Hilary_W

That looks like so much pain fun. Awesome job on your race. Thanks for sharing.

The basics work - true story! Will be rooting for you on your challenge.

Yes, the cooking goal looks like a lot of fun.

8 rounds Plus - WOW. Amazing workout.

At last, the key to writing my own origin story has been unlocked. Picked up Steve's new book and started reading it tonight. I've read many great stories inside the forums but couldn't find a way to unlock my own story until now. This changes tonight! As for the challenge, "A" today: 1. Play outside - took my son and his friend to the park for 2 hours - bags of fun. Level up - tomorrow I'll do Steve's playground workout. 2. Adventure - writing my origin story (thanks Steve K.) 3. Pushup habit Today I did Full 6, 10, 8, 6 and Knee 20 = 50 any style 4. Track all food and stay away from restaurants. Level up - Feel a bit hungry tonight so have implemented a Battle Plan to Slay the Munchies Dragon tomorrow. (The battle plan involves soaking chick peas overnight so I can make hummus tomorrow. Raw veggies + hummus for the win.) Fat: Prot: Carbs: 62.51g 89.67g 190.11g

Just moved from Edmonton to Jasper. If you're coming to the mountains this summer let's get together for a hike.

Another Anne McCaffrey fan here. Love your challenge.

Your Jo challenge has peaked my curiosity. Am following to learn how this is done.

Strong lungs are where it's at - the joints will come along in good time. Sending you good wishes for race day.

Was immediately hooked by your story. Can't wait to see it unfold.

Looks like an awesome hike at the end of a great month. Following for sure.

The mountains don't bend so I will meet them on their own terms. Strong, tough, vertical ... this is a return trip to NF for me after taking a break. To ease into my new (fitter) life I will: 1. Play outside every day - bike, run, hike ... whatever the day brings. No allowances for weather, but some activity adjustments will be made to accommodate my 4 year old. (He has more energy than me - will keep up with him and learn to play all day.) 2. Adventure - try 1 new activity each week. Working towards freedom - take risks and push my boundaries a bit. 3. Work on a pushup habit - oh so good for the body. Will be kind to myself and work on them slowly. Week 1 - 50 P/U any style each day (in small sets) Week 2 - 60 P/U each day - 30 any style, 30 proper P/U (in small sets) Week 3 - 75 P/U each day - all proper P/U (in small sets) Week 4 - 100 P/U each day - all proper P/U - do all sets within 2 hour window 4. Home made meals for the win - Build a habit of planning my meals and avoiding impulse buys at restaurants and coffee shops. 7 days/week track all food intake with a scale and app plus 6 days/week commit to only eat food and drinks (coffee) made at home Tracking - have set up a chart on the wall and will get a big Check Mark for each successful achievement. A - met all goals for the week. B - missed no more than 3 items in the week C - kick myself in the pants and make up lost time next week The reward after the 4 week challenge - Straight A's - new necklace + massage and spa day Mostly A's, some B's - massage only Anything with a C - no pampering for me

Awesome bear theme

Today did ring pushups 3 sets - 6, 8 and 12 respectively

Took a couple of days off but got back to it tonight. Ring pushups - 3 sets X 7 reps Regular - 1 set X 10

friday evening - 3 sets of pushups - 10, 10, 7 shoulders are sore

Thursday evening update - pushups 2 sets of 10

Here's a quick progress update. I'm tracking in an app since it is easier. Life goal (reading) - I am working on another book, sleep is slipping a little but not too much. 1. Pushups - changed the challenge tonight 2. Tracking macros - tracked every bite Aug 7 - 2759, Aug 8 - 1952, Aug 9 - 2388, Aug 10 - 2103, Aug 11 - 2014, Aug 12- 1907 3. Physical training - Workouts are going well and I increased my running distance slightly. Aug 7 - running, Aug 8 - walking (some hills), Aug 9 - walking (some hills), Aug 10 - running, Aug 11 - weights, Aug 12 - running (increased distance)

