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Alright @WolfDreamer called me back to join Nerdfitness for their 10th anniversary of the challenges. As someone whose life has been changed by what I read in Nerdfitness, articles by Steve Kamb, and completing in the challenges, it was only right that I compete. Since I am following WolfDreamer's lead (and since I LOVE ATLA), here's my setup: Air: Minimum of 10 Pranayma sessions (7-minutes) per week Fire: Minimum 15 rounds of shadowboxing Earth: Minimum 5 sessions (at least 30 minutes) of Ashtanga yoga Water: Drink at least 1 Liter of water a day So what this looks like (on the ideal day) 2 sessions of 7 minute breathing sessions (morning/night) 2 sessions of shadwboxing 1 Ashtanga yoga session Monday-Friday At least 4 cups of water Goals: Improve breath control for yoga, future boxing classes, and stress control Improve understanding of shadowboxing Build better balance and discipline through Ashtanga Increase water usage for everything Get one step to becoming the Avatar, Batman, Black Panther, or One Punch Man PS I will be following the Fight Club diet (the same diet Brad Pitt used for that movie) as best I can as well.

For those unfamiliar, Iroh as a character from the show Avatar the Last Airbender. He was a wise peaceful man, whose past as a general was full of victories and skill. I personally thought he was a great thing to aspire to, so I will take those first steps in this challenge. My challenge is broken down into three manageable parts each one focused on a different aspect; body, mind, spirit. Since training one without the other leads to imbalances and weakness, I want them all to get better. The Body: Enjoy what is good, as often as possible. Reason: One of the major parts of Iroh's personality is his love of food, tea especially. I am a line cook, so I know how to cook quite well. But I continually find myself not eating or eating things that make be feel terrible afterwards. So this part of the challenge is to fix this and have my body running on good healthy food. Plan: When I cook and have the time, I actually eat very well. Including a massive amount of vegetables. However it is when I am rushed or looking for quick energy that I eat terrible things for me. So the plan is as such. Begin to carve out time for two meals a day, one in the morning and one in the evening, with small snacks in between. My work has plenty of options for snacks, so it is chiefly the meals at home I need to focus one. The main battle will be when I need something fast before leaving or heading to bed. So for the mornings I will be making sure that I start making up overnight oats, or keeping fruit on hand. Ideally granola as well, even though it isn't perfect. For the evening making sure there is sandwich materials on hand and making some dressing ahead of time, as given half a chance I will eat a large salad and a sandwich leaded with veges. In addition on my time off actually cooking larger meals. Forgetting to eat is a goal. Also no more dairy as I am lactose intolerant. Measure of Success: I will measure this with a weekly grade of fifteen points. Two for each meal a day and one for getting good things at the grocery store. At the end I will tally the points and see how I did. 100%: A, 90%: B, 80% C, 70% D, and Failure after that. Reward: By doing this I will feel better, as I will have a constant supply of energy and not be going up and down constantly. In addition not eating dairy will stop bloating, which makes it easier to move and breath. The Mind: Study both deeply and widely. Reason: Iroh was known not only for his skill in certain areas, but also in the breath of his knowledge. He continually learned about new things, and applied them to his own interests. As such I will make time each day to read. Plan: I enjoy reading so there will be no need for it to be forced, it is mainly finding the time. I will set aside the last half hour of the day before bed to read each night. In addition I will count any time reading articles online towards this, if only because it is still reading. Measure of Success: I will be using a similar method as above, giving myself one point a day every time that I read. I will also give myself the option of reading articles for halg an hour a day to gain an additional point. This way if I don't read one day, I can double up to make up for it for a short while. 100%: A, 90%: B, 80% C, 70% D, and Failure after that. Reward: Reading is good for the mind, and I genuinely enjoy it. By reading both books and articles I let myself learn more deeply about one topic, while still keeping up to date. Plus it gives me a way to relax at the end of the night. The Spirit: Many arts are better then one. Reason: Iroh knew many ways of bending and incorporated them into his bending. I have been doing Tai Chi on and off for various reasons. While it may not be the style that speaks most to me, it is a very useful one. Plan: Every day I will do ten minutes of Tai Chi. I have not worked out when in the day is best, so the fist week will be trying various times of the day. Ideally I would prefer the morning, but we shall see what works out. I have a basic form that I know and will do that, with a few minutes of breathing meditation beforehand to focus. Measure of Success: I will tally how many days I did it at the end of the challenge, with the same break down of success as before. This one however will not reward extra practice, as it is more about establishing a routine. Reward: Tai Chi helps with the little aches and pains I have, as well as giving me a way to relax and center myself. In addition the concepts behind it seem like they would be useful in other martial arts. Any questions or comments are appreciated, I love good feed back! Especially as it may help me further refine or trouble shoot.

