Calorie intake help

I think that more food and rest will help a lot.

What are you doing each day at the gym?

Food-wise, calorie dense foods (meaning higher calories in small portions) like cheese and peanut butter could help. If you drink milk or eat cottage cheese or yogurt, get full fat or reduced fat and not fat free. Fat is a good thing! It helps keep your hormones working properly and helps you absorb vitamins that are in your food.

Don't get down on yourself about hip fat or not seeing abs. You're a work in progress, just like me and everybody here. I have spots that bug me and I know that it's hard sometimes to not like what we see in the mirror. But it is important to step back and see the big picture, the progress, you've made, and to appreciate what all your body does for you. You do serious labor in your job. That's impressive. Give your body credit for it. Enjoy that much deserved rest!

ace50270 wrote: »

I start off every work out with either 2 miles on the eliptical or 3-4 miles on the treatmill, I move to the pull up/dip with assistant pad and do 2 sets of 6-8 pull ups or dips, I move to the next machine which is a row machine ( pull weight towards you with rest pad against chest) 3 sets of 10-15 at 90lbs, I move to the inclined chest press or have it flat 3 sets 10-15 reps at 50-75 lbs, I finish off on the machine and I can't think of it's name but your at a sitting position with arms extended straight out to the sides and rotating to a closed arm position and I set the machine in reverse as well 3 sets 10-15 at 75 lbs, and leg day is your normal leg press equipment, running, squats. And I mix abs in on both days. I switch light day hard day.

I completely understand I need more rest but having to wake up at 430 am and not getting off til 6-7 at night and then off to the gym til around 9 and when that's all said and done I still have to fit my fiance and dog in, time isn't exactly on my hands, preparing meals is difficult (but with recipes my girlfriend is willing to assist and make them if she knows what she needs to make) the healthy eating is some what new and I need to expand my variety, my girlfriend is not into eating healthy like I am so it's hard to meet in the middle on meals at times.
I drink my protein shakes with whole milk and also consume a gallon of milk every 2-3 days. I like yogurt and peanut butter to a extent so I could use that, I like cheese except cottage.

Believe me I do my best to try to keep myself in the best shape as possible even with running ragged a majority of the time. I need a vacation! Lol. Iv been self conscious a majority of my life( I was a athlete and I had that drunk dad where I had to be the best at everything but nothing was ever good enough) I just want to be happy with myself for the first time in quite some time and I guess I'm just fighting for better results. I want to be the best me I can be but in my shoes it's not always easy.

I put in paragraphs so it was a bit easier to read.

I think that you may have misunderstood me when I said that you need to rest more. I don't mean rest more on top of all that you are doing. I mean that you need to reduce some of what you are doing in order to rest. From what I see you work 5-6 days a week doing landscaping/construction for 14 hours then after that you go to the gym for 90 minutes.

My suggestion is that when you are in your busy season for landscaping/construction you cut your lifting days down to two a week. On those two days, follow a solid lifting program rather than one you've constructed. This will help because you'll have something that is balanced and has instructions on how to progress. I think that a good full body program with A/B days would be good for this. There are a ton of programs out there but here are two possibilities. For both of them you could do Workout A on one day and Workout B on the other lifting day. Leave 1-2 days between lifting (e.g., Monday/Thursday or Tuesday/Friday, etc.):

* A Workout Routine (beginner) - http://www.aworkoutroutine.com/the-beginner-weight-training-workout-routine/ [Either version A or B. The difference is that B has a few isolation exercises added at the end.]
* Fierce 5 (note that there are several variations from beginner to advanced, 3-5 day, plus a dumbbell program) - http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=162916931&p=1266578971&viewfull=1#post1266578971 [Do either Novice Full Body or Novice Dumbbell]

Then when you get into your off season for landscaping/construction, you can increase to 3 times a week, as described in the programs.

For now, I'd cut down the elliptical/treadmill to probably twice a week and do it on non-lifting days. So your schedule might look like this:

Monday - lift
Tuesday - elliptical
Wednesday - rest
Thursday - lift
Friday - treadmill
Saturday - rest
Sunday - rest

Rest and food are really important for muscle building. I think that adjusting your schedule and exercise programming this way will help you. Not only will it give your body time to repair the muscles being worked, it will decrease the amount of food you need since you'll be burning fewer calories. That will get you out of this rut where you're stressing over not eating enough.