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Jon Firestar Channels the Speed Force! My Name is Jon Firestar and I am not the fastest man alive! Actually I am pretty darn slow but I am getting faster and I am gaining more endurance. So my new challenge is going to focus a little more on running goals. There is still going to be lifting and I'm still trying to lose weight but I am really motivated to focus on running a the moment and I want to take full advantage of that! Why am I Running? It is worth mentioning my immediate and mid term goals that my training is focusing on. In the immediate term I've got an beer festival OCR coming up on Week 3 of the challenge Barrel of Laps with totally awesome @Jarric and the OCR Hero @Charlie_Quinn. I cannot wait! In the longer term I've got a Half Marathon Race coming up in the beginning of September so this can be considered as the first part of training for that race. A few weeks later I've got a Spartan Beast, which is about the same distance albeit a lot of Spartany. I will be switching my training to be more focuses on the Spartan towards middle of August but for now my main focus is the half marathon. Run All The Miles: Run 100 Miles. Simple mileage goal for the 6 weeks of the challenge. Averaging about 17 miles per week. I've got a stretch goal of 120 miles. To CQ, this is me throwing down the gauntlet Run With Intent: Two 'quality' runs per week. I went into detail about this last challenge but it boils down to this. My two longer mid week runs on Tuesday and Thursday will be quility runs. The intention is to have Tuesday be for a Threshold workout. Either a 20 minute tempo run as part of a longer easy run or as four five minute threshold intervals with minute breaks between. Thursday will be an interval day. I'm going to continue my current rotation of hill repeats and 400 meter intervals, one week hills the next 400 meter intervals with some easy warm up and cool down miles. There will also be a long run at the weekend for 2 to 2.5 hours (about 10-12 miles). Be Strong! I'm going to continue to work on my lifting. I've not cleaned up my spreadsheet yet but I will do over the next few days. I am paring down my lifting routine a little bit. This is partly to allow more time to run and partly because I don't think all of it is useful. I'm focusing down a little more. Lift 3 days per week. Eat Sensibly Mainly just a continuation of my 2600-2700 calorie goal which should lead to continued weight loss. Gotchas! There a couple of things that are lurking around the corner that will increase the challenge of this challenge somewhat. One I've already mentioned. Barrel of Laps is an OCR, it is also a beer festival. I'm going to say right now I don't intend on being 'good' over that weekend. Beer will be consumed in abundance and food will probably not be great either. I'm comfortable with that decision. A week Friday I've also got another big party. Next week is going to be very challenging for the goals I've set myself. Friday is going to involve travelling, a work conference. Free food, an open bar, a late night out with the boss and others. The next day I'm going to be much worse for wear and I've then got to travel back home. Sunday I'm going to see Spider-Man with some friends and somewhere in all that I need to find the time and energy for a 10 mile run. I'll work out some kind of scoring mechanism later

Around a year ago, after a little persuasion from a few people on here, I signed up for Rat Race Dirty Weekend. A 20 mile obstacle course race with some of the biggest, craziest obstacles you can imagine. Worlds longest monkey bars, anyone? Or how about an obstacle four shipping containers high followed by a slip and slide? I can't believe that how quickly it's come around and that in less than 3 weeks I'll be attempting these nutty obstacles and so much more. Thankfully, I'm not running this race alone or competitively. I'll be doing a "fun" lap with the Mudstacle crew, who I'm certain will look after me and help me round this epic course. But because I'm a glutton for punishment, I'm not just doing Dirty Weekend in the next few weeks. This is my schedule for April and May: 22nd April - W.A.R (OCR) 1st May - 10k trail run 5th May - Dirty Weekend 14th May - Nuclear Race 12km 21st May - Tough Mudder So yeah, I've got events before and straight after the biggest run of my life. As @Maigahane has just said in her challenge, you don't have to be crazy to be a Ranger, but it certainly helps. Main Challenge Goal: Stay In One Piece, Don't Die After a normal 10-12km OCR, I'm usually recovered in two or three days but I'm not sure what 20 miles of running, obstacles and an after party is going to do to me. I've got 7 days between Dirty Weekend and Nuclear Race, and Nuclear Race and Tough Mudder, so my main focus is recovery. Foam Rolling: Minimum 10 minutes a day Stretching: Warm ups before every activity. At least 10 minutes after an activity & mini stretches during the day Recovery Runs: Go out for at least 2 miles at recovery pace within 2 days of an event Other Goals: To be decided weekly As I don't know how I'm going to feel after each event, I'm going to take each week in turn and set goals as needed each week. If I'm feeling capable, those goals might be running or strength training related. If I'm completely destroyed, they'll be additional recovery goals such as yoga. Bring on the Madness!

