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Looks like I took an unexpected trip to the spirit world again. I'm still a little bit disconnected so the fast travel seems to be switched off. I'm switching things up again for this quest. I do love switching. I will be doing a different set of quests each week. I'm not making these quests up on my own since I've had issues sticking ith self-created quests. For the first two weeks, I'll be sticking to Rising Heroes quests since I signed back up with them for a month. I thought rejoining would help me get my priorities straight since the first month I had tried it out was a huge success for me. Once the RH is done for the month I'll switch back to the academy quests and log those here. Glad you could make it. Let's see where this quest leads.

Holy crap guys! This is my first themed challenge of 2016, and I’m hoping it will be a silly/weird/fun one! This month is definitely going to be an adventure - the Crossfit Open is in progress, podcasting is getting super serious, St. Patrick’s day and my Mom’s birthday are this month, I’m going to be making some big adjustments in my diet, there are serious changes happening at work, I have some health stuff going on to plan for, aaaaand I’m partaking in my first ever Ranger Mini Challenge. So, in light of all this, I figured what better theme to cover all the shenanigans than... ____________________________________________ Adventure 1 - I don’t want to hurt you, but you should know - things get crazy when I’m hungry. Meet protein goal no less than 5 days/week. +2 CON | +1 STR | +1 WIS Per my coach (who is also a certified nutritionist), I tracked my food all of last week to find my baseline intake for protein. Starting this week, she wants me to increase my intake to 145-150g per day - slightly less than 1g/lb. I’m averaging about 82g/day right now, so this is going to be somewhat challenging for me. To take a little of the guesswork out of it, I’ve come up with a super basic daily meal ‘plan’. It only lists proteins, everything else (sides, veggies, how the protein is cooked or served, order in which I eat them, etc) is up to me when I’m doing my weekly meal prep. The majority of my protein is going to come from shakes (protein powder), chicken, fish, eggs, and greek yogurt. Other suggestions are welcome Adventure 2 - Puncha yo buns! Increase Crossfit to 3 WODs + Open every week +3 STR | +2 STA At the end of the last challenge (so, last week), I made the decision to upgrade my membership at my crossfit gym. RIght now I have the 3x/wk plan, but I have always had the intention of one day upgrading to the unlimited option. Well, I think now is that time. I’m becoming more confident in my abilities, I’m starting to lift heavier (though nothing crazy yet), and I really want to put more time towards attaining my goals. My membership won’t upgrade until the middle of the month, but because of the Open we’re allowed to come in to complete the WOD (or re-do it). This is the perfect time to start getting into a 4x/wk schedule, join in on the Oly class weekly, and then eventually crank it up to 5x in a later challenge. Adventure 3 - Let’s go kick their digital bootays! Participate in my first Ranger Mini Challenge +2 STA | +1 DEX I think it’s finally time that I join in on the Ranger Mini - and what a time to do so! I was part of the generation that grew up on the original Pokemon show, it was a big part of my childhood. I can’t believe the franchise has reached it’s 20th anniversary already... Anyway, my team is in the next post. Adventure 4 - Ah nah...I am not getting eaten by zombies tonight… Keep on top of my research for the podcast +2 CHA | +1 WIS For those of you who do not know, my friend and I host a horror themed podcast where we talk about a different movie every week. We started working on this at the beginning of the year, and now we’re about 10 episodes into recording. At this point, we’re looking to add more structure and elements to the show - reformat it a bit. We’re branching out to video games, books, possibly comics, and whatever else we can find. This is awesome and I’m super excited, but it also means more research and time working on it outside of the ‘studio’. Recording is done every other week, which gives me plenty of time to complete my set of show notes. It’s going to be a matter of making the time, and setting up a prioritized schedule for myself so that I’m not going crazy at the last minute (which is what I’ve been doing…). For this I’ll be using my new-ish planner; I’ll fill it out in 2 week sections to keep the work manageable and spread out. I’ll post pictures of my planner if necessary to keep myself on track. What I have to do: - create check list of topics - set schedule in planner - complete research/type up show notes

Yay, it’s 2016! Where did the time go…. I can’t believe we are starting this new challenge already; it feels like just yesterday we were setting up goals for break. A lot has happened in these brief few weeks, all leading up to what is sure to be a very exciting year. Originally, I had a super kickass theme for this challenge, but have decided to hold off until I have the new system down pat. I’m also still working on a way of tying all my challenges together, as opposed to last year’s almost-randomness. This is going to be used more as a way of getting myself into specific habits, and for that reason some of these may continue on into future threads. (As a forewarning, this is not 100% complete - I’ve been waiting to post it until the new character creation has gone live, but that hasn’t happened yet - as far as I’ve seen - and I’m tired of waiting. Once that is up, I will have a better idea of the scoring system and can update this post with that information.) _______________________________________________________ Goal 1: Raising the Bar During winter break I joined a crossfit gym, completed my foundation classes, and started going as a legitimate member. Currently, I have the ‘base’ membership, but I think in a few months time I will upgrade to the unlimited (for goal reasons). Until then, I need to make sure I am in the habit of going there on a consistent basis. The plan was for this to happen before the challenge started, but the holiday hours didn’t mesh with my schedule very well. As my membership allows me to be there no more than 3 times per week, that is my goal. Possible days will be Mon/Wed/Fri or Mon/Thurs/Sat depending on what is planned for the week. _______________________________________________________ Goal 2: Balance and Stretch As a way to both relax and help rehab/stretch out sore crossfit muscles, I’m going to include NF yoga on non-CF days. I’ve used it on and off since I bought it, but would like to turn it into an actual thing I do instead of something I do when I happen to remember and feel like doing it. As with CF, the goal is 3x/wk (minimum). _______________________________________________________ Goal 3: A Drop of Water Yup, that’s right, I need more water. I drink a fair amount, but usually only on workout days. That’s not good enough for me. It will help regulate my appetite and should hopefully curb any cravings. Minimum intake is 60oz, which is a little more than my main water bottle (38oz). I’m sure I’ve had this as a goal before (my memory is not working right now), but I clearly wasn’t focusing on making it a permanent thing. _______________________________________________________ Goal 4: Domestic RangeringTM I’ve had a really hard time pinning down what to use as my life goal for this challenge due to the number of activities I have going on this month and year. Ultimately, I’ve decided to focus on Domestic RangeringTM as that is the area where I need the most work. Specifically, I want to spend 15min every day doing some kind of decluttering and/or cleaning. If I do more, great, but it’s not going to count as extra points or whatever the scoring ends up being. Obviously if I am not home for a day, I will allow myself a pass. The only thing that will not be included as part of the 15min is washing the dishes, because I do that anyway. As a secondary element to this goal, I want to try to make it kind of fun by throwing some music on and/or making a game out of it (how much can I clean/put away within the time frame, or during this song, etc). I think that this will help solidify it as a daily task and make it less of a chore (even though it kind of is). _______________________________________________________ Outside of this challenge, I have a bunch of other goals/projects going on, including: •Make it Forward Project: during each month of 2016 I will create one handmade gift for someone. I’m currently looking for recipients (I have 11 months open as of 1/4), so if you’re interested and would like to learn more check out the post I made about it in my Battle Log. •I’m aiming to read 12 books by Dec 31, 2016. List is pending. •Soon to be revealed podcast projects that I’m working on with some friends. There’s more ‘info’ about this in the same post as the Make it Forward Project. Once I’m able to give more info away, I will absolutely be posting about it. I’m super excited for this one All of these, and more, will be posted in my Battle Log. I’d like to keep my challenge thread as challenge oriented as possible, but I will probably post about some of these things (or at least give links) as they happen. Finally, I’m sure I will be updating and revising this as the week goes on and the character creation info goes up. I’ll be sure to make a note if there are any drastic changes.

I'm enough of a nerd I like to listen to podcasts while on long runs AND IT'S FINALLY GETTING WARM ENOUGH IN THE MORNINGS! Anybody else listen to podcasts? I like Trail Runner Nation and on the educational side Freakonomics and This American Life. What podcasts do you listen to while running?