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"You must be proud, bold, pleasant, resolute, and now a then stab, as occasion serves." - Christopher Marlowe Train the Body: First and foremost, training is important to me. There is an aesthetic I like, a vainness that I enjoy. But, I like being strong. Not just inside the gym, but outside the gym. I thought a lot about it this past weekend with moving and knowing how the strength I've garnished over the years of lifting really helped me out. I think about being weaker and not being able to lift as much weight and how much more difficult the move would have been. I'm thankful for the time I've put in and how it's translated to real world application. I started a new training program through the middle of the last challenge and love it. The programming is great. The structure and ability to complete within an hour is even better, given that 60-65min is basically the max time I have to train before I have to get ready for work. I'm excited to get back into the program called "Comanche" later this week. The program calls for sprints 2x a week but I think with my busy schedule and two jobs that I'll just go for 1x a week for now. Train the Mind: I know that I am mentally strong. The key to me being successful in my every day life is to be strong mentally. I work 2 jobs. Sometimes my day extends around the 17-18hr mark from the time I wake up to the time I get off from Costco and get home. I have a BRAND NEW routine now that I've moved and this week is going to be an adjustment. Finish 2 audible books during this challenge. Utilize my longer commute. Train my Creative Mind™ Empire of Silence (Sun Eater Book #1) (16hrs left) Howling Dark (Sun Eater Book #2) Recover the Body: Foam roll, yoga, massage gun: USE ALL OF THESE THINGS. Work hard. Play hard. Recover hard. Recover the Mind: Nap. Eat at your desk to save time and use part of your hour lunch to catch some Zzz's. Meditation goes a long ways, I think. I definitely don't take the time to relax my mind in that regard and train it up to be stronger and more palpable. 5min a day is not long. I can do this. Wolf

Ahem. "Yes, it's true. I may not be a Master Builder. I may not have a lot of experience fighting or leading or coming up with plans. Or having ideas in general. In fact, I'm not all that smart. And I'm not what you'd call a creative type. Plus, generally unskilled. Also, scared and cowardly. I know what you're thinking. he is the least qualified person in the world to lead us. And you are right." - Emmett, The LEGO Movie (also how I feel almost all the time) Alright, guys. I know I'm late. Like, really late. I get it. The realization that the Spartan was coming up immediately after this challenged may have kicked my ass. That, and nerd withdrawal from Chicago made this a bad week. Was I posting on all of the nerds' threads whom I missed from Chicago? Was I doing that to avoid dealing with my own training? Maaaaybeeee.... So let's fix that. Together. Because everything is awesome. I feel more awesome than an awesome possum When I lift weights, when I get under the barbell and crank out a full set, I feel amazing. I feel like a fucking monster. Like I could just tear down walls with my hands. When I was in Chicago, I got to lift with bigm141414 and emcee. These two radically sized people were just absurd. I got tips from biggums to help me with my lifts and things felt amazing. I watched Rob_ and Flex_Luthor benching me and a half like it was nothing. I got to watch and learn from these incredible, strong people. When I got back to the gym, despite my weights being way back down, I felt like I had levelled up a bunch of times. Things just felt better. And I want to keep feeling like that. I can be better than an awesome possum. Lift 3 times / week. Everything is cool when you're part of a team The summer threw off my schedule of hapkido classes. Though I've been focusing very heavily on my strength training, it all comes back to wanting to be a better martial artist. I stuck with my Mondays for my black belt class, but I need to get back to at least twice a week. My wife is no longer on call on Thursdays (which used to be my go-to day) so I can take the car and make that happen. I want to spend more time with my cool team. Go to hapkido 2x / week. Everything is better when we stick together Know what I hate more than anything? Running. Running sucks balls. It is the worst thing there ever was. But, there's this thing in Boston. It's called the Spartan Sprint. Stupid running. I hate you, RP. I really do. This is your fault. So, I guess I'm going to be running? But I won't have to do it alone. I blackmailed convinced my wife to do the Sprint with me, so we are going to run together. And we're going to do it on my terms. See, behind our house there's this great sodding hill with a walking path going right over it. We're going to get up early three times a week together and run up that bastard five times. Is that the equivalent of doing the November Project some unholy number of times? No, it's not. But from a not-running lifestyle to one where one can sprint up sharp inclines (or, I don't know, stadium stairs) this feels like good training. Run the hills 3x / week. A Nobel prize, a piece of string. You know what's awesome? EVERYTHING! And now, tacos! Wait, hold on. Food is always my nemesis. Too many times, I end up cobbling together a sort-of-meal from whatever I can scrounge in the house. Grocery shopping? Fah! Meal planning? A pox upon it! I can do better than that. Breakfast is covered. I've ground that into myself that I need a good meal to start the day. I don't do cereal, so I've got to prepare food that I can actually eat (yay, celiac!). But my lunches are usually a collection of snacks or, more usually, a tiny snack that just leaves me weary and cranky. And my dinners are what I pick up at the grocery store that night probably 5 days of the week. That's gotta stop. In light of leftovers being a thing, my goal is to plan 4 dinners and make sure I have a plan for my lunches during the work week. 4 planned dinners and 5 lunches / week And that's it, nerds. Super late, but trying to get myself back on track.

