25yo Autistic Roller Derby Newbie, 60+ lbs to lose!

kaika_dragon

Hello!
I am a 25 year old autistic woman, who has ALWAYS been fat, and never had much physical activity in my life. My experience with sports and exercise growing up was very negative, considering that I am also dyspraxic - aka, I am uncoordinated, have low muscle tone, and do not learn new skills to "muscle memory" easily - and a lot of my PE teachers seemed to think not being able to do something meant "you're lazy", instead of "you need this explained more" or "you need to start at an easier level first".
Last January, though, my sister and I decided to sign up for Roller Derby training camp together, and I thought I was going to be awful at it. Turns out, I am awful at it, but I also LOVE it. It is the most enjoyable sport I've ever played, and everyone is so supportive. Bonus? The extra exercise alone dropped my blood sugar from "borderline prediabetic" solidly into the healthy range! Now I'm a month into my second round of level one bootcamp, and I've dropped ten pounds from my high weight of 274... which has inspired me to try working on my eating habits as well. I also recently found out that I have PCOS, which explains a lot.

Realistically, I would need to lose almost exactly 100lbs to be in the healthy range for my height (5'8.5"). But I can't even imagine what that would look like - if I get down to 220, it will be the smallest I have been since I was in seventh grade! I have never weighed less than 225 pounds since I hit my adult height. So right now, I am telling myself that my goal is just to get to 200.

My goals that I'd like to meet by losing weight are:
-Get more physically fit for Roller Derby/make my 25 laps in 5 minutes speed skating skill, so I can pass to the next class
-See what I even look like when I'm not "obese", because I don't know!
-Qualify as a living organ donor! They have BMI requirements, and I know it sounds weird, but I have always wanted to donate either a kidney or part of my liver to someone who needs it.
-Better overall health

Please feel free to friend me if you think we have something in common, and want to help keep each other motivated! Especially if you are also autistic, or do roller derby.
I am excited to start, although I know I'll have to work harder to keep the changes up as time goes on. My MFP account probably says I've been on here for ages, but it's lying - I used it briefly in college, but haven't been on in a long time. Looking forward to meeting people!

LyndaBSS

Welcome to the community Roller Derby Queen!

If you haven't already, read the stickies at the top of the getting started forum. Very informative and helpful.

Buy a food scale, weigh everything you eat and log into the food diary.

Good luck with your journey!

Tinydancer106

Hi and welcome!!!

I always wanted to do roller derby and I have the best name, but I'm going to.keep it to myself for now 😋

I think you're in the right place and state of mind to do this, and I also know you must be a hard worker to participate in roller derby since that's quite a sport!

I also happen to be a mom of and amazing autistic 18 yr old son and so I'm totally.rooting for you, and here if you need a friend have questions...or just wanna say hello, and tell me some cool roller derby stories maybe, so I can fan girl you! LOL!😂🙌❤

Best of luck lovely girl!🤗

corinasue1143

I am so happy for you that you found your “thing”. I know how that feels, because I found swimming. It’s great, isn’t it? For a while, you can just forget the world and feel like you are flying, doing what you love!
I used to watch roller derby and loved watching it, but never fooled myself that I could do it. I’m just not a strong skater. So I have great respect for your abilities.
Best wishes on your road to meeting your goals.

grimendale

Also autistic here. Feel free to add if you like.

Sadie2PointOh

I thought I was going to be awful at it. Turns out, I am awful at it, but I also LOVE it.

Love this part of your post!

Welcome to MyFitnessPal and good luck with your weight loss journey and the derby!

kaika_dragon

Thank you! One of the things that I love about derby so far is that our coaches expect that NOBODY is a strong skater to start with. Yes, I was the worst (slowest speed, slowest to learn new skills, etc) skater in my class last round, but having an environment where it didn't feel bad or stressful to be the worst is my favorite part. I keep trying to recruit my friends by telling them that it's the only sport I've played where the whole class often starts clapping/cheering when you fall over... not sarcastically, but because they're happy you're trying hard!

I'm expecting I'll have to repeat the level one class several more times before I can move up to the class my sister's in now... but I expected that going in, so as long as I'm having fun and can still see improvement happening, I'm happy.

anjaharrington

Welcome to MyFitnessPal kaika_dragon. Your story is inspiring. I have 13 year old son that is also autistic and starting to become overweight. He has always been a tall boy, but his weight actually never been a problem until recently when his hormones kicked in. Now he has outgrown me and my husband and also weights now more than us too. I'm recently trying to lose weight with the Dash Diet because I have a really bad Cholesterol Level and my blood pressure is terrible too. So far I have not lost anything since I got out of the hospital and keep yoyoing back and forth, but that doesn't mean I will lose it at some point an time.
I want to thank you for your words "you need this explained more" or "you need to start at an easier level first". Because i'm homeschooling my son and try every day to teach him and sometimes you forget that he doesn't always understand things as easily as neurotypical kids. So I always try to explain it in another way and If I don't succeed in that, I pass the problem on to my husband who is more successful with explaining things to my son lol.

Anyway I would like to add small tip to all the other ones you received already. Set yourself small weight goal, so they're easier to reach.

Good luck

chelny

This is awesome. I didn't know there are roller derby classes! It looks like fun. I went to a couple of matches(?) when I lived in Johnstown PA. I'm not sure if there is roller derby where I live now. Good for you for trying it out and for getting on MFP.