Respawning with a "why" and "how" in mind.

[Grizzy]

I haven't been here in ages.

 

Since I was last here, I think I bought a house? Or did I stop posting before I bought the house? And did the cross-country move happen before or after my last good stint here? Anyway I also got married. Worked hard at a career for quite some time before burning out hard while gradually gaining 50 pounds and losing all will to exercise and eat healthy.

 

Then I abruptly quit and am now somewhere between semi-retired and early-retired and on hiatus/sabbatical. Rapidly acquired many animals, began homesteading and started making most of my non-passive income between mechanical turk and, I kid you not, selling rabbit poop.

 

Anyway, FITNESS! Why now?

 

Well, I have room to breathe. I don't typically feel an overwhelming need to smother my stress in a venti mocha with a bag of chips for a 2pm pick me up.

 

And also the marriage thing happened a while ago and pretty soon we plan to start working on the baby thing. And my weight was pretty much all my doctor could harp on when I asked what I should do to prepare for making that happen and then lugging around a bowling ball with me for the better part of a year. Which I already knew so it wasn't that helpful.

 

Apart from my own weight and physical fitness, I would prefer if I have a kid that they don't get accustomed to the food we currently eat. I'm a great cook, but I focus those talents on things with a lot of beige and very little green in them.

 

But I'm here in part to talk strategy. I know a bit about what works for me, what doesn't, and what I need.

 

What works:

* Lifting with very, *very* gentle increases in weights, and incredible care with regards to OHP or I pinch a nerve in my back. It has been the end of many good lifting runs.

* OR bodyweight exercises.

* OR rock climbing.

* AND some yoga mixed in.

* AND biking or hikes for cardio/active recovery.

* AND focusing on inclusion of oft-neglected food groups to my intake (veggies).

* AND regarding sugar as a treat rather than practically a main course.

* SOMETIMES intermittent fasting.

* AND a support group... Y'all. Yens. Youse Guys.

 

What doesn't work:

* Calorie counting. It "works" but makes me insufferable, and I don't do moderation well and calorie restriction without moderation is... Well that's just an eating disorder beyond a certain point.

* Lifting *without* attention to food. I will inhale the fridge and order a family's worth of Indian takeout for myself. There's only so much weight gain you can justify as water retention + lifting gains as a woman.

* Running. Oh god don't make me train for another 5k until I am already in okay shape. It sucks enough trying to lose weight, I want to at least be doing an activity I don't hate. And not make my knees cry from 230 pounds of Grizzy wailing on them.

* Rigidity. If there's not flexibility to push a workout a day or decrease the intensity if I feel like poop, then I might just drop the whole program.

 

So I think... I'm going to try not to go hard on everything right away. But I am going to do the next challenge which starts the day before I turn 30.

 

Thinking first steps:

* Make IF more consistent (16/8, fast like... 8 pm to noon daily).

* Eat 1 fruit and 1 veggie serving every day. We can work it up to 2/1 or 1/2 the next challenge.

* Minimum 1 lifting and 1 biking (maybe also 1 yoga session) per week. I can't tell you how tempting it is to basically triple that but I've done that before and I drop out in like week 2.

* Just start weighing myself every day. Mostly to stop thinking of my weight as this scary thing, or something that will somehow improve if ignored.

 

All right, I think I'm out of steam on that. I fully expect to have other ideas or changes before the challenge starts. Suggestions welcome.

 

 

[Pat G]

Hey Grizz, 

Sounds like you've got your why! If i've learnt anything, that's what keeps you centred and moving in the right direction when people or situations do their distracting thing.

You've got your action plan,  and it sounds scalable from where you are now

I'm a bit like you, just randomly thought of the forums today after a Steve tweet, 20 minutes of lurking later... reminiscence with a blast from the past reading my old battle log. forever recovering from back tweaks.