Viking

Sounds like good goals, amigo. What kata are you working on, again? I always wanted to learn Tekki Nidan but ended up leaving my dojo before I got that far.

Your lifting weights are truly inspiring, sir. I look forward to being motivated by reading your posts.

Congratulations on getting married! What's the date? Also, congrats on sticking to the paleo and losing cake weight. There's always the bike machine if your knee is bothering you.

Since your ankle's busted and you probably can't put a ton of weight on it, this might be a great time to practice push-ups from your knees. Yes, it looks goofy, but you can develop proper form and build your strength. I had to do this when I first started doing push-ups. I look forward to seeing how your challenge goes!

I'm right where you are, amigo. I want to be under 225 by March 1 and I started out at 237. Sounds like you're doing swell so far, though -- so I guess I'll race you there? In all seriousness, though, I think you're totally going to rock this goal. How are you liking The Primal Blueprint? I'm about a chapter in, and it's neat stuff so far.

That sounds amazing. It's posts like this that keep me coming back to the boards because they are so inspiring and motivating to get my own a** off the couch to go do stuff. Great going!

Sounds like you've got your work cut out for you, Clark. Those are all great goals. I am also trying to work on getting stronger (although, granted, I felt totally pumped about deadlifting 70 lbs... but you gotta start somewhere, right? ) I look forward to hearing more about your progress!

THIS. IS. C-DUB!!!!!! Ahem. Sorry. Sounds like a great challenge. Now let's just have three hundred burly men go for a walk with us up to the Hot Gates...

I hear ya on the working from home bit. Somehow it's always a lot harder for me to focus when I work out of the house. Sounds like you're being very active and conscientious about your challenge, though. I look forward to hearing more about it.

Reporting on my first day. Yesterday was a resounding success. I give myself an A because I - * Logged all of my calories and stayed under the limit. * Walked the dog. * Got schoolwork done. * Went to the gym and up'ed my weights by 15%. I also tried the Bear Complex exercise that's been posted elsewhere in the forums. * Cooked dinner at home. Chicken and pineapple chunks sauteed together are tasty. * Drank plenty of water. http://nerdfitness.com/community/images/icons/icon6.png My little fitness ticker is for the past challenge and this challenge, but still, I'm getting there! So how are ya'll doing? Created by MyFitnessPal.com - Free Weight Loss Tools

Jeeps are great vehicles. Are you getting a Cherokee or a Wrangler? My old Wrangler is wretched and sad from being rolled off a mountain, but it still runs well, which is saying something.

About me: This month's stats: Name: Viking Class: Warrior (Formerly a Monk Race: Dwarf Height: 5'4'' Weight: 235 lbs. Greetings again, fellow Rebels. I am here for my second 28-day challenge. This month's challenge is about focusing and narrowing my goals to get to what I really want. My name is Meg, or Viking, as you will. I am 23 years old and I live in Tampa Bay, FL. I work for a communications firm and am finishing my history degree at USF. I live with my fiance, a Schnauzer, and a Scottish terrier-chupacabra mix in the house we just bought. Life's pretty swell, but I've been struggling to get down from the heaviest I've ever been - 235 lbs. My longterm weightloss goal is 140 lbs. I hope to do this within the next year. Fitness Goals: My biggest success last challenge was going to the gym 2x a week and lifting weights. My goal this challenge is to keep doing what I'm doing right and incorporate more circuit training. Lifting: 3x a week Circuit training: At least 2x a week. Super-Challenge: Jumping rope. I hate jumping rope. But it's good exercise, so that's the thing I'm going to have to get over this month. Eating: I have a huge tendency to overeat. Even if I'm eating "good" food, I often eat too much. However, I installed the MyFitnessPal app on my cellphone and with it it is much easier for me to log the foods I eat and keep myself within a good calorie allowance. So my goals: Log everything I eat with MyFitnessPal everyday. Stay within my calorie allowance for that day. Eat at home/cook at least 5 days a week. Life: The main theme to my life lately is feeling like I am rushed and have no time. I've been having a lot of trouble focusing at work and with my online classes and feeling very stressed out. My eating habits are the main thing suffering from this. I've also been lagging on finishing my novel. So, here's my goals: Finish up to Unit 2 in my French homework. Stay caught up on my Florida History homework. Write the paper for Southern History that's due on Wednesday night. Take my dog for a walk 2x per week. Spend at least 30 minutes a day working on my book. Onward: I have changed my class from Monk to Warrior because I feel that better suits my new fitness goals. I really love weight lifting and want to get good at it, while at the same time losing weight, which I am fully confident I can do with the right diet and exercise. (I know this means I will lose weight slower, but the health benefits in the longterm are great). So, in the spirit of accountability, here's my info for this challenge: Twitter: @MegGFloyd Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/megviking MyFitnessPal: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/megviking Have a great challenge, folks!

Name: Viking, otherwise known as Meg Brief overview of goals: 1) Lost weight. My longterm goal weight is 140. My short-term goal weight by the end of this challenge is 225. (I am 235 right now.) 2) Get my strength up. I started weight training during my last challenge in December, and I've fallen in love with it. Kettlebells really are a girl's best friend. 3) Catch up on my schoolwork. Between work and the holidays last month, my schoolwork has been very neglected. Have to bring myself back up to speed. 4) Writing. I have been working on my novel for two years now. I am halfway done. I want to finish my rough draft by March. (About 100,000 words to go). 5) Establish a habit of not over-eating. To do this, I am logging my calories at MyFitnessPal through an app on my phone, so I can keep better tabs of my caloric intake. (myfitnesspal.com/megviking, if you're curious) Also, cutting back on diet soda. I love me some Coke Zero. I'm trying to cut back to 2 a day. Useful team info: I don't care who I work with, but it was really rewarding and encouraging last time to have other people to follow and post on. So squad me up! Viking Class: Warrior. I used to be a Monk, but having examined my goals more closely, I feel I fit better into this class. Way of eating: Still

I'm giving myself a C for this challenge. For my dietary goals, I get an F. I ate a lot of bad food and completely bombed at revolutionizing my diet. I think it's because I failed to put in the proper prep and planning time, so I completely crumbled under the rush of work, two trips, and a lot of social obligations. For my fitness goals, I'm giving myself an A. I've been lifting more than 2x a week since Christmas and fencing. I did better than I dreamed I could at the fencing tournament in Baltimore this past weekend. I also started jumping rope, which I loathe, and I fought in the long sword tournament with some world class fighters. I was also the only woman to compete, so that was cool. I wish more ladies picked up swords. For my personal goals, I give myself an A. I completed and launched our company website and wrapped up a few large projects before schedule. I was also hired on permanently with high praise from the boss-types, so I was glad. For my weight loss goals, I give myself a D. I've lost some weight and tightened up in a few places. But the combination of heavy weight lifting and eating badly is really not good for losing weight. So, averaged out, I give myself a C.

Greetings, fellow monks. I just wanted to give you guys an update. I am currently in Baltimore, MD, in the middle of the big event that caps off my first 28-day challenge. This is me with a sword: Anyways, I worked out at the gym twice this week and hit the weights pretty well. I don't have my paper with me, so I can't tell you exactly what I did, but I upped all my weights by 25% on Tuesday--so I was feeling pretty good by Saturday. Additionally, I did something today I'm pretty freaking proud of. I was planning on fighting in the dussack tournament (a dussack is a forearm-length leather training blade--great for learning single-handed edged weapons like messers and falchions). The dussack is a lot of fun, because it's both fast and unlikely to hurt you too badly. I did OK in the dussack tournament. But what I really enjoyed was the long sword tournament. I did not plan on joining the longsword tournament, for a few reasons. For one, it's pretty easy to get badly hurt doing longsword if something goes wrong or you don't know what you're doing. I'm still pretty new. For two, the people fighting in this tournament included some really world-class fighters who have toured all over the U.S. and Europe to compete--fighters way above my skill level at this point. I was pretty hesitant to enter. But I decided, what the hell. So what if you break a few fingers, you will have wanted to do this when you're watching later. So I joined up. <i>And I actually did halfway decent.</i> I'll find out tomorrow if I qualified for finals. I also had some ridiculous/hilarious padding. I don't own a nice fencing jacket, so I covered up my classy lacrosse chest/shoulder pads with a giant 3XL sweatshirt lent to me by a very nice Canadian gentleman. As a result, I looked like Quasimodo with a sword. See Exhibit B: So, my grade for today is an A. I did something I never thought I had the cojones to do. I was the only woman to fight in either tournament, which apparently made all the guys think I was some kind of hardcore, what with having boobs and still being willing to wield a sword (I don't see why it's such a big deal, but whatever). See you on the flipside, kids. Tournament starts at 11:00. I'll try to update Monday.

Topher - Sounds like you're kicking ass and taking names. It was actually your post that inspired me to drag my sorry self back to the board and check everybody's threads to get myself pumped for the gym tonight. Congratulations on your weight loss and Cage Fitness class.

Diceman - Glad to hear you're sticking with it. Your discipline is admirable.

Eric - Glad to see that you're still pursuing your goals so doggedly. Great work. Look forward to seeing what you do with the last week of the challenge.

Poison! Where ya been?

Updates: I am ashamed to say I got derailed hardcore diet-wise. I failed utterly at eating Paleo-style, due mostly to lack of planning and skepticism on my part that it would work. The last week has been ugly. Carbs and junkfood have been eaten. Lives were lost. However, I am back. I have decided to wait until I'm done fully reading "The Primal Blueprint" and have time to do a good, planned grocery store run when I get back from Baltimore this weekend. So, to rehash in bullet points. Failures: 1) Diet. Lack of planning and preparation made me crash. We're going to regroup on the 'paleo' diet next week. Successes: 1) I wrapped up the biggest and most exciting project I've ever done at work, launching my first professional website: http://www.logos.us.com (Is it OK if I post the link to show off my webdesign? I'm not really advertising anything, per se, I'm just proud I actually managed to pull it together. I didn't think I had the skillset to do webdesign before). 2) I hit the gym again last night. They were only open for about 20 minutes, but here's what I did: 2x 12 overhead presses @ 12 lbs. 2x 8 bicep curls @ 15 lbs. 20 kettlebell deadlifts @ 25 lbs. 5 mins of jumping rope as hard and fast as I could 25 leg presses @ 360 lbs. 4 pull-ups on the pull-up machine with an offset of 210 lbs. 4 dips on the pull-up machine with an offset of 200 lbs. 3) I'm getting on a plane to Baltimore on Friday afternoon to go fence at Longpoint 2011. This is supposed to be the crowning event on the 28-day challenge, and I am stoked about it. I'll do my best to update on the road and take lots of pictures of the nasty bruises I'm going to get.

I know halfway through the challenge is a little late to change your goals, but I'm going to. I've been completely failing at meeting my dietary goals. I am hungry all the time, I have lost zero weight, and I am finding it extremely difficult to avoid craving sweets. So, to that effect, I am going to try this paleo-thing you guys all keep chatting about. My first order of business in the battle-plan is purging the house of all the carb junkfood floating around from holidays. All the chips, stale bread, and old cookies have to go. Next, I will be going to the grocery store and loading up on fresh fruit and vegetables, as well as more meat for me to cook and eat at lunch, as well as simple stir fry meals. Lastly, I am going to go purchase some kind of book on Paleo. Any recommendations on websites or authors? I'm going to go dig through the posts Steve has made on them in the past, but honestly, can't right now as I'm at work. Other updates: The company website is about ready to launch, so I got that done. I've had a huge amount of trouble focusing the last two days, though, and my energy level has been zilch. Lots of other stuff is going on. I'm going to try to stay focused, though. Don't want to disappoint you guys.

Kye - sounds like you're doing a kick*ss job of meeting all of your goals. Your focus, especially on the cleaning, is really inspirational. (I am facing 10 loads of laundry that need to get to done tonight. @_@ *gulp*) Great job!

Sounds like you are doing a A+ job on meeting your core, simple goals. You're doing an awesome job. Stay focused!

Gom, just curious, how are you finding the diet soda affects the way you feel? I mysteriously lost a couple of pounds when I quit drinking soda for a week due to a mouth laceration. (I was still eating just as much, just couldn't drink salty/acidic stuff). It was weird. Since drinking it again I've gained weight back. I'm wondering if there's something to these theories that have been tossed about about diet soda being bad for you. Anyways, glad to see you progressing!

I admire your ability to enjoy working out. I have to admit, I like the results and I like weightlifting, but I hate cardio with a violent burning passion. Glad to see you doing so well on the challenge.