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For those who are new or behind, my main goal is weight loss, for health reasons as well as I want to look good naked, and fit in clothes I used to. I love 5Ks and kettlebells. I'm struggling with this goal because it doesn't get easier when you get older. My birthday happens in the middle of this challenge so there will be some flexibility for that if D decides to plan anything. I work from home, (3 jobs) as an accountant, so making sure I have enough movement in my day as well as not eating "all the unhealthy things" is important. It's very easy to lose track of how much time I've been sitting trying to solve an issue. Not having "all the unhealthy things" in the house also helps. I struggle to get enough sleep so that shall remain on the list until it's no longer a struggle. I found a ‘diet’ plan, the Dr. that came up with its target audience is post-menopausal women. It’s really a combination of several different things like IF, Low Carb/Keto, and Macros. The common denominator is calorie reduction, of course, unless you burn more than you take in, nothing is going to work! My biggest issue is I get tired of trying to figure it all out and do a lot better when someone just tells me how and when to do it, so I’m putting this on easy mode until I lose the weight! I’ve decided to go back to the 5k training plan I used in 2019 that worked better than anything else I tried…it calls for one day strength training, three days ‘running’ (intervals at your pace is suggested) and one to two days cross training or rest days. I took a break in the middle of this because NF Journey had a 5K training that was very similar, so I’m doing that instead. I will be transitioning back mid-challenge because that will end, I’m also using the NF Journey app for workouts on the two days I’m not running. Checking in to hold myself accountable is key to this being successful, I don't want to have to post bad news here. I plan on posting daily to make sure I'm on track where I need to be. Workout - The 5k training plan/NF Journey App Rest - Sleep (7 hours a night) - sleep is important Extra - Rides, 5k's, events, and life events go here - because fun makes life worth living Steps - Hitting my 7500 steps a day goal, minimum Track - Food, follow Galveston Diet, track in Chronometer Update - Post in thread at least three times a week. - self explanatory Duolingo daily

Multiple things have poked me to get back on NF, after a loooong absence. I've had periods in that absence when I was diligent about diet & exercise, and periods when I wasn't. Morning Routine: 5 minutes yoga, completed before 9am. Track how many days completed. Intermittent fasting: Track how much eating outside of 12pm-8pm window. PROJECT: Attempt soundproofing my barbell & plates. These give me something to build on for the next challenge. The morning routine gets me out of bed AND ACTIVE before 9, instead of sitting around staring at my phone. It keeps my workout space clear. Mornings are the best time for me to work out, and weightlifting is the most effective routine for me, but I have been making excuses because my roommate keeps late hours and is sleeping right nearby. I'm not dropping weights, but the plates and bar clanking is relatively loud. If I can reduce this to a more reasonable noise level, that is one fewer excuse available to me. I have done Intermittent Fasting occasionally in the past, and it is a good fit for me. Lunch and dinner, I am inclined to eat reasonably balanced meals. Mornings and evenings, my willpower is low and I am inclined to snack on mediocre to poor food choices. Also, I'm not inclined to do much exciting cooking, and if I am genuinely hungry at meal time, a boring healthy meal looks pretty good. So it paradoxically makes it easier for me to get in a lot of protein and veg, because I haven't filled up on snacks.

OKAY!! So here we go, there's a couple things I'd really like to get back into. Last 5 week challenge went generally pretty well! Struggled this last week but for the most part kept to my goals BUT here we go! Goals for this challenge! 1. Intermitten fasting! start eating around 10 am stop eating around 6 pm. 2. Stay in my Calorie Allotment 3. DRINK SO MUCH WATER 4. Journal a few times a week 5. Maybe some pushups or something. to be clear i want to do at least ten pushups 2x a week

Hi! Been doing IF for 7 days strict calorie control and macros. Day 4 woke me early with horrible stomach cramps. I ate carbs and egg with salt to resolve. Day 7 the stomach cramps came back and made me break my fast 3 hours early. Taking women MultiVits. Healthy 5"8 age 30 BMI approx 31 (Shy about weight!) Macros 40/35/25% prot/fat/carbs 156g/60g/98g 1500cal goal Light exercise: 2k jog twice this week Active job on feet Eating window is 13.30-21.30 Please help as I want to continue. I'm not feeling much hunger pangs but the abdominal cramps is awful. I'm worried that I'm harming my body. Has anyone had this? Thanks

27APR2020: 191.2Lbs - Fasting; 1.98mi run/walk (2min/3min intervals) 28APR2020: - Not fasting; 1.68mi walk w/ doggos 29APR2020: - Intermittent Fasting (16:8); 1.68mi run/walk (2min/3min intervals) --- Break in all attempts at everything, for no real reason --- 09MAY2020: 2.12 mi run, with warm up walk and cool down stretching afterwards 10MAY2020: 2.19 mi run, with warm up walk and cool down stretching afterwards (husband came out too!) 11MAY2020: Unsurprisingly, my legs are very sore; taking the hint and taking a break.

