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Team RWBY can only have 4 members (so they kicked me out) and the Overwatch team was way too demanding (so I left). I've been feeling like a teenager with no direction and extreme laziness, so maybe training with a bunch of teenagers will be better for me this month. Beast Boy - Health At dinner, half of the plate consists of veggies. (Weekdays) Bonus Points: Snack on fruit instead of Cheez-itz Link for tracking progress. Robin - Agility Stretch for the splits (both legs) everyday, except Friday and Sunday Raven - Thought Read for at least 30 mins a day. Spend at least 15 mins with the Word. (MWFSu) Starfire - Strength Workout out the first tier of Periodic Table of Bodyweight Exercises (MWSa) Terra - Redemption Get my shit together by auditioning more (at least 3 jobs a week), work harder (have set schedule), and learn balance between YT and VA Cyborg - Gaming Continue to get rings cap in DragonVale. Reach lvl 100 in Overwatch. 100% Rocket League. Keep tabs with on my Twitch or YouTube channels

So, it's been awhile since my last challenge. Over the summer break I have gotten settled into my new house, got married, went on a honeymoon, and gotten off track with my fitness. Now that summer is ending it is time to get back on track and (sadly) it's time to get back to school. Goal: Lose 12 lbs over the course of this challenge. Quests Mathematics: I will have to practice my counting everyday. Particularly, I will be counting my calories and logging them into Lose It! Drivers Ed: I will have to study driving past fast food restaurants over the course of this challenge. I will not eat at any restaurant that has a drive through. Physical Education: I will work on my physical fitness by lifting following the Greyskull LP 3 days a week over the course of this challenge. Home Economics: Now that I will be back to work, I still need to maintain the house. So, I will spend a minimum of 15 minutes a day cleaning or organizing the house.

I sets some goals for the last challenge: MAIN QUEST: Reconstruction: I have successfully torn down the ragged, bloated body I sported 6 months ago. I've become a svelter (I love that word!) more streamlined version of myself before, with an ability to run around 4 times further than I've ever done before. What I have not gained back yet is my former definition and horsepower. So, now that I've lost the weight and restored the frame, it's time to work on the body, while still keeping my cardio in check to run the Super Spartan in Wintergreen, VA on August 24th. Three goals: I want my Six Pack back. While I'm concerned that my second venture in to the big fat giant fat-ass world of 220lbs+ might have left a little skin around my mid section that may never completely flatten out, I'm going to do everything in my power to smite it in a fashion most biblical. My body fat caliper disappeared in the move and I've got one in the mail so as soon as that arrive I'll update this goal with fat percentage goals I want my Strength back. In training for Tough Mudder (June 14th) I've been focusing on weight loss and cardio / endurance, and have only trained strength tangentially. So, I want to be able to move heavy things again and strike fear into the hearts of my enemies (if I ever get any enemies anyway. Who doesn't like me? I'm friggen charming as hell!). I can't think of a better test than the wonderfully cliche bench press, so by the end of this six weeks (five technically since I'll be taking a week or so off when I finish my tattoo) I intend to be able to bench 225, not quite 1.5 times my current body weight. I want some size, period. I've always either been the skinny kid, and more recently the tubby fat kid. While I've slimmed down, I'd like to have some man-bulk. To that end, while maintaining the (TBA) body fat percentage I want to get my weight up from my current 178lb to between 185 - 190lbs of raw manliness. Don't go getting all excited on me. SIDE QUESTS:Life Side Quest: Time to re-learn management of both people and time. I've learned recently that it's almost 100% certain I'm getting the job I've been begging and screaming to get a foot in the door into. Why? Well they pay a butt-ton of money, and I'm a firm believer while money cannot buy happiness the rental program is friggen amazing. To this end I need to re-read my old management documents and books, as well as work on a personally destructive habit of silently putting off issues and conflicts and dealing with them quickly and openly. Fitness Side Quest: I'd like to work directly on increasing size in my forearms. I've always been self conscious about my skinny stick boy arms. I've been able in the past to bulk up my bicepts and tricepts, but never as much the forearms, no matter how cut I can get them. I'd like to fix that. MOTIVATION: I actually have this hanging on a post-it note in my current office: Never look like / feel about myself the way I did when I was the aforementioned tub of lard.Live to my (supposedly) fairly impressive potential^---- Do that through being accountable to myself, no matter how effective my current... outside motivating force is at the momentWin back the respect, and maybe one day love, I lost from someone most dear to me.Guess what I accomplished: One or maybe two work outs a week.... I didn't finish a book, spent too much money on drinky-treats to sign up for a gym, my weight is about the same (did get my body fat % down to 15 - 16%). Basically I didn't do enough to really be sure if I accomplished what I was going for. So I'm calling a mulligan. Do over. In 25 days I'm running spartan in Wintergreen Va. Four out of six weeks. I've got a tail to chase, so let's re-post and amend the last challenge. MAIN QUEST: CONSTRUCTION: I have successfully torn down the ragged, bloated body I sported 6 months ago. I've become a svelter (I love that word!) more streamlined version of myself before, with an ability to run around 4 times further than I've ever done before, though I didn't maintain as hard as I could have after tough mudder. What I have not gained back yet is my former definition and horsepower. So, now that I've lost the weight and restored the frame, it's time to work on the body, while still keeping my cardio in check to run the Super Spartan in Wintergreen, VA on August 24th. Three goals: I want my Six Pack back. While I'm concerned that my second venture in to the big fat giant fat-ass world of 220lbs+ might have left a little skin around my mid section that may never completely flatten out, I'm going to do everything in my power to smite it in a fashion most biblical. My body fat caliper disappeared in the move and I've got one in the mail so as soon as that arrive I'll update this goal with fat percentage goals. Was 17-18% at the start of the last challenge, aproximately 15-16% now. Would like to hit 14% by the end of this challenge. I want my Strength back. In training for Tough Mudder (June 14th) I've been focusing on weight loss and cardio / endurance, and have only trained strength tangentially. So, I want to be able to move heavy things again and strike fear into the hearts of my enemies (if I ever get any enemies anyway. Who doesn't like me? I'm friggen charming as hell!). I can't think of a better test than the wonderfully cliche bench press, so by the end of this six weeks (five technically since I'll be taking a week or so off when I finish my tattoo) I intend to be able to bench 225, not quite 1.5 times my current body weight. I want some size, period. I've always either been the skinny kid, and more recently the tubby fat kid. While I've slimmed down, I'd like to have some man-bulk. To that end, while maintaining the (16%) body fat percentage I want to get my weight up from my current 178lb to between 185 - 190lbs of raw manliness. Don't go getting all excited on me. SIDE QUESTS:Life Side Quest: Time to re-learn management of both people and time. I've learned recently that it's almost 100% certain I'm getting the job I've been begging and screaming to get a foot in the door into. Why? Well they pay a butt-ton of money, and I'm a firm believer while money cannot buy happiness the rental program is friggen amazing. To this end I need to finish re-reading my old management documents and books, as well as work on a personally destructive habit of silently putting off issues and conflicts and dealing with them quickly and openly. Fitness Side Quest: I'd like to work directly on increasing size in my forearms. I've always been self conscious about my skinny stick boy arms. I've been able in the past to bulk up my bicepts and tricepts, but never as much the forearms, no matter how cut I can get them. I'd like to fix that. MOTIVATION: I actually have this hanging on a post-it note in my current office: Never look like / feel about myself the way I did when I was the aforementioned tub of lard.Live to my (supposedly) fairly impressive potential^---- Do that through being accountable to myself, no matter how effective my current... outside motivating force is at the moment and maintain this accountability into habit, not spurts of motivation.Win back the respect, and maybe one day love, I lost from someone most dear to me.Crush the Super Spartan on August 23rd. I pretty much dropped the ball on the last challenge. I came out swinging, and fizzled out. I'm coming out swinging again on this one. Game on.

