Friday, August 31, 2012

My Weight Loss Story. The whey I did it.

I was in bad shape. I had no energy, no drive and I was constantly coughing. I was sleepy, my mind seemed foggy, my back ached and my arms and legs would swell to the point where I couldn't bend my fingers or knees.




When I got laid off, I thought who would hire me. I look like I would die on the job.






I decided to do whey shakes and low carb and it worked. I first combined the approach with walking then went to Kmart and put a weight bench in layaway. I really started making some gains in muscle, fatloss and confidence.

RxBar Real Food Protein Bars Variety Pack, 5 Flavor, 1.83 Ounce Bars (Pack of 10)
Thanks to craigslist I stepped up to olympic weights and a squat rack. I haven't looked back.

I had lots of protein shakes but primarily used:

Vitaminshoppe BodyTech
Body Fortress Whey
Syntrax
Iron-Tek Essential
Dymatize Elite Iso
Dymatize Elite XT
Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard
Isopure Zero Carb

My typical day:
6 a.m. - shake (pre-workout)
8 a.m. - shake (post-workout)
10 a.m. - shake
12 p.m. - shake
solid food the rest of the day



Here's some of numbers from my journey.


6/22/2009 – weight 247lbs

                                    Short of breath, sleep, low sex drive, hip pain, muscle spasms, feet, ankles and sometimes legs swelling, hands swelling, coughing, right shoulder and arm pain.

                                    Cannot do push-ups.  Painful shoulder.

                                    Cannot do pull-ups.

                                    Started walking on treadmill.

10/1/2009 -            Started weight training.

                                    Cannot do push-ups.

11/30/2009 –         MAX:                        bench press            175lbs

                                                            Curl                91.5lbs

12/7/2009 -            MAX:             bench press 195lbs x 2

1/1/2010 - weight 229lbs

1/17/2010 – measurement – abdomen 48

1/17/2010 – past carbohydrate history (weight loss per week)

                                    22 grams per day lost 6lbs

                                    95/day lost 5lbs

                                    110/day lost 1lb

                                    115/day lost 3.5lbs (with exercise)

                                    150/day lost 1lb

2/22/2010 - measurements

                        Chest              46

                        Abdomen     46

                        Left Bicep      14.5

                        Right Bicep   15.5

                        Right Thigh   22

                        Left Thigh     21

2/23/2010 – started working out left bicep and tricep on a second day to even out the size with the right arm.

3/8/2010 – started Muscle and Fitness 4-week Strength Band Workout

                        Surprisingly, I was extremely sore after these workouts.

3/22/2010 – measurements

                        Chest              41

                        Abdomen     46

                        Left Bicep      17

                        Right Bicep   17

                        Neck               17

4/1/2010 – started TABATA HIIT workouts (4 minutes)

4/2/2010 – Able to do push-ups again!

5/17/2010 -  First time using chains with ez-bar curls

5/18/2010 -            MAX:             chins  2

                                    Note:  negative-accentuated technique [one second up/six seconds down]

                                    Note:  "After [a series of full-range reps] you'll find it impossible to do a complete repetition. But that does not mean the biceps muscle is completely exhausted. You'll find with some effort that you are still able to get a few half repetitions...and when you can no longer do the half movements, you'll find you can do a couple of quarter repetitions."

                                   

5/26/2010 -            MAX:             bench press 225lbs

6/1/2010 – Adopted new workout philosophy.   From books Muscle Logic and Get Huge in a Hurry.  Morning cardio on empty stomach.

                                    Example:  15 minutes circuit

                                                            Pull-ups/Bench Press/Squat-Press

                                                            Treadmill wearing weighted vest.
                                  

7/12/2010 – weight 213 lbs.

7/16/2010 – Did 20 push-ups and 5 pull-ups straight.

8/5/2010 – Did 7 pull-ups straight.

8/8/2010 – Did 25 push-ups straight.

8/15/2010 – measurements

                        Chest              46

                        Abdomen     41

                        Left Bicep      16

                        Right Bicep   16

                        Right Thigh   24

                        Left Thigh     24

9/20/2010 – weight 205 lbs.

                                    I am able to button my USAF BDU pants again.

11/13/2010 – measurements

                        Chest              40

                        Abdomen     42

                        Left Bicep      17.5

                        Right Bicep   17

11/13/2010 – weight 195 lbs.


12/19/2010 -          MAX:             Curl 123 lbs x 1

12/25/2010 – Did 30 push-ups straight.

6/14/2011 – able to fit size 34 waist pants, down from 46 inch pants size.
Some of the numbers and dates don't seem to jive for me but I put them in here as logged them in my journal.
I stopped typing in my journal here. I need to update it so I can update you.