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Hey Rachel, how has your challenge been going? Sorry for not replying any earlier, and welcoming you to House Stark, our team has really taken off. I hope you're still sticking with your goals and not gotten discouraged! Looking forward to an update! I hope we can help each other look amazing by the end of the challenge Cheers Joe

Hey Snowfox, just trying to catch up with all the house mates from House Stark! Welcome welcome, i'm excited to get to know more of the team members and motivating each other to do well. I also use Zombies Run and its a great app, i know what you mean about running being dull, but the voice acting and story in the app is great and gets my imagination flowing. Are you starting off with the full on app or the 5k training one? I'm thinking of joining Aikido my first martial's art here once they get back from summer vacation. I've always always wanted to do martial arts but never took the leap! Anyhow hope your still going strong! Cheers Joe

Hey Sacculina, welcome to House Stark! You have very commendable goals, and I wish you all the best with them. How has it been going the last few days? Still walking, and still eating one clean mean per day? I know you probably are and too busy achieving your goals to post on here but we need the inspiration! I know as the excitement of the first few days wear thin I'll be needing all the motivation I can get! Looking forward to seeing your updates! Joe

Hey Kami, welcome to House Stark, I know its a little late but I'm glad you're part of the team! Brave of you to post pics, I hope they motivate you to achieve your goals. Way to pick yourself up when you were down, and now you will get stronger and fitter and i'm sure you'll be a great midwife! Hope you're enjoying the book, and i look forward to seeing more updates so that you get through this challenge! Cheers Joe

Hey Arya, not that I need to welcome you since you are already of House Stark, but perhaps I should introduce myself as a supporter of your house! Sorry it has been late but better late than never! Great job on healthy eating and having the discipline to getting up early to run! Looking forward to see how your yoga sessions go and working together in the coming weeks! Cheers Joe Have you done something crazy and unexpected i'm super curious and i bet i'll be inspired by whatever it is you do!

Hey Arrow, haven't heard from you in a couple of days. I hope you're still going strong! When's your next boot camp workout, and congrats on making it through without puking. Hehe maybe you should try something harder! Keep up the exercise and healthy eating, and good luck finding a full time job! Great motivation by the way, I hope you can use those feelings to push through the obstacles! Although its okay to start feeling great about yourself now, you've taken the first step and you're making changes already! P.S Belated welcome to house Stark!

Keep it up! I'm starting to feel the resistance to change, and the cravings for my former lifestyles. New Day! New Start! Dont' forget to drink your water! I"ll be checking in!

Hey Dennis, good job so far, I"m glad your kid enjoyed sushi! Sounds like your keeping up with hikes and staying active with your kid even when you're not doing the workouts so thats great. When are you going to Europe and where? You mentioned drinking can get out of hand when you go on tours, do you have any plans to fight that this time? I know from reading The Power of Habit, that people who prepared ahead of time were better equipped to fend off temptation. Stay off that social media when you're at dinner! Its okay if you're not on here constantly! Keep up the good work!

Hey Dany, great job with the workouts and food! Yeah dinner with the former inlaws and going out to eat are deadly, I don't have the will power to resist! Just don't let it get you down, I would say like Abtacha on the House Stark threads, just enjoy it this once, and move on! I would love to read your screenplay or anything you write really! Stephen Sondheim, writer of Sweeney Todd and other musicals, apparently was studying under Rodgers and Hammerstein, and was told to go write a musical. After a long time and blood and sweat and tears, he handed in a musical which they immediately threw in the trash, and said now go write another one! I remember last spring staying up till 5 in the morning writing a scene, was so inspired and happy with what I made. Over the next few days I ended up together with the director cutting or rewriting 75% of it! SO keep up the writing and build up those creativity muscles along with the body!

Hey Darwin, thanks for the explanation! I appreciate all the research you put into this man! I'm terrible and lazy at doing the research and calculations! Maybe that's why I got an acting degree instead of analysing evolotionary genomics, although acting takes a completely different kind of research haha. Nice job figuring out your minor mistake and getting those deadlifts done! As a physio student now we're really focused on good form, and it sounds like you're very precise so that can only be good! By the way I like the extra articles you link! Always helpful!

