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New diet, more exercise, new me. Hopefully.

Posted August 4th, 2014 at 11:11 PM by Sonata
Updated August 5th, 2014 at 10:56 AM by Sonata

So tomorrow (today technically, but I haven't been to sleep so....) I am going to finally get my own gym membership. I used to have a membership with my dad at Anytime Fitness but once he got rid of that because it was too far away I had no way to gym. And so now that I'm 18 and I'm just sitting around the house being lazy all of the time and eating since I don't have a job, I decided I should probably try to stop that and actually do something. So tomorrow marks the start of a hopefully new life. I hope that maybe by keeping a journal of my activities here I might be able to actually stay true to it. And here is what I hope to be my routine. Tomorrow after my first day though I will edit it into something more reasonable and then I'll also be keeping a food journal here to keep track of what I eat and when exactly I eat. Also I'll be keeping track of what weight I do and on what exercise it is. No more chinese or pizza for me for a while. Goal is to lose at least 60 pounds in the next 2 or 3 months, 2 would be preferable but less healthy.

10 am. - Wake up and eat something and drink a gallon of water
10:30 am - go to gym
10:40-11:10 - jog on stairstepper
11:10-11:30 - Do upper body workouts
11:30-11:45 - Take a break, eat a protein bar and drink protein shake
11:45-12:15 - elliptical
12:15-12:35 - Lower body workouts
12:35-1:05 - walk on treadmill
1:05-1:30 - abs and anything else not already worked
3:00 - 8:00 - do 20 pushups and situps every 15 minutes
8:00 - eat and sleep

Exercises:


Food:
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  1. Old Comment
    Klippy's Avatar
    Just a suggestion as a long-time gym goer: Consider spending 1.5-2 hours in the gym four to five times a week, rather than 10+ hours in the gym in a single day. You're better off working single or similar muscle groups in a day, rather than every muscle group every day. I'm not sure if you're actually intending on being in the gym that long, but you will most likely burn yourself out really fast trying to take on a day like that. As a beginner, you should start off relatively light and acclimate your body to the strenuous tasks of a gym.

    I've been going to the gym for 7-8 years roughly and have maintained a schedule that works my muscles in similar groups and days, while also preventing injury and strain by not working things too hard day-after-day.

    An example of a gym week for me:

    Monday - Chest exercising; cardio
    Tuesday - Triceps; cardio
    Wednesday - Biceps & back; cardio
    Thursday - Shoulders; cardio
    Friday - Either repeat chest or legs; light cardio
    Sat & Sun: Rest days

    At the beginning, you should work each day's muscle(s) by doing three-four sets of three-four exercises. You will want to start light with the weights and see where your maximum is so you can gradually improve on what you are doing.

    Monday - Chest

    Warm up machine & first exercise
    Dumb Bell Presses
    Bench Press
    Decline Press
    Incline Press

    That's somewhat similar to what I do every "Chest" day, but right now, I'm trying to push past a plateau (a limit your body reaches when you just can't lift any heavier or do any more work), so it really depends on how I'm feeling. If I've pushed myself hard and beaten a record or lifted better than the last day of exercise, I tend to do the rest of my workout lighter and my body has succeeded in beating said plateau.

    KNOW YOUR BODY'S LIMITS. Seriously! Do NOT push yourself past what your body can handle if you seriously cannot handle it. It's not worth injury or serious bodily damage to go beyond what your body can do. As I said, learn what your minimums and maximum weights are for exercises and gradually improve upon those weights. I began working out and only able to lift 25 pound weights for dumb bell presses. I lift 95 pound weights now, but it took a lot of time and effort to get there. I have had countless friends come to the gym with me and try to lift heavier than their body can handle and end up hurting themselves very, very badly. Start with low weights and improve. I can't stress that enough.

    Unfortunately I did not heed my own advice and injured my calves training for long-distance running. Now I'm stuck icing my legs every night from the pain. It's really put a dent in my training because I literally cannot run without pain anymore. It sucks and it's because I didn't listen to my body telling me I was hurting it. So please, whatever you decide to do tomorrow, listen to your body.

    There is a difference between giving up (don't do this) and understanding your body's limits (do this).

    Beyond that, diet is 80% of weight loss. Change what you eat to healthy, wholesome options like oatmeal and fruit smoothies for breakfast, eat lighter lunches and dinners and avoid obviously bad foods (like McDonald's or other fast food junk). Sleep is also important and actually does wonders for weight loss and overall fitness and health.

    Hopefully you don't mind a little advice! I just saw this and wanted to give some tips from a once-before gym noob. :)

    Good luck tomorrow and congratulations. You're making the first step in the right direction for your health and always remember that no matter what happens at the gym, just being there is 100% better than not at all.
    Posted August 4th, 2014 at 11:39 PM by Klippy Klippy is offline
  2. Old Comment
    Belldandy's Avatar
    This is pretty great :D but just a note that typical "healthy" weight loss is 2lbs/wk. You might have a spurt at the beginning (I did), but for twelve weeks - or three months - you should expect a maximum of 36lbs total; maybe 42lbs if you manage 2,5lbs/wk.

    Anything higher than that is unhealthy. You might also "inhibit" weight loss because it's replaced my muscle, masking your overall efforts. You might lose 40lbs of fat but only see a loss of 30-35lbs on the scale due to a 5-10lbs muscle gain. Just don't let it confuse you lol

    Also, as Klippy mentioned, one day at the gym isn't really a good way to go at it. It needs to be general and consistent (regular basis). You can't eat healthy one day and eat junk the rest of the week and see progress. You can't "make up for yesterday" by doing the double the next day, just like pill-taking.

    The most effective way is to go 5-6 times a week for an hour or two (as Klippy mentioned). Not only is it more effective, but it helps craft better general habits.

    If you can't go to the gym everyday, do a general workout the day you go, and the rest of the week, trying jogging or cycling, rollerblading, etc.

    10h one day isn't going to be effective if you don't do anything the rest of the week, or anything comparable for about an hour or so.
    Posted August 5th, 2014 at 5:28 AM by Belldandy Belldandy is offline
  3. Old Comment
    Sonata's Avatar
    I know, I plan to go every day except saturday and sunday so I can have some time to rest. I used to do football and then would go straight into Marching Band which would take basically all day and then before I could go home my dad would make me go to the gym and work out whatever they didn't have us do at our football lifts. I just don't really enjoy doing one section of the body at a time anymore, when I would go with my dad he would do chest and triceps one day and then back and biceps the next which I didn't like because the weightlifting coach at school would have us do our whole upper body or our whole lower body depending on what day it was. Before my Freshman year I weighed about 280 and then in 4 months I got down to about 205-210 depending on what I was eating around the time I weighed myself.
    Posted August 5th, 2014 at 10:49 AM by Sonata Sonata is offline