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Tenth Challenge is a go! Due to my work schedule being extremely unpredictable the later in June it gets, I don't know how much gym-time I will actually be able to have, so I am joining the Druid Guild again and focusing on meditation, wisdom and balance. Inspired by Polgara19's SG1-themed challenge, and because Murphy of the Dresden Files doesn't particularly fit as a Druid, my challenge theme this time is Farscape! While Aeryn Sun will always be my favorite character, I've always liked Pa'u Zotoh Zhaan as well for her calm demeanor, intelligence, kindness and quiet stillness. And since I'm in the Druid Guild this challenge, a Delvian Pa'u is the perfect choice for me to try to mimic. Main Quest To live a healthy and balanced life by exercising and trying to eat healthy. My motivation I've successfully dropped weight by counting calories so my diet will mostly be staying the same with 1200 calories per day M-F and then blow meals on the weekends. I've managed to put on some muscle in an effort to become stronger by weightlifting and so when I am able, that will continue this challenge along with my smaller quests. But due to my work schedule, I will be focusing on the more peaceful side of health this time. Smaller Quests 1. Through the Looking Glass Continue practicing Spanish Monday-Friday for at least 20-30 minutes. I really enjoyed this in my last challenge so I want to continue with it for my 10th challenge. As the diplomat for the group on Moya, Zhaan likely studied and understood many other cultures. Although due to the translator microbes, she probably didn't actually speak any other languages, she still appreciates other races and enjoys learning about them. Scoring: /30 days Reward: +4 to WIS 2. Rhapsody in Blue I really enjoyed in past challenges when I focused on mediation, yoga poses and doing Animal Flow movements so I want this to be part of my challenge too. Zhaan is the most spiritual member of Moya's crew, in-tune with her Goddess as a 9th, and then 10th level, Pa'u Priest. Finding inner peace was a major point of her character's journey and I think we could all benefit from being more spiritual too. a. Practice yoga poses or Animal Flow movements twice a week. Scoring: x/12 Reward: +2 to STA b. Practice meditation once a week. Scoring: x/6 weeks Reward: +4 to DEX 3. Crackers Don't Matter I have a sweet tooth and I find that when I eat less processed junk food, I feel better overall. However, curbing the craving for sugar is hard so I will continue to work towards it this challenge. I know less processed sugar is good for me health-wise, even if I still crave chocolate junk food. As a sentient plant, Zhaan's dietary habits are never explored in depth. However, in one episode she does eat meat so it appears that she has a mostly balanced diet. I need a more balanced diet too, but more importantly, I need less sugary sweets. Cut down on processed junk food by only having sugary snacks on the weekends with my blow means. Scoring: /30 days Reward: +2 to CHA & +2 to CON 4. Unrealized Reality Continue working towards that elusive first pull-up. I will be striving to use the assisted pull-up machine, along with doing other pull-up exercises like rows, 2-3 times per week, during my normal weight lifting exercises. Zhaan always exudes a sense of gentleness many characters mistake for weakness. However, she does possess a wild, beastial and physically strong side as well. While finding inner peace is very important, not forgetting to work on my physical body to stay strong is important too. Scoring: /12 days Reward: +1 to STR

So I have essentially breezed through my last two challenges. I don't know if I would say they were easy, but they were definitely doable and I knew I would probably come out with mostly A's on the other side when I was putting them together. I do, however, feel like I have made some serious progress. I'm on a 48 day yoga streak, am lifting a barbell pretty easily, and making better nutrition decisions overall. I am starting to see some real changes in my body. My habits are becoming much more habit like, as in I just do them as part of my routine, and much less like I have to constantly remind myself. Mentally, I think I am at my fitness baseline. Physically, maybe not so much... I am still struggling with doing more than one push up DEFINITELY can't do a pull up and haven't been seeing much progress in my core area. With all that in mind, I am going to make this challenge hard for me. Going