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Dearest Adventurers, It has long been the ambition of mine to follow in the footsteps of the legendary Fellowship of the Ring. And so, I have began something of a pilgrimage of their footsteps, from Bag End to Mordor. But I also have long felt a connection to the lost Entwives, and I seek home, a garden to tend. I don’t think I will find the Entwives—no one else has—but I can find one in myself. (I already have an Enting, after all!) So it is while on this long journey I hope to find my place in Middle Earth to settle down. During the last few weeks, I journeyed from Bag End to Bree. In the next few weeks, with my Enting on my back and friends coming and going at my side, I should make it as far as the Trollshaws. Challenge: Starting in Zero Week, begin walking. My goal is the Trollshaws, which is 221 miles. It doesn’t really matter how I make the miles—steps done on daily activities/errands, local walks, hikes, etc. After more than a decade of trying and failing the record-keeping with this challenge (I certainly haven’t lacked the mileage), I believe the key to me completing the Walk to Mordor is really by making the bookkeeping as simple as possible. Whatever my Fitbit says at the end of the day goes into my handy WtM app. Easy. Do something each day to help get the house sold and get me to that garden to tend. That will usually involve some sort of upkeep on the tidying, decluttering, or attacking the dust bunnies in some forgotten corner. If we get an offer on the house during the challenge, I will outline new goals based on our next steps. Skip Second Breakfast. I’ve put on a few pounds over the last several months (before Lockdown started, really), and I’d like to see them go. My goal here is to weigh less at the end of the challenge than I did at the beginning—as simple as that. It’s more about increasing activity than eating (I’m a pretty clean eater already), but they are of course intertwined and I need to be mindful I’m not just replacing every calorie I burn. Starting weight: 126lbs. (Usual disclaimer—I’m quite petite, so that weight puts me nearing the top of my healthy range and when I see an upwards trend I like to nip it in the bud. I want to get back to the middling—somewhere around 115lbs.) And that’s it. Walk a lot, make the house look good, and say no to extra snacks sometimes. I can do that much, right?