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Bonjour fellow rebels, I'm Pierre from Courbevoie (near Paris, France), I'm French-American, currently studying economics and management in university. Now for the important stuff, I try to work out as much as I physically am able to, so every 2-3 days depending on how hard I pushed myself in the last workout, because of my time table I can go to the gym every day if I want to, only problem is recovery time. My sports passion is karate, I've been doing it (with a few year break when I moved) since I was eight, and reached the brown belt, and now I'm taking it back up. That's what motivated me to get in shape, in August 2014 I weighed 95kg, and now I'm hovering between 73 and 76 depending on the time of day which I'm quite proud of. I discovered Nerd Fitness two days ago, and the main thing I seriously regret is taking my "before" picture AFTER losing 20kg! Now my goal is to get competitive in "kumite" (no-contact combat) karate, if possible on a national level. I think I definitely qualify as a nerd by most standards, I was diamond 4 in League of Legends last year (even though I took a break for a while and I'm a little rusty, now I'm getting back to it) and whenever I work out I bring my trusty Ipod with me with fantasy audiobooks, or ones about theoretical physics. A few of my recent reads are "From Eternity To Here" by Sean Carroll, and "The Broken Empire" trilogy by Mark Lawrence. Yesterday I followed NF's recommendation to go for the Paleo diet, which I plan to follow except during social occasions. Some of my strengths are -Discipline, I've never had trouble working towards my goals and I plan my "cheat" meals in advance to make them as healthy as possible. -I'm kind of tall, 190cm/6'3, which helps for karate -Incredibly good looking, intelligent and most importantly modest (translation: I try to be funny sometimes). Some of my weaknesses are (at the moment): -Flexibility, I can't do the first flexibility quest on NF yet, that is grab my shins between my ankles and knees with my legs straight. -Squats, I can only do 4 sets of 8 with 20kg with 1 minute 40 second breaks, and that alone leaves me aching for 3 days. -There's a lot of room for improvement in my endurance, I find that after I do two or three katas full speed I'm exhausted. I'm excited to meet the NF community, I'm glad to be here! Pierre

Hi Monks, I'm Blair, I study Karate (Shito-Ryu Itosu-Kai), and I've been getting lazy. I completed my first challenge last May and then kinda lurked away for the rest of the year. I didn't go totally off the rails, though - I still walk to work almost every weekday, I still go to my karate classes twice a week, I still do bodyweight exercises, and I even took up running and stair climbing in the summer with a group of co-workers. The problem now is, living in the frozen north, no one wants to go running and stair climbing indoors can get boring, so many of our group members bail often. Besides, I have some specific personal goals that the others don't, so it's up to me to find other ways to motivate myself and stay accountable... hence, I am posting again. Main Goal I currently hold a brown belt but I may have an opportunity in June to rank for my Shodan-Ho. In addition to Karate I also study Kobudo, and have been taught everything I need to know for my Shodan... I just need to get good enough at it all. What I really need to do is start fine-tuning everything, to take it from "good enough" to "good," and hopefully even "better" someday. The part of my main goal achievable in the challenge time frame is to set up some daily habits and build some discipline. Goal #1 - Practice Karate and/or Kobudo every day This isn't intended as a workout so much as building a steady habit. Even if it's just running through basic waza for 20-30 minutes in the morning, it's something! What I really need to work on is remembering some of my newer kata (I had the incredibly embarrassing incident of blanking on a kata just before Christmas!) so I want to focus on that most days. Goal #2 - Increase my flexibility I wanted this to be food related but work plans have conspired against me. I know I can eat healthy while traveling, but I specifically wanted to push myself to cook more often - part of the 'daily habits' and 'discipline' idea. Anyway, now I am substituting it with a flexibility goal - Every day I'm going to do the hip mobility routine I saw linked in the Courtyard thread today. I anticipate agony for the first little while, but my left hip flexor is bothering me enough now that it's impeding my ability to kick or hold a proper shiko dachi, so I have to do something about it. Goal #3 - Get out of bed in the morning! The long dark winters are not kind to me. I just want to stay snuggled in the warm blankets forever, and by the time it gets light out I should already have been up for at least an hour. I need to earn money and get on with my life, and this morning battle with laziness usually ends with me having to dash out of bed, half-ass my morning routine, and rush to work with no exercise or food. So my goal is to get out of bed by 7:30 AM at the latest every weekday, and 9 AM on weekends. I know this is still considered late to some, but I live within a 15 minute walk of my office for a reason. Life Goal - Turn my apartment into something livable I have let my apartment turn into a quasi-stereotypical bachelor mess. It's not dirty - I do have standards - but there's too much clutter and not enough personal touches. It's not a warm and inviting place right now; I can't always relax and I certainly can't have people over. So my goal here is to make the place I inhabit a place in which I can live. I know this sounds kind of nebulous, but I do have some specific tasks in mind (this list is non-exhaustive): Replace my crappy vacuum with a more modern one that hopefully works betterBuy more shelving, specifically for my kitchen and storage room.Buy a couch (I know, how ridiculous to not have a couch for company...)Shred the piles of old papers I no longer needFile or scan the ones I do need Tomorrow is going to be a rough morning... Oh well, nothing worth doing is easy!

Being late seems to become a second nature for me . I'm not sure that I like this... Anyway, here are my targets. Actually I have started at the right time last monday, but no online free-time until now. Earth, the place where the foundations should be. Earth is solid, is stable, it does not change and it it at the base of every thing else. For me earth is my "long life" routine: meditate 15-30 minuteskarate outdoor (30 minutes) or walk (2 hours)sleep 50 hours per week (7 hours/day, but I use the average per week to give me some room)eat daily according to plan (2 meals per week are free)CON +2, STA +2, WIS +1 Fire is the destroyer, the bringer of emptiness and new order. Decluttering is the key word decluttering 15 minutes every dayCHA +3 Water is always moving, always changing, always adapting. It is something that takes always new forms. I need the agility to move like water follow GMB F1 progressionDEX +2. STR +2 Air is freedom, it is growing and expanding. As should my knowledge as a martial artist have at least 3 sessions with my Sensei or a more experience studentWIS +2, DEX+1 Edit: the mighty tracker

Just started listening to a Podcast that promotes a morning ritual, called the Morning Miracle. I love my morning rituals and they set up my entire day. School starts at 9:20 except on Thursday when it starts at 8am. Thursday might be my off day. Wake Up 6AM Hygiene stuff and dress in Karate Gi Meditation 20 minutes Happy Light 30 minutes (Diet Dew Infusion, HB Eggs) Mantra- Three Jewels 30 Front Kick 30 Side Kick 25 Front Punch Taka Hyung 1 Pinan 1 Pinan 2 Pinan 3 Two Step 1 Two Step 2 Two Step 3 Two Step 4 Two Step 5 By the end of my six weeks I want to have learned all 10 of the two steps and the next kata called Punjung 1, which is kinda hard. Also I will have added more to the kicking and punching, but I will go by how my arthritis feels. Right now I have no pain, but with movement things change. My three things are all rolled up in this one morning ritual. I kept on this schedule (except the karate) for the past 3 months, but on this school break I have fallen to the dark side. School starts on the 5th and so does the challenge!

I first want to thank all my friends here who stuck with me along my past challenges. I also want to apologize for not being the most consistent person when it comes to replying to all of your challenges and updates. I want to share something with many of you that I normally do not share in public. Last year was a total toilet flush for me. For every good thing that happened, I feel that there were 5 bad things that came into my life. It all started when my full time position was dissolved in February of last year. When that happened, I had big dreams of making it as full time freelance writer and IT consultant but sadly, after 11 months, I am only a little farther ahead than when I started. I researched and studied everything that I could get my hands on but I wasn't able to gain any traction except for a few side jobs doing consulting. Needless to say, that put a great deal of stress on my mind and not only did it make my mind cloudy, it took a toll on my workouts and training. My main goal was to do things that help others. The main reason that I have volunteered teaching Karate for the past 8 years is because it feels good to help others without expecting anything in return. I was hoping that my writing would be another way to do this but I am lucky to get a handful of readers each time I publish a blog post and it's hard to sell services or affiliate programs when no one is listening. The biggest kick in the pants was having the Typhoon go back to full time work after 20 years of being a stay at home mom. This is one thing that I never wanted to have happen but it was either that or end up loosing the house and everything that I worked for over the 30+ years. This was also the first year that we had holidays without some close relatives that passed away and that too was heavy on mind. I understand that things change but I also realized that somethings will never be the same again. There were a few good things that happened, one of them is the Typhoon and I getting our 1st Kyu rank in Iaido and my son finally found a job that he likes. I am also grateful to have my parents and the Typhoon and my son but I feel that I haven't been towing the line like I should be and have done for in the past. When I get in this state of mind, I have tendency to find other areas to keep my mind off the bad stuff and my workouts do a great job of that but they also take me into a state of over-training that ends up making my body shutdown and lets my mind get flooded with all the crap that it normally keeps in check. The last few weeks of last challenge was proof that I was pushing my body too hard and it made me shut it down for almost three weeks. With that said, 2015 is going to be different. I need to use fitness to it's fullest and dig deeper into yoga and meditation to clear my mind while still getting into the best shape of my life without burning out. 1. Get simple with complexes by doing some form of barbell complex at least 3 times a week. I need to improve my fitness and mobility levels and I am thinking that barbell complexes might be the key. I dabbled with barbell complexes in the past but I never really got into them. For some reason, I started doing them the other day with the 45 pound bar and it felt really good. My son happened to be around when I was doing them and I talked him into doing them with me so I hopefully have my favorite training partner working out with me every time I do them. The complex that I am doing is 6 sets of decreasing reps down to 1 rep with 8 different movements consisting of deadlift, stiff leg deadlift, clean, push press, front squat, bent over row, barbell curl (switching grip after bent row) and push ups. For those who haven't done these before, you start with 6 reps of each movement on the first set, then 5 on the second set and continue dropping the reps until your last set is 1 rep of each movement. It only takes a short time to do them but it really gets the heart and muscles pumped. 2. Karate and Iaido is still a priority. My Karate has improved a great deal over the last few challenges, especially my kicks (thanks to CheeChoe!), but I still need more improvement. This time around, I am going to set the bar higher by doing CheeChoe's kicking routine 4 times a week. I also want to continue doing the Tabata static stance training 4 times a week. My at home Karate class has gone a long way at helping me when I am in my formal, weekly Karate class and I still want to continue doing it at least once a week. 3. Rest the body and the mind. Even though I am still going to be doing a good amount of training, I wanted to come up with a way to keep moving while resting. My thought is to do some Yoga at least three days a week. I never really got anywhere with Yoga in the past, because it was really painful, so I found a book called Remedial Yoga that is supposed to give the benefits of Yoga without doing the advanced moves that I cannot do yet. Life goal: Free my mind. I tried to do the mediation during the last challenge but I really didn't do it enough because the mental chatter kept getting in the way. This time, I want to meditate at least 5 minutes a day 5 times a week with hopes that it will clear my mind and allow me to focus on improving, instead of focusing on what will happen if I don't improve. As always, everything is subject to change as the weeks go along.

Greetings and salutations Assassins! I wasn't sure whether I was going to post a thread in this 6 Week Challenge as I've been (and am still feeling) preoccupied with "life stuff" but the idea of sneaking back into the Assassins playground seemed to call to me, so here I am. My intention over the next 6 weeks is to get back into the swing of things after a couple of months of relative inactivity. During this time, my weight has increased, my diet has gotten poor and my fitness has suffered. I've mostly kept up my Karate and HEMA training but have picked the Assassins guild over the Monks this time round as my main focus will be bodyweight training with the addition of some kettlebell exercises. So, without further ado, here is my main goal for this year: Do a pull up. That's it. Simple and straightforward. I managed to do the odd one here and there a couple of years ago but things went downhill a bit and never quite got back on track. Now I'm more overweight and unfit than I've been for a good while, I've just recovered from a broken hand and I really feel my diet quality and fitness have been dwindling unacceptably. I've GOT to turn this around. My specific goals for this 6 Week Challenge: Consistency Turning up is the key to getting things done. Stick to the plan! I'm making it flexible enough to fit around changing schedules and to require little or no equipment. It's flexible in what days I do stuff and what sets / reps I do to achieve targets. No excuses left not to do it! Bodyweight / KB training two days a week. Diet six days a week. As a reward, I get a treat day each week! Yay! Diet This is always where I fall down the most. It's the one that's most effected by my low, fixed income and my very bad ability with budgeting but I KNOW it is possible to eat fairly healthily on an extremely low income. My tendency is to eat crap foods rather than good foods simply because I can get enough calories to get through the day for relatively little money.... I know, I know. Bad. Very bad. I also tend to pig-out on whatever is around the house when I get in from my typical running about after everyone (I'm the only one in my main circle of friends who drives and is not physically disabled in some way so my time is often monopolised by driving and helping people with all sorts of tasks - good karma and grateful friends but can be very draining). FOOD DIARY: I have tried to keep a food diary before but I have failed. I will attempt to try again but this time, I'll keep it on my laptop and set myself some kind of automatic reminder each day to fill it in. Breakfast: Eggs are awesome! So are green smoothies! Porridge less so, but still acceptable. I'll almost always have access to one of these options before I have to go out and do stuff so I've no excuse not to eat (or drink) breakfast! More Vegetables - Less Carby crap: I can't do full paleo, as much as I'd like to. It's prohibitively expensive hereabouts (rural Ireland). But I can take a couple of small steps: Some colourful vegetables with most meals, sweet potatoes instead of normal spuds, minimise bread, pasta and similar bulk grains (I am allowed toast with my eggs for breakfast. I'm not a philistine!) Healthy Snacks: To be determined but I'll be looking mainly at paleo type options. Bodyweight Training (and kettlebells) At least two days a week - once on the weekends and once during the week. With an initial focus on muscular stamina, I'll be going for volume over intensity for now, using easier versions of exercises when necessary in order to achieve the target volume WITH GOOD FORM. That in mind, I'll have a target number of each exercise I will aim for during each training day, progressively increasing each week. This number can be achieved through any number of sets and any number of reps, as long as I hit the target for the day. Push Ups: I can do proper push ups... but am out of practice and probably can't do very many at the moment so I'll be going for incline push ups for now, especially as volume is my goal this next few weeks. Week 1: 60 Week 2: 70 Week 3: 80 Week 3: 90 Week 5: 100 Week 6: 120 Squats: I'm happy enough with proper squats but I reserve the right to do chair-squats if I feel I'm risking injury by overdoing it. Week 1: 60 Week 2: 70 Week 3: 80 Week 3: 90 Week 5: 100 Week 6: 120 Inverted Rows: Haven't done these for a while so my targets might change if I drastically overestimate or underestimate my capabilities Week 1: 15 Week 2: 20 Week 3: 25 Week 3: 30 Week 5: 35 Week 6: 40 Kettlebells: Clean & press and one hand KB swings (or exchanges). numbers will be for C&P then Swings (will be done with each arm). I'll stick to a relatively light weight for this challenge as I don't want to risk injuring my hand or overdoing it.Week 1: 20 & 20 Week 2: 25 & 30 Week 3: 30 & 40 Week 3: 35 & 50 Week 5: 40 & 60 Week 6: 45 & 70 Other: Moar walking! I have audiobooks and a nearby forest park. No excuses! Karate class each Wednesday. HEMA Class each Sunday and Thursday. Plan and execute something nice for valentines day. Usually we order in, have a few drinks and watch the star wars trilogy or something (yes, my wife is awesome) but I'd like to arrange something nice for her. Maybe go out for a nice meal or something...

So... Here I am. Right hand is broken. I'm in the middle of moving house. Teaching HEMA on Sundays. Karate on Wednesdays. I didn't do the last 6wc due to hectic life stuff. I was kept pretty busy on my course though: lifting heavy, sprinting, swimming and getting my lifeguard qualification. Other than the gym and pool time, the course has become an onerous chore... my initial excitement waned as the discipline and the tutors' control over the group did likewise - with clearly stated intention to do nothing to rectify the matter. <sigh> Over the past month or so, I've been looking for other options in terms of training courses, etc... at the very least trying to find a way off the course without loosing money (I get a training allowance equivalent to social welfare payments, neither of which I would continue to get if I just quit) but my hand injury has rendered it all a moot point. I can't write, type quickly, or do the practical aspects of the course. So I've got all the reasons I need to step back from it. This challenge, I'll be rehabilitating myself, settling into my new home, gradually building intensity and frequency of exercise and working on my martial arts, both western and eastern. 1 - Diet: Winter is coming and I can feel my vitamin reserves dropping... So more fruit and vegetables. This can be achieved by densely packed smoothies in the mornings! (4+ days a week) (Fruit smoothies and green smoothies.) CON +2, WIS +1 2 - Exercise: During the first week I'll still be moving house so walking about and lifting stuff will be my exercise. After that is done and dusted... Strength: Squats and lunges. Depending on the state of my broken hand, I'll see what kind of upper body exercise I can manage. Cardio: Mostly walking. I'll aim for a long walk twice a week. But once the cast is off, I'll try to get a sprint session or two in each week. STR +2, STA +2 3 - Martial arts: Karate: Every Wednesday*. Work on katas at least twice a week outside of class. Can't really participate in karate this week as still moving house and wearing a cast but hopefully will have cast off in a week or two. HEMA: Every Sunday. Until the hand is better I'll be using the swords left handed. See improvement in all the students and try to codify the learning journey and lesson plans. DEX +2, CHA +2 4 - Life: Move house, leaving old place tidy, clean and the garden in good order. Sort out all the utilities, bins, etc at old and new places. Let hand heal by not doing anything too dumb.WIS +2, CHA +1, CDO +1* *this is to even out the uneven decimals... they bother me. CDO is like OCD but with the letters placed in alphabetical order!

At this point I need a non-fitness related challenge to level up. It seems a trend among monks Target 1: fight the telephone (and win) As of today I officially failed my life quest of last challenge. I have the name and the number to call, but I panic every time I have to pick up the phone. I have never liked to make phone calls, but this thing has become unmanageable. So, this is my big task for this challenge: call hospital and make an appointment with the surgeons. And since all this should happen in Dutch, I had some daily Dutch practice: 5-10 minutes of conversation with a colleague at work, or read a couple of articles in the newspaper. Summarizing: make the appointments (WIS +3)speak Dutch 5 days/week for 5-10 minutes (minimum) and read in the weekend for 30 minutes (CHA +2)Target 2: fight CHAOS (and win) I am messy and I want to make my house decent again follow Flaylady baby steps (CHA +2)Target 3: fight the software bugs (and win) At the moment we are quite busy at work, with a big delivery planned for the end of the year. The guy who was supposed to work with me is having health issues that do not allow him to work in front of a monitor for more than two hours per day, which is quite a problem if you develop software for a living. I manage to cut down the requirements to the bare minimum, but there will be a lot of pressure on my shoulders until the end of the year. To keep my balance I want to make time every day for meditation (15-30 minutes) and for outdoor activity (at least 30 minutes on top of the hour I need to bike back and forth from work). And of course I need to eat well and to sleep (no long coding nights) Summarizing: meditate 15-30 minutes daily (WIS +1)karate outdoor 5 days/week (working days) (DEX +2)walk 2 hours on Saturdays and Sundays (STA +1)sleep 50 hours per week (7 hours/day, but I use the average per week to give me some room) (STA+1)eat daily according to plan (2 meals per week are free) (CON +2)Target 4: plan next fights I realized that I don't have a long term plan, something that I want to achieve in the coming years. And for what is there I don't really have a plan. So, I'll do some brainstorming session with myself and report here weekly. By the end of this challenge I want to have a plan for the next 2 challenges (WIS +.25)something (at least 1 thing) I want to achieve by summer time (WIS +.25)something by the end of 2015 (WIS +.25)at least two item after 2015 (WIS +.25)As usually there will be a spreadsheet to track everything. There will be some wife-days in, so there could be some re-shuffling

So, I figured at first that I'd do the Spartan and die valiantly and not have to worry about the rest of the challenge, until I started reading about places doing up their Christmas decorations and their Praline Spice Pumpkin Mocha Frappucinos (that's what Starbucks does, right? I'm bad at coffee) and radio stations starting to hit the Christmas music already, all in the name of that all important Q4. And I thought about how fortunate I was to work for a sane, decent company that doesn't indulge in those shenanigans, that takes its mission seriously and lets the product speak for itself- Until today. When I went looking for coffee cups to restock with. And found them. Colored red. With PEPPERMINT. SWIRL. PATTERN. I think we all know what this means. RIGHTEOUS SANTA JUSTICE Clearly the opening track of the anime that they will make of this war. Yes. I can't die at the Spartan knowing that this bloated, commercialized claptrap of a holiday will survive me. I can't stand it. I won't stand it. Bunch of bloody, soulless companies trying to latch on to our feelings of good will and cheer to trade those things for petty material possessions! FFS! We haven't even had Thanksgiving yet, you bastards! INTO THE TRENCHES * All right. The work is before us. NaNoWriMo is trying to knock me off my dietary track at every turn, and if it's not that, it's the delicious things we're making at Panera. They're rolling out a new cinnamon roll that makes the old one look... well, really bad. Which isn't even getting into the part where they're bustin' out with the Holiday Bread, which is like a cinnamon roll if cinnamon rolls came in loaves. Stop that! We got work to do! Goal 1: Ab Training 5 Days/Week Yeah, I know what you're thinking. This is fairly unnecessary. Why would I ever want to do that? Don't I know that teh abz can only show with teh P4L30? Hah! Let me explain. The core is an incredibly difficult set of muscles to overwork. It's the stabilizer. Everything you do, every challenge that requires you to hold steady has to be won here, and it can do the work.With the absence of weights, the core is able to quickly regenerate itself and be ready to work again in no time at all.The horror story of making your stomach bigger is... exaggerated. Rectus abdominis and the surrounding pieces just don't have enough tissue to expand that way, to that kind of size.Meanwhile, there is a long and celebrated history of boxers working their abs to death. When was the last time you saw a genuinely fat boxer?Goal 2: Finish NaNoWriMo Strong I'm actually having some trouble with the novel this time. I'm going slower, having to struggle for my words. I think that's because I mean to publish this damn thing. So I can't just bumrush it like I used to... I mean, I could, but so much of it would just have to go. So, I'm making it official: finish the month out. Come hell or hot chocolate. Yeah, look at this bullcrap. This warm, chocolatey... maybe some marshmallows... NOOOOOO Goal 3: Keep the Cheats Under Control So, I seem to have found my magic number that gets me both satisfaction and results. That number is 2: two cheat meals per week. Not days. Meals. 'cuz one just isn't enough, but two somehow manages to get to me to that place where I'm satisfied and wanting to stop. The thing is, though, lately I've been struggling to keep to that. With all the delicious things coming out and with all these occasions to get together with friends, it just seems like it's awful heavy all of a sudden. And if I can make them fit my macros for the day, then... well, surely it's not a cheat... right? ... right? I don't know, man. I just don't know. Goal 4: Put the money together for a car payment So, long story short, my dad heard that I had the race coming up, and he was not happy. He thought I was trying to welch on the car payment and that if I could put money away for a silly race that I could do important things like take care of the car and such like that. I get to figure that one out now too on top of everything else. We'll get it, though. We'll get it. Logs and such to follow. Let's end it strong, monks.

