I'm new here and just wanted to drop in and introduce myself. I'm a 31 year old father of 1 and now that she's started school, I want to get back in the gym. This time I plan to see it through and change my eating habits as well.

Awesome! My husband and I are planning on joining the rec center here in town (no gym! ) and getting into a good workout routine as well as changing our way of eating. Work hard at it and don't give up! Don't know if you're the type to talk yourself out of a workout (ME!!) but be stubborn with yourself and talk yourself right back into it! Good luck!

You guys are awesome.

I'd just like to say, don't be discouraged if it's hard to keep going to the gym after the first little while. Not sure if you're like me, but if you are, it's tough to start a routine and really have it turn into a routine (even though I actually LIKE the gym once I'm there).

I think for me it's help to dissociate exercise from food. Previous attempts to "live a healthy lifestyle" had me going to the gym, but when I invariably got off track with exercise, I'd feel like a failure and get off track with food as well. But like I said, that might not be true for everyone; it's just something I've noticed about myself.

Since I'm relatively active already (I commute on foot to work, 20 minutes each way at a brisk pace), I don't worry about it, which means if I do exercise it's either to get me from point A to point B, or it's something fun I'm excited about doing (Snowshoeing! Yay!).

Sorry, I think I got rambly there at some point. But I'm sick, so I'll wave my free pass in the air...

Thanks for the encouragement. I appreciate it.