Just one of the new kids

Nephere
Nephere Posts: 6
in Introduce Yourself
Hi everyone. My name is Victoria. I'm 21 years old. I guess technically I qualify as fit? But that's not the main reason why I'm here. I feel a little out of place in the message boards because everyone seems to be trying to lose weight. I'm mostly looking to eat healthier, understand what I'm eating and how it affects me, and get in better shape. I used to work on horse farms (riding, training, building, repairing gargantuan tractors, etc), so I was in pretty good shape most of my life. Then I moved too far from one of the farms I worked at, and the other relocated to a different state, so I no longer had physical work. I didn't want to get lazy or anything, so I picked up running, which is my second favorite activity after horse riding. Turns out I was more out of shape than I thought. I could lift huge bales of hay no problem, but I could barely run twenty steps before having to stop for air. So I picked up an awesome running regimen (Zombies, Run!, both the story app and the 5k trainer app. WONDERFUL! Runners should definitely check it out.). I'm also a dancer, but it's sadly become a hobby, rather than a regular activity, since I graduated high school. So I'm not really new to general exercise, but I am new to nutrition and tracking calories and such, which is my main reason why I'm here.

My diet my whole life has been pretty... well, terrible. Junk food, munchies, tv dinners, so on and so forth. Once I picked up running, I started munching on somewhat healthier things like apples, protein bars, and the occasional banana. But now that I'm running further, I've kind of plateaued, and I'm wondering if it might be due to my diet. I'm pretty sure they're definitely related somehow. The problem is, when I look at a nutrition label, it's like it is written in gibberish. I have no idea what any of it means or how much I'm supposed to have of what. So it's all pretty useless information to me. I am hoping to use MFP to learn kind of what the terms mean and what I should and shouldn't really be eating. I know my usual diet up to this point has been filled with horrible food choices, and I'm hoping MFP can help me better see why/how they are bad for me, and what I can have instead that's better.

Anyways, I think I have rambled enough for now... I'll just be somewhere over there ._. hiding behind a couch...

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  • Unknown
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  • fairiegirl2992
    fairiegirl2992 Posts: 1
    I had a wake-up call in July when I got on the scale and my eyes practically shot out of my skull when I saw the number: 138.5. Now, I'm only 5'2" so that for me is not healthy. I was confused, though. My summer job was primarily outside, and I was doing semi-heavy lifting most of the time. Yet sometime between whenever it was I last got on the scale (128) to July, I had gained 10 pounds. It was then I tried to kick my life into shape.
    Which kinda worked. It's hard to purchase healthier food, and I HATE running outside :P (yeah, laziness.)
    But I knew once college started again, things would be a bit easier, since I would have access to my school's gym (which is free for students) and I would be purchasing food for me, and I could grab life by the reins a bit easier.
    My biggest hurdle with eating healthy is that I have a super huge sweet tooth, and I also enjoy eating as well. However, I have some motivation. When I started college, the second semester I started eating healthier (eating more vegetables at meals as well as cutting out desserts and replacing them with smoothies (I had a meal plan so I was eating whatever I wanted as well as TONS of processed food, bleh,). I also was a gym freak and I went every day (except sundays, 'cause you need a rest day somewhere and the gym was closed anyways) without fail. One morning at home, I stepped on the scale to reveal 113.
    So, ideally, I want to get to 115, but my first milestone is to get down to 120. I'm about 135 now, so the healthy eating is paying off.
    I started MFP because I feel like I need to get support, but I don't want to tell friends/family because I'm afraid they're going to judge me, and say things like "Oh, why do you think that?" "You're pretty skinny already." "Do you think you're fat? 'Cause you're not!" Granted, I got down to 113 on my own grit and habits, but I think i'll be a little more responsible with eating better if I actually see where all my calories and whatnot are going.
    Yeah, that's about it.

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