Taylot

Next few weeks are going to be crazy for me as well, with tons of travelling, etc. However, almost every weekend I am here I am hanging out for a few hours during the day at a park (near Woodley Park) in DC doing a bodyweight workout (on the bar, and I bring rings). If there's people in the area that don't mind this heat, I'll post when I happen to go over that week.

Ah! Booked this weekend but will hit you guys up on the next one!

1 pm works for me!

I think I'll actually be in town for this one

Nice! Just got back in town myself, definitely down for the next one!

Leaving for two weeks on Monday! I think I'm going to miss this one too - bummer.

Woo! I was out of town for the last two, but hopefully I can make this one. (Out from Aug 11-20!)

AH! So I had planned to be there but I'll be heading to the Austin meetup instead this weekend. I'm in for next time!

WooO! you guys are awesome.

Are you tired of doing way too much and not seeing results? Are you sabotaging your own efforts to get healthy? Are you sick of reading these questions and want me to stop? It's time to knock it off! Today, we're going to look at some of the top mistakes made when trying to get healthy; things that hold us back from succeeding. Although changing habits isn't an overnight process, simply making yourself AWARE of these behaviors is a step in the right direction towards improving. So, seriously. If you're doing anything below and you hate doing it...this is my doctor's note that tells you it's okay to stop. Onward! Stop doing that exercise! Stop doing crunches and sit ups. I know you want a flat stomach, but you won't get there with 1000 crunches and sit ups every day. It doesn't work that way. Believe it or not, sit ups can mess up your lower back, as can crunches. They're also an incomplete exercise, as they don't work out your entire core (stomach AND lower back). But that's missing the point: a flat stomach is made in the kitchen, and 90% of your results will come from clean eating. My favorite "ab exercises?" Squats, deadlifts, pull ups, and eating right. Yoga, handstands, planks, push ups, and other full body exercises all contribute to a strong core. In order for you to see those stomach muscles though, you need to lose the fat on top of them! Stop doing side bends. Boy, I'm ripping both side bends and situps to shreds? Sir Mix-A-Lot is NOT going to be happy. Doing side bends might make you think you're getting rid of your love handles. Nope. You're building up the muscle UNDER your love handles. Want to get rid of the love handles? Make better food decisions! Stop doing "power curtsies" (half-ass squats), . If you're going to squat, do it right! Not in a Smith machine. Do it with a bar across your shoulders, and dropping until the tops of your legs are bellow parallel! Squat deep, or it's a "power curtsy," which is an incomplete exercise. In my 13 years of training in a commercial gym, I have probably seen less than twenty people do a proper squat. By simply putting in a bit of effort and learning to squat properly, you'll be ahead of 99% of the general public. Stop doing exercise you hate! If you don't like running, get the hell off the treadmill! If you don't like gyms, get the hell out of there! If you don't like weight machines or picking up weights, get stronger with just your bodyweight or yoga. I get my exercise from basketball, yoga, strength training, hiking, and walking. You might get yours from Yoga, playing with your kids, walking your dog, and rock climbing. Life is too short to spend time doing stuff you don't enjoy! Stop doing the wrong exercises for your goals: Are you trying to look like Daniel Craig by running 30 miles a week? Are you spending your time in the weight room training for a triathlon? Make sure you are doing the right exercises for your goals. If you're trying to build muscle, then build muscle. If you're training for a race, then train. If you're just looking to look and feel better, then get started with the basics that will get you there. Far too many people spend their time and energy on the wrong exercises for the goals, simply out of habit...or they try to fix and improve everything at the same time! Keep it simple! Boring gets results. Stop over-complicating your exercise: Despite what the fancy trainer tells you, you don't need to be doing all your exercises on a bosu ball. Most of the time beginners overcomplicate a simple exercise or workout routine by adding in unnecessary complications. Instead of barbell squatting on the bosu ball, do a normal squat and focus on form, increasing the weight each week. Instead of coming up with a routine that looks more like an interpretive dance, just stick to the basics: whole body, compound movements that build the most strength (and burn the most fat) in the least amount of time. Not sure what I mean? Start with the training routine here. Stop multi-tasking and wasting time: Instead of spending 90 minutes in the gym reading a magazine while working out, checking your phone and talking to people, why not get your workout done in 30-45 minutes and get home to your family/friends/Xbox One/PS4?! If you look like NF Team Member Staci having some fun here while working out...you're doing it wrong Seriously, stop freaking out! Stop weighing yourself every freaking day. Definitely don't do it more than once a day. The scale can lie, and it's a SMALL part of your progress. Depending on how you ate the night before, the day of the month, or how much water you've retained, that scale can fluctuate worse than bitcoin's value (current event reference FTW!). Saintand Staci both GAINED weight towards the ends of their transformations. Joe didn't step on a scale for 6 months. THAT NUMBER DOES NOT DEFINE YOU. Stop freaking out over calorie totals! Not all calories are created equal. Who cares if you eat 2050 calories when the Daily Plate says you should eat 2000? Your body is a finely tuned piece of machinery that can handle a tremendous amount of fluctuation. We're all for educating yourself on macronutrients and figuring out how much food you are eating, but don't become neurotic about that amount each day. If you find yourself eating too much one day, eat a little next the day next. Our body doesn't reset our stats each day after going to sleep! Don't feel like counting calories? Cool, me neither! Just fill yourself up with the right foods, and make adjustments as you go based on your goals. Stop calling it a "cheat meal!" The term "cheat meal" assumes you're cheating and doing something wrong while on a 'diet.' You are being a bad person by cheating from the norm and thus are in danger of falling apart or beating yourself up. Guess what, I eat bad food without guilt. This past weekend I ate pizza and drank beer with my dad while watching football - my stomach didn't like me very much, but come Sunday I got RIGHT BACK on track. It wasn't a 'cheat,' it was a conscious decision to eat something outside of the norm...and then get right back on track. Stop letting one bad decision ruin everything! Who cares if you had an unhealthy breakfast? That doesn't mean the day is ruined and lunch and dinner are lost causes. Who cares if you missed yesterday's workout? That doesn't mean the week is ruined. One bad decision will not derail your efforts. One bad decision is only a problem when you let it dictate the rest of your day/week/month. No more "eh, I'll just start tomorrow/next month." Start now. When you make a "bad" decision (and it's only bad if you make yourself feel guilty about it), just don't make it two days in a row. Stop perpetuating that mindset! Stop saying "I can't." When you say "I can't eat that" or "I can't do that," you are telling your brain to focus on that one thing you can't do. "I can't eat cake" is making you think about the one thing you're depriving yourself of eating. Besides - the . Instead, say "I don't." When you do this, ! It's science. Stop collecting underpants. There's no perfect moment. More information at this point isn't going to help. You read Nerd Fitness, which puts you in the top 1% of potential superheroes on the planet. Take action. Try stuff. Learn as you go. That's how we all do it. There's no master blueprint for everybody to follow. It's trial and error, self experimentation, and adaptation based on results! Stop going on 'diets.' Congrats! You never have to go on another diet for the rest of your life. A diet assumes you're making non-permanent, drastic changes that you don't like to quickly achieve a goal before going back to your old ways. Stop that! You don't have to be miserable. What you're going to do instead is make a series of teeny tiny, lifelong adjustments. Over time, you're going to gradually shift your eating habits to line up with the goals you're interested in. Stop thinking that it's all or nothing - Small changes lead to big results. You don't have to hop on a nutritional program and revamp your diet overnight, eating radically different for the next 30 days. This is a recipe for failure. Instead, try starting by just drinking one less soda tomorrow. Wait until that change feels normal before making another one. Stop making excuses - It's amazing what we can justify to ourselves when we don't feel like exercising. "Well I only have an hour, and I need 70 minutes for my workout...I'll just go tomorrow." "But it's cold out!" "I had a really bad day at work" "But there's a zombie apocalypse." Identify what your priorities are, and MAKE THEM A PRIORITY. Stop using "I deserve this" to sabotage your efforts! "I worked out for 30 minutes today! I deserve these six donuts." "I worked out three days in a row! I deserve this pint of ice cream." Stop rewarding your good behavior with bad prizes that send you back three steps! Reward yourself with things that reward you back. What you should doing You should start. . Find a way to be better each day...just a little bit. Big simple movements. No overreacting and beating ourselves up over a bad day. No self-sabotage. Small changes. Experimentation. Constant improvement. Every change counts. You got this. Be honest: What's one thing you need to STOP doing? What's one step you're going to take to help you stop doing it? Me: I need to stop getting distracted online and pushing my workouts back by hours, thus messing up my schedule for the rest of the day. Solution: Over the past two weeks, I put my workouts IN my calendar and my phone alerts me when it's time to exercise. That one change alone has forced me to get to the gym sooner than I usually do. Your turn. No judgment. -Steve ### photo source: stop gate, stop button, stop sign, start, [url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/angelsk/2552101096/]eyeore

I'm down!

This is a post from NF Team Member Taylor. "Just start Starting Strength!" "This 14 week workout plan is all you need!" "Bro, get on this sick 5-day split!" When we hear from newbies who feel completely overwhelmed, this is often the advice they've been told: "start this plan and don't look back!" Or worse, they're told "start this plan" by 10 different people from 10 different sites with 10 different plans. We get a lot of "I'm so freaking confused! HALP!" emails. Don't feel bad. We've all been there. It's just like playing a brand new video game: We run through the tutorial levels, get out of the newbie zone, and only THEN do we venture off into the world and grind to level 50. Fitness is no different: If you're a fitness newbie, you probably have no idea what you need to do or where you need to begin. So, rather than following the strategies employed by level 10s, level 20s, or level 50s, we need to understand the mechanics of the game first, and put the right strategies in place that work for us at OUR LEVEL. Here's how to stop worrying about what plan to begin, and how to START having success and see positive changes from day 1 of "I'm going to get Healthy." What video games teach us about habits Whether you are looking to revamp your diet, rethink your sedentary lifestyle, or go on an epic adventure around the globe, you start at level 1. If you're playing Super Mario Bros or Halo, you don't get to start on an expert level unless you already know what you're doing. Try to start on hardcore or legendary while you are still trying to figure out the controls and it won't be long before you end up . None of us start out playing like If you're BRAND NEW, you need a tutorial level! That "newbie island" of sorts to learn the ropes in a safe environment. Once you get your bearings, you can start upping the difficulty and fight more bad guys. "DUH! I know I should not jump into a big program!" you might say. Are you sure? The entire fitness industry is so polluted that you may not even realize. Take a look at some of the best selling fitness programs or DVDs and you are bound to find complicated programs with TONS of exercises. I won't name any names, but I bet if you think of some popular fitness programs off the top of your head, you'll realize that the programs many people choose end up throwing beginners right into the game. On hard mode. Starting with a workout routine with 20 new exercises is ! You'll have poor form, struggle, probably not have a lot of fun, and potentially even hurt yourself. Being Level 1 isn't exciting in video games, but it's essential. You kill rats because you know that by doing so you'll eventually end up slaying dragons. Being Level 1 isn't exciting in fitness either, but it's essential. You need to be boringsometimes and "kill rats" because that will allow you to one day do handstands, pull ups, and . Ideal World vs Reality In an ideal world, once someone realizes they are unhealthy, they immediately stop eating crap. They start eating healthy, nutrient rich foods to perfectly support their goals: muscle gain, weight loss, or to become the next TV superhero. They make sure they are regularly eating a deficit for weight loss, or eating a surplus for weight gain. In reality, we we go on crash diets and rebound. We try the recent fadand find that we're miserable, unhealthy, and back where we started. In this ideal world, once someone decides they want to gain weight or lose weight, they immediately get on a great program, designed for beginners, and find something that meets their goals. They would then stick to that plan, 3-5 days a week, for months and months. They earn a "perfect attendance award." In reality, the average person looking to start has been filled with fitness "knowledge" from the mainstream media, commercials, fitness magazines, and infomercials which tells women they get bulky if they lift anything more than 1 lb and encourages guys to "get huge" by doing this sick 95 day split with 19 bicep variations! We follow the plan handed to us by a bodybuilding magazine or a trainer who is far too advanced, essentially setting our difficulty level to "Legendary" and then getting dropped into a world full of monsters. In the ideal world, newbies quickly upload all the information they need to be successful...straight to their brains. Yep. From gym etiquette, to fitness jargon, to how to perform every exercise with perfect form, they are now the masters of health and fitness. In reality, the gym is #*%)@*% intimidating. Habits are hard to build. And just deciding you are going to try to get healthy or put on muscle is a freakin' victory in itself. We aren't in a dream. We aren't in the Matrix. We aren't in a video game. And worse, in real life the situation is often more dire than complete ignorance. Often, many of us are starting from a deficit: misinformed and demotivated. Maybe there's a better way... Starting a "plan" might not be the best bet OK, so we know that when starting something, whether it be saving for your future or getting healthy, you need to start by getting your feet wet...not by jumping in face first. This may work for cold pools and oceans, but you'll have no such luck with new health and fitness habits. The number one reason most people don't get healthy isn't because they don't know what to do, it's because they can't follow through. It's not that they don't have the perfect program, or they aren't doing the right exercises, it's that they aren't doing anything consistently. The good news is, there's an easy fix. Instead getting overwhelmed with a huge new program, get with started small IMMEDIATELY, and then learn more as you go. What does this mean for you? 1) If you are more or less sedentary, don't go from working out 0 days a week to working out intensely 5 days a week. Show yourself FIRST that this isn't something you are just going to do for two weeks and quit. It would be far better to stick consistently with a tiny 10 minute workout, than start a 5 day a week program and quit after two weeks. Before you start your new "ideal" routine, create your new identity: the you that makes fitness a priority and works out regularly. Try out some basic bodyweight exercises - The Beginning Bodyweight Workout is a great start. If that's all new to you, start even smaller, with some and bodyweight . Do them every other day. Just do something and keep getting better at whatever you small thing you choose. 2) If you are a runner looking to get into strength training, start making small changes in your routine to incorporate your NEW routine. Don't jump overnight from spending hours and hours outside running to only going to the gym. That's jarring, and for many people, a recipe for failure. Cut back on some of your running and add in basic bodyweight exercises. Maybe at the end of your new shortened runs, do some circuits of pushups, pull ups, and squats. 3) If your diet is out of whack, DON'T jump into a HUGE dramatic change overnight. Whether you are trying to gain muscle or lose weight, don't make these changes overnight. You can't jump into that "perfect plan" that everybody is recommending. That's just not how we humans are built. Say no to crash diets or the quixotic 14-small-meal-muscle-building diet plan. Even with big changes like a Paleo lifestyle, get started slowly. NF Team Member Staci, who's been "playing" the Paleo game for 3 years can now jump into "expert" paleo mode, but she didn't start that way. Celebrate small wins and get yourself to make nutrition a priority. What Your Levels Might Look Like So you just hit start on the Game of Life, and you're itching to get started. Before we can get you to level 50, we need to get you to level 2 first. And then level 3. Here's an example: Beginner zone: Kick your soda habit. Ramp down from 6 sodas a day to 5, then 4, then 3... Complete a hard hat challenge to prove you can follow through. Start walking to Mordor. Work on doing a push up. Fix your sleep Easy: Start a basic body weight workout, like this one. Begin to learn the form for squats, deadlifts, and overhead presses. Eat a healthy for lunch every day Cut back on processed carbs. Cut back on all sugar from your diet. Medium: Gym 3x a week plus and walk on your off days. Work on building good form with only a few big compound exercises. Eat a healthy lunch and dinner during the week. Work on some skill based bodyweight exercises, like handstands. Start to eliminate grains, outside of foods like rice and oats. Hard: Consider moving to a more advanced strength routine. Incorporate some assistance exercises into your routine to support your main workout. Add a new activity to your week, like yoga or a team sport. Try going full Paleo or completely eliminating processed carbs and sugars. And your "legendary" mode? If you're into strength training, perhaps instead of powerlifting you explore olympic lifting, strongman, or gymanstics. A runner? Check out some Ironman races. Try out for Ninja Warrior. Who knows what you can become once you build a solid foundation. Don't go it alone Games like the World of Warcraft aren't fun because they let you grind incessantly to get better levels; they're fun because they let you grind incessantly to get better levels WITH OTHER PEOPLE. You have friends that: Ask you to join them on raids. Are slightly higher levels than you that can tell you the best places to hunt. Are slightly lower than you who you get to mentor through the next cave Yell at you when you're not there to play. Who is in your guild/party in real life? Do you have these people who are yelling at you when you miss a workout with them? People that are there to help you when you struggle? Do you have people that YOU'RE helping? Life isn't a single player game - it's a massively multiplayer real-life role playing game. Don't be afraid to get started. To pick your class. Stumble and fall down. Get back up. Try new things. Find friends who are close to your level. And get weird. What's that you say? You don't have any real life friends who want to join your exercise party? Welp, now you got about 22,000 friends waiting to help, support, and push you. Game on! Train smart Don't spend time and energy building the PERFECT routine. There is no such thing. The best workout plan is the one you actually do. If trying the "all in" approach has repeatedly failed in the past, why not mix things up and try small victories and incremental levels instead? After all, the definition of insanity is trying the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Don't let a fancy program overwhelm and intimidate you. Just get started with something now, and after you find yourself heading to your workout like a robot, then hop on that awesome program. The worst thing you can do is to continue to collect piles of underpants and sit on the sidelines, waiting for that perfect moment or that moment of clarity. It doesn't exist. Hit start. Put one foot in front of the other. Do something. If you are currently afraid to get started, what's holding you back? Leave a comment and we'll talk through it. If you broke through the clutter and began, how did you do it? -Taylor PS: A few more days left on our big eBook Sale! They're gone for good at Midnight on Monday December 9th, so grab one if you're interested before then. Cheers! ### photo source: Mario, DK, Matrix, Mario Family, Notebook, Chess

I feel like . There are so many exciting things to announce that I have to yell them as I type them. Seriously, I yelled while typing today's title. On January 1st, we'll be OFFICIALLY launching the future of Nerd Fitness: The Nerd Fitness Academy! A few months back we launched a beta version of the program to just Rebel Women, but on January 1st we'll be launch to men, women, robots, aliens, zombies, and whoever else is interested. [insert trumpets and fireworks and confetti here] On top of that, we're having a great sale for all Nerd Fitness eBooks for the next week (details below)! Oh, and we announced this little thing called Camp Nerd Fitness! Let's get to the good stuff. Cyber Monday Sale As previously stated, we'll be launching the Nerd Fitness Academy on January 1st. As The Academy is the Future of Nerd Fitness, we'll be taking all Nerd Fitness eBooks off the "shelves" starting at 11:59PM PST on December 9th. Now, these are resources that have helped thousands and thousands of rebels get started on a path to a leveled up a life: people like Joe who lost 130 pounds in 10 months and Ryan who lost 115 pounds. If you're new to this whole "get in shape" thing, you're a fan of Nerd Fitness, and you're looking for a lifelong philosophy to follow, these are the guides for you. We're going to leave them up for one week only in case you've always wanted to buy one but have been on the fence so far. With today being Cyber Monday, I figured why not do a final kick-ass sale to go out in style? Starting today, you can buy any eBook in the Nerd Fitness store: Rebel Fitness Guide Rebel Strength Guide Rebel Running Guide At a great discount: Buy one, get it at 20%. Buy one, get a second ebook 50% off. Buy two, get the third ebook FREE. Consider checking them out, picking one up, or sending one to a friend for Christmas. Here's how you get the discount: Simply click on the links above, add the guides to your shopping cart, and then use one of the codes below on the checkout screen to receive your discount! [Note: you can only use one coupon at a time.] If you want to mix and match basic versions and deluxe versions (If you're buying all three guides), make sure you pick the right code below! SULU - 20% off 1 guide MCCOY - Buy 1 get 1 50% off SPOCK - Buy 2 Deluxe or Two Basic, get 1 Basic FREE (All 3 can be basic, or 1 deluxe 2 basic, or 2 deluxe 1 basic) KIRK - Buy 2 Deluxe versions, get 1 Deluxe version FREE (If all 3 are deluxe) Up and at them! The Nerd Fitness Academy Class will soon be in session. Back in October, we launched a beta version of the Nerd Fitness Academy with our first course: Women's Fitness 101. In that first week, over 1400 rebel women enrolled, and we've been working hard on working with them to improve the course ever since. On January 1st, we'll be officially reopening the Academy with two courses: Men's Fitness 101 Women's Fitness 101 These self-paced courses will contain everything you need to build healthy habits, start exercising properly, and effectively adapt your diet and level up your life. Each course comes with its own "path" to follow, high-definition exercise demonstrations, months and months of exercise programming, nutrition advice based on your goals, a special community for "students," and more. Right now, feel free to check out the sales pages for each course (Men's Fitness 101 and Women's Fitness 101), with all of the information you need, and an email sign-up at the bottom of them to make sure you get all the info and can be one of the first in the course to join up! Spending the past two months with the Rebel Women who have joined The Academy have made me so excited for the future of this platform. It's a perfect medium for us to help people and provide specific advice that we can update and improve on the fly. I'm confident that starting on January 1st, we'll be able to help out the Rebels of Nerd Fitness in a more technologically advanced and interactive way. The future is bright! Camp Nerd Fitness Now, I figure while I'm talking about going back to "school," we might as well all go to "camp" too, right? In case you missed it last week, we announced Camp Nerd Fitness, a fitness retreat/NF Rebellion meetup/convention/conference all rolled into one epic long weekend. Camp Nerd Fitness will take place at the Kaplan Mitchell Retreat and Conference Center on September 18th, 2014, where we will have exclusive use of the ENTIRE property for our time at Camp Nerd Fitness: it’s a GORGEOUS campus up in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains just two hours north of Atlanta. Also, it’s surrounded by the Chattahoochee National Forest. It has state of the art facilities, bunk cabins and hotel-style rooms, award-winning dining, plenty of meeting space, and every outdoor activity you can imagine. There are epic running trails, a beautiful pond, a ropes course, climbing wall, a baseball diamond, a gym, tons of meeting space, a library, and everything we’ll need to cover every epic adventure on our agenda. You can read more about it over on the Camp Nerd Fitness site. Space will be limited, and we'll be announcing details and sale information to our interest list first, so make sure you sign up for the list at the bottom of any page on the CNF site! Stay Strong! We have one month before 2014. This is the month when most people slack. When they say "it's too cold outside" or "it's dark" or "I'll start later." These people let this month get away from them, and then they wake up disappointed on January 1st, wondering what happened to all of the work they put in during the year. Not Nerd Fitness Rebels. Rebels look at this month as a momentum builder. Rebels look at this month as an opportunity to pick a new Hard Hat Challenge. Rebels understand that sacrificing what they TRULY want in life for what they want RIGHT NOW is a losing proposition. Rebels make good decisions in December. Rebels work out when others are sleeping. Rebels are okay with being the "weird one" by making healthy choices. Rebels have fun, but not at the expense of throwing away everything they've fought for up to this point. Rebels put on their hard hats, and go to work. I'd love to hear from you: What's one goal you hope to accomplish in this final month of the year? BE SPECIFIC. I like giving away stuff, so we'll pick 3 winners at random who leave a comment and hook them up with a Nerd Fitness shirt of their choice. Comments must be in by 11:59pm PST on Dec 9th. Now, go do some push ups! -Steve ### photo source: [url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/koisny/5403867723/sizes/l/in/photostream/]lego, confetti

Sleep. Something we all need more of, but never seem to get. (If only we had more time, right?) If you told me a year ago that I would be getting my work done during the daytime hours and getting plenty of sleep, waking up early without feeling like grumplestiltskin, and actually being uber-productive before noon, I would have called you an idiot. Sorry for calling you an idiot. I finally feel like I have a grip on my life thanks to an improved sleep strategy and today we're going to cover how you can do the same. Don't worry, I won’t go too deeply into the science behind why getting enough sleep is important; you're probably well aware that you function much better when you are well rested. However, as we've learned from Morpheus in The Matrix: "Sooner or later you're going to realize, just as I did, that there's a difference between knowing the path, and walking the path." Let's take a trip to , shall we? Why sleep is awesome Sleep is freaking important, and you should get more of it! Article over, I'm going on break! Kidding. Before we cover why sleep is important, let's talk about what happens when you don't get enough. For example: If you manage to only get four hours of sleep, a sleep deprived body can actually act similarly to an intoxicated body. Getting less sleep than average regularly? This is correlated with increased bodyfat percentage, more issues with insulin sensitivity, and even a disproportionate decrease in lean muscle mass when eating a caloric deficit. We all know missing sleep can make us grouchy, miserable, unfocused, and unproductive. I know I'm going to have a crappy day in the gym when I don't get enough sleep the night before. I know not sleeping enough AFTER a workout day can further hinder the muscle building process. So, what else happens when you don't get enough sleep? As so eloquently pointed out by Mark Sisson: "One study found that skipped sleep led to a shrinking brain. Bye, bye gray matter! The heart and kidneys also take a beating as does your blood pressure. You, in fact, put yourself at continually increased risk for a whole host of lifestyle diseases, including obesity and diabetes. The logical extension of this pattern? Numerous studies link partial sleep deprivation/disruption and increased mortality risk!" Conversely, let's talk about the awesomeness that is sleep. Here are the benefits associated with getting enough shut eye: Sleep will enhance your memory performance and creative problem solving skills. You know, those things that make you smart. Sleep can boost your athletic performance. And we all know appearance is a consequence of fitness. Sleep triggers the release of human growth hormone (HGH), which plays a huge role in muscle and cellular regeneration. Sleep cuts your risk for the common cold and other basic illnesses. Less sick days at work=more productivity, more awesome, more leveling up. Sleep makes you more resilient to daily stress..aka more willpower! Moral of the story: Sleep is awesome. Yes, some adults can function perfectly on only five hours of sleep, while others need 9-10 hours of sleep to thrive. Most people will fall in that 7-9 range for sleeping needs. So let's get to the root of the problem for most: “I know I need to sleep more, but my day is too busy and I just can't get to bed sooner or wake up earlier.” First and foremost, you're not alone. According to a recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly a third of all working Americans get six hours or fewer of sleep a night. Does any of this sound like you? I am always freaking tired, and I need five cups of coffee to get through the day. Even on days when I get enough sleep, I wake up groggy. I get to 'bed' but I toss and turn and it takes me forever to fall asleep. I hit snooze half a dozen times before miserably crawling out of bed. Let's see if we can fix these issues. A perfect night of sleep Let’s imagine a perfect night: You go to bed at a time that you’re happy with. You’re not stressed out because you didn’t just watch The Walking Dead, you’re reading a good fiction book in bed that’s putting you closer to sleep rather than checking your smart phone or screwing around on the internet (damn you Twitch.tv). You sleep uninterrupted through the night. You have kickass dreams. When you wake up, either naturally or with an alarm...you immediately get out of bed, without a single snooze, and you feel damn good. You then crush your morning routine and dominate your day. If you’re looking at your screen and laughing right now, you’re not alone. I’d guess this is a pipe dream for a huge majority of our society because they're not sure how sleep actually works, and thus have NOT made sleep a priority. It's time to start looking at sleep as one of your most important tasks. What are types of sleep? Like the Indiana Jones movies, sleep can vary in quality. Some types of sleep can be great, while some sleep can be crappy (and ). Let's take a quick look at the different stages of sleep first. We have Rapid Eye Movement (REM) Sleep, and Non-Rapid Eye Movement Sleep: Non-REM Sleep Stage 1: Where you're kind of asleep...but not really...but working on it. This lasts about 5-10 minutes. Non-REM Sleep Stage 2: Your heart rate slows, your body temperature decreases, and you start to drop further into slumber...this can last about 20 minutes or so. Non-REM Sleep Stage 3 and 4: also called "slow wave sleep," and each can last up to 30 minutes. REM Sleep: This is the deepest form of sleep out there, and the most important for mentally functioning the next day. It takes about 90 minutes to get to REM sleep. Focus on the two big steps: non-REM sleep and REM sleep. As WebMD points out, "during the deep stages of NREM sleep, the body repairs and regenerates tissues, builds bone and muscle, and appears to strengthen the immune system." The body can go from Stage 2 to 3 to 4, back to 2 and to 3, and then finally onto REM. When your body kicks into REM sleep, this is when your brain has increased activity and leads to dreaming, while your body is the most 'paralyzed' and knocked out. Some studies say that REM is most important for restoring brain functions. What's crazy is that your entire morning can be dictated by what stage of sleep you were in before waking up. If you've ever only slept a few hours and woke up feeling great, or conversely slept plenty of hours but woke up groggy, this could explain it! Don't worry, I'll explain exactly how to stop this from happening below. How to get better sleep We have a circadian rhythm (a daily biological clock) that ebbs and flows throughout the day. Our body uses outside stimuli and our own activity to produce certain hormones at certain times to make our body more prepared for the required functions at that time (alertness vs restfulness). Look at it from an evolutionary perspective - way back in the day (which was a Wednesday): When the sun rose, our bodies are signaled "the day has begun! get cracking!" We reduce the hormones that make us sleepy, and produce more hormones that allow us to do the things that need to get done. As the sun went down, our body starts to produce more melatonin, which produces that sleepy feeling and encourages us to rest/recover. Our only option for light back then was a candle or campfire. If that went out, we'd have moonlight and nothing else. While sleeping, our bodies knew to cut back on urine production, decrease body temperature, decrease heart rate, and muscle activity. Our brains are still highly active during our sleeping. Unfortunately, these days, our bodies aren't tied to the rise and fall of that giant ball of gas above us. Instead, we can use electricity, alarm clocks, computer screens, smart phone screens, and all other sorts of outside stimuli to adjust our natural sleeping schedule. This means that our bodies often have no effin' clue what time it is! Here's how we can get back to our roots (not to be confused with ): Trying to get to bed sooner or fall asleep sooner? Limit your exposure to the blue glow of your computer screens, TV screens, and phones later in the evening. Our bodies look at blue light and think "Sun is up! Sky is blue! Energy! WEEE!" Conversely, lights with a red/orange hue are more reminiscent of a campfire or candle. If you are somebody who has to spend time on your computer at night, consider installing a program like F.lux - it syncs with the sunrise and sunset in your time zone, gradually shifting your screens hue from Blue and bright to red and dim. I've been using the app for over a week now and have quickly adjusted to it. Purchase old-man blue blocker glasseswhich limits the colors your eyes are exposed to after the sun has gone done. +2 Charisma for style too. Hat-tip to my buddy Anthony for this tip - consider purchasing red lightbulbs to install in your bedroom. Consider getting black-out curtains for your bedroom windows, especially if you live in a city. Living in downtown Nashville, there's always something bright and shiny happening outside my window - it wasn't until I purchased super dark curtains to cover up my windows that I noticed an improvement in my 'fall-asleep time.' No TV in bed. This might be incredibly difficult for you if you’ve been falling asleep to TV for years. Instead of falling asleep with the blue glow of a TV at the foot of your bed, read a book - trust me, it will put you right to sleep. Get in the habit of reading fiction. Reading puts me to sleep within a few minutes most night, though only if I'm reading fiction. When reading non-fiction, my mind starts to race with all of the new ideas and things I could be working on. Either read real books or read on a Kindle, no iPads! Buy the right TYPE of Mattress for you: I slept on a soft mattress with two mattress pads for a few months years ago and wondered why I woke up with lower back pain every day. Turns out, my back was jacked up, and the soft mattress made things even worse. Since switching to a firm mattress, I wake up without back pain. Lesson learned here: I'm not smart. A lot of this can depend on HOW you sleep!Are you a side sleeper? Back sleeper? Stomach sleeper? Turns out there's some evolutionary reasonswhy some styles work better than others! Personally, I use the "half-military crawl position" outlined by Tim Ferriss. Have allergies? Try a hypoallergenic pillowcase! Your allergies could be affecting you while you sleep, and having the proper pillowcase can make a world of a difference. How to get more sleep So we've covered how to get BETTER sleep, what if you also need to get more of it? In order to start getting more sleep, sleep must become more of a priority. If you constantly stay up too late because things need to get done, evaluate how your time is spent after work. Seriously, think about it! Are you doing the important tasks first? Or are you messing around on the internet and not starting your tasks until late in the evening. Are you watching late night shows long after they've become enjoyable, simply because your DVR records them? Are you checking your smart phone while in bed, watching Vine videos, or using your laptop to watch more shows you don't really care about on Netflix? Yes, I understand we have parents who read Nerd Fitness and have to stay awake and function on minimal sleep (I commend you, and wish you luck!). However, for many of us, less sleep is often a result of disorganized priorities and poor use of our time. Here are the best practical tips for giving you the greatest chance at getting into bed earlier: Don't drink caffeine after lunch if possible. Caffeine can have an effect up to 6 hours after consumption. We love caffeine for many reasons (in moderation); however, you want to make sure its not consumed too late or your body will revolt. Turn off the electronics sooner. I have to enforce a "laptops closed by 11PM" or a "TV off after 10PM" rule on many nights or I never get to bed. I get lost in internetland far too easily. Putting in actual barriers really helps. If you find yourself checking Facebook and Twitter and other sites incessantly, BLOCK YOURSELF from those sites after a certain time. Stop watching crap TV shows! DVRs can be helpful, but it's so easy to record shows without second thought...and then we end up spending WAY too much time watching TV. I recently cut out 3/4ths of the shows I was recording on my DVR. Now, when I go to it, there are only the shows I actually enjoy (Parks and Rec, The League, The Walking Dead), and my TV watching time has dropped significantly. Shift things by 15 minutes every week. If you want to get to bed sooner, don't just try to get to bed an hour earlier than normal. You'll probably lie in bed for that whole hour wondering why you can't fall asleep, stressing yourself out and making things worse. I shifted my pattern by waking up 15 minutes earlier and getting to bed 15 minutes sooner. Then I repeated that process over a series of weeks. Eventually, you can shift your bedtime by an hour or two, but do it gradually! How to wake up better [Feel free to listen to NEEDTOBREATHE's " " or Avicii's " " during this portion.] Is there any more annoying sound in the world than the "beep beep beep" of an alarm clock? Well, maybe . But you get the point. So here you are, dreaming about riding a dragon with Daenerys Targaryen, doing , and playing poker with Iron Man and Spock...and that damn alarm clock wakes you up. You are now incredibly groggy and miserable. Here's what's happening: Remember earlier how we talked about different sleep cycles? Depending on which cycle you were woken up during, your body can struggle to move from "asleep" to " ." (If you thought we were going to make it through this section without a Katy Perry reference, you don't know me well enough.) Wake up in the right phase and you can feel energized and ready to go. Wake up in the wrong phase and you will feel lethargic and sleepy. Because we're often waking up at times when we're not ready to wake up, we need to use technology to our advantage. This is why ! Instead of snoozing, set your alarm for 30 minutes later and SKIP snoozing entirely. If this is an issue for you, put your alarm across the room so you need to physically get out of bed to turn it off! I've been using the Sleep Cycle App to wake up and it's been really interesting. You simply put the time in which you want to wake up, put your phone on your bed, and it will wake you up slowly and quietly in at the best point in a 30 minute window. Because it also tracks your sleep incredibly accurately, it's probably the best 99 cents I've ever spent on an app (other than our PALEO CENTRAL APP! HEYO! Ahem.) Try a dawn-simulator alarm clock. I've yet to use one (though will be picking one up for testing purposes), but the concept makes complete sense to me. If you've used one, would love to hear from you in the comments with your experiences. Rather than waking yourself up in the pitch black with a disgusting beeping noise, why not gradually rise as if there was an natural sunrise in your room? Feel free to sing the first line of " " at this point. I just did. Still feeling groggy? Go for a walk first thing. A mile every morning, if you can. Heck, do it while walking to Mordor! Walking outside and seeing that blue sky can trigger your body to release the hormones that encourage you to feel more awake and alive. Consider blue light therapy. Tim Ferriss swears by it, and the reviews are overwhelmingly positive, so I'll be testing one out during the winter months to see if my mornings are marked by increased energy. If you've used one and had positive/negative experiences, I'd love to hear about it in the comments. Am I night owl or lark? According to studies, about 1 in 10 people are true morning people ("larks"), while 2 in ten are considered "night owls." The rest fit somewhere in the middle as "hummingbirds." What this means: Some of us are more alert at certain times of the day and naturally want to rise earlier or stay up later. Here's a great article breaking down the differences between the two, along with a quiz you can takeif you're interested in getting "proof" about your biological clock. Now, the difference between the two extremes isn't as DRASTIC as we've made it out to be. Humans can never be truly naturally nocturnal - we don't have night vision (yet...). We're not programmed to operate during the middle of the night. But, we CAN use our natural tendencies to help us be more efficient and productive during certain parts of the day. We can change and adapt. Just like those who successfully work a night shift job (tips on that here), many who consider themselves a night owl may find they can become a morning person if they set themselves up for success. I used the excuse for years of being a "night owl" to screw around all day and work from midnight to 4 AM each night, when it really just required a shifting of my priorities and productivity hacks. What this all means: Identify your biological clock and try to adjust around it if possible. However, if your job requires you to get up early or stay up later, most of us can make an adjustment. Don't let your poor habits blame "being a night owl" like I used to. What about naps? Although generally not part of a day here in the states, we're actually programmed to desire a quick nap in the early afternoon. In other countries, naps are more socially acceptable (Siesta? Si, por favor!). If you feel bad that you get tired in the early afternoon, it's not because you're lazy. It's because you're naturally wired for naptime. Now, you might still be lazy, but it's not related to your nap schedule. So, behold the power of the power nap: Didn't get enough sleep last night? Only have 20-30 minutes for a quick break? Try the caffeine-fueled power nap. Fun fact: If you've slept less than normal, taking a 90 minute nap the following day could lead to an increased amount of REM sleep in that nap. What about second sleep? Biphasic Sleep is sleeping in two distinct periods. We're gonna go back in the day again: during winter months, night time could last 12-14 hours. With our bodies production of melatonin (the "sleepy time" hormone) kicking into high gear when that sun drops, people had nothing else to do (no TV, PS4, or iPads)and would fall asleep early. Then they would wake up for an hour or two in the middle of the night to read, pray, or think, and then fall back asleep for another 4-5 hours before waking up for the day. If you've ever gone to bed at a normal hour, and then woke up in the middle of the night without being able to fall back asleep for an hour or so, you know what I'm talking about. Here's the thing: this is actually quite natural! Rather than freaking the heck out and lying in bed wondering why you can't fall asleep...consider it something that is more common than our current sleep schedule. Don't be afraid to turn on the light and read a book or use the time for meditation until you can fall back asleep. This one 'mental shift' alone can keep your stress levels down and let you get back to sleep faster and provide you with BETTER sleep. Sleep hacking tips and tricks Clear your mind, Neo. I often spend my nights in bed thinking and worrying about all of the things I need to do the next day. Instead of stressing out about it, take a minute and write down the things you need to do the next day, and then set it aside. A notebook, a post-it note, an Evernote file, whatever. Do a brain-dump and clear your head so you can focus on reading A Game of Thrones without thinking about the next day's tasks. Want to control your dreams? It's called "Lucid Dreaming," it's possible, but requires work. I've only been able to do it once, but haven't given up hope that it can become a more common occurrence! Ultimately, this allows you to live out a real life version of Inception. Sleep apnea? Keep reading Nerd Fitness and lose weight! Being overweight is a big cause of sleep apnea for many. Luckily, you're reading the right site On top of that, try a different sleeping position (like the aforementioned half-military crawl position to keep your passages open). Have way too much time on your hands and not constricted by societal norms? Try Polyphasic sleep or the Uberman sleep schedule, and then tell me how it goes It didn't work for Kramer, but it might work for you! Stop sucking, start documenting! Like, anything, that which gets measured gets improved. Now, if you're somebody that isn't really detail oriented, just start by picking ONE or two changes above, and focus on building that Hard Hat Habit. However, if you like to nerd out about certain details, why not nerd out about your sleep? Starting tomorrow morning, when you wake up, recap the previous day with a journal entry: What time did you wake up, and what time did you actually get out of bed? How many times did you hit snooze? After work, how much television did you watch? After you finished watching, did you go right to bed? Did you fall asleep with the TV on? How long did you lie in bed before actually falling asleep (obviously this will be tough to tell, but you can estimate). A quick recap on what to do: Change one or two things about your current strategy. Turn off the computer 15 minutes earlier. Stop watching TV in bed. Read fiction. Limit the amount of blue light at night. No more snoozing. Set the alarm clock across the room. Go for a walk in the morning outside. If you want to use technology: F.Lux for your computer, red bulbs in the bedroom, Sleep Cycle for your mobile device, Sleep Cycle or a Sunrise alarm clock for waking up without disturbing deep sleep. I'd love to hear from you: What questions do you have about sleeping? How have you learned to be better at it? What are you still struggling with? Have you tried sunrise alarm clocks or blue-light devices? What are your favorite sleep aids or sleep hacks? Let's hear it! zzzzzzzzz..... -Steve ### photo sources: Sleeping Lego, Sleeping Puppy, Sleeping Baby, Sleeping Cat, Sleeping Koala, Sleeping Bunnies, Side Sleeping Lego, Sleeping Kitty, Owl, late alarm clock, Sleeping Tiger, [url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/hippie/2475849569/sizes/l/in/photostream/]Notepad

Meet Ben, a 44-year-old fundraising and software consultant and father of two! Just earlier this year, Ben was living a sedentary life. At 280 lbs, classified as "morbidly obese," Ben found he was unhappy with his current track, out of energy, and in need of a change. As someone who worked out of a home office, he spent much of his day at home on his computer, and very little time moving more and eating better. He was lost, and looking for a home to help with his weight loss journey. Ben decided he wanted to get healthy, found Nerd Fitness, and over the next 10 months lost over 100 lbs. He started strength training, ran a half marathon, and more. How did he do it? Let's find out. Ben's story Steve: Hey Ben! Thanks for taking the time to answer some questions dude. What got you motivated to start? When did you make a change? My wife was pregnant with our second daughter (born in April 2013). I realized that I’d be 62 years old when she’s a high school senior and at the rate my health was declining due to weight gain, I might not even make it that far. I needed to do this for my family. That, combined with the fact that I was feeling uncomfortable in all my clothes and embarrassed about how big I had gotten prompted things. Steve: That's quite the wake up call. The old you spent a lot of time your free time at home on the computer. What about the new you? The early morning gaming/internet time has changed to exercise time, usually running. I hit the gym at lunchtime 3-4 days a week, and even spend a lot more time planning my meals out than I used to. Steve: What about your exercise strategy? I started off just trying to get moving. I knew that I wanted to do 3-4 days of 30+ minutes cardio and 3-4 days of strength training per week. It wasn't until I found NF that I truly learned what a quality strength program looked like. On the cardio side, I was terribly out of shape and couldn't jog slowly for more than a minute without getting terribly winded. So, for the first week or two my cardio workouts consisted of one minute jogging followed by three minutes walking, repeated 8 times (like Interval Training). It never occurred to me that less than 6 months later I'd be able to run the distance of a half marathon without stopping. Steve: Give us and example of a workout! As I gear up for a race in March, I run 3 days per week, approximately 4 hours total. Strength training is at around 3 hours per week. One of the big takeaways I got from Nerd Fitness was that to achieve the goals I set, I needed to work on both cardio AND strength train. I do two days upper body and just one day lower body strength training. Upper body is typically alternating between push and pull, something like this: dumbbell bench press dumbbell row pushups low-bar inverted rows dips pull-ups Lower body is pretty straightforward: squats, lunges, and leg presses. Steve: What about your diet? Did you use a specific strategy or just look eat healthier overall? I haven't followed any specific diet strategy, though I've certainly pulled elements of several different ones. Overall, my diet has evolved to be what I consider to be extremely “clean,” though I realize that proponents of various diets might disagree. Basically, I now view all food as fuel for my workouts and daily life, and I want to perform as well as I can, so I try to use the best fuel that I can. Here are some of my go-to foods: Pre-Run Snack: a grapefruit, some strawberries, or a homemade protein bar made with blueberries, flax seed, rolled oats, steel cut oats, safflower oil, raw honey, and whey protein. Breakfast: Usually one of two options: Greek yogurt, granola, and berries, or steel-cut oatmeal with cinnamon, apples, and blueberries. Boiled egg(s) Lunch and Dinner: Usually 6-10 oz. of lean meat (flank steak, grilled chicken breast, grilled salmon or tuna, smoked turkey) with one or two sides such as broccoli, grilled mixed veggies, short-grain brown rice, quinoa, black beans, homemade guacamole, sweet potatoes, baby spinach salad topped with olive oil and vinegar Steve: How exactly did your diet evolve - what were some of the first changes you made? Very early on, I just focused on reducing my caloric intake. At that point, I didn't really look at the quality of food I was eating or macronutrient content. It was purely "you have a budget of ~2100 calories per day to lose 2 pounds per week. Eat ~2100 calories per day." I mean, I pretty frequently ate pulled pork or ribs with sugar-sweetened BBQ sauce in January and February of this year. As I started to read Nerd Fitness and other sites and gain some experience, I came to realize that healthier foods (especially leaner proteins) would help me feel more full because I could eat more of them, and they'd also help increase the rate of fat loss. What I didn't realize until it started happening for me was how much eating healthier would help with fitness performance. Once I saw my lifting numbers increase and my running times decrease rapidly with better nutrition, I was hooked. Here are some of the major things I've learned: Prepare as much of my food as is possible at home. Fat isn't to be feared, especially when it comes from healthy sources such as nuts, eggs, seeds, and avocados. Carbs should be viewed as sources of fiber and fuel for workouts. Look to minimize sodium, saturated fats, and added sugars. Lean protein is teh awesome in every way! Steve: What was the toughest change for you to make? I was in fairly good shape when I was younger, so my ego made it difficult to get back in the gym as a fat guy. Several of my early trips were during off-peak hours when I knew that few/no people would be there. I did get over that rather quickly, though. But really, success breeds success. Once I started seeing results from doing what I was doing, it became easy to ramp it up further. I actually lost weight more rapidly in months 3 through 7 (12.6 pounds per month) than in months 1 and 2 (9 pounds per month), as the momentum helped me make more changes. Steve: How did you track your progress? Did you take any other measurements? Let's just say that I put the "Nerd" in "Nerd Fitness" when it comes to tracking. I record my weight daily. I also track several body measurements monthly (waist, chest, biceps, thigh, calf, etc.) My heart rate monitor comes with a fitness test that I administer monthly and record. And all of my strength training weights and cardio training times are tracked using various apps. Steve: What was the most important change you made that helped you succeed? I believe the most important change has been around nutrition, both in how much I eat and what I eat. There are those who preach calorie count and others who espouse clean eating. I do both. Steve: What kind of support system did you have? Friends and family? My wife has been a massive help, both as a cheerleader and in taking on more of the burden with our kids in the mornings when I'm running. I started posting on the NF Message boards back in April, and I learned a crazy amount about strength training. I've also enlisted the support of social media by blogging, and my scale auto-Tweets my weight every morning. For me, weighing daily and having it automatically tweeted is what keeps me in line more than anything else. Steve: Have you tried and failed to get healthy before in the past? What made this time different? I've tried and failed to "lose weight" in the past. This is the first time that I've focused on "being healthy" and that shift in thinking alone has been a big part of the difference. The other major difference had been that I've eaten a significantly *larger* calorie count this time than ever. I'd never counted calories before January of this year, but now that I've been doing it since then, I'm acutely aware that I weighed over 200 pounds and frequently ate only 1000-1500 calories per day when I was dieting. No wonder I would crash and binge! It's very rare for me to eat under 2000 now. Steve: What would you tell somebody who's tried and failed but ready to try again? I'd recommend that they get moving, be ok with starting small, and make sure to eat both enough food and healthy foods. What are you excited to do now that you weren't physically able to do before? Any activities in particular? While it's neat and impressive-sounding to be able to go out and run 15 miles, more than anything else I'm just glad I have much more energy to play with my daughters. Just being able to keep up with my off-the-chain 4-year-old daughter is huge. Beyond that, the biggest change is that I'm much more acutely aware of the importance of good nutrition. I wouldn't be surprised if I never eat a fast food burger and fries again, and that's something I wouldn't have said as recently as March or so. Steve: Favorite video game of all time? Steve: Do you have any nerdy passions or pursuits? Does running a message board for a text-based football game count? ;-) I have been the head geek at Front Office Football Central for 10+ years. and I am very active in the text-based sports simulation community overall. Steve: Yes. That counts. Hahahaha! If you could have any superpower in the world, what would it be, and why? Mind-reading. I'm generally fascinated by people, so actually knowing their thoughts would take it to the next level. Steve: Tell us something interesting about you! My daughters--ages 4 years and 4 months--share April 4th as their birthday. Why Ben was successful Ben found a recipe for success that worked for him. In less than a year he became a whole new man, down 100 lbs, with a completely new lifestyle and outlook. Let's take a look at some of the things that made him successful: A focus on nutrition: Ben went from knowing almost nothing about nutrition, to carefully crafting a style of healthy eating that worked for him. He realized that fat is not the enemy, that you can't outrun your diet, and that carbs should come from healthy sources and be used as fuel for workouts (specifically his long runs!). Ben preferred to track his calories closely AND eat incredibly healthy. While many Rebels have success following a specific style of healthy eating (e.g. Paleo) without worrying too much about calories, Ben found that completely nerding out over his diet was what worked for him. Tracking, tracking, tracking! Ben tracked EVERYTHING. Not just his weight, but his lean mass and fat mass. Not just his 3-mile time, but his VO2 max. On top of that, he took regular photos and even took measurements. Because Ben had so much data, he didn't need to freak out when one specific thing looked off. If his weight went up one week but his other indicators still improved, he could easily see, through other measurements, that he probably just gained some muscle. It's easy to tell that Ben enjoyed this process, as he was able to geek out about his progress and throw himself in this new game - life. A great reason: Ben had a great reason to get healthy. Above all else, it was his family and his daughters that motivated him to make a change. He knew he needed to change something if he wanted to be around for the major moments in their lives. So, he got started and took practical steps in place to keep him moving forward and achieve his goals. He had a great reason and motivation to get started, and put in place a great system to keep him on track. Accountability: Ben mentioned his weight gets tweeted automatically. EVERY DAY! Talk about accountability. Not only that, Ben set up a blogwhere he reports his progress and shares his experience, allowing loved ones and acquaintances alike to check up on him. Some people may only need a workout buddy to stay on track, while others need their progress automatically tweeted every day. Whatever the case, make sure you have a way to stay accountable. Become the next success story Before starting, Ben had a long way to go. So he focused his energy on that: STARTING. He didn't become an Underpants Gnome...he just took action and figured the rest out along the way. His workouts changed drastically, and his diet is radically different from his previous lifestyle, but both of those changes happened gradually over the course of 10 months. He put on his hard hat and went to work every single day. And just like Optimus Prime, Ben made sure his slow transformation resulted in dramatic results. Ben, thanks for sharing your story with the Rebellion (now over 120,000 strong!) - good luck in your next race, and take care of those kids. What questions do you have for Ben? -Steve ### photo source: success

I get a lot of questions on where I get my inspiration and motivation to run Nerd Fitness, not to mention my own personal health and well-being. I also want to talk about the difference between motivation and inspiration, and how I use both to level up my life. I'm NOT inspired by actors who have personal chefs, personal trainers, nutritionists, and the time to devote 24 hours a day to getting healthy. Sure, it's fun to get motivated by them, but I know any comparisons are, at the end of the day, unrealistic. I AM inspired by normal people like Joe, who dropped 130 pounds in 10 months while working a desk job and traveling two weeks a month. I'm NOT inspired by the guys in the gym who spend all of their time doing six different bicep curls and four different ab exercises to make sure their perfect muscles are sculpted more perfectly. I AM inspired by the sixty-five year old guy I saw last week deadlifting 400 POUNDS. If I can deadlift half of that at his age, I know I'm doing something right. I'm NOT inspired by the guy who loads up 315 lbs in the Smith Machine and does 10 "power curtsies" (which are squats that aren't REALLY squats: they just drop down a few inches). I AM inspired by the older lady, whose kids are in day care, who is squatting 75 pounds, and is squatting the right way: DEEP. Yeah, it's fun to be motivated by this, but I find myself more inspired by THIS little dude who's trying: Nike: Find Your Greatness Video I'm not inspired by the people who have it all figured out. I AM inspired by the people who are working hard every day trying to figure it out. I AM inspired by the people who say "I've failed before, which means this time things will be different." I AM inspired by people who took a crappy situation, accepted personal responsibility, and changed their fate or channeled Iron Man to make the most of it. I AM inspired by people who refuse to fall victim to 'good enough syndrome.' They instead compare themselves to who they were yesterday. I am inspired by the Nerd Fitness community; I try to be better for them, to inspire them right back. If you don't have it all figured out, don't worry. Nobody does! If you are struggling to see progress, don't forget to give yourself a quiet fist pump for getting skin in the game in the first place and figuring it out. I had no clue what I was doing ten years ago, and to this day I am still learning...but every day is an opportunity to learn, adjust, and adapt. Perfection is the enemy of progress. Waiting for the perfect opportunity or the perfect plan will result in nothing ever happening. Educate yourself a bit, but put one foot in front of the other, and figure things out as you go. That's how the rest of us did it...but you need to start in order for that to happen. Try and don't be afraid to fail, but make sure you fail differently. the truth about achievement Don't get me wrong, I love a montage just as much as anybody, whether its Rocky IV or South Park. And yeah, I could watch this video all day for motivation: How bad do you want it? (Video) In fact, that's why we created NerdFitness.TV - so you can get that burst of motivation when all hope seems lost. HOWEVER, I get my inspiration elsewhere because montages don't give us a realistic look at life - just the highlights. Montages are 3-5 minutes of the best parts of MONTHS or YEARS of hard work with all the realism cut out. Real achievement is full of blood, sweat, tears, boogers, illnesses, and competing commitments. It's full of moments of confusion and self-doubt. You don't see the vomit after the cameras stop rolling, the sacrifices made to get from the before to after; the nights lying awake wondering "why the **** am I doing this? I love the montage, but I get inspired by the months of work between takes. Real achievement is messy. It's ugly. It's boring. And it's awesome. Don't compare your daily struggles against somebody else's highlight reel. Montages take time. I'd love to hear from you in the comments: What drives you daily to be better? From where do you get your inspiration? -Steve ### photo sources: mountain top, [url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/ashleyrosex/4156758226/]inspire

Welcome!! We tried our hand at a meetup a while back, and I'm not sure if we've had one in the area since. We need to get on that

I sat in the parking lot, absolutely terrified. My palms were sweaty, my heart was racing, my brain was going crazy. After ten minutes, I finally mustered up my 20 seconds of courage, yelled at myself, got out of the car, and walked through the double doors. I was getting ready to try something I had always wanted to do but had been too scared. I attended my first swing dance class. An hour later, I left a sweaty mess...a sweaty mess with a giant smile on my face. With today marking the beginning of another 6-week challenge on Nerd Fitness, I want to discuss exercise that isn't exercise, and another big excuse that we all hear too often. Cutting out all excuses "But I don't like to exercise." While some are like Odie and love to run around all day, others are like Garfield and feel like they must be allergic to exercise. I've heard this excuse more than I care to count, and I'm going to put a stop to it right now. That's right. Today we're going to eliminate the second most common excuse people have when it comes to exercise. The first? "I don't have time" which I already DESTROYED in a previous post. You can't use that one either. So, there. Let's take a look at how to stop using it, and a bunch of different ways to stay healthy without actually realizing you're exercising. The Truth About Exercise As stated in the Rules of the Rebellion, you can't outrun your fork. Unless you're Michael Phelps swimming for 8 hours a day at a Olympic level, there is no amount of exercise that can cancel out a diet full of processed foods, junk food, and liquid calories. For whatever reason, human beings are amazing at justifying and rationalizing the most ridiculous things. We use these rationalizations to justify horrible behavior, and then compound that decision by saying things like "well, I already made one bad decision, so today is ruined. I'll start tomorrow." In order for you to live a healthy life, you need to get your head straight and understand a few key facts: Exercising for an hour, burning 300-400 calories, and then saying "I earned this" to justify stuffing 1000 calories worth of junk food down your throat is a losing battle. We're gonna stop doing this. Exercise does not mean "run on a treadmill for four hours and be miserable." Exercise is anything that elevates your heart rate and takes your body outside of its normal comfort zone. Your diet is responsible for 80-90% of your success or failure when it comes to losing weight and getting healthier. If I could only tell you to fix one thing, your diet or exercising, it would be your diet. Every time. Every decision counts and every choice adds up. One bad decision does not ruin a day. One day off doesn't ruin a week. One week off doesn't ruin a month. EVERY SINGLE DECISION you make can take you closer or further away from your ultimate goal. Stop worrying about the decision you made 10 minutes ago or yesterday and focus on the next one. Combine these four facts, and we're left with this: Exercise is a bonus. Exercise helps your heart get stronger, can help build muscle, usually gets you outside the house and absorbing vitamin D, and brings you a litany of other health benefits. Exercise is not an excuse to eat like crap. Instead, you need to reframe your mindset. Instead of "I earned this" start telling yourself: "If I'm going to exercise, I might as well make it worth it by eating right too." Daily exercise is a constant reminder that you are leveling up your life - that you must continue to make other good choices or you're practically wasting your time. Exercising Without Exercising When you say "but I don't like exercising," what you're really saying is: "I don't enjoy the particular type of exercise that I have in mind." If you don't like lifting weights in a gym, don't do it. If you don't like running, don't do it. I have never run more than a 5k in my life and have zero plans to ever run more than that. Unless there are zombies that can run a 10 k...in which case I'll run an 11k. My main goal with Nerd Fitness is to get you to enjoy exercise, find a way to do it every day, and combine that with making better decisions about the food you put in your body. So, we need to find a way to exercise every day because it KEEPS US THINKING HEALTHY, which leads to other healthier decisions made throughout the day (where the real big wins are). Here are my favorite ways to exercise that don't feel like exercise: Hiking, especially with friends - This last week I went and hiked around Lake Radnor in Nashville with fellow entrepreneur Matt Bodnar. We hung out with deer, saw incredible scenery, and talked about life and business. I also happened to walk five miles over various elevations. Walking - No time to hike? Go for a walk. Even a 15-minute brisk walk is enough time to get close to a mile walked, which gets you one step closer to Mordor. Do you have a 30-minute meeting at work? Have a walking meeting instead. Steve Jobs was known for doing this. LARPING - Live Action Role Playing. Might seem silly to those on the outside, but to those playing, it's an amazing adventure that reminds us how awesome our imaginations are. Also, depending on the game, you could be wearing a heavy costume, swinging heavy weaponry, and running for your life! Rock Climbing - I love rock climbing. It's one of the best arm/back/forearm workouts in existence, you get to feel like a badass when you reach the top of the wall, and all climbing routes are graded so you can level up the challenge as you get stronger/fitter/better. It's a fit nerd's dream! Geocaching - If rock climbing is a fit-nerd's dream, then geocaching is a adventure nerd's dream brought to life. Become a real life treasure-hunter (Lara Croft? Nathan Drake? You decide!), and get a great workout in while you're at it. Dancing - Ever tried serious swing dancing? You'll be sweating within ten minutes. How about hip hop? Drenched in sweat, and sore as hell the next day. Zumba? Tango? Flamenco? You'd be surprised what you can sign up for and what will elevate your heart rate. Roughhousing with your kids. I don't have kids, but when I do, you can bet your ass I'll be the dad out rolling around in the back yard with them. Don't forget what it's like to be a kid - it keeps you young. I really enjoyed this article from Art of Manliness on the importance of roughhousing! Climbing on stuff - Last week on my hike at Midoricon, I was walking through the woods with NF Rebel Joe (No, not THAT Joe). It was awesome to see this guy, having lost 100 pounds since finding Nerd Fitness, explore the woods like it was no problem: climbing on stumps, balancing on fallen trees, climbing trees, and more. When was the last time you've done stuff like THAT? Hmmm? (Shout out to MovNat!) Martial arts - Be honest. You watched The Matrix, you heard Neo go "I know Kung Fu" and you wanted to be able to one day say the same thing. Whether it's Kung Fu, Muay Thai, Tae Kwon Do, Karate or Capoeira, there's a martial art out there that will make you feel like a badass. Build a standing desk - Although we all know that correlation does not prove causation, it's no surprise that there's a strong correlation between sitting all day and an early grave. Why not fix your posture, strengthen your legs, and spend the day being more productive with a standing desk? Stop meeting for coffee - Hat tip to Charlie Hoehn on this one. If somebody wants to meet up with you for coffee, suggest something active: throwing a baseball, tossing a frisbee, going for a hike - anything that gets you up and moving. I say yes to pretty much anybody that invites me to play golf. Wink wink. You know... - That thing that couples do? Yeah. Do more of that. Self-explanatory. Moving on... Clean - Ugh, nobody likes to clean the house/apartment. I certainly don't. So I make a game out of it. I see how much I can accomplish with a single song blasting at max volume. Of course, after getting through one song, I figure "welp, I've already started, might as well keep going." Do handstands - We have an article coming up teaching you how to do your first handstand, which I'm very excited about. This is a fun activity that builds up serious arm and core strength and will leave you sweating bullets after even a few minutes. Find a park, go do handstands, cartwheels, somersaults, and whatever else makes you feel young again. Parkour - Our beginner's guide to Parkour is one of the most popular on Nerd Fitness. I don't care how old you are, there's no reason you can't get started with rolling around in your hard and vaulting over picnic tables and bike racks. Playout - Is Parkour too serious for you? Try a playout! Spiderman was on to something - climbing walls, swinging from skyscrapers, and popping flips around the bad guys. You might not be able to swing between buildings, but you can definitely visit a playground in your area and get creative! Adult gymnastics - In the same vein as Parkour, gymnastics will help you build some of the BEST real world strength you can get with any type of exercise, and it's all done in a playful way without a single weight being picked up. Swing from rings, somersault, flip onto pads, and more. There are gyms all over the country. Yoga -Build flexibility, strength, and learn to freaking relax. There are million kinds of yoga, so sign up for a few different kinds and see which one lines up the best with what you're looking for. Play video games that make you be active - Wii Tennis, Wii Fit, Just Dance on Xbox Kinect, and whatever games actually exist for the Sony Move (does anybody actually have this?). OK, DDR (Dance Dance Revolution) counts too. I know an hour of that is exhausting. Playing a normal game like Grand Theft Auto V? Make a rule that you can only play while standing up. That's what I do to keep myself from spending twelve hours on the couch in marathon gaming sessions! Play on a playground - Obviously not when kids are around. Preferably with pants on. Go down the slide, swing across the monkey bars, climb the rope all, balance on the balance beam. Create an obstacle course for yourself and see how quickly you can get through it. You can even work out on a playground too. Play a musical instrument - Did you know playing the violin for an hour burns about as many calories as walking around a track at a moderate pace for an hour? It turns out, our brains can burn boatloads of calories too. So challenge your brain! Join a Rec league - New in town? Want to be active and meet people? Join a kickball or softball league. You get to exercise AND it's a great way to meet new people! Bike to work - I know there are a lot of Rebels in our community who dropped a bunch of weight by making one change: they biked to work, or biked to their friend's house, or started biking generlaly. You get from Point A to Point B, you save money on gas, and you get a workout. That would make Michael Scott proud. Play a childhood game - What games did you play as a child? Capture the flag? Kick the can? Simple tag? Get a few friends together and give it a try - it will be the most fun you've had in a while! Challenge yourself Yesterday we launched a new Six-Week Challenge on the Nerd Fitness Message Boards. If you want to join a few thousand of the most supportive people you'll ever meet and help yourself live a better life, we'd love to have you. For this challenge, I'd love for you to commit to trying something new at some point in the next six weeks. I committed to Swing Dance Lessons for the month of September. After my four weeks are up, I'll move onto something equally terrifying and new like Krav Maga or Capoeira for the month of October. Here's my advice to you: Say yes before you can say no. Stop saying "I don't have time" and realize you do. Stop saying "I can't afford it" and find a way to make it a priority. Do all of this before you can talk yourself out of it. The best way to do that? Commit in advance. I pre-paid my four weeks of swing lessons. Having already paid for it, I knew I'd be just throwing my money away if I didn't attend. Put down a deposit and make an investment in yourself. Go with a friend. I went to my class alone, which forced me to further develop my social skills, but if you happen to be TOO afraid to attend a class, get a friend to drag you there. It's amazing what we do to avoid ridicule from our buddies. Expect to suck. It was frustrating for me to not be good at swing dancing right away. After playing sports and lifting weights, it was a tremendous shift for me to stop trying to be the fastest, strongest, most perfect, and instead relax, let loose and enjoy myself. If you are learning a new skill, expect to suck at it. You'll get better. As long as you remember to... Have fun. Remember, we could get hit by a bus tomorrow. Every day above ground is a blessing, so enjoy it! That one thing you always wanted to try but have been putting off? Today's a good a day to get started. Just take that FIRST step. Google classes in your city. Find a site that focuses on beginners, and read about it. If there's a place to pre-pay or make a deposit, do it. And then go. Use your beastmode skills if you have to. But suck it up, expect to not be good at the new activity immediately, and have some fun. What's the one new thing you're going to try this month? -Steve PS: Over 3,000 women have signed up for the Nerd Fitness Academy Women's email list - we'll be sending out an email in a few days asking a few important questions to make sure all students have a top notch experience. Make sure you're signed up so we can hear from you! PPS: Our #HardHatChallenge is still going strong! How is your month going of filling up your calendar with X's? I missed one day this past weekend, but that's okay, because I got right back on track the next day. Today's Rebel Hero: Joe (Anivair on the message boards) from Columbus, who drove down with his wife Tracie to hang out with me at MidoriCon two weeks ago! Since finding Nerd Fitness, Joe is down 100 freaking pounds, and hopes to one day become a MovNat trainer. I've known Joe through NF for years, so it was great to finally meet him in person. Want to be the next Rebel Hero? Send a photo of you in your Nerd Fitness gear to contact@nerdfitness.com so we can feature you on the site! ### photo source: treadmill, treadmill fall, dog, jump, [url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/jdhancock/3731688801/]garfield

Today is September 3rd. This means two things: 1) Yesterday was Labor Day here in the US, which means BBQs and too many beers. 2) Yesterday was September 2nd, AKA the end of Summer. The pool parties are done, trips to the beach are over, and WINTER IS COMING (unless you live down under!). Okay so Winter is not that close, but for some reason, September is a signal for many people that it's time to start slacking! "Bathing suit season is done, skipping workouts this week won't be bad. Besides, this three-day weekend was rough and I'm recovering." "Meh, wedding season has passed, and football season has started. I'll just take this week off." All around the world, people look at September as that month where they half-ass staying on track. Suddenly, it's Christmas time, they're up 30 pounds, and horribly depressed as they've undone all of the hard work from the spring and summer. Not Nerd Fitness Rebels though. We put on our hard hats, and go to work. Hard Hat? Okay, so you don't actually need to have a hard hat, a metaphorical one will do. I can't remember why I started saying it, but over the past few years I've been using a phrase (and here on NF occasionally) to keep myself on target: "Put on your hard hat!" (This also happens to be the phrase that I yell at everybody while at the craps table when it's my turn to roll, but we'll save that story for another time). I want you to roleplay with me here for a second. No, not that kind of roleplay. Nor this one. Imagine you are a construction worker or somebody who has to wear a hard hat for their job. The alarm clock rings at 6:00AM ( ). You had a rough day yesterday, and a long night. You are exhausted and would much rather sleep in. However, you know that if you just don't show up to work, you'll get fired. So what do you do? You put on your hard hat, and you go to work. You suck it up, because you need that paycheck. Maybe you drink an extra cup of coffee. Or you complain a little bit more when you're putting up the drywall. But you still do the job to the best of your ability, and you get through the day. Put on your hard hat Sometimes, we have to do things that we don't want to do. Some days, we struggle with following through with the things that are good for us because we'd rather take the easy/comfortable/unhealthy alternative. We sacrifice what we truly want (a healthier life, pride from looking in the mirror) for what we want RIGHT NOW. You need to put on your hard hat, and you need to go to work: Don't feel like exercising today? Too bad. Hard hat on. GET STARTED. Do 10 push ups. Don't feel like eating right today? Too bad. Hard hat on. Stick some veggies on that plate. Don't want to get enough sleep tonight? Too bad. Hard hat on. Turn on off the TV, shut down Twitch.tv, and get some sleep. Don't feel like getting work done? Too bad. Close Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube, and get started. You just spent months building up momentum, and I'll be damned if I'm gonna let you lose it all. Not on my watch! You know the thing that you're currently avoiding is good for you, so you need to literally force yourself to do it sometimes. Skipping your day job isn't an option, so you go. Skipping today's workout isn't an option either, so you should probably do it. I challenge you to spend the next 30 days doing ONE healthy activity that makes your life better. One thing, every day, for the next 30 days. Here's how you're going to do it. What's your hard hat? If you're a construction worker, your hard hat keeps you safe. It's required to get started. When you take it off it signifies that you've completed your mission. When you put that hat on, a switch is flipped. You may not like the hard hat, but you know you need it. After you wear it enough, you get used to it. It becomes part of your work, part of your success. I challenge you to identify your hard hat - the thing that flips the switch. The thing that prepares you to suck it up and get work done. It might be lacing up your shoes: Many basketball players only wear their shoes on the court. Why? Because when their shoes go on, it's game time. Are you a runner? When you finish lacing up your running shoes, you are RUNNING. Period. Only running in those shoes. Are you still in your apartment? I hope the path to the door is clear. Seriously. It might be putting on your exercise gear: Joe, the Rebel who lost 130 lbs, allows himself 5 minutes of complaining, but ONLY as he's getting into his workout clothes. But once he was fully dressed, once his hard hat was on, it was time to go to work. No excuses, no complaining, no thinking, and definitely no turning back. After that "hat" goes on, there's one thing to do: get the job done. After all, you "didn't get dressed up for nothin'!" If you are a powerlifter, it might be chalk: You're just not feeling it today. You feel lethargic, and your workout is supposed to be in 30 minutes. You're lifting heavy today, and you're not feeling confident. But then you get to the gym, walk over to the bar, and chalk up. The war paint goes on, and you are transformed. Suddenly you are no longer weak. Suddenly you are right where you're supposed to be; it's time to go to work. It might be listening to a song that pumps you up: You're tired, it's late, and you still haven't worked out yet. You start to think you might skip "just this one." But then you reach for your hard hat. The song (or playlist) that gets your blood pumpin'. When this song finishes, you go work out. No feeling, no complaints. You have 2 minutes and 30 seconds to transform yourself into a beast. It might be caffeine (coffee or tea): After a long morning or long day, you just aren't feeling it. It would be so much easier to just surf buzzfeed or watch some Game of Thrones. But then you consume your pre-workout cup of coffee/tea. All of a sudden the engines start revving up. You close that window, turn off that TV, and get that workout started. You're on cruise control; your hard hat is on. So, what's your hard hat? Identify the thing that tells you: it's time....that tells you that you can't bail. If you do, your hard had loses its power, and it's gotten you this far. Welp, I guess there's only one choice -- forward. The Seinfeld Rule Recently I was introduced to the Seinfeld Strategy by my friend James Clear, who runs a pretty spectacular personal development blog. Jerry Seinfeld, arguably one of the most successful comedians of all time, had a method for how he was able to achieve such success. Another comedian recalled his interaction with Jerry; he asked him how he was able to stay successful: He said the way to be a better comic was to create better jokes and the way to create better jokes was to write every day. He told me to get a big wall calendar that has a whole year on one page and hang it on a prominent wall. The next step was to get a big red magic marker. He said for each day that I do my task of writing, I get to put a big red X over that day. “After a few days you’ll have a chain. Just keep at it and the chain will grow longer every day. You’ll like seeing that chain, especially when you get a few weeks under your belt. Your only job is to not break the chain.” Feel free to print out a calendar for this month, or use the calendar on your wall. Get a big red Sharpie, and put an X on there today when you complete that task you're hoping to accomplish for the next 30 days. And then do it again tomorrow. And then on the day when you don't feel like doing it? Guess what? PUT ON YOUR HARD HAT. Do the damn thing. And stick an X on there. Although there are apps that track habit building, I find something that you HAVE to look at, with big red x's staring you in the face, makes you far more likely to carry out that task. What if I miss a day? Meet the "Never Two in a Row" Rule. Think of this like your fallback plan. I hope you have to never use this rule this month. HOWEVER, if for some reason you miss a day, that next day suddenly has become the most important day of your life. Momentum is so damn powerful, and when you have it working for you, one day off is merely a speedbump. However, two days can very quickly become three, which can become a week, and so on. Here's a video I recorded last year on the Never Two Rule for the Level Up Club (which is currently being mixed in with the Rebel Women's Fitness Course we'll be releasing later this month, more details coming soon!): The "Never Two in a Row" Video The Hard Hat Challenge I am throwing down the gauntlet. I want you to print out a Calendar or use a wall calendar (don't worry, I'm doing this too), and get a big red sharpie. For the rest of this month, you are going to complete one healthy activity every single day: Yes, I ate vegetables today. Yes, I went for a 15 minute walk. Yes, I did 10 minutes of yoga. Yes, I prepared one healthy meal. Yes, I meditated for 5 minutes. Yes, I spent 15 minutes learning Ruby at CodeAcademy. The activity must be something that can be completed within 15 minutes, and it must be something that improves your life in some way. It needs to be a new habit you're working on, or a habit you've struggled with in the past. It needs to be something that you can definitively say YES or NO to. At the end of the month, submit a photo of you next to your calendar (or holding up the calendar) with all of the X's filled in. I will then randomly draw a winner out of all of the people who submit a fully X'd out month, and award them a custom prize. (Note: If you hit a speed-bump and got back on track after one missed day, you're still eligible) What is that custom prize you ask? A freaking Nerd Fitness Hard Hat. Now, this doesn't actually exist yet, so I'm going to have to make it myself. Luckily, arts and crafts was my best and favorite subject growing up. My favorite medium was "elbow macaroni." Fair warning: this hard hat will most likely look awful, but I promise it will be made with love. Get started today. Leave a comment below with the activity you'll be doing for the rest of September. Print out your calendar, hang it somewhere you'll see it every day. And then put your hard hat on and get to work. No seriously, I want you to make the motion as if you were putting on a hard hat If you're on twitter, follow me at @SteveKamb: I'll be posting updates all month long at #HardHatChallenge. Feel free to use that hashtag and let me know how you're doing too! My goal: Meditate for 2.5 minutes every day using Calm.com (my new favorite site) as the first thing I do in the morning when I turn on my computer. Your turn, put that freaking hard hat on and go to work. -Steve PS: Here's a fun Steve Kamb fact for the day: My first job out of college was "construction equipment salesman," and I had to wear a hard hat every day. ### photo sources: Hard Hat Legos, Danger Hard Hat Area, Pig Hard Hat, Jerry Seinfeld, TWO, September Calendar, [url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/opid/352737761/sizes/o/in/photostream/]hard hats

This is a post from NF Team Member Staci. Ahh, bacon and eggs - one of the most standard and easy breakfasts. Plus, it's Paleo! Whether you're trying to lose weight or put on muscle, bacon and is an awesome (and delicious) option. Before I learned to cook, I ate simple bacon and eggs ALL THE TIME. It was easy to make, delicious, and supported my training goals. But after a while I got bored; there was no reason why I had to stick to the same exact thing. So I started to experiment and look for ways to mix up bacon and eggs, under two conditions. It had to be easy and it had to remain delicious. Today you're going to learn my 5 favorite ways to spice up bacon and eggs. bacon, Sweet Potato Hash, and eggs Bacon and Sweet Potato Hash is one of my absolute favorite recipes. Not only does it go great as a side for eggs at breakfast, it also works for a side dish for dinners. It's a great, easy (and Paleo!) dish to bring to a pot luck. You Will Need: 4 medium sized sweet potatoes 4 thick slices of bacon 1/2 cup sliced scallions 1 teaspoon paprika Salt and Pepper **If you want to make these spicy, add 1/2 tsp. all spice and hot sauce (I like Sriracha, though it's not the most Paleo sauce available) Start with chopping up your sweet potatoes into small squares. You can peel the sweet potatoes if you would like, but I prefer to keep the skin on. Place the sweet potato squares in a pot, cover them in cold water, and cook them on high heat until the water starts boiling. Once it starts to boil, turn the heat down to low and simmer for 5-7 minutes. When you can poke the sweet potatoes easily with a fork, but they wouldn't be easy to mash (this is called "al dente"), they are done. Drain them and then shock them with cold water (run cold water over the colander), put them on a paper towel, and blot off excess water. While your potatoes are cooking, it's time to cook the bacon! Take a pan and put it on medium high heat, coat the pan with extra virgin olive oil, and then put the bacon in it. Cook the bacon for about 5-7 minutes, flipping occasionally, until it's cooked through, but not too crispy. Remove the bacon from the pan, but leave the fat. Now, add the sweet potatoes to the pan, frying them in the bacon fat, turning occasionally with a spatula or wooden spoon. After it starts to brown, add the scallions, bacon, paprika, salt and pepper, and mix it all up. Note: If your pan isn't big enough to put all of the sweet potatoes in at the same time (mine isn't!), I would take half of the bacon fat and put it in a small bowl off to the side, and then put it back in the pan when you are ready to cook your second batch. And it's done! Serve with eggs (avocado makes a great side too!). Bacon and Egg Cup This recipe is one of my favorites and one of the easiest! These are great since you can make a bunch ahead of time and then bring them with you to work/class/super hero training. They also make great Paleo "finger food" at a party, or a side dish at a Paleo pot luck. What you need: Bacon (6 slices - use a regular cut, not a thick cut) Egg (6 eggs) Muffin Tin Yields 6 muffin cups First, pre-heat your oven to 350. Then, take your muffin tin and spray it with a non stick spray. Next, take one bacon slice, and, starting with the bottom, line the edges of the muffin tin with the bacon. After that, crack an egg into each bacon lined cup. The bacon should stick to the outside of the tin, but don't worry too much if there are pieces that curl inward. Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes, depending on how well done you want your eggs cooked and how runny you want the yolks. And that's it! Seriously! Now quickly consume all 6 cups or save them for an excellent snack (or not). Mini-Omelette For this recipe, we are going to build off the previous recipe. This is another recipe that is great for a Paleo finger food, or an on the go option. A lot of times I will make half bacon/egg cups and half mini omelettes when I'm pre-cooking food for the week. You will need: 4 Eggs Vegetables of your choice, chopped - pretty much anything works here. In this example, I used onions, zucchini, baby bella mushrooms, and broccoli. A few other popular choices are asparagus, spinach, bell peppers, and tomatoes. For the amount - I'll usually have a small handful of each. 1 Sausage - your choice on flavor. I normally use chorizo, but used a chicken andouille this time because that is what was available at my local market. Bacon or Muffin Cups Muffin tin First, start out pre-heating the oven to 350. Then, chop up your vegetables and sausage into small pieces. Crack your eggs into a bowl, and whip them up with a fork. Add your vegetables and sausage, and mix it up. Now, spray your muffin tin with a cooking spray. For the cups, you have two options: 1. Line the cups with bacon like you did with the bacon and egg cups 2. Line the cups with muffin cups. The bacon option tastes better, but if you're making these for an easy on the go breakfast, the muffin cup is easier to bring with you...Though you could also line a muffin cup with the bacon! Whichever you choose, pour the mixture into the cups. Bake 15-18 minutes. Once they are done, wait for them to cool and then pop them out of the tin with a fork. Scrambled Eggs, Vegetables, and Bacon This is also very similar to the previous recipe, only instead of baking this, we will pan fry it. I love to make this for dinner while baking some omelette cups to have for lunches/snacks throughout the week, and use the same mixture. What you'll need: 4 Eggs Vegetables of your choice, chopped - pretty much anything works here. In this example, I used onions, zucchini, baby bella mushrooms, spinach, and broccoli. A few other popular choices are asparagus, spinach, bell peppers, and tomatoes. For the amount - I'll usually have a small handful of each. Note: If you're not full Paleo, you can add milk (about a tablespoon per egg) and cheese. What to do: Crack the eggs into a bowl, and stir with a fork until the whites and yolks are mixed together well. Add your vegetables, and mix up. Put a skillet on medium heat, and wait for it to get hot. Then spray the pan with cooking spray. Pour your egg mixture on, and use a spatula to mix it up as it cooks. This burns super quick if you don't keep it moving. Serve with bacon! *You can also make an omeletteout of the exact same ingredients. Bacon Wrapped Asparagus This one is as easy as it sounds, and is great for parties, and even cold as a late night snack (I just learned this one!) What you need: Bacon Asparagus What to do: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Farenheit Take 3-5 stalks of asparagus, depending on their size. Take one slice of bacon, and starting near the bottom, wrap the bacon around the asparagus, leaving the tips exposed. Spray a glass cooking pan or a cookie sheet with cooking spray (I prefer glass) and cook at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes - I usually start checking on it around 15 minutes though. You don't want the bacon too crispy here, it should still be pliable Serve on a fancy dish and impress your guests! Get cookin' The prospect of cooking new tons of new foods and recipes can often seem daunting. Like everything we preach here at Nerd Fitness, keep it simple, start small, and build up. Whether you're cooking spaghetti squash for the first time, learning Chicken Stirfry, or figuring out what the heck to do with ground beef, take a deep breath, turn the oven on, and get started. So, pick the easiest one above for you and master it! With just a little tweak here and there, you'll find yourself making an entirely new recipe. How else do you like to cook eggs and bacon? -Staci PS: Nerd Fitness is looking for a Rebel Chef Correspondent! We know Rebels love these posts and we want to start doing more of them. If you are interested in joining Nerd Fitness as our resident "Rebel Chef," email us at work@nerdfitness.com with the subject "REBEL CHEF" and we'll get back to you with more details. If you already run a cooking/recipe website, please share that in your email. If you just like cooking and want to share some fun recipes, that's even better. You do not need to be a Paleo cook, but all meals we share WILL be healthy ### photo source: eggs

Ugh, another day in the gym. Your muscles are sore, the weight is heavy, you're sweaty, out of breath, and feel like crap. You've been at it for a month, and although the scale is moving, you're still struggling. Ugh, another run. Your shins hurt. Your calves hurt. Your chest hurts from the heavy breathing. Your throat hurts from wheezing. You start to question what the heck you're doing, and why you're doing it. Ugh, another home workout. You're lying on the floor of your living room while your dog licks your face. Your legs feel like jelly. Your arms like toothpicks. Your kids are wondering "why is Mommy playing dead on the floor?" You quietly swear at yourself while thinking "is it worth it?" I have two truths, one you want to hear, and one you won't: 1) YES, it is absolutely worth it. 2) NO, it doesn't really get any easier. Don't worry though, I'm going to tell you why this is freaking great. Progressive overload When you get started with any type of physical activity, it seems like EVERYTHING hurts. (To which Batman would reply: " .") You are using your muscles in a way that is unusual to your body. They are broken down, beaten up, and forced to adapt to this new type of stress you put on them. Then they rebuild and recover, a tiny bit tougher and stronger than before. As time goes on, your body becomes more and more used to this level of stress, learns to recover faster, acts more efficient. It gets beat up less and requires less energy in order to complete the tasks you demand of it: If going for a mile walk was excruciating in the past, with each additional mile walk, your body builds up an immunity/strength for that particular activity and it DOES become easier. If doing 10 push ups was impossible in the past, continuing to work on it will eventually build up the right muscles in your body so that 10 push ups can become your warm up. Think of it like when playing a game like World of Warcraft or Everquest (ahhh, Everquest...). At Level 1, killing rats and spiders (who are level 2) is incredibly challenging. However, by the time you get to level 5, killing those same rats and spiders is no longer a challenge. Killing them is almost too easy. When you are Level 5, killing those spiders and rats no longer provides you with the ability to level up to the next level. You could kill those rats and spiders all day every day, and you'll never make it to level 6. In order for growth to occur, you need to attack more difficult bad guys. Your body is no different. We are designed to be as efficient as possible. If you pick something that is very challenging for you, and then over the course of a year get REALLY good at that thing, you won't continue to get the same boost to your STR or STA (strength or stamina). In fact, our body can actually become more efficient elsewhere! Allow me to explain: A group of scientists recently measured daily energy expenditure among the Hadza people of Tanzania, one of the few remaining populations of traditional hunter-gatherers. The men in this tribe set out alone most days to collect honey or hunt for game using handmade bows and poison-tipped arrows, often covering 15 to 20 miles. This is what they found: "We found that despite all this physical activity, the number of calories that the Hadza burned per day was indistinguishable from that of typical adults in Europe and the United States. We ran a number of statistical tests, accounting for body mass, lean body mass, age, sex and fat mass, and still found no difference in daily energy expenditure between the Hadza and their Western counterparts. How can the Hadza be more active than we are without burning more calories? It’s not that their bodies are more efficient, allowing them to do more with less: separate measurements showed that the Hadza burn just as many calories while walking or resting as Westerners do. We think that the Hadzas’ bodies have adjusted to the higher activity levels required for hunting and gathering by spending less energy elsewhere. Even for very active people, physical activity accounts for only a small portion of daily energy expenditure; most energy is spent behind the scenes on the myriad unseen tasks that keep our cells humming and our support systems working." So what gives? How can we use this information to our advantage? In order to progress, in order to level up, in order to get stronger...we need to constantly up the difficulty. Increase the difficulty, become a hero This was a difficult change for me, and it's a change that a lot of people have yet to make, but it's crucial: Stop looking at your workouts like something to merely suffer through until you can go back to that comfy spot on the couch. You need to stop thinking "ugh how much longer until I'm done" or "I can't wait until this is over." Instead, start thinking of it in terms of a challenge: "What am I capable of today that I wasn't capable of yesterday?" "What can I pick up this week that I couldn't pick up last week?" "What can I complete this month that I couldn't complete last month?" Yup, every time you exercise it's gonna hurt a bit. You're going to be out of breath. You're going to sweat. But every time you do those things, you are slowly adjusting what your "baseline" of comfortable is. While you're squatting just the bar and feeling miserable, that guy next to you squatting 300 pounds is as just as uncomfortable as you are. His eyes are bugging out of his head, he's drenched in sweat, his legs are shaking, and he's beat up. And so are you. He's just spent years building up his baseline level of strength, and thus has to squat 300 pounds to feel that same level of discomfort you feel. That's awesome. Life gets mighty boring without different difficulty levels. Ever played Tetris? Imagine if the pieces never fell any faster. You could slowly place them and get rid of each line, one by one. After about four minutes you'd start building sculptures with the pieces because clearing lines would bore you out of your mind. Luckily, Tetris consistently gets more difficult; the pieces fall faster and your brain is forced to adapt faster in order to continue succeeding. This is how your muscles work too. They need to be constantly challenged, as they are constantly trying to get more efficient and provide you with less results. You need to up the difficulty. A quick note on life difficulty: Some people get to start the Game of Life on Easy Mode, while others have to start on Legendary. Complaining about it doesn't make the difficulty any easier, so we all might as well play the hand we've been dealt to the best of our ability. Be okay with uncomfortable As my friend Leo from Zen Habits says, without discomfort there can be no growth: Without physical discomfort, your muscles will never be forced to adapt. Without mental discomfort, you will never do things that scare you. Long story short: if you ever want to get anywhere in life, you need to accept the fact that the things that will help you grow are going to make you uncomfortable. And here's the tough part: As soon as the uncomfortable part becomes comfortable, you're no longer getting the same benefits out of it anymore. The "weird" has become "the norm," and thus you must, once again, reach for another challenge that ups the uncomfortableness. The couch is comfy. TV is comfy. Getting good at something and then just doing that thing is comfy. Learning new things can be hard. Eating new foods can be hard. Meeting new people can be hard. Trying a new routinecan be hard. Building new habits can be hard. Pushing your muscles to lift heavier weights can hard. Running faster can be hard. Your body, your mind, and your taste buds might hate you when you are doing these things. That's good. If doing new things fills you with anxiety, you're not alone. Here's how you can minimize the discomfort: Baby steps! If the thought of running a marathon is terrifying, start with just walking a mile, then two... Do one more. Keep track of your workouts. Do ONE more rep this time. Add 1 pound to the bar. Do the workout ONE second faster. Do that often enough, and it adds up. Give yourself small wins. If you need to talk in front of 100 people, start by talking in front of 5 people, and prove to yourself that you can do it. Slowly up the ante and keep reminding yourself "I can do this." Accept it and relax. If you're nervous about something, everybody else probably is too. Smile, joke with yourself on the inside, and tell yourself to have some fun. It's only life, after all. Don't give yourself a chance to back out. Tie your fate to somebody else and follow their lead. When you go skydiving, the guy you're attached to makes the decision to jump. Say yes to opportunities that scare you before you get a chance to say no. You can figure out the rest later. Turn on Beast Mode. I've used this trick to force myself to do scary stuff. Muster up just 20 seconds of courage and then you can freak out after. Seek out a challenge I challenge you today to accept the fact that the stuff worth doing doesn't get any easier. Every time you find yourself getting too comfortable, or things are getting too easy, reach for something that produces discomfort. You should always be pushing for a greater challenge, and you will be rewarded subtly. As you progress, other aspects of life DO get easier: Walking up the stairs will no longer feel like a workout. Giving your kids a piggy back ride will no longer make you want to give up. Going for a hike with your loved one becomes an enjoyable activity rather than torture. Eating vegetables is now the best part of the meal and not the part you have to endure. A remember this quote from Tim Ferriss (who I interviewed here): “A person’s success in life can usually be measured by the number of uncomfortable conversations he or she is willing to have.” The same is true for your wellness: A person's health can be measured by the number of uncomfortable decisions he or she is willing to make. I feel very fortunate to be where I am today. It's not because I'm better or smarter than anybody else, it's just that I began to accept the fact that I would have to spend a lot of time in discomfort if I was going to grow: I hated vegetables, until I picked one to try and ate it regularly. Now, a bowl of broccoli has become a snack. I was the skinny weak kid, until I got over being self-conscious in the gym and learned to get stronger. Now I walk into any gym with my head high, full of confidence. I hated public speaking, until I forced myself to say yes to Google. And . Now, I still get nervous as hell, but I say yes to every opportunity. The thought of traveling scared me, until I booked a ticket. Now, I feel comfortable anywhere in the world. Running my own company scared the bajeezus out of me, until I gave myself no option but to succeed with Nerd Fitness. I can't imagine doing anything else now. If you haven't already read it, I highly recommend you check out "The Iron and the Soul" by Henry Rollins. It encapsulates everything amazing about strength training, dealing with adversity, and how you can grow as a person as a result of it. Let's get uncomfortable, your growth as a Nerd Fitness Rebel depends on it. So, I'd love to hear from you: What's the most uncomfortable thing you've done lately? -Steve ### photo source: atlas, stairs, bioshock stairs, climb

You woke up today and said to yourself: "Today is going to be different." First and foremost, congratulations! That's a big step. Now, you start trying to figure out how to actually get started: Should I sign up for a gym membership? Should I throw away all of my food and eat like a caveman? Should I start eating breakfast or skip breakfast? Should I go for a walk? a run? a hike? Because you're reading Nerd Fitness, I'm going to guess you're probably very intelligent, analytical, and thorough, (and ridiculously good looking, and modest, etc.). However, oftentimes as a result of your intelligence, you end up spending far more time reading and collecting info...collecting underpants and overwhelming yourself. They call this "paralysis by analysis." You are afraid of making a mistake, so instead of trying, you do nothing. We're going to avoid that paralysis and get the ball rolling. Last week we asked the Nerd Fitness Rebellion for their input: "When you got started on the path to become a hero, what did you tackle first? How did you get started?" I'm going to share with you my thoughts on your first step, and then share with you my favorite answers from the NF Community. As the great Super Mario once said, "Let's a go!" How to get started You made the decision that today is going to be the first day of the rest of your life. Let's start there: What does the rest of your life look like? Who is the new YOU? Are you somebody who: Exercises five days a week? Goes rock climbing on the weekends? Cooks healthy meals every night? Is confident and enjoys talking to people? Take four minutes and think about your new identity; the more specific you can be with what you want to accomplish, the easier it'll be for us to take the next step. Once you've determined your new identity, it's time to start proving to yourself with teeny tiny wins that "hey, I AM that new person!" Prove to yourself that you can change; show yourself that you are capable of making better decisions. How do you do that? By picking ONE part of that new version of you, and focusing all of your efforts and willpower, on showing yourself that you're capable of making that new part of your identity a reality. Notice I said "ONE PART." Don't make drastic giant sweeping changes and declarations. Don't tell yourself you're going to exercise 7 days a week for 90 minutes a day. Or that you're only going to eat chicken and broccoli for the rest of your life. Instead, pick a tiny part of that new version of you, and focus on building a new habit that lines up with your new identity. Your willpower is like your HP in a video game (limited). Fight too many bad guys at once, or fight too tough of a bad guy, and that HP depletes at a rapid pace and you need to restart. Instead, fight ONE bad guy who's weaker than you, and you survive the fight, get stronger, and build momentum. And NEVER underestimate the power of momentum. So, pick ONE thing. Make it small. Make it manageable. For example: Want to be somebody that exercises five days a week? Start by going for a walk for FIVE MINUTES each morning. No more than five minutes. Want to be somebody that doesn't drink soda? This week, drink 11 sodas instead of a whole 12 pack. Next week? drink 10. Want to be somebody that cooks all of their meals? Start with ONE meal (like this or this). Pick one thing, and fix it. Make it something that you can measure. Something you can cross something off a list and say: "I did this today." Put an X on a calendar and say "I've done this four days in a row." Now, the health benefits of this one activity might not make itself apparent after a day or so. After all, we're asking you to pick the smallest change possible so that you have no choice but to complete it. But that's the point! The benefits pale in comparison to the bigger reason to do this: you are proving to yourself that you can make a lifelong change by building a new habit, a new normal. The Shawshank Redemption is my favorite movie of all time, and this is one of my favorite quotes: "Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things. And no good thing ever dies." However, hope is nothing without action. So take action. Do ONE thing. After you get started, you can make adjustments as you learn how your body reacts, but all the education in the world isn't gonna help you lose that weight and get stronger. It's taking action. Stories from the Rebellion Last week, I reached out to our INCREDIBLY supportive community (there's about 85,000 of on the email listand nearly 19,000 of us on the message boards) and asked some people who have had success how they got started. Here are some of my favorite answers: Jessica writes: I started by cutting out soda...when I did that, I lost about 8 or 9 pounds that week. And that was the only change I made. After that, I started watching what I ate. And I started realizing how much better I felt. And more focused. And then I started running. And now I am starting to do strength training. I still have 150 pounds to lose, but I know it is a work in progress. I've lost almost 20 since January and I am getting my figure back.. its so exciting and inspiring to have people ask if you've lost weight or notice changes in you that you haven't noticed. I love this new life! I feel so much better. Jessica didn't get overwhelmed with the long journey ahead. All she focused on was one change. Another Rebel, Jeff, shares his catalyst: I got mad. Angry with myself for eating too much. Angry with myself that I couldn't stick to a diet more than 2 months. I decided to take this anger out on food. Zero grains. Zero sugar. All I'm going to eat is meat, veggies (none of the borderline or bad), some dairy and nuts. I started a blog just so that I could vent at myself. I made a lot of small gain goals. I congratulated myself for each one. After a few weeks, I wasn't angry anymore, but the anger had gotten me through the 3 days of intense sugar cravings and the first weeks of grain cravings (80% of my diet had been grain based!). Notice: He got "mad," not "depressed." Having motivation for getting started is important, and he wanted to prove to himself that his new identity was possible. So he got angry at the things he wanted to change, and then changed them. He even started a blog for accountability. Shaun explains his first steps: When I was in University I drank every weekend twice a weekend to the point of black out drunk. This was a time I think most of us go through, cause its the "party years of college." But what you don't realize, and what I finally did, is that by simply eliminating alcohol from your diet (occasional drink is fine), your body just drops the pounds. It really was the simplest way for me to begin losing weight and I eventually dropped from 210 at my heaviest, to 165 that I am now. I now work out daily (kettlebells!) and eat a balanced diet with a heavy emphasis on proteins and fats.I've never felt better, and I owe it all to beginning my journey by eliminating blackout drunk nights. Shaun picked one change. It was a big one, but it allowed him to see results and encouraged him to continue down his new path. Here are our thoughts on alcohol, by the way! One Rebel, Adam, started with breakfast: For me, it started with having breakfast every day. Then a general vague attempt at eating less. But then I started using MyFitnessPal to count calories and exercise and do a thorough audit of my then diet and exercise routines. Adam made one change: eat breakfast. Now, although I'm personally on team No Breakfast, I love this change. Why? Because he could point to this and show himself "look at this new habit I built. I'm healthier now. What else can I fix?" Hannah chilled out: I started by not stressing out so much. I used to feel like I had to record every single calorie that entered my mouth, but I got nowhere. In fact, I gained weight and ended up at my heaviest. I also stressed about what food I should eat when I was hungry. Instead of listening to what my body wanted, I ate what I "should" eat and then still wanted what I originally wanted and ended up eating that too, meaning more calories. Plus I would hide food and binge on a regular basis. I stopped counting calories and eventually deleted my livestrong account. Now I just eat whenever I'm hungry and eat what I want. I've lost 15 pounds so far. I've plateaued, and I'm not exactly eating healthy (our house is carb central), but I'm doing research and making plans to ease myself into Paleo, which I tried once but failed at miserably. Starting small Hannah started by calming down, realizing there were going to be ups and downs, and started from there. She's still got a ways to go, but she now knows success is possible. Isabell focued on diet: What I did to get started was cleaning up my diet. I cut out grains and sugar, and had success and lost a few pounds and suddenly some pairs of trousers weren't that tight anymore. I think that kind of built momentum for me, because I didn't feel so bad about my body anymore. I finally dared to go to a dojo and to start practising Taekwondo - and didn't let me frustrate by the difficulties all white-belts have. What I am trying to say: Most people who want to improve might feel awful about themselves and their bodies, and these bad emotions must be overwhelming (I sometimes cried my eyes out while looking into the mirror ...). Improving my diet helped me a lot. Isabell did some reading on sugar and grains, and understood that dietary changes are 80% of the battle. She built up momentum, focused on the positive aspects of the changes that were made, and added in a new challenge (that helped further that momentum). Get started Long story short: pick something small and GET STARTED. Once you get that ball rolling, Nerd Fitness is here for you. I've written over 500 articleson every topic imaginable, so you can further educate yourself on the things that interest you as you go along. Along with that, here are some other resources: Read the Rules of the Rebellion. This is what we stand for here at Nerd Fitness. If this sounds like something you can get behind, we'd love to have you. Sign up for our email list. I send out two free articles a week full of education, inspiration, and Star Wars references. You also get access to a super secret starter kit. Join our community. It's 19,000 strong. It's free. It's supportive. And you get to read inspiring stuff like this. Check out our free resources. We also have a few premium resources, but the free stuff is MORE than enough to get you started. But remember, you can do all the reading you want AFTER you get started. I'd love to hear from you: Leave a comment about how YOU plan to get started. If you're already headed down the path to a leveled up life, how DID you get started? -Steve Today's Rebel Hero: Chad H in Australia! "From Chad: I raced in the Sydney City2Surf race today. I prepared for this one, running incrementally longer distances since January this year (starting out with a measly 4km run during my lunch break at work). By April I'd moved up to 5km and from there, I took off! May (just before my first NF Challenge) saw me hit the 11km mark. I persevered and finished strong. While I didn't quite make my Aspirational Target, I did shatter my old record. New Personal Best: 122:54. I won't say the NerdFitness Performance (Enhancing) Shirt helped, but I hope they don't have it tested. Bring on next year!" Want to be the next Rebel Hero? Take a photo of you doing something epic in your Nerd Fitness gear and send it to contact@nerdfitness.com so we can feature you on the site! ### photo source: flag, jump, run, fork

Meet Wes, an Apple Certified Mac Tech at a university Apple Campus Store, and a freelance trombonist. Wes was a never very active kid. From an early age he was always a little overweight and developed some bad diet habits: I was resigned that I would always the fat friend with the wicked sense of humor. By the time Wes started college, he weighed 250 lbs. There his unhealthy habits only continued. After years of junk food and no exercise, he eventually found himself at 325 lbs. Then he decided to make a change. Let's learn how Wes lost over 115 lbs and transformed the rest of his life in the process. Wes's Story Steve: Thanks for joining us to tell your story! So what was the old you like? The old me was always tired. Struggle to get out of bed with barely enough time to get ready for work. Skip breakfast at home then eat fast food or pastries from the convenience store at work. Sit through my day yawning. Fast food lunch and sleepy by 3:00. Grab an energy drink or soda to get through the last couple hours, then head home to watch TV or play WoW. Order pizza or Chinese takeout. Stay up till midnight or later, then repeat. Steve: Was there a specific moment when you decided to make a change? April 17, 2012 was the exact day. I just remember thinking, “I am tired of being a fatass.” I had always been the big (read: fat) kid/guy, and I think something just exploded in my head that day. I realized I was tired of making excuses and settling with my lot in life. I told a coworker that we were going to walk the track at a local middle school. And we did. That was my first step. Steve: What's a typical day like now? A total 180 from my old life. I wake up around 5:30 each day. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I go to the gym to lift heavy things. Tuesday and Thursday I meditate, play some trombone, or grab an extra little rest before getting up. I cook breakfast each morning (scrambled eggs topped with homemade chili, anyone?) and pack my lunch. I am alert at work, and I have a timer set so I get up from my desk and walk around every 45 minutes. I eat my lunch around 12:30 each day and have no crash in the afternoon. No energy drinks or sodas. I do have an occasional coffee or tea. When I get off work, I walk for 30 minutes most days. My evenings have home-cooked meals, small exercise bouts (pushups, squats) and foam rolling/mobility work while watching TV or listening to music. Steve: Wow, you're a brand new person. What has been your exercise strategy? My exercise strategy has changed incrementally. I started with jogging/walking. I did C25K and ran my first 5K in September 2012. That got boring really quickly for me. Sometime during C25K, I found Nerd Fitness. I started doing your Beginner’s Body Weight Circuit on my non-running days. The best thing I have found for me is strength training. I joined the school gym at work. I started with StrongLifts 5x5. After several months of that, I read Starting Strength and began incorporating some Olympic Weightlifting movements into my program. My conditioning work revolves around Strongman style work, things like Farmer’s Walks and stones. Stones are REALLY fun, even though I am only doing light ones (about 50 kilos) right now. Steve: What's been your diet strategy? Healthy eating? Paleo? I started with Atkins, because this had worked for me to lose a bunch of weight in college. But that was never sustainable, because I like sides. Hamburgers with a side of chicken and bacon gets old after a while. So I tried "healthy eating" for a while. Whole grains, yogurt, low fat, etc...I was ALWAYS hungry, so that didn’t last long. That was when I found Paleo, and realized it was like Atkins (meat and fat ARE good) but I could have veggies and some fruit. The key to my diet was I didn’t just accept any single plan. I tried each new idea for a month to see if it was sustainable, even healthy eating where I was starving. Paleo just ended up being the most sustainable and enjoyable, not to mention the best at shedding fat. Steve: What was the toughest change for you to make? The toughest change for me has been accepting the new person I have become. It’s tough buying clothes, and not automatically looking for baggy things to hide my body. I have to constantly remind myself that I am a new man and act accordingly. Steve: How did you track your progress? Did you take any other measurements? I weighed myself once a week at my parent’s house. I didn’t take pictures initially because I thought the scale was the best measure, and I was embarrassed of my body, even with just me in front of the mirror. But I quickly realized that my pants were a superb measuring tool, meaning they wouldn’t stay on me. So I used my jeans as a measure. I went from a tight 42 to a loose and comfortable 36 currently. Also my shirts became party tents. Now I measure my chest, legs, and arms (vanity, I know, but I want some jacked guns to go along with my smaller body). I also take pictures every couple of months now to compare. Steve: What was the most important change you made that helped you succeed? Preparation. Eating right is hard enough with all the delicious, awful, foods out there. I started pre-cooking on the weekends so I was never in a time crunch in the mornings. I just had to grab the Tupperware, and lunch was taken care of. Steve: Great point. It's amazing how much easier the choices become on what to do when we PLAN AHEAD! What kind of support system did you have? Well, my mom for starters. She said she would buy me a new suit if I lost 50 pounds. She still owes me that suit, but I think I may ask for some lifting shoes instead. Also, the NF boards were huge for me. My first 6-weeks challenge was great. I met a friend on the boards, and we have been inspiring each other ever since. I would be remiss if I didn’t give SambieWlks a huge shout out here. She has been a huge inspiration to me since beating me down in a Beginner’s Body Weight PvP challenge. And My accountabilibuddies team is really great. The Down and Dirties (D&D for short) are awesome. Steve: Have you tried and failed to get healthy before in the past? What made this time different? Yeah. In college I did Atkins, lost like 70 pounds, then slowly put it back on as I went back to eating fast food and trash. This time was different because I found some better answers (Paleo) on how to eat, I found some people to support me in what I was doing, and I found an exercise program that I love. Steve: What would you tell somebody in your situation right now to help them? Somebody who's tried and failed but ready to try again? Go for it. What is the worst that can happen? If you fail, you are just where you started, no worse off, and you have new information about why you failed. But if you succeed, you will be in a much better place. It is a win win situation. So go for it. Walk around when you get off work or out of class. Ditch soda for a week. Start small, get some solid information (you are already here at Nerd Fitness, it is FULL of great advice), and make the decision. You CAN do it. Steve: You've already changed so much man, congrats. What's next for you? This year I am going on a train excursion with my friends. I have never been able to go because of money, but I have started getting my budget figured out as part of my life change so I can go. I'm also squirreling away money for a trip to Scotland, the land of my ancestors. That trip is about two years out, but the big picture of a Scottish castle in my room is inspiration to save money. Steve: What are you excited to do now that you weren't physically able to do before? My buddy wants me to run an adventure race with him, and I feel I can do that now. Riding my motorcycle long distances, carrying a canoe, paddling, running, and swimming all now sound like a blast! Steve: Your physical appearance has changed...what else has changed about you? Friends have told me that I seem a lot happier now and that I laugh more. That is pretty cool. To just be happy with who I am. And having a desire to be better is a positive thing now, not a negative thing. Steve: On to the nerdy questions: Star Wars or Lord of the Rings? Some of my earliest memories of my Dad are watching Star Wars on videotape and listening to Led Zeppelin. I get my geek side from my Dad, and those memories of him and Star Wars really make it the winner. Steve: Jason Bourne or James Bond? James Bond, hands down. He doesn’t have to use force to get the job done. He always has a way of outsmarting the bad guys. Steve: If you could have any superpower in the world, what would it be, and why? Regeneration, like Deadpool or Wolverine. You could work out SO MUCH! Steve: Quote to live by? “Most of the problems with the bodies and minds of the folks occupying the current culture involve an unwillingness to do anything hard, or anything that they'd rather not do. I applaud your resolve, and I welcome you to the community of people who have decided that EASY will no longer suffice.” - Mark Rippetoe Coach Rip has some of the best quotes out there. This one has been a guiding light for me since I read it. Steve: Coach Rip is the man. Tell us something interesting about you! I have two steel rods in my back to correct a 65 degree curvature of my spine. Scoliosis is for the birds. I had the surgery between my junior and senior years of high school. I tried to have pictures of my post-surgery x-rays as my senior picture to give to my friends for their scrapbooks. My mother vetoed this idea completely. Why Wes was successful Wes struggled with unhealthy habits for YEARS before getting healthy, resigning to daily takeout and a sedentary lifestyle. Then he decided to change, and eventually found a path that gave him enormous success. Let's take a look at why he was successful: Find what works: When Wes knew he wanted to get healthy, he didn't give up after the first diet and exercise routine he tried. First he adopted the Atkins diet, but knew that wasn't sustainable. Then he transitioned to the conventional 'healthy' diet, lots of grains and low fat food. When this diet left him feeling unsatisfied he finally made the transition to Paleo and found himself actually enjoying healthy eating and all the energy that came with it. Small steps: Wes didn't jump straight into a 5-day split with 30 isolation exercises. When he made the decision to get healthy, he literally walked around the track at a local school. Rather than get frustrated, he saw this step as progress, a new level gained. After his initial experience he started to walk more and eventually run. Then he ran a 5k. Then he found the beginner body weight workout. Then he started Stronglifts 5v5. Then Olympic weightlifting. Then the world. An emphasis on diet: If you've been reading Nerd Fitness for a while, it should come as no surprise that EVERY success story placed a particular emphasis on their diet. For Wes, junk food and a poor diet was what put him in a bad place to begin with, and that's where he decided to start his journey. Willpower: Wes became the master of willpower, realizing that it is a limited resource. Changing your diet and sticking to a new regimen can be tough. So he started pre-cooking healthy meals and made sure he had NO excuse. Just grab the prepared meal and head to work. He kept this concept in his workouts too; Wes works out first thing in the mornings, before the drain of the workday has a chance to demotivate him. As a result he finds he has far more energy throughout the day as well. Sustainable changes: No matter how he started his journey, Wes pursued long term, sustainable changes. He wanted a diet in which he wasn't going to regain all the weight months later...he'd been through that already. So he pushed his boundaries, found a lifestyle that allowed him to effortlessly eat real food and enjoy exercise. He understood rule #2 of the Rebellion: you're in for life. Start today You can't fix yesterday, and you can't control tomorrow, so why not focus on today? I don't care if you have 400 pounds to lose, or the final 10 pounds, today is the perfect day to do something about it. Don't get overwhelmed; remember that any action is better than nothing. Wes wasn't sure where to get started, so he went for a walk. He tried out different styles of exercise before settling on one he liked. He tried different diet styles until finding one that worked for him. Yeah, some of the methods he tried didn't work out; rather than saying "I'm a failure," he said "This is a method that doesn't work for me. On to the next one!" Failure is only failure if you don't learn from it and move onto another plan of attack. Everyone finds success a bit differently. A HUGE thanks to Wes for putting Nerd Fitness principles into place and sticking with it. I'm incredibly honored to have him in our community and can't wait to see what he's capable now that he's leveled up his life. I'm looking forward to that next dragon he'll slay... -Steve PS - We're gonna try out something new: For Rebels who haven't left the newbie area, the prospect of "getting healthy" can seem incredibly overwhelming. If you have already found some success, where did YOU start? Food? Habits? Exercise? What was the first step you took to get started? Email your answer/suggestion to mailbag@nerdfitness.com. ### photo source: reflective ball

Last week, I hit you with a 5,000 word post on getting bigger, so today I figure I'll smack you in the face with 330 words of motivation, education, and inspiration! Let's get started! I'm overwhelmed and don't know where to start. Go for a walk. I need to be healthier. Make ONE decision today that's better than yesterday. I do well for a week and then run out of steam. . Use less willpower. I missed my workout yesterday! Do it today. Do it now. I want to wake up earlier. Put your alarm clock across the room. I want to exercise in the morning. Sleep in your workout clothes. I ate like crap and feel guilty. Stop. Make your next meal healthy and MOVE ON. I need to lose weight. Cut back on sugar. Eat real food. I need to get bigger. Pick up heavy things and eat more. I spend too much time on stupid sites. Install this. For PC users. I want to travel but don't have time. Make it a priority. I want my [significant other] to get healthy. You can't force them, only inspire. I always procrastinate. Pick a goal. Pay your friend $50 every time you fail to complete it. I suck at building healthy habits. Not anymore! I want to do [crazy fitness goal] and [unrelated crazy fitness goal] at the same time. "Don't half-ass two things. Whole-ass one thing." -Ron Swanson I want to look like [ripped celebrity]. Unless you have their resources, it's an unfair comparison. Pick REAL heroes to follow. I don't like my job. Slash your expenses. Start work on something you care about. Choose Yourself. Maybe invent your own job. I did. Yesterday sucked. Good thing it's over. Move on. I'm worried about tomorrow. Focus on today. What questions do you have for me? Leave a quick comment and I'll give you a quick answer. -Steve PS: Here's part 1. ### photo: cheetah

Anne (Hearthsinger on the NF Boards) is an artist and a nerd. She's an actress, singer, and writer living in New York City, working as a tour guide during the daylight hours. Not too long ago, Anne was a slave to games like World of Warcraft, playing them in ever spare moment she had: I would stay up all night and get very little sleep before I had to wake up for work in the morning. There were days I watched the sun rise while farming netherwing eggs and thought nothing of it. I barely left the house unless I absolutely had to and would forgo social opportunities if I had a raid scheduled that night. When it came to my acting career, I knew that my physical appearance was limiting my ability to actually find roles I could play. Anne was stuck in a cycle. She never realized she could apply the lessons learned in World of Warcraft and level up in real life, so she never did. Fortunately, Anne eventually discovered that the secret to getting healthy was right under her nose the entire time. Let's learn how Anne lost over 102 lbs by bringing her passion for gaming into the real world. Anne's Story Steve: Thanks for telling your story Anne! To start off, tell us a little about the "old you." My eating was out of control and I would definitely label myself as a food/sugar addict. I wouldn't eat anything all day and then I'd eat a whole pizza, drink a few sodas, and top it off with an outrageous amount of snacks and deserts. Looking back on it, it really grosses me out. To make matters worse, I have a history with anorexia and bulimia. Every time I experienced "success" with weight loss, I went about it in the most abusive way possible. I hated myself. I was just so frustrated with how awful I looked that I would push myself to extremes to get results. I was desperate for a change, but the laziness I was exhibiting in the rest of my life kept me from committing to the the hard work it would take to create lasting results. Steve: Was there a specific moment when you decided to make a change? What inspired you to get started? My parents nagged me about my health for years! Family members tried to bribe me to take care of my health all the time. My doctors begged me to change my ways and kept trying to scare me with warnings about diabetes. As much as they tried, none of it really hit home for me. Then my best friend Emily gradually dropped about 60 lbs over a period of 2 years and was successful with keeping it off, adopting positive lifestyle changes. She was starting to really enjoy cosplaying, but I felt like if I tried it the internet would call me fat. I had used my geekery as a shield to hide from my health issues and now here they were, invading the space where I'd felt safe and making me feel like I couldn't participate in the things I was passionate about. I decided I wouldn't stand for it. I could bitch all I wanted about being "too fat" to be believable as a character, but at the end of the day, the cards were all in my hands. Steve: Wow, sounds like quite the turning point. What's a typical day like now? I've basically adopted a Paleo/Primal lifestyle. I try to get up and do my exercise first thing in the morning so I don't have to worry about it the rest of the day. I give myself 2 days of rest during the week so I have the willpower I need to make sure I don't miss a planned work out. After work, I hang out with my friends, play D&D, go to rehearsal, work on my current cosplay project, or write for my blog, Project Reroll. The blog keeps me accountable for sure, but hearing from readers about how my journey has motivated them to pursue healthier lives is what really keeps me going! If I'm at home for dinner, I cook for myself, and if I'm out with friends, I try to steer them towards a place where I know I'll be able to make good choices. Steve: What has been your exercise strategy? How has this changed? For the first month, I focused purely on changing my diet. I didn't worry about hitting the gym at all. In month two, I asked for a gym membership for my birthday and I went every single day to do an hour on the elliptical - no excuses. I was focusing on making it a habit. The deal I made with myself was that I couldn't watch reruns of shows I'd already seen unless I was on the elliptical (Firefly, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Xena: Warrior Princess). After a few months, I decided I needed to spice things up and challenge myself to get over my nerves about having other people watch me exercise. I took Zumba and Yoga classes at the gym. Even though I'd sworn I would never be a runner, I thought I'd give it a shot. I downloaded the Zombies, Run! 5k training app and I never looked back. Now, I try to do three days of cardio (with Zombies or my favorite TV) and two days of strength training. I either do a bodyweight circuitor 20-45 minutes of vinyasa yoga. Steve: Can you tell us a bit more about your diet strategy? I know you eventually adopted a paleo mentality, but how did you start? When I started this journey, I was on Nutrisystem. While I honestly believe it was the right one for me at the time, I always knew that I wouldn't be on Nutrisystem forever; the people who I saw fail on that program were the ones who just blindly followed the plan and didn't go to the trouble of educating themselves about nutrition, just trying to learn a few healthy recipes along they way so they wouldn't be left with their pants down when they stopped their shipments of food. I was still on Nutrisystem when I first discovered Nerd Fitness and read about Paleo. I honestly thought it was insane and that I'd never be able to handle that kind of diet. I was convinced that the low-fat diet model was the one for me and that I'd be perfectly satisfied switching over to Weight Watchers when I was ready. As I got to know people on the forums and I read their Paleo/Primal recipes, my mouth started watering! In my first challenge, I decided I'd learn to cook three Paleo dishes. It was really intimidating because I felt like I was a really crappy cook, but I did it and I found that the food was delicious and filling - something that my Nutrisystem food was not. That challenge filled me with the desire to eat real food. I absolutely craved it. I was always hungry on Nutrisystem! I'd be starving all the time, but now I'm always full and fueled! Steve: Permanent diet changes for the win! Was this toughest change for you to make? Oddly enough, the toughest change was simply learning to accept that I wouldn't always be perfect at executing my diet. I had to learn how to recover from setbacks and fails rather than just throwing in the towel. I had to learn to forgive myself and recommit each morning to healthy choices, no matter what happened the day before. Steve: I'm glad to hear you learned the secret: that failure is only a failure when you give up after! How did you track your progress? I took pictures, I weighed myself, and I took measurements. I've found that as I lose more weight and the scale slows down, I need to track other stats to keep my head in the game. The more ways I have of seeing my progress, the more opportunities I create to motivate myself to keep going. I also keep track of my "fitness stats" like my 5k time and how many seconds I can hold a plank or various yoga poses. Steve: Most important change you made that helped you succeed? Honestly, going public with what I was doing has been the most invaluable part of this whole process. My weight and my personal struggles with food addiction and eating disorders have all happened behind closed doors, leaving me incredibly alone and helpless for far too long. Opening up that door and beginning to share things about my past and about what I was currently up against felt just as vulnerable as it did rewarding. It's dangerous to go alone! Don't do it if you don't have to! Steve: What kind of support system did you have? I'm SO LUCKY to have an incredibly supportive family who has afforded me every opportunity to succeed and provided me with extra cash for kitchen appliances and workout gear. I have a tight knit group of friends who celebrate what I've accomplished and make me feel like the heroine I always wanted to be. I've also made some great friends on the NF boards and reading about their six week challenges continues to inspire me every day. Steve: What would you tell somebody in your situation right now to help them: somebody who's tried and failed but ready to try again? Take it one step at a time and don't overwhelm yourself. Don't force yourself to do things that you think you'll hate or you'll just give up. Find ways to make it exciting. If you hate it, do some research and try something else. Just keep an open and adventurous mind and continue to let your health plan evolve as you do. Steve: What are you excited to do now that you weren't physically able to do before? I'm actively into cosplay now. I've done Appa from Avatar: The Last Airbender and Rainbow Dash from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic so far. Next I have my new rogue Renaissance Faire garb and then hopefully, if I still have enough money, I'll be putting together a Xena cosplay for New York comic con. A few months ago, I met up some Rebels from the NF community and we all went rock climbing in Brooklyn. I was terrified I wouldn't make it up the wall because every time I'd tried it as a kid I'd failed miserably. To my surprise, I shot right up the wall without even thinking about it. I was completely shocked. I had no idea I was capable of doing that. Steve: Your physical appearance has changed...what else has changed about you? I'm more assertive about what I want. I used to let myself get pushed around a lot because I didn't think I deserved any better, but now I'm not afraid to ask for what I want and to go after it. Steve: Okay, let's get some nerdy questions in here: Jason Bourne or James Bond? Indiana Jones. ...What? Hehehe! Steve: Favorite video game of all time? I'm a huge Bioware fangirl. The Dragon Age series captured my imagination in a way no other game has. Those games always manage to break my heart in the best way. Steve: Quote to live by? "We must try not to sink beneath our anguish, Harry, but battle on." - Albus Dumbledore, The Halfblood Prince. Steve: Harry Potter FTW! Tell us something interesting about you! I have no sense of smell. It's a long story but I was on a farm as a child and I thought I saw a glass of apple juice in the barn so I drank it. Turns out I gota really bad chemical burn and they had to pump my stomach. I almost died because I refused to eat afterwards due to the pain. Why Anne was successful Anne's story may sound familiar to you: stuck in the same unhealthy cycle, addicted to sugar, and retreating into the shadows when things got tough. Let's look at why Anne was successful: She utilized her interests: Anne knew who she was; rather than leave behind her nerdy interests, she embraced them! She used lessons from WOW and other games and put this knowledge towards her workout. She used cosplay events as inspiration and benchmarks for progress. Diet diet diet: Anne put the focus of her transformation on her diet. Initially she JUST focused on her diet and saw results. She realized that programs like Nutrisystem or Weight Watchers might work temporarily, but long term progress and success required a more gradual and permanent (sustainable) change in diet. After adopting the Paleo Diet she found she had TONS of energy and was having fun eating healthy. Personal accountability: Anne tracked her results and let the world know how she was doing, regularly. She created a blog and put the energy behind it to make her story something she was proud of. Much harder to fail when the whole world is watching, right? Support: Anne had a robust support system: Family, friends, and the awesome Rebels of the NF Message boards. Haters can weigh you down and kill your journey before you even begin. Surrounding yourself with healthy people or those looking to get healthy can make all the difference in the world. Real goals: Anne's fitness journey didn't just involve a vague idea about getting healthy; she knew what she wanted. Anne wanted to be able to go to the next cosplay event with pride, she wanted join her friends and get out from behind the keyboard. Anne went in knowing that getting healthy would open doors for the rest of her life, and it did. Baby Steps: Anne didn't worry about having the perfect routine and the perfect diet. She didn't worry about setting aside hours upon hours a day to radically redesign her life. She had tried that in the past and failed. Instead, she understood that "perfect" is the enemy of "good," especially when starting out. She started by just fixing her diet, then she started using an elliptical, then she mixed in some running, and then added in strength training and yoga. She took her time in the newbie zone before venturing out into the real world. At that point she had already built up momentum, an incredibly powerful buff Real heroes in the real world Nothing makes me happier than sharing success stories on Nerd Fitness. Sure, it's entertaining to read about how Gerard Butler got in shape for 300, but oftentimes it's not practical or realistic. Personally, I'd MUCH rather read about women like Anne, Staci, and Bronwyn:REAL heroines that find success while also having real jobs, nerdy pursuits, and busy lives. The same goes for guys like Joe, Saint, and Jake:nerdy dudes who love to game and also managed to level up their lives without compromising who they were. Anne went from an unhealthy addicted gamer, spending any spare moment behind the keyboard playing World of Warcraft, to an awesomely fit and happy nerd in real life. Sure, she still plays videogames, but now she's a character herself! She's attending events, meeting up with fellow nerds, and breaking down new barriers like rock climbing. She turned her passion into her greatest motivation, using her nerd interests to get her through workouts and set long term goals. Grats Anne, on inspiring the Nerd Fitness Rebellion; you are inspiring more people than you know! What sort of questions do you have for Anne? What kind of nerdy passions do you have that can be applied to living a better life? -Steve ### photo source: flower