aejones' workout/nutrition log

[aejones]

Okay so I skimmed the FAQ, but it was wordy to say the least so I'm just going straight to posting.

Instead of integrating all this **** into my blog, I'm going to keep a log in this thread of what I eat everyday; in hopes that this thread makes me accountable.

History: I'm 6'1 170-175. Sophomore year of high school, I lost ~35 pounds for basketball (I wanted to increase speed). I've got a diverse array of ailments that Shania would be proud of. Including, but not limited to: surgery on both of my feet simultaneously to lower my arches (which prevented me from working my lower body most of my life), two or three knee scopes (pedestrian), and a handful of sprained ankles. My health, otherwise, is reasonably good. I've never been in 'great' shape, never been a good athlete, and managed to play high school basketball through only a miracle of God's graces which blessed me with a golden shooting touch (and a father who was a basketball coach).

Weights: In high school, I was pretty big into weight lifting. I could bench about 150% of my body weight, which I was pretty pleased with. Since then, I've lifted semi- seriously on and off, mostly for upper body (see: naturally big chest). I've taken some traces of creatine for no real period of time (Cell Tech) and always at about 1/4 of recommended doses. I really hate putting anything into my body that isn't all natural (hence the soberness); hell I hate taking ibuprofen. I have a pull up bar in my apartment at the moment (in the doorway) which I do infrequently at best, but is good for trying to stop tilt. Like I previously said, I've never done my legs seriously due to various injuries that never fully healed, but I think I'm close to 100% in my lower body, and about a month ago I started doing squats and calf raises and even wall jumps and some other basic machines with mediocre weight and good form. I've never done deadlifts, except for advanced P.E. class senior year of high school.

Nutritionally: To lose the weight in high school, I jump started with some gimmicky diets to get me some kind of structure. I think I got the first half of it off with my own version of the Atkins diet- which has trained me (in a positive way) to eat a lot of protein and limit carbs (especially bad carbs, and especially after 7). So now, lately, my 'diets', when people can't talk me into eating fast food, have consisted of the following: sammiches on wheat bread, usually turkey + a slice of cheese and mustard, sometimes stuff like tomatoes and pickles; smoothies, sometimes homemade, usually strawberry banana, usually with a sprinkle of flaxseed or something; yogurt; almonds; lean chicken and fish on the foreman grille or oven. That's what I've had access to at my apartment, and I feel like if I'm calorie counting (at the moment, I think I could probably shed 5-7 before I start gaining muscle again; but I wish I knew my body fat) I'm intaking like 2000ish on 'good' days, maybe a little less on days I wake up after 3. I have been fairly successful at keeping the meals to 4-5 a day and the size of them reasonable.

What Imma Do: Well, since I'm at home this week I'm going to try to stick with the same items I've been eating and just add a variety of eggs. As much as I want to gain muscle, I think I'll have to settle for getting close to a six pack this summer and being a skinny fk- I don't really have the time or the stability to do a decent weight lifting program, but I'm going to check around for a few day passes as gyms before I go on vacation at the end of the week. I'd at least like to keep maintenance lifts in, even if my caloric intake is only around 2000 calories, I'd like to keep my muscles stretched and active for sure. I'm hoping to introduce some legs/full body stuff that I really need. I'd also like to work on increasing my jumping because (like everyone else apparently) I have entertained bets from my friends (those who know me good want to give me 10 to 1... wow no faith) of trying to dunk a basketball. My dad laughed pretty hard when I told him I was going to try it. That's not a super serious goal at the moment, but is something I'm sort of considering working towards. I'd also like to introduce some HIIT to my workout- probably just in the form of light sprinting + jogging maybe 30/90 second intervals or something basic, and increase it with time.

The Goal: In the short term, I want to eat better and eliminate sweets from my diet. Sweets are, by far, my biggest Achilles heel. I need to stop with the grease and fast food, although I don't really think this is too big of a problem unless I have friends bugging me to go eat with them (but it's a social thing!). The key will be what I do when I get to Vegas in two or three weeks. I plan on just buying a fridge and having a small stash in my room of food for me to eat- but I know I'll go out to expensive places, where I will just have to limit portion size (lol, right). I'll probably bring a blender to Vegas and hit up the smoothie trail as well as little bit, maybe even have our assistant make them for me every morning. In Vegas, I'm going to be playing basketball 4-5 days a week; either in the morning or late at night most likely. I want to keep a good sleeping pattern, which I think will foster the routine that I need to eat well. I'd like to lift 2-3 days a week, but I don't think that will happen unless I have someone bugging me to go, or I do some light stuff after I play ball. I guess the goal is to implement a new lifestyle, but in 3 months the goal will probably be to gain muscle mass. I think this log will help me be held accountable for what I eat, and I encourage all you bastards to comment on whatever you feel like commenting on.

Hopefully I get to this thread daily (when I'm here once a week, I don't want one of you chumps quoting this).

[MYNAMEIZGREG]

Aaron I'm impressed and going to start a log too!

