Starting a New Game

[Andregc]

Hello World, the first thing you must know about me, is that I suck at introduction topics, so yeah, I guess a little bit background story will help... (long wall of text ahead, tl;dr in the end)
 
My name is André, I'm a 20 year-old Brazilian guy who likes to write a lot, so I'm using a spoiler tag so that I don't scare everyone off my introduction topic too fast:

 

I've always had a nerdy and sedentary lifestyle. My childhood can be described by playing Pokémon, Mario and Megaman for 999+ hours nonstop. No soccer, no bikes, no running around like a common kid, just video-games.
 
Well, I've grown up (not very much), and then I changed the video-games for the books. It started with Harry Potter, then Dan Brown's novels, and, before I could realize, I had finished A Song of Ice and Fire book 5 (GRRM, where's Winds of WInter???) Still haven't read The Lord of the Rings, though (shame on me).
 
But the games and the books aren't my true passion. I'm a hell of a school nerd. I like to study. Simple as that. No, I don't know many people who like to study, and yes, people call me weird all the time. I'm currently going on two Universities at the same time. I study Civil Engineering in a private University in Brazil during the mornings and afternoons, and Chemistry in a public University during the evenings. Yes, I love Maths, Physics and Chemistry, and so far I'm still (kind of) sane. This year I've started a Scientific Initiation project (rough translation from Portuguese, no clue if that even exists elsewhere) with a professor, which is taking up most of my afternoons. I've also agreed on helping my former High School as an assistant teacher for the students with problems in Maths and Physics, so goodbye Monday afternoons.
 
By now you probably understood that I'm one of the nerdiest people you'll ever have the pleasure to meet. And you might be calling me insane for overloading myself with all that stuff and still being on a Health and Fitness forum. You might even be wondering how I'll even get time or disposition to do any exercising at all - if you do find a way it's physically possible, please let me know, I'm still trying to figure out.
 
During my first two years in University, I've gained around 15kg of fat. I fell ill last semester, I've had some exams done and it pointed out that I have too much fat in my liver, too high bad cholesterol, and a principle of diabetes. I've had a physical examination done, and it pointed out I was 10kg overweight, with 23% body fat. I've tried to donate blood twice in the past two months, and was rejected because I had an unhealthy excess of iron in my blood. My nose bleeds and my hair falls every Exam seasons in the Universities. The point is, I need to get healthy. Now. Not soon, not quickly, now. 
 
I'm terrible at making changes, so I don't intend to do anything drastic. Instead, I plan on going slowly and achieving one thing at a time. I've entered a gym one year ago, but I had no true commitment. I'd spend weeks without ever setting foot in there, I'd drink 2L of coke a day, pizza 4 or 5 times a week. Of course, I had no results at all. Oh, by the way, I forgot to mention, I'm not fat. In fact, I'm kinda skinny, but gaining a very unpleasant belly. As far as my not huge knowledge of the fitness world goes, I understand it's called the skinny-fat, right? I've read some about it here on Nerd Fitness.
 
I had never exercised before (I told you, I was a Snorlax not many years ago), and I've always hated all kinds of healthy food. For instance, I hate everything that's green. All vegetables, and most fruits. Some months ago I decided to try out new fruits, and now I like almost every fruit I try. I consider that a huge progress (the downside is that, even though I like them, I don't usually have them around to eat). Last month, I've decided to eat vegetables. I'm trying one thing at a time. Currently I'm eating lettuce and carrots (please, don't laugh, I was a troublesome kid). At first I couldn't stand either, but now I'm almost starting to like them! Next thing I want to try is fish. I understand that to get healthier and achieve a better body I must have healthier eating habits, so I'm trying to get my tasting buds used to these things I didn't formely like in order to change these habits, and, who knows, I might start liking these things just as I've learned to like beer or açaí, which I found terrible the first time I tried, but now I love.
 
Of course I also want to gain muscles. My arms are terribly small, and I feel really bad about my looks. I want to look better for myself and I want to get a girlfriend. I have to admit I've got some self-confidence problems caused by my appearence, and that is also something I intend to change.

 

I've read NF for a while before coming to the forums. I really want to try the paleo diet once I can properly eat vegetables, but at this time, pasta, rice, beans and other non-paleo stuff won't be very easy to eliminate. About exercises, the Angry Birds Workout plan was the one which most caught my attention, since I have so few time to exercise. In fact, I've just read about it today, I tried out and was very surprised to see that I've actually sweat just as much or even more than when I train on the gym for a much longer time. The best part is that I can do it anywhere, since it doesn't recquire any equipment and it's really fast to do!
 
Well, I think I've never talked so much about myself before, but it was good to write all of that. Sorry for writing so much, though!

 

Well, now that was a huge wall of text. Sorry about that, guys!
Here's a "Too Long, Didn't Read" version:

 

tl;dr: I'm nerd and sedentary, hate healthy food, I'm super busy and barely have time to exercise, but I'm willing to change my lifestyle, my eating habits and find time to train.

 

Thank you very much for your attention, specially if you took the time to read my boring story of life. After browsing a little bit through the forums, I've had the feeling that this is a place where I'll really be able to be myself and improve myself in many ways!

[Guzzi]

Andregc.... You rock!

Seriously man... That's fricking awesome. You obviously have it in you to dedicate yourself to something if you really want it, as demonstrated by your dedication to your studies. Now you just have to get your head around to "really wanting" the lifestyle and diet changes. Yes, we all want to do it, but do we reeeaaallllyyyy want it????

Life is all about perception. "With our thoughts we make the world". I truly believe that, and I believe that you can make those changes if you can just get yourself into the right headspace.

Your attitude towards food is a perfect example of this in motion. I had the same problem a few years back.. I had so many "food phobias" it wasn't real! I finally decided that I'd had enough, these foods can't actually be "disgusting" if other people enjoy eating them. I realised that it was only my perception, and so I decided to change it.

I finally conquered my biggest phobia in July last year, eggs. Hadn't eaten an egg since I was about 9 years old, and the thought of eating one made me physically wretch. Now, I eat 2 eggs a day. At least! Yay!!!!

If I can do it, I have no doubts whatsoever that you can too. :D

[Andregc]

Thank you so much, Guzzi!

 

I completely agree with you when you say that we can do whatever we truly want. I have to admit that I found NerF a few months ago, but I believe that by then I didn't truly want to change my lifestyle, which is the reason I didn't read further on the workout routines and didn't register in the community. Now, I've finally taken the courage to change things for real, so here I am!

 

Food Phobia is the perfect word to describe what I have! I had never thought about it this way, until I read your post, and you've showed me that what I truly have is fear! Now your egg story inspired me to get over my own phobias as well! Thanks a lot!

[Guzzi]

I aim to please!