Reina

I love Tumblr, but it's got a dark side. Thinspo is everywhere, self harm blogs are everywhere. Luckily, there are a LOT of support and fitspo blogs showing up these days. I'm starting to see a lot of posts about women lifting, healthy role models, self acceptance, and amazing community support. As long as you stay away from the Thinspo tag it can be a really good motivator. The women of the Rebellion should sign up and help the healthier community grow!

I'm starting a new life in August (moving from Utah to Nashville, Tennessee, to start working my way up in the record label industry. Starting totally from scratch, I don't know a single person there!) and I feel like I can't start a new life if I'm the same person, especially if I'm uncomfortable in my own skin. My ultimate goal is to run an Ultra Marathon. I don't care if it takes me years, I don't care if I do it once and hate it and never do it again. I just want to look at my future grandkids and tell them I ran a one hundred mile race. I feel like that's ultimate bragging rights.

My favorite is kickboxing, I just love it. It TORCHES calories and most gyms have a heavy bag to work with. Or start out with regular boxing and work up to kickboxing. They're both pretty intense, I just enjoy kickboxing more. Plus, I really like that it's not just a work out, it's self defense as well. I'm a 21 year old girl living in a downtown area and I'm finally comfortable walking around alone (not at night, mind you. I'm strong, not stupid!). Anyway, give kickboxing a shot! It's a good way to get in some static squats, as well-when I'm warming up, I get into a deep squat position and free punch. AND you can do it at home even if you don't have a bag-shadow boxing is weirdly fun. But dancing totally counts. When my roommates aren't home, I go to the basement and dance like a complete loser for an hour. If your heart rate is up and you're moving your body, you're getting exercise!

So I went to the doctor because the pain kept getting worse. Apparently a serious calcium deficiency and a new running program should never mix. I guess I haven't quite gotten the hang of a balanced diet with Paleo. I've quit HIIT running and got a new pair of shoes. That along with calcium supplements and a more human running program should keep my shin issues under control. Thanks for all the feedback, great advice!

I absolutely love HIIT, I've had amazing results so far. But I've mainly been doing it with biking until last week. But I'm thinking I may call it quits with HIIT running. I looked around some HIIT forums and I saw a bunch of comments along those lines, that it just beats the hell out of your lower body. Plus, running is one of the few cardio exercises I really love doing. I don't particularly want to ruin it. Did everything get back to normal once you went back to regular running?

Hm...I didn't know that. I've always thought shin splints were a pretty distinct kind of pain. But that makes sense. I also always heard you should replace running shoes after 500 miles. Apparently everything I've ever known is wrong... I thought I was ok sort of jumping back in to running since it hasn't been particularly painful. I get a bit sore after a good run but I slipped back into it so easily I never thought to start small. So I'll replace my shoes and scale it back a bit. But everyone seems to have a different opinion on whether or not it's ok to keep running. Should I give it a break and do my cardio another way? I've also heard the "if you can tolerate it you're ok to run through it" opinion, but I've run through a broken ankle before so I don't consider my pain tolerance a great guide. I appreciate the input, I tried to Google it but everything was coming up cancer or bone infection, which I should've expected. If you sneeze the Internet will tell you it's cancer.

I used to be a fairly serious runner back in high school but I fell off the wagon after graduating. I'd run once a month or so and get bored. I started working out regularly again a few months back and just started running again last week, mainly doing HIIT (sprint 30 seconds, walk or jog 2 minutes, repeat 6-10 times). Tuesday night I just went and jogged for about 40 minutes at a pretty easy pace. Then last night I went to do an HIIT run and my shins started to hurt. I pushed through it, thinking it would get better. It got worse. By the time I got home I could barely stretch. My shins hurt SO bad for hours. Today they started hurting when I was walking the long driveway to my work. Walking up the stairs KILLED. Now they're painful when I walk and tender to the touch. I've had shin splints a thousand times, this is not shin splints (at least not standard every day shin splints). And while my shoes aren't brand new, they only have about 300 miles on them. Could it be stress fractures? It seems odd that I'd get them in both shins at the same time, but then I don't know much about them. Is there anything else it could be?

Holy crap, that paleo porn appspot is the best thing I've ever seen. Ever. Mine is http://levelingupmylife.tumblr.com/ I'm not really doing too many interesting things, it really is mostly just paleo recipes I mostly find and then edit so they can be made with cheaper ingredients.

I started a Paleo food blog. It's partly how to shop for Paleo acceptable foods on a college student's budget and partly easy Paleo recipes I mostly make up. The problem is, I just started cooking things other than eggs or chicken like, a week ago. I didn't expect the blog to get any attention, it was mostly meant to be a log for me that I would build up and eventually start sharing. But it's gotten a LOT of followers in just the few days since I started it. Now I'm excited about the feedback and it's making me want to cook more, try more recipes, and create more recipes. I am not a great cook by any means. I'd never been one to make anything more complicated than tacos until recently. So! Does anyone have any recommendations for good Paleo recipe resources?

I think I love you.

A few easy things: 1) The people in my life over praise. When I first told my family my plan, I hadn't started yet. I saw my brother a day or two later, and he said "You've lost weight." I had not. Now that I have, his comments mean nothing because of the early empty compliment. Don't do this. If you don't notice a real change, don't say that you do. She knows whether or not her body has changed and if it hasn't, you'll just make it so anything you say later gets ignored. 2) If you notice she's tanking or just not making it out to exercise a day or two in a row, ask her to go with you to work out. DON'T say it's because you think she's getting lazy. Say something like "I'm bored. Let's go to the park." or really anything that doesn't make it sound like you're doing it to get her out of the house. 3) Don't put her in tough situations. If you know she really loves pizza, don't order one if she's coming over (or if she's home if you live together). 4) Don't push her to talk about it. If she wants to tell you about what she's doing, that's her choice. That's pretty much it. Losing weight is really personal and a lot of people don't want others involved in it. Honestly, asking for your support may have just been her asking you to not make it harder for her than it has to be. She doesn't want you to fight her battle for her. She wants you to get out of the way and let her fight.

Thanks, everyone! I went out and bought a bunch of Tupperware and I'm cooking tonight. (And Veriria, I'm totally with you on the hummus. I'm Lebanese and can't live without it. Lol but it seems like it hasn't been detrimental at all so far. It hasn't been very long and I already feel so much better and my jeans are all too loose. So you know. Hummus away. Haha)

I'm relatively new to Paleo. I discovered it (and Nerd Fitness) in late October and have been building up to it pretty much ever since. I'm only on day 6 of really living Paleo. I'm doing pretty well so far since I had plenty of time to collect recipes, but I'm concerned about how to keep it up at my new job. Monday the 5th I start a nanny position for a 1 year old boy. It's 8 am to 6 pm 3 days a week so I'll be spending my entire day in this family's home 3 days a week. How do I stay Paleo when I'm in another family's house? I'm sure eventually I'll be comfortable cooking simple meals for myself there, but just starting out I know that I won't be (and I'm not sure how welcome to do so I will be right at the start). Should I make food the night before and take it the next day? I feel like I wouldn't stick to this, I'm not an overly organized person. Any suggestions for easy meals and snacks I could make in the morning before I leave? (2 things though: 1. I am NOT a morning person, so spending more than 20 minutes before leaving putting together meals just won't happen. I'll aspire to it but I'll end up just sleeping in, and 2. I know. Veggies are portable and require no preparation. But one can only eat so many baby carrots and snap peas and celery sticks in a week.) Any thoughts are much appreciated =]