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So my challenge sounds assassin-y but the end goal is to lose weight and get in better shape so that in the next couple of challenges, I can begin to re-incorporate martial arts into my life. 1) Body By Me I'm going to begin the Body By You program by Mark Lauren. My goal for this week (ending on Thursday) is to complete both days of initial evaluation. Then I will schedule following work outs on my calendar as far as I have my work schedule, which is usually over a month out. Afterwards, when I make my work schedule, I will also schedule my work outs, and the put both on my Google calendar. 2) Repair my Relationship with Sleep Sleep and I are in an abusive relationship. Sleep won't come to me when I need it. When Sleep does come, I push it away & fight it off. I have problems with insomnia, but I also don't try as hard as I could. I'm going to start making an effort to sleep sleeping 7- 8 hours a night. I tracked my sleep last night with SleepCycle (Thank you, Teirin!!) I got less than 30 minutes of deep sleep in a 5.5 hour sleep night. I'm going to begin setting a "go to bed" alarm in addition to tracking my sleep. When I run or work out regularly, I sleep better. So 1 will help with 2. 3) After our trip to Oklahoma and ordering my pull up bar, I will not purchase anything that is not food or fuel for the rest of the challenge. (Unless I save up enough money to get a new cellphone & plan cause I need to cut that money tie to family) 4) Complete the list of bigger things I need to get done. I'll add more to it in a little while. The Big List Finish portfolio All done & I'm pleased with it Get dress uniform pants hemmed They fit now! Yay! I can look appropriately snazzy for my interview. Corral the craft room (Started. Gave away Sumi-e kit) Tame the wardrobe(get rid of stuff & organize what I keep) Got rid of tons, packed some by size, and kept out a very small amount for carrying with me! Get rid of internet, at least for a while. (Centurylink was all "Why you leave?" I was like "You too high! Bye!") Contact Section EMS and straighten out EMT CEU mess <<< Need to do this, soon! FIX YNAB! I screwed with it for over 3 hours and there's still $200 in my bank account that DOES NOT show up in the spending categories?! Time for a forum post.. Straighten out mess with FSA Received no notification but I used the card today & it worked Finish a draft of the park hospitality education program at work in progress Start my sister's Christmas present of a food/recipe/meal planning binder Started, even have some pages in it, mostly cooking reference stuff I think she'll like

I've been wallowing. The last challenge helped recognize it. This challenge, I'm going to overcome it. I know being depressed is a horrible cycle for me(&lots of people). When I run & stay active, I'm happy. Not(usually) bouncing off the walls giddy, but I feel good. It's like, it raises my baseline, so my lows aren't as low and my highs are higher. But when I'm not running/active, my baseline drops. My lows can get abysmal and my highs are barely speed bumps. When I feel like that, I am less inclined to be active (I convince myself I can't, I don't feel like it, etc.), which makes me feel worse, which means I'm even less active, and so on. Not being able to do much because of my tailbone set off the cycle big time. My tailbone still isn't great, but I'm going to do what I can, at least in small amounts. I'm including some current habits, to help keep myself on track. 1. Meditate Daily. I've been meditating semi-daily, but I need to step it up. Studies indicate meditation can help with sleep issues, including sleep walking. Given that I've been trashing my house in my sleep lately, I think this should be a priority. I will meditate for more than 1.5 minutes a day. 2. Yoga 5x per week I will do at least 5 minutes of yoga a day for at least 5 days a week. The yoga sequences will include some of my physical therapy poses, hence the frequency. Up until December, I was doing at least a sun salutation every day. I broke that streak and it had been going for 7 years, since college. 3. Strength Train 3x I will do at least 1 round of the BBWW at 3 times a week. 4. Walk Daily I started this during the last challenge, because of the NF academy. I like it. I do count walking at work, mostly because if I hike 10 miles at work, my tail & feet don't want to walk anymore. But I usually try to get in at least 5 minutes at home because my dog is loving that challenge as much as I am. I'm also going to use walking daily as a building block to get onto a C25K and start running again, eventually. But I'm going to take it in baby steps and play it by ear. Then eventually, this will turn into running every day, and I can be cool like Taiji. 5. TKD at least once a week Cause I'm a monk, dagnabbit. I will at least do basic kicks and punches. Even if its while I watch Netflix. Also, as a continuation of before, I will log food on MFP & consume 1350 healthy calories a day, at least 6 times a week. I'll also keep cleaning for 30 minutes a day and spend at least 20 minutes a day at home doing something I enjoy that is not on electronics. The most important part of this challenge for me is momentum. If I get it started, I'll be able to keep it up. I'm going to start Friday. I know, it's officially June 8th, but tomorrow is my Friday. It's supposed to storm for both my days off and it's my week to stay home. So I'm going to spend my 2 days off working on my batcave and getting ready. Then Friday, since it's my Monday, I'll start my challenge.

My Second Challenge, Yay! If the doc approves running and working out, I'll edit my challenge after my Dr. appt. on Jan. 9th. He said there's no real reason to not be active. If my tailbone starts hurting again, call him and we'll see if a shot helps again. Even if it does take 2.5 weeks to kick in. But didn't want to continue procrastinating on my other goals. I need to make space, in my house and in my life. I think it will help me feel motivated and a little more in control. So to work on this, 1. I'm going to get rid of 1 thing every day. I am awful at waking up on time. I roll out of bed just before I need to be at work. The fact that I have a laid back job atmosphere & live .5 mile from my visitor center just encourages this bad behavior. I know beyond a doubt that if i could wake up earlier, eat breakfast, and maybe do a small workout, then I would be in a better mood. I suck at going to bed at a decent hour and often only get 5 or 6 hours of sleep. I need to do better. 2. I will establish a morning routine and improve my bedtime & morning habits. *post doc edit* morning routine will include breakfast, some stretching, and some experimentation to find what else it should include.. hmm** I still need to work on pushups. In my last challenge, I only made it up to 3 full pushups and 7 kneeling ones. I really want to make it to 10 full, good form pushups. so, 3. Continue working toward my goal of 10 pushups. *post doc visit edit* all that really changed about this is that it will hurt less.* I miss running. It was the second only to martial arts in how great it was for stress relief. 4. I'm going to get new running shoes and begin a new running program. I probably need to start over with a 5K training program. *post doc visit* Going to get new running shoes at Fleet Feet on my next days off. But for now, as in tomorrow, I'm going to get started back. I think I'll do C25K and see how far into it can start. Maybe for my tail's sake, i should start on week one though.. hm. I want to be through at least week 4 before the end of the challenge, assuming I have no tail relapse. LifeQuests I'm going to limit myself on the number of hobby supplies I keep around. This is an effort to clean my second extra bedroom and get rid of the junk in it. I'm going to have at least one adventure a month this year, either, on my own or with family/friends. Obviously, this will extend past this challenge, but I will make it a part of each challenge this year. *edit* Edited to include tags. Some of them are even useful!