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Ryuu1011 Performs Human Transmutation Challenge #4: June 8th- July 19 Transmute My Fat: Turn the Fat into Muscle Goal One: Loose 2% of my body fat [and maybe -3lbs] (+2 Cha, +1 Con) Starting Body Fat: 15.4% Goal: 13% Starting Weight: 153lbs Goal: 150lbs I've got my diet pretty well under control (so long as I stay away from the cookies...) and would like to push harder into the 13% or lower body fat range. Since I'm mostly going to be aiming to loose fat and build muscle I'm unsure of if I will actually loose weight or gain weight, so I'm not setting a hard goal there I'm just guessing I've got a few more lbs to loose before I really focus on only building muscle. Transmute My Skills: Get that F'n Handstand Goal Two: 15 Second Free Standing Handstand (+2 Dex, +2 Stam, +1 Str) & At least 5 minutes of handstand practice 7 Days a week. ___/42 So if any of you have been following me for the past two challenges you will know that one of my goals has been to hold a decent handstand (15 seconds) and it has eluded me so far, BUT NOT THIS CHALLENGE! I AM GOING TO GET IT THIS TIME. I will also be working on my push press/ crow press into handstand but that's not really a main goal, just a fun thing I found out I could do a few days ago. Transmute My Body: Get Bendy Goal Three: Improve my Flexibility. (+3 Dex, +1 Wis) GMB's Flexibility Routine 7 Times a week. ___/42 and Do Yoga 3 Time a week. ___/18 I know that improving my flexibility would help me out in many areas of my fitness so that is going to be one of my goal for this challenge. I bought the app 'Yoga Studio' for my iPhone last week and I am really enjoying the beginning yoga routines on there, and they also have intermediate and advance so I know it will still be helpful for quite a while. I'm also considering getting GMB's Focused Flexibility Routine but don't know if I'll have the money for it till I get paid at the end of the month, but I should be able to afford it I got FF and am going to use it during this challenge to work on my hip flexibility while still continuing to use my yoga app to increase my general flexibility. Transmute My Mind: Learn another Language Goal Four: Learn some Spanish. Get 20+exp everyday in Duo Lingo and get a 42 day streak. ___/42 (I will allow the use of the streak freeze item in Duo Lingo once and still give myself full credit) If you didn't already know I'm an Art Teacher and I have a lot of students who speak Spanish and little to no English so to be better able to communicate with them I would like to learn some basic Spanish. If you are on duo lingo and want to be friends feel free to add me I'm (shockingly) www.duolingo.com/Ryuu1011 and would be happy with some language friends Boss Battle: The Summer Fellowship I will be fighting the dreaded Work Demon over the course of the summer and hope to be able to conquer him with my fitness routines & habits still intact and have a calisthenics routine ready for when I will be unable to make it to the gym. (I got a teaching fellowship for over the summer and want to make sure that I stay in shape when my routine and schedule are changing constantly from week to week) Loot: (Some Possibilities) Yoga Cashe: Mat, Bag, Blocks, Socks, Gloves Progress Photos: End of 2nd Challenge vs End of 3rd Challenge (i.e Start of the 4th Challenge) April 16, 2015 vs May 21, 2015BF 17% vs BF 15% These are the progress photos from the "Total Body Transformation Challenge" that I didMarch 30, 2015 vs May 25, 2015BF 17% vs BF 14% And yes, I did shave my chest for the TBT Challenge and since I love you guys so much I took before and after photos of that too (mostly for the lols, but I must admit you can the see the definition in my muscles better) RIP Pelt you will grow back soon... May 21, 2015 Pelt vs Shaved Starting Measurements: Weight: 156.8 lbs Body Fat: 15.4% Waist/Abs: 30" Hips: 31" Arms: 13.5" Calf: 14" Chest: 39" Thigh: 22" Shoulders: 44.5"

Hi, I'm Nymeria, and I generally suffer from do-too-much-itis. I've been rock climbing for a few years, I do a lot of yoga hand balancing and animal flow stuff, I still fool around a lot with martial arts and martial arts weapons (I'm kind of an ex practitioner. It's complicated), and I recently started taking parkour classes twice/week. This has also led to a struggle not to keep my body healthy, functioning, and keep my life in balance. For this challenge, I'm going to turn to one of my favorite anime characters and a fellow hot-headed, nerdy, often physically busted, do-too-much-er, Edward Elric, for some inspiration. This time, my physical schedule is pretty set, with climbing/bouldering twice/week, parkour classes twice/week, and hot vinyasa yoga once/week. (Realistically, I'll make it to 4/5 of these on average, just because between kids, life obligations, and such, that's how it seems to work). I also expect to do some playground workouts, hiking trips, and other things like that. For this challenge, all of the physical goals will be accessories to help me get stronger and prevent me from falling apart. Goal 1. Proper maintenance (fitness) My shoulders are constantly tight from the climbing and yoga. My surgically repaired knee is also starting to become irritated by the jumpings and landings in parkour (ACL reconstruction in Jan 2014 - I didn't rehab things with the expectation of this much high impact work). If I don't want my leg and arms to get busted, the way Ed's auto mail often is, I need to focus on some prehab and ROM work. So... a.) Get cozy with the foam roller and stretches: 5x/week - roll out ITB, calves, and quads. Roll out shoulder blade area. Do shoulder dislocates. Do the following yoga stretches: Extended puppy (shoulders), cross legged forward fold (ITB), hands clasping behind the back pose, reclined cow face pose (ITB-gluteus). b.) Build better foundations for jumping: whenever my muscles permit, do weighted squats, deep squats, more jumps, and calf raises. Revisit some of the physical therapy knee exercises that I haven't touched in the last 6 months. Goal 2 - Decrease the numbers (diet) Edward Elric: "Water, 35 litres. Carbon, 20kg. Ammonia, 4 litres. Lime, 1.5kg. Phosperus, 800g. Salt, 250 g. Niter, 100g. Sulphur, 80g. Fluorine, 7.5g. Iron, 5g. Silicon 3g. And fifteen other elements. Those are the elements to make an average adult human body." This goal is simple.. I want to decrease my numbers, meaning lose a little weight. Realistically, I only could lose 5-ish lbs, but those 5 lbs can mean a lot when you're hanging on to rock holds by your fingertips or trying to jump even higher. I loathe actively cutting and tracking my diet, so I'm going to keep things small and simple. Goal is Only 3 drinks bearing any liquid calories at all per week. Otherwise, all other drinking is to just be water. I train a lot and I have a lot of muscle, so I really do need to eat. The juice/alcohol/soda stuff is purely empty calories and is the easiest to trim from the diet. Goal 3 - Become less lopsided (fitness) Like Edward, I feel pretty lopsided. In part it's due to the messed up knee. Some of it is simple right-handedness. Some of it is muscle imbalances. Still, the result is that in parkour, I have preferred sides for every vault or wall technique. In yoga, I have a lot of hand balances that I can only perform well on one side (like 8 angle, flying lizard, side crow extensions). I also have a lot of standing balances that have a strong side and a weak side. Yes, I know that's normal. Still, in parkour, the side I use is somewhat dictated by the nature of the obstacle, and I really need to be proficient at both sides. For the yoga stuff, I just enjoy the warm fuzzy glow of doing things well, so I tend to do my strong side first and more often than my weak one. For this challenge, I am changing my mindset and making sure I give my weak side more attention than my strong one. Goal is to have 90% of my exercise sessions address my weak side at least equally as much as my strong side. Goal 4 - Hit the books (life) I used to read all of the time. But then I became addicted to my phone and waste my time rather than doing productive things like reading or learning. It's time for this to change. a.) Read at least 15 minutes/day. Aim for also reading at night before going to bed. b.) Continue with my DuoLingo German studies. I'm currently at 2300 XP, so the goal is to reach 3800 by the end of the challenge. 5. Daily Reflection (life) Last challenge, I had a goal of coming up with something positive or something for which I am grateful every day. While that was rewarding, I'm broadening things, such that this challenge, I just need to spend a few minutes meditating and reflecting on the day. I may or may not post the reflections depending on how relevant I think they are. I will edit later with more specific grading criteria. Let's do this!