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New (well, old, but you know what I mean) Agent of the Resistance checking in. Looks like I've got my work cut out for me! Check out this mission briefing I got. How can I say no though, amirite? The Resistance needs me. Lemme know any ways I can help, my fellow Agents! For the Rebellion!

Fate is Inexorable. Starting weight baseline: ~215 lbs. Reweighing pending. CrossFit Skill Metrics: CrossFit Metrics #DoVikingShit MyFitnessPal Tracking 5 of 7 days/week: ☐☐☐☐☐ [Challenge Total: ☐☐☐☐] [Maintenance: 2560 cals: 190P / 100F / 225C] 5 CrossFit classes per week: ☐☐☐☐☐ [Challenge Total: ☐☐☐☐] Retest two or more CrossFit metrics: ☐☐ #GetShitDone Post a daily challenge update 5 of 7 days/week: ☐☐☐☐☐ [Challenge Total: ☐☐☐☐] To-Do list… (work in progress) ☐ Read: The Flamebearer. ☐ Read: World of Warcraft: Chronicle. CHALLENGE INSPIRATION: Like a battered, war-weary veteran, I return to the Rangers once more. Lately it’s been everything I can do to even attend regular classes and keep up with work week meal prep, otherwise I’ve been scarfing down a lot of garbage and either going wildly over or vastly under my recommended macros. My life has been chaos, in a constant state of upheaval, for weeks now. Fate is inexorable, but a man has control over his own actions if nothing else. Enough is enough. The CrossFit Games Open is coming in February and I haven’t had a ring muscle-up in months… that’s unacceptable. I need to get my weight down a bit to reclaim my gymnastic abilities, and I need to start pulling my weight on the forums. With that in mind, you’re all my Accountibilibuddies this challenge!

Let's stimulate some activity in the Cross Training forum. What was your WOD today? We did a Front Squat AMRAP for 8 minutes that looked like this: 10 Front Squats @ 45 10 Front Squats @ 65 10 Front Squats @ 75 10 Front Squats @ 95 10 Front Squats @ 105 10 Front Squats @ 120 10 Front Squats @ 135 And then as many Front Squats as you could at 225/145 but I crapped out at 37 reps because I accidentally jumped two rounds in my enthusiasm. There were two strength divisions for advanced/beginner and I'm still 'checking my ego at the door' and taking the beginner route. For conditioning we did an AMRAP in 20-minutes of: 5 Strict HSPU 15 Box Jumps 10 HSPU (strict, kipped, or handstand hold) 2 Rope Climbs or 10 Ring Rows and 15 Burpees with a 6" jump.

Keep On, Keepin' On Continue to do what you've always done. You just have to keep on, keepin' on until you've achieved your goal. #keep it up #continue #persevere #don't stop #don't let up challenge goals: Body 1. Continue NF Handstands program. Daily practice. +1xp per practice. 2. Begin NF Rings program. 3x weekly practice. +1xp per practice. 3. 2x weekly xfit. +1xp per practice. 4. Walk to Mordor PVP. 2-5k daily walking. +1xp per practice. 5. Log meals on MFP. +1xp per day (minimum 2 meals recorded to earn xp). Mind 1. Meditate. 2-5min daily practice using calm.com. +1xp per practice. 2. 1x weekly Yin Yoga class. +1xp per practice. Spirit 1. Bedtime routine. (face-floss-fathom). nightly practice. +1xp per practice. Accountability: I will keep track of my challenge progress in a paper/pencil journal. I will log my walking daily on the Walk to Mordor pvp google sheet. I'll update this thread with my progress 1-2x weekly. i will like and reply to questions, comments, and encouragements (gifs or otherwise) in a timely manner!

I'm going without a theme for this challenge. They go to hell in two days anyway Goals will remain the same: CrossFit and Nutrition. In addition to that I'll add a third, looser goal called “Start the World”. I' ve recently finished reading “The Way of Men” by J. Donovan. Donovan is an author whose books I refused to read because of ideology incompatibilities. You know, the whole white supremacy, anti-feminism thing made me a tad uncomfortable. I decided to give it a chance; after all if it turned out to be total crap it would only cost me 6 bucks. I devoured the book(yes, even the rather disgusting bits) in two sittings and to be honest I really enjoyed it. What's more, it made me realize how I've neglected the development of the “tactical virtues”. Just as an example, I've not even once practiced the fire starting and shelter making techniques I learned during No Fear of the Setting Sun, my camping axe(which used to be my grandfather's) still has the crude handle I was going to change a million years ago and remains embarrassingly dull. I' have not lit up the forge in forever... you get the point. So the goal will be oriented towards investing some of my time in training and developing my “primal manly self”. If you wanna read on the subject but don't feel like buying Donovan's book or putting up with anti-feminist bullshit I recommend you visit The Art of Manliness and read the articles about honor, manly virtues, tactical virtues(and pretty much everything else because is the best blog evah) The battle log style of posting worked out well last time, so I'm sticking with it

