Mikey got fat.

Well after all my traveling, illnesses, and poor eating habits for the last 4 months, my nomadic lifestyle finally caught up with me and Mikey got fat! 

I didn’t realize it until I was in Sacramento a couple weeks ago and I checked my body fat at my brother’s house with his electrical bodyfat measuring apparatus.   I was shocked to see that I was 18.3% bodyfat; which was the most I think I’ve ever been!

Because of my profession and my preferred beach lifestyle in the summer, 18.3% fat is unacceptable; so I’ve decided to go gangbusters and drop the fat as quick as I can, using this blog as a way to track the progress and hopefully keep me motivated.  I’m pretty lazy when it comes to eating healthy so I’m hoping that if I keep a record of my eating and exercise habits on here that it will ‘shame’ me into making the right choices.

Goal:

So my overall goal will be to get from 18.3% bodyfat to only 8% bodyfat in 2 months.  This will be a challenge for me because I’ve never actually been down to 8% bodyfat before.  The closest I’ve ever been was 9.5% or something in that range.  And 2 months isn’t a lot of time to get there.

Starting stats:

Without flexing muscles or sucking in my gut, here are my starting stats:

Weight: 176lbs (so 18.3% bodyfat is about 32.2lbs of fat)

Thigh circumference: 22”

Calf circumference: 14”

Top of neck: 15”

Upper arm: 13.75”

Forearm: 11.25”

Waist:  35.75”

Fattest part of waist (at belly button): 37”

Obstacles: 

Besides having only 2 months to drop over 10% bodyfat; some of the other obstacles I’ll have to overcome are as follows:

1)   I love to eat junk and LOTS of it!  Even when I would diet in the past I would still allow myself at least one soda a day and a few pizzas and ‘taco bell’ runs.  I could still lose weight but it would take longer than I have allotted myself; so no more.

2)   I have no access to a gym or exercise equipment.  I have been, and will continue to be living between Las Vegas, Sacramento, and Los Angeles for the next few weeks so I won’t be able to workout at any particular place and will have no schedule to base any sort of plans on.

3)   In addition, having to crash on couches and at hotels for the next couple weeks means that it will be very hard to get healthy groceries to cook at someone else’s place versus going to the local taqueria.

4)   I’m a vegetarian, which means my limited diet for the next 8 weeks will be ever more limited than the average dieter who can just have some lean chicken breast and veggies and call it a meal.

5)   Money.  Because I’ve been spending money like water recently and will continue to as I pay for my travel expenses for the next few weeks, I don’t have a lot of money to drop at expensive health food places.  If it comes down to a $9 Whole Foods salad or a $2 Taco Bell meal, it will be tempting to take the money saving option.

6)   My left knee has a torn medial meniscus that has kept me from being able to jump or run faster than a light jog for the past 8 months or so.  This is going to limit the types of workouts I can do.

These are the main obstacles I see for me as I’m starting out.  Obviously they aren’t impossible to overcome, but it will take a bit more will power and planning than I’m used to.

Game Plan:

To lose 10% bodyfat in 8 weeks means I’ll have to lose about 1.25% bodyfat a week.  That’s roughly 2.5lbs of fat a week, for a total of 20 total lbs of fat lost in 2 months.

Diet:

The diet I want to try is called the ‘slow carb diet’ and as it was described in the book ‘The 4 hour Body’, here are the rules:

1)   No ‘white’ carbs such as pasta, bread, sugar, etc; or anything that can be white (like potatoes).

2)   Eat the same few meals over and over.  So I’ll basically just have 5 different meals to choose from daily.

3)   Don’t drink calories.  Only water and maybe coffee or tea if I have a breakdown and need caffeine.

4)   Take one day off a week as a cheat day to eat whatever you want.  To be honest this is my favorite part of the diet and one of the reasons why I chose it.  But it’s necessary to have a big calorie day a week to keep your body’s metabolism from slowing down.  Yay for cheat days! 

Workout:

Although I don’t have access to a gym, I do have one of these rubber band things:

I plan on using this rubber band thing for curls, shoulder presses, and tri extensions; and then doing pushups, bodyweight squats, and one-legged calf raises for the rest of the workout.  I’ll workout 3 times a week.

On the non-workout days I’ll try to throw in some cardio; though because of my knee it will be limited to whatever level of intensity it can tolerate.

Anyway, that’s the basic plan!  I took some 'before' pics but they're so gross that I might not post them unless I need to for added motivation via embarrassment.  I'll be starting the diet and exercise plan tomorrow (March 3^rd) and will hopefully finish April 28^th.  I’ll be updating my progress on here at least once a week, when I will post my newest stats.  Let’s see how I do.