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This is what happens when you have been reading both American Gods and Norse Mythology. You start imagining you can rock it with the Norse Gods. Also it helped me limit what I wanted to do. Kinda. Overall, my goals and Big Why have been wobbling for a long, long time when it came to things outside of the dojo and the mat. I am starting to think up new Whys and that's allowing me to hone in on goals a bit more than I've really been able to in a long while. The very-much-reduced stress level of mine has been a huge help, and how conveniently work is located to everything in my life is also kind of amazing and helpful. 1) Feast of Valhalla: Mostly Primal eating, with Intermittent Fasting on Social/Provided food days. So I've been working on dialing my diet back in. Partially this is because with a new job, I can afford to go out and be social, and also because I'm now introduced to so much extra food at work. By and large that last part is still not terrible - of all the places I've worked this place has the healthiest food options. Couple of sugary granola bars, but I actually need the carbs at this point, and snacking on one or two isn't terrible. And once a week they provide lunch (yesterday was delicious Indian food), which so far has only been pizza once. Aim is for like, 85% Primal-approved things most days. Days where I know I'm going to be social or provided food I want to fast a bit in the morning just to offset that stuff. Though my current workout routine "fast" should probably be in quotes, since I'll drink a protein shake post-lifting I think. 2) Gaze of Odin: Track all food and exercise. Take Progress Photos once a week. Odin sacrificed his eye to gain wisdom and vision. I need to take a bit of a step back and track things a bit more diligently again. The food I've always been good at, but I also usually skimped adding in the exercise I did, because hey, bigger deficit to work with, amirte? Turns out that's a terrible idea. I spent the last 9 months working towards being okay with eating more food.... by eating a bit too much food. I'm ~10 pound over where I was before Camp NF, and definitely much softer in areas I don't want to be soft in. So I set my MFP to a BMR of 2400, and will track my exercise. I am allowed a deficit of only up to 500 calories per day. Any larger deficit and I am required to eat something. Going over is actually also okay. If I need the food I need the food. The fact I'm okay with regularly eating 3,000 calories and feel okay with that should be seen as an amazing feat for those who've seen me wrestle with my weight and worries about getting fat again. But I've been feeling good the last couple days in this dry run of mine. So I'm feeling hopeful. 3) Might of Thor: Alternate twice-a-week and four-times-a-week lifting routines. Clearly Thor has the muscle, even if he doesn't have many brains. So I am kind of cheating here I guess. I was gifted two different lifting programs specifically for me, both of which take into account aikido AND November project. One is twice a week, for my classical Monday-Friday lifting plans. The other is a 4-times-a-week deal, because at the time I wasn't sure how terrible traffic was and if I would just decided to get a gym membership near my work and then just lift early in the morning to avoid traffic. Turns out traffic isn't terrible, but I've been doing the 4x week program this week and I don't actually mind it that much. That said, I can see myself burning out, which is where the rotation comes in. The 4x week lets me work on volume and conditioning. The 2x a week is more full body. Also the 2x a week allows me two days of sleeping past 0530, which I kind of like. It also means I won't feel crazy if suddenly I have to miss a workout. Hell, the way the workouts are planned, if I can only make 3 on a 4x week, I can always do two of the 4x workouts and then one of the full body ones. Lots of flexibility that I can play with. 3) The Plots of Loki: Adulting Duties and Chores Declutter the apartment, 5 minutes per day Get car serviced/fixed Get car inspected Set up an instagram for the dojo Get at least two postings done on IG for the dojo Write up a proposal for a Beginner Aikido Seminar series course for the Dojo board Dinner with the work team at the Boss' house (7/12) Good Riddance bye Party for BigM (7/15) Probably some other things I forgot, but may or may not update The plotter and schemer of the Aesir, multiple plots always running through his life. Loki just gets into trouble, but has been known to be surprisingly helpful to his adopted family. He is chaos, but a chaos that gets thing accomplished. I'm keeping this list small, but I have some big stuff things that NEED to be done by the end of the challenge. Notably I want to rip my apartment apart and declutter it, and I need car stuff done. So, those get the top of the list. And so there's that. An actually fairly simple challenge for me. Time to rock this World.

Newest batch of progress photos. 7/8/2016: 222 lbs. 8/8/2016: 215 lbs. I'm still on level 3 gym, but I'm right about to graduate from 40 lb dumbbells and going up to 45 very shortly. I've also modified the number of reps and going 10 reps of each exercise instead of 5, according to some advice I've gotten from a few Facebook friends and a few suggestions from the Facebook men's forum. I can do 8 unassisted chin-ups and do a 20-second bar hang, but that's not enough to defeat Thunderlord Oversquat yet. I'm working to take care of my mental health this month. I recently had some personal events happen to me in my life over the past couple weeks, and I really felt at times on edge, depressed, angry, and happy. I've had some mood swings, and I started to feel like I'm scaring some of the people I love. So I've been using an online therapist for a while, and I'm seeing a psychologist tomorrow afternoon to get some additional insight and help in getting myself back to a sound mind to go with my sound body. And as anyone who knows Soul Eater knows, "A sound soul dwells within a sound mind and sound body." I hope to make more progress by the time September 8 rolls around- by then I should be well under 210 lbs. Wish me luck, and thanks for your support.