Trydus

I just finished "Mindset" by Carol Dweck. This could be the most important book ever written. It lays the foundation for improving almost literally your entire life. Identifying the fixed mindset and implementing the growth mindset is arguably the most transformative thing a person could do. It's wild!

Update on this thread - I actually went to Italy!!! IT WAS AMAZING! Thanks to the NF community for inspiring and giving me the courage to do so.

Hey Assassins! I've come to join you after my first Recruit challenge (http://rebellion.nerdfitness.com/index.php?/topic/63722-strong-body-strong-mind/) if you'll have me! My first challenge went pretty well, I felt that I made some significant "loss/gains" in weight and fitness. The last couple of weeks I've maintained a pretty good Paleo-centric diet and took a break from working out after pulling a back muscle while strength training (yowza!). During this time I've dived into tons of research regarding fitness, diet, improving life generally, and efficiency in all areas. I chewed through the 4 hour workweek, and the 4 hour body, great reads and I'm already implementing a lot of changes. I also thought back to my first challenge and one of the biggest things that I did wrong that I didn't do was measure my progress. I will be doing that here: ( https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/12NpmdmLPWtiYADWZ52iLF7J7-BgkAEGWXeaJ1oOBYBI/edit?usp=sharing) and have shared it publicly to anyone who wants to check it out and keep me on track (accountabilibuddies!). In this spreadsheet, I'm tracking my meals, my measurements and weight, and my workout schedule. With all that in mind, here is my next challenge: Main Quest: My overall Main Quest so far is to become the most fit and skilled version of myself that I can be. I want to be in a much sharper state so when I take my trip (which has now evolved into an Epic Quest, thanks Steve!) I can be ready for any challenge that gets thrown at me. Not to mention just being more awesome for life in general For this 6 week challenge, my quest is to drop another 10 pounds (started January at 225, now at 200), lose a few inches off of my waist, and reach a new level of fitness. How am I gonna do that? Here are my goals: Goal 1: Continue to cook and eat Paleo/Slow Carb Diet every weekday. I typically start my Sunday or Monday with a trip to the local Whole Foods, pick up my ingredients, and do my prep for the week. This includes carrots, green onions, red leaf lettuce, radishes, zucchini, and chicken. If this isn't possible (summer in Minnesota busyness!), I pick up packs of frozen veggies and use those for the week. With these, I make either a meatless stir fry or salad for my lunch, and stir fry combinations for supper. Every morning I will be getting up earlier (still getting 6+ hours of sleep!) to ensure that I eat an Omelet or at least two hard boiled eggs. Goal 2: Stick to the workout plan. My workout plan for this challenge involves strength and bodyweight training, focusing around kettlebell swings and workouts on Mon - Wed - Fri, and a basic Yoga routine on Tue - Thur, to maintain flexibility and give a good buffer between the strength workouts. I'm doing at least 75 kettlebell swings (3 sets of 25) currently using a 25lb kettlebell, to really hone my form. I may increase the weight on this within a few weeks if it goes well, and definitely increase the reps (adding 5 to each set) every two weeks. Goal 3: Sleep more, stress less. I work in a pretty high stress field, sometimes up at all hours of the night or working way more than full-time. My goal here is to try to get in more than 6 hours of sleep on average. I've also made it a rule to turn off my devices (multiple computers, tablets, so many gadgets!) by 11 PM, and just hitting a book until bed time. Life Goal/Main Quest Goal: Finish my first book and starting a business. My last challenge consisted of learning Italian, and I'm going to slow down the courses to once a week so that I can turn around and focus instead more on writing my first book. One of my favorite things to do is write, and I've been working on a number of different projects for years. While researching ways to help fund my Epic Quest and ensure continued income over the time that I am gone, I finally sat down and read the 4 hour workweek. It's helped me tremendously with coming up with new ideas, and I'm going to write a how-to book and attempt to build a small business around it. Looking forward to another great 6 week challenge! - Trydus

Hey Starsapart! Sorry I dropped off the map a bit, bad at keeping up on posts, adding that to the next challenge! I completed my 6 week challenge, lost 6 pounds, kept up with my diet and Italian, and can do more than 3 pullups at a time now! Thanks for keeping up with me, I think I will join up with the Assassin's Guild!

