Climbing on board...

Well, I made it! I just joined a few days ago and have been reading the success forum for inspiration. I am the heaviest I have ever been in all my 44 years, at 195 pounds (I am 5'3"). My immediate goal is to get my BMI down out of the obese range - my ultimate goal would be to lose 50 pounds and get down to 145.

I just joined the Y late last month and have been trying to go and walk for the past two weeks. I have also climbed on the elliptical a time or two (there are two different kinds at the place I go...one kills me, the other only makes me wish I were dead). At this point, I am trying to work my way up in intensity rather than time, as I only have so much time I can devote to the gym.

Any and all words of advice would be most welcomed. I am a total newb in the gym - right now I am only doing cardio (probably pseudo-cardio given my physical limitations...compared to the other folks sprinting away on the ellipticals/treadmills, I look like sloth...I keep feeling like I should check my back for moss or algae or whatever the green stuff is! LOL!). I'm not sure how fast to try and walk, how long, whether to do incline, ugh...so many questions.

Oh, and one other thing...I originally signed up with a username I'd rather not post with (at the time I was doing it with an app, not even realizing there was this faboo web site...didn't think about posting stuff publicly). Is there a way to marry this account to that one or import info from there? I would hate to lose the few days of diary I have so far, but if I have to I will. Advice? (please don't smack me - I did read the forum rules...I'm not trying to circumvent anything, but I really don't want to post under the original username I chose).