New to the Rebellion

[tideling]

Hi, I'm Mindy! I'm 32 years old, and I live in Seattle. I'm also a huge nerd! I grew up on a steady diet of Star Trek (DS9 is my favorite), I used to play in the SCA, I love tabletop RPGs, and I've been writing fanfiction for almost 20 years. Most of my life I've been that kind of awkward, fat, quiet girl. You know the type. I lived in my head and not in my body. Looking back, I realize that, even when I realized I was drawn to physical activities, I avoided doing them because I was so self conscious of the way I looked. I've always wanted to run, for instance, but I didn't want people to see me huffing and puffing my way down the sidewalk. 

 

I managed to drop about 75 pounds in my early 20s, mostly because I changed up my diet a lot to deal with some health concerns. I cut processed food, learned how to cook, and switched to a mostly vegan diet. I even stopped drinking coffee, which is a huge deal for me! My diet experimentation continued until the doctor suggested I go gluten free. That was the breaking point for me -- I love to bake and couldn't fathom the thought of giving up homemade bread. I stopped going to the doctor and started drinking coffee again, but my diet stayed pretty healthy. Since I lived near a network of trails, I used to walk a lot, too. Typically, I'd wake up at 4 AM, hit the trail for about an hour, come home, write, then head to work. I also started taking bellydance lessons -- something I had always wanted to do, but that I'd always been too self conscious to try. In a lot of ways, it was a high point, health-wise.

 

But as I kept losing weight, I started to play with how long I could go without food. It didn't help that there was a lot of rough stuff going on in my life at that point, and my diet felt like the one thing i could really control. Before long, I was eating about a meal a week.I looked great, but I was a nervous wreck. Finally, I broke down and started making some positive changes in my life. I moved out of the toxic roommate situation I was in, and moved in with the man I eventually went on to marry. 

 

Starting a new relationship brought its own challenges, though. My husband loves to cook, but grew up eating a fairly traditional British diet (his mum is British). Lots of meat and potatoes. Very few vegetables. Since he was happy to do most of the cooking, and since I was kind of done freaking out about my food, I ended up eating a lot of the same stuff he did. I stuck firm on avoiding processed food, but that was about all I managed. And since I had an appreciative audience for my baking skills, I started making a lot more bread and cookies. Most of our dates also involved food in some way -- meals out, ice cream, popcorn with movies . . . We both gained a lot of weight the first year we were together. Eventually, we started trying to be healthier. We ate more vegetables and I started bellydance lessons again. We made a little bit of progress. Then we moved to a small, shitty town so I could take my first teaching job, and we both backslid spectacularly.

 

Between living somewhere that wasn't very walkable and the stress of teaching, I ballooned out. My first year teaching, I gained about 50 pounds! For the four years I was teaching, my health slid steadily downwards. Finally, I told myself that I needed to make some changes before I ended up having a heart attack or something. At the time, my husband was also getting pretty frustrated with his own weight, so he was willing to get on board. Finally, I took a huge step and quit my job, and we moved back to the Seattle area. Most of my stress disappeared when I took my new job. I stopped gaining weight, but didn't start losing it, like I would have when I was younger. I think that period of not-eating in my twenties might have really messed up my metabolism. 

 

This December, I read "Born to Run" and it inspired me to start a Couch to 5k program. I was so out of shape, that I needed to repeat week 1 three times before I could get all the way through a workout, but I got one of my sisters to hold me accountable, and I kept trying. I could only manage 30 seconds of running at a time back in December, but this morning, I jogged for 25 minutes straight for my week 7, day 1 workout! My speed is horrible, but I figure there is time to work on speed after I gain endurance. The big thing that keeps me going is that my husband and I want to start a family next year.  I don't want my kids to grow up with the same sedentary lifestyle I was raised in, but I don't think I can teach them to enjoy an active lifestyle unless I have one myself. I'm trying to find more physical activities that I enjoy. My husband and I tried kayaking while on vacation a few years ago, and I'm really excited to try it again now that we are in Seattle. Our new apartment is by a bunch of bike trails, so I'm also excited to get my bike tuned up and start running errands that way. Parking is a pain in the butt here, so I am definitely motivated to bike!

 

The scale only shows a difference of about 5 pounds since I've started running, but all of my pants are too lose now, and I've visibly lost weight in my face and hands. I am definitely healthier, and I'm happy for that, but clearly, running alone isn't going to make the weight loss happen. I went to a naturopath about a year ago, and she had me try the allergy elimination diet. I wasn't able to stick with it for the full time, but I did like how I felt when I wasn't eating wheat or sugar. She also did a bunch of blood tests, which revealed that my protein was kind of ridiculously low. Since then, my husband and I have tried eating more Paleo -- more meat, more vegetables, fewer empty carbs. My energy is noticeably higher when I eat that way, and I love it. That's how I found Nerd Fitness, while Googling Paleo stuff. I'm not sure I will ever be able to give up bread entirely, but I'm trying to find some kind of compromise that works for me. I also need to start adding in bodyweight exercises between runs. Tomorrow I am going to try out the beginner's body weight exercises here.

 

Sorry, that all got way more tl;dr than I was expecting! Anyway, I'm looking forward to getting to know you guys, and to joining a community of people trying to get healthier.

[femalevolent]

You sound alot like me!  I was vegan for about a year, and while I felt very good about the morality of it I gained a good bit of weight.  I was a healthy vegan too!  Not alot of processed foods, actually ate fruits, vegetables, real whole foods!  During that time I was training for my first half marathon and running 30-40 miles a week.  I found that I was hungry ALL THE TIME. 

I am not running as much now, though I do have my third half planned for October.  I have gone to a high fat low carb diet and lift weights four times a week and only have one dedicated cardio day a week.  On the high fat low carb (I can't say paleo cause I don't eat most carbs and I do eat dairy) I have lost 8 pounds.  I have a long way to go but I haven't been hungry which is a god send.  I totally feel you on the bread front!  I sooooooo miss bread!

Good Luck Chicka!  I will see you around alot hopefully.  Us n00bs gotta stick together!

[tideling]

During that time I was training for my first half marathon and running 30-40 miles a week.  I found that I was hungry ALL THE TIME. 

I am not running nearly that much (only about 5 miles a week), but I've been so much hungrier since I've started the Couch to 5k plan. It's ridiculous! I'm trying to at least eat healthy food, but I'm finding that i need to be a lot more proactive about keeping easy, fast protein in reach, otherwise I want to load up on carbs.

[Guzzi]

Hey! Welcome on board!

I'm glad you found this place, it's much more of a community than a forum and I'm sure you'll get tons of help and advice. And accountability? Yup, join in on the next 6 week challenge, you'll love it.

I'm doing a similar jogging program to you right now, though we're only up to 15-20 minutes of running at a time. And VERY slow pace too, but progress is progress. One day we'll be running marathons and no one will doubt our awesomesauce then!

Like Femalevolent, I'm not true paleo. I eat (my own bodyweight in) dairy, and I eat pulses and starchy veg like peas and beans. But it's whatever works For You that's important. No sense in beating yourself up for not sticking to a diet that you just plain old don't like. Just find out what does work and stick to that

Hope to see you around!