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I'm leaving early tomorrow to spend Christmas with my husband's family in Florida, and won't be online too much while there. So, I'm ending my challenge a couple days early! END OF CHALLENGE WRAP-UP GOAL 1 3 kettlebell workouts/week (+2 STR, +2 STA, +1 WIS) I did my three workouts a week, except for one week that I missed one of them. I said at the beginning I'd lose a full letter grade for each week I didn't do all three, so... Final grade: B (+1.5 STR, +1.5 STA, +.75 WIS) GOAL 2 Kettlebell test milestones (Combined +2 STR, +2 STA, +1 DEX) 160 snatches in ten minutes with a 20lb kettlebell (+1 STR, +1 STA, +1 DEX) I dealt with various minor injuries and major bruising during the challenge and was never confident enough in my snatch form to test myself. Ended up not doing this. Final grade: F 1 3-rung C&P ladder with a 12kg kettlebell (+1 STR, +1 STA) I DID THIS TODAY! Woohoo! It was tough, I was barely able to do it. Final grade: A (+1 STR, +1 STA) GOAL 3 Lose 1.5% bodyfat (+2 CHA) I realized partway through the challenge that this was an unrealistic goal. I ended up losing .3% bodyfat. That's 20%, which rounds to 25%, which is a D. Final grade: D (+.5 CHA) GOAL 4 Progress to working standing up 6 hours/day (+3 CON) I nailed this. Not sure I'm going to stick to working standing up 6 hours per day, but I did it all last week! Final grade: A (+3 CON)

Whew, it's been a while, sorry! We had guests for a long weekend, which threw me off a little, and then things got kind of busy. I've been keeping up with my goals for the most part, but not with posting! Here's a report for weeks 4 and 5 to sum up where I am. Week 4 & 5 Report Goal 1: 3 kettlebell workouts per week. I only got in two full workouts during week 4 because we had guests (not a good excuse, I know), but I just finished my third week 5 workout. This was the week that my program had me start doing way more pressing work - last week it was five 3-rung ladders every day, this week it was five ladders every day, but three rungs during the first workout, four rungs during the second, and five rungs during the third! I made it though all five 4-rung ladders with difficulty during my last workout. Today, I did everything but the last rung of the last ladder (so, four 5-rung ladders and a 4-rung ladder). My right arm, which is weaker, could barely do the last rung of the last two ladders I did, so I decided not to push it. I'm proud of myself for doing as much as I did, though. Five 5-rung ladders is the largest volume this program ever has me do, so aaaaalmost making it the first time is pretty good, I think. Goal 2: Kettlebell milestones: 3-rung C&P ladder with 12kg (26.5lb) kb, 160 snatches in 10 minutes with a 20lb kettlebell I've been trying to press the 12kg kettlebell every few days. I can't do it yet, but I'm hoping the more intense workouts I did this week will help get me there for next week. Goal 3: Lose 1.5% bodyfat I've lost about .3% so far. Definitely not going to get to 1.5%, but (especially during the holiday season) as long as my weight isn't going up, I'm pretty happy. Goal 4: Progress to standing up for work 6 hours per day This is going really well - I've been keeping up with it every day. Stood at least four hours/day during week four, at least 5 hours/day during week five. It's pretty tiring, but I think I'm better at concentrating on work rather than getting distracted by the internet when I stand.

Quick check in - my elbow feels better, so I did cleans today! Repeating a couple workouts from last week instead of diving into the next week of the program, which is much harder, since I'm adding cleans AND doing swings and rows with a higher weight. Unfortunately my clean form has gotten a little worse while I've been not doing them. Oh well. It will get better.

Week 3 Report Goal 1: 3 kettlebell workouts per week. All done, without cleans because of my elbow. By the third workout, yesterday, my 12kg kb had arrived, so I used that for my swings. It was a "hard" day, five minutes of sets of 50 swings with ten seconds rest in between. It was TOUGH! I was gasping by the end. Goal 2: Kettlebell milestones: 3-rung C&P ladder with 12kg (26.5lb) kb, 160 snatches in 10 minutes with a 20lb kettlebell My 12kg kettlebell arrived! I couldn't press it after taking it out of the box, it feels like I might barely be able to do it once with proper warmup beforehand. Definitely have some work to do here, but I'm optimistic. I'm still holding off on snatches. Goal 3: Lose 1.5% bodyfat Realized this week that losing 1.5% was an unrealistic goal - oops! Now hoping for 0.5%. At my last weigh-in I had lost a little more than 0.2%. Goal 4: Progress to standing up for work 6 hours per day Did my required three hours per day of standing this week. I think this was my first full five-day workweek since starting this challenge! A good week, but I really hope my elbow is all better so I can stop modifying my workouts.

