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 know!

Don't worry, I can almost guarantee that skinnies will be going out of fashion imminently, because I have bought a pair, and also bought a pair of boots specifically to wear with them, so clearly the rest of the country will decide they are wrong wrong wrong within days.

I hope the flu doesn't get you FF. Maybe give yourself a bit of a break from intense exercise to give your body a fighting chance?

How is everyone doing? I'm struggling at the moment. I just keep eating too much calorie-dense food - it was DD1's birthday party on Friday, and there's cake left, so I keep picking at it. I wrote my next goal weight on the lid supposedly to encourage me to keep my eye on the prize rather than the chocolately goodness. It worked for most of the day but this evening I stuffed a fat wedge in my mouth - can't say I even enjoyed it particularly. But I did better overall today so hopefully my mind is resetting to healthy. I did get a good run in this morning (barring battles with evil nettles).

Tomorrow is my Body Combat/Pump double, but I have Mummy Guilt because the DDs have trampolining at the same time, and DH takes them. But they make their sad eyes and say "Mummy, can't you take us this time please?" Plus a very good friend is taking her DD to the same class now, and it's a shame to miss the opportunity to see her and chat while the girls are bouncing. Darn my Leisure Centre and their meagre class offerings! I really enjoy doing the double class and Mondays is the only evening it's on.

The flu has certainly gotten me. Will definitely be taking a few days off the gym and catching up on what sleep I can. :(

I'm full of cold as well-just had to call in sick from work with a banging headache and feeling dizzy any time I move. Lovely.

I'm really hoping this doesn't last too long. Get well soon to everyone else who is suffering as well. Hopefully we all get our winter bug out of the way early and stay well after that. Miserable now though.

Overslept! Bad, needed the sleep though and still went to gym as am trying to make it a priority which it hasn't been for far too long!

Ugh. I've been waiting in all day for a delivery that still hasn't turned up, so I haven't been to the gym, and I've been scoffing fairy cakes that I made with the dc yesterday, just out of boredom. All the sugar has made me feel rubbish and the worst thing is I knew that it would, and still ate them.

Sorry for those feeling rubbish for non-self-inflicted reasons.

Send germ-zapping vibes to all those of you with plague. I hope you feel better soon.

It's bizarre, isn't it, feckity that while sometimes a cake or a chocolate can be a magical experience that we really enjoy, more often we know that we're just eating it because it's there, we know we don't really want it, we know we won't really enjoy it, and then we eat it anyway! That's the habit we really need to break, not giving up eating sweet or fatty foods, but getting in the mindset that we only eat them when we really actually want to, and to eat food for nourishment and enjoyment rather than as comfort or entertainment, or even as punishment.

I've been feeling good about my food choices today, and loved my 2 hours at the gym. I was probably this active about a year ago, but still stress eating so I weighed 10kg more and didn't see the benefit of the exercise in my body, even thought I felt fitter. But this time, though I still have 15kg to go, not carrying those 10kg that I've lost means I can see/feel the muscle definition even under the "insulation", and I'm enjoying the changes in my body. I love being strong, I love seeing strong women and girls with great muscle tone that they have worked hard to achieve. An athletic body on either sex is really attractive to me.

Weird isn't it, about food?

I wonder how I would eat if i lived alone and wasn't tied to mealtimes.

Feeling better today. Pretty much spent yesterday in bed after picking up DS from school (except for when he had to come and chat with me for 20 minutes at a time every 40 minutes or so). Looking at an easy day at the gym though.

Good stuff!

To expand a bit more on my last post - before I went to the gym in the morning, I had a banana. Then when I got back around 1130 I had a tuna sandwich. Then nothing till pasta with the kids around 1800. And some naice ham before bed. But I felt hungry for both of the meals - usually I eat when not hungry as eating is being fitted in around life!

Not eating unless you're actually hungry is definitely the key. I went through a major reeducation for my body when I first started losing weight, to teach myself that actually, you can go quite a few hours without eating, and continuous grazing is not at all necessary. I have to go through it a bit again now as I've fallen back into snacking since reaching my original goal weight. But I'm going to try today, at least as some kind of balance to the excess cake yesterday.

I'm feeling quite down today. I know I'd feel better if I went to the gym, but it all seems a bit hard right now. Especially with it being so miserable outside. I want to curl up and drink tea and eat crap.

Urgh, now I've got plague too. Darned DD2, I've caught it off her.

