Thanks in advance to anyone who takes the time to look this over & offer up some advice.

I'm 29 years old, 5'9", weight is around 220 lbs. My goal is not to become a bodybuilder, but to get in good shape. I've lifted weights for years and did martial arts for 6+ years as well, but I'm trying to get more focused now on new goals. I've stopped martial arts (got burnt out after getting my black belt) and now want to focus on lifting & increasing my overall strength. Additionally, I want to try to keep my weekends open so that I can take care of house projects, working on my truck, or just hanging with my wife. Also, since I'm not preparing for a show or competition, I don't feel bad about occassional having a beer or two on the weekends with a meal. Also, my weekend food intake isn't as structured as my week intake.

I currently work Monday-Friday, 8:00-4:30.

Here's my day:

5:30 AM - Wake up, take puppy for a 30 minute walk (he's not quite big enough for running yet). Get home shower, shave, & dress.

7:00 AM - 5 Egg whites, 1 Whole egg, 1/2 Cup Oatmeal, 8oz Milk, 8oz Juice, Multi-vitamin (currently AST) & Flaxseed oil pill.

10:00 AM - 1 Serving lean turkey, 1 slice bread, mustard, lettuce, piece of fruit

12:30 PM - Lunch varies but always contains 1 chicken breast and veggies (also frequently either potatoes, rice, or pasta)

3:30 PM - 1 Wheat tortilla, 1 Can tuna, 1 serving yogurt

5:15 PM - 1 Serving ON 100% Whey, 1/2 tsp Higher Power CEE, 1 BCAA cap

6:00 PM - 2nd BCAA cap (during workout)

6:30 PM - 2 Servings ON 100% Whey, 1/2 tsp CEE, 1 BCAA cap

7:30 PM - Dinner (Varies. Depends on if my wife or I cook and what's in the house. Usually either chicken, steak, or spaghetti along with a veggie.)

10:30 PM - 3/4 Cup Cottage cheese, 500mg Glutamine cap

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My current workout schedule is:

Monday - Back, rear shoulders, & traps (20 sets, 6-8 sets, 4 sets)
Tuesday - Chest, front shoulders (16 sets, 6-8 sets)
Wednesday - Mild cardio
Thursday - Legs (32 sets including calves)
Friday - Arms & side shoulders (12 supersets, 6-8 sets)
Saturday & Sunday - Off

Rep range is 8-12 for each set. If I can do 12 reps for each set, I'll raise the weight next week.

I've been thinking of adding a cardio day during the weekend, and doing abs work on Wednesday & the weekend as well.

For the past 2-3 years I've done mostly low rep lifting and now want to increase my functional strength. Additionally every so often I'm going to just abandon the routine for a week & dropsets, pyramid sets, etc. to keep my system from adjusting.

Finally, my wife & I have a mortgage, so I don't have the luxury of spending a ton on food, supplements, or a trainer. Also, I tend to lift alone so I can get out of the gym sooner, and spend time at home. When I used to lift with others, they didn't take it as seriously as I try to, and wasted a lot of my time.


Once again, any input would be greatly appreciated.

Well, it looks like most of your food choices are ok, but it doesn't look like you're eating that much. Do you know about how many cals that is?

Also, if you list out which lifts you're doing on each day, you'll get more specific input:)

I have no clue as to how many calories that is. My main goal is usually getting in enough protein & I usually just let the calories fall where they may.

Also, I forgot to include I have a half of a peanut-butter sandwich with my post workout shake for some carbs.

I also drink around 180-240 oz of water per day.


Exercises:

Back: Barbell Bent Row, Stiff-Leg Dead Lift, Straight-Arm Pulldown, Cable Row

Chest: Incline Bench Press, Decline Dumbell Press, Flat Bench Press, Cable Cross-Overs

Legs: Squat, Leg Extensions, Lying Leg Curls (only curl machine at my gym), Lunges on Smith Machine, Leg Press or Hack Squat

Calves: Seated Calf Raise, Donkey Calf Raise, Calf Raise on Leg Press Machine

Bi's/Tri's: Preacher Curl/Seated Overhead Tricep Ext., Reverse Grip Barbell Curl/Close Grip Bench, Hammer Curls/Lying Tricep Ext., Cable Curls/Reverse Grip Tricep Pulldown

Shoulders: (Rear)Bent-Over Reverse Flyes, Reverse Flyes on an Incline Bench, (Front)Barbell Front Lat Raise, Dumbbell Arnold Press, (Side)Side Lat Raise, Wide-Grip Upright Rows

Traps: Shrugs


Thanks!

Hey all...

I'm planning a Costco trip this weekend & was hoping to get some feedback on my food choices. Everything look OK or should I make some changes?

I was thinking about picking up a big bag of almonds because I keep seeing people promote their benefits. Any specific meal they'd fit in with?

Any other recommendations?

Thanks.

My first suggestion would be a calorie count. I don't know how well any of us (not that I'm an expert, by any means) could give useful advice without some more quantitiative data.

The easiest way that I've found to count calories is by using fitday (http://www.fitday.com). It's free and quick. You could enter in your typical daily menu and it will give you calorie counts, macronutrient balance, and vitamin and mineral analysis.

Once the nutrition experts here have that to go on, I'm sure that you'll get some great advice, and you can plan your shopping list accordingly.

Good luck!

My goal is not to become a bodybuilder, but to get in good shape . . . I'm trying to get more focused now on new goals . . . now want to focus on lifting & increasing my overall strength.

I would suggest calorie counting, too. If you want to increase strength, you need to be bulking. In a bulking phase you need to eat more than you burn. Without knowing if you're doing that, you'll never know if your weight lifting will be effective at increasing strength. Of course, you don't want to eat so much that you put on tons of fat, either.

Lifting weights is hard work. I don't want to do it without being as effective as possible, and diet (especially calorie count) plays a huge role in that. If you eat too little, you will not have the resources to build new muscle, if you eat too much, you will turn into a marshmellow.

Or, to put it another way, a decision not to count calories is a decision not to work as hard as possible at building strength. You can do it, but don't expect great results.

Hope this helps.

I was thinking about picking up a big bag of almonds because I keep seeing people promote their benefits. Any specific meal they'd fit in with?



I eat 1 or 2 oz. of almonds each night before bed. A great snack at night and they are great for the good oils. Yum! I also get my almonds at Costco. I love that place!

Wow...I signed up to that site a while ago, but never used it. That is pretty slick.

Here's what I came up with, for a typical day:

Cal: 3175
Fat: 80
Carb: 293
Pro: 320


I just estimated for an average dinner, but that just seems a little high to me. Maybe I'm off. The #'s I've been using for the quantities I get off of the back of the packaging, and they seem a little different than the ones the site used, but not that far off.

Yeah, it's real handy. I resisted using it for a while, too, but it's been invaluable since I actually got serious about the whole getting in shape thing.

One caveat: I find fitday's estimations of metabolic rates based on reported activity level a bit optimistic. I was just re-reading one of the stickies here and tried out this link (http://michaelandkendra.com/BMRCALC/bmrcalc.htm) (thanks GravityHomer!), and found it to jibe damn near nearly exactly with my empirical results.

Like I said before, I'm no expert, but 3175 calories seems a bit high if you want to cut at 5'9" and 220 lbs, unless you're doing a lot of cardio. That seems more like a maintenance or even a clean, slow bulk diet to me. However, I don't know your BF%, so I could be off. Your macronutrient balance seems great, though; kudos! :claphigh:

As far as portions on fitday go, you can always tailor the amounts to what you're actually eating, and add in custom foods (I've got ~70 custom foods in mine). To be perfectly frank, I don't weigh my foods (I'm just not there, mentally -- it took me months even to convince myself to record what I eat), but I estimate pretty well. A few times a week I'll measure (by volume, no kitchen scale) some portions of foods that I commonly eat to spot-check my accuracy. Works plenty well enough for me at this phase.

Thanks for the help. I'm not doing much cardio and the stuff I do isn't very intense. I'll bump that up a bit and cut the calories some.

Thanks for the help.