Starting a total transformation

[Omnium11]

Current weight: 177.8
General Sentiment: 6.5 or so

Alright today is the day I drastically upped my calories. Woke up at like 4 am ate a nice meal and fell back asleep lol. Wonder how high my weight will go before it starts to drop again. Went fishing with my dad today and caught a fish. Just got home now so first chance to write the report.

[hiimnotcool]

Congrats on catching the fish!!

Today is my rest day. I did go to the track with some people and did a 4 or 5 sprints then jogged a lap so I'm sure that burned some calories but it was nothing major. I'm tempted to go run 3 more miles but I know that rest is imperative to get gains. After that we went to a hot tub and just sat in there for 20 minutes and it was SO relaxing.


Tomorrow the hard work starts again. Tomorrow is an hour workout for shoulders, chest, and triceps and then a 15 minute ab workout. That should be an interesting update

[Cerberus]

Still sick. Bah!!!!!!


I've set a more important and more long term goal for myself: I will not ****ing gain that fat back!!!! I am going to stay at a healthy, lean weight. And if I deviate from this goal a little bit, I will quickly get on a path toward maintaining this goal.

Is there some kind of meditation that could help me to strongly believe that? I kind of believe it, but I want that belief to be strong -- mind over matter and all that ****.

[Omnium11]

Ty can't wait to cook the fish, you wouldn't believe how much cooking I have done lately lol, I'm turning into my mom. One thing about this diet is I just really really appreciate food a lot mroe and all the effort it takes to make things. I will always remember to say thank you to my parents when they make food from now on. I have pretty much taken over the cooking duties for the whole family. Breakfast, lunch and dinner. Today I exercised abs and ran for 3 miles. Also I think getting out of the house has really helped. I talked to my grandparents from my dads side of the family and it went very well. Haven't seen them in like 8 years either. Tomorrow for me I think will be biceps and back.

I feel for ya Cerberus. Absolutely hate getting sick when I'm doing a transformation.

Meditation definitely helps with diets and long term goals, it seems to chip away at the mental resistance, the negative self destructive thoughts which can cause you to give up on a diet. Also elevates your mood in general which makes urges much easier to resist. There will be much less like emotionally driven overeating or depression which destroys motivation.

The worst thoughts for me are those ones where you stop exercising and dieting for like 5 days or so and then you start thinking 'whats the use, I've failed already and have been eating like crap, might as well stop the diet.' Meditation definitely helps with these. I would try Eckhart Tolle's "Watch the mind meditation to disidentify with your mind and thoughts so they no longer have the same power over you." Also Eckhart Tolle's other meditations and Adyashanti's meditation should be very good as well. Also when you run long distances there is lots of mental resistance, trying to get you to stop running, too 'hard', too much resistance to the now, too much projecting into the future when the run will be over etc. These are great resistances that meditation can break down which will definitely help you with your goals.

[Cerberus]

^Thanks. I looked at an article by Eckhart. It sounds like mindfulness meditation. I read a book about that a few years ago. I used to meditate. I should give it a shot again. I remember how calm it used to make me.

[Omnium11]

Almost forgot the pics, today was a change up from my usual boxer-briefs / running shorts :-D

(Stomach is back a bit, real interested to see what I weigh tomorrow)





Sunburned bad on my right side only lol

[Omnium11]

Day 11

Weight 178.4
General Sentiment 6.0

Been slacking off with mental aspect of transformation, too busy fishing and cooking last couple days. Today I'll do some yoga, some meditation and listen to some audiobooks or something. My goal is only 40 minutes of internet today. (Give or take)

Abs are pretty sore today, legs kinda sore, will def go for another run today, then hit biceps and back. Back will be harder because I don't access to gym. I guess a bunch of different rows will have to do. I might look around the house and garage for something to build a temporary pull up bar with.

[Omnium11]

[hiimnotcool]

lol@ sunburn on right side only. last year i got so obsessed with being tan that i failed to tan the back side of my body so only my face, chest, top of arms and front of my legs were tan while the rest was significantly less colored. this summer seriously sucks so far because there hasn't been Sun for nearly 2 weeks.

also dont worry about gaining any weight back. that's normal. when you start doing alot of exercise your clothes will just start fitting differently. i try my best to ignore what the scale says because it doesnt give an accurate depiction of what's really happening with your body.


With that said..


My weight today was 164.8 (I haven't bee below 165 in 8 months!)

I did chest, shoulders, and triceps and boy am I tired. My arms feel like complete jello. It was like 18-20 different exercises all at 12-16 reps a piece. Alot of them were different variations of push ups. I know I'm going to feel this one tomorrow.

I still don't have a pull up bar because my mom bought the one where you have to attach it to a wall with screws. she will be picking up the one that attaches directly to the door frame soon hopefully.

my legs are also really sore for some reason even though i didnt run alot yesterday. i suppose sprints are harder on the muscles then a regular jog. or it might be due to me not stretching afterwards


Tonight I might do some abs but they're really sore from that Yoga breathing exercise. I think that stuff REALLY works because my abs havent been this sore for awhile and thats including the actual ab workouts. I also plan on ending the night with that Sunset Yoga video just to stretch out my legs.


