Day 1. August 26, 2018.
I begun training again in May and I am almost as strong as I used to be in 2015. I did not follow a proper diet this week and I am only working out twice a week. I will need to improve my diet and exercise frequency.
August 26, 2018
Weight loss Day 1
In this image I am 261 lbs. I am unsure of my body fat %, but it’s probably high. August 26th.
Pardon my french, but please refer to the title.
We all know them, right? The guys who go into the gym and grunt loud enough for everyone to hear while benching 225 for the first time.
(…and by that, I mean the first time today. They do this every day. They also don’t do this with any other work out. They don’t do many other workouts, and they definitely don’t do leg workouts. Only upper body brah.)
This is the same guy who wants to give you unwarranted workout advice every time he sees you. He’s into himself, and he thinks you should be too.
Still with me? If you’re not, picture this:
You walk into the gym. You’re feeling a little guilty because you haven’t gone in a week, and you ate more cake than you should have at a birthday party you attended the day before. You’re also feeling kind of achy from your escapades at the bar the night before. No worries though, you are stepping into the gym and getting your life back together.
You think you’re in for a difficult, but rewarding session as you know you need it and you’re excited at the prospect of getting your life together. You start to walk over to the free weight area because you read some article online saying that compound movements work better for seeing some results. This is when you spot them. There’s a group of three guys. All of them are wearing nothing but Nike, a snap back cap, their gym bags are tossed against the wall, and they each have one of the free weight racks.
“If they’re here together, why can’t they just work in together on one rack?” you think to yourself. However, you avoid confrontation and consider grabbing some dumbbells instead. That’s also a no-go. You start to look over at the dumbbell area. None of the weights are there that you’d like to use. You look back at the matching gym rats with their tribal tattoos, and there are your dumbbells by their feet. You ask if you can use them, and they all act odd about it and say they are actually doing a “superset” but they’ll totally be done in a minute. This isn’t going to happen though, because you quickly notice that they talk for five minutes between every set.
You end up going to the treadmills, you do some cardio and you hear them snickering in the back. It seems that they might be laughing at you. Seems rude, but also seems plausible as they don’t seem to believe in working legs, doing cardio, or having gym etiquette. You get a little frustrated, and you leave.
My thoughts here are, that, this stuff actually happens. How many gym douche bags have we all seen, seriously? I can personally laugh at myself and say that I have in the past had some of these behaviors. I’ve gotten lost in the mirror, taken up free weights, and talked to people for a long period of time between sets. This was a while ago and I feel that being self aware is the first step. I don’t think I’m that annoying anymore, and I think there’s a lot of hope for most bros out there. Just be courteous and kind brothers.
It’s been two years!
I’ve only worked out off and on in this timeframe. I definitely haven’t been blogging a lot. I had the domain maxedoutmuscles.co for a while through bluehost.
Once my domain expired I opted to go .com through WordPress and start the blog back up. I am missing a few posts I made on the bluehost site, but that’s ok. As I said, these things were few and far between.
I would like to introduce myself to anyone new to maxedoutmuscles. My name is Christian Boyles, I am 23 years old. I work at a factory as a supervisor, and in my off time I love to work out. My goal is to ultimately own my own gym, a MaxedOutMuscles fitness center(or maybe named something else), and dedicate my life to fitness.
I will be making an effort to post here at least three times a week. Lots of site changes are going to be made for a better viewing experience. Welcome to my page and feel free to read from any of the hundreds of posts that I have available from 2015.
I’m thinking that getting bulky was exceptionally easy for me. However, getting lean is an entirely different story.
It seems that there’s a reason why people are always wanting to give up when they are attempting to lose weight on shows like “The Biggest Loser”. Losing weight takes a lot of discipline! The reason why gaining weight was so easy for me? It took consistency and dedication, but no discipline for me.
I would eat whatever I wanted to gain weight. I’d eat a lot, and gaining weight just depended on me lifting weights at a progressive overload. Of course, I didn’t care as much about the cardio because I was trying to get big! That’s not to say I didn’t do cardio to minimize the fat gains. It just wasn’t top priority, and it was a lot more challenging.
Doing cardio and eating clean? That sounded brutal. I’ve done it before, and I honestly thought it sucked. Oddly enough, that could be because I get addicted to crap foods and not because eating clean is actually horrible.
