auroch

Good luck on your goals!! For your Life goal, I would suggest mint.com. It is a useful tool for combining all your finances and being able to monitor them without looking at each statement. I used to use a excel spreadsheet and have to check each and every account when i wanted to update my financial outlook. Now i just log into mint.com and it is done in a matter of seconds. I have no affiliation with mint, I just like that product and it works for me. Listening to Dave Ramsey on my way home from work everyday helps too. Regardless of his political/religious beliefs, he has some good advice for people struggling with finances. Hope this helps! Best of luck!

I just wish I had started 10 years ago!! But thanks for the encouragement!

. . . and it won’t be long before spring! This isn't Westeros folks. Hello NF, I feel like I have taken the first step to whip my weak will power into shape by writing this post. I am not typically a contributor on forums. I tend to lurk and just glean information without contributing it. No more! (at least for this forum). I will be starting the six week challenge and I am going to flying elbow drop it (a la Macho Man Randy Savage). I find the role playing aspect very interesting and that is really what drew me to this forum. I have a huge man/book crush on the George R.R. Martin books right now. The challenges will fit in nicely as I read through them. A little background on myself. Growing up I was always the husky kid who sometimes could not keep up with the pack of boys because I was winded after running a few hundred feet. I really didn’t get picked on or anything scarring like that, but my weight issue was always there. As soon as high school rolled around the story changed. Without consciously doing anything, my body changed from a pudgy boy to a muscular man. I attribute this to my activity level in sports and puberty caused growth. I lifted weights infrequently for sports in high school, but never stuck with it. Although I was involved with sports, I spent some serious time with my nerdy hobbies as well. Final Fantasy 3 on SNES was, and is, the best game I have ever played. Pro wrestling, model rockets and lots of PC and videogames entertained me and my friends in our free time. The sleek, fit body stayed with me until I discovered the allure of partying and booze at the end of highschool. The pudgy body was back with its new friend the beer belly. But, I was still active with sports and my romantic interests did not seem to mind the extra weight too much. My first year of college did not help things at all. I am naturally introverted and was having a hard time meeting people and having what I thought was a “normal†college experience. I drank more to try to socialize easier and of course did hardly any exercise. Food was 3 buffets per day courtesy of the dining halls. This all added up to some serious weight gain. My second semester of my sophomore year in college I decided to turn things around for myself. I decided that I would forgo any meat or fish and any alcohol or other drugs I used at the time. This coupled with not taking the bus to classes (I attended a very large university and there were literally miles between my classes). This walking and prohibition on meat and drugs caused me to lose a significant amount of weight in a very short time. I was proud of myself and looked great. This success was short-lived as soon as I moved into an apartment that summer with a good friend of mine. Lots of partying and food and I was back to my bloated body. I peaked at 225. This was one of the worst periods of my life. I was commuting about an hour every day, working at a job I hated and I had left all my friends in another state. I have tried various diets and exercise regimens over the years, but have not had much success with anything until early last year. I started reading some paleo literature and it all made sense to me. I dropped 10 pounds by just changing my eating. I also was taking a university class and instead of paying a meter or riding a bus, I walked the mile from the commuter lot to my class 3 days a week. I dropped an additional 15 pounds pretty fast. Now I have stalled since early summer. My coursework is completed for my graduate degree and I sit in a cubicle for 8 hours a day. My overall goals for health mostly include staying healthy for my kids and wife. I am worried next year my 3 year old will be running circles around me. I would like to lose another 25 pounds by the end of 2013. In order to do so, I would like to add 10 pounds of muscle and lose 35 pounds of fat. I know it is not healthy to concentrate on my actually weight, so I am going to be taking body measurements as well. I have a lot of self confidence to rebuild as well. I recently changed jobs and am having a hard time staying motivated in my current office job. I think that if I can shed a few pounds, my self confidence and worth will return and I can do a better job of being social and making connections at work. Also my energy level almost totally depends on my caffeine intake each day. A natural supply of energy would come in handy after staring at a computer for a few hours every day. I also struggle somewhat with work related anxiety. I am guessing that having a sustainable fitness program would lessen my anxiety or provide a way to deal with it. In around 5 years I am planning on returning to my family farm to start the succession process with my father. I want to be able to be in top physical condition and have a good fitness plan when I start. I want to be able to share this plan and motivate my father so that he will be able to improve his health as well. Wish me luck as I try to get my stats up! I look forward to cheering everyone on in the upcoming challenge. -auroch