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On the night that Noor VonKlaven cracked the curse that trapped her body in stone, the room filled with light and magics coursed through the air, painting her hut in light bright as day. She held her arms wide open as the faystone coursed down her body, running like water to pool at the base of the stone wall at the back of the hut. She breathed deeply and shook her finger tips in a shooing gesture. The stone writhed in a purple glowing mass for a moment before springing upward. Written upon the wall in a shimmering purple-silver script were the following words. To break the curse, to shed the stone For actions taken you must atone Free yourself from habits staid Run, walk, jump, dance, Fight with sharpened blade. A body reflects how we dine Whether mutton or breads, Sweet grasses, water, mead Or glowing elven wine. If a Halfling’s body you do seek Then with Halfling’s pride you must eat. Small of stature swift of feet, Climbing walls with ease Move in silent shadows, Glide down alleys, smoke down streets. If a rogue’s smooth grace you crave, The rooftop faydance you must brave. Stature is not strength or brawn; Small fighters’ blades are true. To build the strength within the arms, The Heart’s true strength guides you. If it is strength in arms that you desire You must brave the ring, defeat Balefire. Three seasons time you have of grace To quest, to journey, to find your face. If you cannot by springs first thaw Forever keep your body broad. By stone and magic one times three The quest is given, so mote it be. --,--‘--@ So Noor is free from the stone that encased her, and I am free from the metaphorical stone of inaction. We still have a long way to go before we make it to the springy ball of death and magick we want to be though. As such, here I am. Hi there Assassins. Well met . Long Term Goal: I am hoping to lose 200lbs. I do not have a finish date for this because slow steady weight loss is better, but I think 3 years should do it. I would love to be at my goal weight before my 35th birthday. My short-term-long-term goal is that I want to lose at least one dress size before I start my internship in August. Goal 1: Whole 42: In order to cleanse my body and improve my metabolic outcomes, I will be engaging in strict gluten free, grain free, primal eating. We used to eat strictly primal and my wife and I were both much healthier. Plus, my hypothyroid condition will be better managed. +3 CON 38 or more days Primal +2 CON 28 days or more Primal +1 CON 14 days or more Primal Goal 2: Endurance Through Cardio: I used to be a runner and I loved it. Now, walking for 15 minutes causes pain and struggle. In order to improve on this I am going to make a goal of 20 minutes of daily cardio in the afternoon and evenings. This will have an added bonus of helping to reduce stiffness and leg swelling from sitting all day at work.The initial goal proved too much for my back, so instead I am going to work on increasing my daily steps per day. I need to meet or exceed my Fitbit steps per day goal to get credit, and I will increase this by 2K per week, gradually increasing my movement overall. Then, next challenge, cardio again. +3 STA 38 or more days +2 STA 28 or more days +1 STA 14 days or more Goal 3: Getting Strong and Flexible: When training I prefer to work strength and flexibility both, training flexibility on my rest days from strength training. I find that I am less sore overall when I use this method, and I can simply alternate between 2 programs in the same 30 minute block of time, making it easy for scheduling and consistency purposes. I will alternate the following two programs this challenge: STRENGTH: the Angry Birds Workout +2 STR 19 or more days +1.5 STR 14 or more days +1 STR 7 or more days FLEXIBILITY: AM Yoga for your week +2 DEX 19 or more days +1.5 DEX 14 or more days +1 DEX 7 or more days Lifestyle Goals: Self-Care in Two Domains: I have the most stress and crazy possible right now because my final year of my doctorate is wrapping up and I am going off to internship. The two most important things for this for me are regular sleep and a creative outlet. Goal A: Sleep Schedule: Now, life is complicated. If I were working one consistent job, I could probably manage a consistent bed time daily with little variation. Since I have functionally 3 right now, things are a bit more complex. My goal is to be in my bed lights out by midnight every night. My bedtime will be 10 PM when my schedule permits it. I will be up no later than 8 am. Schedule permitting I would like to be up by 6.+3 CON 38 days or more +2 CON 28 days or more +1 CON 14 days or more Goal B: Creative Process: I am a writer. I have always been one, since I started journaling in 3rd grade. I don’t ever take the time to write anymore. Since the school part of graduate school is pretty much over after the 15th when I turn in my dissertation draft, I am making a goal to write for 1 hour a day. For the purposes of this challenge this has to be creative writing or journaling of some kind, be it poetry, fiction, or other.+3 CHA 38 days or more +2 CHA 28 days or more +1 CHA 14 days or more My motivation, as always, is to shed the curse brought on me by mental illness, stress, trauma, and life. I want to get back to me. UPDATES:(one)(two)(three)(four)(five)(six) --,--;--@ * @--'--,-- MINIS:(one)(two)(three)(four)(five)(six)

