Gwenhwyfar

Thanks, Defining! I've heard of that rule before. I've been maintaining my calories on MyFitnessPal, which has helped a lot. I've also incorporated more exercising, which has allowed me to eat more! I did interval running and then did a Pokemon Go walk, which allowed me to burn around 438 calories! Surprisingly, my one hour walk burned more calories than my 30 min run. Can't weight to shed off these pounds so I can start bulking!... The surplus calories will be nice, lol.... Mmm, food! xD

Hello! I when I first came to this website, I was not in a good state of mind and was in a terrible relationship that was ruining my self-esteem and body image! I was telling myself that I wanted to get in shape for myself, but that was a huge lie! I actually wanted to get in shape for an ex, who was nothing but an asshole, while doing it for myself was only a tiny portion of a want. It's been years since I've been on this site and it was actually painful to look at for a while because of my past. All I could think about was my low self-esteem and wanting to change for a guy. I couldn't be happy returning to this site without a good reason for wanting to lose weight that wasn't about my body image. Since I've broken up with my ex, I found someone who truly loves me for me, no matter how much weight I've gained. On the flip side, my boyfriend has been a bad influence on me on eating and I've gained an incredible amount of weight. On the plus side, my boyfriend has actually taught me how to effectively diet to lose weight, which was done by me copying him whenever he got serious about losing weight. We've ended up on a yo-yo dieting cycle which isn't ever good. I've been trying to lecture my boyfriend on this, but he insists on just doing crash diets, when he gains too much weight, and then go back to his horrible eating habits to gain all the weight back. I've been dieting whenever my boyfriend diets and going back to bad eating habits when he goes back to his. It's kind of funny, but when I was with my ex, I was 135 lbs and I wanted to be 125 lbs. Now, with my man, I've went up to 170 lbs and now being back down to my 135 lb seems like a dream, while 130 lbs would be a stretch goal! I'm really getting sick of these diets, now. I'm getting really sick of going on calorie restrictive diets, which deprives me of every food I love to eat! And I just get all sad when I gain all the weight back when I go back to eating all my favorite junk food! I want to stop following my boyfriend's dieting pattern and style to a permanent, healthy eating lifestyle! I've now found a good reason for why I want to be on this site! .... And that reason is.... I love food!!! I want to be able to eat more tasty food without gaining weight! I don't want to be on such a calorie restrictive diet that I can't enjoy the food I eat! I want to be able to indulge in food without getting fat! I want to be able to enjoy some of my favorite junk food without worrying that I'll get fat again! This is now my main reason for wanting to get in shape now! Looking good has become a very small reason for getting in shape for me now. My reasons are ranked in this order: 1. Be able to indulge food without getting fat. 2. Be healthy. 3. Be able to fit some of my favorite clothes again. 4. Feel confident in a bikini again. As you can see, my body image is more of a bonus than a concern now. I don't feel too concerned about looking good in a bikini, I don't even care about wearing a bikini ever again, but it would be nice. I've tried telling myself that in the past that my body image was more of a bonus, but it was a total lie! I now have a much healthier reason for why I want to be in shape! My ultimate goal is to lose enough weight and build enough muscle that I can eat 2000 calories without getting fat!

Let me explain and say that I had this bad knee ever since I was a kid. I remember one day, as a kid, feeling this stiffness in the back of my knee that wouldn't go away and wouldn't crack easily. But I kept stretching and trying to crack it. One day, I finally did manage to crack it and the stiffness was wonderfully gone; however, I soon discovered it hurt running on that knee for some time. After the pain healed away, I found that my knee would occasionally make crackling and popping sounds when I would bend it or kneel down. It has since remained with me and I find that it can really irritate me some days. Like if I sit for long periods, not exercising, it will ache; or if I use that knee to stand up from kneeling on the ground, it will crackle and ache later. I found that when I had a severe leg cramp, it would not stop crackling and popping every step I took with it, and it was very loud and clear. It also seems like a very picky, bad knee because sometimes when I do exercise, it will feel better at first and then ache more later. It's a mild irritation, but it's enough to drive me crazy and obsessed with researching what the problem could be online. I did go to a doctor before about it and he said there was nothing he could do because I wasn't in serious pain and the knee wasn't dislocated. He gave me an pamphlet on exercises to strengthen a weak knee, but I was bad and didn't follow it. I probably should have, but I guess I was looking for a quick solution at the time... My bad knee is my right knee and I mostly feel the pain on the right side of it. Anyway, anyone else have any bad joints? Have an idea on what the exact name for my knee problem might be, since I'm so obsessed with trying to find it on WebMD?

