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Challenge 22 – Mistr works on ninja skillz Ninjas specialize in focused sneak attacks. No frontal assaults or massed battles. I will be going on vacation the last week of this challenge and the following dead week. That does not leave much time for any major goals. Instead, I will award points for every attack on any goal. All those little bits of time add up. Mad ninja skillz: Sitting zazen. The new technique my teacher demonstrated this week was sitting with a boken. You may be familiar with suburi practice. The student does 100 cuts to ensure that she is moving the sword properly and not using the shoulders instead of the core. Sitting with a boken is similar, but motionless. You will rapidly realize your mistake if you try to hold a sword still for 30 minutes with poor alignment. Double ninja points. Open-hand zazen counts for normal points. Two sword practice. My weapons partner and I are at the polishing stage on our required katas. We will ask sensei for two sword exercises to mix things up. Boken vs jo katas also count. Sleep. Ninjas never doze off while waiting for an opening. Points for 8+ hours a night. Aikido. Work on using focus and musubi all the time. Especially when practicing slowly with beginners. Support and logistics: For all their awesome powers, ninja have to eat, sleep and wear clothes. These mundane tasks count too. Points for adulting.

And in three gifs, I sum up how my life over the past two months. I decided to quit my job to help my mental health. I experienced a whole lot of chaos with last minute job interviews, a nail biting, down-to-the-wire job offer. A much needed vacation. More chaos as I watched the perils of small start ups interfere with if I had a job. And finally, a beginning to settle down into a new circumstance, at the core the same, but now with some definite new quirks to figure out. So clearly I regenerated, and I need to learn to live with a dislike of my kidney color. Added to this, I have three major physical activities coming up at the end of the year. Camp NF from September 21-25. My 30th birthday Ruck November 11th. And I plan on testing for first kyu in December. All of them are going to push me to my limits in some way, shape, or form. I want to up my strength and PR my big three lifts at Camp. The Ruck is going to involve me having to embrace the suck and work on my endurance. And the first kyu exam is going to require a build up of a good library of techniques reliably, including being healthy and mobile enough to perform them well. So, how's this challenge going to go? I'm thinking something like this: 1) Wibbly Wobbley Timey Wimey Stuff: Figure out a new work and exercise schedule. Aim for 5-6 classes aikido, Stairs on Wednesday, and two lifting sessions. So right now, my goal is to attend 5-6 aikido classes a week, plus Stairs on Wednesday, and I would like to lift twice a week. The complicating factor in this is I'm also taking public transit to get to work now, rather than my car. Which changes the dynamics of some things. Notably the "I need to have everything packed before I leave the house" part. Aikido is probably the easiest. I was given permission to park at the dojo during the day on Monday and Tuesday (not allowed usually), where I can then walk a mile to work, do what needs to be done, and then walk the mile back to the dojo to train. I then get to leave class with my car waiting for me, and not have to stress about trying to take make two buses to get home. Sunday and Tuesday are two classes, Monday and Saturday is one. The Saturday class I'm willing to skip, provided I'm doing something worthy in exchange. Mostly more workout things, sometimes social stuffs. Stairs just happens. It's ingrained at this point. If I can find a way to optimize my timetable getting to work this challenge, cool. At the moment, it's looking like I'll get to work at around 9:15 in the morning, which is practically on time for most scientists anyway. It's super late for me, but hey. Whatever. The lifting is the hardest for me to fit in right now. I have to take a different bus to my gym, work out quickly, shower, and then another bus closer to home. In nice weather, I could also walk home, but if I'm working out hard, that may not be something I want to deal with. Really I need to see how much I'm going to do the lifting, and how miserable I am trying to catch a bus that is different from my usual route. Also I need to figure out a new lifting program. Because I think I'll be lifting Wednesday and Friday, and I'll do an upper body workout on Wednesday and a lower body workout on Friday. Suggestions welcome. So yea. Figure out how to schedule all the things. 2) No Fish Fingers and Custard: Limit caloric intake to 2200 most days. A limit of 2500 on Stairs or lifting days. Limit snack foods taken from work. So, new job is going great so far. The building we are working out of has a lot of perks, including a LOT of free snacks. Most of the snacks are things I'm not sooo thrilled with, so I'm not too worried this time. The stuff I do like is also hidden in a giant cabinet, so one of my major problems (RP sees food. Suddenly food is gone because RP ate the food) is definitely curtailed. We do have some giant cereal containers, but even then most of the time I'm not thrilled with the choices. So the goal is to no eat like an asshole, do my best to pretend that the cereal things do not exist, and also limit my smartfood popcorn intake to only 3 bags a week, and we have string cheese that I want to limit to only 6 a week. Really, my vacation caused me to gain a few extra pounds, and I feel it on me. The difference I feel at 206 (where I current am) and 203/4 is amazingly large. I feel bloated, and I'm currently sitting at a point where previously I would be quite pleased. But I can do better and feel better at a weight around 200, even if my body loves the 206-208 range naturally. I want to see if I can train it to like the lower 200's more. 3) Universally Recognized Mature and Responsible Adult: Do the adulting list. Car oil change Car Inspection Figure out health insurance things (cheaper to buy own or get through the contract agency) Track all money using Mint to figure out how being an hourly worker influences me Input 4 book series into my library inventory Some other stuffs that I forgot? Just a general adulting list. Things to do. The car stuff should be easier since I don't need it ALL THE TIME any more. The health insurance I've already taken the first steps, I just need a bit more info. Mint I already use, but I need to try and pare down the extra purchases, or at least label them in Mint so that I know they are atypical. And I need to keep up with my library inventory. I was lazy about starting it. I'm sure I forgot some other things, so I am sure it'll get updated soon. But these things are the major goals over the next month. So lets get started, yea?

Challenge 21: Motion and Stillness I have all my habits in place. After 20 challenges, I would be disappointed if I wasn't getting closer to my goals. Some still need tweaking (sleep - I'm looking at you). My overarching challenge is to make good decisions on use of my time. As Teirin pointed out, I tend to do ALL THE THINGS and not take enough relaxation time. On the plus side, I've been feeling considerably less stressed about things falling apart if I don't attend to them. I credit that partly to zen and partly to the household changes we made when Elf moved in. For those new to my saga, here is the cast of characters: Motion: Aikido - Continue training for my nidan exam. I am not going to any special aikido events this month. My goal is to attend weapons practice on Monday morning and Fridays as many times as possible and advanced class on the weekends when I'm in town. Exercise - keep doing knee PT exercises in rotation with upper body and shoulder/core exercises. Work in HIIT on knee days twice a week. My goal is to do one set of exercises on the weekend for bonus points. Dancing - I'm going to two dance events this challenge. As long as I keep up with knee exercises and HIIT, these should be pure enjoyment. My goal is to learn the dances and make good choices while I'm travelling to the balls. Chores - I realized that I should give myself credit for these when I spent over an hour raking and cleaning out the garden last night. I have not kept up with the dusting, which is my designated household task. I used to be responsible for cleaning the cat boxes. Now I need to scrub them out for the last time and store them in the garage. Cooking and grocery shopping count here too. Stillness: Meditation - Zen is hitting the spot for me. My teacher told me that with steady application, I can move up to koan practice soon. Track sessions and time. I would like to meditate every day. That requires that I make good choices about how I spend the rest of my time. Sleep - Stop doing things in the evening and go to bed by 9:30pm on weekdays. Plan ahead for food so that I don't need to eat within two hours of going to bed. Also try to figure out what the heck is making it hard for me to fall asleep or wake up in the wee hours. I never used to have this problem. I've cut way back on caffeine. WTF? Piano - I signed up for a music workshop on April 16. Learn the music. This is trickier than it sounds because my piano is in Elf's bedroom. I need to practice while he is at work or out doing things. No excuses. Creative things - Spinning, knitting, embroidery; all forms of sitting still and relaxing. Listed here to encourage myself to take time for them. Taxes - Goal is to finish these in week 0, must be done by the end of week 2. (Not really still, but require sitting :P) Practicing zen and aikido is taking up almost all my free time. Thankfully doing zen makes me more mindful and less resentful the rest of the time. I want to spend quality time with my family whenever I can. Dumbledore and I sat down and planned so that we would do fun things together. Elf and Hermes both have unpredictable work schedules. I'll be flexible to do things with them when opportunities arise. No points, just tracking what I manage to do.

