A New Player Has Entered the Battleground

[Fork]

Hello!

 

I am a recently career changed Software Developer, 4 weeks from completing Lambda School. Awesome place I highly recommend if anyone is interested! That aside, I'm here to take control of my health again. Before school, I was an Assistant Store Manager for some weird gas station/restaurant place. It was fast pace and endless hours. The money was *decent. It was the first time in my life I was close to making 40k in a year. Every job before then was at or below 20k. So it was a huge difference. The workload was not worth it though. To put in perspective, I was averaging 75 hours per week. Days were any where from 10 hours to 16 hours, depending on how busy it was and if employees wanted to actually show up for work. I could go on in detail about how terrible that place was, and how the software they used is so bad it inspired me to really push to get in to software engineering (something I've wanted to do for years now to begin with.) But I'm not going to!

I will however, talk about my health and life events.You see, last year, I was a die-hard fitness geek. I was a gym rat. I followed Jym Stoppani, subscribed to his site and competed in the SS8 challenge last year. It was intense. It was amazing. Life Changing.

 

From left to right, the picture with the newspaper was the start of that competition. I started around April 12th, 2017. The second was on my completion, around June 16th, 2017. The workouts were long and intense, the diet was killer! But it worked. I spent roughly 25-30 hours a week in the gym. My wife supported me, spending a couple hours every few days prepping meals for me. Between that and the long hours at work, I couldn't have succeeded without her helping. It was intense! But I felt amazing. It was the leanest I had ever been.

 

Just before completing the challenge was when I had received my promotion at work to Assistant Store Manager. That's where the challenge got hard, but I persisted and I completed it! It was super low carb, and extremely low the last couple weeks of it. I weight 140lbs at the start of the competition. At the end, dry weight was 129lbs. Low carbs at that weight was essentially 1 piece of bread for my carbs for the day. It was terrible! So..naturally. What happened after completion? Carb frenzy! I had originally planned to take off two weeks and just chill, then kick back in to start bulking up. Well. I bulked up alright. Just not in the way I should have!

 

Instead, I slacked off and struggled to get back in the gym. The long work hours really killed it for me. I had little desire to do anything when I got off work but go to bed. I was up at 3 am, and didn't usually get home until around 7:30/8pm. I didn't typically have time for any sort of break at work. If I was lucky I could shove one of their nasty fried eggrolls down my throat between paperwork and dealing with guests/vendors/employees. So, that brings us to pic three. That was taken in August, just 2 months after that competition. I was up to 152lbs, which was my original weight before getting heavy in to weight lifting, and before getting in to Jym Stoppani's workouts and meal plans. It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't where I wanted to be. So I had tried to get back on track, and failed. Many times.

 

By December, I was still hovering around 150lbs. So it was livable. Ya know. Whatevs. Back in August I had received my invitation to join Lambda School. A new approach to school, and a chance and an awesome career change. I put it off up to December for the sake of saving up money for the holidays. December came, I turn in my two weeks notice and was out. My class started the beginning of December. It was exciting! The school is 40 hours + a week. It's a full time job, without the pay. It's intense. It's hard. Sometimes you want to break things. But it's an awesome change of pace and a great mental challenge. I absolutely love it and I'm excited to start a career in Software Development.

 

That being said, fast forward to today, and the final picture. I'm at a whopping 178lbs! Like...WHAT?! When I was legit bulking and trying to put on muscle mass I struggled to get myself above 160lbs! I ate more back then than I do now. I am far from active due to the class. But I guess that's an excuse to be honest. I can't afford a gym membership currently, I definitely can't afford (nor do I really want to go back to) any supplements. (Jym's programs keep you loaded on tons of supplements.) I would love to achieve my physique from that competition WITHOUT supplements. Just good old strict clean eating and hard effort. My struggle. I've never weighed so much in my life before. It's had obvious effects on me. From more aches and pains  than ever to struggling to walk my dogs. It's terrible. I had a lot of guidance and direction back then. But I could also afford it. Now, I can't. So, I came across Nerd Fitness. And the community seems amazing.

 

I'm excited to get started, and am open to any guidance, suggestions, ideas etc. that any one has!

 

I look forward to meeting and training with everyone! 

 

-Fork

 

[Judge]

Welcome! 

 

My only guidance/suggestion is to just jump on in and get started.

 

Perhaps hitting the ground running literally. 

[Fork]

Thanks!

And essentially that is the plan..ish. Lol. I'm going to start some simple, basic changes for now while I write out a full diet/workout plan. Trying to change my mindset from lifting heavy weight to using body weight. So that'll be fun! Personally, always hated running long distance. But I LOVE sprints. But I think I need to work myself back up to that, for fear of injuries from not having done so in months.

[Elastigirl]

Welcome. I agree, sprints are a great way to get some running in. My best advice is to think long term. What you did before was super impressive, but not really something most people can sustain long term. Now you need to take some of your fantastic work ethic and will power and apply it to making small, sustainable goals that will keep you strong and healthy for the rest of your life

[Fork]

Thanks Elastigirl!

I definitely am looking long term this go. As mentioned, what I did for the comp last year is far from sustainable. Could have been maintainable had I gone into the "rest mode" more appropriately haha. But, I guess I need to slow it down this time around, as much as I'd love to drop to even 145 within the next couple months, I know that's just a setup for failure. I struggle at patience when it comes to weight loss