Let’s start at the beginning: I was never in great shape before. I’m probably now in the best shape of my life, which doesn’t really say all that much, but today fitness and my body are among my top priorities. I’ll post my way-before pic below, just so we can make fun of that fattie…and my current pic as well.
Anyway, back in college I topped the scales at around 240 – I’m 5’10, so that was pretty bad. I got the idea that I was doing something wrong when my mom saw me for the first time in a while and she started crying.
After blaming her for being unaccepting for a short while, and of course all those hot bitches who wouldn’t do me let alone talk to me, I realized that I was unhealthy. Eating half a domino’s pizza 4 nights a week was unhealthy. Snacking rice krispie’s treats was unhealthy. I really liked Mr. Pibb (a Dr Pepper wannabe), and my school cafeteria didn’t carry it in diet…oh well. I had never done a pullup in my life. I could beat my other fat (and even not so fat) friends at racquetball though!
Anyway, after starting on my righteous path which I learned some of from the Abs Diet book, which basically came down to stopping eating unhealthy crap, and eating 6 times a day, and doing a bit of weight lifting.
Now, I stand at 170 (I was really excited to have gotten to the high 160’s a week ago), and I’m determined to make my mom cry again…by looking just THAT good.
By October 1st, I want to have ripped abs. I’ve been dedicated since about the start of April, but I’m not sure that I’m seeing a lot of results (I’ll show you before and after pics for 2 weeks, which isn’t that long…).
My workout routine is something like this:
-every morning: some sort of cardio. Previously, I was doing 45 minutes of “aerobic training”, something that kept my HR at around 140-170bpm the whole time (I’m 23 so my MHR is 197). Yesterday I did my first HIIT workout (23 minutes plus cooldown), so I’ll try to do another tonight (woke up later than usual today), and do those at least a few times a week, but try to do at least some kind of cardio daily.
- 4 days a week, weight training. Tuesday/Saturday are my leg/abs days, and Thursday/Sunday are my upper body days.
- 3 days a week, I go to my jiu jitsu class. In my class, we usually do some “warmup”, which is like 20-25 minutes of running around, and lately he’s been having us do a circuit of about 8 exercises, 1 minute on/1 minute assisting our partner.
A typical upper body day is something like:
-
Pullups or chinups/some chest exercise(cable crossovers, or incline bench) superset, 3x. I try to keep in the 8-12 range mostly. I can do 8 pullups for 3 sets, and then I start at a weight where I can do 12 reps…if more I add a little until its either very hard to 12 or I have to stop around 10.
-
seated cable rows/other chest exercise (pushups or db bench press etc) 3 sets again, shoot for 8-12 reps, usually towards the higher range
-
dips/upright rows superset 3 sets
-
military press/shrugs superset 3 sets
-
triceps pushdowns/biceps barbell curls superset 3 sets
legs look something like
- squats/decline abs curls (the crossover kind)
- deadlifts/some abs exercise I don’t know the name of (where you sit on a bench and straighten your legs out in the air in front of you, and then bring your torso and legs to each other, etc)
- last time I did hack squats, but usually I do leg extensions/side lifts (hold a weight in one hand, bend to that side, and bring it back up)
- last time I did good mornings but usually I do leg curls/heavy ab curls (on some machine, i can put enough weight so that 12 reps are hard)
Right now, for example, my hams are a bit sore (trained them sunday night, now is monday) but usually I don’t feel too bad…my shoulders and elbows feel “delicate” sometimes, but I’m sure this is mainly the jiu jitsu.
How is this training regimen? Anything I seem to be missing out on?
PWO drink btw is usually 1-1.5 cups skim milk, 2-3 scoops of EAS premium protein (the kind they sell at costco…sorry I don’t use Surge, haven’t tried buying any of these sorts of things online) which was 27 g protein in 2 scoops (so about 40 in 3), and then 1.5 cups frozen blueberries…or some other random fruit.
My diet has been very clean. I drink water and tea (2-4 cups daily, of green and earl grey(black)) during the day, and when I go out to bars I only drink diet coke…I gotta at least have my smartass answer (“virgin rum and coke”) when the girls ask what I’m drinking =)
Healthier and MUCH cheaper =)
I eat roughly 6 meals a day.
Most often is an egg plus 1 cup of egg beaters for breakfast (so 30 g protein total, and 5 g fat) with 3oz spinach, with some olive oil (.5 Tbsp, but I’ve started using a whole Tbsp after reading some JB articles)
Later on is usually 6 oz chicken (40g protein), 6 oz broccoli, 4 oz baby carrots, and until recently 1 oz olives (again, the JB talk on P/C vs P/F meals only, makes me not want olives and other veggies together…is this stupid of me?)
Later on, some turkey with 6 oz assorted raw bell peppers (yummy huh?) or somethin like that
Later on PWO drink
Later on either some beef (yucky I know, but I got canned roast beef at costco…35 g protein and 4 g fat per can which is good I think) or salmon or shrimp or tuna or something…with fruits or veggies or something
Later on cottage cheese and nuts (almonds or walnuts) or half an avocado.
This is pretty representative of my lately diet. I stopped having bread/rice/pasta/oatmeal following JB’s 7 habits.
However, after reading this massive eating article I got confused – P/C or P/F only means that you can’t eat fruits or veggies at each meal (since they have carbs, and if you want fats you have to leave off the Carbs right?)
I was previously aiming for 2000-2400 calories a day, but after reading massive eating by JB, that says I ought to be having about 4000.
I’m confused! With the diet part. Do I really need to worry about PF vs PC meals, or should I focus only on the 7 habits?
My current stats are 170 lbs and my scale claims 19-20% BF (does that look believable from my pics?).
My current thoughts are that I’m a bit confused, because I’m not sure whether it will be easier to:
(i) gain 20-30 lbs of muscle in 2-3 months, and then focus on fat loss
(ii) just spend all the time til October maintaining/slowing gaining (if possible) muscle mass and losing my fat.
Thoughts? Comments? How can I best go about my goals? (The real goal is to get ripped – getting a little bigger is good too, but it should be secondary, unless it really does make fat loss a lot easier)
Thanks a lot guys!
—Tom
