Topic: The Rebel Scholar's Training Log

[The Rebel Scholar]

Introduction:
    Hello my name is Nathan and I have no idea what to say or where to begin with this.

Stats:
-Gender: Male
-Age: 17
-Height: 5' 11"
-Weight: 198 lbs

Goals:
    Ultimate Goal:
      >Unlock My True Potential

    Long Term Goals: (2-4 years)
      >Become a Stuntman for movies
      >To be strong to be useful (yea front page article)

    Medium Term Goals: (6 months to a year)
      >Start Parkour
      >Start back up Martial Arts
      >Fix Body Injuries
      >Get into Body-Weight exercising

    Short Term Goals:
      >Get on a Workout Schedule
      >Lose Weight
      >Get together Diet
      >Improve my Stretching
      >Posture

Conclusion:
    So, long story short two years ago I injured my lower back being a silly freshman in the high-school gym. My current position is for me to get working on the basics of what I need to live a healthy life. I want to work on fixing my back and lose weight so I can start conditioning for parkour mainly. Parkour has been something I have wanted to do since I was eleven or twelve. I am tired of wasting my time.

A fresh start, no excuses.

   

[Nick Holmes]

Congrats on getting this started Nathan!
So we can grt you started in the best way can you answer a few questions?
What do you know about a healthy diet, excercise, and weight loss? Do you have any access to equipment that can help you exercise?

[The Rebel Scholar]

April 01, 2014

Healthy diet wise:
    I know a healthy amount . I know the basics of nutrition, calories, proteins, eat a colorful diet, etc. However, my problem before I stopped doing so (about a month ago)was I did not have enough calcium in my diet and other minerals/vitamins; among other things as I got lazy when eating healthy after about 3 month or so and I started eating only like a thousand calories and eating the same thing over again. I was not paying attention and I did not break from what I had been doing. However I think I am on a good path to fix this.

        Today's meals:
            Breakfast-
                Burrito(Tortilla, Javelina, Egg, Cheese, Potato, Bacon)>450 calories
                Apricots>100 calories
            Snack-
                Animal Crackers>360 calories
                Apple>116 calories
            Snack_2:
                Prunes>100 calories
                Carrot(full)>20 calories
                Celery>0 calories
                Black Berries>62 calories
            Dinner:
                Pork(estimation)>200 calories
                Corn>20
            Dinner_2:
                Burrito(Tortilla, Beans, Spinach, Hot-Sauce, Salsa, Corn)>490
            Snack_3:
                Apple Sauce>50 calories
                Animal Crackers>120 calories

            Total Calories: (Aprox) 2092 calories-I need to find higher calorie foods...

Exercise wise:
     I know a small amount, I did martial arts for awhile. I have never really had a regimen but I do make an effort to stretch for 15 to 20 minutes everyday. I also try to jump rope everyday for 15 minutes but my back is acting up and I injured my wrist being stupid so I have not done it in the past 3 days.

Weight loss wise:
    I know how many calories I should be eating everyday for weightloss (around 2100 to 2200) and I want to focus first on doing cardio to lose weight starting out (some sets of push ups, planks, etc. wont harm). Moving on to more focus on body weight exercising when I have lost around 15 to 20 pounds.

Exercise Equipment:
    Personally I have a pull-up bar that fits in a door frame and a kettle bell weight from awhile ago. I do have a well stocked (for lack of a better term) gym for free to use at high-school but due to my back I do not think a doctor would recommend weight lifting at the moment. There is also a track at my school that I can use with bleachers I can run up and down.

-I appreciate the help, thank you.

[Dick Stapleton]

Hey Nathan welcome to APK!

It's good that you know the right things about diet to lose weight. You'd be shocked at how many people have no idea that eating less calories means losing weight . If you have any questions about exercise or training, ask away as I absolutely love those topics.

By the way, don't worry about losing weight before you start exercising. I'm the same height as you and about 200 pounds and I do a bodyweight routine 3x a week for my upper body. If you have a solid program along with your diet you'll be able to lose fat and get stronger at the same time. It's even possible that you'll gain muscle during this period too, but not as likely or as much since you'll be eating at a deficit. It's worth implementing an exercise routine as early as possible, even if it's only maybe twice a week.

As far as weights go, it depends on your back injury. Lifting properly can save your back but that depends on the shape it's in. If at all possible, try to see a physical therapist or really any professional who works with athletes and sports injuries. A normal doctor tends not to know enough about athletic injuries to give you much more than rest and ice while another professional will be able to get you better.

[The Rebel Scholar]

As far as weights go, it depends on your back injury. Lifting properly can save your back but that depends on the shape it's in. If at all possible, try to see a physical therapist or really any professional who works with athletes and sports injuries. A normal doctor tends not to know enough about athletic injuries to give you much more than rest and ice while another professional will be able to get you better.

.
    For my back injury I know of a doctor/chiropractor (double points) that is legit. I am however having a lot of work done on my teeth so there isn't the money to go their at the moment, but I should be able to go in the next six months.

