Search the Community

I need a place to log what I've been doing. What better place then NF?? To say that life has been busy would be an understatement. On 03/23 of this year, my daughter, Beatrix "Trixie" Viola, was born 8 weeks early. Thank the Lord that she didn't deal with any issues besides just being a tiny little princess. She was in the NICU for 5 weeks and 1 day. Or 36 days for you mathlete's out there. We were able to bring her home on 04/28 and life has been SO MUCH better since that day. My wife, @PrincessMononoke (aka Heather) and I spent a crap ton of time up at the hospital when Trixie was still in the NICU. On most days, I would head straight to the hospital after work and spend a couple hours up there, head home to spend time with Heather and our boys, then start the process all over. Heather and I basically had no life because our already limited free time was spent with baby girl. It was a trying and challenging time in our life, but the Good Lord brought us through the fire and smoke. Life has resumed its "normalcy". I'm back to working out consistently, which is nice. I missed it. I need the accountability...which isn't new and I knew that NF was the place to go. Even if I can't devote a lot of time to my challenge, I need a place to track my progress. I need a place that can support my weirdness, lol. Even though this challenge is about to end, I would like to use the rest of this week to set up my NEXT challenge. I have one theme right now. And it's not based off Anthem lol. Honestly, I haven't been playing a lot of games lately. Especially since Trixie was born. My theme is: John Wick. I've become obsessed with the semi-retired master assassin. Heather and I rented John Wick and John Wick: Chapter 2 about a month ago because she hadn't seen the movies before. I had seen the first movie but only bits and pieces of Chapter 2. IMO, the John Wick movies are the best action movies of my generation. You could probably argue a lot of other movies in there, but for what they are, John Wick 1 & 2 are amazing. And then, this weekend, John Wick 3: Parabellum hits theaters!! Heather and I are more than likely going to see it Saturday morning if there are still seats available for the early AM showing. Why am I obsessed with John Wick? Many reasons. He's a badass, for starters. But there are qualities of John that I love as a character. He's: Relentless Focused Calm under pressure Those 3 qualities are qualities I want to harness. I believe I have them already, but they are raw and unrefined. In order to become the master assassin that John Wick is, I need to sharpen those qualities and use them to my advantage. How will I do this? The John Wick Master Assassin Plan for Badassdom Plan A: Workout Consistency - Relentless This has been an issue of mine for some time now. I get going on workouts, go for about a week, then fall off the wagon. I credit a lot of this to my laziness and unwillingness to get up early. Because of my work schedule, 4 am is my wake-up call for days I workout and over the last 6-8 months, morning workouts just don't sit well with me. Not that I can't get up and workout. I can. But, more so, I have trouble going to bed early enough, and to get the quality sleep I need on a daily basis, I would need to be in bed by 9pm...which isn't feasible. Not with having to get the kiddos in bed and still have quality time to spend with Heather. So, I'm trying evening workouts. So far it's been an adjustment, but I think it'll workout in the long run. Goal: 4x a week. M/Tu/W/F. Focus on PPLFB (Push, Pull, Legs and Full Body) Structure workouts based off "Powerbuilding"- the combination of power lifting and body building Leave my ego at the door A typical workout will be structured (loosely) as follows: Overcoming (including grip) Compound (pure power output) Compound control (bodyweight and old-time strength that relies on technique) Work capacity (high rep, full body) Isolation endurance (high rep, isolation) Cardio finishers (HIIT, punch bag, battle ropes) LISS (Low Intensity Steady state) Stretching Stat Points Available: +3 STR, +2 END, +1 DEX Plan B: Play hard. Rest hard - Focus It's no secret that success in the gym starts with a healthy body and healthy mind. Especially when you play hard. Sleep, active recovery, and meditation are key to kicking ass in and out of the gym and I want to focus on these things as much as I do my workouts. Goals: Sleep, nap, and rest as much as I can. Not shirking my adult responsibilities, but utilize my "off" days like a boss. Cold showers (because @Mr_Willes loves them) Bible study/Sermons and Devotionals every morning. Utilize my commute to work and spend time in the Word. Continue my Bible App streak daily. Use "stand up desk" option at work at least 3x a day. Keep sneakers in my car so I can go on daily walks at lunch/breaks. Stat Points Available: +4 CON Plan C: Continue to Develop my speaking/leadership skills in Toastmasters - Calm under pressure I officially joined Toastmasters at my job and completed my "ice breaker" speech a couple weeks ago. My focus aka pathway is Presentation Mastery. I love the community here and have become good friends with all the members. Toastmasters happens every Wednesday during lunch time and I want to make sure that I'm constantly filling roles needed for each meeting and working on my pathway. Public speaking is not something I'm great at and any opportunity I get to work on my weaknesses is welcomed with open arms. Goals: Finish Level 2 before the NEXT challenge ends Fill a role 4 separate times Bring in 1 new member before the NEXT challenge ends Stat Points Available: +4 CHA, +1 WIS Bonus Goal: Keep growing hair out. Yep! You read that correctly. I'm growing my hair back out. Heather convinced me to do so (as well as this tying into my John Wick obsession). It's gonna be annoying to go through the "awkward" stages again, but, I got this! That's all the word vomit I have for now. Thanks for making it through the challenge write-up and as always, thank you for the support! Wolf