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Welcome! I’m the married parent of 4 kids aged 0-7. I’m ultimately an adventurer at heart, though I train similar to a lot of Rangers (and I’m something of a Druid Paladin which is also something of an equivalent to a Ranger). I love hiking, exploring, traveling, and other fun things with the family. Since shortly before joining Nerdfitness, my physical training is typically built around injury rehabilitation (which happens a bit more often due to autoimmune arthritis) and training to be able to travel, explore, and play with my family. I have a pretty effective Disney World training system, and try to ensure that at any point I’m strong enough to carry my whole family somewhere. That has become more difficult as the years go on but I can still do it for the most part. I am also an enthusiastic suburban homesteader bent on establishing an orchard and vegetable garden, so things can get pretty out-doorsy depending on my goals. My needs mean I do a variety of types of training, and my earliest two physical training goals were “run fast” and “be able to competitively play any sport I come across.” I prefer to avoid gyms and do a lot of body weight training. We recently welcomed baby 4 into the family, my cat was recently diagnosed with feline dementia, and I am still on parental leave. We discovered some nearby bakeries for sale, a way to give a physical location to our small cottage bakery, and are intensely investigating those. I am off work for this whole challenge. I am also halfway through an intensive therapy round that seems to be helping quite a lot, as well as possibly having been egregiously misdiagnosed for most of my life. This challenge, we are going forward with business/kitchen buying due diligence, we move back into full planting mode at the suburban homestead, and we are continuing with eating a ketosis diet that has been quite helpful for us. I am working back into my calisthenics routine and may or may not start back with running. I am also continuing to work through the house, organizing and cleaning Goals: 1. Sleep. As best as possible. I’m a nonfunctional mess without sleep and can sacrifice it for a few days ok but then I have to make it a super high priority to regain it. With le bébé here and being off work, this is a lot easier than it was. 2. My basic calisthenics routine with Woody and Rex and Bo Peep. As well as spending some individual time with each kid exploring the neighborhood area, Just Dance sessions, and running or walking stairs or carrying sandbags up and down them. We started geocaching at the local park as well as fishing, thought the Mickey Mouse rod requires repair. 3. Take one concrete step forward per day. This had a great effect on my mental health last challenge and also helped me to do at least one tangible, visible thing to make life better. This ranged from things as small as “dig out the replacement toaster” to as big as “reorganize the playroom.” I don’t have to complete the bigger ones as long as I make progress. 4. Take one concrete step forward per day career-wise. I need my job but I’m not satisfied in it and otherwise need a change. I need to hone/adapt skills and look for other opportunities. -> Currently, this involves working towards dramatically expanding a part-time business into a full-time business, which would have Jessie running that business full-time and likely have me also working it full time within the next few years. 5. It’s planting time. I have a raised vegetable bed to dig in, another to level, drainage to install, and permanent cinderblock sides to install. I have anti-deer fences to put in around my fruit trees as well, and I’d like to start a bunch of seeds. Also, some of my experimental seed fruit trees may have actually survived and those I need to get into the ground at the back of the yard. It’s too early now, but I also have my grandma’s Japanese yellow rose to place somewhere too and a second decorative pot to put in with paver stones in the front. I also want to finish off the fencing (connecting neighbor fences to our house and installing a gate) so I can let the dogs out/delegate that job to someone else. 6. Therapy. I have a lot of goals for the therapy. I won’t accomplish all of them in the three remaining intensive weeks BUT I’ve already come a long way and I believe I can get the framework I need to live a happier, healthier, and more interpersonally effective life. It’s actually fun and rewarding, particularly in light of my personal discoveries and the fact that I was able to get my sister away from a doctor who was awful and caused a bad situation for her over and into my doctor on short notice. My little sister is one of my favorite people and she deserves quality care from a doctor who validates her. For tomorrow, we have a meeting re: the bakery to sign paperwork and gain additional due diligence paperwork. I want to take care of the shoe problem or what is necessary for the raised bed as well. It’ll be a busy day. In any case, that’s going to require sleep so I bid y’all adieu.

Intro: Hello! I'm Maplelicious (a silly name, I know), and I want to start my fitness journey by earning my way into the Rangers guild! I want to start getting fit for a few simple reasons: I want to feel more healthy and lead a more active lifestyle; I want to to teach myself discipline that can be easily applied to academics; and, as is one of the tenets of NF, I want to look good naked! I'm at an odd fitness level because I don't have any particularly strong body parts – for example, I can barely lift a thirty-pound dumbbell with one hand – but because of that, younger me learned how to compensate by efficiently using multiple body parts (e.g., I get most of my power when I swing a baseball bat by throwing energy from my hips and shoulders into my hands with rotation). As a result, I can consistently do five chin-ups when most people I know can barely do one, but those same people can also easily carry girls heavier than them on their shoulders while dancing. If a girl climbed on my back at a party, she'd better hope I was next to something soft. However, a whole consists of all its parts, and so if I make my muscles stronger, my innate capability to make my strength practical will increase dramatically. That's why I want to become a Ranger - I'm all about practical strength. Prior to today, I've been looking at NF articles and trying some of the workouts – especially the playground one – and was quite excited when I found out that my school had a fitness centre that wasn't just open to phys ed students, but that I could use it any time during my lunch hour. Well, after hearing about all the benefits of weighted squats, I warmed up responsibly, checked out some of the other equipment, and then headed over to the squat rack. Thanks to Steve and Staci's excellent articles, I immediately recognized the shiny, freely-spinning end pieces of the Olympic barbell, which also meant that, even when completely unloaded, it would weigh – gulp – forty-five pounds. I had done barbell squats before when a (completely jacked) friend showed me how, but only with a twenty-pound weight, and a short, miserable set with thirty pounds that jacked up my back for a few days. Nevertheless, I pinned my failure on my friend not explaining form at all, and I can distinctly remember feeling my calves practically rip as I tried to stand up on my toes and with my knees way past my shoes. I was a Rebel now! – I was a master in squat theory! Forty-five should be nothing as long as I keep my ass out and my knees in check, right? Well, I checked off the steps mentally as I wrapped my fingers around the bar in just the right grip, with the bar in just the right place on my shoulders. Butt out, feet shoulder-width apart... you know the drill. I was ready to do the perfect squat, and kickstart my journey to having my friends' jaws drop next summer! Only one step left - push the weight (or lack of it, thereof; it was really just a naked bar) off the holders. puuuuuuuuuuush Ahem; I said, push the weight off the holders! puuuuuuuuuuush Get this dang thing in the air! puuuuuuuuuuuuuuUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUSH Sweet, it's off! It's completely in my control now, right? ...right? Those were (probably) my last thoughts as the bar promptly rolled out of that perfect position on my shoulders, tore away from my perfectly-gripped fingers, impacted my perfectly protruding butt, and landed on the safety bars with all the grace of Rob Ford doing parkour. The sound of the crash may or may not have shut down the school for a few days due to a suspected IED explosion in the P.E. corridor. Okay, it didn't. But that's sure how I felt. I bade my time warming up while waiting for the guy using the squat rack to finish with his reps with a total weight of 85 pounds (20-lb plates). If that little skinny dude could do 85 no problem, 45 should be a walk in the park! I could visualize myself really starting to feel the burn as I quickly started screwing on plates after finding 45lb practically equivalent to bodyweight squatting. And in that moment of impact, when that literal butthurt started to send throbbing signals throughout my body, that image shattered. In hindsight, which is 20/20 (or, in the case of a wood elf, more akin to 50/20), it was probably only worth a chuckle to the other people in the room, but at the time, it felt like there were more eyes glaring at my weakness than there were eye sockets present – my friends, who easily shrugged off all of my tackles in childhood games of football, and my female friends, with whom I would very soon wish to start relationships, had their gazes upon me too, judging me and crossing me off in their mental Books of Life for potential partners, and instead circling that childhood bully who's been playing select hockey since he was six. I knew that something had to give, and the responsibility fell squarely in my lap. It was time to stop thinking that I could step into the fire without ever even being in the frying pan. Ladies and gentlemen, may I present to you: MY MAIN QUEST: DO TEN SQUATS WITH A 45-POUND BARBELL (and begin learning exercise discipline and healthy habit-making skills in order to create a platform for future improvement) Unfortunately, due to the fact that I will be joining this challenge about two weeks late, I can only hope to gain a maximum of ten points if I get A's in everything. As such, my point concentrations for awards have to be lowered significantly. I only write rewards for A's as benchmarks, and remove points to my own judgement for lower marks. For example, if I walk for 10 minutes every day but don't do any leg presses in Quest 1, I'll remove STR and END because I didn't really gain anything there. Recipe for Success (Quests) Improve leg strength (my weakest muscle group) by walking at least 10 minutes (excluding walk to subway) per day and do a set of leg presses (essentially negative squats) of at least 30 pounds at least 3x/week. REWARDS: A: STR +1, END + 1; END + 1Do as many reps of 20lb goblet squats as possible within 10 minutes 4x/week. REWARDS: A: STR: + 2, CON + 1, END + 2Cut down on snacking, especially late at night, to prove to myself that this is real and a permanent change for the better. REWARDS: A: CON+1, WIS +1Life Goal: Become someone I would be proud to date/have a relationship with, physically, mentally, and socially. I know it true to myself that I am a massive teddy bear and would be affectionate and sweet to a fault if I were dating someone... However, I would also be a know-it-all, pedantic, and too blind to social cues to garner the foggiest clue if asking someone out would elicit a "yes". Not to mention the fact that all of the girls I know also have the option of going out with strong, athletic, and admittedly handsome boys who always know the right thing to say and can carry a conversation like a camel carries water. If I want to stand a fighting chance to letting these girls see the affectionate side of me, I need to put on the pants in my relationship with my reclusive "blerch" (credit The Oatmeal) and get out there. I'm going to start by planning a hang-out – just a simple hangout – with a girl who I know just likes to cuddle, relationship or no, and see if I can (genuinely, no manipulation here) make her comfortable enough to want to. Motivation: The song "Creep" by Radiohead. I only very recently heard it, but I am now thoroughly obsessed. Saying that I relate to its lyrics is a bit of a hyperbole, but I don't want to say "I don't belong here" any more, and may I never know the pain of "she's running out again." Wish me luck, and thanks to everyone at Nerd Fitness for bringing me here, the first step of my new, healthier life!