Tragic Nate

Today was pretty significant. I am starting to really enjoy going to the gym. Of course I loved the first week, but the novailty started to wear off in week two and three. Now it is starting to become a habit and I am enjoying it. Each and everyday it feels like I am bringing even more intensity to my workout. I still do not have my eating habits quite on track. I kicked the junk food, but now I am not eating enough meals. I have my meals prepared for tomorrow and I don't expect to have any problems with my eating. Things went so well the first two weeks and then really poorly the two weeks after that. I think I am about to make long latest lifestyle changes that will get my body where I want it to be. School also started today and that is helping me with my day to day structure. Just need to focus on finishing the last half of my 4 week strong. Hopefully that momentum will carry over to month two. Looking forward I want a solid month of consistency. I have the consistency with my workout habits now I just need the consistency with my eating habits. I did it for two of the four weeks this past month and I really want to go to my next level and shot for 4 for 4. I also need to start changing my outlook on life. I have been in a slump lately and I need to realize my life is good and take advantage of all my opportunities I have. I want to start giving 100% when it comes to my school studies. I also want to start my day trading again. I also want to start cutting back on the amount of wasted hours I spend on video games. I just can't imagine how much more fulfilled my life would be if I were to just spend an hour a day on the significant hobbies I want to master. I am sick of wasting my time on video games that will not add any fulfillment in my life. I honestly think this is a critical point in my life for significant and meaningful change. I am nearly 21 and have no accomplished anything I wanted to accomplish at this point in my life. I need to stop making excuses and minimize distractions and do what I really want to do so I can get where I want to go!

Today was the first day since my start of the journey that absolutely was horrible. First of all, I could no follow through with my most important daily discipline, waking up at 0500. It seems like my body is not ready to kick my current sleeping habits. It is just getting frustrating. Today was also significant in the fact that today was also the first day I did not complete my workout. I just was not into it for some reason. I just was not in the right mindset. So I left the gym with 3 unfinished sets.

Well I finally woke my ass up at 0500 today. The gym is really sweet at 0530. I just love going from set to set with no one getting in your way. My triceps are pretty sore which makes me so happy. I also got my kindle today. Now that I have it in my hands it is the coolest thing and do not regret it one bit. So today is the start of week four. Week three was really bad for me. At least half of the week the nutritional plan was thrown out the window. I didn't follow through on any of my daily disciplines. Really just a disappointment. However, I didn't gain any weight which could be a good or bad thing. Good if I didn't gain any fat. Bad if that means I didn't gain any muscle. I am starting to think I need to stop worrying about things much and just focus on one day at a time. If I can be consistent for two weeks why can't I make it the third week? That is a pattern I need to avoid. If every third week I fall off the wagon I am not going to get where I want to be as quickly as I want to get there. Since I am just starting out I am not going to beat myself up too badly about my poor decisions. Just need to try to keep moving along and make better decisions. I am also thinking I am not going to worry about the scale too much. If I am building muscle and losing fat the scale won't do much for me. Instead I am thinking I mainly use the tape measure. Most of my body fat is on my waist. So I guess I am just going to keep measuring that. The only problem with that is that all my previous goals are measured through obsolete methods. So I am just wondering what would be realistic goals for my new method of measuring progress. I think I have an ultimate goal which would be to get down to a 32" waist. So if I just keep making progress twoards that goal I guess it doesn't really matter what my goals are in the short time. I think at this point my goal should just be to make progress. Once I make consistent progress over several months then I should be in a position to really evaluate my goal setting.

Today is the first day that I am really trying to change my sleeping habits. I am really tired about now so I think I may be able to time my sleeping just right today. Also, today was the first time I went to the gym at 0500. I like the 0500 crowd mainly because most of them are on various cardio machines so I get best choices on free weights. I haven't been eating much lately. Ever since I have gotten out of school I am not as hungry as I used to be. I am not sure what is up with that. It used to be I would be hungry every 2 hours. It was easy to eat on time when you were hungry every two hours and all you had to do was nuke your food. Now I find myself lossing track of time and not eating my meals on time. Might have to set up various alarms or just be more conscious of time. I am hoping when I get back into school I will continue with the routine of being hungry every two hours. I am getting my kindle tomorrow. I am already have buying remorse and I don't even have it yet. Not sure if ill keep it.

