New guy Incoming...... vrrrhhhhmmmm Kaboom!

[Manicman]

Hello NF, my name is Jonathan but you can call me Manicman.

I'll give a rundown of my lifetime fitness.

In my childhood and my teen years I was very active, used to play tennis, swam and biked constantly. At the time I loved running and coach always nagged me about joining the track team for distance, but I had no desire to waste my time with school pursuits. (I've had a job of some sort or another since I was 12, high school I had 3 lawn work/landscaping clients and spent my senior year interning at IBM. I'd rather make money at work then join track.)

I think senior year started to do me in as I graduated high school somewhere around 230. (I'm 6'1") Didn't look too fat but having spent so much time sitting at IBM and eating a TON of junk food didn't help.

College changed things to some degree, I was working like 60 hrs a week and doing college full time, averaged 3-4hrs sleep a night and would eat anything I could get my hands on as I was generally low on money and just bought the cheapest stuff I could. I'd occasionally go 2-3 days without food then eat an entire large pizza. Had alot of physical work during this time as I was running night shift in a factory and doing plumbing and general contracting during the days I wasn't at school. Around this time I weighed ~170 and you could see my ribs. Briefly took up skateboarding and demolished my ankle, that's really gimped me as far as any type of distance running.

Moved to my current job as Network Admin at a high school and slowly put weight on. (I would say I'd gotten unhealthily thin so it was a good thing) Weight averages in the 195-200 range. Over the last few years I've played with my diet and exercise. For awhile did alot of weight room work and protein supplements and the whole mess. My weight was up to ~215. I wasn't happy with the results though as while I was stronger I plateau very quickly and never get big. I'll tone just won't bulk up which has always disheartened me.

The other problem is that I hold strength for a long time. Even now having not been doing weights in over a year I can easily go and do 5 reps of 50lbs per arm. So part of me just felt that there wasn't much value in me working out.

That's led me to my current situation of just trying to maintain more physical activity, I'm not fat by any means but I'd like to tone up a little better and improve my endurance. Also I've recently realized how valuable exercise is to me. The Manicman moniker is an inside joke from years ago, but in the past year I've found out I'm BP2. Exercise really helps me regulate my moods better and is a perfect way to burn the extra energy when I get manic.

Currently I'm hoping to run a Warrior Dash in September and figured if I got in with the NF community it would help to motivate me to stick to my fitness goals a bit more.

[wildross]

Welcome to Nerd Fitness!