So glad I found this site, nice to see online conversations about fitness that don't seem to be motivated by roid rage or eating disorders. I have a pretty typical story, I think: I struggled with my weight a bit when I was in high school, but was always athletic (played HS basketball, swam on the swim team, softball etc.). I blew out my knee my last year of high school and had several surgeries and weight started to creep on, as I drank and partied more and paid less attention to my diet. From a few years after high school to my early 20s, I was in a relationship that, when it went bad, really decimated my sense of self- I gained a ton of weight, like 100 pounds, during and after that fiasco. Then lost it. Then gained it back. Then lost it again. Then gained it back. Anyhow, now I'm 31 and ready to get a real handle on this thing. I exercise very regularly (I love working out at the gym, also an avid swimmer, surfer, basketball player, hiker, and sometime trailrunner), but I'm ALWAYS trying to outrun my fork, which does some majorly heavy lifting anytime I'm under the least bit of stress. I quit drinking about six years ago and every other non-diet component of my lifestyle makes me feel basically positive and healthy. I've been interested in going Paleo for awhile, but I'm so attached to food as an antidote to anxiety and stress and it's been hard to break out of poor eating habits, as I lived close to my immediate and extended Italian family that, as you might imagine, collectively has an unhealthy relationship to and ethos around food. I've recently moved to California to open an office for my small business, so I feel like this is a great time to make some dietary changes that I can live with long term. I'm happy with my workout routine, but I want to step it up and start lifting and adding in some yoga and other new stuff- I'd like to roughly double the amount of hours per week I work out (right now, I workout in the gym and outside of it about 3-5 hours per week) and begin strength and flexibility training as well. Well, I don't know if I need to literally double the amount of hours, but I want to start working out harder and smarter. Also, I'm in the midst of a super hardcore period of professional development- currently in process of securing a second round of venture capital for my growing company (which I started with my best pal from college a few years ago and ran, until recently, out of a chaotic home office) which has grown tenfold in the past year. I'm a little out of my depth in the business world in general (I was a creative writing major in college, for godssake) but these next 18 months, I know I absolutely must be at the top of my game or all my hard work these past few years will be for naught. Functioning on a truly optimal level means a sea change in the way I relate to and consume food. I need to be firing on all cylinders and my weight and relationship to food is the one part of my life that makes me consistently unhappy- everything else is running pretty smoothly: great job, great friends, happy dating life, lots of hobbies and interests, great family etc. I'd like my life to be more . . . epic, but I've pretty much resigned myself to taking the calculated risk that I'm putting in about 4 years hard time (which I'm right at about the halfway point of) making my business totally awesome, so it will hopefully afford me a lot of freedom and financial security to accomplish long term goals (like travelling in South America, finishing my book etc.) in the near future. I figure that life is too good right now to not be enjoying it to it's fullest, which I can't do when I'm not a fan of how I look and don't feel my best 90% of the time. So, to recap, I want to lose weight (about 65-75 pounds all told, though I'm not really a scale person- my goal size is an 8-10, based on when I've felt happiest and fittest in the past, I'm 5'9) and start badassing up my workouts a little bit. I've been easing into eating mostly Paleo the past few weeks and I have my business partner- who I basically spend all my time with, as we work 12 hours a day and hang out much of the time we're not in the office- on board as well. He wants to get stronger and healthier, though weight's not an issue for him and he's recently started working out in the morning with me and is happy to jump into Paleo as well. I think it's going to really help to have support and solidarity and I'm grateful for his customary willingness to give any crazy thing I come up with a try (the foundation on which our business and friendship is based). We're going to spend the day cooking Paleo meals and snacks for the week and strategizing fun new workouts to try. I'm in for the 2012 Beach Challenge and my lifelong best friend Lynn is getting married this February- I'm going out to New York for the big weekend and I need to be able to rock the $hit out of the whole event; not to focus too much on the more trivial appearance-related goals of my plan, but I need to look good at that thing. So, February will be my 1st checkpoint, followed by Solstice 2012, then another checkpoint at my birthday next October, followed by the last checkpoint on January 1st 2013. I think 13 months is a solid timeframe in which to make lasting changes to my eating habits, kick my exercise routine up a couple of notches and generally get into prime mental and physical condition. I'll be updating this thread and probably others with progress reports and again, I'm so excited to join such a constructive community full of people with minimal tolerance for bull$hit and an appetite for winning. Hi everybody! (advance apologies for this long post and for the long posts that are surely forthcoming- I am a bit of a chatterbox)
