Came to a realization

[BrandonLucas]

Last night was sparring class. Normally I love sparring class...we do more physical drills and, of course, spar.

Tuesday night I was so pumped up for Wednesday night class that I almost couldn't sleep. My mind was telling me to get up at 11:30 at night to work out on my heavy bag, even though I knew I had to wake up at 5:30am to go to work.

Well, all day yesterday I was ready for class. I was pumped about it all day at work, and was going through my mind the new things I wanted to try in sparring matches. But once I got home from work, that little button in my brain that had me so pumped just turned off. I tried to stretch at home to get myself motivated to go, but only succeeded in getting a good stretch.

I got to class and we started going through our regular block/punch and block/kick drills, and it felt like my body was underwater. I even started falling way behind...I was just finishing up the combo when our instructor was calling for the next repitition, and usually, I have enough time to reset my stance.

My kicks were terrible. I've been having problems with kicking above my waist with side and round kicks, but last night was worse than usual. My kicks were slow, my hips wouldn't rotate all the way over, and I couldn't do the multiple kicks at all.

My punches were horrid. I normally have pretty fast hands, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get my punches to have any speed or force at all.

So then, when we sparred, I did even worse. My reaction time was so bad that nothing landed all night that I tried to either counter with or attack with. Normally, I pride myself on my defense. It's like my bread and butter. I block with alot of force, and normally, not a whole lot gets past me. But last night, I was getting torn up by everything.

I couldn't close my guard in at all. The more I tried to hold my arms in to guard my midsection, the more restricted I felt, so I would try to relax my guard slightly, and would get hit in the midsection just about every time. And kicks to the head, which hardly ever get through my guard, were hitting me from all angles. It was like I was watching myself get torn apart...my mind knew what I had to do, but my body just refused to respond.

After class, I finally realized why. I'm fat and out of shape. I've lived in almost a state of denial for the last few years, but I guess I was forced to come to terms with it last night at class.

I'm 26 years old, 6'1", 310 lbs, and I have a 44"-46" waist. I have a gut and love handles that prevent me from bending completely at the waist as far as I should be able to. It also prevents me from kicking side and round kicks effectively.

I think, beyond the obvious problem, that my other issue is that my mind is still expecting me to act like I used to when I was in shape. When I was 18, I was 6', 217 lbs, and had a 36" waist. I was in great shape. I guess my body got used to me doing physical activity at that size, and that's how my mind has viewed my body this whole time.

Usually, when I start trying to lose weight, I'll start trying my own diet or exercise routine, but I won't stick with it. I haven't been able to find out what would work for me, and I find myself being hungry alot, and not being able to curb my appetite.

Well, I've scheduled an appointment with a dietitician for January 13th and a phsysician on December 23rd to do something about this. I'm going to try to have some kind of diet plan started, and try to get some kind of prescription to help curb my appetite and help burn the calories off. I'm more determined now...more than ever before...to lose this weight and get back into the shape I used to be in.

I want to be able to do the things I used to when I was in shape...I want to look like I did when I first started dating my wife...and, most importantly to me, I want to be in good enough shape to keep up with my twin daughters that we're expecting in March. I don't want them to have a dad that they're embarrassed to be seen with...I want them to be proud of me.

So, enough about me. Does anyone else have a success story that they can share to help motivate me or anyone else out there that is trying to do the same thing?

 

[MasterWright]

Maybe you were just a bit tired last night because you didn't get a good night's sleep.

 

[bluekey88]

I'm with you...similar issues. Good luck and keep training. I'll be doign similar to you after the new year. I've done lots to improve my physique and that has in turn improved my training...but I think I need some professional advice moving forward.

It's admirable that you've been able to see that for yourself.

Peace,
Erik

 

[Sylo]

Last night was sparring class. Normally I love sparring class...we do more physical drills and, of course, spar.

Tuesday night I was so pumped up for Wednesday night class that I almost couldn't sleep. My mind was telling me to get up at 11:30 at night to work out on my heavy bag, even though I knew I had to wake up at 5:30am to go to work.

Well, all day yesterday I was ready for class. I was pumped about it all day at work, and was going through my mind the new things I wanted to try in sparring matches. But once I got home from work, that little button in my brain that had me so pumped just turned off. I tried to stretch at home to get myself motivated to go, but only succeeded in getting a good stretch.

I got to class and we started going through our regular block/punch and block/kick drills, and it felt like my body was underwater. I even started falling way behind...I was just finishing up the combo when our instructor was calling for the next repitition, and usually, I have enough time to reset my stance.

My kicks were terrible. I've been having problems with kicking above my waist with side and round kicks, but last night was worse than usual. My kicks were slow, my hips wouldn't rotate all the way over, and I couldn't do the multiple kicks at all.

My punches were horrid. I normally have pretty fast hands, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get my punches to have any speed or force at all.

