Well, here we go again
This is my tracking/accountability thread for my health & fitness program for 2012. I'm actually doing a 2-year program, which I call "Body by Dave". It consists of programs for sleep, diet, and exercise. I have 2 desired outcomes for 2012/2013:
1. High energy
2. Ripped physique (lean muscle)
I am not a high-energy person by default. I am, when I am very careful about how much sleep I get, what time I go to bed, what I eat, and whether or not I exercise. But otherwise, I tend to not have a lot of energy unless I really work at doing so. I like having a lot of energy because it gives me a lot of motivation to do things and makes my day way more fun. I am also filled with blubber, so I want to cut the fat and get ripped. I am not interested in getting huge - just in a lean, muscular physique. I am also not interested in strength training at this time, so no Stronglifts or anything like that. My specific goals are high energy & a lean, ripped physique, which I will achieve through my diet plan and exercise plan over the next 2 years.
The program is based on a no-gym "calisthenics" approach, which uses bodyweight exercises inspired by Olympic male gymnasts and calisthenics-based bodybuilders like the Calisthenics Kingz. This fits into my schedule a lot better than actually doing down to a gym, and also accommodates travel since you can do it right in your hotel room. I've cut the exercise program into 3 phases:
1. Fat loss program (3 months)
2. Foundational calisthenic program (9 months)
3. Advanced calisthenics program (12 months)
So for 2012, I'll be concentrating on fat loss until the end of March, then I'll start on building my up strength by doing my calisthenics program. I am really interested to see the effects of calisthenics in relation to bodybuilding (versus a traditional weights-based approach with lifting etc.), which is why I am not doing anything bodybuilding-related until I've met my fat-loss goal - I want to skinny myself up and start from a very basic physique. These are my program goals:
1. Sleep: Unplug from light sources at 7:00pm (Internet & TV), lights out at 7:45pm, wake up at 4:00am (approximately 8 hours of sleep).
2. Diet: 9 "meals" a day (eating every 2 to 2.5 hours). 24-hour fasting period once a month. Lots of water.
3. Exercise: Calisthenics & cardio-based program. 3 phases. Phase 1 is simply fat loss through cardio - 15 minutes in the morning on my elliptical and another 15 minutes in the afternoon, after work, to get my blood moving.
Sleep:
Sleep is the most difficult area for me. I've never been particularly good about going to bed at a reasonable hour, plus I have a 5-month-old baby with sleeping problems, so I'm suffering from interrupted sleep right now, which is extremely hard to deal with. I've found that I feel the best going to bed very early, around 8 or 9pm, although it sometimes takes me awhile to fall asleep.
I figure with a cleaned-up diet and daily exercise, I'll be more tired and should be able to fall asleep within 15 minutes, which is why I put down "lights out" at 7:45pm - hopefully I can be asleep by 8:00pm and get a full 8 hours of sleep. My kiddo typically goes down around this time and wakes up a few times during the night, so hopefully I can squeeze in at least 6 on a regular basis.
I also had a doctor recommend unplugging from any light-emitting sources an hour before bed to help you sleep. Something about your body making melatonin or something when it thinks it's "daytime" as a result of your eyes taking in flickering light sources. So I figure - shut off the computer & television at around 7:00pm and then be asleep by 8:00pm. I have plenty to fill that hour with (cleaning baby bottles, getting my stuff ready for the next day, etc.), so that shouldn't be a problem. So that's my sleeping plan - early sleep, and enough sleep.
This will be my hardest habit to change, plus I will be fighting against middle-of-the-night wakeup calls from my baby. However, as I've keep a health-dairy of sorts over the past few years, I've learned that my biggest source of energy & motivation comes from getting enough sleep at an early bedtime - moreso than a clean diet and regular exercise. If I'm tired, then nothing is fun to do because I'm dragging and don't feel like doing anything. I'm particularly sensitive to a lack of sleep, so I really want to nail this one this year.
