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Sleep - Get To Bed As Early As 10:30 PM Gotta get that sleep. I'm still shooting for 10:30, but shooting for earlier seems to help occasionally. If I try to go to bed earlier, I procrastinate earlier. ^ This still remains true. Most nights, i'm going to bed at 10:50-11:20 PM, which gives me little more than (generally less than) 6 hours of sleep. I'd like to bump that up, and I know exactly how to do so. The key is getting myself to follow through. Food - Make and Eat Good Balanced Meals I'm in an interesting state of not knowing what the heck is going on. For a few weeks now i've not been eating a solid breakfast. That had been working for quite a while, but now i'm unsure. There are lots of things going on that could be causing me stomach trouble, a major one being stress. That makes narrowing down the problem really difficult. I'm going to make a best effort to fit a solid breakfast back into my late morning (9-ish) to see if that alleviates the problems. Workout - Practice Aam Ka Jutsu and Kettlebell My martial art is my priority and I want to spend more time training and practicing. The last few challenges, i've split my four workouts per week into two lift days and two training days. I want to try having one lift day (say Monday) and 3 training days (Tuesday, Thursday, Friday). This is a trial run of sorts, for when i'll be back at school next challenge. Code - Work On Projects and Track Time I'm going to continue to work on my projects and log my time. –––––– Feel free to follow along and call me out if I need it. Keep being awesome. Hail Hydrate.

1. Sleep; Get in bed before 11 PM or as early as 10:30. Gotta get that sleep. I'm still shooting for 10:30, but shooting for earlier seems to help occasionally. If I try to go to bed earlier, I procrastinate earlier. 2. Food; Eat healthy stuff that makes you feel good; avoid junk food. I still feel that i've been doing well with this goal. However, I have been essentially skipping breakfast for the past few days. That's not good. I'm going to try to remedy that as best I can. 3. Workout; Practice Aam Ka Jutsu and work with the kettlebell. I still want to do kettlebell workouts and work toward justifying a heavier bell. I am also going to continue my martial arts training (my main focus). However, i'm going to switch my workout schedule around so that my lifts will be on Monday and Thursday, and my martial arts training will be on Tuesday and Friday. I don't know if that will stick, as I have yet to register for classes. I do know which classes I want, but I can't be certain that i'll get them. We'll see how that pans out. 4. Code; work on your projects at least once a week, hopefully more. I need to keep improving my skills, so i'm going to commit to doing as much work as I can when i'm not working on homework. Feel free to follow along and call me out if I need it. Keep being awesome. Hail Hydrate!

1. Get in bed before 11 PM or as early as 10:30. Sleep is still my biggest problem. I'm working on it. My spring break gave me some time to get away with sleeping in, which did help. However, i'm going for the long-term here, and that ain't good enough. If I can, I need to drop everything i'm doing between 10 and 10:30 PM. I've got a plethora of alarms to help with that. 2. Eat healthy stuff that makes you feel good; avoid junk food. I still feel that i've been doing well with this goal. However, I have been essentially skipping breakfast for the past few days. That's not good. I'm going to try to remedy that as best I can. 3. Practice Aam Ka Jutsu and work with the kettlebell. I still want to work on kettlebell exercises. My focus has kind of shifted more toward improving grip strength, and upper body strength. Right now, i'm working toward the point where I can get 35 lb kettlebell, as I think that alines with what i'm trying to accomplish. I can do heavier lifts and essentially hack doing two-handed farmer's walks (doing what i've been doing to achieve 35 lbs with a 25 lb bell). The weakest link is my arms and it really shows with the clean and press or any kind of overhead press. Now, in the past i've gotten really discouraged because of the lack of strength in this area. I'll figure out how to gauge that during the challenge. I've been doing martial arts on days that I have school (Wednesday and Friday) and kettlebell work on days that I do not have school (Tuesday and Thursday). This pattern has been working well so far, so i'll keep at it. 4. Code stuff; work on your projects at least once a week, hopefully more. I need to keep improving my skills, so i'm going to commit to doing as much work as I can when i'm not working on homework. School work right now is primarily busy work. The general ed. stuff is a PITA. I'm doing my best to get it all done, and trying really hard not to procrastinate by working on stuff that i'd much rather work on. Feel free to follow along and call me out if I need it. Keep being awesome.