7/10/2016: I'm back from 5 weeks in Europe on holiday.: The abbreviated summary: - Had a great time in Yorkshire with my father in law and my wife's BFF. Awesome walk on Ilkley Moor and pub lunch in the Cow and Calf. - Spent a day with my wife buying the perfect new suit for the upcoming wedding in Italy - Caught up with some old friends in Scotland and had an amazing time: Sightseeing and eating/drinking well in Edinburgh, Speedboat ride on Loch Lomond, heaps of pub lunches, darts, 10-pin bowling, blackjack at the casino, go-karting, archery (so fun! Got a bullseye and won a bottle of whiskey!) - Wonderful time with my brother and his family, saw my nephews and my niece. - Parents have lost it, upsetting few days. - Travelled to London, 2 days before the wedding in Italy. Left my suit on the train!!!!! Brand new with tags on, no surprise it wasn't handed in. - Went surfing with my oldest friend in Newquay, Cornwall. Awesome time was had. - Still had receipt for suit, re-ordered it online and got it delivered to a local store near my friend's house. Phew. - Packed suit in case so as not to lose it. - Flew to Milan, met my wife in the carousel, she had flown in from Vienna. - I am last person standing at carousel, it stops. No bag. No suit. Wedding in 1 day. This suit is cursed!!!! - Had a nice day in Milan with our friend who lives there. Case showed up at 3am. Phew!! - Fantastic wedding in Lake Como - Florence was a dump, not sure what ll the fuss is about. Amazing architecture but awful unfriendly people and stinking sewers. - Awesome scuba diving in Elba, best ever viz I have dived in (30m+). Awesome wreck dive at 12m. - Got ripped off by 3 taxi drivers. Long story but very unpleasant experiences. - Rome was generally over priced, constantly had to watch your back and your pockets, super busy, everyone tries to rip you off everywhere. Amazing buildings. Very unfriendly towards foreigners. Terrible food except for an amazing Indian Curry (top 5 ever). - We saw a cafe with all the european flags hanging, pretty cool, except oh there's one missing, must have fallen down. Which one is it? The Union Jack......Brexit clearly having anti-English effects already. Maybe that was why everyone was so unfriendly. - We couldn't wait to leave Italy, in fact we renamed it Shitaly. Flight was cancelled, pandemonium at the airport. Thank god we were business class and got put on another flight 3 hours later, everyone else had to go into some crappy hotel overnight. - SO AWESOME TO BE HOME IN OZ! Travel is full of ups and downs, we had some fantastic times and some awful times but above all we have some memories and we appreciate our home a lot more now than when we left. Any positives from this? - I haven't missed a single training session - My nutrition has been 85% on track. - One of the girls at the gym is opening a new Crossfit box 1km from my house - I'm feeling strong and in pretty good shape. - I realised the only thing that has held me together the last 7 weeks has been my training and I'm so happy to have it in my life. My attitude towards training and nutrition has shifted and I'm pretty focused right now. Whoah that was a brain dump!

So, before I get into the fun, role-playing stuff, I have two(ish) things upcoming. 1) The Open is approaching. Last year my goal was to finish in the top half of all participants, and I finished in the top 40% (goal accomplished!) 2) My wife and I are seeing who will get a six-pack first. She is way ahead of me. 2.5) We go to Florida in a month. It would be nice to be lean by then. So with all that being said I really need to clean up my diet. SO Darger is following the way of the Barbarian/Ranger. As I have been learning more D&D, I've been really interested in running a barbarian. The concept of learning skills according a certain token is awesome. Plus. this picture is B.A. Darger stumbles into the makeshift ranger tent and orders a cider. He gets odd stares from those around them, but its not the first time he hasn't fit quite in. He notices a wild looking man in the back corner, eyes gazed at him while he drinks. Darger approaches apprehensively. "Can I help you?" Darger says threateningly. The emotionless man continues to stare. He reaches into his bag, pulls out 4 small, stone totems on them. They have a slight glow to them. The man hands them to Darger and before Darger looks down and sees that they each have an animal on them. Darger looks up but before he can ask a question the man disappears. Darger orders a room for the night, eager to shake off the eerie encounter. TOTEM 1: The Way of the Crocodile Strong will, emotional understanding, cleansing and healing Goal: Eat Paleo all meals except 2 a week and Log all into BTWB CON 3 STA 2 TOTEM 2: The Way of The Grizzly Bear Strength and ferocity Goal: Complete all workouts of programming/week. Except Metcon, can be creative: STR 2 TOTEM 3: The Way of the Falcon Soul Healing, speed and movement Goal: Get Wild, get moving, become more human. Essentially do something twice a week to become more rangerly CHA 3 DEX 2 TOTEM 4: The Way of the Buffalo Knowledge, generosity and abundance Goal: Follow the devotions in the He Reads Truth App 100% WIS 3

Dragons4Lessa has returned!!! (late to the party, but here regardless!) I did not fall off the wagon, but I have been very busy kicking ass. When we last saw Dragons4Lessa she had not taken her nutrition very seriously. Since then, she is working with a nutrtion coach for the past 5 months, went full Paleo for about a month and greatly increased calories. She has lost 11 inches overall and 7lbs in the last 5 months. Since November 2015, she has lost 23 lbs and KEPT IT OFF. November 2015 September 2016 Fitness quests Learn how to string double-unders together. I can do one at a time currently. Continue to work on banded pullups. Currentl level is 2-5 at a time with the thickest band. Insert other media Hit at least 2 lifting PRs. COMPLETED 12/26/16 Front squat 105# heavy doubles (PR by 20lbs) Back squat 155# Singles (PR by 25lbs) Increase cardio to maintain daily calorie deficit for the cut. Do a handstand pushup COMPLETED 12/9/16 Loot to earn: A pullup bar for home and a set of resistance bands Diet quest Track my macros and plan at least one day in advance I am currently cutting (8 week cut until Jan 9th). No cheese until I'm off cut. It doesn't help me hit my fats and just makes me want to eat more of it. Follow the cut and trust the process. I'm striving for 10 lbs by the end of December. Loot to earn: New running shoes from a real running store with good ankle support Level up my life quest Get the star tattoo that I have earned in the last few months. Add more quests to my epic quest

