Level Two

Area	Current Level	Next Level	Requirements	1 Up Reward	Ultimate Goal
Cardio	Strolling: able to bike or walk for a few miles without it being a big deal	Gliding: Able to ride a bike or walk a meaningful distance without effort.	Ride a stationary bike or walk a treadmill for 30 minutes three - five times a week (about 6.75 miles)	Party with friends after 135 miles	Amazon [Ranger Class]: Able to chase it, track it, shoot it, lift it, carry it home, hoist it up, process it and pack it, all in a day's work (yep, I have quite a ways to go on this one)
Strength	Smooth Certainty: able to lift light, realistic weights repeatedly without it being a big deal	Elegance: Able to lift, hoist, turn and tote realistic weights easily.	Lift medium weights three times a week -- work legs and abs as well as arms.	New Clothes	Wonder Woman [Warrior Class]: Nuff said
Wealth	[6.2]Middle Class: Able to take care of myself and my family, and able to enjoy an occasional luxury	[6.3] Middle Class	Increase regular savings contribution by $25/ check	Yarn	[7.5] Established - Positive net worth and the means to sustain it during my lifetime

Mission Five: Do Less

This week's mission, in addition to getting back on the bike:

YOUR MISSION TODAY: Analyze where your time is being spent, and make sure “healthy living” fits into that mix. Just saying it’s a priority and combining it with “but I don’t have time” is crap.

To make it a priority, you’re going to have to eliminate the stuff that really doesn’t matter. It might be painful at first, but you will survive.

Since I think something that most of us struggle with is that damn television:

Pick ONE tv show to stop watching (or one game to stop playing). Pick a show that you watch just because it’s on (not because you actually enjoy it), and take it off your DVR.

I’m going to let you in on a secret: Life goes on even when the TV is off!

Here’s another idea: Try spending a night without turning on the TV “just because.” Instead, read a book. Play a board game with your kids. Write a blog post. Take time to cook a better meal.

MISSION TWO: Practice the art of quitting. If you are reading something or watching something that sucks, give it up! Stop the book halfway through. Leave the theater halfway through. Beat a game and be satisfied with not getting 100% completion. If you are not enjoying yourself, why suffer through more of it? What you’ve invested is a sunk cost at that point; no need to make it worse by forcing yourself to complete the damn thing!

MISSION THREE: Mix in an interval training session this week.

Mission Four: Try something new

What’s an activity you’ve always wanted to do, but haven’t worked up the courage for or found the time to complete yet?

Maybe it’s a dance class, a parkour class, hiking a particular part of your town, taking a martial arts class, going rock climbing at your local gym, or attending your first yoga class?

Sometime between now and the end of Sunday, your goal is to research and sign up for a new activity that you’ve never tried before and then take an actual step towards making it a reality.

Mine is parkour, and I looked up this awesome post on how to get started. I have looked at the basic shape you need to be in and you'll be seeing it filter through my workouts.

Third Mission: Strip the Excuses

REACH OUT TO YOUR JEDI COUNCIL (you still have one, right?), and work with them to create a challenge for yourself moving forward. Maybe you paypal him/her $400, and for the next over the next four weeks if you go to all of your workouts in a week, each week you get $100 back. Skip workouts, and your buddy gets to keep that $100 to spend on whatever he/she pleases!

Want to really get diabolical? Have your friend set to donate that money towards a political party or cause that you absolutely despise if you fail to complete your workouts. Sounds ridiculous, I know, but it works.

We HATE losing money we’ve already earned, and we will work much harder to keep it than we would if we were just trying to win MORE. So make the pain of skipping workouts and healthy eating MORE than the pain of actually working out and eating healthy! As you see progress and build momentum, the decisions to do so will become easier.

After a few weeks of “ugh I’m doing this so that I don’t lose money,” it becomes “hey…this is kind of fun. and I’m doing better!” and “My clothes fit better” and “I wonder how much stronger I can get!”

Do everything you can to remove “meh, I’ll do it tomorrow” from your brain. Make it so painful to skip your workouts and healthy eating that you actually work out and eat right!

Second Mission: Creating the Council

Today's inbox had a great mission from Steve Kamb: start forming your support group (or Jedi council, if you will)

Heidi's Jedi Council
Ethan
Graeme
Johnny
Alessandra
Lizzy
Steve
Planet Fitness
EmPower Studio

First Mission: Identify the target

I got an email from Steve Kamb, rebel leader of Nerd Fitness, yesterday. He asked me why I signed up and what I'm struggling with. So here's my story: I was recently told that I have to get my heart in shape or, get this, I'm going to drop dead. No lie, that was the long and short of it, and the folks telling me this didn't mean that running a marathon would kill me, but that something really unsophisticated like picking up groceries or my toddler would cause so much strain on my weakened heart that it would either explode or quit. I'm crap at exercise. At 43, I've never had to exercise in my life (I was an elf until my recent pregnancy), and frankly I didn't want to. I walked a lot in my college years (not having a car and living off campus in a public-transit-free zone will do that), but I never exercised. Period. My recent pregnancy wasn't my first (or even my second), but it was much later in life than the others and I gained more weight more quickly than ever. Even now, over a year and a half after she was born, I'm carrying as much weight as when I delivered my first child (I so wish I was making that up). And my heart just wasn't built to carry that around. So I'm struggling with the idea of getting up at 6 in the morning every Mon Wed & Fri and riding a stationary bike for thirty minutes. Yep, that's *all* I have to do to start. Daily would be better, but this is the minimum, and I'm supposed to give myself a slow start. But it's dark. And cold. And I'm cozy under the covers. Yep, still not working as an excuse. I have signed up at the local (5 minutes from my house) Planet Fitness. I have been on the bikes the past Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Wednesday because being a nerd, I can't lay off the quests. I am tracking my mileage to Mount Doom, and celebrating along the way at little milestones.

I decided to level up my life

I know it sounds crazy, but after working my ass off last year, I felt like I wanted the rest of my life to reflect the level of awesome I had achieved in other areas. Add to that the mandate that I improve my heart health, and there really wasn't anything left but to get serious. Thank you to my great friends, family and acquaintances along the way; support is everything. Here are my goals, along with my planned rewards (and yes, if you follow the example, you get points just for sitting down and drawing up your skills, your goals, and the path to start getting what you want). There are other items that I really want to add in, but there really isn't a lot of wiggle room as I get this part set up. Rest assured, I'll keep you posted.

Area	Current Level	Next Level	Requirements	1 Up Reward	Ultimate Goal
Cardio	Wimp: I'm in danger of having my heart explode if I strain myself	Strolling: able to bike or walk for a few miles without it being a big deal	Ride a stationary bike or walk a treadmill for 30 minutes every day (about 4.5 miles / day)	Party with friends after 135 miles	Amazon [Ranger Class]: Able to chase it, track it, shoot it, lift it, carry it home, hoist it up, process it and pack it, all in a day's work (yep, I have quite a ways to go on this one)
Strength	Struggler: I can lift heavy stuff, but not for long, and not repeatedly	Smooth Certainty: able to lift light, realistic weights repeatedly without it being a big deal	Lift small weights 10 minutes/day	New Clothes	Wonder Woman [Warrior Class]: Nuff said
Wealth	[6.2]Middle Class: Able to take care of myself and my family, and able to enjoy an occasional luxury	[6.3] Middle Class	Increase regular savings contribution by $25/ check	Yarn	[7.5] Established - Positive net worth and the means to sustain it during my lifetime