Pear says hello :)

[Pear]

Hi everyone, I'm Pear. 

 

I'm a 28 year old girl from Ireland (though people tell me I look 23), who has a confusing accent that a lot of people mistake for Canadian, even though its Irish. I'm just under 5ft tall and I'm almost 90kg (yes, I dare to mix metric and imperial), which is the heaviest I've been in my life. I love to travel, and I've been to 18 countries in my life so far, but thats nowhere near enough for me. I enjoy photography, cats, sewing, and indoor gardening (which is my most recent hobby) - all of which make me sound a little like I'm an elderly retired woman. 

 

I've been a little overweight all my life, but since my mum passed away suddenly in 2014 my weight has been increasing steadily due to the impact of that event on my mental health. I feel like I'm in a better place now and that I'm ready to start doing something to bring the weight down, but I'm not sure where to begin or how to find the motivation. 

 

My lifestyle is very inactive. I work 8.5 hours a day at a computer, 5 days a week, and drive 30 mins to and 30 mins from work, and most of my leisure activities revolve around sitting (movies, games, reading) so I don't even get much passive exercise. I'm also hyper-mobile, so my joints can get misaligned easily, which can lead to a bit of pain later. For example my knees overextend backwards if I lock them. 

 

My primary focus is to lose weight and to feel healthy and fit, but I would also love to get strong. I've always wanted to look slim, and to have smaller hips and a smaller butt because shopping for clothes as a plus sized pear shaped dwarf is generally not a positive experience for me. 

 

So there you go, now you know a little more about me. All advice is welcome and I hope to see you guys around the forums

 

- Pear

[Myrdinn]

Hello and welcome!

[Guzzi]

Hi Pear, welcome to NF!

 

Im Scottish, there's quite a few of us actually, and I'm sure there's a few more Irish nerds around too. 

 

Im really sorry to hear about your mum. That's not something you expect to happen to you so early in life. I can sympathise, though I'm sure I won't ever really understand what it's like. I lost my husband when I was 31, we had been together for 15 years. It just rips your life apart doesn't it.  

 

Ive pasted some info and links in below that might help you find your way around the forum. Errrr.... Sorry if the fonts go wonky. Apparently the site and my phone don't get on. Lovers tiff. 

 

The main thing with losing weight is what you eat. You would be surprised by how much of your calorie intake is purely used just to make your body function, exercise plays a deceptively small part. I'm a big fan of food diaries, it helps you to see what you're eating and where you're going wrong.

 

If you like the scientific approach and working with data then you can always work out your BMR (Base Metabolic Rate) from which you can calculate your actual calorie requirements. If you use an app like My Fitness Pal you can track your food and see how many calories you've eaten, this way you can accurately predict how much you will lose and by when. I like this, but it's not for everyone.  

 

Now although exercise isn't a magic bullet for weight loss it still has HUGE health benefits. What a lot of office workers do is to find ways of getting more active during the working day, parking further away from the office and walking the last bit, setting an alarm and getting up once an hour to stretch their legs, making a point of walking to someone's office to speak to them instead of picking up the phone, using the stairs instead of the lift. Every little helps. 

 

Ok, I'm going to stop there, lol! Below is my standard advice for getting the most out of the forum. Again, sorry for the weird font issues.  

 

How you use the forum is up to you, you can start a Battle log and use it to track your progress, you can take part in challenges, or you can simply soak up information and use it to improve your workouts/eating etc, or just hang out in the Chat Room. It's totally up to you. 

 

I like to recommend the 4 Week Challenges to people because it makes you an active participant in the forum and let's you meet other members, form friendships and get some accountability on your progress. They're also a really good tool to help you reach your long term goals by breaking them down into smaller, short term goals which I think is important in keeping you motivated. The next challenge starts on the 17th if you fancy joining in? Here is Spezzy's post explaining the "rules" or guidelines. 

 

The "Guilds" are really just a way of grouping people together who share interests. People post their challenge threads under whichever Guild they want to belong to or feel matches their goals. You can read all about the Guilds Here.

 

Your first challenge should be posted in the Rebel section and then once you've completed that you can go on to post your challenges in whichever section you want though there's nothing stopping you from reading and posting in ANY section at any time. 

 

You can also take part (or suggest a new) PVP (person vs person) challenge or a PVE (person vs environment) with other members.

 

Thats my take on things, I hope I haven't killed you with a seriously loooooooong and boring post, lol! 

[Pear]

Thanks for all the info Guzzi!

 

Its weird, I love to travel but I still haven't been to Scotland even though its only really a stones throw away. I'll have to make an effort to go there sometime (especially for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival)

 

I'm so sorry to hear about your husband. You're right, it does rip your life apart, but I guess all you can do is keep moving forward and honour their memory as best as you can and remember the good times. I'm glad that I can kinda joke about my mum and can say things like "mum would have loved this" and feel happy about it rather than get upset. Humour definitely helps. 

 

My diet has been kinda funny since mum died and my appetite became almost non-existent. Its been a struggle to try and boost it again, and while its improved, I'm sure I eat about 1.5 meals a day, without any snacks, so I feel sure that I'm probably underrating. Thats probably why I've gained so much weight because my body is probably thinking "Oh shit, finally! Food! Better store this up because she's not going to eat anything for another while yet". For example, its 4:40pm as I type this and all I've eaten today is some brown rice and chicken leftover from yesterday and a cup of green tea. Thats it. And its not deliberate, I just rarely feel hunger so the drive to eat something just isn't there. Saying that though, a food diary does sound like a good idea because my perception of all of the above could be off. 

 

Your tips for the office are pretty helpful too. I'm definitely guilty of not leaving my desk enough because my job is very low stress so I'm usually quite happy to keep plodding away at it and not take enough breaks. Work does do good food though which I try to make conscious choices with, like avoiding mashed potato and having sweet potato or more broccoli instead, that kinda thing. 

 

Anyway thanks again for your advice  

 

Question for you or anyone else who sees this: What do you think of activity trackers like fitbit? Do you think they're worth it or do you think they're more of a gimmick than a useful tool?

[Guzzi]

OhmygoshIlovelovelovemyfitbit! 

 

Too much? Sorry.  I have a fitbit flex which was about £80, which I debated for forever because I couldn't justify it, then gave in and bought one on impulse when I was in Argos one day.  I found it a really useful tool, I definitely increased my walking because of it, often going for a walk purely to reach my target, and I loved all the data that I got from it.  The only down side for me was that when I went cycling on dirt roads my fitbit thought I had done about a million steps.  I guess it didn't like the bumpy roads!  

[Pear]

Hmmm, maybe I'll look into getting a Fitbit then. A girl at work has one and she's currently competing with her whole family (who have one each) in a fitness challenge which is kind of inspiring. 

 

I've also just gone and bought myself a body composition scales thingy, so I'll be able to learn my BMI and BMR amongst other things, so that should be helpful. 

[Guzzi]

There's tons of people on here use them if you want some friends to compete with. I'm sure there was a thread for on here for adding people, maybe not though... If I can't find it then I might start another one.  

 

Are you going to join in the next challenge?

[Pear]

Oh that's cool. I didn't realise you could compete with people you haven't met in person. One more reason to get one. 

 

As as for the challenge, yeah I think I will join. I just have to figure out what kind of goals I want to set, but I know it can't be anything too ambitious or I'll end up procrastinating on it. Just something simple like eat 3 healthy meals a day and go for a walk every day, regardless of how long or short, and actually leave my bloody desk once in a while. It works out nicely as well because I'll be going abroad for a week from Aug 16th and it will have just finished by then. 

 

I badly need to get some workout clothes though (I have some but they don't fit any more) so I'll do that before the challenge starts. 

 

 

[Guzzi]

Yeah you can add people and compete in challenge with them.

Here's some pics

Let me know if you do get one and I'll add you.

Your goals look great btw. Most people get too ambitious and try to do too much at once. One piece of advice that I'll give you is to grade yourself as over the week by how many days you achieve and award yourself points, rather than simply a pass/fail.