If I could give you beginning tips, it would be.....

Everyone has to begin somewhere, no matter what your fitness goals are. Even professional body builders or professional athletes had to step in the gym or track their macros for the very first time. I have only been going about my journey (seriously) for about 2 months now I have seen tons of people come and go. Even some just after a few weeks starting, they became frustrated and quit...just like that. So, hopefully this post will help some of you start off on the right and keep your journey for the long run.

Set Your Goals

Are you trying to lose fat? Gain muscle? Maintain weight? Or just eat healthier? What ever your goal is keep it in mind and start structuring your eating and exercise program around it. What ever your diet may be for your goal its a great idea to figure out the calories you need to eat per day and also what you macros need to be. Here is a link to a calorie calculator that will let you know exactly what you need to eat calorie wise and what your macros need to be. This site was actually just introduced to me and I personally absolutely love it. Also, take your body measurements down as well as your weight so you can compare the results every few months or so.

Track Your Progress

One of the most important things you can do for yourself is track your progress!!! Track everything you eat, the exercises you do, the calories you burn, and even how much you sleep. I can not express how important tracking is. I like to use a website called My Fitness Pal to track my progress. I configure the calories I need to eat daily for my goals, track my exercises, and also give and receive support out to other members on the site. Also, keep a workout log. I created an excel spreadsheet with all the lifts I do that way I can go back to previous weeks and know what I have to do to keep gaining. 

Start Small and Experiment 

This is where I think that the majority of people fail. They have their goal in mind, they know how many calories they need to eat and what their macros are, but they expect results over night. The truth is before you can expect any results your body is going to need to adapt to the change you are putting it through. Typically most people even gain a few pounds during the first few weeks because of the body retaining water and also being swollen from working out. Here is a great article on a more detailed reasoning of the process. If after a month you are not seeing results then re-evaluate your calorie intake and adjust your macros according too. Always remember even though the scale doesn't show weight loss it doesn't mean your not losing fat. To be honest I feel the scale causes more harm then anything. So many people fall victim to weighing them self every day and get frustrated with the weight fluctuation then give up, especially if they drop tons of weight every week for the first month and then only a few pounds or so the following weeks.. I recommend weighing your self once or twice a month but also keeping track of your body measurements to get he best accurate results!

Set your goal in small increments. If you have 100 pounds to lose, set your goal in 10 pound increments. Tell yourself that every 10 pounds you lose you can reward yourself with a day off and eat some food you have been missing. This method will be more rewarding and keep you engaged longer on achieving your goal. 

Don't Get Discouraged

Point blank, there are going to be days were you fall off the wagon and indulge in the sweet deliciousness of junk food. ITS OK! If this never happens to you, you are not human my friend. When it happens, accept it and move on. There is no need to bring yourself down for having pizza for dinner or eating some greasy fast food, or maybe even downing a family sized bagged of BBQ chips. The negativity is whats going to cause you to fail completely and give up. Stay positive and use any frustration or anger you have and kick it into gear for your next workout. 

If you step on the scale and don't see any changes or maybe even a slight gain, that is ok as well! Fist evaluate whats going on. Take some measurements to determine the gain. If your diet and exercise is still spot on chances are you gained muscle. Take a picture of yourself and compare it to the first picture you took when you started your journey. After comparing your results let it sink in how far you have come along and its not worth giving up. 

Changing your lifestyle into the world of fitness is not easy. At least once a month you will feel like you have not gotten anywhere and your just wasting time. But let your and goals progress sink in of what you accomplished so far. Worse case scenario if you have not accomplished must, at least you know your living a more active and healthy life style. That alone should be enough motivation to keep going. So what if you cant run a 6 minute mile, or bench 200+ pounds, or even get through a 1 mile walk. YOU are living a more healthier lifestyle and that alone is a huge win!

Big thanks for taking the time and reading my blog. Please feel free to follow me the other forms of social media, links are to the right. If you have any questions or need some advice please feel free to message me or comment on the page.
 

My Story

Of course everyone has their own unique story of who they are, where they came from, and what their goals are. My story probably isn't much different then many of your stories out there.. My story is full of set backs, success, failure, and tons of lessons learned, especially when it comes to fitness, and that is exactly what I want to focus on with all of you! I feel the value I have learned from my set backs and success is worth sharing and hopefully will be a useful guided for some. Plus I am sure you will provide me feedback and I can learn from all of you as well.

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.