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Daily Do's for Mental Health (Oh snap! Girl just threw down some Comic Sans! REBEL!) Daily "I Am" Journal - Taking those affirmations from my last challenge and putting them to practice. Here's one from yesterday: (I have a shitty camera on my phone, but it is good enough!) Regular Journaling at least 3-4 times a week. Did some yesterday too!Taking meds routinely. I am BAD at skipping doses. I need to get back into my routine of taking my BP meds, vitamins, and Zoloft. Getting Sh** Done Walk the Dogs - Mon, Wed, Fri. Trigger time will be as soon as I get home from work.Thursday's grocery shopping days. Designating a new shopping day because I was doing it on the weekends and I hate it, so I stopped doing it.Continue with my morning Yoga "Practice" - trying out a new word! (Not going to count this into the challenge, but I want to at least make it somewhat important by officially stating that I will try to continue. It helps me stay on track .** Life Goal! ** Art shows and contests! There are 2 coming up. I will be submitting my Watercolored Forest to the Pioneer Days art show in a couple of weeks. Then there is our local Comic Con, hopefully I can get something fun drawn up and submitted in the contest. I'm excited!

Hello there, brother and sister warriors! I was in the Assassin's Guild for the past few challenges, but have realized that I'm more of a warrior when it comes to fitness because I'm a big fan of weight-training. So I decided that I should go to the guild that encompasses my current fitness interests. I might return there one day, but for now, I hope you have room for one more! A little background: I'm a law student, with precious little time for lifting, but always carve out time to do so. I started strength-training in mid-January after almost a year of no strength-training after a lifting accident caused me to pop a knee! Yikes! But since January, I went from struggling to squat just the barbell to squatting 85 lbs. It's not super impressive, but it's more than I was ever able to lift while I was in college. I struggled to squat just 60 lbs back then. My gainz are small, but significant to me. I've taken 2 weeks off because I have a healing tattoo on my hip that made all lower-body movements difficult, but now that it's healed up I can't wait to jump back into training. Two weeks without squats make for two very sad weeks. The Challenge: I want to keep training and resume my previous schedule of lifting 3xs a week, but also incorporate more frequently and better quality stretching (on off days) and at least one cardio *shudder* session a week. Challenge 1: Lift strong, lift well. I only know a limited amount of lifts: bench press, dead lift, squat, bicep curls, and bent-over barbell rows. I do 5 sets of 5 for these exercises. I tend to switch between bicep curls and the bent-over rows, but do the first three every workout on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. My goal for the challenge: try to add at least another 20 pounds to each of my lifts. Current Lifting Weights: Squat: 85 lbs 5x5 Deadlift: 85 lbs 5x5 Bench Press: 65 lbs 5x5 Bent-over row: 45 lbs (just the bar) 5x5 Bicep curl: 50 lbs 5x5 Anticipated/Ideal Weight to Be Lifted by challenge end: Squat: 105 lbs 5x5 Deadlift: 105 lbs 5x5 Bench Press: 85 lbs 5x5 Bent-over Row: 65 lbs 5x5 Bicep Curl: 70 lbs 5x5 Challenge 2: The Dreaded Cardio (or... RUN AWAY!) I love Monty Python, and talking about running makes me think of this scene every time. I hate running, but lets face it, a warrior sometimes needs to run to the battle field once your horse takes an arrow to the knee cannot valiantly deliver you to battle. It's finally getting warm out, so I want to run outside at least once a week. Challenge 3: A stiff warrior is an injured warrior (stretch more!) I need to stretch more often. I always warm up and cool down after a workout, but I want to improve my range of motion and general flexibility, meaning that on days that I don't lift, I need to either go through a couple sun salutations in the morning, or I need to go through a full warm-up just to keep limber. Challenge 4: The Life Challenge I have finals in less than a month, and want to make sure I do as well as I can! This will come in two phases: Phase 1 is to get all of my outlines/flashcards ready by 25 April. Phase 2 is to study as much as humanly possible to make sure that I can do as well as possible. I need at least B+s in all of my classes this semester. Well, I'm excited to see where this challenge goes! I'm excited to be a warrior-in-training!