I had always been someone in shape during my college years but with age, running three practices (70+hrs wk), i had become complacent and eating like shit and not working out the pounds had added up. Around March time, i literally was coming out of the shower and looked at myself from head to toe and was really disappointed on how pudgy i had become. It was not horrible and i wasnt obese or anything. But i just had become soft and it was something that would just get worse if i didnt act. I took a picture that day which is the first picture you see to document things and follow my progress. I knew that it would be a complete lifestyle change and not just a thing or two here and there. So here are the things that i did during these six months:
1) Every sunday i would cook 30 meals for myself. This would involve 15 wraps using high fiber kind filled with different things such as chicken, lean meats veggies etc and 15 meals in Gladware containers. I would change the menu up every week for variety. Each meal consisted of about 30g of protein, healthy fats and good carbs such as sweet potatoes, brown rice etc.
2) I would have a protein shake in the am, and eat one of those meals every 3hours. You see my problem was that i would normally eat around 8-9pm, get up next day and have no breakfast, run to the office, see patients, and before i knew it, it was 1pm. Now i was starving and would inhale the nastiest amounts of fast food i could possibly find. When you dont eat for 15hours, your metabolism is so shut down that the next food you stuff just goes straight to fat for later use. By eating small meals every three hours, i was always satisfied and turned up the metabolism big time.
3) I increased my fruit intake well from nothing to a lot. I would have a ruby red grapefruit, orange, peach, grapes every single day.
4) Healthy fats are very important and i made sure to have 3oz of a unsalted, unroasted pistachios, brazillian or walnuts every day. I also made sure to have a full avocado every single day with one of my meals.
5) Overall i was consuming roughly 200-250gr of protein daily which only is about 800-1000 calories, and i was consuming another 1000 calories in carbs and healthy fats.
6) Three days week i would do 45min of cardio first thing in the am on an empty stomach. This is huge because again when liver glycogen storage is non-existent, aerobic activity causes the body to burn fat instead of the glycogen (carbs) that is just stored in the liver.
7) Three days a week i would do intense weight training. When i mean intense, i mean no talking, no bullshit just hit the weights hard. Slow, controlled reps, explosive positive reps, 3-4second negative reps until failure and do it again.
8) I would give myself a complete rest day on a sunday. On weekends i would not eat my weekly prepared meals and just try to eat healthy overall but would cheat here and there. The key was to stay consistent but also not miserable.
The six months were kind of broken up into two phases. First phase was to lean out which also meant sacrifice of some lean body mass and second phase was to add some lean muscle. The first three months i went from 173lbs and 23% BF to 157lbs and 8% BF. At this point, i kept everything the same, but increased my calories from 1800-2000 calories, to 3000-3500 calories daily. Again, from all good sources.
It is ironic that today i weight 174lbs and still sub 10% BF. Even thought the scale pretty much has not changed from March, no question that things have changed. You might notice from the pics that in the last 6months i did get some ink done on my chest, shoulder and arms. This was really done because i figured nothing would look worse than an out of shape guy with a big tattoo. So it almost keeps me motivated to make sure the tat doesnt stretch etc as i get fat
Before:
After:
1) Every sunday i would cook 30 meals for myself. This would involve 15 wraps using high fiber kind filled with different things such as chicken, lean meats veggies etc and 15 meals in Gladware containers. I would change the menu up every week for variety. Each meal consisted of about 30g of protein, healthy fats and good carbs such as sweet potatoes, brown rice etc.
2) I would have a protein shake in the am, and eat one of those meals every 3hours. You see my problem was that i would normally eat around 8-9pm, get up next day and have no breakfast, run to the office, see patients, and before i knew it, it was 1pm. Now i was starving and would inhale the nastiest amounts of fast food i could possibly find. When you dont eat for 15hours, your metabolism is so shut down that the next food you stuff just goes straight to fat for later use. By eating small meals every three hours, i was always satisfied and turned up the metabolism big time.
3) I increased my fruit intake well from nothing to a lot. I would have a ruby red grapefruit, orange, peach, grapes every single day.
4) Healthy fats are very important and i made sure to have 3oz of a unsalted, unroasted pistachios, brazillian or walnuts every day. I also made sure to have a full avocado every single day with one of my meals.
5) Overall i was consuming roughly 200-250gr of protein daily which only is about 800-1000 calories, and i was consuming another 1000 calories in carbs and healthy fats.
6) Three days week i would do 45min of cardio first thing in the am on an empty stomach. This is huge because again when liver glycogen storage is non-existent, aerobic activity causes the body to burn fat instead of the glycogen (carbs) that is just stored in the liver.
7) Three days a week i would do intense weight training. When i mean intense, i mean no talking, no bullshit just hit the weights hard. Slow, controlled reps, explosive positive reps, 3-4second negative reps until failure and do it again.
8) I would give myself a complete rest day on a sunday. On weekends i would not eat my weekly prepared meals and just try to eat healthy overall but would cheat here and there. The key was to stay consistent but also not miserable.
The six months were kind of broken up into two phases. First phase was to lean out which also meant sacrifice of some lean body mass and second phase was to add some lean muscle. The first three months i went from 173lbs and 23% BF to 157lbs and 8% BF. At this point, i kept everything the same, but increased my calories from 1800-2000 calories, to 3000-3500 calories daily. Again, from all good sources.
It is ironic that today i weight 174lbs and still sub 10% BF. Even thought the scale pretty much has not changed from March, no question that things have changed. You might notice from the pics that in the last 6months i did get some ink done on my chest, shoulder and arms. This was really done because i figured nothing would look worse than an out of shape guy with a big tattoo. So it almost keeps me motivated to make sure the tat doesnt stretch etc as i get fat
Before:
After:
