Shalquoir

This is my book club's March book. I am so excited to start it. I feel like I see that cover everywhere! I hope you enjoy it. I also love the idea of "Library Serendipity". I totally believe it is a real thing.

Thank you for the welcome! I think I am at a good "respawn" starting point. I have the rest of my life organized so I can focus on fitness again. Before I invested myself so fully in moving and finding a new job, I was doing really well. I regularly attended CrossFit for about 8 months and my body felt great...but September was the last time I worked out. I miss it and am excited to get moving again!

My life turned upside down this December. My boyfriend of four years got a job three hours away from where we lived at the time. In two weeks we moved him to a new apartment in the new city. I stayed behind to look for a job. It took me almost two months but I will start working at a University on February 27. At the same time I was looking for work I was applying to schools for my master's degree. Last week I learned that I was accepted. Things are finally coming together and are no longer so chaotic. All of these things are amazing and I am very excited; but the path getting to this point has been hard on my body, mind, and soul. I have not been sleeping well, I have been lonely living apart from the man I love, and I have been under a tremendous amount of stress. I noticed that over the last two months I had lost weight but I had not expected the number that popped up on the scale when I finally did weighed myself. I had lost ten pounds. I am a very thin person anyway so this realization freaked me out a little. I have reached many of my goals recently, but my overall health has suffered. With things settling down soon I want to establish a routine that includes a regular sleep schedule, healthy meal planning, and fitness regimen. What I want to do is take a yoga class. I am a person who experiences high stress/anxiety/energy. For the most part I think that it makes me a stronger, more productive person, but it definitely has its negatives. I think yoga will help me to calm down and bring balance to my mental and physical well-being.

Thank you. I am glad to be here. I think my biggest challenge will be to not overdue it. I wear myself out that way. I am trying to go at a manageable pace.

Hi everyone. I have been following nerd fitness for about a month and a half now so I am a little late with this introduction. I love this community and want to participate more in the discussion. My fitness history has been just about zero my whole life. I am a 26 year old, 5'9'', woman. As I grew up I was always extremely skinny and ALWAYS growing. It made me very self conscious but also gave me excuses and a false sense of security. I always told myself that I was just uncoordinated and awkward. That I would never be good at sports and I always thought I would never gain weight. People helped establish this lie by telling my that "I was so lucky that I was naturally skinny" and that "I didn't need to worry about what I ate". Well I am here to tell you that this last year I learned the hard way that all of that is not true. I recently got promoted (Go me!) to a desk job where I don't move for 8 hours every day. I never knew I could gain weight so fast. I put on about 15 pounds in four months. I freaked out. For awhile I came up with excuses and pretended like I was loving my new curves (something I have never had. I have always been knobby knees and poky elbows). I tried to just ignore it. I don't know where I got my motivation from. I think I just couldn't take it anymore. I didn't feel like myself. My first major obstacle was how to loose the weight. I had worked out at different periods of my life and my answer to this question was always to eat nearly nothing and run FOREVER on the treadmill. I HATE the treadmill but that is what I thought you were supposed to do. This time I wasn't going to do it. So my solution was to scour the internet for info. Mostly I was just looking for success stories for motivation. What I found was Nerd Fitness. In reading the articles it occurred to me, for the first time in my life, I could be strong. What me? strong? no way! I became infatuated with the idea. I also learned about the paleo diet. I was SHOCKED that bread is bad for you. Even 100% whole grain bread? What? That night I came home from work and I think I freaked out my boyfriend a little bit. I went through every cupboard and through away ALL grains and ALL sugar. Now... I plan all my meals and go grocery shopping for the week every Sunday. Everything is paleo...with the exception of cheese. I have become a pretty good cook in a little over a month. The best part about this diet (Steve wasn't lying) is that you can eat as much as you want and still lose weight. It makes me so happy I could cry. Like I said, in the past I would very nearly starve myself and barely see results. Also I feel amazing. I have so much energy. I never feel that uncomfortable too full feeling and I never go into that dreaded food coma. Now... I work out in my house for about 30-40 minutes 3-4 times a week. I started with the Beginner Bodyweight Workout and have been making sure to increase the difficulty a little bit every week. I also document every workout on an excel spreadsheet to keep myself honest and accountable. I am completely spent every time I do it but today I looked in the mirror and flexed my arms. I HAVE MUSCLES! Real ones. There really is a bump there. I can SEE it! I have NEVER been strong...ever. I cannot believe it. It really is about having the right plan. My progress has not been huge but I can definitely see it and the keeps me going. I am so excited to see how strong I can get. So much seems possible. Thank you for reading about me. I am excited to be here. To learn more and be apart of a community that just feels like my people.