First and foremost, I just wanted to say thank you to all of you who have dared to post progress pics on this subreddit over the years I've been lurking; not only were those posts always amazing to see, regardless of the poster's actual weight lost, age or life situation, but it's a great feeling to be able to now follow suit because I feel like I have a bit of progress that I can kind of "pay forward" finally, if that makes sense.
PROGRESS PIC: https://imgur.com/hTvAcaA Probably technically NSFW because man-tits.
Below is basically a novel, but I just wanted to try and preemptively answer any questions readers may have.
DISCLAIMER: I'm still struggling with some very bad fitness habits, and I'm not trying to claim that I am better or worse than anyone else; each of us is on his or her own journey. Many people have climbed much steeper health / physical mountains than I, but this progress, this attempt at trying to be healthy finally, these 36lbs lost, has resulted in the most healthy I have ever felt in my life—physically, mentally and spiritually. I have the benefit of being married, so I am mostly not concerned with whether or not I'm attractive to others outside of my wife, although of course it still feels good to know that I look healthier to others than I did in the past, and it feels even better to live as a better example health for my daughter. I'm closer to my wife, my daughter and most importantly I am closer with God as it feels like I've finally taken steps to stop treating the temple He gave me like garbage.
- Some major health mountains I was / am personally climbing:
- I've had heart palpitations for going on 6 years now. These have since drastically abated after starting to workout daily, making sure to eat a banana each day, and supplementing with Magnesium. I gave up caffeine about 5 years ago and never went back. For anybody, whether or not you have heart issues, I'd strongly recommend getting off of caffeine.
- I work in the tech industry so, as such, I WFH in front of a computer 8+ hours a day. I have had a standing desk for over a year but hardly used it until now. My posture is ATROCIOUS if I am not paying attention to it. I have always been a PC gamer, and I still remember my dad telling me decades ago "You better sit up straight or your gonna mess your back up for good." How pompous I was to not listen to him. I'm 35 now and would bitch-slap the 16 year old me that was already allowing horrible posture to take over.
- I have always been chubby / fat. My worst weight was 315lbs when I was 21. I started lifting in my mid-20s, training for power lifting, and had gotten my weight down to about 240lbs. Around the time I met my wife just over 5 years ago, I had a sinus infection that I thought required antibiotics, so I took some that were prescribed and these antibiotics absolutely destroyed my gut flora; over the course of about 6 months after that, I had dropped from roughly 245lbs when I met my wife to 208lbs; food wasn't being digested (literally whole pieces of food coming out the other end); heart palpitations were getting worse. Because I was unable to digest food, my food intake increased dramatically over that time to make up for what I was losing. Once this issue kind of cleared up after adjusting my diet a bit, that voracious eating frenzy did not go away. Over the course of 3 years, I went from 208 back up to 270, which is where I started my lifting journey 6 weeks ago.
I'm not perfect in my discipline as far as the exact exercises I do, and the food lifestyle changes I've made, but for the most part there are a few key things I keep my mind on:
FOR FOOD:
- I do not count calories. I get a rough estimate, but I do not count calories. When I first started using LoseIt app, and I was scanning, counting, inputting, etc. for every single thing I was eating, it honestly felt like too much effort, and that too-much-effort was threatening to ruin my horribly undisciplined motivation. So I stopped counting calories. Like I said, I get a rough estimate in my head each day and, even then, I really don't care much.
- I eat 6-7 meals a day, rather than 2 huge meals (which was my modus operandi for ever before this). This was kind of odd to get used to at first because, frankly, I hated eating in the morning. Smaller meals has really helped to shrink my stomach over the course of this time to the point that it has helped my confidence in not feeling like I need to count calories.
- Meat fats, eggs, veggies seem to always make me feel more full than carb-filled meals. I know this is a "no duh!" concept but I never really truly put into action until now. I'm not going full keto, but I have definitely reduced the amount of carbs I eat as well as, when I do eat carbs, I try to consume them in the earlier day / midday, and the avoid them in the evenings. The amount of calories I can get from half a pound of ground beef, or chicken, or turkey, or shrimp, will always make me feel more full and satiated than the same amount of calories of bread and carbs. Lettuce-wraps are lame and I've never enjoyed them, but I've started making meals that are typically meat, veggies, some sort of sauce, over rice or a bed of greens. The problem that I ran into in the past, and definitely still is a facet of this, is that it takes more effort and more money to cook and eat healthy. It's the unfortunate truth. I really appreciate now, though, feeling good about cooking a meal myself, knowing everything I'm putting into it.