[Ikaika]

Looks good sir. Your kcals seem a bit on the low side; I'd bump it up to around 2500 and see how you do. If you're going to be doing HIIT you'll burn off a ton of muscle if you aren't getting enough calories; the whole concept behind HIIT is that it increases your basal metabolic rate(read: rate of caloric expenditure at rest), so you have to make sure you eat when you train that way.

Make sure you incorporate lots of veggies in your diet; spinach, broccoli, and asparagus are the three main ones I tend to use. If you're going for a reduced-carb diet you'll be missing out on a lot of fiber, so the veggies really help. Grapefruit is also really good to aid in fat loss...something like half a grapefruit for breakfast should help. Throw some Splenda on it to sweeten it and you're good to go.

[aejones]

On the veggie side I'm usually a mushroom (lots of nothing, I think) and green bean guy. I'm usually not too leafy I guess.

Also, I dunno when I'll be able to do HIIT workouts, I'm thinking like once or twice a week at most for the next little while, but I'll make sure that I increase caloric intake specifically around those days when I'm going to do it.

[Ikaika]

I'd probably add more carbs on days you do HIIT so that your gylcogen doesn't get fully depleted. It'll make your HIIT workout super catabolic which is bad news.

[aejones]

May 8:

Today I did too much snacking, and not enough real food eating.

I woke up in the afternoon, and around 2 I ate probably 6-10 oz. of an Armenian meat (I don't know how else to explain it... it's very pure meat, no fat, ground up with grain and tomato basil and onions and parsley). I know how to pronounce the name of it, but I don't want to butcher it on an internet forum out of respect and I couldn't find the spelling in Google. I had the first half of it raw, and the second half of it cooked (it's okay to eat it raw for the first few days, and it's extremely tasteful. More than anything, I ate this because it is somewhat of a rarity (my aunt makes it at her church once a month but I'm rarely home anyways). Anyways, I had a slice of wheat bread with it. I'd say I ate a good 5-700 calories in the afternoon.

Throughout the day, I snacked on about a dozen M&M peanuts, one bar of a kit-kat, drank a Coke Zero, had a handful of multi-grain pretzel rods (which are very good), and a few very small pieces of watermelon.

This random stuff had to account for a good 2-400 calories.

I went to the movies and when I got back around 10 I had a whole turkey sammich on wheat with a slice of 'natural' American cheese, mustard, and pepperonchini's with a pickle on the side. I think I had another can of Coke Zero. Probably 4-600 calories.

Just now I drank about 8 oz. of skim milk.

I feel like I didn't eat a lot today because I woke up so late, and probably only ate between 1500 and 2000 calories. It was sort of a light day, and I kind of wanted to get my stomach a little shrunk for the week ahead. I need to get used to more full meals, more frequently, and with more actual nutritional content.

I didn't get any kind of a workout in except 10 pushups before I showered to make sure I could still do them.

[aejones]

I ate kind of bad again today, lots of empty calories. My mom had a garage sale, so she had random sweets around for herself and to sell. I had two twinkies and three little crumb cakes, for a total of about 600 calories.

For lunch I had 2 steak tacos, one with cheese, on corn tortillas. I'd guess these were 300 calories apiece.

During the day, I had two glasses of milk, about 8 oz. each and quite a few multi grain pretzel rods to snack on.

For dinner, I had half of a turkey sammich, and half of a beef sammich- no barbeque, both on whole wheat.

At night I just had some cheese.

Truthfully, I felt kind of hungry today and constantly felt like I was snacking on everything I could get my hands on. I probably ate a good 2500-3000 calories.

I shot basketball for 20-30 minutes, but very low intensity.

[aejones]

May 9: Weekends are hard.

I had a Schoops hamburger for lunch, with too many things on it.

Then for dinner, I ate a bunch of pieces of Pizza from Aurelio's, my third favorite pizza in the world (it's phenomenal).

At least I didn't eat between meals!

[aejones]

May 11: I had some random omlet for lunch (only about half) and then ribs for dinner. It was mother's day, so I excuse myself.

May 12: Turkey sammich on whole wheat for lunch, Red Lobster for dinner (SO MANY CONFLICTING FEELINGS ABOUT THAT ONE) where I got walleye grilled (good) and a warm cookie with ice cream on top for dessert (not good).

[aejones]

May 18:

Today I ate alright, but I'm mostly posting about this upcoming week.

Since it's the last week before I leave for the WSOP, I'm going to try to eat insanely good. I'm thinking something like sammich for lunch (usually 12 or 1), maybe a yogurt or something to add some carbs (or fruit) then working out after that settles. After I workout, I think I'm gonna have a smooth (around 4) to keep my metabolism up. I'll probably eat dinner at 8 or 9 like I usually do, where I'm going to go for lots of mushrooms and greenbeans (maybe other veggies, but those are my favorite) to accompany chicken or fish as my main course.

Throughout the day, I'm going to portion like a 1/2 cup of almonds or something like that for a snack. I think portion control is something that I lack big time, and I'm really wondering if anyone has experience with this. I just wonder if measuring certain amounts will be helpful or hurtful to my general psyche and willingness to not stray from a diet.

Thoughts?