Introducing Myself

[Niccolo]

Hi everyone!!!

My name is Dan, but Niccolo is the name I use when I game. When in doubt, I answer to both. I'm 29 years old and live in the Seattle area.

I was surfing the web today while home sick (damn PAX pox) and came across this website. I figured that I'd go ahead and sign up since I just recently got a new fitness goal. But more on that later...

For my background, I was never a real active person. I got out of working out in high school, saw the inside of a gym maybe 5 times during college when I got a wild hair, graduated and put on twenty pounds. Most of my time up to last year was spent working as a civil engineer (mostly at a desk) and coming home to WoW.

Then last year, I had a wake-up call that I was in bad shape: I had a kidney stone. AT 28!!! I started changing things, but had a couple other bad things happen in my life: stuck in a bad job, having my car engine blow up for the second time, and several other nasty random encounters. By the time that the end of December rolled around, I had come to the realization that I wasn't happy with my body and my fitness level. A switch flipped, and I decided to start working out. I think the big thing was that I wanted to take control of the parts of my life that I could, since so many things were going badly.

After a bit of research into local gyms, I found a highly rated one near my house. It took me 5 minutes sitting in my car to work up the courage to go into the gym my first night. I went in and spoke with the owner a bit and he offered to have me join a class that was going on.

What I didn't realize was this gym was a Crossfit gym.

The workout that night was one of the hardest things I've ever done, if not the hardest. But, something triggered in my mind and I loved the exercise. Unlike any other workout I'd ever done, I felt really good afterward.

Along with starting to workout, my wife and I modified our diet. I call it 70% paleo, since we haven't completely cut out grain, but it is not a major component of what we eat. Primarily fresh veggies and lean meats.

Well, after 8 months, I've gone from around 215 at my max to around 185 at 6'1" with a significantly lower body fat. I don't really weigh myself often, since I more focus on how I feel, how I perform at workouts, and to a much lesser extent how I look. I'm really proud that I was able to recently max my back squat at 205, my bench press at 155, and my deadlift at 275, especially since I couldn't do any of those with weight when I started in January.

So that brings me to why I'm here. As I mentioned above, my wife and I went to PAX Prime this last weekend. We cosplayed, but neither of us were extremely happy with our costumes (I was a Demon Hunter from D3 and she was Alice from Alice: The Madness Returns). So we decided that we'd go all out for next year. My wife suggested that we go for Monkey and Trip from Enslaved: Odyssey into the West. For those of you who don't know, here's a picture of Monkey:

Now, I've made awesome progress that I'm thrilled about, but I'm not under the impression that I will be in that kind of shape in a year. However, I would like to get as close as possible. So that will involve putting on more muscle and losing more fat. I figure that meeting this goal will work with many of my Crossfit goals (muscle-up, I have you in my sights).

So, I came here to help me with this goal. I want to broaden my knowledge base beyond my Crossfit circle. And, to be honest, I still haven't told the people at my gym that I'm a major gamer yet. (I know, I know. Nothing wrong with being a gamer, but I'm not overly forthcoming with it because I usually get an "oh, that's great" with an eye roll and half smile from people when I talk about games.) I figure this cosplay will be a good way to do so.

That's my story. I look forward to getting to know you all better!

Dan aka Nicc

[DanielWallen]

Hello Dan! My name is Dan, too. So, your name rules, first of all. Secondly, congrats on your progress so far! Your progress on the lifts is very solid: it took me much longer than 8 months to reach those numbers, so that's awesome. Do you time your nutrients at all? By that, I mean, do you eat most of your carbs around the times that you workout? If not, this is the biggest change I would suggest, as your body will use them more effectively at these times. On rest days, I would try sticking with veggies and lean meats as much as possible, and push the carbs to your workout days. Best wishes!

[Niccolo]

Good to hear from another Dan.

I haven't tried timing my nutrients yet, since I've been mainly focusing on just getting the diet right and not being hungry. Lol. Do you know where I could go to find more info on timing?

Thanks!

[DanielWallen]

This is a good beginner's guide to carb cycling

Hope this helps!