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Hey guys, I've made it to my fourteenth challenge, which has brought Bilbo to mind, as the lucky fourteenth member of the dwarfs' party. I would've made an extensive title using his line "from under the hill and over hills and under hills his path has led," but that felt a lot longer than last challenge's "Off the Beaten Path." I'm satisfied with my efforts so far this year to attempt to do Turkish Get-Ups three times a week, and very pleased with how well I've been doing going on a walk during my lunch breaks! I could bring my bike to make distance more feasible, but even taking it slow and easy allows me such delights as yesterday when I encountered a squirrel and mockingbird! I'm contemplating how best to orient my goals, and I think continuing to encourage myself to walk in addition to my three full body workouts is a great boost to my brain even if it's demanding to know when I'll give it video games and mindless scrolling. 🥲 I clearly need to establish this behavior to maintain some distance from my devices, and sustain the opportunity to enjoy real air. Goals: Three days of doing Turkish Get-Ups each week, bonus points for doing them with weights One to five days walking while on my lunch break, bonus points for observation of wildlife Continue to maintain my Sudoku puzzle streak, and bonus points for having at hand a book or Zemi, rather than a device, if I'm good to stay snuggled in the couch I think that's good for my agenda of starting small as I build up my momentum from the respawn. Having walks on my lunch break really isn't something I would've considered since my days of playing Pokemon Go, but I'm liking the direction it's taking me. And hopefully that and the TGUs will add up in a good blend of improving my attitude toward my physical well-being. I hope you've had a good day, and I look forward to seeing you around this challenge. ❤️ Maerad

HAI GUISE! A quick introduction: I've been multi-classing this, that, and the other thing all my life, but I've been more of a druid at heart on the NF forums so far. Or at least I've been trying to be, in order to 1) turn my mind into something that isn't a pack of cats on PCP, and 2) to generally improve my mental health. 1 is an ongoing failure, but 2 has improved tremendously over the last year and a half. tl;dr, my physical health/habits were/are pretty good, but my mind ones were shitty, and I was doing Druid-ish challenges in order to fix the imbalance. So, why am I here now? Okay, it's story time. Some time ago, I decided to try a weekend pole dancing Boot Camp weekend class. It was incredibly fun, and I considered joining the studio where these classes took place on a part-time, one class per week basis. There was absolutely no way that I would register with the full-time package, though, because I had very little free time and wanted to save money. The upcoming pole competition was even more out of the question, for the same reasons. And then... Pole coach: "You did really well at the boot camp! You should compete at _____ :D" Me: "Ok!" Then that competition happened, and the pole classes (full-time, because why not) continued. I'm also a member at another gym where the owner and coaches will design your workout plan and help you get better at whatever you want to. The training is in a small group setting, which is essentially not-1-on-1 personal training. Since they can tailor your workout to whatever sport or activity you want to focus on, I figured "why don't I ask them to tailor my workout to the pole fitness/art classes so that I can get better, faster?" And I did, so now I'm seeing results and progress a bit faster. This is in addition to the coach at the pole studio having competed professionally for a long time. She knows the ins and outs of the sport, such as which moves should be taught first in order to make learning any future moves easier, and which competitions are worth going to, etc. Long story short is that I'll be competing at a fairly high-level competition at the end of March. If pole fitness/art was a MMORPG, one could say that I've been getting power leveled like fucking crazy. Anyway. The big thing holding back my progress in this sport/art right now is flexibility. My flexibility isn't too bad, but it needs to be better. Like, full splits (both forward and sideways) by November. NO PRESSURE OR ANYTHING, RIGHT? But now that I've signed up for this, I have no choice but to do it. November is quite a while before March, but there also needs to be time for choreographing, practicing, making a costume...yes, costume, because this shit is like cosplay, gymnastics, and dancing all mashed into one sport and IT IS FUCKING WONDERFUL. I figured that, since my goals are specific to a more Assassin-y sport, I should do my challenge here this time around. Also, the mini-challenges look like an absolute blast. Goals: 1. Stretch every morning and night. (After my workouts, too, but I'm not counting that since it's already a habit.) Splits flexibility is going well. Shoulder flexibility is fucking shitty. Need to work on both. 2. Hydrate. I won't fuss about specific volumes and measurements because that shit's annoying, but I will make it a point to have 6 average-sized cups of water while I'm at work. 3 . Stop being stressed. Saying this is as fucking useless as telling someone who's depressed to "Just cheer up :D" though, so instead I'll de-stress by getting three massages during the course of this challenge. I was only going to have one challenge (stretching) and if items 2 and 3 fall by the wayside then so be it. Hydrating and stressing less both help increase flexibility according to some articles, so attempting them can't hurt. These things will also help with general well-being. Only the stretching goal will be graded. WEEK 1: X X / X X / _ X / _ X / _ X / _ _ / X _ (X/14) WEEK 2: _ _ / _ _ / _ _ / _ _ / _ _ / _ _ / _ _ (X/14) WEEK 3: _ _ / _ _ / _ _ / _ _ / _ _ / _ _ / _ _ (X/14) WEEK 4: _ _ / _ _ / _ _ / _ _ / _ _ / _ _ / _ _ (X/14) TOTAL: XX/56 Misc. bullshit below: - The original class I wanted to pick on NF was Wizard or Sorcerer, but those didn't exist, so instead here I am! All the things! - I use the word "fuck" a lot, among others - This thread will likely be cluttered with trivial (but entertaining) bullshit - ...and workout-related complaining - ...and cosplay-related complaining - I will try my best to post images and videos of pole art/dance shenanigans - There will be 5 or 6 days of dead time (Aug 31 to Sept 6?) in this challenge thread while I'm away at FanExpo, but I'll still stretch during those days - Items may be added to or removed from this list at any point