I’m one week into changing the way I live. It’s going about as well as can be expected, and I’m pleased with that.
The good: I’m enjoying my workouts again and feeling really good. Not doing the two-a-days yet, back to school week for the kids, new schedule; just have to figure it all out. What I am doing it getting at least 30 minutes in each day, whether it’s T25, sandbag workouts or even a run. I’m also free to experiment with my workouts; tie a rope to a bag and pull it across the yard.
The bad: Still having trouble with the knife and fork, but I’m working on it. Ate well 5 days last week. Saturday, Sunday and today…not really that well, but that’s in the past. I’ll not going to realize all these changes overnight.
What is my eating plan? I’ve had a lot of luck with simply counting calories, so I’m starting there: about 2200/day. I’m looking to put on some muscle (arms, shoulders, back…things that will help with rope climbs, monkey bars, etc) so I should start looking at my protein intake. I want to hit about 210 lbs… that’s 210 grams of protein each day as a target. 4 calories per gram; that’s 840 calories, subtracted from my 2200, leaving me with 1360 to split between carbs and fats. I’m working on a 50/50 split there with an eye on healthy fats and complex, close to how nature made them, carbs. There are about 4 cals per carb and 9 per g of fat and that gives me a good idea of what I can eat at any given time.
Why this plan? As I said, calorie counting has worked in the past. Where it goes off the rails, for me, is carbs. I can have 2 slices of whole wheat toast for 140 calories, or 3 slices of bacon for 90. Duh!!!! I make my tradeoffs; stir fry sauce instead of extra rice. I can have pasta, but throw some chicken in. I’m finding it more conducive to a life with 2 kids and a wife. I can also track it on the MyFitnessPal app on my phone.
Just as I’m not going bust out 10 pullups next week, I’m not expecting to hit my diet goals every day. If I can do Monday through Friday, and 2-3 meals on weekend, I’ll be happy.
Came up with my Spartan Test workout. Feel free to share, adapt and adjust as need be. I’m planning on increasing the run distances each workout (100 m, 250 m, 500m, etc) Let me know how you do.
Glad the exercise is going better for you. I have to say I am shocked by the amount of protein. Yikes, that seems like a lot! Especially if much of it is animal protein. Just concerned from a health perspective. Good luck!
I’m open to suggestions for non-animal protein. Love beans and quinoa, and they’re in the pantry, but they come up short when I need protein. I can munch on 4 oz of chicken for about 35g of protein or a cup of quinoa, for 10g. They’re relatively equal in calories.
You’re my goto person in this category, so ANY advice is welcome.