Search the Community

A Little History, Baby. (taken from my Respawn thread) A select few of you may remember me. I came, I did some challenges, I dropped some weight, and then life started life-ing me and I disappeared. In early 2015, I weighed 255 lbs. I joined a gym, started eating better, found NF, and in around 18 months, I'd just about scraped under 200 lbs, got myself a nice suit, and life was going... better. But interest started to flag, and a combination of work-related stress, family dramas, injuries, illness and dark depression took hold, and I went under the ice for a while. It started with some niggling aches and pains, which, after an extended period of doctor and hospital visits, were diagnosed as calcific tendonitis in the rotator cuff, and bone spurs in the neck. As I attempted to get those under control, my wife lost her mother, and my own mother's dementia gradually progressed. She suffered a series of falls and spent a large chunk of the early part of this year in and out of hospital for weeks at a time. We're getting some support with her care now, which is helping greatly, but the dementia is only going to worsen as time passes. With all of this in the background, I completely neglected my own well-being, quit exercising, ate like crap, didn't look after myself mentally, and spiraled into a dark place. I could feel my health worsening as my weight increased, to the point where everything was becoming uncomfortable, and I felt constantly sick, tired, and sore. At the end of July, I made the decision to rejoin the gym and go completely cold turkey from my arch nemeses, chocolate, cakes and fizzy/energy drinks. On my first visit back to the gym on August 1st, I weighed myself. 257 lbs. Back to square one, literally. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $100. I Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In) So, since then? I weighed in for the first time at the end of August - the plan is to weigh in at the start of each month and go from there - and I'd dropped the first 9 lbs. Tomorrow (Friday 15/9) will be 7 weeks since I started the vice purge. In that time, I've had no chocolate whatsoever, and one custard/fruit tart and a mouthful of cloudy lemonade a couple of days ago, when, in my defence, I was high as a kite on painkillers after being rear-ended on Monday. I haven't been to the gym this week yet (see previous sentence), but I'm on the road to recovery and planning to go back for a gentle session either tomorrow or Saturday. Where Do We Go Now, But Nowhere? Here's where. Weight - Right now, the primary target is getting back to One-derland (that's sub-200 for the uninitiated.) I'm only going to step on the scales on the 1st of each month, or thereabouts. The initial weigh-in I did was on the electronic scales at the gym, so I'll stick with that too. Food and Drink - Stick to the plan of no cakes, chocolate or fizzy drinks of any kind, possibly allowing for a slight relaxation of the rule between Christmas and New Year. Other than that, I'm not ruling any foods out. Drinks will be limited to water, coffee (no more than 1 a day, 2 at the weekend), and red wine or single malt whisky (which I'm growing increasingly fond of) at the weekend. No more eating late (i.e. anything after 8pm) as it triggers horrendous trapped wind episodes for me. I've had three in the past month, and the pain is like nothing I've ever experienced. Working out - the goal remains 3 a week for now, just building it up gradually. The current workout is as follows: Cross Trainer: I'm incrementally building it up by going up 1 level and 1 minute each progression. Started at one run of 5 minutes at level 5, and last visit had me doing one run of 11 at 11. Once I start getting comfortable at a level, I'll step it up. The end goal will probably be 15x15 twice in one workout, to start and finish. Treadmill: Fast walk, 6km/hr for 15 minutes. I might change this up as I go. Rowing: When time permits for now, do 1000 metres. I'm currently between 5-6 minutes. I'm going to aim to get closer to 4 minutes, just to see if I can. Physio: Always finish off with the exercises the physio has given me for my neck and shoulder. I've been discharged from physio now, I just need to keep on top of the mobility and make sure it doesn't recur. I Had a Dream, Joe Things in the works - besides the fact I want to get my ass back into reasonable shape by at least Christmas, I've got a couple of events in the calendar as motivation. At the end of January, I'm taking SWFS (SomeWifeFromScotland to any new followers) to see Miss Saigon for her birthday. It would be nice if I could get back into my suit by then. If not, I would at least like to not look like a complete schlub. Two weeks after that, I'll be going to hear Henry Rollins, one of my absolute heroes, speak in Glasgow. If it's at all possible, I'd like to get a chance to shake his hand and tell him what an inspiration he's been to me for the best part of 30 years. Finally, we'd made it our mission to go on a family holiday next summer, having not been abroad since 2012, and next June will be our 20th wedding anniversary, so we're off to Kusadasi in Turkey at the end of June. Need to be rocking that bikini bod. Papa Won't Leave You, Henry, So There Ain't No Need to Cry Finally, I've been in a better place of late. I need to make sure that continues. So, some non-food and fitness type goals to help me keep my head above the water as winter approaches. Don't Isolate! Stay connected to my NF family (Doodlies Assemble! Perkele!) Stick with my daily Bible recommended reading plan (read the entire Bible in 365 days, still on target) Make more time to paint and create That'll do, Donkey. Shall we?

