Hello & Thanks!

[scotticus]

Hey everybody, I’ve been lurking for a while but decided to finally create an account and join the discussions. After writing this, I realized it’s pretty long. So, if anyone reads the whole thing I’ll be pretty darn impressed.

Then

In my younger days, I was an endurance athlete. I’ve been running for longer than I can remember – at least 24 of my 32 years. Cross country running was my thing up to and including University, when I was on two different varsity teams (running and swimming). Then I discovered triathlon and got a bit obsessive for a few years, trained insane hours for ½ Iron-distance races, won my age group a few times, and qualified for some of the big races. In those days I was pretty slight – during race season I was clocking about 135-140lbs (I’m 6’1â€).

Inevitably, I burned out. Hard. Started drinking a bit, got lazy, and developed less than stellar eating habits.

Fast forward to grad school. This is when things started to go down hill. I lived on a steady diet of coffee, scotch, and cigarettes. My smoking habit eventually escalated to pack-a-day proportions. Physical activity more or less ceased.

Then I finished school and things got worse. To my chagrin a Masters in liberal arts didn’t get me a great job the day after graduation. The partying escalated. With out any job prospects, I moved into my best friend’s laundry room. Yes, that’s right. Laundry room.

Surprisingly, this was not the worst of it. Just after vacating my dingy basement accommodations, I got into a very unhealthy relationship with a girl. This resulted in yet more smoking and drinking. We also lived right beside an amazing pizza joint, so you can just imagine what my diet was like during those days – lot’s of vitamin P1 (pizza) and P2 (poutine).

I figure that this is when I became a skinny, fat man. You know, the kind of guy that looks ok while fully clothed, but is really packing a serious pygmy belly and maybe even some moobs?

And so things stayed for a few years. Aside from some surfing and skateboarding, I didn’t do too much. But eventually I met a nice girl, got married, and had a baby. I quit drinking.

Although life was pretty good, I managed to gain more weight, topping out at about 206lbs.

Now

About a month ago, I discovered NF. Something clicked. I’ve always hated the gym and lifting weights, having always preferred to be outside. But I read those articles about Saint and Spezzy – to say that they were inspiring is a huge understatement. I dug out my old weight bench from high school, and started cleaning up my diet.

Then I read the Paleo Diet and started to clean up my eating even more (I’m probably 90% paleo as of last week).

Now I’m pushing myself as hard as I can 3-4 days a week doing deadlifts, squats, presses, etc. I feel really fortunate that my university swimming coach was also a power lifter, so I have the benefit of some being exposed to some solid instruction. It helps. I’m also running or doing yoga on the off days, eating clean and really cutting down the smokes.

As you can imagine, I’m feeling about a million times better than I did a month ago. I’m presently @ 193lbs, and I think that something resembling muscle is starting appear in various places. I’m sleeping better, and have a ton more focus.

So, umm… Huge thanks, Nerd Fitness!

Because of work, the daily commute, and the baby, it’s a little tough to get out of the house sometimes. So I’m posting here in order to start making myself a little bit more accountable, to publish goals, and to make some like-minded friends (and hopefully some progress, too).

As it stands, this is where I would like to be in about 8-12 months:

- do at least one pull-up from a dead hang, preferably more (presently able to do none)

- bench press my body weight (currently doing sets in the 120-130lb range)

- hold a 60 second plank (currently able to manage 30s)

- deadlift 300+ lbs (I’m currently maxing out on what I have available – 150lbs)

- vanquish my paunch (substantial but shrinking) and man-boobies (they’re small, but they’re still there)

- completely quit smoking for the double win (health AND finances)

See you all around!

Scott

[Dio]

Congratulations Scott! It's awesome to see that you're already making progress, and you definitely seem like you want to make a difference in yourself.

If you want accountability and inspiration/encouragement, I'd recommend joining the 6-week challenge that starts on Monday. Being on paleo and with dedicated effort, you'll find you can do MANY of those goals within six weeks that you thought would take 6 months. Some of them would make great S.M.A.R.T goals.

Good luck, and I hope to see you around the forums more!

Dio.

[scotticus]

Dio - thanks for the encouragement. What is a S.M.A.R.T. goal? I'm definitely up with the challenge. I'll check out the challenge forum (which I assume exists) and see what's up.

FWIW, I do want to make a change. Bad. I used to always judge those pudgy, moobed, guys that lurk around the office... Until I realized that I was already a long way down that road. Plus, now that I have a daughter I want to a) set a good example and be alive well into her adulthood.

[Tom Kenobi]

FWIW, I do want to make a change. Bad. I used to always judge those pudgy, moobed, guys that lurk around the office... Until I realized that I was already a long way down that road. Plus, now that I have a daughter I want to a) set a good example and be alive well into her adulthood.

I feel you man. I've got three litle girls, outnumbered 4 to 1 at home including momma ;-) . There is nothing more rewarding than being strong enough to be able to pick up your 10year old girl repeatedly. My chin/pull/dip tower is in our living room and if i am running behind on my workout early in the morning they see me getting it done, so its great to give them that example. Its also rewarding being strong enough to lift them up to the pull bar and give them assists as they try to do what daddy is doing.

I'll defer to dio for the explanation of SMART.

[smedly]

That's quite the life you've had! Glad to hear you are motivated and have realistic goals. You should do the next 6 week challenge so we can help motivate you and give even more advice.

[Dio]

S.M.A.R.T: specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely. And here is a great post on how to set good goals.

The new challenge starts monday, so I'm assuming a moderator will put it up shortly. I'd recommend looking through other people's to get an idea of what others do/go through.

Good luck!