Coming to you live from somewhere in the middle of the Pacific

[Quickdraw]

Howdy folks.

I'm not entirely sure how I stumbled across the site, but I liked what I read: articles on the Paleo diet, barefoot running, and generally just finding a fitness-oriented site that speaks my language. I'd been consider paleo and minimal running for a while, but Steve's writing kinda pushed me over the edge on both subjects.

About me: I'm a US Marine currently afloat in the middle of the Pacific on deployment. I'm in pretty good shape (I do 20 deadhang pullups, a max score on a core item in our physical fitness tests), but the last mile of my fitness goals are proving to be a lot harder. I'm 5'10" and 180-183 lbs. I'm comfortable at this weight but I'd like to trade about 8-10 lbs fat for muscle. I was always a big kid growing up, weighed 220 in college, and it still haunts my body. I want to see my abs (hell, so does my wife), and I want to get my 3 mile run time down from 24' to <21'. I've recruited my best friend and my brother as accountability partners, to harass me every day when I get online (and I return the favor; they've got goals of their own).

I've taken this deployment as an opportunity to shift hard into a paleo diet, I've packed a lot of beef jerky and nuts and homemade dried fruit. Too early to see any definite results yet, but I feel pretty good. On ship we've got cardio equipment everywhere, a small weight room that's usually completely packed, the flight deck to run laps, and a large open mat area downstairs with some medicine balls. Any suggestions on employing any of this stuff are welcome.

I really have no idea where to go from here on this forum, but you all seem like a friendly bunch so I figured I'd just jump in feet first. So hi!

[ebm1224]

welcome to the forum! sounds like you have some great achieveable goals in mind and way to go on getting your friends to keep you accountable. look forward to seeing you around!

[ETFnerd]

Thanks for your service. Glad to see you can get it done, even out at sea. Lmk if you have any tips on getting the abs going as I've got a project like yours going on right now.

[Quickdraw]

I've got a pretty good mixture of exercises for mix-and-match that I usually recommend to people looking to strengthen their abs. You want it?

As for SEEING abs, paleo + general fitness is my current course of action, and we'll see where it gets me. Certainly it can't do worse than what I was already doing.

[ETFnerd]

Of course. Just post it here. I've got a few books with 12 week progressions with all manner of exercises, but I've been keeping it simple with 100 inverted punching bag situps every other day. If I don't get where I want to in the next couple of months, I may decide to mix it up a little. My abs don't seem to react the way they did when I was in my 20s. :-)