WeirdsAllIveGot

Great progress dude. I did the hundred push ups web site a while ago and made a ton of progress. For three weeks now each Sunday I hard boil a dozen eggs and george foreman a pack of bacon. I divide it up into 4 zip locks (3 eggs, 3 bacon each), and make 4 zip locks of berries and almonds. Grab an egg/bacon bag and a berries/almond bag when I leave for work in the morning, nibble on it while I settle into my cube. Lunches have been more difficult, especially with the temptation of eating out with cube mates, but are doable. Meatloaf and chili are cheap and easy to throw together on Sunday and both are badass reheated. Throw in half a bag of frozen veggies or spinach with some seasoning and your good to go.

End of week 2 update: Run three miles every Sunday aiming to improve my time each run. My last run was 44 minutes. 43 minutes. I had a much greater lead but found myself bargaining with the extra time. "I'm 4 minutes ahead, I can take it easy for a bit". Need to murder that voice tomorrow. I'm out of town so only have access to a treadmill. I have done 3 miles with very little elevation change in 38 minutes so that is my time to beat. Operate at a caloric deficit (1200 - 1500 calories) and less that 100g of carbohydrates each day. Flawless on breakfast. Spotty on lunch but still solid. Getting mauled on dinner. After 4 challenges I'm much more aware of what I am eating. Going to concentrate on getting lunches more predictable and mitigating damage/fail at dinner. Do a 1 mile walk with my daughters and get at least 20 minutes of exercise every day with more martial arts focused routines. Missed my first walk with the girls in 11 days. Bla bla excuse bla bla. I've been fighting a cold for the past week and spent most of the day hopped up on cold medicine leaking fluids from my face. By the time I realized I missed the walk it was late and the girls were getting ready for bed. /sadface I've had about 3 - 4 decent workouts each week but only two were martial arts focused. The first was about 5 minutes of shadowboxing with 3 lb weights, combination drills, and a mess of push ups and hindu squats. The other was two minute heavy bag rounds x5. Follow the 6 week plan in I Will Teach You To Be Rich by Ramit Sethi. So far I have completed (out of order) just under three weeks of the plan. My biggest win so far has been lowering my cell phone bill by almost $100 (over $1100 saved per year). In addition to that I have laid the ground work for automating all of my investments, savings and bills.

I don't have a lot of time to update so here is the quick and dirty ... Epic fail last challenge. A combination of things (i.e. excuses) mauled my goals, my diet, and my motivation. I'm getting back in a good groove and want to keep the momentum going ... Diet / Fitness goals: Run three miles every Sunday aiming to improve my time each run. My last run was 44 minutes. Operate at a caloric deficit (1200 - 1500 calories) and less that 100g of carbohydrates each day. I am cooking my breakfasts and lunches for the week every Sunday afternoon/evening to make it easier. Do a 1 mile walk with my daughters and get at least 20 minutes of exercise every day with more martial arts focused routines (heavy bag, speed bag, jump rope, footwork, old karate stuff, demo classes at local schools, anything!). Life goal: Follow the 6 week plan in I Will Teach You To Be Rich by Ramit Sethi. I've been following his blog for a while now and have made a bunch of progress with his suggestions. Reward: When I was a teenager I got my leg bashed in kickboxing, had to have ACL replacement, snapped it again working in a bar, got an office job, got fat, never went back (+1 regret). If I do well I will be motivated and have the free money to start regular classes again. No more excuses. Its time to earn my way back.

I think I took the cave metaphor too far. After summer vacation I lost all discipline and got dragged into the depths. My diet went to hell (candy bars, cake, fast food, etc etc etc), I stopped my regular workouts, and haven't kept up with my art. I started to snap out of it last week some time. Own the Mountain +3 STR After a couple half-hearted workouts I called a friend for some help. Now I'm going to work out with him and another dude 3 days a week. He is an ex marine, so it's going to be fun. We worked abs yesterday and I can barely move lol. Defend the Mountain +2 STA +1 DEX Went on an easier run on Sunday and beat my bridge time by 3 minutes. Preparation for Operation +4 CON Leave My Mark +2 CHA Still working on these two. Map My Path Through the Caves of Mystery +3 WIS Blaaaaaaaaaacknessssssssss.

Thanks! Torso should be ok. I'm cranking out some good sketches so far. Its the joints and how everything moves thats drifted away from me. As for the stress, I resigned from my job yesterday. All the crap that goes before and after that has been in my head. I have all of next week off to wind down before the new job. Get to go do a bunch of weirdness with the family; Sea cows, and mermaids, and science oh my! (the last sentence is 1500% more entertaining with a George Taki voice ... All sentences are 1500% more entertaining with his voice). Should be a good enough dose of fresh air.

Thats a mess of people to catch up with! I'm terrible at keeping up with people. Theres a guy I work with who sets reoccuring reminders on his computer to keep in touch with professional contacts. Every time one pops up he picks up the phone or sends a quick email. I've been thinking of doing the same for my friends and family. Maybe next challenge I will make a push like you are doing. Inspirational stuff, keep up the good work!

Own the Mountain (+3 STR) Completed my three planks on Sunday. Front: 120 seconds Left: 60+60 seconds Right: 60+60 seconds Defend the Mountain +2 STA (+1 DEX) Did my patrol on Sunday. Got up early enough to see the tail end of the sunrise while I was running. There was a super buff couple running the same rout as me. They would pass me when I was winded and walking. I would pass them when they were sitting. We all shared a laugh about the 3rd or 4th time. After I was done I picked up some stuff from the grocery store and made breakfast for the family. Previous attempts: 60 min (walking) 54 min (walking) Week 1: 43 min (walking + jogging) Preparation for Operation (+4 CON) Breakfast: Egg Muffins, weeeeeeee! Lunches: Paella! Adapted this recipe. Used hot chicken sausage, crab meat, clam, octopus, mystery seafood thing, cauliflower rice. Bought saffron for the first time ever. Five dollars for two pinches of flower parts and I forget to put them in, lol. Still tasted good though. Vacuum sealed them into 5 packages for lunches and threw em in the freezer. Leave My Mark (+2 CHA) Had a good first week. Sorted out all of the forearm muscles. Onward to upper arm and torso! Map My Path Through the Caves of Mystery (+3 WIS) There' has been a big stressful situation hovering over my head for a couple months. I always knew I got a little grumpy when I was stressed out, but its pretty bad. When I saw the pattern emerging (black marks every damn day) I made some adjustments in my attitude; took a deep breath, centered myself, bla bla bla. At the end of the first day my fiance gives me a giant hug and basically tells me she missed me acting happy. Shocked the hell out of me. Who knows how long I have had black marks on my days? The stress is coming to a peak so I've got lots of work to do. Cant get lost in these caves again. Must stay mindful of the path.

Other than whats been covered (wraps, educate yourself on technique) Bas Rutten's heavy bag drills are pretty cool if you can find the mp3's. He calls out different combinations for 2 or 3 min rounds, 1 min rest. Also super motivational to have Bas in your ear when your waist deep in a session and your arms feel like they are gonna fall off.

Cave paintings of the week. Some doodle's from work. Also broke down and did some diagrams of forearm muscles. Feel like I am making decent progress. Its like riding a bike, eh?

Day 2 + 3 Update: Own the Mountain (+3 STR) Day 2: Did half a pull up on some stairs last night. Followed it with 15 negative pull ups and a short walk. Day 3: Squats 50+50+50+50 = 200 Push ups 25+25+25+25 = 100 Dive bombers 5+5+5+5 = 20 Took about an hour. Gonna start keeping better track of time so I can push myself. Defend the Mountain +2 STA (+1 DEX) Sunday sunday sunday! Preparation for Operation (+4 CON) Meatloaf going strong. Almonds and blueberries keeping my appetite at bay. Leave My Mark (+2 CHA) Focused on forearm muscles again (today as well). Almost have a good grip on them (haha, get it?) , I can feel it coming. Onward to brush up on the upper arm and torso after that. Map My Path Through the Caves of Mystery (+3 WIS) Fiance called me out for being grumpy after work last night. Black mark. Took a deep breath, tightened up my attitude and had a pleasant night with the family.

Day 1 Update: Own the Mountain +3 STR Did 3 x 8 dumbell rows with 25 lbs last night. Going to up the weight's every time until it feels right. I was going to stop there but my punching bag looked lonely. Cranked out 5 two minute rounds with one minute rest between. 5 rounds used to kick my ass but I rocked it with energy to spare. Defend the Mountain +2 STA +1 DEX Sunday sunday sunday! Preparation for Operation +4 CON Made two pans of meatloaf on Sunday afternoon (recipe! couldn't find coconut flour, had to use white /sadface ). 4/10ths of a meatloaf and half a bag of frozen veggies for lunches this week. 3 eggs, almonds, and blue berries for breakfasts. Leave My Mark +2 CHA Sat down and worked on arms. Elbow's and forearm musculature give me trouble all the time. So much going on there. Map My Path Through the Caves of Mystery +3 WIS First day down. Less than mindful a few times. I'm entwined in some not-so-fun tasks at work, so naturally I spaced out and spent my time doodling instead of completing them. I snapped out of it, put a black mark in my notebook, and got on with my work. Also said some less than sensitive things to a family member and upset them - ugh. Clumsy words, bad timing, black mark.

Half orc, half wreckless/clumbsy northern barbarian as my cooworkers are happy to point out. Half-orc is one of my perfered races in dnd. Gnomes are my #1 but i'm a big scary barn door type, not the tiny, eccentric type.

Great stuff ! 4 headed dragon, eh? I looked up the test. Looks like a beast. Making my imagination go into overdrive coming up with rp qualities for each section lol. Good luck dude!

Race: Half-Orc Profession: Adventurer Height 5'10, Weight 240'ish lbs STR 7.4 | DEX 2 | STAM 5.6 | CON 3.5 | WIS 6.8 | CHA 6.4 Born in the great white north to a logic driven engineer and a fiery baker. Raised on the farm; dirt between his toes, slinging hay, and wrestling animals. Now he is out his own in the sweltering south with a bad ass woman and three beautiful girls to take care of. During his last adventure he struggled over many obstacles to reach the Caves of Mystery. Treacherous mountains, injuries, sickness, a surprisingly reasonable Minotaur, angry natives, and more. He claimed the lost Idol of Steve and escaped with its secrets and his life. Now the idol beckons Weird to return to the caves and explore their depths; unlocking more of their secrets, and unlocking more of his own potential. Own the Mountain +3 STR Weird will brave the harsh mountains above the caves. He can man handle boulders, chop trees for fire, and roam the trails with ease, but lacks the strength to scale the more treacherous paths. To thrive on the mountain he needs some more development. I plan to work out every Wednesday. Maintain my current levels: 100 Pushups 200 Squats 2:00 minute elbows + feet plank 2:00 minute left elbow + feet plank 2:00 minute right elbow + feet plank More of these: Dive Bombers Currently at 20 per workout. Goal is 50 by the end of challenge. Pull Ups - Rows during my regular workout, assisted and negatives whenever I am near a bar. Bent Over Dumb Bell Rows 8 x 3 @ 25 - 40 lbs Assisted Pull Ups Negative Pull Ups Goal is to do one good pull up by the end of the challenge. Defend the Mountain +2 STA +1 DEX The mountains are full of threats. Angry natives, vicious animals, and much much worse. Weird will go on a weekly patrol to forage for food and watch for bad guys. The longer he is there the more likely they will find him, so each patrol will be more difficult than the last ... Walk / Jog 5K every Sunday morning. My goal is to do a faster patrol each week. My current benchmark is 1 hour 10 minutes. Preparation for Operation +4 CON Weird needs to keep his energy high for this endeavor. Cant get caught in the wild or in the caves without supplies. Never know when a demon will show up to try and break his resolve... Every Sunday afternoon: Prepare 5-7 healthy breakfasts, 5-7 healthy lunches, and enough snacks for the week (nuts, berries). Junk food remains my nemesis. Hopefully by preparing up front I can avoid eating out and snacking on crap. Leave My Mark +2 CHA What good is a magical cave without cave paintings??? Weird will leave his mark for future travelers to learn from his story. Work on my anatomy - focus on developing one aspect per week (arms, torso, hips, head, legs) Complete a DnD style character portrait by the end of the challenge. Map My Path Through the Caves of Mystery +3 WIS Exploring the Caves of Mystery is no easy task. Just as great power and wisdom is there for the taking, so lurks beings of great evil and temptation. They will try to trick weird with his own greed, anger, and ignorance to keep him wandering aimlessly inside the mountain forever ... From The Art of Manliness: I tried this once before, but they are not my virtues. I have no deep connection to them. What I do have is an internet education in Buddhism. Instead of virtues I will keep track of any time I do anything motivated by the Three Poisons. I will track my wanderings on the wheel of life ... errr ... Caves of Mystery ... same difference ...

Haha, hell yeah!

Results:

Completed the 5k walk over the bridges and whatnot again. This time I was 100% rested and managed to do it in around 1 hour 10 minutes (30 minutes faster). Amazing what a difference it makes not dragging a bum leg like a Frankenstein monster. Loaded my messenger bag with a mess of supplies: some snacks (lunch meat and blueberries), compression bandage in case my leg acted up, water, the usual: note pad, binder, and books (Teach Yourself Buddhism, Simon & Schuster Handbook for Writers, and my Kindle). Its been raining crazy here so I put my giant umbrella through the flap of the bag. My shadow looked like a true adventurer with pack and sword, lol. Sat down under a tree for a while after the walk to read for a bit and enjoy some food. +1 stamina fits. Next time I'm gonna alternate jogging and walking, see how much faster I can get!

Body weight exercises: Preparing for my last session on Monday. Lots of random stretching throughout the day. Weight: Still no scale. Don't think I am doing well on this one. I'm thinking it wasn't the best goal to set as I am putting on a lot of muscle, so its not even a useful indicator of anything lol. Bodyweight %, pictures, or measurements next time. French: Vocab vocab vocab. Gonna go to a second workshop tomorrow I hope. Meditation: My car died so I've been riding the bus; lots of time to meditate, lol. I usually meditate on the morning run and meditate / read on the evening run. I haven't counted the time but its at least 10-15 minutes per day for the last 2 days, plus the 30 minutes from earlier in the week. I'm going back to the temple tomorrow so week 6 meditation goal is go. Week 6 Challenge: After the temple I am going to walk/jog the bridges again to escape the enraged natives! Gonna be well rested this time so it shouldn't be a problem beating my time.

Did my exercises last night. Met all my final goal numbers for every exercise except the planks. I realized I haven't done any planks in about 2 weeks, so its no surprise. Did a second round of side planks to get to 200 seconds. Push ups 20+20+20+20+20 = 100 Squats 40+40+40+40+40 = 200 Dive Bombers 5+5+5+5+5 = 20 Forearm Feet = 111 seconds Left Forearm Feet = 89 sec + 31 sec = 120 sec Right Forearm Feet = 79 sec + 41 sec = 120 sec Took me about an hour. One thing I haven't been updating on is my goal of doing one pull up. I've done some 1/2 to 3/4 pull ups randomly throughout the challenge but no blazing successes. Any time were at the playgrounds at the park or near anything that will support me I've been trying and doing a few negative pull ups. Gonna find a sturdy bar on the last day of the competition and see what I can do (maybe video it too). 30/60 minutes meditation so far this week. French vocab continues. Still no scale. Time to turn on my cube face and contribute value to the corporate machine ... May all your projects be on time, under budget, and high quality! Happy Wednesday! /coffee /login /coffee /coffee /cubeface

+1 CHA. Update: Body weight exercises: I haven't done a full workout in over a week but I feel confident I am on par. Did everything except planks on Sunday and felt great. Weight: Still spotty on my diet. Weighed in at 245 the other day. Hopefully that was just a full belly and lots of cloths. French: Working on my vocab, practicing random weirdness all the time. Need to specifically define conversational lol (should have done that at the start). I'm sure there's an official definition somewhere. Meditation: Met my quota for week 5. I'm digging meditation + yoga. Its active but not in a frantic one-more-squat!!! kind of way. I'm able to relax my mind and stuff.

Finished my last day of 100 push ups for the week 4 challenge at midnight last night. Put on some MMA I had recorded and did 10 push ups after each fight. +1 STR! Thanks Red!

I tried to organize a 4 man push up, but failed, lol. I did succeed in getting one guy to do 100 push ups with me for Thursday and Friday though. I rested yesterday, and am 50 push ups into today. Body weight exercises: I haven't done any of my body weight routines since Tuesday. As par of my non-challenge attend-one-intro-martial-arts-class-at-least-once-every-two-weeks goal I tried out a boxing/MMA gym. It was so f'ing fun. Movement drills, sprints, bag work, mit work, jumping, squats, lots of jogging. We did jump rope too. Soooo grateful for last challenges jump rope week; I didn't look like a complete jump rope noob next to all these boxing people! I was whooped after the class. A couple people told me they were taking bets on when I would puke lol. I was happy to let them down! Weight: Still no scale. Diet continues to be spotty. French: Went to the french meetup group with my daughter. Another great experience! We went over some scripts, then split up into advanced and beginner groups. We stuck to the beginner group; went over the scripts again, some vocabulary, and some common phrases. Definitely going back. Meditation: I'm only at 30 minutes for the week. Skipped my planned visit to the Buddhist temple; my fiance wasn't feeling well so I ran interference with the kids so she could sleep in. .... So I have been accused of being dense before, and I admit its true most of the time ... 1. its been raining off and on all day 2. lots of wind 3. chatter at work about the tropical storm heading our way 4. fiance stocking up on water and simple foods 5. neighbor told us a couple hours ago they are closing the bridges down .... it just dawned on me that there's a tropical storm / hurricane about to hit Florida lol Hurricane goal to take a shower in the middle of the street!

Got caught doing push ups at work again, but this time a couple guys joined in, lol. The first guy caught me and joined in half way through a set. Then the second guy came around and made a smartass comment about how he could do a silly amount so we shamed him into doing more push ups with us, lol.

Finished my push ups for you dude! I spread them out like you suggested; did 10 per hour for most of the day. Only got caught at work once, lol. Someone heard me grunting behind a cube wall and tracked me down. On the plus side it made my arms and chest feel extra manly lol, +1 intimidation towards my fellow cube monkeys. Life scattered the group I used to play with. I wouldn't mind a small game here or there, but time and money are gonna keep me out of it for good I think. Had some badass times though. We used to go do these insane 24 hour games at Camp Blanding and Waynes World in Florida. Hundreds of people, home made paint ball tanks, missions, buildings. If you ever get a chance to do one of them its totally worth it.

Finished my 100 push up last night as planned. Did 10 every hour from home to work and back again. The last 3 sets were getting rough but it was fun. Had to sneak behind empty cube walls at the office. Only got caught once! I also got 10 more minutes of meditation in. That makes 20/60 minutes for this week. I wasn't able to relax as much as yesterdays. It felt like an army of nagging thoughts about the days and stresses to come that kept rolling on and on and on. Did my best to let them roll over me and not get caught up in them or push back against them. Just tried to be mindful of the pieces of my mind moving in their strange ways, subtly adjust and direct them where I could. I still have no sense that I am doing it effectively or not; just a handful of podcasts, blogs, and my trusty "Teach Yourself Buddhism" book. Its starting to feel like one more game to master. Exciting stuff!