I couldn’t tell you what I weighed or what my typical eating routine looked like 4 years ago. I’d probably say average. I looked average, felt average, even ate average. I didn’t work out and couldn’t tell you if I ate 1,800 or 4,800 calories a day. At the age of 26 I was clueless about anything fitness related. But I did know one thing – I didn’t like the way I looked or the way I felt. I think most people at the gym have that same moment….I don’t know where to start but I know I need to start. Here is a recap of how I went from the average working male into thinking I want to compete as a bodybuilder…
Year 1: Burn More than You Eat and Eat Right
We all know the spots we want to work on. Mine was an inner tube surrounding my waste. How the heck did that get there? I had access to the gym, perhaps I should try some cardio. Simple math: If I burn more calories than I take in, then slowly I should shed fat. I logged my calories on Sparkpeople and hit the gym 5 days a week. I didn’t adjust my food by much….just tracked it. So if I knew I was going to have dinner out, then the rest of the day I ate less (it made sense at the time). Cardio for 40-60 minutes a day. My favorite was the elliptical. I could watch TV, sweat my @$$ off, and watch the screen as it counted the calories burned. The scale showed progress. It was working. But after 6 months I didn’t see progress and I was bored. The little ‘Resistance’ button on the machine wouldn’t go any higher and I couldn’t go any faster without dislocating a hip. Crap! So this is the wall I’ve heard so much about…how nice to meet you! What to change? Add weights? Try the bike? Maybe pedal backwards? Then I picked up a book from the editor of Men’s Health called the Abs Diet. In the simplest of terms…if you want to change your appearance you have to change the way you eat. Eat clean, eat small frequent meals, cut out the processed foods. Why not? And so I did. In the next 6 months I stuck to the cardio, but changed my eating to follow the Abs Diet. I’ve never been one to jump on the latest craze, but I think you have to find what works for you. The book helped. It wasn’t a diet, it was a manual on how to change all of my bad habits. Between Sparkpeople and the Abs Diet I was beginning to understand the relationship between fitness and nutrition.
Year 2: Building the Foundation
It happened one day when I least expected it. I was at the gym doing my usual cardio. I was the one with the ear buds in cranking away on my machine. For the past year I didn’t talk to anyone. Pretty reserved and enjoying whatever was on the TV that day. Few people knew my name and I spent most days trying not to earn a nickname…like ‘Smelly.’ At the time there was a whole crew of trainers and wellness people that worked in the gym. As I was wiping down my salty discharge that I had deposited all over the machine one of the trainers approached me. ‘Hey Aaron, we’ve noticed the progress you’ve made here in the gym. We want to feature you as our member of the month.’ I’ve been noticed? Out of all the people that I see here every day? Me? Um, ok! You’ll here more about the trainer in the many posts to come. But I refer to this as ‘Day One’ for me. He offered his services to me along with many others in the gym. In the next few weeks I picked the trainer’s brain about everything. He looked at my eating plans, my workouts, even did a body fat test…I was down to 14%. I’m guessing I was 18-20% when I first started. He clued me in on the missing piece….weight training. Over the next several months we tried everything. He wrote out the plans for what to lift and I went out and executed it. If I was in the gym for an hour a day, 40 minutes was on lifting – 20 on cardio. Balance! He also had me log everything. I could see increases in weight from week to week. You could take a look at my log and see what day I was pushing myself, what day I went through the motions and what day I skipped an exercise. It wasn’t easy. I struggled. Felt weak. Intimidated by the different machines. The trainer would give me a new workout and I would go to work googling some of the names….Lumberjack? Bent over lateral raise? To the trainer everything happens in 10-12 week intervals. By the end of the first 12 weeks with him we tested body fat again…12%. Stupid inner tube around the waist! I had combined weight training with cardio and a clean meal plan….does anyone else know this secret? Why did I wait so long? Every 10-12 weeks we changed something. We mixed up the lifting routines…adjusted the macros on my eating plan….it kept me interested. By the end of the year I was lean. Like really lean. I liked it, but knew I wanted to add some size to my now 6’3” lean frame. So we added in days, weeks and months where I was increasing my calories. I was starting to see and feel the relationship between nutrition and exercise play out.
Year 3: The Business Shirt
I usually need to buy clothes when I wear mine out or my sense of fashion goes out of style. When is the plaid shirt coming back? I have a closet full! Sitting at work one day in my typical business shirt I realized that I had a new reason to go shop. I reached across my chest and heard a loud ‘RIIIIIIIPPPPPP’ on the elbow of my button up shirt. Aw Crap! Well it was an old shirt and as long as I don’t leave my cubicle no one will notice. Mission accomplished. Three days later. A relatively new shirt made the ‘RIIIIIIIPPPPP’ noise again. WTH? The trainer didn't act surprised. He called it ‘Progression.’ Which is good in a sense, but was going to end up costing me money and earn some sales girl a nice commission. Year 3 was about rotation. Some 10 week periods I did no cardio at all. Some periods I was carb loading and others I was restricting carbs. My body was confused. It responded by adding lean tissue…one pound at a time. I was addicted to all things fitness and nutrition related. I didn’t obsess over it. But it was the highlight of my day. If I was going to work my tail off in the gym, I sure as heck wasn’t going to go eat crap that evening. That was my mantra! Oh yeah, I had cravings for chocolate and greasy food….but they were rare. There was one period where carbs were restricted. I had a dream where I was at a ballgame eating a hot dog bun dipped in mustard! A bun! In mustard! How jacked up is that?
While Year 1 and 2 were about gaining knowledge…Year 3 was about using that knowledge and seeing results. I’ve now seen 2 other people start this same process at the gym. You can spot them! They have the thirst for knowledge and are willing to do what it takes. Where I’ve seen 2 others…I’ve seen many more start and quit. They come in, try it for a month, don’t see results and think it’s too hard or too complicated. One…no one sees results in 4 weeks. Two…it’s not complicated. It takes time and commitment. Like I said before, the truly committed have that moment when they decide enough is enough and they are willing to try new things and step out of that comfort zone to learn more.
Year 4: Breaking Down the Walls
I started this ‘year’ feeling really good about where I was in terms of my progression. No more dreams of baked goods and I have a closet filled with ‘offseason’ clothes and ‘cut season’ clothes. The difference between these two ‘seasons’ is about 30 pounds for me. So now what? I have two tracks in my year…I am either gaining or losing. I liked that program. Spend 9 months adding lean tissue, feeling full, being able to lift weight I’ve never lifted before…and 3 months tearing away the water and fat to see the results. Let’s do that again….
I’m in the middle of Year 4 and in the middle of offseason training. I eat about 3,700 calories a day in hopes of gaining more lean tissue. In a few months I’ll switch everything and cut season will begin. But this time the end result will be displayed on stage. I started this entry saying how I began my years feeling and looking average. I know this person well. And I know there are many out there in the same place I was. They come up to me in the gym and ask me questions. People I haven’t seen in months or years will want to know my secrets. They want to know how hard it is so that they can use some excuse for why they aren’t getting in the gym. It’s odd. People are motivated by different things. And living a fit and healthy life takes a whole lot of motivation. So this year is also going to be about giving back. I’ve learned a lot and I know what it takes. I can answer questions that others may not. I can walk you through my world. My observations. My struggles. This is Year 4…
