Little bit about me:

I am 23 years old, 5'8, and the heaviest I have ever been @217lbs.

Growing up I was actually very active and in great shape. I wrestled 135lbs in high school! I can't really pin point when exactly things went wrong but slowly and surely they did just that. Also for the past 4-5 years I have worked in a position that constantly had me on the road. Consequently I would eat nothing but fast food. In addition because I moved around so often I really had no stability. Many times I would attempt to go back to the gym and regain my healthy life style. I even lasted a month here, a month there, but then I would end up moving again and that was the end of that.

All of that is behind me and I have promised myself that I will never go back to those days. I am no longer working at the company that sent me all over the damn country and I moved back to my hometown. I am making a complete life style change and at the center of this life style is going to be my health. Everything else is going to take a back seat instead of the other way around.

So on Oct 6th I went and got a membership to my local gym and I haven't missed a day yet!

My typical workouts so far have gone like this:

Day1: 20 min cardio warmup/1 hour weights back-bis/40min cardio burnout
day2: 20 min cardio warmup/1 hour weights chest-tris/40min cardio burnout
day3: 20 min cardio warmup/1hour weights shoulders-legs/40 min cardio burnout

Rinse: repeat

I also do abs every other day.

I am still fine tuning my diet. I know that’s probably the most important part so I'm working on it. I just need to start counting some calories and be more dedicated in that area. Right now I think my problem is that I'm not consuming enough calories for the ammount of time I'm spending at the gym.

So far I've been making some great progress

I started at 227lbs 29.5% bf and I felt like I was going to throw up after 15 minutes of cardio on the first day!

After 17 days I am 217lbs and I can stay on the elliptical for an hour while keeping all my food down! ;)

As many others have stated, a large reason for my posting here is so that I will be held publicly accountable. So make sure you guys do that!

My Goal: 169lbs/10-15% BF by 3-9-08

after that I will begin to bulk up

Your motivation is great and your enthusiasm is quite understandable. :tucool:

One thing to be aware of is doing too much, too soon. Training everyday will have you burn out very quickly. Additionally, taper back on all the cardio. Allow the diet to burn the fat. Your cardio routine is overkill. Without knowing your diet, you may be burning muscle. Allow the diet to be the key player with fat loss and start off on the low end with cardio volume (if fat loss is your main goal). The more cardio you do now, the more you'll have to do later.

Post your current nutrion here or on another thread up in the beginners section, and the members can help you dial it in to help you achieve your goals.

:gl:

Yeah I guess I never have been the patient type :rolleyes: I know this is going to take time and dedication I just want to reach my goal, no matter what it takes. As far as my diet is concerned...It has never really been consistent. I just started writing things down today. I am using John's template. I'm not sure exactly how many calories I should be taking in but I have already posted a thread on that in the begginers section.

Everything went great today except for the fact that I've gained a pound :doh: I understand that weight is going to bounce up and down slightly so I'm not too worried.

I began actually counting my calories today which I guess is the first step in getting together a real diet plan so I am happy about that. :)


I think my main obstacle is going to be planning my meals. Fun fact about me: I am the WORST procrastinator I have ever met :rolleyes:

So not only is this little journey of mine one of weight loss, I am looking to make a bunch of positive changes and actually sticking with them!

Consecutive workouts: 18
Current weight: 218lbs

Keep at it. I spent the entire first month playing with my diet. What did I like, what was easy to take to work, what didn't cost an arm and a leg. After you get it dialed in it will be much easier.

Congrats on staying with it this far.

Jim

20 min of HIIT>me

Today was my day to do weights.

I had planned on turning down my workouts a notch or two. Instead of weights/hard cardio every day I was going to try to split it up a bit. MWF-weights/light cardio and T, TH, S-HIIT cardio and finally just some light cardio on Sundays.

As I said today was my day to just do some weights with some light cardio. I started off with a 10 min cardio warm-up then moved in to my chest routine. It went pretty well, I didn't move up in weight but I am staying consistent. As long as I am loosing weight and not losing strength I'm not going to complain.:) Only thing was at the end of the routine when I was supposed to do a light cardio cool down I ended up doing another 20 min of HIIT. I know many people on these boards have told me to tone it down a bit but I just felt like I could push myself harder.

I mean I do push hard with the weights but nothing makes me feel as accomplished as when I push myself to the max w/ cardio.

Another thing with this HIIT is that my appetite went through the roof these past few days! I mean I was literally starving not long after my workout. I know I was told that just means my metabolism is picking up and that’s a good thing but dang..

All in all today was a great day and consecutive workout #20 :cool:

ah and thanks for the congrats mol :)

I am feeling VERY sluggish today and not in the mood to hit the gym at all:rolleyes:

I'm still going just really not in the mood. Today is just going to be some HIIT cardio anyway so I'll only be there for about 1/2 hour but I'm still dredding it :blank:


edit: Although I did feel like utter crap today I still went and knocked out my cardio. Even though I still don't feel that great I am glad I didn't break my stride here :)

21 consistent workouts and climbing

Time to post up your diet man.. let's have a look.

And I hope you're not weighing yourself every day.

I haven't posted in a few days but I haven't fallen off the wagon either :) I did take the weekend off but my body needed it. Yesterday I did chest and was able to put up more weight then I've been able too since highschool! In addition to that to my suprise I'd lost an additional 4 lbs since I last weighed myself, which brings me down to 213.5 lbs.

So I'm losing weight and getting stronger :flex: couldn't be happier!

As far as my diet is concerned I've never been very good at micromanaging :rolleyes: I'm not exactly counting calories I'm just doing my best to eat healthier and cutting out all the crap like candies and icecream. I eat healthy when I'm hungry and when I'm not hungry I don't eat. Simple as that. It seems to be working so far. Once I platuea I know I'm going to have to focus more on my diet but until then I'm going to stick w/ whats working ;)

Still around and still going :) Just thought I'd pop in and give a little update.

200lbs and 18%bf

Obviously things are not moving as quickly as I would have liked them to but my diet was complete crap up until recently. By recently I mean around 2 weeks ago. I had hit a wall around 206lbs for several months and was not seeing any progress at all even though I was in the gym every day. Two weeks of a reduced calorie diet and I am already seeing results. I am also changing my goal weight from 170lbs and 10%bf to 180-185lbs and 10% bf.

The diet that I just started is one I will probably get yelled at for but it's easy to keep track of my calorie intake. I know it's not very practical but I plan to stick with it for a month or so and then slowly make substitutions as needed.

8am: bowl of oats w/ 1 tea spoon of strawberry jam: 200 calories
11am: protein shake w/ 2 cups of fat free milk: 460 calories
2pm: protein shake w/ 2 cups of fat free milk: 460 calories
5pm: grilled chicken wrap (6 ounces grilled chicken breast, lettuce, wheat wrap, tea spoon of either honey mustard/a1 or other flavoring) 350ish calories

Although things are moving slow they ARE moving so I'm happy :) Even though I didn't quite hit my goal of the wash board abs by this summer there is always next year!