Hi, My Name is...

[BayouPrincess]

Mary Elizabeth though most call me Beth. I'm 43, live in MD, and am newly single(ish). I'm one of the senior Active Directory engineers where I work and I use the term engineer loosely. What it really means is that I'm on the backend helping folks integrate their products with AD, help them get OUs/GPOs setup, sometimes help with DHCP or KMS servers, etc..

 

When I'm not at work, I am playing Trove with my Mom and brother. I've played many video games over the years with MMOs taking up the majority. I like to read, take pictures (extreme novice), and attempt gardening (hard to garden when you let the slugs eat the results because you can't bring yourself to hurt them even though they're super gross).

 

Why am I here?

 

Back in September 2014, I switched jobs. I went from a high stress super busy job to a zero stress super not busy job. This allowed thoughts I wasn't ready to address come up front and center demanding attention (rude!). I was in a toxic marriage. I knew something was wrong for years but it was easier to hide myself under layers of unhealthy behaviors and pretend it away or make feeble excuses. I isolated myself from people. I dressed poorly. I was a ball of paranoid anxiety.

 

I couldn't ignore the thoughts. They refused to go away and leave me alone (again, rude!) so I found a kick butt therapist, who has helped me tremendously. I separated from my husband at the beginning of the month and found myself with a lot of time on my hands. What's ironic is this is time that was always there but I had buried myself so deep, I was under the impression I had no free time to do anything. HA!

 

I started poking the interwebs for things to do and found this website. It's very bad to find a website filled with funny stuff in the middle of a work day. I'm in an open cube office (I can see everyone without standing! No meerkat impressions here!). Do you know how hard it is to hide giggling fits in an open cube office?!

 

Anyway, I felt an instant connection to the community and realized I wanted to be a fit nerd but not just physically fit. I want to be healthy and happy mentally. I want to go out and not be afraid. I want to see stuff! So, I started by signing up to the website and started doing the simple things mentioned in the emails like changing one thing in my diet (I cut soda cold turkey) and walking every day (I attempt my first mile tonight!).

 

That was well over a month ago. Since then I have cooked nearly every meal except breakfast - I'm still eating cereal but once those boxes are gone, that's it; no more cereal. Since I'm not eating out a bazillion (no really.. that many) times a week, I have extra money so I joined the Academy and started messing with the Quests. Oh. My. God! Genius! How did you guys know I am an achievement whore! I want to do all the Quests!

 

Is there an achievement for doing all the Quests? If not, there should be!

 

I also started the beginning body weight workout this past Monday; a version of it anyway but that's okay. I know I'll get there eventually.

 

My biggest goal is to save up for a trip to Ireland. I want to see the Giant's Causeway and anything else in that area. I haven't been anywhere outside the States since my early Navy days 20+ years ago! My target date for the trip is sometime in the latter half of next year. First step - get a passport!

 

One of my other goals is learning at least one new recipe every week. Since I'm adopting a near Paleo diet (Must have sugar/creamer in my 1 cup of coffee!), I have a serious lack of recipes. I learned how to do the pan roasted pork chops (LOVE!). I'm still learning how to handle the steaks (I seriously smoked up the house last night). This week's recipe was the garlic mashed cauliflower, which I did last night. Turned out really well considering it was my first steaming attempt.

 

I'm not concerned with losing weight though I've lost 10lbs (I admit, some of that could be from stress). As of right now, I'd just like to be stronger than I am. For instance, I have to mow the grass now that I'm alone. I sold the old 60+ lb mower (that I was never able to use since it was so damn heavy) and got a new 38lb mower. While lighter, it's still not easy for me to push it around my sloping front yard. I'm sure I was putting on a show for the neighbors as I scalped part of the yard yesterday but hey, I did it and didn't lose any body parts! Neither did the frog that decided to join in on the fun.

 

I'd also like to be able to stand at the kitchen sink and do the dishes without my back starting to hurt. I don't think I'm standing wrong but I wasn't paying attention the couple of times it's happened so I very well could be slouching.

 

Soo.. long post.. putting this all out there is huge for me.. I'd really like to delete it and hide under a rock but I'm not going too.. It took me a few weeks to work up the courage to get an account, then another few days to actually post.. so.. Clicking button now..

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Your post made it through, now it's here for us to enjoy! Welcome to the rebellion, glad to have you. You've done a lot already, so you're certainly setting yourself up for success. Have you considered joining the six week challenge? It starts on Monday so you're just in time to get in there.

[BayouPrincess]

Thank you for the welcome.

 

I thought about joining the challenge, but to be honest, it looked intimidating. I'm still learning how to take large things and make them into small achievable goals. I know how to do it in my job - that's easy. But in life, my eyes start to glass over and my brain runs away. Though the more I think about it, it might help me learn. I'll look at the forums and give it some more thought.

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

The recruit section is made just for you, it's where we send all our first timers.

[Pooch]

You have quite a story. You deserve to be happy. Keep at it. You can do it

[Luciana Valerosa Culming]

Welcome

You made the first steps. Just keep the momentum. Good luck with your challenge. Next week I'll try to mow our lawn by myself, too, because he hasn't done it for months and how hard can it be. ^^ wish me luck.

[JessOfAllTrades]

What a journey you've had! It sounds like you have made some amazing progress so far in being healthier and happier. Hope we can help you do more. Also, as a fellow MD nerd, allow me to link you to our meetup thread. The DC-area nerds cover VA, DC, and MD, and we're awesome. We're from all walks of life and cover a big age range.

 

Welcome!

[greenjasper]

Welcome and good luck! I'm former Navy as well.

 

There are definitely cushioned plastic-type mats made for people to stand on while at the kitchen sink or behind a cash register at work or anywhere they might be standing on a hard surface. Even though it's your back that's hurting, I'm wondering if it's really standing on the hard floor that's making it worse. Hard to say.

[Barfly]

How was your mile?

[BayouPrincess]

My mile was awesome. The day could not have been prettier. My calves burned a little bit on the way home though. I'd love to know what the changes in elevation are as I walk. Is there some way I can find that out?

 

As for the sore back thing while doing dishes, I think it's a combination of my shortness (I'm 5'4") and the design of the sink. I have to lean a little bit to hold things under the faucet. I figured this out last night while I did dishes in my regular footwear, which are shoes that give me 2-3 inches of height. I was standing there for a bit and didn't hurt at all. I'm not putting on heels to do dishes every night though so I'm going to look at a new faucet that's got one of those spray heads on it. Not only will I have the ability to rinse the dishes wearing any shoe (or barefoot), I'll be saving on my water bill! Replacing the faucet can't be that hard right?

[Barfly]

Sweet!

Try this:

http://www.doogal.co.uk/RouteElevation.php

Put your starting point in "Location" and plot your route on the map that pops up.

No, replacing a faucet is easy. Home Depot does a tutorial, too. Good luck.

[EmbracingChaos]

If you have a smart phone then you can use RunKeeper to view an elevation profile as well.  It will tell you all kinds of metrics like average pace and it congratulates you when you've beaten personal best times, distances, etc.  Don't be thrown off by the name, they've branched out into handling walking, cycling, and a million other forms of cardiovascular activity.  You just start the app before you start your walk, and stop it when you get back to your house.  Since you're an achievement whore (your term not mine  ) then you'll probably fall in love with beating all of your own personal bests.  Give it a shot and let us know how you get on!

[BayouPrincess]

If you have a smart phone then you can use RunKeeper to view an elevation profile as well.  It will tell you all kinds of metrics like average pace and it congratulates you when you've beaten personal best times, distances, etc.  Don't be thrown off by the name, they've branched out into handling walking, cycling, and a million other forms of cardiovascular activity.  You just start the app before you start your walk, and stop it when you get back to your house.  Since you're an achievement whore (your term not mine  ) then you'll probably fall in love with beating all of your own personal bests.  Give it a shot and let us know how you get on!

I downloaded the RunKeeper app and I love it! Thank you for the suggestion! I will admit, the first time it spoke to me, I jumped out of my skin. And yeah, coming home last night to see I had three personal best achievements was rather cool.