Found

[Waldo]

Hi, I'm Jay. Been a lurker for a while. Taking a break from my football obsession for the time being so I decided to join the forum.

I used to be the skinny kid way back in HS/college, but sitting at a desk all day (I'm an engineer) and drinking beer caught up with the midsection. I've tried to lose weight in the past (and vice versa gain it in the long distant past) but never stuck with it. Until recently.

When I weighed myself on 9/11 I was up to 263 lb. Very unhealthy and just started to feel old (felt big and bloated, with no energy, and my knees were in constant pain). My first child/son was born last spring and that isn't the dad I wanted for him. So I decided to change, and since then I'm down to 221 as of my last check. I've gotten a lot of great advice here.

I'm not on a particular diet, instead I count calories, with the assistance of my tricorder (otherwise known as a smartphone). Being the nerd that I am, numbers work good for me. Over time I've learned how to eat better, really just the concept to not eat crap, crap in general being the stuff not found in the perimeter of the grocery store (and a good % of restaurant food). Every now and then I just peruse the store for a while and look at labels.

When I first started my journey, along with watching my calories like a hawk, I started some easy exercising, walking on the treadmill we have at home. I made a few sad attempts at jogging and ended up hurting my knee (or otherwise making the existing condition (tendonitis) significantly worse). Turns out that my legs were just too weak. Instead of backing down from this I treated it as an obstacle to overcome, and added weight training to my routine. Started with bands to help out my knees. Thus began a constant quest to level up my weekly routine.

Some goals I've thus far conquered:

1) I wanted to be down 230 lb by my Christmas vacation. Conquered right after Thanksgiving, almost a month early. New goal of under 220 lb I conquered on my last time checking the scale before leaving. Gained back a couple pounds over Christmas (which was a break from diet/exercise that I planned from the get go) but curiously enough I actually lost waist size.

2) I wanted to be able to run 3 miles (~5K) before Christmas. Not competitively or anything, and I didn't follow the popular app, but a similar concept that worked for me. Nailed it the week before. Prior to mid Nov I hadn't run a mile continuously in my life. The knee thing was a setback to be overcome, not a handicap.

3) I wanted to be able to do a bodyweight squat. My knees hurt too much at first, but with weight training, starting with bands, then dumbells, now I can do them without issue, and am in fact worried that my weights soon aren't going to be good enough despite the fact that I just leveled up my dumbells. Again. The only time I even feel any knee pain anymore is when doing squats or lunges, but it is more of an annoyance than anything and it really doesn't affect me.

I exercise a lot (1.5-2 hr on weekdays, 1 hr on sat). I enjoy it and have made time for it. Every day at work (mon-fri) I walk 2 miles on my lunch break. Just a way to burn a few calories, get my legs moving, and listen to a book. At night at home I do cardio 3 days a week on the treadmill. Once conquering the 3 mile goal I switched to interval training 2 days a week (tue, thur) with one day of steady state (sat). I weight train 2 days a week (mon, fri) with dumbells taking a fully body approach. I'm really happy with what I'm accomplishing and the intensity as of late, I hit it hard for 45 minutes, only slowing down when I'm out of breath. One day (wed) I dedicate to real in depth stretching/balance and core exercises. I take a break from my diet and exercise one day a week (sun) to drink beer and yell obscenities at the TV (well not so much this season). I use the treadmill on weight lifting and stretching days at the end of my workout, but I tone it down and walk. It took a while to really refine my routine and each week I try to tweak it to do a little better.

In the end for me the final level is to look (and feel) like James Bond. I figure I've got another 50-60 lb of fat to lose and another 20-30 lb of muscle to gain in order to get there.

[ETFnerd]

Hi Jay, I was wondering where you were... welcome to the nerd crowd of individuals... I similarly started (on 1/1/2011) at 255lbs/27% body fat and weighed in today at 159lbs/13.5% body fat. I also started on the treadmill unable to run and walked until I could run. As of today, I've logged 1,111.4 miles running and walking on the treadmill (99%) and outside since 4/1/2011 or 9 months. I started slow and things picked up. When you have setbacks, I realized that everyone has them, and a found a way that worked for me to get around them. Hope that your goals are behind you in the new year and that you'll have fun traveling your road to fitness.

[Waldo]

Thanks. Gosh when I first started I was almost falling over winded/tired after moderately jogging 1/8th of a mile. What a difference 4 months makes. Feel like a little kid again, I find myself running here and there little distances just because I can. I'm still undecided as far as any future running goals though.

[maegs]

Wow, you've accomplished a lot in 4 months! Keep up the good work!

[MatthewD]

Wow.. love what you have gotten done in the old year... looking forward to seeing what you do in the new year..