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I groaned as I turned over in bed, and looked out of my bedroom window. The sun was already well into the sky, and by my calculations, I had about a half hour before my patrol shift began. It was just enough time to don gambeson, grab a bite to eat, pour my bean potion, and be on time, but it wasn't enough time to do any of that comfortably. My gambeson was chosen in haste and felt a bit schlubby; my breakfast and bean potion were consumed so quickly that they were wholly unsavored. I was well rested, but my morning was rushed, and I felt it in my body. Not a good way to start my day. This has been my routine for a few months now, with the only exception being my weekly commute into the office. I decided a while ago that I would prioritize getting enough sleep by rising whenever I deemed fit, so long as I signed onto work by 9 AM. This has led to me regularly getting 7+ hours of sleep (yay!) but sometimes not properly getting out of bed until 8:30 AM (boo!). I want to get up earlier. 7 AM is my current mark, but as we all know, getting up on time isn't really about waking up early, it's mostly about going to bed on time. So for this challenge, I'm building good habits that will get me into bed on time. First, I'll identify some of my current bad habits. Late Night Dishes. In our house, we have a very solid rotation of who does dishes what night. It's decided every Monday evening, along with the meal planning, then stuck on the fridge. Given that there are three of us, and the dishes get done every night, I end up doing the dishes 2-3 times a week. There's no reason for me not to know what night I'm doing dishes. It's on the fridge. However, sometimes what'll happen is after dinner, instead of starting the dishes, I'll go and sit on the couch, scroll through my phone, maybe even doze off. This has resulted in me, more than once, forcing myself out of half-sleep to do the dishes, and it feels awful. It puts me in a bad mood, and puts me to actual bed later. Snoozapalooza. I have often made attempts to get up earlier just by setting my alarm to the desired time. This has led to me hitting the snooze button over and over again every 10ish minutes, eventually getting out of bed when I would have originally. This sucks, and it feels bad. Not only does it not accomplish anything, but also my partner hates it. Falling Back Asleep. Sometimes, even if I manage to get out of bed on time, I'll crash back in for another hour. Phone in Bed. Self-explanatory. I'm often scrolling in bed on my way to sleep or first thing in the morning. And here's what we're going to replace them with: Dishes after Dinner If it's my night to do dishes, I'm going to start the dishes right after I'm done with dinner. I'll ask if anyone wants anymore food, then I'll put it away. I'll put an audiobook on like I usually do (currently listening to the Stormlight Archives), and get to the dishes. The earlier that they're done, the better. Should help me defeat Late Night Dishes. Restrict App Hours My phone has a Digital Wellness feature that I've been using to restrict certain apps (Instagram, Tumblr, etc) during work hours. I'm planning on enabling it to also disable those apps after 10 PM. Should help beat Phone in Bed. Additionally, I'm going to put whatever book I'm reading back on my nightstand. Reading at bedtime is a habit I started building a while ago that I never quite got to stick. Very often I was just too tired to read once I hit the mattress, and just went straight to sleep. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but if I'm not immediately tired when I get into bed, I'd rather read than scroll. If this combination of habits doesn't work, I do have a slightly more nuclear option (deleting said apps from my phone for a few weeks while I build a new habit). Smart(er) Alarm Clock I'd really like to get through this challenge without buying a new alarm clock. Right now I use my phone which is set on my nightstand for convenience. That has caused issues because the alarm on my phone is easily snooze-able, and contributes to Phone in Bed. Originally I was thinking about moving it somewhere so I'd have to get up and go get it, but that would run the risk of bothering my roommate and my partner. Instead I'm going to look into some of the smarter Alarm Clock apps that require you to move around, do math problems, take pictures, etc in order to deactivate them. This will help beat Snoozeapalooza and Falling Back Asleep. Get Up, Get Out Getting out of my bedroom dramatically decreases the likelihood that I'll go back to bed. Funny how that works. So my plan is to get up, do my morning routine, throw on my clothes, and get out of my bedroom. This might mean getting out of the house for a walk, it might just mean getting downstairs and pouring myself some coffee, but the goal is to escape the bedroom. My goal is to use these tools to get in and out of bed on time, and shift my whole sleep cycle back about 1-2 hours. In bed and asleep by 11, up at 7. If I can build this habit, I'd like to use that time to start some kind of movement habit, be it a morning walk, yoga, or even a short bike ride, but for now I'm just focusing on the sleep. For each weekday that I get up on time, I'm marking a green circle on my dry-erase calendar. That's how I'll track my progress. I'll copy it over into this thread every so often so y'all can see my progress!

Hey Rangers! This month, I'm following up with last month's theme, but a little different. Same questline, with 2 award levels, just different tasks. 1. Walking: Distance/frequency TBD 2. Kettlebell/weight workout: Frequency TBD 3. Chores: TBD Loot: TBD, but completing the Weightlifting quest snags a bonus Tuff N Tiny "Squattle" Tank Top

So I'm sick... again... If anyone remembers from last challenge I go stupidly ill and wasn't able to do much of anything gym wise since I couldn't stop coughing and I'm also just not a jackass and I stay home when I'm sick. Nobody needs whatever plague can ever get through my usually killer immune system. I got over that bug and then a week later landed a new one! I was rocking a brutal fever and full body pain for 5 straight days. And I actually had to go to work on all of those days because my boss was away and there isn't anyone at work who can step in for me at all ever. It sucks, but anyhow... I'm also sick and tired of how my life currently is and I'm going to change that. I'm going to write out a list of all the things I'm annoyed with in my life and I'm going to tackle them all one by one starting with these five things. Money Management: I've got about $10000 of debt that I've been very, very slowly and erratically chipping away at and I'm sick of the sight of the giant negative balance I see when I log into my online banking. I'm going to change this. I need to change this. I've been a terrible adult and have been late in paying my rent and my phone bill each month for longer than I can reasonably remember. I've been rock solid in paying my gym fees and making sure I had bus pass funds available when I needed them all of last year, but rent and the phone bill always got put off. I'm going to be challenging myself to have my share of the rent paid in full by the 4th of each month (can't pay rent on weekends, holidays or when I'm stuck at work from before they open until after they close) And my phone bill will be paid in full within 8 hours of it being sent to me. No excuses. In regards to spending. I want to enact a shopping ban, similar to what @pureleeawesome is doing and only spend money on daily necessities or things that are on an approved buying list As for debt and savings, I will be putting $100 towards each on the day I get paid. And if when I get paid again I have money left over from the previous pay cheque that is not needed for an immediate and important reason (vet bill, replacing things like my work shoes, glasses etc) I'm going to divide that amount by 3 and 1/3 is for savings and 2/3 is going onto the debt. Cooking: This is slightly linked to the money stuff because I spend far too much on shitty fast food and convenience foods that it's getting totally out of hand. We order in pizza at least three times a month, and get cheap take out about once a week and there is no reason for it other than being totally lazy. The worst part is that I don't even really enjoy the food we buy most of the time. I might as well just throw the money off my balcony for all the good is does me. In an effort to stop throwing my money away I plan on cooking all my own food at home. I want to see less empty pop bottles in my recycling bin and more sauce jars. I want to see less crumpled up fast food wrappings in my trash bin and more meat/veggies scraps. If my lovely girlfriend wants to order pizza, she can get it with her own money and I will say thanks, but no thanks and go make myself some real food. I'm making 3 reasonably exceptions to this plan: I can get iced caps from Tim's with ONLY my tips money (I make so little in tips that I think that's fair) I can get garlic bread if my girlfriend or my sister orders pizza, but ONLY once per month I can eat the food at work, because I'm trying to get out of debt, and food at work is free. Gym: I need to go at least once a week for winter. I'm not going to demand more than that for gym trips each week because the walk there and back in winter conditions is shitty at best, and hazardous at worst. That and with the New Year's crowd in there it's honestly not very much fun to go in January and February. But I still need to go. I'm paying for it and it's a waste of money not to go. I will allow myself a tiny reward if I do go more than once a week. I get to buy a hot chocolate brownie from my local Mucho Burrito on the way home on my 2nd trip of the week. I will treat myself for a personal sized chocolate milk on the 3rd trip. Chores: My home is a disgusting place to live in right now. I'm not the only person responsible for the mess but I am likely to be the only person who does anything about it. I'm also sick and tired of nagging everyone around me to do their damn chores all the time so I'm just going to do them myself. I almost want to unleash my inner passive aggressive bitch and post up one of those time check off pages on the bathroom door and above the kitchen sink and beside the recycling bin listing when it was last taken care of and by who. My sister has the habit of leaving her bagged garbage in the kitchen in front of the recycling bin because she doesn't want to get dressed to walk it down the hall to the trash chute. Hell she doesn't even do her own laundry, she gets out room mate Jordan to do it. I almost want to start piling it up on top of her work shoes the next time she does this. It takes literally 1 minute to walk down the hall, open the door, step in, open the chute, throw the bag down, and walk back to our unit and yet she can't be bothered to do it. She could leave literally ONE MINUTE early for work and take her trash with her but she doesn't. She hasn't taken out the recycling ever. We've lived in this building since 2011 and she's never taken out the recycling. So I'm giving myself one small chore to do each day, something that only takes 5-10 minutes to do Chore Chart Knitting: It's simply something that I enjoy doing, and frankly I need to do it since my yarn collection is getting out of hand, and I also don't have a hat or scarf for myselg for this winter. My old hats were covered in an impossible amount of cat hair and our recently deceased cat Jazz spent a great deal of time snuggled into my favourite hand made hat that it smelled horrid so I threw it away. I want to finish the hat I started for myself and start a scarf and finish it before the challenge is finished. I'll post up a photo when it's done

Main Quest: Foundation Building This one has turned into pretty much a short-term Epic Quest. I'm still working on shelter. I figured out a [constantly-evolving] weekly chore list in the previous challenge, which I will keep adding to. I am thinking timelines and scheduling should be the main focus this time to ensure that they get done. Chore List: Laundry - Wednesday and Saturday morning Dishes - Wednesday and Saturday morning Sweep and dust once a week Grocery and cooking once a week Taking out the dogs once a day Trash once a week Junk mail/email once a week Bathroom cleaning once a week Eliminate tabs on browser Misc: Daily Instagram and Facebook post Bi-weekly Coaching updates Big Tasks: Living Room - boxes of papers, books, old magazines, etc. Closet - sort clothes, throw away other clothes Weekly Schedule - install whiteboard, figure out priorities Side Quest: Order of the Mage Slayers Knowing that the Order might be itself corrupted if exposed to magic, the Vizjerei deemed that the Assassins would have to possess the purest, most focused minds, that they should draw their power from within, not without. I will be embracing the guild's roots in minimalist training to avoid distractions as much as possible. (1) Training in my garage will always be timed and limited to 60 minutes; as I always end up spending too much time playing hee-haw with the fuck-around gang. (2) I will also be focusing on the ever-elusive Handstand, until I can eventually hold it for 60 seconds. Daily 5 minutes of Handstand work followed by 10 minutes of meditation. Ya makasi. ======================================================================== WEEK 1 TASKS ✘ Draft Facebook Posts (5/7) ✔ Update Trainerize ✘ Bathroom ✘ Sweep and Dust ✔ Grocery ✔ Cook ✔ Junk Mail ✔ Trash ✔ Laundry 1 ✔ Laundry 2 ✔ Dishes 1 (delegated) ✔ Dishes 2 ✔ Dogs Sun ✘ Dogs Mon ✔ Dogs Tue (delegated) ✔ Dogs Wed (delegated) ✘ Dogs Thu ✘ Dogs Fri ✔ Dogs Sat Tab count: 31 Handstand / Headspace Sun: Partial Wall 5x6s; Motivation 6 Mon: miss / miss Tue: Partial Wall / miss Wed: Partial Wall / miss Thu: Partial Wall / miss Fri: Partial Wall / miss Sat: Partial Wall / miss

Wandering Monk Chronicles: A Boy Dons the Assassins' Cloak So I've done two Assassin challenges and for both of them I just dropped-off at the end, forgetting to close out. I'm realizing I was trying to do way too many things. This time I will be modelling this more after my first tour of the guild, which seems relatively more successful than my two other ones. A Game of Faces The main goal is building a solid foundation to stand on by the end of the year. It took four previous challenges to get the first three aspects up to an acceptable level (which hopefully I will be able to continue). Now I'm tackling shelter, which should also cover warmth (or more appropriately temperature regulation, because Florida). Because I have sex totally covered. Effective assassining involves nobody knowing you're an Assassin, so I'll be working on hiding in plain sight by becoming as normal as possible. The challenge will be to develop a weekly/monthly chore list for the household to keep it running smoothly (because I'm on a wash-the-dishes-when-there's-no-more-space-to-put-mugs-in-the-sink protocol). Suggestions will be very welcome, because I am a child and have no idea how adults run their households. I'm thinking time blocking and a Bullet Journal might help with this. We'll see. (Re)Building the Assassin Body My diet has been whatever the past few months. I might be due for a hard cut, because I haven't done one this year. Currently sitting at 139.8 lbs. I'm looking to go into "normal" BMI at 135 lbs. My shipment of protein powder just arrived and I'm going to attempt the [insane] Velocity Diet, because I can't train hard