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Meet my friend Megan (pictured here getting her hair done by a Peruvian expert stylist).
I met Megan on the second day of college and we’ve been great friends ever since. Over the years, Megan has served as a great inspiration to me and my Epic Quest of Awesome: after we graduated from school, she randomly packed up and moved to St. Thomas for a year, and since then has lived in Spain, Puerto Rico, Australia, New Zealand, and Peru in between semesters as a grade school teacher.
She is the queen of spontaneity, and more often than not I get a phone call from her asking me to do something completely random and ridiculous.
More often than not I say “yes,” because life is all about making great stories.
Now, when she’s not traveling or teaching, Megan loves to help make kids lives better.
I need your help making these kids’ lives better too 
Hey, I’m Steve, and I’m a nerd.
When I started Nerd Fitness five years ago, I wanted to help people who identified themselves as Nerds: people who followed hobbies and pursuits outside of the mainstream.
I wanted Nerd Fitness and the Rebellion to be like Charles Xavier’s “School for the Gifted,” except instead of everybody having mutant powers, we’d all have unique nerdy and fitness “powers.” We’d get to discuss incredibly nerdy subjects while also learning about healthy eating, proper lifting techniques, and leveling up our lives.
Honestly, this place has already become something bigger and better than I ever could have imagined, and we’re just getting started.
Today, whether or not you identify yourself as a Nerd, I want to tell you my thoughts on why being a Nerd is awesome.
I also want to invite you to tell us why you’re a Nerd, and be recognized for it.
You hear it every day on TV: “The Perfect Workout Plan!”
You read about it in every magazine: “The one secret you need to lose weight!”
You find it on every fitness website: “Why this plan works and why that plan doesn’t.”
It can be confusing, and it can be intimidating. Don’t you worry though, as I’ve come up with a solution to determine the PERFECT workout plan that will get you the results you want and allow you to have success.
Where did I find it?
Trekking through the Amazonian jungle, I stumbled across an ancient training plan, written in hieroglyphics on the wall of an temple from a long lost civilization.
Nope, that’s not it.
How about…Mad scientists created the world’s most scientific 7-minute workout!
Hmmm, nope. that’s not it either.
Here’s how I really discovered the PERFECT WORKOUT PLAN.
This is a guest post from my good friend/relationship & dating expert Lindsay Miller.
With Nerd Fitness’s tagline being “level up your life,” I thought it was important for us to level up on the inside as well as the outside. We can change our outer appearance through strength training and better eating decisions, but oftentimes we forget about leveling up other parts of our lives too. Believe it or not, some of us nerds struggle with social skills (okay, a lot of us do, myself included), but it is something that can be learned. Take it away Lindsay!
Do you wish you were better at talking to people?
- Did you use your 20 seconds of courage and then run out of steam?
- Once you learned how to approach people, did you struggle with what to say?
- Have you ever found yourself standing in the corner at a party?
- Maybe you didn’t even go to the party?
Small talk, for better or worse, is a big part of social interaction.
It’s the way we navigate the exciting uncertainty of new friendships and relationships. It greases the wheels of our interactions with other people and primes us for the deeper connections that follow. It’s the foundation of water cooler conversation, yes, but it’s far from frivolous—if you shy away from small talk, you may find that you have difficulty feeling connected to people, since it’s nearly impossible to skip right to the big stuff.
Fortunately, it’s easy to get better at it!
“Oof,” you might be thinking.
Retract your oof, I say! It’s actually remarkably easy to level up your small talk skills. “So,” you’re now saying (since you kindly retracted your oof), “If it doesn’t take tons of time and energy to improve, then what does it take?”
Thankfully my dear rebel friend, it just takes the desire to improve (you’re reading this article: check), the willingness to try (you’re a member of the Rebellion: double check), and four simple keys to keep in mind.
What are these keys? Every person and every conversation is different, but all good small talk has four things in common…
“These aren’t the droids you’re looking for.”
With one sentence and a simple waving of his hand, Obi Wan Kenobi became the coolest guy in the world to 5-year-old Steve.
I couldn’t help but wonder how great it would be to possess the powers of the Force like this Jedi master, getting in or out of situations that I couldn’t normally, simply through the powers of persuasion.
