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Water... Earth... Fire... Air. Long ago, AThousandWords lived in good health and fitness. Then everything changed when a new baby arrived. Only good eating habits and occasional exercise could have saved her waistline. But when her world needed these habits the most, they vanished. A an entire year passed and she discovered new motivation: an awesome Avatar themed challenge. But although her gif skills are great, she still has a lot to learn before she's ready to call herself healthy again. But I believe... AThousandWords can save the world. AThousandWords : Ember Island Interlude I'm getting a late start on this challenge - Memorial Day threw me off; we went out of town for our anniversary and I've been a little resistant to get back into my diet since getting back. But we leave for Hawaii in just three weeks and I want to do my best to feel confident in a bathing suit, so here I am! This will be a short challenge for me: I'll be leaving June 22, so my challenge will only run 3 weeks. So instead of starting "Earth" this challenge, I'm going to treat it like an interlude. I'm drawing on "The Beach" episode for inspiration. Ember Island tends to cause its visitors to go into a sort of self-discovery - likewise, for this challenge I'll be focusing on refining what worked/didn't work from the last challenge, creating new habits, and trying to set myself up for success for my two week trip. ALSO - I'm trying out Habitica for this challenge! I'm still trying to figure out how to convert my NF goals to Habitica and how to track Habitica goals here... so this challenge will be about figuring out what works there, too. I'm going to use Habitica to replace my spreadsheet for this challenge and see how that goes. BANT, BANT, BABY The Banting diet worked really well for me last challenge, so I'm keeping it up. To recap - Here's the Banting Lists and I am loosely following the Transformation phase. I've assigned each list a point value, and I can have up to 3 points a day. In addition, I get an extra 5 points per week, if I want something from the red lists or more from the orange lists. Green List: 0 points Orange List A: 1 point Orange List B: 2 points Red Lists: 5 points Here's how I'm tracking this in Habitica: DON'T BREAK-FAST At the end of the last challenge I mentioned that I was dipping my toe into IF and that so far I really didn't like it. But since then it's sort of growing on me - I think because most mornings I'm just too lazy to eat breakfast. So I'm going to give it a try and fast until noon 4x a week. I don't usually eat after 8pm, so this will be a 16/8 protocol. COMPLETE DAILIES I've defined a few daily tasks in addition to the ones above - like check in on Habitica every day. My goal is to have a 21-day streak for all of these dailies at the end of the challenge. And.... that's it for this challenge. I have a few other habits defined in Habitica, but I don't really want to commit to more than what I have here. So we'll see how it goes! In the meantime, if anyone is super familiar with Habitica and wants to help a newbie out, I'm all ears!

Lightning Warrior Princess! The first half of this year is all about preparing for my first Warrior Dash. What's the best way to prepare for a WD? TRAIN LIKE A WARRIOR!!!!!!! Goal #1: Warrior Dash The WD is the perfect beginner's obstacle course race. It requires a blend of strength and endurance along with a good dose of nerve. For this challenge I want to add more endurance work and cross training. That means any exercise counts; biking, jogging, Darebee, bodyweight, paddleboarding, etc. 5x a week for a total of 20 workouts (I will determine stat points later) Goal #2: Weekend Warrior Warriors work hard and play hard so I MUST do the same. I have a lot of play built into this challenge. I need to remind myself why I wanted to get into shape in the first place. To enjoy life and feel great! (a few CHA points can be gained from this goal) Rock on the Range Zip line or Ropes Course Waterpark My BIRTHDAY Rollerskating Rave Goal #3: Warrior diet Follow Banting (also known as Paleo-with-cheese). Focus on meat, fat, and vegetables!!! I will write down what I eat but I don't need to track as long as I'm following the Banting guidelines. This will be a good time to REALLY listen to my hunger and use "food to fuel my body not feed my emotions." I'm cutting myself a lot of slack here. I have a few events planned this month that will center around either food or bad behavior . I'm not going to hold myself to Banting during these events but I will for the rest of the challenge. (WIS and CON stat points will be rewarded for logging food and following Banting) Goal #4: Road Warrior If I want to have the heart of a warrior I have to face my fears. The fear I plan to tackle during this challenge is to teach my daughter to drive. I will take her out to practice driving and parking 3x a week. I really, really need to do this so I hope I can stick to the goal. Not sure what stat points to award for this one... maybe I'll make up my own! COU for courage.

Lightning Learns Defense again the Dark Arts Lightning has decided that the best way to Level Up is to learn from the best. Who better to teach her how to defend herself and make herself stronger against the evils of this world than Professor Snape?! The great Professor has several curses, counter-spells and charms to teach the class so I hope everyone is paying attention! Wands at the Ready!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Duro (The Hardening Charm) Rather than letting someone else turn you into stone, Professor Snape suggests turning myself into a hard body before anyone else can! For this, Lightning will be taking the advice of some other great minds... the people behind Startbodyweight.com. She will be returning to her bodyweight progression and working out with an upper body and lowerbody split. 15 total workouts = an A+ (3 STR/1STA) Petrificus Totalus (body binding) Again, the goal is be able to defend myself against this spell and this time I will do it with some Yummy Yoga and potentially tortuous foam rolling. As there seems to be a student that likes to hit me with this curse regularly I will need to be proactive and keep myself loose and nimble. 3 days a week of yoga/foam rolling = an A+ (2 DEX) Reducio (a counter spell) Since I have been repeatedly hit with the Engorgio spell over the span of my lifetime I am very focused on mastering the counter spell, Reducio. This will take practice (no problem) and patience (big problem). Professor Snape sent me to the library to read about the great Muggle William Banting and told me to follow his wisdom if I want to understand the power of the Reducio spell. Follow the Banting Food List. Eat freely from the green food list, eat up to one serving off of the orange list (daily), and no more than two items off of the red list per week. Potential for (3 CON) points. Bonus points for keeping a food journal. Pass/Fail (1 WIS) Agua Eructo What better way to prepare for having water forcibly shot at you from a wand than by drinking copious amounts of liquid?! 6 Cups of caffeine free/ sugar free drinks a day. Pure water worth double points! Pass/Fail (2 CON) Life Goals Levicorpus There are some bullies running around Slytherin and turning students upside down. I have a fear of being upside down and don't want to embarass myself. So, just to be ready, I'm going to practice being upside down. I can use my headstand bench, spend time in the tripod pose, or use the rings to suspend myself. 3x a week (1 CHA) Slytherin Common Room Professor Snape wants me to keep an eye on some of my fellow students. So, I've signed up for the mini challenge and will be sure to participate every week. (1 CHA) The Professor would also like me to infiltrate some of the other houses and check on the 1st Years. So I will be following at least 5 new students and making weekly comments to them. There are a lot of Gryffindors I have my eye on too so I will be following many current students and making helpful comments to at least 5 of them every week. (2 CHA)

Improve general fitness, strength and health. When an Amazon realises she needs to get back up, get her ooeeemmmpphhh! back, she heads back to the bush. This is my first challenge as a Ranger... coming from the Assassin group. If I have to tick things in the "Rangers gonna Ranger" list, then there will be a couple done, tried, got the t-shirt, never going to do again... must be my (South-) African heritage. Like braai (BBQ) on a Sunday - it is in the blood. We have two little boys (6yrs and 9yrs respectively) whom I home school, and boy I have to keep up with them! Thus the reason for getting strong, fit and healthy again. I've managed to loose about 10kg weight this last year, and I am stronger than I was before, slacked down the last two challenges, and couldn't quite get my oemf! back. I'm hoping to change that this challenge. My last challenge as an Assassin was spent diy-ing our house: back room prepared, painted, and now a book, sewing, sports equipment storage room; passage prepared, painted and new photos hung on the wall. Helped hubby and gardener build the outside storage room, figured out the best Banting "way of food" for us (finally!). Food and water is good to go, although tracking carbs and water daily does help. Like any normal Jill-of-all-trades, running a small business from home, teaching her kids, looking after the home, keeping track of the household finances, etc. etc. I fail in the sleeping department. Dexterity: This challenge, inspired by various people, That Ranger List, and my long forgotten foray into self defence in high school, I decided to try my hand/feet/body at Aikido. I'm not a "go-to-gym/group" kinda girl, so I'll be using Aikido books of my hubby's, as well as roping him in for hand-to-hand training sessions. We still have to figure out how we'll go about it. He has Tai-Kwon-Do under his belt, and practised Aikido by himself for a while, so I know he has the know-how and experience. Because I basically depend on him, and he also goes to gym in the mornings, we'll have to fit this in around 5am. So if I practise at least 3x a week with him, that's a win for the week [1/2DEX per week x 6 weeks = 3DEX for the challenge]Strength: I'll focus on core strength on Monday afternoons with a simple routine of:Bridges (3x10),Core Wheel (3x10), andDead-lifts (2x10 starting at 7kg).I will fit in some bear walks, and seal position Aikido wrists warmup/strengthening exercises. [1/2STR per week x 6 weeks = 3STR for the challenge]Stamina (and strength): I built (diy/re-purposed jungle gym) a small obstacle course in our back garden for the boys and I. We were using it frequently before Murphy interfered with life. We want to get back on the course. I say we, because the boys have been playing around anyway, but asked me to run it with them again. At some stage I'll have to make it a bit more difficult, but for now it's ok. Do at least once a week, twice is better.Dbl. feet stump-to-stump jump,Knees push up on platform (1x10 - to increase),Inverted bent-knees chin ups (1x10 - to increase),Climb over - crawl under - A-frame (2x - to increase),Balance beam (2x - later put it higher),MovNat vertical swing/hang on stoep (1x10sec - to increase),MovNat step under horizontal bar (1x10 - to increase),MovNat horizontal swing/hang on stoep (1x10sec - to increase)[1/2STA per week x 6 weeks = 3STA for the challenge]Constitution: Sleep... sleep at least 7hrs per night! I sometimes barely manage this because boys and dogs... either or both wake me up in the night for various reasons... Go to bed at 10pm latest, to get up at 5am. 9h30pm would be ideal, because then I have to get up just before 5am, wake up properly, before tackling hubby (figuratively for now ) [1/2CON per week x 6 weeks = 3CON for the challenge]Wisdom (Life): It has to be done, and unfortunately I'm the one who has to do it... Yes, the dreaded finances. Have to get the last four months' finances on the spreadsheet for the bookkeeper/accountant (which is my mil).July, August, September, October. 1/2 Score for each month completed, and an extra score for doing it, because I can! Otherwise I have to revert to eating chocolate to inspire me.[1/2WIS per month completed + 1WIS = 3WIS for the challenge]On a side note: while re-doing the back room I discovered hubby's small crossbow with bolts! I'm going to try and shoot with this thing! I just need to get a couple of cardboard boxes, paint some imaginary target on it (where did I put those boxes with goblins and orcs from the boys' birthday party?) Similar to this one in the picture: So, here I am, ready to jump in and give it a go!