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GENERAL THREAD WARNING: I am queer, genderqueer, polyamorous, and kinky. This is my thread, I don't censor myself much, and I will put NSFW warnings on anything that might get you in trouble for clicking on at work. Ask if you'd like links to the sites where I post the really NSFW stuff. Ok folks! It's time for challenge number four! What the heck does that mean? Well, I think it means I'm loosing steam. I've hit my weight goal (WOOHOO) and have been making some steady improvements in my overall fitness, so a huge part of me wants to scale way back on my efforts. It's the complacency monster, oh noes! I'M JUST GETTING STARTED! What's the point of just doing this for six months and then quitting, RIGHT? Can I get a hell yeah?? So! I acknowledge that working out isn't all that fun for me, even though I really enjoy how I feel afterwards!I confess that I hate logging all of my food, even though it's super helpful for actually loosing the body fat I still want to be rid of!I admit that I could hold steady where I am indefinitely ... BUT I WON'T. I'm here because I want: To gain strength and flexibility to be a better rope bottom and self-rigger.To gain strength and dexterity to be able to wrestle guys and legitimately win.To be able to do pull-ups and handstands because that would be amazingly cool. January vs July photo (underwear warning!) Six months, holy crap! I'm going to look amazing in a year! My goals for this challenge: Do a workout OR stretch/yoga OR swim EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. of the challenge (one point per day = 42 points total)If I work out, I will also do yoga because I need to stretch, but that doesn't get counted twice. I figure that even if I'm sick I should be able to do some kind of stretching. Things that count for this: ABWW and any kind of bodyweight workout routine, inversions and hollow body holds, hooping, rope bottoming, biking, lap swimming, wrestling, my usual stretch/yoga routine, walking more than 12 km. i.e. if I get sweaty and/or tire myself out, I'm covered. But workout, stretch/yoga, and swimming will be my main methods for this one. Participation in the Assassin's mini-challenge may count - I'll check when it's posted! Log my food (one point per day = 42 points total)As in actually put it into MFP. Don't just write it down. I need to know how many calories all that stuff is, not just make a list of what it was (though that's helpful, too). This fat isn't going away by itself. People won't be able to see my glorious abs unless I get rid of some more of this stuff! I can't stop until I've reached a body fat % I'm happy with, and I'm not there yet. I'm getting closer, but there's still a ways to go. Do something creative (two points per week = 12 points total)This is for ukulele, writing, photography, rope topping, modelling, making arts and/or crafts, and hair maintenance for myself or others. I may up the points goal for this depending on performance! I don't want to completely abandon my creative pursuits while focusing on my body, but I can't justify filling up my challenge with non-body oriented points, so this is the compromise I have thought up. Life goal: Get a new freakin' job (one-hundred and fifty points lol)This one is done, finito, kaput. It's time to leave. Onward!

A Hard Hat Towards Vanity My last two challenges were aborted, the last due to a crippling bout of depression combined with intense (for me personally and for the area in general) and unrelenting heat and humidity. But a new month brings the opportunity to meet my friends after a nearly nine month gap between visits. So I'm going to be very vain this challenge, but I'm going to hard hat it all the way. And focus on some other basics to deal with the depression and things, hence my bounce to the Adventurers Guild. Simple, tight and focussed. Challenge Goal: Thanks to my successful challenges I was down to a rather loose (UK) 16/tight (UK) 14 in trousers/bottoms in general; I am now a more or less perfect (UK) 16. So I want to get down to a UK 14 by the end of the month/end of the challenge. Ideally by the end of the month. Physical 1. I honestly can't do the pull ups or chin ups in the ABBW because if I did the table would actually tip over - I tried. But I'm going to do three full circuits of the ABBW by the end of this challenge. And four times a week. To be graded out of 24. 2. Yoga and/or hip/general flexibility work. I really enjoyed the yoga I did before, but I fell out of that and want to get back into it. It's only going here because I have other ideas for my other goals. Follow the DYWM Beginner's Programme. I believe it's a thrice weekly things. To be graded out of 18. Self-esteem challenges: - I can has splits? - One. Damn. Pull up. - No T'ai Chi because holidays, but practice at least once a week anyway so I don't fall out of practice. +2 STR, +1 STA, +2 DEX, +1 CHA Mental 1. My sleep is really, really, really out of whack. Heat, depression and some silly choices meant that I couldn't sleep until about five in the morning when it was finally cool, but I slept away most of the day. So I'm having a hard limit bedtime of two am. No excuses (unless it's a legitimate medical/other emergency). By the end of the challenge I want to get it to around midnight. This one will be hard as I share a room, and the sister is basically a hermit who never leaves it. And she is a bit of a night owl too. To be graded out of 42 (two am hard limit); progress towards daily midnight bedtime to be assessed weekly. 