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It is finally that time, that I can see the edges of twotopia land. It has been a few years since my last visit. This time, I don't plan to turn back. I'll stay awhile, then take off for an area called Onderland. I may not be able to hit this during the challenge, but I am sure going to try! So far since coming back to Nerdfitness, things have been going well. The last couple of challenges were not 100%, but I learned from them. I continued on. The real hero of my challenges has been Keto. In the past, Whole30 was great for me, but I just was never able to stay with it. Years ago, I had started with a "low carb" approach. This was still tons of carbs per day, but it was working. Keto has been the only thing that has really been sticking with me. 3 times I have been off it since the first. And emergency family trip down sound' That was like a 4 day eat fest with landed me with 10 pound for those 4 days. The 2nd time was a party at my wife's work. Though, it was just that night, and I was back on it. Didn't feel any major effect. The last time was during this last challenge. We headed to New York. About 9 days total of me eating whatever. That gave me a 14.5 pound gain. This one was the harder one to bounce back from. Almost like starting over from scratch. Cravings were so bad one night, I almost gave in. Then two days later, and I was fat adapted again. At least I assume so, because all those candy/chip cravings vanished. There is still my brain saying "oh, that woudl be good", but it is easy to dismiss it as just a little impulse. I think this is why Keto has worked for me. I haven't had these super cravings, and my appetite has been suppressed. I don't always have that constant need to be snacking on food. Maybe that is just me though. So my goals will try to continue to build on the success I am having, and what I want for future goals. Goal#1 - Continue to Keto and IF tracking plus let's add water I think for the most part, I have the Keto/IF/Tracking part down now. Well enough anyway. I want to add a little extra this challenge though. Time to track my water. I know there are some days that I don't drink enough water. I don't have a specific spot I want to hit, I just want to track it. If I am tracking it, then I might be more mindful about drinking too. All tracking will be done in MFP except the IF part. That is will be manually tracked. Scoring: 1 point for tracking Keto/IF and 1 point for tracking Water in MFP each day. 14 points per week total. Goal#2 - Return of the sleep goal I have to have this back again. I have been really off lately. Time to get this back on track. Computer off at 11 pm, then reading until Midnight. Then hit the bed. Hopefully, if I can get this back on track, my body will respond with giving me better sleep overall. I have an alarm set for 11:55 pm. Just to let me know it is time to wrap it up in my book. If I am reading in a chapter, I will let myself finish it off. No "Hey, I read a word on this next chapter, guess I have to stay up to read it" haha. Scoring: 1 point for getting off the computer on time. 1 point for reading, and getting off to bed by midnight. 14 points per week total. Goal#3 - Get up, and Get Going You know, I have these goals in mind, and they aren't all going to happen magically because I am eating Keto. This will probably be the hardest for me this challenge. Every challenge this year, exercise has been the thing to fail on me. I want to do C25k again. So I can run again. I want to do body weight workouts to start building that muscle back up. I even like to get out and walk, because I do enjoy it. I just can't seem to get the walking habit going. I want try getting C25k this challenge. If I can do it, then I will continue going with it. If not, then I need to add in Body weight workouts. Hopefully, I can get in C25k, and start doing body weight workouts as well. That's the hope any how. If I am doing this, then I will have Sunday as rest day. For this challenge, I am going to try to get all of this in. Just building up to each step. Since I know it is easiest to get stuff done in the morning, that will be part of it. Get up, and get going. Week 1 - Hit 6,000 steps a day. (decided to C25k this week, adding in scoring) Week 2 - Hit 7,000 steps a day. (continue C25k here) Week 3 - Hit 8,000 steps a day, plus add in M/W/F C25k or Bodyweight workouts Week 4 - Hit 9,000 steps a day, plus continue M/W/F workout Scoring: 2 points for hitting the step goal. 2 points per run or workout. Total points per week 18 points Goal#4 - Check in, check in, check in Last challenge, I stopped checking in each day. I felt bad for it, and I wasn't out there supporting others like I should be. I was better on my blog, but not where i was earlier. So this challenge is for me to check in each day. I also need to visit others here to see how they are. Plus, I need to get that blog post done each day. Scoring: 0.5 for NF check in, 0.5 for blog post each day. 7 points total per week. Measurements - Week 1 / End of Challenge Neck - 19.29 in / Chest - 51.96 in / Waist at belly button - 56.22 in / Bicep (L) - 16.77 in / Bicep (R) - 16.65 in / Forearm (L) - 13.26 in / Forearm (R) - 13.26 in / Thigh (L) - 27.99 in / Thigh (R) - 27.00 in / Weight - 317.1 lbs / Weekly points Week 1 - 48/53 - 90.5% Week 2 - 35/41 - 85% Week 3 - 0/ Week 4 - 0/ Challenge total = 0/

This challenge will be a two part challenge for me. One part of this challenge will be everything at home. The second part involves me traveling to New York City. I am bowling in the USBC Open Championships on March 29th and 30th. This year, it is being held in Syracuse, NY. Having never been to New York, we are flying out a few days early. We fly red eye from San Jose, Ca on the 23rd, and come home on the 31st. Challenge Part 1: This will be for all the dates I am home. Actually trying to start during this off week. Goal#1 - Keto, MFP tracking, and Intermittent fasting continues Eating Keto has been working great for me so far. I want to keep tracking, and keep with IF. I believe my eating window will be Noon to 6 pm. Goal#2 - Get your sleep routine down At the end of last challenge, I had started breaking my sleep cycle. So the goal is to get it back into shape before my trip, and after. This goal is to get me reading by 11 pm, and in bed at midnight. Goal#3 - I need to exercise Ok, I have been wishy washy with this all year. I need to get walking, and I need to step up to something more as well. My goal is to get in 5 walks each week before my trip. Once I am home, I want to be able to kick it up. 3 workouts per week, plus continue the walking. I want to be able to do bigger things this year (5k for example) so I need to get this going. Challenge Part 2: There will be 4 big travel days during the challenge. The flight to NYC 23-24th (arrive at 6:30 am), the drive to Syracuse 28th (about 5 hours it looks like), and then the drive back to the city 30th after I bowl). Finally, the flight home 31st (arrive at 11 pm) I will try to track those days, but I am giving myself forgiveness if I don't. The real goal here is to have fun. The family and I have never been to NYC, so we are going to be tourists. Then, I hope to bowl well in the tournament. I will fall off the Keto wagon here. I could very much try to stay on Keto, but when will I get back out here to have all the New York experience. Like Pizza. I've come up with a few goals to not really restrict me, but hopefully help keep me mindful of what I am eating. Goal#1 - Be the Tourist We have The Statue of Liberty, Natural History Museum, 9/11 Memorial/Museum, and a bus tour to do while we are there. I'm also meeting up with a few gaming buddies. So no excuse not to take plenty of pictures. This should also give me plenty of reason to walk to places. (times square, central park, etc) Goal#2 - Daily Food Journal Now, I don't even want to try to have the night mare of tracking everything in MFP. So I think what I want here is to just have a journal with me, or spreadsheet. Then I can keep track of food I eat. Hopefully, this will help me to not just graze eat all the time. I know we will have snacks around, and I would rather not be constantly eating them. Goal#3 - Sleep I want to do my best to make sure I continue to get the rest I will need. I can't tell 100% what shall happen each night we are there, but I would like to not be staying up till 2 am playing WoW, then get up at 7 to start the day. So this is my challenge. Survive New York, and come back to kick ass. Grading while home: Goal#1 - 7 days, 3 points per day. Tracking, under 20 net carbs, & Eating in my Noon to 6 pm window Goal#2 - 7 days, 2 points per day. Reading no later then 11:10 pm. Headed to bed by 12:05 am. Goal#3 - 5 walks per week, 1 point per walk each day. Once back from NYC, add in 3 points for workouts per week. Grading on Vacation: 8 days Goal#1 - No grade here. Have fun! Goal#2 - 1 point per day. Goal#3 - 1 point per day. I was going to have no grading while I am gone, but I want to try to have something to keep me wanting to do these while I am out there. Measurements End of last challenge/Start of new challenge/Finish: (taken March 12) Weight - 335.4 lbs / 321.1 lbs = 14.3 lbs lost Neck – 19.60 in / 19.29 in = 0.31 in lost Chest – 52.95 in / 52.51 in = 0.43 in lost Waist at belly button – 58.07 in / 56.73 in = 1.33 in lost Bicep (L) – 17.00 in / 15.94 in = 1.06 in lost Bicep (R) – 16.61 in / 15.94 in = 0.66 in lost Forearm (L) – 13.50 in / 13.11 in = 0.39 in lost Forearm (R) – 13.50 in / 12.99 in = 0.51 in lost Thigh (L) – 28.58 in / 28.07 in = 0.51 in lost Thigh (R) – 27.71 in / 27.00 in = 0.70 in lost

Challenge #2 of the year. Let's do this. My last challenge went really well for me. 96% overall score. It was exactly what I needed in my return to the Nerdfitness forums. With in one month, I have stopped taking all my medication and lost 22 lbs. With seeing success in the last challenge, this challenge will be very similar. I will add in a few more upgrades to my challenge goals, to push myself a bit more. Hopefully, this will enforce the habits to have them as a good base for the rest of this year, and beyond. Now, on towards the goals for this challenge! Goal #1: Keto on, and add in IF I have successfully ate in the keto method since the first of the year. I figure I may as well continue that on. This challenge, I want to add intermittent fasting back into my eating habits. Now, I may need to adjust the eating window from time to time, but I am going to go for a consistent 18/6. 18 hours of fasting, 6 hours of eating time.My window will be 11 am to 5 pm. This should cover most my needs for times I need to get eating in by. I still need to track everything in MyFitnessPal. Goal #2: Walking, Walking, Walking... I started off last challenge going for 3 days a week to walk on. Eventually moving up to 5 days. This challenge I want to start off with 5 days a week of walking. Eventually moving up to 6 or 7 days, or possibly staying 5 days, but increasing step count. My eventual goal is to get back to running, and possibly adding in body weight workouts. Goal #3: You must still get Sleep I did well last challenge with closing down everything by 11:30 pm, reading till 12:30 am, then getting to bed. Though I have been able to easily slip back into night owl habits in the last few days. I need to have this again. I also notice I wake up a lot more while my wife is getting ready for work. So to get more possible sleep, I am going to try to get to bed 30 minutes earlier. Shut all things down by 11 pm. Then read till Midnight, and head to bed. I'm going to grade on reading as well, because it is too easy for me to not read, but still get to bed on time. Goal #4: Start and finish Introduction to Linux I figure for a bit of fun, I'll take an online course. I've played with linux from time to time, but don't know a lot. This means time to take this class I signed up for awhile back https://www.udemy.com/introduction-to-linux-centos-7/learn/v4/overview Looks like 26 lectures, so I'm guessing enough to last the month. Grading: Goal #1 - 7 days, 3 points per day. 1 point for IF, 1 point for tracking, 1 point for under 20 net carbs Goal #2 - 5 days, 1 point per day of walking. (may get adjusted during the challenge) Goal #3 - 7 days, 2 points per day. 1 point for reading started at 11, and 1 point for heading to bed at 12. Goal #4 - 6 points per week. Almost one per lecture course. Weekly points: Week 1: 37/40 points - 92% Week 2: 38/40 points - 95% Week 3: 0/ points - Week 4: 0/ points - Overall challenge score: Measurements End of last challenge/Start of new challenge/Finish: (taken Feb 5th) Weight: 345.6 lbs / 340.2 lbs / 335.4 lbs Neck: 19.68 in / 18.85 in / 19.60 in Chest: 54.72 in / 53.74 in / 52.95 in Waist at bell button: 59.84 in / 58.66 in / 58.07 in Bicep (L): 16.37 in / 17.08 in / 17 in Bicep (R): 16.33 in / 17.04 in / 16.61 in Forearm (L): 13.34 in / 13.46 in / 13.22 in Forearm (R): 13.58 in / 13.58 in / 13.50 in Thigh (L): 29.44 in / 28.70 in / 28.58 in Thigh (R): 28.30 in / 27.99 in / 27.71 in

Hello Fellow NF Rebels I'm Tateman. It's been awhile since my last challenge. November of 2016 to be exact, and it was a fail. That comeback was after another break where things got away from me. This time though, I have to get things done. Things got bad enough that my Doctor wants me to get weight loss surgery. This is my last attempt to avoid having to do that. A little back story: Taking the way back machine back to 2013. I started my NF Journey at 333lbs. (Highest ever was 388lbs recorded) My Rebel Intro and eventually My first Challenge May 30th, 2013 Things were going great. I had signed up to do a Spartan race down in Malibu, Ca. I had never done anything like that. September 11th, 2013 I made it under 300lbs. December of 2013 I completed the Spartan race with the help of my Brother-in-law. June 2014 I completed my first ever 5k race. I had never before in my life run that far. The most I was up to was about 2 miles in the C25k app. Then in August 2014, I completed the Spartan Stadium Sprint, in AT&T Park, with my Sister and Brother-in-law. In October of 2014, I was taken off my Metformin (diabetes medication) I got to my lowest weight in a very very long time. 260lbs. I had bounced around in weight in 2014, but still mostly tracked down. And then it all came crashing down. The mother of all snowball effects happened. I signed up to do a 15k race. Paid for, and never ran. I had already started tracking a bit higher in weight, then threw this failure on the fire. The mental depression had a grip, and would not let go. The fat me started winning more battles. By September of 2015, I was back up to almost my highest weight again. 384lbs. In 9 months, I had gained 124lbs. Of course during all this, I had quit Nerd Fitness. Many people were gone that I originally talked to then. On my birthday (November 2015), I decided to open up to those on Facebook. The thought was to get the help of my family and community to support me in the right path back. I was 382lbs that day. Nothing really stuck. It was ok for a bit, but even family close to you fail when they don't truly support what you are trying to do. I had to deal with it all back when I did lose all that weight though, and I will still have to deal with it all now. That is just how things will have to be. So over the past two years, not much has changed. Now to current day Eventually, my 44 year old body wasn't going to take this garbage anymore. Last summer I had an infection in a very bad place for a guy haha. I also hadn't done bloodwork in awhile. I finally did, and numbers were not good. My Doctor said enough was enough, and she thinks that I need to go in for weight loss surgery. That was in late July. I told her I really didn't want to go the Surgery route, because I don't believe it is a permanent solution. At least for me I don't think it would be. I know people that have failed. Even my wife had surgery, and is still heavy. It feels like I need to fix other things in my head, otherwise in 3-5 years I might just be back in the same spot. Surgery can do a lot to help me in the here and now, and it is very possible, that I can use it to learn to be eating the proper way. I just would hate to go though it, and fail still. That motivation was working for me, but I slipped back into the crud I have been in. So today I start at 367.6lbs. I am late getting my bloodwork again. So I am planning on going next Sunday. I'm hoping all is not lost for me. I want to lose this weight. I want to see my goal weight. I want to run again. Something my teenage self would have never believed I would say. I want to be strong. I want to do this, not only to inspire my kids, but to do this for myself. I feel like I need to once again start over. This time finding the things to keep me going, and squashing the bad mental junk that likes to try to creep in. So 2018, here we go. This challenge is meant to help rebuild me. Rebuild the habits that gave me success before Goal#1: Down with the Carbs/Sugar demon, and Keto on I want to get into Ketosis mode. The last couple of months I experimented with this a bit. For a few weeks I was really on it, and it was pretty great. Plenty of reading and being inspired by the keto community of Reddit. Now I need to establish it again, so I can continue on for the whole year. I know the start will be rough again. Much like when I did Whole30 eating, and the bit of Keto I had done already. Meals will be boring to start off. We got a Crockpot pressure cooker now though, so time to find stuff with that. Cookbooks incoming as well. I will be tracking my food intake at MyFitnessPal. Goal#2: Exercise beginner mode I need to get into Exercise again. Got my new Fitbit Blaze to try out Now to not overwhelm myself, I'm not going to try to go all balls out right away. Let's start off easy with Walking. 3 times a week to be specific. Then next move is walking each day. First I want to establish just doing it first! The plan is to go in the mornings. No set time, but 30 minutes is the goal to start. Hopefully by mid challenge, I will want to be walking more and more. I notice that walking does help clear my head, and makes me feel good. Eventually this walking may lead to running again, down the road Goal#3: The night Owl must become the early bird Ohh so many nights staying up till 3am, and getting garbage sleep. I'm done with it. I do have a CPAP machine now to help make sure Sleep Apnea won't get in my way. I need to get myself into a sleep routine again. I want to be in bed by 12:30am. I have tones of books to read. I bought the first 5 books of The Expanse So I'm thinking 11-11:30pm I turn off the computer, and settle down with some reading. Goal#4: Blog all the things So for fun, I finally setup my website as a blog. I've had tateland.com for years, but always put off doing something with it. I still am working on it some, and have done some in general gaming blogging. Now to add to the "Health" section. I am going to attempt to blog every day about my health journey this year. I am going to try taking a picture each day of my face to see if I can track changes over the year. Also weekly body pictures to do the same. Next year, I hope to have a cool little project done. Part of this will be cross posting as updates each day in this thread. Grading: Goal#1 - 7 days, 14 points. 1 point for each day of tracking. 1 point for staying under 20 net carbs Goal#2 - 3 days, 1 point per day of walking. (hopefully, will increase during this challenge) Update for week 4, 5 days a week. 1 points for each walk. Goal#3 - 7 days, 7 points. 1 point for getting into bed by 12:30pm. Goal#4 - 7 days, 14 points. 1 point for each day I blog, 1 point for posting here Weekly Points: Week 1: 37/38 - 97% Week 2: 36.5/38 - 96% Week 3: 38/38 - 100% Week 4: 37/40 - 92.5% Week 5: 38/40 - 95% Challenge total - 186.5 /194 - 96% overall challenge score Measurements Start/Finish: Weight: 367.6lbs / 345.6 lbs - 22lbs lost Neck: 19.68 in / 19.68 in - no change Chest: 55.90 in / 54.72 in - 1.18 inches lost Waist at bell button: 61.41 in / 59.84 in - 1.57 inches lost Bicep (L): 17.91 in / 16.37 in - 1.53 inches lost Bicep (R): 16.92 in / 16.33 in - 0.59 inches lost Forearm (L): 13.89 in / 13.34 in - 0.55 inches lost Forearm (R): 13.89 in / 13.58 in - 0.31 inches lost Thigh (L): 30.31 in / 29.44 in - 0.86 inches lost Thigh (R): 28.89 in / 28.30 in - 0.59 inches lost

Late in the day, but I need to get this thread posted! No fancy theme this time, only me building the better version of myself. Goal #1: Increase the Gym presence I got the M-W-F gym visits down. No I want to increase it. Eventually, working different muscle groups etc. For now though, just getting there. My plan is to continue my normal M-W-F type workout for now, and adding cardio type exercises in on the T-Th-Sat. The first couple of weeks might just be like some treadmill work. I might add in planks or some other exercises in there. I just want to get that habit of me getting in there, and getting it done each day. Sunday would be recovery day. 6 points per week here. Goal #2: Meal Prep Time to get back on the meal prep train. I've been doing it some this last challenge, but I'm not doing it consistently. First Week, I need to do the cooking on Monday, but other weeks, I want to get it done on Sundays. Cook enough for 6 lunch and 6 dinners. Breakfast I will make on my own, and I'll give 2 meals to have whatever. The whatever needs to not be overboard crap food 7 points here. 1 for the meal prep, and one each day for eating the food. Goal #3: Keep a journal for food and Exercise I want to keep track of everything I am doing for exercise and food. I like MyFitnessPal, but it seems like I end up getting frustrated when I get some meal or combination food that I can't enter in properly. Maybe I can start getting back to using it again. For now though, I will just go old school and use a little note pad. I had one that I was originally going to use for the gym. So now I'll use that. 1 point each day. Listing food and movement for the day. (7 total) Goal #4: Those dishes aren't going to clean themselves! So I do clean the dishes, but I wait too long to do them. It becomes such a bigger mess when I let it build up haha. So, this goal is for me to clean the dishes every morning. Eventually getting me in the habit of just doing it each day, and not saving it till we run out of forks or something 1 point a day. (7 total) That is pretty much it for now. Just tracking weight this challenge: Starting - 362.4lbs Ending - Week 1 (Oct 30-Nov 5): 0/27 Week 2 (Nov 6-Nov 12): 0/27 Week 3 (Nov 13-Nov 19): 0/27 Week 4: (Nov 20-Nov 26): 0/27

Here we are at yet another challenge. I was going to keep on using the Pokemon theme, but decided to switch it up for Stranger Things The series was so good, I watched it all in one day. haha. I hope during this challenge, that I build up on some good habits. This will lead to goals next challenge, and well into the future. If you have watched Stranger Things, you know that you don't want to stay in the Upside Down Goal 1: So this goal is to workout 3 times each week. I've done it 4 weeks in a row now, so this challenge should really lock it in for me. I still have some trainer sessions left. I see the trainer on Mondays and Fridays. Wednesday is my day to go on my own. This goal is to help get me stronger. Eventually, helping me get to some of my longer term goals. It will also help me to fight off the demon in the upside down. It comes into this world from time to time to feed. I need to be ready for it (3 points) Goal 2: I want to run again. I need to be quick and nimble to be able to run from the Upside Down demon. No I am still pretty big. I might not be able to complete this right away. I just need to take it one day at a time. If I have to repeat week 1 the entire challenge, then that is what I will do. I started feeling the urge to try this again, because of my gym workouts. The trainer has had some workouts where I do some sprints. I didn't die, so I figure I might be ok to go for c25k again. My youngest is in kindergarten now, so my plan is to do this while he is in school. To add in a bit more, I also plan on walking. Walking will happen on my workout days, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. C25k will take place on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. I may switch to Sundays since our Saturdays are pretty busy. will play it by ear. (6 points, on per walk or run. one day is rest) Goal 3: My food goal this time, is to stop any and all fast food. I do have a bowling tournament on the 1st in Reno. So I might have to give myself some room for the trip. Otherwise, no fast food. Food really has become quite the struggle for me again. So I am backing off in an attempt to wrangle it under control again.I am still going to do my best at food prep, and healthy eating. Just committing to no fast food will help my mind not give into quick and easy. I do want to mention that this doesn't apply to a restaurant style type meal. There are some local places I could eat. I just have to make sure it's not overeating, and the food is actually good quality food. Not some taco bell, or mcdonalds. This goal is setup to help me tackle one of the Upside Down monsters. THE SUGAR MONSTER!!!!! Whoa, whoa. Let's not get ahead of ourselves. That sugar monster gets it's battle next challenge, when I go Whole 30 on it's ass. First though, I need to get No Fast Food down. (7 points, 1 per day) Goal 4: I've been entirely horrible about this. I need to be checking in with you guys. Not only to offer support, but to get support back, and maybe even get to brag about goals I hit. For now, my goal is to come here at least 3 times a week to check in. I figure I can do it after my workouts in the mornings. If I can get in more often, then great. But at a minimum, I want to get here 3 times a week. (3 points) Goal 5: This is really a project goal. I want to make a list. Say 10 goals that I really want to see happen. Some can be long term, but I want some sorter term goals as well. I want to make this list, then then next step would be to make a copy for me to see every day. Maybe something printed out on the wall. I want to get a bit creative with it. Then I can have something I can look at each day as a reminder of where I want to be. Hopefully, it will be a little motivational push I might need from time to time. No real grading on this one, it is more of a fun goal. So there we have it. These goals are setup to try and keep me out of the Upside Down. Measurements: Starting weight: 366.4 End of Challenge weight: 362.4 Grading: Week 1(Sep 25 - Oct 1) : 11/19 Week 2(Oct 2 - Oct 8) : 16/19 Week 3(Oct 9 - Oct 15) : 15/19 Week 4 (Oct 16 - Oct 22) : 13/19 Goal list done? Yes/No: mostly yes Challenge total: 55/76 = 72%

