New rebel...with a cause.

[the.simple.songbird]

...has that joke been made like, 2374923 times on the forums?  I bet.  Whatever!

 

Anyway.  Hi there! My name is Katie.  I'm 26 and I live in Connecticut, just outside the Hartford area.  And I am most definitely a nerd.  I am the queen of lame jokes (hence the title of this post), and Eric Cartman is one of my personal heros.  I thoroughly enjoy playing video games (my recent obsession is Dishonored).  I'm also a high school choir teacher who enjoys reading & conducting research about my profession (and about anything, really).  I hope to enroll in a PhD program for music education within the next two years, with the goal of being a college professor so that I can conduct research studies all the time (yes, I love to write papers).  I also crochet, love my two cats, and am in bed by 9:30 almost every night.  Yes--I am a cross between a 13 year old boy, and a 90 year old woman.

 

And from here, I will copy & paste what I wrote in my "about me" (another fact: I am lazy):

 

I also maintain a blog about life, fitness, food, hobbies, and whatever else I want to write about over at The Simple Songbird.

 

 

My journey with weight has been long & complicated, and I have learned a TON along the way.  If you want all the gory details, you can read them here.

 

The short(ish) version:

 

I was overweight for my entire childhood.  In college, I spent one summer working out every day (walking & pilates DVDs) and eating no more than 1400 calories (often closer to 1200) which consisted of 100 calorie packs and diet & fat-free everything.  I lost 36 pounds in 3 months, and sure enough, it only took a year to gain it all back, and then some.  At my highest recorded weight, I was 220 pounds (and I'm sure I weighed more than that at some point).

 

After I graduated and started living on my own, I started working with a personal trainer, mostly doing bodyweight exercises, working with dumbells, and cardio (I trained for a 10k at one point).  That, combined with learning to cook my own meals and eating REAL food, led to a loss of 65 pounds.

 

 

I managed to maintain that weight until recently.  In November 2012, I started having a mysterious health issue--severe abdominal pain accompanied by fevers and extreme weakness.  For two months, I could hardly open a heavy door, and I rarely had the energy to get out of bed.  Normally I am a very high-energy person, but I basically sat on a couch for two months, in pain.  To this day, it remains undiagnosed, but I am feeling almost 100%. During those few months I gained a LOT of weight.

 

I am now trying to lose the weight that I gained (approximately 30 pounds), while focusing on weight lifting.  I have found that I have a real passion for weight lifting--it makes me feel so strong and empowered, especially after feeling so weak and helpless during the peak of my illness.  I've been at it since January (not just because of new years--that was also when my strength returned!), and so far it's been great--the scale tends to either go up or stay the same, but I have lost 6 inches and I feel GREAT!  I'm mostly ignoring the scale at this point, and am focusing on good form, setting new PRs, and losing inches.

 

If you'd like to connect with me on social media, you can find me on Twitter (I'm an addict) and Instagram.

 

I'm really looking forward to getting to know the NF community!

[Bubbette]

Hi Katie!!

[Katariana]

Hi there! You seem super sweet, and I am SO impressed with all you've already accomplished! I really am already falling in love with weight lifting (its weirdly fun, right?) 

[the.simple.songbird]

Hi there! You seem super sweet, and I am SO impressed with all you've already accomplished! I really am already falling in love with weight lifting (its weirdly fun, right?) 

 

Isn't is so awesome & empowering?  It makes me feel really awesome!

[Katariana]

Yeah! Every time Im about to lift I have a split second of feeling like "I am so freakin tough!" 

[Lark]

^{http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEKF_RDMS1Q}

 

^{In addition to having a cause, one must also not pause!}

^Welcome!