Newbie! Because Newbies are an okay thing to be!

[Suntail]

Good Morning Everyone!

Sooo yeah--this is new for me, striking out on my own into the weight loss, healthy strong body world that is both exciting and scary. I suppose I start from the beginning and when I reach the end, I'll stop. I'm a fair skinned, blue eyed, red head in the Twin Cities, and I'm overweight and unhappy with my appearance. I have always been a little on the heavy side of things--growing up I was 5'8" and weighing in at about the 180 range. I did pretty well at maintaining my weight since I was too busy running off to theater practice and choir events. This continued through college since I had to walk everywhere to get to my classes and the idea never really occurred to me to keep food in my room--thus if I was -really hungry- I was willing to get up and get food, but if I was just bored, then clearly walking was too much work to go get food that I actually could care less for.

Anyways, most of you I'm sure know where this is going. Yep. I graduated and got a job and suddenly--I didn't have choir or theater or rushing off to classes to help balance (relatively) myself out. Part of the problem was that by the time college was over I was so -sick- of coming home after a long day and having to do something else (homework and/or extracurricular activities) before I could actually go to bed and sleep. I was so sick of doing everything and wanted time to work on what I actually really crave to do with the rest of my life--Write novels. So this, combined with moving out of my parents home--and working a data entry job made me gain fast and furious pounds.

I wouldn't say I've always had the best diet, growing up in Iowa had me very meat and potatoes, and starch focused for most of my young life. I never thought about sugar or calories or high fructose corn syrup, it was all food right? I moved to the Cities to get a fresh start after my job wanted me to go back to school for a finance degree (uh yeah no, numbers not my thing--Journalism major here!) It didn't really occur to me to change anything until my boyfriend and my roommate offered up the idea of going on an Allergy diet for 3 months. As I had just weighed myself that morning and found out I tipped the scale at about 220 I readily agreed without really knowing what I was getting myself into.

I highly recommend the Elimination Diet, not for the weight loss benefits but for the interesting trip through your psychology and physical reactions to food. I lost 20 lbs in those three months simply because we couldn't eat a lot of things for the first month or two. I do not consider that consistent weight loss since you do slowly add in foods and the diet is not maintainable--it's not meant to be maintainable but more a way for you to figure out what exactly certain foods do to you.

It should also be said that you will find foods that you will never be able to enjoy the same way again. Through the allergy diet I discovered my worst enemy was gluten, and to a lesser extent, dairy. Unfortunately, I think this kills my roommate more than it kills me.

I weighed myself yesterday morning before joining this site...214. Through peer pressure and pure laziness I've slowly climbed my way back up the scale. and I hate it.

So I know I need to finally conquer some of my fears and become the brave to a fault Gryffindor I'm always pegged to be.

What I'm bringing to the table:

A positive attitude -- I've never been one for being glum for more than a hour or two. My hope is boundless and my inspiration springs eternal--it's getting myself out of the frellin' bed in the morning that trips me up.

A great start to a new diet -- I've decided no matter what hearts it breaks, I -need- to be as dairy free as I can be for the fall allergy season. Gluten free for life. I will miss dairy more, but the way it makes me feel is just not worth the joy of eating it.

A love of Dancing, Swimming, and the Bicycle -- I have DDR and Zumba on my Wii that I don't use enough as it is! My plan is to do 20-30 minutes of Dancing or bicycling every morning to start with. I need to get myself trained enough to do these activities before I can work up my courage to do strength training.

A great handle of health and nutrition -- I won't lie, I'm a bit of a hippie and I grew up in a family who worked in the medical industry. It's also only added to the beast that is my health geek that I've started to hang out with my herbalist friend since moving up to the cities.

2 Weeks of a few good habits -- I quit gluten and dairy and have been successful with those despite going to Starbucks for my soy earl grey latte, I love herbal teas and drink one my herbalist made for me every day to detox liver/kidneys/spleen/. And even better, I've been drinking 16 oz. of lemon water on my way to work every day, constantly, for 3 months now. It's a crazy gentle detox that is insanely addictive--and insanely good. There have been summer days I just pour lemon into my 32oz canteen and go.

now I just need to add working out and maybe, maybe this time, with a great support structure from this site. maybe I can do it. I only have 44 pounds to lose before I get down to my goal weight of 170. (I think I should technically be 160 but I'm going to see how I feel at 170.) I almost thought this site's promises were too good to be true, I'm still nervous about it actually. I don't know how many times my community has been the reason I've fallen off the horse. I want to be a good wingman but I know I'm gonna need help at the same time. Being positive and joining for life with everyone here, even if my nerd/geekdom is not as hard core as others...

My Challenges (Hero's Journey Plot Twists):

Night Owl by Birth -- circadian rhythms aside my brain work's best from 7 pm on till about 11 pm. ~I love the night sky, I love the rolling hills~ okay lol enough of that. But I need to be out of bed by 6 am to be able to make my herbal tea, and exercise and have enough time to get ready for work, (for those curious, now I'm working as a receptionist but I'm really wanting to find a new job...ugh.)

Family/Friends not understanding diet -- My family just cannot get it through their heads that I don't eat gluten; they figure there's no problem unless the doctor says there's one. It's very very hard to be diagnosed with a gluten allergy, and even if you have it it can still test as a false negative. It's spendy and I don't feel like I should waste my time with it since I know how gluten affects me. I don't need a test to tell me that. But even still--my friends do a lot for me as it is and I just feel -bad- making them have to cave to my diet and my restrictions. I know all of them love a good slice of cake and cheesy garlic bread...And they love to have other people love it too. Let's not talk about my co-workers who think I'm weird for eating Thai and Indian food instead of pork chops and mash potatoes for lunch.

The Roommate/My courage -- When we were done with the allergy diet there were many things that we discovered about food, but my decision to be gluten-free was the one that I think broke my roommate's heart the most. She loves bread, and flour and things that make bread and cookies, and she loves to bake but just does not have the patience to learn how to bake gluten free. She is never satisfied with gluten-free foods, always always finding the mistakes or nit-picking textures and tastes. It had gotten to the point where I just couldn't fight her on the topic anymore and gave up. Now I'm going to do my best to make sure she can eat what she wants to, but make sure that I have a gluten free and dairy free option for myself. It's not that she hates me for it, she just...can't imagine life without those things (she's got plenty of food issues on top of this--all of them are her own but it makes words like 'diet' or 'restriction' ticking time bombs that are just not spoken at home.) And it's her choice--not mine.

However, this snowballs into a much more modest issue. I hate exercising around her-and she is home before me all the time, which means I can't exercise when I get home. It's just hard for me to keep my motivation going when there's someone on the side lines. Someone you know is going to take your achievements and use it to put down herself because clearly you're doing better than her and that makes her a horrible human being. As I said before--I'm a positive person, and I hate making people feel badly, I've often had to challenge myself with this because you can't be a people pleas-er for life--it'll make you old and bitter.

When I've been inspired to get up in the morning and exercise and voiced my excitement for this--she has laughed at me and said things like "no you won't--I know you better than that". And well--I'm insecure and weak and haven't figure just how to let those kinds of statements fuel my workout rage.

But....I'm going to do it this time--I hope I can find some good friends here to help support me when things start to crumble. I'm going to be in it for life and turn myself into a success story. Please don't give up on me, I'm going to do my best.

Goal:

Starting -- 214

Ending -- 170

Methods:

diet, DDR/Zumba/bicycle x 5 times a week @ 20-30 minutes a day

Strength Training TBA

Side Goals:

New Job

Novel writing 1,000 words per day

This is gonna be a ride...Hope I can make it.

[Red1263]

Hey hey, Welcome to the Rebellion! Man, that's some intro you've got there! That's good, that you have your goals spread out for you, that helps immensely! Well, the idea about getting healthier is that it's mainly for You and you alone. You can't go through life constantly trying to please everyone, I'm sure you know this already. If nothing else, whenever your roommate feels bad about herself because you're improving yourself, then ask her to join you, be an example of what determination and willpower can do! Nothing helps one maintain focus with someone in the fray with them keeping them in check. Remember, everyone is different, so what might work for someone might not work for someone else, so if bread works for her and not for you, then that's fine! Hmm... if she laughs at you again, then use that as motivation to prove her wrong, inspire yourself through as many means as possible! But above all, have your reasons for getting healthy solid in your mind. No one here is going to give up on you, "Once a Rebel Always a Nerd"... err I mean, Rebel!