Today’s guest blog post is by Missa from Losing Ethel. You can check out her blog here.

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I have always been the big girl.  The heavy one.  The curvy chick.  That’s cool.  But, the last 10 years or so, it has been more than that.  It has been me being obese.  Morbidly obese.  It has been me slowly killing myself with food and inactivity.  These are ugly terms, but very, very true.

In January of this year, I decided to change all that, and start blogging and get moving.
My fitness is at a whole new mental level.  I feel more capable.  I feel goal oriented.  So, what better than to train for a half-marathon.  (What did she say?)  Yup.  This fat girl is running.  Do I like running?  Nope.  Why do I do it?  Because I LOVE how it makes me feel.  I feel like I am getting somewhere (literally).  And, I love the physical results too.

As of July 19, I just started the first week of a 12 week program to get me to the half-marathon.  This makes me run approximately 10-15 miles per week.  The miles increase more and more as I move ahead.  I currently weigh 230ish lbs.  So, this means my obese butt needs to hustle.  Can fat people run?  YUP.  I even asked my personal trainer, Debbie about it.  I see her 2x per week, because I believe in paying for and choosing the people that kick my butt.

She says that running requires the same cardiovascular health as walking does.  The key difference is the ability to handle the pressure of running on your joints and you body’s ability to handle fast, repetitive motion for longer periods of time.  (Sounds sexy, no?)

So, to translate that, if you can walk, you can run.   You just need to get your body used to doing it.
For those who have never run, I suggest some online programs, such as Couch to 5K (coolrunnings.com) or Hal Higdon’s site (HalHigdon.com) has lots of free training programs as well.  He can take you all the way from 0 to 5k to 10k, half-marathons and marathons.  I like his programs in particular because each distance has a novice, intermediate and advanced level  (Note:  this fat chick is a novice).  Oh, and he has walking programs too!

I suggest a few tools.  First, I love my heart rate monitor.  I have a very basic one from Polar.  When I run, I try to stay in my target heart rate.  If I am beating too fast, I slow down or walk for a while.  Also, it is a good gauge when you think you can’t go anymore.  Sometimes your brain says no, but your heart really does have more.  It gives yourself some honest guidance on your way.  Second, I think tunes are in order.  Make a play list of what you love and rock out.  Third, track your progress.  I use a site called dailymile.com.  It even lets you measure your progress in donuts and burgers and you should pat yourself on the back when you count up your mileage.  Finally, get good footwear.  If you plan on walking or running miles, you owe it to yourself to get some real sneakers.  It makes a HUGE difference.

When you get out there, don’t be afraid to run, run-walk, or walk.  The goal is to move.  You will get there.  I can’t tell you how incredible it feels now when my body says, OK Missa, time to stop walking and start running.  It is like your brain just kicked you in the tush.

I hope to see some of you out there on the roads and on the trails, even if you walk the whole way round!  I will be doing the OBX half-marathon (OBXmarathon.com) on November 14th.  I’d love to see you, even if it is just to cheer me on!! (and to bring me a beer at the finish line!!)

Please welcome Meegan from Redstar5 – Work in Progress. Meegan and I have a lot in common, especially the fact that we are both pretty slow losers. You can visit Meegan’s blog here.

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Bobbie and I have something in common. We tend to fight this weight loss battle in a slow but fiercely determined fashion. We both got a little fed up with the way we had been leading our lives and have made some big changes. Changes we’ve grown to love and incorporate into our lives. I think we both also get a little frustrated sometimes with our fierce determination not resulting in seriously swift weight loss, but it helps knowing we’re not alone.

I started this weight loss journey in earnest when I turned 30 in February of 2009. I was 289lbs. Now it’s almost a year and a half later and at my last weigh in I was 213lbs. That’s 76lbs in 16.5 months or 66 weeks. That makes my weight loss average only slightly better than 1lb a week. That is slow (but steady) weight loss.

