Search the Community

*marker* As of 3/3/2019 I am starting my first week of NF. My goals this week are: -Eat every 2-4 hours -Try to use the NF recipes for ideas on what to eat -Walk five minutes a day -Take my measurements -Take before photos (I have not pulled the trigger on this. -Going cold turkey on TV and movies at home. Will update with my info and current plan. Want to post yesterday's food log and start there.

One of my biggest enemies to productivity is schedule changes. I find that as soon as my schedule changes dramatically I neglect my new good habits and return to my old bad habits. And these next two weeks my enemy is returning. I just finished my summer internship at my church and will be going back to college after a 2-week lull. So my schedule is changing twice over the next two weeks.This means that I need to be extra careful to keep up the good habits I have been starting to form with my last challenge. I'm mainly going for consistency this challenge instead of trying to do more. 1. Drink 1.5L of water a day. At work I brought my water bottle with me wherever I went. I will continue doing this at home and at school. 2. Workout 3 times/week. Although over the next two week this will be easy with all my free time, this won't be the case when I go back to school. Working out while being stressed with homework and exams will be the challenge. 3. Spent 10 minutes in prayer and Bible-reading every morning. As a Christian this is super important for me. Yet these I seem to neglect the most during major schedule changes. 4. Find 5 healthy snacks I enjoy. In my last challenge I had troubles substituting unhealthy snacks for healthy snacks. I think it will be easier if I can build an arsenal of healthy snacks to combat the unhealthy ones. If you have any suggestions for healthy snacks let me know! Since I have several things I would like to get done over the next couple months, I will add in my personal to-do list for accountability. One of the big things is that I'm getting married in February! And with all that excitement comes a lot of planning! We are going for a short engagement (we got engaged in July) so we have to get going on getting it all ready! We have already done a bunch of planning over the past month and a half but still have a lot to do. Here are what we hope to get done over the next month. Wedding To Do's: A. Buy a suit. I'm going to use a suit instead of a tuxedo at my wedding. I don't have a suit yet and want to buy one so I decided to buy the suit for my wedding so that I can use it afterwards. I will need to look online for what kind of suit I want and then I will have to go out and buy it! B. Plan table center-pieces. We have been looking around at how we want our tables to look. We just need to make some decisions and try it out to see if we like it. C. Decide on our honeymoon. We have to decide where we want to go and what we want to do! D. Find a musician. We want someone to play the guitar at our wedding. We have a lot of musical friends and hope to get one of them to play for us. E. Decide on wedding favors. We need to look around for what we want to give our guests as a thank you. This needs to be done early in case ordering takes a while. F. Decide on Groomsmen gifts. What will I get my men? Not sure yet so I need to spent some time thinking about that. Non-wedding To Do's: G. Complete my book summary. One of my teachers for next semester is giving us the option to complete one assignment early. We have 18 pages to make a summary of our 500-page textbook. I want to complete this before school starts so that I don't have to worry about it during school. H. Complete 2 more Inkscape Tutorials. I want to learn about graphic design so a couple weeks ago I found the application Inkscape. I have completed 2 tutorials already (pictures to come) and hope to do 2 more this month. For each tutorial I complete I also have to use what I learned to make something else (i.e. I can't just duplicate exactly what they did but have to also make my own artwork). I. Woodburn a design on wooden coasters. I have also been learning the art of pyrography. I really like the minimalist design and want to try out a design on wooden coasters. This will require going out and buying a set of wooden coasters, making a design, woodburning it, and then applying a finish to it. I realize this is a lot to do but I do have 2 weeks of spare time. I will aim to do at least 1 post every week with updates but I hope to do it more frequently than that.

Challenge #1 - 2016 Going from Princess to Queen For the last 24 years of being a mom, I have let life, kids and outside influences direct the course of my life. Staring this year, I am taking back the control I have given others & social media (mostly for good things, but still distractions to my life) and setting course to grow myself in three main areas based on my 2016 roadmap here. My life quest is to be a queen! That classy not quite middle aged woman that knows how to carry herself with dignity in every situation. Always having the right thing to say that not only honors the one it is said to, but shows maturity and love in the delivery. I want to physically look the part and dress in pretty clothes that fit well. Seeking ways to gain wisdom that grow me spiritually and mentally. Serving others through specific volunteer opportunities and not just because I can’t say no. Ultimately, I want to be a beacon of light into others’ lives, encouraging and showing them the love of Jesus through my actions towards them and others. I have found over the past NF challenges, I don’t do well setting goals for the entire challenge and need to have flexibility each week so I’m going to create weekly goals under my mini quest categories. These will all be attainable within a week if I plan ahead the day before and stick to the plan! I have no excuse to not succeed. All of my quests will be graded on pass/fail. 100% - weekly prize 90% & under – nothing Each week I will also have a motivating song & scripture to go back to if I feel myself slipping into old patterns of too much time on Pinterest, Facebook, etc.

