It is by will alone I set my mind in motion

[bartonshelvin]

Hello everyone.

I have already posted a thread in another section so this introduction is perhaps a little late. I am a 30 year old man, I have an office-based IT job. I currently weigh 115kg/253lb. I am 178cm/5'10" tall. I don't know what my body fat percentage is but it can't be good. 81 days ago I was 126kg/277lb. I have been using My Fitness Pal to monitor my eating and a pedometer (which I am not happy with). This is going well, I'm happy with my progress but soon I won't be able to reduce what I eat any more so I need to increase my activity. I want to change my life but I'm very anti-exertion: for various reasons this has very negative associations for me. I'm getting married in the spring next year and I will be going on an activity holiday in October.

 

My resting heart rate is higher than I'd like it to be, and most kind of exertion of any kind get it shooting up pretty fast - although the recovery rate isn't bad. When I was in school I used to swim and dive for my school and local club - I wasn't bad. I also used to compete in junior swim/run duathlons. When I was in university I used to play on the lacrosse team. I now undertake no regular physical activity.

 

In the last week this has been changing. I have been getting up at 05:30 to go to the gym or jog. I live near a park which has gentle rolling slopes and a circular path of about 2km. I have been to the gym 3 times this week (possibly for the first time in my life). On Tuesday I went to the gym and did a fairly unchallenging cardio programme but I came to this forum and got some advice to try Strong Lifts 5×5 which I have now done twice at the starting weights. In addition to this I started C25K on the other days and I have the last week 1 session tomorrow morning.

 

My goals are multiple but in roughly chronological order of predicted achievement:

• Complete C25K and actually be able to run/quickly jog 5km
• Complete 12 weeks of SL 5×5 and see where I get to then
• Maybe be able to do a pull up (my first ever!)
• Get my weight under 100kg/220lb
• Eventually get my BMI to normal/healthy (for the first time in my adult life)
• Win

With the advice and encouragement of people on this forum I have taken the first steps and although I can't say I'm a convert to this whole active lifestyle thing... I do look forward in a way to my next jog/gym session to prove that I can do the next one. Then the one after that. Then the one after that.

 

As I said I've been doing this for about as long as Phileas Fogg spent travelling now, and although I can't see any difference in the mirror, like Shakira's hips the scales don't lie. Hopefully this will continue.