*clears throat*

[MissoulaSquatch]

Well, after lurking in the shadows for a few hours today checking out NF (seriously wish I found this place a year ago..Camp looked awesome!) I figured it was time to post up and introduce myself.

So, my name is Aj, 28 years old, living in the NW burbs of Chicago, and I recently (as in this week) decided it was time to take back control of my health and fitness.  In high school I ran distance..which breaks down to 6-12 miles a day, 5x a week, I graduated at a lean mean 150lbs of wimpy fury (seriously, never lifted a weight once).  Fast forward to today, 230lbs, can't even run half a mile..and while I am SUPER confident in the workplace, I have noticed that my self-image is falling quickly, I don't like what I see in the mirror, and I want to do something about it.

A few days ago a close family friend who is a Life Coach put me in contact with a Personal Trainer who operates out of a gym a few blocks from my place.  My first meeting with him is on Monday, I'm super psyched to jump into this!  Why am I here specifically if I'm hiring a PT? Well, I like many of you (from what I've been reading..while lurking) need to be held accountable.  I have never worked out well on my own, and since I won't be able to afford to meet with the trainer more than once a week per my budget, I need a community in my corner to keep me going..

All of that crazy aside, here's a bit about me personally:

I grew up in Indiana, lived there for 21 years, huge Notre Dame fan..if you are a USC fan we can be friends, but we'll never be best friends..I'm sorry.

Came out to the burbs almost exactly a year ago this month for what was supposed to be a 2 week vacation (was between jobs..got tired of job hunting)..my vacation ended up getting extended when I was offered an amazing job opportunity.

The job: I will be taking over in a couple months as the Kitchen Manager of a very popular Wine Bar/Restaurant/Retail establishment (we really do a lot here).  I have zero formal training as a chef, but I can definitely throw down in the kitchen and I know management quite well.  I am also the lone Cicerone CBS on staff (this is where my diet gets into trouble)..Cicerone is the beer equivalent to a Sommelier.

Hobbies: I love hobbies, I try to learn something new all the time.  Two years ago I built the custom PC I am typing from right now..did about 6 months of research, dropped $$$, built it in a day..going strong since.  I am also a beer brewer, working to add Gluten Free and Gluten Removed (really cool stuff) beer recipes to my list soon.  And then of course, cooking..I love cooking from scratch with fresh ingredients and my collection of spices will rival anyone's here. 

Nerd side:

Love Fantasy/Scifi Movies and TV Shows.

A huge fan of Norse mythology before Thor came out...and I have 2 sets of Norse rune tattoos to prove it.

I dabble in video games from time to time, if I had a choice though I'd be playing Gameboy and N64 for the rest of my life (NES and SNES are alright too I guess).  Unfortunately, my N64 bit the dust and replacing it hasn't been a huge priority for me..

I think that pretty much covers it, at the end of the day I am tired of wearing bulky clothing to hide who I am.  I'm ready to jump in and become the new fit person I know I can be.

 

 

 

TLDR: I'm awesome, I'm here to get in shape, I write full novels for first posts.

[Lalie Fanyarendil]

I agree, you sound awesome. I think there are a number of people here who have personal trainers--makes sense to me, the exercise is only one part of leveling up your life. Your job also sounds pretty cool.

 

And yay, another N64 fan! It's been my favorite ever since I got one in middle school. I love the weirdly-shaped controller.

 

I've never heard of gluten free beer before. (Unless you count sake.) That sounds interesting. How does it work? Does it use a different grain?

[MissoulaSquatch]

Thanks for the comments Lalie.

I kinda scored on this Personal Trainer, he typically takes referrals for hospital patients exiting physical therapy programs and still needing more attention.  So on Monday he will be screening me to find out my weaknesses and limitations and then designing my routine around that..which is exactly what I need.

Gluten Free beers weren't too big until the past few years, prior to that your only option as a celiac were Hard Ciders.  Typically they are made from a combination of Sorghum, Rice and Corn.  Most people can't stand the taste of Sorghum (I personally have no issues with it), and since Corn is the primary ingredient (after High Fructose Corn Syrup) in the typical "light" Lager it is also not well appreciated by many.  If you want to try Gluten Free beer, New Grist is probably the most widely distributed.

Gluten Removed on the other hand, that's where the fun begins.  There's this product called Brewers Clarex that was designed specifically for brewing, but had an interesting and unexpected side effect: it removes gluten..a lot of it.  The amino acid was designed to break down proteins in suspension in beer, and settle to the bottom so the resulting product would be "clear" rather than hazy.  What they didn't expect was how effective it was on gluten.  According to the FDA, for any food to be labeled "gluten free" it has to fall below 20 ppm.  Clarex can get regularly brewed beers below that threshold.  So if you've ever wanted to taste wheat or rye without getting gluten, you now can.  Omission is my favorite brewery that does all gluten removed beers.  I have numerous celiac friends who drink it and have had zero reactions.  I personally plan to pick up some clarex (when it becomes available again..Omission appears to be hogging it all) and a gluten testing kit to give it a go.

As for the N64..definitely miss that system.  Golden Eye was my thing..The World is Not Enough was also a great game (grossly undervalued).  The one thing that upsets me about the N64 is that they originally intended to make an online gaming community for it (ever wonder what that giant port on the bottom of the system was all about?) but never did.  Just imagine how insane online game play on that system would have been..even with our dial-up internet (or dsl towards the end)..lol

[Flex Luthor]

*Waves*

 

Hi!

[MissoulaSquatch]

Damn, he found me..

[Chris2Brooks]

Aaaaaand this dude hits subscribe. Found your update super interesting. Would love to hear more about the gluten free beer. Didn't even know that's possible.

You're at the right place man. Great support here.

[Amdhiel]

Right... Love the back story and will now be digging around Madison to see if I can find anything made by Omission. I did the personal training route in the past and it makes sense as long as your trainer is actually qualified and smart which it sounds like you found. Staying accountable and sticking with the plan set out can be challenging tho and NF will really help if you put in the work.

Welcome and we're glad to have you!

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[MissoulaSquatch]

Aaaaaand this dude hits subscribe. Found your update super interesting. Would love to hear more about the gluten free beer. Didn't even know that's possible.

You're at the right place man. Great support here.

Thanks.

With all of the responses I've gotten on the subject of gluten and beer, I'm contemplating doing a short write-up here and providing a few resources on the subject.  

 

Right... Love the back story and will now be digging around Madison to see if I can find anything made by Omission. I did the personal training route in the past and it makes sense as long as your trainer is actually qualified and smart which it sounds like you found. Staying accountable and sticking with the plan set out can be challenging tho and NF will really help if you put in the work.

Welcome and we're glad to have you!

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

http://omissionbeer.com/find-omission/

As I suspected, their Pale Ale and Lager are both available near you, multiple locations as well.  Those are the only two we have down here in Chicago.  I did get to try their IPA this Spring while on vacation in Hawaii..and it was EXCELLENT!  We're still waiting for them to expand distribution of that style and bring it to the MidWest.

Two Brother's Prairie Path is also a gluten removed beer, very good and popular and should be available in your area as well.

As for the rest, I'm very psyched about beginning this process (first official session is Friday) and finally getting myself to where I've always wanted to be.

Now I just have to figure out how to put my short term goals into my signature with those fancy status bars..

[Lalie Fanyarendil]

What is this? The Omission website says that the grocery store I always go to carries their beer?? I know where I'm going on the way home from work tomorrow. I don't have gluten sensitivities that I know of, but I have a great deal of curiosity.

[Amdhiel]

http://omissionbeer.com/find-omission/

As I suspected, their Pale Ale and Lager are both available near you, multiple locations as well.  Those are the only two we have down here in Chicago.  I did get to try their IPA this Spring while on vacation in Hawaii..and it was EXCELLENT!  We're still waiting for them to expand distribution of that style and bring it to the MidWest.

Two Brother's Prairie Path is also a gluten removed beer, very good and popular and should be available in your area as well.

As for the rest, I'm very psyched about beginning this process (first official session is Friday) and finally getting myself to where I've always wanted to be.

Now I just have to figure out how to put my short term goals into my signature with those fancy status bars..

 

Awesome, thanks for the deers re the beer. I'll have to try the lager and see if I like it, I'll also look into the Two Brother's.

 

The fancy bars in your sig is pretty easy. Option 1 is to click the button just to the left of the twitter button on the second row. It  will bring up a BBC Special code box. Type out the color you want it to display in the first text field and put the percent complete in the second text field.  The other option is to use the the Special BBC button to the left of the font drop down on the top row.

 

For thinking through and deciding on short term goals, you might want to check out the Level 1 Guidebook thread in the challenge forums.

 

Good luck with your first training session, can't wait to hear how it goes!

[MissoulaSquatch]

What is this? The Omission website says that the grocery store I always go to carries their beer?? I know where I'm going on the way home from work tomorrow. I don't have gluten sensitivities that I know of, but I have a great deal of curiosity.

 Hopefully they have it in stock..even tho I'm not gluten sensitive I drink them from time to time.  My only comment is they feel "less filling"..that's it.  Flavor wise, dead on with what one would expect from the regular stuff.

I'll kick around a bit and see if I can find anyone else doing gluten removed beers..these are just the two I know of.  The homebrewer websites have had a shortage for a few months on the Clarex (amino acid for removing gluten)..which could be because of breweries experimenting with it.  I've been trying to get my grubby hands on some for awhile.

[Razzy]

Awesome opening post! Welcome to the Nerd Herd!

 

I like novel-length first posts since I'm prone to it also. Put a link for your battle log in your signature and I'll happily follow along and throw vegetables at you should you go astray. (Don't worry they're fresh and you can cook 'em right up! )

 

I know our first meeting was totally odd but I swear I am not always sleep deprived and loony. Well... I'm not always sleep deprived. Jury's out on the loony bit. So, I apologize if anything I said seemed crazy and bizarre. Like why I like your username. Long story short: Ajax (the Greater) is, by far, my favorite character in the Illiad and I wrote a paper on him for my Classical Literature class. A favorite bit of history.... now most commonly recognized with diswashing soap. *sigh*

[Jittersthe.Clown]

Welcome to the best online community you'll ever find.  Looking forward to following along with your adventures.  I'm a fellow former distance runner in the midwest (MN) who enjoys his beer as well.  Most of our meet ups revolve around tap rooms.  

 

I'm going to add (based on your profile picture), welcome, Brother.  Minnehaha 165 in Minneapolis and Zuhrah Shrine Funster
 

[MissoulaSquatch]

I know our first meeting was totally odd but I swear I am not always sleep deprived and loony. Well... I'm not always sleep deprived. Jury's out on the loony bit. So, I apologize if anything I said seemed crazy and bizarre. Like why I like your username. Long story short: Ajax (the Greater) is, by far, my favorite character in the Illiad and I wrote a paper on him for my Classical Literature class. A favorite bit of history.... now most commonly recognized with diswashing soap. *sigh*

It's alright, if you must know I was about half a bottle of wine in for the night at that point..so I wasn't all there either, lol.  My shop was doing a sale and I picked up two awesome bottles for 50% off..figured why not, haha.

As for the name, my classmates first started calling me Ajax in 7th grade (not sure who started it or where they got the idea)..few years later when it came time to create an email address and join the internet, Ajax was too short so I tagged the -us on the end myself.  I was studying Latin at the time and it seemed to work, the name has stuck since.

And damn that soap to hell!

 

Welcome to the best online community you'll ever find.  Looking forward to following along with your adventures.  I'm a fellow former distance runner in the midwest (MN) who enjoys his beer as well.  Most of our meet ups revolve around tap rooms.  

 

I'm going to add (based on your profile picture), welcome, Brother.  Minnehaha 165 in Minneapolis and Zuhrah Shrine Funster

 

Only the second I've found here (that profile picture works wonders wherever I take it).  Formerly St Joseph Lodge 45 in South Bend (demitted due to budgetary issues after my move to Illinois...there's a bit more to it, but I felt a remit was wrong at the time, found a Lodge I plan to join in 2015 though).  Also: South Bend York Rite Commandery 13 and AASR Valley of South Bend (I was quite busy..lol). Clearly I've got some catching up to do once I get back to it.