Lou186000

day 1 of 30 Days of Gravity completed. Start time: 15:00 End time: 15:27 Lunge Steps: 60 reps each leg Side Leg Raises: 80 count, alternating Squats: 80 count [2 min rest] wall sit (goal = to failure) set 1: 30 count set 2: 40 count set 3: 37 count (time for a twinkie!) (kidding.)

I had planned to start this yesterday, but wasn't able to put the energy together. Even today I did not want to get up and make it happen. BIG thanks to Raincloak and fitnessurl for the encouragement! Day 1 of 30 Days of Gravity has been completed. You know, I look at these awesome Darebee sheets and part of me thinks, "Hey, this cartoon guy gets through these pretty easily, I should be able to do it without too much trouble." And after ten minutes I'm cursing the cartoon guy. But also feeling good for attempting it at all. I'll keep track of my goals in this handy dandy Google Drive spreadsheet. Only 29 days to go!

Thanks for the post, WN! It's indeed interesting how different techniques work for different people!

Great goals! I'm particularly fond of your goal to journal. I'm a long-time journaler, and am continually fascinated by how much it helps me in so many ways. Anyway, your goals look awesome, best of luck to you and I look forward to watching your progress!

You've clearly put a lot of thought into these goals! Looking forward to watching your progress!

You may be discouraged, but I'll tell you it's humbling to read what you've overcome. If you're up to it, put yourself in this new 30-day challenge that starts on Monday, or maybe plan for the next one in February if that's better. Either way, it's a sure bet that a lot of people here are pulling for you to succeed!

Doing the first challenge for 2016 as I've been planning to do since I skipped the last one. Here's my thread: Lou186000 aims for the speed of lighter (and stronger)

awesome post! Nerd long and prosper, and good luck on the challenge!

Awesome post and goals, good luck with the challenge!

fitness goals Follow Darebee's 30 days of gravity workout. This will go 2 days over the 4-week duration of the challenge. I'll start today so the finish day will coincide with the end of the NF challenge. I'm looking forward to this. I've incorporated some Darebee exercises in my routines for the last few months but this will be the first time I've followed one of the programs. Drink at least 64oz water daily Weigh myself at least weekly My last challenge I focused on strength training and as something of an experiment I made a conscious effort to not weigh myself at all. I really increased my strength over those six weeks and interestingly lost almost two pounds. However, I've put on weight over the past three months and I know myself well: if I'm looking at the scale at least once a week I'll lose weight because it makes me even more conscious of my food input (and yep, I track using MyFitnessPal). So the goal is not to specifically lose weight for this challenge, only to track my weight, which I believe will result in a loss. cook dinner at least 4 times a week I'm really good at making/bringing healthy lunch and snacks to the office, but I've let my evening cooking slide a bit over the last three months. In retrospect, it's been a clear case of "cook fatigue." I've gotten tired of cooking, especially as I felt drained from the anxiety of doing well at the new job. Time to reinvigorate that, get some pre-cooking done on the weekends so I'm ready for the week ahead. life goals Just as Fall 2015 was beginning I was laid off from the dayjob. The startup I was working for was floundering in rising debt and dwindling revenue and simply couldn't afford the IT manager any longer. Since I knew I'd (unfortunately) have more time on my hands, I did the next NF challenge and made it part of the life goals to basically "find a job, dammit." I got a job offer a couple of weeks after that challenge ended, and I'm currently finishing up my first two months at the new job. That goal necessarily eclipsed all other life goals at the time, but I want --- need --- to revive those. The primary goal is to exercise my musicianship. I'm currently involved in a fun music project that has me orchestrating and composing for a very nerdy indie film that will see a release at the end of 2016. The demands on my spare time for that project will wax and wane, but the bulk of my involvement should be finished this month. With this in mind, my goal for this challenge is to do something as a musician at least three times a week, which can be anything from this list: work on the film project work on new/original compositions play any instrument (guitar, fiddle, mandolin, etc) record new songs I don't really need to set a minimum time for any of the activities in this list because once I start I quickly become immersed and lose track of time. If anything I'll have to put a cap on the session time so I don't stay up too late and hose my chances of rising on time for morning cardio. So those are my goals for the challenge: a handful of fitness goals, and a personal/life goal to do something I love three times a week.

Time to reset the high scores, lose the cheat codes, start the game anew. It's not the first respawn I've had in the 14 months I've been tracking and I imagine it won't be the last. Indeed, the respawns are probably a big part of my overall progress. I wish they weren't, but that's apparently how my personal mind-body connection works. The hardest and most necessary part of a respawn for me is assessing. Taking an honest look at where I am. How else can I measure progress? So this morning I did two things: I took a starting weight (which I'll use for the upcoming challenge), and I reset my "streak" in MyfitnessPal. I am quite proud of the 448 consecutive days I put together, but the last few weeks that accomplishment began to feel hollow. For a variety of (valid) reasons I let my health and fitness reside on the back burner the last couple of months. Fortunately, I've built some good food habits over this past year, and that undoubtedly saved me from any real setback. At any rate, the MFP streak is officially at "Day 1" and it feels good to be starting the game again.

Just a quick update. Things are going well this week. For this week I'm shooting for strength in the mornings. Did a 6am strength yesterday, and 6am cardio today, and tomorrow will be a 6am strength circuit. Yesterday's strength was cool --- I did 5 reps on my first set of dips! HUGE for me! As I said when I could only do 1 dip a few months ago, this exercise is one for which progress is easy to track (anything > 1 is a win). Food wise, December is being its normal holiday challenge, but I'm weathering it okay. In non-fitness things, I've taken on a (not paid, just for fun) music project that has me arranging music for an indie film that very much fits in with our nerd community. The project is challenging but a lot of fun. I have to get in a couple hours of that before bed, so I'm off to be a musico, then strength in the morning.

Finally, after three weeks doing only cardio I made myself rise early enough this morning to get a strength session in. It's clear (at least so far) that I'm not going to be able to get strength sessions in at the end of the average weekday. My goal will be to do two morning sessions during the week and then one on the weekend. This morning's session went well if by no other measure than "I did it." Definitely feel like there's some loss of strength, but not terrible, and I'm confident I'll rebuild it in short order. I suppose it's possible that I was just tired because of all the earliness, but it is what it is. I'd rather be a little tired and get it done than not get it done at all. Next strength session will be Sunday.

YIKES. Been a while since my last update, which is a bit unusual for me. I've completed the first two weeks at the new job! Redoing the day schedule has been challenging to the point that I haven't fit in a single strength session after that first day! I've been doing okay on the cardio, but strength not so much. Even the last two weekends have been jam-packed with holiday visitors and parenting requirements. Things are swinging into a rhythm so I'll be able to pick up my routine again starting Monday, if not tomorrow.

Although yesterday was the first day of the new job (yay!), I still managed to get my strength session in last night. It was *hard*, but I got it done. The single advancement from last week's A session was that I added a dip to my second set, so not too bad. It was interesting working out at night since I've been doing daytime workouts these past 10 weeks. For a time prior to that I did try doing strength training first thing in the mornings, but I found it just too tough to make it work consistently, so evenings will have to be it. Today I got multiple walks in, which is good. The office is in a corporate park with a golf course on one side and a shopping center less than a mile away. A very nice area to walk/run in. I don't know what else to do with a full hour for lunch, so I expect my habit will become food followed by roaming the corporate neighborhood on foot. The workout from yesterday: Goblet Squats, 4 sets: 3 sets of 8 at 32 lb db, 4th set of 10 reps Dips, 4 sets: 4, 3, 2, 2 Fly steps, 4 sets of 10 reps Bodyweight rows, 4 sets of 8 reps (All reps done with knees bent this time) Exercise Ball Knee Tucks, 4 sets of 10 reps Time to make lunch for tomorrow and then off to read the new Jim Butcher book!

The big victory for today's workout was just getting started. I did *not* want to do it. I ended up not having time yesterday, and today lethargy settled on me good and hard. But the whole family was out this afternoon and as much as I wanted to just stay still I just couldn't let the time go by without getting a strength session in. WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO ME? I've decided to continue with the Friday routine (or Saturday in this case) I've been using, but it was time for me to add a set. I'm working so hard on the middle-of-the-week routine that I know I can do more on both Monday and Friday sessions. Adding a fourth set went well, and I really feel like I gave it my all. The most challenging was getting through all the one-legged push-ups reps, but I managed. Also had to drop the weight on the dumbbell curls so I could get through all four sets, but that went well too, all told. At the end I felt drained but good. WORKOUT Superset 1 Straight Leg db deadlift, 10 reps: 10 @ 28 lb dbs (4 sets completed) One-legged pushup, 10 reps: 4 sets of 10 completed Plank, forearm: first 3 sets, did a 20-count, 4th set only lasted an 8-count Superset 2 Fly Steps, 10 reps: 4 sets of 10 completed Lat Pull Downs, 4 sets: 4 sets of 20 completed Reverse crunch, 4 sets: 3 sets of 10, 4th set did 12 Superset 3 Dumbbell curl, 20 reps (10 each arm), 4 sets: 2 sets @ 28 lb dbs, 2 sets @ 23 lb dbs Overhead tricep extension, 10 reps: first set at 18 lb db, last three sets @ 27 lb db I can tell I can put a little more effort into the reverse crunches, which I'll do next time around. Also, the planks in the first superset are killer for me after the push-ups. One day I'll get to my goal of 60 seconds on those.

Yesterday's strength session went well, though I'll freely admit it was a tough one. It was my second time through Darebee.com's Power Mode workout. Each circuit includes two sets of ten push-ups. When I get to that final set (what amounts to the sixth set of ten push-ups), I'm pretty much used up. So it's obviously a good workout for me. Like doing dips, it'll be easy to spot improvement because I'll be doing things I've not been able to do previously. Monday I begin my new job, and I have to admit as much as I'm looking forward to it, I'm anxious about fitting in my fitness needs. Really, I'd been doing fine with the previous dayjob, and I've only been out of the 9 to 5 scene for three months. Still, I'm realizing that this coming weekend is the time to make dinners for the coming week and plan to do my strength sessions in the evenings. I actually expect the structure of the work day to be a help: it'll keep me on a straight schedule for breakfast, healthy brought-from-home lunches, and I'm hoping for time during the days to get in a 20 minute walk. We'll see how it shakes out; tough to do real planning when I've not yet started. Today is cardio day, and winter-like temperatures have arrived in our area. It does give me pause before heading out and about with my pup, but even a chilly walk will do us both good. On with the day...

I'm a loooong time Linux user, a bit frightening to think how long I've been installing and using that system. Anyway, elftoasted is wise to suggest Debian, a very solid distro. Many recommend Ubuntu for new users. Ubuntu is based on Debian. When I need a linux desktop (vs a linux server that doesn't use a gui) I've been installing Linux Mint (which is based on Ubuntu). It has all the stuff one needs to get going straight away, and I can just load it and start doing what I need (which is usually a web test of some sort). While potentially overwhelming, you might be interested in visiting distrowatch which provides links to pretty much every viable Linux distribution that exists. Good luck and have fun with the new laptop and the new OS!