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Gah. I'm not sure what to say here, but I know that I need something to keep me accountable. Urgh. Allons-y! I'm a newb. I have tons of knowledge, and know things in theory, but when it comes to practice, I suck. Hard. I lose motivation far too easily, and when things hurt, I don't do it. I've been taught not to do stuff that hurts, since I have chronic pain, but that's not helping me at all. So, I'm going to try to work through it this time, finally. Right now I want to focus on my diet, and do some easy exercise, but eventually will start going to the gym again. Here's my start. Here's today. Almost 23 years old, 5'8", 317 pounds. When I tell people this, they seem genuinely surprised, so hopefully that means I carry it as well as I'm told. But no matter how not-fat I look, I am. And I'm tired of it. I'm making changes. So I have a few goals. Some may be my 6-week challenges, others may be a month-long thing, but these are some of my most immediate things to work on and build habits for, in no certain order: Lose 30 pounds by 12/21/14Get to bed with no distractions by 11PM on weekdaysEat a healthy breakfast each weekdayTake a walk at lunch each weekdayI have a couple short-term life goals, too: Pay $200.00 to my medical debtSave $500.00 for a school trip in DecemberPut $300.00 a month into savings account (and don't spend it!)I'm hoping that by taking care of myself, I can eventually stop hurting my damn self (not self-harm, just general health weakness/dumbassery) and get out from under my medical debt. I want to eventually be under 200 pounds, because I am tall and have a big frame (wide shoulders, hips, ribcage, the whole thing). I worry that my "ideal weight" is under 180, which seems far too thin, but I want to eventually get myself (and maintain!) a weight between 175-190. But first, I want to lose 30 pounds and get fitter by my trip to Chicago in December (which actually won't be til the 26th, but holidays SUCK). So, yeah. This is my new beginning. Lunch time, good time for a walk!

Intro Name: Lizzi Age: 24 I am from Connecticut, and last year I started Crossfit and shortly after that I started eating Paleo. I do not eat strictly paleo, which has been holding me back a little bit. Overall in the past year I have lost 40 lbs, and gained quite a bit of muscle. I am starting to really do well in Crossfit, and discovered that I feel extremely empowered being as strong as I am today. I would really like to buckle down on my diet, and start working on specific goals with Crossfit to improve as an athlete. Main Quest I would like to compete as an Rx athlete at a Festivus event in the next year. For anyone, who is not familiar with Crossfit, certain criteria either make you a scaled athlete or an Rx athlete.Such as if you can't do unassisted pull ups, you are a scaled athlete. Another example, if you can only do single unders when doing jump rope instead of double unders, you are a scaled athlete. Quest 1 One of my weaknesses is completing double unders when jumping rope. I have been able to do double unders, but have never been able to do more than one at a time. I would like to be able to string together 10 double unders. Quest 2 At the moment I am using resistance bands to help with my pull ups. I am currently using a red and blue band. I know unassisted will take a longer amount of time, so my goal is to be able to do 5 pull ups with one red band. Quest 3 A lot of the Crossfit competitions we do have an Olympic lifting component. Currently the only Olympic lift I complete well is the deadlift. I would like to better myself by completing one Olympic lifting class at my gym each week. Life Quest On average I get around 5-6 hours of sleep a night. I feel like there is not enough hours in the day, but feel that I would be more productive during the day if I had more sleep. I would like to get a solid 8 hours of sleep a night. Motivation When I started Crossfit, my main motivation was to lose weight. Now my weight and the scale has become less of a priority. I am so proud of how strong I am, and how confident I am in my body as it is. My motivation now is to be the best Crossfit athlete I can, and maybe one day I will see the Crossfit Games in my future.

