A different kind of "nerd," but with all the same struggles!

[OfficeSchmoe]

Hello All,

 

This is not my first attempt at getting fit, but I am hoping it is my last. I am a 30-something year old with a very sedentary life and I'm starting to feel a bit out of control with my eating habits. Waking up everyday and feeling like a 70 year old is unlegit and I am tired of it. So, here I am. Again.

 

A little context to my nerdy side goes like this: I work for a large museum in Southern California as, you guessed it, an office schmoe. Fortunately my office job coincides with my own nerdy love: art. I'm not much for comic books or video games, but I do get absorbed for hours books, in paintings, and in the halls of museums wherever I travel. I have a BA and MA in Art History with a particular focus on ancient Roman art, so working in a museum is exactly what I wanted to do with myself! I can take breaks and walk the galleries during the day, see exhibitions from behind the scenes, and listen to regular lectures by curators who speak so passionately about their field of interest that it often becomes my interest, too. I'm an art nerd that doesn't actually create art, but who, instead, studies it, learns from it, and talks about it every day of my life. 

 

Weight loss context goes like this: I have always felt overweight, even when I wasn't. That's what it's like growing up female in southern Orange County surrounded by the epitome of "thin-spo" all around you everyday. I gained a significant amount of weight when I went vegan (20 lbs or so withing the first couple of months) and my weight continued to climb for about 16 years. I have since dropped veganism and started to eat a more omnivorous diet. I am, much to my bodies chagrin, highly knowledgeable on what I should be eating and, yet, I write this post just 20 mins after eating a pieces of cake instead of the healthy lunch I brought. It's a shitty spiral I've entered....eating for comfort, feeling terrible about it, and then eating to comfort myself for feeling shitty about eating for comfort. My weight has somewhat stabilized, but I need to lose about 50 lbs and see my blood panel and fasting blood sugar improve. 

 

I don't exactly know how to start, but I am looking for support from people on the same path. I am surrounded by people who make this shit look so easy and I am struggling. BIG TIME. Thanks for listening to me rant!

 

 

[RedStone]

Hey there OS! Art history FTW!!! (I majored in fine art but minored in AH. Love it!) I'm fairly new around here too. The folks around here are awesome and super supportive. Have you found any nutritional and/or exercise programs that interest you?

[Lou186000]

Welcome, OfficeSchmoe! Nerds of all flavors abide here, looks to me like you'll fit in just fine!

 

I think one of the valuable pieces of advice I got from Rebel Leader Steve when I read his materials a while ago was to not attempt to make a bunch of changes all at once. If memory serves, I think I did two things at the outset: I started walking more, and I added spinach to my diet. That was it. I ate a lot of spinach, too, by mixing it with stuff at least a couple of meals a day. After a month or so of that I added another healthy food to my regular intake. I think that was almond milk, started having that with my cereal. Oh -- here's what else I did, I started strength training. Didn't join a gym, I just bought some dumbbells and did stuff in my living room. 

 

Anyway, that's one suggestion where to start: pick something small to change, then stick with it. Eventually pick something additional to change. And finally (and I still struggle with this myself), give yourself time to change. It won't happen overnight, but it will happen.

 

Off to do my strength session for tonight. I'm really enoying doing bodyweight stuff from darebee.com, if you need a routine that you can do in your living room you might consider checking it out.

 

Good luck!

 

 

 

[guacamole]

Hi OfficeSchmoe!

 

I totally understand what you mean by constantly surrounded by "thin-spo" in Socal. I moved to LA for college a few years ago, and suddenly felt this insane pressure to be skinny - which I never was. I can also definitely relate to the downward spiral of "well I've already had one piece of cake - may as well have another" and feeling guilty, and so on.

 

But I'm taking my first baby steps on NF too - and will definitely be around for support whenever you need it. 

Beginners unite!

 

[Rookie]

Hello! I tracked your thread down That is so cool that you work in the museum and can just go wander - that would be absolutely amazing. I love art so we have that in common as well! Anywho I am supposed to be going home from my office work haha. I wanted to say that I totally get the slippery slope part. Its so hard  

 

[OfficeSchmoe]

 

Hey there OS! Art history FTW!!! (I majored in fine art but minored in AH. Love it!) I'm fairly new around here too. The folks around here are awesome and super supportive. Have you found any nutritional and/or exercise programs that interest you?

 

I've had luck eating a low-carb high-fat diet in the past. Recently I read the book "The Wahl's Protocol" (geared towards folks with MS, which I do NOT have, but still very relevant to anyone looking for a nutritionally dense diet) and feel very drawn to her rules for eating. I will most likely get myself on that high-plant, high-fat, moderate-protein diet and just start really removing the junk. I am not a soda drinker and I don't buy processed food at home. HOWEVER, I am notorious for ordering far more food than I need when I go out to eat, so eating at home is going to be a major part of my success. I'm open to suggestions, of course, though I know that the low-cal, high-carb, low-cat approach makes me homicidal and hasn't worked well for me in the past. 

[OfficeSchmoe]

 

 

I totally understand what you mean by constantly surrounded by "thin-spo" in Socal. I moved to LA for college a few years ago, and suddenly felt this insane pressure to be skinny - which I never was.

 

I grew up in Southern California, but I've lived in other places. This area is very shallow in ways I never noticed in other states I've lived in (Utah, Colorado, and PA). California is beautiful and it will always be "home," but the image-centered nature of this place leaves much to be desired!

[Jijiang Quan]

Welcome from a fellow office schmoe...but not on the art side, from the number crunching, pencil pushing side.  You are going to find lots of support here just remember this each time you face the dreaded "thin-spo" monster; Marilyn Monroe is still considered the sexiest women of the past century, and she was not skinny

 

[RedStone]

 

 

I've had luck eating a low-carb high-fat diet in the past. Recently I read the book "The Wahl's Protocol" (geared towards folks with MS, which I do NOT have, but still very relevant to anyone looking for a nutritionally dense diet) and feel very drawn to her rules for eating. I will most likely get myself on that high-plant, high-fat, moderate-protein diet and just start really removing the junk. I am not a soda drinker and I don't buy processed food at home. HOWEVER, I am notorious for ordering far more food than I need when I go out to eat, so eating at home is going to be a major part of my success. I'm open to suggestions, of course, though I know that the low-cal, high-carb, low-cat approach makes me homicidal and hasn't worked well for me in the past. 

 

Yeah, I hear ya, I think I packed on the most when I was working ridiculous hours and almost never cooked at home. I did really well with a keto-ish thing when I first started loosing, but of course it's different for everyone. Doing something that works for you, something that'll you'll want to stick to is always tops!