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A Brief Introduction Hello warriors! I just finished my first Nerd Fitness challenge and I'm ready to get swole. The focus was on strength training a little bit of weight loss and body recomposition. I am continuing on with these goals, but this time stepping it up. On the last challenge I managed to lose about 8 lbs and lost about 3 inches from my waist. A friend of mine, who I'll admit tends to exaggerate, said it looks like I'd lost about 20 lbs. I have lost about 15 over the summer, but we all know how weird and tricky weight by itself can be. Main Quest: Get in shape by the time I finish my PhD. About a year and a half from now, I hope to be: 40-50 lbs. lighter Swole A zen "master" - practice and live a more peaceful, mindful, and disciplined but balanced life Pushing my mind to its fullest potential so I can defend my dissertation and have a successful career. Current Goals on the Quest: Lose fat/weight Build more muscle Improve exercise knowledge and perfect my lifting form I am currently about 245-250 lbs. at 6' 0" tall. I have now done about 7 weeks of Strong Lifts 5x5 and will be continuing it on this challenge. My goals are to stick to that, eat healthy and get more protein, and to really focus on perfecting my lift form and technique. I've got my body fat calipers coming in the mail, hopefully by the end of week 1. I'll put up some measurements and starting photos soon. Goal 1: Workout at least three times a week emphasizing strength training by following the Strong Lifts 5x5 program. I should have at least 18 workouts during the challenge. I usually go every other day, so that gives me three extra workouts during the 6 weeks I can use to catch up on weights if needed. For goal 1 I will continue following the Strong Lifts 5x5 program as in my first challenge. Here are my current lifts and goals following the program: Lift Current lbs. Goal lbs. Pts. Squat 155 240 Bench Press 140 180 Barbell Row 140 180 Overhead Press 100 130 Deadlift 165 245 I calculated most of these goals using the stronglifts excel sheet to find the six week goal. For the overhead press goal, however, I calculated 65% of my bench goal. This turned out to be 120 lbs. which would result in only a gain of 20 lbs. which would be too easy. So I added 10 more to make it a worthy goal. I also add a short pilates routine and some stretching to the end of my lifts to help work on balance, coordination, core strength, and flexibility. It is the beginner's workout listed and described in The Complete Book of Pilates for Men by Daniel Lyon Jr.: The Hundred Roll-ups Single Leg Circles Rolling Like a Ball Single Leg Stretch Double Leg Stretch Spine Stretch Forward Grading: I will simply count 2 points for the number of workouts I get done. For grading strength gains, I will count 1 point for being within 10 lbs. of a goal, 2 points for meeting the goal, or 3 points if I exceed it. I will then divide by the total number of points: Points = ( 2* Number of workouts + lifting points ) / ( 36 + 15 ) Here is my grading scale. I have to get all my workouts in and hit at least one goal to pass. I get an A if I do all that and meet all goals and exceed at least one and/or get all three extra workouts in. A = 48-52 pts. B = 42-47 pts. C = 37-41 pts. F = <37 pts. Note: extra workouts will yield some bonus points for the extra effort. Attribute Points: +1 STA for 18/18 workouts +1 STR for each 5 lifting points earned (up to +3 STR) +1 CHA if I can squat my body weight or more by the end of the six weeks Goal 2: Consume Between 2400 and 2900 calories and at least 200g protein a day. My calorie intake for maintenance is calculated to be 2947. I'm aiming to burn off some fat so I'll be aiming for 500 cal. under maintenance. Getting the protein will take precedent over eating fewer calories so if I need a couple hundred extra calories to get the protein I need I'll add them up to 2900. Also, I will be avoiding sugar, and keep carbs to a minimum, and preferably only for workout recovery. I will allow myself three "free" days during the challenge. These are not excuses be a glutton, but just days when I reward myself for good work and take my mind off the challenge, maybe have a few drinks etc. Grading: I'll get one point for each day where calories fall in the specified range, and one point for each day my protein is above 200g; not counting "free" days. My grade will be the points divided by the total possible points. Attribute Points: +1 CON passing grade on calories +1 