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Into Day 2 of Leaving the Shire! I stumbled across "Level Up Your Life" after hearing about Nerd Fitness in "Atomic Habits" and love the idea of gamifying the process of personal improvement and turning life into an adventure. More importantly, for me anyway, is I love the idea of having a community. I'm a fantasy and science fiction author, finally braving the world by putting my own name on my works, and making sweeping personal changes in my life. I accidentally (yeah, that's a long story) started the Keto diet AND intermittent fasting a few months ago, dropped a staggering amount of weight, and have been throwing myself into exercise and personal improvement since. This includes my writing! More on that later. Maybe. But my biggest problem? Writing is an isolating calling. Most of my social interaction comes from my part time day job, which doesn't really count as socializing. Frankly, days I come home from it I'm exhausted. Supposedly we're a composite of the 5 people we spend the most time with...I don't actually HAVE five people. I've taken off on this adventure, found this group along the way, and have no real plans for landing. I don't think I even have a landing gear, so really, here goes nothing. I'm horribly introverted. I live most of my life in my own head. Feel free to visit sometime, it's pretty awesome! I love people, I don't always understand them, and they definitely exhaust me. That said, I want people in my life. Specifically, the kind of awesome, adventurous, downright nerdy individuals who make up this community. I'm looking forward to getting to know everyone, finding people I can perhaps meet up with in person, and have some adventures with! Any advice anyone can offer me as a new player to this game, especially about setting goals and leveling up with the character sheet, would be greatly appreciated.

I'll be honest here... I've been apart of the academy for quite some time now.. and with this honesty.. I really haven't been doing much. I've been trying to eat better, and now I have decided to get my attempt at home workouts. Gotta start small I guess. I just re-came across the 20 minute hotel workout that I tried Level 1 in my apartment, part of me is aching a little bit, and the other part of me is glad I went through it. Now I know that rest days are important, what do I do on my rest day? and how can I mix the 20-minute hotel workout with the Level 1 body workouts? I think I can do all or most of those, just don't have a raised enough sturdy enough surface for incline pushups.. Also for the Farmer's walk if you only do one arm at a time, would I have to double the time to walk around? 30s with 1 arm, switch and 30s with the other? I've seen progress of others, and that's great, seeing that makes me want to get work done so I can make some progress. Thanks for any advice.

Let's try this again. I guess two years ago when I wrote my first introduction I wasn't ready to commit. After losing some weight through a very physical job, I'm feeling better and more confident in myself and getting fit again. Here's my back story that hasn't changed since I typed it 2 years ago, well a few minor details but hey.... Now some background info.....I'm no stranger to fitness. In high school I was on the swim team (I was a sprinter, freestyle and butterfly) kept me in great shape. After highschool I joined the United States Marine Corps where I spent the next 6 years, running, rolling, hanging, and in general doing Marine things, I was probably at the peak of my fitness at that time in my life. I was able to do 20 dead hang pull ups, 100 crunches in 2 minutes, and had a 19 minute 3 mile run time. Well I guess the years of doing that took it's toll on my knees, I developed arthritis in my left knee at a young age (25) my surgeon (former Phoenix Cardinals team surgeon) very strongly urged me to no longer run, an activity I used to love. After that surgery I started putting on more weight, I had a sedentry job and not being able to run really took it's toll on me mentally and physically. So in around 2008 I decided to take my life back, I came across a book that I owned and actually used sucessfully to lose weight ( back in 2000 when I got out of the USMC), Body for Life by Bill Phillips. Over the next few years I participated in a group online and did back to back BFL challenges, after losing probably 30 or more pounds I started slacking off and trying different lifting programs like Chris Waterbury's Summer Program, I started putting on some mass and went from about 180ish to 190ish but with visible muscle mass added. Now somewhere in there I somehow hurt my lower back.......this was a game killer....I've never expereinced so much pain in my life. I found out that I have severly herniated discs, L4,L5,S1.......I've been told the surgery is 50/50 on pain relief and that my best bet is to lose weight. I have been dealing with this for about 3 years now, I just found out about 6 months ago that I have really bad venous reflux (vericose veins) in my legs with my right leg being the worst of the two. Needless to say I now have to wear the super cool medical style compression stockings, or have surgery, which even after I would have to wear the compression stockings. With these health problems I'm limited in what exercises I can do, which is part of the reason I'm here. I need some accountability and some advice, because I am going to give 110% of my dedication to losing weight. I absolutely need to start losing weight, it's impacting my life in more ways than one. I have six kids, I can't do squat with them, because I'm either in pain or too tired because I'm in pain....make sense? I don't feel like I'm guiding my kids into healthy decisions because I don't eat the best and I don't exercise. Right now I'm the heaviest I've ever been in my life at 235 lbs, I carry it around my middle like a tractor tire. My goals for right now are to change my eating habbits to become more Paleo like (sorry gotta have my coffee and kombucha). I already drink a ton of water, at least 96 oz daily, if not more. And just be more active, I am going to start doing the body weight exercises I saw in an article here, I'm pretty sure I can do most of them. I want to start walking with my wife, but I don't know how far I can go without my legs killing me. So that's another goal to get out and walk with my wife. **Sorry for the run-ons and wierdness, I was just trying to get the bulk of it down.**

Hey I am 28 weight 11 stone 11 pound and I have a fitness test for university on the 23rd of June. In the fitness test I have to be able to lift and hold two 16 kg weights for one minute. Lift 10 kg and while walking up a set speeding up for 2 minutes then do 2 cycles of cpr.then lift 16 kg weights and do the step for another 2 minutes. I have two weights at home to add up to 20 kg. I can't afford to join the gym. Can anybody help me with a plan to reach my goal ? Thanks Jay

Hello all who read this, I'm really excited to be able to meet all of you. Every now and then I have delved into the resources of Nerd Fitness and found inspiration in the dense content on self-development and strengthening. I want to be a rebel too. When it comes to training, my favorite exercises are pullups, push-ups, barbell lifts and bench presses. I like to run too, especially in large parks with hills. I am interested in the psychological effects of such activity. In my short life I've gone from the depths of crippling fear and anxiety to pure glory, and wavered in between. I expect to find many other journeymen in this community. I thought that there would be many among you who have dealt with what I am feeling today: a pervasive fatigue from over-training. I felt the need to break my diet regime today and eat fruits and dark chocolate because of how weak everything felt. Usually I would be intermittent fasting during the morning. Has this ever happened to anyone? Did you start to feel better within the day? Or did you keep pushing yourself to perform? How did you rationalize breaking diet/activity plans in order to rest and recover? It was my second day in a row training on a fast yesterday. I started to become sleepy at the gym after having done two sets of a sprint cycle, bench press, and deadlift circuit. I was very thirsty and hungry too. I've never felt like sleeping at the gym before, and I did feel exhausted, but I kept going and finished the set. After I got home and ate a carb-heavy meal (Sundays are pasta days) I felt my body and mind starting to shut down. It was only halfway through the day but I started to think of going to sleep. I tried to nap but my heart was racing too fast, so I sat on my chair in the dark. The rest of the day I did not do or move much. This morning I awoke after 8 hours of sleep but did not feel very rested. So today I broke my fast early and continued eating carbs willy-nilly. I obviously overtrained, and have to work on managing my energy/regime planning better. But I'd appreciate being able to hear any of your stories of having to recover from overtraining. It sort of bothered me to disrupt my regime today, but I expect to be back at 100% tomorrow. Does this sound unrealistic? Much thanks if you actually read through that.

Hi! I'm Nicolaj, kuno is my middle name. I live in Denmark (just north of Germany). I've recently turned 18 years old, and thus I have decided that my life I need to change. I have been working out all summer, but to no prevail. I still weigh exactly the same as I did when I started; 77,1 kg(~170 pounds), and with a bodyfat % of about 20% I'm not exactly satisfied with my body! I'm 174 cm tall(~5'8"). As I've not got a TON of spare time, I'm very intriuged by bodyweight exercises, and stuff that can be done at home. I've all ready decided that I want/need to start a paleo diet, but like with the workout, I'm kind of lost... I would really like if someone/anyone would help me out with the details. My goals This is gonna take time, sweat, and tears, but I would like am going to reach a bodyfat % of ~7%. I don't really care about having the largest muscles in the gym, but rather being very lean and have an awesome physique, which of course involves mucsles to some degree. Oh! And a bit about my interests! I love gaming, especially military simulators like Arma, but I also quite enjoy games like Dark Souls 2 and TESV: Skyrim. I've got about 90 games on steam, so I've played a little bit of every genre. Also I love wearing a pink tie. Greetings from Denmark

Wordbomb incoming, take cover! Hello, sort-of new guy here! As you might be able to tell by my profile stats, I'm not exactly the newest recruit here, but working from the basis that it's never too late to introduce yourself, here goes! I am a 19 year old (soon to be 20), perpetually skinny guy, who could, and perhaps still can, eat anything he wants, without gaining any weight (you know the type). I'm probably still the local gamba eating champion in some town in the Netherlands (can't remember if my parents made my quit when I reached the mid thirties of forties, but the desert was good as well, as was my sisters desert). Anyway, I stopped eating amounts like that almost a year ago, when I moved out of the parental home to study Medicine. This was a choice made based of two reasons. One, I am a student, I cannot afford to eat that much. Two, my Dad slipped on personal health when he moved out, and he still caries the results of that with him. I respect him for the work that he has been putting into losing that weight, but once you have it, it becomes harder and harder to lose it. I decided that the easiest way too lose that weight was too never have it, and here I am, trying my best to eat healthy, 4 days minimum of the week, and training, 5 days, roughly 4 to 5 hours in the week. I am still thinner than my Dad ever was, so I must be on the right track there. (I am not underweight, though it does cut closely). But my Dads genes have had an odd effect, in combination with other genes, from my Mom. I don't have a lot of body-fat, but I do have a genetic predisposition to having a beer belly, so the fat that I do have is on the lower belly, but no matter, it could be worse. As for eating, I follow a semi-paleo diet. When I am at my home in Nijmegen, I cook for myself and usually eat about 80% paleo, by which I mean paleo supplemented by brown rice or whole grain pasta when I am especially hungry in the evenings. The rest of the day is paleo, fruits and nuts. I like cooking, so it is unlikely that I will ever eat take-out food when given the chance, though I do have a back-up of 3 packs of ramen for when I really need it. During the weekend and on Friday, I eat at my parents home, with my family, and I don't want to push my eating habits on them. Seeing as rice and pasta are a main staple of our diet there, it kinda infringes on the paleo diet. But the food is still healthy and wholesome, despite its non-paleo aspect. My workouts consist of two parts, running on Tuesdays and Thursdays and body-weight on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. The weekend is for recuperation. The body-weight workout consists out of jump squats, pull-ups, push-ups (both regular and pylometric), calve raises and lunges. I aim at improving the pull-ups and regular push-ups with at least one rep per set, but I don't always reach that goal. For running I divided it in two parts. During one period I focus distance, usually in increments of 5 km. Right now I am working my way up to 10 km (now at 8,5 km). When I reach that mark, I start focusing on speed, completing that distance in a time and speed that has yet to be determined. On the matter of what Class and Race I am, I would have to say that I am an Elf, wanting to be a Ranger, leaning to the Scout side. I am also a bit interested in the Assassins and Monks. As for hobbies, this will come as a shocker, but I like to read (from Jim Butcher and Terry Pratchet to Robert Jordan and Iain M. Banks) and to game (from Assassins creed and Borderlands to Starcraft and Star Citizen, when it comes out). I have had a varied taste in music over the time, starting with Within Temptation, to the Red Hot Chilipepers, going to Drum & Bass and Dubstep, back to Within Temptation, which is now accompanied by Disturbed, Device, Alter Bridge, Evanescence, Halestorm, Nightwish, Linkin Park and Tenacious D. Also, some rap from Dan Bull and Beit Nun is in it. I also have a battle-log, which is linked in my signature. I also attempted to write a guide for making your own workout, also linked in my signature. If you have anything to add to it, don't hesitate to respond to it. Good luck, fellow Rebels, and may the Force be with you.

Hello. My name is Barney. I'm simple guy. I like a good row, and I love a good question. I've been fighting since I could throw a punch, never very good with systems unfortunately. I am currently working out 3-4 days out of the week just to stay in shape. Not sure where I'm going but the best place to look, I figure, is amongst interesting people, so I am here. I prefer straight forwardness, so I have left this as a draft of some things I wanted to share. P.S. The title is a Hemingway quote. V/r BLat

Hi there! I just wanted to say hi and to present myself. First of all, let me tell that I love the idea of nerds gathering together in order to get fitter. We, nerds, need to get convinced that to be fit and to be nerd are two complete compatible things. Congratulations to Steve for creating that wonderful idea! Secondly, let me introduce myself: I’m Spanish, but I live between Switzerland and Chicago because of my PhD (in HE physics, fyi). I’ve been overweight since I’m like 5yo. I become obese (i.e. BMI > 30) when I moved out from my parents when I was 21 and now I’m trying to be back in shape. It has been several months since I started to change my bad habits and I’ve lost around 15kg, starting at 112kg I’ve dropped to 97kg. I’m currently shotokan karate brown belt and I also started since like summer to lift weights which has allowed me to drop from 33.5%BF to 22.8%BF, that is using the us navy formula to calculate it but I’m planning soon to buy myself a caliper to measure skinfolds. (sorry I use metric system units, I’m from the good old Europe!) The problem? I’ve been a little bit stuck in my weight since November. I’ve been able to drop 1% of body fat since then, but I don’t think it’s enough considering the effort I’m putting. I tried at the beginning of the year to do a paleo-lowcarb diet (before it was just paleo-primal) and I haven’t drop any weight... I lost 1kg first, then I caught it back, even though I checked that I was in ketosis. Am I already too far of my weight setpoint or what? . If I reduce food intake I start suffering hunger and it’s not nice at all.. Well, the thing is that I’ve been looking at the webpage and the people here in the forum, and all of you look nice and encouraging, and I think this is what I actually need . Thanks!

I have always thought i've been overweight. In high school I was 5' 8" 185 I could run 4-6 miles and was a lineman on the football team. I had no real definable shape except in my legs but I still saw myself as heavy. Here comes college and WOW. Here come the lbs. Beer, Pizza, wings, more beer, more pizza, more crap food, I finally did get heavy. I'm coming to you know 5'10" 279 lbs. I'm still very stout and can move/pick up about anything that gets in my way (I just can't pack it very far) I have started eating Paleo and have been subscribed to reddit.com/r/paleo and Marks Daily Apple so i'm learning as much as I can and helping a friend of mine I started eating like this near/around the start of the challenge and have lost 7 lbs so far Goals: Weight/Fitness In 6 weeks I would like to lose at least 15lbs (+2 STA)(+3 CHA) In 6 weeks I would like to be able to run 1 mile steady (+2 DEX)(+2 STA) In 6 weeks I would like to be able to complete the beginner Bodyweight circuit 3 times as suggested in the Beginner Bodyweight Guideline (+4 STA) Personal Goal Spend 30 minutes a night reading non-fiction instead of video games/TV(+2 WIS) Current Stats Strength (STR) - +4Dexterity (DEX) - +1Stamina (STA) - +2Constitution (CON) - +3Wisdom (WIS) - +3Charisma (CHA) - +2 EDIT: Correctly allocate points for goals, make weight goals a bit more realistic