Two years ago I started doing dumbbell rows with a goal of a pull up. One year ago I was doing 4x5 chin ups and a achieved my pull up goal. Today I am doing 5x5 pull ups with 15 lbs added and 5x5 chin ups with 20 lbs added, steadily marching toward my new goal: one-handed chin up. Two years ago I took my first yoga class. One year ago I was learning backbends and balances. Today I am doing long headstands, happily finding new challenges all the time. Two years ago I was benching the bar. One year ago I was proud to be warming up with a 45 on both sides of that bar. Today I am doing 5x5 at 185. Two years ago I started using mint to track my money. One year ago my wife and I started using YNAB and living off from last month's salary, taking huge bites out of our student loans. Today we are still using YNAB just the same, but have a solid emergency fund and are excited to move into a smaller place to save money, shed useless possessions, and focus on the few things that really matter. Two years ago I started doing bodyweight squats. One year ago I was doing 5x5 at 175 lbs. Today I am doing 5x5 at 255 lbs., slowly but surely getting stronger every month. Two years ago I was reading articles and watching videos to learn what a deadlift was. One year ago I was doing 5x5 at 185 lbs. Today I am deadlifting up to 320 lbs., and I love whenever I'm using 3 45-pound plates on both sides. I'm also happy to say that this year: I've learned to do pistol squats, doing 5 on each leg without any counterweight or assistance. I've started bent rows, and I'm already at 5x5 with 145 lbs. I'm working on overhead press, and I've gotten up to a 5x5 with 130 lbs. I'm planking for 2 minutes 4 times a workout. Goals for the future: One handed chin up Lots of pistol squats Squatting 315 - I love racking up 3 45 lb. plates. Bench 225 lbs. Deadlift with FOUR of those 45 lbs. plates (405 lbs.) If you're somewhat skeptical that I've actually done this stuff, here's my post from last year: http://rebellion.nerdfitness.com/index.php?/topic/32303-results-are-typical/ If you have any questions or, better yet, have some other ideas of goals I could have, let me know. If it wasn't for this internets thingy, I wouldn't have ever known how badass one handed chin ups and pistol squats were to try them in the first place.

Here it is! My first challenge. I like the reward system that others wrote out, great idea, so I tried something of my own! Main Quest: Lose (35lbs) by New Years 2015. If I can drop the 25lbs by the new year, I will not only have just turned 30, but I'll have the feeling that I'm 20 again. My confidence level will reach new levels that I haven't seen in a decade. Quest 1: Hit the Gym 3 times a week The gym has been my friend since high school. It's there when I need it, and there when I don't go to taunt me about not going. If I go 3 times a week minimum, I'm pretty sure I can smile and feel better. Quest 2: Run three times a week I've always tried to run. I've accomplished mud runs, and a 10 mile race. But, I work up to those. I want this quest to be about making running a hobby and habit. To the point of I feel broke if I don't accomplish this habit. Quest 3: What's fast or processed food? Fast food and processed food are a weakness. When I'm stressed, I go to food. Not alcohol or drugs thankfully, but food. The convienence of these foods are my downfall. I want these two types of food to be erased from my vocabulary and be written as myths that do not exist. Side Quest 1: Ride my bike to work instead of driving. I currently live 15.3 miles from my job. Not too far, but the path to get there is not easy. I'm moving in a week or two closer to work. 6.8 miles from work. With that, I will ride my bike to work. Save gas, and burn some calories. Side Quest 2: Acquire a following on Twitter/Instagram of my water/diet/progress. If I can get 5 people to follow me specifically for being healthy, and bettering themselves, I will have completed this quest. Motivation: Friends, Family, The girl. I've had a lot of friends follow my progress of working out, running, trends that I've taken on. I want to encourage everyone to not only follow what I do, but to see them commit to it and be healthy themselves. Life Quest: Finish my story and create the website to go with it. I'm currently in the process of writing a screenplay with a friend of mine. I've never taken on something like this before, so I want to finish in the next few months with the 6 episodes. Reward System: -10 info if fast food eaten +10 info with extra run/workout(max 100 info) Weight Loss Info(Instead of credits, xp, or $, I prefer info. Its value goes beyond anything else): 100% complete - 200 info 90% complete - 90 info 80% complete - 80 info 70% complete - 70 info 60% complete - 60 info 50% complete - 100 info 40% complete - 40 info 30% complete - 30 info 20% complete - 20 info 10% complete - 10 info 700 info total, (100 extra info available). Possible Awards traded for information. 500 info - New Suit 400 info - Portillos Dinner 300 info - Rock Bottom Dinner(Nachos Galore) 300 info - Movie with snacks 200 info - New Game

Hiya, I'm Jay! I've been on the forums before but I'm really bad at being a part of any kind of community because I'm bad at putting myself out there online. About Me! So, I'm a little neuroatypical nerdy gendermess living in Western Massachusetts with my partner and two cats. My hobbies are playing Fantasy pen and paper games like D&D and Rolemaster. I'm a big fan of video games, Skyrim, Fall Out 3, and Minecraft are among my favorites. Also, movies. Movies and I are best friends, they are my rock and my soft fuzzy blanket. As my username suggests, I like Grungy 90s music and Gardening. You can find me on Tumblr by the same if you like random funny stuff. Why am I here? Why is anyone here? It's pretty much the same story as everyone. I'm not happy with my body and health. I'd like to find a healthy way to shed all these pounds I've accumulated over the years. I'm about 275 pounds right now with bad knees, it's just not working out for me. I'd like to look into a mirror and see what I see in my mind's eye. Especially with being a gendermess, if I lost some weight, that might help with how I feel about myself. I'm hoping that keeping an account of what I'm doing on here and making some friends to cheer me on will keep me on track. GOALSSSSSS! The goal is to be able to go hiking! I love camping and being in nature, but I want to do those things without feeling winded and out of shape. I'd like to be able to hike Mt. Tom and some of the Appalachian Trail maybe! I really like walking long distances for some strange reason, it's always been something I didn't mind doing after the initial "I don't wanna!". I don't like running and swimming isn't in my forte. Hiking and Walking are my jam! Also, with all the walking and such, I'd like to get out of the "Extremely Obese" section of the BMI chart. (Even if it's a horrible way to dictate if someone is healthy or not.) How can you help? Every good hero needs some help, whether a companion or just a cheering section. I need that cheering section! To make it to my goals, I need someone to be like "Yo, Jay.. Good job!". An accountability buddy would be wicked cool! Also, if anyone is in the area, I love chatting while walking. Also also, any tips or suggestions on exercises would be awesome. Oh yeah, how am I doing it? Plan is to try the Weight Watchers' Simple Start program because 1.) No point watching 2.) Grocery List! 3.) Healthy Foods and Recipes that I can trick my partner into eating. I'm not a big fan of Weight Watchers in all honesty, but it's worth a try to get into healthier eating habits. I'm also planning on doing Full Body Strength exercises, Long Distance Walks and possibly Yoga. So yeah. Be my friend, friends!

Hello fellow challengers! I'm a 30-y-o translator spending long hours at a desk turning English documents and caffeine into French documents. I also fell in the habit of eating lunch at the foodcourt next to the office. I ran a couple of of time a week last summer, but haven't done much over the past long canadian winter. So I wanna get back into shape for this summer. Life goal Run a 5K in under 30 mins. Main goals: 1. Run 2 times a week. 2. Do 2 HIIT workouts a week. 3. Bring a healthy lunch to work 4 times a week. 4. Walk 30 mins every lunchtime (5x/week) There we are. Am I missing anything? lemme know if I did

My first woot! Since starting June 1st, and my weigh in for this weekend, I have lost 10lbs! I now weigh 250!

