Hello Everyone and here is my long story.

Marissaltr

Hello,

My name is Marissa. There is a long story as to what led up to this moment in my life, as I am sure everyone's is. A few years ago, I was at the best health of my life. I weight about 120. I worked out mostly daily and ate healthy. Then it very suddenly went downhill very fast. In the past 5 years, I have put on about 30lbs.

My fitness journey started about a year ago. I was going through some major life changes and illnesses. But aside from those changes, I have two dogs who are my world. One is a rescue. I saw a flyer for a 5k run that was donating the proceeds to a dog rescue. My boyfriend, our two dogs, and I did the 5k. I realized I couldn't run more than a few minutes without having to stop. To be honest, I never really liked running but I became addicted to doing races. Mostly just the "fun" ones and always for charity. Then in the summer, I "accidently" signed up for a marathon and half marathon training team called "Team In Training". Team in training is a program ran by the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Along with training, I also raised $1500 for the LLS. I trained using interval training and did the Rock N Roll half marathon last November. I still continued to eat the same foods and indulge in bad habits. During the month of December, I probably consumed more calories that some people eat in 6 months. (Holidays!)

Starting in January, after gaining some weight from the holidays, I decided enough was enough and it was time to change.The biggest lifestyle change has been my diet. I precook about 90% of my weekly meals on the Sunday before. I use Sundays to cook all my meals and pre-package them into portions. It is so much easier and healthier (not to mention cheaper) to just grab a pre-made meal in the mornings before work, then it is to stop and grab some fast food during lunch. I've really learned to love my Sunday cooking. No more diet food, fat-free, low cal stuff. Just fresh clean eating. Well, mostly, anyway. I allow myself to indulge every once in awhile.

I also vowed to become a better, faster, and stronger runner. It's been great incorporating running into my daily routine. I run 5-6 days a week and usually do a weekly hike along with strength training at least once a week. It's great to be able to see progress. But in the same respect, it's also a little discouraging when I don't see as much progress as I would like.

For me, weight and fitness has always been such a personal thing. Even at my healthiest, I never talked about my weight or health. I still don't feel comfortable doing it but I really find it supportive and helpful to hear other peoples stories. I gain strength through helping others. I decided to join this community for this reason. So if you are interested or like minded, maybe we can help each other?

Ceilidh_H

I would love to hear about your journey as you continue. When I graduated from highschool I was about 120 lb. Over a few years I gained 17 lbs. At one point I began working out and eating more healthy and dropped back down to 125lb. I felt great. I actually managed to flatten my stomach a bit which was a huge thing for me. I maintained this for a few months until I had an illness that resulted in an injury that stopped me from working out as much and squashed my motivation. I slowly gained weight, back up to 136 ish. I am back on track and am currently at 129 lbs. I would love another supportive friend in a similar situation to myself. I get most of my exercise from walking and hiking with my dog, but enjoy snowshoeing in the winter and kayaking in the summer. Feel free to add me if you would like to