Hello! Newbie just exploring this whole thing...

[KatyDoes]

Hello! I just joined NF yesterday. I am not entirely sure what it all is, yet, although I'm starting to get the gist. 

 

I'm a 45-year-old mother of three living in England. I recently decided to "do something about" some recent weight gain and bad habits. I put on a stone (14lbs) in less than a year due to a sedentary lifestyle with lots of business travel and too much drinking. I still had a healthy BMI but I knew that my waist-to-height ratio was bad (35" to 70") and clothes weren't fitting right. Plus, I could see that the trajectory I was on wasn't good.

 

So, a couple of months ago, I knew I needed to stop eating sugar and drinking alcohol but I couldn't really contemplate cutting out alcohol. So I cut out "sweets and pop." Not even "sugar" - I didn't want to freak out over ketchup or anything. I just stopped having chocolate bars, cakes, and drinking Coke and that sort of thing. Lo and behold, once I did that I no longer craved alcohol. On business trips, after a stressful meeting with a difficult client and back at my hotel I used to go to the hotel bar and have a pint or two. I'd have a pint or two probably five days a week and maybe even drink to excess a day or more a week. (That is, get actually drunk on bourbon and coke.) Although I struggled with "what to do during down time" I found that I was OK ordering soda water with lime or something if I wanted to go sit somewhere other than my hotel room.

 

I started being a little bit more active - taking walks and taking the stairs to my office or hotel room. Then I did an extended business trip where each hotel had a pool and gym and I started swimming every day plus some exercise with machines/weights/treadmill. Then I started to go back to the gym I've been paying for and not using (a national chain I can use anywhere.) 

 

Weight has started to come off (maybe 6 or 7 lbs... about half of that stone I had gained.) My waist has shrunk by a couple of inches, too. All of this is without counting calories - just cutting out almost all sugar (ketchup/condiments or the very rare sweet excluded) and almost all alcohol (when I do drink, socially, I don't wish to drink to excess so I'm having maybe one or two "units" a week... compared to the 20 or more I was drinking until a couple of months ago.)

 

So, my waist-to-height ratio is now OK, my energy levels are better, and my skin is clear. I can climb the six floors to my office without wanting to pause for breath. I suppose I can keep on doing what I'm doing.

 

 I just want to improve things a bit more - not so much about the weight (although I'd like to see my waist continue to shrink). I'm more concerned now about functionality - that is to say strength, agility, and endurance. I have thought a lot about this - menopause is looming and with that loss of bone and muscle. I also thought back to how messed-up I was after the birth of my third child... how it felt to chase the toddler when my midsection was jelly (I had a four-finger gap between my abs - I repaired that on my own with running, hill walking, and cleaning houses before I got my current sedentary job. The gap just gradually went away.) I thought about things I'd like to be able to do better or continue to do, like put my suitcase on the overhead storage on a moving train without asking for help or dropping it on the passenger sat below. I thought that someday I may need to dash after a grandchild intent on running into the street - jump up, run, reach down, and yank back.

 

I asked a PT at my gym to do a few sessions with me on occasion to "teach me some new things." I wanted to know how to use kettle bells, slam/sand balls, those tyres, etc. I learned how to lift free weights years ago when it was all about isolating for aesthetics and I'd wanted to do those more "functional" and compound things with the interesting gadgets but I was afraid of hurting myself or looking stupid. I have really enjoyed the three sessions we have had and I want to continue exploring those things. I know that at this stage, it won't matter too much what I do - if I swim sometimes, run sometimes, lift heavier sometimes, do circuits sometimes - everything is an improvement over sedentary. But at some point I want to pick a path and stick to it. Even if for a while. Maybe someday I'll think "I'd like to be able to say that I can run a marathon" and focus on endurance. Maybe I'll get it in my head that I want to squat twice my body weight and focus on strength. But I think right now I want to explore various things.

 

Anyway, I pretty much just joined here so that I can explore all sorts of options. I don't know if I'll ever worry too much about "levelling up" along any of the particular paths. I may remain happy with my diet as it is (I'm at about level four or five, I guess.)  But I may get it in my head I need to be really strong and make even more changes. I don't know.

 

 

[Hardway]

Sounds like you are off to a great start keep it up and welcome