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SYRRAN: [My name is] Arev. T'POL: That means 'desert wind'. SYRRAN: Does it. Why are you here? ARCHER: We could ask you the same thing. SYRRAN: I follow the path of Surak in meditation and study. Challenge goals: Walk Meditate Study Train traditional Vulcan arts Walking is, well, walking. But I'm going to add some light exposure goals, stolen from Andrew Huberman. He says they're the one important thing to do, so on the list they go. Blackout from 11pm-4am, and sunlight early in the day. Meditation, I will technically count anything, but I'll mostly be using Plum Village's pebble meditation, minus the pebbles, and possibly plus swords. I think that's a set of metaphors that Vulcan could go for. They're big into religiously significant mountains, and, like, water, and space and stuff. Maybe I'll add some rest tracking. Studying for challenge purposes will be mindset stuff, encompassing Zen, martial arts, and ADHD. Also I have a book that I want to go through that should fit in there, sorta. I'm keeping a reminder for the dopamine increment habit, because it's not quite sticking yet. Martial arts is sort of limited, since I cannot study space naginata. Even aikido is not really available locally. Heck, even other stuff is a little hard to come by. So we'll work on strength and mobility. I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, "Those pictures contain a lot of weapons for a supposedly pacifist planet, don't they?" Yes. Yes, they do. We're not falling into the soft Zen trap this challenge. The Needs of the One Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Total Walk Evening Blackout Morning Sun Meditate Take a rest break Sleep deficit < 7h Study Dopamine Increments Strength Mobility Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Total

Hello everyone! I just joined the Nerd Fitness rebellion last week. I am a 32 y.o. mother of 3 (ages 13, 8, & 7). My husband and I have been married for 10 years. We are both tabletop RPG gamers, and we host the Just One More Fix podcast. Though rpgs are my favorite, I also enjoy board games and occasionally video games too. I am an emergency room nurse and recent college graduate. I am looking to start my first job as a family nurse practitioner very soon. I was a very healthy eater and exercised on a semi-regular basis before I started back to school. I am looking to lose the extra weight I found during my master's program and get back into shape. I want to look and feel healthier and be a good role model for my children. My larger goals that I am focusing on include losing 20 lbs, establishing a meditation practice, and blogging for our podcast. To help achieve these, my SMART goals for this 4 week challenge include: 1) Do a 30 minute cardio workout at least 3 times each week 2) Make a complete menu and shopping list each week 3) Meditate for at least 5 minutes at least 3 times each week 4) Spend 10 minutes each day reading other RPG blogs and establish a list of 5 favorites by the end of the challenge I look forward to interacting with all of you during the next 4 weeks. Best of luck on each of your own challenges!

I think I may have done a Harry Potter themed challenge semi-recently BUT I'm doing it again because I have a dance performance coming up and it's to Hedwigs Theme so I'm feeling pretty Hogwarts inspired right now However since I probably exhausted all the good old fashioned Potter gifs in my challenge a few months ago, this challenge will be hilarious and no-good HP gif themed. #sorrynotsorry Yeah we will see how long this lasts. Some background on me - my two main pursuits are powerlifting and ballroom dancing. Powerlifting I've been doing for a long while now and ballroom dancing I just got into back in December. I did ballet for 15 years when I was growing up so dance isn't super foreign to me but ballroom is SO FREAKIN' different and it's been 13 years since I've danced at all so it's definitely a challenge. I've actually got my first ever competition coming up in September (AHHHHHHHH), even though it's a super friendly not serious between some studios competition and not like... a real one. I did something similar with a performance team back in March but this one it will be just me doing a showcase (it's the Hedwig's theme dance I am basing this challenge around mentioned above). I'm ascared. But also still pretty darn excited. Lifting wise I've been more or less doing as a maintenance activity but the past 2 weeks I've been starting to step my game up again because I want to be stronger and I am finally feeling I am in a place where my body is used to how much dancing I am doing and it won't exhaust me. So far so good. As far as my challenge goes I usually end up using them kind of as a glorified battle log but I here are some goals anyway: Goal 1: Clean Fly Lady Daily Tasks 5x/week Last challenge I mostly focused on decluttering and making my apartment presentable and I succeeded! I have had people over semi-regularly and don't feel a wave of nausea inducing panic anymore at the thought of house guests. My first goal this challenge will be to maintain this as the status-quo. Honestly, I've been trying to do the Fly Lady thing for 3-ish years but I've never had a good baseline to go off of and it always just feels so overwhelming. Now that I've got a clean baseline apartment I feel like I can *gasp* actually do some maintenance cleaning?!?!?!? Should be interesting. Goal 2: Lift Strength workout 3x/week I have generally failed every darn time I tried to re-up my strength training from 2 to 3 days a week over the last few months and I think it was because I was still adjusting to my new dance schedule. The last few weeks I've been actually doing it super successfully and feeling pretty great about it so I want to keep this up. Goal 3: Dance Private lesson 1x/week I probably don't need to make this a goal because I'm going to do it anyway, but it's an easy win and I want an excuse to talk about it so there you go. So there you have it, a few days late but what are you gonna do. Time to do the thing!

AERI AIMS FOR THE WORMHOLE DAILY Workout 20m: rope 3m, w-up 5m, w-out 5m, stretch 7m Meditate 5m Affirmations 5m *determine which NOW - WHO DO I WANT TO BE? Take notes: question thoughts & reframe, by ENTIRELY EXPERIMENTING NOW. (not time bound, achieved by having notes from the day in question) 1-2 WEEKLY Groceries Cook CHECKLIST FOR JOB HUNT (repeat until hired) determine desired work activities and related job titles find companies that I'd love working for and require such job title(s) narrow down to a few tailor CV + cover letter for each research, study apply -------------------------------------------------------- Notes about last challenge: Okay, so last challenge was not that much but it was not met. Learned if I stop tracking on the same day it doesn't get done. I have to admit I'm depressed and have been for a few months, so I won't be dealing with less than 4 items since these items are vital. However, I have removed all the non essential for right now; the full Miracle Morning will have to wait. Steps for framing this challenge: . .

It’s a beautiful day. The sun is shining, the sky is blue, the wind smells of roses and fresh bread, and nothing is hurting anywhere. It’s a rare moment of peace among all the fighting, and Scalyfreak is fully enjoying her stroll through this wide open meadow she has found herself in. And then she realizes she is not alone. Well, she never was… Procrastination and Self-Indulgence in their new diminutive forms have been keeping up with her with surprising ease, but now they are suddenly joined by yet another creature. One moment the meadow is empty, the next, something huge and vicious looking with gigantic fangs and talons is casually strolling towards Scalyfreak. Something huge and vicious looking that seems vaguely familiar, in addition to being massive and powerful. As the creature comes closer, recognition dawns. “Self-Sabotage!” This one was supposed to be long gone. Forever. “Why are you back!?!” “Back?” And there is that familiar smile. That gloating, condescending, thoroughly evil smile. “What made you think I left?” This challenge is going to be a bit different. I’m putting it here in the Warrior forum because, well, this is home now. But more importantly, the whole point of the smaller goals of this challenge is to get back to a point where I can do Stronglifts again, so this is a good fit. I refuse to let this challenge period end without that happening. The things I need to do to make it happen, are my new challenge goals. 1. Heal Seriously. I started the previous challenge with an injured knee, which made gym lifting challenging. Then I got a cold that led to massive coughing that turned out to be asthma, and lifting had to entirely stop while that was dealt with. The massive coughing caused an injury to my rib cage, which made upper body lifting an impossibility, right in time for when the knee healed fully. In the past four weeks I have been to the gym once. Once! Healing the rib cage muscles needs to be made a priority. This includes, but is not limited to, asking for help with lifting things, taking painkillers when I need them, and using the shiny new inhalers as much as I need to, to keep the coughing to a minimum. 2. Stay sane while healing The iron therapist used to do this for me. I almost need the mental and emotional benefits of lifting more than I need the physical benefits. There are other ways to get a good workout, but the calm and confidence, and the lack of anger at everything, all the time, is really hard to get elsewhere. Since going back to the gym and lifting before I’m healed is out of the question, I need to find an alternative means of staying sane and happy until the healing is done. This goal has multiple parts: Stop “forgetting” to use the Headspace feature every day. Or to rephrase, take ten minutes out of every evening to meditate. Keep up with the gratitude journal. It doesn’t have to be daily, but I should do it at least four days out of the week’s seven. Stay active in this forum – don’t just read. Post, every day. Keep up the bedtime and sleep goals from the last challenge. Meeting my bedtime goal every night will be very difficult, but I am setting that as my goal anyway because the Stay Sane goal is really the only challenge I have this time around. These partial goals will be tracked in Habit Bull, starting on the first day of the challenge. This will make it easy for me to see if I fail or succeed, and will also provide incentive to continue. 3. Unfuck the dragoncave My general habitat, the dragon mountain, has become a more pleasant place thanks to the UfYH philosophy. I have made some minor efforts in the dragoncave, but the time has come to really focus here and turn this into a haven where I can meditate and read in peace.

(yeah I know that title sounds real intense and then it's just a cartoon hahah - bait and switch!) Background: For those just joining - I'm Raxie! This will be my 33rd challenge here. I recently got really into ballroom dancing and have been focusing a lot on that, but my other love is lifting. I have three kitties that I love dearly and I have a severe case of RangerBrain(TM). So! I really love how I set up my last challenge where I went hard on the goals, but also gave myself a lot of cushion to fall back on if I needed it. I ended up really needing that cushion in the last week, and that's fine! I passed, and I had a high bar that was quite ambitious that inspired me throughout the challenge. This challenge I am going to do kind of the opposite. I am going to set up some really rigid rules that are simple and not too ambitious... but I'm not going to give myself much leeway in terms of a grab bag of freebies. I find jumping back and forth between these two approaches has really helped me up my game slowly over time and I love it! Part of my problem with a lot of my goals in the past is I have an x times/week goal and I'll push it off and try to squish it all in towards the end of the week, but then it's the weekend and then I either don't do it or rush it. This time around I'm going to assign specific tasks to specific weekdays. If I don't do them, I can't "make them up" later. I just didn't do it, move on and I will do the task for the next week day. AND THAT'S OKAY. My inspiration for this challenge is Rick and Morty's Get Schwifty song -- two of the most inappropriate non-musically talented people on the planet went for it and created a song that won an intergalactic song contest, saving the earth from certain doom. If they can do that... my sometimes uncoordinated self can certainly go out on a limb and do The Scary Thing that is different dance styles and start competing in the future! (OK so that's a stretch - real talk I actually I don't have a theme that relates to my goals for this challenge and just wanted to throw some Rick and Morty gifs around because I love that show.) Big Picture Stuffs: I will be dancing. A lot. My goal is to do a non-group competition before the end of the year. That may be under ambitious but knowing me and my imposter syndrome that line in the sand needs to at least be drawn somewhere. As long as that line is there I could be convinced to move it to sooner, but I want to have it far enough away for now that I don't feel like I need to push it back if that makes sense. I want to focus on Foxtrot, Jive and a yet-to-be-determined Latin dance (I'm thinking maybe Rumba because it's so darn pretty). I will also continue to lift because I love it so. I re-started the beginner Strong Lifts progression for my OHP and Rows last challenge since I've been not doing them, the other lifts (DLs, Squats, Bench) I'm in intermediate Strong Lifts, but I'm shopping around for a more progressive intermediate program that I'll probably move on to either this challenge or the next. ROMWOD has become my backbone throughout the last two challenges and I will keep on keepin' on with that as well. Cleaning. Ugh. My eternal enemy. I feel like I would be the perfect adult and have my life together SO HARD if I could just keep my freakin' place clean! Why won't it just stay clean?! I am going to go full Fly Lady this challenge in terms of daily tasks so I have more of a direction in my cleaning, since last challenge I feel like I cleaned every day but nothing really... got done. Food. I've been eating kind of boarderline bad lately. I was away a bunch last week and am feeling I need to be more accountable about it, so I'm thinking I will report every day what I eat. No calorie counting, no paleo-compliance, I've just got to say here what I ate. That's it. The accountability will inspire me more than trying to meet macros and probably forcing "compliance" upon something that I know I'm just trying to game a system with. Goals: Under the spoiler is my "skeleton schedule" that is my baseline. Each Monday I will post a slightly altered schedule based on travel or volunteer meetings I may have to skip stuff for (I'm traveling almost every weekend this challenge so that will probably be the biggest struggle for sure). Grading: Points for each week will be out of 14 - basically each day I did the things I said I'd do I get a point, and each day I report what I ate I get a point for a total of 2 possible points a day. At the end of the challenge I need to have accumulated at least 55 points out of a possible 70 to pass! I'll be starting now, in week zero. Let's do this thing!

