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I'm going to try out a daily battle log for a while. One of my gripes with NerdFitness's format is the constant need to create new challenges on the website's schedule. I'm going to attempt to take the power back for myself and do my own thing. Everything's and experiment and nothing is forever. I'll come back and fill edit this first post from time to time to fill things in, either questions that come up a lot or links to topics in the thread as it grows. But for today, on to the good stuff. Note for myself:

RAISE THE BAR !!!! ^CHORD This challenge is going to be about raising the bar! And that includes working on the F bar chord in guitar too, because boy - that thing is a little punk. For a long time NF challenger, it's very easy to get into the place of just doing the same old same old. And that's great. But it's time for me to add a few rings to my tree trunk, -er, I am talking about 'growth', not putting weight on lol! I've coasted a bit and want to get back into growing as a person; improving myself physically, emotionally, spiritually and relationally. That's too much to try and do all at once, so we'll break it down into smaller things that get focused on per challenge. When one gets leveled up, we work on the next, and so on. I am also setting a long term goal here, in writing. I want to compose and record an original song before I am 50. (Honestly, I think I can nail that one far before the expiration date, but I didn't want to feel pressured - I want to enjoy the learning process, so we're setting this out there a few years.) Now for the list of longer term things I want to start working on over the next few months. Understand Starpuck, be the best Starpuck I can be. Step 1: Read "The Road Back to You" (An Enneagram Thingy) Conquer fear of change, and move out into my own place - be it an apartment or a house. Step 1: Rework budgets, set savings goals and plans, use envelope method for 'allowance/eating out'. Find guitar teacher, take a short term session of lessons. Step 1: Reach out to Perry's music. Stop judging teachers by awful pictures, lol! Go meet them. 5 WEEK CHALLENGE GOALS Goal #1 - FOOD! In 5/4 Timing - What? This means, aim to eat 5 times through the day, with quarter note sized meals lol. I was debating if I wanted to track calories, but coming from a total free for all, I don't want to swing too hard to the other end of the spectrum. I think just being mindful will get me back to a good 'starting point'. Plan: Eat Breakfast, Lunch, Snack, Dinner, Snack each day. Avoid adding extra snacks, especially in the evening or on weekends. Track It: Must note when I overdo the snacks, otherwise, each day assumed to have been 'in time' with the band. Goal #2 - Groove and Move - This is about keeping my physical body up to snuff. I want to be healthy and active long term, and that means putting in the work now. I also have noticed that over the past several years, the better my nutrition and sleep have been, the less illness I've had to face. That seems like one heck of a perk there. Groove is for strength training (not that I'm doing grease the groove) and Move is for any other intentional movement. I want to keep my cardio/pulmonary working well too, so getting heart rate up and lungs kicking is a goal, but it can be chill like walking or hiking too. (Not that either of those will be happening during the midst of winter. Plan: 2-3 Strength Days / Week. (Winter means less options for cardio, so a great time to increase strength days to 3.) 2+ other activity days. Track It: Yeah. Easy track here. Did I do them, or skip them? Goal #3 - Pick, Pluck, and Pen - This is the creative ensemble. It covers my music practice, which, I have set a pretty decent achievable goal of 2 hours / instrument per week, and 3 hours of art. I often go over, but this allows me to still hit targets on weeks that have extra changes in the line up, or outings, or hiccups that make practicing harder. Plan: 2 hours / week of guitar, bass and piano. 3 hours of art. Track It: Use Timelog app to keep track of this. Great app! 10/10 would recommend. General To Do's - Boldness, Books and Budgets - This final goal is just to track that I am remembering and paying attention to Step 1's of some of the longer term goals. I don't want to put "weekly" rules and requirements on this, so they will just be general to do's, and check marks that I am, in fact, putting some time and thought into them. Continue search for guitar lessons, check Perry's out. Local is a + and they are cheapest I've found. Read the book. Take it slow. Add notes in the side or on Post-Its. Use this to continue to sort out my challenges and learn to overcome my repeat hurdles. Create budget. Set up house savings / move money monthly into this. Create envelopes and use them. (app, or actual cash?) Start planning for 2023 vacations. (Hawaii still on radar?) Smaller trip / via car somewhere. Start working on the audio interface and software. Take it slow. Don't panic. Also - after original excitement about this theme, lol, I might change it in a week or so. My mood is all over the place right now! LOL. Short Bio

THE CHALLENGE!!! STARPUCK FIGHTS THE BEAST I've fought this beast before. He's often goes by the title Gloom Monster, but we're referring to him as The Beast on this challenge. He gets more powerful as summer ends and autumn gives way to winter. He's a little stronger this time around, because our heroine has been fighting a side of apathy lately. One of my greatest weapons against that is momentum. But to get momentum, you have to get a first step underfoot and follow it up with a second, and third and so on. Bio: ON TO THE CHALLENGE Doing much of the same old same old! In fact, I found a google sheet tracker I made in May 2021 and just changed a few of the things I plan on tracking. I really need to get my food consistency back in place. I do fine at work and during the early part of the week. Going into the Thursday gaming night and weekend tends to unravel full tilt. Exercise is not a problem ever, but I'd like to be more focused in what I am choosing to do. Art is back on the table, on top of me trying to practice three instruments at once. (I did mention Ranger, right?) Goals: Track food daily. If unable to track on a weekend meal, eat sensibly, guesstimate cals. Exercise 5x a week. Art some times a week. Music - try to get 3-4 practices on each instrument, length of time not important. (** Might switch this to amount of time on each per week. Some days I get on a roll, and might jam out for a good amount of time on just one instrument.) Track Spending. I gotta get this under control too. As a side note, I am 8 sessions into our latest TTRPG game; Vampire the Masquerade. I am SO into this game right now, so lots of art for it has been kicked out. It's also where I have borrowed the idea of fighting against the beast within. For vampires, that beast is their monstrous side. For me, it's apathy and inconsistency as we hit the S.A.D heavy days. I'll try and catch up on sharing some art (and a quick backdrop as to what it means.) Vampire Art Taking Zero Week to get slowly back into a better groove after this last hurrah, lol. See ya Rebels tomorrow!

No, not that kind of axe. This kind of axe: Goals to come. I just got done with a bunch of Econ homework and a case study for my business law course, so I am kinda brain dead. But I needed to get this thread started before I spent the whole challenge not starting my thread like I did last time (for any of you who perhaps some me lurking but noticed the absence of a thread, lol). And no, my theme is not just an excuse to use that awesome pic, there will actually be guitars involved in this challenge because someone (being me) has been deprioritizing some things for way too long. And it is time to change that.

Let's keep the music themes going eh? 8 weeks till Vacation, or 4/4! And I've set myself four goals to chart. I still haven't gotten my consistency underfoot, but I got really close to nailing it this last week. (Then had a really stressful weekend and by Sunday, I needed liquid courage and woops.) So, this challenge will be a continuation of trying to get my chops back. Figuratively. Exercise Goals - 5x a week. I do best with strength twice a week and random intentional movement on at least three occasions. Some weeks a third strength is fine, but I know I don't do well with 3x every week right now. Music & Art - I was able to get 4 sessions for each instrument in most of last challenge, and, since I want to improve my skills, I do need to aim for this kind of thoughtful amount of time spent. Monday's and Tuesday's work great for getting lots of music in, so do Friday's and Sundays. The rest of the days, if I just strum a bit before other commitments, cool beans. I would also like to get pencil to sketchbook again too, but no pressure on this. Food - Either track, or don't eat like an ahole. Pretty straight forward here. I know what I should be eating, and how much. Just need to do it. Socials & Self Time - I need to work on two things. Getting social and being with people, but also carving out time for myself to unwind and reflect. This can be tallied up in an easy, totally contradicting phrase. "Start saying yes -- Start saying no." Going to track on here, because that should have me checking the forums more often lol! Weekly trackers below. **ALSO! I want to start doing the recreate gifs thing, so look for that! EXERCISE 🔲🔲🔲🔲🔲🔲🔲 FOOD 🔲🔲🔲🔲🔲🔲🔲 ARTSY STUFF 🔲🔲🔲🔲🔲🔲🔲 PIANO 🔲🔲🔲🔲🔲🔲🔲 BASS 🔲🔲🔲🔲🔲🔲🔲 GUITAR 🔲🔲🔲🔲🔲🔲🔲 SKETCH/DOODLE

So... Last challenge went reasonably well. I need to work out more and focus much more on my diet. Moreover, I need to find a way to spend my free time. Unfortunately, all my hobbies are so interesting!! And I always have a hard time deciding what to do. So, I want to tackle from a particular angle: I'm a big fan of Thomas Frank and his YouTube channel. He mostly talks about how to be a good and successful student. In his podcast, he once talked about how everyone should have three hobbies. One movement-/fitness-related hobby that should go beyond working out for the sake of working out. One entrepreneurial hobby that you took as serious as a second career. And a skill-based hobby. I want to spend the next challenges focussing on three hobbies that fit those categories in order to find out what I really want. I will most likely change in-between challenges depending on my experiences. So... Let's start! ------------------------- Moving Working out Running A new round of physical therapy started today in order to fix -- or at least manage -- my back pains. I hope I get a few pointers on how to work out better and then actually do it. I aim for two times a week of "intense" workouts. But I will try to do yoga or something similar as often as possible. Running helps my back pain and it is fun. And in June there's a 5k at my university and I think about participating. I want to go running twice a week. Dieting Low-Carb or low-calories So... Dieting is not going too well. I'm sitting firmly at 94kg. To be a bit more proactive I do not only want to track my food intake but aim for something. I had great success with going low-carb in the past and, obviously, low-calories is always a good idea. So, I'll try both: I want to stay below 150 grams of carbs or below 2000 kcal on as many days as possible. As both correlate -- at least the way I usually eat -- I expect to achieve both or neither each day. Hobbies Walking Drawing Studying/playing Go Practising the guitar So, my three hobbies. For the fitness-related one, I want to be much more active. But I'll start with walking. Last challenge I managed on average 8955 steps per day and maybe I can get that up to 10000. Moreover, I want to listen more to audiobooks and podcasts. Thus, I want to combine these two and aim for a 20-minute walk each day on which I listen to a podcast. Next, I want to get back into drawing. I don't have a particular goal in mind -- just sketching for now. The mid-/long-term goal is to draw and publish comics. Lastly, I want to play and study Go more again. I'll try to go to the local meet-ups and read a few books. Moreover, I'll add practising the guitar as an extra hobby. First of all, it's close to meditating for me and I can easily do it daily for a couple of minutes. Second, I want to propose to my girlfriend in April with singing a song to her. So, I have to practice. ------------------------- As always, I probably have too many too hard goals. But I'll adapt the challenge.

