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Many heroes have a history or family legacy that they must overcome. The Skywalker family seems destined to flirt with the Dark Side. Spiderman had to live with the guilt he felt after his uncle died. Natasha Romanov was taken from her family and raised to be an assassin. Few heroes seem born from easy circumstances. They all - we all - have things we need to overcome before we can be the heroes we dream of being. Me??? At my daughter's wedding, I was reminded of my family's destiny. As my last living aunt looked at the unfortunately overweight bride, she commented that every woman in our family ends up being fat. With a knowing look and resigned sigh, she looked at me and said, "Just wait." And I shook my head and replied, "Not happening." But it is a fact that my family of origin had terrible health habits, and I sometimes slide into them. This year's goal really is to continue with the progress I've made so far here at Nerd Fitness and accelerate it .... hitting some milestones and enjoying a lighter, stronger body by doing some of those fun runs and obstacle races. Frankly, committing to doing a race where I have to climb over things is scary. I hate heights. I am not very strong in my upper body. And I'm not very graceful. This is going to take some work over a year or two. Goals for THIS CHALLENGE 1) Tame the Sweet Tooth I generally know how to eat well, but I have a hard time stopping once I start eating refined sugars, refined carbs, or wine. For this challenge, I will be intentional and enjoy (in moderation) one evening when I can have dessert and a glass of wine or two. But 6 days out of 7 will be focused on whole grains, proteins, vegetables, some fruit, and avoiding sugar in all kinds of things (like so-called energy bars). 2) Get Over That Wall I'm still working on regaining the ability to do a pull-up. At the moment, I'm doing lat pull-downs and want to get strong enough to do 10x70, 10x75, 10x70 by the end of the challenge. I can currently do 65 pounds for most of three sets, but I'll need to work on my hand strength as well as arms and shoulders. How to get there .... by strength training 3 times each week and trying to increase weights each week. 3) Find Balance Last year, I was literally dreaming of doing a crow pose. Why? No clue. But I also want to be able to do a handstand. So, I'll be working on these two progressions through the year. For now - I need to work on wrist flexibility!!! How? Working it daily with the GMB folks. 4) Keep Moving Finish Season 2 of Zombies Run 5) Push Boundaries In college, I very much wanted to go to Greece during a January interim. But I didn't have the money. 34 years later, I have saved up enough to go on an alumni trip (organized by the same professor!!) - probably in January or June 2017. But I like to be able to understand the local language and read road signs. So .... my goal this year is to learn modern Greek!!! I had studied ancient Greek in college; so the alphabet isn't completely foreign, but I have a lot of learning to do. I got a book and audio set for Christmas and will do a lesson per week for each challenge. At 46 lessons, that should work out about right with the challenge schedule. Theme??? I'm kinda waiting to find out more about the new epic quests and such. I'm tempted to go back to a Star Wars theme. That's where I stared with Nerd Fitness, and I have a lot of history in Star Wars RPGs as Chris-Tien Jinn, the Jedi Master. Stay tuned.

Hello fellow nerds! I've anxiously decided to put myself out there and see what happens! I've never been very good at talking to people on forums. Like most of you here, I'm a nerd of many stripes. My biggest nerdy areas are watching anime and playing lots of rpgs. And I'm a tumblr-user. I graduated from college in 2013, and magically managed to find a real adult job! But I had to move to a new place where I don't know many people, so I've been struggling on the social front. Working at a desk all day is starting to affect me physically too - so this seems like the perfect place for me to be! In terms of fitness, I have a bad habit of starting a new regime and then stopping after a month or so before I can really see results. If I'm not accountable to anyone, I have trouble continuing. When I first started college I lost weight very naturally because dining hall food limited my food options in a useful way and I was walking around a lot on my hilly campus. Once I started getting stronger/lighter that way, I started doing bodyweight and core exercises, and eventually, even running. It happened very naturally and without stress, so it's now my ideal of how to be healthy. But life caught up to me in later years and I've gained back the old weight and then some. I feel so stiff and old and I'm only 23! At one point I tried the 100 push ups challenge and got to the point where I could do 45 push ups in a row! But then I stopped and now I can barely do ten. My latest struggle is with my unstoppable sweet tooth. I love baking and cooking and everything to do with desserts, but it's dangerous when you bake 2 dozen cookies living alone! So, here I am, trying again. This time instead of trying to do everything at once, I'm trying to change things one habit at a time. And, by posting here, I'm hoping to do it alongside some likeminded nerds! So, hi! It's nice to meet you.