a4kenny
Mon, December 10th, 2007, 12:29 AM
I've posted a few times on JSF, and I thought it was about time I created my own Media Gallery and Journal.
My story.
I've always been a "husky" guy. Never really big, but definitely never skinny or lean. I was always kinda thick if you know what I mean. I always envied those who were lean and muscled. I've never had a desire to be too big and muscle bound, just leaner, stronger with some more muscle.
I always told myself that I'd start "soon" and I wouldn't have to worry about my physique. It would come naturally one day. Well one day, I was getting ready to go to work and I had to suck in my gut to get my pants done up. Alarm bells started going off in my head. It was time for action. Luckily I had a long period of vacation time coming up and I knew that I could devote some serious time and energy to learning about diet and training. I read Tom Venuto's BFFM and a light went off in my head.
My dietary habits were atrocious and I slowly started to adopt Tom's advice. But being a newbie it was a lot of info to take in at once. So I started eating more frequently, and eating only the "right" foods. I still hadn't figured out how many cals I needed or my macronutrient ratios but it was a step in the right direction. Then after a couple of weeks I got really serious and worked out a calorie and macronutrient plan also. My daily cals are 2200 and I drink at least a gallon of water a day. My macros are 25%fat, 35% carbs and 45% protein. The carbs are low because I want to kickstart the fat burning and I suspect I am somewhat carb-sensitive. I am also using calorie and carb tapering and this week started calorie zig-zag, still averaging 2200 cals a day.
From day 1 I started hitting the gym. Cardio was/is 6 days a week LISS 35-45 minutes. Now I've added some HIIT to the mix. Treadmills are hard on my knees, and something about the full rotation of the pedals on the bike make this thing click in my left knee ( and makes me a cripple for the next day ), so I stick with the elliptical machine.
Weight program is straight out of BFFM. I've always kinda putzed around in the gym the few times I went, so the full body routine 3 days a week is still challenging but I know I will have to change this up soon as it's getting stale fast. A real concerted effort at developping a real plan is really needed here as I feel this is the weakest part of my program.
When I first weighed mysef I was 197 lbs, 5'9". I'm 36 and not getting any younger. At my last weigh in I was 188.5 lbs. Online BF% estimators say I'm 21-23% BF but I suspect it is higher than that.
My goal is to get to 170 lbs for March 1st and have a BF% in the 12-14% range.
Unfortunately I didn't take any pics when i first started. I finally got around to it tonight. I know i have a long way to go to hit my goal but I'm very motivated. Maybe even a little obsessed. Does that go away ?
I'll post more pics along the way...
Any comments, advice,... are GREATLY appreciated.
My story.
I've always been a "husky" guy. Never really big, but definitely never skinny or lean. I was always kinda thick if you know what I mean. I always envied those who were lean and muscled. I've never had a desire to be too big and muscle bound, just leaner, stronger with some more muscle.
I always told myself that I'd start "soon" and I wouldn't have to worry about my physique. It would come naturally one day. Well one day, I was getting ready to go to work and I had to suck in my gut to get my pants done up. Alarm bells started going off in my head. It was time for action. Luckily I had a long period of vacation time coming up and I knew that I could devote some serious time and energy to learning about diet and training. I read Tom Venuto's BFFM and a light went off in my head.
My dietary habits were atrocious and I slowly started to adopt Tom's advice. But being a newbie it was a lot of info to take in at once. So I started eating more frequently, and eating only the "right" foods. I still hadn't figured out how many cals I needed or my macronutrient ratios but it was a step in the right direction. Then after a couple of weeks I got really serious and worked out a calorie and macronutrient plan also. My daily cals are 2200 and I drink at least a gallon of water a day. My macros are 25%fat, 35% carbs and 45% protein. The carbs are low because I want to kickstart the fat burning and I suspect I am somewhat carb-sensitive. I am also using calorie and carb tapering and this week started calorie zig-zag, still averaging 2200 cals a day.
From day 1 I started hitting the gym. Cardio was/is 6 days a week LISS 35-45 minutes. Now I've added some HIIT to the mix. Treadmills are hard on my knees, and something about the full rotation of the pedals on the bike make this thing click in my left knee ( and makes me a cripple for the next day ), so I stick with the elliptical machine.
Weight program is straight out of BFFM. I've always kinda putzed around in the gym the few times I went, so the full body routine 3 days a week is still challenging but I know I will have to change this up soon as it's getting stale fast. A real concerted effort at developping a real plan is really needed here as I feel this is the weakest part of my program.
When I first weighed mysef I was 197 lbs, 5'9". I'm 36 and not getting any younger. At my last weigh in I was 188.5 lbs. Online BF% estimators say I'm 21-23% BF but I suspect it is higher than that.
My goal is to get to 170 lbs for March 1st and have a BF% in the 12-14% range.
Unfortunately I didn't take any pics when i first started. I finally got around to it tonight. I know i have a long way to go to hit my goal but I'm very motivated. Maybe even a little obsessed. Does that go away ?
I'll post more pics along the way...
Any comments, advice,... are GREATLY appreciated.