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Greetings, all. Much has changed for me recently. Switched assignments. New assignment is in Japan. Family stayed home in the states (this is a pretty common military thing known as 'geo-bachelor' -- not a dissolution of the family but an extended period of working away from home). Read Body by Science and a bunch of other stuff that convinced me that I really can't avoid strength training any longer. I also decided to ditch the idea of a car altogether and ride to and from work, so I bought a mid-grade hybrid bike and have started that adventure. It's perfect timing for a new challenge! 1. Use the F=ma. Strength training using HIT or HIIT principles at least once per week. I met a training buddy shortly after arriving. He loves HIIT, and I wanted to try HIT after reading about it. We decided to combine our passions for a HIIT workout on Monday, a core-focused HIT session on Wednesday, and a Big 5 HIT session on Friday. We made this plan knowing that a Monday or Friday is inevitably going to drop out on occasion and we wanted to ensure at least a couple of workouts per week. We're also monitoring ourselves for signs of overtraining, and are willing to cut this back as necessary since we're both fift-ish. Thus, once per week is meeting goal. Twice per week is awesome. Thrice per week and I'm drinking a celebratory beverage. 2. Ride my bike to work at least three times per week. I made the decision to bike even though the train is extremely cheap and convenient because before coming to Japan I had fallen in hate with my commute. It was 30 to 40 minutes of sitting twice a day, and even though I have to walk ten minutes on either side of the train ride I still want to avoid sitting. I live almost exactly 5k from work, and it's about a 20-minute ride taking traffic into consideration. Doing that at least 3 times weekly will give me 120 minutes of riding, which is decent and allows for the occasional rain and/or recovery day. Four times in a week is awesome. Five times is ideal. If I ride four or five times and also complete a weekend ride, then I'm drinking a celebratory beverage. 3. Learn at least three new Japanese phrases and five words per week. I got an apartment off base in a fully Japanese neighborhood where store clerks and restauranteurs don't speak a ton of English. The learning curve is steep and ubiquitous. Want a pizza? Amazon delivery? Ask for directions? Good luck, yank. Learning at least three common phrases and five words that I could swap into those phrases is the goal. If I double it, I'm drinking a celebratory beverage. 4. Do something social at least once per week. I've been away from home for almost two months now, and I'm not going to lie -- it gets lonely. In order to keep myself from going stir crazy in my tiny little monk cell of an apartment, I need to do something with other people at least once a week. There's an opportunity to play bass with a little practice group, and there's a weekly dinner hosted by a group off base, and there are friends to ask out to lunch. If I do one thing per week, goal. Besides, I need some company for all these celebratory beverages. Kanpai!

Oh, how life is feeling more and more like a battle every day lately, but I'm doing my best to keep fighting! Quest One: Movement I am currently finishing off my doctor's "minimal and gentle movement only" restrictions and will be back to normal activity allowed by next Tuesday (though I'm cheating and going on at least one as-gentle-as-possible hike this weekend). Last challenge I made 5 workouts so I'm going to be pushing myself all the way up to 6 workouts. ? Hey, progress is progress, right? Quest Two: Nutrition Quest 1: Diet Coke! I'm going to keep my goal at one Diet Coke per day (though I'm already forgiving today because it's a 12 hour workday and I very well might need it just to survive) and I'm going to try to push myself to have at least 2 days this challenge with no Diet Cokes at all. The whole one Diet Coke a day thing was tough last challenge but I made it, so that's my gentle push to keep on improving myself. Quest 2: make/eat at least one veggie-heavy dish every week. It might not be truly vegetarian, but veggie-heavy is good enough. This theoretically should be fairly easy with my Sidekick app, but Lord knows when I get stressed I auto-default to an endless stream of chicken fingers with mac and cheese. I'm hoping if something tasty and healthy is in the fridge, I might be more tempted to grab it since leftovers are fast and take very little brainpower. Quest Three: Work Ah, school. The source of many of my joys and most of my stress. Quest 1: Keep up the department Instagram posting. Once a week is the goal, but more is always awesome! Quest 2: I have a meeting tomorrow to chat with the local university's MA in Romance Languages program. I was going to push it off another school year or two, but I have a chance at getting some tuition reimbursement now so I'm teetering on the edge of just biting the bullet. However, I am still very concerned about my ability to do this work quickly and easily (I can do it, but it takes me more time than I feel like I might have available). To prep, I am going to read at least one book in Spanish. Not sure which one right now, but I do already own Lety alta su voz so that stands a good chance at being the book I pick. It's 29 chapters and 208 pages, according to the Internet (since I don't have the book in front of me right now). Quest 3: Prep for French 2 next year! I need to write a course description and rationale no later than November 1st and have the first unit fully prepped no later than November 28th. I am technically currently on day 9 of about 21 in unit 1, though I do need to go back and improve days 6 and 7 a bit before I move on to the next focus. Quest 4: Japanese study for future expansion. I'm going to