Mary Oliver Doesn't Wear Plaid!

[Howlin' Moose]

Hi, my name's Howlin' Moose. I'm a 19 year old guy living in the boonies of Minnesota, and I want to join the NF rebellion.

You're probably wondering why the heck this thread is titled "Mary Oliver Doesn't Wear Plaid!" For the curious, Mary Oliver is a poetess and she wrote Wild Geese, which happens to be one of my favorite poems ever. The poem starts off with the lines,

"You do not have to be good.

You do not have to walk on your knees

For a hundred miles through the desert repenting.

You only have to let the soft animal of your body

Love what it loves."

That may sound kinda wimpy or woo-wooy, but it really struck a chord with me and changed how I look at the world. I'm going to explain more about this quote and how it impacted me in Part 2 of this epic introduction thread. See, I'm coming from a place where I guess a lot of others have come from: I'm overweight, unathletic, and in general dissatisfied with my life. However, I've been aware of these problems for a long time now. Let's go into a little backstory. Disclosure: I'm not leaving anything out of this. I don't want people to interpret it as me begging for pity or attention. I just figured I should be brutally honest about all the low-points in my life because that's the only thing that helps me appreciate the high points. Also, I know this isn't a contest. I'm fully aware that my life hasn't been all hard knocks. I shouldn't have to remind people that there's a lot of others out there who were worse off than me:

The Wonder Years

For as long as I can remember I've been the fat kid. My parents weren't really ready for being parents. They were both super-shy, neurotic and self-conscious; they didn't go to church, or talk to neighbors, or have hobbies or anything. They never really were able to relate very well with kids, or other people in general. Also, our extended family lived across the country. I was raised in front of the TV (and later the computer) and I survived off a diet of Swanson TV dinners, crullers and Mountain Dew. Even as a little kid I knew I was unhealthy, so I'd bug my mom into buying...SlimFast so I could use it as a meal replacement. Didn't work. I was really shy and had a hard time making friends.

Anarchy Means I Litter

I got into middle school and went into my grungiest phase. I grew my hair to waist level, wore only black and camo, started stealing cigarettes so I could take up smoking, showered only once or twice in a blue moon, and started listening to Nu Metal. Strike 2 (mostly cause of the Nu Metal)! I was still putting on weight. I struggled academically and failed a couple classes, but managed to graduate. In 8th grade my mom got a job working at a pizza shop. For dinner 3-4 times a week she'd bring home pizza. My dad was suffering from a huge assortment of health problems at the time. His anxiety over his health issues and his disapproval of my mom going to work soon manifested as physical abuse directed towards me and my brothers, but mostly me since I was the youngest. Eventually the violence diminished as I fought back more and more. We're cool-ish now, but there's always been a certain distance between us since then.

Swap Meat

I get to high school. I try to kill myself. Doesn't happen. I wind up spending a week in a loony bin; one of the longest weeks of my life. I get out. My mom's upset that I almost died. My dad's upset that my medical bills cost so much. Sophomore year I clean up my act and go vegan. I develop a spiritual side. At first I feel great: I get involved with political activism, I lose some weight, I start hanging out with cool people and even dating. Everything falls apart towards the end of my Senior year of high school. I've been struggling academically all through high school, and I just barely manage to graduate. I quit veganism (I break my vegan streak by eating an extra rare steak topped with sauteed mushrooms...delish!) because I'm constantly sick and decide to try paleo, which several of my friends were on. I earn the ire of one of my older brothers, a radical veganarchist who went vegan the same time I did. To this day we barely talk. I fall off the paleo wagon relatively quickly and end up on a fast food diet. I'll spend the next year or so trying and failing to stick to paleo. I get into college, go through my first semester, and wind up on academic probation due to failing 2 classes.

Non-Conformity in Theory and Practice

Something isn't working. I'm in terrible shape physically, I'm flunking out of college and I still feel just as listless and unhappy as ever. Rather than throw my hands up and resign myself to a life of menial labor and a lack of fulfillment, I decide that I'm not cut out for the system (academia and conventional diet wisdom, in this case) and that I should find a better way forward. Inspired by the writings of Chris Guillebeau and his blog, which I'd been reading for several months, I go home over Christmas break 2011 and tell my parents that I'm going to pursue my lifelong dream of being a writer. They roll their eyes. They also tell me I have to pay my own way through college from now on. Early 2012, I go back to college and decide that it's now or never. I start writing and indie publishing stories under pen names, and I'm proud to say that as of now I'm making enough money from writing to be able to support myself. I stop going to class and start writing full-time, intending to not return to college after this semester ends.

Something magical happens; I manage to stick to a modified Paleo diet for more than a week and I feel fantastic. This is all spoiled when I go on an extended fast (I got greedy and wanted to lose weight quickly) and end it by binging on junk food. That junk food binge? Happened tonight. I feel like crap, and it didn't even taste good to boot. I couldn't even finish my bottle of Mountain Dew and had to pour it down the drain.

I feel slightly liberated that my taste for processed crap has all but disappeared. I'm not even on a very strict diet, mind you: I allow dairy, and fruit, and a few other things. Consider me more of the progressive WAPF/PB side of paleo rather than the "nothing that's modernly palatable" end of the spectrum.

Next Time

So now that we're all caught up on where I've come from, where am I going? Good question. I'm actually going to answer it in a second post because I don't want this one to drag on too much longer. My second post will talk about my plans for the future and how I'm going to accomplish them, why I think Nerd Fitness is the best place (and mindset) for me, what that Mary Oliver quote really means, and some other stuff. Stay tuned, and thanks for reading if you worked through everything above this.

[AKLulu]

Your honesty is very admirable, Moose. You've obviously faced struggles in your life, but I love that you don't really lay blame, you don't look for pity, and you seem to be continuing on with a fighting spirit. I know that I don't know you, but I can't help but be kind of proud of you. Is that weird?

In response to your binge - I think it happens to most everyone at some point or other. It's HARD! I know that at some point or other I'm probably going to break and indulge in a doughnut or something with loads of cheese, but the great thing about binges? When you realize that's just what it is. I read somewhere once that the thing that makes us fat isn't a binge, it's continued bad eating. So now that you've completely realized where you're at with it, you don't have to justify it and you don't have to feel try to feel much remorse. Now you can just accept that it has happened, it's now in the past, and you can move on.

And the poem isn't too wimpy, don't worry. I'm more of a Robert Service "Lure of Little Voices" gal myself, but that's not nearly as applicable to our current struggle

Welcome to the Rebellion!

[Howlin' Moose]

Ok, shameless MC Chris rip-off in the title. Now that that's out of the way...

(Also, hi to AKLulu! You posted while I was writing this. Thanks for the kind words. I'll write a more fleshed out response sometime soon, but I forgot another funny incident from my past life. This was so absurd it's actually kind of humorous: back in high school, I spent around 2.5 years pining over this hipster girl who was a grade ahead of me. When I finally got the moose oysters to ask her out partway through Junior year, she rejected me. That was survivable, of course, but things started to suck when she went around to all of our mutual friends - we were in the same social circles, generally - and told them that I had been stalking her, hiding outside of her house at night, and I almost raped her in a parking lot. She also had 3 or 4 of her male friends harass me online, and when I contacted her to tell her to call her boy toys off, she threatened to call the police on me and tell them I was stalking her. She was f***ing psycho.)

What are my plans for the future? What the heck am I doing with my life?

Right now I'd like to basically do 2 things: A) Get in better, no, scratch that - get in THE BEST SHAPE of my life and Improve on my writing career. For now, I'm gonna talk about A) Getting in the best shape of my life. I'd like to lose fat, build some muscle (but not too much; gotta stay under 200 pounds for skydiving). I don't have accurate measurements because I've been away from scales for several months, but I'd guess that I'm somewhere a few pounds north of 200 right now, and my bodyfat percentage is hovering around 30% give or take a bit. I could easily stand to lose at least 20 lbs. or so of fat, and add on a fair bit of lean mass to take its place.

Right now I'm on an easy-going version of the paleo diet which has worked so far for me barring a few screw-ups. I do some gnarly alternate day fasting, though I might decrease the frequency of it because I sometimes fear I'm eating too little and it's hampering weight loss. For exercise, I'm following in the footsteps of Mark Sisson: I try to do lots of slow movement like walking, though that's something I could certainly improve upon. I also try to follow Mr. Sisson's "Lift Heavy Things" bodyweight workout 3 times a week (Wed, Fri, Sun). I live on the 11th floor of my dorm and try to take the stairs when possible.