I was walking along a forest path, because what else is there to do in Flagstaff? I was doing my sprints -- walk for a bit, then run as fast as I can, then walk some more. I heard laughter in the trees above me. I looked around, but couldn't see the source of the laughter, so I just ignored it and kept sprinting. The laughter got louder, and I was getting irritated. "Don't hide in the trees and laugh at me!" I said to the strange laughing voice. "Come down here and show yourself." There was a great flutter of noise from the tree above me, and a single crow glided down and landed on a boulder by the path. He turned his head to the side and squawked at me. And I suddenly realized I could understand him. "Come sit beside me," he said. This was no ordinary crow. Okay, so looking over my third challenge, i realized that I have a bird theme going here, so I've decided decided to just go with it. I want to be able to sit and talk with Brother Crow, so for my first order of business: Mission 1: Master the crow. Since I have no idea if I can even accomplish that in six weeks, I will be measuring my practice time for the purposes of this challenge. Four days a week minimum, for at least 20 minutes a day, I will practice the various steps in this video recommended to me by Elastigirl. http://youtu.be/BW4NYacLCKg At some point, I will attempt to post a video, if I can figure out that feature on my phone. I'm not making any promises as to my video-producing skill, however. Next, if I want to talk with a bird, I need to be able to think like a bird. Or at least work out like one... Mission 2: Do the Angry Bird workout. I'm at different levels for the various bodyweight exercises, and this workout allows me to "level up" each movement independently. Besides, I like the point structure -- it's kind of fun. Thanks once again to Elastigirl for suggesting this workout. And finally, my life goal... Mission 3: Upcycle old clothes into new ones. It may be a good thing that I am now nearly 40 pounds lighter than I was last year, but my clothes have inexplicably not shrunk with me. I go out in public looking like I am playing dress up, and it has to stop. Unfortunately, I don't have the money to drop on a new wardrobe, especially, since I am still 20-30 pounds away from my goal. So, I've decided to fashion some new clothes that fit out of the old ones that I can't wear anymore. I got the idea from http://threadbanger.tumblr.com/ -- one of my favorite blogs. They have a ton of you tube videos that show you how to do all sorts of cool stuff, and I really want to try my hand at some of it. To make this goal measurable, I have decided I will do at least three projects, one every other week. I'll post pictures, whether the projects turn out good or not. Hopefully they will, because I really do need some clothes that fit. Okay, that's it. No nutrition goal this time, though I do plan on eating healthy food and drinking plenty of water. I'll figure out the grading system and post that as well before the next week starts.

Agents May and Romanoff are my inspiration. Two ass kicking chicks who don’t need any help from anyone. As I continue to transform my body into a martial arts powerhouse I will focus on my weaknesses and prepare for becoming a full agent. I will become my own cavalry. Balance: Balance is important to an agent, and to a fighter. You never know when I will be walking along the edge of a building high over New York City. Strengthen my legs: Bad knee problems are not for agents. No. We jump, kick, climb, run. Strengthen my body: Strength overall is something I need to work on. There are no weak agents. Pull ups, press ups, planksanity. I need to do it all. You never know what an agents day will be full of, need to be prepared for anything. Stamina: Running, why is it always running? Towards danger or away from it. I need to keep up with the cardio. Agents ride bicycles right? There’s always stairs to run up too. How I will accomplish these goals: Each workout will be done at least twice a week. Balance circuit Cable machine circuit for legs Angry Birds Workout 30 Minutes of Cardio Walk up at least 3 floors of stairs at work I can pass/fail weeks by not reaching this minimum. At the end of the six weeks I need to have done at least 12 of each workout to pass. Life goal: Free the mind. Get lost for a few hours each weekend in a video game. Even finish some games for once. There are skills to learn from games. Tactics, stealth, fun times. Every hour of game play is a point, two points a week to pass my life goal. Spreadsheet for Points tracking and Angry Bird tracking here As part of being in the Knights of the GSPC i am setting myself two "boss fights" two goals i have to smash along the way. Mini Boss Challenge Core is key. Balance, strength - they rely on having a strong core. As part of my agent training you must be able to do a 60 second plank. I need to pass this within three weeks to continue my agent training Big Boss Challenge Agents test is big and bad. By the end of my challenge i need to be able to do the following - so i can proceed with my training and goal of becomming a SHIELD agent. 3 pull ups 90 second plank 100 squats

My main quest is to lose weight and fit into size 10 clothing by my 39th birthday on February 27th. Currently I weigh 233 and wear size 18 clothing. The steps I will follow during the next 6 weeks to complete this quest are as follows. I will continue to eat a primal diet. I will do the angry birds workout 3 times a week. I will do the couch-2-5K workout 3 times a week. I will track my progress on MyFitnessPal.com and an excel spreadsheet for my exercises. My life quest during the next six-weeks is to complete the education, resource file and papers needed to complete my Child Development Associate application. The motivation for my quest is to be happy with my body and be an inspiration for my children.

This morning I did my first ever morning exercise workout. I got up at 5am and went straight to it. I'm doing the Angry Birds workout slightly modified. I wasn't able to do as many as I thought I would be able to do but I am starting a habit and training my body. I had to stop during the second set because I felt faint. I'm still shaky almost an hour later. I don't know if this is normal, I probably need to eat something but the thought of food makes me feel nauseated. Anyway, here is my workout. I warmed-up with 40 side-step "jumping" jacks. Set 1: -I decided not to try squats yet because my knee (injured in March) was twinging while walking on the treadmill yesterday. So I resorted to doing my PT exercises. So I did 30 crab walks without band, 5 toe taps on each leg, 15 step-ups on each leg, 10 step-lunges on each leg. -10 incline push-ups -30 one arm rows, each arm using a dumbell case with 10 pounds in it. -34 seconds plank Set 2: -15 crab walks without band -3 incline push-ups, 20 wall push-ups **This is where I started feeling very dizzy and faint, so I stopped. I did a 5 minute walking cool-down.