I used to work out, and was going good at it for about 2 years, and then I was in a situation where i was working 2 jobs 70-80 hours a week and that kinda fell by the wayside. That's about the time I quit smoking, lasted for a year and a half during that.

I'm in a situation where I want to change my lifestyle, but I'm too stuck in my ways. I'm 29, still think smoking is cool (even though it's not, it's the nicotine talking), have a beer gut to rival any wrestler from the 80's, and have the most unhealthy eating habits that any single guy would have.

My problem is I want to workout, but it's all useless if you don't try to eat right, and eating right requires cooking, and cooking for one is boring and means nothing to me. I can throw something in the microwave and be done with it. I really don't like eating leftovers, so that's not a good option.

I'd really like to get a bowflex and a stationary bike. I live in the country, where the roads are all 45-55mph+, so it's kinda impractical to ride a bike and risk death. There aren't any gyms nearby either, unless i want to travel 25-30 mins, and I've done that before and it's not fun. I'm not a gym rat. When I used to workout at the gym, I used to just get frustrated over the people sitting there and talking when I'm waiting to use the leg press!

So I started working out at home and that got tedious because chaning plates is a pain. Bowflex seems like good option. Not a great way to workout, but at least I'm getting some kind of workout. I've been looking at a lot of resistance equipment, and bowflex just has the best, bar none. I'm going to get a stationary bike at Wally world for like $100, so that's not an issue.

Once i get things going, I know I'll get back into the swing of it. I am one of those people who just naturally is muscular and if I just dropped 15-20 lbs, it'd make a huge difference. It's just that my weight is starting to get a little out of control now that i have a desk job working overnights, which isn't helping me to try to get a lifestyle change going either.

When I used to workout, I used to do something similar to a Chest/Back/Legs and Shoulders/Arms and Abs all mixed with Cardio, for a total of about an hour and a half session 4-5 days a week, with one day being only about 30-45 mins of cardio.

The thing I realized in the less than 2 years of lifting is that everyone is different. Everyone stores and loses weight differently than they gain muscle. I'm slowly starting to learn that even if my eating lifestyle isn't the best, I can still build a decent foundation with exercise. It's important to me not to change everything at once, like i did when I quit smoking and immediately started working out. When I could workout anymore, that's when smoking came back because I used workouts as a substitute for smoking.

I used to be religious about this stuff, subscribed to Flex and Muscle & Fitness (my biggest mistake), went to a bodybuilding forum, and several bodybuilding sites. I'd like to get back into it, as I really did enjoy the strength I had. I just question if I'm going to enjoy using a resistance machine like a Bowflex compared to actually seeing myself lifting dead weight. I could join the local college's gym, but it's only open during certain times, and it's no doubt going to be amazingly busy.