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[Pre-Challenge: Complete Mindset Module of the Academy] “OMG Hi! Long time listener - first time caller” Yeeeah… not really. My last 4-week challenge was in April of 2016. A lil over 2 years ago. I’ve hit some snags.. A lot of snags. I’ll spare you all the TL;DR wall-o-text. Long story short, 2016 was a terrible year in a lot of ways… and I thought what I learned and endured through 2016 would lead me to a great 2017. It didn’t. I’m starting from square one now. Story time will happen throughout my journey, sorta like a narrator to put all the pieces together. I’m going to be using these 4 week challenges to catalog my progress through the NF Academy, and supplementing those quests with little extras here and there. Nothing crazy. No more jumping into everything with a mighty furor just to burn out in 6 weeks. No more assuming I obviously know all the answers I just need to “motivate” myself. I’ve got a basic start of ideas for how I’m going to literally ease back into these challenges - and that’ll come later. Right now, I’ve got the pre-challenge I’ve set for myself to go back through and complete my Mindset module of the NF Academy. I won’t apologize - I’m gonna probably spam the everloving s- out of this thread while I do. Thanks to the mindset module, I have a handful of quests lined up starting today (yep - today!) Quest: I am the type of person who will drink more water. I will limit myself to one 12oz soda per day at most for the next four weeks Quest: I am the type of person who cares about her health. I will take the dog for a walk every morning during the work week, and every evening on the weekends. Quest: I am the type of person who enjoys cooking for her family. I will stick to my meal plan 4-5 days a week. Quest: I am the type of person who takes pride in her appearance. I will be more diligent by brushing/flossing both morning and night, along with a morning/night face wash Quest: I am the type of person who is diligent in her commitment to herself. I will check in via the NF Rebellion (the 4 week challenge, or my personal battle log depending on the day) every. Day. to keep myself honest about my progress and my goals. I'll be adding in bits here and there, as well as updating my Mindset Module link (going to the Google Doc where I'll have my Before pictures/measurements/Big Why/etc) as I continue on and make my progress throughout the 4 weeks. ♥ -Annabelle

I have been gone for a long time...too long. I have gained back all the weight I lost & burned the candle at both ends until there was no wax left. It is time to rise from the ashes of my current life to create a new & better one for myself. I am readying myself for the next challenge & I will triumph! Update to follow.

Nascence: (Noun) A coming into being; a beginning. Introduction: I'm back. It's been a while, so allow me to reintroduce myself. My name is Richard and I'm a newspaper editor who loves hip hop, board games and hiking. (For my origin, check out my battle log.) I'm a wordy person, so here's your spoiler warning that I tend to ramble quite a bit. I used to go by EternalJourno, but I renamed myself a while back as Rey of Light. Rey is Spanish for king and obviously a play on the word "ray." The idea was to rebrand myself as a being or force of light and positivity, which has been hard to incorporate into my life lately. I've been dealing with depression and anxiety, but I finally started seeing a therapist and psychologist a few months back to get the help I needed. I took a break from the forums and I've been struggling to regain my discipline and willpower. A foot injury slowed me down significantly, so I haven't been exercising, which intensified my depression. And my emotional state has led me to eating a lot of junk food. As a result, I'm practically back to square one. Last year I lost 40 pounds. At this point I'm nearly back to my starting weight (I've gained 30-35 pounds back). I realized that without the accountability of the forums, I've allowed myself to stray too far from my goals. It's time to get back on the right path. My therapist recently said I'm in my own head too much and encouraged me to find something to help me take my mind off things. She mentioned video games, which I moved away from for many years. I figured I'd give it a shot and bought the game Journey for the PS3. I had always been attracted to the art style but didn't really know much about it. It had been recommended as a chill game. My first time playing was (and subsequent plays have been) an incredible, beautiful, emotional experience. I've been obsessed with it for the past week or so, and it has given me inspiration to move forward with my life's journey. The game is designed around the hero's journey, which Steve Kamb is also obsessed with. The game begins with a traveler waking up in the desert and gradually learning about his history and how to use his abilities — a sort of birth or rebirth. Your quest is to reach a mountain in the distance — and along the way you may encounter random companions. Once you've completed your journey, you are taken back to the beginning to start anew. I feel like last year was my first journey. I made a goal of losing 40 pounds and learned many new abilities to help me reach the mountaintop. However, I allowed myself to fall back down, so here I am again wandering in the desert, having lost my scarf and my ability to fly. No longer can I do pushups and pullups with confidence. No longer can I walk long distances without feeling sore and losing my breath. It's time to take baby steps to learn how to redevelop my willpower and discipline. I will once again reach the mountain (and beyond) with the help of the knowledge I gained on my first journey. And I'm back to the forums to connect and reconnect with new and old companions. Main Quest: I strive for the Triforce. I will build Power (physical health/lose weight) via good eating and exercise habits. I will achieve Courage (mental health/self confidence) through therapy and other potential means. I will exercise and cultivate Wisdom (knowledge/art) by devouring books as part of a balanced diet and reinvigorating my love affair with writing. Quest 1: Complete my assigned Bodyweight exercises three times a week and complete a cool down afterward. I update these on my battle log if you want to see details and follow along. A = Complete workout/cool down 3 times a week. B = Complete workout/cool down 2 times a week. C = Complete workout/cool down 1 time a week. D = Complete 0 workouts/cool downs in a week. F = No physical activity. Quest 2: Walk every day with my dog Booklet and complete a cool down afterward. I usually track these with the RunKeeper app on my battle log as well. I'm also tracking my miles on my Walk to Mordor. A = Walk/cool down 6-7 days a week B = Walk/cool down 4-5 days a week. C = Walk/cool down 2-3 day a week. D = Walk/cool down 1 day a week. F = No walking/cool downs. Quest 3: Drink less alcohol (If I do drink, I will stick to low carb cocktails). A = Have no more than 3 drinks per week (add a plus if only low-carb cocktails). B = Have no more than 5 drinks per week (go up a letter grade if only low-carb cocktails). C = Have no more than 7 drinks per week (go up a letter grade if only low-carb cocktails). D = Have no more than 9 drinks per week (go up a letter grade if only low-carb cocktails). F = Anything more than that (go up a letter grade if only low-carb cocktails). 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. Life Quests: Perform "Awesome Hour" every night before bed and learn to better care for my mental/emotional health. This means powering down without screens. I will stretch my foot, meditate, read a book, color and/or write. I will also update my journal with notes about good things from my day and positive things about myself. Motivation: Originally, I wanted to look good in order to build confidence so that I could learn to live life to the fullest, but I realize I've been looking at things backward. The truth is I've put too much focus on my physical attractiveness. I want to find love, but I know I need to love myself first. I need to build self-esteem, take chances and stop holding myself back in order to live life to the fullest.