1. Get in bed before 11 PM or as early as possible. Sleep is still my biggest problem. I'm working on it. My spring break gave me some time to get away with sleeping in, which did help. However, i'm going for the long-term here, and that ain't good enough. If I can, I need to drop everything i'm doing between 10 and 10:30 PM. I've got a plethora of alarms to help with that. 2. Eat healthy stuff that makes you feel good; avoid junk food. I feel that i've been doing fairly well on this. My body has been happy with what i've been eating over the last few months, which is an awesome feeling. 3. Practice Aam Ka Jutsu and work with the kettlebell. I finished my 20,000 side-kick challenge, so I set up a new goal at 40,000 side-kicks. I'm not working toward any crazy number after which i'll never throw a kick again. I find that having a small goal like that acts as a reminder for me to work on my kicks. I like doing the small number of kettlebell exercises that i've tried. I'd like to do more of them, and possibly get to the point where I can justify buying either another 25 lb bell or a heavier one. I haven't got a clue which I should or will go with. We shall see. I think i'll rotate between martial arts and kettlebell stuff each day. 4. Code stuff; work on your projects at least once a week, hopefully more. I need to keep improving my skills, so i'm going to commit to doing as much work as I can when i'm not working on homework. Feel free to follow along and call me out if I need it. Keep being awesome.

No surprise here, I'm doing the same thing again. So interesting (sarcasm)! --- 1. Get in bed before 11 PM or as early as possible. Sleep is still my biggest problem. I'm working on it. 2. Eat healthy stuff that makes you feel good; avoid junk food. 3. Practice Aam Ka Jutsu 5 days a week; includes side-kicks. The kicks are coming along. I'm still working on some bad habits, but I feel that they are much more solid than they were at the start. Those things are balance and consistency. My balance has improved, but i'm not quite If needed, i'll substitute with BW or kettlebell stuff. 4. Code stuff; work on your projects at least once a week, hopefully more. That's it. Pretty much the same as the last two. Last challenge, I tried to keep up with too many threads. I felt kinda bad about not staying up to date with all of them, so i'm picking two. I'll do my best to stay up to date with those two. Feel free to follow along and call me out if I need it. Keep being awesome. --- Here's a musical treat for you. Something that I found by accident: https://soundcloud.com/builtbytitan/the-darkness-ft-srvcina?in=builtbytitan/sets/alpha-ep Here's something a little more relaxed. I've never actually played the Last of Us, but I like the music. https://soundcloud.com/addisonbarbee/the-choice-extended-the-last-of-us-ost

Since the new challenge format is 4 weeks instead of 6 and I don't feel like my goals have changed, i'll be continuing from last challenge. The next personal project that i've started on is a theme for my portfolio site. I'm currently using an absolutely fantastic theme by Elegant Themes. While that's nice, it is not hardly as impressive as being able to show a potential employer/client a site that utilizes a custom theme that I designed and developed myself. I'm not going to get even remotely close to the breadth of features that my current theme offers. However, the cool features that I do add will cater more to the portfolio portion of my site. ------ From last challenge: Not necessarily in any order of importance: 1. Get in bed before 11 PM or as early as possible. I've been really bad about getting to bed the last few weeks, and my sleep last challenge didn't go as planned either. I'm not sure what to do, other than force myself to go to bed on time. Maybe I should tell myself to JUST DO IT! I got a handed-down Fitbit, so I can see what my sleep looks like. So far the average is ~7 hours a night, but i'd like to bump that up. 2. Eat healthy stuff that makes you feel good; avoid junk food. I have a food/sleep/exercise/whatever log that i've got nearly 345 entries in. I've reduced the amount of fiber that i've been eating, and I feel much better. That's been working for the past month, which is great. I believe that the sandwiches and english muffins combined with the veggies and fruits were a bit too much for my stomach to handle. 3. Practice Aam Ka Jutsu 5 days a week; includes side-kicks. The kicks are coming along. I'm still working on some bad habits, but I feel that they are much more solid than they were at the start. If needed, i'll substitute with BW or kettlebell stuff. 4. Code stuff; work on your projects at least once a week, hopefully more. I'm currently on winter break, so i'm going to have a lot of time for projects before school starts up again. Now is the time for me to go ham on the coding. On the job front, I guess my seasonal employment is over, but I haven't been told officially that i'm done. Regardless, I did apply for the part-time position (to stay on) and edited the cover letter a bit to reflect my new experiences. Hopefully, i'll get it. That's it. Pretty much the same as the last two. Last challenge, I tried to keep up with too many threads. I felt kinda bad about not staying up to date with all of them, so i'm picking two. I'll do my best to stay up to date with those two. Feel free to follow along and call me out if I need it. Keep being awesome.

