Greetings new friends!

[cerbermus]

Hi, I'm Cerbermus. I've been lurking around here for about three weeks and decided I should stop lurking and introduce myself.

 

I am definitely a nerd, so finding this site was like walking into guild hall - look at all these people like me! I'm both an academic nerd (anyone interested in discussing philosophy, political theory, literature?) and a gamer nerd - I spend a lot of time playing rpgs, usually as a rogue character. 

 

A little over two years ago I moved to Georgia and got a job as a desk jockey (adjusting claims for a well-known auto insurance company). I was spending eight hours of my day sitting on my rear, then came home to my hobbies (reading, gaming, and calligraphy), which meant more time on my rear. I was not eating very healthy and I ballooned. In February, I weighed the most I've ever weighed. On top of that I was dealing with a lot of stress, both in work and in my personal life, I wasn't sleeping well (which is an ongoing issue for me, but it was worse than it had ever been then), and I was just plain miserable.

 

I new things needed to change. I had a number of things going on at that time, so I could't really focus on weight loss, but I did start making a few small changes at that time. In August, when things had calmed down, I came up with a plan and buckled down to try to correct some of the negative habits I had developed. I started tracking and limiting my calories and made it a goal to exercise (cardio - I bought an elliptical machine for my living room) for a minimum of 30 minutes for 15 of the days in August.

 

My big focus at that time (and I've continued to make this my ultimate motivator) was building good habits. After all, if you have a habit in place, you need less will-power to make yourself do the right thing. I didn't step on the scale at all during the month of August. On September 1, I weighed in and discovered I had lost ten pounds. I have continued to adjust and have continued to fine-tune the good habits I've established and to build new ones. I've also been weighing myself once a week since September and I have lost 44 pounds so far.

 

Some of that fine tuning has included focusing on healthy foods/calories and adding strength training into my workout plan. (I have a co-worker who works out regularly who took me and a couple of my other female co-workers to our office gym and show us how to use the equipment there - then he created a 3-day/week strength training regime for us. I've always been a little afraid of the gym, now I'm in there regularly!)

 

About three weeks ago, I was on the internet looking for ideas and ways to continue moving in the right direction and I stumbled upon Nerd Fitness. What a find! Since then, I've been able to wean myself off of my calorie tracker and am eating mostly Paleo (actually, for the 1st month, I'm eating strictly Paleo, but I will allow small deviations after that) and am just watching portion size. I am still losing weight, so I'm pretty thrilled with it so far. Eventually, I am going to stop using the machines at the gym and focus on body-weight exercises (eventually adding weights in), but for now, since I have a group keeping me accountable and a "trainer" who got me started, I'm going to use them to make sure I solidify the habit before I make the switch. 

 

I'm looking forward to the next 6-week challenge - it will be my first and I'm anxious to join in! Until then, I'm going to keep doing what I've been doing and continue popping in here for encouragement and motivation.

 

I am sorry for the Novella. If you have made it this far, thanks for reading!

[Ocelot]

44lbs is fantastic. It sounds like you are well on your way to levelling up immensely. Hope to see you battle logging and joining challenges!