2. To facilitate the first goal I'm bringing back my sleep meditation. I'll also be spending ten minutes (minimum) daily writing about whatever pops into my mind regarding me as a person - mental, emotional, state of mind, that kind of thing. Can be done in one session or in dribs and drabs throughout the day. By getting a better handle on my thoughts and general non-physical state I can hopefully start noticing negative patterns, positive patterns and work towards negating any depressive issues before they become too serious. To be graded out of 42. Self-esteem challenge - This, though it's here and thus a bonus goal, is absolutely non-negotiable. The only reason it's here is because it's too 'small' to be a Life Quest and it relates to something mental. I have noticed that I have a problem meeting goals, even self-set goals, particularly when depressed. My procrastination issues aren't just dismissable as procrastination any longer. I have a dear friend whom I've never met and will likely never meet. She has a serious chronic illness (dysautonomia) that is basically chronic fatigue syndrome up to eleven. She also has another illness that has currently rendered her legally blind and the chances of her one day becoming totally blind are . . . about fifty/fifty or so. She loves writing stories and fanfic, it's one of the few things she can do because of her dysautonomia; and to cut a long story short I promised to write her a story. Two months ago. Then it got out-of-hand (plot bunnies) so I also decided to write her a shorter, more self-contained fanfic set in her favourite 'verse because she's hit a bad spot in her life. Still not done. This story will be written, edited and sent to her within two weeks. The longer story will be finished by the end of the challenge (or at least fully drafted and broken into chapters so I can start sending it to her. My procrastination, problems with deadlines and other things are affecting a dear friend of mine; I hate this. I will see something through to the end even if I harbour doubts about whether or not she'll like it. - PvS LYBaYF and HOoRAY. +2 CON, +1 WIS Diet This one is really hard because the main shopper (read: dad) does it on the way home from work and I have basically no input on the week/fortnight's main food. And I'm cheap so I don't want to buy my own 'better' food when we have stuff at home that's filling and satisfying and mostly healthy. So let's work towards minimising some things and putting greater emphasis on others. 1. Snacks. I have fallen back into the 'evils' of snacking. And definitely veer into excesses and overeating at times. Defining 'snack' as 'sweets, crisps, desserts, biscuits etc. (or overly sugary drinks) eaten when it is not a meal time' I will hard limit snacks to one a day, working down to three a week by the end of the challenge. Things like fruits, nuts, dark chocolate and smoothies are to be snacked upon in preference and gain brownie points. If we have a surprise dessert that counts as a meal simply because they occur at most once a fortnight. 2. Progress towards minimal gluten Paeleo. So cut down on the bread products (probably once a week then), buy some gluten free spaghetti because spaghetti is now a guaranteed weekly meal. To be graded out of . . . I don't know, I'm terrible at sticking to regular meals - probably why I'm snacking more often because I'm missing all but one meal a day. To be assessed weekly. Self-esteem challenges: - Cook at least four meals a week - Three new recipes. +2 CON, + 1WIS Life Quest: Self-love I did say this was all about the vanity. I'm hard hatting the physical stuff because I feel the diet only needs refining and tweaking. So I kind of hate myself as a person. Not so much in appearance, but as a soul. The past month has been especially bad and I dearly want to avoid falling back into bad habits. Oddly enough, not the self-harm. In spite of my non-appearance in my last challenge and cessation of the one prior to that I . . . I've actually managed to stop my self-harm - that would be the biting, ripping, nipping, picking and eating of the flesh around the nails and fingertips - completely. Well, I'll rarely find myself 'slip-picking' (what I call running my nails down the side of other nails searching for weak areas that break 'on their own' so I can rip the flesh away), but I always stop it. Now the worst it gets to is that I run the pad of my right thumb (and sometimes the edge of it) up and down my index finger; enough that I'm getting a callus. But that's rambling. Boasting actually. I think that perhaps I've internalised the self-harm, or the heat or the depression or both have exacerbated my self-deprecation in ways I haven't felt in ages. So it's time for me to love myself and be shamelessly vain. While the overall goal is vain, and my goals are sort-of vain, I just want some nice indulgent self-love mixed in with some hard work that'll make me feel more confident. 