I haven't been able to stick to this for very long, and I'm just now finally getting past all the emotional and mental hurdles and I'm finally able to do it relatively painlessly. I've always been incredibly self-conscious, which is why I hate eating and exercising in public. I feel like I'm constantly being judged since I'm overweight. Well, in times like this I just gotta sit back and ask myself, "What would Julien Smith do?" (he wrote The Flinch. Go read it; it's a free ebook and it might just spur you on to start something awesome) Inevitably, Julien Smith would exercise or eat in public and damn the consequences, cause he's like a real-life Tyler Durden.

So I'm working through my fear of being judged. In fact, I'm kind of starting to like the idea of being the weird health nut guy who doesn't eat bread and runs around in Vibrams. I still have a ways to go, but I'm getting there.

In the future, I have plans to adopt a more strenuous bodyweight routine (I'm thinking You Are Your Own Gym, Convict Conditioning, or The Naked Warrior) as well as incorporating weekly sprints. I'll also add in some Shovelglove (look it up if you don't already know) routines because it looks hella fun and I've heard rave reviews about it. There will probably also be Crossfit in my future, once I can afford it without having to cut back on other things.

The better shape I get in, the more things I can do, and believe me there's so much stuff I want to try out. This is an embarrassing confession, but I've never learned how to swim or ride a bike. Horrendous, I know. Go ahead, laugh it up. Nobody ever really bothered to teach me. I'd like to take up both of those activities this summer. I also have plans to take up longboarding and parkour. Parkour's something I used to 'dabble' in - and I use the term dabble very liberally - but I feel like I've never been in good enough shape to take it seriously. I know it's faded from the limelight, but I was interested in it before it became big and I still am interested in it. Other favorite activities include outdoorsy stuff like hiking and camping. I have plans to take up rock climbing, caving and skydiving but again, like with Crossfit, money's a bit of a limiting factor for now.

Why Nerd Fitness?

I've kind of shopped around at other health forums and blogs but NF is my favorite one by far. I love Steve Kamb's writing style and the way he can relate just about anything to anything. I love the inclusiveness. I love the fact that this is about more than just leveling up your body: it's also about leveling up your life, whether that means taking on a new job, traveling abroad, improving your social life or whatever. It's all-encompassing. I dig it.

What about that mysterious Mary Oliver quote?

Right.

"You do not have to be good.

You do not have to walk on your knees

For a hundred miles through the desert repenting.

You only have to let the soft animal of your body

Love what it loves."

This speaks to me, because I'm sick and tired of the undercurrent of humanity that is all about asceticism and self-loathing. Now, I'm not epicurean by any means. I like the rugged life to an extent. But I hate listening to people tell me how humans are fundamentally wicked, and how we have to fight against ourselves. Screw that. These people, who gave us Graham crackers (invented to cure the raging libidos of the sinful youth) and bland low-fat diets and put us in human zoos to pound our lives away working at meaningless jobs and on treadmills, piss me off. I'm tired of every day being a struggle. I'm tired of being told that all of life is suffering.

I believe it's possible to live a healthy, exciting, passionate life without having to sacrifice much, if anything. Absolutely. I believe that the human animal likes the things it likes for a reason, and maybe we should go with the flow within ourselves. I think Mother Nature isn't stupid. This is getting to be kind of a rant. I'll end it here. Did I just write some sort of hedonistic manifesto? Who knows. I'm sure I have more to say on the matter at some point.

That's all for now. If anybody feels like commenting on this thread I'll be happy to chat. Besides that, I guess I'll see ya'll (the blood of several generations of southerners runs through my veins) around the forum.

[AKLulu]

But learning to swim with extra fat is the best! I rocked at intramural water polo in college because I had tons of extra flotation. I strongly encourage swimming. It's great!

I also love Steve's writing style and really appreciate the feeling of community he exudes in every post. I think that's why I've decided to settle myself in here too.

I understand being afraid to exercise in public. I've been the same way for a long time, but one of my friends convinced me to try CrossFit with her (because she needed the extra support too) and I love it! I think you will too when you manage to fit it into your life and budget. I was really intimidated by what I had heard about it before I went the first time, but my CrossFit gym is a great community and I never feel judged. They're very encouraging and after the first two weeks or so, I felt like they cared if I was there or not (or at least noticed if I wasn't). I hope you get the chance to try it!

