Posts by gurlywurly

I was you...two years ago.

I was 5'3'' and was 108lbs, which I thought was 'fat'. I wanted to be 98lbs, at least that was the goal weight I voiced publicly here on the forums. Deep down however, I knew that I was recognizing  that only as a starting point, I was aspiring to attain a lower number on the scale.

Yes, I reached 98 lbs...but immediately after, I gained weight rapidly. I reached 112+, eating moderate amounts of food.My metabolism was completely messed-up.

I always had this perception that any weight > 110lbs would be awful. I can only laugh now as I remember how naive and self-absorbed I was.

Guess what? You don't need to lose weight. You probably know this already, you (if you are anything like what I was) know that you are thin, you just want to be skinnier.

I still consider myself thin...and I am so much happier not obsessing what number the scale will read tomorrow morning.

You may skim over these comments, as I would have done once, telling yourself that you know better than these people. Unfortunately, I'm afraid that we are right (not to sound arrogant!)

Please listen to me, and to the other wonderful posters. Don't go down this route, as much you tell yourself that it is only a bit of innocent weight-loss, it is a very easy cycle to get trapped into.

Age: 15

Goals: Reduce my 5k time to around 20 minutes.

Run a marathon - I will be running 26.2 miles at the end of March in order to fundraise for a trip to Kenya I will be embarking on in May along with eight other students in my school and a few teachers. We each are aiming to raise €2000, so I am hoping my marathon will help to raise some of this. I won't be racing in an organised marathon for two reasons - 1. No local marathons will be held before May and 2. Under 18s are forbidden from running marathons in Ireland. Therefore, I will just run 26.2 miles on my own, in my own city. I am hoping to achieve a sub 3:30 finish.

Why do I run? I started running at the beginning of August last. At first, I absolutely hated it, I was extremely unfit and parts of it were sheer torture. Then, I began to fall in love with the adrenaline rush of finishing a distance you thought would be impossible, battling through the tough bits of a run to find that I am capable of, well anything (apologies for the cliche!)

Stats: 5'4'', 112 lbs

Sorry to keep bumping this, but I would really appreciate any advice anyone may have.

abaker - I am doing that in September, when I am running a 4 mile, but I really wanted to run a marathon to challenge myself. It's not the end of the world if I can't, I could always just wait until I'm eighteen, but running a marathon elsewhere is out of the question as there is no other one near here.

ohtobethinagain - It's a public street race alright, but I don't think that would work as it says on the website there is no entrance to the race start area unless you have your race number.

So they don't ask for ID or anything?

Yes, but I mean if I did get hurt (which I don't plan to as I will take training slow), it's not as if I would sue them or anything.

Paularuck - Thank you, but somehow I doubt it! I love running, but I'm not particularly talented IMHO!

Andesite - thanks for those links, they were really helpful! So, I was feeling the consequences of increasing the maximimum I had ever run by almost 70% yesterday. Today, I feel as if I have overly strained my feet and calf muscles. When I raise my toes, I feel a sharp jabbing pain in my left foot. I tried to go for a run today, was planning to do jus 3 miles. It was not a success! I had to stop after 30 seconds, as the pain was getting too bad.

Note to self - listen to the much wiser, experienced people on here! I will take a break for today and tomorrow, maybe the day after that, then it will be back to running 8-10 miles, or less! Afterall, the marathon isn't until June, so I have plenty of time!

Thanks to everyone who answered!

Yeah, I think I will definately try at least one or two sessions! I told myself I would branch out this year anyway, so this will help me make new friends!

A question - what speed would be considered above average/good for say 5km or 4miles? I would just like to have some guideline to compare myself with, not that it will bother me too much if I never reach it! I would like to run 5km in 22minutes - it currently takes me around 27/28. Achievable or not?

Mkculs - Thanks for the advice, from now on I am taking the mileage increase slowly, at first I just kind of wanted to push myself to see how much I could achieve!

I really do think it depends on the person, everyone carries weight differently. For example, I am probably thinner now at 111lbs than I was at 108lbs, but the reason I am heavier could easily be because my chest increased a full cup size, from a 34A, to a 34B.

I'm not going to give individual weights per height, I will just say that for me, the BMI I think is most attractive is 18.5 - 19.2. But of course, I have seen people on here with a BMI of 20.5 who look far thinner than other people with a BMI of 18.

What do you think svkas?

Is it a permanent colour or a semi-permanent dye? Last year, I experimented with semi-permanent and made the same mistake as you - it turned out gothic black! Because I knew my mother would kill me if she knew I tried to dye my hair, I tried a number of things, and by the time they came home from work, nobody noticed anything. These are the remedies I found and I tried them all:

• I shampooed my hair using washing up liquid. (Make sure to condition well after that!)
• I shampooed over and over again using a clarifying shampoo, to which I added baking soda (you can just add the soda to a regular shampoo too!)
• I covered my hair with warm olive oil, wrapped in cling film and blew with hot air from a hair dryer, and then washed out well (apparently it enlarges the hair cuticle, allowing some colour to escape)

My hair returned to pretty much its original colour, however I'm not sure if it was a combination of these steps which worked, or just one of them which worked.

I'm not sure what colour your hair is naturally either, as I dyed mine just a little darker, from dark brown to black (it looked very dark brown on the box!)

