Greetings!

[Rudy_eila]

Hi guys,

 

I would just like to introduce myself here. My name is Rudy, 18 years old guy, and I was recently an exchange student in the US for a year, and during that year, I managed to get my self the best body I've ever had, mainly due to taking part in so many sports, all year long (Including Soccer, Skiing and Track & Field). 

 

I have returned home about 6 months ago, and first of all, I had stopped partaking in sports for different reasons, and I was also struggling to cope back with life at home, which in turn caused me to eat without any concern to my health or body. I also began a shifts' job, which made it hard to have any stable life routine. 

 

Now I decided that I'm sick at looking at what my life has become, and at my body and that it's time to make a change! I signed up for the local GYM last week, and I got my self measured up. I was 79.2 KGs heavy, at 1.77 M high, and I had a staggering 23% fat (Compared to 11% a year or so ago). From what I've been told, my weight to height ratio, is alright, so my goals for the near future are to reduce the fat to at least 12% and regain my confidence back. From then on, I want to keep working on getting below 9% and getting a 6 pack.

 

I basically go to the gym every other day, as well as on Sunday and Monday, and for the time being, I'm doing mostly cardio exercises, but I'm going to start strength training next week. For now, I want to build up my stamina. My first 4 days at the gym basically consisted of 30 minutes of running, in which I'd aim to run over 5 KMs and consume around 500 calories. Then I would do a few back and waist strengthening exercises before moving onto an elliptical machine, aiming for another 500 calorie (Around 20 minutes). Then I'd generally work on some foot strength exercises (Around 6 of them) before finally doing around 3 ab exercises. 

 

More importantly, I read about the Paleo diet, and I'm doing my best to follow it. I'm trying to eat as less carbohydrates as I can and as much protein as I can at the same time. 

 

On top of that, I try to play Soccer and Volleyball whenever I can. Whenever we can get a few friends together and play soccer, we do, so I play about once every week or two. 

 

I'm happy to have found this forum, and I hope I'll be here for the long run. Please let me know if you have any suggestions for me.

 

Thanks,

Rudy

[Basement Cat]

Welcome to the rebellion, Rudy!

 

You have some very good goals there! Strength training is awesome! Question: you say you want to get yourself in better shape heart wise. Does that mean you want to be able to run long distances or get your ticker to come back down to normal in less time?

 

If the latter, high intensity interval training might be a better option. Read about it here.

 

As for the paleo diet, it's not necessarily a high protein diet. It's usually tons of veggies with a moderate amount of meat. Here's the NF article about it.

 

With that said: good luck with your goals and keep us posted!

[Rudy_eila]

Hi Renegade,

 

Thanks for the warm welcome mate! 

 

What I was trying to say when I said that I'm trying to get in better shape, heart-wise is that I'm trying to build up my stamina back to the way it used to be when I ran track and played soccer in the US. The word "Stamina" simply didn't come to me at the time, so I was struggling to form my sentence. I just want to focus on building my stamina up in the first few days, as I believe that will help a lot with all kinds of exercises in the future.

 

I have also looked at your link for high intensity interval training, and that definitely looks like something to try at one point! I LOVE sprinting much more than jogging, and to be honest, I hate long distance running, but I've always liked sprinting, that's what I did when I ran track anyway.

 

Regarding the Paleo diet, I actually forgot to mention that I'm eating TONS of vegetables along. I have also purchased Paleo Central for my Android today. However, I'm afraid it's a little tough for me to eat moderate amounts of meat, as meat is my favourite thing in this whole world, and I simply need it to feel full. For examply, an hours or so ago, I just had a HUGE bowl of Salad (Cabbage, Tomatoe, Cucumber, Onions, Lemon, Salt and Olive Oil), and by huge I mean enough to fill 3 - 4 people, along with 4 pieces of oven-cooked beef, and I went for a 30 minutes walk after, and now I'm starting to get hungry again. My metabolism is relatively high. 

 

Now I'll simply keep on exercising and hope for the best! I'm going to get my self measured up again on Friday (After a week and a half of training - I know it's short) and see if I'm making any progress, or if I should make adjustments to my workout plan.

 

Thanks,

Rudy