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Wow - I can't believe I haven't posted for three weeks. It has been SO beautiful here that I've been outside doing lots of fun stuff outside and have spent hardly anytime inside that wasn't essential time. I've been doing my workouts, probably at 80% of goal, paleo eating, closer to 90%, and reading at probably 65% of goal. I had a great WOOT day a couple of Saturdays ago. I spent the whole day - like 16 hours - moving dirt around in my back yard. It was AWESOME 'cause I worked all day, moved over 2 cubic yards of dirt, and dug out two big, huge rocks. The next day I was pretty sore when I woke up but did some really deep stretches and was totally fine for that day and the next. I was so jazzed! Anyway, I'm lurking but not posting much so just wanted to update in case someone's bored and reading this. : )

I'm in Redmond - Central Oregonian born and raised (actually third generation - so I tend to be a little egocentric in terms of where I live ) though I have lived all over the east and west coasts.

So they are about 120 miles from me : )

I'm with you on this...not big on beer and I like a mild salsa verde better than just about any other condiment. All about the flavor and nothing to prove here - I'm a wimp and proud of it!

Soooo, where are your friends and family in Oregon? I've been noticing that I'm hungrier on lifting days and crave good proteins and good fats. Might try loading up on those after lifting and see if it helps your hunger. It's working well for me right now. : )

I turn 47 next month so thanks for the encouragement! I'll have to jot over to your place and lurk a bit. I've seen you about on different threads I've read and always enjoyed your posts. Looking forward to making your acquaintance. : ) Hey Gomezkun - thanks for stopping by. How goes the soda monster? This will be my fourth or fifth time reading straight through. I should do it once a year because there always something new in the Living Word. This format is a chronological format in the old NIV so it puts things in a timeline, which I like. Hope to see you around. : ) Edit: Do you have a thread somewhere?

Okay, just posted my goals. Please feel free to stop by and let me know your thoughts. Does this group break out into small accountability groups like adventurers? If so, I'd like to propose one for beginners who are transitioning from body weight to iron and who have a very limited weight lifting vernacular...

Okay, here are my goals: 1. Workouts: MWF weight workouts. Right now I'm doing angry birds with Steve's warm up and Steve's friend's stretch/cool down. I'm not leveling up as fast as Steve sets out, but I'm still leveling up. During this challenge I want to move up to lifting actual weights. I'm thinking through some specifics here and will post them soon. Current (from this morning): squats (all the way down/good form) 20/15/15; incline pushups (27" down from 35 1/2") 5/5/5; incline rows w/12 pound weight (milkjug full of water plus 2- two pounds weights strapped to it) 16/16/16; and planks (I hate planks) 50/50/50. TTh stretch workouts. I've found a couple of youtube yoga vids I really like so am doing those right now. I'm going to start with 20 minutes and see what happens. Weekends will be free agents to do whatever presents itself - gardening, hiking, fishing in the river pontoon with DH, whatever. 2. Strict paleo eating for the entire challenge. I've been eating mostly primal for quite a while but I want to see if I can drop a few body fat percentages here. I have beginning pictures, measurements and body fat readings from which to asses my progress. I'm anti-scale and don't care what I weigh. 3. Diary. I purchased a Body Minder journal and my goal is to journal my workouts and my food everyday. 4. Reading. I'm reading through the Bible this year and not doing as well as I want to so my goal is to read at least five nights a week. I know we are supposed to make the goals quantifiable, but setting "scores" for my goals was not a motivator for me last challenge so I'm still working on figuring this part out. I don't play role playing games (did I mention I'm old?) so I need more of a concrete reward like $20 to go shopping at my favorite thrift store or something like that. I'm working on this part, too. Anyway, this is a start. Thanks for any comments, encouragement or just for stopping by.

First of all gomezkun, THANK YOU for your service - no matter what you do over there, thank you for doing it. Your goals look very challenging but should keep you busy and out of trouble - more time in the gym equal less time for eating cookies. And though I don't speak it myself, I would think Japanese would not be enhanced by a mouthful of cookies either.

I was going to see it that was feasible - I know nothing about these things. My son has a barbell and bench - it's just a little home set from Wallyworld but it will do the job for now. I thought it would be great if the weight plates would fit on the barbell and the dumbbell for maximum use flexibility. Thanks for letting me know that should work.

Thanks so much and thanks for the answer on the adventurer thread regarding the goblet squats. I'm doing all of my workouts from home right now so I wanted to have a range in mind when I go look at dumbbell sets. Looking forward to picking your brain this challenge. : )

Quick question before I head for some z's - what would be a reasonable goal regarding a reduction of body fat percentage for this six week challenge? I'm currently at 31% (according to my very unscientific measuring). I'm not too worried about the number, I just want to make sure the percentage is going down and that I set a reasonable goal for that during this upcoming challenge. TIA and have a great night All!

I'm reserving this space for something witty once I've had some time to think on it. : ) (still waiting for inspiration...)

Hey MW - Shoot, you get the prize for the longest thread for sure : ) You have been such an inspiration to me this challenge. I'm headed for angry birds for the next six weeks and then some serious lifting. Thanks for being so willing to share the good, the bad and the ugly. : ) Hope to see you around for a long time!

Hey Aranona - I've enjoyed doing this challenge with you. Stop by and give me a shout every once in a while. : )

So just wanted to say thanks to everyone for hanging these last six weeks - it has been great reading about your challenges and success. I hope to meet up with you all again around "town."

I had weight loss surgery in October 2001. I lost 140 pounds in 18 months. Over three or four years I gained 40 back and have stayed +/- 5 pounds of that weight for the last eight years. It was one of the best decisions I have ever made. Thanks to the love and support of a wonderful man, I had a decent self image. But I always wanted to weigh in the 140's - that was my magic weight decade (I'm 5'3" and hour glass shaped and on the night of my weight loss surgery I weighed 304). Last June I finished up 18 months on the hcg program and lost 50 pounds. On my final day I weighed 147 pounds - I thought I had arrived because I was now a size 8-10. But my thighs were still very big and really droopy which bummed me out. And my "girls" were gone - we're talking tube socks and ping pong balls here from a 36DD. I've gained that 50 pounds back. Yeah, my butt and thighs are bigger again, but I've got my girls back. I feel sexier now than I did 50 pounds lighter. This has taught me an important lesson - it's not that damn number on the scale, its how I feel in my skin. Now I have a different goal. I'm 46 (47 next month). I have lost a huge amount of upper body strength over the last several years so I'm working on getting stronger, building muscle and losing fat. I've gotten rid of my scale and bought a pair of body fat calipers, which will be here next week. I still want to be a size 10, but I don't care how much I weigh - I just want to be fit and healthy. Figuring out how to quantify this goal is going to be the subject of my next 6 week challenge.

I just ordered a set of body fat calipers last night. I forsook my scale about eight months ago because we did not have a healthy relationship. I have always said I didn't care how much I weigh, I just want to be fit. However, I have never had the tools to measure "fit" so have just had to rely on weight, which lies about fit. Now I'm truly going to be able to measure my body fat and work on goals like losing 10% of my body fat, not losing 50 pounds. In the end, I know this will help me achieve my goal of being fit. I'm actually look for a thread that will support this goal. If any of you know one, I would appreciate the direction. Thanks and the best of luck to you!

This so TOTALLY explains my first three weeks. I mean, I know I'm not as young as some of you spring chickens but I didn't think I was THAT out of shape. Holy smokes!!! Anyway thanks for such a great explanation. Now I don't feel nearly so bad!!!! I totally agree - WAY TO GO MW!!!

Aranona - thanks for stopping by to visit me. I truly appreciate your support of all of us. You're rocking this challenge! Are you enjoying the primal eating? I'm not exactly primal but am not eating grains and really feeling great. Were you eating that way before this challenge? If not, have you noticed a big difference? Were you doing anything like bbww's before? What do you think? Anyway ~ have a GREAT week and I'll check in with you later. : )

Hey J ~ just wanted to let you know I'm still lurking. : )

Bekah - where are you? We haven't seen nor heard from you in a while...hope all is okay. {{{HUGS}}}

Hey J - How's it going? Did you get a lot of play time in this weekend? Hope it was a good one for you. So, I've come a beggin' the grainless granola recipe - pwease?! Plus I haven't seen you for a while and wanted to check in...

Yeah Friday!!!!!

Just checking in to say hi NVers! I just finished cruising through everyone's threads and you're all doing SO well!!! There are demons falling all over the place - WAY TO GO!!!!!! We are going to ROCK this challenge!!!!!!