First off I'd like to congradulate everyone here for their efforts. It's not easy getting in shape, whether you've been away from it for a year, or ten years. I got back from the gm earlier this evening and had a good workout. I have access to very good facilities and use them everyday. I'm getting ready to finish up five years active duty as a Grunt in the Marine Corps and looking to the future. I'm always happy to see "civilians" taking note of their physical health. I want to actually move into the health feild and start taking classes towards diet and excercise physiology next fall. I've been lucky to have a job demanding me to be in the best shape I can be in. I've gained just shy of thirty five pounds in the last eighteen months. In april of '07 is when I really started moving in this direction. Since then I've gone from being 5'8" at 160lbs, and I'm teetering on 194-195 right now. My goal is to get up to 200 by january. So there's how I feel, that's what I've done. Again for all of you just starting out, or finding yourself in a rut just remember, "if it were easy, everyone would do it". Take pride in every little step you make, hopefully in a year when turn around and look back at the starting point, you won't even recognize that guy that began all of this anymore.