Hey clockwork, don't get too hard on yourself! Its a long distance challenge, and you did great doing those crunches! On top of that you posted about it, so congrats! We're all here to support and help you! Push ups will come, just stick with it! I'm using the zombies 5 k app, and I'm not sure which one you got, the full on zombies run which i also have and tried or the 5k training app which I switched too. Either way the first story mission on both apps are the same, and its difficult, there are no real "training" instructions it just tells you to RUN! However the 5 k app than transitions into training workouts, which start out slow. The first workout is a 10 min walk, and than alternating running for 10 seconds and walking for 1 minute. Its how most new runners start building up endurance! Listen to your body! If your legs are like jelly, give them time to rest! I hope you continue and try and enjoy the workouts! Cheers

I found the first two weeks of workouts too simple, wishing I could skip to something a bit more challenging, than came week 3 workout 1 or the 7th if you're counting continuously and that kicked my butt! Enjoying it though, the voice acting is great!

Still keeping up with your Challenge? Hope you are! If not its still too early to give up, come on back and get going!

Good job on four stars! What kind of knee trouble are you experiencing? The physiotherapy student in me wants to know! Too bad about orientation have you already booked another one? Way to make it to the gym and big congrats on the new records!

Okay, I"m really glad this group is going super strong! Its the begin of Day 4, and the excitement of starting a new challenge is starting to wear out, and the bad habits are looking to find holes in my defenses! If it wasnt for you guys posting and the thought of letting house Stark down I"m sure I'd be back to my old ways pretty soon. So THANK YOU! Welcome to all the newcomers, I'm glad to have new companions by my side. When I get tempted to do other stuff today, I"m going to try and get around to reading your threads and checking in on all the people I haven't greeted yet personally! To everyone else keep kicking butt! Heres a copy of my day 3 update from my challenge thread! Morning Day 4 Hey everyone, thanks for all the replies and suggestions! Had a salad, gonna try some deli meat with salad wraps today instead of bread, cheers Elastoman! So it begins, today I'm sorely tempted to take it "easy" give myself a "well deserved" break, which would probably end up being a gaming binge, no exercise whatsoever, and return to unhealthy eating. AHHHH bad habits and a very weak willpower muscle. Superheroes, protagonists in novels, always seem to make the tough decision, they stick with their quest through thick and thin, and it just seems natural to them, heck when i'm playing video games I don't miss a chance to obtain every possible level up or chance to train or get stronger, yet real life ARGGGH. Well it needs to be a challenge right? To be honest if it wasn't for you people, and house stark I"d probably be playing video games right now! SO THANK YOU, just by posting your updates and knowing i'm being accountable to house stark its helped me so far stick with it! Day 3 Day 3 was great, I did week 3 workout 1 which kicked my butt! The challenge ramped up significantly for me between week 2 workouts and week 3, and i loved it although it killed me. Had a good body weight workout, doing less on my legs since they were tired from the challenging run, and focused on my arms, also felt great! Rather than just going through the motions I focused on getting stronger, and building muscle and managed to squeeze out a few extra reps. Study went well, at least I managed to stay off video games until after dinner. My focus and dedication while studying could be better! This will probably be a recurring theme for me. Games are a huge addiction for me, I've used them to escape reality for years now. Don't want to focus on too many goals at once, and will keep this as one of my side goals but want to build up a habit of exercise and healthy eating first. Had some great meals yesterday, scrambled eggs for breakfast, lots of water throughout the day! A lovely fresh salad, with brined chicken for lunch. My ex gf made pasta for dinner but I had small portions of that. During the evening however, I really got into playin Shogun 2 and that kept me up till midnight, and than i started getting food cravings, had a glass of almond milk and some crackers, the crackers weren't great but I need to get some more sleep to recover! Today my body is feeling the workouts, which is good, I already went for a walk, instead of doing a zombies run, trying to listen to my body and not push too hard, will see if I can do the run later this evening when its cool. Supposed to be a rest recovery day today in terms of body weight workout but I may do some yoga! Gonna try, no I WILL get to bed earlier today and hope I can get some decent sleep. Sleep is a little hard to come by after the breakup and adjusting to new sleeping arrangements. Good luck to everyone else on their challenges!

Morning Day 4 Hey everyone, thanks for all the replies and suggestions! Had a salad, gonna try some deli meat with salad wraps today instead of bread, cheers Elastoman! So it begins, today I'm sorely tempted to take it "easy" give myself a "well deserved" break, which would probably end up being a gaming binge, no exercise whatsoever, and return to unhealthy eating. AHHHH bad habits and a very weak willpower muscle. Superheroes, protagonists in novels, always seem to make the tough decision, they stick with their quest through thick and thin, and it just seems natural to them, heck when i'm playing video games I don't miss a chance to obtain every possible level up or chance to train or get stronger, yet real life ARGGGH. Well it needs to be a challenge right? To be honest if it wasn't for you people, and house stark I"d probably be playing video games right now! SO THANK YOU, just by posting your updates and knowing i'm being accountable to house stark its helped me so far stick with it! Day 3 Day 3 was great, I did week 3 workout 1 which kicked my butt! The challenge ramped up significantly for me between week 2 workouts and week 3, and i loved it although it killed me. Had a good body weight workout, doing less on my legs since they were tired from the challenging run, and focused on my arms, also felt great! Rather than just going through the motions I focused on getting stronger, and building muscle and managed to squeeze out a few extra reps. Study went well, at least I managed to stay off video games until after dinner. My focus and dedication while studying could be better! This will probably be a recurring theme for me. Games are a huge addiction for me, I've used them to escape reality for years now. Don't want to focus on too many goals at once, and will keep this as one of my side goals but want to build up a habit of exercise and healthy eating first. Had some great meals yesterday, scrambled eggs for breakfast, lots of water throughout the day! A lovely fresh salad, with brined chicken for lunch. My ex gf made pasta for dinner but I had small portions of that. During the evening however, I really got into playin Shogun 2 and that kept me up till midnight, and than i started getting food cravings, had a glass of almond milk and some crackers, the crackers weren't great but I need to get some more sleep to recover! Today my body is feeling the workouts, which is good, I already went for a walk, instead of doing a zombies run, trying to listen to my body and not push too hard, will see if I can do the run later this evening when its cool. Supposed to be a rest recovery day today in terms of body weight workout but I may do some yoga! Gonna try, no I WILL get to bed earlier today and hope I can get some decent sleep. Sleep is a little hard to come by after the breakup and adjusting to new sleeping arrangements. Good luck to everyone else on their challenges! Ms Louise, I'm not sure exactly what got me into parkour, I guess a combination of youtube videos and a Nerdy interest in Ninjas, Assasin's creed, elves, and being someone who has always wanted to do flips and jumps and be extremely dexterous and fast. I'm short at "5.5 so when playing sports i've always had to rely on speed and agility! Just watching others do Parkour I want to be able to take my abilities to the next level! To everyone else thanks for the check ins and ice cream suggestions! Again the food recipes are great Elastoman!

Glad I can be of some help! That's what we're all here for. I don't know if you watch hockey, but those guys are always interviewed after a game while cycling on a stationary bike, to cool down after games! Hopefully that reduces your rest time and you can get back to kicking butt for goodness

Wow, inspiring! Good job so far! Thanks for checking in on my thread by the way. The more people who come check in, the easier it will be for me to fight off cravings! Or to say ohh i've been doing good, I deserve a "break". If you do find an ice cream substitute would love to hear about it! What is HIIT? Other than that, impressive workout!

Hey Abtacha, I was giving your problem some more thought, have you given your legs a chance to cool down after the work out? Its important to give your legs some time to ease up and cool off and work off the lactic acid you build up during your workout! If you already do than ignore this, however if you're stopping immediately than it might be an idea to take an extra few minutes of gentle jogging, elliptical training at the lowest level, whatever and some stretching! Will help your legs recover faster. Good luck

Update Day 2 As stated had a great run this morning and feels good to have done so. Had a healthy scrambled egg breakfast, and fruit shake. Lunch was difficult, had two baloney sandwiches! If you guys have ideas for healthy simple not too expensive lunches, that would be great! Didn't work out today as its a "rest" day, did do a set of pull ups while I was studying when I needed a bit of a mental break. Haven't played games until after dinner! Spent some time catching up on my studies which feels good as well. For dinner had some salmon and steamed vegetables! Craving ice cream now with this hot weather, and that was the habit from before but posting this update instead and glad that I can say I didn't give in to the craving! Feeling good and looking forward to another day! Thanks to everyone who checked in!

Update Day 2 As stated had a great run this morning and feels good to have done so. Had a healthy scrambled egg breakfast, and fruit shake. Lunch was difficult, had two baloney sandwiches! If you guys have ideas for healthy simple not too expensive lunches, that would be great! Didn't work out today as its a "rest" day, did do a set of pull ups while I was studying when I needed a bit of a mental break. Haven't played games until after dinner! Spent some time catching up on my studies which feels good as well. For dinner had some salmon and steamed vegetables! Craving ice cream now with this hot weather, and that was the habit from before but posting this update instead and glad that I can say I didn't give in to the craving! Feeling good and looking forward to another day! Thanks to everyone who checked in!

Hey Shaunty, well done so far! Really good job and don't think of the missed workout as a missed day! Its important to give your body rest days. You've updated three days in a row and that is a great start. Its extremely common to have stronger legs than arms. What you can do is tailor your workout to yourself, it is what a good trainer would do for you if you were at the gym. You want exercises that challenge you but aren't too difficult! Try and find more difficult leg exercises, and make some minor adjustments if you find the arm exercises a little difficult! For example, slow down when doing squats and hold at the bottom for a little bit before coming back up with perhaps a jump. Add some weights when doing calf raises, and again lower yourself slowly. Just a few examples Good luck and hope to read some more success. Where abouts in The Netherlands are you? I'm studying physiotherapy in Eindhoven

Hey UnterDennis, a latecomer to House Stark here! First of all respect, hats off to you sir for starting a challenge halfway through and sticking with it, and staying positive even though they "changed the rules"! I was in the same boat, where I saw the challenge too late last time and just didn't do anything unlike you! Now you've already got some momentum going from diving right in! I've been in what I consider a rut too for quite a long time, oh how the years fly by after high school, and pretty soon you have a gut. When I was doing my internship at a rehab clinic last June, I measured my body fat at 25% which is considered officially obese for men! Scary! I've always been thin, but even though I'm thin and 29, because of my body type, my body fat percentage is terrible! Anyways I look forward reading more updates and working together to achieve our goals! As a side note I think you were talking about improving your meditation. I spent six years in a Catholic Monastery, and also did some relaxation meditation when I got my acting degree afterwards. I think its normal, not only when we first start meditation but even experts that our brain finds it frustrating and difficult to sit still and just relax or empty our mind or focus just on breath. I would recommend not being so hard on yourself, and that it is not a failure to meditate when those thoughts arise. My teachers would always say that its okay when those distractions arise, and to just take a deep breath, acknowledge them and gently let them go. When you try and fight them off, the brain only focuses on them all the more, and if you don't acknowledge them, for example, okay my brain wants to remind me i need to call so and so or hang up the laundry or whatever mundane silly thing that comes into your head when you're trying to focus on just your breath for example, than it will keep coming back. So i guess in short, i would recommend going into meditation with the intention of okay distractions will come, but i'll acknowledge them and than just let them go. Not easy at first, but hopefully it will get easier to do. Alright that's enough from me for now! Good luck in the coming days! Cheers Joe

Greetings Mother of all Dragons, as a latecomer to House Stark, I would like to extend my greetings and offer my support! Sounds like you're doing quite well, and I'm sure Drogo will be taken by surprised the next time you jump him! No more meek little Dany but someone with the true blood of Dragons. I hope your second day went just as well and that you got your short story completed! I love your side quest, although I'm currently studying physiotherapy right now, I have an acting degree and I love to try and remain creative. Writing something creative everyday is great, and like you said, I know lots of writers who have done the same. I hope to someday maybe read something that you want to share or publish! I know a lot of screenwriters say write for the trash, just put stuff on paper and let ideas flow, and refine and rewrite and rewrite and that will make you a better writer. I know when my fellow actors and I first attempted to write just a short scene, we ended up rewriting it a million times until we were satisfied but it took just writing something the first day before we could get the creative juices flowing. Good luck with your goals and second day! Looking forward to reading more!

Hey clockwork terrier, a late comer to House Stark, and first timer challenger here as well! I too have struggled my whole life with setting goals, and sticking with them, well setting goals has always been no problem its the sticking with them part. I really hope this time with the support of the community and team I can make it all the way through. I can understand how difficult it is to let your true feelings or thoughts out, it makes us vulnerable. That's scary stuff, and for me its always easier to fudge a little to make things look a little better, kind of like pushing the dirt under the carpet before visitors arrive so to speak. That being said, everyone seems really nice here and supportive and we all just want the best for each other, so I hope that together we can take some steps in being more honest with ourselves and really accomplish our goals! Good job on the first cpl goals on your first day! And also being honest about drinking the Mtn Dew! You got out and about and moved! Yay. You also achieved your side quest, you came on here and posted about it! Also normal human being, without any caffeine so great! Looking forward to reading more updates, and curious about how your first day at the gym sometime this week goes! That way you'll be ready to kick ass when you join the military! By the way what kind of art are you working on? Cheers Joe!