Overall Goal My goal seems like it should be easy. My pants are tight. I want them to fit correctly. It should not be difficult to lose 10 pounds so that they fit right again. So why have I been failing at this for the last 6 months? Background I am a mother of 5 year old twin boys. After they were born, I had a difficult time losing the baby weight. Who has time to exercise when you are in a constant cycle of feed, burp, change, sleep, repeat. I had taken up running a couple of years before having kids, but running was not helping me lose weight. Eventually, I was able to get a handle on my weight by keeping track of calories (1500 a day) and taking up tennis. Tennis was so fantastic for my cardiovascular health and overall fitness level. The movements required for tennis (lots of side-to-side) were not familiar to my body, and as I started playing more, I would have crazy days where I'd lose 4 pounds in a day after playing. It was amazing, I'd never had weight loss success like that before. I treated myself to some nice clothes, and shopping was finally fun! Over the last year and half, my weight has been slowly creeping up. I'm now about 15 pounds over my lowest weight, and I am grumpy that my clothes are tight. I don't want to have to buy new clothes. I have been very worried about losing control here and ballooning back up even more. When I first noticed my weight creeping up, I went back to counting calories and continued tennis/running. This time, my body was more used to playing tennis, so I didn't see the dramatic results that I had seen before. I decided to cut more calories, down to 1200. Good God! I was hungry *all* the time, and could not keep that up. I stumbled on this site and some of the articles I've read have really resonated with me. This whole cardio and starvation model is really frustrating, and I am done with being hungry all the time. I'm getting used to the idea that weight training might actually be more beneficial than cardio and have tried doing a couple of the body weight workouts listed on the site. I have to say that I enjoy them more than I thought I would. I am here to learn more about strength training, healthy eating, and to make some changes to support a healthier lifestyle. This is my first quest! Subgoals 1. Workout 4 times per week, mixing cardio with strength training: I am a runner. It has been hard for me to accept the fact that running does not help me maintain or lose weight. Some of Steve's articles talk about why this is the case, and my own experience does point to this. *SAD*! I have signed up for a 10 mile race in April (Cherry Blossom 10 miler), and tennis season starts in April, so I'm not ready to completely cut out cardio and focus on strength training. But, I am trying to work strength training into the routine by replacing one cardio workout with strength training and adding an extra strength training workout. This should be a very measurable goal. 2. Learn more about strength training so that workouts are focused, not "wander around the gym randomly": I definitely fall into one of the traps that Steve mentions, wandering around the gym without a plan. I'm still learning what strength workouts look like, and so one of my goals is to do more reading over the next 6 weeks to figure out what my strength workouts should look like. 3. Follow the paleo diet twice per week: I am not sold on the Paleo diet. It seems overly restrictive to me, and not particularly convenient for families with small children. We eat a lot of take-out. Adopting this diet will be very challenging for me, so I am going to start small and see how it goes. 4. (Are we only supposed to have 3?) Log food and weight daily: I want to log my food intake, weight, and workouts daily. I will be especially interested to see how my weight fluctuates on paleo days and strength training days. I've noticed that I lose weight the day after a strength workout as opposed to the day of the workout, so that has been pretty cool to see, and good proof that strength training pays benefits after you stop. Life Side Quest Keep a positive outlook. In general, I am an optimist. I always try to look on the bright side. Certain difficult events in my life over the last year and a half have made my outlook more negative. I want to move forward from these troubling events and closer to my optimist self, while keeping in mind the lessons I've learned. I am going to try to post something positive each day. Help Me Out! I am excited to start this quest and I am hoping to get some advice from folks who are more experienced with strength training. Please say hello, and I'm happy to hear suggestions or advice of how to make my workouts more focused and efficient. Starting Stats: 164.2 pounds, waist: 35", chest: 33", hips: 39", R thigh: 24", L thigh: 23", R arm: 12.5", L arm: 11.5"

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NERDS,GEEKS and FRIENDS!!! Lend me your audio sensors!!! I have done it, I have completed the first part of my 6 week challenge. I did it last week, but I was out of country and could not post about it. I am very proud of myself. I was worried about being able to pull this off. But I stuck to it and with the help and support of you guys and especially my fellow Knights of the GeekShow Podcast. I have accomplished this goal!! Thanks guys!! and keep up all the great work. Jeremy

