S_Degnan

Hi all, I'm a new member of NF, but I've been getting myself back into shape over the course of the past 15 months. This is my first challenge to myself here. Diet challenges: Limit bread/grains to 2 servings per day. Eat at least one serving of vegetables per meal (including breakfast, which is not always the easiest for me) Exercise challenge: Now that the weather is finally getting nice, it's time to get out and do some running, 3 miles twice a week.

I'm new to the NF community, but not necessarily to fitness, so I figured this would be one of the better places to jump in. I got into obstacle course racing last summer, and it has become my obsession. So I'm excited to be participating in an event almost every month this year.

I've been lurking for a awhile, and just joined the rebellion as well. I just got into obstacle course racing last summer, doing my first Spartan Race last August, and was immediately hooked!

Hi all, Sean here. I started my fitness journey in January 2015, after getting very scary results from a physical. I am the type that never goes to the doctor unless I absolutely have to. But since my mother is going through liver failure, I wanted to have myself evaluated as a living donor, so I did the physical. At 5' 6" I weighed in at 196 pounds, and about 28% body fat. My bad cholesterol was high, the good was low, and my blood pressure was at a dangerous 150/100. I was told that if I kept at this trend, I would likely have a stroke before my daughters graduate high school, which terrified me. I was placed on blood pressure medication to treat the symptoms, but I knew this would not fix the root cause. I ended up finding a great trainer who introduced me to lifting heavy, and from there, it was a match made in heaven. Deadlifts, squats, bench presses, and various pulling exercises made up the core of my program, and I was thrilled about the results. In 6 months, I lost "only" 8 pounds, but I got significantly stronger, and my body fat percentage plunged to around 18%. Most importantly though, my cholesterol numbers were close to the normal range, and my blood pressure was down to 115/75 without medication. I got involved with some fitness groups on Facebook, and in the group there were discussions about obstacle course races, which intrigued me. Adding cardio to my routine, including trail runs at the various parks in my area, my stamina improved significantly and my body fat continued to drop. I registered for and participated in my first Spartan Race in August of 2015, and was immediately hooked. In the year 2016, I've registered for 13 races of various types, and will be getting my first Spartan Trifecta (a Sprint at 3-5 miles, Super at 8-10 miles, and a Beast at 13+ miles, all with increasing numbers of obstacles).