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I just started throwing pebbles in the ocean of life to see how far the ripples reach. I have an idea of where I'd like to be, but don't really have a clue or care how I get there. I am a blank slate. Deconstructed and abstract. My stats: 5'2" Female Medium build 155lbs No major known detrimental health problems/limitations No prescriptions Time wasting at work. Summer is so quiet. Quite nice. Let's me think and focus on me. The days are as slow as molasses but I don't care. Let's me practice living in the present and be alone with my thoughts except for the occasional beggar. DAY ONE of logging my pebble ripple journey thing at least here. I've been doing lots of logging elsewhere, but this will be way more personal. Way more public. Way more uncomfortable. I have been calorie counting for a couple of months now. Only finding it is more difficult and way less healthy and less effective than the low carb way of eating I've experimented with. I am never satiated and always grumpy and obsessing over the scale. I found if I eat more than 900 calories, I gain weight. Definitely going back to low carb ---- meats and veggie---- this coming week. Oooh Assasin's Creed theme music is playing on my Pandora. Will I play the game tonight? Maybe, maybe not. I have too much to do to get sucked into 18th century France again forever eating away at my life and the summer's waning days. Sorry, squirrel moment. Today, I had a sausage biscuit with cheese at McDonald's. Damn little things are too addicting to be real. It may not be my last but will certainly be for the next month at least if not more unless by some magical pill the very thought of them makes me sick. I had half a serving of Noosa mango yogurt for lunch. Yumm Just finished half a serving of Atkins Dark Chocolate Royale Shake. I have not eaten enough today obviously, and yes I'm feeling the effects. Emotionally down and weak and mushy brain. It is my work out day. I'll eat a nice piece of chicken breast and drink some hot green jasmine tea after my workout. That will help. My workout will consist of the following: Chuck Norris' Total Gym Machine Thingy 3 sets 12 repetitions seated bicep curls seated chest presses Body and Free Weights 3 sets and 12 repetitions squats with two 25lb dumbbells good mornings with one 25lb weight Boxing 4 -45 second rounds punching the punching bag and walk/run on the treadmill to the highest intensity possible Outside Walk around the neighborhood with the dog (1/2 a mile maybe??? not sure, never measured). My fiancé and I do this together and alternate our sets in our little makeshift gym at home listening to the loudest angriest music to keep motivated and going strong throughout the entire workout. Definitely going to have to add a little something to the routine next week, as I am no longer sore after the workout. Still feels good though. I'll let my fiancé do the planning. He is the coach after all with the exercise science degree. I don't have a clue what to do next. Suggestions welcome! Well, that be all for now. I'll see to it that I track my day again tomorrow. A practice - in self-discipline.

Okay, so technically I'm not sprinting to the FINISH, but I will be sprinting. That really is the key, I think. As long as this all makes sense. Good. I've been building up my distance running since January for a marathon in May. I have completely and totally ignored speed training in all of this because my real goal is actually completing. Buuuut, since I am competing in a race I feel like I need to put forth a little effort into trying to build up some speed. So my goals for this challenge are: Complete overall distance requirements - See spreadsheet (-1 point per km NOT run, no points for going over). Maintain weight lifting cross training - 4 days/week in March and 3 days/week in April (3 points per week). Sprint Training - 3 sprints at 70%, 2 sprints at 100%. To be completed on my short run (2 points). Nutrition - Maintain my weight and my high fat diet. Consume at least 3300 calories per day (1 point per weekday & -1 point for every pound over 5lb lost). This week I'll set some bases (sprint times and my weight).

Hi all, I'm doing the Boise Idaho Spartan Sprint on June 24th, if anyone wants to team up for it! It's my first OCR and I'm so excited to do it! I'd love to share the experience with my fellow Rebels. If you're in that area, let's do it!

Kicking off my 2016 trifecta with a little run through some Georgia red clay. Can't wait for March!

Just looking, as it looks like I missed a fellow nerd last year, any nerds looking at going to Killington next year?

I've been eating a poor diet pretty consistently and it has left me exhausted, unrested, tired, weak, and on top of that: with lowered self-esteem. On April 1st my buddy is visiting from out of town. We'll be snowboarding, going out, and doing various activities together. My goal is to have energy during this time. I want to feel fit, revitalized, energetic, and youthful. It's the morning of March 25th and I got no sleep last night after staying up, watching movies and eating. I feel pretty exhausted this morning and I don't want to do this anymore so I'm committing to a brief "sprint" period which will last until April 12th. On April 12th I'll measure the results of my efforts. Key areas of focus for me will be diet, sleep, and meditation. Diet: eat only whole foods - home-cooked meals (be prepared each day with recipes, meal plans, and groceries) - abstain from evening eating, especially trips to the grocery for junk food - eat with others for as many meals as possible (share meals with loved ones) Sleep: Get a good night's sleep every night for the next 18 nights. - No electronics after 9pm - Go to sleep by 10pm (unless I'm socializing with loved ones) - Arise at 6am each morning Meditation: Practice meditation every day for 18 days. - This includes mindfulness, calm-abiding, and concentration practice - Journal entry each day - watch/receive video teachings from my teachers 4 out of 7 days each week. (about 10 days during this sprint-period.) Diet will help me feel clean and give me the nourishment I need. Sleep will restore my body and help me be youthful, energetic and strong. Meditation will help my heart grow/heal and make for better interactions with people all-around. I suppose tonight, Wednesday March 25th is the first evening of this sprint. What do ya'll think? I have a meal ready for lunch at work today. Tonight I'll eat some fresh berries for dinner. I'll meditate between 8 and 10pm this evening then go to sleep at 10pm. Here goes ... (I'll journal todays results tonight before 9pm or tomorrow, Thurs. AM) P.S. Thank you, thank you! Thank you for this opportunity to confide in you all. It means the world

Alright, THis is not my first attempt at a 6-week Challenge, though I dearly hope that this one goes much better than my last attempt. A brief bio: I'm a 27 y/o male Marine stationed in Parris Island. I'm 6'3" and 220-230 lbs depending on the day. I've been in the Corps for 8+ years, and have only in the past 3ish years really begun to take my fitness into my own hands. I've competed in 3 triathlons, including a 1st in age group, and a 2nd in Clydesdale. My life has been really crushing me as of late, with hobbies (Triathlons, Magic the Gathering, Bowling, Auto Racing, Gaming), Parenting (2 y/o daughter and 4 m/o son), School (jut finished my A.A. in Communications, starting my B.S. in Mathematics), and a busy work schedule. I need to crack down and schedule my life better, and really commit more time to my family. My first challenge will likely simply be challenging myself to meet my schedule requirements, and clearing up some of my hobbies. I identify as a ranger mostly because I'm a "heavy" lifting triathlete, not so much of a crossfit-er. Anyway, on to the Challenge: Main Quest: Strength: 5x5 workout 3x a week. I really enjoy doing the 5x5, and it's the most lifting I've ever done in my life. Currently I am making it 1-2 times a week, not because of any schedule conflist, simply because of sleeping in too much. >.< A: 3 Workouts C+: 2 Workouts D-: 1 Workout F: 0 Workouts Tri Training: 3x Bike 60min+ 3x Run 20min+ 2x Swim 30min+ I have begun commuting to work by bike, so I intend on using that 3x a week to get my bike time in. Running can be done anywhere, and Im lucky enough to have a big pool next door to my shop on base to kick out training during lunch. A: 8 Workouts B: 6-7 Workouts C: 4-5 Workouts D: 2-3 Workouts F: 0-1 Workouts Paleo: Mon-Fri strictish paleo Strict paleo is expensive, so my goal is to eat meat, veggies, sweet potatoes, water, and coffee during the week, while limiting milk to coffee and my protein shakes in the evening/breakfast. (Milk, yogurt, fruit, spices, chia seeds) Also, of course, garbage overprocessed food is out as well. A: 5 Days B: 4 C: 3 D: 2 F: 0-1 Life Goal: There's a bunch, and unfortunately I really really need to be doing all of them >.< I'm going to cut it down to 2 hours of family time, 2 hours of studying, and 6 hours of sleep every day. I'm currently getting about none of these things, so I know this is a little ambitious... These may change a little during the next couple weeks. There it is. I'm looking forward to heckling, err, interacting with all of you, and I promise I'm more fun than this post conveys. I'm just more interested in being held accountable right now... Thank you all!! Semper Fidelis, Tom

