I think everyone would like to have a better body. Ripped abs. Bigger arms. Stronger chest. Larger legs. I’m no exception to that.
That being said, I will never be the person who LOVES going to the gym. When I do cardio, I don’t get happy, I want to cry. When I lift weights, I don’t finish by thinking “crushed it.” I’m annoyed by how sore I’m going to be tomorrow. And I definitely don’t leave my 630am workouts thinking “I’m so refreshed and awake and ready to take on the world!” I really think I’m just tired and want to nap.
However, I do go to the gym regularly because I know that it’s good for me. I eat mostly healthy because I don’t want to get fat, but I definitely splurge regularly because it tastes good (do I need a better reason?). But, how do I go from being normal (gay fat) to having a better body (visible abs)? I mean, I don’t think I’m out of shape or look bad in a bathing suit. I’ve always struggled a little bit with my weight and 2 years ago lost about 50 pounds over the course of a year. I’ve put about 20 of those pounds back on. I’d say right now is my “status quo” body, a little around the midsection and maybe slight love handles, but nothing to be embarrassed by. It’s not like I’d be on the Biggest Loser, but I definitely have room for improvement.
Current Routines
I go to the gym 3-5 times a week focusing mainly on weights. Luckily I have a best friend I go to the gym and that helps immensely with going regularly. I eat mostly healthy when I’m cooking (lots of chicken and fresh veggies avoiding carbs as much as possible) but do splurge when I’m eating out, drink sodas, and definitely drink too much alcohol (it’s a gay gay world I’m living in and daddy loves him some wine and spirits).
Changes
To get to that better body, I know I need to make some changes, however there are some things I don’t want to change, like drinking sodas and alcohol or my overall diet. Things I don’t mind changing include going to the gym more frequently and eating less food overall.
Goals
Everybody has some fad diet or fad workout program that you can do to lose weight and build muscle. I’m motivated enough to do things on my own, so I need to set my own goals instead of following someone else’s plan. At the core of it, I know getting a better body is going to come from weight loss and regular exercise and weight lifting. But subscribing to some plan or some diet isn't going to work for me. I always fall back in to similar routines and similar eating patterns. So how do I keep similar routines but incorporate more gym, less food. I realize it's not really rocket science, but I think that's something everyone struggles with. So in order to do it, and to make it actually achievable, I need some sort goal and metric to track your progress. So here’s what I’ve come up with to kick start this better body: 20x100x20x25: 20 weeks x 100 workouts x 20 pounds x 25% less calories.
20 Weeks
In order to get to the better body, I’ve got to give myself time to get there. 20 weeks is a nice even number, and is around 5 months. I think that’s enough time to kickstart things and let’s me be reasonable in achieving this goal.
100 Workouts
During those 20 weeks, I need to make sure I’m getting more regular exercise to drop some weight and build muscle. Having a better body is like a job and I need to commit enough time to doing it right. Even with going regularly currently, I need to change some things up. For that reason, I’m going to make sure that I have workouts that incorporate more cardio and weights equally – with at least a 20 minute cardio of sprints or steady state for 30 minutes and at least one focus area on weights. Also a better body is achieved through longevity not just harder longer workouts. That’s why I’m making a goal of 100 workouts – an average of 5 per week. Some weeks I won’t make it 5 times, but other weeks I might go every day – it’s a goal of 100 workouts total during that 20 weeks.
20 Pounds
I know to have a better body there’s some fat that needs to go away. I’m currently at 185 pounds on my 5’10 frame. That puts me at a BMI of 26.5, in the overweight category. I know there’s plenty of reasons to say the BMI is wrong and there are better ways to do it, but it’s at least a good gauge. I think I could probably drop 30 pounds of fat and gain 10 pounds of muscle and have a my better body – or it would be well on my way to being there regardless. That would put me at 165 pounds, or a BMI of 23.7 back in the normal weight zone. A reasonable goal for my height and to reach in 20 weeks.
25% Less Calories
If I’m going to drop weight, that means I need to eat less calories than I am right now. I’ve done plenty of diets in the past that work really effectively – basically only eat chicken, broccoli and eggs and avoid carbs like they are the spawn of satan. This isn’t a sustainable diet and also makes me a miserable bitch. But, since I already eat mostly healthy, and I don’t want to dramatically change how I eat, how do I drop my caloric intake? Pretty simple, I need to eat less focusing on portion control. So I’m going to get in the habit of leaving food on my plate, roughly 25% of it since 1/4 of everything is pretty easy to visualize. This might seem wasteful, but for me, it’s how to control my portions in a way that I can do easily and no matter where I am or what I’m eating.
Tracking Progress
I’m going to post a blog entry for every one of the 100 workouts. I’ll track what I did as well as how long I was there. I’ll give a summary of what I’ve eaten and drank since the previous workout as well. In order to do this, I’ll track what I eat and drink with an app on my phone as a sort of food diary. Also, I’ll take a photo each morning during these 20 weeks so I can see visual progress at the end of the 20 weeks to see how my body has changed.
Post 20 Weeks?
At the end of the 20 weeks, I'll merge all of the photos to show how the experiment worked. And after that, I'll do an analysis of Like all experiments, this is something I am not sure of the outcome. I certainly hope it works, and if it does, I'll see how I can manipulate the plan to be sustainable, or even if that plan becomes my new status quo. If it doesn't work, then it's not the end of the world. I'll see what areas I might have failed at, and what areas I need to change. Then I'll do something else. It's called an experiment for a reason, and life is all about new things and trying.
First Step
Each journey begins with a first step. And today was my first day on the better body experiment by starting my 20x100x20x25 plan. Feel free to follow along on my journey – and anyone who wants to join in, let me know! More than happy to have and give encouragement along the way!
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