call me telia tequila, 'cause I'm givin' it a shot..

[swrigh40]

FOREWARNING: in this post I do a little bit of soul-bearing and life-story-telling. it ended up way longer than I expected so if you make it through the whole thing then congratulations and thanks! I'd love feedback or friends, or advice since I'm entirely new to this!

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so, here I am. I guess a little about myself is what should come next. my name's sarah, I just turned 21, and I'm from the lovely state of texas. I live by myself out in the country in an underground house (the roof is level with the ground, and the door is like a storm shelter door) with my almost 6 month old kitty cat, reptar. as far as hobbies go, lately they've been netflix and facebook with a little cleaning in the mix (exciting right?). I would certainly consider myself a gamer, the first game I remember ever beating was sonic adventure battle on the dreamcast, and my love pour les jeux videos just kinda took off from there. zelda: ocarina of time and super mario 64 were the games that I was stuck on in my younger years; now bethesda games are my cup of tea. skyrim is definitely my favourite, hands down, but oblivion will forever hold a special place in my heart. I'm pretty alright at shoot 'em ups like halo and cod. I played a lot of starcraft and warcraft, as well as diablo I and II, when I lived with my parents. basically I'm just a nerdy nerd nerd, I'll give any game a chance. hell, I even picked up samurai warrior 2 the other day! a little redundant, but kept me busy, haha.

anyways, I also really dig music. all kinds of music. metal, 90s hip-hop, golden oldies, classic rock, alternative, opera, musicals, indie, punk, classical- I don't care. if it's music, I'll listen. and for clarification purposes, nickelback is not music. God wanted to punish us for our sins so since he couldn't flood the earth again, he sent us nickelback. (I'm not being blasphemous, I love God. I just hate nickelback.) until pretty recently, I had listened to and appreciated all types of music, but hadn't really found one that I was truly interested in, one that I wanted to learn more about and become thoroughly familiar with. then, I heard edm. I mean sure I listened to basshunter and crystal castles but it wasn't until I heard my first real, sick drop that I realized what a gift mankind had been given. I guess you could say edm was my rainbow at the end of the flood. electro house and electro swing are probably my favourite subgenres, but i love a grimy dubstep drop almost as much. anyways, those are my main two interests, video games and music. now on to the weight loss part.

when I was in high school, I got up to 210 lbs, probably in my junior year. I wasn't active, I was eating way too much of all the wrong things, and I was just overall not a healthy person. since then, I've made considerable progress. I went to jail for a month at the end of my senior year, which began my weight loss rollercoaster. I started working out twice a day with a ballerina I was locked up with, so that combined with the tiny portions of inedible junk they served us plus drinking absolutely nothing but water, brought me down to a good 165 or so. once I got out, I picked up a few pounds again but maintained my workout regimen. then the following spring, my boyfriend and I became pregnant. my weight shot back up to around 185, but I miscarried into my second trimester. once that passed I lost a little but stayed around 175 or so. time went by and eventually I met a guy, he was stick skinny and super adorable and for some reason he was attracted to me. so when we started dating, I changed my habits again and starting running, as well as drinking water and eating less. we also went to raves together, so I spent a lot of time shuffling (or trying to learn to shuffle, rather) which helped me to slim back down to 155 or so. I would almost be so bold as to say 150, but I'm not. well long story short, this guy and I broke up a couple of months ago. since then I have easily gained somewhere between maybe 5 and 10 lbs, for which my self esteem has taken quite a blow.. so now, I'm 5'5" and about 165. I'm not particularly happy with these numbers, especially after having watched the latter number increase so suddenly over such a short period of time. quite frankly, I'm ready for a change. I'm done being mopey and lazy, and feeling inadequate. I spend most of my days browsing facebook and watching king of the hill before going to work at my part time job, then coming home and repeating the same routine but with a pizza in hand. I keep saying 'I'll start monday, and I'll go at it hardcore! no more pizza, nothing but water to drink, running five miles a day!' then come monday I'm making up excuses the way meg griffin makes up boyfriends and I end up doing something completely counterproductive, like bingeing on brownies or getting drunk with my friends. and I'm finished with it.

I guess what I'm looking for from this experience, if not results, is just a little bit of structure. structure, and support. my life's been too 'go with the flow' lately, and I think this site could really help me. as I said before I live underground, in the country, alone. I get depressed easily, and most of my free time is spent lying on the couch with the lights off, watching archer and munching on pringles, feeling miserable. my short term goal is to put down the pringles and go for a walk, for starter. that's not the part that's so hard for me. the hard part for me is making changes long term, sticking to them. i have a problem with picking too many changes to make all at once, then when the time comes I guess I become intimidated, maybe even scared of failure. so I guess I could say I'm also looking for a little willpower, not necessarily from this site but as a result of utilizing it.

anyways, I apologize for the novel. as I said before, if you made it through all this then by all means please add me(?) as a friend! I'd love to meet some people. thanks for reading!

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reptar kitty

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[Kishi]

Well, if you're looking to create some structure, you probably picked the best time to come out of the woodwork. We've got a challenge starting up in a few days - three fitness goals, one life goal. Setting up some systems so that you can get more out of your time would be a great starting goal to work with.

Welcome to the rebellion! Hope you enjoy your time here.

[swrigh40]

so it is like, any fitness/life goals? I have no idea where to start lol. it's a good thing I have a little time before it starts to figure it all out.

[MuayTyson]

Kishi gives good advice. The resources are on the site if you look around. I can give you some easy ones. Fitness/Health: #1. Go for a Walk 20 min. 3x a week, #2. Eat 3 meals a day, #3. Drink more water(easy make a little dash mark for every 8oz.) Lifestyle goal. I am joining Toast Masters maybe you could join a club?

Hope that helps.

[Aqweei]

Who cares if you write a novel!? We are all Nerds here

You've definitely been through a roller coaster ride and I am quite envious of the underground house! My fiance and I are planning on building an Earth Sheltered home so not quite underground but more or less the same thing.

I definitely know how you feel about getting motivated and going after it though. Like you I have been up and down the weight loss yo-yo and I had trouble getting motivated this time around. One of the things I did was 1.) Joined this site 2.) Realized that it doesnt matter what day you start, youve just got to start and 3.) I started working at it. Another thing Ive changed up about this time from last, Im taking baby steps. Both the other times I just quit all the junk cold turkey, lost the weight, kept it off for 4-5 months, and then started to gain it all back slowly but surely. This week I have dedicated to getting used to being active and starting to watch what I eat. Next week is going to focus on being more active and stricter on what I eat. The week after that will be more difficult, so on and so forth. I turned 21 last december and thats when I really started getting into drinking (during high school and everything I was always the DD because I had a lot of trust issues as my first ever party when I was 17 resulted in me and a friend being left in an abandoned house lol, funny now wasnt funny then) and Ive realized that if I want to watch College Football, which is a passion of mine, and eat some pizza and have a beer/some whiskey then its ok to do that. So long as I limit how much I consume and I only do it once a week or so. Its all about creating a plan you can maintain and actually making a lifestyle change.

I believe if you give yourself structure, then perhaps you will start to find structure in other areas of your life such as work, friendships, relationships, etc. Good luck!

[kasers]

I'm making up excuses the way meg griffin makes up boyfriends

I have no other input apart from saying LOL at this ^

[Nozza]

Welcome!

I can't say I figured all this out on my own but between a few members I was led to this archived thread, it is for an old challenge, but if you read through(the links tend to be a bit cleaner format wise) it may break it down for you a bit easier. But from what i've gathered, some of the rules change from challenge to challenge. Its a dynamic and progressive ruleset that needs to be adapted to as time moves on. http://www.nerdfitness.com/community/showthread.php?10716-6-Week-Challenge-April-30th-to-June-11th&highlight=races+guilds

[bigm141414]

Welcome swrigh! I am always happy to see more of my Texans on here This community is great for a lot of things, motivation, accountability, and most of all information.

so it is like, any fitness/life goals? I have no idea where to start lol. it's a good thing I have a little time before it starts to figure it all out.

As for the challenge that is starting take a look at the FAQs forum here: http://www.nerdfitness.com/community/forumdisplay.php?191-Forum-Rules-and-FAQ

It is provides an overview of the challenge and what not and if you are into the role playing aspect it goes over how to set up your character

Anyways, take a look around, read some threads, reply, and ask questions. We're here to help!

[Kishi]

Uh, yeah. What everyone else said.