[Dick Stapleton]

It depends on the injury. The thing is doctors (most, not all) tend to not have very much experience with these types of things. Similarly, chiropractors work exclusively with the spine. The basic premise of it is that you can fix most problems with a simple readjustment of the spine (pro tip, no you can't). So if your injury is muscular it's not very likely he'll be the best guy for the job. I'm not trying to demean doctors or chiropractors, it's just a right tool for the job kind of situation.

If you can't see someone for that long I recommend core strengthening exercises like planks, arch, and hollow holds. Also general flexibility work should help.

[The Rebel Scholar]

April 02, 2014

Meals:
    Breakfast:
    -Oatmeal with Honey and Cinnamon>180 calories
    -Burrito>400
    -Apricots>100
    Lunch:
    -Celery with almond butter> 130 calories
    -Apple> 116 calories
    -Fritos> 160 calories
    -Carrot>15 calories
    Snack:
    -Prunes>100 calories
    -Animal Crackers> 120 calories
    Dinner
    -Brown Rice>300 calories
    -Ground Beef>200 calories
    -Mixed Vegetables> 90 calories
    -Pineapple>300 calories (all delicious)

    Total Calories: 2107 (yea!)

Workout:
     Morning:
     -Full body stretching 40 min. (was slow waking up)

     Afternoon:
     -Stretch legs
     -Run 5 min.
     -(x2) [first set 30 seconds in-between, second set 20 seconds in-between]
       ~jumping jacks>x20
       ~push up position>20 sec.
       ~Frog Jumps and Star Jumps>x10 (5 and 5)
       ~Leg Lifts (30, 60, 90-when lowering split apart)>10 seconds each hold
       ~Standing Long Jumps>x10
     -Plank>20 sec.
     -Playing tug of war with great dane

Conclusion:
    Today did not feel like a productive day, I have done more then I have done in awhile but I just feel I could of done more. I don't know. Though, it was a good because I was able to work out in the rain which is always nice. I wanted to start my heart up a little so I decided to work-out, I tried to lower wrist based stuff as it is still injured. Time to get some sleep.

[Russell Wilkie]

            Total Calories: (Aprox) 2092 calories-I need to find higher calorie foods...

Hello Rebel. If I just may say something about this. You don't need to always hit the calorie range every day. Your body will go through shifts in the amount of calories each day, and that is perfectly okay. There are days where I go over 100-400 my recommend amount, days I go under.

The most important thing you want to do is cut down on fat. If you are under your daily amount of calories and you snack to bring you up to your ideal calorie range, you're just adding unnecessary calories.

[Dick Stapleton]

Another thing worth mentioning is that even your TDEE could be way off as the calculators are mostly just an educated guess. I would definitely shoot for a steady range, but be aware that you might need to adjust depending on how you feel or how your weight loss is going.

Also, two things Russel. While it is ok to go over or under now and then, it's really not a good idea to be whimsical about it. The reason for only eating a few hundred calories under your TDEE to lose weight is that your body needs that energy for you to function. If you should be eating 2100 calories a day for weight loss and you end up only eating 1800, you're probably something like 700-900+ calories below a maintenance level. That's arguably a worse idea than snacking to get in some more calories. Everything you eat, even the unhealthy things, provides energy for the body which is all calories are a measure of. It's better to eat more good food to get that energy, but snacks to get enough in you is probably better than under eating by that much.

On top of that, trying to cut out fat will do essentially nothing for weight loss. I don't mean to lecture too much, but basically carbs are short term energy for the body, fats are long term energy and have a few more functions like the production of hormones and other extremely important things like that, and protein does about 5 billion things including obviously building muscle. Eating fat doesn't make people fat, eating more calories than they burn does. Better advice would be to eat healthier fats because they play essential roles in the body, but cutting out any one macro nutrient isn't the key to weight loss. It's just easier to overeat on fats since they have so much energy in them.

[The Rebel Scholar]

April 03, 2014

Meals:
    Breakfast:
    -Burrito>400 calories
    -Apricots>100 calories
    Snack:
    -Animal Crackers>240 calories
    -Apple>116 calories
    Lunch:
    -(x2) Peanut butter and jelly sandwich>730 calories
    -Prunes>100 calories
    Dinner:
    -Chicken wrap with spinach>190 calories
    Snack_2:
    -Applesauce>60 calories

    Total Calories: 2056 calories

Conclusion:
    Your guys conversation brought up something I forgot about and that is now that I can consistently hit around 2100 calories I need to quickly figure out the macros and other nutrients I need. So, shooting a quick goal by Monday I am to have at least a weeks worth of food planned out/find out what the totals I need are. On the workout side of things my legs were too sore to do anything after those standing long jumps I did yesterday. My wrist though feels better and if I am not to sore tomorrow morning I will get up and jump rope. Well, this is Nathan signing off.

[Dick Stapleton]

What's your plan for your macros? Have a specific ratio in mind?

[The Rebel Scholar]

April 04, 2014

Meals:
    Breakfast:
    -2 eggs> 156 calories
    -Oatmeal with Honey and Cinnamon> 170 calories
    -Apricots> 100 calories
    Lunch:
    -2 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches> 730
    -Celery and Carrots> 20 calories
    -Apple sauce> 60 calories
    -Apple> 116 calories
    Snack:
    -CHEESE!> 100 calories
    Dinner:
    -Burger (Bun, Mustard, onions, pickles)> 580 calories

    Total Calories: 2,032 calories

Conclusion:
    So, not the healthiest day but it was delicious. I did not stretch or warm up today due to how I felt though which was lazy. To address what my plan is for macros... I have no idea. I was browsing the diet child-board today and came to the conclusion that I want to actually create an exercise routine so I can pair it with my diet. I am going to do this so I can get the "most bang for my buck". So I guess I need to find what would be the best macro ratio to use based on losing weight (more then likely nothing heavy in carbs or fats). Any information or directions you can offer or point me to? Thanks.

[Dick Stapleton]

I don't have any sources off the top of my head, but basically for weight less specifically it doesn't really matter what your diet is composed of. It's pretty much just how many calories you eat compared to how many you burn. You could eat nothing but pizza and lose weight if you kept your calories at the right number. Obviously this isn't healthy, but it isn't what matters for losing fat. Again, let me stress that carbs and fat aren't fattening. Eating more energy than you expend is fattening. There's actually a diet called the ketogenic diet which is based off eating primarily fat and protein, with almost no carbs. I think less than 50 calories of carbs per day. Although a lot of people don't function well like this, there are also a good amount who swear by it.

With exercise it's important to get enough protein to build muscle and enough carbs and fat to sustain you. It's often recommended to get 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight, but that's way more than necessary. Several studies have shown that you don't need any more than .8 grams/lb and that's for people working out extremely hard. So aim for around that much protein, maybe even less, and the rest just try to get through healthy foods.

I've heard a lot of people shoot for something like a 40/40/20 split of fats, carbs, and protein respectively. That's probably a solid place to start but really just go with whatever you like the best and you should be ok. You might like more carbs and less fat or even vice versa. What matters the most is that you'll stick with it.

[Dick Stapleton]

Just did a little bit of reading and found a pretty good article: http://paleoleap.com/question-of-macronutrient-ratios/
Worth skimming through at least. To sum it up, every ratio can have benefits and drawbacks.

[The Rebel Scholar]

April 10, 2014

ARWARG, been away for a few days.

Meals:
    Breakfast:
    -2 eggs> 156 calories
    -Oatmeal with Honey and Cinnamon> 170 calories
    -apricots> 100
    -milk> 120
    Snack:
    -orange> 45
    -crackers> 220
    Lunch:
    -crackers> 110
    -burrito>250
    -Veggies> 20
    -Peanut butter> 185
    -Apple> 116
    Dinner:
    -Gyro (peppers, onions, lamb)> 570 calories

    Total Calories: 2062 Calories

Conclusion:
    Been dealing with some whiplash from changing habits which left me in a grumpy mood for the past couple of days but it seems to have passed. After reading that article and some others I have decided I am just going to focus on for now just evening out nutritional need instead of going for a set ratio and ease my way into things so I do not end up eating just one set of meals and get stuck in it like I have before.

[The Rebel Scholar]

July 11, 2014

      I have not been on here since finals week. Anyways, so after 3 years I have finally gotten my back checked out during the past week. Bad news is after the xrays it turns out I have an uncommon condition known as retrolisthesis[spinal slippage] involving the L2-3 of my spine(most likely a lifting injury). This means one of my vertebrae is pushed out of place towards my stomach(one of the dangers involved funnily enough is that getting a big belly is dangerous because it will draw in my spine more). The Good news is however that I am going to be looking at pilates to try and strengthen the inner core muscles to make sure it does not get worse and hopefully get rid of the pain. Its grade 1 so as long as I make sure everything is safe nerve-wise and it does not become worse I should not have to worry about it crushing my dreams. This also means that I will not be training for parkour for 1 or 2 months, maybe more.

      Well, now I know what is wrong with my back and what steps I need to take to fix it. Happy Friday.

[The Rebel Scholar]

1 November 2014

Getting back into the swing of things so just a warm-up today.

Jump Rope 8 Min.
3x4 Push Up Side Planks
Inner Core Exercise
20 Second Plank
10 Squats
Quick Stretch

[SebastianCannon]

welcome back . How is the spine?

[The Rebel Scholar]

Good all things considered, thanks for asking . Last week it sucked to be awake but I'll just have to take it as it comes.

Excuse for not training past 2 days: Lats were sore and I have to start biking nine miles a day again starting tomorrow... not particularly looking forward to it but I hate driving more

[The Rebel Scholar]

4 November 2014

Could of eaten better today, got to get on top of that. But for now hours of homework I have procrastinated on .

Biked 9.2 miles