Buffet Training No More

This is it. I have finally decided that my 5 years of a buffet style training approach is not working like it used to.

A little background: About 5.5 years ago I started graduate school as an out of shape blob. I had played sports in high school but when I started college I sat around living off of 3 hours of sleep, mountain dew, and cafeteria food.

I moved across the country after undergrad and found myself friendless and very bored. To fill my time I thought I would take up lifting (enter my exposure to T-Nation). I started with a basic program focused on fat loss. After a while I started to get into decent shape.

About a year later I joined a rugby team. Between what I was learning from T-Nation and playing such a grueling sport, my body started to transform more completely. I never really stuck to anything too firmly after my initial lifting program because I really didn’t have to. I was still making, what I felt to be significant progress athletically.

About 2 years ago I stopped playing rugby and got really busy with grad school. This led to an even more lackadaisical approach to training. It has been comparable to getting lots of salad fixings at a buffet and then poring croutons and ranch dressing all over it and wondering why you aren’t losing weight.

As of now I am not a blob, but I am certainly not what I would like to be: strong and lean.

So this is where it ends. I have picked a program that best fits my goals and I plan on sticking with it completely. I want to report my progress to keep myself motivated and accountable.

I have decided to do the Maximum strength 16 week program by Eric Cressey. I will be following the G-flux eating plan from John Berardi. My supplements include Flameout, receptor max, HOT-ROX, Metabolic Drive, and Surge.

Here is my basic information.
I am 5 foot 4 inches tall and I way 196 pounds. I put on muscle and build strength really fast and I can’t eat a carbohydrate without gaining 5 pounds.

I plan on taking a picture tomorrow in order to keep track of my progress visually.

Welcome! It will be good to follow your training.

I’m looking forward to your logging.

Here are three before pictures. I definitely have a lot of work to do, but I’m excited about putting in the work.

front view


back view

Sorry to see the thread about your mother being sick, hope Flameout gets back in stock soon :slight_smile:

As for your nutrition whats the plan for the training/ non training days ?

If you have not read them read

“Tailor made nutrition 1”
2
3

By Mr. Berardi they are quite priceless as a starting tool… i would feel that there you should begin than diving head 1st into G-Fluxing without proper exposure to proper eating.

Regards.

[quote]300andabove wrote:
Sorry to see the thread about your mother being sick, hope Flameout gets back in stock soon :slight_smile:

As for your nutrition whats the plan for the training/ non training days ?

If you have not read them read

“Tailor made nutrition 1”
2
3

By Mr. Berardi they are quite priceless as a starting tool… i would feel that there you should begin than diving head 1st into G-Fluxing without proper exposure to proper eating.

Regards.[/quote]

Thanks for your concern about my mom. Actually, that was quite a while ago. I was able to order the Flameout and it actually helped. She is now in remission.

As for nutrition: I actually decided to invest completely in this. I ordered Berardi’s precision nutrition kit. I put up the before pictures (without blotting out my face) to prove to myself that I am completely and totally dedicated. I am definitely motivated by fear and shame and could not bare being one of those people who only ever have a before shot on this website. So, the $100 investment to make sure that I am doing things without cutting corners seemed like the right way to go.

From what I have read so far my diet and training will look kind of like this:

6 meals a day which includes a vegetable at every meal + a Surge shake after workouts. Other than Surge, my only carbs will come from vegetables and some fruit. I am shooting for appx. 2000 calories a day. I will be spending the weekend putting together my menu for the next couple of weeks. Minus one Metabolic Drive protein shake a day, I will be eating whole foods.

As for my training it will look like this:
Monday: lower body lifting and 10 min of low level cardio

Tuesday: 15 minutes of HIIT training

Wednesday: upper body lifting and 10 min of low level cardio

Thursday: Whole body lifting with high reps and short rest periods and 20 minutes low intensity cardio

Friday: lower body lifting and 10 minutes low intensity cardio

Saturday: Upper body lifting and 10 min HIIT

Sunday: Some type of working out of my choice

So there you have it. I think the only way that this won’t get me lean and mean is if I just don’t do it and that is not an option.

Sounds like your motivated to me, what are your ultimate goals?

Awesome - look forward to your log…

It’s a win-win situation. Lots of people start with the V-Diet. I don’t like it myself (too artificial and low on calories, in one word I would not be able to stick to it). Have you considered it? As a fast start…

Keep on logging and more power to you!

[quote]myjennycdb wrote:
Sounds like your motivated to me, what are your ultimate goals? [/quote]

Good question. I’m already seeing the benefits of logging my progress on this forum. It has definitely forced me to think about questions like these.

My ultimate goal is to be healthy and strong. I love adventure and activity, and I have found that the more in shape I am, the more willing I am to go out and experience life. I also am at that age where I am seeing my parents’ health choices get the better of them.

They are suffering from heart problems, diabetes, and chronic pain but getting them to change their habbits is incredibly difficult. I don’t want to wait until my body starts breaking down before I decide to eat and live the way I know is best for a better quality of life as I get older

Thanks for posing this question. It makes me realize that this is way more important to me than just looking good.

[quote]JuicyLucy wrote:
It’s a win-win situation. Lots of people start with the V-Diet. I don’t like it myself (too artificial and low on calories, in one word I would not be able to stick to it). Have you considered it? As a fast start…

Keep on logging and more power to you![/quote]

I have read a lot about the v-diet and I definitely thought about it, but I ultimately decided not to do it. For me this is all about living a healthy lifestyle. I love to be able to jump on my bike if a friend calls and grind out a 30 mile bike ride or go on hikes.

The v-diet is so constricting with calories and specific workouts that I think it would just lead to failure. Ultimately, this is long term for me, so I think it is better to take the slow and steady approach. Plus, like you, it is too artificial. I believe in the strong powers of whole foods for all of their health benefits!

I start tomorrow! I’m really excited. I definitely will keep up the logging. It has already been so helpful.

So today is the big day. I started out my day with a quinoa porridge recipe I read on the figure athlete website. I have to admit, it kind of sucked and it took way longer than I expected. Actually, I don’t think I would have minded the taste if it wouldn’t have wasted 45 minutes of my morning. So I believe I will be sticking with scrambled eggs with peppers and tomatoes for breakfast.

I realized that I haven’t listed my pre-program lifting information that I got last week.
1 rm box squat: 195
1 rm bench press: 135
3 rm pull up: -60 (I had to add 60lbs to the pull up machine to do one pull up)
standing broad jump (long jump): 73 inches

So the goal is to make strength improvements on these numbers after the 16 week strength program. I will use pictures and the scale to track my fat loss.

[quote]sbmart2 wrote:

Monday: lower body lifting and 10 min of low level cardio

Tuesday: 15 minutes of HIIT training

Wednesday: upper body lifting and 10 min of low level cardio

Thursday: Whole body lifting with high reps and short rest periods and 20 minutes low intensity cardio

Friday: lower body lifting and 10 minutes low intensity cardio

Saturday: Upper body lifting and 10 min HIIT

Sunday: Some type of working out of my choice

[/quote]

Ok sorry to be bothersome but just to clarify what does your lower/whole/upper body program look like ?

Also what do you do for HIIT ?

AAaanndd finally what do you do for 10 minutes low intensity excercise ?

Also to make sure you are getting the best from prec. nutrition can you write up your current training/ non training nutrition schedule please.

Looking forward to your progress SB!! maybe you and I can lend each other some moto. along the way :stuck_out_tongue:

I’ve been at this fat loss thing for some time now…it’s quite the learning process!

[quote]mom-in-MD wrote:
Looking forward to your progress SB!! maybe you and I can lend each other some moto. along the way :stuck_out_tongue:

I’ve been at this fat loss thing for some time now…it’s quite the learning process!

[/quote]

Definitely!!! This is definitely not an easy road. I hope to have a larger support group than people tempting me to veer off my path.

[quote]300andabove wrote:

Ok sorry to be bothersome but just to clarify what does your lower/whole/upper body program look like ?

Also what do you do for HIIT ?

AAaanndd finally what do you do for 10 minutes low intensity excercise ?
[/quote]

SO yesterday I just finished my first lower body workout. It included 5x5 at 165lbs box squats, 8x2 at 50 percent of max of deadifts at 95lbs (I don’t actually know if this is 50 percent of my max. I just guessed). and 4x8 walking lunges with a 20lb dumbell in each hand. THen I just did low intensity by taking a brisk walk with my heavy backpack out to my car, which was parked 15 minutes away from the gym.

Today I did my HIIT training with two of my VERY in shape friends. We ran up a steep hill for 15 secs and then took a 45 sec break to walk back down the hill. We did it 15 times, so 15 minutes straight.

I will write down the rest of the work out as I go through it this week.

[quote]300andabove wrote:
Also to make sure you are getting the best from prec. nutrition can you write up your current training/ non training nutrition schedule please.
[/quote]

I was just about to write that I haven’t received my precision nutrition packet, but then the doorbell rang. It was the UPS guys with my precision nutrition kit!!! The last couple of days I have just tried to follow the info that Berardi has written on T-Nation. I’m hoping that this kit will give me better recipe ideas and a better breakdown of my caloric intake!