I have made a decision not to go to the gym today. I find that going to the gym gives me confidence and wakes me up. This reverse sleeping schedule needs to be fixed asap. So I will be waking up at 0500 tomorrow no matter what. Even if I get hardly any sleep tonight I am getting up tomorrow at 0500 and going to the gym and getting my workout for today and tomorrow done. I am also thinking I should be able to get it done in less than 40 minutes because I can work one muscle group and then the other and alternate between them. I am not going to make this a habit. Just doing it this one time so that I can try to get more important things back on track. That being said im off to try to get some sleep.

I am finding myself struggling getting my eating back on track. Going to the gym isn't much of a problem at this point. I was dragging ass today in the gym but I did get the workout done. I can not say that the intensity that I should of had was there but that is another battle. I think I am going to stop worrying about the gym so much and just go there and do what I need to do and not really worry about my progress in the gym. I have more important things to master at this moment and that would be my eating. I found it quite simple to be on track for two weeks but then it seemed like I just fell off the wagon completely. I have had 4 days now of throwing out the plan completely. I could understand screwing up a meal once a week. I could even understand screwing up a complete day once every few weeks. So I consider the past four days to be a sin and I am going to have to strive to not let that happen again. Even though I have screwed up pretty bad the past four days I have come to the realization that in the long term those four days won't have too much of an effect. So I should stop condemning myself about the past four days and get back on track. Now if I keep screwing up like this then that diffidently will have a long term effect, but I should just move on and strive not to make such a big mistake again.

The past three days have really been crap. I have completely through out all my daily disciplines for the past three days. I have been feeling really bad physically and emotionally because of that. I simply just got lazy and took the easy way out for three days. I guess I just need to not let that get me down and get back on track and not worry about it too much. It is a lot easier to follow through when I have structure. So I am trying to figure out how I am going to add structure to my life. On the 29th school starts so that will add structure. However, what will I do when I don't have school. Perhaps I should just plan things I want to do throughout the day instead of doing whatever I feel like. I really want to start reading my chess library again, want to start reading more science fiction, and I want to start currency trading again. Any one of those things could fill up so much time throughout my day. If I had to just pick one I would probably trade. But I am going to try to start working all three of them into my day perhaps one hour at a time. Looking forward to week three of lifting.

It has been a rough past two days. The eating plan went straight out the window the past two days. It has been the first time that the whole plan went out the window. Before the worst thing that happened was missing a meal. At the moment my life is lack structure because I don't have to work or go to school. My sleeping schedule has flopped on me, pretty much nocturnal at the moment. Ill get back on track tomorrow. School starts on the 29th so I have nine days to get my shit straight. The gym was pretty cool this week. Was only slightly sore this week. Think I'm going to start rereading burn the fat feed the muscle.

Well week two has come to a close. It looks like I am down to 260 lbs. Now I am not sure if that is a major improvement or not. I mean just looking at the number is it not what I wanted to see. However, when you put it into context and accurately assess my last week I could say I got exactly what I deserved. There is another issue at hand too. Since I am lifting now too I can be losing fat and building muscle. This would mean that number on the scale may not change much but I can be improving drastically. That is why I am trying to assess my progress through different ways. The tools I have available to me are : scale, tape measures, mirror, accu measure. The problem with all these things is that I am having difficulty figuring out if they are consistent. It doesn't matter if they are accurate so long as they can be consistent with their measurements. Then that way I still can measure progress. I am going to need more though when it comes to tracking progress. However, for now I am just going to keep chugging along.

Today was a pretty good day. I am happy that I have two weeks off between quarters and then one month off between summer and fall. I am really going to focus in on my eating and training this summer and see where it gets me. I am thinking it may best for me to not concern myself with my week to week progress. It is quite stressful. I am thinking I should just do what I believe I need to do and see where that gets me. Because once I stop living in the future and start living in the present I believe that will make me more successful and in turn make my present future better. I have been thinking a lot about what I want. I want to be independently wealthy. I want to be healthy. I want to rock climb and sky dive. I want to get good at chess. Why do I have all these desires? What do these aspirations do for me? All my desires produce feelings. So does that mean we are all out there to experience feelings?

I am really tired today so this one will be quick. I feel like crap and I'm thinking it is because I'm dehydrated. Work out today was pretty nice. Ate well.

Today was a somewhat great day in the gym. I am starting to workout with intensity. Im not to the point where I am at 100% intensity. I did not realize how big of a deal intensity is. When I have the right mindset I work out more effectively and can lift better. However, I think I upped the weight a little too much from last week. I was barely able to squat 4 reps at 235 last week and I tried to go for 255 this week. I was able to do the first set no problem. I wasn't able to complete the second set. If I did stick with 235 I think I would have been able to do all three sets easily and possibly 6 reps. So what I am wondering is if I should go back to 235 until I can do 7 reps or do I keep pushing 255 until failure and then back the weight down? I am liking option number two better. I mean I did get one good set of 255 and had to drop 20 pounds to get the other two sets, is that such a bad thing? Perhaps if I had enough intensity I would of been able to do three sets at 255. I will try 255 again next week and really start to focus on intensity, because I believe that is the most important thing when lifting. I was way more intense today compared to last week. Going to reread what AST has to say about intensity.

Today was not a good day when it came to my eatings. It was one of those rare days that it just wasn't practical for me to eat chicken in rice. I have yet to get any Meal replacements. But for these particular days that happen every few months they would be quite useful. I don't intend to use MR on a daily basis, but days like today tells me I need some on hand. My hands where shaking so bad from a lack of nutrition I am assuming. I have not felt so bad in a long long time. It seems like eating 'well' makes it a lot easier for my stomach to get upset from junk food. This day has already come and passed, what can I do about it, nothing! Days like today will just make me try even harder tomorrow and then when I am consistent I won't have to try I will just do! When I get to the point where I just go through the motions no big deals and have no hicups along the way is when I am going to see great results. Right now my half ass attempt has been producing good results. However, time is precious so why shouldn't I go balls to the wall and give it my all and produce the best results and start living the life I want to live! This isn't just a time of physical change but I time for emotional change. Lifestyle changes that will make me more productive and happy. Start leading a more productive life. I am deciding to master this part of my life first because I believe it will make other parts of my life a little bit easier to master. Not a whole lot, but a little bit.

Today was a pretty good day. I am having a few issues with one of my daily disciplines specifically on the weekend. Since I usually sit around and read and play video games on the weekend I am finding it difficult getting my gallon of water. The first 64 oz are not a problem. I believe in a few weeks ill be able to go 5 for 5 when it comes to my disciplines. Once I am consistent with those first five I am going to start adding more a few at a time. Also, I may start rock climbing sooner than I expected. At first I was hesitant because of my weight. However, after addressing my concerns with a buddy of mine that climbs he gave me the confidence to go climbing with him. I am waiting for my muscles to fully repair before I go climbing. My legs are finally feeling good. Its been nearly a full week of having sore legs. All my muscles were sore from Max OT, but I pushed my legs the hardest and they have been sore the longest. I am going to try to push my legs even harder tomorrow and step up my game on the rest of my workouts. I am hoping this soreness does not keep occurring. I am half way through my week when it comes to eating well and for the first half I did some things less then optimal. I am hoping I can recover the week and eat well for the rest of the week and get the results I want for the week. I realize I probably won't be able to get away with slacking off as much as I did this first half of the week. I am still really excited about these healthy lifestyle changes I have making. I am fearful of the time when I am no longer excited. I am thinking that is the most likely time that I will give up. I am hoping I can push through those times and continue on my path to success.

I have started to write down my daily disciplines. So far they are coming out too look like:
1. Drink a gallon of water
2. Eat six meals
3. Train max OT
4. prepare tomorrows food today
5. wake up at 0500 and be at the gym at 0530

I think with just those five I think I will get pretty close to where I currently want to be. I figure once I get where I want to be then I will want to improve. I suppose it will be a endless marathon but broken up into chunks. Phase one will be to reduce a siggnificant amount of body fat. Phase two will be to get to a certain level of leanness. The third part will be the adding muscle phase.

Well today was the last day of the first week of Max OT. I am pretty happy that I got to the gym each day during this week. However, my intensity is not perfect. I was intense when it came to training legs. However, I lacked intensity when it came to everything else and my performance proves it. My time at the gym has been near the 30 minutes. I am still not waking up at 0500. Once I start waking up at that time I want to be at the gym at 0530. Had to go to Costco today to pick up another 13 pounds of chicken. On the way out I decided to eat some junk food. That decision proved to be fatal, my stomach was so angry. I guess I am just not able to eat all the junk food that I use to eat on a regular basis. I suppose this is a good thing. I am defiantly not going to eat any more pizza or non fat yogurt at Costco. I am really excited to hit the gym next week. I am also excited to see my progress I make for my weight goals this week. Only aiming for to loss 2 lbs a week. My ultimate goal is to get down to 200 lbs by the end of this year. That is about 30 weeks. So I am just going to focus on being consistent with my eating and working out for the next 30 weeks. If I don't get where I want to go oh well. I am mostly curious to see where I end up. I may end up at a place I like better.

Yesterday was a pretty good day. I am excited for the quarter to be done with. Then I have a week in between this quarter and next. I was surprised on how irritable I become when I am late for a meal. I am starting to realize how important it is to make a eating schedule and stick to it. I am currently on the 33rd episode of Skip's bodybuilding show. My connection to the internet has been very unstable and it went completely dead yesterday around 1800. It was quite annoying not being able to update my blog. So my first week progress will be based on day 8 numbes as opposed to day 7. It isn't too big of a deal. Episode 33 of the show is really driving home the point not to worry about the small stuff and get 1-10 down. I am not quite sure what 1-10 are, but I know a few. The ones I know I am really close to getting down. That reminds me, I will be making a list of the 10 things I think are most important pretty soon. I am actively working on 3 of the 10. Even though I am out of shape and over weight I am gaining confidence because I am doing the things that I believe will make a difference. I am eating at least 5 meals a day but most of the time it is 6. I am nearly drinking a gallon of water. I am going to the gym Monday-Friday. Just doing those three things makes me more confident in myself. I may not be where I want to be but I know I will get there. There is no doubt in my mind that I will succeed. It is a unquestionable unshakable reality in my head that I will get the results that I want. Having that mindset is making things so much easier for me. That mindset gets me to the gym when I don't want to go. It gets me out of bed when I want to sleep a little longer. It gets me in the kitchen preparing my meals. It keeps me from drinking soda and consuming foods that will not aid me on my quest. When it comes to my progression, I think most of my weight lost was water. I am only expecting to loss two pounds of body fat a week. However, I was quite surprised with my waist decrees. I remeasured about three times before I started to believe it. It was yesterday that I thought that my stomach did get flatter. I was surprised that my eye picked up on it.

Week 1 Stats
Weight 161 (-9 Lbs)
Waist 37.5 (-.5")

Today wasn't a good day when it came to eating. I ate a few too many yogurts. I stocked up on yogurt and was planning to have one in the morning. Well the bad thing about stocking up on food ready to eat is that when your meals aren't prepared in advance you tend to eat what is on hand and ready. However, I will be back on track tomorrow. My meals for tomorrow have already been cooked. The gym was pretty decent today. Got my workout done in less than 40. I felt like I was overloading my muscles pretty well. My legs are still sore from Monday. I have been tossing around the idea lately of going to a university and getting an engineering degree and doing ROTC and getting my commission in the air force or army. Those thoughts have been keeping me distracted. I have until the end of the year to figure out my plans. Currently my path is going towards that, but ultimately I don't have to take that route. I am just not sure if my other plan is better. That is about it for today. Hopefully tomorrow will be more interesting.

Well today was an interesting day. First of all, my legs and butt where sore as heck. Made getting around and being at school slightly uncomfortable. However, I am slightly disappointed in myself. I ate a pint of ice cream today. I ate that instead of meal 5 and 6 which really disappoints me. I was feeling like crap when I got done with the gym and for once I just wanted to really enjoy some food. It is not like eating a pint of ice cream will be a common occurrence. Maybe once every two weeks, where before it was around twice every week. I believe that at this point have a pint of ice cream every two weeks will get me to the level I want to get to. So I don't feel too bad about it after I had to rationalize it. If anything it made me realize why I have gained so much weight. The gym experience was pretty good. However, since I don't know what was heavy I over did my first set of bicep curls and I totally killed em. After that first set everything was pretty much heavy. So I am assuming if one set kills that muscle tempoarly it is probably a good weight to shot for. Perhaps it being my first set it what did it. I am hoping next week when I warm up properly I will be able to do that weight for 3 sets. It was a bummer mainly because I am trying to use this first week to gauge what is heavy and screwing up straight out of the gate like that means I couldn't reliably figure out what was heavy for the other exercises. I did get done in thirty minutes this time. Im getting use to the gym and where everything is at and there were fewer people there today. I still am not getting up at 0500, but when I do I plan to be at the gym at 0530. So I have no idea how many people are there at that time. I am hoping that there aren't too many.

Even though I did fall off the wagon today by eating the ice cream I don't think I am going to give up eating well anytime soon. I was using it a temptation device and well, I probably won't be buying any tempting food for awhile unless I plan on eating them. I am not quite sure how to effectively plan in the junk food, but for now I am going to stay away until I get some decent results and them maybe splurge on occasion. That ice cream is going to be the only junk food I eat for this month. Almost a third of the way through this month and I am excited to see how I look by the end of it.

I also don't see myself not going to the gym Monday-Firday. It just is too easy to get in my car and be there in less than five minutes and then be out of there in 30 minutes. I can't say I enjoy lifting yet, but I don't hate it either. I am lifting for the benefits but I am sure with a little time I will come to love it. I had that love for lifting at one point, but I didn't have my head on straight when it came to eating. So eventually that love for lifting died out as it did not produce what I was expecting.

Day five has been interesting. It being Monday meant that it was my first day in a gym in about 2-3 years. It went as well as could be expected. I was there for 50 minutes. Mainly because I wasn't familiar with the gym and spent several minutes looking for equipment they did not have. I was looking for a machine so I could do standing calf raises. They did not have that machine. This was around the 40 minute point and I really did not feel like going to pick up some dumbbells and doing calf raises that way. So instead I opted to do another set on the leg press, but this time on one of those leg presses that is cable driven and you are more upright and you move the seat not the plate where your foot is at. I much prefer the other leg press even though you have to rack on the weight. It just seemed to be a lot more intense. I was also disappointed with one of my sets on the leg press. I was trying to do 420 lbs when at about rep four I realized that I did not have the optimal seating position. So I decided to stop at that rep and wait for the leg press next week and try to work out the best seating position then. I was disappointed that I was there for fifty minutes, but I did the best I could. I see my time decreasing as the weeks go on. There was a dramatic energy difference between 30 and 40 and 50 minutes. I still felt good at 40 minutes, but I felt like absolute crap at 50 minutes.

I missed another meal today. It was mainly due to the fact I did not have my food for the day prepaired the night before. So this morning when I Was cooking my food I ran into some hicups and did not have rice or chicken ready when I needed to be out the door. So I had to improvise. Brought some cans of tuna along and I had one serving of rice cooked. Three of my meals occur at school. So for the first meal at school I just had a can of tuna and for the second meal I had rice and tuna. I didn't feel like eating tuna alone so I opted to skip that meal and just go home and eat my next meal which would be chicken and oats. This proved to be a valuable lesson. During the weekdays I should have my meals cooked the night before. I still have the pint of ice cream in the fridge and I was craving pizza yesterday. I am proud in the fact that I have yet to stray back to my old eating habits.

Monday Legs 50 mins

Squats
--Warm-up 95lb x 12
--Warm-up 95lb x 10
--Warm-up 215 x 7
--Build 235lb x 4
--Build 235lb x 4

Leg Press
--Build 270lb x 8
--Build 450lb x 7

45* Calf Raise
--Build 270lb x 8
--Build 380 x 8

Stiff Leg Dead Lift
--Build 125lb x 7
--Build 195 x 4 (Possibly too much, will try again next week)

Standing Calf Raise
Did not perform because there was no machine and I was feeling burned out and was already at the gym too long.

So halfway through my first week of self improvement. I am a young guy so from my point of view time moves so slowly. I am trying to become patient. Just focusing one day at a time and focusing on my goals and consistently following through. However, today was significant in the fact that it was the first day that I had a meal quite later than planned. I usually eat every two hours. However, meal 4 or 5 was 30 mins late. I think some leeway is acceptable like 5-15 minutes, but a full 30 minutes seems unacceptable to me. So I see it as you have two choices from that point forward. Schedule all your meals 30 minutes later than usual or just forget about it and stay on your typical schedule. I choose to stay on my typical schedule. I want to engrave these eating habits. I figure if I have a very specific schedule that will help me create this habit.

Also, I am still trying to address my sleeping issues. I have been having a hard time getting to bed and I have been over sleeping. I am trying to get up at 0500, but it is so hard to wake up on the weekends because my life has no real structure during the weekends. Matter of fact, this past weekend has been the most structured I have had in awhile. This is due to my eating habits. I am trying to keep my eating habits structured 7 days a week. I really want to get results and get the best results in the shortest amount of time. So I figure that I will sacrifice in the short term so that I can get to my goals significantly quicker. Once I get to my goals I figure that is the time where I can start relaxing and perhaps start eating some junk food in moderation. But until I get where I want to be I don't think there should be any compromise.

I am also learning to ignore outside influences that aren't from Skip. I have my own reality on what to do. It so happens that my reality and Skip's reality somewhat mesh together. Giving his experience I am going to put more value on what he has to say compared to what I believe. So I am ignoring everyone else for the time being. I know what I have to do and I wont let those naysayers get me off course. For example, I was talking about my eating habits (my first mistake) and a friend of mind was questioning 8 meals a day. I was telling him I was thinking of bumping up from my six meals a day to eight. For some odd reason he has this believe that five meals a day is adequate. Just from my experience over the weekend eating six meals I day I don't know how anyone would eat less than six. Furthermore, when my life gets more structured I don't know how I will make it through the day without eight meals.

I want to take a moment to thank Skip. I always knew a lot of these things that I ought to do. However, I would have not started to do the thing I needed to do without Skip. Both of his podcasts got me motivated and now I am on the path to success. I truly believe that when I master this part of my life it will overflow in to other areas of my life and I will be able to master those as well.

Today I spent most of my time listening to skip and reading about Max OT on the AST website. I just got done scratching out my summer schedule and from the looks of it I probably will bump up to 8 meals a day. I will start Max OT training this Monday. I will be waking up at 0500 and eating my meal and start my work out at no later than 0530. I am slightly concerned in the fact that I have not lifted in a long time. So I am not quite sure what my maxes will be. Without knowing that I think it might take me a week or two to figure out my current base and then work on building muscles the Max OT way. I am still confused on how to properly warm up. I will have to reread that section.

I have never worked out or eating well consistently. So I am not quite sure what to expect when it comes to progression. I think I am just going to keep doing what im doing and slightly improve things as I go along. Hopefully by the end of six months I will have decent, measurable, good results. By that time I will try to evaluate my progress and figure out if I am happy with the velocity of my progression.

My goals so far are something like this:
Work out consistently for six months
Eat well consistently for six months
Loss 2 pounds of body fat per week (50 pounds over six months, around 210 lbs overall)
Overload my muscles so I can grow them, mostly to prevent lean body mass lost

I am going to start reading, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. (Thanks again Gail)

It is about thirty minutes before my last meal for the day. I just got done signing up for a gym membership for 24 hour fitness. It cost me 200 bucks for the year. I think that is a pretty decent deal and the gym is about 4-6 blocks away. Going to start doing max OT, however, I am not quite sure how that is going to effect my caloric needs. Im hoping that the resistance training on top of my estimated 500 calorie deficit will help me burn this fat. I didn't wake up at the time I wanted to wake up this morning. I am trying to get my sleeping habits back on track and start waking up at 0500. I think I eat well today. Did oats and tuna in the morning. The tuna was not as good as I expected. May have to try some different brands. The oats I think I will acquire the taste for. For the rest of the day it was chicken and rice. The rice cooked a lot better today. I have been downloading Skip's radio show from the very beginning and starting to listen to them from the beginning. I also picked up a food scale today. My portions where almost right on. I think the scale will become more useful once I start to complicate things.

I am nearly through my first day of changing my eating habits. I have found that eating my meals two hours apart makes me slightly hungry before each meal. However, I am never so hungry that I have urges to gorge myself. Matter of fact I am finding it difficult finishing my meals. I have never eating well. So at first I am trying to keep things simple so that I follow through. So far I am mainly eating skinless chicken breast and short grain brown rice. I am finding it a bit difficult to finish all my rice because I don't find it too tasty. So far I am only doing six meals a day. Depending on how I feel later in the day where I am done eating will determine if I up my meal count and lower my portion sizes. I am considering picking up a scale to better portion my meals. I am considering adding some A1 to my chicken but I am not sure if it is worth it. It being my first day I am not sick of chicken enough to stop eating it. If I get to that point and A1 makes it so I can finish my meals with slightly more joy it may be worth it.

I am also going to try to throw in some quaker oats for breakfast carbs.

Other difficulties im running into is keeping my chicken fresh during school. For the time being I have access to a fridge and a microwave so it isn't an issue. However, I will not have access to those and I may have to switch my protien to canned tuna. The tuna I did pick up is soaked in water so I assuming it should be tasty just to eat it straight from the can while in class.

I am also trying to consume a gallon of water. I have never had good water drinking habits. So far I have cut out all soda and am finding the first 64 oz of water easy to consume. It might take a little bit of effort to consume the other 64 oz of water.

I felt pretty hungry three hours after my last meal. I do have a pint of ice cream in the freezer. It is mostly there to tempt me. I figure if I can't show control at home how would am I to resist when im out and about when there are a lot more temptations. I will say that having six planned meals dramatically reduces my temptations of fast food. I only thought about eating fast food once today. When it came to fast food if I thought it I did it. I am happy that for the first time in my life I am taking control of my eating habits and doing what I think is healthy. I was thinking that even if what I am doing is not optimal it sure is a hell of a lot better than what I have been doing. So right now I am just sticking to something simple and am going to see what results it produces. If it produces results I enjoy then I will continue to do that until it no longer produces results I want. This may sound very simple but I really never looked at my eating habits and my physique having a cause and effect relationship. Of course I knew they did, but I never thought to myself if i eat like this then my body will look like this. Even though I don't know what to expect by eating 6 meals a day that consists of chicken and rice two hours apart will produce. However, I believe it will produce better consequences than what I have been doing. That has me so excited about the process of body building. I have wanted to change my body over the past three year but for the first time am I taking action. Thanks to the podcasts Skip produces I am for the first time excited to get the body I think I want.

I am on a mission to take control of my physique. I am 20 years of age and am 68 inches tall and weight 270 lbs. My best guess is that my body fat percentage is 30%. My long term goal is to create healthy lifestyle choices. My first healthy lifestyle habit; I will become more conscious of my food choices and try to eat foods that lead to a healthy lifestyle and ultimately improve my physique. I am creating healthy eating habits because I believe that those habits will be most significant when I am improving my physique.

I am assuming a Basal Metabolic Rate of 2500 calories. Using the Harris Benedict equation my total calories burned at my current activity level is 3000. So at this point in time I will try my best to consume 2500 calories a day. This will create a 500 daily calorie deficit which I hope will result in a pound of fat loss per week. Once I have basic nutritional ideas and habits formed I shall complicate things by increasing my activity levels and adjusting my daily caloric intake to a level at which my deficit is at 1000 calories which hopefully will lead to a 2 pounds of fat loss per week.

It is my hopes that taking control of my eating habits will improve my physique to the point where I am completely satisfied. My short term goal is to get down to 10% body fat because I think that would be a good point in my physique to evaluate my desires and where I want to go from there.