And now I'll stop, because you're going to get tired of me being the only one responding. Have fun!

[Howlin' Moose]

But learning to swim with extra fat is the best! I rocked at intramural water polo in college because I had tons of extra flotation. I strongly encourage swimming. It's great!

I also love Steve's writing style and really appreciate the feeling of community he exudes in every post. I think that's why I've decided to settle myself in here too.

I understand being afraid to exercise in public. I've been the same way for a long time, but one of my friends convinced me to try CrossFit with her (because she needed the extra support too) and I love it! I think you will too when you manage to fit it into your life and budget. I was really intimidated by what I had heard about it before I went the first time, but my CrossFit gym is a great community and I never feel judged. They're very encouraging and after the first two weeks or so, I felt like they cared if I was there or not (or at least noticed if I wasn't). I hope you get the chance to try it!

And now I'll stop, because you're going to get tired of me being the only one responding. Have fun!

Haha, it's perfectly fine. I'd rather have only one person respond than nobody. I figure the massive exposition in my first 2 posts would scare some people away from reading them. But thanks for sticking through it! I noticed you also joined NF just this February. Are you new to much of this? Or have you been involved with this sort of stuff (paleo, Crossfit, or whatever your diet/fitness bag happens to be) for a while?

A little bit about me and Crossfit: Right now I'm in Mankato, MN, but after this semester I'm moving back to my hometown of Rapid City, South Dakota, to be with friends. Amazingly, little old Rapid City has a Crossfit gym! I'm excited. I used to see Crossfit all over the place and thought it was kind of overrated and trendy, but after watching the Crossfitting (is that a word?)

, I figured there might be something to it. I've become a lot more open to it since then.

A few activities I left out earlier: I'm also big into racquetball and tennis, and even basketball, kinda. Looking forwards to actually having the endurance to be (semi-)good at those.

[AKLulu]

It's true, your wordiness may have scared a few off, but I like your style and I'm far too prone to being verbose myself to be scared by the same from anybody else.

I'm fairly new to Paleo and CrossFit. I'd been hearing about CrossFit and amazing transformations (that would make Optimus Prime proud) of friends of friends for a while, but it wasn't until about mid-January of this year that I decided to give it a try. I have a friend who wanted to give it a try too, so we've been helping motivate each other. Crossfitting (I'll allow it) is definitely worth it. I haven't seen huge changes in my physical appearance yet, but know that I'm feeling better about myself and don't feel exhausted the whole day after a workout anymore. I'm also not as constantly sore as I was for the first month. I was even a little sad early this week that I couldn't make it to my workouts because of some temporary changes to my schedule.

I've also been hearing about Paleo for several years. I have a brother who is training as a professional triathlete, so I think I've heard about it from him (who, given the 5000-something calories per day that he needs to survive, does not really practice it). One of our other brothers (who didn't seem very out of shape) tried going Paleo for a while a few years back and dropped 20 pounds with almost no effort. Anyways, I guess since CrossFit and Paleo seem to go hand-in-hand, I've finally decided to give it a go (just started this last Wednesday and am craving little other aside from cheese so far). A few variables playing into why I think I can make Paleo work: 1) I've never stuck with any workout program that wasn't a class or school-related activity as long as I've stuck with CrossFit so far. 2) I figure if I'm going to be forking over as much money as I am for CrossFit, I might as well make the best use of it that I can to get healthy. And 3) Lent! I'm Catholic (by habit if for no other reason) and don't usually give things up for Lent because I think Lent should be about doing things to make yourself a better person in some way. I figured these 40 days would be a great (and manageable) opportunity to try to stick to a new health plan. I know that my Paleo plan is by no means perfect. I still allow myself up to two (small) glasses of red wine per night. I let myself have a square of dark chocolate in the afternoon. Some Paleo professionals say these things are okay, some say they aren't, but I think I need those little indulgences to keep myself going. If I gave it all up I'd be very prone to going on a binge... every third day.

I'm currently in Portland, OR and am planning on being here for at least a few years. I moved down here in fall of 2010 from Alaska (born, raised, and Bachelor's degree) on a leap of faith. I finally got hired for a good job after almost half a year of searching and signed on for a permanent position this last December. I'd like to say that I have more sporting hobbies, but I haven't really made an effort to seek them out since I've been down south. Every now and then I shoot some hoops with people that I work with... maybe some Frisbee or boccie ball. In the past I've played basketball, volleyball, intramural water polo, intramural broom ball (please tell me that you know what this is and that other cold states play it), and a little bit of ballroom and belly-dancing. I'd say if I could pick any of those up again it'd have to be water polo and bellydancing. I can't admit to having ever been anything okay at sports, but I do enjoy them. I think the main thing I'm looking forward to is being able to hike around easily during the summer field season for work, but there's almost no end to the other things that I imagine being fit will help with!

[ROOCHOP]

From one noob to another

Welcome to the rebellion, I am a talker not a writer so this will be short and sweet.

One thing in reading your post that concerns me, you mentioned that you fasted, not good! Apart from putting your body under some serious stress, you do not tap into the energy sources in your body until about 12 - 14 hours of fasting. The first stage is for your body to use Glycogen (glucose) as its energy source, then it starts to strip amino acids and muscle protein. Finally it will tap in to stored fats.

The weight that you lose much like crash dieting is largely muscle, instead eat regular meals, control your portions and you will find that your body will begin to let go of fat stores without depleting your lean muscle mass. The more muscle you grow the more calories it will require to run them.

If you do get a craving for a burger, with the primal way of eating (it sounds like you are more primal than paleo) you can make some delicious take out style food without going against your diet.

Hope this helps

[Howlin' Moose]

From one noob to another

Welcome to the rebellion, I am a talker not a writer so this will be short and sweet.

One thing in reading your post that concerns me, you mentioned that you fasted, not good! Apart from putting your body under some serious stress, you do not tap into the energy sources in your body until about 12 - 14 hours of fasting. The first stage is for your body to use Glycogen (glucose) as its energy source, then it starts to strip amino acids and muscle protein. Finally it will tap in to stored fats.

The weight that you lose much like crash dieting is largely muscle, instead eat regular meals, control your portions and you will find that your body will begin to let go of fat stores without depleting your lean muscle mass. The more muscle you grow the more calories it will require to run them.

If you do get a craving for a burger, with the primal way of eating (it sounds like you are more primal than paleo) you can make some delicious take out style food without going against your diet.

Hope this helps

Hey, ROOCHOP. The long fast was stupid and short-sighted, I'll admit. I don't see a problem with intermittent fasting, though. Thanks for the welcome!

Oh, and you're right - I'm not really 'paleo' paleo. Though recently I've cut back on dairy and fruit, I don't think I'll ever go 100% paleo for the long term. I could probably give up stuff like dairy products but I love vinegar and peppers too much.

[Howlin' Moose]

It's true, your wordiness may have scared a few off, but I like your style and I'm far too prone to being verbose myself to be scared by the same from anybody else.

I'm fairly new to Paleo and CrossFit. I'd been hearing about CrossFit and amazing transformations (that would make Optimus Prime proud) of friends of friends for a while, but it wasn't until about mid-January of this year that I decided to give it a try. I have a friend who wanted to give it a try too, so we've been helping motivate each other. Crossfitting (I'll allow it) is definitely worth it. I haven't seen huge changes in my physical appearance yet, but know that I'm feeling better about myself and don't feel exhausted the whole day after a workout anymore. I'm also not as constantly sore as I was for the first month. I was even a little sad early this week that I couldn't make it to my workouts because of some temporary changes to my schedule.

I've also been hearing about Paleo for several years. I have a brother who is training as a professional triathlete, so I think I've heard about it from him (who, given the 5000-something calories per day that he needs to survive, does not really practice it). One of our other brothers (who didn't seem very out of shape) tried going Paleo for a while a few years back and dropped 20 pounds with almost no effort. Anyways, I guess since CrossFit and Paleo seem to go hand-in-hand, I've finally decided to give it a go (just started this last Wednesday and am craving little other aside from cheese so far). A few variables playing into why I think I can make Paleo work: 1) I've never stuck with any workout program that wasn't a class or school-related activity as long as I've stuck with CrossFit so far. 2) I figure if I'm going to be forking over as much money as I am for CrossFit, I might as well make the best use of it that I can to get healthy. And 3) Lent! I'm Catholic (by habit if for no other reason) and don't usually give things up for Lent because I think Lent should be about doing things to make yourself a better person in some way. I figured these 40 days would be a great (and manageable) opportunity to try to stick to a new health plan. I know that my Paleo plan is by no means perfect. I still allow myself up to two (small) glasses of red wine per night. I let myself have a square of dark chocolate in the afternoon. Some Paleo professionals say these things are okay, some say they aren't, but I think I need those little indulgences to keep myself going. If I gave it all up I'd be very prone to going on a binge... every third day.

