Gym Bunny

I keep seeing other logs that inspire me, and although I’m a bit of a lurker by nature I figured one of my own might help me to keep track of what I want to do.

As far as my history, I was 17 years old in 2006 and 240 lbs when I learned that I was a major screw up. I had an arthritic disk in my L4 vertebrae and a year later after intense yo yo diets (and even reaching my lowest adult weight of 175) I ended up needing to have my gall bladder removed due to a large gall stone causing intense pain whenever I ate any fatty food. I’ve since stayed between 213 and 220. My boyfriend (a big gym rat) has tried with little success in the past 3 years to get me in the gym and I always start up and fall off the wagon within three months.

In early June my boyfriend was trying to design a routine for me and we got in a bit of a fight over it. That’s about when he said something that has forever changed my mind about my life. “If you cared half as much about your own diet as you do your cat’s you probably wouldn’t be overweight!” My cat has had top quality food since kitten-hood because I was concerned about him living a long healthy life. I check every item I feed him for “banned ingredients”. The realization shocked me. Why the hell couldn’t I do the same for myself? Of course I was mad at myself and didn’t want to ask my boyfriend for help so I surfed around and found the wet wolf challenge on figure athlete. I started on June 12th and Sunday is the finish line. I’ll be posting some starting pictures and progress pictures then and updating my body fat %.

Unfortunately I only have access to the gym for one more week before I start living out of hotel rooms for two weeks while I enjoy a vacation in Australia. The plan for now is to figure out where my maxes are next week while I design my other program. I’m up for any suggestions on what to do out of a hotel room. I will have access to some bands, but that’s about it. So far I am centering the routine around descending sets of superburpees 3 times a week with other bodyweight exercises like chair dips, band pull throughs, and banded body weight squats through the rest of the week.

TLDR
Age: 21
Height: 5’8"
Weight: 191
Starting BF%: 32-35
Goal Weight: 140-150
I want to get up to a 300 lb dead and squat long term, I’m not sure about my goal for bench.
I’ll figure out current maxes next week, but I know I can do stiff leg deads with 165 for reps and I got in a single squat of 185 after my sprints today as a bit of a curiosity thing between my boyfriend and me.

Like I promised, here are my pictures. I didn’t realize quite how much I changed until I put the pictures together. All starting pictures were taken June 10th while all progress photos were taken on August 15th. I will be spending the morning at my friend’s facility to flip a big tire around and go through whatever torture the boys think to put me through. I’ll probably only be messing with the 300 lb tire, but I want to see if I can get the 700 off the ground even just a little today.

[photo]29402[/photo] Fastest I’ve ever seen a change in myself. But it’s only the beginning.
[photo]29404[/photo] Can’t tell too much from the back, it’s not as dramatic either way.

Wow. That is a dramatic and certainly motivating transformation. Your physique looks like you have the potential to be very strong. Starting out with a raw squat at almost bodyweight is very good indeed. Do you have a training program in place?

This week’s program is kinda free-form. Whatever challenges my boyfriend and personal trainer friend can throw at me. Today was tire training. I flipped a 350lb tire for four sets of five, and added bent over rows (20lbs 3x10), military press (30lb 3x6), chair dips (only one set), box jumps (4x8). At the end of my workout I tried to lift the 600 pound tire and got it up to my knee, but I couldn’t get under it.

While I’m in Australia I won’t have access to a gym so everything has to be hotel friendly. Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday I’ll be doing declining sets of super burpees. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I’m still working on. I have access to bands though (mini and average bands from Elite fitness). My main challenge is if I should do split or whole body.

If I do split it would be a two way split upper/lower and I would alternate through Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, hitting each 3 times over the two weeks. Sunday would be my rest day.
Monday: Lower body (possible movements)
Banded squats
Banded Deads?
Band pull through
High Speed Step ups
Box jumps

Wednesday: Upper Body (possible movements)
Banded bench/overhead press
Chair dips
Band rows
Face pull with band
Banded curl
Push up

you’ve made awesome progress!! Keep going!

@BBB I do have some issues with my back caused by my heavy weight as a kid. One of which is an arthritic disk in my L4-L5. I do tend to balance 70/30 on one side when just standing and switch sides periodically to keep my back from becoming sore. I have seen a chiropractor in the past, but our new insurance doesn’t cover one for me right now. Rest assured, I am very careful with weights when it comes to my back.

As of this morning I am now only 10 pounds heavier than my lightest ever adult weight. I think a celebration is in order once I reach 175 again. ^-^
Gym has been some decent work, although kinda awkward because I had to join a weight lifting class so that I could be full time at school. Being full time makes access to the gym free, but I find it ironic that the gym class is the only one that would fit in my schedule.
Tuesday I did 50 yd sprints 12 reps, I thought about doing more but I didn’t feel like my lungs could stand it.
Wednesday was upper body. I mainly wanted to see where I stood on bench press, but the gym was so crowded and all the bench racks were full. I ended up doing them on an open bench with a fixed bar of 80 lbs, but I felt like I could have done much better on a rack. I also had dips, rows, curls, and face pulls. Near the end of my workout I got to hear some crazys at the squat rack. “Just do 20 with the naked bar, then put 5lbs on each side and do it again, keep it up until…” Curls in the squat rack. These big buff guys had crap form (tilted/wiggly bar) and looked kinda like idiots. Made me want to lift heavy and show them what the squat rack was for.
Thursday was our first day in the gym with our weight lifting class. We did a warm up and ab work on the floor as a group and got to go into the weight room where the instructor coached the new-to-lifting kids on a bunch of machines. If you were more advanced he allowed you to do your own routine, so I ended up doing kettle bell complexes.
Today is legs and I’m not sure what I’m doing quite yet. I kinda like making it up as I go, but next week starts me off in Australia with body weight exercises… fun.