At my last job I wanted to try a standing desk but I had a big monitor and a laptop with a tiny screen, so I couldn't really do it without a lot of desk-building. Now I have a laptop with a 15" screen and I'm working from home, so a stack of text books on my dining room table works just fine. If you want to start standing more, I encourage you to do what I'm doing, starting out slow and adding more time each week. It's been working really well. Knowing that I have a number of hours I have to stand for makes me do it a lot more than a general "I should work standing up more" did. -------- I did workout number three yesterday. My elbow is feeling better - a few experimental cleans didn't seem to strain it too much. I still didn't do them, though, if it still feels okay on Monday I'll try then. If that is the case, I may end up repeating this week's program rather than moving on to next week. Until now I've been doing all 3-rung ladders, working up to five in a row, and next week I start doing 4-rung ladders on Wednesday and 5-rung ladders on Friday. It might not be a good idea to jump right into that from no cleans at all... I'll see how I feel on Monday.

Pretty well! Still nursing my elbow a little, but it doesn't seem to be getting worse, which is nice. I've started doing Turkish get-ups on my off days (thanks for the tip, brian d!), and I think that's helping. My elbow has been clicking when I extend it for weeks or months, and that's stopped over the past few days. Today I did the second "real" workout (of three total) for the week. I continued to leave out the cleans, but went back to my higher weight (20lbs) for the presses. This was my first time doing five ladders (3 rungs) with the 20lb - it was hard! My right side is a little weaker, and I could barely make the last press on that side. Then did 7 minutes of 25-swing sets with 10 seconds rest in between each (8 sets total). The swings and cleans, plus the bodyweight squats I did as part of my warmup, added up to more than 1000 fitocracy points! Can't wait to see how many it is once I start cleaning again. Everything else has been going okay. I'm keeping up with my standing for work - 3 hours every day this week. Diet has been okay. I took a closer look at my weight and measurements over the last few months and realized that losing 1.5% bodyfat is 6 weeks is actually pretty unrealistic for me - oops! Between early August and the beginning of this challenge I lost about 15 pounds and had corresponding reductions in my measurements, and that only translated to a 1% loss in bodyfat according to the formula I'm using. So, 1.5% in six weeks, when I'm being a little less strict with my diet than I was earlier in the fall, is probably not going to happen. That's fine, as long as it keeps going in the right direction, however slowly, I'm happy. So far I'm down about .2%, maybe I'll make it to .5%!

One of the things I like about the EtK program is that almost every workout, I think, "Ugh, that was really hard, I definitely couldn't have done any more." But then the next week, it tells me to do more, and I can. I don't think I mentioned earlier that I'm doing this program (PDF), which follows EtK's structure but lays everything out in a much more concrete way. I really need a program telling me exactly what to do every day, and it does. All of which is to say, if you can barely do 15 now, I bet you'll be barely able to do 20 next week

Sort of! The bruising is a lot better, but my elbow seems stuck at not-quite-right.

Welcome! I really like it so far, despite my various minor injuries, which are very frustrating. I did the RKC minimum first for four weeks. It was a really good base, it's nice to have a move (swings) I'm really comfortable with, since everything else is new. And it's so awesome to think that when I started, 20-swing sets with a minute of active rest in between felt near my limit, but now I can do 50-rep sets with 10-20 seconds rest (though not for the 12 minutes I was doing in the RKC minimum...).

Your husband pointed out to me on my thread that we're doing the same program - I'm also doing the EtK Rite of Passage! I'm following the Art of Strength ebook, though - I like being told exactly what to do every day. It's great to see someone doing the same thing. What you said about trying moves with much heavier kettlebells is interesting. I have a couple much heavier ones on the way, and I'm looking forward to seeing how they feel. Also, I'm so impressed that you can do pullups! I hope to get there someday.

Happy (early) birthday! That dinner sounds really nice, I hope it was delicious. You seem to be keeping up with everything really well. How are your kettlebell swings coming?

It's great to meet someone doing the same program! Thanks for the advice. I'm definitely going to hold off on snatches until my elbow feels all better. Doing getups is a good idea, I started adding a couple of those today. And Hiraedd, your encouragement is always appreciated! You're right, under the circumstances I did pretty well I don't think I actually gained any weight over the holiday after all. This morning my elbow felt a little better, but not entirely better. Cleans seemed to bother it the most, so I took those out and did my presses with a lighter weight. So, my ladders consisted of presses with a 15lb kettlebell and bent-over rows with a 20lb. The 15lb bell was gratifyingly easy to press - I was straining a little by the end of the fifth ladder, but it was much easier than the four ladders I did with the 20lb last week. I remember when 15lb felt like a lot! That's been one of the most fun parts of getting in shape - easily doing things that used to be really hard.

