WhiteBeltBrowncoat

Hey All, I'm back. Last challenge went well, I didn't hit everything I wanted to, but life is a process. Big Picture *Current Weight: 240lbs *Goal Weight: 175lbs swinging for the fences here, I haven't seen this since high school 16 years ago *Short Term Goal: Weigh 235lbs by the end of the challenge. Adulting: *Two items from Flylady's detail cleaning per day *One more thing that is adultish here Movement: *Simple and Sinister 5 times a week *Fighter Pullup Program 5 times a week Eating: *Practice 16/8 Intermittent Fasting 5 out of 7 days *Track food using MyFitnessPal

Wow I can't believe the 4 week is done already. That snuck up super fast. To recap: Weigh under 240 at the end of the challenge: Fail. I held pretty steady throughout around 242. I bounced down to 240.2 at the lowest but keep bouncing around. I did drop about 3 lbs over the challenge so I at least made progress. Eat at least 2 servings of veggies and 1 of fruit: This has gone really well. My lunches now have carrots and snap peas as an always include. Fruit I don't have a huge yen for them so it is more of a struggle to remember to throw an apple in my lunch bag. Track using MyFitnessPal: mixed bag on this. I tend to add lunches, usually add dinners during the weekdays, but then don't add anything on the weekend. Something to improve on next time. Intermittent Fasting: I stopped tracking whether or not I did this so I can't really say if it happened or not. Exercise: This went really well. I didn't hit 5 times a week, but I got at least 3 times. I'm starting the full 100 swings/10 getups this week, and as a super big bonus, there is no shoulder pain. For once I haven't jumped too far too fast! Forgot to mention it on here before, but I also started pairing the 3-Rep Max Fighter Pullup Program with my S&S sessions and now am up to the 5-Rep max stage. I feel like I could do more, but am deliberately keeping it slow. Donate Stuff: Success. We dropped off one car load. Still have more to go, but it is progress! Shred Stuff: Fail. Didn't happen. Pick a Chore and Do It: Fail. This stopped before we hit the halfway point of the challenge. Overall, I feel good about this challenge. I didn't hit everything I wanted to, but I feel like I'm moving in the right direction. I appreciate all of the feedback and encouragement from you guys. Thanks!

I'm jealous of your rosemary and basil. For whatever reason I can't grow mint or rosemary. The two things that are supposed to be unkillable I've managed to kill multiple times.

I tried to do the rows using the table once and just about flipped it over onto me. Definitely recommend the door frame version.

Hey Nerd Family. Sorry I haven't been checking in. Life keeps going on. We've been doing Fallish things, pumpkin patches and the like. So far the challenge has been going mostly well. I haven't been hitting 100% on everything, but I am doing better than I was before the challenge. Food Eat Fruits and Veggies: I've improved on this one a lot. I've settled into more of a routine now of bringing Carrots, Sugar snap peas, string cheese, and a kind bar for lunches. Sometimes I'll add some leftovers from the night before. This "standard" lunch makes getting ready in the mornings a lot easier than staring at the fridge wondering "what do I feel like today..." Track using MyFitnessPal: I'm falling off on this one. I need to step it up some. I tend to track during the week, but weekends I fall off. Usually there is some sort of eating out that is more of a pain to try and enter, and that stops me. Intermittent Fasting (16/8): This has been kinda happening, kinda not. Maybe 4 our of 7 days a week I don't eat breakfast and go straight to lunch. Movement Simple and Sinister: This has been feeling good. I haven't been hitting everyday, more like 4 times a week, but still improving. I'm up to 90 swings and 8 TGUs and am looking forward to hitting 100 and 10 next week. Adulting Pick one chore and do it: I stopped doing the adulting things. I need to get back on it. Donate Stuff: [ ] (0/1) Although we did drop off a carload of stuff to donate, that felt good getting it out of the house. It ended up being a hassle though. The first place we went to had a one box limit and they weren't taking clothes or toys (everything that we had). Shred Stuff: [ ] (0/1) Really need to do this... And that's about where life lies at the moment. Going to try and clean the house up tonight so we can go away for the weekend and come home to a somewhat clean house.

More like this one:

Your episode recaps are awesome. I am getting more and more curious about Avatar and need to find a way to watch it.

That is awesome. Congrats!

I know for a lot of people when they hear Gremlins, Gizmo is what comes to mind. For me at least, Gremlins always evokes this:

If you have Kindle Unlimited The Unbelieveable Mr. Brownstone is free and pretty similar to Dresden. Not as rich or in depth, but a fun cotton candy kind of read.

Hey All, I'm not dead yet. We had an awesome weekend, went apple picking and did fallish stuff. Lots of fun. Started reading Harry Potter book 1 with the miniBrowncoat and he has been loving it. I'm already starting to line up other books that we can read together as a family, my wife has firmly reiterated that I am a nerd =) As if she didn't already know this. (The Hobbit; Princess Bride,;Phantom Tollbooth; The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe; I'm torn as to whether we should read Chamber of Secrets and Prisoner of Azkaban right away or if we should squirrel them away for a little bit. I was the right age when Harry Potter first came out that I was almost the same age as Harry for the first 4 or 5 books. Having the time inbetween wasn't a bad thing, plus the books do get darker as they go on) We had a last minute visit from the landlord to look at replacing some of the fences so we had a blitz clean-up-the-outside-of-the-house-and-cross-our-fingers-that-she-doesn't-come-inside morning yesterday. That last minute notice had me scrambling to clean up and didn't get to exercise Monday or Tuesday, but I'm looking forward to it tonight. The cleaning is going to be my extra adulting chore for Monday/Tuesday. The other exciting thing is I got a promotion at work! I'm going to be the Assistant Director in my department. Admittedly we are a small department of 5 people, we will be adding another 1 or 2 in the future, and it means more responsibilities for me. My company is notorious for deadending it's support staff, so it at least will give me something to build on for the future. Plus I got contact info for the Kajukenbo instructor in my town. Haven't gotten a hold of him yet, but will hopefully do so soon. I ended up asking on Nextdoor. Within hours I had responses from his fishing partner and his sister. I guess this is what life in the 21st century in a small town is like now. Sadly, with an 8-year-old boy who is still mastering aiming, can one ever really say that the bathroom is clean?... My brother was saying this too, as well as it being a darker take on Star Wars. It sounds like we should wait a couple years before introducing the miniBrowncoat to it. S&S boils down to an everyday workout of Warmup (3 rounds) 5 goblet squats 5 halos each direction 5 hip bridges Swings (10 sets of 10 reps) Turkish GetUps (10 sets of 1 rep; alternate left and right sides) I love it, it doesn't leave me completely smoked. From what I read, it was originally designed as being a minimum effective workout aimed at people like soldiers, police, firefighters, who need to be in shape, but not completely wasted after exercising. Reddit has a better write up of the program. Scroll down to "What is a good beginner routine" Strongfirst.com is an amazing resource for all things kettlebell. They really dive deep into topics. Week 1 Recap Food Eat Fruits and Veggies: XXXXXXX (7/7) Track using MyFitnessPal: XXXXXXX (7/7) Intermittent Fasting (16/8): X[-][-][ ][ ][ ][ ] (2/7) Movement Simple and Sinister: XXXXX[ ][ ] (5/7) Adulting Pick one chore and do it: XXX[ ][ ][ ][ ] (3/7) Donate Stuff: [ ] (0/1) Shred Stuff: [ ] (0/1) Week 2 Recap Food Eat Fruits and Veggies: XXX[ ][ ][ ][ ] (3/7) Track using MyFitnessPal: XXX[ ][ ][ ][ ] (3/7) Intermittent Fasting (16/8): X[-][-][ ][ ][ ][ ] (1/7) Movement Simple and Sinister: [ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ] (0/7) Adulting Pick one chore and do it: XX[ ][ ][ ][ ][ ] (2/7) Donate Stuff: [ ] (0/1) Shred Stuff: [ ] (0/1)

That is an awesome description.

Hey all, here's a quick update. Food has been going well. I've hit the my goal of 1 serving fruit and 2 servings veggies for the last 3 days. IF (16/8) only happened one day so far, so that could be better. Also have 2 days of food on MyFitnessPal. MFP has been the real eye opener so far. I'm not looking to have exact measurements of everything, but it is shocking how quick all the little snacks add up. After seeing that, I am flipping my food goals for this challenge so that IF (16/8) is my stretch goal and using MFP to track things is one of my main goals. I'll get a lot more benefit out of a month of tracking and being mindful than a month of IF. If I can double them up, that is great, but now that I am tracking what I'm eating I find that I am paying a bit more attention to what is going into my pie hole. Movement: S&S rocks. I cannot emphasize how awesome it is to exercise and not feel destroyed at the end. The armbars have been helping my shoulders immensely. I feel like I can sprint through to doing the full S&S program, but I am deliberately pacing myself this time. I really want to stay as injury free as possible, and ramping up slowly will help that. I haven't found a place to hang the rings yet, but I did put my pullup bar back up. Adulting: Picked chores and done them. So far I have: moved my dresser back into place; folded and put away clothes. The clean laundry has a tendency to migrate from the dryer to the bed and then to the floor before being folded (eventually) and put away. I finally caught up, for one day at least. Tonight I've got cleaning the front bathroom on the list. Randomness: I got to read an actual physical book last night before going to bed. That is a guilty pleasure I haven't done in waaaay too long. I need to make more time to do that. I also finally watched Episode 8 over the weekend and got my fanboy card back (at least part of it, I still need to watch Rogue One, it's only been on netflix for almost a year). The miniBrowncoat loved it and I catch him humming the theme as he flies his Legos in front of the screen. =) Week 1 Recap Food Eat Fruits and Veggies: XXX[ ][ ][ ][ ] Track using MyFitnessPal: XX[ ][ ][ ][ ][ ] Intermittent Fasting (16/8): X[-][-][ ][ ][ ][ ] Movement Simple and Sinister: XX[ ][ ][ ][ ][ ] Adulting Pick one chore and do it: XX[ ][ ][ ][ ][ ] Donate Stuff: [ ] Shred Stuff: [ ]

I'll second the hardboiled eggs. They are awesomely easy. Around Easter I had them for about a month. Lunch planning was super easy, just grab 2 and go. Nom Nom Paleo has an easy way to spice them up a bit too.

Zombieland, S&S, and swords... Can't think of a single thing not to like. For accoustic guitar tracks to fit the zombie apocalypse, the Diablo soundtracks come to mind.

Derp, you're right. My brain is fuzzy, it's been too long since I've played. I was thinking of a specific situation when you've got the faceoff in your zone, otherwise you're right, hands up in front of you. Very true, the varied skill will absolutely keep you on your toes. Man I miss playing. On a different note, what recipe are you using for your bread? The gooseberry jam and fresh bread combo sounds delicious.

Hi All, A long while back I started my NF journey with the Monks. I took some time off of the forums and have bounced around between the different guilds and have found my way back here. Originally the family and I were attending classes at a Kajukenbo dojo but ended up stopping because it didn't fit into our schedule (Getting off work, driving a half hour home, pick up the miniBrowncoat, half hour back to the dojo, hour for class, half hour home plus homework, cooking, household chores, led to burnout right quick). I do miss the activity though, and the miniBrowncoat has been asking if he can go to karate class again. I have a lead on an instructor who lives in our town and would eliminate the driving back and forth. I'm hoping that he will work out and that he also teaches adult classes... And on to the goals Longterm Goal: Weigh less than 180 pounds. Right now I'm weighing in at 250, I want to get healthy to make sure that I can enjoy life with my family. That is the big goal, the short-term goal right now is to hit 240 by the end of the challenge. How to do this: *Fix the eating. I need to get my diet under control. Last challenge I had the goal of starting a Whole30 reset, but that didn't happen. The house wasn't set up enough to make it feasible. Eventually I will do one of these, but for now I'm going to try and focus on cleaner eating. I don't have to be perfect, but I do want to be better. I have the tendency to avoid fruits and vegetables. Eat at least 1 serving of fruit and 2 servings of vegetables each day. Use IF (16/8) at least 5 days a week. Stretch goal: Start tracking what I am eating using MyFitnessPal. This doesn't have to be a long term commitment, but I think it will help me be more mindful of what I am eating and reset my notions of what a normal size meal should be. Move more. I know that food is the main ingredient to losing weight, but being fit and capable is also important. Simple and Sinister 5 times a week. I am finally starting to use the kettlebell again. I started for awhile back in spring, but pushing too fast led to bursitis in my shoulder. I'm starting S&S again, but really trying to ease into it. Right now I am up to 70/100 swings (adding a set of 10 each week) and doing 1 getup on each side. I've also added armbars into the warmup to try and prehab my shoulders. Stretch Goal: Find a place to hang my gymnastic rings. I've got them but haven't used them. I tried hanging them off of my doorway pullup bar but kept slamming my knuckles into the door frame or banging my head into the pullup bar. Adulting. Get the house cleaned. We never really recovered getting the house clean since we got an evacuation notice for the wildfires this summer (we didn't actually have to evacuate, but it was a hectic 2 hours thinking we would have to and ransacking/pillaging the house and loading it into the car). Pick one chore to finish the next day. Actually do it. Totally stealing this concept from Machete. Donate stuff. We have two big boxes to donate of old clothes/toys/stuff that we don't think we can sell. Get it out of the house! Schedule shredding service. Lots of paperwork that has moved with us that needs to be shredded. Find a shredding service that will come to the house and get rid of it for us. Stretch Goal: Start selling stuff. Need to get crap out of the house. Any cash that comes of it is a bonus.

Don't knock the beer league. I have fond memories of learning to play there =) Work your angles and keep your catcher low, it's quicker to move it up than pull it down. Are the pads different from ice or roller? I played goalie in roller hockey for ~10 years and have some gear that I haven't used in a long while. If you still need some let me know.

Things have been going slow lately. The Whole30 is just a wash for this challenge round. Don't have the house clean/organized enough to really be able to make a respectable go at adding a new routine. Last weekend I succumbed to the pestilence spawned from the pits of elementary school/daycare and spent most of the three-day weekend horizontal. Exercise has been slow going. I started watching some basic tutorial videos for the get-up, got some new things to try. I finally got some video of me doing swings and getups, once I figure out what format I need to use I'll upload it to the form check sub and see what I can improve on. I also started looking into what I would need to do to hang my rings. I've tried looping them off of the doorway pullup bar, but I always bump into the door frame. So I've been looking at what I can do to hang them inside. So far this looks to be one of the better ideas I've seen: I feel like Rogue Fitness has a product that does something similar for ~$60. But any suggestions would be welcomed.

Okay, Monday update time. The wheels have fallen off on the meals and exercising. So there is room for improvement there. I need to stop eating the junk food and carby crud. I definitely don't feel good after eating it. I noticed that after eating waffles this weekend there was a definite energy crash immediately afterwards. On the plus side, we need to go grocery shopping today or tomorrow, so I'm hoping to get some better food options into the house. Exercising has been slow. After the first S&S workout last week my knees were hurting something fierce. Ibuprofen to the rescue. I need more regular exercise to help strengthen the muscles that support the joint. More reason to get back into exercising. On the positive side, the office has been staying clean and clutter free. We have managed to cull 2 medium moving boxes of paper junk to recycle, another moving box set aside to shred, 1 moving box of old clothes to donate, and one more moving box of stuff to try and sell. Progress! We also decided to finally get rid of all our clothes that were holey or didn't fit right. We kept holding on to them saying "oh we can just patch that..." or "one day I'll fit into these again..." So now we have a big impetus to update our wardrobe.

Hi All, here's a Monday morning update. *We're making progress on cleaning/organizing the house. You can see ground in the office, and I was even able to exercise there this morning! The rest of the house is still a trainwreck, but the little bits are starting to come together. Hoping that we can keep the momentum moving forward and finish up by next Monday. *I got to exercise this morning! I was able to do a shortened Simple & Sinister. Shortened because I had to get Mini-Browncoat out the door on time and also wanted to ease back into things. I have had the tendency to over do things in the past. So 80 swings instead of the 100 proscribed and 6 get ups using a yoga block instead of the kettlebell. *Food is going less well than hoped. The kitchen is still a mess due to cleaning and we haven't been able to cook. I'm changing this month's food goal from starting Whole30 to eating two Whole30 compliant meals a day. Not the perfect solution, but it is progress. Plus it will let me start building up a good collection of recipes for when we do start Whole30. *Flossing, hit or miss. Weekdays are easier for me to do this. TLDR: making progress on the house; got an S&S session in; collect more recipes.

Awesome, I like the layout of your site. I'm going to have to dig into it deeper once I have some time. I have tried the shoe drill. I should probably go back to it and really dial things in. It always feels hard though with no load to really tell if I am getting my shoulders right. I need to do a form check video soon to make sure I'm not going about things wrong. So far things have been off to a slow start. We tore the house apart trying to get our office functional and it is taking way longer to put back together. I'm taking tomorrow off and am hoping to make a lot of progress on it tomorrow. The original plan had been to have a date day with Ms. Browncoat (Gasp!!! You mean to tell me that parents get to have a life separate from the kids?!?!?!?), but getting the house put back together is going to take precedence unfortunately. Such is life. Starting Whole30 hasn't happened yet, having absolutely zero counter/table/floor space saps the will to cook so we have been eating out way more than we like. Exercise hasn't happened for the same reason. So here's hoping that the marathon cleaning session tomorrow will help that happen. On the plus side I have been doing well with brushing and flossing. It's not much, but it is progress.

Cool, I like your goals. I can definitely relate to them. As far as safehouses and spy bases go, I have to admit to being somewhat partial to Castle from Chuck.

I too can't wait for the smoke to clear out. Not being able to see the hills less than 5 miles away gets old quick. Keeping my fingers crossed for the new dishwasher!

Hockey! Woooo! It is most definitely an addictive game. My goalie pads have been sitting in the garage unused for the last 9 years (Mini-Browncoat just turned 8...) but I still miss it. Sadly the roller rink where I used to play just closed down. You've got this!