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Damn. 2018 is almost here. I just survived a third Amazon.com holiday peak season at the warehouse. I am not doing another. I plan to be out by June at the latest. To do this, I'm going back to school. With my class schedule, I can kick back to 30 hours of work, and I get an extra day "off." I have classes Mon and Tuesday morning, and Thursday afternoon, and Sunday off with the full days of ten hours of work. THIS MEANS I CAN RUN AN ACTUAL 4 DAY POWERLIFTING PROGRAM AGAIN!!! Goal 1, POWERLIFTING: I had an idea for another overly elaborate and thought out POWERLIFTING program a couple of months ago. I'm gonna do that. I'll explain later. It's very taoist. Goal 2, CARDIO: What? Don't we hates that? Yes we does. But we musts. Yeah. Fuck cardio. But I really do believe that if you can't run, 5k... slowly is fine, you're not in great shape. I'm going to include some HIIT on workout days. Then try for at least one long endurance run each week with the goal of making it to 5k with no breaks. Goal 3, ABZ! Abz every workout. Nuff said. Goal 4, STOP FUCKING SNACKING Granted I recently set a new 4 year weight PR recently, but I'd have done it in September had it not been for the Twix bar I typically have on my second break at work, or the other stupid food choices I make frequently. LUYL_1: LEARN FUCKING SPANISH ALREADY Gonna get a Spanish language course and practice it. Seriously, I'm an American. Why don't I know Spanish yet? LUYL_2: COMPLETE THE FUCKING TFA APPLICATION If I'm a couple months into my machine tool program and not loving it to fucking death, I'm joining up with Teach for America, and I'm gonna teach science in the ghetto or the sticks somewhere.

I'm going to take advantage of the shorter challenge duration and try a little experimentation with my training and diet. Plus, I have a Spring Break trip planned for the end of March and I'd like to work on my beach muscles. So, bring on FE-BRO-ARY Quest 1 - Pack on some pounds Eat at least one pound of meat every day. I tried eating at a surplus and counting calories last challenge and my weight dropped a little. And I disliked counting calories. So this month I'm going to try and simplify my goal by just ensuring I eat 1 pound of meat every day: chicken, beef, pork, turkey - bring it on! Quest 2 - Before Bed Benjamins I recognize that it's foolish to try and pack on pounds while also honing my six-pack, but I'm not trying to get shredded to show off my abs. I have to build some abs first. To that end, I'll be attempting the Before Bed Benjamins: 20x knee touch20x toe touch20x reverse crunch20x reverse crunch cross20x "butterfly" Since my core really needs some work, I'm going to ramp up for this one. My goal will be doing the BBB's once during Week 1, twice during Week 2, thrice during Week 3, and four times during Week 4. Quest 3 - Treasure Chest Quest What's a bro-tastic challenge without a little emphasis on the chest? My goal is to have a dedicated chest day each week as well as to include at least one chest-focused exercise in each workout. Quest 4 - Break a mental sweat In order to fit in my Chest Day, I'm dropping Deadlift Day. I have other reasons for that, though. I have gotten kind of bored with the traditional sandbag deadlift. I got up to 5x250# at the end of 2015 and a 250# sandbag is just a pain to deal with. I have heard a few podcasts with Josh Henkin, the inventor of the Ultimate Sandbag and Dynamic Variable Resistance Training (DVRT) and he keeps talking about how there's more to progressive overload than just adding weight. So, my goal for this quest it to read all of the DVRT book that I bought several months ago. It's about 290 pages, so I'll need to complete 10-15 pages a day.

Brothern and Swolemadien, When I started 4 weeks ago, this was my mental spot But last Challenge I get back to fighting shape, but not close enough to where I want to be. So, lets keep the momentum going Fitness/nutrition Q1: Gym all the time, but don’t be afraid to take rest days, don’t be afraid to take some days off if the lower back feels strained. Snowboarding counts as a gym day Q2: Do Physical Therapy every day, even on days not going to the gym. Q3: Track all the foods and eat at a deficit. Superbowl Sunday will be the reward day for this awesomeness. Q4: Post before and after progress pics to show awesomeness achieved. LUYL: When there is fuck around time at work, take the free classes that they give me and stop surfing the internet. and of course Gotta have fun.

Main Quest: Body weight squat. Sanity. "But HOW can that be?! You're booted!" I'm sure you said. I am. It's true. This obstacle, though, is temporary. My goal right now is to maintain as much strength as possible while healing so that I can pick up as close to where I left off as possible. I learned oh so many things from my last injury and I will not repeat those same mistakes! Goals: 1. Don't eat like a jerkus. Pretty self explanatory. I've been eating like a butthead lately and since I can't work out nearly as hard I'm sure that'll come back to bite me if I don't cut it out. I know whether or not I think I'm eating like a jerkus so I just need to come here and tell you guys honestly if I'm doing what I need to do. The only thing I have trouble with is work numero dos. So many tasty treats. I need to stop. So I'll define only this portion of the goal: If I have a sugary drink at work I cannot have anything else. NADA. Got it, Self? Gah. 2. Armstrong Pullup Program Do it. It's a lot of work and requires an every day effort. Nothing would be cooler than becoming a pullup goddess while I gots da boot. So, do it. I'll check in daily with my push up totals from the morning. Usual workout logs will be here, of course. 3. Nix the sailor talk Gawd. I swear a lot. Way too much. I don't like it. So let's cut that down/out. 4. Live to fight another day Be a good patient. I was being a perfect patient. But now my foot feels A LOT better. So I'm taking liberties. That's not okay. So no more. Notes: Follow up and x-rays 9/18 - that marks the halfway point of my bootage.