Healthy living support thread for feminists

[SeraOfeliaFalfurrias]

In response to a few discussions we've had down the pub - there are some of us who are striving for better health through better diets and more exercise, but who struggle among the usual support groups where it's all about looking better rather than good health. And it certainly can be tricky as a feminist, walking that fine line between not conforming to beauty ideals through dieting and making sure you actually look after your body through a healthy lifestyle.

So here is a support thread for those of us who are trying to eat better and get more exercise.

Me, I could do with losing a bit over 2 stone to get back to a healthy weight. I had an ankle injury after running a marathon about 3 years back, and between not being able to exercise and the stress of my PhD (I'm a stress binge eater) I gained 3 stone and lost all my hard-earned fitness. I'm finally getting back on track, I've lost nearly a stone and am hitting the exercise hard again. The hardest bit has been getting back into running - while my ankle is better, my joints are really feeling the extra weight I'm carrying. It's also hard to do karate when your wobble gets in the way of you doing a good kick and you get out of breath when sparring. So I need to lose weight in order to enjoy my sports hobbies again. I'm taking it slowly, doing Slimming World but not religiously - I'm not in a hurry to lost the weight, but I also need to watch that I don't take it so slowly that it never happens!

Yesterday I ran 8km, which is really encouraging as I was still going strong at the end. Just a couple of months ago I was run/walking 5km and would have welcomed death at the end! So I feel like some kind of switch has been flipped and my body now "remembers" how to run. The down side is that both ankles are aching and stiff today.

My diet has been rather rubbish the last couple of weeks, including a few binges, and I put some pounds back on, but I'm in that good place mentally now and hopefully ready to focus on getting my body healthy again. I loved being lean and fit and athletic, and I'm not getting any younger (thoroughly middle-aged), so I feel like the window of opportunity for getting myself in a sustained state of good health without drastic measures being required is closing!

Lovely idea for a thread.

I'm going on holiday on Sunday, and I don't really like exercise, but I'd like to be healthier and to talk about it in a place where what's important is how you FEEL, not how you look. (looking better is a nice side effect though).

Than you for linking the PLoS blog, it's very interesting and nicely-written.

Ooh, have a nice time, trills. I always feel healthier on holiday, even if I'm eating more, becayse I'm out and about, not chained to a desk and screen!

Well done Yonic, I didn't exercise at all yesterday and ate junk but refuse to beat myself up over it and will do better today.
I think gradual improvements work better, as only a small minority will be able to stick to a really hard core diet and exercise plan.
However, i think we can be a bit deluded in relation to how much exercise we need to do, and in fact, how much we are actually capable of doing. It's a difficult balance but making people feel bad about themselves is never going to help.
Dh reminded me the other day about my mum's reaction after a friend and I first started going to the gym in our early/min-twenties. She was horrified when I showed her my biceps, as though muscle definition in women was somehow wrong.

Since I had the kids it's very hard to arrange my life to get enough activity in (driving rather than walking etc) so I'm trying to compensate!

Ugh, I feel like rubbish this afternoon. I think I may have overdone it a bit at the gym this morning, or at least it was too much on top of kickboxing yesterday evening. Didn't feel like I was doing too much while I was there, but I've been really wobbly since I got home, thought lunch would help but it didn't.

I've also had a frustrating time trying to fix some new lights in our kitchen. I was all confident that it was a simple job, but I put one in and it just won't work, and I've no idea why.

So, I'm in a grump in general. Got taekwondo again with dd in the morning too, hope I don't wake up with achy muscles.

I'm very pleased this thread has picked up again, it was very quiet for a while and I was getting worried!

Cycle commute day for me, and then I took DD2 swimming. I'm absolutely knackered! I had regular pizza base instead of cauliflower, I could feel I needed the calories - extra thin crust and my daily allowance of cheese on top, lots of veg. Yum! I am also pleased I didn't even particularly want a chocolate from the vending machine when DD2 got one after swimming.

Early night tonight then trying a new parkrun tomorrow morning.

Will catch up with everyone soon...

My day sounds similar to yours feckity. Everything is aching from yesterday's gym session and I have an all encompassing tiredness that basically stopped anything useful being done. Today has been a bit of a write off, especially since I ditched the balanced chicken and veggies meal I'd planned in favour of chip shop chips. Never mind...I'm aiming for doing well most of the time and I did enjoy my tea.

A chap from work and I are joining the gym that we get discount at. There's a swimming pool and free weights there, so I'll be sitting in the corner on this thread, watching with interest.... although, as an ex bodybuilder, some of the recent nutritional advice has been quite funny. And wrong.

I had some friends round for dinner, but while I've eaten a fair bit it was all made out of ingredients (apart from the prawn crackers, they were from a bag) and it was a lovely feminist group of people.

It would be quite nice to hear your opinion, PlaysWell, rather than just be told you're sitting in a corner laughing at our wrongness.

Hope you're feeling better today PurpleDaisies. I'm still tired, and not at all sure about taekwondo this morning. Hopefully some porridge power will sort me out...

Sounds like a lovely evening Trills, all the better for the feminisim and the ingredients :) Was it a specific feminist meet up, or do you happen to have particularly feminist friends? I'd like some of them in RL. I went to a feminist book group once, not sure why I didn't go back, I blame babies and sleep deprivation.

Have fun at the parkrun Sera :)

Wow, feckity! How utterly rude! I won't be sitting in a corner laughing at anyone, thanks. In fact, now I won't be taking part in the thread anymore. I would have been sitting in the corner being silent because I have such enormous body issues that I don't feel I have much to offer anymore.... but you just feel free to ascribe your own motivations to others.

