SerBryan

Thanks for the responses. I think the thing in my diet right now that I'm intolerant of is drive thru crap, so hopefully getting rid of that will help. I'm taking my kids to Disneyland later this week, so hopefully my energy levels don't drop too much while we're there. I should have taken care of this problem a long time ago.

Hi all, I wanted to ask your advice about fatigue. Right now I am constantly tired and not sure if it's tied to my diet or complete lack of physical activity. About 4 hours after waking up I usually hit the wall, then after lunch I'm even more drained. My sleep is ok, usually 7-8 hours a night. My diet right now is the standard american diet, but I've recently cut out excess sugars and most fast food (only eating that about once a week). I am not exercising because the only time on the weekday that works for me is the early morning and the weekends I'm feel too tired to go to the gym. I will be cleaning up the diet soon, but wanted to get your opinions on which of the two problem areas (diet or exercise) causes the fatigue. I feel like I need to focus on one of those two things at a time to get everything kickstarted, and wanted to get feedback on which of the two things I should focus on first. Thanks for any feedback.

For now I'm going to be doing the basics...bench, squat, pulldown, shoulder press, and deadlift. I just want to get a good rhythm going then expand my program from there. Today was a decent day. The progress today was no ice cream after dinner, and no other sweets even though there are plenty in the house. I didn't bring breakfast or lunch to work, but I decided to focus on the sugar demon for today. Tomorrow will be no sugar again, with donuts in the office. I'll make some eggs and let my annoying co-workers wonder why I'm not eating donuts.

Starting at rock bottom here. For future reference today is the day I ate way too much at lunch and had to leave work early because of it. All of my dress shirts for work are too tight, and it's too uncomfortable to sit down for long at work and be productive. The first two enemies I need to defeat are fast food and sugar. All the other things that I want to accomplish (going paleo, steady weight training) will come in time once these first two are defeated. My battle plan for eliminating fast food (i.e. any food that I don't prepare myself) will involve cooking a lot of food on the weekends, and doing a second batch of multi-meal cooking during the week. Breakfast most days will be eggs (sometimes with bacon), lunches will be hamburger patties with pre-cooked veggies (sweet potatoes, carrots, zucchini), and dinner can be anything that's prepped at home. Eliminating sugar will be harder I think, given my strong addiction to it. To get rid of that I need to take an all or nothing approach. No gradual taper down, just suck it up and stop eating ice cream, cookies, and frappucinos. I will make an entry daily, mention the good things and bad things that I have done in accordance with my goals, and through those entries track my progress.

If the geographic split between books 4 and 5 really bothers anyone I know that somewhere out there (I'm sure you can find it on the google musheen) people have posted combined chapter reading orders for the books. Since both books are out and available now, I might do that myself on the next re-read. Has anyone read the Brandon Sanderson book The Way of Kings? I'm trying to get into other fantasy books besides ASOIAF, and I'm liking Mistborn so far.

Hi everyone, I've been aware of this site and online community for a while now. I have even posted on occasion. I would like some advice on a major problem that I'm having. Staying accountable. A little background: I'm 34, have two little kids, and am very out of shape. I'm probably 40-50 pounds overweight (5'-10" and 230lbs). I have a gym membership, and my motivation to go usually ramps up and I go for a few days, then stop for a month. My determination also follows the same pattern for eating a responsible diet. I also have a constant battle in my head over two approaches to how to get healthier, and at this point I don't really care which one I go with, I just need help sticking to a plan. For reference these are the two trains of thought that seem to always be on a collision course in my head: Eat a gluten free, almost paleo style diet, don't track calories, and just do weight lifting and walking at the gymEat a low fat diet, track calories religiously, and focus on cardio at the gym. I feel that long for long term health going the gluten free/paleo/lift heavy things route would be best, but because I am carrying so much extra fat and so out of shape (needing to catch my breath after one or two flights of stairs), I think starting out with cardio and calorie restriction might be best. I'd like to ask the community not so much which path to follow, but for advice on the best way to stay accountable on either path. I know of the 6 week challenges here (and even signed up for one in the past) but I wonder if anyone else has advice on how to get past this basic problem that's holding me back from living the way I know I should be living. Thanks for reading.

Ok, so again after starting off with good intentions, I sputtered out after just a few days. What are some good reccommendations for accountability? It seems this is the area I need the most help in.

I know the goals aren't very strong, but they all have importance in establishing good habits. Once these habits are established I can move on to my bigger goals like losing 40 pounds and fitting into an Arsenal jersey without being one of those chubby guys wearing a soccer jersey.

I'm excited to be starting my first challenge. After countless starts and stops with trying to reach healthier living goals, this seems like a good place to be more accountable. Starting weight: 220 lbs Height 5'-10" Goals: Track calorie intake (using myfitnesspal) and limit food to 1800 caloriesEliminate all excess sugarGo to the gym 4x a weekMeal Plan for the family with more consistency I think the excess sugar one will be the most difficult to accomplish, but I think if I focus on that (along with the other three goals kind of in sync) I should be ok. I should also toot my own horn a bit. At the beginning of the year I realized that making a ton of changes at one time is why I was continually failing, so I set out with two minor goals to accomplish before I moved on to other ones. I successfully quit drinking soda and quit going to starbucks for breakfast. I was addicted to diet coke and those dang sausage sandwiches.

Thanks for the welcome. I've already signed up for the next challenge, the problem will be narrowing my myriad of goals down to 3.

Of course that's said like King Arthur's question to the Frenchman in Monty Python and the Holy Grail (replace England with Weight Room), but that's what's in my head. I want to introduce myself to the community here because I hope to get support and encouragement for finally getting off my butt and making a balanced routine of weight lifting and cardio a part of my life. I'm currently at 220lbs (after dieting down from the same amount to 190 a couple of years ago) and I'm starting to eliminate grains from my diet. My main goal is health via weight loss so that I can keep up with and care for my two kids. Hopefully being involved with a group of like minded people will help me achieve my goals, and I can help others who are stuck in the same "eternal beginner" position.

Hi all, hopefully this question hasn't been asked too many times in the past, but I'm about to start following the NROL program at my gym. I currently have a pair of Asics running shoes that I normally wear to the gym when I run or ride a stationary bike, but I've been read in various places that you shouldn't wear running shoes when doing squats, deadlifts, etc because of the instability. Would my current running shoes really make a difference for someone like me who is a beginner in the weight room? I'm only going to be squatting 95lbs right off the bat and I have no idea what my deadlift is going to be. Once I become established in the weight room I want to reward myself with some new lifting oriented shoes, like the New Balance MX20, but I don't want to be the new flabby guy in the gym wearing fancy crossfit style shoes.