Behind the Average Geek Workout Plan

In order for you, the reader, to understand where this is all coming from, I think it's necessary for me to give a little bit of my background and lifestyle.  I need you to understand exactly what I mean by "Average Geek", and why I'm writing this blog.

The Picture of Non-Athleticism

I've never been what you'd remotely call an "athlete".  Sure, I played little league baseball when I was a kid, but I was really never any good.  I never played sports in school, and always leaned more toward activities that were brain-related.  I was, and still am an avid musician.  When I was a kid, my father got me into computers and technology, and I've been working and playing with computers ever since.  My current job, as well as my leisure activities, revolve around technology.

When I was in high school, I was required to take a couple of gym classes.  Being a non-athlete, those classes were torture.  I did all that I could to avoid going, using music practice as an excuse most days.  This eventually caught up with me.  My junior year, I was given a choice: workout in the weight room with the football team for a month in the summer or fail gym.  Fortunately, even as a geek, I had a couple of friends on the football team (can you believe one of them actually played in the orchestra with me?), so the workouts weren't that bad.  Plus I discovered that I actually like weightlifting.  The concept of competing with yourself alone was very appealing.

From High School to College to Now

After my initial experience with weightlifting, even though I had found that I like it, I didn't really gravitate to it.  In fact, I still avoided anything athletic until college.  I was a skinny kid in high school, starting my freshman year just below 100 lbs, and ending my senior year at around 130.  When I started college, however, and discovered "free" food and lots of it, I started gaining weight in a big way.  And not in a flattering way, either.  By the time my junior year rolled around, I'd gone from that skinny 130 all the way up to around 220 (thank you, Guinness Extra Stout).  That's the point where I decided something needed to be done.

I started lifting weights.  I'd read somewhere on the Interwebs that if you gain muscle, that muscle will magically burn fat.  What I didn't know is that, while this is to a certain degree true, it isn't to nearing the degree that I was banking on.  I also read somewhere that weightlifters should eat a whole boatload of food.  Well, crap, I was already doing that.  So I continued to eat like hell and started lifting weights completely wrong, probably twice a week, and remained a fat kid until graduation.

After getting out of college, things got a little better.  Sort of.  I was now responsible for buying my own meals, which, by default, helped me eat less.  You don't pig out nearly as bad when you have to buy your own groceries.  So I dropped a little weight, down to about 200.  I was still lifting all wrong, however, not really paying attention to what I was doing.  So I stuck at around 200 until about a year ago, when I got married.

About two monthes into our marriage, my wife and I discovered that she is a very good cook.  We got a whole load of cookbooks as wedding gifts, and she started trying out recipes.  Then I discovered I'd gain about 20 pounds.  It was at this point we decided to get a gym membership and start working on losing the excess weight.  Which brings us to today...

At the moment I'm weighing in at around 195.  I'm 6 feet tall, and according to our bodyfat scale, I'm carrying around 25% bodyfat.  This is my starting point.