Revving the engines, again.

[MtnThg]

Some of y'all know me. Most don't. It's cool. 

 

I started on a health kick a while back. Got down from 180 to 165 after being 155 for, like.. ever. Kids, stress, work, exhaustion and/or overall laziness contributed to me gaining 35lbs. I kicked off to 165 and was back to fighting weight, but then shit happened (again) and I let slip. Back to 1-fucking-90 lbs. 

 

Time to respawn: 3 Seconds.. 2 Seconds.. 

 

I opted for a gym membership at 24 hour fitness. Got a fair deal, I think, to boot. My free day I did legs. I might as well, I figured. Go hard or go home. So I did squats. Found out I was quite weak after not having done anything remotely active in quite some time. They offered me a personal trainer and I gave it some serious thought, but then I figured, "Oh wait. I'm still in the NF community. What do I need a personal trainer for?"

 

So here's where I'm at. 

 

190lbs. Body fat percentage? We'll go with.. a lot. I haven't bothered to take a reading and I likely won't. I will likely not even look at the scale again, even though since I gave up drinking cokes, I dropped to 188. That was a little boost; the boost I needed to get serious again. 

 

So. High body fat? Yes. Weak? Yes. 

 

I plan to be able to look in the mirror during my friend's wedding (May 2016) and be good with how I look. That is the goal. I want to have to pay more for a refit on my tux. That's the plan. 

 

So I figure I'll start off with the big three. Squats, deadlifts and bench. I'll do swimming to keep up my cardio. Yesterday I got one lap in and I was winded. Nowhere to go but up. I'm looking for a place to keep my progress so I'll hopefully get a response here about that, too.

 

Any advice will work. I have very little intention of going paleo. I like my breads and my crappy foods a little too much for it. But I figure with enough work, I'll get to looking good and being strong again in no time.

 

Suggestions, comments etc are all welcome.

[Oshika789]

Curious to see if you were sticking to your plan? It sounds like your workout plan will get you results, but watch out on those "crappy foods". I'm not into the paleo thing either (actually tried it at one point and felt like crap the entire time), but how are you in terms of portion control or moderation? The only time I actually started losing weight was when my diet was reigned in. For me, it meant controlling my daily calories, as I honestly wasn't doing ANY type of exercise at the time. I did this mostly by incresing my veggie intake substancially (I'm talking half or more of each meal), but still having portion controlled amounts of startches / grains, and making sure to get in some good protien. I love sweets unfortunately, so I would have some go-to options that weren't a deal breaker, like low sugar fudge pops or pudding, just a little something so I wasn't fighting a losing battle against the craving, but also not undoing all the good with a huge dessert. For me, it's all about balance.

 

Of course, I'd imagine you'll need a lot more protien with weight lifting, so maybe instead of going drastic with a strict diet like paleo, you can just tweak what you're eating now. Think about the change you saw from just cutting out coke. You don't have to give up everything, but to get the results you want, you might need to make a few changes.