New to the Community but not to the Rebellion

[mountainman30]

Greetings all, 

I am mountainman, the quite, dwarf-like bearded man that has been a silent member of the rebellion for a long time. I feel that the time is right now to participate more here on the forums to get the most out of the rebellion as possible. 

 

Here is a bit of my story: I was always the fat kid in school. I had pretty serious eczema, a skin condition irritated by stress, embarrassment, allergies, and even the weather. Anyone who is familiar with the ins and outs of eczema knows just how terrible a flair up can be. I also had sports induced asthma, so until I was in late middle school I spend my days avoiding going outside for fear of not only skin breakouts, most of which left me with open bleeding wounds on my face and arms, but I was terrified of activity because of how hard it was to breathe. My life consisted of long doctor visits with the same answers: steroids.

 

The steroids combined with the lack of activity, stress, and unhealthy eating resulted in my winding up a 200 lb 5'6" eight grader. By the time I got to high school, I was maxing out at 210. I was sick of that kind of life. People did not make fun of me due to a kind disposition and my graceful class, but I knew that I needed to change. I was unhappy with being winded walking up and down the stairs. 

 

I convinced my mom to get a gym membership with me. Together, we began walking for thirty minutes on the treadmill three times a week. I remember the first time I discovered free weights. Like our leader Steve, I lifted the bench press bar only to have it fall on my neck... lets just say weights and I were not friends.

 

Fast forward to college. The summer of my freshmen year, I had dropped to about 175. I was still not eating well and my symptoms of the skin disease still related directly to stress. I began working at Starbucks and discovered after a hospital visit for abdominal pain that I had a dairy allergy. After allergy testing, I realized that I am in fact severely allergic to over 500 food items, including all the big ten (all nuts, dairy, soy, corn, grain, etc). 

 

My obsession with fitness hit an all time high. I decided to use my new restrictions to my advantage. I began p90x, performing the exercises every morning, going to work, coming home and running 1-2 miles, eating a cup of oatmeal, and going to bed. In three months, I had gone from 175 to about 130. I thought this was great. 

 

Que the eating disorder. My obsession became unhealthy. At my lowest, I hit 98 pounds. Then I discovered the rebellion. It shocked me back to reality. There is often a fine line between healthy lifestyle changes and slowly killing oneself. I was on the far end of the "killing myself slowly" part of the spectrum. THe rebellion reminded me that my value is not tied up in my weight and that often numbers are GREAT BIG LIARS. 

 

I have been in counseling and am recovering from an undiagnosed eating disorder. My doctor and I are working through my allergies together. I am still not there yet (like how I am feeling guilty for eating oatmeal and a protein shake about an hour before bed tonight. I had only had about 1000 calories today and was hungry, but I had to shake feelings of guilt). I am still really thin (most days weighing in around 115 at 5'8"). But I am in the process of recovery. 

 

I did a few months of the body weight workouts, and now I am on my third round of p90x, one of my favorite workout plans of all time. I try to adhere to a mostly Paleo diet, which given my dietary restrictions, it is pretty much all I can eat!

 

I am a recovering fat kid/skinny kid with some serious hurts... But I am recovering. I even hope to get my personal trainers license some day soon. 

 

On a lighter note, I just discovered Dungeons and Dragons, played the Ocarina of Time when it first came out (suffered through the water temple), and am currently finishing the ninth season of stargate sg1 on DVD with my wife of eight months. 

 

Thanks for indulging my longwinded introduction and I look forward to becoming a part of the rebellion. 

 

On a lighter note,