Hello lovely peoples! Welcome to the new year. <off-topic> I got a jacket for Christmas, and it fits me! I have a jacket that isn't incredibly baggy! Woot! I'm slowly acquiring clothes that actually fit me and aren't two or three sizes too big. Also, I got gloves, which were greatly needed for my eternally frozen hands. Unfortunately, I can't use them while coding, they are too thick for that. </off-topic> I'm going to be sticking with the same kind of goals this challenge. Keeping things stupidly simple seems to work for me. Not necessarily in any order of importance: 1. Get in bed before 11 PM or as early as possible. I've been really bad about getting to bed the last few weeks, and my sleep last challenge didn't go as planned either. I'm not sure what to do, other than force myself to go to bed on time. Maybe I should tell myself to JUST DO IT! I got a handed-down Fitbit, so I can see what my sleep looks like. So far the average is ~7 hours a night, but i'd like to bump that up. 2. Eat healthy stuff that makes you feel good; avoid junk food. I have a food/sleep/exercise/whatever log that i've got nearly 345 entries in. I've reduced the amount of fiber that i've been eating, and I feel much better. That's been working for the past month, which is great. I believe that the sandwiches and english muffins combined with the veggies and fruits were a bit too much for my stomach to handle. 3. Practice Aam Ka Jutsu 5 days a week; includes side-kicks. The kicks are coming along. I'm still working on some bad habits, but I feel that they are much more solid than they were at the start. If needed, i'll substitute with BW or kettlebell stuff. 4. Code stuff; work on your projects at least once a week, hopefully more. I'm currently on winter break, so i'm going to have a lot of time for projects before school starts up again. Now is the time for me to go ham on the coding. On the job front, I guess my seasonal employment is over, but I haven't been told officially that i'm done. Regardless, I did apply for the part-time position (to stay on) and edited the cover letter a bit to reflect my new experiences. Hopefully, i'll get it. That's it. Pretty much the same as the last two. Last challenge, I tried to keep up with too many threads. I felt kinda bad about not staying up to date with all of them, so i'm picking two. I'll do my best to stay up to date with those two. Feel free to follow along and call me out if I need it. Keep being awesome.

Sleep Okay, so last challenge I got a job, which is extremely exciting. It has also influenced me to mess up the streak of good sleep I was getting. This challenge I want to lock that down again. I've got the same bed time in mind, 11 PM, and I don't plan on changing when I wake up either, 6 AM. Of course, morning shifts will require getting up earlier, but normally that won't need to be adjusted. Food There's always room for improvement with my diet, so i'm going to continue to strive for reducing the amount of sweets and junk that I eat. Indulging once or twice in a week isn't anything to freak out about, as long as I remain consistent with the rest of my eating. I'm not focusing on building muscle anymore, so i'm going to simply not stuff myself. Just a few minutes ago my mother asked if I wanted anything from Greek Style Chicken, to which I responded, "No, thanks!" That's a pretty good start. Aam Ka Jutsu (Americanized Karate) I'm going to continue my 20,000 kick goal from last challenge. That's 10,000 side-kicks each side. The challenge is influenced by the Bruce Lee quote in my signature, I decided to take it literally. I just broke 6k I believe, which is cool. I feel that my kicks are improving, and i've got plenty of time to work on them! I'm still going to try to fit in martial arts work, even if it's only 15 minutes 5 days a week. Coding For the Future Getting a retail job is great. It means that I can have a bit of money coming in, and hopefully get enough to pay for another semester at community college before transferring. I need to also work on the long term goal, which is to find a position as a software engineer. Most of my skill is in web development, and i'm trying to make myself a strong full-stack developer. So, i'll be looking for positions that require knowledge of things like WordPress, PHP, MySQL, JavaScript, Grunt/PHPUnit/QUnit, CSS, etc. Currently, I have several projects that I can devote my time to, which will help me show that I know what i'm doing. Yesterday, I spent some time working on my main project, a WordPress plugin. In addition to progressing in the process of refactoring one of the main systems. I also handed over my Grunt (automation program) scripts to my teammates, so that we can make testing a little bit faster. Currently the script only utilizes syntax checking, but I plan to extend it to handle tests for our various features. There's a lot of work to do before that happens, so i'm going to continue to devote time to that. I have two iOS apps that I want to work on, one by myself and the other with a friend. I also have one or two posts that i'd like to write for my personal blog. They'd be on the topics of proper user security and form validation, and why I decided to integrate automation into a large, already existing, project. The post on form validation and user security will be used to offer constructive criticism of web sites and companies that put limits on users' ability to create strong usernames, passwords, etc. For example, some sites limit passwords to 8 characters that are alpha-numeric only. That's something i'd like to address, without pointing names or calling fingers. Chilling I'd also like to continue the goal to talk to a friend every week. It's not my strong suit, but i'm working on it. In the interest of staying sane, i'd also like to plan to make some time for playing a game for an hour or so every week. If it doesn't happen, that's alright, I have to prioritize. However, if i've got everything that needs to be done out of the way, I should give myself a little bit of game time. This isn't something i'm going to track, i'm just putting it here as a side note. ------ Thank you for reading this far. Have some programming humor: Hail Hydrate!

