It’s been over a year since I began a more committed fitness “journey”. Here I reflect and share some thoughts on where I started, what my plan has been, how it’s been going and what my ultimate goals are.

My Background

I’ve always been pretty lean, at certain points some might even say “scrawny”. In highschool I was 6’2” and around 140 pounds. When I set off for college I was closer to 160 and after 4 long years (of “intense studying” 😜) I began my post-university life at around 180. For years (like… 10 years) I stayed in the 180-190 range, and then… the pandemic hit. I stopped going to the gym (where I played a lot of basketball) and my diet went from bad to worse. Things definitely started to get away from me and I did virtually nothing to backfill the activity I had lost. I knew I was getting out of shape but having never weighed myself or really tried to do much intense physical activity, it was hard to tell how bad it had gotten. It wasn’t until I was at my grandmas house one day, she had a scale and I weighed myself and I realized something needed to change. I clocked in at 210 pounds (some 20-30 lbs heavier than usual), the first time I had ever been over 200 and obviously the heaviest I had ever been, and I felt it. This was the turning point for me. It wasn’t long after that that I signed up for the gym again and not only restarted playing basketball but also committed to lifting weights for the first time in my life. I had a plan, or something that resembled a plan and I was serious about losing weight and more importantly, getting stronger and in better shape.

My Plan

So what was the plan? Pretty simple actually, albeit somewhat unspecific - eat better, lift weights at the gym 5-6 times a week, add in supplemental home workouts/exercises when appropriate and get back to playing basketball. The problem? I knew nothing about lifting weights and hadn’t a clue about how and what to eat to both lose weight while putting on muscle. Some learning and research was required…

To learn more about gym equipment and how to put together workout sets, I signed up for a personal trainer at my gym (Lifetime Fitness). I did a few sessions and learned the basics - proper form, how to use the machines, how to work different muscle groups, monitoring my heart rate and more! After that, I started putting together my own training splits. I enjoyed working with the trainer and wouldn’t mind continuing, but it is expensive and for me, I think I can put together my own plan after learning the basics. If I find in the future I am plateau-ing or otherwise looking to accelerate my progression, I may grab a few more sessions.

For diet, I learned (both from my trainer and through some online research) that I needed to hit a certain protein threshold to gain muscle - approximately 1g of protein per pound based on my goal weight. Beyond that, I needed to simply monitor calories - calorie deficit to lose weight and surplus to put on weight. My trainer suggested I use a protein powder supplement (namely, Lifetime brand collagen peptides) to hit my daily protein number. I hadn’t heard of and wasn’t entirely sure what “collagen peptides” were but I’ve been using it for over a year now and love it. The vanilla flavor tastes great in smoothies, is less heavy than traditional whey, and has good benefits for digestion, hair, skin, etc… To help me more accurately hit my macro numbers (protein but also general calories) each day I use a calorie tracker app on my phone. At first I used MyFitnessPal and even paid for the subscription. The paid version gives you access to the barcode scanning feature which is important for quick adds to the app. More recently, I discovered the FoodNoms app which is very similar to MyFitnessPal and has the barcode scanning feature in the free tier. I canceled MyFitnessPal and now use FoodNoms. FoodNoms has a more attractive interface in my opinion but its catalog of foods is poor compared to MyFitnessPal. Fortunately, I can supplement FoodNoms lack of catalog with MyFitnessPal’s as it is offered for free. I am off and on with diligently tracking macros/calories. I think a calorie tracker is indispensible in the early days of a fitness journey as you need to learn more about what foods have what in them, how much to eat, etc… Later, once you’re in more of a routine and have a decent idea of what you’re putting into your body you can lay off more diligent tracking.

When I first started my personal training sessions and actually lifting weights I was over 200 pounds (202 to be exact-ish) and at just over 20% body fat. So how’s it been going since then?

How it’s going

It’s been just over a year since I first started lifting weights and eating better, my “fitness journey” if you will. Overall, it’s going great! Some minor setbacks here and there but for the most part, I have been sticking with it and seeing results. Due to my current family life and work situation, I tend to go to the gym late, like 8pm+. I don’t mind this as I am usually up late anyways, tend to have a good amount of energy, even at that time, and being there late gives me the ability to take my time with the workout versus an early morning or lunch-time workout where I would feel rushed to get back to work. The gym tends to be less crowded at this time too which is a plus.