It does feel like a mission, though, and while bulking required the consistency, cutting is requiring a lot of discipline. I am doing my best to develop the discipline needed to lose weight, and honestly it feels like some weird masochistic effort. That is, I’m inflicting all of this pain on myself in the moment during my training and I’m depriving myself of the crap foods.
..the crap I used to eat provided by FreeImages.Com
So why do I call this masochism? I like doing it! It’s a challenge. I’m putting myself into challenge and I’m going to come out of this a lot stronger than I was when I started..
It’s a paradox because it may be hard now, but it only gets easier as I continue to push myself and succeed at my goals. Before too long, I will be bigger, faster, stronger and as lean as can be! I believe I can achieve my goals through a little pain and hardship now…
and you can too!
My mile times are speeding up, I’m eating fewer calories, and I’m beginning to feel like a healthy individual. Progress is, as always, a matter of consistency and discipline. I’ll keep grinding, and I hope you do too.
I made this transformation photo a couple of months ago!
I think I just have to push through my hump day. For most people it’s Wednesday, and for me it’s Friday. I know I’ll be excited for my weekend on Monday.
That being said, I’m content with my schedule. I just enjoy my Fridays like everyone else and enjoy myself. Sometimes I even take a day off of the gym. Today is one of those days.
I know that I’ll have to make up for that so I’m dedicated to working my back and biceps tomorrow. I want to go all out for bent-over rows and barbell curls! I’m hoping to hit some new personal records.
On that note, I’m content with the progress I’ve had so far with my strength training. At this point, I’m wanting to maintain the lean mass that I’ve gained and cut down the body fat. As I said yesterday, I am making positive steps in that direction by eating better and adding the cardio.
I can’t quit saying how thankful I am to you all for continuing to read my posts and for sharing your thoughts. I like reading from you because it motivates me, and you often give great advice!
Thanks for reading this update. Today, again, was my day off and I will continue to push forward and make good progress!
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By the way!!
It’s been a while since I mentioned progress photos, and believe me when I say that they are coming! It may be another month or two yet, but I have a few progress photos to share with some training logs and in the grand scheme of things I am hoping to make a transformation video.
The video is far off yet as I want to have somewhat of an end result before I begin editing. Also, I made a free eBook for anyone who is interested but I am not sure how to put it up for download on my website. If anyone wants to give me some tips or advice, I am all ears! Thanks!
I decided to make this for the post. I’m not sure it shows much the way I edited it, but at least it’s something! There will be more in the future.
Almost every day I write a post about fitness, Crohn’s Disease, and life. Almost every day, I try to share advice that was given to me, research, and my personal opinions on the above topics. That does not mean that I am a testament to this perfect, idealistic version of me that I am trying to assimilate in this blog.
However, every day I keep in mind of where I’m at and I remember my end goals. I remember that eating a nearly perfect diet that I believe in will further my goals, that pushing out the extra rep will also help, and that blogging is my form of expression and a means to an end for going the extra mile until I choose to go even further.
Not having these things all figured out oftentimes makes me feel like a hypocrite. I’m reminded of a quote from Jesus in the Christian’s New Testament:
3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
That’s Matthew 7:3-5 in the New International Version of the Bible(crazy how many different versions there are!!). I was raised in a fairly religious home, thus I remember random scriptures often that I sometimes relate to things I’m going through in my life.
I chose this image from freeimages.com because the bar looked like a barbell
However, if those words were taken literally I wonder if there would be a single person willing to preach. That’s where Christians believe in grace and moving forward, even when they make mistakes. That’s where I believe in getting up, even when I fall down, and continuing to blog while simultaneously fighting to improve my life into that idealistic version I spoke of in the first paragraph.
So what is the idealistic version of myself?
Idealistically, I’m going to continue blogging and working out, running, and dieting, studying nutrition and also furthering my career. I will turn into someone I would proudly call a role model.
I will practice what I preach.
It’s going to happen! I believe in myself and I know I can do it! Since I wrote the series on diet last week, I have made a lot of healthier choices. I’ve been running a lot more and eating cleaner just like I said my character Jimmy would as compared to Carl who only likes greasy, nasty food.
So as long as I talk bad about Carl, I’m going to be a Jimmy! While practicing what I preach, I’ll continue to keep you posted and share content.
What does the purple ribbon stand for? That’s a pretty common question, right? Everyone knows that the pink ribbon is a symbol of breast cancer awareness and prevention, so what about the purple ribbon?
The purple ribbon stands for lots of things! Some of which are Alzheimer’s disease, domestic violence, anti-gay bullying, and cystic fibrosis. However, this week from December 1st until today it has stood for IBD awareness.
IBD stands for Irritable Bowel Disease! Irritable Bowel Disease is somewhat of a blanket term Crohn’s Disease and Ulcerative Colitis. If you’ve been following my blog, you know I was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease five years ago(if you didn’t know that, then HI! Welcome to my blog!)
Today, I’d like to tell you that I’m a little upset. I’m upset with myself! I was focusing on work and lifting last week and I forgot all about it being Crohn’s Awareness week. At least I can forgive myself since I am posting about it today and giving IBD a little bit of the recognition it deserves! We need to recognize that these diseases exist and work together to rid the world of them. I’m about to tell you why this should matter to you even if you don’t know anyone who has IBD(besides me LOL).
Crohn’s Disease is a debilitating illness.
When I was 15, I started having some stomach problems. At a time when I should have been happy and healthy and careless like everyone else, I was going to the bathroom 10 or 11 times a day. There was blood in my stools and I was malnourished. I didn’t want to eat but I forced myself! I knew that if I didn’t eat but kept going on like that, that I would die. I was losing weight insanely fast. I was turning into a skinny-fat, malnourished mess.
..I was turning into a skinny-fat, malnourished mess.
This was 8 days after I turned 16. ..The calm before the storm.
I remember being six foot tall(1.82 meters), and older than most of my friends but being insanely weaker. If they wanted to bench press or play sports, I wouldn’t have the energy or the strength. I went to the doctor for all of this and after an initial lower GI they concluded that I was suffering from hemorrhoids.
They gave me suppositories and sent me on my way. I wanted so badly to believe them that I went my whole freshman year without getting any better. I just sucked it up and dealt with it. I’d go to the bathroom a lot but I think most of my teachers understood that I wasn’t healthy.
Finally, just eight days after I turned 16 I had gotten my license and it was a big day for me…but getting my license was the only reason I wasn’t in the hospital. I didn’t want to wait, and I had gone my whole freshman year without treatment, so what was eight days?
Long story short, I waited way too long to get real treatment and I could have died. As you see me in the photo above, I was very skinny-fat and it was hard to smile with all the pain I had in my abdomen and back. Somehow, when you have a bad crohn’s flareup you can also have other digestive problems such as pancreatitis and gastritis. On July 21st, when I was admitted to hospital, it turned out I was suffering from all three.
But this story doesn’t end negatively! I was treated and given corticosteroids when I was in the hospital that healed my colon and digestive tract. I started feeling better and over the years they experimented with different drugs. However, also over the years I have discovered that drugs are bullshit.
I am still on one autoimmune suppressor and it’s called Remicade. I get Remicade treatments once every two months and honestly, I don’t want them anymore. I know that this sounds bad, but I have spent months at a time without my Remicade or other drugs and remained healthy.
Is this partly due to the residual effects of the drugs?
Sure it is!
But I firmly believe it is more because of how I handle stress, my environment, and my daily habits. I used to be inactive, I had a lot of family problems that a 15 year old shouldn’t have to worry about, and I ate awful food. Over the years I’ve learned a lot and I find that I may someday be a testament to the possibility that all of these illnesses popping up have more to do with processed food and less to do with bad luck.
If we continue to talk about these illnesses and even cancers, then maybe we can have the right people do real research on the significance of our diets. I hope we can all further the discussion and possibly donate to Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America to further awareness and possibly help a young kid going through what I went through!
Remember that if the diet we eat is causing a rise in these types of IBD and cancers, that research and discussion could save lives and ultimately help us all live healthy lives.
To donate to CCFA, click here.
Edit:
I think I also need to leave a disclaimer! I doubt anyone would read my post and think I’m saying they need to quit taking medicine, but just in case, don’t quit taking your medicine! At least not without your doctor’s consent. Try to do everything by the book. If you do everything right and try your best, then you’re blameless among your physicians. Keep that attitude and build a relationship with your doctors so that they can better help you.
This week I had a great time going over dietary choices with you! We talked about calorie control, the basal metabolic rate, eating clean, health disorders, and macro-nutrients. I had a great time doing it too!
With all of this information, it would be silly if I didn’t walk the walk as much as I talk the talk. As I said in my last post, it’s better to be like Jimmy(who likes eating healthy) than Carl(who eats loads of crap). I am doing my best every day to eat as well as I say you should, and I hope we can all grow stronger together and help each other make better choices.
I also wanted to mention a few ideas that were presented to me via the comments this past week:
In conclusion, I really like all of the feedback I get from you and I love having the conversations with you. I hope to continue making progressively healthier choices, and I want to refocus my attention on Crohn’s Disease and auto-immune disorders.
I did, after all, start this blog in response to remission from my Crohn’s Disease. I want to help others who are suffering with auto-immune disorders and raise awareness. If you’d like to help with that, send me an email or reblog some of my posts.
All of that being said, I think Crohn’s Disease has a huge link to diet along with other auto-immune disorders. My assumption is strengthened with personal experience. I did the Paleo Diet and I know it is completely anti vegan but both diets are great for banishing processed foods. Cut out the processed foods = healthier life. Thanks for reading and feel free to join the conversation!
You want to get lean?
That’s great! You are a part of a great club of people who all want to better themselves, and making the decision to start trying is the biggest step to take in your fitness journey.
If you’ve been following this blog for long, then you know that I’ve been writing up a series on health, wellness, and nutrition this week.
In my first post, I talked about how I wanted to find a Subjective Diet Format (SDF), a diet tailored for me specifically. I factored in my weight, my current eating habits, the amount of ambition I have along with my goals, and my Crohn’s Disease(to read that post, click here).
In my second post, I talked about finding the amount of calories you should be eating by using your Basal Metabolic Rate. I left a link to a Basal Metabolic Rate Calculator, but you could also find one with a quick Google search. To read that post, click here.
In the last post, I talked about the obvious but oftentimes overlooked..
Eating clean! The best first step you can make is not cutting your calories or upping the cardio, although those things are both important. The best first step is cleaning up your eating choices so that you know, despite any extra pounds, that you have a healthier body. To read that post, click here.
image courtesy of SimpleReminders.com
..and today’s post naturally picks up where yesterday’s post left off.
I want to drive home a point! Not all calories are created equal. Let’s compare Carl to Jimmy:
Carl eats two pounds of macaroni and cheese, and a pound of boneless chicken chunks from Walmart’s deli. This adds up to about 3,000 calories! For an active male who works out, this is probably within his basal metabolic rate. For the sake of this post, let’s say Carl DOES in fact work out. Carl is possibly eating under his active Basal Metabolic Rate and will lose weight….but is he as healthy as Jimmy?
Jimmy eats five meals. These five meals are each an eight ounce chicken breast with a serving of broccoli, a serving of green beans, a serving of carrots, and a serving of fruit. Jimmy MAY indulge once in a while with a starchy white potato. Overall, Jimmy may be consuming close to the same amount of calories as Carl but I would bet his left arm his diet is going to make him a LOT healthier. Before you ask…NO, I would not bet my own left arm even if I’m guaranteed a win! Screw that!
..but my point is this! Carl’s meal had literally no vegetables and was full of fat and carbs. He easily got his protein requirement but he didn’t get crap for heart health.
It is important to track protein, carbs, and fat! However, there’s also factors that most people overlook like sodium and cholesterol. According to the National Institute of Health, cholesterol plays a MAJOR role in heart disease. In layman’s terms, lower your bad LDL cholestrol and increase your good HDL cholestrol. You can do this by avoiding foods that are high in saturated fat and eating more unsaturated fat through walnuts and almonds.
In conclusion to this week’s discussion on diet, I say “BE LIKE JIMMY! AND DON’T LISTEN TO CARL’S NUTRITIONAL ADVICE!” I would yell that on every rooftop in town if I thought….you know…people wouldn’t think I’m crazy.
While we know that Carl and Jimmy will both lose weight by eating less calories, we should all agree that Jimmy has the better strategy. So be like Jimmy, or vegan-paleo-pescatarian Jimmy, and eat healthy. Not only will you look great, but your body will thank you!