CON passing grade on protein +1 CON more than half of days have <40 g sugar and <100g carbs consumed Goal 3: Inspect and Improve form on Lifts I have a copy of starting strength coming in the mail. It should be here this week. The first component of this goal is to read all the chapters on the lifts. As I finish each I will use that knowledge to improve my form at the gym. Form-Checks: During the challenge, I will take form-check videos of myself doing the exercises and post them on my thread. The first video for each will be put up early in the challenge so that I can look at it and get initial feedback. A second video for each will be posted during the last week for a final assessment and grading. Grading: The end of challenge videos will be graded by members of the Nerd Fitness warrior guild. I expect they should be graded as follows: A - perfect form, maybe one very minor flaw that's easy to fix B - a few minor flaws that are easy to fix C - some flaws requiring some effort/attention to fix F - several flaws requiring significant effort/attention to fix, the exercise will result in injury if continued in this way Or something like that, it will be pretty subjective, and I don't have a specific points/checklist. Any warrior can grade me, and I will take all feedback into account and take an average, but I will weight your grades by your Levels so that experience of the grader is taken into account. Attribute Points: +1 WIS finish reading Starting Strength + 1 CON grade C or better on form, + 1 CON Grade of B on form + 1 STR grade A or better Life Goal: Follow a M-F routine that facilitates a more healthy, productive, and balanced lifestyle I often struggle with keeping myself on a regular schedule which makes it easy to lose track when on occasion life/shit happens. Also, I need to eliminate distractions like news, facebook, email, and NF. I will make time for each rather than randomly using them as distractions. And getting 8 hours of sleep will be a priority. I originally had a scheduled, daily agenda here, but I've changed it to more of a list of essentials. Some things will have scheduled times, but I just want to make sure most things just have a set amount of time reserved. Every day M-F should have the following essential elements: Before Work: 6:00 am - WAKE UP AND GET THE FUCK OUT OF BED! DO NOT TOUCH THE SNOOZE BUTTON! A good solid warrior breakfast On workout days - a morning workout, on rest days some light stretching in the morning At Work: Be at work by 9 am Write one hundred lines of code (or three functions/classes or equivalent) 1 hour Planning or analyzing experiments 1 hour Documenting/writing Read at least one paper 1 half hour reflecting on days work/lessons 1 Brunch and two lunches (each with lots of protein, try to take an hour or less for all three) Get it all done before 6pm At Home: Be home by 6:30. Spend 10-15 minutes cleaning/tidying the apartment Cook and eat a good dinner Read and study non-work stuff (this will be my time for reading starting strength) I am also studying actuarial science as a plan B for after the PhD. This will be when I read some math texts and work on practice problems for exam P. 8 hours of sleep Each day (any time I can): 1 hour Evening computer time (facebook, NF, news) 10-15 min meditation This is the essence of my most productive days when they exist. Fridays will require some flexibility since there are usually more meetings and, of course, drinks after work so I'll have to work around that. Weekends will be off the schedule and focus on catching up on things as needed then relaxing and doing fun stuff. Then Sunday afternoons/evenings will be for preparing for the week. I'll have to have meals prepped if I want to stick to such a tight schedule. Grading: I'll grade each of the 30 possible days as pass/fail. As long as I manage to get a little bit accomplished on these things each day and it doesn't seem like my day fell apart I will count the day as a pass. Its subjective, but I'm confident that the distinction will be pretty clear. A if > 25/30 days do not fall apart B if > 20/30 C if > 15/30 F if < 15/30 Attribute points: +1 CON grade of C or better +1 WIS grade of B or better +1 CHA grade of A (because strong leaders get shit done) Final Grade: I will take the average of all four goals using a 3 point scale: A = 3, B = 2, C = 1, F = 0. Motivation -- Fuck Entropy! I am going to live a happy, healthy, successful, and well-balanced lifestyle for the rest of my life. Wish me luck. This is going to be an intense 6 weeks.