Buenas dias

[Second Aura]

Hi all. My name is Laura, I'm a 23 year old student from Manchester, UK. I weigh 8 stone (112 pounds) and I'm 5'5, making my BMI normal. I have been underweight for most of my life and don't wish to necessarily lose weight now I'm finally 'normal' but I am here for a few reasons:

1) I hear it makes 'endolphin's swim around your insides and makes you happier.

2) I feel tired most of the time, I'd like to feel awake and full of energy

3) I'd like to be able to outrun someone and be fit enough to ward off a hypothetical attacker.

4) I hate my tummy.

[Deis]

Awwwww.

Hi Laura. You know me. I think a lot of people here would be able to give you very good advice on getting stronger, faster, and healthier, so, for now, I'm just going to say;

Exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy. Happy people don't kill their husbands. They just don't.

Oh, and again, I strongly recommend checking out the OMFG game. It does seem super overwhelming at first, but it's a really good way to get an idea of which areas need to be worked on, and the skills give you some ideas of how to do that.

[MegaCarp]

Hey Laura, welcome aboard. I would just encourage you to read the nutrition boards as Steve kept telling me, "If you want abs its 90% nutrition PALEO PALEO PALEO" (I don't have abs yet, but I'm going to get there) Good luck, and hope we can help you however you need it.

[Deis]

I would like to interject here, and point out that while a lot of people here have had a great deal of success with Paleo, and while diet is the most important part of fitness, paleo is absolutely not the be-all and end-all, and you should not feel pressured to adopt it. Many people have great success with conventional diets, or vegan diets, amongst others, too.

[Kain]

Mononoke Hime avatar is winning.

Welcome aboard. If you start training like your life depends on it, than you will definitely be able to ward off any hypothetical attackers.

[MegaCarp]

Deis, yes you are correct. (I just wasn't going to misquote Steve) You have to find what works for you.

[Second Aura]

Thanks for the replies and the help so far

Kain, I'm very much into Studio Ghibli stuff! although unusually I actually prefer Tales from Earthsea over any of the more famous films in that collection.

I'm not sure paleo is for me, it sounds very much like Atkins? and I'm not looking to lose overall weight as I'm just only just on the edge of underweight and a 'normal' weight as it is. I try to eat healthily at the moment but a very specific diet will probably be extremely difficult for me to keep to. It's more the exercise I'm interested in and I don't know how to go about it as I've previously just been a slumping around type of woman

I'd like to tone my stomach and increase my overall strength and fitness. I am jogging every couple of days and plan to take up Yoga next week. Is there anything else I should be considering? and any basic foods to look out for/avoid if I want to do this?

[MegaCarp]

Okay, here's the thing people I think sometimes misinterpret on Paleo (Yea, I do agree it does seem similar to Atkins on the outside), but you can do things to gain mass on Paleo (essentially you are feeding yourself more heavily than someone trying to lose weight...there's an awesome section to read on that if you're interested), so to think of it as only a weight loss diet is really short sighted. I mean it does have the affects on some where it actually improves well being as some have digestion irritation and other nasty issues that not eating grains/dairy/etc has helped alleviate. Now I'll hop off my box on this because if I was diehard on this I would follow it much better than I do.

So toning and strength you might want to try strength training. There are several people that understand it very well, and they might be able to give you ideas to follow. First though, you have to go ask the question. :-)

[lapetitelionne]

Welcome. You'll find a lot of information and advise here. I'm hardly qualified to direct you but I would say to give something your all. If you're not getting the results you want, try something else. And have fun!

[Loren Wade]

Welcome! Seems like you've already discovered the best part about this community: the support, the information, and the people! That said, I hope you find what you are looking for. A lot of people here love Paleo, but however you look at it, everyone has their own beliefs, their own medical problems (or lack of), and their own way of life. You have to find a diet that works for you. Taking into account what you want to look like, what you can eat, and what you believe about eating... it can be tough to find something that works. Because of my own medical history, I had to go through multiple phases of diets to find one that works for me and I finally did. Friends call me a Poultratarian. Haha. It mostly means I don't eat red meat and I eat whole wheat grains.

Hope I had some helpful insight there. Just gotta find what works.

[spezzy]

Hi all. My name is Laura, I'm a 23 year old student from Manchester, UK. I weigh 8 stone (112 pounds) and I'm 5'5, making my BMI normal. I have been underweight for most of my life and don't wish to necessarily lose weight now I'm finally 'normal' but I am here for a few reasons:

1) I hear it makes 'endolphin's swim around your insides and makes you happier.

2) I feel tired most of the time, I'd like to feel awake and full of energy

3) I'd like to be able to outrun someone and be fit enough to ward off a hypothetical attacker.

4) I hate my tummy.

You're about where I was a year ago. At my lightest I was around 115lbs, I'm also 5'5". I was tired all of the time, and I looked even worse (I should actually scan in a photo of me that was taken at a time when I realized i HAD to do something about all of this, because I look like death)

I will write way more later, but I have to run back to Crossfit now, but wanted to at least say welcome to the rebellion

[CapN_Tommy_Sunshine]

Hello, and welcome to the Rebellion!

[Deis]

I'd like to tone my stomach and increase my overall strength and fitness. I am jogging every couple of days and plan to take up Yoga next week. Is there anything else I should be considering? and any basic foods to look out for/avoid if I want to do this?

Well, from the goals you mentioned, you don't need to focus on long-distance running unless you want to, for its own sake. Running a quick 400m should get you away from an attacker, or at least get you somewhere where you can start screaming your lungs out.

I love yoga, it's super relaxing. It is very toning, too.

I would recommend strength training for you, but I'll let other people, particularly Spezzy, advise you on that, since they'd know more about it than I do.

As for food, aim for things in as close to a natural state as possible. Fruit and veggies (frozen veggies are cheap, keep for ages, and can have more nutrients than fresh veggies), whole grains, if you choose to eat grains, lean meats if you choose to eat meats, etc. Also, soda is the devil (says the girl who downed 600ml of Classic Coke today). And lots of water! Lots and lots and lots!

[Second Aura]

Spezzy- Where's the best place to go to get advice on strength training? please tell me how you did it! how do I not look like death any more? haha.

Deis- I do enjoy running actually, so I'm going to continue doing that just for me I don't run long distances though purely because I'm too unfit to do that. I love fruit and veggies so that isn't a problem for me, more just the ridiculous price of them at my local co-op. I'm not a fizzy drink drinker either but I do love sugarry fatty cookies verily much. The triple chocolate kind -__- and Kettle chips, why do they have to be so tasty?

I have been drinking lots of fruit and herbal teas recently. I especially love the "Clipper" range, so would recommend them to anyone who wants to make drinking lots of water tastier. They mix Green Tea (very good for you) with nice flavours. If you drink that with vitamin C it's meant to be good for your skin and I've noticed an improvement (coincidental or not). http://shop.clipper-teas.com/teas

I'm thinking I probably should be eating more if I'm going to do lots of exercise in order not to lose much weight. Protein rich food is a good idea, right?

[Dantes]

Hi Second_Aura

Welcome to NF, good to see some more people who don't completely hate the Monarchy.

I've posted a reply to your thread in the "muscle building forums" which should be a bit of a primer.

In terms of eating. I do want to point out here that Paleo is NOT for everyone.

Paleo tends to be quite an expensive option and it requires support from others if you are doing communal cooking.

As she has stated she is a student then it is quite likely that she is A) financially limited in terms of food choices, limited in terms of communal cooking and C) It requires extensive preparation of meals

Thus, Paleo whilst great in theory is very difficult to implement (Yes I have tried, these were the key issues)

If you love Paleo, great but please take into account that Paleo does have it's negative points in today's society especially if you're working and studying simultaneously on a budget whilst sharing a food bill with others to mitigate costs.