I am not in danger. I am the one who lifts.

[DrGirlfriend]

Hello, all! I've been following the NF blog for a while, but today I decided I'd finally join the forum as well. Being a member of this community seems like a great way to get myself motivated. Nobody I know IRL is really interested in fitness and eating healthy, so here we are, Internet.

About me: I'm a lady in her mid-20s who enjoys yoga, biking, and swimming. I recently got into lifting, but the subject line of my post is more for the joke than for any kind of truth. I'm still really new to it and am definitely not the danger -- yet! As it stands, I have really poor upper body strength, which is one of many things I'd like to work on. Also, this summer I got really lazy and my entire fledgling fitness routine completely fell apart. So now I am determined to put it back together.

I don't really understand exactly how the guilds and challenges work yet, but it seems like a new challenge is going to start soon, so I'm going to try and figure all that out so I can join it. Seems like perfect timing. From what I understand of the guilds from a quick glance, I will probably be an Adventurer, since I like doing a little bit of everything.

My first set of goals, abridged: lift 3 times a week, go to yoga 2-3 times a week, bike everywhere and stop taking the bus, go paleo and never look back. I'm at a healthy weight for my height, so I don't want to lose weight, but I do want to decrease my body fat percentage and increase my muscle. Appearance is definitely part of my reasoning for wanting to do this, I won't lie, but the main reason is that I want to feel healthier. Eating poorly and being inactive too often makes me feel crappy, and who wants that? Not me.

I'm currently following the Starting Strength plan (or rather, I was before summer came along and I stopped doing everything for some horrible reason... so I guess I'll have to start over this week), and when I inevitably hit a wall there, I am not sure what I'll do. That'll be when I come to all of you and ask what to do next, I imagine. Stay tuned!

What else? I'm also interested in adding a bit of running to my routine, but no, you see, this is where I always run into problems: I have a tendency to be over-ambitious. I want to do ALL THE THINGS. Which always means I end up doing none of the things. So I need to stamp on the impulse to add things to my routine when I haven't even nailed down a basic routine yet. There you go, I'm sharing my biggest weakness in my first post. Hoorah for honesty.

This post is getting too long, so I'm ending it here. Looking forward to getting to know you guys!

[MuayTyson]

Welcome, ummmmm you do know that Dr. Girlfriend is not a biological woman right?

[MuayTyson]

Let me clarify the cartoon. I don't know about the new recruit.

[DrGirlfriend]

Welcome, ummmmm you do know that Dr. Girlfriend is not a biological woman right?

You would feel the sting of the mighty Monarch if you said that within his hearing.

(But really, she's all woman, baby. Or at least I think so.)

[MuayTyson]

All woman where it counts eh?

[arcticMaiden]

Welcome to the Rebellion DrGirlfriend! I look forward to seeing you around the forums. I'm glad your main motivation is to feel better, but I think most of us would be lying if we said that we didn't want all this working on ourselves to make us look great too! I know it's one of my motivations ;P

[Erick the Red]

Welcome. I have heard lots of good things from the Warrior boards here about Starting Strength, so it looks like you are on a good path there. Keep it up!

[The Tin Man]

Welcome! I'm glad to see a fellow Somervillian on here! I'll have to keep an eye out for your challenge thread. I sent you a PM about a great gym in the area.