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Well, the madness of August is over. I didn't manage to do a whole lot other than work during that month, but I did put one major accomplishment under my belt: I finished memorizing the "first pillar" of the Hung Gar system, the foundational techniques known as Gung Gee Fook Fu Kuen, or "Taming the Tiger in the I-shaped Pattern". It's taken about a year of work, and it is a very long form with something like 350 individual techniques. Now that I've memorized it, the next step is to internalize the movements so that they all flow naturally, without thought or error. I'm doing okay on that so far, but that is pretty much going to be my physical focus for the next month or so. My data logging fell off for about two weeks due to the stress I was under, so I'm also reviving that. Still hovering around 205 lbs, give or take one on any given day, which I'm fairly happy with; despite the stress, I didn't fall off the plan too hard. I've started making breakfasts for myself: batch cooking English muffin breakfast sandwiches on the weekend and freezing them for the week. They're not the most amazing thing ever, but they're pretty cheap and come in between 350 and 375 calories, which isn't bad at all. I'm taking a long weekend this week: 5 days in a row of no work to focus on. Hopefully by the start of the challenge this bruised-brain feeling will be mostly gone, and I'll be feeling more like myself again. I worked myself into full burnout, and I'm still struggling with it a week after the worst of the craziness ended. The plan is to practice my Gung Gee flow, and get better at it. Attend class regularly again, and get myself back up to feeling healthy and strong, instead of bruised and weak and tired. That's pretty much it. Nothing fancy here, just patient recovery of my abilities and improvement of skills.