My body transformation Day 1

Explanation of this Blog

On my birthday, just gone, my 5 year old son, quite innocently looked me clean in the eye and uttered these devastating words:

'Daddy you are fat!'

 . . . and yes, I know I do not look pretty, I have just stepped out from the shower and I look like a rock-and-roller; bad hair moment, and of course I currently [not for long], have a body similar to a bag full of pizza dough that has been stuffed into an expandable bag too hard and forced to bulge out from the sides . . . 

From this moment onwards, and after I had picked myself up from the floor and removed the metaphoric dagger from my heart, I vowed that I would never give the opportunity for my son or anyone else for that matter, to say these cruel words to me ever again.

I spend many days thinking about these four little words and came to the conclusion that I am not alone. Worldwide there must be many people who were in the same position, I thought. After much research; joining Twitter, Facebook and generally scouring the internet for as much information as I could find to help me verify my hypothesis, I found an answer. Staggeringly, approximately 50% of the Western world is either slightly over-weight, over-weight, obese or clinically obese. . . This lit a fire in me more potent than any other motivational experience that had been before me; I had to do something.

Before I continue, I would like everyone to know that I am not some divine saviour about to draw the needy from the ashes of obesity, nor am I a guru when it comes to exercise or nutrition. However, I as a person, I am extremely thorough and if I need an answer to a question I will always exhaust every possible avenue; or at least as many as I can find.

So armed with my drive and the need, not only to help myself, but at the same time to help and assist others, I decided to form a company. This entailed buying a few web names; I say a few as in the beginning I purchased From Fat 2 Flat, but after a week or so of the partial site being live, I got the impression that having the word fat in the title may be insulting to some. I then purchased the name FLATter. This I thought had a double entendre; meaning FLAT to signify that people would become flatter and toned as a result of their new found exercise and nutritional journey and also FLATTER, meaning compliment: When you look good people tell you, and this makes you feel good. Your are then subsequently, flattered. In addition, to the entendre I also liked the name FLATter; it rolls off the tongue and it is a good word to say; bright and vibrant which is what I want from everyone who joins the journey to a better life. It reminds me of the word Google and look how that word took off?

For anyone who will follow my Blog (this is day one so I do not expect to have too many followers) or is in a similar position and they want to join me, you can source much more information on the forty-seven exercises and counting and the many hundreds of recipes provided ALL FREE from chefs, mums, dads, and healthy people from all around the world to assist in this journey from my very popular web site. Just to highlight how people are finding this, in four weeks we have had over 260,000 hits. Pretty impressive I think, especially as the site is still being built and is only half completed. The site is www.flatter.org.uk

So now for me.

I am currently, 198 lbs or 90 kilos in weight. I am 6” 2’ (although due to my posture I stoop to 6" 1') and am 45 years old. My body is flabby around my middle which you will see from the images below, my chest sunken and undefined (too much slouching), my arms soft and weak, and as mentioned, my posture is dreadful. Couple this with limited flexibility and there I am, a picture similar to that, at least in part, to 50% of the population.

My plan and goal is to be 180 lbs or 82 kilos and defined with a lean waste, a great set of abs, good shoulders, strong, bulky arms and an overall taller aspect to my body; having learned with stretching exercises etc., to stand with a straighter, stronger posture.

My waste measurement:

·         36 to 38 inches depending on the trousers

So how can I achieve all this?

 This is a five-fold process and nothing more. Please do not be fooled into thinking that you must spend an exuberant amount of money to get back into fitness and peak health as you do not. In terms of sustenance, yes, fast food in the main is cheaper and quicker to buy than healthier foods, so I do understand those on low incomes as to how difficult this may appear. However, lets  break these two things down: Fast food and healthy foods.

Firstly, we all know how fast foods are made and the, excuse my use of English here, but ‘Crap’ that goes into making these quick-fixes, so although they may appear better for you, long term, due to the additives, salts, sugars and Trans fats (unhealthy ones), these WILL bring on diseases such as Diabetes and heart disease along with a whole host of other bodily complaints, such as stored fats in your body if you live on them. There are many other reasons why they are bad and you can read all about them in my book, FLATter, released sometime  in the summer of this year I hope and by looking on my web site (www.flatter.org.uk) under the exercises portion of the site.

Healthy foods, yes they can be very expensive, however, if you are clever, there are thousands of free recipes on the internet and on my site in the MEALS section that will provide a list of ingredients needed to make the dishes that you can easily be satisfied with. Having gone down this route myself, I can tell you with absolute certainty that by buying the ingredients you need to make each dish for the week, regardless of whether the recipes are complicated or not, you will spend roughly the same amount of your hard earned income compared to buying lots of junk foods. Seriously I know. I was one of those people who mixed pleasurable foods with some healthy options and when I made the switch to healthy only, I was amazed. Admittedly, it did take a few weeks for me to get the hang of these new menus, but once I did and I understood that many of the dried ingredients can be stored and others can be made in bulk and frozen, it became second nature very quickly.

In addition to this, your family or partner will love the new you and more importantly, love the new foods that you are serving.

