Beating jeans - Centurion's log

TheCenturion

TheCenturion

TheCenturion

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Joined
18 Mar 2008
Posts
12,751
Hey guys, I reckon it's finally time to jump on the log bandwagon.

As you guys may know, I'm a seriously skinny-fat vegetarian. I was around 50 kg at the start of christmas holidays, at which point I decided to start drinking a load of milk every day. Since starting uni again last week, I have cleaned up my diet and am eating the best I have in my life. It's far from a perfect diet but it's much better than before.

In terms of targets, I'm not really sure. I'd like to hit 60kg in one year, and hopefully by the time I graduate in 5 years I'll be closer to 70 kg and lean.

Diet:

TBA :p I may dabble with cbl

Training:

The gym on my campus doesn't have a squat rack, so for the first term I was messing around with bench pressing, chin ups, and leg presses. However I've found that the gym on another campus has another squat rack, so I went there today and will be training there from now on. I'll be doing starting strength, but instead of powercleans I'll be doing barbell rows.

Had my first post christmas session today. Here's how it went:

Squat
20 kg x 10
20 kg x 10
25 kg x 5
25 kg x 5
30 kg x 5
30 kg x 5
30 kg x 5

Bench press
20 kg x 10
20 kg x 10
25 kg x 5
30 kg x 5
30 kg x 5
30 kg x 5

Deadlifts
20 kg x 5
22.5 kg x 5
25 kg x 5
30 kg x 5

I've started at quite a low weight, but focus is on technique for now. Deadlifts and squats will increase quickly, bench should come along nicely too.

Mobility work is also on the agenda too. I'll probably be posting videos of my lifts in this thread to get a critique on form.

Hopefully this is the start of me beating my genes. No one in my immediate or extended family has a physique even close to being called muscular, but loads of them have big bellies :p
 
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Have you looked at the Stronglifts program for Strength? Seems like it'd be right up your alley :)

[Broscience warning]
Also, Spinach!?

If you like the stuff, I feel like it's great for you. That said, I'm basing this largely on a cartoon from when I was young, but I'm pretty sure some members rave about it, so I think there's some actual truth behind it.
[/Broscience warning]

kd
 
Stronglifts is very similar to starting strength. I couldn't decide which one so I just chose arbitrarily. In fact, given that I've swapped the powercleans in starting strength for rows, it's identical to stronglifts. The only difference being it's 3x5 in SS and 5x5 in SL. Not sure what difference that will make to me :o
 
Good to see you lifting properly :)

Diet needs more protein.

Consider not being a vegetarian for a year?



Not srs











Semi srs





















Srs.
;)
 
Ha, cheers buddy. As for protein, I'm getting 35 from milk, 18 from beans, 20 from shake, 20 from eggs. That's 93, plus all the protein that is in the bread, cheese, butter, potato, weetabix and bananas, nuts and seeds. I could calculate, but don't have the numbers to hand right now. But I imagine it comes to an extra 40g or so. That's around 130g a day of protein. I could throw another whey shake in there, to make it 150. But it's whey isolate vanilla, I hate drinking it. I can't wait until I finish the stuff and buy something that doesn't taste like sewage :p
 
Fair enough. I tend to completely ignore protein from sources that aren't meat/fish/eggs/dairy though.

However, more protein would allow you to consume less carbs, which will be killing you from a fat gain (and loss, if you see what I mean...) POV.

Also, your body composition will change as you gradually increase the intensity of your sessions.
 
Nice routine - shame about the power cleans, though. :(

Diet has a LOT of bread in it which ice has already indicated will not help either now or in future, so consider sweet potatoes and bean-based stews and what not.

However, I will be serious and suggest you think about eating meat if you want a much easier time of this. My older brother - who's been veggie for ten years now - is into cycling in a big way, and is slowly coming around to the idea that meat is actually quite important to his performance (one of his veggie peers in the triathlon scene admitted her best times by a significant margin were when she had a cheat year and consumed flesh).

If there is a religious reason, then fair play and good luck. If you're also a stubborn whatsit, again fair play (I was completely against using straps when training because that's cheating [*idiot*], and then started shredding my hands... So I now use straps). It is possible to do this as a vegetarian, but much easier "on the meat," if you will. ;)
 
If you're dead set against meat, you're the sort of person that could get away with taking shakes - there are dairy free shakes available too or at least low in lactose. You can get decent MRPs which will give you a good 400 cals or so.

Peanut butter/almond butter! Lots of calories and protein!

In response to KD's remarks - spinach is awesome. Whilst it isn't a cruciferous vegetable (of which you cannot eat enough), the general rule is, the darker the leaf the better it is. It's packed with nutrition, and is highly bioavailable, and it nearly hits your daily requirements (obviously depending on serving size) of vitamin K and vitamin A as well as almost most of the manganese and folate that your body requires. Furthermore, a large cup measurement of spinach works out to around 40% of one's daily Mg - ZMA eat your heart out!

It's basically one of these "super foods" (like beetroot - OMG so so good!) as it contains more than a dozen nutrients. Whilst not forgetting the fibre/calcium you get from it too. Ok it's not a lot, but for every 30g you get 1g of protein - sure not a massive amount, but hey there you go :p. It also contains carotenoids as well as lutein and bioflavanoids (excellent for anti cancer properties).

Lastly it helps you stay alkaline - which is something people always overlook.Your body behaves better in that state and is much healthier way of being. That's why cruciferous vegetables are so important - DO NOT NEGLECT THEM FROM YOUR DIET!!! (That goes to everyone reading this).

As for the exercises, good to see you doing some good exercises, I'd up the weights as you seem to have managed that fairly easily! PUSH YOURSELF YOUNG MAN!!

Great to see you posting and keeping a log - good luck! :cool: :D

For someone of your body size too I'd recommend a LOT of volume - really **** yourself up. Don't neglect bodyweight work either. :)
 
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As already said, your diet needs much addressing in my (noob) opinion. Are you strict vegetarian? No chance of fish? ;)

A better diet:

Breakfast: Eggs. Peanut Butter. Wholegrain bread. Oats (LOTS OF OATS!!)
Snacks through the day: Nuts, olives, bananas, natural/greek yoghurt, fruit (LOTS OF FRUIT!)
Lunch: Fish (Mackerel - fatty fish that is really good for you)
Dinner: *insert linda mcartney sub here*, sweet potatoes/whole grain rice, veg.
Only use olive oil to cook with. Add it to your salad and even your protein shakes if need be to bump up your calories.

As for better tasting whey - the protein works stuff I just received is very nice.

Out of interest, what height are you?
 
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He doesn't eat fish or meat. No point in suggesting it! :p

His diet isn't overly bad - just needs a bit more tweaking. :)

For breakfast:

Eggs on wholemeal bread - or if you don't want to eat grains, make an omelette with some onions, mushrooms and courgettes a bit of garlic, and finish off by grating some cheese on it.

Lunch - I'd make some pasta the night before, then you can make a pasta salad, add some seeds, spinach, mozzarella, some beans (of your choice) and maybe a tomato based sauce.

Or there are some high protein breads like Food Doctor pittas which have about 9-10g protein per pitta. Have one of those with peanut butter as a snack.

Or jacket potato

Snack on fruits, yoghurt (if you like dairy), nuts and seeds.

Avocados!! Lots of good fats and calories. :)

I will also suggest for you take a few protein shakes - maybe one as a morning snack, and one in the afternoon or post workout.

Dinner: Spanish omelette, or pasta bake, or vegetable bake with cous cous, selection of beans, tofu (I hate the stuff but for you it would be awesome), soy beans. Even oats have around 17g of protein per 100g. So you can make a mediterranean gratin - roast vegetable selection, with a tomato and garlic sauce, blend/crush some oats, mix with grated cheese, and spread / sprinkle this over the dish, and grill in the oven until crispy.

Cottage cheese in the evening or quark.


Are you anti protein shakes or you open to them, they'll help you owing to your lack of a normal diet. :)
 
He's already said he takes protein shake as a snack throughout the day. ;)

Beetroot is something that I've heard about the wonders of, well the juice, so bought a carton of beetroot juice. I still really really can't get on with the taste, even with just the shot that they recommend...

kd
 
Freefaller said:
It's basically one of these "super foods" (like beetroot - OMG so so good!) as it contains more than a dozen nutrients. Whilst not forgetting the fibre/calcium you get from it too.
Click to expand...

Sweet, i'm actually scoffing beetroot atm :D
I cut it up and mix it into my brown rice as it stops it from drying out more than the other veg plus it turns everything bright pink, even my chicken :D

MW
 
King Damager said:
He's already said he takes protein shake as a snack throughout the day. ;)

Beetroot is something that I've heard about the wonders of, well the juice, so bought a carton of beetroot juice. I still really really can't get on with the taste, even with just the shot that they recommend...

kd
Click to expand...

Beetroot juice turned my poos purple! :eek:

It was a little alarming. I was having 500ml a time though :p
 
Thanks for the advice gents. Slowly tweaking and improving my diet. Been eating a lot of carrots, broccoli, cauliflower and asparagus recently, going to be grabbing some spinach too.

I currently microwave my eggs. It's just the easiest and most convenient way for me at the moment. Is there anything wrong with this?

@Freefaller, currently I'm taking whey post workout but on the back of your advice I may sneak another shake in during the day too.


@Captain Planet, I'm 5'5
 
Just had an interesting workout. Last session while squatting my final set (of 30kg), I felt some pain somewhere in my left hip. Not sure if it was the joint or the muscle, but it was uncomfortable today as well. My squatting was really disappointing. The pain didn't prevent me from lifting, but I could only manage two sets at 30 kg. I'm using low bar positioning and I'm getting slight ache in my elbows and back when squatting. I think my form is pretty good but for some reason I'm really really really struggling with squats.

Squat
0kg x 10
20kg x 10 x2
25 kg x 5 x2
30 kg x5 x2

Bench Press
20kg x 10 x 2
22.5 kg x 10
25 kg x 10
30 kg x 5 x 3

Deadlift
20 kg x 10 x 2
25 kg x 5 x 2
30 kg x 5 x 2
35 kg x 5
40 kg x 5
45 kg x 5
50 kg x 5
55 kg x 5

The bench was very average. A bit disappointing that I couldn't bench more than last time, but my training partner wasn't there this time and I didn't think it wise to push myself without a spot.

As for deadlifts, I'm really happy. I thought I'd reach my limit at around 45 today but I kept going and going with what I felt was good form. All this with a double overhand grip as well.

So overall, annoyed and concerned about squats, indifferent with bench, and happy with deadlifts.
 
TheCenturion said:
Thanks for the advice gents. Slowly tweaking and improving my diet. Been eating a lot of carrots, broccoli, cauliflower and asparagus recently, going to be grabbing some spinach too.

I currently microwave my eggs. It's just the easiest and most convenient way for me at the moment. Is there anything wrong with this?

@Freefaller, currently I'm taking whey post workout but on the back of your advice I may sneak another shake in during the day too.


@Captain Planet, I'm 5'5
Click to expand...

No, but it's destroys the protein more than cooking them in a pan, but we're talking miniscule amounts and it's not going to cause you long term issues, other than your palette :p

I suggested more food too rather than just protein shakes, but as I said, someone like you an extra shake or shakes is why they were invented - to help supplement an nutritionally inadequate diet. :)
 
Anyone know anything that would help me out on my hip situation? I'm looking up some mobility exercises in case that's the problem. I'm working out tomorrow and would like to be able to squat properly.

Freefaller said:
No, but it's destroys the protein more than cooking them in a pan, but we're talking miniscule amounts and it's not going to cause you long term issues, other than your palette :p

I suggested more food too rather than just protein shakes, but as I said, someone like you an extra shake or shakes is why they were invented - to help supplement an nutritionally inadequate diet. :)
Click to expand...

Ideally I'd like to get the protein from quality food sources rather than shakes. But as a nooblett, I'm just focused on hitting my protein and calorie targets :p
 
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