Some of my before and after pictures:

I mean seriously, would any of us ask for slow weight loss? So many people seem to be searching for that magic pill, diet, solution – anything that will bring on the skinny overnight. We all want that perfect beach body in the blink of an eye. We don’t want to wait weeks, months, even years to reach our weight loss goals. But here’s the thing, for many of us (or at least for Bobbie and I so far) on the path to lasting weight loss that’s the only way it happens. SLOWLY.

Now that I know that slow is the way this will be happening for me – I am learning to love slow. Don’t get me wrong, I know it’s a challenge to say that you like weight loss slow and steady. It is tough to be satisfied with progress when it comes little by little. But if this is how it is for me, I’m going to grow to accept it. I’m a slow loser. In fact, I have never been able to do anything fast before.

• I don’t run fast,

• I don’t move fast,

• I don’t think fast (I tend to ruminate and over think) and,

• I definitely don’t lose weight fast.

It’s frustrating. But when you decide not to be satisfied with your status quo YOU CHANGE. With all of the changes I’ve been making in the last 66 weeks I’ve learned that:

• I can run. It may be slower than all the other girls in my bootcamp, but I can run and it’s faster than before.

• I’m teaching my body HOW to move fast – and it feels good.

• I still analyze everything, but I don’t agonize over anything and life is SO much more straightforward that way.

• The one thing I haven’t been able to solve or change has been the pace at which I lose weight.

I’m almost a year and a half into this journey and I’m still losing weight slowly. But you know what, every decision, every pound; every change I’ve made has been worth it. The frustration will come and it will go, but I’m proud of the progress of I’ve made so far. I’m still losing pounds, and I’m making major gains in learning to live a healthier and happier life. Slow weight loss progress is still progress and its progress in the direction I want to be heading. In fact, I like to think that there are divine reasons for the slower pace:

• I like to think that losing the weight at a slower pace is giving my mind and body time to adjust to my new healthy way of life.

• I like to think that it means I will live my life this way forever, and keep the weight off forever because I’m learning to do it slowly.

• I like to think that maybe, just maybe, I will minimize at least a little bit of the whole loose skin factor by losing weight at a slower pace.

• I like to think that it’s giving myself the time I need to let new habits simply become my way of living life instead of something I’m just trying out until I reach my goals.

• I like to think that slower weight loss means my perceptions of who I am in a new body will have time to keep pace.

• I like to think a year of slow and steady weight loss has made lasting changes, in my life, in the way I think and in the mirror.

Bottom line – slow is good. Slow and steady really can win the weight loss race and make some serious lasting changes. After 66 weeks, with no turning back now, I am learning to love slow.

Today’s guest post is courtesy of Jody from Fit at 52. Please hit up her blog and give her some love. She’s one of the sweetest bloggers I’ve gotten to know and I love, love, love her posts and know you will too. :)

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First, thanks to Bobbie for letting me guest post! She is one that never gave up & she is showing the results for that hard work! Thanks Bobbie!

So most of us reading these fitness, health & weight loss blogs obviously either have a weight issue right now, had a weight issue in the past, are still working to lose excess weight, just trying to get healthy or any combination of the above & more.  I was heavy as a kid and into high school before I lost my weight. Now, saying that, I still had “knowledge” issues into my 20’s and 30’s. I kept most of the weight off, I did not yo-yo excessively but my “knowledge” factor stunk!!!!

Now, how many of you put on your weight young like me BUT had all those friends that could eat anything they wanted & never put on a pound??? I can remember bitching about this & how I was the only one in my circle of friends that put on weight just by looking at food!!! I was active early on & in high school put that did not stop the weight. Of course I was eating too much & the wrong things but so were a lot of the friends!!!   For those friends that could eat anything, many of them had reality hit in the late 20’s to 30’s (some later) when they found out they could not eat like they used to & that combined with less activity turned into a lot of pounds on the body!   One thing good about my situation – I found out earlier in life about eating healthier foods, having to exercise and/or find activities to help keep the weight off & most importantly, I learned to listen to my body & understand what works best for me, when I needed minor & major changes to either or both my food & exercise program and how to manipulate both for the best end result for me.

