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Greetings all! For those of you who know me (poor devils) this is mostly a re-hash. A little about me... I'm 42, live in Nova Scotia (east coast), Canada, unattached, no kids (one cat), have WAY too many books and proud of it. I'm a boiler and refrigeration operator by trade, though my dream is to have a "bricks & mortar" used bookstore. I currently, have a part-time one that I run out of my basement in my spare time and my whole inventory is science fiction & fantasy (my passion). Should be a link to my stores facebook page in my signature. I'm also a Freemason and quite active in my lodge, which has helped offset my normal "hermit" habits and given me a new confidence in myself and abilities In August 2013 I weighted 267 lbs, and something "clicked" in my head and I decided I needed a change. The pic on left was me on August 23, 2015, pic on right was me in August 23, 2013. So, I started trying to get healthy and since I'm a type "A" person I use www.loseit.com as my food log and calorie counter. I hit my goal weight. The holidays and other life "stuff" put me above my goal weight of 175lbs and the first (and second) challenge of the new year was less than successful for me. Main Quest: For this challenge my main quest is too get to 180lbs, I've gained too much weight these past 16 weeks. To do that I will be doing the following... Side Quests: Keep my daily food log and weigh-ins with my loseit.com account, and stay below my calorie limit. I'm allowing 1 cheat per week. Do at least 2 Cardio workouts a week (min 20 minutes), even if its just walking around my sub-division or playing on recumbent bike. 3. Do the following Body Weight exercises during the week. I used to try for more, but am making my goals reachable and plan on building from here. 50 Push-ups 75 Squats 50 Leg Lunges (combined total of both legs) 75 Dumbbell Rows (combined total of both arms with 25 lb weight) 50 Leg Raises 100 Jumping Jacks 40 Bicep Curls (combined total of both arms with 25 lb weight) 20 Triceps drips No eating or booze after 8pm when I work dayshift or on days off. 12 midnight when working nightshift. I'm allowing myself 1 cheat per week. Late night eating is the worst for me, this works if I can stick with it. Life Quest: My MAJOR life quest is to finish my basement and turn it into rec room/bookstore, though I'm going to add some minor life quests for this challenge for those days I need to do something else. I'll be adding mini-life quests as well. Each week I will spend an hour doing at least ONE of the following things I enjoy. 1. Work on a short story 2. Work at updating my used bookstore in some way (inventory, ads, etc...) 3. Work at my Masonic interest (reading, learning lines, etc...) I also like to write, what I have been doing for the past while is mirroring parts of my real life into a story featuring a halfling named petefeet. More of this in next post.

Greetings all! For those of you who know me (poor devils) this is mostly a re-hash. A little about me... I'm 42, live in Nova Scotia (east coast), Canada, unattached, no kids (one cat), have WAY too many books and proud of it. I'm a boiler and refrigeration operator by trade, though my dream is to have a "bricks & mortar" used bookstore. I currently, have a part-time one that I run out of my basement in my spare time and my whole inventory is science fiction & fantasy (my passion). Should be a link to my stores facebook page in my signature. I'm also a Freemason and quite active in my lodge, which has helped offset my normal "hermit" habits and given me a new confidence in myself and abilities In August 2013 I weighted 267 lbs, and something "clicked" in my head and I decided I needed a change. The pic on left was me on August 23, 2015, pic on right was me in August 23, 2013. Need to find missing pic, darn you new forums!!!! So, I started trying to get healthy and since I'm a type "A" person I use www.loseit.com as my food log and calorie counter. I hit my goal weight. The holidays and other life "stuff" put me above my goal weight of 175lbs and the first (and second) challenge of the new year was less than successful for me. Main Quest: For this challenge my main quest is too get to 180lbs, I've gained too much weight these past 12 weeks. To do that I will be doing the following... Side Quests: Keep my daily food log and weigh-ins with my loseit.com account, and stay below my calorie limit. I'm allowing 1 cheat per week. Do at least 2 Cardio workouts a week (min 20 minutes), even if its just walking around my sub-division or playing on recumbent bike. 3. Do the following Body Weight exercises during the week. I used to try for more, but am making my goals reachable and plan on building from here. 50 Push-ups 75 Squats 50 Leg Lunges (combined total of both legs) 75 Dumbbell Rows (combined total of both arms with 25 lb weight) 50 Leg Raises 100 Jumping Jacks 40 Bicep Curls (combined total of both arms with 25 lb weight) 20 Triceps drips No eating or booze after 8pm when I work dayshift or on days off. 12 midnight when working nightshift. I'm allowing myself 1 cheat per week. Late night eating is the worst for me, this works if I can stick with it. Life Quest: My MAJOR life quest is to finish my basement and turn it into rec room/bookstore, though I'm going to add some minor life quests for this challenge for those days I need to do something else. I'll be adding mini-life quests as well. Each week I will spend an hour doing at least ONE of the following things I enjoy. 1. Work on a short story 2. Work at updating my used bookstore in some way (inventory, ads, etc...) 3. Work at exploring my family history 4. Work at my Masonic interest (reading, learning lines, etc...) I also like to write, what I have been doing for the past while is mirroring parts of my real life into a story featuring a halfling named petefeet. More of this in next post.

Greetings all! For those of you who know me (poor devils) this is mostly a re-hash. A little about me... I'm 42, live in Nova Scotia (east coast), Canada, unattached, no kids (one cat), have WAY too many books and proud of it. I'm a boiler and refrigeration operator by trade, though my dream is to have a "bricks & mortar" used bookstore. I currently, have a part-time one that I run out of my basement in my spare time and my whole inventory is science fiction & fantasy (my passion). Should be a link to my stores facebook page in my signature. I'm also a Freemason and quite active in my lodge, which has helped offset my normal "hermit" habits and given me a new confidence in myself and abilities In August 2013 I weighted 267 lbs, and something "clicked" in my head and I decided I needed a change. The pic on left was me on August 23, 2015, pic on right was me in August 23, 2013. So, I started trying to get healthy and since I'm a type "A" person I use www.loseit.com as my food log and calorie counter. I hit my goal weight. The holidays and other life "stuff" put me above my goal weight of 175lbs and the first (and second) challenge of the new year was less than successful for me. Main Quest: For this challenge my main quest is too get to 180lbs, I've gained too much weight these past 8 weeks. To do that I will be doing the following... Side Quests: 1. Keep my daily food log and weigh-ins with my loseit.com account, and stay below my calorie limit. I'm allowing 1 cheat per week. 2. Do at least 2 Cardio workouts a week (min 20 minutes), even if its just walking around my sub-division or playing on recumbent bike. 3. Do the following Body Weight exercises during the week. I used to try for more, but am making my goals reachable and plan on building from here. 50 Push-ups 75 Squats 50 Leg Lunges (combined total of both legs) 75 Dumbbell Rows (combined total of both arms with 25 lb weight) 50 Leg Raises 100 Jumping Jacks 40 Bicep Curls (combined total of both arms with 25 lb weight) 20 Triceps drips 4. No eating or booze after 8pm when I work dayshift or on days off. 12 midnight when working nightshift. I'm allowing myself 1 cheat per week. Late night eating is the worst for me, this works if I can stick with it. Life Quest: My MAJOR life quest is to finish my basement and turn it into rec room/bookstore, though I'm going to add some minor life quests for this challenge for those days I need to do something else. I'll be adding mini-life quests as well. Each week I will spend an hour doing at least ONE of the following things I enjoy. 1. Work on a short story 2. Work at updating my used bookstore in some way (inventory, ads, etc...) 3. Work at exploring my family history 4. Work at my Masonic interest (reading, learning lines, etc...) I also like to write, what I have been doing for the past while is mirroring parts of my real life into a story featuring a halfling named petefeet. More of this in next post.

Greetings all! For those of you who know me (poor devils) this is mostly a re-hash. A little about me... I'm 41, live in Nova Scotia (east coast), Canada, unattached, no kids (one cat), have WAY too many books and proud of it. I'm a boiler and refrigeration operator by trade, though my dream is to have a "bricks & mortar" used bookstore. I currently, have a part-time one that I run out of my basement in my spare time and my whole inventory is science fiction & fantasy (my passion). Should be a link to my stores facebook page in my signature. I'm also a Freemason and quite active in my lodge, which has helped offset my normal "hermit" habits and given me a new confidence in myself and abilities In August 2013 I weighted 267 lbs, and something "clicked" in my head and I decided I needed a change. The pic on left was me on August 23, 2015, pic on right was me in August 23, 2013. So, I started trying to get healthy and since I'm a type "A" person I use www.loseit.com as my food log and calorie counter. I hit my goal weight. The holidays and other life "stuff" put me above my goal weight of 175lbs and the first challenge of the new year was less than successful for me. Main Quest: For this challenge my main quest is too get to 180lbs, I've gained too much weight these past 6 weeks. To do that I will be doing the following... Side Quests: 1. Keep my daily food log and weigh-ins with my loseit.com account, and stay below my calorie limit. I'm allowing 1 cheat per week. 2. Do at least 2 Cardio workouts a week (min 20 minutes), even if its just walking around my sub-division or playing on recumbent bike. 3. Do the following Body Weight exercises during the week. I used to try for more, but am making my goals reachable and plan on building from here. 50 Push-ups 75 Squats 50 Leg Lunges (combined total of both legs) 75 Dumbbell Rows (combined total of both arms with 25 lb weight) 3 Planks (as long as I can hold it, usually 30 - 40 seconds) 100 Jumping Jacks 40 Bicep Curls (combined total of both arms with 25 lb weight) 20 Triceps drips 4. No eating or booze after 8pm when I work dayshift or on days off. 12 midnight when working nightshift. I'm allowing myself 1 cheat per week. Late night eating is the worst for me, this works if I can stick with it. Life Quest: My MAJOR life quest is to finish my basement and turn it into rec room/bookstore, though I'm going to add some minor life quests for this challenge for those days I need to do something else. I'll be adding mini-life quests as well. Each week I will spend an hour doing at least ONE of the following things I enjoy. 1. Work on a short story 2. Work at updating my used bookstore in some way (inventory, ads, etc...) 3. Work at exploring my family history 4. Work at my Masonic interest (reading, learning lines, etc...) I also like to write, what I have been doing for the past while is mirroring parts of my real life into a story featuring a halfling named petefeet. More of this in next post.

Hello kids and welcome to my 11th challenge! For those of you who know me (poor devils) this is mostly a re-hash. A little about me... I'm 41, live in Nova Scotia (east coast), Canada, unattached, no kids (one cat), have WAY too many books and proud of it. I'm a boiler and refrigeration operator by trade, though my dream is to have a "bricks & mortar" used bookstore. I currently, have a part-time one that I run out of my basement in my spare time and my whole inventory is science fiction & fantasy (my passion). Should be a link to my stores facebook page in my signature. I'm also a Freemason and quite active in my lodge, which has helped offset my normal "hermit" habits and given me a new confidence in myself and abilities. Main Quest: In August 2013 I weighted 267 lbs, and something "clicked" in my head and I decided I needed a change. The pic on left was me on August 23, 2015, pic on right was me in August 23, 2013. So, I started trying to get healthy and since I'm a type "A" person I use www.loseit.com as my food log and calorie counter. I hit my goal weight of 180 lbs. So my main quest is to continue my healthy lifestyle and improve my fitness level and stay below 180 lbs. To do that... Side Quests: 1. Keep my daily food log and weigh-ins with my loseit.com account. 2. Do at least 3 Cardio workouts a week (min 20 minutes), even if its just walking around my sub-division or playing on recumbent bike. 3. Do the following Body Weight exercises during the week. 80 Push-ups 100 Squats 100 Leg Lunges (combined total of both legs) 150 Dumbbell Rows (combined total of both arms with 25 lb weight) 5 Planks (as long as I can hold it, usually 30 - 40 seconds) 150 Jumping Jacks 80 Bicep Curls (combined total of both arms with 25 lb weight) 40 Triceps drips 4. No eating or booze after 8pm. This works, if I can stick with it, last challenge was a hit/miss. Late night eating is the WORST for me, and I need to figure out a way to modify it around my night shifts (7pm - 7am). Maybe no food or booze after 8pm EXCEPT for night shifts when I can extend it to midnight. Life Quest: My MAJOR life quest is to finish my basement and turn it into rec room/bookstore, though I'm going to add some minor life quests for this challenge for those days I need to do something else. mini life quest #1 Spend 1 hour a week working on Family History (Genealogy). mini life quest #2 Spend 1 hour a week doing bookstore jobs. This could be updating ads, sorting books, doing quotes etc... mini life quest #3 Spend 1 hour a week doing Lodge projects. This could be memory work, sorting refundables for our "Bottles for Bursaries" program, draft a promotional booklet, help with lodge projects etc... mini life quest #4 Spend 1 hour a week writing. This could be drafting a new story, sorting the 8 million post-it note ideas I have, etc... To help keep me sane (ish), I also like to write. So I will be continuing the adventure of petefeet as he explores the world around him. I try and take parts from my real life and weave them into a story. So far.... (Check 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th , 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th & 10th Adventure's for written story) Petefeet is a halfling who was kidnapped by raider's as a small child and taken to a large human city and sold as a slave to the people running the cities gladiator arena. For much of his young life he was used as a servant, used to fetch and carry for the Masters and the gladiators. After many years of this, petefeet starts to realize that he wants more out of life and starts to secretly steal better food meant for the Master's and starts trying to copy the exercises done by the gladiators. Just when the Master's start to realize that something is changing with their normally meek and cowardly Halfling slave, an outside (Maybe the "Lady in Flames"?) force intervenes. How and when it happens is still a blur to petefeet, but one day he finds himself waking up in the middle of a crater out in the middle of the wilderness wearing nothing but his slave robes, which are now tattered and singed. Found by a young human girl named Jan and her Grandfather, petefeet had his burned skin tended, feed and dressed in old work clothes. In an effort to repay them for their kindness, petefeet offered to rid them of an giant rat that had taken up residence in their work hut. With nothing to protect his hands, our little Halfling wrapped the burned and tattered remains of his slave robes around his hands (like boxing mitts) and went into battle. It was during the battle with the giant rat that petefeet realized that the old robes held some magic (or was the focus for an innate ability or a gift from "Lady in Flames"?), for when he became scared, tiny sparks formed on the old robes covering his hands and when he punched the giant rat burns were also left upon the beast though petefeet received no damage. The more is was able to control his fear, the better he was able to hurt the beast. Since that day, petefeet has wandered the land, helping out where he came, getting into the odd bit of trouble and making new friends. He isn't quite sure where he is going, though is sure he will know it when he finds it. petefeet spent the winter months in an abandoned manor house leaving the larger world for another day, but now that spring is here, he's doing a little exploring and has discovered the nearby village of Apple Valley. With fall in full swing petefeet has been busy making improvements to his lean-too home within the abandoned Pryde family estate, foraging and growing food for the coming winter and exploring the world around him. Characters within the story petefeet = Me Giant Brown Bear/Were-bear = My friend Hal who I only get to see a couple times a year. "Lady in Flames" (figure in petefeet's dreams) = Friend who I realize I'm falling in love with, and the knife edge I'm walking wanting to be more without losing a important friendship. Lately my emotional state (both good and bad) seems tied into my relationship with her, so I've taken to writing about her more as a way to give voice to my feeling (as a way for me to process). Black Dog (figure in petefeet's dreams) = Depression & that insidious emotion called "Hope" Mickey the Cat (Mysterious Wizards Familiar?) = My cat named Mickey!