Week 2 Report Goal 1: 3 kettlebell workouts per week. This week was a little iffy. Monday's workout went great. I moved Wednesday's workout to Friday because of headachiness and some discomfort in my left elbow. On Friday, my elbow still felt a little weird, but it wasn't painful and didn't seem to get worse during my workout. Today (Sunday), I started the week's third workout and my elbow felt much worse - even just racking a kettlebell with that arm was uncomfortable. So, I skipped the C&P part of the workout and just did the swings, which were fine. So, that's 2.5 of my 3 workouts for the week done, and the missing .5 was due to injury, not lack of motivation... I'm not sure if that counts as reaching this goal this week. Goal 2: Kettlebell milestones: 3-rung C&P ladder with 12kg (26.5lb) kb, 160 snatches in 10 minutes with a 20lb kettlebell I bought a 12kg kb this week, so (assuming my elbow feels better) I'll start playing around with that soon. My bruising is better, so I'm going to go back to practicing snatch form once my elbow is. Goal 3: Lose 1.5% bodyfat I hit a new low weight earlier in the week, but then I spend a few days eating Thanksgiving leftovers. My portions were good throughout, but the food was higher-calorie than I'm used to. I probably gained a pound or so back. Goal 4: Progress to standing up for work 6 hours per day This week (only three work days because of the holiday!) my goal was to do standing work for two hours per day. Done! Usually about 9:30-11:30 in the morning. So, not a great week, but not too bad.

Sounds like you're doing great! Congratulations on finishing the grading -- I know how that goes, my husband has been working on his for a while now and hopes to finish today. Awesome job on the workouts and not overeating on Thanksgiving. Keep it up! And I can't wait to see that quilt!

My Thanksgiving was great! We don't have any family in the area and didn't want to travel, so my husband and I made a Thanksgiving feast for ourselves, complete with bacon-covered turkey breast. The problem with something like a treadmill or spinning is that I'm confident I couldn't motivate myself to get out of the house and to a gym on a regular basis. I need something I can do at home, so I can't make any excuses not to do it. I think I'll probably just do a less intense kettlebell workout that focuses on different muscles on the off days, or go for a brisk walk around the neighborhood when it isn't too cold. My headache stuck around for another day, so I didn't get Wednesday's workout done until Friday (yesterday). I'm still on track - I'll do this week's third workout tomorrow, and do them Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday next week. Then the week after I'll be back to my regular schedule. My elbow did continue to feel weird during my workout yesterday, but it didn't get any worse as I continued to use it. I'll see how it feels tomorrow. Might actually be knitting-induced discomfort, I've been doing a ton of knitting the past few days since I've been off work. In other news, I ordered a 12kg (26.5lb) kettlebell today! That's the one I want to be able to do a 3-rung C&P ladder with by the end of the challenge. We also got a 16kg (35lb) for my husband, since he wants to start using them and my 20lb kb feels super light to him. I look forward to trying to work up to that one someday.

Pre-Thanksgiving check-in! Standing: Only a three-day work week this week, and I did my two hours of standing work all three days. Workouts: Did my regular kettlebell workout on Monday, replacing the snatches with a short version of Wednesday's swing routine (Monday is intended to be a little easier than Wednesday). On Wednesday (today), I got up all ready to do my workout and quickly discovered that 1) I had a headache that got worse the more I exercised (sinus headaches and elevated heart rate do not get along) and 2) my left elbow felt out of whack when I cleaned the kettlebell on that side. Either one of those my themselves I could have pushed through, but the combination made me give up. I'll try it again tomorrow, hopefully the weird elbow was just a result of sleeping on it funny. I've been pretty bad so far at working out on my non-programmed days. Those workouts aren't "required" for any of my goals, but I'd like to get some sort of exercise almost every day of the week. I have trouble motivating myself in the morning if there isn't a specific program I'm required to do. I'd like to start c25k or start biking on non-kettlebell days, but it's about to get REALLY cold here, so I don't want to commit to anything outside. I'll have to think of something. In other news, I reached a weight milestone today! During college and a couple years after, my weight was slowly bouncing around in a 15-pound range, but overall increasing. I always thought that 150 was the highest weight I was comfortable with, that if I reached that I would get really serious about eating better and working out regularly. Over the past year and a few months, I didn't own a scale and got really busy and stressed out (I was working full time, planning my wedding, finishing my master's degree, preparing for a cross-country move... there was a lot) and I gained a bunch of weight. I didn't get a scale until after I started losing it, so I'm not sure what my highest was, but I would guess around 165. Today, for the first time, I stepped on the scale and it was below 150 pounds! ...barely. It was 149.8. But it was nice to see. It also means my BMI is not solidly back in the "normal" category. I know that weight and BMI and such aren't great ways to measure healthiness, and I don't set too much store by them. But it's nice when they move it the right direction Now I just have to make sure not to gain five pounds from all the food I eat tomorrow...

I'm so glad you liked the roasted veggies! They're a great easy, healthy food to have in your repertoire. And I'm sorry to hear about your wife and the fast food... I can sympathize, my husband is much less eager to eat healthy than I am, and it has sometimes caused hurt feelings. Good luck getting your family off fast food!

ROASTED BROCCOLI! Most weeks we have it at least twice. We usually do one head of broccoli per person. Cut the "trees" off the head and toss in a bowl with olive oil, salt, and pepper (enough oil to put a VERY light coating on all the pieces). Bake in oven at around 400 for 15-20 minutes, until it starts to get blackened around the edges. It's important to cook it at a pretty high heat to get that delicious roasty flavor. A few times we've cooked it at lower heats and ended up with something that tastes more like steamed broccoli, which has its place but isn't as good without some sort of sauce. You can eat it plain straight out of the oven, or toss it with whatever else you're eating. It's pretty quick and easy, super delicious, and super healthy. My husband identified as a broccoli-hater until we started eating this, and he loves it. Full disclosure: I got the idea from this blog post.

Did my kettlebell workout yesterday, and my bruises were healed enough that I could finish it without adding any kind of padding. Pressing 20lb gets pretty tough by the end of my sets - sometimes I have to try a couple times before I make it. Not sure how I'm going to handle the snatches I'm supposed to do on Monday... doing a lot more of them is a bad idea before I have better form, but I haven't wanted to practice until the bruises healed. Maybe I'll just hold off on snatches for a while - might not end up reaching that part of my milestone goal We'll see. I do hope I eventually get good at them, by the end of the ones I did last Monday my right arm had learned to do them right, and it was lots of fun and didn't hurt at all. I did all my standing desk work for the week - woo! An hour a day is not too impressive, but it's a start. Diet has been fine, nothing spectacular. I'm getting a lot better at being able to have just a small amount of tasty but not-so-healthy things. The other night we went out for Mexican and I had two chips with salsa. Usually I would have to either not eat them at all (which makes me sad), or eat tons of them. Moderation FTW!

Looks like you're doing great so far! I been in that queasiness situation... feeling like you're going to barf while exercising is definitely not fun. Luckily, it goes away (or, it starts taking a lot more work to get there) pretty soon. I love your goal about adding more vegetables to your dinners. What kinds of veggies are you planning to eat? I'm a big fan of roasted broccoli.

This was my first time, but I'm betting it won't be the last... Funny you should say that! I'm afraid I'm going to get into a self-perpetuating cycle with these bruises on my arms, especially the left one. So, I still don't have the kettlebell snatch form down perfectly, but I did a bunch of them on Monday anyway, which in retrospect was stupid of me. I got some bruises on my forearms from the kettlebell hitting them, which is common. But today, I was trying to do presses with a heavier KB, and of course, it rests against my bruise while I'm pressing, which is painful enough that I can't really do the presses. I ended up wrapping a sock around my left arm and doing them anyway, but I think it worsened the bruises I already had. So, I got the workout done, but padding bruises is not a good long-term solution... hopefully it'll be healed enough by Friday that my workout then doesn't just aggravate them more. If my arm feels good to begin with I think pressing shouldn't hurt it. I don't want to choose between neverending sets of bruises and skipping a week of workouts... I did manage my three three-rung clean&press ladders with the 20lb kettlebell, though - yay! It was tough but manageable. Soon I'll start adding more reps. Other than that, today was great. Did my standing work, ate okay, had lots of energy.

You sure drink a lot of tea! I'm trying to drink more green tea, I usually have a cup after lunch.

Not too strenuous a workout this morning. I played around with my 20lb kettlebell a bit, making sure I can swing, clean and press it (swing is no problem, clean and press is tough but possible). I also ended up doing 30 extra kneeling pushups because I was SO CLOSE to leveling up on Fitocracy and wanted to get there. Looking forward to my first real workout with the 20 pounder tomorrow. Did my standing for work - only an hour each day this week, not too tough. I also ate well - all in all, a good day!

Thanks, guys! Hiraedd, even though I dropped out of the last challenge, I checked in on you a few times - you rocked those pushups! I'm jealous, I still can't do a full one... a side challenge for me this time, maybe! Today went pretty well. My workout this morning was my first one with cleans-and-presses and snatches. I did it pretty easily, and realized after I was done that I was supposed to be resting in between sets, and wasn't! So, definitely time to move up to a higher weight. Also need to work on my snatch form... I have some nice bruises on my forearms. I had today off work for Veteran's Day, so no standing. That starts tomorrow!

Haha, that's the spirit!