anyway as my shoulder is still in recovery. Besides, being lighter as an Assassin doesn't hurt. Shoulder is up for re-eval on Wednesday, and we'll see what's appropriate training for that. Valar Morghulis. =========================================================================================================================================== Chore List: Laundry - Wednesday and Saturday morning Dishes - Wednesday and Saturday morning Grocery and cooking once a week Taking out the dogs once a day Trash once a week Junk mail once a week Velocity Diet shakes: SUN Day 1 ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ MON Day 2 ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ + PWO TUE Day 3 ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ WED Day 4 ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ THU Day 5 ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ FRI Day 6 ✘ ✔ ✔ ✔ SAT Day 7 ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ SUN Day 8 ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ MON Day 9 ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ TUE Day 10 ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ WED Day 11 ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ THU Day 12 ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ FRI Day 13 ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ SAT Day 14 ✔ ✔ ✔ ✘ SUN Day 15 ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ MON Day 16 ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ TUE Day 17 ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ WED Day 18 ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ THU Day 19 ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ FRI Day 20 ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ SAT Day 21 ✔ ✔ ✔ ✘ SUN Day 22 ✔ ✔ ✔ ✘ MON Day 23 ✔ ✔ ✔ ✘ TUE Day 24 ✔ ✔ ✔ ✘ WED Day 25 ✔ ✔ ✘ ✔ THU Day 26 ✘ ✔ ✔ ✔ FRI Day 27 ✘ ✔ ✔ ✔ SAT Day 28 ✘ ✔ ✔ ✘ Foundation Elements Front Lever: 24 Straddle Planche: 9 Side Lever: 15 Manna: 17 Pistol: 13 HB Press: 15 Rope Climb: 22 Handstand: 14

Foundation Re-reinforcement Building up from my previous challenge, I continue my mission to get my shit together. Life feels out of hand, and if you're balancing this much crap on your rickshaw, you better first make sure that (1) your bike works, and (2) you can ride a bike. And so onward with life maintenance--a continuation of my previous challenge and the one before that. SLEEP - I've noticed that it's pretty hard to make a dent on one end of the sleep equation, so I'm looking to make adjustments to the other end--the wake-up. Dr. Jeffrey Durmer from The Doc & Jock Podcast emphasized the importance of a wake-up routine. I'm looking to first establish a consistent wake-up time (possibly 0900) and something physical to do (perhaps a wall handstand or a Turkish Getup). I seem to have been oversleeping a little lately. AIR - Headspace has a bunch of packs. I finished Foundation previously and now am looking into finishing 3 of the Sport packs. I'm thinking at hitting one either first thing in the morning, or right as I come back from work. I'm still not expecting much out of it; just building the habit and the skill. FOOD - Family needs food as well. I got a whiteboard and will experiment with writing down the week's menu to eliminate decision-making. Side Quest: Quadruple Bs BJJ - 2-3 days Barbell - Muscle Clean, Bench Press, Muscle Snatch, Squat Bodyweight - Handstand, Straddle Planche, Manna, Front Lever, Arch Rocks, Tumbling Bells - Armor Building, Long Cycles

Hello all :-) Joining Rising Heroes seems to have been the kick in the pants I needed. I'm getting back into things. Going to try a less basic challenge this round but I'll just add stuff as bonuses. I'll be happy if I finish the basic goals. Appropriate to my last challenge - kicking things off with one more storm tomorrow/night. Meh. 25 to 45 cm of snow expected. Physical Workout 3/week - whatever I want, just do it. Kickboxing is fun right now. Yoga Bodyweight training running at the track wall climbing? shoveling piles of snow (more of an extra) Bonus - Stretch and shoulder maintenance - at least 3/week. Preferably more. Mental Settle enough to get to sleep by midnight work nights 5/week Weekend nights are generally fine. Bonus - Get back to meditation - 3/week Fun/personal development things - yes, this is stacked up. I want to do more fun things. Guitar - 3/week - continue 30 day challenge with my division French - 1 duolingo lesson/day or substitute time with slow French news or watching a cartoon without subtitles Bonus - Videogames - 2/week instead of my usual 1/week. Logging in to do the hunt counts. Bonus - Watch TV on my own - 2 eps/week of whatever Deal with the chores - backslid a bit lately wash the floors clean the fridge wash the windows Finish the handwash pile Dust and sweep 2/week - allergies have been worse of late Food is not going to be a goal this time around as it's been good lately. I may still post about it. The most cheerful song about everyone dying in the end of the world. No meaning attached to this. I just like it.

Hey guys, I kinda just abandoned my last challenge and then skipped the next one. I fell into a really bad depressive episode so I didn't have any energy - never mind motivation - to work on the challenges (or get out of bed really). I'm feeling a bit better now, so hopefully I can do this one. I wouldn't say it's the last time I get one of these episodes, they tend to come and go in cycles. Also I'm nearing the end of my degree, so I'm experiencing a ton of stress between doing my assignments and thinking about life after graduation. (You guys must get so sick of my FT gifs and pics lol, I should probably try to mix them up with non-FT gifs in the future). Anyway, on to the challenge: Strength: I'm on Level 6 now of NFA, will be working on that. Also, that article NF made on grip strength may be useful for climbing, so I may try that out too. Diet: Since I was in a really bad state, my diet flew out the window. I'm going to have to recover from that by weaning myself off junk and fast food. Week 1: No chocolate or gummy sweets Week 2: '' and no crisps Week 3: No junk or fast food Week 4: '' Education: Devote some time to each module's assignment per week. (I have a habit of only focusing on 1 or 2 modules and then forgetting about the rest until it's too late). House: Hoover hallway carpet once a week (the carpet gets filthy so easily). I don't really care about dirt, but I live with different people so I suppose it's fair to try keep the house a little tidy.

2017 LET'S GO I'm bracing for a pretty bad year. The world became scarier last year, and as a queer nonbinary human being, I'm not feeling so great about it. I have my team at my back; I want to become stronger again so that I can have theirs, too. Daily chores for the household: Do a load of laundry Run the dishwasher Hand wash a load of dishes Tidy something Daily tasks for me: Sleep at least 7 hours Stretch or physio Grooming (accumulated tasks tracked weekly) I still need to track down a pullup bar. I still want to learn ukulele. I got into Nuit des cordes again this year so I'll be doing three rope performances in Montreal at the start of March, so I need to do some prep for that, too. Daily tracking will be in my battle log. My usual warning: I'm queer, genderqueer (they/them), poly, and kinky. I keep this pretty SFW, and anything otherwise will be tagged as such and put under a cut. The photos I share here will be safe, but if you follow any links to my Instagram page, some are a little less so!

Hello my friends! The Plan: Leading up to the silly season I will make an effort to continue on with the positive changes I have made so far and not slide back- there will be situations where it will be tricky (compulsory work Christmas parties, Friend’s Christmas Eve, potentially Family Christmas also…) particularly in terms of food, but instead of just chalking the whole month off into the ‘too hard basket’ I will do the best I can around those commitments, and try not to go too wild on those days particularly in terms of my kryptonite: fizzy beverages. I will aim to take TWO glasses only and otherwise drink water, juice, or tea. The final week is a concessional week at work as the university is closed, so I will make an effort to keep up the good work without the structure of actual work. The way that I aim to achieve this is such~ The List (aka adulting): I am going to trial having a checklist to mark off of an evening to try and encourage a few daily habits I want to incorporate by end of the year ready for a nice fresh 2017. Similar I guess to a bullet journal/ checklist I’ll write it with a whiteboard marker on my bedroom mirror to check off of an evening before bed: water plants, water self, 15min hot-spot clean (with photo!), take vitamins, brush teeth, sleep (go to bed by 10pm on non-game nights), daily affirmation (I will think on this and write a statement/battle cry/ self-care statement to read each morning). It seems like a lot, but none of these things will take very long to complete. I will take a photo each evening of the list with ticks rather than writing it out again every day. The Exercise: I will continue with 4 gym sessions/week (ROAR on Mon/Wed/Fri plus boxing on Thurs) and add one ‘bonus activity’ (eg swimming, bike ride, walk, ZRC25K, back strength program ) of a weekend/Tuesday. Being active is really helping my mood to not be too awful and I’d like to continue that, I’ve also been reminded of just how much I really like boxing. Unsure if the Monday ROAR on Boxing Day will be running or not, if not I will sub in another bonus activity. In zero week I will find out whether my gym membership will allow me to visit the sister gym in my parent’s home town just in case I end up travelling back to go to any Christmas shindigs (unplanned at this stage, aren’t we organised!). The Food: Mr and I will be trying out some new recipes in an attempt to stick to our calorie goals (roughly 1500 for me and 1800 for Mr). We have signed up for a meal plan from our gym and already day one meal one and packing for meal two Mr has things he won’t eat (bananas, any fish but sushi, eggs unless an omelette) so he is looking to find some recipes to use instead of ones with those ingredients. For now I’ll eat on without him and hoping to develop one we can both follow together by end of zero week. In terms of the great giftmas celebrations I will first have a plate of meat and veg/ devilled eggs, wait a polite amount of time and then decide if I’m eating anything else on offer once I’ve already got food in my belly. I’m planning to take a box of cherries to any ‘bring a plate’ type deals so there will definitely be some fruit. Sub goal - I will weigh and measure waist at the beginning of each week so that I have an idea of how I'm tracking rather than finding out at the end of the challenge whether it was working. (Not my tree, but suited the nerdy Christmas theme)

I am rebelling against the current class system by being an innkeeper. I'm also rebelling against having physical fitness goals in favor of having my environment be fit. (Hey, a decent couple hours of housework are about all I can handle right now.) A lot of my goals will seem familiar because they are, but I don't think it's too unreasonable to keep trying to make them stick. The points I'm assigning now might not correlate to the xp my character gets later. Tea Goal: make tea: 9 points drink tea: 1 point I'm not sure how to score this if I end up not drinking the tea until the next day. I have a little trouble with getting dehydrated and tea's about the healthiest thing I like. Cumulative Chore List: Dishwasher: ready to receive dirty dishes first thing in the morning: 10 points ready to receive dirty dishes by noon: 5 points ready to receive dirty dishes the previous night but forgot to check in the morning: 5 points Build the rest of the chore chart When I was doing Chore Wars, I was a bit better about working on the house. Things are a bit out of hand and chaotic so it's not going to be as easy as seeing a chore and doing the chore yet, but hopefully I'll be able to get one of those tasks into an easy category. The dishwasher thing is one thing that I've noticed that can keep the chaos down. If it's receiving dirty dishes, that means I have a place to put most of the dirty dishes, and the kitchen doesn't become a disaster area. Use the paper planner: No points because it's a soft goal. I printed out a month of the Passion Planner and now I have to figure out what to do with it. Probably not my long-running to-do list because I think a whiteboard would be better. Less procrastination on the computer: I tend to lose time while hanging out on the internet. It actually gave me anxiety when hubby half-suggested that he lock down the internet connection while he's at work. There is now a remote lamp-control module on the network switch, we just need to figure out how to program it. I'll still be able to use Netflix and look up stuff on my tablet, but I won't be hampster-wheeling on websites. Pay attention to the frogs: If you eat a live frog first thing in the morning, that's probably the worst thing that's going to happen to you that day. If you wait and leave it on your plate, it's going to be lurking there all day and distracting you from simpler tasks. http://play.simpletruths.com/movie/eat-that-frog/ I don't necessarily have to do the most unpleasant thing first, especially if freezing up about it keeps me from doing other stuff. I just can't let it bother me at all whether I do it or not.

