Enter the penguin

[surfpenguin]

This is the part where I introduce myself and give a few words about why I'm here. Okay, here goes.

My name is Mike, although on most online forums I go by the Moniker of 'SurfPenguin' Simply because my favorite stuffed animal when I was a little kid was a penguin and I like Surf Guitar music, simple eh?

Why am I on a site devoted to physical fitness? Not that hard to understand really: I'm a heavy guy. I have been all my life. That combined with being of the geek persuasion led me to generally ignore my health for a long time. But as the years went on (and I'll admit that I'm not the youngest brony in the stable) I started noticing things: I wasn't able to walk as far as I used to, It was an effort to get out of chairs, and to be brutally honest according to the fashion industry if you have something other than a 34" waist you WANT to rock sweatpants and XXXL T-shirts for the rest of your life.

So the time has come to get in shape. But it's not easy if you're doing it by yourself. You see either endless ads for 'Get ripped in six weeks' and the 'Ferns, Figs and flatulence diet' which we all know don't work realistically. You need a community to both support and support you....And then along comes the Brony Health group, an offshoot of a group already notorious for doing something radical in the geek community (i.e. being nice to each other!) who are interested in not 'losing those 15 pounds' or 'getting ripped', but in 'living a healthier life'. How could I NOT get involved with something like that?

[Vaumer]

Yeah, I tend to judge whether I'm happy with how fit I am depending on how difficult certain activities are. But you've taken notice though and not just sweet it under the rug, so good on you!

I too am tired of all of those programs that are ONLY focused on losing the most weight in the least amount of time, or are just generally far too focused on how the outer appearance looks. Plus they tend to focus on getting everyone to a certain pre-defined weight. "Ooh, after this you'll fit into a size 4!". In my opinion if you're healthy on the inside that should start to show through to the outside. But if someone's focus is only on improving how they look it's like painting a wilting flower. Sure, it looks great, but you haven't solved anything. Instead you could have given it water and sunlight and solved the problem that way, even if it didn't yield immediate results.

Urp, I type too much. tl;dr: You've got the right idea, let's get healthy!

[DarthAvarous]

Welcome!

Living a healthier life is the key. And that probably means somethings different to all of us. Maintaining a healthy weight is a good first step but what is a healthy weight? According to the BMI I'm overweight. But not according to my % body fat.

Most diet programs focus on losing weight, not teaching us how to change the underlying habits that led us to being overweight/unhealthy. So when we go off them, we put the pounds right back on. I did that with Weight Watchers.

[harun]

Once you get into a good rhythm, you'll start to self-moderate what you do. I was pretty heavy last year, but by the time I finished a 10K running plan, I found I was cutting things out of my diet because they made me feel sluggish when I ran.

Trust your body when you workout, rather than fad diets, and you'll start to build your own best program.

Cheers,

[shadowsteed01]

Hello!

I'm glad to see you're also working towards this goal & hope to hear you have good progress.

[madbrony]

Welcome surfpenguin!

[shenanigans]

Welcome to the Group Surfpenguin Mike!

My blessing to you in your efforts to become healthier! We are all here to help one another in bettering ourselves.