Signing on

[pirateradio]

Couldn't resist using that title (my handle is from one of my recently found favorite movies, "Pirate Radio", what do you want from someone joining a website called "Nerd Fitness?").

 

Okay, so who am I and who are my droids ("You don't need to concern yourself about them, they aren't the droids you seek"). Seriously, or as seriously as I can put it, I am proof that nerds existed even in the dark ages, having just hit the age of 50 and realizing I actually saw the Star Wars episodes IV-VI when IV didn't even have a number and Lucas hadn't gone over to the dark side..... having hit the time of life changes, kid off to college, empty nest and all that, both my wife and I realized it was time to try and live a little, and reaching out to be the people we want to be, rather than what other people seem to think we should be. As often happens with couples, it is one person who drives the process, and in our case it is definitely my better half. She found a fitness and nutrition program that inspired her, given that the woman who created it is in her 40's and is, to say the least, hot:) and she has found a lot of information, like this site, that are turning out to be invaluable. In any event, within the past couple of months we have started learning seriously about nutrition, the myths and so forth, and started eating healthier.

 

For now (this won't be always this strict), it is pretty much a paleo diet, in the sense that we are not eating grains and our primary diet is greens and lean meat (and discovering how better tasting grass fed beef is from the crap you get in the store, and healthier as well).

Along with that, we have both cut out sugar, other than what we get from fruit and such....

 

So okay, what has been the result?

 

-With the nutrition changes and with the workout plan she is using (at home, using relatively simply things), she has definitely dropped weight, but more importantly lost fat and built muscle, we can see it (she is about 5'8, and her weight for many years has been above 200 pounds, easily since our son was launched from the galactic space/time continuum that generates super beings. 

 

-We both have noticed that with grains and sugar out of our diet, that our blood sugar has to have stabilized. When we get hungry, it isn't that incredible hunger that often drove us to eat carbs and such, and it is filled eating the way we are, don't have the cravings for some of the things we used to. We also are learning that even eating to sate hunger, the amount we consume is much less. I find myself going into dinner where if I bother to look at the caloric intake, it is running less than a thousand calories, sometimes I realize I  probably have eaten too little, but I just am not hungry. In my case, I haven't been actively exercising (my own fault, partially do to a nasty injury, partially cause I allowed stress and crazy job pressure to work as an excuse). 

 

-We are learning, through this site and others, that you can do strength and weight training and not bulk up (the woman on here, I think her screen name is Spezzy, was inspirational,wow), neither of us want to bulk up or get 'skinny', rather we want to end up toned and shaped (as much as possible, anyway), so if Jar Jar Binks shows up, we can kick him out of the galaxy, literally.  We probably won't be doing extreme weightlifting, but what it has shown us is what you can do with heavy weights with low reps and still not come out looking like Hans and Franz...

 

-The other thing I am reaching for is to find what really works for me and the way my life is.  It is very true it is easy to make excuses, and I have been doing that far too long, but I have the kind of life where I have at least 3 hours of commuting a day, I routinely am in my office for 9-10 hours a day, then come home and can be working until late night, then get up at 6am for another day. I would love to chuck it, believe me, but having a kid in college with the financial load on me, lots easier said than done (and then worry about little things like retirement, too:). It is a stressful job as well, intense deadlines, etc, and of course concerns that people in my age bracket tend to be some of the first dumped when things go into a downward cycle....people say get up at 4a, and work out, but when I have gone to sleep at 12am after working at home, too, there is sleep, which is so important.....

 

What I often find from exercise and fitness regimens is this concept that "if you don't have time to do all of this program, then you better not do it" or if I don't do X reps of Y exactly as they program it, well, it won't work, will cause Pluto to be downgraded to a planetoid (okay, I fess up, I didn't do 10 sets of 30 reps of the goblet squat while wearing "globo gym" branded sneakers, it was all my fault,I'm sorry, Pluto!..). Given my lifestyle and especially work and other commitments, there are times when I will have to wing it, and it is nice to see people saying "ya know what, do something, wherever and whenever you can" or "well, if you can't do 10, do 5, it is still good". 

 

I also appreciate what I have read here and other sites, that so much of this is not the exercise, it is the nutrition, and that I can do regularly, even with the stress of work I can and do eat healthy now. 

 

Okay, so now the fun stuff, where am I and where am I heading? (Christopher Columbus on the other hand didn't know where he was going, didn't know where he was when he got there, couldn't explain where he had been, and did it all on borrowed money, but that is the exception). I basically want to get myself to where I feel good about myself and my body, that if I put on something more form fitting I am not looking like a sausage stuffed into it, and wake up each day and feel like I am alive, not just slogging through life. 

 

Vital stats: 5' 11", 235 pounds, down 20 since I started with the re-aligned nutrition (not a lot of exercise).

 

Exercise program: Combined cardio and fitness, really just starting out on the fitness. 

Cardio is either an interval program on my treadmill, or my old friend, my nordic track skier that I have been made fun of, but works as part of a fitness program, amazing little unit, that is now 25 years old.....and still works. I want also to introduce swimming into it, if I can find a place to swim that a)isn't ridiculously expensive and b)fits the time I have available to do it, among other things, I love to swim, for me that isn't a chore:)

Fitness is a work in progress, will combine upper and lower body exercises (squats, romanian deadlifts, etc)  with heavier weight workouts utilizing deadlifts and bench presses (this is at least what I am planning, just starting to put it together). 

 

For the both of us, hopefully we can look at ourselves and each other and say "Wow", and enjoy the benefits of such, especially the portions that might drive puritans everywhere off the deep end ("Definition of puritan: Someone who is angry that anyone, anywhere, is having a bit of fun"...include in that some of the exercise and fitness gurus, who can't seem to understand life is about fun and being a rebel, not being a member of the Imperial guard.......).  I also am dedicating myself to making fun of every doctor who tries to give me fitness advice, like telling me a large percentage of my diet should be grains and cereals (the old food pyramid, aka let's make Cargill and ADM rich), or how the BMI table really means something (or finding out who created the BMI table, tie him to a chair and make him/her spend 3 weeks straight watching scenes from the "new" Star wars that include Jar Jar Binks, that will be my revenge). 

 

Interesting journey, look forward to sharing it with you all:)