Dear Steve...

[Strawberry Squatcake]

Hey Steve! A couple of us Warriors were talking about how much our lives have improved with your influence from afar, although you don't seem that far away. (You can see me peeking in your window right now if you look just to the west. Haha. Just kidding. I know you're on a plane to the Caribbean. Wait, that's creepier, right?) We thought with 2012 coming to an end, it's a great time to wrap up the things we've accomplished. Especially those guided by your inspiration.

Fellow nerds: Use this post only for notes to Steve telling him how your life has improved with his motivation and inspiration.

Note: Although we're known for our replies, animated gifs, and kudos, the thread will get really long when people (like me!) start replying to/quoting everything. Pop over to someone's challenge thread or to their profile page and let them know you saw their accomplishments, rather than replying here. That way Steve can easily see everything that's meant for him. Efficiency is a nerd's motto, right?

Happy Holidays!

[ana_wee]

Me first me first!

So I haven't seen any changes yet, at least not physically. I decided to improve my life in general after reading Steve's article on the Paleo diet. After that I decided working out would help me as well. A co worker even commented today how I seem to be much less tired and have more energy. So, while I'm still new to the whole changing thing, there is definitely a change happening. Thanks Steve!

[Laureleye]

It's been about 20 weeks since my first BBW workout. I've lost about 1/2 of the weight I wanted, but I have accomplished so much. I was depressed and discouraged; my doctor told me I was over 50 and so I wasn't going to be able to get more fit, and I couldn't imagine the rest of my life like I was. Now I feel good - happy and cheerful. People are remarking on the weight I've lost, the improvement in my skin and hair. I've got energy, and I've started reclaiming my life. Merry Christmas, and thank you!

[Barmacral]

I've concluded that eventually I want my own success story on the front page of this site, and am making my way towards that goal. Every year for the past several years I've lost weight in the summer and ballooned up in the winter. Courtesy of nerdfitness, this is the first year I'm not repeating that trend. I've gone primal and am working out regularly, and I love it. More energy, I love the feeling of the muscle definition I'm getting, and all around it is awesome. Also this post is rambly.

[sumdawgtwigg]

I've been on this site for awhile now. Although I've had a lot of ups and downs since that time, I can honestly say that it's improved my life so much. My confidence has never been so high (it has it's hiccups). I know that anyone can accomplish anything as long as they keep at it and never give up. I think that's the most important thing I've learned from Steve and NF. It might take years to get where you want to be but dammit you can do it! I never realized how getting in shape can change your whole outlook on the world. How it's so much easier to face the day or walk up to a stranger and start a conversation. It's incredible how far reaching physical fitness is.

[Strawberry Squatcake]

Steve- You have opened my eyes to a whole new world of health, fitness and good people! And you’ve built a community that attracts the best of the Internet (I’ve witnessed the bowels – I still can’t figure out how NF is so anti-Internet)! I originally found Nerd Fitness on a quest to prove my doctor wrong. After that, I embraced the need to question everything, and it’s changed everything! I’ve started enjoying the journey. I appreciate I’ll never know everything, and found continued learning is very fulfilling. I enjoy experimenting and adjusting until I find what works for ME. I feel better than I have in years, and am spending my time doing things I never thought I would – perfecting my bone broth recipe (with things like oxtail and chicken feet – One Year Ago Kelly would have scoffed), making homemade skincare products, and writing my own workout plans. All with the help, support and encouragement of this community, and guided by your thorough and entertaining writing.

Here's to another year of learning, growing, questioning and leveling up. Thank you for being you!

[bigm141414]

Dear Steve,

If I ever meet you in person you have a bear hug comin' your way buddy. Prepare yourself. Thanks to you and your site I have found a wonderful outlet for my geeky fitness side. Without this community I would never have found such an amazing set of friends. Three years ago I would never think to travel to unknown places to hang out with people I have never met in person before. But now, all I want to do is go out and meet the amazing members of this community and share a beer or a barbell, preferably both, with them.

Happy holidays, Steve. I hope you know how much we care

-BigM

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Steve, never in my life have I watched what I eat and worked out at the same time. I have never had such a wealth of information. I have never had such a fun way to look at fitness. But I have them all now because you decided to start a blog. Thanks.

