An Introduction

Ok, I'll start by telling you a little bit more about me. I'm 30 and currently weigh 184lbs. This is the heaviest I've been for some time, I was 170lbs a couple of years ago.

I have always been of the mindset that cardio = fat and weight loss. I started reading the Mens Health forums about 10 months ago and used to read the comments on cardio being no good for fat loss and refused to take it in. My reasoning for this is that I used to be a very keen cyclist, 200+ miles a week, on the bike day in day out. Back in 2001 I weighed 198lbs until I found the bike, then the cycling helped me lose around four and a half stone, so I knew that cardio helped with weight loss.

Now because I'd done cardio near enough every day for five years, I was not prepared to listen to the arguments, although looking back I realise that I hardly had any muscle on me at all other than my legs. I started weight training back in February when I joined a gym and did four months of this, eating 'better' than I was and seeing some improvements to my physique. However, a series of events led to me being unable to train for over two months and now I realise that I was just plodding along, seeing some improvement but not enough for the work I was putting in.

Which brings me to the present. I've been reading up a lot in a bid to try and inspire me to head back down to the gym and start from scratch. Then Neil published his diet plan ebook so I thought I'd give it a go. Everything in there made sense, and it gave me a bit of a kick up the arse to get back out there and sort myself out, which is what I now hope to do! All I want to do is get into shape and look good to myself. I'm not making plans based on specific measurements, weight loss etc. I will know if this has been a success because quite simply, I will feel good about myself, and that's all there is to it.