Endish

Week 1 wrap up GOAL 1 - came in at 534 over target for the week. This happened on Saturday night while out with friends. No big deal. Protein was bang on. Weighed in at 229.2 for a loss of 5.2 over the week. This is down 3.2 since the end of the last challenge which is a little more realistic. During the break I ate around expected maintenance and put on a couple of pounds of water. I'll monitor this over the next couple of weeks and maybe adjust the target. GOAL 2 - got back into the gym a earlier than I thought with the back. Had an easy day on Thursday experimenting with some new assistance lifts. On Saturday I pushed a little more and tried some mid weight squats. Starting this week I will continue with my 5/3/1 program three times a week. GOAL 3 - got on the bike twice for around an hour and a half total. Continue with two rides this week. BONUS - played hockey for an hour and a half on Friday night For a long time I've been thinking about getting my eyes fixed. My medical insurance has just started covering the procedure so I went for a consult. I've got a tentative date booked next month while I think about it. As long as I've been able to wear contacts I figured it wasn't worth my while. Over the past few years I've had a harder and harder time wearing the lenses and I can't wear them in the pool so it might be time. If I go ahead it will impact my ability to stick with goals 2 and 3.

Hi all, This is my first challenge here after breaking in with the noob rebels last month. After several years of poor eating habits and not nearly enough exercise, I committed to getting my shit together after tearing up my knee up my knee and some sub-optimal lab results. I started with SL once I was cleared for lifting, starting tracking my food intake with MFP and pretty much kicked the booze overnight. I started playing hockey again back in September, so the knee is coming along but still has a way to go. What I'd ultimately like to get back to is something like this or this. To be ready for that, I need to get back my mid to late 20's fitness level. That means dropping around 20 pounds from where I am now, greatly improving endurance and overall strength. GOAL 1 - Continue to lose weight by consuming 15400 kcal a week (2200 a day) with a target of 180g of protein a day. The 6 week challenge starts at 234.4 fasted. Based on my results over the past several months, this should allow me to drop around 2 pounds a week and 12 overall. I track body composition through bio impedance and focus on the trends rather that the numbers. To date, my lean body weight has remained fairly constant (within a 2 lb spread over nearly four months of monitoring) will the fat has steadily dropped. Success is measured by tracking the intake with MFP and hitting the targets. GOAL 2 - Strength training. I am in the midst of switch from SL to a 5/3/1 program in order to be able to introduce some variation through assistance lifts. The target is 3 workouts a week following the new program, but I won't start this right away. I'm working through some chronic lower back issues that flared up during the two week pause. From experience I know this is something a can't rush back from and just need to wait until I'm ready. I'll starting counting from my first workout which should be next weekend if things continue to progress well. GOAL 3 - Get back on the bike. From my high of commuting 5 days a week on the bike and group rides 1 evening and both days on the weekend I've gone to no rides in nearly a year. For the next six weeks the goal is twice a week in weeks 1-2, three times in weeks 3-4 and four times in weeks 5-6. For the most part this is intended to be commuting, but I may throw in a weekend ride LIFE GOAL - Floss. Every day. I'm a little late posting, but did start this on Monday. 3..2..1..GO

