The Spider

Got rear ended on the highway... neck is sore but me and wife are alright. Seeing the doctor tomorrow. But I went to bed on time last night, and woke up on time and with an appetite! Didn't eat breakfast yet though so needless to say I don't have stomach cramps.

Yeah, we have fairly good habits... little to no sweets and such. It's just we wind up eating boxed mac n cheese or a bowl of cereal before bed. Oh and also, 90 hour weeks are fascinating and I don't know how I would survive. What do you do?

Thanks guys! I ate a really small breakfast because we have almost nothing in the apartment. Crackers (whole grain) with peanut butter and jelly. Good news is that didn't give me a stomach ache, so work has been decently good which means i should be able to go to the gym when I get home if wife is up for it. If not I'll hit the gym after work tomorrow.

My previous challenge I more-or-less finished, though I'm not giving myself points for it because 1. I fizzled out the last week or so, and 2. a lot has happened to me since then, so part of this challenge will be fixing what broke between now and then. Goals: 1. No meals, television/tablet/computer screens after 10pm, and melatonin at 10pm. This is an absolute must. If this is NOT the means of making me sleep better at night, I will need to have a sleep study done, and I don't want a doctor trying to push any kind of prescription on me for sleep at only 25 years old. My goal here is to make myself wake up earlier and with more energy so I can get out of bed to carry out with success... 3 failings = +2 CON +1 INT, 5 failings = +1 CON +1 INT, 7 failings = +1 CON 2. Wake up at least 1 hour prior to needing to leave for work (If I have to leave at 8:30, I wake up at 7:30) so that I can stretch and eat a proper breakfast. This is a two-fold goal: Stretching: I have had an issue with my shoulder joint for a few years now. I was washing dishes one day at work and the arm that WASN'T doing any work began to sting in a severe manner. Wasn't scrubbing or tensing with it, wasn't using it to lift heavy objects... it just felt like a hot needle went between the bones and made its home there. I saw a physical therapist and the pain went away for a time, but has since come back because I never continued to do the exercises I was given. I am now seeing a good chiropractor who does work on my shoulder joint along with my bad hip and I have seen improvements there. My plan is to work alongside my chiro and get this shoulder problem out of the way to make goal 3 "go smooth," to quote Captain Mal. Breakfast: This has been an excruciatingly long process to figure out. I have woken up and eaten hot breakfasts, cold breakfasts, small, large, carb heavy, protein heavy, gluten free, dairy free, etc... and none of them have given my stomach any leniency in the morning. On the mornings that I eat before leaving, I end up with a cramping stomach ache that lasts 1-2 hours. Those 1-2 hours depending on when I'm at work can make all the difference of how much more work is going to suck that day. My goal here is semi-experimental still, but my primary focus is getting out of bed and waking my body up before eating, and then eating before running out the door and driving for 20 minutes so that my body can process before diving into the customer service extravaganza that is my life. I will gauge the success of this goal on waking up, stretching, and eating. Failing to wake up late/not eat/not stretch will determine how many points I lose. 3 failings = +2 STR +1 AGI, 5 failings = +1 STR +1 AGI, 7 failings = +1 AGI 3. Go to the gym 3 days a week. I have a gym membership. I have rapport with the people there. I have basic understanding of power lifting and core strengthening exercises, and I have been wanting to be a better swimmer for years now. My gym has all of the mentioned things available to me, and I've wasted 6 months of membership fees now. I even have a guest pass for my wife and I excuse myself from going there for a 20-30 minute treadmill walk/chat (which she has begged me to do with her since before we got married). The workouts aren't especially important right now, because I'm not certain of my current fitness goals, so I'll also update on here exactly what I do when I go to the gym. To prevent myself from making the excuse that I "don't know what to do" when I get there, I will refer to the Spartan Race WoD in some manner or other. 3 failings = +3 STR, 5 failings = +2 STR, 7 failings = +1 STR. And if you guys want to add any suggestions for any of these, PLEASE do! I'm open to suggestions from anyone either in my situation or who has defeated these issues before.