into it, I know it's going to be rough. But it's all things I have been struggling with for a while and I need to just get it done. And now, riding on the momentum of my last few challenge's successes... I will do this thing. I'm setting things up pretty differently than regular challenges. I'm not really breaking things out by missions or nutrition or life, there's things I want to work on and I'm gong to try to work on them in measureable ways. I wouldn't really recommend this set up unless I hadn't done 11 challenges before this, I am looking to switch things up. But if this set up doesn't work for me I'll reserve the right to change things around as I go, because I don't want to waste 6 weeks on doing something that isn't working. But for now, here it is! My Adventure on the 7 C's! 1. Cardio Goal: Cardio 2x/week (+2 STA) I REALLY hate cardio, but I've noticed lately that I don't think my cardiovascular system is in as tip-top shape and it should be. I'll be hiking and my muscles are fine, but I find myself out of breath way more quickly than I should with my heart pumping out of my chest. I need to fix this. I'm hoping to get this in mostly as Zombies, Run. Because I want to do a 5k someday. 2. Core Goal: Core Work 3x/week (+2 STR) My arms and my legs have been losing inches like CRAZY since I started stronglifts. My arms are starting to actually look muscular too! I'm not seeing any progress in my core area though. I know all those compound lifts are supposed to be working my core as well, and I certainly feel it, but I am just not seeing results as quickly as the rest of my body and it's frustrating. So I am going to start adding in some core-specific moves to my work outs. That can be during yoga, or during Strong Lifts, or totally separately, just something. 3. Crow Goal: Crow practice 2x/week (+2 DEX) I fell in love with yoga last challenge and I plan on keeping up my streak. I want to be able to do crow so badly!! So I will incorporate crow practice as part of my yoga sessions each week. I already do yoga every day so this just means throwing in some crow play time at the end. 4. Cheese Goal: Cheese free 5 days/week (+2 CON) Ugh I've tried this one so many times before and had various levels of success. I seriously love cheese to the point that I feel like if I have a single piece I can't stop. It's awful. And what I know is that I function better when I don't have a bunch of dairy in my system. Even though I can't stand that I need to do this. It just needs to be taken away from me. So I'm going to try for this one again. 5. Cigarettes Goal: 0 cigarettes the entire challenge (+2 CON) I know, I know. You can't even believe this one is on here right?! I've never mentioned this on here before for two reasons. One, because frankly it's embarrassing. Here I am on a fitness forum professing to be having all these successes and I'm also smoking. TERRIBLE. The other reason is because honestly I don't really smoke except for literally once or twice a month when I'm drinking I'll bum a single cigarette off of a friend. I've never bought my own pack or anything like that. Because of that I haven't really seen it as a problem. However it also makes me think that there's literally no reason for me to be doing it. I'm not addicted, I don't crave them or even think about them unless someone offers me one whilst drinking and I'm like sureeeee. And I guess I do it as a social thing in that case? So... really I should just stop. Anyway, it might happen that this entire challenge I never even get offered one so it might be a free 2 points. But if I do get offered, I will say no. Simple as that. 6. Consistency Yoga: Complete the Do You Yoga 30 Day Challenge within this 6 week challenge (+1 WIS) Strong Lifts: 3x/week (+1 STR) Salads for Lunch: 3x/week (+1 CON) (idk the relevancy here I just adore this gif) This is stuff from previous challenges that I am pretty certain I'm still going to do them but I want to keep track of them on a much lighter scale anyway. I'm counting them for very little points, and are really just here to keep me honest about stuff. These will definitely go away as real tracked things next challenge. 7. Creatitivity Complete the 30 day creativity mediation pack in Headspace (+1 WIS) Journal 4x/week (+1 WIS) Pretty self explanatory methinks. Also Claudia Black. Aka Aeryn Sun. Also aka Vala Mal Doran. GAH. I love her. One of the most badass women in sci fi history (more so in Farscape than in SG1 but I digress) and my current inspiration <3 Bonus: her name starts with C.