Barefoot4ever

My 4 year old loves my pull-up bar too I just got it, and I've been working on my pull-ups. This morning I managed a new record set of 4 chin-ups. I was also able to get a true pull-up. I've been able to do a pull-up off and on, but never really consistently. I have a feeling that'll change now that I have the bar. I also like to use a chair to assist myself no more than needed on the way up, then do an unassisted negative. That really reduces my muscles to jelly after a while.

Last week went fairly well, I got 3 A's in piano, but also got 2 C's and 2 F's. I got my 3 workouts in. I was sceduled to do my 3rd one one Friday, but didn't get it done because I was playing with my horse. I did carry some 50lb. feed bags out to the pony-barn all the way from the garage, and did 10 squats with each one. On Saturday my 4 year old and I walked a little over halfway home from church (we left halfway through) before my mom and dad caught up with us in the car. That was about 3.5 miles barefooted on the asphalt so our feet got a pretty good workout, although I carried the little one part of the way. That evening I got my workout in, but skipped the squats because I had walked that day and done squats the day before. I did 60sec. 55 sec. and 60sec. of plank in my 3 sets, up from my usual of 50 45 50. And I managed to do a set of 4 chin-ups this morning, and one pull-up! (I'm not training to day, but I have a bar in my bedroom doorway, and I can't help but play on it when I go through)

It's going well so far, I have 3 A's in piano already this week, but it will get harder once I have my lesson and get assigned new pieces. I need to do my workout for today early because I want to go to a meeting with my mom tonight. That will take a bit of discipline because I like to procrastinate. Hopefully putting it down here will help.

Right now I'm doing the Ninja Turtles workout. I'm going slow with the lower body progressions, because my knees are a little picky right now, but it's going well. I'm lowering my plyometric push-ups from my dresser to my storage chest. And of course playing on every obstacle I can

Oh yeah, I'm definitely an 'Assassin' at heart! Can't wait to officially join y'all. Thanks for the advice, I like resting!

Hey, y'all! This is my first challenge, and I've never tried SMART goal setting before, so we'll see how this goes. I'm 18, I've been fairly active all my life, but always a little chubby. Last summer I lost 25 pounds, and and a few months ago I started strength training, and have gained quite a bit of muscle along with 5 pounds. I love biking and hiking and being in nature. My current max pushups is 18, and chin-ups is 3. Pull-ups is 0. My main quest is to have more precise control over my body. To have it strong enough, flexible enough, and fast enough to do what I want. Quest 1: Since I would like to be able to do at least 1 pull-up and 5 chin-ups by the end of the challenge, I am going to attempt to do 100 pull-ups/chin-ups/assisted-pullups each week. Grade: A= 600+ total pull-ups B= 599-450 TP C= 449-300 TP F= 299 or less Quest 2: Complete my bodyweight workout at least 3 times each week. Grade: A = 3-4 times per week B = 3 tpw C= 2 tpw F= anything less Motivation: I want to be able to amaze my friends with my strength, and I want a body that I'm proud of. Life Quest: To do my piano practice smarter and more efficiently. This one is kind of vague, but I have a chart beside my piano that I will grade myself on the day's practice A will be awesome, I stopped and worked on all problem areas in each song, and had fun doing it. B will be great, I worked on at least one problem area in each song, and went over each song at least once. C will be average, I worked on problem areas in some songs, and went over most songs. D will be poor, I practiced lazily, didn't work on problem areas, and only went over a few songs. F will be fail, I didn't practice at all that day Bonus point if I did some productive sight reading that day as well. Grade: A= at least 3 A's each week B= 2 A's or 3 or more B's each week C= At leatst 1 A, or 2 B's or 3 or more C's F= anything less Motivation: I have many lovely pieces that I want to learn, and I need to get more diligent in practicing and better at sight reading if I hope to achieve them.

Congratulations! I've been shrinking out of my clothes this last year as well. I'm a woman, but I also hate clothes shopping, I can never seem to find exactly what I want, so most of my clothes are too big for me right now.

I just found out how tough my 4 year old has gotten from my pushing. We took a walk with my friend and her younger siblings, about 6yo,8yo,11yo,13yo. My 4 year old complained less than the 6 year old and 8 year old put together. The 6 year old hardly made it through our 3-4 mile hike, and the 8 year old did very well, but wasn't used to walking so far. I carried both youngest ones part of the way. My 4 year old was tired, but he just kept walking along beside me, with very little complaining. He's learned to keep going even when he's worn out because I like to push myself, and he's determined to go where ever I do. All the children had a lot of fun though, and really wanted to come along.

Make small changes. I was unsuccessful because I thought that you had to make big changes or none at all. Celebrate the small victories.(not with food XD ) I could never do a whole diet change. I started measuring all my food and slowly cut back. (I was eating 3 cups of ice-cream at a time (a serving is 1/2 cup), and now my 'huge' serving is 1.5 cups, and a normal serving is 3/4 cup. I started going for walks with my son in the evenings to relax. Now I try to get at least 1/2 cup of vegetables at dinner (we have a huge garden and eat seasonally, so once garden stuff is in, it'll be way more than that). I've been doing strength training, which is something I never would have had the discipline a year ago.

Feet are fresh, shoes are smelly and gross. I've had my fair share of foot cuts and bruises, but never any super deep ones. If in doubt get it checked out.

I know this was posted a year ago, but for anyone else that might wonder, my Soft Star Shoes are the most comfortable shoes I have ever worn. I hate shoes, and I've forgotten I was wearing them. Once I had one on showing them to my mom, and continued to walk around and talk with her when I was done. A while later I suddenly realized that I had one shoe on and one shoe off, and I had completely forgotten. They're not quite as good as the real thing, but better than anything else I've tried.

Oh yeah!

I managed to do two chin-ups in a row! Each from a dead hang up to chest touching the bar. I've never been able to do that in my life, even starting with my arms bent. I can't even always do one.

We also grow a vegetable garden. My family has done so for generations, so it's almost second nature. My 4 year old loves to help harvest, and he loves vegetables. The store boughten ones just don't taste as good as the homegrown ones.

I like to use a 3 inch wide strap (like a seatbelt). I drape it around my neck like a scarf with the ends hanging in front of me, then take them under my arms so they go behind me, and those ends are attached to the load. From the front it looks like I'm wearing a backpack. If I was doing a lot, I might take a thick bath towel and use that for the part that's touching me, and just tie strings to attach it to the load.

First of all, I'm 18, so my knee shouldn't be bad. It originally started hurting because I liked to prop my foot up on my mom's desk when I was at the computor, which over extended it. It hurts when I twist it, like sitting with my legs crossed, and it sometimes makes noises when I do squats.(my other knee does too sometimes, but doesn't hurt) This has been going on for the last year or so, and I would really like to get it back up to 100%. Is there a way I can do this and keep progressing in my strength?

I grew up and live on a farm in a Mennonite community. (my parents were born old order mennonite.) In this culture it's very common to bathe only on Saturday nights. The people don't just sit around doing nothing either, they have dairy farms, produce farms, and carpenter jobs. If one wants to run into town without smelling, they just put on fresh clothes and deodorant. It's amazingly effective. Unless you start sniffing pits, you won't know who showered and who didn't. These are not sloppy people either, they just aren't scared of dirt. It's also amazing what fresh air will do. I can move turkeys in the morning (a very, very smelly job), spend all afternoon outside, and by evening, the only way you can tell what I did in the morning is by sniffing my hair. Then I take a shower in the evening, unless we're moving turkeys again the next day, in which case washing up seems a bit of a waste, and I wait until after the next day's moving. Now this sitation is a bit different than a business person's, but sometimes I feel our society a bit obsessed with cleanliness. A little dirt doesn't hurt a person, and humans really aren't as stinky as we think they are. I will admit that because of growing up in this culture, I don't mind the smell of sweat as much as most people seem to. Too much is too much, but if I smell a little sweat off of another person, it doesn't bother me in the least.

Serving sized packages really helped me. My mom got a huge box filled with single serving bags of lays potato chips. Occasionally I would have 2 bags, but usually coming to the end of the bag was enough to stop me. Last night I got myself some chips to go with my barbequed beef sandwich, and I got about the amount that would have come in a little bag, maybe a little less, and I was satisfied when they were gone. Also getting my serving and putting the rest back in the cupboard, not just eating a few out of the bag!

This is me! I'd also like to be able to do a straddle up, be very stable in a handstand, and climb up a rope or pole with just my arms, as well as muscle ups. But at the moment I can't even do one pull up. I did manage 10 proper push-ups yesterday (keeping my elbows in by my sides)

I thought I had pretty good grip strength until I had to "pull" a baby calf. (assist mom with delivery) My forearms were sore for 3 days.

Now I wanna learn how to stand on a ball. Without the weight.

I'm not super active on MFP, but my username is wellthenwhat . I was frustrated at the computor because I couldn't think of a username, and the first username I did manage to think of was in use. I yelled "well then what!" at the computor and typed it in as my username. I felt like I had tried everything to lose weight, and figured I would just see what it was and maybe sign up later. I never imagined that I would lose 25 pounds over the summer because of it!

At one point in time, my dad was drinking close to 2 liters of diet soda a day. He didn't drink much water anymore because he drank so much pop. Then he heard this one guy talk about aspertame, and it scared him into quitting cold turkey. He used to take 5 or 6 cans of pop along on the milk truck, and he started taking one of his 2 liter pop bottles filled with water instead. He didn't make any other changes, and with in the next 3 weeks he dropped 2 or 3 holes in his belt. Eventually he started drinking regular pop, and now he might drink 1 or 2 cans a day of that now, but he also drinks far more water than he used to.

I like to walk with my 4 year old. Not so much for exercise as just to get out. Recently we've been talking a plastic grocery bag along for trash and one for beer cans, and filling them up.

It is very much a case of toughening soles though. If I feel my 4 year olds feet and feel his cousin's feet, there is a huge difference. His soles are thick and tough, while his cousin's are thin and soft. Mine are also thick and I can really feel a difference between winter when I'm wearing shoes more, and summer when I'm barefooted pretty much 24/7.