I’ve been lifting again for a little over a year. But of that only the last 5 weeks have actually been serious. The previous year I was a disaster, would barely hit the gym twice a week. My diet sucked as well. Too many sweets, too much beer, too many grains.
So in the last 5 weeks, I’ve gone from 204lbs. to 190lbs (I am 5’10"). I have no idea what my BF% is, all I know is that a belt I got for Christmas is already too big 
My bench (DB) has gone from 60x5 for 3 sets to 65x5 for 5 sets. My squat has gone from 185x5 for 3 sets to 230x5 for 5 sets. My DL has gone from 225x4 for 3 sets to 250x5 for 5 sets.
I’ve been seeing pretty good gains week on week and I think I will be hitting 75x5 for 5 on bench, 250x5 for 5 on squat and 275x5 for 5 on DL in 5 more weeks when I plan to take a week off (it also should fall right on Spring break).
Training is basically a 5x5, however it is done in a split (upper back, squats, chest, DL). I started it that way, hadn’t really read the benefits to doing a total body workout or starting strength and I am still seeing decent gains so I am going to stick with it. I am also trying to employ lifting as fast as possible and setting my sets based on when reps slow down as per Waterbury’s “Huge in a Hurry”…
So I basically bastardized known starting programs but it seems to be working. After my break I planned on mixing things up a little anyways and will try some total body workouts for the duration of one of Chad’s programs (16 weeks).
Diet: I all but completely eliminated alcohol. That was not easy for me to do, but it was really destroying my body. They don’t call it a beer gut for nothing. I eliminated sweets. I have been slowly eliminating all refined sugars. This week I am down to almost none. I have been drinking at least 4 12oz. glasses of milk a day. 6 meals a day (well 3 meals and 3 snacks). A lot of fruit, veggies, milk, eggs, beef, chicken and some fish (tuna and salmon).
Speaking of food, I need to go eat