I think many of us give up because it is just too hard and it takes too long to lose the weight (even though it took years to put it on). We just lose patience with the process and fall into that woe is me. Well, if you think it is hard now, wait till you start the change of life if you are a woman! If you are a man, you are still going to have a slowing metabolism. BEST LOSE THE WEIGHT EARLIER ON CAUSE IT GETS HARDER THE OLDER YOU GET!  When I hit the 47-48 time frame (it may have been 45 since I lost count of these crazy years), my body started to attack. What I did was not working anymore. What I ate was not working anymore. This is when I stepped up my workout routine. I already was working out pretty hard BUT I upped the intensity by adding plyometrics, high intensity interval training, intervals but more a version I made up for myself and more… AND I HAD TO RE-EVALUATE MY FOOD PROGRAM!

Honestly between that 47 year old to now going on 53 years old, I have changed up my exercise AND FOOD program multiple times & still do. I am still working thru the change of life & so is my body. So, yes, I went into that “this sucks” talk to myself since I was already doing everything right when this hit. I was eating healthy foods & not too excess, I was exercising, I was lifting weights. SO, yes, I was doing everything right & I still had to make changes!  DID I GIVE UP? NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I FOUGHT BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was not going to give in to this. Yes, I did & still work very hard at fighting the aging process but it is worth it!

So if you think woe is me now… just wait. Buck up & tell yourself you are worth the effort! Understand that it takes time, patience & consistency. It is easier to get the process started now than when it attacks you even more so later on. Giving up is not an option! Your life & health are the pay off. Change the thought process & tell yourself you are lucky to be able to do this for you & your body! Find a food & exercise program that you love. One size does not fit all here. This is a lifestyle & you need to find things that will work long term. This is not a race to the finish… Understand it takes time, learn along the way and DON’T GIVE UP!

I can tell you from experience that if you work at it, you can fight the aging process to the best possible for your age. No, you may not look like you did in your 20’s or 30’s but you can still look damn good for your age! YOU ARE WORTH THE EFFORT!

Jody from Truth2BeingFit.com was kind enough to write a guest post today. If you do not yet know Jody, she is one of the sweetest bloggers I know, always offering help and suggestions. Please check her out.

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So, Bobbie asked me to talk about how I first started working out & also some other little tidbits of my crazy life! THX BOBBIE!!! :-)

I really have been active in some sort of sport my whole life. Yes, I was heavy as a youth into the first couple years of high school but I was still very coordinated & did join sports, cheerleading & drill team from elementary through high school. In college, I did not do any gym or sports type activities as I was in school full time & worked part time. I did try to exercise but nothing like now or even in my 20’s so I did put on some weight but never got above a size 8.

I started lifting weights in my early 20’s. Right out of college I joined my first women’s gym. I was living at home at that time & it was right around the corner & convenient. Plus being new to that atmosphere & not having the best self-image, I liked it being all women. I lifted but more just as a person that did not know a lot about it. Also, 25 years ago, things were just not the same! The information was not readily available like it is now. BUT, I knew I had to do this to keep my weight off & I was determined not to go back to being “fat” again!

In 1982, I joined Family Fitness which is now 24 Hour Fitness. I may be one of their longest members as I joined at the very first club they opened! I was doing aerobic classes & also lifting weights.. more machines than free weights at that time. I continued to do aerobic classes but always kept my weight lifting but moved more towards free weights & machines in my 20’s to 30’. During this time, I also took up running & actually did quite a few 5K races that I placed in & won a couple for my age group too!

In my mid 30’s, I had a man in the gym ask me if I ever thought about competing in bodybuilding contests as I had the right body type to build for it. THAT started my introduction to “real” weight training & my love of lifting weights from that point forward! I ended up training for a couple years hard core & did two amateur bodybuilding contests in my late 30’s, two years in a row. I won the overall novice the first year & won the open the second year. Now they were very small contests but competing in front of people was a major “out of my comfort zone”!

After that point, I was hooked on weight lifting forever. After my bodybuilding years, I spent about a year coming down from the size slowly. I started eating differently for weight loss & then maintenance vs. building & I started incorporating circuit training for my weight training rather than standard hard core lifting to build up my muscles. I have been doing that ever since along with varying my cardio, food & workouts!

Bobbie, you asked me about past failures & boy, like most out there, I had them! But, I like to not look at them as failures but as learning experiences!!! Mine was not any of the putting all the weight back on, losing and gaining… that type of stuff. My mistakes were in eating incorrectly & working out too many days. So….. my “learning experiences” were:

First, the easy one… working out too many days. In my younger years, I just wanted to be thin, never fat again & feel better about myself (we know how being thin does not correlate directly with feeling better about ourselves! Lesson learned & still learning!). So, I would work out 7 days a week most of the time & most of those days, pretty hard core workouts, although I do work out more intensely now. It took me years to learn to take days off. Now I usually take 2 days off per week.

NOW, THE FOOD! I am sure many of you have read that the food you put in your mouth is at least 75% of the equation for weight loss and that is very true! I still believe exercise is very important as well but you have to eat to lose & perform. When I lost weight & in my 20′s to early 30′s, I did not eat right. I had that crazy notion that many of us had/have that eating less was best! NOT! Also, it was all about salads, not enough protein, not enough healthy fat. I would read the label & if it had any fat above 3 grams, good or bad, I did not want to eat it! WRONG AGAIN! In my defense, I did grow up in a different time when there was not the internet revolution and all the news & other shows on TV were not having stories on eating healthy like we see now.

As I mentioned previously, in my mid 30′s, a guy in the gym asked me if I was interested in bodybuilding. I already was in love with weights BUT this was the beginning of true love! But with that, I had to relearn how to eat & it was a mental battle but I did it. I learned that eating more, eating the right foods & eating healthy fat was a good thing! I performed better & looked better! Mentally, it was a struggle, but I got past it & it was the best thing that could have happened in terms of food for me. I learned how to eat, how to listen to my body & make changes based on what my body was telling me & I do that to this day. I am constantly re-evaluating if my bod tells me there is the need for that. Yes, your body will let you know. Don’t be passive about this. Pay attention to what your body does & how it reacts not only to the food you put in it but your exercise as well. I am still making changes! I eat way more than that 1200 calorie a day (or less) thing I was on way back when & I treat myself when I want to & don’t worry about it. Planning, consistency & making it my own are part of life for me. THIS IS A LIFESTYLE! I made a lifestyle change. I did not go “on a diet”!

Bobbie also asked me to talk about aging & health/fitness. All I can say is the older I got, the more I learned & the better I was able to mold my body! I wish I knew then what I know now!!!! Listen, as women, we know our bodies change through the years due to age, hormones & more. Men, you have your changes as well but not as drastic as women. A lot of people in their youth were able to stay thin eating what they wanted & then comes the 20′s to 40′s, depending on your body type & all of a sudden all hell breaks loose! You can’t eat what you want anymore, you gain weight & you never learned how to eat healthy & now you have to work at keeping the weight off.. OH NO!

This is what I can tell you. The older I got, the more I learned & the better my body looked. If you eat right & work out, you can shape your body at any age. I did my first bodybuilding contest in my late 30′s & beat 20 year olds! YES, age will fight you in some ways & at some point in our 60′s to 70′s, we may not look like we really want to BUT we can look way better than if we did nothing at all and look great for our age!

I will be 53 in November & I am close to being in better shape than any time in my life. All this while working through, what is for me, the hardest challenges, body wise, in my life. Perimenopause has gone on for way too many years for me & I have had every symptom in the book MULTIPLE times. They come & go & come back! Trying to keep my body the way I want it to be has been VERY VERY HARD! Even with all I do, my body still wants to hold on to weight & extra fat during this time of life change. I fight it coming & going!!! I have had to lower my calories somewhat but I was eating more than most women my age already. I have had to change up my protein/carb/fat percentage make-up AND I have had to increase the intensity of my workouts.

YES, I work very hard at it. I have made the choice to do what I do to look this way BUT we all can look great in terms of what we want for ourselves! You don’t have to do what I do if you are fine with less muscle & a bit more body fat. It is all in what you want for yourself.

