61stRevolt

Well hey everyone. My update for week 2 (week 1 for me) Slow progress is still progress! 1. I am a very open minded person 2. I have really awesome hair 3. I'm helping making things at work more efficient **I could still use some advice on the dependence dragon.** As far as quitting snacking I'm going to try to eat 6 small meals a day in liu of all of the snacking I do. **I'll set that in motion tonight. But I could still really use some help here.** The only thing I conquered on the laziness list was going out with a friend. In fact, I went out with two, and had a great time! I'm going to try to do the other three things tonight. They won't count for last week, but the sooner I work on this week, the sooner I can form habits. Getting to know people? I got a message from someone on the dating site who is actually seeing someone and is only looking for friends (so he says). But it seems like we have a lot in common and it could be a good opportunity to ease myself into the dating world. So I'm going to send him a message tonight. New mini mission- post on some other threads tonight!

I know, I know, I'm late!! I fell off the wagon during my last challenge here, and I don't even remember why. But I'm back, thanks to Hiraedd and a desperate need to get back on the horse. I don't have starting stats or photos right now (mostly because I'm afraid of them) but I'll get around to it. My main quest- Slaying my personal dragons.... or capturing one, domesticating it, and using it to get to work. This isn't going to be an insanely intense challenge, I want to start out slow so I don't scare myself away again. The low self esteem dragon There's nothing like grad school rejection, the slow and painful end of a 7 year relationship, and the surprising need to buy bigger clothes again to knock you down a few pegs. To conquer this dragon I need to find 3 things I like about myself a week. One personality trait, one physical attribute, and one new accomplishment. The emotional dependence dragon I've been with the same guy since I was 16, and now that we're in relationship limbo it's becoming painfully clear how dependent I was on him for everything. I always thought I was really self sufficient but that was easy when I had him has a safety net. I've always struggled with food addiction (a new discovery of mine), but now that I've lost my old emotional outlet, it's gotten worse. I need advice on how to conquer this dragon. The laziness dragon I spent the month of July traveling the country and I was productive; driving, exploring, learning, shopping and meeting people and I went to bed exhausted every night. It felt wonderful but this dragon was waiting for me when I got home last week. To conquer this dragon I have to each of the following once a week: -work on my portfolio -go for a run -the beginner bodyweight workout -go out with at least one friend Side mission?! Meet new people along the way! I joined a dating site yesterday. It's terrifying and I'm not looking for anything serious (I'm still trying to work things out with my high school sweetheart here), but I'd like to talk to a new person every week, and hopefully by the end of the challenge go on a date. And in the spirit of meeting new people and making friends, feel free to get to know me! Sorry I'm late, let's have fun!

My mom and I are actually not much alike at all, I get most of looks and personality traits from my dad's side of the family. This thread has made me do a lot of thinking about my mom, her relationship with food and how that has all affected me. She used to make herself feel really bad about being fat, which would make me feel like I was supposed to feel bad about it too. But then she wouldn't do anything to fix it, and I guess I picked that up too. Haha, I feel like I'm in a therapist's office and he's saying "tell me about your mother".... but the cool thing about my mom is that she'll cook paleo for me when I ask her to because she really cares about me. She just doesn't realize that since everyone else in the house is eating poorly, it's hard for me to stay on task. That's not her fault really, I've never actually told her that. I guess I should but I know even if she tries to change it won't stick, and I'm just setting myself up for disappointment. I'm actually staying with my boyfriend's parents for a few days to get away from that environment and clear my head. His parents aren't much healthier, but I'm not comfortable enough here to snack leisurely. I'm 23 years old and I'm looking to move out in August. I've told myself for years that once I move out I'll have a clean slate and I won't have my family's habits affecting my grocery list. This is true, but I'm realizing if I don't do some work on solving some of the issues that cause me to snack and over eat that I'll end up botching the opportunity for a clean slate. I think every girl I've ever known has had some form of an eating disorder or another. I think it's just normal, everyone has body image issues, and everyone knows it's related to diet and exercise. I understand what you mean about internalizing self-hatred even though the binging is attributed to an actual disorder. I'm actually kind of experiencing the opposite right now. It's like, because I'm realizing how normal it is to have an over eating/food addiction problem, I'm not hating on myself so much for it. But it's also leading me to not feel guilty about it when I actually act on those urges. So that's why I'm trying to be proactive and get these habits in check. 1) Today I was proactive and got myself out of an unhealthy environment so that I can work on being healthy. 2) I have dainty hands, wrists, feet and ankles. Well I shouldn't say "dainty", a woman US 11 shoe isn't exactly dainty, but my my hands and feet are really slender and kind of elegant. But it's kind of cool to see what the rest of my body has the potential to be. I don't think I'll ever be "skinny", but I'd be down with looking elegant.

