Legacy Reporting for Duty, Sirs!

[Legacy]

HI! Ahem, hello everyone! I'm Legacy. I'm 22, 5'3", and I weigh 210 pounds. I started at 213 on July 9. My goal is to become strong, lean, and fit. In six months, I hope to lose 50 lbs. In twelve, I plan on losing 100 lbs or a healthy amount with muscle gain. In one year, I want to be able to run an hour straight, do 50 one-handed pushups, 15 pullups, bench 150, squat 200, and deadlift 250.

I've been running on the treadmill at 5 mph for 12-15 minutes, walking for the other 18-15. I also like to walk 2 or more miles at night or cycle the same whenever I get the chance, building it up so I can do it longer. Doing body weight strength training like pushups, lunges, burpees, dips, and squats. It's time to graduate to real weights, though. I'm a long way from my fitness goals. Still, it's a start. I'm leveling up my life.

This is my story.

I was a healthy weight (134 lbs) until I was thirteen. I played softball, basketball, and loved to run. Then, I made some bad friends and even worse choices, causing me to spiral into rapid weight gain—through depression, the obvious emotional eating, and food addiction. It continued throughout my high school years, with more bad choices and and ever increasing waistline. In college, I managed to do something about it, but never consistently. I lost 20 pounds, gained 10, lost 5, gained 12, lost 30, then gained 15, and so on, a yo-yo on a very elastic string. There were more excuses: I didn't have money, it was too hard doing work and school and exercise when I had to walk to class, I couldn't find the time, etc. Then I googled food addiction and found this site. It was the right amount of motivation to get me started. My mom has joked I was born with a controller in my hand, so equating fitness to leveling up made that mental click.

I just want to have a legacy of which I can be proud. Hence the name. One of the posts mentioned something like that, so I figured, great superhero name. One of these days I'm going to get my PhD in English, publish a novel, climb a mountain, and rule the world. Well, except for the last one. =P In May, I hope to be fit enough to hike Cloud's Rest at Yosemite.

I started completely sedentary, with a diet high in sugar and junk food, so it's been really, really, hard. So far I haven't injured myself or anything. I think I'm doing well though. I'm slowly weaning it out of my diet. My diet is where I usually fail in fitness. I've been eating on smaller plates for smaller portions, cutting processed food and fast food out completely, starting on sugar next. My kryptonite is sweet tea. I'm from Alabama and that's the beverage of choice there. I can drink up to 8 12 oz. glasses a day without even realizing it, and when it's two and a half cups of sugar per gallon...yeah. I've switched completely to water, but I have a small glass every now and then to satisfy the craving.

I'm glad to be a part of a community that has done so much for me so far. Thanks!

[CyningaDena]

Glad to have another English geek on board! Do you have an area of specialty in mind for the PhD? I ended up doing grad school for Creative Writing -- which is where I discovered just how many calories you can guzzle from beer. Hang in there with the sweet tea. Factoring drinks into my diet was strangely one of the hardest parts (there's so much good craft beer out there!) but it sounds like you've already got some good momentum for muscling through it. Welcome!

[EmCee]

Welcome! My ultimate life goal is to publish a novel! For now I'll stick with news articles

You have some intense goals and you seem very well-rounded in them! I started out at a similar weight as you and I promise you, slow and steady wins the race! You can't make too many changes and form too many habits all at once - that's a recipe for failure! I'm looking forward to following your story, Legacy.

[Legacy]

Yay English person! Nice to meet you Cyn! Hmm, for the PhD, it's tough to say. I know I want literature, not composition as a broad focus. My adviser in college was a medievalist, and I took a Chaucer class with her. It was one of the toughest classes I'd ever taken, but I enjoyed the challenge immensely. I've also always enjoyed the Arthurian legends, and I'm in the process of learning Latin right now so I can read Livy, Virgil, Ovid, Cicero, and Horace in their original language. I could do the classics or medieval literature, but then I'd have to learn Greek too instead of German like I'm planning. I also really like the Victorian writers, so it's a toss up. And I loved 20th century poetry. I took many varied undergraduate classes, but I still can't decide. 5 days sweet tea free, thank goodness. Those liquid calories really do catch up with you. I'm hoping I can make it a week. Thanks for the warm welcome!

EmCee, another writer hmm? So you're a journalist? That's really neat! I did a little research for these numbers, so hopefully it'll be reasonably tough but not impossible. I thrive on challenge. Still, I'm a neophyte when it comes to doing the fitness the lifestyle change way, so I welcome any advice. I've been taking it one step at a time, starting with the easiest thing to give up, which was fast food because I hardly ate it anyway. I still eat the occasional processed thing, but I'm slowly cutting that out too. Sugar is going to be insane because I have a massive sweet tooth, and I love to bake. Yet, I've never stuck to anything this long, and that gives me hope.