Hey guys, what do you suggest for lean and clean crock pot and on-the-go meals? My wife works 12 hour shifts from time to time, and my schedule fluctuates a small bit, which winds up doing a little something like this three or four nights a week: come home exhausted > eat carbs and sugar to sate cravings > go to bed > sleep terribly > wake up groggy > no energy to eat food or prep dinner for the evening > come home exhausted > rinse > repeat > no profit The occasional nights where one or the other of us has the energy to make a good balanced dinner are great. We sleep fine and wake up and stretch and eat breakfast but sadly neither of us are really that experienced in the kitchen or have that many health conscious recipes to use in the crock pot or to just throw together in an hours time. Any tips, blogs, cookbooks, etc that you suggest? We're both working on getting overall stronger bodies. I hope to do a Spartan Race next summer and she's just trying to get rid of a lot of bad habits she got from growing up especially poor + her weight gain from college. Thanks!

Oh absolutely. I just need to find a doctor that doesn't insist on prescribing me brand antacids regardless of the symptoms I see him for. I belly breathe all the time. Learned that from my voice lessons and martial arts classes and have applied it all around since. I inhale as I grip the bar and get into position, then exhale slowly through pursed lips as I lift, and as I bring them down... that's standard from what I understand; exhale, exert, right? Also, thanks for the responses everyone.

Hi everyone, a hungry skeleton here. I've just recently started lifting weights after getting a membership at Gold's Gym. I received a free walkthrough of basic lifting form and routine, etc by one of the trainers there. He showed me how to properly bench, squat, dead lift, and showed me a few of the weight machines as well and talked me through proper macros and such. Since then though I've noticed that doing dead lifts gives me a blast of head rush. Whether I do 1 lift or 5, my head spins pretty hard after. Is this normal or am I doing something wrong? I only lift the bar -- I haven't added any weight.

Hello everyone. I've attempted to stay active a couple of times here but alas living in a less than positive atmosphere really got to me. But since then I've married a wonderful girl who wants to go on the wild ride of getting fit with me so now I'm thinking the third time's the charm. I'm a firefly and dragon age nerd and I hope to begin playing dungeons and dragons with a good friend of mine soon. I look forward to getting to know you all.

Happiest of birthdays. I'll read through your posts after I finish doing a 3 man research project on my own. >_<

Drank a 20oz mountain dew today. Just felt gross afterward... stomach was gurgling, body felt like it was moving through sludge... why do people drink the stuff? Goodness. On the bright side of things, I went to my physical therapist and I've been "graduated" out. I'm doing the workouts on my own, and I'm thinking by the end of this challenge I'll be able to start an actual weightlifting regiment for the next challenge.

I'm starting on a 4 week detox where one of the dietary restrictions is gluten. Thankfully, I'm a huge fan of all foods of the Asian variety, so I'm going to be buying a big pack of the gluten-free noodles at the Asian supermarket in my area. However, I'm not actually Asian, nor do I know many, so what I'm asking for is your experiences in working with these noodles. Thanks!

Hi buff nerds! I've got a fever, and the only cure is more books! Who can suggest to me a book in particular that they loved that has all to do with boats and swashbuckling pirate adventures? I'll take high fantasy like Game of Thrones or LoTR by all means, but I really just want to sail the seven seas. My reward to anyone who can give me a suggestion will be a sincere "thank you" which I give in advance. If I totally fall in love with the story, I'll let you know.

Glad to hear that! Maybe this one is just the not-so-great one in the series... I saw this post and decided to order that book out of the library. My branch doesn't have it, so I requested it from another branch. I also ordered A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. LeGuin The Legend of Drizzt: Book 1, Homeland by Andrew Dabb. Which confuses me, because I thought it was written by R.A. Salvatore. I'm wondering if anyone can explain that one to me... I just went to the library to get books for the first time in at LEAST one year... but most likely more. I miss the years I spent in the library... as pretty much my main hang out... it was so annoying as a teenager when I had so few friends that loved to read. Since I started college and working regularly in 2010 I'd lost all interest in reading, and now I know a bunch of book worms so I'm way behind! I haven't read Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, Divergent... the list goes on... but almost everyone I know has read them multiple times. O_o It's so weird. That nostalgia moment brought to you in part by: books. Read 'em. My adventure to the library also got me a book I had given a shot at reading but never finished because another book had me tangled up already. It's called Gifts by Ursula K. LeGuin. I had read The Midnighters Trilogy by Scott Westerfeld and loved all three so much, and Ursula K. LeGuin had given the trilogy a really good review, so I figured I'd read something by her.

Michael Scott's The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel: The Magician. Book two of the series. Not sure if I'll continue it, even though the first one set quite the stage, I'm having a hard time keeping my interest after having put the story down for a while (see: a year). Gotta find a new fantasy series to start.

All I take is a vegan soda replacement. It's got stevia for sweetener and is mostly green tea extract, a tiny bit of guarana, taurine, and ginseng, and I think rhodiola. It's part of a detox line from the brand Arbonne International and is meant to be taken in place of the overly sugary coffee and just-plain-bad-for-you red bull everyone overconsumes. I agree wholeheartedly with El Exorcisto and ShortGorilla about getting dependent on a preworkout. Especially after I took one and the actual energizing effects didn't kick in until 3 hours after my workout. I was swinging kettlebells and practicing martial arts drills/forms/techniques with a 20lb weight vest on, but I didn't actually feel energized until 2 in the morning, and it was so bad that I literally couldn't even play a video game because my hands were so jittery from it.

Actually a bard class wouldn't be a bad idea... people who want to truly master an instrument as part of leveling up their life... why not? :3 I took a summer of voice lessons with my piano teacher, and I did one kinda serious vocal competition my junior year, and I was in a couple of choirs my freshman and sophomore year of college, but now, my main audience is the steering wheel and whoever is in my car at the time. But I also sing at work to pass the time and at church I get some section practice. No choirs or groups for me right now though, unless you count the unofficial choir of me, my girlfriend, and her room mate when we're all singing harmony at church together. It's so cute when the old ladies turn to tell us we sound nice.

I've never read the HP series (gasp). It's a thing I've always had... when someone geeks and fangirls over something too much, I despise whatever it is. And aside from my older brother, everyone else I met was the same way, so I just never got into it. My plan is to read it to my children when they're bedtime story age. :3 I actually prefer the cold weather. However, I'll work in a cooler that's blowing air anywhere from 20-41*F for a good 2 hours with 2 t-shirts and a pair of slacks on. There may be something wrong with me. I really want to see Big Hero 6!!! IDK if I will though. Good job on the sugar intake decrease! I'm doing surprisingly great with cutting my soda, too. Last time I did a 6 week challenge, drinking soda was so hard to stop doing, but this time, it's like a non-issue. Kinda crazy!

My big thing is avoiding the gluten, dairy and soy. Gluten not because of the currently ambiguous claims about it being bad for you, but because I eat too much grain as it is, so cutting that will help for many reasons (abs are made in the kitchen). Dairy, I'm allergic to, but it also gives me a lot of bloating and digestion problems, plus it's really not good for you if it's full of antibiotics and hormones and sometimes bleach. O_O;; Soy I'm not really worried about since I eat it very seldom but it doesn't help with it being one of the most processed food substances in the world. Processed sugar, for obvious reasons, caffeine because it keeps me up at night and then when I need a wake up boost it doesn't help, so cutting it will lower my tolerance so that when I DO consume it, I actually DO wake up, and alcohol is another not a big deal thing because I may have a beer or two once a month, but it also doesn't really belong in the body of a person trying to get into better shape, you know? Stevia is in the protein powder and the soda replacement I use, and it's actually in all of the Arbonne nutrition line because it has little to no glycemic index. Also, I freaking love the stuff.

Thanks people. No soda cravings yet, and I love it. So I'm pretty positive that I totally forgot about my PT appointment... I could have sworn I rescheduled it for Friday, but I just found their reminder card in my back pocket well after the appointment had already passed by. However, I had never received a call from anyone if I was late or not, so now I have to call them and figure it out. Doing the workouts at home is easy, but there are some exercises I just can't do because I don't have the space for it. There are a few things I need to order for my detox still, but I have time. I know I'm going to try to "satisfy" my sweet tooth before I start the actual 4 week detox, but it's not going to work. I ate a chocolate bar, two reeses cups and a bag of M&Ms earlier. Thankfully I didn't feel unwell from it, but I can't do that in about a weeks time.