I have arrived! And I won't be leaving anytime soon!

[progress126]

Good morning all! After lurking for about a week or two and reading as much as I could here on NF (with lots still to go) I signed up a few days ago and have decided to introduce myself. I am progress126 and hail from the lovely Poconos, Pennsylvania (via New Jersey via Ottawa, Canada via San Francisco)! Whew! That was a mouthful!

A little about myself... I'm a 39 year old married male with 5, yup count 'em, 5 boys, aged 4 thru 16. Needless to say, they keep my wife and I busy running from soccer fields to basketball courts to the mall etc. I am also an art director/graphic designer for a small agency in New Jersey.

Back in high school I was a skinny kid who played all sorts of sports. I played volleyball and football as well as ran the 100m hurdles for my high school. I couldn't put on the pounds no matter how hard I tried! Some of you (or maybe none of you) will remember a product called Hot Stuff. (No, not for that!) It was a weight gainer type supplement that had no effect on me at all. I sure did like the banana flavour though!

I did other things as well. I was a bike courier for a summer during college and commuted to work when I had a real job. I mountain biked as well. I did Tae Kwon Do but quit once we moved to the States. I tried running but failed at that.I couldn't seem to run for more than 5 minutes at a time. Even after trying one of those Couch to 5K programs. I just gained more and more weight as the years progressed. I even tried those miracle fat loss pills. Did I lose weight? Sure, but it all came back and I was always quick to lose my temper. P90X? We bought it, Tony Horton brought it and we quit it. Turbo Fire? We bought that too and now that fire has fizzled out.

Fast forward to today and at my heaviest I was about 230 lbs. Did I mention I'm only 5'6"? So ya, short and round. Although round is a shape, it's not exactly the shape I want to be in. My wife joined a local gym back in October of 2011. I was jealous. She was losing weight and I wasn't. She was going to spin class and step class and Zumba class. I was sitting on my ass. I wanted in but couldn't afford it at the time.

Back at the beginning of February, we started a Biggest Loser contest at my place of employment. It's been three weeks since it started and I've gone from 222.8 lbs to 213.0 lbs as of Monday morning's weigh-in. That's almost 10 pounds just from eating a bit healthier, doing workouts such as Turbo Fire's 15 minute HIIT DVD, occasionally doing the Spartacus workout from Men's Health magazine as well as a kettlebell circuit I found in Men's Fitness magazine. I also was finally able to join the gym. I've even gone to Zumba classes. Apparently I'm the only male who has actually stayed past the warm up and finished the class. What can I say, i like Zumba! I'm happy with my progress but am tired of having to worry about counting calories, eating every 2 to 3 hours, eating salad every day for lunch and supper, etc.

And then I found NF! What a Godsend that was! As I mentioned earlier, I've read a whole bunch of stuff on here and have many more articles and videos to go! I've kind of started trying to eat paleo and today was my official first day of working out doing just the basic exercise of squats, deadlifts and push/pull exercises as well as core exercises as mentioned somewhere on NF.

I'm sure I'll have a bunch of questions regarding the paleo diet and workouts and stuff so please bear with me. I will also be purchasing the Rebel Strength Guide, hopefully in the next day or so, so I will have that to help guide me on my journey to a better me.

Well, if you got this far, I thank you for reading this very, very lengthy introduction and I look forward to becoming an active participant!

progress126

[Durandal]

Welcome to the rebellion! Congratulations on your success so far and feel free to ask any questions you have, that's what we're here for . It's nice to hear that you & your wife are both interested in fitness; is she also interested in eating Paleo? What about your boys, how much do they know & are they on board with the changes you're making to your life?

[progress126]

Durandal, thanks! And ya, my boys are happy with what we are doing. My oldest is perfect for this site as he is the family gamer and is starting to work out a bit. The two middle ones are the soccer boys and are fit because of that. They will be doing strength training and conditioning soon with their school soccer team to prepare for the summer camps and the upcoming fall season. The younger ones think its cool.

It'll be harder to convince them to eating healthier but we're trying.

[Guest guest4729]

progress126 said:

Durandal, thanks! And ya, my boys are happy with what we are doing. My oldest is perfect for this site as he is the family gamer and is starting to work out a bit. The two middle ones are the soccer boys and are fit because of that. They will be doing strength training and conditioning soon with their school soccer team to prepare for the summer camps and the upcoming fall season. The younger ones think its cool.

It'll be harder to convince them to eating healthier but we're trying.

...

[progress126]

I cordially invite any and all of your family to this website! I believe it can do wonders for their motivation to be awesome. When you do things as a family, you will succeed!

If you have ANY questions PLEASE ask them. We're here to answer things, give advice to the best of our abilities and generally motivate you to be awesome. If you're willing to put in the effort to change, we're willing to put in the effort to help you help yourself.

Welcome to your new life, welcome to Nerd Fitness.

Thanks for the warm welcome awsd00! I'm looking forward to slaying some dragons!