Welcome To The Party!

Since this is my first post, I figured I'd take the time to introduce myself and what's going to be happening with this party.  So, my name's Wes.

And here I am back in 2010, pushing 170 pounds, sedentary, generally unhealthy and not really happy with myself or my life. Here and there I would try diet and exercise, but I would just as quickly give up on them, making all kinds of excuses as to why I couldn't do it: healthy food is too expensive, I don't have the time to work out, pretty much anything you can think of.  

Toward the end of 2011 I was able to quit my job in retail to be a lifeguard at a year-round indoor pool. I've been swimming since I was 3 and had worked summers as a lifeguard, so I jumped on the opportunity to do it all the time. At this point I figured this was the perfect time to decide enough was enough. I was going to lose the weight once and for all.  I started off simple, swimming a few laps here and there. I Googled "beginner fat loss workout," found one on Muscle & Strength and did that in my university's gym on the afternoons I didn't work. Cut back on soda and sweets. Slowly but surely, I saw a little bit of progress. By December, I had lost two, maybe three pounds. Nothing too exciting, but I was on my way!

Over Christmas break I was having issues with my school and financial aid, which led to me having to take a break from school the following semester and work at the pool full-time. So I started getting really serious about my weight loss. I started some research on Reddit and started setting specific goals for myself. At a little over 165 pounds, my goal weight was going to be 145 pounds. I wanted to be able to run a 5k. And I wanted to be able to swim a mile.

Since I couldn't go to school that semester, I wasn't going to be able to use the university gym. So I had to make do with what was available at the local community center, which wasn't much. A little pulley system, some dumbbells, and a treadmill. I came up with a three-day split routine with the weights. I found the Couch to 5k running program and the Zero to 1 Mile swimming program. I did my three-day split on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and alternated between swimming and running. But more details on that in a later post.

Of course, I had to change up my diet, too. I didn't really change what I ate so much as how much I ate. I tried to limit my calorie intake to about 1200-1500 a day. It took a lot of willpower and a lot of games of League of Legends. 

In April my girlfriend and I ran a 5k race in Nashville. I'm not a runner at all, so finding the motivation to run several times a week is still pretty hard. I only ran about 2 miles of it, but it still felt good to cross the finish line. My time was atrocious to say the least: pushing 37 minutes.

By summer I had gone past my goal and got down to 140 pounds. I looked and felt so much better. And now that I was taking summer classes I was now able to do a real strength-building workout with free weights at my university gym. I started up Starting Strength, but with how much I was swimming and running, the constant leg work really wasn't for me. So I switched over to Greyskull LP, a beginning bodybuilding routine. By this point I can swim a mile fairly consistently, and even started in throwing some drills.

Now in January, I'm down to 135 pounds. But herein lies the problem. I followed through on my goal to lose the weight, but I was too focused on the numbers on the scale and how I looked. So I look a lot more athletic than I actually am. Despite lifting weights for almost a year, my numbers are still at a beginner level. My 5k run time is still over 30 minutes. The only thing I've really improved on is my swimming. So I decided that my New Year's Resolution is to focus on fitness and not worry about how I look.

That's where the blog comes in. Now that we've gone through my whole little weight loss journey, the real story can begin. I graduated college in December (woo!) so I no longer have free access to the university gym. I'm still swimming on a regular basis at the pool, but now that I'm spending a lot more time at home with my girlfriend, I decided to go with building bodyweight strength with Convict Conditioning. I'll also be doing a bit more running around the neighborhood. More details will come in later posts.

I'll be blogging every step of the way, so join me on my fitness journey! I'll also be providing tips and tricks that have worked for me for those of you just starting out. The main goal of this blog is to inspire somebody, anybody. If I can inspire even just one person this will all be worth it. 

So, welcome to the party! Pizza's in the back. We'll be going all night!