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Right now I'm unemployed and it's great! I'm finishing a semester of school, and I've got a job lined up to start on May 21, pending a physical and such on Friday morning. But until then, I've got plenty of time to get into the gym and work my butt off and prepare good meals and track nutrition. If I really buckle down, I think I can get below 240 lbs. by the start of my new job. I've also just read How to Be a Stoic by Massimo Pigliucci. I've always had a spiritual and philosophical streak in me, and I've had problems with depression, anxiety, and some anger. I often go down youtube rabbit holes about philosophy, religion, and society. Recently, I came across some videos on Cynicism and Stoicism, and decided to give Massimo's book a read. As those who've followed me a while I'm fond of Zen Buddhism for its mindfulness, discipline, and compassion, but one thing that always bothered me with it is its disregard of rational thought in favor of spontaneity and emptiness. Stoicism seems to compensate for that well while by replacing these with rational thought, and it's virtues foster mindfulness, discipline, and compassion. So let's shoe horn some goals into the cardinal Stoic virtues... eh? And for once, I'll actually grade things with points. Because a Stoic would collect data and use it to inform future decisions, even if it was time consuming and sometimes frustrating or annoying. Zero week points = bonus points to be distributed freely at challenge end. Goal 1, Wisdom: Practice Stoic meditations in the morning and evening. Journal the results. Morning meditation questions: Reminder of the previous day. What challenges do you anticipate today? How will you overcome these challenges while maintaining your virtue? Evening: What good deeds did you do today? In what deeds did you fail to maintain your virtue? What is left to be done, or improved upon? Do it everyday. 28 days. 1 point for morning, 1 point for evening, 1 point for journaling. 3 points/day. 84 points total Goal 2, Temperance: Track nutrition, regulate food intake for healthy weight loss. MFP everyday. Hit BMR calories, ~2167 cals. Stay below, 3000 cals. At least 100 g Protein 1 point each day for tracking. 1 point for keeping cals in range, 1 point for sufficient protein. 3 points/day. 84 points total. Side quests: Limit coffee to one cup before sun up. And avoid alcohol. This is for GI health, and mental clarity. And avoiding alcohol for weight loss. Goal 3, Courage Go to gym. Because lifting stuff makes you braver or something. Go to the gym and lift something then do cardio. 6 hours each of four weeks. 1 point / hour. 24 points total. Goal 4, Justice. Do good deeds. Help other people. Or at the very least, be a fucking adult. 1 point for each good deed or adulting task completed. Aim for 1 per day. 28 days. 28 points. LUYL_1: Figure out what the fuck cardio means in spanish. I spent 90 minutes on an elliptical, while I'm glad I burned 900 calories (supposedly), that time might have been better spent studying my Spanish textbook, or consuming some other reading material. Hmm... maybe I should have tried to find a Spanish channel on one of the TVs while I ellipticaled. Basically, this goal is to bring a book to the gym to make good use of lame cardio time. LUYL_2: Keep studying spanish. Duolingo changed everything all of a sudden and now it annoys me. But I should start incorporating and moving on to new ways of learning. Such as: Working through the Spanish language course Watching Netflix shows in spanish Reading Kid's books, newspapers in Spanish. I should still try to finish the Duolingo tree tho. LUYL_3: Flamenco guitar Daily practice. My teacher dropped hints last week he might invite me to join his Flamenco orchestra this summer. So I ought to keep practicing daily and dilligently. Ugh. Why are my initial posts so damn long?

I'm Brogo. I haven't done an intro in a while. I've been on NF for over 4 years, and if you've seen any of my previous challenges you know fondness for consonances in my titles. I still weigh about the same as I did when I started even though my main goal when I started and often throughout has been weight loss. I mostly try to lose weight by lifting weight. I was a warrior initially, but now I just kinda bounce around from guild to guild trying to maintain a balance of things. I'm a disgraced geneticist trying to fix my situation with underemployment. Right now, I work 30 hours a week in a warehouse, and I'm a full time (12 cr hours) student at a community/tech school (after a PhD's worth of time getting a Master's at one of the best Universities in the world) trying to learn about machining/metalwork and controlling CNC machines to make stuff. I'm also an artist and musician, and I'm trying to get back in shape. Right now, I'm dead set on losing weight. I'm at around 255 and dropping from a bloat at the moment. Pre-Christmas I reached 244, the lowest I've been since I joined NF. I'm going to shoot for a new weight loss PR, and get below 244 during this challenge. The rest is all based on terminal "o" asonances, my growing interest in learning Spanish which my main go to is Duolingo, a slightly older interest in learning to play Flamenco guitar, and my even older appreciation for great Spanish artists, such as: Picasso, El Greco, Joan Miro, etc. Goal 1, Cardio: Go to the gym at least once a week. I have to go at least once within 7 days for each week of the challenge. I can't make up for it, or make excuses on that. Twice a week would be good. Three would be great. Four means I'm probably slacking off on other things. Do at least 2 KB circuits. I've been doing circuits with kettle bells the last couple of workouts. They are kind of a beast, and I sweat and pant like hell. Today's workout was: 3 KB circuits; KB Swings, 2x12kg 10, 20, 20 KB Front Squat, 2x12 kg, 10, 15, 15 KB Press, 2x12kg, 10, 10, 10 Plank (breaths), 10, 15, 15 KB Rows: 2x15kg, 10, 10, 10 Russian twist: 4 kg ball, - -, 10, 10 Jump Rope: (17,20),(13, 20) (- -) No rest until I get through them all if I can help it. I'll continue doing the same or similar with slight variations. Goal 2, Paleo: Well not strict paleo. Here's my rule. I will only eat things I make from scratch, from whole foods and basic ingredients. With that, I can eat bread, but only if I make dough and bake it and shit. Rice and oats are easy to make from scratch, and I know from experience my body handles them well. More often, tho, if I want carbs I'll probably grab a banana. That said, this makes not eating paleo a pain in the ass. So long as I batch cook meat, and keep vegetables and fruits handy I'll be fine. Goal 3, No bebo vino: o cerveza. Alcohol is my perennial nemesis when it comes to weight loss. Extra calories, diminished inhibitions and planning. 1 drink usually becomes 4 or 5. I gotta stop for a bit. Plus I usually have a dry month every year just to prove to myself that I'm not an alcoholic. LUYL 1, Duolingo: Don't break my streak. I've been on Duolingo and done at least one exercise every day for the last 22 days. I want to see if I can maintain it till the end of the challenge. Read one chapter in my Spanish book each week: I also recently bought a set of books and CDs (Living Language, Spanish, Complete Edition) and I should be using that too. Duolingo is great for quick drills, but it doesn't present a whole lot of info or nuanced details of expression and grammar or variation in exercises. So, I need other stuff. Practice Spanish during my commute twice a week: The audio CDs are in my car, and the first one is in the stereo. Just gottta hit play once in a while. If I get bold, maybe I'll start an embarrasingly simple conversation with a Mexican coworker and count that here too. Write a new sentence in Spanish every day, post it here. Just some simple thing I did that day or whatever. I need to practice finding my own words more. LUYL 2, Flamenco: I ordered a new guitar and it is supposed to arrive Thursday. My first nylon string guitar, which is necessary to play flamenco properly. Daily: Fingernail maintenance: Flamenco players depend on long well maintained fingernails to play guitar well. They have to be the right shape to pick the strings, they must be clean with no rough edges, and they must be strong for playing golpe and making other percussive sounds and other fast strumming techniques. This will be done before practice. Daily flamenco practice: 15 min. a day. No excuses. This is really nothing. Once I get going there's a good chance I'll be losing sleep to guitar practice. But, I'm going to stay focused on learning flamenco. No more Metallica and Deep Purple covers. No more noodling around on the same old blues scales. Learn new shit, don't fuck around. Study a new technique every week. New strumming/picking technique, new chord, new scale. The technical stuff. Study a new palo and its compas every week. Flamenco music is made up of a collection of styles, palos, and each has its own compas, the rhythm, meter, and chord changes, that define the palo. LUYL 3, Picasso: There's a lot going on, I don't want to forget about my artwork. Finish one painting or 8 hours of painting (whichever comes first). Aye, Dios mio!