Blog post #1!

I have joined the NerdFitness rebellion because I feel like having a community of support is going to be really helpful in my journey, and who better to do that with than a bunch of nerds like me?

I joined up for a 6 week challenge where you set your own goals and then measure yourself against those goals over time. They call the goals "quests". I set my main quest as "losing weight", and I put the number 40 on that, but I don't actually care. Really I'd like to get fit and be strong, and have my looks match that. Not that super hot swimsuit par-tay time wouldn't be great, but deadlifting 2x my body weight would be way cooler. And being able to run a 5k or even (dare to dream) a 10k without stopping would be pretty cool too. And I figure if I can do those things the weight will probably come off on its own. So. My big goal is "lose weight", but I have lots of smaller quests that are what I'll actually do to get there.

Small quest #1: Don't be lazy.
Get to the gym 3x a week and do something.

I *like* the gym once I get there. Really and truly I do. But getting there is such a pain. Even just getting downstairs with my jogging shoes on takes effort. I'm going to count any type of exercise outside of my apartment as "getting to the gym". I downloaded the Zombies 5K app which is basically like couch to 5k had a baby with a book on tape about the zombie apocalypse. I've done one run and I'm scheduled for another today. I got a huge blister from the first run so I'm going to have to look at wearing different shoes. But so far that's going well. I actually have a stretch goal of working out 5x a week, but I have such a huge tendency to start working out with big dreams and then quit. Plus it's summer right now and I have nothing but time so I want to prepare myself for no guilt when school starts by setting the bar at a more reasonable level.

I'm also following the Barbell Battalion from the NerdFitness academy. It outlines exercises for you to do, and there is an a day and a b day. So if I do 2 strength workouts and 3 cardio workouts a week then I'm pretty much at my 5 days. Done and done. As a holdover from my crossfit days I really enjoy the powerful feeling of working out with the barbell. I liked the metcons in crossfit, but i LIVED for the lifting, that's where I'm strongest. That being said, I appreciate that the workout I'm using still incorporates pullups and pushups, those are necessary.

Small Quest #2: Know thyself, or at least what's going into thyself.
Track all food eaten for 6 weeks.

I am THE BEST at pretending. I live in magic happy christmas land almost all of the time. So taking all of these "healthy" or at least "not that bad" meals and putting numbers to them is probably as much of a wakeup call as I need. Case in point: crunch wrap supreme. That thing is like a million calories and I'll pretty much never eat one again, but until I plugged it into my app I had no idea. I'm using the fitbit app to track food just because it works so well with also tracking steps and water and putting that all together. I have a fitbit charge HR.

Small Quest #3: Be the master of my own destiny
Cook 18/21 meals a week at home.

I know that the majority of weight loss happens in the kitchen. I also genuinely enjoy cooking and trying new recipes. So this should be a no brainer. But it's SO easy to just stop at QT on the way to school and pick up a protein bar. Or to eat school lunch instead of packing something. I'm using these two weeks off from school to really work on trying out some recipes to see how I can cut down the time and make them more feasible for a school night. Also, if I just make one extra serving of whatever I have an automatic lunch. So. Instead of saying "I don't have time to cook" I've been trying to reframe my mentality as "that's not a priority". Getting fit is a priority, so making the time to cook has to come along with that. It's easy to heat up a frozen pizza, but not healthy to do so.

Motivation:
I want to be fit and healthy. I want to feel confident about my body and not hate it when I'm in pictures because I look fat. I want to look good in clothes again. I want to be able to keep doing mud runs and 5ks and other fun athletic things with my nieces and nephews. I want to have fun while accomplishing all of those goals, and not feel like I'm sludging through something boring and horrible.

So there you go. First blog post. Go team.