First week

My first week went well, although this past weekend was not the greatest. All of my workouts went well, especially the conditioning workouts. The strength workouts were fairly intense, and I didnt finish all of the workouts, so that will be my progression, to finish the workouts. Nutrition during the week was good. I stuck to the diet each day, except wednesday, I had a sort of taco salad, with spinach and lettuce and pepper, and tomatoes. It was good. Weekend nutrition was good except saturday evening I had olive garden and Sunday I had pizza along with snacks. So as the holidays approach, I need to try and keep my food intake in check. I am going to step on the scale one day soon to see how I am progressing in that department. I may not make any adjustments calorie wise until the new year. I will also try and keep this updated. I have been hearing some complaining from my fans, all three of you!!

Before Pics

Ok, here are my before pics. You never realize how fat you really are until you see it in a picture. I didn't think I needed much work until I saw these pics, especially the back picture. I have always had great love handles though!! My training, especially for the rest of December, will have a focus on conditioning. I am going to focus on bodyweight work for the next couple of months. Two days per week I will have a focus on strength with my bodyweight movements. One day per week will focus on power. Three days per week will focus on conditioning. I will have one day "off". I figure I need to lose about 25 pounds to be where I want to be. I am at 204 right now. So we will see how this goes and adjust accordingly.

Nutrition Plan

Ok, I have my nutrition plan completed. Here it is:

Breakfast

2 Scrambled Eggs
1/4 Cup Egg Whites
2 Pieces Lean Turkey Bacon
1/2 Cup Broccoli
9 Baby Carrots
1 ounce Avocado
2 Fish Oil Caps

Snack

2 tbsp Natural Peanut Butter
1/2 Cup 1% Cottage Cheese
1 Cup Carb Countdown Chocolate Milk
2 Fish Oil Caps

Lunch

1 Can Tuna
1/2 Cup Broccoli
9 Baby Carrots
1 ounce almonds
2 Fish Oil Caps

Snack

1 Homemade Chocolate-Peanut Butter Protein Bar
1 Banana
2 Fish Oil Caps

Post-Workout Meal (only on workout days)

1 scoop whey protein
6 packages of smarties
1 ounce of berries

Dinner

150 grams Chicken Breast
1 whole wheat tortilla
1/2 cup Broccoli
9 Baby Carrots
1/2 Cup Spinach
2 Fish Oil Caps

Pre-Bed Meal

1 Scoop Whey Protein
1 ounce walnuts
1/2 cup Broccoli
2 Fish Oil Caps

So this gives me 2,718 calories on workout days and 2,463 calories on non-workout days. Forty-one percent of my calories are from fat, 34 percent are from protein, and the remaining 26 percent is from carbs. I only drink water and green tea during the day. Every two weeks or so, I will evaluate my progress and begin decreasing calories by about 250 or so. Like I stated in a previous post, Saturday evenings, I will have a meal that is whatever I want. Stay tuned, as tonight I will be posting my weight, waist measurement, and some current pictures so my progress can be tracked.

High Level Nutrition and Training Strategy

Ok, since I will be busy tomorrow, I wanted to lay out my high level plan for getting myself back in shape. First a little background:

I played football, basketball, and baseball in high school. I didn't lift much then, but I was in great shape and had pretty good sport specific skills. Then I went to college and my main physical activity was playing basketball at the rec center and this is when I started getting into physical fitness. The very first website I read was by some guy in Georgia named Fig!! He was a big dude and he had a forum on his website. Since then, I have learned quite a bit through reading many books and websites out there. I consider myself to be pretty well read on the subjects of training and nutrition, but I do not, by any means consider myself an expert. It's just something I have an affinity towards. As far as some max lifts, or all time bests, here they are in the big three: bench press - 290, squat - 315, deadlift - 300. However, I am not quite that strong right now (not that where I was would be considered "strong", but it was strong for me!).

So anyways, onto my plan. Right now, my nutrition plan right now is to eat more food! I know what you are thinking, "Eat more food, to lose fat and get in shape?" But yeah, thats my plan. I think, right now, that I am undereating, therefore I need to reset my metabolism and stoke the fire, if you will. After about 2 or 3 weeks of eating at a new, higher calorie level, I will start to taper my calories down by 250. I will also track my progress using my weight, measurements around bodyparts, bodyfat caliper readings (after christmas, calipers are a christmas present!), and how I look. I plan to post up some pictures every two weeks or so. On to the eating plan!

As I said, I plan to ramp up my calories. My macronutrient breakdown will be fairly close to even across protein, carbohydrates, and fats. I will get most of my protein from eggs, lean turkey bacon, tuna, chicken, and protein powder. Main carb sources will be fruit and veggies, and maybe some whole wheat pasta or bread from time to time. After a workout, my carbs will come from simple sugars, such as smarties. Fats will come from nuts, such as almonds, walnuts, and pecans, along with natural peanut butter, avocado, and fish oil. Beverages will consist of water and green tea. I will supplement with a multivitamin. Much of my nutritional plan comes from Dr. John Berardi and his Precision Nutrition package.

Each week, on Saturdays, I will plan on having a meal that does not comply with these rules. It will probably consist of some sort of pasta with some sort of breadstick.

As far as training goes, I have become interested in bodyweight training. Alwyn Cosgrove, a well respected fitness professional, said that if you cannot control your bodyweight, then you really have no business working loaded movements. I plan to utilize many different types of movements including push-ups, dips, pull-ups, one legged squats, and also some static holds, like gymnasts would use. I plan to use quite a bit of stuff from Ross Enamait (www.rosstraining.com) and also some information I snagged from Christopher Sommer over at dragondoor.com. For conditioning, I will be utilizing simple methods, such as circuits, jump roping, among other bodyweight movements. Before each session, I plan to work on my dynamic flexibility by following the movements that are included in the Magnificent Mobility DVD, produced by Eric Cressey and Mike Robertson. Most nights, I plan to utilize some Self Myofascial Release (MFR) techniques using a foam roller. This is intended to improve my soft tissue quality. I will also static stretch at night.

My main goal with all of this is to lose fat and move more efficiently with my body. As I progress, I may add some strength movements in such as the deadlift, squat and bench press, or maybe some olympic lifts. At some point down the road, I would also like to improve my vertical jump for the purposes of dunking a basketball.

So there you go. Thats the high level plan. Sunday, I hope to post a more detailed look at my caloric needs, some food choices, and my initial programming for my training plan. Maybe even an initial pic or two! Please let me know what you think of my strategy and goals as they stand now.