Just joined the community and looking forward to both giving and getting support in our common goal.
TLDR: Always had a up and down history with my weight and diet. Just got a bunch of bad news today, but instead of beating me down, it’s made me more determined in my current efforts to work towards my health and happiness.
Background: I graduated high school at 350ish, and in a nutshell I’ve never had the best relationship with food in my life. A few years after HS I put my mind to it and through lots of hiking and calorie reduction I lost almost 150lbs. My lowest adult weight was 205lbs but I more commonly sat around 230lbs for the next few years.
After a series of life events (relationships, break ups, cross-country-move, college stress, toxic work environment, and a recent job loss) I’m back hanging around 290lbs. I’ve been this weight for a while (3 yrs) and because of work and ‘life’ I never had the energy to maintain a proper lever of self care lately. Depression and exhaustion were ever present.
Well, recently my job location shut down, and I applied for and started receiving unemployment. Since then, all this free time has been very therapeutic for me helping to recover from my burntout state, and allowed me to start taking care of myself better again. I’ve been biking tons (best exercise ever and very emotionally cathartic), and walking my dog a bunch, and today was the first day I stated to feel like t-shirts were starting to fit better.
I rode to the post office today (why burn gas when you can burn ass?? haha) and I waited until I got home to open the mail, good thing too... My former employer contested my UC claim and my benefits have been suspended, and potentially canceled if my appeal doesn’t go through. I’ll also have to pay back any UC money I’ve received. Because of slow mail timing I have ONE day to file my appeal, or otherwise request an extension; this Monday. Wish me luck.
I had internalized the monetary UC benefits and free time lately as “getting compensated while looking for new work, but also being financially comfortable to spend 100% my time and energy into taking care of myself for this time being”.
Well, without the financial cushion of UC, this is going to be a bit more difficult, but riding my bike is still free and I’ll probably be able to find some part time work to make ends meet financially.
As much as I’m searching for my next job and career.... I pledge it’s no longer going to be at the expense of my health and happiness. I’m more determined than ever in the belief that I can have a balance of it all, but in order for that to happen I will first bring myself into balance. No matter how my UC appeal goes, I’m committed to this new mentality, especially knowing I’ve already got a good start with some of these good trends and habits.
Now for the part of me giving my support to this community; anyone in Eastern PA or North Jersey wanna get some miles of gravel riding in soon? If you like to ride 20+ miles at a time we’ll probably be good riding buddies. Otherwise I can help give advice on bike selection and cycling tips for anyone looking at starting cycling for their fitness goals.
It’s late and this post will probably soon be buried by tomorrow morning’s posts. I just needed to write this down for myself, and see if anyone else has found they’ve turned negative energy into internal determination.
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