Level 5: Laying Down the GroundWORK. Hello there!!! I come join you from the Ranger forum, as I’m focusing more on lifting than ever before. Got some help from Chairohkey and I’ve got a new program to try out (so far going very well). My overarching goal is to get down to under 15% bodyfat and keep it that way. Currently, I’m around 29-30% after taking a BodPod test about a month ago. I’m about a pound or two lighter than I was then. So I still have 15% of fat to trim, or 30lbs to lose. I’m currently around 204-205 lbs at 5’ 11â€. It’s going to be a long journey, as I hope to do this without losing as lot of lean mass (only 145lbs right now). Why do I do this? This little guy and his mom. And because I want to be a jacked beast for the rest of my life. Done being the fat guy. Done with being ashamed of my body. Done with not doing things because I can’t keep up. Done with can’t. So for this challenge, I want to do a few things, most of which I’ve been doing already but are changing slightly. GOAL 1 - LIFT Follow my new plan, and eventually start going to the gym 4 days a week. This is difficult because with a baby boy at home, my time is limited with work and the gym. Currently I go MWF, right after work. I want to change that to MT,ThF with W as a rest day for two reasons. 1= Rest and 2=My wife likes to go to church on W as she volunteers with the youth group. This will allow me to spend one on one time with the boy and give her a much needed break (because she is awesome). Over the course of these 6 weeks, I’ll transition to this schedule. I may just jump right in and try it out the first week. GOAL 2 - EAT LESS Since I’m trying to lose body fat, I’m at a caloric deficit. Currently at 1960ish calories with a macro split of 200g PRO / 150g CHO / 60g FAT. These are flexible. I weigh my food but I’m fairly lax on strictness. The big one is hitting protein and at least 100g of carbs while keeping fat down. I eat mainly primal, as a lot of grains and milk do have a significant affect on my bowels. The hard part is weekends when I usually run out of pre-made food. My goal is to reign it in on the weekends and make some better decisions. GOAL 3 - SPRINT This is straightforward. Sprinting increases the metabolism, and helps speed up fat loss. I’ll be doing this twice a week on my upper body days. Monday and Thursday. This should be plenty to help me along. I’ve done it so far and this week and last, and it’s helping. LIFE GOAL - BACKYARD In May, I’ll be starting up my Master’s classes. I took a break this past semester due to my volunteer work and the new baby. With that, and my work and gym time, I’ll have very little time to feed myself and be with my son and wife. Right now my backyard is a mess. It’s essentially just dirt. Boys need to be outside, and I want to get the lawn going. I put in sprinklers a while back, but never got to the grass part. So over the course of this challenge, I’ll be working towards having a green lawn.I plan to follow this schedule. Hopefully faster than this but at least this. Week 1: Ensure sprinklers still work. Week 2: Level out the ground, as best I can. Week 3. Water ground to soften. Begin tilling. Week 4. Till in compost, and fertilizer. Week 5. Seed. Week 6. Profit? I can do this. I hope you can keep me motivated. I know I’ll need it. I’ll post up measurements and photos this weekend.

