Wolverine

Then on to the Slegehammer of Doom- Did 10 minutes

Are you doing the movements as "prescribed" at shovelglove.com or are you messing around on your own?

Awesome week, especially with the really great life goal! I've enjoyed following the ways you've consciously attacked that goal.

Thanks! The life goal has been harder than I thought... I've had to give myself constant reminders to be patient with people and let things go, and actively seek out people to "love" especially because my wife and I are such homebodies now! Here's hoping that love is a habit by the end of six weeks!

This has gotten me thinking... will have to revisit my consumption too. Keep talking, brother. :-)

Ha! I'm glad I inspired some thought at least!

Gosh I can't tell you how many "rules" we broke and continue to break. I always get a kick out of the looks of disgust from the freaks who win at parenting.

HA HA HA! We went from taking everyone's advice to: "Oh, you don't think I should put my kid in the swing to nap? Unless you want to come over and hold him while he sleeps, F*** you. That's what I think."

I can count on one hand the number of things that have gone according to plan...

WEEK 1 RECAP

Goal 1: Workout 3-7 Days per Week

I got 4 workouts in this week. I was aiming for five, but Junior's sleep "schedule" didn't play along. I was exhausted last night and the night before and chose to get some extra sleep instead. Made my >3 goal, though, so 100% and an A on this one. Feels good man.

Goal 2: No Drinking Alcohol Alone & Track All Food

100% adherence to the no drinking alcohol alone rule AND the track all food rule. However, I was often the one suggesting beers/drinks and that needs to change this week. While I followed the letter of the law, I did not follow the spirit of it, which was to limit my drinking a bit and teach myself some moderation. I'm going to give myself a B for the week.

Goal 3: Floss Daily & Shave Weekly

My teeth and gums are happy and my cheeks are smooth. 100% and an A, baby!

Goal 4: Love One Rebel and One IRL Person Daily

100% on the love a rebel rule and 100% on the love a person IRL rule. I've kept active on the boards and have tried to put others ahead of myself throughout my day. I am actively thinking about my actions and how they convey how I feel about those around me. I've found a nice side effect has been a more peaceful day. When I actively forgive the guy who cuts me off on the highway I can just let the incident go, rather than dwell on it and stay angry. Woot.

Bonus Goal: Lose 10 Pounds

I won't be weighing myself until the end of the challenge!

Good going!

Also, about alcohol.

It's not the calories or the sugar in alcoholic drinks that really do you a damage. It's the alcohol itself. Because alcohol is quite literally a poison, basically your body drops everything else it's doing until it processes and gets rid of it. This includes things like replenshing glycogen stores in muscles, muscle repair, immune system functions, or most of the normal calorie-burning metabolic activity it does. If you eat with booze, your food goes to fat stores pretty much straight up. Along with a few of the alcohol toxins now floating around in your bloodstream. Oh, and it runs through all the water and salts in your body, too, leaving your electrolytic balance out of whack and overall horribly dehydrated.

I can't cite this, because it's gathered over a few years of random reading of various scientific sources.

So yeah. When losing weight, avoid alcohol. Of course, it won't necessarily prevent weight loss - but it will slow it down mightily.

I like this article on alcohol from Leangains.com.

CHALLENGE DAY 7

Goal 1: Workout 3-7 Days per Week

• 4 of 3-7 Workouts
  

Goal 2: No Drinking Alcohol Alone & Track All Food

• 7 of 7 No Drinking Alcohol Alone
  
• 7 of 7 Track All Food (MyFitnessPal Journal)
  

Goal 3: Floss Daily & Shave Weekly

• 7 of 7 Floss Daily
  
• 1 of 1 Shave Weekly
  

Goal 4: Love One Rebel and One IRL Person Daily

• 7/7 Love One Rebel
  
• 7/7 Love One IRL Person
  

Bonus Goal: Lose 10 Pounds

• 0 of 10 Pounds Lost
  

Congrats! I hope you are inspired to weight lifting heights!

Congratulations! My wife and I bought our house two years ago and we love it! There's nothing quite like being able to paint a room whatever color you want, or rip out a wall without someone else's permission, or own a pet without thought of a security deposit. Good times!

CHALLENGE DAY 6

Goal 1: Workout 3-7 Days per Week

• 4 of 3-7 Workouts
  

Goal 2: No Drinking Alcohol Alone & Track All Food

• 6 of 7 No Drinking Alcohol Alone
  
• 6 of 7 Track All Food (MyFitnessPal Journal)
  

Goal 3: Floss Daily & Shave Weekly

• 6 of 7 Floss Daily
  
• 0 of 1 Shave Weekly
  

Goal 4: Love One Rebel and One IRL Person Daily

• 6/7 Love One Rebel
  
• 5/7 Love One IRL Person
  

My father was in town to meet his grandson. It was a good visit but difficult at times. I practiced patience and going with the flow and loving him despite our differences.

Bonus Goal: Lose 10 Pounds

• 0 of 10 Pounds Lost
  

Workout Log - 6/22I might not update a workout log every day from here on out, but I at least wanted to get workout #1 for each of my different days to capture how much progress I've made during the challenge.

Well, I find it incredibly useful to see what you're up to, so thanks.

WAHOO! Congrats on your completion of "A change in the wind" (I almost said "Congrats on your wind" which wasn't exactly what I was going for... )!

Structuring your challenge so you get points "early" was an inspired idea... you get to give yourself a reward after every section of the challenge. I wish I had thought of that! Extra motivation is never a bad thing.

I'm using you as extra special inspiration this next week as I'm going out of town Wed. - Sun. and I have already been planning my resigned, "I went out of town and that is why I failed at all my goals" speech. This:

refusing to use my nomadic lifestyle as an excuse to ignore important priorities

I don't see a reason why you can't do core work every day as long as you listen to your body when it says it needs a break. Maybe make the goal 5-7 days a week instead of every day so that if you need a break to allow yourself to recover you have the opportunity to do so, but not giving yourself enough wiggle room to slack off?

Keep on keeping on! You inspire me to bring it every time I read your pull-up log!

Thanks! I feel like in a lot of ways I am trending in a positive direction (exercise, flossing, etc.), but I'm not quite hitting the other portions of my challenge (specifically, I am pretty disappointed with how I've been eating and drinking). Not sure what I'm going to do about that (if anything) yet.

I like your new avatar, btw.

http://www.beastskills.com/one-legged-squat-the-pistol/

Assisted is full range of motion but you place a hand on a chair, wall, pole, whatever to help balance you. The goal is to rely less on the help balancing each time you work the skill. Check out "Method 4".

Partial is not full range motion and you squat back to touch a chair or whatever, but with no balance assistance. The goal is to increase range of motion each workout. Checkout "Method 3".

Personally, I was used to the standard squat with heavy weight but my knees weren't ready for the additional lateral strain of the pistol. So the full range assisted pistols were killing me. When I switched to the partials, it allowed my knees to catch up without the strain. Or that's my theory anyway. I'll let you know.

Can't wait for your woot next Friday when you let us all know that you rocked the PVP against your friend!

WOW! I'm super impressed! Facing an eating disorder is not easy and you have every right to rejoice. Congratulations!

CHALLENGE DAY 5

Goal 1: Workout 3-7 Days per Week

• 4 of 3-7 Workouts
  
• Today's Workout: Shovelglove! Ridiculous name, ridiculously fun workout.
  

Goal 2: No Drinking Alcohol Alone & Track All Food

• 5 of 7 No Drinking Alcohol Alone
  
• 5 of 7 Track All Food (MyFitnessPal Journal)
  

Goal 3: Floss Daily & Shave Weekly

• 5 of 7 Floss Daily
  
• 0 of 1 Shave Weekly
  

Goal 4: Love One Rebel and One IRL Person Daily

• 5/7 Love One Rebel
  
• 4/7 Love One IRL Person
  

Fail on the love one person IRL... didn't get out of the house today!

Bonus Goal: Lose 10 Pounds

• 0 of 10 Pounds Lost
  

+10 bonus points for giving your wife a break and letting her get out of the house

Ha! She said almost the exact same thing.

Also, solid day 4. I may steal that plank routine you seem to have stolen from Waldo!

Thanks! The plank routine is fun... and challenging. The hollow hold is way tougher than it looked...

...that I stole from the Building the Gymnast Body forum...

NNNOOOOooooooooo! *takes Waldo off of pedastal*

The one thing that's kinda been on my mind is my alcohol consumption -- a cocktail after work, not every day, and weekend drinks (2-3 a night). How much is too much? Does it really hinder my weight loss? Would I survive without them? Do I really want to give it up?

Yeah... I KNOW it's hindering my weight loss. I'm in a "healthy" range as far as my weight/height but I'm nowhere near where i want to be and the added calories are definitely adding up.

Also, I REALLY don't want to give up alcohol completely and it's sort of a habit at this point (I don't drink to excess- we're talking 2 beers or 2 glasses of wine - but I drink every freaking night). The fact that I NEED it so much disturbs me. Sigh.

WAHOO! CONGRATULATIONS!

Congrats to you!! Any advice i can pass on to my husband?

1 - Don't worry if you don't connect with the kid right away. It takes some guys a bit to really get that it's happening... I think the "Oh my god, I'm a dad" and the "I can't imagine my life without you" hit me at about two weeks after he was born.

2 - Give your wife a break whenever you can. If you're tired she's tired x 2. It's tough sometimes but it gets better. Every day is a little bit easier than the last.

I do 3 sets of 10 reps of partial squats. At first it was onto a chair and now it's onto a stack of boxes which is a bit shorter (I don't sit on whatever I'm squatting to, merely touch my bum for reference and then pop back up). I lower the chair/boxes/whatever when I can do 3 x 10 with good form.

I just stumbled upon your thread... not sure how I missed it before! Love your goals, and I'm looking forward to following your progress. I have a friend who just returned from the Peace Corps... she was in Armenia and she's got some AMAZING stories.

I've decided to start updating my challenge stuff here rather than at the blog... don't really like the functionality over there and I'd like to keep all my challenge stuff together sooo... there you have it.

CHALLENGE DAY 4

Goal 1: Workout 3-7 Days per Week

• 3 of 3-7 Workouts
  
• Today's Workout: Hollow Hold + Reverse Plank + Side Plank + Front Plank + Superman + Side Plank (warm-up ala Waldo); Pull-Ups; Partial Pistol Squats; Incline One-Arm Push-Ups
  
• Bonus Exercise: The Bro-circuit (There was a mirror, some dumbbells, and a lot of posing involved.)
  

Tonight's workout felt good. I enjoyed my hold/plank warm-up (ala Waldo), lowered the the partial pistol squats again, and got to try some one-arm push-ups for the first time. The push-ups were at a pretty steep incline, but we all gotta start somewhere. It's nice to mix up the push-ups... I've been pretty bored with just busting out sets of 20. Pull-ups were challenging but not impossible. I'm hoping that I can get back to my old max by the end of the challenge, but we'll see. At the end of the workout, Junior was still asleep and I was still feeling good so I pulled out the dumbbells, pretended I was in a squat rack for full bro-ness, and busted out a bunch of curls, presses, etc. It was amusing if nothing else.

Goal 2: No Drinking Alcohol Alone & Track All Food

• 4 of 7 No Drinking Alcohol Alone
  
• 4 of 7 Track All Food (MyFitnessPal Journal)
  

I am following the letter but not the spirit of my no alcohol alone rule. I need to figure out whether or not I want to get serious about this one. The fact that it's so difficult for me to come to a concrete decision, probably means that it's more important to me than it should be. Sigh.

As for tracking food, I'm doing so consistently and haven't been liking what I've been seeing. While I didn't make any goals to clean up my diet (only to inform myself about what I'm ACTUALLY eating) I've been embarrassed to write down some of my food choices and I'm feeling the pressure to make some better choices.

Goal 3: Floss Daily & Shave Weekly

• 4 of 7 Floss Daily
  
• 0 of 1 Shave Weekly
  

Goal 4: Love One Rebel and One IRL Person Daily

• 4/7 Love One Rebel
  
• 4/7 Love One IRL Person
  

I'm still staying active on the boards and have consistently encouraged more than one rebel every day. It's a little bit harder now that the challenge is a couple days in and people have stopped posting as much. I can only imagine what it's going to be like a couple weeks from now. IRL, I worked on going with the flow and not getting so worked up about things outside of my control. This allowed me to patiently and lovingly deal with my son (who had a particularly difficult day) and support my wife when she needed me. My loving action for the day was getting her out of the house while I took over the baby dude!

Bonus Goal: Lose 10 Pounds

• 0 of 10 Pounds Lost
  

Congratulations!

I did the crow stand for the first time last night. I was using my laptop as a timer. I placed it right in front of me so that I could look up and see the timer while I was holding the pose.

Laptops will not cushion your fall, in case you were wondering.