Autumn weather never fails to bring out the nature witch/druid in me, and this year is no exception. In addition to a renewed desire to commune with the trees, I have also fallen down a rather long rabbit hole on Circadian rhythms and other hormone-related cycles. The purpose of this challenge is to realign my daily/monthly cycles with nature's in order to reduce stress, improve sleep, and have the mental energy to deal with my weight loss efforts.     East of the Sun   I mentioned last challenge how much better I did at dietary controls when I had a good night's sleep, which means this night owl needs to become a morning lark. Here are the steps I am taking to live by the sun:   1. Wake up at the same time every day (+/-15 min) Yes, even on the weekends. Even on vacation. If feeling too tired at the designated time, get up anyway, then take a late morning nap.  My goal time is 6:30am to start.   2. Greet the sun Spend at least 10 minutes in the sun before 10am. The closer to sunrise the better. Best practice is a morning walk.   3. Postpone coffee for at least 1 hour after waking. This is to give cortisol a chance to rise naturally and should prevent/alleviate the afternoon slump. Green tea or herbal tea can substitute for first thing in the morning.   4. Eat during the daylight*   Apparently eating after dark confuses the body and can make going to sleep more difficult. For the Committee of Infinitesimal Hairsplitting, we shall designate "daylight" as civil dawn to civil dusk. This isn't much different from my normal meal schedule, but it will prohibit late night snacking, which isn't a bad thing. As the days grow shorter, it will also approximate an Intermittent Fasting (IF) schedule, which could also be beneficial.   *See exception under New Moon phase   5. Kiss the sun goodnight   Spend a minimum of 10 minutes in the sun after 5pm. Best practice is an evening walk.   6. Go to bed no later than 10:30pm I'm still playing with what time is best and Daylight Savings Time ending in November will screw with things a bit, so the exact time may change, but 10:30 is a pretty solid minimum for getting enough sleep before sunrise. I probably should have a no electronics before bed thing going on, but I'm not quite ready for that and this challenge already has a lot going on, so I'm not tackling that issue this time. That said, I did set my phone to lock me out of my reading, googling, and social media apps at 10:30, so I pretty well go to bed then.       West of the Moon This part is about planning around my monthly cycles. The lunar references in this case are metaphorical and do not correspond to the actual lunar phases (but that would have been cool!). Rather, each phase roughly corresponds to the rise or fall of estrogen (and corresponding cycles of testosterone and progesterone).     1. Waxing Moon 🌓   Cycle begins. The body is fairly tolerant of stress. As the Moon waxes, it's a good time to work in some higher intensity exercises. Take longer walks, throw in a row or a swim, etc. If I want to consider a longer fast (15+ hours), this is a good time to do it. This would also be a good time to try something new.   2. Full Moon 🌕   Estrogen and testosterone peak. This is a great time to emphasize strength workouts for muscle growth or to take on big projects. Keep fasting under 15 hours.   3. Waning Moon 🌗   Hormone levels are still high, but waning. Similar exercise and fasting conditions to waxing Moon, but time period is shorter (5 days vs 10).   4. New Moon 🌑   Estrogen has noped out. Body is stress intolerant. Keep exercise gentle (e.g. easy walks, yoga, etc). No fasting over 12 hours, i.e. just the normal "fasting" that happens during sleep. Since the season keeps the daylight hours short, a small snack under 200 calories is permitted during New Moon week at 7:30pm in spite of the darkness of the hour. This would reduce fasted hours, alleviate undue stress associated with fasting, and should leave enough time for the snack to be digested before bed, not interfering with sleep.   There are some other considerations around macros and the lunar cycle, but I am not ready to delve into those quite yet.   Writing it up this way makes it feel like I have a metric ton of goals this time, but I feel like most of them dovetail in such a way that they support each other, so hopefully it won't be overwhelming.  Also, there are a few Moon phases, only one is in effect at any given time.   Note:  My apologies if the title had anyone excited for a Nordic fairytale-themed challenge.   I love the story and many of the retellings, but I just shamelessly stole the title and made it fit my needs.

Maybe it's worth working on chest to bar pullups, and then working on making that contact point with your chest lower and lower? I also wonder if doing controlled negatives would be good - jumping on top of the bar and then trying to roll back off it and lower yourself down? I have never tried this and have no idea if it's a good strategy, but I might have to give it a go now I've thought of it.     We all aspire to make it look as easy as that cute little bugger  

Guglug wearily pushes open the taproom door, a slight smile crossing his face as he takes in the other adventurers enjoying their meals, bonding over tea, or sleeping off the work of the past few weeks.   He drops his pack heavily to the ground, slumps into a too-small chair, and takes in his surroundings.   I've been AWOL for a couple of weeks, so missed the end of this challenge, but I wanted to come here and thank @DarK_RaideR and @Sovalis for setting this up, and thank everyone who took part. The bits of this I did do were really good fun, and I look forward to the next one!

Goals: finances, gym, philosophy, Evening Rest  This is going to be an Introverts Challenge — I’m depleted and need to refocus and restore. This is not the time to add in new things or extend my reach, especially not with things that involve being out of the Loft. This is the challenge where I channel my inner Library Cat and just curl up and do what needs doing and nothing else.  Last challenge I started tracking what I do with varying points and categories, and it really helped me see that I already do a lot, and also that medical appointments are taking a huge chunk of time and energy as well as money. I’m going to continue tracking in the same way, since it makes sense and also allows me to see how the little daily things tend to slip first when I’m flagging, and this is a good way to notice early on when I need to make an adjustment before everything falls off the rails.   Druid Things - weekly tasks: returning the compost pail; picking up the milk or the farm share; acupuncture; massage; housekeeping. +20 each. Ideal: 100/week Cantrips are my daily tasks: making my bed; logging in to work; forum posting; laundry; dishes; you get the idea. +1 each. Ideal: 35/week Philosophy: - PhD things: +20 each Philosophy Reading spell; +10 each personal reading spell. Ideal: 80 Philosophy points/week; 20 Personal (optional). .303 Bookworm & other spells: I am tracking how often I have to cast a Rebalance, Restore, Fortify, or Gumption spell or take a Maxalt (potion), and this has helped me see when I’m getting depleted. Having a disabling condition is a weird thing. Tracking helps make the invisible more visible.+10 each spell. Ideal: track each day. Gym: just going for a morning walk and hitting the steam room and the sauna has done wonders for helping smooth out the TBI issues I was having, and I’d like to continue this. It’s simple and available, and as long as I spend a little time (30-60 minutes) each morning, it has a cumulative effect of helping me be whole. I have come to think of this as my “commute” since I work from home and the gym is next door to my building. +10 each trip to the gym Ideal: 50/week Finances: Weekly payment to medical or debt. +25 each Ideal: 25/week Seize the Day: 5000 Steps by noon (preferably before logging in to work) is a pretty big stretch goal, 10 points; Evening Rest (because rest is sacred work), 10 points. Ideal: 50 points/week each.  Medical Appointments just about did me in last challenge, and I’m taking a step back from the medical carousel that comes with disability.  Social +20 each Marching Band Boosters, Pinball League, and High School Football all happening at once is a lot, Friends. I’m not certain I’m up for all of that, and I’ll definitely be glad when the social calendar calms down a bit. In the meantime, these alliances make a difference in my small world. Ideal: 20/week. Beware any week with more than 40. 80 is right out.    TL;DR: YES: forum posting, gym, rest, healing, daily tasks, Druiding. NO: additional anything. Just stop and let things be for a minute. GET THROUGH: Band Boosters, Pinball League, the job thing.

G’morning!   Bleah, I had a couple glasses of wine last night and either that or the full moon shining through the window onto my face had me all wide awake at 3 am and super sleepy now. I need to get me a sleep mask and probably more important, remember that booze messes hard with my sleep!   Today’s the last day of my fall break, but Kid 2’s is next week, so they’re coming home today for the week!   NO MEETINGS OR CLASSES TODAY and this is the last weekday that’ll be the case until December 4th! Good lord. Going to hit up the gym, then lock in and do some editorial work. I am scandalously behind on that and it gives me the dreads, but will be less bad once I break the seal and start doing a little every day on it. Next challenge will be super busy work-wise, between intense teaching and digging myself out of the editorial hole. I’ll put my mind towards some workout/nutrition/body comp goals if only to remind myself I’m not just a brain in a jar!!  

What a beautiful concept 😍 

Hoping things go smoothly with the move The usual please barkeep 

I do often have trouble settling into anything before I go out and do my chores, which means that trying to do Morning Prayer first would likely mean a decreased quality of focus there, which isn't good. So while I'm not ruling out the possibility of experimenting with flipping the two, I don't think it's something I'm going to try right now.   Absolutely no need to apologize! A deload is when you reduce the intensity of your workout for about a week or so in order for some extra recovery. Physically, it gives your muscles and especially your joints a chance to rebuild, though I find it most useful psychologically. You can only push hard in the gym for so long before it just starts to feel like a grind, and having a week to cruise through moving some lighter weights around feels good. It also reminds me that I like pushing myself and want the challenge of heavier weights, which is a sign the deload has done its job and you can resume your regularly scheduled programming. If you've been ignoring the signs of needing a deload and pushing too long, it might take longer than a week to recover, but whenever you're finishing your last set and think "but I want more!" you are fully recovered and ready to go.   No, no - exactly like that! 😆     I suppose it is, but it the uncomplicated physical type of stuff, which I could really use this week.       Thank you, Friends. I have not been sleeping great this week either - probably due to being keyed up about switching jobs, although poor sleep makes me less emotionally stable, which then makes me sleep poorly, which then...BUT processing the meat birds last night was exhausting. By the time I came home, packaged my birds, and showered I fell into bed and slept almost immediately, and am feeling much more grounded this morning. Still going to be a bit sad to be in my cube for the last time, but not all tears are an evil.   Been getting my Shape Water and Morning Prayer points, though the zombies have been making their saves. Going to work on getting my new challenge up later today, but important things first, here's the handsome fella I'm taking a look at on Sunday:

May your challenge be full of glimmers

Exactly!! She loves motorcycles, but prefers to ride on the back of one, and that's not gonna happen...other than that the only thing we have in common is we're both gay. Definitely not enough for what she's wanting.   Thank you for this, while I know it I needed to hear it