutes for moderate intensity (fast walking). I want to maintain success on this quest throughout the entire challenge - 3 days a week is not that hard. I should be able to do it. One major liability: I have surgery on Thursday, November 13. However, it is not the type of surgery that should stop a person from hopping on a treadmill. According to my doctor, there may be some pain the weekend following the surgery, but mainly I will be recovering from the effects of anesthesia for 2 days and I should be basically fine. Walking is highly recommended as soon as possible following surgery, and I should be able to get back to squatting and lunging within a week or two, depending on pain. At any rate, even if i'm just going for walks the week after surgery, I CAN exercise that week. No excuses short of completely unexpected results. Oh, and what's that other thing that might interfere with exercise during the next 6 weeks? Oh yeah, the holidays. Holiday shopping, particularly. No excuses though - 3 days a week. Quest 3: By the end of the challenge, track my meals every single day. For some reason, daily tracking strikes me as hard. But it's also what leads to the most success for me with weight loss. So I will work my way up as follows: Track 5 days in week 1Track 6 days in week 2Track 6 days in week 3Track 7 days weeks 4-6Life quest: Put $100 in savings. Savings is tough right now, and I'm working on a long term goal of having $1000 backup and then chipping away at debt after I have backup established. I am prepared for the holidays, thankfully - I've spent the year putting savings away each month specifically for holiday shopping. But $100 is still a major accomplishment during the holidays, because this is the time of year that I am most likely to eat out. Motivation: I want to keep adventuring for my whole life. Perhaps this is just the luck of genetics, but I have avoided pretty much all of the chronic diseases of obesity. I have only recently started having some issues with my blood pressure, but even that isn't yet at a point where I need medication. I can control my blood pressure with diet. I SHOULD control the blood pressure with diet. Additionally, my doctor pointed out to me that although I don't appear to be at risk for any chronic disease based on my current status, we all suffer joint degeneration as we age, and I will suffer far less if there is less weight on my joints. I like being an independent person. I like being able to go where I want and do what I like. I will better be able to keep doing that if I lose weight. Once the 6 weeks is up, I can make it up to Level 2! And that's awesome, because I LOVE leveling up. Seriously. I have done SO much blacksmithing in Skyrim just to level up. It's an addiction, albeit a great addiction for the purposes of this challenge. Here is what I plan for point allocation: Quest 1: Stop drinking sodas and sugary drinks: CON - 3 Quest 2: Exercise 3 days a week: STA - 2 STR - 2 Quest 3: track my meals every single day: WIS - 3 CHA - 2 Life Quest: Put $100 in savings: WIS - 3 I believe that's everything I need. Of course this is my first quest, so if there's anything I've left out, please let me know!