Number 1 resolution Part 1
In honor of the number one New Year's resolution, lose weight, I'm going to use my next few blogs to address some things I've learned about it over the last few years. Today, I'll give you a little background.
I was a fat kid growing up. While not the biggest kid in school, I was picked for the school's tug-o-war team for the weight advantage.
For my 11th birthday, I was given a gym membership. My dad and uncle were really into weight lifting, and I think Dad might have been a bit concerned about my weight and perhaps thought that if I would focus on some weights, I'd put on some muscle instead of fat. I did put on some muscle, but I ate tons of garbage so it was well hidden under gut and tits.
My first year of high school I was pretty much sick of myself and decided to lose weight. I followed the low fat plan and did a half hour to an hour of aerobic activity every day after school. I got down to a respectable weight but it didn't last very long. Slowly my eating got worse, I got lazy, I got heavier.
Over the next several years I would go from 185 to 200 to 190 to 210. The heaviest point I hit was 220. I'm 5'7" tall, and that's way out of the range I needed to be in. Fortunately, or unfortunately, I carried the weight fairly well because I was still lifting weights so I could kid myself into thinking that I was mostly muscle. I could be one of those guys in the gyms who said, "Ah, I'm focusing more on strength right now."
A few years ago, I got into Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. To test myself, I wanted to compete in some tournaments. BJJ is a weight class sport and competing at Heavyweight was not a good idea. I wasn't big enough to compete with guys who were legitimately my size, much less people who were bigger. I started the process of losing weight again.
Jogging 3 miles a few days a week and eating my low fat diet in 6 small meals a day, my weight went to 185. Actually, I was about 192, but cutting water weight got 185 to appear on the scales at the weigh in. I was happy because I didn't think there was much more to lose that.
Thru Jiu Jitsu, I was introduced to a training philosophy called CrossFit. For someone who'd been in and out of typical gyms for 16 years at that point, it seemed weird. After hearing that a lot of professional fighters do it, why not give it a try? The more I got into it, the more reading I did and the more my ideas of health and fitness changed.
Now with a different diet and workout regimen, I'm 173.
This isn't an attempt to brag, but a chance to let you know that I've been there. There's nothing worse than someone who's always been thin giving advice on how to do it.
Oh, really, all you do is not take the elevator and walk up the 3 flights of stairs to you apartment instead?
So, you just don't eat the pizza crusts and you stay thin?
There's a lot that I've learned that still I still haven't seen in more mainstream sources. In the next few days, the suggestions I give will mostly be websites to read that have helped me tremendously.
I was a fat kid growing up. While not the biggest kid in school, I was picked for the school's tug-o-war team for the weight advantage.
For my 11th birthday, I was given a gym membership. My dad and uncle were really into weight lifting, and I think Dad might have been a bit concerned about my weight and perhaps thought that if I would focus on some weights, I'd put on some muscle instead of fat. I did put on some muscle, but I ate tons of garbage so it was well hidden under gut and tits.
My first year of high school I was pretty much sick of myself and decided to lose weight. I followed the low fat plan and did a half hour to an hour of aerobic activity every day after school. I got down to a respectable weight but it didn't last very long. Slowly my eating got worse, I got lazy, I got heavier.
Over the next several years I would go from 185 to 200 to 190 to 210. The heaviest point I hit was 220. I'm 5'7" tall, and that's way out of the range I needed to be in. Fortunately, or unfortunately, I carried the weight fairly well because I was still lifting weights so I could kid myself into thinking that I was mostly muscle. I could be one of those guys in the gyms who said, "Ah, I'm focusing more on strength right now."
A few years ago, I got into Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. To test myself, I wanted to compete in some tournaments. BJJ is a weight class sport and competing at Heavyweight was not a good idea. I wasn't big enough to compete with guys who were legitimately my size, much less people who were bigger. I started the process of losing weight again.
Jogging 3 miles a few days a week and eating my low fat diet in 6 small meals a day, my weight went to 185. Actually, I was about 192, but cutting water weight got 185 to appear on the scales at the weigh in. I was happy because I didn't think there was much more to lose that.
Thru Jiu Jitsu, I was introduced to a training philosophy called CrossFit. For someone who'd been in and out of typical gyms for 16 years at that point, it seemed weird. After hearing that a lot of professional fighters do it, why not give it a try? The more I got into it, the more reading I did and the more my ideas of health and fitness changed.
Now with a different diet and workout regimen, I'm 173.
This isn't an attempt to brag, but a chance to let you know that I've been there. There's nothing worse than someone who's always been thin giving advice on how to do it.
Oh, really, all you do is not take the elevator and walk up the 3 flights of stairs to you apartment instead?
So, you just don't eat the pizza crusts and you stay thin?
There's a lot that I've learned that still I still haven't seen in more mainstream sources. In the next few days, the suggestions I give will mostly be websites to read that have helped me tremendously.
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