I have just joined the forum after reading a few threads the last 2 days and feel this is a good place to get a better understanding of what i should be doing both nutritionally and physically.
After being a very active child through to young adult, when i started working, i was doing jobs that involved a lot of manual labour, then after getting tired of low pay, moved to office jobs and have been working in IT for the past 4-5 years. The thought didn't cross my mind that the physical activity had completed ceased for me.
I have always been lean and kinda welcomed the thought of putting on a few kilo's. I was smoking heavily, drinking heavily and eating junk food maybe once a day or more. I did start to put on padding, but only around the stomach, which is 100% NOT the look i was going for!
Anyway, a year ago i gave up smoking and took up scuba diving. Having a hobby where lung capacity is a real benefit made giving up that much easier. Wanting to get up early to dive also has meant an end to the drinking unnecessarily. Then as time has progressed, we (my wife and i) sold our motorbikes and instead bought push bike to commute to work with. so for the last ~3 months, we have been cycling about 13 kilometres each way to work and back, almost 5 days a week. Also around the same time i started exercising in my lunch break by doing push up routines for 30 minutes three days a week and ab workouts for the other 2 days.
I recently lost the area i had to work out and the guy that was doing push ups with me hurt his shoulder, so he is unable to train the same way. I have decided to sign up to a gym (which goes against my norm) which is across the road from work and have no real idea what im doing there routine wise. The last Gym i went to was in High School.
So here are some details about me:
I am 5' 10"
75Kg's
lean with a gut
My diet is as follows: *grimaces in readiness*
Wake Up
Drink some water on the ride to work - 15km's
9am 4 weetbix with low fat milk and a chopped banana (plus one teaspoon of sugar)
10am 1 or 2 muesli bars - -chewy
11am 20 or so almonds
12pm 2 x Chicken sandwiches on wholemeal bread with lettuce and mayo (low fat).
1pm workout 30 minutes
1:15pm protein shake
water water water
mid afternoon snack on some more muesli bars or maybe an apple
5pm ride home
6pm dinner usually fettuccine bolognaise with about 100gms mince or steak and salad - sometimes we have bean burrito's
6:20 fun size chocolate bar x maybe 2 or 3 or a chocolate paddle pop.
maybe another protein shake with water.
So that's about it. I have come along way to get the diet as bad as it is
so go gently.. What would you guys recommend i do to alter the diet not so drastically, but maybe subtly over time so that i don't go into some form of shock? 
Looking forward to hearing from you!
