TL:DR warning...

_noob_ · March 2013

Just copying my blog post about my journey....

Ok, all about my health and fitness...

I was always very active as a kid. I played baseball and tennis for most of summers and from the time I was in 7th grade played football, basketball, tennis, track and baseball for school (small 1A, so we played everything). I started lifting (essentially a stronglifts type workout) at 12 and continue until about the middle of my senior year in HS. I was 5'10" 180 in the summer between 6th and 7th grade, so I've always been large, but not necessarily "fat". I'm still 5'10" too

Freshman year I was 235, 210 sophomore year (corrective jaw surgery in summer), 225 as a junior (best shape of my HS) and 240 as a senior. At my strongest in HS I could bench 290, squat 475 and OHP 200.

After HS I stopped working out all together. I ate a bunch of fast food and just a crummy diet with really no thought much as to my health and fitness. I still played tennis, golfed and fished regularly, just ate like garbage. Around this time in 2000 my uncle (53 at time) had a massive heart attack in his sleep and died. All complications of his weight and sleep apnea. This would later be an influence of mine to change my ways.

When I headed off to grad. school I was 270. A year in my dad had to have stints put into his main coronary artery. My dad and my uncle having problems in their 50's were the trigger for me to start being healthy. As an obsessive person and perfectionist I was determined be the best me I could be.

For the first 3 weeks I did the Atkins induction. Yeah, it's not the best, but I did drop 20 lbs. in those 3 weeks so that got my confidence going that i could make this work. I knew the diet wasn't sustainable, so in those 3 weeks I started slacking in my labwork and researching everything i could on health and fitness. Forums for broscience (or namely for advice from the ones on similar paths), blogs from actual researches and peer reviewed articles to find what is "right" and what is crap. I started playing basketball up at the Texas A&M rec center at nights (usually 2-3 hours/night). I switched my diet from Atkins to just a balanced diet with mostly whole foods at this time. I didn't really focus on high protein, just lots of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts and lean meats when I ate.

I dropped 90 lbs in six months and to 180. I had stopped playing basketball every day, but was either playing ball or running 3-7 miles every day. When I hit 178 I got steamrolled by a guy who was like 150 lbs. while chasing a lose ball in a game. As a former all-state offensive lineman, that didn't sit too well to me.

I bought a weight bench and started working out again with the ****iest program ever. I did flat bench, dumbell inclines, shrugs, curls, lateral raises and front raises (3 sets, 3x per week). I got some of my strength back but started to hate not being able to work my legs. Then I did the scariest step, i started working out in the rec center rec room. This is a crowded gym on steriods. Imagine the worst your gym ever is and multiply it by 3. Talking 10 power racks with waiting lines 2 deep, almost all the time. I went in to do leg press on days I lifted at home. Over the next couple of months I started doing more and more at the Rec until I'd finally out grown my home gym and just worked out there. I was doing bench, incline press, squats, shoulder press, curls, tricep extentions for 3 workouts, 3 days per week (notice no back exercises). I was still running 3-5 miles every day too.

My new goal had shifted to being lean and bigger. I hurt my back doing leg presses around the time, and in frustration I knew I had to strengthen my back, so I started doing deadlifts (which I'd never done) the next day (what a dumbass, but it worked). This is when I started to do a balanced workout, hitting all muscle groups the way I should have. i added rows around this time as well, and I split my workout up. All while still running.

So now a year after I started I'd progressed from 270 and just a lardass to about 185 and 10% body fat. Over the next 6 months I started running only 3 days a week and started lifting more. I'd also find that I would get REALLY hungry every 2-3 weeks. I would go NUTS on those weekends and eat like 5000-7000 calories per day (while probably around 3000 on weekdays). I'd started focussing on upping my protein intake to the broscience typical 1g/lb bodyweight. In 6 months I put on 10 lbs of solid muscle, and was about 195 when I met my wife

. I really stopped running as much when we met and over the next 7 months I gained 15 lbs of mostly muscle to sit at 210 and about 12% body fat when I got married. I could bench around 335, deadlift 450 and squat 495 for 3 sets of 8 (to a bottom leg parellel depth which is what our FB coaches had wanted us to hit in HS). A month before my wedding I came down with mono and couldn't lift for a month. I was knocked flat on my *kitten*, and just felt lethargic.

The combined lethargy and loss of so much strength really was discouraging when i got back to lifting. I could barely squat 405 for setsof 8, couldn't bench but like 300 and deadlifts were all in the 300's on working sets. This, combined with the new stressors of married life and I stopped feeling motivated to workout as much. Gradually I stopped going altogether. My wife also had a stressful time in her grad studies and we fed off each other to both just balloon out of control. I'd go through weeks of trying to rededicate, but it would never stick.

So five years later, and I was sitting at about 280 lbs and back in crummy shape. My wife was having some complications with her pregnancy with blood pressure and around this time I realized I too had major blood pressure issues (like 160/100 for a normal). I got put on meds which controlled it, but I was just pissed with myself. I also knew I had to be better for my newborn son.

After a year of my BP being control under medicine, I became one of those annoying resolutioners...I didn't go back to the gym yet, but i just ate healthy like I knew how. It wasn't that difficult and I lost 15 lbs in a month just eating healthy. In Feb 2012, I started using our neighborhood gym. My workout was DB bench, DB incline, one arm rows, leg press (only thing available), and pullups (I could still do 1 luckily). It SUCKS to have been so strong and now struggle to bench 70's, incline 50's and one arm row 60's. I was bound and determined to mow through it though. With my newbie gains (from my previous strength) I quickly outgrew the gym (dumbells up to 100's). Probably took me 2 months to move into benching 100's for a set of 8. We made the decision for me to join a local gym then (local YMCA) because I wanted to squat and deadlift again and use a barbell for benching.

That march during my routine bloodwork, my cholesterol (and HDL) was clinically low and my testosterone levels were in the low 300's. After research and evaluating my diet (I'm a HUGE proponent of using your diet to optimize health) I realize how little fat I was eating. So this is when I joined MFP to track my fat intake. I've since been on 400mg/month testosterone injections.

By the middle of summer I actually hit an all-time best 355 on bench, was squating 405 for a (comfortable as it can be) set of 5, and deadlifting like 405 for a set of 2. I think it was august as well when I started posting on the forums. I again had to switch gyms around this time after being frustrated at not having DB's over 100's (though I had all the barbell exercises at the Y). I joined a Gold's, which has all the weights I'll ever need. Also about this time i started having low bloodpressure readings and stopped having to take meds.

So at the end of 2012 I sat about 220 and 15-17% body fat. With all the weight lost (this time) by simply heavy lifting and reasonable calorie restriction.

And now, I'm just looking forward to where I end up at the end of 2013. I hope to maintain 210-225lbs at 10-12% body fat for the forseeable future. So within a year, I've gone from fat to fit and taken control of my health (cept the testosterone thing, but that's life).

Anyway, that's my story of what got me here. I've been all over the fitness map, so anytime I suggest things or the like, you know I've probably been there.