I guess that it's about time I posted something

[Hillman312]

Okay, I have been lurking here for a few months now but haven't posted anything. First off, a little background information. I am from a small city in West Virginia called Huntington. We have been labeled by the CDC as the country's unhealthiest city (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,452864,00.html) and was featured on the first season of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution. I was previously employed in retail but have recently changed jobs to work at a call center (unfortunately, there is not much else here). I am also taking online classes to try to finish my degree. Sitting on my butt in front of a computer all day at work, sitting on my butt in front of a computer at home, I have a LOT going against me as far as being healthy is concerned.

About this time last year I weighed about 260 lbs. I knew I needed to do something as I started college after being out of school for about 5 years. I wasn't getting any younger and certainly not any healthier. I had problems keeping motivated and lacked willpower to keep up any diet/exercise plan. I came up with a great idea to kick start my path to a healthier me: Take PE classes at school to force myself to work out, or my grades would suffer. Guess what, it kind of worked!

"Kind of worked?" While I was in those classes it was great. The instructor was really good at recognizing that those of us in the class that were out of shape (I convinced a few people to join me) couldn't keep up with the athletes in the class. There was even a time that the instructor got all pissed off at a vast majority of the class for not trying hard enough. At first we thought that she was talking about us (the out of shape ones) until she pointed to us and said that since day one she could tell that we were genuinely trying and the athletes were only there for the easy "A". That gave me a new confidence. This lasted through to the end of the semester. Then summer break came and without access to a gym, I stopped exercising regularly. I would go on an occasional afternoon hike or take a short ride on my bicycle, but not enough.

When next semester started, this past one, I picked up another PE class. I stuck with it a little better this time. It was also around this time that I somehow stumbled across Nerd Fitness. I read a few of Steve's blog posts and was hooked. I had always known that I needed to change my diet too, but never found the will power to do so. I had tried to do so in the past but it would never stick. Something that sparked my attention was in one of (or probably several of, I had went through a lot of the older posts too)Steve's posts where he had said to make little changes. Well that seemed easy enough. The beginning of last semester I still weighed about 255-250 lbs, but I felt better as I was at least somewhat active. I slowly started making changes to my diet: mostly portion control and lower carb diet (not low-carb, but lower carb, I'm still not quite ready for that).

I am now down to 230 lbs. I still have a long way to go. Luckily, where I work now has a fitness center on site, that way after 8 hours of sitting on my butt taking phone calls, I can get a workout in. I'll already be right there so I will have no excuses. Now that some weight is starting to come off I want to work on some strength, endurance and flexibility. I have no particular sport in mind that I would like to train for (except maybe mountain biking, I enjoy that), but want to train for something. I need a specific goal. I think that the reason I failed in the past is that my goal was too general: to just get healthier. I need something to keep me off the couch. I thought about trying a race, like a 5k, but that is still a little scary for me still (maybe next year). What do you all (my new support group) think? Anyways, I had no intention of writing this much. If you have read this far, Thank you. I hope that I didn't bore anybody to death with my story. That would be no good for The Rebellion, if I started taking members out with boring posts.

[Guest guest4729]

I say don't bite off more than you can chew. If you jump into something too overwhelming you're going to get discouraged and quit. Instead, make a goal of doing a 5k or some sort of race NEXT year, so that you have time to prepare yourself so you don't get injured training so hard. Look into a race that's for a good cause where the proceeds go to a charity - that'll give you that extra boost of motivation to work towards your ultimate goal of participating in a 5k.

Find out what motivates you and isolate it. Maybe it's the body you'll have when you lose weight, maybe it's for your health, maybe it's just to have a better quality in life. For example, mine is to gain strength and be fit while I'm still young and have the world at my finger tips. I don't want to be tired, overweight and unhappy. I want to be energetic and happy and fit! That's one of the underlying things that keeps me going.

Clear out your pantry of terrible and unhealthy things. Start cooking more for yourself! Don't settle for nasty TV dinners and pasta every night, find some tasty recipes for chicken (like, say, in the thread in my signature), or buy some tasty meats and veggies. Learn to make healthier choices to compliment your fitness goals.

If you want something bad enough you WILL work to achieve it. If not, you'll just keep making excuses. Don't let yourself continue to make these excuses. Once I have access to a printer again I'm going to be making some signs and stuff to hang on my walls/doors in my room so I can keep myself motivated about going to the gym. And if you need to - find some more support on here. I know I message a few people and vice versa to see how the gym is going. Sometimes we exchange advice, sometimes we just see how the other is doing and sometimes we talk about diets and things that are good/healthy to eat. Once you have support (which you now do from this whole community) you're on your way to success.

On that note, I wish you the best of luck in your journey to be the best person you can be.

[Eakin]

Well I think a 5K is a great goal to set for yourself, but you might want to hop on a treadmill or go for a run to see just how far you are from being ready for it before you schedule one. You need to know how much time you'll need to train. There are plenty of guides online to building up your endurance for a 5K, and it sounds like you've already got a head start. If you've been reasonably active for several semesters I'm certain you can complete a 5K, even if you don't run the entire thing. If weight loss is your main goal, most of your results are going to come from sticking to your diet.

[Durandal]

Hey Hillman, welcome to the forums! I also agree that a 5k is an excellent goal to set. There's a couch-to-5k plan online that some folks have had success with, though I never tried it myself. From what you had mentioned, you might be a bit ahead of the curve but it might be worth looking at anyway.