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Why do you want to be harder, better, faster, stronger?

I admit I'm never very good at these things. But I'm still here, so that counts for something... Thank you to everyone who has stuck by me during my failures here at Nerd Fitness. You keep me coming back for more. --- Body Workshop A body I've built myself. A better, stronger me. Parcourse once a week. Gym three times a week. C25k three times a week. Mind Workshop A mind to withstand all that is thrown at it...even that within. Read and finish one self-improvement book during the challenge period. Learn something new (juggling, no excuses). Practice meditation, nightly if possible. Soul Workshop A soul that forgives and accepts. Pay it forward once a week. Practice self-forgiveness. SUPPORT MY FRIENDS IN THEIR CHALLENGES.

Some acquaintances roped me into a Whole Life Challenge back in September. I was kind of at the end of my rope with diet - what's bad, what's good, what should I avoid, what should I eat? Ahhhh! The challenge broke it down pretty easy - no soy, no diary (except yogurt and butter), no sugar (except whole fruits), no wheat. I did the "Intermediate" level It had a giant list of "Yes" foods and "No" foods. It also had mini-challenges throughout, stretching daily, exercising in some way for 10 minutes a day (even if that's just going for a walk). Anyway, read up on it if you're curious. It just ended Friday (yesterday). Goals: Get faster at running. Lose body fat but not necessarily weight. Results? I lost 1.5 inches off my waist, 1.5 inches off my booty. At the beginning I timed 1 mile at 10:00 minutes. Today I ran 1 mile in 8:35, and then ran another 3.5 miles after that (much slower, but averaging ~10:30 mins/mile). This is why they make you take before pictures because although my weight hasn't changed at all, I can tell a difference in the mirror, doh! Lessons learned: Scales are stupid. Weight means nothing. I weighed myself about a week ago and was crushed to see the weight was the same as it ever was. But that certainly didn't mean I wasn't progressing!! Consistency is key. This is hard for me because I get a snowball effect when I eat something "off the list". I just want to keep eating and eating instead of just saying, "well that was a delicious cupcake, and now back to your regularly scheduled programming". Portion control! Because I was planning all my meals and didn't want to get caught without food, I rarely overate. Eat when you are hungry! Sometimes I eat just because it's time, or because I think I should. Listen to your body! It's much better at telling you what's going on than you think. Anyway, I'm pretty excited and can't wait to see where I am 8 weeks from now!

Main Quest: Create a healthy lifestyle that I am proud of. I want to look good, feel good and know that I am doing good things for my body the majority of the time. Three Goals to Achieve my main quest: Eat at least four servings of either fruit or veggie a day. (CON +3) Track everything I put in my mouth as follows: 7 days on, 9/23 off 8 days on, 10/2 off 9 days on, 10/12 off 10 days on, 10/23 off (WIS +2, CHA +2) 2 sessions push-ups/crunches/plank and 2 sessions of either an aerobics class or one hour workout per week (STR +2, STA +2) Life Side Quest: Beautification. I have to admit that for at least 75% of my life I am slummin' it! My primary hair do is the bun/pony tail. I have been eeking the last bit of foundation out of my basically empty bottle for two weeks now. I would like to get into doing pretty things with my hair/make-up/clothes. I'm not trying to buy myself something new all the time, although that will count, but maybe try curling my hair or a new way to do my eye shadow. You know.. actually trying. 4. Do something with hair/make-up or clothes once weekly. (WIS +2, CHA +2) Why are you doing this challenge? Because God gave me this awesome body, and instead of abusing it I want to take care of it and strive for excellence. Because you can't have a completely sound mind without having a sound body, and you can't have a sound body without creating healthy habits. Because I want my husband to think I'm hot without any effort . Because I want my daughter to love herself and know she is beautiful, and the best way to do that is to live it out in front of her. Because I want to show my daughter how to eat healthy and be active instead of just telling her. Wednesday morning weigh-ins weekly, measurements and pictures at 3 and 6 weeks. Weekly challenge reviews and grading. A - 100% B - 75% C - 50% D - 25% F - 0%

