Hello Everyone

[MoniqueL]

When I was in university I was a gym rat. If wasn't in class, or at the bar!, I was in the gym. I was too busy to eat and was lean and mean! Then I got into the workforce and got busy with life. With each passing year a couple/few pounds were added. Then in my late 30's I got sick, was hospitalized and went on some meds that messed with my hormones. I looked terrible and everyone wanted to feed me to make me stronger. Who was I to say "no". That ordeal gained me extra 25-30 pounds and that's not considering the lean muscle I had loss. None of my clothes fit anymore (I was down to a single pair of jeans), I was unhappy, I didn't want to go out anymore... I'm sure many of you can relate. Anyhow, my husband didn't know what to say or do, so he decided he was going to get faster in his triathlon races. He was about 30 pounds 'overweight' and figured shedding some flab was the way to go for increased speed. He's very logical and rational and science minded, so he started researching diets to find the best solution for him. His undergrad degree is in biology and he's been an endurance athlete his entire life, so he knew a fair bit about nutrition before he started. He couldn't find a single diet out there that he believed would work. And if you look at the failure rate of diets (our research has seen year long failure rates ranging from 80-95%), it makes sense. So my husband took what he learned in his experience and research and created a lifestyle "diet" (for lack of a better term) that we can maintain. That was a year and a half ago, we each lost the weight we wanted to lose in the first few months and have more-or-less maintained that ever since. I'm up a couple of pounds as we move into winter and my husband is now seeing how muscular he can get! One thing we learned when we were researching is that there is SO MUCH to know and understand. Just when you think you have a handle on something you learn something new that changes everything. So our research is ongoing. I personally haven't done much with exercise yet, and I thought it would be fun to learn what some of you folks are doing to exercise, eat, and maintain a healthy lifestyle. I look forward to reading your reports!