Tomorrow I'm going to run. I figure a mile jog warm, then maybe 8-10 sprints, then a mile jog cool down.

[Cerberus]

Weight: 167 lbs.

Workout completed:

Deadlifts
Rows
Chins
Bicep curls
ab workout

I was feeling 90% better when I woke up this morning, so I figured it would be alright to workout today.

I'm starting to look really lean. I haven't been this lean since before I took paxil six years ago (damn paxil screwed up my metabolism). Luckily I stopped taking paxil five years ago, so I only took it for a year, but that year was enough to mess up my metabolism. Luckily, I'm on wellbutrin now, which helps as a slight appetite suppressant.

Overall, I'm pretty dang happy with my weight loss so far. I'm starting to see the outline of the outer part of my abs, and my love handles are negligible, meaning they're getting close to being gone.

[Omnium11]

Congrats on your weight and weight lifting today hiim! Good job :-D

My running shorts are fitting much looser, I almost have to use the draw string on them now.

I did that yoga breathing exercise yesterday, I really liked it! Any others yogas that you would recommend?

[Omnium11]

Originally Posted by Cerberus

Weight: 167 lbs.

Workout completed:

Deadlifts
Rows
Chins
Bicep curls
ab workout

I was feeling 90% better when I woke up this morning, so I figured it would be alright to workout today.

I'm starting to look really lean. I haven't been this lean since before I took paxil six years ago (damn paxil screwed up my metabolism). Luckily I stopped taking paxil five years ago, so I only took it for a year, but that year was enough to mess up my metabolism. Luckily, I'm on wellbutrin now, which helps as a slight appetite suppressant.

Overall, I'm pretty dang happy with my weight loss so far. I'm starting to see the outline of the outer part of my abs, and my love handles are negligible, meaning they're getting close to being gone.

Awesome cerb, glad your back to lifting and feeling better!

We're all doing a damn good job! Keep it up.

[Cerberus]

^ Yeah, good job everyone. Good job, hiimnotcool. I'm glad you started this thread, Ominium11. This has helped with my motivation. Let's all keep making good progress!

[Brightpaperwarewolf]

Originally Posted by hiimnotcool

Really fantastic advice. I never would have guessed how much strength Yoga can bring. I always looked at it as sort of girly and easy, but now I see that it's no joke at all. In 4 weeks I've noticed a definite increase in ease (because i've gotten stronger, not because the Yoga is itself easy) so it's very encouraging. I think it helps with my push ups too. When I first started I could literally barely do 10 push ups. It was just so difficult. Now I can sets of 10 without too much strain. These breathing exercises are really great. I just got done doing the one I mentioned earlier today. When I do it it seems like my entire body is getting hot. It mentioned that would happen because it's literally cleaning out your body but it's a cool sensation.


My eating is really healthy for the most part. I'm pretty obsessive compulsive when I get into things. My normal day of eating would be something like :


Breakfast:
Whey protein powder, half a banana, and oatmeal all blended up with milk to make a good breakfast shake. Sometimes I'll replace that with egg whites and turkey bacon.

Snack
Something like lentil soup. Maybe some nuts.

Lunch
Wheat tortilla with turkey, organic beans, brown rice, lettuce, jalapenos, mustard and some salsa inside with a side of cottage cheese.

Dinner
Mostly lean turkey burgers or skinless chicken breasts with a side of mixed vegetables.

Then sometimes I'll have another protein shake at the end of the night.

Water intake is probably around 120-150 ounces per day as well.


I'll also have to say that depression and anxiety have decreased ALOT since starting to work out. It's absolutely amazing. I expect that it will even get better once I start running more frequently and more mileage.

My end goal is just to be really lean and cut. I don't really want mass at all. I mean semi large arms and pecs would be good but I don't want to be a monster lol

I go to a couple yoga classes every week, there are big, muscular guys that come, try it out their first time and they're struggling and find out real fast it isn't easy, I practice two more fitness oriented, westernized form of yogas, power yoga, which kind of like doing yoga boot-camp style and hassana which is more to open your hips, back and shoulders in a different manner, I recently started hassana and it feels like I never done yoga in my life, focused on muscles I didn't even know existed lol! Yoga works different components of fitness but all the components of fitness work in conjunction with each other. But you should attend one, at a local gym, nothing fancy, it gives you an excuse to be around a lot of girls, kinda nerve wrecking at first, but after a while, you just smile even though you'd be shy to talk to them, assuming of course because you have SA. It's kind of motivating none the less, better than doing it by yourself all the time!

One of the moves in yoga is like a push-up, it's called a chataranga. Same principle as a push up, except you below are by your side and you want your shoulders to be slightly above the elbows when you hold it, the only part of your body that should in the ground is your palms and balls of your feet. When you first do it, it's very taxing, but then you could do chataranga push-ups where you push up to a plank and back down again and they are intense, do them slow and hold them for a bit. Just an example of how yoga can directly help you improve the amount of push-ups you do.

