Sending it out to the universe....

[Kathleen]

......well Nerd Fitness community, at least. I recently came across the Nerd Fitness site while doing a search on Crossfit and like many of you, I was instantly hooked. In the past, my approach to fitness has been more zombie-like state vs a living, breathing, thinking soul. I have spent countless hours of my life running on a treadmill and mindlessly eating with no real goal in sight. My thought was that I could pretty much eat whatever (within reason) as long as I was working out. However, for the past three years I have put on ~10 lbs per year even though I worked out 3-4 times per week. Obviously my "plan" wasn't working and it only took me 3 years and 30+ lbs to figure it out.

I have recently taken up yoga and it has changed my life. I now know that my body is capable of much more than I ever imagined in terms of strength and flexibility and it has also improved my overall sense of well being. Yoga is an activity I hope to be doing until the day I die. However, with that said, I think I need to incorporate strength training into my workout routine. As much as I love yoga, I attended yoga classes for 30 day straight and only lost 2 lbs. I have no idea the impact on my body fat percentage (because I never measured), but my body appearance didn't change much. I felt stronger, but the visible results would have been nice.

During my 30 day yoga challenge, I would post my workouts everyday on Facebook (sorry Facebook friends), because I felt that was the only way to stay motivated. I mean, if no one knew about my challenge, then it would be so easy to make excuses and skip a class here or there. I found that announcing my goals to the universe was an effective way to stay on track. That, my friends, is why I am writing today. While I am new to the Nerd Fitness Rebellion, it appears to be an amazing, supportive community.

I am currently 5'9" and 171 lbs (ouch!) and I am looking to drop 31 lbs in the next year? six months? This is where I could use your help. What time frame is reasonable? Any advice on where to start for strength training? Any tips would be greatly appreciated!!

Thanks,

Kathleen

[Red1263]

Hey hey, Welcome to the Rebellion! We can help you with anything you need from Advice (we have a Yoga Guild here) to motivation, just don't hesitate to ask. Most vital changes start with diet, clean up your eating and you'll start to see improvements. But running helps too In terms of your goal setting, What time frame do YOU think would be sufficient? Because that's all that matters, is that YOU reach your goal. Not to mention that upon reaching the Deadline will cause you to start working harder and what not. Good luck and see you around

[leadchipmunk]

Welcome. As Red and many others before him have said, proper diet is 80% of weight loss/fitness. Without it, you have found out, it is very hard to lose weight. With a proper diet, you will lose weight faster than you have before. I know I did, I changed my diet from junk to paleo and I lost more weight quicker than I have before.

As for a time for those 30 pounds, that all depends on you. Your motivation, diet, exercise and genetics will all determine how quickly it goes. That being said, 6 months is plenty of time for most people. I have lost 20 pounds in 2 months with only changing my diet, so anything is possible.