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Hey All, it's been a minute haha. In my time away, I really tried changing my mindset a bit. (Not being doom and gloom if I make a mistake or whatnot) I decided it was my phase 1, and just just trying to focus one getting a few habits set. I can spoiler what I was doing for phase 1 to say anyone reading haha The start of Phase 1 At some point early this year, my shoulder got messed up. Frozen shoulder is what they are calling it. I didn't have it checked until recently. I have some PT to do for it, and that is going to be part of my phase 2. Phase 1 has been rolling well enough, that it is time to add in some movement portions. Phase 2 goals #1 - Do PT every morning PT for my shoulder is 3 things at the moment. More to be added next visit in a couple of weeks I had been very bad about getting them done until more recently. I feel like I am doing well with it now, but want to make sure I get it in each morning. I find it is easier for me to get it done right after I wake up. Eventually I will get more movements. I eventually hope this also helps get me into doing body weight exercises and/or going to out apartment complex gym haha #2 - All the walking! I've really, really, really been thinking about running again. I don't quite feel like I am ready for c25k yet though. In the past, I have done it as this weight. I feel like I should get use to walking first, before I run. I've started up this last couple of weeks. At least getting in a walk every now and then. Wasn't super consistent. I want to be better at it. I have tested myself with a bit more walking to see what might be a comfortable distance/time. I play pokemon go while walking around. the 15 minute daily incense is a good minimum. I walked 2 miles today with just a couple of pauses, and my feet are a bit sore. I feel like 30 minutes wasn't bad. This first week, I want to focus on the 15 to 30 minute time frame. I have a route to follow in pokemon go that is about 30 minutes, so that helps. Once I feel like I am doing well here, I might just start up c25k again. I am creeping into getting below 300lbs again, so this will help even more haha. #3 - Getting better sleep This has always been something I work on. It is just too easy for me to stay up late. With more movement, I will really, really need more recovery time. I have been playing Pokemon Sleep, as well. I have alarms set for time to read, and time to go to bed. Bed time comes at 11:30pm, but that gets very close to 11:45-50. Eventually, I might want to move up going to bed time and such. That is pretty much it. I haven't taken body measurements in awhile. I have taken a few pictures at least. Then scale weight has been done. 306 today. No real grading too. It's just been the mindset I have had lately. It's ok to make a mistake. I'm more focused on getting these established as a habit. Challenges for me will of course be things like Christmas. I've already decided that I will be fine eating what we normally make, and leftovers. I can get back to keto after that. I want to still not go super crazy, no "I have to eat all the things since I am not on diet!" I had told my wife I want to still try to track what I am eating, so I want to measure some things out like potato salad. Then I can have an idea. Will be curious to see how my blood sugar numbers react as well too. Anyhow, good luck all!

Hey all, it's been a bit. Seems like something is always coming up when I think of starting up a challenge post. I'm late to this challenge, but I figured I would start something anyway. Better that, then thinking I'll just wait till the next one The last couple of weeks, I have been trying to get a little more consistent with a few things like sleep. This challenge I might start off smaller and add to it as I progress. We'll see how it goes. I feel like I'll be keeping it pretty casual. A driving force to me really needing to get myself going. High blood sugar tests. Even on medicine. So I need to get this fixed. Then just in general more family deaths, has made me look back to watching to just be able to live a much better life. Also, things may change some because my wife is getting a knee replacement on the 14th. So bowling and pretty much everything else I do is on pause to help take care of her. I hope to be able to get some things going around that I can continue during this time too. So let's get to it. Goal#1 - If I am too tired, I won't do squat Sleep is so very important. I've been working on it again, but I certainly have had the go to bed at 2am+ too often. I just haven't been getting the best sleep. Losing weight will also help get better sleep. So it will all work together. It's summer, so I don't have to worry about taking the kid to school till sometime in August. I have been enjoying my reading as well, even when I go too late at night haha. My wife also bought a sleep mask for me to help with the light Though it is a pain to have a sleep mask and cpap mask on. Off to read at 10:30pm Off to bed at 11:30pm Goal#2 - Movement For the moment, I want to start off with 15 minutes walk. Hopefully I can still do this while taking care of my wife too. For now, I can start the daily incense in Pokemon Go. It's 15 minutes. Walking around my block takes about 13 minutes or so. That is pretty much what I want as my start. Eventualyl either making more time per walk or adding in a second walk later on. Maybe after a week or so I can also start doing some home workouts in. I know I would be able to have that going while I was helping my wife. First though, I want to try to get walking going. Plus getting back to walking will help improve my mood too 15 minute walk each day. Goal#3 - Tracking foods Part of finding out my blood sugar numbers were really bad, was I looked closer to what I have been eating and drinking. Obviously, I knew getting and eating candy or sweets can be bad. I found I was drinking a powered drink mix thinking it was ok. It had maltitol as a sweetener, and that was spiking my numbers a lot. I was drinking a lot of it too haha. At least I figured that out, and took it out. With the blood sugar numbers, I also considered jumping back to keto. Then thinking maybe more keto with fruit or something. First though, I am going to give a shot at losing weight with tracking calories. Lower calorie higher volume is more what I want. More proteins, more veg and fruit etc. Track food intake each day in Cronometer That will be enough. There is plenty more I want to add in, but I want to just focus getting more consistent in each of these errors. No grading really.

Well, I am coming back in to try to get the ball rolling again Things have been very much bad, so I could use some win here haha. For those that want to know: With all that, things have been crazy. It just makes me think a lot about how I really just need to get myself into much better shape. Wife and I have also been discussing moving out of California. I need to get a job, but even with that, buying a house seems to never be possible here. We still have a year on our lease here, but I don't think we will be here after that. Family seems to be looking more back to the Midwest area. I have family back that way. Over this next year, I'd love to hit a few goals. I want to run again. I'd like to be able to do a pull up. I need to drop some serious weight too. All this with all the craziness going on haha. To get myself going, here are my goals Goal#1 - Sleep I need to get myself into a much better sleep routine. Not only for my health, but also it's school time again for my youngest. This year is a new school, and we are close by. Still, I'll need to be getting up early haha. I'm going to have to get to bed earlier then I use to. Mostly to make sure I have the best chance of getting some good sleep. I do like reading before I head to bed, so I will be doing that here as well. Off to read at 10pm, then off to bed at 11pm. There are a couple of nights that this might not work out the best. One night is bowling night. Sometimes, I don't get home till 10. Then Friday is usually the day the wife and I catch up on tv shows we watch together. New stuff will be coming out soon, so I expect days of watching after I should be reading time. I think the rule for those two days will have to be read or get to sleep right away. Still aim to get to bed at 11. The weekend isn't a worry for getting up early at least . Off to read at 10 pm, off to bed at 11 pm. 10 points per day, 70 points for the week. Goal#2 - Pokemon Go Go Go I want to get to doing gym stuff, and running. I just need get started a bit slower with how things are so crazy around here. Funny enough, there is a new daily incense in Pokemon Go. This last 15 minutes, and pops up pokemon as long as you are walking. There is a chance to see new Legendary pokemon too (super hard to catch). My son hasn't gone with me every time, but I have been walking each day for the last 4 or 5 days. My goal is to continue doing this every day. Hopefully, getting my oldest kid to join me. Maybe after a couple of weeks, I'll get walking further, but for now I'll stick to this. Walk 15 minutes everyday (preferably using the pokemon go app to catch'em all) 5 points a day 35 points for the week. Goal#3 - Track Eating and Blood Sugars To help getting myself on track, I need to go ahead and focus on tracking my food. I also need to at least test my blood sugar levels once a day. I have been thinking of getting back to keto to get my sugars back in control. That just might be a decision that randomly happens at some point this challenge. I'm just not happy with my current numbers, and I am tired of having to take pills for it. Food wise, I'd like to get myself into the 2500-3000 range. My brain really wants me to go lower to lose weight as quick as I can, but I know I really just need to do the slower grind. Once I get back into more and more exercise, then I will be burning a bit more deficit I am currently in colonoscopy prep. Some limited stuff today, Monday is clear liquids and clear candy I can eat. So I am not worried about this for the next few days. Track Blood sugar at least once a day. Track Calories max 3000. 15 points per day 105 points for the week (week 1 75 points) Goal#4 - Declutter and Spring cleaning all the things I did have a goal last challenge to get through some of my cards and comics. I did actually get through a couple of boxes. Not nearly the amount I wanted to haha. Now with the thoughts of moving, I need to do this, plus all the other things. Really, the first thing I do is probably getting through the cards/comics. Though on weekends and such, it might move to areas of the apartment we attack. Throwing things out, and goodwill a bunch of stuff. 20 minutes a day is a good start. Most likely, I will spend much more time on things, but telling myself 10 or 20 minutes sounds better haha. 20 minutes a day decluttering 5 points a day 35 points for the week. Challenge Points: Week 1 (07/31 - 08/06) - 0/215 Week 2 (08/07 - 08/13) - 0/245 Week 3 (08/14 - 08/20) - 0/245 Week 4 (08/21 - 08/27) - 0/245 Week 5 (08/28 - 09/03) - 0/245 Total challenge points - 0/1195 Measurements: Chest - Waist - Bicep (L) - Bicep (R) - Thigh (L) - Thigh (R) - Weight - And there is the challenge. Good luck to everyone, and hopefully I can be around for the entire challenge

Hey all, back again Seems like I just get in a mood, and bail on every challenge. I go and start pretty strong, then I'm suddenly it's just like my brain tags out. Then I end up just sitting there. With that, I'm going to still come back to try to fight it out. I even thought about just going with a one goal challenge to get the habits going. It's all going to be the same basic goals I normally have, I just need to get into the habit building. I want this challenge to be pretty fluid. My challenge goal is to get these established into being habits that I just do. I feel like I have setup it up to be very easy for me to do all of these things. As the challenge goes on, I hope to be able to add a little bit here or there if I need. Goal 1) Establish the sleep habit again. I feel like everything revolves around sleep. It's something I really need to get under control. It will matter for any exercise I do. It will matter for helping to make good mental decisions, including food choices. I've gotten back to too many 3am nights, getting up at 8:30, and staying lounging in bed to noon or later. My eventual goal. Reading at 10:30pm, bed at 11:30pm. Get up in the morning, and get moving. Friday nights, the wife and I catch up on our tv shows etc. It has gone into longer hours sometimes. I'll just deal with those when they happen. My goal will be to start off with going to bed at 11:30pm. Once I can at least do this, I can add back in reading and getting up right away. Hopefully, I can be at my goal before the end of the challenge. Week 2 addon - Get out of bed in the morning, asap. No more staying in bed for hours after I wake up. Week 3 addon - Get to reading at 10:30 pm 1 point per night. 7 for the week. Goal 2) Establish some exercise I have started bowling now, so at least there is something. I want to establish some exercise routine. Since the lockdown we all had, I just haven't been able to get something to stick. It will go well for a couple of days, then it all just goes away. I have gotten the code to our "gym" at our apartment complex. Nothing outstanding, but still, it has some things I can use too. Where I would like to be someday. Working out with weights 3 to 4 times a week. Also doing some walking/running again. Nothing major, but it would be nice to run multiple 5k distance a week again. I always have that eventual goal to get a pull up done, and then multiples Lots of that is far, far off for now. I need to focus it down. What can I do now, to help get me moving towards those goals? This goal is to walk. Everyday. Certainly, my brain say we can go right to walking 3 miles or more. I can't listen to that now. I did that before, and hurt myself haha. I get winded so fast now. All the extra weight, and lots of no movement currently. For now, my only goal here is to get out and walk for 5 minutes. Go get mail, or tale a loop around the complex. Whatever. Outside for 5 minutes, perfect. Going out to the store and walking around for 5 minutes, perfect. I don't care the activity, just as long as I am doing something. Eventually, I'll get the longer walks in, and playing Pokemon Go while I do it Week 2 addon - Get out for 10 minutes. More activity Week 3 addon - Get out for 15 minutes. Week 4 addon - Get out for 20 minutes. Any walking/workout activity for at least 5 minutes. 1 point each day. 7 points for the week. Goal 3) I need to establish some good eating habits I've done a few different things in the past. Keto worked well for me, I did whole 30 too. I've tracked what I ate without too many problems. I seem to go through phases where I just can't get something to work for me anymore. It's weird. I have been trying to incorporate better eating habits in recently. Lots of observations. Just I still sometimes just get overwhelmed with what I should do. I almost feel like having the structure of keto or whole 30 is what worked in my favor. Though, obviously not enough to still be doing that haha. I'm still working on trying to get in lower calorie/higher volume foods to help out. I'm starting to get myself eating more fruits and such. I'm going to work on tracking again. I'll switch back to myfitnesspal, just to have some bit of difference. I don't quite have a future vision yet for my eating habits. Obviously, I want to be able to eat the foods I like. work in progress for sure I suppose. Maybe eventually I'll work out to having more veggies or something. Or get back to food prep. Either way, for now, the goal is to simply track my food intake. MyFitnessPal shall be the app I use, but I will be flexible here. If I just even write it down, or take a picture, I'll accept it. I want this to just get me to be more aware of the foods I am eating again. Get back to seeing the portions I have. No real calorie goal, but for sure no 5000 calorie days haha. I'll check some sites to give myself a starting point, then adjust from there. Week 2 addon - Be below 3000 calories Week 3 addon - Be below 2500 calories Tracking food intake App/writing/picture. 1 point a day. 7 points each week. Goal 4) I need to stay active here. It's always more fun with friends, right? I don't want to go back to another challenge of checking in every day for a week, then suddenly decide I can't post because I had a fail day or something. That's really what gets me not posting. I keep the forum tabs open all the time. Sometimes I would just come and look around. I'd fully intend to post, but then just not do it. I don't want to say I have to post every day. At the very least though, I should post a few times a week. So my goal is to come and post at least 3 times a week. One post, 40 posts, it doesn't matter. I've also been an Ambassador for a really long time. I can recall the old days of messages with @Teros and others to divide up the threads, to make sure all people were at least welcomed in. This was before there was just rebels. The call has come out again from @Tanktimus the Encourager to help welcome others. I shall answer the call. I can recall my first time posting in the introduction forums. Just having someone reply to me was pretty cool. Especially, when I never expected anyone to even read it. I hope to help be that again for others. I don't want to overwhelm myself with too much there (did that in the past too ) I can for sure reach out to a few people though. Not one I would normally want to grade, but I want to make sure I stick with it. 7 points each week, posting at least 3 times each week. Challenge Point totals: Week 1 (09/12 to 09/18) - 26/28 - 92% Week 2 (09/19 to 09/25) - 25/28 - 89% Week 3 (09/26 to 10/02) - 22/28 - 78% Week 4 (10/03 to 10/09) - 23/28 - 82% Week 5 (10/10 to 10/16) - 17/28 - 60% Total challenge points - 113/140 - 80% Measurements Day 1 / Day 35 / Diff Weight - 370.2 lbs / 364.6 lbs / 5.5 lbs lost

Hey all, I am back to attempt a challenge. I didn't participate in the last challenge. I ended up bowling in my yearly USBC Open Tournament. This year (and next) is in Las Vegas. I totally was unprepared for it, but did much better then I expected I just didn't have it in me to get in on a challenge too. Life is a bit hectic. I've been struggling. 2018, keto was an absolute awesome thing for me. I've tried to get back to it. Sometimes it seems successful, but then it all comes crashing down. This challenge, I really want to see if I can just eat in a certain calorie range. Though, I still want to be healthier still of course. I just want to be able to eat whatever fruit I may want etc. So I really just want to focus on tracking again, with a set amount of calories. Of course, I really want to drop weight super fast. I think that really has not worked well though. I mean, I lost like 110 or 120 pounds in 2018. Struggled in 2019, then full blown gain everything back early 2020. Way back in 2013/2014 was a similar weight trip for me. Of course, it was a quick bounce back. So as much as I want to lose all the weight, I really thing I just need to focus more on a slower weight loss. Also working to just get myself better with exercise. All the things to work together will get me losing weight. So let's see if I can just get this started up. There will be a caveat here too. Like I said, life is a bit hectic. Wife might be losing her job (most likely). So she will be looking for work I assume during her transition out. Nothing confirmed yet, but there will be more Monday. With that, it is certainly time that need to get back out there, and get some work. I've been stay at home Dad since 2010, so no clue what I would even try for. This challenge could just totally implode, and I have to rethink the goals depending on what all happens. Goal#1 - Tracking, plus under 2500 calories. In the past I thought about 2300 calories was were I wanted to be at when I was eating keto. I'll have to monitor things to see if I need to adjust things up or down for calories. For now though, I want to target 2500. Preferable +/- 99ish. I don't want to under eat too. I'll track everything in Chronometer. 7 days a week. 10 points per day. 70 points total Goal#2 - Move more One thing for sure, I need to get out walking at the bare minimum. I felt that for sure when I was bowling. Day 2 I was bowling 6 games. I was running on fumes those last 3 games. Even less then fumes haha. To start, I am going to walk for 30 minutes each day. By the end of this challenge, I would like to be walking twice a day for 30 minutes, or an hour walk. Plus I want to be working out. Just body weight workouts, or all at homes style workouts. Week 1 I start with walking for 30 minutes (more is fine too). Week 2 I continue the walking. Week 3 I added in workouts with the walking. Week 4 is working out with more walking. Add in the second walk, or longer first walk. At least for a few of the days. Week 5, I get it all together. 7 days a week. Week 1/2 - 10 points a day. 70 points on the week. Week 3/4/5 - 70 points for walking each week. 40 points for workouts each week. (3 to 4 still need to figure it out) 110 points on the week. Goal#3 - Please go to bed! What do you know, I need to get myself in a sleep challenge again. Oddly enough, I've been staying up late reading. Before it was playing games, watching videos. I have been trying to work on getting to bed at a good time, but I haven't nailed it. I've gotten into a few books, and just would sit here reading for 3 to 4 hours. Suddenly, it's 3:30 in the morning haha. So no more "Just one more chapter" or "one last video" I want to get back to 10:30 PM to get off the computer or whatever, and get to reading. Then, head off to bed at 11:30 PM. 7 days a week, 10 points a day. 70 points for the week. Goal#4 - Chores and downsize Part of my move more is going to get into getting chores routine again, and clearing through things. Too many things in this apartment that we really just need to get rid of. We have a storage unit too that we should make our way through, and get rid of it. Less bills are good. Each day, I need to get cat boxes cleaned out, and dishes done. I need to spend at least one hour during the week on downsizing. I think it will be much more then that, but I just need a smaller time frame to just get started 10 points each day for the chores. 70 on the week. 50 points a week for the downsizing. (I really want to get though some things) 120 total points each week Total challenge points: Week 1 (6/20 - 6/26) - 0/330 Week 2 (6/27 - 7/03) - 0/330 Week 3 (7/04 - 7/10) - 0/370 Week 4 (7/11 - 7/17) - 0/370 Week 5 (7/18 - 7/24) - 0/370 Measurements - First day / Last day Chest - 55.98 in / Waist - 62.51 in / (L) Bicep - 17.83 in / (R) Bicep - 17.00 in / (L) Thigh - 30.78 in / (R) Thigh - 29.33 in / Weight (lbs) - 370.8 /

In this wild and stressful life, I have a tendency to just drop everything and do nothing. This is not working for me, so I need a routine to make sure I at least stay somewhat active during these periods. I'm recovering from a burnout, so I only work 3 morning a week at the moment. Hopefully this will be more by the end of the challenge, but I genuinely don't know yet. I want to put in place the following routines: Working day routine: after work, make sure to do yoga and either a short walk or bike ride. Non-working weekday routine: walk at least 5 kilometers, starting before 9. Do chores for at least 10 minutes. Morning routine: get dressed, make the bed, eat breakfast, empty dishwasher if applicable. Evening routine: clear kitchen counters, brush teeth and stretch calves. I will test this morning- and evening-routine this week. I'm not in the habit of having these routines, so I might need to do some fiddling later on. Hopefully, I can add on to them in next challenges . Exercise goal: Either climb or run on either Wednesday or Thursday, and either Saturday or Sunday. Let's see if I can conquer my yoga-mat again:

Welcome to my challenge . After a long hiatus, I started a challenge here a few weeks ago to see what’s a good baseline to start building up from. I walked at least 25km per week, did yoga 4 times per week and tried to do something about my restless legs every evening through stretching and/or foam-rolling. Due to mental problems, I don’t have a lot of energy nowadays, although I do have plenty of time. I would like to get more fit again, both strength-wise and cardio-wise. Therefore, my goals for the next 4 weeks are the following: Walk or run 35km per week in total (which nets 5km/day) Outside time is good for my mental state, and while 35km per week is a bit of a challenge, it should be doable. A lot of this will be spent catching Pokemon . I would like to walk a new walking-route at least once a week as well, as there are so many routes nearby that make exploring the area easier. Do yoga 3 times per week This can be any style, and I will follow youtube videos for this. Anything more than 10 minutes is good. My entire lower body feels better when I do regular yoga, especially when I move around a lot. Run away from zombies and do strength-training at least once a week each Just to get into the habit again, do a minimum amount of running and strength-training. The strength-training does not have to be anything organised, as long as I do at least 3 sets of a push-, pull-, legs- and core-exercise. In good weeks, I would like to train more than this, but I’d like my goals to be doable in bad weeks as well. Play a set of scales on the clarinet at least 3 times per week I would like to improve my clarinet-skills, and I realise that my scales are lacking, both in precision and speed. They are a bit boring to play them over and over, but I do need them so often in orchestra-pieces that I must really spend more time on them. A set is a major-scale with its parallel minor scale-variations (natural, harmonic and melodic), and their triads. Let’s go and beat those goals!