What once seemed like an endless trek through an inescapable umbral realm has ended. Dawn has broken. Rays of warming and reassuring light creep over the horizon, unfurling out onto the landscape and slowly engulf our protagonist. Twilight wanes, but he sits guarded in the shadow of the cavernous maw from which he has just escaped. Now what? The night lands of the Underdark may have been Hellish, but they were familiar to him now. Daybreak seemed threatening in its alien appearance. The illuminated countryside sprawled out before him in distances immeasurable by his senses. When shadows conceal one’s vision of paths beyond and imprisoning walls define one’s boundaries, one can become acclimatized to such comforting routine no matter how detestable. Here, on the outside, there were no paths. Yet, no direction was blocked. He could go anywhere, but without a defined path he'll go nowhere. *** In my first challenge I sought to break the habits I adopted while spending over a year working overnight shifts. I slipped into a disturbing routine. It felt like a half-life. Never sleeping well, waking every hour on the hour, never doing anything, drifting away from people, from trying. In some respects I succeeded, and in other respects I fell short. Meditation and yoga have been introduced into my life, and I have reintroduced running back into my routine. However, I wouldn’t call them habitual, at least not yet. Now I am focusing on really small details in my life, making small changes to my environment and routines to generate larger life changes. The week following my first challenge, and after having read The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg, I have had much better success. Now that I feel like I am slowly starting to get my life back, I must decide what I want to do with my life; and THAT seems far more daunting! The EPIC QUEST will be a five year goal. I am still working on this, with years three and four being very fuzzy. So far, here is what I have: Step 1 (3 months) – Make small changes to environment and routines to create a foundation for better systems for living. (e.g. environment changes, become aware of habit loops)Step 2 (6 months) – Develop and implement systems for better living. (e.g. learning to live with less)Step 3 (1 year) – Achieve 50% debt elimination and complete at least one “impossible taskâ€.Step 4 (2 years) – Visit Thailand.Step 5 (3 years) –???Step 6 (4 years) –???Step 7 (5 years) – Profit! Oh, and go hiking in the Himalayas. Maybe climb a mountain, but not Everest. Have the option to quit my job, or already be working somewhere else. So challenge two, this challenge, is about discovering and cultivating those keystone habits that I will need to develop my systems for better living. If challenge one was about discovering yoga and meditation, challenge two will be about putting them to proper use. My Quest – Chapter 1: Purpose & Direction As someone who self-identifies himself as having both nihilistic and narcissistic tendencies, and as a recovering misanthropist, I truly feel I don’t have a purpose in life. Or at least I sure as Hell don’t know what it is. I need to find my purpose. I want to add a little mysticism into my life. I need to be mindful. I have been reading, writing, and doing introspective exercises to help discover what my purpose might be, what might make me happy in life. Right now, life is “meh.†To me, everything is just... “meh.†It’s not bad, I am not sad or feeling depressed, but I definitely feel life should be something to get excited about and I am just not excited. I need to find a way to make my life great. As to what my purpose may be, I don’t know. I do feel like I have something inside me that I need to tell, but I don’t know what it is or to whom I need to tell it, or even how to tell it. I need to explore self-expression. I need to get to know me. Mind: Meditation, mindfulness, and self-expression I will deepen my meditation. I will aim to meditate every morning for at least 15 minutes and include at least one longer session per week. (That'd be an A grade.) Bonus points for pre-bed meditation. I will make a meditation space in my home. I will try to meditate outside in a variety of places such as forests, fields, and beaches. I will aspire to take one photograph a day, trying my best to avoid iPhone photos and instead focus on taking a quality photograph. (I will likely post these.) I will spend at least 30 minutes a day writing, even if I cannot think of anything, I will put pen to paper. I already journal on a regular basis but this writing will be with an audience in mind. (I’ll post snippets from time to time.) I will practice mindful eating. No more reading, writing, texting, email reading, web browsing, TV watching, game playing, or anything else while eating. When I eat, I eat and only eat. I will eat at the dining room table or outside. AP : +3 Wis, +1 Con, +1 Cha Body: Running, HIIT, and Swimming OK, my real goal here is to go at least one sprints run per week but will try for twice (that'd be an A). I will try to extend my running distance on a weekly average, as opposed to focusing on set run lengths. I like to swim but I don’t swim very much. Part of it is I dislike pools and chlorine. I like to swim in natural bodies of water and the Canadian winter precludes this for half the year. The primary reason I don’t swim is due to body issues. Somewhere along the line I got the idea in my head that since I am overweight I should not be allowed to go to the beach. I just don’t belong. So even though I am not attaching any of this goal’s success to swimming, I do want to go swimming more this year. AP: +1 Dex, +3 Sta (HIIT), +1 Cha (swimming) Soul: Yoga, Shinrin-yoku, and maybe T’ai Chi I want to deepen my yoga practice. I want to show up to the mat consistently and to begin embracing it as something more than just a series of stretches. (An A grade would constitute five yoga work outs a week with one of them being 30+ minutes.) I want to experiment with tai chi as well, maybe qi gong. We’ll see. I want to connect to something bigger. Being an atheist, this will be hard. I don’t know how I will be able to grade myself on this objectively. I think if, for now, I focus on deepening my yoga, experimenting with Taoist internal martial arts, and synergizing this with my Mind goals of meditation I should be able to begin to illuminate the edges of the path that’ll one day lead me to finding peace with the universe. I am not talking about enlightenment; I am talking about simply easing my existential anxiety. It’ll be a long hard road, I know. Shinrin-yoku, or forest bathing, is something I want to do more off. I spend a lot of time outdoors, but how mindful of the experience am I? AP: +2 Dex, +1 Con, +1 Sta, +1 Cha Life Goal: Spending Fast For my life goal, I want to diminish my consumerism and be happier with less. For the six weeks of the challenge I will buy nothing new*. I will also not spend any money on wants and indulgences, such as coffee shop coffees, eating out, and going to the movies and such. *OK, some caveats. Some stuff I may have to purchase. Now these may not be needs in the strictest sense, such as survival, but things like unexpected car maintenance would be one example. If I need a new tire or break pads or an oil filter, well, I need my car to get to work. It is, after all, a 250+km commute. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Challenge Resources: 50 Ways to get a Job - Finding Your Purpose HE's article on Kit Anderson's 100 Possessions Joshua Becker's Helpful Guide to Living an Intentional Life Steve Pavlina's article Spirituality vs. Intelligence Five things you need to know today - Zenpresence.com

Back for my 5th?!?! challenge. Time flies when you are searching for gifs on the internet. Getting back to ass-kickery on this challenge. Fitness (+3 STR) ♦ 20 consecutive push-ups Is this crazy? I don’t know. I set high goals for myself and I can usually reach them. So I figure I’ll set the push-up mark high to really “push” myself. I’m going to steadily increase the amount of push-ups that I do day-to-day. (+3 DEX) ♦ Interval sprints once a week. Self-explanatory. Diet (+2 CON +1 CHA) Grilling outside at least once a week (may be modified) I love grilling in nice weather. This might not be much of a challenge, but it will provide me with Vitamin D and delicious meats for devouring. Paleo/Primal eating has become a no-brainer, so this quest is more to get me outside more. Perhaps I will add some different objectives like grilling seafood or finding/making a smoker. We will just have to see where this quest takes us. Life (+2 STA +1 STA) Wake-up at 430am Some may think this is crazy. Most people will think this is crazy. I have to wake up at 5am to get to work on time, but I would like to wake up a little bit earlier to start the day with exercise/stretching. I’ll try to wake up at 430 Monday – Saturday. Keeping Sunday for a rest day… just as the lord intended. (+2 WIS +1 CHA) resume, portfolio site, job hunting This is boring stuff, but stuff I need to take the time to do. I don’t see a lot of growth potential at my current workplace and I am not doing exactly what I want to be doing. It is time to get the ball rolling on this task. Side Quests (+3 DEX) I kind of stole this idea from ApfelStrudi. Variety is the spice of life, so I would like you (my friends) to give me side quests. This can be anything. I’m not scared. I will however make a request that my bendy friends challenge me with bendy things, because I am so very un-bendy. Click on the icon and it should take you to the Google Doc Reward: Sword! time to slay some dragons!

Hello to all! I have been struggling with writing my goals for a bit, but after reading some of the great posts here I am inspired to get started with my first challenge Overall goal: to be the fittest I can be. This includes dropping fat and gaining muscle to drop one full dress size. Life goal: more organization in my home. I have a few baby steps I am working on to this end. Measured steps: by the end of the challenge I will have done or be doing the following-- 1. continue my paleo transition -- shift to only one cheat meal a week 2. increase body weight workout from one (current level) to three complete circuits twice weekly 3. sprint two times a week, (3- one minute sprints each session) 4. Do a set of three chin ups (can't do one now) My motivation is my family. I want to be my healthiest so I can enjoy every minute with them and set a good example for my children. Hopefully this makes sense to someone other than me. Best wishes and luck to all starting a new challenge!

I've done a pretty decent job of keeping myself in mediocre shape over the last year or so by doing one thing or another - eating Paleo, lifting at the gym, doing a cleanse, or jogging. What I've not done well is tie these things together in a comprehensive way. So that is my overall quest for this challenge: I will raise my fitness to a new level by caring for my health holistically. My goals to support this are: 1. Eat primal/paleo at least 90% of the time. (CON +3) 2. Do body weight strength training at least 3x per week. (STR +4) 3. Run sprints at least 1x per week. (DEX +3) My life quest is to get outside more so I'll also: 4.Run/walk the dog at least 4x per week. (STA +3) Finally, since I've done challenges before (though a long time ago), I'll give myself the latitude of adding a mental fitness goal, which is: 5. Meditate 3x per week. (WIS +2) So that's my deal. I'm prepared to push through the full six weeks. If you are too, drop me a note below.

I've been a long time reader but have never fully taken the time to join the community; what better time than now?! I'm still in a "rehab" mindset and am actively working on muscle balance (day 60 of "Foundation Training"), daily meditation starting today and a set of sprints every 7-10 days. So in a rough format, here is what I am going to be doing for the next 6 weeks: 1. Foundation Training 3 times per week 2. Full out sprint once every 7-10 days when my energy is at its peak 3. 10 Breath Meditation every morning Looking forward to sharing successes with all of you!

Welcome back to everyone to the first challenge of the New Year I hope you all had suitably splendid holidays! My idea for this year is that I'll make it the Year of the Dragon! I know the zodiac has already passed it, but dragons are awesome! This specific challenge dragon-theme.... The dragons from Dark Souls! Vengefulpear's Year of the Dragon: Dark Souls Edition So last challenge started off with a bang! But I pushed too hard, rushed it and ended up fluffing most of the challenge. This time, I'm taking it a bit more slowly, and building those blocks up to make an awesome edifice of health and fitness! Seeing as this challenge is Dark Souls themed! I'm going to pick a dragon for each of the goals, so hopefully by the end of the challenge I'll have four dead dragons at my feet! Goal 1: Fat Loss (The Red Drake) 26 / 42 HP To avoid the deadly flames of the Red Drake you must be light and quick on your feet! Lose 6lbs by the end of the challenge +2 CON +2 DEX Adding In a starting weight, it's pointless if I don't have a starting weight Starting Weight; 159lbs To do this I'm going to eat 1800-1900 calories a day and keep myself as paleo as possible. As per usual there will be a googledoc to keep me on track! If anyone else wants to join in and make it a PVP then please feel free https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AmtRMwoMwJORdG9zYkU1TVAtSkduTXhMUHZkaFdZYXc&usp=sharing Goal 2: Strength Training (The Gaping Dragon) 16 / 21 HP To beat this humungous beast you must be strong! Do Strength Training 3-4 times per Week +4 STR I'm going with 3-4 and I won't say what will be in the training so that I can be flexible with what I'm doing. At the moment I want to work on my shoulder area a bit, and see how my pull ups/push ups are doing after the break. Basically everything But I'll slowly take on more as the challenge progresses, doing sets of 4 x 8 of the exercises and then move up to a more difficult exercise when I can do that. What exercises and the progressions shall be posted later This has been changed now because I have torn a muscle in my shoulder, so I'm just doing specific exercises but will try and maintain my 3 sessions a week minimum I'm progressing carefully to avoid being squashed! Goal 3: Running (Seath the Scaleless) 16 / 21 HP Swift feet will help to ensure you're not impaled by the vicious crystals of Seath Run at least 3 times per week+1 CON +2 DEX Last challenge I had the goal to break 25 minutes for this challenge and I'd still like to do that so I'm not specifying how I will be running in the week. To break the 25 minute mark I intend to run 5km runs a couple of times a week, and then also start sprinting regularly. I want to try and be doing regular sprinting sessions every week in a few months. One of my goals for the year is to do a 5km run barefoot (unfortunately it will be on the treadmill for the moment!) so I might do some at the weekend on the treadmill. Goal 3: Sleep (Black Dragon Kalameet) 23 / 29 HP To defeat Kalameet, you must be well rested and sharp of mind. Go to bed at 11.30pm at the latest on weekdays +2 WIS +2 CHA This is something I'm terrible at, I'm always staying up too late and having to get up early for work and then trying to catch up on the weekends. I spend too much time perusing the internet before going to bed (don't we all?) So I'm starting what should be relatively easy and saying I will go to bed by half past 11pm. This isn't enough for a proper 7 hour sleep (I get up at 6am for work) but it's a start and I don't want to get caught in a dragon tractor beam! So that's my first Dragon challenge! I hope you all like it and I look forward to helping support all of you and do whatever I can to help you guys fulfil your goals! Good luck and let's do this!

