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Morning y’all! For anyone who doesn’t know me I am Rookie. A 31 year old who refuses to grow up and is constantly trying to live her best life 😂 My ultimate goal is to create a functional body that can last for a long time. Part of that puzzle would be dropping 60lbs. I love my 3 dogs, my horse Daisy and painting. So naturally my challenges usually turn into a show and tell. I hope you guys like pictures 😋 Goal: Lose 5lbs > Eat 1800 calories daily > Walk up and down the hill 2 times / week > Work through my “Riding Fear Free” book and do any exercises it recommends by the end of this challenge

For the last year or so I've been consuming around 1500 calories per day, as per the target set by myfitnesspal.com based on my weight, height and activity level (male, aged 45, 5'8"). My weight has consistently hovvered around the 168 pounds mark (12Stone or 76 Kg). I'd like to get nearer 10.5 stone (66Kg = 147 pounds). using the BMR calculator here I see that my BMR = 1670.24 With my current levels of activity (cardio or bodyweight workout 6 days per week), I estimate my daily calorie burn is something like 2588 to 2923. So I'm guessing my 1500 calories per day intake probably isn't enough? I also track my cardio through mfp so if I run off 500Kcals, then I do replace them with nutritious food. If I up my intake to 2000Kcals of healthy food am I likely to see my weight drop? That seems counter-intuitive, has anyone experienced this?

#8 Waldgeist prepares for the S.H.I.E.L.D. Entry Exam Backstory : First Marvel Chaper Synthetic light is flickering through the room, a folder with my name on it is on the table. I know I'm waiting for someone, to get ..... something. I'm not sure, the memories of this persona is fuzzy. Only the personal stuff though, I know this worlds name is Earth, there is no magic here, but some advanced technology and other strange forces created by man or aliens. A woman enters the room and takes the seat in front of me, all while she eyes me intently. She opens the file and begins reading it: "Sex: Male Age: 28 Country: Germany Height: 182 cm Weight: 79 kg Body Fat: 22.4%" The fog begins to clear. This is an interview, one I need to overcome, to get where I want to be. If I just remembered how..... "I heard everyone at the Science/Technology division of the SHIELD Academy disadvised you against transferring to the Operatives division of the Academy? And still you want to do this?" "Yes, Madam!" "You know what the life of a field operative is like, right? You are gonna get hurt, hurt badly! And not just once, but repeatedly... " "You need a body, which is able to withstand that. And frankly, you don't have it." "With all due respect, Madam, you have no idea what I can or cannot do!"..... "I respect someone with ambition, clear goals and the discipline to pursue them.... The regular assessment for the ops division of the SHIELD academy will take place in just a few months." "It includes thorough physical as well as a medical assesment with the most modern technology. I'd actually like it if you pass, an agent trained in both science and operative division would be a great asset for the more demanding missions we are encountering more and more these days. But you have the same chances as everybody else, and you background may even be detrimental to passing the entry exam....." GOAL: Body recomposition a.k.a. loose the belly This will be the big goal for not only this but at least the next two challenges, maybe even more. I need to get this done before I move on to hunt other shiny things. Now, that doesn't mean I won't pursue anything else, but only things which will reinforce this main goal. QUEST 1 - Nutrition (1 CON I 1 WIS I 2 CHA) To achieve my goal I need a calorie deficit and the most important quest for that is nutrition/intake. The target here is a daily deficit of -500 and a weekly deficit -3500 which should rougly equate to 0.5 kg of fat loss. No more, no less. Grading: A (7 days) B (6 days) C (5 days) D (4 days) F (3 days or less) Don't eat that or you won't have a deficit today! QUEST 2 - Intermittent Fasting (1 CON I 2 CHA) Another helping quest to control calorie intake is IF, which also should alleviate the fat burning. Eating is only allowed 8 hours a day, the other 16 hour only water, tea and sugarless chewing gum. Grading: A (6 days) B (5 days) C (4 days) D (3 days) F (2 days or less) QUEST 3 - Calorie Burn (1 DEX I 2 STA I 1 CON) Now, while nutrition is the bigger part of the equation activity also counts. The objective is at least 10 minutes daily of fat burning activity like kettlebell swings, running, burpees or jumping rope. Grading: A (6 days) B (5 days) C (4 days) D (3 days) F (2 days or less) You can never do enough Push-Ups. QUEST 4 - Strength Preservation (3 STR I 1 