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Hi! I'm Tei! I am a halfling Assassin who is going to get hella strong this challenge because it turns out that This challenge, I want to re-focus on strength building because I believe it's going to help me the most right now in gymnastics and climbing. Also because Mr. Tei and I climb with two dudes both named Ian who are both stupid strong and I want to be stronger than them. Schedule-wise, I'm hoping to be able to do the occasional two-a-day because my gymnastics practices tend to be in the evenings and quite short. So instead of doing conditioning at gymnastics, which would be a waste of the equipment I'm paying way too much $$$ to have access to, I'm going to do my strength training, conditioning and stretching in the mornings and just work on gymnastics skills that I can't practice anywhere else in the gymnastics gym. Lifting: Image by RickGriffin on deviantart I started a 5/3/1 program before, but that was right before the holidays and I didn't get into the gym often enough for it to really stick. Now, I have read the original 5/3/1 book thing (which is here, but now that I've read it I wouldn't really recommend reading the whole thing since it's full of all sorts of mysogyny and body-shaming and similar grossness and the basic info is available from other sources...) and I am going to do the 4x/week w/ bodyweight assistance version (on pg. 52 of the book) which looks like: I lift at a climbing gym, so climbing will also be on the menu; I don't really have any specific goals for it, because I tend to either just do a bit of it while I'm there lifting, or go with the group and do an all-climbing session. Food I had considered doing some sort of calorie-counting for this challenge, but I decided that ultimately, I want to do more, not less, so I'm not going to eat less, at least not by that particular method for the time being. Do not want. Instead, my food goals are: 1. Only eat breakfast in the morning after doing a 1/2 hour of something bassoon-related. I've been trying this and it works great both from a pseudo-IF standpoint and a getting-stuff-done-in-the-morning standpoint. My new morning routine seems to be: herbal tea after shower, tea latte while practicing, then omelette after first half hour of practicing. Obviously, if I'm doing something in the morning, at an hour that would make playing the bassoon before it impractical/ rude to the sleeping Mr. Tei, I am exempt from this. 2. No chocolate under 85% cocoa. (Unlimited chocolate that meets this criteria, but one of the great things about super dark chocolate is that I eat one or two squares and then spontaneously think, "Okay, that was good, I've had enough now."!!!!) 3. My old standby: Only food from home! Meditation Last challenge, I tried to use Kit Laughlin's lying meditations. Unfortunately, they were waaaaay too long for a (currently) very fidgety person like me. So this time around, I am going to spend 10 min with Headspace every day and see how it goes. Stretching My basic goal for this challenge is "stretch every day," which is vague but I know what "stretching" is and what "cheating because you want to meet your Challenge goal" is I bought the Stretch Therapy "Master the Full Backbend" series, so I want to incorporate more exercises from that into my routine. Okay assassins! Let's do this! Image by tartii on deviantart

"I won't give up, no I won't give in 'til I reach the end and then I'll start again. No I won't leave. I wanna try everything. I wanna try even though I could fail." I'm returning after a month hiatus for my next challenge. This song has sort of been my anthem for the past couple of weeks. It makes me smile and gets me pumped up too Here are my goals for this challenge. Goal #1 Physical Activity I would like to do some sort of physical activity at least 6 days a week. I know this sounds like a lot, but it could be as simple as a five minute walk. Out of these six days, at least two should be a little more difficult such as cardio or strength training. Goal #2 Healthy Eating/Meal Prep I would like to prep my lunches every Sunday for the week. As a teacher, I sometimes skip lunch, by cooking my meals for the week beforehand, I hope to prevent skipping lunch. My meals will include a protein and a vegetable. So I should be eating a veggie at least five times a week. Goal #3 Perseverance This is where the song comes in. Realistically, I will have days that I mess up on my goals. I'm really not trying to be pessimistic here, but it's likely that I will at times fall. The issue is when I fall, I beat myself up and get discouraged. When this happens, I'm going to listen to this song, and remind myself that I'm not giving up on myself. Like the song says - "Don't beat yourself up. Don't need to run so fast. Sometimes we come last, but we did our best." Goal #4 Look At The World With New Eyes Now I'm bringing Zootopia stuff in here *Some minor spoilers follow* One of my favorite scenes of the movie is when Judy gets on the train to Zootopia. The amazement on her face as she sees this large city for the first time gets me every time. I want to see the world differently - as a fantastic and beautiful place. So I'm going to search for something beautiful everyday. *End Minor Spoilers* In summary, I'm looking forward to this challenge. Now everyone sing with me "I won't give up no I won't give in 'til I reach the end and then I'll start again. No I won't leave. I wanna try everything. I wanna try even though I could fail. Oh oh oh oh oh Try everything!"