Last time, I was unable to defeat any gym bosses. This challenge, I will be more focused. I've brought many of the goals from last time, just modified a bit. It's hard getting the groove back, so hopefully, this challenge gets it done for me. Goal1 - Gym Battles Last challenge I wanted all the Stronglifts. Once again, it slipped from my grasp. So I will be training to get there. One thing I have done now, is that I signed up for a personal trainer at my gym. Twice a week I will see him. The challenge will be to make sure I go on the 3rd day. Workouts are Monday(w/trainer), Wednesday, and Friday(w/trainer). The goal is to get me into the gym on a regular basis, and bet stronger in the process. I'm not doing massive weights or anything yet, so I am building up. 3 pokepoints each week. One per workout session. Goal 2 - Walk/Run between Gyms The last week, I have been getting out there and walking. 2-2 1/2 miles each day. So I want to continue this. If I can lose some decent amount of weight, maybe I can try getting on c25k again. One day at a time though. I'm going to focus on walking each day. Hopefully, 10k steps. 7 pokepoints each week. Might have to adjust if I feel I need a rest day once a week. Goal 3 - Pokepuffs? Not for me Meal prep! I need to make sure I have meals ready to eat for the week. It is much easier to choose sometime I made already. I'll stick to my 12 meals total made. This will cover lunch and dinner for 6 days. 2 meals during the week can be whatever. Try to keep it in a healthier range though. I will try making it to MFP for the meals, but I am not counting it for the challenge. 12 pokepoints per week this challenge. One for each meal. Goal 4 - Resting up at the Poke center Each trainer knows that they need to rest up after all that training and gym battling. So I need to make sure I get my rest as well. I will be in bed no later then 12:05. Turn off all distraction, by 11:30pm, and hit up some reading. I still have plenty of reading options. I've been getting better this last week, but still need work. 7 pokepoints for the week. Goal 5 - Checking NF every day I have been horrible about coming here and updating my progress. I've also not been around to support others. I want to change that. Each day I need to check in. Post something in my thread, and check out other rebels. Will probably do this at lunch time. 7 pokepoints here as well. Gotta check every day! Measurements: Weight (lbs) - 370.4lbs / Grading: Pokepoints earned: Week 1: 0/36 Week 2: 0/36 Week 3: 0/36 Week 4: 0/36

Welcome to my latest challenge thread. Pokemon GO edition. I was sick most of my last challenge, and the challenge before that wasn't so hot either. Time to get back, and have a good challenge. Since Pokemon go was release, I have gotten myself back out there. I've been walking each day. Since I have been so motivated to get out there now, I figured I would structure my challenge around it My goals are pretty similar to what I had last time. This time, I am just not down and out right away Goal1 - Gym Battles Like an aspiring Pokemon Master, I need to get in my gym battles. Each gym has 3 bosses. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. The bosses siblings, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, might need sub in if I have to change my schedule for some reason To beat these bosses, I need to attack them with Stronglifts. This will be the third challenge that I will attempt to do the stronglifts routine. Time to get it done. Just a side note. My wife informed me last night, our local gym is having a contest. I think it starts at the end of the month. $1000 for first place. I think it is person to lose the most wins. I am guessing body weight percentage to be fair. I’ll need to find out. So I may have additional motivation there, and might need to get together with the trainer to maximize my workouts. I’m going to 4 gym badges this challenge. Beating the 3 bosses will earn me 1 badge a week. Goal 2 - Walk/Run between Gyms With Pokemon GO now out, I have really been getting back out there and getting in some walks. All the trainers know you have to walk to get the next gym battle, and plenty of training on the way. So this goal I will continue playing Pokemon Go, and walking. I’m not setting a specific goal like 10k steps yet. The real goal I have, is to get back to running. I want to run a 5k in September, but I don’t think I can drop enough weight in time. I plan to walk every day. So one pokepoint per day of walking. Week 2, I will attempted C25k again. This will be on non workout days. Goal 3 - Pokepuffs? Not for me With all the training, and traveling between gyms, I need to keep myself fueled properly. I need to get back to prepping my meals, and tracking in MyFitnessPal. I will continue with having 2 meals during the week be my whatever meals. I still want those meals to be healthier types, or at least quality meals. I’m not giving up a meal for fast food. Prep lunch and dinner meals. 12 meals total, 2 “whatever” meals Track food in mfp. 1 pokepoint per day. Even on whatever meals times, I still want to track it. Goal 4 - Resting up at the Poke center Each trainer knows that they need to rest up after all that training and gym battling. So I need to make sure I get my rest as well. I will be in bed no later then 12:05. Turn off all distraction, by 11:30pm, and hit up some reading. I didn’t finish all my Calvin and Hobbes last challenge, so I will be using those. If I run out of reading, I can always just focus on something else to wind me down. Maybe meditate or something. 1 pokepoint each day. Measurements: (I will take on Day 1) Neck - 20.27in / Chest - 57.12in / Waist at belly button - 62.91in / Bicep (L) - 18.26in / Bicep (R) - 17.91in / Forearm (L) - 14.25in / Forearm (R) - 14.25in / Thigh (L) - 32.08in / Thigh (R) - 30.11in / Weight (lbs) - 370.2lbs / Grading: Pokemon Gym defeated Week 1: 0 Week 2: 0 Week 3: 0 Week 4: Pokepoints earned: Week 1: 13.5/21 Week 2: 7.5/21 Week 3: 7/21 Week 4: 0/21

Hey everyone, sorry about waiting so long to get my challenge thread up. I had a really back time last challenge. Just pretty much bailed the whole thing. This time I was going to come back firing all cylinders, but I am really sick. My kid got his first ear infection. He wasn't do so great last week. So of course, the wife and I are now all sick too. Two days ago, I thought I was already doing better. I have gotten a lot worse the last two day. With that said, my first week of this challenge, is going to be cootie recovery. Assuming that it doesn't take me all week, then I can start with my other goals. After I am done recovering from the cooties, then I will move on to my goals. Goal #1 - Stronglifts! Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays. I want to go at least do the stronglifts workout. I haven't been to the gym in awhile, so I want to get back in there and get this done. If I am feeling it, I can always do extra things as well. But less just start off with stronglifts 5x5 first. 3 points for the week. Goal #2 - Get out and walk/run First week, I want to just focus on getting 30 minutes in everyday. I would then like to try to get back to 10k steps. I may even try to get some running going. There is a 5k in September that I would like to be able to run. I would like to complete c25K again before this time. That is the overall eventual goal. Will have to see hwo long it takes to recover from the cooties first. Points will be 1 per day. Goal #3 - Meal prep and tracking again So once again, I want to stick with 12 meals prepped per week, leaving me two option meals. I also want to be tracking everything in MyFitnessPal. I will normally be doing the prep on Sunday, and having the meals during the week. So 2 points per day I suppose. 1 point just for tracking. Goal #4 - Sleepy time I need to get those zzzzzzzs! Will need plenty with my recovery time. In general though, I want to be in bed no later then 12:05pm. Since thsi is a Calvin and Hobbes theme, I will shut off my disturbing electronics at 11:30. Then read these for 30 minutes or so 1 point per day for this goal. I haven't don'e measurements or anything yet. Those will all come when I am feeling better.

So last challenge had lots of wins for me. I am going to continue with the same goals, just some of them are going to be amped up a bit Goal 1: 3 Gym workouts, and walking everyday So last challenge, I had just got into a gym membership. I had failed doing body weight workouts. The gym, might actually work for me this time. I also had stopped walking because of foot pain. I had a doctor visit to verify it was just the plantar fasciitis. So I need to power through it. I have some inserts for my regular and bowling shoes. I'm also going to be doing things to help it like icing and stretches/massages. No goal to get to 10k yet. This goal breaks down like this: 3 Gym workouts per week. Monday, Wednesday, Friday are the days I am going for. 7 days of walking. 15-30 minutes a day is all I am pushing for. 10 points total for the week Goal 2: Food Prep, and tracking! Last challenge, the food prep worked really well for me. I don't think the way I am doing it currently, will work long term for me exactly. Tweaks will come later. For now, I am sticking with it. I am also adding the extra step of tracking with my fitness pal. Last challenge, I found myself adding things on to eat. So I want to make sure my food intake is on point. Again, Food prep for 12 meals (Lunch and dinner) 2 meals during the week can be something other than my prepped meal, and tracking every day. I want to do 7 points for the food prep, and 7 points for the tracking. 14 points total for the week. Goal 3: Limit day time snacks, and no after dinner snacking I did great with the "Stop after dinner snacking" last challenge. I am going to continue that. I am adding to limit my day time snacking. I think this was starting to get me in trouble last challenge. I will get help with this by tracking too. So my limit during the day is 1 snack. Nothing too crazy. Maybe 2 servings of popcorn, instead of the 3 I normally would have. Maybe trying to keep the snack under 300 calories. I may need to tweak this, once I get things rolling in the challenge. 7 points total for the week Goal 4: Take care of yourself Sleep was my goal last challenge. I am going to continue with the midnight sleep goal. I am also going to use this goal to make sure I take care of my feet. I figure if I don't track it some how, then most likely, I will let it slip by. So 1 point per day for sleep, and 1 point per day for my feet. 3 heel stretches per day, icing my feet at least once per day, and massage with a golf ball at least once per day. 1 point per day for this. 14 points for the week Now for the Monkey wrench So as some of you know, I like to bowl. Every year, then United States Bowling Congress hold their Open Championship tournament. This year, it is in Reno, Nevada. Actually not very far from me. 3 1/2-4 hours drive. I will be bowling on May 21st, and 22nd. So I will be leaving on May 20th, and returning on the 23rd. This will obviously have some impact on my goals. Like, I won't be able to food prep for the days I am gone. I'll also have to figure out when to food prep for the week that I am back. Maybe that Monday night I come home, ha. We are staying at Circus Circus. I know they have some kind of gym there. So at the very least, I can get in some kind of workout there. Walking too, if I just don't want to go walking around. I'll just have to do my best with eating, and exercise. Get in my sleep, and stretches. Measurements: (Will take on the 8th) (in inches and pounds) Neck - 19.48 / Chest - 55.66 / Waist - 62.16 / (L) Bicep - 18.50 / (R) Bicep - 18.14 / (L) Forearm - 14.25 / (R) Forearm - 14.25 / (L) Thigh - 30.43 / (R) Thigh - 30.59 / Weight - 367.6 / Grading: Week 1: 0/45 points Week 2: 0/45 points (will adjust as needed) Week 3: 0/45 points (will adjust as needed) Week 4: 0/45 points

So here we are again. Ever since deciding to get back on track, I just haven't been able to get it going. Time after time, I stop. I get myself into a bad mental state. With this in mind, I started to go back to my first every challenge at Nerd Fitness. Reading all the comments, and kind of reliving those moments. It made me feel good. I was getting great support from people, and I was also supporting others. Something that I am going to try to do a lot more of this challenge. So with all the success I had in the beginning, I thought I would bring some of those goals here. Get a fresh start. I'm heavier now then I was in that first challenge. So time to get back to that point. So here we go. Goal 1: Work out at least 3 times a week I'm going to start with the Level 1 Rebel Fitness guide. 3 times a week. My first challenge, I tried C25k on the off days. I would like to do that again, but I don't think I am ready. Instead, I want to walk. My first challenge, I only focused on the workouts for my challenge goal. That is my primary, but I want to add the walking in this goal. Sunday will be my resting day. So 6 points for walking, and 3 for workouts. 9 points on the week. Goal 2: Food Prep! My first ever challenge had a goal to just eat Veggies. I am past that So this goal is for me to do some food prep for the week. I was inspired enough by the NF blog posts recently. I've wanted to do this for awhile, and so now I will make it a goal. So, Sunday is my meal prep day. First week I will start off slow, and just do meal prep for my lunches all week. Second week, I am meal prepping for Lunches and Dinner. I want to cover 6 days. 1 day being my off day. Grading is 7 points total. 1 point for the meal prep, and then each day I get a point for eating my prepared Meal(s) Goal 3: Stop the after dinner snacking Pretty simple goal, but I need to make sure I am on top of this again. Basically, no snacking after I eat dinner. I was going to say no snacking at all, but I wanted to leave it open a bit during the day. This will be a every day goal. 7 points per week. Goal 4: Get some Sleep! Once again, sleep makes an appearance in my challenge threads. Honestly, I struggle with this all the time. Even if I get use to a midnight bedtime, I slip back to 2am bed times. So I need to be in bed by midnight. Every day goal, 7 points on the week. So there we go. I thought of adding a clutter cleanup goal, but I just need to do that anyway Measurements: (in inches and pounds) Neck - 20.51 / Chest - 57.55 / Waist - 63.22 / (L) Bicep - 18.58 / (R) Bicep - 18.07 / (L) Forearm - 14.29 / (R) Forearm - 14.29 / (L) Thigh - 31.53 / (R) Thigh - 31.53 / Weight - 375.2 / Grading: Week 1: 23/30 points 76% Week 2: 23/30 points 76% Week 3: 24/24 points 100% Week 4: 21/24 points 87% Total: 91/108 points 84% overall for the challenge

So I had signed up for a local gym. I have signed up with other gyms before. It usually goes like this. I sign up. Then when I go, I want to do things like weights etc. Instead, I hit the treadmill. Sometimes I keep going for a bit, but I always just hit the treadmill. I don't know why. Gym intimidation, that feeling people will make fun of me, or whatever the feeling. Then it seems like I eventually stop going. Then like a year later, I am paying for a gym membership, and not even going. So this new gym is cheap. There are trade offs of course from going to a bigger gym. The best part to me though, is one trainer session a month is included in the membership. So for $20 a month, I get to workout at any of the places, and I get 30 minutes with a trainer. Monday was my "Evaluation". I didn't chicken out, and I did it. The trainer gave me an idea of what to try to start with. We did one workout there. So yay, I did it. This isn't the woot part though. Today, I went back. I had a plan in my head of exercises to do, and I did them. Well, most of them. I ended up not doing the bench press. I did do a similar exercise on the machine weights though. So my woot, is that I actually went to the gym and worked out. I did get a few minutes in on the treadmill at teh end, but that was just to get a few extra steps in The workout was nothing super grand or anything. Some barbells, a bench, and me in front of a mirror pushing up weight Overall, it is a start.

OK, ok, not man bear pig cereal. Haha. This challenge, I need to get my stuff together. Last challenge I did in fact survive the family vacation. I just never came back to report on it. So far this new year, I am still struggling to even complete a challenge. So this challenge is going to be the one. At least the last few challenges, I have been learning a few things. Some things, just were not working out for me. Other things were fine, but I just stopped doing them for whatever reason. This challenge I want to have a couple of habit building type goals. I've not been happy with my progress so far, so I really need to nail down things that are going to benefit me. Goal 1: Sleep So I have always struggled with my sleep times. I always gravitate back to that night owl. I originally wanted to get up before my wife left for work. Then I could exercise, or run/walk before she left for work. Someone would still be home with my kids. It just doesn't seem like I have been able to make the goals to get there. Plus it means going to bed much, much earlier. For now though, I am just going to work on getting to bed earlier. Week 1 - Midnight, Week 2 - 11:40pm, Week 3 - 11:20pm, Week 4 - 11:00pm. Not only do I need to make sure I get to bed earlier, I need to start building a routine to help get me to sleep faster. So I am thinking I need to be off my computer at least 15 minutes before bed time. If I can start getting some books to read, then maybe I setup some reading before bed. Scoring will be 1 point a day. Goal 2: Food Tracking I've been logged into MyFitnessPal, but I haven't been updating all the time. So, I want to get back to tracing everything I eat. Staying under the calorie limit is a bonus Tracking everyday. 1 point per day. Goal 3: Exercise This challenge, I am going to attempt to start running again. I don't know if I am ready, or if my body will let me. I am going to try anyway. I'm not worried about speed, just getting it done. I am going to redo the RunDouble C25k app. I won't be able to do a simple run M, W, F type schedule. It looks more like my 1st run for the week will be Tuesday after I drop my son off at daycare. Run 2 will be Friday night. Run 3 will end up being Sunday. Along with C25k, I want to get in some other form of exercise at least twice a week. I think I will incorporate my Shadow Bowling practice, in with some body weight workouts. Going to shoot for Monday and Thursday. That way it is done on the days I bowl in my leagues. I'll add walking in when I can. Bowling nights are usually hard to get in walking at night. It is late, and my feet usually hurt from standing in the bowling shoes. 5 points total for teh week. 1 point per event (not counting extra walking) Goal 4: Finish up the to do list Last challenge, I did start some of these tasks, but I did not finish. My list: Clean up my computer area. Consolidate/ewaste/sell Computer components. Organize the area.Bowling Balls - Go through my bowling balls. Figure out ones to keep, and try to sell the others.Garage needs to be cleaned up. We still have boxes down from Christmas. So just need to get things back in their homes.Backyard cleanup. Had some recycle (cans and bottles) out on the side of the house in back. Now they are all over the place. Time to finish picking them all up.Clean the grill. We were going to grill last night, but then I found out water had gotten in the grill. So I need to give it a major cleaning, and re seasoning so we can use it again.1 point for each of them. So 5 points total for the challenge. Grading: Week 1 (Feb29th - Mar6th): 0/19 Week 2 (Mar7th - Mar13th): 0/19 Week 3 (Mar14th - Mar20th): 0/19 Week 4 (Mar21st - Mar25): 0/14 Goal 4 points: 0/5 Challenge points total: 0/76 Measurements: Location - Before/After = Difference Neck - in / Chest - in / Waist - in / Bicep (L) - in / Bicep ® - in / Forearm (L) - in / Forearm ® - in / Thigh (L) - in / Thigh ® - in / Weight - 372 lbs / Didn't take day 1 measurements, so day 2 will have to do

A little backstory: So my comeback in the Adventures last challenge wasn't as successful as I had hoped. Holidays made for a rough time at it all In general though, I feel like I am starting to get back to healthier way of living again. My last challenge in the adventures, I made a big post about my recent struggle with gaining weight back. It was something that I even posted about to all my friends on facebook. It was the first time I was pretty honest with a lot of people. before I tried to basically keep it all to myself. Only family, and a few people knew what was going on. Others just knew I was losing weight. This time, I want the help from everyone. In the past, I had done a few challenges with the scouts. I was running 5ks a few times. Only one official, but still it felt like a good fit for me at the time. Before that, I was full time Adventurer. I came in before there was a recruit or Rebel level. My original start at NF, I weighed in at 333lbs. Over the course of my first year, I was able to slim down to 263lbs (my lowest weight in a long, long time.) Not only that, but I had ran a 5k. I finished 2 Spartan Sprints. One in Malibu, California, and the other in San Francisco at AT&T Park. Unfortunately, I let that deep down fat guy come back. I am back at 379lbs right now. (amazingly, not my heaviest ever) I feel like I lost so much, and it really sucks. Now, I want it back, and more!. Back when I first arrived at NF, I always felt like the Ranger life was more of the way I felt. I always wanted to be strong, and fast. I don't need to run marathons, though eventually it might be cool to try. I also don't need to run all the Spartan Races. Some day that Trifecta would be cool though I always just felt like I was never ready to join the Rangers. I have quite a lot of goals for this year. Some near impossible, and some smaller. Maybe I'll make out a list eventually. I feel like now is the time though. I may not be up to full on Ranger duty yet, but I want to start! Now on to my first challenge. I think I need to bring back a couple of things from my first ever challenge. Goal #1: Eat Those Veggies! I have done well in the past. Something I noticed gaining all this weight back, is that my vegetable intake is way down again. So for this challenge, I am going to have at least some vegetable with a meal once a day. Of course, I will try to eat more than that. I figure that I should just start it off small. Frozen, fresh, canned, whatever This is something for every day of the week, no off days. 1 point per day. 26 points total for the challenge. Goal #2: Cut out the late night snacks! Another thing I have noticed, is that my snacking has been way out of control. It's not needed. I want to try for no snacking at all. Just cutting out everything after dinner is the start though. 1 point per day. 26 points total for the challenge. Goal #3: 3 workouts a week, plus bonus cardio. So I have the original Rebel Fitness Guide. I started this my first challenge, and I am bringing a slightly modified version this challenge. I added in a couple of exercises to help with bowling. 3 times a week, I will do these bodyweight/dumbbell workouts. The bonus cardio is pretty open. The plan is to start with just simple walks each day. Week 1 is intro week. I will do 2 sets of my workout plan, and any amount of walking. I'm not making it a set number of steps this challenge. Just make it simple, and go out for a walk. Week 2 I will introduce another set to my workouts. So 3 today sets. I am also going to try to do C25K again. I've done it in the past, but I don't know if my body will be able to handle it. I have some goal to run later in the year, so I need to get this kicked off soon. So basically, this challenge is Exercise 6 days, rest on Sundays. 1 point per day (not counting Sundays). 23 points total for the challenge. The Level Up My Life Goal: Goal #4: Let's get our Bowl on So in May of this year, I will be bowling in the USBC Open Championship Tournament in Reno, NV. This will be my 9th year bowling. I missed 2010 when my mother died. I have been in a slump lately. Probably some due to my weight. So my other goals are helping with making me weight less, and get stronger. This goal is for me to get out there and get in some practice. The bare minimum will be to practice once a week. I bowl in two leagues currently. What I would like to do, is to practice after league some nights as well. There is also some things I can try to work on at home. I'm calling it shadow practice. This is a few things to mostly work on form. I've come up with a few things I can work on at home as well. 12 points this challenge. 1 point per shadow or actual bowling practice. Measurements: Location - Before/After = Difference Neck - 19.44 in / 19.96 in = -0.51 Chest - 57.87 in / 57.67 in = 0.19 Waist - 62.20 in / 61.77 in = 0.43 Bicep (L) - 18.5 in / 18.11 in = 0.39 Bicep ® - 17.4 in / 17.4 in = 0 Forearm (L) - 14.17 in / 14.21 in = -0.03 Forearm ® - 14.17 in / 14.21 in = -0.03 Thigh (L) - 31.28 in / 32.08 in = -0.39 Thigh ® - 32.28 in / 32.08 in = 0.19 Weight - 379.4 lbs / 371 lbs = 8.4 Grading: Week 1 (4th-10th) - 17/24 - 70% Week 2 (11th-17th) - 15/20 - 75% (N/A on Bowling this week) Week 3 (18th-24th) - 0/23 Week 4 (25th-29th) - 0/17 Entire Challenge (4th-29th) - 0/87 I am continuing to work on improving my sleep cycles from last challenge. I am just slowly moving them up so I can try to get up early to get my workouts in.

Well hello guys. I am back for my 11th challenge here at Nerd Fitness, and it might just be my most ambitious challenge yet. So last challenge ended up being a bust for me. A few things happened and I let things steamroll into bigger problems. Despite that, I did have some success. In my quest to get healthier, I find I am finding more ways to try to push my limits. Things that seem impossible, I sudden want to see if I can do them. Like the first 5k I ran. I still have only one official 5k, but I have run a few 5k in my last challenge. So before this challenge started, I signed up to race a 15k. I have never even ran a 10k. So honestly, this might be too much for me to handle. Damn if this isn't some motivation to light a fire under my ass though I signed up for the Hot Chocolate 5k/15k race. http://www.hotchocolate15k.com/sanfrancisco/ Sunday January 11th. Walking is fine here, they just want you to be able to do a 15 minute pace, which I think I can. My goal will be to run it all if I can. So my main motivation is to push my training to get as ready as I can for the race. I would love to be able to completely run it all, but I don't know how possible that might be for me to do. Plus, there is chocolate at the end of the race Of course, I might not really partake in that part. Now this next year (2015), I really want to do a few things. I want to run the 3 different lengths of Spartan Races so I can get the trifecta badge. Maybe a few others in there as well. There will be obstacles for me this challenge. The first week, I am on a family vacation. Posting from there now There will be Thanksgiving (which I did fine last year), and of course we will have Christmas after the challenge. So I think I need to make sure I plan for each event best I can. Goal 1: Get Your Run On! I am going to follow a training program to help get my mileage up, and hopefully, get faster as well. I haven't decided which program to use though. I was thinking I would follow the 10k plan from RunDouble. The last week is the week of the race though. The other option is to follow one of the programs on RunKeeper. There are also plans on the garmin site, but I think I might go with runkeeper or rundouble. The question is do I follow a 10k training, or go for half marathon type training. I can start with either one, and adjust if need be. Goal 2: Time to refocus on food. So I have been doing great in the last couple of challenges with tracking. Now I need to continue with that, but really get back to eating healthier foods. I am way too much into convenience. I need to make eating healthier more convenient for me. I am going to get back into bulk cooking. Normally done on a weekend, but hell, if I need to do it on a Tuesday, why wait for the weekend I've also gotten back into the habit of snacking too much. Even healthy foods. So I am going to limit my snacking to once a day. This will most likely mean no more night time snacking, which I need to quit. Goal 3: Get your butt to bed! Once again, my sleep goal returns. I am too much of a night owl This time i will change it a bit. During the weekdays, I will be in bed at 12. I will allow the weekends to extend a bit to 1 or 2am if I really need. The target will be to get use to the midnight bed time again, then each night I will just get to bed. Side goal: Goal 4: BW or weight exercises So my side goal I want to focus on getting back into a good exercise routine. I think I will try the ramp up method in this challenge. Week 1 i am out of town, so maybe just one body weight exercise workout this week. Next week is two days. The week three, I should be up to three days total. If all is good after that week, then I will start adding in more things to do. Measurements: Since I am out of town for the first week, i will added in measurements on day 1 of week 2. Weight I can add from my last weigh in on Friday. 11/7 - Date - 12/21 272 - Weight - Grading: still working it out, but will probably just going point system like last time Weekly summary:

Well hello there Scout people! I figured it was time for a change of scenery. So here I am join up with the Scouts for my 10th challenge here at Nerd Fitness. My main quest and motivation: The quest is always to be a faster, stronger, and healthier version of myself. Previous challenges it was more a focus on losing the weight. That goal is still there, but this challenge I am not going to focus on it. I want the weight loss to be a side effect of the hard work I am putting in. Also as I become healthier, I have a much better chance to get off the diabetes medicine I am currently on. I am have a doctor visit scheduled on October 3rd, with blood work to be done a few days before hand. Here is hoping we can discuss me getting off the pills! I also want to make sure I am around for my kids. I turn 41 in November. I’d like to have another 41 years here at least And yes, I have used these gifs before in my previous Run Fatboy Run challenge. Goal #1: Get Faster! This first goal is to improve my areas of cardio. First is to get a faster 5k time, and second is to get moving back to 10,000 steps per day. To help in this, I plan on running every other day. First two runs each week are fartlek style, with the third run being for distance. First distance I will start at will be 3 miles, then increasing that every couple of distance runs. Example 3, 3, 3.25, 3.25, 3.5, and 3.5. I will adjust if needed. Each 7th run will be 5k evaluation run. Hopefully on the finally evaluation day, my 5k time should be improved some. I also want to slowly build up my walking as well. By the end of the challenge, I should be back at it 10k per day. As a little side bonus, I want to beat my previous Fitbit steps PR of 19,091 steps in one day. So final day of the challenge I want to do my run, and walk multiple times during the day. I made a spreadsheet calendar here to show it all https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/10nQe6Bxis57nZ7F5Qk2h7OYwIZ9e0MuMewP0h5eAex4/edit?usp=sharing Goal #2: Get Stronger - Workout time! This goal I always think I will do well in, yet I seem to keep losing motivation to do bodyweight workouts. I know I need to build up strength in many areas. I want to get much stronger. I want to be able to get the Trifecta badge next year for doing all 3 Spartan race distances. I’ve done 2 Spartan Sprints in the past. It almost seems impossible to do the other distances, but this is stuff I am working towards. So this goal is designed to get me into 3x a week workouts again. My days will be set. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I don’t want to give myself any wiggle room, because I know I will delay workouts if I do. My ultimate workout would be for me to start doing something like Stronglifts. Getting to the gym to do more then walk on the treadmill for 30 minutes. Overall, I want to leave this pretty open to change. I think to start off, I will pick a BW workout each week from http://neilarey.com. I have been also thinking of adding in a few things at home that i have done at Spartan races to help get me more prepared for them also. Like slam balls, a big weighted rope for jump ropes, maybe a plyo box etc. This way I hope to keep things fresh for me. Added bonus will be for me to muster up the courage and just go lift some weights at the gym. Goal #3: Get Healthier - Food and Exercise Tracking I had success with this last challenge, and want to continue it here. Last challenge I did some in my battle log, and some at MyFitnessPal.com. This challenge I will focus adding everything to MyFitnessPal. I’ve done Whole 30 eating in the past, and this last challenge I did eat fairly good. Still had a few “unhealthier†foods, but with keeping track of it in myfitnesspal, I kept servings small, and pretty much stayed in my general calorie goal. Sidequest: Goal #4: Compete in all the side challenges I never made a character for myself to add in points, so those don’t motivate me to do side challenges. Since I am new here to the Scout guild, I figure what better way to get out there and participate with the group The Scouts Will Avenge The Mini-Challenge Week 1: 7 days of flossing! Done! 7 out of 7! Week 2: Anger management done Week 3: Week 4: Week 5: Week 6: Life goal: Goal #5: Finish the edx.org Introduction to Linux course! Not a fitness goal by any meals, but I started taking a self pace Linux class online. Well, I've been a bit of a slacker on this. My goal is to finish it this challenge. I am currently on chapter 3 of 18, plus the final exam. Ideally, I would like to get some done each day. The goal is to finish this by or before challenge ends. Of course passing grade would be acceptable too Grading: Going with a point style system for grading. It will be points per event. I'm not going to grade the side quests. They are more or less pass/fail. Week 1 (9/15 - 9/21)Goal #1 - 0/6 (walking and running, rest day will not be counted)Goal #2 - 0/3 (3 workouts on the week)Goal #3 - 0/7 (food and exercise tracking each day) Measurements: 09/15/14 - Date - 10/27/14 14.96 in - L. Bicep - 14.64 in - R. Bicep - 12.04 in - L. Forearm - 12.08 in - R. Forearm - 47.63 in - Chest - 50.66 in - Waist - 17.32 in - Neck - 25.78 in - L. Thigh - 25.27 in - R. Thigh - 18.62 in - L. Calf - 17.71 in - R. Calf - 261.3 lbs - Weight - Height is 5 ft 9 in Weekly Summary:Week 1 - 87% BWeek 2 - 94% AWeek 3 - Week 4 - Week 5 - Week 6 -

Challenge #9 is here! So in this challenge, I am heading back to Spartan Race. This time I am going to the San Francisco Spartan Sprint on August 9th. It is a part of their stadium series, so it takes place at AT&T Park. The San Francisco Giants play baseball there. Not a fan of the team, but it sounds like it will be awesome to run around in the stadium. So only 2 weeks to go till the race! Yikes! Last challenge I did successfully run my first 5k. So I am feeling much better with running. Since I ran one Spartan Sprint in Malibu last year though, I know it is no easy task. So that is part of my motivation this challenge. The other part, and next real goal is for me to hit that 250lb barrier. I've been going back and forth on my weight for awhile now. Hopefully, my goals this challenge really help me start getting there. It would be awesome to get there by the end of this challenge, but that is not a real goal. Goal #1: Exercise I am going to take on the 100 push up and 200 squats challenge, plus continue to to run on the off days. So Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I will do the workouts. Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday will be for running. For running, I will finish the last day of C25k in the first week. The plan for the rest of the running is to run timed runs on Tuesday and Thursday. Then my Saturday run will be a further distance. So maybe I run for 3 miles the first time. Then maybe increase the a .25 or ½ mile each week. My Spartan Race will hit at the end of Week 2, so that will count for my run that day. As a side bonus, I am adding in burpees. At least until the Spartan race. I need to get use to doing as many as I can. Who knows, I might keep this up after the race Goal #2: Sleep Making yet another return to my goals is sleep. Recently, I really have not been getting very good sleep. Maybe I am becoming more of a lighter sleeper, I am not sure. So this time I am going to have a couple of additions to the sleep goal. First, when I wake up in the morning, I am not to sit there checking my phone for an hour or two. I want to wake up, then get out of bed, and right into exercises. Second, I want to try to get more of a wind down period before heading to bed. I think jumping right off from the computer into bed isn’t always helping me to get to sleep quickly. So I’ll start off with 15 minutes before bed. Goal #3: Portion Control Eating seems like it will be the one place I will always need to keep a constant focus on. I know that eating healthier does make a difference in my mental and physical health. One thing I want to work on this challenge is limiting my portion sizes. To make sure this goal is the focus of my eating, I am not going to go and be strict paleo, or whole 30 etc. I will eat healthy, home made foods. I am going to give myself one meal or food a week that could be out of the bounds of what I might consider to be healthy foods. For instance pizza, or burger. Not just some average crappy food, but something quality. For the most part, I am going to avoid sugars as if I was on Whole 30 still. I am going with the portions based off the hand measurement. So meat will be like the palm of the hand. When I cook with an oil, I will use like the thumb tip. Veggies I am going to have as much as I want though. I figure its one area I can get away with having a larger portion if I like. I am also going to make an effort to eat slower. Give a little time for the signals from my stomach to hit the brain Goal #4: Food and exercise log I want to get better at tracking my food and exercise. To start, I want to keep it simple. For food, I want to track what I eat. I’m not worried about calorie numbers right now. I do want to try to keep track of the portions if I can. Exercise is easy enough to track. Just want to mark down each workout with numbers and times/distances for the running and walking. Goal #5: Draw a little Well, I was seeing KingLeeroy is getting back into her artwork. Since it seemed pretty cool, I thought I would give it a go too. I haven't done any serious artwork since I was in high school. So nothing serious here. I don't have to complete a certain number of drawings or anything. Just take some time each day to work on it. I'm thinking to start off, I will start getting off the computer and drawling a little before I head to bed. that might give me a little wind down from all the games on internet browsing Not long ago, I bought a small sketch pad and a couple of pencils. So now I just need to put them to use. Grading: 1 point each day for each goal. So a max of 5 points a day. I can average it out at the end of the week, then assign a grade based on the percentage. Measurements: 07/28/14 - Date - 09-08-14 15.35 in - L. Bicep - 15.47 in - R. Bicep - 12.20 in - L. Forearm - 12.28 in - R. Forearm - 48.11 in - Chest - 51.61 in - Waist - 17.71 in - Neck - 26.96 in - L. Thigh - 26.37 in - R. Thigh - 19.09 in - L. Calf - 18.11 in - R. Calf - 269 lbs - Weight - Height is 5 ft 9 in Week 1 summary - B Week 2 summary - B Week 3 summary - D CHALLENGE RECAP

Created this thread to start using for my challenges. I want to document daily food and exercise.

So hey everyone. I'm back for round 8! Man, it is hard to believe it has been a year already since I signed up. Before I move onto the goals I have for this challenge, I figured I would take a look back over the year. I put together 3 pictures of me today from where I think I was my heaviest (396lbs) up to a picture I took today. The middle picture was during my first challenge at Nerd Fitness. I can button that jersey up now that I was wearing in that picture I have still struggled with weight over the year. Mostly moving in the correct direction. I have been adding my weights into the fitbit site to help give me a graph over the year I was actually at my lowest weight of 267lbs in December. Right before my Spartan Race. I was getting close to it again last challenge, but have gotten back to the 280's today. I've have pretty much been doing this since December. So Time to get back on the ball! Another data point I have tracked over the year was step counts with my FitBit. I got my FitBit One just at the start of my first challenge. So over the year, this is what I have done. 881.15 miles I have tracked! 100k away from 2 million steps. I was pretty shocked when I saw the graphic up there. Now I need to aim for higher next year! I also wanted to make a quick video to sort of talk about these things, and a little more from the past year. Looking back over the past year, I find I am really pleased with how things have been coming along. Not perfect, and plenty of room for improvement. Just reading through some of my old threads gets me re inspired to do well. The support I have gotten from you all here has been amazing. A year ago, I would have never thought I would make it here a year. Even quitting one challenge, and failing in other goals, I still learned from then. I feel I still made good progress even if I slip back somewhat. I've been inspired to try more vegetable then I would have ever tried a year ago. I have done whole 30, ran a Spartan Sprint race, and ran for over a mile. All things I thought were probably never going to happen in my life. It's been a pretty amazing run last year, and this year looks to be even better. I really want to thank everyone here. Without you all, I don't think I would be doing as well as I am. On to the new challenge! My Main Quest! I am still am working on become that better, stronger, and faster version of me. I would really like to focus on weight loss. BMI suggests I should be at 165lbs. I always felt that was too low. I think I would be better off at a 185 or so. So that is more of the end game for weight. I would be ok being heavier too with extra muscle. Of course sorter term, I want to hit 250lbs. I have been dancing around the 275lbs mark for awhile now. It's time to get lower. I also want to be able to run a 5k. Just so happens I am signed up for on on the 29th of June. I am in need of serious training to be ready for that. Goal #1: Sleep I really need to get myself to bed earlier. It seems to be key to the whole day. I usually wake up by 8-8:30am even if I go to bed at 3am. So once again, I have the goal to be in bed between midnight, and 12:15. This should give me plenty of time to get the rest I need to execute the rest of my day. Goal #2: Whole 30, IF, No snacking! It is time for Whole 30 again. I have let myself slip off into then endless eating cycles filled with sugary regrets. So I will do Whole 30 for the entire challenge. I might start a correct re introduction phase between challenges, but it's just easier to focus on staying Whole 30 all 6 weeks. I will also still be eating in the Intermittent Fasting style. So probably last meal by 6pm. Then I can have first meal after 10am. Along with this, there will be no more snacking! Snacking has been one of the bigger downfalls for me. Snacking leads to me eating all the time. As a bonus in the Whole 30, I want to use my weekends as cook days. Prepare enough for me to have simple reheating options during the week. Goal #3: Exercise #1 I am going to finish C25K. I might have to pick up again at Week 7, but I will finish it this challenge. I have a 5K to run on the 29th, and I plan on running it all! I want to get back into exercising more too. So i am going to follow the neila ray 30 days of change workouts. The only two days off I will have is when I am running the 5K. I want to make sure I have plenty of rest the day before. I am also not doing all the cardio since I will be doing C25K instead. Though there is some I will still do. Also as a part of doing all this exercise, I am going to focus on doing the Beginner Stretching routine after each workout. I'll also do warmups before exercising. My goal is to do the exercises in the morning when I first get up. Get them over and done with so I can have the rest of the day to do other things. Then I will run at night like normal. Now for my side quests: Goal #4: Hit the lanes Yup, my bowling goal returns. I want to get in at least 3 extra games of practice per week. To add in a little more to this challenge, I am going to start adding in some drills to practice at home in front of a mirror. Things to really help my form, and improve my bowling. I hope. Goal #5: Be more active So overall, I still want to get in 10k steps per day at least. The thing is I don't want it to require me to have to go for a walk last minute to get in that last bit. Instead, I would like to be more active during the day. I am setting my Jawbone Up to buzz me whenever it detects I am not active for a certain amount of time. I figure each time it buzzes, I need to get up and do something. Even if it is just to go walk around the house a bit. This should help to free me of sitting at my computer all day, and hopefully get my step count up Grading: Going with a simple points each day system for each goal. 0/7 to start each week. Measurements: I am tracking these in fitbit as well, so i am only using let side for biceps, calf, etc since they only have input for one number. 06/09/14 Height: 5ft 9in Weight: 284lbs Neck: 18.3in Forearm: 12.2in Waist: 52.59in Thigh: 27.55in Bicep: 16.41in Chest: 48.74in Calf: 19.52in Body fat %: 41 using US Navy Calc Week 1 wrap up - 27.5/35

So a little back story. I have been trying to do the C25K app over the last year. About 3 times I started it over. I originally signed up for the 2014 Sharks Fitness Faceoff earlier in the year. I thought by the time the 5k comes, I will have completed the C25K, and been training more. My last challenge I had gotten into Week 7 Day 1. So a 25 minute run. At that time, it was my longest ever. Then I hurt my hamstring, and didn't run for 3 weeks. This latest challenge I was able to get back out there. Though I repeated week 6. Of course I wasn't even close to 5k distance yet. I ended up finishing off week 7 last week before my 5K on Sunday. So yesterday, I had lots of doubts that I could even come close to finishing. Last week on my 25 minute runs I did get to 2 miles though. So at least I knew I could do that. The 5k runners started at 8:15am. I never ran a 5k before, so I didn't exactly know what to expect. I had a friend there who has done a few races though, so he gave me a few tips. The beginning was a bit hectic. I wanted to make sure I didn't start off at too fast a pace, but I didn't realize I would be dodging so many people. I lined up towards the back some because I knew I wouldn't be flying out the gate like the sub 8 minute a mile people. It seemed like for the first quarter mile or more I was dodging and weaving in and out of groups of people. Some people would be running, then randomly stop. I knwo they usually ask people to be towards the right if you are going slow, or walking. Not many were following this though. Still, I was doing ok. I would check my watch to try to keep on a decent pace. I did hydrate pretty well the day before, but I didn't have any water with me during the run. Next time I will make sure to care some with me. There was one station along the way, so I did slow up to grab water. I almost had to stop when someone upped and stopped right in front of me to throw away the cup. Luckily I was able to avoid him. I hit 2 miles in, and was still going pretty fast. I had the thoughts of "ok, this is as far as I have ever run in my life." But i just kept telling myself to keep pushing. Every time I would check my pace, I knew I was getting closer and closer to the finish. 2.5 miles in, I think i started to slow up more. I just had to keep reminding myself that I was almost there. After one turn we could see the SAP center where the event was taking place. So I get a little adrenaline boost. Know I know we are getting close. Then the final turn towards the finish line. I really try to turn on the speed. Maybe even too early. Then I crossed the finish line, and grabbed my medal. IMG_20140629_085939 by Will Tate, on Flickr So my first ever 5k I got done in 37 minutes. I've never run that distance before, and was overjoyed knowing that I actually ran it all without stopping to walk. I posted to facebook: Hell yeah this 269lb just ran a 5k! No stopping! IMG_20140629_085830 by Will Tate, on Flickr So it was a really great feeling for me. I went into the day not sure if I could do it. I just knew if I ran it all, I would feel amazing. It was an awesome feeling

