FortBacon

Thanks so much for posting these links! Thought I was the only one missing Academy quests / progress.

I'm still "back" - but time to close this out and create a new challenge. It's all about fat loss now, while I try to maintain some muscle.

Has it been ... 3 years? It has been a while, but I have missed how supportive the community can be! And I'm a week late for this challenge (more like 4 years late), but I want to start! Time for a respawn. Over the past 4 years, I almost gave up completely on ever being a fit person. My excuses have been work, family, travel, etc. It has been over 20 years since my peak fitness days, gone due to a stack of bad choices and daily routines of unhealthy habits. Until recently, I felt trapped in a very unhealthy body. A paradigm shift began in April last year (2020 - that year... lol). My younger brother challenged me to just be consistent. I decided to forget "intensity" and "pushing myself to the brink" as so many of the fitness web-celebs push. I decided to just lift 3x/week, starting with an empty barbell and slowly adding weight each week. Now, 9 months later, I'm lifting more than I knew I could - just by coming back weekly and pushing myself a little harder than the last time. So, I'd like to continue breaking out of my mental limitations and take care of my fitness overall. My focus will be primarily body fat, endurance and overall healthier living (sleep, nutrition, etc). My outcome-goal would be to lose fat while keeping as much strength as possible (maybe gaining strength? not sure) My habit-goals that I'd like to track - expanding my consistency... 1) Get time on the bike daily - indoor stationary bike to boost energy and calorie burn - continue my current habit of lifting 3x per week 2) Nutrition/Calories: Keep at or below 2,000 and shoot for >150g protein - I definitely use food as therapy 3) Sleep - shoot for 11pm-6am - this is the most challenging one to me - seems farthest from what I'm currently doing but might make the biggest difference for me in work and fitness Good to be back - and hope to make some new friends and maybe find old friends.

Saturday 7/15: □ Morning meditation ✔️ Keto-calorie restriction (adjusting fat for activity levels) ✔️ Steps ✔️ NF Academy Bodyweight level 3 (4 days each week) ✔️ Career studies Sunday 7/16: ✔️ Morning meditation ✔️ Keto-calorie restriction (adjusting fat for activity levels) ✔️ Steps ✔️ NF Academy Bodyweight level 3 (4 days each week) ✔️ Career studies Monday 7/17: □ Morning meditation ✔️ Keto-calorie restriction (adjusting fat for activity levels) ✔️ Steps ✔️ NF Academy Bodyweight level 3 (4 days each week) ✔️ Career studies Time for sleep

I chose to live by the excuse of "therapeutic eating" and fell off the plan - indulged in Chick-Fil-A, bar food, hotel junk food, conference foods, and alcohol... SHAME!! AT least I don't get marched through the streets naked - though that might be a perfect deterrent. Time to get back to it - so, skipping to Friday... Friday 7/14: ✔️ Morning meditation □ Keto-calorie restriction (adjusting fat for activity levels) □ Steps □ NF Academy Bodyweight level 3 (4 days each week) □ Career studies Here's to a phenomenal Saturday

Haha! Emphasis on the "trying"... hopefully the "doing" happens soon! Miss you brother - happy Bastille-ing!

Man - that was snarky ... did not intend for that to be "mean spirited" - meditation is helpful, and I'm mostly admitting my own flaws and short-sightedness in the process of learning

Ah! I've seen her talks and read a few of her articles - good stuff - I will add her to my reading list of "wealthy persons telling me to meditate and why their book/system should be bought and followed"

Honestly, most days I feel frustrated during this part of the day - all the demands of life come rushing into my mind, or some completely nutty thought crashes in. Or an especially critical thought comes in that says "what's the point?! I'm wasting time!" I'm still learning, but my understanding is that the exercise is meant to help me observe my thoughts (not "be" my thoughts, but to observe them), but most days I fail. However, there have been occasional profound moments where I'm able to "hover above" my thoughts and maybe find another place in the mind that isn't ruled by emotional messiness - very brief, and probably an illusion - but maybe this is how I slowly find my meditative way.

That's helpful. Does it "graduate" to a paid subscription? Headspace has mostly guided meditations with default length 10 min - any of them can be set to longer duration - duration is controlled at the start of each meditation - I'm pretty much barely able to do the 10 min - heh). There is also a timed, unguided one. There does NOT seem to be noise-based content (nothing that's rain or water or coffee shop sounds, etc) - everything is fairly quiet and narrated by Anthony Puddicombe - a former Buddhist monk, which means he's a meditation wizard... sorry for the snark, he's actually pretty helpful! I think the 3 basic sets (intro sets) are free and infinitely repeatable (3 sets of 10, mostly the same with some instructional videos and coaching). There is a subscription service I might try with a ton of content: SOS meditations (3 short ones to pick from when you feel like you're about to explode with stress or frustration), and a bunch of topic-sets - anxiet, competition, sleep, acceptance, anger, relationships, etc. OH! There are also little animations to help illustrate concepts, and they are nice.

Tuesday 7/11: ✔️ Morning meditation □ Keto-calorie restriction (adjusting fat for activity levels) ✔️ Steps □ NF Academy Bodyweight level 3 (4 days each week) ✔️ Career studies Travel days are a real problem for me... I eat "therapeutically"

Trying headspace - you?

AGAIN with the things - two days in a row, for me, is a big WIN... infinity% more than the zero I've been doing... Monday 7/10: ✔️ Morning meditation ✔️ Keto-calorie restriction (adjusting fat for activity levels) ✔️ Steps ✔️ NF Academy Bodyweight level 3 (4 days each week) ✔️ Career studies

Finally tried the "Strong" app. It takes minimal learning and fidgeting (had to enter a few of the moves from NF Academy Bodyweight 3), but I love this! Finally, a flexible strength/workout app that bends to MY will (vs most apps that require I bow to them). I can't remember who recommended it, but it was surely @Br0din or @Laghail or @catspaw or @Haikoo or @RedStone or @Loren Wade or many other nerds here who deserve attribution for the tons of great advice I've received (so many mentions, so little time). Time-saving, life-recording app implemented - big woot Back to learning and thinking...

I DID THINGS! Here's to a trend (0+1 - not quite a trend, but will take it) Sunday 7/9: ✔️ Morning meditation ✔️ Keto-calorie restriction (adjusting fat for activity levels) ✔️ Steps ✔️ NF Academy Bodyweight level 3 (4 days each week) ✔️ Career studies