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I had our beautiful daughter 4 months ago, and now I've reached a point where it's time for me to start working on improving things. I'm not so much in a 'rut', as that I'm coming out of the fog of new-parenthood and there are things not going so well which I want to do something about. Special shout-outs to Teros, DarK_RaideR, ShadowLion and Phayze, who each in their own way inspired me to come back for another challenge, and also inspired how I approached this challenge differently to others I've done. This challenge fits more with the Adventurers than my usual Assassins guild stuff, it's not fitness focused at all but is about getting my mind and body back to a state where I can later go back to some more fitness-based goals. My 4 goals are focused on improving things I am unhappy with which I have control over - and to ignoring everything else for the time being. Main Quest: Build a foundation of basic mental and physical wellbeing, from which I can reach for fitness goals in the future. Goal 1: Nutrition a. Make a list of foods I will and will not consume over the next 6 weeks, based on my histamine sensitivity requirements. b. Plan meals for 2-3 weeks in advance (and maybe repeat the same meal plan(s) for the rest of the challenge, if it's easier and I'm not too bored with them). c. Plan my shopping trips for the week and put in my calendar (with a baby, it's hard to get to the shops sometimes!) d. Plot all 'off-plan' days/meals/treats at least 2 weeks in advance. This goal is to address issues I've been having with my skin, as well as overall health and energy levels. Because I'm breastfeeding, I can pretty much eat whatever and not put on weight, however this eating pattern has led to some persistent eczema which has officially driven me to the wall. It must be stopped, and I know from experience that eating well will be my best strategy! Goal 2: Sleep a. Prepare for sleep coaching, following sleep plan instructions in weeks 1 and 2; give simple instructions to my partner so he can help. b. Take a nap during the day at least three times per week, for at least 60 minutes, in a separate room from Baby. c. Go for a walk of at least 10 mins every day. d. Start sleep coaching from week 3 or 4 of the challenge. As other parents can understand, my sleep is shithouse at the moment. Baby girl is still little, and will likely wake up 2-3 times a night for the next couple of months. What I want to work on is getting her to go to sleep on her own, instead of while she is breastfeeding - that's what sleep coaching is. If she can fall asleep on her own, I will save both of us 30-60min every nap and at bedtime, because that's how long the current routine is taking us and it's driving me batty! I'll also be taking naps to try and address my sleep deficit and going for walks to ensure my body clock stays mostly on track. Goal 3: Mood a. Write in journal every day, including gratitude exercise. b. Continue to do 4-7-8 breathing exercise 2+ times per day. c. Do re-framing activities and other strategies from psychologist to help improve mood and outlook on life. d. Engage "quiet berzerker mode" to summon courage to raise issues which are bothering me, with relevant people. This is probably a bit of an unusual goal, but I've been wavering close to the edge of depression off and on for a while now, and I need to take charge and do something about it. Most days are good, some days (nights, mainly!) are truly awful, so proactive steps are what I need to stay ahead of the Black Dog and not let it spoil this wonderful time of my life. Goal 4: Personhood a. Organise time to myself - 3 or more 30+ minute blocks each week (ALL by myself, without baby, doing whatever I want to do, not housework). b. Book/organise/plan activities in advance so I don't waste time deciding what to do, even if it's only the day or morning before. c. Do the Things, and enjoy myself! It's true what many say, for me at least, that when I became a mother I felt like I died - the old me is gone, she's never coming back, and since I came out of the newborn-sleep-deprived fog I've felt like I don't know who I am. I need to take time to do what I want to do, again, so I can find out who this new person is, other than just a mother. That's a worthy thing to be, don't get me wrong! But it definitely isn't all I am, either, and it's very important for me to give time to myself in other ways. Not all of these goals are track-able, and I'm not going to determine stat point allocation now - I'll decide at the end of the challenge what I feel I deserve to award myself. I'm going to do my best to keep updating here on the forums, as well as following a few people. I usually do this on Tapatalk on my phone while breastfeeding for what feels like 12 hours a day, so there may be a lot of short, one-hand typed mini updates! Now it's time for me to start down the path to Wellbeing. Will you join me?

