It's been a long time coming

[Tecrin]

...because I signed up for the rebellion January 13, 2013 and had yet to post a single letter, let alone an introduction! Let's rectify that, because I can't truly join a rebellion by only lurking.

 

Hi! I'm Stefanie, I'm 26, I'm from the Netherlands, and I'm in for a change. I've been overweight since my younger years, I was teased and bullied for it, I developed some pretty rotten coping methods to deal with all of it, and as a result, 3 years ago, I weighed well over 115 kg and was really miserable. I decided to get a gym membership at the gym my brother was a member because it came with a training session once a month, and I dove in. I encountered some snags along the way, as my more or less sedentary lifestyle as a student who worked 15 hours a week in a bookshop and sat on my arse the rest of the time came with bad posture, bad habits, and injuries like RSI (from playing computer games, more on that later) and a habit of overextending my knees when I was standing upright for too long. But overall, after a few months, I could feel improvement and was feeling better. I shedded some clothing sizes, but not too many as you'd expect from a 25 kg weight loss, and started to build up some muscle when I transitioned from lots of cardio and light weights to heavy lifting and interval cardio. I now go to the gym 3 times a week, 2 times of which are 60-90 minute weight lifting sessions (with a little cardio to warm up), 1 of which is either a full-body weights and cardio circuit session of about 45 minutes, or an interval running session of 30-40 minutes. For me, that's perfect. More than that, and I get bored with my routines, less and I get antsy and irritable. (No really. you should have seen me when I wasn't able to go to the gym for a whole week because I was sick... My poor, poor husband..)

 

I love lifting weights, it makes me feel badass when I'm standing there, deadlifting 2/3 of my bodyweight. I also love running intervals (though I do want to work up to running a 5k), going out for a refreshing long walk or taking my bike out for a loooong ride along country roads or following waterways with the sun on my head and the wind in my back. Right now, though, what I would love to work towards, is losing more weight. I can tell that it's inhibiting my ability to work out the way I want to, and I injure myself because I have to work around it.

 

I found Nerd Fitness a couple of years ago and was inspired by the stories and the information. I joined the Rebellion quickly after because of the challenges, but the challenges seem, well, challenging to get in to as a noob, and maybe that's part of why I never participated in the forums. Now, though, I want to kick my weight loss back into gear, so I'm hoping to join a challenge soon and level up while shrinking down! My goal would be to lose at least 15 more kg, putting me in the 75-80 kg bracket, which is a weight I haven't seen on the scales since my teens. I want to do it in a sustainable way that doesn't break me mentally though, as those coping methods I mentioned earlier are still very much an ugly part of my life and will rear their ugly heads if I put too much pressure on myself.

 

About me: I got a Master's degree in translation (English-Dutch), but now I work in IT. Go figure. I'm a developer (PHP) as well as a content manager (read: the person who has to write or translate all the content for the English pages) for the website of my employer. In my private time (when I'm not in the gym, that is), I love to knit and crochet, read, or spend time in the kitchen (I bake killer cookies, I really do). I'm a gamer, I play a lot of WoW (FOR THE HORDE!) and Diablo 3, as well as Civilization 5 and some of the Bioshock games. Recently I got back into Warhammer though I love the painting more than the playing.

 

I'm looking forward to really get into the Rebellion! Thanks for reading!

[Pavelluvs2eat]

Hallo fellow knitter! Welcome! You are certainly on a good track where you are heading, I hope that a NF challenge will be just the thing to help encourage you through the next steps in your journey.

 

So...what're you knitting lately?

[Tecrin]

Hi Thank you! Yay, another knitter! We're everywhere. Silently plotting world domination, one stitch at a time. Lately, well, honestly, not too much knitting going on over here. I've been plodding away at a simple chevron scarf but it's kind of dull. I bought amazing yarn last week though (Hedgehog Fibres sock yarn in Pod and Graphite) that is going to be a shawl. The one is a gorgeous multicoloured yarn, the other a semi-solid dark gray, so I want to stripe them but I haven't figured out with what pattern! I also have a skein of bright blue and a skein of mustard yellow in my stash that I want to use, and a forest-y green that needs to become a hat. So I have plenty of projects planned!