Alright, guys, I tried this once before and had a few supporters who were interested in the idea (found here), but I'm revamping this and restarting and I'm going to be tracking the steps I take daily, on top of doing some challenges. While the app is a paid app, I'm happy to share what's needed per day and I think that, if we can get and keep that support system going, we can each reach whatever goals we have for ourselves!

@Ophidia and I had been talking and were even thinking of doing Skype meet ups, possibly weekly, to talk, keep track, do weigh-ins if needed, and we can be each other's motivators. Some days, we know, are going to be harder than others. There'll be temptations when it comes to food or even having the will to do the workout that day, but that's where we'll come in. We'll be there to help you get going, to keep you going, and we'll help each other reach our goals.

I'm starting today with a couple challenges that I'll keep track of on my blog or here if it's easier, but I think this could really be beneficial to those that want it! CF is more than a writing site: it's a community, and we support one another in all endeavors.

So, whaddya say? Who wants to take the plunge?

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I'm OBVIOUSLY jumping all over this because, uh duh <3

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I'm curious and interested. interious? Curiosted? Either way I'm likin' the idea and wantin' to hear more.

I currently am following a floor program so my main focus will be my diet. Since floor programs are primarily body weight and balance skills.
I work on a slight calorie deficit with a focus on protein and carbohydrates on workout days (more carbs after workouts to restore glycogen) and Protein and fats on rest days (Which are actually flexibility training days).

My diet isn't optimal because I'm on a college meal plan @.@ but I try; I've got WAY too many risk factors to be living unhealthily.

If anyone has questions about various dieting strategies and how to modify dieting behaviors. Come to me and I'll personally be your pain in the ass go-to guide. (Keep journals people!)
Also, I'll list some personal experiences I've had with different diets if you want a glimpse into what the diets are like.

I'll be turning to you guys to give me a hard time when I slip from my diet (Like: "REALLY BEN, A PIZZA SIZED CALZONE AND THE WHOLE DESSERT BAR WTF,")

I love this idea. Many people don't have the funds or time for a gym membership, and the downside to working out on your own is the motivational factor. It's much harder to stay disciplined or push yourself when there's no one else there to see that you're slacking off.

I'm doing resistance training, been at it for a couple months now and I'm starting to ramp up the intensity as my strength improves. On days where I don't lift, I want to start doing core exercises focusing on abs and utilizing bodyweight and a lot of reps. Might actually challenge myself to shadow what others are doing on those days, if one of you has a workout plan that looks like something I'd want to try.


That sounds so good tho count me in

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Bad part is That's not even something made up; I did it last week, I felt like I was gonna die but it was SOOOO GOOD

Sent from my Z970 using Tapatalk

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Son of the Beast and the Leech | +

-King of the men that you truly fear most
-Quite a greedy guest, and not a gracious host
-Claiming souls for my father's land
-Preparing for war is my father's plan
-Revealing desires; dirty and unique
-Committing horrors mortals can't speak
-Ire to the man with a life full of hatred
-Blood from your veins, what you held most sacred.

-Sustain. Empower what you find unholy.
-Bleed. Feed who really needs you wholly.
-Salvation turned her back,
~Even when I sought her
- But Life is my wife and Death is her daughter
- Time goes by but I never grow old
- Happily,
-I watch your Skin. Turn. To Mold.
- Every time around another fleeting time of pleasure
-"Together.... we'll be-
Together-
Forever"
- but then you die, life fallen like a tiny feather
- just a bout of rain from a bad day of weather.
- Every time I feed I concede to my need............ -Unfinished

~Son of the Beast and the Leech

That sounds pretty awesome.

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| +

I am hunger. I am thirst. Where I bite, I hold until I die, and even in death they must cut out my mouthful from my victim's body and bury it with me.
I can fast a hundred years and not starve. I can lie a hundred nights on the ice and not freeze. I can drink a river of blood and not burst. Show me your enemies.

I'll definitely be following this and trying to follow a program as well. Can't hurt to get working.

I need to do something like this.

What if we do some sort of challenge? Like, say, being able to run X km, or losing X weight, by a specific date (and we calculate how much we need to lose/do per week). Maybe even a group thing, where the whole group is challenged with losing say, 50 pounds, collectively by a specific date? That way if someone isn't pulling their weight (pun intended?) we kindly push them in the right direction.

Kind of like Nanowrimo.

Though that would assume everyone has the time and is willing.

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I cut open my heart, bleed words onto the page, and see what happens...

Take a look at My Resume

I'd like to jump in on this :) I can't afford the gym atm so those people who have mentioned home resistance & bodyweight exercises, any tips on where to begin? (And no I can't do a pushup xD ... Yet.)