Good luck!

Believe me, you can do it! I'm only 14, but even though I've been thin all my life, I used always be unbelievably unfit. I could hardly run to the end of my road (about 100m). When I first started exercising, I was very lazy, and would simply walk very long distances, because I wasn't a fan of getting out of breath. Occasionally, I would try and run, but would barely be able to manage a minute.

Then about a month ago, I started this programme I found on here:
http://caloriecount.about.com/forums/post/276 98.html

It works great, and although it was hard at first, it has become so much easier. This last week, I haven't even been following the programme, as last Tuesday I attempted to just run - and keep on running. To my huge surprise, I was able to run 5k straight! The next day, I did the same thing, and managed 7 km, fairly easily. The nex day it was 8km, and the day before yesterday, I ran a distance I never thought I would be able to run - 11.5km!

I know that increasing my distance that drastically can't be too good, so I plan to go back to the programme today or tomorrow, but it's just great to know that I can do it!

I'm young, and everybody always presumes that the young are always automatically fit, but that was never the case with me. From themoment I first discovered books, I would spend all my time indoors, devouring books.

I love the fact that I actually feel like a 'runner' now. I can enter the fitness forum, and feel at home, not unbvelievably out of place among the 'exercise freaks' as I used think of them. I might not be an exercise freak now, but I am definately getting there.

There is nothing like the feeling after you finish a run. Sure, I may be out of breath and red faced, but I certainly experience the 'runners high'! Yesterday, I had run 4 miles, and was tired, so I decided to stop. After five minutes of walking, I felt so guilty and disappointed in myself, I just had to run another 1.5 miles!

Anbody can be a runner, it just takes dedication and motivation! It always helps to have something there to inspire you. I am running a mini-marathon in September (4 miles), and whenever I get tired, I just think of the person I am running it for. She is the five year old daughter of a friend of my aunt's, called Aisling and she suffers from cerebal palsy, among other things. With physiotherapy lessons, she can make huge progress, however these are very expensive, and her family have done all they can to pay for a certain amount of them, however there is only so much you can do. My dad, who coaches the under 16 soccer team at our local club, held a fundraiser in the club. They raised enough money to buy her 15 lessons, and as a result of them, Aisling has taken her first few steps. I am hoping to raise about €100 for her, an although it isn't a lot, it will help. When I feel like I want to stop running, I think of her. I think of how much harder it must have been for that little girl to walk a few steps, and this gives me motivation. If you do eventually run a marathon, I highly reccommend doing it for a cause that you personally believe in. I know that some people do it for children or teenagers who suffer from cancer, and they can meet and get to know their cause.

Good luck!

Hi! Well, I don't play sports at any serious level, however I was watching the analysis of the swimming at the Olympics and of course the subject of Phelps' diet came up. Of course, the majority of athletes don't eat 12000 calories, however the swimming expert talked about when he was swimming, he ate an average of 6000 calories a day.

It obviously depends on how serious you are about the sport, how long you're training, how good you are (if you are training faster, you'll burn more calories), what your sport is.

If you look at this link, all the Olympians are eating very large amounts of calories, but of course they are at the top of the range, I have no idea how they would compare to lesser athletes.

http://eatfeats.com/michael-phelps-other-olym pians-calories-per-day.html

I really, really want the ipod + nike sports kit. It's €30 on the apple website and unfortunately, they don't sell them in shops, so I don't even know if my parents will allow me to use their credit card and pay them back! To use with this, I need a need ipod, becuase mine has broke - 15 days after the warantee was up!!! Typical! It will be expensive, but it's not specifically for fitness, I NEED my ipod! So, in total, it will come to around €160, I have €110 at the moment! Oh, I wish I had a job... Hopefully my neighbour will need her kids babysat soon!

I can't even imagine having to eat that many calories a day, but has anyone else noticed, it's still not a very balanced diet!

There are no servings of fruit and veg in there - NONE AT ALL!!!!! If he is eating 12000 calories, surely he could afford to include some of this food group???? Sure, he probably takes vitamin pills, but any nutritionist will tell you it's better to get the real thing.

There is also very little dairy products. Apart from the cheese in his sandwiches, where is he getting his calcium?

It seems to be almost entirely protein, fats and carbs, all the macronutrients, but where is he getting the vitamins and minerals??

I used to always be afraid of the weighing scales, but if you have an electronic scale, something I think really helps is switching to the units that you are least familiar with. For example, I always think about weight in terms of lbs or stones, so I change the settings so that the weight comes up in kgs. This allows me to focus on if the number is going down or not, rather than getting depressed about the actual weight if that makes any sense?

Phelps is amazing!!!!!!!! Wow! He seems like a really nice guy too!

The race that Adlington won was incredible, all through the race I thought that Hoff was a sure-fire winner, but she ended up losing due to something as stupid as not having her hand outstretched.

An Irish swimmer Andrew Bree won his heat, and became the first male swimmer to qualify for Olymipic semi-finals in 100 years, so yeah!!!!!! At least Phelps isn't racing in the 200m breaststroke, so he may be in with a chance!

In one of the ladies heats, the goggles of an Irish swimmer fell off!!!! She had to stop in the pool and adjust them! Typical!