I thought this was supposed to be a support thread... no wonder I never bothered to post before, eh?

For everyone else: Mide's nutritional advice was wrong. Little and often is best. An equal amount of protein and carbs an hour before weight bearing exercise, then the same after. Small meals with a fist sized amount of lean protein and quality carbs around 5 times a day is best. Protein shakes are kind of ok, but they often contain a lot of sugars. If you're wanting to tone, then it's best to tone everywhere, plus, as muscle burns calories faster, you'll find you lose even more weight if you don't eat enough. Setting aside 3 days of the week to tone different areas of the body is a good idea, it gives your body lots of time to recover. So; leg exercises on Monday, chest and back on Wednesday and arms on Friday. (as an example) You don't have to lift stupid heavy amounts, but definitely lift weights you consider to be heavy, you're looking to mildly injure the muscle fibres, so that during their week's rest, they rebuild stronger in really simple terms You won't need to spend hours doing it either.

It's not the best thing for overall fitness, alternating the weight days with cardio will work better for that, but for people who have lost a lot of weight, or people looking to lose weight, it's better to build strong muscle. Strong muscle is also far better for women, as it can help protect against things like osteoporosis.... sorry if people knew some of this. Just thought I'd do it all in one long post, as I'm obviously not welcome on this thread. Take care, and good luck to everyone. One day I might feel strong enough to start again.

Playswell- I think your post at 22:37 didn't come across well. Not sure how that's you intended it but it doesn't seem very supportive.

And my advise was wrong? It may have been different from your school of thought but it's definitely not wrong. I like to think I know a bit about nutrition as well ( not an expert by any stretch but it's something that interests me greatly).

I always think that online nutrition discussions either come from one of two perspectives. One is that calories are king and one is that things like food quality and timings matter the most. I believe that total calories per day is what drives body composition, doesn't make me wrong. There is plenty of scientific studies to back that point of view up.

My advise might not have been perfect for a bodybuilder but that isn't what this threads about. I thought it was about feeling better and being healthier( losing weight comes into those things). Not everyone wants to spend hours in the gym and hours preparing/ tracking food.

I don't think I was any ruder than your post PlaysWell. It is quite rude to say it's funny how wrong someone is without explaining why.

I hope you stay on the thread, I'm sure it can be a support to you. It sounds like joining a gym is a big step for you, how are you feeling about it?

Thanks feckity I'm feeling much better today. I think I've got a cold (was really dizzy at bed time) so I'm currently undecided about body combat today. At least the up side of having chips last night is I have a very nice dinner ready for tonight in the fridge!

Playswell which diet is best is always going to be a matter of opinion. I don't think you can say that one particular diet is the only way to lose weight or be healthy and others are all wrong (so wrong as to be funny-I don't think that was very well phrased). For instance regular small meals wouldn't work for me because of how my work is structured. My biggest problem is junk snacking so eating three good meals is much better for me. And not everyone wants to lift weights-surely doing any exercise that people enjoy and can stick to is a good thing? There are lots of benefits to cardiovascular exercise as well (lower blood pressure, lower cholesterol, better heart action etc etc).

Th purpose of this thread is to support healthy living, in all its different forms to different posters. I think people took exception to your post saying you were sitting in the corner thinking we were funny for doing it wrong which wasn't very supportive. It sounds like from your later post you didn't mean it like that-we've all types things that sound funny but when they're written down look completely different. If you want to stay on the thread I'm sure you'd find it helpful, as long as you accept that not everyone is following the same plan. You sound like you've bed. Really brave in joining the gym when you've had issues before. Wishing you lots of luck with that. I was nervous about joining mine but now I am totally addicted.

I am trying to have protein for breakfast as it's so hard to not just carb for lunch (office sandwich) or tea (pasta for kids)

Scrambled eggs and mushrooms today.

I'm envious yonic - I managed to drop the only egg in the house so my poached egg and spinach on seeded bread delicious breakfast turned into a slightly sad marmite on toast and a banana.

I have to say Mide, your posts aren't particularly supportive either. They are more telling us what you think we need to know. Debating. This isn't a debate thread. Nobody has asked your advice or your opinions about nutrition or weightlifting for women yet you felt it necessary to give it. Can you not appreciate that, as women, we get men's unsolicited advice all the time, even when we may have more knowledge than them about a subject?

Sorry that I've offended scallops. Although I'm not sure what difference my sex makes to things?

Surely there are more than one way to be supportive tho. You can be supportive by saying things like "well done that's great" or by saying " that's great but maybe you could try this?".

If I've misunderstood then apologies

But you aren't doing either of those things (and I think the latter example is up for debate as to whether it was supportive - depends on whether the person was asking for advice). And really on a thread in FWR to support women you can't understand why your sex makes a difference?

feckity it was a couple of "real friends" and a couple of "friends of friends" who I'd decided I wanted to get to know better.

Not really scallops, health and fitness isn't different for men and women.

No worries scallops,I'll butt out. Good luck

Purple Oh no! The only egg in the house! That is very annoying first thing in the morning.

I am still feeling grumpy trills! Thinking of popping to the shops and having poached eggs for lunch.

Your dinner party sounded lovely by the way.

DH has just gone out for brunch, lucky him! Time for cafetiere!

Although - do people find food diaries useful? I have a sheet pinned up near the kettle but I'm sporadic about using it...