Diet:
Diet is pretty easy for me. Over the past few years, I have discovered that I have a lot of food allergies & intolerances and as a result have had to learn how to cook more. I've learned what my body likes and can tolerate, I've learned efficient methods of cooking, and I've come up with a new diet for 2012. Basically it's 9 "meals" a day. I have a high metabolism and like having a lot of mini-meals or "snacks". Since I am restricted on what I can eat (in particular no diary or gluten, aka wheat), it actually makes diet planning a bit easier because I end up just making everything from scratch anyway. This is the basic diet:
Meal 1: Steel-cut oatmeal + Broccoli-stuffed Egg White Omelet
Meal 2: Sweet potato smoothie (blend 1/2 sweet potato + soy milk + pumpkin pie spice)
Meal 3: Tuna (1/2 can), cauliflower, brown rice
Meal 4: Chicken breast, small red potato
Meal 5: Tuna (1/2 can), broccoli
Meal 6: Chicken breast, 1/2 sweet potato
Meal 7: Fruit smoothie (blend banana, frozen fruit, baby spinach, soy milk)
Meal 8: Meat salad (turkey or bison burger, crumbled over mixed salad with chopped veggies)
Meal 9: 2 tablespoons natural peanut butter
Most meals are only around 4 ounces or so, nothing huge, more snack-sized. I feel a lot better having small meals throughout the day. As part of my diet, I will also only be drinking water. I use milk alternatives for the smoothies and oatmeal (soy or almond) because they aren't too palatable with water, plus I need the calcium since I can't drink regular milk. I also fast once a month for 24-hours (read up on the health benefits if you're not familiar). I don't drink, smoke, or do drugs, so that's not a big deal.
I will do most of the cooking prep on Saturday, and the rest in the morning before I go to work. I've got the food prep dialed down over the past few months so that it's pretty much automated - I use a fuzzy-logic rice cooker for the brown rice & oatmeal, a blender for the smoothies, a slow cooker with a built-in timer for the chicken, a small George Foreman grill for the burgers, and a microwave or stovetop for the rest. So I can do most of the cooking concurrently & spend minimal time babysitting it, but cook enough that I have a week's worth of food in the fridge to grab. So it's mostly a matter of shopping on Saturday, doing the bulk of the cooking on Saturday, and then doing meal prep every morning (cooking the omelet & packing the other meals into my big lunchbox).
Exercise:
As I mentioned earlier, my exercise program is split into 3 phases, the first 2 of which will be completed in 2012. From January to March, I will be focusing exclusively on fat loss through diet and cardio (15 minutes in the morning, 15 minutes in the afternoon). Really simple. I am fairly out-of-shape right now and probably 25 pounds overweight, so this will be a good way to ramp up my endurance. I also have a trick knee that pops when I do running, so the elliptical is a lot nicer to train on. The elliptical is setup in front of my TV and I have a Netflix subscription, so I'll have something to entertain me and make workouts fun.
The second phase is my calisthenics foundation, which consists of a basic calisthenics routine of pushups, pullups, etc. More details when I get there. It takes 9 months to complete (it's a strength build-up program that ultimately ends with doing 210 pushups in a row). I got the original version from my dad, which is pretty great shape. Next year is the more advanced stuff, but I need a good strength foundation to build off first.
Other Goals:
One of the most difficult challenges I face is being consistent at my goals. I tend to fizzle out on motivation rather quickly. I've found that being accountable to someone (especially using the buddy system) helps a lot, and due to my schedule, this thread will be the substitute for that - I like to post on a regular basis because it keeps me in the game, and I really appreciate the feedback and getting cheered on by everyone here, because it does get hard to stick with at times. My goal is to post every single day for the next year in this thread (366 days next year with leap year!), and to post details about my sleep, diet, and exercise progress for the day. I'm sure I'll have to tweak things along the way (diet etc.) so I'll update as things change.
I look forward to achieving my goals this year. Wish me luck. Cheers :awe:
This is my tracking/accountability thread for my health & fitness program for 2012. I'm actually doing a 2-year program, which I call "Body by Dave". It consists of programs for sleep, diet, and exercise. I have 2 desired outcomes for 2012/2013:
1. High energy
2. Ripped physique (lean muscle)
I am not a high-energy person by default. I am, when I am very careful about how much sleep I get, what time I go to bed, what I eat, and whether or not I exercise. But otherwise, I tend to not have a lot of energy unless I really work at doing so. I like having a lot of energy because it gives me a lot of motivation to do things and makes my day way more fun. I am also filled with blubber, so I want to cut the fat and get ripped. I am not interested in getting huge - just in a lean, muscular physique. I am also not interested in strength training at this time, so no Stronglifts or anything like that. My specific goals are high energy & a lean, ripped physique, which I will achieve through my diet plan and exercise plan over the next 2 years.
The program is based on a no-gym "calisthenics" approach, which uses bodyweight exercises inspired by Olympic male gymnasts and calisthenics-based bodybuilders like the Calisthenics Kingz. This fits into my schedule a lot better than actually doing down to a gym, and also accommodates travel since you can do it right in your hotel room. I've cut the exercise program into 3 phases:
1. Fat loss program (3 months)
2. Foundational calisthenic program (9 months)
3. Advanced calisthenics program (12 months)
So for 2012, I'll be concentrating on fat loss until the end of March, then I'll start on building my up strength by doing my calisthenics program. I am really interested to see the effects of calisthenics in relation to bodybuilding (versus a traditional weights-based approach with lifting etc.), which is why I am not doing anything bodybuilding-related until I've met my fat-loss goal - I want to skinny myself up and start from a very basic physique. These are my program goals:
1. Sleep: Unplug from light sources at 7:00pm (Internet & TV), lights out at 7:45pm, wake up at 4:00am (approximately 8 hours of sleep).
2. Diet: 9 "meals" a day (eating every 2 to 2.5 hours). 24-hour fasting period once a month. Lots of water.
3. Exercise: Calisthenics & cardio-based program. 3 phases. Phase 1 is simply fat loss through cardio - 15 minutes in the morning on my elliptical and another 15 minutes in the afternoon, after work, to get my blood moving.
Sleep:
Sleep is the most difficult area for me. I've never been particularly good about going to bed at a reasonable hour, plus I have a 5-month-old baby with sleeping problems, so I'm suffering from interrupted sleep right now, which is extremely hard to deal with. I've found that I feel the best going to bed very early, around 8 or 9pm, although it sometimes takes me awhile to fall asleep.
I figure with a cleaned-up diet and daily exercise, I'll be more tired and should be able to fall asleep within 15 minutes, which is why I put down "lights out" at 7:45pm - hopefully I can be asleep by 8:00pm and get a full 8 hours of sleep. My kiddo typically goes down around this time and wakes up a few times during the night, so hopefully I can squeeze in at least 6 on a regular basis.
I also had a doctor recommend unplugging from any light-emitting sources an hour before bed to help you sleep. Something about your body making melatonin or something when it thinks it's "daytime" as a result of your eyes taking in flickering light sources. So I figure - shut off the computer & television at around 7:00pm and then be asleep by 8:00pm. I have plenty to fill that hour with (cleaning baby bottles, getting my stuff ready for the next day, etc.), so that shouldn't be a problem. So that's my sleeping plan - early sleep, and enough sleep.
This will be my hardest habit to change, plus I will be fighting against middle-of-the-night wakeup calls from my baby. However, as I've keep a health-dairy of sorts over the past few years, I've learned that my biggest source of energy & motivation comes from getting enough sleep at an early bedtime - moreso than a clean diet and regular exercise. If I'm tired, then nothing is fun to do because I'm dragging and don't feel like doing anything. I'm particularly sensitive to a lack of sleep, so I really want to nail this one this year.