So then, when we sparred, I did even worse. My reaction time was so bad that nothing landed all night that I tried to either counter with or attack with. Normally, I pride myself on my defense. It's like my bread and butter. I block with alot of force, and normally, not a whole lot gets past me. But last night, I was getting torn up by everything.

I couldn't close my guard in at all. The more I tried to hold my arms in to guard my midsection, the more restricted I felt, so I would try to relax my guard slightly, and would get hit in the midsection just about every time. And kicks to the head, which hardly ever get through my guard, were hitting me from all angles. It was like I was watching myself get torn apart...my mind knew what I had to do, but my body just refused to respond.

After class, I finally realized why. I'm fat and out of shape. I've lived in almost a state of denial for the last few years, but I guess I was forced to come to terms with it last night at class.

I'm 26 years old, 6'1", 310 lbs, and I have a 44"-46" waist. I have a gut and love handles that prevent me from bending completely at the waist as far as I should be able to. It also prevents me from kicking side and round kicks effectively.

I think, beyond the obvious problem, that my other issue is that my mind is still expecting me to act like I used to when I was in shape. When I was 18, I was 6', 217 lbs, and had a 36" waist. I was in great shape. I guess my body got used to me doing physical activity at that size, and that's how my mind has viewed my body this whole time.

Usually, when I start trying to lose weight, I'll start trying my own diet or exercise routine, but I won't stick with it. I haven't been able to find out what would work for me, and I find myself being hungry alot, and not being able to curb my appetite.

Well, I've scheduled an appointment with a dietitician for January 13th and a phsysician on December 23rd to do something about this. I'm going to try to have some kind of diet plan started, and try to get some kind of prescription to help curb my appetite and help burn the calories off. I'm more determined now...more than ever before...to lose this weight and get back into the shape I used to be in.

I want to be able to do the things I used to when I was in shape...I want to look like I did when I first started dating my wife...and, most importantly to me, I want to be in good enough shape to keep up with my twin daughters that we're expecting in March. I don't want them to have a dad that they're embarrassed to be seen with...I want them to be proud of me.

So, enough about me. Does anyone else have a success story that they can share to help motivate me or anyone else out there that is trying to do the same thing?

For the record. I destroyed last night.. lol

I broke the heavy bag with a jump spin side (I don't think I was the sole cause), and I nailed one of the better sparrers with a jump spin side and pretty much controlled all my fights last night. I didn't get to spar brandon which was a little dissappointing but there is always next time.

also for the record, Brandon didn't do as bad in sparring as he thinks. He controlled his fight for the most part, from where I sat.

 

[BrandonLucas]

Maybe you were just a bit tired last night because you didn't get a good night's sleep.

Part of it could have been that I was tired...but it wasn't so much from a lack of sleep as it was from not having energy from being out of shape.

 

[terryl965]

Brandon been there done that.

 

[SJON]

Hi.

I haven't got time to really get into this, but nutrition is kind of a hobby of mine, so ...

1. The human body is not built to consume sugar or high glycemic index carbs ("fast carbs") like flour. These create a glucose rush in the bloodstream, and body fat is just one of the bad consequences of this. Cut out the sweet stuff, and cut right down on bread, pasta, rice, potatoes and similar.
2. Eat lots of vegetables and a moderate amount of fruit. These give you low glycemic index carbs ("slow carbs") that release the glucose slowly.
3. Calculate your protein needs as per your lean bodyweight and activity level, and stick to this. There are websites where you can do this.
4. Eat good fats like oily fish, olive oil, etc, and cut the bad fats, especially fried food and processed foods that contain unspecified "vegetable oils". Poor quality fats and re-used fats are practically poison.
5. Forget popular dietary wisdom. Forget low-fat diets (fat doesn't make you fat; you need fat, and will be ill if you don't get it). Forget diet snacks like inflated rice bars, most breakfast cereals, etc, which may be low calorie but have an extremely high glycemic index and release all the glucose they have in an instant.

Hope that helps.

 

[Manny]

Budy, I can feel your paine, I'm 6" tall, 260 punds and 44-46 waist size, I was a very healthy boy, back in the golden days when I did TKD I did good things in TKD.

Now my mind and body are disconected, my brains says Yes Manny you can do the jumping/spining hook kick go ahead but my body simply refuses in pain and it's very dificult to say, I used to do that i my early days.

As you do, when my TKD class is hard I can not sleep, it seems my body is full of adrenaline and even I'm tyred I can not sleep, I'm so exited that barely sleep so this is normal I gess, as you do at the next day I can barely move, my arms, my legs weight like a TON and my joints, my tendons, muscles and bones ache alot. The pain eases till two days before de TKD class.
Do you say you have problems kicking above the waist?? well... wellcome the club!! My kicks to the belt and chest are not dificult, but trying to kick the head is very-very dificult. The problem you and I have is we did a lot of exercise years back and then we got sedentary with ceo exercise, we gain a lot of weight and this is killing us.

Yes we are out of shape, but at least we are doing something, I can tell you that when I retook TKD clases a year and half my stamina was in minus cero, these days even with the pains and aches I can endure medium/heavy training session.

I'm nota as young as you are, but have the same problem, we have to try to do someting, TKD is a good thing keep training no matrer how hard is, try to do good healty meals (not heavy meals), and go to a doctor for help.

What's my sucessfull history? well I'm doing something, I'm training 2 times per week, I have a goal, next july I want to do my second dan black belt, and going to do a couple of thing this early january. Firsth do some blood tests to see how Iam. Second do a little joging 3 times a week, if I can do little walks dayli I will and keep training and Third try to adhere to some weightwachers program.

Let me finish telling you are not the only one here with some health problems, you are not alone, don't know if we can use this forum to tell our worries and to talk about our progresess, something like overeaters anonymuos, but I will put the progress I made till next july it will hepl me to not to quit.

Manny

 

[K31]

First, and the dietitian will probably recommend this, get a notepad and carry it with you to record everything you eat. Even if you don't write down the portions or the calories, just write it down. I think you will find that you will be amazed and will modify your habits immediately.

I second what someone has already said about white flour, sugar, white rice. Cut them out of your diet. Get your carbs from fresh fruit and vegetables. That is just good advise whether you want to lose weight or not.

I've come to the conclusion that the only way I can truly lose weight is to count calories regardless of what you eat.. Maybe you are are different but all these diets where you limit this and that based on carbs vs. protein and you don't measure anything don't work in the long run and in the long run they all work (if they work) by limiting your total caloric intake. Not everyone is the same but that is what has worked the best for me.

Get a pedometer and wear it.

Eat 6 small meals a day no matter what food you end up eating.

Give your blood pressure checked. If you are tired for no apparent reason and that overweight, it is probably elevated.

Get the book "Eat to Live" and read it even if you don't follow the diet, because it contains information about food that you don't know.

http://drfuhrman.com/

 

[ynnad]

It is great that you have come to this realization. The hard facts are, you need to lose 100+ pounds. At 6' 1" you should be below 200. Diet and exercise are the tools you need to get healthy. However, diet and exercise are not the problem. I would recommend you do some counseling to try and figure out why it is that food is an addiction. If you don't get to the source, you will merely get in a cycle of guilt, motivation, defeat, guilt.....and jump from diet to diet and exercise program to exercise program. You are still young, you can turn it around, but you must start today.

Grace and Peace, Danny

 

[BrandonLucas]

Hi.

I haven't got time to really get into this, but nutrition is kind of a hobby of mine, so ...

1. The human body is not built to consume sugar or high glycemic index carbs ("fast carbs") like flour. These create a glucose rush in the bloodstream, and body fat is just one of the bad consequences of this. Cut out the sweet stuff, and cut right down on bread, pasta, rice, potatoes and similar.
2. Eat lots of vegetables and a moderate amount of fruit. These give you low glycemic index carbs ("slow carbs") that release the glucose slowly.
3. Calculate your protein needs as per your lean bodyweight and activity level, and stick to this. There are websites where you can do this.
4. Eat good fats like oily fish, olive oil, etc, and cut the bad fats, especially fried food and processed foods that contain unspecified "vegetable oils". Poor quality fats and re-used fats are practically poison.
5. Forget popular dietary wisdom. Forget low-fat diets (fat doesn't make you fat; you need fat, and will be ill if you don't get it). Forget diet snacks like inflated rice bars, most breakfast cereals, etc, which may be low calorie but have an extremely high glycemic index and release all the glucose they have in an instant.

Hope that helps.

Lots of great info, thanks!! If you can, would you mind posting the websites that have free nutritional info like you're talking about?

 

[CoryKS]

Lots of great info, thanks!! If you can, would you mind posting the websites that have free nutritional info like you're talking about?

http://caloriecount.about.com/ is a good site. It has a huge database of foods with their nutritional content, including many brand-name products. Gives them a score from A to F based on its content. Also gives the burn rate of many physical activities. The best part is that you can start an account for free and maintain a log of your eating/workout activies, and you can add things from the database rather than plugging in the data yourself. Good site!

 

[BrandonLucas]

Thanks everyone for the information and support!! There's alot on here to process, and I'm going to start trying to get all the info I can to get started right now.

I've just ordered a salad for lunch, btw...I'll eat slowly, and try to asses if I'm full while I'm eating, so I don't get hung up on trying to finish the whole thing.

I'm also going to try writing everything down from now on...that probably will help.

Manny, I'm going to document periodically on here, I think, of how I'm progressing or if I'm progressing at all. Feel free to do the same with me, and we can see if we can help eachother out.