1. Try out two-to-six new activities/things that I've wanted to do for ages but haven't because fear or money or not good enough or social anxieties/pressure or [reason]. These can be things like getting a massage, a manicure, an acupuncture session, try a new skill/resume an old one. Dye bits of my hair red, blue or purple. Though given I have fairly high hopes for a recent job application (college librarian) I may have to pass on this even though I've wanted this for basically a decade. Suggestions are welcome. 2. Stop judging. Stop judging myself and other people. Compassion and understanding is key. For this I will, to reference a Pratchett concept, I will have Second Thoughts, maybe even Third and Fourth ones. Write down at least one of these things a day. To be graded out of 42. 3. One of the best ways to feel more confident about yourself as a person is to change the way you present yourself to the world. I've been hanging onto old, ill-fitting for too long; I've been hanging onto things I've never worn; I've been hanging onto things for 'one day'. I am a smart, well-presented person almost all the time but I could be better. And when at home? The nighties and pyjamas I have are nigh-universally old or ill-fitting because no one else is going to see them, so why bother? But they're old and not-so-comfy any more. The nighties I was wearing when I was fifteen don't suit twenty-three year old me. Yeah, I haven't grown very much in those eight years so height/size wise they fit physically (ish), but they don't suit. In short: a thorough evaluation of my wardrobe/accessories and general presentation is required. Followed by a cull and then shopping. Flirt with makeup and hair styling. Get the pixie trimmed so it keeps its shape. Pass/fail. +2 CHA, +1 WIS Yay, late start!

GENERAL THREAD WARNING: I am queer, genderqueer, polyamorous, and kinky. This is my thread, I don't censor myself much, and I will put NSFW warnings on anything that might get you in trouble for clicking on at work. Last time, on the adventures of Twilight ... I have gone from starting something without really expecting much, to seeing that I can actually change my life. There's no more room for "good enough" and I cannot allow myself to fall back into my sedentary ways. My motivations: To gain strength and flexibility to be a better rope bottom and self-rigger.To gain strength and dexterity to be able to wrestle guys and legitimately win.To be able to do pull-ups and handstands because that would be amazingly cool.January to May progress photo (UNDERWEAR WARNING!) For this challenge I have gamified everything. Table below. My goals: To earn 400 points throughout the challenge. This will be done generally by:Walking 3.5km every weekdayABWW every other day (with days off as required)Swimming two or three times per week (with the side-quest of participating in the Toronto Island Lake Swim)To make every day awesomeTo keep losing body fat so that my body better shows all of my hard workI'm ready to kick some ass.

Let's Get Down to Business To Defeat the Huns! As swift as the coursing river With all the force of a great typhoon With all the strength of a raging fire Mysterious as the dark side of the moon Previous challenge. Because we might as well get the stereotypical theme out of the way next. Last time it was cats (ze arrrees-toe-cats), this time it's Mulan. Everyone loves Mulan! Or at least Mulan. But what's not to love?! (Aside from some cultural stereotyping and some mildly cringeworthy attempts to replicate the Genie ad nauseum) A classic bildungsroman (coming of age story) with familial devotion taking precedence over all other relationships, cross-dressing, defying gender expectations, that damn song, crushing physical/mental plateaus with style, using wit, agility and dexterity to compensate for pure physical strength . . . the scenes on the mountain, the climax, the scene under the cherry tree. And the artwork is so good. Mulan is not my favourite Disney film, but it's in my top five depending on what you count as a Disney film. Mulan was my first major crush, not my first - that was either Maleficent or Pocahontas - but Mulan was a constant source of admiration for me from the moment I first saw an advert for it on . . . I want to say telly, but it might have been on a VHS. It was spoileriffic mind, I mean the advert had the "You have saved us all," speech playing over the footage, but oh the moment I saw that I had to get it. And come Christmas 1999 I was a very happy eight-year-old. Mulan means a lot to me, let's see if I can do it, and her, justice. Who is that girl I see, staring straight, back at me? (Reflection) When will my reflection show Who I am inside? So sometimes I suffer massive hits of gender dysphoria, body dysphoria, and really just general dysphoria, anxiety and depression. My mind says