stick with Mango Languages for this one and I would like to do my daily reviews (hopefully more or less daily!) and finish chapter 2, which is 19 lessons away. Quest Four: Rest I am the epitome of working way too hard without rest until your mind and body step in to force you to stop...I'm trying to get better, I really am, but I keep on doing stupid things like asking to expand the French program at work which keep on adding to my plate ? Quest 1: I want to work on that log cabin quilt from the block exchange! It's getting cold and another quilt would be nice. But seeing as I spent the entire last challenge just talking about this and not actually doing anything with it, my goal is going to be to just make 1 block. I need 3 more to finish the layout of the top, and honestly once I sit down and do it, a single block doesn't take terribly long. Quest 2: There is a good chance that we will have a new dog at home before the end of this challenge...if that does end up happening, I want to spend some time playing with and training that dog! Specific goals will vary wildly since they will of course depend on what dog we get when and how much it already knows. But we're looking at the biggest local shelter on Nov. 12 which gives me two weeks with the dog (IF we find one immediately). My hope is that maybe I can at least get it used to whatever we name it, maybe teach it the command "come" if it doesn't already know that one? Or at least get it comfy at home if it's shy or nervous from the shelter kennels.

A simple Hobbit in Hobbiton, Kareesh never thought about going on an adventure like the well-known Bilbo Baggins. Yet, as is usually the case, adventure finds one whether they want it to or not. For Kareesh, it happened one afternoon as she was outside tending to her herbs. A strange sound reached her pointed ears. She straightened herself and looked around to see what on Middle-Earth could be making that noise. She could scarce believe her eyes. Just a few feet away from her, a giant blue box was appearing out of nowhere. It could only be this strange object that was making that strange sound. Blue eyes watched with curiosity, and with a touch of healthy fear, as it came fully into view. Before she could do anything more than close her gaping mouth, a door suddenly appeared and swung open. Out jumped a male human wearing clothes Kareeh couldn't identify. They looked to be something of a suit, but it's likeness had never been seen before in Hobbiton or the entire Shire. "This is new," the man said pulling on a pair of dark-rimmed spectacles. He peered around before finally noticing Kareesh. "Ah! A native! Could you by any chance tell me where I've landed?" It took her a few moments to find her voice to answer the stranger. "Uh…oh, yes. You're in Hobbiton," she said as politely as her shock would allow her to. "Hobbiton, eh? Never heard of it. And that's strange…" A look came across his face which Kareesh couldn't quite tell what it was. Worry? Confusion? Excitement? Or perhaps a bit of all of them? Before she could contemplate it any further, it was gone replaced by pure excitement. "Anyway, I'm the Doctor, and you are…." "Kareesh. Kareesh Greenhand, sir," she replied. And, though she hardly knew it at the time, this was the start of Kareesh Greenhand's adventures… And with that, I've started on my third challenge. I decided to do a theme this time around, though I couldn't decide if I wanted to do something relating to Middle-Earth or Doctor Who, so I figured "Why not both?" I've never written the Doctor, so sorry if I butchered him. He's surprisingly hard to write about. Anywho, onto the real reason you're here. My challenge. I've taken bits of information from my previous challenges and hopefully I'll do a lot better this time around. Some of the things I've made a bit more broader, which I'm hoping will keep away the discouragement that I often run into about halfway through. Main Quest Get down to 125-130 pounds. Quest #1 - What About Elevensies? As a hobbit, I love to eat. But, once I'm out travelling with the Doctor, nutrient-dense meals are going to be more important and I won't have time to eat chips and dip. For this challenge, I need to track my food intake with MyFitnessPal. I also need to stay in the 1400-1500 calorie range. I'll take a look at this around week 3 and see if I need to do any adjusting on that. Quest #2a - The Road Goes Ever On and On Before the beginning of this challenge, I'm going to be getting myself a pedometer and start tracking how far I've walked in a day. My overarching goal is to walk to Mordor from the Shire, and from Mordor to the Grey Havens. It is very unlikely that I'm going to accomplish all that in 6 weeks, but this is a start. Quest #2b - Run! Okay, I'm not going to be running, but I am going to be moving in that direction. For 5 days a week, I need to be doing something active. Whether that's a long walk, dance cardio, yoga, anything! If I want to be a good companion for the Doctor, then I need to be able to handle myself in dangerous circumstances. Quest #3 - Pop is Rubbish. I Hate Soda Pop. Okay, no, I actually love it, and that's a problem. So, this challenge, I'm going to limit myself to only drinking 2 sodas a week. My husband "has" to have soda in the house, so it's going to be a little bit difficult, but as I found in the past challenge, I can go days only drinking water, so I'm going to do that. Maybe a bit of juice or something if I get the sweet tooth thing going. Life Quest - Pedil edhellen? Though most of the time while travelling with the Doctor, you don't really need to know any other languages thanks to the translation circuit, but sometimes it doesn't always work. Which is why I'm going to be taking this time to learn Japanese. I know a tiny bit, but not a whole lot. So, for 5 days a week, I'm going to be studying Japanese with some text books that I bought.

