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Introduction Aloha, I am Shakeel and I live far far away. I have been going to the gym and working out since I was 18. But things happened along the way and I am still at point 0. In the past I have done a lot of MA, Tae Kwon Do, Muay Thai, Boxing. However, I busted my knee and things got very hard. So I have started eating and eating and eating. Until I was around 100 KG (220 pounds). I am 1.83m (6ft). So that was a bit much. By sheer force of will I have been able to stop eating junkfood and all, currently I weigh around 82KG (82 pounds) which I am actually kinda proud off. Due to my work it is kinda hard to excercise. Main Quest Completely loose the urge to eat junkfood start living healthier and hit 75 KG (165 pounds) Quest 1 Goal: Cycle for 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week. Motivation: Due to crappy knee cycling goes well. After the 6 weeks of cycling I want to try the treadmill. Measurement: A = 30 min for 30 days, B = 30min, 25 days, C = 30min, 20 days Reward: A = +3 STA, +2 STR, B = +2 STA, +1 STR, C = +1 STA Quest 2 Goal: Using no sugar nor drink soda this challenge Motivation: I use a lot of sugar, candy stuff like that. Drink too much coca cola -.- Measurement: A = 0 sodas, B = 6 sodas, C = 12 sodas Reward: A = +3 CON, B = +2CON, C = +1 CON Quest 3 Goal: Hit 79 KG (174 pounds) Motivation: I need to lose some weight so I can fit in my old pants Measurement: A = 79 KG; B = 80 KG, C = 82 KG Reward: A = +2 CON, B = +1 CON, C = +0 CON Life Quest Working on this. No idea yet. Motivation It is time to shape up. And actually complete a fitness challenge. I am counting on you guys and girls ---- On a more personal note, how did I do?

So i've had some reservations about starting a challenge this time around. I've been doing ok with small monthly challenges and I wasn't sure whether I wanted to come back to the 6 week challenge. My fear is that making a challenge longer than the average of 4 weeks might see me lose focus on what's important to me, I might fail or I might get bored. It's all just my fears keeping me back, so here I am. Main Quest: Lose 50kg+ (very very long term), Fight my fears and employ better discipline. I know these are rather Druid-y type goals, but my fears are holding me back from everything I love and learning discipline will help me accomplish both the weight loss and the fearlessness. Quest 1: Average 90gr carbs daily by the end of the challenge. I started my "down cycling" of carbs at a daily average of 182gr, I'm now sitting at 100gr daily. The first 30gr were easy to cycle down from, the next 30gr got a little harder and the past 2 months I've been cycling down the last 20gr. I'm very proud of my carb dropping. My medium term goal on this is to get down to 75gr and maintain until the end of the year and make a decision at the end of the year as to whether i spend another year maintaining, but ultimately I'd like to have an average between 75-100gr daily forever. Quest 2: Add salad/veggies to main meals of the day. I've found that adding salad to my dinner at night means I actually don't eat a lot of the other goodies I make for supper (curries, pasta's, casseroles, etc) and this has helped a lot lately. I would probably attribute this and the above carb cycling to my current weight loss (and non weight gain). It also helps with the carb control above and I'm getting more veggies in plus I love veggies and it's a good way to get them in. What isn't beneficial about the goal? Quest 3: 30 day SLP challenge (x2). SLP = Squats, Lunges, Push-ups. I haven't really been very determined or even motivated to get to the gym (it's fear and I can't seem to pinpoint this one, but I will certainly give it a go this challenge) but i need to add some kind of activity to my day. About 2 months ago I started taking public transport to work and this means I have increased my walking (I walk about 10mins either way for the transport so an extra 40min of walking a day added onto my daily activity), but I want to do some other strength things I can do without going to the gym, hence SLP. I still go to the gym occasionally and it's mostly because I have a hankering for a long bike ride (the weather's not conducive to cycling and I don't own a bike - shocking right). So how this works is on Day 1 it's 1 of each, Day 2 it's 2 of each etc. I am currently on Day 4 of June, in July I reset and start at Day 1 again, hence the x2. As the exercises get easier, I'll add either difficulties (e.g. weighted squats, elevated lunges etc) or add another BW exercise to the mix. Eventually I hope to