one thing, my body another; familial/social/cultural pressures/ideas say one thing, my mind says another, and then my body chimes in too. I've never really 'done' labels, they confuse me actually, and I've dabbled trying to see if something 'fits', nothing really does, and I'm fine with that; SuNoYo is SuNoYo, and there will never be another. But she would just like it very much if all parts of her could be in accord for once. Not agreeance per se, but accord. An understanding based on mutual feelings underpinned with a firm knowledge that no matter how Su, No and Yo may differ SuNoYo is herself. While eighty odd minutes and a montage song did it for Mulan, that won't work for me (alas), but I can definitely strive towards feeling completely confident and comfortable in myself. To this end I will: - meditate daily for at least half an hour in one sitting and do my sleep meditation. I've been slack on that recently, and I've been feeling more discomfitted in general since letting my sleep meditation slip. If one is done and not the other that counts as a half point for the day. To be graded out of 42. - I take part in the PvS HOoRAY and LYBaYF threads, they help. I still don't like looking in the mirror very much and I sometimes struggle to find things to mention that are good about myself. Even some of my posts contain enough self-deprecation that, looking back on it, I feel like I'm slyly insulting myself. So I will look in a mirror. I will say the things I post in HOoRAY and LYBaYF to myself. I will look myself in the eyes especially when wearing my glasses, I won't skim the area, I will look in my eyes and just remember everything good and positive in my life. I will then post a reflection (hahaha) of these little sessions in this thread. To be graded out of 42. - I feel like I have no practical worth as a person, be it as an employee, a family member, and sometimes as a friend. Sometimes it's all I can do to get out of bed because I feel so useless. But I went to a good uni, am told I am useful, have skills and things that others consider useful/helpful/good. So every day I will literally do a Skill Check. This is my skill, how can I use it to be and feel better in any capacity I could be needed in. To be graded out of 42 +2 CHA, +2 WIS Self-esteem challenge: this challenge is all about the self-esteem, so I'm not going to be awarding any points unless something exceptional pops up i.e. getting a job. With all the force a great typhoon, with all the strength of a raging fire Can't really fit the lyrics here I've written them twice before~ Just know that it's a quest of Awesome To improve~ my martial arts (hoo-ah!) God, bet that didn't fit at all. I started Kung Fu two weeks after after having attended T'ai Chi (or taiji, whichever) since January, it's awesome. But I tripped over a few things, even in the warm up. The worst part is that I was feeling pretty awesome about my progress in T'ai Chi and touching people and things, but then last week the instructor wanted to take me down. Slowly. Onto the floor. From behind. I locked up to the point where she caused me knee pain and made her feel horribly guilty and it kind of ruined the rest of Kung Fu and my T'ai Chi after that. It seems I have hit a plateau or two. Thus: - I honestly can't do the pull ups or chin ups in the ABBW because if I did the table would actually tip over - I tried. But I'm going to do three full circuits of the ABBW by the end of this challenge. I would appreciate some suggestions for other ways to do the inverted bodyweight rows at home. And four times a week. To be graded out of 24. - Foot flows! Or patterns. Whatever you want to call them. They're a bit tricky and need to be practised. As do the kicks. Four times a week, including class. Call it general pattern and balance practice. To be graded out of 24. (And keep on practising T'ai Chi as well) - Strength training. What with my hand playing up I wasn't able to do it regularly. I did it twice. Once a week minimum. Why does this go here? Aside from fitting the montage song it ties in with something below . . . To be graded out of 6. - (but not this) Try to practice falling/lowering self to the floor at home. I want to find out why it made me outright regress last week, so that will take some introspection too. By the end of this challenge I want to be able to take a throw (slowly). +2 STR, +2 DEX, + 1STA Self-esteem challenges: - PISTOL SQUATS. You can already do a (wobbly) set of nine single-legged squats, let's get to pistol squats. And lookie lookie, Assassins are doing a six week skill challenge about pistol squats. - T'ai Chi day course is next week. GO. I've had this down for my last challenge, but I got the dates mixed up. I'm kind of freaking out about it and trying to back out now. This will doubley make me go. Unless I'm ill. Diet (I don't really have a Mulan reference that isn't mildly insulting when it comes to food) Food, glorious food Wonderful food Marvellous food Glorious food! I alluded to some problems above? So I'm probably a good twenty-five pounds overweight and that makes some of the warm up exercises in