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Greetings fellow Nerd Rebels! I'm Trydus, I'm new here to Nerd Fitness (well, new as in the first time posting, anyway). I think what the NF team built is amazing, and the community, extraordinary. Here I'm thinking "There's a place where there are a bunch of awesome nerds who want to be fit and more awesome too?! Count me in!!" A little history behind me: I've been on somewhat of a fitness journey for a while. I've been off and on Paleo and exercise routines for a couple of years, never deciding to fully commit to it until the beginning of this year, where some of my coworkers challenged me to a contest among themselves of healthy eating and exercise. They put together an online form to track our progress and make us more accountable to each other. This was the kick I needed, and I was off. I was eating Paleo every day (think salads, stir frys, steaks) and I also started a Yoga program, intertwined with my own sort of workout. Things were going good for a bit, and I was losing weight but didn't really feel like I was making progress. I guess I just didn't have actual fitness goals in mind other than "get unfat". At the same time, I had traveling on my mind, I wasn't happy with my current position at work and in life, and made a decision that in a year or two, I'd take an extended trip and backpack for a couple months in Italy. I started reading into traveling, how to survive on the road, skills, techniques, etc., and stumbled upon an article about staying fit while traveling. Naturally, this peaked my curiosity. After reading the article and watching the interview, I found Nerd Fitness. I've been hooked ever since. Ok, let's get down to brass tacks. Main Quest: My overall Main Quest so far is to become the most fit and skilled version of myself that I can be. I want to be in a much sharper state so when I take my trip (which has now evolved into an Epic Quest, thanks Steve!) I can be ready for any challenge that gets thrown at me. Not to mention just being more awesome for life in general For this 6 week challenge, my quest is to drop another 10-20 pounds (started January at 225, now at 205), and reach a new level of fitness. How am I gonna do that? Here are my goals: Goal 1: Continue to cook and eat Paleo every weekday. I typically start my Sunday or Monday with a trip to the local Whole Foods, pick up my ingredients, and do my prep for the week. This includes carrots, green onions, red leaf lettuce, radishes, zucchini, and chicken. With this, I make salads for my lunch, and stir fry combinations for supper. Sometimes I cook up a bunch of veggies for lunch the next day. What's funny about this goal, is I read Steve's intermittent fasting article, and realized I was already doing it and didn't know it! Goal 2: Stick to the workout plan. My workout plan is a combination of the "Beginner's Body Workout" with some additions such as pullups and chinups, on Mon - Wed - Fri. I want to be able to complete more than 3 pullups at a time by the end of this challenge. On Tue - Thur, I am continuing Yoga, to maintain and improve my joint strength and flexibility. I've found when you do Yoga on a regular basis (and, indeed, exercise in general), it's crazy how much it affects how you move on a day to day basis. I'm not nearly sore at all anymore (except after an awesome workout and maybe a little in the morning after said awesome workout), whereas I just ached all the time for no reason. At 26 years old, I just had enough of that non-sense. Goal 3: Sleep more, stress less. I work in a pretty high stress field, sometimes up at all hours of the night or working way more than full-time. My goal here is to try to get in more than 6 hours of sleep on average, and try out some meditation to reduce stress. One thing I've been considering doing is making it a rule to turn off my devices (multiple computers, tablets, so many gadgets!) by 10 PM, and just hitting a book until bed time. Life Goal/Main Quest Goal: Continue Learning Italian. I combined the life/main goal because this is a part of that Main Quest. I started learning Italian last year, and fell off the bandwagon. I am committing to spending 3 times a week on studying, an hour a night. I want to become fluent in Italian first, because that's the first country I'm going to on my Epic Globetrotting Quest, and the one I'll probably spend the most time in. Finding Nerd Fitness, reading the content and seeing the community has been really inspiring to me. It's helped keep me motivated, and taught me a lot of things about a lot of things. I'm glad to be a part of something so awesome. Good luck to all other 6 week challengers, I know you all can do it. Fortune favors the bold. - Trydus

I am a recent transplant to the south because I'm finally going back to work! I had a baby a couple of years ago - I gained a small amount of baby weight, lost it all plus some after the baby was born, and then gained it all back plus another 10 lbs over the last year and a half. It's time for it to go. I'm currently 5'6", 194 lbs (I started at 204 - I've already lost 10...yay!). I recently switched to a 90%ish Paleo diet, with a bit of cheese thrown in here and there. I also did the CrossFit Foundations course at my local box, and joined tonight. I'm super excited, because it's a lot of fun for me. I love lifting weights (the little that I've done), and CrossFit is my opportunity to do so with other people that are just as into it as I am. 1. My main goal is to weigh 150 lbs, by the end of the year. This puts me within the healthy BMI range for my height. (Yes, I know weight isn't always a good way to determine fitness, but it is something measurable...and saying "I want to look really good in a cute dress" isn't quite as measurable, although it is true.) 2. Three specific goals for this six week challenge: Do a workout at least four times a week, be it CrossFit, running, or using the hotel gym if I'm traveling. Eat breakfast every work day. Try one new veggie a week.3. Side goal - I started a new job a couple of months ago with a lot more responsibility than I'm used to. Mostly I'm trying not to drown. Taking at least a 30 minute lunch to do something other than work at least 3 days a week is my side goal. Keeps me balanced.

Main Quest: Ready myself for the races. Run twice a week. I have four races coming up this year. I am actually doing well, all things considered. I haven’t run since January, and since October before that, and I was able to kill a mile in 13:41. My best yet. The goal is to keep training. I want to see a 13 minute mile, straight by the end of the season! (2 points per run) T25 6 days a week. A huge factor in my motivation lately has been the progress I’ve seen with Focus T25. I’m down in inches, I’m down in weight, and I’m feeling pretty stellar. The goal here is to keep that motivation and run with it. It’s a great cardio workout as well as muscular workout, so this will be my gym for the next 6 weeks (and then some). (1 point per workout) Shakeology DAILY. I have been a morning shake drinker for years, and now I’ve got Shakeo. I’m frankly loving the stuff, and I can tell when I’m not having it. This is my diet side. I need that nutrition, daily. The nutrients keep me running and jumping and skipping and smiling and they motivate me to stay away from the other crap. Plus, this stuff has killed my cravings for junk, so I don’t crave that McDonald’s or Cheeto reward anymore… Gotta keep that up for sure. (1 point per day) Side Quests: Life – Get organized I am sick of thinking I’ll get that craft room organized tomorrow. It’s always tomorrow. No – it’s going to be today. I am going to get those boxes sorted and ready for good will. I am going to set up my old computer to make an office/yoga space. I will post weekly progress shots. (0 points for nothing. 5 points for part way. 25 points for completion) Fitness – Get back into yoga I love my aquafit class, but I miss yoga. With T25, I have seen increased flexibility in my legs, but my hips are still a HUGE issue. This goal will be focused around my HIPS specifically. I need to do yoga 3 days a week, but I will be happy with one. A class at my gym – my friend’s class – online videos… It needs to happen. I will post a starting shot of my hip flexibility and we will measure progress by the end of the six weeks! My goal is to work on three specific positions: Frog, Pigeon, and King Pigeon. (1 point per yoga work out, 3 points max per week) And last but not least… My motivation is… My progress. I am finally seeing some, so I’ll be damned if I let it slide!

The next six weeks are going to be CRAZY. My last day teaching (and working 70 hours a week at two jobs) is tomorrow, which means that I'll be back to working one job (yay normal life!). Then, on June 24th, I am moving to Tanzania for the next two years. Cue chaos. Amidst the chaos and the move and the culture stress bound to ensue, I want to keep in reasonable shape. But I realize that any complex or time-consuming goals simply won't happen. Thus, simple goals. 1). Stick with something I already do. Commute by bicycle to work at least twice a week. 2). Get back on track. Do a simple body-weight routine at least three times a week (10+ pushups, 30s planks, 5+ pull/chin-ups) 3). Mind over matter. Stick to my life goal of reading my Bible every day. No matter how crazy life gets.

So, I'm new here and this is my first challenge (eeeeek!) I've been doing a mini-challenge with my Mr for the first half of April, where we've been eating about 70% paleo and making an effort to get more active BUT I need to set myself some personal goals to kick my ass into a few better habits and levelling up my life! My current stats are thus: Height: 162cm/5'3.5" Weight: 78kg/172lbs Vitals: 96-76-104cm/38-30-41 STR- 2 | DEX-3 | STA-3 | CON-1 | WIS-3 | CHA-3 I want to lose some weight, but also tone up a lot and get generally fitter. Basically I see this as a habit-forming exercise and a way to keep my momentum on my journey Without further ado, my first challenge goals are: RUN. Get out for a run 3 times per week. No matter the distance, it's getting my trainers ON and OUT the door that counts. (This is also pertinent as I have a 10K run in a month and have only just recovered from severe bronchitis and basically am a wheeze-machine right now!) Completion +2 STA, +2 CON A= 24 runs B= 20 runs C= 16 runs D= 12 runs Less - FAIL, 0 points TRAIN. I had a personal training session a few weeks ago and got a decent weights routine which I can do in the gym and at home (have made the spare room into a little gym/physio room!) I aim to do this twice a week (more if I'm feeling it, but I'm setting easy targets.) I also need to get some better dumbells as the stupid girly ones I have (srsly equipment manufacturers, just because I have boobs does NOT mean all the fitness stuff I use HAS TO BE TINY AND/OR PINK, mmmmkay?!) Completion +3 STR, +1 CON A=12+ workouts B= 10 workouts C= 8 workouts D= 6 workouts Less- FAIL, 0 points SLEEP. Get to bed before 11pm every "school" night. I'm a terrible night owl and will just piss away my time until it's like 1am, doing nothing productive. Gotta cut that right out and get some sleep! Completion +4 CON A= 24 nights B= 20 nights C= 16 nights D= 12 nights Less- FAIL, 0 points WRITE. So I used to be a prolific writer and then life kinda snuck up on me. As a result I've lost a big creative outlet that I really need in my life. So my aim is to write a short story. Doesn't have to be a Booker-Prize job, just finding the time and constructing the ideas into coherent form is enough! I also have another goal given to me by mrrichpearson on here: join my local roller derby league - well, do their fresh meat course and get skating! Which is more of a fait accompli, so I didn't put it in my main goals. Completion +2 WIS +2 CHA