have a quick 15 - 20min routine I can do at home in the mornings, before my shower, and gym would be a bonus. Life Quest: The Future!! This quest is split into 2 and this is where the biggest fear demons reside. At the moment, I work in a job that is severely underpaid (like by half) but I love my job and Jax earns a fair amount so I have never minded before. But next year Jax will be taking a sabbatical and doing his MBA full time and I'm going to need to bring in quite a bit more on my paycheck for us to survive by finding a better paying job by the end of the year. I'm also planning on studying for my Honours in Financial Modelling next year, unfortunately because I graduated so long ago, the time period has lapsed and I'm going to have to requalify for a linked Bachelor's degree. The good news is that my previous studies and my work experience will mean that I'm already part qualified and will only have to do a few courses to do to close off the qualification (this is called Recognised Prior Learning or RPL). So basically a 1 year Honours program will take 2 - 2.5 years to complete (also being done part time). I'm ok with that, but I need to apply for the Bachelor's, once accepted I then complete assessments for the accreditation before I know which courses I have to complete for pre-qualification for the Honours Program. So for this challenge: Part 1: Complete the application process for Bachelor's studies Part 2: Have 10 job applications submitted Focusing so far in the future is filling me with minor panic and I need to stay focused. So I've broken everything down in tiny chunks and just focusing on what I can do today and letting tomorrow be tomorrow's worry. It's literally the only way I fight the demons at the moment. Stay tuned while i fight my demons, try and stay focused on things and keep trying to motivate myself to put one foot in front of the other, break out my comfort zone and be the person I am meant to be (a better version of who I am now).

All right so this is going to be my second challenge. My previous challenge I was trying to make weight for my first powerlifting meet since a bad injury and ..... I did!. I also did well in the meet so I was really happy. I ended up setting PRs in 2 of my 3 lifts (squat and bench) missed my previous dead PR by 15 pounds and set a total PR. So I am super happy about that and already pumped to start training for my next meet August 30th. This next challenge will set me up for that next meet. I will be focusing on 2 distinct areas, strength gains and weight loss. Now to most people, those two things don't go together. You can't serve two masters many will say. And to a large part I agree with them. Why do I think that I'm different? I don't. But I do know that if I train hard and train the right way, while eating to fuel my workouts, and not because my brain wants to eat crap, that I can do both. Strength Goal Success Criteria Success will be measured if either 1 of the following occurs in Squat Bench and Deadlift - Hit my Opener from the previous meet for a double - Hit my final successful lift from the previous meet for a single I went 6/9 for the day hitting my first and second lift and missing my third for all three lifts. This is not a bad thing since I really wanted to push myself this meet and see what I could do Weight Loss Goal Success Criteria 180lbs How will I accomplish this? 1) Continue to refine my training while following my current plan. My previous training I switched to Reactive Training System and went to benching 3 days a week. This worked out great for my bench which hadn't moved in years. Since going to RTS and moving to 3 days a week benching, I saw my bench improve about 20 pounds in 6 months. This is an amazing amount for me since I am already benching at a high level. I am planning to go back to West Side for my lower body as I have got the best results from that and felt much better following that style. I am going to combine one of my lower body days (form/speed day) with my "quick bench day" which was only 1 exercise that day. 2) I was eating very low carb previously trying to get my weight down, I will continue to eat low carb in comparison to the average person but intend to increase the amount of carbs that I was eating. I will slowly introduce these back into my diet and see how my body reacts. 3) By removing one of my training days I will replace this with either a Cardio day (steady state or HIT), sled dragging day, circuit day or mobility day. I am going to try to just do what I feel like each week but if that doesn't work I'll start to plan them and hold myself accountable.

Ok second try and this time I aim to conquer and levle up to the next challenge! Info: Male, 27 years, 5'11", somewhere between 375 & 400lb (no scales I have access to go past 350lb....) Orc Adventurer looking to be a Warrior someday soon Main Quest: Set up the habits to get me closer to the big goal of 200lbs or less Quest 1 - Train Get into the habit of exercising properly 3 times a week be it bodyweight or strength training without fail Quest 2 - Sustance Build on my recent success with going paleo in many aspects & stop any snacks and cook healthier Quest 3 - Daily Instead of just zombeing out online at the end of the day, try and be more proactive in general, read, write and look at getting start on my life quest. Life Quest Get on with getting myself out of the office job I hate and get on with etting some IT qualifications with the aim of changing job and emigrating to Canada. Motivation: I'm not happy with myself and I've been deluding myself for far too long. Its time to change for the better and be the person I should be not the slob its easy to be!

A 100% factual but slightly tongue-in-cheek bit of advice...if I can't get all literal and science-y here, where can I? Anyway, since weight is essentially the interaction of your mass and a gravitational field (i.e. the product of myou and g) you really have only two options. Firstly: Reducing 'g'. We need to consider that the acceleration due gravity is proportional to the mass of the Earth, ME, (or any other significant mass you may happen to be near) and inversely proportional to the square of your distance from it's centre re. It would be rather difficult to significantly change ME, so if you wanted to change your experience of 'g' then you would need to change your re. This could be achieved by heading off into space, which for most, sadly, is somewhat unlikely. Alternatively, moving on top of a very tall mountain, or even more significantly affected by moving close to the equator (where the Earth bulges and therefore you would be further from its centre). However, these would cause extremely insignificant changes to 'g' and probably won't help you hit your weight-loss goals in any measurable sense. Even astronauts aboard the International Space Station would only weigh about 10% less than they would on Earth. Second: Reducing your mass (myou). This is what people really mean when they say they want to lose weight. Since weight is a force, it can't actually be measured in pounds or kilograms... this would be like saying you "want to sleep for 8 metres tonight" or "I'm 1.8 minutes tall". It makes no sense. When we are talking about getting rid of excess fat (or chopping off limbs), that is losing mass. However, it is true that if you lose mass you will be less affected by gravity and therefore will weigh less too. So how does one lose mass? Well, certainly, running a caloric deficit has been thoroughly researched and demonstrated to help. But HOW? I mean, does the matter disappear somehow during the metabolic process? Hundreds of years of conservation laws would suggest that this is not possible. Surely you have heard the cry of classical physicists before: "matter is never created or destroyed". Are you converting your fat stores and that food you ate into energy? Certainly not! Whilst Einstein's mass-energy equivalence suggests that under the right conditions, maybe you could, but unfortunately you don't have a nuclear reactor or a star inside you. We must think logically here, people. I will admit that it is possible to temporarily lose mass through sweating out salts and water... but these are soon replaced. Similarly, when you 'go number 2' this matter is just foodstuff that you didn't use (plus bile, dead red blood cells and A WHOLE BUNCH of bacteria), so it doesn't really explain where your mass went if you've been exercising to remove fat stores. Fear not, there is a simple and logical answer: you breathe it out. Err.. What? Yes, it's that simple. During cellular respiration, a whole series of chemical processes occur. However, a simple analysis sees that overall we take an oxygen molecule (O2) and add a carbon to it. We then breathe out carbon dioxide (CO2). The more you breathe, the more this process occurs. The more this process occurs, the more carbon you lose, atom by atom. When you exercise and have high energy requirements, you tend to breathe more and accelerate this process. However, even when stuck in front of the couch watching t.v., as long as you are breathing, you are losing mass by sticking carbon from organic molecules inside you to the oxygen you breathe.. So there we have it. The only reasonable way to lose weight is to lose mass. Whilst this could be achieved through limb removal, a much simpler and cleaner solution is simply...breathe. Hope you had fun (and maybe even learnt something).