I'll join you Asteria. I am already dieting and working out. I've lost about 12 Lbs this month so far.
I do Kickboxing 3-4 days a week which includes a lot of running, push-ups, sit-ups, burpees, squats and many other anaerobic exercises as well as rapid punching and kicking of bags (wavemasters). I also do Krav Maga (martial arts) 2-3 days a week as well as run 2-3 days a week. Both the Krav and the kickboxing burn about 800 - 900 calories an hour.

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My Characters
My Writing Styles
Galileo Corporation
Modern Wargaming Rules
Bakushima; Fantasy Feudal Japan

Best Days for RPing
Fri - Sun

The best place to start is Knee pushups if you can't do pushups. Do a diagnostic of your capabilities.

The main exercises to scale off of are:

The Pushup
The Squat
The Plank
The Pull-up


The Pushup

The Pushup is a full body strength exercise that when done correctly challenges primarily the triceps and chest and secondarily works your entire body for stabilization.
The Knee Pushup
The Variation for beginners is known as the knee pushup where instead of planting your feet on the ground you plant your knees.

The Squat
The Squat is a lower body strength exercise that challenges primarily the glutes, hamstrings and quadriceps. Most people nowadays don't have the flexibility to do a complete squat so you might want to look online for some ways to get these done.

The Plank
The Plank is simply the starting position of the Pushup. You hold yourself on either your hands or on your forearms. The forearm plank has a much greater core focus while the hand plank distributes some of the work to your hands and shoulders. Make sure to try to get a nice straight line with your body, don't let your lower back sag but also don't stick your butt into the air (same goes for pushups actually)

The Pull up
Ladies, you can be total badasses at pull ups and pushups, don't accept excuses.
The pull up is a symbol of good fitness and body mastery. This also makes it a pretty tough move for everybody. The main issue is bodyweight. If you are very overweight, it'd be wise to hold off of pull-ups until you bring your weight down with proper sleep and diet. Once you can manage the other exercises relatively well and your weight is in a healthy range you can begin pull up training. So there are a few variations you can use to work towards a pull up.

Start with vertical pulls on the wall (Don't break anything please):

If you can manage 30- 40 of those in a set then you can start working horizontal pulls from under your table (a strong, stable table please) :

Once you manage to get 15-20 horizontal pulls in a set you can start to work chin ups:

Chin ups already require a great deal of strength and if you reach these, you are in pretty good shape but they still ain't the real thing.

Pull ups are the badass bigger brother of chinups and require more back strength than bicep strength. If you can do a few chin ups (2-3) you can manage a pull up which is simply a chinup but with your palms facing away from you.

So before I give you a sample routine, I'll let you in on some workout terminology:

Rep: Short for repetition, this is simply one movement such as one push up or one squat. Usually shown as a range after the name of the exercise:
(Movement: 1-4)

Hold: A duration of time for which you maintain a position. counted in seconds, not repetitions.
Usually takes the place of the repetition spot in an exercise chart:
(Movement: Hold up to 20s)
Set: Think of this as a group of repetitions. A set usually consists of a number of repetitions or a hold followed by a rest period.
Usually shown as a range before the name of the exercise:
(1-4x Movement)
Superset: This is going immediately from one exercise into another before going into the rest period. This counts as ONE set
Warm up: This is a period of light intensity before workouts where you move your body throughout its range of motion in a controlled manner so as to prevent injury. For these you can do active stretches or you can take a 5-10 minute walk/jog or you can do some light exercises to get your body to feel a bit warmed up (literally you should feel a temperature difference a heart rate increase and maybe a bit of sweat)
Cool down: This is a period of very light intensity after workouts where you stretch your body to prevent soreness and promote muscle development and flexibility. You can do active or passive stretches for this period and it should take about 10-15 minutes.

DO NOT DON'T LIKE NOT EVER FOR NEVER EVER SKIP COOL DOWNS. I MEAN IT. DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT. IF WARMING UP AND COOLING DOWN TAKES UP ALL YOUR TIME THEN SO BE IT
Make sure to never skimp out on your warm ups or cool downs. If you're pressed for time, cut your workout short and complete the warm ups and cool down as scheduled.

Now for a sample workout:

Warm up

Cool down

This is a simple workout that should help you get started. If you have a smart phone, I'd also suggest getting the "Scientific 7 minute workout" app, it has a very fast, very effective beginner total body workout that requires little to no equipment. It doesn't include a warm up and cool down however so make sure you add those in.

If you need any clarifications, adjustments or if you have any questions, feel free to message me or tag me in your posts.

I'll get in on this as well. I've been participating in strenuous exercise all my life, but I still struggle with individual motivation and maintaining a disciplined regimen when I'm on my own. Other people, even just being there in the background, have always forced me to push my limits and try harder, so I'm more than willing to try and extend that feeling to you guys and help however I can.

Also, gym equipment is for posers. Real athletes do a weighted bear crawl for 1km. (Do not take that seriously. That is some high level stuff. Do not try unless you want an injury.)

Signing up!

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Sig courtesy of the amazing Eferhilda

I enjoy exercising, Running, Lifting weights and participating in sports. What I have found over the years, is that is not how you lose weight. Elevating the body's metabolism is great to burn fat more efficiently, but the aspect of weight loss that is responsible for 90% of your weight loss is what you put in your mouth. For me, that is the most difficult part of weight loss because I love food and candy. Discipline is key. You must reduce your caloric intake to less than 2200 calories per day spread throughout the day. You should be eating six small meals per day rather than three large meals. The body can only digest so many calories in one hour an if you take in 700 calories or more in one meal, half of that is converted to stored energy as fat.

Don't get me wrong here. Yes, you have to exercise, but watching what you eat is more important. There are several diets out there. Find one that works for you and stick with it. This is my diet.

Meal 1 Protein Carb Fat Calories
1 cup Milk 1% Low Fat 8.0 11.7 2.6 102.3
2 cups oatmeal, cooked 12.2 50.6 4.7 290.2
2 large white eggs, hardboiled 12.5 1.2 10.0 149.0
1 cup coffee 0.2 0.9 0 4.5
Total: 32.9 64.3 17.3 545.9
Percent of Cal. 24.12% 47.15% 28.48%

Meal 2 Protein Carb Fat Calories
4 oz roasted white turkey 32.4 0.0 9.5 223.4
2 tsps Italian Dressing 0.1 1.0 5.4 45.7
0.9 Peach 0.6 9.8 0.1 37.9
5 pieces of whole wheat bread 13.6 64.6 5.9 344.4
Total: 46.7 75.3 20.8 651.5
Percent of Cal. 28.69% 46.26% 28.74%

Meal 3 Protein Carb Fat Calories
1 cup mixed vegetables 4.2 14.9 0.4 75.8
1.6 cups white rice 6.8 71.3 0.7 328.6
4 oz roasted chicken breast 33.8 0.0 8.8 223.4
1 cup grapes 1.1 28.5 0.9 113.6
Total: 45.9 114.7 10.9 651.5
Percent of Cal. 24.74% 61.88% 13.21%

Meal 4 Protein Carb Fat Calories
1 banana 1.2 27.6 0.6 108.6
2 cups vegetable vegetarian soup 4.2 24.0 3.9 144.6
0.5 cups cooked spaghetti 2.5 16.0 0.4 77.5
Total: 7.9 67.6 4.8 330.7
Percent of Cal. 9.57% 81.75% 12.97%

Meal 5 Protein Carb Fat Calories
1 tbs smooth peanut butter 4.1 3.1 8.2 94.9
1 pc wheat bread 2.3 11.8 1.0 65.0
Total: 6.4 14.9 9.2 159.9
Percent of Cal. 15.96% 37.25% 51.73%

Daily Total: 139.8 336.8 58.2 2339.5


What I honestly eat on this diet:


Meal 1 7AM Protein Carb Fat Calories
1 cup Milk 1% Low Fat 8.0 11.7 2.6 102.3
1.5 cups Raisin Bran 261
2 large white eggs, hardboiled 12.5 1.2 10.0 149.0
1 cup coffee 0.2 0.9 0 4.5
Total: 516.8

Meal 2 1130 AM Protein Carb Fat Calories
4 oz roasted white turkey 32.4 0.0 9.5 223.4
4 pieces of whole wheat bread 10.88 51.68 4.72 275.52
Total: 43.28 51.68 14.22 498.92

Meal 3 5PM Protein Carb Fat Calories
1 cup cooked Broccoli 44
1.6 cups white rice 6.8 71.3 0.7 328.6
4 oz roasted chicken breast 33.8 0.0 8.8 223.4
Total: 596

Meal 4 8:30PM Protein Carb Fat Calories
4.5 cups popcorn 137.5 calories

Daily Total: 1749.22

I've actually modified it somewhat by having a piece of fruit or yogurt around 2PM and then finishing off the day with a hard boiled egg just before bed time. Apparently, the extra protein at bed time helps get your body process proteins and not burn them up so fast when you are sleeping.

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My Characters
My Writing Styles
Galileo Corporation
Modern Wargaming Rules
Bakushima; Fantasy Feudal Japan

Best Days for RPing
Fri - Sun