It's the Godwin's Law of Anime...at some point, somebody's gotta break out this reference. Three, two, one--LET'S JAM! Now with NO food-related quests and NO measurement tracking requirements throughout the challenge. How will we cope?!?! Spike (STR+3) Let's keep this short and sweet, shall we? Spike takes many jobs as a bounty hunter throughout the story, but his one drive is chasing after Julia and Vicious. He has great perception and fighting chops to help him get the job done. My one job is to help my 3RM chase after my 1RM lifts while I work on building up my squats and figure out what's going on with my deadlifts. I'm probably very close to being forced onto Texas Method on yet another lift, we shall see! My lifts look like the below, the number on the left is my current 3RM for the respective lift while the number on the right is my 1RM. I'm only going to aim for closing the gap by 15lbs, pretty sure I can do that and then some: Squat: 157.5 > 169.5 BP: 81 > 85 OHP: 60.5 > 65 DL: 205 > 207.5 The plan: 3RM Gains: 0/15 The grading: 11-15+lbs = A, 8-10lbs = B, 5-7lbs = C, else F Faye (DEX+4) Talk about someone who takes setbacks and hard knocks, Faye is an amnesiac in space. That is the worst place to be with no real memory, methinks. She had to take care of herself while on the run before growing attached to the crew of the Bebop and eventually confronting her past. Not to quote a Chumbawamba song, but this quest is all about getting knocked down and getting up again. Put it another way: Every Day Is Ukemi Day. That's right, I'm falling down (reeeeeally gently) every day that isn't an already scheduled day at the dojo, where presumably I'll be doing a bit of that there, too. Hence the quest title. Also, to compliment the falling down, there's that nagging need for full body mobility sessions. That time is now. I'm breaking this daunting task in half--on lifting days, I roll my hips to ankles. On non-lifting days, it's all about hips to scalp. Simple as that. The plan: Every Day is Ukemi Day - 0/20 Full Body Mobility: Upper - 0/16, Lower - 0/12 The grading: Every Day is Ukemi Day - 18-20 days = A, 15-17 days = B, 12-14 = C, else F Full Body Mobility: Upper - 14-16 = A, 11-13 = B, else F, Lower - 10 - 12 = A, 7 - 9 = B, else F Jet (WIS+1, CON+1, CHA+1) Ah, the responsible one. He cooks, he minds the money, he adopts a child and dog. Pity about the fridge... Ah well, I won't be making that mistake. Because I'm going to Clean Something around the house five days a week. Dish-washing and laundry don't count, because I already do these things and they're basically mandatory. Anything that adds up to >10 minutes counts. The curfews make a return as well, because #recycling. I'm tweaking the drink curfew to be defaulted to 8:30 OR two hours' space between my last drink and lights-out. The plan: Clean Something - 0/20 Drink Curfew - 0/20 Anti-Curfew - 0/24 The grading: Clean Something - 18 - 20 = A, 15 - 17 = B, else F Drink Curfew - 18 - 20 = A, 15 - 17 = B, else F Anti-Curfew - 21 - 24 = A, 18 - 20 = B, else F

Challenge 20 - Mistr HIITs it again More of the same as last challenge, plus cardio. I did randori at aikido on Saturday. The two times I did not get killed by my ukes, I had to stop because I was winded. Bad sign. I am adding interval training to work on my aerobic endurance. Exercise Intervals 2x a week on knee/core days Knee/core exercises 3x a week. I was getting through the whole series in three days a week. I expect that I will only have time for a couple exercises on interval days. I can do extra on weekends for bonus credit. No pressure to get them all done every week. Shoulder/upper body exercises 2x a week. Aikido Go to the chief instructors classes as much as possible in March. She will be out for knee surgery in April and May. Go to one class each weekend. Ukemi class and yudansha class are already on my calendar. Go to advanced classes the other two weekends (usually taught by the chief instructor). I am training for my nidan exam. Three days a week is about right. Four days a week is great for training but not so great for the rest of my life. Sleep and meditation Meditation everything is a lot more fun when I’m not falling asleep. Go to bed on time. Work on increasing the number of days with 8+ hours sleep from last the January challenge. (>15/28) Last challenge was even worse. We're not going to talk about those numbers. Ideally I would like to meditate every day. Shoot for more than last challenge (>19/28). Creative projects and backlog Do fun stuff. Piano, embroidery, knitting, spinning. I want this to be all positive. Writing it here helps me choose to do creative things instead of more dishes. Adulting: Get my taxes filed by the end of the challenge.

So, this is a bit of a lame challenge again. These short turn around times plus the fact that I'm slowly moving into much longer-term goals means that I really don't fit well into 4 week challenges. Probably a liklihood of me just hunkering down in my Battle log soon, unless some major changes happen to the challenge set ups. But then I feel like I can hunker down more easily into people's threads that way. We shall see. I'm just rambling. The challenge here is based on the Three R's. Reading, 'Riting, and 'Rithmatic. Rest, Refeed, and Randori. Rest: I need to instate my night time routine. Goal is to get 8-9 hours of sleep each night (wow, I get/need a lot of sleep - new medication makes this kind of needed, though), and to be in bed for at least 30 minute prior to lights out reading/no tech. Besides maybe a phone call with the girlfriend. Those are allowed and encouraged. If I can stay awake long enough. Pretty simple Refeed: So I've kinda been challenged Kyellan to race to sub-200 pound body weights. The biggest thing, though, is my straight caloric deficits haven't been too effective the last few months. That said, I found out about refeeds doing things besides refeuling glycogen, which seems worth investigating. By which I mean I tried a two week stint and saw my weight drop pretty effectively with very little effort. So I'm going to try and do that. Goal here is a lower-carb diet, with a cheat jar for every junky food item I have at work. Hopefully that helps drop my calories down to ~2100 calories per day. Also once a week I'm going to do a refeed. Goal is one day to spike calories to 2800-3000ish calories, with ~280 or 300 grams of carbs, and 170 grams or more in protein. This, if past history is an indicator of future success, probably involves me eating a pint of ice cream in a single sitting. Last two times I did that I had surprisingly good results, so don't fix what ain't broke. Current weight: 206.6#. Randori: Practice Randori once a week. I need to work on a 3-person randori scheme for my eventual 1st kyu exam, that EVERYONE KEEPS ASKING ME WHEN IT WILL BE. So my goal is one day a week grab 2-4 willing participants after class to work on randori movements slowly. Only way I'm let off the hook for this one is if I can't get people to practice with. In that case, I reserve the right to change that week into a straight up "Practice for 1st kyu" goal. Another simple and straight forward challenge for me. Something to spend my time on. Things may change shortly, however, so I may have to alter things.

So, another round of 4WC format, huh? Won't it be interesting to see what they tweak for the next challenge format? In the meantime, I'mma abuse the privilege and return to a well-loved franchise... Oh, yeah, Breath of Fire 3. Ryu and the gang are back and this time...it's personal. Or something. I dunno. Let's go rob some guy so we can eat tonight. Ryu (STR+3) Ryu returns, and in rare form. He's got to fight giant unseen forces and uncover the truth surrounding the Brood, and he's only just been blasted out of his chysm hiding place as a little Whelp. It's going to take some quick thinking, mighty battling, and good friends to get him through this adventure! It's a big push to 275 Wilks, but not without keeping an eye on my mobility. No gains can be made forever, especially not when you have knots all over the place. So here's the deal: I want to get to 275, but I'm not sure how much longer my novice phase is gonna hold out. I might not even make it into this challenge with the advanced novice program I've been running during challenge 2 of 2016. So, to compromise and still motivate myself, I'm going to set the bar at 260 265 Wilks based on my Day Zero weigh-in. While I'm shooting for the heights of Gainshala, I also need to keep up with my mobility. Not having it as part of my challenge is an excellent way of ensuring it gets pushed to the back burner. Thus I will be focusing on TWO areas with which I struggle: my neck and my knees. I have knots that form there on a daily basis, I need more than one attempt per week to address them. Combined with bimonthly massages, this should help combat tension. I assume I will be doing my hip flexibility routine in the dojo during aikido and will be logging when I do that to help keep accountable. Below is the tentative schedule for accomplishing my goals of strength and mobility--subject to change up until Day 0. The plan: Lifting Gains - 0/15: Lift a total of 461 lbs @ 112.2lbs bw Neck Mobility - 3/wk: Smash shoulders/neck with barbell Knee Mobility - 2/wk: Roll ‘dem quads The grading: Lifting gains: P/F - P = at least 12lbs of gains , else F Knee Mobility: A = 2, B = 1, else F Neck Mobility: A = 3, B = 2, else F Garr (DEX+2, WIS+1,STA+1) Good old Garr. He's a Guardian who is tasked with protecting the Urkan people from the Brood by order of "God"...but just who is his real enemy? As it turns out, not Ryu. He seeks to understand the truth of what has transpired these many centuries, and protect everyone from the smothering embrace of safety over freedom. What else is Aikido about but protecting the Aikidoka and the attacker from the consequence of said attacker's dangerous foolishness? I'm going to train like I mean it and get that Yellow Belt. It's going to be a hard push, because I do not have very many classes left to make this happen! Every day must count or it'll be a loooong wait to the next test opportunity. The plan: Aikido - 2/wk: Train for Yellow Belt The grading: Aikido: A = 2, B = 1, else F Momo (CON+1,WIS+2) Momo may seems like she's lost in space sometimes, and she can't hit the broad side of a barn with her cannon, but she's wicked smart. Without Momo, Ryu and the gang wouldn't have gotten past two unicorn brothers, much less cross an ocean and confront the Goddess. It pays to have someone on your team who is handy with all things mechanical. Momo is smart--she doesn't do stupid things like tank up on liquids before bed and screw up her next day by using the bathroom multiple times at night, sleeping in, and throwing the rest of her plans out the window after that. Lol. So I'm going to try to make my days more productive by sticking to my drink curfew on nights I'm not at Aikido--for those nights, I will only drink with dinner if it ends up happening after 9, as it usually does. This time, I'm going to add an anti-curfew that requires I be out of bed by 8. I need to be more productive and I need to take advantage of all the hours of the day available to me, even without the impetus of work. Normally I get up 9:00 - 9:30, so this really shouldn't be that painful to manage every day but Sunday, which I give myself as time to prioritize recovery as needed. And finally, as an "incentive" to stay closer to my macro target, I will require myself to stay under 2500 calories more often than not, i.e. 5 days on target, 2 allowed offroad eating days. This of course would float if my macros change, for now 2300 calories with 200 calories of clearance should be perfectly reasonable. The plan: Calorie Ceiling: 5/wk: Stay beneath 2500 calories Anti-curfew - 6/wk: Out of bed by 8:00 AM Curfew - 5/wk: No Drinks after 8:30 PM The grading: Curfew: A = 5, B = 4, else F Anti-curfew: A = 6, B = 5, C = 4, else F Calorie Ceiling A = 5, B = 4, else F Starting Stats FTW: Weight: lbs Waist: " Hips: " Biceps(L/R): "/" Forearm(L/R): "/" Thighs(L/R): "/" Calves(L/R): "/"

Another simple challenge for me, because straight forward seems to be the name of the game for these 4 week challenges. I realized this weekend I tend to view things in a manner of "I need to do at least X" to feel accomplished. More is good. But I have a set level of things I like to do in order to feel accomplished. So I figured, why not make a challenge of At Least Accomplishing things? If nothing else, it lets me do a small word pun. 1) At Least... One new veggie a week I'm pretty boring with my veggies. Typically some broccoli or cauliflower or asparagus for the green/fiberous veggie, and then a sweet potato or a squash for the more starchy one. I should branch out a bit more, especially since I do like cooking. So one new thing when I go to the grocery store each week. Veggie suggestions welcome. 2) At Least... One non-aikido workout a week Yea, this will likely be a lifting workout, and therefore is an extension of the last challenge. But I'm also a bit gimpy right now, so I figure demanding a lift session a week pigeon holds me a bit too much. This at least allows me to do some rucks, yoga, or BW work. This was going to be a work out at least 6 days a week challenge, but then I realized I don't want to go crazy. Er. Crazier. 3) At Least... One aikido post per week Okay, I kind of need to get this one approved first, but... I'm a co-admin on the dojo's Facebook page. One thing that page needs is some more lift, particularly emphasizing things that are more central to our dojo. A lot of the other dojo pages I follow post semi-regularly, and I want to try and do that to see if it helps improve the page and/or nets us new students. I need to talk to the senior instructors tonight about it, but assuming that they've liked my Facebook prowess in the past, then this should be all set. 4) At least... Finish reading two books So I have two self-help/philosophy books I'm in the middle of right now. One is Level Up Your Life. The other is Walking the Way. Both I have been enjoying greatly, but I'd like to finish reading them both by the end of the challenge. So this also is the first challenge I've had in a while where self-care is not explicitly a goal. People are more than welcome to run in and double check that I'm still doing that too. Yesterday was a bit rough, but I managed to survive, so small reminders to calm the fuck down are welcome. In the mean time, expect the same rambling thoughts and processes that normally pop up during my challenges.

Challenge 19 - Mistr keeps on getting on My last challenge was a success so this challenge I want to keep doing the same things. Not very exciting for you. I really like the part where I can fit in clothes I haven’t been able to wear for ages. Exercise Knee/core exercises 3x a week. Shoulder/upper body exercises 2x a week. Aikido Weapons practice once a week. My training partner is in town for the next several weeks. I want to take advantage of that. Continue cleaning up boken katas #1-11. Maybe learn #12 if sensei is agreeable.Go to one class each weekend. Ukemi class and yudansha class are already on my calendar. Go to advanced classes the other two weekends.I will also be going to classes on Mondays and Wednesdays. I am one of the instructors for the beginners’ course. I need to see what the other instructor is covering each week. This is more of a requirement than a goal. I’m just putting it here for completeness. Sleep and meditation Meditation is a lot more fun when I’m not falling asleep. Go to bed on time. Work on increasing the number of days with 8+ hours sleep from last challenge. (>15/28) Ideally I would meditate every day. Schedule constraints make that unlikely. Shoot for more than last challenge (>18/28). Creative projects and backlog Goal: finish one mending project (probably socks) and get the curtains done for the kitchen. The rest of my creative time is open. I can do a variety of spinning, knitting, embroidery and piano. Maybe even get out the quilting if I get crazy. Adulting: Enter financial records and file the papers every week. (Pass/fail)Figure out Gnucash reporting by the end of week 1. Put together reports by week 2.Bonus for getting my taxes filed by the end of the challenge.

GET ME OFF OF THIS CRAZY THING. These 4 Week Challenges just come and go too fast--okay, okay, relax, don’t panic, I’ve got this thing. Alright, let’s try this again… NEW CHALLENGE GET. I wasn’t sure what theme to go this with time, to be perfectly honest, but after I got canned, I knew. The ragtag trio’s constant pursuit of a job (and food) just kinda works for me. I’m channeling Samurai Champloo this go ‘round for my latest and greatest challenge. So without further ado, up first is... Mugen (STR+3) Mugen’s name means “Limitless†(or “Infiniteâ€), and that’s just my speed when it comes to gains. He’s unpredictable and ever so slightly unstable--ALSO like my gains. So basically he is perfect. In case you haven’t picked up on it yet, GAINS are number one here. I want to get to 250 Wilks by the end of the challenge...preferably sooner than later, plzkthx. Oh, and I’m going to try to learn to power clean. This is going to be HILARIOUS. The plan: Lifting gains: Get to 250 wilks for Day 0’s weigh-in (lift a total of 435lbs @ 112lbs bw, 440 @ 114 bw): 3/wk Learn Powercleans - 3/wk > 1/wk: 3/wk - Week 1: Practice the 3 parts of the power clean: 1/wk - Week 2-4: SS-style progression starting with empty bar The grading: Lifting gains: A = 3, B = 2, else F Powercleans: A = 3, B = 2, else F, P/F Jin (WIS+2,DEX+2) Jin’s name comes from one of the precepts of Budo--benevolence. ‘nuff said, right? He’s a ronin who has a strong sense of right and wrong...and immediately butts heads with Captain Limitless. * coughs * Way to keep your eye on the ball, man. A man of great discipline and skill, he is the perfect inspiration for my novice martial arts practice. The plan: Aikido - 2/wk: do the thing SKD - 3/wk: do the thing Just...do the thing. Practice, go to class, put in the time. The grading: Aikido: A = 2, B = 1, else F SKD: A = 3, B = 2, else F Fuu (CON+3) Fuu is the glue that binds the trio together. Without her to settle constant budding violence between her traveling companions and remind them of the important things (searching for the samurai who smells like sunflowers, food, money...), there would be no show. She travels wherever the road takes her in her enigmatic quest--free as the wind. While it’s great to be a traveling nomad, it’s not so great to let all responsibility fly away. I am holding fast to my maintenance levels from the previous challenge, since they have been working for me just fine. To ensure this remains the case, I’ll be taking before and after challenge measurements. The plan: Maintenance - 7/wk: Macro target: 2300 / 230 / 102 / 115 The grading: Maintenance: P/F And of course, the ubiquitous....STARTING STATS: Weight: 112.8 lbs Waist: 22.9" Hips: 30.8" Biceps(L/R): 10.0"/10.0" Forearm(L/R): 9.0"/9.0" Thighs(L/R): 19.8"/19.8" Calves(L/R): 11.5"/11.5"

Recap: The Lady Eowyn of Rohan organised for Shield maiden training while her uncle, the King of Rohan, and his men were off fighting Saruman's army. She organised for a formidable team of Ladies of the Realm to arrive on very short notice to help the maidens in their training. The ladies fulfil many rolls: Lady KJ Tauriel (an elf!) was in charge of self defence and weapons training. Lady Normand from the Lightning Mountains, and Lady Chris Tien the Wise help with training in general, getting the women fit and ready. Dwarven Queen Elastiwen of Moria, brought various devices with her to train the shield maidens in strength. The worst of these were the heavy metal balls with handles that the women had to lift and swing. "Control your strength at all times", was the Queen's motto. The last of the ladies who came to Eowyn's assistance was Lady Anny of the Shayr. - a Hobbit-born! She trains those with the aptitude and skill in healing. Elezé enjoyed the slight reprieve from all the training. It was hard going, but she actually thoroughly enjoyed herself. Lady Chris Tien had helped her with the training when she didn't know what or how, while Queen Elastiwen and Lady of Lightning concentrated on drilling her in form and strength. The only lady who was exasperated by Elezé's progress (or lack there of in this case) was Lady KJ Tauriel. It proved early on that Elezé did not have as great an ability with weapons as she had with training, animals and healing. Lady Anny from the Shayr on the other hand, were beaming! Between the two of them they fixed up injuries from small cuts to more grievous wounds caused by the gusto of a good weapons training session! Eowyn sat down next to her cousin in the shade of a huge Acacia tree. They sat in companionable silence for a while before Lady Eowyn spoke: "...No fiction wrought magic lore, but natural was the steed the wizard pressed; For him a filly to griffin bore; Hight hippogryph. In wings and beak and crest, formed like his sire, as in the feet before; But like the mare, his dam, in all the rest. Such on Riphaean hills, though rarely found, are bred, beyond the frozen ocean's bound. Drawn by enchantment from [her] distant lair, the wizard thought but how to tame the foal; And, in a month, instructed him to bear saddle and bit, and gallop to the goal; And execute on earth or in mid air, all shifts of manege, course and caracole; [she] with such labour wrought. This only real, where all the rest was hollow and ideal." Ludovico Ariosto's poem, Orlando furioso (1516) "Those are magical creatures, never seen here before, Eowyn, but oh, how I wish I could fly on the back of such a creature! To be high up in the sky, close to heaven... the wind through your hair... freedom to go where ever your heart takes you...feel the soft feathers under hand and foot..." "Well dear, I don't know about the freedom to follow your heart, but if you accept, you can be trained by a special Lady to fly upon one of these so called "magical creatures" " Eowyn replied. "Eowyn, you jest! Where on Middle Earth are there creatures such as these? Whom are able to tame them, never you mind to teach them to accept saddle and bridle like a horse?" Eowyn told her cousin Elezé of the Lady of Fire Dragon Isle, a magician no less! A lady of light, but a lady also of fire, because she not only tames magical creatures like dragons which breath fire, she also breed and train animals such as the Hippogriff. "Easily offended, hippogriffs are. Don't never insult one, 'cause it might be the last thing yeh do." Rubeus Hagrid talking to the class about Hippogriffs The man who delivered this comment was just suddenly there! He had a huge chess-shire cat grin on his face, with a naughty, yet clever look in his eye. Then off in the distance they saw a Hippogriff lying peacefully in the long grass. http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Hippogriff "Master Willes is the name. From Gryffendor Castle on the Fire Dragon Isle. I call these beauties my Gryffendarlings, and this one is called Buckbeak. Gave me a real hard time at first, but once I got to know them, we made fast friends! I take it you're the one we came to fetch. Back to Gryffendor Castle with you to learn all about my Gryffendarlings." Elezé could only stare in shock and awe at the man and the beautiful creature. She was to fly one? Truly?

Hi there! New-ish to Nerd Fitness and making a proper go of it for 2016. I'm half Warrior, half monk class-wise as I am loving heavy lifting, but have done martial arts for years. Which brings me to the point of the post... I've done traditional Tae Kwon Do (to black belt level) but I'm looking for a new club, having moved away from my old one. I figured it was time to maybe switch up disciplines so- any recommendations? Aikido has intrigued me so far, as well as Jeet Kune Do, but I'm just wondering if anyone has had experience with switching up martial arts? Thanks!

I am feeling optimistic about the new year. I have three major goals for the year on top of the usual fitness/healthy eating/sleep more/keep up with chores. I. Train for my next exam. Sensei told me that I should test this year. I have quite a ways to go to get from where I am right now to feeling ready to test. I need to work on weapons, randori, and koshinages. II. Weaving. I have been moving my loom between apartments for years and not used it. I have all kinds of projects I would like to make. My goal is to get my loom refinished and set up in the house by the fall. III. Backlog reduction. Filing, unfinished projects, boxes of papers and old magazine to get rid of; they are all bogging down my life and taking up space. Sort, finish and get rid of things. These are all big overwhelming goals. I will do small things to move each one forward every challenge. This photo shows a warp-weighted loom with a weaving sword. In medieval Scandinavia, old broadswords were refurbished for use as weaving swords. More proof that fiber arts and martial arts are related. Challenge 18 - Moving forward 1. Continue my current fitness activities. I'm just putting this in here for continued accountability. This program is working pretty well. Alternate leg and upper body days. At least one shoulder/core day a week and three leg days a week. Substitute in yoga on bad days. 2. Aikido goals: Learn one more sword kata. I need to learn #10 and 12. Keep working on 7, 8, 9 and 11 which need cleaning up. Just keep cleaning up my weapons kata overall. My training partner has been doing solo work and can make his jo whoosh when he strikes. I am sooooo envious. Go to at least one seminar. There are two possible seminars in January. I plan to go to both, but weather may intervene.Go to at least two advanced classes, more if I can't go to both seminars.3. Meditation and sleep. I am a happier and more productive person when I am good about sleeping. I've been getting 7-7.5 hours a night and really need 8. Continue focusing on going to bed on time. Zen meditation seems to be working for me. I know that it will take a lot of time before I start to see the benefits. Part of my mind is okay with that. The other part wants to start getting special ninja powers NOW. Regular daily practice is the goal. 15-20 minutes, more on weekends if that works out. 4. Creative projects and backlog. Last challenge I started spinning a fiber blend that I have had in my stash for at least 20 years. My goal for this challenge is to finish the singles. Bonus if I get it plyed. Extra points for every box of stuff I haul to the charity shop or used bookstore. edited to fix tags

Hi all! I'm NeverThatBored, and my goal in life is basically to be really cool. I also wouldn’t mind losing the last 10-15 pounds I need to hit my goal weight. But mainly, I want to be cool. I'm moving over from the adventurers for my 6th challenge. I used a point system I used for my last challenge that allowed me to earn bonus points, which helped me get rid of the dangerous idea of cheat days. It was - dare I say it - cool? So I’m going to riff of my last challenge goals again this time. Goal 1: Food (Follow a Primalish Meal Plan) I had a cool detailed 6 week food challenge already planned, but I'm going to simplify for now and see how 4 weeks differs from 6 before I attempt it. Instead, I've made a primalish meal plan to stick to in January & February. It's pretty cool too. If I stick to it, I get 1 point per planned meal and 1 point for planned daily snacks. If I make equally healthy substitutions, I get the points too. If I eat an unhealthy snack or drink, I lose 1 point. If I eat 2 unhealthy things in a row, I lose 3 points (one for each snack, and one for the consecutive bad choices). I always end up having travel days that mess up my routine. I certainly can't stick to a meal plan then. For those days, I will aim for 1 primal meal, 1 50% meal (rice ok, pizza not ok), and 1 non-primal meal. If I turn a 50% or non-primal meal into a primal meal, I get a bonus point. The rule about 2 unhealthy things still applies to travel days. Goal 2: Move (Walk, Ruck, Run, Bodyweight Exercises) I'm combining my two usual exercise goals into one this challenge and focusing on maintaining the habits. 5 extra miles walked = 1 bonus point. 5 extra miles rucked = 1 bonus point. 1 extra run or workout = 1 bonus point. Walk 64 miles (16 miles/week) Ruck for at least 24 of those miles - increase ruck weight from 16 lbs to 20 lbs Run 6 times for any length - I'm overcoming some issues with form that have led to injury, so I'm focusing on body sensing and safety over other forms of progress. 3 bodyweight workouts per week - I do a bootcamp class on Tuesdays, and then usually a modified BBWW for the other two workoutsCurrent BBWW routine: Warmup: 3 circuits of 6 shoulder touches and 10 toe marches3 circuits of:20 squats20 pushups (working up to 20 - almost there!)20 lunges15 dumbell rows20 dips30 second 1-legged plank12 kneeling pike presses (working up to regular pike presses)30 jumping jacksCooldown: 30 second bridge, then stretching Goal 3: Bonus Exercise I want to pick a specific movement to focus on improving during this challenge. The poll will help me decide which one. 6/10 of you so far have said that pushups are the coolest, so that's what I'll do. My recent max is a set of 30 pushups and my all time max is 40ish, so I'm aiming to bridge that gap. I will do AMRAP pushups every M/W/F morning for the duration of the challenge. Life Goal: Finances For the past two years, I've participated in frugal February, where I don't shop or eat out for a month. This year I'm going to expand it to January too and see how it goes. There are a few exceptions to this shopping ban: If I need to eat out while traveling (which I will be Wednesday-Sunday for the first week of this challenge)2 books I already preordered this month - technically I pay this month, but I did the "shopping" part last yearIf I run out of something (shampoo, etc.), I can replace itBirthday presents for two people in February Other These aren't goals, but in addition to the things listed above, I do Aikido twice/week and yoga videos. If I do 3+ yoga videos in a week, I'll earn a bonus point. So 1 extra healthy meal when traveling = 5 extra miles walked = 5 extra miles rucked = 3+ yoga videos in a week = 1 extra run = 1 extra workout.

This seemed appropriate. If you haven't played Child of Light yet, you should. Fantastic game. I had intended to make this a slightly more robust challenge, keep things in line with the new rules and all that. But this weekend slapped me down pretty hard. Thus, we get something a bit more pragmatic. Also, perhaps something a bit more relevant to what I should be doing with my life. Four Goals. The Art. The Bar. The Coin. The Self. The Art: Attend 5 hours of aikido classes each week. I just need hours at this point. While I'd love to start rattling off techniques again, I'm less worried about those than I am some other fundamentals, like basic extension, hip movement, and not trying to make my shoulder touch my ear when I'm grabbed. And all of these just need time. So I'll aim for time. Odds are I'll make more than 5 classes a week. But some days I might need an extra push to get there. Alternatively, I may actually just decide that I need a day off. And that's okay, too. I need to learn a bit of moderation when it comes to the mat, I think. The Bar: Life once a week (approximately 3-4 times in the challenge). I miss playing with my barbell. A mostly-broken hand/fingers made me stop going to the gym, though being surrounded by several other persistent injuries also didn't help the matter. To get multiple lifting workouts each week would require morning workouts at this point, which I cannot afford. Sleep is too high a priority these days for my mental well being. So, Saturday or Sunday is the only open day. I tested my lifts yesterday to see where I'm starting now. Not too pleased, but it'll get better once my brain acclimates to them again. (I'll likely still log the workouts in my Battle Log, and just say I did them here.) The Coin: Use Mint and figure out a more accurate budget by the end of the month. I've been meaning to use Mint for a while, now. I have a pretty good grasp of my budget, but with life being a bit wobbly right now, plus maybe trying to afford some actual PT work or regular massages, I want to have things nailed down a bit better. My biggest expenditure are my student loans, so if I pull back I will have a nice margin, but I want to see how much I can pull back before I start cringing and potentially missing my two year, self-made deadline for paying off those loans. The Self: Self care, 30 minutes each day. Either Saturday or Sunday, complete Self care day. In bed and disconnected from the world no later than 10:15PM every work night. This is probably the most important part of this challenge. Self care everyday. No exceptions. The bed time is to emphasize how much I need sleep these days. And one day a weekend is going to be devoted to doing whatever I want, hopefully no/minimal chores, and recovering for the week to come. Might mean I'm looked at as anti-social by people. But I figure appearing antisocial is probably better than being being locked away in a mental institution. Really, I need to get back on track. Refocus on self care. On my budget. On my aikido basics. On heavy things. We are life's pilgrims. So best to make the most of it.

Whew boy, Christmastime is over and the New Year of 2016 has begun, the challenges resume on my birthday, I'm checking out two new arts, AND confronting a new dietary restriction. Yup, this is gonna be quite the wild ride here with the Monks once again. Let's jump in, shall we? Breath of Fire 4-style! Ryu/Fou-Lu (STR+1,DEX+1) Ryu and Fou-Lu are two halves of a whole--products of a failed god summoning trying to right the imbalance created by their "birth". Each has a very different agenda for what to do when they reunite, however, and they aren't about to see eye-to-eye anytime soon. The clash of the ages by a fragmented god will change a world forever. (Also, I'm going to say it, I was sad there wasn't a more amiable end for them...I like Fou-Lu....) Unlike Ryu and Fou-Lu, my aims aren't so disparate. I have one goal that I'll approach from two different directions: lifting form correction and mobility. These two halves will unite to give me greater ROM in my hips and hopefully address the issue of the slight but persistent knee soreness that has haunted me off and on lo these many months. Note this means I will be tackling hip flexibility/ROM only--consider this a trial run for reintroducing some stretching to the lineup and what better way to start than on the area at which I am weakest? Lifts and mobility logs shall be found here--I'm taking a step back on the weights as introduced in my battle log as a mercy step for poor recovery via mediocre sleep and the unknown territory introduced by my altered diet. The Mission: Take my lifting game to the next level by tackling trouble spots and increasing ROM in one area: hips. Do this by keeping knees shoved out during the lifts at all costs and employ three different stretches three times a week: hip opener, w-sit and kneel, and the forward fold.These three maneuvers will attack each angle of hip movement succinctly. Fix my knees - 3/wk - shove those knees out on squats Flexibility - 3/wk - Hip Opener: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPuGRbznCSc - W-sit/kneel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIz1F_lH5LA - forward fold [lifting log] [mobility log] Grading: Fix my knees - 3 = A, 2 = C, else F Note: effort grade--I don't expect every rep will be solid gold Mobility - 3 = A, 2 = C, else F Note: Do all stretches or it doesn't count Cray (STR+1,CON+1,CHA+1) Cray had a pretty crummy job from the very beginning of BoF 4. His princess girlfriend-of-sorts, Elina, disappeared while on a goodwill trip to another country and it's up to him and Elina's sister Nina to find her. Also, he's the leader of a nation in his own right. He has a sword to deliver, and a crashed hovercraft derails the trip right from the start. That's a lot of responsibility, and most of it is far from pretty. So I don't have any princesses to save, but what I do have is a lot of minding what I eat and how I sleep. As long as I don't keep waking up in the middle of the night due to itching (Food/contact allergy? Just plain old dry skin?), I feel I'm good on minding the sleep front. No, this time it's all food, all the time. I'm going to have to find a new maintenance weight, sadly, because I'm not sure I will ever be able to hit my old macros while restricted from dairy. Oh, that's right, I haven't summed up the complication to my food goal this challenge: I have been having some seemingly unrelated symptoms for several months now: digestive upset, difficulty using the bathroom, rash, and itching. They're really put a cramp in my life, as you might imagine. I don't know exactly what made me wake up to the idea that this was dietary related and specifically an allergy to dairy products, but since I've almost completely quit ingesting the food group, all my symptoms have greatly reduced. It's not perfect yet by any means, the itching and resultant sleep deprivation is the biggest issue left to resolve due to the impact it will have on day-to-day life once we return to work. The Mission: Responsibility. Maintain weekly average macros in pursuit of epic recomp action...or at least to control weight loss and regain stability. Sigh. My sensitivity to milk is going to make this much more...interesting, shall we say? Effectiveness will be tracked via regular measurements. Symptom management will be logged here also just to help see how good a job I'm doing at not triggering whatever is the enemy. Measurements - 2/wk - log Wednesday weight, Sunday weight+measurements Maintenance - P/F - log macros daily [insert target macro breakdowns here] Grading: Effort grade--pass or fail based on whether I log or not. Scias (DEX+1,STA+1,WIS+1) Scias is a mercenary with great blade-wielding skill. He becomes tangled up with Ryu and Co. and decides to forsake his contract for aiding the dragon god and his friends in their quest to deal with Fou-Lu and his empire. Simply put, he is an excellent ally in a fight, and good-hearted. Not so good with words. I am contemplating taking up BJJ or Aikido. I have tried BJJ as of this post and soon (January 6th) have my first aikido lesson. This quest is to pick at least one of these arts and give it my all alongside lifting and Shinkendo (SKD). This is completely new territory and I look forward to share my flailing with you all. The Mission: Progress in my art. Put in the effort. SKD - 3/wk - class, review class material BJJ/Aikido - 2/wk - classes Grading: SKD - 3 = A, 2 = C, else F BJJ/Aikido = 2 = A, 1 = C, else F Ursula (STR+1,DEX+1) Ah, Ursula. She is a practical one, granddaughter of an Imperial general, she joins the group under tense circumstances and, for reasons that change as the story progresses, leads Ryu and Co. to the heart of the Empire--Fou-Lu. Guns are her forte. She's proud, but she doesn't make it a liability when she gets captured by Ryu's friends. Guns...are not my forte. Nor is keeping my nails trimmed. Bah. Ursula would know to keep her nails well out of the way of her grip! Speaking of grip, mine also needs work. Let's keep working on the grip as well. I have a neighbor ready and willing to teach me the finer points of marksmanship, no excuses not to keep nails in good order, and a few good exercises to work the old grip strength--chins and double overhand deadlifts! That's right, the chin-ups are coming back, too! The Mission: Support my other quests with hand-related care + self-defense 101! Firearms - 2 Firearms training sessions during challenge Nails - 1/wk - Clip nails Grip - 3/wk - DOH Deadlifts @ max effort, retest on intensity day Dead-hang Chin-ups working up to 2x4 Grading: Firearms - 2 = A, 1 = C, else F Nails - P/F Grip - 3 = A, 2 = C, else F Starting Stats: Weight: 112.4 lbs Waist: 23.0" Hips: 31.0" Biceps(L/R): 10"/10" Forearm(L/R): 9.0"/8.9" Thighs(L/R): 19.7"/19.9" Calves(L/R): 11.9"/11.8" That's all, folks!

