duke0477’s BodyBlog

Well, my time in the desert has finally come to a close (for now).  I am sitting here waiting on the plane that is going to get me out of here and wanted to take a moment to reflect on my accomplishments and make a commitment to continue in reaching and setting new goals.  Although life will be hectic when I get home with moving and finding a new home; I am going to continue to focus on good eating habits and find a gym quickly so I can continue improving.  I can look at my first progress picture and that should be motivation enough to stay on course.   I am happy with my progress to date, but I am still not satisfied.  I hope to continue posting updates better then the ones before.  Thanks to all the folks on here who have been super supportive!  My next updates, I will be back in the States.  What a great feeling.  Take care.

I will occasionally read the main page’s BLOGs to see what some of the members on here are doing.  Normally I read and move on or if it is a good one I will comment or give support.  A very recent BLOG entitled, "Gayness of the Glove" caught my eye and I had to read it.  Unfortunately it was exactly what the title implied.  According to this member, if you wear gloves, you are not a man or as the title implies you’re "gay".  In his defense, he does say "there is nothing wrong with them" after totally bashing "glove wearers".
I am not even offended by this BLOG as much as I am upset to intentions behind it.  Attitudes like this are why so many would be gym goers don’t go as they are worried about being judged for how much they can lift or whether they wear gloves it seems.  Very few people show up to the gym day one and bench 315.  I am really concerned how folks like this are more worried about what the other guys are wearing in the gym.  I just wish people would worry more about they are doing then guy next to them and if a guy wants to wear gloves to lift, you should give more respect to the fact he is in the gym and not sitting on the couch eating cheetos or it could be respect deserved as he is lifting more then you.
There is enough negativity and I see no reason to find any on here.  Everyone works out differently and people have been working out for years still have things to learn.  It is all a learning process.  This site is great because of the support of all the great members on here, let’s keep it that way!

Well, I am at my year mark since I made a commitment to sticking with eating right and going to the gym regularly.  I can say that I am very pleased with the results to date.  I remember the date clearly as it was two days before Christmas last year and I was feeling really down about myself about how out of shape and overweight I had let myself become.  So that was the night I started.  As strange as two nights before Christmas might seem, it was a Christmas present to myself.  So over the last year, I have stayed steady to my goals and although did not meet all my goals, I met the most important ones and feel like a whole new person and have been told I look like one as well.

My year-mark accomplishments:

Weight:  From 238 to 208, lost 30 pounds of scale weight

BF%: 33.6 to 14.54, Lost over 19% bodyfat

Waist:  43.25 to 34 inches, lost almost 10 inches

Hips: 45 to 38.5 inches, lost 6.5 inches

And of course, the always expected, Before and "in Progress" picture

23 Dec 07                     
        25 Dec 08 

Those are some of the highlights, but the best part is how much better I feel and how the gym and diet has become a part of my life.  I am excited to see what I can do with this upcoming year.  I want to thank all of the great people on here who have given advice and a lot of encouragment.  On days, where I felt like throwing in the towel were the days when so many on here came to the rescue and left a kind word, which got me back on track.

 I hope everyone here is having a happy holiday season and wishing you the best!

Well, it is official, I did my first weigh in since returning from vacation and it did not go well.  I was on vacation for just short of four weeks which involved travelling in as many countries.  Well, I let my diet slide a little and my workouts were spotty.  As a result a lot of the progress I have made in the 10 months prior was lost.  It wasn’t a huge amount, but when you fight so hard to lose that pound or cut that inch, every bit seems enormous.  So, the most damaging was gaining 9 pounds and then adding a little over two inches to the midsection.  I had reached my goal prior to going on vacation of getting below 200 pounds and now it looks like I have to reset that same goal.  The fault rests on no one but myself just as no one but myself will fix it.  I am now back and I am back in the gym and have my diet back on track.  I am hoping to get back down to below 200 as quickly as possible so I can also reach my next goal of making it to 185.  Having to set the same goal twice is frustrating, but the vacation did do me wonders and I feel ready to get back in the gym and hit it hard again.  

No excuses, it is what it is; now I just got to put the time in to fix it.  Hope everyone is doing well.  Thanks for reading!

I don’t really write on here as much as I probably should, so I figure I would post my 10-month review of my progress since I started my journey to retake my health.  Well my biggest accomplishment was made this morning and that was getting beneath the 200 pound mark.  that was pretty big for me as it has been almost 4 years since I weighed below 200.  I would like to get down to 185, but retain the lean mass I have worked so hard for.  So I know it will be a hard battle balancing between losing weight and preserving muscle.  If I have learned nothing else in the last 10 months, it is that patience is necessary to avoid giving up.  My goals were not met overnoght and some seemed like I would never get there, but by not giving up (thanks to the help of several on this site), I was able to meet my goals.  I am far from finished, but I am very proud of my accomplishments and would like to thank all those who stopped by my site and gave me words of encouragement.  It’s amazing how something as little as a one-liner can motivate someone so much. 

