It's time for me to get serious!
 

Okay this is it, I am ready to get serious!

My goal: in 6 months to be in the best shape of my life (I'll be 40 then). I don't have a weight goal but I don't won't to weigh any less than 165 lbs. As far as body fat, I'm guessing ~9%, I think that is going to by far be the hardest part... so I have to be serious.

My plan: Bulk for Dec, Jan & Feb. Beginning in December I'll go back to eating at maintenance, for 2 weeks. Then I'll eat at ~+500 cals/day (besides cheats). I'll continue to eat clean and allow one cheat per week, at most. I'll start March with 2 weeks of maintenance then cut March, April & May @ ~-500 cals/day (besides cheats). I will workout 3 days a week and do some cardio while bulking, only b/c I have to prepare for another 1/2 marathon that I've committed to. When cutting I'll do the same but increase my cardio.

My concerns: I have a hard time bulking. Mentally it's hard for me to intentionally pack on weight when I worked so hard to lose it. If I can get past this, I'll be successful.

In a week I'll post up some before pics and I'll try to update pics every 2-4 weeks, depending on progress. I will give updates through out on how it's going and if I am mentally surviving the bulk.

That's it, sounds easy enough, right? :D

Woo hoo, Mike, you can do it! Just wanted to throw some encouragement your way.
Btw... I think it's pretty awesome to have a 6-month goal and/or to think of where you want to be in that timeframe. Especially as someone who's losing weight, I just add up the (most likely) # of pounds I'll lose in 6 mos and get excited about it being 6 months from now. Not that I want my life to zip by, but... I think it puts things in perspective - like, all the small changes and the weeks I lose "only" 1# - the thought of how all that stuff will come together even more in 6mos is just awesome and very motivating.
Thanks for the welcome food for thought via sharing your goal - I know you'll do it!

Sounds like a good plan! :)

I just started thinking about where I want to go from "here"! It kind of changes things when you reach the losing the fat goal! :confused:

mike, what you have achieved so far is inspirational, My money is on you. Good luck, (not that you'll need it)

thanks everyone. Yeah it's good to have a plan. Like the proverb “He who fails to plan, plans to fail”

I guess I will need some luck to stay healthy and injury free, the rest will be on my shoulders. :)

You can do it for sure. I am sure. So basically you are going to mainly fluctuate your calories and continue with your current workout schedual? Eating clean of course. Sounds like a sound approch for sure. Im with you on the eating more to bulk it is scary...
Please keep us posted on results. I am very interested since even though I am not exactly where I want to be weight wise I would like to try for simalar results.

yeah, I'm going to do the same workouts. My diet is going to be the biggest change. I hope my lifts go up quite a bit while bulking.

I figured I'd put this out there b/c this always seems to be a popular question.

http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/i...gt46/supps.jpg
1-3) I take daily
4) I take when I think about it.
5) I'm almost done with the bottle, I'm about to phase out b/c I'm just starting #7 which has caffeine in it.
6) I'll take it before I work out, it's a cheap supplement for Zinc and Magnesium
7) I took this (1/2 serving) for the 1st time the other day, I don't know if it was a placebo effect but I was lifting a lot more on it.
8) I haven't taken Creatine in a long time. This is an old bottle of mono, I've heard that creatine has come a long way since then. I'll try it while bulking, unless I start to get bloated.
9) I'm going to start taking it daily
10) Not a supplement, but this is a must for me when I start running. I have big legs and this stops chaffing.
11 & 12) I won't be taking much of this while bulking. I should get in enough protein with real food when I increase my calories.

Yes, that stuff is expensive and no... I'm not rich. ;)

I would actually advise you to take protein supplements especially if you are bulking. I have noticed better gains when I take whey an hour before and immediately after workouts. Better for protein timing since actual food can take awhile to digest. For me the jury is still out on casein protein though I do use it.

I may take the whey after my workout but I'm going to try to get 150+g a day from food, which I should be able to do.

well I just noticed a big flaw in my plan. My work out program that I'm doing has this week as an unloading week and next week as an off week. This is not a good time to start bulking. I'll figure something out.:mad:

mike, your original post just made me feel so grateful for being a female.. I can image how hard it is to eat more while you're trying to gain muscle when it's been all about losing weight. but it's all monitoring, so really it's all the same. i had a friend in high school that lost almost 100lbs, got down to about 150, and then bulked back up to like 210... he does body building competitions now :)

anyway, i have a question for you. for guys to gain, what's a usual timeline? do you guys measure your gain by weight? how long should it take a guy to build, say, 20lbs of muscle?

thx!

IMO to gain 20#'s of MUSCLE would take a year or more, without steroids. With Steroids it could done much quicker, but everyone is different. I plan on measuring my gain with a body fat caliper and as long as 2/3 of my gain was mucle I planned on going through with it, if I found that I was gaining too much fat I would abort my mission.;)

I was talking with a good friend the other day that is in to body building and he said something that I really believe, even though my plan here begs to differ. His thinking is that you shouldn't "bulk" until you get to 3% BF. 3% is a little extreme but I see his point, which is... as long as you have a decent amount of body fat, which I do, eat at maintenance to bulk muscle. This will allow your body to burn fat while building muscle, instead of putting on muscle AND fat.

I was actually considering that as well, eat at maintenance for a couple months, then go from there with my cut b/c I can see a considerable amount of fat in my mid section right now.

Regardless of what I do, I will monitor everything here and look for some good changes.