I know my energy levels and mood will improve once I begin to clean up my diet and lose fat, and that exercising is a natural mood-improver, but I was wondering if there is something that would give me more energy, even on off days. Before I began working out, when I was at home, I would always feel tired, lazy, sick, and pretty much dead from the neck-down. It's not surprising when I considered that I spent most of my teenhood at home playing games most of the day. I was homeschooled, so I couldn't really be a part of a sports team, and at the time, I didn't think about my fitness all that much, and didn't think there was much to do outside except chores, getting hot, and getting bit by bugs. When I went to college, I felt a little better, and was excited about being there, so I ran around a lot. Then once I got into my second semester, and the newness wore off, I kind of just, went back to my usual behavior pattern. Also, I have a history of staying up late and cutting hours to get some time to myself to play games and for...*other*, reasons, since the only time someone in my house isn't up is usually between 2:00 AM and 5:00 AM. So, I've noticed that when I eat 2 scrambled eggs, 2 pieces of toast, a banana, and drink a protein shake, then when I go to the gym and drink a GNC PUREDGE Complete Amino energy supplement (did I get that right?) 30 minutes prior to running on the treadmill or lifting weights, and then drink a protein shake after the workout, and then go get a cheeseburger and a small fry with water with my mom at lunch time, I've noticed that I actually feel really energized and great afterwards! I actually feel like chasing my baby sister around the yard, and helping my dad with outside house work, and talking to this girl I like. You know! Until I don't. Next, I get tired shortly after coming home in the afternoon. Then I don't feel like doing anything again. Then, on the day I couldn't go to the gym and had to lift weights at home, I followed the same dieting, and I felt great after I worked out! Especially when I walked for a bit and listened to music. But then I went back inside and went back to not doing much of anything but playing games, babysitting, and doing chores. I had energy for a good few hours, but I didn't feel as great for awhile. And then this Saturday, I felt like shit. Mainly because I tried to cut hours (to 6, I think) to give myself time to workout in the morning, but then I spent too much time preparing my food and doing some research and ended up not going out to workout until about noon time, when it was getting really hot and windy, and was about to rain, and my dad wanted help with the garden. I didn't have much time to eat lunch because of the weather and my baby sister, so I tried settling for a protein shake, a banana, and a tablespoon-and-a-half of peanut butter for lunch, but I found myself eating a few potato chips and 3 Oreos at around 2:00 PM because I didn't feel completely satisfied, and I was having a hard time finding a fresh fruit besides bananas, which I was trying not to take too many up from my family. Also, I didn't know when we would be back home from the theatre. So I didn't workout that day, and me and my family ended up going to the movies. I wanted to drink water, but nobody wants to pay for water, not even me. I wanted sweet tea, but they didn't have sweet tea, and my dad was determined to get everyone a drink, so I got a Sierra Mist instead. Then my baby sister got my Sierra Mist instead, and I got a Pepsi, which I have been avoiding since college. So then, I figured we wouldn't have dinner tonight unless it's at the theatre, so I just went and got 4 Whitecastle burgers for my dinner, and then we went home where I ate some sausage, peas and carrots, and some macaroni and cheese. So THEN, this Sunday, I was really feeling like a piece of shit because I've been trying hard to keep a good, steady diet for a week now, and that one Saturday just threw me off entirely. I decided that if I wanted to get some exercise in on Sunday and burn some calories, I would need to get up at 5:30 AM and make exercising the absolute first thing I do in the morning...Which lead to me only giving myself 6 hours of sleep again because I was trying to do some job searching late at night, spent too much time on it, and got frustrated. And some nights, I just seem to have a hard time going to sleep. Usually when it's hot. So I did the beginner bodyweight workout routine for 3 circuits that I saw in one of the main articles by Steve, since it wasn't a weightlifting day. It certainly gave me a workout, and left me sweating, and feeling a bit sore in the legs. And then I walked for about an hour, and then by about 8:30 AM, I went and got a protein shake, two hotdogs with buns and some macaroni and cheese, because it was close to lunch time, there were no clean skillets available, and I had to be ready for church by about 11:00 AM. Before going, I tried that Amiibo stuff again to see if it would work on improving my mood and energy levels. I also made sure to take some Mega Men Energy & Metabolism vitamins like I have been every morning for the last week. Prior and while performing the workouts, I wasn't really feeling my best, but I forced myself and found the energy to do it. Usually when I have energy, I feel like doing something that requires a lot of movement, but it seems like it's when I don't have energy is when I'd rather do something slow and productive like lifting weights, which maybe gives me energy to do bodyweight workouts? After the meal I had after working out, I felt full and tired, and when I got to church, I just felt really excited and happy to see familiar faces and be in such a welcoming atmosphere (unlike college), but now I'm back home from church, and I honestly feel like doing nothing but going to sleep. So, what's going on with me? Is it a combination of not eating right or not sleeping right, or is it something personal? I feel like I know the answer to this, but I always like to get feedback, since I'm not always right. Then again, I think I am more right about myself than even most professionals, but I could be wrong there. Oh, just give me some input! Also, is it bad to use a little bit of whey for flavoring in water and milk? Because I've got some of the best-tasting whey I've ever had, I didn't even think it was going to taste so great!

