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I'm late to the party again but showing up is better than not showing up at all, right? I had a big life change happen just before the new challenge started and I am currently unemployed. It was a stressful time leading up to it and it not only impacted my time but also my health. I was not sleeping well, my resting heart rate and blood pressure were a little elevated, my mind was all over the place and my energy was almost nonexistent. I was able to still workout but not at the same mental or physical level as before. The last two weeks have been incredible. I have been more active, doing things around the house and my heart rate and blood pressure are better than ever even though I turned 55 after my last day at work. My weight has dropped about 3 pounds, and I am noticing a decrease in stress related inflammation. I am eating better and am working toward a modified Keto diet. For this challenge, it's time to get my training back into high gear. I have been focusing on mobility work, lower body strength and core work, which is already progressing nicely. Karate is still my main focus, but I am starting to branch out from structured Shotokan roots and am focusing on the feeling of the techniques instead of the perfect form at the end of the techniques. The next part is starting my video channel of short videos that show the training techniques that I have learned over the last 17 years and offering some Shotokan Zoom classes. 1. Mobility, lower body strength and core 5 days a week. I have a good workout in place, but I want to keep it consistent. I will outline the workout shortly, but the goal is to do it 5 days a week. 2. Karate training 5 days a week for 20 minutes. I do more than 20 minutes of training, but I also want to have enough energy to do the goal above. I am starting to do kata throughout the day to focus on the feeling of the movements. 3. Create a plan for the videos and Zoom classes by challenge end. This has been in my mind for some time now and I already have a student that I train through Zoom for some time now. Extra credit: Dig deeper into a relaxation and flow state. Even though I am more relaxed than I have been in many years, I want to get back to mediation and try to mix it with stretching. I have a program that teaches flow state that I haven't started and that is something that I have wanted to do but didn't have the time until now.

This challenge is all about taking what I gained over the last two challenges and putting it all together. I had 10 weeks of solid training and two weeks of wind down and now it's time to clean up and polish my katas for my competition in 12 days. This is going to be a simple challenge with some small but important goals. 1. Put the final coat of polish on my kata. 25 per week With less then two weeks to go, I am not going to make any big changes to my kata. Power and speed are at their peak and now some small adjustments are needed to clean it up. 2. Mobility training. Keep the body moving and pain free with four mobility workouts per week I think I will get more than four each week but at least four is the goal. 3. Meditate with the focus on relaxation. Keep the muscles and mind relaxed three times a week I still meditate each day but some extra focus is needed on keeping my muscles and my mind in a relaxed state. I have some old meditation tracks that I found that I used to do before Karate classes and it helped keep my head in the right place. Three a week should be easily doable. Extra credit: One good blog post. Since this hasn't been going well, the number target is lower but it has to be one good blog post. I have something in mind already and now it just needs to be typed.

Hello again! I'm a little late getting into the game here! A couple of the tools I wanted to bring from my previous challenges were the meal planning that I was doing so intensely during the last challenge and actually tracking my workouts. Unfortunately, like so many others on here, I was brought down by the sickness! All of last week I was down for the count with all of the debuffs. This really limited my workouts (to 0) but I maintained my eating and increased my vitamins for that week. I am back on the train though! I got in my first workout in a week, last night, and I'm feeling much better despite my lingering cough. For this Challenge: Meal Plan, Meal Plan, Meal Plan This has been so crucial to my lifestyle changes. Even though I haven't been as strict about the planning part, I've generally maintained my eating guidelines - no processed, hardly any added sugar, small portions = better choices. I have a couple of cheat meals a week (a girl's gotta live! and cheat days could destroy my whole week so I choose carefully), and I try to drink about 100 oz of water each day. Keep using my meal plan and plan future meals This helps with grocery shopping and making sure that I actually have snacks available! Tally in my water for the day It's really easy to forget to hydrate throughout the day. This way, I'm making sure it's happening and can chug if I'm behind! Any way to get it down. Food diary As I go, I check off things I ate and edit to other things if I didn't stick to my plan! This gives me a real look at what I'm eating so later I can see what didn't work and plan accordingly. Move. Push. Sweat. A LOT. I cancelled my gym membership because I realized I don't have the personality to really push myself - especially when I was around so many other people (empath problems). I'm not competitive at all and coaching doesn't work for me because I don't take physical criticism well, or worse, I underreport the discomfort/pain because "I can do it" and I overdo it and end up tearing or really damaging my muscles. No go. So what's worked well for me, after much experimentation, is workout videos at home. I bought the digital versions of 30 Day Shred and Yoga Meltdown, both by Jillian Michaels, and maaaaan do I sweat it out. I'm in the comfort of my home, it takes 20-30 minutes from start to finish, and then I can cool down and walk 20 feet to the bathroom to shower. Works way better for me so I'm much more likely to do it! Work out 4 days a week, even if it's just 1 video! Relax & De-Stress In all of the whirlwinds that have been happening lately, I haven't been doing a very good job at taking care of my sanity. The great bedtime habits I created a couple months ago have disappeared and I am back to a generally overflowing schedule. It's no wonder I got sick and I've been losing meal plan momentum! Time to turn that around and give myself back some clarity and time. This can be accomplished in a lot of ways but some of the items that seem to be good for me are: 3 days a week: Read for pleasure Take a bubble bath At home mani-pedi Color in a book Take a short hike Go for a drive This is it! I'm starting a little late but I'm on it! I'm excited to keep seeing results!

Terinatum steps forward into the present and onward to small future moments. Goal #1 : drink water - ultimate goal is drink up to 9 cups per day The present day goal is to keep ahead of my Dr Pepper intake. I want to drink 20 oz of water for every 8 oz of soda. My goal is to drink no more than 2 - 8 oz cans of Dr Pepper each day. I will list my daily intakes of both here at least three times per week. Grade: A=80% of goal reached (on average per week) STAT bonus = +2 CON Goal #2 : Relaxation - stress reduction "Gots ta chill, babygirl." I can do this for at least 15 mins per day. It can be: a walk in the park, literally not figuratively; Listen to music and meditate or chair dance; free write about anything; or work on house design. Grade: A=5/7 days on average (per week) STAT bonus = +2 CHR Goal #3: Healing the Body - my body gets priority This is going to build up each week. Week One: evening prayer for healing during sleep. Let my brain know that it needs to work on clearing out my body. So Brain, please do not throw a bunch of swirling words and images at me while I try to nod off. I will comment on whether I prayed and how I felt in the morning. Week Two will incorporate a morning prayer for efficient use of food for the day. Let my brain know that my body can talk and tell me what it wants. Listen and Act. Week Three will add an afternoon quiet sit to reflect on the day so far and see where energy needs to be cleared out or added in. Week Four will be me starting up my Tai Chi Yang style long form again. As long as I do some, I don't care how long or how much I re-learn. Starting the habit is all this is about. Grade: A=5/7 days on avg (per week) STAT bonus = +2 STA Goal #4 Go to Community Fitness - work the program I have started this and it's going fairly well. I will comment on: my activities; emotional well-being; keeping the focus on me and not become an unneeded leader; and how well I'm doing with my homework between classes. Grade: A=??? STAT bonus = +2 STR Okay, that's how it stands atm. We shall see where the day takes us.

Over the course of this challenge, I will power myself up from typical woman msblt82, to super-powered awesome Sailor Neptune! At then end of my challenge, assuming I succeed, I will change my forums name from msblt82 to something cool aND Sailor Neptune-y NEPTUNE PLANET POWER! 1. Eat a veggie with lunch & dinner every day: +1 Str +1 Wis *Week one: 100% *Week two: 100% *Week three: 100% *Week four: 100% DEEP SUBMERGE! 2. No soda after work: +2 Con +1 Wis *Week one: 100% *Week two: 100% *Week three: 100% *Week four: 100% NEPTUNE CRYSTAL POWER! 3. Exercise three times a week: +2 Sta +2 Con +2 Dex *Week one: 33% (got sick) *Week two: 100% *Week three: 100% *Week four: 100% SUBMARINE REFLECTION! 4. At least 60 mins non screen relaxation (book, board game, card game, social time, etc) a day: +2 Wis +2 Cha *Week one: 75% (got sick, unless sleep counts as non-screen time ) *Week two: 100% *Week three: 100% *Week four: 100%

