DynaGirl

Thanks, foxinthenorth! It's good to be here.

Thanks, Elastigirl! It's a good gig, really, isn't it? I think it was easier for all of us to pivot and provide the education he needed in recovery because I knew I could re-write the plan, take everything analog, and shift gears like that. I'm grateful we could do it. Yes, he did the heavy lifting on his end, that's for sure. I was pretty impressed with his fortitude. I look forward to getting to know you and hearing about your transition into the next challenge, what you're working toward in the Rebellion, and all that good stuff. Thanks for the welcome!

Wow! First, off, look at you go! That's pretty tremendous, and you should be proud -- not just of the steps you've taken, but of the work you're currently doing. * high five* The body is such a dynamic environment, and it's difficult to isolate any one thing that might be the issue, but if I were in your situation I would (barring any additional thing, like an illness, or injury) assume the scale isn't moving because I'm packing on muscle, and that I'm hangry because I'm not getting enough food. If you've increased your physical activity but you haven't changed your eating, you may very well not be eating enough. Since you've been on keto for a while, I'm guessing it's been a day or two since you felt the need to measure or track your intake? This might be a prime time to do that. Actually, I'd go back to square one on tracking all of it -- macros, calories, water intake, rest, etc. -- to see if I'm giving my body what it needs to do what I'm asking it to do. (Sometimes I ask it to do an awful lot with very little support. Trying to get better about that, truthfully.) Perhaps that'll give you some clarity?

I don't know how much detail should go into a good origin story (or rather, into my origin story), so I'll shoot for broad strokes and enough detail that I don't sound like a psychopath. I am old(ish) and I have wisdom in some areas, but not all. Most of my fitness knowledge came from the last Century, for instance, and I'm learning much now. For the last 25 years, I've been training younglings and rebuilding structures for homesteading. Six years ago I went a round with cancer and won, which was great, but then we had to go about rebuilding my vitality and reclaiming our family dynamics (which always take a beating with cancer -- it's not just a physical hit). We did okay. We moved. We bought a new home to renovate. And when the world shut down in 2020, I decided to claim two personal goals for achievement: become a search and rescue field member, and go back to school to earn a degree. I had been working nights at the time, throwing freight for book money (we all have our vices, right? Books are my nerd love) so I was pretty fit, if sleep deprived. I was trucking along, though, knocking out classes, learning how to do a hasty search, setting up a little co-op for our community, homeschooling my own kids, and remodeling our home. We were kicking it into high gear and getting it done. Then just before Christmas 2020 we got ambushed by Life: one of my boys was hit by a truck (a 4Runner, actually) while he was cycling. It trashed him from head to toe, and we spent the holidays in the trauma ward. That forced a shift in all the goals: now we had to get him healed. 2021 was all about healing: nutrition, PT, neuro, relearning everything from math to time management, surgeries and recovery. You name it, I became the chief advocate and director. It was all about appointments, routines, therapies, food prep. Challenge accepted, and we killed it. The neurologist even asked if he could use my "what we're doing to heal" checklist to pass out to other families. My son set a goal to be able to go to college in the Fall of '21, and although none of the doctors thought that was feasible, we're all about supporting people in reaching their goals, so that's what we worked toward. Would you believe he made it? He did. Meanwhile, I was still plugging along in school and all the rest. I got my first Associates in 2021 and landed an internship that let me work from home and finally get more than 2 hours of sleep a night. That was glorious. But when I went from 45 hours of intense physical activity at work to... none... well, it's a noticeable difference. Oof. I wanted to push through and finish my degree, though, so I made myself a promise that I when I graduated I would transfer all that time I'd been putting into rehabilitation and school to focusing on fitness. In April I earned my second Associates, and in June 2022 I graduated with a Bachelor of Science. My son survived two back-to-back semesters in college without flaming out entirely. BOYAH! But now, here I am, ready to rebuild my own fitness to keep living the life we've built, only better (faster, stronger...). I've been working out regularly this month, and I start with my NF coach on Tuesday. I could do it myself, but you know what? I'm tired. LOL. I'm ready to let someone else do the planning for a hot minute and let me just follow someone else's lead. I could use a cheerleader for myself for a while. The last two years have been good, and they've been worth doing, but they've definitely taken a toll. So although I'm up for the work, and I'm looking forward to the challenge, I'm also really excited about being able to do something for myself now, and to having support in making it happen.

>>At least not yet.<< That one little sentence speaks power to your goals. You're not limiting yourself. You're saying there is possibility! Go, you! Whatever the "yet" will look like, whatever form it will take for you, with the right mindset you're going to crush it.