A new member to The Rebellion

[brooksiejr23]

Hello everyone,

 

          My name is Britton Brooks, and I am from a small town in northern Illinois, known as Stillman Valley. I am 21 years old, I have an almost 10 month old son, and I am engaged to be married on August 29th of this year. I do work full time in the Track Maintenance department for BNSF Railway (yes this is a manual labor job, but still only helps so much.) I suppose i should start with my past, and end with my future goals.

         To start, i was always a very thin kid, that couldn't gain any weight, let alone muscle to save my life. I was extremely active when i was very young, it wasnt until mid high school when i stopped playing sports and "being active." i did take a couple of strength and conditioning classes in school, but never really took them seriously (at the time). i kept my body in decent shape by working for my friends father who is a self contractor/farmer. now by farmer i dont mean he was a large scale farmer, he farmed hay, straw, and raised many different types of animals. I also trained with a friend in my spare time, working on both Muay Thai, and BJJ (Brazilian jujitsu). the trainers we used were not at a professional place, but people we had already known with different accomplishments under there belt, one trainer was an ex-golden gloves boxer, where another one was a personal trainer who is now fighting the local ranks in MMA, working on his long term goal of going into the UFC. So, needless to say, our training was less than professional. After High School, i worked many jobs, and tried the whole school thing. When that failed miserably, multiple times, i joined the US Army. Though an amazing experience that i wish i could have continued, i was Medically Discharged with 2 weeks of training left. I learned alot in basic and my OSUT training in Ft. Benning, GA, and i did in fact gain muscle mass throughout basic. I tried to stay active after basic, but that fell through due to many of my friends from basic talking about all of there experiences with the military (not a legitimate excuse, i know) so until the last year and a half i was not able to rise above 160 pounds (i know to most that this doesnt make sense to be above that, but i am also 6'3" tall). When my Fiance and I found out we were going to be parents is when the weight gain started. i went from 160 pounds to 210 pounds in a matter of 3 months, and that is where i sit now, finding it difficult to replace the fat with muscle. To most people, i look healthier now than i did before, but to myself, it is terrible. i have always been against Dieting, mainly because i have never found one that appealed to me, or that worked for anyone i know. My biggest issue with starting a diet or working out, is that i work for the railroad fixing the tracks, which means that at any given time i could be traveling halfway across the country for work, staying in hotels, some with fitness centers, some without, and as we all know there are very few hotels with full kitchens to prepare meals, but rather a mini refrigerator and a microwave. So, if it isnt obvious what temptations lie there, microwave dinners become extremely convenient. Anywho, enough rambling on, ill get to the important stuff, the future.

          My goals and motivations are as follows:

      Goals:

  Short-term:

-Establish a healthy diet (going for Paleo)

-Establish a gym membership

-Establish workout schedule

-Deal with the BS from the guys at work (not looking forward to this one)

  Long-term:

-Drop to around 14-15% body fat before my wedding at the end of August (though i better figure out where i am actually at first)

-Drop to 9-10% by my birthday in 2016 (March 23, 2016)

-Get back into Muay Thai

-Maintain a healthy and happy lifestyle even through all of my travelling

-Once i establish some seniority at work, stay closer to home and start preparing for Spartan Races, and a local race to benefit a fallen friend (marine corp.) called The Mud Run

      Motivation:

-In basic was the best i've ever felt, health wise. I WILL have that feeling again, IF NOT BETTER.

-On one side of my family there is a history of diabetes, and on the other side hypoglycemia, i WILL NOT be effected by either.

-I WILL go my entire railroad career injury free

-I WILL set an example for my family, I am the man of the house, I must set a good example for my children and soon to be wife

-I have always by embarrassed by my family on my mothers side because they are all overweight, but worst of all they also have very bad hygiene. I WILL NOT allow myself to fall into that.

-I have always had pride in being a country boy, unfortunately, that usually gets me associated with Mullets, Beer Guts, and having no teeth. I WILL break the stereotype.

-I WILL inspire my family (not just immediate) to follow in my foot steps on the path the healthiness.

 

           So, i suppose in the long run my plans are going to be a test, at least in my mind. I started a mild workout today, using the beginners body weight work out, along with the warm up, and post stretches. Though this is only the beginning, today i realized exactly how out of shape i really am after completing only two circuits of the body weight workout in 13 minutes. This was not only a huge wake-up call, but also a huge source of motivation for me. I will also be working on incoorperating the Paleo Diet in as well, i have already started to create a grocery list comprised of solely meats, seafood, eggs, nuts, fruits, vegetables, and everything else related. the only concern i have is how hard it will be to switch from 2% milk to almond milk. I drink milk with almost every meal in the day, this is going to be rough.

