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Next challenge, let's go! Why sharks? Why not! Sharks are cool. Sharks are social creatures. I want to be more involved with people. No reason to be shy, right? This challenge, I am going to read YOUR topics more than I read my own. I am going to follow and comment and support. Sharks keep moving. It's a myth that a shark will die if it stops swimming, but it is true that they need to keep water flowing over their gills in order to breathe. I am going to be a shark and keep moving. This will be a balancing act. I have so many hobbies! I have so many interests! Sometimes I get lazy or drag my feet about things, and I can't do all the things I want to or need to do, and that bums me out, big time. This is especially true about working out - no more spending half an hour trying to figure out the "best workout" or the "best route" when I only have 45 minutes to work out! Just do it! I'm going to stop dragging my feet. I will get things done and then move on to other things. Sharks cover great distances. I'm still adding to my Mordor mileage, and I'll be adding long runs (over 2 miles) with my sister once a week to my schedule. During the week I'll keep it under two miles. I'm aiming for 8 miles a week. Apparently, the average shark speed is 5 mph, so I'm going to throw in some treadmill runs to see if I can't push myself to run that fast, even for 30 seconds. Mainly, I want to just go after the things I want instead of just sitting around waiting for them to come to me.

Hi all, I'm a lurker but this challenge is coming at the right time for me, so I'm delurking. I've got a pretty chaotic life, and for years I've been thinking "I'll lose weight when...", or "I'll start looking after myself when..." and of course whatever it is never happens or there's something else in the way. However, I have made progress with my fitness over the last couple of years; I've been doing a few different things in terms of weight lifting and built up quite a lot of muscle, and I successfully did the C25K last year, thanks in large part to a pair of minimalist running shoes. Now I am finally starting to feel that I might at some point be a runner, though I'm tending more towards being a Ranger than a Scout as I get bored if I run too far, even with a talking book, and in any case I really fancy trail running. I've also just taken up geocaching which is something else Rangery. I feel that it's time to take it a step further, though, and I've had a couple of revelations that have helped me understand where I'm going. For one, I've finally realised that I'm not the unsporty type that I've always thought I was. Which was obvious, really; when I was left to my own devices as a kid I'd always be riding my bike or climbing a cliff or swimming or dancing, but I HATED team games. I was a school refuser, only in my case I loved school, I just hated PE lessons. I've also been thinking about my motivation for making changes and it essentially just comes down to being fed up with not making changes. I'm fed up being fattish (probably 10kg and 10% bf excess). I'm fed up not being able to stop eating - bread in particular. I'm fed up waiting for things to happen so that I can start having a life. I'm fed up not being in control, and wasting enormous amounts of mental energy comparing myself to other people, pigeonholing them and thinking "she's thinner than me". And it occurred to me - I've done LOADS of stuff in my life. Lived in 3 separate countries and in 40-odd addresses at the last count, I can speak 3 languages, I've started my own business which is getting to the point of doing pretty well, I drove a 7.5 tonne truck across Europe in the worst storm for 40 years, I've put on techno gigs, renovated two and a half houses, I've worked in IT support, sold property, dug potatoes (in a greenhouse - in the summer!), cleaned hotels... I've got an MA in Archaeology and a rescued cat with a very strange backstory. So it's not that I haven't earned the EXP. It's just that I've hoarded them as though they were GP, refusing to allocate them to going up a level in case... what? In case something else came along and I might need to use them for that? I'm 45, this is the only life I'm going to get and I need to start living it now! In fact, that's my motivation. OK, well that's come out a bit small, but anyway, it's there. So my first challenge to myself is to do the following: Main goals:1. Lose 3 kg2. Manage one real pushup 3. Get 8 hours' sleep a day. Comments on the above:1. Starting weight 72.3 kg, but I'll check that again on Monday morning. 2. I've never done a real pushup in my life. I'm pretty good at inclined ones, but I *still* haven't the strength to do a proper one. I think it's now down to core strength (lower back in particular) rather than shoulders, and I've just come across some good core exercises by John Sifferman, so that should help. 3. This is going to be the toughy. Given that it's currently 2.31 am, I've been up since 7 am and I'm being kept out of bed for the second night running by the brain dead residents of the small village where I currently live this is going to be impossible, but if I am at least in bed for 8 hours that's going to be an improvement. Working for myself has meant burning the candle at both ends with a vengeance. Life goal:Get my fecking website finally sorted. I've had the domain name for more than a year and done nothing with it, so it's more than time. Anyway, I can hardly keep my eyes open any more, so I'll think about grading these tomorrow and hope that exhaustion will take the place of peace and quiet in helping me sleep.