Here's how this challenge is going to go: I'm going to survive the Spartan next weekend (!!!), finally dial in my diet, and have an awesome birthday! Well the birthday part isn't till the end, but it's important! See, I'm having a bit of a problem with the idea of turning 24. It's right before 25 and 25 just feels so...serious and adult-like. So I want to turn 24 knowing the I'm in the best shape I've ever been in. Then by 25, I want to be in seriously good shape...I'm thinking that 2016 might be the year of the Spartan trifecta. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I want to evaluate my long-term goals and really start seeing my daily progress as working towards them. I need to figure out what that daily progress needs to be though. I'm hoping for some help from you guys, cause you're awesome Things I need to do to succeed: Dial in my diet so I can start regularly losing weight instead of struggling Be consistent with exercising (especially NP and karate) Work on time management to fit ALL THE THINGS that I try to do Things I want to do: Run the B3 in 2015 (Shamrock 5K, Sole of the City 10K, Charles Street 12-miler) Do one pull-up (to begin with) Competitively run a 5K (maybe in 2016?) By this I mean actually try to win for my age group Run a half-marathon Run the MD HEAT race (hopefully with Nerds) Complete a Spartan trifecta (I'm sure there's more, but this is a good start.) Actual Challenge (for realz and everything): Mission #1: Eat Primal In my quest to beat coax my diet into shape, I'm venturing into the lovely world of Primal. Lots of meats and veggies and dairy (in moderation) So, eat lots of protein and colorful fruits and veggies and *crosses fingers* hope some of the weight will start to come off. I do want to leave room for flexibility though, so I'm allowing myself either 6 non-primal things under 200 calories or 3 under 400 calories per week. And no more than one per day. A beer, for example, counts as one of the 6 things. This allows me to make flexible decisions, but stay 'good' too. And I'll just go ahead and mention that Boston is exempt from this. Mission #2: Run Away! Seeing as I actually enjoy running and want to do the B3/HEAT race/more Spartans, I should start training. Now. For now, I'll train to a 5K distance. I'm going to run 3 days/week following a program I found online, but incorporating hills sprints for one run. Week Run #1 Run #2 Run #3 1 2 HS 2 2 2.5 HS 2.5 3 2.5 HS 3 4 2.5 HS 3 5 3 HS 3 6 3 HS 3 This will get me used to running consistently again and help my staying power at the 5K distance. I'm also assuming all those 3s actually have .1s after them. And that last run? That one's special. That's going to be a PR run. Goal: Run a 5K in under 45:00 by the end of the challenge. If I hit this before PR run, then I still have to PR on the run. Mission #3: Get Strong! One of my goals is to be able to do a pull-up. Well, it's time to start progressing towards there. There's some perfectly good dumbbells in the (other-wise lacking) downstairs apartment gym. I can use those to start with dumbbell rows. I'll come up with some more strength-related stuff this weekend before the challenge actually starts and make my own little routine. Warm-up: 10 Burpees A Day (Heavy Weight/Low Rep): B Day (Low Weight/High Rep): Goblet Squats Lunges Dumbbell Deadlifts Step ups Push-ups (no mod & unweighted) Dips Dumbbell rows Dumbbell rows Leg raises Planks (Start with 30s) HWLR will start at 5 reps. When I work up to 8, I'll increase weight. LWHR will start at 12 reps. When I work up to 15, I'll increase weight. Goal is 3-5 sets per workout. Goal: Do strength routine 2x week All of this is in addition to karate and NP. Because where would I be without kiais and fuck yeahs to get me through my week?

Just so all of you don't think I am any stranger than you already do, the title of my challenge this time is from an old song named KISS from The Art of Noise that was sung by Tom Jones. It has the words "I think I better dance now" and since I need to improve may stances for Karate, I felt the title would be appropriate. The main reason that I want to improve my stances is because I learned something very interesting at my last Karate tournament while watching all the older folks compete. Most of the senior (over 35 year old adults are called seniors in my club, which I am not too fond of but that's another story) competitors do not have good, low stances while doing their katas. Stances aren't the only important part for winning but if I can lower my stances and still move well, I think I can put a dent in the group of people that always place ahead of me. With that said, it's time to get down to business and embark on another six week journey of pain and suffering fun! 1. Stances the Tabata way three times a week: This is something that I worked on in the past but stopped doing for some reason. I have seen how much this can help after watching one of the kata athletes that I have been training do this and his improvement are incredible. Four minutes of stance training doesn't sound like much, right? I haven't figured out yet if I am going to work on one stance or multiple stances for the time but this needs to be done at least three times a week. My thoughts are front stance left and right, horse stance, back stance left and right and another horse stance and for the last two 20 second sets, one day cat stance and the other day cross leg stance left and right. 2. 1000 push ups a month and a little more: This is something that a fellow former Karate instructor and friend of mine suggested for his personal training clients. He started a Facebook challenge for all his clients and whoever else wants to do it, to do 50 push ups a day (in sets of 10 throughout the day) to make a total of 1000 push ups for the month of November. I should have started this a few days ago but I'm just lazy, like always but I still have 26 days anyway, right? Instead of doing only push ups, I am going to add side jackknifes, glute bridges and some form of ab work. The plan is to do 10 reps of each movement, do a Karate and Iaido kata and repeat for 5 sets. I did a test run of this workout tonight and it was done in well under 30 minutes including some time on the foam roller. 3. Improve my Karate - two parts = double the fun: Over the the last challenge, my overall Karate improved more than it has in some time. My kicks are better, moving from hips is better and my posture is better than ever before. These were all areas that I needed to improve on and I want to continue to step it up further. A. This time around, I am going to continue to do the extra Karate class at home but this time, I am only going to it once each week. Between the formal class, Iaido class, teaching three days a week, the dedicated kata session with my coach and trying to do the extra class twice wasn't allowing me to recover. B. More mobility and flexibility is needed. Doing Cheechoe's hip routine has been a huge help at improving my kicks. I am kicking higher than ever before and I was able to deliver my side kicks with power that I have never had in the past. With that said, I still need more improvement and I plan on doing Cheechoe's routine at least once a week along with Eric Wong's HFS routine twice a week. If I can find a Yoga routine that I can actually do, like the routines on doyogawithme.com, I would like to get in at least on Yoga session each week, no matter how simple. Life Goal: Over the last few months, my focus has sucked to say the least. Simple tasks that should take a short amount of time are taking me days to finish because I can't get my focus. I haven't been writing as much and it seems that my mind is always spinning in all directions. Because of this, I need to start meditating again. If I it's 5 minutes three times a week I will be happy but I really need to get my mind under control again so that I can make my life better and I hope that the mediation will help. Disclaimer: Like all of my challenges in the past, this one is subject to change at any time.

Main Quest: To lose 25 lbs and become stronger for karate. SMART Quests: Eat lunch at my desk each workday and use my actual lunchtime to take a walk outside, even during our cruel Chicago winters. Improve my kata speed and balance. MOAR SQUATS! Plan dinners at home at least 24 hours ahead of time so I'm not looking at a pathetically empty pantry and resign myself to a fast food dinner that I will regret whilst eating. Life Quest: Become less introverted, save more money and travel more. Motivation: Since May of 2014, I've started learning that I can indeed change who I am as long as I'm doing it for myself, because - as I have never believed in the past - I am worth it.