STA) I only want to loose fat but not muscle. While I know that 100% muscle preservation is not possible, I want to minimize the loss as much as possible. I'm gonna do 4 groups of exercises split into two days done twice each week. Day A: PUSH (Push-Up Variations, KB TGU/Jerk/Floor Presses/Military Presses) + SQUAT (Air Squats, Goblet Squats, Pistol Practice, Lunges) Day B: PULL (Pull-Up Variations, KB Row Variations) + HINGE (KB Deadlifts/Snatches/Cleans) Grading: A (4 days) B (3 days) C (2 days) D (1 day) F (0 days) In-Game Games Those are things I'd like to do very much, but are not relevant to my goal and can fall off the wagon without problems. Parkour Practice is every Sunday, but technically I could practice anytime if I felt like it. This also counts for quest 3. NaNoWriMo I haven't been writing much this year and I really would like to change that. Doing NaNoWriMo seems like a good idea to fix that. 50,000 words in a month may be a bit forced, but force may be just what I need. REWARD If I get an overall grad of at least B I'll get myself an appropriate themed shirt as a reward. And another one just for fun.

So initially, I was debating do this challenge over at the Ranger’s guild, since I could get a lot more people to look at my form to get it corrected there. Then I realized I should stop being lazy and just use the “Form” subforum, and that really I love you guys all way too much to leave. And after reading a Budo-centered book recently that talked about how a martial artist should do a strength training program, it pretty much cemented the fact that I really don’t have to leave the guild confines any time soon. Which is good, because I’m really horribly antisocial and don’t like dealing with people. So this challenge is really the start of a New Goal for me. The first half of the year I really focused on weight loss, really just to see what would happen (since I had spent years as a fat guy who never could keep weight off). The back half of the year had me trying to prepare for the Spartan Race and figure out if I could hit my initial goals. For the most part, I succeeded on both of these goals. The Spartan, while I could have done better with my time, I survived. That’s all I wanted. For the weight loss, I did, at one point, hit the 50 pounds lost number (that was obliterated by getting laid off, but I’ll get there in a moment). Not only that, more importantly I went down from a size 42-ish waist to a size 34 waist. So, I hit my goals, and then went “Now what?” I’ve been realizing that while I thought I’d want to stop after hitting my goals (mind you, this is literally the smallest I’ve ever been in my adult life, and probably the last time I wore the size 34 pants/ Large shirt combination I was in middle school. Early middle school). But I’m finding that I’m interested in doing more fitness/physical things. Not just so I get in shape, but because I want to just see if I can do them and how my body reacts. So I want to rebuild myself so that I’m faster, stronger, and more capable of dealing with adversity (mental and physical) than I have ever been. So, I present my new main goal: More Strength. More Stamina. More Centered. So for this challenge, I’ve got a few things lined up. 1 ) Strength in Wisdom, +3 STR, +2 WIS a ) Get health insurance b ) Read all of Starting Strength c ) Find a gym d ) Perform 3 strength workouts per week So I want to build strength, but safely. So first order of business… I need health insurance. After getting laid off, I lost my health insurance, and I was banking a bit heavily on getting back to work within the 3-month grace period with an employer who’d cover that. Or at least give me an income that would allow me to pay the $200+ that insurance companies want me to pay. Needless to say, my plan didn’t work out, and I’ve been putting off dropping the cash to get the insurance. When I finally sat down to get the insurance before January 1, the website I have to go through wouldn’t accept my existence. So it’s probably going to require a very long, very annoying phone call to the state to get into their damned exchange, because all of the reasonably priced insurance places require me to go through the state. Secondly, I was told to get and read Starting Strength by Mark Ripptoe. So I bought it on my Kindle for $10 bucks and started to read through it. I’ve had it for like a week, but I’ve really only picked it up twice. I should finish it fairly quickly, but a bit of extra motivation here doesn’t hurt. I just finished reading the section on Squats, and now I’m 110% certain I’ve been doing them all wrong when doing bodyweight work. But in order to use the book, I need to find a place to do the lifting. There’s a Workout World down the street from me, that I need to go look at to see if they’ll allow squats and deadlifts. I meant to investigate it last week…. And then 14 inches of snow happened. So early in the challenge I want to check that out. If they won’t allow it, there’s a Gold’s gym also down the road that I can look into. Then we have to start doing heavy shopping for price in the area. Boston Sport’s clubs are right out, because they only seem to offer one cost: First born child. And to keep my going, I’m better off stating that I’m going to do 3 strength workouts each week. Body weight initially, then moving to the SS program that’s in the book. That should cover the strength part for the time being. 2 ) November Winter +2 DEX, +2 STA a ) Run with the November Project 4 times (either Stadium Stairs or Summit Hills) b ) Weeks with no NP runs do a run around the neighborhood (at least 2 miles) So AgentSka and Tin Man would not stop talking about this awesome group called the November Project who meet up at amazingly early hours of the morning to do workouts around Boston when I first met them after the Spartan Race. I wake up early for an unemployed guy (7:30-8AM), but they were talking early even for me. However, when AKLulu visited, I begrudgingly said I’d go (because Lulu said she was doing it, and she was on vacation. How can you argue with that?!?!). And they were a freaking awesome group of people. While snow borked up the initial plans, I still had a blast – even if the WOD did involve an obnoxious amount of burpees. So I want to go again. Stadium Stairs are Wednesday, and they run hills Friday. I’m concerned about the Friday runs because parking scares the crap outta me right now in Boston (see: 14 inches of snow and poor snow removal) and poorly cared for roads can lead to a heavy amount of injury (see: no health insurance). Oh, and they run FOUR MILES UP A HILL (see: RisePhoenix almost dying after hill sprints with Tin Man). But Stairs? I can survive stairs. Probably. 3 ) A Small Change +2 CON, +1 WIS a ) Eat no more than 2,000 calories per day b ) Cook 1 different green vegetable each week Fairly self-explanatory. I’ve gained a bit of weight since getting laid off due to stress, followed by a bunch of travel, holiday food, and general apathy when it comes to tracking food. My BMR says that for my size, I should eat around 2400 calories a day (assuming I’m an inactive lout). So but capping my calories at ~2,000, I should meet the 500 calories/day deficit with no problem. Really, if I’m strict with myself, I won’t even come close to that number. Projecting my meals for the rest of today, and I’m looking at maybe 1700 calories. Granted, when I start lifting heavy things, this may have to change. While overall I’d like to get down to 190#, I’m okay with eating more to help my strength-training goals. Speaking of food… I have a confession to make. I live on steamer vegetable bags. While not a horrible thing to deal with (they are extremely convenient after getting home at 8PM from the dojo), it does mean that my knowledge on what to do with vegetables besides “eat them raw” or “sauté with butter and garlic” is really limited. So I want to try and expand my base. So today I bought collard greens. I have no idea what to do with them, but I know you can eat them. Somehow. But you got to start somewhere, right? 4 ) Stretching the Wings +2 DEX a ) Stretch for 5-10 minutes before and AFTER each workout I am really good about stretching before I exercise. However, I’m really, REALLY bad at stretching after I work out. It’s horrible. Part of it comes from since I’m working out at home, when I’m done I can just jump right into the shower. So even when I actively think “stretch afterwards,” the shower just calls to me and wins that fight. This might change when I’m at a gym lifting. I at least then, I will likely walk past the stretching area and it’ll trigger in my brain. I also want to start doing this after aikido, as well. Again, I’m usually really good about stretching before class (even though we have a stretching segment before we start throwing people), but after I tend to not do anything. Less bad after aikido, since class limbers you up a lot and stretches you out anyway but it’s still a good habit to get into. I have so many ideas for this coming year, I’m trying to not overload myself with things that I want to do and accomplish. Too much, too early and I could burn out in the worst way possible. So I want to avoid that, at all costs. I want to build something sustainable, especially for once I get employed again. I have pretty low energy, in the grand scheme of things, so anything crazy and I won't be able to keep it going during the week. And to wrap this up, here are my starting stats, as of today. Weight – 209 pounds Neck – 16.25” Chest – 43” Gut at navel – 38” Waist – 37.5” Hips (wrap around) – 39” Thigh – 23 - 25” (depending on placement) Calf – 17”