So, I handed in my dissertation. Yay! There is still a lot of bureaucracy to work through and, in a few months, my defence. But! It's time to focus on improving myself again. Right now I'm too hung over and unmotivated to come up with a clever theme, so I'll just stick to the basics: movement, dieting and learning. Moving: Tracking steps Working out Running The goal here is to move every day in some way or another. In particular, I want to walk a bit more overall. Last challenge I managed about 8000 steps per day on average and I want to get that up to 9000. Should be relatively simple by going to the grocery store more often. Next: my bodyweight workout routine is very scalable and I want to try to do it as often as possible with lowered intensity. Additionally, I want to go running about twice a week. But depending on the weather I might substitute a longer walk. Dieting: Tracking food Tracking weight At the moment I sit at 94kg. A year ago I was at 83kg... Well... In order to get back down, I won't follow any specific heuristics. I will track my food intake and try to reduce my calories a bit. But in this challenge, it's more about learning to be conscious about what I eat. In particular, I want to reduce my carbs a bit. I'll aim for under 200 grams per day, but, as mentioned, it's more about being conscious. Learning: Studying Practising the guitar I have to learn to use my new free time. In order to do that in a productive way, I will try to sit down every day for 15 minutes and learn/study something. That'll most likely be Polish, Japanese, Go or C++. Hopefully, I'll cycle through all of them regularly. And to have something more focussed, I'll try to practise the guitar for a few minutes every day.

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?

The last challenge was kinda mushy... I was sick for a few days, wen to a conference and got sick again at the conference. And even apart from all that I wasn't as sucessful as I wanted to be. So, the goal for the next five weeks will be to do more or less the same again with some small changes. In week 0 I will take it easy, in particular with working out. After playing for over 170 hours -- and not being remotely close to 100% -- the theme will be... Rare Blades of Xenoblade Chronicles 2 I'll be taking quest from four Rare Blades -- not necessarily my favourites, but I wanted to stay spoiler-free and it doesn't really matter after all. (Design-challenge for the next time: Build quests around the field skills of the Blades.) Mythra's Quest: Write/work on the introduction of my thesis. (Open goal.) Write one page about each of the four ideas I have for my thesis. There are two parts of my PHD thesis I can reasonably work on. Firstly, the introduction. Here I have to write about a few different things and stitch them together in a meaningful way. There is no clear goal, hence I won't aim for any amount of output. But I'll track the number of pages I've written to get a sense of progress. Secondly, I have four different ideas/approaches, which are more or less independent from each other, which I have to flesh out. Writing a page about each of them and how they could/should work seems like a good start. Poppi's Quest: Work out 2 times a week. Go running once a week. Read Simple & Sinister. Working out is still my number 1 priority this year. But after being sick for effectively 10 days I feel super sluggish. So, the goal is to actually do the workouts no matter how intense they are. Firstly, two workouts a week which may include Yoga, bodyweight training or bouldering. Secondly, I want to run more. But as it is something I always struggle with, I aim for once a week. As spring came crashing down on us here in Munich, I have no excuses here. Thirdly, I want to start kettlebell training and, thus, I will read Simple & Sinister. And after watching a few YouTube videos I'll probably start by incorporating one or two kettlebell exercises into my workouts. I want to start slow, as I still have many back problems. Dromarch's Quest: Track calories and macros 7 days a week. Stay below 2400 kcal 5 days a week. Meditate 4 days a week. I still struggle with my diet. In order to get back on track I will do a little bit less and focus more. Firstly, tracking is the key, as always. Secondly, I want to stay below 2400 kcal and to see whether that's enough to start losing weight again. My TDEE is around 2300 kcal, so this goal should be a good start. I will also try to reduce carbs as much as possible, but I won't focus on that. Thirdly, I want to and need to re-start meditating. Before getting sick it went reasonably well, however, I did it not often enough. It seems to help, so I want to prioritise it more. Pandoria's Quest: Practise the guitar 3 times a week. Draw something 3 times a week. Read 150 pages. As usually, I struggle with my hobbies. I try to do less in order to achieve more. Firstly, I still want to learn a love song on the guitar to play for my girlfriend. And playing the guitar has also a similar effect on my mind as meditating. Secondly, I realised last challenge how much I enjoy drawing again. So, I want to do that more, too. In order to focus my creative energy, I will try to work on a short comic called Hellgirl. The basic plot is that an old knight rescues a baby from a monster. He then finds out that the baby is the daughter of the devil and he starts a journey to hell to bring her back home. I won't put too much effort into this, since I don't want to stress myself. But, whenever possible, I'll draw something relevant for this story. Thirdly, I want to finish Die Donau -- a book about the historical and cultural impact of the river Danube. I have about 300 pages left, but I aim low with 150 for this challenge. And now... Let's go to Elysium together!!

I'm not doing an organized, graded list of goals. With a nice theme. It just won't be possible. Here's a whole list of the crap I'll be doing this challenge. Working 30 hours a week 12 credit hours in school Practicing Flamenco guitar studying spanish studying mandarin hitting the gym (cardio, kettlebells, weightlifting) eating paleo-ish publishing a journal article (leftover from grad school) painting prepping for a journey overseas I guess I'll at least organize these somehow, and Oh shit, maybe there's a theme after all, with goals named for famous Chinese sages. Goal 1, Sun Ssu Mo -- TCM Paleo. Sun Suu Mo was a Taoist sage whose main claim to fame were his writing on Traditional Chinese Medicine, and much of what he wrote concerned how the diet affects the balance of chi. All in all, the dietary aspect of TCM seeks to balance out elements, and the result is a well-balanced variety of foods, which is the same finding that modern/Western biology based nutritional science has come to... go figure. I'm going to brush up on my TCM. I had a phase in college where I was obsessed with Traditional Chinese Medicine so I have a few books, including a cookbook with a big ole reference describing how foods fit the elements and such. Getting familiar with this may also help me understand the foods I eat when I go to China. Basically, it's paleo with rice. Most of what I eat now is meat, veggies, and rice or potatoes. And, I'll play around with trying to balance elements in my meals. (but without forgetting macros). I'm going to allow variance on this for breakfast, because right now I'm not sure how to comfortably avoid bread at that meal. Everything that I can cook myself from scratch is pretty much acceptable. And stop eating donuts you fool! Goal 2, Ta Mo -- Exercise and Discipline Ta Mo was the Chinese name of Bodidharma, the wandering Indian yogi who travelled to China in introduced Shaolin monks to yoga and founded Chan, aka Zen, buddhism in China. Basically, as a yogi he believed that physical fitness provided the foundation upon which one could build a practice of mindfulness and spirituality. He was known for enduring extremely long periods of meditation. He is said to have cut off his own eyelids so that he wouldn't fall asleep during mediation. He preferred to meditate in the caves surrounding the Shaolin temple, and when a fellow monk asked him about what he focused on, he said he would "listen to the ants' screaming." Exercise and discipline. Go to the gym. I'll repeat last challenge's goal. 1/week is passing, 2/week is good, 3/week is great. Goal 3, Kong fuzi -- Be Rational and Responsible AKA, Confucius. I actually don't know that much about Confucius. And I just spent a few minutes on wikipedia and I have a lot to learn. But basically, what pops into mind (other than fortune cookies) are notions of being rational, responsible, and dutiful, etc. So this goal is just about doing my research on how to make this voyage to China happen and work on being responsible about it. The whole ESL teacher in China thing can be either my downfall or an opportunity for positive change and self-improvement, or I can just go to China and hide from my personal problems by drinking shit tons of baijiu and fucking around for years. Make a thoughtful To-do list of things to do to get to China and make this an adventure of self-improvement. Goal 4, Lao Tzu -- Learn the Way Yeah. yeah... supposed, but probably mythical, founder of Taoism. Taoism is all about understanding, accepting and adapting to the Tao, the way, and trying to live by it. Keep studying Mandarin and Chinese culture so I'll be able to adapt and roll with the punches while I learn a new culture.

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!

My last challenge went quite okay; the main problem was being too inconsistent. Logic dictates that I do the exact same quests by my insights from the last weeks. But, of course, I want more! So, I do add one or two things and we will see how it goes.... Theme-wise I'll go for my favourite comic of all times: HUNTER X HUNTER And of course I will use the King, Warrior, Magician, Lover classification again. Took me a while to figure out who's who, as all four protagonists show all four characteristics throughout the run of the manga. In the end it doesn't matter, obviously.... Here are the quest. It seems a lot, but mostly they are from last challenge plus some small things I mostly do anyway. And I start in week 0 -- i.e. today! -- but I probably won't push myself too hard. Details/descriptions will come later. Leorio's Quest: Find at least 2 concrete questions for the 5 "open areas" in my dissertation. Write at least 20 pages for the introduction or application chapters of my thesis. Getting my PHD is still the main goal for 2018 and I want to hand in my thesis in summer. Last challenge I tried to write many pages, but it didn't go too well. Firstly, I was unmotivated. Secondly, I have quite a few things to do for the project I work in. (An interactive school book for iPads.) So I want to do things a little bit different. Two weeks ago I had an official feedback talk with my advisor and one thing he told me is I should try to "impress". That petrifies me a bit right now, but because of that I want to find a few more small results even though my thesis won't grow in volume. Hence, the first step will be to come up with intersting questions. I have about five parts in my thesis where I have ideas, but which are barren at the moment. I will try to come up with as many reasonable, interesting question for each; but a minimum of two seems sensible. Apart from that I want to work on the introduction and the chapters about my algorithm/software. Here I can simply use the page count as a measure of progress. Overall, this can be a very easy quest. The first part shall! be done in this week and the second part can! be done in the next. Killua's Quest: Work out 2 times a week. Design and implement an easy & simple movement routine in the morning. Go running once a week. I still have back and shoulder problems/pains, but I want to go for more strength training if possible. Hence, I will do two workouts a week, but "unofficially" I will aim for a third one which then can be a bit easier. I also want to look into kettlebell training. Last week I dug out my fitness bands (or whatever they are called...) and tried some easy back/shoulder exercises. As a huge Katy Bowman fanboy I want to get into moving more again. In particular, I'd like to have a simple, easy and fast routine I can do in the morning. Three exercises in three minutes or something like that. During this challenge I will work on that. And I'd like to run more often and more consistently. Kurapica's Quest: Track calories and macros 7 days a week. Stay below 200 grams of carbs or 2400 kcal 5 days a week. Meditate 4 days a week. As I already said in @Cataleya's challenge: Obviously I will continue tracking my progress. During the last challenge I realised that I eat too much in general and too many carbs in particular. I haven't gained any weight; but I want to lose a few pounds, so something has to change. 2400 kcal is my base metabolic rate and 200 grams of carbs seems a good start, too, considering the numbers from last challenge. I also want to continue meditating as it seems to help with my anxiety and other psychological problems. I aim for daily, of course, but 4 times a week as during last challenge seems to be a nice minimum. Gon's Quest: Practise the guitar 4 times a week. Read 220 pages. Draw something 4 times a week. I was not super consistent with my guitar practises, but I did it often enough during the last challenge.But I have to search for new songs to be more goal oriented. Reading is still a big problem. Last challenge I finished a 174 pages book, so for this time I aim for 50 pages a week plus something extra in week 0. I plan to read more often in bed at night -- instead of playing with my phone -- and also more on my way to work. That time is usually "reserved" for playing video games. But until May (Dark Souls!!!) I will only play a few Xenoblade Chronicles 2 DLC's and a bit of The Escapists 2. It's a fantastic game, but I'm not so hooked, that I cannot stop. Maybe Hollow Knight once it releases on the Switch... So, there's little reason not to read during that time! Bonus challenge: I also have three new comic books I want to (need to!) read as soon as possible. In order to get more comfortable with my various hobbies I will try to focus on one more thing. After a poll in the NF Academy Facebook group it was decided that this "thing" will be drawing. To be precise: drawing comics. Probably I will do sketches and character studies for one of my epic fantasy stories, such that I don't have to create new characters. I want to share the drawings here and in the Facebook group, but I'm not sure yet whther I'll scan them or be lazy and take bad pictures wih my mobile phone... This might seem like a lot. But combining guitar and drawing basically means: sit down for 20 minutes every day and do something you enjoy. Sound easy!

