weight, it's all relative.

Weight it's just a metric in order to measure our attraction for our the lovely planet. But really what is it? it's just a number to let us know how much ... stuff we carry around in our bodies. now.. usually the less we have the "better" and this is not quite right. it's the composition of our 'weight' that is most important. They say an athlete can have about 7% body fat and that's about 4% more that the bare essential fat % for a male at least.

I myself have been trying to fight this gravity problem as well. In January of 2009, i was approximately 205pounds @ 30? % body fat. disgusting... I was drinking a lot, going out and eating what ever i wanted with no regards to my health. Now I'm at ~180 @ 14% and dropping, almost a year later. now it this progress could have taken a much shorter time but now that I look back. a year seemed just about right.

all those years of eating and drinking what ever i wanted... there was no way for my body to adjust to a new lifestyle over night. I say lifestyle because "diets" carry their own weight as well and seem temporary. A new lifestyle had to be implemented for my health current and future to improve.

how you ask? I'm glad you asked. I, like many others, went to the gym did my weight lifting and a bit of running... when ever i felt like it. But for the first 5 months of 2009 i saw little improvement. In May i met a guy that was 'jacked' and he said the best way to lose weight was to Run. DUH i knew this but i really didn't want to do it. RUN FOR FUN? hell no. i was 195 @ 25%? But it's one thing to be told and another to see actual results. So I began running, with a hoodie on and some say this is not going to help and only make you lose water weight. TRUE. but i felt keeping the heat inside would allow me to maintain a high heart beat. i ran for 30 minutes and worked out for 1 hour, 2-3 times a week. So i was building muscles, doing cardio and finally 'dieting'.

I changed my 'diet' AKA food intake to mostly veggies and meat/protein. I tried to cut out 90% of my carbs and made sure i ate breakfast. In addition i began to count my calorie intake. it wasn't an exact count but enough to know that i was hitting 1500 calories a day and no more than 2000. Don't get me wrong, there were times when i went out and ate and I'd easily hit 3000 for that day but i knew that with what i was doing, i still maintained a over all calorie deficit for that week. Approximately 3500 calories = 1 pound.

In August i was 186 @ 16% with a pinch test that my gym administered. During this time i felt like i was hitting a wall, a plateau so i decided to take up interval running. Like a WIMP i got a foot sprain and did not run or work out for about 1 month and even though i was able to maintain my weight I was falling behind. After working my foot's strength back up I took a slower integration of interval running.

It's now December I now always start with running. I walk until 3@ 2.5mph minutes then run @ 5.5, @10min run at 6.5mph, @12min change to 6.0mph, @ 14min 7.0mph, @16min 6.5mph, @18min 7.5 mph, @20min 7.0mph, @22min 8.0mph, @23 5.0mph and then 24min walk @ 2mph for 3 minutes. all in all you've interval-ed for 20minutes and warm up and cool down under 30 minutes. Then I go lift for about 30-45 minutes, sometimes an hour if i lose track of time. The workouts depend on the days that i go, Mondays are usually push, Tuesdays pull, Wednesdays are core and Thursdays are legs. What do i mean by push, pull and core? Push days use your chest, triceps and shoulders all in a pushing motion. Pull days are biceps, shoulders and back a bit in a pulling motion. Now the core is extra workouts for the abs, obliques, lower and upper back. Everyday i try to do sit ups on the decline bench with a 10 pound weight and sitting knee raises to my chest on the flat bench.

my work out is ever evolving and now I'm about 180@14% and still making progress. I'd like to be around 165-170 @ 7-10% by April. We'll see how it goes. Like i said, a year seems about right and now I'm on course for about 1.5 years to do a true lifestyle change.

getting there is easy, maintaining it is hard.