INTRODUCTION Hey-oh! I'm Beer Mage and this is my first Nerd Fitness Challenge! I'm a husband, dad, IT manager, and wizard. When I'm not casting spells, I'm reading graphic novels, watching sci-fi, drinking beer, or turning my truck into an overlanding vehicle of awesomeness. I was an athlete in high school and active in college, but am a lump much of the time now. I'd like to change that. Long term, I'd like to be able to keep up with a hyperactive preschooler and serve as a healthy example for him. Short term, I want to get into a good workout routine, have more control over my eating/drinking, and feel more confident in myself. CHALLENGE QUEST My main quest this challenge is to establish a few (important) healthy habits. I'd love to see the waist measurement trend downward, but my focus is really going to be on getting some momentum going in the right direction. GOAL 1: TRAIN Five days a week (Monday - Friday) I will get my butt out of bed and to the gym. Strength training four days and cardio one. GOAL 2: TRACK Using MyFitnessPal, I will track everything that I eat and drink. I'm not worried about setting other nutrition goals at this point; just trying to establish the habit of being aware of what/how much I'm eating and drinking. GOAL 3: TAKE I will weigh myself every day and take a weekly progress photo and waist measurement. REWARD To add some extra motivation, I'll be rewarding myself should I complete a certain percentage of my challenge goals. 90% = Reward TBD 80% = Reward TBD 70% = Reward TBD

Shaar slept for what seemed like forever. And she dreamed; dreams of neverending stone towers, of abandoned decay, of emptiness and gloom. The innkeeper took pity on her - from the way she moseyed her bedraggled self in there, it looked like she’d just survived the Calamity - and gave her a reduced rate so she could stay for the week to recover. And recover she did. Between fits of sleep and gorging herself on the cook’s seasonal pumpkin stew, Shaar made herself at home about The Hyaline for a spell. But she couldn’t ignore the remaining legs of her quest. The Dread Gods demanded her attention now. Tranicos, she’d muttered to herself as she packed her meager assortment of things, and prepared to head out on the open road again. One wraith down and two to go, Shaar had taken her resting time seriously and spent a few days poring over tomes within the Arcanist’s libraries, searching for information on her targets. Most of it had been relegated to myth and legend, but it was enough to get started. A light rain fell over the city as she left; cleansing in a way, but also really annoying. After having spent many weeks in a musty old lighthouse, Shaar was beginning to think she may never dry out. I hope I don’t grow gills. Have to go live with the Sahagin... She journeyed for a few days, uneventfully thank the Twelve, until she arrived at her destination - the Lost City of Amdapor. The magic and splendor of Amdapor now lived on only in history books - what was once a thriving city before the Calamity was now just an empty, decrepit husk of what once was. Long since abandoned by any sort of life, reports of lost spirits and haunts flooded recent research, and Shaar was fairly confident that she would be able to pick up on some clues here. Stepping inside she immediately became cloaked with a heavy sense of urgency and dread. This air wasn’t right, and it was eerily quiet.... Too quiet, with no organic noise to speak of. Feeling stifled and uncomfortable, Shaar reached into the small pouch at her side to retrieve the proper talisman for this job. It was obvious. Really really obvious. We always come back, to this. Shaar set the Soul of the Bard close to her chest, raised her chin a bit in bravery, and stepped forward into the ruins. Also she amazingly became a very tall dragonman, which is never really a bad thing, and also has no bearing on the story’s continuity save for screenshots~ [soul of the bard: 50/50] I will start out with a full 50 point health bar. This bar will stay full as long as I complete the weekly goals I’ve set for myself here. If I slip up and fail a week, my health will go down by a certain number of points determined by the quest in question. My goal to pass this challenge and advance the story is to come out of the 4 weeks with a 50/50 health bar. In the event of me missing a weekly goal, I’ve included some bonus quests at the end of my main duties that will help me regain points and stay in the game! 1 just one more thing [battle voice] Currently I’ve settled (shockingly) nicely into a M W Th heavy lifting schedule. My goal over time is to be working out more days than not, so at this point in my journey I’m looking to sloooowly integrate a fourth day into my week. I’ve historically had trouble getting this to stick in the past, so this will be a challenge for me. I’m aiming for Friday or Saturday, and for this challenge this workout will include something lighter like: yoga, walking/jogging/hiking, light plyometrics or cardio (no HIIT), or bodyweight/core drills. I want to ease into being mindful of activity on an extra day. This is really important to me and growing my discipline, so missing a week will set me back -15HP. 2 will sing for +dex [sidewinder] The next addition to my mobility regimen is going to be neck and shoulders, aka my NUMBER ONE PROBLEM SPOTS, so I am REALLY excited about this! I purchased a copy of FitForRealLife’s neck and shoulder workshop and holy smokes am I excited to put this into motion. (Pun verily intended) I will be adding this to my current 3-day-a-week mobility drills for wrists and ankles. Missing a day will drop me -5HP. (Aside, I’m sure D&D bards have CHA as their main or something, this is for FFXIV reasons only, so don’t flame me bro~)(I also have flaming arrows, just sayin’) 3 of venom and culling [bloodletter] My number one nutritional vice is rearing its ugly head again - no, not bread, or Mexican food, or pizza, or candy bars... mine is in liquid form, liquid like a sneaky snek, and it is beer. Fall/winter is by far my favorite beer season (hooray heavy flavor profiles) and I’m having some trouble not over-indulging lately. A lot of it for me is a very social aspect, mainly special events and brewery tap takeovers hosted by our local bottle shop, combined with really enjoying a drink while playing video games. I know too much beer isn’t good for me and won’t help me meet my fitness goals, so I need to make it a priority to nip this in the bud and be way more mindful about my intake! I won’t restrict myself completely because I feel that’s unhealthy, so I’ll pull it back to no more than one beer over the course of a M-F week span, and two allowed on weekends. Important caveat - these beers cannot be had if I am lifting the next morning! I need to be stricter with myself on this, so messing up will cost me -10HP. (The one exception to this quest will be Thanksgiving day, where our tradition is to celebrate with whisky~) 4 culinary barding [army’s paeon] Ok so this is a fun one. (I hope I’ll still be saying this later~) I’ve got a recipe book that has gone woefully underused over.... Oh, the past 8 years?? (I know, sad~) Now this is a traditional book where you write your recipes on each page - which is my favorite when cooking because I’m old school I guess - but get this, instead of actually, you know, writing down all of my recipes... I take the printouts and just STUFF THEM IN THE PAGES AND FOLDERS. LAME. SERIOUSLY. Also v. hard to find anything because it’s just a giant clutter of dumb. This quest is to finally do the thing I’ve been thinking of doing for y e a r s - write down and organize ALL of my recipes, and throw away the damn printouts and scraps of paper ya lazy bum. This quest will span the entire 4 weeks and cost me a big -10HP if not completed. In the event I slip up and fail something one week, I’ve built in a failsafe to redeem myself and my precious HP points. Extra options include: Extra GMB session - +3HP 30 minute outdoor walk - +3HP Excessive housecleaning (3 rooms) - +10HP Get some damn holiday shopping done - +5HP 30 minute outdoor jog - +8HP Ready?! READY!!! LET'S PLAY SOME DOOM METAL AND SAVE THE WORLD!!!!!

