All In

[Jacksson]

Hello nerds.  I am the typical 48 year old, former athlete who has let things get a little out of hand.  I have "tried" several times to get back in shape with limited success.  Earlier this year we did a weight loss contest at work and I did quite well following principles along the line of primal, paleo or whaterver name you like as well as information from "It Starts With Food".  I found that to be a very helpful book.  I lost about 30 lbs but unfortunately gained about half back and for whatever reason, can seem to get back in the groove. 

 

I keep bugging my wife to eat a little more clean or natural and she kept saying she needed to do the exercise and that would encourage her to eat better.  So we joined the gym.  I've done a ton of reading about the best approaches to losing fat and working out and it has taken some effort but I have convinced her at this point that hours on the treadmill and a few machines are not going to do it.  We started off easy so we dont snap off an appendage but basically we are doing a program that is similar to the popular Starting Strength, Stronglifts, 5/3/1 concepts.  Complex lifts with low reps and progressive resistance.  We are trying to lose fat so I expect the progressive part to be slower than recommended on those programs but I like the idea of working huge groups of muscles and not spending hours doing eight kinds of curls.

 

At this point I am All In.  I'm reading everything, eating well and tracking my food, and excited about the gym.

 

So, I followed a link to an article on this site and liked the information and the delivery so i poked around and found the forum.  Seems like a nice bunch of nerds so if you dont mind, I'll hang around a while.

[masarap]

Hello Jacksson,

 

Im new to the forum too.  I read a book titled, "Wheat Belly."  Its pretty good.  Ill have to check out It starts with Food.  What are the concepts behind the book?

 

Oh yeah I dont know how much of a nerd you and your wife are but my brother made a spread sheet called Final Running Fantasy basically it tracks miles and stuff but it makes it so that you level up.  And every level we would buy something new: running shorts, shirt, gps watch. "Loot" if you will.  Even though we really needed it, we would only get it if we "level up."  Big runs i.e. Big Sur Half Mara or Tough Mudder we consider our boss fights and get epic phat loots i.e. orange head band or some medal of sorts.  This actually motivated us to run as much as we could when we first started.  Just to get to our next goal.  After we toned down a bit we started doing training runs and logging them in as that.

 

Maybe try something similar with your wife start by jogging around the block or even to the corner.  little by little she will start to like it and it will become a part of her life.

[Jacksson]

The book is written by the people who do the Whole9 and Whole30 thing.  Basically it is a paleo based concept.  Eat real food, go easy on the grains kind of thing.  What I found helpful was that it talked a lot about how and why as opposed to just saying do it this way. 

 

And I like the incentive program.  I like it a lot.  Thanks.

[Guest]

Sit ye down! Welcome, welcome
Looking forward to your contributions to the forums, it sounds like you and your wife have already had quite a journey.

Good luck to you both in you endeavors!