G'day

[Daryl]

G’day,

I’m Daryl. I’m 45 years of age. As I have progressed in my occupation up to the Executive level in higher education, I had become more time poor and more desk bound. Once upon a time my job as an environmental scientist involved lots of field work and outdoor work etc., but there is much less of that now.  In my younger days I use to play a lot of sports socially, but have never been in a gym or done any sort of real fitness training.

Late last year, I realised that I had started putting on weight around my mid-riff. Out of the blue my little boy told me didn’t want me getting fat like other fathers he saw who couldn’t run around with their boys. I was diagnosed with high cholesterol and hypertension. Before then, I had never bothered to weigh myself regularly, but knew that historically I had been in the range of 70 to 75kg. When I weighed myself I was 85kg (and no doubt trending up if I had a complete time series of data).

I decided that I had to make some changes and it was my New Year’s resolution. It seems to be the only New Year’s resolution that has resonated with me for any length of time. Before finding this site, I had identified that I needed to fix my diet. I set myself a goal of not falling for a fad diet, but making some changes that would persist – embedding new patterns that were drawn from evidence-based research (I am a nerd after all). I eliminated soft drinks, alcohol, deep fried foods, salty and sugary snacks. I replaced them with orange juice (from oranges that I juiced myself), water, unsalted nuts and fruit. I increased the intake of a variety of fresh seafood (I have good access to it) and none of it was deep fried. I have also used a meal replacement shake, but I do not think I have overly relied upon it. I have reduced my weight to 78 kg.

Having got an appetite (pardon the pun) for health improvement, I then wished to start exercising, but didn’t know where to start. I didn’t just want to rock up to a gym (a completely foreign world). It was then that I stumbled on to this site, and hoping that it would form a key plank on the next stage of my fitness journey. My aim is to further reduce my weight, but also improve my upper body strength in particular. I have focussed on greatly increasing the amount of walking I do in a day, and thanks to the assistance of this site already, I completed a lifelong goal. I can do a push-up!

Thanks!

Daryl

[SevenofSeven]

And a G'Day right back at ya! West Aussie here!

 

Welcome to NF and here's wishing you luck in your fitness journey!

 

 

[Guzzi]

Welcome!

 

if you want strength then there's different routes to take, you don't even need to use a gym.  

 

Check out This site to see just what can be achieved with bodyweight exercises. The guy in question is a member here called Waldo. You should definitely check out his transformation pictures, they're very impressive. 

 

Another route is to lift weights and the Holy Trilogy of lifts are squat, bench and deadlift, though many programs will also have OHP (overhead press) and rows too. There's a lot of different programs you can follow, Stronglifts 5x5 is a good beginner-intermediate program as is 5/3/1. 

 

I hope some of that is useful to you.  Are you going to join in on the new 4 Week Challenge? It starts on the 17th. 

[Daryl]

Thank you Guzzi, very informative and practical. 

[Guzzi]

6 hours ago, Daryl said:

Thank you Guzzi, very informative and practical. 

 

I aim to please!  

 

Have you found your way around the forum ok?  If you need any help or advice then please don't be afraid to ask.  The challenge that I mentioned officially starts tomorrow, though it doesn't matter if you're late in joining.  I think it could be a good way for you to move forward in your fitness journey.  You don't have to have any massively ambitious goals, you can work on small things.  Maybe you would like to work on increasing your push ups with the 100 push ups program, or the NF Beginner Bodyweight program.

 

Here is a great challenge layout to give you an idea of how to set it out.  @pyrotech0001 has used a points system to grade his progress each week so that any small slips don't make him feel like he's failed the week and knock him off his stride.  He's also got some great goals and although you have already cut out soda, sugar and fried food etc, I thought you might like the link he has to the Perfect Diet.  It sounds like the kind of thing you are aiming for.

 

 

Of course you may not want to do the challenges at all, in which case, I'll shut up now