A couple people suggested I cross posted this here, so I thought I'd share my journey.
A few more details that weren't in the album: all through college I yoyo dieted and struggled with disordered eating mindsets and behaviors, specifically bulimic tendencies. I was never diagnosed, but I met the clinical criteria at several points in my life.
I was always looking for an easy way to lose weight because I never really thought I could do it. But when I moved to China, I was removed from all the diet resources I thought I needed to be successful and was left with only a few fitness DVDs and common sense diet advice (rather than the "one simple trick!" bullshit I had always sought out first).
I lost 45 lbs that year and felt awesome, but it was an absolute obsession. Physically I was fine, but it was taking a huge toll on me mentally and emotionally.
When I came home that summer, my dad had a stroke, so I stayed home. Started dating a guy. Lost sight of fitness for a lot of reasons that mostly came down to confidence issues.
When he dumped me on new years 2014, I was back up to 150ish. A month later I ended up joining the gym where I'm now a trainer, and that's where the transformation really happened. The people I met there were so encouraging and they empowered me, taught me how to push myself, and got me into things I never thought I'd try, like obstacle course races, GoRuck events, lifting heavy...
So the rest is history!
Now, I eat pretty strict paleo, but don't follow any macros (for the time being). All that disordered eating stuff makes tracking food difficult for me, though now that my focus isn't weight loss, I'm think about trying a flexible dieting/carb cycling approach to help maximize my training. For now, though, it's pretty simple - I try to eat higher carbs on days I lift or do intense metcon WODs and lower carb on active rest days. Vegan protein shake after most lifting sessions, cause whey hurts my stomach.
My training up to this point has been 3ish boot camp classes a week + 5-6 metcons (15-45 mins)/week. I haven't don't too much intentional focus on lifting, though I've always included lifts as part of my WODs. I just started a new lifting program (4x a week: bench, dl, press, squat) in order to gain strength, though I'll still be doing 5 shorter conditioning workouts a week. The program is called "One Man, One Barbell" if anyone is interested!
Anyway, that's what I've got
thanks!