Introduction: Hi all! I recently completed my first challenge and am ready to try another one! In my first challenge, I sought to lose a bit of pudge, continue running despite the heat and start up some body weight workouts. Overall, it was a success and now I'm going to try building on that success. The extra challenging bit this time will be that my main job has started back up so I'll be busier than last challenge, but I think I can manage (and will re-evaluate if it seems like I've taken on too much). Without further ado, here's what I had in mind. Main Quest: Lose the pudge. Get down to a 68 cm waist. Grading: A = 68-70 cm, B = 70.1-72.0 cm, C = 72.1-73.5 cm Reward: +1 CHA for loss of 0.5 cm or more. Quest 1: Go farther, faster. Farther: Increase my weekly distance to 25 km. I was running 20 km a week for the last challenge, but since I slacked a bit during the break, I'll spend the first half building up to 25 km and in the second half, I'll just run 25 km each week. Week 1: 20 km Week 2: 22 km 20 km Week 3: 24 km 22 km Week 4: 24 km 20 km Week 5: 22 km Week 4 5-6: 25 km 24 km Grading: Will be done for distance over the course of the challenge. A = 113-141 km, B= 112-99 km, C = 85-98 km. A = 110-136 km, B = 97-109 km, C = 83-96 km A = 24 km in the last week, B = 22-23.9 km in the last week, C = 20-21.9 km in the last week Reward: +3 STA note: Revised due to a minor hamstring issue at the end of Week 1. note: Revised due to an unrelated blister acquired during Week 3. Faster: Eventually, I'd like to run 5 km in under 30 minutes. To start working on that goal, I'll be making one of my 5 km runs each week an interval training run. Grading: A = 5-6 interval runs, B = 3-4 interval runs, C = 2 interval runs. Reward: +2 DEX Quest 2: Get stronger Do a full-body body weight workout 2-3 times a week and do some core workouts 5 times a week (to be incorporated into the body weight workouts on overlapping days). By the end of the challenge, I should have completed 15 full body strength workouts and 30 core workouts. Grading: A = 12-15 full body and 24-30 core strength workouts, B = 10-11 full body and 20-22 core strength workouts, C = 9 full body and 18-19 core strength workouts. Reward: +3 STR Quest 3: Prevent injury and burnout. This one is all about keeping myself in good working condition. So I will do some recovery yoga twice a week and also meditate for at least 15 minutes twice a week. Grading: A = 20-24 yoga + meditations, B = 17-19 yoga + meditations, C = 14-16 yoga + meditations. Reward: +2 CON, +2 DEX Life Quest: Learning Japanese. Last time, I tried focusing on getting a better job, but the problem with that is that a lot of the jobs around here require some amount of Japanese language skill (which is fair enough because this is Japan). I'd personally rank myself as having basic skills, but that sometimes feels pretty generous. So I'm going to work on this some more and possibly sign up for the JLPT 5 in December (based on how confident I feel about it by the deadline at the end of September... if not then I'll study for the JLPT 4 next July). This is what I'll be doing: Daily review of flash cards using Anki (both kanji and vocabulary).Spend 1 hour a week studying grammar.Spend 1 hour a week reading manga and looking up words I don't know.Spend 1 hour a week focusing specifically on JLPT vocabulary.Grading: Each task will be evaluated individually based on completion, then weighted equally and averaged together. A = 80-100%, B = 70-79%, C = 60-69%. Reward: +2 WIS Starting measurements Bust/waist/hips: 91.7 cm / 74.0 cm / 94.0 cm Ribcage/navel: 81.5 cm / 85.0 cm Thigh right/left: 54.0 cm / 53.9 cm

So, we all caught up on Skin Game? No? Fine (slackers). I want to use my favorite Dresden Files book for motivation anyway. Why? Because holy crap, here's a challenge that's all vanity for me. It's the summer, and I want to look damned good for the (maybe two) times I hit the beach. Last challenge was a bit ho-hum, as I tried to figure out what I wanted to do with my life and challenges - and then I realized I'm actually at the point where I want to have the goal of "look purdy," rather than "get healthy." Vanity is a sin I'm okay with indulging in. So how am I becoming a Fit, less pudgy Knight of the Summer Court of Fae? Like this: 1) Devour the Chlorofiend. Goal: Eat Primal*. I need to try a different dieting technique. I eat pretty healthy, but noticed a lot of cheats happening because I could fit them in my calorie count and still be under. So no more of that. I'm going to put forth a lot of will to go mostly Primal, with a few caveats. Mainly, I'm allowing peanut butter (because I find the reasoning for not allowing it to be consumed bulled), and allow beans and lentils. I'm also going to allow my pita pocket which I use for lunch - because I realized I'm stressing way too much about trying to make carb/grain free lunches, and that thing is literally the only grain I have. And it's like 4g of Carbs. I can account for that. Hence Primal*. Biggest thing is I want to keep carbs lower than I've been eating (~175-200g/day), and get them around 100g/day. Lower is better, and I'll aim them as such, but definitely no more than 125g/day. Largest issue I foresee is my sudden lack of oatmeal for breakfast, which is a staple of mine. In the mean time, going to track how well this goes by tracking my weight, pictures, and measurements ONCE A WEEK. Photos you guys likely won't get, but the numerical metrics you'll get thrown. 2) Out Run the Blue Beatle. Goal: Finish and entire stadium tour (37 sections) at November Project by the end of the Challenge. I've been running with the November Project on Wednesdays regularly now for something like 6 months. Since we started doing full section sprints, I haven't made it from section 37 to section 1 at all. I usually stall out around 30-ish, and can push myself for a few more before time runs out. So I want to do a whole tour before the challenge ends. I'm currently maxing at 32, so if I just add one extra section per week... 3) A Correspondence Course in Latin Japanese. Goal: 1 Japanese lesson per week; save $100 per week for the Japan Trip in 2015. So May 2015 my dojo is "hosting" a trip to Japan for 2 weeks, where we would tour the country and also get to practice at the Honbu dojo. I want to go so bad, it's ridiculous. So I will. However, I'd like to have some understanding of the Japanese language (beyond noting if someone is asking me a question or suggesting we do something) and I need to save money. So I have a book to learn Japanese for at least a cursory start point. Given I know enough people who speak Japanese, finding someone to talk to later on shouldn't be too hard. But figuring out how to say hello and how are you should be first. Also money. I should have enough wiggle room in my personal budget to toss some extra cash into savings, especially since it looks like I'll be keeping my current gig full time come September - so I don't have to worry about saving money for another round of unemployment. Clearly things could change, but for now, lets go with this. 4) A Part of Camp Kaboom. Goal: 3 workouts per week. Foam roll every workout day. Okay, I have seriously been lacking motivation to do my lifting workouts. Between injuries, and guests, and just general malaise, I need to get my mind moving again. So this is the goal for now. Get back into things. Lift heavy things, and be happy doing it. I left it as a vague "3 workouts" because I may end up doing some running with a friend, which will take place of lifting workouts, just so I do have some time for, you know, myself. These workouts also don't include my regularly scheduled aikido classes (which is about 5-7 hours a week, so not an insignificant amount of time). With any luck this starts motivating my butt more (also because I need to do heavier workouts if I'm doing the Primal* eating plan, which has no specific calorie cap). So that's the goals this time around. I am so much more pumped for this challenge than last challenge. Lets do this.