Yes, I'm new

[RaeVynn]

I stumbled here from a chance remark someone made over at Myfitnesspal.com

I've been tracking my food intake there for several months... went through those initial days of victory of losing some weight, then the usual dreaded stall of plateau, got involved in a group thread on eating more to lose weight.. and have been resetting my metabolism by attempting to eat my TDEE - 15% (approximate by calculations) of around 1900 -2100 calories per day, plus lifting "heavy"... my weapon of choice is kettlebells... twice a week.

About twice a week I do a little HIIT on the treadmill (proud owner of a lovely Nordictrac treadmill - a good one) to get the cardio in... a bit of a change from what I started out doing, which was an hour a day of slow moving treadmill (lots of reading time!)...

My "lifetime" loss is 60lbs from my highest weight. How did I get to my highest weight? Well, I thought that I was an anomaly - one of those rare people that can gain weight by dieting - yes, boys and girls, I dieted my way UP to 282lbs! mostly by eating - can you guess? - low fat - high carb. I gained on about 1200 calories per day. Oh, and I did try the low-carb thing, too... funny thing is, I'm allergic to dairy products -dangerously so - so when I first tried the low carb, and I was eating butter, cheese, full-fat yogurts, I also nearly died (I won't explain how my allergy expresses itself, to spare anyone that might actually be reading this all the way through).

I've always known that eating fruit, veggies, nuts, seeds, coconut oil, and whole grains (limited) was the way to go, but let myself get sidetracked by "experts" that were telling me different. I even was doing the entire 100% raw vegan thing for a few months, but got sidelined by the "80-10-10" thing, which so threw me out of whack (I want my whack back!!) that I lost considerable ground, and am just now regaining it.

Oh, and I have fibro... not a pretty sight. There are days when I literally cannot crawl out of bed due to the pain. But, I'm pressing on. I have to. This is my LIFE here. I'm not getting any younger (well, actually, I am. Really. I feel younger, anyway), and I don't want to end up "old"... just aged. There is a huge difference.

Oh, and Ecuador is where my husband and I want to retire to. We've been planning this for awhile now. I want to live where I can grow my own tropical fruit, get 12 hours of sunshine, and not be saad every winter.

I am a vegan, so I won't be going "paleo"... and I'm not really ready to go back to 100% raw, but I do eat a LOT of my food raw, and I do go for more veggies, less starch already, so it's just more of the same. That and not being afraid to eat nuts, seeds, and my fruit and veggies... getting my health back is the most important thing to me... oh, and losing the rest of the excess fat would be nice, too. As I said, I'm down 60 pounds already... if I lose another 60, that would make me incredibly happy!

So, here I am...

[Avalon]

Oh, and Ecuador is where my husband and I want to retire to. We've been planning this for awhile now. I want to live where I can grow my own tropical fruit, get 12 hours of sunshine, and not be saad every winter.

I love Ecuador, and you therefore have fantastic taste. Do you plan on retiring closer to the cost or the lowlands? You'd want to avoid the mountains, Quito and such, since they are as grey or greyer than a lot of areas in the States. Beautiful country, though, and the people are fantastic once you get out of the cities. La gente alli es muy amable.

My old boss had fibro. I remember how bad it got for her on "bad" days, and the only ones I saw were when she was still "good" enough to make it in to work. Tons of respect for taking your life by the horns in the face of such challenges. Good luck with it, and with everything else!

I'm a newbie myself, but still, welcome to the Rebellion!

[unicornassassin]

Welcome!

[RaeVynn]

Thank you for the greetings. I was kind of wondering if I said something wrong here, somehow. Maybe I don't fit the demographic of the usual member. Am I too old? geez.

Just looking for some actual support in trying to get healthier.

[SThom180]

Thank you for the greetings. I was kind of wondering if I said something wrong here, somehow. Maybe I don't fit the demographic of the usual member. Am I too old? geez.

Just looking for some actual support in trying to get healthier.

I'm not sure what you were expecting. Two different people welcomed you. People might have offered help if you had asked any questions. We're all just glad you joined up. My personal opinions, though, are as follows:

-I don't know what size kettlebells you have, but if they're big enough they're great for cardio. I do interval swings with mine. Kettlebells are extremely versatile and are capable of helping spur on amazing results. They do have their weaknesses, though. There are a number of people on here who are quite knowledgeable about kettlebells.

-I'm not a fan of vegan diets. I have no issues with a person who decides to stop eating meat for moral or ethical reasons. What bothers me is that sometimes people will ignore or stubbornly deny any negative health effects of being vegan because of those moral or ethical reasons. Anytime someone tells me they're vegan but they've had trouble losing weight, I've noticed the two are often related. Humans are omnivores. And we certainly haven't given evolution enough time to really adjust to eating no meats. As a result, eating a vegan diet sometimes leads people to have a mineral or nutrient deficiency they might not have gotten eating animal meats. I'd ask that you consider this a possibility. It may only be as simple as eating an egg once or twice a week.

