Do. Or do not. There is no [more] try.

[Browncoat9001]

Hey everyone, I'm Matt and I am new to Nerd Fitness. I know that it isn't really important who I was and the mistakes I've made as it relates to my fitness and diet, but I feel that the reason I've decided to make a life change is related to those events. In high school I was a two-sport athlete and did marching band in the fall so fitness and weight were never an issue no matter what I ate (although I am sure I did some terrible damage to my body with my eating habits). In college the lack of exercise caught up with me and I ballooned over 200 pounds. On my 5' 7" frame this was a lot of weight to carry and my health was taking some serious damage. And without Remedies, X-Potions, or another panacea I was going to be in more trouble than even a Phoenix Down could fix. 

 

After meeting my future wife (a nurse) I followed better eating habits and exercised pretty regularly, getting all the way down to 160 and under 20 percent body fat. But I never stuck with it and have put back on about 20 pounds. I would try to exercise and try to eat right, but I always relapsed into the old bad habits. 

 

The revelation came two weeks ago. I was out of breath climbing two flights of stairs and ate a horrible dinner at BW3s in the same day and asked myself why I was doing this. It was time to stop trying, so I channeled my inner Yoda and got to work. I took a picture on day one without a shirt and will continue to do so every month. I am starting a mini-blog on my Facebook account to hold myself accountable. And I will only weigh myself at the beginning of every week, focusing on fitness instead of a number. Being so incredibly out of shape doing the first weight training on Rebel Fitness (with an 8 pound weight) and cardio today about killed me, but a little soreness in the muscles I can live with as the results are that much sweeter.

 

My short-term goals are the following:

-Remove the sugary bad stuffs from my diet

-Eat more veggies

-Get in shape enough to do 5 (then 10, 15, 20) push ups

-Be able to finish a round of pyramid interval training without passing out  

-Run a 5k

 

I will add more goals as time goes on, but I want to be one here mainly to encourage others and get some support myself. No one in my life eats healthy or exercises regularly, so I am on my own on this one. Let's go and get this, never giving up!  

 

[KneelBeforeZod]

Newbie too, with many of the same goals. Good luck! You can do this, young padawan. 

[optimistsmile]

I like your goals!  They are difficult, but doable.  I used to HATE pushups... but now that I can do them, they are almost fun (almost, not quite- very satisfying though). I struggle with the veggie thing, too... I do like juicing them, not so much eating them.

My goals:

Remove some of my stomach flab so that I can see a six-pack (not a scary one, just a normal one)

Cut my mile times to under 8 minutes

Eat more veggies

Reduce overall bodyfat

Get strong enough to do diamond pushups without falling over

Run a 5k, then a 10k (!)

Start bicycling

 

Again, they are doable.  I have never posted my goals; now they are out there for people to see so I have to step up.  We can do it!

[Browncoat9001]

Thank you for all of the support. I feel like we can all do it and far surpass our goals, but for me it is about doing more than just the minimum required. I have been a fairly lazy person most of my life, but hey, if I am working on life changes why can't that be part of them? So I'm up now at 7 when I have the day off of work and going for a run and then doing Zumba (I was supposed to have Zumba class today but it was cancelled for the holiday, boo).

 

To Athena: I do have her support in our home, but there is still a small amount of temptation. She has no desire to make the same kinds of dietary changes I do at this point. But we have a system that works for us. She is a nurse so if it a day she works (12 hour shift) I cook. If she doesn't like what I make for myself, then I just make her something else (she hates carrots, mushrooms and peppers). When it is an off day she cooks, but she either makes something to fit my diet or makes me something else. The only time that it can be a conflict is in snacking and what we drink. I have healthier snacks like nuts (almonds, cashews, pistachios), natural peanut butter (this is my indulgence, 2-4 tablespoons a week), and sliced up peppers and broccoli. She likes popcorn, ice cream, and chips.I don't mind and find that I can easily resist eating them, but she had helped by buying single bags of chips and a canister of popcorn to do on the stove top. If I don't see a big bag of chips or don't see a bunch of leftover popcorn she didn't eat, then I'm less likely to eat them. The ice cream and the 12 pack of Coke always in the fridge (her vice) are the worst temptations I have to fight everyday. All in all she is a big help though. 

 

To Zod: Thank you. I still have a lot to learn, and I hope that all of my masters can show me the path to success. But only I can walk that path, no one can make me. 

 

To Optimistsmile: I know what you are saying about the veggies! Up until about 3 years ago I hated most vegetables, and the only way I could eat them was by juicing them. I knew I should eat them whole (and in a perfect world raw) because they lose some nutrition through juicing (and cooking). So I tried such a wide variety with mixed results and finally found two I could eat that way: red, yellow, or orange peppers (not green, too bitter) and broccolli. When I found these I just ate a ton of them in my diet because it was better than no vegetables. Then over time I have tried more and more and found that I like more and more. It might just be me, but I found that when I was eating more vegetables the other ones were not as bleh as I thought they were. I even tried avocado the other day (liking it is still a work in progress).

Your goals are really cool. You have such a wide variety of things that you wish to accomplish, and I bet you will get every last one and then some. This is silly I know, but I experimented and found that if I run with a playlist of faster music I will move quicker than if it is a slower tempo beat. So all of my running playlists have moderate tempo songs for warm ups, a faster tempo for the running time, and a slow tempo for cool down and stretching. It might help for you, who knows? It does for me. And as a biker what worked for me was to use it for travel. I bought a basket and one of those kiddie trailers for transport of objects I don't have any children yet so the kiddie trailer is for groceries and other things I run to the store for! I will also detach it and ride back and forth to work, to the rec center for Zumba, and anywhere else I can reasonably go without being on a major freeway. I now use my bike a lot more than just going for a joyride. This may or may not help you, but this is what works for me. Zoom zoom. 

[Duality]

Hey Browncat9001 (is 9001 in reference to OVER 9000!!! or ISO 9001?? ), welcome to the forums

 

I was basically at a same stage when I started losing weight, I cleaned up my diet ONLY and lost my first 40 pounds. Eating right and having a good diet is 80% of the battle. BUT if you want moar (judging by your goals, you do, as anyone should, imo), you need to work your ass off, YOU will be the one making your decision, YOU will decide how hard YOU work. If YOU discipling YOUrself, YOU will get what YOU want.

 

See a patern? I'm saying this also from experience, right now I'm on a plateau (for the last few months, seems like ages though), because I'm in a big battle with myself that I need to take it a step further to lose more weight and get in better shape.

 

Often, often, often, we see when someone starts eating healthy and getting in shape, there's sort of a an aura that entises people around you to do the same and it's a great feeling to see people picking up your good habbits!

 

If ever you need anything don't be shy, send me a PM

[optimistsmile]

Oh, I definitely play pumped up music when I am running!  It helps big time.  In fact, I look crazy because I will start swinging my arms and mouthing the words, too... But it helps me move faster, and not focus so much on the quad burning.  Thanks for all those tips!  Btw, what do you think of Zumba?  I keep meaning to try it, but haven't gotten around to it, due to a minor obsession with Shaun T.  But I keep hearing good things about Zumba.

It sounds like you are well on your way to achieving your goals.  It's nice that your wife is supportive, although I hope the presence of ice cream and Coke isn't doing you in... One nice alternative to ice cream is frozen chunks of banana.  Just have them plain, or with a little bit of PB.  And if you have a nice blender, you can make ice cream out of the banana chunks.  Or you can make smoothies.  Hopefully this will help curb any temptation to eat ice cream.    And yes, as was mentioned earlier, work hard, and keep working hard.  And celebrate when you do; every day is a success when you decide to think long-term success vs short-term comforts.