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Starting a new thread for North Carolinian's interested in physical meet ups since the other was getting a little old. This is a continuation of this thread here. And is partnered with the Nerd Fitness: NC Edition Facebook Group for Rebels that are not on the forums/ don't get on the forums as regularly as they do FB. I will try and hold/ host at least one meet up every month or so and will post the details of these meetups here and on the FB group. Most of these will probably be around Central NC (Triangle area) or Eastern (Greenville area) just because that is where I live, but feel free to throw up other ideas if you're else where around the state Activities will range from group workout meetups (like our first meet up), to hiking at a state park, yoga classes, to other fitness related fun (open to just about everything!). After the activity we normally like to go get a bite to eat and then possibly play board games or do other fun nerdy things if someone lives close. If you'd like to hold other/another meet up or have your own ideas please feel free to post your own thoughts in this thread too!

Hello out there... I'm a newbie finally poking my head out of the woodwork after a few weeks of lurking, finally trying to get a plan together for myself, get my head on straight, and start actively turning my hand to my health -- and actively getting involved in a community of other folks trying to do the same. I'm a 31-year-old married stay at home mom, living in the mountains of North Carolina. At December rolls toward January, I've been increasingly more mindful of how 2015 didn't go at all like I'd hoped. To back the story up a bit... I've been overweight since I was about 8 years old or so, my weight fluctuating between 160-180 lbs throughout high school, college, and grad school. When my husband and I got married, newlywed-life-food (i.e. "oh, I'll do something nice for my husband and make bacon cheese fries!" type thinking) had me up to juuuuuust under 200 lbs. soon after we got married. We started talking about having kids, and we both REALLY wanted to get in better shape first, or at least be headed that way -- so we shared an online Weight Watchers subscription and I lost 45 lbs. I was perfectly happy at 155 lbs and maintained it for half a year before I got pregnant with our daughter, then went on to maintain a healthy pregnancy without gaining more weight that I ought to have. "Yay!" I said. "I know how to cook and eat healthily now and exercise enough to keep my strength up, life is set, all is roses and happiness and unicorns and rainbows." The following year was pretty rough. I had had to have an emergency c-section to have my daughter, and recovery from that was difficult. It was really 6 months or so before I back up to speed afterward. It was at that time that I quit my job to help my mother take care of my 95-year-old grandmother with Alzheimer's disease, and that took a lot of my time and effort, along with having a baby to take care of as well as my husband. When my daughter's first birthday rolled around, I hadn't lost any of my pregnancy weight and had gained about 10 more pounds. I was back at 180. I re-joined WW and vowed that I was going to get back into pre-pregnancy shape at the end of 2014. I had some moderate success early in the year until my local WW group was disbanded due to low participation, and I thought I didn't need it anyway, that I could keep it up on my own. But it seems like since that happened, I haven't been able to have any success at all -- and have gained back the 15 lbs I had managed to lose. It drove me crazy that I couldn't seem to get the scale to go down beyond 165. I tried "diet" after "diet" masked as "lifestyle changes" -- we did a Whole30 and most of our meals are paleo-ish and low-carb, but as I started looking harder and harder at what I ate and trying more and more methods of cleaning up my diet, I started feeling like more and more of a psychological mess and developing some really unhealthy eating problems and thoughts. I honestly never had a binge problem until this summer, but there have been a number of times in the past six months when I've approached a trigger food and had what I'd call an actual binge. I would try to straighten myself out and get back on the wagon or find a new "wagon" of counting calories or using a FitBit or doing a detox or cutting out sugar/caffeine/carbs/random things completely. It's gotten to the point that I can't even seem to make it a week without my plans falling to pieces. This has been really rough on my husband, too. He gained back all the weight he had lost while I was pregnant, too (is back up to around 400 lbs), and since our daughter was born he has been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes at age 28. That's serious, and that's really, REALLY scary to the both of us, and he's trying to make some changes on his own, and I want to help him in every way I can. I feel like when I fall off the wagon and don't cook every meal for him or remember to pack his lunch or let sugary/carb-y foods come in the house that I fail not just me but our whole family. He's said that he's given up on me when it comes to me being able to stick with a plan or feeding him three healthy meals a day on a regular basis (I always cook dinner and try to get up to cook him breakfast and pack lunch every day, but when I would miss a morning he wouldn't have anything, so he's recently just started eating only one meal at dinner time each day, and I know that's bad for him -- he says he's not going to bother cooking for himself and that he eats fewer calories this way, but I know it makes him miserable, and if I want him to have anything to eat it's up to me to make it... and really, since I don't work, I don't have any excuse not to, other than laziness). We've also been trying for a second child all of last year with no luck, which has been emotionally harder on me than I've really admitted to anyone IRL. I've dealt with feeling like my body betrayed me with the emergency c-section before, and I feel betrayed by it every day when it comes to how my metabolism has changed, the fact that I let myself be so easily led astray by cravings, that I give into the blech that keeps me from committing to changes, that it's looking increasingly more likely that my parts for making small humans aren't working as they should. I'm supposed to go get a physical in January, and I plan to talk to my doctor about this stuff then, but I know she's going to tell me to do what I already know -- start by losing weight, making my diet better, getting in better shape. I HAVE to find a way to fight the voice inside me that says "You'll never really be able to change," "even if you lose some weight you'll just gain it back," "it's your fault your husband isn't going to live to see his daughter grow up," "you'll just try something new and fail at it within a week or two," "it's not even worth believing in yourself if your husband has given up on you." I know that last time we succeeded in losing weight together, we both had better attitudes -- we actually had hope and believed we could do it. I've lost my husband's faith in me, but I know that I have to at least get myself in the right headspace for anything to work, and I'm sure that my own attitude has been a HUGE part of why I fall off the wagon when I do and why it's so hard for me to get back on when I make mistakes (if I had an easy time of "just start again with what you know you ought to do with your next meal" this probably wouldn't be a problem... it's usually a 3-4 day period of "I already f***ed up, this ____ isn't going to make a difference" and the (incorrect!) believe that comfort foods actually make me feel better even though I know they don't really). I *do* think it's essential that I do this with others -- that was a big part of what worked for me before, and since my husband isn't really going to do this with me in terms of being an active participant in trying to do it rather than just eating what I cook, I hope I've found a place where I can talk about this sort of stuff with others (who also happen to share a lot other nerdy things I'm interested in!). I'm trying to take things slow this time getting my head around what will be the easiest and yet most effective plan of eating that I can stick with the best and a fitness routine that is doable for a mom with a very hands-on two-year-old -- I want to figure out how to make this really achievable for me, not just an ambitious idea that I can't follow through with. If you have any encouragement, words of advice, or anything else to share, I would most definitely appreciate it Allons-y!

Zombie Escape @ Panic Point When: Saturday September 9th, 2015 Where: 2808 Cedar Creek Rd, Youngsville NC Race website: http://www.raleighmudrun.com/zombie-5k/ I've already signed up to do this with one friends but it would be awesome to meet up with some friends from NF who might be interested too! The race looks awesome! 500,000 gallons of water, 4 zombie pits, 18 obstacles, and a 5k. What more could us fit nerds dream of? Anyone Interested?!