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Journey back to my old self

The_boat

Today i have decided to get serious about returning my body to its former, well glory is the wrong word, but shape might be approriate.

Some recent events have made me make a real go of this as previous attempts have failed.

I am 22 soon to be 23 and i feel as if i have really let myslef go since i stopped playing competitive rugby at 17. As a hooker i had always had a few extra pounds but i could finish a game. My former shape was not something that would appear on the cover of mens health but it was not too bad either - i could bench press 80kgs and i had slightly visible lines on my stomach.

I have decided to use a suplement to aid me on this journey, i feel it is necessary as unless i train every day i will take a rest day which will soon become a rest week. I will use creatine to, hopefully, enable a speady recovery from work outs. I am not attempting to grow big muscles just train often enough that i can feel/see results. By the end of my trainin i hope to be doing it all natural.

My end goals are

1. To drop fromm 230 pounds to 190.
2. To be able to comfotably bench press 3*10*80kgs
3. To be able to comfotably swim 1km at a reasonable pace
4. To be able to comfotably run 5km in less than 30 mins
5. To reduce my %body fat from (unknown) to (uknown)
6. To get an "o wow" from my amazing girlfriend who i will not see for the duration of my training as she will be living abroad.

I will use this blog to track my own progress and hopefully get advice and or encouragement from some commentators and who knows maye even inspire others to take on a similar routine/challenge

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training

strength

weight loss

Comments

BossArky

I'd say you have a good bit to loose based upon the pics. Good idea to take the "before" ones now. It will be a great motivation. You should see a noticeable difference in 3 months if you keep at it for around 4 days a week and watch your diet.

Concentrate on loads of fresh chopped veg, chicken, nuts, water, tuna. Always have some of this stuff around to satisfy your hunger else you'll resort to cr@p.

Avoid beer, too many carbs (you actually don't need spuds, pasta, or rice with a main meal if you have enough veg and meat), chocolate, sweet drinks, etc.

You look a bit top heavy so don't neglect your legs: squat, lunges, split squat, deadlifts, stiff leg deadlift.

The_boat

No Gym today, taking a rest legs are pretty stiff after yesterday, i'll be back tomorrow.

The_boat

Worst work out so far today. Haad no motivation to go to the gym today but i went anyway - this thread proabably made me, couldn't post no gym today 2 days in a row.

I did 10 minutes ont he bike - i started a fat loss program on the machine but the resistance got too high and i gave up after 10 minutes my legs were in bits.

I decided to walk for 10 minutes and gave up after 6. stiff but not too stiff i just had no motivation to push past the pain.
I made up for a poor cadio on the weights. benched 60kg 3sets of 7 reps and went heavy on the seated rows and lat pull downs - a little too heavy on pull downs because i have hurt my ribs by straining. I'm not too bad and i should eb able to run tomorrow.

Decent enough upper body work out but really diapointed by my poor showing on the cardio.

The_boat

Just back from gym, just swam today. First proper swim since starting the thread. I did about 16 lenghts mixed between front crawl and breast stroke.

Found it tiring - not sure how many calories swimming burns off

Ribs still a little sore - going home for the weekend not sure how much exercise i'l get in but maybe thats good my calf's might need a rest - i'll try a big run on monday try go for 2.5 km no stops

The_boat

Back home this weekend - had a morning weigh in on the orgional scales and i was 15st5lbs so thats a 9lb loss. I'm pretty happy with that - need to keep it at 1lb per week now.

The_boat

Diet was SH*T today, i'm hungover and eating anything that comes near me.
Back to working out and dieting tomorrow.

The_boat

So i've missed a few days fo posting - very busy in work. Had the weekend off and didn't get time to go to the gym on monday or tuesday.

Went today and had a really good work out.

Running
Covered 5km (ran 3km walked 0.2 ran 0.8 walked 0.2 ran 0.8)
Calfs felt good so maybe the rest days were good.

Benched 60kg 3*10 pretty tough but finished the reps.

worked upper back biceps and some squats

wil have to cut dowm my exercise to 3 days per week now back form the 5 i was doing for the first two weeks.

I'll cut the sjhakes too - back down to 2-3 shakes per week.

I'm eating pretty well and loking forward to posting a picture in 2-3 weeeks time to see the progress.

The_boat

Frequency of posting is definatly dipping but i am keeping with my diet.
Training is down ot three days per week due to work and study commitments.

Gym today - covered 5km ran 3.0km at 4.2 walked 0.2 [EMAIL="km@ 5"]km @ 5[/EMAIL] ran [EMAIL="0.8km@ 4.0"]0.8km @ 4.0[/EMAIL] walked walked 0.2 [EMAIL="km@5"]km @ 5[/EMAIL] and ran [EMAIL="0.8km@ 4.0"]0.8km @ 4.0[/EMAIL]

Cycled 13km alternating between resiistance level 4 and 5. I find anything higher tough going.

based ont he computer on the treadmil and bike i burned off 80 kcal which i am pretty happy about.

Tried oatabix as an alternate to my beloved wheatabix but my god is it crap.

No shake after work out - i'm going natural from here forwrard - the shakes just gave me a bt of helo in getting off the ground.

anyone have link for good reciepies?

Also - "Go on the Pool"

The_boat

Just back from gym now.

All upper body weights - tried benching 62.5 and struggled with my wrist during the exercises. Had a bit of a swim after the weight too. Felt well after the session

The_boat

Decided to put up a 2 week picture

Please Comment

The_boat

Really noticing the effects of the creatine now. I've stoped taking it post work out and i can really feel the DOMS.

I'm determined to stay off it i just needed the kick start it gave me.

I'm pretty good at getting good quality protein into my diet, is there anything else i shoul be trying to get in there for recovery purposes?

celestial

The_boat wrote: »

Really noticing the effects of the creatine now. I've stoped taking it post work out and i can really feel the DOMS.

I'm determined to stay off it i just needed the kick start it gave me.

I'm pretty good at getting good quality protein into my diet, is there anything else i shoul be trying to get in there for recovery purposes?

Great progress well done man! Seeing it more in the frontal photo rather than the side but yep, defo good work keep it up.

The_boat

Cheers Celestial, yeah i saw that myself.

I need to loose the fat at the top of my arms to hive them some shape, my biceps are alot firmer but its not visable and at the end of the day its about health but aslo asthetics.

I suppose i just need to loose the fat in general, I presume it will come off evenly? I've never lost weight before just gained it haha.

Still feeling the DOMS and its 36 hours since work out

celestial

The_boat wrote: »

Cheers Celestial, yeah i saw that myself.

I need to loose the fat at the top of my arms to hive them some shape, my biceps are alot firmer but its not visable and at the end of the day its about health but aslo asthetics.

I suppose i just need to loose the fat in general, I presume it will come off evenly? I've never lost weight before just gained it haha.

Still feeling the DOMS and its 36 hours since work out

Yep it needs to come off all over, that's how it works. You're in a good place right now, the results will come quick and you'll be seeing a reduction in your waist-line, jeans a lot looser and so forth.

The_boat

Back in gym after 2 rest days in a row.

Ran my furthest distacne so far - 4km at 9km per hour.

Calfs were ready to explode by the end of this and i wasn't able to do my usual walk and finsih in a run so i just walked the remaining 1km.

Did some upper body weights afterwards. Benched 3*10*60kg
Plus some other exercises.

The_boat

Pretty stiff after the run yesterday.

Begining to get a bit demorilized by lack of movment on scales. Havn't lost pound in last 3 weeks.

Guess its going to take a lot longer than I expected.

celestial

The_boat wrote: »

Pretty stiff after the run yesterday.

Begining to get a bit demorilized by lack of movment on scales. Havn't lost pound in last 3 weeks.

Guess its going to take a lot longer than I expected.

Forget the scales - use the mirror and measuring tape. You are adding muscle right now so the scales will stay the same or even go up a bit....

The_boat

I am primarily using the photos to gauge my improvments, but i know that i have fat to loose. I would like to see my weight creeping towards 15 stone before mid october and then towards 14 stone by christmass.

So far i have lost 7lb but i have 21 to go. I've overestimated in my origional goals ( i dont think i can get below 14 stone without sacrficing everything else in my life). If i can drop from 16 to 14 i will be happy

I think i might e eating too much - i am still trying to eaty the 4-5 small meals but i think my small meals are too big - i guess its bad habbits over the years that i cant seem to get my meal sizes down
(i can put away seconds at the christmass dinner table without feeling full)

My diet is quite good at the moment though its alll top quality home made food only thing processed is the yogurts (fat free)

celestial

The_boat wrote: »

I am primarily using the photos to gauge my improvments, but i know that i have fat to loose. I would like to see my weight creeping towards 15 stone before mid october and then towards 14 stone by christmass.

So far i have lost 7lb but i have 21 to go. I've overestimated in my origional goals ( i dont think i can get below 14 stone without sacrficing everything else in my life). If i can drop from 16 to 14 i will be happy

I think i might e eating too much - i am still trying to eaty the 4-5 small meals but i think my small meals are too big - i guess its bad habbits over the years that i cant seem to get my meal sizes down
(i can put away seconds at the christmass dinner table without feeling full)

My diet is quite good at the moment though its alll top quality home made food only thing processed is the yogurts (fat free)

If you list out your diet in full for a typical day I (and others) can give you some pointers if you like?

BossArky

The_boat wrote: »

Begining to get a bit demorilized by lack of movment on scales.

Take the long term view and keep chipping away. When you look back in months you will see the progress. Don't get downcast by lack of week on week improvements.

The_boat

up at 10:30

11 am - 3 Scrambeled eggs with two slices fo brown(nutty bread).

2pm pm - sandwhich or banana, fat free yogurt and nuts

6pm - Meal (lean mince/chicken with pasta or brown rice - cooked in different sauces)

10pm - Cup of tea and 2 digestives or fruit (digestives are my treat)

2am - sandwhich or small portion of left over dinner

bed at 3am

my dinners are all home cooked - typically with fresh ingredients except for jars of chopped tomatoes. example this week i made a big lasange and ate it for 2 meals a day for 3 days the week before i made my girlfriends favourite baked chicken with tomatoe and parmagean sauce with pasta on the side adn ate it for 2 meals for 3 days.

I always keep 150g of cashew nuts int he glove box of the car as a snack

The_boat

Another record run.

Today i ran 4.5km at 9km per hour. I walked the 0.5km at 5 km/hr to make it to 5.

No weights afterwards pretty shattered legs feel like lead.

Diet so far today

2 Oatabix with low fat milk
3 scrambled eggs with brown toast
Activia yogurt
70g pistacio nuts

celestial

The_boat wrote: »

Another record run.

Today i ran 4.5km at 9km per hour. I walked the 0.5km at 5 km/hr to make it to 5.

No weights afterwards pretty shattered legs feel like lead.

Diet so far today

2 Oatabix with low fat milk
3 scrambled eggs with brown toast
Activia yogurt
70g pistacio nuts

Keep at it chief you're doin good and you WILL get results. I think we're at different stages though to be fair - you will see big improvements over the next few weeks if you keep it up and be consistent whereas with myself I've been training consistently over a year and a half and now it really is time to take things up a gear or two to keep getting the same fat loss response.

The_boat

Weights session today.

Benched 62.5 (3 sets of 8) found them pretty hard to finish.

Did alot of other upper body exercises - I am really disapointed by my wide grip pull downs -this is an area i really need to focus on as i'm not strong enough to do chins yet. If anyone has any exercises which work the same musceles but involve dumbells rather than the cable system please let me know.

looking at some of the exercises on youtube etc my gym is pretty poorly equiped for hardcore training. When i make more progreess i might have to change.

Diet so far
2 oata bix with low fat milk
2 fired eggs 2 slices of brown bread slice of cheese.
activia yogurt

will have some spag bol for dinner
and another fried agg sadwhich as a snack

djruane

I see you havent posted in a few days hope your keeping up the good work and still have your eyes on your goal!!! Best of luck!

The_boat

Yeah i've been flat out with work and other stuff the last few days - birthday last week so had a night out on saturday that nearly killed me. Still a little hung over and its lunch time on monday. Eyes are still on the goal i'm due another 2 week photo yesterday but i didn't feel up to it (the flash would have hurt too much) I dont think there will be much visable progress. will be back in gym tomorrow hopefully for a long session (running and weights)

That kind on message is exactly why i started posting - cheers

The_boat

Back from gym, good work out - benched 62.5 and i really feel ready for 65.

I did a full upper body work out and then tried to run but i couldn't get my rythm right.

Will run later in the week.

Photos to come later

The_boat

Posting has been a bit out of sorts but i'm still working away int he background. I haeva few things going on at the moment so gym is taking the cuts but diet is still on track and i have lost 2 further pounds since last weigh in. I'm at 15st4lbs

The_boat

Just back from gym - had a really good work out especially considering i havn't been i a week. Benched 65kg 2*8 +1*6

felt heavy but each rep(except the very last) was controlled.

Full upper body work out and I was impressed by how my ches arms looked in mirror afterwards maybe i'm biased but can really start to see the definition and growth of upper body.

Will try a run in next 2-3 days

The_boat

So it looks like the motivatioin for doing this (surprising my gf with my progress) has gone. New motivation - My new body will be for some other lucky girl.

The weights part of my regiem is going well - the weights are getting heavier and my body is responding well.
But the cardio is not going so well - mainly because a 35 minute run is boring as hell and because i acnt walk properly for 2 days after it.
Have other pepel had this problem? I'm thinking about going back on the suppliments even just to allow myself train more often. I seem to suffer badly with DOMS - i never feel up to another session for 3-4 days after the last one. Is going bak onthe suppliments a good idea or a bad idea?

Its now 2 months and while i have made prgress i thought i'd have made more. My main problem is that the first few weeks it(diet and training) was all i thought about then the last 4 weeks the rest of my life started to catch up on me. work/study/family etc.