Just Starting

[pezjunkie]

Hello all,

I'm a big guy and have been all my life as a freshman in high school i was 6 foot and 300 pounds. I played sports in High school, football, baseball, track and bmx. Then when I was 17 I severely broke my foot resulting in many surgeries to fix it. It was never the same. I slowly stopped playing sports and riding bikes because of the pain, eventually ending up in a wheel chair. After many years I finally had my foot fixed correctly but then my kidneys failed and was told I had 6 months to live. That was 4 years ago. i decided I wanted to change my life. I quit my job as a personal assistant for a CFO of an investment company. I bounced around through a bunch of jobs that I didnt like. Eventually I started to work in entertainment, specifically in live theater, and I loved it. I found myself competing against people 10 years my junior. When I'm not doing theater I work in the concert industry. I spend up to 16 hours a day building and removing concerts. I.E. lights, speakers, props and concert stages. It's a tough physical job involving pushing, pulling and lifting heavy things for hours. At this point I am having trouble finishing out my day. I need strength and endurance. I started in january of this year at 330 pounds. I changed my diet and started walking. Today i am 259 pounds and i run 3 to 4 days a week and up to 4 miles at a time. I have my first 5k in two weeks. I want to get faster, fitter and in general be in better shape than i was in high school. I want to stop being wiped out after work. I want to be able to hang with the 20 year olds that I work with. I want to be a better me.

[ihulke]

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[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Awesome story, glad to have you as a fellow rebel! It sounds like you are doing well with running, have you considered strength training?

[Laureleye]

You a roadie, or do you just do stuff locally? My sister was a theatre tech, so I kind of get what you're doing. Knowing what I do, I'm particularly impressed that you're managing a good diet - clearly you're working hard at this. I agree with tanktimus, strength training sounds like a good idea. There are some fairly short workouts, such as the 20-minute hotel room workout that you might be able to work in fairly well a couple or three times a week. Check out some workouts here.