Jorunal of a former obese teen living Primal page

[BennettC]

So I've decided it's finally time for me to start one of these. For those of you who aren't familiar with my story a link is post below on my signature as well as before and after pictures. I'm really headed down a new exciting path in my life as I'm working on getting into school and training to join the military this time next year. Not only over the last 10 months of eating a paleo diet have I made amazing progress, I've also learn a great deal about what it really means to live a healthy lifestyle. I'm very happy with my VLC high fat diet, have a great exercise routine, and have made a switch to using all natural-homemade products such as deodorant, toothpaste, lotion, ect. Been doing the Baking soda wash and ACV conditioner for my hair for about a week now and am loving it. Not only is much less expensive, it's all natural and I don't have to worry about those pesky chemicals leaking into my body.

As far as my diet goes, right now it's totally geared toward towards body building...or as I like to refer to it, "body sculpting" I'm a big advocate of raw dairy and I feel including it in my diet was literally one of the best things I've EVER done for my health. I drink a little over a quart daily and I also enjoy kefir, yoghurt, cream cheese, butter, ect. I eat a LOT of pastured eggs as well. I also happen to be a red meat coinsurer But anyways that's the bulk of my diet. Raw milk, eggs, fish, poultry, red meat. I'm not a big fan of vegetables so I don't eat many of those except for things like onions, garlic, mushrooms, and fresh herbs that I enjoy. Used to love sweet corn when I was a kid, this summer I had maybe 2 pieces? I used to eat a lot of those things in my higher carb days and when first starting paleo as these things are advocated. I use to force myself to eat all those things because I felt I had to eat them. I'm a big fan of Dr. Greg Ellis's work and he see's no nutritional need for fruits and vegetables. I do love fruit, but I tend to stay away from it because fructose is basically a key that turns on body fat storage and it's just bad news for building muscle. I mostly enjoyed local tomatoes and wild muscadines that I gathered myself this summer. I get all my necessary nutrition from meat, eggs, and milk as wells as a nice variety of antioxidants from drinking herbal teas, supplementing coconut oil, and adding unsweetened cocoa powder to my morning drink of milk and eggs. I also read the book "The Fat of the Land" this summer and was absolutely amazed by the fact that the inuit have lived on all meat forever and ever and ever. They certainly didn't have any problems. I also find fiber really irritates my digestive tract.

As far as exercise, last November I began walking, something I still enjoy today. I find it very calming and it helps me get my mind off thing. Most days this summer I walked roughly 5 miles daily. Now I'm walking 3 miles a day with a 30lb weighted vest. I started lifting in late February and I have only taken a 2 month break from that when I was living in Auburn, AL with my brother. I stayed in shape doing Mark's PBF program, sprinting, and walking. I enjoyed Mark's plan for a little while, but I just wasn't cutting it for me. I was having to do vey high reps for intensity which I just hate. I also really don't care for planks. I'd rather do big, heavy, compound lifts. Which brings me to a new program I started just this morning, stronglifts 5x5. I was a little skeptical about it at first and especially starting with just the bar. But I got in there and really enjoyed myself! I don't mind starting with just the bar as it's helping me rework through proper technique and form. I know that progressive loading is going to give me a great deal of strength. I also like the notion of doing just three different compound lifts for five sets of five. When I first got in the gym, I was the guy who really didn't know what I was doing, had no plan, and built one around what everyone else was doing and what little I knew. I got stuck at my max outs and was overtraining, sometimes six days a week! Failing to plan, is planning to fail as Mehi says. I'm also doing a great deal of swimming now as I'd like to be a rescue swimmer for the coast guard. Planning on putting some air into the tires on my cycle so I can do something lower intensity on off days. If your not familiar with the strong lift routine it looks like this:

Train three days a week: Monday, Wednesday, Friday alternating workout A and B. Five sets of five reps each
Workout A: Workout B:
Squat 5x5 Squat 5x5
Bench 5x5 Overhead Press 5x5
Row 5x5 Deadlift 1x5

Every workout you add 5lbs per lift starting with the bar with the exception of the deadlift. You add 10 lbs every workout for 1x5

I warm up with some quick bodyweight calisthenics:
Push-ups, pull-ups, dips, hanging leg raises

If anyone has any experience with this type of training, I'm really wondering if I should be doing some front squats and incline bench to slightly change it up?

[BennettC]

So a quick update. I've starting doing a good bit of swimming. I watched some videos online today that really helped me figure out some mistakes I was making. I was not turning my body much. keeping my stomach flat and not turning my shoulders when doing the back stroke. I also had been taking all my breaths on one side, this can lead to over development for one side so I'm really trying to focus on correcting that problem. I tried to start learning the flip-turn today very unsuccessfully. I'm determined to keep practicing and get this down as well as my breath. For now I'm just focusing on the breast stroke and the back stroke, keeping proper form and strokes, and proper breathing technique. Tomorrow is my second day of stronglifts 5x5 and it will be workout B. Will probably go for a light swim later on tomorrow, and I mean very very light to practice on just keeping momentum at a slower pace.

