Tansden

Sounds like we're coming from the same place! Good luck with your challenge. I'll be rootin' for ya

On day 4 now, and doing great! Had my second workout today (took two days off after the first one to try and get over the initial case of DOMS), and did really well. Despite still being pretty sore, I was able to do better than I did on my first workout. Have succeeded in putting in applications every day, and have been eating right. I even had a coworker bring in a bag of nuts to share, instead of the regular candy, which was pretty dang cool. I realized that I never posted my starting weight, but I did weigh the Sunday before the challenge: 234. I've weighed myself a few times since then, but that's only for curiosity's sake. I will weigh myself again at the same time on this Sunday for the official "write it down" weighing. However, the for fun measurements seem to indicate progress! We'll see what the official weigh in says on Sunday. I planned on writing a more substantial update, but I just got called in early for work. Good thing I got my workout in early!

That's fantastic! Re: long days, you can only do so much sometimes. I hope today is easier for you!

Day 1 finished. Had an apple instead of chocolate, had an all paleo day, applied to my first job of the challenge, did my workout, and promptly collapsed on the floor afterward. Boy did I get out of shape these last few months! But I feel good now. Gonna be sore in a few hours, but right now I'm feelin' good.

Best part of being Hylian? Getting to play the Zelda theme every day. Play that when you think you're gonna have a bad day, and you're gonna change it into a bada** day. I've been waffling on picking a race...I think you may have inspired me.

Thanks for the encouragement! I've modified that goal a little bit, so that it's doable for me. I don't mind having to learn a new set of shopping skills; that will come with time. Each time we go to the store will take less time, and we'll eventually be fast. The real thing that was freaking us out was the price associated with these things. My wife and I have decided that the modified goal above is a good compromise between the spirit of the original and the harsh realities of the wallet. I figure that, since we've got almost all the ingredients for the first week already, we'll get a week or two out of this shopping trip, interspersed with cheaper, easier meals, as suggested by Elastigirl and Elder. Then we'll continue trying at least 2 new recipes every week, so that we don't get stuck making the same 2 meals for 6 weeks. Will also take the time to read through The Wolf's last challenge, so I can see how it went, and maybe get some other ideas. I'm over being scurred now, and ready to destroy this thing!

Well, I've just gotten home from the grocery store, where my wife and I dutifully hunted for about 3 hours...and I had no idea it was this hard to find healthy ingredients. Even after trying two stores, I have yet to find Coconut Flour. Eventually we just had to stop. My wife started spacing out, and I was getting dizzy from driving our cart around in circles. We've got almost all of the ingredients on our list. Skipped a few items like fresh herbs. We'll make do with what we already have in our spice rack. Maybe in another week, we can afford to get some of the herbs. Right now, though, we're a little bit scared for our wallets. I have a little bit of thinking to do before the challenge starts. I may back down to just saying "Eat Paleo," so that we can pick paleo recipes that keep the costs down.

Spent the winter off the fitness wagon, but I'm back! Good news is that, 6 months later, I've kept all of the weight I lost off. Bad news is that I'm outta shape and have been developing bad food habits. Time to fix that! I really only have one assassin flavored goal, but I hope to augment this with the weekly challenges (I hope this is ok). Goals: 1.) Modified Beginner Body Weight Workout 3x per week. This is really my only true assassin-ish goal, but it's important. This plan mainly follows Steve's plan, but adds the warmup and skill exercises from /r/bodyweightfitness. Essentially I'm adding the top half of this chart to the beginning of Steve's plan. Grading: STR 2 | DEX 2 | STA 1 Miss up to 3: A Miss up to 6: B Miss up to 9: C Miss up to 12: D Miss more than 12: F 2.) Go (mostly) paleo, and give some of the meals from PaleoPlan a fair shot. Stay paleo except for Fridays, which will be my cheat day. At the same time, my wife and I are going to try to do 2-3 new (to us) meals from that website, so that we can actually learn new stuff, rather than eat stir fry or chicken every night. I need to learn how to cook at home, I need to eat healthier, and I need to start having actual food in the house. This seems like good way to do some learning. This is going to be the hardest goal in the set for me. There will be carb and candy cravings. However, I've already signed up for the 2 week trial, and have the first month set up to go through. After looking over the menu, I'm a little intimidated, but excited. I've already quit caffeine, I can do this. *due to cost issues, I have edited this goal. Same spirit, less money starvation. Details below. Also, for a week to count, I need to try at least 2 new recipes that week. Grading: CON 2 | STA 2 | WIS 2 5 weeks: A 4 weeks: B 3 weeks: C 2 weeks: D Less: F 3.) Limit snacks at work (and get sick to death of almonds). My coworkers always bring in all kinds of chocolate and junk food to share. Very generous, and also very difficult for me to resist. This is also the only time I'm allowed to NOT follow the PaleoPlan. As this is related in some ways to goal 2, it gets slightly less emphasis in the rewards. Grading: CON 1 | WIS 1 1 moment of weakness weekly: A 3 moments of weakness weekly: C More: F 4.) Just passed a certification exam, and need to get a new job. 1 Application per day. *Note* Landing a new job (in my chosen field) is an automatic pass. Grading: CHA 2 6+ weekly: A 5+ weekly: B 4+ weekly: C 3+ weekly: D Less: F

A busy week with an unexpected trip out of town. So I got some written this weekend, but need to get more done over the week, as I get back into the swing of things. This week, I only managed to work on the first goal twice; I worked on the crow-stand and tried to walk up the wall backwards on my hands. I found out that the crow stand takes a whole lot of wrist and lower arm strength. Also I learned that my body does NOT like to be upside down. Over the weekend, while at Old Pioneer Days, I spent some time in a park, and took the opportunity to practice my balance on the playground they had there for the kids. It's suprising how fun things can be if you just let yourself have fun. Between the crowstands and attempting to stay balanced on the playground, I can see that there's definitely room for progress. Tomorrow, I'm hoping to get up early enough before work to practice rolls in the front lawn. Started working on my goal of a 5k run by running 1.5 miles over the weekend. I had an opportunity to walk/run a full 5k over the weekend, but I was with friends the entire weekend, and couldn't break away. I would like to run at least 2 and hopefully 3 times every week, so we'll see how it goes. Didn't do the beginner body weight workout, but did some similar work at the final Dog Days last week. Pushups, which are the main problem I have with the whole thing, seemed easier. I think that I need to just start doing the full pushup and worry less about having energy to complete all 10 reps. I can work back up to that. Life goal: You see it above. You'll see more this week. Till next time!

First, a summary of Chapter 1 (Shamelessly adding retroactive flavor to m first challenge). Challenge goals after. This will be my second challenge. I'm really looking forward to this, and hope that my weekend away didn't make me too late to the game. Starting stats are as follows: Tansden: Level 2 Half-Ogre Assassin STR 3 | DEX 6 | STA 4 | CON 6 | WIS 6 | CHA 5 Goals: Physical Goals: 1. Practice assassin-ey type stuff 3x per week: (+3 Dex, +1 Sta, +1 Str): Examples include: Get used to being upside down. Practice tripod, headstands, and/or handstands against wall. Relearn the roll. Start from a crouch, but eventually relearn the standing roll from aikido classes. Work on my balance. Walk that chalk-line! Learn other beginning Parkour moves. 2. Run 5k without stopping. (+3 Sta, +2 Dex) 3. Complete the beginner bodyweight workout, with correct form on all exercises. (+2 Str, +1 Con, and I get to buy my nerdfitness shirt) Life: 4. Write: Weekly summary of my activities (including making this challenge into a story...want to make writing a habit again). (+3 Cha) SUPER BONUS LIFE GOAL: Write out my Epic Life Quest of Awesome! (Just for fun and to have a list of things to work toward, no challenge bonuses) I'll write the story for the beginning of the challenge soon, I just really wanted to get this started, since it's the first day and all. Hooray!

Gah! Wish I'd seen this sooner. Unfortunately, I've a prior commitment with some friends to go to Old Settlers in Halstead. Seeing as I'm in Lawrence, I'll definitely keep my eye on this thread for future meet ups, though.

So let's do a wrap-up. Let the shameless c/p begin! Goal 1: Did a pretty good job, but for the last week. I subtract 1 STR. Result: +1 STR, +2 STA, +1 DEX. Goal 2: Had 1 week, in which I was sick, that I did not ride twice. However, I developed a habit, and rode 4/5 days the last 2 weeks. Full marks. +2 DEX. Goal 3: Nailed the caffeine goal, but didn't do as hot on the eating out goal. so -1 STA. Result: +1 STA, +2 CON Goal 4: Not so good, especially right in the middle. Giving myself half credit, here. +1 WIS Goal 5: Developed a budget and stayed with it, but only for the 2nd half of the challenge. Again, half credit. +1 CHA. New Stats: STR: 2+1=3 DEX: 2+1+3 = 6 STA: 1+3=4 CON: 3+1+2=6 WIS: 4+1+1=6 CHA: 3+1+1=5

7/30/12: No car, and couldn't get to dog days, so I did the beginner bodyweight workout. Squats were all the way down to my ankles, and my heels kept contact with the floor almost the entire time. Pushups were very nearly 90 degrees in the elbows for most, if not all, of the pushups. Did the rows with a milk jug filled with water. Not sure if the workout was significantly tougher than before going lower and faster on several exercises, or if I'm just winded from a week off, but this one was more difficult than the previous workouts were. Probably a combination of both factors. I finished all three sets, though! After using dog days as an introductory program, with both calisthenics and jogging componants. I hope to go for a short run tomorrow morning. I'll still be going to dog days at the end of the week, but the summer program is ending soon, and I'd like to start developing healthy habits without the structured framework. I'm beginning to look forward to the next six week challenge. I'm hoping to get some more specific goals, rather than only habit forming goals. We'll see what happens!

Results after my bad week of awfulness: [table=width: 500] Week0 1 2 3 4 5 6 Weight244 lbs 242 lbs 241 lbs 238 lbs 236 lbs 234 lbs 232 lbs Waist43.5 in. 42.5 in. 41.75 in. 41 in. 40.75 in. 40.5 in. 40.5 in. [/table] This was a pretty bad week for me. I only managed to work out once, and went, I believe, 4 days without a workout. Total slacker, and no excuse. Well, a small one: Wife had the car, and I couldn't get to dog days, since she was out of town. However, what I SHOULD have done was to do the beginner body weight workout. Instead, I took advantage of the convenient excuse, and slept in. However, I didn't miss my eating out goal, nor my caffeine goal, this week. Studying was fair to middling...I studied on 4 of the 7 days this week. Overall, an off week. But I know what I did wrong, and the wife is out of town again for the next few days. This is a chance to correct my errors!

The weekly tallying of results! [table=width: 500] Week0 1 2 3 4 5 Weight244 lbs 242 lbs 241 lbs 238 lbs 236 lbs 234- lbs Waist43.5 in. 42.5 in. 41.75 in. 41 in. 40.75 in. 40.5 in. [/table] Comments: This week was ok. Rode to work 3 or 4 days, ate correctly, lost another 2 pounds. I wish my waist would slim down faster. I feel like I'm starting to imagine gains, even though I'm still on a steady weight loss trend. On a positive note, went out for the weekly "fun run" for the first time in Dog Days, and surprised myself by going 2 miles before I had to stop, and probably ran 3 of the 4 total miles. Much better than where I was. But oh boy, was I sore afterward. Managed to stay within budget this week. Only a week and a half to go till the end of the month, and any adjustments I need to make can happen then. Successfully completed the Week 5 Mini Challenge. So now I can claim that coveted +1 CON. Finally, now that I seem to have a few decent habits set up, I can begin to think about what goals I want to set for myself for the next challenge. Maybe a wall supported handstand...