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RPG's Blasting off Again! I mentioned last challenge that I was debating a respawn. New name and everything. Decided to keep the name, but letting the Star Wars theme rest for a little bit. Going with a Pokemon theme instead since I've lately been playing Pokemon Go and have been replaying the 3DS games lately. I will admit I spent more time playing with the sprites than brainstorming challenge goals, I guess that's what week 0 is for? 🤣 My workplace is not yet closed due to COVID-19 (part of the exceptions to shelter in place mandate), but my role should allow me to work remotely the majority of the time. I plan to WFH as often as possible because this is pretty frightening and the local cases continue to rise & creep closer to home. Stay safe, follow social distancing and wash your hands friends! Post-Week 1 Goals ReFrame: Objective: Daily update/ check-in. (+1 point daily) Themes: 1) Healthy Sleep Schedule - When did I go to bed / wake up. Do I feel rested or was it difficult to get out of bed? 2) Daily Movement - Continue daily 1+ mile dog walks because those are awesome. Also post any additional movement type stuff done. 3) Alcohol - Report back how I did with the following: Wait until after drinking 1.5 L water (Y/N) Wait until after 5PM (my time... not 5 o'clock somewhere ) (Y/N) Did I drink 0.5 L between each alcoholic drink (Y/N) # Alcoholic drinks 4) Mindfulness - Mention one thing that made me happy today Still the same goals, but a different / more mindful approach (I think, at least...). Less of a "If I don't follow, I will mentally beat myself up" and more of a "1% better every day" approach. Loot (25+ Points): Sloth keeps talking about kettlebells and now I kind of want one. What's a good starter weight to mix in with bodyweight training??? Was looking at these: https://www.roguefitness.com/rogue-kettlebells but any other recommendations (easily available in the US) are welcome! Archived Goals:

Someday I completely bombed last challenge. Had a ton of personal stuff going on (mostly good! but still a huge distraction from my goals...). But one huge Win I had - staying honest and updating at the end of each week (with a bit of prodding from other rebels). But I'm still here with restructured goals. Godsmack maybe isn't the most.... hopeful.... of artists that I could have chosen. But this song really resonates with me (really the whole of their newest album). I acknowledge that I struggle with some mental demons, but hell if I'm gonna let them get me down and distract me from my goals. Just need to keep moving forward, maybe hold my ground when I need to. Then someday I'll look back and see how far along I've come. One step at a time. For once, I know my goals better than my theme. And this past summer has been filled with concerts of bands I love and who inspire me. So why not use that as a theme? As far as goals go, I've had the NF Academy for a while. Spent some time reviewing the modules during the end of last challenge to get some perspective/ideas for furthering the goals I want to address. Here is the result: Goal 1) Alcohol Reduction Monday - Thursday: 1 drink/day. No liquor. Friday: 2 drinks/day. Saturday-Sunday: 3 drinks/day. Major change here is reduction of M-Th drink allowance from 2/day to 1/day. Taking one day at a time here. Strategy for success: Drink at least 400mL water, starting from when I arrive home, before any alcohol can be consumed. Herbal tea allowed for evening consumption if I need something more interesting than water to drink. (Favorite tea recommendations greatly appreciated ) Goal 2) Sleeeeeeeeeep Weeknights (Sunday-Thursday): Physically in bed by 10:30pm. Horizontal and eyes closed by 11:00pm. Weekends (Friday & Saturday): In bed by midnight. Goal 3) Morning Walk As soon as I get up, walk the dog. (give/take 10 mins for bathroom/getting dressed/starting coffee maker) --> Weekdays only Track walk time & distance with Garmin: (7/7 days) W1: Baseline (est. 0.5 miles) W2: 0.75 miles W3: 1.0 miles W4: 1.0 miles Journaling: 15 mins. Preferably in the morning, but that's a soft goal. Note time/distance of walk, then write about whatever (observations during walk, thoughts, etc.) - 5/7 days is goal for daily journaling. Other: Exercise routine isn't a goal this time around. I still plan to workout, but I'm leaving it to my own discretion -- seeing how well that works. The goal I set last time seemed to set me back more than anything. Really my focus is on building daily good practices that can be leveled up further in the future. One step at a time. That's the motto.

Lucky fire dragon flies like a Hero New year, new adventures! I've decided to up my game and become a Rising Hero taking true flight in all the awesomeness I got, let's spread those wings, wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee I have no idea yet what all awaits me on my Rising Hero journey, but that is part of the fun, and I do know it will make me stronger, healthier and I will surely meet even more awesome people - hopefully come across some of you guys from here So this challenge will have three parts plus a mystery part... Part 1 - Do the work and be FREE My first goal is this time a non-fitness goal as I have noticed how happy it makes me to be on top of some things and therefore frees me up for fun things like training. What often best reflects how on top I am in my job is my email inbox. Ergo the goal is to have it clear every single evening before I go to bed, no excuses. I'm starting with >20 in today still (at nearly 10pm), so that is what holidays do to me and it can't go on as it nags me at the back of my mind... from tomorrow on no more! Part 2 - Daily 10 for building STRENGTH Every big journey starts with small steps. Doing a short workout every single day for building strength and consistency. My current Daily 10 consist of 10 standard push ups 10 chin ups from standing 10 leg lifts (tuck lift, straighten and lower straight legs) 10 goblet squats with kg (currently 8kg, but hopefully more soon if my lovely neighbour borrows me a heavier one) Additional accountability for this comes thanks to beeminder - data should be visible there, too Part 3 - Dance and FLY Train on the pole and with yoga regularly, meaning attending a yoga and pole class each week, plus 1 home pole training. During week 0 it's home training only as we have school holidays and courses only start afterwards again Part 4 - MYSTERY ... to be determined by the Rising Hero tasks... Stealing from @annyshay (because us sneaky assassins are good at that ) I will have a pretty Triforce motive to color in for each of the first three parts for every day of the challenge. Image to follow here soon 2015 was an awesome challenge year for me with great progress and fun. 2016 not so much - I dropped most of my challenges and couldn't find any consistency at all. Now it's a great years turn again and this challenge I will follow though come hell or high water!!!! Will use all the stubborness I have Let's get the new year starting with a BOOM

