Greetings

[Space_Elf]

Hello!

I used to be in fantastic shape and now I'm facing the fact that I'm clearly not. Life threw a few wrenches into my plans and my fitness declined. I was always going to get back on track the next day or week. I'd remember to eat healthy next time. If I did exercise, I'd be too tired the next day and tell myself that I'd earned my break and then start procrastinating again. Then one day I was putting on my watch and realized that I had to refasten it to a larger wrist size. I knew I was getting fat, but I'd told myself so many times that it was just a couple extra pounds. The truth is that I've put on so much weight that my wrists are larger. It kinda hurts to admit that.

I have new goals in life and a serious desire to get back into shape. I spent a lot of time thinking of ways to get myself on track and I've like the ideas presented here and really... the geekiness appeals to me.

[Laureleye]

Glad that you joined. I'm in Burbank, where are you? What kind of activity and eating are you planning on? Do you have some short-term goals in mind?

[holycalude]

Same question... What do you intend to do?

lift weights? run? Yoga/pilates?

What about what you eat and lifestyle?

[Space_Elf]

I'm located an hour or so north of San Francisco.

Right now I'm kinda focused on really basic fitness. Eat smaller portions, maybe not so much sugar or fat... For exercise, I'm just working on very short workouts that are different every day. I get bored easily, so I need to change it up now and then. Do a little bit of yoga and some push ups today, follow a ballet warm up with a bunch of jumping jacks tomorrow. My life style is pretty sedentary, I earn money by playing the Celtic harp. It means a lot of sitting around either practicing or preforming. I've recently decided that I want to enlist in the Navy, so my big goal is to get in good enough shape to pass the entrance requirements and maybe make boot camp a little easier to bear.

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Welcome aboard Space Elf! You have a good goal of enlisting, do you want it bad enough to put in the work to get there? The next step is to figure out specifically what you need to do to get into the Navy, like look up the fitness requirements for your age and gender. I would recommend you set your sights on the top of the charts, rather than the minimum passing grade, then figure out some intermediate steps along the way to rocking out the test.

[Space_Elf]

I'm already working on that.

Bare minimum to getting in would be

47 curl ups in 2 minutes

15 push ups in 2 minutes

1.5 mile run in 15 minutes

500 yard swim in 14 minutes

when I was at my most physically fit, I think I wasn't too far off from reaching the following:

101 curl ups in 2 minutes

40 push ups in 2 minutes

1.5 mile run in 11 minutes

500 yard swim in 12 minutes

Sadly, I'm nowhere close to even meeting the bare minimum right now.

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Ok, so you're not at the best you've ever been. Where are you now and how much closer to the goal can you get in three weeks?

[Space_Elf]

I think I can do maybe 2 push ups and I haven't tried curl ups yet. I haven't gone running in ages (since my sneakers fell apart and I couldn't afford to replace them) and I haven;t gone swimming since high school (2004?). I'm taking until the end of the year to figure out exactly what my limits are and figure out what a realistic set of goals might be for the next six week challenge.

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

That sounds like a good plan. Something that has worked for me is posting about my progress as its ongoing. Do you think that would help you between now and the first of the year?