MedTech said:
How'd you lose your 40lbs? I wouldn't mind doing that at all!
So far, it's 45 lbs actually.... in eight months. (I doubt RBD would recognize me from a distance any more)
THREAD HIJACK ALERT!
Three words: Army Fitness Manual. Good programs, good info. Stick to it, eat sensibly and you'll do just fine.
I'll start off by giving you a bit of background before I go into the details.
Back in November, my wife and I made a bet to see who could drop the most pounds by Christmas. We did this without any real "plan" in place, just trying to eat healthy and exercise more. I concentrated on exercising without changing the way I ate and she concentrated on watching her caloric intake without doing any substantial exercise. I lost about six pounds, she lost eight. However, over Christmas, we put on about half of that. Clearly our "plan" wasn't working. It lacked discipline.
In January 2007, we decided it was time for some lifestyle changes. My DEU was fairly tight and I was tired a lot, getting headaches etc. 9er Domestic was determined to make a big difference in her physique and energy levels. There's a variety of reasons for this but our primary motivation was that 2007 is our 20th anniversary and we had never taken a honeymoon. It was time. We decided to shape up for our anniversary and set the date for May 17th weekend. That was our first step: we now had a goal.
Since I already have access to a CF gym, we shopped around for a membership for her. All the gyms were offering "New Years Resolution Fitness and Weight Loss Specials" and we found one she liked. So, she signed up.
In a nutshell her program consisted of guided exercise and weight loss education. No pills, no special food to buy, no supplements. Just education and information on nutrition and healthy eating habits. She also learned how to exercise properly and efficiently with a personal trainer. Now you're thinking "What has this got to do with the Shrinking Haggis?". Well, I piggybacked on her program. I did what she did, but without the trainer support.
OK, now on to the program:
Getting Started: To get started I did the Army Fitness Manual 12 week program, weeks 1 to 9 (the winter in Ottawa was too messy outside to ruck march in). That gave me a quick, easy program to follow and specific goals to measure my progress against. The AFM program is super!
Moving On: Once I'd completed the AFM program, now I do a split routine (upper body weights and lower body weights), five days a week. Strength training is an integral part of the program as lean body mass helps to raise your metabolic rate, thus burning more fat. Plus, chicks dig big shoulders. For strength training I divide my month into weeks. In weeks 1 and 3, I do three days of upper body weight training and two days of lower body training. In weeks 2 and 4 I reverse this. I do it as a circuit to keep my HR up and cut the time down.
Each day consists of 6-7 exercises which should be done in three sets of 10-15 reps. That's 18-21 sets per day. What I do is alternate muscle groups (Push/Pull) and do them back to back. For example, I'll do a set of Push Ups and a set of Lat Pull Downs, back to back, three times. Then I'll move on to Dumbbell Press and Dumbbell Curls the same way. You can do the entire strength workout in 30 minutes.
Cardio: Every day includes 40-50 minutes of Target Heart Rate cardio; running, or elliptical trainer. I do at least ruck march a week, 10 km or longer.
Warm Up and Cool Down: I use my cardio workout as a warm up, going semi-easy for about 5 minutes then ratcheting up the pain. Similarly I always do cardio before weights and close out with a 5-7 top to bottom stretching routine. If you skip this, you'll be sore and risk injury.
Rest: Don't train more than 5 days a week. You'll burn out the muscles which need time to recover and grow. You also risk overuse injuries.
Diet: Surprisingly this was the biggest factor in our success. We learned about the Canada Food Guide, portion control and, above all, discipline. Here's a few of our biggest changes:
- Switch to a smaller, 9 inch dinner plate;
- Divide your plate into quarters: 1/2 should be vegetables, 1/4 should be starch/carbs, 1/4 should be meats/proteins.
- Read and follow the
Canada Food Guide
- Snack healthy: veggies, fruits etc. V8 is your friend. Snack only enough to fool your body into thinking it had a meal. (3-4 pieces of celery, an apple etc.)
- Watch your alcohol intake. I cut back to about 2-4 beer a week on average and maybe a glass of wine with 9er Domestic on weekends (liquid panty remover ;D). Some weeks I have none.
- Drink water. Lots of water, at least 64 ounces a day (8 X 8 ounce glass)
- Limit sweets to 2 X a week and no bigger than ONE donut or two cookies. Use these to reward yourself after a particularly hard workout.
- Cook smaller quantities. Don't leave enough for leftovers.
- Clear the table as soon as you're done eating your first (and only) serving. Remove temptation to refill your plate.
- Drive throughs are EVIL!! If you must drive through, pick a salad, chicken or fish.
- Set a cut-off time (i.e. 8:00 PM) after which you don't eat/snack anymore that day. Water, decaffeinated tea or coffee is OK. No soft drinks!
If you follow the diet rules 90% of the time (hey, we're only human) than you'll drop pounds pretty quick. 9er Domestic, who is 5'1", has lost 25 lbs and kept it off for nine months. I've dropped 45 lbs of weight since November 2006. In the last month I've put on about 4 lbs of lean muscle mass for a net loss of 41 lbs. How do I know? i'm getting heavier but my clothes are looser. I went from a 42" waist to a 34" waist; an 18 1/2" shirt to a 17" shirt..... and I'm keeping it off!
I now return you to your regularly scheduled thread.
THREAD HIJACK ALERT ENDS!