Foundation Re-reinforcement Building up from my previous challenge, I continue my mission to get my shit together. Life feels out of hand, and if you're balancing this much crap on your rickshaw, you better first make sure that (1) your bike works, and (2) you can ride a bike. And so onward with life maintenance--a continuation of my previous challenge and the one before that. SLEEP - I've noticed that it's pretty hard to make a dent on one end of the sleep equation, so I'm looking to make adjustments to the other end--the wake-up. Dr. Jeffrey Durmer from The Doc & Jock Podcast emphasized the importance of a wake-up routine. I'm looking to first establish a consistent wake-up time (possibly 0900) and something physical to do (perhaps a wall handstand or a Turkish Getup). I seem to have been oversleeping a little lately. AIR - Headspace has a bunch of packs. I finished Foundation previously and now am looking into finishing 3 of the Sport packs. I'm thinking at hitting one either first thing in the morning, or right as I come back from work. I'm still not expecting much out of it; just building the habit and the skill. FOOD - Family needs food as well. I got a whiteboard and will experiment with writing down the week's menu to eliminate decision-making. Side Quest: Quadruple Bs BJJ - 2-3 days Barbell - Muscle Clean, Bench Press, Muscle Snatch, Squat Bodyweight - Handstand, Straddle Planche, Manna, Front Lever, Arch Rocks, Tumbling Bells - Armor Building, Long Cycles

Foundation Reinforcement In fitness, where people seem to have trouble with starting out the most is staying the course. Building a foundation is slow, boring, and unrewarding, but to achieve long-term success one must stay the course. So continuing with my previous challenge, I shall be monitoring pretty much the same goals, but with a little more intensity and virtuosity. AIR - breathe and meditate. I'm coughing-up the $13 for a month of Headspace (mostly because I like the structure). Maybe throw a nauli practice in once a week, because if Rickson does it, why not? I think the biggest thing that's blocking my motivation to meditate is the fact that I only do it because I've been told I should. I haven't really read compelling papers and articles on what exactly it does and why I should be doing it. I guess I can use this to reflect upon how a lot of people view exercising. FOOD - track calories. I'm trying to climb up a bit in weight, and if I don't eat mindfully I tend to forget altogether. Goal is to log a minimum of 2500 calories daily because #MassIsInSession. Sunday meal prepping does seem to make everything easier, particularly preparing breakfast shakes for the week, because in the morning that one extra step could be the deciding factor between staying on track and just having Oreos. SLEEP - get to bed earlier. Might be tough, since I'm working and training nights (which means I'll have to go to more BJJ morning classes), so I'll have to take some notes. Week 0 goal is 2300, then slowly move that back as the month progresses. The 56 weekly hours seem to take care of themselves. Side Quest: The Trifecta Barbells, Kettlebells, and Bodyweight--the StrongFirst trifecta. I will be utilizing each for my extracurricular S&C. BJJ - 3 sessions a week or more Barbell - Dan John's Minimalist Training Bodyweight - Planche, Manna, Handstand, and the One-Arm Chinup work. Kettlebell - Andrew Read's mass-building program. Also, Getups. *seems like a lot, but I'm calculating my S&C will consist of 2, maybe 3 days.

So we're all probably familiar with Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs. One might notice that it is usually shown as a pyramid, and as Louie Simmons said, a pyramid can only be as high as its base. Performing a self-audit, I noticed how I don't practice what I preach. I'm always droning on about the basics and building a solid foundation before getting fancy. I'm trying to help others self-actualize when I've bypassed a lot of steps myself; I've build an incredibly flimsy pyramid with barely any base to stand on. That might be why I go through every day feeling like I barely made it and life always feels like a walk on the tightrope (while it's on fire, and the supports are on fire, and I'm on fire). No wonder adulting is hard. Foundation-Building * I'm looking to put together a child's daily, weekly, monthly task list. Shower, brush your teeth, bedtime, take your vitamins, eat breakfast, drink water, etc. I realized it's stuff I've either forgotten or never learned. Looking for suggestions. Parents of young children, do you have a particular checklist? I'd like to figure these out before moving on to adult tasks (or maybe even adolescent first). Some startup quests to be adjusted as necessary as the weeks progress: AIR - breathe / meditate for 5 minutes a day. (I have Headspace and Calm. Looking for suggestions regarding which to use.) FOOD - batch cook 12 meals on Sunday. SLEEP - track sleep and get 56 hours a week. Google Docs Tracking Sheet

Goal 1: Log hours of sleep every night. This will also include weekends. Just logging sleep hours makes me go to bed earlier, so I'll continue doing it. Ideal hours for this challenge: 7.5h. Bare minimum hours: 6h. Goal 2: Meditate. I've tried this multiple times before and failed. What's different this time? I'm going to have one of these, and it's going to be fucking awesome. According to the online tracker, it should be at my door on December 2, so there should be enough time for me to set it up and have it ready to go before challenge time. I am so pumped to meditate now because I'll be able to see my brain waves and actually track changes. Goal 3: Cut caffeine. NO coffee after noon, and none on most days. The only times I'll have coffee is when someone buys one for me because they don't know I'm cutting caffeine. If someone already bought it for me and I don't have it, then I'll feel bad lol. Cutting caffeine will be more doable now because of the increased sleeping hours. Relying on 4 to 6 cups of coffee to get through the day is really not ideal. I'm dehydrated as fuck and I hate it. If I have to cut out either coffee or alcohol, weeeelllll... Goal 4: MOAR WATER. Aiming for 2L/day. I used to do 3L before. The goal for this week is to get a 2L bottle before the challenge begins. It has to be glass, because metal or plastic makes water taste gross. I am the least fussy person in the universe when it comes to food, but if my water has even the slightest taste of plastic or metal, rage and dehydration happens. I'll start this challenge with gratefulness: I am grateful that the challenge only begins AFTER a night where I'm double-booked for Christmas parties.

Ok, Due to a severe attack of brain weasels aka the black dog (depression) last challenge I ended up bowing out before the challenge was complete. This challenge I'm going to keep things very minimal. PERKELE!!!!!!!!! Goals: Not to have to buy larger pants for the holidays - i.e. I want to keep my average food consumption below my MFP app goal of 2200 calories a day and make sure I'm getting at least 2 servings of freggies a day MEDITATE - minimum 10 minutes a day. Yoga - nightly sleepy yoga. Tai Chi twice a day. There that's it. That's all I'm doing until January. This is not going to be a graded challenge this is pass / fail.

Last challenge was tough on me and taught me a lot. It wasn't my first rodeo, but I definitely got more from it than from my other challenges. Mainly, I need to take care of myself. My main goal is to make sure I take time for myself DAILY. I'm a serious app junky, so I'm adding a little fun by making sure there's an app to track everything. Obviously, I could just get an app to make a spreadsheet (loooove spreadsheets) but that would be too easy lol. I also want to do a points/rewards system this time around. Meditate - take at least 10 minutes a day to enjoy some quiet and get centered. Headspace app. Stretch - every morning and before bed, minimum 5 minutes. Sworkit & Fitocracy apps. Read - pleasure read for at least 20 min/day. Kindle app. Sleep - get at least 7 hours/night. Language - practice Spanish by passing at least one level/day. Duolingo app Hydrate - drink at least 90oz of water/herbal decaf tea/day. Apple Health app I will be editing this prior to week 1 to add reward system and point system. *******EDITS BELOW***** 10/25 - Afternoon I take Sunday's off for family time. I tried to do a thing for my sig but it had too many lines. Ah, well. I will be grading each task based on completion. At the end of the challenge, I will average each week for a final percentage in each category, then average the categories together. 75% completion in a minimum of FOUR categories = Suspension Training Straps 75% completion for total challenge = The Academy Meditate - 50% Stretch - 100% Read - 100% Sleep - 91.5% Language - 87.5% Hydrate - 54% 10/25 - Morning I have been having a really hard time figuring out rewards. Mostly, because anything I want would be out of my budget at this point *cough*AppleWatch*cough*. However, I have been wanting TRX Suspension Straps for the house. (I am looking at these). Winter is coming and I am going to be needing things I can do indoors. I also really want to joint the Academy. I am thinking those are pretty good. Hopefully, I will be able to come up with a point/tracking system by this afternoon.