Since I want to set myself up right for the new year, this challenge will center on my three new year's resolutions. Also, my son has a school fitness challenge to eat 100 fruits/veggies and 1000 active minutes for January. And during the fourth week of this challenge, my family will be going to Disney World! So I will make exceptions for this week and have a different set of loose goals for that week. 2014 New Year Resolutions 1) Grateful Jar: Every night my wife and I will write something we are grateful for and put in a jar. 2) Play More Games: My family will strive to play more games. 3) 21 minute 5k: Be competitive in local 5ks for my age group. Main Quest 21 minute 5k. Challenge Goals (Weeks 1,2,3,5,6) 1) Grateful Jar: Do this every day. 2) Play More Games: Play at least two games with each member of the family a week. 3) Be Faster: Sprint and strength train at least once a week. 4) Healthy Kids: Strive for 4 fruits/veggies for older sons and 40 minutes activity each day. Grading based on 100/1000 met for January. 5) Primal: Be 100% primal except for planned deviations (must be planned 24 hours in advance). Disney Loose Goals (Week 4) 1) Grateful Jar: Do this every day (just on paper, will not bring actual jar). 2) Run For Fun: Get in one exploratory run. 3) Mindful Eating: Don't over indulge and only eat things worth eating

First the nice background information. My name is Shukar, I've been here at Nerd Fitness for some time now, this is my 12th challenge and I was around the place for a bit before that, because I really enjoy the community and all you lovely people who will be reading this. I'm a 20 something guy who used to be a big fat guy and is now mostly just a big guy. Started running around when I graduated college because it seemed like what people did to get in shape, now I know better on that count but I still rather enjoy running so I do. I've since added resistance training to my plans, started with bodyweight stuff and have since upgraded to including some consistent kettlebell work as well. I'm one of the moderators around these parts, which is scary because it means somebody thinks I'm a grown up, so if you need anything feel free to ask and I'll help if I can. So, what do we have here in this thread? Well, my goals for one. And after those daily updates of how I'm doing on them and a few other things in my life. Pretty standard stuff, it can get a little repetitive but that's not really a bad thing if you ask me. So without further ado... The Main Quest: I have a confession to make you guys. I feel the need. The need, for speed. The solution isn't going to be more cowbell I'm afraid, but I've got some ideas about things I can do, more on that in a few. First, the reasons. The wife and I just a couple weekends ago ran her new PR of 2:45 in the half marathon. We're already signed up for our next primary goal event in January and the hope is to knock that time down to 2:30 by then. That's gonna mean some speedwork, which is hopefully to be good for fitness in general and speeds in particular. So yeah, get faster, stay healthy in the process. That's the quest. The Running Goal: So first and foremost, the running specific goal. The program I put together for the previous race was 4 days a week with two long runs back to back on the weekend to prepare for the 10K Saturday and Half Sunday of the race weekend. The plan for this time around upgrades one of the two shorter runs from a steadstate run to a sprint session. The plan for those currently is a warmup, alternating 30 second sprints and 60 second slow and then a cooldown. In conjunction the plan is to increase the steady pace for the other runs to correspond better to the target pace for the future races. The plans may change a little if I sign up for any events that aren't already on the calendar (work is currently reimbursing portions of race costs as a health and fitness measure so I've got some incentive to mix things up a bit, as long as we get to the target. The Strength Goal: The second goal comes in two parts. The first, like with my previous challenge, is a daily streak. Focusing on pistol squats, pushups, handstands, and pullups. I'm not really great at any of them yet but I'm slowly getting better, hence the practice. The other part is, also like last challenge, Kettlebells 3 times per week. Twice a week will be Turkish Getups for 5 minutes (alternating sides) and kettlebell swings (starting at 7 minutes but hopefully working up to 9 or 10 minutes by the end of the challenge). The other day will include squats, deadlifts, and lunges. If I can make it to 10 minutes twice a week for two weeks in a row I'll be seriously looking at purchasing a heavier kettlebell. The Maintenance Goal: Taking further notes from my previous challenge this goal will be about body maintenance. I'm going to continue tracking and hopefully increasing my sleep, I had lots of trouble with it in the past so keeping an eye on it despite it not being a focus is going to be important. Likewise continuing to try and cut down on gluten is going to be something I work on, it doesn't interact nicely with my system so I need to consume less of it. Pretty straightforward. The new aspect here is paying attention more to mobility and watching out for any aches and pains that might be signals of things to come. Specifically I seem to have intermittent issues with my lower back and with my ankles that I'll be watching for and if they crop up working on them to figure out the cause and remedy it; likewise if I happen to encounter any other issues than those, but those are the ones I'm expecting. The Life Goal: For my life goal I'm going to be trying to focus on acquiring more knowledge instead of just spending time sitting around. I have the occasional dead time at work, while the wife and I are driving around on weekends, or while I'm just sitting at home mindlessly browsing the net. If I'm not doing something productive I should be doing something more productive. Reading, listening to audiobooks, learning something, that's the goal. The Side Quest: Part fitness, part life, it's the Side Quest. For the last races we did we were planning on having costumes, and while hers came together at the last minute mine didn't make it before the race and I was rather disappointed. In an effort to remedy that situation, and hopefully improve on some Ren Fest costuming as well, I'm going to be trying to have regular updates during this challenge of the planning, and possibly construction, of costumes for those events. Not much currently but it's something I hope to work on throughout. So there you have it, my goals for the challenge. At this stage in my journey they're all kind of starting to be longer goals than the challenge itself, making the challenge more about building and reinforcing the habits of my fitness than about the specific goals in question, but I'm not sure that's a problem, or even outside of the intention of things. Here's hoping a few of you all out there in nerd land find my progress and updates entertaining, instructive, inspiration, or even just amusing. Good luck Scouts and Nerds. Let's get running.

