March 2008 Archives

I am about 3 weeks into my personal fitness plan and I have lost about 7 lbs. I am on track at losing about 2.5 lbs per week, and considering that the maximum safe amount to loose per week is 3 lbs, I feel like I am doing well. Since my last measurement 1 week ago, I lost 2.2 lbs. I am still having a hard time balancing carbs and proteins, but I seem to be doing ok. I am building some muscle and I am slimming down where it counts. The most important thing for me in all of this, is the progress is occurring and I still don't feel like I have given anything up or like I am having to do any excessive work to achieve it. 

As expected, whey protein supplements don't taste good, especially not in water, and not in whole milk. Today I tried mixing it in almond milk, and that was awesome. It still isn't a taste to be craved, but it isn't as bitter as the taste of the protein in water and not as overpowering as the taste in regular milk. Almond milk is low in calories, carbohydrates and unfortunately, also protein. It contains 40 calories, 3 grams of fat, 2 grams of carbs, and 1 gram of protein. Once I finish off the almond milk, I am going to give soy milk a try. It contains 80 calories, 4 grams of fat, 4 grams of carbohydrates and 7 grams of protein. It is a little heavier than the almond milk, but I believe that the addition of the soy protein may be beneficial. Now that I have had time to adjust to taking in less calories per day, I am no longer having any issues staying under my limits for the day, so the excess 40 calories would hardly be noticed, if anything, they would be welcomed muscle fuel. 

I have been trying to get through my plan without any type of supplements, but I am finding that with my eating habits, it simply cannot be done. I am having difficulty keeping my protein up and my carbohydrates down, but somehow, my fats are right on target, their daily percent of my diet usually matches the recommended percentage. The one day I managed to keep my protein almost at its goal and my carbs right where I wanted them, I had my fats low and only consumed about 60% of my required daily calories. Due to my genetic pre-disposition to having a high percentage of my body weight be fat (either that or there is pecan pie and german chocolate cake between the strands of my Deoxyribonucleic acid), it is essential that I keep my calorie consumption on target (not above or below) as well as keep enough protein in my body to protect my muscles. The human body has a hard time consuming more than 1000 calories per day from its stored fat supply, after that, it begins eating at muscle.

To summarize what I am babbling about.... I have decided that I need more protein in my diet, but a lower amount of carbohydrates, so I have purchased a whey protein powder. It has enough calories to help me meet my daily need there, and will provide me with 20grams of protein in each serving, which is like 12% of my daily requirement.

The container pictured above is what I obtained, it is 5Lbs of whey protein, in vanilla flavor, somehow I doubt it will actually taste anything like vanilla, but it can't be worse than pureed seaweed.

Today was the first day I really tracked the details of the calories I consume. I don't seem to be doing that bad with things in the areas of carbohydrates and fats, they are staying below the acceptable range. The protein isn't going so well. I am overall consuming very low amounts of protein, which isn't good for muscle formation. I am starting to understand the need for protein bars and shakes, although, I would prefer to get my protein from more natural sources. I am going to work with the information I have recorded about my foods and try to come up with a balanced plan. 

A calorie is 4.1184 Joules, which is roughly 4 watts. A calorie is a physical unit of potential energy. When burned by the body a calorie produces electrical and thermal energy as needed throughout the day. Calories come from 3 things: protein, fat and carbohydrates. Oddly, the worse of the three are the carbs. One gram of protein is 4 calories, one gram of carbs is 4 calories, and a single gram of fat is 9 calories.

Protein is the best thing you can get from your daily calorie allotment, it powers your muscles and acts as a stored energy source throughout the day that can be easily accessed. It is best to eat protein rich foods before and after working out for the biggest benefit to your body.

Carbohydrates are evil. They break down very fast and should almost always be utilized immediately, or else, you risk them slowing you down as the metabolism revs up to burn through them and then  crashes you right back down after its done. Carbs are best to eat at breakfast, when you can use them as quick fuel to get you started and the chances of them being burned away almost instantly are very high. If you live a life that isn't active at all, eliminating carbs is likely your only hope for weight-loss, but keep your protein high to protect your muscles.

Fats are GOOD! Fat is very hard for the body to store as fat, because it is more complex and takes too long to break down (your stomach cant just pass fat out to begin building a fat monument on your abs).  Fats are relatively quick energy, and aren't reserved for high-level muscle use. Fast-twitch muscles need a lot of protein, but the slower fibers will settle for the fats. Saturated fats are bad, avoid them if possible. Fats in nuts and milks are usually the best for your body because they usually are carrying other things that are really great for the body.

There is some good news, you can blow off 10% of the calories eaten each day to the digestive process itself.