Thanks for posting this. I wish I had seen this before I started that thread that introduced me to you, I would have just chimed in here. I've always been an over eater and addictive tendencies run in my family. My grandmother and both of her sons (my uncles) were/are alcoholics. My mom swore not to fall victim to that and I've always admired it, but I've realized in the past few years that she filled that tendency with food. And she passed that on to me. In high school I wanted to be anorexic. That sounds really weird. And I've never actually said it until just now. But I was always really jealous of how the girls in those health videos had the discipline to stop eating. I would try to not eat for a day but by dinner I'd be in a horrible fog and end up binging, and usually on crap. In general I have to say that I'm the healthiest I've ever been in terms of mentality (hence the ability to post this). I lost 20+ pounds after I joined NF, but I gained all of it back recently, if not more. The culprit is snacking, really. I'm good pretty much all day until I come home and then I usually eat until it hurts, and then I eat some more. I don't want to blame my mom but a lot of it is because I love with her. I asked her to stop buying potato chips and her solution was to buy them and not tell me. But obviously when she leaves a bag open on the counter she isn't really keeping a secret. You know what she said to me today? "did you finish those sour cream and onion chips? Well, if they brought you peace and happiness then I'm glad you did it". I couldn't tell if she was serious or if she was making a joke. But it was not ok. And I just want to state for the record that the term "manorexic" is horrible and needs to stop. Men shouldn't be ashamed of their issues and we should all be able to talk about it. Most of my friends are guys and they all struggle with body image in one way or another. So for all of the guys reading these posts who don't feel comfortable enough to respond, I invite you to a plus-size hug (you're right that term sucks) I like this two-things idea. Here are mine for the day. 1) I stopped laying around feeling sorry for myself and actually did some homework today. And I'm going to go back to working on my super boring extra credit paper after I finish this post. I NEVER do extra credit work. I also looked into local OA and ABA meetings. I think I'll go to one soon. 2) I have a sexy collar bone and high cheek bones. I've always been complimented on them but I'm starting to have real pride in them. You know what else I'm proud of? ALL OF YOU GUYS! *group hug*

hi guys thanks. that sentence should end with an exclamation point but for some reason when i use the forums on my phone i can't capitalize anything, which includes special punctuation. anyway, my biggest weakness is pizza. my mom has been making this amazing homemade pizza every friday for as long as i can remember. and looking back on grade school, the thought of this pizza used to be my motivation to get through the week. when i think about the prospect of never eating pizza again, if i were to cut it out like an alcoholic would, i get very very upset. which i guess is just further proof that i need to cut it out. most other things are only an issue if someone brings it up or if i see it. like i have a soft spot for potato chips and i dont really think about them unless i know they're in the house... and right now they are. maybe i should consider a 12 step program. but nf has spoiled me... it's a place to get help for free and it makes places that charge for services look gimmicky.

well, this is embarrassing. some of you may know me from my very short lived guild world tour. about a week into my 4th challenge i fell off the paleo wagon, and i fell really hard. i had a hard time figuring out where i had gone wrong and the shame of it just turned into the general abuse of all things tasty and unhealthy. a few days ago, after a really depressing binge fest, it occurred to me that i might have an actual addiction. i did some research and realized that food addiction is a real thing, not just a concept, and that my behavior fits the bill. i'm posting here to see if anyone has dealt with or has helped anyone through this before. my problem is that no one seems to take it seriously. it's hard to wrap your mind around the idea of being addicted to food. i've been mostly paleo again for a few days now but i'm pretty miserable. i feel lonely and the cravings have been really hard to fight. i don't know how long i can keep this up without some support. i'm planning to move out of my parents' house in august, which i think will help a lot. my parents have enabled bad eating habits for most of my life and they try to diet all the time but always fail. i can't ask them to climb on board and support me because they'll just let me down. so i could really use some advice on how to cope with living under this roof until i can control what's in my own kitchen. since falling off the wagon and gaining back all of the weight i lost once i joined nerd fitness, i was too ashamed to come back here. but i'm really struggling and i knew this would be a good place to reach out. so i'm back and ready to rebuild my confidence.

