Well, I can no longer resist the temptation of health. I have been reading these forums for months now and keep promising I'll get started. But never do. :mad: So today, with no further a'do I am starting. :bb:

Current Stats:
age = 31
height = 5'11
sex = male
weight = 192
bf = 24%
goal = 170 @ 10%bf

Plan:
- 2 weeks of low intensity cardio at 50-65% for 45 min sessions 4x a week to prime the old ticker.
- 12 weeks Body4Life
- 20/40/40 diet ratio

a little 'bout me:
I have been heavy all my life, when I was a kid I always had to wear the "husky" size pants. I discovered bodybuilding at 16 and worked out like I was insane until I was 22. I made some really good gains but was following the gosple of the late 80's of working out 1.5 hrs a day 4-5 days a weeks. Had I only known the word "overtraining" back then. Then I moved out, went to college and found that McDonald's had double cheeseburger's for .99 :spaz: well, after becoming addicted to those little burgers I was able to pack on 55lbs of pure fat in 8 months! At my heaviest I waddled around at 240lbs a couple years back working out on and off, mostly with heavy weights just telling myself that "it was okay if my bulking phase had been going on for a few years. I could lose it in a month." Well, I learned a lot when I was younger and trying to get into the bodybuilding scene and dug into my logs and articles and started the long journey back. I watched my diet and did cardio and was able to get down to 200lbs. Then I did Atkins (for all the wrong reasons) and was able to shed another 10lbs in 2 weeks. Which is where I am today. But I can feel myself slowing as I pass McDonalds and I am carelessly tossing 5 tablespoons of sugar into my coffee. I'm starting to get incredible urges for very bad food. My caloric intake has recently spiked to over 5000 cals in one day! And that damn voice in my head just keeps saying "DANGER DANGER!!" So here I am inspired by what John has done to himself and how he has helped so many people. Totally incredible. :claplow: When I first came across his site, I think I might have blacked out for awhile in shock that he was so dedicated. I think the only other person I have seen with such a vision is Dino Pierce from bodybuilding.com. Anyway, I am totally infatuated with this site and all the people who share their success and advice and encouragement. I guess I'm just glad to be here!! :tu:

Day 2:

did cardio for 45mins at 65% intensity. felt good to be moving again. not going to do weights for a weeks or so, so that I can concentrate on getting my diet stable. That seems to be the biggest problem. I started using Fitday and need to keep my calories at 2000 40/40/20. more later. below is a link to my Fitday journal:

http://www.fitday.com/WebFit/PublicJournals.html?Owner=johnserene

DAY 2 {PM}:

So today was mostly spent working on my diet. Thank God for Fitday! It really helps because when I get that unretreatable urge for those "7-11 cookies 3 for $1.00 right near the cash register" I can plug them into Fitday and really see what a mess that would make of my diet. Today I wanted the cookies bad, but instead I went for the oriental party mix (yea, kinda was like a party). I need to get my protein shakes in, but I keep forgetting to bring my shaker bottle to work and I won't try doing the "cup thing" again. I think I freaked a lot of people out when I was stirring like a mad man trying to get all those clumps to go away. I was really stirring up a storm, but most of my shake ended up on the floor and people kinda looked scared. So now I bring the shaker bottle. But it really is a challenge to get that huge scoop aligned with the top of the shaker bottle. Oh the dilemmas...Anyway, my workout this morning was good. They have these tricked out stair climbers at the gym with TV’s in them, so I was watching the comedy channel laughing way too loud for proper gym etiquette. But the guy next to me was really laughing loud so I thought it would be okay. But the little cheerleader girl next to me rolled her eyes and just flipped the page of her seventeen magazine. Tomorrow more of the same. I am going to hit my target of 2000 cals at 40/40/20. Work out in the morning with low intensity cardio for 45 mins. Maybe I'll mix in some snorting noises when I start laughing tomorrow. See how they like that...

have a good one!

