New Recruit beginning a Mid-Life Adjustsment

[MDT2]

Hello,

I am a 41 year old male that has slowly watched his weight climb to it's highest in memory. I am 6'0" and weigh in at 225 pounds. I have been stalking this sight for a few days now and event ventured into purchasing a couple of the NerdFitness guides to see what it's all about. My problem with living healthy and eating right has been two fold. First, as a nerd I tent to read so much information that I get overwhelmed. Whether it's diets or workouts there is simply too much information out there and it all contradicts itself. Second, I tend to jump in with both feet and usually hurt myself or run myself in the ground and fall back on old excuses of "I don't have time" or "I travel too much for work" so I'll start next week.

Several revelations have hit me the past few weeks. First, I have a wife and three children that I love very much. I come home from work so wiped out that all I want to do is sit on the couch and be left alone. I don't want to be that guy! I want the energy to be out in the yard playing and swimming in the pool. Second, I find that I am winded climbing the stairs at work! I am 41 not 81, this scares me beyond anything in recent memory. Finally, I want to be around to enjoy my kids for a long time.

I have determined that rather than continue to read more contradicting "diet" articles that the High Fat/Low Carb lifestyle makes sense to me and I am going to proceed down that road for this Mid-Life adjustment. I will continue to learn about this life-style and not let myself get sidetracked with other lifestyles until I have given this a fair shot to determine its effects on me and my body.

I joined this community to perhaps meet up with others in my age group that are beginning this journey as well to pick up tricks and hopefully not go too far too fast to where I hurt myself and have to stop.

My goals so far are this:

1. I'd like to run a 4K by September 29th.

2. I'd like to weigh 200lbs by end of October.

3. I'd like to run a 5K on New Years Eve.

I know, not ambitious, but wanting to start at achievable goals to see some progress early.

Thanks in advance for any input and for this community.

[Thor]

Hey, MDT !

Welcome to NF :-)

You are definately doing the right thing, it is so awesome to be able to breathe again after a flight of stairs. I could barely run 2k last September. I started getting my sh*t together and ran a 10 k in decent time last Sunday. Trust me, the path needs some toughness with oneself along the way, but it is the way to go. I have FUN running now, and I am shooting for a half marathon next year.

Your goals are doable, if you stick to your plan.

Thumbs up from me, go for it :-)

Cheers,

Thorsten

[Laney]

Welcome! I think those are great goals and you have a fantastic reason for doing them! Good luck

[coonskee]

Good luck!! If you haven't heard of it, C25K is great for people who are starting to run. I was too impatient for it, but some of my friends and acquaintances swear by it - check it out for your first goal!

[Hugh]

Welcome!

You've come to the right place.

A for your goals, you're right to pick something realistic straight off the bat. If you need any advice on anything specific, you won't be disappointed

(incidentally, I found that once I could run 4k, I could run 5k very soon afterwards - I think you'll be surprised just how soon you get there too...)

[MDT2]

Thanks for the encouraging words. I am reading through the NerdFitness running guide and will plan on beginning to implement it! I am working toward those goals and just hope September is not too soon!

[Hugh]

as Coonskee said, the "Couch to 5k" is a good progression plan - I read it after I had struggled to 5k the hard way and really wished I'd read it beforehand!

[madpacket]

Welcome. I am pretty new to NF myself, but here is my story.

At age 40 I was at least 50lbs overweight. Am only 5'9" and I hit at least 239 in the last oh 1.5 years. Right around the beginning of 2012 I was at 227 and as of this morning have reached 185.6 (actually I hit 186 back in very early June, but due to vacations and poor diet adherence have fluctuated up 5-7lbs for almost 2 months).

Here's what worked for me:

Get a food tracking app, I like http://www.myfitnesspal.com/ it really helps me stay on track. It has a nice barcode scanner which lets you zip the food into your log easily and a huge database. Also Loseit! is another decent app.

Stop soda, chips, candy & dessert every night after dinner. I still indulge in this stuff maybe 1-2 times per week, but not every night. I found that eating high carbs always left me hungry, even when getting 2500+ calories per day. Now on HFLC, I can survive 1,400 cal/day with less cravings.