Hey Rangers! This month, I'm following up with last month's theme, but a little different. Same questline, with 2 award levels, just different tasks. 1. Walking: Distance/frequency TBD 2. Kettlebell/weight workout: Frequency TBD 3. Chores: TBD Loot: TBD, but completing the Weightlifting quest snags a bonus Tuff N Tiny "Squattle" Tank Top

Challenge #2 of the year. Let's do this. My last challenge went really well for me. 96% overall score. It was exactly what I needed in my return to the Nerdfitness forums. With in one month, I have stopped taking all my medication and lost 22 lbs. With seeing success in the last challenge, this challenge will be very similar. I will add in a few more upgrades to my challenge goals, to push myself a bit more. Hopefully, this will enforce the habits to have them as a good base for the rest of this year, and beyond. Now, on towards the goals for this challenge! Goal #1: Keto on, and add in IF I have successfully ate in the keto method since the first of the year. I figure I may as well continue that on. This challenge, I want to add intermittent fasting back into my eating habits. Now, I may need to adjust the eating window from time to time, but I am going to go for a consistent 18/6. 18 hours of fasting, 6 hours of eating time.My window will be 11 am to 5 pm. This should cover most my needs for times I need to get eating in by. I still need to track everything in MyFitnessPal. Goal #2: Walking, Walking, Walking... I started off last challenge going for 3 days a week to walk on. Eventually moving up to 5 days. This challenge I want to start off with 5 days a week of walking. Eventually moving up to 6 or 7 days, or possibly staying 5 days, but increasing step count. My eventual goal is to get back to running, and possibly adding in body weight workouts. Goal #3: You must still get Sleep I did well last challenge with closing down everything by 11:30 pm, reading till 12:30 am, then getting to bed. Though I have been able to easily slip back into night owl habits in the last few days. I need to have this again. I also notice I wake up a lot more while my wife is getting ready for work. So to get more possible sleep, I am going to try to get to bed 30 minutes earlier. Shut all things down by 11 pm. Then read till Midnight, and head to bed. I'm going to grade on reading as well, because it is too easy for me to not read, but still get to bed on time. Goal #4: Start and finish Introduction to Linux I figure for a bit of fun, I'll take an online course. I've played with linux from time to time, but don't know a lot. This means time to take this class I signed up for awhile back https://www.udemy.com/introduction-to-linux-centos-7/learn/v4/overview Looks like 26 lectures, so I'm guessing enough to last the month. Grading: Goal #1 - 7 days, 3 points per day. 1 point for IF, 1 point for tracking, 1 point for under 20 net carbs Goal #2 - 5 days, 1 point per day of walking. (may get adjusted during the challenge) Goal #3 - 7 days, 2 points per day. 1 point for reading started at 11, and 1 point for heading to bed at 12. Goal #4 - 6 points per week. Almost one per lecture course. Weekly points: Week 1: 37/40 points - 92% Week 2: 38/40 points - 95% Week 3: 0/ points - Week 4: 0/ points - Overall challenge score: Measurements End of last challenge/Start of new challenge/Finish: (taken Feb 5th) Weight: 345.6 lbs / 340.2 lbs / 335.4 lbs Neck: 19.68 in / 18.85 in / 19.60 in Chest: 54.72 in / 53.74 in / 52.95 in Waist at bell button: 59.84 in / 58.66 in / 58.07 in Bicep (L): 16.37 in / 17.08 in / 17 in Bicep (R): 16.33 in / 17.04 in / 16.61 in Forearm (L): 13.34 in / 13.46 in / 13.22 in Forearm (R): 13.58 in / 13.58 in / 13.50 in Thigh (L): 29.44 in / 28.70 in / 28.58 in Thigh (R): 28.30 in / 27.99 in / 27.71 in

Hello Fellow NF Rebels I'm Tateman. It's been awhile since my last challenge. November of 2016 to be exact, and it was a fail. That comeback was after another break where things got away from me. This time though, I have to get things done. Things got bad enough that my Doctor wants me to get weight loss surgery. This is my last attempt to avoid having to do that. A little back story: Taking the way back machine back to 2013. I started my NF Journey at 333lbs. (Highest ever was 388lbs recorded) My Rebel Intro and eventually My first Challenge May 30th, 2013 Things were going great. I had signed up to do a Spartan race down in Malibu, Ca. I had never done anything like that. September 11th, 2013 I made it under 300lbs. December of 2013 I completed the Spartan race with the help of my Brother-in-law. June 2014 I completed my first ever 5k race. I had never before in my life run that far. The most I was up to was about 2 miles in the C25k app. Then in August 2014, I completed the Spartan Stadium Sprint, in AT&T Park, with my Sister and Brother-in-law. In October of 2014, I was taken off my Metformin (diabetes medication) I got to my lowest weight in a very very long time. 260lbs. I had bounced around in weight in 2014, but still mostly tracked down. And then it all came crashing down. The mother of all snowball effects happened. I signed up to do a 15k race. Paid for, and never ran. I had already started tracking a bit higher in weight, then threw this failure on the fire. The mental depression had a grip, and would not let go. The fat me started winning more battles. By September of 2015, I was back up to almost my highest weight again. 384lbs. In 9 months, I had gained 124lbs. Of course during all this, I had quit Nerd Fitness. Many people were gone that I originally talked to then. On my birthday (November 2015), I decided to open up to those on Facebook. The thought was to get the help of my family and community to support me in the right path back. I was 382lbs that day. Nothing really stuck. It was ok for a bit, but even family close to you fail when they don't truly support what you are trying to do. I had to deal with it all back when I did lose all that weight though, and I will still have to deal with it all now. That is just how things will have to be. So over the past two years, not much has changed. Now to current day Eventually, my 44 year old body wasn't going to take this garbage anymore. Last summer I had an infection in a very bad place for a guy haha. I also hadn't done bloodwork in awhile. I finally did, and numbers were not good. My Doctor said enough was enough, and she thinks that I need to go in for weight loss surgery. That was in late July. I told her I really didn't want to go the Surgery route, because I don't believe it is a permanent solution. At least for me I don't think it would be. I know people that have failed. Even my wife had surgery, and is still heavy. It feels like I need to fix other things in my head, otherwise in 3-5 years I might just be back in the same spot. Surgery can do a lot to help me in the here and now, and it is very possible, that I can use it to learn to be eating the proper way. I just would hate to go though it, and fail still. That motivation was working for me, but I slipped back into the crud I have been in. So today I start at 367.6lbs. I am late getting my bloodwork again. So I am planning on going next Sunday. I'm hoping all is not lost for me. I want to lose this weight. I want to see my goal weight. I want to run again. Something my teenage self would have never believed I would say. I want to be strong. I want to do this, not only to inspire my kids, but to do this for myself. I feel like I need to once again start over. This time finding the things to keep me going, and squashing the bad mental junk that likes to try to creep in. So 2018, here we go. This challenge is meant to help rebuild me. Rebuild the habits that gave me success before Goal#1: Down with the Carbs/Sugar demon, and Keto on I want to get into Ketosis mode. The last couple of months I experimented with this a bit. For a few weeks I was really on it, and it was pretty great. Plenty of reading and being inspired by the keto community of Reddit. Now I need to establish it again, so I can continue on for the whole year. I know the start will be rough again. Much like when I did Whole30 eating, and the bit of Keto I had done already. Meals will be boring to start off. We got a Crockpot pressure cooker now though, so time to find stuff with that. Cookbooks incoming as well. I will be tracking my food intake at MyFitnessPal. Goal#2: Exercise beginner mode I need to get into Exercise again. Got my new Fitbit Blaze to try out Now to not overwhelm myself, I'm not going to try to go all balls out right away. Let's start off easy with Walking. 3 times a week to be specific. Then next move is walking each day. First I want to establish just doing it first! The plan is to go in the mornings. No set time, but 30 minutes is the goal to start. Hopefully by mid challenge, I will want to be walking more and more. I notice that walking does help clear my head, and makes me feel good. Eventually this walking may lead to running again, down the road Goal#3: The night Owl must become the early bird Ohh so many nights staying up till 3am, and getting garbage sleep. I'm done with it. I do have a CPAP machine now to help make sure Sleep Apnea won't get in my way. I need to get myself into a sleep routine again. I want to be in bed by 12:30am. I have tones of books to read. I bought the first 5 books of The Expanse So I'm thinking 11-11:30pm I turn off the computer, and settle down with some reading. Goal#4: Blog all the things So for fun, I finally setup my website as a blog. I've had tateland.com for years, but always put off doing something with it. I still am working on it some, and have done some in general gaming blogging. Now to add to the "Health" section. I am going to attempt to blog every day about my health journey this year. I am going to try taking a picture each day of my face to see if I can track changes over the year. Also weekly body pictures to do the same. Next year, I hope to have a cool little project done. Part of this will be cross posting as updates each day in this thread. Grading: Goal#1 - 7 days, 14 points. 1 point for each day of tracking. 1 point for staying under 20 net carbs Goal#2 - 3 days, 1 point per day of walking. (hopefully, will increase during this challenge) Update for week 4, 5 days a week. 1 points for each walk. Goal#3 - 7 days, 7 points. 1 point for getting into bed by 12:30pm. Goal#4 - 7 days, 14 points. 1 point for each day I blog, 1 point for posting here Weekly Points: Week 1: 37/38 - 97% Week 2: 36.5/38 - 96% Week 3: 38/38 - 100% Week 4: 37/40 - 92.5% Week 5: 38/40 - 95% Challenge total - 186.5 /194 - 96% overall challenge score Measurements Start/Finish: Weight: 367.6lbs / 345.6 lbs - 22lbs lost Neck: 19.68 in / 19.68 in - no change Chest: 55.90 in / 54.72 in - 1.18 inches lost Waist at bell button: 61.41 in / 59.84 in - 1.57 inches lost Bicep (L): 17.91 in / 16.37 in - 1.53 inches lost Bicep (R): 16.92 in / 16.33 in - 0.59 inches lost Forearm (L): 13.89 in / 13.34 in - 0.55 inches lost Forearm (R): 13.89 in / 13.58 in - 0.31 inches lost Thigh (L): 30.31 in / 29.44 in - 0.86 inches lost Thigh (R): 28.89 in / 28.30 in - 0.59 inches lost

I swear I have already lost these 10 pounds! (TEN pounds, not three...) But they keep coming back. So tired of losing them. Wish they'd stay gone. What do I want? Long term: Maintain my ideal weight/body fat %. 120 pounds/18-20% body fat. And that's me saying it's ideal because when I was in this range I had lots of energy and felt awesome, it's not some chart telling me what I should be. Short term goal: Get back to that weight/body fat percentage. LOSE 10 POUNDS. Probably can't do it in 4 weeks but I can get serious and move in that direction. How do I get there??? DIET GOALS 1. no alcohol at home we rarely go out but if we do I think it's okay to have a beer... 2. no bread I love breakfast sandwiches. but they lead to later day bad choices... 3. no soda I have ADHD and have self-medicated for years with coca cola BUT there are alternatives. I just need to be strong. The temptation is only there on the days I work because there is coke in the fridge at the office so I just need to be strong those days. I can do it!!!!!!! FITNESS GOALS 1. yoga - 1x weekly 2. xfit - 2x weekly 3. walking - daily LIFE GOAL With my ADHD I have learned that when I need to focus, I need to distract part of my brain (ie have music in the background). I think I need a distraction goal so I can focus on my diet/fitness goals... Each week I will have a distraction. I will post it at the beginning of the week. It might be something crafty. It might be something volunteery. It might be something else... Grading Diet Food Log: 2xp per daily journal/mfp all the meals to track what I am eating. - .5 xp per indulgance (bread/beer/soda) Fitness: 1xp per daily movement (1 yoga/2 xfit/4 PURPOSEFUL 2k+ walks) Life: 3xp identify distraction/1xp per distraction practice Starting stats 131 pounds 22.5% body fat percentage

Welcome back for another episode of the exciting Adventures of JediNickD! It was a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away that I joined this site and started my first challenge. Upon my return, I have decided to revisit some of my challenge themes to turn them into lessons as I had been doing more recently. I feel it is a good way to reflect on my own learning and progress to write about and share these lessons, but I also have another objective. I am cataloging these lessons in a document which is now up to 142 pages. The plan is to use this document as a reference for my personal Jedi training and to pass on for my Padawan training. It isn't just my Nerd Fitness challenges. It includes every Jedi-related writing I have done, training I have worked through, and documents I have collected (which are not protected but have sources noted). Challenge Lesson: "Difficult to see. Always in motion is the future." -- Yoda, Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back Yoda is very powerful and knowledgeable in the Force. Typically, he has the ability to see events well into the future, but it can be clouded by the dark side or the tipping of scales of large decisions. In this quote, Yoda was specifically referring to the fates of Han, Chewie, and Leia in the hands of Darth Vader on Bespin since Luke's choice to stay or go and his potential to fall to the dark side factored heavily into the events outcome, but Yoda's words carry more weight to it. Predicting the future is always reliant on current conditions and knowledge. As things happen and new things come to light, those predictions become more or less likely. The predictions could drastically change due to new information or occurrences. There are too many unforeseen variables at times. Being aware of how our decisions can influence the future is important to achieving the future we desire. Being aware of outside influences and the potential for unpredictable occurrences can help prepare for detours and breakdowns. My Main Quest and Mission: My mission is to be the best Jedi I can be. My main quest is always to enhance my overall health, fitness, and knowledge to be prepared for whatever challenges life could throw at me. As a Jedi, I need to be able to help people, whether that is a life threatening situation or just a charitable one. There is no boss level in Jedi training, there is only tomorrow. World 2 Level 7 Challenge: FITNESS: Cardio: Speed and Stamina - 500 min total, 120 weekly. DEX +1, STA +2 The weekly plan is a minimum of two tabata runs with Pokémon Go. These runs are to include at least 5 sprints of ~50 meters for increased intensity. It's getting cold outside, so I may move to a treadmill for a few of the runs. We'll see how it goes. I'll also have 60 minutes of racquetball on Fridays. I'd like to do some field or gym training for rugby, soccer, and football footwork and ball work, as well. Exercise: Stretch and Strengthen - 500 min total, 120 weekly. STR +2, DEX +1 The weekly plan includes 10 minutes of regular stretching each day, two 20 minute sessions of physical therapy exercises and 20 minutes of other strength training each week. The minimum leaves 40 minutes to make up by the end of the challenge. Karate: Training and Practice - 500 min total, 120 weekly STR +1, DEX +1, STA +1 Better to count Karate by itself. It is too difficult to predict or categorize the classes as Cardio or Strengthening. Plan is 2 classes a week for 45 min each. Add a third class or a individual practice for the last 30 min. DIET: Weight Control - Lose 2 lbs by end of challenge. Never weigh more than 159.5 lbs. Complete measurements before or during Week 1 and again during or after Week 4. Watch portions and make healthy choices for 24 of 28 days. CON +2 Going to eat salad and veggies as much as possible with apples and dark chocolate as my sugary snacks. Avoid soda, ice cream, and potato chips. Minimize cheese and nuts. Most importantly, I have to continue to watch my portions. I cannot ever have two "large" meals in one day. Aiming for one small meal and one medium meal a day, keeping breakfast as small as possible. LIFE: Get Stuff Done - Complete 60 Tasks or Projects, with at least 12 a week, from any of the following areas (max for challenge, no more than 3 each per week): Toastmasters Communication Practice (2), Toastmasters Leadership Practice (4), Webmaster Work (6), Mentoring (8), Charity Work (8), Jedi Training (4), Self Preservation (2), Church Work (4), Job Work (8), Household Chores (8), Yard Work (8), Animal Care (8), Home Renovation (8), Auto Maintenance (8), Family Activities (8), Adventuring (6). WIS +2, CHA +2 No longer worried about diversity. I want to continue to get the important weekly things done while looking for the neglected areas. I NEED to revisit my IJRS Jedi Training this challenge. It has been too long. Auto Maintenance will be important to get to before the weather gets too cold and icy. Same with any Home Renovation and Yard Work. Incorporating a reward and consequence has been really helpful, so I'll keep doing that. REWARD: For each week I complete 12 or more tasks, I will put $10 aside for buying something just for me. CONSEQUENCE: For any week where I complete less than 12 tasks, I will give up $10 of saved cash. BONUS: $5 for each IJRS Lesson completed. Major Dates: Disney World Dec 1st-5th, Christmas Weekend Dec 23rd-26th. Each of these periods will need to be planned carefully to meet my goals.

I'm determined to start on the official start date!! This may be a little spare to start but details will be added... Turning Upside Down 1. Handstands - daily practice. using NF handstand program! decided to purchase the superpack (NF handstand/rings) on Friday so I'm just jumping in and putting handstand practice as one of my goals. I'm feeling like the mobility moves are going to be part of my warm up on my xfit and yoga days and then on the other days a real solid effort on the skills. +1xp per practice 2. Yoga - 1x weekly think this is going to complement the handstand goal because stretching is a good thing when it comes to balance work. +4xp per class 3. Spanish - 15 minutes daily practice turning my routine upside down here by adding in a daily study goal instead of a couple days a week which is how its been going currently. +1xp per practice 4. Pokemon Go - walk with buddy daily I'm thinking a minimum of a 2k walk daily or walk until my buddy finds a candy. depends on the day. +1xp per walk

Welcome back for another episode of the exciting Adventures of JediNickD! It was a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away that I joined this site and started my first challenge. Upon my return, I have decided to revisit some of my challenge themes to turn them into lessons as I had been doing more recently. I feel it is a good way to reflect on my own learning and progress to write about and share these lessons, but I also have another objective. I am cataloging these lessons in a document which is now up to 136 pages. The plan is to use this document as a reference for my personal Jedi training and to pass on for my Padawan training. It isn't just my Nerd Fitness challenges. It includes every Jedi-related writing I have done, training I have worked through, and documents I have collected (which are not protected but have sources noted). Challenge Lesson: "Size matters not. Look at me. Judge me by my size, do you? Hmm? Hmm. And well you should not. For my ally is the Force, and a powerful ally it is. Life creates it, makes it grow. Its energy surrounds us and binds us. Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter. You must feel the Force around you; here, between you, me, the tree, the rock, everywhere, yes. Even between the land and the ship." -- Yoda, Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back What my experience at Nerd Fitness has taught me is that there is always time, it is just a matter of priority. There is no to-do list too daunting, there is no bar too high, and there is no skill that cannot be learned. It takes prioritization, motivation, and determination. There will be failures along the rode, but those are learning opportunities. There will be obstacles in your way, but those are problem solving opportunities. There will be risks and consequences to the journey, but those are just costs for the reward. Size is just a measurement from a perspective. Find what aspect of you perspective the size is relevant to and change it. The size will change with it. Think of yourself as an ant. Everything human is huge or irrelevant to your life. Think of yourself as the moon. Everything on Earth is tiny and irrelevant to your life. Now, relate that to your goal. What are the things that make the goal appear impossible? How can you turn those things into something possible? Let's say you overweight and would like to be able to run a mile. You are 30, the last time you ran a mile was high school, and even then it was a chore. That goal looks enormous. Well, you can't do anything about your age, but you can do something about the weight. You can do something about your puny muscles and weak lungs. Pretend those obstacles are solved. Does the mile still look difficult? Now, take aim at the sub-goals you have: lose weight, gain muscles, build stamina. Find the aspects that make the task difficult. Of course, Yoda is speaking specifically of the Force and how it knows no bounds. Just as the Force has no bounds, neither should one's belief in it. Belief, creativity, passion, empathy, faith, ambition are just a few concepts which know no bounds. Artificial bounds in these concepts stunts growth and understanding. If you want to be enlightened, then find a path across any artificial bounds in these areas. Sometimes it is another matter of changing perspective. My Main Quest and Mission: My mission is to be the best Jedi I can be. My main quest is always to enhance my overall health, fitness, and knowledge to be prepared for whatever challenges life could throw at me. As a Jedi, I need to be able to help people, whether that is a life threatening situation or just a charitable one. There is no boss level in Jedi training, there is only tomorrow. World 2 Level 7 Challenge: FITNESS: Work Up a Sweat - 600 minutes of conditioning training for the entire challenge. DEX +2, STA +3 The weekly plan is a minimum of two 60 minute tabata runs with Pokémon Go. These runs are to include at least 5 sprints of ~50 meters for increased intensity. It's getting cold outside, so I may move to a treadmill for a few of the runs. We'll see how it goes. I'll also have 60 minutes of racquetball on Fridays. I'd like to do some field or gym training for rugby, soccer, and football footwork and ball work, as well. Stretch and Strengthen - 600 minutes of exercises and stretches for the entire challenge. STR +2, DEX +1 The weekly plan includes 10 minutes of regular stretching each day, two 20 minute sessions of physical therapy exercises and 30 minutes of other strength training each week. The minimum leaves 40 minutes to make up by the end of the challenge. DIET: Weight Control - Lose 2 lbs by end of challenge. Never weigh more than 161 lbs. Complete measurements before or during Week 1 and again during or after Week 4. I tend to over eat at gatherings on the weekend. I plan to eat as little as possible at the next gatherings, Thanksgiving included. CON +3 Going to eat salad and veggies as much as possible with apples and dark chocolate as my sugary snacks. Avoid soda, ice cream, and potato chips. Minimize cheese and nuts. Most importantly, I have to continue to watch my portions. I cannot ever have two "large" meals in one day. LIFE: Get Stuff Done - Complete 28 Tasks or Projects from any of the following areas: Toastmasters Communication Practice, Toastmasters Leadership Practice, Webmaster Work, Jedi Training, Job Work, Charity Work, House Work, Yard Work, Animal Care, Home Renovation, Auto Maintenance, Family Activities, Adventuring (to keep it diverse, no more than 4 from any one category) WIS +2, CHA +2 I need to revisit my IJRS Jedi Training this challenge. It has been too long. Auto Maintenance will be important to get to before week 4 as we have a long drive for Thanksgiving. Same with any Home Renovation and Yard Work. Incorporating a reward and consequence has been really helpful, so I'll keep doing that. REWARD: For each week I complete 7 or more tasks, I will put $10 aside for buying something just for me. CONSEQUENCE: For any week where I complete less than 7 tasks, I will give up $10 of saved cash. Major Dates: Nov 5th Extra Life Game Day, Nov 19th My Birthday, November 22nd-26th Thanksgiving Travel. Each of these weeks will need to be planned carefully to meet my goals.