Challenge 17 – Mistr attacks her backlog For anyone just picking up this saga, I spent the last two challenges coping with work being crazy busy. Things are finally calming down to the usual dull roar. My goal for this challenge is to deal with all the things that got left hanging. Work Stay on top of incoming tasks and make steady progress on the older stuff. Get current on high priority items by 11/17 (I have a meeting with my boss the next day). Get my lab notes cleaned up by 11/23 and the overdue report done by 12/4. Bonus for getting everything done and starting in on database clean-up. Home Most things have been cleaned in living memory but the books and papers are threating to take over. There are also deferred maintenance tasks that have been on my to-do list since spring. I have a hard deadline of getting everything in the main area taken care of by 12/4 because I volunteered to host a big dojo party on 12/5. I would like to get most of the living room done by 11/26 because we will have a casual gathering for Thanksgiving. Goal: do something every day, no matter how small. Anything put away is better than nothing. Some days I have very little time at home. Keep up with the ongoing flux of dishes, laundry and cleaning. Write down what I do because making things disappear is hard to evaluate visually. Exercise & Food I have been keeping up fairly well with aikido and knee/shoulder/core exercises. I added yoga a couple times a week. What I dropped was the upper body routine. The last time I did those circuits was in August. Goal: Do one upper body circuit a week. Keep doing one day of shoulder/core and at least two days of leg exercises. Keep the rotation going when life intervenes – do something every day. Yoga or walking are okay for rest days. I have been lax in my eating habits recently and it shows around my waistline. My weight is up 0.6 pound from the start of the last challenge. I was afraid that would be worse with all the Halloween treats I ate last weekend. Most of the time I make good choices at meals. When I am tired and stressed all that goes out the window. Goal: Lose 6 pounds over the challenge. Really, I’d be happy with three pounds. That would get me back under the round number of 160 and more of my slacks would fit. Keep healthy food at work to make it easier to resist temptations.Cook good food. I am allowed to have sweets that I cook myself and high quality chocolate.Stick to reasonable portions. No eating supper longer to avoid chores.Keep white sugar and white flour to a minimum. I’m not saying “none†because that restriction tends to provoke rebellious eating for me.Get back with my previously established habits of no snacks between breakfast and lunch, no grocery store baked goods, and no snacks after 8:00pmMeditation, relaxation and sleep Looking at my calendar I see very little free time. I cope with that better when I meditate. I am not making meditation a formal goal, but I want to fit it in several times a week. Track but no score. I need to fit in some relaxation time somewhere. I am not sure quite how to do this. Tentatively I will take two days where I get a pass on doing responsible things. Sleep is essential for me to maintain productivity and the self-disciple to do all the stuff listed above. Goal: Get to bed between 9:30 and 10:00pm every night. Especially Friday night. Special events do not count, neither do nights when I am teaching if I need to stay late talking with the students. Creative Activities During break week I went to the local spinning group (fiber, not exercise) for the first time in months. I made a strategic decision to skip aikido one Monday a month so that I could meet more people who share my interests. This came right after a disappointing interaction with one of my friends. I want to broaden my social circle and have some encouragement to do fiber arts. I anticipated Steve's recent blog post. Part of the gathering was going around the room and everyone talking about their current projects. I was prepping mohair for spinning. My current project is the same mohair stole that I have been working on forever. I got to the last row and ran out of yarn. I was so frustrated that I just put it down and refused to look at it all summer. Now my goal is to get it done by the next spinning meeting on 11/23. week 1 - get singles spun week 2 - ply singles and wash yarn week 3 - finish knitting, wash and block stole That leaves three weeks of the challenge for doing other creative things. I could spin other fiber for fun (rather than for a specific project), start knitting a pair of socks for myself, work on my long-term embroidery project, or even do some weaving on the scarves that I set up last year. Anything would count. I am making this a goal so that I can justify taking time to do it.

The title basically states everything. I got a new belt that's way too long but that's the smallest size my school has. I went to tailors in my neighbourhood but they all said the belt is too thick for their machines to handle. Any suggestions? Maybe a way of tying that uses more length than usual? Thanks!

Hi All, I’m NeverThatBored and this will be my 5th challenge at Nerd Fitness. I’ve produced mixed results so far, with challenges 1 and 3 going well and challenges 2 and 4 going less well. In my last challenge, I took my challenge 3 goals and made them slightly harder, but I learned that that slight hurdle was much larger than I imagined. So for this challenge, I’m modifying those goals again, but I’m trying a different approach. My health is holistic, and my accomplishments on different goals play off of each other. With that in mind, I’ll treat this challenge more like a game where I can earn and allocate bonus points to cover for areas where I struggle. I want to take less of a strict pass/fail mindset, which discourages me easily, and instead adopt a more compassionate attitude towards my efforts. As I’m arranging this challenge, I’ll need to balance the point values for each goal so that they’re roughly equivalent. Whatever action earns a bonus point has to be equal in value to the point I’m replacing. This challenge already feels more fun than my last one since I'm such a point junkie. J Goal 1: Walking +2 STA +1 STR + 1 DEX 96 miles of total walking, rucking for 36 of those miles + at least 6 runs (138 points total) Walking regularly maintains my health, and it will get harder with winter starting and the sun setting earlier. Rather than trying to increase my mileage a bit each challenge, I just want to maintain a healthy mileage, period. I plan to walk 5 hours a week based on the primal blueprint recommendation – for me, 5 hours per week equals about 96 miles of walking in six weeks. Every extra 5 miles above 96 can be redeemed for a lost point somewhere else in my challenge. Rucking = carrying weight on your back while you walk. Last challenge I rucked about 24 miles. This time, I have a system set up to make it easier, so I can increase the mileage a bit more. I’ve also been running on and off for a while now as I try to correct my running form and overcome shin splints, and I want to work on that a bit more this time. I will run at least once per week (for any length that I choose) for as long as the weather allows. I’ll run a slow 2 miles per run at most, so I can count running mileage towards my walking total. Every additional run per week earns one bonus point to distribute for other points lost this challenge. Goal 2: Strength +3 STR + 1 CON 3 workouts per week (18 total) I’ve been struggling to get above 2 workouts per week, so I’m repeating this goal again this challenge. I have two types of workouts: the BBWW and a bootcamp workout class. I use a modified BBWW where I gradually increase the difficulty of moves or add more moves. Here are some possible modifications I’ll add as I get stronger during this challenge: Get 15 pushups per circuit more comfortably again (I’m mostly here, but struggling with the 3rd set lately)Add weight to lunges and squatsAdd a new motion or switch to a more difficult pushup, plank, lunge, or squat (offset squats?) Goal 3: Food +3 CON +1 CHA 19 points per week in general, but modified from week to week as described below I want to move away from an all or nothing mindset, so I’ve chosen to explore a new way of measuring success. Even without “cheat†days last challenge, I found that if a day was shot, I would just keep eating badly that day because I had already lost the point. Steve’s recent article on cheat days was timely. I’ve never loved the term, since I associate it with dieting rather than trying to make healthy changes to how I eat. So, I want to eliminate the concept of cheat/treat days from my life. I want to make this goal positive instead of negative. I want to encourage good eating rather than punishing bad eating. Here’s what I have: I will eat 19 primalish meals per week, meaning no grains or refined sugar and limited cheese and processed foods. This makes my goal additive rather than restrictive (3 per day on weekdays and 2 per day on weekends, or redistributed as needed). Any extra primal meals over 19 can be redeemed for a lost point elsewhere.I will reduce this number by 1 meal per weekend and 2 days per weekday on days my boyfriend stays with me or I stay with himI need to think about this one more, because this encourages what I think of as “YOLO eating†where I just eat whatever. Instead of cutting out these meals completely, I might change these dropped meals to 50% meals (so a bit of rice or an appetizer is ok, but not pizza)That would mean 1 primal meal, 1 anything meal, and 1 50% meal each day – with bonus points if I turn the 50% or anything meals into primal meals insteadI will never have two non-primal meals in a row – I think this is a cornerstone habit if I get it right, so points lost from two consecutive non-primal meals cannot be redeemed (-1 penalty per meal or snack)I will not worry about this over Thanksgiving (likely a 4 day period with family), though I’ll still try to eat primalish and avoid consecutive non-primal meals when the opportunity presents itself. Any primal meals I manage during this period will earn me a bonus point.Snacks…what to do about snacks – I think that I will never eat more than one non-primal snack in a day (includes sugary beverages), and never eat one adjacent to a non-primal meal (-1 penalty)I will not eat after 8pm on days where I’m not forced to (Aikido and bootcamp days don’t get me home until 8ish, so I have to make exceptions on those days and some travel days) (-1 penalty)This plan still penalizes bad eating in some places, but I think it feels much more positive overall. I’ll see how it goes and adjust accordingly. The snacking rule might encourage junky eating, so I’ll probably end up modifying that one. Goal 4: Life Goal + 3 WIS Spend my time more intentionally (42 points) I’ve been doing well with reading daily, so I can maintain that habit without making it a life goal this time around. The reading goal has made me think a lot about how I used to read all the time naturally before I found my attention getting sucked up by managing my email, reading blogs, keeping up with airing shows, etc. I’ve realized that I really want to spend my time more intentionally. It’s totally ok if I want to spend my free time playing a game for hours, but I need to choose that rather than just letting it happen to me. I can do whatever I want with my free time, but I need to do it intentionally rather than letting myself get sucked up into internet browsing, games, etc. by default – I don’t really know what this looks like for me yet. For now, I will do one thing each day to spend my time more intentionally. Examples of this include: take a step back from something I’m doing and ask myself if I really want to be doing it, give myself quiet time to see how I’d want to spend the time, stop trying to force something to happen that I’m resisting, turn off or eliminate some kind of notification, switch to a different activity and see how I feel about spending my time on it instead, etc. Other Maintain/improve yoga time, continue Aikido, and ride my bike while I can – these aren’t measured, just things I’m working on as bonuses. So, in short: 5 extra miles walked = 1 run = 1 strength workout = 1 primal meal

This challenge is all about breaking things down into simple things, to help me not feel overloaded and anxious. There's a lot, but I'm hoping that by focusing on the PROCESS of my end goals, instead of the goals themselves, I can relax a bit more than I have been in a long while. Still probably going to be stuck mainly in my own thread, but I'll try to peak my head out as I can. 1) Weeds: PT Homework every day. More or less stationary, but flexible, weeds are an annoyance that have to be dealt with to move forward in most cases. And so, my PT homework has been slacking, because it's annoying. But I need to do it to move forward with strengthening and getting better. So, I need to do banded ankle walks once a day (for 2-3 minutes or until my glutes are fatigued), and 3 sets of 30 seconds of a static hip flexor stretch. People may yell at me to make sure I do this. 2) The Jerk: 50 reps of a bodyweight exercise each day Strong and immovable, the Jerk keeps moving. And so, I need to start doing some bodyweight strength training to keep myself moving forward. Each day I will pick a bodyweight exercise, and do 50 reps of it. It doesn't have to be in one set, it doesn't have to be super fast, but it has to be done. Options/rotations: Pushups, mountain climbers, kettlebell rows (yea, not BW, whatever), squats, lunges, planks. Only gotta pick one a day, and then hit 50 reps. Any other suggestions/modifications are welcome. 3) Fetch: One job application a week It hunts and stalks its prey. And it will catch it. I still need a new job. Things have been decent the last two weeks, but at the end of the day, things will not change here to put me in a better place. I've... modified a few outlooks on life, but I suspect that as things descend again into the problem points I've been having for the past year that it could get wonky. So, the goal is to do one job application a week. The general idea is one day searching for jobs that superficially would work. Another day/evening to comb through those and find things I find interesting and able to do. And then a final day of applying to them. Parts one and two should be quick, the last part is what I need to spend more time on. But, a lot of the time I'll try hunting and doing the applying for multiple jobs at once, which gives me enough anxiety that nothing gets done. So let's try this new process. 4) Snapshot: First Kyu prep - Determine 5 techniques for attacks out of katatori menuchi, 5 different koshinage throws, and start documenting tonto tori techniques. They watch and record all movement in Cloudbank. Wonder what they've seen. Amazingly, I'm having a monking goal for the first time in what feels like forever. Clearly I've been going to class regularly (except when injured), but I think now is the time I want to start thinking about testing for 1st kyu. It's at least a year away, but my grading partner is testing for Shodan, which has almost the same requirements as 1st kyu. So I can watch and potentially steal interesting looking techniques to show off for my exam. Also hoping that this lets me get better at writing techniques down. At the very least, I want at the end of this challenge a list of names for at least 15 techniques, with early descriptors for them all (even if it's just a name for now). PVP Challenge: Royce VS Red A Fight between two equals, to the end Doing a batch cooking PVP challenge with Cheechoe. The goal is to batch cook either dinner or work snacks, and post images to our threads to keep accountable. My aim is fairly healthy snacks that I can bring to work, though batch cooking dinners and maybe breakfast things for work also looks to be a good plot of mine for the near future. And with that:

Hi all! I started Aikido back in July and I've really been enjoying it! For a while I seemed to be getting good at forward rolls, but recently I've been struggling with my form and banging my shoulder a lot. I think part of my problem is aligning my feet/knees so they're facing forward, since my knees always want to point out at an angle and it's hard for me to point them forward. Going very slowly seems to help, but I find that I don't get as much practice as I'd like in my two sessions a week. I don't have room in my apartment to practice them safely, so I'm not sure where else to get in more practice. Can anyone tell me more about their experience learning forward rolls? Where/how often did you practice? How long did it take you to get the hang of them?

Challenge 16 – Mistr practices randori (and is very late to the party) [i started writing this before the challenge started. It says something about my stress level that I'm just posting it now] Randori = Freestyle combat with multiple attackers One of the key elements of randori is to choose when to throw and when to dodge. Just because someone is coming at you does not mean you have to engage. One of the best strategies in randori is to dodge between two attackers so that they run into each other. You can see this in the video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRiE-Oxt0jU The first part of this video shows randori. The second part shows responses to knife attacks. In several cases the attacker is choosing to leap into a hard fall to prevent having his wrist broken. The techniques in this video are pretty close to full speed rather than the demonstration speed usually shown. Goal: Apply randori principles to the challenges in my everyday life. I expect that work will be almost as crazy for the next six weeks as it was earlier this summer. Our first new person is done training and the next two are halfway through. In theory that will lighten the load of the team. In practice they are going to a company-wide training next week. As soon as they get back one of the senior team members is going on a three-week vacation (his first in two years). At the same time our next new hire starts and we have to train her. It will be November before we are fully staffed. Outside of work my dance group has two demonstrations next week. A new aikido beginners’ class is starting in October. I will continue to teach on Wednesdays. I also want to attend Monday classes so I know what has been covered (we have a curriculum) and how the new students are doing. Somewhere in here I need to organize the fall dojo cleaning. I want to go to a seminar the first weekend of October since I missed two opportunities in September. Thankfully the other weekends in October are clear so far. Randori Principles: 1) Keep moving. A stationary target is an easy target. IRL applications: keep exercising as often as feasible, do yoga or Vitamoves flexibility work if time is limited. Get up and walk around and stretch my arms and wrists during the work day. 2) Deal with oncoming attacks quickly. Deal with it or dodge and keep moving. This is one I struggle with at work. I want to put more time into some projects than they warrant. I also tend to avoid projects I don't enjoy by surfing the internet. I don't have time for that now. Better to put the annoying project aside and get something else done. 3) Seize opportunities on the moment. Just because I have a to-do list a mile long does not mean I have to do the next thing. If the weather is gorgeous I can go for a walk at lunch instead of doing something inside. I can enjoy time with my family and friends. 4) Have a strategy and stay flexible on tactics. In randori a good strategy is to work the outside of the circle of attackers. Deciding ahead of time to do a specific technique will likely fail. You have to respond to what really happens in the moment. Outside of the dojo this means having a plan and a backup plan. If I don't have time to cook I can buy lunch. I can choose something fun to do for a break. Picking the activity can wait until the break happens - then it will fit in the moment. 5) Make the best choice you can and don't look back. Keep looking at the big picture. In some ways this is easier in randori because you know everyone is trying to get you. You can pretty much predict which way they will move next - toward you. This gives you control over their movements. You can see who is close enough to be a threat and who is too far away. Real life is harder because you are not the center of attention and there are more moving parts. Some are not actually out to get you at all. Keeping an eye on the big picture means looking ahead to take care of little things to make life easier later in the week. I can use five minutes tonight to pack a lunch or put out clothes so that I have five extra minutes in the morning. It might be easy to fold the laundry, but realistically it can sit in the basket all week and no one will care. Pick the things that matter. No grading this challenge. I'm here more for the moral support than anything else. And I miss you guys.

