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!

I find it helps me. Helps me understand my eating patterns and how much shit I eat as I can minimise or forget. I do find them hard to maintain and a bit time consuming!

I'm not writing down weights or anything. Just hoping it might help me notice unconscious eating (most of which I do in kitchen in evening)

Yy, for me I'd say that was the main benefit of a diary.

PlaysWellWithOthers - you are very welcome on this thread of course. We're here to support each other. But I hope that as others have pointed out, you can see how your first post might have come across badly. It seem that you were saying you were going to just sit in a corner laughing at us.

Mide, and everyone else - this thread is for women who have issues with their weight/fitness/body image to come together in mutual support, to talk about what suits them, ask for advice, vent and rant if needed and to pick apart what we really need to do to be healthy from what patriarchy tells us we need to do to be fuckable.

We're all different, we're all on different paths. No one's is right, no-ones is wrong. The key is support, not pushing an agenda or an unsolicited point of view.

Does that make sense and agree with what you all hope this space will be?

Yonic - I've never done well with food diaries, but I like using MyFitnessPal to track my food. I love the barcode scanner! But like scallops says, it helps you not forget about those odd biscuits or other calories-dense foods that are fine in moderation, but can prevent weight loss if you overdo it.

My news today is that the different Parkrun I went to this morning definitely agrees with me. It probably wouldn't be a quick route for most people - very much a woodland path with roots and sand and narrow tracks. But it's the kind of terrain I love to run on, and I knocked 12 seconds off my PB from the 'faster' route Parkrun I usually do. So I'm very happy!

Oh that's great re park run.

My news is that my weight is static since I last checked it 3 weeks ago and I'm pleased with that as it means I balanced holiday eating and holiday extra activity ok!

Great job sera. I've even looking for one near me but the only one at a sensible time has huge hills that I'm not ready for yet. I'm aiming for a post Christmas go at it, hopefully without keeling over. I'm getting a gps watch for my birthday next week so I'm hoping that will help with pacing and motivation.

I decided to take my grump out on the body combat class this morning. There was a stand in female instructor who was just fantastic and although I'm tired now I'm really glad I went. After too many years of wanting to be thin I want to be strong and fit which is a much better goal to go for. Good news on the scales front yonic.

Re food diaries-I've found then really helpful in the past to work out where my danger points for mindlessly eating junk are (mid afternoon, after 10pm) so in theory I can make a plan to distract myself or eat something healthy.

Taekwondo this morning was good, but a self-defence session so there wasn't much fitness. I'm glad though as I've spent the afternoon rewiring the kitchen lights which has given my shoulders a workout by itself - it's hard work spending an hour or so screwing in things above head height!

I'm not going to carry on with taekwondo. It's supposed to be a family session but there's only one other adult so it's not particularly challenging. DD loves it though, so she'll keep going. I might have stuck with it, but we're moving in a year and I didn't want to spend loads of money on the kit and grading etc. just to give it up then. Happy to let DD make a start with it though, and maybe she can find something similar when we've moved.

Maybe I'll try to fit in parkrun with all the other family activities on a Saturday morning.

Mide Absolutely agree about mis-information about women and weight training. I think the biggest lack, for men and women both though, is those who want to lift weights and get stronger, but don't necessarily want to get "competition ready." Since I've been pretty much going this alone, with no personal trainer and no one but a couple of guys who don't speak much English to help me occasionally correct my form, I've found it really difficult to find advice that suits me. I've battled anorexia and binge eating since I was 17, and I've tried calorie counting, but it just triggers anorexia for me. I get in a competition with myself to eat less and less, and exercise more and more. It's not healthy for me. So all this advice on body building sites is useless to me because its all about calorie counting. So I'm figuring it out on my own.

To be fair, despite what all the advice says, I'm seeing major changes to my body in terms of slimming down and building muscle, without making major diet changes. It's probably taking me longer, but it's happening. Especially in terms of strength. So I think, what works for some, may not work for all.

Playswell I'm afraid I have to ditto what others said. Diet and exercise information is so black and white, when the realm of nutrition for people is a much bigger spectrum. Yes, if you want to be a competition ready body builder, you need to eat XYZ and do XYZ. However, that's not what everyone wants. I certainly don't want it, and I'm probably one of the keenest weight lifters on this thread.

For everyone else. Daughters 2nd B-day party was this weekend, so I ate lots of pizza and cake. Love my two days off, but can't wait to get back to the gym today. Hope everyone else is well. :)

PELVIC FLOOR!

DH's turn for the gym this morning so I'm trying to motivate myself to get up and do some work. Yawn!

New lunch discovery - tinned butternut squash and sweet potato soup from M&S - really yummy!

That sounds really nice yonic. Butternut squash is a favourite of mine. I had some bargain Covent Garden Soupergrain soup for my tea after sausage and wholewheat pasta bake for lunch. I used half the amount of sausage I normally would and topped it up with mixed peppers. It was actually much nicer than usual. Hope your work went well.

My exercise of the day was attacking a large bush with garden shears. The garden looks miles better and it was definitely a good work out..

32 lengths at swimming just now - I usually stop somewhere in the 20s but you lot spurred me on

Work went pretty well thanks purple - got properly caught up after my holiday.

Morning everyone

I'm finding myself at that dangerous stage where I'm working my butt off (literally, I hope!) with loads of exercise and managing to keep my food firmly in the "healthy" camp, but not seeing the results I think I "deserve" on the scale. Which often results in a feeling of "fuck this them, I might as well be inhaling packets of giant chocolate buttons". I will hover around in here until the feeling passes.

Awesome job with the swimming, Yonic!

I'm supposed to have my double set of Combat and Pump this evening but I couldn't get a place in Combat (our leisure centre has a very stupid booking system). I'm hoping there will be a cancellation - there usually is.

Have you tried measuring yourself instead of weighing sera? When I exercise a lot (especially weights) I usually lose inches not pounds. It is still frustrating not to see the numbers on the scale changing.

I've got a work from home day today which I know is going to be a big temptation to eat junk (or watch TV!). I think I might have to relocate to Costa.

I can tell from my clothes and the rather unforgiving giant mirrors in the gym studio that I'm losing inches, PurpleDaisies. For some reason it feels like cheating to tell myself that I'm losing inches rather than pounds. And I do need substantial numbers of pounds to come off to be in a healthy bmi range. I've finally made it out of 'obese' but I'm still very firmly in 'overweight'.

Well done on moving down a category. My arms definitely hurt today from swimming! I just signed up to an online swimming challenge thing to try and swim the length of the channel (over a few months!)

Do your scales do body fat %? You have almost certainly put on muscle which weighs more than fat per CC.

You need to throw the scales away!!! Sera. I hate those bloody things. I'm the thinnest I've been (by clothes) in 7 years, but my scales say that I weight the same as I did when I was 9 months pregnant.

Is it Heart Research one Yonic? Looks like a great challenge, I thought I might join you til I worked out you need to do an average of 118 lengths per week! Definitely doable if you're focusing on swimming, but I don't think I'd have time to do anything else so maybe I'll leave it til I'm bored of weights

Losing inches rather than pounds is definitely not cheating Sera, that's your body getting strong :) Frustrating not to have that objective measure though, I know what you mean.

No, Spine injury! I don't think I will do it in the time but it will be fun to see how far I get and I can donate the money at the end anyway

That looks good too, better to have a fixed time period really, more communal. Good luck with it, we'll be cheering you on :)

It has let me put in last night's swim though the challenge hasn't officially started so I am ahead of the game already