DAY 3:

today's diet:
http://www.fitday.com/WebFit/PublicJournals.html?Owner=johnserene

This morning went to the gym to do another session of cardio. 22 mins of HiiT, it felt really good to push a little harder today. I've noticed that my right hip is sore in a weird way. I have a curve to my spine and I "pulled" something when I was doing squats a while back. I just assumed it was because I was 240lbs at the time. But now that I have gotten down to around 190 and my back still hurts. I'm going to set up an appt with a orthopedic dr to see if I did anything to my back. Actually, I did go to see one about a couple of years ago when this happened before but he made me strip down to my shorts and parade around his office while he spoke into a tape recorder. It was all very "What About Bob". He said he found nothing and that I should lose weight and start stretching.

The diet went great today, I still have to take my protien shake, but the calories were much closer to 2000, and the ratio is looking better 35c/50p/15f. I had another carb attack on my way home from work, but I resisted knowing eating like that was no longer acceptable for me. I had to raise my standards, and no more friggin' cookies!! I don't know how I got so hooked on those things. I swear they are like my crack. I usually eat 3-5 huge cookies at lunch 3X week. It's my one last vice I have to conquer. So enough of my pointless "bla-bla" off to drink my protien shake and dream about a 6 pac...

Take it easy :tu:

Day 3 {PM}:

ps. I just had my protien drink and whatever you do not buy Iron-Tek Whey Protien! I've been able to mix glass and pineapples better than this stuff! God, it's all over me, I was trying to mix it with a spoon, it's stuck to my face like chocolate plaster! I couldn't open my mouth for a few minutes because that stuff sealed my mouth shut. It's even on my forehead!

Wow has it really been 35 days since I posted?!! I caught a nasty bug that kept me out of the gym for 3 weeks, then things in my life began falling apart. Namely my car which is currenly in the shop because I blew the engine (oppps!) I'm a little stressed because the first machanic said he could fix it for under $3,000. So I am going to have it towed this morning to a different machanic to see if he can do it any cheaper. This has not been a good couple of weeks but it has led me to understand myself much better. And I have realized that no matter what obsticales get in my way I will never stop my pursuit for health. Which is why I am back. Okay enough with the boring stuff...

My workouts have resumed and my diet is back on track, although I need to work more protein in for a 20/40/40 f/c/p ratio. The rest of this week I am going to tune my diet and hit a few sessions of cardio. Monday will begin a cycle of Body for Life. More later I have to go get my car towed...

The workout today went great! I did very light upper body lifting to prepare for monday's Body4Life start
my diet is much improved and closer to 20/40/40 need to start drinking more water.
more later gotta get my taxes into Uncle Sam...

Okay just like to say that paying taxes is a painful thing. "A CSN number ! What the hell is a CSN number and why don't I have one!!" It went mostly like that for 2hrs, but by the good hand of luck I found my 2002 taxes stashed on my hard drive and was able to get that crazy CSN number. Thank god that is over with :-) (at least for another year)

so to fill in a little more my diet was at 1500 cals with 21f/36c/44p. My cals are at least 500 too low. I'll bring those up now that I have my ratios close. my workout was:
flat bench 5x5@135
lateral shldr raises 5x5@15
bicep curl 5x5@35
tricep extensions 5x5@35
lat machine 5x5@50

it felt great to be back in the gym. It was interesting to see everyone's eyebrows go up when I walked in. They kind of look like "Hey, where the hell have you been?" good question.

Okay, made it back from the weekend with less damage than I thought. Didn't have a chance to post Friday because I was running around trying to get my car to a different machanic. I spent the weekend down in L.A and Sunday Easter I ate well, not great but a huge improvement over what I usually eat on "those days". I was planning on starting Body4Life today but decided not to until tomorrow because I got in from L.A this morning around 1:00 am and had to get up at 5:00am to return my rental car, then walk a 2 miles to catch a bus then to catch a train (which I got on the wrong one) then off the train and onto a shuttle to take me to work. which is where I am now. So I decided I was a little stressed out and tired this morning and didn't want to push myself any harder and end up getting sick. Plus I got a 2 mile walk in this morning and I'll do another 1.5 at luch so I'll just consider this a cardio day. Well other than that, looking forward to starting tomorrow and eating well today !

Hope you have a good workout.

