Diaries

Brian Houlihan

Hi,
I was thinking on Monday we should all start posting weekly diaries of sort. Giving a summary of what your happy with you week regarding fitness. An example

"This week I did cardio 3 times, doing power walking for about 30 mins every time, feel great. Kinda dissapointed as I ate a few too much junk food this week...."

Basically we could see how everyone is progressing and give tips like to do above if replying i'd say.

Well done with excercise, don't worry about junk food. Just try and stock up the house with more fruit and less junk food and so on so forth.

I think personally if we did stuff like diaries it would all help us as we will find out were we are lacking etc.

(This is gonna stay sticky until something is decided on)

logic1

Not sure if it's such a good idea. I do keep a daily diary but not so much of what I eat because I run a strict diet day in day out no cheating but I do track all my excercises per day.

TBH if I put it all here it'd take me more time and spam the ****e out of the forum.

I'd also rather keep most of it to myself so JayK doesn't laugh at my puny max bench

.logic.

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

Jak

Aye I have a log of all my training for the last 6 years now. Every session

For weight training a log book is essential kit to keep track of what you should be doing, how you felt doing it last time and to check progress.

Logbooks when you look back over them are a nice reminder of how far you have come too.

JAK.

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

Jak

Lot of people carry logs now - finally seems to have caught on.

General format for a session is

Day Date Time in - Time Out

Exc 1.

Wt X # of reps
Wt Y # of reps
Wt z # of reps

Exc 2 ...


and so on.

I also tend to throw in comments on how easy or otherwise I felt a weight was, whether I should go up next time, was i wearing wraps etc and whether there was any injury aggravation etc.


Finish off then with just a cool down strectch and record my weight.

I find my training is somewhat aimless without the log at this stage.

gandalf

Well I do not keep details of exactly what exercises I do, I follow whats been done by the Gym instructors for me and then add a bit (ie extra 10 minutes on the cross trainer or rower). I don't want to build up muscles I am primarily going for weight loss and it has been very successful, so far 15kgs+ gone since September and I am going to lose the same again by March.

As regards the schedule I set for myself I am right on target. This has been achieved by going to the gym 3/4 times a week, walking for half an hour late every evening (weather permitting). Not eating late at night. No Sweets, Crisps, Biscuits, hardly any Cake (you need some Cake please ). NO Beer (don't worry I still drink spirits!).

I actually track what I've done on a blank print out of the months from Outlook which are taped to the back of my bedroom door (high tech eh ). I am right on track for this month to hit my 3 Stone lost mark

Gandalf.

Jak

That really is great going Gandalf - good job.

With cardio work, there is probably less info to record than a weights session. That said, keeping track of times for distance is always gonna be valuable to track your progress.

And although to a different extent, cardio obviously will also promote muscle growth, so be sure you are getting the right fuels into - carbs for energy and proteins for muscle repair/growth. Cutting out the sweet stuff as you have done and swapping coke for water (I still can't get how people would drink a 2l coke over water) will make a huge difference.

Also the more muscle you have in your body, the more calories your body will burn day to day. This is another reason why I would generally recommend people to try and gain some muscle as opposed to just dieting their weight down.

Again though, great job.

JAK.

daveirl

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Victor

I found keeping a diary of my diet massively contributed to me dropping a lot of junk food and I have lost quite a bit of weight since the summer (17kg). Record **everything** that passes your lips and when you realise just how much junk you do eat, you will come to a quick realisation as to what you need to cut down on.

In the last year the following have gone:
burgers
chips
most other fried foods (perhaps 10 pieces in the last year)
alcohol
crisps
most soft drinks
eggs

My liver is now much happier. What I now need to do is cut down on chocolate, eat some more greens and get some exercise.

Caesar_Bojangle

I usually go gyming three times a week with my semi-pro weightlifting friend who puts me to shame. I could post a diary when i get back to the gym nigh christmas, when i have fully recovered from an injury and get the all clear from the doc.

Since i started going to the gym two years back, i never changed my diet except marginally altering it with the addition of some vegetables but the fact remains i ate crap left right and centre and still gained 2 1/2 stone of rock solid mass. I never stuck to any strict diet so tbh you dont completely have to cut out the good stuff to get the perfect body.

Jak

You don't have to cut out all the good stuff no.

And as long as you are training hard and getting the basics in your diet right, you will have a lot more flexibility in what you can eat.

I tend to eat fairly clean stuff, and generally never eat chocolate or drink cokes etc (not out of any moral high ground, just never liked them that much as food/drink). I do however drink heavily enough one night a week.

However, in my view the harder you are training the more freedom you gain with your diet. But for people starting out who are in a pretty bad state they usually need to make very significant changes.

Incidentally, and out of interest, what sort of shape were you in before you gained 35lbs of 'rock solid mass'?