Want to know how many calories you should eat per day? To determine the number of calories you need to maintain your weight, take your current body weight and multiply it by 11, then take that number and multiple it by your energy multiplier, then add whatever you burn during a workout.  So.. in an easier form: (Current Weight*11*Energy Multiplier)+workout calories. If you want to gain weight (bulk), add 500 calories per day, if you want to loose weight, subtract 1000 calories per day.

*Energy multiplier: 1.3 (sedentary), 1.6 (light work), 1.7 (moderate work), or 2.1 (hard labor).

Just a little wisdom I picked up in my research. 

Due to lack of motivation and time getting away from me yesterday (Monday), I was unable to get started on my ab workout series like I wanted. So, instead of doing the Monday workout on Monday, I did it today (Tuesday) and will continue to follow the rest of the days one day off until Saturday, when I will do Friday's workout. That will give me Sunday to rest before starting the Monday routine again on Monday. 

Three meals per day is convenient. You eat one meal when you first get up, one when the sun is at its highest point in the sky and then you eat again somewhere between finishing your objectives for the day and going to bed. Athletes aren't supposed to follow that schedule, it doesn't work for our bodies. I honestly don't know how I am going to find time and a schedule to be able to conveniently eat 6 times per day. I suppose it does help that one small meal is supposed to be eaten before working out and one is supposed to be eaten after, leaving only 4 meals left to place. I am trying to use the meal information provided in "Total Body Plan" to construct a basic idea of what I should be eating at each of those meals. 

When I started this plan, I had a quite strong list of texts that I was intending to use. Those texts were:

• USMC Guide Book of Essential Subjects (0-967-51236-0)
• Anybody's Guide to Total Fitness (0-7872-9878-1)
• Men's Health Hard Body Plan (1-57954-229-8)
• Men's Health Book of Muscle (1-57954-769-9)
• Complete Book of Abs, The (0-375-75143-2)
• 3 Minute Abs
• Body Sculpting Bible for Abs
• USMC Workout (1-57826-158-9)

After looking through all of them at least a little, I have decided to drop a majority of them for now and focus on using the following three books:

• Men's Fitness Total Body Plan (1-572-43971-8)
• Body Sculpting Bible for Abs - Deluxe DVD Edition (1-578-26264-X)
• Men's Health Book of Muscle (1-57954-769-9)

I selected the Total Body Plan book because it provides a good overview of essential topics for my plan to be properly executed, something none of my other books offer. Next up, the Body Sculpting Bible for Abs. This book is focused on a special area of interest for me, my abs. I had purchased a copy of this book previously and enjoyed using it when I was "playing around" with ab exercises. I decided to buy this new copy because it includes the DVD. The DVD contains all of the exercises that are in the book, but provides narration as well as videos of the exercises being performed. It is a very specialized book and DVD. Finally, the Book of Muscle. It is designed for people who want to build muscle primarily, but also provides a lot of full color photos, muscle diagrams and workout instructions for a variety of exercises for each muscle group.

Together, these books should cover almost anything I need to know in the next few months. I can't believe that I have the amount of books that I do and haven't begun something like this before.

I was reading the "Total Body Plan" text earlier and ran across a nice little fun fact, 500 calories per day can change your weight over 1lb per week. I am currently working on trying to adjust my diet so that I stay below 1500 calories per day. Going below 1000 is not recommended because it changes the way the body handles things, and can potentially cause weight gain, loss of muscle mass and an overall tendency toward being lethargic.  Staying below the total calories needed for a day will help with weight reduction and currently my calorie usage each day should be well above 2500 calories, meaning I am down by around 1000 per day, or about 2lbs per week. That is just in my current default state of being sedentary, but with higher amounts of activity I will burn more calories per day. Also, I will begin monitoring what types of calories I am consuming (protein, fat, carbs) next week. I am trying to make additional changes to what I do each week to allow me to make things happen gradually, so I can learn how things affect me and not just make huge changes all at once and have myself feeling like shit and not know why. There are a lot of factors I will be calculating per the guidelines in the "Total Body Plan" text. The book is very encouraging, especially in the area of weight loss. The book provides interesting tips, including a suggestion to not obsess about numbers. Anyone who knows me will know that numbers are my forte with any project I take on. At this time, GITI is being prepped to receive the data and advise me of things that need to be done.

I haven't had a carbonated beverage since Tuesday, and I am quite happy. There was no caffeine withdrawal issues or anything like that. Currently as far as drinks, I consume a lot of water, between 8 and 16 ounces of tea and about 8 ounces of juice per day.

Yesterday I consumed 1540 calories and today I consumed 1570.