This is my second NF Challenge, and my first as a Ranger. Whether it's Jim Phelps and the original gang, or my generation's Ethan Hunt and crew, everybody digs the IMF. There's just something so badass about a group of people who tackle odds so steep, even their own organization's name assumes they can't win. Yet somehow, time and again, they get the job done. I really like the idea of achieving the impossible on a regular basis. See, I'm a big guy. Have been for a long time, but I've also been working for a long while at being less big. At 6 foot and 278lbs, I'm about 32 pounds lighter than my heaviest weight. In the last NF challenge, I lost 8 pounds and added some awesome gains to my lifting regimen. I assumed I'd be doing more of the same for this challenge, until I talked to a buddy a little while ago. He told me about a race he'd done back in May, 5 miles. Not just running, but facing obstacles, lifting heavy objects, getting muddy and cold, facing fire and electricity. Another buddy, ex-military, commented, "sounds like basic training all over again!" Another close friend, somebody I hugely respect and one of my fitness heroes, told me he'd already signed up for next year. And that's how I committed to a Spartan Race for next May, and that's why I'm in the Ranger subforum. This is a six-week challenge, but I'm playing a pretty long game here. I've got 75 pounds to lose, in 9 months. I can keep up a run for a couple minutes, but not much more than that. I've never run regularly in my life, beyond playing when I was a kid. I can't do a pull-up. From here, the mission is looking pretty impossible. The Mission: Kick ass at the Spartan Race next year. (aka: lose weight, get fast, get stronger) The Impossible Mission Force didn't stop the bad guy and save the day just by having a long-term objective. They set specific short-term goals, and executed them one step at a time. You gotta scale the Burj Dubai before you can get the nuclear launch codes from the sexy assassin! So the long-term goals of weighing under 200lbs, being able to run for miles and miles, and being able to do pull-ups, backflips, handstands and all that fun stuff, comes via the specific goals listed below. The Six-week Goals: Eat right, run regularly, lift myself and other things Eat right: I've gotten in the habit of logging everything I eat these days, and I've seen some great progress just from staying in the 1900-2100 calorie neighborhood. I'm gonna tighten things up for this challenge, setting a goal of 1700-1800 calories each day, logging every bite, and sticking to a mostly-paleo diet. Lots of veggie omelettes, bacon, chicken breasts, protein smoothies and steamed veggies coming up, which is awesome. I'll have the occasional slice of bread, but I'll be avoiding anything processed or loaded with sugar. I've also found having cheat days to be an immense help with sticking to a plan like this, so I'm gonna designate Saturdays as my day to ignore the restrictions and eat whatever I want. I'll post my calorie totals for each day in this thread. Run regularly: I'm going to start with the classic Couch To 5K running program. I put in the first workout of that today. It's a little tough to log that one on Fitocracy, but I'll give it a shot. It's a 9-week program so I won't be complete by the end of this challenge but I'll be well on the way. I'm sure I'll have a lot of questions to ask and info to gather, as running is by far the weakest area of my fitness knowledge. Lift myself and other things: By the end of last challenge I had a pretty good habit going of lifting at the gym. I'm gonna try and stick with a lifting routine for this challenge, secondary to the running goal. I'll continue building toward pull-ups by doing bodyweight Smith rows and lat pulldowns, and add push-ups to the routine. I've got some research to do before I fully define the routine so I might tweak this section later this week. I've got a life quest left over from the previous challenge, since I bailed so hard on it last time. Draw 1 page per week of the comic book I'm working on For real, I only drew two pages last challenge. I work as an illustrator in my day job, and I've been back-burnering this book for a year(!). If I don't finish it soon I never will. Here goes!

Quitting is not an option. One more rep. Embrace the suck. Do you hear/say these things on a regular basis? Do people act shocked and call your workouts "crazy", "insane", or other similarly awesome word? You probably belong with us. Post your loads and times to comments.