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Salutations my fellow travelers, I have found myself finally joining the NF community after years of wandering through my quest log distracted from the main quest. I've known of Nerd Fitness since 2012 when I thought the idea of forging fitness and gaming together and so I stumbled across Steve's site, Nerd Fitness. Overwhelmed by the chaos of life during that time my side questing began and today I approach the gates shouting, I'm ready! I didn't realize it at the time but the years ahead of me would prove to be my most challenging story line to date. Having worked tiresome jobs for disgruntled employers and having met other wonderful travelers, I struggled with the purpose of life. "This can't be what life is meant to be?", "My life isn't going to be lived within the walls of others adventures". And so my entire world fumbled from day to day attempting to sort out my purpose, my position in life, and who I am meant to serve. One thing was always certain, I was and will never live my life by the limited beliefs of others. With such a profound thought poking a prodding at my brain, I realized a few things over these past number of years, 1) my life isn't meant to be spent working for others being supressed and unable to unleash my full potential, 2) since graduating college (having attended four separate times) I do not place my trust in the educational system, rather in myself to forge academics and passion together. These revelations took many moons to realize, as obvious as they may be to others. Some parts of a quest are already in possession of some, where others need to grind out a little time to accumulate these items. One thing that was always consistent however was the gym. In fact I had intended to compete in a men's physique show in 2014, but the beginning of my educational journey began and so my time reduced drastically. Working out and nutrition remained consistent for a while heading into school, but quickly I found myself overwhelmed and worn out. By the end of my first semester I had almost quit the gym entirely and my nutrition was limited to a couple meals a day and garbage food as fuel. I work at a supplement store so my knowledge surrounding supplements in abouve average and as such I was able to manipulate supplements to help keep parts of my physique... for a time. This was just the beginning, a new year imminent to bestow it's will and lessons upon me. Had I remained a Monk and kept up with my meditation and nightly routines I may have better dealt with the coming months. Fourteen days following my 25th birthday I got news that my Mom wasn't doing well and that I had better go visit her. ADDITIONAL QUEST LOG DETAILS: My Mom was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) when I was five years old and during my entire life her MS progressed until 2009 when she had to be placed into a nursing home for proper care. March 7th, 2015 I visited my Mom for the last time. I stood there in denial telling myself today wasn't the day, it couldn't be. It crushed me to think my mom, the one who introduced me to stories, fantasy, imagination, creativity, life, was sipping at air. My entire life I had watched her work on a fantasy story, which had my Dad picking up books from the library every night for research purposes. She wrote pages of notes, but a day came where her quest line got harder, and her hands lost all feeling and movement. Her story, her writings locked away in a drawer. But she knew the power of perseverance and though she now had to be fed her meals, her story was not yet done being developed. She took to recording her story ideas on cassette tapes - and so she recorded. But, as time went on her mind slipped and her story remained locked away in her mind where she would reference her characters until she could no longer talk. This progression of her story is apart of my story and part of my driving force to have the focus I currently posses. A few months after she passed away I developed an athletic apparel company that focuses on empowering the wearer and those around. I have since added the development of a Podcast which I am titling The Legacy Leaders Podcast, which focuses on interviewing individuals travelling through their life and questioning what their legacy is, how and what they do to define their existence. The motto I developed was to empower your purpose and define your legacy. It became very clear to me after the passing of my Mom that time, right now, this moment we call the present, is but a fleeting moment in the grand scope of earths lifespan. With these limited moments what do we do to live a life worth having lived? What are we doing today to leave behind a legacy that stretches the span of time, whether it be globally or within your family? What empowers your to wake up every morning to hustle, to take on each day as the magic of the unknown reveals itself each passing moment? Nerf Fitness to me has always been the idea of combining the greatest parts of my life, stories, narrative, gaming lore, fitness, inspiration, empowerment, and purpose to my everyday! Thanks to Steve continuing his journey and recently publishing his book, the beauty of a random rare drop occurred in my life. As I browsed Chapters (one of my favourite stores) I walked past a shelf that was vibrant in colour, and my attention was drawn. There it was, a light beamed on this book Level Up Your Life, and so I picked up my loot, ran over to the nearest tavern to begin reading the lore of Steve Kamb and discover the hidden secrets and community that exists as we know, The Rebellion. I believe that when I first came across Nerd Fitness I wasn't leveled up enough to join the community, or wield it's magnificence. But now, I have grinded enough side quests to appreciate and join The Rebellion and provide my most authentic and passionate self to the many travellers found within. My name is Ben Smith, I hail from Ontario Canada and like all of you, I've wandered out far enough on my own to appreciate the importance of a community full of like-minded and passionate individuals. Continue providing the world with your most authentic and passionate self, we deserve to see what greatness exists within you and the legacy you lead. Thank you

Trying something new this challenge. As the intro song suggests, I've been having trouble seeing the forest through the trees lately, and it's time for me to refocus and remotivate myself - remind myself why I'm doing what I do and get back on track for my goals. Lately it's just been a struggle to care about some things. So this challenge we are going to kick the Caring back into gear and remind ourself what it is we do the things that we do for. Main Quest: Drop to 8% BF, 32" waist. This continues to be my overarching body goal. I'm getting pretty close, but this challenge I am adding an addition to it. I also adjusted the BF% goal from 6 to 8 percent... just because. The addition is - Squat 1.5x Bodyweight, Deadlift 2x bodyweight. OHP, Bench and Row 1x bodyweight. In order to hit this goal I am driving forward with several sub goals, which will be worked into this challenge. Steadily increase my Squat, Deadlift and Pull Ups in weight and number.Do Salmon Ladder Pull-Ups. Because... seriously.I also want to, eventually, get my mile-run speed down to 7 minutes solid. Two things to keep in mind as we go into this challenge: PAX East happens during the break after this challenge and the snow should be melting/warmer weather occurring. To this end I need to work more outdoor training in as the challenge progresses. Quest 1: Strength of the waterfall [sTR] Continue Stronglifts 5x5. I made some impressive progress last challenge, I need to keep it up. Possible 3/3 points each week. Starting lifts: Squat: 130 lbBench: 110 lbOHP: 90 lbRow: 110 lbDeadlift: 185 lb Lifting goals by end of Challenge: Squat: 215 lbBench: 150 lbOHP: 130 lbRow: 150 lbDeadlift: 265 lbQuest 2: Steady as the mountain, Flexible as the sapling [CON + DEX] Strength has to be build on a solid foundation, or there is no true power behind it. In order to develop my foundation, I need to focus on two things: Health and Mobility. This is a two-fold quest to focus on both my diet and my flexibility. This means maintaining my primal diet throughout the challenge (7/7 possible points each week), and performing 10 minutes of yoga each workout day (3/3 points per week). In addition, I also have to eat enough calories to continue building strength. Minimum of 1850 calories a day. Quest 3: Calm as the lake [WIS] Last challenge I focused on writing more often and meditating. I succeeded with writing but failed miserably with the meditation, so I'm simplifying this challenge and focusing solely on the meditation. Meditate twice a week, that's it. Side Quest: Visit and attend the Greater Boston Zen Center once a week - No points lost if I don't achieve this. +1 if I do for at least half the challenge (3 out of 6 weeks). Life Quest: Return to my roots [CHA] I've always been a musical person. I find a lot of my center in listening to and performing music. I've been neglecting songwriting for my band lately in favor of other things (one of them being fitness). I need to get back into. Plus my bandmates are giving my shit for not writing lyrics to a song that has been finished for 3 months now, haha. I need to finish two songs before the end of the challenge. Bonus: +1 point if I have them both finished by the end of week 3, another +1 if I write more than two by the end of the challenge. Bonus Quest: Defeat the demon [ALL] Participating in a dungeon-crawl style side quest with my accountabilibuddies, I will need to participate in each week's side-quest, and will award points based on those goals for this part of my own challenge. I will update this with a link when it becomes available. In addition to these quests that I will be undertaking over the next six weeks, I'm also going to revisit and present myself with a weekly goal at the start of each week. This will keep my focused and help me adjust my efforts for maximum benefit. Let the games begin.

