The Official Gym & Fitness Thread

Haha, soooo manly.

Here is my manly mutt

Nov2015-5 by Gage McKeag, on Flickr

 

Cools doges everyone

 

Nice doge

 

What is this...the "lets see your dogs" thread?!

Jk...I like dogs more than I like people so keep them coming

 

coolest looking dog ever

x2

 

I've got a 15-20 pound shih-tzu that used to pull me around the neighborhood on my ripstick back in middle school, he was in great shape then. Now, not so much. Hahah. He's getting old now though.

 

My fitness journey started on September 1, 2015 when I bought a Fitbit. I was 295 pounds, 5 ft. 8 and 55 years old. I spent the last 30 years sitting behind a cubicle at work and on the recliner at home. My daughter brought us our first grandchild in September, and I got to thinking I won't live long enough to see my grandson grow up if I don't do something drastic and do it now. My initial routine was easy - walk 10,000 steps a day. Then in October I joined a gym - something I swore I'd never do, and started walking inside the gym because of the weather and it was a good place to walk. I finally decided to talk to a personal trainer who showed me how the weight machines worked because I had never used them. In November I decided to add elliptical to the mix and started taking Spin class once a week.

My routine was pretty fixed by the end of November:

Monday: Spin class and pickleball
Tuesday: Lower body lifting and elliptical
Wednesday: Upper body and elliptical
Thursday: Spin class and walking
Friday: Walk 3 miles indoors
Saturday: Lower body lifting
Sunday: Upper body lifting

The fitness center I belong to is called Spooky Nook. It's the largest indoor gym in the U.S. and they installed a 200 meter indoor track. I started doing the C25K program and now have done four 5K races. The last one was 2 weeks ago and I actually RAN the entire thing with a goal of under 40 minutes. I did it in just over 34 minutes. Sometime in the middle of January I signed myself up for a half marathon in April. My daughter, a runner, put me on a training schedule to work up to it. This past Saturday morning was my 7 mile run/walk, so did it with her, and I actually RAN the entire 7 miles - a milestone for me, I've never run more than 5 miles at a time, and that was in 1981 at the end of Marine Corps boot camp. So, I've got the confidence now that I can finish the half in April, and I went home and signed up for another half marathon in September. In January I joined a group that the goal is to walk or run 2,016 miles. Right now I'm just a little over 400 miles for the year.

Do I like exercise and running? Not really, but I've seen the results paying off for me. Nobody is ever going to tell me I can't do anything because I'm too old or just too fat. I set goals and meet and exceed them. I went ice skating in January for the first time in 20 years, and I've gone snow skiing twice this winter after a 10 year absence. I plan on waterskiing this summer for the first time in 15 years.

As of Saturday morning when I did my weekly weigh in at the gym, I weighed in at 244 lbs. - I've lost 51 pounds since the day I started back in September. I have 46 pounds to go to get to 200 lbs.

No matter how old you are, whether you think you can never lose weight, I'm living proof that if you dedicate 1 or 2 hours a day, walk daily, eat healthier, drink a minimum of 64 oz of water a day, it's going to be a great payoff for you.

My routine is not quite as easy as it was before I started running, but I still do upper/lower body lifting 2x a week, spin class twice a week and run 3 times a week (two 3 mile run and a longer run each weekend). This week I will be doing an 8 mile run on Saturday and hope I can run that entire distance.

Sorry if I bored anyone to death. But, this is my journey. First picture was at the Steelers game in September, and the second was taken Saturday when I walked a total of 50 pounds around the 200 meter track to celebrate losing 50 lbs. My wife teases me that I downsized my Tundra for the Tacoma on Saturday because I downsized.

 

I miss my dog

 

Welcome to the Tacoma family. There are a few people on this thread that do long distance running but most of us treat cardio like a witch does water. But we will provide encouragement. Keep it up!

 

This is freaking awesome man!!!! I'm stoked for you

 

I'm certainly not a fan but it sure works!

 

Thanks! I appreciate the support and kind words.

 

Great job man and thanks for sharing!

 

I took yesterday off from the gym. Man I feel great today and I slept last night. Forgot what that was like. First off day in about a month and a half. Worth doing if you haven't done it in a while

 

Badass! Keep it up. You're doing better than most of us in here. I can't run a mile without thinking I'm going to die.

I haven't had a day off from lifting in over a month. I didn't realize it until I looked at my Fitbit a few days ago and saw all those little checks showing the days you timed an activity. I should probably do that soon.

 

I was the same way, but you have to work yourself up to it. I could barely walk into work from my truck without being winded and having asthma attacks. My running is not for the love of running, it's really helping me lose weight. I started with the "Couch To 5 K" program for Android (there's an Apple version too). You slowly work yourself up to it and before long you can run a 5K.

 

very nice! Just ignore all the pics we post of crappy food and our snide comments towards cardio. A lot of us are trying to gain weight, so cardio is the devil to us.....although, it wouldn't be the worst thing ever for me to hop on a treadmill every now and then

I tell Amy all the time that the day one of our dogs dies is gonna be the worst day ever. I've had dogs growing up, but these two are the first ones that were actually mine. Gonna go slit my wrist now

Y'all go to the gym 7 days a week? Damn that! I've NEVER gone more than 4 days in a week

 

My little dude just turned 5 but I still get sad everytime I think about him getting old and leaving me. He's my first dog and ever since I've got him I pretty much can't watch shows or movies where the dog gets hurt or dies. Makes me cry like a little girl. I always have to read a spoiler and make sure the dog lives if I know going in there is a dog character.

I workout 5days a week right now M-F and rest S-Su. I used to do 6 days a week with rest on W. When I first started I did 7 days, sometimes 2-a-days but my back never stops hurting and I was dragging all the rest of the day. 5 days a week is perfect

 

All the time...
And someone just sent me Girl Scout cookies. Mmmmm samoas