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Superdad IV - The Quest for Sleep All summer long, I've been preparing myself to become Superdad before my 3rd kid arrives. We getting very close to the goal line now. His due date is August 30th, but there's no telling when he'll make his appearance. I'm not even sure if I'll be able to finish out this challenge, but I'm going to give it a go. Goal 1 - A Superdad is well-rested: Consistent bedtime leads to consistent sleep Yes, I realize consistent sleep is a ridiculous thing to hope for with a newborn, but I'd still like to work on forming the habit of getting to be at a reasonable time and maybe banking a little extra sleep before Superboy arrives. So, here's my plan for 5 days a week: Head for bed by 10 PM - 2 points Lights off by 10:30 PM - 2 points Lights off by 10:15 - 1 bonus point Possibility for 5 points a day, 5 days a week, 4 weeks in the challenge equals 100 possible points. Alternatively, if I average 7 hours of sleep a night at the end of 4 weeks, I earn full credit for this goal. Goal 2 - A Superdad looks good in his super-suit Carry over goal from last challenge and part of a longer term goal. I'd like to lose 3 inches from my midsection by December 25th, my 40th birthday. For this challenge, I'm going to be following the Phase 1 diet plan from Engineering the Alpha, which involves intermittent fasting. I'll be tracking my fasted hours, my calories, and my macros. Hit 16/8 fasting/feeding window - 2 points Hit my calorie goals - 2 points Hit my macro goals - 1 point Possibility for 5 points a day, 5 days a week, over 4 weeks equals 100 points. I will award bonus points for extra days hitting my goals during the week. I will also award myself full credit if I lose an inch from my belly by the end of the challenge. Goal 3 - A Superdad breaks through his limitations This one will be about improving my mobility. Namely, I'd like to improve my ankle flexibility in order to be able to do pistol squats. I also need to work on my shoulders and my overall posture. I just got a copy of Becoming a Supple Leopard from the library, so I'm going to read through it and see if I can get some ideas on daily mobility exercises. Scoring forthcoming. Full credit awarded for 1 full unassisted pistol squat on each leg. Goal 4 - A Superdad exercises his brain as well as his muscles I've got at least 5 books I'd like to read, so I'll award 20 points per book. This will also hopefully motivate me to get to bed early to read. There you have it. Up, up, and away!

Part 3 of the Superdad series: DAD OF STEEL A Superdad is Big and Strong Goal 1 - 1xBW Sandbag Floor Press for 3 reps A Superdad Looks Good in his Super-Suit Goal 2 - 34" waist A Superdad has a Firm Grasp Goal 3 - Do at least one grip-strengthening exercise with each workout (16 total) A Superdad lends a Helping Hand Goal 4 - Do at least two things that help my wife around the house each day (14 per week) I will try to come back and add more description to these goals as Week 1 progresses, but I wanted to get something started.

Due to family commitments, I didn't work on my last challenge at all. I did manage to keep up with the ranger minis but that was it. I have gained about three kilos and I am back up to 115kg. Not really happy, about that. So it is time to get back on track with this challenge and do what I need to do.Because of my absence, sailing the skies with the crew of the pirate airship Queen Lizzy's Cutlass, the troll has regained its full strength and hitpoints. I too am at full health. Now a couple of things are happening which I want to include here in my NF goals. I have recently started studying a Diploma of Nutrition, this is important to me for my family's health and also a possible new career direction. I also recently joined an Aussie support group on fb called SuperDads. The founder of the group is a personal trainer based in Queensland, He has just created an eight-week course designed to help Dads improve their lives across a broad range of areas, I am lucky enough to have gained a place as one of his test subjects for the course. So over the next 8 weeks [well seven and a half, we started Monday] I am participating in a course that will help [hopefully] boost my parenting skills, life skills, health skills, and become a better version of myself. In other words to become a Super Dad. I somehow want to be able to combine my heathenry, the Broadsword training, Nutrition course into a health and fitness programme/school/academy in some way, I am not sure quite how yet. But the idea is there. This is the start of that journey. Now to my goals. Goal One: Highland Broadsword This is still my focus for my fitness. I will also be adding the monthly SCA combat training to this goal. Attending that is equivalent to three training sessions at home. I want to do 2-4 cateran sessions plus 1-2 SCA combat training drills per week. I have found a youtube clip showing the basics of the SCA heavy combat training that I was shown last month and I will use that as my basis for the SCA drills. I need to become a qualified Broadswordsman in order to teach broadsword, That means regular dedicated training and updates on my Cateran training blog. The SCA is still my primary place to train with other people and a possible source of future students. Goal Two: Runic Meditation It is time to continue with the next four runes; Ing, Daeg, Oethel, Ac. I still need to bring this back up to five times per week to be benefiting the most from this practice. If I perform a monthly Blessing that counts as a critical hit for the week. I have noticed the difference in not doing these meditations over the past few weeks and I do not like the difference. I also plan to move to a meditation upon the Nine Noble Virtues and its derivatives/variations after I have finished with the runes. I think these virtues could be the part of Heathenry that could most easily be adapted to my idea, Goal Three: Workouts I really need to increase my strength to deal with fighting in heavy combat. Not to mention my endurance. I am also having lower back pain from tight muscles and poor posture, so I need to start stretching regularly as well. I plan to stretch as part of warming up/down before any strength workout. Thanks to the last challenge I have started doing push ups every day again, only one set of five but that is much better than none. I want to keep this up and add some stuff to do as a simple daily routine, that will gradually increase my fitness. I can see the old BBWW routine coming back into play again. Goal Four: Becoming a SuperDad I am changing this from a general doing stuff to becoming a SuperDad, as a tip of the hat to the programme I have started. I am going to list the various tasks that I want to be working on over the next few weeks and beyond. Build training shields and swords for the kids to play with and for me to actually train with. Work more on the Garden/House maintenance. Studying my nutrition course. Doing stuff with/for Bec, date nights are still an automatic critical hit. Doing her hair, watching a movie together, a coffee downtown, any shared activity that builds our relationship (excluding shopping and housework). Participating in the Superdad programme Spending more time crafting. Scoring It has dawned on me that the troll could actually wound me four times per week if I stuff up. So I am adapting the scoring and life points to allow for this. I now have 17 life points to allow me to survive if I lose every week of combat with the troll. I am doubling the points the trol has as well to compensate. I am also altering the amount of damage that I can do to the troll in order to be able to kill it in one challenge. 5+ sessions per week is a Critical Hit on the troll and is worth four points. 4 sessions per week is a Hit on the troll and is worth two points. 3 sessions per week is a weak hit on the troll as is worth one point. 2 sessions per week is a block/dodge or miss as the troll evades my attack and is worth no points. 1 session per week is a block/dodge or miss as I evade the troll's attack and is worth no points. 0 sessions per week is a hit by the troll on me and I lose one point.

Superdad Returns - the sequel to Becoming Superdad As we learned in last month's challenge, A Superdad is Big and Strong: Goal 1: Perform one strict handstand push-up Last time, my strength goal was focused on sandbag overhead press. I came close to my goal, but realized that the sandbag OHP is not an ideal exercise to reach my real goal, which is performing handstand push-ups. I figure if I want to be able to do HSPUs, I would need to be able to do a 1x bodyweight OHP and a 150-160 lb sandbag is just a bear to deal with, especially holding it over your head. So instead, I'll focus on the goal itself. I'll be progressing through Pike Push-ups, Feet elevated Pike Push-ups, HSPU negatives, and then hopefully a full HSPU by the end of the challenge! A Superdad looks good in his super-suit: Goal 2: Lose 1 inch from my belly Every time I try to increase my calories to bulk up, I end up adding to my belly first. I've had challenge goals in the past about trimming my midsection, and had some success, but this summer I'd really like to get down to a lean waist and stay there. Various sources agree that the "ideal" waist measurement is about 45% of your height. I'm 6'-1" (73"), so that works out to about 32.5" for my waist. I was at 35.5" when I measured at the end of May, so I hope to lose an inch a month, which equates to about 4-5 lbs of fat based on previous measurements. I'm going to shoot for this goal by following Intermittent Fasting and I'm also going to try out Carb Backloading. Other steps to achieve my goal: Track my eating at least 5 days a week I'll be shooting for about 1800 calories a day (I'm pretty sedentary aside from my 4 workouts a week). 1 gram of protein per lb of bodyweight Maintain balance in my macros (30% PRO, 35% CHO, 35% FAT) Goal 3: Strengthen those muscles under the belly fat I know that ab exercises can't spot reduce fat, but I definitely need to increase my core strength and it certainly can't hurt to tighten up my core muscles. 10 Stomach vacuums throughout the day "PLP" style reverse crunches. I started these at the beginning of June with 5 and I keep adding one each night. A Superdad plans ahead Level Up Your Life Goal: Prepare a family budget for after the baby arrives My wife wants to take 8 weeks off from work after the baby comes and she's our primary breadwinner, so it might be a good idea to plan ahead for those 2 months of reduced income... I have plenty of experience creating budgets, but I am pretty bad at sticking to them. So, I'll go back to basics for this one. Goal is to have a July-to-December budget by 7/1. https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/finance/how-to-build-a-budget/ http://www.cozi.com/blog/6-steps-creating-budget/ https://www.payoff.com/life/money/5-simple-steps-to-create-a-successful-budget/ A Superdad appreciates his kids Level Up Your #dadlife Goal: Appreciate fatherhood everyday It has been pointed out to me that I have a tendency to treat fatherhood as a chore or a job rather than something to enjoy. With a third kid on the way, it will be that much more important to make sure I'm enjoying my little blessings. So, I'll keep a daily log of things that I appreciate about my of my kids or about being a father. Goal is to write down at least one thing a day. There you have it. Let's get to work!

This is going to be part 1 of a multi-part series of challenges as I seek to become Superdad! I am already a dad with a 7 year old daughter and 4 year old son. We also have another son on the way, due at the end of August. Whenever I talk to friends who are about to have their first kid, I tell the dad to get in the best shape of his life before the kid comes because afterwards, he will get no sleep and the better shape you're in, the less sleep you'll need. I have no idea if that's scientifically true or not, but it's a good motivator for me to get in the best shape of my life by the end of the summer! But becoming a Superdad is not just about being in shape. There are several aspects of my life that I'd like to hone on my way to becoming Superdad, so I'm going to focus on a few each challenge. A Superdad Is Big and Strong Goal 1: Eat for Muscle to get big Following the path laid out in 7 Weeks to 10 Pounds of Muscle and keeping the mindset Staci wrote about here, I'm going to plan out what I eat each day in order to gain 4-5 pounds and then stick to the plan. In Staci's post, she starts off by saying we plan our workouts, why wouldn't we plan our meals? I've long heard/known that diet is more important than exercise when it comes to making changes in my physique. So, I'm going to bust out a spreadsheet and plan my meals. I figure I can add up all the calories and macros ahead of time and then just eat what's on my list! My side goal for this is not to add any inches to my belly while I bulk up elsewhere. Edit to add starting measurements: Weight: 158# (7-day avg) Belly: 35" Average BF = 20% Body Fat = 31.6# Lean Body Mass = 126.4# Goal 2: Overhead Press to get strong I'm going to need big broad shoulders if I want to carry the weight of my family, right?!? I'm working on Clean-to-fist Sandbag Overhead Presses, but following the workout protocol in the 7 Weeks book. I can currently do 4x5x70# and plan to work up to 5x5x85# by the end of the challenge. A Superdad Is Calm, Cool, and Collected Goal 3: Spend x minutes each day praying/meditating/unwinding I'll admit that can have a bit of a short fuse with my kids and I need to learn to be more easy-going around them. Part of that will mean learning to control my reactions to their behavior, but also just remembering that they're kids and they don't think/act like I do. I've included unwinding in this because I definitely find that a stressful day at work can lead to a bad attitude at home. I'm not sure how long I want to shoot for each day, but I'll probably start with 2-5 minutes and see if I can build from there. A Superdad Loves His Wife and Kids Goal 4: Read Super Husband, Super Dad and put the tips within into practice. The "put the tips into practice" part of this goal is a little nebulous, but that's because I haven't read the book yet. I've read the first few chapters and skimmed the table of contents, so I'm confident there will be some concrete applications I can put into place. PS I was very excited to see the superpower themed mini challenge!