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Okay, so, I'm taking a quick break from warrior training to get cut open. So, seeing as I've already been told that post surgery I won't be allowed to workout the way that I've fallen in love with, I've decided to pop in here and see what the whole adventurer life is like. Backstory: I've always been bigger, but during University I packed on a lot of weight, and then got a job that was mostly inactive and gained more weight. Then got another job with even less activity (i.e. completely desk bound) and peaked at around 147.2kg around the age of 27. That was a few years ago now, and after yo-yo dieting for a while, I found NF back up around 142.7kg at the start of 2014. That's sort of where everything changed for me, and I've been improving gradually ever since. After my level 1 challenge I joined the assassin's primarily because I didn't have a gym membership, and was really inspired by "the world is your playground" idea. And I even stuck with it mostly. I got stronger, althought I never did manage that elusive pull-up, and remained with the assassin's guild until the end of 2014. Then, for the first challenge of this year, because I now have a gym membership, and had started the Strong Lifts program, I joined the warrior guild. And they were fantastic. Everyone there was so inspiring, and motivating, and so many of them know so much about lifting that to pretty much any question about strength training you could think of, someone there had an answer, and oftentimes, multiple people had the answer. It was great. But now, I'm staring at the start of a new challenge, and know for a fact that in a week and a half I go under the knife, and I'm not allowed to lift for 6 weeks after that. And that brings me here. I want to continue (or more accurately restart) my weightloss journey without the assistance of lifting heavy weights. The Challenge: Lose weight. It always sounds so simple, and yet it never is. Goals: 1) Stick to my eating plan and use meal prep to keep it easy. I have a very basic meal plan already put together that I'm constantly working on making more diverse. I'll try and post the food porns here, when I remember (which I'm not going to garauntee because I'm lazy). 2) Exercise as much as is medically safe and allowed by your recovery. Basically, my surgeon has told me that I will be able to do more and more towards the end of my 6 weeks of recovery, so I want to use that to incrementaly increase the intensity of what I'm doing. And I should post here what I'm doing each week for the purposes of accountability. 3) Continue on Mobility training. So it turns out, lifting weights requires a lot more flexibility than I expected. More than I have to be specific. So, for the next 6 weeks, I'm going to take the lack of DOMS as an opportunity to work on my lower body mobility each and every single day. So I have to spend 5-10 minutes each day completing a stretching routine that I already have established. This is about consistency, and accountability because I already know to do this, and every now and then I actually do it. So now I just need to make it a habit. Reward: If I can stick to this, and let myself take the time I need to in order to recover properly, I am going to splurge on myself a little, and buy a few training sessions from the strength and conditioning trainer at my gym to work on my deadlift form. Bonus Goal: Update here more than just once a week. I know once a week is technially enough, but I've been pretty slack in the past about posting updates. So, 2-3 times a week is my goal for this. And I'm not sure how I'm going to reward myself for this one, but I'll think of something (and include it in one of my many updates ). Anyway, that's it for now.

Woohooo! First Daily Battle Log! Hey NF peeps, this is me holding myself accountable to all of you, keeping on track and smashing my goals! Little bit of background, I am a dance teacher, mainly contemporary (modern) dance with a bit of street. I teach 17 classes a week, from 18 month olds to over 60s:) I'm also a Zumba instructor since August 2012. As well as teaching I am a member of a youth dance company, although I'm getting a bit too old now to be classed as youth! , which I love because it gives me a chance to perform and work with fantastic dance people. Although my job is very active, I feel like I can do more, am not happy with my body and want to turn my fitness weaknesses into strengths. And so I hired a personal trainer, and let me tell you, its one of the best things I've ever done! The focus is on strength training, cardiovascular endurance and body composition - less fat, more muscle please! This, coupled with what I already do already and an increasingly Paleo diet is my plan to level up my life! MY GOALS Reduce body fat to 20% (Was at 32% three weeks ago, today 30%)Increase upper body strength (a little vague I know, but I'll be tracking my progress, and I want to be able to do full press-ups (currently on knees) and pull upsGet from 73kg to 68kg (BUT has to be the right kind of weight loss, fat, NOT muscle!)Eat increasingly Paleo I've done a couple weeks of training already, but rather than try to remember all the details I'm just going to start my posts from today, with what went down today. FOOD - Breakfast - No eggs in the house, or the shop nearby, so today it was bacon (very pleased to read Steve's blog about the positives of bacon later that day ) with vegetables (carrots, broccoli and sweet corn). I can't believe I'm writing this, as I have been a loyal and passionate fan of toast for the past 20 years! Lunch - Food Doctor Couscous and Lentil pot with tomatoes and peppers, plus vegetables (carrots, broccoli and sweet corn). Followed with cashews, raisins and grapes. Pre-rehearsal meal - Three scrambled eggs with black pepper and cucumber. Dinner - Sausages and vegetables (same as above). Followed by a cup of tea and a double decker bar (my unhelpful food for the day). TRAINING - Personal Training session - 9:30am-10:30am 5x100m row sprints (fastest time 19.2 secs), 4x10 chest press, 4x10 vertical traction,3x10 kettlebell deadlifts (16kg), 3x30 secs VIPR lunges, 3x30 secs planks, treadmill (5 mins, 2.5 incline), 3x10 back sel. Taught two dance classes - 4:00pm-5:45pm Dance Rehearsal - 7:00-8:30pm. That's all for today folks, stay tuned! As a fitness newbie any advice, suggestions etc welcomed with great appreciation! Ems

THURSDAY 11/14/2013 Tried running right after lunch. (Actually a larger lunch than I had intended. Healthy, but leftover catering is my weak spot.) Only got .23 miles, but it gives me a baseline. Later in the day, I did three more runs, for between .30 and .39 miles at a go. Still a long way off, but better than the .23 mile attempt. Lessons learned: 1) Don't run right after eating. No, seriously. Don't. 2) My Marvel Ironman hoodie may be awesome looking and warm, but don't use it when running, anyway. Too floppy. 3) It's uncharacteristically cold in Baton Rouge, right now. I need to find a way to keep running and training without having to deal with this cold... OR I need to find a way to deal with the cold. Yes, the Turkey Trot is on Thanksgiving, but that's not usually cold here in Baton Rouge. I can't be sure what this year will hold, however... 4) I need to slow my pace. My runs today were all faster than 10 min/mi and I think that's wearing me out too quickly. A 10 minute mile might prove to be too slow a pace, but I think that's a good training target, at least for now. DAILY GOALS: Running Steps: 1469 (Daily Goal: 1469. Adding 321 each day, going forward.) 100%100% Total Steps: 12009 (Daily Goal: 12000) 100%100%

Greetings all! Just like the other logs, this Battle Log will help me keep track of things, but they will be outside of my first 6-week challenge, as I'll be updating that on this post here. My first entry into the Battle Log is something I whipped up: my skill tree! I put this together today and wanted to plop it in here to see what everyone thought. In keeping with traditional RPG logic, this one's simple: I know it's a bit big, but I'm happy with the tree and will be adding to it/changing things as needed. Let's do this!

So this is my first Daily Battle update - I've been looking at the NF site for a couple of weeks, but I decided to follow the advice here properly a few days ago. A little bit about me I'm an English teacher, currently sporadically employed as a substitute in various schools. This means I have quite a few days when I don't have any work to go to, so I end up hanging around my flat quite a bit. I'm from Scotland originally, but I moved to Ireland last summer to live with my boyfriend. I didn't know many people here, so I joined a rugby team mainly for the craic, but ended up LOVING it! Training is twice a week and we have games most weekends - I generally make it to most training nights, but not all. The sport is full contact and I'm a second row, which means sprinting, rucking, tackling, scrums and lifting in the line-outs are all part of my job. My health I'm generally pretty fit and healthy, but I'm a bit overweight. I'm not sure how much I weigh as I don't own scales, but I think I'm around 11 1/2 stone. I'm 5 ft 6, so that's a stone or two over what I should be. I smoke very rarely - once a month or so on nights out. I don't drink often at all, and I'm a lightweight so when I am drinking I don't drink much. My diet is ok, but could be better. I eat fresh home-made meals every day, but I do have a lot of pasta, rice and meals without veg in them. I also have a weakness for soft drinks and chocolate. Goals/aims I want to get fitter and stronger so I can last a full rugby game. I get out of breath pretty quickly, so I'd like to be able to run faster for longer. I'd also like to lose some weight and tone up. Plan (this is baby steps at the moment!) I am going to alternate rugby training with personal exercise. I am going to cut down on the amount of grain in my diet, and also stop buying soft drinks, chocolate and biscuits to keep in the flat. I am going to eat vegetables with my evening meal every day. Today So, today is Monday. I tried the beginner body strength workout for the first time two days ago, and had a 'rest' day yesterday as there was no rugby match on. Today I did 30 mins on our exercise bike, then 3 sets of the beginner body strength workout. Already I found it easier than I did two days ago! I made sure to stretch properly before and after the workout as yesterday my thigh muscles were really stiff. Food today - I had a bowl of museli around 13.00 and an apple. I drank around two pints of water with diluting orange juice. I'm planning to have chicked fajitas for dinner, with lettuce and peppers. Not sure how healthy all that is! I need to read up on diet a bit more I think, although I'm pretty sure I don't want to go full Paeleo. I lost a good deal of weight a couple of years ago by just cutting back on junk and eating lots of veg and fruit, so I'm happy to go with that again. Well, that's all from me! I'd be interested in any advice or comments anyone has.