Hi there! I'm new to the forums as well.
A little background for you. I'm a guy, I'm 31, and I've been overweight since highschool. I managed to lose the excess weight during my college years primarily via weightlifting, but more recently (in the past year or so) I've dropped about 65 lbs. via cardio (although my work involves LOTS of daily lifting of plywood, concrete, lumber, and other heavy building materials!) and I feel I'm in the best shape of my life - and still working at it!
With that out of the way, let me begin by saying that I believe everyone is different and we each need to find ways to overcome our own personal challenges. However, by changing your diet and really committing to regular exercise you will achieve your goals!
Tips:
First, find something you really enjoy that gets your heart rate up. For me it was biking. I was given a bike by a neighbor after helping her move. I fixed it up and began riding. I was so out of shape that the first time I tried to ride I couldn't have ridden more than a couple of miles before I started feeling physically ill! But I kept at it nearly every day and quickly became better at it. Now I can ride 50 miles at a time on paved roads/trails as well as handle off-road uphill/downhill single track.
I would also advise branching out once you feel a little more comfortable with regular exercise, otherwise you may get bored and find it difficult to motivate yourself.
Fortunately for me, my roommate was inspired by my weight loss efforts and decided to take up jogging with his girlfriend. They downloaded some little iPhone app called "couch to 5K" and started jogging 3 days per week. I went with them and a couple of months later I was able to jog 3.5 miles without stopping. Even when I was a kid and didn't have weight problems I never ran more than a mile!
During the summer months we hopped on craigslist and picked up a couple of kayaks on the cheap. So we added paddling around on the water to our repertoire.
Now the winter months have hit and snow is covering the ground, it's pretty difficult to get out there and hit the trails. So my roommate and I decided to join the local gym.
I was worried about getting bored because running/biking in place while staring at a TV screen just doesn't appeal to me. Fortunately, the gym I joined has all sorts of classes that provide structure and social reinforcement while offering a wide variety of cardio/weightlifting activities.
It's fun, you meet new people who can relate to your journey, and I find it's a lot easier to motivate myself to drive a few minutes to the gym than face running in the snow or in below-freezing temperatures (although I still do that from time to time because during this process I find I now like to challenge myself!)!
To sum it up:
- Get friends and family involved to help you stay motivated.
- Variety is good. It yields better results and staves off boredom.
And most importantly, stick with it! Regular exercise and a healthy diet are guaranteed to work! The only way you can fail is if you quit!
Edit: I was thinking. A lot of the advice on this forum (like the stickies) is great for people who are past the "just getting started" phase. I mean, if you really want to get the most out of your workout, then it pays to know how to fine-tune your exercise program and diet like an athlete in training. That's awesome and I don't want to detract from that a bit. But I think for those of us who have been sitting our butts on the couch for years, it's the sort of thing where we know the basics - stop eating junkfood/fastfood, get your heartrate up - but the major barrier is finding the motivation to get up off your butt and get moving!
I think at that point it's more important to learn the mental tricks that can keep this from being a typical "New Years Resolution" that you drop at the end of the month. Ultimately, you want this to be a lifestyle change that leads to being in the kind of shape where instead of dreading the scale, you're more concerned with pushing yourself to new physical limits and the couch is just a distant memory from a life that you can no longer relate to.
That's why I shared my story. I think it's pretty typical and the insights like finding something fun, getting your friends involved to keep you interested, and mixing it up to fight off boredom are more important at this point in the journey than worrying over whether or not you understand the proper definition of HIIT. Worry about that once you've proven to yourself that you can truly stick with this and make it a lifelong commitment rather than simply passing the time before you allow yourself to sit around watching TV and eating icecream!
