Church

So today was a wash diet-wise. Had LOTS of McDonalds at lunch because of reasons. now going to see Lucy and have dinner with the beautiful future missus Church.

I started dating a lovely young lady and we are quite madly in love. Her and I share the same vision for the future and with the guidance of our mentors we will be able to build a strong, loving marriage, create a legacy for our children and grandchildren, care for our parents and grandparents, and help countless others achieve their goals and dreams. She's literally everything I ever wanted in a woman, and so many things I didn't know I needed until she was suddenly there. And she has no idea how I feel about her because every time I try and tell her it comes out "I love you." Shes like the air conditioned seats in my truck. I had absolutely no idea how badly I needed her until she was suddenly there. lol.

You guys are adorable! I don't know when Valorie and I will be down in the States again. So far we we've only left Canada once, for a business conference this past weekend in Spokane. But within the next few years we will have lots of spare time to travel and enjoy life, and I know she would LOVE to come down. One of our shared goals is to get competent with parkour and movnat so I think we could DEFINITELY make a day or even a whole weekend of it. lol.

No sir, This is Spartan 981, callsign Church. I was really active about a year ago, did 12 or 13 6 week challenges, but then I got hurt, drunk, and lazy and kinda sort of fell off the fitness lifestyle. but now I'm back

Awesome challenge buddy! I'm so glad things are going better with you and Heather One day when me and the girlfriend are down in your neck of the woods, we'll have to get together and do dinner or something One of my mentors recently told me that if a husband and wife are working towards a common goal/interest/passion it will draw them closer together. Because you have him, her and the goal/passion/interest acting as the 3 points of a triangle, so the closer they drew to their goal/passion/interest the closer they came to each other. These particular people chose to pursue their love of the Lord, much like yourself and Heather have done, and it literally brought their marriage back from the brink of hostile divorce and turned it into one of the strongest, most loving, most inspiring relationships I have ever seen. I know that one day the same will be true for you and Heather

WOW EG! You've come so far I'm sorry I've missed your awesome journey. It's so inspiring to see how far you've come and how far you intend to go yet.

Hey buddy! Good to hear from you I missed you too So I'll have to edit the challenge a bit to reflect my new employment circumstances: I will be working a job that will allow me to be home every night And I am so excited to spend more time with my Love, and build our future

I have loved ones like that, weather they complain about their finances, weight, mariage, body-image, etc. that are constant complainers and constantly looking for advice and help, but never actually apply any of it. Or constantly come up with reasons why they can't do it. and I, personally, have just said "You know what? Theres two choices. Either change, or don't. You can't get what you've never had unless you begin to do things you've never done and become someone you've never been. Now if you're serious and you want help, I will provide all of the support I can. But if you have no intention of actually doing something about it, then please don't include me on your list of people to complain to." I realize that may not be an applicable solution in your circumstance, but it is something that I have had to do in order to spare myself heartache and misery by association.

I have loved ones like that, weather they complain about their finances, weight, mariage, body-image, etc. that are constant complainers and constantly looking for advice and help, but never actually apply any of it. Or constantly come up with reasons why they can't do it. and I, personally, have just said "You know what? Theres two choices. Either change, or don't. You can't get what you've never had unless you begin to do things you've never done and become someone you've never been. Now if you're serious and you want help, I will provide all of the support I can. But if you have no intention of actually doing something about it, then please don't include me on your list of people to complain to." I realize that may not be an applicable solution in your circumstance, but it is something that I have had to do in order to spare myself heartache and misery by association.

Hey look, a challenge sneaked up on me. I'm just going to keep this going simple for now. I'm having a hard time getting back in the groove so the plan is to build habits around living a healthy lifestyle. Habit 1 Wake up early and workout before breakfast. Build a habit around being consistently active. It'll be hard to want to do, because the current job I have requires me to walk A LOT. like, an average of 15 km/day. Up stairs/ladders, cross country, hauling tools and gear around. Habit 2 Stretch properly. I've been carrying a lot of tightness since I got hurt and it is severely limiting me. So I need to make an effort to stretch more often and more effectively. Really hit those problem areas. Normally I would augment this with visits to my massage therapist, but now that I no longer live with my parents and am trying to streamline my lifestyle so that my girlfriend and I can pay off our debt and build a savings account, I feel like that money could be better spent elsewhere. My trainer seems to think that most of my issues with hip mobility are stemming from severe tightness in my back, so I will have to work on that for sure. Habit 3 This one pertains to diet and will be complicated simply because it is so big. For the duration of this challenge I will be building a habit around tracking/logging my diet. I know I need to get it squared away eventually, especially on days off, but I can't make changes to anything until I know for sure what it is. So I will focus on logging on MyFitnessPal every day. Being that I will be home every night, and tempted to stop for expensive fast food, I will put some real effort into eating home cooked meals for supper, and I will make sure to be consistent with my vitamins and supplements and to utilize my meal replacement shake with almond milk for lunch. Because I am SO sick of sandwiches. And they're no good for you. Habit 4 Find some friends. I have no friends, really. Everyone I know is either from work and doesn't live anywhere near me, or is from high school and doesn't live anywhere near me. So for this challenge I will focus on getting back in touch with people, catching up on each others lives, and possibly hanging out on days off. Because my girlfriend works during the day (even on the week that I am home) and my life is empty and boring when she's not around. The current workout looks like this: Pull ups: 2 sets of 3Assisted Pistol Squats: 2 sets of 5 per legOverhead press 40lbs.: 2 sets of 5L-seat leg raises: 2 sets of 10Push ups: 2 sets of 7Body weight rows: 2 sets of 7RPoD: 2 sets of 60 seconds per holdDead lift 35lbs.: 2 sets of 10And I will be using it as a starting point to go on to bigger and better things. The planned schedule looks like this: Sunday - Cardio/yogaMonday - StrengthTuesday - RestWednesday - Cardio/yogaThursday - StrengthFriday - Cardio/yogaSautrday - StrengthAnd I will be looking around for mobility stuff to utilise on my cardio/yoga days. I might post mini-challenges/goals for myself as the challenge progresses. Likely on my days off, something I can muck with while I am home.

Wow. What. A. Weekend. It was a hectic mess, so I didn't pay attention to logging my diet at all, but rest assured; it was almost all fast food or delivery, none of it healthy. The weekend, however, was AMAZING. Totally life changing. We left Friday morning and drove over 1000 kilometers from Edmonton Alberta, down to Spokane Washington for a business conference from Saturday morning to Sunday evening, then drove home Sunday evening and arrived in our beds at about 7:45 this morning. Now I'm on the hunt for a new job that will keep me in town with my Love so we can build our future, fight for social justice, and help others realize their dreams and better themselves. It looks daunting, but I will overcome and become and I will change the world

Went for a walk this morning. It was nice to get out, but I'm still feeling pretty sore after having ly legs beat into some semblance of functionality yesterday, so it was less awesome tan it might have been. Maybe tomorrow I'l run the path just for something to do. Who knows. Also, I have training tomorrow. And I'm getting super excited for our trip to Spokane (my first trip out of Canada), even though I am currently in a melancholy mood. I'm feeling super restless, but have nothing to do. I COULD do laundry, except that I don't have in suite laundry, and I don't have to time to sit home for however many hours it takes to do all of our clothes and bedding and towels from the week. It'd be nice if I could just throw a load in and get back to it when I get back to it. However, there's only 4 machines for a building of 50+ people, ad that would just be a dick move. You know? I think I'd rather just spend 13 bucks on socks (the only thing I'm actually out of, and worry about it when we get back from the conference.) Oh yeah, the building machines are down for replacing, and won't be available until tomorrow sometime.

Thank you for the kind words As for my fitness attitude, I am a firm believer that if you're 15 minutes into your workout and you're still cute, then you need to get down to business. Lol. But in my years of physical work, and striving for fitness, I've learned that I can get LOTS more done and make WAY bigger strides if I'm never bogged down in recovery. It is possible to push your muscles, and expand your capability at a rate that is both steady and safe, and will result in impressive results. All you have to do to get where you're going is start where you're at and use what you have at that moment. That being said, I'm gonna have to really beat on myself in order to get my body in good working order again. I happen to really like MyFitnessPal, I find it to be a great way to keep track of everything. I struggle with finding my exact food sometimes, but its still an interesting tool to see what I actually eat, how it breaks down into daily calories, and what I'm getting for fats, carbohydrates, and protein. Hope that helps

