Are you on a fitness journey? What are your goals? Please share them along with your progress and the tips, routines, diets and such which you have found along the way and have helped you. Don't be ashamed to talk about your failures as well; there will only support and encouragement here: not bashing or criticism.

My fitness goal right now is to go from 136lbs back to 120lbs before July (I'm 5'5" and 120 used to be my normal weight). I really want to slim down my waist and tone up my arms, legs, and behind. It's been an up and down thing for me because I cook a lot, love to eat, and I love beer. I adore pizza. Pizza is very, very bad. Very bad, and so good. I'll eat pizza all day if I'm able. A month ago and some time before then I was on a roller coaster between about 140lbs and 138lbs because I couldn't decide if I wanted to lose weight or indulge in whatever I wanted. I'm sure now: I want to slim down and get fit and get healthier.

I started drinking beer on a regular about two and a half years ago, maybe three years (don't judge me) and the pounds started sticking around my midsection. I'm sure stress is also a factor. I don't dance like I used to as well. I've been drinking a lot of water over the past couple of weeks and I've noticed my waist has shrunk a little, so water really does help. I've also been staying away from salty foods that bloat me up and my face has shrunk a bit. My body seems to digest food better when I chew my food very well. I've been avoiding white bread for a long time and eat toasted wheat bread instead. I try to limit myself to two full meals a day, (eggs are great for breakfast and hold me up for hours) and I snack on tasty fruit throughout the day. Another great snack is sardines. So good and so good for you, too. My skin and hair have improved since I started snacking on them regularly, and they are filling without bad fats and calories. Just about all fish are a good choice.

Not all fats and sugars are bad, it's really the processed stuff that is bad for you. Foods like nuts and beans have good and healthy fats that won't pile up on you like bad fats do, and fruit like oranges and apples have good sugars that can satisfy your taste buds and give you energy. For anyone trying to lose weight, I would suggest doing your best to stay away from heavily processed food and stuff you know is junk like soda pop. If you drink a lot of Cola, stop for a few weeks and you will see a big difference. Organic is the best way to go, if and when you can get it. Stick to lean meats and try to fill your plate with more vegetables than meat.

If I find something else that works, I will post it here.

Well, first for what my goals are... I want to be Army level fit, maybe even RANGER level... I can currently run 2 miles in about 17:30 and I need to cut a minute off the time. But that's only part of it. I want to be able to hit 50 push-ups on any day, and also the same or more with sit-ups. 

bluethew0lf, you are on a long and hard journey... I know what it's like as many of my siblings and my parents are all going through this journey. It's hard, and it can get depressing, but increase the amount of exercise, and make sure you drop the pizza and beer during this time. It sounds tough, but you can always have it in moderation after your done! Just keep the goal in mind!

darthyoda : Wow, that sounds intense! I can barely run for four minutes! lol You sound like a very focused and determined person, that is awesome and inspiring. Keep up the good work!

I will definitely drop the beer and pizza, I haven't had pizza in weeks, and I haven't been drinking as much of the fizzy stuff. I can't run in my neighborhood, but I hope to be able to get a treadmill soon. I will continue using a site called gainfitness.com for getting into workouts (I used it last year and the workouts were working) and start belly dancing again.

Keep me updated on your progress, Darthyoda, and thanks for your input! I won't lose focus! (I hope.)

My goal for now is to be able to do 100 plain squats in a row without stopping, the most I can do now at any one time is 60, though I probably could have done more, and I would also like to be able to hit 25 sit ups in a row AT LEAST 4 times a day.

One tip is to be consistent, don't try to do too much in one day and not do anything else the next day, do a good amount and do it every day.

I started seriously exercising in the summer of my 18th birthday for one main reason: I was going to physically look like my father (i.e. obese). Once I realized that I started biking intensively during the summer and lost over 10 kg. That was a relief as a waist size 36 was just too ugly for me (although at 1m 85, it didn't show that much).

And now that I've mastered nutrition - I'm basically paleo, i.e. no grain and little other carbs - all I want is to lose the little extra belly fat I have. Not that it's that much - I'm floating in my size 30 pants most of the time - but I would like to, just once, have the "legendary" six-pack.

I know, it sounds very vain. I would like to do it only as a personal achievement and not in order to seduce anyone. My husband always tells me he loves the way I like. But even if I were single, I wouldn't use my body to try and find my other half as it would likely end up only in a one-night stand.

zanderlex : That is great! Keep up the good work! I do tend to try to do too much at once, so I shall heed your advice and pace myself. I'm seeing a lot of people who are using squats, so they must work well. I will have to work on mine. What kind of squats do you do?


janus : I've heard of the Paleo diet but I have never looked into it. Please let me know how it works for you I think it is awesome that you are doing it for yourself and care about your personal achievements. And you are very right; it is never a good idea to try to attract a good mate and lifetime partner with only physical appeal. But it is good to feel comfortable and appealing for one's self. No one should ever feel ashamed of that, it isn't vain at all.

bluethew0lf : So far it's been the best thing that happened to me (physically) since I've started exercising. Finally, I can appreciate the REAL taste of food as I tend to take everything full-fat: sour cream, milk, yogurt... I've also learned how to better-appreciate vegetables since I have to compensate fiber intake. With more than 10 servings per day, I found out I was actually healthier than Doctor Oz!

And yes, loving yourself is the first step towards loving others. I met my (now) husband the year I came out of the closet. Without this "liberation" I don't think I would be in love, or even in a relationship

I dint really know what kinds of squats there are, I only do the basic ones with nothing else. I guess that's why I can do 60 at a time since im just bending down and not doing anything else. I would suggest that you try out some squats, they do tend to help, maybe start off by doing 10 at a time and see what its like from there, and judge what you can do from then on.

I actually JUST started going to the gym in my area to work out. I'm not that familiar with it, so I'm still an early beginner. I've only been going for a week or so, and my current goal is to raise the number of reps I do. Either 20 reps of 3 or 10 reps of 4. I haven't decided yet, but I'll be sure to post back when I have.

zanderlex : I can do about 13 in the row now, so I have been making progress. Yay! lol I think by next week I will be able to do 20 per session, and for me, I think that is appropriate right now with the other stuff I'm going like sit ups and push ups.

LunarDarkness2 : Sweet! It seems the hardest step is getting yourself going and you've already gotten passed that, so good job. I'm looking forward to hearing your progress and what you have decided.

janus : 10 servings a day?! I have to check it out for sure lol And congratulations on your liberation, love, and relationship! They are all very precious things.

bluethew0lf : It may look like much but it's nothing especially if you have a food processor. What comes out of it green and might look... bland but it's the most vitamins and minerals you will get at once. Just add salt, hot pepper and whatever spices you like. To make the blending easier, I recommend using okra (it's sold frozen in most grocery stores). It will make your blending a little slimier and therefore easier to blend and take out.

I've heard from some people that raw vegetables keep their nutritional value better when eaten raw... I don't know if it's true for a fact but I do it anyway for everything except tomatoes, whose antioxidants become more efficient under heat.

Well, I don't really have any fitness plans. Well, I have one (sorta) goal. I want to have better endurance, since my endurance now is terrible. Like, I can only run for about a minute until I run out of breath. How will I reach that goal? Um... I don't know. It's a goal, but not a good one, I guess. Any help for increasing endurance?

ZeroTails : When you say "run", do you mean a marathon of a 100-meter dash? Because quite frankly I can't really to the latter because it just requires too much energy.

But if your goal is to simply jog without becoming breathless after a minute, you would need to do both cardio and muscular exercise. Considering your age and sex, I would extrapolate that you already started puberty and have hormones boiling inside of you. That would be the perfect occasion to start doing fitness training.

From what I saw of it, cross fit and circuit training look perfect for people wanting to build endurance. It involves short bursts of intense exercise that make you catch your breath, which is a good thing. This way your body needs better adaptation and will become stronger.

When exercising, the last thing you want is routine and "linearity". If, say, you use a machine for 30 minutes at the exact same pace for the whole time your body won't be challenged and therefore your progress will be slow.

My biggest fitness goal right now is to start walking again, and get up to walking five miles a day before the end of the summer. Sounds like a small goal, right? It's one that's really hard for me, because of issues I have with my ankles and hips... and walking in general. But if I can manage to just GET to the point that I can go five miles a day in exercise walking, that will be the longest I've ever been able to walk at any single time. 

As soon as the weather stops being gigantically windy and raining every five seconds, I'm going to start going to the track in town at least three times a week and walking. It's an eighth of a mile per loop, and I want to get started on doing more than one loop as soon as I feasibly can, to try and get my legs used to it without causing too much pain.

I hit 33 and wanted to make some changes.  I've always been in good shape and I'm just keeping a detailed track of how much of what I do.

I want to average 2 miles a day of running or walking and I've covered a few hundred miles since October.  I'm also trying to get my 20 pull-ups down and I'm doing about 17 in a row each day.  I do 35 push-ups a day and I do about 320 sit-ups a day (80 per side (four sides) of the abs).  I don't keep track of the other stuff but I am extremely active, I'm in great shape, and I just have to hit my two miles a day.

bluethew0lf : Okay, I'll keep you guys updated! So far, I'm planning on doing activities that wear me out quickly, so that I can build up my endurance a bit at a time. Like... everything except for walking, eating, and sleeping, lol. So, everytime I get off of Vizzed, I'll be doing something.

bluethewolf: That's okay! It's something I've lived with since birth, along with everything else, so I'm used to it. It just gets frustrating sometimes when I want to be more active and my legs go NOPE on me. Hopefully walking for exercise will help that some, and I'll get used to it so it doesn't hurt so much.

bluethew0lf : For veggies, you should really do it according to your tastes. Although cooking seems to deplete the nutritional value, I do hope it doesn't potentially make it toxic like overcooked meat. Plus, it can be necessary for tougher vegetables like asparagus tips.

Also, if you're in the habit of bringing your lunch to school/work, just try incorporating more veggies to all your meals. That's what I'm doing right now (I'm interning away from home) so I have to "improvise" a little. It proved to be successful actually; however strong a food processor can be, it sometimes doesn't "process" enough, making me shake the processor violently so the food gets down to the blades.

warmaker : Wow! Nice work! Sounds like 2 miles isn't far away for you at all, your determination is already solid. I have to work on keeping track of myself, thanks for that tip! 

janus : I don't think cooking vegetables can make them toxic unless they are burnt, but I heard that cooking stuff in the microwave sucks out nutrients. I have definitely been eating more veggies and fruit than meat right now except for fish, I eat a lot of that. I love the taste of pretty much all vegetables except brussel sprouts, so I should have no problem there! lol

Yunimori : You are an inspiration Keep on going! I hope the exercise will help. Do you take medicine to help with the pain?

ZeroTails : lol Cool! Sounds great.

Thank you guys and girls for posting here and sharing your fitness business. Y'all are awesome.