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Rivers of London 5: Spring Cleaning OMG, I don't know who came up with the title of this round of my RoL challenge, but they could not have come up with a more genuinely horrific challenge concept if they tried. This is the most frightening Rivers of London has ever been. Imagine, like, ominous music and creaking floorboards and smiles full of big sharp teeth and being chased by evil sentient mops. That wizard has a truly terrible sense of humor. I bet it was him. New to Rivers of London? Click here:

Finally getting back into a routine with the arrival of baby #2! It was recommended by @Sloth the Enduring to consolidate threads so I’m going to be posting my challenge and daily logs all right here. Still a bit sleep deprived but will be posting more soon. Thanks for all the well wishes!

I'm going to try out a daily battle log for a while. One of my gripes with NerdFitness's format is the constant need to create new challenges on the website's schedule. I'm going to attempt to take the power back for myself and do my own thing. Everything's and experiment and nothing is forever. I'll come back and fill edit this first post from time to time to fill things in, either questions that come up a lot or links to topics in the thread as it grows. But for today, on to the good stuff. Note for myself:

Monk related discussions! *Note: You can participate in guild discussions regardless of your chosen guild. Monks can kick your ass with their fists and feet, and they can do it before you even know what's happened. Incredibly agile, lightning fast, and loaded with power, Monks specialize in martial arts to stay in shape and destroy the opposition. * Fictional example: Neo (The Matrix); Beatrix Kiddo (Kill Bill); Black Widow (Marvel) UFC Fighters Georges St. Pierre & Ronda Rousey * Real-world example: UFC Fighters Georges St. Pierre & Ronda Rousey * Typical Activities: MMA, BJJ, Karate

I have plenty of things to clean up this challenge. I am happy to report that I made a good start during Zero week. Goals: 1. Clear out my mind. Sit zen every day. Preferably 30 minutes, but at least 10 minutes. It does not matter how late it gets, sit zen before going to bed. If I do stay up too late, taking the time to calm my mind will help me sleep. I did this last challenge and it is making a difference. My mind is not back to normal, but it is better than it was. Maybe I will find a different new normal. Keep moving in that direction. 2. Clean up my eating. I have a huge emotional resistance to restricting what I eat, but I am fine with intermittent fasting. I can also work on having fruit before having other types of sweets. 3. Assorted cleaning tasks. This includes regular chores, since those still need to get done too. Finish things up, put things away, sort things, get rid of things, raking, garden clean-out, it all counts. Extra points for dealing with things that have been sitting in piles for a long time. __________________________________________________ Zero Week report This past week was extremely busy at work. On top of planned time off and project time, a different person called in sick every day. I was covering for the person on vacation, plus filling in for people who were out sick. I mostly kept my head above water. I am sure that I missed some things that will come around to bite me this week. I could have tried to get the older stuff done first, but that would just mean that different things would have been left waiting. I hope I won't find too much waiting for me on Monday. I went to aikido on Monday, Wednesday, practice with my weapons partner on Thursday, and an all-day seminar on Saturday. I went with my chief instructor to the seminar. There were seven hours of classes with six different instructors. It was a friendship seminar, which means the instructors came from dojos with different affiliations. For those not familiar with aikido, there are numerous different flavors. The founder of the art died in 1969. He had a bunch of senior students that settled all over the world. Most of them set up their own organizations. Some were on speaking terms with each other, some were not. Almost all of that first generation have now passed away. A lot of American students are wondering just why instructors of the art of harmony were not able to get along with each other. People are working to form connections and learn insights from other lineages. Physically, I did better than I expected with training all day. By the end of class #6 my brain was full. My sensei was worn out by the beginning of class 6. We left early. It was a 90 minute drive, so we left home at 7:00am and were glad to get back by 7:30pm. This week I plan to train on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. That is plenty. Spring Cleaning I scrubbed the couch again with Citrasolv and vinegar. I think that took out the last of the cat pee smell. At least, it covered it with orange scent. Used leather cleaner/conditioner on the couch. Maybe it looks a little better. It has been scrubbed at least four times now. Really, it is as clean as it is going to get. I hope we don't need to replace it. Washed three loads laundry Packed up Wensleydale yarn and put it back in the garage. I got it out a couple months ago when I thought I would use it for my next knitting project. I decided to do a different knitting project next, so this can wait where it belongs. Finished spinning blue merino/silk singles. I thought I bought four ounces of roving, but it does not look like that much on the bobbin. I will wind it off and weigh it later. Cleaned and oiled spinning wheel. Went through my fiber stash to pick my next spinning project. Rediscovered fiber that I bought a long time ago. Some of that will be great to use in blends on my drum carder. I chose a bag of silver-grey alpaca that I forgot I had. I picked it up at a stash sale after my friend Kathy from spinning passed away. I am going to blend it with silk for strength. Getting out the silk involved more cleaning. I went through the books stacked on top of my steamer trunk and dresser. Four of them are not mine and can be put away elsewhere. I had to take everything off the top of the steamer trunk to open it and get out bag of silk roving. In doing so, I discovered a solid line of dust bunnies behind the steamer trunk. I vacuumed those up (plus the rest of the bedroom floor). I now know what is in the piles on top of the steamer trunk (but have no clue what to do with them). Scrubbed the kitchen sink, stovetop and counters. Normal weekend chores. Elf did a LOT of cooking. They batch cooked asparagus, green beans with almonds and garlic, roasted potatoes and braised pork shoulder. The kitchen was only clean for half an hour, but it was totally worth it. I said I would make cookies, but that is going to wait until tomorrow.