Today was a mobility day with my trainer. He used a golf ball to beat on the junk in my left hip to make squats better. It worked but it hurt so bad. There's gotta be a way I can maintain whatever it is he does so he doesn't have to do it any more. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yesterday I went to my little sisters wedding. And danced. Not well, but I was sweating and gasping for breath. Lol. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Today's workout: Pull ups: 2 sets of 3Assisted Pistol Squats: 2 sets of 5 per legOverhead press 40lbs.: 2 sets of 5L-seat leg raises: 2 sets of 10Push ups: 2 sets of 7Body weight rows: 2 sets of 7RPoD: 2 sets of 60 seconds per holdDead lift 35lbs.: 2 sets of 10 Nothing here was particularly difficult, but my goal is to NOT do an all out workout that will hurt me and set me backwards in the healing process. I'm all for being sore, having that kind of muscle pain that makes you feel POWERFUL, but I am done with pushing myself so hard that I can hardly drive for upwards of 5 days, and have trouble pulling my own truck door closed. So from here I will be maintaining this workout at 2 sets for a couple weeks. Just to get used to working out consistently, and this is simple, fun, and quick enough to not be a deterrent. Then I will add in a third set of exactly what you see posted above. Today I did it as a circuit-style workout, but I will have to be flexible in terms of doing all 3 sets of everything one at a time if the gym is too bus for me to realistically take up all the various things I need to use in order to get my workout done as a circuit.

Hey little buddy, come back!

I've recently heard it said that you get what you focus on. Weather the universe falls into line to bring you that, or you begin to subconsciously take measures to achieve whatever it is you're after. So to my understanding, and using fitness as an example: you'd be better served to focus your attention on your journey to and end goal of fitness (whatever that means for you) than to focus on your journey away from an unhealthy lifestyle. It may seem like only semantics but the difference is huge and can, in fact, be a game changer.

OK. So now that I'm less frustrated, I think I'll take a crack at organizing a workout plan now. pull ups: 3 sets of 2 assisted pistol squats: 3 sets of 5 per leg overhead press: 3 sets of 5 L-seat leg raises: 3 sets of 10 push ups: 3 sets of 7 body weight rows: 3 sets of 7 RPoD: 60s per hold with reverse plank split into 30s one leg planks. Deadlift: 3 sets of 10 at 135 lbs.My work schedule may be changing a bunch right away, but as it sits right now my plan of attack is to rest on Tuesdays, do cardio and stretching on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays. And do the above strength circuit on Thursdays, Saturdays, and Mondays. Its not a super advanced workout, but it's a foundation upon which I can build up to my former glory and beyond. The hard part will be to initially build a habit around consistent fitness. And I will need MAJOR stretching in order to regain my lost ROM. Today I'm headed to the gym to work with my trainer and have him beat on my shoulder and make it stop clicking and aching again. Damn tendons that I can't beat on all by myself. lol.

So today I got around to doing a benchmark workout. It went as follows: Pull ups: 4Freestanding pistol squats: 4 left / 2 rightPush ups: 13BW rows at hip height: 10L-seat: 15 secondsRPoD: 60 seconds per holdCurrent weight: 181.5 lbs. And the progress pics: Shout out to Lincarte for helping me get the pictures to post at a reasonable size, and for helping he get the links in my signature

July 16, 2014 Hi guys! I'm back! Lots of things have been going on in my life in the year or so that I've been away, but I've already covered all of that in my profile. So just a brief snap shot: I got hurt. both shoulders and my left hip. I've spent the last year trying to overcome the pain and recover some of my range of motion and now I'm finally in a place where I can pick up from square one, assess my current abilities, set my goals, plan my path to success, and begin recovering lost ground. Goals, for now... Run 10k non-stop. Run 5k in 20 minutes or less. Freestanding Pistol Squat. 3 sets of 10 per leg. One arm push ups. 3 sets of 10 per arm. Freestanding handstand push ups. 3 sets of 10 Front/back body levers. 60 seconds, full extension. Muscle ups. 3 sets of 10. Injury proof, become Anti-Fragile, and improve mobility. The Plan Physical: Create, and do a bench mark workout in a controlled environment to get a progress point. Build a habit around consistent training and recording progress and stats on a weekly basis. Build a habit of stretching after every workout, and do lots of mobility work on cardio days. Be sure to log workouts daily, and do stats and pics every third week.Dietary Build a habit around tracking what I eat using MyFitnessPal. Incorporate my current line of supplements into an approximation of a paleo diet. While tracking my diet, it is more important to be full on good foods, than to hit a certain calorie goal and be hungry. Today I am super busy with errands and "I just got back from camp" stuff, so my next post, tomorrow, will include my workout plan and starting stats. See you then. -Church-

Well I know it'll be different for me. It seems to me the problem begins when you have kids. Well I'm just never having kids. Seriously. You gotta have sex before you can have kids. And hell, you gotta have a girlfriend/wife before you can have sex.... Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That's awesome news Obax! So proud of you Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That's exactly what happened. Also, the shocked-girl-face is perfect for heading the thread. Lol Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk