Call me H4ck, I'm an Assassin.

[h4ckluserr]

Hey there,

Name's Josh, but you can call me H4ck. I'm an assassin and here is my short story.

I graduated high school in 2006, lean as can be. 6% body fat. SUPER active. I get a desktop by december of that year, less activity, less partying, less exercise. I move out on my own, less healthy food. Friends move away, and I get wrapped up in my career. Less exercise, but over time, much better food. Fast forward a few years, I start training in Parkour. Move forward another year, I deploy to Afghanistan and Iraq with my contract. Food get's nutritionally worse, and my exercise flat lines again. Somewhere in here I get married (August of 2010 to be precise) and that was a lot of stress going up to it. Fast forward to my first anniversary, I get divorced(ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another divorce caused by infidelity) And then even more stress for a short while. Diet and exercise again go to the wayside. And at some point after high school I started smoking, and shortly after my marriage I quit so.. 15 month's ago?

Now we're caught up on who/why I am, we can talk about what I am.

I'm 5'7, I weigh 160, and I've been stalking this site for a few weeks now. I had made the decision to get back in shape when I got back to Iraq in late december, and immediately began a "low carb run my ass off diet" and it yielded some very minor results in the aesthetic department but beyond that... a month and nothing. no change on the scale, but the good news is my numbers are already way better than when I jumped back into it.(but more on that in a moment)

Then I read the article about Staci. I was enthralled I watched a girl go from "eh... average?"(Sorry Staci! it get's better.) and then down to her lowest weight which was "Nice body" and then to her picture at 140 pounds after strength training and it was an "oh damn" moment. If you take the ideal of "hot" she would fall into it. great body, obviously takes care of herself, and I'd be willing to bet that she is probably really down to earth. This is where I realized that With a bit of effort I could go from my average self to badass. I had my own epiphany that I realized that I don't care about the numbers on the scale... I just care about the weight I can push, and really, the way I look.

I've gone as full "paleo" as is possible given the fact that I have to eat at a DFAC and can't buy my own groceries. My diet went very simple. some solid meat, some vegetable/greens, a piece of fruit and water. Breakfast is usually a couple hard boiled eggs and a piece or two of bacon. Dinner... well it's the same as lunch.

Now for exercise. I'm an assassin. I've been training for parkour for a few years now, and I'd put me at decent... I don't do a lot of the freerunning stuff(Flipping and showing off) but I want to be able to move my own body weight around, nothing crazy like 500 pounds flat bench press. I can still run like crazy. I'm currently at 10:30 for a 1.5 mile run. I want that time below 10 minutes in a month. but the biggest change for me is going from some basic body weight "Stay in shape" exercises to full on weight training. The minute I picked up a set of dumb bells I realized that the pain i would endure would give me everything I could want. No more machines for me, I want to push full on free weights, the way they feel over a machine is incredible. I have a couple guys here helping me build a routine, learn the exercises, and most importantly watching my form. I've already started building my own routine based off my experiences, and research.

And just for some sort of minor anonymous public accountability, here are some as of right now pictures.

I know this is a bit long... winded? I'll have missed SOMETHING so ask away!

[Atalan]

Well, you're certainly in a much better place than me right now by body composition (though I'm getting there!). I'm not much of a distance runner, so I have no idea how impressive shaving 30 seconds off 1.5 miles is, but it sounds like an impressive goal. Welcome to the Rebellion.

[Sco]

Welcome! I'm totally with you on the Parkour thing, and wanting to be able to move your body weight. Truly functional strength tends to be overlooked in today's world.

So good luck, and stick to it! One day at a time.