As requested! So far so good on this challenge. My preliminary 100 push up test went a lot better than the last challenge, so if nothing else I definitely improved my arm strength last challenge. I actually logged on remotely to work this morning, I'm at 8.2 hours this week and it's only Wednesday. I love being on track this early! I'm going to try to get a life task done tonight after my homework. I'll take votes on if it should be music, french or boyfriend stuff!

Hello adventure-pals! As you may or may not know I've been circling through the guilds in the spirit of true adventuring. Well, my life has gotten a tad hectic and I've determined that committing to learning about new forms of fitness is just a bit too much for me to handle right now. But rather than take a break, like the pre-NF me would have done, I'm returning to home base for this challenge to fine tune my life and habits. THE WHITEBOARD CHALLENGE My life is set up on my fabulous new dry erase board and I'm going to be keeping track of my goals there. Spread sheets don't work for me because I don't like being on the computer if I don't have to be since work and school are mostly computer based. And let's face it, I never have time to post on my own thread, so at least my big shiny whiteboard will keep reminding me I need to do stuff. Goal 1: PALEO!!!! DO IT. There isn't much to say about this, I just have to do it. On Sundays I will go through my paleo cookbook and write down meals and needed ingredients for the week, and then I will go shopping for them. This will eliminate couldn't-find-anything-to-eat excuse I tend to use when I get home late from school and end up eating something grain-tastic instead of making an effort to be paleo. [points to come] Goal 2: Work that body! Six o' dem days. I stopped making time for the 100 pushup challenge last time around. So for this challenge I'm starting over and making it happen. The challenge claims to take six weeks, but there's testing that actually takes several days for recovery that the timeline doesn't account for. So... I would like to be at least 4 weeks into that challenge by the time this challenge ends. Also, I was supposed to get to 3 circuits of the Beginner Bodyweight Workout (without pushups) last challenge and that so didn't happen. So that's a goal again. Each requires 3 days a week, so the total is 6 days a week of regimented exercise. Goal 3: Keep it interesting, part A. I have to get to the gym at least once a week every week. (The disclaimer here is that because my classes this semester involve a lot of group work, I may have to do work in the middle of the day that I would normally do in my pajamas late at night. So if I physically cannot fit in a trip to the gym by the end of the week, I run on Saturday or Sunday. No exceptions. The point of this is not to get bored. So I need to go to the gym and do something different to keep me on my toes so I don't get sick of goal 2. This may mean swimming, cardio, lifting, taking a class, anything. I have a lot at my disposal at this gym and I don't use it nearly enough. Goal 4: Life goal/Keep it interesting, part B. My department at work is sooo crazy right now that my full-time coworkers are being required to stay an extra 5 hours per week. Because I'm part time they can't ask this of me, but I'm committed to lightening the load as much as I can. I need to average 25 hours a week for this challenge. That means logging on and working remotely from home or school whenever I have some spare time. That being said, my hectic life is making me unhappy. I'm doing work all the time and my brain is always active, but not necessarily in a positive way. So I have created some recreational categories that I am forcing myself to participate in once a week. Music: I miss it. I specifically did not go to school for music because I didn't want to make my hobby my career. I wanted to be able to turn to it as an escape from my academic/professional life. Well, I stopped using this as an escape when I stopped having time for escapes. I'm bringing it back. Once a week I will spend half an hour playing violin, viola, guitar, bass or keyboard. French: Yeah.... I'm learning it. Why? Because I can. I've always wanted to go to Belgium, and my company has a small division in Canada, so knowing French is just something that would help me in life. It will also be a way to get my brain to work a little differently, a nice break from designing. Half an hour a week. I'm open to suggestions on how to best do this. Bo'frend: The thing that suffers the most from my busy life is my relationship. We're both so busy that we get to see each other for an hour a week if there isn't some kind of scheduling fluke like a cancelled class or a ride home from the train station. There isn't much I can do about this, but I can start committing to the things I've said I'd do for him that have taken the backseat to my schoolwork. They're little things, but they're part of a bigger picture that means everything to me. So, once a week I will make some headway on a few things that matter to him: designing his tattoo, playing metal gear, drawing a character sheet... these things should also help me relax, but will keep me busy enough to not fall into a lazy slump. So yeah. I haven't gotten around to scoring my last challenge yet, and I need to update my signature and attribute points to these goals.... I plan on doing that tonight. I just wanted to get this posted to let you all know I'm here and to get some feedback. Good luck everyone!!

