I once again tried jumping rope. It’s getting better but I still have a LONG way to go. I did my 12 minuted and felt pretty good.
Workout.
A1) Standing Cable Press : 17.5 x 12
B1) Cross Body Cable Pull : 12.5 x 12
(the B1 exercise really threw me. I kept forgetting to change the weight and would do one arm a 12.5 and the other at 17.5. In the end I did the last set with both arms at 17.5)
3 sets without a break. Then a short break to set up for the next exercise.
A2) Standing Leg Pres : 130 x 12
B2) Inclined Front Dumbell Squat : 20 x 12
Same rest scheme as above.
A3) Assisted Chins : 130lb assist x 10
B3) Assisted close grip dips : same
This rotation SUCKED!!! My heart rate was through the roof and I ended up doing the last set qith an assist of 145!! For Pete’s sake!!! The !?%* machine only goes up to 175. I’m so out of shape I’m sick of myself. I couldn’t believe it. I’m going to be able to do chins and dips unassisted or F*%!!*% die trying!!!
After I regained my composure and quit cursing, I tried one last exercise.
A4) Dumbell Dead Lifts : 20 x 12.
I was going to do more but was just too wiped out and frustrated.
I then did 15 minutes on the elliptical again. This time I tried level 5 which didn’t feel significantly different from level 3. My heart rate again stayed around 160 for most of it. It started at 147 as soon as I got a read but was at 160 within a minute and pretty much stayed there.
Tomorrow is a day off because I am traveling in the afternoon. In the morning I am going to get a physical and bloodwork and am going to be purchasing a skin fold caliper tonight.
The goal here is to take Dr. Berardi up on his Body Transformation Challenge on the PN website. I figure that with as out of shape as I am right now, I’ve got nothing to lose and just might win!!!
I’ll be posting skin-fold and tape measurements later tonight.
As a suggestion, you might consider limiting the cardio at the front end of the workout to maintain your energy levels for the f*&%^ing dips and chins (lol). Doing 5 minutes jumping rope would be a good warm-up. You could do the remainder at the end or, my preference, is to put cardio on a separate day. 3 weight-training days and 2-3 cardio days a week would be an option. It is OK to leave a little bit in the tank so you feel like coming back the next day.
By the way, with variations of chins / pullups, dips, squats and deadlifts you cover off every major muscle in your body.
I couldn’t figure out the caliper thing. I am going to take it to the doctor’s office with me tomorrow and ask him to show me how to use them and maybe go ahead and do a measurement for me.
I did break out the tape measurer and here’s my starting point. All readings are in inches.
Waist (measured at the navel) 47.5
Chest (measured across the nipple) 48.5
Neck 18.5
R Arm (measured 3" below my pit) 15.75
L Arm (same point as R Arm) 15.75
R Thigh (measured 5" above knee) 24
L Thigh (same point as R thigh) 24.25
Butt 47.25
Tomorrow I’m off to the doctor for bloodwork and hopefully some skin fold readings. Maybe after that someone will tell me how to figure out my body fat percentage so I can get a realistic view of where I’m at.
As the others have stated, good decision on making a lifestyle change. Dont let little setbacks get you down and keep your chin up. No one ever achieved anything by quitting.
I see you got Dr. Berardi’s book. Good call on that one.
[quote]Mad Thad wrote:
2. Finally kick the junk food habit. For me, burgers, wings, and beer are regular staples. I need to reset what I like or find other healthy alternatives that I like.[/quote]
Thad – you have to get the nutrition part cleaned up.
I guarentee you if you can eat clean for 2 or 3 weeks you will lose those cravings.
If you could not hack PN, I recommend getting Berardi’s book “The Metabolism Advantage” – amazon has it for around 16.00. It is like PN for dummies.
At any rate you are going to need to clean up your diet, making sure you get plenty of high quality protein and eat every two to three hours. This will help raise your metabolism and fuel your transformation.
[quote]Mad Thad wrote:
I couldn’t figure out the caliper thing. I am going to take it to the doctor’s office with me tomorrow and ask him to show me how to use them and maybe go ahead and do a measurement for me.[/quote]
There should be somebody at your gym who can do a caliper reading for you.
You can’t make progress if your hormones are working against you, or are not working period.
Get tested for levels of Testosterone TT and FT (total test and free test), Estrodiol (E2) and thyroid levels. A CBC will expose any problems with blood sugar.
Higher E2 will make you gain fat and drives the fat patterns that you do have. Low thyroid levels will make you gain weight and have a reduced energy level.
You might not need any extra testosterone, but you may benefit very well from a reduction in E2 levels.
Higher levels of E2 will increase SHBG and that reduces FT. The E2 is also competing with FT at the testosterone receptors which reduces the effects of what FT you have. The E2 also is a strong negative feedback signal that reduces your output of testosterone. You can easily reduce E2 levels with 1mg/wk of arimidex/anastrozole. You will have to find a decent doctor to work with you on this stuff.
Lowering E2 might also do some good things for your libido.
So there a whole other dimension to your problem other than diet and training.
You can’t make progress if your hormones are working against you, or are not working period.
Get tested for levels of Testosterone TT and FT (total test and free test), Estrodiol (E2) and thyroid levels. A CBC will expose any problems with blood sugar.
Higher E2 will make you gain fat and drives the fat patterns that you do have. Low thyroid levels will make you gain weight and have a reduced energy level.
You might not need any extra testosterone, but you may benefit very well from a reduction in E2 levels.
Higher levels of E2 will increase SHBG and that reduces FT. The E2 is also competing with FT at the testosterone receptors which reduces the effects of what FT you have. The E2 also is a strong negative feedback signal that reduces your output of testosterone. You can easily reduce E2 levels with 1mg/wk of arimidex/anastrozole. You will have to find a decent doctor to work with you on this stuff.
Lowering E2 might also do some good things for your libido.
So there a whole other dimension to your problem other than diet and training.[/quote]
I understood very little of this.
I asked my doctor (one of the professors at the university here in town) today for a hormone panel with my physical and he refused. He indicated that hormones can vary wildly from one lab draw to the next and he thinks that I will likely make a lot of progress doing what I am doing with the diet and exercise.
He also told me that down the road I could aks again and he may reconsider. If it’s a real issue for a fat guy to know his T levels then I guess I’ll have to find another way to get them. Of course with as out of shape as I right now, I can’t help but make progress.
Of course I may reach a point where I plateau and need to look at other options to keep making progress. I do thik it would be a hard sale for me to start monkeying around with my hormones with the VERY limited knowledge and experience I have.
Day 4.
Today was rough for me.
I ended up not eating until almost 11am due to my physical and bloodwork.
That’s pretty late for me as I get up everyday around 5am.
Anyway, I had my physical and got my bloodwork. I should be getting the results on Monday and will post them then. All in all my doctor is encouraged by my desire to get the fat off by making reasonable and long lasting lifestyle changes. He asked about my diet and I took the time to tell him what I knew about PN and then described the type of exercises I am doing.
We had a long discussion (propbably about 15 minutes) on the whole testing for T-levels and in the end I didn’t get them done. My doctor, I thought, made a good argument for keeping my plan simple and seeing how it goes for a few months. I also think the folks at his group are a little gun shy about giving folks information that may push them towards HRT. I can undestand their position.
I also had to travel this afternoon to St. Louis and back which meant I had to find road food along the way. I was genuinely confused at what I should eat and in the end settled for some beef jerky and a diet soda. I know it’s not on my plan but at least I didn’t end up with a cheeseburger, fries, or candy, etc.
In the middle I had two other good meals from my PN plan so maybe the day was not a total loss.
Tomorrow is another gym day and back onto my PN diet for all meals. I’m counting the missed meal this morning and the beef jerky this afternoon as 2 of my 4 cheat opportunities for this week so tomorrow I need to eat on plan all day.
I don’t really feel that good about how I did today but I also think it could have gone a lot worse. I think I need some good road food suggestions.
Also the week of the 16th, I’m in Chicago on business forthe whole week. That means 6 straight days of hotel food and restaurants. I’m pretty genuinely freaked out about that right now. I have no idea how to handle this.
I am with you.
I am also just now getting started…at 44 years old and 161 lbs.
And 5’9"
I told my Dr. about low libido and he did several tests…including glucose tolernace and testosterone.
Turns out I have low testosterone.
So now I have a prescription of testosterone cyp…one shot a month at 2ml.
He says that in a month he wants to see me to see what results I get…I wonder if he will prescribe more if the results
are minimal.
Any thoughts anybody?
I just signed up for the gym yesterday.
I am pretty stoked that the RX will boost what may have been slack results from any efforts I would have made.
I believe that I will do as you have done and start a thread tracking my progress and frustrations.
Keep up the work…there are others trying to do the same.
Taking what sounded like good advice, I reduced my rope jumping from 12 minutes down to 8. I started out just wanting to do 5 but at the 5 minute point still didn’t feel totally warmed up so I stretched it out a little bit.
After the warm-up, my workout looked like this:
A1) pushups: 10 per set
A2) Assisted chin-ups: 130lb assist x 10
A3) Inclined Dumbell Front Squat: 25x10
I took a 30 second break after each rotation and did 4 rotations. Actually probably 3 3/4 rotations because the pushups and chins pretty much sucked on the last set.
B1) Seated Dumbell Overhead Press: 20x12
B2) Seated Leg Press: 170x12
B3) Alternating Front DB Raise: 10X12
Same rest scheme as the first rotation. Three rotations. I was trying for four but I literally couldn’t get the first rep done on the Dumbell Press for the 4th set so I bagged it.
I finished up with 15 minutes on the elliptical. I did the hill workout again but this time on level 10. It was WAY different than level 7. My heartrate stayed around 170 the whole time.
Back on my eating plan as well. I had a PN nuts and flax supershake whe I woke up, then went to the gym. I’m waiting on my steelcut oats to finish up now for my Post workout meal. “Muscle Gruel”.
[quote]wishin wrote:
I am with you.
I am also just now getting started…at 44 years old and 161 lbs.
And 5’9"
I told my Dr. about low libido and he did several tests…including glucose tolernace and testosterone.
Turns out I have low testosterone.
So now I have a prescription of testosterone cyp…one shot a month at 2ml.
He says that in a month he wants to see me to see what results I get…I wonder if he will prescribe more if the results
are minimal.
Any thoughts anybody?
I just signed up for the gym yesterday.
I am pretty stoked that the RX will boost what may have been slack results from any efforts I would have made.
I believe that I will do as you have done and start a thread tracking my progress and frustrations.
Keep up the work…there are others trying to do the same.
[quote]wishin wrote:
I am with you.
I am also just now getting started…at 44 years old and 161 lbs.
And 5’9"
I told my Dr. about low libido and he did several tests…including glucose tolernace and testosterone.
Turns out I have low testosterone.
So now I have a prescription of testosterone cyp…one shot a month at 2ml.
He says that in a month he wants to see me to see what results I get…I wonder if he will prescribe more if the results
are minimal.
Any thoughts anybody?
I just signed up for the gym yesterday.
I am pretty stoked that the RX will boost what may have been slack results from any efforts I would have made.
I believe that I will do as you have done and start a thread tracking my progress and frustrations.
Keep up the work…there are others trying to do the same.
[/quote]
Welcome to the fat boy club. You and I aren’t exactly charter members. Anyway, I wish you luck. I can’t say as I have anything at all to offer you but maybe just knowing there is someone else out there going through this will help both of us.
As for the HRT thing, there’s a couple of threads on this site that go into it real far. I’d suggest you do some reading.
I just finished my meal planning for next week (starts in about 3 hours).
Anyway, IT TOOK ME DAMN NEAR ALL DAY!!!
I’m thinking that as I go further I’ll get quicker because I’ll have mroe stuff already figured out but this first week took entirely too damn long.
The end product is essentially an excel workbook. One sheet has the list of meals for each day, then I typed in all the recipes for each meal from my PN Gourmet Nutrition Book, and the third sheet has a grocery list that I built from sheet 2.
I was able to print sheet two and hang it on my fridge so I have a quick glance for each day and the ingredients I need for each meal without having to constantly thumb through the book. Hopefully it will work better.
This is definitely the most planning I’ve ever done for eating but now that I’m done i feel satisfied that I won’t have to f%** with it for another week. Really another 2 weeks because the week after next, I’m on the road. Stillt rying to figure out how I’m going to stay on plan for that one.
