There's another Oatmeal Savage

[Endish]

Hi all,

 

I found the site and community recently while figuring out how I was going to turn it around.  

 

Back in my teens and through to my late twenties, I was a competitive basketball and volleyball player.  I then dabbled in running for a few years, got into mountain biking, spent some time training for triathlon and then it all came apart.  After shifting career focus, I could no longer spend the time on my bike I was used to going from 150 miles or so a week to nothing.  My level of fitness went down while the weight crept up.  Then the injuries started: chronic lower mechanical back pain, broken ankle with simultaneous sprain, and a groin tear. Back in the spring I had a health scare that was the wake up call I needed to get my shit together.  After getting the all clear from the doc, I celebrated by tearing my MCL playing hockey the next night.

 

While I was laid up with the knee, I found nerd fitness and stronglifts. Overnight, I cleaned up my eating (both quantity and quality) and for the most part kicked the booze.  Even at my peak, my diet pretty much sucked; too much fast food and way to much liquid contribution to the overall calorie count.  Surprisingly, I haven't found this hard.

 

As soon as I got clearance for weights, I started with stronglifts.  6 weeks or so in, I'm still hitting all my sessions and I've been surprised with how well the knee and back have responded.  I hit 160 on the squat this week, but the hardest session so far was back in week 1 with 55 pounds.

 

GOALS

 

I miss being able to run 13 miles whenever I want.  I miss 60 mile bike rides.  I miss being able to play sports all weekend.  I want that back.  In my prime, I competed around 210-215 at 6'5".  That's where I'm going: 215 by the end of the year through strength and endurance training with continued good eating habits.  Once I'm there, I'll reevaluate my direction based on whatever strikes my fancy at the time.

 

NERD CREDENTIALS

 

I've haven't been much of a video gamer since the Intellivision died, but I do like my board games - settler's of catan.  I've always been a reader and have altered variously between sci-fi and fantasy over the year.  I was in band.  I'm an engineer.

 

I like the idea of the real life roll playing. I think the community support and my competitive desire to level up will be what I need to keep this thing going.

 

 

[Pavelluvs2eat]

Nice plan! I envy that you know exactly what you're aiming for and what it looks and feels like, but glad to see you here and I hope folks here can help you keep going when the going gets tough. :-)