Lucky Fire Dragon's Daily Spin So I've been away for a while and it was all for good reasons - being on holiday, getting back into good work rhythm, spending plenty of time with kids for school and fun, rearranging the house and uncluttering a LOT, catching up work projects that I've been wanting to do for 2 years and never got around to,... all good things, so I feel it was healthy priority setting and am very glad I did. I missed you guys as you have become part of my larger family, too, of course, but I knew getting back on here would mean less time for the people around me here and for those past few months I soaked up that time like the sunshine on a beach and they did too. Now I feel those habits and relationships are wonderfully steady and will see how to be back here AND have all the delicious time with my family as well There has to be a way!! Am super excited to catch up on your adventures that I missed, yayyyyyy As you can probably guess, the one thing coming short over all those goodies was my fitness Well, I did go for many walks, and after gaining a few kilos over summer (went from 64 to nearly 68 ) I meticulously counted calories for a month to remind my body what a deficit feels like, what enough feels like and what eating more than I burn feels like... that was super interesting. I'm back to 65 now, some days 64 and would love to get it down to 62 kg (less to lift on pole ) and also it's finally time to get some muscle back on. Talking about pole... sigh... 6 weeks holiday break were shocking there. Training only 3 times over the last two months did not improve this either plus I was too lazy for any push ups, pull ups, sit ups, yoga, ... you name it. Getting up early is the only "up" activity I have been successful on over the last few months. Sooooooooooooo It's time to get up on the pole again!!! For real I was pondering for a loooooooooong time (sneaky way of procrastination, planning instead of doing ): Should I rather do some hardcore, "proper" workouts 3x / week? Or should I do a little bit every day? Like 10 push ups, sit ups, etc daily? What about daily yoga? What about starting on weights for quicker strength gain to get back in shape? But then what about coordination on the pole? Aaaaaaaaaaargh Was driving myself a bit mad on this So now I have decided for daily small steps on pole Consistency and fun will be my mantras. I don't need to cover every main muscle every day, I don't need to train progressively, I just need to get up there and DO EEEEEEEEET Here's the plan: - Train for 15 min daily on the pole, with warm-up and cool-down it will be 30 min, that should be totally doable - Train one spin, one form of climbing and one pretty pose to hold each time - only day off is Fridays as they are super busy days and I also have pole class Thursday nights anyway Listed below are all the spins, holds and climbs I have learned so far. I will let a dice decide which ones are due that day and then tick them off here. Aiming to do as many of them as I can over the next 4 weeks, ones I've done won't come again unless in a combo for spicing things up. I really want to start small here, not aim for perfection but rather diversity and consistency. Does that make any sense? Not sure right now @SymphonicDanif you see any similarities to any of your past challenges (like lists and letting a dice decide) they are purely coincidental.... kidding, of course! I loved that so much in your challenges, I've always wanted to give it a try and here I go. THANK YOU Oh and I'll try to capture the various results on camera to link to each move for extra accountability. And maybe explanation of the names... but please don't assume I'm doing them perfectly, because I probably don't!! Instagram would be best for this purpose, right? Am very inexperienced on that. Any suggestions? So here is my list: CLIMBS (will have to be done twice as I don't have 24 different ones) beginner standard both legs (don't have a better name for it) fireman climb 3/4 turn fireman climb full turn fireman climb 1 1/4 turn leg switch on second climb leg switch on second climb with turn other moves that get me up the pole swing mount from squatting swing mount from standing headstand crunch up caterpillar from floor caterpillar on pole (both those don't take me up really, but maybe will one day ) SPINS front hook front hook long leg back spin back spin long leg front spin horizontal plié spin fan kick 1/2 turn fan kick full turn front chair front chair long leg back chair back chair long leg baby spin attitude spin baby spin long leg attitude horizontal attitude horizontal long leg fireman spin attitude dismount 3/4 turn attitude dismount full turn attitude dismount 1 1/4 turn long leg from floor (no idea what it's called) pirouette ??? HOLDS standing cross cross relax (wilting flower?? dead something? It's got some proper name ) cross long leg seat seat relax fireman supergirl superman inverted cross attitude headstand headstand splits headstand baby angel handstand handstand baby angel rainbow sun wheel overhead hold with legs lifted pull up hold pencil forearm hold pencil forearm hold one knee hooked seat next to pole knee hook with long leg that I have no name for inverted v Motivation: Getting my strong and sexy back on, having lots of fun again on the pole and feeling gooooooooooood Isn't that what we always ultimately do it for? I'll try to incorporate this part into training already - please shout at me when I seem to forget and go for tense ambition instead Thank you for sharing my journey with me, I'll do my best to cheer you on in return Let's go have some FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN