Hi! Healthy Cook, Happy Yogi, New to Running and MFP

TheeGeeMarie

Hi Everyone!

I'm new here and pretty new to the whole idea of joining an online community, but I've been reading the message boards and I want to join in!

I'm 28, a recent law school graduate and I teach beginners' yoga. While I was in school, yoga and lugging 20+ lbs of casebooks around were often my only form of physical activity. After three years of cheese covered carbs, little cardio, lots of alcohol and crazy stress, I'm 25-30 lbs. heavier. Before law school I was pretty fit, but I was never a runner. My new goal, along with losing weight, is to transform myself into a runner and be in the best shape of my life. That's no small feat for someone with bad knees and ankles, but I'm working with a trainer to try and do it right.

I started this journey in early July. I lost a little right off the bat (from 158 to 153), then gained it all back plus a little extra (currently at 160). For the past few weeks, I've been stuck. I can tell I'm building muscle and I feel stronger, but I'm not seeing any change in my body shape and my body fat % went up. So, something is clearly off. I was eating very little fat and I'm now thinking I was not eating enough calories to sustain myself with the amount of calories I was burning through my running, yoga and strength training. After reading the myriad threads on here going back and forth about "eating back calories", talking to a few different trainers and some triathlete friends, I think I'm in the "eat more to lose more" camp. At least I'll give that a shot for a month and see if the scale starts to budge.

Anyone with a similar temperament, goals, interests, experiences etc. or looking to swap creative healthy recipes say hi! I love learning about new things and I'm not easily offended by tough love and the no-nonsense, no-excuses attitude. I'm very open to advice if anyone has some for me!