Done!
Today marks the official ending of the first ever Nerd Fitness 28-Day challenge. What started out as a challenge for myself to get in great shape for a vacation quickly turned into something far bigger – 50+ people pledging to take the challenge along with me. Well, my vacation didn’t end up happening (sh** happens), but I still took care of business and managed to get through the challenge.
Did you?
Steve’s Challenge
28 days ago, I put out a challenge on NF to pick two or three things and stick with them for the entirety of the challenge. Let’s see how I did! Here were the three things I wanted to work on for these 28 days and why:
- Gain at least five pounds, hopefully all muscle – I know you’re saying “damnit steve you suck, who wants to gain weight?” Well, I’m a skinny mofo and I want to be bigger and stronger. The only way to do that is by eating lots of good, healthy food over these next four weeks. I’ve gained 18 pounds in 30 days before, but this time I’m going to do it in a much healthier fashion.
- Hit the weights hard three times a week – If I’m going to get bigger, I need to lift heavy weights with consistency, so I’ll be working out at a gym every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
- Sleep more – I never sleep – I stay up way too late answering emails and writing articles (like this one), which is great for the site but terrible for my health. I’m never going to get bigger and stronger if I don’t take care of myself.
Overall, I give myself a solid B+. I ended up gaining six pounds, which was more than I was hoping for. I checked my body fat percentage this morning and it remained the same, so looks like most of the weight gain was muscle (woot). I did hit the weights hard three days a week. My schedule was supposed to be Monday-Wednesday-Friday, but for the last two weeks I ended up going with Monday-Thursday-Saturday due to life getting in the way.
There were definitely some days where I didn’t feel like going to the gym (early on the morning of St. Patrick’s Day comes to mind), but I got my ass out of bed, sucked it up, and pushed around some weight. Why? Because I knew that 50+ people were doing this thing with me – if I skipped a day then what would stop everybody else from skipping? I looked at this as a team effort. Woohoo for public accountability – it absolutely works.
The only thing I didn’t manage to do extremely well was sleep more. There were a few nights where I managed to get some extra sleep, but too many nights where I stayed up too late for whatever reason and paid for it the next day. I feel like this is something I will always struggle with I feel like. Oh well, it’s still a work in progress
Your Challenge
So how did YOU do? Did you make it all the way through the challenge? Quite a few people were posting on their own sites, while others were posting on the Nerd Fitness message boards. I think the best part about this challenge was that it gave the boards a great kickstart – now there are over 120 members, 1500 posts, and some kick-ass conversations going down. I really want this community to succeed, as I think it’s doing a lot of good for quite a few people.
If you’re on there, thank you for helping. If you’re not, why not join us!
I did say I’d be awarding some awesome(ly average) prizes for the winners of the NF challenge. If you want to be considered for the prize, post in the comments your goals and how you did with them. I’ll be checking the boards too, but it would be easier for me to hear if you made it all the way through instead of scanning the 50+ threads.
Make sure you leave your comment with your proper email address in case I decide you’re the winner. I’ll be scanning everybody’s threads this week and I’ll make a choice before the weekend.
A Rebellion Begins
Last week, an idea popped into my head when talking about how I wanted to build Nerd Fitness into an empire. Then I thought to myself, “hmmmm, maybe people would rather join a rebellion than an empire.” Regardless of the name, I think we all need a flag to rally around, a cause that we can all support, and a unifying message that we can all believe in.
So, after asking “Rebellion or Empire?” on Facebook, Twitter, and in the comments section of the last post, the votes came in overwhelmingly in favor of joining a rebellion. I feel like the NF crowd is a bunch of underdogs anyway (I love a good underdog story) who are eager to prove typical nerd stereotypes wrong, which sets up quite nicely for a worldwide rebellion of epic proportions. I’m gonna go all-out with this idea coming up in the next few weeks, so be patient. Your rebel leader is working on a master plan, it’s just going to take some time to execute!
Even though it’s Monday, I’m feeling pretty good right about now. If you were in the 28-Day Challenge, leave a comment and let me know how you did, and also let me know if you’re cool with being part of a rebellion 🙂
Oh, and one more question: should I do ANOTHER challenge right away? Have people to sign up for their own personal challenges on the boards? What’s the best thing to do from here on out? I want to keep pushing people to level up, and I want to keep the boards growing, so I think I’m going to start another one on next Monday, April 5th.
Stay on target.
-Steve
Rebel Leader of Nerd Fitness (has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?)
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photo: Jayneannd