As I looked back at my life, I realized that I had never really put in effort. Not just toward fitness, but toward anything. I had spent 24 years coasting through life on my cleverness. But not anymore. Not after what happened yesterday. I was sitting in my comfortable home in the village when I saw smoke rising in the distance. There was way too much smoke to be just a campfire. I started running. Forest fires are terrible things if they get out of hand, and it was up to everyone to do their part to prevent them. Unfortunately, I was terribly out of shape and was panting and had to slow down to a walk before long. I swore at myself. "If this is bad, it's your fault. If you could run further you might have been able to stop it." I hadn't even seen what was going on yet and already I was blaming myself. So I forced myself on as fast as I could, jogging when possible and walking when I was too tired. Once I covered the ground I saw that there seemed to be some kind of fight going on. A group of all kinds were fighting against a dragon. Despite their numbers, they kept being driven back. But no matter how many times they fell down they kept getting up. Some of them had grievous wounds and I was amazed at their perseverance. After I stood and stared for a while one of them noticed me. "We could use a little help, you know," the stranger said, with the slightest smile on his face, as if this were just another day. At this point I realized that I knew nothing that could help them. Faced with a life or death situation, I realized that my quick wit had absolutely no value. Filled with embarrassment that I was of no use whatsoever, I hung my head. I think the stranger knew what that meant, because he went back to fighting the dragon. Shortly after this, the beast was slain. Knowing basic first aid I tried to help tend to the wounded. I was amazed that despite the fact that I had done nothing to help these people seemed to accept and encourage me. After a short time the stranger approached me. "I'm so--" I started, but the stranger cut me off. "There's no need to apologize. Everyone starts somewhere. Just promise me one thing." "What's that?" "The next time you find us, come prepared." I nodded, and he walked away. The people were all leaving, most of their own accord. The ones who were having trouble were being supported by others. I was a truly inspiring site. When I got back to my village I learned that those were the fabled guilds. I had always thought that they were separate and that there was great competition between them but I learned that when it was necessary they would work together flawlessly, putting any and all animosity aside for the greater good. So today when I woke up, I started to develop a plan. A plan to get into shape. A plan to be able to both cover distance quickly and have the strength to fight afterward. Eventually I would pick which guild I wanted to join, but for now I just had to get started. But I had learned from others' mistakes: I knew I had to start slowly. So here, written down, is my plan. MAIN GOAL: Run a Tough Mudder A friend of mine is trying to convince me to sign up for one in September. I'll decide at the end of this challenge if I want to sign up for that one or wait a while before trying one. I'd also like to lose fat and gain muscle, but that will come with the training. The first thing to do is to stop poisoning myself. Diet Goal: Drink Less Soda Week 1,2: <=4 sodas/week Week 3,4: <= 3 sodas/week Week 5,6: <= 2 sodas/week The second thing I need to do is learn how to cover any distance. Fitness Goal: Ride My Bike Week 1: Ride my bike one-way (to or from work) once Week 2: Ride round-trip once Week 3,4: Ride round-trip once, and one-way once Week 5,6: Ride round-trip twice The third thing I need to do is gain speed, so I can cover the distance quicker. Fitness Goal: Sprint Week 1: Beep test Week 2,3: Sprint workout once Week 4,5: Sprint workout twice Week 6: Sprint workout twice + beep test Grading for all goals is the same: A for all 6 weeks on target B for 5 weeks on target C for 4 weeks on target Starting Stats (as of 4/16/14) Height: 5'7" Weight: 156.6 lbs. Neck: 15.125" Chest: 39.875" Waist: 34.5" Bicep: 12" Thigh: 21.5" As I looked over my plan, it seemed like it could work. Next time, I'll be ready.

I was wondering if anyone here had done the flash workout? I am interested in trying it alongside the beginners bodyweight workout to increase cardio fitness/burn fat. http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2012/04/27/superhumanspeed/ My question is how do you know what percentage of effort you are putting in? In the past I have tried running longer distances, but start too fast and have to stop. I think I am worried that I will not push myself enough or push myself too much, making the workout less effective or flying off the treadmill in the gym. I know it sounds like I am over thinking things, but I have zero intuition with this and would appreciate any tips from those of you with more experience in this.

When he reached the top of the mountain, the rainbow shimmered and made it seem like he was standing in an ocean of light. The road to Asgard stood before him, close enough to touch. But there was no way through. The mountain path had made him tougher and leaner but there was little skill in climbing a mountain, determination carried him this far but it could carry him no further. He fell to his knees in frustration and slowly made his way back down the mountain. But the assassin was not ready to admit defeat. There are not many things that can stop an assassin who's put his mind to something, and this assassin's mind was definitely set to stealing Mjolnir. He had heard tales of a demi-god in a distant forest who's grueling training regime sent many would-be heroes scuttling for safety. This was his destination. He would train under the demi-god and become skilled and powerful enough to penetrate the Rainbow Road and make his secretive way to Asgard. It took him several days by boat to reach the heavy forest the demi-god Adonis had taken as his home, feasting with generous merchants and sailors along the way. And then several more to find the marble temple at the its heart, where he would find the demi-god. The temple was beautiful, but barren, there was no one waiting for him. There was no mystic mythological figure awaiting him to turn dramatically. But this was what the assassin had been expecting. He left an offering on the temple altar and elected to come back the following day, to see if he and his offering had been accepted. He did not need to wait that long; as he was setting up camp a figure burst from the trees and began attacking the assassin. In a desperate fight the assassin parried, leapt and lunged against his assailant. After a few minutes of brutal intensity the figure jumped backwards an astonishing distance, nodded to the assassin and walked in the direction of the temple. It looked like Adonis had started his training. Hello fellow Rebels! I hope you don't mind my fairly long story intro! So this challenge I want to focus on high intensity exercise both with resistance training and sprints, and skill work. But I don't want to say just one kind of skill work, I think I would like to try out various poses and balancing work. My overall quest is to be able to do a one armed, hand-stand push up (modeled here by Vegeta) and a 90 degree push up. But I know both of these are extremely far away, so for now I'm going to focus on fat-loss (less to move) and some skill work. I've called this challenge the Belt of Adonis because I'd really like to be able to see mine (and of course abs!) and I hope that if I meet my fat-loss goal for this challenge I will be able to. Anyway! Enough of this levity, let's talk goals! Goal 1: To Be Carved From Marble (Fat Loss) +2 DEX +2 CON Lose 3% Bodyfat I want to be stricter with this goal than I was last time, I will be allowed to up my carb intake on workout days whilst trying my hardest to be paleo (but still under 100g). I might have a 3 or 4 cheat days spread across the whole challenge but I'm not sure about this yet. So we'll see! I will put some stats for myself down so I can gauge progress but (a bit cheekily!) I'm going to give myself till Wednesday to let my body calm down from my holiday last week and hopefully not be ballooned with beer! But the way I intend to lose the bodyfat is to do high intensity exercise, so lots of sprints and resistance circuits! And of course eat at a calorie deficit! The details of which I shall post up with my other stats when I do them. I'm looking into planning and preparing my meals over the weekends as well, if I can get a fair amount of meat from a butchers/supermarket for relatively cheap then that should be fine! Goal 2: To Fight the Black Bear (Strength) +4 STR Do 3 Strength Workouts per week With the upcoming release of the new Thor movie, I want to try and couple some strength training with the bodyfat goal to make myself look as Thor like as possible by the time the movie comes out! For the last couple of weeks of the last challenge I was doing weights at the gym splitting 2 days into essentially Chest & Back/Legs & Shoulders split and trying to throw in some bodyweight circuits too. So I'll keep doing this with Legs at the beginning of the week and Chest on Thursday (I can't NOT workout on Thorsday!) Taking inspiration from TiberiusNightrise I'll be tracking my workouts on here so I can see better where I'm improving/need to work on. And also carrying on from last time I'll be using the Bear/Cat infographics to playfully see how heavy I can lift! If I'm lucky I'll be able to Bench Press a Black Bear! What Cat Can You Lift?: http://i.imgur.com/rpo7B6Y.jpg What Bear Can You Lift? http://i.imgur.com/HYFCNQf.jpg To Black Bear and beyond! Goal 3: The Tricks of Immortals (Skill) +3 DEX +1 STR Do 2 Skill Workouts a week One of the reasons I love the Assassins guild is for all the crazy skills that we have going for us, so it's about time I started learning to do them too! Last time I planned to do skill workouts purely to focus on handstands/headstands, but this time I want to open it up a bit more, I'm looking into getting some gymnastics rings to put on my pull up bar so that should really open up the skills (and make it a lot easier to get the motivation!) But I'm not 100% sure what to do (I'm a total beginner skills wise) so any suggestions are welcome Goal 4: For the Assassin Records (Writing) +3 WIS Write at least 1 blog post a week Bonus points if I can schedule the posts rather than frantically write them during my lunch hour. I've also let slip for the past couple of weeks so I really want to get back into it as it will not only help me but should also help me for jobs. I have been toying with the idea of starting a fitness blog, with the theme for saturday morning/90s TV and other general geekery (I really like classics and mythology so I'd try and chuck that in too). So if I do start that then it has to be one blog post for BOTH each week, I can't use that as an excuse to do one or the other. I think that's more than enough for now! But I'll be on and about to post up any more coherent plans and my stats once I've done them. Best of luck to you fellow Rebels (and especially Assassins ) I look forward to doing another awesome challenge with you all

Even the summer winds are chilly this far north. The lone figure trudging up the mountain path gave a brief shiver and pulled his cloak tighter about himself. The slow crunch of his feet on the path and the sigh of his breath was the only sound, the birds had all gone. He continued his way towards the base of the mountain, the great hulking shadow sending a cold chill down his spine. It wasn't until later that day that he reached the true foot of the mountain. He could tell because the pathway suddenly veered upwards, almost into a vertical climb. The figure paused as his eyes followed the slanting path, searching up for his destination. And there it was. The top of the mountain shimmered and almost seemed to shine, ignoring the closing darkness as the sun made its way below the horizon. The light from the mountain gave everything a mystical sheen, as though he had just stepped into a fairy tale. And the figure squinted as he looked up, trying to see the top of the mountain clearly. After a few moments he saw past the enchantment and with a sigh of relief saw what he was looking for. The top of the mountain wasn't the normal colour of rocks and mud, or even the pure white of untouched snow. The mountain peak shimmered like a multicoloured wave, and the rainbow that enveloped the peak shot off into the sky. His quest could finally begin in earnest. He had found it. The road to Asgard. This challenge I shall be performing a slight experiment, I'm going to try and have my next few challenges (at the moment I'm tentatively saying 5) shall be part of a larger story with each fitness challenge becoming more difficult as I reach the end of the larger quest. You might have guessed that this quest is going to be stealing Mjolnir, the hammer of Thor! I know thievery isn't strictly Assassin territory But I might push further with it and use Mjolnir to assassinate someone else. We shall see! But anyway, that's getting ahead of myself! On to this challenge! Main Quest My main quest is very faraway from completion but I want to finally start working towards it. Well there are a few so I'll just say a couple Basically it's a handstand. Ultimately I want to be able to do a one-armed handstand push up (DBZ reference for bonus points) and a 90 degree push up. So for now what I'm going to focus on is working towards a freestanding handstand that I can control my motion up/down. And by that I mean I don't have to kick to get up to a handstand and I don't just fall down on my way down. At the moment I'm still at wall headstand stage, hopefully I will be able to do some form of handstand (probably against a wall) by the end of the challenge. Fitness Goals 1: The Skillful Ascent Do at least 2 skill workouts per week (+3 DEX +1 STR) To do my best to try and get to a controlled handstand I am going to do 2 skill workouts a week doing about 20-30 minutes of practice with things like crow stands, headstands. I have some idea of what I'm going to work on but am by no means an expert! So any help on that front would be appreciated! At least 2 skill workouts a week to work on: Headstands Crow Stands L sits Grading: A = 2+ Skill Workouts every week B = 5 weeks with 2 Skill Workouts C = 4 Weeks with 2 Skill workouts D = 3 weeks with 2 skill workouts E = 2 weeks with 2 skill workouts F =1 week with 2 skill workouts, or complete failure 2: Strength To Match the Gods Do at least 2 Strength Circuits per week (+4 STR) For this goal I will do circuit training at least twice a week, to try and give me extra strength to help with the free handstands. At the moment it's a fairly standard circuit: push ups, dips, one legged squats, bicep curls, dumbbell shoulder press, and then pull ups/negatives to failure. Mini Goals: Make it to 10 pull ups Do a proper one legged squat (all the way down and back up again) Grading: A = 2+ Skill Workouts every week B = 5 weeks with 2 Skill Workouts C = 4 Weeks with 2 Skill workouts D = 3 weeks with 2 skill workouts E = 2 weeks with 2 skill workouts F =1 week with 2 skill workouts, or complete failure 3: The Build of the Aesir Lost 3% Bodyfat (+2 CON +2 STR) Current bodyfat: 18% Weight: 159lbs (Lean Bodymass: 130lbs) Plan: Sprint twice a week Eat at a deficit (2000 calories should mean lose 1lb a week) Eat as paleo as possible going for about 80/20 With this plan I hope to lose 2% of my bodyfat. I hope that's achievable but I somehow manage to confuse myself whenever I figure out how much bodyfat I will have lost for 6lbs of fat I'm pretty sure it would be around 3%, but not 100% sure but we'll go with it anyway! The plan is to keep up with weight training, eat clean and at about a 600 calorie deficit (which should still mean I retain muscle) and make sure I eat about 140 grams of protein per day. And just to really embassy/motivate myself a few pictures to mark the beginning of the challenge and hopefully there'll be a slight different by the end! So here are the pictures with all the appropriate stupid faces: Front, Front, Side Life Goal 4: Record Your Quest Write 1000 words a day. +3 WIS Based off the last challenge I'm also going to add in that if I write more than 1000 words that day I can take that off my total for the next day. So if I'm feeling particularly verbose I don't need to stop and if I have writer's block another day, I won't feel so bad. And this is also so that I can try and write up some blog posts before they're due and schedule their publication. Grading will be percentage based, depending on how well I achieve this goal, so a percentage of how many days I achieved this. A = 100% B = 80% C = 60% D = 40% E = 20% F = Total failure Side Quest Bonus Points for this one: Get a fitness blog up and running I've had the idea for a bit now to start a health and fitness blog, to help me along with my own progress in between the NF challenges and also see if I can help other people. I'm kicking around the idea of calling it "Saturday Morning Fitness" because I'll probably be using 80s/90s saturday morning cartoons as my main inspiration! (power rangers, teenage mutant ninja turtles, dragonball z etc) But if you have any name suggests I would love to hear them! That's it for now! Sorry for the wall of text! And I'll probably come along and edit/add in a couple of bits later! Good luck assassins!

