Hello,
Today, I'd like to start a very special series of blogs and videos - my own body transformation diary.
I must confess that I have been slacking on my diet and my workouts and in general I had a pretty stressful lifestyle in the past several months. Not that I'm making excuses, but I'd like to outline what was going on in my life - I've been working hard preparing for my Royal College exam on top of my regular work in the clinic and research commitments. It was very hard to lead a healthy lifestyle and to make right nutritional choices - I had quite a few work-related trips and also some night and 24-hour shifts, which are obviously not very conducive of normal lifestyle - more so they resulted in disrupted sleep patterns, fatigue and junk food cravings. These are never good for your nutrition. Plus, as I was preparing for the exam, every time I met with my study group I would have some junk food, like pizzas, donuts, or sushi (yes, it's kind of a junk food too). We all were stressed and, I guess, it made us more likely to eat emotionally (we all gained weight I guess).
So now, when I passed my exam and celebrated it well with all involved parties, I'd like to use my being out of shape as a fantastic opportunity to show you what kind of body transformation can be achieved and how difficult or easy it would be if we let science and experience lead our way to success.
Let's begin with the assessment of the current situation - we'll call it my baseline. So, today is June 24th, 2018, the day after the wedding of my good friends (Congrats, Deb and Drew!). I weigh 101.1 kg or 222.8 lb and my body fat percentage is 31.4%, which is simply unacceptable. I am obviously out of shape, literally and figuratively - I would have to lose 56.7 lb in order to get to 8% body fat (the six-pack abs zone). It was quite difficult to work out in the past several months due to stress and inability to focus on exercise, and now it's difficult again as I am completely detrained and overweight. I can't wear my regular clothes without risking ripping them me if I don't hold my breath and health-wise likely I have elevated cholesterol and blood pressure (I'll check). In addition to that I'm still stressed and I have a very odd sleep patterns (comes with profession), I am easily fatigued and lack energy. We need change!
So, what's the transformation plan? The plan is very simple, actually, and I will stick to my own advice that I have been giving in my blogs and YouTube videos. I will be commenting on my progress bi-weekly as there are a lot minutia I'd like to share with you in the future, but for now I'll focus on 3 main parts of the plan.
1. First and foremost - nutrition. The diet is 70-90% of any body transformation and it's closer to 90% in cases when the primary goal is weight loss. And just to emphasize it - my primary goal and the overall plan is to lose weight and only then to focus on muscularity. I believe that it would be possible when my body fat percentage reaches 12-15%.
2. Speaking of muscularity and workouts - exercise is always important, but he have to make sure that the type of training and its effect on the body complement the diet otherwise we might end up working hard on ruining our progress. In my case, again, the plan is to lose weight first and to gradually re-introduce resistance training so that by the time I reach lower my body fat percentage I will be ready to start the bodybuilding portion of my plan without harm to my body.
3. The last, but definitely not the least would be the lifestyle change - I have to normalize my sleep, my daily routines and I must organize a lot of processes in my life in such a way that they are not causing any stress (we don't need excess of cortisol!).
So that, my friends, is my plan, at least the core elements of it. I will keep you posted as I proceed - at least every 2 weeks no matter how well or how poorly I do in terms of my body transformation and I am pretty sure that each blog will have an extra item to add - important nuances of weight loss, exercise routines, nutritional aspects of the process, cooking etc. I think it totally makes sense to keep track of my progress and of course to keep you informed about all these details - you will be my motivation!
I hope you'll find it useful and it will help you with your goals. Your comments are always welcome! Wish me luck!
Sincerely Yours,
Dr.Sam