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Hey all! I'm looking for one or more workout buddies in the Portland, OR area. I am terrible at staying motivated by myself, but having someone to keep me accountable helps tremendously. Currently I have a gym membership at Crunch Division, and I'm frequently at PCC Cascade. I can meet at the gym or at a park or something in those areas. My fitness level is beginner. I like weightlifting, and don't like but need to work on jogging. I'd really like to train for a 5k or fun run or something. I also have a bike and enjoy hiking and kayaking.

Hey! I saw another thread for the area, but it's a little old and moved to Facebook. I don't really use Facebook, so I thought it might be good to set a new one! This is for anybody who lives in, will be living in, or who may happen to pass through the Vancouver,WA/Portland,OR area, for events or for general hangouts. If you've got an interest and no one to share it with, something you've always wanted to do but are too scared to do alone, new in the area and looking for recommendations, want someone to run with, or whatever, I can almost guarantee that I or another Rebel nearby will be happy to go with! After all, it is dangerous to go alone. My name is Jay and I live by Vancouver Mall. I moved here after being kicked out of my lifelong home in Olympia, and a dear online friend of mine took me in. Looking into a bus pass soon, but otherwise I can still make trips out to Portland according to my roommates' availability. If you live nearby, I can be most often found at the mall, the Barnes & Noble, or the Minit Mart shaking down the coffee machine, heheh. Always ready to make a new friend!

Introduction: Hi! I am Tina and I just found NF. I am really excited to do this first 6 week challenge and hope to share some great support here! I am married, a mom to an active 11 year old and we live in Oregon USA. I really enjoy walks, biking, hiking, and camping but these are very hard for me because I am overweight and out of shape. I also have high blood pressure that I would like to lower and be off medication. I was recently laid off from a job I had for many years (software company) so this has been an interesting life change. I lost some initial weight because I was not sitting at a desk all day. And I have had the chance to enjoy a wonderful summer with my kid and lot's of outdoor time. But it's time to look for work now and see what new adventures come my way. Main Quest: Lose 50 pounds of fat, gain strength and endurance ( I don't have a time goal for this) Quest 1: Workouts: Walk 20 minutes 5 days a week. Strength workout 2 days a week. Quest 2: Diet: Log food at MyFitnessPal and stay under my calorie limit 5 days a week. Quest 3: Mind/Body connection: Explore meditation, yoga, tai chi or qigong 2 times a week. Life Quest: Get a great new job! Motivation: To be more active with my kid! To enjoy outdoor activities like long hikes and family bicycle rides. To be healthy for a trip to Scotland in 3 years. To enjoy more clothing choices in regular sizes not plus size.

Hello Nerd Fitness Community! I am a long time follower, but this will be my first post. You are all splendid folks! I will be posting practically the same post under Meet-Ups. I couldn't decide the best fit. My name is Kathleen, and I am currently based out of Detroit. I grew up here, moved away for college, and accepted a job back in the area. Detroit's really got a bad reputation, it's not that bad, honestly, it is mainly the feeling of "been there, done that". I am looking for a new adventure and a new home. I am currently looking (semi-casually) in Tennessee, Chattanooga or Nashville, and the pacific Northwest, Seattle or Portland areas. This is a big leap for me, so I don't plan on this happening overnight, but I am pretty serious and need to start somewhere! Anywhoo, although I pride myself in my fierce independence, it would be really nice to find someone in the same boat. I have very little family that is very spread out, and most friends that have moved away or are still in Detroit and have reasons that keep them here. 1. Is anyone else in Detroit looking for a new adventure elsewhere, too? 2. Anyone else maybe not in Detroit, but looking at any of those areas? 3. How 'bout anyone in those areas or that experienced a similar situation and have some pointers?! Of course, fitness is in there. I am looking at these areas for mountains, outdoors and places to explore (and less snow is very motivating--not a fan). I also have my first powerlifting meet at the end of October. I love all things fitness! We can keep each other motivated during the transition! I have a hunch I'll get a positive response from you lovely people. Happy Exploring! Kathleen

I've returned from the wilderness and am back in society!! If you saw my earlier challenges, you might remember that I quit my desk job in Wisconsin in January and lived in a tent in the desert working for the Arizona Renaissance Festival during February & March. My time as a tent-dwelling nomad has come to an end, and I'm now getting settled in my new home: Portland, Oregon! How overwhelming is all of this? Hella. I'm tired of feeling like I'm "okay" in several areas -- I'm pretty fit, I eat mostly decent, I know a few things... granted, I have high standards and lofty goals, but I really want to narrow in on one thing for this challenge: consistency. My life has gone through some major changes in the past year, and they've been great, but I like having somewhat of a routine, and now that I'm starting a fresh chapter in my life, I'd like to develop some strong habits and routines right out of the gate. (All in my effort to be like the Lara Croft of the 2014 Tomb Raider reboot game, of course.) So: Goal priority #1: Track my food intake in My Fitness Pal for the entire six weeks. I've known for years that I don't eat enough or balance things properly. I'm a healthy weight and ideally would like to increase it by gaining some more muscle and losing some excess body fat. I'd like to get a better picture of the balance of fuel that best allows me to perform, feel, and look better. Ideally this goal will also result in me better balancing my food intake, but for at least the first three weeks I just want to track everything. I'll re-evaluate later on whether I want this goal to specifically include hitting certain macros, or if just tracking & trying is enough for this round. Either way, it'll be on my radar. After I successfully record my food intake, this will result in +2 CON, +1 STA, +1 WIS, and +1 CHA (because I'll hopefully be looking better after over a month of conscientious food choices!). Secondary goal: Consistent movement; also a struggle for me as I've changed schedules, gyms, and routines so often in the past year. I have a 4-pronged approach as I settle into my new life here: I'd like to go to crossfit 2x a week, lift on my own 2x a week, go to krav maga 1x a week, and include a daily practice of a skill I'm trying to work on (strict push ups, handstand, falls, crow pose, etc). It's going to be awhile before I find the right crossfit gym for me (there are 14 local to my area, and my boyfriend and I might be moving soon), so I'll add that in as I can but get the others going ASAP. For creating consistent workout practices, I will assign +2 to STR, +2 to STA, and +1 to DEX. Third goal: Finances have been a focus of my past few challenges as well, and this one will be no different. Moving across the country is ridiculously expensive, so this time around I'd like to finish paying off one of my credit cards (I paid it off with my tax return, but had to charge a few moving expenses) and re-establish regular savings deposits by the end of the 6 months. +2 to WIS. I don't have a fourth goal this time around; the above will be quite enough to keep me busy and honestly I'm really overwhelmed at the moment: new city and the headaches of moving (how to get the rest of my stuff here from Wisconsin; the $300 I have to drop at the DMV for a new license, plates, and emissions test; a new bank account since my old one is only in the Midwest; changing my mailing address; etc....), new job (exciting announcement incoming, I hope - I verbally accepted an offer but am awaiting written confirmation!), newly cohabitating with an awesome nerdy boyfriend who is playing Torchlight II while I type this, the stress of not knowing anyone else yet... So, yeah. Anxiety is rearing its head going hey girl what is UP? Didja miss me? I'm here! Let's wallow! The remaining 3 points will go to WIS, CHA, and CON for remembering to breathe, enjoy the process, and stay calm during a turbulent transition, provided I feel like I did my best with that at the end of the challenge. It's all really exciting, though. Just a LOT on my plate at the moment. And not enough protein. Let's do this!

Any NF Rebels out there from Central Oregon? I've only got three on count so far and would love to find more of you! Mozy on over to our Facebook page if you're interested in meeting up and keeping in touch! https://www.facebook.com/groups/CONFRebels/ And/or, of course, take a moment to hello below. I can't wait to hear from you!

... and small trees. Sometimes she wins (I'll let you decide who won here). (WARNING: If too much text drives you crazy, this is not the battle log you are looking for.) Okay, battle log. First off, no way this is gonna be daily. Let's be real. Secondly, I'm doing this because I feel like it would be nice to have a place to track things and actually participate more in the forums and community, but have kind of decided that challenges aren't for me. I'll probably still do a challenge now and then, but mostly I kind of like doing my own thing and being accountable to very few people (chiefly, myself). Third, I'm pretty jealous that everyone else gets loads of funny memes and gifs in their challenges and would like a few of those for myself. I'm sure I've got lots to catch up on, but first a short intro for those of you who don't already know me (or don't know enough about me). My name's Laurinda, but mostly I go by Lulu around these parts (people might look at you funny if you call me Laurinda). I grew up in Southwest Alaska (commercial fishing with my huge family) and moved to Portland, Oregon in September 2010 without a job, but with a great roomie (I'd only met her twice before we drove down) who helped me through until I found one. I'm still at the same job now, working for a tribal organization studying chinook salmon spawning and rearing habitat all summer and doing office stuff (and taking vacations with all my comp time) in the winter. I just got done with our 4-month field season where we drive 4.5 hours out to Eastern Oregon for our studies on Monday and back on Friday. It makes for a long summer, so I get really inactive around here and become pretty relaxed with any sort of exercise schedule, though I was trying to keep about 95% grain-free this summer and that actually went pretty well. Where I'm at now (edit - I guess I'm going with the four pillars approach here): Exercise - I'm working on getting back into a good schedule with CrossFit (the goal is at least three times a week right now). I love that stuff. It kicks my butt and makes me feel strong at the same time. I love the community aspect and not having to come up with my own routine. I'm horrible both at working out alone and programming. I went on Monday and we did a workout called "Death by Thrusters." That's a real peach there. I'm looking forward to getting back some of my strength now though and most especially looking forward to getting my deadlift back up to where it used to be (I think my old 1 RM was 235 lbs... and that wasn't me really even working at it hard). I'm also going to be using this to help train for a meet-up in January. Yay, lifting! I'd also like to work on running a little, but it's not a huge goal and as the rains close in on Portland this winter, it may become even less of a priority. Diet - As I said, I was mostly grain-free for the summer (awesome) and my figure is telling me that, combined with field-season activities, was really working for me. I've dabbled in Paleo on and off since I became a part of the community about a year and a half ago (has it only been that long?). Now that I'm back from the field, I'll probably try to tighten up on that a little and get rid of a lot of the non-healthy oils and sweeteners especially. I'm also trying to cut back on the alcohol. I love me a nightly glass or three of wine (or beer), but I've been feeling like it's getting a little out of hand. Coming into this week I had decided that I would be trying out no alcohol during the work week, but can treat myself with it on the weekends (no binge drinking, just a glass or two). This does not include kombucha (it's good for me). Sleep - I've been having a little trouble with that recently, but have been taking steps to make it better. I've been going through this really-tired-but-can't-sleep-well stage the last couple of weeks/weekends, but the last two nights have been better. I'm 1) working out again, 2) not drinking caffeine after lunch, 3) using my awesome Sleep Cycle app to wake me up at better times. Next I think I need to make sure I eat dinner earlier in the evening. I feel like being full when I go to bed has been screwing with me a little. Mentally - Generally I'm pretty good. I have my little ups and downs, but most people do (I like to blame hormones). Sometimes my giggles turn into maniacal laughter - normal, right? I've got some issues come up like having to find a new roomie/ move and looking for a new job (by choice), but I'm not worrying about them too much. I'm just happy to be done with the chaos and stress of field season and be settling back into my "real" life. My dog is glad to have me home, I'm excited to get back into CrossFit and meet some nerds this winter, and I'm sure my vacation to Hawaii (with my best cousin) for the last two weeks of October will do wonders for my state of mind. That's all for now! I'll try to refrain from flooding your eyeballs with more text

Hello everyone! This is my third challenge. My first challenge…I can’t remember what happened but I didn’t complete it. My second challenge started shortly before I found out I was pregnant and while I tried to meet my goals I just couldn’t do it. So, here I am. Third time’s the charm right? A little about me: I am a stay-at-home-mom (SAHM) of Munchkin (3 years old) and Tadpole (1 month). I discovered the Paleo/primal lifestyle not long after Munchkin’s birth and have been working to lose weight and gain strength ever since. I have problems staying consistent though, which is why it’s been 3 years and I still haven’t met my long-term weight/strength goals. It’s the journey, not the destination right? I love to garden, hunt, fish, SCUBA dive, and ride horses (though sadly I’m horse-less at the moment). I have a 5 month old German Shepherd pup who you’ll (hopefully) be seeing a lot of during this challenge. Now that you have some background on to the fun stuff! The Main Quest Lose 15 pounds and/or lose 12 inches (overall) off my frame. Goal 1 Eat my version of perfect Paleo/primal 5 days a week, preferably 7 but I’ll give myself some leeway what with lack of sleep and all that other newborn stuff. (My version includes full-fat dairy and occasionally rice.) Goal 2 Lift weights for 30 minutes, 3 times a week and complete the 30 Day Plank Challenge. (Trying to figure out a good way to track this online so I can watch my strength grow (hopefully) and prove I did it. Ideas?) Goal 3 Walk or bike 6 miles a week. Munchkin’s preschool is (according to Google) 1.4 miles away from home. She goes twice a week. In the interest of saving gas, exercising the pup, and getting in some cardio I will walk or bike to pick her up. Bonus points if I drop her off as well. Pics will be posted (either facebook or here) for every walk/ride. Life Quest Internet silence, 3 days a week. This will be hard; the internet is my main form of communication with other adults. But, that’s the problem-I need to develop real life friendships. I also need to be more efficient online. I go to look up one thing, then take a side trip to visit Facebook or check my mail and suddenly an hour has gone by and I still haven’t finished the one thing I got online for. Motivation I’ve been out of shape for about 10 years. At least, that’s when my size started getting in the way of what I enjoyed doing. I tried different diets, exercise programs; joined gyms, ect. I would do great for a month or so and then fall off the wagon, regain the weight and become lazy, then restart or get on a new program and…wash, rinse, repeat. Now I have two kids. I need to keep up with them, but more, I need to feel comfortable in my own skin. I’m naturally an introverted hermit but, as Munchkin becomes older, I find I have to go out in public *gasp* and be around people *ew!*. School functions, field trips, ect-I need to not dread and hate these things, especially when Munchkin loves them. I don’t want her to hate being in public as much as I do. My hope is that being more comfortable with my body will make being out in public less horrible. Plus, have you ever been around a 3 year old? I can barely keep up. And now there are TWO of them! By the time Tadpole is walking I need to be ready. I will be using my Facebook page to post pics (proof!) since I have often have problems uploading stuff here. If you’d like to follow along the address is: https://www.facebook.com/ThePrimalGardener (I will still try and post pics here as well.) What I’d Like From You My largest hurdle is staying consistent. I am hoping that joining this challenge and posting will make me accountable and stay on track. Or near the tracks. Within view of the tracks? Heck, at this point I need all the support I can get! So, help me stay on course! Let me know how I can help you-lets conquer these goals!

It always hard for me to write these introductions. I feel lie I'm either blowing my own horn or making excuses but hey, nothing ventured nothing gained. Right? Background I will be signing up for Medicare in a couple of months so I'll let you figure out my age. My advanced age brings with it the limitation that any form of high impact exercise is out of the question. Between mild arthritis in one knee and an ankle that sounds like rocks in a cement mixer high impact exercise is in the past for me. That said I am an active fitbit user. I actively compete with three to five other fitbit users to see who walks the most. Currently I am walking about 12,000 steps a day, that's five to six miles, and rowing thirty minutes three times a week. This may slow down a bit as we head into winter as it can be rather sloppy in western Oregon during the winter but I plan on maintaining at least 10k steps on average. All this activity is a rather recent change in my lifestyle. For most of my working life I've had sedentary desk jobs. That combined with my motto of "Too Much Good Food, Too Little Time" has lead my to weighing more than I should and having mild high blood pressure. My love of food has always been my Achilles heel. You can't outrun your fork especially when you don't run. Food: I love to cook and eat. Fortunately, with age has come a little wisdom. While I have always eaten a healthy diet compared to most of my peers, heavy on vegetables, more chicken than beef, I've never paid much attention to portion size and that added weight every year. Currently I am about 60 pounds overweight and lack the endurance to enjoy hiking and bike riding, two activities that gave me much enjoyment in my younger years. Goals: I have a whole list of things that I am going to be changing over the next year. Having recently retired I have made the decision that my new job is to change my lifestyle from unhealthy to healthy. So here are my health & wellness goals for the next year. 1) Lose 60 pounds. 2) Become a weekday vegetarian. 3) Crush my daughter in a bike ride, summer 2014. (Sorry if that sounds harsh but she's thirty and in good physical shape so I think she can probably handle me beating her in a bike ride.) 4) Hike Dog Mountain during the spring wild flower season. Dog Mountain has always eluded me and its about time I conquered it. Long term goal: Walk The Way, not for any religious reason but just for the experience. Well that's about it. If you live in the Beaverton, OR area and want to get together to compare goals and discuss failures and successes I'd be happy to meet you for coffee or a walk at one of TVPR nature parks. Just get in touch with me here on the NF discussion board. Good luck on you goals and may your successes be many. gary