I'm currently in Portland, OR and am planning on being here for at least a few years. I moved down here in fall of 2010 from Alaska (born, raised, and Bachelor's degree) on a leap of faith. I finally got hired for a good job after almost half a year of searching and signed on for a permanent position this last December. I'd like to say that I have more sporting hobbies, but I haven't really made an effort to seek them out since I've been down south. Every now and then I shoot some hoops with people that I work with... maybe some Frisbee or boccie ball. In the past I've played basketball, volleyball, intramural water polo, intramural broom ball (please tell me that you know what this is and that other cold states play it), and a little bit of ballroom and belly-dancing. I'd say if I could pick any of those up again it'd have to be water polo and bellydancing. I can't admit to having ever been anything okay at sports, but I do enjoy them. I think the main thing I'm looking forward to is being able to hike around easily during the summer field season for work, but there's almost no end to the other things that I imagine being fit will help with!

I hear you on the indulgence thing. I really can't wait to get out of this cafeteria eating situation so I can start buying and making my own food.

I knew a girl who lived up in Portland for a while. She seemed to like it, but she ended up moving back out to the midwest cause she got bored. I love the climate (well, at least I imagine I do) up in the Pacific Northwest. Skamania County, Washington, has been on my list of places to move to since I was a little kid.

About Broom ball: I had to go look it up, but it seems like it's actually somewhat popular out here. I mean, hockey and curling are big out here in South, North Dakota/Minnesota/Wisconsin...so it makes sense that broom ball would fit in.

Good luck with your Lent adventures! I'm sure by the time 40 days are up you'll be able to see and feel some noticeable changes, if other people's "N of 1" stories are anything to go on.

...And that concludes my slightly disjointed reply. Sorry for hopping around from point to point, haha.

[AKLulu]

(Also' date=' hi to AKLulu! You posted while I was writing this. Thanks for the kind words. I'll write a more fleshed out response sometime soon, but I forgot another funny incident from my past life. This was so absurd it's actually kind of humorous: back in high school, I spent around 2.5 years pining over this hipster girl who was a grade ahead of me. When I finally got the moose oysters to ask her out partway through Junior year, she rejected me. That was survivable, of course, but things started to suck when she went around to all of our mutual friends - we were in the same social circles, generally - and told them that I had been stalking her, hiding outside of her house at night, and I almost raped her in a parking lot. She also had 3 or 4 of her male friends harass me online, and when I contacted her to tell her to call her boy toys off, she threatened to call the police on me and tell them I was stalking her. She was f***ing psycho.)[/quote']

I knew girls like that in my high school too. Be glad she turned you down, she obviously wasn't worth your time. One of the girls a grade ahead of me basically did the same thing to a guy after she "let" him take her to prom. So stupid.

Also, I was going to respond earlier and post some things about intermittent fasting, but I guess that's already been taken care of.

Hopping around on responses is fine. I tend to do that because I like to cover all relevant points. At least I'm not jumping to conclusions

Cafeteria eating is a tough one. By the time I was toward the end of my campus eating, I had kind of given up even trying to have a balanced diet... I think I ended up eating a lot of dinners that were composed of pizza and fries =/

Yeah, Portland is treating me pretty well. I don't mind so much the gloom and rain of the winters around here, but there are a lot of times that I wish I was slightly closer to the ocean. I grew up very close to the water, so it's a bit sad sometimes. If I'm desperate for it though, I can always submit myself to the hour-and-a-half drive.

I'm sorry that I forced you to look up broom ball. That must have been SOOOO difficult (unneeded sarcasm, I know, but it's so much fun!). I'm glad you did though... so at least I didn't come off as a complete loony. Broom ball? WTF? Not many people have heard of it really, I just thought there might be a chance with you. It was the biggest intramural sport at my Uni.

I expect to see some pretty good results from my Lenten adventure, but I'm definitely trying to expect a particular result. The lowest weight (which I know isn't always the best indicator) I've been since I was probably thirteen is 210 lbs (at age 23), so I don't really know what a significant change will look like on me!

[ROOCHOP]

Hey' date=' ROOCHOP. The long fast was stupid and short-sighted, I'll admit. I don't see a problem with intermittent fasting, though. Thanks for the welcome!

Oh, and you're right - I'm not really 'paleo' paleo. Though recently I've cut back on dairy and fruit, I don't think I'll ever go 100% paleo for the long term. I could probably give up stuff like dairy products but I love vinegar and peppers too much. [/quote']

Have done a bit of reading on the fasting front, if it is short term intermittent carbs fasting, and it works for you, then not so much of an issue, done properly.

The right dairy is very good for muscle building, and hear you on the peppers and vinegars, better that than doughnuts.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk

[unicornassassin]

No way, Rapid City has Crossfit gym? Wow. I currently live in MN also. I grew up in Brookings, SD.

Also- way to go being able to make a living from writing. That's awesome!

[Howlin' Moose]

No way, Rapid City has Crossfit gym? Wow. I currently live in MN also. I grew up in Brookings, SD.

Also- way to go being able to make a living from writing. That's awesome!

Ah, Brookings. My older bro went to college there for a bit.

And yeah, I didn't believe it at first but here ya go: Black Hills CrossFit. It seems like it was opened in 2009 (?? Don't quote me on that) so it's pretty new. Can't wait to check it out when I go back.

And I almost forgot - welcome to NF, unicornassassin! I noticed you just joined as well.

[AuroraNorth]

Hi and welcome! It sounds like you're off to a good start.

Cafeteria eating is very difficult- finding something other than a banana that's not fried or white bread feels like mission impossible, doesn't it?

[AKLulu]

Wait.... peppers are a no-no on Paleo? I thought they were a fruit... and most of the Paleo blogs I've been following say that a little vinegar is okay. That's my story and I'm sticking to it! Because if vinegar isn't okay, neither is a little bit of wine....

[Howlin' Moose]

Hi and welcome! It sounds like you're off to a good start.

Cafeteria eating is very difficult- finding something other than a banana that's not fried or white bread feels like mission impossible, doesn't it?

No kidding. All the vegetables are probably GMO and covered in pesticides, and the meat is all grain-fed, industrial 'meat products' fried in canola oil...but, we do the best we can do, I suppose. Someday I'll break free and eat real food!

[Shoshie]

Just wanted to mention that I freaking love that poem. It's on a post-it next to my desk. Whenever I start feeling inadequate or whatever, I just repeat it in my head. "You do not have to walk on your knees for one thousand miles repenting" Beautiful.

Poetry geek out.

[LRB]

Love Mary Oliver -- not sure what wearing plaid has to do with anything, but it's probably an allusion all the cool kids get, but I don't.

There's so much in your introduction, I'm not sure where to start, so I think I'll just say "welcome," and I look forward to getting to know you better. It sounds like you've been through a lot, and are still at a pretty turbulent time in your life, but if you're anything like many other people I've known, it calms down -- even if life stays crazy, it gets to you a bit less, you know?

Good luck with your writing! I hope someday to read your great magnum opus.

Welcome to the Rebellion!

[AKLulu]

Illusions, huh? On that note - Sarah Palin cannot see Russia from her house. Just so y'all know.

[Hardy]

As one n00b to another, welcome! I actually think you hit my intro already.. I'm still catching up around here, it's tough as the project I am currently on has me staring at this damn laptop 60hrs/week. Most nights I don't even boot it up after work, but lately I just NEED to hit NF!!

And, AKLulu - I grew up playing broomball !!! 100% purebread northern Ontario boy. Speaking of which, Moose, we are likely neighbors.. I'm from Thunder Bay, 3hrs north of Duluth!

[AKLulu]

Yaaaaaay! I'm beginning to think we could be friends, Hardy. I'm so glad I'm not the only one who has heard of broomball

[Howlin' Moose]

North of Duluth, huh? I almost went to college up there. Unfortunately, I let people convince me that Duluth's a wretched hive of scum and villainy. All the people I talked to seemed to think it was full of criminals and smugglers. Kind of odd, but whatevs.

And oh, wow, I've been away longer than I thought. By 'away,' I mean a day or two, which, in internet time, is like a month.

I may have to start a broomball club once I'm settled back in the 605. That is, if I'm not overwhelmed with all of the other project ideas I have.