Replace the carbs with high fat. Try to get maybe 60%+ of your calories from fat. Start off with scrambled eggs, add whipping cream instead of milk, throw in some cheese, and always have some breakfast meat.

We have a lot of bacon, costco has a great 4lb pack by Fletchers that is about $3.25/lb. We cook the whole thing on Saturdays in the oven on cookie sheets. Save the grease for sautéing veggies, etc.

Check out http://www.marksdailyapple.com/ for his description of big a$$ salad. I often have one of these for lunch. I used to hate salad, but not any more. Add lots of dressing, meat, cheese, and maybe olives and artichoke hearts (Costco) and it can be very filling.

For dinner, have some meat, sautéed veggies &/or salad. Skip the breads or corn or white potatoes.

Eating this way, getting only 1,500 calories/day, I can lose weight every day. Often times I decide to snack, maybe 5-6 cups popcorn with half a stick of butter. Lots of roasted almonds, other cheese, or salami.

One or two days per week, or at special occasions like parties or whatever, I eat with reckless abandon. I think that helps me stay on track the other days.

Oh, don't forget some dark chocolate (which by definition has less sweetener). If you need lowcarb sweetener, try Truvia, I think it is the least worst tasting of the bunch

Oh, cook 18 hard boiled eggs in the oven, they are great for snacking on, especially with a half tbls of butter on each.

Forget all the "fat is bad" stuff, it's not. Well, avoid synthetic/hydrogenated oils and most vegetable oils. Olive oil should be safe, and bacon grease and butter. Also try coconut oil with dark chocolate chips melted with maybe mac nuts as dessert.

If you want more meal ideas, check out:

http://nomnompaleo.com/

As for exercise, I have tried to take up jogging again (which I did to some extent in college millennia ago). My progress has been slower than I wish and my pace disappointing. Part of that I blame on my current altitude of 4750ft, up from my last residence of sea level. However seeing some improvements lately. Doing the NF beginners body weight workout which I find both strenuous enough to give me sense of accomplishment and quick enough to not get bored. I picked up a used soloflex on the internet for only $99 mostly for the pull-up bar and dip bar, but it does about 24 other exercises too.

Wish you the best!

[SirEarl]

welcome! Running a 5k on New Years Eve definitely seems like a great way to end the year!

[LaraBear]

Welcome! You will surely find a bunch of people in more or less in the same situation with you (wanting to lose weight, wanting to have more energy, wanting to ... just more). At first it feels so counter-intuitive that by exercising more you will be less tired, but I am not the only one who knows that is true. Recently got my parent of the month award from a kid by playing catch in the yard for an hour. I was still up for more when the kid started to get tired!

There are already some good pointers for dietary adjustments, but if you need more personal opinions: I am one of the people who feel better with no fast carbs and no grains. I switched to a somewhat paleo-like lifestyle and just love how I feel. Don't shy from making personal adjustments to make your diet a lifestyle you can have for life.

[MDT2]

Athena,

Thank you for those encouraging words. Yes, my wife is totally onboard and 30+ lbs ahead of me in the weight loss column! She is just starting the exercise part as well, Yoga this week. I have taken your advice and there is no more junk in the house and started drinking my coffee black, eliminating the flavored creams and sugar.

My middle son (age 9) has started doing the workouts with me in the evenings. I followed your path with the bodyweight guide because I get home from work late enough as it is and don't want to miss anymore time with my little ones by going to a gym.

It' s new lifestyle for me, one that takes an hour or so a day for myself and not so much for work and/or others. I felt a little selfish this weekend, to be honest, but it's quickly passing as I know in the long run it will work out for me and my family.

Thank you for the encouraging words.

[MDT2]

Mad,

Thank you for the advice. I too am doing the NF bodyweight plan, which my 9 year old son has decided to join in on! Eggs all boiled up tonight for the first week of "hitting HFLC hard". Thanks for the great advice. I took a look at the salad and will hit up the store this week.

Mike

[MDT2]

Thank you Lara, I am sure I will make adjustments as my body reacts to a HFLC way of eating. I have already felt better this weekend w/o any rice/potato or pasta. I will admit I miss the beer, but that may be mental for now.

Mike