New Nerd Alert! :)

[littleissa]

Hi nerds!

 

My name is Melissa and I'm excited to be here!  I'm an Army wife, substitute teacher, and full-time grad students who loves cooking and baking, video games, scary movies, and the Pitch Perfect Pandora station.  I will bust out in random dance moves when the mood hits and I have no idea how to whistle.  I think that pretty much sums me up

 

My husband recommended I check out Nerd Fitness after he stumbled upon it (thanks Reddit!), read Staci's story, and felt like I could relate.  I'm not necessarily new to fitness and healthy eating, and I'm pretty informed about stuff like Paleo and Crossfit, but I lack the motivation to stick with it a lot of the time.  My husband does Crossfit almost daily for his PT, and we eat 70/30 Paleo on average around here, but I have an addiction to carbs and lack of addiction to working out. 

 

I've done the "only eat 1000 calories and run on the elliptical daily" thing and dropped about 60lbs over a 4-6 month period.  Then I gained it all back when I stopped trying because, let's be honest, that's not exactly a healthy lifestyle change.  I've eaten strict Paleo and done Crossfit intro classes for a while and lost some weight, but I didn't stick with it.  I did find, however, that I love the power I feel when I'm lifting, so that's a good start, right?!

 

I know that it's my motivation that I've got to work on, and I'm hoping the supportive and knowledgable community of Nerd Fitness will help me strengthen that.  I've hit a point in my life where I know something has to change (I'm about 60lbs overweight right now), and I'm hoping that finding my Superhero persona and my focusing on my superpower will help me find a renewed drive for not just losing weight but getting healthy again.  We're hoping to start a family once I'm at that point, so that's also giving me some new motivation

 

So that's me.  Hope I can figure all this guild stuff out and get some awesome insight and support from this great community!

[Machete]

What's up, nerd?

 

You know what? I feel like I can relate. I'm a grad student, I used to be a 6th grade English tutor, I love to cook and bake (but I love eating what I create even more), and I crush Crossfit WOD "Diane" while listening to "Cups" by Anna Kendrick.

 

Lifting is a great start. I started a lot of people off with that, and because of the linear progression (you getting stronger) and the visible results (more weight eventually lifted) it's a fantastic choice to start one's fitness goals. Besides, as Mark Rippetoe said, "Strong people are harder to kill than weak people, and more useful in general." Strength is king, and Crossfit becomes a lot more fun when you can handle weight.

 

So I was curious: where are you guys stationed?

[littleissa]

What's up, nerd?

 

You know what? I feel like I can relate. I'm a grad student, I used to be a 6th grade English tutor, I love to cook and bake (but I love eating what I create even more), and I crush Crossfit WOD "Diane" while listening to "Cups" by Anna Kendrick.

 

Lifting is a great start. I started a lot of people off with that, and because of the linear progression (you getting stronger) and the visible results (more weight eventually lifted) it's a fantastic choice to start one's fitness goals. Besides, as Mark Rippetoe said, "Strong people are harder to kill than weak people, and more useful in general." Strength is king, and Crossfit becomes a lot more fun when you can handle weight.

 

So I was curious: where are you guys stationed?

 

I love that you listen to "Cups" when you do Crossfit!! I'm actually licensed to teach 7-12 English in Ohio, but we're at Fort Drum in NY now so I have to finish my Master's before I can get my NY certification and begin teaching full-time up here.  I like Crossfit, but sometimes it feels overwhelming (or maybe that's just when I'm Crossfitting with my hubby who is a lot better at it than I am and I feel like I have to keep up), so now I'm just trying to figure out what kind of workout routine I want to get into.  All I know is I have to find something. 

[Machete]

Okay. I've heard that CF is pretty big in Drum. It's understandable to be overwhelmed. The lack of routine and programming kind of throws me off, and really my WOD times aren't competitive enough for other people (except with bodyweight movements), since I weigh as much as a 13 year-old girl. Kind of hard to stick with too, unless you have a group that you go with. A big part of CF seems to be the community.

 

There appears to be a big strength bias here, and that would be a good thing. There won't be a shortage of knowledge on strength training. I usually suggest dillignetly following one program, like "Stronglifts", "Starting Strength", or "5/3/1" for 3-6 months. It's easy to follow and low-volume (you only train 3-4 days a week), you use up an insane amount of calories, it preps you for the movements of CF workouts, you can see actual training results, and it's perfect for the winter, since it's indoors.

[littleissa]

Yeah, they just finished building a brand new multi-million dollar CF gym up here.  Not gonna lie, it's pretty amazing, but they don't have courses or group WODs, so you're just kind of on your own.  I know a lot of the companies (at least in my husband's unit) have their own CF mini-gyms set up in their training areas, so they'll do group WODs together, but if you're not in a unit that does that, or you're a civillian like me, you're on your own at the gym.

 

Thank for giving me the recommendations for the lifting programs.  I'm not very strong to start with, but I have access to all kinds of free weights and dumbbells, so which one would you recommend to start me off?  Also, in terms of "insane amount of calories," how do I know how much to eat to balance out my workouts without over-eating? 

 

Side note: I struggle with food and finding a good balance - I know what to eat, but I don't always balance my veggies/protein very well, and I'm afraid I'm going to eat too much for the workouts I'm doing but not enough to see any results in my strength training.  I'm all kinds of backwards lol

[Machete]

Yeah, a problem I see with CF is you really need to get into one of their Foundation courses at the very least, or have some experience with barbell and gymnastic training.

 

All you really need to strength train is a place with a barbell, a power rack, and bumper plates. The Starting Strength webpage has very detailed descriptions on how to perform exercises. Stronglifts 5x5 however I believe is free and has a very extensive program, covering everything from training loads to progression, so I'd probably start out with that.

 

Don't worry about your calorie intake. A calorie is just a unit of heat. Most people estimate them wrong anyway, and the best thing about Paleo is you can pretty much eat as much as you want, as long as it's the right food. Eat as long as you are hungry, half meat half vegetables. Pretty hard to overeat the good stuff. A good rule of thumb I have is 'when you're strength training, you're probably not eating enough.'

 

And don't worry too much about your weight. I'd say focus on your strength gains for now, and the weight that you are able to lift. The body composition will follow. Have your read about Staci?

http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2011/07/21/meet-staci-your-new-powerlifting-super-hero/

[littleissa]

Thanks for the tips!  And Staci's story is actually what sucked me into NF My husband stumbled upon her story and thought I could relate, which I did!