Thanks Starsapart, I checked out the Assassin's Guild and it definitely interests me! I'll spend some more time on there and post some things in the very near future. Elastigirl, the challenge is going well so far! The first week was a little bumpy, working in the routine with my crazy schedule. I missed a day of workout but made up for it on another day, and now at the end of the second week I'm totally aligned. My diet has been about 95% paleo. This week I've hit every workout and more, and I've been studying on my Italian! I've been getting the 6+ hours of sleep, that feels great. I'm also achieved two pull-ups in a row! Overall I feel terrific, I met with some friends I hadn't seen in months last night and they were really surprised on my progress and how much I'd lost. I'm down to about 200 now, and I'm only going to weigh myself once a week now just to keep track but not obsess too much. Looking forward to week 3!

Greetings fellow Nerd Rebels! I'm Trydus, I'm new here to Nerd Fitness (well, new as in the first time posting, anyway). I think what the NF team built is amazing, and the community, extraordinary. Here I'm thinking "There's a place where there are a bunch of awesome nerds who want to be fit and more awesome too?! Count me in!!" A little history behind me: I've been on somewhat of a fitness journey for a while. I've been off and on Paleo and exercise routines for a couple of years, never deciding to fully commit to it until the beginning of this year, where some of my coworkers challenged me to a contest among themselves of healthy eating and exercise. They put together an online form to track our progress and make us more accountable to each other. This was the kick I needed, and I was off. I was eating Paleo every day (think salads, stir frys, steaks) and I also started a Yoga program, intertwined with my own sort of workout. Things were going good for a bit, and I was losing weight but didn't really feel like I was making progress. I guess I just didn't have actual fitness goals in mind other than "get unfat". At the same time, I had traveling on my mind, I wasn't happy with my current position at work and in life, and made a decision that in a year or two, I'd take an extended trip and backpack for a couple months in Italy. I started reading into traveling, how to survive on the road, skills, techniques, etc., and stumbled upon an article about staying fit while traveling. Naturally, this peaked my curiosity. After reading the article and watching the interview, I found Nerd Fitness. I've been hooked ever since. Ok, let's get down to brass tacks. Main Quest: My overall Main Quest so far is to become the most fit and skilled version of myself that I can be. I want to be in a much sharper state so when I take my trip (which has now evolved into an Epic Quest, thanks Steve!) I can be ready for any challenge that gets thrown at me. Not to mention just being more awesome for life in general For this 6 week challenge, my quest is to drop another 10-20 pounds (started January at 225, now at 205), and reach a new level of fitness. How am I gonna do that? Here are my goals: Goal 1: Continue to cook and eat Paleo every weekday. I typically start my Sunday or Monday with a trip to the local Whole Foods, pick up my ingredients, and do my prep for the week. This includes carrots, green onions, red leaf lettuce, radishes, zucchini, and chicken. With this, I make salads for my lunch, and stir fry combinations for supper. Sometimes I cook up a bunch of veggies for lunch the next day. What's funny about this goal, is I read Steve's intermittent fasting article, and realized I was already doing it and didn't know it! Goal 2: Stick to the workout plan. My workout plan is a combination of the "Beginner's Body Workout" with some additions such as pullups and chinups, on Mon - Wed - Fri. I want to be able to complete more than 3 pullups at a time by the end of this challenge. On Tue - Thur, I am continuing Yoga, to maintain and improve my joint strength and flexibility. I've found when you do Yoga on a regular basis (and, indeed, exercise in general), it's crazy how much it affects how you move on a day to day basis. I'm not nearly sore at all anymore (except after an awesome workout and maybe a little in the morning after said awesome workout), whereas I just ached all the time for no reason. At 26 years old, I just had enough of that non-sense. Goal 3: Sleep more, stress less. I work in a pretty high stress field, sometimes up at all hours of the night or working way more than full-time. My goal here is to try to get in more than 6 hours of sleep on average, and try out some meditation to reduce stress. One thing I've been considering doing is making it a rule to turn off my devices (multiple computers, tablets, so many gadgets!) by 10 PM, and just hitting a book until bed time. Life Goal/Main Quest Goal: Continue Learning Italian. I combined the life/main goal because this is a part of that Main Quest. I started learning Italian last year, and fell off the bandwagon. I am committing to spending 3 times a week on studying, an hour a night. I want to become fluent in Italian first, because that's the first country I'm going to on my Epic Globetrotting Quest, and the one I'll probably spend the most time in. Finding Nerd Fitness, reading the content and seeing the community has been really inspiring to me. It's helped keep me motivated, and taught me a lot of things about a lot of things. I'm glad to be a part of something so awesome. Good luck to all other 6 week challengers, I know you all can do it. Fortune favors the bold. - Trydus