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Hi. I'm Stronkey Kong. Ugh... I just realized I've been on NF for 10 years, almost to the day... I have only 6.5 words to sum up the journey: I'm still fat, but still fighting. My main goal is to just improve and maintain my health, and hopefully lose some weight as I do that. I'm in the process of converting to Orthodox Christianity.... I only mention this because the feast and fast cycles (Like the upcoming Dormition fast) affect my eating and exercise activities, and it might inform some of my current motivations... and I scaled back some of my goals because this is coming up. Goal 1: Re-build My Morning Routine For almost a year I was on the afternoon-evening shift at work: 12pm -10 pm. A little over a month ago, I was moved back to the normal evening shift: 3:30pm - 2:00 am (BTW, I work 4 10's). Then last week they told me to go back to afternoons. Which is great because I wasn't enjoying the regular night shift, but one month was just enough to ruin my nice morning routine I had going before the change. Which was wake up, pray, then go for a walk. Then I 'd have free time to do whatever until work. It was nice. Now I need to get this back. So that's the goal, get back into my morning routine. Wake up: at 8 am. This includes bathroom, light the candles and incense, feed the cat, and start the coffee. I'm also going to add stepping outside to check on my plants and the weather. Pray: This includes all the morning prayers in my prayer book. Then any others that get added per my parish priest's instructions. Walk/Exercise: Then I grab my coffee thermos and go for a 1-2 mile walk. And in this challenge I'll also be adding exercise with walking. Goal 2: Fighting Gluttony. This is a multi-pronged strategy to combat my tendency to overeat. I got the first two from a podcast done by an Orthodox dietician. Bless and Give Thanks for Every meal: Pray for blessings on the food before meals. Pray to give thanks afterward. Kind of goes along with mindful eating. Mid-meal pauses: Stop halfway through each meal, assess my level of hunger, and consider (or even prefer) stopping. This too. Replace Bread with potatoes (or squash): Fewer carbs, more fiber, and more vitamins. Basically doing that as staple replacement. Bread (and pasta) is not banished, but it will no longer be the go to. And oats and rice other whole grains are fine too. Side quest: Try new potato recipes on the weekends. This last weekend I made fondant potatoes. They were fun, pretty easy, and they made the house smell amazing. Goal 3: Run Run on Tue, Thu, and Sat instead of or in addition to walking in the morning. I'm focusing on these three days because the weekly fasting days are Wed and Fri. I'll be eating less protein, and less over all on those days so less fuel/material for recovery. Do posture correcting exercises 3x per day-- I'm always slouching or hunching and this needs to stop. I'm gonna do some exercises (see video on another post below) 3 x per day. Just pick one and work on it for about 5 min. Sidequest 1: Go on 2 Fellowship walks-- These usually happen almost every Fri or Sat. Sidequest 2: Volunteer work-- I have one scheduled for Sat Aug 5 for an event with one of the food pantries. These can sub for exercise since there's quite a bit of physical activity. I will schedule another soon. Not sure if a spot will land during this challenge but we'll see. Sidequest 3: My cat is getting fat too. I need to chase her around the house more. Goal 4: Housework (to-do list) Outdoor stuff Buy a ladder Clean gutters-- pre-req no. 1 Clear gravel off concrete pads (can sub for exercise) Landscape with gravel? -- pre/co-req no. 3 (can sub for exercise) Dig a low spot for future rain garden (can sub for exercise) Plan, set-up space for outdoor gym? Connect outdoor water spigot Basement stuff Break down boxes Organize hardware and storage shelves. Setup a workshop area (smh) Clean and organize office De-junk-ify (whatever that means) Organize books-- sort by subject, set aside some for selling/donating Bathroom-- Tub repair (If I get this one done this goal is all win). Find a fix/replacement for the stupid claw foot I ruined -- might have to do bricks and boards... luckily the foot is in the back corner where it won't be seen Fit new fixtures. Re-connect plumbing Dining Room/Prayer corner/Studio corner-- I took down my power rack, and am re-claiming my dining room, which also houses my prayer corner, and I'm setting up a studio corner for painting. Basically figuring out a set layout and messing around trying to get it situated. Kitchen-- It's due for a deep clean and an organization overhaul now that the new fridge is situated. Attic crawlspace get up there and check things out lay down some boards over the rafters for gettin' around up there

Warriors, can we even basic? We’re supposed to like, lead the way in macro awareness, careful eating, and meal prep - but I'm worried that our standards are slipping. Fall is here, the leaves are changing, there's bonfire smoke in the air; but the food pr0n around here has zero pumpkin, zero spice, and even less latte! We can fix this! Putting the “Pump” in “Pumpkin” is a mini-challenge all about making fall magic happen in the kitchen. Week one has us establishing our basic credentials by producing a recipe that contains pumpkin as main ingredient AND posting pictures on the thread. For folks with a pumpkin aversion, or on keto, you can still participate - just produce either a hunk of meat in the shape of a pumpkin, or use pumpkin pie spice in one of your freakish aberrations. Week two has us seal the deal by perfecting the ultimate in basic cuisine, the potato. Fry it, bake it, boil it; prepare it any way you like, but god help you, get a selfie. Write down your recipe and get a shot of your dish. For you white potato skeptics, you know what to do, grab a yam instead. For you carb hating crazies, it's time trot out your best cruciferous substitution and pretend your diet lets you eat real food. God help you. This is only a two week mini-challenge, so if you can even, get cracking.

Hey everyone, complete newbie here hoping to have some fun with the assassins I've been a member of NF for about 6 months now, but never got round to checking out the forums. I very recently had to respawn so I thought 'why not'? After all, there's a lot of cool-lookin' stuff going on in here My personal challenge is a simple one of pure self-improvement; strength training, cardio, drinking more often, and eating more veggies (and potatoes, oddly enough - versatile things, spuds): At the moment I can do about 24 push-ups in a minute, I would very much like to increase that number - if I can do about 40 *consistently* after 4 weeks, then I'll be a very happy bunny. I've not really done much in the way of running or interval training, but it's been on my to-do list for ages now, so I'm putting that in there too, else I never will I'm hoping to go out at least twice a week, every week - that should be a good starter. I don't drink enough water - it's actually a little embarrasing that I'm even putting that on the list, but frankly I'm tired of not drinking properly. So there - it's on Finally I'm adding that quest to eat at least one vegetable a day, every day - my super veg. is the humble carrot - because I can cook that in just about any way I fancy After that long-winded post, I think I'll sign off with a "It's good to finally join you all, I'm looking forward to knocking this one out of the park", and maybe a "Dickie, reporting in" to try and sound cool. I might also join in on the Assassin-e street thing, that looks fun. Included is a picture of my personal trainer - he's not led me wrong yet