Hi all! I've been meaning to do this for a while, but seeing as I suffer from social anxiety even online, I avoided it. I also tend to ramble. That said, I found Nerd Fitness earlier this year - around April - and lurked around the site and forums for quite a while. I've struggled with my health and weight for most of my 20s, and while I'd started running semi-regularly around 3 years ago, I wasn't making any progress. Working a desk job and commuting by train every day hardly helps, as I'm sitting 8+ hours a day, not including the time I spend at home vegging. It took some time to realize that no matter how hard I worked physically, my motivation (to lose weight) and methods were all wrong. Until I found Nerd Fitness and started writing down everything I ate, I had no clue that I had no clue how to eat. It took a bit to accept that not all calories are created equal. Also, I found that I absolutely loathed running. While my cardiovascular health improved - somewhat - I was unable to shed any weight and I was just damn bored when I ran. Adding insult to injury, I was diagnosed with asthma right around the time I started running. I'd run, then get a nasty case of bronchitis plus the added bonus of a sinus infection each November that would knock me out of commission for 2-3 months. I think you can see where this is going...the cycle continued. During the summer of 2013, I knew running wasn't a sustainable plan - seeing as I both mentally and physically hated it - so I joined my husband (1st kyu brown) and began karate (Shotokan) training. I had a surprisingly difficult time catching onto karate, to the point that I nearly quit after the summer session had ended. It also didn't help that we train in a group, high and low belts together, going through all the same kata, kihon (basics) and kumite (sparring). I felt like everyone was watching me and judging me for sucking so bad at karate. It took a while for me to realize that no one cared how bad I was, and instead offered tips and my sensei broke down the purpose of each movement (bunkai). I'd hate to say that after my first belt test I had more confidence, but it's the truth. Also, knowing that I survived a belt test while sick with my annual bronchitis/sinus infection, I realized I'm not as weak as I think I am. From the moment I ditched my white belt, I wanted to be stronger for karate. Around May, I decided to start making small changes after stumbling upon Nerd Fitness. I audited my diet (holy crap, that was difficult) and made small changes week by week. That was an uphill battle on its own. I always left at least one day for myself to go out with the husband and enjoy something like a cheeseburger, but maybe not eat the whole thing and skip the top bun. Then, I found the beautiful joy that is lifting. Like karate, I sucked at first. I was impatient and overloaded myself with weight too fast and found myself feeling like I was literally going to fall apart, limb by limb. I read articles written by Staci Ardison on Nerd Fitness and actually applied her tips, and lo and behold, I shed 25 lbs by doing little more than karate one night a week, lifting 3 times a week and filling myself with cleaner foods. Consequently, I started kicking major ass in karate (not literally). My stances got lower and much stronger, and I found a deep love of kata...something that I hated more than anything else in karate. Sorry, for my long-winded intro. I'm also a musician. I play guitar (funk and blues mostly) and trumpet. I've played WoW since vanilla and I've started to get into tabletop games. So far, I think Pandemic might be my favorite, followed by Munchkin.

Oof ...between the holiday and a family member passing away after battling cancer and traveling for work, any and all progress has halted since Halloween-ish. Since May, the husband and I started lifting heavy 3x a week with karate (Shotokan) one night a week. We had ourselves eating home-cooked healthier stuff nearly each night of the week, then BOOM! Hardly home long enough to let our dog out, let alone cook, eat and lift. So, I'll take this respawn point! Thankfully, I have a goal that's close enough to help me stay focused (hopefully) through the next two weeks, since I've got a belt test for karate on Dec. 14.

More specifically, a dragon! (You can see where this is going) I just had to indulge my love of HTTYD and Toothless. Main Quest: Onederland by 1/1/15 (after that, keep moving down to 150) I really wanted to make my main quest feel a bit more obtainable and make it a little more short-term than 150 lbs. That, I can definitely hit next year. Mission #1: What am I eating? I have three main focuses/focii/whatever's-right here: calories, protein, veggies. Calories: 1600/day Protein: Aiming for 100 g/day, will pass with 75 g/day Veggies: At least 1 serving/day I can earn a total of 3 points/day, 126 possible points through the challenge Mission #2: How am I going to get there? Karate: 2x/week YAYOG: 4x/week Running: 2x/week 'Cause I'm a beast. 1 point each, 48 possible points through the challenge Mission #3: Keep it clean Continue on with making cleaning a weekly thing, 'cause it's important. 6 possible points total. Life Quest: Don't be a slacker! School has started again, which means doom and gloom. I want to focus on not procrastinating. I'm starting with a total of 6 points. A point gets docked each week if I leave something to one day. This means discussion posts have to be done over at least two days during the week. No cramming allowed. I lost a point each time I leave it all till Sunday. I'm also participating in two PvPs, both linked in my sig. If all goes to plan, I'll be 12 lbs lighter by the end of the challenge. Starting measurements to come on Monday!

From the title of this challenge, you might have guessed that I am going to be working on improving my kicks again. Even though my kicks have improved a great deal over the last few months, I know that they can be even better. 1 - Mobility: Mobility is still at the top of the list and again, Cheechoe's hip routine is going to be the main focus. I have seen more improvement in the short time I have been doing her routine than I have in years of trying other routines and fixes. I am still going to do the resets because they loosen me up. The goal is to do the OS resets at least five days a week and Cheechoe's hip routine at least three days a week with at least one day in between sessions and not on a Karate class day. 2 - Do 2 full Karate workouts at home each week. Same as last time but this time I want to really clean up my basics. I want to learn to relax, tense and relax all my movements as quickly as possible and the Karate workout that I am currently, which is loaded with basics, is a good place to work on this concept. 3 - Do at least 2 support workouts per week. What I mean by support is glute / leg / core focused workouts with some upper-body thrown in for good measure. Since I hurt my back this last time around, I need to get back, pun intended, to making my body bulletproof. I have a workout structure in mind already and I will share it once I get the details figured out. Life goal: Focus my mind on finding a job. Being out of work for the last 6+ months has taken a toll not only my on bank account but also my mind. I have applied for many jobs, that looked like a great fit, but have often seen no response or the "you have more experience than we are looking for." With that said, I am pulling out all the stops to find either contract work, full time, work from home, freelance work or a combination of all four.

So, I was gonna post some music today that had a very Chariots of Fire kinda feel, but decided against it because I friggin' can't stand Chariots of Fire. Let's rock instead: This challenge could alternately have been called "Kishi Learns to Doubt His Doubts," or "Kishi Slowly But Surely Goes Out of His Mind." I took stock of myself this past challenge and determined that I'm pretty much on the way to having a lot of my physical issues resolved. My epic quest is also taken care of - barring catastrophe, I will be running in Fenway Park with the Boston Nerds, as I set out to do at the beginning of the year. But the truth is, this body will only go so far as the mind will allow it to. I've been looking at the things I've been saying about myself, as it pertains to my life, and also looking at the life I lead. And there is dissonance. The truth is, I've done/am doing some incredible things with myself. Who learns how to go without food for 24 hours twice in a week? Who learns to run barefoot for miles where there is glass, and who persists in doing such when it's clear that this is a strange thing that violates the social contract? Who wakes up and immediately belts out striking combos? Who finds ways to pass from strength failure through it, to find more reps and to find more challenge? A badass, that's who. It's time I started believing that about myself. But I can't think my way into that. The mind does not have the power to independently think its way into anything. It only has the power to desire change. If I'm going to wash my brain into something else, then I have to use the power of habit. And also, I just don't like the life I'm living. I don't like being poor as I am, and I don't like feeling like I'm unworthy of romancing/being romanced, and I don't like having so many half-baked novels. I just don't like it. So, I'mma start some new processes and see what happens. Process 1: Write Like It's My Job These first processes are about changing myself professionally. I recently saw a man begin his final approach into management at Panera. It took him 3 years. I am not patient enough to put up with this crap for that long. So, I'mma begin by writing. I've already begun to retool the novel I was sending out to you guys by rebuilding it from the ground up using the Snowflake method. It's looking better already. I need to keep applying this, which means one of three things: completing a step of the planwriting 250+ wordsposting writing up somewhereOr any combination of the above. Process 2: System 9 System 9 is a fitness professional marketing system devised by Bedros Keuillian. He's a big-time marketing guru in the field of fitness, sworn by by many of the names that I respect. But the system won't work if I don't work. There are many modules/lectures for me to undertake. I could try to do it all and fail... or, I could undertake just one per week. If I find something immediately applicable in one week, then the following week I will work to apply it. Process 3: Improve My Social Skills So, I wanna get better at talking to girls, ultimately with the idea of asking them out. Most of the advice I've seen has been about how one presents oneself, which means money and such, and I don't have that right now. I'm working to address that now so that I'll be ready, but in the meantime I need to improve something else. Fortunately, Nerd Fitness even has a guide for that. To kickstart this process, I will complete Level 1: I am a funny dude. I don't mind living my life genuinely in front of others, and spinning it in such a way that it makes people laugh.I am kind. If I see someone struggling, I don't mind speaking up to make things easier for them. Sometimes all people need is to know that they aren't struggling alone.I am genuine. I don't have to force myself to be good - I'm a good person, down to my bones. (not perfect, really, this is no humblebrag, but I am good nevertheless).I am strong. No, really. I don't look like much, but when people need help moving their heavy sh!t, I'm usually at the top of the list. And I deliver.And now having completed that, it's time to manage Level 2: the Drive-by Compliment. Play the game and earn 16+ points per week. No Life Goal Because let's face it. These are all about the life I wanna lead. An extra life goal would just be superfluous. And, naturally, I'll be posting workouts and stuff here as well. I'll try to get out and say hello to everyone too, but we've gotten kinna popular lately and the schedule makes that hard as is. If I'm gonna go to work on my life, I can't imagine it gets any easier. So, t-minus 4 days and counting...

