Why Fitness Dweeb?

So I've realized that this is something I've never really addressed before... I've mentioned it briefly in my profile, but I've never really written at length explaining the name of my blog. Do you need to ask?  I grew up a band dork, I loved playing music.  It was my life when when I was a child all through my teenage years and up until my second year of college.  Even now as an adult, I still miss playing a lot.  When other girls were going to the mall, I was reading Jane Austen and watching Colin Firth in the BBC Pride and Prejudice mini-series (I owned it on VHS...yes, I worked a part time job so I could buy the box set). I'm a bit of an anglophile (I have a thing for the Brits!) and I'm in love with costume drama's, Austen, the Bronte sisters, Hardy, Gaskell...I've read it or watched the mini-series.  I like fantasy stories and movies like Lord of the Rings as well...so needless to day some would categorize me a "dweeb", but well that's me.  Get used to it.


What inspired me to start getting healthy?

Being unhealthy, out of shape, frustrated, depressed and afraid of my health for the future was what made me decide to start getting healthy. I took my first spinning class in March 2008. I was embarrassed, and couldn't keep up with the group because I was so out of shape. But I thought if THIS doesn't help me lose weight I don't know what will. Well it didn't help me lose weight. Taking one spinning class once a week wasn't enough to shed the pounds. I wasn't focusing on my diet at all.

The final straw came when I bent my sisters bed frame after jumping on it...no I wasn't jumping on the bed, we were having one of those silly fight moments and I chased her into her room and jumped after her on the bed.  I bent the frame.  It was HORRIFYING.  But looking back thank god it happened because who knows if I ever would have gotten the determination to make a life style change.  It's weird that I can pin point the exact moment in my life that I snapped, but that was absolutely it.

On April 8, 2008 after a discussion with my doctor I learned about sparkpeople.com which helped me learn to change my eating habits for good! With regular exercise and a healthy diet the weight started falling off!

I saw 5lbs drop off then 10lbs and I thought "wow this does work, I'm not giving up!".

Never Again!

fitnesspants!

How did I get away from the books and off my butt?


It was a very slow process, I still love to read, obviously that's never going to go away, but I've learned to sort of compartmentalize that side of me.  I can read at night before bed. Sure I don't read as often, but I still do.  I still love all the things I loved before I just spend less time focusing on them.

I started out just trying to play soccer.  I knew I loved soccer so I wanted to try it and I knew I wanted to get better at soccer so that made me brave enough to try other things like spinning classes and yoga.  Then the ultimate work out... bootcamp.  That was the real push to get me in shape.  The the thing to remember is that my habits didn't change over night, slowly but surely I started trying new things and spending more time at the gym and less time on my butt in front of the tv/computer or reading.

SO Why, Then,  Fitness Dweeb?

Ok, First. I am determined to get in shape and reach my fitness goal. I had been working hard at that for over a year before I started this blog. I had lost 65lbs by that point on my own. On June 26th of last year I revamped my work out routine and tried something new. I got my ass out of bed at 4:40 in the morning and went to a 5:30 am Boot camp work out. When I got done with the work out I was so proud of myself 1. for simply getting out of bed but 2. that I didn't quit. This was the toughest work out I've encountered yet. I knew that these work outs were going to give me that extra push towards reaching my goal. 3. I wanted to write about it, I wanted to share my experiences thus far and maybe inspire others to work out and eat healthy as well.

There's lots of fitness blogs out there...and a lot of them are BORING. A lot of them might be a little too serious for the average Jane-ite like myself to grasp.   So I thought, I have to find a way to make this fun. I want to talk about fitness in a way that makes it understandable, a little easier to grasp. A huge demotivator with weight loss is boredom. Boredom with your work out routine and boredom with the foods you eat and sticking to a strict bland diet. SO I thought if I made a blog that was fun, entertaining and helpful it would be a win win!

I'm a period drama/romance dork, I've been obsessed with Jane Austen since I was 17...she's still my first literary love, I played in band, I was a member of the highschool art club, I never fit in, I spend entirely too much time online, but I figured if  *I* could find the motivation to get off my ass and change my lifestyle than surely other people like me who have similar interests could see that it's possible for them too.

So my goal with this blog (and always has been) is to help inspire my fellow nerdy girls start their own weight loss journey by posting advice that's easy to understand and cuts through all the fad weight loss crap and keep it simple. Eat healthy natural foods, exercise regularly and have FUN... and that's where my dorky side comes it. ;)