-This time around my usual goals will be channeled through zombies, as suggested by @Charlie_Quinn. Dancing Zombies Dancing zombies represent Crossfit. 3 times a week, every week. Plant-Fighting Zombies The undead from Plants vs. Zombies represent Nutrition. Eat paleo every day with 2 weekly variances. Make my best effort to take and post pictures of all meals, including cheat meals. Zombie Shakespeare Zombie Shakespeare represents study. That and my love for The Simpsons. A total of 6 hours a week I owe you guys a write up of the Zombie Run OCR this last saturday. While I write that, I'll leave you with my high pitched voice and messed hair and beard. Enjoy! (for some reason my phone split it in two separate videos) Write up: I arrived early to receive my “kit”: a tee, the little sign with my runner number and a belt with three detachable straps hanging from it. Each strap represented a life, which the zombies must take in order to “eat” the runners. Once a runner is out of lives he or she is allowed to finish the race, but is officially considered a living dead. Living dead may act as bait for the zombies, in order to help the runners. We ran in groups of ten people that were supposed to remain together to the end of the race. I was partnered up with 6 parkour guys, a dude and his two daughters. The first zombies were slow and clumsy so running past them was not hard. Further ahead the track was blocked with tires. When we got out of the tire obstacle, fast zombies came at us from the tree line and that was the point when I wished I had bought those Nanos… the worn, slick soles of my old running shoes made me slip on the wet grass and I fell on my face to the ground, where the zombies made quick work of my lives. Dang it! I catched up with the rest of my group for the next obstacle: pallet wood hurdles. The parkour guys showed their vaulting skills over the hurdles while I safety-vaulted all of them. We waited for the dude and the girls and carried on. A few zombies later we crawled under wire and reached the scariest zombie of the whole track, a bald traffic police officer. The makeup was great and the performance was better. Behind this guy was the obstacle I dreaded the most: the wall. I was sure I wouldn't be able to climb an over 2m tall wall without help. The traceurs flew over the wall while the zombified cop came at us. I looked at the wall, then at the zombie and thought “what the hell, let’s do this”. I jumped, pulled myself up as hard as I could and before I knew it I was on the other side of the wall! Thanks, bald zombie cop. The fear of you made me forget my fear of the wall. Moving on. By that time we were walking rather than running. I wanted to run and so did one of the parkour guys, so we went ahead while the rest of the group rested. We crossed some muddy spots, another wall with slots for the hands and feet and an inclined wall with ropes to aid in the ascent. The last 2km were a dense bushy area with tall grass and very uneven ground. Zombies were on the hunt and some of them could run as well. After a warped wall of sorts we found ourselves on the top of a hill, from where we could see the finish line. It was a steep descent and we had to be careful but we heard the zombies close by… they came out growling (second best zombies of the day) after us and we had no choice but to sprint in the direction of the finish line. We exit the vegetation zone and found a closed gate between us and the finish line. A staff member was there cheering us up “c’mon last obstacle!”. My nimble partner jumped over the gate like it wasn’t even there. I climbed over it with less finesse, but still worked. I got a ZOMBIE medal because I finished without lives, but still had a blast. I’m definitely running again next year and hopefully 2017 will find me in much better shape so I can survive the zombie apocalypse.

Starting up a battle log to keep track of all my workouts. Longer workouts really increase the size of my challenge thread posts so going to try this method out!

Last challenge was a bit of a burnout. Two vacations, general lack of motivation, and stress kept me from hitting a majority of my goals. Now I am back from vacation and feeling relaxed and motivated once again. Food The RP templates, while very useful, were stressing me out more than helping when my schedule got busy. I am headed back to the IIFYM approach to ease that stress a bit while still keeping my diet in check. Tracking in MFP once again in order to support that. Reran their new calculator and the numbers for weight loss that they provided were 2600 calories and a macro split of 260g protein, 130g Fat, 98g Carbs. On days where I workout, the overall calorie count will come up a bit with some added carbs to fuel workouts. Only allowing one cheat meal or event per week so that I have some freedom on weekends so social events do not stress me out. Workout Workouts will also change a little bit. Sticking with the Wednesday/Friday crossfit-esq classes in the mornings. But new to this challenge is a running goal. Since Spartan Race is in the cards for next summer, running will need to be something I get used to. Can currently only run about a mile without stopping and that's a slow 11-12 minute mile. Would like to work up to a nonstop 5K eventually. Also adding in something that is a bit of a step outside comfort zone which is going to a class at the gym with a different coach or one of the new classes offered. I have shied away from them because its not familiar strength style conditioning work but now I am interested in trying them. Finally, ROMWOD to help out with the mobility. 4 days a week was a bit ambitious so limiting it to two to make it more manageable this challenge with all the other stuff. Life Throwing in some life goals in there for a bit of a change. Trying to help the GF feel less stress at home because work for her has been pretty brutal lately. I have a bunch of little to-do tasks that she has been asking me to do, that I have on my list, or just things I know that will help which will ease things at home and make us both happier. Going to keep it very simple this time and adopt the check box style for tracking Food ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐ Zero Week MFP Tracking(☐ Cheat Meal used) ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐ Week 1 MFP Tracking(☐ Cheat Meal used) ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐ Week 2 MFP Tracking(☐ Cheat Meal used) ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐ Week 3 MFP Tracking(☐ Cheat Meal used) ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐ Week 4 MFP Tracking(☐ Cheat Meal used) Fitness ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐ Lift 2x week. Extras:☐ ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐ Run 2x week. Extras:☐ ☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐ ROMWOD 2x week. Extras:☐ ☐ Try a class other than RX FIT or with a different instructor Life ☐ Build second set of chairs ☐ Clean out front closet and store summer stuff ☐ Prepare/plan for Friendsgiving in November ☐☐☐☐ Clean dishes or empty dishwasher once per week ☐☐☐☐ Vacuum or sweep apartment once per week *Add stuff to this as needed

