Lethanialist

Day 0 (day 1?) check-in! Weight: 160.6 Body fat (according to scale, so accuracy is iffy): 22% Push-ups (single set): 15 Rows (single set): mutters something indistinctly Books: Started The Hobbit, I've never actually read any of Tolkien's work but late is better than never!

Woo, got bronze in both! It may have been last minute, with my wife staring at me like I was mad for dropping down to hold planks before Game of Thrones started, but it was worth it for the sense of accomplishment!

Look at those muscles and the challenge hasn't even started! Taking before pics is awesome because you never know when they'll need a new poster child for a Nerd Fitness success story

No going back and fixing yesterday, but I picked myself up and did some great strength training today. I really like the Skywalker Method thread, too! There's not as much "gear" for body weight training but maybe I'll buy some gym clothes just to set the mood, anyway. I also decided today that instead of just going for walks to get 10,000 steps I'm going to do the Zombies, Run! 5k app, so hopefully it's a matter of getting the right cues in place and making sure I get things done before I sit down. I'm traveling for business the next two weeks so it'll be a fun challenge to keep up with everything!

Really struggling to keep myself accountable and the challenge hasn't started I had an off day on Thursday, I attended a training event at work all day and into the evening, so when I got home I was tired and just wanted to rest. However, I ended up doing nothing on Friday, and Saturday is half-over and I've barely moved! Needless to say I'm going to try and kick my butt into shape now, but this is proving to be a challenge already...

Changed my goal thanks to Gryph's suggestions! Instead of 75 pushups I want to balance the push & pull and will aim for 40 pushups and 40 rows in a single set. I'm confident I can do the pushups if I stick to the program, because I was able to do over 20 total (sets of 5, 7, 6, 4 and 4), but I burned out after a set of 3 rows yesterday. I think that makes it a relatively equal challenge

So many cat stories, and now I've got one to add! One of our cats decided he wanted to make my dips a little harder, so he jumped up on the chair behind me, stood up on his hind legs and put his paws on my shoulders. Unfortunately the little guy only weighs about 10 pounds, so at most he was adding a pound or two of pressure. He stayed with me until I was finished, though, so at least I've got a spotter!

I love the new theme! Glad you got to nerd out and have a little fun with the post Quick breakfast is really tough. I've had a little success making scrambled eggs with (coconut/almond/cows) milk and microwaving on very low power to reheat them. I've also cooked a large batch of breakfast potatoes ahead of time, they reheat easily in the microwave as well (or high heat in a skillet if you like them crispy). I know it's the cheap way out, but it's healthier than a donut or bagel and I can do a few things to get ready for the day while they're heating up. Until I get the willpower to wake up earlier, it'll have to do!

Thanks for the advice! I'll have to look into rowing. Honestly, I have a personal preference for bodyweight over machines, but I might look into rowing since I'm not quite ready for pull-ups. Either that or bent-over dumbbell rows and body weight rows. I also just found out that I can only get 14 stat points for my first week challenge, so I'm going to have to update accordingly! I think I'm going to change my water intake to [CON+2] instead of [CON+3] since it requires willpower only, and the rest of the challenges require willpower and physical ability. Wait till week 1 is over, I have the "recap" in my second post but I'm planning to reply to my thread with a much more detailed (and themed!) weekly update

Never done a plank before! I guess it's a little late for me to join but I'll give it a shot! As a complete beginner I'm going to aim for bronze, but that's more than I would've done alone

Thanks for the kind words, everyone! I average 3000 steps per day because I work in a very tiny office space (data center with only a few cubes), but I frequently get up to 8-10k when I make an effort to compete with others. I'm glad you all like the theme so much! Didn't think it would be that well-received. I have to say, I got the idea from looking at Phoenix Riviera's Avengers challenge, so I'm not as creative as you guys think I am. Don't want to steal the credit

Your character starts at level 0, then levels up to 1 and gets 10 points when you're halfway through the first challenge. When you finish the challenge you get one point per goal (maximum of 4 points).. Check out the rules here. When this challenge ends, you could be level 2 with 14 points! Feel free to return the ass-kicking if I'm not sticking to my goals, a little friendly banter and competition is always good! And I feel your pain on replacing coffee with soda. My wife works at Starbucks and I managed to kick the coffee habit once until she started bringing free drinks home! I think it's human nature to substitute things. Hopefully we can make it with peppermint water (that sounds really good), knowing that it'll increase our constitution

I'm hoping the pushups are that repetitive, mindless type work after a while. The Runtastic app is pretty neat, you put it on the ground in front of you and touch your nose to it to count pushups. It beeps at you and tells you how many you have left, and I'm a sucker for technology so it makes it a little fun. The Fitbit is great if you have friends on it! I work a VERY sedentary job, but my coworkers do the "Workweek Hustle" and "Weekend Warrior" challenges and the app prods you with notifications like "Just 500 more steps to pass ___!" or "Get moving! ___ is catching up to you." We also have a group chat and encourage/shame people into moving a little bit more. If you have your phone on you at all times, Fitbit has a feature called "MotionTrack" which uses your phone's accelerometer to count steps. If you add some friends you can get right in on challenges!

Congratulations on starting a challenge, and those are some great goals! I could never do paleo myself, but I personally believe the most important thing is buying higher-quality food in general. Nobody's going to kick you out for drinking milk (at least I hope not!). I noticed your body weight and cardio goals are easy to measure (three times a week). Have you thought about making your other goals measurable? I'm planning on cutting candy as part of a challenge (either adding it to the one starting on June 8 or waiting for the next) and I'm going to set a cap, like no more than 1 serving of candy/sweets per week. That way, if I need a cheat day I don't feel like I'm failing the entire quest. Once a week is still better than I am right now, and it's not as drastic of a change Good luck, and I'm looking forward to reading your success stories over the next six weeks!