Anyway, today was a good, day. I worked out, took the kids to the pool, and stayed on plan all day.
Tomorrow I am taking my oldest son for a long ride on my Harley. I have a cheat meal scheduled for us while we’re out. I’m going to work out in the morning beofre we go and try not to stry too far off plan during our ride.
I’d just like to take a moment to thank Dr. Berardi for that Protein Pancakes Recipe. Man, those things are AWESOME!!!
I topped mine with a little low fat omega 3 enriched smart balance peanut butter and some light maple syrup (this is a POST WORKOUT MEAL for me). It was great. I cooked some up for my two sons and they scarfed them down as well. The Mad Thad Crew gave these pancakes THREE THUMBS UP!!!
4 rotations then a 30 second rest.
I really think I need to add more weight to this rotation.
15 minutes on the elliptical. Hill Workout on level 7. When I got on, my heart rate reading was 139. It quickly got up to about 160 and stayed there until I was done.
Now its off with my son for a long ride on the Harley.
My son and I went on a long ride with my local HOG Chapter today down to Meramac Caverns.
I made sure we had a GREAT breakfast just before we left and figured, since I scheduled a Cheat Meal for this afternoon, I could get something out with my club while we down touring the cave.
WRONG!!!
We get to the cave and all there is is basically a little short order place and an ice cream counter.
I walk up to the counter thinking “How Hard can this be?”
Everything was basically fried. I’ve had enough fried. I’m not putting that crap in my body even if I do have a cheat meal planned.
My plan was to cheat, not to shoot myself in the head with a double cheeseburger and fries.
Anyway, I asked and found out they had a grilled chicken on a multigrain bun. I figured this would work and asked the girl if I could get some veggies to go along. “The only vegetables we have are mashed potatoes” came the reply. AARRGGHH!!! How about a nice side salad I said.
“We’re all out…but I can put lettuce and tomato on your sandwich for you.” “WOuld you like fries with that?” No. I don’t want fries. I know I look like I want fries but I don’t. What I want is VEGGIES!!! (This is all internal dialogue of course, what actually came out was more like my usual no ma’am, thank you but no thank you…I am nothing if not polite)
Anyway, the sandwich comes and it’s on white bread…AARRRGGHHHH!!!
I eat it along with the super thin slice of tomato and 1 1/2 pieces of lettuce. Done. My cheat meal… That SUCKED!!!
I didn’t have anything else and all I can say is that thankfully I had my dinner all planned out so when I got home, it only took about 15 minutes until I was munching on some good old, PN Super Food!!! YUMMY!!!
It’s braised Herb Beef with Turnips and IT IS AWESOME!!!
OK. Enough of that, I’ve got to go cook for tomorrow.
OK, so I call the hotel I’ll be in next week. The news was actually not all bad.
The bad news is that breakfast is continental. That means no hot omletes.
Also, the hotel’s “fitness area” consists of a treadmill and a stairmaster.
Now for the good news…
There’s a small fridge and a microwave in the room. Maybe I can work with that.
Also, I can use my key card to get into a Bally’s that is about 5 mintues from the hotel. That means access to weights so at least my workouts can continue.
I still am hoping someone, maybe from the Chicago area can help me out with some ideas for the area around my hotel (La Quinta Inn, Oakbrook Terrace).
If anyone has some plans for dealing with a week’s worth of hotel stays while staying on plan, I’d like to hear it.
Yes, traveling wreaks havoc with a healthy eating schedule. It’s no wonder this country has so many people with health problems. As for keeping your diet on the road, it depends on whether you’re driving or flying. If you’re driving, pack a couple of coolers and use the fridge in your hotel (or restock the ice in your coolers periodically from the ice machine).
If you’re flying, dragging food with you will be difficult. I recommend that you bring Metabolic Drive protein bars with you. Alternatively, you could locate the closest health food store and buy a 2lb tub of protein that will last you the week, as well as cold-food supplies at a local grocery store (e.g., low-sodium sliced turkey, salad bars, etc…) A Whole Foods market will have brown rice and other healthy stuff available, but it can get pricey.