I eat so much better having a family then I did when I was single. Focusing on home made meals and having to plan lunches in advance has really been the kicker for me. When I was single it was a cinnamon bun (or 2) for breakfast, Chillis, or Subway or McD's or some other take away crap for lunch, and pasta or nachos for dinner with at least 3 bottles of beer or 3 rum and cokes. However, SOMEHOW I was a size 6-8 and always struggling not to fall into the underweight category. Now, it's 2 scrambled eggs with a little tiny bit of goats cheese for breakfast, some strawberries for a snack, some type of little salad with some kind of protein (chicken or nuts) for lunch, and some kind of protein with veg for dinner (tonight will be baked chicken with sweet potato mash). And I'm a size 12 on a good day, and cannot for the life of me get into a healthy weight bracket. :(

thefit - why do you not consider yourself in a healthy weight bracket at a size 12, unless you're really really short? Are you sure your expectations are reasonable? Also, are you getting enough to eat?

At 5'3 I'm currently size 16 and only aiming for a 12, because I'm middle-aged now and I just want to be a realistic healthy size, not an 'aesthetically pleasing according to current beauty standards' size.

My BMI labels me as overweight. I'm 5'6 and weigh 13.2 stone. I understand that muscle is denser, but still! I weigh the same as I did when I was 9 months pregnant and a size 18/20.

Part of it for me is seeing myself NOW knowing what I looked like 5 years ago.

I think you must be pretty muscular to be a 12 at that weight (also given as you say it was your PG weight!)

If it would help, you could do a fat % measurement?

I would be happy to be a 12 again too! Mostly I am concerned about staying fit into middle and old age. I have lost very little weight yet but I feel fitter and can manage a bit more at the gym each time which is fab.

Well lets say I'm a 12 at M&S, and a 14 at Debenhams. :) At American Eagle I struggled to fit into US size 12! Although at Gap I'm a US size 8. It makes no sense.

I should do a fat measurement, and will the next time they offer it at my work (we do health and fitness tests every few months, as well as diabetes tests and everything, the joy of having a Type II Diabetes research team on campus :P ) The last time I did one, the stupid woman who read it though ( a nurse they brought in from a local hospital) tells me that I still needed to lose 4 kilos (I was 11 stone then), although in the fat to muscle ratio I was listed as healthy.

Also, when I used to gain weight back when I was single I'd starve myself for a week....so.....In general I'm much healthier now.

See why I need this thread ;)

Hola.

I've been on holiday so not paying attention to health I'm afraid. I did find that eating at irregular times meant that I ended up actually feeling hungry, which is a good thing, although what I ended up eating to feed that hunger might not have been so healthy.

In Spain, anyone is allowed to wear a bikini - there are definitely no bikini body enforcers.

Off to the gym (and bumping!)

Morning. I think I might have to give up alcohol. I hardly drink at all anyway. I went out on Wednesday night and had two small glasses of wine and felt significantly woozy. I tried to drink plenty of water before I went to bed but still woke up at about 3am feeling awful. It happens even if I just have one glass of wine, it's not like a normal hangover kicking in, it really feels like my body is reacting to some kind of poison - heart racing, really shaky and hot, and I can't get back to sleep for ages. I don't feel too bad in the morning, just knackered because I haven't slept. But I think it's obvious alcohol just doesn't agree with me at all any more.

So I went for a swim yesterday but had to go into the sauna to overheat myself before I could face getting in the pool, was too tired and cold. I'm still not feeling great so I might try to get to the gym later, but got various jobs to get through first.

Hope everyone else is feeling healthier than me at the moment!

Gym was a bit if a slog last night but pleased I went anyway. Then DS2 had a bad night so zzzz

Can I join? I feel very strongly about focusing on being strong and healthy rather than thin and pretty and love the idea of this thread.

Right now I'm clawing my way back from very fat and unfit after a year where injury and a 9wk pregnancy followed by MC totally derailed my previously regular and enthusiastic running. I started a Couch to 10K app a couple of months ago and am now running a steady (if slow) 30-40mins again. It's been really hard to accept being right back at scratch after running my first half-marathon a couple of years ago, but also really satisfying to be fit enough again to get that 'second wind' and meditative feeling from running, albeit only for a few minutes after which I want to die again. I'd love some feminist support for healthy living

Welcome OThe!

Sorry about your MC