          Well, i am thankful for the support i get just in people reading this alone, i hope to become progressively more active on the forums and within the community. I am new to the whole diet thing, so any advice you can give would be appreciated, though advice does not have to be limited to just dietary subjects. Thank you for reading this, and sorry for it being so long, i got carried away. 

 

Thank You,

the newest "ranger" Britton Brooks

[KyBluePreacher]

Great post Brooksie. I am new to this as well and remember those thrilling days of yesteryear! I will be here along with you and if you every need to just vent or want to share our journeys let's make certain we do it. I am doing this for God, my wife, my kids (two in college and one in fifth grade), the church I serve, my regular job, and then myself - I put myself last because I tend to be selfish if I am not careful! I figure if I make it all about them it will go better for me and grant me the accountability I need to forge through. Blessings peace today, Steve

[Jett]

I love that you're super-motivated now, and can say exactly where you're trying to go and exactly why you want to get there. That attitude is bound to get you pretty far.

 

I'm trying to figure out how to change my diet, too. I wonder if it might be easier for you to start with a partially paleo diet at first, keeping your 2% milk and maybe a few other favorite foods that it would be hard to give up right away. Then eliminate one of those non-paleo foods per week, until you're eating full paleo. As Steve says, willpower is a finite resource... so if you're using all your willpower to keep up with the workouts, or to not eat certain foods, it might be difficult to stick to a ton of huge changes at once. Even if you backslide at first, just keep going one change at a time.

 

EDIT to add another suggestion: what if you prepared paleo-friendly meals in ziploc baggies before you travel, and keep them in a cooler/lunch box until you get to the hotel, then transfer them to the fridge. Then, instead of grabbing an unhealthy microwave dinner, you can zap a healthy one instead.

[brooksiejr23]

Well, on the food while travelling topic, one thing i thought about on my way home from work this morning, is that i could just go buy a small slow cooker for when i travel, and possibly prepare meals in the slow cooker and put it in a Ziploc bag to save for the rest of the week. I have access to a grocery store anywhere i go, so the biggest issue really is the storage space and no good way to cook. Now, i haven't really looked into how many options i have for recipes with a slow cooker, it was just an idea that came to mind. I have already started to change my diet as well, not everything is perfect yet, but as a whole i have completely cut out manufactured foods and tried to focus more on eating meats and other foods high in protein. Unfortunately the current job i am on has hours that change pretty much constantly, and working in the big city (Chicago  ), i have an hour and a half drive both ways, and we have been working 12 hour shifts due to the weather, which generally means, i come home, clean up, and then go to sleep. I wake up about 6 hours later, and then eat and head right back out the door. This makes it really difficult, in my mind, to find time to cook before i leave, so I am pretty much forced to grab food wherever the rest of the guys stop. At times this isn't an issue because the company pays for at least one meal when we work over 11 hours, but when we have a lot of work and just have to stop at a gas station, it gets very difficult. Luckily last night I had eaten before i went in, but when we did stop, the gas station had a small selection of fruit, and i bought some no sodium sunflower seeds. It doesn't usually work out that well at a gas station though lol. Anyways, thank you two for the support, it really does help.

 

 

Edit: after doing about 10 minutes of research on slow cooking meals for the Paleo diet, that is by far my best option, there are a few websites specifically dedicated to crock pot meals for the Paleo diet. I have also found many recipe books for sale on this as well, so the resources are definitely there.

[avataris]

Great intro Brooksie! Welcome to the rebellion! It sounds like you have plenty of great motivators to keep you focused on your goals. Like you, I strive to reach the level of fitness I had in Boot Camp. I figure if we did it once we can do it again!

[DrFeelgood]

Hidey-ho neighbor, I'm on the Iowa side of the Quad Cities.  Lots of MMA around here, but I have no interest in being more than a fan.   I'm too old for fighting now anyway.

 

Sounds like you're starting off on the right foot, and you're definitely in the right place.  Plenty of advice and support to be found here.  It's a good time to start thinking about your goals in specific and measurable terms for the next challenge.  Spezzy's tacked post in the Rules/F.A.Q. subforum is a good place to get started with how the challenges and guilds work:  link to post.

 

Welcome aboard and best wishes for your success.