Hello all of you beautiful people. Im Dylan, a 23 year old, 280lb, 5'9" machine... that needs a lot of work. I came here about a year ago and didnt make it far, but Im back. As you can probably tell from my name on here I am a Green Lantern fan(and zombie survivalist). Im here to get back my willpower and build myself up to be in heroic shape. I plan on starting with bodyweight exersises and getting into running(which im not a fan of at the moment because it makes me jiggle and hurts my man boobs). I would love the help of the great people on this site to help me stay motivated and inspired, because you are all a very inspiring bunch. It is time for me to stop making excuses and start making a difference in my life. I will live by the oath of my corps. Beware my power GREEN LANTERNS LIGHT!

When 2013 began my wife and I decided to take part in a 90 day “The Biggest Loserâ€-style weight loss challenge amongst our friends and family. She was doing great at first and was on the top of the leaderboard for the first month. Then she lost motivation. She had a bad week of eating and it completely derailed her and when she fell out of the top three it’s like she gave up altogether. My wife is naturally pessimistic, which is in stark contrast to my generally positive attitude. When it came time to take our measurements at the beginning of March, she said that she doesn’t want to take her measurements and that I upset her by bringing it up (even though it’s something we had done at the beginning of January and February). She didn’t want to take the measurements because she had fallen off the wagon and was sure she didn’t lose any weight or drop any number of inches. She’s also disgusted with the way her stomach looks after having two kids within 13 months of each other between 2011 and 2012, both via c-section. She’s convinced that she’s doomed to be overweight (she actually calls herself obese, but I disagree with her self-assessment) and I find it very difficult to motivate her because she counters my attempts at motivating her by saying I’m ACTUALLY insinuating something else that makes her feel worse. For instance, I said to her that if her and I get active and healthy then it will set a good example for our kids as they grow up. She countered that with, “That means you think I’m a bad mother.†After assuring her that was not the case, she asked me for some other words of motivation that wouldn’t make her feel bad and we just went back and forth with me trying to give her some positive motivation and her countering it with what she says I “really†meant. For as long as we’ve been together I have been trying to tell her that I don’t speak in subtext and that what I say is what I TRULY mean, but she thinks what she’s going to think. I finally got one that she liked, (Workout because it’s fun!) but it wasn’t enough to get her motivated and she finally just gave up on relying on me to motivate her and half-hearted a work out. Finally, I think that seeing my continuing success and how my body is changing for the better is making her feel bad about giving up and in some roundabout way has sapped her of any motivation. Has anyone had experiences like this with their own spouse? I’d like her to get back on the horse. I want her and I to get more fit and more comfortable with our bodies TOGETHER. But given how she has reacted to my attempts at motivation I have no idea how to even broach the subject without making her feel like I’m calling her a big, fat, fatty (which is what she would think I mean when in fact I said nothing of the sort). Any suggestions would be appreciated.

I was that nerdy kid in high school that stayed 110lbs for no reason, regardless of how much he ate. And apparently thought his teenage metabolism would follow him wherever he went. Three years later, I've gained 60 lbs and am looking pretty worse for wear. I stumbled upon nerd fitness a week ago, grokked paleo, and something inside me snapped. What am I doing? Am I okay with how I look and feel right now? 24 hours later I had thrown out my pantry and picked up the staples for a paleo diet. I'm a computer programmer for a large company who sits around all day, and am too broke supporting myself to get a xfit subscription. Being a naturally solitary person, I've been collecting home gym ideas -- PVC dip rigs, parallettes, and am in the process of buying a weight set (in the meantime I use the "robber bar" for my apartment for overhead squats). Onto accountability... I've been logging most everything I do on http://www.fitocracy.com/profile/Dwaylu3/?feed . You'll see it's very recently I went from the mentality of "If I do enough pushups and situps..." to "I need to get my ass in shape." Goals: Stop looking like a stereotype of a computer programmer Drop at least 20 lbs in 6 months Get into a routine and mindset of a healthy person -- No more all night gaming sessions fueled by Monster and Doritos.