Yup. I got Shepherd Book. I've always liked Shepherd Book as a character. He strikes me as one of the few genuinely Christian characters in media - not a caricature or a propaganda piece, but someone who was deeply religious and has to wrestle with what that means from time to time. He prays for people who don't want to be prayed for, but more than that: he walks with them in the muddiness of their lives, and keeps trying to point back to something greater than himself. Also, the man can shoot, and he's not afraid to throw down when it's time. So, I have a theme for this challenge. What shall my three goals be? Goal 1: Twice Weekly Yoga The Shepherd's someone who can clearly still move well, even at his age. He fights, shoots, works, just like a regular member of the crew. It's a good example for me to strive after. I've found three yoga flows over at doyogawithme.com that are specifically tailored for trouble areas. All told, the whole time investment would be thirty minutes each session. I'd love to do more like go for a full-body SMR session, but that takes time, and right now I want to get back in the habit of doing some kind of regular maintenance routine. Goal 2: Follow Through The Shepherd learned to fight. Nobody really knows how. It's a part of his life he doesn't talk about very much. Fortunately, I'm there now. Keep on with the PUG. I'll have to find some other cool way to keep myself training afterward, though... Goal 3: "The important thing is the spices. A man can live on packaged food from here 'til Judgment Day if he's got enough rosemary." When Book first shows up on the show, he pays his way aboard the Serenity with strawberry and spices. This is a man who knows how to eat well. I need to figure that out my own self. The current program I follow only allows for one cheat meal per week. I'm not feeling deprived - I eat between 2300 and 2700 calories and easily go over 3000 on a busy day - but this is going to take some real grit on my part to compartmentalize and not let myself get side-tracked. LIFE GOAL: KEEP WRITING Book quotes poetry and scripture and is quite cultured. I bet if he'd had the time, he would have written a book... maybe... Anyway. Need to get back on those deadlines. One chapter per week. Here we go on another crazy adventure!

OK, I admit this is a bit of a weird one.... Firstly, I'm not into Furry thing. I'm not passing any judgement on those who are but this 6WC is just me indulging my nostalgia and my imagination as a way to motivate and structure my training. Right then... I used to love the TMNT roleplaying game as a kid. Long before any cartoon or films appeared, there were the comics and the RPG. It was visceral. It was funny. It was well written (admittedly as a counter to the increasingly gritty and cynical media of the 80's). It was also one of my first introductions to roleplaying games (after d&d). So I have a soft spot for it. The increasing news of the latest reboot from Michael Bay (about which I still have mixed feelings) has kept me in a nostalgic mood when it comes to the subject. The RPG was called Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Other Strangeness. It featured the eponymous turtles as examples but you were encouraged to create your own bizarre, original, funny, tragic and/or heroic mutant animal characters. It was great craic and I remember fondly not only playing but indulging my creative side by generating countless oddball characters (some of which might make an appearance in this 6WC) So, this is my "TMNT part 3: Other Strangeness" challenge (with Firefly sidequest). So, this is following a "mutant animal" theme - concepts and goals will be epitomized by the characteristics of certain animals, which will be anthropomorphized for the purposes of mimicking their qualities. These mutant animals might be well known characters (e.g. Master Splinter embodying discipline or Raphael embodying Sai training... or berserker rage ) or they might be "new" characters (such as a mutant Gorilla representing "beast mode strength training" or a mutant Wolverine representing endurance and outdoor activities) Some of the new characters will need names - please feel free to suggest some as they appear. These mutant/anthropomorphized animals will be my... Spirit Guides, I guess. They will inspire my training and workouts. Along with the other goals. (Don't worry if I start reporting on their antics as thought they were real people - I'm not writing or running any RPGs right now and my storytelling reserve tends to start leaking after a while) onto the specifics... The Turtles and the Newt: Martial Arts. The Turtles rock when it comes to weapons! In my case, Donatello and Raphael - as my oriental weapons training concentrates on Sai and Bo. I might play with swords and nunchaku a bit too... but we'll see Embodying the karate practice is... The Karate Newt!! (sorry the gif sucks. best I could do on short notice ) Karate every Wednesday. Helping with the juniors class as and when needed. Time is short but I should be able to make enough of it to practice my katas (armed and unarmed) at least twice a week outside of my regular classes. +1 STR, +1 DEX, +1STA, +1 WIS NB the Karate Newt needs a name... he's a slightly manic, hyperactive, mutant newt version of Master Ken. distinctly less cool than any of the turtles but doesn't realize it. Splinter's Discipline. This is about diet and routine. I'll keep a food diary. This is my first time trying to keep a food diary (despite having meant to for ages!) so I'll cut myself some slack here and concentrate mainly on keeping it up to date on Mondays - Fridays. In theory, this should help me maintain a fairly low carb/low grain paleo-esque diet... It will also help me make sure my caloric intake is about right. Treat day at the weekend is planned. +2 Wis, +2 CON Cheetahs, Tigers and Gorillas! Oh my..?! Exercise: Cardio, Strength and some Animal-Flow. Tiger Strength training: Twice a week. Embodied by Rugshasa, the mutant Tiger! (Whose name derived from some d&d players wanting to open a shop. They had recently skinned a bunch of Rakshasa so I suggested calling the place Rugshasas) Bodyweight or Kettlebells, some machines <spit!> because I have limited access to free weights. The Lat-Pull-Down machine and the Chest Press machine will supplement push ups, pull ups (well, hanging shrugs at this stage), kettlebell stuff and squats/lunges. Intensity is the key here! This is BEAST MODE. When I'm not going TIGER, I'm going SILVERBACK! Cheetah Cardio training: Interval sprints twice a week (on non-tiger days). My gym time is too short for longer/slower cardio So Cheetah Style Sprints it is! I typically go easy for 60 seconds and hard for 30. Each session I will max out the speed on treadmill at least once. By the end of the challenge, I want to be maxing it out the treadmill more than once and bringing my "rest" time down to 45 seconds. Doing an image search for anthropomorphized cheetahs started getting disturbing results so I'll just use a pretty picture of a normal one.... Animal-Flow: uhm, yeah. Thanks Kishi, for the idea. Now I've gotta actually learn some of this stuff!! Well, I guess I'll start by introducing some of the moves into my warm ups and my non-Tiger days in the gym. The first six of these will be a nice start I think (the more locomotive movements are tricky considering the tiny size of the gym) Getting tired of searching for anthropomorphic animals. That last search has left me scarred... So here's "a chameleon that looks like you owe him an explanation for what you just did". NB the cheetah, the silverback and the chameleon all need names +2 STR, +1 DEX, +1STA Wolves and Wolverines. Some kind of hiking / camping event. Well, that's nice and vague... And that's how it'll remain until I can organize it but at some point over the next six weeks, I'm taking to the hills for a nice long walk and an overnighter. Just for the hell of it. well, and the exercise and the "getting away from technology for an evening" thing. My inspiration for this is "minimalist survival". As embodied by the fuzzy little fellow above. Don't let his "cutesy Snake Pliskin teddy bear look" fool you. This is Caesar, a mutant wolverine of terrifying stature (3'7") who had a train load of guns and explosives. He's a weirdo survivalist embodied in the form of an Ewok from Hell! +1 WIS, +1 STA And of course there's the Firefly themed sidequest... Hitch a Ride! Part of the course I'm on includes securing a couple of days a week work placement over the winter months. The sooner I sort it out, the better my options will be. So I'm gonna do my damnedest(?) to sort the gorram business out sooner rather than later! +1 CHA

