Hello Everyone, Eli Here :)

Hello everyone here on the MFP Community

I am very antisocial and not very good at conversing with people but I thought I would introduce myself here since I have been using MFP for a couple of days.

I'm Elaine - friends call me Eli (as in "The Book Of ..." *grin*) and I usually simply describe myself by saying that I'm a 39 year old ex therapist / mental heath and self-development coach and communication methodologist who is now a full time hikikomori (it's a Japanese term. You can find info about it on Wiki). I have struggled with agoraphobia well over 20 years. I finally decided to become a volunteer and not a victim and spend the rest of my days documenting my life, writing a novel (or two), and archiving my old teachings and philosophy from my days in the mental health field. When I'm not writing I'm an avid tech geek who builds computers for fun, a hardcore gamer (PC and console) and general Asian culture otaku (dramas, anime, music etc). I'm also quite a bibliophile, an evolving stoic (the real kind not the dictionary kind), and - as I mentioned - a sad excuse for a writer As a strong advocate for a reclusive lifestyle, I spend a lot of time thinking of ways of staying healthy living a 90% agoraphobic lifestyle including light therapy, medicinal supplements, exercise, online interactions, etc. I am working on a website - in addition to the many I already have - which documents these ideas.

In addition to being agoraphobic, I have a ton of health and physical issues that make it difficult for me to be as active as most. PCOS, nerve damage in one of my legs from an accident, an ongoing ACL issue in the other leg, asthma, chronic migraines, enormous breasts :laugh: and the bad back to go with them and since I rarely go outside, I only have a small apartment space to work in. Despite all of this I have been working hard on my weight ... having gone from 230lbs to 206lbs in about 8 months last year using only Kinect games, diet, a rowing machine, an ab chair, and FitBit.

I completely stopped working out in January to see how long it would take me to gain back the weight with no change in diet, only no exercise. I am constantly doing tests like this because I love DATA and I'm very hardcore about collecting it and learning about my body and it's ups and downs and unique personality. As of starting my new workout schedule in June, I am at 216lbs. I started using MFP a few days ago as well as a host of other data gathering and fitness items including a Striiv pedometer which I love, a Bodymedia Armband, and a Scosche myTREK heart monitor. In addition to MFP I also use DigiFit to log my workouts automatically into Fitbit.

I write a TON about my lifestyle and my fitness on Google+ if you're on there feel free to look me up

Thanks for reading all of this :happy:

Elaine