Hello, fellow assassins! I'm on my third challenge and have learned a couple things. First, don't set overly ambitious goals. We're in this for the long haul, and setting the bar too high can demotivate. Second, don't let one mini-goal detract from your overall fitness routine. Last time I sought embarked on a program to do 100 pushups. While I achieved that goal, I did so at the detriment of doing other exercise. It required a LOT of arm strength, and not wanting to fail in this quest, I opted to avoid other exercises that might sap my strength. For this challenge, I am looking for more balance! Long-term quest: (This is a 100% continuation from the last challenge.) Become more assassiny by knocking off about 10 lbs so that the scale flirts with 13 as the first two digits. (Right now, it occasionally flirts with 15, which is the wrong direction!) Current goals to advance the quest: 1. Do bodyweight exercises three times a week. I’m not going to specify specific routines but instead strive for variety. Assassins need to be nimble. No narrow 100 push-up type goal this time. 2. Do a sprint workout once/week. This is a repeat from the last challenge. I’ll try to do my best to post my stick artwork, which I use to keep track of reps up The Hill. 3. Become more zen. I need to balance my hectic life with some yogo, meditation, reading and sleep. Life side quest: Continue to save $! We’ve got more tuition bills on the horizon.

Hi Rebels, I fell by the wayside (again) for my last challenge, I'm finding it relatively easy to keep my diet under control, especially having started work and not being able to snack (if I want to snack I've taken to having a multivitamin). So I feel like I've got that down and I've set up a PVP for calorie counting just in case anyone wants to join me with that particular goal! But now I definitely want to expand my health and fitness regime to get myself stronger as well as a bit healthier. For this challenge I'm going to have four goals, three health and fitness goals and one life goal. 1. Become a Smaller Target +2 CON +2 DEX I'm going to try and lose some bodyfat, after all an assassin needs to be as small a target as possible! So over here I've got a spreadsheet for the amount of calories I need to be eating a day to lose as much as I can (hopefully without losing any muscle) and how much protein I need to be eating a day as well. 2. Swift Like Lightning +2 STR +2 DEX For this challenge it's all about making myself faster, so working on reflexes and my running speed. So for this one I want to run at least once a week and my target will be to get my 6km time (as that's the length of my route) down to under 30 minutes, at the moment it's about 37 minutes. And I will also try and start attending fencing/playing squash once a week, as both of these activities need me to be able to react quickly as I would in any assassination! 3. Strong Like Thunder +3 STR This aspect of the challenge is focused on making myself stronger (All the better to kill you with!) so I will be doing strength building circuits 3 times a week. I say strength building because whilst I will be focusing on bodyweight circuits (using progressions for the major exercises from this website) but I will be trying to get to the gym to use weight training as well at least once a week. 4. Learn the Ways of the Word +4 WIS This is a life goal to write 500 words a day. This is so I can do my literary blog and also work on some of my own personal fiction with short stories and maybe some larger stories too. If I do 500 words a day, that's not very many and I should also do enough writing to work on my blog once a week but also have enough to write some short stories. So I shall be posting up the links when I've made a new blog post so you guys can keep up with my progress! So now I'm ready to help out the assassins with their weekly challenges and make myself into a Warrior of the Night!