I've decided to write this journal to keep me motivated and on the right track. I've found that within the past 4 months it has not been that difficult to get in all my workouts. I'll get them in unless i'm half dead.
I've had great results so far. Back in 2000 or so I was sitting all day in a chair behind a desk. At the time I was 19 and 287lbs at 6'4". I was always in bad shape and felt terrible about myself and the last time I got any exercise was back in high school. If I ate better it wouldn't be so bad. I was the stupid one who went to mcdonalds or other fast food places not knowing how bad a super sized meal was. Then after work i'd quite often eat pizza for dinner. I clearly remember days probably going through whole boxes of oatmeal cream pies and a liter of mountain dew. I never ate regularly and often i'd go into work without eating breakfast.
I didn't always feel fat, it's as if I felt normal but didn't really know how bad off I was. I always remember hating my picture taken. When I saw them I would get horribly depressed and just feel so bad about myself. I remember a couple of times trying to lose weight. I'd eat healthy for a few weeks and then when I didn't see any major results I gave up. I had no clue how to really lose weight and actually thought I could lose weight without exercise. Sure it's possible, maybe.
My vacation was due and I decided to fly to Hong Kong by myself. This was the first time out of michigan by myself and i'm going all the way to hong kong! I'm a big fan of foreign films and especially ones made in Hong Kong (drama's, not kung fu movies!) so that's what made me want to visit the place!
When getting there and walking around all day I realized how fat and out of shape I was. I was working up a sweat just walking around all day. It's as if i'd get tired so quickly. This certainly wasn't normal. While up there on Victoria Peak I decided to come home and change my life and I wouldn't quit until I reached my goal. I was tired of being fat. I had no future plans for my life and I was not going anywhere in life. I needed to quit taking the easy way through everything and work harder to change things.
When I got back I moved out of my mother's house and got my 1st apartment. That was the first big step. Of course 2 months after doing so I had lost my good paying job and was stuck with a $300/month car payment, $550 rent and $1190 insurance. Of course it just so happens that a month before I lost the job I had purchased a blowflex (I use freeweights now, it's a long story).
With all the free time and no job I worked out as hard as I could an hour every other day. I clearly remember the first time I worked out. My muscles would shake so badly. I also remember when I changed my routine to something so much harder I thought that'd I'd almost never get used to it..but I did and quite quickly. The first day of working out I got rid of all my junk food and spent money on groceries. I went on a 1500 calorie diet. Crazy, I know and now I almost regret it. I lost 8lbs in the first week. That's what the scale said. It's probably wrong and maybe it's water, fat and muscle.
I'd track my results with a measuring tape and scale every single week. Some weeks I'd lose no weight on the scale but I got results on the tape. The nicest thing is having to go out and buy new belts and pants every month! I once got so sick of buying new belts that I started poking holes in mine! I also got so sick of buying my usual Levi's that cost $40 or so that I just bought some $12 jeans from wally-world to wear around the house. And, no they are really not even worth $12!
I was unemployed for nearly a year due to lack of demand in my state for people in the computer field. Things got so terrible that they cut off my electricity, phone and everything else. While trying to find jobs I started a small website selling things. Most of the time that paid the rent, barely.
I had to move in with my mother when things got even worse. When you're sitting in a house at night with no power and just a lantern, things seems pretty awful. It's hard not to get things get to you. I've found that no matter how hard things get, you just can't let them bother you. You have to try and avoid any negative things, but of course not ignore the problems. The worst thing was having to sell my bowflex to pay for my rent.
While at my mother's and searching for a job I started running instead of weight training. Her apartment was so small there was no way a weight bench could fit in it, or even ANY bench. I often used regular free weights, but it got pretty difficult. I got down to 196lbs, but I was "skinny-fat".
Winter is when it got to be the worst for my health. I got back into eating junk food. I always had this stupid idea in my head that i'd burn it off. What a lie. I got back up to 226. Most all I had gained was fat. Over the entire winter I did not do any exercising.
Things got so much better when spring came. I took part time low-paying jobs to focus on my internet sites. I was making so much money with them that I could now work at home and get my own apartment. I went from making a few hundred off the site to making 5 times as much in a month than my last job!
You can be sure the first thing I did was get back to work ASAP. I did the biggest mistake EVER and got a....weider crossbar. Waste of $1000 to me. I regret it so much..a few months after getting it I "upgraded" to a weight bench and love it. I'm now gaining lots of muscle that I can actually notice. I have serious doubts that you can gain any sort of noticeable muscle with the crossbar. Certainly not like those marines in the commercials.
So I was starting over from 226lbs and felt terrible. I was 23%BF and couldn't believe how much fatter I got. I was wearing size 36 pants and got up to size 38 again!
