Hey Guys
I thought about making a short post just saying hi but then I thought if I want to take this seriously and take it as a support group more than just a forum that I check every now and then I better write something longer and more personal. So to mentally commit myself I’m going to write a long post… (i’m gonna devide my post in two posts… yes it is that long, sorry).
I’ve been overweight since I was about 10 years old. And have been trying to lose weight since I was a teenager. The trying I think has helped me not be bigger but hasn’t given me that TV body I’ve always dreamed off. I’m 27 years old, 160 pounds to my 5’3 height now and thankfully I’ve stopped pretending that perfect TV bodies are a normal thing.
One factor that has helped me to no end is my boyfriend (and future husband, wedding in 2007!) and I have to mention him because thanks to him I’ve changed the way I look at myself and getting fit. He’s quite athletic and loves lifting weights and playing football (soccer) every chance he gets. He has always told me that he loves me just how I am and that if I exercise or eat better is to be healthier and have a better life without running out of air just by going up some stairs. That mentality has helped me to no end.
As a recurrent dieter/exerciser I would start a diet or exercise routine every now and then and stop when I got frustrated that I hadn’t lost enough weight or that I didn’t look how I wanted to look whenever I stood in front of the mirror. This would create the infamous vicious circle of binge eating and feeling depressed, guilty and disappointed with myself just to start another diet or exercise routine 6 months later after gaining 20 pounds. This happened for the best part of my 20’s until I met my boyfriend. When he made me realize eating healthy and exercising are not temporary activities to lose the extra pounds and then forget about but things you do to keep a healthy eyesight, healthy hair, healthy organs, etc and very important a healthy mind.
I mean, it’s not easy. You can understand all this but parting with your old ways is hard, and even though I am a bit better now at exercising and eating well the vicious circle is still there just that now my binge eating lasts one or to weeks instead of 6 months and after my frustrations I gain 5 pounds not 20. It is because of my last downfall that I’ve decided to join the community here. I want to make a commitment to myself and this looks like the perfect place to make it.
I discovered Scott’s podcast about a month ago. I’ve always been weary of motivational speakers and motivational books. The ones I’ve read/heard have come down as hypocrite or overdone and seeking them have always made me feel like an idiot. Like a gullible desperate idiot. So it’s a bit of a miracle I listened to Scott in the first place and I’m very happy I did. After discovering the world of podcasts I was looking for a fact driven podcast about dieting, something to compliment the hundred newsletters I was already receiving (psychological it helps you feel like you’re doing something even if you’re not…However, I don’t know if that is a good thing or a bad thing). But then I read the Motivation to Move reviews in iTunes and I downloaded one just to check… it’s free after all, nothing to lose. And I fell in love with it!
I could praise Scott here and write another 2 pages just about how wonderful his messages are but I think everyone here knows that already. So let’s move on!
Lets summarize now. I’m 27, 5 foot 3 inches, the highest weight I’ve been is about 175 (although I have spent years at a time without weighting myself because I’m too scared to face it, so probably more than that), I’m 160 now. I’m Latin (so if the English is weird at times my apologies in advanced). I absolutely love food, I’m especially weak with Chinese food, Puertorrican style roasted pork and chocolate chip cookies. Never been athletic in my life, been terrible at sports since I was a kid so I just prefer to save the embarrassment. I’m finishing my master’s degree while working in a sedentary job in front of a computer all day. My hobbies are reading, playing games on the computer, watching TV with my sweetie and recently I got into gardening. I don’t have children but I do live with my boyfriend, 8 cats and 1 dog who need feeding and lots of attention on a daily basis.
As for exercise I started doing some Yoga about 2 years ago when I started with my boyfriend just because I wanted more ways of sharing my life with him and he was beginning Yoga at the time to increase his flexibility after years of weight training and poor stretching. Did yoga for a few months, then got bored, plus not much weight went off (frustration attack) although I have to say the cellulites on my legs and rear went down considerably. Then started buying DVD’s with easy to follow routines, I don’t have much coordination and high impact aerobics make one of my knees swell which is too much of a good excuse to “not do anything until it goes down†so I need to avoid high impact and repetitive squats at all costs. At the minute I’m starting over after two weeks of no exercise and too much chocolate (it was my birthday last week and then with Valentine’s Day… felt so guilty I even stopped listening to the motivation to move podcast until today). My goal is to do one of my DVD routines every day. They range from 20 minutes to 45 although I add some sit ups and more stretches at the end to enhance them.
to be continued ...
