Week One Results

Just a quick note to mention my progress this week. No pics, as I can't see the point in posting new ones each week, I'll probably go for once a fortnight. However, this week, I have lost the required 2lbs, down to 17st 3lbs yesterday morning. I've upped the weights on most of my exercises this week too, and I'm chuffed at things in general to be honest. 15 monts and three weeks to go!

It was never meant to be like this!

Of course, only a very select group of specialist weirdos actually set out to be fat, and I certainly don't fit into that category. As far as I'm concerned, I didn't get fat, fat got me. I was like the guy in this video, but without the correct shoes...



Belly got me. When I was 18 I used to survive on a diet of lager and cigarettes. Seriously, I rarely ate proper food, and I used to be waiting outside the pub next to college, with my mates, looking out anxiously for the barmaid to open the doors at 11am! And I was stick thin. I weighed about 12 stone.

Then I stopped drinking (pretty much), packed up smoking, started driving and piled on the pounds. It probably didn't help that I found myself a wonderful girlfriend and settled down into a contented lifestyle with plenty of takeaways and a job that chained me to the desk. The quarter pounders stacked up, the delicous cheese steak sarnies slipped down, and when I wasn't looking someone stuck nearly 7 stone on me and I couldn't play football without my ankles hurting! It came as quite a shock, I can tell you.

Pumping Iron

The correct diet will obviously lay the foundation of the new me. By eating right I'll shift some fat and fuel my workouts, which is what I'm going to touch on today.

Diet alone is not going to get me to where I want to be. I think too many people believe that simply by cutting down on the calories they'll develop a slimmer and more toned physique quickly. And perhaps for one or two people that may work. But the majority of us need to add some exercise to the menu. To take a race car analogy, putting a modern and more efficient fuel in an outdated, heavy old sports car is going to improve it's performance, but it still won't be good enough to beat a new, lighter, more powerful model.

And it's certainly not about jumping on the treadmill for 45 minutes three times a week either. One of the best ways to burn fat is to add muscle. The more lean muscle you have, the more calories you'll burn every second of the day. CV work has it's place, but lifting weights and adding a bit of clean bulk is going to lower my body fat even while I'm relaxing on the sofa!

To start out I'm concentrating on doing endurance sets, so 3 sets of 15 repetitions on each exercise. I'm also doing upper and lower body splits. Upper body one day, lower body the next, then a rest day and repeat. Here's my current workout:

Day One: Barbell Bench Press
Swiss Ball Pec Fly
Bent Over Dumbell Row
Upright Dumbell Row
V Bar & Straight Bar Cable Row
Swiss Ball Dumbell Shoulder Press

Somewhere in there I'll throw in some bicep curls and some tricep pull downs with the rope attachment.

Day Two: Squats
Deadlift
Lunges
High Steps
Calf Raises

Then if I've anything left in the tank, which is not that often, I'll jump on the disc loading leg press and really pound what's left of my legs. Or some extra squats.

Diet

I hate that word. It's probably fair to say that I got into my current condition thanks to a combination of a desk job and the ready availability of fast food. Damn you Quarter Pounders! I haven't been a regular drinker for a few years now - cutting out the beers isn't a problem. So I've had some fairly easy decisions to make: start eating better and working out! Simple.

Out go the burgers and chips, in come fewer carbs, less fat, and more protein rich foods. Now I'm still learning about this stuff, but at the moment this approach seems to be working for me:

Breakfast: Porridge with semi-skimmed milk (and a touch of honey)
Mid-Morning: Apple or banana
Lunch: Combination of boiled eggs, cold meat, tomatoes, lettuce, peppers etc
Mid-Afternoon: Piece of fruit
Evening: A meal comprising a good source of protein (lean meat, fish etc) and plenty of veg.

During the day I don't have any cooking facilities, so I have to rely on what I can take in a lunch box. Also, I would love to say that I could have a whole chicken breast or similar each lunch time, but the economics just don't stand up unfortunately.
My evening meal is the hardest one for me to regulate. I live with my girlfriend and she is a bit of a foody. She loves cooking good homemade food (although I do a lot of the cooking as well, she just tells me what we're eating!), and she's also one of the annoying people who can eat what she likes without putting on the pounds. Mind you, she does hit the gym five times a week too, so maybe that helps. Recently I've convinced her that eating lots of pasta or potatoes and other carb rich foods as the last meal of the day isn't going to be my best strategy for shedding the fat, so there have been some compromises - but she's adamant that we're not going to start eating tasteless food. Fair enough.

Portion sizes have been reduced too, and I'm starting to learn and understand what my body requires in order to function; in terms of the right foodstuff at the right times. If anyone has any tips though, they would be more than welcome!

Lastly, my apologies that I didn't write this over the weekend. My beloved team got battered once again on Saturday (guess who I support), and I forgot all about writing!

Let's get one thing straight...

... I'm not so deluded as to think I'm going to appear on a cover! If that were the case I think I would deserve locking up. I'm not stupid. The 2009 challenge is just a goal to aim at, to be in the kind of shape where I would be able to consider entering a competition - not to win, but just to be in with the runners and riders. That's all. I know it takes years even for guys who are already athletically built to challenge for a place, and I'm certainly not one of them. All I want to do is see what improvements an average guy can make in 18 months.

I'm going to post my workout and nutrition strategy later on today, when I get back from the footie (sans half time pie!)

One quiet March evening...

... an idea is formed. A plan is hatched. Several beers are consumed. Before and after. And it all seems like a jolly good idea.

I must admit that I'm not the first person you might think of when the words "Cover" and "Model" are put together. I'm 25 years old, 6'2, and with a 38 inch waist. I've done my research and it's quickly become apparent that there aren't many men's fitness magazines that sport covers featuring flabby guys. Probably wouldn't make for the best sales figures. So there's no chance that I, in my current state, would be fit to enter a competition to adorn the front of such a publication.

But I'm sick of being overweight and unfit. I'm tired of being the guy who won't take his top off at the beach, the guy who can't run around playing football without a crash team standing by. I want to be the bloke on the cover, complete with washboard abs and designer stubble trimmed to the exact millimetre.

Things came to a head when I saw a photo of myself looking like I'm about to keel over after a 5-a-side footie match. I decided I had to take matters into my own hands. I was already a member of a gym, £35 that I could ill afford being wasted each month - it turned out that you actually had to go and workout for the effects to show, simply paying the membership fee wasn't enough - so I vowed to put that £35 to work and get myself into shape. That was back in March, when I weighed an impressive 18 stone 10lb.

Now I'm down to 17 stone 5lbs, very nearly a stone and a half lighter. Which is a good start, but still with a long way to go. What I need is a challenge, a goal, something to aim for and work towards. Mens Health magazine is currently promoting it's Cover Model competition, and after a couple of beers I decided to enter. Closing date is July 2008 - about six weeks away. All I had to do was lose about another six stone of fat and add about three or four stone of lean, toned muscle. Pah, I was looking for a challenge!

Seriously though, I decided that this was something I could work towards. Not this year, but next. Which gives me about fifteen or sixteen months. Still an almost impossible task.

This blog is hopefully going to be the spur to ensure that I push myself as hard as I can to achieve my goal. I'm going to post photos on here each week, as well as regular updates on my stats, workouts and life in general. Anyone who wishes to help out with tips, encouragement or even just wads of cash, any help would be appreciated!

Maybe it can't be done - but hell, let's find out...