This site is overwhelming, but I'm still psyched!

[Squeeealer]

I'm 38, 5'10, 230.

I'm psyched for two events coming up in 2013. In January, I'm going to be participating in an 8-week challenge called Health Revolution (via a local health care provider) that appears to be solely a weight loss competition. Some of my bosses will be participating, and I want to crush them!

Then, in March, another weight loss contest. Our company's Wellness Coordinator is now certified in Biggest Loser and she'll be running the program. I also want to win this contest, although if I'm successful in Jan/Feb, I don't know how feasible that is, especially since I want to do strength training.

After going through a bunch of the features on this site, I am overwhelmed. Info overload. Now the task seems more daunting I already feel like if I don't go by the NF Playbook that I'll be failing. But I'll get over it. What's awesome is that I still have three more months to strategize and develop my master plan for victory!

Prepare to be bombarded with n00b questions!

[Tocho]

Welcome to NF! And don't you dare wait 3 months to get started. Get started now! We'll help you with any and all questions you may have.

Do you have any fitness goals right now, or are you mainly interested in losing weight?

[Squeeealer]

I know, I'm tempted to start now. But I want to WIN come January! In the meantime I want to get familiar with the exercise equipment in my gym, figure out some exercises I can do at home, plan a weekly schedule for my workout routine, fix my sleep schedule, learn more about the Paleo diet and prepare an example meal plan for a week, figure out how, what, and where I want to journal, etc. So much to learn before launch date!

[KentMcCann]

Sounds like you've got a good idea for your plan of attack. I agree with Tocho though, why wait? I know there's a contest, but is it worth putting your fitness on hold for an office competition?

If you hit any roadblocks or have any questions along the way, never hesitate to ask!

[allirep]

i'm pretty sure the best "win" of all will be looking 200x hotter than your bosses when the totals are in - so starting now would be ok.

if nothing else - level up your knowledge - you could sign up for the next challenge (mid-nov one) and spend 6 weeks working on perfect form for body weight exercises, finding healthy recipes, reading books (like the Paleo Solution), figuring out all of NF, etc.

welcome to the club. ask as many questions as you like. we are nerds - and we like displaying our in-depth knowledge of things.

[bigm141414]

welcome to the club. ask as many questions as you like. we are nerds - and we like displaying our in-depth knowledge of things.

We also enjoy displaying our fine collection of PEZ dispensers.... Wait, what now?

Welcome to the site! Check out the FAQs (button at top, and links in my sig) to help you get started with navigating the boards.

[The Tin Man]

I think an even bigger "win" would be to barely need to do the competition in the first place!

But welcome! And ask many questions.

[Michael Ramm]

No time like the present...don't wait for contests or other things!

Get in there and kick some @$$!

Welcome to the Rebellion! It is a great place to be.

Michael

[chairohkey]

Why not take these next few months to bulk up and then lose the weight in Jan? That way you'd have some muscle to show when you drop the BF. Lift heavy, eat, and sleep.

Oh and welcome by the way.

[msuroo]

Welcome to the rebellion! Don't worry about n00b questions - we all start somewhere. There's a never-ending wealth of knowledge here, so fire away - no matter what you're goals are, someone here can likely point you in the right direction.

I'm going to echo everyone else and suggest you not wait until January to start leveling up your life. Look at it this way - do you really want to make consciously poor decisions for the next three months, just to win a contest?

I've got nothing against office weight loss competitions - anything to get sedentary folks up and moving is a good thing - but you probably want to take a look at your own goals and motivations. If your only motivation to get healthier is to win a contest, then you've got no reason to stay healthy when the contest is over. Assuming you do have other reasons to want to be fit/healthy - is putting that quest off for three months really worth a $50 Target gift card (or whatever the prize is for winning). I mean, you can make a lot of progress in three months - shoot, just look at some of the archived six week challenges to see what folks have gotten done in half that time!

We gamify a lot of stuff here at NF, but winning for the sake of winning isn't really what we're about. We're all just trying to be a little more awesome than we were yesterday.

Edit to add:

Why not take these next few months to bulk up and then lose the weight in Jan? That way you'd have some muscle to show when you drop the BF. Lift heavy, eat, and sleep.

Oh and welcome by the way.

This isn't a horrible idea.

[Gainsdalf the Whey]

Why not take these next few months to bulk up and then lose the weight in Jan? That way you'd have some muscle to show when you drop the BF. Lift heavy, eat, and sleep.

Oh and welcome by the way.

If you lift big and eat a surplus now, you'll put on muscle and fat. What that means is that ocme competition you'll have a little more fat to burn but also have a lot more msucle to burn it, which makes for easier weight loss.

[Squeeealer]

If you lift big and eat a surplus now, you'll put on muscle and fat. What that means is that ocme competition you'll have a little more fat to burn but also have a lot more msucle to burn it, which makes for easier weight loss.

Wow, you guys! Thanks!

This is an awesome idea! Now I have to come up with a workout plan. When I warned you guys that I would bombard with questions, I decided I'll try to post them in the correct forums instead of doing it here. Thank you so much for all your help, and any more input is greatly appreciated.

I'm off to go post on the workout routine forum about how a "lift heavy" workout routine!