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Many children of the 80s revere "The Lady" as the finest helicopter in existence. I am among them. Fixed wing aircraft must maintain a minimum forward velocity in order for the air to move over the wings fast enough to create sufficient lift to keep them in the air. Should an aircraft slow the to the minimum speed safety devices should warn the pilot they are at "stall speed." If the aircraft dips below stall speed, the wings will no longer generate sufficient lift and the aircraft will fall from the sky. Rotary wing aircraft, however, generate lift by moving their blades in a circular motion at very high RPM. If the tail rotor provides sufficient force to counteract the rotation of the main rotor, the helicopter can hover, appearing motionless in mid-air. Maintaining a hover is considerably difficult, as constant adjustments must be made to allow for the natural air currents around the aircraft. In fitness, when progress stops unintentionally an athlete is said to have stalled. However, when someone stops their progress intentionally, they can call it a "hover" and make it the theme of their challenge. I've been slowly progressing with KettleBells after a complete respawn. I'm writing all this out a week before zeroweek starts, and assuming I'll be at six reps for all exercises on the NF beginner KettleBell workout. My plan is to stay at six reps for at least four weeks beginning with zero week before adding anymore reps. I'm doing this to let my body adapt so I can improve safely and steadily, and also to work on form on the reverse lunges. Those who have followed me in the past know the only thing I hate more than burpees are lunges, and the only thing I hate more than lunges are burpees. I still don't get down to full depth on the reverse lunges, my knees freak out and I stop about halfway down. I'm going to work on getting lower in the lunge. I'll shoot for two to three KB workouts a week. Stretching or going for walks on off days are a bonus. I'll also keep cooking. Those of you who don't know me, be warned. Don't come read this thread if you are hungry.

As the title implies, this challenge is about losing as little as possible while I wait for the new year. With a new baby, finding a routine has been a challenge, and I need routine to develop consistency with workouts. It's a fool's errand to try and generate consistency and routine at this time of year, so I've given myself permission to wait till the new year to try and set up a new routine. I am not, however, giving myself permission to quit. I've posted this challenge to keep myself mindful of the fact that something is better than nothing, and I will populate this December with as many somethings as I can. As such, I'm going to try and get as many hits as possible on my list of Good Things (as it pertains to health and fitness, there are many more good things than what's listed below). Tank's List of Good Things: Intuitive Eating Cooking Kettlebells Yoga Baby Rucking Thanks for following!

That's a good question Parody Judge. For most of the summer and the first part of what the calendar assures me is "Fall" fitness has taken a back seat in my life. Buying and moving into a house then becoming a parent within two months of each other can certainly lead to distraction. The thought has occurred to me that I now work for a Fitness Company (Our very own Nerd Fitness, where I am the admin for the forums), and at the heaviest weight I have ever been and have lost some of my strength and a lot of my endurance. Now, please understand, I'm not beating myself up for this, I simply recognize the irony. Having said that, I'm in a place where I want to re-prioritize fitness. Last challenge the baby came, and as I write this during week 5 of the previous challenge (rank hath it's privilege) Little Bit is 5 and a half weeks old. It's a challenge to work out with a baby, but I had been slacking before she got here, so she's no excuse. It's a matter of setting a goal and achieving it. So what are my goals? Cook a bunch and continue with intuitive eating. I haven't lost weight yet with IE, but that's not the point. The point is to heal one's relationship with food and begin to listen to body signals of hunger and fullness. I'm in that stage right now, and have noticed I no longer eat boredom, and am beginning to tell the difference between hunger and thirst. Eventually I will focus on nutrition again. This isn't a SMART goal, but IE is, by it's very name, intuitive, so I'm okay with that. For fitness, I want to work out three times a week. Each workout type will be it's own goal, because I want to do one of each type per week. (Damn it, it's so hard to find KB gifs that aren't of sexualized women) Anyway, I plan to do NF's Beginner Kettlebell Workout once a week. That would be five times for the challenge, six if I get one in during zero week. (Wow, It was a lot easier to find nonsexualized Yoga gifs. It was mostly a bunch of stuff of people actually doing yoga) Nerd Fitness has a Yoga program, and I bought it not long after it came out. It's very helpful. However, with the gain in weight and lack of practice, I'm not able to do as much as when it was a regular practice. Therefore, I plan on doing Yoga once per week. Any of the NF videos are fine, though it will likely be water A. Ruck the baby. Little bit is still to young to face forward as in the gif. I'll be carrying her like this: That's actually the model we got from our registry from one of you fine rebels here ( you know who you are). I plan on going for a walk once a week with the baby strapped on. The stroller counts if I have to use it, but the carrier is preferred.