MAIN QUEST: Keep on keeping on. Re-establish habits to make me a happier, well-balanced person. Break necks with my thighs. As of the last challenge, I hit my weight goal. Now it's all about maintaining and focusing on my mental well-being. Also, keeping up with jiu jitsu. Those three months of no bjj really show, and I need to re-learn the things I've lost, and continue to work on the things that I'm learning. Everything is shades of progress. THE CHALLENGE: Collect hearts to fill my crystal bottle. I mentioned in the last challenge that I was starting to feel burned out - not just in life, but on challenges. Building habits takes work and commitment, but with only a week or so between challenges, it's easy to burn out. Add in that I have a vacation coming up where my usual routine will be disrupted (yay Mexico!), I really need a break. However, I also recognize that, for me, a break will likely signify not coming back (at least I'm honest). So I'm going to do something a little different from what I've been doing. Instead of the usual 3 habit quests + life quest, I'm going to do one challenge, grab bag style. In order to complete this challenge, I have to collect 400 hearts by the end of the challenge, which averages out to about 67 hearts a week. The 'hearts' are points, and points are earned by completing activities. Of the 400 total points, I have to have at least 50 in each activity category. I've grouped out the activities into the four general categories I usually do for quests: Exercise, Food, Mental Health, and Fun. Some of the activities can only be achieved once (it's hard to, say, get multiple 3rd stripes on my belt, or hit 25 books read more than once), while others can be reaped daily if I so choose (I likely won't choose, because the whole point of this is to be fun and relaxing). Some activities have really high points because of the difficulty (3rd stripe, race PR, hitting 50 books read, etc) while others have relatively low points because it's feasible for me to do them daily/they're habits (taking my pre-natal, getting 8 hours of sleep, etc). So, without further ado, here's my crystal bottle! THE BONUS CHALLENGE: Participate on the forums & Ioryogi's special challenges As the type of challenge suggests, this is a BONUS, not a requirement. I used to do a good job of keeping up on the forums, participating in the Courtyard, keeping up with my challenge log, etc, and then I fell off the wagon. Hard. Part of it was feeling overwhelmed with everything that was going on. Part of it was just pure laziness. So, when I'm not feeling overwhelmed and I have free time, I'm going to try to improve upon the following: Updating: I've been trying not to use the internet at home - I'd rather spend my time playing video games or reading, or cuddling with my wife - and I used to do the bulk of my updates at home before bed. But that was when I had set goals. This goal is set up so that I really just have to keep a weekly total, so updating at work will make it a little easier. Other People's Threads: I had this habit of following ALL THE PEOPLE! and wanting to give ALL THE SUPPORT!, but that's a sure fire way to have me feel overwhelmed and trail off a few weeks in. This challenge, I'm going to be mindful of who I follow, and I'm going to try to comment every so often to show support. The Courtyard/Minis: I've just been lazy. Really going to just try to be around more. THE BONUS CHALLENGE PART 2: Ioryogi's special challenges In addition to the being around thing, I'm also adding in the following bonus minis, but these ones will net points! Study Spanish: I'll be going to Mexico during week 4 of the challenge, and since I will inevitably have someone speak Spanish to me (I look mixed, but Spanish speakers tend to see me and start talking to me in Spanish during the summer, curse you tan!), I'd rather not stare blankly at them. I was decent as Spanish before moving to Colorado, so it's really just a matter of reviewing. +5 points for every hour studied (Fun Category) Let Maaya Pick My Food: I'm crap at eating lately, and I have to be completely and say that I've never even bothered to look at macros (not since the Great Sugar Challenge, anyway). So, in an attempt to get back on the eating well bandwagon (and see what balanced macros feels like), I'm going to let starsapart pick my food. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks. If she doesn't choose it (or okay it within my macros), it doesn't go in my mouth. +25 points for every week she picks my food (Food Category) Watch BJJ Videos: As last challenge showed, I'm really bad at this. I recognize the positive impact/potential of it, but I'm just lazy, and let's be honest - watching these videos is boring. +5 points for every video watched - max of 10 points per day (Fitness Category) THE POINTS Because my grab bag kind of addresses everything, I'm just going to go with a nice easy point system for this challenge (are you sensing a theme here, yet? dumb down my challenge enough that even Kobato could achieve it): STR : 2 DEX : 2 STA : 2 CON : 3 WIS : 3 CHA : 3 THE WISH aka the rewards So, since I'll be running my very first half marathon in November, I'm going to make my reward be this: if I can pass this challenge, I will buy myself a brand new running costume/outfit for the race - including accessories (but not including shoes). THE STARTING LINE to come night before/day of challenge The Pictures The Measurements Neck: Chest: Waist: Hips: Thigh: R: L: Bicep: R: L: Weight: 158.8lbs Dress/pants size: 8

Name: Hammlin "Hammi" Race: Wood Elf | Class: Footpath Ranger Leader Level: 19 (STR):44.25 (DEX):41.25 (STA):32 (CON):31.25 (WIS):31.5 (CHA):27.25 Motivation: Bacon Bits continues to grow and he has begun to KICK. Mr Ham and I have decided that he takes after his dad and has already begun his karate training. I am apparently rocking an internal Dojo. My challenge quests are focused around the 12 week Bradley Natural Childbirth classes that we just started- designed to let me have a drug and mostly doctor free labor. Main Quest: Be Healthy for Bacon Bits (baby) Part III (June 9 - July 19) Missions: 1. Relax. 10 minutes, twice per day I will either take a nice calm quiet walk or use my Brainwave app. 2. Exercise. I have a checklist of pre-labor exercises that I am supposed to do everyday. 3. Tracking. The childbirth class that I'm in has specific food/macro-nutrient/dietary recommendations that we mark off and hand in at the next week class, all designed to help baby get what he needs. Life Quest: 4. Home. Things have taken a drastic turn since the start of the last challenge. In a story that is too long and personal to explain via the interweb, we sold our house (close June 23rd) and will be living with my mother in law for a couple months while we look for something that is more suitable for our family. The quest is to find a home by September.... Yikes... Like the last challenge, I won't be tracking or grading myself. I just need to be mindful and focused right now. I don't need one more thing to do or feel bad about, if I forget.

I considered making legit, fancy goals for this between-challenge period, but I don't think that's going to happen. And I think I can do better with something a bit more nuanced that takes into account all the buts and becauses and wherefores and so on. So roughly, my goal is to a) survive Christmas and recover from it enough to hit the next challenge at full speed. The Christmas survival thing is tough. I'm visiting my parents, and without going into too much detail, there are both massive fundamental issues between us and minute-to-minute annoyances that make things pretty tough. (And that's not far from literal; it would be an exaggeration to say that a full 60 seconds never goes by without my dad screaming about something or my mom trying to put food in my face, but I don't know that it would be an exaggeration to say that a full 5 minutes never passes without one of those things occurring.) Moreover, we were visiting my brother's in-laws for Thanksgiving -- since they host a big party, my parents were on their best behavior then. But now, it's just me here, so they can be themselves in full force. I'm not calm and won't be until I leave, which is mercifully only three days away. And I haven't done well with my diet, but I'm trying not to stress out too much about that -- again, it's a short time to deal with it. I have established the precedent of taking long walks on my own, which helps, and I also brought some work to do... I think it will be fine. After getting home comes the ramping up to full speed for my next challenge. That will involve restoring the diet to what it should be (and ideally reaching the same weight I was at before the holidays), getting back into my exercise routine (which involves classes with instructors who push me, rather than being solely responsible for myself), and re-acquainting myself with a writing project that I've pushed to the back burner for the past couple months. I should also actually formalize and write down my goals for the next challenge -- I've got plenty of ideas in my mind, so it's really just a matter of picking them. Also, I need to find a polite way to say "Flying from Chicago to Florida so that I can take a road trip to New Jersey with a woman who has to chirp about something meaningless constantly and a man who never seems to be able to put his wants into words but compensates for that by expressing them at ever-increasing volume sounds like an extraordinarily bad use of my vacation time next year." Is that possible? Oh, yeah. Serenity.

Hi everybody, I'm a newbie to that community and to that kind of commitment, so please be indulgent as I will be to myself. Proud mother of two : a little boy for the first time in school after 3 years eye to eye with his "maman" : a baby girl who starts crawling all over the house and who still spend lot of time sleeping. Also exausted mother of two : unemployed full-time dedicated mum, my body still look like a pregnant woman's even if the numbers on my balance are ok. 1/ MAIN QUEST !! Looking like myself again ! Not beeing restricted by my body's weakness, beeing pushed forward by my body's strength. 2/ 3 GOALS for that challenge - Spend everyday at least 1/2h just for my health, for me, myself and I. - Use that time to work out and to meditate or relax - Make some change in my alimentary habits (less industrial, less carbs, more proteins, more smart lipids) 3/ SIDE GOALS - make my children accept that their mother has the right to spend time just for her - find exercises to restructure my abdomen and to tonify my skin and natural exercises that do not need a gym, a specific object to be done (example : the exercises you can do while working in front of your desk or while waiting in a queue) 4/ THE SCORE Daily track : Feeding that soul : Maman-time : _____________ x mn / 30 mn Moving that body : Obvious work-out : _________ x mn / 30 mn Induced work-out : _________ x mn / 30 mn Feeding that body : Carbs : __________________ x / 1 daily portion -> Veggies : _________________ x / 8 daily portions -> Meat : ___________________ x / 1 daily portion -> Processed : _______________ x / 0 daily portion -> (correct amount = 1) Weekly track and score : Maman-time : ______________ x / 3,5 h ---> x pt / 8 pt Moving / relaxing : __________ x / 7 h ---> x pt / 4 pt Proper feeding : ____________ x / 28 ---> x pt / 4 pt Rewards : 75 to 100 % : 1h of thalassotherapy + above 50 to 75 % : 1h of thalassotherapy + above 25 to 50 % : 1 recipe/workout book + my full consideration + above 0 to 25 % : the right to start again NOW LET'S GO !!

Many greetings, fellow Nerds. I have noticed an abundance of new chaos in my life. While I am usually good at managing it, I feel it is starting to consume me. I used to relax and do some generic breathing and sitting still when I wore a younger man's clothes, but now I would like to take time out each day and become more aware of things in my life and how I am reacting. In short, I am looking for some good guidance in starting on my path of meditation. I look to the Druids to help me with this. Any advice is welcome. I would have up to a half hour in the mornings to dedicate to this. My family would still be sleeping and it would be before work. I look forward to any help. Thank you.