180 degree life change

**NeilPearson** · 09-26-2005, 01:10 PM

Up to this point, my life has consisted of little exercise and lots of eating the wrong things. I would eat pizza, nachos, fast food, ice cream, pretty much everything. I did this when I was young and when I was young I was always fit (and had really strong lower body)... but then again I rode my bike everywhere I went and I got around a lot. Probably about 2 hours of intense, fast bike riding a day. At that age, a lot of guys play fight and wrestle... a lot of my friends were bigger than me and stronger upper body but if I got my legs wrapped around them in a scissors and started to squeeze, it was game over.

Then I got a car and it's been slowly down hill since then as I aged and never adjusted my diet. Other than playing hockey twice a week, my hobbies mostly involved sitting around... I play lots of poker online and I am a computer programmer so I sit in front of a computer, a lot.

So last week at 5' 11", 230 pounds and as weak as a kitten, I went out and got a bench, weights, power-rack, etc. and decided it was all going to change. Then I did a little research on diet and put myself on a 1800 calorie a day diet consisting of chicken breasts, fruits, vegetables, nuts, whole wheat cereals, oatmeal, etc.

My weight training is 2 sets of 12 of about 12-13 different exercises designed to hit my entire body 3 times a week. I know it's not ideal for building mass but that isn't my goal yet. I am just trying to lose some weight and to get my weak, pathetic little muscles used to lifting something heavier than a deck of cards. Some of the exercises I can finish the 2 sets but it's rough. Other ones I hit a failure somewhere between 8-12 but I am going to stick with that weight until I can do it.

I still play hockey twice a week and on nights I don't play hockey, I have started jumping rope because when I was young I used to enjoy this and I was pretty good at it... damn it's a lot harder now.

So I started the weight training a week ago on Monday and added the 1800 calorie diet on Friday. Friday, I weighed in at 230. This morning, I weighed myself and I was 225.5 - seems like a whole lot of weight to lose over a weekend. I have been drinking a lot of water so I don't think I have dehydrated myself or anything like that. I am maybe just not retaining the water as much since I increased the water and cut out the diet soda... or maybe some of it is legitimate weigh. I know I already look and feel better.

I am going to do this program for about 6 weeks and then probably change my work out to more reps, fewer exercises and focus more on specific muscles. For now I think what I am doing is fine.

I probably don't get enough protein in every meal yet either but I am not too worried about that yet. What I am doing is a huge improvement and when I see myself start to level off, I will worry more about protein / carb / fat ratios. Right now, I am just happy to hit around 1800 calories.

Also I have convinced my wife (who had a similar diet since we often ate out together) to get on the same diet, work out schedule. We both log everything we eat on the computer and work out together so that should really help with accountability. She is about 175-180 (just a guess really she won't tell me), 5' 9" and at first she wanted to do 1200 calories but I talked her up to 1350. Neither of us are ever really hungry on this diet. In fact, Saturday I ended up about 300 calories under my diet since I didn't feel like eating anything anymore.

Our meals are spread out pretty much all day. So far today I had 2 servings of oatmeal for breakfast. Then sitting here at work, I have eaten a cup of pistachios which took me about 2.5 hours to graze through and now (just after 12:00) I am about ready to start on my 2 oranges that I brought which should bring me to about 4:00 and I'll then be at home reheating the chicken breasts I grilled yesterday. Then probably a cup or two of grapes or cantalope. Maybe a whole wheat ham sandwich around 8:00 after my workout. Then probably a banana or something before bed. Not sure yet though, I'll have to check the exact calories.

**Pylon** · 09-26-2005, 03:44 PM

Congrats on starting a new path! The first few weeks are the hardest. Good luck with it!

You initial loss is probably a combo of less...um...waste product in your system (since less is going in) and less water retention. Increasing your water intake will reduce retention. Sounds backwards, but it's true.

Are you playing ice or roller hockey, and where do you play? I played for a while, but haven't been on the floor in a few years.

When you are ready, post your workout for critique. You'll get all the advice you want and more.

Good luck!

**NeilPearson** · 09-27-2005, 12:54 AM

This is the week schedule that I came up with...

It does pretty much the whole body every time but uses different exercises on each day. I also do the exercises that work more than one muscle group first before I do ones that isolate any muscles (like bench press and squats) - so this list isn't really in order.

