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Had grand plans for this challenge but I think I am going to hold off and do that challenge next time. For this challenge I am mostly going to just report random stuff that people say to me all the time because holy crap do I get a lot of random stuff said to me. To kick things off I am on Holiday in Guizhou (Southwest China) this week on holiday and today we were visiting the HuangGuoShu area (a natural preserve with lots of waterfalls). As we were walking along one of the paths along with the 40,000 other tourists who came today, I was talking to Ghost let about how crowded it was. Some guy who was walking on the other side of us heard me speaking English and his mouth literally dropped open in surprise. It turns out he could speak a little English and wanted to chat. Apparently he must have thought I was talking to myself because he says "Oh, are you here by yourself?" I look over at Ghostlet and then at Ghostess. I then look at our tour guide and responded that I was, in fact, not there by myself. He started to ask if I wanted to join him and his friend before his brain caught up with him. I was a really nice gesture but ended up being pretty awkward for both of us During the course of the day there were probably more than a dozen children who were surprised to see a foreigner and felt it important to declare to everyone around them that they saw a foreigner and point me out.

This may be before some of your time, but when I was in high school there was a popular game franchise featuring the supervillain Carmen Sandiego She would run around the world stealing national treasures, anything from the Nile River Delta and the Casablanca to "All the Goulash" and "Every last drop of salsa". There were a number of spin offs, mostly focusing on specific geographies, but some focused on time (history) rather than geography. My challenge is going to be China Specific So for this challenge, I am going to try and steal a major tourist attraction from every Chinese Province, of which there are 33 (34 if you count Taiwan, which will be my bonus theft if I get all the others). In order to get the theft I have to do a certain amount of things each day. The challenge has 42 total days, which means I can miss 8 days and still get everything. In order to get my daily theft, I need to hit the following daily minimums Exercise: 5 pullups 20 pushups 10 leg raises Stretching: 5 minutes of some kind of static stretching Food: 0 sugary snacks 2 bottles of water Music 1 song practiced Housekeeping Vacuum the living room Disinfect Wraith's room In addition to the above, I will still do my regular exercising (which will now include running or some form of cardio) at the park, but that won't be a daily thing. I also need to figure out something about overall calories, but I haven't figured that part out yet. I will probably keep up with the story telling in some format, because NF doubles as my journal

In the famous story "And to Think That I Saw it on Mulberry Street" by Dr. Suess, the father in the story is trying to get his son to pay attention to the world around him and asks him to tell something he saw on the way home from school each day. The boy of course thinks his surroundings too boring to talk about and imagines all kinds of fanciful situations which would make for a better story. I have been thinking about my own life and I have posted very little here recently because I felt like I had nothing interesting to say. My last challenge didn't even get to page 2, As I thought about this, I realized that my life may seem boring to me because I am used to it, but from others' perspectives there are many interesting things happening around me, if I only stop to notice them. My objective for this challenge is to try and find something each day that is interesting and come and talk about it here. Some of it may actually be interesting, but some days it may just be me seeing a Chinaman who eats with sticks Other normal challenge things like healthy eating and exercise will still be happening, but probably not with enough variety to get me interested enough to come here and tell about it.

I'm not doing an organized, graded list of goals. With a nice theme. It just won't be possible. Here's a whole list of the crap I'll be doing this challenge. Working 30 hours a week 12 credit hours in school Practicing Flamenco guitar studying spanish studying mandarin hitting the gym (cardio, kettlebells, weightlifting) eating paleo-ish publishing a journal article (leftover from grad school) painting prepping for a journey overseas I guess I'll at least organize these somehow, and Oh shit, maybe there's a theme after all, with goals named for famous Chinese sages. Goal 1, Sun Ssu Mo -- TCM Paleo. Sun Suu Mo was a Taoist sage whose main claim to fame were his writing on Traditional Chinese Medicine, and much of what he wrote concerned how the diet affects the balance of chi. All in all, the dietary aspect of TCM seeks to balance out elements, and the result is a well-balanced variety of foods, which is the same finding that modern/Western biology based nutritional science has come to... go figure. I'm going to brush up on my TCM. I had a phase in college where I was obsessed with Traditional Chinese Medicine so I have a few books, including a cookbook with a big ole reference describing how foods fit the elements and such. Getting familiar with this may also help me understand the foods I eat when I go to China. Basically, it's paleo with rice. Most of what I eat now is meat, veggies, and rice or potatoes. And, I'll play around with trying to balance elements in my meals. (but without forgetting macros). I'm going to allow variance on this for breakfast, because right now I'm not sure how to comfortably avoid bread at that meal. Everything that I can cook myself from scratch is pretty much acceptable. And stop eating donuts you fool! Goal 2, Ta Mo -- Exercise and Discipline Ta Mo was the Chinese name of Bodidharma, the wandering Indian yogi who travelled to China in introduced Shaolin monks to yoga and founded Chan, aka Zen, buddhism in China. Basically, as a yogi he believed that physical fitness provided the foundation upon which one could build a practice of mindfulness and spirituality. He was known for enduring extremely long periods of meditation. He is said to have cut off his own eyelids so that he wouldn't fall asleep during mediation. He preferred to meditate in the caves surrounding the Shaolin temple, and when a fellow monk asked him about what he focused on, he said he would "listen to the ants' screaming." Exercise and discipline. Go to the gym. I'll repeat last challenge's goal. 1/week is passing, 2/week is good, 3/week is great. Goal 3, Kong fuzi -- Be Rational and Responsible AKA, Confucius. I actually don't know that much about Confucius. And I just spent a few minutes on wikipedia and I have a lot to learn. But basically, what pops into mind (other than fortune cookies) are notions of being rational, responsible, and dutiful, etc. So this goal is just about doing my research on how to make this voyage to China happen and work on being responsible about it. The whole ESL teacher in China thing can be either my downfall or an opportunity for positive change and self-improvement, or I can just go to China and hide from my personal problems by drinking shit tons of baijiu and fucking around for years. Make a thoughtful To-do list of things to do to get to China and make this an adventure of self-improvement. Goal 4, Lao Tzu -- Learn the Way Yeah. yeah... supposed, but probably mythical, founder of Taoism. Taoism is all about understanding, accepting and adapting to the Tao, the way, and trying to live by it. Keep studying Mandarin and Chinese culture so I'll be able to adapt and roll with the punches while I learn a new culture.

