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Ideas have been rattling around in my head since December 2015 about what I want to do when I grow up... Its about time I got all that stuff out of my head and into a 2016 Quest format. 2016 is the year of Terra! Terra is a Superhero and Goddess and NF Ranger!!! So what does this mean? It means that I will try to to all the things (as Rangers are apt to do!) but with purpose and working towards a healthy and happy me! I will pay homage one superhero or goddess every month with my fitness, health and life goals. My fitness goals will be adjusted for every month as needed but will include the following and maybe more: Brazillian Jui-Jitsu (I'm surprised how much I love it!) Conditioning/core/strength class at the BJJ gym. Foot care - because its needed after my Oct 2015 surgery! Yoga Rucking (Go Ruck Lite event???) Running - (evaluate>> is it still something I want to do? what about shorter distances??) And more??? My health related goals are simple: Eat mostly Paleo, always GF! Sleep enough Minimize/release stress Take care of me in other ways! Other life related goals: declutter the house Sewing phone clutches for June cruise gifts complete work projects do more crafting with my girls continue working on total self-acceptance set the example for my girls encourage my hubby to be healthier This list isn't inclusive and I'm sure Ranger Braintm will kick in with something new along the way.... But its at least a start! I'm not sure who I'll choose each month for my avatar/theme but here are my initial ideas: January>> I'm letting my namesake, the Goddess Terra (aka: Mother Earth or Gaia) take over to get me started out in 2016!! February>> Rogue March>> Jean Grey/Phoenix April>>Bat Girl/Oracle May>> She-Hulk June>> Minnie Mouse/Daisy Duck/Some other Disney themed lady? We are cruising on the Disney Wonder to Alaska this month > Disney Princesses! July>> Lady Sif August>> Raven September>> October>> November>> December>> I have a running list of strong ladies for me to choose this year.... Any other suggestions? Freya Elastica Girl - for that really crazy month (likely July/August) Scarlet Witch She-Hulk Jean Grey Super Girl Storm Wonder Woman Lady Sif - Sif is a fictional character appearing in comic books published by Marvel Comics, in particular those featuring Thor. Based on the Norse goddess Sif, she was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and first appeared in Journey Into Mystery #102. And maybe a few of the guys Odin, Thor, Loki, Spiderman, Hulk, Iron Man, Bacchus

Last challenge went so well, I'm doing it again. This time, with PULL-UPS! ALL THE PULL-UPS! GOAL: Accumulate a total of 2000 of these things done over the course of the challenge. Each goal has a suggested frequency to reach the goal, but I can do more or less on a given day/week, so long as I accumulate the total number. Numbers don't carry over between goals. (I can't do extra meditation to make up for not doing enough pull ups.) My main focus is the pullups, following Major Posey's Pullup Training Guide (a Pavel-inspired high-volume/moderate-intensity program). These are going to be a real stretch for me, especially since I am away from home for a week and likely won't have easy access to a pull up bar. THE 2000 THINGS: EAT: 100 1/2c servings of veggies. This went well last challenge, and I'm doing it again. Fortunately, if I fall behind, (like the last challenge) this challenge ends with big holiday meals with plenty of super tasty veggie dishes and piles of leftovers, rather than just my own unenthusiastic cooking microwaving of canned veg. SLEEP: 200h of sleep before 6am. Doctors can't find anything wrong with me, so I'm just going to keep trying to get as much sleep as my body will allow. But as we descend into the dark time of year, I want to be awake for all of the daylight we've got. Getting to bed by midnight on five nights a week will more than cover this goal. MOVE: 500 PULL-UPS (or pull up progressions). This will be a serious challenge, but I CAN DO THIS! If I don't manage to do any in Colorado, this works out to 3 mini-sessions a day, 5 days a week, with an average of ten reps per session. I'll likely set a 1-minute timer, and each minute, do either a single pull-up, or a set of three of an easier progression. (Program says to start with pullups, and switch once you start to slow down.) 150 sun salutes. Astanga style, to the best of my ability. This works out to a set of 5 each morning, 6 days a week. 500 pushups. Same as last challenge. This works out to two sets of five, twice a day, 5 days a week. 50 mobility activities. Likely foam