Hello, hello, hello

[kylesolo]

Hello all.  I'm not sure how to start, so I might as well jump right in.

 

My name's Kyle, 28, and I'm from Washington. 

 

At my heaviest I weighed over 220 pounds.  I lost some of that weight through not being able to afford to eat and often going several days without eating.  I started running a few years later and at my lowest I was 165.  I started a new job in September, and since then have not concentrated on running, deciding, instead, to stay at work until late, then come home, watch TV, and go to bed.  I now feel very out of shape - when I started I was able to walk up the three flights of stairs to my office, and now I'm very winded... and just as likely to get on the elevator.  My weight is climbing higher and I would like to put a stop to that.

 

As for why I'm here, I think that a lot of it has to do with the fact that when I stumbled upon some of the articles, they actually made sense to me.  I consider myself a smart person, I did manage to graduate both high school and college (twice), but for some reason when people try to explain fitness/diet to me, or I read about it online, it makes no sense to me (I stumbled on the site looking for information on what a rep was, I feel very ashamed about that).  I want this to make sense, but I get frustrated when I have to read the same article over and over and over and over and I still don't grasp things.  Like, at what point do you change up your routine?  What's the difference between being able to do something and being able to do something easily?  How are some carbs/fats/proteins/etc. good for you and how are some bad, and why don't they just come up with another word for the food we can't eat, like poison or gack? I have a lot of questions and a lot of the information on here, while still confusing, is written in relatively friendly language, which I appreciate.

 

The other reason I'm here is because I've never really been happy with how I look, not at my lightest and especially not at my heaviest.  I'm sick of looking at my stomach with disgust, and not wanting to look in the mirror, and so on.  I don't want to keep feeling sorry for myself.

 

A few additional notes:

 

• I love food.  I have a hard time passing food by without grabbing some, and if I have one spoonful of ice cream, I'm probably going to end up having the whole carton; if I have one cookie I usually end up eating twelve more.  This wasn't a big problem because I'm pretty good at making it through the grocery store without a lot of candy and sweets (though it gets kind of disgusting if there are free samples).  But a lot of people bring food into my office, and I am oftentimes tempted to eat it all.  And buffets/pot lucks are the worst, because I will often go back for seconds, thirds, or fourths. 
• I have been a vegetarian for 18 years.  I stopped eating meat because I never liked it much, and I haven't ever really had much of a desire to start eating it again. 
• I'm also lactose intolerant, so I haven't been a regular dairy consumer for quite some time - though oftentimes I have cereal with goat yogurt instead of milk for breakfast.
• When I was in high school and after first starting college, I used to drink those big two liter bottles of soda, but I cut that out a few years ago (except when I use it as a mixer for whiskey) and I don't miss that much either.
• One benefit to my new job is that I've stopped eating a lot of bread.  I love bread, it is delicious, I could eat an entire loaf right now, so long as it was whole wheat.  But three of the women I work with stopped eating carbs, and I've kind of been phasing it out, though I still have it every now and then - but I haven't bought any in months, which is actually pretty exciting because I never thought I'd be able to give it up, but instead of a sandwich my lunch is now mainly vegetables and hummus.  Awesome.
• I have a sleep disorder.  This makes it hard for me to judge when I should go to bed, because I'm literally always tired.  Part of me cutting out bread is seeing if this will help me feel more alert, as I've heard stories of that happening, but right now I haven't noticed anything, probably because I've only weaned myself off of massive amounts of bread and onto rare amounts of bread.
• I was worried about posting and saying hi because I'm not used to talking about what I need to work on and doing so makes me feel somewhat selfish, but I decided that I might as well try this, right?  Also, I don't know how much of a nerd I actually am.
• I don't know what how many calories I'm supposed to eat.  Everything says something different, and I have no idea if I'm eating too many or too few. 
• Clue is my favorite movie of all time, Absolutely Fabulous is my favorite TV show, and Terry Pratchett is my favorite author.
• I have wanted to run a triathalon for years.  I have gone about preparing for this by occasionally laying down on the carpet and staring up at the ceiling while trying to will myself thin, active, and healthy.  Needless to say, the power of posivite suggestion hasn't worked out too well for me... so far :-)

 

Thank you for anybody who took the time to read through this.  Have a good day.

 

[Basement Cat]

Welcome to the rebellion, Kyle!

 

This is the perfect place to talk! We're always here to listen!

 

Good luck with your goals and keep us posted!

[AKLulu]

Welcome, Kyle! Never be afraid to talk about yourself here. This is a good place for it and I think for the most part you'll find people to be helpful and supportive. Very few bad eggs.

 

You seem to have a lot of questions, but I think before getting too caught up in answering all of them you should come up with a few specific long-term goals, so they can be addressed in an appropriate manner. You can always come by chat and ask questions there too. Usually someone is around and if we can't answer your questions, we can at least point you in the right direction a lot of times.

 

I see that cline has already been helping you out with some of your dietary questions in another thread, but I just wanted to address really quickly the part about not understanding how eating more food might help you lose weight. If you think of it in sort of an ancestral/biological perspective, if you aren't eating enough calories, then your body thinks you're starving and doesn't know when it's going to get its next meal. When your body thinks that it is starving, it's going hang onto fat like your grandparents were pinching pennies for the great depression. It's not going to let go of anything it doesn't have to and will actually do it's best to make more fat stores while you're still getting food to guard against starvation. So to be able to lose fat, you have to be eating at least as much as your body requires for your basal metabolic functions (i.e. as many calories as are required for you to be fully functioning if you were a sedentary sloth - let's be honest, all sloths are pretty sedentary).

 

Another thing I wanted to mention was about the sleep. I think that just cutting most of the bread out isn't going to help. To give it a true test, you'll probably have to go all gluten or grain-free. That being said, I personally don't have too much trouble with bread and sleeping (though I do eat about 85% Paleo these days), but there are a lot of other factors you might consider. You can try making sure you are away from blue light sources (phone, tv, computer screen) for at least a half-hour before bed or get some of those amber glasses and/or install f.lux on your computer and phone. Some people see success with better sleep by getting more magnesium either through epsom salt soaks or taking Natural Calm. Maybe try to make sure you don't have any caffeine after lunch. I also notice that I don't sleep as well if I've had alcohol (not that it stops me drinking my wine or whiskey), so that's another thing you might consider trying to control for. I also usually sleep better if I've exercised. There are probably things I've missed, but you get the idea. I'm sure I could pull up some articles for you if you were interested in reading more sleeping hacks, but you'll probably just have to try one thing at a time and see what works for you.

 

Sorry for the wall of text, I tend to get carried away. Again, welcome to the Rebellion. I hope we can help you find the answers you're looking for!

[Guzzi]

Hey!

 

Most of us have been exactly where you are right now, so don't panic.  This really is a great community here (and it is a community, not just a forum) and you'll get a lot of support and advice.  Like Steve says in his articles, don't stress out trying to change everything all at one, you'll exhaust yourself!  I've been trying to get healthy for 2 years, still don't know Jack about a lot of things, but I've managed to make some permanent changes.  Now that those things are comfortably just part of my lifestyle, I'm ready to try and change something else.   I'll never go back to the way I was before, and that's what it's all about, changing your life forever.  Try not to give yourself a hard time.  I know what it's like to look in the mirror and think "I'm fat and disgusting" but you have to try and leave that behind.  Just know that you can do it, and accept that it will take time.

 

Two years ago I weighed over 200lbs and could only walk at 1.8mph, now I'm under 150lbs and training to run a 5k.  If you want someone to chat to, give me a shout.

 

Ps. I love Ab Fab

[kylesolo]

Thanks AkLulu and Guzzi for your helpful/informative responses!  I really like the idea of no light - I've read studies about people who leave their phones in different rooms when they sleep and how that helps improve things - so I'll have to try to give that a shot, though that might involve buying at least one more alarm clock.  And on that same note, I've also thought about cutting out gluten for at least a little bit to see what happens - I've been cutting down on it but not eliminating it completely because I haven't really felt a strong reason to do so... yet! 

 

Unfortunately the past two weeks, give or take, have been an emotional punch in the gut, and I haven't really wanted to do anything, but I'm just coming off of a five-day vacation, and I am feeling a bit more relaxed and refreshed, so hopefully that'll be good motivation to get started up again.

 

Guzzi - I watch Ab Fab all the time!  As in just this morning.

[Guzzi]

Sweetie darling...

Hope you enjoyed your holiday, sorry to hear the last couple of weeks have been rough. Hopefully you can use them as a springboard towards making changes I'll add you as a friend, if you want to chat just drop me a pm. Believe me, I have a LOT of experience of life trying to throw a sucker-punch!