Sorry about the delay in responding but life got busy and I was away from the computer for a few days. I took your advice to heart and had a good look at my motivation. Last weekend I went to a folk festival and noticed a huge improvement in my fitness compared to last year. The festival is held on a short ski hill and it was much easier to walk up and down carrying my son. I held out against the lure of the food trucks much better than last year. My coffee intake was much less because I was not nearly as tired this year. On the way home I was able to carry my sleepy son the whole way from the bus to my house without stopping, even though he is heavier than last year. Overall I can see lots of improvement compared to last year. The NF process works!!! So I took your advice to look at motivation and decided to push through the mental block on the pushup challenge. I have had mental blocks in the past (running, olympic bar) and feel good for eventually pushing through them. I used the folk fest experience to compare this round of pushups to my starting state on the last challenge. After doing some tonight I noticed that my shoulders and arms are a lot stronger than last time. My abs are still a bit shaky but not nearly as bad as last time. This is probably due to the weight lifting. If I'm seeing gradual improvement then it is worth continuing the exercises in the hope of feeling better overall. So here goes ... back to pushups competition - my friends don't do pushups but I'll challenge myself to do them 3 times a week in the evenings while making dinner reward - each successful week = dinner out Saturday night (no cooking or dishes - great reward) check boxes / tracking - I like writing my sets on a postcard and watching it fill up. I think that I'll continue with this method up the difficulty - I have a set of rings that are getting neglected except when my son wants to swing. I'll commit to doing a set of pushups on the rings once a week just to mix things up. The pushups tonight were four sets - 10, 10, 12, 7 reps respectively

I haven't forgotten about the challenge even though I haven't been posting daily. I've been finding it easier to track everything in my macro app so haven't been looking at this forum as often as I would like. So far everything is on track except the pushups. I'm not sure why I have such a mind block against pushups. I know that I'll do great at them once I start but am having trouble starting. Would love some advice from you folks to get past this speed bump. Anyway ... Life goal (reading) - I worked hard to make time for reading without sacrificing sleep and it paid off. I finished one book and have just started another one. Success! 1. Pushups - still stuck at the start line - nothing accomplished 2. Tracking macros - the app works perfectly and it allows me to add foods that aren't already in the database. Loving it so far and I've been excruciatingly honest with myself. August 2nd was a big day but the NF mantra helped by reminding me to never slip twice in a row. Jul 30 - 2053 kcal, Jul 31 - 2452, Aug 1 - 2453, Aug 2 - 3216, Aug 3 - 1825, Aug 4 - 1744, Aug 5 - 1919, Aug 6 - 1730 3. Physical training - I'm very happy with the workouts these last two weeks, even allowing for a slow down over the long weekend. I was able to increase my squat and bench press while maintaining my distance running. Goal #2 (macros) has helped a lot since I have almost doubled my protein intake and it helped me move past a plateau that I've been on for quite a while. Jul 30 - weights 45 minutes, Jul 31 - walking, Aug 1 - hiking in the mountains, Aug 2 - walking, Aug 3 - walking, Aug 4 - running 50 minutes, Aug 5 - weights 45 minutes, Aug 6 - running 45 minutes

Hello Luciana and mr_willes, Thanks for offering advice. I'm going to listen to you since you both have some good experience with these challenges and fitness in general. I've modified the pushup goal to 500 for the total challenge to give myself room to grow into them. That will definitely take the pressure off when life gets busy. I hope you both enjoy your own challenges this time around. Best of luck.

Mini Quest 1: yes over a long period of time. All my goals are short term but are aimed at giving me more strength and energy to do cool stuff later on. I'm building a base for the future. Building toward main quest - total body strength with good energy levels. I have already started on #2 & 3 but want to nail them down into habits. #1 will be the toughest but if I push forward it will lead to better health Realistic over a long period of time. this is a marathon, not a sprint Yes, I can track them all using different metrics Reward is feeling better. Grading is # of days / week Will change the goals if necessary I have vacation time during the challenge and one of the goals is to continue my regular workouts during the holiday The pushup goal will make weight training harder but I can adjust I have the time but need to incorporate pushups throughout my day (every half hour or so) I already have time for the other items. The life goal needs me to carve out time twice a week for reading I have multiple habits leading to the main quest. Fitness, food and fun all work together. Your mini quest: Make sure your goals are definitely SMART. For completing this mini quest you will receive an additional +1WIS at the end of the 6 weeks.

