How I went from athlete to fat-ass and back, continued

I was a star athlete in my teens and early 20's, life happened and fitness went out the door, in my late 20's and early 30's i continued doing nothing to maintain my physique until i noticed i was, quite frankly, a fat-ass in my late 30's, i didn't nothing about it until my 40's and I recovered.

_{late 20's to late 30's to now. I'm drinking beer in all of them}

I am not a trainer, and I am not suggesting that what worked for me will work for others. I suspect it would and here is the reason why: I am not a terribly motivated person in regards to fitness in my life. I don't strive to do marathons and struggle to do 5k's. I'm lazy at the gym but still go a few times a week. This is why i chose the name of my blog to be "normie-fitness." I am not an elite athlete but figured out a secret that worked for me.

To recap, a friend of mine asked me after a bad breakup if i would participate in the swimming leg of a triathlon. I didn't fell like I was in anywhere near good enough shape but said "yes" anyway. I had two months to train and i was at near 240 lbs at the time. The last time i had swam competitively I was around 175 lbs.

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Fortunately the gym in the nearby beach town had a pool with a 50 meter portion in it. I had to be choosy about what time of day i went in order to not have a bunch of kids all around me, but I just got in and had a go. As you might imagine, it was tough so here is tip number one for a normie fat-ass

Don't overdo it

I didn't try to go from "zero to hero" on the first day. I needed to be able to swim 2km all in one go 2 months from my start date. The first day I did 500 meters without stopping and gradually added a few more each day after that. I did NOT time myself.

The biggest problem that lead to me becoming a fat-ass in the first place wasn't necessarily because I wasn't exercising. I was a regular at the gym doing weights, however, my diet was garbage and I knew this. I knew that I was not prepared to eliminate all the bad stuff from my diet but I was well aware of the fact that a majority of my bad calories were coming in the form of beer, so the good thing to do would be to cut all beer out of my diet right? WRONG!

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I merely transitioned to a light beer. It had about 1/6 the carbs that a "normal" beer has and as I am sure most people know, carbs are your enemy as far as fat is concerned.

In the first week or so of my new life, this is basically the only changes I made in my life. I have seen far too many people adapt a crash diet or join the gym as a New Year Resolution only to return to their old ways a few weeks later. It is just too difficult for a "normie" to make those kinds of changes all at once.

Bad habits i still had at this point

• I was still smoking
• i was still eating 'whatever"
• I was still drinking beer pretty much every day

And as my story continues, we'll see what sort of improvements I made as life went on.... here's a hint.... I never stopped drinking beer