So I'm gonna try and make this a bit simpler. I think I will be better off focusing on a couple of things and doing them well, really making them habits, and then evaluating how I did at the end of the challenge and going from there. This is basically me telling myself to SIMPLIFY MY CHALLENGES I've been re-watching Avatar: The Last Airbender (and also The Legend of Korra). Mostly, I've been listening to Uncle Iroh. So this challenge is about connecting/listening to my inner Iroh and using the wisdom I've earned. I'm asking myself the things that add the most value to my life and making those my focus for the moment. Inspiration and Gratitude will still happen but they're not Challenge Goals for the time being. The Spirit World: Daily Meditation Fun fact: I found this gif on google....from one of Korranation's old challenges This can be as little as one minute. As long as I do it, it counts. Something is better than nothing Avatar Training: Daily Movement This really really helps my mood. So a little bit every day is better than nothing for me. This is ALL about the mood regulation for me Tea Time: Daily Creativity This has been a quest the past couple challenges and it's really starting to become a habit, at least with writing. I'd like to do more guitar and drawing too, but I've been pretty good about doing at least one creative thing...probably 85% of February. And that's awesome. Sokka's Schedule: 2 Hour Blocks Gonna keep working on this cause when I do it, it really helps my day 5x per week Order of The White Lotus: Reach out to 1 Friend per Week I haven't been reaching out to my friends as much IRL so my goal is to contact one friend from school a week And that's it!

Born in the Earth Kingdoms in a time of peace and prosperity, Avatar Kyellan never had a reason to awaken to his calling and master the four elements. The world seemed to have no need for the Avatar in his time, and the elite of the Earthbending masters did nothing to search for him. In fact, Avatar Kyellan only had the faintest idea that he was even a bender at all until he reached his twenty-ninth birthday. He awoke on that day, and with a strange sense of clarity, suddenly began to understand his role in the world. Still with no idea that he was in fact the Avatar, Kyellan realized--in what he would later understand to be a spiritual vision--that the earth itself was calling him. Now, in his life of peace, Kyellan had never even begun martial training. He was overweight, rather clumsy, and had little to no endurance in any physical task. He did, however, have an indomitable will and a mind bright enough to carry him to understanding of scholarly concepts in a very short amount of time. When he first felt the calling, Kyellan thought to ignore it. After all, most benders discovered their power at a very young age and began training early! Still, despite how much he tried to resist, the earth continued to call him. At last, as the weight of it grew to unbearable within him, Avatar Kyellan sought out his first Sifu. ---------------------------- This challenge marks the beginning of my new Epic Quest. After discovering precisely how perfect martial arts is for my mind, spirit and body, I am setting on the path to become the Avatar, and master the four elements. These are: Earth: Hung Gar Kung Fu Fire: Northern Shaolin Kung Fu Water: Tai Chi Air: Baguazhang My first long-term goal is to learn a traditional form from each of these four martial arts. This may well take years. ------------------------------ As many of you may already know, I have been studying Hung Gar for approximately three months. Sometimes it would be nice if real life were more like TV and I could just do a training montage, but as it turns out, things don't work that way. This is going to be a very long Epic Quest, not something that easily fits into six weeks. I will likely vary my challenge themes along the way for variety, even though my true goal is thematically based on the four elements of A:tLA. My original considerations for this challenge were going to be calisthenic exercises, but I realized after some thought that my Hung Gar fundamentals basically work as calisthenics, so I decided to focus on those fundamentals and build strength and endurance through them. Shaping the Stone Hung Gar--and by extension, earthbending--is all about stance and endurance. It was developed in Southern China, where the uneven ground and high-population cities required its fighters to be able to work their art in close quarters and with the utmost stability. For Goal 1, I will be working on my horse-riding stance twice-daily, five days a week, in addition to anything done in class. Since the time increase method worked so well for my meditation last challenge, I'll be applying a similar principle here. Week 1: 2 minutes Week 2: 2 minutes 30 seconds Week 3: 2 minutes 45 seconds Week 4: 3 minutes Week 5: 3 minutes 15 seconds Week 6: 3 minutes 30 seconds These are minimum times in order to count it for the challenge. If I can go longer, I will. A: (60 stance training) +4 STA, +2 CON B: (50 stance training) +3 STA, +1 CON C: (45 stance training) +2 STA For Goal 2, I will practice my forms. Right now I have one complete introductory Hung Gar form, and the beginning of a Shaolin Broadsword form (as lightsaber). In order to get any benefit out of this, I will need to do these at least a few times each in order to count them. Again, all of this should be outside of regular scheduled class in order to get benefits out of it. In order to count a success, I will need to do everything I know of a single chosen form three times: once slow, with a focus on perfect form; once fast, with a focus on speed to increase coordination and agility; and finally once with dynamic tension to build strength and power. A: (30 form practice) +3 STR, +3 DEX B: (25 form practice) +2 STR, +2 DEX C: (20 form practice) +1 STR, +1 DEX Lastly, my final goal is very simple. I need to wake up before 6AM. Over the past few weeks I have not been exercising my will enough, and have been resetting the alarm for 6:30 or even later sometimes, which needs to stop. This is going to get even harder once we Spring Forward in a couple of weeks, but it is absolutely crucial to my well-being. I need to wake up with my alarm set to anytime prior to 6AM (even 5:59 counts, but only if I put my feet on the floor before 6AM rolls around) seven days a week, and retrain my sleep schedule back to what it should be. A: 42 days up before 6AM (+3 WIS) B: 36 days up before 6AM (+2 WIS) C: 30 days up before 6AM (+1 WIS) ---------------------------- This is only the first chapter of what will be a long road, but I'm looking at it with an odd kind of serenity. This is something I want to do, and I don't care how long it takes!