JLD

I re-read the article on Nerd Fitness about Jaime Bamber, and Steve really emphasis setting distinct goals. I realised my long-term goals aren't distinct enough, nor is my plan. What defines being in good enough shape for the intro to competitive boxing program? What exactly are my weight-loss goals? I sat down and wrote out my longer-term goals and the plan I intend to pursue. Weight-loss Goal: 200 pounds by Christmas. Realistic: Yes, I think so. I'm 260 -- so obese. That's about 4.2 months. I've read about guys my size dropping 30-50 pounds in around the same time, healthfully by making concrete diet and fitness changes. I've got the fitness changes down, now it's time to reign in the diet. How: Exercise a minimum of 4 times a week (2 of those will be strength and conditioning at boxing class, with more of a focus on the conditioning and 2 will be strength training, all body, with a combination of heavy lifts and hardest variation of body-weight exercises I can manage). Diet-wise: 2500 calories maximum of 3 well-balanced meals and 2 healthful snacks, with 1 (AND ONLY ONE!) cheat meal a week. About 80% paleo. Non Paleo foods I intend to keep are: steel cut oats/quinoa/rye/odd serving of brown rice. Yes, evil grains. Maybe they'll fade from my diet, I dunno? They don't seem to bother me, unlike legumes and pulses and milk. Fitness goal: To be in good enough shape to do the introduction to competitive boxing classes. To me that means being able to do 3, 3 minute rounds on a heavy bag with 16 oz cloves, with lots of movement, and being able to do body-weight exercises during the 1 minute rest. So, that's my goal. To make it through 12 minutes with basically zero rest and not be incredibly exhausted, vomiting, unconscious, or slow as molasses with my punches. How: On top of my strength work-outs and conditioning classes at boxing...basically just doing it. 2-3 times a week, go to the boxing gym and do it and keep doing it, plus all the other things I'm doing, until I feel as though I'm comfortably getting through the 12 minutes of hell. If I can't get to the gym, I'll do the Bas Rutten boxing tape with my gloves on. As for this current challenge: A wrench has been thrown into the monkey...or...in the spokes...or... well, whatever. I have to train a new employee until 2am every morning this week, which makes going to boxing on Friday a question mark since it takes place at 6:30am. Regardless, I will work-out no matter what. But, I still feel like if I don't actually get there, it's a bit of a fail.

I can't imagine going to a boxing class after running a half marathon. Boxing conditioning zaps what ever cardiovascular I have in my body - granted it's anaerobic instead of aerobic - but still, that's intense! Endurance running is never anything that has interested me. I love hiking and the idea of short, intense trail runs in the future seems like a cool idea, though. I think you should devote your energy and money to training martial arts. But, I'm biased. I just think the skill-set you can get from boxing, etc is more interesting than running half marathons. Especially if you're sustaining injuries that are directly related to long distance running. Plus, you get to hit things and eventually people! That's always a bonus!

UPDATE: Boxing work-out today: 20 seconds elevated sprints, 20 seconds elevated planks, 20 seconds weighted jumps, 20 seconds t-push-ups with dumb-bells and 30 seconds of burpees w/push-up to over-head press with dumb-bells. THEN, lots of fast and hard heavy bag work and then back to the circuit. Maybe I'm hard on myself, but I still feel like I could give 10-15% more in my work-outs. I mean...I feel like I may vomit and I walk home, dragging my heels, soaked in sweat. But, I feel like I could ratchet up the intensity a bit. Some of this, funnily enough, has to do with the crummy running shoes I own. I bought indoor runners for boxing because I had none, but I randomly bought them at Wal-Mart for...$15. That's right! I'm wearing $15 running shoes. It's just temporary until I can buy real ones, but I have to buy gloves and wraps still, so it'll have to wait. It feels like I'm wearing plastic on my feet. Also, he called me out for not being there on Friday. Which is good. It's good to have that base of people asking why you "wussed" out of such-and-such a class. I've decided: by this time next year, I want to be in the competitive boxing program. I think that's a realistic amount of time to lose weight and improve strength and conditioning and transition to taking more technical classes to work on defense drills and foot-work. It's a lofty goal for someone as out of shape as me, but a good one!

