Holy crap I wrote an e-book!

Well, a bunch of small books actually. Today marks the official quasi-release of the NF Rebel Fitness Guide, and I couldn’t be more excited about it.  As you hopefully know, I quit my day job back in June and have since been tirelessly working to put this guide together for the Nerd Fitness Community.  Whether you’re just getting started on your fitness journey and don’t know where to begin, or you’re well on your way to a healthy lifestyle and you’re looking for some new challenging workouts, this might be just the thing you’re looking for.

This is a beta-release of the Nerd Fitness Rebel Fitness Guide which is why it’s only available for download until Thursday at midnight. I want to work closely with the people who buy it to make sure it kicks ass.  I want to make sure the four levels of workout guides are the right amount of difficulty, that the Fitness Guide and Diet Guide exceed expectations, and I want readers to email me, skype me, gchat me, and instant message me with their questions, comments, and suggestions on how to make it even better.

I’ll then relaunch it in mid-August at a higher price point with all of the updates and suggestions implemented.

Here’s a quick video of me talking about the guide, check it out:

Rebel Fitness Guide Announcement Video

This is my first attempt at writing sales copy, so bear with me. Below is all of the cool stuff that you get when you buy the Rebel Fitness Guide.  Check it out!

Note: THIS IS AN E-BOOK.  It’s a product you download to your computer, there will be no physical products shipped to you!

39-page Rebel Fitness Guide

• The Nerd Fitness Training Philosophy – Burn calories and build muscle with effective, efficient routines that don’t require hours in the gym (or even a gym at all).
• How to Succeed - Prepare mentally and physically for the challenges that await you on your journey.
• How to Get Started - Definitive steps that you can take to make sure you get started on the right foot.
• What You Need in Your Inventory -What kind of equipment you can acquire to improve your chances at success.

32-page Rebel Diet Guide

• Diet 101 – Learn the basics of food, nutrition, and nutrients, and why your diet is 80% of the battle.
• The Nerd Fitness Diet Philosophy – Learn what to eat, what not to eat, and what to eat in moderation.
• How to Succeed – The battle with your diet is often a mental one – here are techniques and tactics that you can use to free your mind and free your stomach.
• How to Get Started – Definitive steps you can starting today to start living healthier today.

6 Separate Workout Exercise Books

• Enough routines for over six months of exercise – designed in conjunction with Mike Rickett, a fitness professional with over 20 years of training experience.
  
• Workouts that only require 30-45 minutes of your time and some dumbbells – We all have lives, so I’ve designed challenging workouts that don’t require a huge commitment.
  
• Four separate experience levels of workouts – Advance at your own pace and build up your fitness level with workouts that become more challenging.
  
• Excel files and printable PDFs for each workout so that you can track your progress by hand or online.
  
• Descriptions and videos for every exercise.

What kind of results can I expect to see with the Rebel Fitness Guide?

I don’t have some secret muscle building or weight loss formula (hint: nobody does), so I won’t try to make any outrageous promises. Your success will completely depend on your dedication to the exercises and diets (along with your genetics, experience level, outside factors, and so on).

What I WILL promise is a program that breaks down the whole “get in shape” process into simple concepts and digestible pieces so everything is easy to understand and enjoyable to learn, making it FUN to get started.

If you’re willing to put in the time and effort, you will see results that make you happy.

I have a huge desire to see you accomplish your goals, and I’m willing to do what it takes for you to get there.

Try out this program and see for yourself if it’s something that can help you level up your life, no strings attached, no pressure.

Who Shouldn’t Buy the Guide?

Who puts a “who shouldn’t buy” section into their sales article? This guy.

I’m going to be completely honest with you: if you’re in fantastic shape, know what you’re doing in the gym, a hardcore CrossFit fanatic, and/or a power-lifting Starting Strength disciple, this probably isn’t the guide for you (but my NEXT book might be…).  You’re more than welcome to buy it and see if there’s something in here that you’ll like, but I just want to put that out there.  Instead, consider buying it for your friend who wants to get started, your folks who need to get in shape, or the bum down the street who dances at cars as they pass by.

100% 90-Day Money Back Guarantee

I’ve poured my heart and soul into this fitness guide, and I’m confident it will help you get in great shape. If you’re on the fence about buying it, I want you to know that you can email me at any point within 90 days of purchase and let me know that you’re not happy with it or you aren’t seeing the results you expected and I’ll gladly issue you a 100% refund, no questions asked.

Really, I just want to help you be happy and live healthy. If this guide isn’t doing it for you, I’ll help you find one that will. Why not give it a chance?

How Much Does it Cost?

I’m selling the Rebel Fitness Guide for $??? in Mid-August.

When you purchase the guide, you’ll get instant access to:

• Rebel Fitness Guide
  
• Rebel Diet Guide
• Level 1 Workout – Rookie
• Level 2 Workout – Recruit
• Level 3 Workout – Outcast
• Level 3 Workout – Outsider
• Level 4 Workout – Rebel
• Level 4 Workout – Renegade

Each routine will provide 4-8 weeks worth of exercise, depending on your progress and experience. As you level up, you can choose different workouts to keep things fresh and keep your body guessing! My friend Joe (who did all the design for the guide) was nice enough to put together this fancy flow chart to show how things work.

When Will It Be Available Again?

After working with this first class over the next few weeks, I’ll be officially launching the guide to the public in mid-August at a higher price point (to be determined).

How Does this Change Nerd Fitness?

It doesn’t!

I’ll still be writing two free articles a week, every week, until the end of time (approximately).  This is just one way that I hope to support myself so I can continue devoting all of my time to this site and this community.

Whether or not you buy the guide, thanks so much for reading Nerd Fitness!

Note: THIS IS AN E-BOOK.  It’s a product you download to your computer, there will be no physical products shipped to you, no shipping cost, just a quick download and you’re ready to go!

It’s official: you can now enlist in the Nerd Fitness Rebel Army!

If you’re currently at NerdFitness.com, you’ll notice a nifty sign-up box for the Rebel Army over in the right hand column of the screen.  If you’re reading this in a feed reader or through the previous email sign up, stop on by the site and see what you’re missing!  Okay so it’s not that exciting, but still.

What’s the Nerd Fitness Rebel Army?

This email list/newsletter is reserved for people who are really passionate about the Nerd Fitness community. I realized that after a year and a half of running this site, I didn’t really have a good way to get a message to Nerd Fitness readers.  Some are on RSS, some stop by the site occasionally, others subscribe via the previous email service.  Whenever I wrote a new article or found something awesome to share, my only options were to post it and then wait for it to get spread through these various channels.

As Maximus once said, “the time for half-measures and talk is over.” After months of dragging my feet, I finally did something about it!

Now, whenever I post a new article, stumble across something cool to give away, or have important information regarding all things related to the Nerd Fitness Rebellion, I can get a message out to all rebels in a matter of minutes.  God bless the Internet!

Why You Should Enlist

This will help the rebel movement function far more smoothly, and I want you to be a part of it. Here’s what you’ll get when you sign up for the Rebel Army:

• Emails from me twice a week (Mondays and Thursdays) with the latest blog post, sent out minutes after I finish posting it.
• Occasional messages from me when I receive cool stuff to give away.
• Insider information and special offers regarding future Nerd Fitness guides, products, t-shirts, and more.

Don’t worry, I effing hate spam. I promise to never give your email address out to anybody – can’t have important info like that falling into the wrong hands!  I plan on running things like stated above for a few weeks, at which point I’ll send a survey out to subscribers and see how things are going, what I need to change/improve, and then go from there.  Everybody suffers occasionally from growing pains, and I imagine building a worldwide rebel army of super-strong nerds will be no different.

If you’re not happy with the emails, simply go ahead and unsubscribe – it’s pretty freaking simple.

Now, I know there are quite a few readers out there who read Nerd Fitness through the previous email service. I’ll be switching over to this new service, but I won’t be shutting the old one down for a while.  If you want to be part of the cool kids club, I’d recommend making the switch over to the Rebel Army newsletter and unsubscribing from the old service.

I might consolidate the lists eventually, but until then you can be ahead of the curve.

Rebel Fitness Guide

The rough draft for the Rebel Fitness Guide is DONE, and I hope to be able to launch this sucker in the next few weeks. Obviously it has to go through a bunch of revisions, get sent off to the designer, and all that jazz, but we’re getting down to crunch time!  I’ve dumped some serious hours into this thing and I can’t wait to get it out the door.

I had a great long weekend with friends, now it’s time to get back to work and down to business.

Enlist in the Rebel Army today!

For the Rebellion,

-Steve

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photo

It’s house cleaning time over here at Nerd Fitness HQ!

My first week of working full time for the Rebellion went incredibly well; now that I’m settled in, this is the week where I really start to step on the gas pedal for my whole “this is my future” thing.  This is what went down since we last talked.

New How-To Video Page

If you’re on the site now, you’ll notice at the top of the page that there’s two new tabs, one of which is “How-To Videos.”  Under this tab, along with links to the two “Body Weight Circuits” that I posted earlier this year, you’ll also find links to almost 100 videos of me doing various exercises out in a local park.

Why did I video myself doing 100 exercises?

These are the exercises that I use in the upcoming Rebel Fitness Guide available for sale through the site (hopefully out by early to mid July).  Rather than trying to find a way to password protect these instructional videos and only give them to people who buy the guide, I decided instead to just put them up for free on YouTube.  Of course, the four months worth of routines (with specific numbers of reps and sets) will only be available in the guide; but the videos will always stay free.

If you’re creative and want to take a chance at creating your own workout routine, you can use the How-To page as a menu to create your own plan.

(Not so) funny story: It took me forever to edit these damn things, and then after uploading all of them I realized that I had only exported them at standard resolution. Suck. So, I spent an extra four hours this morning re-uploading all videos in 720p HD so now you can actually tell me what I’m doing in each one.

Go check ‘em out!

“Start Here” Page Added

I’ve also added a “Start Here” page for people who are just discovering Nerd Fitness for the first time. Finding a new blog with a ton of posts can really be overwhelming, so I put together this page as sort of a primer for what to expect when reading: instructional and inspirational posts surrounded with nerd humor.  Hopefully this will help new readers become quickly acquainted with the Nerd Fitness philosophy and community.

Check it out here!

Updated About NF Page

And last but not least, I also went ahead and updated the “About” page to reflect my recent decision to throw caution into the wind and dive headfirst into the Nerd Fitness Rebellion.  Not too many changes, but it’s definitely been beefed up.

Check out the updated NF page here.

Twitter and Facebook

In case you’re not already doing so, consider following Nerd Fitness on Twitter! I realize the numbers are completely arbitrary and ultimately pretty useless, but NF is only 4 people short of 1000 followers and four digits is WAY better than three.

Also, there’s been some good debate recently over on the Nerd Fitness Facebook page, including discussion on Universal Studios’ decision to turn certain fans away from the new Harry Potter ride from being overweight.  Why not join the party?  I’ll bring Twister.

How Was Your Weekend?

Other than the US choking in the World Cup, I had a pretty damn good weekend.  My first week of the 4th 28-Day Challenge was a big success too, and I’m looking forward to building on that momentum.

How did YOU do with your first week in your challenge? Make sure to post your progress in the Roll Call thread on the boards!

-Steve

PS – Now that the US is out, who should I root for?  Tell me who and why in the comments and then I’ll throw my irrationally passionate support behind them.

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photo: Iwan Gabovitch

Today officially marks the first day of the rest of my life.

Gulp.

After getting home from the wedding/birthday celebration/vacation last night, I went to bed and told myself I was going to wake up without an alarm for the first time in a long time.  Of course, I woke up an hour earlier than I used to wake up when I had a job, COMPLETELY WIRED.  I guess my body was just ready to get started down this new path.

Today also marks the first day of the 4th NF 28-Day Challenge.

I’m in. Are you?

28-Day Challenge #4

If you’re new-ish to Nerd Fitness, every month we have a new challenge on the Nerd Fitness message boards, where you make a pledge to do three things to the best of your ability that will level up your life.  Whether it’s lose 5 pounds, give up soda, stop smoking, bench press 150 pounds 6 times, and/or run in a 5k race, pick three challenging quests that you think you can accomplish in four weeks if you push yourself outside of your comfort zone.

I’ve found that once you put something in writing, and send it out to the world (or the NF Community in this case), you’re going to be far more likely to push yourself to actually succeed on your goals. At the end of each month, we’ll nominate a a guy and a girl who leveled up his/her life the most.  Once I actually get around to making NF t-shirts, I’ll be sending them out to previous winners and future winners.

Join the Nerd Fitness Message Boards and post your 28-Day Challenge Goals here.

Accountability for the win!

Although I completely tanked the 3rd challenge due to everything that had been going on in my life at the time, I’m looking forward to rededicating myself to getting in the best possible shape for this 4th  challenge. Here are my 3 goals for this upcoming challenge, beginning today and ending on July 19th:

• Gain at least 5 pounds, hopefully mostly muscle. Ultimately, I’m at a weight that I’m really happy with, but I’d like to get stronger and a little bit bigger.  If I’m going to get in the best shape of my life, I’m going to need to pack on some more muscle.  This will be done with a heavily-focused strength and mass-building routine – three days a week in the gym, doing super-intense workouts that only last for about an hour.
• Eat enough calories every day – In order to build some muscle over these next 28 days, I’m going to need to eat more calories than I burn daily.  This is going to require 4 or 5 healthy meals to get enough protein, good carbs, and good fats in my system.  Luckily, now that I’m at home I”ll have the opportunity to save some money by cooking all of my own healthy meals right here in my kitchen.  I have a feeling I’ll be eating a lot of my Go-To Meal.
• Sleep – Sleep is one of the most important things when it comes to staying healthy.  I’m going to do what I can to make sure I get at least eight hours of sleep a night, because my average over the past six months has been FAR less than that and it really affected my training.  No more getting sick, no more wasted days in the gyms from being too tired, I’m actually going to take care of myself.

My Business 28-Day Challenge

Now, outside of my goals for my personal health, I also have 3 big goals for the next 28 days for Nerd Fitness:

• Finish writing and launch the Nerd Fitness Rebel Fitness Guide: This will be my first paid product available for purchase on the site, and the first step I’m taking to make NF into a business.  If I get my act together I should have it done and launched by the end of this challenge.
• Launch the Nerd Fitness Rebellion Newsletter: After seeing the great success that Baker and Chris (my heroes) have had with their free “newsletters,” where along with their bi-weekly articles they give away cool stuff and announce special early offers to their insiders, I feel it’s finally time to launch my own service.
• Write At Least Two Guest Posts: I had a lot of fun writing guest posts for World’s Strongest Librarian and Art of Manliness, and those articles allowed me to connect with a whole new audience.  I’m looking to write a few more posts for other sites to further grow the NF Rebel Army.  Now that I have time to actually write more often, I’m excited to get in front of some new readers!

It’s going to be an action-packed 28 days over here at Nerd Fitness HQ, and I can’t wait to get started.  Make sure to sign up for the 28-day challenge over on the NF Boards!

Day 1, you’re mine.

-Steve

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photo: cmiked

Dear Nerd Fitness reader,

Today is certainly one of the most important, exciting, terrifying, and bittersweet moments of my life.  A few weeks back, I informed my company Sixthman that I would be leaving the company to work on this website full time.

That’s right, I’m devoting all of my time and energy to Nerd Fitness and the Rebellion.

Today will be my last day of work here in the office, and then tomorrow I depart for the Bahamas along with a dozen of my college friends for a wedding on Harbour Island.  That day of the wedding also happens to be my 26th birthday; I’ve enjoyed the first twenty-five years on this planet; I’m eager to see what’s I’m capable of in the next twenty five and beyond.

Why I Made This Decision.

Nerd Fitness has become something bigger than just a guy and a blog; it is now a full-blown community of people turning their lives around and helping others do the same. After many sleepless nights, I came to the realization that the longer I waited on putting my full effort behind this site, the tougher it would be for me to eventually take that leap.  I told myself, “if you’ve found what you’re meant to do, why wait any longer?”

Since starting Nerd Fitness sixteen months ago, my excitement for this site and its future has grown with each passing day.  Every new email, every new member to the NF message boards, and every new comment on the site makes me smile just a little bit bigger.  I know I’m doing something right.

There were a few other reasons that I really wanted to free up my time:

• I want to see my family more. My brother lives out in California, and my parents and sister live up in Massachusetts.  With me being down in Atlanta I only get to see them a few times a year, and often only for a day or two.  I want to have the freedom to go spend an expended period of time in both locations because I really do miss them.
• I want to travel more. Ever since discovering Chris Guillebeau’s Art of Nonconformity blog two years ago, I’ve become addicted to the concept of travel hacking.  There’s a whole world of travel hackers out there that I didn’t even know existed!  I now have 120,000 American Airline miles and 110,000 British Airways miles, enough for a few round trip flights to some pretty exotic locations.  I’ve already begun planning trips to Australia/New Zealand and Europe.  Why those locations? Why not!
• I want to acquire more skills. Yeah, I realize I sounded like Napoelon Dynamite there.  My hobbies are incredibly varied and mostly ridiculous; I want to learn more stuff and get better at the stuff I already know.  I want to get better at the piano, better at the guitar, start taking Capoeria classes (yup, breakdance fighting), become a better break dancer, go rock climbing and hiking, try out hashing, learn how to cook, take a kettlebell class, acquire more personal trainer certifications, read a lot more, etc.
• I want to volunteer more. I’ve been volunteering at the Children’s Hospital here in Atlanta for the past year and a half and it’s usually the most fulfilling part of my week.  I plan on identifying some other great organizations here in Atlanta that could use some help and go spend time with them.  If you live in Atlanta and are associated with any volunteer programs, let me know!
• I want to sleep. The past six months have been incredibly challenging for me as I’ve been truly burning the candle at both ends for my day job and Nerd Fitness.  Sleep and my own personal well-being have taken a backseat to everything else in my life and it’s really caught up to me recently.  I’m looking forward to actually taking care of my body, eating well, and getting more than a few hours of sleep a night.

What’s the Plan?

You’re probably wondering, “um, Steve…how is this a company if you’re not making any money yet?”

Great question.  Ultimately, I have big plans for this site and I can’t wait to get started on them (beginning with the Nerd Fitness rebel guide) – the only thing I’ve been running terribly short on lately is time.  I believe so strongly in this site and this community that I’m willing to “risk” my future for it.  I put risk in quotations because I believe strongly enough in myself to do whatever it takes to make this plan work.

When failure is the only other option, I will do whatever necessary to succeed.

In the meantime, I’ve got quite a few things in the works to cut my expenses way down until I’m turning a profit.  I plan on channeling my inner Baker by selling all of my crap that I no longer use – my digital piano, electric guitar and amp, old video games, dvds, and books.  I plan on channeling my inner Everett and Leo by living far more minimally than I’m used to.  I have some great contacts here in the Atlanta area and a few backup plans to help pay the bills until I’ve established a positive cash flow.

I am incredibly sad to be leaving Sixthman; coming to work for this company has been the best thing that’s ever happened to me. If you EVER get a chance to go on a Sixthman cruise, I guarantee you’ll have the time of your life.  I told myself the only way I’d ever leave this company would be to go work for myself – that day has finally come.

Hope is a Good Thing.

I’m headed to the Bahamas tomorrow, where I’ll be completely unplugged from the world for a few days.  I’ll celebrate my 26th birthday with my friends on Saturday, return to Atlanta on Sunday completely recharged and refreshed, and then Monday morning I’ll be putting on my “hard hat” and going to work for Nerd Fitness.

I leave you today with a slightly modified quote from my favorite movie, The Shawshank Redemption:

“I find I’m so excited, I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head. I think it’s the excitement only a free man can feel, a free man at the start of a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain. I hope Nerd Fitness will be successful. I hope to see my friends and shake their hands. I hope the Caribbean is as blue as it has been in my dreams.  I hope.”

Get ready.

-Steve

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If you want to stay up to date on all rebellion news, please sign up for the RSS Feed of Nerd Fitness, get NF posts via email, or join the kick-ass conversation over on the Nerd Fitness Message Boards!

photo: flynutAA

How the hell is it already June 7th?

May ended up being really freaking crazy: I spent ten days at sea on two different cruises for work, while also managing to raise over $3,300 with my friends for Camp Sunshine by running in the Warrior Dash dressed up like cavemen.  I didn’t sleep much, I didn’t get to update Nerd Fitness nearly as much as I would have liked, I missed a bunch of workouts, and I often forgot to eat (oops).

Still, I survived, and I’m ready to get back on the horse. Or wagon. Or whatever.

A few big updates today, so let’s get to it.

End of 28-Day Challenge #3

Yesterday marked the end of the third Nerd Fitness 28-Day Challenge. How did you do?  Last month was a complete wash for me, and I didn’t even get a chance to compete in my own challenge (insert sad face here).  In fact, I’m so far behind that I still haven’t picked our winners from LAST month’s challenge.

I’m getting there, I swear.

If you participated in the challenge and made it all the way through the 28 days, go ahead and post on the NF Message Boards how you did and give yourself an honest grade. Later on this week I’ll take a look through the grades and pick two winners to get NF t-shirts (which are ALSO coming soon, I swear).

The next 28-day challenge will begin on Monday, June 21st. Why two weeks away?  Because I actually want to participate in this one alongside you!  I’ll be out of the country on vacation for almost all of next week, so June 21st will be a good starting point for me to get things going again.

Oh, and speaking of message boards, have you been over there yet? There are 249 people helping each other kick ass and level up their lives.  It’s pretty freaking awesome.

Nerd Fitness Rebel Fitness Guide

I spent a good portion of my weekend working on my first paid product, the Rebel Fitness Guide!  It’s really starting to come together, and I get more excited with each passing day.  I also made a big decision over the weekend – instead of finding a way to password protect the individual videos of me doing all of the exercises used in the guide, I’m going to give those away for free.

Starting tonight and continuing throughout the week, I’ll be uploading to the Nerd Fitness YouTube Channel over one hundred different videos of me doing all the exercises that will be used in the Rebel Fitness Guide.

Yeah, I said “hundred.”

I’ll also be adding a new page to the blog for these videos, with it broken down into different exercise sections like “chest, shoulders, legs, biceps, etc.”

Now, the 4 months of daily exercise routines USING these exercises will only be available in the guide which I will be selling for a still undetermined price (but I have a pretty good idea of what I’ll charge). This is a project that I’ve been working on for months, a project that I’m extremely proud of, and one that will hopefully really help a lot of people turn their lives around.

Thanks for your support, hopefully these videos and this guide can make a difference.

Big announcement coming next Monday

The rest of my week will be consumed with editing, posting, and hosting exercise videos, but you’ll still get a new article here on Thursday.  Next week is huge for me in so many ways, and I can’t wait to tell you ALLLLLLLLLLLL about it…but I can’t tell you til then.

Keep kicking ass, keep leveling up, and get ready.

The Rebellion grows stronger…

-Steve

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If you want to stay up to date on all rebellion news, please sign up for the RSS Feed of Nerd Fitness, get NF posts via email, or join the kick-ass conversation over on the Nerd Fitness Message Boards!

To say Nerd Dash 2010 was a success is an understatement.

We had a freaking BLAST running in the Warrior Dash dressed up like cavemen.  Even better, we managed to raise $3,395 for Camp Sunshine, enough money to send half a dozen kids with cancer to summer camp.   If you want to see the rest of the pictures, head over to NerdDash.com. 

Here’s a recap video of the day’s events:

Nerd Dash 2010 Recap Video

Honestly, it was already a day I’ll never forget, and then it got even better. Zack (Zac? Zach?), a Nerd Fitness reader, tapped me on the shoulder after the race was done and told me that he was a fan of the site!   This was my first ever encounter in real life with somebody who knows about me just through Nerd Fitness.  It’s maybe the coolest thing ever.

So Zack, thanks for making my day man, and thanks for reading!

The End

This weekend marked the end of a few pretty important things. I’m a big Lost fan (hopefully not a surprise), and I have to say that I was actually really pleased with how it all ended.  I won’t spoil anything in here, but given the scope and often convoluted story lines involved with the show, I think the creators did a fantastic job tying up the series and doing the show justice with its finale.  If you want to talk Lost, we can hop onto the NF Message Boards and debate there (spoiler warning).

This weekend also marked the end of my crazy Spring: we’re done with the Spring season of cruises (I went on five of our six events), and the next one isn’t until early September.  I sure do love the cruises, but they’re quite exhausting and certainly throw off my sleep/eat/exercise schedule, so I’m looking forward to getting back into my routine, putting some muscle back on, and maybe sleeping every once and a while!

Now that I’m done with Nerd Dash, I’m already starting to think about how to make Nerd Dash 2011 even bigger and better. Cooler/funnier costumes, more sponsors, more runners, more support…it will be epic.  Details to come in early 2011.

And now it’s time to put on that hard hat and get to work on finishing the NF Rebel Fitness Guide.

Once again, thank you all for your support for Nerd Dash, and thanks for reading Nerd Fitness.  I’m grinning from ear to ear this morning.

The Rebellion grows stronger…

-Steve

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Yup.

This Saturday, me and a dozen of my friends are going to dress up like Cavemen and run in the southeastern Warrior Dash.  Why Cavemen?  Because we managed to raise over 3,000 dollars for Camp Sunshine, enough money to send half a dozen kids with cancer to Summer Camp!

Win.

This has been an incredible learning experience for me (and hopefully will be a great experience for these kids), as I’ve never done anything like this before in my life.  Here are a few things I’ve learned:

• Picking a great cause is key. Camp Sunshine has been an absolute delight to work with, and they’re a such a great cause that I don’t think I could have picked a better partner.  Thank you Camp Sunshine!
• Helping people is fun! I had an absolute blast making the Nerd Dash announcement video, and I had a lot of fun learning how to build the site for Nerd Dash.  That’s right, I built that damn thing all by myself.  +1 Nerd Cred.  Hopefully I have some fun running the race too…even though I hate running, and the last time I ran one of these I lost to a 10 year old girl.
• Make sure you have time to train. So I’ll be running this 5k on Saturday, and the last time I ran 3.2 miles was….November?  Hell the last time I ran at all was probably November.  I’ve been sick for the past three weeks since Kid Rock, but who cares, it’s for a good cause and I’m not trying to win this thing…I’m trying to have fun and look ridiculous in the process.
• Make sure you have time to dedicate to the cause at hand. Aiming high was a good plan, but launching a fundraiser while spending half of the fund-raising time out of the country wasn’t smart.  I didn’t have time to promote the event or dedicate more time to making more videos to stir up excitement.  Oh well, now I know better.

I’m already thinking of plans on how to improve this whole system for next year, but I’m ready to make an ass of myself and have a good time on Saturday. I have tomorrow off, so I’ll be running around Atlanta trying to track down leopard print and brown fabric so we all have costumes to wear.  Sounds like a nice little Friday.

After that, we’re headed up to camp out and make our costumes (while enjoying the occasional adult beverage) Friday night and then racing on Saturday morning at 11AM. If you’re going to be at the race on Saturday, make sure you swing by and say hello.  I’ll be the kid in the middle of the pack, dressed up like a caveman and covered in mud, smiling from ear to ear.

Expect lots of pictures and videos.  And stories.  And hopefully no broken bones.

Let’s do this.

-Steve

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photo: Imamon

See if this sounds familiar: By the time you read this, I’ll be out at sea on a cruise for work.

This week I’m sailing on the Malt Shop Memories Cruise, which caters to a slightly different demographic compared to last week’s Kid Rock Cruise.  This cruise is going to be awesome for a few reasons; the biggest one being that my entire family is going!  We haven’t had a family vacation in years where we’re all together, and although I’ll be working most of the time I’m looking forward to hanging out with them here and there when I can.

My Other Yoda

You’ve all been introduced to my fitness Yoda, Mike Rickett.

I now have a blogging Yoda too, and his name is Baker.

I had a chance to talk to Baker from ManVsDebt.com the other night about blogging and Nerd Fitness.  In only fifteen minutes he managed to absolutely blow my mind by providing some much needed clarity for my future plans of a worldwide Nerd Fitness Rebellion.

Baker is the man, and if you aren’t reading his blog already, you’re missing something special.

Putting On My Hard Hat

When I get back from this cruise, I’m going to spend a few weeks really focusing on finishing the Rebel Fitness guide.  I realized I’m pretty much addicted to answering emails, twitter, and the NF message boards, so I’m putting myself on a self-imposed restrictive access until I get this damn guide done!

I ask that for the time being, instead of emailing me directly with any questions, post it on the Nerd Fitness Rebel Army message boards.  There’s 230+ members on there who are more than willing and able to help out.

Speaking of the message boards, are you signed up for the NF May 28-Day Challenge?  It started on Monday, but you can still jump in there.  We’d be glad to have you.

Warrior Dash

The Warrior Dash is coming up at the end of next week.  So far I’ve raised 3,000 bucks with NerdDash (waiting on a BIG $1000 check to post), enough to send six kids with cancer to Camp Sunshine for a week.  I’m realizing that launching a ridiculous fundraiser during a month in which I’m out of the country without internet access for half of it.  That being said, I’d still like to get to at least $5,000 so we can dress as Ninjas.

5,000 is also enough money to send a cabin full of kids to camp!

1 week. 2 grand.

Can we do it?

I sure as hell hope so.

If you have already made a donation, thanks so much for your generosity.  If you haven’t, consider tossing in 10 bucks today.

Visit NerdDash.com to make your donation today.

Let’s Do This

Off on a cruise, running the Warrior Dash, and writing a book.  As the great Mario once said as he jumped into a painting, “here we gooooooooooooooo!”

-Steve

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If you want to stay up to date on all rebellion news, please sign up for the RSS Feed of Nerd Fitness, get NF posts via email, or join the kick-ass conversation over on the Nerd Fitness Message Boards!

photo: MDanys

I’m alive!

Barely.

Honestly, I haven’t been this wiped out after a cruise in quite a while, so this week has really been a blur for me.  Sleep has been in short supply and high demand, my sentences don’t form properly when talking on the phone, and I’ve had a headache that’s been fairly constant since Monday.  My room’s a mess, I haven’t shaved in a week, I’ve run out of clean clothes, and I managed to fall asleep sitting up in a chair the other day while my roommates were playing Halo while screaming at the top of their lungs.

Despite all of that, life is pretty damn good.  I’m not gonna lie though; I can’t WAIT for this weekend to recharge and recover.

So what else is new?  Quite a bit.

May 28-Day Challenge

I haven’t been on the NF message boards since last week, so I haven’t got a chance to go over how everybody did in the last challenge.  Tonight I’ll get around to it.  In the meantime, I set up the new part of the boards for the NEXT challenge, which kicks off Monday, May 10th.

Join the 28-day challenge for May here.

Jillian Michaels

Part of the reason I’ve been so exhausted this week is because the day we got back from the cruise, we launched a new cruise here at my job – the Jillian Michaels Ultimate Wellness Cruise, sailing October 21st to 25th, 2010.

A few months back, my boss approached me and said that we had partnered with Jillian to produce a fitness and wellness themed cruise, the first cruise we’ve ever done that isn’t centered around music.  When he told me that I was going to be the lead ‘warrior’ for the event, I put down my box of donuts and tub of lard and said “HELL YEAH!”

So, I’ve been working on launching the cruise website for the past few months, and this week it finally went on sale to Jillian’s premium members.  It’s in the pre-sale phase for another few weeks and then it goes on sale to the public on May 25th.  Pretty damn cool stuff, so you can expect some fun updates from me about how this is going from now until the cruise.

Congrats to Tyler

Tyler over at 344pounds.com weighed in the other day at 199.8 pounds. Tyler has been dealing with quite a bit lately and managed to still continue his inspirational journey into the 100′s.  Tyler, congrats man.  You’re a hero to everybody and you’re changing lives.

Keep kicking ass dude!

Guest Posts and Emails

I probably received a dozen emails from NF readers who are interested in writing guest posts for the site.  If you’ve emailed me in the past week and a half, tonight and tomorrow I’ll finally get a chance to reply.  Thanks for your patience guys…didn’t expect to be still destroyed at this point in the week.

Oh, and I go back out to sea on another cruise next Thursday…won’t nearly be as crazy as the Kid Rock Cruise though, which is nice.

So, how YOU doin?

-Steve

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If you want to stay up to date on all rebellion news, please sign up for the RSS Feed of Nerd Fitness, get NF posts via email, or join the kick-ass conversation over on the Nerd Fitness Message Boards!

photo: lrargerich