Hi Everyone! I've been on and off the fitness train, I consider myself a beginner because I still don't know what i'm doing, or if what i'm doing is right. Being a girl who weighed under 110 pounds growing up, living in a house with no set breakfast/lunch/dinner time, not knowing the difference between whats healthy and whats not, and not having a active family/lifestyle... I started gaining and not knowing why or how to lose it. In December 2012 I weighed the most I've ever weighed, and to make it worse, at family gatherings they noticed and picked on me about it (which never feels good, and no one should ever have to be picked on because of how much they gained.) That's when I decided to start working out, starting weight was 155 Pounds at 19 years old. The lifestyle change I made was going for a 30 minute run everyday, and eating healthier smaller portions. In 3 months March 2013, I managed to lose a total of 10 pounds, and gave up because? I don't know, I just gave up. I started going on a health kick again in September 2013, this time I did strength training+cardio and tried doing the macro diet, everything was going good until I started losing motivation, telling myself id do it tomorrow, almost anything to get me to not work out. As of Today, I weight 136 pounds at 20 years old. I lost a total of 19 pounds. My main quest is to work on my lifestyle and to lose 10 pounds (so weigh 126) and then start strength training: I want to try doing this differently, before I use to jump into it (lets look up a fitness you tube video and hopefully I stick to it) but never had a goal or developed habits so I just gave up and didn't feel bad because I didn't have goals or habits (understand?). GOAL 1 The Gym: I hate the gym, I don't know if its me or the gym (its probably me) but I just don't feel comfortable there. But I will try going and try finding something I love and hopefully that will motivate me to keep on going. GOAL 2 Sleeping, Eating, Balance: Sleeping: I need to set a habit of having a bed time, and getting out of the habit of over sleeping which makes you over tired which makes you have to energy to work out and makes you lazy .. well that's my theory. Eating: Controlling that salty, yummy, goodness. I don't usually crave junk, and I don't usually buy it either, but when I crave it I binge and I really need to work on controlling that. Instead of going on a crazy junk food haul, I'm going to try to prep good raw snacks, and replacing my dessert with a greek yogurt with banana kinda deal. Also looking up recipes that can over power that need for crunchy and salty foods, like eating seaweed or those snap peas snacks from Costco. Balance: I need to find the balance between my priorities. Between family, school, social life, cooking and preparing food... stuff like that, i've been stuck deciding whats important for me and what can wait. GOAL 3 Exercise atleast 4x a week: I need to find that motivation that will get me to exercise, even if its taking my dog out for an extra 5 minute walk a day, making slow progress is better than no progress. My life side quest is to be happy, and not give up on myself. I want to do well in school, and finish with a 90% or higher average, which i'm on the verge of. I just wanna focus on being happy, being healthy, and not feeling sorry for being selfish for trying to make my life.

So this is my first challenge, like most people on this board, and I’ve decided to set my first challenge as follows; Run 5k The reason I have opted for this is because I signed up to run the race for life in May this year. I really suck at running, like majorly suck. I’m hoping by using this as a challenge to work on I may be able to track my progress a bit better and work towards the quest in a more structured way. My three goals for this quest are; Do heavy cardio atleast3 times a week Do strength training at least 3 times a week Monitor diet for clean quality food intake. These seem like pretty basic goals, but as I have never done a challenge I wanted to set myself goals that would help me with my quest, but that weren't too specific. My life side quest for this challenge is to finish my nutrition course, I've been neglecting it for a little while due to other things happening in my life and need that little more pressure to get it finished.

Just started with this - basically a smartphone app where you can set any long-term goal, and then each day check in with a small, measurable step that you've taken toward achieving it. It can be as simple as a reminder to floss everyday or a 60-day pushup challenge. It also allows you to follow people and encourage them in their goals, so seems like it would be right up the alley of many people here! If anyone is interested, or is looking for buddies, I'm here!

Hey everybody I am boosting about my recent activity, I joined a 60 mile walk in Michigan to help support finding the cure and raise the awareness of breast cancer. I am proud of my progress I have made on nerd fitness. Before I wouldn't even have considered walking a mile. Now I walk 3 miles a day on a treadmill, I have lost 45 pounds since I started and Im confident I will be more then ready for this event. My training will be my six week challenges =D. Thx for the great 3 months so far guys been helping me gain my goals. (I didnt want to post anything to link towards my donation page because I m not about promoting, but if you are interested in supporting me just message me or write down below)

Hello everyone! This is my first ever post so forgive me if I seem a little lost, but I am extremely excited to be here! I'm horrible about introducing myself, but I'll give it my best shot! My name is Tess411 and I'm 18 years old. My fitness journey began sophomore year of high school when I decided that being overweight wasn't really for me, ha. I'm 5'2 so not only was my weight making me lethargic, but every little pound I gained was reflected back on me 10-fold. Most of my issues were due to poor eating habits-not for lack of activity (I played varsity soccer during high school, I still love it but unfortunately hardly play anymore). Not going to lie, I had some major self-esteem issues when losing weight and lost it in an unhealthy fashion. It took me basically a year to get over my "I'm fat" mentality and get over the numbers (because without the strength to back it up, who needs numbers,right?). Fast forwarding to the present: I'm currently 100lbs (working on gaining some weight through lifting) and have no strength. While I look like I'm in shape, I'm not even close. I'm hoping to work on more weight-lifting strategies so I can embrace my new motto that one of my friends turned me onto, "Strong is the new Skinny." (I love this saying!) Ready to get over my unhealthy past and finally start living for me, rather than my body image! So here I am, a total newbie to lifting or anything that's not cardio, haha! MAIN GOAL: Complete P90x (1 week in) MISSIONS: Play kickball & soccer in my sorority's leagueDo 10 pull-upsLearn basic weight-lifting exercises and track my progressLIFE QUESTS: Find a new job related to my major (Nursing)No fast food!Randomness: Wondering what ya'll think about P90x? I've tried to start twice before (third time's the charm!) and I want to know what everyone else thinks about it? Thank you guys so much, I can't wait to get more active on this site and hear about your progress as well! Don't be a stranger! :] Btw, can anyone guess the quote from my post's topic? I'll love you forever. Haha!

Hi everyone, I'm happy this exists! Boy do I need accountability. So as hard as it is to put this all out there, I'm going to do it to get to a better place. I used to be a competitive skater. So. In. Shape. Now, not so much. That was 13 years ago and boy do I miss it. I stopped because of money and school. I had to make a decision. Fast forward to today: I have an illness that has been diagnosed that gives me all kinds of issues and makes me very sick and I have some kind of allergy/illness that we are working to uncover what it is, but it makes me exhausted, sick (a different kind than the other), and causes rashes on my legs. I am a slave to my crazy rotating schedule, 50 hr a week job (which I do love but makes my personal life really difficult to manage). I have been having bouts of depression because of the exhaustion/ sleep schedule/ rashes/ stress/ and general lack of sunlight during the winter. I've wanted to skate but I've gone and been so exhausted I needed to sleep a whole day to recover. My doctors wanted to put me on an elimination diet which they said was like a Paleo diet. Wanting to feel better I immediately went home and started this diet HARDCORE. (Before talking with the nutritionist, hehe.). I felt immensely better. I felt like I was running on rocket fuel. I had tons of energy. Then I met with the nutritionist and she took out some of the items to test for allergies. Since then my energy has crashed and I'm hoping that excersize will help me get some of that energy back. I can't afford a gym so I'm going to do this at home and hopefully I can get back enough energy to skate again. I can't wait to do a challenge, but they are already 4 weeks in so ill hop on board on the next one. I also want to learn to meditate and figure out how to fit taking care of my place into my life. It would be really nice to get to a place of balance where I can do activities I love again, instead of feeling like a slave to my work and house. I want to be happy guys! Here's to accountability

Hi rebels! I am so excited to be joining such a great cause! A bit about myself: I am a student in the USA, and have always wanted to be skinny and healthy, but have never quite found the time to actually work towards my goal. That all changed a few days ago when I found this website. For the first time in my life, I am fired up about healthy eating and living and not just looking for a quick fix. I can't wait to begin this journey with all of my fellow rebels! My main goal for the next three months or so is to drop down to a light, healthy weight and stay there, primarily to benefit my track season (but the confidence boost will be nice too!). Right now I weigh 131 lbs and am looking to drop to anywhere from 105 to 120 lbs, depending on which weight makes me feel healthiest and most confident. My main long term goal is to feel gorgeous and confident in my own skin 100% of the time, and most importantly to form healthy habits that will last a lifetime. If anyone out there is looking for a friend or sidekick for this journey, I'd be happy to join you. It would be wonderful to have someone to motivate and to be motivated by when times get tough. Wish me luck, as I wish luck to all of you out there looking to change your lives, and long live the rebellion!

