Hey Ya

[tomkai]

I stumbled across this site while killing time at work today, (through the Google Talk that was just posted), and this looks like exactly what I need. I played soccer incessantly all through high school, and a few years on, I'm still holding on to being a little in shape. I'd like to go back to being actually in shape, but I've always had trouble with motivation and putting together a solid work out plan. Time to get back on that. I hope this can be the turning point in the battle, so see you guys around the forum.

First goals:

Run a noncompetitive 5k in under 25 minutes - I can pull off a 5k in about that time with no training so long as I'm competing. This is my test of self will and dedication.

Do a pull up - As a soccer player, my upper body is incredibly weak compared to my legs. I'm tired of that

Drop 10 lbs - This will mostly be a metric to track my progress. I know I'm a bit overweight right now, but I'm not sure what a comfortable weight for me is. I'm hoping an uptick in activity will push this along, but to help it I will only eat fast food with friends plus one meal by myself, and I'm cutting my soda consumption to one 12 oz can per day. I've tried going cold turkey on both of those before and failed, so maybe setting more realistic goals will help. Depending on how quickly it goes, this will help me plan out future levels.

Time line:

My goal is to achieve all of these by the middle of August, so I can start Level 2 with the beginning of the school year.

Achievement bonus:

If I stick with this, I'm thinking about picking up a pair of the Vibram Five Fingers. I've always loved running barefoot, and this should make running in the city a bit more fun.

Any suggestions?

[Parody of Virtue]

Hi! OK, I'll share my noob wisdom with you:

Re diet: focus on what you *do* want to eat, not what you don't, cos that's when you miss things. My goal is to eat more protein and when I'm full of hard boiled eggs there's just no room for chips

Re weight: If you're working to build muscle in your upper body your weight will likely go up. What might be more effective is to measure your waist then track if you lose inches around your gut. Also, measure your chest and arms and track as they get bigger

Do you have a battle log yet? I'm really digging being able to track my progress, and there's a lot you can pick up from reading other people's personal journeys.

[tomkai]

Ah, those are great tips. I'm not sure how to choose my diet by just saying what I do what to eat (I enjoy lots of variation), but that'll give me something to ponder. Also, watching my waistline instead IS really what I should be doing; I've been wanting to cut down on that for one of my fall activities. Any suggestions on how to set a goal for that though? I'm not really sure how quickly inches fall off there, and I don't want to make level 1 too hard to get through, just something that gets me into the habit and encourages me to keep with it before really buckling down.

I started my log last night. I'll be cruising the forums later for people to follow. Sounds like there's one person I can follow who's already given me some good advice. Thanks!

[CapN_Tommy_Sunshine]

Welcome to the Rebellion! Look around and ask any questions you may have. We are a great group here, and very helpful.

[Parody of Virtue]

Ah, those are great tips. I'm not sure how to choose my diet by just saying what I do what to eat (I enjoy lots of variation), but that'll give me something to ponder. Also, watching my waistline instead IS really what I should be doing; I've been wanting to cut down on that for one of my fall activities. Any suggestions on how to set a goal for that though? I'm not really sure how quickly inches fall off there, and I don't want to make level 1 too hard to get through, just something that gets me into the habit and encourages me to keep with it before really buckling down.

I started my log last night. I'll be cruising the forums later for people to follow. Sounds like there's one person I can follow who's already given me some good advice. Thanks!

Hmm, I'm not sure how quickly inches come off either, I just figured if you put on muscle weight you might not reach that weight-loss goal which would feel disappointing when you'd probably be making really good progress. Perhaps you could set up a different kind of reward system for that, incremental reward building for every inch lost?

As for food, you could set daily targets, like drinking a certain amount of water in a day, or eat 6 different veggies today - that's quite a cool one as it also allows you to get creative with the cooking - or try a new kind of meat day. There's a lot of stuff on the site about the Paleo diet which is worth a read, though I'm not following it personally because I don't eat land animals.

I'm also a fan of variety and random foods - my current aims are to eat a lot more protein (to grow muscles) and phase out grain foods while finding more veg-based carbs, though this is not as specific as I'd like because I have too much going on to plan much further (I'm trying to buy an apartment - superwoot)

[tomkai]

I think I'll just track my waistline as a bonus goal for now, that way I can make a better judgement for my second level. I'm pleased with my other goals, so once I hit those, I want to move on quickly without waiting on some arbitrary value just yet.

Those are some good food suggestions. One of my "problems" right now is that I'm living at home for the summer, so I pretty much just eat what ever is served to me (my parents are damn good cooks; I picked up the habit for a reason). Once I move out again, I'm going to have to put some serious thought into the diet for full time consideration. For now, I'm tracking what I eat on DailyBurn and trying to go for healthy snacks while cutting back on junk food, so I can make a good plan and actually stick to it. The paleo stuff does look interesting, but a lot of it flies in the face of my traditional meals. Fortunately, those aren't near as unhealthy as typical American meals, but cutting grains especially would be too much of a quality of life killer (I loves me my fresh baked bread). I definitely need to up my veg intake, though. Let me know if you happen across any good diet planning strategies since we both seem to be taking a very personalize approach, and good luck on buying the apartment! Where in the UK are you?

Also, thanks for the welcome Cap'n Tommy. Captain Tom was my messaging handle at a lab once...

[Junglizer]

You might look into getting a scale that also measures body fat. I got a decent one for about 40 bucks at Target. These are accurate enough to track changes, as long as you weigh yourself at the same time of day/week wearing (or not wearing) the same thing, you should be able to track progress fairly well.