Vasilis777

Ok so Sunday was also really good. It's a day off on the work outs for me but still a day on for the no soda track. Even though it was a no work out day it is the day for Youth Group and that night we had a dodge-ball tournament which the teens always want us leaders to compete against them or with them. So we jumped in and it gets quite competitive so by the end I was breathing heavy and sweating quite a bit. So it's nice because even on my day off of fitness I still got a great cardio work out in! Ok that looks pretty good. The Xbox Fitness I'm doing is all from Mixed Martial Arts. So it's a lot of punches and sprawls and jump squats. It's probably more on the cardio side with some strength mixed in. (I believe that it's more of a cardio type of MMA stuff and the other ones I haven't been doing are on the side of strength.) I decided to do the cardio one on those days because it would give me a good alternate to the strength training of the other days.

Alright here's the update for Saturday. Another good day with 2x of the BBWW. No soda and felt pretty good. It's interesting how the workouts can be easier and harder. I'm not struggling with most of the areas I used to. I had heard at one point in PE back in High School (that was a while ago so that's why it's fuzzy) that when lifting weights and doing push-ups etc. that your breathing is very important. They said something along the lines of breathing in when you lift and breathing out when you release to encourage better muscle growth. It could have also been the opposite... haha I don't remember.. Any one else hear of these things?

Oh another thing I've been thinking about.. What should I assign my xp to once we get some from all these rats. I def has some stamina strength and endurance in there but what do you guys think should get what?

Man that was a good work out! But having a glass of milk within an hour of intense MOSSA cardio.. Not a great call! No worries though I didn't lose my dinner but I def lost a lot of calories! Also not a touch of soda. Fitness wise I feel great and I could definitely get used to this lifestyle of fitness let's keep going!

Well another good day yesterday. Pushed out another 2 BBWW reps last night. I'm doing 40 lounges because I think it's supposed to be 20 on each leg. If it's actually just 20 (10 on each) then I'm doing double duty but able to do it! honestly I think it's the pushups that are the hardest. I've always loved soccer and played whenever possible so my legs are kinda beasts. I mean I feel the squats and lunges (especially when I do 40) but they take it pretty good. It's my arms I never took time to develop because I never needed them for more than moving and lifting everyday objects. So I'm glad that I've been able to do the 10 push-ups without stopping at all the last two workouts Anyway I also had no soda (though I thought about it) but resisted and grabbed some water. I have been slacking a bit on the water consumption. I've been a bit dehydrated so I need to step that up some. But so far so good!

Alright so yesterday was good no exercise but didn't go after any soda so there is that. It's interesting I have noticed that I actually feel thinner and my 34-30 jeans don't feel as tight as they did even though I haven't lost much weight. Honestly that's something I never expected to see because I guess I had always bought into the less weight = thinner. I'm sure I will eventually start seeing the body weight go down as well (it's kinda chillaxing between 210 and 215 right now) but I guess I never thought I could actually not go down on the scale but lose body fat. Honestly I don't care what the scale says at this point I just want my belly fat (body fat to dissipate). If I weight 210 but am thin and no visible fat I will be very content. I could be wrong but even though I an 5'11" that doesn't actually guarantee that my weight must be 160-180 right? If I have a thicker more muscular build I should weigh a bit more than average? Anyway I think I'm making a small amount of progress but I'm excited to see what 6 weeks looks like! Btw thank you to Hazard for liking my posts! It has made it so much easier to find them everyday!!

Alright another good day yesterday! Did the whole BBWW 2x and left soda high and dry. I even increased my water intake to 3 bottles yesterday. Oh plus I had 2 glasses in the evening. So having more water which is great! I'm feeling a little better today so when the exercises start back up on Thursday I should be back to full health (hopefully!) Also idk if I'm supposed to add this detail but I'm doing 20 barbell rows instead of 10 and with 20lb barbells. Any way I'm feeling great so I'm going to reward those reading with a cat! and also a dog!

Good News Everyone! Monday was another great day for me and I'm back on track 100%! I didn't touch any soda as well as working out with Xbox Fitness. The workout was a bit tough because I'm starting on a bit of a cold so I was kinda exhausted and out of breath by 3/4 of the way through and I actually received the lowest score I have yet on the work out... But I completed it and still with a 5 star rating so I'm happy with that! I think if I consistently workout and don't miss 2 days it'll start to get better again! So anyway I'm on to today trying to drink lots of water to get healthy and do my workout tonight too Oh also I finished one book so far and am halfway through the second one! My wife and I have also been reading a book together once a week and also trying to do more things like play board games and then a movie instead of just a marathon of tv shows. It's been great! Once it gets warm we wills start going to play tennis together again which we have always enjoyed a lot!

Alright so here's my weekend update (I usually don't get on a computer much on weekends..) On Saturday I decided not to do the BBWW two days in a row and that I could do it on Saturday and that I would be fine. So I did no exercise on Saturday which would be my second day of 2 days off for last week so that works great. I also had a little bit of sierra mist mixed with water and juice.. So i cheated a little bit there. So Saturday wasn't a great day for the challenge. (Of course I did allow myself 6 days in the challenge to have 1 soda and I only had half a glass of soda watered down but these are all excuses so...) Basically Sat. wasn't perfect but could have been a lot worse too. Then Sunday is my busiest day. I led worship again which is very active and then I have youth group at night which tends to be very active. So anyway. Because of the busyness of all that I allowed myself to skip working out on Sunday too so now I've got one skipped day for this week already. So I now need to get back into gear!! I also had another of those mixed soda juice things so not great there either. I kinda saw my general let it start to slide this weekend and I don't want to do that. (It's really easy to do too which is annoying!! And my nose is starting to act up making me think I'm getting a cold which doesn't help with motivation..) But tonight I'm charging right back into it and I'm doing Xbox Fitness and back to just water for me! I'm not giving up I'm charging ahead!

Well I'm not sure what tomorrow will actually hold for me so I'm gonna do my daily update today even though it's not over yet.. (I promise not to drink any soda after writing this!) So anyway today was another good day. I had to carry a bunch of 40lb bags of wood pellets down a flight of stairs so that gave me some extra work out! but I also did not drink a single drop of soda just water and did the Basic Body Weight Workout. I was actually surprised after how easy yesterday's exercise felt that today's simpler (kinda) Workout actually drained me a bit. Of course a cardio exercise like MOSSA's Fight is probably not going to drain me as much as a Strength training exercise will but anyway. I pushed through the second set of it even though I kinda wanted to quite after 1 but I did it! WOOHOO! I'm still feeling good and enjoying the working out. I'm also glad I'm not focused on the scale much because so far I've gained some weight (just checked today) I'm chalking that up to gaining lots of muscle this week and losing some fat. But either way I'm gonna keep moving forward and I can't wait to see how I look and feel by the end of the challenge!

I've used MyFitnessPal a lot when I lost my initial weight. I got kinda lazy with it though which doesn't help much... But it is great when you use it and stick to the calories that they give you. Also to answer the earlier question of where people are from I'm from Pennsylvania USA, originally New York USA but now in PA for my job I was surprised by how many Canadians there are but it's good to have our friendly neighbors to the north!

Well had another good day yesterday! This has actually been a very fun beginning to challenges! I'm enjoying the motivation of this site and the exercises that I've been doing. Yesterday I once again had no soda. It's interesting while I occasionally do feel like I want soda, when I ignore that and just have some water I find that 1) I don't miss soda in my diet that much and 2) that water is way better then I always think that it is! haha Now because we have company over this weekend (that have sleeping babies when I usually work out) I decided to just switch the BBWW with Xbox Fitness just this week. So last night I did Xbox Fitness MOSSA fight workout and wow that felt great! I was actually surprised at the end. When I did that same routine on Monday I was exhausted by the end and even had to sit out the last bit and just do the easier version of what they were doing. The worst part Monday was the Sprawls (which I think are similar to Burpees but I could be wrong) I did almost none of them because I was exhausted and couldn't do it and with their rating system I only got 1 of 5 stars for that part and basically died out in the end of the exercise. But last night I felt much better through the whole thing. I only had a side cramp in the middle because I was breathing weird but I fixed that and was doing great. I was actually surprised at how much better I did and felt after last nights workout. And also the Sprawls that I did horrible on on Monday I got the highest points and stars of all the exercises this time! I'm loving working out regularly and I can't wait to do the BBWW tonight! I know it's not the plan at all and I wish I could have done it differently this week.. But I'm just gonna go for it this week then I'll have no workout Sunday and will do Xbox Fitness on Monday so I won't do it again until Tues. And YES Xbox Fitness is incredibly motivating and a TON OF FUN!! Not to mention free with Xbox Live Gold!!

Alright another day another success! Obviously like I said there was no exercise from that day (although I did lead worship playing guitar and singing so that can be pretty active!) but no actual exercise routine last night. However I did even better on the drinking soda yesterday and only had water all day (except a small mug of coffee but even that was less then usual). So far so good, we have company coming into town this weekend so I may switch things up this time and do the Xbox Fitness tonight and the Body Weight Workout Friday and Saturday just because I can do that more privately but I have to do the Xbox Fitness in the living room... I guess we'll see when they are coming cause I could do it in the morning instead of the evening before they get there.

I also just realized which person that was. I hadn't read their post but read their departing message and it made me sad because I have found nothing but helpful people here and also the person sounds like they have been hurt a lot in their life and I wish that they hadn't left so we could have had a chance to encourage them...

I agree I'm currently reading the Bible in front of me and have seen nothing but encouragement and love from God toward people. God does hate sin because sin separates us from Him but he NEVER hates the sinner (the person who sins) I mean Jesus gave His life for those very people (me you and everyone) so that we could be free of sin and be returned to a right relationship with Him! if giving your life up for someone isn't love I don't know what is... It's very sad when people take descriptions of sin and then attack the people who have those sins ignoring the sin in their own life (probably pride). We as the Church need to do better at loving people like Jesus did. He rebuked the righteous who hated the sinners and spent time with the sinners (but also never condoned their sin) but loved them for who they were and urged them lovingly to sin no more. (John 4 as a prime example). I pray that this person that you quoted would see God's love for her and be healed of the people who misrepresented God's love in the past.

Welcome! Hope the Challenge goes well for you!

Thanks for all the support! You are all great and reading everyone's support and success just gets me more excited for my own challenge! You're all awesome! So as for day 2 I think it went really well. I don't have a specific diet goal in my goals as far as eating because I honestly eat relatively healthy it's mostly the soda thing I couldn't shake (and a little snacking but I'll get to that next time). So I did notice I didn't eat the most healthy I ever have day 2 but I didn't drink any soda again which conquers one goal and I also did the Beginner Body Weight Routine 2x as well! So as far as my goals went I did great! I can definitely say that my legs arms and abs are a bit sore after those two days so I'm kinda glad that I have a day off of exercise to recover in day 3! But honestly I'm also strangely excited to do 3 days straight of exercise Tues-Sat! I'm really liking this and I think it's going to be great! Yes I have had a fair share of my pizza with the teens not to mention most fellowship with parents or other church members involves some kind of meal haha but I'm learning to eat healthy and just maximize my involvement with the activities with the youth so I can stay active!

Psalm 139 is an incredible psalm. I especially love the last part because it brings everything to a close. After reveling in how wonderful God is and how precious life is, and dealing with the pain in his heart there is then a wonderful invitation of the Psalmist for God to come into his life and change him. "Search me oh God and know my heart Try me and know my anxious thoughts, see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." I think we would all do well to end our times with God with this invitation because it is a reminder to ourselves we haven't arrived but a personal cry to invite God in and direct our steps with Him.

Well let's mark day one down as a huge success! I did not touch soda all day yesterday which was great! The place I work actually has a refrigerator full of soda that we can have anytime which is tempting, BUT it's also full of water and I forced myself to take the a water bottle and just refill that all day to keep me away from that fridge. We also have a 2-liter at home left over from a youth group party but I didn't touch that either so good work there! I also did my first workout with Xbox Fitness and wow that kicked my butt! It was a 30 minute Mossa training which was cardio using different forms of mixed martial arts. I loved it and had a lot of fun! It was very monkish (which I don't mind cause I like martial arts just don't have the money or access to a place that I could actually train in). I'm definitely feeling it today and it's probably not going to be a ton of fun doing the Body Weight Workout later but that's ok I'll just push through it anyway! So wrapping it up I did everything good day 1 (no surprise I'm great at day 1's) here's to day 2!

Alright all my fellow Padawans! Today is the day that starts our training and new level upped life! Here's to 6 weeks of hard work and great results! Let's do this thing!

Thanks! If you go to your profile and edit your signature on the top there is a little icon for progress bar. when you click it it will ask you what color to make it and how much progress you have in a larger window. The larger window looks like it's big enough for a whole paragraph but it just want's the number of the percentage to fill it up. It'll add this [progress=orange] with the number in the middle and closed with [/progres] (progress spelled correctly in the closing one but I messed it up so it wouldn't become a bar) then just add your title above it!

My wife and I were reading a lot about eating healthier when I lost all the weight I did in the past and we read multiple articles that said it is actually good when reducing calories/eating more healthy to allow yourself a day once a week or every other week to eat anything you want without worrying about content. Of course that is not to say go crazy and destroy everything but if you want to order pizza and have some soda and ice cream go for it and just get back on it the next day. The articles talked about a lot of benefits for having a "fat day" in there but I don't remember all of them.. haha. Either way I will probably be allowing a more relaxed fat day during Fridays of this six week challenge. One of the books is "Loving God" by Charles Colson which is about 300 pages but it's one of those books I haven't been able to put down and I'm already on page 100 after starting it Monday. I also have to read "The DNA of Relationships" by Dr. Gary Smalley for a class like thing I am taking for work and it has to be done by about 3 days after the challenge. It's about 200 or so pages and so far also a book I'm very interested in and read easily. So these should be pretty good for me to get through. I might even get to a third if I stick to it! Also reading with my wife I don't necessarily have to finish anything just really try to replace some of the time watching TV together with something more relational that'll get us thinking and discussing things even more cause I can never spend enough quality time with my wife

Thanks you as well!

I'm definitely aiming for the Rangers (I think I even added their symbol to my profile already haha) but I also have some goals in the Assassin guild side too.. So I'm thinking I'll probably do mostly rangers and occasionally jump over to hang with the Assassins for a Challenge. Mostly once I reach my main goals which are my Rangerish I will fill out my fitness resume with some Assassin stuff but try to stay with the Rangers to try not to get my self to off track with what the Rangers are doing! @rangers

Good goals! It's gonna be great to get through this challenge successful!! You can do it!