Winning At Health And Fitness

When I was growing up, I was an athlete through and through. I played baseball whenever I could, I biked everywhere, I played games of pick-up anything, and my legs were enormous as a result. I won trophies playing baseball and ribbons in swim meets. When I was 16 I shattered my right kneecap in to so many pieces the doctor stopped counting, in a fatigue-induced accident involving a sidewalk. When I got out of the cast I had to build my leg back up to a reasonable amount of strength, but it was never the same.

Shortly afterward I found the internet and learned how to play Bridge, and sports fell down my list of priorities. My physique went away because of this, leaving me tall and skinny. I found time for the treadmill while I was at University and College, but that was it, and it wasn't enough.

Around the beginning of 2006 I decided I wanted to put some muscle back on my bones. I was weak, inflexible, and had almost no physical stamina. I focused on my core strength, namely my abs and chest, for about 8 months.

Then I met my girlfriend's brother, who is a certified personal trainer. With his help I gained significant strength and stamina over the span of about 8 months. I used to be unable to get within six inches of touching my toes, but now I can firmly grab my feet with both hands and touch my lips to my knees. I am on my way.

The original plan was to put on a lot of weight, some of which would be muscle, and then trim off the fat. I then discovered that I'd put on too much weight to fit in to my suit to go to an upcoming wedding, and that I needed to lose two inches from my waistline in under two weeks. 12 days and 15lbs later I was back in my suit just like I was supposed to be, and still getting stronger.

Here you will find my fitness goals for the current year, as well as previous years. My facilities have changed drastically over time, so they won't always line up, but hopefully I can keep them consistent enough over time to provide reasonable tracking of my progress.

2011 Fitness Goals

You'll notice there are no weight or size goals in there. That's because I firmly believe appearance is a consequence of fitness. If I can meet my own challenges, the shape of my body will take care of itself.

How I Did It

My workout regimen is very simple. I start each workout with stretching and cardio, and as soon as I'm dripping sweat I'm allowed to start lifting. I do each exercise until I can't go on, and then I go a little further. I'm constantly pushing myself to do more than I did before. I do abs at the beginning or end of each lifting session (or both if I'm feeling extra saucy), and I finish with more cardio. The goal is to increase flexibility, strength and stamina all at once.

Losing Weight Fast

It always helps to have a solid, definable goal, and needing to lose two inches in under two weeks is very well defined. There were two parts to losing that weight really fast: changing my diet, and modifying my workout schedule.

My diet changed from 3 large meals to 5 very small meals. I had a bowl of cereal for breakfast at 7, half a sandwich at 10, the other half at 1, a salad at 4, and either a meat patty or a hamburger or salad with a tin of tuna at 8. This meant I was only taking in about a third the number of calories my body needed to survive, which would normally cause the body to slow down its metabolism, going in to starvation mode. Since I was eating so frequently, though, my metabolism was tricked in to speeding up due to the constant influx of food.

My workouts went from 3-5 days a week to every single day. I exercised from 6:30 to 7:30 with an intensity only those who are truly driven will ever own. If I wasn't absolutely dripping with sweat then I wasn't done yet. Many's the day I had to collapse on the floor because I couldn't go on, because that was the goal. The workouts were designed to burn through as many calories in as short a time as possible.