After A Year...

Bigger Stronger Leaner Beginners
1

Well as the title states its been a year of VERY good progress for me. Quite a while ago I had a injury in the army jumping from planes that messed up my tailbone and set me out of the picture for anything physical. I put on ALOT ALOT ALOT of weight at the time due to some other issues (divorce, depression, blah blah flippin blah) anywho I was comming up on my end date in the army and I said NO, I dont want to leave yet (my unit was next to deploy to afghanistan and I be damned if I let my weight get in the way).

So I got picked up to go on this deployment (which I am at the end of as I type this little blog up) and then the good started. See while I was serving my country overseas I had other plans for myself too. . . my weight.

I came over to afghanistan as a VERY plumb 250-260lbs, note quite sure of exact weight but close to that, and little to no muscle about me, I hadnt did much of anything b/w my injury and deployment. My plan was simple, eat “healty” stuff and read everything you can about the gym and what it holds in there for me. So I did just that.

Almost one year later I am down almost 40lbs, I have no clue how much muscle I have gained exactly but I see things on my body that I never have before (wow that sounded weird, I was talking about muscles btw, lol) what I do know is that I have lost over 1/2 a foot on my waist almost 7-8 inches, and I still have some work to do as well.

My struggle now is with my diet, I feel like everything I do is in vein, I can have a few really healthy meals here and there but then I f&^% it up and cheat, cheat hard, and then I see progress going backwards, I still hit the gym but my diet is just winning its evil little battle, I have the drive to loose this weight, my drive is almost completely gone. I dont know exactly what I am looking for on here by typing this to be honest but I am anyways, have to reach out at some point I guess. I understand that at the end of the day if I dont hold my end up then I loose at the end of the week, so on and so forth. . .

Since the beggining I have incorperated the big three into my schedule, squat / deadlift / bench and I absolutley LOOOOOOVE squats and deadlifts! ! ! So I am lucky on that end I guess. MNy drive for the gym is almost never less than a 110% and yes its possible to go above 100%, I have to constently remind myself not to overtrain. I have most of the basics of lifting down too, switch it up, good form, use all differnt rep ranges to you advantage, ect ect ect. Again I cant get over this “diet” hump. It is kicking my ass, bad. Due to my current location in afghanistan I cannot upload any picturest atm for you to see and speculate on, so sorry about that one, later I can.

Again, I dont know what I am trying to do by typing all of this up but I need help, maybe some “diet” suggestions, little tips of the trade to get you back on track, hell I dont know, thats why I am typing this up! LOL. Like I said before, I understand the basics of why I do and why i shouldt do this vs. that and all that other stuff.

Its not so much a lack of knowledge, its that drive, Im loosing it, but I knwo that I need it back and cant figure out how to due it, everyday I tell myself ok this day will be good, best foot forward, just dont pick up that shit, and ofcourse I fail, and then its just down hill from there, now on that note I dont mean to make it saound like I am packing my face full of 20 some odd doughnuts, not quite that bad, but I feel like its getting there. My current plan is to try my best to maintain current progress as not to loose what I have gained/lost but I need to due better than “maintain” I am still about 6 months away before I get the “think” about mainting anything, my work ahead of me is still out there so I really need to get back on track!

For those of you that respond to me, thank you no matter what your response is, good/bad/ugly. Thank you, maybe your words/advice/suggestion will snap me back into play. Thank you.

2

Good work so far KILLSWITCH.

Diet really does take much more discipline than lifting/working out and is the real challenge for many people.

Some suggestions:

Try to make it so that you don’t even have access to the junk food (I realize that this will be difficult in your current situation). Instead stock your fridge/cooler/whatever you guys use to store food with healthy foods. Remember that if the junk is there right in front of you, you’re most likely going to wind up eating it.

Keep a food log and give yourself rewards (whatever will help to motivate you) for complying to your diet. Also, give yourself 10% of your meals in the form of cheat meals. You’re still only human and if you try to be absolutely perfect with your diet you’ll most likely wind up burning yourself out and cheating big time. Better to factor in cheating so you can control it better.

