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
