My name is Cody, and I'm shy.

[Virheilm]

Hello there, everyone.

My name is Cody, a recently graduated teenager leaving in the flat, field-covered state of Indiana. I joined Rebel Fitness about a month or so back, but I couldn't really find the courage to actually post here and get started with the community and everything. As the title says, I'm kind of shy both in reality and here on the glorious interwebz. I've retyped this introduction over five times now and deleted it altogether three times over the past week, just trying to get it right!

So, a little about me. I've been a digital nerd all of my life. I got my first game console, a Sega, back when I was just a kid and I haven't looked back ever since. I'm an avid lover of games, film and the written word. I someday hope to even make a career out of these very passions, if I could be so lucky.

Onto fitness. My history? Not too lengthy. I've lived a ultra-sedentary lifestyle for the majority of my 'growth' years. Basically the only time where I actively tried doing any sort of fitness was during my freshman year of high school, when we were required because of the schedule to take physical education. I participated in most of the games and whatnot, but when it came to the weightlifting, cardio exercises and other activities in the weight-room? Not a chance in Hell. The only thing you could get me to do in there was bench-press squats, and that was maybe once or twice a week.

I think I have four main problems -- procrastination, perfectionism, a lack of motivation and a lack of courage. I had the desire, but not the motivation. Oftentimes whenever I decided that I would turn my health around, I'd do so at the start of the next week. After all, the start of the week is the start of something new, right? Only that week would come around and then it would never happen. Along with that, I'm a perfectionist. If I don't do it almost completely right, I'd give up and throw in the towel. Combine those two deadly traits together and I've got a lack of motivation that has kept me sitting in my computer chair for well over five years now. To top all of that off, I'm terrified of exercising in public. I'm very self-conscience of what I do and what I say, so going out into public and trying to exercise a gym or something is completely out of the question for me... for now, anyways.

So as you can see, I'm not really experienced with the whole 'exercising' business. While my attention has been focused on gaming, movies and writing, it definitely hasn't been focused on my fitness. I really want to change that. It's why I joined this awesome community! This isn't a New Year's Resolution for me. It's simply something that I've always wanted to do and that I need to finally get up off of my (lazy) butt and do. I'm hoping that this community can help me along the way, and who knows? Maybe I'll help someone on their journey too.

P.S. It's a shame I missed the starting date of this first 2012 challenge. I hope I still have enough time to enter and complete what I want.

[Grosby]

Hi Cody I'm Nikki and I'm shy too (My introductory post was a similar "Hi I'm shy" haha) Welcome in

Have fun here, there's nothing to be shy about.

[Matow]

Hey Cody,

Well done for taking this step! The four 'main problems' you have - Turn them into challenges. Use the things you do to procrastinate as a reward for hitting your goals, Use your goals to achieve perfection, once perfection has been achieved it will motivate to to push your limits, which in turn will raise your courage.

I only see 1 challenge for you, and that's Confidence. Getting in shape will help with that, BUT put it at the back of your mind.. focus on the here and now.

Not going to a gym is fine - If you read Steve's Blog (The dude who started this site) you'll notice he hasn't been to a gym in ages as he finds alternative places to work out. As a starting point, look at The Angry Birds workout plan. It's fairly simple and straightforward, and is a good base for moving up, and can be done in the privacy of your own room. Also, if challenges are what motivates you, have a look at a Hundred Pushups.

Saying that, it focuses on strength - If you are after cardio and weight loss, you don't need a treadmill - There are loads of ways to get a little bit of exercise.. a few laps up and down your stairs, time it and try to beat it. Park further away from the shops when you go there. Use 2 baskets instead of a trolley while walking around the shops. Buy a pedometer (Pretty cheap from any sports shop) and see how many steps you walk on an average day, record it, and try to beat it every day.

Pop up here what you would like to achieve, and I'm sure people with a lot more knowledge and experience than me can let you know what your next step is. If you do start the angry birds workout, start your own thread in the Battle Logs forum and update after each workout. Make it fun, and have good rewards for yourself.

Good luck brah,

Matow

[Pat G]

Gday Cody.

Welcome to the Rebellion. Hoorah

You most definitely not too late for the challenge. Get your first blog up, spend the next day figuring out what you want to achieve for the year and then what you want to do for the next 6 weeks. get it in and join the "first timers" challenge group or whichever group will match up to your goals.

Let us know what you want to achieve and where you're at and we'll all try to to give you a hand up

[Top Boss Ultra]

Welcome. You're doing better than me. I just started posting recently, and I've never even posted an introduction.

What do you write?

[ryanmercer]

Welcome to the family Cody!

[antimike]

Cody,

Glad to have you around. Just posting is a great first step and realizing that you want to change you.

I hope that you have much success!

The thing about exercising in public will possibly fade with time, but until it does the great thing about a lot of the workouts is that you can do them in the comfort of your own home/garage or whatever with the addition of some dumbbells or a weight set.

If you have specific goals in mind it helps with progress. Don't get discouraged because not only is every week is a new week, but every day, hour, minute, second is new and a chance for you to become more awesome!

[CalvinHobbes]

Welcome! You've found probably the nicest group of people you will ever find-I understand being shy but don't worry about us everyone is here to help and feel free to ask lots of questions. I probably can't answer them because I'm relatively new as well but I've asked silly things and no one complains, they just help

[IrishAmazon]

Welcome Cody! You are definitely not the only one who struggles with perfectionism and feeling self-conscious about working out in public. I used to always convince myself that if I didn't have time and energy to have a hard-core hour-long workout at the gym, then I may as well not bother. If it wasn't going to be the perfect workout, why workout at all? Um, totally wrong and totally counter-productive. Just like when you're saving money, every little bit helps. The nice thing about being totally out of shape like I was is that there's tons of room for improvement

I live in an area with a ton of expensive gyms filled with super fit people. I tried out a few with some free three-day pass deals, and hated it. I felt totally self-conscious about how out of shape I was, and what an amateur I was compared to all these shiny people who seem to know exactly what they're doing. So instead, I got a membership with my county's fitness center. Smaller facility, older equipment, but populated by all kinds of different people: retirees who just walk on the treadmill for 30 minutes, new moms trying to lose the baby weight, high school kids trying to pack on muscle for football season. I felt so much more comfortable there. If your county/town has something like that, or a YMCA, I highly recommend it as an intermediate step if you decide you want access to some more equipment as you get more confident in your workouts.

As for motivation, when I don't feel like exercising, I make myself put on my workout clothes and shoes anyway. 99/100 times, once I'm over that hurdle, I end up finding the motivation to exercise.

[Gainsdalf the Whey]

Welcome dude!

I think the first thing on your list, procrastination, is one thing I definitely have (or used to have) on common with you. How'd I fix it? What do I do now? I say "Hell, a week is only arbitrarily started on Sunday, I'm going to start mine on (insert current day here)!". Guess what? It's now next week, and I would get off my butt and start.

[The Tin Man]

I don't have much more to say than the great stuff everyone else already mentioned. I just wanted to add on my own welcome aboard and I'm excited to hear more about your journey and help with any questions/advice along the way.

[Sco]

Welcome Cody! I'm with you on the whole working-out-in-public thing. But as Matow mentioned, there are a bunch of workouts on the site that don't require a gym at all - the Beginner Body Weight Workout is one of many, and you can scale everything to fit your skill level and what you want to achieve.

And as the others have said, every little bit counts!

Glad you joined us!

[Virheilm]

Wow, guys. I didn't expect so many replies when I logged on today. Thank you for the awesome welcome! I appreciate all of the great links, encouragement and words of wisdom.

Hey Cody,

Not going to a gym is fine - If you read Steve's Blog (The dude who started this site) you'll notice he hasn't been to a gym in ages as he finds alternative places to work out. As a starting point, look at The Angry Birds workout plan. It's fairly simple and straightforward, and is a good base for moving up, and can be done in the privacy of your own room. Also, if challenges are what motivates you, have a look at a Hundred Pushups.

And yeah, in regard to your reply Matow, I'm planning on getting started with the Beginner Body Weight Workout first and then going into the Angry Birds Workout once I've got better upper-body strength. Until such a time when I go out and purchase my own set of dumbbells -- speaking of which, how do these look? Been eying them for a little bit now and was curious to see if anyone at NF would recommend them -- I will just use some heavy objects around my home.

And... wow. 100 Pushups? That's... intimidating. But y'know what? I'm willing to try. Seems like an awesome way to challenge myself.

[Guest guest4729]

Well, first things first, hello and welcome! As said above this is probably the nicest and most helpful bunch of people you'll find when it comes to fitness. It took me less than a day to feel SUPER at home on here. PLEASE ask questions and post if you need help or advice! Everyone will help you as best they can. Sometimes it's brutally honest, but sometimes that's just what you need to hear. Ya know?

Next I'd like to say that I, too, was once like you. I'm a bigggg perfectionist and a bigggg procrastinator. But ya know what? You need to learn to work around those things.

If fitness is something you WANT and something you REALLY want, you need to basically get over yourself and go for it. Think of it this way: sitting around on your ass is getting you nowhere. Getting up, working out or joining a gym IS getting you somewhere. And that somewhere is where you want to be. You will not get fit in one week or one month or maybe not in six months, but the longer you wait, the longer it will take. If you never start, you'll never get there.

You need to identify specifically what is holding you back and find a way to conquer these things.

You like games, right? Well treat your fitness as a game. If you're going to level up, you've got to grind.

Procrastination - Taken from my signature. "If it's important to you, you'll find a way. If not, you'll find an excuse." Stop making excuses and start now. Start today! Start tomorrow at the latest. You're only pushing things off when you should be starting to form a new habit.

Perfectionism - What harm will it do you if you don't have the perfect work out? None. What it WILL do is teach you how to make your work out, how to choose exercises that you like and how to do them properly. Fitness is not something you just innately known (besides fight or flight). It's something you have to learn. Read up on the forums, watch YouTube videos, Google stuff, etc. Do whatever it takes to find the knowledge you need. Heck, reading a ton of Steve's NF blogs taught me more than I ever knew about fitness. Ever. How much have I learned from this forum since then? Like ten times what I knew about two months ago.

Courage - So what's the worse that could happen if you DO go to the gym and don't know what you're doing? You look silly for what, an hour? Do you really think those people in there care what you do? Unless they notice you doing something that would cause injury everyone basically minds their own business. For me, having headphones helps. I turn my music on, go in, work out and then get out without bothering anyone or having anyone bother me. If you don't start going now you won't ever be able to get used to working out around people. Sometimes you just need to man up, go in and just act like you know exactly what you're doing even if you don't.