I wrap it up here

Challenge wrap up GOAL 1 - follow SL programming three times a week. 18/18. Missed 1 session during week 3 vacation but made that up through weeks 4 and 5 by adjusting lifting schedule. Grade - A. GOAL 2 - track food intake each day with MFP. Daily target of 2200 intended to lose 1.5 lbs a week or 9 over the challenge. 38/42. Missed 4 days in week 3 while on vacation but hit every other day. Total weight loss over 6 weeks was 12.6 lbs. Grade - A. GOAL 3 - yoga 4 times a week on non lifting days. 16/24. Grade - F. Thoughts 1- lifting went great. Worked through some pauses to ultimately progress on all 5 of the lifts during the challenge. DL remains the only lift to not have a pause to date. Strongly thinking of switching to 5/3/1 over the next few weeks. Lots of people seem to make progress running SL for a lot longer than the 4 months I've been doing it but I'm starting to get bored. 5/3/1 will allow me to mix it up a little more and work in a rotation of assistance lifts to keep things fresh. We'll see. 2- really happy with how this went. I ended up only spending 3 weeks on the road with only a couple of day trips in the fourth but stayed on top of my intake and hit my targets. Based on my TDEE and work estimate I had planned for 2200 a day to lose 9 pounds. I ended up losing 12.6 so either my TDEE is higher or exercise consumed more. That doesn't even figure in 4 days of hard living Over the last couple of weeks I started to struggle with the weight so I probably need to fuel a little more to continue to progress. Bio impedance indicates that lean body weight has remained pretty constant throughout so the weight loss should mostly be fat. I realize that the percentages are probably wrong but the trend is what I've been keying on. I'd like to cut down to about 215 before thinking about a bulk. I'll have to think about this a little more over the next couple of weeks and decide how I want to go with this 3- probably harder on myself here than I need to be but my criteria for a passing grade was 70% and I hit 66%. In general my back feels pretty good between the lifting and all the nights in hotels over the last 6 weeks so I must be doing something right. If I keep this as a measured target I'll take another look at frequency. Three months ago I would have waited until my fall road trips were over before I started something like this. NO MORE EXCUSES. Cooking out of the hotel room was easy and I felt much better over all than last year when it was all restaurants. 4 days in Vegas? No problem - enjoy yourself and get right back on the horse when you get home. Endish out.

Week 6 wrap up GOAL 1 - 3/3 in the gym this week GOAL 2 - 7/7. End week weigh in had to be this morning as I'm heading out of town tonight. Down to 232.4 for 3.2 change Sunday to Sunday and 12.6 over the challenge. GOAL 3 - 3/4 on the yoga. Seems about the best I can consistently manage.

Week 5 wrap up GOAL 1 - got To the gym four times this week to catch up the planned miss two weeks ago. I ended up going back to back on mon/ tues but felt much stronger the second day. Missed a squat rep on mon and was curious?concerned? How it would go on ties but no issues. Could have lifted more or done more reps. I wonder where that energy was the day before. GOAL 2 - tracked in MFP every day. Came in 1050 kcal over planned for the week. Down to 235.6 for 1.6 lbs mon to sun. I'm back on the road this week but left last night so I didn't get the mon weight in. 8.4 over all so well on target to hit 9 by next Monday. GOAL 3 - 3 for 3 on the yoga. The fourth day turned into the extra lift Bonus Played hockey Saturday night Thoughts Five pretty solid weeks hitting the weights and managing the food. Haven't really felt deprived by the changes in diet and Life style so I must have been ready. Haven't managed the yoga as well but it has served its purpose. The yoga was always intended to be more of an assistance activity to keep my back healthy. After three months of squats and deadlifts with SL and hockey every week or two I still have had no issues. I must be doing enough.

Happy Thanksgiving to the Canucks. Had a nice dinner with the wife's family yesterday. Everybody brought up the usual things to be thankful for. Family, health, friends etc, but tonight while working out at a local rec centre while my daughter was in the pool I thought of something else. I'm thankful that my years in the Navy get me free access to the gym at the local base where there is always an empty power rack and I don't have to rely on the rec centres with mismatched plates, insufficient bars and wobbly benches

Week 4 wrap up GOAL 1 - got in three of four planned lifting sessions. I was trying to make up for the planned miss last week but life got in the way. I still intend to make this up so the means 7 sessions over the next two weeks. GOAL 2 - tracked every day in MFP. Came in 890 kcal over for the week based on my best assessment. Weighed in at 237.2 for a Monday to Monday change of 2.4 lbs. down 7.8 over all so we'll on pace for the 9 lbs targeted for the challenge. GOAL 3 - only 1 of 3 planned yoga sessions. The fourth turned into the missed lifting day. I really need to get it together here if I'm going to hit my six week minimum target. Thoughts I came into the week really energized after my vacation, but now find I'm stalling - well, missing reps anyways - on all my lifts but dl. I'm getting at least a day off between each and I'm getting lots of sleep for me. Is the reduced calorie intake starting to catch up with me? Squats close to bw, deadlifts over, but the rest are quite a bit behind. Is there something else I'm missing?

Week 3 wrap up GOAL 1 - got in both planned lifting days before leaving. Got right back on the horse on Monday and will make up the planned miss over the next two weeks. Had to let a squat go to the pins on Monday for my first miss. Overall it felt very reassuring that I could unload without hurting myself. I'd long been curious how that would go. GOAL 2 - mon-we'd tracking went fine. Thursday I might have come close. Fri-sun I didn't bother. MFP tells me that my 39 day streak has come to an end. Ended the week at 239.6 for a mon to mon change of 1.2. 1 pound up from Thursday morning but not to shabby considering 4 days of hard living. GOAL 3 - only 3 of 4 for yoga again. I suppose the fact that I did it at all while gone should be a positive. Thoughts Despite the fact that I missed on GOAL 2 for the first time in over a month, I'm quite excited that I can take a few days off and get back into it. After all, sometimes life gets in the way. I had a great time in Vegas with the old friends and didn't worry about what or how much I ate or drank. I came back exhausted but recharged and had a great day in the gym yesterday. Following SL I think there has been at least 2 prs every day sine July, but on Monday I broke body weight for the first time on anything. 240 dl! Certainly more in the tank there but exciting nevertheless.

Week 3 midweek update A good start to the week, but now I'm at the airport on the way to las veags so the week May end badly. GOAL 1 - got In two lift sessions before leaving and will make up the third next week by adjusting my lifting days GOAL 2 - tracked everything to mid day thirsday. Not sure how the rest of the week will go, but I'll do my best. Weighed in this morning at 238.6 GOAL 3 - yoga twice on my non lifting days. Plan to make time to keep this up while I'm gone Bonus - played hockey on Tuesday night. Knee still feels good.

Week 2 update Spent this week on the road again but got home for the weekend GOAL 1 Got in all three planned lifting days. Started a switch to 3x5 on the third day after some consideration. Adjusted lifting schedule to allow me to get in all my sessions next week around my vacation. GOAL 2 Tracked every day. Came in 563 kcal over for the week based on my best efforts. That was all on Saturday night while out for a friends birthday. Down to 240.8 for a Monday to Monday change of 0.6. GOAL 3 Got in 3/4 yoga sessions this week. Made a conscious decision this week not to get in the fourth. Family time instead of yoga when I got home on Friday night. Thoughts Overall I'm really happy with how things have gone over the last to weeks while I've been working out of town. Weight went down less that I'd predicted this week but it balanced out last week where It was quite a bit more. Overall 4.2 pounds in 2 weeks against a target of 3. I suspect I'll need that buffer next week. No adjustment for now. Time to eat some bacon

Based on the earlier responses I happily dropped by squats to 3x5 yesterday while keeping the bench and rows at 5x5 and got in and out in a family friendly amount of time. Overall I don't believe that I am over-resting. My rest intervals vary from about 75s for bench to 180s for squats and press. If I tried to cut that down I'm not sure that I could hit all my reps. After reading the later posts, I'm wondering if there is benefit in occaiisionally lowering the weight for a higher volume day. I realize that this runs counter to the SL program philosophy. Perhaps this is more of an intermediate strategy

Thanks for the replies. 3x5 it is.

Hi all, I'm new to the forum and knee deep in my first challenge over in the Level 1 group. My challenge thread is here. (I think that will work) My immediate goals involve increasing strength and weight loss. I've been following the SL program since mid July as part of my knee rehab. Overall, I'm really happy with how things are going. It's about 20 years since my last dabble in strength training which involved training with a buddy who also didn't know what he was doing. With the exception of the press, I've hit all my reps since I started but my rest periods are starting to drag the sessions out longer than I'd like. I'm toying with the idea of starting to cut down to 3x5 on the squat and press for now and the others once the rest periods get longer. Is there any downside to doing this? After all, if I'd discovered starting strength first I'd already be there. Thanks, Endish

Week 2 midweek update I'm on the road again this week. Tomorrow night I get home for a break before I head out again. So far this week everything is on track GOAL 1 - Hit both workouts. Couldn't get all my press reps in again. Damn press. I'm thinking about starting to cut down to 3 working sets. Other than the press I'm getting in all my sets but with the inter set rest periods growing the workouts are starting to get longer than I'd like. I think I'll see what the warriors think. GOAL 2 - 73 kcal under target for the first 4 days. Haven't had a chance to weigh in, so I'm not sure how that's going this week. GOAL 3 - Hit both yoga sessions Overall, I pretty happy with how things are going on the road.

Week 1 update Week one I spent five days on the road but got home for the weekend. Here's how it went: Goal 1 - got in all three lifting sessions following SL. Failed to complete all my reps for OP in the third session, but I suspected all along that I would pause their first. No big deal. Everything else carries on with additional weight. Goal 2 - accurately tracked food every day with MFP. Came in 256 kcal under target for the week. Lost 3.6 pounds. More on that below. Goal 3 - only got in 3 of 4 planned yoga sessions. No reason other than I failed to make time. Bonus - played hockey last night for the first time since the mcl tear in the spring. I didn't feel any instability at all. Squats and deadlifts must be paying off. I definitely felt the afternoon lifting when I was on the ice in the evening. Thoughts Pretty much hit the target on food but lost more that twice as much as I thought I would from Monday to Monday with same conditions. I broke out the scale this week and I realized that my portion estimating was off in many cases so I've been taking in more than I thought over the month since I started tracking. I think this week was pretty accurate. I'm not going to make any changes for this week but after Vegas I may adjust my intake target a bit. Or I may accept additional weight loss if performance doesn't suffer. Or this week may be an aberration and the target is right. We'll see. Definitely haven't been getting enough sleep but I think that's due to the hotel bed. It's not for lack of trying.

Here are some questions to put your goals to the test: Is your overall quest achievable (over a short or long period of time)? Is it reasonable? I'm still not sure what my overall quest is. Phase I of the quest is to get down to 215 and increase strength and endurance so I can comfortably participate in all the activities I used to and like to again. Once I get there, maybe there is a phase II or more. We'll see. Anyways, phase I is totally achievable. The weight is about 4 months. Minimum strength and endurance is longer, but within a year. Do your 3 quests all build towards your main quest in little ways, or are you taking on too much? Do your quests have sub-quests or is it just one thing to focus on? Quests 1 and 2 directly build towards the main quest. Quest 3 is more of an assistance quest: yoga for back health. Are your main goals realistic? Can you scale them to smaller steps to fit your life better, even if it will make it take a little longer to achieve them? Phase I is totally realistic. I could break it down, but I don't think I need to. Are your goals able to be measured and tracked? What will you use to track them? Everything is measurable. Workouts & yoga either happen or they don't. Calories and macros are tracked with MFP. Weight is on the scale. Body comp through BEF. How are you grading your goals? Are they pass/fail (“every dayâ€, “not even once over the six weeksâ€)? Is there a reward for the effort, or are you only grading yourself on whether or not you “lose the weight†or “run the distanceâ€? Oops. I guess I should come up with something. This quest is all about reinforcing good habits so it's all about the effort. 90% completion over six weeks is a A. 80% - B. 70 % - C. Less than 70% is a fail. If I can't complete at least 5 days a week I don't think I can call it a habit. What is your plan for continuing/altering/grading those goals if you become ill or injured? Injury shouldn't impact food intake and tracking goals. Weight loss may reduce if workload reduces. For strength and yoga, I'll complete as much as possible as injury allows. Did you take into consideration any special occasions (Labour Day, Independence Day, birthdays, anniversaries, etc) that may occur during the challenge? What modifications do you need to build into your goals for those? Yes. I've got 4 days in Veags at the end of week 3. Strength training schedule will be modified around the trip. I can still complete yoga. I'll track calories and macros as best as possible, but I'm not going to worry about the totals for the days I'm there. Thanksgiving is the following weekend. We've got a big meal planned at the in-laws but I will make adjustments through the week to make up for it. The challenge will be accommodating the sugar pie. Do any of your main goals conflict with each other? Will one goal make it hard to do another? No. They are largely independent. Do you already have the time in your schedule to actually complete the goals you’ve set? If not, what are you planning to do to make time for them? I've got the time. I just can't be lazy with it. Are you trying to build multiple habits, or is all your energy focused on your main quest? I'm trying to build multiple habits which will all help achieve the main quest.

Thanks. Fortunately, I guess, I travel enough that I get upgraded to a room with a kitchen. It certainly makes it easier. Thanks Blaidd. Long term I see myself as more of a Ranger, but for now, I defintely seem to align with the Warriors. As I typed that, I suddenly envisioned myself fighting my way back to Coney Island. Does that happen to anyone else?

Although this is my first challenge, I don't plan on breaking any new ground here. For the past 5 weeks, I've been developing new habits which I would like to reinforce. While I feel like these habits are becoming routine, the environment is about to become more challenging. During the fall and the winter I spend a lot of time on the road with work and the next six weeks will be no different. I will have to complete the first two weeks and the last two weeks living out of a hotel room. On top of this, I will be meeting up with some old friends in Las Vegas for four days over the middle weekend. Here we go. GOAL 1 - Continue to increase overall strength following stronglifts 3 times a week. I've located a gym with a power rack close to where I'll be staying on the road so I've got no excuse to miss any workouts in weeks 1,2,5 or 6. The four days in Vegas will be a problem, but I will try and adjust my schedule to make up the workouts while ensuring I have enough recovery time during weeks 3 and 4. I'll accept missing one workout but no more. GOAL 2 - Continue to reduce BF% on my way to a 215 target. Drop 9 pounds over the challenge period. Edit: Starting weight on day 1: 245 even Track intake with MFP. Weekly intake of 15,400 kcal for an average of 2200 a day. I'm not going to worry about the Veags trip too much. I'm pretty sure most of the carbs will be liquid, but I'll make smart choices at the trough. During the 4 weeks of work travel, I plan to cook my own meals and avoid eating out. GOAL 3 - Take care of my back. Yoga four times a week on non lifting days Edit: scoring: 90% is an A. 80% - B. 70% - C. Less than 70% - F. If I can't do something 5 days out of 7 I don't think it's much of a habit. That's it. Should be easy, right?

Hi all, I found the site and community recently while figuring out how I was going to turn it around. Back in my teens and through to my late twenties, I was a competitive basketball and volleyball player. I then dabbled in running for a few years, got into mountain biking, spent some time training for triathlon and then it all came apart. After shifting career focus, I could no longer spend the time on my bike I was used to going from 150 miles or so a week to nothing. My level of fitness went down while the weight crept up. Then the injuries started: chronic lower mechanical back pain, broken ankle with simultaneous sprain, and a groin tear. Back in the spring I had a health scare that was the wake up call I needed to get my shit together. After getting the all clear from the doc, I celebrated by tearing my MCL playing hockey the next night. While I was laid up with the knee, I found nerd fitness and stronglifts. Overnight, I cleaned up my eating (both quantity and quality) and for the most part kicked the booze. Even at my peak, my diet pretty much sucked; too much fast food and way to much liquid contribution to the overall calorie count. Surprisingly, I haven't found this hard. As soon as I got clearance for weights, I started with stronglifts. 6 weeks or so in, I'm still hitting all my sessions and I've been surprised with how well the knee and back have responded. I hit 160 on the squat this week, but the hardest session so far was back in week 1 with 55 pounds. GOALS I miss being able to run 13 miles whenever I want. I miss 60 mile bike rides. I miss being able to play sports all weekend. I want that back. In my prime, I competed around 210-215 at 6'5". That's where I'm going: 215 by the end of the year through strength and endurance training with continued good eating habits. Once I'm there, I'll reevaluate my direction based on whatever strikes my fancy at the time. NERD CREDENTIALS I've haven't been much of a video gamer since the Intellivision died, but I do like my board games - settler's of catan. I've always been a reader and have altered variously between sci-fi and fantasy over the year. I was in band. I'm an engineer. I like the idea of the real life roll playing. I think the community support and my competitive desire to level up will be what I need to keep this thing going.