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This mini-challenge is inspired by the SuperBetter program designed by Jane McGonigal. All challenge ideas come from the SuperBetter website. This challenge is broken into three parts: Power-Ups (daily activities), Quests (weekly activities) and Bad Guys (optional challenges). Just choose from each list and have fun. If you really want to enhance your experience, download the SuperBetter app or pick up a copy of Jane's book. Power-Ups -- quick daily activities that give you a boost: Drink a full glass of water Got a block? Walk around it. Hug yourself. Run some sprints. Take a 5 minute cold shower. Do 10 burpees. Meditate for at least 5 minutes. Take your shoes off and spend at least 5 minutes with your bare feet on the ground. Spend at least 5 minutes near a natural body of water or a fountain. Make your bed. Watch a brief motivational video. Quests -- more challenging weekly activities: Run or walk a 5k--share your time. Have a conversation with a stranger--share your experience. Read a touchy-feely relationship, new-agey self-help, organisational/motivational book. Do something creative. Make some jewelry, or color a picture, or do some embroidery, or do some creative writing - anything that allows you use your creativity and passion for aesthetics. Do as many pushups as possible in 2 minutes--share your results. Write to someone you haven't talked to in quite a while. Meditate for at least 20 minutes either on your own or using a guided meditation. Find a new recipe and cook it. Make a list of at least 3 people you admire as "heroes." Share what qualities you most admire about them. Bad Guys -- bad habits and anything else that makes it harder for you to get SuperBetter: Turn off the TV for one day. Take a sabbatical from social media for at least one day. Choose water instead of sugary sodas, juices, or energy drinks. Take movement breaks every thirty minutes during your work day. Do something you have been putting off for too long. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Park farther from the entrance of your office/school/etc.

I've started two challenges and am yet to finish one. This time around, I'm going for the smallest of baby steps to keep me on track to getting fitter and eating healthier. Step one: walk to mordor! Walk one kilometre every day. That's it. One measly km. every day. I'm tracking this on runkeeper, where I have a goal set up with 2,846 km—the distance to Mordor and back, from the Shire. ATTRIBUTE POINTS: STA 3 CON 1 Step two: yoga every damn day I want to get as flexible as I was when I was younger. Well, not quite. I want to be better than I was then. I want to be able to do a proper handstand. I want to do the things I see on my Instagram feed. (I follow a lot of yogis). So my goal is to do yoga every day for at least ten minutes. ATTRIBUTE POINTS: DEX 3 STR 1 Step three: paleo central I was a vegetarian for eight and a half years. I recently got back to eating meat (a personal choice) but I want to do it the healthy way. I want to eat real food. I'm allowing dairy for this challenge because I'm fairly sure my digestive system is okay with that and also because it's my way of easing myself into the new way of eating. I'm giving myself a score out of ten for every day, depending on how well I eat and how I feel physically and mentally about it. ATTRIBUTE POINTS: CON 3 Extra motivation My life quest is to be a better person. I know this isn't a quantifiable goal so I'm using the medium of SuperBetter to express it—I want to get more resilient. SuperBetter is a game designed to help you level up in life. You can power up at any time, fight bad guys, complete quests and make allies to improve your resilience and get happier. My resilience started at 280 and, based on the max points you can gain in a day, my goal is to get 470 points, so up to 750 at the end of this challenge. Some of the power ups and quests will be a part of the goals I've already outlined, and some will be extra credit. ATTRIBUTE POINTS: CHA 2 WIS 2