Ah, the diet is now falling into place:

Total: 2040 calories
Fat: 35.g 313.cals 16%
Carbs: 238.g 839.cals 43%
Protein:199.g 796.cals 41%

the workout felt good today. I'm keeping the wieght very low and focusing on getting
the routine tuned. Today was upper body

chest 4x8@135
bis/tris 3x8@35
milt press 4x8@45

no lats today and I am still not fully following the Body4Life routine. Although I said this Monday would be the day I started, I felt that was unrealistic considering the crazy ass week I have been having. This week I will set up the routine and lock down my diet and get my cardio in place. It really makes me frustrated that I can't go full steam ahead, but my experience has shown that taking a week to make sure everything is in check makes all the difference. It also helps the tendons adapt to the stress. In either case tomorrow will be cardio.

Hope your workouts were "grueling"

Diet is looking good. I am not getting the cravings for crap food as much, although I had 2 chocolate chips cookies today at lunch. I swear those little cookies are like crack. But this time I went down to the cafeteria and made a conscience effort to understand this little cookie attacks. And I realized that I was not hungry at the time at all, just wanted to eat them. So now I always ask myself 3 questions before I reach for bad food.
1. Is this food man made or natural?
2. Will this food take me closer to my goals or farther away from them?
3. Is there any other alternative besides this?

So I asked myself those questions walking on my way to the plate of cookies and really surprised myself out of wanting them, but I ate 2 anyway (I used to have 5-6 3x week)to take note of how I would feel afterward. 20 minutes later I felt my blood sugar go up and down and I felt like hell. I think it is unrealistic to honestly say I will never eat bad food in the future, but I'm learning to approach it more analytically which seems to help. So here is how the diet looks today


Total: 2040.cals
Fat: 29.g 259.cals 13%
Carbs: 263.g 938.cals 48%
Protein:190.g 760.cals 39%

The carbs are too high because of the cookies
as for the workout, today was cardio and did 45 mins of med intensity.

hope your workouts "hurt"

I just finished reading a post by Jeremy Likness and he said something that completely snapped something very important into focus for me. This is part of what he said

"And it was when I stopped tripping over my own ego and my own self-limiting notions, when I took that blind leap of faith and decided, I am no longer going to let life choose how I live, I am going to create my vision of who I WANT to be, and hold that vision in my mind, and become that vision - THAT is when I had the great breakthroughs."

I feel like something deep inside me just locked onto a distant target, that I have been searching for for a very long time. I can't see it, but I can feel it. And it is right in front of me now.

Diet:

Total: 1986
Fat: 36.g | 322.cals | 17%
Carbs: 216.g | 767.cals | 41%
Protein: 195.g | 780.cals | 42%


workout:
quads/hams/shoulders/lats/abs

Thanks for the inspirational words Jeremy...

Hmmm.... What happened to Jeremy Likness? Gone? Forever? And ever?

Anyway, I'm finding it really hard to post over the weekend because I am down in L.A and don't have access to this site from there. So until things get back to normal, I'll only be able to post M-F. So the weekend was not very good. The diet fell apart at my nephew's b-day party. I was super stressed because my wife's car almost died on the freeway so I had to get it fixed over the weekend. Something about the clutch cable. And my car is still in the shop getting the engine rebuilt so I am taking the bus to work. Actually I'm taking the train and it is really kind of nice. I listen to all the people talking on their cell phones about stuff like getting out of jail and getting divorces. And then I think "well my situation could be a lot worse." and I'm thankful it's not. I even saw a woman scribbling in her diary about how she wanted to retire in 5 years. And I'm like "Yea stand in line!" I'd like to retire tomorrow.

Today's workout felt awesome, I'm trying something a little different than Body4Life because I am always left with that feeling of wanting to do more than just 3x week with lifting. So I have switched to a 4x a week routine that will hit each body part 2x week instead of 2/1 as in B4L. I'll do this for 3 weeks because I know I'll burn out after that. So then I'll cycle in B4L after 3 weeks. So this is what my routine looks like for the next 3 weeks.

monday:
chest 4x10
lats 4x10
shoulders 4x10
crunches 4x25

tuesday
squat 4x12
biceps 4x10
tricep 4x10
calf 4x15

wednesday
off

thursday
repeat monday

friday
repeat tuesday

sat
off

sun
off

only 1 exercise per bodypart for 3 weeks. I like it and it gives me an awesome pump, but my appetite has skyrocketed. My caloric intake increased at leat 20% today and I couldn't keep up with my FitDay so I'll have to go back in fill in the holes.

Definately tired today so need to get some good sleep for tomorrow's workout.