WARNING: THIS CHALLENGE IS ABOUT VULNERABILITY, CHRISTIAN FAITH, AND RECOVERY. "Hi, my name is Granny and I'm a grateful believer in Jesus, who struggles with codependency, resentment, and food." For the last 3 years I've been a member of Celebrate Recovery (a Christ-centered recovery program), and this is how we introduce ourselves. While I haven't struggled with drugs or alcohol, I am the child of an alcoholic and the child of an abuser. I do struggle with other behaviors that have hindered my maturity as an adult. Things like stress eating, people pleasing, procrastination and workaholism. Everyone has hurts from the past that they don't know what to do with; habits they've developed to help them cope with the unresolved conflicts in their past; and hangups about how they view themselves and the people around them. CR uses the 12-step model from AA, the principles in the Beattitudes, and cognitive behavior life skill tools to help untwist the damage in our lives. The Rehab Challenge: In this challenge, I'm going to be working on rehabilitation, both in mind and in body. I'm struggling with the aftermath of being injured in a car accident. The last day of the previous challenge (7-19), my hubby and I were in the left lane of a 3-lane road that's also a one-way street. The guy in the middle lane made a sudden decision to take a hard left turn into a business driveway across our lane, and cut in front of us, so close that we couldn't avoid the crash. He said he didn't see us, and I believe him; we must have been in his blind spot and he didn't look over his shoulder before turning left. Now it wasn't a serious accident; we were only going about 35mph, both cars' engines were still mostly functional, even though the body and frame of both were damaged (the other car likely beyond repair). My husband and the other driver were unhurt. Me, on the other hand, I have a Cervical Sprain, which is also considered whiplash but this one was side-to-side instead of back-to front. I also have two compressed discs in my neck, and the injury is making that area of my neck particularly problematic. Soft tissue damage is still being assessed at this point. It could have been alot worse, physically! But it's taking a toll on me psychologically. I'm in pain, seeing doctors and chiropractors and on the phone with insurance agencies and the lawyer, multiple times this week, which takes alot of my time. I'm also working-- owning my own business means I don't get to take a couple weeks off. I can't do my workouts or play disc golf, pick up my grandchildren, etc. I'm having a hard time keeping resentment at bay. I'm also struggling with a desire for revenge, financially. I don't believe that's the right thing to do, so I'm trying to put those emotions into proper perspective so that they don't influence my behavior. *So my goals for this challenge:* Main Quest: Create a plan to rehabilitate physically. Part of this plan will be to keep all doctor appointments, ask probing questions about my condition to make sure I completely understand what is being said, and make a plan to work my body back to it's previous state (or better!), whether that involves physical therapy or other forms of physical activity. Measurement: Keeping all appointments, making a plan for physical therapy, and following through on regaining my physical abilities: +5 Con Second Quest: Keeping it real. Part of this plan will be to recognize when I'm tempted toward using my injury for greed, and reaching out to my accountability people when those thoughts come. Same thing when I can't do something I want to do because of the injury-- recognizing when I'm tempted to hold my anger or frustration inside and nurse it into a cold resentment. I will choose not to either minimize my injury in order to speed the process toward playing disc golf or working out, nor play it up for laziness or to get out of a responsibility or to get sympathy. Measurement: Reaching out to my accountability team, attending all recovery meetings, and refusing to fall into psychological traps or acting out: +5 Wis

