Hello all,
I am new to the site (and fitness in general, sadly), so I thought I would take a minute to introduce myself. On a related note, I help admin a vB forum where I work, and you guys do a great job welcoming new folks. I am jealous!
I enjoy writing and tend to get a little too wordy at times, so we'll see who can survive the challenge of reading this entire post. I'll do my best to keep things compelling and interesting, but no worries if you just skip to the end. Sometimes I have the attention span of a chipmunk, so I can appreciate where you are coming from.
As a little background information, I am a married 37 year old guy who has a wonderful wife and two great kiddos (ages six and three). I am six feet tall and currently tip the scales at around 188. I live in Indiana and my username ditb is short for "Dave in the basement". (I don't live in my parent's basement or anything, my computer just happens to live in the basement so I went with that moniker.)
So why am I here? Well, I basically backed my way into getting fit a couple of months ago. I caught a major cold in early February, when I weighed 210 pounds, and the cold morphed into some sort of upper respiratory infection. I had the worst sore throat of my life, which caused me to stop drinking my beloved Mountain Dew (*sigh*). After a couple of weeks battling the cold and drinking water, I realized I had lost 10 pounds, and was finally down to 200 pounds. I thought that was pretty cool, considering my doctor told me I should try to get my weight down in the 187 range. So I thought I would take the little bit of inspiration as a good reason to get reacquainted with the elliptical machine and recumbent exercise bike that I had ignored for far too long. I also broke out my little 15 pound hex weights and created my own goofy little exercise routine that includes a daily dose of sit-ups (d'oh!). It isn't scientific by any means, but it has helped me get down to below 190, which has helped increase my desire to get in better shape, while also giving me a much-needed boost to my self-esteem.
I have kind of hit a plateau, though, and that is where this site and you wonderful folks come into the picture. I would love to have your assistance in helping me to achieve the following goals (in order of importance to me):
1. I have no pecs, and I really want them. HELP!
2. I don't need six-pack abs, but I would like to tone and flatten my stomach
3. This inner-tube around my belly is shrinking, but I'd like to say goodbye to it completely
4. I would like to add some good muscle tone to my arms
5. If I can achieve items 1-4 and also get down to around 180 pounds, that would be great!
First things first, are those goals possible for a 37 year old guy* who doesn't have a tremendous time to commit to exercise? If so, let's get started!
I'll have been doing a little bit of searching on the forum and I'll probably a lot of reading before starting new threads...assuming I can find what I am looking for. Again, I am new to all of this, so please bear with me when I ask dumb questions or don't understand some of the acronyms and terms you use.
If you are so inclined, please feel free to post links or information that you think would be helpful. No pressure, of course.
Thanks very much for reading! If you made it this far, please reward yourself with a virtual cookie. Or a virtual protein shake or whatever it is that trips your trigger. If you have any questions for me, I'll be happy to field them!
Dave
*The aforementioned guy also does not eat vegetables and hates jogging
I am new to the site (and fitness in general, sadly), so I thought I would take a minute to introduce myself. On a related note, I help admin a vB forum where I work, and you guys do a great job welcoming new folks. I am jealous!
I enjoy writing and tend to get a little too wordy at times, so we'll see who can survive the challenge of reading this entire post. I'll do my best to keep things compelling and interesting, but no worries if you just skip to the end. Sometimes I have the attention span of a chipmunk, so I can appreciate where you are coming from.
As a little background information, I am a married 37 year old guy who has a wonderful wife and two great kiddos (ages six and three). I am six feet tall and currently tip the scales at around 188. I live in Indiana and my username ditb is short for "Dave in the basement". (I don't live in my parent's basement or anything, my computer just happens to live in the basement so I went with that moniker.)
So why am I here? Well, I basically backed my way into getting fit a couple of months ago. I caught a major cold in early February, when I weighed 210 pounds, and the cold morphed into some sort of upper respiratory infection. I had the worst sore throat of my life, which caused me to stop drinking my beloved Mountain Dew (*sigh*). After a couple of weeks battling the cold and drinking water, I realized I had lost 10 pounds, and was finally down to 200 pounds. I thought that was pretty cool, considering my doctor told me I should try to get my weight down in the 187 range. So I thought I would take the little bit of inspiration as a good reason to get reacquainted with the elliptical machine and recumbent exercise bike that I had ignored for far too long. I also broke out my little 15 pound hex weights and created my own goofy little exercise routine that includes a daily dose of sit-ups (d'oh!). It isn't scientific by any means, but it has helped me get down to below 190, which has helped increase my desire to get in better shape, while also giving me a much-needed boost to my self-esteem.
I have kind of hit a plateau, though, and that is where this site and you wonderful folks come into the picture. I would love to have your assistance in helping me to achieve the following goals (in order of importance to me):
1. I have no pecs, and I really want them. HELP!
2. I don't need six-pack abs, but I would like to tone and flatten my stomach
3. This inner-tube around my belly is shrinking, but I'd like to say goodbye to it completely
4. I would like to add some good muscle tone to my arms
5. If I can achieve items 1-4 and also get down to around 180 pounds, that would be great!
First things first, are those goals possible for a 37 year old guy* who doesn't have a tremendous time to commit to exercise? If so, let's get started!
I'll have been doing a little bit of searching on the forum and I'll probably a lot of reading before starting new threads...assuming I can find what I am looking for. Again, I am new to all of this, so please bear with me when I ask dumb questions or don't understand some of the acronyms and terms you use.
If you are so inclined, please feel free to post links or information that you think would be helpful. No pressure, of course.
Thanks very much for reading! If you made it this far, please reward yourself with a virtual cookie. Or a virtual protein shake or whatever it is that trips your trigger. If you have any questions for me, I'll be happy to field them!
Dave
*The aforementioned guy also does not eat vegetables and hates jogging