SoftSoul goes Hardcore

[SoftSoul]

Let's start at the beginning-

 

I was 17, living a completely sedentary life, eating crap, feeling like crap, and going through pretty much pure misery at home and at school. I got up to 190# (at 5'4")... and hated myself.

 

I met some new friends and we would walk around, so I dropped some weight that way. I got into vegetarianism and further dropped A LOT of weight. I still didn't exercise much and my vegetarian diet was quite unhealthy. My weight continued to (mostly) spiral down and down (from vegetarianism/calorie restriction), which, in my distorted thinking, was "good". Really, I was a yo-yo.

 

So, I hit exercise hard. I went from getting winded after riding 2 miles on a bike, to doing 35 miles. And calorie restricting like a beast, I shrunk way down in size. That didn't last though. I graduated college, went to grad school, and had very little time (so I thought) to maintain a consistent routine. So, I got back up to about 175#.

 

This time, I'm back and I'm doing it right. No extremes. I started out and hit cardio + continuing to restrict calories (I'm not longer vegetarian) to shed some initial pounds. I can now run 4 miles (slow) without stopping! I could do a couple hours of cardio at a pretty high level and I thought that was working.

 

Cardio hit its plateau... I know I can continue to lose weight (current= 148#, BMI= 26), but none of my muscles are defined. So I started surfing the internet and found this site! How inspiring! So, let's cut to the chase and I'll ramble about my goals:

 

Fitness goals-

 

1. Grow mentally in my ability to eat enough calories so that I can grow muscle instead of continuing to burn muscle.

 

2. Improve 5K running time, rather than adding more and more miles. My goal is 30 mins. (current~ 36 mins). I will run 2 days/week on non-lifting days.

 

3. Start and stick to Stronglifts 5 x 5, 3 days a week. Get strong. I'll have to hone this goal once I figure out my "baseline". My issue thus far hasn't been dedication. I get anxiety at the gym trying new things (+ risking looking stupid), so that's probably going to be my main challenge.

 

 

Keep on rockin' (and/or nerdin') in the free world.