A good place to start...

[Porkchop]

This forum looks like a good place to get down to the business of becoming more healthy/active and making real changes in health and lifestyle. Looking over the stories on this board tonight has given me some needed inspiration as well as motivation. I sincerely believe you will ALL acomplish the goals you have set for yourselves. I'll definatly be in your corner cheering all of you on. To start, my name is Ben and I live in Seattle,WA where I drive a fuel tanker truck all over the area (so I am skilled in the art of sitting) for my occupation. Im 33, 6 foot 2, 285 lbs and have been overweight since the day I was born, I dont even know what it feels like to be not overweight (skinny has never even an option). I play pick-up games of basketball every now and again and am moderatlely active with short stints of weight training, but lose interest quickly. Recently I dropped 40 pounds in 5 months (down to 270) just by not eating at night before I go to sleep. This was the most weight Ive ever lost by far. I told people it felt like putting down a giant bag of bricks you have been carrying for your entire life. Since mid october, Ive gained back 15 of those pounds already. Being less hungry and a little more jolly during these cold, crappy months sounds good in theory, but it really has its draw-backs as well. My short term fitness goal is to lose the "winter weight" by doing 30 minutes of cardio (brisk walking on treadmill) 5 days a week and a full-body routine 3 times a week. This is easier said than done, as I have turned justifying lazieness and avoiding workouts into an art form. My long term fitness goal is pretty vague. I just want to be healthy enough to do physically demanding and taxing things, (if that makes sense) and be a healthy weight. I love the outdoors and would be able to enjoy it more and more often if Im in good shape. Losing some vanity pounds would be nice too, just being honest. I am open to constructive criticism and love the open exchange of ideas of any kind. In conclusion, thank you for sharing your stories and for listening to some of mine. Good luck!!!

Cheers!!!

-Ben

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Welcome to the Rebellion! From what you've described, you may want to look into the Beginner's body weight workout or the 20 minute hotel workout, you can find them on Steve's Blog, the 20 min hotel workout especially ought to be somethign you can do on the road. Do you do a lot of overnight drives? Strength training does a lot of good for weight loss, muscle mass burns more calories than having fat does. What seems to work for a lot of people (Me included) is to alternate strength training with cardio so that the days you are doing cardio you are resting from strength training and vice versa.

[Laureleye]

For myself, I went from no weight loss to a good weight loss by doing what Tanktimus advises here; alternating cardio and strength training. Three is a challenge nearing the end now, with a new one starting 1/1/13. You sound like someone that would really benefit from setting some concrete "habit building" goals right away rather than waiting for the next challenge. Choose a guild (profession) and look through some of the others challenge threads to see what they're doing. Set some good goals, and post them at home where you can see them. Time to get rolling, right? Welcome, and we'll be looking for you in the challenge. (BTW, my husband grew up in Ocean Park/Long Beach).

[Porkchop]

Tanktimus- Thankfully I do not do any overnight drives and I'm home every night. I joined a gym recently, and with the abundance of equipment and cool machine weights everywhere, its kind of overwhelming and easy to overlook the dumbbell section. Your work smarter, not harder approach seems to be a good way to go about it. When I think of losing weight, I always think high volume training. More muscle work = more calories burned. I think at least in the beginning Im going to give the 3 day split you described a try. It sounds deceptively simple so it is probably anything but. Thanks again!

[Porkchop]

Laureleye- I took a look at some of the challenge threads as you suggested and that looks like something Id like to get into. I have to read up a little more on the specs and how to go about joining a guild and stuff (too new). It sounds like physically writing down any goals will make it more real instead of just BS. Count me in for the 1/1/13 challenge! I know that in my case, diet will be a huge part of it. Also, I made a delivery to the Long Beach area last week. In my humble opinion, highway 101 has to be one of the most scenic and underrated stretches of road in the country (especially in the summer).

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Glad you enjoyed the drive. One more suggestion if I may offer is to start easy on the weights so you don't hurt yourself. What seems to work for me is three sets of five reps per exercise, and if I can do them with the weight I have I add a little for the next time, if I can't complete 3x5 or its really hard I keep the same weight. That is by no means the only way to strength train, there are a lot of other ways to do it. I've heard a lot of good things about Stronglifts, Steve's Rebel strength guide and the beginning fitness guide Steve wrote.