lucky fire dragon's quest to balance - with her feet in the clouds

[lucky fire dragon]

i used to have my head in clouds and learned to root my feet in the ground

speaking to stars above, nurtured by mother earth all around

i learned there is nothing to fear, so why not venture out more

turn my world upside down and learn wonder and awe

i discovered so much that it's time to decide

what first to enjoy, what set for later aside

to be with what is now

and then let it go

for a balance will ensure

the most bliss through it all.

 

 

Main Quest

 

Build and strengthen healthy habits that help me grow stronger, flexible, efficient and balanced, so that ALL areas of my life get their turn in a good way, while leaving plenty of open time for unexpected adventures and ease.

 

This might sound a bit vague and the thing is, I only have an inkling of what I am looking for here. It feels like it's still around the corner, I can't grasp or define it clearly yet, all I notice is, I haven't found my personal balance for that. It's been now about a year that I have started to give more of my time to physical fitness (after many years of doing basically none at all) and that feels fabulous. Switching back to work after sports is difficult for me though and also once I am into my work (which I love tremendously) then it's hard to kick myself into a workout, so I'd love to find a daily routine that gives both enough time, makes the transition easier and leaves me with enough time for my precious family and the necessary householding on top to appreciate these blessings in my life fully as well.
My intention is to find my own, personal rhythm that works best for all this.
 
Even though this challenge is strengthening mostly fitness habits here, my intention is for it to affect my work life the same, I'll tell you about progress on this as I go. If I have more clarity on this at the end of the challenge, it'll be a success already.
 
 
 

 
Quest 1: Balancing with my feet in the clouds (+1 STR, +1 DEX, +2 STA)
 
- keep up my pole training with 2x/week (even though or especially as my studio is closed until March and I want to be in great shape for L2 when they open it again)
- follow through with the 31 day GB Handstand Challenge (don't have to be able to do a full handstand at the end, just give my best with all exercises throughout the challenge - but hey, it would be so cool and who knows????)
 
Grading:
A: all done
B: 1 pole workout only
C: handstand challenge only
 
 

 
Quest 2: Balancing strength and flexibility (+2 STR, +3 DEX)
 
- follow the body by you program with 3 workouts/week
- do 15 to 20 min yoga sessions at morning or night 5x/week (can also be replaced by two longer sessions of 75 min in total instead, but the idea is to bring it back into daily life)
 
Grading:
A: all done
B: 2 bby workouts and at least 60 min yoga
C: 1 bby workout and at least 40 min yoga
 
 

 
Quest 3: Building a daily balance of sparkle (+2 CON, +1 CHA)
 
- drink at least 2 liters of water/day
- be an Email ninja (so quick in and out, I'm a blur) 5x/week, check them only twice a day (morning and afternoon) and answer immediately if possible, at the latest within two days - this part will take a lot of mental weight off me as those unanswered mails accompany me for way longer than it would take to just deal with them
 

 
Grading:
A: all done
B: average of 1,75 liters or more, 4x email ninja
C: average of 1,5 liters or more, 3x email ninja
 
 

 
Life Quest: Balancing the unexpected, be here now (+2 WIS, +1 CHA)

 

- have one day/week without a plan
 
what a challenge, right?! Seriously though, I have noticed a growing tendency to plan out every single day and then measure myself at night by my performance - not fun and not true. That fact that I am alive shows I am precious to this world and everything I do is optional. In order to remember that plus to open the door for fun things unforeseen, I will have one day where I don't set any goals or program for myself at all. If I feel like a workout or some work things, I can do that, if not I won't.
 
- meditate for 10 minutes 5x/week
remember that yummy space between the breaths and enjoy the mind being quiet (aaaaah, bliss)
 
Grading:
A: 5x/week 
B: 4x/week
C: 3x/week
 
 
Rewards:
As if all the strength and balance I am going to gain through this aren't enough fun as is (plus the awesome yoga and pole poses they will enable, whooooohooooooo!!) this time I will give myself some tangible, material rewards as well. Inspired by starsapart's reward system rewards are stacking, meaning I get the A, B, and C rewards if I get to an A grade, the B and C rewards for B grade, and just the C reward for C grade.  Rewards are as follows:
 
For an A overall: a private session with my pole teacher
B overall: a groovy yoga outfit with a top looking great on the pole as well
C overall: my first sexy pole shorts
 
 
Before pics:

 

 

 
Measurements:
 
Chest: 95cm
Waist: 86cm
Hips: 92cm
Thigh R: 56cm  L: 56,5cm
Calf R:  38cm   L: 38cm
Biceps R: 31cm  L: 32cm
 

Current weight: 68kg
 
 
 
Let's rock this and have some FUN

[lucky fire dragon]

Recap Week 1

 

Quest 1: Balancing with my feet in the clouds

B - HS training all done, 1 pole workout only

 

Might have to think of a new motivation to kick the pole habits better into gear while the studio is closed, any ideas on this would be much appreciated, thanks    

 

Quest 2: Balancing strength and flexibility

A - yoga units done for 15 min on 3 days each and 30 min on a 4th day

   - body by you done 3x / week

 

Very happy with this part and the regular yoga is a great unwinder during the week

 

Quest 3: Building a daily balance of sparkle

A - water went super well and I feel the benefits already (even weigh one kilo less than last week, woot)

   - LOVING the Email Ninja!!!