Welcome back for another episode of the exciting Adventures of JediNickD! It was a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away that I joined this site and started my first challenge. Upon my return, I have decided to revisit some of my challenge themes to turn them into lessons as I had been doing more recently. I feel it is a good way to reflect on my own learning and progress to write about and share these lessons, but I also have another objective. I am cataloging these lessons in a document which is now up to 136 pages. The plan is to use this document as a reference for my personal Jedi training and to pass on for my Padawan training. It isn't just my Nerd Fitness challenges. It includes every Jedi-related writing I have done, training I have worked through, and documents I have collected (which are not protected but have sources noted). Challenge Lesson: "You must unlearn what you have learned." - Yoda, The Empire Strikes Back Chinese Scholar Tokusan, who was full of knowledge and opinions about the dharma, came to Chinese Zen Master Ryutan and asked about Zen. At one point Ryutan re-filled his guest's teacup, but did not stop pouring when the cup was full. Tea spilled out and ran over the table. "Stop! The cup is full!" said Tokusan. "Exactly," said Master Ryutan. "You are like this cup; you are full of ideas. You come and ask for teaching, but your cup is full; I can't put anything in. Before I can teach you, you'll have to empty your cup." In Jedi training, it is important to let go of lessons learned in the past to learn to see the world in a new way. During my Jedi Training at the IJRS in 2012, I took a course on the Force with lessons analyzing my use of intuition. I found that I typically ignore my intuition when I shouldn't. I rely on logic, which is fine as long as you have all the facts. When my intuition and logic do not align, it is because I do not have all the critical information to make a decision. To rely more on my intuition requires that I take a leap of faith, which I am not in the habit of doing. Listening to the wise words of Yoda, I am relying on my intuition more and more. Since 2012, I have discovered my intuition can be remarkably accurate in pushing me in a positive direction before I "know" the desired information to make an informed decision. In my Toastmasters training, I have found that my initial practice and preparation techniques for speaking in front of others was all wrong for my confidence and self esteem. I used to write out the entire speech and choreograph the entire speech. I'd rehearse until I could do it by heart. It worked great... for practice. As soon as I was in front of an audience, I had to be perfect. If I goofed anything, it made me sweat and it threw the entire speech off track. I take a much more casual approach to speech writing now. I jot down some notes about what I want to talk about, maybe work out a line or two which will be the take away for the speech, then I just speak the speech over and over. I get to know the points I want to make and discover how I naturally say them and look for better ways to say them just working on my natural abilities. This allows me to be more comfortable in front of the audience, since there is no strict scripture. I just have to know my material forward and back which allows me to think on my feet better and focus on connecting with the audience. My goal for public speaking is to make an impact on the audience, give them something to walk away with, and influence lives. When I started Toastmasters, my goal was just to not be horrible and fearful of public speaking. I am beyond that and actually enjoy public speaking. It has given me leadership opportunities which I thought would always be out of reach, because I was a chicken. Well, this chicken crossed the road and became a confident rooster. For my fitness training, I always believed that running for the sake of running is boring. I had a hard time finding ways to make running interesting or a priority. After the Zombie, Run! app didn't work, I thought I'd give up on distance and focus on sprinting, since I enjoy being fast. Unfortunately, unless someone is chasing me like in playing football and rugby or there is a team I am competing with, I don't really enjoy sprinting enough to push myself to new heights. I discovered this summer that I just needed the right motivation. I now run with Pokémon Go. The longer I run, the further I go, the more Pokémon I catch and the more I progress in the game. The gyms are always just difficult enough to present a challenge and push me to keep improving. I fear that once I dominate gyms with my superior Pokémon, that I might not enjoy the game as much. I've noticed that some players have created a second account to help them hold down gyms, getting them to level 2 or 3. I kind of think of that as cheating, since the game really wants you to team up with other players. If the game starts to get boring, then I have these two options to make it more interesting. Starting from scratch with a second account or finding players to team up with on my morning runs, gym battles, etc. Those morning runs will always be important in progressing to the next level in the game, so I don't really see that part getting boring. I might just need to change the setting for my runs to discover different Pokémon. There are lots of areas where we fill up our minds with knowledge and opinions, but to truly grow you need to look past what you already know or think, see things from different perspectives, try different approaches, and experience new things. To continue to do things the same way, you will only get the same results. Change is growth. Empty the cup. Unlearn what you have unlearned to properly prepare yourself to be enlightened. My Main Quest and Mission: My mission is to be the best Jedi I can be. My main quest is always to enhance my overall health, fitness, and knowledge to be prepared for whatever challenges life could throw at me. As a Jedi, I need to be able to help people, whether that is a life threatening situation or just a charitable one. There is no boss level in Jedi training, there is only tomorrow. World 2 Level 5 Challenge: FITNESS: Work Up a Sweat - 600 minutes of conditioning training for the entire challenge. DEX +2, STA +3 The weekly plan is a minimum of three 45 minute tabata runs with Pokémon Go, plus plenty of walking, hiking, or other activities. I crushed my goal last challenge, but my family tends to throw a wrench in all plans I make for evenings and weekends. The minimum won't get me to my goal. I have to go above the minimum for at least 60 minutes. Stretch and Strengthen - 600 minutes of exercises and stretches for the entire challenge. STR +2, DEX +1 The weekly plan includes 10 minutes of regular stretching each day, two 20 minute sessions of physical therapy exercises and 30 minutes of other strength training each week. The minimum leaves 40 minutes to make up by the end of the challenge. DIET: Weight Control - Lose 2 lbs by end of challenge. Never weigh more than 163 lbs. Complete measurements before or during Week 1 and again during or after Week 4. The last part of this challenge is that I want to minimize how many times I have the thought, "I ate too much". I will count and report on each time I have that thought to identify how I can avoid the pitfall in the future. CON +3 Going to eat salad and veggies as much as possible with apples and dark chocolate as my sugary snacks. Avoid soda, ice cream, and potato chips. Minimize cheese and nuts. Most importantly, I have to watch my portions. I cannot ever have two "large" meals in one day. LIFE: Get Stuff Done - Complete 28 Tasks or Projects from any of the following areas: Toastmasters Communication Practice, Toastmasters Leadership Practice, Webmaster Work, Jedi Training, Job Work, Charity Work, House Work, Yard Work, Home Renovation, Auto Maintenance, Family Activities (to keep it diverse, no more than 4 from any one category) WIS +2, CHA +2 I'm still procrastinating, deciding to do the fun stuff first and delay the less fun stuff. Jedi Training is definitely something that is not getting any focus. I added more areas to the list to track (I don't want to not do something just because it doesn't make the list) and increased to 28 total (7 a week, or 1 a day). Incorporating a reward and consequence has been really helpful, so I'll keep doing that. My wife identified that we may be playing too much in our free time together and not getting to the bigger projects. She works weekends, so we have very little time where we can tackle a project together. The focus has been on smaller projects where single parenting is easier. When we are together, we usually have plans for something fun. I am having trouble motivating the kids to be useful with weekly chores, as well. I think I have a viable solution. REWARD: For each week I don't procrastinate undesirable tasks (where I think "I'll do it later") where I overcome procrastination and do it or at least work on it, I'll reward myself with one game of Madden Saturday morning. CONSEQUENCE: If I procrastinated at all, then I have to give up my morning to working on something I procrastinated. This plan won't influence my goal grade, but it will give me incentive to do all the things, instead of just the fun ones. Some might look at my reward scheme and think, "why not have a reward and consequence for the other goals", and my response is that I do. A healthier, muscular, sexy body is all the reward I need. ;-)

Goal 1: Travel at least 3 miles while playing Pokemon GO at least 3 times a week. Goal 2: Weight train at least 3 times a week. Goal 3: Eat under 1000 net calories. Bonus: Hit the "5 miles in one Pokemon trip" mark. Pokemon GO definitely has me going places on foot way more often. It makes walking more interesting and fun and keeps me moving. It's definitely been a positive force in my life. Before I could barely walk one mile without needing a break but now I've built up to 4 miles out in the Texas heat and been ok. I'm hoping to push that up to 5 at some point through this challenge as well as lose some poundage in the process. The weight loss isn't the most important goal since I'm going to be starting testosterone today (I'm transgender, FtM) and attempting to build muscle at the same time.