Unfortunately I missed my morning sprint today. It was too cold and rainy to do the sprints. Since there is much more winter still to come I need to find an adequate way to work around the unavailability of my sprinting surface. I have considered joining a gym, but that seems a bit too expensive for something like what I want to do, probably would also present too much of a distraction.

What do most successful jocks have that I don't? A practiced routine! I am a new jock, therefore I don't have a routine of any type. I need to get myself more practiced and develop my routine. My new ab DVD that arrived this morning,  and it features a 5 day routine (done as chapter names, monday - friday), so that may be a good place to start building from, adding on to my morning sprint, and doing chin-ups every time I pass through my doorway.

So far I have this...

-Morning spring - every morning (increasing in difficulty each week)
-Five day abs
-Constant chin-ups (changing hand direction each day)
 

I consumed 943 calories today.  This is a small amount for me. I have been mostly drinking water and eating only what I need to at each meal. I am going to try to keep this number small at first and then let it grow as needed for muscle development, energy for workouts and such. I will not eat food just because it is there. I resisted eating my own Chicken Alfredo Pizza tonight because I couldn't justify 310 calories per slice, I didn't do 310 calories per slice of workouts today.

I think the key to solving problems I have had in the past is balance. I need to balance food intake with energy burned.

I will go to bed tonight satisfied, happy, and looking forward to my morning sprints. (oh, and also with a negative calorie balance for the day)

I now understand the concept of an empty calorie. A simple glass (8oz) of iced tea requires spending 68 calories, and the amount of satisfaction received from that amount of fluid is minimal. If I am going to be disappointed in a drink, I think I will stick with water, 0 calories, unlimited refills. I started off my morning by measuring 3/4 cup of cereal and 3/4 cup of milk, creating a 250 calorie breakfast, which for the amount of movement I have done today, seems about right. Lunch was a little worse on me at nearly 300 calories for a ham and cheese sandwich. I have done some basic ab workouts today, so I don't feel horrible, but I am not where I want to be. I need to push myself to do ab workouts. I am supposed to hang out with Chris tomorrow, so I need to get this workout thing under control so I don't slip.

I haven't done dinner yet, that will be later this evening, but I am having a hard time finding anything that I feel I can justify eating.

As workout days go, this wasn't as productive as I like. I got nearly no ab work done today. What I did accomplish was quite a few chin ups, which for me, are hard as fuck, and I did do the sprints this morning. I will try to repeat all of these activities tomorrow as well, until I get more comfortable with them.

My prep work for today included reviewing my Men's Health 15-minute Workout DVD, and bringing out the ab books that I have. I'm going to work hard on my abs this year, I want awesome abs, so I'm going to have to work them 3-4 times per week (recovery time between days is required for development).

I am still very excited about all of this and I want to make things go as well as possible.

I think I am becoming obsessed with the chin-up bar. I am drawn to its power and horizontal beauty. Even though my hands hurt from using it, I am still quite drawn to it, and love using it. I am going to get some workout gloves this weekend to help with the whole lack of grip and hurting hand thing. I am also planning to get some longer screws for it. The screws in it now are about 1.5", and I believe that 4" screws would be a lot more secure for how I've got it installed. 

I got up this morning at 8am, and I was full of energy. I found a good way to make up for my lack of having a running track at home. I have marked the driveway with chalk in a section where it is fairly straight, giving myself a nice sprinting area.

My arms are still sore from the chin-ups I did yesterday, I find it to be a pleasant feeling. The bar in the doorway is just so inviting to work on. I don't have to go through any special trouble to use it, I just reach up and there it is, ready for me. I having it there. I am becoming happy that the bar isn't inside the bathroom door, that would place it too far out of sight.

I have the drive and the motivation to start this, and I seriously want to take this on this time. This morning I mounted my pull-up bar on my door frame. I didn't originally want it on the door to my room, I wanted the privacy of having it on the door between my bedroom and bathroom, but with my no-defeat attitude towards things now, I mounted it and I will deal with the other emotions and any bullshit that may arise later.

I am presently petrified to look at my weight on a scale, because I know I'm overweight. I know my body isn't what it should be. I also know that to make any measurable progress I will have to take the initial measurements and start taking them each and every week until I am what I want to be.

I don't like my body. I haven't liked my body in almost a year. I am now going to do something about it. From the first Monday before my 23rd birthday, until June 1(March 3, 2008 until June 1, 2008) I will be working out at least 5 days per week. I am going to do a variety of cardio, weight training and strength training. My goal is to lose weight and gain muscle. I don't want to be a walking muscle, but I do want to have a body with more definition and more pleasing curves. My basic goal will be to prepare myself to meet the requirements of the basic US Marine fitness test.

This summer, I want to have a body that I am proud of and will have no problem showing off and making everybody drool.