I used to lift weights and work out a lot more seriously in my late 20s and early 30s - swam with a masters team and then switched to more cycling, hiking and swimming. I would go to the gym with a friend who was a lightweight competitive body builder -- but after the first dotcom bust in 2000, she and my other workout partner went through job changes and we all split up as a workout team. I found that I didn't really have a routine in mind and couldn't really keep it together on my own. I went back to mostly cardio (swimming, running, hiking, cycling).

In 2006 or 2007, I started keeping track of my workouts in spreadsheet form - but currently only have them going back to 2007 - with some gaps - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AlK-O-JrnaBndE92Um9lS3FuUHhYNU8xYlFURlBTU0E

In December 2009, I got a job that had me 100% telecommuting - so out went the walking 1-2 mi twice a day to train/bus, walking stairs in the office or to meetings, escaping the desk to walk the block, going to the gym at lunch... add to that a couple sports injuries (including a major knee surgery) and 8 weeks of walking pneumonia -- in late December 2011, I found myself at my highest weight ever around 190lbs (which given my height of 5'10" everyone says 'but - you can carry it!').

I started ProAction Athletics Bootcamp classes in October 2011 - and then was down with walking pneumonia for 8 weeks (December/January).

In late January 2012, I added 1 hour of cardio after bootcamp (4-5x/week), walking the neighbor's dog for 1 hour 3-5x/week plus getting back to hiking every weekend like I did before I traded my car for a motorcycle.

In May 2012, I sent all my Size 10 bottoms off packing (to my mom). I'm solidly back in Size 8 and all my former wardrobe items fit except for my 29" x 34" 501s (which I can wear but they are really tight - I remember using pliers to button 501s in high school, so I think I have just out grown jeans this tight, as a style).

Following research and trying out different body fat testing methods, I got a hydrostatic BF test (dunking!) and discovered on May 20 that I was 24%BF at 161 lbs. Over the next 8 weeks, I didn't lose very much weight -- I also suffered a calf muscle injury which put the brakes on my workouts, but I was delighted to learn that while I only had lost one pound, my body was trading 3lbs of fat for 2lbs of muscle and I went down to 22% from 24% at my second test in July 2012.!

After recovering from the calf injury and with a transition to working in the office looming nigh, I decided to make the most of the next 8 weeks -- and halfway through, sprained my ankle badly. Six months of establishing a solid regiment resulted in the ability to keep working out on my own in ways that did not impact my ankle and the work paid off -- I lost 5lbs of fat and went down below 20% body fat on my most recent test in September 2012!

BODY FAT CHANGES:
5/20 test (24% BF):
Weight: 161
Lean: 122.35
Fat: 38.65

7/18 test (22.2% BF):
Weight: 160
Lean: 124.4
Fat: 35.6

9/20 test (19.9% BF):
Weight: 155
Lean: 122.15
Fat: 30.85

12/6 test (??.?% BF):
Weight: ??
Lean: ??
Fat: ??

I am still working on getting into my 29x34" 501 jeans -- I'm currently back in size 8 (from pushing the limits of size 10) and working to get back to 32C from 38D (currently around 34D) and can't seem to get down to a C cup (yet!). My next goal is to get down to 17% by my 43rd birthday in December 2012.

My workout routine for most of the year was like this:
-- Bootcamp/Stationary Bike/bicycle - M-T-W-Th
-- Walking neighbor dog, Simon - 3-5x/week for 90 minutes
-- Swimming: 1-2x/week
-- Hiking/backpacking: 1-2x/week
-- Bicycling: grocery store, errands, beer :)
-- Bodyweight/ZWOW/Bodyrocktv: 1-2x/week or as substitute for Bootcamp

My new workout routine now that I am going into the office and working from home 2 days/week:
-- Supreme 90 circuit training workouts 5-6 days/week (usually 1-2 workouts)
-- ZWOW workouts (1-4 per day) - part of a 100 day burpee challenge
-- Stationary Bike - 3x/week - 30 minutes over lunch hour at work - Tu/We/Th
-- Swimming 3x/week - 30-45 minutes
-- Hiking/backpacking: 1x/week - shorter trips in the winter more focused on mushroom gathering, summer backpacking overnights
-- Bicycling: grocery store, errands
-- Pushups/burpees as a "get away from the desk" break in the office

DIET: I'm vegan, full time for the last 6 years, and vegetarian for 15 years before that (with monthly sushi binges before my period), and mostly vegetarian but compelled to eat meat as a requirement for meals my first 22 years.

About six years ago, my sister was under care of a nutritionist and mentioned an "elimination diet" to me -- and some of the symptoms she was trying to nail down. She sent me the info from her nutritionist, and it turns out that she and I share some of the same reactions to food. In my case - I decided to cut out those foods entirely -- dairy, it seems, is responsible for 20+ years of chronic, debilitating daily arthritis pain. Eating eggs makes me literally sick at my stomach.

Eating legumes just gives me flu symptoms -- my body just can't digest them -- I get queasy, feel flushed, warm & clammy, and then I just fall asleep -- symptoms that I was familiar with my entire life but didn't recognize that it was actually caused by food I was eating. Until six years ago, I thought it was normal to throw up in the back of my throat after eating a little bit -- food just wouldn't keep down (yeah, kinda gross, sorry).

I have no problems with gluten/wheat, sugar (ie, diabetes). Most of my paternal family are overweight to obese -- including my sister, father, cousins, and recently deceased grandmother. My mom has struggled with her weight as an adult and is currently on a quest to improve her fitness using Curves & diet (yay mom!!).

Once I eliminated dairy & eggs, I decided that I could give up fish entirely because of the horrors that we are wreaking on the oceans. In our lifetimes, we are seeing shortages of large fish and it will only get worse. The oceans are so badly over fished as to be affecting many other ecosystems.

PROTEIN: Most people can get all the protein they need from plant sources and do not need to supplement. Unless if you are very active and working to build lean muscle mass -- you may find it beneficial to supplement with protein powder shakes as I did after my first body fat test in May. I found a raw brown rice protein powder by Sunwarrior that I really like -- and I also eat a lot of seitan and local organic soy products (esp Yuba skin and tofu curry puffs from Hodo Soy).

The first time I increased my (unsupplemented) protein intake from 40-60g/day to 120-180g/day was after my first bodyfat test in May - in each 8 week period between body fat tests, I have suffered some ridiculous injury that caused me to rein in my activity -- but because I kept up the protein intake and activity that I could manage without aggravating my injury, I was able to really increase my lean body mass and reduce my fat -- from 24% to 19.9% in four months without one-on-one personal training or a nutritionist!

I'm currently about to experiment with 200-230 g/day of protein - I want to really burn some fat in the next two weeks before my upcoming bodyfat test on 12/6!

If you are curious what a vegan eats -- check out my blog: http://www.livegreenwearblack.com/

I track all my caloric intake & burns on LoseIt! -- so feel free to look me up on there (PM me for an invite if you can't find me).

I like feeling strong - it helps me do more and go farther when I'm swimming or backpacking. Good health is important and looking good is great, too!

I feel like there aren't enough people in my life who share my self-discipline and value on fitness -- even folks from hiking/backpacking meet-up groups are more interested in shuffling along, stopping, eating & socializing than actually hiking.