And here you thought @shaar and the guy from the latest Mad Max movie were the end of it... They pretty much rock their way into battle, killing people with face-melting solos and ear-bleeding amplification I'm back with the Rangers again and -after what feels like way too long- Crossfit.h. If you've followed me recently, you'll remember that Monster Magnet analogy/epiphany from a couple of weeks back, which has led to the Noise Marines as theme for this challenge. I'm still not done saving enough to purchase TEW 2016 from last challenge, but since saving money worked as motivation, I'll keep updating that thread and use this one as an expanded/transitional challenge. This challenge also ends exactly on the date of the SRLF's birthday, meaning once I got my game, savings continue in order to present her with an appropriate birthday gift. POWER CHORDS Never knew how much I needed speakers on my boots until now 3 workouts per week is the bare minimum. Doing those earns me 1 Euro in savings. Any extra workout, race, competition etc earns me another one. WELCOME HOME (SANITARIUM), LICK IT UP See what I did there? Every day of Domestic Rangering earns me another 1 Euro in savings. Also, because quid pro quo works for my lazy butt, I will not allow myself any computer time (which sadly includes TEW) before I'm done with all of the Domestic Rangering. CHAOTIC FREESTYLE SOLO More than just random notes on a badass axe Former nutrition rules paid too much attention to the letterring and killed the spirit of the goal. Having some croutons in the salad won't kill me as bad as eating an entire cake (that's for Nurgle scum) so I'll earn 1 Euro in savings for every day of clean eating: no sugar, alcohol or processed carbs but giving myself some leeway when judging performance. BLOW YOUR SPEAKERS WITH ROCK AND ROLL We also invented dubsteb before it was mainstream This is the catch-all thingy for leftover goals. +1 in savings for every day of sticking to my Secret Goal and another one for every hour spend on working my dissertation (haven't had any luck with this one yet). DESTROY PUNK ORK Everyone knows Orks suck at music. So will I if I eat or smoke like an Ork. -1 for every day of orky eating, -1 per cigarette smoked. Shortlist +1 for the baseline of 3 workouts/week +1 for every extra workout/race/competition +1 for every day of Domestic Rangering +1 for every day of acceptable nutrition +1 for every day of hitting my Secret Goal +1 for every hour spent on my dissertation -1 for every day of eating like an Ork -1 for every cigarette smoked NEW CHALLENGE, GO!

This time around, like so many of my other challenges, I started out with one idea and it morphed into something totally other. I was planning to do a "Spartan Race" challenge because I'm attempting one in December (full disclosure: I'm probably going to die) and while I was looking for some good movie quotes I stumbled across "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" which I hadn't seen before, watched it, and I sort of latched on to it instead. It really seemed to speak to where I'm at right now. So instead of Gerard Butler's abs you get to look at Ben Stiller for a month. I am so sorry. On the bright side, there will be tacos. Anywaaaaay.... I did a lot of interesting stuff at the beginning of the year when I took a work break, to try to widen my horizons and sort of chase my dreams of traveling more and showcasing my travel photography and writing. I did a few things, but when I went back to work (sooner than planned, actually) those things kind of went on the back burner and I got sucked into day-to-day boringness again. Like Walter, I became a little gray piece of paper. (this is not technically accurate because I don't work in an office, but you get the idea.) So I want to revive some of those goals and start writing, adventuring, etc again. I really feel like I'm missing out on my last chance to be this person I want to be by getting bogged down in minutia. I'm getting really old - and I need to take the proverbial leap of faith. Fortunately I'm coming into a slower season for my job and I am going to work diligently at managing my time and not wasting hours futzing on the internets* obsessing over weird stuff, so I have more time for adventures. Also the weather is changing for the better finally (summer was like hell's vestibule this year) so I can re-incorporate some of the stuff I did for "Escape of the Zoo Human" like camping and suchlike without an oxygen tank and weapons-grade insect repellent. But enough plot exposition. To the GOALS! PUT OUT THE MAGAZINE: In the movie Walter works at LIFE magazine, just as it is supposedly shutting down. Ironically, the very "digital revolution" that wiped out the magazine enables goons like me to share their work online easily and reach an audience. So my goal is to work on my podcasts, photography, videos etc at least four days a week, and "publish" something once a week. TRAVEL JOURNAL: Walter has a travel journal in the film that serves as a talisman of his dreams. There's a great sequence where he looks at the journal and then the next time you see it he's writing in it in the Himalayas. It sort of symbolizes the moment Walter starts living his adventures for real, instead of just dreaming about them. I don't plan to go to Ungoverned Afganistan and the lower Himalayas**, but I my goal is to post to my travel blog 4 times a week. It can just be a "photo of the day" or something similar. SELL THE PIANO: Almost at the end of the film, Walter has to sell his mom's piano, which has been bogging everyone physically, emotionally, and financially down, all through the movie. It's a good symbol of letting go of "stuff". Goal: I want to streamline my possessions and get rid of 20% of my stuff. I plan to do this on a room-by-room basis, to make it more manageable. THE WORLD ON YOUR PLATE: There's a lot of food references in SLOWM, including a scene where Cheryl is bringing some sort of tasty noodle lunch back to the office, a bit where Walter almost chokes on some horrible dried-fish snack in a Greenland dive bar, and of course the recurring appearances of his mom's warlord-approved clementine cake. (bonus points for anyone who knows "Cake or Death") I am lucky that I live in a very "International" sort of city (albeit in the suburbs) and I have access to all kinds of ethnic restaurants, music, art etc. I used to have a "foreign food Friday" routine where I dragged one of my friends to a different foreign cuisine every week, to experiment. (I would pay for their meal in case it was disgusting). I want to re-instate that and also start going more musical, artsy things as well. This is especially good for me because the time is going to change soon and it will get dark at 6pm, at which point I will want to hibernate until spring, like a bear. I need serious motivation to get out of the house in winter. Goal: 2x a week. (Fortunately ethnic food is usually cheap) ADVENTURE WAITS FOR NO ONE: Goal: one small adventure a week - camping, kayaking, museum, rock climbing gym, attend a lecture, get waterboarded, something. Moment of serious: I had a lot of shocks in the last 12 months. I had a serious bike accident, I had a serious car accident, a giant tree fell almost on my house, my father died unexpectedly, I had two close friends lose best friends/spouses to illness... I don't know how many times the universe is going to warn me that life has a timer before I fucking get the message but it's the truth. I'm 48 years old, which means my life is more than half over by any rational statistical reckoning. Two-thirds, really. I NEED to have a midlife crisis. Because time runs out. Okay, enough serious. Look at this kitten until you feel better. TEST YOUR LIMITS: You thought I was going to get through this entire post without talking about Crossfit, didn't you? You did. hahahahaha, you sweet, foolish person. I will be preparing for my Spartan Race (December 4th! whooot!) so I will be training like a madwoman for that, and I'm toying with getting into adventure racing (where you run, kayak, parachute, whatever). There will be pullups, there will be ring work, there will be deadlifting and handstands, and I will babble about it constantly, because RANGERING, BITCHES. Ummmm okay I think that's it. I don't know how these things always get so long. I may have used up all my Walter Mitty pictures so it's back to cat gif's shortly, I'm afraid. Probably this is better for everyone. *not including NF, obviously. I mean, be reasonable. **never say never, though

I'm determined to start on the official start date!! This may be a little spare to start but details will be added... Turning Upside Down 1. Handstands - daily practice. using NF handstand program! decided to purchase the superpack (NF handstand/rings) on Friday so I'm just jumping in and putting handstand practice as one of my goals. I'm feeling like the mobility moves are going to be part of my warm up on my xfit and yoga days and then on the other days a real solid effort on the skills. +1xp per practice 2. Yoga - 1x weekly think this is going to complement the handstand goal because stretching is a good thing when it comes to balance work. +4xp per class 3. Spanish - 15 minutes daily practice turning my routine upside down here by adding in a daily study goal instead of a couple days a week which is how its been going currently. +1xp per practice 4. Pokemon Go - walk with buddy daily I'm thinking a minimum of a 2k walk daily or walk until my buddy finds a candy. depends on the day. +1xp per walk

Hey I'm Lil'Legs and I'm new here...well you probably knew that because of the title. After taking like eight years off from doing any sort of sport thanks to laziness and health issues I have gotten back into the metaphorical saddle. I have taken myself off my medication (with the okay from my Doctor since it wasn't helping and just giving awful side-effects) and started CrossFit. I've only been doing it for a couple of weeks but loving it, and now I have enough motivation to also improve my diet, bye bye chocolate bars! I have a goal of becoming a happier, stronger, fitter version of myself and to eventually be confident enough to go to a Comic Con dressed as Wonder Woman! An odd aim but I've wanted to go to one dressed as her since I was little. I am super excited to be here and to go through this journey with everyone! Now I better go make myself some dinner!

"What once was, matters not. What is, is of up most importance." I'm late to the party for this Challenge, but I figure better late than never. For those of you who didn't see my introductory thread, it can be found here: But to give you the cliff notes version. At one point not to long ago I was in the best shape of my life. During this "Origin Story" I dropped my weight from 242lbs (5'9") all the way to 189lbs in approximately six months of eating healthy and working out. I then took a mysterious side road that lead me on a journey of eating whatever I wanted, and not working out. So I am back at 239lbs as of this morning. Time to "nut-up or shut-up" and get shit done again. See the original quote for inspiration! I am keeping these challenges simple to start, and considering there are only 2 weeks left in this challenge cycle, it will prove a good starting point leading into the next stage of warfare. Challenge #1 - Move heavy shit... quickly! Attend Crossfit Classes 3x Week Challenge #2 - Stop eating trash, you're not Oscar the Grouch! Keep anything classified as junk food to less than 3 instances a week. (Chips, cookies, fast food, etc etc) "My inner wolf shouts to be set free once again, and I will not disappoint."

