My Present State

Hiya guys

Been scrolling through this site for some time now, and it has actually inspired me to get to the gym.
Yesterday was my first day and i have to roll out of bed as i am in extreme soreness form upper body work out, i cant even lift my hands above my head.

also present fitness level - i cant seem to manage anymore than 15kgs 2 sets 12 reps of anything ! i just run out of steam, i felt like vomiting yesterday as well, it was very embarrassing.

My figures are as follows

Height 6’ 2"
Weight 125KGs
bpm 89 relaxed
body fat 35%
I have a stomach that extends 13" inches outwards and i can wear a c cup sized bra ( not saying that i tried, so forget about it !). my self esteem is very low but am determined to make things better.

I am vegetarian and only eat 1 thing a day which is 11 o clock at night. i find it very hard to eat six meals a day, i had a look at carb cycling and going to try and start that routine, the only problem is that i can not have a regular gym cycle going because of the nature of my work.

How many years am i looking at on average to trying to obtain a flat chest and and stomach, if i am willing ( and i am ) to put in the work, and any tips u could suggest, maybe like some kind of jump start.

Thanks.

Howzit Mark,

Go and check out Vroom’s thread

http://www.T-Nation.com/readTopic.do?id=640350

Packed full of all the info you will need to meet your goals!

Good luck!

Sounds like you want to lose weight.

Main thing is stay motivated your attitude is what will keep your head on straight.

What puzzles me is, your fairly big, but you only eat once a day, I would figure unless you’re eating 5000+ calories in that one sitting that you would eventually lose some weight.

I’d say eating 100% healthy is gonna be a hard task to undertake.

You goals seem alright, I would suggest pick a program or routine and stick with it for 6-8 weeks to see if any progress has occurred.

Pack your lunches if you can, you said eating 6 meals a day would be hard, but I can’t understand how you can get away with only eating one meal a day and be able to function.

If anything don’t drink pop, clean up the junk food if you eat any, and start going for walks.

Baby steps are whats needed to get you in gear, once you’ve established a decent physical level you can bump up your workouts to a more direct route of strength training.

Best of luck.

[quote]markchampaigne wrote:
I am vegetarian and only eat 1 thing a day which is 11 o clock at night. i find it very hard to eat six meals a day, i had a look at carb cycling and going to try and start that routine, the only problem is that i can not have a regular gym cycle going because of the nature of my work.
Thanks.[/quote]

I think carb cycling might be a little too advanced for you at this point. If your dietary habits have degenerated to 1 meal a day on a vegetarian diet, you should spend some time trying to re-learn what a good, basic, healthy diet consists of.

Once you have gotten that down, then you would be able to start working with advanced diets. Also carb cycling is based on being able to go to the gym on a regular basis, which you already stated you are unable to do. Try reading these.

1.) Meat.
http://www.T-Nation.com/readTopic.do?id=1271968

2.) The 7 Habits.
http://www.T-Nation.com/readTopic.do?id=459493

I know making changes will be difficult, but look at where your current diet has gotten you. Best of luck.

Hey Mark,

Glad to hear you’re taking some first steps. This place will prove to be a great resource. I do think the other posters are correct: you really need to re-evaluate how and what you eat. Also, being a vegetarian makes it very difficult to eat well: I imagine it can be done with a lot of planning and discipline.

WHen I’ve been in very tight spots in my life (other things tho), I put a big old poster or chart on the wall next to my bed: every morning and night I get to see progress no matter how small. It reinforces things and lets me know I’m on the right track.

I update it every night before I go to bed. I’ve never done this for losing weight, but I imagine a chart of your various measurements would be very helpful in this way.

Cheers and good luck bro!

Also start a food log. You think you eat one meal a day, but I would guess you drink a lot of pop and snack throughout the day. A food log will get you looking at what you eat and keep you accountable for the things you eat.

Thanks for the advice guys. I spent quite some time reading through T - Dawg and 7 basic essentials. Changing my diet is going to be the most challenging for me, and keeping a food a log, but it totally makes sense. I spent yesterday formulating and time tabling.
once again thanks for the encouragement, it means a lot.

Hey Mark, I know exactly where your coming from, and I mean it dude. And you have started to take the first steps, and that in itself is life changing, and you should be very proud of yourself.

In November 2006, I weighed 292lbs (~130kg), today as a result of a clean diet and training 3-4 days a week, I weigh 205lbs. I have never felt better!

Heres some of the things I did when I started…

I kept a food log, very, very important, try fitday.com, its online and free, it’ll keep track of your goals, wt. and such, it has been my bible so to speak.

My immediate training when i started was circuit based, and as I got fitter in got faster. Take your time, be patient, its not going to happen over nite. I started out at 30sec on 90sec off, and a total of 3 circuits. I did no cardio for about 4-5 months, just circuits, 3 times a week for 45 min.

As for diet, using fitday, I kept my daily cals to around 1500-1700per day, of which 30-40g were Fats, 90-100g were carbs, 200-225 was protein. I stuck with this for 4 or so months, as to have a good start, I averaged 12lb’s month. During this time I used no supplements, I took a multi Vit 3 times a day, and EFA’s 6 perday.

YOU MUST EAT 6 meals per day, this keeps your metabolism firing, that part was hard for me to understand, at first too, but try to make sure you do it, 3 meals, 3 snacks. Don’t give your body a chance to go into starvation mode!!! I stopped all refined sugar, caffeine, lactose, bad fats, and even gluten, and alcohol for the first 3 months or so, and know only drink once in awhile.

I just wanted to share with you were i started and how i got there. It wasn’t easy thats for sure, but once you have your mind on the final outcome, the rest will fall into place.

Good Luck with your journey mark, again great to hear you have taken the steps to a much more healthy and happier you!!

Drop me a message anytime you need!!

Wow. Thats incredible Hushtool. i see this foodlog practice is key, eating by numbers, i have since worked out a log for myself, so i am going to hit that today at the supermarket. also relieved of pain today and am heading to the gym.

Do you guys have training partners or this discipline is from all within, also

to maintain your physique , do you have to train just as hard or is it a case the fat jumps back on you like metal filings on a magnet if you stop ?

Best of luck to you. Don’y worry about soreness - it’ll get better soon. On the bright side - just getting 2 meals a day with whatever you’re eating will help you out 100% - a figure everyone on this site would love to achieve by making one change. If you’d like some vegan insperation, google Mike Mahler.

My advice would be to start eating more often and ramp up the cals first before you start cutting. You sound alot like my mom when I started working with her on weightloss (not that your a women in your late 40s with a bad back), but that she only would eat one meal a day if even, and it was usually a salad. Your metabolism is shot. You need to eat to lose.

Obviously you can’t just start putting down an extra 2000 cals a day. So the 2 options I see are

  1. eat 6 super small meals a day to start. then every 3 or 4 days add in 200 cals. starting with your first meal. (ie on day 4 your breakfast will be an extra 200 cals, on day 8 your 2nd meal will be an extra 200 cals etc.)

  2. start incorporating one more meal every 3-4 days. (today eat breakfast and 11, day 4 eat breakfast, noon, 11; etc.)

Personally I say #1 is the way to go, get that metabolism firing and work up to a decent maintanence and then you can start cutting back on cals.

I know my mom I got her on 1 and she actually lost some weight while increasing cals (not a lot tho) and then once we started taking the cals down she started losing weight.

And I honestly can’t think of a job you can’t eat every 3-4 hrs at. I have worked in a lot of different fields. all you need is some chicken or steak cubed and mixed with veggies with some seasoning, throw it in some tupperware (I prefer double wrapping it in ziplock bags) and keep it with you.

Last time I went out to a club (don’t do it often) I sat down and pulled out my baggie and started eating my steak and veggies cuz it was time to eat. I got some awkward looks from the girls we were chatting up but screw that-goals is goals, who cares if someone doens’t understand it.

Bottom line tho, you can always find a way to get your meal in. Sometimes it just takes soem creativity and not caring what the people around you think about it.

Good luck man-its hard work to fix a metabolism and to lose weight, but worth it, my mom says she feels the best in her life at 48 (minus the fact she is going in for back surgery pretty soon.)