LaraBear

Thanks for the encouragement, Becky and bee. An update on how I am doing, just to keep myself accountable. I have been eating way better than usually, there have been some meals that do not exactly qualify for my overall goals. As long as those are not the norm, I can live with that. Ice cream treat once in a while is not going to kill my health. I have done most of my paleo meals for breakfast. The easy solution is a fried egg and some chopped vegetables (hot or cold, anything goes): tomato, avocado, mushrooms, salad greens. And that meal, despite the low calories sustains me well until lunch. Which is approximately half of the time good. I made a huge batch of vegetarian chili and froze measured portions. Now I just thaw one and add some meat (or meatless meat, lol). Sometimes I eat a salad, sometimes leftovers. Occasionally I eat food others have made (a special treat for me, because I cook three times a day most of the week just to save money). Dinners are something that satisfies most of the family. Hopefully. Unless I want to start making different dishes for different people I don't have a lot of control over them. But since money is an issue I often compromise and if the chicken soup has carbs I wouldn't otherwise eat, fine. I will still eat it. But I will skip the bread. Mostly that is the level of compromising I am happy with. Food diary has been happening with everything tracked. *pat on my own shoulder for that* The vegetarian day hasn't happened yet. I realized it might not ever, the day I found myself at the fridge in the evening, stuffing my face with lunch meats I had bought for the kid's sandwiches. I guess my body was craving proteins. A quick calculation of the days' eats proved me right. My stomach can't handle beans (any advise on how to prepare them so that I don't have to curl under a blanket for the rest of the day after eating them is welcome). Despite the surprising amount of protein in vegetables I struggle to get enough on vegetarian days if and when I exercise. Which gets me to the exercise part. The first week was a challenge. I was sick most of the week and did a walk on Wednesday, spent quality time with the kid at a pool on Thursday (including some swimming and hydrobics because I am a bad swimmer and tire easily) and on Friday I followed an exercise video. This week (so far) I did another exercise video yesterday and played catch in the yard with the kid. Today I did a kettlebell routine by Fitnessblender (from YouTube). I have had some trouble keeping up with my running routine these two weeks, partially due to being sick and some schedule changes with the kid (school started). My breakfast routine has changed and suddenly at the time I used to hit the road I am making breakfast. Need to start getting up earlier.

I chose adventurers for my guild. I run, have been running for years, sometimes on and off. But this challenge is not about running, or running more. This challenge is about overall fitness (including eating healthier) and building routines. I am not calling a life goal for this challenge. I struggle with (hopefully temporary) financial issues and some health problems as well. Instead of biting too big a chunk to chew I concentrate on healthy eating and getting my butt off the couch often enough to hopefully see a difference. Goals: -Work out (running not included) three times a week. This can be a class, or something I do by myself (with an exercise dvd, or YouTube movie). Time limit 20 min+. -Eat one paleo / primal / smart carb / healthy meal a day. Every day. -Have one vegetarian day a week and post the menu. Eggs are also allowed. No dairy. Now for the tracking part. I will keep a food diary (for myself) and post the vegetarian day menus here. I will not post all healthy meals here, but I will post some of the gems I like and come back to. I will be checking my weight weekly, although losing weight is not a priority. Getting healthy is.

Welcome! You will surely find a bunch of people in more or less in the same situation with you (wanting to lose weight, wanting to have more energy, wanting to ... just more). At first it feels so counter-intuitive that by exercising more you will be less tired, but I am not the only one who knows that is true. Recently got my parent of the month award from a kid by playing catch in the yard for an hour. I was still up for more when the kid started to get tired! There are already some good pointers for dietary adjustments, but if you need more personal opinions: I am one of the people who feel better with no fast carbs and no grains. I switched to a somewhat paleo-like lifestyle and just love how I feel. Don't shy from making personal adjustments to make your diet a lifestyle you can have for life.

Welcome! Too bad with the lack of support from your mom and boyfriend. Any time you feel down, there is something active and encouraging going on here. As long as you are happy with what you do, what they do (or don't) with their lives (=activity levels) does not matter. My partner is not a very active person, and I finally (last spring) realized that waiting for someone else to exercise with me is not the way to do things. If I want to be in a better shape, I can and will do it for ME. It took me no time to be in a good enough shape that I could do my workout in the morning and another one if my partner wants to work out with me in the evening. It is my life and now my activeness depends on just me. Anything extra I get from working out with others is just that: extra. My fitness level is built by me. (A side note: even though my fitness level is now totally different from my partner's, I am just happy to be a part of a fitness regime of someone who seriously needs support from me.

Welcome. You sound so much like me maybe four years ago, I just had to reply. I was always sick. I had every flu and cold available and probably even invented some that weren't in the circulation. I constantly had stomach pains and digestion issues, preventing me from exercise. I did some walking, with long breaks due to being sick all the time. Well, I was overall miserable. Then, suddenly two years ago, my partner got some severe back pains and went to a chiropractor and this doc is also a nutritionist and vitamin expert. He suggested taking vitamin D level tests. I went there for the fun of it. And boy, was I in for a big surprise: my levels were really low. Even after a warm summer outdoors, they were less than half of what is recommended for bone health. Off I was to a nutritionist for advise. I was given a list of supplements. Now, I have to confess I haven't taken all of them, but I have been doing my vitamin D, Calcium and Magnesium faithfully. And it has made a huge difference! I no longer get sick constantly and feel very different. I have been able to train more constantly and recently completed a half marathon (mostly jogging, but I did walk on water stations because I can't drink from a cup when I run, and one downhill, because I have knee issues). I am training for a 10k in the beginning of September, aiming for a PR of under an hour. I hope you are inspired by my story, and decide to see a nutritionist. I am sure you will be able to outrun a lot of people in the zombie apocalypse and therefore survive. Time to quiet the voice inside your head until it can say "you can!" because you are stronger than the voice gives credit for.

Welcome, friend. Awesome walk you did. If I ever need a pal for an epic walking adventure, can I call you? Don't feel too bad about the Vibrams: personally I don't think they are the perfect shoe for walking: I have a long stride and therefore land on my heel and over long distances it ends up killing my knees.

Awesome progress already! I love your photo timeline. Wish I had one but for years I have hated getting my picture taken. :-(

I guess strength training paid off. I finished my half marathon without any knee pain in 1:25:30. I was actually last in my age group, but I don't care. One of my five year goals was to finish a half marathon and now I have done it! From now on I guess I am concentrating on shorter runs for fun (and a 10k race in September, where I try to be faster) and cross training. For cross training, this is what I wrote in my blog in April about this goal: "I can start by doing some walking for overall fitness, but this goal is about finding other exercise I feel like doing again. I plan to try cross fit and pilates or yoga. These things just tend to cost money more than what I can spare at the moment. Maybe the goal includes re-thinking my financial priorities?" I am more and more enthusiastic with strength training. I have been doing my push-ups, crunches, lunges and squats. I have a pair of dumbbells, too. Big thanks to everyone for your support here!

MirGSS funny you should mention Smartwool. I just love the stuff. When it is cold it makes a big difference whether your feet feel dry or wet. I don't think I could run in any weather below freezing point without Smartwool. Thanks for the link Roocifer! Definitely giving that one a try. (Off to do some squats and lunges...)

Thanks for the warm welcome. I guess the half is my thing for this summer. It is on the 20th of July. Plenty of time to do strength training, right?

I have been a runner on and off since high school. I have trouble keeping up through winter (not a cold weather person) and therefore tend to not start over again in the spring here and there. I aim at well-being: a smart carb diet works for me (I have some blood sugar issues). I also want to fight back and not let age wither away my muscles and turn them into fat. Between work and at-home-sitting at the computer I lead a very sedentary lifestyle, so I also want to find something active that I would actually like, besides running. I have enrolled to my first half marathon this summer, but it is unlikely that I would be able to actually run it due to some knee pains. The reason I got in here is that I don't know any active people in real life. I mostly just know overweight people. Some of them have been that way when I got to know them, but not all. It is not reasonable to start throwing away old friends just because mid life has made them bigger, but I seriously need some (new) fit minded friends. Unfortunately there isn't much I can offer. I know a thing or two about nutrition, but mostly about what works for me. I am also a vitamin D fan. I used to constantly get sick. If there was a cold virus, I would get it. When I had my vitamin D levels checked and started taking supplements, I have had way less colds and they also are shorter and milder.

I have the same issue with Vibram "running" models. I just can't get the smallest toes in. I used to run in FiveFinger Classics. I can poke my stubborn toes with my finger while putting them on. Silly, but works for me. For the topic: I run in Vibram FiveFingers JAYA which has a more comfy heel than Classics. In winter (when I need to wear socks) I run in Merrell Pace Gloves.