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Hey all, I had a bit of a rough time in my first challenge since I got in a car accident in the middle of it! Now I'm ready to get back into things and make this challenge better than the first! My Challenges: #1 Go Climbing Once a Week--I was doing well with this until the accident. My main challenge is that I have not yet found another steady partner to do top rope with. I hope I can make that connection this time. #2 Lift Weights Once a Week -- With particular focus on building towards unassisted pull-ups and dips. #3 Get back on track with the South Beach diet --Back to Phase 1 for 10 days, then Phase 2 until the end of the challenge. Bonus Activity: Go swimming. I love swimming. I love the water. I always seem to forget this when I'm outside the water.... Life Quest: Go read a book! For as much as I love reading, I REALLY don't make time for it. I will read something in printed form (book, graphic novel, non-vapid magazine) for 15 minutes 5 days a week. I'll try to flesh this out more later...

jtggodqos - returning to what Works Main Quest I vow to return to a healthy lifestyle, incorporating good eating habits, exercise, and writing into most every day. Goals Exercise: I vow play DDR or bike for 45 minutes, OR do a weight session every morning, with the rare exception.Diet: I vow to maintain follow an altered South Beach Diet every day, with the rare exception.Weeks 0-2: Phase OneWeeks 3-6: Phase Two Side Quests Writing: I vow to work on one of my novels for at least one hour every day, with the rare exception.Minis: I vow to at least consider the Mini Quests each time, though I am not required to participate. My Motivation I vow to adhere to the above requirements, because I'm fucking sick of how I look, and I'm tired of this Depression.healthy eating and regular exercise are good for the body, and writing is good for the soul. Notes the "with the rare exception" clause must be validated by Brian -- if he deems it acceptable, then I can evoke it. this ensures I don't let myself "cheat" too much.I must input every day's progress on both my spreadsheet AND my NerdFitness thread. this ensures accountability. Links spreadsheetMyFitnessPalFitbitFitocracy

Here are some of my thoughts on weight loss. By full disclosure I have lost 35+ pounds twice doing Weight Watchers and 22+ pounds twice on two separate fasts. So, you’re trying to lose weight? Well, I have the two most important things you need to know right here. No kidding. I don’t care what weight loss plan you pick; Atkins, Weight Watchers, Paleo, Primal, South Beach, Sugar Busters, or Aunt Martha’s family plan. If you don’t do these two things you will either fail or not be as successful as you could be. And I’m going to stop with the teasing and give you these two magical things right now. Are you ready? Here they are. First, Honesty and second is the phrase “With proper diet and exercise.†That’s it. That’s all there is to it. Be honest about your plan and include proper diet and exercise. Simple. What? You don’t get it? Okay, I’ll explain each a little more fully. Honesty Be honest with yourself about your plan. This means no cheating, measure things correctly and accurately, no bending the rules, eat the correct portions, and no excuses for why you just can’t today. Period. If you’re not fed up with the state your body is in to the point that your weight is making you angry then the personal discipline needed to stick to whatever diet you’ve chosen will be more difficult. No one is going to help you with this, and no one else can either. You’ve got to do it. You’ve got to say no to that temptation food, whatever it is. If you can’t be honest with yourself when no one else is looking about your diet you will eventually stop doing it and gain the weight back. No one else is going to care as much as you do. No one else is going to be at all interested or even know if you’re pants are too tight because your ever expanding frontier just annexed a tiramisu. No one else will lament your weight gain except maybe Jennie Craig and she’ll be with you only because you’re not buying her food and for no other reason. If you want to lose the weight, it is time to jerk a knot in that person you see in the mirror every morning. Stare him or her straight in the eye and say ‘No More’. Stare at that reflection until the person in the mirror actually believes you mean business this time, and then get about the business of planning your lifestyle change. With Proper Diet and Exercise The next time you’re lounging on the sofa with a box of bonbons and that magical weight loss commercial comes on tune your ears for this phrase. If you don’t hear it, search the text on the screen, that really tiny mouse print text that hangs out at the bottom of the screen. You’ll either hear it in really fast lawyer speak or it will be in that tiny print. Then, watch for it in every single other commercial or program talking about weight loss. It’s in every one of them. Why is that do you think? Well, the answer is at once simple and so complicated that most of us reject it out of hand. This phrase is in with every single weight loss plan advertised because, are you ready? THERE IS NO MAGICAL SOLUTION TO LOOSING WEIGHT. There it is. The solution to losing weight is simple first grade math. Burn more calories than you eat each day. Period, and the best way to do that is to have a proper diet coupled with good exercise. That word ‘proper’ really is the important one too. If your diet is moon pies all day long, I don’t believe you can out exercise the fat content of your diet. Likewise, if your diet cuts you caloric intake to 100 calories a day (you will die by the way at this level it’s dramatic license to make a point) but you leave out any exercise you will flounder in either slow or nonexistent weight loss because your body isn’t burning up what you’re taking in or is just coping. The bad news is that real healthy weight loss takes time, about two and a half pounds a week on average. We are impatient and want a pill or magic solution to melt the pounds off, and that just doesn’t exist outside of fiction. The good news is that there is an excellent method for weight loss out there for every body type, fitness level, and willpower. The internet is full of good sites (including Nerdfitness) where you can find loads of people who can walk you through exactly what you need for your particular situation, and most of them will do it for free too! If you’re on the weight loss path just remember to be honest with yourself and couple that honesty with proper diet and exercise and you’ll do fine.

I want to get into lifting. I read the blog. I want to do this. The primal diet sounds up my alley for the most part (I will have to have a sad funeral for a package of Oreos of course, but I suppose the grief will subside in time). My main question for you guys is this: Has anyone else on here done Primal/Paleo and lifting with a diagnosis of Insulin Resistance? According to my doctor and nutritionist, I am SUPPOSED to eat carbs at meals, though very small amounts. And never as snacks. The idea is that my body needs some carbs to process insulin and keep my levels steady. I am supposed to only have whole grains though. Wait, I came up with another question: Do you guys think I could lift while still eating carbs with meals? I would be eating mostly veggies and proteins otherwise. Thoughts?