Hi everyone, I've just started NF on the weekend, read through all the lessons, set my goals and did the bodyweight level 1 workout for the first time yesterday. I nearly died!! Feeling a bit sore today as well. But I've got a couple of rewards to look forward to. If I stick to my goals of 3 x 30 minutes strength training workouts per week and don't drink any alcohol during the week, after three weeks I will book into a thai or indian cooking class. If I stick to it for 6 weeks then I'm going on a 1 hour off-road segway bush bash! Should be fun If I miss one of my goals then my punishment is I have to do one load of my boyfriend's laundry and iron any shirts in that load. I loathe ironing and laundry so that is quite a turn off! Does anyone want to share their rewards or punishments? Also any fun fitness ideas would be welcome! I'm going to try stand-up paddle boarding. Also trying out interval training with a running club tonight and I've got a bike ride planned in two weeks with a new riding buddy. Cheers, Lulu.

I'm so tired of making it a week or two into a new challenge or project or habit or whatever and something comes up and derails it. It might be a legitimate problem that I can't adapt my new routine to, but usually it's more of an incredibly tiny puncture in my puffed up sense of commitment and dedication that instead of easily patching I start playing with until it rips wide open and everything falls apart. (As I write I've been picturing a deflating bouncy castle for some reason). So here we go: for the thousandth time, I am setting goals and am full of motivation and passion to see them through. This will only last a few days, though, so anyone who wants to exchange messages or be friends on here to help each other stay motivated, I would welcome hearing from you. I live overseas and have not found anyone who I can talk to about this stuff because the only expats I know are my colleagues and I am just not going there. BTW: Here's an AWESOME SITE for building a habit through daily check-ins, a running tally/tracker, reminders, and encouragement from strangers/friends: https://lift.do/. I love it. Okay, enough. Here's the good stuff: My main goal: Develop greater peace of mind Why: Because getting thinner won't make me enjoy the vast majority of what I do in a day any more than I do now. My 3 sub-goals/steps to get me there: 1. Read and put into practice 2 books on meditation and mindfulness (one for each 3 weeks). On weekends, review notes from previous study and spend time thinking about how the ideas compare with each other. 2. Make an action plan for transitioning from teaching to photography that includes weekly, achievable tasks to accomplish it 3. Discuss and set firm boundaries with the whole department to determine what is and isn't my role/responsibility for next term. STICK TO THOSE BOUNDARIES (and get them in writing) AND "LET THINGS GO" Life Quest: Pay off the small debts that I have to people like my mom and CITI. Totally doable if I'm not stupid. Okay, I'm gonna be bad and sneak this in here. I'm not even sorry. (Wow, that sounds dirty.) Fitness Quest: Get down to under 130 pounds and drop 4% body fat I've got a couple of guidelines for diet and exercise, but I don't want to push my luck and get blocked from this challenge for over-stepping my boundaries. Tracking Results: 1. Starting measurements and photo will come in a couple of days when I've finished an overseas flight I have tomorrow. 2. I have a list of debts in priority of when to repay them. 3. Lift and a printed calendar that I can X off or check off days on will help me see how I'm doing on daily/weekly tasks like whether I've read my books, done my studying, or worked on photography. Where I'm Stuck: I don't know how to "track" whether I'm making progress on the habits of mind I want to develop, things like calmness, patience, general pleasantness, mindfulness, etc. What is the starting measurement for stuff like that? Count how many times I get frustrated or complain in a day? Rank my day from 1-10 on a general "enjoyability" scale? ANY IDEAS???

Last month I turned 30. I was not looking forward to it; I thought it meant that I was running out of time to do everything I wanted to and that it was the start of a massive countdown to when I was going to have to have kids (or not) and blah blah blah. I think I set up a self-fulfilling prophecy there with those negative expectations, even though I had a plan for all the great things I was going to to do and awesome new habits I would start and all of that. Well, I didn't have a real tracking/accountability system aside from the blog I started, which I haven't even been brave enough to share with my friends and family. So, super useful. Also, I got hit with all sorts of surprise obstacles: An old injury came back with a vengeanceWork got really difficult and really stressful with plenty of overtimeI wasn't paid on time and had to get by on a few dollars a day for a couple of weeks (welcome to Kazakhstan)I found out my on and off ex started dating someone (just a month before I was supposed to go see him in America)I had to move to a new apartment because mine had so many problems (landlords in Kstan are pretty useless)So basically lots of great excuses for all those great plans to go right out the window. Three weeks later I don't think I've made any solid progress at all on any of my goals. I guess now that my new apartment and job are a bit more settled, I've accepted the situation with my ex, and I've been paid, I can hit the reset button. So after one last cheat day yesterday where I put all of my last negative feelings into that red wine and dark chocolate, I'm ready to start over today. I don't know if anyone reads other people's logs here, but if you do and want to send an encouraging comment that would be amazing. I'd love to meet someone who needs an accountability partner or just wants to swap messages from time to time. I seem to be the only Rebel in Kazakhstan. If you have any interest in reading about how I'm coping with turning 30 (I REALLY DON'T WANT TO BE 30, but I'm working on it), living/working in Kazakhstan, or other very random things here's my blog: http://30isthenewwhatever.wordpress.com (Hasn't been updated this week--oops) Okay, here we go.

Just wanted to introduce myself real quick! I'm Tess411, I'm 18 years old and my goal is to learn basic weight-lifting techniques and keep track of what I can lift! When I first began to work out I was incredibly focused on cardio, but I realize now that I have basically no strength. I would say my superpower right now is endurance- I ran my first 5k a couple months ago and I love it. To sum it up, I'm an elf that wants to be a Ranger (So far. It seemed to be the one I resonated with most.) MAIN GOAL Complete P90xMISSIONS Play kickball and soccer in my sorority's leagueDo 10 pull-upsTouch my toes (My flexibility is pathetic, haha!)LIFE QUEST Find a new job related to my major (Nursing)No fast food!I really can't wait to get more active on this site and hear about everyone else's goals! Don't be a stranger now! :] If you have any suggestions, please don't be afraid to share, because I'm about as new to weight-lifting as you can get!

Hey there everybody! Sorry if you've been seeing my posts all over the place today, but I'm trying to get involved with the community, cause you're all awesome! Here's my epic quest, that will span many years!! The Quest: Join a special operations unit in the militaryServe 4 years in the American militaryGet a full back and/or chest tattooBecome an official member of the American militaryObtain the mythical item called "Girlfriend"Travel to a different countryPet a penguinDo 100 Push Ups in 2:00 on an official PT testDo 100 Sit Ups in 2:00 on an official PT testRun 2 miles in 12:00 or less on an official PT testGo to military Basic TrainingGo into combatSome might think that last one isn't really a good goal, but oh well! These obviously aren't in order, but I'll be adding more to it as I accomplish these goals! Hope everyone had a happy new year!

It turns out I'm quite awful at keeping up with forums consistently. But I'm back until further notice, with a mission and a vengeance. EDIT 1/5/2014: Still bad at keeping up with forums. But, I'm back again. Original early 2013 post in the spoiler, but for current 2014 nonsense, start here.

I am going to check in here for the next week and a half. Goal is to get to the gym five times between now and Jan 3rd. Gotta start building up the habit again before the next challenge! Let's do this, mini challenge! ALLONS-Y!

In the words of Obama, I want change. All my life I've been waaaaayy overweight, but now it's time to take a stand. I'm tired of feeling clumsy because of my bodyweight (im 15 and 20kgs over) and I'm tired of finding myself regretting eating a bag of crisps. So, after finding nerd fitness, I've decide that 2014 will be the year that I achieve my (hopefully easy to achieve) goals. But as I've found from numerous amount of times in the past, I can't do this alone, and i am weak in the face of cake and pizza. So I've joined the forums for help and support from local rebels. 2014 should be a good one. (I'm Jay by the way)