Reporting for duty!

[hatenik_the_barbarian]

New to the forum, but stumbled across NF via Reddit, and have been reading voraciously for just over a week. The wealth of information I found even scratching the surface of this blog, forum, and its members convinced me that this might be a good place for me.

A bit of background - I've dabbled in gymnastics, karate, kickboxing, yoga, and judo - the instructors I had made and broke my experiences with these. Lately, I do best on my own with guidance pulled from reading and technique videos, and sharing ideas.

I love pretty much all barbarians (ask me why the new Conan movie isn't a total disaster!) and want the muscle and agility of a lady-viking. Thus, I want to pursue pole for fitness, but until I live near a studio, bodyweight and interval training it is! Up until recently, my inspiration for barbaric strength has been those guys on Spartacus, but I now have a favorite pole gymnast, Oona Kivela, and I also read about Staci/Spezzy (holy frak)!

What can I offer, and what do I need in return? They mostly go hand in hand: a sympathetic ear for rants/frustrations, support for working out on your own, support for the cons of odd schedules, willingness to share the results of my kitchen experiments, and a pat-pat on the shoulder when you need one.

Seriously, I'm on an island. Transitioning to paleo is hard as hell when I'm used to English muffins for breakfast and semi-frequent baked snacks, so I experiment with recipes that call for flax meal and coconut flour. My fiance has short-bowel syndrome and eats 3x what a normal person eats just to maintain his weight, and doesn't work out, and I often have to remind him that we can't all eat whatever/how much we really want. My friends who do workout play the hamster-wheel-elliptical game, or otherwise don't want to come to my side of town to work out at the free gym in my apartment complex.

[tjcass]

Sounds like you have a great attitude and a sense of humor... I can identify with a few things you've mentioned, the crazy schedule and trying to get in workouts, etc.. I haven't made the decision to go paleo, but I applaud you for it, having a fiance with dietary issues that collide with your wants must be difficult.

I love the "hamster wheel" reference and if someone was going to let me come workout for free, I'd be on that... your friends need to check themselves lol

Good luck to you!

[hatenik_the_barbarian]

Thanks.

I feel only sort-of successfully paleo. What I like is it gives me a good direction for learning recipes. Although I am due to share a couple kitchen experiments... let's go see where they should go...