Hello Everyone,
I've been following the NerdFitness blogs emails for the past two years or so. I got inspired to make an account and then did absolutely nothing with it for the last two years.
I’ve been through various stages of being in and out of shape. I grew up on a small farm in southern Illinois but at the same time I had always been a chunky monkey. For some reason the “baby weight” I had acquired stayed with me through most of high school. The summer before senior year I was invited to watch some of my friends play hockey on a rec league. It didn’t take very much for them to talk me into playing with them. Also, having and overweight goal tender has its advantages. I started dumping weight quickly but I ate horribly. Eventually starting eating somewhat better and working out with them and it was awesome. I was in the best shape I had ever been in. But, sadly, overtime people grew apart and eventually we stopped playing entirely.
Unfortunately for me, I continued eating like I was physically active all the time. Soon I fell in love with a sweet mistress known as cheesecake and quickly gained my weight back. Pretty much just played GTA, Skyrim, LOTRO, and Battlefield for hours and hours for way too many years. I stayed that way until August of 2014. I don’t really know what it was at that point that sparked a change. I just woke up unhappy with the shape I was in and what the scale said. My first real attempt at weight loss was to cut soda. Dropped a little bit of weight but leveled off because of how I was eating. Started making better choices with food and not eating out as much.
My first attempt at working out was a bodyweight routine. I severely lacked the discipline to have anything worthwhile come out of it. Tried round two with a kettlebell, same story. I stumbled across Strong Lifts 5x5 and got hooked. I bought a power rack, Olympic weight set, and a bench. Awesome, now what the heck do I do? Watched his video’s along with BUFF dudes and tried to get a better understanding of form and all that good stuff. Just like with the bodyweight and kettlebell I lacked discipline to take it seriously and stopped altogether.
The day that finally was able to lite a fire was move in day for the house my wife and I bought about a year ago. That day was the day from hell. I had gotten used to the idea that “Hey you’re overweight but at least you’re strong”. That had changed to, “You’re just overweight”. It was a pretty hard slam to the ol’ self-esteem meter. We hadn’t even finished unpacking and I had my weight set up and operational. I’ve been going strong ever sense. I’ve had a few set back here and there from getting sick but nothing major. Note: Attempting squats while sick…HORRIBLE IDEA.
My wife and I have gotten to be pretty decent meal preppers. I do believe this was because of the amount of takeout we had while getting our old place packed and our new place settled. The reason doesn’t matter as much as the fact that we are doing it now.
Currently I’m still doing the 5x5 routine and starting to get in the habit of walking around the neighborhood. I think the biggest driver for me now is I’m getting to the point where I’ve started to see where fat is being replaced by muscle. My wife and my friends have been commenting for a little while in the changes they’ve seen which has been huge for my self-esteem.
So that’s pretty much me, happy to be here and not just creepin’ on the blog emails anymore.
Randaldor