I'm glad things are going well! Good luck with hell week! And I like your business card

Hiya Wren, sorry I've been quiet. It looks like things are going well for you so far!! As for your soreness, are you stretching adequately after you work out? I've noticed that if I stretch the muscles I work pretty well and drink a protein shake (I mix mine with almond milk), not only do I get better results from the workout but I'm not nearly as sore. Keep up the good work!

Yay adventuring!! I'm sorry it took me so long to post here. But it looks like you're making decent progress. Get some sleep (I agree, naps are good)! It's good that snacking on healthy stuffs can keep you from nodding off though. Have fun on your adventure!!!

I'm continuing my Adventurey-ness on my NF World Tour. I'm a Monk this time, come have a look! All of my updates will be on my Monk thread, this one is just to remind all of my good Adventurer buddies where I went! See y'round folks!

GOAL 1: To increase my flexibility, mobility, and strength. Right now I think I’m actually doing damage to myself when I run because my hamstrings are so tight that sitting on the ground with my legs completely straight is excruciating. Attempting to touch my toes actually makes me cry. When I can bend over comfortably in this position I’ll award myself the following: +2 DEX +1 CON +1 STA I successfully reached my goal here, but stopped trying about 4 weeks in. So I could have gone further. I'm awarding myself a B. This challenge has also shown me that I need to start breaking point values up by how many weeks I stick to the goal. So yeah, B +1.5 DEX +0.75 CON +0.75 STA GOAL 2: I also want to make my wrists stronger. I took a yoga class on Sunday and a standard downward facing dog was painful because my wrists are so weak. Since I’ve started working out I’ve felt the rest of my body get stronger, all except my wrists. By doing yoga and working on flexibility I hope to make my wrists stronger. And I’d really like some Druid perspective on how to do this. Please?! I would like to achieve these by stretching every morning and attending a yoga class at least once a week. If I feel more comfortable with my level of flexibility and my wrists feel stronger I get: +1 DEX +2 STA Yoga did not happen every week, though the circumstances that kept me from going were actually beyond my control. So I'm not beating myself up for that, though I did not put as much effort into this as I should have, but my wrists do feel stronger. So this gets a C. +0.5 DEX +1 STA GOAL 3: To continue on my diet. I will continue with the same diet goal as before, but with less emphasis on losing weight. I’m going to eat mostly paleo for 6 weeks. In the previous challenge I said I would eat COMPLETELY paleo for 6 weeks, but I said that without a full understanding of the paleo diet. I committed to more than I was capable of, or even willing to do. Beans and legumes don’t affect me in any negative way that I’m noticing, so I’m going to keep those in my diet for now. I’m still confused about whether yogurt is paleo but in moderation, it doesn’t bother me so, I’ll probably eat it once or twice a week. But NO POTATO CHIPS THIS TIME. I also intend to do this as organically as possible. My starting weight is 207 pounds and I hope to lose at least 12 pounds by the end of this challenge. +1 STA +2 CON +1 CHA This did not go well. At all. Holiday season pretty much killed it. I attributed this to the whole family thing, bonding, wanting to feel like part of the group by eating holiday junk. But here's the thing. On Christmas, I had a stocking full of paleo food, from my family and from my boyfriend's family. My friend gave me a paleo cook book. I was even specifically not given things other family members recieved just because they weren't paleo. Do you know what this means? Just as I was losing faith in my paleo journey, my friends and family still showed that they've come to expect the best from me. If they still want me to do this even though I stopped partially to feel close to them, then it's proof that food has nothing to do with our relationship. They know I can do this. And I can. And I will. So instead of the F I was going to give myself for being so bad, I'm giving myself a D for what I learned, and for the few weeks that I actually did behave. D +0.25 STA +0.5 CON +.25 CHA GOAL 4a: It’s grad school crunch time! If I want to go to graduate school for real, I have to buckle down. It’s time to sign up for the GRE, study for it, take it, and start applying to schools! I have to have this ball sufficiently rolling over this 6 week challenge. And this isn’t like my resume goal where I can make excuses and let it slide. I can live without some attribute points. I CANNOT screw up my academic future. (+1 WIS +2 CHA) A! I took the GRE, got the ball rolling on my letters of recommendation (which one professor already finished writing), wrote an 11 page research paper and filled out most of the applications. I'm in good shape here! Wee!! A +1 WIS + 2 CHA GOAL 4b: To meditate at least 3 times a week. College is stressful and my fitness goals carry a lot of emotional weight. I used to make time for meditation and it worked wonders. I need to make time for it again. And no this isn't a fitness or diet goal but it's only worth one point and I think my fitness capability will increase by doing this. (+1 WIS) This didn't happen. I really wish it had. I just didn't have time, with all of the work I had to do. It would have helped keep me level headed though. So... boo, but F +0 WIS +2 WIS +2 CHA +1 WIS +2 CHA

