Hello All,
My name is Joel and I am a father to seven children. I also teach economics at a local college in my spare time.
As I have posted once before I lost my 23 year old son, and two of his friends, this summer to a drunk driver and to say the least lifting has been helping me work out some anger issues.
I am doing the contest in order to be around for my kids as I have gained a lot of non-muscle weight in recent years.
Well enough about me to some pics and my info.
Gender Male (I think)
Age 39 (40 next month)
Height 5’ 10"
Highest Weight: 310
Starting Weight (1/1): 300
Current Weight (1/9): 294
Goal Weight: 225 (ambitious) with little loss in strength (unlikely)
Neck 19.5"
Chest 52"
Arms 19"
Forearm 14.5"
Waist (largest) 52"
Waist (smallest) 50"
Hip 47"
Thigh 30"
Calf 20.5"
Current Body Fat (a lot); getting a Dxa Scan in a few weeks to know
Diet:
Weight Watchers (no laughing, the wife wanted me to do it with her)
I use carb cycling, with Skiploads for 3 hours a week.
My biggest impediment to progress is that I f’ld up my metabolism a few years back by quitting the Dew (Mountain that is) cold turkey and simultaneously cutting out all sugars and unhealthy food. I in essence cut 2000-3000 calories a day cold turkey at 240-250 lbs. Over the last few years I have engaged in eating very little most days and some days eating enough. All of this while lifting and with a lot of stress and frustration. My calories would fluctuate from 1250-1900 calories a day and a few times a month I would eat like a normal person.
This was problematic since as a teen/young adult I was a hard gainer who ate 10,000 plus calories many days of the week. I was also a competitive gymnast and coach in multiple sports. Somehow I took an awesome metabolism and am now afraid/unable to eat. So, I am working on that.
I realized the problem when I was back in AZ with my grandmother for a family funeral for a week. I did not workout, ate out at a casino buffet 7 times and was force feed German food and desserts by her for the week. I averaged 3000 or more calories a day. In that week I lost 15 lbs (the most ever). Since then I have noticed that when I eat like a man I lose.
My lifting strategy is to use a five day split (still working out issues with layout). I use a lot (too much volume). I lift on the minute or two minute mark in order to keep the heart rate elevated. On accessory lifts I often take less then a 30 second rest.
Cardio will be added as weight loss slows. I lost 6lbs the first week, so no cardio yet.