Try to compose your diet of healthy foods that you actually like eating. Sure, it may not be possible to make 100% of your diet be foods that you love eating. But the more you actually enjoy eating your diet the more chance that you’ll stick to it.

I’m sure that some others can offer other advice.

Good luck.

3

Sounds to me like you’ve been trying to do too much for too long. Take a month or two and go on a maintenance diet, it should make you a lot less likely to cheat. It will also give your body time to adapt to your new weight.

When you are ready and your drive is back then you’ll see much better progress.

4

[quote]joburnet wrote:
Sounds to me like you’ve been trying to do too much for too long. Take a month or two and go on a maintenance diet, it should make you a lot less likely to cheat. It will also give your body time to adapt to your new weight.

When you are ready and your drive is back then you’ll see much better progress.[/quote]

Ok this is actually in my plans at the moment, but due to me still being overweight in the army I cannot implement this yet. My deployment is almost over and I will get to take leave soon enough (2 1/2 months or so0 and then at that time is where I get to take my “F&^% this” break. Thank you for the advice I was already starting to feel a little guilty forming this idea but a good break is in order.

On to my new plan, I figure I know some stuff about nutrion and all that like, instead of eating that piece of cake I should pick up an apple and maybe some peanutbutter or somethings to the likes of that, I may not understand how/why things are broken down into the body but I got a general idea on good vs. bad!

With that said my plan is to basically “put it all out there”, what I mean is I will just post everything I eat (when time allows) to get some ideas on how to better my diet and to help me avoid cheating because lets face it, while we all can accept faliure within ourselves at times its harder to admitt defeat when others are watching :smiley: Soooooo with that said here are my goals…

190lbs
15% or less BF

What I am now…

215lbs
25% BF

Here is my diet…

4 DEC 2007

1330:
Chopped Beef in brown sauce
1/2 cup of steamed rice
3/4 cup of green beans

1440:
3/4 of a skinnless chicken breast w/ leg

1520:
2 x Granny Smith apples (Green ones)

1700:
1 and 1/2 cups mixed veggies (carrots/broclolie/Califlower)
2 x Strips of Lemon baked fish
1/2 cup of peas

1900:
1 and 1/2 cups canolope
Bowl of mixed salad w/ carrots (1/2 serving of honey mustard)

2120:
1 x Bagle with little grape jelly
4 x Cups of mixed viggies
1 and 3/4 stip of lemon baked fish

2340:
1 and 1/2 cups of cucumber salad
1 slice of turkey
3/4 cup of tuna

Drinks:
11 x .5 liter water
1 x Monster
1 x V8 (small serving can)
1 and 1/2 x Low Fat Milk

I am open to all critisisim, if this is in vain let me know so I can also stop waisting T-Nation post space. As you can see today was a very healty day (imo it was) and I guess I am lacking protein? I dont have acces to my protein powder for like another 3 weeks and then it will be hard to use then, also due to my location its easier here to eat 6-10 times a day back where I will be in 3 weeks it is almost impossible. I suck at spelling also, ty.

-Brandon

5

[quote]KIILLSWIITCH wrote:
joburnet wrote:
Sounds to me like you’ve been trying to do too much for too long. Take a month or two and go on a maintenance diet, it should make you a lot less likely to cheat. It will also give your body time to adapt to your new weight.

When you are ready and your drive is back then you’ll see much better progress.

Ok this is actually in my plans at the moment, but due to me still being overweight in the army I cannot implement this yet. My deployment is almost over and I will get to take leave soon enough (2 1/2 months or so0 and then at that time is where I get to take my “F&^% this” break. Thank you for the advice I was already starting to feel a little guilty forming this idea but a good break is in order.

On to my new plan, I figure I know some stuff about nutrion and all that like, instead of eating that piece of cake I should pick up an apple and maybe some peanutbutter or somethings to the likes of that, I may not understand how/why things are broken down into the body but I got a general idea on good vs. bad!

With that said my plan is to basically “put it all out there”, what I mean is I will just post everything I eat (when time allows) to get some ideas on how to better my diet and to help me avoid cheating because lets face it, while we all can accept faliure within ourselves at times its harder to admitt defeat when others are watching :smiley: Soooooo with that said here are my goals…

190lbs
15% or less BF

What I am now…

215lbs
25% BF

Here is my diet…

4 DEC 2007

1330:
Chopped Beef in brown sauce
1/2 cup of steamed rice
3/4 cup of green beans

1440:
3/4 of a skinnless chicken breast w/ leg

1520:
2 x Granny Smith apples (Green ones)

1700:
1 and 1/2 cups mixed veggies (carrots/broclolie/Califlower)
2 x Strips of Lemon baked fish
1/2 cup of peas

1900:
1 and 1/2 cups canolope
Bowl of mixed salad w/ carrots (1/2 serving of honey mustard)

2120:
1 x Bagle with little grape jelly
4 x Cups of mixed viggies
1 and 3/4 stip of lemon baked fish

2340:
1 and 1/2 cups of cucumber salad
1 slice of turkey
3/4 cup of tuna

Drinks:
11 x .5 liter water
1 x Monster
1 x V8 (small serving can)
1 and 1/2 x Low Fat Milk

I am open to all critisisim, if this is in vain let me know so I can also stop waisting T-Nation post space. As you can see today was a very healty day (imo it was) and I guess I am lacking protein? I dont have acces to my protein powder for like another 3 weeks and then it will be hard to use then, also due to my location its easier here to eat 6-10 times a day back where I will be in 3 weeks it is almost impossible. I suck at spelling also, ty.

-Brandon

[/quote]

Read this: http://www.T-Nation.com/readArticle.do?id=811783&cr=

6

your diet looks good imo, be careful of the sauces/mustard stuff like that cause it can seem like a little but they might have lots of fat so check out their protein/carbs/fat first to be sure. now idk what monster drink is but anyway, the bagle is like a bread thingy right? if it is get rid of it. if im wrong then i havent eaten a bagle in a while haha. also replace rice if its white with brown rice.

other than that just eat meat with every meal. you can cook lots of meat and put it in your fridge, set the fridge in its coldest setting and it can last for even a week… at least for me. then its easy to eat meat with every meal you just warm it up in the microwave

7

[quote]KIILLSWIITCH wrote:
4 DEC 2007

1330:
Chopped Beef in brown sauce
1/2 cup of steamed rice
3/4 cup of green beans

1440:
3/4 of a skinnless chicken breast w/ leg

1520:
2 x Granny Smith apples (Green ones)

1700:
1 and 1/2 cups mixed veggies (carrots/broclolie/Califlower)
2 x Strips of Lemon baked fish
1/2 cup of peas

1900:
1 and 1/2 cups canolope
Bowl of mixed salad w/ carrots (1/2 serving of honey mustard)

2120:
1 x Bagle with little grape jelly
4 x Cups of mixed viggies
1 and 3/4 stip of lemon baked fish

2340:
1 and 1/2 cups of cucumber salad
1 slice of turkey
3/4 cup of tuna

Drinks:
11 x .5 liter water
1 x Monster
1 x V8 (small serving can)
1 and 1/2 x Low Fat Milk

[/quote]

First off I think you probably eat better than I do variety wise! However I would avoid sauces like lordstorm said. The brown sauce with you beef is probably pretty bad for your goals. Also you have a ton of extra carbs which isn’t going to help you either. I would cut out the rice, bagels(tons of carbs), jelly, and monster.

You could replace rice with green veggies, the bagel and jelly with any kind of fruit, and the monster with Spike or tea or something. It looks like you already have enough fruit/veggies in your diet and a good variety at that so good job. You need more meat/protein. I realize you are probably eating in a mess hall so there should be some kind of meat available.

I would try to hit the main three(chicken,beef, fish) every day and eat one with every meal. Keeping a log is a great way to keep track of your diet. Good job on loosing the weight and keep an eye on your meals. Just because you blow off one meal doesn’t mean the entire day is shot.

PeterD

8

You eat a lot of sugar.

Maybe try out a new eating plan such as the Anabolic Diet. It helps you maintain your sanity well well if you are a prolific cheater. Also there is a huge thread called:

My experience on the Anabolic diet

And everyone there including myself can really help you get into it. Plus you get to eat lots of good food that makes you feel full. This way you are usually to full to eat naughty food. Many many people have had great weight loss and mass gain success with the AD, myself included.

Are you on or off tour? If you’re on tour things can be tricky.

-chris

9

Ok first thank you everyone for the quick responses and feed back, I do appriciate the help around here, I need it atm.

There are to many people to quote above me so this adresses you all, most that dont realize where I am and my limitations atm. I am DEPLOYED right now so cooking my own food, keeping in a fridge, all those little things, gone and I dont have them, no hit on you, you just didnt know. My food is limited to what my CHOW HALL serves me, yes there is meat everytime and no its not always a healthy choice, but as you see I am trying (right now preety fing hard b/c w/out 23987438923% concentration I cheat bad so…) Ok, I will loose the carbs tommorow b/c right now I am 1/2 way thru my day and already had some things like that but yes I read the advice after-the-fact so dont think I am blowing anyone off here.

I have a few questions about the diet that I am on, well its not really a diet seeing as how my food is limited and not always in constant supply (we could run out of things or what not) its more of a meal to meal healthy descision plan, if you will. What is a good food to have about 1hr before bed or right before bed b/c I hate hate hate going to bed hungry, please remeber my limtations so if the answer is something crazy at you local food store I am S.O.L. Any other advice will be much appriciated and I will update my food log later on tonight. Again thank you everyone, I will adjust as I see fit from your advice over the next few weeks!

-Brandon

10

hm then i guess try to eat meat with each meal if there is meat always, better to get protein+some fat or something than not to get protein at all. so eat at least some meat/fish even if its not that great quality. at least thats what works for me

before bed i eat cottage cheese, i dunno if you have that but generally you need slow digesting protein before bed. others may know other foods, but me i only know cottage cheese.

11

Ok another day of eating down and overall it wasnt to to bad, some small wtf’s there but all in all not to shabby, here it is…

5 DEC 07

1330:
1 blue berry bagle w/ strawberry jam
2 x grilled skin/boneless chicken breasts

1430:
1 x Granny smith apple

1540:
1 bowl of salad w/ shredded cheader cheese and 1/2 a serving of honey mustard salad dressing
2 x grilled skin/boneless chicken breasts

1650:
1 x granny smith apple

1750:
Slice of roast beef (little bigger than my hand) w/ 3 table spoons of bbq sauce
1/2 cup of white(?) rice
1 cup of green beans
1 cup of mixed veggies

2000:
1 big bowl of salad w/ 1/2 a serving of honey mustard salad dressing and shreeded cheader cheese

2130:
1 x granny smith apple

2240:
1 slice of roast beef w/ 1 table spoon of bbq sauce
2 x cups of mixed veggies
1 and 1/2 cups of green beans

2347:
2 x small pieces of turkey
3/4 cup of tuna
3 x thin slices of salami

Drinks:
Water x 13 (.5 liters)
Monster x 1 (Im all out of them so I am done for now)
Low Fat Milk x 1
V-8 x 1

Ok I ate alot of this before everyones advice so yeah I know about the monster, they are not good for you but the carbs are to much, I thought I was low on them, hmm?

Other than cottage cheese (no I dont have any acces to that) is there somthing I can have rite before bed?

For now thats it I guess, thank you everyone for the advice so far!

-Brandon

12

[quote]KIILLSWIITCH wrote:
Ok another day of eating down and overall it wasnt to to bad, some small wtf’s there but all in all not to shabby, here it is…

5 DEC 07

1330:
1 blue berry bagle w/ strawberry jam
2 x grilled skin/boneless chicken breasts

1430:
1 x Granny smith apple

1540:
1 bowl of salad w/ shredded cheader cheese and 1/2 a serving of honey mustard salad dressing
2 x grilled skin/boneless chicken breasts

1650:
1 x granny smith apple

1750:
Slice of roast beef (little bigger than my hand) w/ 3 table spoons of bbq sauce
1/2 cup of white(?) rice
1 cup of green beans
1 cup of mixed veggies

2000:
1 big bowl of salad w/ 1/2 a serving of honey mustard salad dressing and shreeded cheader cheese

2130:
1 x granny smith apple

2240:
1 slice of roast beef w/ 1 table spoon of bbq sauce
2 x cups of mixed veggies
1 and 1/2 cups of green beans

2347:
2 x small pieces of turkey
3/4 cup of tuna
3 x thin slices of salami

Drinks:
Water x 13 (.5 liters)
Monster x 1 (Im all out of them so I am done for now)
Low Fat Milk x 1
V-8 x 1

Ok I ate alot of this before everyones advice so yeah I know about the monster, they are not good for you but the carbs are to much, I thought I was low on them, hmm?

Other than cottage cheese (no I dont have any acces to that) is there somthing I can have rite before bed?

For now thats it I guess, thank you everyone for the advice so far!

-Brandon[/quote]

This looks pretty good although it’s probably high on the carb side for a cutting diet. I would suggest replacing the bagel with a couple servings of oatmeal and ditching the jam. I would also ditch the rice unless it’s a preworkout thing. Good job on the protein with every meal!

As for what to eat later in the evening. Micellar casein would be the best(the milk protein in cottage cheese that lasts a long time) if you can find something in the mess hall that contains it. I usually have a Low-Carb Metabolic Drive shake and fiber about an hour before bed. So I’d say a small amount of protein and some fiber a little before bed but I’m sure if that’s not the best someone else will chime in.

PeterD

13

Man, not to bug you…they would deploy you when you were that shit for shape!!! I’m in ROTC, I’m 5’10 and 200 lbs right now, when I went to sign up, I was 217 lbs, and they wouldn’t take me into the program until I cut to 200…did you pass a bfp or something? Or did they just not physical you before deployment?

14

[quote]Sikkario wrote:
Man, not to bug you…they would deploy you when you were that shit for shape!!! I’m in ROTC, I’m 5’10 and 200 lbs right now, when I went to sign up, I was 217 lbs, and they wouldn’t take me into the program until I cut to 200…did you pass a bfp or something? Or did they just not physical you before deployment?[/quote]

Yeah they let me deploy, I was suppose to get out of the army in OCT 2006 and that just barley missed my stop-loss date and I was flagged for being overweight but I really wanted to deploy so I worked out a little “drug-deal” with my 1SG b/c he knew the retention guys and we found a loop hole to extend me 3 months to put me into the time I needed for the stop loss. Yes I was preety bad when i cam over here but I am alot better now b/c of it, as for when it all went down, I could pull my own weight (kinda and no pun intended) but I was ok for the most part, this deployment was to server my country and to better myself physically. So far all has been accomplished!

-Brandon

15

Another day down, kinda sorta good…

6 DEC 07

1240:
1 x porkchop
1 x piece of turkey (size of palm)
3 and 1/2 cups of mixed veggies
1/2 cup of pinto beans
3 servings (little packets) of regular flavored oatmeal

1415:
2 bowls of salad w/ 1/2 a serving of honey mustard salad dressing and shreeded cheese

1535:
1 cup of beef (seasoned and maronaited)
4 cups mixed veggies

1735:
4 pieces of lemon baked fish
2 cups mixed veggies

1940:
3 cups of beef
2 cups of mixed veggies

2230:
1 large bowl of salad w/ oil and vinegar (lite)
2 cups of tuna on top of salad

0030:
1 granny smith apple

Drinks:
Water x 12 (.5 liters)
V-8 x 2
L.F Milk x 2

Problems with today, the beef had to much oil in it, made it greasy and this flippin diet sucks, I am tired of mixed veggies but for “healty” stuff this place is out of options for me…anyways I will drive the fuck on…

-Brandon

16

actually it looks much better.

btw i think you are drinking too much water… is that 6 litres? x12(.5 liters) you say so … anyway im not sure how much you should get a day but i think 6 litres is a lot. even when i worked out in the summer i didnt drink that much i think

17

Yeah its alot of water I know, I recently read somewhere about the water Im fine with it, at times its a task to drink that much but my pee stays clear and I get plenty of time to run to the bath room, I would rather be safe than sorry ! Thank you for you quick responses btw!