 

Life Quest: Balancing the unexpected, be here now

A - meditation is yummy, glad for bringing it back more again

   - plan-free day was a fabulous idea, can only be recommended

 

All in all this was an awesome week, I feel fantastic and am starting week 2 full of energy - w00t!!!!

 

[Elastigirl]

Love the idea of finding your own rhythm!

[Priscillia]

Pole shorts! Pole shorts! (and yoga leggings )

 

Looking forward to seeing your progress (esp. handstands)

[lucky fire dragon]

Pole shorts! Pole shorts! (and yoga leggings )

 

Looking forward to seeing your progress (esp. handstands)

 

YES pole shorts  Have looked around for the last few months with keen eyes and a little jealousy on the other girls' pole shorts and decided it is time to dare them for myself   

 

Those handstands are exciting me sooooo much!!! So far the challenge is easily doable as they have a beginners version of each day's exercise that I can do fine and I get to goggle at the intense advanced versions

[Leimanu]

I love the rewards!  New exercise clothes and photos are ALWAYS last on my list.  I look forward to seeing yours.

 

How do you like to meditate?  Do you use a mantra, music, just follow your breath?  Do you have a goal for time?

[starsapart]

Yeah!  Here to follow along and cheer you on!

[Ocelot]

Good stuff. I want your rewards. Can I have your rewards too?? XD

[0gravity]

Sub'd for the handstands (and pole

[lucky fire dragon]

I love the rewards!  New exercise clothes and photos are ALWAYS last on my list.  I look forward to seeing yours.

 

How do you like to meditate?  Do you use a mantra, music, just follow your breath?  Do you have a goal for time?

 

same here, I am doing yoga in my sweatpants or hot pants at the moment as my old yoga pants have gotten so worn through I had to throw them out (and they did a brave job for many years, so deserved their rebirth through recycling )

 

My favorite meditation is to sit comfortably and just enjoy my breathing, luxuriate in how yummy it is to breath in, feel my body take that air in and then release it again without me even doing anything. My body basically breaths me, my presence breaths me and by stopping everything else to tune back into this and enjoying it, I suddenly remember that presence of mine again.

Also that there is a larger Presence beyond it, that loves me dearly and is ready to help in any way asked for.

 

Sometimes I like to exhale with a little sigh, again just because it feels so nice and because I can feel my body relaxing a teeny tiny bit more with each exhale. Sometimes I say "Yes" on inhale and go "aaaah" on exhale, sometimes when I feel tense and too much in my mind I take the whole thing to the floor first and spread myself face down on my yoga mat with my arms outstretched to let go of anything too big for me right now first.

 

A lot of this is inspired by Divine Openings, a fantastic way of expanding spiritually but also increasing the Ease in my practical every day life - I just love it soooo much - and that pose of lying flat on the floor is also a favorite part of mine during the sun salutations. I used to have a yoga booklet on the sun salutations with quotations from both Sanskrit writing and the bible and for that part it said: "I cannot fall any farther than onto the Divine ground which will always carry and hold me." That line touched me beyond description, so ever since - favorite pose for letting go and finding ease again 

 

After that I would then sit up again, maybe have my eyes open to take in my surroundings without having anything to do about them (isn't meditation awesome? You don't have to do anything AT ALL!!) or having my eyes closed to luxuriate in that detached state some more and again just enjoy my breathing as it comes and goes for me, like the waves at the sea, without any effort, just to nourish me, refresh me, relax me, live me, love me... it's like our breath loves us so much! It's there for us all the time. Just because.

Makes me marvel.

 

Oh, and sometimes I just sit in front of our fire place and watch the flames through the glass. Or lie in the garden (in summer) and look up at the clouds drifting past, listening to the birds and bees.

It's not Zen meditation, but then that never worked for me, just got me frustrated as I was obviously not "getting it", haha you should have seen me CONCENTRATE!!!!! Now meditation for me is to relax me, soften me and then I kind of flow into a larger awareness that feels super blissful and I am sure is what it was intended for in the first place.