I'm coming over to the druids for this challenge since it's mostly about self refection and improvement. I have lost my muchness and I need to find it again. EAT ME, DRINK ME Maintain Calories in the Green Zone tracking with MyFitnessPal and my FitBit I cannot outrun my fork. I cannot get healthy by over OR under eating. I need to eat the proper amount to fuel my body. I will also try to limit my fast food and junk food by eating at least 1 homecooked meal a day. Slimfast shakes for lunch at work will help me feel full and satisfy my sweet tooth. Eat a minimum of 1 veggie a day, preferably with dinner. Need to get better about eating my veggies. Will work to include at least 1 portion of veggies at 1 meal a day. Start small, and achievable. FOLLOW THE WHITE RABBIT “My dear, here we must run as fast as we can, just to stay in place. And if you wish to go anywhere you must run twice as fast as that.” Complete NF Beginner Bodyweight Workout Lvl 1 3x/Week. Try to Lvl up to Lvl 2 by the end of the challenge, but this is not required to pass. I rocked out this workout last challenge and I hope to continue the momentum. The scale and clothes don't lie! My knees have been giving me a lot of problems, so I have forgone the Bodyweight Workouts this challenge. Do FUN activity thrice a week This can be yoga, walking, darebee apocalypse, hula hoop, jumping rope, wrestling with the boys, etc. Whatever is fun and gets me moving! Even extreme cleaning can count! Walk An Average of 5 Miles a Day (35 per week) Gotta walk to Mordor! REGAINING MY MUCHNESS “Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?" "That depends a good deal on where you want to get to." "I don't much care where –" "Then it doesn't matter which way you go.” Organize 1 Bin of Unused Items Every Week To Donate To Charity I have a house filled with extra knick nacks and clothes and stuff that I do not use and do not need. It is wasted extra that need to be donated to others who may use it. I will focus on deep cleaning/organizing one area of the house every week and in the process collect at least one box (generally going to use the big pampers diaper box) of goodies I don't use/need to donate to a local charity. Meditate with my Mantra Daily Over the last challenge I worked on a mantra for myself that I could memorize and practice daily to keep me mindful of what I want to be and do. While I wont list the actual mantra here for personal reasons, I have memorized it and will practice in daily in my sacred altar space as I meditate on the energy I wish to manifest in myself. No excuses, no skipping. Work to figure out which way I want to go.

So last challenge I tried to go hard. And I hurt my back (freaking walking on a treadmill of all things! wtf). The recovery has been quite a few weeks in the making and it's really disheartening, but I'm feeling 95% better. I'll need the rest of this week to really get all the way there, and I'll have to deload when I start up again, but I'm ready to tackle what I tried to tackle last challenge. Just gotta be more careful with my incline work. I'm pretty sad as I can already feel how much strength I've lost and I am feeling kinda slouchy and blah. I can't wait to get back into this stuff and give my body the boost it wants. So yeah, I'm literally just copying and pasting the last challenge because Buffy gifs never get old even if they're the same. The only thing I'm changing is I'm going to run once a week and do hiking conditioning once a week, instead of running 2x/week AND doing the hiking conditioning. Maybe that was a bit too much for me. I'm also removing the sleep goal because I have a hard time tracking it with how weird my schedule's been lately. I'll add it back in if I start feeling wonky though. Basically I'm moving this challenge to just focus on the physical stuffs for now. Also CAMP THIS CHALLENGE AHHHHHH!!!!!!!! So excited. As a side quest for myself I've gotta go introduce myself on the facebook page. I don't get FB at work and hate going on my computer at home so I've been seriously slacking on it. I do occasionally "like" random posts but I've got to go introduce myself before it's too late! So without further ado, a non gratuitous straight up copy and paste of the last challenge. DEAL WITH IT. -------------------- I've been rewatching through Buffy lately. With my little sister, who has never seen it. She doesn't know *any* of the major plot points and it's really awesome to kind of be watching one of my favourite shows of all time through new eyes. I've always loved the show for the Joss Whedon geniusness. The character development, the campiness, the witty dialogue. But I forgot how much the female characters are all just so strong. Not just Buffy, but her mom, Willow, the women vampires, Glory, Anya. Just so much awesome. And since I'm newly inspired by the show, I figure I'll just use the inspiration to get me going! Mission One. Strength. So I thought about not including this and doing something else here, since I have been consistent with Stronglifts even when it's not an actual goal. But since I'm upping my training this challenge, I don't want to not put this here and have me slack on it. I also am expecting to slow down with the newbie gains soon, and I don't want that to let that affect my motivation. So here it is. Stronglifts, 3x/week. 5x5. Do itttt. Mission Two. Speed & Endurance. Here's where I'm really upping my game. All the other stuff I've been more or less doing anyway. So I want to run 1x/week and then once a week either go on a hike or do incline treadmill work. Mission Three. Flexibility Need to be limber for all those high kicks! And also IRL to get up those big scrambles! Yoga 5x/week. I do this most mornings anyway. Life Quest. Focus. I've been slacking on the meditation. I think I didn't like the exact technique I was doing. Back to focusing on the breath... how I fell in love with it in the first place. Meditate 5x/week. ----------------------- So this all might seem like a lot, but I've really been doing most of it most of the time already, before I injured my back. I'm just putting it all together here and making it a priority.Time to focus and go kick major butttt

Hello! My name is MaidofRus, I'm a 24 year old woman basically just starting her fitness journey. I've done challenges in the past with varying degrees of success but I've never really accomplished my main goal, which at this point is to be active and exercise regularly. I've just started a full-time teaching job so I'm going to be starting out slowly. Main Goal: Keep Calm, Be Prepared, Be Active Be Prepared: Sleep 8 hours every single night. In bed at 10pm school nights. A: 30 nights sleep B: 25+ nights sleep C: 20+ nights sleep F: 15+ nights sleep Be Active: Exercise three times a week for at least 5 minutes. A: 18+ exercise sessions B: 15+ exercise sessions C: 12+ exercise sessions F: 9+ exercise sessions Keep Calm: Meditate for two minutes or more every day. A: 40+ meditation sessions B: 35+ meditation sessions C: 28+ meditation sessions F: 21+ meditation sessions Life Quest: Find one hour a week to craft or read. Rewards: Yoga Strap (Passing with B's) Work out shirt (Passing with A's and B's)

Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment. ~Jim Rohn I'm not sure what I want to do. My tailbone is drastically improved, but still hurts. I still want to get better at waking up early and going to bed early. I still want to work on push ups. I want to meditate. And most importantly i want to lose weight. But I need some thinking for my challenge. I feel kinda bad about my crapping out on my last one.

Agent C Starts Anew Overall Goal: To reach body fat of 30%. Goal this challenge: Get back into taking care of myself. Hello everyone, I’m not new to the NF community, some may know me as Minion 25, but I need a respawn. I will be taking my Incontinence Class final next week, concluding the classwork portion of my Wound Ostomy Continence Nurse training and I’ll be starting the Practicum section 4/23/15 (literally THE DAY after my final!). I’ve taken a month long vacation (as far as weekdays go) to do this. I DO still have to work weekends, unsure of how busy I’ll be, but its fewer 12 hour shifts and nightshifts so hoping that’ll give me a better chance at completing this challenge! GOAL 1: Couch to 5K program (8 week program) My friends and I are going on a weekend cramping trip this summer, hike-in sites and rock climbing. I have gained about 15pounds since the last hike-in camping trip, and was struggling then. I would like to have a chance at making it to the camp site without sounding like Darth Vader this time. STA-4 GOAL 2: Meditate 5/7 days. I completed the Take 10 program through Headspace and loved the way it made me feel (an especially sleep!) so I bought a subscription a couple weeks ago, and really need to get back to working with it. WIS-3 GOAL 3: No Fast Food, make Homemade meals. Two eat out meals allowed per week. I am going to be living with friends, during the week, while I do this Practicum (as it’s nearly 3 hours away from my home) and not real sure how the eating is going to turn out but they aren’t the type to eat out all the time and are some of the most supportive people when it comes to my health goals. Everyone else is not helpful "you look fine, you don't need to worry about that" they're trying to boost myself esteem but that's not what I need. These friends are like hey lets go to the climbing wall! Let's go for a walk, that just so happens to include a SUPER steep hill! They see me struggling, let me rest, then ask if I can do more but I also know they are ok if I can't. Which is REALLY helpful because I usually can squeak out a bit more effort if I've got someone to push me a little. Heck this past December we went snowboarding and I finally had to call it quits after 5 hours (!!!) when my "bad leg" could no longer support me. I started falling then not being able to stand from being seated to strap in, to not being able to flip edge to edge to not being able to do my front edge to the last run being taken on my back edge with my hands squeezing my quad muscle to force it to continue to flex and get me down the hill. My leg was so exhausted that when I let go of my quad, my knee would buckle. I was so angry, because we were having SO MUCH FUN. CON-3 Bonus:Push-ups to 100, Squats to 100 program. (10 week program) 3x per week. The C25K recommends waiting until week 4 is over to start this. Grading: A-92% B-84%, C-76%, D-68% Reward $15 for A, $10 for B, $5 for C. Bonus goal: $10 for A $5 for B (must continue through break between challenges) I'll get my STATS up tomorrow

1) Candy Land Escape from Holiday Treats*Every year, the holidays start to feel like a gauntlet of poor food choices combined with a big helping of guilt masquerading as holiday cheer. You can't avoid "opportunities" to eat calorie-laden, low-nutrient foods unless you crawl into a hole and pull it in after you. And trying to say "No, thank you" to friends, family, and random strangers proffering these items becomes an exercise in extreme diplomacy. I usually feel like Scrooge crossed with the Grinch before Thanksgiving is done. Forget the wreath on the door ..... this should go up as a fair warning to neighbors: (Maybe I should tattoo it on my forehead ....???) So, this year, I'm embracing the challenge!!!! Bring on the gauntlet!!! We'll have some fun framing the holiday season as the battle ground that it often seems to be, populated with sugar monsters, office party swamps, and little devils pushing caramel corn and cookies at us whenever we are weakest. For fun, people may join in the game - pop over to the accountability group (which I will create shortly ....) and have some fun with me. (Keep in mind that this is NOT a well-constructed game ... just somewhat of gallows humor designed to raise a laugh as we try to avoid gaining the traditional 5 pounds that Americans put on ---- and do not lose ---- each holiday season.) *Thanks, Beaucastle for the name!!! At stake for me: 1 CON, 1 WIS, 1 CHA, 1 STA, 1 STR - if I escape (i.e. get to the end of the game board) 2) Apprentice to the Black Widow Yeap, I'm back among the Assassins to work on changing body composition and redevelop the ability to do a pullup (among other bodyweight workout goals)!! I refuse to give up on this goal and will be working hard at reducing the amount of assistance I need on the pullup machine at the gym. By the end of the challenge, I want to be able to do 3 x 8 at 100 pounds of assistance or less. At stake: 1 STR, 1 DEX 3) Comfortable in any SettingSince I work at home, it's way too easy to get stuck inside as winter descends upon us. I can become a hermit, sitting at the computer, getting all my social interaction online. I live in the 5th coldest city in the United States .... I love it, but it can become a challenge to get outside in the winter. So ... gotta fight that trend and get reacquainted with people and my favorite city. Besides .... assassins have to blend in everywhere, right? My goal is to get out and do some adventuring every day!!! The list of possible adventures will keep growing as I think of things. Some will be planned, but some will be random (dice roll or picking a card). At stake: 2 CHA, 1 WIS 4) Outrun the Ghost of Christmas PastRunning is good for my spirits and usually kicks S.A.D right in the teeth too. So, finish C25K and run the http://gobblegallop.com/ and the Jingle Bell Run/Walk for Arthritis with take place on Thanksgiving and then a week later. Let's hope for no ice! I can handle cold air, but I don't want to risk messing up my ankle again. At stake: 1 DEX, 2 STA 5) DestressMeditate daily. At stake: 2 WIS The goal is to NOT go over 165 pounds (losing weight would be even better), to hold BF% steady or even reduce a little, and to emerge at the end of the challenge filled with health and holiday spirit!!!

