Post surgery and Thanksgiving respawn

[Zinger90]

Hello all!

 

I'm new to the rebellion, and I just completed my second beginners body weight workout tonight! But joining the rebellion is a re-spawn for me.

 

My story is that back in Junior High (wow that was 12 years ago...) I ran track and was in pretty decent shape. That slipped away in high school because I didn't like the athletic crowd at my school, so I went and did theatre in my spare time instead. In college I tried to make use of the fitness center, but that rarely happened, even when I lived right across the street from it. Now I'm preparing for my wedding coming up in April and I want to be in the best shape of my life for my soon to be wife   . A concrete goal I have is to be able to carry her in my arms all the way from the car through our front door on the day after our wedding, which is about 40 meters give or take. I can currently carry her maybe 10 meters tops, but probably more like 5.

 

I have been attempting this reach this goal for the past 8 months with little success. I had been running on the treadmill, biking when it is nice out, and lifting weights in my apartment's fitness room, but all of that inconsistently. I have gotten stronger, but not at the rate that I had hoped for. Then, a month ago, I underwent surgery to remove all 4 of my wisdom teeth. That put me basically out of commission for 2 solid weeks, and even when I had the strength back and was off my pain meds, I didn't have the desire to exercise, opting for playing video games and watching Netflix marathons instead. Then, last week, something in the back of my mind decided that I should eat better. I forget what I was searching for, but the first link that Google returned was to an article here on Nerd Fitness. I started reading some of the other articles and realized I have finally found a fitness site speaks my language and isn't chasing the latest fad. I signed up for the email list and got going on early morning walks instead of hitting the snooze button 10-15 times (a chronic bad habit of mine).

 

And then Thanksgiving happened. I traveled 3 hours south to visit my Fiance and her family for Thanksgiving and ate WAAAAAY too much food the whole weekend. I got back on Sunday night and still felt full from the weekend. Then, I decided to try the beginners body weight workout that was in the challenge emails that I missed during Thanksgiving, and it was the best decision I could have made that night. Not only did it kick my butt, but I have had so much motivation to make small changes in my every day life. My productivity at work is through the roof, I've been getting some long overdue home projects done this week (including prepping my house for winter and fixing my overheating CPU), and I only hit the snooze button twice this morning (7 minutes each, but still had enough time for my walk before work!). I was still sore from my Sunday workout tonight, but I persevered through it to do the body weight workout again and I feel great tonight!

 

Now up to basically tonight, my diet up has been horrendous. I was eating microwave ready meals at least 4 nights a week, and other sorts of junk meals the remainder nights of the week. I don't snack, which is probably the only reason I'm not overweight right now (5'10" and 150 lb). Tonight, I decided to have a baked skinless chicken breast with a side of hearty veggies after my workout, and it was delicious. I'm not completely sold on the idea of the paleo diet (I'm the son of a Wisconsinite, so dairy has always been a staple for me, plus I love baking my own bread), but I've decided as part of the rebellion, I am going to at least take some lessons from it. I wont buy any more microwave dinners from this day on (I think I still have one or two in my pantry, but those will be the last), and I'm going to focus more on eating healthy meats and veggies. I even went to the store tonight after my workout and will be treating myself to a ribeye steak later this week in celebration of completing my 3rd body weight workout.

 

So that's where I was and that's where I am. Tonight, I feel better than I have all year, and I'm sure that I'll be extremely sore tomorrow, but it will be well worth it to do that romantic act of carrying my bride through the threshold in April.

[Toshimi]

Now up to basically tonight, my diet up has been horrendous. I was eating microwave ready meals at least 4 nights a week, and other sorts of junk meals the remainder nights of the week. I don't snack, which is probably the only reason I'm not overweight right now (5'10" and 150 lb). Tonight, I decided to have a baked skinless chicken breast with a side of hearty veggies after my workout, and it was delicious. I'm not completely sold on the idea of the paleo diet (I'm the son of a Wisconsinite, so dairy has always been a staple for me, plus I love baking my own bread), but I've decided as part of the rebellion, I am going to at least take some lessons from it. I wont buy any more microwave dinners from this day on (I think I still have one or two in my pantry, but those will be the last), and I'm going to focus more on eating healthy meats and veggies. I even went to the store tonight after my workout and will be treating myself to a ribeye steak later this week in celebration of completing my 3rd body weight workout.

 

I do paleo and haven't totally given up dairy. But I follow most of the Paleo principles. I have cut way back from the amount of dairy I used to, and use full fat dairy when I have it, but don't let that be the reason you don't try paleo. There are lots of great resources out there, and may different forms of Paleo. Most important, find what works for you!

[Kunoichi22]

Zinger90,

 

I love your motivation for getting stronger, it's so sweet!   I am very inspired by your whole story, and I'm cheering you on!  This site IS an incredible resource: sensible, full of supportive folks, and plenty of people can relate to gaming and Netflix marathoning here, as well!

 

I also find myself only partially adopting the Paleo diet. I do love some grains, and am not willing to compromise some things. If you want to work yourself into some of the yummy dishes Paleo can offer, I highly recommend the Paleo Slow Cooker (http://www.amazon.com/Paleo-Slow-Cooker-Healthy-Gluten-free/dp/1937994074/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1417622412&sr=1-2&keywords=paleo+slow+cooker).

 

Best of luck to you, and I'll be following your topic!

[Zinger90]

Thanks Kunoichi22!

 

I have a crock pot and plan on utilizing it more now, so I may look into that book you recommended. One of the things I've decided to start doing starting today is to plan out more of my meals ahead of time (going along with what I said above) so a recipe book might not be a bad idea to have.

[Ocelot]

For carrying weight for distances.. you should probably do more lifting! Lifting heavy weights in a gym will really get you ready to carry a person. The bodyweight training will too, of course but it won't specifically target the picking-things-up muscles. It's also the best way to get overall conditioning. I can't recommend a program off the top of my head. What were lifts you doing before the tooth op?

[Zinger90]

For lifts I had been doing bench presses and lat pulls (both on a machine) and bicep curls. I had also been doing situps, pushups and tricep pushups along with various other one-off exercises that I couldn't get right. My apartment has a gym, but it's very limited in what I can do there. I have access to only 60 pounds worth of dumbells, but they are the basically mini bar bells, so they have the disk weights on them, so if I use both at a time it's 30 pounds each max.

 

One thing I have noticed in the last week is that I had basically been ignoring my legs the whole time i've been trying except for running and biking, so the body weight workout is a good starting point for improving my lifting abilities (I'm thinking "lift with your legs" mentality here). Once I get good at this circuit, I'll seek out new things to add to it to keep leveling up my routine, but the core of it will remain the more-or-less the same.