Challenge 15 My goal this challenge is to have a positive attitude, no matter what. I expect there to be quite a bit of WHAT! and *&%$@#%^&^!!!! this challenge. Today started off with proof I am right. I am making smoothies for breakfast on days my partner and I both work early. (I always work 8-5, he is not a morning person). This time I went to use the frozen strawberries to make space in the freezer and save time not cutting up fresh berries. Bad move. The strawberries went from mostly stuck together to one big lump when I added liquid. The blender made bad noises and stopped moving. Poking with a spatula did not help. Rather than getting upset, I considered how I could turn a lumpy mess of frozen fruit, yogurt, milk and protein powder into something edible. I did not have time to let it sit and thaw. So I transferred it to a fridge container to deal with tomorrow. I put together a new smoothie with fresh fruit. The blender still did not work [damn! It belonged to my grandmother and is probably more than 50 years old! How dare it break down!]. So I transferred the mix to my Cuisinart. After all, the spatula was already full of smoothie. That worked. So I got to work having had my breakfast in the car. Good thing I was fortified because my early start person told me that one of the team had called in with a sick kid. We are already desperately short this week with three open positions, one person on maternity leave, one in training and two on vacation today. With one more out we are at less than half staff. At this point we are already in over our heads. All we can do is swim faster. So I redid the schedule and gave the two senior people an extra hour each. I already had an extra hour. I also plan to stay late to help my late shift person from 5:00-5:30. I was busy helping a customer until 20 minutes into my lunch hour. I decided that I would be better off taking the rest of the hour to take a quick walk and eat lunch rather than try to do half my scheduled workout. I am planning on going to aikido this evening. Better to work harder over lunch than to get behind and miss practice again. Observations (what I learned in my previous challenges) Food: I eat treats when I am feeling stressed.Eating too many treats makes me gain weightI have been stalled at my current weight for the last year.The only way I am going to lose the next 5 lbs is to put all my skills to use:Get enough sleepCook healthy food ahead of timeMake good choices on how I spend my timeMeditation helps me let go of stress and see more optionsTell myself positive stories about coping with difficult things (it is only stress if I make it stress) Exercise: My knees are vastly happier when I do PT exercises on a weekly basisTaking fish oil also seems to helpDoing aikido makes me a much happier personI could use more cardio and endurance training, but that can wait.Life goals: Give myself credit for getting things done and not beat myself up for the things I decide not to make fit. Take full responsibility for my choices. Fun time is important. Probably more important than checking off items on my to-do list. I can survive my work being busier than it has been in years and come out of the next six weeks healthier and happier.

Challenge 14 Over the last few weeks I have noticed several things that make me go “Hmmmmmmâ€. Some are obvious and others may take more work. Let's start with the painfully obvious. Three to six months ago my knees did not hurt. I danced without problems at a ball in January and another one in March. In the last couple months my knees have reverted to their previous cranky state. What does the evidence show? [#1 – keeping a log is valuable] Knee PT exercise sessions September 10 October 12 November 8 December 9 January 9 February 11 March 8 April 7 May 5 I started slacking off when my knees were feeling good. I know better, but I let other things take precedence. Goal: Get through the whole PT series (14 exercises = 2 hours + stretching) at least once a week. The next thing to do on open days is shoulder PT which includes a lot of core exercises. If I am good about getting back to speed with these, I will add in upper body work again. The last time I did pushups was at the end of April. <bows head in shame> + 5 STR + 3 DEX The next set of clues are clear but there is more than one suspect. I am showing signs of stress. Clues include sleeping poorly, lack of focus, no interest in creative activities, playing a lot of sudoku (totally risk-free gaming anyone?) and nervous habits. Some of the stress is real and some is self-inflicted. I could buy more salads and do less cleaning and the world would not end. I like my cooking but in reality there are lots of other options. Just because I want to do a thing does not mean I need to do it. Looking at the real side first, work is going to be extremely busy over the next two months. The challenge starts with my team of 15 down by two – one left and one out on maternity leave. Another person is leaving after this week and a fourth person will be leaving the first week of July. On the good side, we already have a list of promising candidates to interview. The best case scenario is that we like the people coming for in-person interviews next week AND get permission to fill both newly vacated positions. That permission may be slow in coming. Under the best case we have new people starting training the beginning of July. That means another person will be doing training instead of regular work most of the time for three weeks. (Spread across the team, not actually a single person). So we will be down by a third. Plus people out for vacations. Chances are good that I will be putting in extra hours and dealing with more challenging customer situations every week. Goals: - Use non-food rewards to be nice to myself. Go soak in the hot tub after work if I am tense. Buy cafeteria food to save time. Listen to music when I am working on projects.- Get plenty of sleep. Sleep = slack. I will cope with stress much better when I am rested. This means going to bed on time. - Meditate. Meditation time may be the only time in the day when I am not planning or doing something. Make this a priority. - Practice aikido. Nothing is as good for blowing off stress as flinging people around the room. Fantasy-induced stress: I have visions of a perfect house and garden. Of me having plenty of time to read, make things and play music. Under other circumstances this might be inspirational. Right now I need to remove all emotional weight from these dreams. Goal: Choose things to do on a daily basis adjusting for reality as needed. Ask “will doing this make me happier?†Cleaning the slime out of the crisper is not a fun job, but having it done will indeed make me happier. Going out with my family or friends will make me feel better - the dishes can wait.Take time to do fun things anyway. There will be days when it feels like all I do from morning to night is be responsible (Wednesdays, I'm looking at you). Give myself permission to do fun things in between all the work.+ 5 WIS + 2 CON

I'm late to the party on this challenge. More proof that I'm choosing the right goals. My main goal this challenge is to get more on top of things. The messes in my house, garden and garage are the most obvious things. Last challenge I made substantial improvement in getting enough sleep by going to bed on time. I started meditation as part of a mini-challenge and signed up for a meditation class at work. I feel like I’m halfway up the mountain for most of my goals. Exercise/wellness adventure challenge I signed up for a spring wellness challenge at work to add some variety to my exercise program. Conveniently, it runs from April 14 to May 12. Many of the things on the list are already habits for me (marked in green). Daily routine Drink water: 10 points/8oz glass, max 600 points per day (I marked my water glass with 8oz lines) Walking/biking paths: 500 points per day Fitness center: 500 points per day Adventure challenges (5000 points each) Fitness consultation: Meet with the trainer. I do this every ~6 weeks. Need to schedule a session. Lunch n Learn: Session with nutrition consultant. Meditation series: I signed up for this two weeks ago. Meditation: group or individual session (don’t know why this is a separate item but I’ll take the points) New exercise: try something new Peer fitness: bring a friend to a fitness class Walking meeting: have a walking meeting with coworkers Local trails: (walk or bike the local trails) Salad: build a healthy salad from the cafeteria (I did this today for lunch) Farmer’s Market: shop at the local market (market opens May 7 – only one opportunity to shop before 5/12) Hot water: Use the steam room, sauna or hot pool Work offers a variety of fitness classes. I tried Zumba for a while but decided it was too risky for my knees. I still have several passes for classes. The challenge will give me motivation to try something out. I’m leaning towards yoga or PiYo, a pilates/yoga mix. The yoga class is in the same building as the sauna and steam room. And it is after work. <rubs hands> A very attractive combination. The nice thing about this goal is that I can keep doing my regular physical therapy exercises and strength training and get credit for it (under Fitness Center). If I want to max out my points I could bike partway to work on the bike path AND work out at lunch. I live about 9.5 miles from work. It takes too long to bike in for daily commuting. However, I could park 5 miles away and bike in. Google says that would take 30 minutes. Or I could put my bike on the back of my car and just bike at lunch, although that seems kind of silly. I'd rather hike in the woods at noon. Aikido does not count for the challenge and it is not a goal because it is a regular part of my life. I expect to be teaching every Wednesday for the next few months. In a perfect world I would go to all the Monday and Friday classes. I might skip one or the other if work gets crazy or if I screw up and get too tired or too behind at home. If I go on the weekend I am likely to skip Monday class. No seminars this challenge. Here is a photo of me at a seminar last summer, working on unfamiliar weapons exercises. Food Last time I tried a strict limitation on food and it backfired. I am starting this challenge two pounds heavier than I started the last one. I went to cons the last two weekends. Not only did I not have time to cook, I ate a lot of restaurant food and treats. My challenge for this time is to cook healthy food containing vegetables. A couple new dishes over the six weeks would be great. Green salad only counts if I prep all the components for multiple servings. Grading: 3/week x 6 = 18 total, bonus points for new recipes. Doing all the things Over the last few challenges I have gotten better at balancing my activities. I’m getting more sleep, making better decisions and giving myself permission to take some time for fun things. I am hoping that adding meditation will help me be more productive by consciously taking time to not do anything at all. The things include: Staying on top of financial records and filingDealing with the backlog of old records and filesChanging over winter/summer clothesGardeningCookingCleaningSorting the stuff in boxes in the garage and family room.Getting rid of stuff identified in sorting (shredding, selling, taking to the city drop-off, etc.)Ongoing maintenance of thingsFor the most part these are not dreaded tasks. I like gardening. Entering financial records is fine as long as we have enough money. It gets stressful when things are tight. Cleaning is not exactly fun but mostly I find the satisfaction of having things clean is enough to get me through the work. The dread level increases for me when a task has been put off too long. Track tasks completed every week. Note tasks that have been languishing on the list and difficult tasks. No specific number goal because tasks vary in time/energy needed.