Something along these lines: RH - do everything workout and care related. Ignore food missions if I wish. Get my workout room set up Read - anything Prep for my game - been very short on it lately Placeholder music: Not metal, fantastic work.

Hey Scouts! I took a long break with the Rangers while feeling very down and out about the job rut I was in. I have since acquired new employment, and will be moving this weekend. In the midst of all of the change, I am going to get back into my scouting roots. My scouting is a little different as a swimmer, but still aiming for distance while constantly adding improvement on speed Since this is about the 5th challenge of 2017, I think I might have a plan for success. By my count, there are 37 weeks left of 2017. By the end of the year my goals are: To be active for most of the day To kick my habit of buying and eating processed food To learn to relax and de-stress In order to get a little closer to those year goals, I am going to take a stab at the following for May: Swim 1 mile each day Aim for 30-minute mile by end of May Ditch my Starbucks Habit Stick with Homemade French Press and Home Cold Brew Practice Guitar daily Play Everything is Wonderful by Everclear to the end by the end of the month

I've been challenging with the druids... ... focusing learning what's best for my mind and body I've learned a few things. 1) being mindful is central to my health and fitness journey 2) eating paleo calms my cravings and is delicious and makes me lose weight 3) I need to lift, stretch, and generally move more 4) I need more money to live like I wanna live 5) playing guitar fires me up and motivates me... hence heavy metal themed challenge This challenge is all about returning to the heavy metal shit, the barbells and the music, that drives me... but also bringing with me the senses of taking care of myself and managing stress etc, that I learned over in druid town. Goal 1: Manage Stress on the Road I said it in my last two challenges, mindfulness and my zazen practice will be at the center of all my challenges. I actually managed to sit in zazen (formal Zen mediation) for 44 days straight in the last couple months. But I've fallen off that wagon and need to get back on again. I'm also planning to go on a Zen meditation retreat sometime this year. Paired with zazen is a little yoga routine that I'm doing to improve my lotus position and posture that is really useful for keeping my legs and hips limber. I also cut out (nearly) all caffeine for 30 days straight last challenge. That has been massively helpful with my sleep patterns, stress levels, and mindfulness. Do zazen and stretching/yoga daily. Avoid caffeine. Goal 2: Don't Put the Cucumber in Your Pants. Eat It! I started eating paleo in the middle of last challenge after about of month of trying vegetarianism... paleo is better. The main problem with being vegetarian is there are too many carbs and I tend to binge on those. In just two weeks I've watched my carb cravings subside to nothing. I've lost 7-8 pounds and my stomach is less bloated. I poop twice a day with no effort. And I'm more satisfied with my meals. I even fasted yesterday without even blinking at it. Eat paleo. Goal 3: Looks are more important than sounds This is the big one. I need to get back into going to the gym regularly. My diet is shaping up, but I need to exercise. I get a lot of activity at work, but I want to work on shaping up and gaining strength and endurance. Go to the gym twice a week. LUYL1: Be My Own Manager. I've got 4 job applications for promotions at Amazon (where I currently work as a Tier I warehouse grunt). The highest one is a level 4 programmer job and I've got a phone interview on Friday. If I were to get it, it would be a huge influx of income, and I'd have to hit the books to catch up, and I'd have to manage the new money coming in. Pursue job opportunities, gain skills, manage income. LUYL2: Don't Miss Rehearsals I also started seriously playing my guitar last challenge. It used to be all I did in high school, at great expense to grades and social interactions... I got really good. But then during college I put a lot more energy into school, and in grad school I almost never played. I thought a lot of music that I used to know was lost to me. But since I started playing seriously again... well at one point it literally all came flooding back to me. Once I woke up all that dormant musical and muscle memory, I just started playing guitar solos I thought I'd forgotten, and could remember songs again. This really picked up my spirits and I've noticed far fewer of the negative thoughts that used to bother me and put my mood in the toilet. I just feel happier because I play the guitar again. But I need to maintain my skills, and improve my technique and expand my repertoire. Practice guitar drills daily. Learn a new song each week.