The actual quote from Firefly is "You're like a trained ape. Without the training." but I want to be better than that and be like the trained ape that actually has the training. Main quest: Like all of my other challenges, my main quest is to improve my kicks. To be more specific, my side thrust kicks have always been my main goal but I need to add roundhouse kicks to this goal because they need help too. 1 - Mobility: Cheechoe's hip routine is going to be the main focus here but I also want to add the resets to make my hips work better. The goal is to do both of these at least 4 days each week.2 - Back to basics: Do 2 full Karate workouts at home each week in addition to my Karate class. Before the Karate workout do a strength movement and at the end of the workout do a core/ab movement. (modified 8/14/14) 3 - Karate specific: Total of 1000 kicks and punches per week. Life quest: Spend more time with my wife Spending the time walking with the Typhoon and doing something fitness related while doing it really helps put my mind in a better place and it also helps loosen up my hips. Walk 5 days a week.

I was a bit tempted to post this challenge in the Adventurers or even the Druids forums but decided, as continued Karate and Kobudo training are an integrl part of it, along with swordplay, that I would return once again to the Monks' Dojo. Last time, I successfully channelled my inner Raphael and Donatello (though less so Leo and Mike - didn't get round to fully learning the nunchuk kata or sword kata)... So this time, in my attempt to re-instil some self discipline and get "back on the wagon" I'll be thinking more along the Maste Splinter philosophy and working on my discipline and routine. Therefore this will be... TMNT part 2: Master Splinter (Hugh's "eat-move-sleep-discipline" challenge) So here I am looking at myself in the mirror and thinking of all the progress I made in the past year. Took up Karate, did well in a tournament, did a tripple grading and, well, that's it. Unfortunately, when I think about it, I've taken quite a few more steps back than I have taken forward. Specifically, I've been more and more remiss in taking care of what I eat and how much walking and running I do. Additionally, I have always needed to improve my sleeping habits - I'm noctournal by nature and this tends to manifest in me staying up pretty late 90% of the time, regardless of what time I should be getting up. This results in less sleep than is healthy. I used to think nothing of it but as I get older (last month saw my 39th birthday) I'm sure it will become more and more of a thing and I'm sure it's already effecting my health and weight-loss... or lack thereof. So my goals are eating better, getting more sleep and doing more walking and running. Simple. Of course, this is the Monks' Dojo. I'm here because my focus is martial arts / fitness goals (after all, one of my my ultimate goals is to be able to kip-up) So my Goals (now updated and colour coded to match the turtles headbands original colours) are... Karate: Keep attending weekly lessons. 'nuff said. Keep practicing the basics. By basics I mean the main "blocks" (Jodan uke, chudan uke, chudan soto uke, gedan barai and shuto uke), punches, kicks (see below) and footwork/stances. I will run through the basics, even if it's just a dozen repititions of each technique, each time I do a workout or practice katas. (If nothing else, running through basics and katas is a great warm up for a more intense workout.) Keep practicing katas, both unarmed and Kobudo. This means, as well as going to class, I will run through the unarmed katas I know at least thrice a week in my own time. Both Fukyugatas, all five Pinan katas and Naihanchi Shodan. I won't worry overly about learning the next Naihanch katas (outside of lessons) but rather focus on improving the ones I know. I will also run through the armed katas I know at least twice a week. Bo shodan & nidan and Sai nidan. Work on my kicks. When I am practicing the basics, I will pay particular attention to my kicks. I can kick fairly high and I can kick fairly hard but the technique is a little sloppy and my balance is a little inconsistent. My "posterior" kicks need particular attention: hook kick, back kick and reverse roundhouse. Fitness: Workouts. I'm planning on two or three fairly intense workouts each week. Bodyweight and kettlebells. I'll make an effort to structure my workouts a bit better but it's not the focus of this 6WC so updates on workouts will be iregular and vague. More walking and running. I'll aim for at least 30 minutes of walking or running each day that I'm not doing a more intensive workout, even if it's just walking up and down my driveway fifteen times! HEMA. My sword training has been almost non-existant since early April. I've got a few gigs coming up (all too few) and I really should, at the very least, practice the routines I'll be expected to do. Once a week, at the minimum, I will break out my longsword and refresh my "muscle memory" of my show's fight routine, the "dvd extras" (essentially telling the audience why show fighting is totally unrealistic) and the five Meisterhau. Diet: This is the tough one! When I first started making serious changes, I had great success with reducing carbs and keeping one foot in the paleo camp (as much as limited funds would allow). Lost lots of weight and greatly improved health the first year! And I even had a weekly cheat/treat day! It was aweome. This past year and a half, I have been slipping further and further away from that. I've blamed my even more limited funds and stress and, well, pretty much anything else I can... but the simple fact is that it's on me. My willpower is lacking. The "just one biscuit" or "I've already had a donut, I might as well have another" has been just too tempting. This must change. So LESS crappy food! Minimise sugary stuff and carb laden stuff: Avoid high carb staples at least 4 days a week. If I have no option other than "bad" food, then I'll do my best to pick the "least bad" option (i.e. rice or potato over bread or pasta) (I have to be realistic and say less rather than none. Sometimes my limited finances mean I'm stuck with rice, baked beans or noodles, just to get enough calories to make it through the week.) Breakfast. I'll make sure I have something healthy in the mornings at least 5 days a week (green smoothie, protein shake or eggs) Treat Days. Some people say treat days are a bad idea. Some people utterly swear by them! Me? I found that they kept me sane. Initially, I'll allow myself two per week... for the first two weeks: probably wednesdays and fridays*. Then it's down to one. probably wednesdays*. * actual days may vary as evenings when I'm gaming are the ideal ones for treat days due to having limited options at my friends' houses. I know it can be done. It really can! What I need is motivation. When I did well at the start, it directly followed what doctors say is one of the most painful experiences a human can endure (gout). That was damn good motivation to make some changes! The occasional flare ups haven't been as bad but the thought of another full blown accute attack leaves me cold, especially as it's already done some permanent damage to my big toe joint... Other times I did well were when I found myself hitting targets and reaching goals. I guess I'm more competitive than I thought (at least with myself). So I need both the carrot and the stick! My carot will be my weekly treat/cheat day(s). Additional carrots will be reminding myself how much better I feel when I eat more real food and less crap (I feel more energetic, I breathe better, I sleep better, I crap better and I train better) and, of course, reminding myself that as long as I keep it up, I will be more and more, slim and attractive and more and more awesome! My stick will be harsh reminders of the alternative... pain, low self esteem, fatigue, incresing weight, IBS, chronic inflamation and regular reminders that I used to be much fatter and will be again if I don't get back on the wagon! Sleep: I typically go to bed at about 3:30 - 4am. I'm a night time person by nature and often have nothing to be up for. This means that when I DO have something to be up for, I end up running on about 4 hours sleep. Controlling my sleep pattern is something that is within my power and arlier mornings means more daylight hours to do stuff outside (such as walking, running, training, etc) Must go to bed earlier. On nights other than my treat days, I'll be in bed by 2:30am. Even if I'm sitting in bed reading, it'll be the mental cue to switch off and wind down. I'll subsequently get up at 11am. (not counting mornings after my treat days) And there we have it. I'm not attempting anything too difficult or extreme. It's all about the self discipline, routine and consistency... three things I have trouble with hence the small steps, inclusion of treat days and general simlicity.

I still have a few days to hash out my goals for this challenge. I took some time off for school, but I have the summer off. Recently I discovered my childhood karate has some of its katas online. I love my first intro to the martial arts. It was a style called Pukang Tang Soo Do and is based out of Michigan State University. I know one goal is to relearn the katas. My last challenge I relearned my Iaido katas. Now I want to relearn my karate ones from High School, 30 years ago. I'll be honest, I am on a karate kick since watching "Street Fighter: Assassins Fist". I already started relearning the kata and I have also been on a diet. I started both at the same time. I should probably continue. Last week I relearned Pinan 1 and I am about half way through Pinan 2. I also got in touch with some instructors of my style. They are far away, but I will try to figure out a long distance learning strategy. 1st Draft: 1- Relearn Pinan 2 2- Continue counting calories.

Hello everyone! With some arm twisting (literally) from my husband, Shotokan, this is my first challenge. I have been learning Shotokan Karate for 10 years with my husband and son and have been learning Iaido for 2.5 years. I am still active taking my Martial Arts classes but I need something else to bring me back to shape I was in many years ago. I did hurt my back, to the point that I could not take Karate class for 6 months a few years ago and it has kept me from exercising the way that I used to before the injury. I will adjust this as needed along the way but the following are my goals for the next six weeks. 1: Take off 10 pounds I don't like to lose weight because it often finds me again so I want to take off 10 pounds and not get it back. I plan on doing at least some form of exercise every day, even if it is something as simple as doing kata with Shotokan. 2: Improve my Iaido skills Do at least 50 noto's at least three times each week outside of class and do at least one Iaido kata each day. 3: Hold a plank for at least two minutes With the back problems, I had to stay away from most exercises but now that I can do a plank again, I want to be able to hold it for at least two minutes over the next six weeks. 4: Do some form of mobility or flexibility training I don't want to ever have those back issues again so I am going to do some type of self taught Yoga or Tai Chi at home and also work on the HFS program that Shotokan does. I would like to do this training at least three days a week. These might change over the next six weeks but for now these are my goals. I heard that there is a great bunch of people here and I am looking forward to spending, at least, the next six weeks with all of you.

So, yes. I'm not exactly new here but I haven't been active for a looong time. I've competed one or two chalenges way in the past, started at least two I can rember that I jsut dropped out of. This time I'm going to do better. This time I also have a much better motivation to keep going, because its not just about me One of the things which features in this challenge which I don't think I've ever mentioned on here is that I'm busy picking up Karate again. I actually have a 1st Dan Black Belt in Shotokan karate, but have not actively practised for about 12 years until I started up again in Janauary this year. Starting physical stats: Height: 190cm Weight 91 kg Rest to be completed later So I know I'm not in terrible shape, but things could certainly get better Main Quest: Get in better shape before I get married I'm getting married on 16 August this year, so um, I'd actually like to a) be consistently eating healthy before we move in together, so I don't have to adjust after she moves in LGN, because well honeymoon and all So this is what the goals are aimed at achieving. I think that combining these three is acceptable given what I've accomplished in the past. A new quest shall be selected once we return from honeymoon, but I will continue to follow this one after the challenge till the wedding Goal 1: Execute PLP program without missing a day for the entire challenge So I started with this yesterday (5 June), so I will be on PLP Day 5 when this challenge starts. I can still do a pull-up, so this should be doable. Should there be a day I don't get in all the reps it counts against my score just as much as if I had skipped the entire day. A: No missed days B: 1 or 2 missed or DNF days C: 3 or 4 missed or DNF days F : >4 missed days Goal 2: Regularly attend karate classes So our Karate lessons are twice a week, but the days I can attend aren't in our dedicated practice hall, so they sometimes get cancelled due to other things there. The goal here is to practice karate twice a week. So if a normal lesson is cancelled I either need to attend one of the other classes or train by myself for the full time the lesson would have been A: No missed lessons B: 1 missed lesson C: 2 missed lessons F: >2 missed lessons Goal 3: Follow a low-carb diet Diet make-up is going to be based on the 4-Hour body prescription, so low-carb, legumes allowed, no dairy. One cheat day per week will be allowed. 2 penalty points will be earned for the first non-diet allowed item on any day, with an additional 1 point for each additional item. This is designed to penalise cheating at all on day more heavily, but prevent the "Oh I already messed up, may as well have another" A: 4 or less penalty points B: 5-7 penalty points C: 8-10 penalty points F: More than 10 penalty points Life Goal: Declutter my house We are moving into my place after the wedding, so I won't be moving. But we do need to go from only me having stuff there to two of us. So this means seriously reconsidering what really belongs there. Scoring is TBD, I need to think a bit more on how to score this. Note: Attribute points for goals is still to be decided, will be updating that before monday.

Immortal words of a Ninjutsu instructor, some years ago: <brandishing a pair of Sai> "Right! Anyone who thinks they're Raphael from the Ninja Turtles can just ***k off!" My Karate Sensei likes to include some kobudo in the class. Specifically we have been working on a couple of Bo katas and he is keen to have us learn at least one Sai kata (once more of us have our own Sai). The other day I saw the trailer for the upcoming Michael Bay TMNT reboot and that got me thinking... I've always liked swords. Now I'm learning some Bo katas and have the opportunity to learn Sai katas... all that's missing is the Nunchucks and I've got the whole TMNT gang! So why not go for it? TMNT originally appeared when I was a kid so it's of my generation. I've nothing to loose by learning some (more) Sai, Nunchaku, Sword and Bo techniques/katas! Furthermore, why not make it a TMNT themed challenge? Well, I don't do Ninjutsu these days but I do often wear a bandanna with lizards or newt shapes on it (I don't know why so don't ask) so Karate Newt might be more appropriate than Ninja Turtle. (I'm also very much NOT a teenager ) Fitness: April: Attend gym for some kind of strength training at least twice a week. May: Some kind of strength training at least twice a week. Probably bodyweight & kettlebells. Probably in my garden. Cardio: Walking, sprinting, swimming, cycling... anything - just Move! Str +1, Sta +1, Dex +1 Con +1 Karate: Keep attending weekly lessons. Keep practising the basics - stances, strikes, blocks, kicks. Do my grading. Dex +1, Wis +1, Cha +1 Unarmed Kata: Keep practising Fukyugata Ichi and Ni. Keep practising Pinan Shodan through Yondan. Learn Pinan Godan. Learn first three "two person katas" (can't remember what they're called): Kumite Katas Sta +1, Dex +1, Wis +1 Weapons: Keep practising Bo Shodan. Finish learning Bo Nidan. Learn one Sai Kata. Buy or make some Nunchuks and then learn one Nunchaku Kata. Find or develop a simple sword kata. Learn it. Str +1, Dex +1, Wis +1 Bonus: Get my own pair of Sai. Attend the Friday class (further away - more costly to get to) Wis +1, +1 Cha.