My Goals: Level Up! -Read 1 hour per day (>5 days/week)- I already read before bed but not for very long. when I plan my day I will start scheduling in time to read and learn. Diet & Fitness! -Eat 120g protein in 1200 cal (6 d/w)- No cheating on food choices on the "cheat" day, but a day of sanity. I will do this by meal planning before grocery shopping and prepping meals ahead of time. I want to set myself up for: the most convenient thing to eat is what I need to eat to reach my macro goals. I will also record and weigh everything I eat. -Go from 3 rounds of 1/4 miles sprints to 6 rounds at <1:45 pace- I will sprint twice a week. Every 2d or 3d workout, I will add one more round to the workout. If I get to 6 evolutions at the desired pace before the 6 weeks is over, I will begin decreasing my rest periods between evolutions. -20 consecutive proper form push ups (currrently doing 5x5, increase to 5x6 or 6x5 and so forth, etc. Push 3-4 times a week and check max set at 3 and 6 week mark). I can do 48 pushups like the top photo-- elbows flared out. I want to eventually do 50+ like the bottom photo.

My first 6-Week Challenge!! WOO!!1! Let's get right into the weeds. Triathlon Training 6/Week – 4 STA, 1 DEX I have laid out a triathlon training plan for the next few months before the On On Tri on Hilton Head in October. I've already done a Sprint Tri with no training (DO NOT RECOMMEND), so I want/need to be ready for this one so I'm actually competitive. This involves running, biking, and/or swimming once or twice a day depending on the schedule. It may or may not have been shamelessly stolen from beginnertriathlete.com >.< http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/cms/article-detail.asp?articleid=46 https://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=a48bcm4eoiklm1f8tpcrbakvi0%40group.calendar.google.com&ctz=America/New_York Now, there is a time management challenge hidden in there as well. There's plenty of time to get the run and bike in during my lunch break, just gotta pull my head outta my butt and do it. On top of that, my only window for the swimming is during lunch, so I absolutely need to make it there on swim days. The training happens 6 days a week, so I'll hafta get my butt up and out the house on Sundays, oh boy... Weight Training 3/Week – 4 STR This one is SMART, but vague... Strength training is Greek to me, and I'm still doing research, so the goal here is simply me going to gym 3/week for at least 30 minutes each time. The exact plan will be made over the course of the challenge, but I need to get there and pick things up and put them down. Free weights only, no machines. Simple (to say atleast >.<) Eat Paleo 5/7 Days a Week – 4 CON Weekend splurges. That's it. I've been doing pretty good right now transitioning with that standard, now I want to be completely committed to 5/7. This is with limited dairy and liquor being ok during the week (Think a yogurt/smoothie, and a glass or two of scotch/whiskey/wine a day) Also, financially I cannot afford grass-fed-free-range-smog-free everything, but I can still do meat, fresh fruit and vegetables, and sweet potatoes. Mmmm, sweet potatoes. Dine Out 1/Week – 2 WIS I'm allowed to pay for food prepared for me once a week. Period. I work at a bar on the weekend, and I can usually get some free food there, so I will not count that (Don't worry, fancier bar, sweet potato fries, mmmmm, sweet potatoes). The goal here is to cut down the financial burden of eating out. I'm losing out on saving up for some of my life goals because of my eating out habit, which would be fine except for that whole father-of-a-1-year-old thing. I want to be an example of sensible spending and health for my daughter. And I want a race car one day dammit. So, final stat increase will be: 4 STR, 1 DEX, 4 STA, 4 CON, 2 WIS, 0 CHA = 15 Points! I also want to take the time to make my house what I want it to be. Which means organized and decorated. Cleaning up my garage and office will be my free time endeavors. Lucky Me! I have a broken 87 Mazda RX-7 that has been sitting in my garage so long that it's turned into a shelf. Bad car geek. I would like to have an environment where I can comfortably attack fixing the old riceburner so I can get it back on the track. This will not be one of my challenge goals, but it is something I would like to have started before the next 6-weeker. Measurements and pics to come. Semper Fidelis