So I just registered a few minutes ago and figured I'd jump right in, I'm pretty excited about my progress so far.
First a little history. As a ecto\endo body type it's been rough to keep fit without excercise. 6 years ago I hit the wall at 255 lbs and decided to make a change I hit it hard and dropped around 70 pounds in a very short time. As luck would have it 'life happened' and I stopped my program, trading it for comfort food and alcohol, and soon gain all the weight back. Jump forward 6 years later and again I decided I've had enough of struggling to put my socks on at 270 lbs. After a weekend of tequila drinking and jumping on the scale Mon morning I made the first step by getting on my dusty stationary bike with a hangover
. That was 30 days ago and to date I've lost 20 lbs and feel much better, both physically and mentally.
I won't bore you with the all specific details of the last 30 days and will summarize with the idea of being specific later.
Excercise-Typically my day starts with lifting weights. I lift 6 days a week alternating muscle groups so I'm only hitting those groups every other day, or 3 days a week, I lift Mon-Sat. It was slow and difficult at first but I have seen huge strength gains in just 30 days, I went from curling 15 lb dumbells to buying an olympic curling bar and I'm currently doing 4 sets of 10 with 70 lbs on upper body day. At night I hit the recumbent bike 7 days a week, twice on Sun in place of weight training. Again it was slow at first, I started out riding for 10 minutes and have worked up to doing 30 minutes a night. I concentrate on keeping my heart rate up and have seen big gains here as well. The first time I was able to complete 30 minutes I only burned around 400 calories. Now I can hit it hard typically I can spin over 11 miles at around 140 bpm and burn just over 600 cal.
It might seem like I'm being excessive but it's only about an hour a day and I watch TV as I ride and check email between sets as I recover. It's efficient and easy since it's time I would usually be wasting anyway.
Diet-This is where I've made the biggest change, not so much in how much I eat but how and when I eat it. Since I've done this before is was easy for me to make the change, like I said it has more to with making smart choices than deprivation. Basically I've taken to calorie reduction and eating 5 times a day rather than the 3 big meals I was eating. A typical day would belike this. Breakfast a protein shake with frozen berries immediately following my morning workout. Snack at mid morning, usually yogurt or 1% cottage cheese. Lunch typically I have 4 oz meat with green veggies or beans. Snack cheese and can of V8 or fresh fruit. Dinner again it's 4 oz meat, cooked veggies or beans and usually some fresh veggies like tomato slices or cucumber. I rarely feel hungry and I don't feel like I've missed out on anything. If I get hungry after dinner I usually have some chocolate whey protein with water and ice, sometimes I put a spoonful of peanut butter in it. During the day I also drink a few 6 oz cans of V8, at 30 cal each I don't limit myself on these since I've never drank more than 2-3 in a day.
Supplements As I mentioned I am using powdered protein and I also use creatine and L-carnitine. I don't take any daily multi vitamins but I do take fish oil. The protein makes a satisfying breakfast with fruit blended in.
Progress Like I said so far I'm down 20 lbs and I feel great. I don't feel any of the changes I've made are "work", the food tastes great and the excercise has just taken the place of time wasted from sleeping in or sitting in front of the TV.
First a little history. As a ecto\endo body type it's been rough to keep fit without excercise. 6 years ago I hit the wall at 255 lbs and decided to make a change I hit it hard and dropped around 70 pounds in a very short time. As luck would have it 'life happened' and I stopped my program, trading it for comfort food and alcohol, and soon gain all the weight back. Jump forward 6 years later and again I decided I've had enough of struggling to put my socks on at 270 lbs. After a weekend of tequila drinking and jumping on the scale Mon morning I made the first step by getting on my dusty stationary bike with a hangover
. That was 30 days ago and to date I've lost 20 lbs and feel much better, both physically and mentally.I won't bore you with the all specific details of the last 30 days and will summarize with the idea of being specific later.
Excercise-Typically my day starts with lifting weights. I lift 6 days a week alternating muscle groups so I'm only hitting those groups every other day, or 3 days a week, I lift Mon-Sat. It was slow and difficult at first but I have seen huge strength gains in just 30 days, I went from curling 15 lb dumbells to buying an olympic curling bar and I'm currently doing 4 sets of 10 with 70 lbs on upper body day. At night I hit the recumbent bike 7 days a week, twice on Sun in place of weight training. Again it was slow at first, I started out riding for 10 minutes and have worked up to doing 30 minutes a night. I concentrate on keeping my heart rate up and have seen big gains here as well. The first time I was able to complete 30 minutes I only burned around 400 calories. Now I can hit it hard typically I can spin over 11 miles at around 140 bpm and burn just over 600 cal.
It might seem like I'm being excessive but it's only about an hour a day and I watch TV as I ride and check email between sets as I recover. It's efficient and easy since it's time I would usually be wasting anyway.
Diet-This is where I've made the biggest change, not so much in how much I eat but how and when I eat it. Since I've done this before is was easy for me to make the change, like I said it has more to with making smart choices than deprivation. Basically I've taken to calorie reduction and eating 5 times a day rather than the 3 big meals I was eating. A typical day would belike this. Breakfast a protein shake with frozen berries immediately following my morning workout. Snack at mid morning, usually yogurt or 1% cottage cheese. Lunch typically I have 4 oz meat with green veggies or beans. Snack cheese and can of V8 or fresh fruit. Dinner again it's 4 oz meat, cooked veggies or beans and usually some fresh veggies like tomato slices or cucumber. I rarely feel hungry and I don't feel like I've missed out on anything. If I get hungry after dinner I usually have some chocolate whey protein with water and ice, sometimes I put a spoonful of peanut butter in it. During the day I also drink a few 6 oz cans of V8, at 30 cal each I don't limit myself on these since I've never drank more than 2-3 in a day.
Supplements As I mentioned I am using powdered protein and I also use creatine and L-carnitine. I don't take any daily multi vitamins but I do take fish oil. The protein makes a satisfying breakfast with fruit blended in.
Progress Like I said so far I'm down 20 lbs and I feel great. I don't feel any of the changes I've made are "work", the food tastes great and the excercise has just taken the place of time wasted from sleeping in or sitting in front of the TV.
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