See? It's topical. Sorry I'm late. As I like to say, I think of challenges as things that we do first and foremost, and I started the challenge but I never posted it. So here are the big goals for the year: I want to get my freaking apartment cleaned up finally. I want to lose a significant amount of weight, because I have a significant amount to lose. I want to graduate to pain free movement. I want to complete a draft of the novel and get it before some beta readers. I want to go to therapy. I want to start dating again. A lot of these goals are... in progress already. After asking @The Most Loathed and thinking about it some, I decided to download the Renaissance Periodization diet app. Not because I need someone to tell me what to do but because I think it's useful to have something to help me track general trends in weight and tell me, "Hey, this is looking good," or "Hey, this is looking not so good and maybe you should change some things." I started up a weight loss phase for myself officially on the 17th and so far I'm looking good. You wouldn't think having a line chart trending the proper direction would make a big difference, and maybe it doesn't make a big difference for most people, but it sure does help me. My training, in the meantime, is helping my knee feel better, and work got off my back enough for me to start making mat time again, which is heckin' dope. So, looking back at my goals, I'm kind of vibing with the cleaning goal the most. It feels appropriate to the season, and a bunch of stuff kind of started to happen to convince me that it's just time: found some apartment repair opportunities that I don't want to haggle with my landlord about and I'd rather do myself I'm meditating more lately and it's cleaning out my headspace something nice I got another calcium score for my heart and it looks like there's more calcium in there despite our best efforts. This is an early warning of potential coronary artery disease, and given my family history of heart attacks, it's only a matter of time. After talking it over with my primary care provider, we're looking at starting up EDTA IV treatment, which is something that's normally used for things like lead poisoning and the detoxification of other heavy metals. It's not guaranteed to do anything about my heart, but it's not contraindicated either and there's a chance it could do me some good. I'll be paying out of pocket for it, I think, but that's what my HSA is for and I'm always under budget on that thing anyway, so it's not like I can't afford it. I think. I guess we'll see. So, just a lot going on to make me feel like it's time, and with the onset of spring, I figure, what the hell? The goal is a riff on my standard thing. Normally it's been clear up one piece of trash or properly store one thing. The riff is, I'm going to double that - two pieces of trash or 2 things properly stored, or a combination thereof. Each of these is going to be from the 2 spaces in my apartment: one from my job space, and one from my personal space. I'm also going to spice this up with some rewards, too: I picked up a book on home repair and it includes some tool lists for some of the jobs I want to get done. Every week that I do 80% or better, I will reward myself with a trip to the hardware store to pick up a tool. By the end of these 5 weeks, I should have the tools I need to start on the repairs I want to do. Whether that starts or not at the end of those weeks is gonna depend on where and how I find myself, but that'll be a problem for future Kishi to solve when he's collected enough data and changed his circumstances enough to make an intelligent decision. As I said, I've been at this now for a bit and the stats are as follows: Goal: 2.5/4 That is not 80%! So, I'm going to have to pick up (harrrr) my pace a bit if I want to get what I need to get my work done. The week's been decent so far. I've been missed at the academy, which warmed my heart some to realize, and so this week I've been pushing myself to get my "Strength At Length" work done in the morning. It's worked the past couple days, but it didn't happen today, so tonight is strength/rehab and rest. I've been recommitting to home drilling too to keep myself honest and sharpen up a little bit. Today's been kind of shit show, enough to derail my training but not more or worse than I've complained about before here. And hey, it's a short week on account of Good Friday, so a 3-day weekend will be nice. Only bad part is, they're gonna hold me to a full week's worth of productivity without a full week to do the work. That's never fun. But that's par for the course, and I did manage to solve some significant problems today. So that's good news. This is fine. Yup. Nothing to see here, folks. Just keep on moving. Fire cleanses, after all.

2024 Challenge 2: Mistr searches for her mind In the rotating series of things I want to work on, finding my mind is my top priority this challenge. I have had too many days where I just can't focus or all I want to do is play games. When color-by-number on my phone is so absorbing, that is a sign there is something wrong. I am not at all clear on what is wrong. Things are better at work. I have picked up my exercise routine again. I am mostly getting enough sleep. Aikido is slowly getting better. The number on the scale is even down a pound from last week. No smoking guns. I think I am going to just have to sit quietly and wait for the culprit to poke its nose out in the open. Goals: 1. Sit zen 30 minutes every day. I pretty much dropped zen in December and only did a few short sessions in January. Meditation is my best tool to figure out what is going on in my brain. I feel like the universe is reaching out to hit me in the head with this one. On Saturday at aikido, a senior instructor asked me again how my meditation is going. He told me that he meditates twice a day, in the morning and before bed. He says if you can control your mind, you will have a happy life. He is in his mid-eighties and can still take falls. I think he knows what he is talking about. 2. Manage my time so I can get enough sleep AND sit zen. Sleep is lower priority than zen this time. I already know that getting enough sleep makes me a happier human. I just have trouble remembering that sometimes in the evenings. As a corollary, no screen time after 8:30pm on week nights. 3. Keep moving. Over the last several weeks I have gotten back into my exercise rotation of aikido, strength work, rowing and core work. Some days I do more, some days I just do one thing. Make sure there is at least one thing every day, even if it is just gentle yoga. 4. Cut back on mindless eating. This may be difficult while I am still hunting for my missing mind. I got into bad habits of stress eating over the last couple years. One week ago I was at the highest weight I have ever been. I was better last week and it seems to be helping. I would love to lose a pound a week this challenge. The real measure of success on this goal is not actually the number on the scale, but whether or not I can tie my hakama. When I was at my target weight (four years ago), I had about a foot of extra length after tying my hakama waist straps, with them wrapping around my waist twice. Now I can't get it to tie. 😟 My new hakama has longer straps, but I am not wearing it for a while because the dojo just got a new mat. Sensei was very clear that she would not tolerate blue stains on the new mat from indigo-dyed hakama. All of us who have new Japanese hakama are wearing older black hakama instead. I made a start on all of this during zero week. Onwards and upwards!

"Oh hey you guys! Man, it's been a long time, hasn't it? I'm sorry to have been away from this wonderful place for such a long time. Life has been interesting to say the least. I hope you've all been good. Me? Oh well, it's a bit, I'll tell you that. There was that... Oh then there's the... Well, heh, let me do this in my usual way." *Ahem* "So I met a girl in the usual way. We were playing Mario Kart and, what can I say? The shells were flying! I remember it so fondly..." "But she might remember things differently..." "But her name is @Blue1323, she's a Scout, loves Mass Effect, baking and is just the coolest person. Then after having my rent increased, I decided to move in with my friend and got an apartment together." "Once that was done, it was time to resume my Certification exam! I took the exam and unfortunately, I failed the exam by 2 points!" "Sigh... 2 Points. But you know what?! I'm not going to let that deter me! I'm going to take it again! I got this! But before this one, I'm going to take the Florida exam and guess what? I passed it! Narrow margins was the name of the game, but who cares? I passed!" "OK, Now on to the next attempt and wouldn't you know it?" "I failed it. Again! This time by 1 lousy point! One!! But you know what? That's ok. Because it was onto the next big thing that was on my mind. Throughout this whole endeavor, I've had the love and support of someone who became very special to me. I saved up enough gold and made a purchase and then I asked a question so few Adventurers are so lucky to ask..." It was shortly after this heartwarming scene that Blue1323 equipped the Ring, and gained +2 Int. She then briefly changed her mind... Briefly. "So now that brings us to here and now! I have tried to stay in shape on my own and trying to keep up with my own endeavors, but it's not the same. Especially since 'the incident' " "I've officially hit 200 lbs! This is a first for me, but also a wake up call that I need to do something about it. In the past, I have been hyping you guys up to @Blue1323 and we both felt it was time to join the folds (once again for me). So here is my return challenge!" The Return: "OK So in the past I've been infamous for going MIA due to some excuse reason, but now that I have someone to keep me in check and make sure that I stay consistent with both my goals and my personal accountability. So here's my 3 fitness goals: Running 2x a week Strength Training/Lifting 2x a week "Movie Night" 1x a week And for my Life goal: Post on NF boards, consistently, 3x a week For my fitness goals, these three things don't all fall on the same days, but there will be some overlap. For my Strength days, I'll be breaking them into 2 things: Upper and Lower. With Upper, they'll be Push and Pull exercises but they'll have a run day with them. With the Lower, I'll just focus on strengthening my legs and core, but no running. For Running, I can do a 5k with some walking in, but I want to do better. I'm going to push to be able to run a 10k. I have some... motivation to achieve this goal, like agreeing to run one, ha ha ha! But I have obtained a guide to help me find out the best way to increase my running distance. "Movie Night" will be an youtube video that Blue1323 and I found that is either a Muay Thai video or some intense Yoga video. Either way, we're going to be sweating at the end of it! Happy to be back with you guys and I'm looking forward to what lies ahead!