Resolutions. Goals – this time I’m srs bsns. Every New Year I make resolutions, and every time I drop them early, or not even start them at all. This year, after doing my pre-challenge-mini-challenge as a warm-up I’m determined to keep the accountability up, and start smashing some goals. I have three main goals, one life goal and one NFR goal. “A dream written down with a date becomes a goal. A goal broken down into steps becomes a plan. A plan backed by action makes your dreams come trueâ€- Greg Reid. (MG1) Exercise Points: All exercise counts toward the main goal of 50pts 100+ points by the end of the challenge (100pts was my goal when I thought this would be a 6WC, I’m leaving it at 100 to strive towards, but if by week 2 it’s impossible I’ll mod it down). Gym Class=2pts, Bike Ride=1pt per 30mins, Swim=1pt per 5 laps, Walk=1pt per 10,000 steps. We don’t have a car, so I expect much of my points will be made up of walking-points, however I would like to hit the gym for some classes twice a week if possible. I have the month of January free at my gym as part of a sign-up deal, so I intend to utilise it as much as possible (equally for the gym and for the sauna, mmm, sauna). I also have the option of a ‘fitness assessment’, which I will be using to log all my beginning stats. (MG2) Adulting: At 23 it’s time for me to get my act together, daily I will do 15min chores, 30mins of ‘study’ (at the start of this challenge that will be music study, learning my brand new gui-lele, and to habit-prep for 8th Feb when I will swap to studying for my uni class – MGNT804). I will also continue the mini-challenge goal of putting $50/week into savings (paid fortnightly on 14th and 28th). Bonus: I will keep a bullet journal. (MG3) Food Glorious Food: In the mini-challenge I beat my lemonade addiction into submission and increased my water consumption drastically. With this win under my belt I will hopefully begin tightening it. I am what I eat, so I will be changing up what I eat. I will eat 5 freggies/day. I will note down everything I eat. I will make lunches at home. Bonus: I will take a photo-log of what I eat. (*Life*) Clean up Australia Day: Officially Clean up Australia Day is the 6th March, but having one day per year to combat the litter situation isn’t good enough in my books. I will pick up one piece of litter every day and on the weekends do a 30min trash-bash. (NFR) Participation Medal: Follow along with 3 Rangers, follow along 1 newbie. Rewards~ I will reward myself with a foam rollie if I achieve 50%+ of my goals and a session with a personal trainer if I achieve 90%+ of my goals.

The past two challenges I've been with the Rangers but for this challenge I wanted to take a step back and join the Adventurers again. I've found over those two challenges that while I was exercising and eating ok, there were far too many cheat days. I need to start back near the beginning and work on getting that consistency. Make exercising and eating healthy the norm. My holiday starts the beginning of week 2 but I'm determined to keep this up while on holiday. Main Quest To be stronger, faster and happier! (Same as always) 1. Fitness a. Exercise 3 times a week. b. Hard Hat challenge - Planking 30 day challenge I'm not consistent with my workouts, I start out well but then one minor slip and I loose the routine. I will be doing the BodyWeight Level 2 from the academy. I also want to improve on my core so am doing the 30 day plank challenge as well. Will do this as soon as I wake up. 2. Diet a. Hard Hat Challenge - No Coke/Pepsi b. Food Log Drinking coke/pepsi is something I have struggled with for months. I managed, about Feb time, to complete 30 days of No Coke. I want to match that and even exceed it. I got a lot better last challenge in making the better choice but about midway through I struggled and fell several times because my parents brought cans for the fridge. I've talked to my parents and they will no longer buy coke for the house. There's only one bottle which is for when my sister visits. It is so much easier when the temptation is not there. I've started my food log this week and I'm finding it quite interesting. I didn't realise I ate so much bread or chocolate/ice cream (dessert like things). I am going to keep doing this and in week 2 reduce intake of one food and then again in week 4. 3. Life a. Chores everyday b. Driving at 3 times a week. Now I am back living at home with my family I want to help out more around the house. That means making sure certain chores are done everyday - e.g dishwasher emptied, dinner tided up, hoovering, washing...things like that. I don't like driving. But it is essential. I need to make sure my driving skills are kept up. That's means taking the car out 3 times a week - even if it is just to the shops in the next town over. (The only weeks this won't be possible is the first and last in august as I'm on holiday and the last week my sister will have the car) Anyway that's my challenge: I'll actually be starting on Monday as I have a job interview tomorrow (Yes!) and then moving all my stuff down from Newcastle to Bristol over the weekend. My uni life will be officially over