Hi everyone!

I'm Reesh. I'm 35. I have been a teacher for the last thirteen years, but this year I decided to take a break and focus on becoming an artist (something I've always wanted to do). This means I'm at home all the time and managing my meals from my own kitchen most of the time.

I feel lucky to know that I have some many real-life female friends in the 30's with no kids! Must be where I'm living or some such! That said, my husband and I want kids, but at the moment, still no kids. I had a miscarriage this spring and the hormones lingering after the pregnancy messed with my motivation. If I happen to get pregnant, I'll duck out

Anyway, I have never been a very athletically gifted human being. As a kid I was asthmatic and while I had athletic aspirations, the normal school support structure for athletics didn't really jive with the kinds of things that I could do. I biked and hiked quite a bit as a teen because they made me happy. In my twenties I started road biking and racing, though I never took it very seriously (and cranking up the caloric demands with road racing without carefully monitoring your caloric intake can result in no weight loss or even slight weight gains!)

When I was 29, I did a cross-country bike ride. I only lost a pant size on the trip, but it completely transformed me as a person. Kind of like being reborn a bit. I was in the best shape of my life at 5'7'' 140 lbs. I also gained a crazy fat-burning metabolism that lasted about two years until it petered out around 32 years old. I remember naively going "I'll never get over 150 lbs again!" Ahhh, youth. I moved to the D.C. area, stopped biking for years because the crummy roads in Maryland were full of angry, homicidal drivers. When my husband and I started getting in shape for our wedding (good excuse), we focused on strength training and I really fell in love with the feeling of being able to lift big, heavy things. It gave me other numbers to focus on besides the scale. Ever since last year, I've been in a motivation slump. I haven't been watching my diet carefully and the numbers on the scale kept creeping up even though on the whole we eat pretty high quality foods. We moved and didn't find a gym we liked until just recently (and it is awwwwesome). I've also got access to Virginia's vast network of bike trails and quality roads, so I'm riding my road bike more.

I learned recently that I'm kind of a volume eater... a bottomless pit so to speak, probably exacerbated by years of 10 minute lunches as a teacher and scarfing down as much as possible very quickly. Nice to know that others have the same problem and have found ways to stay satisfied. It's the overeating that gets me.

Anyway, I'm really glad there's a community of women in their thirties motivating each other without bringing in the child factor. Different support needs, eh?

Nice to meet you!

Hello! I'm Michele and I'm 39. I'm married and happily childfree. I'm really glad that this group exists - I just did a friend search for other people who are around my age and discovered that there are a LOT of moms on MFP. I think that there's a different mindset amongst those who choose not to have kids - I suppose I have more free time!

One of my goals is to be a good citizen as well as a good person. I work part-time and volunteer in the community about 20 hours a week. I like to hike and bike and be outdoors. I spent several years living in a small town in an area with tons of outdoor activities, and when I got married 3 years ago I moved back to a major metro area. I almost immediately went from about 160lbs to 200lbs! I hadn't realized how active I had been...and how inactive my life in the City would be! Also - I do a lot of the cooking and when it was just me, I did not cook to impress. Now that I'm married I try to make food a bit more interesting that Bachelorette Michele would have eaten. I guess it was richer too...and the pounds went back on.

My initial goal is 160 lbs. I have two rewards: when I get to 175 I am going to get a tattoo removed (long story); and when I get to 160 I am going to buy myself a new backpacking tent. I used to hike a TON and did many chunks of the Superior Hiking Trail (a 280-mile long distance trail from Duluth to near Canada in Minnesota) and would like to do a thru-hike.

I'm doing straight-up CICO, eating less meat (but not going full veg...yet), and right now I'm on week 8 of the Couch to 5k. I have a 5k on October 7th, and then another on Thanksgiving morning. My goal for the one of Oct 7 is to run the whole thing. My goal for the one on Thanksgiving is to improve upon my Oct 7th time! I am also going to join the Planet Fitness that is opening up down the street from me. There is a good no-contract deal going on so I'll give it a try.

I'm looking for friends, so feel free to add me!

Eekkk! Didn't know this group existed! I'm 33 and no kids (yay!) I find life is increasingly lonely and no one gets you, so yay for you lot!
I don't hate kids though, happy to spend time with the nieces and nephews as long as they go away again at the end. I also coach kids gymnastics ( the kids love me, and when the parents ask why I'm so awesome, I tell them that I don't have my own and treat theirs like real people not just later life care, well I don't say that exactly but...)
I have always been larger, always. I lost 35lb for my wedding 6 years ago then got complacent and did the gaining more back thing. Started 18 months ago at 206lb and now down to 168 but want to lose more. Getting tired of "oh well it's easy for you, you don't have commitments" apparently life is easy for me, tell that to the panic attacks. Oh well.
Oh and my names Catherine, and I would love more friends, real friends (am I sounding desperate yet?) I live in Lancashire uk.