Okay starting today, I am taking in the sights as I breeze into a new town of regular habits, creativity, and a stronger me! I'm looking for 75% success on all my goals! Goal 1: 6 cups of water per day - in meh/okay process Goal 2: PT 3 times per week (min of 15 minutes per session) (will take note of extra sessions as big wins) - in very minimal process Goal 3: practice guitar for 15 mins every day (following book - report on chapters worked and how it feels) - in pretty good process Goal 4: 30 minute writing sessions 4 times per week (free writes would be great - editing only after initial 30 mins) - not started yet Goal 5: Bonus Goal -- set up workout area and create workout program binder -- put it up and write it down!! Simple in detail, strong in desire, tiny steps expected!!

I had so much fun with the Rebels during my respawn challenge - and my life is still weird enough - that I think I'll hang around here a little longer! Thinking about my last challenge, I was reminded more than anything of one of the big themes of the lovely Undertale - "Determination". If you haven't played the game, it's more than just gritting your teeth and carrying on; it's a force that lets the characters come back from the brink of death, and even rewrite their own stories and those of the other characters in their world. For those who weren't following along for the last one, I was basically respawning on the tail end of a nasty few months with depression. It went really well (thank goodness), and I'm doing better than I have in a while, maybe since around this time last year. I was working on rewriting my story, as it were. I wasn't sure whether or how to do this challenge, since I'll be leaving next week for my annual week-off-the-grid on retreat, which I expect to be a wonderful time. The tricky thing about those trips away is that they tend to mess with my routine when I get back, so I think that's going to be my focus for the challenge: staying determined (especially once I get back), and locking down the benefits that I'm starting to see from the new and renewed habits I built last month. Also, y'know, it gives me an excuse to post about Undertale. Thus, the goals: Cooking with Undyne I've been eating a lot of good food the last several weeks, but my cooking has been getting a bit repetitive. We can't have that; cooking is one of my favorite hobbies! This challenge, my goal is to try two new recipes per week (aside from the week I'm away) and post photos and instructions where applicable. Yum! Showtime with Mettaton One of my favorite parts about last challenge was getting into a solid routine of practicing my guitar, and seeing lots of progress. I even learned, recorded and posted a song (?!). In addition to keeping up with this habit, I'm going to make it a goal to complete three online technique lessons per week either in guitar or mandolin, which I'm hoping to start learning in the next few weeks. More bonus achievements like last time (and extra ratings for Mettaton) if I record another song for posterity. Training with Toriel It's important to be ready for when the monsters attack. I've been doing lots of crosstraining to get ready for a couple of upcoming races (a 10k on April 1, and a Tough Mudder in June), and I'm still in the process of getting comfortable with a more regular workout routine again. I don't want to set any particular goals yet for the mix of running vs. weights or outdoor adventures, since I had fun doing lots of each last challenge, but I want to aim for at least four workouts per week. Tea with Muffet Finally, I need to keep working on rebuilding some of the social connections that fell by the wayside when I was fighting my way out of my cave of misery. This goal is to do something social with at least two friends during each week, or at the minimum track them down for a proper phone/Skype conversation. (Thanks to everyone who keeps following along!)

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.

It had been days since Red left Banon's home and set out towards the lair of a Boss who terrorized the old man. As he follows the road, He comes across a fork in the road. "OK now let's see, According to this, At the fork in the road, take the middle path'... What the? There's no middle path! That's gotta be the stupidest thing I've ever heard!" Red sat next to a pond to ponder contemplate his next move. "OK, so there's two roads, but according to this note, there should be a third path around here somewhere." After searching all around the path for an hour, he finds nothing. He sits next to some frogs who decided to become his audience as he was searching. "Bah! These notes are useless! How could there be a third pathway at a Fork?! There are no other forks around here and Baram definitely came by this way!" Red yells in frustration. "I know the way, Ribbit!" A voice calls out. "HOLY FROGLEGS!! You can talk!?" A Frog stood up and presented itself before Red "...OK, Ribbit, that was a bit insensitive. But yes, I know the way, Ribbit!" "Can you tell me then?! I'll reward you with all of the bugs you can eat!" The Frog hesitated. "What? What's the matter? You don't like bugs?" The Frog sighed. "I'll help you, if you help me first Ribbit. Change me back." Red looked at the slimy creature puzzled. "Uhhh... Back into what? A tadpole? That's a bit beyond my power there, buddy." "No! Not into a Tadpole, you Ribbit Schmuck! Into a Human!! Ribbit I want to be a human again!" The Frog squeaked. "I was a Bard until a witch cursed me and transformed me into this creature Ribbit! 'to always be croaking along with the other pests' as she put it. Then I travelled along with these frogs and saw these bandits Ribbit! but I wouldn't ask them for help, they'd eat me or sell me to make a quick buck! Ribbit! I know you won't do that! Help me, please, and I'll tell you how to get into their lair! Ribbit!" Red looked at the frog's eyes, he was telling the truth. "OK, I'll help you. What do I have to do?" Water - You're going to need to store a lot of water into your body, trust me this is how it works, Obtain a half-gallon bottle of water, and make sure you finish it twice a week! Wake up/Going to sleep Earlier - The pathway opens up, at all odd hours of the day, You're going to need to go to sleep and wake up earlier, aim for 11PM and wake up at 8AM Practice Guitar - The bandits whistle a couple of bars to open up the door, my frog ears can't pinpoint the actual tune, but if you play some chords, I should be able to pinpoint the melody! Try learning the Chords on this conveniently placed guitar, by practicing for 15 mins every day. 3 Circuits - You'd better get stronger if you're planning on fighting these guys! Might want to try to add another circuit to your routine! My circuit will be as follows with a 30 sec break in between each exercise and a 1:30 sec break in between each circuit: Warm-up 15 Push-ups + 1-4 Punch Combo 20 BW Squats + Teep Kicks Pull-ups + Randomized Punch Combos and Spinning Elbows 20 Lunges + Grappled Knees 45 Sec Planks Stretching

Hey Druids All of my previous challenges have been with the Assassins, but I hope you don't mind me visiting, since my goals this go-round are closer to this group's style. After some adventuring... I seem to have taken an arrow to the knee, and to let my body recover I'm going to lay off of high-impact workouts and stick to yoga, pilates and meditation along with tracking my food this challenge. I'll have to see how my knees and strength are doing after this challenge to know if I'm ready to go back to running around and jumping off of things, but for now I need the (deceptively, I know) calmer discipline of re-balancing and core/stabilizer strengthening given by these disciplines, which are beneficial all the time any way but this time I'm just going to take everything else off the table and focus on them, since I've completely neglected them in other times that I've had them on my challenges ^^; So to keep these issues from sneaking up on me (or getting worse from my boneheaded abuse of my joints the moment they stop hurting perpetually) I'm going to try to focus there exclusively. So, much like a Dragonborn visiting High Hrothgar, I'm hoping to visit the temple and learn from the wisdom of those who probably have WAAAAY more experience with Yoga, Pilates and meditation than I do. Main Quest - Earn Your Thu'um (getting back on my feet) Sidequest 1 - Focus: Meditation. I can try to control external factors as much as I want, but until my mind's in some semblance of order there's not going to be much permanent progress with other stuff. Meditate 6 days a week, at least 10min. Sidequest 2 - Food: Between the knee injuries and lack of food discipline during the holidays, I've regained all of the weight that I had lost and gained extra back. *groan* So along with the exercise to try to burn some cals and rebuild some muscle tone on the weight front, I'm going to try to make sure that I track my food every weekday (I use Lifesum, I'll try to figure out how to link that on here) and even just the act of tracking food can do a lot to control intake by making oneself aware of the actual amount going in. Track food 5 days a week Sidequest 3 - Fitness: Yoga and Pilates - 3 30min sessions of Pilates (M/W/F) and at least 2 shorter (15-20 min) Yoga sessions (T/H) to work on core strength and muscle/tendon strength around joints. Work out 5 days a week, but GENTLY and listen to my body. Lifequest - Guitar. There’s something about playing music that’s very therapeutic, plus it helps keep certain pathways in the brain working and I could use a bit more organization there. Plus I just really like playing guitar (so long as no one’s there to hear how bad I am lol) Went ahead and made a tracking worksheet for this challenge, linked here

For my first challenge with the Scouts (hi everyone!) I'm channeling my inner Dwarf. ("Keep breathing . . . that's the key . . . breathe . . . *puff puff*") For anyone who's just meeting me, I tackled my last challenge with the Assassins, and realized I didn't care for bodyweight exercises and goals as much as I used to - my exercise goals these days are all about improving my running. So, here I am! At the beginning of my last challenge I hit a major milestone, and ran my first half marathon. My long-term goals from here are to keep slowly building my mileage base, and hopefully run a full marathon in the fall. Needless to say, I'll have lots of questions for you guys as time goes on! These days, I'm also doing barbell strength training on the side, which has made me feel like a stronger and better person in general. My life goals, on the other hand, are more in the short term, and pretty much all about rebuilding habits that I've been lagging on in the last few months. On the Hunt: - Increase max long run mileage to 15 miles With my half marathon goal under my belt, it's time to begin the long hunt for my next big milestone: the full marathon. If I stick to my training plan, I ought to be able to safely increase my max long run distance by a couple miles this challenge. This would be epic. - Work out five times weekly My normal schedule has me exercising six days a week, either doing runs or weights. If I do something else that's really strenuous that day, that counts. Missing one day a week is acceptable, if not ideal. (Sometimes weekends are crazy, y'know?) This specific goal should help me stick to the routine I need to achieve the bigger milestones. Party Like A Dwarf: - Practice barding (guitar and singing) five times weekly I've picked up music a bit later than most, but guitar has become really fun, and I've been very lazy about practicing this year. I saw rapid progress last time I had a regular practice schedule, and I'd love to get back to being comfortable playing for people, open mic nights, and such. Maybe learn a few more Irish drinking songs. Translate the Ancient Runes: - Practice Spanish (Duolingo, any other program) 5 times weekly As part of my current school program, I'll be traveling to Guatemala this summer for a month-long crash course in Spanish. Obviously, if I actually know some Spanish beforehand I'll probably get more out of the experience, so I'm going to start trying to brush up on the basics this month. This will be a new habit to build, so it might be the hardest goal on here. If you've read this far, thank you for sticking with me! For all the other Scouts, I'm looking forward to getting to know you this challenge. "Baruk Khazâd!"

