Trying to slim down and shape up

digitalixus

Hey all, can you believe I finally discovered today that there was a community forum here? Silly me! I've been using My Fitness Pal for about 2.5 weeks now and so far I'm loving it. I find it to be waaaaay more efficient and effective at tracking what I eat and how much I exercise; I went from keeping my half-hearted occasionally filled Excel spreadsheet of vague food data and exercise to religiously filling my MFP diary on a daily basis! I love that the 'experience' is the same from desktop to my phone, I used the iPhone app for the first 2 of my 2.5 weeks here and recently changed to an Android phone; big sigh of relief when I found an app for Android to be present too!

A little about me: I'm a 20 year old guy, 5'9" (175 cm) and 172 lbs. I've always been a not-so-active 'couch potato' type, I never played any sports since middle school, I'm good at computers, but that only means I'm at sitting at the monitor like 12 hours a day, 7 days a week =(. I'm in my 3rd year of college but since I took a lot of classes in my earlier years, I can now take fewer classes till I graduate, which is great news since I can eat at home more often and have control over what I eat (last couple of semesters were horrible with all-day classes; which meant Subway or chinese food for lunch, not healthy at all!).

I'm looking to join everyone here in getting fit . Ideally I would like to slim down and lose the belly and slight moobs which seems to be where most of my fat is at. I have decent thighs and arms with little to no visible flab/fat. So far I've lost 3 pounds in the past 2.5 weeks, not a lot compared to my target of -2 a week but its a good start isn't it? I've been watching what I eat, going to the gym doing mostly cardio; I walk to the mini apartment gym so I have access to just cardio and several machines: pull down, pseudo bench press machine, leg extension and that chest machine (forgot the name). Any tips would be great.

My greatest hindrance is probably picking out foods which are fast and easy to make but are healthy and filling. My goal is to make use of the school gym which is a 10 minute walk from where I live, so I can use free weights, and probably find a workout buddy (I'm gonna ask two friends who might potentially be interested) to help me spot weights (I am a weight lifting noob with a big fear of hurting myself and can barely press the bar only, without weights attached)