Kind of inspired by @Red1263. And I like the vibe of this one. Even though it is a monastery, and a separated space, it doesn't feel as isolated as the other fantasy pieces do where the monastery is built in the mountains. That is, it doesn't feel as removed from day to day concerns as the other pieces tend to. I like it for that. Feels truer to life somehow. Also, I like the feeling that it mixes East and Southeast Asian aesthetics for a real fantasy vibe. But that's just me tho. Anyway, howdy, y'all! Welcome to another challenge. Peace and be welcome. Last challenge, things went really great. I stopped leaning so much on caffeine and got really sensitive to it as a result, and I ranked up to a blue belt in BJJ, which caught me by surprise, and I advanced in my writing to the point that I'm writing prose on my novel, and... I just feel good. Good enough that I feel like I can make some significant changes in my life this year, things that I want for myself. This was my wishlist as I was able to articulate it to myself: I want to get my freaking apartment cleaned up finally. I want to lose a significant amount of weight, because I have a significant amount to lose. I want to graduate to pain free movement. I want to complete a draft of the novel and get it before some beta readers. I want to go to therapy. I want to start dating again. But you might notice that my topic and my tags, along with my tendency to only do one goal for a challenge, kind of makes it sound like I'm not getting after any of these. I beg to differ. It's been my observation that nothing exists in isolation; rather, everything relates and exists within a context. Training exists in a context with sleep and nutrition, and these exist in relationship with job and income and privilege, and these exist in a social context within which I have to live and move and have my being. It sounds like highfalutin nonsense, but what it basically boils down to is I can't change one thing without changing a whole bunch of other things at the same time. In this case, a movement goal helps me get after the clean up goal, the weight loss goal, and the pain free goal, because my place is messy enough that it interferes with my movement I weigh enough that it impacts my joint health (although it also provides free resistance too, so it's not like it's all bad) moving pain free is dope So, big ol' wind up. What does it all mean? Well, those of you what know me or followed me for a while know I've got a tendency to mix and match stuff from a lot of different trainers/training philosophies, but it's only been in the past month or so that I've really come to internalize the concept of "Junk Volume," or Bruce Lee's maxim of "Absorb what is useful, discard what is useless, and add what is specifically your own." I thought for a long that what I was doing giving myself an opportunity to express my body in a lot of different ways, and maybe that was true, but I wasn't being truthful with myself in terms of why I was doing what I was doing. Truth is, I was mad at myself for developing obesity, and I've been punishing myself for it, working beyond my ability to recover, and really failing to develop the attributes that I actually want for myself. That's not to say I don't want cool shit like front lever rows or heavy kettlebell snatches or long-distance heavy rucking or things like that, but I don't want them at the expense of pain free movement or the ability to do striking and grappling well into old age, and I suspect that that's what I've been doing. So after a lot of thought, I've elected to go with Ben Patrick/Knees Over Toes Guy's programs, specifically with the goal of building toward the BJJ strength program that he put together along with Nsima Inyang. As I mentioned to @The Most Loathed, I've been listening lately to Dr. Mike Israetel, a jiujiteiro/bodybuilder/Dr of Sports Physiology, and I eventually stumbled across one of his videos from some years ago where he talks about blending strength work and grappling, and he specifically recommends that there be as much separation between these as is possible so that they don't interfere with each other. And you might not think that a knee/body rehab program would count as bodybuilding/strength work, but Mr. Toes has personally said that he considers his work to be a mix of bodybuilding and yoga, specifically because he seeks to develop "strength at length." 7 weeks in, I think that claim is worth taking seriously, especially since I do have a feeling that my martial arts and my strength work have been in conflict with one another. So, what is my goal? My goal is to get myself to the point that I'm doing my strength work 4-6 hours before I go out to the mats. This will mean doing my strength work in the AM, and doing mat time at night. Night time mat time isn't going to be an option all the time, however, and my scoring for the challenge is going to account for that. Knees Over Toes (KOT) program presently runs Monday to Friday. Saturday and Sunday are rest days. Night training is only available Monday, Thursday, and Friday. Saturday and Sunday are noon and morning, respectively, but it doesn't matter, because those are rest days. Therefore, Monday, Thursday, and Friday training will each be worth half a point. So KOT is half a point, and mat time is half a point. Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday trainings are each worth a full point, because only one kind training is available to do on those days if I assume that the goal is for these to harmonize with one another rather than interfere with one another. Half points are still possible on days where I follow one program and not the other when I could have feasibly followed both. I will bias toward KOT because of its rehab benefits and its carryover to more of my life than mat time. If you followed me last challenge, you might recall that I could have a potential obstacle in that the building's washing machine busted, but I'm pleased to report that my landlord actually took care of this in a timely fashion and I have laundry facilities restored on the premises. So that's good news. Making this work is going to mean getting to bed earlier and getting up earlier, something that I've allowed to slip. It's also going to mean balancing my work-life balance a bit since I'm cleared for OT with the job right now and I need to work as much as I can/they'll let me before it cuts off at the end of the month again. Not sure how it's going to bear out since our legislators can't budget for shit these days, so I might get more next month and I might not. Just gotta be like water, I guess. But hey, here we are, on time for once. Cool. Looking forward to seeing how this one goes.