Awesome progress. You look very good. Keep going and don’t give up!
Good job! Good luck on starting your strength program.

_Mel

So I’m back from the land down under, wonderful experience if you ever get the chance. I did get so caught up in the trip that I didn’t work out near as much as planned (maybe 40-50%). I probably scared the people at the Chicago airport by doing sprints up and down the length of the terminal though.

Diet was a big issue too since we were on the run a lot. I brought protein bars just to make sure I’d be able to eat every few hours, and still ended up with blood sugar issues a few times. We ate pretty well most of the time, but there were also things like meat pies and pizza especially in Coober Pedy which is at the edge of the outback.

All in all it was a very active trip so I evened out with no weight gain. Upon my return I was 191 lbs still, but I dropped down to 184 within a week so I was probably a bit bloated from the trip. Too bad the numbers can’t change like that all the time. :stuck_out_tongue:

I stand now at 184, with a 33 inch waist at the navel and 30 inches at the narrowest point, amazing energy level and spot on diet again. I was even able to fit into some of my brother’s pants (they were too short in the leg for him and we figured they might fit). My brother has always been stick thin, abs since puberty even with horrid eating habits, so it was a proud moments to fit into the skinny boy’s jeans even if I didn’t like them.

I’m currently on one of Jeff Kuh’s programs so I’m not able to be exact on here about diet or exercise routine for now. It will be interesting to see what the next few weeks hold for my weight loss.

late welcome, but so glad you had a great vacation and are back on board, sometimes that’s the hardest thing to do.

late welcome, but so glad you had a great vacation and are back on board, sometimes that’s the hardest thing to do.

Just got out of the gym on what I like to call my “power lifter day”. I really enjoyed myself and perhaps I’m a bit too excited about my own lifts today. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I have a weightlifting class that I have to attend, although the coach lets us do our own thing if we have a program. Turns out the coach used to compete in power lifting, so I had him scrutinize my front squat. I did 95 for 5 with a clean grip on front squat and managed to get 155 for 5 on my stiff legs. Today my protein shake is well deserved.

I’ve been doing really well lately. Yesterday was sprints, which are one of my least favorite exercises. I actually had one of the guys on the track approach me after my work out and give me a few tips on improving. No surprise that one of the tips was to get some better shoes. Most of my money goes to food lately, so it’s no surprise that the college student who is actually eating well has no money for anything else. It’s lame but I may be asking for shoes for my birthday ^-^ I think I may start exploring the walking trail near my house, just so I can be more active in the day to day life.

I also went to the farmers market yesterday. There were so many delicious looking things that weren’t on plan, but I did find some good on plan veggies too. The sweet potatoes at the stores lately haven’t looked too good, but the ones at the market were perfect. I can’t wait to try them.

Finally as I near the end of week three I am down to 177, that means I only have 2 pounds until I treat myself to something nice! I’m thinking that I might get my hair done if I can afford it. I fit into my old size 12 jeans again without having to dance and pull at them to get them on. This is the smallest jean size I’ve ever been! I’m going to try and get some progress shots today to put up soon. Even when I hate the routine, the results are too good to quit. My goal feels closer than ever, especially with the way my boyfriend is treating the new me. :wink:

Sounds like you are doing great.

If you’re going to run, you MUST have good shoes. It will help [somewhat] prevent issues like shin splints and plantar fasciitus.

You definitely deserve to treat yourself to something special with all your hard work.

Keep it up.

Latecomer here…
Your dedication is very impressive, Odyssey! I look forward to following your progress.

Not quite sure what happened over the past few days. I think the scale that measured 177 may have been inaccurate because I was 182 this morning. There are other factors, but I’m not too sure about all that. My arthritic disc was very painful the other day so I ended up taking a tramadol, which did more crazy than good. I was loopy and nauseous the whole day and still had mild back pain.

I didn’t feel like drinking my water, and the person watching over me didn’t quite notice that I drank maybe 32 oz that day which left me dehydrated. I feel better now, but that really threw me off. I can’t remember the last time that disc flared up like that.

I’m a bit depressed over the scale weight, but I know it will go down again soon. I’m thinking I may have my first cheat soon, because I’m starting to think about it more and more. I am enjoying food on plan, but I also hate hearing about others going out and having to say no. On a happier note I managed to get up the 25lb dumbbells for 4x7 on alternating incline bench. I about died after, but I did it. ^-^ The best part was seeing my boyfriend’s eyes go wide when I flexed my arm. O.O He’s a hybrid bodybuilder/powerlifter so impressing him with my gains is hard sometimes, but rewarding.

yeah for the 25lbs! keep pushing.

[photo]29937[/photo] The side, with arm!
[photo]29936[/photo] frontal view
[photo]29935[/photo] right before I dropped and maybe broke Mom’s camera…

nice shoulders:)