This is the start of a new log that I am hopefully going to keep updated several times per week. I will be describing my current diets, workouts, and general training questions and information.
Please feel free to comment and give me any ideas you might have!
Last summer I started reading up on nutrition and different workouts and techniques. I tried a lot of diffent workouts but never really stuck to anything. Then I had a family reunion in Florida and had my shirt off most of the weekend. I never felt so fat in my life! It seemed like everyone I saw had more muscle or lower body fat than I did. I guess this was my “Phoenix moment” I decided to do something about it and start using the information I had absorbed while reading through T-Nation. I started a new diet Sept. 4th and haven’t looked back!
Here is a quick breakdown of the diet (I got this from an article on T-Nation just don’t remember which one):
30g of Carbs per day or less
200-ish grams of Protein
Did not count or care about fat intake
2200 - 2500 calories (I weighed 185 @ 5’8")
First 10 days no cheats
After those 10 days I had a cheat day from Friday night until Sunday night.
I followed that protocol for about two months. I’ll put more info in the next post so this doesn’t get too long
I was also working out 3-5 times per week but i’ll cover training in another post!
During those first two months I lost around 10 total pounds. Not bad, I was shooting for 1 pound per week and averaged a little more than that!
I found that after that long carb-up from Friday to Sunday night I ended up gaining anywhere from 2-3 pounds. I realize that it was my muscles getting re-energized with glucose or whatever and some water weight. It didn’t matter too much because by Friday afternoon I would be around a pound lighter than I was the previous week. After two months I had two weeks back to back that I stagnated and did not lose any weight. I started adjusting my cheat days / meals until I found what worked.
What worked best for me at that point was to do a carb-up from Saturday at lunch to Sunday at lunch. This way I gained anywhere from nothing to 1.5 pounds every weekend but still lost around 1 pound total by Friday. I stuck to this schedule until after X-mas. Between Thanksgiving and X-mas I lost around 6 pounds which I thought was awesome even though I gorged out on pie both holidays!
Then my weightloss started to taper off again so I readjusted my diet once more to what it is today: No Cheat Meals (almost)!!!
Starting around in January I started cheating less and less until I rarely ever cheat. I stick to pretty much the same macronutrient combination. I have lowered the total overall calories to between 1900 - 2200.
Today I weigh in around 148 thats a 37 pound loss in 36 weeks (as of this week May 9th)
That my friends is pretty darn close to a pound-per-week!!!
I’ll make some pictures and see if I can get them posted but I don’t think I have any pictures of me when I was 185 because I was too embarassed to take off my shirt.
My abs are slowly starting to peak through the fat around my stomach. I remember a few months ago my oldest brother was commenting on my weight loss. He was being a smart-ass and said “no matter how much weight you lose you will never have a 6-pack, people in our family can’t have them!” Can you believe that shit! Of course, he is a fat-ass and he is probably jealous so i’ll forgive him, but I still want to prove him wrong and make him eat his words!!! So that is my short term goal even though i’ve been wishing for abs for years.
Daily Meals:
Breakfast - 3-egg turkey & cheese omelet, Grow! Whey shake, 2 Flameouts, Multivitamin
Morning Snack - Peanuts
Lunch - Some sort of meat with a vegetable, hamburger patties and broccoli is pretty common for me, 2 Flameout, multivitamin
Afternoon snack - Pork skins (I know they are bad for you but no carbs!)
Workout - Half serving of Biotest Surge sipped half during workout and chug the rest afterwards
Evening - varies a lot depending on what the wife cooks but always meat and veggies, 2 Flameout, mulitvitamin
Alright enough of the nutrition stuff!
I think i’ve got that pretty well covered and i’ll start posting some information on my workouts next week and see if anyone has any tips for me. I would do it now but it’s almost 5:00 and I wanna go to the GYM!!!
Here are my “Before” pictures. I took these around the first part of November. I weighed around 170 or so. This was AFTER being on my diet for 2 months and AFTER I had already lost around 15lbs. Since these were taken I have lost an additional 20-ish pounds!
Quick rundown of Monday’s workout:
Deadlifts:
Warmup Rackpulls 135x5
Warmup 135x5
225x5
295x5
295x4
275x5
275x3
Chin-ups (all done with 35lb plate):
8 reps
5 reps
5 reps
4 reps
Between each set did 60sec Planks
DB Bench Press:
65x5
75x3 (thought I had grabbed 70’s)
65x4
After each set immediately did 10 push-ups
Swiss Ball Roll-out:
8 reps
6 reps (a lot harder than I expected)
Wednesday Workout:
Weight = 150 (gained two pounds!?!?)
Squat:
quick warm-up
115x8
135x8 (I stopped here because my back did not feel recovered enough from Monday)
Weighted Dips(parallel grip):
35x8 (35+150=185)
45x8 (195)
55x6 (205)
70x4 (220)
70x4 (220)
Decline DB Flye:
40x10
50x7
50x5
50x5
T-bar Row:
70x10
90x8
90x8
90x8
DB Shrugs:
65x8
65x8
65x8
65x6
Drank beer and ate mexican food this weekend, I guess everyone cheats 
Did not get to get back into the gym until yesterday (05/21). A whole week since my last workout. That sucks I can’t do that i’ve get to get on the ball.
Anyways workout for 5/21/08
Squat:
135x8 Warmup
185x5 for 4 sets (That is pitiful I know)
Chin-ups:
35x6
45x5
45x5
Planks 3x60sec.
DB Flat Bench / Supersetted with DB Shrugs:
70x6,70x5,70x5 = Bench
70x8 for 3 sets = Shrugs
Barbell Curl supersetted with decline skullcrusher:
60x10,60x8,60x6
65x8, 65x8, 65x7 (this is assuming the bar I was using was 15lbs… i’m not sure)
Rode bike to and from gym total distance around .6 miles.
