PNH

Thanks Kiki, it's always nice to hear that people are on the same page. I usually have a pretty easy time lying to myself, so I decided when I started this that there was no reason to lie to NF about how I was really doing on my workouts, and I have actually found that is a good motivator. I have to admit, stairs are pretty easy now and not something I even really notice. I haven't gotten back in the habit of climbing the stairs to and from my 8th floor apartment, but I used to actively dread using them anywhere I'd go because more than 2 flights and I started to get winded, which showed during any running conversation I was having at the time. I used to despise squats and now they are among my favorites and the work shows in the small areas of everyday life. Good luck on the journey, once you get to the point where it is a habit, it becomes second nature and you'll do great. =)

A better week than I had thought. Still real life drama but I was at least productive and I got all my workouts in! YAY! Very very poor performance in today's workout makes my progress massively negative for the week. Very disappointing. Mission 1: Maintain and develop current workout routine. Finally got all my workouts in! Bad was that I wore me out pretty good for Friday and then today I tried to make my workout more efficient which had the opposite effect. Not sure whether the new routine is worth sticking out and I might go back to the old one just to finish out this challenge. Very poor nutrition may have played a big part in todays failure. Breakdown(and comparison to baseline and last week in pounds moved) : Breakdown : Warmup(1.25 min @ 3.5 mph, 1.25 min @ 4.2, 2.5 min @ 6) 2x12@50lbs squats(2x25 lbs) +110 lbs 1x15@50lbs squats 3x15 pushups +-0 1x10@50lbs lunges(2x25 lbs) +200 lbs 1x12@50lbs lunges 1x14@50lbs lunges 1x12@35lbs rows -945 lbs 2x8@50lbs dumbbell press(2x25 lbs) -180 lbs 1x10@50lbs dumbbell press 3x20@80lbs calf raises (+1200 lbs) 2x35 sec plank +15 sec 1x30 sec plank Overall progress for Week 4: -815 lbs moved, +1200 lbs calf raises, +15 sec plank, added yoga, added 3rd lifting session Ugh... =( Compared to baseline: +1255 lbs moved, +15 pushups, +4800 lbs calf raises, added yoga, added 3rd lifting session Mission 2: Maintain Paleo and get on eating schedule 5 days of paleo last week so I hit my goal. 6 this week. Mission 3: Maintain healthy attitude(push hard, recover from any slips, continue to chart progress) Better attitude, which I will need again this week after todays awful workout. Besides my side mission I am doing overall ~B work on this challenge which is worse than I had hoped for but better than I expected. Looking at my day to day progress I feel like I am all over the place though and like I am going nowhere. Hopefully I can pull strong through the end of the challenge and look back at the progress as a whole. Mission 4: (Side mission) Maintain learning programming as a priority I have mostly given up my side mission. I went strong at it for a week or two and gave up, which is not unusual for me, but I have been working at a lot of things in my life and it seems that this was one too many for now. Maybe when I have made other good habits.

Talked to a few friends today who recommended splitting my workout into two halves and doing squats/pushups/lunges x3 and then rows/press/calves/plank x3. I liked the idea and I think I am going to try and stick with it, but today being the first day that I did it, implementation was horrible. Workout #20 Mon, Aug 26 Grade : B/C Found that I did better on squats/lunges/pushups than usual and slightly worse on the others, which is bound to happen I guess and means I will be making subtle changes in the future. Biggest issue was that there was a couple using the only bench in the gym as their storage space and refused to move saying "we will be done soon" despite the fact that they weren't actually using the bench. I put off rows until they had left and it was the only exercise I had left. I was so beat that I couldn't lift my arms well and actually dropped the weight about 2/3 through the first set. I will try putting it up front with squats and lunges and moving pushups since rows are among my hardest/worst performance in my mind. Also poor nutrition today. Not nearly enough of anything. Breakdown : Warmup(1.25 min @ 3.5 mph, 1.25 min @ 4.2, 2.5 min @ 6) 2x12@50lbs squats(2x25 lbs) 1x15@50lbs squats 3x15 pushups 1x10@50lbs lunges(2x25 lbs) 1x12@50lbs lunges 1x14@50lbs lunges 1x12@35lbs rows 2x8@50lbs dumbbell press(2x25 lbs) 1x10@50lbs dumbbell press 3x20@80lbs calf raises 2x35 sec plank 1x30 sec plank

Late post from a long weekend. Still haven't done todays workout yet, waiting on laundry. Workout #19 Fri, Aug 23 Grade : B Parents were in town so I did this pretty late at night after visiting with them. It made for a long day and I don't like working out starting at 1130 pm but I was happy to at least get it done finally for a Friday. Could've been more prepared and gotten it done before seeing them. The exact same amount that I did on Monday, but it felt like more of a victory because I finally got my Friday in and I had also added yoga this week. Hopefully I will feel better next week overall than I had this week during my three gym workouts. Breakdown : Warmup(1.25 min @ 3.5 mph, 1.25 min @ 4.2, 2.5 min @ 6) 2x15@40lbs squats(2x20 lbs) 1x16@40lbs squats 3x15 pushups 2x14@40lbs lunges(2x20 lbs) 1x16@40lbs lunges 2x12@35lbs rows 1x15@35lbs rows 2x12@40lbs dumbbell press(2x20 lbs) 1x13@40lbs dumbbell press 3x30@40lbs calf raises 2x35 sec plank 1x15 sec plank 2x30 jumping jacks

Workout #18 Thursday, Aug 22 Grade : B+ P90x Yoga is both wonderful and awful. There are certainly a few spots where I still need a lot of work. Getting into the second half of the vinyasa part, I was feeling okay but had to take some short straight leg breaks to make up for the seemingly hours of holding lunge poses. Some of the positions I am just not nearly flexible enough to even get to much less hold. Second half requires a lot of back and core, both of mine clearly need work. My core is weak and my back probably felt tighter at the end of the yoga than at the start because it was getting pushed much harder than it is used to. Overall very happy that I made it through all 90 minutes, and I feel like I pushed to the end of my limits, but there was clearly tons of room for improvement in the future.

Workout #17 Wed, Aug 21 Grade : C Made it into my third set and just had nothing left. I got 5 squats in and couldn't lift my body anymore and I was all shaky. Very strange and I don't really know what to attribute it to. Hopefully it doesn't happen again Breakdown : Warmup(1.25 min @ 3.5 mph, 1.25 min @ 4.2, 2.5 min @ 6) 2x15@40lbs squats(2x20 lbs) 2x15 pushups 2x14@40lbs lunges(2x20 lbs) 2x12@35lbs rows 2x12@40lbs dumbbell press(2x20 lbs) 2x30@40lbs calf raises 2x35 sec plank 2x30 jumping jacks

Long week with some setbacks and a poor attitude lead to missing Friday's workout. Trying to find that motivation again, it seems to have vacated me. In the meantime, I am going to try for 5 workouts this week... Ambitious for me but I think I can handle it and I have plenty of free time. Let's see how it goes. Mission 1: Maintain and develop current workout routine. Third Friday in a row that I missed my workout, this is a disturbing trend. Back at it today... =( Breakdown(and comparison to baseline and last week in pounds moved) : Warmup(1.25 min @ 3.5 mph, 1.25 min @ 4.2, 2.5 min @ 6) 2x15@40lbs squats(2x20 lbs) +320 lbs 1x16@40lbs squats 3x15 pushups +9 pushups 2x14@40lbs lunges(2x20 lbs) +240 lbs 1x16@40lbs lunges 2x12@35lbs rows +105 lbs 1x15@35lbs rows 2x12@40lbs dumbbell press(2x20 lbs) +-0 1x13@40lbs dumbbell press 3x30@40lbs calf raises (+20 calf raises, +800 lbs) 2x35 sec plank +-0 1x15 sec plank 2x30 jumping jacks Overall progress for Week 3: +665 lbs moved, +9 pushups, +20 calf raises Happy with the progress but I could do more. Compared to baseline: +2070 lbs moved, +15 pushups, +90 calf raises, -15 sec plank Mission 2: Maintain Paleo and get on eating schedule 5 days of paleo last week so I hit my goal. Still trying to make it 6 this week so I hit my goal a week early. Mission 3: Maintain healthy attitude(push hard, recover from any slips, continue to chart progress) Poor attitude last week. Hard time finding motivation. Not quite sure what happened, and while I am on progress for my first two goals for the week, it was a poor start to the week mentally. (This is just a copy and paste from last week and still directly applies. Real life drama brought my mental game down and lead to an overall poor week attitude wise. While the drama is here to stay for a little while, I am trying to at least compartmentalize it a bit so I can get back into a good rhythm.) Mission 4: (Side mission) Maintain learning programming as a priority Been finding it hard to become motivated for this. Learned HTML and CSS quickly and very well and then had a much harder time with Javascript and ended up giving up because I wasn't enjoying being bad at it. I don't want to give up on this and I am going to make the effort this week to reach my 10 hour goal.

