Lifestyle Change

Cliff notes version of what got me here today…

I was dedicated to training 5 days a week before I took a job that made me move to Colorado. Hours were long and after a while got back into training again. Then took another job that was 50% travel. Then my wife got pregnant and we both gained weight. She lost it and I didn’t(still traveling as well).

2nd baby comes and of course I gained more weight…

After a few doc visits and a rising cholesterol number. Finally, mentally committed to changing my lifestyle. Over the last few months I had cut out many bad habits and now committed to making permanent choices for better health.

Diet:

Protein Shake with Banana first thing.

Lowfat sandwich for lunch

Gym late afternoon with a ABB Ripped fuel Drink

Another Protein shake

Chicken and Veggies type of Dinner

Multi-vitamin daily and Anabolic Pump before meals.

Training:

I re-read the sticky in the Beginners area and nothing struck me as “glaring” that I was doing wrong.

I am going seven days a week, with every day ending with 20-25 minutes of Cardio, however not weight training everyday.

Each set I do for whatever muscle group has 12-15 reps as I am just slowly getting back into training again.

The reason for doing Cardio daily is I want to lose 20lbs by Thanksgiving. More than enough time I think.

I am sore daily, but I it is a “good” sore IMO…

I paid for a trainer and was not impressed by his wealth of knowledge, so I will be asking politely for a different one since I have 3 sessions left.

I know there will be questions and I am sure some flaming of which I deserve for a BF of 28%.

I am challenged by the fact that my job requires me to travel frequently so the luxury of a consistent training routine will be difficult but I will persevere in the end.

I am looking at adding Glutamin with the above mentioned but based on my intensity I am sure the veterans can provide intelligent suggestions on additional supps.

**Not sure what form of HTML is causing some of my text to be highlighted/altered??

Thanks in advance.

If you want specific advice, then you should post your weekly workout routine. “Seven days a week with cardio”, isn’t specific enough.

As far as supplements go, protein and fish oil are the most important. They are they only two that I prefer to never go without. For myself, the only other supplements that I use are creatine and occasionally BCAAs.

A couple things I’d like to add. First make sure you are eating enough. Your diet looks kind of sparse, and the last thing you want to do is kill your metabolism. I would consider getting a food scale, and actually weighing and counting calories for a couple weeks until you have an idea of how much you are consuming and your weight of fat loss. You can lose fat pretty rapidly, because you have a lot of fat to lose without going to crazy cutting kcals. If you cut them too fast, your weight loss will stall, you’ll lose more muscle than fat, and hurt your recovery.

Second, eat more whole foods. Get little cans of tuna, make some oatmeal/mrp bars (check out FigureAthlete.com for recipes as they are all over), some nuts, and a couple of pieces of fruit to snack on. Get some fish oil pills like MC said, Flameout from this website, and they will help with your cholesterol and fat loss. They are kinda expensive, but very worth the money and concentrated so the price is equivalent to any of the less potent fish oil pills you may find at gnc or elsewhere.

Keep hitting the weights, and I don’t see anything wrong with short bouts of cardio everyday. It sounds like you are off to a good start though, just stick with it.

[quote]MC sp3 wrote:
If you want specific advice, then you should post your weekly workout routine. As far as supplements go, protein and fish oil are the most important. They are they only two that I prefer to never go without. For myself, the only other supplements that I use are creatine and occasionally BCAAs.[/quote]

Thanks for taking the time to respond.

I understand your point about posting my workout routine and to be perfectly honest, I don’t have a specific routine I refer to…

My first week I did on seperate days:
Chest/Abs/lower back
Biceps/triceps
Upper Back/shoulders/lats
Quads/hamstrings/calfs

Usually 3 X 13-15 per muscle group.

I really like Supersets but finding the good combination is what I am trying to do this week.

It’s coming back to me slowly but I am never too proud to ask for help.

I know very little about BCAA’s, I will be looking them up later tonight.

[quote]theuofh wrote:
A couple things I’d like to add. First make sure you are eating enough. Your diet looks kind of sparse, and the last thing you want to do is kill your metabolism. I would consider getting a food scale, and actually weighing and counting calories for a couple weeks until you have an idea of how much you are consuming and your weight of fat loss. You can lose fat pretty rapidly, because you have a lot of fat to lose without going to crazy cutting kcals. If you cut them too fast, your weight loss will stall, you’ll lose more muscle than fat, and hurt your recovery. [/quote]

Becuase I travel frequently I am now packing my supps and protein, I will have better control on diet, but I don’t think counting calories will be realistic since I will eat with Clients for lunch and dinner meetings every day I am out. (could be an interesting conversation starter?)
At home no problem, just gotta be realistic about what I think I can do.

BTW what are “kcals”? I have been weening (sp?) some of my former bad habits for some time but for my workouts I have not had any problem with energy or stamina… How am I to tell if I am not eating enough?

[quote]theuofh wrote:
Second, eat more whole foods. Get little cans of tuna, make some oatmeal/mrp bars (check out FigureAthlete.com for recipes as they are all over), some nuts, and a couple of pieces of fruit to snack on. Get some fish oil pills like MC said, Flameout from this website, and they will help with your cholesterol and fat loss. They are kinda expensive, but very worth the money and concentrated so the price is equivalent to any of the less potent fish oil pills you may find at gnc or elsewhere.

Keep hitting the weights, and I don’t see anything wrong with short bouts of cardio everyday. It sounds like you are off to a good start though, just stick with it. [/quote]

Thanks for reminding me about cans of Tuna, back in the day I used to have them with Mustard to help me trim down.

I will resume taking fish oil pills and ordered some Flameout pills this evening.

Key take aways from you guys are:

–Add Fish oil pills to current supps.
–Watch food intake and make sure I don’t cut it back too far.
–More whole foods, tuna,nuts etc. intake

Sucks being the fat kid, but it is a good exercise in humility and will make me appreciate the end results…

[quote]patchzx7r wrote:
BTW what are “kcals”? I have been weening (sp?) some of my former bad habits for some time but for my workouts I have not had any problem with energy or stamina… How am I to tell if I am not eating enough?
[/quote]

kcal are known as calories in normal parlance. There is actually a thousand calories in a “calorie”.

How to tell? You would not be getting stronger. You would not feel “warmer” than before.

your diet needs way more fat including sat fat and cholesterol, if you reduce carbs then something needs to compensate

Replace one of your workouts with one of the workouts in this weeks excellent Beradi article and the weight will come off fast.
Lightning fast if you did them 3-4x week( and do just one weight session)

I read that and was thinking, that’s a good way to ease back into training and personnal fitness.

I think not only would I puke my guts out, I would probably have a heart attack doing that workout.

As I head home tonight( I type this from LAX) I am thinking that on the road the best I can do is Cardio, most if not all hotels have very limited equipment.

Diet remains to be a challenge and I packed protein and supps for my trip. It is getting a good mix while maintaining a busy day schedule with work.

I appreciate the input thus far.

One day at a time…