New member MMO addiction :(.

Mungzta

Long post incoming.

5 years ago my beautiful wife and I met online via (World of Warcraft). When I first met her I weighed about 190 pounds, which was fairly low for me. I had struggled with my weight ever since early childhood. I would always deal with bouts of depression (Bullies) that would cause me to lose, once I felt comfortable I'd just gain it all back. Mostly, from being a computer nerd, (Very sedentary) not only do I work with computers (Freelance Programmer) outside of that I've always enjoyed... well more computer, generally PC gaming. While I love my wife more then anything in this world, the first few years of our marriage were not considered "Healthy" behavior, we would fall into a spiral of eating whatever was "Cheapest" and "Quick" so we could get back to our MMO addiction. At my heaviest I weighed about 240-250 pounds(5'10), which was a lot for me. I don't carry my weight well, and I'm an extremely self conscious person.

My wife whom is a fluffy lady started experiencing... issues due to her weight. Her knees and back started to hurt, she was having a hard time getting around and the big one, we just couldn't get pregnant no matter what we did. We went to the doctors and were fed the "Your fat, get out of my office and lost some weight" bull from the doctors. After those negative experiences, we decided that we needed to put our FULL effort into getting healthy, not only so the doctors would take us seriously but so we can have a baby.

Now that the sad part of the story is over, we can get to the good stuff. After our doctors visit we went home and did a bit of research and while we had read about disagreements over it. We decided to do away with sugar, reduce our carb intake >30, and eat lots of healthy proteins and vegetables. We've stuck with it now for about 11 months, and it worked. My wife has dropped 100 pounds (No more pain) and is still in the process of losing, we've been trying to work in more exercise. She works a steady long job so its hard for her to exercise after work, but shes made amazing progress and I'm confident within another year or so she will reach her target weight.

As for myself, I dropped down to 160 pounds. The lightest I've ever been in my entire life, I've worked back in healthy grains into my diet, lots of flax/wheat flat breads/wraps and more fruits. I'm fairly confident now in my abilities to maintain my diet, but after losing all that weight, it only left me a bag of bones. I suffer from other medical issues, so I try to do Yoga daily, the meditation helps keep me center and yoga just naturally stretches out and strengthens my muscles which has helped TREMENDOUSLY. My issue now is that I want to put on some more muscle, I don't wanna be a hulk, but I would like to be able to play with my children (When I have them) without getting worn out. We can't afford the gym so I thought it would be a good idea to look online for advice/support on things we can do to continue to improve. I'd also hopefully like to encourage and help others wherever I can, my wife and I have never been more positive or happy about our life and if I can share that with someone, I will.

Thanks for taking the time to read our "Story". Feel free to send a friend request or a message to me anytime.

surferxterra

Congrats on your achievements. Have you done Heroic Lich King? (I HAVE!)

Good luck on your journey.

Mungzta

Thank you Surfer . Our guild made it 11/12 25M Heroic ICC before falling apart, so while we did see the fight during its prime, we unfortunately couldn't handle the Defile lol.

madhatter2013

(World of Warcraft).

There's the problem right there. LOL

Yoshirio

Congrats to you and your wife for your loss. I gained all my weight playing wow too. Evil game.:p Good luck!

sparklefrogz

My issue now is that I want to put on some more muscle, I don't wanna be a hulk, but I would like to be able to play with my children (When I have them) without getting worn out. We can't afford the gym so I thought it would be a good idea to look online for advice/support on things we can do to continue to improve.

If you have a bit of spare cash and some time, you can pick up some free weights on Craigslist or similar pretty cheap. There are many well designed lifting programs you can do at home, and I'm sure that others who are familiar with them will be able to give you a good run down.

As for me, I'm *really* cheap and really lazy: I do progressive bodyweight exercises (from Mark Lauren's "Body By You" -- if you really can't spare any cash try StartBodyweight.com, it's free and similar), and alternate with Pilates (free from blogilates.com). I can do it by myself, at home, on the road, outside, wherever, totally free -- it leaves me no excuses to not workout.

Kids will probably require more endurance than pure strength, though. My favourite exercise for that is simply hiking, or walking if I can't get to the woods. If you or your wife like running or jogging, Couch to 5K is an excellent free program (and there are a number of phone apps for it too).

Mungzta

Hey Sparkle, I'll check out the stuff by Mark Lauren. Would you recommend Pilates over Yoga for a choice of exercise? During my initial losing phase, I did a lot of running/walking. Found that I was CONSTANTLY pulling some muscle in my stomach, it was incredibly frustrating. I'm fine on the bike thou so we've been saving up money to purchase another bike so we can go out riding together. I have fairly good stamina so far, correct breathing techniques I've picked up from Yoga has really, really helped when I start to get stressed physically. Thank you all for the encouraging words and wisdom.

bcattoes

You can build strength with no money at all. Just Google bodyweight exercise routines and you'll find plenty.

sparklefrogz

Would you recommend Pilates over Yoga for a choice of exercise? During my initial losing phase, I did a lot of running/walking. Found that I was CONSTANTLY pulling some muscle in my stomach, it was incredibly frustrating. I'm fine on the bike thou so we've been saving up money to purchase another bike so we can go out riding together. I have fairly good stamina so far, correct breathing techniques I've picked up from Yoga has really, really helped when I start to get stressed physically.

I don't have much experience with yoga; I know there are lots of different types of varying strenuousness (is that even a word?) but I've only done really light stuff. I find Pilates to be challenging enough for me right now.

As bcattoes mentioned, you can find lots of bodyweight stuff free online. The main thing I like about Mark Lauren's stuff (and StartBodyweight) is that the exercises progress. Bodyweight/resistance training is very similar to weight training in that being able to do the same movement/lift the same weight 50 times really isn't going to help you improve. Once you can do about 10-12 reps of an exercise, you want to bump the difficulty up. The two programs I mentioned above have a nice progression where they tell you what exercises to bump up to, instead of having to figure one out yourself. If you can figure out a progression yourself, you're probably a gymnast.

Biking is a great thing to get into with your wife; it's free and outdoors and the kidlet(s) can join along when the time is right too.