A little back history
I was always the bigger bulky kid growing up. Not necessarily fat, but my build type was definitely bigger then most. I played sports my whole life, baseball and football, but I always had this incredible interest for weight lifting. It wasn't until my sophomore year of high school I had my first true experience of lifting weights. I took a weight lifting class, part of a Physical Education credit, starting during my sophomore year and carried it throughout my junior year as well. At the end of my junior year of high school year I weighed 215 pounds and was pretty solid. I am not sure the body fat percentage, at the time that was irrelevant to me.
During my junior year of High school I ended up joining the military. As soon as my junior year was over I immediately shipped off to basic training for the summer. Getting back from basic training I had lost all muscle that i gained and came out weighing 180 pounds. I was was pretty damn skinny for my frame. I finished my senior year of school and then shipped back for more military training.
Fast forward a few years of my departure with the military, for a year straight I let my self go to shit. Eating what I want, drinking what I want, and definitely not exercising on a regular basis. I shot up about 60 pounds within a year, no joke! The heaviest I got was pushing 300 pounds, 296 if I remember correctly. At one point I finally realized what I was doing to my self and started the very beginning of the trial and errors that led me to where I am today.
Trial and Error - Lessons Learned
So, after finally realizing what I was doing to my health and body I started my journey of failing every diet possible. Seriously, every I tried every diet and exercise program out there; low carb / high fat, low fat / high carb, strict CICO, doing only cardio, only lifting weights, p90x, insanity...the list goes on and on. Even though I didn't stick with any of the diets or exercise programs 100%, I still came out extremely successful in what I learned.
I am a big believer in everyone's body reacts differently to carbs, fats, and proteins based on whether they are an Ectomorph, Endomorph, or Mesomorph. Me being an Endomorph, I am very sensitive to carbs and can gain weight super easy though fat or muscle. This is why I shot up 60 pounds in a year. I had to take what I learned from all the diets and exercise plans I tried and develop something that best fits my body type and life style, which brings me to my next point. I absolutely hate the word "diet". Its not about what diet your on or what diet to try next, its about YOUR lifestyle. Like I said everyone is different which is why you should make adjustments through the foods you eat and the way you workout out that best fits your lifestyle.
My Lifestyle
I had my most success in weight loss following a low carb / high fat diet. I dropped weight pretty quickly and did tons of cardio and lifted weights as well. The problem is low carb diets are pretty difficult to maintain and stay on, at least for me anyway. Yes eating tons of meat and fatty foods is amazing but I was also craving rice, pasta, potatoes, and other delicious high carb foods and could not touch them whats so ever. So this diet did not work for me at all. After 2 months I was done with it. I then tried high carb / low fat. This was a nightmare as well because I was craving oils, eggs, fatty meat, and of course butter. Of course after a few months of trying this diet I ditched it and just figured counting calories and not worrying about macros will be the best option. What I soon figured out is why not get the best of all the worlds and I soon began researching carb cycling. Carb cycling is the lifestyle I have chosen for the particular goals I have in mind. My goals are to lose fat and maintain the muscle that I have. By carb cycling I have low carb / high fat days with high carb / low fat days, all depending on the day of the week. As far as my exercise program I lift weights 3 days a week and do cardio 3 days a week with 1 rest day. I will get into more specific details on my exercise and carb cycling program at a later post. My point of this is its not about what diet or exercise program you are on, its about what you can stick with that best suits your lifestyle for the long run.
My Goal
I am currently sitting at 265 pounds and my goal is to get to a lean 220. I track the foods I eat using a website called My Fitness Pal (MFP) and I am going to continue blogging the rest of my progress through here. My goal is to reach out to as many people as possible through social media. The reason is I am obviously a work in progress so I feel by reaching out I can continue to learn from many of you and hopefully in return you can learn from me. I also have plans on vlogging my lifestyle and progress on YouTube. I plan on sharing some of my favorite recipes through vlogging as well and some of my favorite workout routines. I am very excited to share my journey for those who want to follow and I am even more excited to continue to learn new ideas and techniques to make my lifestyle even better.
Follow Me
To the right of the post are all the Social Media links to stay plugged in with my success and to reach out to me as well. I look forward to all your feedback.
