Stronkey Kong

Another day, another mile closer to Mordor! Also, I did the maths... At my current weight, which sadly is 300-ish lbs., if I walk the distance to Mordor I'll burn the caloric equivalent of 80 lbs of fat. Thus, at the end of this four year period, I could weigh 220 ish lbs if I stick to sedentary-ish maintenance calories. The only trick is I'll have to be 300 lbs the whole time... so every five pounds I lose, I'm going to add 5 lbs to a weighted backpack and ruck, and probably look into some type of weighted vest, or... Should I start making my own chainmail? https://www.ironskin.com/tutorials/

This morning I walked my first 1.30 mi toward Mordor! Unlike the hobbits, I haven't even had breakfast yet... This week, known as Cheese Fare week, I've been preparing for Lent (which starts Monday), by fasting from meat (last week was Meat Fare week) and eating all the remaining cheese in my fridge. We are not only called to fast from certain foods, but from other bad habits, taking upon ourselves some additional struggle (according to our abilities), pray, and give alms in order to distance ourselves from earthly matters and draw closer to God. I'm also planning out a whole new set of habits and routines that also dovetail with general fitness and health goals. I am now following a daily prayer rule... a more formal, daily commitment to pray with specific sets of prayers etc... I also have to keep up with my Catechism class readings, daily scripture reading, and reading other spiritual works. I will be fasting from sleep which just means reducing my sleep by reducing my overall hours with a wake up time. I will be fasting from screens (except for work and necessity) Fasting from inactivity-- i.e. get off my but and work or walk and exercise. And of course following the traditional Orthodox Lenten fasting rules... i.e. mostly vegan, no oil except on weekends, and there are three days that we can eat fish. To pull off goals 1-3, I'm going to be committing to a daily schedule. 12:00 am -- Bedtime -- be in bed, asleep or not. 6:00 am -- Wake up and do morning prayer rule. Afterward, coffee, read all the things. 8:00 am -- Exercise -- stretch, walk to Mordor, tack on some light calisthenics. -- I can also run morning errands during this time etc. Gotta be able to flex on this. 10:00 am -- Nap 30 min. -- polyphasic sleep hack 10:30 am -- Light breakfast, then get ready for work. 11:30 am -- Leave for work. Regular work hours, noon-10 pm. Goal is to be home by 11 pm. 11:00 pm -- Evening prayer, then read or meditate until bedtime. That's the general idea. I need to attend extra Lenten church services some mornings and evenings, so as needed I'll flex things for that. For #4, I'm going to disconnect the ethernet cable for my TV and give it to my priest or someone in my parish for safekeeping... and I'll not be on here for the duration of Lent. I might still play video games on weekends, but only if I'm standing or sitting on a stool. #5 -- yeah just walk to Mordor, exercise, and get outside... might have to start working in the garden, and I'll be working some overtime in addition to all the extra church services... yeah, I"m gonna be busy. #6 --The fridge is almost cheese free, and I'm going to avoid shopping for the first couple of weeks and just live off the fast-friendly foods in my pantry until I'm absolutely out of something necessary. I have many pounds of vegan protein powders and a 50 lbs bag of jasmine rice in there. So I'll probably not even have to buy anything but fruits and veggies for the last few weeks. That's all for now, I'm late for my nap!

Not much exercise. Diet, not a focus I know, but it has been getting better. I've been just eating less and not being all wrapped up in concern for calories, protein and all that. I've also been researching polyphasic sleep. Sleep is one of the big struggles of mine, particularly oversleeping which cuts into morning walks and workouts. This week I'm experimenting with 6 hours at night of core sleep with a 20 minute nap before work to add a couple hours to my day. Other than that I'm focused on preparing my house and all for Great Lent. I'm also switching back to night shift in two weeks. I fell a bit behind on bible reading last week/ weekend but got caught up last night.

1779 That's how many miles it is to Mordor... according to the majority of the first hits in a google search. If I walk 1.21 miles a day for four years I'll hit that number. Now, there's an app or two ands a few other posts that give different numbers. I'll abide you nerds arguing over which is correct, but I like 1779, so I'm gonna stick with that.

Hi all. I just popped in for an update. Workouts are lagging. I've been really stressed and not sleeping well the last couple nights... so my fitness tracker says, and so I feel. So i've been focusing on getting the rest I need to boost my training readiness before attempting another workout. We just did performance reviews at work. I asked for a raise and my boss actually smiled and seemed a little giddy. (Sigh. I should've asked for more) but he said he will support my request ands he thinks it's worth it). With that, my four year debt payoff plan is getting easier. I had a good budget together for my current 40 hour work week, with plans to pad it with OT. Now if I just stick to that I'll be very comfortable on a much shorter, less precarious ride.

