Death and All His Friends

[Thanatos]

Greetings, nerds. I come with goals of bettering my physical life and career. Looking for friends and work out buddies, as well as help and tips for a total newbie. I am 22, female, and reside in OK. By no means am I shy but I am a bit self consious! Hit me up, can't wait to get started.

[Luciana Valerosa Culming]

Hey, Thanatos. Welcome to nerdfitness.

You don't have to be shy around us. We're a friendly bunch here. Perhaps you want to tell us something about your interests. Or you could tell us about your goals. Some here will have some tipps for you for sure, if you ask some questions, that might be lingering on your tongue.

 

I'm a 27 year old female and come from europe.

Nice to meet you.

[Noname123]

Hey Thanatos, 27 chick in MD here  

 

What are some of your goals? Lots of people with tons of knowledge here, just gotta give them a point to get started in their awesome little rants (this includes me )

[Thanatos]

Pleasure's mine, ladies! Hope everyone's having a good day. I want to start with running and cardio. I prefer weights and body weight training but I need to improve my cardio. I'm currently 5'5'' sitting at 200 pounds or therearebouts. I'm not obese, I am overweight, and have a lot of muscle. I want to shed the fat and work on that muscle. I also know that dieting will be a large part of what I'm doing, and I'm hoping that I can keep up the willpower to do it correctly.

[Noname123]

You have a huge community here to support you Were you thinking of any eating habit shifts? 

 

What do you think is the biggest issue with your current diet that you're trying to change? I wouldn't recommend going all in and change everything at once, but identifying your weaknesses and slowly changing those habits a bit at a time so they stick. 

[Thanatos]

Drinking water and nothing but...Or, AKA, quitting Soda. XD

[AugustaAdaByron]

Hey Thanatos!

 

Your name caught my eye. 29-year-old female from Europe who likes to lift here.

 

In my experience quitting soda can be a very good start for weight loss. At some point I decided to quit drinking soda and started walking to work for no reason related to weight loss. After a couple months I realized I had lost about 5kg (say aroung 10lbs). That was what motivated to start trying to lose weight consciously.

 

 

[Noname123]

How about workout wise, what's your current routine? 

[Thanatos]

Nothing current, which is probably sad! I'm interested in doing very basic work outs. The cardio and body weight. I live in an area that is great for parkour and monkeying around. I'm trying to come up with something to sign up for the next six week challenge - I want to lose about forty pounds, which in my opinion, to keep it off during six weeks would be a little unhealthy. At the end of six weeks, I'd more likely be aiming for twenty pounds off and kept off. As for work outs, I'd like to have a routine to keep up with daily. I need to be more active in my daily life, even if I'm just starting with walking for an hour a day.

[Noname123]

Those sound like good goals! I agree that 20 is healthier than 40 during that time, but you might see a drastic (5-8ish pound loss) in the first week because of water weight. Have you checked out the beginner body-weight workouts? Maybe doing those every other day and starting to walk around on the off days to scope a running/possible parkour route in the future!

[Thanatos]

I haven't looked too much yet but I intend to, you don't by chance have a link stuffed away somewhere do you?

[Noname123]

Here is the Resources link, if you scroll down a bit there's a 'free workout routines' with a number of them listed  

 

http://www.nerdfitness.com/resources/

[Tixnleeches]

Hey Thanatos!

 

For the six week challenge just remember your main quest doesn't need to be completed in those six weeks. It can stretch through multiple challenges. so if your goal is lose 40lbs I would say that is a good main quest. Then your 3 sub quests should be centered around helping you achieve that main quest. So working out, dieting, cardio would all be good sub quests.

 

As for drinking more water, that's a struggle for me too. I love my coffee and energy drinks (heavily on the sugar.) While I have not experienced it myself, my friend quit drinking soda for 3 months and lost 20lbs of nothing but fat and probably a bit of water weight. It changed his whole physique by just changing one thing, everything else he kept the same.

 

Walking is definitely a wonderful start, being active everyday has huge health benefits. Just be consistent. Diet is 90% of weight loss but consistency is very important!

 

-Tixnleeches

[Thanatos]

Well, that settles it! Main quest is lose 40 pounds, side quest one is quit drinking soda, side quest two is do something active for sixty minutes a day, and...I'm not sure what side quest three is. O_o

[Tixnleeches]

I believe there is still a quitting soda group in the PvP challenge section if you need help with that. I think finding a good diet is very beneficial, maybe that could be the third quest. Start it with something simple, make small changes. Like instead of having pasta make spaghetti squash pasta. Find new foods/recipes that you would be willing to try that are healthier. Who knows maybe you'll like them more then the bad foods! Or if you cook often try cooking with fresh ingredients rather then stuff with a lot of perservatives. Or limit fast food to 1-2 times a week depending on if you eat out a lot.

 

Small changes, but big benefits! They say the easiest way to lose weight and keep it off is to make the diet and exercise a life style. It's very hard to change your life and habits in 6 weeks let alone 6 months. But start making small changes and they will add up over time. And before you know it you'll be at your goal weight, feeling better, more energy, happier, etc. And that will reinforce the lifestyle change and make you stick to it.

[Noname123]

I agree with Tix, maybe side quest 3 can be cook x meals a week with fresh/wholesome ingredients. So you can start messing with how to incorporate fresh foods on a daily basis. See what works, what you can make that's quick and what you don't like! The saying is so true, abs are made in the kitchen (As well as all our other muscles )

[Thanatos]

As much as I'd love to do something major to my diet, funds and other such demand 'no'; so I believe my side quest three is going to be more along the lines of, limiting myself to eating fast food 'x' times a week.

[Noname123]

As much as I'd love to do something major to my diet, funds and other such demand 'no'; so I believe my side quest three is going to be more along the lines of, limiting myself to eating fast food 'x' times a week.

 

That works- you can also try to start logging food into MFP or the Fitbit app to see what macros you're getting and see if you need more/less carbs/protein/fiber/fat!

[Son of Rylos]

Greetings Thanatos!! Great to see you join us! 38 yr old male out of Indiana (originally from Metro Detroit) and just recently started my journeys here too. Many of the goals you want to accomplish are very similar to ones I did in my first challenge. My best suggestion is that drastic change may not be as effective as a more subtle change. For myself, I was reducing my soda intake, went from 0 exercise to 3 workouts a week (mostly bodyweight stuff like the Angry Birds workout), and doing some home cooking instead of eating out all the time.

 

Always glad to help out if you need it. Plus, love the name. Any particular reference for the name (mythology, Marvel comics, Incarnations of Immortality book series)?

[Thanatos]

Thank you lots! Where can I find the angry bird work out? And I'm just a huge fan of names that have depth and meaning, particularly with this one, he's a grim reaper!

 

Was your first challenge successful? I'm stoked about getting started!

[AugustaAdaByron]

Here it is, Thanatos!

 

http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2011/03/10/angry-birds-workout-plan/

 

If you take a look at the resources link that Slates mentioned above you can find even more workouts and lots of other stuff that could be useful.

 

[Son of Rylos]

Thank you lots! Where can I find the angry bird work out? And I'm just a huge fan of names that have depth and meaning, particularly with this one, he's a grim reaper!

Was your first challenge successful? I'm stoked about getting started!

The Angry Birds workout is here http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2011/03/10/angry-birds-workout-plan/ plus there are more workout resources here http://www.nerdfitness.com/workouts/ so hopefully those well help.

I feel that my first challenge was successful in ways other than accomplishing my goals. At least for me, I found a spirit inside me to accomplish my goals and continue the journey plus all the awesome support here.

Always glad to help if you have more questions.

[Thanatos]

Oh goodie, now I don't even know where to start as far as my physical stuff goes. I was thinking of doing a toned down p90x routine but scrapped it...This Angry Birds thing looks incredible, o_o This may be just what I need.

 

I want to take a minute to thank everyone too who has taken the time to respond and help me out. This is nowhere near as intimidating as I thought it was going to be. X)

[Noname123]

Oh goodie, now I don't even know where to start as far as my physical stuff goes. I was thinking of doing a toned down p90x routine but scrapped it...This Angry Birds thing looks incredible, o_o This may be just what I need.

 

I want to take a minute to thank everyone too who has taken the time to respond and help me out. This is nowhere near as intimidating as I thought it was going to be. X)

That's the funny thing about the internet. Anonymity either makes a group of know-it all jerks who tear each other down....or puts everyone on the same playing field where then can work with each other constructively. 

 

This is one of the very few communities that I found that has such a nice welcoming group that supports each other and is glad to have anyone/everyone join  

[Thanatos]

I've been all OVER the internet, and this has been an unbelievable experience from the start. I'm so glad I decided to sign on up. I can't wait to get going.