Let me introduce myself...

As this is my first post here, I thought I would give a little background about how I've found myself in this current situation.  I have bipolar disorder.  It actually explains a lot about my past that I didn't understand at the time, but which now makes a lot of sense.  If you don't know much about bipolar disorder, here's the super short basic rundown: it is a mood disorder where the afflicted individual swings between extreme highs known as manic states and extreme lows known as depressive states.  Many individuals cannot treat their depression episodes with traditional antidepressants, as they can trigger mania (which is the case with me, which I found out the hard way).  So I take a drug known as a mood stabilizer, as well as an antipsychotic, which also acts to stabilize my mood.  I also take a cocktail of drugs in addition to these.  One of the unfortunate side effects of these medications can be pretty significant weight gain.  Which, again, I found out the hard way.

This is a picture of me in college, before I became severely disabled by my disorder.  I was about 120 pounds.

And this is a picture of me recently, at about 180 pounds.  I'm on the far left.

So, let me briefly describe what happened: I got severely depressed.  My doc at the time wasn't convinced I was bipolar, prescribed me an antidepressant, I became severely manic, had to be hospitalized and lost my job, crashed from the mania and went through a million different drug combinations while I fought depression, gaining weight both from depression and the drugs I was taking.

Luckily, I now have an awesome doctor, and I finally feel in control of my mood for the first time in more than a year.  I am motivated to start getting active and eating healthy, and I'm really trying to commit myself to it this time.  My goals are as follows:

Workouts:

• Run 3 miles 3 times a week
• Kayak 2 hours twice a week
• 90-minute Hot yoga once a week
• Boot camp class (55 minutes) twice a week

Diet: clean diet, 1200 calories, 30-40% protein, 20% fat, 40-50% carbohydrates, 5-6 meals per day.

That's about it.  Cross your fingers for me.  I'm already down to 172.4 pounds, so that's a good start.  And I'm feeling better every day, both in my mind, and in my body.