New Beginning

[Wondertje]

I look out over the group of people that are surprisingly staring up at me. How did I get here? They must be wondering, especially considering the fact that I seemingly came out of nowhere. Where does one start to introduce themselves? I guess in the beginning and at the very basics.

 

The name is Jackie and I was born on the 10th of May in 1991. The name isn't actually Jackie, it's Johanna, but no one ever really calls me that anymore. I was born in a cold country in the high north. If my memory serves me well, the name in human tounge is Sweden. Here I grew up with my parents and two younger siblings. The real story of interest starts around the age of 10, which was the point when the doctor looked at me and said "oh, it's just a bit of a growth spurt, the pain will pass with time". Little did I know, I would have episodes of pains for years to come. Long story short, I suffer from unexplainable, undiagnosed knee pain which come and go as it feels like, and which prevents me from pretty much anything that requires jumping, running or puts any stress on my kness - to the point where even biking is difficult. This severely limits my choices of what I can do for training, but I always do my best.

 

As a child I wasn't particularly healthy, nor unhealthy. I was like most kids, at least that's what I'd like to remember. At least this is whilst looking on the physical level. Looking deeper one would notice that years of bullying and exclusion took a severe toll on a child which could've had a much better time, had other children not been so cruel. Around the age of 15 is when I first started to notice that I was gaining weight, at the point I had no clue how or why. I didn't think much of it, since it wasn't a bad thing for me at that point to gain a kilo or two.

 

However, with the years passing, my emotional eating got really bad in periods - only to be good for a few months after that. Being scared, or at least anxious of doctors and thinking everyone would call me a hypocondriac (since I do have several different problems) I never got to the point where I decided to go and get any help. How do you explain to someone that you eat when you feel sad and/or bad, but that you have no clue why you're feeling the way you do? With time I moved away from home, to a completely new city. I got a job for a while, before deciding what it was I wanted to do with my life and beginning my studies at university.

 

I guess that's where I am now, approximately. I'm a 22 year old female, from the cold north. My physical properties are not horrific, but neither good. I'm 170 centimetres tall and weigh about 80 kilograms. I try to incorporate physical activities in my daily life, but aren't very good at doing so. Something I am good at however, is procrastinating, playing computer games and being generally nerdy with my friends. I'm not the greatest when it comes to healthy eating and living, but also not the worst. I'm at a point where I know quite well what I need to do and why (at least I think so), but I find it difficult to motivate myself and to find ways to incorporate it with my life.

 

And that my fellow Nerd Fighters, is where you all come in. You have opened a chance for me to do what I can only describe as the most awesome thing ever: to play an RPG game, by using real life factors of health, eating well and training hard. This excites me beyond anything at the moment and I'm very excited about the upcoming 6-week challenge that I plan on joining!

 

If you've read the text this far, you deserve a pat on the shoulder, or if preferred a hug could also work. Let's take a space and time jump to the future and see what waits for me.

 

My goal for the future is to lose approximately 20 kilograms, and to completely stop with emotional eating. I've done improvements already, but more work is needed. After that my goals also include things such as; becoming good at yoga, learning to do a chin up and - if my body (mostly knees) allows it - become a runner.

 

Now I shall leave you in peace, and return in the future with a 6 week challenge, and a battle log when I'm ready for it. It does take some time to settle down on this system and how it works, but I'm starting to get there.

 

Wish me luck

[erithehedgehog]

Hej Wondertje. =) My name is EriTheHedgehog. I am also new here. I'm sorry to hear about the tough time you had at school with the other kids, I've been there myself and I know what it can do to your self-esteem. I am an emotional eater too; I find it far easier to eat well when I feel happy and in control of other areas of my life. I also find it far too easy to justify a bad food choice "Oh, I've had a bad day, I guess some chocolate might make me happier," "It's cold out, I can probably get away with some cheese on toast." "I did a really good job at ____ today, I deserve a treat..." Sound familiar?

 

I'll be starting the paleo diet in January and cutting out processed food. There are testimonies all over this site that show how good this diet is for some people, and plenty of people around who can advise you on how to stick to a plan. It's good to have a goal, but it's also important not to get too hung up on it, particularly if you're an emotional eater. I was on a weight loss plan (I only had 14lb to lose) and I found that anytime I put a little bit of weight back on, I would feel like a failure, which was silly because it didn't mean I was unhealthy.

 

I was advised by someone on here to take a photo of myself for me to refer back to after a month to see my progress, because sometimes the real changes are easier to see than they are to measure with scales. Ultimately, although numbers are easy to track, how you feel in yourself is more important. If you feel healthier and happier, then that's really all that matters. A number on a scale does not define a person.

 

So yeah, welcome to Nerd Fitness, I wish you the very best of luck on your journey. =)

 

 

[Wondertje]

Hello Eri! You are so very spot on with those examples, that's exactly how it used to be with me before I really tried to take control of my life and started holding myself accountable for what I was actually doing and saying. My first step was to never ever (EVER!) use food as a reward for anything. No matter what it was, the reward was a nice warm shower, a long bath, a nice walk, a new piece of clothing or whatever - basically anything as long as it wasn't related to food. This has made my relationship to food so much better now, and it's no longer my initial thought when something makes me sad or upset that I want to eat. Also I learned what foods were my trigger foods, and have since tried to avoid them at almost any cost.

 

Also, the point if the weight is indeed very important. When creating my first challenge I'm thinking it will look something like this:

Main Goal: Lose 20 kilogram and gain general health - where the actual number is the minor goal and health is the big one.

 

Specific goals would be:

* Sleep 7½ hours per night (90 minute cycles)

* Wake up at 7:30 every morning (latest)

* Eat breakfast (since I've never been a breakfast eater)

 

and then to continue from there. That's at least the current plan.

 

Thanks for the welcome and the support

[erithehedgehog]

That's a good plan. I still need to sort out a plan for myself. I don't know what my goals are yet. I know I'm cutting out sugar and sweeteners, and cutting out grains and dairy and stuff like that, but I have no set plan at the moment. =( I've been struggling to think of one. =(

[Wondertje]

Yeah, I've been struggling as well (especially in the diet area) so I decided to start where I really know where I want, which is indeed my sleep and sleeping pattern. As a mixture of both my young age, my heavy study load and also what I guess is also habit - my sleeping has been horrific lately. That's what I'll fix first. I'm thinking that hopefully things will get easier once that first step is taken

 

I wish you good luck with coming up with your ideas for your main goal (or main quest if you're interested in the RPG). Keep us updated

[erithehedgehog]

Thank you! I think to be honest, I have similar issues to you in the whole diet and sleep thing. I have a heavy study load too, and sometimes it's more the stress of the work that keeps me awake. It's times like that I try to remember what my dad taught me: If you're not sleeping over a problem, ask yourself if there's anything you can do about that problem at that precise moment in time. The answer, more often than not, is no, because it's the middle of the night. XD

 

I've started in the Level 1 Rebels forum (a great place to start and get information about all this nerd fitness stuff) and I'm just trying to think of 4 things to stick to for 4 weeks. Easier said than done.

[Wondertje]

I've been spending the last few days drafting my upcoming challenge and also a bit of a background story for my RPG character because I do enjoy getting into things once I really get started. My adventure is just about to begin and I can't wait!