Thank you! I'm a bit hesitant to go see a doctor cuz of money concerns, but I might just do that, depending on how the money situation improves. I haven't let the fear stop me from sticking to the diet I'm currently on, but I wanna make sure what could happen in the long run if I'm not careful. I've looked into it more and the pescetarian diet might be the smart way to go for me. There doesn't seem to be any indication of vitamin deficiencies and there's even studies that suggest having a seafood diet actually helps people with anxiety, ADHD, and depression to manage their symptoms. That's a big plus in my book! I'm gonna look more into it now! And yeah, thanks for helping! =)

Hello all! Gwenhwyfar here! Always disappearing and reappearing on Nerdfitness, but still not giving up on becoming fit and healthy! I've made many attempts at trying to exercise and eat right, but failed each time! Now instead of trying to do both, I'm going to attempt to do it more slowly and work on fixing my diet first. I've been looking at a lot of diets and trying to figure what would be the best diet for me in terms of watching calorie intake. I decided on focusing in on a more vegetarian diet since I tend to munch on a lot of food and vegetables tend to be more forgiving on that. Plus, I kind of enjoy vegetables more than meat. The problem is that I understand that if you're not careful with your diet, you will have a lot of vitamin deficiencies like vitamin D, B-12, zinc, iron, and calcium (if you're vegan). It would be more horrible for you to be suffering from these deficiencies if you're a person with an anxiety disorder, which is what I have. So I decided that I wouldn't go full vegetarian and only follow a lacto-ovo vegetarian diet during the week (though it seems more vegan since I've never been much of a milk drinker and I don't really like eggs) and allow myself to eat meat during the weekend, thus being a flexitarian. I also still like meat, it'd be hard to give up steak; I just like veggies a bit more but not by that much. I thought this would be sufficient and ensure that I don't mess up and cause a deficiency in any area, but then I talked to the manager at the store I currently work part-time under, who I know is a flexitarian. She says that she eats meat mostly on the weekend and follows a vegetarian diet during the week. That surprised me, I assumed that she ate way less meat because I heard her telling a customer that she was B-12 deficient while recommending supplements to them. I was also shocked when I found out that she was anemic because she's iron deficient, which is partly because of her diet, she says, and because she's on her period. I found this out when I saw her eating ice and making a light joke about it. She takes iron supplements, but she still seems to be deficient... I've also read up that there might be problems with absorbing B-12 from B-12 vitamin supplements, so I could have a deficiency even while on these supplements. I really like that I can consume more food with this diet without going overboard on calories, but now I'm concerned if I'm getting enough in the nutrients I need. I looked up the pescetarian diet and it seems that it would still allow me to have low calorie intake while still being slightly forgiving in how much food I consume. Fish also seems to be more rich in nutrients than other meat, so I'd more easily be able to avoid going deficient in this diet. I looked up the draw backs and it seems that the only problems I've found was consumption of mercury and toxins, which is manageable by the type of fish you buy, so I'm not so concerned on that. Are there any other draw backs to the pescetarian diet? I don't think I'll go full pescetarian, probably be semi-pescetarian, as I don't want to miss out on steak during the weekend. =P Is there maybe a way I could adjust my flexitarian diet so I don't have deficiencies? I really don't want to make my mental illness worse. I didn't post this in the vegetarian section because being pescetarian or semi-vegetarian isn't considered vegetarian by a lot of full-blown vegetarians and vegans.

Polish American here! I can say that yes, my culture puts a strong emphasis the family, at least for my family. I can tell you that my family often takes care of each other, even relatives; my parents took in my cousin to live with us so he can commute closer to his work. My cousin is basically treated like another son at my parent's house, and it's expected from my parents that he'd join us at the dinner table and spend time with us. Polish culture, at least from my experience, puts a bit of emphasis on seniority, so you're suppose to be very respectful to your grandparents and your parents. It seems kind of expected that you'll take care of your parents as they get older. Does your culture love to dance?

Felt like making a game where you can share different aspects of your culture, get to know new ones, or ask silly questions that no culture could possibly do or have. Of course, you might be surprised, some of those silly questions might actually be incorporated in a culture. The game is quite simple: You answer a question a person above you asks, state your culture, and relate it to your culture, and then you ask a question any person of any culture can answer. For example: Person 1: Does your culture value tradition and unity? Person 2: No, I'm American. My culture puts more emphasis on independence and individuality. Does your culture love bacon? Person 3: Yes and no. I'm Polish, pork is a very favored meat in my culture. While my people may love bacon, I think they love kielbasa more. Is food very important to your culture? Person 1: Yes, I'm Italian America. My family is very big on food! Does your culture love cats? And etc. (Disclaimer: I tried picking the most cliche or obvious questions in example. If they're wrong, my apologies, I'll fix them if you tell me how they're wrong.) Anyway! I'll start! Do the people in your culture put a lot of emphasis on religion?

Sybil Ludington - the young heroine that did exactly what Paul Revere on the day of the "Midnight Ride" in which he warned that the British were coming. However, Sybil Ludington rode 40 miles, warning of the coming of the British army, which is more than twice the distance Paul Revere rode. It's a bit sad that Paul Revere is more recognized for this achievement than her, but it's still pretty awesome what she did. At least she still got recognized and congratulated by George Washington! There's a 50-kilometer race that's held in Carmel, New York, approximating the course she took, but the race always starts and ends at her statue. She'd probably be a good inspiration for female scouts on this forum.

My advice for ponytail holders is to get ones that say "ouchless" or something of that varient. I've found that the threaded kind are safer than the ones that are pure rubber and claim to be "ouchless". When you tie your hair, don't make it super tight because that can cause pulling out your hair when you untie it. If you still want it to hold, my recommendation is to make it one knot loose; if you're tying it to the point that your hair roots feel like they're being torn out, then you've made it too tight. For me, it takes 3 ties to get it to the point that it'll hold but not fall out; I put the hair tie around my hair (1 tie), twist it and tie it around my hair again (2 ties), twist it again and tie it one more time (3 ties). I can tie it 4 times, but it really pulls on my hair. I also don't have super thick hair, but I don't have thin hair either; you may need to tie it less or more. Another thing to keep in mind is that if you remove the tie, you don't feel any pain, and you still see hair around the hair tie, then that's more likely hair that's fallen out and not hair that your hair tie pulled out. Also, make sure you hold your ponytail while you're pulling out the hair tie because that can also prevent pulls.

How DARE you try to eat those fish! Fish are friends, not food!!!

It really depends on whether you want to bulk, lose weight, or maintain. If you wanna lose weight,you'd want to cut sugar and watch your intake. If you wanna bulk, you can get away with extra calories in sugar but also need to watch your protein intake.

Just keep an eye on your friend and make sure everything is okay! ^^ He could be going through a lot that he can't handle on his own.

Call a local crisis center or your country's emergency number. Don't let him be alone and remove knives and any lethal objects. You may want to read some articles. http://m.helpguide.org/articles/suicide-prevention/suicide-prevention http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/suicide/in-depth/suicide/art-20044707 http://m.wikihow.com/Help-Someone-Who-Is-Thinking-About-Committing-Suicide

I was just browsing the web when I came across the news that Robin Williams had died. http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/11/showbiz/robin-williams-dead/ He took his life in his own home after battling years of depression. He was one of my favorite actors and comedian. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1uWvvMsL5w You will be missed! Gone too soon!

Congrats! ^^ I still need to work on my full-on push ups... I've only managed to do 3 sets of 6,but it feels like I weren't doing them correctly or something...