I wasn't going to participate in the upcoming challenge because I'm going away on vacation November 14-22, there's Thanksgiving, and I really haven't had a lot of free time after work during the week to get to the gym at all. However, the closer November 10th gets, the more I want to just say screw it, let's do this again. So, with caveats, I'm in for my 6th challenge! And with a Codex Alera theme too! (For those of you who are fans of the Dresden Files, check out Jim Butcher's other, equally awesome, series!) Main Quest To live a healthy and balanced life by exercising and trying to eat healthy. For my sixth challenge, I am going to MAKE myself start going back to the gym on a regular basis. I've slacked off and I'm tired of it. So while I may not be 100% worthy of the Warrior's Guild yet, I think joining them again will get me there by the end of this challenge. I haven't done any serious weight lifting all summer and I really miss it. Motivation I've successfully dropped weight by counting calories so my diet will be staying the same with 1200 calories per day M-F with blow meals on the weekends. For the past few challenges, I was really limiting my sweet treats during the week and that somehow caused me to then eat badly most Friday nights. So this time, I'm going back to the basics like my very first challenge: sweet treats are allowed, but only 2-3 days during the week. I want, and need, to get back to only 1200 calories M-F. Story The Vord is coming back to Alera and all the races of Carna need to come together to fight once again. To join the ranks of the Aleran army, my goals are below. Perhaps if I'm lucky, and dedicated, I can join the ranks of the most famous Aleran legion, that of the Battle Crows! Quests 1. Battle Ready, Battle Crow: Become stronger by doing these: a. bar squat: 85lbs (115lbs, 9 reps on 8/13/14) b. stiffleg deadlift: 55lbs (85lbs, 9 reps on 6/26/14) c. bench press: 75lbs (70lbs, 9 reps on 8/13/14) {revised 11/24/14} d. barbell curl (each arm): 20lbs (25lbs, 6 reps each arm on 8/6/14) e. assisted pull-up with 30lbs of assistance (30lbs of assistance, 3 reps on 8/13/14) Scoring: x/5 Reward: +5 to STR (1 for each achieved) Since it's been months since I lifted weights, I cut the goal weights by 30lbs. After my first workout, I may need to adjust the numbers further. 2. Watch Your Rations, Recruit: Eat healthier by cutting down on the sweet treats to 2-3 times in the 5 day week. Scoring: /25 days Reward: +3 to CON I'm not going to be as strict by trying to avoid the chocolate things every day during the week, but I do want to measure using days to see how many days I can go. I'm not counting the weekends, the week I'm on vacation or Thanksgiving. 3. Don Your Armor Again Drop 6 pounds Scoring /6 pounds Reward: +2 to CHA Current weight: 141lbs Along with lifting weights again and watching what I eat more, I would ideally like to weigh 135lbs. It's never a bad thing to want to lose a few pounds and while this doesn't seem like a very high number, I have been lazy about maintaining my weight and feel like I would prefer to be lower. Plus, loosing 6 pounds is easily doable over 6 weeks. This should also encourage me to not go crazy with what I eat while on vacation as gaining a lot of weight will make this goal even harder to achieve. 4. Find your Fury Scoring: x/6 weeks Reward: +2 to WIS I really enjoyed meditating when I did it as part of my Druid challenge and I think it will be a good thing to do while on vacation. I want to listen to nature more and just relax while calming my mind. So, in keeping with the Codex Alera theme, I want to focus on finding my fury (although it would probably be water and/or metal). 5. Marching /30 miles in 6 weeks (5 miles per week) Reward: +3 to STA I found that I was able to do more walking than I thought I could do in my last challenge. And an Aleran recruit needs to do a lot of marching: to reach the battle lines, during battle, just walking around Alera, etc. Plus, walking is always beneficial. "There are some people who will never understand what loyalty means. They could tell you what it was, of course, but they will never know. They will never see it from the inside. They couldn't imagine a world where something like that was real." - Gaius Sextus, First Lord of Alera; Furies of Calderon

I’ve noticed a consistent problem with balance in workouts in particular and a bit in general life. I’m looking at the general aspects of my life and breaking them down into components that I need to work on. Edit: having joked about it in Cheechoe's thread, I have now realized that my challenge needs Ponies. I will now giggle as you all cringe in horror. Physical Components - defense, strength, flexibility, endurance, body control, speed Find a training balance that allows me to work on all of those to some extent. I’m not going to be awesome at all of them, but I’d like to be generally competent. Grading is going to be x/5 each week with a point for each different activity. JudoStriking practiceYoga/mobility work (will include general mobility exercises in here)Strength trainingRunning/sprints Other - bonus point Mental/Spiritual Components - Philosophy, meditation, sleep, chores, relaxation. Grading x/5 per week with a pass/fail assessment on each of the below items Meditate daily Prioritize sleep ahead of finishing that chore. Read up on systems of philosophy and figure out what I likeDo chores in smaller chunks instead of one big whirlwindRelax/Read/watch stuff/play video games Intellectual Component - Learn things to keep my brain from getting stagnant and discuss these things with friends (if they’re interested). Study at least an hour per week on whatever topic is interesting at the moment. Grading x/6 List provided for inspiration: astronomy, math (triple integrals in particular), poetry, archaeology, psychology, thermodynamics refresher, history, anatomy, operations management. Be a better Judo instructor for the kids Try to ensure that they leave smiling each week. Grading x/9 Read the LTAD materialsReview the coaching class materialsWatch the 101 Judo Games DVD and take notes on some good gamesHave a plan for each session (6)

A little late but here goes... So tomorrow marks my 1 year NF anniversary. And while I wish I could say my life has drasitically improved or changed since then, it hasn't. This doesn't have anything to do with NF, it has to do with me and how I've been approaching this journey... my brain has certainly changed dramatically in the way that I look at the world and what I do with and put in my body. But somehow everything I've been working on just hasn't stuck. I've had bouts of sucess and bouts of failure over the year, but nothing really consistent. Going over my past challenges (excluding my most recent) I notice a trend of doing really well in the beginning, and falling off towards the end. Or doing well all the way through only to lose a lot of my progress during the zero weeks. Essentially, habits have not been formed as I had hoped. Basically I've been having some trouble getting through the every day stuff. Even after my vacation I came back and instead of feeling refreshed and jumping back into things I have kind of just been sitting around for 2 weeks and doing not much at all. So now I am switching everything up. Instead of assigning myself specific tasks, I am going to just make sure I do a few things every single day. I have gotten into the habit of meeting my goals on a weekly basis instead of a daily one. I'll cram in 3 different work outs in one day (morning, afternoon, evening) or do extra sets to make up for a missed work out. But, shockingly, my body doesn't respond well to that and I'm really just playing mind games with myself pretending I'm doing what I've asked myself to do. I've also been struggling with how to eat healthily. Mostly because the restrictions I've put on myself (which really do make my tummy feel awesome) my boyfriend has a hard time enjoying. Even if I make something that I think is delicious, he still wants pizza or cheese fries or something of that nature. And it's hard to have to try to stick to my guns and eat what I made and try to convince him to eat it too nearly every day. So I end up giving in a lot and we eat something terrible. So I'm going to back off on some of the restrictions I've had in place and see how I feel and will possibly work them back in at a later date, this is in the interest of cooking healthy things that hopefully the boyfriend will want to eat, and that we can enjoy together. I'll be not considering gluten a failure anymore, as long as it is in whole grain form. I will also not be so picky about dairy, since I have learned I can't not eat pizza, I just need to think more when I eat things that are "bad". If I don't think of it as bad it will hopefully be easier for me to eat a normal human amount instead of like 20 slices. More on this down in my food mission. So. I will do small things. Or big things. Or medium things. My choice depending on how I'm feeling as long as I do something from each category every day. Every day I will focus on myself and improve myself a little bit. Even if I'm exhausted and it's something super tiny, it's still something better than yesterday. Every Day Missions 1) Move. This can be running, yoga, strength work out, swimming, or going for a walk. Or even hopping onto my mini stepper for a bit if I'm super busy. Even stretching and foam rolling counts here if it's a rest day or I'm super sore or sick. Just do something every day. Especially if it's capoeira. 2) Meditate. I started using Headspace before I went away and continued to use it on vacation but I kind of lost track of it since. It's small little meditation sessions that build up over time in length and intensity (ie - become less and less guided) and eventually begin to branch out into different aspects of life that I can focus on. I absolutely love it, so I'm going to make a commitment and really start doing this every day again. 3) Make Healthy Choices. Try to avoid gluten, but when neccessary make sure it is whole grain. Also portion control is key. Don't over eat. I know when I've screwed up, if it's one thing I've gained over the year it's knowledge of what's good and what's bad to put into my body. Actually following through with this hasn't been super sucessfull but I do know. So this is kind of subjective but that's also kind of the point. I want an overall feeling of making healthy choices and really thinking about what I put into my body every day. I'm not too worried about the nitty gritty. 4) Improve My Space. Clean something, or organize something, or make something look a little nicer in my space every day. Even if it's tiny, even if it's just scooping the cat litter. If I'm not home for a day, this can be as simple as organizing my purse, throwing receipts out of my wallet or cleaning my hair brush. Just something. 5) Sleep. Get at least 7.5+ hours a day. This can be supplamented with naps in extenuating circumstances. No excuses. 6) Be accountable. I have tapatalk, I have access to it everywhere. I can get on here every day even if I'm not at a computer. Even if all I say is something like "Today: 1235" beecause I everything on this list except for number 4 sort of thing. It's not that hard. I can do it. This doesn't count towards grading but I'd really like to keep on top of it. Bonus Activities These will make sense once I get to the grading portion. 1) Brain Train. I don't expect to do this every day, but I do want to do it a few times a week. I have a free Luminosity account and also a brain exercise thing on my DS. So either one will work. (MAX 5 POINTS/WEEK) 2) Snake Love. Not sure if I've mentioned this before here but I own 4 snakes. I completely love them but sometimes I don't play with them as much as I probably should/want to. So once a week or so I'll try to take them out and handle them. (MAX 1 POINT/WEEK) 3) Pamper. Take a bath. Give myself a face mask. Get a manicure or a pedicure (or do it myself). Do something nice just for me. (MAX 1 POINT/WEEK) 4) Boyfriend Time. Do something romantic with the boyfriend. We have been living together for 3 years now so the romance is starting to be more like let's lay on the couch all night in our PJs and order in as opposed to going out for a nice dinner or see a movie. I feel the opportunities to be healthy are much better in going-out situations too. Plus I enjoy dressing up and looking/feeling nice. (MAX 1 POINT/EVERY 2 WEEKS) 5) Volunteer. I've been volunteering on occasion with HRC, if the opportunity arises during this challenge I want to volunteer more! (MAX 2 POINTS/CHALLENGE) 6) Duolingo. This is basically a free version of Rosetta Stone. I've been on and off using it for Spanish for about a year now. Hopefully I can find the time to work on this a bit. (MAX 5 POINTS/WEEK) Grading I will start off with 175 points. If I miss an every day task, I lose one point. If I do a bonus activity, I gain one point. But I can't get more than the max points per week from the bonus activities listed under each bonus activity (so I can't just take 20 baths in one week and get 20 points haha) At the end of the challenge I will grade myself based on my end total points. 175 is 35 (days left in the challenge) times 5 (number of daily tasks). So I can't actually get below 0. 210+ points: A (15 stat points) 190-209: B (11 stat points) 175-189: C (8 stat points) 125-174: D (5 stat points) 100-124: F (1 stat point) 0-99: F- (0 stat points) I will award myself the above number of stat points. Since my end grade isn't broken up into how well I did in each category, I will decide at the end what kind of stat points I get depending on what I feel I improved upon the most during this challenge. And I'm off!

First challenge for me so I'm going to focus on improving just a bit in each catagory and see where I'm most comfortable. Going to focus on mostly dealing with anxiety because I have reacently started getting severe migrains. They are so severe that I'm at the point of doing anything to prevent them but I would prefer to treat them the natural way. so for six weeks I will be : ~Giving up caffine in all forms but hot tea, diet soda and migrains are a no-go according to the doctor. ~transitioning to the paleo diet by cutting out sugar and complex carbs(God I love wheat thins heh) ~Learning to let go of the small stuff and destressing by turning off the 24 hour newsfeeds that follow us around everywhere we go. ~down sizing my material possesions and giving my extras to those in need, if I haven't used it in over a year than it's off to the PTA ~Breathing meditations and begginer's yoga, 20 mins in the morning ~Reading at least 2 books on philosophy, I'm guilty of the netflix marathoning habit lately and staring at the screen can apparently trigger migrains. A nice, simple start that I'm sure will have rather signifcant impacts on my day to day, I wish you all luck!

Challenge number three, take two! I bailed out halfway through my last challenge, but I don’t regret it. My mental health was not in a good place, and the challenge had become Just One More Thing. I cut out as many of those as I could, and it definitely helped. I’m in a much better place now—winter is over; I changed jobs to one that not only pays me more, and is challenging while still important, but also lets me work with friends; and we got a new dog. Not having a dog around has messed with me since our previous dog died last year. Not that these changes didn’t bring stresses of their own—I’m halfway through 12 weeks of intensive training at the new job, and the dog has heartworm and is on his third week (of eight) of prednisone and very restricted exercise. But overall things are settling into a new normal, and I feel like I can turn my attention back to fitness. Main Quest: Build habits to reduce stress and get fit. Currently I’m walking on my 15 minute breaks, always taking the stairs (I work on the third floor), packing a healthy lunch, and making a healthy breakfast smoothie (nonfat greek yogurt, a cup of nut milk, a cup+ of frozen and/or fresh fruit, and one packet of milled flax seed). These are all habits I’ve formed, and they’re sticking with me even when I’m not doing a challenge. But they’re all habits that are triggered only on days I go to work. In my previous challenges, I would get things done, but never built new habits except for when NOT doing things (like avoiding potato chips or fried food). I’d get the activity done at some point because “I have to do my challenge for today,†and as soon as the six weeks were over, I stopped doing the activity. Therefore, this time I’m focusing on building habits (if I don’t have to think about doing it, it’s way less stressful) and finding things I enjoy doing and will look forward to. The key will be finding the right triggers. In order to facilitate building the habits, I'm not worrying about duration too much for this challenge. Goal #1: Jump rope at least 2 mins a day, three days a week (MWF) I have wanted to take up jogging, but haven’t done it for various reasons, some of which are health-related. But I recently read an article on jumping rope, which indicated you can burn more calories in less time while still getting the bone-density benefits of running. Plus it’s fun, portable, and I can do it indoors or outdoors without having to worry about sun exposure or stranger danger. (Way back in the when, my husband and I signed up for a gym, and the trainer was taking us around and showing us the equipment. He pointed out the treadmills dismissively, adding, “I don’t know why anyone uses those rather than just running outside.†To which I replied, “Because in here there are lights and cameras and people, and I don’t have to worry about getting attacked and raped if I can’t find anyone to go running with me at night.†From the startled look the guy gave me, this had obviously never occurred to him.) Trigger: I have a couple ideas, which I will try and see what works best. I may do this in the morning after taking care of the animals but before my shower. Or, I may just take the jump rope to work with me. I get to work early most days, so I may just jump rope in the parking lot, or possibly the basement. However, I'm hoping to eventually expand this time into a longer workout, so fitting it into home time would probably be best. Goal #2: Handstands for at least 2 minutes a day, two days a week If I’m making a trigger for jumping rope three days a week, then I need to make sure I have some fitness thing I’m doing on Tuesdays and Thursdays, or that trigger is just not going to take. Whatever trigger works for jumping rope, I can use for handstands on the off days. I love handstands, and I'm still not doing them regularly. I just don't think about it. Nail those to a trigger and I might just do them every day. (First things first, though.) Goal #3: Meditate 2 minutes every morning Despite having a meditation goal in every challenge so far, I have never developed an actual daily habit of practice. Trigger: After the morning routine of taking care of the animals, showering, packing lunch, and making my breakfast smoothie, I will take said breakfast smoothie into the sunroom, shut the door, and sit quietly for two minutes. This will also hopefully have the added benefit of reminding me to make breakfast on the weekends (see side goal). Life Goal: Be artsy! I don’t make time to be creative, other than writing, and like anything else I feel like I “should†do or “need†to do, writing has become a chore. So it’s not in this list. Instead, I will do something creative or artsy every week, purely because I think it would be fun. I have two Paint Nites scheduled, some jewelry I want to make, unfinished cross-stitch and embroidery, a paint-by-number I haven’t started, and some cook books I’ve been browsing. I also want to have the husband hook the Playstation back up so I can play Rock Band. I miss singing. I’ve also been meaning to make a playlist of songs I love to sing along to. Side Goal: Breakfast on Weekends I don’t eat breakfast on the weekends. Sometimes I don’t even eat lunch. This is bad. SCORING: Goal #1: 6 weeks of 3 sessions is 18 sessions. (+2 STA) A = 18, B = 16, C = 13, D = 9. I’m not accepting anything less than half. Goal #2: 6 weeks of 2 two sessions is 12 sessions. (+1 STR, +1 DEX) A = 12, B = 10, C = 8, D = 6. I’m not accepting anything less than half. Goal #3: 6 weeks of 7 meditations is 42 meditations. (+2 WIS) A = 42, B = 35, C = 28, D = 21. I’m not accepting anything less than half. Life Goal: Once a week for six weeks is six activities. (+2 WIS) A = 6, B = 5, C = 14, D = 3. I’m not accepting anything less than half. Diet Side Goal: 6 weeks of 2 instances is 12 instances (+2 CON) A = 12 or less, B = 13-15, C = 16-17, D = 18. Once again I'll be keeping track via this handy template: Jump Rope - 0/3 - 0/3 - 0/3 - 0/3 - 0/3 - 0/3 - 0/18 Handstands - 0/2 - 0/2 - 0/2 - 0/2 - 0/2 - 0/2 - 0/12 Meditate - 0/7 - 0/7 - 0/7 - 0/7 - 0/7 - 0/7 - 0/42 Be Artsy! - 0/1 - 0/1 - 0/1 - 0/1 - 0/1 - 0/1 - 0/6 Breakfast - 0/2 - 0/2 - 0/2 - 0/2 - 0/2 - 0/2 - 0/12

I've done a pretty decent job of keeping myself in mediocre shape over the last year or so by doing one thing or another - eating Paleo, lifting at the gym, doing a cleanse, or jogging. What I've not done well is tie these things together in a comprehensive way. So that is my overall quest for this challenge: I will raise my fitness to a new level by caring for my health holistically. My goals to support this are: 1. Eat primal/paleo at least 90% of the time. (CON +3) 2. Do body weight strength training at least 3x per week. (STR +4) 3. Run sprints at least 1x per week. (DEX +3) My life quest is to get outside more so I'll also: 4.Run/walk the dog at least 4x per week. (STA +3) Finally, since I've done challenges before (though a long time ago), I'll give myself the latitude of adding a mental fitness goal, which is: 5. Meditate 3x per week. (WIS +2) So that's my deal. I'm prepared to push through the full six weeks. If you are too, drop me a note below.

Happy New Year everyone! I'm back again to give it another shot. The last challenge I kinda broke even, this time I want to get straight A's! I am revisiting some of my failed tasks and adding others. My primary goal last year was to lose weight. This year I still want to lose weight but am also recording body fat % and aiming at a loss of 5%. I have no idea how realistic that is but do feel like I have at least 10 kg more weight to lose which is now more than 10%of my total weight so if I can do that then I can lose the fat. I realise it won't happen over the next 6 weeks but my tasks will help me achieve my goal eventually. 1. Ride 300km Previously I have aimed to do a 50 km ride in a challenge but I haven't achieved that and now realise that I am better off aiming to ride more often and more consistently in order to make a bigger difference. 2. Mediate for 5 minutes a day 5 days a week. 10 minutes was far too ambitious last time for someone not used to the process at all. I now know what to expect and feel confident of success in this task. 3. Strength training twice a week. I suck at this task. I have this weekend to come up with the program I will do and schedule it. No more excuses. 4. Lights out by 11pm 5 nights a week. I set this as a task on the Lift app last year and achieved it 44 times. That's woeful!!! I need 7 hours sleep a night in order to improve my chances of success with my other tasks so this is crucial. I will edit this with scoring and points during the day when I am on my computer.