milkteafling

If anyone is still around, Pinoy from the dirrrrty South (specifically, Muntinlupa) checking in.

Yup, this is my first challenge & I'm new to the boards so I figured, why not go all in There were no rules about having animal companions so I just asked people how they would do stats for that & incorporated suggestions. Also, I miss playing RPGs. Any RPGs. My gaming group's schedules haven't been in sync for months Again, good luck with the challenge! Really rooting for you since I know all too well how non-conducive offices are to healthful eating, especially if your co-workers aren't interested in doing that for themselves. And Roller Girl is a very cool aspiration!

Oh, man, I used to have a job like that. I was already fat to begin with when I started, then I ballooned 25lb more. Was at my highest adult weight ever when I left that job. Good luck! Great to hear that you're being pro-active and taking care of this problem before it starts.

Hello, team mate! Nice to see someone with a canine buddy as well Good luck with meeting all your goals and hoping to hear about your progress (and maybe some of your baking )

Hello, team mate! You've got really admirable goals! Good on you for learning how to ride a bike, it's a really fun way to get around. Would love to hear more about your cooking adventures, especially recipes that you recommend

First off, awesome hair. Second, your goals are really well-rounded! They sound like great ways to start living a more holistic life. And a Kindle really WILL help you meet your goal of reading those 15 books (you'll most likely overshoot it! ASOIAF + the Dunk & Egg tales are practically 6 books already!) If you're amenable to it, aside from hearing about your progress it would also be great to hear your thoughts about the books you finish! Good luck!

Hallo, team leader! Awesome goals! Good luck on meeting them, especially the Run Zombies one It sounds like loads of fun. If I may ask, how is the Loseit app? I currently use MyFitnessPal, and some people have noted large discrepancies between the two.

Thanks for the ideas! If all the remarks about him being SOOOOOOOO CUUUUUUTE when we're out walking, plus all the stuff he gets away with from my friends and family by just looking pitiful is any indication, his Cha is already OVER 9000 I'll definitely do sta, con, & wis, but I'll also add dex because eventually I'd like us to do other sports together. Thanks again so much for your recommendation! To Bubette: I can jump, it's the landing part that's painful. My attending advised me to lose a little more weight, but running (I had to retrain myself to run when I started because of said surgery, my body forgot HOW to run, so I started with the Pose Method from the very beginning) & dancing as long as I'm not doing any leaps or anything is fine. Here's a photo of the little guy after our first attempt at Pooch25k (pre-challenge). Going to see how he does today (Week 1, Day 2!)

All your goals sound SMART and really fun! If I may ask, what kind of guitar do you play?

Hello everyone! Joined this team because aside from being slow to sign up for the challenge, the team name happened to be the first sentence in my challenge thread I'm very new to the forums (as you can see by my post count). Looking forward to meeting the rest of the team

Better late than preg...never! This is my very first challenge & even though I'm only signing up now, I've already started doing the goals I've set out for myself. (1) DO POOCH25K 3X/WK, EVERY WEEK. (+1 Dex, +3 Sta) The dex is because a. my little buddy can't run off-leash & b. we tried Pooch25k last week. A lot of tripping & tangling of leash happened. So I just concentrated last week on getting him to walk/run in a somewhat linear fashion, and I started the real deal (Week 1 Day 1) the other day (June 3). My grading system: A: Do all 3 days/wk AND proceed to the next week B: Do all 3 days/wk but repeat a week C: Miss 1 day D: Miss 2 days F: Miss an entire week And just for fun, I consider my dog an animal companion/familiar so if I get an A for this at the end of the challenge, he levels up too! (2) DO THE BEGINNER'S BODY WEIGHT WORKOUT + THIS RESISTANCE BAND ROUTINE FOR MY BACK 2X/WK, EVERY WK (+3 Str, +1 Dex) All right, I cannot tell a lie: I can't do the jumping jacks bit of the body weight workout. I asked my attending; I'm not allowed (surgery issues). The resistance band routine came from another attending (not the one who operated on me but my boss/kind of my mentor, who recommended it to me because I have crap posture + a career that involves standing up in awkward positions for long periods of time). If anyone has suggestions to replace the jumping jacks bit they are most welcome; right now I do one or two songs on Dance Central 3 in lieu of that. A: Do both routines 2 days/wk B: Miss either the body weight or the back routine 1x/wk C: Miss both routines 1x/wk D: Skip one routine the entire week, but do the other one F: Do absolutely nothing. (3) HAVE A BLOODY REST DAY! (+1 Wis, +3 Con) I blame medical school. First, my sleep cycle is absolutely borked, and due to the nature & hours of my job I can't do anything about that. However, I can do something about my tendency to go all out about everything 24/7 (exercise, study, work, party etc etc etc) for a couple of weeks & then completely crash and burn the next. So one day out of the week, no workout except walking my dog, get at least 6 hours of sleep, & no frantic cramming for work or study. This one's pass or fail; either I have my weekly rest day or I don't. (4) FINISH THIS ENTIRE BOOK AND MAKE NOTES ON IT BY THE END OF THE CHALLENGE (+2 Wis, +1 Sta because sitting down, reading a textbook, AND making notes on it requires endurance & energy that I've lost since passing the board exams) If I'm to get into the residency programme of my dreams, I have to know that book inside & out. It's that programme's Bible (at least for first years.) I have to have swallowed it and be able to spit out any part of it when asked. It's got 9 chapters; I can do two chapters a week and have some time left to go over it again. A: Finish the entire book, with notes. B: Miss a chapter. C: Miss 2 chapters. D: Miss 3 chapters. F: Miss >=4 chapters. And lastly, bonus goal. Not giving any points to myself for this one, but if anyone can figure out how to distribute points to my dog I'd appreciate it. The end of the challenge coincides with the end of his obedience class. Again, pass or fail: if his coach gives him a good evaluation then I consider him levelled up; if not, well, he's still top dog in my heart. Thanks in advance, everyone! Suggestions, constructive criticism etc are always welcome!

Yes, shih tzus are awesome! (And also inadvertent workout helpers because when a shih tzu decides under your tummy is the best hangout spot, you gotta prolong your plank.)

Hello, fellow Asian nerd! Cutting down on the rice has seriously been one of the hardest things for me to do as well.

Greetings from the Philippines! I'm a 30 y/o physician, hoping to get into an orthopaedic surgery residency this year (hence the bones part). My job is actually one of the main reasons why I want to lose weight and be more physically fit: (1) how can I advise patients to do this & that when I can't do it myself; (2) there are plenty of surgeries that take a lot out of me, physically. Lifting limbs, providing counter traction, pressing against joints to open them up, holding up legs of 150kg, 200kg patients & staying in the same position lest the wrath of the attending fall down upon me etc- I'm tired of feeling like I've been beat up every time I leave the operating room! My other primary motivator is my dog, who has been dubbed Dire Shih Tzu by my friends because apparently he's the biggest damn shih tzu they've ever seen. He's 6.5 kg, which is actually not the maximum weight for shih tzus but most full grown shih tzus around here are ~5kg. Anyway, he was starting to be a little overweight and I put him on a strict diet, only bought him quality dog food which I alternated with feeding raw meaty bones etc. Friends commented on the ingredients list of my dog's food- "Damn, he eats healthier than all of us!" That remark plus thinking it unfair that my dog has a strict diet but I won't control my own portions got me to fixing my own eating habits as well. Also, he's a very active, hyper dog (a shih tzu who thinks he's a Border Collie, apparently) and needed more exercise and play than I was physically capable of giving him. So I started exercising more and now his vet has cleared him to do Pooch25k with me! Right now I'm 160lb, from an all-time high of 180 lb. (I'm 5'5" in height.) I used to be 170lb in high school, joined cheerdancing and got down to 103lb by the time I started college, then I started ballooning again in medical school. (It's sad that medical school/clerkship/internship really set me up for terrible, terrible eating habits. Eating to stay awake, snacking during studying, stress eating, eating so damn much every time I get a chance because one literally never knew when one could eat again, especially if you had draconian residents in charge of you.) It got much worse because I have congenital genu valgus (knock knees), had both my patellae dislocate and had to undergo an operation that left me unable to walk for 6 weeks, then intense PT for 6 months. L knee never got back to normal, and I was still afraid to exercise and do all the other things I used to do pre-op. That operation was 3 years ago, and it's about time I stopped using that as an excuse not to be the best person and dog owner I can be. Also, if the zombiepocalypse happens I would have been the WORST person to have around because up until a month ago, I literally did NOT run. AT ALL. At first I used the aforesaid operation as an excuse as to why I hadn't run for almost 3 years, but seriously, I should have been able to get back on track by now. My other fitness goals aside from weight loss (hoping to get down to 120lb) are: (1) run a 5k with my dog (2) build up my VMOs (they've atrophied, especially the L) (3) work on my flexibility (contractures & such have developed) As for nerdy/geeky things, I love playing tabletop RPGs (DnD 4e, Shadowrun, and Game of Thrones Tri-stat), board games (especially Game of Thrones), & I guess it's obvious that I'm a big fan of Game of Thrones & A Song of Ice & Fire. I used to write a lot of fanfic back in the day, now I'm just a reader of it. I'm also pretty nerdy about the works of Jane Austen, Haruki Murakami, Ian McEwan, Douglas Adams, a whole bunch of other writers. Right now I'm playing Bioshock Infinite; it's taking me so damn long to finish because I made a deal with myself that I'm not allowed to play that or other non-fitness videogames unless I've done 30min-1hr first of Dance Central or Just Dance. Unfortunately once I start dancing it is pretty damn hard for me to stop! Okay, this has been a pretty long Wall O' Text. I'm hoping to meet more like-minded people, get more advice about fitness etc, & be inspired reading all your motivational stories! Thanks for reading!