If anyone else that has experience eating a higher protein diet geared towards building muscle, I could really use some meal Ideas. I'm tired of canned salmon everyday for lunch. I never get tired of breakfast as I always drink my milk in the morning and that's my favorite Dinner and lunch have been canned salon and chicken leg quarters for dinner as money is tight right now.

[golangrok]

Hey, you started your journal! Sounds like all the exercise is fun. In terms of cheap protein, I know eggs fit the bill. Maybe a nice egg salad for lunch on occasions? I know offal is also usually given away pretty cheap.

[BennettC]

I eat six eggs a day, will prolly start eating more because I just found local source for $1.75 a dozen!

[BennettC]

Was up bright and early this morning, stomach was very upset. I believe it's the chicken quarter I've been eating, I don't have this problem with breast so I'm going to switch back to them once the quarters are gone. They are also higher in protein. Been trying to think of some new meals and I've got a couple. Bacon crusted chicken breast sliced topped with salsa and an avocado on the side. Will also make a meatloaf next week as I need to get red meat back in the diet, starting to have cravings. Anyways I calmed my stomach down with some chamomile tea with peppermint essential oil, It worked! The peppermint was a nice wake-up to my sinuses as well. Got out and walked the dog afterwards and watched the sun come up. Threw on my workout cloths and headed to the gym for workout B. I have been training on an empty stomach as I'm not lifting very heavy right now and am taking advantage of the extra fat burning opportunity. I've read there are some other benefits to this as well, but really haven't read into it enough. Workout went well. Started with calisthenics as usual, 15 push-ups, 12 tri-cep dips, 6 overhand pull ups, 12 hanging leg raises, and 5 neutral grip pull-ups. Off to the power rack after straight into squats. Having to increase by 10 pounds at a time because the gym doesn't have 2.5lb weights. I don't think its going to be a problem for now as the weight is light and it is still progressive loading. Anyways the workout went, squats, overhead press (which is new for me), and then 1x5 deadlift. I can tell already the overhead press will be the first exercise I stall out with. I could feel burn with just the bar which shows me my arms are underdeveloped. Got home walked put on the weighted vest and walked the dog for about 30 minutes, took her inside and went on a 2.5 mile walk. Showered and then finally had breakfast. Usual 5 cups raw milk. Was sour milk today, 3 raw eggs, 1tbs coconut oil, 2 tbs of cocoa powder mixed in. I know that I'll have to start eating before workouts once I start getting into heavier weight, but for now it's fine and an extra fat burn. I've realized I'm really still in a "cutting" phase and will be for the next 3 months so I'm going to have to continue to stay on top of my calories. After 3 months i'll then move into the bulking phase. Signing off for now, look forward to some comments and any advice is more than welcome as well.

[BennettC]

So I've doing a great amount of research about diet. And looking at some peoples diets on eatcleanlifthard forums and I've decided I'm going to play around with some things and add back in a few things to my diet. I know I have my basis covered with meat, raw milk, whole eggs, and good sources of fat. I think I may have overestimated my protein needs. Mountain Man, a modern day bodybuilder who is drug free and eats clean extensively covers this topic on his forums as he is the founder of eatcleanlifthard. He also notes he had some of his best results on lowered than maintenance calories and only 65 grams of protein a day. I'm not going that low with my protein, but I know from experience that eating somewhere around 130-200 grams is my sweet spot. My energy is low with 250 grams a day and it being about 40% of my daily calories. I feel that number is unnecessary for muscle gains and it also has messed up my bowels. I am eating lower than maintenance and have been for a while, although I've upped the calories just a bit. My maintenance is about 2850 and for the longest I stayed at 2250 as this was a good number for weight loss for me. Now that I'm down to 157lbs and trying to go the other way I'm shooting for 2400-2600 roughly. I also know from experience that my performance is much better on a high fat breakfast with no carbohydrate, bacon and eggs in simplest terms. I've decided after eating the same breakfast of raw milk and eggs for quite sometime that I'm going to switch that to my lunch which is my post workout meal. This resembles something a little closer to mothers milk which we are designed to grow on and I feel carbs make my performance go down. I also want to keep my biggest meal post workout. I've also decided to add in a small snack in the afternoon. As my overall caloric burn goes up, so does my hunger. It's been hard for me to eat these huge high protein meals so I'm trying to space things out slightly. This snack is gonna have some carbs, about 20 grams more than I have been eating, but will also have fat I so badly need. I'm training harder and harder and I feel I'll really benefit from this. I'm not as worried about carbs as I was during a weight loss phase but I'm still remaining very low carb at 80 grams a day. An average days caloric intake is going to look like this now:
Breakfast: 500 calories
Post workout: 1100 calories
Snack: 400 calories
Dinner: 500-600 calories

I've also had a real desire to change up my meals as I'm getting sick of eating the same meals every single day. And so is my body. So I've come up with a couple new meals for the coming weeks and have my snack choices as well. I'm making dark chocolate a staple as it has high levels of stearic acid which raises testosterone and is great for muscle building. You'll notice everything is based around fat as this is a very low carbohydrate diet. I've always found listening to my body is best.