Report card: Monday - 1. zero pushups 2. food 1904 activity 2574 3. run 8 km life goal. read 30 mins Tuesday - 1. 33 full pushups - sets 10, 8, 10, 5 2. food 1696 activity 1963 - still feel full 3. weights life goal. nil

Hello mr_willes, Thank you for saying hello and starting a conversation about my goals for this challenge. I would love to join the assassins and will definitely pop into the forum threads that you mentioned. Thanks so much for the invitation. Your questions are very perceptive and truth-be-told I have been asking myself versions of them. 1. Why pushups? Good question since I truly hate them. I am quite consistent at the other activities that I do and I have been doing them for a long time. ~but~ I tend to train my strengths, not my weaknesses, and have some muscle imbalances. Pushups (and pull-ups in the next challenge) will do me a world of good. Once I get to a point where I can do them consistently the extra strength will help me do cool assassin stuff. 2. Why did my first challenge fail? The quick answer is "not enough stick-to-it-ivness". That word isn't in the scrabble dictionary but does use a lot of letters. Actually, I ran out of energy and got too tired to do anything much, including exercise. I've largely fixed this by eating more total calories and especially more protein. The time off between challenges wasn't wasted since I fixed some things that needed work - nutrition being a main one. 3. Precise food tracking helped me figure out what I was doing wrong and fix it. I thought that I was eating enough protein but that wasn't the case at all. Same for veggies and fruits. My process for tracking is that I record the food in the app before eating it. This is quite easy since I make my breakfast and lunch the night before and can record the amounts for the next day as I pack the lunch. I have been using my kitchen scale throughout and have made a huge effort to prepare most of my food at home rather than eating out. This way I can see exactly what the nutrient breakdown is and make a conscious decision whether to make changes with my food choices. 4. What changed ... I started eating right. My energy levels are way up. I'm ready to start again.

Second time's the charm. I enjoyed the good energy in the forums last time and am excited to meet all of you in the coming weeks. The last challenge didn't end well but since then I've worked on making some better habits and feel ready for this go round. I'm respawning with confidence and hope. Last time I promised myself a reward of joining a guild when I achieved a certain goal but didn't make it that far. This time I am going to do the work and get through far enough to join a guild. I'm really excited about this 6 week challenge. Goals: 1. Do 500 pushups per week edit 500 pushups by the end of the 6 week challenge. The pushups can be done in as many sets as required throughout the day, over as many days as I want during the week. If I finish early each week then I'll enjoy some rest days. 2. Track macros daily and continue to clean up my eating for the entire 6 week challenge. Since last time I have tried out a bunch of apps and finally found one that works for me. I've been using Fat Secret Canada and have been obsessive about entering everything that goes in my body. (A little nerdy but I like it.) It's been great for raising awareness and making me question those evening snacks and extra bites of goodness. Now that I have a system that works for tracking I want to make it a continuous habit by working on it daily for 6 weeks. The long term goal is to improve my nutrition to the point that I can relax on the tracking. 3. Workout 5 days a week. My goal is Monday & Wednesday running outside. Tuesday & Thursday weights. Friday yoga or stretching. I do this activity when I am at work in the office gym but have 3 weeks vacation during this 6 week challenge so will have to make extra effort to keep up my routines. Life quest goal: read at least twice a week. The reading must be a book, not website or magazine. Do this without interfering with my new sleeping routine. (I have a busy toddler at home and a FT job. Usually reading is one of the first fun things to go but I want to bring it back into my life.) Report card from last 6 week challenge. goal 1: I didn't finish the pushup goal. goal 2: I did complete the water drinking goal and have continued with it since the challenge ended. I don't get exactly 3 L every day but definitely drink a lot more H2O than before. Feel great. goal 3: The sleeping goal was a tough one but I have found a system for going to bed earlier and actually falling asleep so I'm getting some good zzzz's most nights. I'll call that one a success.