“TheJerd.com – Making fitness and healthy lifestyles accessible to geeks the world over!”

The Jerd himself

Who be the Jerd? This guy.

Hi, my name is Jeff. Nice to meet you.

Welcome to the site! This is where I help my fellow nerds and geeks (and anyone else for that matter) who want to live a healthier life attain their goals!

I don’t know how or why you stumbled onto this little corner of the Internet… Maybe you are here because you are tired of constantly battling your waistline and never being able to find consistent success? Perhaps you sought us out because you just carried your groceries up a flight of stairs and realized that it left you out of breath? Maybe you’re here because without a drastic change in your life habits that you could be in danger of serious health issues? Perchance you stopped by to chat about comics, gaming or martial arts? Maybe you just want to feel better about yourself?!? Or maybe you have a nagging voice in the back of your mind telling you that you just aren’t living up to your full potential?

No matter what it is that brought you here, I want to say a big thank you for stopping by!

My goal here is to help people become better versions of themselves; to go from geek to real-life superhero! I want to help you learn how to exercise correctly, eat healthier and live a longer, fuller life.

You see here at TheJerd.com my goal, nay my mission, is to provide you a view of a world where a healthy living and athletic jock mentality can co-exist peacefully with full on geekery; They are not mutually exclusive!

Believe it or not, you most certainly can have a life filled with all the geeky things you love all the while being fit and healthy.

So I offer health tips, encouragement and fitness-coaching from the perspective of a lifelong comic book and gamer geek. Now and again I may also wax poetic on the joys of being a nerd, but always with a focus on how to balance those interests with respect for your body (here are some tips on balancing gaming and a healthy lifestyle).

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So, who exactly is the Jerd?

Just an everyday mild-mannered regular guy.  Middle aged with responsibilities and hobbies galore, but with an overwhelming urge to create and give back to the nerd culture that has shaped who I am. I am currently balancing being awesome with:

  • a job in the IT field
  • a family with two sons
  • a healthy addiction to comic books, webseries and movies
  • a love triangle between me, my Xbox 360 and my Playstation 3 (suck it Nintendo)
  • a lifelong study of martial arts (primarily Japanese and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu)
  • a pursuit of being the best version of me possible (the superhero version if you will)

I am also firmly committed to helping all my fellow nerds out there be the happiest, healthiest an fittest version of themselves they possibly can be too! I call this process of turning yourself into a real-life superhero the Heroes’ Transformation, and believe me (with some willpower) it works!

This whole journey started in 1845 when Ghengis Khan and his trusted monkey sidekick, Chim Chim, found a golden ticket inside an issue of “Deadpool“. Using that ticket to gain admission into the Forbidden Palace, Khan single-handedly fought through General Willie Wonka’s army of Oompa Loompa warriors to seize an alien cache of comic book longboxes. The knowledge and power gained from these miraculous tomes cemented Khan as the first in a long line of nerd superheroes. This power has been passed down from generation to generation in an unbroken lineage of monkey-fueled awesomeness until it fell to me. No longer content keeping these powers a secret, I decided to unleash upon the world this ancient wisdom, forming my own superhero team of awesome in an attempt to rid the world of poor health!

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Man, how cool would that be?!? Unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth.

See, I grew up a giant nerd of Potsie-like proportions (you can check out my story of geekery by reading The Mighty Jerd 101, 102 and 103 or check out the 104 entry where I explain why sharks scare the crap out of me) and, while always inclined to be active, I was never really given any solid guidance when it came to health or fitness.

As I got older matured, I started being more cognizant of my overall health and while I knew I wanted to eat better and to be more fit, the truth is, I had no idea how to do it correctly!

I spent years banging my head against the fitness wall; trying so many different methods of eating and exercising (and sucking at most of them) and getting minimal results despite all my misguided effort!

It wasn’t until my 30s that I really took the time to learn how to eat right and train correctly; as soon as I did, I started seeing immediate results!

I felt better about myself, had more energy and people around me really took notice of the changes as well.  

Around the same time I started noticing a very disturbing trend among a lot of the nerds and geeks I grew up with; many of them seemed to almost embrace the unhealthy geek stereotype. It was as if they said to themselves “If I can’t look like the model on the cover of ‘Men’s Fitness’ why bother at all?” and then proceeded to pop open another 2 liter of Mountain Dew.

I also had begun getting requests by other friends for tips on eating and working out, and for help staying motivated. It wasn’t until I made the pilgrimage to Nerdvana (aka The San Diego Comic-Con) in 2012 that it really sunk in for me though.

If an un-athletic and un-informed guy like me could turn myself around without compromising all the nerdy and geeky things I loved, then so could anyone else!

There had to be other people out there looking to make positive changes in themselves. People who, just like me, were sick of getting horrible results from their diets and workouts cobbled together from fitness magazines and Google research. People suffering from “analysis paralysis”, overwhelmed by so much conflicting and confusing information. It was then that I decided, like every classic superhero, that it was my responsibility to help those in need!

Whether you know it or not, there is a real life superhero living inside of you if you’re willing to work hard to uncover him or her!

So in the summer of 2012, as SDCC closed its doors for another year and the tide of nerds returned whence they came, TheJerd.com arose! (It sounds triumphant, but it was more like what I imagine it looked like when the first fish decided it wanted to walk on land… confused, sputtering and barely able to move)

The overall theme of here at The Jerd is to “transform into the super-hero version of ourselves.” The focus is on striving every day to be a little bit healthier, a little bit smarter and a little bit more fit (Click here for the full list of 8 philosophies we live by) and the result is feeling and looking better!

Look, I run this site as a normal guy living his everyday life like so many other nerds out there – sitting at a computer all day long, reading comics, playing video games. I just also really enjoy being active and pushing myself to be as close to a real life super-hero as I can. I am no fitness expert but if you want to lose weight, build some muscle, or just to feel better about yourself without feeling like you have sold your soul to the gym then I want to help.

So what can you do to start down the path of your own Heroes’ Transformation? Well you can:

There are so many ways to get involved, are you ready?!?