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Gotta do some more moving. I didn't perform at the level I wanted to during the last challenge because my desire to be more awesome lost to the temptations of video games. Not my proudest time. I think I've got most of it out of my system though, as long I don't do something stupid like buying a new game. This challenge's goals will be very similar to the last one just minus the sucking. And as always, the end game goal is Ninja Warrior Grand Champion. Goal 1: Last time I said I'd exercise at least 5 days a week, 7 if at all possible. During this time, I settled for "good enough" too many times, only doing 5/7 days even if there was no reason not to exercise the other 2 days aside from just being a lazy butt. This time the plan is to exercise 7 days a week unless I have a darn good reason not to. Exercising can be anything outside of my dailies like climbing, Muay Thai, parkour practice, random cartwheels and pullups; whatever. Goal 2: My progress towards my 1 minute bridge, stand to stand bridge and handstand pushup over the last challenge was negligible, I might have even regressed. For that reason, I'm kicking it up a notch or 6 this challenge. These targets are being incorporated into my dailies now. I'll work on my handstand pushups every time I work on handstands even if it's only doing a single set. I'll also do some form of bridge work every single day. Goal 3: Although I had "acceptable" adherence to my targets of paleo meals last challenge, the majority of the rest of my dinners were complete crap, worse than the average before so I'm changing things around a bit. Initial target will be eating 5 paleo meals per week, can be breakfast, lunch or dinner. Add +1 meal per week every time I hit my target. Goal 4: I haven't been working on my Pathfinder campaign nearly enough. Over the last 6 weeks, I don't think I completed enough content for a single session. This one is going back to my targets from 2 challenges ago, gotta work on the campaign every week. Minimum requirement is 5 hours per week but exceeding by an hour or 10 is okay too. Daily goals: Do diamond pushups every day, try to do 1 more than the day before every day. I'll change to another type once I do 60 in a day. My current best is 55 but some days I don't hit my target so I may not finish in just 5 days. Once I can do 60 I'll pick some other kind of pushups and see how many I can do, then work up to 60 if it's less than that. Other dailies are working on handstands and handstand pushups every day, work on doing a bridge in some way every day, do 30 minutes of squatting every day and stretch. I'm expecting this challenge to be a fun one too. I realise some of my goals seem like it'll be hard to meet targets and I'm okay with that. I'll do my best to reach them and it's no big deal if I don't. The only thing that's not okay is letting video games, anime or manga take priority over improving myself as long as there's nothing stopping me.

I thought I was a day late in posting this but apparently there's a 2 week break between challenges this around. I'm actually almost a week early! I'm still gonna give it my all this extra week to get ready for the challenge so I'll already have momentum when it starts. While the structure of my challenges up to now has been good for ensuring that I got a lot of exercise, it has been a bit restricting in what I'm allowed to do. There were days when I would've loved to go outside and play but decided against it because I "needed" to do a full body weight workout that day. That's why my main goal this challenge will be to exercise lots however I want. The biggest thing is to get out and move. I learned about Ido Portal over the last 2 challenges and I'm inspired by his methods. I want to turn myself into a mover, and I figure the best way to start would be to start moving. Goal 1: Exercise a minimum of 5 days per week, but it could be 7 days per week. Every day will at least have my dailies so they don't count. This doesn't have to be a full body weight workout or a run only. It could be tennis, basketball, a hike, swimming, baseball, throwing a frisbee, or just moving around. Stuff like climbing trees, rock climbing. The biggest things I want to incorporate are alternate methods of moving including weird walks like dragon walk or bridge walk, and the number 1 thing is getting back into parkour which I put on hold towards the end of last summer. Of course a body weight workout or a run is fine too, but these might be last resorts now since I want to make it fun. This is one is supposed to be fun so I have no excuse for not doing it 7 days per week unless I happen to have a day where I'm literally non-stop busy or I feel really unwell in some regard. Goal 2: Try to make some progress towards my goals of a 1 minute bridge, stand to stand bridge, and a handstand pushup every week. This could be as little as mixing in some handstand pushup attempts with my handstanding once a week, to as much as doing box pike presses 3 or 4 times a week and pushing during my handstands every day. As long as I work on it. (I'm also going to work towards my 10 second handstand goal but that's going to be worked on every day as one of my dailies.) Cool cats work on these targets 7 days a week, so I'll try to increase my coolness as the challenge progresses. Goal 3: I realised during last challenge that I am actually close to having abs. Partly because of that and partly for general good health, I'm going to start including more paleo meals in my diet. I've made plenty of paleo dinners since I learned about paleo cooking last year but I don't know if I've ever had a paleo breakfast in my life. The first level of this goal is to eat at least 1 paleo breakfast, 1 paleo lunch, and 1 paleo dinner every week. I may scale up to more meals of any or all types depending on how well I do. Incidentally, if anyone has any suggestions for things I should make for breakfast or lunch (or dinner) I'm all ears. I have just 1 idea for a paleo breakfast in mind and my only lunch ideas are things I have made for dinner before. Someday I might eat only paleo forever and always but while that could be a few months from now, it could be a few years from now, or never. No pressure. Goal is better, not perfect. Goal 4: My life goal is to start getting stuff done/cleaned around my house. I haven't vacuumed my room in a long time, I clean my kitchen counters like once a month, I don't remember the last time I cleaned a bathroom. It's bad. I'm not proud of it. I'll be setting certain targets that need to get done each week. The other part of this is that I need to not put off the little things that end up piling up to big things. If I do laundry, it should be folded and put away the same day, not put on my bed in a pile and not dealt with until the next time I do laundry. If I use a dish for cooking, especially something that other people in the house might need, it should be cleaned within 24 hours, preferably the same day, not put off for a week. If I do a load in the dishwasher, it should be unloaded within 24 hours. To track this one I'm creating a point system, where I get a point for every day I put off doing something that should be done by a particular day. The goal on this one is 0 points. Daily goals: I'm continuing my diamond pushups goal, at the end of last challenge (Sunday) I was at 32 and I'll continue adding 1 per day until I decide to stop, maybe at 60. I will practice my handstands and I will do my full stretching routine every single day (and not shorten that stretching routine, which I think might have had something to do with my back getting sore for a week.) I will continue working on the 30/30 squatting challenge where I squat for 30 minutes every day (I never once paid any attention to the number of days this has been going for.) My goal is to keep working on it until I can actually resting squat on flat ground, right now my heel has to be elevated about 1.5 inches or I fall on my butt, though I won't stop because I get there, that'll just make it stop feeling like work hopefully since I'll be able to do it anywhere. This challenge should be fun and I'm quite looking forward to it.

It occurred to me that the land of the prophecy is across a big puddle so I'll build a bridge to the other side. This challenge's new target is working on my bridge. I want to be awesome at them. My current stats: Bridge: I can get into one but can't hold it for more than a couple seconds. Running: Usually takes about 25:30 - 26:00 minutes for 5k. My best recent 5k was 5.02km in 25:17 at an average pace of 5:02 min/km. Handstands: Usually last about 1-3 seconds, best is 6 seconds. Handstand Pushups: I can do up to 6 box pike presses or I can do a handstand pushup if I only lower about 5 inches (based on feel, not measured.) This is almost halfway as my arms are pretty long so my head should be around a foot off the ground. Goal 1: Be able to hold a bridge for 1 minute. Bonus: Perform Stand to Stand Bridge. I'll make a point of working on my bridges in some way at least 3 times a week. Goal 2: Get my 5k time to 23:00 or less. I'll be running 3 times per week to meet this goal. Goal 3: Be able to do one handstand pushup. For this I will workout 3 times a week. Goal 4: Have my Pathfinder campaign ready for play by the end of the 6 weeks. I'll spend at least 4 hours every week working on this campaign. Bonus Dailies: Work on holding handstands for 5-20 minutes every day; target is 10 seconds. Do pushups every day adding 1 a day; tomorrow I'll be doing 34. Stretch every day. Still working on the 30/30 squat challenge so I have to do 30 total minutes of squatting every day; my goal here is to be able to hold a squat in a resting position with my feet on flat ground, right now I can't hold it without my heels elevated about 2 inches. Another old habit that needs to be maintained is eating a decent dinner (includes protein and at least 2 fruits and vegetables) at least 3 night a week.