It's the new year, 2015, and time to get back on the wagon. I sorta fell off of it around October, was dragged for several miles, started to get a hand-hold on the rope and drag myself back up when I hit a big rock and found myself waking from unconsciousness a few hours ago. The buzzards weren't exactly happy that I wasn't dead. (at least they wanted to eat Paleo?) (courtesy of http://wannabesupermomma.wordpress.com/) I gotta be honest. I wanna sit here and cry over getting banged up, but I really can't waste time doing that anymore. I already wasted time falling off the wagon in the first place. Now I need to find that wagon and get back on, pronto! Main Quest (that seems light-years away)Do a Real Pull-up SMART Goals 1. WorkoutI was off for a couple of months due to all the moving and being out of the house while repairs were going on and then moving back in and all the stress that came with it. I did go to the gym once in an effort to reboot myself, but I tried to pick up where I left off and pulled a quad, which put me on the bench for an additional week. When that finally cleared, I was hit with holidays and haven't been back since. Needless to say, it is what it is and I need to scale back whatever I THINK I can do to get back in motion without injuring myself.Update:In order to ramp myself up, I'll be starting out with basic body weight exercising and progressing to weight lifting again later as time permits it. However, for the purposes of this challenge, it's all about getitng out there and getting it done.Every week I'm going to attempt 2-3 body weight workouts. The tricky part is going to be trying to do them earlier in the day and my best to avoid working out at night. I am also going to attempt to get walks in at lunch again, even if it's 27 degrees outside. I need to break up the sedintary ways at work or in the evening to wind down.Suggested ProgressionWeek 1: 2 BWW, 1 walkWeek 2:2 BWW, 2 WWeek 3: 2-3 BBW, 2 WWeek 4: 2-3 BBW, 3 WWeek 5: 2-3 BBW, 4 WWeek 6: 2-3 BBW, 5 W 2. NomsI'm debating doing something like Whole30 again. This time my wife wants to join in, so we might do that. We will get it figured out by the time the weekend is over. Regardless, I need to clean up my eating habits and get back to being mindful. The struggle is going to be eating healthy and eating enough. I've realized I tend to starve myself, thus my body goes into lock-down mode.Update:My wife and I are going to attempt Adrenal Reset Diet. It focuses on clean eating, but emphasises on when to eat what. It's neither low or high carb, but focusing on lowering the stressors in your body (external as well as internal) to get your body out of survial mode and to get your cortisol levels back on track.Week 1: Work toward clean eating and food prep (we're trying to get our legs under us as a family for this)Week 2-6: Follow the suggested portion outlines and stick to the suggested alllowed foods, etc. Update:3. Sleep RevistedA large part of mine and my wife's weight gain and rentention seems to be tied to crappy sleep (among other things). So we're going to make an effort to get GOOD sleep. Since I'm falling under the stressed category, but can fall asleep at the drop of a hat, my goal is to get BETTER sleep (which is kinda ambigious) but here's how I'm going to measure it.I'm going to shoot for 7-8 hours of sleep every night and attempt to remember to perform a progressive muscle relaxation technique when I crawl into bed before passing out.Week 1-6: 7-8 hours of sleep during the weekdays. I'm going to come back and update this post with SMART definitions for the vague musings above. Updated! Feel free to follow me, make comments, and or suggestions. I love company! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------This section is a reminder to myself that I have come a long way and yet the journey isn't over.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Previous 10 Challenges:BlamedCat Wars: Episode 1: The Fatman MenaceBlamedCat Wars: Episode 2: Attack of the GroansBlamedCat Wars: Episode 3: Rehinge of the PithBlamedCat Wars: Episode 5: The Return of Three Dead NighBlamedCat travels to Mt. KoltsBlamedCat trains on Mt. KoltsBlamedCat's Second Rite of Ascension Challenge!BlamedCat's Return - Lets have a dark match!BlamedCat's Enough is Enough (Let’s get down to business) ChallengeBlamedCat's Time to Follow the Leader Challenge

Sorry I don't have a fancy theme for this challenge. If anyone wants to suggest one, by all means, hit me with it I figured it was more important to get this posted than to delay it for "pretty-ification" So, I stepped into the realm of getting a personal trainer the other week. It feels so weird to have one, to have sat down for a consultation/talk and really got my brain picked and examined AND got to butt heads with a great smart guy. This challenge is really about me following direction (from someone I signed a waver form with lol). I'm kinda nervous about this and I'm really realizing just how stubborn I can be! This challenge is defined by the goals we set (and might change) depending on how my body reacts and such. I talked to Cody (mine and my wife's personal trainer) and purchased some sessions with him. I don't think I'll have the extra income to get more sessions after the initial four, but I am going to do my best to implement what he teaches and shares this challenge. He asked me what my main motivations were, so I shared them... he knows them now... no turning back, right? The goals I shared were the following: 1. Be healthy and around for my kids (best. motivation. ever.) 2. Do a real pull up (because it would be bad-arse!) 3. Do a Tough Mudder (because I'm crazy?) 4. Get more comfortable in the gym (told him about the mental struggles I've had and still do to some extent) 5. Get comfortable with lunges again (used to be in fencing in freshman year of college and loved it) I know they're all over the place, but he said they were good things and was impressed. Fun part is that I've got a trainer who's girlfriend is a HUGE nerd (and fitness) person. I really hope by the end of this time with him I can convert his girlfriend to Nerd Fitness lol. His exact words were "I believe my girlfriend loves Link more than she does me." He also told me one of his own goals is to do AMERICAN NINJA WARRIOR, so that's pretty cool. Main Quest still remains, do a real pull up. Two "Simple" goals yet again. 1. Workout I'm working out 4-5 times a week. (3 workouts 1-2 cardio days)Doing my best to do what is prescribed. (not a clue what he's got in mind yet)I already know he wants me to do warm-ups on the stairs machine.... I think that's to get me more used to lunges and such (and to make me use something I've never touched in my life lol) 2. Food Metrics! Follow prescribed/adjusted metrics as best I can.Calories 2,500Carbs 250Protein 188Fat 834:1 egg ratioPic logging with Metal_WeaverTrack food on gym site as best as possibleHe said I wasn't eating enough to lose weight. Which after looking at things, it makes sense. I've basically been starving my body even as I push it. If I don't fuel it properly, it will go into starvation mode and hold onto everything. In this area, he kept mentioning low-fat foods and while I can't follow paleo to the letter of the law, it still made me cringe. I will do what I can to eat reasonably and still try and avoid so much of this 'low fat' stuff. If that means I have to cut out cheese (<has a moment of silence for this loss>) for this or do his suggested 4:1 ratio on eggs to egg whites... then I'll do it. It's just one challenge and I need to show some trust and willingness to listen to his advice. I know he's the type of trainer that's not going to harp on the food thing, so that's reassuring. I'm also going to keep pic logging with Metal_Weaver throughout this and doing my best to log things on the gym site so Cody has a good idea what I'm eating. Oh and I did get to pick his brain on warm-ups. He equated it to studying for a test the night before the exam. If you study all night and then don't get much sleep, you're going to perform worse on the test than if you actually got a full night's rest. Same goes for warm-up. It's to get the blood flowing, but it shouldn't be a separate workout all in itself. Overall, his take is that it's a mental thing to get you ready to workout. so that's good to know. I've also asked him to show me stretches to aid in whatever we're doing for the day, so if there's any pre-stretches that would make an exercise better I'm hoping to pick them up Note: Also, this month, August 16th, to be exact, I hit my 35th birthday. (My dad also has his birthday on the 24th.) So, that'll be something to both look forward too, but also to plan ahead for on how I'm going to handle the celebration. (I think if my parents give me cash for my birthday, I'm going to go up to the gym and get some more sessions lol) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This section is a reminder to myself that I have come a long way and yet the journey isn't over. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Previous 9 Challenges: BlamedCat Wars: Episode 1: The Fatman MenaceBlamedCat Wars: Episode 2: Attack of the GroansBlamedCat Wars: Episode 3: Rehinge of the PithBlamedCat Wars: Episode 5: The Return of Three Dead NighBlamedCat travels to Mt. KoltsBlamedCat trains on Mt. KoltsBlamedCat's Second Rite of Ascension Challenge!BlamedCat's Return - Lets have a dark match!BlamedCat's Enough is Enough (Let’s get down to business) Challenge

I started out a Philly gal and somehow landed in Calgary, AB with a wonderful husband and a four-year-old son. I'm 34 and have been on blood pressure medication for the last 4 years. This needs to change. I'm still trying to figure out what I could possibly be good enough at to make it my 'superpower' and what I could possibly bring to the table that would make me a 'superhero'. So far I'm coming up short - everyone here seems to be so good at EVERYTHING and I'm just pretty good and some stuff. I LOVE to sing, but I doubt that'll be of much use when I'm gasping for breath during a hard workout. In the meantime, I'm 'the fat chick with the great personality' in my circles of friends and it would be awesome to lose the 'fat' part, so I'm looking to (re)start again for the last time - again. Hoping to find some friends along the way, though I can't promise I'll get every gaming reference thrown my way. This is all relatively new to me, so patience is greatly appreciated. ANYway... My nursing shift's ending and I think I'll post my 6-week challenge before I lose my nerve. Here's to 'gettin it done', eh? ^__~ Senie

In media res.... Having surmounted numerous challenges in the two years of chapter 1*, I am now ready, refreshed, older, and wiser for new chapter in my life. With more stability and a more confident perspective, I can finally begin a six week challenge. Main Quest: Get down to 175lbs by Easter. (Ultimate goal is to be below 150lbs!) Exercise Goal: Follow the Level 1 Rookie Guide as much as possible. (Already in my second week and only missed 1 workout A and 1 cardio day.) +1 STR, +1 DEX, +1 STA, +1 CON Diet Goal: IF by skipping breakfast every day, eating Paleo as much as possible 5-6 days a week. ALWAYS smaller portions. (Seems to be my weakest point so far!) +1 STR, +1 DEX, +1 STA, +1 CON, +1 WIS, +2 CHA Study: Do ALL readings before class and start assignments well in advance. (2 weeks in and I only missed the readings for 2 classes.) +1 WIS Prayer: ALL Liturgy of the Hours, every day, especially the most elusive Compline. Plus: 60 minutes of silence every evening and 1 rosary on knees. (Failed in this on most days... Need to work harder.) +2 WIS, +1 CHA Thanks for reading! *Previous books and chapters exist only in the author's memory of an epic, autobiographical bildungsroman.

WELCOME! This group is for disciples of Christ who wish to improve their bodies to glorify their creator. This thread IS NOT for religious debate! It is for encouraging your brothers and sisters in the faith to "Run in such a way as to get the prize." (1 Cor 9:24) Here's the Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1393420364214700/ Spiritual health is more important than physical health, but you cannot properly glorify the LORD your God if you don't act as a proper steward of everything He gave you! May God bless this 6-week challenge and all its participants.

Hey there Nerd fitness world, I am new to this challange thing and I am excited to try my first one on here! After seeing many of my friends and my wonderful husband (Blamedcat) successfully win on these challanges in life, I have decided to join in with all the fun. My name is Joy and I love my name. I am actually very excited that i met another wonderful friend on here named Joy and we are going to be both lifting iron (and not the iron for clothes cause i never ever iron clothes) for the first time. My goals that I have set for myself are these: 1. I shall pump iron once a week (I shall use a barbells to learn to actually lift wieghts) and since I work 12 hour shifts I have decided that for my first challenge that this shall be once a week on one of my days off. I will do 30 minutes of wieght lifting till I feel comfortable with it and then gradually add more and add more time. 2. I will use dumbbells on my days that I actually work to get the same kind of weight lifting excercise but which can be done in my house. I want to start with the small weights and work my way up, doing 30 minute excercise and then a 5 minute break and then another 30 minutes once a week on a day that I work. (so that I shall in fact be doign two days a week of actual excersise) 3. Diet goal: I am going to get rid of all soda's. I shall not buy or drink or consume or smell or sniff or gaze longingly at a soda pop. I know that I shall cave in, so I have given this some thought, I want to get rid of all soda's for 6 of the 7 days of the week and it has to be days I am working to not drink pop. I am far to tempted at work to drink soda's but I am also so very busy i can't be bothered with going to the cafateria to get one. So those days are "safer" for me. I also have a 5 yr old daughter who I love very much and who has been told that I am not to drink soda and she is to tell me so when she catches me with one. She is very blunt and very much a good accountability partner for a kid. She is very honest and has told me many times I am fat and need to lose it and that drinking soda's are bad. That daddy says that they are bad and I shouldnt drink it but since she is so skinny she should drink it for me. *haha* I gave myself one day to drink and I have decided that the huge caffine headache I know I will get from not drinking soda will be worth it to finally overcome this horrible addiction. 4. Life goal: My life goal is one that is more personal. I am a christian and I do love my Lord very much, however I have found that I do not always find the time to read the Bible as I should and I need to do that more. So my goal is to catch up on my bible reading for the year using the app Youversion and the bible plan for reading the bible through in a year. I shall talk to my friend Joy about what I learn to have her help keep me accountable as well. I want to be a better child of God and to do that I need to know what the Bible really says and what it says to me, not what someone else thinks it says, or thinks it says to me. Bonus 5. To have a date night with my husband at least once a week. I will try to get away from work, my adorable little "demon" children (hahaha), and to spend time building my relationship with my husband. To actually date my husband and to be courted by him. I know he is making this one of his challenges and I am soo thrilled that i decided to do that same. I will make the time and the effort to make my husband feel like he is all man to me and that i shall not talk about our kids whilst on the date.. and i shall have him not use his phone for texting while on the date.. this will be some awesome fun! Holding hands, gazing at eachother like love sick kids, and then going home and sleeping. ZZZZZ night time is for tired old people like me!