The toe of my chucks made contact with a stone, sending it skittering away down the path in front of me. A chill wind pushed at me from behind; I hunched over a bit more, jamming my cold hands further into my pockets. Weather or no weather, I won’t be deterred from my walks. Taking alleyways, back roads, and the hidden footpaths of the moss junkies, I spent the last year winding my way around the deserted underbelly of my city. At the beginning, I avoided the lively upscale courtyards and the ghettos crawling with junkies with equal revulsion -- too many people, too much noise. I need solitude. My strategy took me to the edges where not even the social refuse cared to go. I explored the defunct docks, the boarded up mill, and the fire-eaten tenements of Broadpebble Road. Occasionally I encountered some other solitary soul, or maybe a small cluster of new rejects huddled around a barrel fire. Never two times, though. Days or weeks later, on my next pass through, I’d find the area empty once again. Either they moved on toward the more hospitable ghettos, or the bailiffs got them. Today I was exploring a new route through the deserted southeastern side of the city. Two decades ago this place was vibrant with merchants and artisans, the life-blood of my city. They kept us self-sufficient, creating all we could possibly need for food, fuel, household goods, and recreation from the materials gathered by workers outside the city walls. My city was a beacon to the surrounding territories, a shining jewel of independence on the banks of the Great River. The plague came slowly. A few merchants arrived at Mercy Hospital with ugly greenish-black boils, the like of which had never been seen before. The hospital found a treatment that seemed to work within hours, and sent the folks back to work. The next day, those people came back with more boils, oozing and raw this time, and more folks came in. The doctors and nurses kept trying to find a successful treatment, but each time something seemed to work, the affect was shortlived. Within a week, almost all of those who were initially infected had died. Despite the city’s ironclad policy about maintaining traditional burial ceremonies, those who died from the boils were immediately burned to ash and buried outside the city walls to prevent further spread. This didn’t seem to help, as more and more merchants and artisans in the Southeast District became infected, tried the treatments, and died. The city took drastic measures and put the district on quarantine; nobody in, and nobody out. Because the city could no longer rely on the district for supplies or food, the Mayor had to open up trade routes with three cities to the north of us. The rest of my city remained infection-free and survived, thanks to the generous trade agreements and low tariffs given to us by our sister cities. Within a month, the Southeast District was wiped out. The entire artisan and trade community was dead, and my city, once so self-sufficient, was now entirely dependent upon foreign trade for survival. Thinking about it now, an acidic chuckle rises up in my throat. We were so stupid. The city’s best scientists and doctors never figured out what caused the infection or why it ended so suddenly. Three centuries of medical advancement did us no good at all, because, as a cluster of independent researchers found out this year, the disease didn’t follow known biological infection patterns. It wasn’t actually an infection at all. It was magic. I know, I know. You don’t believe in magic, right? Neither did we. When the word got out, everybody said it couldn’t be. But the researchers had found the man who performed the magic. After a small demonstration of his abilities, he told us he had been paid, and that he had not been informed of the purpose of what he was asked to do. He told us that when he found out, he was so consumed with guilt that he surrendered himself and agreed to tell all in penance for his sins. The worst part is that this magic, which was used to poison the city-commissioned ink used only in the Southeast District to notarize transaction receipts, was brought upon us by none other than the three cities to the north. This discovery was made long after the plague had ended. By then we were so ensnared in rigid trade agreements that it was far too late to extricate ourselves. To this day, my city remains locked in forced trade with the three cities to our north, despite the now-open knowledge that it was those same three cities who conspired to murder hundreds of our own people. Rumor is that no one has been in the district since the plague finally ended two decades ago. I was only ten years old when the plague struck. I never saw anyone with the boils, but I heard such stories of them handed down at the Upper West marketplace that had been hastily set up to allow foreign merchants to sell us needed supplies and food. After the last merchant in the district had died, cleaners went in and scoured the area, removing all traces of the poisoned ink and papers. The man who made the magic created a neutralizer as his act of restitution. This substance was atomized throughout the entire district, where it was allowed to seep into the walls and floorboards of the buildings, into the panes of glass in the windows, and into the grime of the streets. Then the cleaners left, and the district remained boarded up for good. It stands as a constant reminder of what our sister cities, now our enemies, did to us in their greed. For the past two decades there have been near-constant rumblings of rising up against them to regain control of our economy, but so far no one has made an attempt. I’d been wanting to find an access point to the Southeast District for years. It was curiosity and some other, deeper pull that drew me to pace the edges of the city hoping to find a weakness in the wall. Last month, while traversing a narrow footpath