Pushing a lot of weight is beneficial as well, regardless you want to get huge or not, focus on compound exercises. Much of it, you can do for free with relatively little equipment, it's just how you position your body in exercises and different things you can do to notch the intensity.

I played with my body around a bit more the years, I been relatively small, dropped from 200 to 160, hung around there for a while, then got relatively big, but maintaining 8% BF or below at 185 lbs a few years back, solely lifting major weight, running and playing ball. The way skinny people fill out is different, you look skinny from far away, but when sometimes comes up close, you look huge, it's just part of having a beanpole body type, especially when you are tall. But I found out it wasn't necessarily the best thing because to maintain it and get stronger, I had to spend a lot of time working out that I didn't think was necessary. So I changed my focus to more eccentric forms of exercises while maintaining some of the more traditional exercises I do more balanced work-out overall. I keep a current weight of 170 with currently 7.2% body fat, I can only lift 80% of what I used to be able to lift, but I'm way more flexible and lose and the strength developed is more practical for every day use.

Part of it all is to learn what works for you because what works for A might not necessarily be as effective or be enjoyable for B. It's important to try a lot of things out and find out what works for you (but don't pick them just because they're easy lol!)

What time of the day do you usually do your workouts? The diet looks good, although when you lose a little more fat, include a snack between lunch and dinner. That's why you should get the BF monitor. To get cut cut, diet is really important as well as amping up the intensity of your workouts. Because with everyone, they'll be a certain point where it'll seem you'll plateaued but you are gaining muscle. Looking at the scale solely might discourage you, there's all type of measures that can used to measure your level of fitness.

And you starting to see how effective the breathing exercises eh?

Keep it up everyone! As long as you keep doing it, there's no way you can lose (except weight!)

[Omnium11]

Oh wow just did a 5 mile run! Feels great. Half way to my goal! Didn't lift today, think i will wait till tomorrow when i build a pull up bar with my dad (hopefully)

[Omnium11]

Day 12

Yesterday I did much better with the mental aspect of this transformation. Very good day. Today I will again try to focus on this. Also will work muscles. Feel like going for a run as well. Sun burn no longer hurts, will sit out in sun and try to tan the rest of me as well.

Weight: 179
General Sentiment: 7.0

Lots of dreams about food. I even dreamed I caught a huge fish. Lots of vivid dreams all throughout the night.

[Cerberus]

Originally Posted by Omnium11

Oh wow just did a 5 mile run! Feels great. Half way to my goal! Didn't lift today, think i will wait till tomorrow when i build a pull up bar with my dad (hopefully)

Nice! I bet that does feel great. I don't think I've run five miles since high school.

[Omnium11]

Sweet, just built my pull up bar for free. Works great. I am gonna sand down the wood and put tape or something on the bar to make it easier on the hands and maybe a bit thicker. Took about an hour and a half or so.

[hiimnotcool]

hahah thats a sweet pull up bar dude. looks like it will do the trick perfectly!

This morning I did 10 minutes of Abs followed by 20 minutes of Cardio Yoga.

I then watched some Jean Claude Van Damme movies.


Following those cinematic masterpieces I went to the track and jogged a mile then did another mile of jogging the corners and sprinting the straight-a-way. That was sort of hard because my legs were still sore from the other day. I was a little angry and unmotivated too because I was supposed to go with my friend but he totally bailed on me and went to the casino instead. We were supposed to do 3 miles then some sparring/grappling afterwards. I suppose I'll 'accidentally' punch him in the face when we do it now

[Omnium11]

Originally Posted by hiimnotcool

hahah thats a sweet pull up bar dude. looks like it will do the trick perfectly!

This morning I did 10 minutes of Abs followed by 20 minutes of Cardio Yoga.

I then watched some Jean Claude Van Damme movies.


Following those cinematic masterpieces I went to the track and jogged a mile then did another mile of jogging the corners and sprinting the straight-a-way. That was sort of hard because my legs were still sore from the other day. I was a little angry and unmotivated too because I was supposed to go with my friend but he totally bailed on me and went to the casino instead. We were supposed to do 3 miles then some sparring/grappling afterwards. I suppose I'll 'accidentally' punch him in the face when we do it now

Haha, Steven Seagal is where its at!



Today has been pretty good for me. I did HIIT for about 20 minutes or so. Then I made some rather pathetic attempts at doing pull ups (can't believe how weak I've gotten!) I made one hell of a huge dinner though wow, a lot of my cooking is not very healthy but I usually don't eat much if any of it. I have been eating loads of salt lately though, really craving it. Really cutting down on my internet has made me a hell of a lot more useful and active lol. I actually considered reorganizing the basement today! Something I would have really hated to do earlier.

I got satellite tv in my room now, so I can now do yoga's very easy and in the privacy of my room without using my little ipod type thing. Will check out the ones on the fitness channel and give some of those a try. Cooking channel and fitness channel ftw. I'm turning into my mom lol.