*waves tentacle*

[bamfitude]

Hello, Nerd Fitness! Inspired by this post I am finally delurking so that I can start my transformation into the badass I know I was born to be!

About me:

My name is Jen (aka bamfitude) and I'm 25 and live in NYC, where I work both a desk job AND a retail job (thuglife! 65+ hour work week what whaaaat). I'm 5'4 (5'5" if my hair is feeling especially tall that day) and weigh about 250 pounds. I've lost about 10 lbs since January but haven't been making any particular effort in a while.

I've always struggled with my weight and with the attendant pressure from my family to lose it. In high school I did weight watchers with them and lost 30 pounds, getting down to my Lowest Weight Evar of 154, and yet I still felt fat! (Ah, youth.) Starting my senior year of college things really went downhill-even as I was doing really well in school and having a great time I was just eating shitty food like my life depended on it. When I graduated I was fortunate enough to land a job in NYC, which quickly turned into a total nightmare. Last year I quit that job and managed to get myself established in the publishing industry.

Now I'm ready to make a change for the stronger and healthier, and I'm so pumped to have found Nerd Fitness! I hope you guys and gals can KEEP ME MOTIVATED!

OK, but what about goals, you ask?

Short Term

I'm doing a mini challenge that will coincide with the final four weeks of the current six week challenge- also, I'm going home for my mom's birthday, so this will hopefully be a good motivator.

DIET: Right now, I'm not planning things out in any way, shape, or form, so my goal is to plan that ish out. This means bringing my lunch to work 3x/week (my office pays for staff lunch on wednesdays) and then if I do buy lunch, to pick a healthy/paleo option. This post is a big inspiration and I'll be following it as much as possible. I want to slowly transition into a paleo diet, which for now means cutting out the pastries and fried foods that I currently subsist on.

EXERCISE: I want to increase my activity from 0x/week to 4x/week. Initially this is going to consist of the beginner body weight workout and some walking in the park near my house and then I am going to reevaluate as the four weeks go on, depending on how consistent I am being.

OTHER: Consistently wake up in the morning at a reasonable hour- if left to my own devices I will stay in bed waaaayyy longer than is necessary, so I want to get better at consistently waking up in the mornings. This way in the future I'll already have the waking-up-early thing down if I want to add in morning workouts.

So that's the basics! I think consistency is going to be my big problem and so that's why my goals seem a little tame- I figure a 4-week period of laying an awesome foundation means that after that I can really level up!

Long-term I want to get down to my "fighting weight," whatever that ends up being, and eventually take up Irish dance again (I had to stop because believe me, the worst thing you can do to your knees is attempt to do percussive dance steps carrying 50-75 extra pounds.)

(Nerd cred: I've met Neil Gaiman twice and waited in line for twelve hours for #DWlinecon to see first two episodes of Doctor Who season 5. Twelve. Hours. WORTH IT.)

[Mica]

Hey Jen! Great goals. Bringing lunch to work is so empowering because you get to pick exactly what you do (or don't!) eat. Paleo is a great diet too, I love eating this way and never feel deprived. Plus if you miss old faves you can always plan in the odd almond-flour-pastry or almond-flour-breaded-chicken, etc.

I added my exercise in slowly, too. I think for people not used to exercise, slow and steady is best! Don't want to burn yourself out and don't want to make yourself hate it

That's funny about your wake-up goal. I decided a few weeks ago I was going to get up early everyday too! I started at 7am and have been moving the alarm clock back 10 minutes every so often heh. And it's working! I actually want to go to bed at like, 9:30pm now.

Can't wait to see your progress on here!!

[bamfitude]

Thanks mica! The wake-up thing sounds like such a little thing but I'm coming to realize that it is SO IMPORTANT to actually GET OUT OF BED and not laze around in the morning.

Look forward to seeing your progress as well!

[CthulianDreams]

I feel compelled to respond to waiving tentacles...

Welcome to NF! I, for one, approve of your goals. Four weeks is a good amount of time to develop the habit of working out and allow your body to acclimatize to the exertion level; it's also enough time to become more familiar with how your body moves and can move. I just started my third week of consistent planned exercise, and this is the first week where it hasn't seemed a shock to my body.

As far as the consistency goal goes, that's what we're for. Have you read the Rules of the Rebellion? Rule #2: When you join, you're in for life. Rule #8: We never leave our wingmen. Hang out here and we'll keep you motivated.