|
2008/11/26, 10:55 AM
I know this has probably been done before on the forums, but I figured with new people joining every day, it may help or be inspirational to tell our stories of how fitness has changed our lives. If someone is just starting out, I think it may be very helpful for them to see that average folks can in fact achieve above average goals.
This is my story:
Growing up with a family of outstanding comfort food cooks isn't exactly the best model from which to learn healthy habits. Diner has always been an event with my family, so eating "just enough" was never really high on the priorities list. If I even mentioned the words "I'm hungry" there was usually a delicious, albeit unhealthy snack just around the corner. And I LOVED snacks.
Couple the great cooks thing with a gift of Nintendo from my dad and you pretty well have a recipe for low activity and weight gain.
So that was pretty much the norm for me all the way through high school. Which is basically the years that self image is at it's most delicate. I had the usual excuses to hide behind: Genetics, low metabolism, and so forth.
Post high school was worse because I had a decent job and a roommate, and NO rules. All of my buddies basically come from the same place I do. All of them practice very unhealthy dietary choices. So the support circle I had/have wasn't very conducive to physical fitness. By my early twenties, I was a twinky under 300 lbs.
So I did any other uneducated lazy guy would do. I bought Diet pills! Well that was a limited success and even with regular trips to the gym, within a couple years I had eaten my way back up to 280. That's when I knew I was missing something, and it was time to do it right. I began immersing myself in any and all fitness knowledge I could get my hands on.
So I put theory to practice, and wouldn't you know it I greatly improved over a short period of time. And at my friend's urging became a certified trainer. I was able to get down to 202 lbs and maintain it. No see-saw dieting, no gerbil food, no 3 hours of cardio a day. Just hard and smart work.
And the rewards have been huge. Fitness is the only thing that gives back 100% what you put into it. Perhaps the greatest gift I've ever received from my training has been a complete shift from a "why I can't" attitude to a "why I can". That sounds corny, but BELIEVE me it is 100% legit. And anyone who has stuck with their lifestyle change will tell you the same thing.
I have literally went from being "the guy with bad genetics" who's lot in life is to be heavy, to the guy who decides his own ends. I am nothing special genetically, but this is one Clark Kent who feels like a Superman.
Thanks for playing along, and I hope this helps to show a beginner that real people can achieve their fitness goals.
|
|
2008/11/26, 01:44 PM
i had to do an english project a while back about a year after i started lifting so i did a report on it i still had it so here it is i modified it a lil bit
It all started about a year ago when I first got into weightlifting. Back then I was a great deal smaller than I am now. I only weighed 125, and I could only bench about 120, which in my opinion was pathetic. In Craigs fitness center (our gym teacher we call it craigs fitness center because your only allowed in there when hes in there) I could get a lot more because there machine bench is a lot easier than the freeweight bench press; you don't even lay on your back. I think the pulleys make it easier. Anyways I decided that I needed a hobby so I started to lift. I started out simple, I would do an exercise for a few sets, then try and beat it the next time I lifted. Some of the lifts I do are the military press, squat, deadlift, skullcrusher, curl, bor, pullup, pushup, dumbbell press, pull down, lateral and side raises, and the dumbbell flye. I eventually started to record workouts so I could see how they stacked up week to week. I would even set goals for myself and try to reach them by a certain date. You have to eat so much food when you're lifting, so your body has the nutrition it needs to grow. I think I usually put down around 3500 calories a day. I usually have a routine I follow week to week doing all the different exercises. I plateaued twice and had to change things up. The usual thing happened to me that happens to anyone with average genetics, after the first three months or so you have to bust your butt to get results worth writing home about. At that time I decided to add some supplements, such as whey, creatine, and l-glutamine. As time passed my numbers kept creeping up, and I began to get obsessed with it. If I had to lift on a certain night I would blow off friends, and important events. The way mossy oak says it, ?its not a passion, its an obsession.? When I look back in old training logs and see my progress, it blows my mind. Over the course of a year, my bench went from 120 to 200 on a freeweight bench and 160 to 240 on Craigs easy bench. My deadlift went from a measly 200 up to 310. It isn't even a problem for me to max out on 2/3rds of the machines in the fitness center. This hobby has taken over my life, and I have no problem in letting that happen. I hope to be able to bench 250, and deadlift 350 by the end of the school year. So far I have been able to reach all of my goals?knock on wood.?As far as weight goes I went from around 120 to about 165 over the course of one year. In my overall opinion, I don't think that is to bad, I did get over1/3rd bigger. To this day I continue to lift
|
