It's been a long time...

[Blown]

Hey guys, it's been a lonnnng time since I've posted, and also worked out. I've gone through a LOT of **** since 2005.

Back in Jan. of 2005 I started my quest for the perfect body and a healthy lifestyle, I started at around 210lbs at 22%bf. By June, I was 157lbs at ~11%, my workouts consisted of 5days of low intensity cardio for 40mins, weight training 3-4days a week just to minimize muscle loss. Diet was 40p/40c/20f with low GI cards, lean meat, and monounsaturated fats. In June once I felt I was lean enough, I added 1000cals of protein to my diet, I blew up to 185 at 10% and looked & felt AMAZING.

About a week after hitting 186lbs, I tore my ACL, it was devastating, I got reconstructive surgery, and was prescribed oxycontin for the pain..this is where everything went down hill. From August of 2005 until Nov. of 2007 I was addicted to oxycontin, doing anything I could to get a pill. My nutrition and workout regimine ceased to exist.

On Nov. 2nd 2007, I overdosed on 200mg of methadone and about 90mg of klonopin, (recommended dosage was about 1-2mg) They detoxed me cold turkey in the hospital, which saved my life. I have been clean since that day, It is now almost 2 years later and my life is finally getting back on track, I just was awarded a full scholarship to the University of Nebraska @ Omaha, I don't drink and I remain in a treatment program to prevent relapse. My issue now is, I take comfort in food. I am currently 246lbs at around 25-30%

I feel terrible and unhealthy, I have tried several times to get back into my nutrition & workout plan, but have been unsuccessful at maintaining it. I used to log EVERY calorie that went into my body, log every minute of exercise & activity in fitday. I am so lost & confused, I can't understand why I can't get my life back!? Bodybuilding was MY LIFE, my therapy, it was everything to me. I know everything I need to do, but for some reason I can't apply it. In 2006, during one of my attempts to gain what I had lost, I bought a nutrition plan from Bobo @ FLANutrition, I still have it sitting around somewhere, but at my current weight and BF%, I don't beleive it's going to be efficient for optimum results since I'm 35lbs heavier and have much less muscle. Someone please give me tips, pointers, motivating statements, ANYTHING. I seriously need your guys help. The only was I was able to acheive what I did in 2005 was thanks to THIS forum and all the members here.


Here was my old fitday log was 2005:
FitDay Free Calorie Counter and Diet Journal:*Public Journal

And here was a thread I started to follow my progress through that breif recomp cycle before I tore my ACL:
http://anabolicminds.com/forum/cycle-info/28298-superdrol-trimax-recomposition.html


Please anyone, any help, any nutrition ideas, workout ideas, anything, I would sincerely appreciate it.

I'm considering:

5 days cardio 40mins

Monday: chest/tris/cardio
tuesday: legs/abs/cardio
wednesday: back/bis/cardio
thursday/shoulders/abs/cardio
friday: cardio/stretching


nutrition: ????? 1800cals? 40/40/20 again? I'm not sure.

 

[AntonG42O]

Hey brother good to hear that you are getting back on track! Nothing to be ashamed of, we all abuse something sooner or later; whether it's drugs/alcohol/girls lol
Getting back in the gym is probably the best thing to keep you distracted, and I think once you start seeings results again that will be plenty of motivation.

I think you should definitely start by securing a good diet, like you have done in the past. You know, cut out starches and sugar, lots of protein through out the day and at night. Just like you probably did before, limit your carbs to mostly morning intake. I feel like once the diet is consistent, everything else falls in place. Im not a trainer and I have very limited knowledge on calorie limitations, but I believe in doing what feels right for you. Talk to a nutritionist to figure out exactly how much to eat.

Instead of finding pleasure in food, turn your body into a mean fat burning machine it once was. Set goals and activities for yourself brother: heavy lifts, long late night runs around your neighborhood, grilling pounds of chicken on the weekends, buying fresh new clothes you wanna wear comfortably, get a nasty Ipod playlist that really gets you going, start a blog/diary on this site, etc the list goes on

YOU know how to get it done, because you have done it before. I got faith in you my dude.

 

[Blown]

Anton- Thanks so much bro, it means a lot to me to have the support of my brothers over here at AM.

For my weight lifting routine, I'm not sure what to do, high reps with less weight, low reps with more weight, or time under tension, either way I feel like such a wuss because I used to be in there lifting more than most of the people, now there are 15yr olds liftin more than me, its depressing! What do you guys think I should do for my weight training regimen? I'd like to get as much strength back as soon as possible, though my primary goal is to cut down to around 170-180.

Also, any ideas for an overal caloric intake? I did 1800 when I weighed 210, I think I could make it by on 1400, or should I do more like around 2100 so I dont platuea and stop losing weight?


Once again, any tips, or kind wishes are sincerely appreciated.

 

[Zero V]

Glad to hear you broke free. Dont ever hate yourself for it, because you are now a wiser man today than you were during that time period, and you have earned merit by dealing with one of the hardest personal demons of all time-Addiction.

If you could break that, you sure as hell will meet and surpass your goals in the gym!

I would start out at the higher intake at least until my body adapted to the gym again. And as for the weight you are putting up, ignore everyone else. Your lifts are for you and you alone, theirs are their own, you are growing muscle for you not for them.

I'm not the best on cutting, since I have a high metabolism...so other than rooting for ya, i guess I have no real input :nervous:

 

[BabyHulk]

First..good that you are in line again. Glad you woke up. What works for me is about 500 cals below maintenance, with about 20 miss a hitt cardio.5 days a week. I never worried about muscle loss because I was so fat to start with.

 

[Blown]

Thanks guys!

One thing, do you guys really beleive in HIIT? I tried it a few weeks back in
'05 and on top of absolutely hating it, I didn't feel like I got any better results? If you guys really vouch for it though, I'll definately give it another shot!

 

[youngandfree]

Good to hear you are geting your life back. I think it's important to remember that you are starting in a different place than you were last time you were working out. That said, you should try to calculate what your BMR is at your current weight. Search for a calculator on the board to give a basic starting point for your maintenance calorie needs. You shouldn't start at 1800 that you did when you were 210. If you start too low, then when you do plateau, you won't have much room to adjust down your calories when you need to. Take your maintenance amount and start at 500 lower like suggested above.

Training: Have you actuall started lifting at all again? If not, I would probably start on a basic beginner type routine again. It's been a long time since your body has done this type of work, so it wouldn't hurt to go back to the basics. Maybe do a basic 3 day full body routine, something like the Starting Strength program. This way, you develop strength in key areas with basic compound moves. Also, the compound moves utilize more muscle groups, therefore requiring more energy expenditure to execute. Do 20-30 min of cardio after lifting, then 2 other days do cardio for 30 mins to start with. Ease your body back into it, so you will be able to continue to progress and not get burned out so fast out of the gate. As time goes on, and fitness level increases, then you can increase cardio time and intensity.

And don't worry about the others in the gym and your lifts compared to them. We ALWAYS compare our WORST to everyone elses BEST. It's not a fair comparison, and it just sets us up for failure. You are getting your life back from a period that was complete hell and that most people can't recover from. You get mad props for toughing it out. Like someone said earlier, you made it through the hardest part already. Getting clean and staying clean. The rest is easy compared to that.

Good Luck!!! You can do it.

 

[AntonG42O]

Yea man once you are a couple months into training, add some HIIT. Im not sure If I do it exactly how it should be done, but this is how I do it: 1 warm up set to get goin, then pick a weight you can do for 10 reps and bang those 10 out, hold the weight in a bottom position and take 10-15 deep breaths(sucking the stomach in/pushing all the air out when you breathe out) then I go for 10 more, another 10-15 breaths and I try to squeeze out 10 more. You can't really do this with compound exercises like squats or deads but it is a killer way to finish your workout on cables or dumbells, I even do it when I do dumbell walking lunges. So I would suggest a combination of compound and isolation exercises, alternating heavy days and moderate days. Start really light, work on your form for the first month until it becomes completely natural.

Once you get back into it with lighter weights, add a little weight and stick to lower reps, maybe even supersets of 2-3 exercises for the same bodypart. I think low reps moderate-heavy weights will kick your metabolism up and your muscle memory should get you back in shape pretty quickly. A push and pull routine is pretty effective: 3 day a week split, 1st day PUSH (shoulders/tris/chest : bench, military press, dips), 2nd day LEGS (squat, leg press, lunges, deads, you know alternate), 3rd day pull (back/bis: any variation of rows, some curls, assisted pullups when you can do it).

Most important of all though, work the kitchen. Throw away all the oil you got, leave olive oil only to eat raw on salad. Go to vitamin shoppe or elsewhere and get a good brand of virgin organic unrefined coconut oil. Use this anytime you bake/fry, it will definitely stimulate your metabolism and it has many compounds that have been proven to help you burn visceral fat.

Throw away ALL the **** food; chips,cookies,whitebread, anything with sugar in it. Eat nothing canned, nothing that comes in a box. Toss the frozen dinners, cake mixes, hot dogs, breaded chicken. Establish a good breakfast routine: egg whites with an 1-2 eggs and oatmeal or fruit. Then cut the carbs basically for the remainder of the day, except for a lil oats/fruit after workout with your protein. Get back to the 5-6 meal a day plan. For lunch I highly recommend a raw spinach salad with a chicken breast and olive oil, no carbs for lunch at all. For dinner choose something lean like chicken or turkey breast, grilled salmon does the trick too. With dinner you can do a little raw tomato/carrots/brocolli, but once again limit the carbs significantly after breakfast.

Regarding the calories, find a calorie/activity calculator online and figure out how much you need to lose weight, lift and have energy to go to work. Just keep grilling that chicken brother.....