Lost that post-workout high from last time with a lot of real life drama filling the last week. Very poor mental week which didn't get any better when I never got around to Friday's workout and felt bad about myself most of the weekend. Drama is sure to stick around for a bit but I am not going to let it get the best of me, so I am back on track again. Three missed Fridays in a row isn't so much a streak as a bad habit returning, but I am working extra to fight it off this week. Hope I can make that happen. Workout #16 Mon, Aug 19 Grade : B About half the time, regardless of when I eat or what I eat, I begin to have reflux and vomit on and off in my mouth during plank. It is unpleasant, but the worst part is that it has no force and so I can't just lay a towel down and barf and keep holding plank. It comes up very slowly and blocks my airways and stops me from breathing, which I obviously need to be able to do. Don't know what to do about it. Breakdown : Warmup(1.25 min @ 3.5 mph, 1.25 min @ 4.2, 2.5 min @ 6) 2x15@40lbs squats(2x20 lbs) 1x16@40lbs squats 3x15 pushups 2x14@40lbs lunges(2x20 lbs) 1x16@40lbs lunges 2x12@35lbs rows 1x15@35lbs rows 2x12@40lbs dumbbell press(2x20 lbs) 1x13@40lbs dumbbell press 3x30@40lbs calf raises 2x35 sec plank 1x15 sec plank 2x30 jumping jacks

I love series and so it really comes down to what time in my life I was reading. Stephen King, Peter V Brett, George RR Martin, Roger Zelanzy, Philip Pullman, Brian Jacques, Douglas Adams, Orson Scott Card, JK Rowling, Frank Herbert, Preston and Child. These are just the series writers and all of these people wrote different things that had/are having positive affects on my life. My single favorite book is called Dancing Naked in the Mind Field by Kary Mullis. He won the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1983 and wrote an autobiography that is both hilarious and very informative on the thought processes of a man who is clearly much smarter than the majority of us. My favorite author is Stephen King for The Dark Tower series which is easily the grandest adventure I've ever read and is my favorite set of books. He specifically only wrote these books on days when he was feeling particularly enthused about writing and it shows. Far outweighs LoTR in scope and I could write pages and pages about what made the books so well written and such an excellent story. My favorite short story is The Last Question by Isaac Asimov and if you have maybe 10-20 minutes to read it, it will blow you away. My favorite book based on sheer magnitude of ideas is A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn. Read it and I promise your life will never be the same. Once you get past pure favorites and into things that I absolutely think are worth reading, the list becomes immense and series will undoubtedly make up half or more of everything I have read.