Continuing with the simplistic goals this challenge, i'll be focusing on sleep, exercise, and work. Sleep: Sleep is fairly self-explanatory. I want to get to bed before 11 PM. That's the latest I should be staying up. I'll do my best to avoid sticking myself in situations where I have to stay up past that. Life is ramping up--albeit slowly--and sleep is still something that I struggle with. This challenge, i'm aiming to be even more consistent with getting enough sleep. I even have a +/- habit on Habitica for getting to bed on time. Since i'm in a party now, it really motivates me not to be the one that damages everyone! Exercise/Food: Exercise wise, I am essentially just practicing Aam Ka Jutsu. Even with school work getting in some martial arts work every day has been working nicely. When i'm pressed for time, I can focus on one area for 10-15 minutes and be absolutely exhausted (the good kind of tired). Then, when I have more time, I can spend a good 30-45 minutes having an actual class. I thought of trying something a little crazy, but entirely doable for this challenge. I'm up for doing it, because it struck me as something that would be loads of fun. In my signature, I have this quote: "I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times." - Bruce Lee I figured, why not do 10,000 kicks (I mean side kicks)! I want to improve the speed of my kicks, my endurance, and my balance. So why not? As I was sharing this idea with family, it became clear to me that i'd essentially be cheating if I split the kicks between each leg. To remedy that, i'll set the goal to 20,000 kicks. 10,000 each leg! If I do the maths... (20,000 kicks) / [(6 weeks) * (3 challenges) * (5 days a week)] = ~111 kicks per leg each day. Granted that I can do 111 kicks per day, i'll have done 10,000 kicks each side 18 weeks from now. I haven't yet done that many kicks at once, I can do 120 total without too much trouble. However, that is perfectly fine. I'll work up to it. After class today, I did 60 side kicks each side, so that'll be my starting point. I'll add 10 to that tomorrow and work on up to 110-120. As a little discipline exercise, i've been ending my workouts by standing in ready stance and working on my breathing. I'm going to keep that up, I think. Okay so this challenge's goal with exercise is going to be doing some form of Aam Ka Jutsu 5 days a week. That will include doing a set of side kicks each day. Food wise, i'll just keep up what i've been doing. Now that i'm not lifting, i've reduced my servings slightly, and i'm not eating when i'm not hungry. I feel that my body's been responding fairly well to the changes. I've been noticeably better at having less-healthy meals intermittently while sticking with the healthier homemade foods. Work/Job Hunt: I'm finishing up at my local college and i'll be transferring in the fall of 2016, hopefully. The issue is going to be money. The solution is to get a job. So i'm making that part of my challenge. Every week i'm going to aim for apply to at least two places. It doesn't matter if its a retail job or a web development position. Part of getting a job where I want to, in the web development industry, is going to be showing that i'm actively improving my skills. Therefore, i'll also make a goal to work on a project, regardless of what it is for at least an hour a day. Not Being A Hermit: I'm not awesome at being social, but i'm going to try making a habit out of talking to at least one person a week. ------------------------ TL;DRbed before 11 PM, get up at 6 AM weekdaysget martial arts work in 5 days a week; work up to 220-240 kicks a day; practice resting in ready stancecontinue to eat healthy and drink enough waterfind at least two jobs a week and apply to them; work on projects to show that you know your shiztalk to other hoomans each week If you actually read all that...wow. I'm impressed. You might be shocked to learn that my walls of text have actually gotten shorter over the years. 0.o Regardless, you're awesomesauce. Grab yourself a refreshing bottle of water and get some sleep. Or if you're starting your day, the picture below is for you, have a fantastic day! To be continued...