Achievements:

Lost 39 lbs. (14 lbs. more to go)

Lost 20% bodyfat (3% more to go)

Lost 11 inches off my waist (1.5 more to go)

Lost 7 inches off my hips

The biggest achievement is regaining my health and regaining a lot of self confidence that had slipped away during the time I had put on all the excess weight.  So far, the journey has been a good one and I wouldn’t change a thing.  Thanks to all of you and to those who have inspired me to try harder and not give up.

Well, I have been hitting the gym and eating clean for 6 months now and I figure I would capture some of the highlights and some of the things I have learned along the way.  The highlights of my journey so far have been 38 pounds lost and 9 inches off my waist.  Those two things along with the benefit of feeling much better physically and mentally.  The first thing I learned was patience, none of my accomplishments came over night and some were harder then others to achieve.  One pound here, an inch there, and eventually I was down 38 pounds and went from a 43 inch waist to a 34.  I was laughing as two months ago I had to buy new pants as I was told I looked like a homeless person in my old one as they were way too big.  Two months have passed and I may have to buy another new set as these are getting too big now.  Another thing I learned is, diet is the key.  You can go to the gym for hours on end, but if you live on junk food, at best you may not gain more fat, but you will be hard pressed to lose it.  It took some getting use to, but keeping a log of workouts and my diet really helped me monitor my progress and helped me learn a little more about my body.

People have asked me what I did and when I tell them I lifted weights and ate right.  Most give me the "I don’t want to get big (muscular) and I eat pretty well."  First off lifting weights although may work your muscles, you have to seriously work to put on muscles to be "big".  Females (Some not all) are usually the first to tell me that as they think picking up a dumbell and doing a bicep curl is going to result in them having 18 inch arms.  If only it was that easy.  Then the eating right part is an eye roller as I watch them eat junk food all day and have things like french fries and foods high in fat.  So as far as eating "pretty well", I guess, compared to bellying up to a can of Crisco and grabbing a spoon.  I can relate to most of these people as I was one for awhile, I ate crappy food and I didn’t go to the gym.  All it got me was seriously overweight, a low self image, and a lot of medical risks.  So, in that thought process, I do not know how they can tell me about my side as they have never been here.  I am by no means a poster child for the physically fit, so I am not preaching, but I chose to do what I did for myself.  I had so many people along the way who were negative about it and tried to get me to eat junk food or found ways to poke fun.  What I noticed was, those people were not fit, but were jealous of what I had done as if it was just handed to me.  I busted my rump to achieve what I have done and that defines the difference between me and those folks.  They would rather eat junk and be lazy and I am all for it, just means more gym space for me.

To the folks here on BB.com, you guys are great and I am really happy I found this site.  Almost everyone I have talked to on here has been really supportive and have taught me a lot.  So I wanted to close out by saying thank you for the words of encouragement and information.  If asked the keys to success, I would tell everyone, "Diet, Excercise and BB.com"

Here in Iraq, they just had the 2nd annual Bodybuilding contest on May 24th.  Unfortunately I was not able to go due to work, but after looking at the pictures and talking to a few that participated, it sounds like another will be held in October.  Right now, I am planning on competing as it will give me something to work towards and a driving goal at the gym.  This comes at a good time as I was always worried about what to do next once I reached my target weight loss and I guess the answer is clear.  I am concentrating over the next five weeks on getting my BF% under 13% and then I will be about 14 weeks out from contest and will change up the diet and workout routine then.  So for now, I will continue what I have been doing and then come first week of July starts the contest prep.  Any advice and thoughts are always welcome as I am by no means an expert and this will be a learning process for me.  In fact, if you had asked me  5 months ago whether I would be doing something like this, I would’ve said you were nuts.  I may not bring home the gold, but I am going to try my hardest and hopefully learn alot of things about myself along the way.  Oh yeah, and have fun.  Who knows, maybe I will like it so much I will continue after I return home.

Well it looks like I may not be in as bad a shape as I thought.  I was told to basically take it easy on it and if I do something that puts pressure on it, then don’t do that.  So, I went ahead and did back and shoulders last night adn I felt great.  It is all in the grip, my arm feels fine as long as I do not grip palm up, bu hammer and palm down feel normal.  So Arm day may be interesting but it looks like I will be able to continue putting up weights, which is good.  I ahve a vacation coming up soon enough and I can take a break then.

Well, it happened finally and when I least expected it.  Not at the gym, but at work.  I was trying to move something and pulled a tendon in my right arm.  It hurts just to make a fist, so I am going to the doc today to see how bad it is, but chances are good I will down for a few weeks.  It’s kind of depressing as the gym has become my release out here and it’s hard to imagine what I will do now.  I guess a lot of cardio days will be in my future.  After I see the doc, I will probably see what excercises I can do, a hammer curl style doesn’t hurt but a palm-up curl is excrutiating.  I am sure it will effect other excercises I haven’t thought of yet as that tendon is used for a lot of stuff as far as balance.  Seeing I like to have two working arms and I want to keep it that way, maybe a rest period is in my future, we’ll call it a bulking phase.

Maybe I can find some advice/help form the Blog community….  I posted a proposed supplement stack for lifting that I am considering starting.  Like a lot of people on here, I am trying to pack on some lean mass and cut the fat.  The link to the forum post is below, if you have time and wouldn’t mind checking it out as I just want to make sure I am on the right track.  Thanks in advance for the help.

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=107050871