Gearing up for success
 

Hello all!

I used fitday in the past, and like most people have fallen off the bandwagon several times over the years. I am a 25 year old woman living in Alberta Canada. I am married, no kids.

I have done wicked work with a local trainer before, learned a bunch of ins and outs of what I enjoy doing. I really like weight training. I lothe anything to do with running (see below joint issues). I trained with her for a year straight and dropped from 255lbs to 220lbs and from BMI 38 to BMI 27. Unfortunately due to expensive sessions and losing my job, I had to stop visiting. During my peak I could deadlift 220lbs, and bench 110lbs. The lightest I have ever been as an adult is 195lbs during university (due to a super busy schedule and terrible food preparation habits).

The skinny (or not so skinny)
- I suffer from hyper mobility in most of my joints. This makes my joints crack and general pain all day long. I have lower back and knee issues which I see a chiropractor and physio when it gets really bad. I can also dislocate my shoulder at will, and have excessively weak ankles and wrists (numerous sprains – right ankle especially – if I sprain again I will require ligament surgery)

- I work a desk job with minimal mobility M-F 7am-330pm with 30 minute lunch. Beauty of it, is my work does have an on site free access gym. Which I WILL be using.

- I have a successful home based company. Means approximately 16-20 hours a week on my feet moving around. 6-8 times a year I do trade shows entailing 2-3 days straight of standing on hard cement plus doing booth setup and take down (physically demanding)

- I work a part time 5-7 hour a week job 2 nights a week (Tues and Thurs) right after my day time job. This is a standing/moving job that can work up a bit of a sweat (but minimal lifting and strength required).

- I have 2 large breed dogs – so I do go for longer walks 3 days a week.


Things I know I need to do:
- Insoles – I am slightly flat footed so I know this would relieve some of the knee pain as well as back pain. Also I don’t wear shoes around the house which I think is causing extra stress on my legs)
- More water – terrible for water intake.
- More sleep – usually during the week I get between 5-7 hours a night. I sleep very light and tend to get disturbed and not be able to fall back asleep.
- Learn balance. My food intake is usually not insanely unhealthy. I think I just eat too much. I hope this program will help me figure out where the excess weight is coming from. I tend to eat very cyclicly too. Ill eat a lot then nothing.
- Better meal plans. I will usually bring a lunch to work (except on Fridays when the staff go for lunch) but I find around 10:30 and 2 I am hungry again. I need better smaller meals to get me through the long days.

Im hoping I can read through some of the old forum threads on here to get some workout and meal advise….and hope that this is my answer! Accountability!

Thanks for reading :)

Hi Kali! It sounds like you've really thought a lot about what you can and can't do and what you need to do. (And what a busy young woman you are!)

I started on the South Beach Diet when my son and his girlfriend started it. It - and many other diets - build snacks into it. I have a snack mid-morning, mid-afternoon, and about 8 pm. Snacks are things like a hardboiled egg, a small piece of meat or cheese wrapped in lettuce, string cheese, a small apple with a bit of peanut butter or cheese. The snacks keep me from being starving when the next meal rolls around.

I was like you - I was eating healthy foods, but way too much of them. Also, I'd stay up late and eat a lot late at night. Entering everything I eat into FitDay really makes me think about whether or not I really want to eat that food. The first week of cutting back on calories was hard - I did feel hungry sometimes. After a week or so my body adapted, and I now feel very satisfied eating 1200-1400 calories a day.

Do check into what kind of shoe inserts can help you. One of my sons had Achilles tendon pain, and a type of heel insert totally made the pain disappear.

If your urine is light-colored and you're not feeling thirsty, you're getting enough water.

That's great that you have access to a gym at work.