You are what you eat & do! Just remember that. If things aren’t working, take a hard look in the mirror & ask yourself if you are being truthful to yourself about what you are actually eating & doing.

Right now, I weight more than when I was younger with less muscle AND I wear a smaller size!!! YES, smaller than when I was in my 20’s & 30’s… and even 40’s! I do weigh myself BUT I use how my clothes fit much more as a barometer for how I am doing in terms of my body goals. I had to realize that the scale may say something heavier than my mind wants BUT I am getting smaller and the clothes say all is fine! :-)

Lifting weights & challenging myself gives me such a feeling of empowerment & strength! It is such a high to finish & say… my God, I actually did that!!!!!!!!!! No matter how big or small a step, the challenge of it & doing it is a huge high!

The other day on my Facebook wall I posted a question in regards to depression:

I got some really good suggestions; and I think the question touched a nerve with a few readers. I also got some great email feedback.

I’m pretty thankful that I’ve never dived into the depths of depression for long and I’ve always had a sunny disposition and positive way of looking at life.

That being said, I have had my brief struggles with intermediate periods of depression, in particular after some of my pregnancies. Nothing serious or crazy, but just feeling down in the dumps. Gaining weight and feeling like I’m stuck in a fat body forever can also make me feel like this.

Today, I’m sharing a post with you from Roy Cohen’s Contemplative Fitness. Although he wrote this last August, I think it will resonate with some of you.

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Exercise, and a clear head…
by Roy Cohen

Next month it will have been one year since writer, David Foster Wallace, ended his life. His death has affected me more than any other – even more than the deaths of my own friends and family members through the years. His death still haunts me, and I’m glad.

I feel compelled to share something with you that you might find alarming. If that statement alone concerns you, then please read no further. You see, many days of my life I wake up and must decide whether to put a toothbrush in my mouth, or a revolver. This has been a choice I have faced on awakening on many occasions since my teens. Since I don’t own a revolver, and possess an obvious genetic predisposition toward dirty teeth, and that I still see so much beauty and so many possibilities in the frame of a day, toothbrush always wins.

I work hard, very hard, at reminding myself of all the reasons why toothbrush should win – and it should. No, I’m not suicidal, just more honest about a taboo subject than most; depression, and the thoughts depression fosters in the lonely cave of an active consciousness. I do understand why people do it though – why people choose to end their lives. I understand better though, why people don’t do it – why we shouldn’t do it. This understanding is getting easier with age – the understanding of why people choose not to kill themselves. The anniversary next month of this sad loss will be a reminder to me, of why a beautiful mind should prioritize, and strive to fulfill it’s possibilities and potential.

David Foster Wallace was a person I admired, and even sought to be more like. His writing style, thought process, flippant attitude in the public eye, and express honesty in speaking, all captivated me. Though I never read Infinite Jest, I absorbed his essays and short stories. To me, he　remains more relevant to my generation than Kurt Cobain or Tupac. I learned only after his death, that he and I had a common antagonist; the relentless clashing of thoughts in the blender of our heads which comes from cyclical depression.

Exercise, rigorous exercise, has been my medication in dealing with (my) depression for some time now. Exercise works, and it’s how I cope – how I deal with life’s challenges, and the puppets of another ilk perpetrating lesser thoughts in my head. There are a lot of reasons to exercise; looking good, keeping blood pressure down, staving off the loss of bone density, improving balance and flexibility, increasing every day strength, and so-on. Tonight though, I reflect on the most important reason (for me) to exercise – it keeps me stable.

Increasingly, physicians, psychiatrists, and psychologists are recommending exercise for persons who live with depression, as well as other mood related disorders. In some instances, exercise can help minimize or even eliminate the need for medication – this to be the judgment and the discretion of the treating authority. A dose of exercise goes to work quickly and has few side affects – its good stuff. Rigorous exercise can make a difference and how one may receive a moment and a circumstance – or not. Exercise, for many, can also pave the road for a new day tomorrow. Be well. rc

After to reading this post, please take time to visit the link below:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122178211966454607.html

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Have you ever struggled with depression or known someone who has?