Hey all, I am back for challenge #7! I ended up bailing on last challenge. During that "off" time I started to think up my own 14 day challenges. I created a new Battle log: Tateman's daily 14 day challenge log The premise behind this is to get me more motivated to focus on my exercise. Similar to the Whole 30 idea of "hey, it's only 30 days, you can do that" For me, thinking "Hey, it's only 14 days. I can do that" Of course, then I just continue the cycle So motivation wise, I am still in the I want to lose weight group. Plus get stronger, better, faster! I am going to run another Spartan race. I was going to do Malibu again, but this year Spartan Race is coming to San Francisco. So I will run that one instead. This is a part of their stadium series. AT&T Park Spartan Sprint, August 9th, 2014. I watched the Fenway park sprint, and there wasn't any mud, but there was lots of burpees, and running, and plenty of other things to kick you butt. So I am scared and excited about it. I will sign up this weekend. I already have a few people wanting to team up potentially, so I might not have to do it all by myself. I also am bowling in the 2014 USBC Open Championships in Reno, NV on May 17th and 18th. So that happens this challenge! I really want to give the Shock and Awe to my teammates that haven't seen me in a year or more. More motivation is I want to get off my diabetes medication. Ever since I was put on it, it was a goal to get off it. I was heading in the right direction, but have faulted a bit. I'll be getting my bloodwork done soon, so I can see where my progress is. My Doctor had said in the past that when I get close to 250 lbs, We can possibly talk about lowering it down. So I NEED to get there. So here are the goals: 1) Fitness! Burpees, running, and gym visits! So here is my 14 day self challenges. I already started them, so I am just continuing into this challenge. Here is the spreadsheet I made to track this. Basically this: I haven't been 100% on it yet, but am building up. Also Day 1 of stairs plus burpees was murder. I might not ramp up as fast as I first lined up here. Going to try though before changing it. Since last challenge I failed on getting Stronglifts started, I hope this challenge I can at least get regular gym visits going. Even if it is only treadmill work. I hope it will start getting me more use to going to the gym. Maybe I will even do a few machine weights just to get more motivativated. The 14th day of each challenge is my Evaluation day. That day I test to see if I have improved in a few basic tests. Eventually, the evaluation days will change to other fitness tests, but for now it is How many Burpees can I do in one minute? How long does it take me to finish 1.2 mile? and How long does it take to finish 1 mile. Once I am able to actually run the 1/2 mile and 1 mile marks, then I'll see if I can get faster at them. Doing C25K should get me there eventually. When the challenge starts, I will be on day 8 of my 14 day challenge. 2) We must have rest! Ok, so I just decided on this one today. I have had sleep goals before. I just keep staying up later and later. With all my exercise, I need to have rest. So I will get back to my hard limit of midnight. No more 2am, or 3am sleep. From the past I know I might not fall asleep right away, but I got to get to bed by midnight. Eventually, I will start getting use to it, and fall asleep faster. 3) Eat well, and stick with IF So I was going to get back on the Whole 30 eating train again, but I honestly feel like I have to move past this. It's fine to go back on it from time to time I think. I just don't believe for me that it is a permanent way to eat. Having said that, my overall goal is to maintain a Whole30/Primal/Paleo eating style. I know from the past whole 30s I have done that Dairy isn't a problem for me, and corn has been fine too. So I plan on having popcorn (popped in coconut oil and not butter) as a snack. For me this is better then having trail mixes or nuts, because I can eat those up so fast. I think I will allow myself one meal a week if needed that might be outside this. I am getting back into the Intermittent Fasting as well. It worked great for me before to help my kick the snacking habit at night. 4) Be the bowler! So the practicing I was doing last challenge worked out pretty well. I have been on fire as of late it seems. So I hope to continue this. I want to at least have 3 games of practice each week. My wrist has been a little sore from one weekend were I did a lot of extra practice. So I want to make sure I don't over do it. I really, really, want to maintain my current bowling. I really want to do well at Nationals this year. 5) Document the Journey i didn't do so well last challenge with this. This time I want to do better. I want to make sure I get self pictures done each week at least. Plus, I want to try to do a daily video blog. It will be really boring. I hope to eventually have recordings of workouts, runs, and me just talking about the day. With all this stuff done, eventually I can look back and see just how much I have been changing. Maybe I can eventually make it my Weight loss video montage I'll be recording most video from my cell phone for now at least. I should have a tripod here soon to use. I also created a youtube account just for these videos https://www.youtube.com/user/willgetfit. Pictures I'll probably add to the usual places (Except shirtless ones will remain private for me haha) Beginning numbers! Weight - 281lbs (4-7-14) Challenge start weight: 277lbs (4-14-14 start date) This challenge I will be tracking my weight daily. I am curious to see how my body weight fluctuates. My pre-challenge evaluation numbers: Burpees in one minute: 8 1/2 Mile finished in 5 minutes 44 seconds 1 Mile finished in 12 minutes 14 seconds Weekly Summary Post: Week 1 Summary! Week 2 Summary!

So I am back for my 6th challenge. The last couple were not so hot. Especially the 5th challenge. I was sick almost the whole time, and I gained 11 pounds. End of challenge I was 289lbs. I want to prepare for a bowling in the USBC Open Championship in Reno, Nv. We bowl May 17th and 18th. The team I am bowling with, I have been with for a couple of years now. I want to deliver a little Shock and Awe when they meet me this year. Last year I was around 340lbs when I bowled. This year, I want to get down as much as possible. We all buy the same shirts there so we can match as a team. This year I don't want to go in saying "I'll wear whatever shirt they have the biggest size in" instead I want to be able to go in and get whichever shirt we feel like getting. I want to see jaws drop when people see me that I know there. Then hopefully, make jaws drop with my bowling skills! It's not a super long term goal, but it's one I want to get. I think it will be good motivation for me to really want to get out and get things done. If I can hit my goals, I will be in a much better place for future things like off road course races, and 5ks etc. I imagine that my goals for the next two challenges will be the same, or very similar. Goal 1 - Whole 30 90?+ So I really want to get to a place where I don't have to rely on the Whole 30 program for me. It works for me though. So for now, I am doing it again. I started my Day 1 the 17th. This time though, I am not stopping. At least not until I bowl in May. That may be my weekend to have fun with my bowling friends and such. Then I can re-evaluate my food strategy after that. I hope to be in a much better place food wise, so I really don't have those late night sugar cravings, or just bad eating in general. This challenge I will not monitor my weight each week or every other day. This time I will only weigh myself at the start and end of the challenge. Goal 2 - Stronglifts 5x5 This might be the hardest part of the challenge for me. I want to lift. I just have to let myself do it. Got to get that f'it attitude going and just get it done. I signed up for a new membership at 24 hour fitness. Don't even know where the power racks are. I decided I need to get it done anyway. No excuses. They even have child care available so I can do this any time. I have the app on my phone to be able to track my workouts. I'll watch the videos some more to make sure I have good form as well. I'd like to get some recording of my workouts if possible. Probably have to get my wife's help for that. I'll start off with just the bar only like he suggests. Then soon I'll be lifting tons of weight This will be a workout every other day. Either M, W, F or Tu, Thur, Sat. Goal 3 - Cardio specifically C25k After last challenge, I was tempted to give up on C25k again. Maybe to pick it up again later. The problem is, I want to do it still haha. I feel like it's a challenge I have to beat. So ideally by the end of the challenge I want to be doing cardio every day. Walking after Stronglift workouts, and C25k on the off days. Since I never did beat week 4, I am going to start over fresh. I figure this way it will help me build back up to finish C25k this time. Plus any lingering cough should be gone soon. Since C25k is 9 weeks, this goal will extend into next challenge. I am already thinking of "tests" to do once I am finished next challenge. So those goals should set me up to be lighter, stronger, and faster. Now I need something to help me be that better bowler. Goal 4 - Practice I must! So before I had a bowling goal. It was recording myself while I worked on a few things. This time it is different. Over the next 12 weeks I want to get in practice on the weekends. Saturdays, I want to practice at a different bowling alley then I normally bowl in. Then Sundays I'll practice in my normal house. Should there be some reason I can't bowl during the weekend (tournaments etc) Then I will setup bowling time after my league bowling, or go over there after the wife gets home. I will work on a few things, but really it's about getting my timing down, and just building up my bowling game in general. The USBC Open also uses different then normal oil patterns. At some point, bowling alleys will put out that pattern. I'll be trying to bowl on it as much as I can. Goal 5 - Document the journey So this goal really isn't about getting healthy. I just thought I'd like to have my own montage haha. I have a few pictures I have taken from when I started the challenges. So pictures I'll take. I haven't decided if I should do every day pictures, or once a week. I'd also like to get video if possible. Especially, the workouts and running. Might be hard to do though. Also I want to get myself coming here and posting every day again. So maybe it's updating my battle log again with food and exercise, or maybe this thread. I had been thinking that this might eventually evolve into doing a weekly video blog or something. Baby steps first. Grading: This challenge I might not bother with a grading scale. Maybe I'll use a point system or something, but I might just not use anything. Instead I might just use every week or even everyday to focus on the positive aspects of the challenge so far, and not dwell on things to try to get a A or whatever. Measurements: Starting weight: 276.6 lbs Left Bicep: 40 cm Right Bicep: 38.2 cm Left Forearm: 31 cm Right Forearm: 31.7 cm Chest: 122.9 cm Waist: 130.8 cm Neck: 45.4 cm Left Thigh: 66.5 cm Right Thigh: 67 cm Left Calf: 48 cm Right Calf: 45.8 cm Measurements taken on 02/24/14. Next set will be taken 04/07/14

Back again for another Nerd Fitness Challenge! This is my 5th challenge now. I've come a long way, and had a few set backs as well. This challenge, I am going to continue to move it forward. No fancy gifs this time. Just time to get back to business. My main goal this challenge and motivation Continue to build the better version of me. I really need to try to get these healthy habits to stick. I trained to run the Spartan race, and it was almost all downhill after that. I've gained weight back simply because I started eating poorly again, and cut the exercise out almost completely. Going with 4 goals this time to try to help me focus better on them. I want this all to really help me get more comfortable with myself. I don't think I can really get to 200lbs by the time I see my friend in May at bowling, but I want to be as close as I can This is the year I reach 1'derland. I think BMI numbers has me at like 168 for my top. I think i would be fine at 180ish especially if that is muscle weight I also want to be able to do more obstacle course races. I still could maybe pull off trifecta this year in the Spartan races, but I don't want to push it too hard. That might be a 2015 goal. Maybe this year I just run a longer Spartan race, and/or tough mudder. I also want to actually run a 5k this year. I don't think i ever ran that much before. Even as a kid. #1 - Create a weekly food suggestion plan I've done Whole 30 before, and was tempted to go right back to it this challenge, but I want to try to see if I can do more paleo style. I'm hoping to still be closer towards the stricter Whole 30 guidelines, but be able to have more options. I also plan on letting myself have a meal that is outside of the normal food plan. The "Cheat Meal" has to be worth it though. I want it to be worth every bite so I can truly enjoy it. Plus with setting a food plan, I hope it makes things much easier for me. Taking the guess work out of what I should eat each day. I'm also sticking with the Intermittent fasting as well. I've been off and on with this recently, but it's pretty easy for me to have a 16-18hour fast. I can alter the plan during the week if need be. Say I made more then I thought of a soup. I'll just adjust the food plan. Grading: A - Created the meal plan, and stuck to it. B - Created the meal plan, but had more then one cheat C - Created the meal plan, but only stuck to it 50% D - Created a plan, but didn't follow it very much F - Haven't changed a thing #2 - Walk/Run your butt off So I sort of stopped running the C25k app. I was going to pick it up the week before the challenge so I could end the challenge and the app in the same week. Obviously, that didn't happen. So I will be restarting from Week 3. I also want to make sure walking is in as well. So 10,000 steps a day, every day. I know that I can do this, and maintain that much. I just need to make myself get out there and get it done. Grading: A - Got in running, and 10k steps a day B - Got in running, but missed a day of walking C - Got in running, but missed a couple of days of walking D - No running, but got in all the walking F - No running, no walking #3 - Burpees! So I wanted to get in another exercise that will help gear me up for future Spartan style races. Why not Burpees. I thought about trying a stepladder style challenge. Day 1 = 1 burpee, Day 2 = 2 burpees etc. I decided to just go with 30 a day. More I guess if I eventually get good at it So it's not 30 in a row (eventually I would like to be there), but just 30 a day. Burpees can be done anywhere, so this should be a problem to get done through the day. Grading: A - 30 per day done, push for more! B - Missed a day of burpees! C - Missed two days of burpees D - Missed more then two days F - No Burpees! Side quest this challenge: #4 - Get the chores done! So I have been a stay at home Dad now for a few years, but I am still too lazy for taking care of the house. I am going to make a list of daily things that need to get done. Cleaning cat boxes, cleaning the dishes, etc. I also want to organize my computer area. I want to be able to try to set up a learning environment with some old computers. This way I can work on learning Linux, and other things easier. Grading: A - Daily chores done B - Missed a day C - Missed two days D - Missed more then two days F - Didn't do anything! Starting Measurements: Weight: 278lbs Weekly Summary: Week 1 Summary - No grade