I did day 1 today

All exercises are 2 x 12 (although some I don't make it all the way to 12 on the second set)

Day 1
Bench Press
Dumbell Pec Fly
Seated Row
Front Pull
Bar Shoulder Press
Front Raise
Tricep Pushdown
Dumbbell Curl
Wrist Curl
Pelvic Raise
Lunge
Leg Extension
Heal Raise

Day 2
Inclined Press
Declined Press
Dumbbell Row
Dumbbell Pullover
Rear Deltoid Fly
Shoulder Shrugs
Overhead Triceps Kickback
Straight Bar Curl
Preacher Curl
Pelvic Raise
Side Bend
Squat
Leg Extension

Day 3
Flat Bench Press
Dumbell Pec Fly
Lat Pulldown
Straight Leg Deadlift
Lateral Raise
Bumbbell Triceps Kickback
Cable Curl
Wrist Curl
Side Bend
Pelvic Raise
Squat
Lying Leg Curl
Heal Raise

This is what I ate today:

1.5 cup Cereal, Honey Bunches of Oats with skim milk
1 cup Pistachios
2 Oranges
1 Chicken breast
2/3 cup Corn
3/4 cup Brown Rice
1 cup Grapes
2 cups Cantaloupe

I know... a little light on protein. Again, my goal right now is just weight loss any muscle I build will just be a bonus.

**Pylon** · 09-27-2005, 06:20 AM

A little light? I added it all up (not counting the cereal and milk) and you are ringing in around 50 g of protien. That's way low. For cutting, you really should try for 1g/lb lean body wieght. (For adding muscle you would go 1.5-2g per.) Right now, you are hitting about 50% of your cals from carbs, maybe more. That's way too high. I usually shoot for at least 50% from protien, and split the rest evenly between carbs and fat.

What are you using to track your food and cals? Does it give you a breakdown by cal type? If not, check out fitday.com. It's free and pretty good.

You may want to go back into the pages and read the stickies on cutting and bulking. There's a lot of great info there.

It's great that you are on the right track, but some tweaking will make it much more effective. Trust me, I've been where you are.

Of course, I'm not claiming to know all there is to know about this stuff, just sharing my experience. Check out the info on the "Diet and Nutrition" page. It should help.

You've got quite a list of exercises, very agressive number of sets. Looks good. How long does it take you to get through them?

**NeilPearson** · 09-27-2005, 11:21 AM

The software I have does give a breakdown on calorie type. Yeah I will definitely increase the protein.

It takes quite a while to get through the exercises. I haven't really timed it but I'd say it's over an hour. My wife and I are doing them together so some of the time is spent spotting her or setting weights up for her. I'm sure if I was by myself, I could do it a lot faster... but it would probably not be as much fun.

**Pylon** · 09-27-2005, 11:46 AM

Nothing wrong with that. If it works for the two of you, fantastic!

**NeilPearson** · 09-29-2005, 11:55 PM

I didn't write what I ate yesterday... it wasn't very much but I just wasn't hungry (it was the second day off of lifting)

Instant Oatmeal (cereal, apples and cinnamon,) 1 packet
Grapes 1 cup
Cantaloupe 1 cup
Cereal Bar, South Beach, Peanut Butter
Chicken
2 Mandarin Oranges
1 Bananas

It was 1165 calories 121 grams protein, 129 grams carb, 20 grams fat

Not a lot of food. I played hockey and came home late so I didn't have anything after 9:00... I was just too tired.

Today I weighed in at 123.5 this morning - almost 7 pounds lighter than I was a week ago.

Today I had 1625 calories:
Cereal, Honey Bunches of Oats with skim milk 3/4 cup
4 oz Chicken Breast
5 oz Steak
1/2 cup Broccoli
3 oz Chicken Breast
2 oz Whole Wheat Pasta
1/2 cup Spagetti Sauce, Verdi Mushroom and Onion
4 oz Steak
Mandarin Orange
Bananas
8 tbsp Whipped Cream
5 oz Strawberries
celery

I came in at 1586 calories with 160 grams protein, 139 grams carb, 43 grams of fat

I'm not sure about the whipped cream though... 8 tbsp was 100 calories, 8 gr fat, 8 gram carb

I don't really know how horrible this is. The numbers don't look too bad but I have a bad feeling about it

Anyway at 223.5 pounds and only 1586 calories, I am pretty sure this won't kill my weight loss... it is coming off real easy right now (probably because their is so much of it)

Also today I did day 2 of my workout:

Day 2
Inclined Press
Declined Press
Dumbbell Row
Dumbbell Pullover
Rear Deltoid Fly
Shoulder Shrugs
Overhead Triceps Kickback
Straight Bar Curl
Preacher Curl
Pelvic Raise
Side Bend
Squat
Leg Extension

All 2 x 12... about half of them I hit a failure around 8-10 on the second set

I have a feeling I'm going to feel it tomorrow

**NeilPearson** · 10-10-2005, 11:54 AM

Well it's been two weeks since I started. That first weekend, I dropped 4.5 pounds... mostly probably cleaning out my system. In the 2 weeks after that I lost another 5.5 pounds and have added around 10-20 pounds to most of my exercises. So I am down to 220 from 230. I have also switched from full body work outs to this:

chest/shoulders
rest
legs/abs
rest
back/arms
2 day rest

Doing full body every 2 days, I just didn't feel like I was blasting my muscles enough... and if I did, I wasn't fully recovered before the next workout. I'm doing fewer exercises per day but have increased the sets.

Diet has been steady at 1650-1850 calories a day.

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