Hello, everyone. My name's Eric, and I'm a 23 year old college student living in the Cincinnati area, attending the University of Cincinnati. A little background: I've spent the past four years attending another university in Indiana, studying music. Prior to that, I was extremely active in my high school's marching band, which meant I was in pretty good shape. Once I left for college, however, I didn't really have any experience exercising outside of that particular context, so I pretty much completely stopped. Other than the occasional spurt of activity from either activities with friends or a simple "I should start working out" thought, I've gone the past five years letting myself go. Now, other than the lack of activity, I didn't have the healthiest diet, since I ate what was most easily available. Cut to now, I've abandoned my professional music ambitions, transferred here to study Economics, and moved in with my parents, who moved here to follow my father's job while I was off at college. I know essentially no one, spend all of my time between campus, a part time job working retail, and am rapidly developing some serious self-loathing for giving up on something that I had convinced myself was my calling. I could see that I was beginning to deteriorate, both physically and emotionally, so about a week ago I decided to make some changes. I made some changes in my personal life that greatly assisted my mental state, and so I decided to try and get my body going, too. I found Nerd Fitness while searching for information about exercise routines, and the outlook espoused here really resonated with me. So I signed up for the academy and did my first tutorial bodyweight routine yesterday in the basement, where I'd have room to work. I (mostly) made it through, but I was completely exhausted and had trouble making it back up the stairs. So now I know where I am, and I have a plan for where I want to go, and now I've joined this forum, with the hope that I might develop a support community to help me achieve my goals, and maybe I can help out a little, too. The last thing I'd like to add is that the Nerd Fitness Academy is exactly what I've been looking for for as long as I've been trying to get into regular strength training. Since I wasn't an "athlete" while I was in school, I never really used any gym facilities, nor did I have anyone teach me what to do. That, along with the overriding philosophy of small changes has really helped my outlook, at least in the short term, and I hope to continue.
I'm 23, and my goals are slightly more "gain fitness" than "lose weight," but my goal is to drop 20-30 lbs, and I would love to join this little club.