- Donezo with (most) sugar. I stopped consuming sugar in the amounts that I was. Before, I was eating ice cream almost every night, and even though I've not been big into soda for quite some time, lemonade and orange juice are cruel, tempting mistresses, and were frequent drinks of mine. I now get my sugar from bananas, blueberries and occasionally I'll have a piece of chocolate if I'm really feeling the craving. Some things that have helped me in this regard: Zevia soda, sparkling water (Bubly brand is really great with their flavors), keto chocolate bars (you've never experienced 'weird' until you eat sugar-free chocolate for the first time).
- Donezo with alcohol. I stopped drinking alcohol because of the effect I knew it was having on my body. Whiskey has been a favorite of mine for years, and I've been a beer drinker since my late-teens.
- I am not crash-dieting. 36lbs lost in a month and a half is a lot of weight, but I also was starting from practically being 100% sedentary (maybe punching the punching bag a couple times a week), with no food discipline as far as salt, sugar content, etc.. I think I'm dealing with "noob gains" but for weight loss. Either way, when I am hungry, I eat. I do not starve myself.
- Typical daily meal plan:
- 8AM - Two scoops of Vega sport protein powder.
- 10AM - banana, handful of blueberries.
- NOON - Some sort of protein (ground chicken, beef, turkey) with veggies over brown rice.
- 2PM - Lunch leftovers, or a different protein (shrimp) + veggies without rice.
- 4PM - Two scoops of Vega sport protein powder.
- 6PM - Leftovers from lunch / 2PM, or else whatever my wife wants to do for dinner.
- 8PM - Some fruit, or some veggies, leftovers from dinner. This meal I try to avoid anything too spicy or carb-filled. A lot of times this is actually my second protein shake of the day, which is very easy to digest and doesn't give me heartburn or anything.
- I give myself grace for "cheat meals". I don't have "cheat days" in which I consume a ton of calories; instead, I may have an actual burger-with-the-bun while I'm out for lunch with my family, or I may literally just eat 40 Chick-Fil-A nuggets when I'm with my buddies on a Friday night. I just do my best to balance that out over the rest of the day by not eating carby / shitty for my other meals, or maybe the next day I will have little to no carbs if I had a bunch the prior day. This variety helps me feel not so locked into anything. I can literally eat what I want, I just am now trying to be smarter about portions really and, due to my feeling healthier now, I no longer crave overly processed terrible food.
- Macros: I am usually going for ~180g of protein per day. I try to keep my carbs at less than 30% of daily caloric intake, and I'm gonna say it's probably usually around 20%. The rest is fats.
FOR EXERCISE:
- Almost every morning, I go on a brisk walk (truly briskly walking the entire time) for between an hour and 1.5 hours; this is the only part of my daily exercise I pay attention to the amount of time that I am doing it. Sometimes I'll add jogging to it, but I hate jogging because I've been forever fat, so I'm not quite there yet to having my morning cardio be strictly jogging. Plus, I figure that 99% of my waking life that I am standing and moving, I am walking, not running or jogging. The thing I focus on most on these walks is trying to adjust my walking posture; this, in itself, is a major workout for me as I need to constantly readjust and focus on my shoulder position, neck/head, chest sticking out, activating my core, trying to avoid duck-butt, etc.
- I'm going to stick with 4-5 days of lifting a week, but 6-7 days with cardio each week. I started lifting 6 days a week. It was split Chest, Back, Legs, Arms, Shoulders, then a second day of whatever I wanted to do, which typically was a bodyweight day for pushups, situps, body squats, punching bag, or another chest day (you can never have too many chest days). I did this 6 days a week for the first 4 weeks, but I started feeling really burnt out. So week 5, I did almost no lifting but just did cardio throughout the week, and maintained my eating habits. Into week 6, I only lifted 3 days, but still did cardio almost every day. I was able to tell the difference of pump-feeling once I reduced the amount I was lifting, which sucks, but I am feeling waaaayyy more energized when I have 2-3 days rest in the week.