Squats are great and I could see myself getting up to that many eventually(long long long from now) but only a masochist does that many lunges. Anyways, tell us what you've learned about food! please

So I have only been updating once a week or so but I wanted to make an extra post about some progress I made today. Not only did I get back on the horse with coding and put in some serious effort to learn more javascript, but I think that good attitude helped me in my workout because it went abnormally well today. Overall added(same weights just compared to Monday): 5 squats 8 pushups 2 lunges 1 row 25 seconds on my plank I really don't expect progress like this at all but I felt awesome and had a good attitude and it paid off. I want to think I will keep up these awesome numbers, but I will try not to be disappointed if I can't recreate this on Friday. In the meantime, stoked. =)

CRUSHED my workout today. Felt good to go in and find that I somehow had untapped energy in the third set when normally I am pushing just to make it through. Don't know where it came from, but who cares! Going to try and keep this going. Workout #15 Wed, Aug 14 Grade : A The only bad thing about this is that I missed a set of calf raises during the 2nd set and the first set of jumping jacks(which I made up). Breakdown : Warmup(1.25 min @ 3.5 mph, 1.25 min @ 4.2, 2.5 min @ 5.5) 1x12@40lbs squats(2x20 lbs) 1x14@40lbs squats 1x17@40lbs squats 2x14 pushups 1x18 pushups 1x12@40lbs lunges(2x20 lbs) 2x14@40lbs lunges 2x12@35lbs rows 1x13@35lbs rows 3x12@40lbs dumbbell press(2x20 lbs) 2x25@40lbs calf raises 2x35 sec plank 1x40 sec plank 2x45 jumping jacks

Disappointing last week. Lost my motivation somewhere and just decided not to workout on Friday or code most of the week. Where did it go? I wish I knew. Made workout progress still which is good, but much less than even the week before. Hopefully this week is better, but if today is any indication, that doesn't seem likely. Hopefully tomorrow shines slightly brighter. Mission 1: Maintain and develop current workout routine. Second Friday in a row that I missed my workout, very disappointed. Back at it today. Breakdown(and comparison to baseline and last week in pounds moved) : Warmup(1.25 min @ 3.5 mph, 1.25 min @ 4.2, 2.5 min @ 5.5) 2x12@40lbs squats(2x20 lbs) +80 lbs 1x14@40lbs squats 3x12 pushups +2 pushups 2x12@40lbs lunges(2x20 lbs) +200 lbs 1x14@40lbs lunges 3x12@35lbs rows +-0 2x12@40lbs dumbbell press(2x20 lbs) +130 lbs 1x13@40lbs dumbbell press Added: 2x20@40lbs calf raises +2800 lbs 1x30@40lbs calf raises 2x35 sec plank +-0 1x15 sec plank 3x30 jumping jacks Overall progress for Week 1: +410 lbs moved, +2 pushups, added calf raises Lack of effort for the last week shows... Compared to baseline: +1355 lbs moved, +6 pushups, added calf raises, -15 sec plank Overall happy with the progress but not thrilled with a huge drop-off of progress even on a maintenance goal Mission 2: Maintain Paleo and get on eating schedule 5 days of paleo last week so I hit my goal. I'd like to make it 6 asap. Mission 3: Maintain healthy attitude(push hard, recover from any slips, continue to chart progress) Poor attitude last week. Hard time finding motivation. Not quite sure what happened, and while I am on progress for my first two goals for the week, it was a poor start to the week mentally. Hopefully tomorrow is better. Mission 4: (Side mission) Maintain learning programming as a priority Maybe 2-3 hours coding last week. Very disappointing. Stems directly from the lack of motivation. I am worried about this goal much more now than I was week 1. /pray for motivation

Good news: I made progress from my last workout. Bad news: I skipped fridays workout for no reason in particular other than not finding the motivation. Very disappointing. Workout #14 Mon, Aug 12 Grade : B+ Good workout. Shoulders feel continuously like they aren't quite strong enough to be doing what I am doing with them. Rest of my body usually feels alright during the workout but not like I could push much harder. I feel like there have to be some muscle groups which I am ignoring and are not getting the use they should be. Breakdown : Warmup(1.25 min @ 3.5 mph, 1.25 min @ 4.2, 2.5 min @ 5.5) 2x12@40lbs squats(2x20 lbs) 1x14@40lbs squats 3x12 pushups 2x12@40lbs lunges(2x20 lbs) 1x14@40lbs lunges 3x12@35lbs rows 2x12@40lbs dumbbell press(2x20 lbs) 1x13@40lbs dumbbell press Added: 2x20@40lbs calf raises 1x30@40lbs calf raises 2x35 sec plank 1x15 sec plank 3x30 jumping jacks

Did my workout with a friend whose house I am now at. I enjoy working out with others because it really does help motivate me to do better. Crushed it today besides the acid reflux from spicy pork at lunch. Just a quick update today. Workout #13 Wed, Aug 7 Grade : A- Breakdown : Warmup(5 min eliptical, hated it) 1x12@30lbs squats(2x15 lbs dumbbells) 2x14@40lbs squats(2x20 lbs dumbbells) 2x12 pushups 1x14 pushups 1x12@30lbs lunges(2x15 lbs dumbbells) 1x12@40lbs lunges(2x20 lbs dumbbells) 1x14@40lbs lunges 3x12@35lbs rows 1x12@30lbs dumbbell press(2x15 lbs) 1x12@40lbs dumbbell press(2x20 lbs) 1x14@40lbs dumbbell press 3x35 sec plank(finally!) 3x30 jumping jacks

A huge number of people I know in startups swear by Getting Things Done. Haven't read it personally but I've heard many great things.

As someone who reads series books like it is going out of style: - The Dark Tower series by Stephen King is my favorite series ever. It's an epic horror fantasy western and well worth the time, including the newly published 4th and a half book which is a side story and could be read at any time after the 4th book. - The Demon Cycle series by Peter V Brett is still being written, but there are 3 of 5 done right now, and they are excellent. Quick reads with a lot of wonderful fantasy. The story of a several societies on the brink of destruction by powerful monsters from "the core" who only come out at night, who disrupt a war already in progress on the surface. - The Chronicles of Amber is 10 books, all 120-150 pages by Roger Zelanzy and are very quick reads. They are the story of a family who rules over Amber, which is the base city of where reality starts and new "shadows" begin. Lots of treachery and backstabbing with magic and swordplay mixed in. Warning: if you get the kindle/ebook version of this, they just OCR'd it and never even bothered to run a basic spell check. The paperback is fine but the ebook has tons of misspellings and mistakes(sometimes many a page) and around the 6th book it actually skips entire paragraphs and requires some creative refragmenting as you keep reading. It's annoying, but still pleasurable, but I would obviously recommend the paperback.

Overall, I feel great about the progress I have made; maintenance is HUGE progress for me as I have a lifetime of quitting things to make up for. It's only week one so there is a long way to go but my mental game(think golf) is good right now and I've been mostly doing a good job at sticking to my plans. Five weeks to go, and truly, if I can make it through these next five weeks, it will be the first time in many years that I have actually accomplished something bigger than a 2 day project. Here's to hoping... Mission 1: Maintain and develop current workout routine. Did not get my workout done on Friday while on vacation. I did play with little kids and do lots of lifting, but not in the way I wanted to. =( Back on the horse today to start week 2 though. Breakdown(and comparison to baseline in pounds moved) : Breakdown : Warmup(1.25 min @ 3.5 mph, 1.75 min @ 4.1, 2 min @ 5.2) 3x12@40lbs squats(2x20 lbs dumbbells) +440 lbs 2x11 pushups 1x12 pushups +4 pushups 1x12@30lbs lunges(2x15 lbs dumbbells) 2x12@40lbs lunges(2x20 lbs dumbbells) +200 lbs 3x12@35lbs rows +85 lbs 1x12@30lbs dumbbell press(2x15 lbs) 2x12@40lbs dumbbell press(2x20 lbs) +220 lbs 2x35 sec plank 1x15 sec plank -15 sec 3x30 jumping jacks Overall progress for Week 1: +945 lbs moved, +4 pushups, -15 sec plank Certainly thrilled with such good progress on a maintenance schedule. I may push a little less hard next workout only to get my plank back to it's full time. Legs and core feel great post workout, soreness is negligible. Shoulders are pretty beat up post workout and will certainly feel it tomorrow and Wednesday at which time I will torture them again. Mission 2: Maintain Paleo and get on eating schedule Eating schedule is going slightly better, especially a concerted effort to eat breakfast within an hour of waking up. I failed over the weekend on vacation to maintain any sort of diet. It was 3 days of eating whatever I saw and I was bummed about that. Back at it today though. Mission 3: Maintain healthy attitude(push hard, recover from any slips, continue to chart progress) Overall good attitude. Got some good job news, I have an interview and a test coming up. Recovered from a weekend of food debauchery. Back to posting and charting my progress. Even counting calories just to get an idea of what it takes to get to where I want to be. Mission 4: (Side mission) Maintain learning programming as a priority Zero coding over the weekend, opted not to bring a computer, and zero today to start the week. Not a good start but I still was WAY over my goal last week and I plan to be way over it again this week. Not worried about crushing my goal, and I am still thinking about increasing my goal for future weeks.

