Here is what I am not doing:
- I am not starving myself
- I am not taking any diet drug, diet shake, appetite suppressant
- I am not 'killing myself' at the gym for 3 hours a day
- Diet
- Limiting the amount of large carb items (20 or more carbs for a apart of a meal) to TWO a day. This included sugar, bread, pasta, cereal, granola, oat meal, potatoes, sweet potatoes, pastries and bananas
- Portion/ snacking control. Rather than have another mini meal, I will grab a yogurt, piece of cheese, piece of fruit, pickle, or (if under my carb limit) a bowl of oatmeal as an after dinner snack.
- I should note that I have never been a big breakfast eater. I do snack on Almonds and get many calories from the cream in my 3 cups of morning/ afternoon coffee
- Exercise
- My goal is to lose weight, not become John Cena in 6 months (though that would be pretty awesome!)
- Building up your endurance is the best way to get started.
- Start on a treadmill at 2.0 MPH for 15 minutes, then longer and a little faster.
- I have been losing fat through burning calories. My favorite way to burn calories to do the treadmill at a slow pace and a high incline.
- I will typically spend 70 minutes (60 minutes PLUS 10 minute cool down) on the treadmill and follow this with 20 minutes on a stationary bike or at weight training machines.
- I will keep a slow/ moderately slow pace for the stationary bike OR do various machines at a small weight (30 -70 lbs depending on machine).
- On the weight training machines, I will between 50 and 200 reps at the smaller weight and then move to the next machine. I focus on my legs and my back so that I can maintain the endurance of the treadmill without throwing out these important muscles
- Getting Started
- It may seem obvious, but these are the steps we took to start this routine:
- Stop buying carbs. It took us a good week or two to ween off of carbs. Stopping cold turkey (you can definitely eat cold turkey on this diet!) might knock your system through a loop or the cravings might be too much to handle.
- Get someone to go to the gym with you. Most gyms will give you a couple free passes for friends. Starting off with a friend or family member will help you keep to the routine
- Set a goal. Having my goal of losing 47 lbs or being at 175lbs by May 1st allowed me to really get a full picture of what I need to accomplish each month to reach these goals.
To Jim from Keith Hernandez
ReplyDeleteFirst and foremost congrats on 28 lbs lost! It so happens I am on a fitness kick myself. In fact, I started October 17th, which is exactly 1 week after you did! Having this reference to go by makes your results all the more impressive to me (How tall are you by the way?)
Having been way too skinny all my life, my goals are quite different from yours, and so too is my routine. I've been hitting the gym 4 days per week and focusing on gaining bulk. I have been using mostly free-weights, concentrating on squats, deadlifts, bench press, pull-ups and power-cleans.
I've been gorging myself at every meal (don't hate me), sleeping at least 8 hours every night and taking plenty of whey protein and creatine.
I started at 6'0 144 lbs, with an ostrich belly. At the end of MY seven weeks I'm up to 160.8 lbs and lean. I am now a full blown addict and can not wait for this summer.
Anyway, just wanted to let you know you're not alone and I wish you the best of luck with your quest. Keep up the good work!
Hi Keith,
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for posting the comment! Seems like you and I have the exact opposite problem. I am overweight and you want to build up the muscle.
I am 5' 7" and my weight was starting to get out of control. I was big in college, but never that big.
Thanks for the words of encouragement. Keith, I hope by summer, you weigh more than I do! Which, if I have it my way will be 15lbs of muscle for you and minus 25 lbs more of fat for me!