Kung Fu difficult.Specifically leg raise related things (scissor kicks? I think) and . . . bicycling is it? But 'up' to the ceiling. I recognise this has to do with core and balancing muscles as well, but that'll get mentioned too. The belly fat compresses and because of the position it also puts pressure-pain on my boobs. Also I lose my balance a lot. - Cut out all but two snacks a week unless said snacks happen to be nuts or fruit, in which case, only five snacks a week. Hopefully to be reduced to three a week by the end of the challenge. Say goodbye to your shop-bought smoothies and occasional chocolate milk (they were half price!) girl. - Go as gluten-free as possible when you're not the one buying the groceries. This will mean buying certain staples gluten-free and just not eating gluten-y things if they're not part of a main meal. MAIN MEAL meaning dinner. - One new recipe a week. I want to try lemon pepper chicken karaage. It sounds delicious. Maybe with caulirice. Extra points if it's a gluten-free or Paeleo recipe, but not obligatory. To be graded out of six. Self-esteem challenges: - make a little box or area of goodies, ingredients and cookery related things just for me. - cook a Sunday roast. - cook for more than just me. +2 CON, +1 WIS Life Quest: Defeat the Huns and save China with nothing but a cannon, a massive mountain, a fan and a mini-dragon and a horse Oh wait, no mountain. Curses. And I'd rather eat a horse than ride one. I know this from experience. Life Quest: Crossdress! Maybe later. Life Quest: "The greatest gift and honour is having you for a daughter" Sometimes it's like all they ever say is that I'm lazy or that I need a job or that I need to pull my weight and things like that. I know I was an accident. I know that if I hadn't been born my parents wouldn't have married. I know that TKD Brother is my mum's favourite. These are all facts. I've heard often enough that if it hadn't been for me and then the younger siblings Mum would have just run ages ago. Dad works two weeks at a time. I know that I'm not the best daughter, or the best sibling, that I could do more. My parents are the ones who confide in me, but I don't really have anyone to do that with. I didn't even want to post this, but aside from That Damn Song, this line is what kept coming back to me when I wanted to do a Mulan themed challenge. I shouldn't feel like this, but I know I do, I don't think I should even be writing this online for people to read, and that sometimes it feels like my parents haven't been proud of me since I was accepted into university. Once Mum even hinted that the only thing that would make her proud or happy would be for her to get grandchildren. I might adopt later, but childbirth and sex is disgusting. She doesn't understand that; 'it's just a phase' according to her. And yeah, it might actually be, I've never even kissed someone, and I don't really feel sexual urges and things, but maybe one day I will. Even then it's not a 'phase', but it's late and I can't be bothered thinking up terminology when it's me involved and no one else. - Do something to make the family proud of me; I don't know what yet. - Explain to them that they hurt me sometimes - Improve my relationships with people in general Pass/fail +1 WIS, +1 CHA, +1 ??? depending on how I make them proud. . . . Well, that was a depressing end to a challenge OP wasn't it?

Hey guys! So after bailing on the last two weeks of the previous challenge, I'm back! I'm glad to be here with the Rangers again, I just loved the mini missions last challenge Motivation/Life Quest: I've had a really rough time the past 4-ish months due to a death in the family. I've been letting myself go because of it, making excuses to not do anything, and basically just moping around. I know this is normal, but I need to stop throwing myself a pity party with a pizza every time I get upset. I need to take care of myself. This is a big portion of my "life" side mission, and part of my overall life quest. I need to value my health and myself in general more, I want to take pride in my life and how I eat and live. I shouldn't want to have a clean apartment so I'm not embarassed when I have guests. I should want a clean apartment because when I wake up to a clean apartment I'm happier. Why should I not value this happiness and make myself happier each morning with just a few quick cleaning sessions? My other main mission has been the same for a while... I want to get my back walkover back! I used to be able to do it... now I can't. I'm working on it. I got a wall handstand last challenge, and a backbend the challenge before that.... this challenge I'll be building more specifically towards a backwalkover progression. Main Missions: Be strong! I will strength train twice a week. One of these will be the ABWW, the other will be some heavy lifting. Same dumbbell olympic lifts I started working on last challenge. I can get a max of 3 +STR, and it is based on percentage of workouts completed gets me that percentage of 3 possible points, rounded to the nearest 0.25 points. Be Relaxed! Two yoga or cardio sessions a