Hello there peoples! I actually didn't realize that the challenge had started! LOL I've found that my time management has been sucking lately, so i'm going to try simplifying things this challenge. Three priorities: sleep, exercise, and work. Since eating and exercise are input and output i'll tie my diet into that category. Sleep I have been routinely been going to bed at or a little before 12. Almost every other day, i've been going to bed at roughly 11:30. I have an alarm set at 9:30 PM to tell me to wrap up anything i'm doing so that I can get to bed at a reasonable time. Truthfully, i've been ignoring it. So, this challenge i'm going to say that my optimal bed time is between 10 and 11. My goal for sleep is then going to wrap everything up and be off the computer before 11 comes around. Realistically, I have nights where sleep isn't my priority. Occasionally, i'll have nights were i'm in charge of merging updates on my main project or fixing a horrible bug which requires me to stay up later than I should. On those kinds of nights, sleep can wait; otherwise, I need to make sleep a priority. - If at all possible, get off the computer before 11 and get to bed at a reasonable time. Exercise I'm going to try to continue StrongLifts to the best of my ability, three times a week. In addition to SL i'm going to aim for doing some Aam Ka Jutsu training on my off days. I think that perhaps my OHP form has been lacking, since on last Friday I pissed off my left wrist somehow. Due to my wrist hurting when I rotated it, I skipped going to the gym on Monday. Instead I got the family to do a session entirely with kicks, so that I could let my wrist calm down. Yesterday, I went to the gym like normal and absolutely annihilated my squats. The only issue I had was with my barbell rows, which are a bit too heavy for me to pull all the way to my chest. Most of the reps I'm able to get to about 3/4 the way, but the rest are only a little over half. I may end up reducing the weight, since it's compromising my form. I'll give myself another chance with it though. Food wise, i'm going to keep doing what i'm doing. I've been trying to eat good nutrient full meals, and occasionally eating out (while still attempting to eat healthier stuff). Last week I celebrated my b-day, so there was a mix of eating out and eating at home roughly every day. I'm back to it this week and i've only eaten out twice. One was me being lazy and eating out with the family, and the other was work related. I think I made good choices on the latter though. I've started experimenting with eating out. Several restaurants have been making me feel unusual recently. Interestingly, when I don't drink any soda (I usually drink Sprite/Sierra Mist, as that's what I used to get off of caffeinated beverages) I don't have any stomach problems. So, this weekend i'm going to put my hypothesis to the test, i'm going to go to a restaurant that I had to stop going to because I felt really sick each time I ate from there. The one common factor is the soda that I drink. I'll let ya'll know. - StrongLifts 5x5 three days a week (M/W/F) - Aam Ka Jutsu twice a week (T/TH) Current SL Stats (lbs): - Squat: 115 - Bench: 80 - OHP: 65 5/5/5/4/5 - Row: 100 5/5/4/5/5 - Deadlift: 155 Work I'm planning for the long term and attempting to flesh out my portfolio while I still have time. School is starting back up so I'm going to have to balance school and working on my various projects (and my other priorities). Some of which have amazing potential for me to get a foot in the door in the software engineering world. In fact, I actually finished a project and its super cool! It solves puzzles!

Hello there! Alrighty, this is my second challenge and my goals are roughly the same. I had a one week break, since I started the last challenge late. In that time, I completed one more BWW (on Tuesday) and managed to up my OHP by two reps at 25 lbs. On Thursday I wrestled instead of doing my BWW, and on Friday I got to practice trips and throws with the family. My Dad and I are going to start training sessions again, as I still have a lot to learn and improve. I plan to keep him to it. In my previous challenge I mentioned that my friend had weights and that I was going to attempt to set up a workout schedule with him. In short, not the best choice for a workout buddy. I still want to try weightlifting, so when the family decides to get a family membership at the nearby YMCA, i'll be going there. My plan is to continue to improve my BWW until I can get my hands on some free weights. That should be some time next week. Then, I plan to follow the Stronglifts 5x5 plan. Of course, I also want to practice my martial art when possible. Main Quest (Loooooooooong Term) Get stronger and gain healthy weight. Still aiming for 180 lbs. Goals Practice Aam ka jutsu at least twice a week [DEX 2, STA 2]Follow Stronglifts 5x5 plan by going to the gym 3 times a week [sTR 3, STA 2]Eat an excess of healthy food (at least three meals a day; at least one meal with a good source of protein) [CON 3]Getting at least 8 hours of sleep (get in bed by 10 PM) [sTA 3]Other Goals and Stuff... Applying to as many applicable Web Development positions as I can findLearning Swift, so that I can create some apps over the summerP.S. I GOT TO CODE AGAIN ON SATURDAY AFTER NOT OPENING MY EDITOR FOR AT LEAST A MONTH. OMGFTWBBQ! It was fun. I may have (definitely) been suffering from code-withdrawals, as I don't consider the on-rails HW that I had to do for my C++ course coding. P.P.S. I added the New2Monk tag because I am a newbie, and i'm curious if my goals seem reasonable. Thanks for any constructive criticism! Thanks!