I tend to do a special Valentines themed February, to be hot and shallow and go to a lot of parties. (Mostly shallow, as I still largely aspire to either of the other two.) Some years it's a Casanunda challenge from Discworld, but I think I'm in Trek mood this year. So I'll do second edition of last year's Vulcan Valentine's challenge. 1. Strength training Dating on Vulcan requires a lot more combat than you might expect. So physical training is important. But what will not do is upsetting the delicate hormonal balance that keeps you from killing half a dozen people with sharpened hockey stick. To keep cortisol down, the goal is minimum effort, but lots of consistency. Low and slow. I'm still into isometrics. I haven't managed enough consistency to really know for sure if they're as efficient as the claims say, but they're Good Enough, and they're the workout I will do, so that's fine. I will count anything. The goal is consistency. But I do want giant muscles eventually, cuz I have people to beat with a lirpa. Also bonus points for my stupid daily walk for my stupid physical and mental health. It's boring, but it's a good daily vitamin of movement. Goal: be strong, do an exercise 2. Rest Dating on Vulcan requires quality sleep. I need to stick to a sensible bedtime. I also need to work hard to keep my chronic sleep deficit down. Under seven hours is the target zone. Under ten hours is pretty decent. Under 17 hours is sort of a yellow alert, not great. Anything over that, I am in red alert. I also need to baby the most annoying sinuses on the planet. I also need to do a yoga nidra meditation to practice sleep during the day. (I need remedial sleep lessons, guys.) Goal: 11pm bedtime. Keep sleep deficit under ten hours. Keep my sinuses happy. One yoga nidra session. 3. Emotional Management I've been reading a lot lately about emotions stored in the body, usually in the form of some kind of tightness or stiffness, and also in the form of different modes of nervous system activation that don't always respond to modern stressors correctly. (Emily Nagoski talks about both of these in some of her Burnout talks, and the yoga nidra-adjacent folks also talk about it, and various ADHD people have been touching on it from a different angle. It's just showing up everywhere I turn.) This is likely me, and probably a more effective approach than trying to out-reason various behaviors and emotions. Meditation has left me with a certain distrust of using the mind to master the mind, because it's just not that smart, and the only thing that's made a really noticeable difference in ADHD symptoms and so on is frequent rest breaks. There are various recommendations, but it's generally low intensity movement and rest aimed at helping stress responses shut off and undoing some of the physical symptoms they leave behind, so the body stops taking cues from them. Both my previous two goals count towards this, in part. But also, it turns out my fave yoga evening cooldowns are probably ideal. Also, there's mindfulness and metta meditation I'd like to get done; metta is definitely on point here, and mindfulness is just helpful in a foundational sort of way. I, uh, also need to remember to actually do the rest breaks I plan to do. If my day is going badly, I'm likely to start skipping them, but if my day is going badly, skipping them is probably the reason why. I have to treat them like a job. Goal: Get emotions out of the body. (By doing something extra that is not covered already, and, like, meditating and stuff.) 4. Vulcan Is a Hot Planet Vulcans play a darned good eyeshadow game. Also, it's easy to forget what sassy clothes horses Vulcan can be. Like, that bling, guys. They out-bling a lot of planets. The traditional Valentine's challenge includes various wardrobe, makeup, skincare, or bachelor pad modifications for increased hotness. (This is not totally shallowness, because I get stuck in utilitarian ruts and stop paying enough attention to that stuff. Caring appropriately for the aesthetics of one's body, clothes, and environment is purely logical, and not frivolity at all. Logic.) Goal: One style or hotness upgrade per day.

I come to every challenge with huge aspirations but then I start to try and flesh it out and it takes on a life of its own. Soon I've written pages of text and spent hours trying to frame the perfect challenge. In an effort to prevent perfect being the enemy of good, I'm going with something pretty basic. Body Weight Last week I averaged 211.9, this week it’s 214.7. By the end of the challenge it will be less. Somewhere around 200 ish. This will be accomplished by dropping my calories to about 2,200 per day while maintaining my workload. Training BJJ - Submissions For the duration of the challenge I’m putting away the arm triangle from mount. I’ll be using the leg triangle from mount, which has been something I’ve wanted to work on for about 6 months but those darn arm triangles are just so enticing. But they’re not allowed. I can still use my side control and back attacks of choice, only arm triangle is banned. Lifting I’m due my first ever deload week in this challenge and I plan to take it. Then I’ll start a new meso following a very similar pattern to my current one. Work I’m going to start taking an hour out of my work week to let myself sleep in a couple mornings of the week. Other projects: Google Forms - I’ve created some forms that I’m using to track some data. This is just something I plan to tinker with for the coming months. I can choose to stop or change them anytime Guitar - same ol’. I struggle to come up with a better approach to this Cooking - I’ve gotten a bit out of the habit. I’d like to cook two new recipes this challenge but they have not been preselected

January 2024 - Mistr takes notes I took and honest-to-gosh vacation last week. This was the first stretch of 6 days where I was at home and did not have any pressing commitments that I have had in years. Most of my vacation-from-work time has involved travel and doing things that were far from relaxing. I thought about what I want to do this challenge and what my goals are for 2024. Figure out a new path I still wish I could wave a magic wand and go back to where I was in January 2020. Things were going well for me and I was making progress on my goals. Four years later, I am dealing with different things. I am still in the same job, house, dojo and relationships. The key changes have been with me. I had covid last January and that took away some of my energy. I am getting older and that is causing changes in my body. Things that used to be fine (dairy - I'm looking at you) have unpleasant consequences. I am realizing that some of the tasks I was pushing myself to do are not actually that important. I can take time to relax and things won't fall apart. Most January challenges have firm goals. Things like "go to the gym 3x a week" or "keep an 8-hour eating window". My mind rebels from those type of arbitrary rules now. I may very well do those things, but I am not going to push myself to do them. This time I am going to be gentle with myself and see what I actually can do without getting stressed out. Goal: observe what I choose to do and how that works out. That's it. I already know that I love aikido and feel better when I do it. I know I like my home-cooked meals better than most of what I can buy. I can make a pretty good assessment of whether I want to spend my energy on cooking or doing other things. I have a long history of underestimating how much time it takes me to cook, so I can take that into account. If I don't have energy to do things, rest is a smart choice. It would be great if I could exercise and sit zen 30 minutes a day, eat protein and veggies at every meal, limit sweets, stay on top of things at work and chores at homes and do things with people. Some days I might be able to do most of that, but I can't count on that like I used to. My goal for this challenge is to gently explore what works for me in this new post-pandemic world.

Happy New Year, everyone! "Kishi! What the hell, man, you disappeared last challenge!" Details. I had a meditation goal and I basically struggled with it until I found my way back to "Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Everyday Radicals," which imposes some external structures that I find useful for consistent meditation. As a result, I've been meditating more and it's been helping me. I feel good about that. So what am I talking about as far as slowing down? Well, in the course of my ongoing research about how to care for myself, I found out about this idea of caffeine cycling. Basic idea is to lay off the caffeine a bit - lots of low-caffeine days with some high days as needed. Highlights include cutting off mid-afternoon caffeine, instituting no-caffeine days, and regularly attempting to reset the sensitivity for it rather than coming to rely on it. Because I'm finding for myself that I don't really care for the degree to which I'm coming to rely on this stuff. I think my sleep is better when I'm not using or when I use less late in the day, and I worry that it's bad for my heart long term. So, my goal is to institute the "Green Tea Protocol" listed in the linked article - 2 days of coffee, 4 days of green tea, and 1 day of rest/decaf. The trackable for this goal is a 3 PM cutoff. Not sure how far the cutoff goes - might eventually go to 2 PM, then 1, but I want to take this challenge to watch myself and see how I'm doing. If my sleep improves to a satisfactory degree, then I see no reason to go any further, but that remains to be seen. The other hope in slowing down, ironically, is that I'll be better about being here and being present for y'all rather than focusing solely on myself and my problems. I find that the caffeine causes me to hyperfocus - very useful for work and training, but very difficult for transitioning over to being here. Here's to a New Year. I have a kind of Epic Challenge in mind for the course of the year which I'll write about once I can articulate to myself what the hell it is I'm trying to accomplish.