week. Both of these things help me relax in different ways, depending on my stress level (running helps relieve angry stress, yoga helps relieve sad stress). So I'll pick depending on my mood and get two sessions of one or the other done twice a week. Points are a possible +3 STA, same as above, based on percentage of level of effort. Be Bendy! Back walkover progression exercises 3 times a week. These can be quick 5 minute things tacked onto the end of another work out, or their own thing before I go to bed or when I wake up. I'll be doing rocking back bends and walking up the wall while in a backbend and eventually kicking over. 3 points of DEX. Same award system as above. Diet Side Mission: Eat Cleanly Eat whole food based, gluten free & cheese free. Cheese makes my tummy go ow. And I've discovered gluten makes me feel really bloated and lethargic by cutting it out for the most part last challenge. So I'm moving forward with this and going to try to go all the way these next weeks. Possible +3 CON. Same percentage points based on number of meals following these restrictions. Lift Side Mission: Take Pride in Myself & My Surroundings This ones kind of complicated. Basically, I want to do each of the following each weekday day to increase my pride, and happiness in myself and my surroundings: --Fly Lady Daily Mission --Scoop Cat Litter --Swish & Swipe Bathroom --Prep Breakfast & Lunch for the next day --Brush AND FLOSS my teeth --Wash my face before I go to bed --Moisturize before I go to bed. My face & my body. And here's my spreadsheet for the challenge with points broken up and pre-calculated as I fill it in over the challenge: *Notes* Since I'm starting this late, and my whole life if kind of a wreck (I need to go massively grocery shopping, set up a meal plan and get the mounds of clothes and shopping bags off my floor), I am using the remainder of this first week to get to base zero. Next week I will start really doing everything I listed above, and I will extend the challenge into the extra week between challenges. I will post every day here this week to say how I worked towards getting back into the swing of things though, so I won't just be slacking off this week! Anyway, it feels great to be back. And I can't wait to go catch up on everyones threads

I've noticed recently (and in the past) while working out and really getting down to business with weights or more-challenging bodyweight exercises like i've been doing recently, I have this strange sensation that I don't quite understand. I went through the advanced body weight workout yesterday for the first time and it was a good challenge and something to work toward improving. While I was doing the chin-ups in that circuit, that strange feeling hit me. I could feel a bit of strain on my muscles which was to be expected; i'm pushing myself in this workout. About 3 or 4 reps in, I notice this surging feeling in my biceps. Its hard to describe, like all of a sudden blood starts rushing through my veins. I don't feel lightheaded or anything, there's no pain involved and i'm not failing the reps or losing my form that I can tell. I've generally given myself a moment to rest or moved to work on another part of my body when that has happened, as I don't know if i'm causing damage to myself or not. Any idea whats going on here? Am I just not used to seriously pushing my limits?

I'm really excited to be joining Rangers this challenge! Woot! I'm coming over from Adventurer's for my third challenge because I think my goals are pretty ranger-like. I want to be flexible and do backwalkovers ninja style, but I also want to kickbox and be strong like bull and be able to squat heavy. I also enjoy the occasional run. So, here I am! First off, Happy New Year everyone!!! I'm really looking forward to kicking some major butt his year as only a nerd can. Anyway, last challenge I began my battle for recovering my backwalkover. For those of you who don't know, the first half of this is a back walkover: Last challenge I just foucsed on getting stronger and more flexy. I succeeded, and can now do a backbend without fear of falling on my head! This challenge I want to work on handstands. They use pretty much the same muscles as a backbend kickover (which will be my next phase to backwalkover awesomeness) and will get me used to the feeling of being inverted again. In order to do this I'll be doing the 28 day handstand challenge, and I'll also continue to work on my cardio, strength and flexiness... Cleaning has also been a big part of my past two challenges and I am going to continue with that since I am really happy with the results I am seeing so far in my sparkly apartment. I started using FlyLady last challenge and am going to keep with it for this one. I whittled down what parts of FlyLady I'm going to focus on a little more than last challenge, because even my already mini-Fly-Lady-ing was a bit much. I gained a bunch of weight over the holidays, despite my holiday mini challenge to not over eat and to exercise a bit. I guess it could have been worse, but I am seriously teetering on the edge of 200 lbs (199.6!). I've never actually gotten on the scale and seen 200, and I feel like as much as I don't care about weight and only care about how I feel that would make me feel completely awful. So here's to the new year and getting far far away from 200! Anyway, on to the specifics of my challenge! MAIN MISSIONS: GET STRONGER I have aspriations to eventually start doing some real weight lifting (probably next challenge!) so I want to build up my strength even more with body weight work outs before moving up to the next level in the strength training world. I'm also having trouble finding a gym near me that doesn't charge $8 billion a month due to the fact that it offers yoga/pilates/kickboxing/whatever classes included in its fee. I just want to lift things up and put them down! Hopefully by the next challenge I'll have some success with that. So, I am going to continue with my ABWW routine, modified with assisted pull ups and chin ups, and replacing the one legged squats with sumo squats. This time around I'm only going to do it twice a week, but with 3 circuits per work out. That's the same amount of circuits just crammed into less days. I'm hoping to be more motivated to actually work on the other physical aspects of my challenge with the extra free day every week, since they definitely fizzled last challenge. And here is my motivation, the ever adorable Samantha Wright: What a bad ass. This mission can get me a potential +3 STR. It is based on purely percentage completed, but I rounded off boundaries for points earned so I don't end up with crazy decimals like I did last challenge. 90-100% = 3 points 75-89% = 2 points 50-74% = 1 point 25-49% = 0.5 points 0-24% = 0 points GET MOVING I will do yoga or cardio 2x a week, depending on my mood and schedule. That can be two cardios in one week, two yogas, one of each, whatever. Just get moving! This mission can earn me a possible +3 STA. Same percentage system as above. GET INVERTED 28 day handstand challenge. It will happen. I can do this for the last 28 days straight, or spread it out as the challenge goes on (obviously what I'm going to try to do). But by the end of the challenge, I should have 28 days on handstand practice behind me! Grading will be in 2 parts. First, just a pure percentage of if I completed all 28 days. This is a potential +2 DEX. 90-100% = 2 points 75-89% = 1.5 points 50-74% = 1 point 25-49% = 0.5 points 0-24% = 0 points The second part is if I can successfully do a "good" wall handstand by the end of this challenge. This is purely pass/fail. If I can do it, I get +1 CHA. If not, I don't. Hey, if a cat can do it I feel like I should be able to, too. SIDE QUESTS: Diet Side Quest: Get 11,200 healthy calories a week. This is an average on 1,600 calories a day. I am going to grade myself by week because I don't mind if I eat a little over one day and fast a bit the next, as long as I am on target for the week I'll pass. For now, healthy = no obvious cheese and no obvious bread. I am not going read ingredients, if a jarred tomato sauce happens to contain parmesan or something that doesn't count. I will eventually take it that far, but not yet. "Obvious" bread means something clearly bread-like as a part of my meal. This includes bagels, pasta, pizza dough, etc. Again, not checking labels just yet. I will allow myself 3 cheat meals a week to include one of both of these items (read: PIZZA), but only if this does not put me over my weekly calorie goal. So the grading for this is in two parts, for a total of a possible +3 CON.The first part is worth +2 CON, and is based on the number of the weeks I hit my calorie goal. 6 weeks met = 2 points 5 weeks met = 1.5 points 4 weeks met = 1 point 3 weeks met = 0.5 points 2 weeks met = 0.25 points 1 or 0 weeks met = 0 points The second half of this grade is based on the healthiness of my meals and is worth +1 CON. Basically, if I limit myself to my 3 cheat meals a week, and therfore have 108 or more healthy meals under my belt at the end of the challenge, I will get the whole point. The amount of points earned is based on the number of healthy meals I eat during the challenge, the maximum being 126 (which is 3 meals x 7 days x 6 weeks). 108-126 healthy meals = 1 point 87-107 healthy meals = 0.75 points 65-86 healthy meals = 0.5 points 42-64 healthy meals = 0.25 points 0-41 healthy meals = 0 points Hopefully the healthies plus the staying more on track with calories will make me feel fresh and not so bloated and awful, as I have been the past few weeks. By the end of the challenge me and my tummy will feel fabulous. Life Side Quest: Fly Lady it up! I will do the weekly home blessing, and the week's zone detail cleaning each week for +1 WIS, based on the same point to percentages as the above missions. I will do at least one load of laundry each week and fold/put it away within 24 hours of getting it out of the drier for +1 CHA, and do the week day daily missions and swish & swipe each weekday for a total of +1 WIS. Here's my grading spreadsheet that I will update throughout the challenge, which will automatically calcuate my grades at the end: And that's that. I'm out.