nearly overgrown from lack of use, I found a gap. The ground had heaved up during the small earthquakes we sometimes get and the corrugated metal siding had pulled away from itself just wide enough that maybe I could get through. I didn’t try that day. I waited. For the past month I explored every possible route to get me to that same spot, at different times of the day, waiting and watching to see if anyone else ever showed up. Once in the foggy dusk a week ago I thought I saw someone a ways down the path, walking away from the wall, but I couldn’t be sure. I came back again and again, but never encountered that shadowy figure or any other soul. I finally decided it was time to make my attempt. That’s what brings me here today, walking down what used to be an alley between the textiles guild and the pottery guild. It was overgrown with weeds and the trash of two decades that had managed to blow over the wall. I expected to feel different here, eerie or spooked. Instead it felt like walking on any of my other quiet, overgrown paths. I turned a corner and walked out onto an abandoned street. I was deep enough into the district that I knew I couldn’t be seen from the guard tower on the far side of the city; the legislators had lamented publicly that the tower’s visibility was limited toward the southeast side, a fact that they claimed was a vulnerability to attack. Despite the cold wind, I felt my neck and shoulders relax and realized I had barely been breathing with nerves this whole time. My chucks took me forward until I came to a large, squat building at the end of the street. The windows were boarded up and the front doors were bolted with a huge padlock. The faded metal siding showed red rivulets where rainwater had rusted down the sides. I left the road and walked around the side of the building, trying to see through the grimed-over windows. Toward the back I saw another bolted door, except this one was made of wood. I’m no scientist, but I guessed that the wood was likely to be weakened by the direct sunlight and two decades of no maintenance. I lifted my chuck and pushed my foot flat on the door, beneath the handle. It creaked and shivered beneath my gentle pressure. I took a deep breath and kicked as hard as I could, and fell headlong inside when the door easily gave way. I sat up, brushed wood slivers off my knees, and looked around. The door behind me was mostly intact, though there was a jagged hole where the bolt had been. I would have to find some way to close it again when I left. I turned again to face the room. It was a very, very large room. Judging from the stacks of barrels and crates along the wall (these were what had obstructed my view through the windows earlier), this was probably one of the storage warehouses. In the back there were several horizontal metal rods, probably used for draping yards of textiles before cutting and bolting them for sale. The rest of the room was completely empty; either the warehouse had been empty before the plague, or the cleaners had taken a little “commission†for their work when they came in to scour the place. The floor was level and made of some sort of smooth stone. I dropped my bag, and the yellow wheel of one of my skates popped up through the bag’s opening. Oh, yes. I would make good use of this place. -------- I’ve sat out the past 2 or 3 challenges, and I am excited to get back into the game. I am tracking my goals on HabitRPG.com. My reward is that everything I do towards my goal gives me permission to funnel a certain amount of $$ into my California Trip Savings Account. There’s really nothing else in life that I want more than to go to back to California to see my brother again, so this has huge power as a motivator. Ultimate Objective: Develop derby skating skills enough that I can try out for the local roller derby team. What does this require? An improvement in all areas of fitness but especially core strength, leg strength, flexibility (particularly knees, ankles, and hips), endurance, loss of some body fat, on-skates drill improvement. What are the barriers? Current overweight, physical inflexibility, low stamina, habitual non-nutritious eating patterns, sugar addiction, low emotional resources, fear, anxiety, habitual internet use, staying up too late. Weekly morning workouts in the Southeast District: >>Two runs with yoga/cooldown: Weds/Fri (+2 STA, +1 DEX) >>Two bodyweight sessions: Thurs/Sat (+3 STR) <--every other week, the Thurs bodyweight session will be replaced by a Derby Lite: Off-Skates session. In order to get to the District to work out before work in the morning, I have to: >>Go to bed no later than 9:00pm / Wake up no later than 5:00am every day. (+3 WIS) --This will require use of ChromeNanny on my laptop to make social media and video streaming unavailable after 8:30pm. To fuel myself well and avoid hitting the wall during weekly derby skills training, I have to: >>Eat a seriously legit* serving of veggies at every meal, including brekkie. (+3 CON) >>Change my habit of buying something at the bakery every grocery trip, by buying something from the produce section OR Greek yogurt instead. When I am able to leave the grocery store without having bought ANY treats at all (produce/yogurt or otherwise) I get to put an extra $10 into my California Trip Savings Account. (+3 CON) *Seriously legit: a hefty pile of any of the following - beets, pea pods, brussels sprouts, bell pepper, carrots, broccoli, dark leafy greens, sweet potato (only on occasion), tomatoes, squash, etc. Not legit: a handful of frozen peas, a couple sprigs of broccoli on my pizza, corn in any form, etc. If it’s puny and I’m trying to persuade myself that it counts, it’s NOT LEGIT. Ongoing: Derby Lite practices - a 90-minute endurance, strength, and drills session every Tuesday night with my teammates. ------------------ Week 1 Check In Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6