Last time, I was unable to defeat any gym bosses. This challenge, I will be more focused. I've brought many of the goals from last time, just modified a bit. It's hard getting the groove back, so hopefully, this challenge gets it done for me. Goal1 - Gym Battles Last challenge I wanted all the Stronglifts. Once again, it slipped from my grasp. So I will be training to get there. One thing I have done now, is that I signed up for a personal trainer at my gym. Twice a week I will see him. The challenge will be to make sure I go on the 3rd day. Workouts are Monday(w/trainer), Wednesday, and Friday(w/trainer). The goal is to get me into the gym on a regular basis, and bet stronger in the process. I'm not doing massive weights or anything yet, so I am building up. 3 pokepoints each week. One per workout session. Goal 2 - Walk/Run between Gyms The last week, I have been getting out there and walking. 2-2 1/2 miles each day. So I want to continue this. If I can lose some decent amount of weight, maybe I can try getting on c25k again. One day at a time though. I'm going to focus on walking each day. Hopefully, 10k steps. 7 pokepoints each week. Might have to adjust if I feel I need a rest day once a week. Goal 3 - Pokepuffs? Not for me Meal prep! I need to make sure I have meals ready to eat for the week. It is much easier to choose sometime I made already. I'll stick to my 12 meals total made. This will cover lunch and dinner for 6 days. 2 meals during the week can be whatever. Try to keep it in a healthier range though. I will try making it to MFP for the meals, but I am not counting it for the challenge. 12 pokepoints per week this challenge. One for each meal. Goal 4 - Resting up at the Poke center Each trainer knows that they need to rest up after all that training and gym battling. So I need to make sure I get my rest as well. I will be in bed no later then 12:05. Turn off all distraction, by 11:30pm, and hit up some reading. I still have plenty of reading options. I've been getting better this last week, but still need work. 7 pokepoints for the week. Goal 5 - Checking NF every day I have been horrible about coming here and updating my progress. I've also not been around to support others. I want to change that. Each day I need to check in. Post something in my thread, and check out other rebels. Will probably do this at lunch time. 7 pokepoints here as well. Gotta check every day! Measurements: Weight (lbs) - 370.4lbs / Grading: Pokepoints earned: Week 1: 0/36 Week 2: 0/36 Week 3: 0/36 Week 4: 0/36

Welcome back for another episode of the exciting Adventures of JediNickD! It was a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away that I joined this site and started my first challenge. Upon my return, I have decided to revisit some of my challenge themes to turn them into lessons as I had been doing more recently. I feel it is a good way to reflect on my own learning and progress to write about and share these lessons, but I also have another objective. I am cataloging these lessons in a document which is now up to 136 pages. The plan is to use this document as a reference for my personal Jedi training and to pass on for my Padawan training. It isn't just my Nerd Fitness challenges. It includes every Jedi-related writing I have done, training I have worked through, and documents I have collected (which are not protected but have sources noted). So what is my story? As I said, I've been here before. I kicked a lot of butt progressing through 22 challenges since 2012, until middle of 2015. After struggling to maintain a presence here through the first half of 2015, I struck out on my own as I had conquered many obstacles here, learned many lessons, and felt I was ready to implement a new accountability strategy for I had developed a strong supporting cast in real life to keep me accountable. Alas, a back injury and a "layoff" crumbled all my plans. I am recovered from both now, more or less. In October, I started a new job only three weeks after my old one ended. The growing pains are over and now I feel entrenched in my new world. In October and November, I took a lot of time off from fitness to allow my back to heal. In December, I started physical therapy to strengthen my back. I have occasional flare ups, but for the most part, I have my body functioning like its old self. Well, an out-of-shape and over-weight old self. Today, I am wrapping up my last physical therapy session. It is like I am back at square one, or Level 1 for my character here. But it is not like my character died and I have a new one. My knowledge and experience is retained. Instead of hitting the reset button, I'll jump to World 2 complete with new challenges and obstacles. Old foes may come back, but they will require new techniques to defeat them. I am still a Jedi in training, learning from the old masters, unlearning what I have learned, practicing the new techniques, and improving daily. Challenge Lesson: "Ready are you? What know you of ready? For eight hundred years have I trained Jedi. My own counsel will I keep on who is to be trained. A Jedi must have the deepest commitment, the most serious mind. This one a long time have I watched. All his life has he looked away... to the future, to the horizon. Never his mind on where he was. Hmm? What he was doing. Hmph. Adventure. Heh. Excitement. Heh. A Jedi craves not these things. You are reckless." - Yoda, The Empire Strikes Back [emphasis mine] Last challenge, I discussed commitment a bit analyzing the "Do or do not" quote from Yoda eliminating "Try" from my vocabulary. This challenge, I take another look at commitment in regards to seriousness for Jedi training and applying it to real life. Yoda says specifically, "A Jedi must have the deepest commitment, the most serious mind." (bold above) There is no joking or tomfoolery when it comes to Jedi. Being a Jedi is serious business with serious consequences for not taking it seriously. In Star Wars, it is a matter of life or death for the whole rebellion if Luke Skywalker was not paying enough attention during his failure in the cave. For a Jedi in Star Wars, commitment to training and Jedi ideals comes before all else, even a Jedi's friends. Yoda demands that Luke stay at Dagobah and complete his training instead of rushing off to save his friends from Darth Vader. "If you honor what they fight for" Yoda says. By going off to save his friends, Luke endangered everything the Rebellion had accomplished and would accomplish in the future, because he was their last hope of defeating the Emperor. Only with Luke fully trained as a Jedi could the Rebellion destroy the Emperor and put an end to his tyranny. Luke is not well prepared for facing off with Darth Vader, but his fortitude in the light side of the Force (through the love for his friends) is better than Yoda and Obi-Wan realized. Luke survives and returns to complete his training keeping his promise to Yoda and Obi-Wan, keeping his commitment to the Rebellion, the Jedi, and the Light side of the Force. It is tricky to analyze and understand peoples motives for keeping committed to something. For me, my commitment to Toastmasters is three-fold. I have a deep desire to continue to improve and discover myself. Toastmasters gives me that opportunity in a variety of ways. I have a deep desire to impact the lives of others in a positive way, influencing them to improve themselves and reach their highest potential. Toastmasters gives me the opportunity to coach and mentor people in a variety of ways while watching them grow as individuals. Lastly, I developed the worst fear of public speaking through many traumatic embarrassing experiences, where Toastmasters helped me get over it and will continue to ensure I am never that scared person again. For other Toastmasters, I am still searching for their why to help hook them in and keep their commitment. I have decided that each Toastmaster can use the stage to find their why for other things. By writing and giving speeches, a Toastmasters will have to look at themselves and their genuine feelings on subjects. Sure, presenting facts is easy, but defending your personal opinion or belief in front of a crowd calls for a deep commitment to those opinions or beliefs. If you don't feel strongly for something, then it will be difficult to be confident in your stance and persuasive in your speech. However, if you have passion for something, a deep commitment, a most serious mind, then you will speak with enthusiasm and excitement. That enthusiasm and excitement is contagious. It will infect the audience, grab their attention, and influence them towards your opinions or beliefs, facts be damned. By finding these passions, beliefs, and opinions which one is most committed and excited for, the individual will discover who they are underneath the frightened and embarrassed outer shell sheltering us from the potential thoughts and actions of others. Find your voice, find your confidence. The deepest commitment is something where tomfoolery is unacceptable. It is where passion and enthusiasm reside. With a deep commitment, mountains can be moved. My Main Quest and Mission: My mission is to be the best Jedi I can be. My main quest is always to enhance my overall health, fitness, and knowledge to be prepared for whatever challenges life could throw at me. As a Jedi, I need to be able to help people, whether that is a life threatening situation or just a charitable one. There is no boss level in Jedi training, there is only tomorrow. World 2 Level 5 Challenge: FITNESS: Work Up a Sweat - 500 minutes of conditioning training for the entire challenge. DEX +2, STA +3 The weekly plan is a minimum of three 30 minute tabata runs with Pokémon Go, plus plenty of walking, hiking, or other activities. I crushed my goal last challenge, but my family has returned home. They throw a wrench in all plans I make for evenings and weekends. Stretch and Strengthen - 520 minutes of exercises and stretches for the entire challenge. STR +2, DEX +1 The weekly plan includes 10 minutes of regular stretching each day, two 20 minute sessions of physical therapy exercises and 20 minutes of other strength training each week. DIET: Weight Control - Lose 4 lbs by end of challenge. Never weigh more than 167 lbs. CON +3 I'm starting at 163.2 lbs as of August 22nd. LIFE: Get Stuff Done - Complete 16 Tasks or Projects from any of the following areas: Toastmasters, Webmaster, Jedi Training, Work, House Work, Home Renovation, Auto Maintenance, Family Activities (to keep it diverse, no more than 3 from any one category) WIS +2, CHA +2 I'm still procrastinating, deciding to do the fun stuff first and delay the less fun stuff. I need a rewards system for getting the hard stuff done. For each week I don't procrastinate undesirable tasks (where I think "I'll do it later") where I overcome procrastination and do it or at least work on it, I'll reward myself with one game of Madden Saturday morning. If I procrastinated at all, then I have to give up my morning to working on something I procrastinated. This plan won't influence my goal grade, but it will give me incentive to do all the things, instead of just the fun ones.

So if anyone is a part of the Ladies Nerdfitness Academy Facebook page, you may know that I have been through some major shite these past few months. Because of that, my timing is way off. I realize I only have 13 days left, but, I'm going to start this anyway. So what am I going to do in these 13 days? Continue going to Planet Fitness and follow the personal trainer's advice (see rant below) Meditate the embarrassment, guilt, and desire out of myself. Get a short comic up. Get to Chapt 2 in my Japanese Language course 1. PF- see below rant 2. Meditate: I have a lot of anger/frustration to deal with. And have been dealing with. Considering my breakup I have about 14 years of emotional stress to deal with. I also have about 2 more months of family emotional stress to deal with. Plus, I have to deal with the fact that while the weight is coming off, there's a really good chance (I'm betting about 95% chance) of me being alone for the rest of my life. I was afraid of that for a long time which is why I stayed in a bad relationship for so long. But I got to the point where I'd rather be alone than deal with his bs. A lot of people say, "oh you don't know what Goddess/God/Creature from the Black Lagoon has in store for you" and that's right. But I also don't like The Game. The Dating/Relationship/Hookup/Swipe Right game. I'm 35. I'm not hot. I'm a nerd. I like reading, playing video games and watching martial arts movies. I'm not a girly girl. You call me that I will make sure your legs bend wrong from now on. I am in no way shape or form hot enough for some guy to come along and pick me. Plus we're in a stage of society where they don't even have to get into a relationship if they don't want, they just sign up for Tindr, find a hook up for the night and boom, instant happiness. That's not what I'm into, so I'm out. Now, that's not me being all man hatey, not at all. That's me saying they do whatever makes them (and the women who do the same) happy and that's great. That's just not for me. So I get to sit this one out. Now, it's hard to do that because guys are, unfortunately, attractive. So what I'm going to do is what the monks in temples out in the middle of nowhere do. I'm going to meditate that side of me away. I'm going to meditate so that I can: be more in the now not worry so much about everything forget companionship (I need to heal anyway) understand what life is about So what I'm going to do is every day for the next 13 days, continue with my Headspace meditations and possibly add some more. I think it's going to do me wonders. 3. Comic I had a comic strip going, then life got in the way. Now I'm going to axe that, and do something based solely on my experiences in the past, and it's going to be a very short story of an instance that happened. With some dragons, magic and a school for the magically talented thrown in. I have not read any Harry Potter minus like 20 pages, so I hope I don't overlap too much. I'll read it after I am done with my story. So on Wednesdays or Thursdays, I'm going to write/draw (depending on which section I'm on) part of the story. I'm going to try to make it 14 pages long so I will see how far I can go. 4. Japanese Japanese is coming along, I still remember Hiragana and most of Katakana, but I need to drill myself every single day without fail. If for no longer than 5 minutes. I have Memrise for that. But that book I have needs to be something I do every day regardless of anything else. So at least 10 minutes a day I am going to read and study Japanese. The Stats as it was before: Str +1 (37) Int: +1 (8.5) Wis: 1 (14) Chr: +1 (20.1) Agi: +.2(20.5) This is where I was last time. Now, I'm going to add a few things because of what happened to me over the course of the difference between May 30th and now: Str: +4 I started doing weights again, and pushups. I can do 5 regular big boy pushups now. No knees here. Oh and I joined Planet Fitness!* Int: +2 I started getting seriously back into learning Japanese and working on my comic publishing skills Wis: +5 I left the man who was emotionally abusing me for years. I stayed away. I also have realized that I can and will be fine on my own. And that I want a dog so I won't be quite the crazy cat lady. I'll be a crazy cat lady with a random dog. Totally different. Chr: +2 I went on an outting. Granted I screwed up royally on it, but, nothing happened that would have been worse than the sheer embarrassment that already did. I can deal with embarrassment. Also, I got purple highlights in my hair. Always wanted them, finally did it. Half as a tribute to Prince, half as a tribute to my Queen side. Agi: +2 I started running! As a result of Pokemon Go (Go #TeamValor!) I started walking again. Everywhere. I even went *gasp* TO THE MALL DUN DUN DUN I went everywhere and no kidding I was having a ton of fun. The only time I have not gone out and walked around/driven around/interacted with life outside my dragoncave is when depression really took over. Not gonna lie, that happens sometimes. I can't help it, especially now after such a major breakup. But Pokemon Go has pushed me to walk around and enjoy the sun, the other people I see playing, and avoid talking to people I know are playing it. Today I get: Agi: +1 I went out and ran a bit today. Now, I had done this somewhat in the gym at the complex when nobody was around but never have I ever willingly run in public before. I remember distinctly getting into a fight with the gym teacher in high school when she told me to run. I almost didn't graduate because of it. But today, I put my gear on, went outside, and did like maybe 2 minutes total of running. You know the Couch 2 5k thing where you do a few seconds running, few seconds walking..I did that. I'm kinda proud of myself today. That's all I got so far today. I just wanted to really post about how proud I am of my fat self jiggling around the sidewalks for all to see. Ok so my totals are as follows: Str 41 Int: 10.5 Wis: 19 Chr: 22.1 Agi: 23 *Planet FItness: Ok so I joined PF. I went in there last week, totally dishevelled. I swear to Goddess I looked like a serial killer. I was shaking, I was sweating (didn't help it was literally 101 out) I was so nervous I almost died. Not to mention I went to the wrong damn PF. Apparently I signed up at the wrong location but they were kind enough to realize I as slowly having a melt down and let me just talk to the one trainer here. Now I am 1000% sure that guy thought I was going to eat him. I told him I was super nervous and I apologized for freaking out, and I could tell he was kinda scared. So I told him what I wanted, to lift heavy things to be stronger, to do pull ups, pushups, start to run for distance, and lose weight. He nodded and told me to come back next week (tomorrow). I said okay and then proceeded to go stammer on a treadmill for about 20 minutes to try to relax. The entire time I'm freaking out looking at ALL THE PEOPLE WHO WERE NEVER EVER THERE ALL THE 15 TIMES I GO DRIVING BY AT THIS SAME HOUR WHICH MADE ME WANT TO SIGN UP IN THE FIRST PLACE . I swear the place was jam packed full of all these people...I only went there because I was told that "nobody ever really shows up". BULL SHEIT. There were no joke 25 to 30 people in there. I was horrified...easily the fattest person in there. So tomorrow I get to go back again, to watch all the skinny/buff bastards who don't even need to be in there that day watch the short fat purple hair'd dragon jiggle her large ass all over the place bein sweaty and whatnot #breathes fire I HATE GYMS!!!!!!

So... things. I have little motivation for foruming stuff (at this moment right now at 7/18 9PM). But I've also been pretty actively extroverting/stressing about work (both at the same time). I guess for this challenge I have 3 main goals Continue the awesomeness of daily exercise: Really, I shouldn't discount this. In the past 2-3 challenges I have made massive strides from working out maybe once per week to doing something active almost daily. Easily 5 days out of 7. Pokemon go this past week has helped me take this to the next level - extending previously 10-15 min runs to 40+ min. Keep it up! Make it a habit, not just due to a random burst of motivation. Yoga 3 times per week, continuing Yoga With Adriene's Yoga Camp (even if I don't do it daily) 2 long walks or runs. Long = 30+ min of hiking or neighborhood exploration runs Sleep is important, and should not be neglected: So when I first got back into the groove of NF Challenges, I had a few (unsuccessful) attempts at sleeping solid amounts. To give a reference - last week I averaged 5 1/2 hours per weeknight And then 9 ish hours on the weekend. 7 hours (or more) per day. By going to bed at 10-10:30 and waking up 5-5:30. (is my math right? will correct later if not.....) No excuses. Eat dinner at normal human time - not 11 PM because (enter excuses here). Rawr. Alcohol: Continue the following: 2 or less drinks Monday - Thursday (carryover from last challenge) 4 or less drinks Friday - Sunday (new)

Introduction: I completed my second successful challenge and I feel like I have a better grasp on the new habits I'm forming, but I want to continue in this direction because it's definitely working and I want to make sure these positive changes are not just temporary ones. Here's an introduction to who I am and why I'm doing this. I've decided to stick with the Druids because I still want to investigate meditation and yoga more. While I'm primarily focused on losing weight and getting healthy, I'm very interested in finding peace and balance in my life as well. Like many other Rebels (I'm assuming), Pokémon Go has consumed my life the past week and a half, but in a good way. Since I got the app, I've been walking every day with my dog Booklet — the Pikachu to my Ash — to try to catch 'em all. And like the theme song from the Pokémon cartoon says, "I want to be the very best like no one ever was." Except I'm not really concerned with competing against others. I want to be the very best like I have never been. I guess you could say I aim to conquer as many battles as possible to level up until I evolve into my stronger form. I'm so close to being down to my college weight and becoming more fit than I've ever been in my life. It's really exciting. Main Quest: My 30th birthday is in October. I'd like to weigh 200 pounds or less by then. As of this morning, I weigh 213-214, which means my goal is well within reach. It didn't seem so easy to grasp when I started. I'd like to smash this goal and just keep losing as much weight as I can. My publisher has wagered $300 if I can achieve my goal. It's so fucking on! Quest 1: Complete my assigned Bodyweight Level 3 exercises three times a week (I've leveled up my workouts). I update these daily on my battle log if you want to see details and follow along. A = Complete workout 3 times a week. B = Complete workout 2 times a week. C = Complete workout 1 time a week. D = Complete 0 workouts in a week. F = No physical activity. Quest 2: Walk every day and work in the occasional jog/sprint. Booklet and I are gradually working our way up to 1-hour walks. I usually track these with the RunKeeper app on my battle log as well. Pokémon Go is making this goal so much more enjoyable! A = Walk 6-7 days a week. B = Walk 4-5 days a week. C = Walk 2-3 day a week. D = Walk 1 day a week. F = No walking. Quest 3: Drink less alcohol. I'm getting better at saying no all together or moderating myself when I do drink, but this is definitely still a big challenge for me. A = Have no more than 3 drinks per week. B = Have no more than 5 drinks per week. C = Have no more than 7 drinks per week. D = Have no more than 9 drinks per week. F = Anything more than that. Quest 4: Cook paleo meals more often, eat out less. If I do eat out, I will find healthy/paleo-ish options. A = Eat out no more than 2 times a week. B = Eat out no more than 4 times a week. C = Eat out no more than 6 times a week. D = Eat out no more than 8 times a week. F = Eat out more than 8 times a week. Quest 5: Investigate yoga and meditation and find a routine that fits into my life. I dabbled in yoga my last challenge and enjoyed the one regular class I tried. Hot yoga was a nightmare, lol. I'd like to look into the Nerd Fitness yoga program because I think a home-based yoga instruction would fit my life better. I failed to look into any form of meditation my last challenge, but I've got some good ideas on where I want to start thanks to tips from other Rebels. This goal is still kind of nebulous though, so for now I will focus on completing cool down routines after I workout and walk. My current cool down has a few yoga moves, so it's a nice little intro, but I tend to forget or skip it sometimes. I need to make this a regular habit because my body feels so much better the next day when I do it. A = Complete a cool down 6-7 times a week. B = Complete a cool down 4-5 times a week. C = Complete a cool down 2-3 times a week. D = Complete a cool down 1 time a week. F = Complete 0 cool downs. Life Quests: Netflix has become much less attractive to me in recent weeks. I'm currently catching up on Orange is the New Black, but I usually only watch it while I'm cooking/eating. I bought another Cesar Millan book, "How to Raise the Perfect Dog," to help me with Booklet. She can be a bit rebellious sometimes, so I need to learn how to be a better leader. I also like his books because he focuses a lot on being in the moment and maintaining a calm and assertive attitude, which I feel falls in line with my meditation/peace/balance goals. I also bought a bunch of other books while I was on vacation. I don't have a bookstore in my town so I tend to go overboard when I find one elsewhere. I will read Millan's book along with at least one other book that I bought during this challenge. Two books in one month should be no problem. Three books would be really cool, so I will aim for that. I'm still not writing anything in my free time, and it bums me out fiercely. However, my publisher assigned me a story this week about Pokémon Go, of course. It was my first real article in quite a while. I had a lot of fun interviewing people and writing in a more creative/free style (I'll try to share it as soon as I can). My editor asked if I missed writing and I definitely do (even though it can be more stressful with the deadlines). So we talked about me doing 1 story a week but in a first-person column type form. Not necessarily an opinion piece, but just bringing my personal perspective to local stories. I think this will help satisfy my desire to write as a personal/creative activity but I'll have more push to actually do it since it'll be a work assignment. Motivation: I feel like my lack of self confidence is a big obstacle that gets in the way of enjoying life and taking chances. I'd like to look good, so I can feel good and live life to the fullest.

As you may have noticed if you’ve followed my challenges, I’m a huge fan of Pokemon and I love exploring my local area so I’m having a lot of fun with Pokemon GO. Rather than fight the urge to play I’m going to take advantage of it by planning my exercise around it and buying in-game currency as a reward. I’ve deliberately never played a game with micro-transactions as I can’t justify spending money on it, but if it’s truly motivating me to kick ass in fitness I'll make an exception for Pokemon. Usual Activity 3x Stronglifts 2x Gym visits, at least one by bike. There is one Pokestop at my gym but more on the way when riding a bike. 6/7 days knee exercises BONUS: attend early morning gym class BONUS: [one-off] see the new physiotherapist Pokemon GO OUTSIDE Play Pokemon GO outside at least once a day, at minimum walking to the Pokestop at the end of my street. 1x per week longer walk, run, ruck or bike ride – can’t put numbers on this yet as I’m still figuring out what is going to work. Pokemon Candy Log food minimum 6/7 days a week. Going over targets is ok for now, just keep logging. BONUS: [one-off] Finish entering all new custom meals into MFP Pokedex 4 hours/week minimum on Lynda.com lessons. I'm learning graphic design skills to extend my illustration skills. Rewards I'm using a points system to calculate rewards, cashed in at the end of each week. I'm only aiming for 200 points per week normally. Stronglifts - 10pts per session +10pts bonus for a full week completed Gym - 30pts per gym visit + 20pts per bike ride Tracking food - 5pts per day + 5pts bonus for a full week (7) completed Knee exercises - 5pts per day + 5pts bonus for a full week (7) completed Lynda classes - 5pts per hour, capped at 30pts per week Early morning gym class - bonus 10pts each 180 points – 100 Pokecoins 200 points – 200 Pokecoins (This is equivalent to a 100% week) 250 points – 550 Pokecoins (Exceptional week) 280 points – 1200 Pokecoins (Nearly the maximum point value) One-off bonuses – 550 Pokecoins each

Welcome to my latest challenge thread. Pokemon GO edition. I was sick most of my last challenge, and the challenge before that wasn't so hot either. Time to get back, and have a good challenge. Since Pokemon go was release, I have gotten myself back out there. I've been walking each day. Since I have been so motivated to get out there now, I figured I would structure my challenge around it My goals are pretty similar to what I had last time. This time, I am just not down and out right away Goal1 - Gym Battles Like an aspiring Pokemon Master, I need to get in my gym battles. Each gym has 3 bosses. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. The bosses siblings, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, might need sub in if I have to change my schedule for some reason To beat these bosses, I need to attack them with Stronglifts. This will be the third challenge that I will attempt to do the stronglifts routine. Time to get it done. Just a side note. My wife informed me last night, our local gym is having a contest. I think it starts at the end of the month. $1000 for first place. I think it is person to lose the most wins. I am guessing body weight percentage to be fair. I’ll need to find out. So I may have additional motivation there, and might need to get together with the trainer to maximize my workouts. I’m going to 4 gym badges this challenge. Beating the 3 bosses will earn me 1 badge a week. Goal 2 - Walk/Run between Gyms With Pokemon GO now out, I have really been getting back out there and getting in some walks. All the trainers know you have to walk to get the next gym battle, and plenty of training on the way. So this goal I will continue playing Pokemon Go, and walking. I’m not setting a specific goal like 10k steps yet. The real goal I have, is to get back to running. I want to run a 5k in September, but I don’t think I can drop enough weight in time. I plan to walk every day. So one pokepoint per day of walking. Week 2, I will attempted C25k again. This will be on non workout days. Goal 3 - Pokepuffs? Not for me With all the training, and traveling between gyms, I need to keep myself fueled properly. I need to get back to prepping my meals, and tracking in MyFitnessPal. I will continue with having 2 meals during the week be my whatever meals. I still want those meals to be healthier types, or at least quality meals. I’m not giving up a meal for fast food. Prep lunch and dinner meals. 12 meals total, 2 “whatever” meals Track food in mfp. 1 pokepoint per day. Even on whatever meals times, I still want to track it. Goal 4 - Resting up at the Poke center Each trainer knows that they need to rest up after all that training and gym battling. So I need to make sure I get my rest as well. I will be in bed no later then 12:05. Turn off all distraction, by 11:30pm, and hit up some reading. I didn’t finish all my Calvin and Hobbes last challenge, so I will be using those. If I run out of reading, I can always just focus on something else to wind me down. Maybe meditate or something. 1 pokepoint each day. Measurements: (I will take on Day 1) Neck - 20.27in / Chest - 57.12in / Waist at belly button - 62.91in / Bicep (L) - 18.26in / Bicep (R) - 17.91in / Forearm (L) - 14.25in / Forearm (R) - 14.25in / Thigh (L) - 32.08in / Thigh (R) - 30.11in / Weight (lbs) - 370.2lbs / Grading: Pokemon Gym defeated Week 1: 0 Week 2: 0 Week 3: 0 Week 4: Pokepoints earned: Week 1: 13.5/21 Week 2: 7.5/21 Week 3: 7/21 Week 4: 0/21

GOOD MORNING! As most of you know, the new Pokemon Go game has gotten many people out walking miles (or km) beyond what they had done before on a daily basis. That's great, but more can still be done. I have developed a PokeGo Workout you can do in your neighborhood that can and will push many to your limits. I have been in the US Army for 7 1/2 years and this was one of the hardest things I think I have ever done to myself. SO LET'S GET DOWN TO BUSINESS (Huns not included)!!!!! The goal - hatch an egg, any egg. Beginners might want to just pick a 2km egg, because this will suck. The rules - 1. Pick a route and jog/run it. No need to speed through it because, if you're fast, it'll think you're on a bike and won't count your steps. I went over a mile before I figured this out. (I have heard that they fixed this in the last update. Maybe my connection was bad) 2. If you encounter a Pokemon that can't fly (rats, bugs, dinosaur-rabbits, wtfe), catch it, then do 10 pushups. And you must do MUST do it even if it runs away and you can't get it. 3. If you encounter anything that flies or can fly, do 10 burpees. Right there on the spot, no saving up for later. DO IT. You think you hated zubats before? Guess again, buddy. 4. Anything that swims earns you 20 squats. Those of you who live by rivers or the beach are going to hate your life. 5. At the end of it all, do 2 pullups at your place for everything you caught during the exercise. 6. Make sure to stretch. It's important since you're GOING TO DO IT ALL AGAIN TOMORROW!!!!! 7. Add your own rules as you see fit, or that would make it more challenging for you and your goals. Add a backpack, loaded ruck, or a friggin kettlebell tied to your junk for all I care. You'll earn that steak and egg breakfast. If you want to focus on running distance, then pick that 10km egg and cut the reps for the exercises in half or tally everything you caught at the end. It'll hurt, but you'll be the best there ever was... You want to get fit AF playing PoGo? That's how you do it.

I'm back from vacation and needing a serious re-boot. Vacation was awesome, but also filled with beer, moscow mules, cake, pizza, burgers, chips... you get the picture! Time to cleanse the crap and reestablish routines. Pokemon Go was released during the trip and I've joined Team Mystic. I didn't have a theme prepared this time so this one seemed like an obvious choice given the hype train and it plays nicely with my walking/step goal. Updates will be a minimum of couple of times per week. I'd like to do daily, but no guarantees. GOALS: Lapras (water type): HYDRATE! Only water to drink for the duration of the challenge. Iced green tea will be allowed. One beer allowed each Friday and Saturday evening. Hypno (psychic type): MEDITATE! I've been keeping up with my Headspace through the whole vacation! (it was not easy! *pats back*). Keep up my meditation run streak throughout the challenge. I will need to decide about spending the money to continue the Headspace subscription or find something new. Marowak (ground type): WALK! I'm going to do walking a bit different this time and try to revert to my fitbit step counting days. It just kept me moving a bit more all day long rather than just concentrating on one walk per day. Goal will be progressive. Week 1, 7000 steps/day. Week 2, 8,000 steps/day. Week 3, 9,000 steps/day. Week 4, 10,000 steps/day. This should be completely do-able. Hitmoncha (fighting type): STRENGTH! Desperately need to get back to a routine. This may be a work in progress as I'd like to get in some strength, yoga, and mobility workouts but don't want to work out every day. Minimum 3 workouts per week of some sort. Biggest goal is to find a routine that hits all those areas that works for me and my schedule. Jigglypuff (/normalfairy type): MINIMIZE AND CLEAN! I'm going to throw all this under one roof (so to speak), but continue minimizing, shopping ban, and general adulting. The last few challenges I've focused on this quite a lot and I will continue my work, but general adulting/cleaning needs to improve around here. Mostly it's just me being lazy and not cleaning often enough. It's not a fun job, but I need to find a way to treat myself for getting it done or some other incentivizing. I'm open to ideas. GO!!!!! I think it will be fun to include some running Pokemon Go dialogue as well. It was hard to get much Pokemon'ing done on vacation but as of right now I'm Level 7 and have 28 in my Pokedex. I caught Pikachu in my living room last night. It's been super fun since we got home last night because the church next door to us is a Pokestop. The front porch people watching is going to be SUPREME. In fact, a little part of the side of my house is IN Pokemon Go. I'm such a nerd. haha! I haven't done anything with gyms yet. Still learning. I'll update my thread with new catches when I update. Anyone else playing?