Funny thing happened - apparently about half the people in my accountabilibuddies group, myself included, dabble in homebrewing! Anyone else around here brew their own beer? Any good secrets you have lying around that you'd like to share? New brew you just finished that you want to show off? Lets see it! I'm currently waiting on the ingredients for a German style hefeweizen to show up in the mail. Hopefully I should be able to get it brewed by the end of the weekend

Good afternoon all, As I am getting my groove back, I already know from life experience what my issues are going to be, nutrition wise. Here I want to see what y'all think about my certain weaknesses including the following: - Ice cream (especially bluebell) - Beer (I swear I am not an alcoholic ) - Bread First Ice cream. This one is easier to avoid. A year ago during my first ever successful fitness track, I could avoid this easily. Just don't buy it. It's overpriced, has zero nutritional value and needs no social compromise. However, every couple of months I will just stare at that dang thing in the frozen section (especially mint chocolate chip). It get's harder and harder to say no. What do you think? Second is beer. This one is harder, because my friends and I are beer connoisseurs. It's not that we drink a lot, just that we like trying different beers. As stated before, during my last fitness stint, I had ways of dealing with this, but they weren't the most effective at killing the craving. I completely avoided beer during the week days. On the weekend, I either bought very low cal beer like Beck Light (only 55 calories), or I would space it out with bottles of water. So maybe have only 2 or 3 beers rather than 5. But again, it's tough. Your friends are enjoying a new craft beer while your either drinking the same old same old, or they are goading you into having "just one more come on". Or you just have a really bad day after work, and just need a drink. Or you go to that one bar that has a hundred beers on top "what you're only gonna try 1/2?" Thoughts? Finally bread. This is the worst for me. I will never completely cut it out of my diet (and don't plan to) but dang it's hard to not. It smells amazing, tastes great whether on a sandwich, cooked, or with a spread of some kind. Nothing is better to me than going over to the bakery part of the grocery store and just trying or buying a big loaf of bread. And it's a stupidly cheap, tasty filler when you're trying to save money. This is the hardest for me. I may need to go to rehab for this one

Oh hai guys. I am back. I sort of took off into the abyss and made like an invisible person. Contain yourself. I know this return thrills you. @Ceasefire came back this go, so I am, too. I am going to try at least. I have another half marathon in October, so here we go with training again. Four simple goals: Earth: Earth is a grounding force. I need to keep my core and cardio training up, so once a week I will complete a 30 minute Les Mills BodyCombat track to further my half marathon training. I will also lift heavy things with Les Mills BodyPump once a week. Strength training, ftw. Water: Is flexible and understanding. I live by the 80/20 rule with food. Be your best 80% of the time and the 20% you aren't doesn't matter as much. It's not an excuse to slack, it's the reality of being someone who lieks to go out to eat with friends and who really likes beer. I will food journal on YouFood daily to track this goal. Fire: Is full of energy - it destroys as well as heals. I will run 3x per week. Sounds easy, right? But these low mileage early weeks can get boring. I hope that keeping up here will help me focus and not find excuses to not run. Air: Is peaceful and patient. I need to be nicer to myself. So each check in, I will have to come here and write something nice about myself. Something I accomplished, something I like about me... Anything positive. We're going light and easy on the return.

Hey fellow nerds and welcome to my third bad ass challenge! Yeah, it´s another Game of Thrones challenge...good to know it never gets boring nerding about your favourite fantasy stuff (besides Lord of the Rings of course). I´ve been on Dracarys the past two challenges and life is getting better and better right now! Well then, what are my goals for this challenge? There are some big deals in my life incoming or in progress: 1+2) Train to fight the mountain! Thx @miss_marissa you´ve been faster on that one I´ve had a hard time lifting the past challenge because of several issues regarding back, knee, all from my sciatic nerve and some twisted stuff. The drugs helped so far, my osteopath will be visited this wednesday and I´ll take more care of my health from now on. Part one: Get back to lifting 3 times a week, do at least 2 times a week cardio and core! "Thor" does cardio and core too, so should I! Not only does it help removing the useless surroundings of my adamantium abs, it helps me build up a strong back without issues like bitching sciatics, weird back pain and other stuff you never need. Part two: 2000kcal daily and 2g Brotein/kg of lean body mass minimum (around 140g) Do that body recomposition! I should know better, but I´ve tried several stuff instead of being consistent. Of course without any bigger effects. That will change now! My calorie intake to keep weight would be around 2500kcal, so I´ll take a deficit of 20% and eat a lot of brotein for noobgainz! The goal is to loose body fat and build up some muscles. I´ve read several (scientific! no broscience bullshit!) articles about body recomposition and I´m pretty sure I can live the dream of every gym-nerd: build muscle, loose fat, at the same time. Ooooh yeah! Level up your life 1): Be like Tyrion - be smarter and greater than the tall guys! I´m sick and tired of my shift duty and working on getting out of it since last years summer. Registered at a advertising website, invested some money, visited workshops, bought books and I´m trying to get a job at their academy where I could start coaching people on being successful, how to use the website etc. It´s fine right now, I could end doing nightshifts without loosing money last march, but I want more! My plan is to end my nursejob next year or reduce it to 50% maybe. I will invest more time in my online marketing stuff and establish the stuff I learned last weekend at the workshop about mindset and will take a look at several software stuff. The fun part about it: Most stuff can be related to normal personality improvement easily! Be awesome and successfull! Tell the dude in the mirror every morning and before you go to bed how awesome he is! Flex your muscles, smile at him, tell him compliments about this cool outfit! Meditate and realize how awesome and freaking good looking you are! Visualize your success and work for it!!! Yes, I will talk to myself! I will not only visualize my stuff, I will make it real! Sounds weird? Rated R in Spoiler!!! (Sorry for rated-R, but I couldn´t resist If anybody gets offended by it, feel free to PM me to remove it) Regarding the job stuff I can´t really set numbers on how to add them to my challenge, because I can´t tell myself things like "Buy that software until date X" or some. It is a long term goal, but I want to focus on it! If I´m not meditating about being successful I will for sure take a look at some new workshops etc and how to improve. Level up your life 2): Get some social life! I hate shift duty for a reason. You usually work when others don´t and have free time when normal people have their 9-5. Not good! Visit friends, go out for dinner or a good old german beer or date somebody at least once a week! Take care about your social contacts the other days of the week! Of course getting drunk will be related to IIFYM (macros!!! @SpecialSundae ), but hell I´m tired of being some kind of lonely! I need to meet new people, meet my old and oldest friends again, just do something else than working, working out and surfing the NF Rebellion! Level up your life 3): Stop Bassism! I can´t tell how many bass player jokes I´ve heard this year alone...for those who aren´t musicians: bass players are by cliche dumb, have no clue about music theory or music at all and mostly considered not being a musician. It´s what I call "bassism" Keep on playing at least 1,5 hours a week and GET THAT GODDAMN JOB AT THIS BAND!!! I improved really great at bass playing thanks to last challenge (show that narcistic guitar junkys how to rock!) and next weeks wednesday will be my audition for a real big deal: a semiprofessional rockband! I know some of those dudes in person (one guitar player is a good friend of mine), they make great music (a mix of punk, metal and gothic) and they satisfy the nerd in me: They´ve got horrormovie-stageoutfits! It´s like building a RPG-character, give him a story and act like him on stage! LARP for musicians!!! In one of my favourite genres (B-movie horror)!!! Summary: 1+2) Train to fight the mountain! Part one: Get back to lifting 3 times a week, do at least 2 times a week cardio and core! Part two: 2000kcal daily and 2g Brotein/kg of lean body mass minimum (around 140g) Level up your life 1): Be like Tyrion - be smarter and greater than the tall guys! Be awesome and successfull! Tell the dude in the mirror every morning and before you go to bed how awesome he is! Flex your muscles, smile at him, tell him compliments about this cool outfit! Meditate and realize how awesome and freaking good looking you are! Visualize your success and work for it!!! Level up your life 2): Get some social life! Visit friends, go out for dinner or a good old german beer or date somebody at least once a week! Take care about your social contacts the other days of the week! Level up your life 3): Stop Bassism! Keep on playing at least 1,5 hours a week and GET THAT GODDAMN JOB AT THIS BAND!!!

Alright. I'm bowing out of the challenges for a bit. Well, at least for this one. I've got the World Championship Spartan Beast this coming Saturday. After that, I've got about a week of easy training. And, then I'll be ramping it up once again with a new training plan. But, I don't feel that the confines of the challenge make sense for what I am doing right now. So, screw it. Here's a battle log.

I don't claim the idea for this. It all came from this old NF PVP thread. But, it seemed like a good time for a reboot, with a brand new shiny thread and a brand new spreadsheet (hopefully with working links) And here it is: The lovely new spreadsheet. Claim poses and record things HERE. Hopefully, it can be edited by anyone. Please let me know if your edits aren't working. The rules are as follows: -Roll a D100 (or use a D100 roll generator) -Find the corresponding pose. Use the row number, unless you rolled a 00 or 01, which then correspond to rows 100 and 101, respectively. If the pose has already been taken, then keep rolling until you find an unclaimed pose. -Practice the pose. Once you feel sure you can do it, write your name in the "claimed by" column. If you don't think you can do the pose, re-roll and try again. There is no shame at all in ditching a pose. I certainly can't do some of the super flexible poses in the list. But remember that the pose doesn't need to look perfect. It's more about learning poses, making an honest attempt, and having fun. -Go get a drink. Some of the poses require both hands, so either improvise, use a straw, hold a paper cup in your teeth, have a buddy hold the drink, use duct tape or a cheesy beer hat, or do whatever you need to do. -Take a fun picture and post it here. The goal is for the group to fill the entire spreadsheet. -DON'T GET HURT. I tried to somewhat organize the poses such that the harder ones have higher numbers and the easier ones have the low numbers. I'm hoping this will help people avoid overextending themselves. -Don't hog all of the poses. Leave at least a little time between posting poses, so that other people can have a chance, too. -While it's BEER yoga, the drinking part is all in good fun. Drink whatever you wish. Water is fine. Other drinks are fine. This is just a happy, fun PVP, so there's no need to stress.

I need to flesh this out before the beginning of the challenge, so I'm jotting down some notes to figure out what I can handle. These goals are now official! I signed up for a 5k obstacle race on July 26. I'm not super worried about the actual running part, but I know my climbing/obstacle-clearing "skills" need much work. My main quest for this challenge will be to get some climbing/pulling/hurtling work in. Get thee over the wall! There's a parkour gym in my city that I've been to a few times. I'd like to hit this at least four times during the challenge and work on wall climbing. Maybe I won't actually get better, but I need to build my confidence...badly. Basically, I currently climb like this. Gotta fix that. As a supplement, I'm going to focus on increasing my pulling strength as well with chin ups and pull ups. Here's my current level of strength: I'll be working on chin ups as part of my mini-challenge with Slytherin! Cook, you fool! I recently found myself eating out a lot more than I ought to be. My goal will be to make/bring lunch to work 4x week, and make dinner at home 3x a week. I'll be on a mini-vacation for week 2, so I'll just try to be as well-behaved as possible. You're not a baby - put down the bottle. Oh, beer - my greatest weakness. Going to restrict myself to 10 drinks/week. Ideally, no day will have more than 2 drinks and two days I'll just skip it altogether. This shouldn't be that hard, but it already strikes fear into my poor, weak, booze-loving heart. BONUS! Work on press to headstand and straddle press to headstand. I love headstands. It's a great party trick and I actually find it pretty enjoyable. I'd really like to work on hip strength/flexibility so I don't need to "jump" into having my feet off the ground. Here's what my press looks like as of right now. Any and all goals subject to change before June 8. The goals stand as they are. Good luck, all!

Hello fellow Assassins. Since my major Quest is gonna be about mastering a couple of bodyweight excercises i decided on joining you. (and a great part because of a great post by Hazard) I know i am a little late at the party but that's because i have been ill at the end of last week and beginning of these. So i just now had time to wrap everything up (and workout got dibs). So i will be updating this topic with more info later this day. Good luck on your Challenge everyone! Challenge First of all, i wanna say for me this is gonna be a 5 week challenge. I'm writing this on my first day on vacation. Next friday we will be going home again. Monday after that my challenge will start. A balanced foundation. So i want my body summerready before summer. Allthough last challenge worked huge towards my BF% this will still be my main focus. Just inserted because i'm so damn proud! But i also want to start with a balanced body. At the moment everything is really going good. Running is at good pace, stronglifts is coming along nice. Kickfun and Crossfit lessons are heavy but really doable. Ab workout is really hard, but i can see that's hard for everybody. But the thing i really lack at the moment is my upper body strength. Pushup are going much better but can use some work, and i still can't do a proper pull up. Not even one!!! And that annoys me! So i'm gonna work on that. My main quest pushups and pull ups. I'm gonna go look for some program on both and make them a quest to maintain. I'll get back to you when i found a proper program. QUEST1: PP-Plan At the moment i'm thinking about doing these 2 programs: www.50pullups.com and www.hundredpushups.com I'm not saying my goal is to do 50 pullups or 100 pushups as i know that would be almost impossible to achieve in the 5 weeks i'm training for this. Keeping things SMART. Also i want to keep on doing the Stronglifts program and kickfun and crossfit lessons. Even the occasional run will take place because i just really love doing these things. These are the programs i'm gonna follow, but if i feel they are too easy or too hard i'm gonna look for something else. So now another hard part. When to do these excercises. When i am able to do my stronglifts at home i want my week to look like this: Mo: Stronglifts Tue: Grouplesson Kickfun Wed: Stronglifts Thu: Grouplesson Crossfit and Ab workout Fri: Stronglifts Sat or Sun: Running (4-6 miles) So i'm thinking about doing my PP-plan (PushupPullup-plan) on tuesday wednesday and saturday. So my week will look like this: Mo: Stronglifts Tue: Grouplesson Kickfun / PP-plan Wed: Stronglifts Thu: Grouplesson Crossfit and Ab workout PP-plan Fri: Stronglifts Sat: PP-plan Sat or Sun: Running (4-6 miles) I'm gonna think of a scoring system by the time i made the other Quests (head is buzzing with information at the moment!). Scoring system: 3 times a week is 15 times in a 5 week challenge: A= 13 or more B=12-11 C=10-9 D=8-7 QUEST2: MaintenanceThis quest is about Maintenance. I'm a little bit worried that all the work i did in the previous challenge will slowly fade away if i don't keep on focussing on it. So this quest is gonna be about maintaining my habits made in the previous quests. Especially the nobinge and nobeer quest, they aid a lot when i'm being held accountable. The workout part of last challenge isn't gonna be a problem. I actually would just look some more days in a week so i can do more different workouts. Also the lifequest is something i enjoy and i feel is very usefull. So i'm gonna keep on getting up a little earlier then i was used to, no need for that to be accountable on. So this quest is gonna be the nobinge/nobeer quest. As with the first quest scoring system will be determined later on. This is it for now. Now first, lunch and then, lunges!!! Scoring system:I'm gonna make a total of these, so when: "i binge" or "i drink beer (more than 2 days a week)" i'm gonna add one to the counter.A=0-2 B=3 C=4 D=5 QUEST3: Healthy WeekendsThis quest has to be about introducing something in the diet. Everything is going really well during the regular workweek (mo - thu) but in my 3 day weekend (fri - sun) there can be a lot of bad food. So normally there are 3 meals a day, which makes 9 in total for the weekend. This quest is about making one "day" healthy. So that's 3 meals in a weekend. One breakfast, one lunch, one dinner has to be "healthy". This doesn't have to be on the same day. Scoring system:Counting the healthy meals per weekend, 3 meals a week is 15 meals in a 5 week challengeA=13 or more B=11-12 C=9-10 D=7-8 LIFEQUEST: ProcrastinationI'm an expert in procrastination. As well at work as at home. So i'm dividing this up in 2 parts:At home: Do at least one chore every week that is long overdue!At work: Do more work!Haven't made up yet how to specify the "at work" part. Nor do i have an idea how to score that one. Tips would be great! Scoring system (on the home part for now):5 weeks = 5 choresA= 4 or more B=3 C=2 D=1

So my dumb basement flooded last June and derailed my challenge about a week in and then I just didn't seriously get back on the wagon until January, and I've been lifting consistently since. The progress has been pretty good. I have also found that beers the night before lifting doesn't always help with my lifting. Surprise. I'm hitting plateau-ville on a lot of my lifts that are listed below. I'm following a Starting Strength(ish) program. Ima keep doing that.

Newbie here, I stumbled across this forum and I think it is absolutly awesome and would love to be a part of it! Nerd history grade 11 I weighed in at 135lbs, I loved comic books and D&D, it's no surprise that I was a target. I started lifting weights in high school and have never really stopped but had some very long breaks along the way. I weight in at 232 these days and have competed and been involved with powerlifting for quite some time, I'm totally addicted but I have come to the reliazation that I can't do what I used to do. I have a few more goals that I want to achieve in the powerlifting realm then my goals will change to start getting lighter and healthier while I age. I follow a Westside or a conjugate method of training, I'm focused solely on Benchpress only competitions in the future but contine to do lighter squats for maintenance. I don't squat heavy anymore because I managed to partially tear my abbs down the middle, a knee surgery, and I'm looking to the my future health. I train in my one car garage gym, I have 4 other lifters that train together which creates an awesome atmosphere. 5 powerlifters in a one car garage yes we have lots of air freshner. I have 2 competitions that I will compete in this year one in May and one in August. I have a bench workout planned for tonight so I should have my first training entry up tonight. Best wishes to everyone in 2015!!!

A BIT OF BACK STORY My name is Wolverine (a.k.a. Dillpedo a.k.a. Dillon). I am an Assassin. I took a hiatus from NF due to health issues (uncontrollable migraines). I am back now (two thumbs up for medication that works). CHALLENGE INTRO Two big goings on as of late: (1) I'm in the final stages of back injury recovery (bulging disc) and my doc just gave me the green light to start working out again, and (2) the wife and I just bought a house (escrow closes on Friday). Long story short = stress eating, not working out, and large amounts of not giving a damn have been had by all (but especially me). MAIN QUEST An awesomely vague "get beach ready" for a trip to Mexico in February. Since we're now in debt up to our eyeballs... it may be the last vacation we have for awhile and I'd like to NOT look like a beached whale while we're there. What does "beach ready" look like? I'm thinking Jason Statham, but I'll settle for me minus some jiggly bits. GOALS Awesomely not vague, but S.M.A.R.T. goals are as follows: Track Some Stuff Daily tracking of macros, calories, and bodyweight. Weekly progress photos. Eat a Bit Less Stuff Average 2,000 calories per day for the first week. Adjust as needed in following weeks to maintain slow, consistent weight loss. Do Some Stuff I've got two itty bitty calisthenics routines I do every 30 minutes at work (keeps the back from seizing up). I'm gonna continue with those routines five times per week (every workday) until we're settled into the new house. At that point I'll start up "real" workouts again.SIDE QUEST Knock something off the house to-do list every day. Doesn't have to be big, just has to be something. MOTIVATION Confidence. There's a certain feeling I get when I'm "in the groove" and I feel like I've lost that recently. Too much life controlling me and not enough me controlling life.

Allright, here I am: during my first challenge I was invited to join the assassins, so I will start my second one here. Last time I joined late but still I had at least some success with my main quest, completing my first pullup. Also, for a little while I managed to resist my built in urge to drink every single beer that somehow sneaks into sight or, let's be honest, my mind. Relax Grover... Beer is here to stay, it will be there all your life. You can drink it another time...breath... Ok, so obviously there is still some room for improvement. Here is the plan for this round. Main Quest Become even more heroic! Be stronger, fitter, be kind to my body To achieve this I will Do the beginner bodyweight workout at least 3 times a week. (Secretly working on that pull up, of course) Go hiking, swimming or to the sport club at work at least twice a week. Drink alcohol only once during the week and once during the weekends. Side Quests Play outside every day. (Meaning being outside on purpose, enjoying it) I am an outdoor person and much healthier and more balanced when I remind myself of that instead of coming home after work and locking myself up indoors for the rest of the day. Life Quest Meet friends. I have some really good friends that I need to see, but "more important" things keep getting in the way. There is nothing more important than the people that are close to you, therefore this must stop. I will plan how to or actually meet one of these people each week. Note to myself: Steffipopeffi, Timmi, Mirka, Christine, Dönerleute

I really want to sit on the couch, watch some TV, and maybe drink a beer. This challenge will be about me resisting that desire. This battle will consist of 4 rounds: Round 1 - Physical Fitness Homer is seen here performing one armed push-ups with a baby on his back. I have been progressing towards one armed push-ups since the beginning of the summer. My goal will be 3 sets of 20 uneven push-ups. An acceptable alternative would be actual OAPs. Round 2 - Physical Appearance When Homer really put his mind to it, he was able to get in shape. I'd like to lose a couple of inches of my waist in the next few months. My goal this time around will be to hit 5 days a week of 16/8 Intermittent Fasting. Round 3 - Father Figure Homer may not be the ideal father figure, but he manages to find time to do things his kids like. My goal will be to focus on my kids more. Yes, I realize this is an extremely nebulous goal. Refinement forthcoming. Round 4 - Husband I realize that my initial statement was that I want to resist the temptation to sit on the couch and watch TV, but no beer and no TV could make a guy go crazy! Actually my wife loves quality time and "couch dates" are one of our favorite activities. We are excited that the Fall TV season is starting up again soon and have a couple of shows we like to watch together. My goal will be at least 5 couch dates over the next 6 weeks where I let her pick the shows. And who knows, if I hit all my other goals, I could wind up in a situation like this:

As invented in MaxCurtis' Feb-Apr Challenge! Read the rules carefully! Please only do exercises that are at your level! If you use glass-bottles/glasses, be extra-careful. We don't want you to get hurt! If you do an exercise and notice you can't manage to add the drink, please stop and get a new exercise! How it works: Basically, it's a type of twister game, only instead of spinning the colour-wheel, you roll dice and instead of the twister mat, you do a yoga pose. - Use a dice generator/use a d100 die and roll once. (For example this one: http://www.rangen.co.uk/misc/dicegen.php ) - Go to the PvP spreadsheet, look up the number you rolled. - Do the pose, and once you're comfortable enough in that pose, pick up a drink. - Take a sip, then give evidence (picture or video, whatever you're comfortable with) - Put the name and date of you accomplishing the pose in the spreadsheet and colour the name of the pose green Rules: - Under no circumstances overextend yourself. This is a game, and of course a bit of a challenge, but we really, really don't want to see you get hurt. - The PvP is loosely turn-based. There will be no set order to allow people to come in whenever they want, but once you've had your turn, you have to wait for at least one person do strike a pose before you can turn again. - Each pose can only be done once. If you roll a number that's been rolled before, roll again! (unless we reach 100 super quick, then stars all over again in the next column!) Please note! While this PvP is called 'beer yoga', you don't have to drink beer. You have to drink something, but what it is is completely up to you. You can use your hands, mouth, and in really complicated poses/if you don't feel comfortable using either to hold a bottle or cup, you may use a straw. You don't need to drink a whole bottle either - the drink is just a little extra. Bottoms up!

A Meetup.com group for those in their 20s & 30s who enjoy outdoor sports and fitness in the Quinte Area (Brighton-Belleville-Picton-Napanee area). If there are any fellow rebels in the area and looking to meet new people to explore the outdoors with, and drink beer, please check it out! http://www.meetup.com/Quinte-Outdoor-Fitness-and-Social-Club-20s-30s/

So, random question to the peanut gallery, about the uncomfortable question of drinking. I'm not an alcoholic, but I do have an obsession with craft beer. I am way overweight and I know I need to cut it down. Right now, I only drink on the weekends (and that is a significant reduction from my habits of even a year ago). I never get drunk anymore as, at 31, it's no fun and I know that was a struggle in the past. Have any of you gone from being a regular drinker to cutting out completely? I did it for Lent but, as I said, I adore craft beer and thus went right back to it. My untappd account is like a British Writer's diet book. If you cut out beer specifically, did you find switching to organic wine or whiskey worked? And please, be blunt. Again, I'm not an alcoholic, but am familiar enough with that condition that I know I probably sound like one from time to time. I feel like I also need to admit, for full disclosure, that I do have a pretty severe case of unipolar depression and, in the past, my drinking was one way to cope and so was overeating. I do have a feeling that I still use beer to cope, even if I drink far less. Cheers, Zod, aka Michael

Ok, so, I drink either wine or beer (never liquor, as it makes me violent) and the two beverages of choice are always either Franzia's (boxed wine) Chillable Red/White Zinfandel or Coors Light (12oz). When I'm looking to free up calories for my diet but still get drunk (as my angry days very often make me wont to do) I go for the wine. I've had to justify this choice to a few people in my shop, and since I went through the effort of actually doing math calculations for them I thought I'd share it on NF. Just so the other angry people who are watching their caloric intakes while still drinking know that they're not, in any sense, alone. FCR/WZ (Franzia's Chillable Red, as well as their White Zinfandel) both = 105 calories per 5oz serving. I am not fancy, and have no wine glasses, so I have a tendency to just use the same 12oz glass I pour my Coors Light in. So: 12oz of FCR/WZ = 2 x 105 c + (105 / [12 / 5]) 12oz of FCR/WZ = 2 x 105 c + (105 / [2.4]) 12oz of FCR/WZ = 2 x 105 c + (43.75) 12oz of FCR/WZ = 210 c + (43.75) 12oz of FCR/WZ = 253.75 c Now: CL (Coors Light) = 102 calories per 12oz serving. This automatically appears to indicate that CL < FCR/WZ calorie-wise. But that's only accounting for one 12oz alcoholic beverage, and after an ANGRY day at the office, just one ain't gonna cut it - no, no, my friend: I am out to get nice and drunk! This is where the ABV (alcohol by volume) factor comes into play. Anything from a 6-pack and a half, to a 12-pack of CL will get me to the perfect point of inebriation (a bit wobbly and very sleepy, but not stupid or sick). FCR/WZ, on the other hand, only requires 3 of those 12oz glasses to see me to bed. That's because the CL ABV = 4.2%, while the FCR/WZ ABV = 9-13%. So: FCR/WZ 235.75 c x 3 = 707.25 c versus CL 102 c x 9 = 918 c CL 102 c x 12 = 1224 c Both beverages mean I have to skip a meal (usually by lunch I have determined whether I'll be drinking to excess come the evening, so lunch is the meal to be skipped), but while I can have the wine and not go over 1500 c for the day's total.... yeah, there's no way I can reconcile the beer. Of course, on a normal day that doesn't drive me to the brink of homicide, one or two glasses of beer is calorically acceptable, whereas the same could not be said of the wine. And THIS is how I know I'm a nerd.

It sounds like we are on for a meetup in Sydney. This is what's been proposed, post if date/time/venue is ok and if you will attend, if we get a few confirmed we can book a table. Venue: The Australian Hotel 100 Cumberland Street The Rocks, Sydney 2000 Date: Thursday 12th September (TBC) Time: 6pm - 8pm+ (TBC) Attending: Mad Hatter BarefootDawsy Dominic TerraNik

Main Quest: Establish an emergency fund of $2,600 (one full paycheck). Goal One: No beer for 6 weeks. Goal Two: No eating out for 6 weeks. Goal Three: Record meals in MyFitnessPal Life Side Goal: Establish and maintain a routine for managing my to-do list Main Quest: Maintain a daily caloric intake of 2,000-3,000 calories regularly through efficient meal-planning and tracking. Goal 1: Enter all meals in MyFitnessPal for the duration of this challenge. Goal 2: Cook all meals at home for at least four days out of the week. Life Goal 1: Up to October 5th (beginning of Fall Break), have all class assignments graded and entered into the system. Life Goal 1.5: (October 5 and beyond) Have established detailed lesson plans for both sets of classes that will get me through to the end of the semester. Edit: Revised goals.

This mini-challenge was inspired by Nicks_Scotland's side quest, No Cs, that she has been absolutely rocking! The Reason: I love beer. I love beer so much I drink it every day. Problem is, drinking beer every day is seriously interfering with my main Quest to drop 10Lbs. I need motivation, and after giving it some thought (read: spontaneously deciding) I figured a PVP challenge with a NF t-shirt at the end would be a great way to get some. The Prize: I buy the winner a NF t-shirt. Please note, *I* am buying - my challenger owes me nothing if I win. If we tie, I'll still buy them a shirt. The Rules: Come Monday (Aug 12th), you begin a 1 week prohibition on alcohol. Every day you start with 10 points, and each beer (or whathaveyou) costs you 5 points. Contestants log their daily point tally at the end of each day in this thread. Whoever has the most points at the end of the week (Aug 17th, Saturday morning) wins.

He bought a keg refrigerator today. Because he went to Costco and it was there. He has been putting it together, and driving around looking for a place to fill the carbon dioxide tank most of the day. Time to tap the keg. Only he forgot a step. Beer sprays everywhere. He wails. I fix. Puppies are probably going to be too drunk to walk with me tonight, as they lapped faster than we could remove or clean. But his new toy is working. Here's the irony. I don't drink at all. He drinks very rarely. That keg? It's going to be there for a year. Sorry. Had to post. Too funny not to share, and he reads my Facebook. How many calories does roflmao burn, anyway?