Time To Commit To Get Fit!

Thanks for joining me!

Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength. – Arnold Schwarzenegger

A goal of mine for quite some time now has been to get fit. I’ve sporadically gone to my local gym with my best friend from high school since our Senior year, he stuck with it and I didn’t. The results certainly spoke for themselves.

This past summer, I found a lifting program and stuck with it for two months. I became much stronger, was consistently hitting my calorie targets, and was both losing weight and gaining muscle. I peaked at 168 pounds from 185 two months prior. I felt great, and everything was falling into place; but then I just stopped.

Since my peak, I’ve regained the weight I lost, and essentially brought myself back to square one. I think this class and these blogging assignments will help me become accountable to myself to lose weight and gain muscle this year, as I had planned on going to the gym before I enrolled in this class.

As for the specifics, I’ll list them below:

Goal: to lose at least 10 pounds by the end of the semester and gain muscle (exhibited by increased lifting numbers compared to the start of this process)

To achieve this:

• I must eat better through the use of a calorie tracker (MyPlate powered by livestrong.com)
• I will also use this calorie tracker to track my macros, aiming for 40% protein, 30% fat, and 30% carbs consumed per day.
• I will work out 6 days a week, resting on Sundays, as I have done previously.
• Workouts will be anchored by a squat/dead-lift split, coupled with bench press, lateral pull downs, and cable flys on squat days. Dead-lift days will consist of dead-lifts, seated rows, overhead press, and arm work (biceps/triceps). Every workout will end with a 1 mile run on the track.

This is the routine that brought me down to 168 pounds, the problem I’ve been struggling with is the motivation to stick with this long enough to form a habit. If I can create this habit by the end of the semester, it will serve me well into the future as I can adapt/pair down my exercise schedule to fit a changing lifestyle in the future.

It’s also important to note that through heavy weight training, I will be gaining muscle. Human muscle mass weighs more than fat, so if all goes well, I may end up losing excess fat and gaining muscle to the point where I actually gain weight instead of losing it. Only time will tell, but I’m excited at the prospect of leading a healthier life and actively working to institute this lifestyle change into my daily routine.

Thanks for reading!