Skwigg asked in her journal how we found ourselves at Happy Eaters?
I came from the Body for Life Women's Club. Or was it something even before that? We followed a woman's story / blog and it turned out she wasn't real..or wasn't what she told us she was. It was bizzare and someone called her out on it. The whole site blew up. I think you then took over the moderation. That was late 1990s, early 2000. CRAZY! I was trying to lose fat and become strong. I didn't know how to eat. I had no clue. Time goes by so quickly I can't even believe it. I remember when you began your blog and did a transformation contest. I remember Leanness Lifestyle. There were many of us that began our own blogs at that time, following your cue. I continued my blog until last year. It became solely my ultra running race reports and pretty repetitive. I mean, how much was there to put in a race report that was new and fresh after 25 years! I was no longer a brand new runner and no longer amazed that I could run such long distances. I learned over time that my body needed plenty of fuel to perform, that lifting kept me strong and that I would never eat only 1500 calories a day that I felt I needed to earn. SO thankful those days are gone. I feel like I am entering a new place again. Seems that every 20 years a new lifestyle unfolds. I found yoga in 2017 after injuring myself and not being able to run for 18 months. I practiced hot yoga almost every day during that time then went to yoga teacher training for a 300 and 500 hour certification. When I healed I began to run high mileage again. I wasn't going to do that. I was going to keep away from ultra but there I was. I'm still teaching yoga, practicing yoga, meditation, lifting and running. I'm more into being kind to my body instead of pounding it into the ground. I do still run and have a few ultra races on the calendar this year but nothing like all the prior years. I am then going to ease into lovely one hour long daily runs through the woods with Tempo as he matures instead of 6-8 hours solo and being tired and sore. That doesn't feel like something I want to do all of the time anymore. We will do some canicross events and I look forward to that.
How did you find yourself here?
Hello all! It has been a while! @skwigg I am pretty sure I found you through the BFL forums. (I remember pages and pages of text posts with no subfolders or anything… I would refresh for hours and read the updates!) I forgot about Venus Index and I don’t think I ever got into Leanness Lifestyle, but I was a reader of the skwigg blog from the early days! Nice to check in and I’m glad I got some notifications in my inbox this week to nudge me over to say hi, all!
Julie I can't remember you from the OG days but I'm excited to read your posts! What is this about the Body for Life women's club and a lady who made up her whole story?! The group I belonged to was a Body for Life website and then I found a forum. There were transformation competitions and I became (dare I say obsessed?) with one of their winners, Emily Alvers. I met a friend who lived in Columbus and traveled out to see her. We went to The Arnold together and met Emily Alvers along with some other winners. I have to say it was a fun experience! I mean oddly fascinating but also really fun.
I have no idea with the Leanness Lifestyle is but I'm guessing it's probably a good thing I never found it 😬
I'm also copying and pasting from Skwigg's journal:
That is the greatest question Skwigg! I'd love to read others' stories on how they found you. I had to wrack my brain to think about my very first FIRST encounter with your blog, and it had to be before I had Chloe, which was 2010. I was writing my own blog at the time (probably 2006/2007) when blogs were more popular and I think I followed someone's comment that led to their blog that led to yours. I don't know how many degrees of separation but I felt like the fitness blog world was small.
It's interesting you mention The Body for Life Women's group on Yahoo...I don't think I was ever a part of that, but maybe it was Body for Life that led me to you. I somehow ended up joining an online forum and that was probably my first introduction to weight lifting. There were many blogs I read during that time, but I always thought you had the best grasp on all things fitness and nutrition. I think I was always so impressed with your physique so whatever you wrote about had to have been THE way to eat and train. No matter how many times it changed 😁 I was definitely struggling with binge eating and bouncing from one training program to another. I remember toying with the idea of entering into a fitness competition and even hired Tony from Dreambodies (because that's what all of the other fitness blogging competition people were doing) and it was a nightmare. He had me doing 6 days a week of weights, 2 hours of cardio every day, and sometimes more. I was eating ~1200 calories and most of it came in the form of tuna packets and steamed green beans. I remember him telling me to add mustard to everything to enhance the flavor . To this day I struggle to eat tuna 😂 Needless to say I didn't last long (and also unsurprising why I struggled even more with binge eating).
I think I was on and off for a while with the original happy eaters site. Bingeing and purging was always such a huge issue and I always felt so ashamed. I was in therapy and having a place to write, vent and get feedback was wonderful, but sometimes the feedback was hard to read.
Anyway, I am so thankful for this place. I've loved "meeting" people on here, reading about their own journeys, and reflecting on where we started and where we are now. I love that we have topics ranging from nutrition+fitness to meditation to curly hair and TV shows! On several occasions I've found myself saying to my husband, "The Happy Eaters people recommend such and such TV show - we should check it out!" 😁
I stumbled upon the Skwigg blog (maybe 2004ish?) and had been trying to do BFL, so I think that's how I found it?
I copied from skwigg’s journal:
I think I found the forum from an internet search around 2015. I was coming out of an eating disorder relapse and seriously probably searched on something like how to be a happy eater. The few years before that I was deep into a restrictive eating period of logging every bite of food and making myself earn food treats, plus some binge eating and purging. I’m glad to say that is behind me and I attribute a lot to this forum and being able to share without judgement.
Julie I know you first from your ultra focused blog from years ago (Julie Berg Run On) and then worlds collided when you were here too. My blog is still live http://hookedontrails.blogspot.com/ but I stopped blogging regularly in 2015. There are a few posts after that.
Leanness Lifestyle! OMG, I had blocked that one out. I recall it being expensive, group starvation. 🤦♀️ Oh, and I remember when all the Venus Index people found intermittent fasting and stopped eating for days at a time while doing challenging strength workouts. Now, I can’t imagine, but it all seemed so reasonable at the time!
I’ve been doing daily yoga and meditation for a couple of years now. I am so much happier! Wow, I had a huge resistance to it though. I couldn’t quiet my mind for 10 seconds. Now, I can’t imagine life without that stillness and peace.
You are going to have so much fun with Tempo! There is something magical being out in nature with a dog.