Shifty Fitness

Alright, I’ll be honest.  I was making some great strides towards my goals.  I was working out 3/4 days a week, bicycling everywhere I went around town, playing kickball, and hiking.  Also, my diet was going pretty well also.  I stopped drinking so much and cutting out things I shouldn’t eat anymore (sugars and bread).

Here comes the honesty.  I stopped.  I had some great success, things stopped going perfect, I plateaued a bit, and I let myself stop.  I also met a girl who I was putting priority in over my working out and eating right.

I’m pretty much back to where I started.  Sure, a bit stronger, but my weight is about the same and I feel I look like I did in April when I started using Nerd Fitness Academy.

My Big Why from before

The reason I’ve decided to sign up with Nerd Fitness Academy, and the reason shiftyfitness is around in the first place, is that I don’t feel attractive.  I’m able to do a lot of movements, however, I know I couldn’t compete with so many when it comes to endurance.  My strength is good, but I can barely do a pull up.  I want to stand out among my friends as someone who is fit and able to do anything.  My health is good, but it definitely could be better.  Even though the BMI isn’t actually any good, it still says I’m obese, and some days I feel like I am.

There’s a lot there, but bottom line is that I’m doing this all so that I can build major confidence in all aspects.  It comes from the core though.

Success Statements (again)

At the end of this course, I will say the following statements by completing five goals:

I’m the type of person that can run a 5k without stopping.

I will step up my running every workout in order to raise my stamina to complete a 5k without stopping.

I’m the type of person that is under 28% body fat.

I will eat paleo six out of every seven days in order to remind myself that diet is the most important factor.

I’m the type of person that doesn’t have the doctor say they have high cholesterol.

I will cut out processed sugar six out of every seven days to relieve my sweet tooth.

I’m the type of person that looks good naked.

I will strength train three days a week in order to gain muscle definition.

I’m the type of person who is able to bike from Portland to the Oregon coast.

I will bike every where I need to go on nice days, and will bike to most places no matter the weather in order to keep my body in fit condition.

I’m sad to say that this hasn’t changed.  Not enough for me to feel success.  And it isn’t Nerd Fitness’ fault, it’s totally mine.  I let myself forget why I was doing this after seeing some success.

Well, it’s time to get back on the horse and stop making excuses!

It’s been a couple months since an update, and I’ve got some good news.  Things are working.

I haven’t lost as much weight as I’d like, but I know that weight isn’t the biggest factor.  Though my weight has stayed pretty stagnent around 210 pounds, what I have lost is fat!  Muscle weighs more than fat, so even though my weight didn’t change, I gained muscle! Read the rest of this entry »

Level 5: No Pasta, No Sweets

I have a pretty good grasp about what’s healthy food and what’s not. I’m a smart person and I have made a few key changes to how I attack my daily nutrition.

Liquid calories have been removed for a while now. I now crave water as much as I used to soda!

For at least 6 days a week, I am no longer eating pasta, bagels, muffins, or other empty calories.

Candy and sweets are a VERY rare occasion. AKA ordering dessert after dinner is a treat every two or three weeks (instead of almost nightly).

Every meal has a quality protein source, and every meal has a vegetable. I’m still eating things like rice, potatoes, and some bread (though I’m cutting back on those things in favor of more protein or vegetables in some cases).

I can rank up to LEVEL 6 when: I have gone 12 out of 14 days without eating bread OR pasta, and 12 out of 14 days with a vegetable in every meal I eat. Read the rest of this entry »

• Make Life Long Changes
• Practice Mindful Eating
• Focus On Real Food
• Sugar Is The Enemy and So Are Liquid Calories
• Don’t Have Cheat Days

When eating, just eat! Be mindful. And avoid trying to multi-task while snacking or even eating full meals. See if you can catch yourself this week in the moment and be intentional about popping out of it!

Next, before you eat any food, give it’s list of ingredients on the label a quick skim. You don’t even have to change any eating behaviors at this point, just be aware of the ingredients that are in some of the common foods you are eating.

As we progress in the coming weeks, we’ll want to compare foods and get to more and more *real* foods. In general, the less ingredients listed in the food, the better.

When you are making an unhealthy food choice, be aware of what you are doing, but don’t punish yourself or call it a “cheat”.  Say “I am making the choice to eat this food item, but the next choice I make will be a healthy one.”

Since I was a little kiddo, I’ve never been skinny.  I didn’t know that the sweet tooth I’ve had all my life is a big factor to this.  I’m not huge, but I can lose some weight and to do so, I’m going to start by cutting out processed sugars as much as I can.  If someone makes me a tasty treat, I’ll probably still partake, but candy in the office, sods, and the like will be avoided.  This also goes for cocktails that I generally enjoy as they usually have sugary mixers involved.

Gotta remove some stuff from the environment that is making me weak and unable to accomplish my goals.  Also, need to ADD things into my life to make it more difficult to access the problematic items.

• Pack the night before to avoid rushing in the morning.
• Go through my weakness snacks and get rid of them.
• Prepare meals the day before to bring to work (saves money and is healthier)
• Get a program that blocks distracting sites during certain times.
• Leave my floss on the bathroom sink to remind myself to do it daily.
• Talk to a new girl every day to build confidence.

The current quest I am on is “Mindset: Break Down Those Goals” where I have to make five goals to break apart my larger goals of losing weight and gaining strength. Read the rest of this entry »

Today starts my enrollment and future with Nerd Fitness Academy.  I started reading Nerd Fitness a long while ago and have met Steve, who runs Nerd Fitness, a couple times in the past through World Domination Summit.  I remember him saying he was going to create this new strategy to health, and I’m glad he did.  It puts a fun twist I can get down with because of my experience as a gamer and general nerd.  Here goes nothing.
Read the rest of this entry »

My current stats:

Next Monday I’ll be starting a program called GoCleanse.  It’s actually a program by a company called Isagenix, which sells supplements and stuff.  These guys with GoCleanse use their products to make a program for an 11-day cleanse.

My current stats: