BeerRanger

Thanks, Butternut! I just purchased it for Kindle - I have officially taken the cap off of my book budget and I'm buying anything and everything people suggest. Let me know how you like it!

Update: I am about 2/3 complete with "The 4 Disciplines of Execution" (I'm a sucker for non-fiction personal development/business books). I also started "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" and read through "Basic Poker Mathematics" (just for fun!). Diet is going well, lifting is going well although I'd rather do 3x per week and just can't seem to get myself to do it. Maybe next challenge so I HAVE to do it. Nothing crazy going on but the bare minimum, lots of work, and a renewed effort to study for the GMAT. Onward and upward.

Keep up the good work, mead! I still struggle to do :30 plank - I'd love to be able to do 90! I read your earlier post on respawning and trying to do too much at once (you can see my challenges get pretty simple to avoid just that) and I wanted to share with you an article that I keep bookmarked and re-read occasionally: http://www.artofmanliness.com/2015/08/10/get-1-better-every-day-the-kaizen-way-to-self-improvement/ Yes, it's from "The Art of Manliness", but this article (and many others, by the way) are perfect for men, women, and children alike. Hopefully it helps - I know it inspires me to work on small improvements.

Thanks for the response, mead! I felt like I needed to go super simple or skip this challenge. My work is picking up to a very busy schedule for the next 2 months or so. I'd love to be fitbit friends - I surely need all the motivation I can get! I am attempting to average 5 miles per day for 2016 (1830 total miles) and I'm already WAY behind schedule.

1. Lift 2X per week 2. Walk 5+ fitbit miles one day per week 3. One green vegetable, with a meal, per day 4. Read a complete book

Thanks, Hart! I actually save this post for updates regularly - the first couple posts I will update when I feel like it/have progress to report. That's how I keep track rather than a 'daily' log. I live and work in Wyoming, the western frontier, and although I look to a few of the more-known 'Rangers' (from LOTR, Link from Zelda, what have you) I like the Lone Ranger as well because I have access to horses and guns to live the wild west lifestyle.

Challenge completed - no big issues - happy to have succeeded! The new forum has me a bit confused on how to post/find content, so that slowed down my reporting a little bit. Moving to an extremely time-consuming schedule for a couple months, so I don't think I'll dive into another challenge quite yet. I am, however, getting into weight training. I built a home gym (power rack, bench, barbells, weight plates) that has me doing the Barbell exercises from the Academy. Looking forward to it! I haven't decided if I want to do Ranger or Warrior first - I definitely want to be awesome at heavy lifting and Warrior stuff, although long-term I think it'd be 1/2 of my Ranger duties...

3-day weekend and it feels so good! Spent the better part of Friday and all morning Saturday reading. I read a surprising amount of Deep Work (all of it!), am nearly done with The Fish That Ate The Whale (~50 pages to go), read through all of A Company Of Owners (by Daren Martin - awesome dude) although I won't count that book towards my challenge total because it may not be long enough to consider. Now delicious beer, watching some hockey, more reading, training my dogs, practicing guitar, and maybe a stretch to alleviate some DOMS. My new mantra: If you want to be well-read, read; if you want to be a guitar player, play guitar; if you want to be healthy, eat healthy; if you want to be strong, train your body. It's stupidly simple, but often an over-thought, over-looked idea. Onward!

Thanks guys! My name was very un-creatively made, but I'm liking it so far. I plan on joining the Ranger guild, but feel like I need to do some self-improvement as a personal initiation. I plan on trying a fiction and non-fiction book at all times (I've read many places that it's the way to go) - currently reading "The Great Gatsby" and "Deep Work". I have a large stack of books I want to have read, now I just need the motivation...

When going somewhere with someone who may be late or decide last minute not to go, I've had success in 2 ways: 1. Telling them I'm going no matter what, and sticking to it (this became my go-to after cancelling a road trip to the Grand Canyon because someone decided they didn't want to go); and, 2. [note, better than #1 for family because it can be done without hurting feelings] making an excuse not to be with them right before the event and planning on meeting them there. For example, run errands 60-90 minutes before going to the gym (or go straight from work) where your mom isn't, and plan on meeting her at the gym. If she cancels last second, you're already on your way! 3. If your dad goes often, just go with him if possible. I'm sure he'd go out of his way to help you achieve your goals! edit: I've found that throwing out my $0.02 on this forum inevitably sounds like know-it-all advice or isn't 100% applicable to the situation at hand. HOWEVER, I can't find how to avoid it but don't want that to stop me from trying, and I DEFINITELY don't know it all (or much) and so I earnestly ask that you take my words as a simple attempt to help. One way or another, the Rebellion will help pull you up!

Looks like a great challenge - I'll be following along once again. I enjoyed following along last challenge! Keep up the good work.

This will be my second challenge - making sure I don't burn out on this one. I will be a well-read, guitar-playing, fit man. As such, my challenge is as follows: 1. One green vegetable with a meal 5 days a week + 4 large glasses of water 3 day 100% - 4/4 weeks 2. Set a new PR in pull-ups + walk 5+ miles one day a week 100% - 4/4 weeks, PR 3. Play guitar for 7+ minutes a day, 3 days per week 100% - 4/4 weeks 4. Complete 2+ books 100% - 2/2 books completed edited 3/29/16

Complete! It was a hard push at the end, but I completed it. If it weren't my first challenge, I think I would have given up. Moving forward, I think I'll be even less ambitious to make sure I stick to the plan. Thanks everyone, for the support!

Thanks, Kunmaar! I used to eat huge breakfasts, even a week ago I had (and maybe I will tomorrow), but I'm eating less and less as a conscious fasting technique. There's no huge reason to skip breakfast or eat a huge one (paleo, of course), I just kind of go with the flow. I also enjoy the time it saves me to not cook.

Week 2 Recap: Building momentum.... 1. One vegetable with a meal, per day. No skips, "cheats", or forgetting. Still doing well! 2. Full Paleo for breakfast - every day. Not bad, I've been eating less and less breakfast too, without feeling sluggish or anything after. 3. Bodyweight Workouts (Level 1) A&B each week - 8 total workouts. 5-miles walking (FitBit miles) at least one off-day each week. 2 workouts last week, no problem targeting 3 this week. I'd like to get to 3+ weekly as a routine - almost there! I walked over 5 miles on Thursday. I need to walk more to hit my long-term goal of 1830 miles this year. 4. 5 minutes of guitar practice, 4 days a week (minimum). Still about minimum, but I also bought a new (3rd) guitar - a new guitar automatically makes you better, right? Another good week! Probably could have done without an entire pizza for lunch on Saturday, but it all worked out. I'm down about 5-6 pounds since the start of the challenge, and I'm really not targeting weight loss (206 lbs today, but I'm 6'7" so I'm still 'slim'). Forge on!