Hello All...

[Prozehn]

Hello everyone, my username is Prozehn but my real name is Kirsten.  Don't be fooled by the picture, I'm actually a woman.  XD

Over the years I've taken up a male persona online as a sort of hindrance for predictors and what not, but I'm planning on being quite open and honest with this community.  However my online name shall always be Prozehn (pronounced PROH-zen).

I happened across Nerd Fitness by happenstance.  One day I was looking up 'fun activities to do for exercise' and one of the first links was Nerd Fitness.  The list had 25 different things on it that could be used as exercise but that could also be fun.  I was quite surprised and ecstatic to see that Steve had included LARPing (Live Action Role Playing) on the list.  After that, I began to play the game of follow the links and ended up finding out much more about this wonderful site and what it has to offer.  Shortly after I signed up and made my own character profile and got the first starting emails.  Ever since then I've been hooked, so looks like I'm a part of the Rebellion now.

 

I suppose I'll talk a little bit more about me before I go into a few of my goals.  I graduated from Greenville College (Located in Greenville, IL) in 2012.  I graduated with a Major in Art and a Minor in English.  Art has always been a passion of mine and I'm pretty good at a lot of different types of art.  But during college I found that Textile and Sculptural art are the ones that call to me the most.  So this discovery lead me into the wonderful world of Cosplay.  I've always enjoyed dressing up on Halloween in different costumes.  So Cosplay was a natural sort of niche for me.  Along with Cosplay, I enjoy Anime, Manga, Reading Fantasy and Science Fiction Novels, Drawing, Sewing, BJD's, Going to Conventions, Going to Renaissance Fairs, and LARPing.

 

Cosplay is one of the things that is inspiring me to take hold of my health and become a better, stronger, healthier me.  This year at Anime St. Louis I went to a panel about fitness for Cosplay.  I was thoroughly impressed with their presentation, and it started to get the ball rolling in my mind.  A lot of poses in Cosplay photography take a lot of strength and endurance to pull off.  This was the first stepping stone to kick my butt into gear.  The second was finding Nerd Fitness.  Now onward with the Rebellion!

 

Goal wise I know I want to lose weight.  I believe for my height and build I should weigh about 160-ish.  So I want to lose 50 lbs.  Along with that, I want to train my body to do Parkour.  I have many goals in mind that I'm still working through to put on my Quest of Awesomeness.  Hopefully I'll be able to flesh out my goals better after I get the book I just ordered "Level Up Your Life."

 

Anyway, I'm done talking about myself, I hope I didn't bore anyone.  I'm definitely looking forward to getting to know people who are a part of the Rebellion. Until later, Cheers!

[Jane Eyre Is My Patronus]

That is so cool! I'm terrible at sewing. For some reason I do not have the skill to either cut fabric or sew it in a straight line. I'm better off with either knitting needles or a crochet hook. (Yarn is so lovely and doesn't require me to cut it in a straight line.)

 

I do not know what a BJD is, I'm sorry.

 

Welcome to Nerd Fitness! I hope you achieve your goals!

[V for Vetinari]

Good luck! I am going to look at parkour down the line. First I need to get some basic strength and agility before I risk falling on my face on concrete. In public.

 

I'm with Jane Eyre, I can knit or crochet, but sewing does something to me. Like make me suck.

[bker1370]

Welcome to the Rebellion.  Nice to see another rebel in my general part of the country (I'm about 70 miles from St. Louis myself).

[Guzzi]

This is soooo awesome!

 

i think you'll get a lot out of being part of this community and there's a lot of people with similar interests. I LOVE sewing, but I'm very new to it and still learning, ie I'm crap at it, lol! I mostly make hammocks and beds for my furry friends, mostly out of necessity. I swear they think these things are a staple part of their diet or something!

 

As for your goals, don't worry about pinning down your long term goals right now, they usually shift and change as you progress anyway. Far better would be to think about the first steps in that direction and make sure they are SMART (Specific, Measureable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely). I'll give you some advice on how to achieve that below. 

 

 

Say you want to lose 50kg.

that takes cleaning up your diet.  let's start with cutting soda's.

first goal: drink one less Sugar water a day for a week

second goal: don't drink any soda at all one day a week for two weeks

third goal: only drink soda one day a week for two weeks

fourth goal: don't drink any soda at all for 3 weeks.

 

stuff like that.  The overal goal is not to drink soda (which depending on current habbits can make a huge difference).  We never change that goal.  we just break it up in small steps.

If you just cut them all from the start it will be harder.  and if you drink one, you failed at everything.

if you divide it in smaller goals and fail, you only failed on the one small thing.  it doesn't matter to much.  it wasn't that big of a deal anyway.  just try again next week.

 

also: make sure your goals are very specific.  Do not "drink less soda".

Drink 1 less soda a day for a week (if you usually drink the same amount of soda).

what makes the second one a better goal?:

- it's measurable: you can count the soda's.  Is it one less: good.  not one less: fail.  No discussion possible.

- it has a clearly defined timeframe.  you have a point where you can say "I did it" and claim your victory.

- it's a small and easy goal

Especially in the beginning, set goals you know you will be able to reach.  Just as important as achieving the actual specific goal, is teaching yourself that you are a person that accomplishes what you set out to do.  Once that's well and truly planted in your head, then you can go for things where you're not actually sure you'll be able to make it.

Sorry for the weird font size changes, that happens when I copy and paste for some reason. 
 

[/spoiler]

 

 

You can also use the 4 Week Challenges to set yourself goals. I always recommend this to people because it's a great way to integrate into the community and get some support. We are on the last week of the current challenge but there's another one starting on the 17th. Now is a good time to have a look through the current challenge threads to get a feel for how they work and get some ideas.

 

Lots of people use role play to make their challenge threads into a story with them as the main character with a full backstory and everything. But you don't have to do anything like that if its not your thing. You can just have fun with it.

 

It sounds like the Assassins might be a good fit for you.  Here is a good description of all the guilds for you to have a look through. 

 

[Guzzi]

Arrrrrrgh! The site HATES my phone!

 

I don't know why it put ALL of my response into a spoiler, it should have only been the bit about how to set SMART goals. Sorry about that, lol!

[Prozehn]

12 hours ago, Jane Eyre Is My Patronus said:

I do not know what a BJD is, I'm sorry.

No need to be sorry, Hun.  BJD stands for Ball Jointed Dolls.  They originated in Japan.  They are loved for how customizable they are as well as how photogenic they are.  I have two at the moment, a 5 Star Dark doll and a Dollzone Chen.

 

10 hours ago, M_J said:

Good luck! I am going to look at parkour down the line. First I need to get some basic strength and agility before I risk falling on my face on concrete. In public.

 

Thanks. I know I'm quite a ways away from doing parkour myself, but it's something I definitely want to train for.  One of my DnD characters is excellent at parkour so it's something that I want to achieve for myself.

 

9 hours ago, bker1370 said:

Welcome to the Rebellion.  Nice to see another rebel in my general part of the country (I'm about 70 miles from St. Louis myself).

Good to hear, and thanks.   I was hoping that I'd be able to connect with some local people to make a training/accountability group.

 

3 hours ago, Guzzi said:

This is soooo awesome!

 

i think you'll get a lot out of being part of this community and there's a lot of people with similar interests. I LOVE sewing, but I'm very new to it and still learning, ie I'm crap at it, lol! I mostly make hammocks and beds for my furry friends, mostly out of necessity. I swear they think these things are a staple part of their diet or something!

 

As for your goals, don't worry about pinning down your long term goals right now, they usually shift and change as you progress anyway. Far better would be to think about the first steps in that direction and make sure they are SMART (Specific, Measureable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely). I'll give you some advice on how to achieve that below. 

Everyone has to start somewhere when it comes to anything in life.  So keep going with it, I know with time you'll figure it out and not suck at it.  Just watch where the needle is as compared to your fingers.  (I've been poked lots of times.)

And thanks for the great example, Hun, but I've already cut soda completely out of my diet.  I accomplished that last year.  The bane of my existence is baked goods.  I love sweets of all kinds but particularly muffins, donuts, pastries, and the like.  I can rationalize them as breakfast food which makes them okay.  So I think I'll take the approach that you outlined for me and apply it to that.  So thanks again.  

[Guzzi]

Mmmmm.....donuts.....

 

Good for you on cutting the soda! I've never been a soda drinker myself so I never fully appreciated the "addiction". Bakery stuff though, oh yes! I understand that!  

 

The bit about soda is just meant as an example. It was written by another user and I pinched it because it's such a good description on how to make goals that are measureable and most importantly, achievable. A lot of people set themselves up for failure because they simply expect too much of themselves. Its important ant to be realistic about whether you can make a change stick. 

 

Have you found your way around the forum alright? It's a big place and can be kinda intimidating when you're trying to find your way around. Just say if you need any help or advice.