In continuation of the last challenge thread. See also how it began. TL;DR version at the bottom. Book 4 – Prologue "Enjoy your stay.", the jailer said as he locked the door behind me. And, as he walked away, he added "Hehe… this never gets old." I looked around. Everything in here just screamed "prison cell". Grey walls, a bunk, a basin and a toilet, all of which looked like they hadn't been cleaned in years. Yep, this definitely was a prison cell if anything. Which really was quite fine… …except that I wasn't supposed to be in prison, I was supposed to be in an asylum! And heck, I wasn't even really supposed to be there either! Why the hell was I here?! What had I done wrong?! "Hmmmmm…", I heard a voice grumble. Feeling quite uneasy about what I just heard, I turned to the cell to my left, where I had heard the voice from. A gruff-looking guy with scars along his face and pretty dirty teeth was smiling at me. But not in the good way. " "Oh crap. I backed off from the wall as far as I could. "Here, boy! Here, boy!" Suddenly… "Aaagh!", the guy screamed, clutching his neck. "What the— ugh." And then he collapsed. "Just in time, eh?", a voice from behind me said. I turned to the back wall and saw Emma smiling at me through the cell window bars. "Emma! What are you doing here?" "Tracking you down, sweetcheeks. And I should be the one asking. How did you end up in the Rangus Asylum?" "Beats me. They just said something about me not having my sanity, then they dumped me here without telling me what they meant or letting me say anything to my defense." "Oh. Yeah, the Rangus Asylum is known to do that." "Really?" "They check others for signs of lunacy, and if they find any, then they lock you up. Simple. Thing is, the 'signs' they use aren't really signs of lunacy at all… If anything, they are the lunatics here. But since they have weapons, and they look like legitimate guards, they use their power to lock up whomever they can get a hold of… before the others know who they're dealing with." "Ugh, great. So you're saying they're a bunch of criminals appearing to be law enforcement?" "Pretty much, yeah." "So I didn't do anything wrong?" "Nope." "Then I gotta get out of here." "No kidding. Not at least because of the neighbors you have here." "Say, what did you do to him anyway? Is he dead?" "Oh, no, just unconscious. A fast-acting toxin, but ultimately non-lethal. …well, I can't guarantee it in an environment full of dangerous people like this one, but normally it just knocks you out for about a day or two." "But how did you administer the toxin? I didn't see anything." "A very thin needle, and my trusty blowpipe." "A blowpipe?" "I never leave home without it. You don't have one, sweetcheeks?" "Of course not. I'm not a ninja." "You mean: not yet." "Yeah, well, if I ever want to live long enough to even start my ninja training, I first gotta get out of here." "Oh sweetcheeks…", Emma grinned at me. "Ever so young and naïve…" "What's that supposed to mean?", I asked. "Your ninja training began the instant you entered this cell." "Wait, what?!" "Listen up, student! Your next task as a ninja trainee… is to escape from the Rangus Asylum. You have six weeks." "Whaaaaaaaaat?! Emma, this is serious! Now's not the time to make a game out of this." "Au contraire, monsieur. This is precisely the time to make a game out of it. Because the last thing we need is you freezing up in fear of not managing to escape, and ultimately failing to escape because of that fear. Or worse, get yourself killed that way." "But I—" "No buts." "But how—" "You'll have to figure that out by yourself." "Wait, does that mean you're not helping me?" "Yes and no. Yes, I'm helping you escape, but no, I'm not going to actively step in until you screw up big time. I'll be playing your safety net, so to speak. But you'll have to do all the work yourself." "Why…?" "Because I'm sure you got into this mess by yourself. Knowing you, you didn't even try to disarm the guards when they started being rough with you. You gotta stop thinking that ultimately nobody wants to hurt you, because there are a bunch of people out there who actually do." "…" "You know, you should be happy. This is real hands-on ninja training. I've been locked up many times now, and I've had to escape by myself each time too. This is the real-deal. It doesn't get any more applied than this." "Emma, you're gonna get me killed!" "I told you, sweetcheeks, I'll step in before anyone gets a chance to do that." "Ugh. You can't be serious." "I am." "*sigh* I realize. But I'm still hoping this all turns out to be a bad dream." "Well, I hope you come to terms with reality soon, sweetcheeks. It's coming close to lights out time. And in an asylum, lights out means lights out. No ifs, whens or buts. At least you'll be getting some decent sleep… once you're good enough at shutting out the screams." "D:" "Same thing for waking up. Lights on is lights on. There's no 'please just five more minutes' thing." "D:" "Oh, and since you have lots of free time, and quite a bit of space, I expect you to continue your strength training. You'll probably need it to survive here." "D:" "Well then, that's all the guidance I can give you for now. Except maybe one more tip: the guards have no freaking clue who's locked up where. If you need to go undetected for a while, just enter the nearest empty cell. Or even a shared cell, if you're sure your cellmates won't tell on you." "Emma, this isn't 'Assassin's Creed'." "No, but it's close enough to it. You'll be missing out on Eagle Vision, but that's just about it." "…" "Right. The patrol is coming around in a few minutes, so I'm off. And don't worry too much, sweetcheeks. I'm not bailing you out of here precisely because you gotta learn to swim by yourself. And because I know that you don't really need me to help you here." "Oh. Uh, thanks." "Anytime, sweetcheeks. Now, go show them what it means to be a Monk of the Rebellion! And my student!" "Yes, ma'am!" Emma got up and stepped away, but turned back one more time. "Oh, and when you're out, I expect you to do 30 push-ups for not calling me 'coach' three times. Got it?" Oh, what the— ugh. "Aye-aye, Coach!" End of prologue Author's comments: The usual "yada yada yada" about creative freedom and such. And I've never been to an asylum or a prison before… at least not outside of video games and TV shows. TL;DR: challenge goals Baseline goals Go to bed by 12am midnight. No ifs, whens or buts. Lights out means lights out.Wake up by 9am and get ready straight away. That means brushing teeth, taking shower, shaving and having breakfast. If I genuinely oversleep despite going to bed by 12am, no matter… provided I still get ready straight away.Do bodyweight strength training (the Convict Conditioning workout programs) 3 times a week. Usually on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.Additional optional challenges Low- or medium-intensity workout on rest days. Stretching, martial arts form practice, Tai Chi… whatever I can think of. The point is to get into the habit of doing exercise every day, not necessarily to progress in those exercises.Write one blawg post per week. What kind of blawg only has one post? A dead blawg. Who wants to own a dead blawg? No one.Keep my backlog below five days. Post progress updates here more regularly, instead of two weeks worth of updates in a single post. Hopefully this will free up time to read (and comment on) other people's threads too.Post an act of book 4 at least once every two weeks. Need to keep the story going. But my blawg needs more of my attention, so I'm not committing to anything more than this.Motivation I'm tired of running (what should be) the minutiae of my life on auto-pilot before having taught my auto-pilot how to fly. Why the "escapes from the asylum" theme? My last challenge (“Multiplexingâ€) failed, and I lost my timetable during that challenge. By losing my timetable, I lost my sanity. In my last mini-challenge (“redeeming my sanityâ€), I didn't regain my sanity. So I don't have my sanity anymore. I thus conclude that I am by definition insane. And that's how I ended up in the asylum. Also, I'm breaking out because I don't like it here. It's the color, ya know?

The Story Thus Far... The orc sat in the cave he called home. He could not help but sigh as he contemplated his fate. Though he had no memory of being in the perfect shape, he knew that it was not that long ago that his life was better. There was once a day when the only threat to his life were bandits and mercenaries. Now, his own body was threatening to dispose of him. He weighed more than twice the size of his father before him. He knew that his fate rested in his own hands. But the excess weight made him tired. And his fatigue only served to keep him from abandoning the ever-present weight. He had few friends, one of which was his spouse. She looked at him lovingly, praying that one day, he would shake the chains of his weight off, and that he might live a long and full life with her. His friends also offered the promise of consistent encouragement if he desired it. With a new year came the chance for a new life. One of personal betterment. And for the sake of his loved ones, as well as for the sake of his own life, the bitter old orc stood from his den and swore to take action. Death was no longer welcome to take him because of his weight. From here on out, Durak the Boulder would be known as Durak the Determined, and his life would no longer be forfeit! ...But this would be no easy task. The last several years had weakened his muscles and his resolve. A single push-up was now impossible, and more than a handful of jumping jacks would take the fight right out of him. Surely, workout programs would serve no purpose for him at this point. For now, he had to work his way to becoming active. Current Stats Weight: 370 pounds Height: 6'0" Age: 22.5 Waist: 54" Main Quest "Work" my way to a more active self that will be able to tackle rudimentary workouts later on. Objectives 1. Get active three times a week (M, W, F) for a period of time; eventually reaching 45-60 consecutive minutes of activity. On non-workout days, walk one mile. 2. Add fruit to my daily diet; preferably by replacing all sweets and snacks with fruit. 3. Limit soda consumption to 36 ounces a day. Life Quest Publish a comic book, either online or in print.

In which M, a.k.a. the 13th letter, puts the disappointments of the predecing challenge #3 (the “pastâ€) behind himself and strives to re-reach the state of sanity he experienced during the better days of challenges #1 and #2 (the “golden daysâ€). Specifically, while the past went markedly different than the golden days, there is one striking difference between them: I actually had a semblance of a timetable. I was a student during the golden days, and just before the past, I transitioned to unemployed, obliterating whatever shards of a timetable I had left. And now, without any structure or rhythm to my days, every task turns into a "eh, maybe I'll do it now… or later… or tomorrow". We both know this doesn't truly work, like, ever. So, for this mini-challenge, I vow to adhere to a timetable, and through this timetable I hope to regain my rhythm, and through this rhythm I hope to regain my sanity. Specifically, here are the cornerstones of my timetable: Go to bed by 12am (midnight). I regularly stay awake beyond that, mostly for frivolous reasons. Be ready for the day by 11am. "Being ready" means showered, shaved, dressed and fed. And though I'm actually setting an alarm for 9am, I expect it to take a while for me to get used to not oversleeping anymore. I will award myself 1 point per full hour before 11am that I am ready. Stick to whatever tasks from “the past†I plan to do today. I'm continuing the work, though at a lower frequency. And here are the rewards: If I successfully stick to my timetable for all 13 days (Dec 24th through Jan 5th), I shall mark my challenge #3 as successful. If I additionally collect 13 points from being ready early, then I'll treat myself, somehow. I haven't decided yet on what. Well then, now that everything's settled, there's only one thing left to do: Let's get dangerous!

Okay! So I did not anticipate the move to college would be as difficult and time-consuming as it actually was, and I got off track, and my last challenge failed. I've technically participated in a challenge before, but since I failed utterly and completely, I'm back on the beginner's circuit looking for redemption. Main Goal: Get into a healthier daily routine. I'm not asking much, just a little more health in my life. Goal 1: Run a mile, every day. Simple and succinct. I got off track with my 5k running practice last challenge, and now I feel horrible (haven't run in like two weeks and I can feel it). To fix it, I'll run at least a mile Monday-Friday. Weekends off for slight rest. A - 5 runs a week B - 4 runs a week C - 3 runs a week D - 2 runs a week F - 1 or less runs a week Goal 2: C25k I really liked 5ks when I was up to them. I am certainly not now, but I'd like to get there again. This is a pass/fail goal, I think, but I'll do a grading scale anyway. A - 3 practices a week C - 2 practices D - 1 practice F - No practices Edit: Since week 1 started on a Tuesday and I'm going to be gone Friday (tomorrow as I'm writing this), I've decided to go easy on myself and say this challenge starts Monday of Week 2. Goal 3: Cut out sweets Sweets are hard to resist in college, especially with a meal plan. From here on out, no more. Or, at least, I'll try. A - no sweets B - 1 sweet day/week C - 2 sweet days/week D - 3 sweet days/week F - more than 4 sweet days a week Goal 4: Reading Simple: try and read something other than textbooks. The following do not include the last forty pages of Game of Thrones. A - finish two novels by the end of the challenge B - finsh one and a half novels C - finish one novel D - finish half a novel F - don't even start a new book (or don't finish Game of Thrones) Motivation: You can do this, kiddo. You want to be proud every time you look in the mirror, not upset about how you've messed up. Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and get those sneakers back on. We're going running. Tiny Mini Goal: Update this every day. Just one or two sentences. I know if I do it, I'll stay motivated. It was because I stopped looking at it that I got sidetracked. No more. Update every day, no grade, just know it's good for me.

I'm tired of being a punching bag and dealing with all the tool bags who think they can pick on me because I'm the little guy. So I'm going to join the assassins and redeem myself by completing the regiment and not getting pushed around and winning her back.