I've been gone for awhile almost 12 months+ being busy with pregnancy and having a baby via c-section. When I first joined NF I was on here to get advice on how to gain weight and build up muscle. Now it's the opposite and I am focusing on toning up my tummy, and working on my core from the c-section. Have to keep this short little one is waking up from a nap. The pics are weight lost normal with out working out and a healthy diet. My new diet/meal plan and workouts start tomorrow. Wish me luck and any advice on how to work out your core would be much appreciated. I've had difficulty with stairs and squats with a weak core and extra weight on the legs. The little one is crying so that's my cue. Hope to start things off right and healthy.

Hello NerdFitness! I am writing this in the respawn rather than daily battle logs because, well, that's pretty much what I'm doing. Right? Right. In any case, the last few months of 2015 sucked balls. Like ... MAJORLY sucked. And I have been trying desperately to climb back out of the hole that I have fallen into. Sadly, it's a very long way up from where I'm sitting. That's beside the point, though. I am back here because I miss NF and the people who are here helping each other. I know that I am not in a place to take on challenges right now. I wanted to jump back into them at the beginning of the new year, but I knew that if I fell off? I would just feel worse. Better to make sure I'm ready than just making myself feel even less than I'm already feeling, right? That said, my hope for the new year is to get back into writing in my daily battle log. New medications are making everything wonky and weird, which is just making the whole fitness and health quest even harder. I'm hoping that getting back into sharing the struggles will also help in conquering them. Happy New Year and glad to be back!

Hello fellow Rebels! I'm not all that new to the forums or the site, but it has been a LONG time since I've been on here. So long that I actually forgot my old login name and password! Ah well, this the start of a new beginning for me. I'm Jessie, but I've gotten used to being called Jessica as well. I'm from Detroit, MI and the weather here in general sucks! (I mean, seriously, we bought a pool a few years ago and we've only been able to use it a few times, augh!) Based off my user name I am a bit of an artist, but it's nothing spectacular, I just draw whatever I feel like drawing, even if it looks like crap. Crocheting is a new hobby I've slowly gotten into thanks to my mom. (I'm working on a blanket for my friend, but it's taking so long.) And I am, like a good chunk of people, severely addicted to the internet. There was a time last year that I weighed roughly around 350 give or take. And as of right now I'm 393.3, and I'm only 5'3". I started school last year to become a Dialysis Patient Care Technician because I couldn't find a job and I was sick of doing nothing with my life. So during the school year I either did some or no exercising at all, so I slowly gained weight. Around the end of June this year I started my externship at a hospital, which was great because I was on my feet a lot, the only thing is that we had a low census. But once the middle of August came, my externship ended, and I didn't have to worry about school anymore. So what did I do? Sat at the computer, played video games, read some books, that's about it. I knew my weight was high because I was around 380-ish in early June when I was rushing to get my shots and paperwork for externship, but I didn't really worry too much about it. But seeing that I was in the 390-range and was getting VERY close to 400lbs was a huge wake-up call! I'll admit, I still have bad habits that are going to take a while to break Staying up late into the 3-4AM range is one of them (only possible because I can't get a job right now because I'm living with my folks and we're all relying on one vehicle thanks to the massive flood in August). Also sitting at the computer/TV most of the day and NOT getting anything done (except for exercise now) is another bad one. This will take some time to change, but I know deep down I will get it under control! I'm just thankful that I've managed to get myself a little walking routine going on to get myself into working out! Thank you for reading my story. I hope to gain new friends and get my life back on track!