orcwarrior

I've also done C25K in past, good program IMHO. Also encourage don't be afraid to repeat portions of it. The only way to fail it is to stop - repeating parts of it is another way of progressing slowly, but still progressing. Good luck!

Wow! I read all that and think..... you're definitely tackling a lot. I feel overwhelmed just reading it. And if reading it is overwhelming, I'm wondering if part of your "squirrelness" (which I DEEPLY relate to) is partly due to trying to make too many changes at once. Am beginning a respawn myself, and in reading the recommended "first challenge goals" I was struck by how small they are. This reminded me of one of Steve's earlier posts where he talked about making sure your goals were small and doable, and then building them slowly. I want to make sure I'm doing that as well, otherwise I'll also become a victim of too-high expectations which lead me to a crash. Feel free to join me trying to succeed with low goals. :-) Good luck!

Sddragontat, Sounds like you've got some built-in challenges with your dietary issues - makes it harder. Sounds like the person who knows you best also supports you seeing a nutritionist. I get that sounds like a splurge, but sounds like your partner supports spending your shared resources on your health. I hope you do that sometime. Don't know what's going on with you, but I hear one thing real strong. There's long periods you succeed in meeting your exercise goals, then long periods you don't. I'd really encourage you to monitor the differences in your head and your daily actions during those two times. I'm guessing you could spot some relevant differences. I know the one period of time I was doing really well (prior NF period before hitting a personal wall, now respawning) it was because I was developing some very different, better, and positive mental habits that helped support and maintain healthy lifestyle changes. Hoping you can see and be encouraged by those things you've already proven you can do. Good luck!

Thanks for the encouragement, guys, greatly appreciate it. Did briefly fall off the wagon, but go back on and riding. Mostly have been absent b/c too crazy busy. Work, kids, activities, etc. But overall making it through OK. Week one report: Goal 1 - Food log daily: Logged 7/7 days re food log, although some days had partial estimates. I've gone from using a small notebook I'd tuck in my pocket to using MyFitnessPal app, but find if I force myself to log every food precisely I bog down and start avoiding doing it. So I log all my regular food and some of the now-and-then foods I eat, but often make-calorie-estimate new or unusual foods if I'm in a hurry. Works the best. Goal 2: 3 workouts/week. Did all three last week on Tue/Thur/Sat, used Starting Strength and am gradually increasing weight on the basic exercises. Feels good to be lifting regularly again. Goal 3: No binges - did pretty well on this until the weekend, then did some fairly heavy emotional eating Sat eve and Sunday. Got back on healthy wagon on Monday and doing well this week. Goal 4: Stay caught up at work so I don't get bogged down. Doing well at this - would give myself a B+ or better. Leaving on a weekend trip from OH to NC tomorrow - taking my daughter to New Balance Nationals Outdoor track meet. Should be a good time, lots of awesome competition to watch. But will probably be out of touch again for a few days. Thanks for touching base with me when I was out of the loop. Thanks!

Awesome goals, Eric. And I live your "adapt and overcome" when when traffic derailed your original plan. Great job! ðŸ‘

Great story, Pat. Sounds like you have thoroughly crossed over from the dark carb side to the NF side of the Force. Congratulations on your perseverance and your progress!

Felt like coming to a familiar place to read your intro's - I'm also 50, married 27 years, father to two teens (18, 15), and trying to address fitness in middle age. Doing well occupationally and in many other ways, but always struggled with health and fitness due to emotional eating. Found NF just two years ago, plunged in and had great success. Went from 308 to 241 in five months, made great fitness gains, moved from initial bodyweight exercises where I maxed out at 7 pushups initially, to beginning Olympic lifting and making great gains in Starting Strength and then mad cow lifting programs. Most important was making major habit changes with eating and being more active in my lifestyle. Then ran into some major negative life events and not only fell off the wagon, I fell under it. Seriously regressed and gained back all the weight I'd lost, although still much stronger than I used to be. Now ready to get back on the horse with regaining greater fitness, but finding myself at much different point in life than most twenty-something NFers. One of the things I was running into that winter (2013-14) winter was chronic leg and body pain which I was convinced was from my cholesterol meds. Changed meds several times, then my doctor told me to experiment and stop lifting for a couple weeks. For the first time in months I was pain-free - I'd just had chronic ongoing intense DOMS, which I've not heard the youngsters complain about. So since then I've had trouble motivating myself to lift consistently, as I'm very wary of that level of pain returning. So I'm very interested in networking with some other 50-somethings and comparing notes about managing fitness and weight loss at our age. Eager to re-enter the challenge arena as well, which I found very motivating last time. So... Vive la Rebellion once more!

Sounds like negatives are key for you - great idea. I'd bought some bands during my last NF period to do assisted pullups, but found them awkward to use. Negatives sound easier, and sounds like you find them pretty effective in making noticeable progress. Trying to think where they might fit into my workout plan. Maybe a little down the road - I'll put them in my workout notebook for a future challenge.....

Holy welcomes, Batman! Super gratified to check in and see your friendly messages! Was out of town for four days and out of touch, so hadn't checked in. Awesome to see you're still here, CM! Last time I had checked in with you was about 18 months ago when you were working hard on balancing macros - I remember reading and being impressed by your dedication. Thanks for the welcome, Wildross - I know you've been around for a long time and I remember seeing your posts way back when. And thanks for the greeting, Doc - I'm looking forward to checking in on your thread and connecting. Great question about the plan, CM. Avoiding the emotional eating is hugely key for me, and was a big part of my previous progress. Things that helped in the past were avoiding high-risk times - almost always at night - which I managed in part by the highly sophisticated strategy of going to be early when I was tired. Tracking was also very helpful, as it engaged my competitive drive to stay within my weekly calorie goals and not binge. Substituting healthy foods never helped much, as I could wolf down a mass of vegetables and still feel ready to tackle a large pizza. For me emotional eating is not so much about the satiation, but about the medication of taste. So another thing that helped a lot was keeping a lot of those 10-cal Crystal Light packets on hand, and slowly sipping several of those before going to bed. Occasionally I would manage the urge to oversnack with SLOWLY consuming a measured amount of air-popped popcorn (4 Tbsp popcorn, 2 Tbsp butter, 375 cal). All of these at various times worked fairly well, and I had largely eliminated my food self-medication for much of those six months until I hit several large setbacks and relapsed as described earlier. So that's part of the plan - having those techniques I practiced with success before, and feeling fairly confident I can return to them as I pick the NF accountability back up. So here we go!

Hey, neighbor! Down in Dover, just south of Canton. Welcome to the rebellion!

Serious LOL on the chainswords.....

Hello - right now this is a placeholder, trying to get myself moving again for a respawn. Had some very good success with habit changes when I first came on board two years ago, then hit a number of life challenges and regressed significantly. Looking to respawn - will return and expand this into a challenge start. Currently 5'11" and 306 pounds. Joined NF originally in April 2013 at 308 lbs, did really well in changing behaviors, started working out, made small changes in behavior and diet and escalated these well over time into significant improvements. From mid-April to Sept I lost over 65 lbs and made huge fitness increases - actually ran a Warrior Dash in August of that year. Then my mother died suddenly, and almost simultaneously I hit a career setback which came out of something I thought I was doing that was good, which amplified the emotional hit. I became very depressed, regressed in my behavior and eating habits, and gradually gained back all the weight I had lost. Very discouraging. So now I'm respawning. Several differences from before. First, I proved to myself and those around me that I CAN make changes and be healthy. Second, I have a lot more knowledge about how to be healthy that I acquired in my first NF experience. So I'm better prepared than I was two years ago, and I succeeded then. So if I did it then, I can do it again. Current challenge goals: Keep a food-eaten and calorie log - I've found just writing down what I eat makes me more conscious and deliberate about what I eat. +2 Wis +2 Con A=daily, B=6/7 days/wk, C=5/7 days/wk, D=4 days/wk, F=3 or less Workout out 3x a week, either strength training using Starting Strength basic workout or cardio with intervals on my elliptical. Just work to re-build the habit. +2 Str +3 Sta A=100% BBW 3x/wk by end, B=90% BBW 3x/wk by end, C=80% 3x/wk by end, etc. No late-night binges - emotional eating when down has always been my kryptonite. +3 Con A= 6.5 days/wk, B= 6 days/wk, C= 5.5 days/wk, D=5 days/wk, F is less than that. Life goal: Stay caught up at work so I don't feel bogged down so much. +3 Wis A=6/6 wks, B=5/6 wks, C=4/6 wks, D=3/6 wks I am deliberately not setting a weight-loss goal, as if I do the above I'll make progress on that. My goals above are about changing habits and behavior, and if I make lasting changes in those my weight should naturally come down. After all, it's POOR habits and behavior have naturally led to my current inspiring shape. :-)

Re-spawning warrior looking for raiding party to join. Ok with swords, but prefer battle-axes for proper berzerking. Still room in the longboat for one more?

Good job backing up and tackling the fitness thing with a different activity. How many times have we all done that in a video game? Try this... death. Try that.... slaughtered. Try different strategy.... dismembered. Come back later after leveling up and getting the sword of whacking.... and kill the boss monster. Sounds like you're back on track and doing well. And don't give up lifting hope - who knows how your knees will be in a year or two. Good luck!

Hey, what Savilanth said! And he said it well. You talk about your lifestyle changes as things you've already done - if so, you're doing great so far. Small change, maintain....small change, maintain.... over and over. That leads to success. Good luck!