Hello, everyone! My name is Timothy Ramsey and I am a freelance reporter for The Chronicle. You probably recognize my name as a contributor to The Chronicle’s sports page. I’m now moving in a new direction by writing about my fitness journey. 

Last year I started my fitness journey to get back into shape because of some negative things I was noticing about my body. After a year of consistent workouts, I decided to share my story and the things that have worked for me, just in case there were other people out there who may want to get in shape after the age of 40. 

So, let’s go back to the beginning of why I chose to start working out once again. 

It all started the day I began my new position at Wake Forest University. On my first day, I woke up and went through my normal pre-work routine until it was time to get dressed. I am almost embarrassed to say this, but when I went to put on my dress shirt, it didn’t fit because my neck was too big.  

I exhaled some air and squeezed as hard as I could and finally got my shirt buttoned. Unfortunately, when I took another breath and exhaled again, the top button popped off my shirt and flew across the room and hit the mirror. This was my first sign that I needed to make some changes in my life. 

My second sign popped up upon arrival at the employee parking lot where I work. I realized the parking lot was quite a distance from where my actual office was located. When I finally made it up the hill and walked through the building to my office, I was totally out of breath and my heart was beating out of my chest. 

I thought about that feeling all day, running those memories through my mind until it was time to leave work.  Instead of going home, I immediately drove to Planet Fitness and got a membership! (My first day back at the gym was March 2 of last year, so we are coming up on my first-year anniversary.) 

The third sign was when I weighed myself. I was shockingly surprised to see that I weighed 228 pounds, the heaviest I have ever weighed in my life!  

I didn’t know where to start my workout program. I am a former track and field athlete, but now being over the age of 40, I knew I couldn’t work out the same way I did when I was competing. 

The only thing I knew to do was some full body workouts until I could do a little research and focus on my problem areas. Those first couple of weeks were not very productive and I didn’t see much change in my body or with the weight I was lifting and that was due to me not knowing what I was doing. 

I took a deep dive into learning more about fitness for those in their 40s and discovered quite a lot of information that I was able to use for formulating a workout that was best for me. With my busy schedule, I chose to work out three days a week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I take the weekends off because I know my body needs time to rest. Instead of doing full body workouts every day, I broke my workouts down to three days where I am hitting all muscle groups twice per week, while also getting in the necessary cardio to aid in my weight loss.  

Finding a workout that works for me was the key to my fitness journey.  

Once I fine-tuned my workout, I started to see results and they just kept coming. I am in the best shape I have been in since I was in my 20s and I am not stopping anytime soon. 

I will continue writing about my fitness journey and giving tips once a month. I hope this article and the ones to come will help someone else looking to get in shape. Just remember, consistency is key. As long as you go to the gym, you are ahead of the game.