Breakfast will always be bacon and eggs, I never ever get tired of this meal and it's great for my performance.
Post workout will always be 5 cups of milk, 3 raw eggs, 2tbs of cocoa powder, and a tbs of coconut oil. I may take the coconut oil out if I decided I want to cut some extra calories. I also never get tired of this meal
Snacks are going to be a choice of two of the following: Peanut butter, 90% dark chocolate, cream cheese, other cheeses, nuts, coconut butter, or avocado

Some dinner ideas:
Sausage and sauerkraut with stone ground mustard
Bacon crusted chicken breast with salsa and avocado
Homemade meatloaf (going to go with a leaner ground beef as its more protein and since I'm eating grain fed, I want to avoid that particular fat and extra calories. also closer to game meat)
Lamb ribs with pesto
Pesto Chicken
Coconut fried chicken
Cheese burgers
Grilled marinated pork tenderloin
Always have canned salmon to fall back on which I found taste much better with some stone ground mustard mixed in

[BennettC]

Bad morning already. Seems like 3/4 of my days in SC just suck. I have to be around depressing people all day. I don't care how hard you try to keep in good spirits, after a while it just breaks you. Bitching is all I hear and laziness is all I see. Oh the dog shits in the house again. Well my mother says, "I can't even deal with." So yay that means if I don't want to sit and smell it all day I have to clean it up. Nobody cleans up after their self and they wonder why the dog has torn up all the trash by the end of the night and its all over the house...maybe its because they didn't use the trash can. A mention of my fathers name and I get an ear load of what a worthless piece of shit he is. Which is not true, my dads a great guy. My parents want to throw up at the sound of each others name. I didn't even talk to my dad for over a year after the divorce because my mom talked so much trash about him. You fill a fifteen years old ear with that, its gets in their head. Of course I felt sympathy for my mother, but she had no place to trash my dads name to my face everyday. Sometimes I feel my relationship with my father will never be the same, although we love each other and are on great terms. I'm in tears as I type this. I'm strong, but sometimes people can just break you down. I have no one to talk to and no one to relate to. I could care less if anyone even reads this, the journal has been great for me to pull lingering thoughts out of my head. Good or bad, signing off until next time.

[BennettC]

Workout went well this morning, was in and out of the gym before the sun even came up. Try to work on better form with rows, its a very new exercise to me. Ate breakfast before hand and felt much better. Absolutely devoured it, bacon and eggs yum. Was more than 500 calories though, 500 just isn't enough for me in the morning. Trying to stop being so scared of food as I want to gain, not lose anymore. Haven't eaten post workout yet, ab to jump in the shower then i'll eat. Going to have the usual plus a raw beef liver. Really looking for suggestions diet wise. As my calories burn goes up, I have less energy throughout the day and am often getting lightheaded. It just seems like I'm already eating soo much. My bodies seems to be in the need of something more. I've considered adding half a cup of rolled oats in the morning, a popular addition bodybuilders have in this morning. This would up my carbs by about 30 grams and put me around 110 grams a day. Something tells me I'd be better served eating a few more eggs instead. Could really use some help from a bodybuilder. Will be going for an intense sprint workout later on around 5 p.m. Tomorrow is just going to be a light swim as i'll be doing IF dinner to dinner on from Saturday to Sunday which will be a my rest day. Signing off for now

[BennettC]

Had one hell of a sprint session this afternoon. It's been a minute since I've hammered it out on the track like that. Got out there at 5, fast walked 800m, then jogged 800m. Went straight into some jump rope, then squats, 50 jumpy jacks, prisoner lunges, karaoke, A's, B's. Buttkicks, Single Leg jumps, and backwards runs. Dynamic stretching for 10 minutes. 50m at 75% speed, 100m at 80%, 150m at 90%, 200m all out, 150m all out, 100m all out, 50m all out. walked 800m then light stretches for the cool down. What a workout, was pouring in sweat when I finished! Sore already, getting ready for bed now. resting tomorrow

Other news, ran in to a friend of mine at the grocery store who is a former Olympic weightlifter, just who I needed to see. I talked his head off for about 30 minutes and he reassured me my diet looked great as well as my training plan. He suggested 12 reps rather than 10 and for legs 15-20. He also advised not to worry about little extra exercises like shrugs and calf raises, but to focus mostly on my big compound lifts. He said I'm at a good spot with my calories, but on big training days to listen to my body if I feel I need more calories. I've realized I'm absolutely obsessing about calories way too much. It's hard moving from that weight loss phase into the world of bodybuilding.

[BennettC]

Day has been so so today. Mother is trying to find things to bitch at me about. She's rather depressing to be around, try to just ignore it and go on about my business. Had to get out of the house so I went and walked ab 3 miles downtown by the riverfront. It was hot! Nice walk anyways though. Got home and was starving, made a strip steak served with avocado and tomato-lime-garlic salsa...delicious! Forgot home much I love avocado! Gonna have to find something to entertain myself the rest of the day. Signing off