Hi, guys I’m here to try this thing again. Last challenge didn’t really go so well. I didn’t meet any of my goals. I’m hoping this one will go better, because time has magically built itself into my schedule to Do The Things. I’m not even joking - I had given up on ever having time for this stuff, but now suddenly I do have the time - it’s just how things have worked out. A lot of self-improvement is on the road ahead. Last weekend (Sept 8-10) I went to a retreat for the women at my church, and it was fantastic. I feel like this is the first breakthrough I’ve had in a while, for progressing in my faith and getting out of this pit of despair I’ve found myself in. And I also started rereading a book by Kay Arthur called As Silver Refined, which is really great and has already addressed some of my problems head-on. So it got me thinking about refining myself, not just spiritually, but in other ways, too. I want to make as much headway as I can before I move away to the mystical land of Graduate School next summer. Living alone + pit of despair + unhealthy habits = not good! Due to the fact that I don’t have my own car, and so must be dropped off on campus according to other peoples’ schedules, I now have a whole hour before work every day during which I can Do The Thing. I also have some time on a couple afternoons during which I can Also Do The Thing. So, here are my goals this time around to get started on the road to being a refined human being and a refined child of God. Spiritual Refinement: Use that hour in the mornings to do some kind of study. This could look like meditating on a piece of scripture, reading some more of As Silver Refined, or working through a discipleship workbook that an older woman at church has offered to study with me. (I’m being discipled, guys! Cool? Weird? This has never happened to me before.) This will be Monday-Thursday mornings, and Friday morning I meet with the lady from church to discuss what I learned throughout the week. Strength Refinement: Excercise 3x/week. Use that hour in the afternoons to get my booty back in the gym! I won’t have long, but it will certainly be long enough to do a thoroughly exhausting bodyweight circuit or some such. Plus, I’ll have to boogie back to the main section of campus to get picked up by my awesome mama - cardio! This will be Tuesday and Thursday afternoons; and I have Fridays off this semester so I can do a third workout on that day. The goal is 2 bodyweight workouts and one cardio-type thing. Sustenance Refinement: Track macros 2 days per week. Don’t buy stupid snacks from school. Still trying to get back on that paleo/primal bandwagon. It worked so well for me when I first started out! I don’t know why I lost steam. I just have to put my mind to it once more. My portion sizes could use some work. Also, bring more healthy snacks from home when I go to school. Tracking days: I dunno yet. Maybe Monday and Thursday?

The Bitch is Back! As some of you may be aware, I am an accountant for a minor league baseball team. This is my first year and I discovered that until you find your 'sweet spot' it can be a bit difficult to balance everything. I also discovered baseball puns amuse me, so get used to them Now that season is over I can get back into the swing of things around here, next season I will likely go back to using the battle log format and work on maintaining some accountability...but right now I need to work on a few things! So the off season I will be doing challenges! My eating has really suffered...after being Paleo/Keto for over three years I had gotten to a point I didn't think about it, but an unsupportive spouse and the nature of my job made this difficult. It's only been the last month that I've really fallen off the wagon but I want to get back on it before I'm too far gone. I've also gotten some test results back recently and I think it could help. Because I hate being vague...about three months ago my Nurse Practitioner did an entire workup because I was feeling excessively drained and tired, the only thing that was abnormal was my liver enzymes were high and vitamin D was low...she said lets retest in three months, so we did. I got a call on Friday from her nurse saying they were still high "but not as bad" I asked what this meant and she said I needed to talk to my GP about it, I said I don't have one, she said "oh, well we can retest next year if you want" I said that didn't answer my question...nothing I've found makes this sound like something that "happens then clears up" so I'm a bit concerned...especially since I have RA and nerve damage in my neck after a car wreck seven years ago, I don't take prescription meds but have ingested a fair share of Naproxin...that and RA can both be a cause of this from my understanding. I haven't been going to the gym...going in at 8:30 and getting home at midnight on gamedays makes that hard. On non-gamedays I generally tried to catch up on sleep, meal prep, and other things that I needed to do, I want to get back to that. I haven't been on Nerd Fitness...no good excuse really since I manage to find time get on Facebook, I could just as easily come here....over there just lends it self to mindless scrolling and feeling brain cells dying off... So, challenge is as follows: Gym 3x/week Food 5x/week, would be 7 but let's be realistic, if I don't see progress I'll make it stricter Nerd Fitness 3x/week posting something/somewhere doesn't have to be my own thread, hopefully this will become a daily habit again. Tracking spreadsheet is in the signature Monday and Tuesday I will be out of town at the offsite for work, we review what happened, what can be improved, etc...nice down time with co-workers...problem is I need to do a presentation on Monday that recaps my department and no I have not started this, nor am I looking forward to it...speeches and presentations are not my thing