Hello nerds and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!! [image credit; pinterest] Welcome to my 2024 challenge~ My name is Shaar ❤️ and as of August of this year I will have been on the forums for 10 years! Nerd Fitness really changed my life; at this time 6 years ago I was the fittest and strongest I have ever been in my adult life. I was powerlifting and exercising consistently, dialing in my nutrition, and was sitting at 126lbs of strong determined fire. A lot has changed in the past 4-5 years for me - moving back to my home state of Massachusetts after the end of a long term relationship, the covid pandemic, juggling a new full time job that I enjoyed but was taxing and had a long commute, and most importantly, the sudden passing of my mom in late 2021 and all the trauma, stress, anxiety, depression, and eventually PTSD that came with that and having to deal with her estate as an only child. Y’all it did a NUMBER on me and I backslid more than I initially thought. Mentally, physically, emotionally, you name it. I coped in ways I probably shouldn’t have for longer than I should have and I let myself fall by the wayside a lot. There were a lot of breaking points that I never envisioned. 2023 was an eye opener for me and a year where I finally started to pick myself up, realize what was important, and gratefully have the avenue to pursue my better self again. With the help of my amazing husband I quit a job that wasn’t serving me, began taking care of myself and my home, and learned how to be FUCKING HAPPY again. My life has consistently been a wild ride and I’ve always been overcoming struggles and climbing mountains, but for a healthy chunk of last year I finally gave myself permission to stop climbing and just be, and slow down, and rest. And after it all, it’s just what I needed. I spent a lot of 2023 looking back - at the me I used to be, the life I used to lead, and just kind of reminiscing that I could never get back to that again. I got very stuck in a nostalgia loop and it rooted me in place for some time. But now I realize I don’t need to be back there, and instead I can move forward in a whole new way. AND I’M FUCKIN STOKED FOR IT The Lunar New Year for 2024 is the Year of the Wood Dragon. According to the ol’ internet (and Chinese history), the dragon is related to success, intelligence and honor in Chinese culture, while wood dragons are full of energy and dream of changing the world. I feel like I’m going into this year with a lot of drive and ambition and positive vibes, and am ready to hit the ground running to make my goals an absolute reality. The only thing standing in my way is me and I’m ready to harness the energy of the dragon and get shit DONE. [image credit; pinterest] 2024 LONG TERM GOALS » Dump this 15 lbs I've accumulated over the past few years. Currently 5’3” and 150, and would be over the moon to sit at 135 again. I’ve already taken progress photos and am ready to see where I’m at in a few months with all my hard work!! » Find a part time job that serves me. » Continue on my monk Path of 100,000 Punches. (Currently sitting at 19,609 according to my app) » Gain enough strength and mobility to be able to kayak and bike again. » Continue reducing alcohol and keep it at a bare minimum. » Read more than 20 books. I read 26 in 2023 and after a few years of barely reading anything, I’m SO HAPPY to be back into this habit. ❤️ CHALLENGE GOALS I quietly started setting a lot of foundations for my 2024 fitness goals in November and December, and I feel I’m at the point where my habits are ingrained enough to start pushing myself! Log food EVERY DAY. I’ve been tentatively doing this since December but I’m ready to make it a habit and continue keeping a close eye on my intake. Right now I’m using Cronometer and it’s got everything I need, and a really good food database too. I’m currently working at a 150-200 calorie deficit for most days (so about 1600-ish) and it’s been working just fine. Seeing the numbers is huge for me and being able to visualize what I’m putting into my body has retrained my eating - and portion - habits a lot. 80+g of protein most days. It’s a challenge to cram it into every meal but with decent planning it’s been going well! I’m hoping to achieve this at least 5 out of 7 days per week. Intentional movement 5 out of 7 days a week. What this looks like for me right now is usually 2 lifting days, 2 boxing or kickboxing days, and one walk/run day. Rest days are generally just rest or maybe some extra foam rolling or mobility if I need it. The Mountain of Howling Fists (our personal gym) is kitted out with a rack, barbell, plates and dumbbells, as well as a sick FightCamp boxing and kickboxing setup with a standalone bag and tracked workouts, as well as all of the recovery and mobility equipment I could ask for. My weekly walk/run/intervals lately have been at the local Planet Fitness to take advantage of their treadmills Because Winter. I have all the equipment and access I could ask for so there really are ZERO excuses here. I’ve been tracking my workouts on a big white board and will post them weekly here for accountability! Continue alcohol moderation. I basically backed off of drinking last month except around the holidays. It hasn’t been easy but the benefits are ENORMOUS and it’s super important to me to continue this streak. Again I’m giving myself three drink tickets this challenge to use if needed and whenever, but only three. And there we go! Honestly bigger stakes than any challenge I've really done recently but I'M HERE FOR IT and it's time for me to push forward with everything I've got. Thanks for visiting friends ❤️ and I'm grateful to have you around for the ride! LET'S DO THIS and show 2024 who's boss!!!!

You've got your regular London, right, then you've got what a lot of old Victorian followers of Isaac Newton called 'the demi-monde', a catch-all term for all sorts of magical creatures, spirits, gods, magical practitioners, general spooky shit, hangers-on, and people who wandered into the wrong pub one day and liked the atmos. Then you've also got your animated London. It's a lot like your actual London, but more two-dimensional, and the rubbish bits are more low-res. Which is nice. No less crime, though. Or weird bollocks. (One of the weirdest things about animated London is how it instantly shrinks my governor's suit collection down to one or two pieces. That must hurt. All that custom Dege and Skinner tailoring, gone. Including all the grey he favours. And the strangely villainous eyebrows. Although I asked him about those once, and got the impression he found them entertaining. Molly seems a lot less entertained about, uh, the teeth thing. Which I get, because it's probably sort of racist or something to draw them out like that. I got off pretty lightly, I just got a great six-pack, which, trust me, I do not have in regular three-dimensional life. I'm so not complaining. And Toby is a lot less yappy, which we all enjoy, even if it's not clear how he feels about it.) And then there's some of our colleagues over in the murder squad. You'd expect to find things like the strip club of Doctor Moreau in animated London, but it's not. That's in real London. Animated London has things like possessed cars, some black mould, a haunted tree... It's like there's more ethically challenged practitioners doing crazy shit in actual London, and a much higher concentration of enchanted objects and weird plant magic in animated London. So it totally should not have been surprising that this rogue magic happened here. What's more surprising is the involvement of one of Inspector Nightingale's magical trainees. Unlicensed hedge witches doing nature magic to usher in a new age of London? My boss is going to hate it.

Maintaining good cheer through the holiday season is a real challenge for me. My goal for this challenge is to stay cheerful for myself and pleasant to the people around me. In past years, I have stressed out about getting presents for people and doing All The Things. That pressure is lower now that almost all my nieces and nephews are grown up. My household does not celebrate Christmas. We usually have a very relaxed celebration for Yule, as close to winter solstice as feasible. This year has some new twists. Travel The challenge is starting and ending with travel. After my last trip this fall, I said I did not want to go anywhere for the rest of the year. That is flying out the window. I have taken steps to make these trips as enjoyable as possible, under the circumstances Trip Alpha This weekend Dumbledore and I are going back to LA to help our elderly friend move into senior housing. She has movers coming on Monday. Our job will be to help pack the remaining things before the movers arrive, then unpack after they leave. She is terribly disappointed that her nephews (who live nearby) are not willing to help her at all with this. Dumbledore and I are trying hard to stay out of the family drama that is happening. Dumbledore offered to go by himself, which was really sweet of him. I said that if he was going, we would both go. I am much happier about driving in LA traffic than he is. Having both of us there gives us better reasons to go and do things on our own rather than staying in the stressful environment of the house. We got a nicer hotel room and a smaller car for this trip. There is a YMCA in the neighborhood and Dumbledore has resolved to go and work out. I might go to the Y or I might make use of the exercise area at the hotel. I printed out a bunch of patterns for crochet snowflakes so I have a fun project to work on. Entirely frivolous and easily given away as gifts. 🎅I am going to take my stalled knitting project, just in case I get inspired. I hope we are not going to try to meet up with other people this trip because that took hours of driving last time. I would rather go for walks or relax in the hotel room. Trip Omega We will be going to visit my mom for Christmas. My brother's divorce has left her all alone this holiday season. My brother and his new fiancee are going out of town to visit her family. Apparently none of his kids are interested in visiting Grandmy. I find that sad, because they spent every Christmas Eve together while the kids were growing up. Mom was worried she would be all alone for the first time in her life. I am being a dutiful child and coming to visit. I am expecting a command performance of doing things her way and looking happy about it. My first step in making this a good trip was reserving a room at a hotel we like that has a hot tub. We will work on scheduling time to visit with friends and with Dumbledore's brother and his family. Having them in town is a great reason to spend only part of the weekend with my mom. I get along with her fine on my own, but she rubs Dumbledore the wrong way. We will invite Elf and Cleo to come along, but I doubt they will accept. Mid-December In the two weeks and two days between trips, I have several high priority items Sleep. Getting enough sleep makes being cheerful much easier. Rest and reflect. I have noticed that I cannot push myself to do things like I did so much over the last few years. My brain just rebels. It turns out that a lot of the things were rules I made up for myself that are not actually necessary. I want to give myself time to sit still, to read, and to ponder what is going on with my life. Make rosettes. I promised these to my spinning group. I will make a bunch and send them to my brothers and take some to mom. My grandma used to make them for us at all the holidays. Scrub my new hakama. I just purchased a traditional Japanese hakama that is indigo dyed. This is my first new hakama in 20 years. I went for the heavier (and more expensive) fabric, so I hope this will last me another 20 years. The problem is that indigo is a pigment dye and it sheds. I don't know how the tailors deal with it - my hands got blue just taking it out of the package. Maybe it was dyed after sewing, but I don't think so. I have washed it twice already (by hand) and it still left blue splotches on the mat last night. You could see exactly where I was taking falls. My dojo is getting a new mat in January and firmly said that any indigo hakama must be non-shedding by then. My weapons partner gave me tips on how to scrub it to get the loose dye out. That is it. I am not going to try to fit in anything else. I may not even get gifts for Dumbledore and Elf, although I will keep my eyes open. I will do zen if I feel like it. I have not done that for a week. So far, I am not noticing a difference. I feel like the zen is great when I have enough slack in my day, but not essential when I don't. Who knows, I may turn out to be wrong about that. Right now I would rather get to the dojo as often as I can.

Little children waiting for the Hogfather have one job: sleep. Thus I have one job this challenge. My sleep had me suspended from most of the last challenge. (Stupid wizards. And librarians.) My sinuses hate the dry winter air, and my ADHD hates rest, and they both need to be outsmarted. My challenge will consist of: Taking Stats Hours of sleep per night A sleep quality score that is totally made up The current weekly sleep deficit Sinus Care Hydrate well. 3 liters acceptable, 4 liters target. Moisturize my sinuses with some form of saline. Breathing exercises to make my respiratory wotsits happier. Sleep Practice Yoga nidra, to practice relaxation. A nap, to practice noticing when I need sleep. (Technically optional, but the day I'm not running a sleep deficit is the day I'll care about that.) Do something each day to make sleep more aesthetically appealing. I'll consider adding some exercises for sleep purposes but otherwise I'll just muddle along with my good enough for government work walking and isometrics.

After 10 years on NF, I hate to say it, but, I need a break from the forums. It's been great but I'm a little fatigued and not putting in the effort I used to, to be here and stick to my goals. But I figured I'll be around for one more challenge to say some goodbyes, let you all know what I'll be up to, and not just disappear. I'm not likely to quit entirely, or forever, but just taking an indefinitely long break. So here's a list of my biggest priorities over the next few months. 1) Get spiritually swole: As I've mentioned in previous challenges, I am converting to Orthodox Christianity. Today marks the first day of the Nativity Fast, and with this comes a lot of prayer, fasting, reading/studying, and attending extra church services etc. Then Great Lent and the Catechumenate start in February/March. Then I'll be baptized on May 4 (love that it's on May 4). So that'll be another big bout of fasting, reading, prayer etc. So I'll be quite busy and focused on all that, and I'm planning to disengage from a lot of screen time. 2) I mentioned in the last challenge that I've hung up my heavy bag. I"m considering joining an MMA gym. The goal is to focus on karate for all around fitness, and be able to do some boxing/kickboxing for conditioning, and dip my toe into BJJ when I need to get humbled. 3) Running: for karate/mma and general fitness I want to be running/jogging regularly. For now I'll be working on that first mile, and hopefully working up to running 5k and 10k. 4) Strength training: I want to go back to a more bodyweight focused training and max that out before I set up the old power cage again. But also, do some clean and presses. 5) Trying to find a new line of work: I'm burning out in my current job/company. Doing the same job at another company may or may not appeal to me. IDK. I want to do something else. I recently was offered an adjunct teaching role, but I turned that down because of the catchumenate/Lent because I can't make the time commitments with that going on. But I can dabble, learn about, and explore other things. So basically, this isn't goodbye forever, but I feel like I need to pull away from the forum and screens in general to recharge and focus on other efforts.

... 'Cause the holidays are here. Wraps? Get it? It's a PUN Y'ALL i know shaar give it a rest ANYWAY For the final challenge of 2023 (that's only 4 weeks instead of 5) I'm going to continue setting some ground rules and foundations for what I want to start achieving next year. I feel I'm finally at a point in my life where I can actually start striving for more again and start challenging myself, something I haven't felt in a LONG time, and I'm excited to get on that train and have some BIG ASS PLANS. But first I really need to make sure my groundwork is set for success. This challenge will consist of two things: THING THE FIRST Continue to get intentional movement days under my belt each week. Last challenge was 4 days, but this challenge I'm going to up it to 5. I know I have the resources and time to implement this habit now, the biggest one being getting out of my own way and just DOING it. No more of this it's too cold out bullshit, or I feel lazy bullshit - I have a whole ass gym two floors below me (it's in my basement) and, remember shaar, intentional movement can be as easy as (and as IMPORTANT as) yoga and mobility. I'm aiming for a nice mix between boxing and lifting with an active rest day or two of walking and mobility work. I will continue to grow my discipline with myself and not shortchange future shaar by doing this EVERY WEEK. THING THE SECOND Living a mostly sober lifestyle has been AMAZINGGGGG for me. Granted I feel I'm at a point in my life where the timing is very right to make this decision, but the impacts of better sleep, less brain fog, and less inflammation and overall achiness have been huge immediate benefits. But! I still enjoy drinking every once in a while when it is planned and moderated right, and I feel last challenge helped me learn that and help realize and implement it. Since the holidays are here, I am allowing myself three drink tickets over the course of this challenge! That's three nights of drinking, whether it be out for an event, socially, or at home snuggled up and playing whatever dumb game I've discovered lately that brings me joy. (currently: the talos principle, because it makes me feel like a genius - so far) .... wait nevermind this challenge will consist of THREE THINGS. Eheheheh THING THE THIRD this is the wrapping up part right here Each week I will post a master list of things I am going to work to get done before the end of the year. This can be anything from practical things like finish cleaning out my pants drawer, or reorganizing the pantry, or framing and putting up the art I've bought, to little fun things like trying the greek place downtown for lunch I've never been to, or taking a walk on a snowy day and getting some pictures of holiday lights. I really want to get a lot of these lingering tasks done and dusted before the new year so I can put that focus 100% on me and my goals, so I figured I'd combine the "must dos" with some fun "want to dos" to make it a little more fun. Zero week counts for me! So I'll post a mini list tomorrow. OK! That's my little old challenge to end out this year! Aaaaaaa HYPE TIME YEAH LET'S GET ITTTTTTT

Goal: 1/2 The name of the challenge gives away the whole thing, really. Basically, I've hit a point where I like myself more the more I meditate. I'm successfully carving out space for myself to make it happen - only 4 minutes at a time so far, but it helps. I want to stick to that amount for the rest of the challenge. As I've observed, small changes applied consistently without flash or fanfare create some truly substantive results. Also, between it being the end of the year and my own theological leanings, it just feels right. Beyond that, right now I'm just solving a bunch of optimization problems, mostly having to do with joint health and actively working to feel better. The writing's doing well; I've found myself adding organically to my cast of characters as I've needed to without having to bend or break the existing ones to Make The Plot Happen. That's something I wasn't sure I believed in myself enough to do but I'm really happy it's happening. One other thing is that I'm doing more to take care of my place these days - regular vacuuming and cleaning of even some spaces is actually really good for me, and it helps me feel accomplished in a way that doing my job does not. I've also been kind of crafty lately in that I made a cloth mallet out of a cast off chair leg and some scrapped sweat pants. A cloth mallet is a conditioning tool for the Iron Shirt stuff that I asked my brother about and finally getting that made was good. Also, I've finally learned how to step away from the job to go for short walks over the course of the day, including getting my errands done early, so when I get to the end of the day, I don't have all this extra stuff to do to get in my way for getting down early. I'm not saying that the meditation is doing all of that, because I don't think it is, but it's taking place in the context of all this extra stuff I'm doing right now and it's... helpful, I think. But, yeah, that's things for now. Happy to round out the year with y'all.

Took a week for me to figure out the one thing I want to change, and the way in which I want to change it. I've known for a while now that I need to get up earlier. I'm pretty good at starting to for a bit, but it doesn't take: eventually, something goes haywire somewhere and I wind up being up late and needing to sleep late to make up for it, and before long I've regressed to the old mean. Meaning (harrrr) that I need a new mean. Instead of getting up at 9:30 AM, I'm going to spend the next few weeks focusing on just getting up at 9:00 AM. Get myself used to what life looks like there get a feel for making happen what needs to happen when it needs to for me to hit that target consistently. I don't need to be perfect, but landing there 80% of the time should get me somewhere like where I need to be. Exciting news on the job front. I put in for a promotion last week, which I've said before I'd be a shoe-in for. Didn't have the means to put in previously as HR didn't open up any slots, but when they did this past month, I went for it. It's a decent bump in pay and apparently the extra work isn't that much harder. Other good news is that the job opened up overtime again! It's only a little bit, but it'll help the paycheck and the caseload, and that's all I really want. Also, figured out that the head cold is actually just seasonal allergies based on its responses to medication, so I'm cleared to get back to the mats. Though I still need to figure out how to honor both the job and my desires. Because the writing's going well and I'm not willing to negotiate on that. Ah well. It'll be sorted. In the meantime: Goal: 1/1.

I thought I was leaving Rivers of London this challenge. I have been informed that I am not. It would "confuse my training". But mostly I'm confused that fictional wizards get to make this decision on my behalf. I have no idea what my challenge is this time around. Wizard's doing it. Whatevs. Not my problem. New to Rivers of London? (Surely not. I'm sure I've recruited 25% of the forum by now.) Click here:

*sliiiides in with a cup of pumpkin spice coffee* WELP hello there~ ❤️ So TL;DR I was kinda 50/50 on doing a challenge this round because frankly I'm kinda lukewarm on the forums lately, but I'm like.... . next year I will have been here for TEN YEARS and jesus wept that's a long time. Plus everyone here is really the best person ever, all of you, you reading this, you are wonderful and a reason why this community is awesome. So why not give it another go yeah?? Anyways I am writing up this challenge because I have some habits I want to re-lay some foundations for and what better place than here? 1. The first goal is the big important one - I'm gonna STOP DRINKING. And by stop I mean stop except for special occasions and social events. I've always kinda on/off struggled with drinking - and it's not that I drink a lot in one sitting but it's more of the consistency. It affects a lot - my weight, my stomach, my skin, my sleep, my mental health.. on and on. I honestly enjoy drinking every so often so it's been hard! And it's been easier to sit down with a drink or two now that I don't have a job and I've been using it as a crutch for some of my stress and anxiety and I'm at the point where it's just, gotta STOP. I did a little experiment last week - I had no alcohol for 5 days and felt GREAT, then Friday night I had a few drinks that evening just to see how it would affect me. I slept like shit, woke up in the middle of the night hot and sweaty with a minor headache and just this wild!! anxiety over the STUPIDEST little things... and I was just like, ok, heard, no more of this. The after effects of drinking are at the point where it just hugely outweighs the enjoyment it brings me in the moment. Not gonna do this ANYMORE. I've attempted to curtail my drinking before but it never really panned out - frankly I'm not the best at enforcing my own rules - but for some weird-ass reason this time, I feel like it's the TIME. Like previously it's been kinda a heave-ho chore to work on drinking less but right now it doesn't seem like a chore at all, it's like something has clicked and it's like.... oh, ok, cool. It's hokey as hell but I feel like I'm being called to do this right now. I'm ready and I'm honestly EXCITED. I'm looking forward to only drinking as a once in a while treat. I'm looking forward to enjoying this better mental health and joy and clarity I've gained from NOT drinking consistently. I'm looking forward to better health benefits and being able to pursue the goals I want to. I'm looking forward to making this conscious choice DARNIT I do know this will be hard at points so I am giving myself four drink tickets for this 6 week challenge. (yes zero week is included heheh) I can have a few drinks at 4 points over this challenge and that is IT. Each time I do I turn in a ticket, and if/when I'm out of tickets, that's it! I'm also really interested in reporting back the effects of how drinking affects me at this point. I'm so invested in this goal that I'm doing something I NEVER do and giving myself a reward at the end of this challenge if I complete it successfully. There's a super cute FFXIV-themed crossbody bag that is SO my style and I want it realllll bad but it's a whole $75 and yeah I could just buy it but I think it'd be better if I made the purchase MEAN something, you know? 2. Intentional movement more days than not during a week. I had been doing really well with this, then we adopted Hiko and my life turned into Kitten and Cat Damage Control and everything else kinda flew out the window. Things have settled (kindaaaaaa) over the 2 weeks we've had them both co-existing and I feel very ready to get back into this routine! Ideally I'd like one day to get outside and do a good fall hike/walk, two days of lifting, and 1-2 days of getting back into my boxing training BUT I am not beholding myself to any strict schedule, just get myself moving more days than not and it's a win. Once I re-build the habit the rest will fall into place. AND THAT'S IT Those are my main two goals and I'm keeping it SIMPLE so I can start rebuilding my foundation. I've had so much crap happen to me over the past *checks watch* five years that I've just slowly gotten off track.. I've lost a lot of strength and fitness overall and let my habits I worked so hard to instill slip in the face of stress and despair and life tragedies that I'm kinda back at square one. But that's okay 'cause I can only build up from here! I promise to check in as often as I can and also pay the cat tax~ ❤️❤️ ( my beautiful and chaotic sons coexisting aaaaaa )

This gives a good feel of the track I'm on. I am continuing with the musubi theme that has been working for me this year. Adapt to circumstances and deal with things in a way to make them end better than they started. Goals: Sleep continues to be my top priority. I make much better decisions and am a much nicer person when I get enough sleep. Down time. I have been pushing myself to the limit a lot of the time. Some of my sleep problems are due to Revenge Bedtime Procrastination. My life will be better if I allow myself time to do fun, creative and relaxing things. Some zen every day. Ten minutes a day is fine. More is also fine. My zen teacher says that continuity is important. Maybe I will see something shift if I am more consistent. It will certainly be a more comfortable conversation with my teacher the next time I go to a zen group session. Some exercise most days. I have not been able to stick to a regular schedule. That is okay. I can do walking, aikido, yoga, core exercise, rowing and strength training as they fit in my daily schedule. I can even take a day off here and there. All the other projects can happen when I have energy for them. I will not be bored.

The Hibernation Project is in effect The next couple months are about rest and maintenance. I'm going to survive the holidays and the cold winter of the north by turning down the intensity, turning up the recovery and getting ready to get some stuff done in the new year. Anyone who's read me, the format will be pretty much the same: complain, complain, bikini shots, complain..oh wait, that's my instagram. I'll continue logging the same things but trying to keep the focus on physical efforts a bit dialed back and use these months to continue to work on my sleep and recovery. Calendar Week 0 (October 16 - 22) - Strength deload/reset (brining back dumbbells), In-Laws visiting over the weekend Week 1 (October 23 - 29) - normal Week 2 (October 30 - Nov 5) - normal Week 3 (November 6 - 12) - normal Week 4 (November 13 - 19) - Likely parent visit Week 5 (November 20 - 26) - normal As you can see, I have an uneventful calendar coming up, which is lovely be me Standard Week Monday - BJJ Tuesday - Strength + BJJ (hardest day of my week) Wednesday - BJJ Thursday - Strength (easiest day of my week) Friday - BJJ Saturday - Strength (most commonly missed workout of the week due to errands, family visits, etc) Sunday - BJJ (2 hour open mat) Standard Week Day 0530 - 0600 wake up and make coffee 0600 - 0730 begin work 0730 - 0800 breakfast 0800 - 1000 work 1000 - 1300 training & lunch 1300 - 1530 work 1530 - 1600 afternoon meal 1600 - 1700 work 1700 - 1800 guitar 1800 - 1900 dinner prep 1900 - 2000 dinner 2000 -2100 clean up 2100 - 2200 in bed relaxing 2200 - lights out Starting about 5 pm theres more wiggle room than the schedule above implies but I was just trying to set out a basic template. I never get a full hour of guitar practice there but sometimes work runs over, other times dinner prep will take a little longer so I start earlier. The biggest takeaways are that I train midday which is a great feature of my work-life balance and that, as a result, my workday is split in two big chunks. Also, I like to got to bed early but I also get up pretty early. Areas of focus during this challenge BJJ - I've focused pretty hard on this over the summer so I'm back off this focus. I'm still training 5 days a week but I'm being more playful and seeing what emerges. I'm taking chances in rolls to get out of my comfort zone. I'll keep working on escaping pins and I'll take some shots at leg locks Strength- I had an injury over the summer that I'm still shaking off so I'm sticking to dumbbells and machines only. I'm aiming for hypertrophy more than strength gain. I'm in my mid forties and don't have much opportunity to gain muscle left in my life. Diet - After losing 30 lbs over the summer my goal is to hang around 215ish through the new year before I make another big push in January & February. I and people around me are still adjusting to my bodyweight. Sleep - I have had very bad sleep habits in the past. I continue to work on them. I was able to make some improvements in the last challenge so I'm going to keep pushing on this Mobility - It's been a long running challenge for me to get some basic stretched and/or yoga. I fully realize those are not synonymous but for now, I'll take either. If you look at the schedule above, there's no room for it. This remains a challenge for me. Guitar - I've been practicing for years and been pretty meh about it. I'm trying to build a better habit. The biggest thing I am seeking in guitar right now is finding an intrinsic drive to play more. I have played out of discipline and block headedness so far but I want to learn to want to pick up the instrument. Games - This is new this challenge but I've been dabbling in it. I'd like to intentionally spend a little more time gaming, board or video. Enough setup