A Wild Parolles Appears...

[Parolles]

Hi! I'm Parolles, High Elf Cleirc Tauren Druid Sith Inquisitor Mesmer... er, 32 year-old male Earthling Adventurer. I live down in FL but plan to relocate to NYC in June.


The story so far...

I've been overweight for the past 10 years. I think part of the reason that I've never gotten too serious about fitness in all this time is that my weight has increased so slowly over the past decade that I didn't think I was ever in "danger" of becoming more than pleasantly plump. I had never crossed the magic/scarry BMI-30 line until the past couple of years.

I also just lurve food. LIke live-for-food lurve it. I travel a lot, both for work and for fun, and I'm lucky enough to be able to afford to eat really well when I do. For me, trips are planned pretty much entirely around the meals. Dieting (or "lifestyle changes" that involve not eating pork belly tacos or creme brluee) feels like persecution, sometimes. I guess that's part of the reason I've never really stuck with them. I've actually had really good short-term success over the years with calorie counting, weight watchers, the Dukan diet, and even this weird "11-day diet" thing my mom found on the Internet a while back (which, incidentally, worked great for her--she's maintained a healthy weight for 4 or 5 years now). I'll lose 10, 20, or even 30 pounds, and then start to get pissed off about the whole notion that my weight is "over" some line, and just completely quit the diet. I also just don't handle routine breaks very well. A special occasion where I "have to" break the rules can easly ruin a diet for me.

I love hiking but otherwise don't get much exercise.


What's this thing?

For the past year-ish, my close friend Anne (known around here as Hearthsinger) has been on a really inspiring health adventure. I've been wanting to get going on a similar adventure myself. My "plan" (heh) had been to wait and worry about it after the upcoming move. However, I got really excited by Anne's recent posts and the one about FitBit in particular (gadget nerd!), so I went ahead and picked up a FitBit One and Aria scale just to play around with in advance of doing the real work.

When I set up my FitBit account with the goal to lose 40 pounds at the slow rate of one pound per week, I didn't intend to actually hold myself to meeting the calorie deficit. I just figured, even if I'm not going to get serious about losing weight right now, I might as well keep track of the incomes and outgoes, so to speak.

At the same time, I really wanted to use the Zombies Run 5k Trainer because (a) zombies and (b ) an immersive augmented (audio) reality game taking advantage of the accelerometer and GPS is just such a good idea that I had to try it. It's been really fun, although it's beating my ass . I just started on week two.

So the unsurprising twist in the story is that it turns out I actually am meeting my calorie deficit (beating it most days), making smarter food choices, and being a ton more active (I've been strolling or hiking on days I don't run). I guess I'm just a nerd so gadgets, apps, websites, and such really work for me. I've been losing weight just as expected based on the deficit.


Why I'm here...

Its only been 10 days. I know I'm not going to keep losing a significant amount of weight just by keeping a log of what I eat and playing iPhone games. At some point my BMR will fall to a level that's too low for me to maintain a deficit without extra willpower and support. But maybe this approach is going to work for me. It's definitely more gentle than any diet I've attempted before. Heck--I really only realized that I had started one (of a sort) after the fact.

I learned about Nerd Fitness from Anne, and the site is really inspirational. I've been lurking for several days now, and even posted a question in the Zombies Run thread in the Running forum. I think I'd like to be part of this community. It seems you've taken the time to read this and engage with me (hi!), so for my part I will do my best not to let the weaknesses that I described several paragraps ago bring this adventure to a premature end.

I'm not participating in the current challenge, but I will plan to take part in the next one, even though it looks like it might be starting right when I'll be moving.


Flashback: 12 years ago...

When I was 20, I got my first good job and moved to the suburbs of Orlando. I only lived there about a year before returning to North Florida, but that isn't really relevant to this flashback. I joined a gym and hired a personal trainer, not so much because I was really excited about getting in shape as because I had a significant income for the first time and figured that was one of the things you were supposed to do with it (I learned about saving much later, haha!).

My trainer was actually really great, and I saw her at least 3 times per week. She really worked me hard, and at that point I was in the best shape of my life. I was 155 pounds, and I think my bodyfat was less than half what it is now. The biggest problem I had was that I couldn't gain weight. I was drinking protein shakes and creatine smoothies and stuffing down chicken sandwitches and protein bars to near the point of tears of food-boredom, and my lean mass wouldn't budge. Now, any of you who are very experienced with this kind of thing will probably deduce any number of things that should have been changed about the workouts or the diet to overcome that "problem", but that isn't the point of the flashback so the screenwriter lampshades it and we move on.

Eventually my trainer quit, and I didn't really like the replacement, so I quit too. Every year since then I have weighed more than the year before (and to be clear--it's all fat).

I guess I take two lessons from this. One is that I can be fit. I mean, I guess I'll never have a full head of hair or a baby-face, but I can be lean and healthy. The other is that it sure doesn't take much of a setback for me to give up on a good thing. That's what I'm worried about and why I need a community.

Here's me at 20 years old (2001) at around 155 pounds:



And here's me a couple months ago, 32 years old and around 205 pounds:



I want to look more like the former than the latter. Except for the beard. I love my beard and may one day write an article for you on why all men should have them .


In conclusion, hi 2 u all.

[RhythmJester]

Hi Parolles! I'm new too, but thought I'd say hi.

 

That Zombie Run sounds pretty awesome, I haven't heard of it before! I think I'll buy it when I get home tonight.

 

Have you thought of doing strength training on top of the running & eating healthy?

[rogaecia]

http://www.newnownext.com/beards-keep-you-young-healthy-and-handsome-says-science/02/2013/

 

^ I totally agree with that article. Beards are badass. 

Tales of the City is so awesome. I really want to watch the TV Show, but I always forget to look for it. 

Welcome and I hope you are able to achieve all your goals and more. 

[Parolles]

Hi Parolles! I'm new too, but thought I'd say hi.

 

That Zombie Run sounds pretty awesome, I haven't heard of it before! I think I'll buy it when I get home tonight.

 

Have you thought of doing strength training on top of the running & eating healthy?

 

Hi! Make sure you do the "5k Trainer" version if you're new to running like me. Otherwise the standard version might be more your speed.

 

I haven't really decided yet what I want to do for exercise. But I probably won't start on any strength training until after I move. I am dealing with all the new stuff I can handle right now!

[Parolles]

http://www.newnownext.com/beards-keep-you-young-healthy-and-handsome-says-science/02/2013/

 

^ I totally agree with that article. Beards are badass. 

Tales of the City is so awesome. I really want to watch the TV Show, but I always forget to look for it. 

Welcome and I hope you are able to achieve all your goals and more. 

 

Awesome. Thanks!

[hearthsinger]

Yay! Glad to see you're joining the rebellion!

[GetOffaMyRunway]

I bought the 5K Zombie run but haven't really touched it yet. It sounds like you are having good luck with it? Honestly my dog is overweight like I am (I went on an internship and came home to a fat dog - my mom just feeds her all the time) and I'm not sure she could handle running right now. 

[Parolles]

To be honest I probably should have done a few weeks of brisk walks before starting on the training program. I'm barely making it through the workouts and I'm a little worried that I won't be able to finish it. On the other hand, it's not that big of a deal. I can always repeat the easier ones until I get the hang of it, if necessary. It's not a race. Well, I guess it kidn of is, but you know what I mean!

 

To me the big f-ing deal is finding a way to get moving that feels like fun and not like an obligation, and zombies are a good way (for me) to do that.

 

Good luck!