Player 2 has entered the game

[Ermyger]

About three months ago as a less than romantic anniversary present my husband and I joined a gym.  Weighing in I got the rather nasty shock of realizing that I was at 292 my heaviest ever weight, about a weekend at Nana's house away from hitting 300 lb.  I've actually enjoyed seeing my body do things that I didn't think it could. I've lost about 12 lb in the first month without much pain and agony, but the weight loss and strength/cardio improvements have certainly tapered off.    

 

Currently I've got about 100 lb to lose to get to a healthier 180 lb at the height of 5'9".  With my results at the gym tapering off and MyFitnessPal being a wonderful though not exciting tool I figured it was time to listen to what my husband (Firefly525) was always going on about that website he likes so much.  Nerdy fun and motivation?  I'm happily tagging along to join the Rebellion.  

 

We eat "paleo light" with the Weston A Price/Nourishing Traditions model - instead of eating like our ancient ancestors it's more like eating like great great great grandma.  Hooray for lard and sour dough bread!  Currently to overcome a serious case of modest awkward fat girl at a gym full of dudes shyness I'm doing Strong Lifts with the hubs.  I've laterally dislocated both patellas three times each and naturally get real antsy about doing anything that might potentially hurt the knees, but am trying to balance that with the knowledge that my current weight will damage them far more than a few squats will.

 

After lurking a while and hearing about this place (nearly non stop) from the man of the house I already like you people.  Let the adventure begin!

 

 

[Skadaddle09]

Welcome! Sounds like you're goals are pretty similar to mine. That's one reason this place is great...there are people with all different goals and experience levels, so you never feel left behind.

 

Now if I could just get my player 2 to post... <.< >.>

[Toshimi]

Welcome! I've dealt with a lot of knee issues, not dislocations, but I have also always been scared of squats.

 

Just take it slow, if you cant squat all the way down, don't worry. one day you'll realize you can do way more than you ever thought you could

[SuperSweed]

I have horrible knee problems from years of being a little too big. Whenever I do any squats now I wrap up my knees. Some people might call it cheating since certain wraps give your a little spring back up, but I would rather keep my knees than care about inflated numbers.

 

tl;dr: Wear knee wraps, trust me.

[Xena]

Welcome! I love your avatar...feel free to post all the cat pics you want.

 

I'm really proud of you for taking on the gym, and it's even cooler that you and your husband are lifting together.

[Ermyger]

Skadaddle09 Nice to meet someone else with the "get under 200" goal!  We've got a long road ahead.

Welcome! I've dealt with a lot of knee issues, not dislocations, but I have also always been scared of squats.

 

Just take it slow, if you cant squat all the way down, don't worry. one day you'll realize you can do way more than you ever thought you could

 

 

I have horrible knee problems from years of being a little too big. Whenever I do any squats now I wrap up my knees. Some people might call it cheating since certain wraps give your a little spring back up, but I would rather keep my knees than care about inflated numbers.

 

tl;dr: Wear knee wraps, trust me.

 

I really ought to get myself some knee wraps.  I'm generally good with doing body weight squats with respectable form, but involving any kind of weight scares the crap out of me.  With the Strong Lifts I've done three days this past week 5 sets of 5 body weight squats and a set here and there with a 10 ish pound kettle ball or dumbbells.  Feels pretty good on the knees, not so much on the thighs  Once I tried the 45 lb bar on my shoulders and couldn't muster the courage to walk, let alone squat, but I'm not beating myself up about it.  I figure body weight squats are fine as an improvement over none and maybe with the start of my first 6 week challenge I'll wrap up and add some weight.  None of my dislocations have occurred with any kind of exercise, believe it or not.  Two even occurred while laying in bed!  It's a fact for my knees: Laying around very bad, exercise good.     

 

Xena - Thank you!  Every time walking out of the gym I want to laugh at myself for letting myself get all socially awkward on the way in and worrying about people watching me or doing something stupid, but so far so good even though it is still intimidating when there's a lot of people around the weights.  The husband deserves a lot of praise for keeping me motivated and the social anxiety at a minimum.  

 

Today I had a 15 minute mile for the first time since junior high.     Onward and upward!

 

Celebratory cat tax  

[shapeshifter]

i had to laugh at your Nana coment - I have an old-world Baba who is a charicature of herself - EAT EAT is about all she'd say while stuffing food at us. constantly. I just sat down here to sign up and a family member came and left a box of chocolates beside me in a "hey sweetie, good luck!" kinda way....it's hard when its a way of life...

 

anyways, here's a "hi" from a cross the room - good luck and be careful with the knee, maybe pool time would help?