 

[level7]

You better get started on working out. Your twins are gonna kick the living $hite out of you for the first year or two. It will make training seem like an easy dream. I started with one, I can't imagine 2 at the same time. Good luck and congrats.

 

[terrylamar]

I had a simular problem. I weighed over 260, I'm not sure exactly how high I got, because rarely weighed myself.

I cut out all the junk food, sweets and soft drinks.

Ate less.

Started exercising.

I have dropped over 50 pounds and am still dropping. The loss of fat has been dramitic. I am building muscle so the weight drop isn't as significant now, the fat loss is.

My Blood Pressure has gone from being marginal, to 117/68. My resting heart rate has gone from 75 bpm to 60 bmp.

I am still not where I want to be, I find that I am much older now and have to take it easier.

I am slow to regain my flexibility. I was never that flexible in the first place.

I tend to run too far, exercise too much and end up paying for it the next day. Sometimes for a couple of weeks, which sets me behind in the Master Plan.

 

[bluekey88]

Lots of great info, thanks!! If you can, would you mind posting the websites that have free nutritional info like you're talking about?

www.fitday.com

lots of claculators (for sopecific food, macronutrient intake, lean body mass, etc.) and ways to track what your eating, calories burned, mood, etc. All free. "Twas a real eyeopener for me.

Peace,
Erik

 

[SJON]

Brandon,

I was only able to dig these out for now:

www.crossfit.com/journal/library/15_03_Nutrition_Full_Issue.pdf
www.crossfit.com/journal/library/cfjissue21_May04.pdf

Good overviews on diet, largely based on Sears' "The Zone" which, although much-maligned in some sectors, does have a sound scientific basis. The "block" thing can seem a bit complicated at first. Don't sweat it and use my recommendations above for quantities, combined with this body fat calculator (from which you can get your lean bodyweight):

www.he.net/~zone/prothd2.html

As an active 35-year-old male, training 5 days a week, I tend to go for 0.8g of pure protein daily per kg of lean bodyweight.

A good introduction to nutrition is Weil's "Eating Well for Optimum Health" - much more readable than "The Zone".

I really would recommend reading up on diet. It will really transform your training and your life in general. And if you combine it with some high intensity interval training (which you should get in TKD classes anyway), Yoga and a good barbell program based on full squats, deadlifts, cleans and overhead presses, you will soon be the envy of some of the lesser Greek deities, and feel a whole lot better into the bargain.

 

[CDKJudoka]

Here is another one you can use.

It is called Fighter's Body. I picked it up and it is pretty informative. When I started TKD again in September, I weighed in at 260 lbs at 6'3" and a 38" waist. With just TKD and changing my habits a little bit, I am still the same weight, but I have a 36" waist now, and a lot more energy. I don't plan on dropping that much weight, maybe 30 lbs. Then again I think BMI is a bunch of BS and shouldn't be the be all end all of what our bodies should be. Main reason why I say that is because when I was 225lbs and 5% body fat, my doctor told me that I was obese and should weigh around 175lbs.

That is my rant.

http://www.amazon.com/Fighters-Body...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1229629543&sr=1-1

 

[Marginal]

So, enough about me. Does anyone else have a success story that they can share to help motivate me or anyone else out there that is trying to do the same thing?

When I started TKD, I also cleaned up my diet . (Cut out Coke since it was an easy 1,000 calories a day the way I consume it, stopped living on microwave burritos, eating chips etc. Mainly ate tuna fish and chicken...) I went from 220lbs to 190 in a few months.

I'm not so concerned about what I eat now (still don't eat chips etc) but the easiest way for me to control my weight is to work out. Just 30 mins every other day on an excise bike can make a huge difference in a few months. I also started using kettlebells as a way to keep myself in better shape. (Though any kind of weight lifting is beneficial, I happen to enjoy KB's more than the alternatives.)

I'm hovering around 210, but I don't look like I'm just about to go to seed anymore.

 

[BrandonLucas]

I actually did one of those BMI things a few minutes ago, and it said that my target weight should be 175lbs, and I'm severely overweight.

Obviously, you have to take the BMI with a huge grain of salt...if I dropped down to 175lbs, I would be very unhealthy. Honestly, I don't know what my exact target weight should be yet (I'm still going through these websites listed...thanks all!!) but I can tell you that I'm sure I don't need to weigh less than 220 lbs. I'm built to be a big guy...I have a big frame, and, even though I know it's really played out...I really do have big bones.

I'm built to be a big guy, and I'm fine with that...but there's a difference between being a big statured guy and being a big statured guy with too much body fat, which is where I am now.

So, I have a lot of info to go through, and I have some work to do, but I'm pretty confident that I'll be able to get rid of the body fat that I need to drop.

Thanks everyone again for the posts and information...and keep the info coming...you can never have too much knowledge!!