I see all this potential, and I see squandering.

[Legal Eyes]

Greetings and salutations.

I'm Kristian, a.k.a. Legal Eyes. You can call me "Kristian" or "Legal." I'm new to NF, obviously, but I think I'm going to like it here. I first found NF earlier this year when I was searching for information on how to get started in parkour. I'm not anywhere near ready to start trying to train for that, so right now I am just trying to get in shape---burn some fat, build some muscle, etc.

I've never been the athletic type, but I lost some weight in my early teens, and I really looked great until the start of college. Well, now I think I looked great. Back then I always thought I looked terrible and fat because I wasn't super thin like the other girls I knew. When I started college, I started putting on weight---about 50-60 lbs.---and my health took a massive downturn. At 19, I was diagnosed with a rare disease I've had since early childhood: Behcet's Disease. I was placed on a Colcrys (then called colchicine) and omeprazole regimen to keep my digestive health in balance, my flares nonexistent, and my incidental ulcerations to a minimum. But now, four years down the road, I often forget to take my medications, and that leaves me vulnerable to illness, generally feeling like crap, and complete demotivation.

My parents, my husband, and I are planning to get a gym membership sometime around the end of August or beginning of September. I want to work out at least 3 days a week there, but I also don't want to wait that long to get started. So, I figure, I can work on doing the Beginner Body Weight Workout for now, as a sort of gym prep, so that I don't kill myself my first day. Right now I can only do the first set, and any more puts me in muscle failure. I'm trying to look at completing the other two sets as a goal, rather than seeing my lack of completion as a total failure. Sometimes optimism is beyond me, but I'm working on it.

Right now, I don't really know what my ultimate goal is, because I don't know how fast I'll progress once I get started. I do know that I'm tired of being a lump of cookie dough; I want to be carved out of wood. So yeah.

TL;DR: I'm a fat kid who wants to be ready for the zombie apocalypse, or something. Hi!

[keliswicked]

Welcome to NF!!!

 

 

I'm happy to hear that you're taking your health into your hands, especially considering the troubles you've had in the past!  The Beginner Bodyweight Workout is brutal for most people who are just starting out - you're not alone! But the first few times are by far the toughest and after that it'll get so much easier.  

 

If you want to add in a little healthful exercise before you can start at the gym, I'd also recommend walking as frequently as possible.  Even just walking a mile or two a day you'll start to notice it gets easier to walk longer distances, which I found to be very reassuring when I wanted to start losing weight.

 

Welcome again, this place is the best!

[Legal Eyes]

Thank you, keliswicked and Athena!

I found the Beginner routine to be a lot more challenging on a strength level, but a lot less challenging on a cardio level, than other "beginner" routines. I was sweating, breathing hard---but not coughing/wheezing/suffocating---and, from the shakiness in my limbs, I knew I wouldn't make it through another set in good form. So I stopped, drank about 750mL of water, and did a total body stretch.

I like this routine a lot though. Other beginner circuits I've attempted have left me half dead in the cardio department, with little showing in strength. And to top it all off, they weren't as simple as this routine. Instead of just doing squats, they had me doing static quarter squats with twisting punches while hula-hooping and reading Dickens. Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating a little, but I just feel more accomplished with this routine, because the exercises are the real deal, no BS.*

I wish I could walk. I don't have a physical disability, but finding a good time and place to walk will be difficult for me until I get the gym membership and can hit the elliptical or treadmill, because I do not feel safe walking at home. I live in a very rural area, so there are no sidewalks, and my road (a back road stretching from one state highway to another) is a very curvy one, on which people often speed anywhere from 20-30mph over the 35mph limit.

I did about 15-20 minutes of cardio yesterday afternoon, playing Just Dance 3 on my Wii. It works for me because I have fun breaking a sweat, and the music keeps me from glancing at the clock every two minutes. I know it probably isn't as good as having a nice 20 minute walk, but anything that gets my heartrate up is better than nothing, right?

Right now, I think my two biggest hurdles will be the DOMS (24 hours post-BBW and I'm starting to tighten up and feel it), and the push-ups. I do assisted push-ups, and I can only make it about halfway down to the floor and back. I'm hoping that, with time and dedication, I'll be able to do regular push-ups to do this routine properly.

Thanks again, guys!

*I'm sure there are people who love the kind of routines I just described, and that's great. They just aren't for me.

[Pretzle]

You'll be fine with the push-ups! When I started I couldn't do a single proper push-up and started with desk push-ups (sometimes I even did wall push-ups instead). It doesn't matter where you start, as long as you do start. Just work your way up to 'real' push-ups (Other forms are REAL as well, just different!) and before you know it you'll be first doing just one standard push-ups and then you'll progress to 3, 5 until finally you'll be able to do the 10 as is suggested in the beginner BW circuit  

 

Dancing games are great, too. I play Stepmania sometimes, and I'm not sure it's 'not as good as walking', too. It's different, but for me definitely increases my heart rate a lot more than just walking. It used to give me a muscle ache similar to what I got from running when I first started out. And it's fun, which is very important.

 

Just keep it up, join in a challenge if you feel like it (they're fun, especially your first one ) and see what you can do. You'll probably surprise yourself!

[Legal Eyes]

I used to do DDR in high school for exercise and I really enjoyed it. And I'm thinking of doing the next challenge, actually.