Prep Work

Greetings,

For a little background, I have been a college thrower at PSU for 5 years, with a year of post college training. Since then, I haven't been the best with my working out, and it has shown. My peak weight in college was 250 lbs, and it currently at 230 lbs, and getting more jiggly. It is now time for me to get off my lazy butt and get back into shape, and lose some weight. All this extra weight cannot be good for my long term health, or joints, so its time to shed some fat.

For this, I have enlisted the help of Dane, a fellow thrower back at Penn State. He has been a strong advocate of healthy eating, with as little processing as possible. Back to the basics in a way. My diet will be very lean protein, natural oils, and very little carbs. You can read about it on his site http://www.garagestrength.com. In combonation with this diet, I will be heading to the gym fairly frequently. Most of these exercises will consist of multiple joint movements; ones which will work as many muscles as possible, thus burning many calories.

To prepare for this change, I have began to purchase some essential things to make the transition go smoother and become more sucessful. The first is glass storageware. The list is long as to why glass is better than plastic (cancer links, taste to name a few). If bought correctly, they are more economical than plastic, and last much longer. Glass is also not derived from oil (as plastic is), so you are saving the environment as well. Secondly, I bought a nice digital food scale (up to 11 lbs by 0.1 oz). This will make sure I am eating the proper quantity of food, and the level of calories for the given day. It's also good to have around for basic cooking needs. Last, buying high quality meats and food. I am still in the process of finding a good outlet for these items, but Trader Joe's will be a good stop gap. That's all for now, I'll post again with my first day of the traning/diet.

- Steve