rolling the quads, and the Egoscue shoulder stretches from a previous challenge. This works out to two a day, five days a week. DO: 250 minutes of violin practice. This works out to a little more than an hour each week, for the four weeks I am home, so 2 or 3 practice sessions each week. 250 minutes of meditation. I count 100 breaths, which is close enough to 10 minutes that I don't time it. This works out to five times a week. NERD FITNESS: Post an update at least once a week. Participating on NF helps keep me focused on my goals. Even if I don't have time to read or post a lot of other stuff here, I at least need to post weekly updates. More is better, provided I'm not procrastinating on other work, the way I am right now. Participate in Assassin's Mini. The minis keep me trying new things, and getting outside of my comfort zone. My goal is to do SOME participation each week. 50 epic quest points for the pull-up goal, ten for the sun salutes, plus five each for the rest. PREVIOUS CHALLENGES: 1. Weasel Gets Things Done Nov-Dec 2015 - Eat more protein, veggies, and whole grains (B+). Sleep Routine (A). "Primal Fitness Blueprint" (A++). Laundry! (A++). Order of the Stick (Success!) 2. Return of the Weasel : Consistency! Jan 2016 - Handstands (A), Kettlebells - Pavel's "Simple & Sinister" (A-), Daily Routine (A), Ukulele! (C ) Assassins Mini - Portal Experiments 3. Weasel Takes this Show on the Road! Feb 2016 - Continue S&S kettlebells. (D. Injury.) Track sleep schedule (A). Make a diet plan (A). Write on blog. (F) Assassins Mini - Jedi v Sith part 1 4. Sith-Weasel's Road Trip Continues Mach 2016 - Daily fitness activity (D) Responsible Adult Meals (A++), Hydration (C ), Tasks & Check-in (D). (Travel!) Assassins Mini - Jedi v Sith part 2 5. Weasel Keeps it Simple & Something April 2015 - Kettlebelling (F) Healthy Meals (B-) Help partner (C) Task List (B-) Assassins Mini - Final Fantasy 6. Eat When Hungry, etc. May 2016 - Eat when hungry. (A) Sleep when tired. (C-) Move every morning. (C) Work when Work needs Doing. (A+) Assassins Mini - Heros & Villans (C+) 7. Back on the Road June 2016 - FOOD: 2 meat+veg meals (B+) EXERCISE: 10m daily activity (C) HEALTH: 10m other stuff (B) LIFE: Work BEFORE internet (B) Assassins: Firefly (B) 8. Weasel Levels Up July/Aug 2016 - FOOD: Watch the carbs (B+) FITNESS: daily workout (B) HEALTH: go to sleep (A) LIFE: weekly review (B) Assassins: Kingdom Hearts #1 (B) 9. Weasel Recalibrates Falls Off The Face of the Earth. Aug/Sept 2016 EAT: Eat veggies (D) SLEEP: Go to bed! (D) MOVE: Two activities (B) DO: Task list (C+) Assassins: (F) 10. Weasel Stays on Track. Sept/Oct 2016 EAT: veggies (B) SLEEP: bedtime (C) MOVE: Two activities (B) DO: Track & done by 8p (C) Assassins: Sonic (C) 11. Weasel does 2000 Things! Oct/Nov 2016 EAT: veggies (A) SLEEP: before dawn (A) MOVE: Pushups + etc (A) DO: Violin, Meditation, Woods (A) Assassins: Sonic (D)

'Tis the season for a new challenge! Yay.... I think. I'm saving my Swords of Power challenge for January/February when I will have maybe come up with a way to assign attributes that aren't all purely mental and habit control (ex: "avoid the influence of Mindsword/Skulltwister by not even looking at memes or Netflix or Crunchyroll or <insert long list of distractors>", "do not sit at home doing nothing for all of break like you're possessed by Soulcutter", etc etc). Anyway, what better way to theme at this time of the year than through Christmas celebration! (awkward fragment is awkward lol) Note: still a draft. "The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear." Practice clarinet and accumulate at least 10 points per week -2 points for no or insignificant practice 0 points for significant practice less than an hour in duration +2 points for the first hour in a day +1 point per each additional half hour +1 for singing practice "The four food groups are candy, candy canes, candy corn, and syrup." make good choices in food so I can make all the bad choices when Christmas cookies and candy roll out. Goal: average 2 points per day He's making a list, checking it twice Basically making sure I stay on top of academics into the Finals season and through winter break. I'm taking Bio 2 next semester but it's been 6-and-a-half years since I had AP Bio so woot. Going to keep working on Japanese as well. All the tacky Christmas clothing! Tacky Christmas socks Flexibility exercises for splits. EVERYDAY. Following advice from 30 Days & Stretches to Splits with supplementary material from GMB Fitness (both links I found here on NFR) Tacky Christmas sweater 100 Push-ups challenge starting on week 1 column 1 Tacky Christmas hat At the moment, this just encompasses all the other physical activity I might do. He knows when you are sleeping, he knows when you're awake Sleep! I've been doing better with the sleeping part. Now I just need to do better on the awake-time time management without sacrificing sleep (oops). Happy Birthday Jesus Daily reading the Bible in preparation for Christmas. Even if it's just 5 minutes. Church.... kind of counts? So 8 possible pts /wk I'm running out of list related metaphors. I need to post a log (or at least a point distribution) here every week. I'm going to make it so that if I don't post my weekly log, all of my positive logging points negate. I also need to update my spreadsheet daily (so I don't forget details). I'm not 100% sure yet but I think this week is going to overlap both the end of my SU challenge (because the infrastructure is already there in that spreadsheet) and the beginning of this challenge. I'm still going over some ideas with regard to point distribution, category weights, and adjustments so that negative points just zero out instead of bleeding into other categories. I might use a combination. Reward system (likely related to presents under the Christmas tree) forthcoming.

I intend to accumulate 2000 of these things done over the course of the challenge. My main focus is to increase my physical activity and get back to regularly doing prayer/meditation and violin practice. The rest is just to keep existing habits going. EAT: 100 1/2c servings of veggies. This is roughly what I did on the last challenge. I'm looking to at least maintain that. More is good, but not a primary focus. SLEEP: 200h of sleep during the NIGHT. As in, be in bed attempting to sleep when it is actually dark out. I'm not trying to wake up at dawn, just to go to bed at least 6 hours before dawn. Dawn is getting later, and I don't have any late-night engagements scheduled for November, so this should be easy. I'm still not sleeping great, but so long as I'm going to bed at a decent hour I'm usually getting around 6 hours solidly asleep. I'm looking more into medical issues, particularly thyroid damage from the chronic epstein barr. MOVE: 500 pushups. 250 seconds hanging/pulling/etc. 250m of yoga/mobility. This is a big increase from currently, but I'm sick of my "just don't be a complete slug" movement goals, and want something actually challenging. I'm figuring that 25 out of 35 days I can manage 20 pushups, 10 cumulative seconds of holding myself off the ground in a challenging way, and 10 minutes of something to loosen up my chest/shoulders, low back, and/or hip flexors. But I'll likely split them up, rather than do them all at once. I might focus on pushups for a bit, then climbing, etc. DO: Practice violin for 250 minutes. This has been on my todo list repeatedly over the past few months, but I haven't been doing it at all. I am making it a high priority for November. Do 250 minutes of prayer, meditation, breathwork, or mindful yoga. This is two or three times more than my current routine, so it is a challenge, but not an unreasonable one. Prayer and yoga are the priority, but meditation and breathwork are fine if I'm too unfocused for that. (For this goal, yoga would be slow, mindful sun salutations, as a moving meditation, not for fitness/etc.) Spend 200 minutes in the woods. Now that we're getting on towards winter, I want to make sure I'm still getting outdoors. The cold just makes my dog more eager to go out for walks, so this is an easy one. NERD FITNESS: Post an update at least once a week. Participating on NF helps keep me on task. If I wind up with more computer time, I'd like to get back to participating in the forums more, reading other people's threads and so forth. But for next month, I just need to post weekly updates. Participate in Assassin's Mini. The minis keep me trying new things, and getting outside of my comfort zone. My goal is to do SOME participation each week. 50 epic quest points for 2000pt in any combination of things, plus 5 epic quest points for each of the ten individual goals I hit. PREVIOUS CHALLENGES: 1. Weasel Gets Things Done Nov-Dec 2015 - Eat more protein, veggies, and whole grains (B+). Sleep Routine (A). "Primal Fitness Blueprint" (A++). Laundry! (A++). Order of the Stick (Success!) 2. Return of the Weasel : Consistency! Jan 2016 - Handstands (A), Kettlebells - Pavel's "Simple & Sinister" (A-), Daily Routine (A), Ukulele! (C ) Assassins Mini - Portal Experiments 3. Weasel Takes this Show on the Road! Feb 2016 - Continue S&S kettlebells. (D. Injury.) Track sleep schedule (A). Make a diet plan (A). Write on blog. (F) Assassins Mini - Jedi v Sith part 1 4. Sith-Weasel's Road Trip Continues Mach 2016 - Daily fitness activity (D) Responsible Adult Meals (A++), Hydration (C ), Tasks & Check-in (D). (Travel!) Assassins Mini - Jedi v Sith part 2 5. Weasel Keeps it Simple & Something April 2015 - Kettlebelling (F) Healthy Meals (B-) Help partner (C) Task List (B-) Assassins Mini - Final Fantasy 6. Eat When Hungry, etc. May 2016 - Eat when hungry. (A) Sleep when tired. (C-) Move every morning. (C) Work when Work needs Doing. (A+) Assassins Mini - Heros & Villans (C+) 7. Back on the Road June 2016 - FOOD: 2 meat+veg meals (B+) EXERCISE: 10m daily activity (C) HEALTH: 10m other stuff (B) LIFE: Work BEFORE internet (B) Assassins: Firefly (B) 8. Weasel Levels Up July/Aug 2016 - FOOD: Watch the carbs (B+) FITNESS: daily workout (B) HEALTH: go to sleep (A) LIFE: weekly review (B) Assassins: Kingdom Hearts #1 (B) 9. Weasel Recalibrates Falls Off The Face of the Earth. Aug/Sept 2016 EAT: Eat veggies (D) SLEEP: Go to bed! (D) MOVE: Two activities (B) DO: Task list (C+) Assassins: (F) 10. Weasel Stays on Track. Sept/Oct 2016 EAT: veggies (B) SLEEP: bedtime (C) MOVE: Two activities (B) DO: Track & done by 8p (C) NF: Sonic (C)

Snickie has not fared well in the first half of season 1 with the Crystal Gems. Let's hope she can turn things around and get out of Pearl Point debt! Amethyst - Food Gems don't need to eat, but I do. Gotta make sure that what I'm putting into my very human body is actually good for humans! Amethyst isn't a good example, but she can put away all the junk food I don't eat. Record each meal and snack in my handy dandy spreadsheet. +1 point per paleo (Wahls) food group represented in substantial part Wahls groups: leafy greens, cruciferous vegetables, colorful fruit/vegetables, meat/poultry/fish, seaweed, etc. -1 point for non-paleo food group represented in substantial part non-paleo neutral: plantain chips, oatmeal, vodka sauce from a jar (I checked the ingredients mkay) New scale effective on Week 6! Steven - Music Steven is a friggin' musical prodigy, and heaven knows I don't practice enough. The Gems all have their own musical talents and leitmotifs as well. One day I can hope to be as good as Steven. +2 points for the first full 60 minutes of practice (0 points if less than an hour), +1 point for each additional 30 minutes -2 points if I don't practice at all Exception: illness; 3 hours or more of rehearsal Connie - Academics Academics are life right now. College and stuff. I'm terrible at completing large assignments on time and actually studying, so here: +1 point per 30 minutes per subject (partial credit given) studied or assignment worked on PDE: +1 point per problem worked (since these tend to take a long time anyway) -n points on the (n-1)th day after it was due and not turned in +1 point if Japanese was studied Garnet - Physical Jasper is out there somewhere. I need to be in top physical condition to be able to combat her when she comes. +1 point per exercise type attempted (at least 10m) +1 point for dance - dancing is important for fusion. +1 point for NF mini-challenge items -1 /day if non-exercise streak exceeds 1 Exception: illness, injury The Human Population of Beach City I'm human, so it's important to do other human things. +1 for getting 7 hours or more of sleep at night +1 for each additional hour, not to exceed 10 hours -1 for each nap taken -1 for getting less than 6 hours of sleep +1 for each 15 minutes of meditation +1 for each day that I make my bed Peridot - Logging If I don't log about it (or at least throw down numbers and details in my spreadsheet), then does it really exist? o_o How am I supposed to keep track of all the good things I've been trying to do if I don't, you know, log them?! +1 for each day that I log things into my spreadsheet +1 for journal entries Handdrawn images coming soon! (No more broken IMG codes and no more ZIBBITs. )

Edit: I decided to switch over to the Druids for this challenge, since it's all about personal development this time. I'm excited about this and genuinely believe it can change how I live my life. So here goes... Okay, bear with me. This challenge is going to be a crazy mash-up of several things that I came across during the last few weeks, all of which have convinced me to give them a try. And what better way than to try them all at once!? So. My goal is to be the best version of myself that I can possibly be. This includes getting my life in order on several different levels. What has gotten in my way a LOT lately (who am I kidding, always) is procrastinating, being mindless instead of being mindful, not prioritizing (properly), getting too little done in too much time and therefor not being able to actually enjoy my free time and relax properly (because there are always things that I should be doing instead). I came across this wonderful piece of imaginery on waitbutwhy.com and instantly fell for the idea behind it. I could go on explaining it here, but I advise you to read the article instead (be sure to read the second part, as well), it will be well worth your time. Since reading it, the evil monkey has been appearing in my thoughts all the time, but luckily, I now see it for what it is and can take action when it tries to take hold of the steering wheel. I feel that while the basic idea behind the article isn't new (we feel better when doing our chores first and enjoy our leisure time without a bad conscience about what we still have to do), the images used are really helpful to drive the message home and help taking the action I want to take (no, evil monkey, you're not tempting me into browsing on fb, that's dark playground territory and you know that's not the place to be!!). So, my main quest this challenge will be: DEFEAT THE EVIL MONKEY!!! Do not procrastinate. Do the stuff I plan to do when I plan to do it. Do not let myself be distracted. If I get distracted, go back to the task at hand as soon as I notice. Enjoy my time off when the chores are done without feeling guilty about it. Now, how do I do that? According to a book I just finished reading today, the best way into a successfull day is by having a successfull morning. I'm talking about The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod. The basic idea is to start your day with 6 life SAVERS: Silence, Affirmations, Visualization, Exercise, Reading and Scribing (writing). These can be done in any order for any length of time (there's even a version with 1 minute each), but it's supposed to be done first thing after waking up. I plan on making a full-blown routine out of this, so some of my goals for the day (yoga, reading, journaling, tracking) are already done in the first hour (or so) after waking up. But how to make sure that my perfect morning is followed by a perfect day? That's what the pomodoro technique is for. I will work on a certain area for a certain amount of time, non-stop, no distraction, no excuses. I will then take a short break and tackle the next stretch of time (apparently, earning a tomato in the process ). I'll start with 25/5 minutes and see how this works. I can totally see myself changing it to 45/15 or something, depending on what works best for me. Alright, I hear you say, so you'll defeat the instant gratification monkey by having perfect, miracle mornings, followed by uber productive pomodoro timeslots until you're done for the day and can relax and enjoy your free time. But what are your goals anyways? Glad you asked! My goals for this challenge come from another idea out of Hal Elrod's book which is the "Level 10 Life". You assess 10 areas of your life and judge how happy you are with your progress in these areas on a scale from 1 to 10. Then you try to imagine what a Level 10 Life in each of these areas would be like and come up with steps that you can do right now to get you closer to that goal. I read about it before (mostly in bullet journal posts *spoiler*) but didn't realize it was out of the Miracle Morning book until today. So, as part of finding my Miracle Morning Routine, I did all that assessing today and figured out the areas I want to work on over the next few weeks (not all 10 areas are covered. For once, I have absolutely no idea what spirituality is about for me). It's a LOT, but some of these are habits I already made and some of these require very little time and effort. More importantly, I believe I can do anything I set my mind to if I commit to it fully (and don't go for absurd stuff like "I want to be invisible" or "I'll do 100 one-armed pull-ups every morning". That's not on the table. Yet.). So, here's what I'm up to: Family & Friends call my mom & dad once a week and hear what they're up tohave one dinner and one boardgame night over the course of the challenge with my friends Personal Growth & Development do my Miracle Morning routine every single day (details will magically appear in the next post tomorrow)log my chores, tasks & spendings every day Health & Fitness (these are all habits (more or less ingrained) from the last challenges) drink 2,5l or more of water or tea every dayavoid white flour and added sugarhave one warm meal a day and veggies with 2 or more of my mealsdo some sort of physical activity 3 times a weekfloss 3 times a week (New! Time to follow my dentitst's advice) Finances do not let any food rot, it's like throwing money in the trashtrack my spending and income via an excel spreadsheet (have been doing this for two months) Career find a job so I work 4 or 5 days a week (instead of 2 right now) (don't wait for open positions, take the initiative)do office work for my dad as soon as possible. make it a priority Physical Environment set up my chores calendar and stick to itkitchen counter zero (habit from last challenge) Fun & Recreation practice singing two times a week in addition to any lessons and rehearsals (adapted from last challenge)learn to bake my own (delicious) wholegrain bread from F.play with my cats every day (I'm so ashamed I even have to put this here) I think I forgot some stuff, but I'll re-assess every week and see whether I need to update or scrap stuff. I'll choose what to work on every morning as part of my Miracle Morning Routine. The first week I plan on just seeing how things go. I won't set myself a goal on how many tomatoes to earn or what to spend my time on. I'll see what happens just with the systems I've set in place, as a sort of base-line. Depending on how that week goes, I will adjust for the next week. Maybe I'll set myself a goal of earning more tomatoes than the week before or choosing one or more areas that need to be worked on every day (the job-hunt comes to mind). I totally plan for this whole thing to be adjustable to what I want and what I need. I won't go easy on myself but I won't be afraid to admit if something doesn't work, either. Failure is just a chance to grow. Now Briniel, that's all fun and games, but where's your sexy spreadsheet? There. Isn't. One. Sorry! This is way to varied and complex to stuff it all into one spreadsheet (I'm just making this up, I haven't even tried). Plus, there's still one thing missing from my epic lists of anti-monkey weapons. It's the bullet journal! This is another recent find and I've spent countless hours on youtube and blogs and pinterest to really figure out the best way for me to use it. It's a combination of calendar, habit tracker, diary, to-do-list and anything else you want it to do. I will use it to track everything I've mentioned above. I'll show you the set-up once I'm done, it should arrive tomorrow. I'll show you my Miracle Morning Routine and Bullet Journal Setup in the next two posts. But I probably won't get to that until tomorrow. My challenge goes from February 29th to March 27th, but I'll start on my Miracle Morning tomorrow morning. Thanks for reading along so far. Have a great challenge, all of you. May you reach everything you've set out to do and become the best you that you possibly can be. TL;DR: I'm doing awesome stuff.

A restless night, followed by a hollow day... I live in an island paradise for which many a queen would lay aside her crown. I command the loyalties of free men and women such that no empress could compel. Yet I look across the sand to a clear, cerulean sky and vivid turquoise waters and I am only aware of the dark storm brewing within my mind. I have fine ships and treasure aplenty, and yet... And, yet. What has it gained me to have escaped the confines of that narrow life reserved for so many others of my sex? I pursued freedom on the high seas and won it, only to realize that I am still in chains. My days pass in an endless stream of responsibilities and tasks. There are so many that I must provide for and watch over. Even my twin loves of the sea and of the art of the sword are fading. I no longer take joy in plotting my attacks, nor in my daring escapes. Would that I could find again that glad simplicity of my younger years... But, wait! Have I grown so weary as to have forgotten the simple truth that once filled the sails of my ambition? It is my choice and my choice alone that steers the ship of my future. Dare I take my sword to those things that grind down my days and steal the precious hours of my life? Will I make my fears and failings my new enemy and win my way to freedom and joy once again? Do you dare to become the Pirate Queen of your own life, to cut away all that stands in your way of epic awesomeness? How many ships can you realistically command, anyway? What is your joy? Where is your freedom? What is your true treasure? Ahoy! I'm ShadowLion, and I started this thread after reading a conversation between Starpuck and Wufkar. Their discussion contained this, among other wise and useful insights: I realized how hard it can be to make the sorts of choices that would simplify our days, allow us to take back our freedom, and live life on our own terms. Come on up the gangplank and let's plan our adventure over some rum laced with tea...