Up until recently, when at the gym I had my pick between lifting weights or playing pickup basketball and many a night, doing both. This was until Lifetime made the horrific decision to close BOTH of their basketball courts in favor of installing pickleball courts (one such example). My rage at this decision can not be described using words of human tongue, so I won’t try. I’ll just say, I don’t get it, and I’m sad that I can no longer play basketball at the gym and now need to find a new place to play, which means likely having to find a new gym altogether. It’s been a few weeks since I’ve played basketball and not only can I feel the effects, I just miss playing. The cardio is important for my fitness but I also get an emotional release from playing so I need to find that again.

My day-to-day training splits have evolved over time. I’ve added, subbed and removed exercises to build a mildly efficient but seemingly effective workout routine to help me net the gains I am looking for. I’m still no expert by any means and am always looking to learn and tweak the regimen. I actually get a lot of ideas for what to add to my routine through fitness “influencers” on Instagram.

The hardest part of “getting in shape”, or losing weight is not lifting weights/working out, it’s not even achieving the consistency of exercising every day. The hardest part is eating right. For me (and many others) exercise is fun! There is a chemical release associated with exercise and a primal satisfaction from using your body, the muscles, to do stuff. What isn’t fun is eating healthy - hah! Eating right means focusing on healthier foods which means less sugar, less carbs and less fats (very generally speaking). Thus, eating healthier means sacrificing at times, related to eating foods you may prefer taste-wise. What makes eating right a lot of work is the planning and prepping, plus the constant vigilance in not straying too far from the plan week in and week out. I’ve never really eaten healthy.

I’ve always been lean, always very active and my metabolism is maybe just good or something. Whatever this combination has been, it has let me compensate for the fact that I have never had a particularly healthy diet. To my credit, there are certain things I was always good at staying away from (i.e. soda), but I ate a lot of sweets, fried foods, drank a lot of beer, etc… Well once the pandemic came through, my diet stayed the same (or even got worse) but my exercise fell off a cliff. During this period of time where I’ve been looking to get in better shape I haven’t done a crazy amount of meal planning. There have been some weeks where I looked up “healthy” or otherwise protein-heavy meals and made them but for the most part I’ve stuck with a few reliable dishes, making them again and again. Notably, a gym rat’s go-to, chicken + rice + vegetables of some kind. Outside of chicken and rice, I tend to just focus on meals that are high-protein, even if they aren’t particularly low calorie.

For now, I’ve been more focused on putting on muscle rather than dropping pounds. I wouldn’t say I’ve ever tried to go through a “bulking” phase, but rather just not caring whether I gain or lose weight at this point. That said, with my beach trip coming up I know I’m going to want to go through a cut just to lose as much of the unwanted belly fat as I can. This is a problem for future Mike at this point =). Steak is one thing I haven’t had much of in the last year or so but that I have been planning on adding as a (probably weekly) part of my diet. It’s delicious and of course high protein. Though it’d be great if I had a bunch of diverse, delicious, healthy, protein-packed recipes/meals at my disposal, I’m happy with the fact that I can eat the same thing every day and not really get sick of it.

Challenges

So what challenges have I faced? Despite the fact that I’ve had a second baby in this time, I’ve been fortunate to have the time (and energy/motivation) to continue going to the gym at night. I’ve seen decent results, even if not the most accelerated gains and this has helped continue to motivate me with respect to consistently going. The biggest set backs have been illness (which I will admit isn’t overly frequent, but is unavoidable thanks to having one kid in daycare) and diet flubs (i.e. sweets, alcohol, etc…). Look, I don’t police myself too hard on diet and I allow myself to have the things that I like, but I do feel guilty when I have a beer these days. It’s just not something I really crave any more and I set myself back unnecessarily by having the lapse in discipline. When I go out with friends or to a restaurant with my wife, I like to have a drink, but do I really need one when just at the house? I need to master saying “no” to myself. My forthcoming challenge? Holiday season. This means delicious treats, cold weather keeping me inside and my favorite kinds of beers (i.e. heavier, sweeter stouts and the like). This combination of “unhealthier” foods coupled with not wanting to go outside to get my normal daily cardio might be a source of setback so I need to be vigilant!

Measuring Progress

So how can I measure progress? I can’t say I’ve done a great job tracking this and I really wish I had done some more measurements or even a picture of myself when I first started the “journey”. I do have some rough numbers to go by in terms of measuring my progress though and more qualitatively I can see physical/visual changes in my appearance. Let’s look at a few numbers I’ve captured

I mentioned that when I first started going to the gym in October-ish of 2022 I was 202 pounds and over 20% body fat. I measured myself again 2 months later in December and clocked in at 203 pounds but only 16% body fat. A pretty big drop! A steadfast commitment to my diet and playing a lot of basketball at the time probably had a lot to do with it. I measured myself again in September of this year (2023) and came in at 200 pounds (so pretty much the same weight) but now 12% body fat. Amazing! I don’t really have a body fat % goal but I’m happy to see that I’m maintaining weight while dropping fat. This means I’m replacing the fat with muscle.

The only other measurement I really have to help determine progress is to look at how much weight I’m lifting for different exercises. I’m not going to list every exercise I do, the weight I was lifting when I started and the weight I lift now, but I will provide some examples. Chest is a big focus of mine. I’ve (clearly) never really had much in the way of chest muscles and it showed. I had some trouble even with the bar (45 lbs) when I first started, though I remember putting 20-50 extra lbs on there for some reps when I was in my early training sessions. Now, I’ve hist 155-ish on bench press and 140 for dumbbells. Not bad! For arms, I was probably doing 25’s for my curls and do 40’s now. Similarly, I was probably doing 25’s for dumbbell military presses (shoulders) and do 55’s now. For leg day (which I actually enjoy) I went from squatting 115 maybe to doing well over two plates (so 225+ lbs). Anyways, I don’t know if this comes off as braggy or anything, hopefully it does not. As I’ve said before, I’ve never lifted weights. 34 years of my life came and went and I had never actually went to the gym and lifted. What this says to me and I hope says to others is that with a little commitment and discipline you can see some decent progression in a relative short amount of time.

Ok awesome! Things have been going pretty good I think, but what are my goals? Where do I want to be?

My goals

It’s hard to describe in any sort of exact way what my “goals” are. I have an idea of how I want to look but I don’t have any overtly specific strength goals or body fat % goals. I have two young kids so keeping up with them both from a stamina and picking-them-up-and-playing-with-them perspective is key. Aesthetically, losing the gut and boosting upper body muscle (chest + arms) is a goal. I’d like to stay in the 200-210 pound range while maintaining some amount of lean-ness. For my height (6’2”) this requires putting on a fair bit of muscle I think. I’m not looking to be “shredded” or anything, I just want to maintain an athletic build that is in fact athletic (i.e. I can run, play sports, keep up with my kids, etc…)

More tactically, my goal isn’t to just reach a certain physique, but to reach it and then maintain it. This means building better habits around exercise and diet. To do so, I need to have consistency and efficiency in how I go about it. In the last year, I’ve spent MORE time trying to right the (health) ship then I would like to once I hit maintenance mode. Not that I don’t enjoy working out, but I have other responsibilities and time is one currency that is hard to claw back. I want eating right to be second nature and I want to have an exercise program that allows me to maintain a certain strength/physique without me having to spend more hours than I need to at the gym.

Conclusion

I don’t have any grand summary. I think I’ve said it all in the ramblings above. I’m glad I recognized the unhealthy path I was on at an “early” stage and sought to correct it. I’m fortunate to have the time, resources and support from my family to allow me to work towards it. For any one else out there like me who sees themselves in progressively worse shape and wants to turn it around but knows nearly nothing about doing it, maybe my story can be helpful. Sit down, make a plan for exercise and diet and then execute on it. It’s not easy, but I promise it can be fun and rewarding in relative short order. Thanks for reading!

Training Splits

Here is an update to the training splits routine I posted on 8/8/2023.

Day 1: Legs
  • BB Back Squat
  • BB Split Squat
  • BB Romanian Dead Lift
  • Leg Extension
  • Hamstring/Leg Curl
  • Standing Machine Calf Raise
  • Leg Press Machine*
Day 2: Chest
  • Incline 30° DB Bench Press
  • Incline 45° DB Bench Press
  • DB Hex Press
  • BB Bench Press*
  • High Cable Fly
  • Low Cable Fly
  • Incline BB Bench Press
  • Machine Press
  • Chest Fly Machine*
  • Dips
Day 3: Arms & Shoulders
  • DB Alternating Hammer Curl w/ Static Hold
  • Sitting DB Military Press
  • DB Cross-Body Curl
  • DB Alternating Lateral Raise + Front Raise
  • DB Rear Delt Fly
  • Cable Straight Bar Tricep Extension
  • Cable Laterial Raise
  • Spider Curl
  • DB/BB Wrist Flexion*
Day 4: Back
  • Lat Pulldown
  • Machine Row
  • Wide-Grip Pull-Up (Assisted)
  • T-Bar Row+ (There are some other machines but I don’t know their names)
  • DB Row
Abs/Core

I sprinkle in Ab workouts throughout the week.

  • Sit-Up / Crunch
  • Reverse Sit-Up
  • Russian Twist
  • Bicycle Crunch
  • Plank
Cardio

Lots of basketball.

* These exercise I do sometimes depending on time and vibe.