"Sometimes a Viking is born who carries the Spark of Gods... Raiders we call them. It is a name that can summon armies. Ruthless, fearless, made for battle... the moment of a Viking's death is chosen by Fate, so what use have they of armor... or of fear?" Starting weight baseline: 217 lbs. How the fuck did that happen? CrossFit Skill Metrics: CrossFit Metrics :: DINE IN ODIN’S HALL :: Nutrition accountability measured through Health Points meter. Eat To Perform (Workout Day: 2937 cals: 190P / 100F / 319C, Rest Day: 2560 cals: 190P / 100F / 225C). :: TRAIN FOR THE VANGUARD :: Supplementary Back Squat, Bench Press, and Deadlift programs. Kipping Pull-up Practice once per week. Retest two or more CrossFit Metrics over the course of the challenge. :: RETURN TO THE MEADHALL :: Weekly To-Do list. :: CHALLENGE INSPIRATION :: Fresh on my return from Camp Nerd Fitness 2016, I’m energized and ready to start my challenge routine anew. After discussions with some Warrior-minded folks at Camp, I have embraced my Warrior side and intend to shift my CrossFit focus to increasing my weightlifting volume by supplementing my WOD routine through either strenuous negotiation with my coach or picking up a 24-hour gym pass on the side. Riding the high of Camp and my performance at the powerlifting meet there, along with conversations and a heavy dose of Warrior inspiration from the likes of Gainsdalf the Whey, Miss Marissa, and Sam Ashen, this Ranger is pillaging infiltrating your illustrious Warrior ranks for a challenge or two. With that in mind, I turn to the most indomitable and majestic of my personalities to summon the Viking once again.

Last challenge may have been a near-complete failure, but I had one success: I collected some solid data. I went in a dunk tank. I noticed that failing at one thing created a domino effect. And I started a bullet journal. Taking what I learned, I've decided to only focus on controlling one thing this challenge. The craziest line in the journal is the one labeled "eat. It was all over the place, from ideal ketosis to bingeing. So this time around, I'm focusing on on doing whatever I need to do to eat well. Everything else supports that. Work out, sleep as much as needed, move lots at a walking pace... and eat well. I have a plan that I generated earlier this year that I'm going to aim for. Based on the apparent muscle I lost in the past year, I'm going to avoid going into a keto fasting state and simply lower my intake and try to keep my carb load under 150g/day, ideally around 100g/day. I'll aim for high protein, meaning that my fat consumption will have to go down slightly. It's a change, but completely doable! Down-week is going to be a "test" to see how things shake out with the new goals. I'm leaving space below for a summary, and maybe a summary for that line of my bullet journal.

The Last Stand This time around my challenge will be themed after Sabaton's last album, mainly because of the hype for their show on November the 5th. The goals will be the same as last challenge and, just as I did with Arnie's characters, there will be no correlation whatsoever between the theme and the goals themselves. The Goals: Sparta We all know the story of the 300 spartans that faced the persian army in the Thermopylae. The source of inspiration for this song seems to be the movie more than anything else. Sparta represents CrossFit. 3 times a week for a total of 12 classes. Rorke's Drift In January of 1879, just over 150 british and colonial troops under command of Lt. John Chard and Lt. Gonville Bromhead defended the Rorke's Drift outpost against a horde of 3000-4000 Zulu warriors. Whether one does condone british imperialism or not, this 150 brave stood as brothers against all odds, defeating their enemy. Rorke's Drift represents Nutrition. Eat full paleo, with 2 weekly variances. Shiroyama RL counterpart of events depicted in the movie "The Last Samurai", the battle of Shiroyama marked the end of the Satsuma rebellion. 500 samurais(the only remnant of an army of ~20000) made their last stand against the rifles of the Imperial Japanese Army. Knowing that they were marching to their graves, the samurai charged downhill through the bulletstorm to break havoc on the poorly trained lines of imperial infantry. Swords clashed against bayonets on these brave men's last stand, making them part of history. Shiroyama represents study. 1440 minutes total, about 6 hours a week using pomodoro technique. Bonus Track I realiced I tend to go all in on the variances, especially when drinking at the same time. Then I watched this video by PictureFit: and thought "What if I'm throwing my hard work down the pipe on my cheat days?" Let's recap last saturday night out with the guys: a "Cuba Libre", a burrito, a taco, like 4 beers, nachos... yep, that can't be good. I must learn to take variances for what they are: small deviations from my normal paleo diet, not full out feasts. I will reduce booze to the bare minimum and write down all my variances to keep them sort of accountable. That way I expect to see slightly better results. BTW I measured my waist at navel hight today and it was 95cm. That's 0.5cm less than last month

Superhero Challenge is here at last! I've had this one in the back of my mind for a minute, so this should be fun. It's also influenced by some things I've seen @Tanktimus the Encourager, @Sloth the Enduring and @Atrytone do over the summer, and credit for the title goes to @deftona So I wanted to do a very serious superhero challenge, and I spent a lot of time pondering who the right superhero to model on. Superman? Wonderwoman? The Flash? So many choices... I needed someone who hit all the points and inspired me and suited my personality. And then I figured it out.... Yes, it's THE GREATEST AMERICAN HERO!!!! Now, I know what you are thinking. Wasn't Ralph Hinkley, the Greatest American Hero, kind of a doofus? Wasn't he constantly screwing up and flailing? Didn't he lose his own instruction book? Did he have any idea what he was doing at any given time? All these things are true. But isn't that all of us? I have a constant, ongoing conversation with my training partner, the Mantis, about what I am training for. He helps design my programming, and when we are working on it he's always asking me "what do you want to do? Triathalon? Power Lift? Crossfit? You have to tell me why you're doing this so I can figure out what you need to do." And I'm always like, Fuck, I don't know. I want to do everything. I keep thinking, there has to be more to this. It can't just be about trying look good naked and be less fat and show off in the gym. I would have given up long ago if that was it. (Especially the be less fat bit. Sigh.) There has to be something pushing me other than utter vanity. And a few weeks ago, one of the trainers at my gym happened to be asking me, "so what are you training for? Why are you here?" - the eternal question - and just as we were chatting I happened to look up at the TV in the gym and the news was showing the flooding in Virginia (Louisiana would come a few weeks later) and the shot was of people taking their little shitty johnboats and canoes and whatever they could find, and going BACK into the flooded areas to rescue other people, sometimes people they didn't even know, from the flooding. And in that moment it crystalized for me and I pointed at the TV and said "because I want to be that guy." Look, it would be awesome to be an invincible beast that never got hurt, helped the helpless, did the right thing, showed up at the right time, saved the world, AND remembered to file their taxes quarterly. I would love that. But I'm not. Especially the taxes part. But I can be Ralph. I can be as fit as possible to be as useful as possible, as best as I can. And until I am called upon to save the world, I can be an everyday hero, and I can rescue cats and help the neighbor with her groceries and whatever. It's what Ralph would do. Okay, on to the actual challenge training and goals: Everyday Hero: Be Kind: give one random compliment or helpful thing per day. Be Useful: learn one thing useful in emergencies per week. CPR, emergency first aid, change a tire & jump a battery, evacuation techniques for injured people, etc. Make it better: make one donation or volunteer one hour per week to a good cause. Let yourself fly: Ralph, famously, could fly but never figured out how to land. I have some ideas for stuff that I want to do that I keep shrinking from because I'm scared to fail at them. I need to take those risks and let the landing sort itself out. Strong like Hero: I have three gym workouts per week. They are: PHT A: 10 mins rower then 4 circuits: 1 arm rows glute bridge bench press leg extension delt raise jump rope incline press KB swing tricep extension prowler push pull-up (still working on these) PHT B: 10 min rower 4 circuits: deadlift t-bar row step-up bench press hamstring curl military press jump rope push up kb swing sled pull walking lunge inverted row HIIT/Cardio: I do three rounds of this, with 5 min rest between rounds. I do the rower first, then 3x of the moves in italics, then finish with the sandbag run. Rest and Repeat. 250 meter row 10 kb swings 10 wall balls 30 sec battle ropes 200 meter sandbag run Non - Gym workouts: Bike 2-3x week, plus skate, jog, kayak, whatever, as it fits in the schedule. So that's it! Should be a fun challenge; these are cool workouts and I'm looking forward to them. Let's do this Edited to add: Have to shout out to @Phoenix Burning for introducing me to the book Natural Born Heroes and Georges Hebert and the concept of "be fit to be useful" several challenges back. I stand on the shoulders of giants. (or at least their reading reccomendations)

I'm shifting into battle mode for a 100 day transformation. I had a pretty horrifying DEXA scan which put me at 26% bodyfat, I've put on a ton of weight since my last scan 8 months ago. 5kg of fat and 3kg of muscle. The muscle is obviously great but the fat is not good so I'm hitting a 100 challenge to transform this. Dates: 1 April to 11 July Motivation: I'm going on holiday to Europe for 5 weeks, I want to be in great shape for that. Nutrition Goals: 1. See the nutritionist every 2 weeks 2. No Alcohol for the first month 3. Count calories, stick to what the nutritionist advises 4. Get a DEXA scan once a month for accurate progress check 5. Get below 20% Bodyfat / drop 6-7kg of fat. Fitness goals 1. Achieve 10 chained Double Unders ( I may PvP this) - Practice for at least 5 mins before each PT session. - - Try to get 10 DU's in 5 mins, only chained DU's count and they ladder not add up, i.e. 2,3,4 so the best number i get is what i count for that session i.e. 2+2 is not 4 it's 2. 2. Get a bar muscle up - Coach will program this for me. 3. Walk 100 miles (160km) - Average 12km a week, should be easily achievable. 4. Bodyweight Clean - I haven't discussed this with my coach yet but I want it.... Rewards: Month 1 If I get the whole month with no alcohol and have a good DEXA result I'll book a diving trip. There are 2 I have my eye on... Month 2 TBA Month 3 TBA That's it for now, more later....

Hello, warriors. I am a 25 year old woman from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Started Crossfit about 8 months ago and fell in love with both the oly/powerlifting bits and the gymnastic stuff. Noticed my progress slowing on both due to lack of upper body strength and decided to run the Starting Strength program for a few months. That was two weeks ago and my current stats/lifts are as follow: Currents Stats and Lifts On SS Height: 1,58cm Weight: 55kgs / 120lbs BF%: ? Barbell Squat (5RM): 55kgs / 121lbs Barbell Deadlift (5RM): 67,5kgs / 149lbs Dumbell Bench Press (5RM): 24kgs / 53lbs Barbell Shoulder Press (5RM): 20kgs / 44lbs Anyway, I am pretty good at being consistent with my workout routines (be it Crossfit, muay thai, SS, whatevs), but I am having some issues sticking to healthy eating habits and by healthy I mean I am having some issues at not eating like an idiot. I gained 3kgs since the beggining of the year and, while some of it is muscle, I have a long term goal of weighting under 52kgs with a lower bf%. So yeah, this challenge I will be focusing on my diet and tracking all the things. Goals: Diet Goals: - Track all the things on MFP. - 1800cals/day. - 110g of protein a day. - Alcohol only twice/week. - Only two cheat meals (BURGEEERS AND FRIIIES!) during the challenge. Fitness Goals: - Track all of my fitness progress on SS. - NF Yoga 2x/week. Other Goals - Meditate 5x/week for a minimun of 10min. - Weight myself daily and take the other measurements/pictures weekly.