Goods and bads to report. Failed on my vacation. I cheated three days instead of the two days that I allow(or one day that I would really like to be at). Still got a fair amount of exercise during the vacation, but I did want to bring my good habits with me. Nevertheless, I got back on it today and hit the gym hard and made some good progress. I've decided that I do really like the new shoes for working out, if not for everyday stuff. Workout #12 Mon, Aug 5 Grade : B+ Made good progress. Ate right, etc. Made it to the last set of plank and my shoulders just could not hold my body up anymore. Still happy with the progress and thinking I may need to add something in there to work my core a bit more. Breakdown : Warmup(1.25 min @ 3.5 mph, 1.75 min @ 4.1, 2 min @ 5.2) 3x12@40lbs squats(2x20 lbs dumbbells) 2x11 pushups 1x12 pushups 1x12@30lbs lunges(2x15 lbs dumbbells) 2x12@40lbs lunges(2x20 lbs dumbbells) 3x12@35lbs rows 1x12@30lbs dumbbell press(2x15 lbs) 2x12@40lbs dumbbell press(2x20 lbs) 2x35 sec plank 1x15 sec plank 3x30 jumping jacks

Mission 1: Maintain and develop current workout routine Only going to do a breakdown on Mondays. Made small progress again, wonderful. Did not wait long enough between eating and workout. Barfed in my mouth several times during each set of plank and had to swallow it. It was unpleasant. Mission 2: Maintain Paleo and get on eating schedule Still on track but I ran out of meat with one meal to go before vacation! Need to go to the store =( Mission 3: Maintain healthy attitude(push hard, recover from any slips, continue to chart progress) Medium mental health today. Wasn't stoked about going to work out and I am not sure why. It will pass. Pushed hard even with the bad attitude though. Mission 4: (Side mission) Maintain learning programming as a priority Still working hard at it. Didn't get around to it yet today, but I have been spending 6-8 hours every other day on it. Today was busy but I am going to try to hit it before I get to bed. Overall feeling good about the challenge but there is still a long ways to go. Progress is good but this is about maintaining and I want to feel good about just doing the things over making huge advances. This weekend will be a challenge in itself since I will be on vacation with my family and they will want to go out for every meal and cram me with delicious but unhealthy food on my non-cheat days. Good luck me. And the rest of you as well.

Got new shoes for my birthday; Vibram Five Fingers aka barefoot shoes/toe shoes. Saying I am unsure of them still would probably be an understatement, but I know several people who swear by them, and so I am trying them out. Workout #11 Wed, July 31 Grade : B Very small progress again which I am happy with. Tried out the new shoes during the workout. They massively change how you have to run and while the change is easy, the muscles are different and apparently not muscles I use regularly. Some of my muscles started hurting right around halfway through and both my heels and the outside of my thighs(quads?) are killing me now that I am done. I had to cut the last plank short because I apparently did not leave enough time in between eating and working out and during my first plank, and then recurring through my last set, I vomited in my mouth twice and had to swallow it. Homemade split pea soup on the way up is less pleasant. Overall I feel less tired than I usually do but the barfing was not nice. Breakdown : Warmup(1.25 min @ 3.5 mph, 2 min @ 4.0, 1.75 min @ 5.0) 1x10@30lbs squats(2x15 lbs dumbbells) 2x10@40lbs squats(2x20 lbs dumbbells) 2x10 pushups 1x12 pushups 1x10@30lbs lunges(2x15 lbs dumbbells) 1x12@40lbs lunges(2x20 lbs dumbbells) 1x14@40lbs lunges(2x20 lbs dumbbells) 3x10@35lbs rows 1x10@30lbs dumbbell press(2x15 lbs) 2x10@40lbs dumbbell press(2x20 lbs) 2x35 sec plank 1x25 sec plank 3x30 jumping jacks