Fnnngh. FNNNNGH. FNNNNNNGHHHH SIZZLE POP! Ah, that's better. Salambander here, although I guess I'm Gurdris now. Named after my most recent D&D character, Gurdris Frostbeard. I have respawned as Salambander so many times I felt like a fresher start. So, not a respawn but a regeneration entirely. All knobs have been twisted back to zero, and the neutrinos have mutated back to their original states. Long time no see! Things have happened. I'm engaged! And the ring didn't fit a month ago but now, 5kg down later, it does. It's a handy () reminder of my weight goals. I have a personal trainer! And he is a wizard with a foam roller. DOMS fear me now. But he can't speak any English so it's a little tricky. I got promoted! And now I'm in a leadership role and have to control my emotions much better. Eep. So, respawn. New goals, new 4 week quest. I'm starting early and I figured I'd keep things simple by having it all in one battle log, since I don't want to burn out and disappear again. I think I'm going to run this planning week as a tutorial level though. Oh, hey, have you met Kaeilia? She's awesome; we live in the same city and today I introduced her to NF, and now we're accountibilibuddies and eagerly anticipating this challenge. Without further ado, les goals for le now Fitness - complete a streak of 10 unmissed workouts, totalling 20 with my trainer Nutrition - track every bite on MFP and follow my trainer's diet plan Mental - read before bed every day Life - do laundry twice a week (folded and put away) Tracking them in my spreadsheet. Starting small and planning to go big. July is going to be much harder as I'll be in Dallas and everything usually falls apart around then.

Hey adventurers, I'm new here! My fitness and life goals are split down the middle between Assassins and Adventurers, and since this month I'll be going to China, I'll be shacking up here for the next four weeks. Main Quest: Travel like an Adult Traveling is not a new thing for me, but while going through airport security and customs isn't a big deal for me...everything else is. All my anxiety and stress comes from packing, getting the house ready, and taking my furry baby to the sitters. When I come back I don't unpack anything for MONTHS. I also am notorious for over packing or worse leaving something extremely important behind (like a cell phone charger). Also when I'm out adventuring I tend to stay in some sort of comfort zone, mainly with food, and have a bout of laziness if there's not already planned events. These 4 weeks I will work on NOT doing what I normally do when I travel. 1) Before and After During week one I have to prepare my home and prepare myself for the upcoming travels. During week three and four I have to unpack and put away things, and of course tell everyone on Facebook what happened. In total there are 11 things that I need to do in order for this side quest to be a success. 
 2) Explore China A simple quest in my opinion. Go out and explore! Eat new things! Take lots of pictures and write down the memories before bed. 3) Maintain Fitness Again super simple, just keep fit during these four weeks. I'll be doing ballet videos 3x a week and swimming whenever possible. During my week in China, I'll be doing yoga instead due to the strict Internet censorship preventing me access to my normal youtube videos. Side Quests With any good adventure, there's always side quests to complete. These little add-ons will not give me any attribute stats, but will instead contribute to my XP. These are things I need to work on often throughout the year. Quests are as follows: Linguistic Mastery II Review Vocab 2x a week Gold Keeping II Save $26 this month Knowledge Expansion II Read 2 books this month

Yay 1st challenge! I currently live in China, which has provided me with some interesting hurdles for my diet and exercise. I am hoping that getting involved with a community of others who aren't all the size of my thigh can help me stay motivated and reach my goals! Goals: 1. Lose 15 lbs. I have about 100 lbs. I want to lose, so I figured averaging a little over 2 lbs a week is doable at my current weight. 2. Drink 8 cups of water each day Of the numerous previous diets I've been on, I know my water intake is key. I have already taken a semi-proactive step towards this, but I want to really get all the H2O in every day. 3. Incorporate yoga in to my workout routine 3 times a week. I really enjoy yoga, and I have a few "weightloss" yoga dvds that are a good workout and strength building, which surprisingly despite all the sweat kind of relaxing. 4. A R T B O O K I started an artbook almost a year ago now, and I have roughly 75 pages left until it's complete. I am going to set out to fill in 1 or 2 pages every day.. which should result in me finishing the project come 6 weeks!

I am looking to form a group consisting of those of who are not currently residing in the USofA. This is my first challenge, and I have been reading through the various support groups, and wasn't finding a great fit with anything. I am currently living in China, right about smack dab in the middle (Hubei province for anyone familiar with the PRC). I am in a small town, so I have no access to a gym without taking a bus about 2 hours. As I am deep in the heart of red country, my dieting isn't exactly an easy thing to keep track of. Despite my hurdles I am motivated and ready to kick some ass these next 6 weeks, and would love to have some company around the world while doing so. My school year is coming to an end (roughly 3 more weeks) so I am getting more free time that I am ready to spend working out and getting healthy. I will be moving to Hong Kong during week 5 of the challenge, so I am hoping to establish a good routine that I will help keep me in check as I move south. Oh and as I am living in the future here, challenge is on in 3 1/2 hours! Hoorah