With the new year comes the promise to yourself of a new diet and the discipline to keep a workout regimen. These are all good and people mean well, but if you don’t go through with the them then they mean absolutely nothing. Two years ago I was pushing 220 and at Christmas dinner I had trouble sitting down because my pants had become extremely tight. The embarrassment was surely there, but the disappointment in myself was more predominant. I told myself that after the new year I would track myself and do what I needed to do so that I could get back to a respectable weight. I set a goal of 175 for myself, and even though I hadn’t worked out in many years I felt I could do it. From that night until the first of the year I read about workouts and diets, pills and creams and all I thought was I just need to do it the old fashioned way. I need to eat less calories, but not starve myself and then I need to find a workout plan that fits my needs.
I went over to Bodybuilding and checked out their workout section. I found one that fit me and the videos helped me set the kind of meals I needed to be eating. I didn’t go exactly by what the video said to eat, I went by what I knew how to make and how much time in a day I had to prepare the food. I then found an all hours gym near me and signed up with a month to month contract, in case I don’t like it for some reason.
Each day I would write in my phone the days workout, so when I went to the gym I knew what exercise I had to do and with how many reps. I made sure to record the weights of what I was lifting, so the next time I went to the gym I wouldn’t life the same or lighter. Music was a big thing, and you can check out all my Media Monday posts this month for workout music. When it came to cardio I stuck to the elliptical, because it didn’t hurt my knees and I could also get an arm workout as well.
When it came to food, I had a small bowl of plain oatmeal, I brought the container and a bowl to work, and then I would also have a few apples for snacks. When it came to lunch and dinner I was pretty lucky, because I am a creature of habit and I like things plain. I went to Costco and bought a 10 lb. bag of chicken, then I went to food 4 less and bought a bunch of microwavable steamer bags full of different vegetables. I made sure to look at calorie content in each and stuck mostly to broccoli. I would also buy the boil in a bag brown rice boxes, because as I boiled the bag I could prep my vegetables and chicken. My lunch and dinner would consist of 1 chicken breast, 1 bag of vegetables and 1 bag of brown rice. I would split the chicken, vegetables and rice in half, so that half would be for lunch and the other would be for dinner. On Sunday I would cook for the week and the only thing that took time was the chicken on my George Foreman grill, the rest were pretty easy.
I also bought huge 1$ gallons of water and drank 1 each day. When I went to the gym I would stop at 7-11 and buy 2 of the 1 liter Aqaufina bottles, because they were 2 for a $3 and 1 would be used per workout. I had a cup or two of coffee a day, with light cream and sugar, and if I wanted anything else I would make hot tea. I also started incorporating the unsweetened Nestea, and even though it didn’t taste all that great at first I acquired a liking for it.
The workout only lasted 12 weeks, but after the 12 weeks was up I started it back over again. I had become use to the normal reps, so I essentially did a new game plus and added more reps to keep it fresh. I dropped down to 180 after a few months and I was happy with that, because I had gained some muscle and I felt great. Sadly, I cut down on my workout and increased my eating, so now I am back up to about 208 so today is the first time I’m going back to my strict diet. I’m going to do cardio in the early morning then come home, shower and go to work. After work I’ll head to the gym for some light cardio and some free weights. I pulled a tendon recently so curling on my left arm will be a little difficult, I may have to do all machines for arms.
I hope that this helped out and please let me know if you have any questions.