New Birthday = New Start

[spencertheman]

Well hello,

My name is Spencer and I'm here for a change.

Backstory:

January - Accepted an internship for this summer and decided "I want to look awesome when I get out there." Starting about 185lbs. I started eating moderately healthy (cutting "bad" foods and focusing on whole grain grains and such) and started working out a few times a week. Eventually dropped about 12lbs. As time progressed I slowly stopped working out except maybe once or twice every other week. As a result, my weight did not waver much.

May - Time to move. "Oh no! I didn't get in awesome shape. Oh well, I dropped some weight so that's cool." Proceeded to study for finals and get prepared to move twice in 2 days. Ate poorly and didn't exercise, so my weight slowly climbed back up to 182lbs. Yikes! After getting settled here at my new place, I started eating healthier and, toward the end of the month, working out a little bit in my gym at work.

June- Well, I woke up one morning and decided I wasn't a fan of the flabby chested, hair gut that was staring at me in the mirror. I started doing bit of research and decided that the "paleo" style diet was going to be my focus. For the past week or so I've been sticking to this as well as I can. Mostly cutting grains and processed sugars out of my diet. I have decided I am going to start the Starting Strength program.

Hopefully that's not a wall of text and is easy to read.

So, I guess I should post some stats:

Age: 21

Height: 6' 0''

Weight: 173.2lbs as of 9:53PM CST today. (WHOAH, Looks like the past couple of weeks of eating better and exercising has definitely helped. And this is after a considerable sized dinner of pepper steak.)

Body Fat: Unknown

Gender: Male

Current Diet: Paleo-ish (I still sneak a bite of cheese here and there)

Current Workout: Starting "Starting Strength" this week

Main goals by mid-August:

1. Get rid of the protruding stomach and the man-boobs.

2. Weight goals of 1.5*bw Squat, 1.75*bw Deadlift, 1.25*bw Bench Press

3. 1x10 bw Pull-up

Non-weight/strength related:

1. Reduce my debt by $1,000

I've noticed there is a 6-week challenge that is coming up with dates that are generally within my time-frame, so I am going to look into that for a more rigorous schedule.

If you have any motivational words, criticisms, general comments or questions, hit me up!

Thanks for reading,

Spencer

[TennisKid1192]

Hey Spencer! Welcome to the NF community. We're pretty similar except I'm shorter than you. Also, I totally wanna get rid of my stomach and "moobs" too haha.

[CakeBanisher]

Welcome, Spencer! Last year I cut grains and processed sugars, without going full paleo, and lost about 30 pounds (without exercising - I don't recommend that), so my experience says you've got the right idea Good luck with your goals! And good luck in the 6-week challenge, should you decide to participate!

[spencertheman]

Thanks guys!

Well a bit of sad news. After eating a nice paleo snack of apples and almond butter, I had what seems like an allergic reaction to the almond butter. Ended up at the hospital with some meds. So, I'll be getting a week late start, not a big deal, but still a little off.

Thanks again

[CakeBanisher]

Yikes! Glad you're okay! No more almond butter for you! Hope your hospital time isn't too bad. Do you have a history of food allergies, or is this something new?

[slcathena]

Ouch! Allergies are terrifying, hope you get some rest!

Welcome to NF and good luck with your goals and the challenge!