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Going to start my daily log here tomorrow. This post is a place holder.

Sorry sorry! I know I'm late. Hi! By the way, I'm Jay and I was a rebel for a while. I've been active on and off and I really want to make that more on than off this time around. I have a black belt in Taekwondo, but haven't really done too much in about a decade. I'm a noob (white) belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu although, I've trained on and off for financial reasons since 2009. I've trained in Muay Thai since 2009. Here are my goals: Fitness 1. Go to class three times between Monday - Friday and hit an open mat on the weekend. Simply put, if you don't go to class, you're not gonna get any better. Of course, there are exceptions like sometimes you hit a plateau and you just need to step away for a bit to sort of reset. I'm not at a plateau. So yeah, I plan to go at least three times between Monday - Friday. I think that's doable, I mean I'd like to go 8 times, and hit an open mat, but I don't wanna burn myself out. My gym has classes at 6AM and 6PM Monday - Friday and an open mat from 8AM - 11PM, so the scheduling isn't too bad that I can't maybe get a two-a-day in. I also want to really go to open mats because I learn a lot from the people that go and they're not all from the same gym, so I get an extra bit of education that I might not normally get. Like last week we had Moku Kahawai come in and he's a 5x IBJJF World Champion. I got to roll around with him which was cool. I may substitute the last open mat because I'm attending a Jiu Jitsu seminar on 11/27 which is the Sunday after the challenge ends, but hey, everything's more guideline than rule, right? 2. Eat a stupid salad. I don't eat enough vegetables. I also want to lose some weight. I also want to save money. I figure if I have a salad each day for lunch, I can help out on all three of those. A salad will have vegetables. Although, a pizza salad sounds amazing. That's four slices of pizza in a bowl. I'm gonna eat a real salad with vegetables and some chicken, maybe some nuts. Trader Joe's has some premade ones that I like and they're like 4 bucks each and it kinda fills me up. I know not all salads will help me lose weight, so I'll try to choose a healthier salad just to get my feet wet. Life 1. My house is a mess. I don't want to be considered a messy person. I'm going to work on cleaning one room in the house each day in hopes that overall, the house will be clean and I will rarely have to do a deep clean of the whole house which would probably just end up with me feeling overwhelmed and just giving up. I'll throw a bonus goal in there. I guess it would be a fitness goal. With Thanksgiving being next Thursday, I'm going to challenge myself to not go too crazy on feasting. I do want to end up losing weight as I've ballooned up to 260. A long-term goal would be to get down to around 180-190 and then eventually compete in tournaments, so I have to keep that in mind.

Hey there! Long-time no see. I’m still trapped in my cage of Maths and Physics books as I type this, but there’s not too long to go until I break out. Due to these circumstances, my challenge will be in action for four weeks rather than six. My last exam finishes right at the third week of this challenge starts! When I break out of this dreaded cage of equations and proofs, I’ve got a hell of a lot of things planned. My summer will consist of harsh mental and physical training. I’ve already put on a bit of flab during my time in the cage been bulking whilst in the cage, so it’s time to get leaner and stronger. Without further ado, here it is! Challenge Three: Mandrill becomes the Monkey King! (Wow, that picture is badass. I'm making this my profile picture.) My favourite character in all of fiction is Sun Wukong, the Monkey King. He’s wild, cunning and… completely overpowered. He unified the monkeys of the world into an organized force, mastered magic and martial arts and eventually took on the forces of Heaven itself! Only the most powerful being in existence was able to keep the furious Monkey King in check… but that’s a different story. ^^ Here are my missions. 1. Master the Somersault Cloud! Sun Wukong’s most famous ability was his ability to ride a cloud that allowed him to leap through the sky at astonishing speeds. Whilst I can’t do that, I can work on my somersaults, handsprings, back flips and so on! I also want to get started with slacklining, just like the fella up there ^^. Attend gymnastics three times a week. (Wednesday, Thursday, Sunday)Buy slack-line and set it up! 2. The Magic Golden Clasped rod! The Monkey King’s most famous weapon is his staff, the Ruyi-jingu bang. It’s a fearsome weapon, able to change from a heaven-supporting pillar to a needle at its owner’s command. The staff is said to weigh approximately 9000kg, but Sun Wukong’s strength and martial skill allowed him to wield this weapon with ease. No, I won’t be trying to do any of that. I’ll start by learning to deadlift, bench-press and squat.. and hopefully get into Olympic lifts, too. Weightlifting – I’ve been inspired by rebels like Godnattish, Symphonic Dan and Raptron. This summer, I’m going to start weight lifting! 3. Water Avoidance Charm! One of the Monkey King’s abilities was his ability to remain underwater for an indefinite period of time.I can barely swim. I know how, but I haven’t swum for a decade. That changes now! I live right next to a leisure centre with nice swimming facilities. I may as well use it! ^^ Swim three times a week. Because I’m cheap and my local pool charges less for non-peak hours, I’ll get this done at 6:00AM in the morning. ^^ 4. Martial arts! Sun Wukong was a completely overpowered martial artist. His fighting skills were immense and he could hold his own without his notorious weapon. I was gonna do capoeira for this part of my challenge, but it clashes with gymnastics! That's a no go. So, we're back to stage one. I'm going to be going around town, looking for martial arts schools. These are the arts I'm going to be looking into: 1. Boxing 2. Choi Li Fut 3. Hapkido 4. Taekwondo 5. Karate Pick a martial art! 5. Life-quest: Cunning. Can’t call yourself a monkey king if you don’t have the brains to back it up! Sun Wukong was a master strategist and magician who studied under a renowned Taoist master. I can’t be a magician and I’m not going to search for any Taoist masters, but I will be doing a number of other activities with my free time instead! Draw every day. I’m a useless artist but I want to improve!Play my guitar every day. I used to play a lot but life always caught up.Play chess every day. Chess is awesome for developing a number of mental skills. Plus, chess grandmasters are all kinds of badass.Learn a language! Spending half an hour on Duolinguo doesn’t seem half a bad idea. My French teacher used to call me a useless student and I just… sat there nodding my head. Well, that’s going to change. I’m no longer the type of person who accepts failure. Plus, one of my best friends is french and I'd love to surprise her one day by just randomly starting to talk to her in her own language!Mathematical skills: I know, I know, why the hell would I want to do more maths after my exams? Well, I need to keep myself sharp! I found this website called Brilliant.org yesterday and it has all sorts of problems that I have no idea how to do… well, that’ll change. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FOUR WEEKS. JUST FOUR. Now that I've written this and I've solidified what I want to do after my exams.. I just have to destroy my exams! Cannot wait until I can start this challenge. Holy shit, it occurs to me now that I'm basically following the path of Ido Portal. I can't stand the fellow myself but I gotta hand it to him; he knows what he's doing. ^^

Two of my closest friends joined my hapkido club about 18 months ago, and they've been working super hard, and taking private lessons. Last night, they graded for their green belts and I was able to be there as part of the grading team. I am super proud of them and super excited to have been able to be there for this milestone!