*pokes* padawan? I miss you! Come back soon I want to know how you're doing!

Happy belated birthday, padawan! I love your kitties. I'm hoping to get one soon myself. How have things been going?? Update us soon!!

Hi! Sorry it took me so long to poke my head in. I like your goals. I especially love your lucky new year goal! It seems like you're doing pretty well, actually! Keep it up!! I'll say that what I miss most about eating non-paleo is cooking for people. I'm tempted to make pasta dishes or quesadillas sometimes just because I loved making them, not necessarily eating them.

your cupcakes sound awesome. Do you have any suggestions for maybe replacing the brown sugar? Fire drills are the worst when there are so many floors involved... the elevator lines get ridiculous when they let people back in... I've climbed my fair share of stairs to avoid elevator lines. It's good for you but it hurts! Anyway, just poking my head in to see how you're doing, to tell you that I like your goals, and to tell you that your avatar is amazing. You're doing really well, keep up the good work!!

My getting out of bed trick is to start stretching in bed. Stretching on a soft squishy mattress is hard, so eventually you'll have to get up to do it correctly. I'm surprised the puppy doesn't make you get up though! And don't fret, you'll get back on track. Thanksgiving put a slump in a lot of peoples' progress, but coming back from that is all the more reason to be impressed when you kick butt by the end of the challenge!!

Looks like you're doing pretty well! Solid stuff, I'm impressed. I'm sorry it's taken me so long to check in, I've been really busy, but... hello! But keep up the good work!!

It looks like you're doing pretty well despite a Thanksgiving slump. My recommendations if you feel yourself getting sick are a) vitamin C and not straying from your workout plan. You don't want your body to know that you submit to being sick before you absolutely have to. If you push through it, you're likely to get over the cold sooner... it may not even get worse at all! Keep up the good work and get well soon!

Girl! What's up, how's it going??

Happy belated Thanksgiving to you too!! How is everything going??

These new TOM symptoms aren't too good. Does eating make you feel sick? Most food I eat during my TOM actually does make me sick, and that's kind of a new thing since I've gone paleo. We should probably figure out what's happening to us! However, kicking the cravings is a good thing.... so you should try to achieve some middle ground there. Keep working hard!!

Hope the studying went well! As for the chicken, I'm on this like cranberry-apple-walnuts kick. But I can't think of a recipe. You could just throw them all in a salad like I've been doing. Or make a sauce for some grilled chicken.

HI I'M BACK! No more floundering. You need to hit the reset button. Here's how. Do something you haven't done in a really long time. For me, it was my yoga class. I hadn't been in 2 weeks because of Thanksgiving. So when I finally went today, it was essentially like hitting a reset button in my brain and I am right back on track to not slack in my stretching or cheat on my diet. It doesn't have to be goal related though, or even fitness related. Just remind your body that you're trying to change for the better by shocking it, so-to-speak, with something it wasn't expecting. You can DO this. I KNOW it. GO RAIDNE!!!