Awkward Fae is awkward

[fae713]

'ello! Awkward introductions go here, yes?

F/30/married/Colorado... oh right, probably not what was intended here.

Let's see, I'm a nurse with 8 years experience in different levels of psych, 1 year in med-surg/labor and delivery, and a little over a year in corrections. I had the distinction of being the youngest person in my class to test for the NCLEX; I got my license only 3 months after I turned 20. I kinda cheated though because I was in the US Army and they have a program for medics to get their LPN/LVN license in a little over a year. I got to skip those pesky pre-reqs like English and statistics and all that. I'm suffering for it now though as I'm back in school part-time to complete those pre-reqs so I can get my bachelors in nursing. Eventually. At some point. Maybe? There's even a chance that I'll continue on with the intent of completing a psych nurse practitioner program.

 

The actual fun part of my life though is definitely spent in the geeky type pursuits. I'm surrounded by Star Wars and LotR legos, book shelves with books double-stacked, dice and character sheets, and all the yarn and knitting things I can keep out in the front room before the husband gets grumpy. Actually, I probably passed that a while ago... Since I discovered the joy of knitting (courtesy of a pirate at a local con) I knit everywhere. Literally everywhere. including at the gym, though mostly on the bikes or ellipticals, since when I do go to the gym it's empty so there's no waiting for space/equipment. I've documented it too because I find it amusing:

 

 

It may be hard to tell but it's blurry because it's really, really hard to hold still for a selfie while on an elliptical, especially if you're concentrating on something else. Also, that was right after work and I had already used my daily allowance of give-a-fucks. Especially since it was so bright out. 

 

I only started exercising again recently when I discovered that I had lost nearly 25 lbs in less than 6 months without making any obvious lifestyle changes. Stress was likely the overarching cause for the weight loss, so it was nearly all muscle. Not good at my age since it just gets harder and harder to build and maintain muscle mass. Things needed to change and since school and work aren't likely to go away any time soon I needed to do something different. Something active and good for stress reduction and not take forever and a day. Actual full body exercises! That's the answer! Except I had/have? no clue what in the world to do that wouldn't bring up memories from the Army including the hours and hours of physical training without a good focus; just getting through until it ended wasn't exactly the most inspiring. Enter Nerd Fitness with tutorials and pictures and videos and plans all with a fun gamification thing. Totally my style.

 

My goals are to gain back and add on muscle mass, increase my stamina so that running up the stairs at work won't leave me more winded than my patients, and generally keeping my sanity and mental health while doing work and school and life. Part of using the NF forums is to have some form of accountability since my husband and cats aren't too keen on joining me, and my friends all live in different parts of town and are as busy, if not more busy, than I am. The other is because, really, who wouldn't enjoy getting to RP while doing something that can, let's face it, be kinda tedious and unpleasant at times?

 

Anywho, I've kept myself up too late as it is, this night owl is off to sleep. Hope everyone has a good day/night, and thank you for reading. :-)

[WhiteGhost]

Welcome!

[Guzzi]

Hey. Welcome on board! 

 

I'm F/34/widow/Scotland, and I have a stash of fabric that lives in the front room so I can sympathise.  We ran out of room a long time back so I've had to start stashing fabric/stuffing/batting in the attic.  Not that I have an addiction or anything.   

 

Although you will probably have lost some muscle mass I really don't think the muscle loss will be a great as you think, though you are absolutely right to do some strength exercises to improve your muscle tone and strength.  25lbs would be an enormous amount of muscle to lose so unless you were Wonder Woman before then it's more likely that it's  mostly bodyfat with a little muscle loss on top.  You should find that introducing bodyweight exercises will soon make up for any muscle loss.  

 

Have you looked around the forum and had a chance to check out all the different aspects yet?  Things that I usually tell people to check out are the 4 Week Challenges, the NF Character Creator, the Guilds and the "random" thread in the pub (<-always good for a laugh). 

 

Let me know if there's anything I can help you with.  

[Gemma]

Hi, Fae, 

Nice to "meet" another yarncrafter. I'm a crochet nut myself. Love Colorado, I was born in Denver and went to HS up in the mountains, just got home from a two week vacay in the Denver area. 

[fae713]

Thank you all for the welcome! I've slowly started to poke around the forums and have started a 4 week challenge in the Rebels group.

 

It's great to find other crafters here. I've a handful of friends that craft and do gym stuffs but the only one that also knits at the gym is doing powerlift stuff and she typically only knits between reps when there's a competition like sock madness - 7 rounds of knitting socks to a pattern in 14 or 10 days per round, she's usually in the first five done in the international competition. Sadly though she's all the way up in Wisconsin so all I get to see are her pics of her "purling in the squat rack" which is just amusing to think about.

 

Gemma, you chose a perfect time to visit! It's been sooooo green the last few weeks of April/May because of all the rain/hail/snow we've gotten the last few weeks. It may have been more cloudy than usual but so pretty.

 

Good luck to everyone on your challenges and accomplishing goals!