Hello everybody :-)

Here's me:

I started my 'new lifestyle' back on June the 14th - Besides 2 holidays, & 2 weekends away at weddings, in between then and now, I've made some good progress...

Over the past few years, I've not really noticed that I put on a 'few extra pounds', but on the morning of June 14th, I looked in the bathroom mirror and I didn't really like what I saw. I've a 5 month old son, and he's wonderful - a real motivator to ensure I'm around as long as possible - A healthier lifestyle was needed! Don't get me wrong - I'm not massively overweight or anything - I reckon I had about 1.5 stone (about 25lbs) of excess weight to trim off... and I want to see a six pack, for the first time since i was a teenager.

So that was that - I didn't know about MFP at the time, but for about 8 weeks I kept a log of all the food / calories I was consuming, and the exercise I was doing, as well as bi-weekly weigh ins. Weight loss isn't difficult - it's just a case of consuming less energy than you expend....

I took a shot of myself in the mirror that morning - and I'm using that image as my motivation. I'll put up a before an after shot at some point in the future, but right now, I'm too shy! I'll wait 'til I've attained my Armani / David Beckham body before I scare you all with the pasty white, flabby before shot

A little over a month ago, a friend introduced me to the MFP app, after seeing me filling in my log/spreadsheet. I couldn't believe how easy it all was to log everything, compared to my own system! The 'calorie counting' and daily target thing really works for me it seems. It's made me take a long hard look at my lifestyle and eating habits, and turn everything around.

I've retrospectively added all my weight food and and exercise logs to MFP, and I've been using the app/site for 30 days now.

Progress so far? 7.1kg's (15.65 lb's ) dropped in 11 weeks of effort. The first week was spent analysing my eating habits and lack of exercise - so i could see what i had to change. Then i had a weeks holiday, then started training. I was brutally honest with myself, and didn't miss out on anything i consumed - made me realise how many 'bad' snacks I ate!! (Chocolate is my nemesis...) I've had 2 weeks holiday in that time, where I just enjoyed myself, and a couple of blow outs at weddings. but, my body has already visibly changed shape - I'm much more toned - I have a tendency to store excess weight around my middle - that's dropping off nicely. I fit back into skinny fitting shirts that were too uncomfortable to wear, already.

I'm hitting the gym 5 times a week, and mixing up what I do there, so as not to get bored, or plateau. Hell, I even did a spin class last week - something I NEVER thought I'd do or enjoy!

At the moment, I'm in my trim down phase... Once I'm happy - I'll probably start with more strength work, to try and bulk up a little.

Target day - January 1st 2013.

Just need some friends to help keep me motivated me now...!
Nice to meet you all...

Martyn.

Here's me and my other little motivation, a few weeks ago: :happy: