Search the Community

It's not about the fact that you stopped, but about starting again, as many times as you need to. Been thinking a lot about body image, mental health, and how exercise ties in so closely with both of those things. My story so far ... I joined Nerd Fitness and was successful in losing the 20lbs I'd wanted to lose for years. But I stopped working out nearly two years ago because my knee was hurting so much and my physiotherapist said she'd show me how to do squats properly. She never did. I went through a rough break up ~six months later and didn't have the mental health benefits of regular exercise to help me through it. I went on antidepressants (third time in my life) and worked on looking after my emotional and mental health. In the last six months I've gained back the 20lbs I lost when I joined Nerd Fitness and started working out regularly. I'm off antidepressants and am looking at exercise to help with body image and mental health, trying not to focus on the weight, but on strength and sustainability. Indefinite dieting is ridiculous, so I'm not worrying about calories but am generally trying to stick to the No S Diet (no snacks, no sweets, no seconds, except on days that begin with S). I've got the BBWW in my back pocket, and also have a sledgehammer for the Shovelglove workout. Last challenge I got myself a gym membership so I can work out during the day, since I'm often too tired to work out by the time I get home in the evening. I've got a log book to help me keep track of what I do, especially when I go to the gym. I've already mucked it up (I didn't put in the sledgehammer moves, oops) but that doesn't matter! I make it work for me. And so! Once again my plan is pretty much the same as last time, but after this long I'm happy with it. The Plan: Stretch M/W Exercise 2x per week. Any additional workouts are a bonus. I'm doing the thing again, and that feels good.

So, a couple of years ago I got scared by a few health indicators and got pretty serious about my health. The psychological work and time committment involved were brain-bending - I had to think about it all the time, probably six+ hours a day, to stay on track. I had to work really hard at thinking about my health instead of going down weird spiral trails of thinking about food and weight, which would lead to binging. But the easiest way to describe how far I got is in pounds, so I'll throw out there that I lost a hundred and twenty pounds. I "joined the rebellion" but you don't know my name because I didn't really use the boards; I had a decent group of proximal humans who were also getting healthy so I mostly used them for support. I was intermittent fasting, angry-birding, walking lots, still at a newbie level because losing 120 pounds was a big deal but when you're starting from 360 and completely sedentary with some physical limitations, there's going to be lots of room for improvement, but I was feeling pretty awesome. Anyway... fast forward. I held steady for a while and then at some point it all fell apart; 6+ hours a day of mental and physical work is tough to maintain. I haven't been on a scale in some time (don't own one, prefer not to fixate on it) but I've lost many of my good habits and gotten most of my fat back. The timing of this post is coincidental; this is not a new year's resolution. It's taken a long time and a fair amount of mental work to get back to the point where I'm ready to be serious about deciding to do right by myself and my body (and with that said, I had cookies for breakfast so it's not like I'm taking off like wildfire). I have a new job and (literally) don't have time to do mental work towards health 6+ hours a day, so the last route I took toward health won't work again, although there were great habits built there that I'm planning to get back with. I'm not expecting to be able to manage the fantastic turnaround I pulled last time - or at least, not as quickly. I'm gonna have to be easy on myself in some respects. I may not get back on myfitnesspal for a few months; I may not drop grains completely for some time; I'm going to be starting with portion control, snack reduction, sugar elimination, dramatic carb gram reduction through meal planning and veg intake increase, and a walk to Mordor. I love walking and hiking - at my size and activity level it's going to be a slow start, but I'm really looking forward to it (got started officially tracking just yesterday). The Mordor walk showed up when I was surfing through my inbox trying to find something else... I don't recall even being signed up for NF in 2012, so I'm not sure how I actually came across it, but obviously I missed the big start. If anybody else is near-ish the beginning of their journey, I'd love to walk "together." I'm on RunKeeper, just started yesterday; I'm not sure how much time I can realistically commit to the NF boards but I'll see how it fits in as I move forward. In short, hi! I'm here hoping to break carb addiction and renew peripatetic addiction in as nerdy a way as possible.

Main Quest: Get down to 10% body fat. How are you going to achieve that? Back to working out 3 times a week, Boot Camp Conditioning at the Gym 2 times a week, Body weight workouts the other day. (2 str, 2 dex) 45 minutes of Intervals Mon, Wed, Fri. 1 hour if I've got it in me. (2 dex, 2 sta) Sleep an average of 6 hours a night per week (as tracked by my Jawbone UP). (2 Con, 2 Cha) Life Quests Read at least 1 chapter of the book I'm working on directly before bed each night. (3 Wis) (Currently Reading: The Blinding Knife) Metrics Measurements: 70" height, 202.5 lbs, 15.25" neck, 36.125" Abdomen = 21.03%