Hello everyone! I've been a big fan of NerdFitness for a while, and decided to take this opportunity to join the forum and participate in one of these challenges! The timing is slightly unfortunate, as a stressful weekend and the change of seasons have caused me to come down with a bit of a sore throat, but hey, the more obstacles, the more satisfying the victory, yes? Some brief stats: Age: 24 Gender: Male Height: 5' 10" Weight: 183 lb BF %: 17%? Favorite color: Red I've been using a rickety old scale to weigh myself. A new one, which has electrical impedance to estimate body fat, should be arriving tomorrow, so I'll update with new stats then. EDIT: New scale came in this morning. The old scale I was using showed me at 179, the new one at 183 Hopefully this simply means that I also started 4 pounds heavier than I thought. The impedance estimated my body fat at 17%, which seems low to me, so I may seek a second opinion on that one. Anyway, on with the goals! Goal One: Adhere at least 90% to the Paleo/Primal Diet, trying at least one new Paleo recipe per week. Attributes: CON +3, STA +1 Mark's Daily Apple was one of the first things I checked out after reading this site. For the past five weeks, I've been eating Primally, with a few cheats and slip-ups here and there I'll admit. However, I've done a decent job overall in limiting my carbs and sticking to Primal foods, and in the first month, I've lost 11 pounds, dropping from 191 to 180 (the measurements for week five will be taken tomorrow when I get my new scale, which may cause some discrepancy, but at least everything will be consistent for the challenge). Keeping up this way of eating is a major priority for the six-week challenge. Besides the obvious constitution benefits, it's been my experience that eating this way has given me more energy and endurance without actually doing anything else, so it also gives me a stamina point. I will plan out meals in advance in order to not have the excuse to run out and eat crap because I had nothing in the house. And, to prevent boredom with the same easy meals over and over again, I will commit to cooking at least one new Paleo recipe each week, as well as make sure to vary my ingredients to optimize nutritional content and flavor variety. Goal Two: Lift weights 3 times per week Attributes: STR +3, STA +1 While I've successfully lost weight before with a major increase in cardio (I was 215 pounds at the beginning of 2010), weightlifting as always been *extremely* intimidating to me. I've dabbled in it here and there, but bad methodology, fear of injury, and distaste for failure have led me to not putting in the right amount of effort, leading to a total lack of results and early quitting. I keep telling myself that it's not important, that if I just lose weight it's good enough. No more! If I want to be fit, and not simply "not fat,", I'm going to need strength. (I'll also need speed and agility and endurance, of course, but I'm starting with the thing that scares me the most). To begin this process, I commit to working out three times per week, focusing on compound movements like the squat and deadlift. Relatedly, I will make sure to properly stretch, warm up, and cool down for each workout, to help with flexibility and that all-important "don't get injured." Goal Three: Be able to do at least one pull-up with good form by the end of the challenge. Attributes: STR +4 I wasn't always a fat kid. I used to be pretty skinny (before being introduced to Mario and Link), but even then, I could never do pull-ups. Doing one measly pull-up may not seem like a big deal to some, but as someone who can't even lift himself a few inches, this is actually the most daunting of the goals to me. I will make pull-ups an essential, regular part of my workout routine, beginning with assisted pull-ups to practice the movement and train the appropriate muscles. I will decrease the weight of assistance as appropriate, with the goal of being able to do at least one, unassisted pull-up with good form by the end of the six weeks. Goal Four: Spend at least 30 minutes per day working on my novel series. Attributes: WIS +3 This is my "level-up my life" goal. I've had ideas for a sort of modern fantasy novel series swimming around in my head for the longest time. I've just begun doing serious planning, research, and outlining for it. I've read that JK Rowling spent 5 years putting all the pieces into place for the Harry Potter series before she actually started writing, so I'm okay with this being a long process, as long as it's a steady one. My goal here is to spend at least 30 minutes daily working on my series. It can be whatever is inspiring me at the moment--working on character sketches, histories of the organizations in play, doing research, writing short stories in the universe (which I do to get a better handle on the characters and world), whatever. As long as I'm progressing, it's all good. Looking forward to making some changes!
