Hello from Rock Island!

[Silentts]

Hello everyone! I stumbled onto Nerd Fitness last summer and have been following the blog regularly since then. I just turned 31, I'm 5' 10" and as of right now, I'm 255 lbs. In high school, I fluctuated between 175 and 190 lbs. (depending on whether or not it was basketball season), and while I may have been thin, I've never been fit. After high school, once I started college and working, I began gaining about ten pounds a year until I hit 265 lbs. in 2005, mainly due to an increase in fast food and junk food while being less physically active. I've fluctuated from 255 to 275 for the last seven years, with the lower end of that range usually happening if I start playing a lot of disc golf (I enjoy that sport).

At the end of November 2011, I decided to give up sugar starting on December 1st. Three months later, I've dropped from 275 lbs. to 255 lbs. The first ten pounds I lost over two months, and then the second ten pounds have been since January 27th.

For the last three weeks, I've switched over to a diet that's 85% paleo (I've gone out for beers and burgers a couple of times with friends... otherwise, I've been pretty disciplined on it). I bought a weight set from a friend over the summer, but due to an injury and then some moving, it's been out of commission. I finally was able to set it up this week and started doing bench presses, squats, curls, barbell rows, overhead presses, lunges, planks, and push ups. When it's been nice out, I've been walking three miles, but on colder days, I've started using the treadmill and elliptical machine in the fitness center of the hotel I work for, and was just cleared to start using the pool too.

Right now, my workout regimen is as follows: Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday I do forty-five to sixty minutes of cardio, then on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays I do my weight training (higher weight with lower reps).

Currently, my goal is to get back down to 200 lbs. I want to get into cycling and be physically fit enough to do that. Long term, I would like to see my abs at least once in my life and I'm interested in the martial arts and parkour. Gotta start small though, so right now, it's just getting thinner and stronger.

[Morrigainz]

Welcome! It sounds like you've already made some great positive changes in your life. Congrats!

You have quite a regimen. I'm not one of those people who can work out 6x a week right now...too much going on and I'll burn myself out, but if you can do it, more power to ya! Just be sure to look out for signs of being burnt out.

Also lots of great advice on here about lifting if you're interested...check out the Barbarian Strength Guild.

[Gainsdalf the Whey]

Welcome! I've been out to Rock Island for work before...

[Silentts]

You have quite a regimen. I'm not one of those people who can work out 6x a week right now...too much going on and I'll burn myself out, but if you can do it, more power to ya!

Well, unfortunately MirGSS, shortly after I posted this, I switched job positions at work, going from a split 1st/2nd shift to solely 3rd shift. I took the first month off to adjust to my new schedule, and when I came back to working out, I ended up straining my quadricep (bad form doing squats). It's been giving me issues on and off, but finally seems to be making progress towards healing (finally...going to start strengthening exercises this week) so we'll see if I can't get back into a routine soon.

Welcome! I've been out to Rock Island for work before...

That's cool. Rock Island (for the most part) is a decent town.