want to be Wonder Woman again...

[DFTBAmanda]

Hi! 

 

I'm a 23 year old nerd from the US, but I could be anywhere at any time these days. I used to be strong, flexible, quick, and intuitive, like any dancer should be. A pretty extensive ankle injury at the end of high school meant the end of my dancing career and it was hard to bounce back. I gained weight pretty steadily through college and then took an office job that left me exhausted and hating my life every second of every day. I felt fat, weak, tired, unappreciated, and underpaid. That's an awful feeling at 22. 

 

I took a huge leap of faith when I quit my job with no real plan for how I was going to live and took a job as an international flight attendant. I was spiritually the happiest I'd ever been, but no more active. Late night study sessions mixed with early flight classes during training had me pounding Dr Peppers and McDonalds dollar menu. The $100 a week training pay didn't help. After I finished the 5 week course and got my first assignment, I was on top of the world. When I got home a month later, my (newer, larger) pants wouldn't button. I stepped on a scale and saw 205. At 5'10", that's still borderline obese, and 55 pounds more than i was at my peak. I legitimately believed the scale was broken (hint, it wasn't). 

 

That was December, and I've lost 15 pounds since then. Well, full disclosure, I lost those first 10 pounds twice. I did it by DRASTICALLY lowering my calorie intake and running like a hamster on a wheel. Since I travel 20 days out of every month, I wanted to find a workout that required no treadmills, no little pink dumbbells, and no calorie counting. I'm tired of maximum effort and minimum gains. I'm tired of feeling like I'm going to faint when I lift a suitcase into the overhead. Most importantly I'm tired of giving up on myself. So I'm not going to anymore. I'm going to be a Rebel. 

 

(Believe it or not this is the extremely short version. My verbosity will one day be legendary.)

[Ba'sini'on]

Welcome to NF!

 

I love that you took a chance with your job! I firmly believe that if you don't enjoy your work, then you won't enjoy life. What gave you the idea for being a flight attendant?

 

If you need workouts that don't require equipment then there is Zuzana on YouTube. Her workouts are always intense and short. And then there is www.wodshop.org just click the bodyweight category for the equipment free stuff. www.thetravelingwod.com is awesome for small spaces and limited resources! Burpees are an awesome full body workout, they are Badass especially if you do what my friend I-Jo did...210 of them.

 

Hope this helps, feel free to PM me if you have any questions!

[DFTBAmanda]

Hi! Thank you so much for the warm welcome. I started the Angry Birds workout this week and I'm hoping to progress to more free weight and barbell work whenever I get the hang of things (and I'm visiting somewhere with a gym). I'll definitely check out Zuzana, thank you LostOne1775! I am trying to transition my diet to Paleo, it's been a journey. Going from getting room service chicken strips every night to completely primal is taking awhile, but I started by cutting out soda and at this point I'm almost completely eating whole foods. Next thing to go will be oatmeal! 

 

Athena, your transformation story really resonated with me and is one of the reasons I want to get to the point that I can start lifting. It means so much that you would reply to my post. 

[Wolfhorde]

Welcome to our realm!

 

Wow, a dancer? If one might ask, what kind of dance? Ever since I met some dancers and saw them perform I've been fascinated by dancing, especially more 'moving, 'acrobatic' and 'fluid' dances.

Also, congrulations on landing a job that suits you!

It also seems like you're already familiar with some of the most popular concepts here, 'cutting the crap' out of your food is already a good step. Getting familiar with some bodyweight exercises is definitely practical in your case, strength training might also be an idea depending on how your schedule and opportunities are looking like. While I'm not entirely familiar  I'm not entirely aware of how long you usually stay in one place and what you can bring with you, if you have to stay at certain places for a day or longer bodyweight exercises and exercises that use equipment that you can easily transport will be practical. If the latter is the case you could have a look at kettlebells, they're usually pretty easy to transport and you can use them in next to any environment and modify your workout with just a towel.

If you're interested you can also have at how to use them on YT, just look for "Pavel Tsatsouline" - he is a master of KB and bodyweight exercises (and quite amusing I find).

 

Hope this is helpful.

 

P.S: Almost forgot and you probably know already but still: Never forget to do the things you enjoy, even if that might mean "looking goofy" sometimes.

[DFTBAmanda]

Thanks Wolfhorde! It always warms my heart when people realize how intense dance is a lot of the time. I was a diehard ballerina til highschool and started digging into modern dance (I was that girl they always had climbing on things or dancing on platforms) til I severed all the ligaments in my ankle doing the most spectacular jump every seen by man or beast and spent about two years rehabbing it to be able to walk normally. I got really into Shakespeare in college and started doing stage combat (which I totally consider a form of dance) and realized how flimsy I am now :-P 

 

I know absolutely nothing about kettlebells, except that they look hardcore. I know there are a few companies that make fillable kettlebells, which might be worth looking into. I actually travel crazy light compared to my team, just one 21" suitcase, because I hate lugging around the kitchen sink and I find I don't need much other than some pants and a water bottle to go exploring. My only restriction really is the suitcase has to be less than 30 lbs (13.6 kg). Most places we stay have a gym. In Ireland, where I am quite a bit, the entire basement of the hotel is a body builder's gym, which I love because the football hooligans spend all their time on the Smith machine and leave the free weights and stretching area completely alone for me. XD

[Wolfhorde]

Haha, you're very welcome! And I'm actually under the impression that most dances are quite active physically (and also mentally, as they have proven to starve off diseas like altzheimers and dementia). Dancing on platforms? Sounds like it requires quite a bit of balance!

Ouch, that sounds really uncool. I managed to put some heavy strain on ONE or some ligament once and had problems walking for 2 weeks and that already bummed me out as hell. Stage combat? Sounds fun! What kind? (Sword fighting? Hand to hand? ect)

 

Well, as I said - depending on what your goals are and how handy you like your equipment to be they can be pretty practical as you can virtually work out anywhere with them and you have a gazillion options of doing so also making the weight more profitable for a longer time as you can easily 'add weight' or 'difficulty' by changing the exercise. (using pistol grips for example) Heh, that's not enough to be carrying aroudn KBs, haha. Oh well, you could still try them out if happen to stay somewhere where they're accessible and you feel like doing so. But hey, I think as a former dancer you'll be good to go with bodyweight exercises and depending on your time you can take a bit of inspiration from Steve, using whatever you have available in the cities/villages/nature for working out. Trees can be pretty awesome for that, for example!

[DFTBAmanda]

I actually specialize in "scrappy" fighting, where you're in contact with the other person the whole time, knapping off them and rolling around on the floor and stuff, rather than something like a "Captain Kirk" punch where you're 10 feet away from your partner and can only stand at certain angles :-P I've done some knife work and I enjoy it, as well as some blank loaded gun training, but there's no substitute for having another person to play around with. The realism is so much higher when everyone looks like they're taking some risks! 

 

I'm guessing you're a pretty big fan of kettle bells, Wolfhorde XD You've almost sold me and they're completely impractical for what I want to do! That takes some panache. 

[Wolfhorde]

Sounds like grappling to me or for me specifically lat sao/chi sao and such things. (I was a Wing Chun practicioner for 2 years, still do form - unfortunately schedules collided with training hours) Definitely sounds fun though! I generally like the prospect of 'stage' things, be it combat, acting/theatre or music. (as far as it's not a musical)

Well, that sounds like some well-rounded training - fortunately there's lots more to check out if you ever have the opportuninity and feel up to it! (like various sorts of sword fighting, Escrima, Silat, maybe even Systema, Krav Maga, Wing Chun, Mhuay Thai or whatever else you'd like to try)

 

Haha, I am indeed. My main tools of working out are basically KBs, indian clubs (might actually be interesting for a dancer as they're all about motion and fludity), my bodyweight and nature all around me since I'm a student with a low budget. As I said, the variations you have with just these is HUGE so you can build whole workouts around them that will probably do for at least a year - in which you'll have enough money to easily stock up on weight. Thanks for the compliment though, haha!

 

If I may ask, are there any specific (extreme) sports you'd like to try out? Oh, and speaking of travel (which I love and hope to do for work one day, too - at least work internationally without being confined to the boundaries of a country) where have you been already? And if I might ask whats your 'nerdy' part? (apart from your potentially legendary verbosity, haha)

[DFTBAmanda]

Okay, to answer your questions:

 

I've not really looked into extreme sports but parkour and krav maga are two things I'd love to find out more about once I get some strength back

 

I'd spent time in Oxford, London, and Paris before I started this job, but since I started flying I've been sent to Naples, Italy (and took a train to Pompeii); Bishkek, Kyrgystan; Limerick, Ireland; London, England again; Guam; Hawaii (Waikiki area); Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Casablanca, Morocco; Trinidad and Tobago; as well as all over the US (Alaska to Florida baby!)

 

I refer to myself as a "nerd dilettante" because I have many and varied interests, but I'm not so passionate about anything as to know EVERYTHING about it (like a friend of mine who has had all 13 dwarves from the Hobbit memorized since we were twelve). It's more that I know what I like and I'm always up for trying something new. Aside from being a HUGE Shakespeare and literature nerd, I love the DC universe, Tolkien novels, all things sci-fi (Star Wars, Star Trek OS and TNG, Farscape, Firefly, etc., etc.), steampunky things, BBC liferuiner shows (Doctor Who, Sherlock, Being Human is fantastic), though I think I've pretty much outgrown Harry Potter.