I want to become athletic

[Cavernio]

Ok, goal is to become more athletic. Why? Because I think this will be fun. This is important to me that whatever I'm doing I'm feeling good about it, not because I'm avoiding a bad. So yeah, I think it will be fun.
So, the mental side of it is more or less taken care of as long as I am looking at this as fun.

The next side of this is starting and doing this safely without hurting myself, but also without being too cautious.

So my physical health really isn't great right now. I'm 195lbs last I checked, 5"1', don't purposefully exercise but do walk everywhere for like, groceries and shopping and stuff, which isn't a whole lot of walking.
I'm also smoking weed regularly. I would absolutely have to nearly cut that off completely, stuff makes me sluggish. Plus lungs etc.

Biggest thing is that I'm living in near constant physical pain lately. Nerve pain mainly, it moves around, throbbing. But I realize that I think I ignore a lot of pain signals, naturally just do at this point, so it can become hard to tell when I've pushed myself too much or not. eg: Last time I moved I pushed myself too hard to the point of like, not being able to get myself out of bed for a week, the exertion and stress just shut me down physically and mentally.

Does anyone have any advice or know a good place to look for starting an active lifestyle while dealing with chronic pain?

[Reach]

Well, chronic pain is complicated. It can come from many sources and everyone experiences it differently in my experience.

I would start by losing weight as your priority. This starts with diet and getting yourself onto a diet that is at a caloric deficit and will cause fat loss.

I would begin doing light cardio and light resistance training regularly to get your body used to moving again once your diet is sorted out. You'll probably find it will help manage the pain to some degree. I would consider mobility and flexibility work as well if you're inflexible.

If you want more details on plan structuring etc feel free to ask.

[Travis_Flesher]

best thing to do is get a used bowflex or another all-in-one exercise machine and a treadmill. my advice is just to go as hard as you can without hurting yourself and keep at it for few months and you'll be in shape. also try putting on a couple layers of sweats and going jogging or a good brisk hike to try to work up a sweat. this will cleanse you and make you feel great and start getting you fit. you will be burning calories and building muscle, so you need to eat good quality produce like potatoes, rice, and leafy greens. there are other techniques to help get fit quickly such as diaphragm resistance exercise for your lungs, and maximum heartrate cardio. like i said, a bowflex home gym and a treadmill will cover your bases.

[Mahou]

Define athletic - because it seems as though everyone has a different sort of standard for this.

I'm not going to beat a dead horse, because travis and reach already have put out some really good suggestions (minus buying the bowflex or treadmill).
If you really want to get started, I would try challenging yourself every day to do something different that keeps you somewhat active (i.e. going for more walks, roller skating, swimming, etc). The general idea behind this is to get you to ease your way into fitness. A lot of people tend to give up if they feel like they are being overwhelmed too fast from their exercises or from information that's being given to them.

[rebelrunner26]

^Good points

Fall in love with exercise before you focus on any goals. Go find a game or activity to make you sweat bullets (game with friends, hiking, running, whatever), and do that every other day for a month. You'll get the itch to be active after 3-4 weeks, and then you can start worrying about training specific muscle groups and what not. There's way more information out there than is necessary...I've focused on certs and degrees for almost a decade, but it all comes down to motivation at the end of the day (It is a multi-billion dollar industry for a reason). Once you feel good pushing yourself, the rest can follow much more easily.

Just remember that fitness isn't like this game where it's all about scores. The numbers you see on the scale, the weights, or the tape don't matter anywhere near as much as how good you feel in your own skin. Numbers are for goals, confidence is for life!

[JanellIsabel]

Go for exercises.