Omega v1.1

Monday, 22nd July 50 wall pull-ups, 10 incline, 10 incline with bent knees, 3 incline. 3x10 bent dumbbell rows with 22ilbs 2x40 jackknife squats. I then decided to try step 3' assisted squats but found after 5 I wasn't even using the chair so instead decided to try full squats and managed 25! The progression level is 2 sets of 30 so I'm almost there and that is step 5! I'm not sure if its wise to completely jump two whole so I'll have a bit of an experiment next time. 2x50 short bridges, 10 straight bridges with bent knees.

Friday, 19th July. 50 wall push-ups, 37 incline, 30 incline, 27 incline. Abs for 45 seconds, 30 flat bent leg raises, 29 flat bent leg raises, 15 flat bent leg raises.

So it's up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right... and the it gets kinda complicated at the end?

Don't worry too much about all of what they're saying just focus on the part about how you are visibly losing weight and other people are noticing. the fact that they are having to construct ludicrous explanations for your weight lose (she must be doing drugs!) shows what an amazing transformation you're going through- they can't believe that you're achieving it through just diet and exercise but the joke is on them because you are! We've been so conditioned by advertising quick-fix diets and 'exercise' programmes and the false hope the give that people now find it unbelievable that someone could achieve weight lose just through their own hardwork and determination. In cognitive psychology there is the concept of life scripts- a way of describing the meaning we attribute to events in our lives and kind of an explanation as to why we repeatedly go through the same experiences i.e. we stick to certain types of jobs, date certain types of people, that sort of thing. It's quite often used to explain why people go through the same abusive relationships with different partners- they always react the same way to certain situations and look for certain attributes in potential partners and these attributes tend to crop up in the sort of people who are often abusive so therefore you go from one abusive relationship to the next because you always end up dating abusive people. this is really simplifying it but it leads on to a much more interesting point. The idea of life scripts also applies to how people view us too. As we tend to always act the same way, people who get to know us also learn to expect us to act certain ways. We learn to anticipate how people will react to different situations and even begin to factor this in when we make any sorts of plans that involve others. If you know somebody is quite easy going about helping move furniture but someone else always gets upset- you're much more likely to ask the first person to help you move your sofa than the other as you've learnt how each of them will react when you ask! The flip side to this then is that it really messes with peoples heads when you start doing things differently from what they've gotten used to you doing. This is why it's so shocking when the chilled up guy in the office suddenly looses their temper and shouts at someone- you just don't expect it and it goes against everything you know about them. Reality has, in just a tiny way, become more complicated. And this is what is causing your co-workers to speculate about your weight lose behind your back- they just don't understand how it fits into their perception of your life script. They've built up this image of you as being overweight and now they're having to wrestle with the shocking reality that you are rapidly changing from that and the perception of you that's been constructed over the years is crumbling in front of their eyes. And it won't just be the weight lose that is messing with them- it'll be your determination and effort to do it that they'll find confusing as there is a good chance that they never ascribed to you the ability or pure grit to do it. People can take this really badly too and react in very negative ways such as lashing verbally (and in some extreme occasions even physically) out at you, if not necessarily to your face- by your actions you are proving that they don't understand their worlds as well as they like to believe they do. It's like telling a five year-old that Santa doesn't exist- just five year-olds are a lot more adaptable to sudden changes in their perceptions of reality than your average adult! You should be really proud of what you've achieved and not just the improvements to your physical well-being; if your work colleagues are struggling to comprehend that you can be successful at this, there is a good chance that it's something you've always had doubts about too and now you're not just showing them that they're wrong in this erroneous assumption about you, but you're also proving to yourself that you are better than you previously believed too. Let them talk, let them gossip, you know what you are doing and how you are achieving it and nothing they say will make it any different. Prove them wrong over and over again and eventually the people it's worth actually being friends with will learn to accept and love the new you. Ignore the nay-sayers- they have nothing to contribute that will help you achieve your goals.

I've finally made the big step and thrown my hat in with the Assassins in preparation for the next six week challenge- I'm almost exclusively doing bodyweight exercises, really thinking hard about taking up parkour, and my wardrobe is pretty much entirely black already so I hope I qualify. Also, whilst I have next to know actual killing skills or weapons, I am planning on going out and buying a fruit knife this lunchtime to cut up my apples for healthy desk snacking- an assassin would use a fruit knife, right? I've currently got a whole bunch of potential goals for the challenge so now I'm just narrowing them down to 3 or 4 which are the most realistic and achievable whilst also will be enough of a struggle for me to have to push myself out of my comfort zone (or as it's most commonly known: the sofa in front of the TV).

An update for 5 weeks in of recording my daily exercises. When I started recording I was at the following levels: Push-ups- I was doing 50 of step 1, wall push-ups and was working on the intermediate standard of step 2, incline push-ups. Squats- 40 step 1, shoulder stand squats and was working towards the intermediate step 2, jackknife squats. Pull-ups- 40 step 1, vertical pulls, and I was not managing the beginners level of step 2, horizontal pulls, and was barely achieving 10 with bent knees instead of straight legs. Leg raise- 40 step 1, knee tucks and was achieving the intermediate level of step 2, knee raises. 5 weeks later I'm now doing: Push-ups- 50 of step 1 as a warm up and working on getting to the progression level of 3x40 of step 2. Squats- 3x40 step 2 and I'm planning to attempt the beginner level of step 3, supported squats. Pull-ups- again 50 of step 1 as a warm up and although I can't get past 2 sets of 10 of step 2, I'm at least doing them with straight legs now. Leg raise- I've passed the intermediate level of 2x15 of step 3(!), flat bent leg raises and now going for the progression level of 3x30 and in fact had reached that at one point but with less than perfect form which I'm now working on achieving. I've also now reached the progression level of step 1, short bridges, for bridges and am working towards the beginners level for step 2 and I've had some success on step 1, head stands, for handstand push-ups! I'm pretty happy with my progress and now I've moved house and have more room to exercise and I'm really focussing on my diet, I'm pretty positive about what the next month might hold for me. I've lost 5.9 lbs and my body fat has gone down by 1.6%. I'm now 1.8 lbs off of my target weight and 1.6% of my target fat.

Wednesday 17th July 50 wall pull-ups, 2x10 inverted rows- I really can't seem to get past 10 so it's time to start putting my new dumbbells to use and start adding some dumbbell rows to help strengthen my back more. 3x40 jackknife squats. Whilst the squats definitely work up the most sweat out of all the moves, getting to 40 three times has become more of a boring chore than anything so I think I'm at progression level and will attempt 1 set of the next level- 10 supported squats. 2x50 short bridges. 10 straight bridges with bent knees. Ideally these new bridges should have straight legs but I can't even manage just one yet so I'm trying the wussy bent knee version and will work up to the proper straight legs.

Monday, 15th July 50 wall push-ups, 40 incline push-ups, 30 incline push-ups, 20 incline push-ups Abs for 45 seconds, 30 flat bent leg raises, 22 flat bent leg raises

True Neutral Human Wizard (4th Level) Ability Scores: Strength- 13 Dexterity- 15 Constitution- 13 Intelligence- 15 Wisdom- 13 Charisma- 11 Alignment: True Neutral- A true neutral character does what seems to be a good idea. He doesn't feel strongly one way or the other when it comes to good vs. evil or law vs. chaos. Most true neutral characters exhibit a lack of conviction or bias rather than a commitment to neutrality. Such a character thinks of good as better than evil after all, he would rather have good neighbors and rulers than evil ones. Still, he's not personally committed to upholding good in any abstract or universal way. Some true neutral characters, on the other hand, commit themselves philosophically to neutrality. They see good, evil, law, and chaos as prejudices and dangerous extremes. They advocate the middle way of neutrality as the best, most balanced road in the long run. True neutral is the best alignment you can be because it means you act naturally, without prejudice or compulsion. However, true neutral can be a dangerous alignment when it represents apathy, indifference, and a lack of conviction. Race: Humans are the most adaptable of the common races. Short generations and a penchant for migration and conquest have made them physically diverse as well. Humans are often unorthodox in their dress, sporting unusual hairstyles, fanciful clothes, tattoos, and the like. Class: Wizards- Wizards are arcane spellcasters who depend on intensive study to create their magic. To wizards, magic is not a talent but a difficult, rewarding art. When they are prepared for battle, wizards can use their spells to devastating effect. When caught by surprise, they are vulnerable. The wizard's strength is her spells, everything else is secondary. She learns new spells as she experiments and grows in experience, and she can also learn them from other wizards. In addition, over time a wizard learns to manipulate her spells so they go farther, work better, or are improved in some other way. A wizard can call a familiar- a small, magical, animal companion that serves her. With a high Intelligence, wizards are capable of casting very high levels of spells.

Saturday 13th July 50 wall pull-ups, 2x10 inverted rows 2x40 jackknife squats, 32 jackknife squats 3x50 short bridges

Wednesday 10th July, Supposed to be a rest day today but my new dumbbell set arrived yesterday evening so I've managed a cheeky 3x20 dumbbell rows with 20 lbs. More unpacking today and shifting stuff around so I'll get a bit of an impromptu workout from that too.

Tuesday 9th July 50 wall push-ups, 29 incline push-ups, 20 incline push-ups Abs for 45 seconds, 29 flat bent leg raises, 20 flat bent leg raises. Bit of a decline since last time but its been 7 days since I last did these. Hopefully if I can get back into a regular routine now I've moved house I should be back onto form again.

Wednesday 3rd July 50 wall pull-ups, 2x10 inverted rows 3x40 jackknife squats 3x50 short bridges

Tuesday 2nd July It's been a few days as things have been hectic with preparing to move home. I have decided to focus on perfect form so all exercises take 2 seconds to go up, with a one second pause, and then 2 seconds to go down again- no help from gravity, it all has to be done by me. 50 wall push-ups, 35 incline, 40 incline. An increase of 8 and I think I can achieve 2 sets of 40 next time and even attempt a third set. 2x30 flat bent leg raises, 20 flat bent leg raises. This is less than last time but I'm doing the exercise much better now and really feeling it in my abdominals. I'm much happier to be doing less but better quality rather than just hammering out loads of sloppier movements.

Friday 28th June 40 wall pull-ups, 10 inverted rows, 12 inverted rows. +2 in total. I'm having real problems with slippy hands though. 50 shoulder stand squats, 2x40 jackknife squats. Next time aim to do 3 sets, 2of 40 and 1 of however many I can manage 3x20 dumbbell rows,-getting some heavier weights in a weeks time 3x50 short bridges

Stop doing that, it'll fall off. What?! I was just trying to balance my water bottle on the edge of my desk and it fell on the floor. Get your minds out of the gutter! Also, go to university when you have the chance, you'll definitely get a better job than the one you'll otherwise end up with.

I am so going to do this the next time I have to go out for an errand after dark. Ninja Shopping!

I haven't even attempted one pull up yet but when I do, I'm definitely going to try to follow your example and do three! Awesome work!

“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.†― Frank Herbert, Dune

Thursday, 27th June 50 wall push-ups, 35 incline push-ups, 32 incline push-ups. +10 in total 3 sets of 30 flat bent leg raises +30 in total. I'm going to try maybe one or two days more of this and if I'm feeling confident I'll move onto one set of flat frog raises. Abs for 45 seconds each. These additional ab exercises seem to be making a really difference as I'm now heading towards level 4 of the leg raises but I'm still working my way through intermediate level 2 for all the others.

That's amazing progress and congratulations to you for posting the pictures, it's a very brave thing to (metaphorically) stand up in front of a bunch of strangers and show such a personal side of yourself. You should be very, very proud of yourself! And don't be ashamed of the old you. Who we were in the past helps define who we are now- even if it's someone we know we never want to be again. Any time you get doubts or start worrying that you can't achieve something, look back at who you were and regain your confidence knowing how far you've come. As you said: Keep moving forward and keep kicking arse!