Bad_Wolf

Hi Guys! I've been MIA from the internet this week, I took Raxie's advice and instead of trying to do everything I've been re-arranging my priorities and getting stuff done! I finally cracked my "work draught", I'm cranking out artwork for my site slowly and steadily - but in order to spend time on that I've had to be pretty strict with myself and stay away from things like hanging out NF, facebook, pinterest, ect. My challenge is going good! I've been able to stick to my healthy low carb diet without any faltering, I am currently averaging 20 grams of carbs per day, which is great. You wouldn't believe how much of a withdrawal you go through when you cut out ALL sugar, serious head spin, hunger, quick temper, low energy, it was like quitting smoking. It only lasted about 4 days or so though, and now I am feeling more energetic, rested, "cleansed", and fit then ever. I've definitely lost a bit of fat this week, it's been pretty interesting so far. I've had lots of support from my partner, he's following along with everything too even though he's not a NF Rebel : ) I hope everyone is rocking their challenge! Thank you for the support!!

Thanks Raxie & TennisGeek! Week two chugging along well, although it's not a real part of my challenge I've implemented a low carb / paleo diet, and it's going well so far. Staying away from carbs is harder than I thought and I've had to do a lot of "carb counting" to educate myself, but I believe the benefit will be worth the trouble. I've been going good on my goals so far, I've been a little light on the yoga because of time restraints, but I'm planning on making up for it by hitting up the hour long yoga class at the gym tonight. I finally got to do all my measurements and body fat calculations last night, I'm sitting at around 16%, all of which appears to have made a home in my thighs and upper arms, so if I can manage to stick to my plan I should be into my motivational pants in no time, As far as my life quest goes, not going to lie I've been pretty bad. I don't even have an excuse I've just been really terrible at motivating myself to do any of the work - I keep turning my focus to something else and convincing myself that this other thing has to be done first! Speaking of work, I really should get back to it! I hope everyone is having a great week two!

Week one down! Definitely a tough week, I just got home from visiting the Family today, so all my workouts and clean eating had to fit into other people's space. So excited to be back on my own turf with a constant internet connection! Will check in again PROPERLY soon. I hope everyone is having a great time with their challenge so far!

Thank's Raxie! Good luck with Battle for Backwalkovers Round 2!!!!

Good luck AMZRaven! Your challenge looks great, swimming is such an amazing exercise for your whole body! How will you be tracking your progress? Via body fat calipers, scale, measurements, photos? I absolutely dislike the scale, not accurate at all! I hope week one is going great for you so far!!!

Hey great looking challenge Chelsea_mae! I am terrible with not giving myself enough time to cool down and stretch after a workout. I do love yoga though! Do you plan to keep going to classes or are you going to get into doing it at home on your own? Good luck, I hope your week 1 is going amazing!

Good Luck Selene! I envy your goal to learn Spanish! I'm in the same boat, I speak a little but no where near the amount I would like to. No time in my day to commit to learning more! Keep us updated, maybe by the end of the challenge you'll be updated us in Spanish AND English : ) Hope week one is going really well for you so far!

Hey writingweaver! Good luck with your challenge, I hope the yoga goes well for you, I'm still a yoga newbie but in a few short months of constant yoga I could seriously feel and see the benefits. I would definitely recommend (if you have a smart phone) using an app like Sleep Cycle, I used it for about a year and it's seriously amazing in allowing you to "study" your sleep. It keeps track of your motion while you're in bed, and can tell when you are in your lightest period of sleep in the morning and wake you gently then instead of being shocked out of a deep sleep. Sounds kinda bogus I know, but honestly I found it very accurate. Hope week 1 is going great so far!

Hi Eddard! Check out Tara Stiles "Livestrong Women" videos on you tube, don't be put off by "women" in the title, they are great beginners yoga videos for anybody. They are 5, 10, or 15 minutes and she does them specifically for certain muscle groups so you can target whatever is feeling particularly tight. (she also has some really great general yoga/stretching ones too) Good luck with your goals!!!

Hey RougeWelkin, I'm getting married in August and I know the feels, I am getting a fair amount of pressure (from myself mainly) to look great on the day. Your goals look great! Particularly the stairs, if you can constantly resist the urge to take the lift you are going to be winning. You're obviously no stranger to the NF challenges, very inspirational for newbies like me! Good luck on week one, I hope you're killing it!

Hey Win_Chelchel, good luck on your second challenge! Are you using any apps to track your lifiting and eating? Just interested because I'm having a particularly hard time finding a good app for tracking strength training. Hope week 1 is going great!

Love your challenge! I'm terrible with beer, it's pretty much my main source of carbs - and around the holidays nearly impossible to avoid. I'm trying to cut out beer and wine 6 out of 7 days for the next 6 weeks, and I'm really looking forward to seeing what sort of effect it has on my workouts and overall health. Good luck Captncid!

Hello Everybody!!! I'm excited to be starting my second challenge here in the magical forums of NF. I loved the first challenge and got a real taste for what can be achieved if I just stick with a healthy and active life style. MAIN QUEST I plan to loose 5% of my overall body fat, thus fitting into my "motivational pants" of which I have two pairs. I plan to achieve this quest by building lean muscle and eating a healthy mainly Paleo diet. SUPPORTING QUESTS Strength training: 2 days on 1 day off (+5 strength to earn)Sprint at least 2 times per week (100 meters) (+2 stamina to earn)Meditate for around 20 minutes each night before bed (+2 wisdom to earn)Yoga everyday (morning or night) for at least 10 minutes (+2 dexterity +2 charisma to earn)6 alcohol free days a week (bonus earned for 7 AFDs in a row) (+2 constitution to earn)> For my point system, I'll be giving myself a grade at the end of each week for each goal (a, b, c, etc) and the number of points earned per goal at the end of the challenge will be based on the average grade. LIFE QUEST My life quest is to finally perfect my new website, it's a digital wedding artwork site with templates and fun things, specifically I want to hit 200 templates added by the end of the 6 weeks (currently at 35 templates) and earn at least $100 from the site's sales. MOTIVATION I'm getting married in August (yay!) and want to solidify healthy habits (particularly around exercise) so I don't slack off during busy times leading up to the wedding, the honey moon, or our move to the US in the months following. Looking forward to getting to know fellow adventurers! Any advice regarding "plans" around sprinting (is it better to do more shorter faster sprints or do a few longer sprints as fast as you can? does it matter?) as I have been a long distance runner in the past, but never a sprinter. Good luck everyone, I hope week 1 is going well!!!

Thank you Raxie!!!!! Thanks Samanmoran!!!! I am really stoked to be honest, all those squats look like they're paying off! : P

arrrgggg sorry for the late update, we arrived at my partner's Mums house for the holidays and she had disconnected her internet service. Back in the office now though! Really, first off, I want to say thank you EVERYONE for being so super supportive and following along this 6 week journey, it's been crazy fun learning about what can be achieved, I feel like I've just got a taste for it now. Special shout out to Sammy Shark for being such a solid accountabilibudy, thank you so much for the support. Check out my week one and week 6 photos below; Overall, I am super happy with how the Challenge went. I started it, and I completed it! That is absolutely the first time I've ever started something fitness-wise and followed it all the way through. As you can see above, no super dramatic changes, but I fee like I really sculpted out a strong base on which to start building further (with my strong fitness mind as well as body) The nerd fitness community has so so lovely, and it was really awesomely cool to meet so many other Whovians. My goals were to build muscle while cutting my body fat % a bit, and I did end up increasing my dead lift from 20 kg (44lb) to 40 kg (88lb), and lost about 4-5 % body fat from what I can tell using my calipers. So I am feeling good! Overall I give myself an A- for the challenge, I'm feeling fired up and ready to kick it up another nerdy notch.

Unfortunately I haven't had an internet connection (crazy right?) since we arrived at my partner's Mum's house, so I wasn't able to start up a thread online I did keep my workouts up and going though, and HEAPS of yoga!

Overall, I am super happy with how the Challenge went. I started it, and I completed it! That is absolutely the first time I've ever started something fitness-wise and followed it all the way through. As you can see above, no super dramatic changes, but I fee like I really sculpted out a strong base on which to start building further (with my strong fitness mind as well as body) The nerd fitness community has so so lovely, and it was really awesomely cool to meet so many other Whovians. My goals were to build muscle while cutting my body fat % a bit, and I did end up increasing my dead lift from 20 kg (44lb) to 40 kg (88lb), and lost about 4-5 % body fat from what I can tell using my calipers. So I am feeling good! Overall I give myself an A- for the challenge, I'm feeling fired up and ready to kick it up another nerdy notch. Thank you so much NF!!

Hey Falco : ) No worries we are all in this together! It's hard being a student and having time for everything else isn't it? Particularly when you've got some serious goals (like obtaining a research grant!) on the move. I find the hardest thing isn't finding the time, but actually making the time - so cutting out beer with friends, or getting up at 5am instead of 6am. How has the boxing with your mate been going? It's great exercise!

Ah cool - I live in Oz as well, a lot of people on this site seem to be from the US : ) All is good here, had a hell of a bender over the weekend (and monday :-/ ) but back on track now. Been able to sort out any solutions to your protein problem? It's exciting when you start to see some changes in your body, are you keeping measurements or taking photos weekly? Sometimes I get a little down when I feel like I might not be progressing quick enough, but then I drag out my photo from week 1 and compare it to now, and it's really motivating : )

Raxie you're killing it! Great job on your challenge so far, and thanks so much for checking in on us other players!

Hey Kan, you can't fail your main quest as long as you don't stop working towards it! And hey, there is still one week left + the Christmas challenge!

Hey Lex you look like you're winning life! Hope week 6 is going well for you so far

Thanks Lexionidas & Raxie, you guys really do rock. I'm getting back into this week and feeling way better : ) WEEK 6 oh wow, challenge is almost over. I'll be honest, even though the challenge is about to end, I don't feel like that means I just stop following my work out plan and eat crap all through the holiday season, I honestly feel like I've spent the last 6 weeks learning how to fight dragons, and now I'm going to go slay one. I'll be even more honest - yeahhhhh I've made progress, but I feel like I haven't made ENOUGH progress. It's not like I expected to reach the end of week 6 and be totally transformed, but I'm still feeling a little down on myself like I didn't try hard enough or didn't do 1000% of all the things I could have done. At the end of the day though, it was my first challenge ever and my first time seriously getting into exercise so I ought to give myself a break. This week is going ok so far, rocky start after the weekend bender, but I've been getting back to normal life with some yoga and bodyweight workouts. It's a hard week this week because I'm cramming in time at our client's office before we head away for the holidays, so I've worked 7am-7pm tue & wed, and will again tomorrow. The long hours don't bother me so much, it's just harder to fit in the right kind of food and get up early enough to get a proper workout in. I'm thinking about the doing the Christmas challenge, anyone else?

Hey Sharkie, you know the scale is a filthy liar! You should consider picking up a pair of $5 body fat callipers and pitching that bathroom floor menace right out the window. It's not worth having around if it just makes you feel like shit about all the hard work you've put into yourself these 5 (almost 6) weeks. Seriously girl, you have been kicking some serious goals, just reading back through your feed you have been so committed and so good this whole challenge, I understand feeling frustrated, we're all allowed to feel like that, but you owe your self way more than even letting the words "what the fuck is the point of this if I am not losing weight" even enter your mind. I've been upset because my legs still look like tree trunks after 6 weeks of going hard, but it just reinforces that this shit takes soooooooooooo much longer than the 6 weeks, 6 weeks is habit building and base building time, sadly not magic time. Keep with it, keep going, and you'll see the magic happen. I'm sorry we're digital friends and not "real life" friends, because you totally deserve a hug. You are AWESOME!!!!