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As of tomorrow, July 8, 2014, I will have been on NF for One Year. One year ago, I weighed over 260 lbs. I now weigh 249 lbs. Not super impressive, but... at the time I could barely do 10 pushups. Now I don't do pushups, I just lift heavy shit. Sometime, a little longer than one year ago, I saw the scale inching toward 270 and I was feeling week and tired all the time. As a busy grad student I spent a lot of my time in front of a computer, eating crappy food, and when I had downtime, I'd be drinking beer and stuffing my face with even crappier food. Enough was enough. I already had a gym membership thanks to that year's New Year's resolution that I hadn't used in at least three months. I decided to use it. But... what would I do once I got there. The last time I had been was either to spend an hour or two on an elliptical. Another time I had been to a yoga class, but was so week and inflexible that I could barely hold a downward dog. Cardio machines are boring, and I clearly needed strength. I thought I'd try lifting weights and calisthenics, and I'd heard circuit training was good for weight loss... So I googled "circuit training and weight loss" and guess which site came up... Yep. That's right... bodybuilding.com... But, then I scrolled down to the next few hits and there was a video link to Steve's Beginner Bodyweight Circuit... and it was from a website with an intriguing name. A few links, and Links (Zelda references) later I was reading about Joe and Staci, and other success stories about people who were struggling with fitness the same way I was. These were not people who played sports all their lives, and devoted all their time to the gym, they were busy people, with jobs, who had similar nerdy interests and they were all helping each other get in shape. I wanted in. So I started doing the Beginner Bodyweight Workout at home. Then I'd go to the gym, lift a dumbell and walk on a machine or two. I cleaned up my diet a bit. Then after learning more and coming back to the site, I signed up and did my first challenge. I went from BBWW and dicking around at the gym, to barbell training with stronglifts 5x5 and tracking macros. Lost 12 lbs. during that first challenge. Later during the fall, I really got into trying to do body recomp, maintaining weight while building muscle, so I tracked macros and lifted like a beast. Unfortunately, I got derailed a few times, but I persevered, and still managed to hang around 248 lbs, while I got stronger. The holidays came and went, and I managed to maintain, and was gearing up to make more progress. In January I set my first 1 RMs on the big three, Squat: 315, Bench 210, Deadlift 330. Six months before this I didn't squat or deadlift at all, and I couldn't have benched 150 to save my life. Then, in February and March the storm came. A vitamin D deficiency, Wisconsin winter, a bit of overtraining, working hard with lack of productivity in the lab, social isolation, and anxiety about my future career and such, all combined to level down my life with a bout of depression. I was waking up, then lying in bed till noon, skipping days at work, not going to the gym, but still eating like a body builider. I gained most of my weight back. It got bad enough that I decided to get help. Got back on NF, and to the gym. And after a couple of months, I'm approaching a two year personal best for weight (getting below last year's 248). Also, I'm way, way stronger than a year ago. And I can wear pants that I couldn't, even when I was at 248 a year ago. I'm also back to being productive at work, and I've even given talks about my research in front of prominent researchers in my field and recently at an international conference, and it was well received. To acknowledge how crazy this year has been, both up and down,to get a fresh start, and to re-affirm my commitment to getting healthier and FUCKING SHREDDED LIKE A DEMON, I'm starting this new battle log. As of yesterday, I started my first cycle of 5/3/1... follow this link to see Darwin's 5/3/1 Cycles I'm following a ketogenic diet and cutting. And I'm trying to finish a PhD within this next year. That's the gist of it. edit 1/19/15 -- after several months on, off, and back on again, my masterplan changed to strongman training. The Journey to Strongman begins here. edit 10/30/15 -- Around here I switched to the Standard Keto diet and did mostly barbell complexes and (hopefully I lost a bunch of weight)

Introduction: I'm doing my second Ranger challenge after over two years in the Warriors. Last challenge, I was focussed on keeping together my diet and exercise after moving back home to Indiana to reboot life and get a fresh start. I managed to stay active and got back on the low carb and meaty glory of the ketogenic diet. Doing so I managed to lose about 5-10 pounds. I want to maintain this rate of weight loss. Right at the beginning of the challenge I start my new job. I'm working a temporary position at an Amazon warehouse. I'll be on my feet for 10 hour shifts, 40-50 hours a week... on the night shift. This is a big transition from my grad student desk and computer work and being home most of every day. So I've got to adapt to the new level of activity and being nocturnal. Further, I want to maintain my barbell training and use it to maintain strength and burn extra calories. This is going to put a lot of stress on my body so managing stress will also be key. Motivation: "There are only three types of motivation: money, fear, and hunger." -- Ron Swanson Goal 1: Ketogenic nutrition. First off, avoid those carbs. I might be tempted to indulge given the constant energy output, but I need to keep them gone. I need to pay attention to snacks, supplements, and water to make sure I stay well adapted. I'm staying round the clock on this one. 42 pts. total. Goal 2: Maintain a regular workout routine. I so, so, so want to pull a 4 plate deadlift, but... I'm cutting on the standard ketogenic diet and a lot of my energy (and pateience) is going to be used up at work so heavy work will be limited if even existent. I'll be mostly doing barbell complexes and circuits 30 min a piece at least 3x / week. Shoot for 4x, and hope for 5x. Partly to burn extra calories, So do at least 18 days to pass, up to 30 lifting days if I feel awesome. Partly to burn extra calories, but I just don't want to break the habit of lifting something regularly. Goal 3: Mobility "Doctor: Do you have any history of mental illness in your family? Ron Swanson: I had an Uncle who once did yoga." I neglect the shit out of mobility work. I'm going to use my work schedule to stay on top of this. Just before/after work and during breaks, do some stretching. I know I'll be dying to stretch out my calves when I'm on my feet all day. I'll aim for an average of 3 every work day to pass. Shoot for 4x, and again hope for 5x. I'll allow bonus points for before/after workouts. Life Goal 1: Makin' bacon. "Capitalism: God's way of determining who is smart, and who is poor." -- Swanson Pyramid of Greatness Basically, the more I work, the more money I get in the form of bonuses during this holiday period. No need to grade. The bonus is its own goal. But I'll keep track of how much I'm getting to stay encouraged. I don't like the idea of posting my own wages, so I'll track this in a fictitious currency, the #, as in # of bacon. I currently owe #1796. Potentially, I can earn #470 after I take out gas money, food money, and the regular bills. That's not as much as I hoped for (when is it ever) but that's quite a dent for 6 weeks. I'll grade this goal as a percentage of the #470 paid off. Sidequest 1: The Swanson Pyramid of Greatness. Mainly for shits and giggles... I wrote a short program that randomly selects the entries on the "Swanson pyramid of greatness." There are 45 entries. So if I start on Friday we can do all of them. I say we because I'm inviting you to do them all. I'll do my best to post them daily. Part of this is for accountability to get me to post daily. I think a big part of the last challenge's success was that I was on here (almost) every day posting. So I'll post a random selection from the pyramid and incorporate the "lesson" into my day somehow with the goal of inspiring and improving the efforts toward my goals. The entries are: This is just for fun and these are open to wild interpretations. No points awarded, but they should inspire "Greatness" which will incur improvements in my efforts. Sidequest 2: Draw the Nerds. "Creativity is for people who wear glasses and enjoy lying." -- Ron Swanson Last challenge I had some fun by drawing this owl portrait which also had Rurik in it: That was all part of renewing my interest in drawing and painting and pursuing art again. I thought it would be fun for this challenge to make more drawings inspired by the people of the rebellion. You people inspire me, so I thought I'd show you the fruits of that inspiration. A good artist is well practiced in human portraits/figure, landscape, and still-life. I don't have time or money to take classes or anything. So I'll be lurking on your threads and drawing from your Swolfies and PR pics, snapshots from your adventures, and your food porn. Don't worry. No progress photos will be drawn. They are for personal assessment and not artistic purposes. Unless you really want me to. Also, if you want to request such a photo of yours to be "arted", feel free to post it on my thread. I'll accept most of these challenges. I'll add a bonus point for each drawing I do to be distributed about my goals. Sidequest 3: Stress management/meditation I'm always making a goal of getting back into my meditation routine. Well, here I can earn bonus points. One for every 30 min of meditation. It may be that workouts will be missed, extra calories consumed, or stretching neglected because I'm too damn tired and stressed. Meditation can be used to make up for it. Every minute counts as long as I'm on the cushion, or some place purposeful, breathing with unattached thoughts. Are you ready?