making buttprints in the sands of time

[piranha]

that used to be the name for my autobiography.  no, i didn't write it yet.

 

hi.

 

i've always been bookish, unathletic, and not very interested in improving my body, entertaining the foolish notion that i had an excellent mind, and the meat jar in which it was contained didn't matter much.  yeah, i know -- not that excellent a mind after all, *snicker*.  but now i am just tired of being weak, slow, inflexible, and i want to build a better relationship with my body, get stronger, enjoy physical activities more.  2 years ago i got a wake-up call in the form of a tachycardia attack and was diagnosed as having dangerously high blood pressure and near-diabetic blood glucose levels.  i've made a lot of changes since, have drastically modified my way of eating from SAD (standard american diet, and best acronym ever) to mostly vegetarian (sorry, paleo guys), and started walking a lot.  brought my blood pressure down from the 200s to the 130s, my blood glucose into the normal range, dropped all meds along the way, and some poundage.  and i am feeling much better.

 

but it wasn't enough.  i am still weak.  i still have to deal with chronic depression (which is also resistant to anti-depressants).  i hate exercise.  i tried it (cardio) several times before and i never ever got a runner's high, or any sort of good feeling from it.  it exhausted me, and left me feeling weaker than before.  and it's always, always, been about weight loss, falsely conflating health and fitness.  by this time in my life i couldn't care less about weight loss.  the constant yammering about dieting is what caused me to end up at nearly 300 lb, yoyoing all the way.  low fat, low carb, all meat, raw veg, a new fad every year; grocery store aisles crammed with highly refined, over-processed junk -- i've concluded that the food, diet, and fitness industries are not actually interested in my well-being, but only in my wallet.

 

no more.  i not going on another diet, ever.  i am not going to run on an elliptical again either.  i'm not gonna balance on a bozo ball with barbie weights, being told by a PT with all the authority of a weekend certificate that my muscles need to be "confused".

 

in mid november i started to lift weights.  i picked a 5x5 program and modified it to account for my challenges (impaired mobility and greater than average weakness).  i am enjoying myself.  i can clearly measure my progress by the plates i put on the bar, and i see it in how my strength for everyday tasks has increased. 

 

i'm working on mobility specific to lifting, every day.  i'm starting yoga on monday.  i'm doing interval walking so i can walk a 5k.  one day i'd love to do calisthenics and run parkour.  i want to be all-around capable, if not exactly badass -- i just don't have badass in my genes, i think.

 

and i need help.  i need to be held accountable, and i need to be cheered on.  in my circle of friends this new obsession i have with training my body is a little weird.  they're much like i used to be, and while we can still play minecraft together, i'm not getting a whole lot of knowledgeable support.  i signed up for the stronglifts forums in the hope for that, but they're totally not my kind of people, if you know what i mean.

 

so, i'm here.  the heavy emphasis on paleo and weight loss in the intro pages scared me off the first time i visited.  this time i looked inside the forums, and it seems like it could be a good match after all.  i have stuff to offer too, because for the most part i do have a good mind, and i love open source in all aspects of life.  sharing is caring.

 

my new power rack; i am so proud: 

[Enoch]

Welcome to NF. There probably are very few people in your situation who have not ridden a roller coaster of diet attempts and failed exercise routines. We can be very caught up in being results oriented, a result are most difficult to see (slow to emerge, by those standards) in early stages of such programs.

 

It's great that you are enjoying the weights. I hope the satisfaction of the activity stays with you and you progress.

 

Good to have you in the ranks. I look forward to your updates.