Kevin Awesom

I hit a major milestone, which may not seem like much, but I think it's awesome. My family came through for an early Christmas, and despite being around them, going to a football game, eating out, and having a ton of unhealthy food around, I stayed the course on my eating habits. I allowed myself one deviation - a cheeseburger, chips, and hot chocolate during the game - which I had planned on for weeks now. I was able to jump right back on the wagon, feeling no guilt. I even got my dad and brother to go to the gym with me, and taught them some basic lifts! Once again, I'm excited to hit the gym tonight. Posting here gets me all ramped up for it, I'm not going to lie. Today I hope to increase my deadlift weight by at least 10%; we'll see if I can add even more once I'm warmed up! Oh, and I haven't had a soda in two days. Huzzah.

Hokey smokes, Bullwinkle! I finally eked out three sets of three pullups last night! I've also been working on bench presses, mostly just training until failure, but it's progress! Now I feel great, and by great I mean sore, but also great.

Welp, traveling again, but I've been (mostly) good about eating and working out. On Thanksgiving I had stuffing, beer, and gravy with flour in it, which i planned to, and the next day I was right back onto my usual paleo habits. I'm getting a gym membership for the two weeks (or more) that I'm up here, so I can lift heavier, and have a distraction so I don't feel like going out and spending money. I'm almost to three sets of three pullups, and my goal of benching two 75lb. dumbbells seems like it's in reach. If there's one thing I'm slacking on is my soda consumption. As long as I'm not eating out I'm fine, but if I'm at a restaurant with free refills I will find myself drinking 2-3 in one sitting, which is not good. I need to come up with some kind of reminder, so I don't mindlessly get up and get a refill, which I will end up doing. Force of habit is strong... Speaking of reminders, I need to remember to update this here thread more often, so I think I'm going to set an alarm on my phone to force myself to post. It'll also force me to take a short break from work, which I could definitely use most days.

Argle bargle only was able to eke out one pullup last night, but at the very least I stopped when I realized I needed more rest. I changed last night to leg day instead, and will jump right back on pullups again tomorrow night. For tonight, rest, and lots of it.

I actually have some downtime at work today, so I decided I'd hop on here and waste some valuable company time enjoy the fact that, thanks to being a productivity ninja, I've gotten everything on my list done, and am just waiting for something to break so I can fix it. I'm excited for MOAR PULLUPS tonight, as well as bench presses, however the fitness center at my temporary apartment here doesn't have heavy enough dumbbells, and no dip station either. It's okay, I'll live. I'm heading back home for Thanksgiving, then it's right back up to the cold for another two weeks. I've been looking into getting a temporary membership at the gym across the street for then, but it's a bit pricy to do that. I do miss HEAVY squats and deadlifts...

In other news, I set a personal best on pullups today, eking out 2 sets of 3, 2 sets of 2, and 2 sets of 1. I'm excited to do even better in two days!

Things are going alright this past week. I had to travel to Pittsburgh this past week and was kept even longer than I'd hoped. Despite working 12-14 hour days I've gotten in workouts when I can, and most of all I've been eating extremely well. I'm going to be headed back up here after Thanksgiving, and I'm not quite sure when I'll be able to see a therapist, but I'm making it a priority. I will be done with this particular project on the 12th of December, and will be getting my life back then. For now, I'm going to keep eating paleo and lifting, since it's the only thing keeping me sane!!!

Didn't get a chance to lift yesterday, because I was channeling my inner hobbit and walked 12 miles, from work to home. I didn't have a ride home, so I thought, what the heck? Now my mind is clear and ready for the next challenge!

Put me in coach!

Alright kiddies, I'm trying an NF challenge again, and this time I won't have spotty internets to keep me from checking in! My Main Quest® is to increase overall strength. My goals are as follows: -Bench press 2x75lb. dumbbells for one set of five reps (at least). I'm currently plateaued at 2x65lbs., six sets of five reps. I want to break through this. -Eat 90% Paleo. This will probably be the easiest for me, since I'm usually very good about this, however this is a bit stricter than I've been regarding diet. -Limit myself to one and only one soda a day. I drink way too much Coke Zero, and I really need to cut back. And now for my life goal: -Do everything humanly possible to eliminate my crippling panic attacks/anxiety/thanatophobia. I'll be meeting with a therapist, instead of sweeping these feelings under the rug and hoping they don't creep up on me again (spoiler alert: they will). Facing this dragon head-on (apply directly to the forehead) is the only way this warrior can slay it. I'm currently 6'2", 198lbs. Measurements will come later!

Hey everyone, checking in again. Been coming up with the campaign and organizing my notes, just waiting on some more characters. It seems we already have a mechanic, a "computer nerd on the run", and the hired muscle. If anyone wants to step it up and be the captain that's still open!

Despite having a mild milk allergy I will have dairy while I am paleo - I've found that when I stay paleo I really don't feel the effects of the allergy at all. I read some stuff on Mark's Daily Apple that explains why this happens, and if I can find it I'll post it here. Also, cheap is good. They gave me some reading materials for the training, and my actual on-the-job training starts Wednesday. I'm kind of at a crossroads with it, though, because based on my work history they want to put me on the fast track to management, seeing as they don't have any assistant managers at the moment. While I'd love the money, I don't want to commit to staying in Utah too much longer. Not to say it isn't beautiful out here, but I moved out here for my girlfriend, and I don't want to sound like a broken record, but things just plain aren't working. I also would like to go back and finish school, and actually go to a physical campus, but the closest one is almost two hours away in Grand Junction, CO. It just makes more sense to me to save up as much money as I can here, head back to Orlando, and start up school again. Since I flunked out of two classes last semester I'll need to pay out of pocket for the next semester, but I know that I can get my grades up and get back on the horse. In other news, I am sore as anything after my workout on Sunday night. Definitely didn't drink enough water and eat enough protein yesterday. I just hope my body is less sore by tonight, because, as usual, I'm itching to work out again!

Checking in again. Been working myself hard every other day. More pullups, more protein, more POWER!!! I'm able to do three sets of three, which I then follow with negative pullups. The rest of the circuit is a piece of cake, so I've moved on to weighted pushups and lunges with the crappy weights they have here at the ranch. The dumbbell handles they have are standard size, and the weights are Olympic - not sure if they thought that through. They do have a smith machine, but yeah, no... Once I get my first paycheck I'll get myself some Olympic-sized dumbbell handles and maybe a bar, and I'll start my powerlifting routine again! Speaking of which, I finally start training at the new job on Wednesday. I'm going to need to play catch up when it comes to my savings goal, but I'm not giving up! Eating paleo is, as usual, my main hurdle. The last few days I was 100%, eating clean, but not getting enough protein since my girlfriend didn't buy enough meat to last me through the week if I eat a gram of protein per pound of body weight. She's off today and tomorrow, and therefore cooking for us again. I'd like to be eating cleaner, but believe me, I need to pick my battles. With my first paycheck I will be getting myself a protein supplement; I'd rather be only eating meat for my protein source, but beggars can't be choosers. At the very least I'll be sticking with whey protein instead of soy. Between that and working I'll have a lot more power over choosing what I eat. Again, I'm not giving up.

That's exactly it, I usually take a hand in character creation so as to better fit the adventures around it, and to make sure everyone has a role to play on the boat without having everyone else cramp their style. This also makes sure I have information about your character that generally wouldn't be common knowledge; one of the best parts of Firefly was the mysterious past of each crew member.

Well, since it seems we have players I say you guys roll up some characters, PM them to me, and we can get the ball rolling on this. I have a rough outline of a campaign in mind already. I'm excited for this. I aim to misbehave.