http://www.spartanrace.com/malibu-obstacle-racing-spartan-sprint-2013.html So the time is finally here. My Spartan Sprint Race in Malibu happens this challenge! My Main Quest: The true goal is for myself to get healthy. I want to reach that under 200 mark. That will take awhile. I'd like to be as close to 250lb as I can before the race. I won't get there, but as close as I can This challenge My quest is to get ready to finish my first Spartan Sprint Race. Goals this challenge to help me complete my quest: #1 Don't eat the bad things! I am getting back onto strict Whole 30. Technically, I started back up on 11/06/13. I want to make at least one new meal for myself each week. I know I can just get buy on chicken, fish, and frozen veggies. I want to try new things, so I want to have my whole 30 challenge to include finding a new meal to make each week. I will also make sure to not only track this in my battle log, but also post here each day. #2 Get your Run/Walk on! I want to start up my Couch to 5k app again. Plus additional walking on the off days. I hope to hit 10,000 steps a day. If I feel I need to repeat any weeks on the app, that is ok. It will probably be a slower process before I can get up to running a decent distance. Ideally, my goal is to be able to run a 1/2 mile without stopping. If I can get to that, then I can start aiming for a mile, and running 1/2 miles to try to beat my old middle school time Of course I need to make sure I get my stretching done with this extra running #3 Get to bed! Back in my first Nerd Fitness challenge I had a sleep goal. It was great. Since then I have gotten more and more out of going to bed at a good time. Last challenge I started to notice if I am tired, I am less likely to make myself workout or do anything that I need to. So back to the basics here again. In bed by midnight every night. I give myself a 10 minute window. Life Goals: #4 Clean up and start downsizing! The current place we live in is expensive, and the owners don't care about any of the problems here. The place we want to move too is smaller, and will probably work out great. We have lots of extra tubs/boxes that have to be gone through. We have started this already, but it seems to take a back burner a lot of times. I want to make it a priority to get through these boxes! Time to donate or get rid of all the extra clutter we don't need! #5 Get the guts to go to the gym at least once a week! I am going to be really open with this one. I can simply go and walk on a treadmill if need be. If I want the A, I want to try a few things though. I have had a membership since January, and the only time I was there was the first sign up. This challenge isn't so much about the workout. It is more about me getting over my gymitimidation. Since it is planet fitness I don't think they have free weights, but I think even machines would be better then nothing at this point. plus the wife and I were looking at other gyms in the area. One has a pool she can use for exercise since her knees are pretty messed up. If I can go at least once a week to the gym, then I could probably justify the higher cost of a better gym. Motivation: The same thing drives me this time. I want to get to a much lower weight. I want to be able to have that feeling of accomplishment for running this spartan race. I want to get rid of all the medicine I have to take because I got myself in the situation of getting type 2 diabetes. I don't want to be this fat guy any more. I want to live. Not just for me, but for my kids. I want to set the positive role model they deserve to have. This challenge I will be getting all the last minute things I need for my Sprint race The One hitch in this challenge will be when I go to run the Spartan Race. It's about 5-6 hours drive south of here. Since we are going to be in the area, we are also going to Disneyland for a few days. So basically, I am giving myself some leeway during that time frame. I will Travel down on the 6th of December. The Run is on the 7th. Then the 8th, 9th, and 10th we will be in the Disneyland parks and other places around. the 11th is our travel day back. So 6th-11th. I am not letting myself go crazy on corn dogs or whatever. I just don't want to hold myself to having to get in the running etc if I can't. I have been talking with the wife about bringing things that we can have that are healthy options for food already. I am sure I will get in lots of walking, and the hotel has a gym and a heated pool. So I might just take up some swimming activities while we are down there Grading: #1 Don't eat the bad things! A - Whole 30 done, and one new meal made! B - Whole 30 done, but no new meals F - Whole 30 broken, start it over! #2 Get your Run/Walk on! A - Complete C25k and get 10k steps in each day B - Complete C25k, and get some extra walking in, just not 10k steps C - Complete C25k, but got no extra walking in D - No running, but got in lots of walking F - No running or walking #3 Get to bed! A - Got to bed at midnight every night B - Missed a day C - Missed two days D - Missed three days F - Yes, you are in fact a night owl #4 Clean up and start downsizing! A - Going through multiple boxes done at least one day B - Going through only one box, but multiple days C - Going through only one box, one day D - No boxes gone through, but did extra cleaning or arranging F - Did nothing #5 Get the guts to go to the gym at least once a week! A - Sweet, you did it. Time to get another visit in this week! B - Ok, you went there, and just did treadmill F - Ohh didn't get there at least once. Measurements: Weight: 276lbs Left Bicep: 40.6cm Right Bicep: 39cm Left Forearm: 31.5cm Right Forearm: 31.6cm Chest: 122cm Waist at belly button: 130.1cm Neck: 45cm Left Thigh: 68cm Right Thigh: 66.3cm Left Calf: 49cm Right Calf: 46.2cm Weekly Summary: Week 1 Summary C Week 2 Summary C Week 3 Summary Technically a F Week 4 Summary B

Activate Interlocks! Dynotherms connected! Infra-cells up! Mega Thrusters are go! Let's go Voltron force! Main Quest: Continuing adventures of training for my Spartan Race. Last time I slayed the sugar dragon. Now I need to form Voltron to help slay the Burpee robeast. In general, I need to lose more weight and get stronger. My next goal weight is to reach 275lbs. Exercise will help me form Feet and Legs. Then Arms and body. I'll form the head with Tracking and reading. 1) Track Exercise and food intake It's hard for Pidge to work on Voltron if he doesn't know everything that is going on. Nothing extravagant here. I just want to make it a habit to track in my daily battle log what I eat, and what exercises I am doing. I have tried tracking calories or carbs, but that doesn't really work well for me. 2) Workout Everyday Created a google spreadsheet for my workouts here Sunday will be my "rest day" but I will still get walking in that day. (Week 2 add on) Must have at least 3 miles a day in fitbit.(week 3 adjustment. Workout 4 times, walking everyday. 3 miles at least on workout days, 5 miles on non workout days) It's hard working swinging that Blazing Sword. After seeing BlamedCat’s work with the kettlebell, I ordered one. So I will be doing kettlebell, bodyweight and cardio workouts. Still working out exact details for each workout. 3 workouts plus walking/Sprints. Workouts will be gear towards getting burpees done. I can’t do a proper pushup yet, so proper burpees are not there. But I am going to work on as many aspects at I can. Squat thrusts, frog jump, jump squats like in this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZQA08SlJnM&feature=youtu.be 3) Intermittent fasting Going to give this a go. I want to start with a 16 hour fast, and 8 hour eating window. After I give this a try I might start moving it to a 18/6. Still eating clean as close to Whole 30/Paleo/Primal type eating. I am going to allow myself one meal that goes outside of this. A “cheat†meal I guess. I don’t have to do the meal, but I can if the situation is needed. I hope this helps me with my weight loss, and helps me get a understanding of my real hunger cycles. Side Quests! 4) Read a book! Time to back away from the internet and help broaden my imagination. So I have the first 4 books of the Game of Thrones. Time to start reading. First challenge I made myself go to bed early. The second challenge I have been staying up again much later then I want to. So this goal will help to correct that again. I don’t want to say i will read x number of pages or a certain number of books. It’s been forever since I let myself get wrapped up in a book. So I think it is time. The plan is to shut off everything by 11:30pm. This means no late workouts to go into this time. I don’t have to be in bed to read, I just have to be off the computer and all other distractions are off. 30 minutes at least every night. If I get into the books and want to read longer, that is fine. I just want to make sure I get 30 minutes in at least. Then hopefully, it will be a easy transition to getting to bed. I'll even say it is a win if I stay up till 2am reading. If I am into the books that much it will be awesome. I'll just have to know to start earlier next time 5) Build towards doing a real good form push up. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiFdfDBY77g&feature=youtu.be I want to work on this every day. Basically going to try to work on getting my planks up to a minute. Last I checked I maxed out at 45 seconds. Also going to try to get a minute of Arm extended planks. I’ll also work in knee pushups, and try to to extend part way down pushups with holding in place for as long as possible. If I plan on doing good burpees, I am going to need to get good pushups done, Motivation: I made this in photoshop today to hang up by my computer. I might alter it a bit more to add more things in it, but for now it is good. I want to be a healthy Dad. Eventually to lead them both into a better way of living so they don’t have to spend 30 years or more overweight like I did. I finally hit that below 300 mark. Now the bar goes down to 275. I will hit that. unlikely to happen this challenge, but it will happen soon. Measurements: Starting weight 295lbs Left Bicep - 42.3cm Right Bicep - 41.2 Left Forearm - 32.5 Right Forearm - 32.7 Chest - 127.8 Waist at belly button - 134.5 Neck - 47.2 Left Thigh - 70.5 Right Thigh - 69.5 Left Calf - 50.2 Right Calf - 47.3 Grading: 1) Track Exercise and food intake A - Tracked it all, nice work! B - Missed part of a day C - Missed a whole day D - More then a day missed F - Zero tracking! 2) Workout Everyday A - Got it all in, nice! B - Had to have a rest day, but did great the others Missed a day of workout/walking C - Two rest days, not good! Missed more then one day of walking/workout D - Seems like someone needs to channel beast mode again! F - No workouts 3) Intermittent fasting A - Complete IF every day B - One day messed up C - Two-Three days messed up D - Only one day IF completed F - No days done in IF 4) Read a book! A - At least 30 minutes done per day B - Missed one day C - Missed two days D - hey, and least you opened the book for a bit F - No reading 5) Build towards doing a real good form push up. A - Working hard everyday towards this goal! B - Missed 1 or 2 days C - Missed 3 to 4 days D - Missed 5 or 6 days F - No work done Each Week Summary: Week 1 Summary A Week 2 Summary B Week 3 Summary C Week 4 Summary D Week 5 Summary C Week 6 Summary D Challenge Wrap up!