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This challenge brought to you by @fleaball, the patron saint of Severine actually showing up to do challenges. Thank you for the reminder and motivation!   As of my most recent testing last month, my cancer is still in remission (yay), but I just turned 43 and my physical fitness is so far from where I want it to be that I lack the words to properly encapsulate my disillusionment. The melodramatic title of this thread truly conveys the level of melodramatic panic I sometimes experience when I realize that every year I get older without improving my health and fitness, I'm hastening my own decline and lowering my chances of living a fulfilling life as I age. Scary shit. In the long term, I would like to lose a bunch of weight, regain a ton of strength, and in general better prepare myself to traverse the next ?? years/decades in a state where I am physically able to do cool shit. All of this requires a lot more actual engagement that I have shown in the last few years. Moving to Vancouver in 2021 has, in general, not been great for me (turns out I don't like it here), but it's going to be at least a year before we can think about moving, so I need to figure out a way to do more than just float in a dissatisfied limbo while I'm here.   The immediate, short-term focus of this challenge is that I am going to travelling from October 18 - November 11. We're flying to Vienna, spending five days there, and then taking a train through the Alps to Venice, where we'll begin the Italian segment of the trip: Venice, Lake Como, Genoa, Bologna, Florence and Tuscany, and finally Rome. European cities, done properly, require a lot of walking, and I want to be able to do it as comfortably as possible. It's already going to suck being fat in Europe, but I can at least be fat and somewhat capable. Thinking about the trip has also been a good reminder that I want more travel/adventure in my life, and all of that is easier when one is in reasonable shape. For example, I would love to do some of the trips these people put on, but the really cool ones are beyond my current fitness level. I need to keep this in mind as part of my 'why'.   Enough preamble. Here's the plan: Walk every day. This can be an outdoor walk, or I can use the elliptical. Minimum twenty minutes. Extra points for forty minutes or more. Pace doesn't matter at this point. Work on reviewing Italian every day  Do one thing off my to-do list   That's it. Trying to keep it simple.   I will close with a bit more melodrama (what can I say, I love it), in the form of something I sometimes say to myself: Death is coming, Severine. Do something that brings you alive.

No advice on a specific goal number but gaining muscle means the scale may not move as much even though you're making progress!  That's probably obvious but it's important to be conscious of it so you don't get discouraged. ❤️ I've used measurements to help me see progress that is marked in centimeters instead of pounds. It helped me push through a plateau in 2022.     On board for another round!    I'm training for a sub 35 minute 5K race (🦃Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving) so my activity level is ramping up this challenge. I'm about 15 pounds from pre-pregnancy goal weight but I'll be happy with half that by the end of challenge.

fleaball!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   Hi   Also, this is now my favorite motivational poster.

woot

paging @Severine I did the thing

I was going to sit out this challenge like I did the last one. Then I had my physical this week and did not go through my usual panic of "omg I've been eating like shit and my labs are going to be awful!" since every time I do that things turn out fine. So of course my A1c and all the components of my cholesterol went in the opposite directions from where they should be and now I'm back to being mad at myself for being fat and diabetic and all the other things I don't like about myself. Immediately sent the lab results to my nutritionist with a message that simply said "guess I'm doing a challenge after all." And here I am.    goals: 1. walk - at a minimum 0.5 miles every day by going to/from the closest point of interest in Pokemon GO 2. read - 1 chapter of a book every day 3. track - every single godforsaken thing I eat because that clearly got away from me recently 4. plan - every night write down one easy and one medium-effort thing to do the next day, and then actually do them the next day     My doctor gave me a talking to about how I need to change things up and start being active and whatnot and I don't disagree with her and had already planned on some things, and then of course because she said something my brain turned into this instead:     wish me luck.

I'm here but I'm not sure what my weight is doing right now. I'm up ~4 lbs since Tuesday which I assume is water and inflammation from starting gym workouts again last week. It's definitely not food related. I don't know what a reasonable goal to set would be as I adjust to lifting again. Any advice?

DeF_TonA

I totally get it. The traditional shirts are great, and it's some of the highest quality wholesome male gang warfare to be had - you can't beat it for group violence. If I were a young person, rather than old and creaky, I would totally be down with playing rugby. Pass me a shirt and point me at someone to tackle the crap out of.   Watching sports, though, is just like watching someone else eat a nice meal. You can admire the technique, but it takes ages for very little satisfaction.

A stocky framed man with messy hair and a few days' worth of stubble on his chin enters the inn, a standard adventurer's backpack strapped on his back next to a fairly sized sword. He finds himself a table and lays a bag on it as he begins to unpack. His gaze meets the others around, which he achnowledges with a nod, then his eyes spot the noticeboard. "Ah, just the thing I needed" he says in a somewhat gravelly voice with a distinct but hard to place accent. "Was running out of coin, might as well earn my future meals and lodging."   Hello again, I decided to also join in with a character, build our numbers up. Besides, I don't really have any goals this challenge round due to basically uprooting my life to go live with my fiance in another country, so I might as well use the weekly goals of this here thing to keep me busy.     IMPORTANT GAME RELATED STUFF We are keeping the quests intentionally vague as to what they'll involve, because otherwise where's the adventure in that? However, from the description, you can probably ascertain what they could ask of you. Gathering herbs, maybe some kind of nutrition-related challenge to get you eating more vegetables? Spiders in the Woods, that's probably combat-related, so physical exercise is highly likely. Deciphering scrolls, sounds rather bookish. And so on. Despite the vagueness, we do want to keep the RPG spirit of decision making, so expect situations where you will be given a choice of options. Depending on which task you perform, the story will steer accordingly. Main narrative will be posted once a week, late Sunday or early Monday. That is also when each party will be informed of their weekly tasks. Make sure you check in daily. There is a secret mechanism at work regarding random wilderness encounters and wandering monsters, which will be sprung on you during the week. Tasks will be intentionally scaled to be more than what a single person could acomplish on their own. This is to encourage teaming up over solo questing. Certain tasks will involve character death upon failure. If anyone can drop out with no consequences, no one is really encouraged to stick to things, at best people will not want to let their teammates down. If there's risk and consequence, there's challenge to be conquered. Make sure your character doesn't fall behind and if others do, make sure to have their back. Rewards as far as narrative goes will mostly come in the form of magic items, treasure and gold, not rising in levels. Merely upgrading numerical attributes is bound to feel like a grind and after a certain point, it kinda loses any meaning (looking at you, Diablo 2). Plus, if there's no dice rolls and modifiers, what good is an increased attribute anyway. Instead, magic items will function as trinkets offering different ways to approach future challenges. There are also plans for gold to be stockpiled towards a more "domain level" project down the line, like fighters building a keep with a standing army, clerics erecting a temple to their deity, wizards compiling a library etc. Don't forget to add your name to the spreadsheet and check the box of the respective job you want your character to take!