jtj016

Still need a closer coffee pot. I'm going to be on vacation next week, so there's a very good chance I won't get around to posting an update if I'm not sitting at my desk at work. So instead, I'll make a summary of the last 4 days and see what happens next week. So far, I have had an awesome challenge... Goal #1: PLP Challenge Continue the PLP Challenge without missing any days. (on track, no days missed) Going well on this so far. Currently on Day 21. Yesterday was difficult as I knocked my elbow coming out of garobertson's office. Didn't think much of it, but for some reason it really flared up during pushups. Pull ups were fine (although I will have to break these into more than 2 sets now), but I couldn't get to the pushups for some time. Gave my elbow a little rest and just did a few pushups here and there throughout the evening, so I still hit 20. We'll see if this is getting better tonight. Goal #2: Handstand Time Hold a handstand position for 5 minutes each day. (on track, no days missed) This is pretty hard. I expected some soreness in my wrists (which I certainly have), but I'm surprised by the actual muscle requirement of this exercise. It likely has to do with the PLP challenge. I'm currently breaking this up into 5 sets at one minute each. I would like to see this go to only 2 or 3 sets by the end of the challenge. Goal #3: Primarily Primal Cook 5 Paleo meals per week. (a little behind. I have cooked two meals so far this week. I was planning on having four cooked by now.) Not worried about being slightly behind on this one. I actually need to hit the grocery store soon anyway. Life Goal: Disc Golf Par Achieve par or better on the front 9 holes of my local disc golf course. (complete!) "Wait, whaaaat? Does that say 'complete'? But the challenge just started!" Right you are, hypothetical questioner! Apparently what I needed to get this done was a good push from a Nerd Fitness challenge and lotta luck. Skill. I meant skill. Anyway, scored 27 (exactly 3 on each hole), so woot! So that's my challenge so far. Hope everyone is doing great!

Definitely looks like everyone is posting directly to the mini-challenge page. I would also make notes of what you do here though.

Use to do a little bit, but I was never very good at it. I can occasionally hold a short stand, between 5 and 15 seconds at best. I've found that to really balance, you have to be able to hold a good amount of pressure on your fingers. That's why I decided to add holding this pose to my 6-week challenge. Thanks for the comment, and good luck to you too!

Good afternoon all! It feels like the last challenge JUST ended! My last one went pretty well, but had some room for improvement. Here we are at challenge number four! As a quick summary of my main goal progress, my (continuing) main goal right now is to get down to 15% body fat. Last challenge I went from just over 20% to about 17.5%. I lost right at 10 pounds, which was about 2/3 fat and 1/3 lean weight. I wasn't thrilled about losing that lean body mass, but my challenge included only dieting with no muscle-building exercises, so I can't say that I was surprised. Since the challenge ended, I began the PLP challenge (today is day 17), so this will be a big part of the new 6-Week Challenge. So, here we go. Goals Main Epic Quest -- Get down to 15% body fat. Goal #1: PLP Challenge Continue the PLP Challenge without missing any days. Technically this is scheduled to end on September 9th. My focus will be to continue this challenge without missing days. Stats: 4 STR, 1 CHA Grades (A, B, C, D, F) – Miss/Get Behind (0-1, 2, 3, 4+) Days Goal #2: Handstand Time Hold a handstand position for 5 minutes each day. Need to work on my arm strength for holding handstands. This goal will be to hold a handstand position (against a wall) for a certain amount of time each day. Stats: 1 DEX, 2 STA, 2 CHA Grades (A, B, C, D, F) – Miss (0-1, 2, 3, 4+) Days Goal #3: Primarily Primal Cook 5 Paleo meals per week. I want to cook 5 Paleo meals for my wife and myself each week. I will eat a wider range of things on the weekends. Stats: 2 CON, 1 CHA Grades (A, B, C, D, F) – Cook a total of (30+, 27-29, 24-26, 21-25, 20-) Paleo meals Life Goal: Disc Golf Par Achieve par or better on the front 9 holes of my local disc golf course. I have really started to enjoy Disc Golf over the last few months. Obviously I have my on and off days, but I am getting better overall. I would really like to get a par on my local course by the end of this challenge. Stats: 2 DEX Grades (A, B, C, D, F) – Pass/Fail Part of my diet plan is to continue 20/4 Intermittent Fasting for the workweek. I find this works really well with my schedule and self-control around all things scrumptious. Due to the fact that I am trying to build a bit of muscle (and will need it for the PLO), I will basically be shoveling food in my face in that 4 hour window. I don’t know if I am going to continue counting calories, but it would be interesting to see how eating primarily Paleo affects my BFP while eating a calorie abundance. So those are my goals. I’ve got a good feeling about this one!

Oh hey look the challenge is over. I should probably post results. Now, let's see here... - Walk at least 10K steps every day -- 42 days straight, totaling 530,203 steps or 251 miles. Nailed this goal! I think the hardest moment of this goal was one night in about week 4 when I had already climbed into bed to realize I still had over a mile to walk. I was "this" close to just missing that one day. Glad I didn't. - Average a daily deficit of 1,000 calories -- Averaged 653 over the whole challenge. Still a good deficit, but not enough for a passing grade. - Track calories for all days -- Kept it up. Didn't miss a day! Toughest part was definitely that one week on vacation. Ate multiple home cooked meals, and at least one buffet (a nightmare to enter if you are one of those people who likes to try a little of everything). Regardless, kept my motivation up and took pictures of every complicated meal I had to better remember what to put in later. - No alcohol for the duration of the challenge -- Woo! Admittedly, this was pretty easy most of the time. Hardest part was turning down a new beer flavor that my brother-in-law had bought specifically for my visit. I'll make it up to him one day. Grading: Goal (A, B, C, D, F) 10K Steps Every Day (42 days, 40 days, 38 days, 36 days, <36 days) Result: A (+1 CON, +2 STA, +1 DEX) 1,000 Average Deficit (1000 cal, 925 cal, 850 cal, 775 cal, <775 cal) Result: F (+Nothin'.) Track Calories Daily (42 days, 40 days, 38 days, 36 days, <36 days) Result: A (+3 WIS) Zero alcoholic drinks (pass / fail) Result: A (+2 WIS) Other Results: Over three days I weighed in an average of 164.5 pounds and 17.6% BF, down from ~175 pounds and ~20.3% BF. Quite happy with these results. One item I am concerned with is my lean muscle mass, which went from ~139.5 lb to ~135.5, assuming my scale's weight and BF% are accurate. Due to this I've started working on the PLP challenge (on day 11 today) which I have no doubt will have me cursing within the next week. Maybe I'll post an update on this challenge thread as it goes along. Anyway, hope everybody did great on this challenge!

That was absolutely awesome. Stupid thieves. Just asking for trouble. And hey! Chris is right! You get stat points!

Challenge Update - Week 3 and 4 Summary So. I definitely hit that part of the challenge where I said "screw it, I will stuff my face with all the food." That typically comes around Week 4, and man did it ever. I was on vacation for the last week, mostly out of town and visiting relatives. I ate probably two healthy meals the whole week. Did plenty of walking and actually still tracked my calories, so those goals are good. And actually managed to turn down beerfest at the zoo, so I guess it's not all that bad. - Walk at least 10K steps every day -- Haven't missed a day yet. Current average is 13,292. - Average a daily deficit of 1,000 calories -- Averaging 602. Yeah, the week was that bad. I can still bring this up to a passing grade. - Track calories for all days -- Still going good. - No alcohol for the duration of the challenge -- Oh, beerfest at the zoo... I'm so sorry... Got down to and still hovering at ~17% body fat, so that's good news. My goal is still attainable, but will definitely take some work. Have an awesome 2-last-weeks all!

Still sounds pretty good for a Level 0: Couch Potato. 2 sets of 20 pushups is better than no pushups (actually that's pretty impressive). Just strive to be a little better every day than the day before. Also don't worry about the weight thing. Body weight fluctuates significantly from all sorts of factors. If you have a calorie deficit, you will lose fat. But the scale is not always a good indicator of how that's progressing.