[ATTACH=CONFIG]5069[/ATTACH] DINNER: Turkey Drumstick, Sweet Potato, Green Beans and Zucchini sauteed in olive oil with garlic, red onions and red chili flakes. Served w/ a side of Futurama: [ATTACH=CONFIG]5070[/ATTACH]

I've learned something important this week: lentils, pulses and beans do not sit well with me. Lately, because I haven't had tons of money, I've been eating like an peasant. Lentils, split peas and beans are great sources of protein, as well as other vitamins, but in even moderate quantities, they mess with my gut. My bathroom experiences over the last two weeks haven't been what they used to be *cough*. Also, I feel like complete crap. They're not fueling my work-outs very well. Now, it's not all their fault. I've eaten some pretty not-so-good things this week and thus haven't kept up with one of my goals/rules. Growing up, I never ate lentils and pulses or beans (oh my!). I constantly feel like I weigh more and I think, unlike most people, I'm getting TOO much fibre. I'm considering giving paleo/primal eating a try. It's just hard with my budget. I'm going back to university at the end of the month. That being said, I live literally two minutes away from a farmer's market that is open Saturdays that has a lot of organic foods, including free range chicken and grass-fed beef. Problem is: it's retardedly expensive. Even grain-fed chicken breast is literally anywhere from $12.99 to 16.99 for like four medium sized breasts. I used to work at a butcher shop that sold hormone free, antibiotic free chicken, and people would literally drop $14 on a single breast of chicken (granted it was huge). Now, I know a lot of the benefits from paleo can be achieved even if one doesn't eat organic meats and vegetables (in terms of weight-loss and improved energy levels), but I feel like I'd just be doing a repackaged Atkins diet... I've read sometimes the reason people have trouble transitioning to paleo isn't the lack of high GI carbs in their system, but the fact they've created way too big of a calorie deficit...and with the way I'm currently working-out, I'd need to be eating a decent amount of food. I'm rambling. Anyways: I know buying in bulk is a solution to paleo-on-a-dime, but I rarely find myself with enough money in hand to drop $80 on a 100 pounds of meat. Does anyone have any suggestions for eating paleo cheaply?

Man, the Bas Rutten MMA work-out really is awesome. There's never an excuse to missing a work-out. Even if I slept in and missed boxing, I could just put on the All-Around Fighting Tape, which has a ridiculous amounts of sprawls and get a really challenging cardiovascular work-out. Or, if I can't make it to the gym, I could do the All-Around Work-Out Tape and end up doing so many push-ups and jump squats I think I may die. They really are a great training tool. And having a Dutchman yell at you makes it easier, somehow.

UPDATE: Originally, I was going to do a strength training day on Thursdays, but I feel really rundown. I've done conditioning on Monday, strength training on Tuesday, and conditioning again on Wednesday. Tomorrow at boxing is the challenge day, which focuses a lot on muscular endurance. Fridays kind of have a cross-fit vibe to them. A LOT OF REPS and unlike Mon/Wed, there's a lot of push-ups, dips, rows, etc. So, I think I'm going to amend my work-out schedule and instead just do a hard shadowboxing work-out on Thursdays as active recovery. I use the Bas Rutten's MMA work-out for that. The boxing tape is fantastic. REALLY fast combos. It's a tough work-out, but it's more like going for a jog than trying to lift a boulder over your head. I hope that doesn't sound like I'm making excuses.

Hey, I've been a chronic binge-eater/compulsive-eater since I can remember. I was wondering: is there anyone on this forum who has found switching to a paleo lifestyle has helped them a lot with their binge-eating/compulsive-eating? Or do they find they manage to maintain a healthy weight simply because they're over-eating paleo foods, making it hard to create a surplus in their calories? Thanks, Joey.

Man! Training at the Serra school would be amazing! Matt Serra is one the best practitioners of BJJ in the UFC and he out-boxed GSP! ...he lost the second time, but still! You could go so far with that level of instruction and access to a facility like that! And he seems like a genuinely nice guy, so if you got to take classes with him as the instructor, man! To me that's like wondering if you should go to community college or Harvard if both are available to you. I'm jealous of the decision you have to make, haha. Also -- personally, I don't trust martial arts that look as pretty as Krav Maga. And in terms of learning how to get out of a real fight, a Muay Thai low-leg kick delivered to someone's knee cap would have them think twice about even trying to fight you... AND...this post is rather old, so I wonder if you've gone to either place as of yet?

I've heard with heavyweight, in the lower depths of MMA, if you're solid, you can go a long way because generally it's just a lot of slow, huge dudes that hit hard as hell, but gas out really quickly and have no ground game. I've been trying to get my friend who's 6'7 with an 82" reach who loves MMA to get back in shape and try. My hats off to you, man. That's a crazy goal! Even when people lose, I have so much respect for anyone who participates in an MMA bout. I figured once I'm in decent shape, I want to go into the competitive boxing classes where I go to do boxing, but whether or not I ever do a few amateur bouts would depend how badly I get creamed in sparring, haha. Although, I'd rather fight a 350 pound giant in an octagon than go through what I'd have to do to reach the ideal fighting weight for my frame-size... I feel your pain with cereal... I NEVER buy it, but whenever I go to my aunt's (she has 2 kids) I ended up eating like 2 big bowls of Reese's Piece's Cereal.

Well, it feels like I've been beaten with baseball bats, but that didn't stop me from making a real lunch: [ATTACH=CONFIG]5025[/ATTACH] Tuna with lemon, hot sauce, and black pepper on toasted flax seed rye with a side salad of romaine lettuce, green peppers, and tomato. Lemon and black pepper for dressing. And a bowl of curried lentil soup. Oh, and there was spicy Maille dijon mustard on the sandwich. Excuse the crummy fluorescent lighting of my kitchen.

Hiking is one of my favourite things. Just walking in general. I walk in the woods almost every day, more for mental health than exercise. I believe in walking so much for mental health. I can't stand running though! And beer is awesome and hard to give up. Empty calories always taste the best! Sometimes I'll just go and buy a single can of beer or two instead of a 6-pack or 12-pack to avoid drinking too much. I look like a hobo doing that, but whatever.

Saying "no" to food is so hard. It's so delicious. Maybe I should just shoot a bottle rocket up my nose and "permanently lose my sense of taste and smell."

Challenge Update: Got my fat ass up this morning at 5:45am to go to boxing class. I was pretty sore from weight-lifting yesterday and eating free Indian food late at night does not make for a solid night's sleep! Class was hard. Actually, it was probably the hardest class. It was a lot of hops, tuck jumps, heavy bag combos and over-head lunges (an exercise I have trouble with due to a toe that was broken as a kid -- I have very little flexibility in my left toe... how often that does that come up?!). All of that isn't easy, but isn't killer...it was the leg-tucked side-planks and push-ups holds that really did me in. Doing isometric exercises the day after lifting hurts. I can usually hold on for the duration of planks and holds, but I collapsed every time after the first circuit. I came home, ate a huge egg scramble, and passed out.

Man! That guy is intense!

Only twice a week. Tuesdays and Thursdays. I do boxing conditioning classes Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Those classes are more about anaerobic threshold and don't have a large strength component. A lot of pylometrics and heavy bag work. Some planks. And of course skipping rope. Although, Fridays are a max-rep challenge day and can get a bit nutty apparently. But, I don't do anything on weekends except maybe walk. The boxing coach/trainer said if I find my body isn't recovering, drop one of the strength training days. Yeah, I should carry an emergency snack-pack to combat random offerings of food!

Well, I managed to work-out today, but my eating went to hell later in the evening. I went to my aunt's to do laundry and they ordered pizza... and I ended up eating 4 slices. And then tonight when I got into work, one of the guys who owns the Indian restaurant next door asked if I wanted some food. I said "no" at first but then he asked if I'd like to try just a little bit. I said, "OK." He showed up five minutes later with a mound of basmati rice and chicken curry. I didn't eat all of it and left most of the rice, but still...heavy Indian food at 9:30pm ain't the greatest. ... I need to learn to dig deep and find iron willpower inside myself to be like, "NO!"

Also, thanks for all the encouragement so far.

Just did my first strength training work-out on my own today. Went to the boxing gym, nobody was there at all. I decided to do straight sets instead of circuits because I still want to make sure my form is good. Thursday I'll do it as a circuit, but with a 30 second rest between stations. I added five pounds onto every lift after the first set. Because I'm alone, I have to make sure to never really go above 90% of my max on my bench press. You always hear horror stories about some dude dropping 250 pounds on his throat. I was in and out in about an hour, including warm-up and stretch. My warm-up was skipping rope for a few minutes, a quick shoulder and back warm-up with light dumb-bells, and then 2 sets of 10 reps of 90 pound truck tire flips (such a fun exercise!). My body-weight circuit after my heavy lifts went better than expected! I managed to do decline push-ups for each set with my feet up on the tire, struggled like crazy with the inverted rows (feet on the ground) but got it done (I'd like to be faster and have better extension), and managed a 5 Mississippi-seconds dead-hang on the pull bar. Things I noticed: I HATE chest-supported dumb-bell rows and I don't think I'll be doing this exercise again. It killed the flow of my work-out and felt so awkward. I did standing rows for the last set. Personally, I think with inverted rows and dead-lifts, there's no reason to add another pull exercise. So, I'm going to just do the squat to standing press with dumb-bells every time instead. I also noticed my palms are chewed up! I never realised the importance of grip-strength. Actually, my hands in general have taken the biggest beating from boxing -- which makes sense! I've read for martial arts and combat sports, you never want to train dead-lifts with the wrist straps because having a super-human grip-strength can be really disconcerting to an opponent in grappling. It doesn't apply to boxing, but I'd like to train MMA in the future. DIET: Here is a picture of my pre-work-out meal (note: on Monday/Wednesday/Friday, I work-out on an empty stomach because it's so early in the morning, so no pre-work-out meal). [ATTACH=CONFIG]5001[/ATTACH] Oatmeal, blueberries, half a grapefruit, some almonds and a dollop of cottage cheese. Post-work out: [ATTACH=CONFIG]5002[/ATTACH] Twas a fritatta until she broke apart... 1/2cup egg whites, 2 whole eggs, 1/2 cup black beans, green peppers, red onion, and half a roma tomato. Thanks for reading, Joey.

Note: my goals seem to be strength training specific, but it's all within the context of a boxing gym. A goal I can't reach in six weeks, but it is a long term goal, is to eventually transition to the competitive boxing program. Weight-loss, improvement in conditioning and strength, and control of my diet are required to do that, so!

Hey, My name is Joey. I'm 5'9 and 260. I used to be 350, but that was several years ago. I've been stuck at 260-280 for about two years. I lost all the previous weight by simply walking. I didn't change my diet much at all. Last week, I started boxing. It's a fitness-bootcamp style class at 6:30am three days a week. It's a lot of bodyweight cardio intervals and heavy bag work. I also paid for a personal training session to learn proper form on the main compound lifts. So, M/W/F I go to boxing conditioning class and T/TH I do strength training. My biggest challenge is my eating. I've tried paleo, slow-carb, and plain old will power, but I'm a compulsive eater. My struggle to avoid binge-eating will be my biggest obstacle. Food-wise, my plan is to be un-obsessive. By this, I mean: don't align myself to a particular diet or philosophy of eating, but just avoid heavily processed foods, eating any junk food (including diet pop), and never go to a single restaurant. No more afternoon 12" meatball subs, no more late night pizzas, and no more eating an entire large bag of Deritos before even one Futurama episode has finished. I'm going to eat real food and real meals. My reasoning is that: times past, when I've gone paleo or slow-carb, eating too much fruit has sent me off the deep-end and created an excuse to throw the day away and binge-eat my face-off. I also don't think either diet is sustainable for life (at least for me). My strength training consists of 4 sets of 8 reps of raised dead-lift, 8 reps of bench press, 12-15 reps of chest-supported dumb-bell rows or 12-15 reps of squat to overhead press with dumb-bells. Followed by a circuit of the hardest variation of push-ups I can manage for 6-10 reps, inverted bodyweight rows 6-10 reps and a 3-5 second dead-hang on the pull-up bar. Eventually, I want to progress to doing the simple 5x5 work-out on my Tuesday/Thursday. My 8 rep max for the raised dead-lift was 145pounds. My 8 rep max for the bench press was 100 pounds. And I did the rows and presses with 30 pounds (at the time, but I can go heavier). To start the program, I'll be lifting at 70% if those weights, adding 2-5% of my max each week, until I'm doing my old max for each set. I'm concentrating most on form and short rest times. I'll also be lowering my dead-lift closer and closer to the floor. My theory is that the boxing coach/trainer wanted me to really get form down before progressing to heavier weight. I can do 10 full-body push-ups at 260. For some reason, because of this, I assumed I'd be able to do way more on my bench press...boy was I wrong. My goal is to make all these things habitual, like my constant walking. Walking has become such a huge part of my life, that if I don't at least get a 40-60 minute hike in each day, I feel like a caged animal. My 3 fitness goals are: 1. Never miss a single boxing class or strength training work-out 2. Do not eat any junk food or eat in/or out at a restaurant 3. Full dead-lift (thus opening the door to do a 5x5 work-out) Life goal: 4. Write a short story a week And that's about it! I'll try and update weekly with my progress. Thanks for reading, Joey.