No more stranger danger

[BerBer]

Hello,

First I would like to apologize for stalking all of you for the past few weeks. I was looking for information to help with my health and fitness issues when I ran across NF. I have been browsing and reading the forums like an addict ever since. So, I finally decided to join up and introduce myself. 

 

I'm Amber aka BerBer. I'm 30 years old  (soon to be 31), 5'1" I currently fluctuate between 144 and 150 lbs daily (is that normal? !). I work the late night shift  (6pm to 3am) at a job that is fairly physically demanding.  I'm talking light/moderate cardio with  light (3lbs) to heavy (100+) lifting, pushing, pulling for 8hrs a day 5 days a week. I also enjoy physical activities in my free time  ( hiking, skateboarding, disc golf). Dispite all this I would  guess my fat% somewhere around 30. Lately I have found that I'm tired all the time and just generally feel out of shape.

 

Through tracking my calories I have realized that my body has likely been in "starvation mode" for quite some time now.(not on purpose!) So my first goal is to learn how to eat proper meals and enough calories. Hopefully if my body realizes that I AM going to feed it I can start burning some of this chub and have more energy. I was thinking that I should focus on that before adding in any extra exercise. Although, I am looking forward to starting up some body weight exercises and work on my agility and flexibly once my diet is situated.Eventually I would love to feel good enough to take a roller derby 101 class and maybe join a recreational league.

 

As far as my nerd card go's I suppose I'm a bit of eveything. I collect comics and vinyl and books about zombies and Studio Ghibli movies. I pretty much grew up going to Sci-fi and Comic cons. The Hobbit and LOTR was my bedtime story (like 8 times in a row). I can quote Labrynth, all of it. I like to paint and draw and crochet and(insert most any art/craft here). I like to read. I LOVE coffee. I have dreadlocks and tattoos and piercings.

 

If any one has advice, questions,  comments I would love to hear them. I want to be a fracking badass but I need help!

[theseus]

Roller derby sounds like it'd be pretty awesome. Welcome!

[RedDavy65]

Hey BerBer, 
I'm like you. Reading for a while, finally jumping in, as of last night. 

I joined the Adventurers Guild and am starting a 6 week challenge late but whatever. Already I feel a bit more motivated with the accountability of posting my goals on this forum. 

 

Best wishes on your journey. 

[BerBer]

Already I feel a bit more motivated with the accountability of posting my goals on this forum. 

This 100%! I think it will be very helpful to have a community of people all working and supporting and helping each other. Also I haven't read one single post where anyone was just plain mean, that's amazing.

 

I'm thinking that I'm going to start my first challenge in the recruit section  (that's what I'm supposed to do right? ) and it will probably be boring and based around my diet . But hey gotta get the nutrition working so I can move on to the fun stuff right? ! 

[BerBer]

So, I've decided to start out slow before jumping into a challenge ( I'm planning to start the next one ). I'm still working out the particulars of what I think my diet should be. Right now I'm leaning toward a very loose paleo plan, at least until I have the habit of consistantly eating three meals a day that amount to at least  1300-1400 calories. Im basically planning to allow myself 3 nono carbs a week  ( pasta, rice, english muffin, toast). Luckily sugar and sweets arnt really my thing and drinking my coffee black  is no big deal. Other that I would make sure to have a decent protein with every meal and load on the veggies. I love veggies anyways so that part will be easy. Making a grocery list and trying to get the hang of meal plans is  kind of daunting for me right now. I just hope to get this all ironed out soon so I'll be ready to set my first  challenge goals and smash them! 

[BadassityInMotion]

Good luck BerBer! I think you are very smart to get the details of exactly WHAT you think you should be eating and practicing that a bit before jumping into a challenge (unless your challenge goal is to discover what you should eat and start eating it!) and to figure out the fuel end of the equation before you work your body extra hard. 

 

That's what I did. My challenge is also mostly food related and sounds ambitious at first, but I've been doing it on and off for 2 months now while experimenting with what I think my body likes most. 

 

Because my goals where mainly hormone rebalancing, I decided to go with Skype St. John's version of the Bulletproof diet (basically upgraded paleo) - she takes BP and adds a few tweaks that seem to work better with women's body's. It's been 6 days of this and I feel effing amazing and super clear & focused all day now and have my normal energy & eagerness back. So I know you can find awesome new energy via diet. 

 

A couple of cool hacks I've found with veggies - there is a brand in the frozen food isle called SteamFresh. Different veggies in different mixes, just put the bag in the microwave for 5 minutes and then pour them in a bowl. Some have sauces, some don't. Super easy to pretty good healthy veggies even on lazy nights.

 

That and the night I go out to the farmers market I come home and wash and chop a bunch of things and put them in freezer bags in the freezer. Then when I want to eat them, I set a steamer basket in a big stew pot, put a little water in the bottom, turn it on high and once it start steaming, dump in whatever frozen veggies I want. Takes between 5-8 min usually depending on how dense the veggies are. And probably even more access to the nutrients from the fresh picked stuff thats frozen right away than letting them sit in the fridge for 1-2 weeks & wilt before I get to them. 

 

I'm still looking for good hacks for quick proteins for dinners, though soft boiled eggs would be easy to do ahead of time and have on hand.

 

Anyway, welcome to the forum and congratulations on moving in the direction of claiming your true badass-ness!

 

BadassityInMotion

[BerBer]

Hey thanks! I think I've decided that I will still be able to join in on this challenge and get 3 weeks in. I tend to be a crazy research person when I find something I'm interested in  (sometimes it's not a good thing and it will stall me out ). Tonight is shopping night anyways so I'm going to clean out the fridge and stock up on good stuff. I will probably post my challenge later tonight and start tomorrow.

Thanks for the advice about freezing the veggies!  I had wondered/worried about eating it all before it went bad. Pure genius.

[BadassityInMotion]

Yeah, I'm into crazy research too! I'm a complete body geek that way. I love to know WHY I'm doing what I'm doing. If I don't know why, it's so much easier to cheat. 

 

And yeah, the veggie tip is cool huh? And have some soft boiled eggs for quick protein is also useful for late and/or lazy nights. 

[c4cherry]

Hello,

First I would like to apologize for stalking all of you for the past few weeks. I was looking for information to help with my health and fitness issues when I ran across NF. I have been browsing and reading the forums like an addict ever since. So, I finally decided to join up and introduce myself. 

 

I'm Amber aka BerBer. I'm 30 years old  (soon to be 31), 5'1" I currently fluctuate between 144 and 150 lbs daily (is that normal? !). I work the late night shift  (6pm to 3am) at a job that is fairly physically demanding.  I'm talking light/moderate cardio with  light (3lbs) to heavy (100+) lifting, pushing, pulling for 8hrs a day 5 days a week. I also enjoy physical activities in my free time  ( hiking, skateboarding, disc golf). Dispite all this I would  guess my fat% somewhere around 30. Lately I have found that I'm tired all the time and just generally feel out of shape.

 

Through tracking my calories I have realized that my body has likely been in "starvation mode" for quite some time now.(not on purpose!) So my first goal is to learn how to eat proper meals and enough calories. Hopefully if my body realizes that I AM going to feed it I can start burning some of this chub and have more energy. I was thinking that I should focus on that before adding in any extra exercise. Although, I am looking forward to starting up some body weight exercises and work on my agility and flexibly once my diet is situated.Eventually I would love to feel good enough to take a roller derby 101 class and maybe join a recreational league.

 

As far as my nerd card go's I suppose I'm a bit of eveything. I collect comics and vinyl and books about zombies and Studio Ghibli movies. I pretty much grew up going to Sci-fi and Comic cons. The Hobbit and LOTR was my bedtime story (like 8 times in a row). I can quote Labrynth, all of it. I like to paint and draw and crochet and(insert most any art/craft here). I like to read. I LOVE coffee. I have dreadlocks and tattoos and piercings.

 

If any one has advice, questions,  comments I would love to hear them. I want to be a fracking badass but I need help!

Hey BerBer,

 

You got some pretty neat artistic skills I must say....I've always wanted to Crochet (just never got down to it ...sometime soon.

 

How many tats ?

 

Here's to eating better...

 

Cheers,

 

~ C

[BerBer]

Hey BerBer,

 

You got some pretty neat artistic skills I must say....I've always wanted to Crochet (just never got down to it ...sometime soon.

 

How many tats ?

 

Here's to eating better...

 

Cheers,

 

~ C

 Check out youtube. They have some really good beginner tutorials for crochet. It's pretty inexpensive to a kit of hooks runs like $10 and yarn varies depending on the type.

 

I have a total of 13 separate tattoos that range in size. They equal over 24 hours of work.

[TMedina]

Welcome to NF and good luck!

[insanity]

Hello,

First I would like to apologize for stalking all of you for the past few weeks. I was looking for information to help with my health and fitness issues when I ran across NF. I have been browsing and reading the forums like an addict ever since. So, I finally decided to join up and introduce myself. 

 

I'm Amber aka BerBer. I'm 30 years old  (soon to be 31), 5'1" I currently fluctuate between 144 and 150 lbs daily (is that normal? !). I work the late night shift  (6pm to 3am) at a job that is fairly physically demanding.  I'm talking light/moderate cardio with  light (3lbs) to heavy (100+) lifting, pushing, pulling for 8hrs a day 5 days a week. I also enjoy physical activities in my free time  ( hiking, skateboarding, disc golf). Dispite all this I would  guess my fat% somewhere around 30. Lately I have found that I'm tired all the time and just generally feel out of shape.

 

Through tracking my calories I have realized that my body has likely been in "starvation mode" for quite some time now.(not on purpose!) So my first goal is to learn how to eat proper meals and enough calories. Hopefully if my body realizes that I AM going to feed it I can start burning some of this chub and have more energy. I was thinking that I should focus on that before adding in any extra exercise. Although, I am looking forward to starting up some body weight exercises and work on my agility and flexibly once my diet is situated.Eventually I would love to feel good enough to take a roller derby 101 class and maybe join a recreational league.

 

As far as my nerd card go's I suppose I'm a bit of eveything. I collect comics and vinyl and books about zombies and Studio Ghibli movies. I pretty much grew up going to Sci-fi and Comic cons. The Hobbit and LOTR was my bedtime story (like 8 times in a row). I can quote Labrynth, all of it. I like to paint and draw and crochet and(insert most any art/craft here). I like to read. I LOVE coffee. I have dreadlocks and tattoos and piercings.

 

If any one has advice, questions,  comments I would love to hear them. I want to be a fracking badass but I need help!

This explains why I felt like I was being watched in the shower... :-D

 

Anyway, welcome to the best site in the universe... I should know, I've been all over... and there's nothing that says you HAVE to do a challenge, I myself just have a running thread that tracks all my stuff.

 

As for advice, if you're like me, you can get caught up in the research of everything and not actually move anywhere (There's a blog post about collecting underpants that I can relate to really well) and you're wanting to do paleo, find a sheet that just gives you the guidelines about what you can and can't eat.

 

Something like this... https://www.pinterest.com/pin/271271577528574287/

 

Then it gives you a definitive starting point to at least get moving, and you can research while you change you're diet. This process helped me a lot in both eating and working out.

[Embembol]

I'm creeping on your posts, apparently, so it goes both ways

 

To add to @insanity's paleo guidelines in the post above mine, I found this chart.  I wasn't sure where to post it overall, but I thought it was great and amazingly straightforward, so I saved it until the opportunity presented itself!

 

'>Paleo flowchart

[insanity]

I'm creeping on your posts, apparently, so it goes both ways

 

To add to @insanity's paleo guidelines in the post above mine, I found this chart.  I wasn't sure where to post it overall, but I thought it was great and amazingly straightforward, so I saved it until the opportunity presented itself!

 

Paleo flowchart

 HAHAHAHA... "It's probably a rock" that was way funnier than it should have been.

[c4cherry]

 Check out youtube. They have some really good beginner tutorials for crochet. It's pretty inexpensive to a kit of hooks runs like $10 and yarn varies depending on the type.

 

I have a total of 13 separate tattoos that range in size. They equal over 24 hours of work.

 Will check out YouTube.....

 

13 Tattoos...that's awesome...Must be way too cool

 

Good luck with everything

 

~ C

[BerBer]

Wow! You folks are THE BEST!

 

 

This explains why I felt like I was being watched in the shower... :-D

 

Anyway, welcome to the best site in the universe... I should know, I've been all over... and there's nothing that says you HAVE to do a challenge, I myself just have a running thread that tracks all my stuff.

 

As for advice, if you're like me, you can get caught up in the research of everything and not actually move anywhere (There's a blog post about collecting underpants that I can relate to really well) and you're wanting to do paleo, find a sheet that just gives you the guidelines about what you can and can't eat.

 

Something like this... https://www.pinterest.com/pin/271271577528574287/

 

Then it gives you a definitive starting point to at least get moving, and you can research while you change you're diet. This process helped me a lot in both eating and working out.

First of all the shower!?...yeah,  that wasn't me.lol

It's great to know that I'm not the only one who collects information that just ends up gathering dust. It was a very useful trait in high school and when my boyfriend decides to use me like Google, not so much for getting healthy. I was wishy washy about doing a challenge for a few days but ultimately decided "frack it" better late then never and even trying to do something and failing is better then not trying at all right? I will definitely check those resources!

 

I'm creeping on your posts, apparently, so it goes both ways

 

To add to @insanity's paleo guidelines in the post above mine, I found this chart.  I wasn't sure where to post it overall, but I thought it was great and amazingly straightforward, so I saved it until the opportunity presented itself!

 

Paleo flowchart

 

It's ok creep away.  That flowchart is  gold! "That crap will kill you " I Lol'd so hard! 

 

 Will check out YouTube.....

 

13 Tattoos...that's awesome...Must be way too cool

 

Good luck with everything

 

~ C

 

Nope. I'm a HUGE dork. Like one of those people that randomly sings (horribly off pitch) silly songs about whatever they happen to be doing. Or using terrible dances that are more like a seizure as a punchline in conversation. I just love art and used to draw on myself all the time when I was little, tattoos were just a natural progression. I suppose they do make me look a little more badass though 

[Embembol]

I'm glad you both liked the flowchart!  Now I don't feel silly for keeping it saved in my email queue forever

[BerBer]

I'm glad you both liked the flowchart!  Now I don't feel silly for keeping it saved in my email queue forever

Nope, no feeling silly. We embrace your dorkieness  (dorky-ness?) , you embrace ours. Thems the rules 

[c4cherry]

How's it going BerBer? Whata ya upto?

 

~C

[BerBer]

How's it going BerBer? Whata ya upto?

 

~C

At the time you posted this I had been asleep for an hour, so pretty good lol. I've pretty much just been going about add usual, focusing on my challenge and what not. Went to get a massage today so I'm feeling a bit sore in some spots.  I should feel great buy tomorrow though.  How about you? 

[c4cherry]

At the time you posted this I had been asleep for an hour, so pretty good lol. (Hahaha....I bet you felt pretty darn good

 

I've pretty much just been going about add usual, focusing on my challenge and what not. (Nice) Went to get a massage today so I'm feeling a bit sore in some spots.  I should feel great buy tomorrow though.  (You sure will, love massages) How about you? (All going super-duper! I'm doing great....back from a mini vacay....back to focusing on my quests...and I can't complain ...yay for that

 

Take care

 

~ C