Forgive me, Dread-Father, forgive me Night Mother, and forgive me, my Brothers and Sisters - I have turned my back on the Path for far too long.Give me a chance to regain my strength so that I may fulfill Contracts once more. Life has a way of grabbing a hold of you and not letting go - and over the last couple years mine has done just so. This challenge will be my attempt to grab at least part of my life by the horns and lead it in the right direction. GOAL: Lift Heavy Things [Starting Strength, 3x a week] I will be going back to the beginning of my Starting Strength program, since it's been a while since I've done any heavy lifting. I will be doing simple lifts from home three times a week - 3 lifts each day. I am pretty much going from just the bar for most of the lifts, so I have a ton of space to improve here. GOAL: Sneaky Assassin Fitness [Bodyweight, flexibility, gymnastic, HIIT and combat training, 3x a week] In addition to lifting weights, I'd like to be able to touch my toes and throw some punches again. Hence, this goal is exactly that. I want to improve my flexibility, strengthen additional muscles, improve my speed and add back some basic combat training to my weekly routine. This will be quite simple this first challenge, just to get the ball rolling. GOAL: Watch What I Eat [Primal/Paleo for the duration of the challenge] My diet has fallen by the wayside this last year. Therefore, this goal has been designed to get started with a small step in the right direction. I'm not logging calories, checking ratios, or limiting my food intake - I'm keeping it simple. This challenge my only goal is to eat all primal and paleo foods. Going from spoonfuls of sugar to healthy, more balanced meals will make a huge difference and is a great starting point (my weakness? Sugar. This is not going to be easy for me). GOAL: Excellence in Music [2 hours of daily guitar practice] My life quest for this challenge is pretty simple - two hours of focused guitar practice, every day. This time will not include warm ups or breaks - with those included, I'm looking at two sets a day of 90 minutes each. Putting in the time is my only goal this challenge - though I have some specific things I'll be working toward and that I will be elaborating on as the challenge progresses. That's it for the goals. Some quick linkage: My Epic Quest Log - From Apprentice to Master... My Character (and goals) Monkey Tamers United (YAY ACCOUNTABILIBUDDIES!)

I'll fill on more details here over the next few days but I just wanted to get something down now so I'm 'pot committed' to the next challenge. I've been away from the boards for a long long time but I feel now is right for me to make my return: on September 17th I will be taking part in a Tough Mudder so in preparation for this Epic Quest goal, I'm going to throw down with my old pals in the Assassins guild and partake in a four week challenge to get myself straightened out. My goals will be: 1. Eat clean- no more sugar loaded crap, no more unhealthy snacks, no more liquid calories. (before the challenge starts I'll work out how I'm going to quantify this). 2. Start running- I'm not a cardio kind of guy preferring to stick with my bodyweight strength training for ny calorie burning however a Tough Mudder is going to require at least some sort of running about so I'm going to have to get used to it. I'm going to aim low and just try one run per week at this point however in future I think I'll have to make this more frequent. For the purpose of this challenge though, I want to just make a start on it. 3. Plyometrics- I do a lot of pushups and pullups and squats but nothing requiring sudden bursts of movements. My goal therfore is to do at least one work out each week that involves plyometric explosive movements. 4. For my life goal I'm going to do something entirely unrelated and start playing the guitar again. It's been at least 5 years since I rocked the axe and I really miss it at times so I'm going to commit to doing 3 hours of guitar practice every week. I'm going to keep a log of how long I play each day and hopefully it'll add up to 3 hours by the end of week. I'll fill in more details later and possible added some pictures and stuff to make this more exciting but this is me committing to the next challenge- I can't walk out of it now!

With Akatsuki no Yona gifs, because i feel like it. Maintenance goals: Judo twice per week as much as possible Stick to budget, track expenditures Walk 70k + steps per week Talk a day/evening off per week to spend at home Incremental goals: Sleep - in bed by Midnight or earlier! - Weeks 1 and 2 get to work by 9:15. - Weeks 3 & 4 get to work by 9 am. Shoulder maintenance: Hand stand practice - every day, however brief Bridge practice - every day, even if only one Stretch daily, foam roll if necessary Gif not relevant, just cool. Guitar practice - 3x per week? Minimum 15 minutes. Juggle Less things: Re-read Essentialism. Because it clearly didn't take the first time. Bonus: Get out more. Female training camp this weekend, possibly.

"OK! This time will be it! I'm going to do it!" Red exclaims to himself! Chest puffed out, hands raised determinedly in the air, ready to take on the world! "Hey you! Get back to work!" a voice cries out from behind him! "Y-yes, Mistress!" He shrieks as he resumes his job As the days pass, Red notices that the weeks fly by, rather quickly. The general labor is tough, and he has gotten somewhat stronger, but something is missing. This strength is... Raw, unrefined, incomplete. Red understands far too well that the muscle that goes forgotten shrinks and withers away. Friends and companions that he doesn't put the effort into maintaining communication will leave him behind. Knowledge that isn't constantly refreshed will be lost in time. "But not this time!" Red says to himself, "I will not let this happen!" Tired as he was from his work, Red was determined to not let his other stats fall, not while he has a chance! Armed with items that'll help him improve in some areas of his life, he starts his challenge armed with high hopes and seemingly random stuff! Practice Guitar 3 times a week! (for at least 30 minutes) Pts - Cha +3 Dex +2 Build up to working out 3 times a week (Advanced Bodyweight routine by Steve) Pts - Sta +3 Str +1 Check Nerdfitness community once a week (to update the community and check on others if there's enough time) Pts - Cha +2 Reading every day for 30 minutes! Pts - Wis +3 Cha +1 Monday: Comic books (Starting with Marvel's Civil War) Tuesday: Catholic Bible (Student's version) Wednesday: Physics of the Human Body Thursday: Art of War (then Marcus Aurelius' Meditations, then something else philosophical) Friday: Human Anatomy: Descriptive and Surgical