Hello, NF

[LionsSayRoar]

Well, here I am. I'm 21 years old, I finished college in May, and I just started a new job in a new town.

 

Compared to college, I have so much more control over my life right now. It's socially acceptable to go to bed early and wake up early. Nowhere in this town is open past midnight, let alone willing to deliver pizza or cookies at 3am. When I leave work at 5:30, instead of having homework, I have free time. This is a perfect opportunity to get fit and I'm not going to waste it.

 

I've screwed up plenty of times in the past. When I was 18, I worked really hard and dropped from about 160lbs to around 141. That lasted about a month. For the past three years, I've been gaining weight in fits and starts despite (or perhaps because of) occasional feverish bouts of weight-loss obsession. I won't go in to detail about how my weight gain happened; it's a story you've all heard a million times before. 

 

This time, I'm determined to lose weight right. I stepped on the scale on my first morning in my new place, about two weeks ago. 164lbs. So that's my starting place. 

 

Since that day -- June 5th -- I've actually been pretty good. I've done cardio 5 days a week, I've kept control over what I eat with the exception of 3 days, and I've been walking miles and miles to explore my new town. According to the scale, I've lost 6lbs in 17 days. 

 

And now I'm scared shitless, because this is when I always screw things up. This is when I usually lose my motivation, when I give in to temptation, when I start thinking it's okay for me to take a day off and binge. It's not. 

 

I almost gave up on Friday. I woke up, fell back asleep for twenty minutes, and realized that if I went to the gym I'd have to either skip showering or skip breakfast, both of which felt like bad ideas. Plus I'd eaten too much the night before, so I knew I'd get cramps. Plus it was drizzling. So I lay back in bed, I told myself that a day off was no big deal, I grabbed my phone, and I checked my e-mail. And whadyaknow, there was a super enthusiastic e-mail from NF challenging me to go for a ten minute walk. I figured even if I'd overslept and even if it was drizzling, I could probably manage a ten minute run, and I'd definitely still have time to shower and eat breakfast. So I went for a run and made it 14 minutes without stopping. And I did get cramps, but I didn't die. And despite the cramps, I felt way, way better than I would have if I'd stayed in bed derping around on my phone. So I figured the NF community was worth a shot, and that's why I'm here.

 

My goal: to weigh 127 lbs, for a total weight loss of 37lbs. 37 has always been my lucky number, but losing that weight will also put me in to a health range given that I'm 5'4". 

 

Here's my plan, in order from the most challenging thing to the least:

1. Figure out a way to get stronger. I've successfully leveled up on cardio in the past -- I've felt my stamina increase, been able to spend longer on the elliptical, etc. But I've never been able to stick to a strength training regimen long enough to feel like I was getting stronger. That's an issue. I need to fix it. This is my least specific action item, so it's the one I'm most likely to fail at. That's where I need fellow rebels to help. Any and all advice / personal stories / recommended reading is welcome!! 
2. Get to the gym before work Monday-Friday. I have yet to do this more than four days a week so far. Once I figure out (1), I'll decide how to split my days between strength and cardio, but I'm sticking to cardio for now. One day a week I'm going to do my version of interval training, and at the start of each week, I'm going to level up the resistance on the elliptical. The rest of the days, the plan is just to do cardio until I'm sweating buckets and I can't breath. 
3. Run outside on Saturdays. I don't have a car and the nearest Trader Joe's -- ie the Grocery Store to Rule Them All -- is 4.2 miles away. I'll run as much as I can, walk to recover, then run some more, then walk some more, etc. until I end up at Trader Joe's to get my groceries for the week. And then I'll take the bus home. 
4. Stop eating after 8pm. If I eat after 8pm, it's never because I'm hungry. Never. Nothing good happens after 8pm. So that's a new hard-and-fast rule. No eating after 8pm. 
5. Count calories. This is something I'm good at, something I know I can do. I know how to make healthy, filling, nutrient-rich, low-calorie foods, and I enjoy doing it. And even on days when I over-eat, forcing myself to count the calories in what I'm eating will help make sure that I screw up less and that I'm less tempted to screw up again. I just need to make sure I keep counting.

My first quest: go to the strength section of the gym tomorrow morning and pick up a weight. I'm one of those girls who avoids the weights area like the plague -- even though I go to a family-friendly YMCA at 6:30am when that section is pretty empty. I'm having a hard time making a plan for how to start strength training despite reading a million "tips for beginners" because I have no idea where I'm at. I figured I'd just try some sets of push ups, rows, planks, etc. tomorrow and see how much I can do. So the goal is to make tomorrow all about diagnostics. I'll let you know how it goes. 

 

And now, for some nerd cred: I'm first and foremost a Harry Potter fan -- not because Neville got hot, but because I stayed up until midnight when I was eight years old and Goblet of Fire came out, and I read & wrote fan fic obsessively for longer than I should admit. Other all-time favorites include Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials and Lev Grossman's The Magicians etc. I'm not a gamer by any definition of the word, but I can settle the shit out of Catan. I'll also always have a soft spot for anything written by Tamora Pierce -- and now that I think of it, I should probably re-read those books for inspiration because they feature some majorly fit women. I always identified with Tris from the Circle of Magic books because she had a kick-ass personality even though she was rather plump -- but now maybe I'll try to become Alanna from Lioness Rampart instead. 

 

So, that's me. Here I go!

[Yraen]

Hi, Welcome to the Rebellion. Great work on getting that run in Friday, and good luck with your goals.

[LionsSayRoar]

Thanks so much! I'm excited to get started, and I just set up goals for the challenge!

[Shakeel_R]

Aloha,

 

Welcome great to see you have everything planned out nicely. Good job and let us know if we can help.

 

Apart from that, let me read the fan fiction! And Ms Chandler for the win!

[Hyperion]

Welcome to the rebellion!

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Welcome aboard. You asked for help with goal # 1. May I suggest you look up the beginner body weight workout from the blog, and make your goal to do that workout 3 times a week for x number of weeks. That way you don't have to buy any weights yet. And if you have a membership at the Y, once you are ready you can use the free weights there. I believe you will attain your goals. Your post displayed self awareness, you asked for help in the right places, and you identified your roadblocks. We are here to help you with accountability and encouragement.

[LionsSayRoar]

May I suggest you look up the beginner body weight workout from the blog, and make your goal to do that workout 3 times a week for x number of weeks. 

 

Thanks for the advice! I checked that out, and I tried part of it -- the dumbell rows, push ups (only 5 though, and they were on my knees) and planks. However, I'm trying to avoid things like squats and lunges that will leave my legs sore because that will make running and elliptical-ing really impossible. I end up with sore legs if I do a lot of cardio so I don't think I'm "skipping leg day," I'm just making my legs stronger as I run.  I'm also really trying to internalize the fact that strength is more important than cardio for weight loss, but I still don't feel productive unless I've done at least a half-hour of cardio.

 

That said, the beginner body weight workout is pretty sparse if I cut the squats and lunges, so do you have suggestions for what to add to improve core and upper body strength? I'm definitely trying to keep the equipment down to bodyweight and dumbells!

[LionsSayRoar]

 

Apart from that, let me read the fan fiction! 

 

Shakeel_R, that fan fiction is the #1 reason I'm glad the internet is such a big place. It's buried somewhere on a tiny H/G-only fan site and no one will ever see it again. Ever. It's the product of my idealistic stupidly romantic 14-year-old brain, and it reads like it. 

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Thanks for the advice! I checked that out, and I tried part of it -- the dumbell rows, push ups (only 5 though, and they were on my knees) and planks. However, I'm trying to avoid things like squats and lunges that will leave my legs sore because that will make running and elliptical-ing really impossible. I end up with sore legs if I do a lot of cardio so I don't think I'm "skipping leg day," I'm just making my legs stronger as I run.  I'm also really trying to internalize the fact that strength is more important than cardio for weight loss, but I still don't feel productive unless I've done at least a half-hour of cardio.

 

That said, the beginner body weight workout is pretty sparse if I cut the squats and lunges, so do you have suggestions for what to add to improve core and upper body strength? I'm definitely trying to keep the equipment down to bodyweight and dumbell.

Squats/lunges and running activate different parts of the same muscle. It really would be helpful to do just the body weight workout. Do it hard enough and your heart will still be pounding.