the benefits of eavesdropping! page

[Aegle]

Hi, folks. I've been lurking around for a couple days and thought I'd sign up and be official.

I was shopping at the local health food grocery store a few days ago, and overheard a conversation between two employees. One was telling the other about this CRAZY website she occasionally looked at just for fun. She said the guy promotes eating saturated fat and all kinds of animal products and it was completely shocking! The last comment I heard was something like "we'll see in 20 years who's right and who's dead from a heart attack."

Well, being a fan of Nina Planck and Sally Fallon, I whipped out a pen and notebook and scribbled down the name of the website. Once I got home and unpacked my grass-fed beef, pastured eggs, and veggies, I checked out that crazy website... and here I am!


A recovered vegan, I've attempted to follow the general advice of the two authors I mentioned above for several years now, with varying levels of success. I always seem to struggle with grains and breads! I'd soak my grains for awhile and make home-made bread from soaked flour... and then life would get busy and I'd start buying a loaf of bread here, a box of sugary organic cereal there...

I've suspected for a while now that I might benefit from ditching the grains and processed crap (even though it was organic crap with no hydrogenated oils!), but just felt overwhelmed by the idea.

As for exercise, I've always been someone who can, with incredible effort, get myself into a chronic-cardio kind of routine, then I get bored and/or frustrated and go on an exercise strike for months at a time.

Oh, and I've got a bit of a hypothyroid thing going on (I'm blaming my former soy consumption!).

The result of all this is that I've got about 50 extra pounds and am feeling pretty sluggish. Time for a change! I'm feeling inspired by Mark and all the folks on the forum, so thanks for that.

I've ditched the grains and sugar cold-turkey (cold-donut?) and have been doing plenty of walking. I'm feeling pretty good and am excited to see where all this takes me.

I think my next step will be to add some sprints and high-intensity workouts. The workouts are feeling really intimidating right now, so any advice on a beginner's routine would be great! My husband has done and loved crossfit in the past, so I've asked him to show me some body-weight exercises. I also have access to a standard YMCA gym and know how to use the machines and free weights there (I know how, I just never use them!). What would feel really helpful would be something along the lines of "do 10 pushups, then 10 squats, then twirl in a circle..."


Ok, I can't believe I've written such a long introduction, but thanks for reading if you've made it this far! I look forward to learning from you all and hope I can offer some helpful bits of knowledge where I'm able.

[Catalina]

Amazing how we get led to where we need to go, isn't it? I recently found a good beginning workout at Son of Grok's blog. . .looks like just what you are asking for (minus the twirling, but go ahead and twirl!):


http://www.sonofgrok.com/2009/02/exe...ance-training/

[julie]

Welcome1 Good luck with the primal lifestyle.


You will find that the members of this forum are helpfull and supportive.

[Crystal W.]

Welcome Aegle. I ease drop all the time--LOL Do a search for hypothyroidism(thyroid).

[Katt]

Well met!

[primalmom]

HELLO !! ... wow- sounds like we have come from the same place - recovered vegan with hypo -- I agree that mine came from soy too LOL !!! Great to meet you

Where in Va are you ? I lived in Charlottesville for a while and have lots of relatives all over the state

[kjake55]

Welcome Aegle!

[Aegle]

Thanks for all the welcomes! =)

Catalina, that is exactly what I was looking for, thanks! I'm going to try it out today.

I'll definitely take a look at the hypothyroid info here, sounds like there are some really knowledgeable & experienced folks on that matter.

PM, I'm in Richmond now, but have also lived in NoVa and in the Shennandoah Valley at different times. We're always passing through C'ville on our way to see relatives in the Valley. It's an interesting town!

Looking back at my original post, I see that I failed to mention that there was also a big ol' baguette in my grocery basket. Almost the entire thing ended up in the compost pile after I started reading... =)

I'm loving all the info on this site, and am soaking up as much as I can while waiting to get my copy of the book!