Welcome back to a new challenge! After going through many restriction/binge cycles I stumbled onto intuitive eating last October. I went through the steps, read "Brain over Binge" and now I'm completely binge free, and have a much better relationship with food and my body. But now I have to figure out what "normal eating" means for me. Two challenges ago I tried to count kcal again, but that caused binge thoughts, so I quickly stopped (after about 2/3 weeks). BUT all that counting did made one thing clear: my protein intake was really low. So last challenge I focused on eating more protein rich foods. I didn't count, didn't restrict, just made sure I added protein wherever I could. This made me feel a lot better during the day: more stable energy, less cravings. I also started intermittent fasting (IE) again. Intermittently that is When I was really hungry I ate. When I thought I could go on for a bit, I fasted. I never want to go back to binging, so I made it a point to listen to my body as best as I could. IE makes my asthma go away, and with that improves my energy and makes my digestion feel a lot better. It's also good for my mental health: knowing that I don't HAVE TO eat when I'm not hungry, or when nothing sounds good to me. I won't die from starvation, or faint from lack of food :p So this challenge I'm going to play around with my macro's even more. I've always been used to a high carb, low protein, moderate/low fat diet. I'm curious to see what will happen if I change this completely. So I'm going to start with a complete 180: high fat/moderate protein/low carb. Not counting anything, just winging it. I've counted long enough to know what foods are high in carbs, and I can read labels if I'm unfamiliar with a certain food. But I'm not going to let food interfere with life: parties, family get togethers, and just family dinner (although that's pretty healthy and not too carb heavy already). Just trying to keep a healthy balance Let's see how this will make me feel and move on from there. I want to do this for the length of this challenge, but if I start to feel like crap I will adjust sooner. This challenge I'm keeping up my fitness routine: dance twice a week and lift twice a week. Last challenge I toyed with circuit style workouts. It reduced the time of the workout, but it also reduced the weight I could use. So last week I tried to watch netflix on my laptop while lifting. So far it works. Workouts are about 30 minutes (including warming up and stretching afterwards), and rests aren't that boring. I'm going to keep this up until it get's boring again and then I'm sure I find something else to make it more interesting

Hello there! So I literally took a huge break for the past year as my mental health severely declined and I have been fighting to stabilize. (Yay! I have!) Now I am ready to rumble. What I am looking for: - Accountability -Information Sharing -Encouragement Goals: - Goal weight 125-135 -CW: 192 - Learn to eat veggies - Jog/run 1 miles -Bike 5 miles -Beginners Yoga - Just *feel* good and more able to be active I am currently using habatica as my habit forming and tracking app and I love it! Currently trying intermittent fasting but struggling filling my "feasting" time with healthy foods as I loathe veggies. I do fencing once a week, swing dancing once a week, and am trying to get into the habit of cardio and strength training on alternate days respectively.

I am trying to lose some of my spare tire so I am trying ketosis, intermittent fasting and bulletproof coffee. I guess there are different "definitions" of fasting but in the context of dieting, I am wondering if I'm really fasting if I'm getting calories from bulletproof coffee. My original attempt at intermittent fasting was to go water-only fasting (and black coffee, not even sweetener) until dinner time. Today I struggled, my arms were shaking and I was feeling lightheaded, even after bulletproof coffee about 2 hrs earlier so I "broke down" and had some cheese and an avocado for lunch. I've been good until today but I was concerned that the lightheadedness and shakiness was related to hunger or low-blood-sugar (feeling only a little bit better now although it has only been about 30 minutes since lunch).

After taking it easy last challenge I'm ready to kick some but! My own but that is. The goal of this challenge is to make the pants that are just a little too tight fit comfortably again. I'm giving myself just two goals this challenge. I hope this will make it easier to focus on them. Food: Fast I'm going to fast again. And I'm choosing a different style now: "5:2" Basically I'll eat normal for 5 days and eat only 500 kcal on the two other days. D: no fasting days that week C: 1 day of fasting that week B: 2 day's of fasting that week A: 3 days of fasting that week Exercise: Zumba, what else? I'll continue zumba. Like I'm able to stop that And relaxersise on Saturday's. When I don't have appointments that day that is. But most Saturdays. D: no workouts that week C: 1 workout that week B: 2 workouts that week A: 3 workouts that week

Yes, I said I would take the week off. But the new forums look so shiny and pretty I couldn't resist. If you think: what does this image do here. Well, it's a shiny and pretty object. Just like the new forums. Hi, I'm Terah, and I'm a zumba addict. I've been doing challenges here since forever (okay, since January 2015, but it seems like forever). I've been trying to lose weight and get a fitness routine in place. I found zumba and I practice it twice a week. Two challenges ago I rediscovered my love for swimming. This year I lost 5 kg's, and I'm hoping to lose some more before 2017 starts. My plan for this challenge: Stop obsessive tracking. No spreadsheet this time. I'll just do the best I can and won't beat myself up when I had to skip a goal. Food goal: Intermittent fasting. My first meal of the day will be lunch, my last will be dinner. I won't obsess about a certain number of hours. I won't obsess about kcal. I'll just try to eat as healthy as possible, with the occasional treat. Fitness goal: Continue zumba and swimming. Listen to my body. If I can do more, I will. If I need to take it easy, I will too. No guild, just fun. Life goal: I'll continue with the Spanish lessons, but no pressure, it needs to be fun. I'll continue with my Bullet Journal, just to make my life easier.

Challenge #7 Waldgeist trains like a Werewolf Backstory: As William Waldgeist stumbled through the river of Valkyrie the waves clinged onto him, trying to drag ihm down and swallow his body into the deep dark waters. But he resisted their pull. This wasn't the first obstacle he'd had to overcome but it seemed like it was the last one. At the bank of the river there was a fortress and many people in black clothes were jumping around on the field below. With his last ounce of energy William left the water, stepped on to the field and collapsed. Later he awakens in an infirmary, the smells of potions and creams leave no room for doubt what this place is used for. An old man with healer's crest tattoed on his left hand approaches: "Good, you are awake! After you were brought in we were worried, they tell me you came out of the river? But that river flows directly from the vicious wodds..." "Yes, that's were we've been, for a long time. I was trapped there, but we managed to defeat it's master and that opened a way out. Not an easy, open road of course, but a narrow path full of obstacles, that seemed unconquerable, but we did it anyway!" "Who is this we you speak about, are there others we need to look out for?" "No, just me? What do you mean?" "Nothing, maybe your nerves are still rattled. Surviving and fleeing from the vicious woods is a great feat. Not many manage to do that, at least to my knowledge.You must have many strong abilities. " "Yes we possess great talent and training. Bitten by a wolf, touched by the Force, trained as an agent and in the ways of magic..... My head hurts, I see so many picture, hear so many voices in my head...." The old healer guided the mind mage gently into the infirmary. "There he is, he fainted again after he awoke for a couple of minutes. Physically he is fine, I healed his wounds, there is nothing more I can do. But I fear for his mind and heart." The mage grabbed Williams head with her left hand and pressed her other against his chest. Mumbling spells of old she closes her eyes. The healer with his second sight observes how the aura of the mage merges with the one of the patient. When she openes her eyes again she sighes. "Interesting..." "I think he'll want something more when he gets up. And so do I actually!" "Well, it's simple. He is several people." "Could you make it more complicated? I don't understand simple things." "Several men were lost in the vicious woods, the only way to survive for them, was to merge into one person. But that's not the interesting part actually.." "Hahahaha, oh, you are serious?" "You know how we are near the edge of this universe and that there are others behind the rift? Each of this personas – I counted 5 if I'm not mistaken – comes from a different universe..." "What can we do to help him?" "Not we, him! He has to go to each universe and (re)live the life of each persona, probably several times. Then maybe there will be chance that they will be seperated again." "What if he does nothing, just ignoring what happened to him?" "He will go crazy, sooner than later actually, nobody can be several people withoung lossing it completeley....." First Werewolf chapter As I set foot on this earth the memory of Person #2 hits me (yes, I numbered them: 1 Jedi, 2 werewolf, 3 shield agent, 4 mage) hard. He was just a regular college student, pre-med/exercise science, when one night a wild animal (or so he thought) attacked him. The more I remember, the more I loose control. They are not just fading memories anymore, but it feels like I'm actually there, reliving his life from the moment he got changed minute for minute...... Challenge Goal: Get the basics down (Bodyweight + KB + Food) As you can guess from the backstory and the pictures below, this challenge has a TeenWolf theme. Quest 1 – "Tansformed by the Bite" Armstrong Workout Time to work on that pull-up, bitch. Last challenge I got in the habit of doing them regularly again. Now it's time to step it up and concentrate on increasing those reps. My maximum for an unbroken set now is 6 pull-ups. The ambitious goal for this quest is to get to two digits. The Armstrong workout consists of two parts: Max push-ups in the morning and an actual pull-up workout in the afternoon/evening. And that for FIVE consecutive days a week. Just one more.... Grading: Reward (2 STR I 1 STA I 1 CHA) 5 days = A 4 days = C 3 days = D Quest 2 – "Move like a Fox" GMB Floor 1 Phase 2/3 Continuation of last challenge. Basic strength training was phase 1. That is finished. Now to the interesting part: working on my skills. No mobility sessions this time, just 3 different skill sessions, twice done each week. Phase 2 should take only 4 weeks, but longer is always possible I guess. But if I finish there is still work to do in form of phase 3. Handstands, cartwheels, pirouettes whatever bring it on. Grading:* Reward (3 DEX) 6 days = A 5 days = B 4 days = C 3 days = D *If I finish phase 2 I get an instant B+ at least, even if I would've gotten a lower grade normally. Quest 3 – "Beast Mode On" Strength & Conditioning workout This is basically a kettlebell plus whatever bodyweight only exercise aren't covered in Q1+2 quest. I want regulary do swings and TGUs (like 4-5 days a week) plus occasionally (read: no more than once/twice a week) snatches, military/push presses, jump roping, maybe even some running or whatever I can think of. I AM STRONGER! Grading: Reward (1 STR I 1 STA I 1 CON) 4 days = A 3 days = C 2 days = D Quest 4 – "Druids know stuff" Study I like to learn, I really do. I just have to get motivated for the studying part. Last challenge this was 8 hours per week, which was amibitious. I managed about a third. This challenge same time but harder grading. I wish I had studied more, so I would know what this shit is.... Grading: Reward (2 WIS) 8 hours = A 6 hours = B 5 hours = C 4 hours = D Quest 5 – "Don't eat like a wendigo" Nutrition Last challenge this didn't go so well either. Different approach now, very basic. First, keep an eating diary. Second, do intermittent fasting on every work day. The first part doesn't need any explanation I think. The second part means on work days I'll eat only at work, which is an eating window of about 5-6 hours per day. I'm still going to prepare those meals at home and on the weekend I don't restrict myself at all. I'm just so hungy! Grading: Reward (2 CON I 1 CHA) 12 IF + diary days a week = A 10 IF + diary days a week = B 8 IF + diary days a week = C 6 IF + diary days a week = D Challenge Start Measurements: Belly 90 cm Chest 95 cm Arm 26 cm Arm (flexed) 30 cm Good luck!

Hello! So I have read a lot about Paleo and IF and they both sound great. But for women, there seems to be some downsides, ESPECIALLY with IF. Does any of my fellow female rebels have experience with Paleo and IF, particularly the later? I would greatly appreciate your experience, advice, knowledge, and expertise!

