Okay, how much of Academy REQUIRES following the Dietary plan?

[Wolfstar]

Hey gang, total noob here. I'm interested in picking up the Academy, but I've got some concerns  before I drop $100+ on it. Specifically, does Academy REQUIRE following the diet plan portions? How difficult is it to work around dietary stuff in the Academy?

 

Last July, I discovered that I was losing all feeling in the tops of my toes (I'm Type II diabetic), which sparked me to pick up Weight Watchers again on August 1st - initial weigh-in was 333, as of Friday I'm at 232.8. So, I've got the weight-loss portion down, I'm comfortable with my current plan and program, and I have no intention of stopping either one.

 

What I AM running into, is the problems associated with weight loss - excess skin, mostly - and frankly being a bit of a 90-pound weakling in a temporarily 230-pound body. I've got ZERO endurance, and ZERO desire to run/walk/treadmill/cardio. I had started karate classes at a nearby dojo, but couldn't keep up without weight work. I'd like to go back, but not until I can make it through an hour class without nearly passing out from lack of endurance.

 

So if NF Academy will allow me to pull off the following, it will nearly literally be the perfect program:

 

1. Work on strength training without excessive dietary preaching (understand, mentioning "you really need to up protein intake" is fine, "You need to do Keto/Paleo/Atkins/Vegan/Whatever or you won't succeed" is not.)
2. Work for someone for whom getting to a gym is impractical on a 3-day-a-week basis - I'm in a rural area, the nearest gym is 30 minutes away, and I'm full-time work from home. (Seems like we're set here.)
3. Allows me to leverage my "super-power", namely hyper-focus from being ADD Inattentive Type. (I suspect the gamification will do that nicely.)

 

So, have I found my exercise unicorn? Seems like I have, as long as I don't have to bend over backwards to dodge the nutrition-focused stuff. 60 day money-back guarantee is all well and good, but why not ask if there's a forum around, right?

[aramis]

WOW, 100lb lost? Great 

I'd love to advise you on Academy, but I can't - I didn't decided to put money in it. But if it is AT LEAST somewhere near blog articles and what I see here on forums, I think you should be just fine. I considered going Paleo to drop some kg, but the huge NO-NO was cutting out all milk and diary. So I kept eating those, just adjusting rest of my diet.

Even IF Academy relies on Paleo, I'm pretty sure you can work around it to adjust it to your own nutrition plan. The bottom line remains the same - eat real food, don't eat garbage, eat less than you burn.

 

Cheers

 

P.S.

I hope I won't get kicked out of here for this, but I'll just ping NF second-in-command @spezzy for more in-depth explanation to your questions. Please, don't ban me...

[Wolfstar]

Thanks, it's an odd thing having been able to finally "flip the switch" to go weight loss, and the WW program is pretty solid - now leans higher protein (chicken & turkey are free, cheaper steaks like sirloin are fairly cheap (less than a point an ounce), etc.) and still lets me have my cream in my coffee, so I'm content on that end.

 

Funny thing about the dairy. I used to drink a gallon of milk a day. (Yeah. And almost that much soda at one point, too.) Now we were out of milk for two days before I noticed. Still eat cheese (you can pry my Cabot cracker cuts from my cold dead hands) and a couple tablespoons of light cream in the coffee every morning, but that's really it.

 

Thanks for tagging someone who can confirm, and for confirming I'm not the only one reading the site/blogs that way too.

[Sylvaa]

I am not @Spezzy, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn last night.... (anyone?) Actually, I am a member of the Academy, so I'll take a shot at answering all of your questions. 

 

17 hours ago, Wolfstar said:

Work on strength training without excessive dietary preaching (understand, mentioning "you really need to up protein intake" is fine, "You need to do Keto/Paleo/Atkins/Vegan/Whatever or you won't succeed" is not.)

 

You can opt out of participating in the Nutrition modules of NFA without undercutting the rest of the program. When you start, you'll receive weekly e-mails with To Do's included. Some of those will be around leveling up your diet, but no one checks to make sure you click all of the boxes. If you've figured out what works for you, then that's awesome and keep it up! As the program progresses, it does become more open ended, so you can continue to level up without ever touching nutrition unless you want to.

 

17 hours ago, Wolfstar said:

Work for someone for whom getting to a gym is impractical on a 3-day-a-week basis - I'm in a rural area, the nearest gym is 30 minutes away, and I'm full-time work from home. (Seems like we're set here.)

 

The Exercise module is set up with a gym path and a bodyweight (at home) path. You might decide to invest in some equipment (i.e. dumbbells or kettlebells and a pull-up bar), but you don't ever have to set foot in a gym if you don't want to. 

 

17 hours ago, Wolfstar said:

Allows me to leverage my "super-power", namely hyper-focus from being ADD Inattentive Type. (I suspect the gamification will do that nicely.)

 

I am an achievement collector personally. If you give me the option to check off a box saying I've completed ALL OF THE THINGS, I am a happy pig. When you start, the program is pretty tight, which gives you a great foundation to continue moving forward. There are also many quests that build upon others, so as you establish good habits, you are rewarded for continuing moving forward.

 

Hope that helps! 

[Wolfstar]

14 minutes ago, Sylvaa said:

I am not @Spezzy, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn last night.... (anyone?) Actually, I am a member of the Academy, so I'll take a shot at answering all of your questions. 

 

 

Thanks! Got a chuckle on the Holiday Inn bit.

 

14 minutes ago, Sylvaa said:

You can opt out of participating in the Nutrition modules of NFA without undercutting the rest of the program. When you start, you'll receive weekly e-mails with To Do's included. Some of those will be around leveling up your diet, but no one checks to make sure you click all of the boxes. If you've figured out what works for you, then that's awesome and keep it up! As the program progresses, it does become more open ended, so you can continue to level up without ever touching nutrition unless you want to.

 

 

Okay, so basically it'll ask me to do stuff on the Nutrition modules, but I can basically ignore that and it won't impact progression on the strength training end? Perfect! I admit to minor curiosity and might even do the module based on "Last July" as a starting point just to see what it does differently, but I really want to be able to go "No, that's silly and won't work for me - I need my *insert rare item or junk-food here* and this won't let me do it" and not toss the baby out with the bathwater.

 

14 minutes ago, Sylvaa said:

The Exercise module is set up with a gym path and a bodyweight (at home) path. You might decide to invest in some equipment (i.e. dumbbells or kettlebells and a pull-up bar), but you don't ever have to set foot in a gym if you don't want to. 

 

 

Oh, I've got a couple of kettlebells and dumbbells around (actually, this is the SECOND weight-loss period - first was 12-13 years ago, and went from "somewhere north of 400" to 320-330ish - and during that period I did a fair amount with a boxing gym that loved kettlebells. I'm quite partial, but don't have a good set and I certainly don't have a pull-up bar. The Craigslist browsing has begun however...

 

14 minutes ago, Sylvaa said:

I am an achievement collector personally. If you give me the option to check off a box saying I've completed ALL OF THE THINGS, I am a happy pig. When you start, the program is pretty tight, which gives you a great foundation to continue moving forward. There are also many quests that build upon others, so as you establish good habits, you are rewarded for continuing moving forward.

 

Hope that helps! 

 

It does, indeed! I'm not so much a hardcore achievement type, but, well, my date-of-creation account for World of Warcraft was the day BEFORE the launch, because we bought at midnight East Coast time. Still buy every expansion and level it out even if I don't play hardcore anymore, so gaming it up works just fine for me, and as a bit of an alt-aholic, I'm not worried too much about repetition either.

 

Now, where'd that piggy bank go....?

[Sylvaa]

14 hours ago, Wolfstar said:

Okay, so basically it'll ask me to do stuff on the Nutrition modules, but I can basically ignore that and it won't impact progression on the strength training end? Perfect! I admit to minor curiosity and might even do the module based on "Last July" as a starting point just to see what it does differently, but I really want to be able to go "No, that's silly and won't work for me - I need my *insert rare item or junk-food here* and this won't let me do it" and not toss the baby out with the bathwater.

 

Exactly. To be fair, I really like the way the Nutrition modules are set up and some of them might correspond with your current program anyway (i.e. some of the first quests are just tracking - no specific way to track, just do it. So tracking your points would count). Also, a lot of the Nutrition quests are to make changes for a specific amount of time (i.e. pack your lunch for a week), so WHAT you eat isn't as important as how you get your nutrients. I think that you'll find there will be some parts you'll be like, "yeah, nope", but others that will be super easy for you. 

 

14 hours ago, Wolfstar said:

It does, indeed! I'm not so much a hardcore achievement type, but, well, my date-of-creation account for World of Warcraft was the day BEFORE the launch, because we bought at midnight East Coast time. Still buy every expansion and level it out even if I don't play hardcore anymore, so gaming it up works just fine for me, and as a bit of an alt-aholic, I'm not worried too much about repetition either.

 

Are you excited for WoW Classic? I've not played the most recent expac, but started in Vanilla and am so ready! 

[Wolfstar]

14 hours ago, Sylvaa said:

 

Exactly. To be fair, I really like the way the Nutrition modules are set up and some of them might correspond with your current program anyway (i.e. some of the first quests are just tracking - no specific way to track, just do it. So tracking your points would count). Also, a lot of the Nutrition quests are to make changes for a specific amount of time (i.e. pack your lunch for a week), so WHAT you eat isn't as important as how you get your nutrients. I think that you'll find there will be some parts you'll be like, "yeah, nope", but others that will be super easy for you. 

 

Yeah, I've gone through the first little bit of nutrition, and was like "Been doing that for 9 months... yep, been doing that too... yep, that as well". I'll take a poke through it, but I'm a Network Engineer - and while I won't ever say if it ain't broke don't fix it - if it's working really well, I'm not going to rock the boat. So we'll see what if anything comes of it.

 

14 hours ago, Sylvaa said:

Are you excited for WoW Classic? I've not played the most recent expac, but started in Vanilla and am so ready! 

 

Battle for Azeroth is hands down the best expansion since Wrath as far as I'm concerned. The storyline is amazing, all the way around, they're fixing old stuff and growth problems in story rather than retcon, they've made it possible to level 6 or more alts without once repeating zones... it's fantastic. They even fixed the one thing that drove me nuts about Wrath: "Oh, you're an awesome Death Knight and you broke free of the Lich King, you should kick his ass once and for all! Oh, but before that, please go wander around this shattered world for 10 levels."

 

As for Classic, I'm a bit torn. On the one hand, I'd love to do Naxx on original difficulty (I never got to do it), but I have a hatred - born entirely of having done it once already - for grinding fire resist gear. Then too, I've been playing a Paladin main since beta, and most of my friends want to go Horde this time around. Which means no Paladins. I raided BC and Wrath as a mage so I'm not entirely out of luck, but I really, REALLY wanted to go tank Scholo and Strath again as a Paladin like I used to do (and was called an idiot for - but it worked. My friends loved it.)