A workout plan, A menu and a fat man.

Yesterday I mentioned that I am going to raise my calories to 2000 per day and after adding that 300 calories to my allotment I have to say that it feels like a lot of food to me! I have been eating 1700 calories per day for the last two and a half years and changing it isn't easy for me, I feel like I am over eating even though my menu was awesome for the day, I still feel like its too much but I suppose that's the mental side of it. My day ended with a grand total of 2065 calories and I drank a whey protein shake to make up that balance and I am unsure if it is in my head but I felt really good yesterday over all, Here is a look at yesterdays menu.

Breakfast
7:15am
2 cups honey combs 220
1 cup 1% milk 110

10:00 AM
1 mango 120

11:15 AM
pecan zone bar 190

Lunch
2:30 PM
1/2 T Miracle whip 25
2.5oz deli turkey 75
1 deli slim 100
1 can Progresso clam chowder 220
sesame candy 45

4:00 PM
1 apple 100

Dinner
6:15 PM
5 egg whites 1 whole egg 145
6 turkey sausages 220
6.5oz potato 165
peppers/onions 40
smart balance 25
olive oil 25

8:30 PM
8oz 1% milk 110
1 scoop whey protein 130

The gym was good yesterday as well, I did 25 minutes on the stationary bike with an average RPM of 96 and then 25 minutes on the treadmill at 5% incline and 3.6mph pace. Today is a weight lifting day for me and I may change that because of the fact that I weigh in for the week on Fridays and though it should all even out in the end I did mean to lift on Wednesday this week but because of my hike on Monday it got switched. With my weight lifting I need to finish writing myself a solid program and start strictly following it because right now I am just working muscle groups together but its different every time and I am using a weight that feels comfortable depending on where in the program an exercise falls. Back more than a few years ago when I was in my early 20's I had a handle on things like writing workout programs and had myself all set up, I even wrote workout plans for other people from time to time but this time around I am finding it a bit difficult to get something together that I like.

I use a pyramid style workout program which means that I do 5 sets of 6 reps, sometimes 7 depending on the movement and at the end I throw in a light set to failure just to finish myself off. I haven't been following the pyramid style program lately but starting Monday it is what I will go to because its how I have always seen results, an example of how it works is this. I will use preacher curls as an example.

Warm up 12 reps with a light weight
1st set - 75 pounds x 6 reps
2nd set - 90 pounds x 6 reps
3rd set - 105 pounds x 6 reps
4th set - 90 pounds x 6 reps
5th set - 75 pounds x 6 reps
Failure set - 50 pounds to failure.

You would of course use a weight that you can handle, I used roughly what I estimate that I will be using for the example. Normally I choose a weight range that makes the 4th set a struggle to complete and you should be able to do the max weight or third set to completion without too much issue, If the final set is a real struggle or you need a hand to finish the 6th rep that's probably the weight you will want to use. In the past I have had great results using this pyramid style workout and it will be the back bone of my lifting starting on Monday, I wanted to condition my muscles a bit before I got back into more serious lifting but now that I am not overly sore after my weight training workouts its time to implement whats worked in the past for me. I generally use this method as long as I am seeing gains in strength and when it slows down I go to a more traditional three to four sets of ten reps for a couple weeks and go back to the 5x6 plan when that feels easy with whatever weight I was using.

Something else that I am going to be adding to my workouts is going to be a daily core exercise because in all honesty it is one of the places that I don't work out specifically on any kind of regular basis. Riding a bike out in the trails works my core for sure, some of the weight lifting works the core secondarily or even thirdly but I rarely ever do what I would call a "core workout" and that will change beginning Monday along with the more serious strength training routine. My core training workouts will be a lot of calisthenic movements along with a personal challenge to complete as many crunches as I can and I will create goal numbers to reach each month that will hopefully grow every month as I get stronger.

I still have a good amount of weight that I want to lose but because of the success that I have had so far I have some skin that I am not diggin' on too, I believe that I can enlarge my muscles to take care of a lot of the "sag" in certain places so that will become my secondary goal for my health. Eventually I hope to make the weight training my main goal as the weight issues become more of a maintenance thing and we shall see if I can get myself back into some kind of a muscular build to offset some of the collateral damage that the 500 pound version of me left behind.

Now that you used your entire morning reading my longer than usual post you deserve a big ol glass of H2O so grab that and I will be on my way as I have to get to the gym and show my body that it has no choice in what happens. Thanks for following along with this fat dude getting slimmer and healthier and for today, That's all I got.

As Ever
Me