Mission 1: Maintain and develop current workout routine. Felt pretty good today. Made good progress from my standard workout, which is slightly scary because I have to keep it up. I won't be in town on Friday for the 3rd planned workout day, but I will still be working out. I won't have a gym and I will also be at ~7,000 feet so I am going to try the standard Beginner's Body Weight and I will push harder on set 2&3 if I feel good at that altitude. Breakdown(and baseline for the rest of the challenge) : Warmup(1.25 min @ 3.5 mph, 1.25 min @ 4.0, 2.5 min @ 5.2) 2x10@30lbs squats(2x15 lbs dumbbells) 1x10@40lbs squats(2x20 lbs dumbbells) 3x10 pushups 1x10@30lbs lunges(2x15 lbs dumbbells) 2x10@40lbs lunges(2x20 lbs dumbbells) 1x10@30lbs rows 1x12@35lbs rows 1x13@35lbs rows 1x10@30lbs dumbbell press(2x15 lbs) 2x10@40lbs dumbbell press(2x20 lbs)(cheated rep 9&10 on third set) 2x35 sec plank 1x30 sec plank 3x30 jumping jacks Mission 2: Maintain Paleo and get on eating schedule Check! Mission 3: Maintain healthy attitude(push hard, recover from any slips, continue to chart progress) Good attitude today. Charted my caliper and tape measurements on the original post. My workout breakdown and baseline is above. I still need to post before pictures =( Mission 4: (Side mission) Maintain learning programming as a priority There is a fair chance I hit 7.5 hours of coding just today instead of the planned for the whole week. I don't want to jinx anything and say it will be way easy, but I have found that I very much enjoy it and if I can keep up the enthusiasm for it, I feel like I may have to up my goals for the upcoming weeks.

Just the facts today. Workout #10 Mon, July 29 Grade : A- Very small progress again which I am happy with; might have pushed a little hard because my form broke down at the end of the 3rd set for just a couple reps. Bit of a headache, maybe from not enough food but I did eat a fair amount so far today so maybe it's just a headache. Overall, happy with day 1 of the challenge. Breakdown : Warmup(1.25 min @ 3.5 mph, 1.25 min @ 4.0, 2.5 min @ 5.2) 2x10@30lbs squats(2x15 lbs dumbbells) 1x10@40lbs squats(2x20 lbs dumbbells) 3x10 pushups 1x10@30lbs lunges(2x15 lbs dumbbells) 2x10@40lbs lunges(2x20 lbs dumbbells) 1x10@30lbs rows 1x12@35lbs rows 1x13@35lbs rows 1x10@30lbs dumbbell press(2x15 lbs) 2x10@40lbs dumbbell press(2x20 lbs)(cheated rep 9&10 on third set) 2x35 sec plank 1x30 sec plank 3x30 jumping jacks

I don't have cravings for sugar or pastries anymore, but I really do wonder if I will ever stop missing eating bread for 4 meals a day. =( I don't know how far into Beginner's you are, but if you can make it past the first two weeks and the inevitable very unpleasant and horribly out of tune muscle pain, you are going to be great. I'm with squeege, any excuse to buy something from shirt woot! is alright by me.

If you don't have an issue spending the money on a Paperwhite, then yes it is worth the upgrade IMO. The light is excellent, fills the whole screen and is easily adjustable from near no background light to bright enough to use as a close up flashlight and everything in between.