A bardic Wood Elf setting out on an adventure.

[Huhnthis]

Greetings, NerdFitness Community.

 

I am Tim Smolders and I'm 20 years of age. But I have taken to calling myself "Huhnthis" on-line.
I am, without doubt, an Elf. I'm a full 2 metres tall (about 6 feet and 7 inches) and my weight hovers around the 80Kg mark (about 176 lbs).

After some quick calculations (and some high-tech body-fat-calculating scale) I have estimated my body-fat% to be at a very low 10-11%.

My height is below average considering my height, but I'm not underweight. I'm working toward getting a bit more meat on me bones, preferably muscles. In my teen-years I had a rapid growth, causing my body to grow faster than some of my muscles and tendons did. This resulted in a very low flexibility and some nagging muscle-cramps from time to time.

 

I am not just any elf. I'm a "Bardic" "wood" elf. This is because of my love for music(making) and forests, woods and trees.

I play a small variety of instruments. Guitar, Tinwhistle and Ocarina (Yes, you read that right, it's a proper instrument). I also dable a bit with my girlfriend's piano and accordion. I love listening and making music, especially "folk" of which I am huge fan and I visit many a festival where folkbands perform.

(Fusing "Folk" and "woods" together also conjures the name of my most favourite festival ever! Folkwoods!)

I also really enjoy getting crazy at those festivals and cosplaying on a really minimalistic level.

I'm also an avid reader and just yesterday got through book 3 of "A song of Ice and Fire". I mainly read fantasy novels or epics and I tend to be able to recall all the small and pretty details from most I've read. Amongst my favourite series: The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, The Belgariad and the Mallorean.

Fitness-wise I don't really fall into anything specific. Me living the Netherlands does result in a lot of biking and walking. Every weekday I have a 5-7 minute bike-ride to the train-station. After a 25 minutes I arrive where I have a brisk 10-minute walk to my school (15 if counting the "navigating" through the building). At the end of the day I take the same route back home. I enjoy this little daily workout and sometimes take a slightly longer path just so I can walk and bike between trees instead of buildings.

Next to that I also practice archery (did I mention I'm a wood elf?), but I haven't done so in a while because the practice times didn't match up with other events. I'm looking to get back into it.
Last, and certainly not least, I'm a horse rider. I have my own horse, Nike (officially Poco Nike), that I visit every Saturday after work for a nice ride through (who would have guessed) the woods. Despite what many people may think, horse riding is a rather intensive workout, especially for the abdomen and back.

 

I've started reading NerdFitness a few weeks back when my girlfriend suggested it (or commanded, you pick). And I was hooked within seconds.

I've never really cared for fitness, mainly because it was so discouraging to go digging for information on it on the internet. (I once heard the saying: "Trying to get information on the internet is like trying to take a sip of water from a fire hydrant").

But when I started reading NF I suddenly realised how some of the small things that were mentioned in the articles spoke to me. I just kept on reading and reading and that's when it really sank into me that even though I am no lazy couch-potato, I still needed to change some things.
So far I've started by cutting out Soda from my drinks. I used to have about 2-4 glasses a day and now cut it down to merely 2-4 a week. I mainly drink water, tea and lemonade during the day to quench my thirst, and a glass of milk or 2 with breakfast. (People in the Netherlands are the most dairy-consuming folks in the world, which has resulted in one of the lowest amount of lactose-intolerant s around the world!)
I've also started doing the Handstand challenge recently and hope to achieve a full handstand in a few weeks! As I said, I love getting crazy. And a handstand is just that: crazy.

Beign an avid Tolkien fan I also couldn't resist considering the "Walk to Mordor and back" challenge. I've still to start documenting the distance I walked but I decided I wanted to do something fun with it. I was thinking of some sort of personal rule that it only counts if I bring something LotR related with me. (Such as wearing my self-made fellowship cloak). And that I take pictures of me visiting the "Landmarks" that I encounter (Some of the places around here really remind me of Middle Earth sometimes!). I always like getting creative, but sometimes over-complicate things for myself. I just want to feel that I conciously walked "There and Back again".

 

So, with that out of the way, here are some goals I hope to achieve in the near-future:

• Packing some more meat and muscle onto my bones.
• Eating healthier and less junkfood.
• Feeling more comfortable in my skin.
• Getting more limber and flexible. Probably being able to place my legs behind my head again would be good aiming.
• Take up archery again.
• Become a little more open and spontaneous.

 

I've also set some smaller more personal goals for myself.

Including, but not limited to:

• Get into pyrography, a sort of woodburning art (Again, Wood elf?)
• Take up another sport or activity.
• Take up another Instrument and practice more on the ones I already play.
• Go to the regular folk-dance lessons I've discovered.
• Post at least once or twice a day on the NerdFitness forums!

 

I'm hoping to have a lot of fun here and able to achieve my goals to Level up my life!
But mostly I hope I can become a part of this community and able to help others out, which I love doing by the way!

 

Till next time then. And hope to see you around!

[Luciana Valerosa Culming]

Hallo and welcome

I looked up pyrography and wow. That's an amazing art.

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Welcome to the rebellion. Sounds like you're good to go, you just need to add in some strength training and flexibility and you're all set.

[shaar]

Welcome to NF!!

 

I agree with you, the articles and blog posts are so well written and simplify so much... while making it actually FUN to read!

 

You've definitely got a great start under your belt.  Good luck with your future goals!!

[Huhnthis]

Well...
We all know how this happens. You set out to do something. Take your first step into changing something about yourself.
You start writing. You start a blog or vlog. (Which I did at some point).
And 2-3 years later you come back to it, realizing you didn't change much. Didn't do much.

So... Yes. Been there a few times. And now I'm here again. I suddenly get all these notifications of some forum I joined some years ago.
"People posted in your thread." it informs me. "Oh, right!" I remind myself. I did that once, didn't I?

And with that I want to thank those of you who reacted to this introduction. It woke me up again.
Just moments ago I shoveled a Kilo of lasagna into my gut and washed it down with sugary beverages.
So again, thanks for waking me up. I need to get back on track. Yes, back on track...
Once again, easier said than done. I know I need to eat healthier and cut down the sugars... a lot.

I've actually gained a pudge since I posted this. Now I wouldn't consider myself fat or something. But I do take it as a warning.

My metabolism finally seems to have caught up to me. No more binge-eating without gaining a gram. It's up to me now.

So here is me. Picking up where I left of.
Getting back into action. I've already made some deals with my girlfriend that I WILL join her every time she does the basic body-weight workout from NF. Her being a member here as well.

I will start a personal log in the appropriate section and try and get myself posting at least once a week at the same day

This is how I'm gonna start out for now.
So, for now there's a few things I'll be doing.
-Watching my food and drink intake

-Joining in on the basic body weight work-out with my girlfriend

-Posting at least once a week on the rebellion to track my process and keep everyone up-to-date.
 

I can't promise much more for now as I need to lay out a more detailed plan for myself tomorrow.
I will be having a rather busy day tomorrow so I hope it will turn into something sensible. I'll ask my girlfriend to help out a bit.
At least she's sticking to her plan more than I did.

'till Next time I guess.

-Tim

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Welcome back. That sounds like a solid plan to start.