Strength & Bicycling Enthusiast Looking for Supportive Buddies!

Hi everyone!

I've been a long time MFP lurker and a realllly inconsistent user, but I'm back and I'm using it for my next fitness journey. 35 years old, female. Formerly a teacher, now a full time calligrapher, designer and artist working from home in Virginia.

I've never been a very athletic person, but I have managed to fall in love with the feeling of being strong and fit. It comes and goes based on how busy I am and other goings on in my life. I'd like it to be more consistent! Five years ago I biked across the country and coasted on my new found metabolism for a couple of years, but that kind of metabolic transformation can only last so long! I began strength training a year and a half ago and it has helped me to focus on something other than the number on the scale.

Even though my husband and I eat really high quality foods, I tend to be a slight overeater and recently discovered there's this thing called volume eating for people like me! I feel like a bottomless pit with a metabolism that just doesn't match. Now I know that it's not weird when I can eat a large mixing bowl sized salad and still feel hungry

Thankfully, I have transformed the previously negative relationship with the scale into something more useful (body fat %). I hated the anxiety that fluctuations in water weight were causing me, so I'm really grateful for the monitor. I had a miscarriage this spring (I'm doing ok!) but it's taken me a while to get back on the training bandwagon. It totally messed with my motivation.

So here it is:

Currently 171 lbs and 35% body fat. I'd really like to get down to 27.5% body fat (a nice happy place!), but I'm not sure what my weight will look like at that level... depends on my lean mass at that time.

I enjoy cycling, hiking, circuit training, functional training with kettlebells and other heavy things. I am working toward my first real chin up (the hard one!) and am at 15 chin ups ranging from 78 to 102 pounds of assist on the standing assist machine (this is something I'm tracking in a nerdy spreadsheet) and I'd like to be able to do 20 no kidding push ups like I could a year ago. I can deadlift 175 lbs for a 1 rep max right now. I'd love to get it over 200. I can still leg press 300 lbs (the decline one) which makes me feel awesome... not sure where I want to get to except UP.

Looking for supportive friends with similar goals: strength achievements, body recomposition, daily activity (including active rest), volume eating. Hit me up!