Brand New Rebel

[fieroandrew]

Heyya everyone.

My name is Andrew and I actually had found nerdfitness a month ago or so, but just recently decided to take the plunge and join the community.

A little about me - I enlisted in the Army straight out of high school and got out almost 2 years ago. While I was in, I had the structure and obvious accountability to stay in shape. I was never much of the running type, and so I mostly strength trained. When I got out and was dumped back into the real world, I suddenly lost all the external structure and accountability. I then discovered the "joy" of fast food all over again. I would constantly attempt to start a workout routine, but I didn't have a support group to help me stay on track, so after a week or two, I would fall off the band wagon. I finally graduated college this past December and decided that enough was enough. I talked with one of my old high school friends who suggested that I give myself a tangible goal and who also offered to help keep me accountable for my fitness. When I just spouted some general goals "run more," "build my endurance," "lose weight," etc. she suggested a overarching goal with an actual deadline. She suggested that I train for a marathon in October. With no better goals sitting in my brain, I agreed to do that. As I started my running regiment, I realized that I was going to need to focus on some smaller goals first. With that in mind, I've decided that my first and biggest goal is to drop back down to 195lbs. Right now, I'm clocking in at about 275lbs, so I have a little ways to go.

So far, I've been pushing myself to complete the beginner's circuit as fast as I can. I started out being able to complete it in about 35 minutes, and today my time was 23 minutes (3 cycles). The next time I complete it, I plan on adding another cycle and making it a little more difficult. Once it warms up, I'm wanting to be in shape enough to do the playground workout.

The most immediate benefit that I've seen so far is that my blood pressure has dropped like a rock. A month ago, my blood pressure was sitting around 140/90, and yesterday when I went to the doctor, it was at 123/77. Even my doctor was shocked that it had dropped that much with no medications.

So that's me in a nutshell. While I might not know much about total body workouts, I have plenty of experience with heavy weight training, and I'm more than happy to share what I know and to support everyone (both at my level, higher, or lower) as they need it. It's much easier to lose weight and train with a group, so let's all work together to achieve our goals!

[Laureleye]

Glad you found us Andrew.  Your friend gave you brilliant advice - small goals to work yourself up.  We'll have a challenge starting up in a couple of weeks, so be thinking about a few goals.  You can look around the current adventurers challenge thread and see what we're all doing.  Welcome to the rebellion.

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Sounds like you have a great plan.  Thanks for your service by the way. I do have one question, do you even want to run a marathon? If you were never into running in the service, A marathon might not be something you want to do.   

[fieroandrew]

Honestly, a marathon doesn't hold a lot of interest in me. While I've started enjoying running, I still don't know if I can keep myself interested while I run for hours. I just know myself too well and know that if I have no major goal than I'm far more likely to curl up on the couch. I sat down and made my overarching goals, but I'm struggling to really break them up into smaller challenge sized goals. I have them all typed up (at home), so if someone has some time, could someone help me break them into smaller goals.

[Laureleye]

Honestly, a marathon doesn't hold a lot of interest in me. While I've started enjoying running, I still don't know if I can keep myself interested while I run for hours. I just know myself too well and know that if I have no major goal than I'm far more likely to curl up on the couch. I sat down and made my overarching goals, but I'm struggling to really break them up into smaller challenge sized goals. I have them all typed up (at home), so if someone has some time, could someone help me break them into smaller goals.

If you want to send me a message, I'll give you my 2 cents.  Just hover over "Laureleye" and click send message.