I decided to formally go ahead and do a battle thread since it seems like I am actually sticking with this fitness stuff. (Touch wood.) I've never been good at online introductions, but I'll do my best. I'm a nerd, obviously. My hobbies are medieval re-enactment (mainly through the SCA,) archaeological experimentation, woodworking, writing, Scottish country dancing and pipe smoking. I also run a podcast on Viking Age History called Norse by Northwest. I'd always been a fairly outdoorsy person with fair fitness, but I moved from Scotland to the US and gained a ton of weight. (A few images below to show the journey so far.) I struggled with it for a long, long time and just couldn't seem to shed a pound. Eventually I went to my Doctor who went through a lot of options with me and convinced me to try a month of Phentermine. That actually worked really well. I lost weight at a reasonable and healthy pace and was only on it for one month. But it led to a further diagnosis of Chronic depression related fatigue. Basically, I needed a stimulant of some kind added to my antidepressant to really get me feeling human. The antidepressant stopped me from being suicidal, but I was still just trapped in a fog and never able to really engage or get anything done. So I got put on a really low dose of Adderall and it has totally changed my life. I feel like myself again. I have a reasonable amount of energy. I'm actually happy. I get chores done during the day and I'm not completed incapacitated by having to make a decision on a thing. At any rate, I started hitting the gym every weekday on my lunch break. I would do two days of weight training and three days of the C25K. On weekends I'd attended fighter practice for the heavy armoured combat I do. I've now completed the C25K and I am running 35 minutes twice a week and doing weight training three days a week. My 'Big why' is twofold. First, my Daughter, Freya, was born in November of 2017 and is growing like a weed. I want to be fit enough to keep up with her and healthy enough to be around for her for many years to come. I also really want to look better in my medieval garb. I make clothes that I am really proud of and then I put them on and think about how much better they would look if I were a bit more trim. It's vain, but maybe not too bad of a thing. My goals are modest. I don't expect washboard abs or biceps as thick as my neck. I'd like to get rid of most if not all of the beer belly and have better strength and endurance. I'm making good progress so far and trying to just stay patient and continue to make healthy choices. So, on to the pictorial proof. Pictures of me from before I moved to the US where I was in really good shape. Then pictures of me after I moved to the US and was really fat. Finally, a chain of progress pictures showing my weight loss over the last few months.

Overview / Motivation: I'm writing this up on my 33rd birthday... I can't believe that I am actually 33 years old, nor can I believe that this year is almost over. Like most years, it's the time I begin to reflect on the past year to appreciate all the good stuff that happened, and begin planning for the next year. For some reason as I approach the end of this year, I am struggling to figure out if I made real meaningful progress since this time last year. Deep down I know I've grown a great deal, but I'm not sure if I am closer to beginning to make a larger impact in my life, and on the world around me. I want to live a life of impact - a life of significance. While I am doing my best to be a great husband, father, and co-worker, I know I want to impact more people. I am not discouraged, but rather hopeful that I make more steps towards understanding the 'how' around making that type of impact. I'm putting a bit more pressure on myself now as my wife and I are expecting our second child in April (another girl, thus my book choice for this challenge). I want to be a source of inspiration for my wife and girls, rather than a wandering lost middle aged dude. I look forward to seeing how I change my personal and professional development over the next year to make bigger strides - these NerdFitness challenges are a large part of that development, and look forward to embracing the grind over the next year to make great things happen. Main Quest: Hit the following benchmarks in strength and stamina: Bench Press 250 lbs. Squat 250 lbs. Complete 20 Pull Ups Side Quests: Average 3 Weight Training Sessions / Week Points Potential: STR +5 Grading: A= Average > 90% B= Average > 80% C= Average > 70% F= Average < 70% Average 2 Body Beast Cardio Sessions / Week Points Potential: STA +5 Grading A= Average > 90% B= Average > 80% C= Average > 70% F= Average < 70% Average 2 NerdFitness Yoga Sessions / Week Points Potential: DEX +2 Grading A= Average > 90% B= Average > 80% C= Average > 70% D= Average > 60% F= Average < 70% Life Quest: Read & Explore: Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters by Meg Meeker, M.D. Points Potential: CHA+3 A= Read > 90% B= Read > 80% C= Read > 70% F= Read < 70%