Challenge Update - Week 2 Summary Woo! 2 weeks in! 33% of the way there. - Walk at least 10K steps every day -- Current average is 13,239. Been hitting over 16,000 a day for a few days, just to see if I could. (okay, maybe because it would give me 100K in a week, but that's beside the point...) - Average a daily deficit of 1,000 calories -- Averaging 1022. Actually had one really bad day (thank you office pizza day). Still happy with my progress here. - Track calories for all days -- Going good. - No alcohol for the duration of the challenge -- Good going. Losing weight at a good rate. Currently around 170 and 18.5% Body Fat. I expect the weight loss to slow down a bit as the challenge proceeds, but I'm well on my way to my goal. Have a great week all!

Yo Robertson! I think an update is due!

I agree with Hazard. The Assassin's Guild would be I perfect for a beast like yourself. On the Outback meal, it may not seem like much that you skipped the cheese fries and substituted a sweet potato (which by the way is much better for than a baked potato). But it's those little things that really add up in the end. I like to use coke as an example, but since you don't drink coke, I'll just stick to the cheese fries. It may not seem like much that you skipped the quarter of the cheese fries that you might have eaten (which according to Outback would be about 300 if you ordered the small to share), but if you could make that kind of smart decision every day, that would turn into 9000 calories a month. That's about 2 1/2 pounds per month just from making a single smart decision every day. The same logic applies to the walking. As a very general rule, a person averages 100 calories burned per mile walked. Your 10,000 steps per day would put you just over 5 miles. Say that you have to make a notable effort to get to that 10K, and wind up walking even 2K additional steps every day than you normally would. That right there is about 100 extra calories burned per day, or just a bit under a pound per month. And that's assuming you normally walk 8K steps per day (to put this in reference, the average American walks only 5K). This was a really long way of saying keep up the awesome work. Those little things really do add up. Keep going like you are and I know you'll see some serious progress through this challenge.

Challenge Update - Week 1 Summary Kinda hard to believe we are only a week into this challeng- - Walk at least 10K steps every day -- Current average is 10,632. - Average a daily deficit of 1,000 calories -- Averaging 1019, despite this week having a birthday party, pizza night, and a family reunion. I'm pretty please with that!. - Track calories for all days -- All days tracked so far. - No alcohol for the duration of the challenge -- One weekend down, 5 to go! Looking forward to a great week!

Challenge Updates: Day 1 and 2 - Walk at least 10K steps every day -- Yup. - Average a daily deficit of 1,000 calories -- Nailin' it. - Track calories for all days -- So far so good. - No alcohol for the duration of the challenge -- It's a Wednesday. Not even a challenge yet. I have not done a workout yet, but I have been fairly active. Need to get on those Assassin skills and start running here and there. My buddy Garobertson19 and I did play some disc golf over our lunch break, which is way better than sitting at my desk like I normally do. Probably going to make that a weekly thing.

Done and done. Sorry about that!

Behold! A clever introduction! Hello again Assassins. It has been some time since last we met. I hope that you all remain in the best of shape and health. I have spent many nights vanquishing my enemies without mercy, plundering the vast riches of the land and savoring the scent of the plumes of smoke and ash that lay behind me. And now that the blood from my foes spills over the desolate earth like a flood do I realize that so much Call of Duty has affected my waistline. This challenge will focus on reducing my body fat. I do not care for building muscle through weightlifting, however, so I will continue to follow the wisdom provided by the Assassins to train the most powerful tool at my disposal. Primary Goal: Get down to 15% Body Fat (from ~20%) Side Quests: - Walk at least 10K steps every day (+1 CON, +2 STA, +1 DEX) - Average a daily deficit of 1,000 calories (+3 CHA, +3 CON) - Track calories for all days (+3 WIS) Life Quest: - No alcohol for the duration of the challenge (+2 WIS) Here is how I will grade these: Goal (A, B, C, D, F) 10K Steps Every Day (42 days, 40 days, 38 days, 36 days, <36 days) 1,000 Average Deficit (1000 cal, 925 cal, 850 cal, 775 cal, <775 cal) Track Calories Daily (42 days, 40 days, 38 days, 36 days, <36 days) Zero alcoholic drinks (pass / fail) I know I have more work to do on this post, but it's a start. Good luck all! Update 6/23/14: Added stat points to goals