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SOOOOOOO you may notice a theme with me as of late (or as of always?!?! HAHAHHAHHAHA.) I am in the middle of a show run (almost done!) and then I have already started working on another show which will be hitting tech week in about 3 weeks and then we just found out the same pieces + well will probably do a few more can be done as part of a different show that is a few weeks later in the first week of December. Sooo basically I am going to be doing 3 shows back to back.... HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Anywho! I have to keep my goals super basic because I know how crazytimes this next approx 1.5 months will be! GOALS Try to get at least 6 hours of sleep - Try not to drop below 6 hours of sleep per day! This isn't always under my control especially on tech weeks but, at bare minimum if I get 6+ hours at least 4 days a week I want that to be my baseline minimum. Eat better food - Do at least SOME meal prep on weekend (bare minimum is buy healthier premade crap from trader joes or something) so I am not stuck having to eat food out and about so much. I am not getting enough veggies and it makes me the sadness! Downtime - get at least 2 consecutive hours of downtime at least one evening per week. Get at least one solid chunk of 4+ hours of downtime one day per weekend. (Once again this isn't always under my control during tech weeks but I will try!) Drink more water- Drink at least 6 glasses of water a day on all days, and 8 glasses per day minimum on dance days/days when I sweat like a mofo. Also, if I drink beer for dinner make sure I have a night cap of water before I go to sleep (8 oz glass minimum. If it was a lot of IPA a full 16 oz bottle may be in order!) Basically DRINK MORE WATER. Anywhooooo <3

I wasn't going to participate in the upcoming challenge because I'm going away on vacation November 14-22, there's Thanksgiving, and I really haven't had a lot of free time after work during the week to get to the gym at all. However, the closer November 10th gets, the more I want to just say screw it, let's do this again. So, with caveats, I'm in for my 6th challenge! And with a Codex Alera theme too! (For those of you who are fans of the Dresden Files, check out Jim Butcher's other, equally awesome, series!) Main Quest To live a healthy and balanced life by exercising and trying to eat healthy. For my sixth challenge, I am going to MAKE myself start going back to the gym on a regular basis. I've slacked off and I'm tired of it. So while I may not be 100% worthy of the Warrior's Guild yet, I think joining them again will get me there by the end of this challenge. I haven't done any serious weight lifting all summer and I really miss it. Motivation I've successfully dropped weight by counting calories so my diet will be staying the same with 1200 calories per day M-F with blow meals on the weekends. For the past few challenges, I was really limiting my sweet treats during the week and that somehow caused me to then eat badly most Friday nights. So this time, I'm going back to the basics like my very first challenge: sweet treats are allowed, but only 2-3 days during the week. I want, and need, to get back to only 1200 calories M-F. Story The Vord is coming back to Alera and all the races of Carna need to come together to fight once again. To join the ranks of the Aleran army, my goals are below. Perhaps if I'm lucky, and dedicated, I can join the ranks of the most famous Aleran legion, that of the Battle Crows! Quests 1. Battle Ready, Battle Crow: Become stronger by doing these: a. bar squat: 85lbs (115lbs, 9 reps on 8/13/14) b. stiffleg deadlift: 55lbs (85lbs, 9 reps on 6/26/14) c. bench press: 75lbs (70lbs, 9 reps on 8/13/14) {revised 11/24/14} d. barbell curl (each arm): 20lbs (25lbs, 6 reps each arm on 8/6/14) e. assisted pull-up with 30lbs of assistance (30lbs of assistance, 3 reps on 8/13/14) Scoring: x/5 Reward: +5 to STR (1 for each achieved) Since it's been months since I lifted weights, I cut the goal weights by 30lbs. After my first workout, I may need to adjust the numbers further. 2. Watch Your Rations, Recruit: Eat healthier by cutting down on the sweet treats to 2-3 times in the 5 day week. Scoring: /25 days Reward: +3 to CON I'm not going to be as strict by trying to avoid the chocolate things every day during the week, but I do want to measure using days to see how many days I can go. I'm not counting the weekends, the week I'm on vacation or Thanksgiving. 3. Don Your Armor Again Drop 6 pounds Scoring /6 pounds Reward: +2 to CHA Current weight: 141lbs Along with lifting weights again and watching what I eat more, I would ideally like to weigh 135lbs. It's never a bad thing to want to lose a few pounds and while this doesn't seem like a very high number, I have been lazy about maintaining my weight and feel like I would prefer to be lower. Plus, loosing 6 pounds is easily doable over 6 weeks. This should also encourage me to not go crazy with what I eat while on vacation as gaining a lot of weight will make this goal even harder to achieve. 4. Find your Fury Scoring: x/6 weeks Reward: +2 to WIS I really enjoyed meditating when I did it as part of my Druid challenge and I think it will be a good thing to do while on vacation. I want to listen to nature more and just relax while calming my mind. So, in keeping with the Codex Alera theme, I want to focus on finding my fury (although it would probably be water and/or metal). 5. Marching /30 miles in 6 weeks (5 miles per week) Reward: +3 to STA I found that I was able to do more walking than I thought I could do in my last challenge. And an Aleran recruit needs to do a lot of marching: to reach the battle lines, during battle, just walking around Alera, etc. Plus, walking is always beneficial. "There are some people who will never understand what loyalty means. They could tell you what it was, of course, but they will never know. They will never see it from the inside. They couldn't imagine a world where something like that was real." - Gaius Sextus, First Lord of Alera; Furies of Calderon

Hey guys Soccer is going to be starting up here soon, and the conditioning is gonna be hard (as always). Every day for a couple weeks at the start of the season, we have two-a-days. In the morning, we meet at our fields, and get warmed up. We then do a 1 mile run to some other nearby soccer fields, and do a core/agility workout. After that, we have another mile run (keeping in mind these miles are at 85%-95% intensity), followed by a stair circuit.(we take a couple minutes to rest between each station). We then run back to the soccer fields, and do a sprint workout. Our fourth mile is back to the original fields, where we stop and break for lunch. After lunch, we do soccer stuff for 2 hours. After that, I am planning on doing one lift on Monday, one on Wednesday, and one on Friday. I am also going to do parkour drilling, and the PLP workout every day. PLP comes first thing in the morning. So, to make this small paragraph look more formal: Main Quest: Survive the coming Campaign (Soccer Conditioning) +1 DEX, +1 STAM Goal 1: PLP First thing in the morning, and Parkour drilling in the evening, EVERY DAY! +1 STR, +2 DEX, +2 STAM Goal 2: Do a one Lift workout Monday, Wednessday, and Friday. +3 STR, +2 DEX Goal 3: Take bread, wheat, refined sugar, and processed foods out of my diet. +2 CON, +1 CHA Lifts: Deadlift, Back Squat, Push Press, Power Clean, Hang Clean and Jerk. (and Bench Press until soccer starts) I will post every days log later in the evening. Thanks for reading, and I can't wait to start my first official challenge as an Assassin!