Not sure if I agree with that right there, but yeah like you I feel the sentiment. It's best not to gorge yourself to bulk regardless of your situation, but especially if you're still not out of the woods wrt major fat loss. Right now I'm bulking too, just trying to lay down some baseline mass overall before I start doing body-part specializations in the new year (my goal is to be beach-ready in June). I'm eating a lot, but I'm trying to do it cleanly, with tons of veggies and lots of meat.

a.vannice, I'd personally be happy if I could put on a sustainable 3-5 lbs of lean mass by the end of the year. It's going to be tricky with the holidays coming up wrt avoiding putting on fat. In addition to the scale I use a measuring tape to get an idea of muscle sizes as well as checking size and condition visually in the mirror.

yeah I'd like to be beach ready by May/June.

I took pics, weighed myself (175.2#), and checked my body fat (Suprailiac = 8mm, which is ~12.7%)
Your results:
Estimated body fat: 12.7%
Fat weight: 22lbs.
Lean weight: 153lbs.

Based on your results, you are:
Lean: 14.8% and under
Ideal: 14.8% to 20.2%
Average: 20.2% to 25.8%
Overfat: 25.8% and over

on a side note. I'll try to take my pics in the same location, same lighting, and in front of the camera.... not the mirror. I find that my pics in the mirror make me look much leaner than I really am.

This should keep me honest ;) but I probably won't take any pics with my midsection relaxed until I get my bf% down to the single digits... maybe never.

Looking good, Mike...almost posted somethin' embarrassing on your FB profile when it popped up ;).

Keep us posted...and motivated!

cjohnson... on FB or FD? I didn't think just anyone could see my facebook. I may have to look into that. I'm new to the whole FB scene.

http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/i...g?t=1291248858

After seeing these pics, I definitely feel uneasy about bulking. I need to lean up more. I don't look like 12.7% BF either, looks waaaay higher. BTW I swear I have a butt! My jeans don't show my best feature. ;)

I couldn't access your Facebook from this site but it gave me the comment box. Want me to type something in and see what happens?

Continue to admire your dedication to your fitness!

You are definitely ready for the beach! :D And, um... I live at the beach btw... ;)

sure, I'm confused though. How did you find me on FB?:confused:

hmmmm now that's an idea.:cool:

I didn't. When I clicked on your link to the pictures, it popped up with the little Facebook comment box and invited me to leave a comment...is your Facebook hooked into your photobucket, or whatever?

Ok, now I see my comment on your photo link...but not your FB??? Can you see it, too? Not sure I want my FB info on your link.

Technology sucks sometimes.

This may explain it???

Facebook Developers

I didn't see the comment anywhere. :confused:

If you click on the bottom photo link in your signature and scroll all the way down, the comment's there. Can you use your supermoderator status to figure out how to delete it? Not that I don't love y'all, but I really wasn't prepared to go public w/my Facebook yet!

I couldn't delete the comment so I deleted the pic.

Thanks, that's what curiosity got me. Looking forward to more updates of you busting your ass that I won't comment on!

no problem. I didn't ever try to befriend you on FB. :cool:

I wouldn't mind...I feel like I know you pretty well by now :)
I am new the the facebook too and especially in my line of work, I'm a little wary!
Thanks again!

Lookin' good Mike! sometimes bf% calculators can err on the low side... from the looks of it I'd guess 14-15% bf? I'm at like 17-18% so I've still got a ways to go, but my strategy has shifted from fat loss to clean, lean gain. Afterall, there are two ways to change a percentage right? :D

I agree as well, BF looks way higher than 12.7. I also agree on there being more than one way to change BF%. That's why I think I'm shifting my thought, bulking will just make it that much harder to get where I want to be next summer. I'm going to try to slowly drop bf% by gaining just a little muscle (it would be nice to lose some fat too but who knows) then I think once I cut I will look much bigger even though I'm not, just lean.

God I hate this, I knew it was going to end up like this.:mad: Oh well the end result is all that matters, right?

I can understand, having a bunch of crazies looking for you could be bad. lol

Mike I started a pre=workout shake last night andI felt like a beast. Also gought some Glucosamine for my post workout protien shake. I feel great.

cool! what's in your pre-workout shake?

Ill post later have to work until 12:00 stuff is at home. I have to say I really didnt believe it would make any difference and I didnt want addl caffiene to keep me up. I picked my 21 year old son up from work and he talked me into going to the supplement store on the way.
Anyway he takes all kinds of crap and is in good shape , works out a lot.
He asked the girl what she had for preworkout without caffiene she came up with this bottle and asked if I wanted to try a sample, since I was working out at 6:00 I said sure. She mixed it up and I drank it. She said it had vits, arginine, N.O boosters blah blah blah.
went to gym tired from work not expecting much and started feeling pretty good about 10 minutes in started pushing hard upping weights, concentrating on form etc. took appropriate rests between sets and all that stuff. 45 min in I was pumped up doing some cable pulldowns 150 lbs (heavy for me) 3-sets of 8. did some abs at that point incline crunches with 8 lb ball. Still wanting more I had no more to do. Headed out the door at the hour mark feeling energized.Wondering what the hell was in that? Was it the placebo effect? Was it the magic potion lol? I didnt care went straight to the Muscle Max store and bought a jug didnt care what was in it...
Anyway went home had a Protien shake with Glutamine headed to Sams Club still feeling pretty good actually it was 8:05 and I was feeling great thinking I will never sleep (I have problems with any stimulant caffiene, tea etc), I normally go to bed at this time when I work Boring I know.

Got home had some egg whites and cottage cheese went to bed at 10:15 fell asleep quickly and slept sound until 6:30 ...success

I will post what it is exactly when i get home. My wife is a Body Combat instructor and took a scoop before her morning class today as well. I will post her thoughts later too..

cool, it sounds like whatever it is worked out well for you.

Thhstuff was called Fuzion k-akg3 check it out.

weight = 174.4