-Brandon

18

well i only drink about 1.5 litres of water usually… maybe 3 on gym days. and my pee is fine haha. yay i have good pee. hahahaha

i also drink quite a bit of milk. and most vegetables have water in them too

19

[quote]lordstorm88 wrote:
well i only drink about 1.5 litres of water usually… maybe 3 on gym days. and my pee is fine haha. yay i have good pee. hahahaha

i also drink quite a bit of milk. and most vegetables have water in them too[/quote]

Yeah I am sure I drink alot more then most people but I am sure that I am not overdoing with the water, I am told it takes ALOT ALOT ALOT, but yeah I try to cut off my water at the end of the night so I dont cross that line (wherever it it) LOL.

Onto my days food intake :slight_smile:

7 DEC 07

1340:
1 serving of oatmeal (regular)
2 strips of paresean fish
2 skin/boneless chicken breasts
1 cup mixed veggies

1520:
1 green apple

1614:
Large salad w/ honey mustard salad dressing (1/2 serving)
2 x skin/boneless chicken breasts

1738:
1 piece of grilled steak
2 inch corn on the cob
3/4ths cup of tuna

1940:
1 grilled steak
3/4ths cup of tuna

2220:
1 bowl of salad w/ 1/2 serving of honey mustard salad dressing
1 cup of tuna
3 pieces of thin salami

2315:
2 x green apples

0056:
Small peach

Drinks:
Water x 12 (.5 liter)
V-8 x 2
L.F. Milk x 1

So today the DFAC was out of oil and vinegar (I am trying to get away from all the extras in my diet and I know salad dressings are the debil). I was soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo tempeted to eat these delicious looking caramel brownies today but I made it thru without cheating at all, its still a minute to minute battle (I had to stare at party mix cheez its today :frowning: …) It wasnt fun but I did it!

I am looking at this “health clinic” thing T-Nation is doing and said to myself (as with some other posts on there) Maybe I cant get picked for it but I can choose someone in “my situation” and try to follow shugs and CT’s advice to that guy and navigate my way through that way…We will see how this idea play’s out. ATM I am unable to but hot rockz and some other protiens but I am still doing what I can with what mother nature gave me :smiley:

CT / Shugs said somthing today in a post I read that you cant chase BOTH rabbits and catch them, your going to loose both that way, so from here on out (until I take leave after my deployment) I am going to dedicate myself to fat-loss, Im praying, lol.

Thank you T-Nation, much love!

-Brandon

20

8 DEC 07

1340:
3 pieces of plain turkey
1 cup of tuna
2 cups of peas

1530:
Bowl of salad w/ cucumbers, lite oil/vinegar
2 cups of tuna

1730:
Stir fry (Shirp / beef / chicken / kidney beans / carrots / green beans / jalapenos / rice / peas / soy sauce / garlic sauce)

1915:
3 servings of lasagna
3/4ths of an italian sasuage

2314:
Ate two bites of tuna, put fork down b/c I was not in the mood to eat…

Drinks:
Water x 6 (.5 liters)
V-8 x 2
L.F. Milk x 1

I am not happy with today, we just recently got in some “morale” packages from people who wanted to show us the christmas spirit and what better way than with SUGARS. . . . :frowning: I cheated a little bit (maybe 2 - 3 cookies and a pack of nutter butters). Then I cant say no to lasagna, I know I ate to much of it (wasnt stuffed or anything) but I didnt do so well in my eyes today, as for water I just wastn thirsty today?