A Gnome is Game :)

[Trix]

Hello, call me RyÅ›. Or whatever form of "rish" you'll pronounce out of it  .

 

First, I want to thank you, Steve - for making the Rebellion from scratch; the whole NF Crew - for your paradigm-shifting articles; and you, the NF Community - for being an inspiration.

 

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Since I'm joining the Rebellion forces, I'm obviously a nerd. A gnome, to be exact - sort of petite but very sturdy, and some other race-specific stuff, like light-sensitivity or being relatively crafty. (Or otherwise Romulan, if we're going by Star Trek.)

 

(((Things to get out of the way, bc ppl find them important, for some reason, even though they're less interesting than the nerdy stuff: (As to the gender, it goes a bit cyclically for me, like Xanth's Chameleon's appearance, though the changes between the "seasons" are more rapid - "genderfluid," I believe is the English name - sometimes I'm more of a knight, sometimes more of a lady, sometimes neither or both - and apparently the change between lady and knight can also be noted by the change of the body language, or so I was informed. I wasn't even aware of it for many years, as things like walking trough the doors behind the other ladies but before the other men both always felt natural and were taken by the other children just as naturally, and treating toilets as co-ed was normal in most of my schooling institutions. I answer to whatever personal pronouns I'm called with. And since I'm already getting that stuff out of the way - honestly, it's gets a little boring/tiring, having to say those things and wait for judgement every time  - I'm somewhere on the aromantic spectrum, but not quite aromantic: meaning I sometimes do have crushes - mostly on smart dark ladies - and react to them enough like Caine Wise from Jupiter Ascending that that movie was just a tiny bit embarrassing XD - but the rest of a relationship is a matter of close-friendship-type-of-love and a conscious commitment for me, not of "being in love," so I don't always get the whole romance thing. And I obviously don't like too much of it in the fiction.) (Oh, and I'm an atheist pagan - the no spirit is a god philosophy. I've almost forgotten to say it XD.) (And right, the race thing, I've heard it's very important for the Americans - I'm Slavic, and I couldn't honestly sort myself into any of the US racial categories; though if you're curious, it was suggested to me that I either look "mixed" - "white/Asian" or "white/Middle-Eastern - or "white," depending on who's around me.)))

 

I was birthed in the far off lands where my parents travelled to in the search of knowledge (and no, I didn't get the citizenship, that country goes by blood law, just like mine,) but I grew up mostly in one of the Old Lands where lots of different cultures exist close by. Central Europe, to be specific - now a relatively fortunate place, on the world-scale, if bled out by history. I'm a child of the Land, both from folk and nobility - with some Uhlan (cavalry) tradition on both sides - and proud of my heritage. I grew up partly on the move, partly on the farm, partly in the capital - it widened my view of the world, I guess. (I was also running wild a lot as a kid, so at the farm I mostly went barefoot when the ground was warm - and it shaped my feet in a specific way.) The social class I grew into is Intelligentsia (wide knowledge, little money, strongly associated with social service jobs like scientists, stock vets, ER medics, or teachers; an existence of such social class is possible bc it's common here to have one's Uni studies covered by the state funds, as do I, and there are some strong traditions in which money is of little value.)

 

What sort of a nerd am I? When I've once casually mentioned keeping statistics on prayer effectiveness as a kid, someone told me I'm an "ultimate" one XD. I'm sure that lots of us here have some similar experiences, though . My interests include: cultural differences (including also the language quirks and primal-religions-related-stuff,) history and its impact (history of propaganda and plotting, and history of how customs were changing are some of my favourites,) some wilderness survival, some basic probability stuff and placebo/nocebo effects, some folk medicine (the physical and chemical impacts of methods and substances in use,) some anatomical hacks (using one's anatomy more efficiently,) drawing sustainable humanoids, some traditional farming methods (e.g. how the plants interact,) some defying-all-sorts-of-censorship poetry and songs (reading between the lines is amusing ^^,) some mostly-non-electric tinkering, the dynamics of social systems (e.g. tribal-democracies, feudalism, communism, capitalism) and of hacking them, stuff like that.

 

My fandoms include: Harry Potter (I read it as unreliable narrator stuff tho - it'd be hard to do otherwise, as my first reaction to reading the Sorting Hat's song as a 9-10yo kid, was a thought "being sorted into which House would gain me the most [socially-wise]?" - and I imagine that the Hat wouldn't think twice before shouting "Slytherin" upon hearing that), Star Trek (TOS, TAS, Voy, ST09), The Witcher (mostly books,) Doctor Who (Doctors no: 3, 4, 9, 10, maybe 7 - dunno about that one yet), historical!Hetalia (faves, alphabetically: Belarus, Poland, Prussia, Russia, Ukraine), some Avengers-related movies (Black Widow, Cpt. America, Iron Man, Loki, Pepper Potts; maybe: Agent Carter, Edwin Jarvis and Falcon), Ender's series (Bean, Peter), Stag's Eye (its original title is Oko Jelenia)... I'm also a sucker for hard sci-fi - I love having to use encyclopaedias to understand stuff, and when there was that one fanfiction in which the telepathic dialogue between Mr Spock and Nomad the space probe was written in mathematical formulas - naturally, I fell in love with it .

I do some of the gaming, but mostly in an analogue version - I've purposefully made installing a game on my computer insanely hard, as I know myself enough to guess that I wouldn't stop for enough sleep ><.

 

My sports include: cycling (going to places by bike when the weather is warm enough, to be specific, so just after the winter I'm not so good at it,) occasional target shooting (it trains a person in body-awareness: each and every muscle in the body can change the outcome,) occasionally trekking. After being inspired by the NF, I've started a little on the bare-feet running. It's pleasant enough . And there're the Weider's aerobic-6 exercises, affectionately called wiaderka (little buckets) by my fellow countrymen - they're open knowledge and can be googled - I've started on them not long ago, just one per day, and my experience confirms that their effect on person's condition is stronger than the effort would suggest. I got into this site after having gained too much fat for the first time in my life (as the Polish folk saying goes, noodles and bread-rolls cause weight gain [od klusek i bułek się tyje] - and I was never too fond of the taste of dough, until I've found the buckwheat flour; and then I became rounded in just about two or three months.) Now I've lost most of that fat. I'm also struggling to learn: efficiency, taking wise risks, and life enjoyment. Personal legend-wise, I like to think of it as of a mission of banishing a psychic parasite called tęsknica. Yay, mythology-and-folklore inspiration ^^.

 

What convinced me to join the forum is that at the same time as I find some very inspiring articles on the main site, the articles that convince me to think about the world differently and therefore direct me to different and more effective approach - at the same time, when surfing the main site, I strongly feel a lack of some of my fandoms or fandom-perspectives, or of those "Matrix hacks" I've found out during the course of my relatively short life (I'm just 24.) So, I might just be able to contribute to the community, which I think would be a fair price for maybe finding an online team who'd help me to get trough the eventual dark moments.

 

As to the NF-related plans, in the long run I think of becoming a Scout-Assassin hybrid (a Witcher?) but maybe an Assassin for now, bc it'll give me more new stuff to work on? What do you think?

Would you recommend any forum threads, please? I'd be grateful for any advice, too.

[Jett]

Hi, RyÅ›. Thanks for being really open about "who you are" in terms of all of the various labels that exist. I actually do appreciate it, because I'm a very visual person, and I like to form a mental picture of who I am communicating with online. However, it doesn't actually matter for the sake of your acceptance here on the site. :3 Welcome, welcome, welcome to the Rebellion!

 

Are you going to be doing the 6-Week Challenges here on NF? If so, what are you thinking about doing for your first one?

[Trix]

Thank you, @JMitch :3.

 

I'm not sure how the 6-weeks challenges are supposed to work: are they about habit-forming? If so, I think about something that'd give me a regular endorphins income, like adding more capsaicine (hot peppers) to my diet, and/or adding a few minutes of intense exercise to my routine, since I've already made a habit of having the exercise. But then again, it's better to start small, so maybe just 3x10: 10 push-ups, 10 sit-ups, and 10... are they called crunches? And increase the number after I'm used to doing them every day. What do you think?

 

I'm getting back on the bike, too - but I'm not sure if it counts as a change, since it's just a repeat from the last year.

[Jett]

They don't have to be about forming habits, although a lot of people use them as a motivator to form habits. (That's what I'm doing right now.) Some people set a specific goal like "be able to do 30 pull ups" or "lose 5 kg" and work really hard on that goal during the challenge. Some people combine both.

 

I'm no expert, but from what I have heard, there isn't a lot of reason to do more than 10 repetitions of a bodyweight exercise like pushups, situps, and crunches in a set. Once you master getting 3 sets of 10 of each done, with minimal resting in between, then you should start trying to do more difficult versions of the action instead of just doing more of it.

 

An easy plan to follow like that is probably a good place to start, though.

[Trix]

Thank you again, @JMitch

 

I'm working on setting a good challenge before myself, now. Maybe a specific goal would be good, too - but I don't know how to measure individual fat to muscle ratio? Not just population-generalised, the individual one.

 

I thought that 3x30 would be a base, rather than 3x10? I mean, 3x10 won't make a person warm in the cold weather, so how could it help with a muscle development, if you say the muscle development is about intense exercises? And besides, a bunch of my buddies might laugh me out if they learnt I was doing just 10 in row, and since we're camping together from time to time - we're bound to know some of each other's habits. Or maybe it's just my wounded pride talking - it surely is, as if they were the type to laugh at such things I wouldn't hang out with them as much; and they don't exercise every single day, after all - but being able to show off just this once to ppl who are either a head-and-half taller than me or taller and built like Cpt. America would be nice. Okay, I admit I do sound like the first-movie!Loki might have, don't I XD? But being excluded of some activities over being helplessly out-levelled does sting a bit.

 

I want to develop pretty lean muscles like the ballet dancers or horse-back acrobats, or - for the lack of other realistically-looking fictional examples on my mind - like Gilbert form Hetalia; so I likely won't go much towards heavy lifting (though seeing as my arms are thin anyway, some may be advised,) and there'll be more stretching involved. I still want to be able to rock a dress when I feel like it .

I want to build up enough of strength, agility, speed and stamina to not feel ashamed-in-advance to playfully demand being invited for a next paint-ball session. And I'd like to being able to rock a sabre (American word is "saber"; that stuff's better in fight than katana, traditional for my region, and weights just about 1.5kg/3.5lb which seems little until you try to use it for more than 5 minutes; and is to be handed in just one hand, which for a more like ambisinistri than ambidextrous person like me is a challenge by itself ><) despite being 10cm/4in too short for such a weapon.

 

Any advice :]?

 

Edit: I've almost forgotten to ask - is the stats label, the way it's generated by the questionnaire, a starter for the start - or a starter for the time one applies to a guild?

[Jett]

Well, you should be doing something to warm up first, before your body weight routine. So like, 5 minutes of jump rope or jumping jacks or something. (You should also be stretching after the workout!) If your exercises are too easy, so that you're not having any difficulty at all, then you need to move up to things that take a lot of effort from your muscles to do. If 10 is your goal per set, then getting the 10th rep should be fairly difficult, and you should feel a bit sore the next day.

 

I found this guide to be useful in determining how many sets (of how many reps) to do. I'm also currently following the plan of startbodyweight.com, which you can see in this graphic. The guy who created that plan has you start with 3 sets of 4 reps of whatever the most difficult version of the exercise is that you can actually do. Then you work on 5 reps per set the next time you work out, and 6 the next, if you can, up to 8. He says that, once you reach 8 reps per set of that exercise, you may be ready to move up a progression (a harder version of the exercise). If you can't do 4 reps of the harder version, do 8 of the easier one again, until you're able to do the harder one. I like this plan, because it means I'm always trying to do a little better than last time, and I get to do something new fairly often.

 

From what I have read, if you are doing an easier exercise but a lot of it, like, say, 50 knee pushups, you will end up bulking out the muscles of your arms (or whatever part you're working), but you won't have as much strength in those mucles. When I say "bulking", I mean that the muscle fibers gets bigger, and sometimes increase in number. This does make you somewhat stronger, and of course it makes your muscles look larger. You say that you want lean muscles, so you probably want denser, stronger muscles. This is acheived from doing lower amounts of more difficult exercises, always pushing your muscles to their limits. The result of this is that your brain must learn to activate more and more of the neurons that control your muscles, thus giving you more complete and efficent control of the muscles you already have. You won't bulk up nearly as much, but functionally, you can be just as strong, or stronger, than the guy who does a lot of easy exercises. (If you want to do some in-depth, science-heavy reading, check out this article.)

 

Both bulk and strength are valid goals, depending on what you are trying to do. If your goal is to out-perform your camping buddies, despite not being as muscley-looking, then strength is probably your goal, more than bulk. Even if you were to start doing some weight lifting, I doubt you'd get too muscley if you have a fair amount of estrogen in your system. Estrogen tends to keep the fibers of the muscle lean, while testosterone makes them thicker. (This is partially why male bodybuilders, even "natural" ones, have huge muscles, but natural female bodybuilders tend to look very sleek and dense. Only the females that take testosterone supplements get the big, bulky manly muscles.)

 

I should probably mention that most of my knowledge comes from doing a lot of research - an activity I love to do - and isn't from my own experience. (Therefore, I definitely cannot call myself an 'expert'.) But I always try to share knowledge I feel confindent in!

 

For the "Real Life RPG" game for tracking progress, normally you start out at level 0 with no stats, and your first 6-week challenge goes in the "Recruits" area. At the 3 week mark, you get your first level and stats, and at the 6-week mark, you get more of them. After that, you go up by 1 level per completed 6-week challenge, and you put your thread in whichever guild area fits your goals for that challenge. You earn your additional stat points through how well you do on your challenges, and you can get extra stat points through guild-specific challenges.

[Jett]

Hey, RyÅ›, I found a really useful article today that explains the reasoning behind creating your own body weight workout. Click here to read it.

[Trix]

Thank you so much, @JMitch! - for all the awesome info and for being sensitive about the hormones issue! I'm reading the info bit by bit, now - every time I have enough time to concentrate, and I'm happy that you've sent me the links ^^.

I'll leave most of the strength training for the next challenge, though - I don't think it would keep otherwise. In this challenge, I'm using the excercise-level table you've linked.

 

Here is a draft for the plan for my first NF Challenge. I'd like to get a "peer review" before getting started, but that's a little too late, since I have had already started. I feel that in this case such pre-start can be called the thoughtful preparation. I had to make sure I'd be able to deal with procrastination before the Challenge.

 

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[insert link to the introduction page]

Six weeks to shape a gnome into an assassin material. 15 points to reward the steps on the road. Stats say "zero," but not for long. There are both my personal ambitions to fulfil (hello, Slytherin!) and the society's need for the people of certain skills in those uncertain times. Gotta be ready to protect my own, and to make it an epic character-building adventure for myself.

(Note: I make a habit by doing the thing everyday for 15 days straight, then for another 10 days which don't have to be one after another but can have max 5 blanks between them, then, after one month, doing a review if the habit stuck - if I slip at any point, I start from the beginning.)

On the way, I find it important to focus on the process rather than on the goal, because it helps me to avoid the inclination of using the temporary hacks rather than the ones with the more lasting results.

 

STR - strength

+1 - make a habit by introducing the strength exercise routine into my exercise routine, and preferably shifting it to the morning; the strength exercise routine shall consist of 10 times of whatever hardest kind of squats, leg raises and push-ups/dips from [here - insert link] I am capable of performing; additionally, find a place in which I'll be able to do pull-ups (maybe the community gym has a bar?) - and introduce them to my exercise routine by the habit-making-route; (take measurements pre- and after establishing the habit; )

 

DEX - dexterity

+1 - introduce a routine of dexterity exercises into the daily exercise routine by the habit-making way; (take ability measurements pre- and after establishing the habit; I can't quite do the hurdler's sit, I hope to be able to both do it and reach my toes while in the position, once the habit is established; the upper body already is on acceptable level of dexterity: I can easily do the safety-pin; )

 

STA - stamina

+1 - switch from the city transport to the bike; make a habit of going a relatively-long-distance route every day; it should improve the mood/energy levels by keeping my body well-oxygenated, too;

+1 - make a habit of barefeet-style running or outright barefeet running when the weather allows it; (fun plus slight health benefits rulez ^^; )

 

CON - constitution

+1 - make a habit of exercising everyday - almost done;

+1 - make a habit of eating things that don't contain refined sugar; make a habit of roasting stuff rather than frying it, for 5/7 days a week; make a habit of eating soups - for it should help with body hydration; make a habit of drinking at least three glasses of water per day; make a habit of eating quark rather than cheese and white buckwheat rather than rice wafers, for 6/7 days a week;

- make a habit of flossing my teeth twice a day, along with brushing;

+1 - make a habit of eating following health foods: hot peppers for breakfasts (capsaicin -> endorphins -> better mood), garlic for the evening meals (natural antibiotic, anticancer food, has a side effect of making a person's scent unpleasant for maybe a few following hours), onions twice a day (vitamin C); make a habit of making sure to eat the nutrients for the meals in which I need them most (carbs for breakfast -> energy; protein for the evening -> muscle rebuilding; )

+1 - (still under a question HOW) shift the tension from other parts of my body to my abs so much, that it becomes a habit; additionally check and train the effects by doing some balance exercises; it should improve my fatigue levels (muscles that are only as tense as necessary can work for longer), my reaction time (muscles usually held at ease react quicker than those tensed all the time), and get rid of those occasional tension headaches;

 

WIS - wisdom

+1 - master the in-terrain orientation in mine and two neighbouring city districts; I should be able to find whatever kind of place I want in there; it's important because there may be a war coming to where I live;

+1 - learn of all known vitamins and micro-elements and make sure to have all of them in the diet;

+1 - make a habit of meditation, preferably of a kind that improves concentration; I could use some wilful concentration improvement;

+1 - make a habit of completing at least three small but important tasks everyday and making it a GAME, as a way of introducing the important psychology stuff I've recently learnt into my life;

- make a habit of taking the daily shower at the community swimming pool slash gym; saves money on water expenses and makes it more probable that I'll either swim some or/and use the sauna;

- make a habit of doing some foreign language exercises every day;

 

CHA - charisma

+1 - make a hauberk - the purpose is to keep up with my real-life buds when it comes to the historical-geeky stuff;

+1 - make a habit of going to sleep before 10:15 p.m. (that is because I'm a natural early bird, and going to sleep when I am sleepy results in me having much more energy; so conquering the whims to either talk with someone or read something "just for a little while longer" is instrumental in mastering my mood/energy levels;)

+1 - introduce to my life a functional method of keeping in touch with the important people; make a habit of having a pleasant/important face-to-face conversation every day.

[Jett]

No problem, RyÅ›. You can call me Jenn or Jym, if you want.

 

For your goals, they all look fairly solid. However, I'm curious about how you will incorporate the various new habits, and how you will measure whether you have succeeded in your goals or not. Can you give a general outline of a typical day (or week, if it changes from day to day) with these new habits? To what extent are you completely changing your routine, vs just adding to/altering things that you already do? It looks like a lot of new things to keep up with, but if a lot of these are small changes to existing habits and routines, then maybe not.

[Trix]

Which do you prefer to be called - Jenn or Jym?

 

The strength and dexterity parts are about doing some workout in the morning, too - and making use from that time when I wake up long before I need to go out (early bird). Finding half an hour to spend there is easy enough, when I go to sleep at an acceptable hour. I can surf the web another time or just less.

 

Bike - that'd be going to Uni and the other places where I need to show up - the stuff I was already doing last year - and the district exploration - something that should help me find a job. Cycling doesn't take much longer than using the city transport on average, makes me more mobile - and is something I need to switch back to anyway, since my city card is doesn't have much time left, and buying a renew for the warm months would be just a waste.

From my experience, cycling has that side effect that drinking enough water becomes natural and I stop forgetting meals. And it's said to improve immunity.

 

Running - it's just a habit thing, so it can be short. I can find 10-20 minutes a day to do some on the road behind where I live. Especially seeing as the barefeet-style running feels good, unlike the conventional running.

 

Diet - I make most of my own meals myself, anyway - as the people of my culture often do. (I'm on a gluten-free diet for health reasons, too - so I'm used to being careful about what I eat.) I'm also often the one who buys the food stuff (on the farmers' market either on Wednesday or Saturday morning - that's when it's open.) Buying and then making something a little different from usual is not much of a change. And a vegetable soups can be taken as a drink to my travel bottle, so part of forgetting-the-meals problem can be solved.

 

Mastering the tension in my body should be easier once I improve my concentration by mindfullness meditation, I think. And such meditation can be done when doing any physical task.

 

Learn of all the known vitamins etcetera - it's in my Uni schoolbook, for the teachers are supposed to know what exactly influences their students' development. (I guess that's different in the US, due to the specialization tendency?)

 

The "three tasks a day" include the stuff from Uni and the social stuff. They're about mindset and regularity, not about doing anything new.

 

The community swimming pool slash gym is right by my door, so no problem with going there in the evening, most days (at 20-21 maybe) - and in a relative morning on some (they open at 8, I think?) It's relatively small and under-equipped, but it's no-additional-cost for those who live in my living community, so no problem with going there for 20-30 minutes .

 

I've added a thing about the language learning, but once again, it's about developing a regularity in what I already do.

 

Hauberk is a bit of a challenge, but if my best friend can make it, why wouldn't I?

 

Bed-time - if not for the things of the day that need to be done, I would set it at 21. As it is, 22:15 sounds rational. Especially since getting to sleep a bit earlier (I tend to procrastinate to after 23) means that I'll wake up naturally and fully energized after less hours of sleep.

 

Functional method of keeping in touch would be a combination of short emails, phone-calls and post-cards. It's supposed to tell my friends and family that someone's thinking about them. Also, as en extrovert, I should get more energy from this than I'll expend. Again, it's about regularity.

 

 

Do you think it's sustainable, Jenn? Or Jym, if you prefer?

[Jett]

Jenn is my real name, and Jym is the name of my "character" on NerdFitness. So Jenn, I guess.

 

It sounds like nearly everything is either adding to or adjusting something you already do, so it is probably sustainable. The only way to know for sure is to try it and see how you do.

[Trix]

Thank you so much for helping me out, Jenn! Here I've set my first challenge, if you want to see it. I've made minor changes, and a sort of a check-list out of it.

 

A side question - why did you choose to make your character a different person than you?

[Jett]

You're welcome.

 

Hmm, why a different person... I guess because it makes it feel more like a video game. I "play" the game by fulfilling challenges, and then the character levels up. I also see the benefits, of course, but the gamer in me still needs an external avatar to project things onto.

[Trix]

To compare things, I have a great love for LARPs - even though I also have very little experience with them - so I like being the character ^^.

 

OK, I'm going back to work on my current challenge. I'm so happy, now ^^.