Search the Community

Having our second son about four months ago has spun things a bit out of control for me, especially with a barely 2 year old running around and demanding attention as well. I need to find some balance so this challenge is all about finding a balance in my life and reestablishing a baseline for my diet and fitness. You are what you eat Keep track of what I eat and pay special attention to my Macros. I need to keep this as simple as possible so that I'm not spending tons of time on it, but I need to know what I am consuming and have some controls on it. I am clearing and resetting my account on MyFitnessPal and will be using its automated recommendations as a starting point. This will have me starting out with about Macros of 2080 Calories per day with 50% Carbs, 20% Protein, and 30% Fat. This will not be a goal for the challenge and will change as I experiment to find what works for me. Get Moving Again It has been 4 months since my son was born and I stopped working out. My goal here is simply to get moving again. This will entail 2 Convict Conditioning workouts and 2 Cardio Workouts per week. Find Rest This is a tough, but important one for me. The goal here is to get back to a regular sleep schedule again. I'm currently getting to bed somewhere around 11pm each night and then getting up at around 5:30 or 6 each morning. That is about 6.5 to 7 hours of sleep per night and not consistent. My hope is to be getting to bed by 10:15 during the week and up at 6:30 in the morning by the last week of the challenge. My test points will be to record what time I'm lights out and what time I get out of bed. Then the last week I will grad on how well I am hitting my bed time and hours of sleep. Have a plan For my life goal, I want to start planning my meals ahead, especially what I eat for lunch and snacks each day. This is to save time by prepping things in advance and control of what I eat by having healthier food prepared ahead of time. Edit: I am weakening this to a more progressive goal. For each week of the challenge, I must plan the meals for the number of days equal to the week of the challenge. So for week one, plan one day of meals. Week 6, I will need to plan 6 days of meals. Not sure how this will work since my wife is often making dinner and I don't always know what she is making. I will try to formalize these a bit better soon. I wanted to get the framework up though. I really want to keep all of this simple for this challenge and probably for future challenges as well. I need to keep the amount of time I spend on here and on my tracking to a minimum effective amount so that other areas of my life do not get neglected.

My primary goals for 2014 are to become physically and financially stronger. My challenges will all be focused on this using baby steps to get there. Convict Conditioning Goals for 2014: Pushup SeriesStarting: Level 2 Intermediate Standard (2x20) - Incline PushupsGoal: Level 5 Beginner Standard (1x5) - Full PushupsSquat SeriesStarting: Level 2 Intermediate Standard (2x20) - Jackknife SquatsGoal: Level 5 Beginner Standard (1x5) - Full SquatsPullup SeriesStarting: Level 1 Progression Standard (3x40) - Vertical PullsChest High bar horizontal pulls with straight legs (23/18)Goal: Level 4 Beginner Progression Standard (2x15) - Half PullupsLeg Raise SeriesStarting: Level 1 Intermediate Standard (2x25) - Knee TucksGoal: Level 4 Progression Standard (3x25) - Flat Frog Raise Challenge Goal 1 (Strength): Complete 2 Hard Convict Conditioning Workouts per week (+2 STR, +1 DEX, +1 CHA) Challenge Goal 2 (Endurance): Complete at least one cardio workout per week (+2 STA, +2 CON) Need to get consistent with this again. Swimming 3 times per week previously was a bit too much to shoot for.Challenge Goal 3 (Fuel): Lights out by 10pm work nights, 3+ servings fruits/veggies daily, 6 glasses of water daily (+2 CON, +2 WIS) I've felt weak, tired, and sluggish for awhile. I attribute this largely to eating poorly, lack of fluids, and poor sleep habits.Challenge Life Goal (Finances): Update spending records daily for accurate tracking of spending and staying within budget. (+3 WIS) I just setup my first Dave Ramsey style zero-based budget and my first budget period in awhile. I have a history of allowing my records and receipts to pile up such that I don't have an accurate record of what I spend where. Since we are expecting our second child in about 1.5 months and the associated expenses that come with that, I need to get serious about controlling spending.EDIT: Making this a Hard Hat Challenge starting 1/8/2014 for the rest of the challenge (and beyond). 15 minutes per day adding receipts and checking budget. I will post my calendar at the end of the challenge.

Main Quest:To build up a solid foundation of habits to propel me towards my ultimate goal of being a master of my own body weight. Mission #1: Convict Conditioning New Blood program (+2 STR, +1 DEX, +1 CHA)Two workouts per week, alternating with pushups/leg raises on one day and pullups/squats on the other.Mission #2: 0 to 1650 swim challenge. (+3 STA, +1 CON)Had difficulties with this last challenge mostly due to sickness and other unexpected circumstances.Will continue starting at week 3 of the plan. Mission #3: Recovery. Lights out by 10pm each night. (+2 CON, +1 WIS)To support recovery on my workouts and a fresh, clear mind for work and training.Life Mission: Study Android Development 8 focused hours per week outside of work. (+2 WIS, +2 CHA)I have long neglected my career training. This will be a first step to getting back where I should be.I will likely have a lot of time to work on this at work, so my goal is based on personal time spent versus an amount of material covered.Grading:Mission #1 (in days): A = 12, B = 11, C = 10, D = 9, F = 8 or lessMission #2 (in days): A = 16-18, B = 14-15, C = 12-13, D = 10-11, F = 9 or lessMission #3 (in days): A = 27-30, B = 24-26, C = 21-23, D = 18-20, F = 17 or lessLife Mission #4 (in hours): A = 44-48, B = 39-43, C = 34-39, D = 29-33, F = 28 or less Rewards per goal: A = 100%, B = 75%, C = 50%, D = 25%, F = 0% Motivation:To be a Master of my own body weight and an example of health to my wife and kids.

Main Quest: To build up a solid foundation of habits to propel me towards my ultimate goal of being a master of my own body weight. Grades: All goals will be converted to a percentage completed successfully and given a grade letter as shown A = 90 – 100% complete = 100% of the rewards B = 80 – 90% complete = 75% of the rewards C = 70 – 80% complete = 50% of the rewards D = 60 – 70% complete = 25% of the rewards F = less than 60% complete = no rewards First Mission: Lose the Extra Poundage. Continuing from my last partial challenge, I’ll be carving off the extra pounds. My Target weight is 190 lbs. It is where I feel my best and it is also where I need to be to earn the $500 Weight Loss incentive from my health insurance company. Grading: Grading will be based on the percent of days (out of 42) where my net Calories are no more than 1500 Calories. This should have me losing at somewhere near 2 lbs per week I hope. I will use My Fitness Pal to track Calories consumed and burned through exercise. I will have one bonus day per week where my Calorie Limit will be 2300 (my approximate BMR). Rewards: + 2 Constitution and + 1 Charisma after week 3 + 1 Constitution after challenge Second Mission: Build Functional Strength Here I will build the strength foundation for mastering my body weight. I will be faithfully following the Convict Conditioning New Blood program. One day per week (usually Monday’s) I will work the Push-up and Leg Raise movements. A well separated second day of the week (usually Friday’s) I will work the Pull-up and Squat movements. These will always include warm up sets and stretching afterwards. Grading: Grading will be based on the percent of planned (12 total) that are completed faithfully to the program and with warm up and stretching. Rewards: + 1 Strength and + 1 Dexterity after week 3 + 1 Strength after challenge Third Mission: Build Endurance and Burn Calories. To support my weight loss and build endurance, I will be attacking the cardio. I enjoy swimming and it gets my whole body into the act so I will be dominating the 0 to 1650 Swim Challenge. This challenge demands swimming 3 days per week with a strict regimen to conquer swimming a swimmer’s mile (1650 yards) by the end of 6 weeks. This of course works splendidly with the NF 6 week challenge. Grading: This will be graded based on the number of days that I complete the recommended workout based on the number of workouts planned (18 total). It will not be based on achieving the non-stop mile. If I need to repeat a workout because I’m struggling, then I will, but I must always be challenged. Rewards: + 2 Stamina Points after week 3 + 1 Stamina Point after challenge Life Mission: Be Productive – Make Progress Okay, so I struggle with staying productive on things I need to get done at work and home, especially when I’m obsessing about something “newâ€. I’m also an information addict which makes it even harder. My mission here is to stay productive at work and at home. At work, this will mean that for each work day, I will not allow anything non-work to cause a significant hit to my productivity. Non-work related things are okay as long as they don’t consume much time or are not on the clock. At home, this will mean making significant progress on something every day. It doesn’t have to be a lot, just something that moves me forward at home. This could be cleaning out a draw, time spent organizing my paperwork, or deep cleaning a room. Grading: I will grade my work and home productivity separately and then take the average of the two grades for my overall grade. There are 30 work days and 42 total days in the 6 week challenge. So if I am productive at work 22 days and at home 35 days, then my grade would be 22 out of 30 for work or 73% and 35 out of 42 for home or 83%. Total grade would then be the average of 73% and 83% which is 78%. Rewards: + 3 Wisdom after 3 weeks + 1 Wisdom after challenge Motivation: To be a Master of my own body weight and an example of health to my wife and kids.