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Hi All! I did up a brief (re)introduction to myself a few weeks ago over at respawn point a few weeks ago, but always feel weird about starting a challenge late, so didn't do much else, but I'm still in time for the new challenge, so here I am doing the things . . . A very wise (video game) woman once complained about people that "stand in a fire and complain that it is hot". And that is what I have been doing. I complain about how I look. I complain about how I feel. I complain about not being able to keep up with my little hoodlum children. And yet at the end of the day, what do I do but plonk myself down on the inferno of my couch, and add the lighter fluid of ice cream to make the flames just that little bit hotter. So these are my first steps to get out of the damned fire. They may be small, but at least they are something. So, without further exposition .. . my challenges; Goal is to drink at least one of my big bottles of water every day. I know, I know! minimum should be two. But one is better then none, and honestly, once I start drinking water, I always end up drinking more, so better to set my goal to "some" and exceed then to set my goal to "correct" and balk and fail at doing it. Doesn't matter when I do it - I can chug the whole dang thing at 11:59 pm and it will still count. Loot: sticker for my sad, un-adorned water bottle. Why do I want to achieve this goal: hydrate or diedrate, amirite? Feel better, feel less hungry, less headaches, more bathroom breaks, and set a good example for the hoodlums Obstacles in my way: water is gross, tea is delicious Actions needed to achieve my goal; become "that" person and carry water bottle everywhere. Make sure to fill the bottle at the start of the day with tap water from home, which is slightly less awful tasting then water from tap at work. Goal is to stretch and walk at least once every day. I sit too much and everything hurts. I'd love to commit to regular multiple work outs a week. I am not there yet. I want to be, but it took me months to work up to that before. I think I keep failing at my attempts to respawn cause I am trying to jump in whole hog. So lets work on the incremental change. Walks can be any time, anywhere - I lose momentum when I try to "schedule" it for early in the morning, then feel bad about not being able to get out of bed. Bonus points if I take the kids or the dog with me. Streching can be morning or night, or even at desk during the day. Loot: fake hair scrunchie (not at all related to the challenge, but really want one, so yah motivation!!) Why do I want to achieve this goal: More movement, less ouchie. More calories out. Get body ready to eventually start work outs again. Set a good example Obstacles in my way: Sleeping in, refusing to get up from my desk at work, stretches that don't suit my needs, Actions needed to achieve this goal: keep experimenting with stretches till I find some that I really like, remember I've got the world's cutest dog who deserves walkies, set alarms on my phone to remind me to take my breaks Goal is to track all the things. It may seem low-tech and harder to do then keeping it in an app, but for now, track it in my paper planner, just so it's all in one place. If I need to, I can log it in various apps in my phone and then mark it off in my planner. But I should be at least trying to log it all in once a day. This includes tracking meals (which will be put into an app, but then checkmarked off in the paper planner) Loot: order my new planner early (my year resets in September) and include some "splurge" features in it. Why do I want to acheive this goal: There is no point drinking water and stretching/walking if I don't see that I am doing it. If I forget to log it a day, I eventually spiral into not doing it. And if I physically see how much I have eaten, it's easier for me to make the decision to not eat more. I can't argue with cold hard data. Obstacles in my way: taking time to put everything in the planner, data spread across too many apps. Actions needed to achieve this goal: keep planner on hand at all times. swap out current watch that I love but that I don't like the app, with one of my old fitbits I will try to post here regularly-ish with updates. Expect Gifs, anecdotes of the offspring, and maybe even pictures of the dog for she is cute and needs a bigger fan club

So, here we are for the next challenge. I basicly want to keep doing what worked for me the last months and finetune it a little bit. I'm also thinking about to use the information from one of of Steve's recent articles. But i could not really think through on what habits to work on how. Will use the thread to think about it. Here is Steve's Article: https://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/how-to-build-healthy-habits-that-stick/ Ok, here are the challenge task: Habits: 30 minutes of daylight lamp Mon:☐ Tue:☐ Wed:☐ Thur:☐ Fri:☐ No youtube on phone: Mon:☐ Tue:☐ Wed:☐ Thur:☐ Fri:☐ Sat: ☐ Sun: ☐ Diet: No pasta / pizza / sweets on weekdays Mon:☐Tue:☐Wed:☐Thur:☐ Fri: ☐ Excercise: biking to work 5 days each week Mon:☐ Tue:☐ Wed:☐ Thur:☐ Fri: ☐ Taiji (be on time and don't skip) Mon:☐ Thur:☐

Well, as those know who have followed my last few challenges, I've been sucking. I could make up a million excuses, but the short of it is, I lose motivation/get distracted and fade away. One common theme for me is setting these GIANT LIFE-CHANGING goals, doing GREAT at first, then running out of willpower. As I start to suck, I start to fade out when I get sick of telling everyone how much I'm sucking. So this challenge is all about taking those baby steps, or collecting Power-Ups. Obviously, since this IS a challenge, and I need to have four goals, I will be making more than one small change, but all the changes will be small. Goal One: [+3 CON] No fried food. I don't eat it often, so this one seems pretty simple, but I'm terrible about giving in to my whims/desires. This includes potato chips and similar snack foods. I've been eating terribly lately. Goal Two: [+3 CON] Drink water! This is a repeat goal (again), but I'm still bad about getting enough water in a day. 96 oz a day is the goal. Goal Three: [+3 STA] Run three times a week. I went from working out 5-6 days a week to not at all. Time to start back at the basics, when I went from not working out at all to 5-6 days a week, I burnt out quickly. Goal Four: [+2 WIS, +4 CHA] Apparently I complain too much, to the point where it is risking my job (which I think is a little ridiculous, and so do some of my coworkers, so obviously I don't complain THAT much). Time to focus on what is coming out of my mouth. Starting with work for this challenge, I'm going to attempt to keep a tally of the number of times I complain. Having to think about it all the time should help me realize exactly how much I do complain. Week one will set the standard, to see if it's possible to not complain AT ALL, or if I should allow myself a certain number a night (I work in food service, after all. There's always SOMETHING to complain about. Servers are some of the whiniest divas I've ever met). So, in short, complain less. Here's hoping all my old supporters haven't given up on me!