My last challenge mostly went well except for the number of serious workouts I did, that was the biggest thing I was unhappy with. I'll be putting a greater amount of effort this time into getting those done no matter how much I don't feel like doing it even if it means I only do a single set of pushups and nothing else, just gotta do something. In other news, I've only done a couple runs in the last couple months, both of which were 5km and took me almost 29 minutes and I'm really not happy with that so my main target in this challenge is improving that time. My main quest, or the prophecy, is still that I must eventually conquer Mt Midoriyama in Japan on Ninja Warrior. Goal 1 this challenge is to run 3 times per week with any combination of 5k runs, 10k runs, interval training, hill sprints, shuttle runs or whatever else I feel like doing as long as I get out there and run. My target is beating my personal best for the 5k run and finishing in under 24 minutes. I'm planning on doing a 5k race in May and I want to come in first. (My longer term goal is finishing in under 20 minutes but I'm not sure exactly how far I can improve my time in 6 weeks.) Also, if I can't do the runs for some reason (like right now, there's about 6 inches of snow and it isn't stopping) I'll find some alternative like DDR or skipping for a comparable amount of time, or if I have no other option, run on a treadmill (ugggggh...) Goal 2 is to continue doing body weight exercises 3 times a week getting in some pullups, pushups, squats and core exercises (possibly others if I come up with something else I want to do.) Just going climbing doesn't count unless I legitimately go hard enough to totally wreck myself with that alone. Goal 3 is to keep up my handstand practicing everyday. My goal by the end of this challenge is to be able to do one complete wall handstand pushup (touching my nose or chin to the ground before getting all the way back up) and being able to do a free standing handstand for 10 seconds. Properly doing my pushups in the body weight workout will surely help with this. Goal 4 is no longer decluttering, I have reached a point where I'll have my room where I want it with just a few more hours of cleaning/organizing and the rest of the house will come with time so I'll trust myself to maintain this habit of making progress towards that without it being a primary goal. One of my dreams is designing a video game at some point in my life but for now I'll work towards that by designing something with a few less steps, I'm going to create a Pathfinder (D&D) Campaign to play with my friends. To this end I'll devote a minimum of 2 hours per week but I'm okay with getting lost in it and those 2 hours being 8 or 20. Stretching was a goal for the last few challenges but I'm finally confident that I can once again maintain the habit of daily stretching without the need for that.

A little late but here I am once again, ready to challenge myself move toward the prophesied land. In accordance with the prophecy I need to increase my balance and I really need to increase my strength in my arms. For the first time in a while I'm setting a goal for the end of this challenge rather than simply having multiple tasks to accomplish during the challenge. My current target is the handstand. Currently I can do a wall plank at around a 45 degree angle for somewhere in the area of 30 seconds. I am going to be able to do a wall handstand for a full minute within the next six weeks and if I finish early I'll try doing a free standing handstand for 10 seconds. Targets are subject to change if they are deemed too easy or too hard. Towards this end, I will be working on my wall handstand every single day no matter what even if that only means going at it for a minute, or even doing a single 30 second wall plank. This is goal number 1. My main quest, my end game goal is still conquering Mount Midoriyama in Japan on the Ninja Warrior course. That's way off though, perhaps years off which is why I'm setting minor targets along the way leading to the big one to keep me motivated along the way. Goal 2 is to work out seriously 3 times a week. My target here is being able to do a single set of 5 pull ups with an extra 30lbs hanging off of me. I know I can do 8 max with an extra 10lbs right now and I haven't tried increasing that in a while. I don't know if this is a realistic target but I am setting my sights high because I'm been putting up with doing good enough for too long and it's time for excellence. Goal 3 is stretching every single day like last time. This only requires about 30 minutes per day so I never have a good excuse for not doing it but I still haven't ever been able to keep it up consistently for even 2 weeks. I will change this. Goal 4 is eating a minimum of 3 decent meals per week that involve a decent source of protein and at least 2 decent fruits or vegetables. (There aren't many fruits or vegetables I wouldn't count, basically iceberg lettuce). Goal 5 is to spend at least 1 hour per week clearing out the clutter in my life, especially in my own room. Now I need to go to bed so I'll post some updates tomorrow.

I keep getting lazy. I've been fighting this all my life and I've been losing for most of it, but I am going to turn that around no matter how long it takes. My last challenge was a disappointment, and after it ended I stopped doing everything aside from the climbing since I at least have my roommate to keep me accountable as we climb together. It occurs to me I really need an accountabilibuddy or six in order to not suck. As much as I wanted to do this on my own, it isn't working. In accordance with the prophecy, I am going to kick my own butt into gear and I'm going to find a way to make sure I don't slip again no matter what it takes. My first target this time is the same as last time but I'm going to be serious about it. I'm going to seriously work out three times a week. This is usually going to involve climbing, but that's not enough and it really never was. Sure my muscles hurt, but not all of them and I'm generally not working up a serious sweat. I've used climbing as an excuse to ignore working out a lot of areas of my body. This changes now. If I finish climbing and I have gas left in the tank, I'll empty it. Second target is stretching, I used to stretch every single morning for about 20 minutes, this was an awesome practice and I was getting steadily more flexible. Then I stopped. I'm going to start again. If I don't stretch in the morning I will stretch after work, and I will always stretch properly after climbing, as opposed to never (I've been very bad about this.) Third target is eating, same as last time, at least 3 times a week I'll make a point of making sure I get a properly prepared meal with some protein and green vegetables in it. Preferably every day of the week, but I know I need to take baby steps, one at a time. Final target is also the same as last time since my performance was a joke. I am going to declutter all the crap out of my life that I don't need and get things neat and tidy. No more distractions. This is going to be awesome.