Greetings and Salutations!

[swaite]

Found this place from someone on fitocracy.com. It's pretty awesome! I read through a ton of the blog posts. Great stuff.

I'm a 27 year old Linux geek/Sys Admin, with a BA in Music and Computer Science, and an RHCE. You know, your average, run of the mill geek. I'm painfully out of shape, and really want to not be so. I ran into some issues with undiagnosed lactose intolerance, my diet and eating were all out of wack, and I dropped from 186 to 172 in under a month, diet alone. While I've never been fat (far from it), and I have a pretty fast metabolism, I had developed a gut from all the free candy and soda at my office, as well as my general lack of movement. When my fiancee went to rub my stomach after I got sick, she noted that my belly had dramatically reduced in size ("Hey, where did it go?" ... still don't know how to take that). Now that my diet has normalized, some, I've picked up another pound or two.

My goals...

Keep the weight off. Rather, keep the fat off. I think I'm around 13-14% body fat, right now, if I can get down to 10%, I'll be happy, regardless of any weight gain.

Complete the Couch to 5k program. My fiancee and I have started this (only done Week 1, Day 1, so far). Once we get rolling on the program, I plan on registering for a 5k race for added incentive.

Complete the 100pushup program. Did the Initial Test today, 22 pushups. Went down for 23, and never got back up.

Complete the 200 squat program. I haven't started yet, I cracked my knee off of the soap dish in my shower on Monday, and it's still bugging me when I try and stand up with weight on it. Hopefully I'll get that rolling.

Complete the 50 pullup program. This one isn't out yet, and I don't have a place to do pull-ups, yet, so it's on hold. At my peak physical "fitness" in high school, I think I could do 2 pullups. Now I probably can't do any. I'll take my time, and try and get this going as the opportunity arrives. We're moving in a week or three, and I'll have a place to do pullups there.

Clean up my diet - I eat too much candy, and drink too much soda. I don't think I'll go full on paleo, but I might try and structure a couple meals a week in that fashion, if not more. I also drink absurd amounts of Iced Tea, but I'm not willing to give that up. Yeah, it's a lot of calories. I'm not concerned. I've already started snacking throughout the day, I have baggies full of almonds, pumpkin seeds, dried edamame, and pistachios. I'm working on replacing the huge amounts of white pasta I eat with "better" grains like brown rice, quinoa, etc.

So...that's me in a nutshell. I also need to wake up earlier, and go to bed earlier. I'd like to try and get my exercise in before work, instead of before bed...

[Denny]

Welcome to the rebellion! Make sure you jump onto our 6 week challenge and tell us frequently how you're progressing! We started last monday so it's still a good time to join!

[Siha]

Welcome! Good luck with the C25K! I have heard great things about it.

If I might recommend marksdailyapple.com and possibly the Primal Blueprint for your eating pleasure? There's a lot of great recipes on there that might help you keep your diet (diet as in what you eat, not what you don't eat) nice and flavorful while being healthy.

[swaite]

Thanks guys!

Siha - I'll check those out, thanks

Things are a little crazy with wedding planning and moving, so I'll hold off on the challenges until this settles down, some. I'll just work out when I can, and eat as best as I can.