- I think I suck with resistance bands. I tried to use these a few times, followed some tutorials, but ultimately I wasn't a fan of using them, so I've not implemented them into my routines yet, though that may change in the future.
- As of week 6, my lift days usually consist of thus:
- Chest:
- 1-1.5hrs brisk walk
- Barbell bench press (4-5 sets of 10-12 reps)
- Incline barbell press (4-5 sets of 10-12 reps)
- Dumbell fly (4-5 sets of 10-12 reps)
- Pushups: Standard x50, Incline x100, Decline (still working on implementing these)
- Back:
- 1-1.5hrs brisk walk
- Deadlift (4-5 sets of 10-12 reps)
- Bentover Barbell Row (medium grip) (4-5 sets of 10-12 reps)
- Betnover Barbell Row (close grip) (4-5 sets of 10-12 reps)
- Bentover Dumbell Row (4-5 sets of 10-12 reps)
- Barbell Trap shrug (4-5 sets of 10-12 reps)
- Dumbell Trap shrug (4-5 sets of 10-12 reps, hold for 3 sec)
- Rack Pulls (4-5 sets of 8-10 reps, 5 sec hold)
- Incline Pushups on Bench x100+
- Arms:
- 1-1.5hrs brisk walk
- Barbell curl (4-5 sets of 10-12 reps)
- Tricep Bench dip (4-5 sets of 15 reps)
- Sitting dumbell curl (4-5 sets of 10-12 reps)
- Dumbell Skullcrushers (4-5 sets of 10-12 reps)
- Hammer curls (4-5 sets of 10-12 reps)
- Incline Pushups on Bench x100+
- Shoulders:
- 1-1.5hrs brisk walk
- Barbell Shoulder press (4-5 sets of 10-12 reps)
- Lateral dumbell raises (4-5 sets of 10-12 reps)
- Seated lateral dumbell raises (4-5 sets of 10-12 reps)
- Dumbell Arnolds (4-5 sets of 10-12 reps)
- Incline Pushups on Bench x100+
- Legs:
- 1-1.5hrs brisk walk
- Barbell Squats (4-5 sets of 10-12 reps)
- Goblet Squats (4-5 sets of 10-12 reps)
- Calf Raises (individual / simultaneous) (4-5 sets of 20 reps)
- (occasionally) Lunges
- Incline Pushups on Bench x100+
- Ancillary day
- 1-1.5hrs brisk walk
- Pushups x100+
- Situps x100+
- Body squats x50
- More cardio, punching bag
- Chest:
- I do not pay attention to the time it takes me to complete my lifts. Because of the fact that I usually don't superset, my lifting can take anywhere between 1.5hrs and 3hrs total over the day. My leg days are usually shorter than the rest because I don't have as many exercises to do, or at least the equipment to do them. Luckily, I work from home so I can lift in the morning, work throughout the day, then head right back down to my garage after work to finish. But I never say to myself 'I must workout x amount of hrs to be fit'. My only focus is on the exercises I want to complete each day, and making sure my form is the thing I pay attention to most.
- I used to hate pushups. Now I love pushups. If you would've asked me 2 months ago if I thought I could ever enjoy pushups, I would've laughed at you and went back to playing World of Warcraft. Now, I absolutely love them because of how much they work, how difficult they are, and how good I feel now having tackled that beast and made it a daily staple to my exercises. One of the greatest feelings in the world is being able to do 10-20 pushups in a row after having already done like 60 pushups in the previous 10 minutes. Feels like my immediate musculature recovery/ energy recovery has drastically increased.
- My exercises are limited to what I can do at home with what I've got. I have no desire to go to a gym and be forced to deal with the mask / vax / social distance nonsense, so this at-home method is perfect by me.
Any other questions, feel free to ask. Otherwise, thanks for reading and I hope this helps someone who may be struggling with motivation.
May God bless you, brothers and sisters.
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