Welcome back to everyone who's been following me before For new readers, I'm an amateur gymnast and weightlifter from the UK, and I also do climbing and slacklining and any other random things that catch my wandering attention... Last challenge I set myself a huge checklist of strength and skill goals, and completed a modest number of these items. I also got quite frustrated and bored with chasing PRs all the time, and decided that my for this challenge I would have more of a process-based approach. So this challenge, I'm working on goals that will not have much immediate gain, but will make me prepare me well to do cool things in the future. Challenge #1: strength preparation: I've picked a few very difficult skills that I'd like to master one day, but are much too difficult to manage them in a single challenge. My goal is to work towards each of these so that in a few months or years, I might be able to do them! For each skill, I have a list of exercises to do each week. My plan is to do these, plus a similar amount of other exercises that will advance me towards this goal: (1) Manna (now: can almost hold an L-sit) 60 seconds L-sit (or seated advanced tuck hold) broken into as many sets as necessaryhamstring stretches (on two separate days)Other useful exercises will include: core exercises (2) Iron Cross (now: very good at ring dips, can't hold any form of front/back lever) 3-sets to failure of Bulgarian ring dips (in L-sit if possible) (at least 10 reps total)to strengthen bicep tendons - 1 set extreme-RoM pec flys OR 3 solid attempts at tucked back leverOther useful exercises will include: chair-assisted iron cross; partial-RoM iron cross; deadlift to strengthen bicep tendon; ring pec flys (on my knees) (3) 1-arm chin-up (now: can do a weighted pull-up with +25kg added) 3 sets to failure of either weighted pull-ups, archer ring rows, or 1-handed rowsOther useful exercises will include: partial-RoM archer pull-ups Scoring for this: each week I have six things to do: manna exercisesmanna extrasiron cross exercisesiron cross extras1APU exercises1APU extrasIf I do the following I get stat points: 3 of these: +0.25 CHA4 of these: +0.25 CHA & +0.25 STR5 of these: +0.25 CHA & +0.50 STR6 of these: +0.50 CHA & +0.50 STRTotal available: +3.00 STR & +3.00 CHA Challenge #2: hand balancing: It's finally warm outside again, so I want to get back into training handstands and other sorts of hand balancing. Last summer I worked a lot on handstands and eventually managed a 10-second freestanding handstand. I got a video of my progress up to this point: The handstands always involved a lot of walking on my hands to keep balance, so my emphasis now is to get better at static handstands. I also want to practise: crow posecrow pose to handstandhandstand against wallcartwheelskick-up with left leg to handstanddrills for good body positiontuck and straddle entry to handstandEach week I'll get +0.25 DEX for practising enough and +0.25 DEX for practising different things to what I'm used to (so I learn, rather than just drill the same things). If I get at least +2.00 DEX then I'll award myself +1.00 STA as well. Total available: +3.00 DEX & +1.00 STA Challenge #3: driver's licence: simple "life" goal here to stop me from procrastinating: study for and pass my driver's theory test (UK). The test should be easy, but I need to take a proper look at the material for anything I don't know, and book a test. +1.00 WIS Challenge #4: intermittent fasting: I've had mixed thoughts about intermittent fasting (where you fast for a large proportion of the day to keep your body in "rebuilding mode" for as long as possible, and then have your calories during the rest of the time). I tried this last year by occasionally taking large evening meal and fasting until the following afternoon, but I didn't like that much. This challenge I'm going to investigate having a regular fasting schedule for an entire week (not yet sure of the protocol) to see how my body responds to this sort of rhythm. +2.00 CON Challenge #5: understanding Spanish: last challenge I practised speaking lots (and probably will continue this challenge) but felt I needed to work on vocab. I also found that listening to the news on the radio is too difficult. Therefore this challenge I'll do each of the following each week:add 50 Spanish words/phrases to Mnemosyne (a spaced-repetition vocabulary-learning software) and keep up with this traininglisten for 30 minutes to something in Spanish that's easier than the newsI get the following stat points for each: 3 weeks: +0.25 WIS4 weeks: +0.50 WIS5 weeks: +0.75 WIS6 weeks: +1.00 WISTotal available: +2.00 WIS I look forward to the challenge, and to seeing what everyone else is up to this challenge! Good luck ~~ CHALLENGE LOGS ~~ Manna (core): +++_++Manna (ham1): ++++++Manna (ham2): +++_++Manna (extra): +++_++ Iron Cross (dips): ++++_+ Iron Cross (bicep): +_++_+Iron Cross (extra): +_++++ 1-arm PU (plan): +_++_+ 1-arm PU (extra): +++++_ Handstands/vol: +_++__ Handstands/new: ++++++ Spanish - mnemo: ______ Spanish - listen: ______ Driving theory: will not complete IF week: completed a week of overnight 14-hour fasts (on average) (Friday 1st May - Friday 8th May)

It's a Ranger off! No guts = Glory! Endor is taking on @Wovercast for an accountability smackdown! This is a simple PVP, who can achieve the most days during the 6 week Challenge that they stick to their respective goal. The Rules For Endor every day that he's full Paleo counts for 1 point. For Wovercast every day that he eats only during his Intermittent Fasting Window counts for 1 point. A maximum 6 days a week can count in the PVP for a total maximum possible 36 points for the 6 week PVP. The Prize 1. Firstly we both know the health benefits of our chosen path and we will both drop body fat from our methods, that's reward in itself. (No guts = glory!) 2. I'm so confident I'm going to crush this PVP and leave Wovercast in my dust I'm putting an NF t-shirt* on the line. *Note: Rebel Leader not included in purchase 3. Loser must post a poem, haiku or declaration of the winners glorious victory in the winners challenge thread with an accompanying amusing gif. 4. In the event of a draw no prizes will be allocated but we'll rejoice together in our glorious thin-ness Let's get to work big fella!

Hi everyone, I did my first challenge two months ago and everything went quite well. The challenge helped me to lose some weight and start training again. As it is being difficult to me to start a challenge on time again, I have decided to start a battle log to keep track of my progress. My intention is to write down everything related to my workouts and diet for the next three months, at least once a week. I'm starting at late March, so it will finish at the end of June. My numbers after a week off on holidays (I will deload more or less 10%) are at this point: SQ: 75kg DL: 85kg BP: 55kg BR: 55kg OP: 30kg BW: 85kg BF% around 25% (hopefully less, I must check) My main goal is to stick within the SL5x5 program for this three months, and to get under 80kg and 20% BF. Tomorrow is my first day after my little break, I will update soon telling how everything is going.

My goals for this challenge are really basic: keep going to the gym, continue with the StrongLifts 5x5 program so that by the end of this challenge, I'll have been doing StrongLifts for 14 weeks;improve flexibility in legs, hip and back for future bodyweight challenges;eat less carbs (easier done now that the Christmas/New Years break is done),intermittent fasting 2x/wk, anduse determination to do those things I should be doing around the house (referring to a private New Years resolution).That's all.

After a successful first 6 week challenge life took hold and now I'm back for round 2! Last time I focused on getting habits started, but now I want to clean up my act. I know I'm not an adventurer but truth is I don't know where I want to be yet so here I am. Main Quest: Diet overhaul At the moment I kind of sorta watch what I eat. I need to buckle down and really focus if I want to get stronger and lose weight. Quest 1: 8:16 Intermittent Fasting. I have pretty much been doing this already, but I can be sloppy. I want to stick with eating for 8 hours, fasting for 16. A= Fast for a total of 672 hours. 112 hours a week. B= 648 total hours. 108 hours a week C= 600 total hours. 100 hours a week Quest 2: Veggies Too often I'll count green beans in tator tot casserole as a veggie. If you know what this is then you will know this is a horrible idea. I'm going to include my old Quest again as eating one bag of frozen veggies everyday. A= 42 bags of veggies. 7 bags a week. B= 36 bags of veggies. 6 bags a week. C= 30 bags of veggies. 5 bags a week. Quest 3: Reduce alcoholic intake This one could go up or down for me. I'm not saying I want to quit drinking, but that for calories, I'd like to reduce it. It seems that when we do have alcohol in the fridge I tend to drink it quite quickly but if we don't I don't miss it. For the pocket book and my own waist's sake it's best to keep it out of the home, I'd still like to know that I can resist over indulging when I don't need to. New Years will probably be the only exception to this Quest. A= 0-1 beers or drinks a week B= 2-3 beers or drinks a week C= 4-5 beers or drinks a week Life Quest: Work towards waking up at 6am every day. I always seem to sleep in and be running late. No More!! I plan to start out by waking up by 7am everyday for one week, then 6:45am the next week and so forth. If I stick to one time for an additional week I feel this is fine as long as I don't go back to how I was the week before. LET'S DO THIS!!!

Okay so from what I understand LeanGains and IF are old hat now,they've given way to other, newer "diet fads." But it's still new to me, and I've been doing IF for about six weeks now and I've lost 20 pounds. I've maintained my strength, even gained some on the deadlift. My question is, has anyone on here had any long term success with intermittent fasting? I plan on going back to a more normal, albeit more controlled eating schedule once I reach my weight goal. But I'm curious if anyone on here has done as well or better than I'm doing on it? I haven't struggled at all with binge eating, my cravings are minimal and easily ignored, and I'm getting awesome results. On the weekends I just eat normal, whenever I feel like it, and Sundays I go right back into the protocol. From all of the issues that I've heard people have struggled with on this kind of diet, I really expected this to be a lot more difficult than it really is. This is probably the easiest diet I've ever done, and the most effective so far. I'm not trying to boast about my current results, I'm just baffled at the complaints about fasting that I've heard. I grew up as a fat asthmatic loser, my after school snacks were zebra cakes and oreos. If a guy like me can do as well on this as I have been, it seems like the science behind this must be sound. I'll stop typing before I put my foot in my mouth now.

In my challenges so far the focus has been on trying to master a narrow choice of skills - handstands, backflips and Spanish. I've had some good progress, but there seem to be a few dangers with focusing too narrowly: even the most well-intentioned training can fail to produce success on a specific skillthere's a risk of overtraining (haha maybe not with Spanish, but seriously I can feel I've stressed out my sternum with excessive handstands this year)adding more variety to a narrow choice of hobbies makes it all extra funTherefore, the theme for this challenge will be variety! My motivation will remain to become proficient at gymnastics/tricking and related interesting Assassin skills. You know how in some video games they have those bonus levels, where you just run around like some beserk Supermarket Sweep contestent collecting extra point or lives within a short time limit? Well this challenge for me is going to be like that. I have 43 days and a checklist of items to collect. I'll never get them all, but the challenge is to get lots of them I'm going to have to take it easy with the handstand-type skills, so the minor injury in my sternum disappears rather than becomes a major problem. for that reason, I'm taking a three-week break from anything of the sort. Challenge #1: Make as much progress as possible with a variety of acrobatic skills! Rules: each item selected is worth 0.25 stat pointsthere are 4.00xSTR, 6.00xDEX and 3.00xCHA availablemaximum possible loot: +3 STR, +4 DEX and +2 CHA (and I'll be astonished if I get anywhere near this!)I'll mark each one with an 'X' if/when I achieve the goal __slackline: a friend bought one and so I have an opportunity to learn this! So far I can only balance for a few seconds and taking a step makes me fall off DEX (X) : walk a full 10 metres without falling off CHA (X) : + bonus points for doing this DEX (X) : consistently change direction without falling off __frontflips: currently doing them from a springboard to a crashmat but they look more like a forward roll that somehow avoids the ground, so I need to work on actually jumping before the flip DEX (X) : get some height so these are landed consistently on crashmats DEX (X) : no longer need springboard for this move DEX ( ) ; can consistently land onto the thinner mats CHA ( ) : + bonus points for the item above DEX ( ) : can safely land on thinner mats without needing prep beforehand (only counts if it's safe) CHA ( ) : can safely land on grass CHA ( ) : + bonus points for the item above __hopak: there's this crazy move some Ukrainian dancers do that requires some insane leg strength and I want to learn it: STR ( ) : learn to do this half-decently STR ( ) : able to keep this going for 20 seconds __cartwheel: embarassingly, I never learned to do these, and when I try them my feet only go to shoulder height. Time to learn them! DEX ( ) : some definite progress DEX ( ) : can sometimes do proper straight cartwheels CHA ( ) : can consistently do proper straight cartwheels DEX ( ) : can do these properly on both my left- and right-hand side __round-offs: cartwheels with extra movement! DEX ( ) : decent examples on the tumble track STR ( ) : can do these well on hard surfaces DEX ( ) : can do these properly on both my left- and right-hand side __backflips: I've been practising these for ages and still need a spotter to make it around safelyDEX (X) : any definite progressDEX (X) : no longer need spotters on the tumble track!CHA (_) : + bonus points for the item aboveDEX ( ) : safely unassisted on a hard surface (only counts if it's safe!)DEX ( ) : + bonus points for the item aboveCHA ( ) : safely unassisted on a hard surface without needing any prep beforehandCHA ( ) : + bonus points for the item above __handstands: had myself balancing for 4-5 seconds before taking a break to avoid over-trainingSTR (X) : 5-second holds again after taking a breakDEX (X) : 6-second holdsCHA ( ) : 7-second holdsDEX ( ) : 8-second holdsSTR ( ) :10-second holdsCHA ( ) : + bonus points for achieving 10-second handstandDEX ( ) : comfortably handstand into a forward roll (I only pirouette or bridge flop out of handstands so far...) __front handsprings: I can do poor handsprings on the tumble track. I should learn to do good onesDEX ( ) : considerably improve at doing theseSTR ( ) : have good form and powerful front handsprings on the tumble trackDEX ( ) : become able to do these without the tumble track for supportCHA ( ) : become sufficiently consistent at these that they can be done on grass __backwards walkover: going from a bridge to a handstand and going over the other side... I've never tried this!DEX ( ) : some useful practice of kicking up in a bridgeDEX ( ) : some useful practice of backwards walkovers from a raised position (to make it easier)CHA ( ) : able to do this moveSTR ( ) : + bonus points for doing a backwards walkover __muscle-up: I can do 5-10 pull-ups with good form. Next step is to learn a muscle up:STR (X) : some decent practice of the different componentsDEX ( ) : learn to do a "kipping" muscle-upSTR ( ) : able to muscle-up with less leg swingingSTR ( ) : able to muscle-up with good form __L-sit: tried this for the first time last week and it's haaard to even do a cheat version... This will be awesome for training my core:STR (X) : 10-second tuck holdDEX ( ) : split-second L-sitSTR ( ) : 5-second L-sit __plyometric pike jumps: jump up and touch your toes with straight legs on every consecutive jump. Excellent leg, core, and active flexibility exercise.STR ( ) : able to do 20 consecutively __powerlifting: in my first challenge I wanted to get to a combined strict press + bench press weight of 100kg, but abandoned this because of an injury. I'm now at 41kg (90lb) strict press and 56kg (123lb) bench press and have a small plateau to fight through in order to accomplish this:STR ( ) : improve at all (98kg total)STR ( ) : succeed (100kg total)STR ( ) : + bonus points for achieving 100kg Challenge #2: consistently do conditioning exercises 5 times per week. I must do 3 conditioning exercises each day for this to count. Suitable examples include:gymnastics, weightlifting, capoeira class etc,pull-ups or variations in the parkcore exercises such as V-sit sit-upsplyometricsanything else suitable (grip trainer doesn't count as I found it to be ineffective)+3 STA: A: 30 times in 6 weeks B: 28 times in 6 weeks C: 24 times in 6 weeks D: 18 times in 6 weeks __Progress: week 1: ___+_++ (3) week 2: +_+++++ (6) week 3: +_+++++ (6) week 4: +_+++_+ (5) week 5: __+_++_ (3) week 6: +_+++_+ (5) (B) Challenge #3: explore food! I eat pretty healthily, and also in huge amounts. Especially vegetables and porridge. However, I don't know how much I actually eat in terms of macronutrients, so I'm going to find out, by tracking everything I eat for a week and calculating the following macronutrients: carbs (all)carbs (sugar)fatsproteintotal caloriesI'm also going to experiment with Intermittent Fasting to see how that works. There are several ways of doing it, so I'm going to briefly try two contrasting ones, and report back with my experiences. +1 CON, +1 WIS: track macros A: accurate track for a week C: something less that is still useful to me tracked macros on 01 May - 07 Mayanalysed it for conclusions and posted results to this thread (A) +1 CON: try IF A: try two ways C: try one way tried "skipping dinner" fast on 30 Apr - 01 May (19 hours, successful)tried "skipping brunch" fast on 9 May - 10 May (14 hours, didn't work so well)tried "skipping brunch" fast on 16 May - 18 May (16 hours, felt lame afterwards) (C+)

hi guys! i've got some questions that i'm hoping y'all can help me figure out. a little about me: female, 5 foot 2, 116-ish lbs. currently eating a caloric deficit of 1300-1400 calories a day, exercising 7-13 times per week. i started working out and eating healthily a little less than a year ago. it was really slow progress at first because, honestly, i didn't know shit. but i learned a lot and lost a bunch of weight, making significant progress towards my goal of 19% body fat. [i started at 30% and dropped down to 24-ish%, where i currently still am.] during that time, i became much stronger than ever before, and i feel that i can handle a pretty decent amount of physical activity. however, since that initial drop, i've leveled out and stopped progressing. i've gotten bored with my diet and my workout routine, and i'm looking to mix things up. which is where you come in! here's what i'm thinking: M/W/F - Viking workout in the morning [http://neilarey.com/workouts/vikings-workout.html], climber's workout OR a trip to the climbing gym in the evening, jogging program [http://neilarey.com/running/the-long-run.html] thrown in there where ever it'll fit. T/Th and Sat/Sun - jogging program, maybe with a few trips to the rock climbing gym or a day of swimming at the lake added to the mix on an irregular basis. the intermittent fasting would mean no food between noon and 9PM, and i would eat more on M/W/F than the rest of the week, as well having the macros broken up differently. [obviously more protein and carbs on heavy workout days, stuff like that.] what do you think? what kind of calorie count do you think i should take on? what would an ideal macro break-down look like? i'm not too worried about it being too much exercise, but i am worried about not hitting that food target just right. it seems that i'll be doing really well with eating my deficit, but then i'll go crazy eating sweets and pasta and stuff, and i think it might be because my body isn't getting enough of what it needs, so it rebells. thoughts?

Happy New Year everyone! I'm back again to give it another shot. The last challenge I kinda broke even, this time I want to get straight A's! I am revisiting some of my failed tasks and adding others. My primary goal last year was to lose weight. This year I still want to lose weight but am also recording body fat % and aiming at a loss of 5%. I have no idea how realistic that is but do feel like I have at least 10 kg more weight to lose which is now more than 10%of my total weight so if I can do that then I can lose the fat. I realise it won't happen over the next 6 weeks but my tasks will help me achieve my goal eventually. 1. Ride 300km Previously I have aimed to do a 50 km ride in a challenge but I haven't achieved that and now realise that I am better off aiming to ride more often and more consistently in order to make a bigger difference. 2. Mediate for 5 minutes a day 5 days a week. 10 minutes was far too ambitious last time for someone not used to the process at all. I now know what to expect and feel confident of success in this task. 3. Strength training twice a week. I suck at this task. I have this weekend to come up with the program I will do and schedule it. No more excuses. 4. Lights out by 11pm 5 nights a week. I set this as a task on the Lift app last year and achieved it 44 times. That's woeful!!! I need 7 hours sleep a night in order to improve my chances of success with my other tasks so this is crucial. I will edit this with scoring and points during the day when I am on my computer.

Hello, my fellow Rebels! I *believe* this marks my fifth challenge here on NF, second as a warrior. Last challenge I stuck to my goals around 70% of the time, and I was okay with that. This time, my habits are in place and all I really need to do is learn to control myself a bit more. So - my goals are essentially the same. MAIN QUEST: Lean out (drop 8% BF by Jan 2014) How I'll Achieve That 1) Continue To Eat Well COMPLETE A WHOLE 30 What This Means: Self-explanatory! I have 31 days until I arrive in Chicago. I will begin tomorrow and my final day will be the 19th of October, the day before I fly out. Perfect timing. 2) Lift 5x A Week Focus on form What This Means: See Milo about squat and snatch form Continue to run questions by Nightlight Consider a deload MOAR MOBILITY Purchase 5/3/1 or 5x5 and Starting Strength and Supple Leopard 3) Do Some Fucking Conditioning* What This Means: Move quickly for a short period of time Ex: WOD, Sprint Intervals (row or run) Move slow(er) for a long(er) period of time Ex: Cycle for 30 minutes, Run 30 minutes, Stairs (Flights) *I have this really dumb idea to jog to the top of the Hancock Tower (94 flights) while I'm in Chicago so I'll be somewhat testing where I'm at every other week on the Stairmaster (probably not the best indicator but there aren't many tall buildings here). Timeline: Chicago, October - Down 3% BF Florida, November - Down 5% BF Texas, January - Down 8% BF Currently: 27% Side Quest: Do Some Fucking Footwork What this means: Dance more (Dancing in the shower and kitchen doesn't count)

Hi Everyone, I've been trying desperately for years and years to lose the excess body fat on me, everytime I've tried I've made progress for 2 or 3 weeks then I turn back to junk food and gain back all the weight I've lost plus some more :-( Well now I want to put an end to that, I've been doing Starting Strength for the past year and weightlifting for the past 2 years or so. I've been dabbling with Intermittent Fasting since April (whilst still eating junk food so my results haven't been good at all). This is my battle log to help track my progress, keep myself accountable, and hopefully inspire others. My Goals Lose 10kg by Christmas Eve Not eat any junk food at all over the next 12 weeks Cut down on smoking, by Christmas to only 3 cigarettes/cigars per week Maintain or Increase my current lifts Go to Kickboxing once per week Go Weightlifting three times per week on non-consecutive days Stick to my diet plan Cut 10cm off stomach measurements Current Lifts(as of 2nd October 2013, all 3x5 except Deadlift is 1x5) Squat: 140kg Deadlift: 162.5kg Bench Press: 60kg Overhead Press: 60kg Power Cleans: 70kg Diet Some Leangains style intermittent fasting with a bit of paleo involved. I count my macros and try to hit that, so on a day I do weightlifting I'll eat 160g of Protein, 230g of Carbohydrates, and 55g of Fat, eating Protein from only lean sources of meat and having lots of fruit, veg, and whole grains like rice. On my days when I'm not weightlifting I'll eat 170g of Protein, 50g of Carbohydrates, and 75g of Fat. So I'll cut out Carbs except for fruit and veg, and eat fattier cuts of meat such of beef mince. On the days I go to Kickboxing I'll eat more carbs. Starting Stats and Measurements (2nd October 2013) Weight (kg): 87.0 Body Fat %: 25.5% Chest (cm): 104.1 Right Arm: 35.2 Left Arm: 34.3 2 inches above Belly Button: 99.1 Around Belly Button: 103.2 2 inches bellow Belly Button: 102.1 Hips: 99.6 Right Thigh: 62.5 Left Thigh: 62.0 For Pictures see below, so far I've only uploaded pictures from 2/10/13, but I aim to upload new ones every 4 to 6 weeks Thanks Everyone and Wish me Luck, Any Help or Advice would be appreciated!

Hi. I have been doing intermittent fasting for quite some time now and I have found it to be amazing not just for results but also to maintain it. However recently I have stopped the gym and moved to bodyweight training for budget and different goals reasons. Do I still do carb switching? Since I moved to bodyweight i started working out almost everyday. Are there any guides I could use to calculate my macros for it?

So I was reading Steve's post about Intermittent Fasting and decided I would like to give it a try. Since January I have lost almost 2 stone through HIIT training, running and watching what I eat. I have never and still don't follow any kind of diet, I just cleaned up my habits and stopped eating so much crap. 'My stomach is not a rubbish bin'. I've hit a plateau though and had to stop HIIT training. Well I didn't have to stop, but I would have had to start paying for classes and I didn't fancy that. So I've started strength training and I understand that muscle weighs more than fat and the number on the scales going up might be due to my awesome new muscles, but there is still some body fat I'd like to lose and I'm hoping IF might help kick start that again. So I'm going to keep track of how I get on here; unfortunately I wasn't a NF member when the most recent challenge started, otherwise I would have included this as part of the challenge. Get ready for a nice long post. Monday night/yesterday morning was my first day. I had dinner on Monday at around 7pm (smoked salmon on cholla bread with cream cheese - was delicious but I did eat a bit too much) and then didn't eat anything else all night. I woke up on Tuesday and would usually have had a bowl of cereal or some breakfast biscuits (I know they're not the best thing to have in the morning, but they're really good with coffee) but after I got ready I just left the house. I was mega thirsty though and wished I'd had some water with me on the bus to work. When I got into work I did get some water (I have a 75cl bottle that I refill throughout the day) and had a cup of coffee at around half 9. I found it quite easy for the first few hours; I wasn't hungry at all. I probably had about 2 bottles of water which I think helped and I was kind of busy which took my mind off of it. Usually I would have had lunch at about 1 o'clock but I gave in to hunger by half 12. 17 and a half hours fast was a pretty good first go though I thought! Lunch was a flour tortilla wrap with lettuce, cream cheese, cucumber and sweetcorn, along with a yoghurt and a small bag of crisps. I then also had one of my Graze Box snacks - 'Cookies and Cream - mini chocolate cookies, roasted hazels, white chocolate buttons and sunflower seeds'. Was delicious and only 214 calories. This was followed by more water, coffee and tea throughout the rest of the day (and many trips to the bathroom to pee!). I met my SO after work to pick up some food and because he needed help carrying everything home I didn't get to go to the gym as I had planned. I was a bit miffed and had kind of resigned myself to having an unexpected rest day, but when I got home I was inspired to go for a run (thank-you Instagram). I hadn't been for about a month and I have quite an expensive watch to track my stats and I felt bad that I wasn't using it. I managed 3.85kms in 27.22 minutes which is my fastest time yet! Obviously I'm doing something right I was dead pleased with myself for going at the last minute. I needed it, especially as during the food shop I'd bought a chocolate bar and a chocolate pastry Dinner was slightly later than normal, 9:45pm. My SO cooked dinner, which was a Bratwurst sausage in curry sauce with sweet potato chips (or fries if you're that way inclined ). He had given me two sausages initially but I decided to save the other for today's lunch (which I didn't end up having, but that's another story). Although it wasn't the healthiest of dinners, I felt it was okay. Overall, I know I could have done better throughout the day with my eating. I didn't need to eat the chocolate bar or the pastry, but I'm pleased that I managed to fast for 17 hours and that I made myself go for a run when my plans had to change. So I think that evens it out An okay first day with a few small successes to celebrate. Cuckoo