This is the change I needed, to step aside and focus on long term goals. I'm gonna use this space to track workouts and a couple simple things... long term. Get stronk Walk to Mordor Stick to my snow-valanche debt payoff strategy Read the a Bible... all of it. I have four-year goals in mind... mainly because that's my debt payoff schedule. Except the bible, that's 1 year. More details to come. As for now I'm prepping for greyskull. I'm just doing similar bodyweight& light barbell or kb exercises to get muscles going again. Today I did 2 rounds of: 10 BW squats 10 knee pushups 10 75# barbell rows 10 breath plank I'm not going to focus on diet or weight loss. These have not served me well. I'm focusing on performance and wellbeing.

Welp. Another holiday challenge is done. I hope everyone had a good holiday and wish you all a happy 2024. As for me I'll working on the following this year: Lose 50 lbs. Run 5k Do a pullup Get good at dips HEMA Military Sabre training (instead of nunchaku) Career change maybe? (Probably some programming or similar) Farewell Nerd friends...

And Shad's not wrong. We just have to weigh his critiques against Bruce Lee's sweet, chuck moves. Though ultimately, nunchakus are a.m outside weapon for skinny guys. #mysideshurt #bustinlampsanfishtanks

But... Of course, no love handles. #bruceleeiscoolerthanshadandimsureshadagrees

Today I learned the hard way: Nunchakus and love handles do not get along. 🤣🤣🤣 😓😓😓 🤣🤣🤣

Saturday workout: Treadmill: Jogged 6x5 min intervals at 3.8 mph, with indefinite (5-10 min) rest intervals... just sitting. Heavy bag: 10 min, casual drills. Prior to that I tested a sugar cookie recipe... meaning I ate 2 dozen sugar cookies in less than 48 hours o.O <sigh> But all I ate otherwise was fish and veggies. Somehow I lost a pound. 🤷‍♂️

Did another treadmill workout last night. 3x5min @ 3.6 mph jogging with 2x 2.5 walking@2.8 mph in between. Average HR was 160 bpm. @Kishi, cuz at near 300 lbs, even slow speeds works heart, builds muscle and that's what matters.

Thanks everyone! Today my boss complimented me on how far i've come since we both started to working together. All I could think about is how much time I waste and how much I want to leave. I wonder if that came across in my time when I accepted this pat on the back. <smh> I had a very busy weekend. Our church held a Christmas market fundraiser and I spent Friday evening and Saturday afternoon working the register in the cafe. Then church as usual on Saturday, then extra liturgy on Monday morning, followed by staying an extra 1.5 hours at work to finish a project. I did a 1 mile walk/run last week in my new treadmill and didn't die. So that's encouraging to do it again.... granted, I only jogged at 3.5 mph 🤣 but whatever. I'll take it. Also trying to train my cat to walk on the treadmill. She seems to get the basic concept, and she'll walk if I hold her, but when I let go she walks a few steps then jumps off, but after seems excited and curious about the behavior of this machine.

Lol. My goal is to not go over 300 lbs this christmas. Rooting for ya!

After 10 years on NF, I hate to say it, but, I need a break from the forums. It's been great but I'm a little fatigued and not putting in the effort I used to, to be here and stick to my goals. But I figured I'll be around for one more challenge to say some goodbyes, let you all know what I'll be up to, and not just disappear. I'm not likely to quit entirely, or forever, but just taking an indefinitely long break. So here's a list of my biggest priorities over the next few months. 1) Get spiritually swole: As I've mentioned in previous challenges, I am converting to Orthodox Christianity. Today marks the first day of the Nativity Fast, and with this comes a lot of prayer, fasting, reading/studying, and attending extra church services etc. Then Great Lent and the Catechumenate start in February/March. Then I'll be baptized on May 4 (love that it's on May 4). So that'll be another big bout of fasting, reading, prayer etc. So I'll be quite busy and focused on all that, and I'm planning to disengage from a lot of screen time. 2) I mentioned in the last challenge that I've hung up my heavy bag. I"m considering joining an MMA gym. The goal is to focus on karate for all around fitness, and be able to do some boxing/kickboxing for conditioning, and dip my toe into BJJ when I need to get humbled. 3) Running: for karate/mma and general fitness I want to be running/jogging regularly. For now I'll be working on that first mile, and hopefully working up to running 5k and 10k. 4) Strength training: I want to go back to a more bodyweight focused training and max that out before I set up the old power cage again. But also, do some clean and presses. 5) Trying to find a new line of work: I'm burning out in my current job/company. Doing the same job at another company may or may not appeal to me. IDK. I want to do something else. I recently was offered an adjunct teaching role, but I turned that down because of the catchumenate/Lent because I can't make the time commitments with that going on. But I can dabble, learn about, and explore other things. So basically, this isn't goodbye forever, but I feel like I need to pull away from the forum and screens in general to recharge and focus on other efforts.