bradr’s BodyBlog

currently I am at 195 lbs, I am eating 5,000 calories a day.  I work 6 days a week, 10-12 hours a day of hard labor.  I burn up to 6500 calories a day on a good day, this usually means I just don’t have enough time or energy to eat when I get home, so for the past week, I’ve actually been CUTTING at 5,000 calories.  I started drinking 1% milkfat instead of nonfat to get a few extra in, as well as having 4 bottles of orange juice throughout the workday.  I also have started eating 2 bowls of cereal in the morning instead of just 1.  

The trick is to get in most of your calories during the day, while you are working.  The hard part is finding the time to get that food in.  there are 24 hours in a day, but you are usually only awake for 16.  So, 6500 calories, add 500 for bulking = 7000.

7,000 calories over 16 hours is 437 calories an hour… are you kidding me?  How the hell do some of the guys I work with have huge pot bellies then?

Anyways.. they have to be taken in large part, breakfast, and you can eat during the drive to work too.  Liquid form of calories would be the quickest, as you can drink them down during a break at work.  

Okay so my status.. I haven’t gained any weight in the past couple weeks, the mirror is telling me that my triceps are gaining some little size as well as my traps.  I’m actually going backwards until I get my diet spot on, and find more energy/time to lift.  I did get in a couple lift sessions, but I ended up tired as hell the next day, and they weren’t very productive without a good diet.

So, I’ll nail down my nutrition first before anything else.

I have been trying to assess my weight the past few days but the scale jumps like crazy - one morning I was at 192, that night I was at 197, next morning I was at 196.  that night I was back down to 194.

So, weight is an unreliable measure of progress at this time.  Too many factors are at work - fullness, glycogen, creatine water retrention, hydration, time of day.

I have been eating 500+ over maintanence calorie wise, and lifting hard.  I try my best to get enough sleep and I stay fed throughout the day.

So in conclusion, I believe I am still moving forward.  I will be upping my caloric intake to around 700+, focusing my meals around pre and post workout, and making a better attempt at staying fed throughout the day.

One note to myself, very important - do not stop LIFTING, no matter what.  You may fail diet wise but you can recover quickly.  You may lose some weight here or there, gain more than you want.  But once you stop lifting, you will begin to lose.

So LIFT - no matter where you are in life, no matter what is coming at you or pulling you down.
If you’re underweight, overweight, healthy or sick, tired.. even dying.
PUSH!!!

In the two years I’ve spent playing around with dieting, lifting, exercising, I’ve learned a few rules that must be followed if you want to expect a result.  They are very simple, easy to understand.  They must be followed, which ever direction you have decided to go, which brings us to the first rule.

Rule 1 - Decide which direction you want to go.  Add muscle, or Burn fat.  Do not expect muscle growth if you are burning fat, and do not expect fat burn if you are adding muscle.  You can disagree with me on this, but it is a rule and a fact that you are either doing one or the other, there is no in between unless you are eating exactly as many calories as you are burning.  You are better off choosing one of the two options if you expect to see results.

Rule 2 - Whichever direction you choose, you MUST weight train if you expect to see results.  Cardio is great for your health, but it is not a rule to see results.  You can adjust caloric intake up or down to lose and gain weight, but weight training will FORCE your muscles to grow when you are adding muscle, and it will set your metabolism at a higher level and create a need for muscle when you are burning fat.

Rule 3 - Eat wholesome, healthy foods.  There are enough calorie in vs. calorie out threads out there you can search for if you want to argue the matter.  Go find them.  It is a rule that if you are eating crap, you will end up looking and feeling like crap.  McDonalds, Chips Ahoy, Ben and Jerry’s, these are NOT muscle adding foods, they are FAT adding foods.  If you’re looking to grow fat and not muscle, then by all means enjoy those foods.  If you are planning to add LEAN MASS to your body then you better be eating LEAN meats, healthy mono and poly fats, and good WHOLESOME carbohydrates.  If you are planning to burn fat, wholesome foods will keep you fuller longer, provide less caloric intake compared to portion sizing, and provide enough nutrition to keep you feeling positive.

Rule 4 - Push yourself past your limit, every workout, whatever work you are doing.  Push yourself past that last rep when you are weight training - even if the weight isn’t moving PUSH.  If it isn’t moving, drop the weight and make it move until it doesn’t move anymore.  Don’t settle for a routine workout, this is where you MAKE yourself grow.  If you don’t do damage to your muscles, if you don’t push them past their comfort zone - do not expect to see any results.  But if you do push, if you do take in more calories than you burn, you’ve created a simple equation of growth.  It MUST happen.  If you are taking in less calories than you burn, you are eating wholesome, healthy foods, and you are weight training, prepare yourself to see the fat burning away.  It’s a simple rule, expect to see results.

Don’t sell yourself short in eating and training.  Have a vision for yourself and what you want out of your body.  Whatever you settle for, that is what you will get.

well I have finally begun to turn my eating habits.  I spent the last month focusing on lifting every other day, and the past two weeks i have been limited as I am working out of town for a week and coming hom the weekends.  I get plenty of exercise at my job, but probably not enough of the muscle building kind.  but I’ve had plenty of time to hone my diet.

I’ve been eating mostly oats, high fiber cereals and drinking plenty of water during my time away and it keeps me full pretty much all day.  I eat through the day as well, usually have some beans wrapped in a high fiber tortilla for lunch or dinner.  Probably not very appealing to most people but I find some kind of weird pleasure out of eating the simple things.  Beans are a very good source of protein and fiber. If I continue doing this, in a few months I’ll be back to where I was last september, and I’ll be in peak condition for plenty of summer activities.  Wish me luck!

I don’t care if anyone reads this, actually it might be better off that way.  It’s been a long winter and that tugging feeling is coming around again, making me less able to sit around on my ass and making me more aware of how much unnecessary food I am allowing myself.  Anyways, this isn’t the first time I’ve started from square one, in fact I feel like I’ve done it all my life - it’s a sick habit that I’ve grown accustomed to:  make a goal, attain that goal, and slip back into your old ways.

Now this is simply unacceptable - if you do the same thing over and over again and expect a different result, you’re insane - and I’m insane.  Smoking, cussing, working, attitude - it’s not limited to exercise and health, I’ve started and stopped smoking probably 5 times now - it’s a personality problem.

So here I am, at the very beginning again - I’m ready, able and willing to change.  But anyone with a brain is going to say… there is a pattern here.  Now, what will cause him to change this pattern?  How can he change the pattern?

Well then, let’s see if I can…

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