One foot note, I am not a martyr! I am not so completely driven to being healthy that I do not indulge once in a while. It is a choice and it is my choice. On occasion I do eat something a little naughty, although this is rare now, instead what I tend to do is to give myself gifts for weight-loss goals, for example, by losing 2 kilos or 4 pounds I might allow myself a better gym top or pair or trainers. This is both practical and gratifying.

So back to this five stage process.

This is all pretty easy and again, this is all found in better detail in my book.

·         Decide to change your life
·         Choosing your exercises
·         Changing your diet
·         Formulate a plan and stick to it
·         Give yourself monthly goals

Well the first one has already been done if you want to follow me or you have decided to lose weight, exercise and or eat well.

Choosing your exercises is very important and will differ from person to person. On the web site www.flatter.org.uk/exercises you will be able to choose one or more primary exercises, which will help you with the bulk of your weight-loss and then you can choose one or several of the secondary exercises which will assist with your flexibility, breathing, lung capacity, toning, metabolism, heart rate, stretching and many other key elements to sustain a healthy lifestyle.

At the same time as deciding which exercises to do, you will need to supplement these with a change in your diet. This does not mean, go on a diet, as know-one ever needs to go on a diet; all you need to do is drink lots of water, eat sensibly and regularly using the right types of ingredients; at the right time of the day. That is it.

Your next stage is to formulate a plan. You have chosen your exercises, now you must assign them a time limit; one hour three times a week; 30 minutes twice a week for each exercise. This part is up to you, but I would say, aim for a minimum of two-and-one-half hours per week.

You last objective is to set yourself goals based on your target. If you want to lose 20 kilos or 44 pounds then do as I have seen many people do and give yourself a reward chart. Set yourself a time limit to lose this excess weight and try to stick to it. Do not go mad here, if you do not meet one target in a month, do not worry, so long as you are losing weight by exercising and eating well, then you are already winning.

So what did I choose?

Primary exercises:

Road cycling (but on a mountain bike – adds to the friction due to tyre width making it tougher)

Running – treadmill and road

Gym work

Secondary exercises

Pilates and yoga moves (see on secondary exercises on the web site http://www.flatter.org.uk/secondary-exercises)

Body Pump classes

How long do I carry out each exercise?

Pilates class for beginners every week which lasts for one hour in the day time.

Body Pump one class every two weeks

Road cycling every Saturday morning, early (7 am) and I like to ride for between two and three hours with a snack break at my half way point). I ride normally between 30 and 70 kilometres.

Running – starting with a slow 15 minutes per session. I will progress to running for one to two hours a week.

Gym work. This normally takes one to two hours, but yesterday, on my first training session I exercised very slowly [lots of rest time between exercises] to break myself in. This also gave me a good opportunity to watch other people to see their techniques so I could earn from visual stimuli and not just from books, videos etc.

In terms of my gym work choice, I have chosen to use Men’s Fitness Workout Manual 2014. This is a six months workout schedule that allows me to tailor to my physical needs. They have written recommendations of rep counts and set, but allow the user to choose his or her weight choice. In addition I have and will add additional exercises as and when the need arises due to wanting to develop different areas of my body.

These are the exercises that I carried out yesterday . . . oh yes, and before I forget, wow I do ache today! Still, it will get better. It is just my body's way of saying, that I am unfit, stiff and not used to exercise. I will get better.

Day 1 - Beginnings of my personal transformation

These are the exercises that I carried out yesterday.

Gym work

Cycling

Running

General stretching of Hamstrings, quads, ankles, calves, Cat stretch (lower back) and hips. (15 minutes)

1. Indoor cycling - varied between easy level and hard resistance, stand up to peddle sessions. I rode 35 kilometres in 1 hour.

Rested 10 minutes.

2. Gym work. I carried out the following exercises:

I did 10 x 3 sets at 10 lb dumbbells (30 seconds between all sets)

I also added a 12.5 lb bar and did the same 3 x 10 reps.

Rested 5 minutes

Here I did 5 x 5 sets of 50 lbs.

Rested 5 minutes

Next I did Rotary Torso twists (no image)

5 x 10 reps @ 100 lbs

Rested 5 minutes

3 x 7 reps 37.5 lbs

Rested 5 minutes

3 x 8 reps x 60 lbs

5 minute rest

3 x 8 reps 32 lbs

5 minute rest

3. Treadmill - running.

I chose to finish the session with a 15 minute slow run, [level 6] to stretch my joints.

4. Final stretching of: Abs, Biceps, Triceps, Chest, neck, Lower back, Middle back, Calves, Hamstrings and Gluts.

                                                                                                                                                                   

Nutrition

During the exercise period I had:

1 large banana

1 litre water

500 ml bottle of Lucozade energy sports drink

After the work out and within 30 minutes of completing, I had 500 ml of pro-biotic live yoghurt, 200 grams Dry-roasted pea nuts.

Within 1 hour I had Dinner consisting of: 2 tortillas with ham, chicken breast, tomato salsa, mushrooms and hard cheese.

Day one complete.