 

 

And no, I don't usually set a timer, but for starters it might be nice as you see how much time you actually get to just have for this rendezvous with yourself and otherwise you might cut yourself accidentally short 

[lucky fire dragon]

Yeah!  Here to follow along and cheer you on!

 

YAY, thank you 

 

 

Good stuff. I want your rewards. Can I have your rewards too?? XD

 

Hehe, sure you can! You'll just have to join in the pole and handstand fun   Oooh, I'd love to be able to quickly teleport to meet up from time to time and actually do that with some of the awesome nerds here!

 

 

Sub'd for the handstands (and pole

 

Cool, thank you! Will give my best.

[Ocelot]

I may need to save handstands for the next challenge as I don't have a wall to practice against right now D: But, I will bear it in mind and hang around in here to get my vicarious handstand fixes

 

Lucky fire dragon, just READING your post made me feel more zen and centred. Thumbs up.

[lucky fire dragon]

I may need to save handstands for the next challenge as I don't have a wall to practice against right now D: But, I will bear it in mind and hang around in here to get my vicarious handstand fixes

 

Lucky fire dragon, just READING your post made me feel more zen and centred. Thumbs up.

 

Happy to read that 

And yes, no point in doing everything at once, gotta keep some goodies for days to come

[SpecialSundae]

Subbing in for pole dancing. I've got a two hour session tomorrow... seriously contemplating wearing the Wonder Woman outfit.

[Amdhiel]

I love that your main quest is to find balance. Its such a difficult thing to find these days and it's something that I'm working on as well. Can't wait to see how you do!

[raptron]

HANDSTANDS! POLE! YOGA! Peeeerrrfect.

 

Great challenge you've outlined here. Good luck.

[lucky fire dragon]

Subbing in for pole dancing. I've got a two hour session tomorrow... seriously contemplating wearing the Wonder Woman outfit.

 

YAYYY poling, go girl!!! Want to see pics with Wonder Woman outfit  

 

 

I love that your main quest is to find balance. Its such a difficult thing to find these days and it's something that I'm working on as well. Can't wait to see how you do!

 

It is a tricky thing especially as I keep discovering new fun things and don't want to neglect established fun or necessities for it, so I have to keep adapting. But then life would be so boring otherwise

Am having my first plan-free day today and it is delicious 

 

 

HANDSTANDS! POLE! YOGA! Peeeerrrfect.

 

Great challenge you've outlined here. Good luck.

 

Thank you Good luck to you, too! Let's rock this challenge as a fabulous start into the new year, wheeeeee 

[lucky fire dragon]

Okay, my first ever before pics are up (on the challenge post at the start) and I even found the spoiler option, yay. You may laugh at this, but I actually had to look up where and how to do the measurements  

Found it though and those are up as well.

 

There are no immediate goals here, just curiosity and of course, some more definition at the end of the challenge would be reallly cool 

 

Today as I trained on the pole at home I realized again how much I have learned already and how much more strength I gained over the last few months especially, I love that so much. It's cool to play with that. Love the various spins and combining them, love climbing and being able to play with that, too now. Climbing up with a spin say or coming down with one... and how fast it gets when I do that on the spinning pole   

Then there are the headstands (where I don't need to hold onto the pole anymore with my hands, but just lean my legs on, yay) and today I managed to go from a kind of shoulderstand against the pole into supergirl, whoohoo

This is what I workout for - that feeling of "YAY, I did it" and how amazing it feels to hold those poses or twirl in those spins 

 

Handstand challenge is going well. So far it was exercises for wrists, fingers and elbows which look super intense in the advanced version where people do them all while being in handstand with chest facing the wall. The beginners version allowed most on hands and knees, much easier and today was in plank position, bending elbows and locking them again for 30 reps. That I did feel!! I might have bent my arms a bit too much, was a little like mini push-ups, but then I didn't really see how else to do it and anyway I managed.

Curious to see what tomorrow will bring on that

 

AND tomorrow the NF challenge really starts, so fireworks to that and best of success to everyone!!

 

[Leimanu]

Because the Rebellion loves cats and meditating

 

 

[lucky fire dragon]

Because the Rebellion loves cats and meditating

 

 

 

These are absolutely making my day!! Thank you

[Claireloise]

Ooh, pole dancing, definitely something I want to try at some point!  And I think having a day a week without a plan is a great idea  - sometimes our minds get somewhat overanalytical and need a break.

 

Following along

[Bine]

I like your challenge very much.

Especially this part of your main quest, I see myself struggling very often...Hope I can learn from you how to master this (and you will master this, for sure!)

Switching back to work after sports is difficult for me though and also once I am into my work (which I love tremendously) then it's hard to kick myself into a workout, so I'd love to find a daily routine that gives both enough time, makes the transition easier and leaves me with enough time for my precious family and the necessary householding on top to appreciate these blessings in my life fully as well.

 

 

That is great, had to laugh about the Email Ninja, but it is not only funny it is also very inspiring ... Go Email Ninja Go! 

this part will take a lot of mental weight off me as those unanswered mails accompany me for way longer than it would take to just deal with them   

 

 

Good luck and may you earn you private session with a big smile 

[hybrid756]

Subbed! I love that your aim is largely to find where you're going. Sometimes that balance is all it takes for things to all fall into place. Something I've been lacking myself the past few years and you've given me something to think about! You have such a great attitude towards your challenges, I admire that. I'm sure you'll do awesomely

[lucky fire dragon]

Ooh, pole dancing, definitely something I want to try at some point!  And I think having a day a week without a plan is a great idea  - sometimes our minds get somewhat overanalytical and need a break.

 

Following along

 

Yes, yes, YES, do try - but be careful, it's addictive

 

 

aaaah, those dear, busybusy minds of ours.... mine kept trying to sneak plans into my first plan-free day on sunday, haha. "Okay what time is it? Let's do this now and then that and then you could stil... - wait no, we said no plan! Aaaaah, that feels strange... free strange... yummy strange.... yummy free ...   okay so that was fun, let's see what we could do next..." it was too funny and gave me plenty of moments to remind myself "no plan" each time feeling even nicer. Totally to be recommended!

 

 

I like your challenge very much.

Especially this part of your main quest, I see myself struggling very often...Hope I can learn from you how to master this (and you will master this, for sure!)

 

That is great, had to laugh about the Email Ninja, but it is not only funny it is also very inspiring ... Go Email Ninja Go! 

 

Good luck and may you earn you private session with a big smile 

 

Thank you! I'm happy to share

 

The Email Ninja I found in an awesome blog post by Steve on efficiency and found it hilarious, too. And it totally works for me - you're hearing from one proud ninja today 

 

Thanks for the support!!

 

 

Subbed! I love that your aim is largely to find where you're going. Sometimes that balance is all it takes for things to all fall into place. Something I've been lacking myself the past few years and you've given me something to think about! You have such a great attitude towards your challenges, I admire that. I'm sure you'll do awesomely

 

Yay, welcome on board. YES, I know that things-falling-into-place! That is EXACTLY what I want here 

Thanks for riding the wave with me!

[lucky fire dragon]

It's day 1 and I am so excited embarking this challenge!

 

First of all, it started off awesome 

 

After two weeks of (heavenly) school holidays - my kids still have holidays until the day after tomorrow, lucky buggers - I had my first full work day again today and it went great. Had lovely session time with clients and managed ALL the office work I planned for today. Email Ninja skills improving and learning to plan a bit more realistic than in the past were a big help here. Even sorted out some files, throwing out ancient paperwork not needed anymore and luxuriating in the resulting improved overview again. 

 

I now also feel the healthy eating and cooking habits that I built over the last weeks: usually when I had a full work morning, lunch would end up something quick, easy and not necessary that healthy. Not today though   today I fried some salmon with rice for the others (and a veggie tomato sauce for my vegetarian daughter) and kale for me instead of the rice - yummy!!

 

Managed to fit in a long reading session with my younger daughter (we are reading the never-ending story together and enjoying it tremendously) AND crafted a beautiful lamp shade with my son for his bedroom in arctic blue, that we had to cut out and stick onto the lamp shade parts (lot of work, he sighed a lot and had to chat to his mommy for a long time during it, haha). It turned out super beautiful and we both agreed it was worth every minute.

 

With some more work thrown in between, it turned evening before I got to any exercise and again new habits kicking in made it sooo much easier to not call it a day yet, but roll out my yoga mat instead. Honestly, I don't know what felt better: the benefit from the little bit of yoga or the happiness about having done it

 

After the yoga I did my handstand exercise for the day and boy, technology can make you train hard hey! You're supposed to share a video of you doing the exercise on their facebook or instagram page so I recorded and when I watched it, decided that angle was no good, let's do it again. Proud to have managed twice. I am ready to upload only to find my phone had filmed me upside down! Sooo, my hubby said he was gonna film it for me and we did it again - to find he didn't have all of me on So this is my forth time doing it lol, guess I WILL feel my arms tomorrow...

 

And I am so happy that you guys know exactly what I mean when I say, I do feel so much better for all the extra exercise thrown in NF just rocks. Loved the assassin mini challenges added to this little workout and am excited about tomorrow already. Very much at peace with myself.

 

Thanks so much for all the support and cheering on!!!! It makes such a difference, it feels as if I have the wind in my back and the sun warming my face, so that is what I wish you all as well