hotacidbath

I feel like such a bluegrass noob for completely forgetting Ralph Stanley. I am ashamed. I've heard John Prine before, but don't have him in my iTunes so I'm going to fix this right away. I'm not from Kentucky but my dad went to UK and both my parents lived in Lexington for about 10 years so, while I was born and raised in Illinois, I have a big soft spot in my heart for Kentucky and visit about once a year.

Which groups are you into, I'm a big bluegrass fan too. It helps being from KY, I've been surrounded by it since birth. Totally agree with you about punk being great to work out to. My favorite band right now, who I think everyone should listen to, is Trampled by Turtles. They're fast, talented, and some great guys to boot. I saw them live over the summer and they were phenomenal. My roommate and I are also planning to see them again in December. I just can't say enough good things about this band. A few other bands that I like are Carolina Chocolate Drops, Pert' Near Sandstone, Bill Monroe and His Bluegrass Boys, Punch Brothers, Justin Townes Earle, Doc Watson, and Old Crow Medicine Show. How about you? Any good bands to recommend?

I'm with you on the coffee. I've cut myself back from three cups a day to just one in the morning, but I can't take the final leap to get rid of it completely. I just count it as a vice, along with the occasional beer of course, to allow myself so that I keep on track with everything else.

I like tuna, and fish in general, a lot and actually just had some for lunch because of your suggestion, but I really try to limit myself to tuna once or twice every few weeks. I go to a natural resources college so the dangers of toxins in fish is something that's been drilled into my head for years. I really like this idea a lot and will definitely try it for tomorrow.

I'm a big fan of Team Discovery Channel, and I hope that my wussiness will come in handy. I guess I'll put in a little background as well starting with the user name since you mentioned it. It's one that I picked up a few years ago when I was a big fan of punk music. It's based off of the lyric "boiling acid bath, pulmonary wrath" from Richard Hung Himself by D.I., but since boilingacidbath is usually too long for a screen name I shortened it to hotacidbath and just sort of stuck with it. While I'm more of a bluegrass/newgrass fan nowadays, I find that punk music is one of the greatest genres to use for workout playlists since it's usually fast and angry. About Me: I'm a 22-year-old college super-senior and I've wanted to be a zookeeper my whole life. Everything I've done in school has been geared toward accomplishing that. While I've volunteered at zoos and kennels in the past, this summer I did my first internship which gave me a lot of great experience. Something I never realized though was how physical it was. You're on your feet all day, crouching and twisting and bending around exhibits to get every bit of poo (while dodging new poo, damn primates), there is a lot of heavy lifting and some zoos have exhibits that simply aren't made for fat people (I'm looking at you, 6ftx3ftx3ft snake exhibit). I'm already at a disadvantage for being somewhat tall (5'9") and I don't want being out of shape to hinder me from doing what I've always wanted. This is a big part of the reason I'm trying to slim down dramatically before I graduate and get thrown into the real world. I've been doing the Couch to 5K program as well as some beginner weight training and have lost over 10 pounds since starting in early September with little to no change in diet. For this challenge I'm going to dramatically change my diet by going paleo as well as try and get into a more serious weight routine. I'm really liking this team thing and I look forward to any suggestions on how I can improve what I'm doing.

Yeah, I've really been enjoying the C25K program a lot. It keeps me from starting too hard and burning myself out which is something I've done every single time I tried to start running in the past.

Fellow mandolin player here. How long have you been playing?

Day 2: Foods! Breakfast: One of my egg quiches that I prepared yesterday and an apple. The quiche turned out better than I thought and it filled me up so I didn't get hungry again until noon. That never happened with milk and cereal and I'd always be hungry by 10:30. Lunch: Same spinach salad from yesterday. I need to start looking up some lunch recipes. Snack: Toasted acorn squash seeds. Dinner: Stuffed chicken again but this time I added some peppers and put salsa on the side. Sauteed acorn squash for dessert. Came out much better than the baked squash. Workout: 1 hour of TKD class, hour break, then a 15 minute warm up, 45 minutes of weights, and a 15 minute cool down. From TKD I noticed my balance has improved from the beginning of the semester, but my spinning techniques are way off so I need to start working on my core more to try and improve there. Life: The good news is that I completed a project that's been put off and is due tomorrow, the bad news is that it's a group project and I mostly did it by myself. :/ I also realized today that I didn't get winded from running up three flights of stairs to avoid being late to class. This is a definite improvement over the huffing and puffing up those same stairs in the past.

I haven't (my current town is too small for a team) but my friend from home did. She said she got a really good workout from it and would be drenched in sweat after practice as well as having a blast doing it. From what she described, it sounded kind of like different push-ups in a sense. To explain that better, when you see someone doing push-ups it just looks like they're doing push-ups. In reality, each different push-up type (diamond, fingertip, knuckle, etc.) is accomplishing something different. Same goes for roller derby drills. Some are for increasing speed, some are for balance, and some are for knocking the crap out of the other girls. As for liking it, that really depends on the team. If the team is full of great girls then you're sure to have a good time, but if it's full of girls you don't like at all then your time would be better spent elsewhere. I hope that sort of answered what you were asking. Personally, once I graduate school and move to a bigger town I'm going to start looking for a roller derby team to join. I'd say give it a try and if you don't like it then you haven't lost anything but a few hours of your time.

Goals: Lose 10-15 pounds, continue with the Couch to 5K program, go 95-100% paleo, be overall more awesome. Secondary goals are better flexibility and to improve my TKD sparring. Life goals are finish reading at least one book, learn three new songs on the mandolin and get an A on at least one exam this month. Day one: Foods! Breakfast: Special K Vanilla Almond with skim milk and a cup of coffee. I know it's not paleo, but I didn't have time to make breakfast so this was my last bowl of cereal for a while. Lunch: Spinach salad with tomatoes, mushrooms, cucumbers and some EVOO, balsamic vinegar and seasonings for dressing. If I mention dressing for meals, that mixture is what it will most likely be. Dinner: Chicken breast stuffed with spinach, mushrooms, asparagus, shallots, and green onions. This was my first time making it and it was awesome. I had some baked acorn squash for dessert. I baked mini egg quiches for breakfast for the next few days. These have 1 egg each with sun-dried tomatoes, spinach, mushrooms, green onions and shallots. Also, if anyone has any good chicken recipes I would love to hear them. Fitness: I was going to start week 5 of Couch to 5K today, but I had Tae Kwon Do testing yesterday (I'm now a high blue belt) and since I got a little beat up from sparring and board breaking I decided to give my poor busted feet a bit of a running break this week. I did 35 minutes of elliptical instead. Life leveling: I had a job interview today that I feel went well and I started making flash cards for my exam next week.

I'm excited, it's my first 28 day challenge. Fitness/nutrition goals 1. Lose 10-15 pounds 2. Complete weeks 5,6, and 7 of the Couch to 5K program. 3. Go 95-100% paleo. I started easing into it last week by going about 75%, but I want to go all out. It also helps that the local farmer's market is in full swing and runs Wednesdays through Sundays. Non-fitness goals Learn three new songs on mandolin, finish the book I'm reading (Bonk by Mary Roach who is one of my favorite authors), and get an A on at least one of my upcoming exams.

I've always wanted to do a Warrior Dash or Mud Run and I think getting a Nerd Fitness team together would be great incentive for me personally. I wonder if there would be a way to do regional meet-ups which might ease up on travel costs a bit.

I really like the first one as blue is more my color, but would totally buy either one.

We do something similar in my taekwondo class. You execute a roundhouse kick at waist height or above and then spell out the alphabet. This works on leg strength, hip flexors and balance. Probably a few other things too, but I'm usually grimacing too much to notice. Once you're done, do the same with the other leg. And if the leg starts dropping below the waist (and the instructor catches you) then it's time to start the alphabet over again. A funny one to watch is when we have to write our names. My full name is fairly short so it's not that bad, but being in Wisconsin with a bunch of long Polish names in the class makes for a humorous sight after I'm done and everyone else is dealing with Leszcynski or Tomaszewski or Zalewski.

Oh man, I want to get one of those and be Green Man!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXsvvsxh ... re=related

I'll probably go with my old stand-by of college student. I really need to become more creative.

I get up at 6:30 everyday and in the past month I've only been woken up by alarm clock once. It has gotten to the point where I just naturally wake up at 6:29 and I'm able to hop up, turn my alarm off, and go about my morning. For me, it's just something I've trained myself to do and now it's to the point where it is physically impossible for me to sleep past 8:00 no matter how hard I try. I've always been a morning person though. I'm not sure the best way to go about it except for simply waking up early everyday until your internal clock figures out what's happening and decides that's the routine.

I second this idea. Having a hiking conversation would be grand. Grand I say.

I use some Sony headphones that I found at Best Buy which fit like a glove and have never fallen out (except for when I accidentally yank them out). I think it's because of the long clip which curves around my entire ear. These are the only ear bud/clip headphones I've had that haven't hurt my ears, and they're cheap. I have big ears though so I can't say how they'll work for you. http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/sto ... d=11035989

If practical self defense (and I do agree on the run before fighting stance) isn't an issue then TKD is great. My balance and flexibility have increased dramatically since I started. There is sparring in TKD, but it's all very regulated and you're well protected with a chest protector, head gear, mouth guard, forearm guards, shin and foot guards, and they just recently added gloves to the required gear. The only time I've ever gotten bruised in TKD was when sparring with overenthusiastic lower belts with no control, but it's still nothing close to muay thai so I'm thinking you're pretty safe. Typically at the gym I'll do about 15 minutes of cardio with about half an hour of strength training followed by another 15 to 30 minutes of cardio. I'm still trying to get the hang of strength training, but I have been looking into the body weight programs which look like a good place to start. I think my biggest problem area is going to be my legs so squats and jumps are definitely in order. This place has been a really great resource for body weight training and I'm looking forward to learning more about it.

I really want to have the body of Missy Peregrym in "Stick It" since she's muscular without being bulky.

I won't be running with my roommate anytime soon since he does ten miles a day and I can barely jog two, but I'm going to try the couch to 5k program so maybe in the future we'll be running partners. My workout routine is currently a mishmash of going to the gym, riding my bike around town, and my schools TKD club, but I'm hoping to create a more concrete routine over the next few weeks as I figure out what works best for me. I also highly recommend TKD as a beginning martial art. It is based more in control, balance, speed, and flexibility over brute strength and is a great introduction into the basics of martial arts. The downside is that it's unrealistic for self-defense. It is based more in kicking over punching. In sparring, kicks are scored by contact to point areas while punches are only scored if the opponent is moved by the punch. This makes it very hard to score with punches so it just makes more sense to use your energy on kicks. There is also no grappling. With all that being said, I love it. My balance has greatly improved, it gives me an outlet to let loose my frustrations, and I've made a lot of great friends. After I move to a bigger town though, I plan at looking into other martial arts styles (I'm currently leaning towards hapkido) to learn better self-defense tactics while still sticking with TKD.

In the immortal words of Dr. Nick, "hi everybody!" I've come to this site with the goal of losing weight and getting in shape for a few different reasons, but first a little background. I'm a 22-year-old, female, college student who is planning on working as a zookeeper after graduation. I've been overweight my entire life, even when I was on two different swim teams and practicing for 5-6 hours a day for five days a week (I was in shape but still overweight). My doctor pretty much told me that I would always be above the normal weight ranges for my height. Once he told me that I sort of gave up on ever being skinny, which was a pretty devastating realization for a 12-year-old girl. After quitting swimming in high school my weight ballooned and I've been sitting at the same spot for 6 years. I always made promises to myself to lose weight, it's just never happened and I was never able to stick to a plan. I often made up bullshit excuses to avoid going to the gym, but no more! A few things have happened in recent months that have inspired me to lose weight. The first was some unintended (though not unwelcomed) weight loss from working outside all summer. It gives me a bit of a jumping off point. The second was getting a vegetarian marathon runner roommate. It's a lot easier to eat healthy and work out when he goes for a ten mile run and I just end up feeling guilty if I don't go out and do something. I also have hopes of improving enough in Taekwondo (balance and flexibility are good, but speed and stamina need a lot of improvement) to test for my black belt by the summer. I'm currently a blue belt so it's not impossible but it will be a challenge. The final reason and most important is that I'm just sick and tired of constantly wanting to improve, but not taking any of the steps to reach my goals. I've only just started a little over a week ago, but I've already made a lot of changes. I'm hoping with the support of this nerdy community that I will reach my goals and become fit as a fiddle.