When using the crossbar I was trying to prove to myself that I could use it to gain muscle. I ate 6 meals a day and tried very hard. I might have gained a little. More than anything I felt like I was wasting my time with the thing. I remember experiementing with dumbbells back when I had my bowflex and saw much better results with those than my bowflex.
So i've been using free weights for a few weeks now. It's definitely the way to go. I was doing sets of 12,10,8,6 for each exercise and just increasing the weight but i've found that's not the way to go for me. I do 75% of my 1 rep max and try going to failure on EACH SET. It's so nice being in pain the next day. I've tried arnold's beginner workout in his encyclopedia but i'm too much of a wimp right now. I'm also too lazy to workout every single day at this point. The first suggest workout left me totally drained, but it was the best workout I ever had. Quite rought to say the least, but I liked it. I'll try a tougher workout in the future. I need a few more weeks of basic stuff for now.
Anyway, I was at 226lbs and 22.6 or so BF%. Now i'm at about 14.9%. The strangest thing is that maybe I did it all wrong. I still have a little bit of fat around my midsection. Everything else appears fine. Could have be normal?! I've gained some good muscle using the free weights and it IS noticeable. I look in the mirror now and like what I see. It's as if now my fat around my midsection will be gone soon. It'll be so nice.
I was trying to gain muscle before with no real worries about how much I was eating as long as it was 6 meals a day of healthy food. I seemed to be losing bodyfat with the calipers but certainly not on the scale. Every week it would go down.
Now i'm eating 6 smaller meals. About 2000 calories a day. I'm now losing the last of my bodyfat. I was 226lbs and am now at about 14.9BF% at 215. I've got further to go.
My goal of 6% is crazy. 10% will be "good enough". Heck, i'll be happy if all my noticeable body fat is gone. I told myself I won't go back to hong kong for a 2nd visit unless I have reached my goal. I want to be back there and full of energy instead of week and out of energy.
Once I get down to 12% I think i'll start running again. I can't run miles but i'll probably work up to it. I think before my legs were weaker, so now I can probably run further without my legs getting tired. Of course, there is more to it than that. If I just keep at it i'll be get better. Hopefully I can do all this running before winter comes.
You know what the nice thing is about losing all this fat? I was at a funeral today and relatives come up to me and say "have you been working out?". Some didn't even recognize me. I get so many comments from people about how different I look. I have old friends amazed at how different I look. When people tell me I look good it makes me want to keep at it. It's nice to actually be able to look in the mirror and not be disappointed with what you see.
I've had great results so far. Back in 2000 or so I was sitting all day in a chair behind a desk. At the time I was 19 and 287lbs at 6'4". I was always in bad shape and felt terrible about myself and the last time I got any exercise was back in high school. If I ate better it wouldn't be so bad. I was the stupid one who went to mcdonalds or other fast food places not knowing how bad a super sized meal was. Then after work i'd quite often eat pizza for dinner. I clearly remember days probably going through whole boxes of oatmeal cream pies and a liter of mountain dew. I never ate regularly and often i'd go into work without eating breakfast.
I didn't always feel fat, it's as if I felt normal but didn't really know how bad off I was. I always remember hating my picture taken. When I saw them I would get horribly depressed and just feel so bad about myself. I remember a couple of times trying to lose weight. I'd eat healthy for a few weeks and then when I didn't see any major results I gave up. I had no clue how to really lose weight and actually thought I could lose weight without exercise. Sure it's possible, maybe.
My vacation was due and I decided to fly to Hong Kong by myself. This was the first time out of michigan by myself and i'm going all the way to hong kong! I'm a big fan of foreign films and especially ones made in Hong Kong (drama's, not kung fu movies!) so that's what made me want to visit the place!
When getting there and walking around all day I realized how fat and out of shape I was. I was working up a sweat just walking around all day. It's as if i'd get tired so quickly. This certainly wasn't normal. While up there on Victoria Peak I decided to come home and change my life and I wouldn't quit until I reached my goal. I was tired of being fat. I had no future plans for my life and I was not going anywhere in life. I needed to quit taking the easy way through everything and work harder to change things.
When I got back I moved out of my mother's house and got my 1st apartment. That was the first big step. Of course 2 months after doing so I had lost my good paying job and was stuck with a $300/month car payment, $550 rent and $1190 insurance. Of course it just so happens that a month before I lost the job I had purchased a blowflex (I use freeweights now, it's a long story).
With all the free time and no job I worked out as hard as I could an hour every other day. I clearly remember the first time I worked out. My muscles would shake so badly. I also remember when I changed my routine to something so much harder I thought that'd I'd almost never get used to it..but I did and quite quickly. The first day of working out I got rid of all my junk food and spent money on groceries. I went on a 1500 calorie diet. Crazy, I know and now I almost regret it. I lost 8lbs in the first week. That's what the scale said. It's probably wrong and maybe it's water, fat and muscle.
I'd track my results with a measuring tape and scale every single week. Some weeks I'd lose no weight on the scale but I got results on the tape. The nicest thing is having to go out and buy new belts and pants every month! I once got so sick of buying new belts that I started poking holes in mine! I also got so sick of buying my usual Levi's that cost $40 or so that I just bought some $12 jeans from wally-world to wear around the house. And, no they are really not even worth $12!
I was unemployed for nearly a year due to lack of demand in my state for people in the computer field. Things got so terrible that they cut off my electricity, phone and everything else. While trying to find jobs I started a small website selling things. Most of the time that paid the rent, barely.
I had to move in with my mother when things got even worse. When you're sitting in a house at night with no power and just a lantern, things seems pretty awful. It's hard not to get things get to you. I've found that no matter how hard things get, you just can't let them bother you. You have to try and avoid any negative things, but of course not ignore the problems. The worst thing was having to sell my bowflex to pay for my rent.
While at my mother's and searching for a job I started running instead of weight training. Her apartment was so small there was no way a weight bench could fit in it, or even ANY bench. I often used regular free weights, but it got pretty difficult. I got down to 196lbs, but I was "skinny-fat".
Winter is when it got to be the worst for my health. I got back into eating junk food. I always had this stupid idea in my head that i'd burn it off. What a lie. I got back up to 226. Most all I had gained was fat. Over the entire winter I did not do any exercising.
Things got so much better when spring came. I took part time low-paying jobs to focus on my internet sites. I was making so much money with them that I could now work at home and get my own apartment. I went from making a few hundred off the site to making 5 times as much in a month than my last job!
You can be sure the first thing I did was get back to work ASAP. I did the biggest mistake EVER and got a....weider crossbar. Waste of $1000 to me. I regret it so much..a few months after getting it I "upgraded" to a weight bench and love it. I'm now gaining lots of muscle that I can actually notice. I have serious doubts that you can gain any sort of noticeable muscle with the crossbar. Certainly not like those marines in the commercials.
So I was starting over from 226lbs and felt terrible. I was 23%BF and couldn't believe how much fatter I got. I was wearing size 36 pants and got up to size 38 again!
When using the crossbar I was trying to prove to myself that I could use it to gain muscle. I ate 6 meals a day and tried very hard. I might have gained a little. More than anything I felt like I was wasting my time with the thing. I remember experiementing with dumbbells back when I had my bowflex and saw much better results with those than my bowflex.
So i've been using free weights for a few weeks now. It's definitely the way to go. I was doing sets of 12,10,8,6 for each exercise and just increasing the weight but i've found that's not the way to go for me. I do 75% of my 1 rep max and try going to failure on EACH SET. It's so nice being in pain the next day. I've tried arnold's beginner workout in his encyclopedia but i'm too much of a wimp right now. I'm also too lazy to workout every single day at this point. The first suggest workout left me totally drained, but it was the best workout I ever had. Quite rought to say the least, but I liked it. I'll try a tougher workout in the future. I need a few more weeks of basic stuff for now.
Anyway, I was at 226lbs and 22.6 or so BF%. Now i'm at about 14.9%. The strangest thing is that maybe I did it all wrong. I still have a little bit of fat around my midsection. Everything else appears fine. Could have be normal?! I've gained some good muscle using the free weights and it IS noticeable. I look in the mirror now and like what I see. It's as if now my fat around my midsection will be gone soon. It'll be so nice.
I was trying to gain muscle before with no real worries about how much I was eating as long as it was 6 meals a day of healthy food. I seemed to be losing bodyfat with the calipers but certainly not on the scale. Every week it would go down.
Now i'm eating 6 smaller meals. About 2000 calories a day. I'm now losing the last of my bodyfat. I was 226lbs and am now at about 14.9BF% at 215. I've got further to go.
My goal of 6% is crazy. 10% will be "good enough". Heck, i'll be happy if all my noticeable body fat is gone. I told myself I won't go back to hong kong for a 2nd visit unless I have reached my goal. I want to be back there and full of energy instead of week and out of energy.
Once I get down to 12% I think i'll start running again. I can't run miles but i'll probably work up to it. I think before my legs were weaker, so now I can probably run further without my legs getting tired. Of course, there is more to it than that. If I just keep at it i'll be get better. Hopefully I can do all this running before winter comes.
You know what the nice thing is about losing all this fat? I was at a funeral today and relatives come up to me and say "have you been working out?". Some didn't even recognize me. I get so many comments from people about how different I look. I have old friends amazed at how different I look. When people tell me I look good it makes me want to keep at it. It's nice to actually be able to look in the mirror and not be disappointed with what you see.