[rketterman]

Steve, I found this site by accident but I am so glad I did. I'm still really new here but I can tell you that the information you provide and the support of this community has inspired me (and others around me). It has me taking baby steps to a healthier lifestyle that I believe I can maintain. I've tried fad diets and a few days of exercise here and there but I can honestly say that this time it is different. I still have days where my diet isn't where it should be. And I skip a day of exercising from time to time but I have never been more committed to this. And it's all because you decided to fuse two things: the nerd lifestyle and fitness. Thanks!

[Nuala]

Dear Steve,

Yesterday I solved my first blue problem at the bouldering centre. Yeah, I know, that won't talk to you much so let's say that I solved a level 3 problem when the max is 6. 7 months ago, I couldn't do a push-up, 7 month ago I never tried bouldering, 7 months ago I was just deadly tired and depressed.

7 months ago, I discovered your blog.

Now I go bouldering 3 times a week, now I can do 40 push-ups in a row (and 30 diamond push-ups), now I can do some pull-up. Now I can get up from my bed in the morning without crying because my back is hurting me. So, thank you

[Gainsdalf the Whey]

I did this a month or so ago somewhere else, but here we go.

Steve,

You honestly haven't done much for me directly, but you made it possible for others to help me with the creation of these forums and attracting this community of like minds. I am stronger of body and of will than I was before. I lift more weight, don't make excuses for not doing something as much, push through more, don't quit too early. I've run a 10 mile race from struggling with 5ks. I can run a sub 30 minute 5k at the drop of a hat. All with tons of help from this community to help me learn waht I needed to know to do it and motivate me to actually get it done. I'm a much better person physically, emotionally, and pschologically that I was before.

As important as all that self improvement is though, I've made tons of friends through this forum. When I visit Boston for work I hang out with Seth every time for drinking and general nerdiness or visit Staci once in while so she can make me look bad in the gym. I've hung out with half a dozen other nerds at a fitness meetup and would hang out with any of them much more often if they were local, they were all awesome. I'm really looking forward to getting my home gym done so I can host a future one. Thanks to you, instead of using my garage to house a car or power tools, it will house a power rack and dead lift platform with all the iron to go with them.

I've also had the chance to be a mod on this forum and make a contribution to helping you guys help others be awesome, which I love and has become an addiciton that I hope to get back to being more active in soon. I ain't going to a help group for this one, though my wife wants to send me to barbell anonymous half the time.

Thanks for all of the above and happy holidays.

[rtalencar]

I'm not as active on here as many, and I know I'd be better off if I were, but I wanted to take a moment to thankyou for two key things this past year:

I found this article, which turned me onto Nerd Fitness in the first place. It really speaks to me, and I re-read it often for inspiration.

You quoted something I had said in the forums in one of your articles, and I realized how much I liked it. I really started being more active giving out advice after that, and I think it's made me a better person.

Thank you.

[IfItPlugsIn]

Dear Steve,

I’d been a blog stalker for months, joined the NF community in April (at 4 months pregnant), and stuck around to do my first challenge these past 6 weeks. Nerd Fitness is a unique community for many reasons, but most importantly to me, it’s helpful and accepting. I’ve found a great group of women that are more supportive than any real life friend I’ve had.

I’ve always been relatively fit and active, but I feel my health and wellness life has been an evolutionary process. I’ve continued to grow, change, and question every aspect of my fitness lifestyle, and continue to do so because of the inspiration I find in Nerd Fitness articles, workouts, and forum posts. Thank you for your contribution to my evolution.

Jenna

[PrincessHeather]

Dear Steve.... Holy crap dude, this site has made all the difference in the world to this perfectionist nerd! I started lurking around reading the blog articles and reading through forums in January and finally joined the forums and did my first challenge in April. At the beginning of this year, I was just starting the process of getting out of the endless cycle of excessive cardio and obsessive calorie restriction. I wanted to have the perfect look, to impress people, be perfect. Thankfully, I realized none of that was making me happy and I needed to do something much different. As I was researching weigh lifting programs for women, I stumbled upon the infamous article about Staci, and began reading through the archives and discovered the paleo diet and began to research, research, research.

Almost a year has gone by now, and I've been weightlifting fairly seriously for 8 months. I've completed a Whole30, and I've gone mostly paleo and organic. I'm no longer punishing myself for eating candy, or fixating on some magic number of pounds lost to be happy with myself. Still working on so much personal emotional junk and learning to actually like who I am and to do these things for myself and not for anyone else.

But most importantly, this community has really saved me. As a military spouse far from home, a part of my obsessive focus on perfection was built around trying to fill up a lot of empty, lonely time. My husband works long hours, and for much of the time, it's night shifts, which leaves me a lot of time at home by myself, in a place where I don't have many friends, and certainly not any with an interest in lifting, eating well, or the minutae of Disney parks. But in the course of my time on NF, I have "met" loads of wonderful people with tons of great advice, encouragement, and sillyness that I'm missing sometimes in real life, and I couldn't be more grateful for the positive impact of having them in my life.

Thank you Steve, for creating an almost magical community where so many people can feel comfortable being who they are while trying to learn how to be the best version of themselves.

[cracked_belle]

Dear Steve,

THANK YOU.

I really ... there's just nothing else to say. there's no way I can list all the manners in which you and Nerd Fitness have improved my life.

ever grateful,

James the Greatest

jtggodqos

ADDENDUM

I do want to mention this, explicitly:

in improving how I treat my body, I've improved how I treat myself.

via NF, I have found a sense of self-worth I never knew possible.

[Bekah]

Dear Steve,

You are insanely motivating, and it seems like your blog posts are just what I need right when I need them, and the entire NF community is amazing and without you, it wouldn't be here at all. So yeah...you are amazing and have changed my world for the better. I have lost 10 lbs just in the attempts at changing my eating and increasing activity since finding NF two days before Thanksgiving...and have done something even more amazing (in my opinion) and actually made and kept every health related appointment I have been putting off FOREVER and doing the same with all the things I procrastinate with, and faced some very real fears that have nothing to do with physical health but have been holding me back in my life period...and it is ALL because of you.

Happy Festivus <3

[shortstuff]

Steve, if it wasnt for this community I wouldn't have met the amazing and helpful people that I have. I probably wouldn't even consider lifting weights, or considered going to the gym to lift weights in the free weights room with "all the big and scary men", who aren't all that scary and are actually really nice and helpful when needed.

[Hermione Gainser]

Dear Steve,

Much like Corey said, I appreciate you for creating this amazing place for us (and Spezzy and mods and guild leaders, I appreciate you all for keeping it awesome). Finding NF was like meeting my soulmate. Every day I come here I want to be a better version of myself. I love reading all the great ideas my fellow nerds come up with for challenges, I love watching them succeed, I love watching the lessons they learn from their failures and I love cheering them on. Being surrounded by so much amazing energy has had such a positive effect on my life that I couldn't possibly type up all the ways in which my life is now better.

I have good challenges, I have bad challenges. I have successes and failures. But everything I do feels like the biggest freaking win because I doubt that, without my NF community, I would have done much of what I've done. Every time I think something is pretty damn great, my nerds help me find a way to make it outfreakingstanding. Challenge accepted!

I've changed the way I eat (though, not paleo) and I'm happier and more satisfied than I ever had been. The community has been there for me when I had no idea how what to do with my food. They've introduced me to things I never thought I'd eat (hello, bone broth). I can only imagine where this will go...

I've gone from have no clue what an olympic barbell looks like to maxing my deadlift at 250. I've gone from sitting all the time to thinking of ways I can sneak in mobility work. My fellow nerds have helped me understand why bodies do what bodies do (though I'm still woefully behind), but more importantly, they've sat down and helped me understand how to use MY body to the best of its ability.

And while that's all great and stuff, that's not what I'm most excited about. What I'm most excited about is how being a part of this community has helped me take so much more responsibility for my life than I think I would have. Like many, I've held on to irrational fears of change and pursuing my dreams. But through this community I've been able to find the strength to take steps towards being the happiest me I can be and living the life I've always wanted. This is all much more personal than my workouts or my rants about #squatbootyproblems and I haven't shared a lot of it here.

I've changed my, "well that'd be cool." and never doing it (b/c I could possibly!!) to, "well that was cool!" Nf has helped me see my 'wants' as achievable goals instead of things that other people can do and have.

But mostly I've started standing up for myself where I never had. I stopped letting people take advantage. I've been honest about how I've wanted my relationships to change. It hasn't always worked out in a happily ever after sense, but it has worked out for the better. The NF community gives me strength to be true to myself. The more honest and true I am the happier I feel. I had forgotten myself for a while there. Through my friends here at NF i've been able to find myself again. The cooler, happier, more confident version of myself that i always day dreamed I'd be.

So, thanks, Steve, for making this possible. And thanks Rebels for doing way more for me than you ever knew you could.

Way too much love (but not in the creepy stands too close and sniffs your hair way),

Laura

[TheRedWriter]

Dear Steve,

I have only been a part of the Nerd Fitness Rebellion for about seven weeks now, and in that short time, my life has improved for the better. I have already lost seven pounds, including the horrible eating that happens during the holidays! Though I had began making forays into workouts for a few months before joining NF, my current workouts are far more focused then they have ever been at any point in my life, and I see results, something I've NEVER seen before, no matter how much exercise I used to get. I am less caring of the opinions of others and even more importantly, I take things less personally then I did before. I feel a little more peace in my life each time I get to the gym and leave in a heaving, sweaty mess.

Also life changing, your articles and community have inspired my wife to begin improving her fitness, and she's kicking ass at the beginner body weight workout several times a week in addition to the impressive cardio she had already done; she's already showing muscle definition and it's awesome!

I just completed my first six-week challenge, and even though my honeymoon fell smack in the middle of it, I still completed it with about 85% of my goals hit, and this makes me feel awesome. Accomplishing goals isn't something I've done much of in my past, not for just me personally and especially not simply for improving my health and fitness. Heck, people were looking at me funny because I went and busted ass working out on freakin' christmas day! All I could do in reply to them was say, "It's still a day of the week, right? Then I'm working out". Though I know I had to put forth the effort and willpower to get my (now less) flabby ass into workout mode, without your help, I don't know if I'd still be as dedicated and focused.

So... Thank you. Thank you very much.

[Librarian of Doom]

Dear Steve,

 

Last year at this time, I was doing yoga once a week. I'm not knocking yoga; it helped me get out of my sedentary rut and start building up strength, and I still love it and do it. But that was all I was doing.

 

Your blog and this amazing community have inspired me to conquer my fitness and health fears. I started off in March with the BBW workout. In May I did my first challenge and braved the bros to start barbell training. In June I started Couch to 5k. (while continuing yoga and weightlifting). In August I ran my first 5k and started CrossFit.

 

In 2012 I went from yoga once a week to:

• Running 5 5ks in 5 months, with my time decreasing by almost 7 minutes from the first one
• Deadlift at 185 lbs
• Squat at 145 lbs
• Down 2 pants sizes
• Down 2 shirt sizes
• Having a hip measurement that is smaller than my waist measurement used to be

I would never have thought to do most of those things without the help, encouragement, and education of this community. I never used to think of myself as an athlete, but now I know I am. Thank you.

[Siferiax]

Dear Steve,

 

If it wasn't for Nerd Fitness, these forums and the incredibly great articles, I wouldn't be where I am today.

I may not have lost (much) weight, or gotten heaps stronger in the last half year, but for the first time in my life I feel like actually working out!

I'm finally at a place where I can enjoy moving my body, where I can push through when things get hard.

 

I'm no longer a quitter! Just yesterday I did quite an intense spinning bike work out. I know I would've failed to complete it half a year ago. But now I pushed through the fact that I was tired and just kept going till the timer said I was done.

 

This no-quitting attitude has also been transferring to other parts of my life. I've been doing so much better than ever before!

 

Thanks for making me a not-quitter.

[Steve]

Guys,

 

I honestly don't know what to say...I'm just honored to be a part of all of this.  This community inspires me to be better, work harder, and have more fun.  

 

Thank you.  I'm sitting here in Nashville, about to go on a hike with two friends, and I have a big smile on my face and a few tears in my eyes reading your responses.

 

Thanks for being part of Nerd Fitness.  I just wanted to create a place where people like me could help each other get healthier.  Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine it would become something as powerful as this.

 

The best part? We're only getting started.  World domination isn't too far off.  RAH!

 

-Steve