Now, unfortunately the Force has yet to be officially discovered in this Galaxy (or has it?), but it doesn’t mean we can’t actually use Jedi mind tricks on OURSELVES to live healthier lives.
Although you’ll hear everywhere that “eating less and moving more is the key to losing weight,” I would argue that conquering the mental battle before the physical one is the real key to weight loss and healthy living.
Here’s what I mean: our brains are incredible pieces of technology, and they tend to get in the way of our quest to get healthy.
Whether it’s eating too much accidentally, or tricking ourselves into rationalizing and justifying unhealthy behavior, our brains have the ability to move us towards a better life, or closer to the dark side.
Here are 5 of my favorite tactics you can use to Jedi mind-trick yourself into living better.
Meet Dominic, the Rebel who lost over 30 pounds (14 kgs) in less than 4 months!
Just a few months ago, Dominic found himself in familiar territory for many: minimal regular exercise, poor diet habits, and a daily routine that sucked all of the energy and life out of him. Long story short: he was stuck, and going nowhere fast.
But, by a stroke of luck (or destiny?), Dominic found Nerd Fitness. He made a few small changes, built an accountability system, and dominated.
This is his story.
This is a guest post from Khaled Allen.
Imagine that you are Spider-Man.
You’re reading Nerd Fitness, so I’m guessing this isn’t too much of a challenge.
What’s the first thing you would do with your new powers? Probably something like webslinging around your city, scaling the side of a building, and hanging upside down just for the hell of it, right?
You’re not alone: after all, it’s these scenes in the Spider-Man movies that are always the most exhilarating.
We want to BE Spider-Man in those moments, playfully exploring new powers, free of danger and full of creativity. Essentially, it’s like a kid on Christmas morning.
Wouldn’t it be great if workouts could feel like that (and not something that you have to suffer through)?
Spider-Man’s big appeal is that he’s playful. He seems to genuinely enjoy climbing walls, swinging from skyscrapers, and popping flips around the bad guys. He even cracks jokes in the middle of fights. Spider-Man is having fun, and this playfulness characterizes the way he moves, fights, and trains.
I’m here to tell you that you can use play to explore your abilities in ways more creative and empowering than the limited, controlled movements of a standard workout. It’s okay to act like a kid, and it can be incredibly beneficial!
Let’s learn how.
Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm. -Sir Winston Churchill
Today is a big day for Nerd Fitness. I happened to notice last week that this would be my 500th post published! It had me thinking about how the heck I got from “I’ll start a blog” to “let’s build a freaking rebellion and take over the world.” It also had me thinking about how there are so many parallels between the Rebellion’s growth, and the growth of all of us in our quests to live healthier, better lives.
I’ve come to realize that it’s not the best genetics, the best workout plan, or the most time spent working out that produce the most success…
It comes down to one key word.
Grit.
This is a guest post from my friend Darrin over at TheGuyCanCook.com. I asked Darrin to write a guest post on getting started with cooking, and he asked if he could draw inspiration from Game of Thrones. My response was, “duh.” Whether you’ve only seen the show or you’ve read the books, there’s much to learn from the people of Westeros. Haven’t seen or read them? Shame on you! Go check out this awesome story, then come back. Take it away Darrin!
“Winter is coming.”
The motto of House Stark – and it’s really more of a warning – sets the tone for everyone in a Game of Thrones. The epic series, A Song of Ice and Fire, focuses on the struggle for power between the great families of the seven kingdoms.
But mysterious forces threaten the entire world as well, and the daughter of an overthrown king plots her return from exile…and she’s bringing dragons with her.
This legend is much like what you will experience when you start to learn how to cook healthy food for yourself:
- Like the war between the royal families, it can feel like a brutal struggle for power.
- You will face what feels like other worldly forces that will try to hold you back from what you want.
- But, if you take action, you can rise up from the ashes and win the throne for yourself.
Allow me to explain…
Feel free to imagine me yelling that headline like Steve Carrell in Anchorman.
I have a lot of really freaking fun stuff to announce today, so you’re getting a special Tuesday article, because I love you that much. Yes, you.
Before I start to ramble on about who knows what (and lord knows I do plenty of that), let’s jump right into the good stuff!