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Definitely - I used to be one =)

Thanks! I should also add one more goal: to keep updating the Paleo blog I just started: http://prettypaleo.tumblr.com/

Welcome to the team! I'm curious about how meditation works with working out for you. That's definitely something I've been wanting to start doing for a while now - do you have any suggestions for meditation n00bs?

5 am is truly impressive. I'd say that's my bedtime far more often than my wake-up time =) Good luck!

Ok, this is my second six-week challenge, so I'm going to take advantage of the momentum I've got going from the last one (and try not to slack over the lazy summer days). My main goal is career-oriented - I need to start earning more money from writing so that "writer" tag in my CV isn't a lie. So every day I'm going to apply to a freelance blogging or article writing ad until something sticks. My longer-term goal is to make at least half of my income through writing by the end of the year (the other half through a combination of translation, photography, my record label, and whatever else I can sucker people into paying me for). My long-term goal is to make this freelance thing work so that I never have to work for anyone else ever again. No biggie. My kryptonite here is myself, or my lack of motivation some days/preference for laying about reading in the sun over searching for writing gigs. BASIC INFO - 28 yo, 170 cm, about 62 kg (would like to get down to 60 kg) - Last challenge I hit my fitness goals, but only hit my diet goals during the week... and then the weekends kicked my ass with non-paleo booze, street food, etc. - I'm following the RSG Body Weight Brigade guide until I can afford a good set of dumbbells DIET: - Continue eating paleo at home - Find a way to beat my paleo kryptonite: social events and weekends - Drink less beer (this will be a toughie) FITNESS: - Follow the RSG Body Weight Brigade rank 2, so I can level up to rank 3 for the next challenge - Beat my fitness kryptonite: using the excuse of not having enough time/too much work to skip a workout - Be able to do 60 push-ups in a row without my arms falling off (currently at 40) - Go running once a week - Continue going to Kung Fu at least twice per week, and go to one seminar - Now that my mountain bike is fixed, take it to an actual mountain and, well, mountain bike with it LEVEL UP YOUR LIFE: - Get a blogging job or six, so that by the end of the year I'm making at least half of my income through writing - Ideally, get a regular science writing job for a blog or online publication, as that's what I'm most interested in - Register my translation business as a company in Poland - READ MORE! I used to read a book a week back in college, now it's a book a month if I'm lucky. So I want to finish the book I'm currently reading (Dostoevsky's The Possessed), and start and finish at least one more during the challenge. My reading kryptonite is my computer, so I need to turn that off more often and not carry my laptop everywhere. - Learn Javascript, incorporate it into my website

I hope I'm not too late on this! Brief overview of goals: I'm moving up to rank 2 of the RSG Body Weight Brigade workouts, so my main goal is to keep doing what I started in the last 6-week challenge. If you follow a specific way of eating: Paleo - and this time I'll try to fight my Paleo kryptonite: social events Any other piece of information you think would be useful: I don't have access to a gym but if I have the money this month, I'd like to invest in a decent set of dumbbells and start working out with those.

Aaaaaaaaaaand I've crossed the finish line, the challenge is over. Well, the six-week challenge anyway - the next one, i.e. the one that goes on for the rest of my life, will be much more difficult, but hopefully as successful. Here are my final numbers: Workout A Push-ups: 40*, 22, 17, 20 Inverted rows (instead of chin-ups as I don't have a place to do them): 21, 15, 13, 17 Body weight squats: 50*, 40, 37, 50 Side planks: 1:06.3, 1:06.9, 1:11.9, 1:26.1* Workout B Inverted rows: 22*, 17, 18, 17 Close hand push-ups: 30*, 23, 20, 25 Lunges: 52*, 45, 40, 40 Plank: 1:01.8*, 40.2, 43.5 *all-time high, woot! And here are my overall challenge results: Fitness Goals: I'm doing the Rank 1 Body Weight training from the RSG, so my main goal is to not miss a single day of training, and to consistently get better. Check! If I did miss a day due to lack of time, I always made up for it the next day, or occasionally did a double session. I'm also following Operation Slim Down, so as a consequence, I want to lose 2-3 kilos and get back down to 60 kg at most (currently about 63.5 kg, or 140 lbs), while gaining muscle. The weight itself isn't as important as feeling and looking better, though. Er, kinda? I weighed in at 62 yesterday, so that's higher than I wanted to be. I think it's because of a combination of factors: gaining muscle, which I can definitely feel, and being a "weekday paleo eater", which I'll explain below. Eating Goals: I want to be 90/10 Paleo, with allowances for beer (hey, it's Poland, we have yummy beer) and the occasional cream in my coffee. This noble goal had its downfall in my social life. During the week, I usually stayed in, worked a lot, and cooked at home, and thus with the exception of cream in my coffee, ate completely paleo. However, it's the weekends that threw me off course: between the beer, dinners at friend's houses that were definitely not paleo, grills outdoors, and worst of all, 2 am street food under the influence of said beer, I probably wasted all of the efforts I made during the week. I suppose the only solution is to become a hermit, but at that point all of this wouldn't really be worth it... Life Goals: 1. This first one is also a fitness goal: get to level two in kung fu by kicking ass on the exam I have on the 28th of April. That means not only being strong enough to do 60 push-ups in 60 seconds (yes, that's part of the exam), but memorizing the Siu Lim Tao and all of the blocks I've learned so far and their Chinese names (yeah, not easy). Big check! I am now a level two Kung Fu ninja... wait, that doesn't quite work... 2. On the professional front, to finish the website for my translation business that I'm painstakingly building on my own, and launch it by the end of April. Also, to officially register my business as a business so the government doesn't hunt me down and sick rabid chickens on me (or whatever they do here, the Polish legal code is quite a quagmire). Partial check. I did learn Dreamweaver and I made a fancy website for my business that I'm really proud of, and now that I've caught the programming bug I'm teaching myself more and more web design. I haven't yet registered my business, however, but I have taken steps in that direction, including finding out which forms I need and getting a good book on running one-person businesses in Poland and all of the legal details involved. Overall, I feel that the challenge was a success, though not as epic of a success as I thought it would be. I've developed some great habits I hope to continue, like working out 3 days a week in the mornings, which I had never been good at (I'm a late riser and prefer running at night, but actually getting up early just to work out has made my days more productive overall). I also learned a whole bunch of new recipes I never would have otherwise so I could make paleo meals at home, and now that I've downloaded a few good paleo cookbooks I hope to learn many more. I didn't lose a huge amount of weight, but I suppose that takes more time than six weeks, and I think I have the patience to get down to the weight I want and maintain it. I do feel better, and I suppose I look better, but others are always a better judge of that than I am, so I'll leave it at that.

Congrats!!! Just remember that feeling, it'll only get better as you lose more and more!

Week 6 has started out productive. Over the weekend, I learned Dreamweaver and finally finished the website for my business, and now I've started working on a few more sites I've wanted to do. Workout-wise, I have three RSG sessions left so I'm going to give it my all, starting with today's. I also have three days of Kung Fu this week, which will hopefully give me that extra push of strength I need to meet my goals. Food-wise, I've been trying out some new recipes, like making paleo banana nut bread (dangerously delicious) and spinach and mushroom omelets. I think if I learn to make a few more dishes I really like I'll have a small library of healthy foods I can make on a regular basis, without getting too bored with my diet, which will make sticking to a paleo diet (at least at home) easy and fun. The challenge now is controlling what I eat when I'm out with friends, but considering I'll be broke unless I get some more freelance gigs soon, that might not be an issue...

Woot, week 5 of the workouts is done! Today started out sluggish (I needed two cups of coffee just to get going in the morning), but once I started the RSG workout I did better than ever before on all of my reps, which feels pretty damn good. Yesterday was also the first Kung Fu class I had been to in over a week, and that left me plenty sore, but I already feel stronger again, and I'm looking forward to another session this evening. Food-wise, I tried this diet for the week, and while I stuck to the food part, I'm not sure how the addition of coffee and beer will effect it: http://chadwaterbury.com/how-to-get-ripped-with-food-a-7-day-plan/ I also downloaded some paleo cookbooks, so this weekend I'm going to have some fun with trying out new dishes (and desserts).

The last few days have been absolutely gorgeous, so I've been biking a lot down to the river and sitting in the sun and reading (not having outstanding freelance assignments might have something to do with this as well). The good news is, after last week's madness it's the perfect mini-vacation that I really need. The bad news is, it's going to be that much harder to buckle down again when I do need to work. Workout-wise, I'm on track with this week's RSG workouts. I did skip my Tuesday Kung Fu session due to by mind and body still needing recovery from the weekend, but I'm going this evening and really looking forward to it. We should be doing punching bags on Thursdays now, which is absolutely my favorite (hmmm, wonder what that says about me...). Looks like my biggest challenge will be, as always, staying paleo and active through the weekend in spite of social events.

I totally second Johnny's last comment, good job! Also, I'm going to start following your meal plans, they sound delicious and will add some variety to my struggle to eat more paleo =)

Hi Sandman, what app is that? It looks quite useful for keeping track of your biking or running.

I haven't done this yet for some reason, but since we're past the halfway mark I feel like I should post some figures. Here are my first two workouts (Body Weight Brigade Workout Rank One): Workout A Push-ups: 13, 14, 12, 12 Inverted rows (instead of chin-ups as I don't have a place to do them): 7, 7, 6, 6 Body weight squats: 24, 22, 20, 22 Side planks: 49.3, 46.3, 46.7, 47.3 Workout B Inverted rows: 9, 9, 10, 9 Close hand push-ups: 15, 18, 15, 16 Lunges: 26, 30, 28, 34 Plank: 30.8, 34.4, 25.7 And then my numbers at the start of this week (May 9th): Workout A Push-ups: 25, 20, 15, 20 Inverted rows (instead of chin-ups as I don't have a place to do them): 12, 10, 10, 12 Body weight squats: 42, 30, 30, 32 Side planks: 57.2, 1:06.4, 56.3, 1:04.4 Workout B Inverted rows: 15, 12, 9, 11 Close hand push-ups: 20, 16, 16, 18 Lunges: 30, 31, 28, 24 Plank: 40.7, 34.8, 45.6 Hopefully those numbers will get even better in the next few weeks.

Thanks! Congrats on your progress this week, you seem to be kicking ass as well!

I can't believe it's already week five - the last two weeks have gone by crazy fast, perhaps because I've been super busy, first with the Kung Fu exam (ace'd), and then with preparing for and playing a concert (also a success). So here goes: Fitness Goals: Due to pre-concert insanity, I missed one workout in week 4, but I made up for it with a double on Monday, so I'm back on track. My numbers haven't drastically increased, but they have been steadily getting better, and I'm starting to feel stronger, at least in my arms. Eating Goals: Once again, I've been doing very well in regards to eating paleo food when I'm cooking for myself at home. However, if I'm out and too busy to eat at home like last week, or over at a friend's place, it's much more difficult and I usually end up eating non-paleo foods (like a sandwich at a club and burritos at a friend's place). I honestly don't think those situations can be avoided (unless I become a total hermit), so I think 80/20 is a more realistic goal rather than 90/10 as I had intended. Life Goals: Now that the concert that took up all of my time last week is over, I can focus all of my energy on life goal 2: the business. I'm continuing to work on my website, and this week I need to go get the necessary documents to begin the registration process for my freelance translation business. Polish bureaucracy, here I come!

Ok, considering we're past the half-way point, it's about time for an update: Fitness Goals: I'm still on the Rank 1 Body Weight training from the RSG, and I have yet to miss a workout (though twice I had to move a workout day due to too much other work). Eating Goals: The paleo goal hasn't been going as well as I had hoped - at least, it feels that way so far. I've been eating about 70/30 paleo, with the 30 mostly coming from social events, which seem to be my downfall. Perhaps my next goal will be to get through a dinner party without indulging in copious amounts of non-paleo food. I don't have a scale at home so I don't know if I've gained or lost weight, but in the mirror I look about the same. Life Goals: 1. Life goal one was to ace my Kung Fu exam. Status: PWN'd! I successfully passed the exam and am now a level 2 Kung Fu ass-kicker! 2. Due to life goal one and an upcoming concert, I have yet to even begin on life goal two, which is to register my business as a business and finish my website for it. I plan to get started on that next Monday.

Nice! What song is that?

So my quest to level up this month involved literal leveling up - in my kung fu class. We had our annual exam yesterday, and since I had been there for only a year it was my first time to take the exam (thus I was level 0). I was pretty sure I'd pass level one, so I went ahead and tried for level two (out of nine) and passed. Woot! If anyone is curious, this was the major part of the exam:

Thanks! I've been crazy busy with work and kung fu, but after today things should calm down (I hope), and I'll do a full update at the end of the week...

Oh, and if you guys are finding your RSG sessions not challenging enough, I've inadvertently invented a solution. It just requires one annoying housecat that tries to play with you as you're doing your exercises... Seriously, there have been times I've been doing push-ups or planks and batting at my cat at the same time. That definitely requires ninja coordination - maybe I can ask Steve to incorporate a "cat challenge" into the next book =)

@Johnny and citabean - congrats to you both! I've had some small woo! moments, usually involving passing by the dairy and beer aisles in the grocery story without caving (woo!), and then a big woo! moment today, when I took the exam to level up in my kung fu class. I don't know how I did yet (we get the results tomorrow), but I feel like I did well and more importantly, after all that preparation for the exam I feel far more confident and capable as far as my technique goes. I might not be able to kick anyone's ass older than a fifth-grader yet, but I can block the hell out of anything that comes at me =)

Oooh, I've been waiting for a thread like this! I played clarinet in HS (I've been meaning to pick it back up, I just need to get my clarinet fixed). I've played piano since I was 8, and it's the main instrument I play now, though I picked up guitar in college and I've gotten decent at it. I can play a bass guitar at gunpoint, and know exactly three drum patterns! I currently play in an instrumental post-rock band, and I mostly play keys (synths via midi keyboard and Reason, Absynth and Kontakt through Ableton Live on my Macbook), though I do play second guitar in a few songs (a beautiful blue Rickenbacker 620, otherwise known as my baby). If anyone needs some recording or midi advice, I've gotten pretty proficient at Ableton Live and have tons of VSTs for it.

Well, I've started week three, and once again the work-outs are going well (still haven't missed a RSG day, yay!), but the diet... eh, not so much. Mostly, Easter kicked my ass. It doesn't matter if you're religious or not, Easter is a big deal here, which means family get-togethers all weekend and enough food (mostly baked goods) to feed a small army. Needless to say, I fell off the Paleo wagon in a massive way on Sunday. Nonetheless, once I get through the few leftovers I was forced to take home, it's back to Grok food hopefully. I guess I've hit the mid-goal slump, because while my numbers are getting better as far as workouts go, I don't feel that much stronger yet, and even when I've stuck to a Paleo diet I haven't noticed that much of a difference in how I feel. It's still early, though, right? How about you guys?

I haven't missed a single RSG workout, so yay. Food-wise, liquids seem to be my downfall: still drinking coffee with cream and sugar in the morning, and have had a beer or two a few evenings (damn my social life). As for my life goal, I have now downloaded (but not yet watched) the Dreamweaver tutorials I need to get started on my business website. That counts for something, right? =)