This challenge won't have a theme per se (we know it's going to hell after 3 days any way) but will be channeling characters played by the one, the only Arnold "the austrian Oak" Schwarzenegger. Alright, the Governator is not the best actor ever. That said, I have a pretty basic taste in movies! The characters representing each goal will have no sense or correlation (kind of like Arbold's movies). It's only to add some fun to the same goals as last challenge (I'm going full Tanktimus from now on) Conan - Conan the Barbarian/the Destroyer Conan will represent CrossFit. I shall attend 3 weekly CF classes Jericho Cane - End of Days Jericho will represent nutrition. Full paleo with 2 variances/week. Macros tracking and food pics could be used if needed. Det. John Kimble - Kindergarten Cop Detective Kimble represents study. Study 7,5 hours a week increasing productivity via pomodoro technique (it's been working fine so far). Total study time goal could change depending on week zero results. Since progress bars have gone outta comission with the forums update, and outsourcing them has proven to be impractical; I'll be making my own bars out of "=" simbols. It's a lil' ghetto but as long as it suites my needs I'm ok with it. Conan |====================| 0% Jericho |====================| 0% John |====================| 0%

Camp Nerd Fitness is only one month away! "We're not out here flipping tires to be better tire-flippers. We're doing it to be better period. Better, stronger, more determined humans. Capable of anything. To honor our bodies and sharpen our minds. To be more human." “You have to prepare for everything; this is the true way to build this, to build Batman.” Starting weight baseline: ~200 lbs. Reweighing pending. CrossFit Skill Metrics: CrossFit Metrics #BeMoreHuman Nutrition accountability measured through Health Points and experience meter. Eat To Perform (Workout Day: 2937 cals: 190P / 100F / 319C, Rest Day: 2560 cals: 190P / 100F / 225C). Nutritional Alchemy quests. #AttackMyWeaknesses Kipping Pull-up practice once per week. Double-under Practice once per week. Retest two or more CrossFit Metrics over the course of the challenge. #TooManyHashtags One major contribution toward the Modern Viking protocol by challenge end. Weekly To-Do list. Welcome to the Be More Human experience

I've teased a challenge with the Monks for a while, so here it is at last. Unlike most of my challenges, this will feature no theme and goals will be more like a bucket list of stuff that must be taken care of by the end of the challenge. Nutrition, workout and other stuff will still be monitored on my Battle Log. Let's get to it. Muay Thai Another thing I've talked about for a while and the main reason I'm Monk-ing (this is now a word) this round. It's finally time I took the step towards the dojo next to my home. It's closed for the summer right now, but I'm keeping an eye out. This quest consists of 4 sub-quests, the first 2 of which are my must-do baseline: 1) Drop by, check the place, talk with the owner and get some info, especially if I'll be ok training in my contact lenses 2) Do a free tryout class 3) Subscribe for a month to try this thing out 4) Attend 3/week Adulting There's stuff that needs to be done and I'm on staycation at home until the end of August, so I must use that time to take care of everything. I'll make a list of tasks every morning and cross them out as they're done. Anything remaining carries over to the following day. Blogging: HWA A while back, in the days of 6 week challenges, the Monks did an inspiring Street Fighter mini challenge. This eventually morphed into my HWA challenge, where the theme was about me running the wrestling promotion of Poison and Hugo Andore, starring characters from SF and other comics, movies and videogames. That challenge fell slightly apart during the last week, but it was a lot of fun and I left a lot of storylines unfinished. A few weeks back, I re-launched the idea as a blog with a more compact format that doesn't require so much work on my part or the readers'. I'll have to keep this up and post at least one episode every week. If you'd like to take a look, I would very much appreciate it if you left a comment there. Blogging: HHH Back in my hometown, I also ran another blog that covered the local hard rock and heavy metal scene with live reports (mainly), interviews and album reviews. Not linking that, because it's in Greek. That blog went into hiatus last Easter, when I moved to the capital and a new job. I was recently contacted by a band asking for a review of their debut EP, an interview and the chance to be on their tour poster as a sponsor, as well as free admission to their promotional show at the capital. I posted on the blog's FB page about the EP and a festival in my hometown, which were warmly received, rekindling the fire and making me consider alternative ways to bring back the blog. At first there can be album reviews, interviews and live reports from bands that make it to these parts, but the bread and butter of the blog which is the live reports can't happen while I'm away. My goal here is to publish the album review, the interview, attend the concert, put out a review and think of ways I can keep that blog alive. I might even put out a request for a local correspondent in my hometown! Training changes My Crossfit subscription ends early October, but I've been disappointed with my box since the start of 2016. Thing is, the only decent box I'd like to go to is far away from my workplace and home. I'm using the summer break to disappear from my box and try out Muay Thai, but I'll have to use September to finalize my plans. Where will I be crossfitting and how will I combine that with Muay Thai if I catch that bug as well? I need an answer by the end of the challenge Catch up with Lucha Underground and Mr. Robot I've seen the first 2 or 3 episodes of Mr.Robot and my Special Ranger Lady Friend (SRLF) says I need to catch up so we can start watching the second season. I also got into Lucha Underground about a month ago and it's awesome! Finished all 39 episodes of the first season last week (thanks long ferry voyages to and from my hometown!) and I want to blaze through Season 2 as well before September 7, when the third season of LU premieres