Greetings from San Fransisco, California!
I’m officially back in America for the first time since early February, having completed almost four full months of adventure travel all over the South Pacific and Asia. I have MANY updates and reflections coming up in a few weeks about my time abroad and how my life/business went living out of a backpack. I also have some pretty awesome stories and results to share about how my exercise training went while traveling too.
But that’s later! Let’s move on to today’s announcements.
The Nerd Fitness Message Boards
Last week ended our first 6-week challenge (as well as the “greatest contest in the history of the world!”). Of all the entries I received from the contest, 95% said something like “wow that was a great 6 weeks, but I’m only just getting started!” and half of them said “the contest was fun, but the best part about it was all of the new friends I made on the Nerd Fitness message boards.”
I can honestly say that nothing makes me happier than reading stuff like this. I have no doubt in my mind that the community aspect of Nerd Fitness is the reason so many people have found success with building muscle/losing weight/staying successful. For somebody that works at a desk job, plays video games, and has a group of friends that isn’t really active, it’s tough to stay motivated if there’s nobody else around for moral support.
Tim Ferriss mentioned something in one of his recent interviews that really resonated with me: “You’re the average of the five people you spent the most time with.” If you surround yourself with overweight, pessimistic, lazy, and spiteful people, it’s going to be quite difficult for you to get out of that situation. However, if you’re surround yourself with people who are optimistic, encouraging, supportive, successful, and enthusiastic, you’re going to find success more often than not.
Now, we all have people in our lives – friends, family, coworkers – who aren’t as supportive as we’d like them to be – that’s life. If you DON’T have a support group at home, I highly encourage you to join us online – it might not be in-person meet ups, but I guarantee that you can’t help but get inspired when reading about other folks around the country who are having success. Five minutes in the Woot Room (not related to middle-school makeout games or strip clubs in any way) is usually enough to make me run out the door for my workout – that’s how fired up I get.
This is a community I’m incredibly proud to be a part of. We’re hard at work trying to find ways to make the boards as friendly and accessible as possible, so keep an eye out for polls and posts on there asking for your advice – we’ve got big plans for the Rebellion and things are only going to get more awesome.
The New 6-Week Challenge!
Speaking of the message boards, today marks the first day of the next 6-week challenge! If you just finished up a successful run on the Rebel Strength Guide 6-week challenge and want to keep going, here’s your opportunity to build on that momentum. No big contest this time around, but you’re still encouraged to join us on the boards and start up your next 6 week cycle!
If you’re like me, you probably spent this past three-day weekend having one too many beers, eating one too many bad meals, and probably not taking care of your health as well as you could have. That’s okay – remember that a few days is not enough to make you lose your momentum UNLESS YOU LET IT. Today is the start of another contest…get back on the horse immediately and keep the ball rolling!
New Moderators
One last message board announcement! With over 1,600 members on the message boards now (holy crap, I remember when it was only 25, sniff…they grow up so fast!), we’ve decided to add a few more moderators into the mix. Joining Spezzy, Alethea, Dantes, and 67Alecto, please welcome Capn_Tommy_Sunshine and Sandman to the moderator council!
If you’ve spent any time on the boards, neither of these names will be a surprise to you – both Capn and Sandman embody everything that Nerd Fitness and the Rebellion stands for – they inspire through their actions, they’re the first to welcome newbies, always eager to help, and they’re always there for support. It’s my honor and privilege to welcome them to the team, as I know they’ll continue to do what they do best – help out and inspire the rest of us.
If you’re new to the boards, don’t worry…you are in good hands!
San Fran Meetup
I’ll be hanging out at the Googleplex tomorrow afternoon (Wednesday), and then I’ll head into the city of San Fran for the afternoon/evening. My beloved Boston Bruins won the NHL Eastern Conference Finals and are moving on to the Stanley Cup Finals; the first game is Wednesday at 5PM PST.
So. I figured why not have a “Nerd Fitness/Watch Steve Yell at the TV” Happy Hour!
I’ve created a Facebook event for the meetup – go ahead and hop on there if you’re interested in swinging by and saying hi. I just picked one of the bars I’ve been to before that had a good atmosphere and I know has TVs. The location may change, but I’ll send out an update to all guests if it does.
“But Steve, you run a site called Nerd Fitness, why meet at a bar and watch sports?”:
Because I was raised a diehard Boston sports fan, and the Bruins haven’t been to the Stanley Cup since I was six! I’ve been watching every game possible while traveling, finding wifi connections in hotel lobbies at 5AM to watch most of the playoff games live. I love playoff hockey, and I’d love to see Boston take home the Stanley Cup. You certainly don’t have to drink, and you certainly don’t have to watch the game, you can just come by and hang out….but I need to be in a place where this game is on TV!
Back to Normal
Although I’m traveling around the US for the next few weeks (San Fran, Portland, LA, Atlanta, Boston, Cape Cod), things are kind of “back to normal” starting on Thursday. And by “normal” I mean I hop in a plane to Portland on Thursday, jump out of a plane Friday (thanks Joel), and then begin a 3-day World Domination Summit with some of the most creative blogging minds in the world. After that, it’s off to LA to hopefully do something super secret and badass before continuing on to Atlanta. Thanks for your patience over this past month – it was one of the most exciting but exhausting months of my life. I have big plans for this site and this community, with lots of great announcements coming soon.
I have about two months until I head back out on the road (Ireland, UK, Spain, France, Monaco…and maybe some other countries), and I plan on making the most of it.
Let’s do this.
-Steve
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Today’s Rebel Leader – Capn_Tommy_Sunshine! One of our newest moderators wanted show how far he’d come since beginning his weight loss journey back in July. Great work Tommy, keep it up!
I know you’re probably thinking that because of the shirt, Tommy was able to stretch out his normal pants to that size, but those are actually the pants that used to be TIGHT on his last year! Though he does now have superhuman strength thanks to the NF T-shirt.
Heck, he could now fit two people in there if he wanted to! (I asked Tommy, he didn’t want to).
Have you ordered your Nerd Fitness shirt yet? Pick one up (only $20 with free shipping anywhere in the world), and send me a photo – you could be the next Rebel Hero!