-Otherwise, I can't offer much more than encouragement. You sound motivated and you definitely have a good plan so far. I don't know much about fibro except that I hear it can be painful, so here's hoping they find a cheap an easy pain management solution soon!

Good luck!

[unicornassassin]

Thank you for the greetings. I was kind of wondering if I said something wrong here, somehow. Maybe I don't fit the demographic of the usual member. Am I too old? geez.

Just looking for some actual support in trying to get healthier.

No, you're not too old, there's a lot people around your age on here.

On MFP (in my experience) people are way super gung ho and are like "feel free to add me" all the time, so it's really easy to reach out to people, and it's much chattier. My experience on NF has been different. The vibe of NF that I've picked up on is "talk is cheap. Keep doing the work, keep coming back, and we'll help you as much as we can." I don't think I worded that as well as I wanted to.

What I'm trying to say is this is a great community. I love it way more than MFP. I've found the other members to be super supportive and awesome.

ETA I'm also a vegan, and have lost weight. There are lots of vegans on here, too.

[gojirama]

Welcome! I'm new here too.

[katscratch]

Hiya!! First off, CONGRATS on your progress so far, I'm impressed! Living with fibromyalgia is no easy thing. I have a friend with chronic Lyme and her primary doc thought it was fibro for a long time because her symptoms were so similar. Much respect to you for all the hard work you've done so far!

Secondly, don't worry, weekends we're all a bit slower to respond to things Also it seems like (at least from occasional chatter amongst the long-time members) that there are a LOT of us joining in the last few months, so I think we newbies don't stand out as quickly as we would've six months ago. Jump on in and you'll find the parts of the forums that fit what you're looking for in no time!

There are plenty of non-youngsters here as well, it's a great mix of people and perspectives. You'll likely see some strong opinions on diet but don't let that get to you, you have figured out what works for YOU and that is fantastic!

In short, WELCOME, it sounds like you're in a really good place with having figured out what's working for you and where you're going, and here's to watching your continued progress

[RaeVynn]

Okay... I have no clue where to even begin.

I do kettlebells... but I also walk/run on the treadmill. I have a fitbit (cuz I'm nerdy)... I don't do yoga, per se, but I meditate. I'm not all about lifting, but I like the weight training thing to build up some muscles/strength.

I don't think I fit into any of the guilds. I'm looking at the Angry Birds workout, and thinking that's a good way to test out my fitness, and see how I improve each week, but it's not all that I want to do.

Sorry about my earlier posting... that was the tail-end of a very bad night of no sleep due to a fibro attack. Sorry. Got over sensitive.

[Bumblebee4]

Welcome to the Rebellion. And you don't have to know where to even begin all ya have to do is begin. And sometimes we have to begin again if that ended up not being what we wanted. It's a journey and this place can inspire you to want to try new things but for now it sounds like you're happy with most of what you are doing and that's what really matters.

And don't worry about having a sensitive kind of day, we've all had them. God knows we've all had them!

[RaeVynn]

As soon as I remember how to change my avatar, I will.

 

I'm back. I'm reintroducing myself... three years later. my life, how things change! This is pretty awesome, however... I'm doing a lot of personal development, meditation, finally addressing and healing my leaky gut (fibre is the enemy. Absolutely. For me. No gluten, no dairy, and as little fibre as I can manage. Oh, and no dried fruit ), losing weight so fast my skin is really working at keeping up - it is. But it's working hard at it. Cannabis helps immensely, for almost all of my health challenges. It's been a great three years!

 

anyway, taking a three-year look at things. Wow, I've come a really long way in three years!

Then:

Now:

Today I Walked/Jogged ... alternating streetlights... from Tumwater Falls park all the way down to Heritage park in Olympia. Yep. I did that.

 

I still have a NF sticker on the back of my car, and a NF workout tank I'll be rocking occasionally. I'll be showing up occasionally recording progress.

 

Oh, and I have a goal. I'm running a 5K multi-agency challenge in spring of 2018. Three years. .. well, just under. This is one of my three-year goals. So today was a step in that direction.

 

Peace out

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

That's some amazing progress, welcome back!

[Nightside]

Welcome and dont worry about the age thing, i am 64 and fit in here just fine, try the chronologically blessed thread in the pub, off topic site.

As for replies that is mostly how it goes in "introductions" as there are many new posts all the time.

Start your first challenge then join a guild and the posts will increase within the smaller group.

My group, the Scouts are a friendly bunch and i have no doubt that the other guilds are the same.