Diet:
Diet is pretty easy for me. Over the past few years, I have discovered that I have a lot of food allergies & intolerances and as a result have had to learn how to cook more. I've learned what my body likes and can tolerate, I've learned efficient methods of cooking, and I've come up with a new diet for 2012. Basically it's 9 "meals" a day. I have a high metabolism and like having a lot of mini-meals or "snacks". Since I am restricted on what I can eat (in particular no diary or gluten, aka wheat), it actually makes diet planning a bit easier because I end up just making everything from scratch anyway. This is the basic diet:
Meal 1: Steel-cut oatmeal + Broccoli-stuffed Egg White Omelet
Meal 2: Sweet potato smoothie (blend 1/2 sweet potato + soy milk + pumpkin pie spice)
Meal 3: Tuna (1/2 can), cauliflower, brown rice
Meal 4: Chicken breast, small red potato
Meal 5: Tuna (1/2 can), broccoli
Meal 6: Chicken breast, 1/2 sweet potato
Meal 7: Fruit smoothie (blend banana, frozen fruit, baby spinach, soy milk)
Meal 8: Meat salad (turkey or bison burger, crumbled over mixed salad with chopped veggies)
Meal 9: 2 tablespoons natural peanut butter
Most meals are only around 4 ounces or so, nothing huge, more snack-sized. I feel a lot better having small meals throughout the day. As part of my diet, I will also only be drinking water. I use milk alternatives for the smoothies and oatmeal (soy or almond) because they aren't too palatable with water, plus I need the calcium since I can't drink regular milk. I also fast once a month for 24-hours (read up on the health benefits if you're not familiar). I don't drink, smoke, or do drugs, so that's not a big deal.
I will do most of the cooking prep on Saturday, and the rest in the morning before I go to work. I've got the food prep dialed down over the past few months so that it's pretty much automated - I use a fuzzy-logic rice cooker for the brown rice & oatmeal, a blender for the smoothies, a slow cooker with a built-in timer for the chicken, a small George Foreman grill for the burgers, and a microwave or stovetop for the rest. So I can do most of the cooking concurrently & spend minimal time babysitting it, but cook enough that I have a week's worth of food in the fridge to grab. So it's mostly a matter of shopping on Saturday, doing the bulk of the cooking on Saturday, and then doing meal prep every morning (cooking the omelet & packing the other meals into my big lunchbox).
Exercise:
As I mentioned earlier, my exercise program is split into 3 phases, the first 2 of which will be completed in 2012. From January to March, I will be focusing exclusively on fat loss through diet and cardio (15 minutes in the morning, 15 minutes in the afternoon). Really simple. I am fairly out-of-shape right now and probably 25 pounds overweight, so this will be a good way to ramp up my endurance. I also have a trick knee that pops when I do running, so the elliptical is a lot nicer to train on. The elliptical is setup in front of my TV and I have a Netflix subscription, so I'll have something to entertain me and make workouts fun.
The second phase is my calisthenics foundation, which consists of a basic calisthenics routine of pushups, pullups, etc. More details when I get there. It takes 9 months to complete (it's a strength build-up program that ultimately ends with doing 210 pushups in a row). I got the original version from my dad, which is pretty great shape. Next year is the more advanced stuff, but I need a good strength foundation to build off first.
Other Goals:
One of the most difficult challenges I face is being consistent at my goals. I tend to fizzle out on motivation rather quickly. I've found that being accountable to someone (especially using the buddy system) helps a lot, and due to my schedule, this thread will be the substitute for that - I like to post on a regular basis because it keeps me in the game, and I really appreciate the feedback and getting cheered on by everyone here, because it does get hard to stick with at times. My goal is to post every single day for the next year in this thread (366 days next year with leap year!), and to post details about my sleep, diet, and exercise progress for the day. I'm sure I'll have to tweak things along the way (diet etc.) so I'll update as things change.
I look forward to achieving my goals this year. Wish me luck. Cheers :awe: