The Biggest Loser MTRMedia.com Style!
Some of the staff at MTRMedia.com has decided to start a Biggest Loser contest. We will have a competition that will run through December 31, 2011 to see who will lose the most weight by percentage. Weight loss is a personal thing. So some of our writers may share a lot about this contest, others may not share anything. I have chosen to be an open book and allow you, the reader, to hold me accountable. We are still working out all of the details about what the winner will receive, but we are leaning towards paying for the winners trip to Spring Training this year. I will provide more details as we have them.
My story: I grew up playing sports and being very athletic. I played 5 sports in high school and lettered in Baseball, Cross Country, Soccer, and Track. In college I studied exercise science and regardless of how much I worked out, always struggled to gain weight. My goal until about the age of 30 was to get up to 200 pounds and then chisel my abs. Professionally at the time I owned a health club and exercised quite a bit including teaching step aerobics classes and competing in 5K's 10K's and even a biatholon or two.
I moved to Central New Jersey when I was 28 and continued running health clubs, doing personal training, teaching a lot of aerobics classes, and continued to run. At 32, my career shifted. I went from a very active profession to managing a senior fitness program that I still manage today. Instead of teaching aerobics classes and being active, I spent much of my day in a car. When I was not in a car I was in a meeting or on the phone.
I was 194 pounds when I took this job and I remember thinking I needed to lose a few pounds around my waste. I was excited because I figured I could run more without teaching the classes which would thin me right out. 7 years later, I am about 100 pounds heavier and realize I need to completely change my life.
So today is day one. My exercise plan is as follows:
- Weight Lifting: 3 days per week using a 3 day split system.
- 4 Days per week: Cardiovascular training 30 minutes to 1 hour per day.
My diet plan will be the harder of the two to stick to. I have always been an exerciser, but most of my life I could eat what I want and burn it off. I am not a junk food eater or a snacker. In fact I really only like to eat once or twice a day. A challenge for me will be eating small meals more frequently. My diet plan is as follows:
- 5 Fruits and Vegetables per day.
- Lean cuts of meat.
- Big reduction in white flour.
- Small meals throughout the day.
- One cheat day per week.
My weigh in number today was 297 on my health club's scale. We may use an official scale so that number could change a pound or two. My goal is to lose 40 pounds during this competition and be down 100 pounds by next Labor Day.
I plan to share my journey with you. This will include workouts, recipes, what is working and what is not. I will be accountable to you and will share my successes and failures with you. Hold me accountable, if you do not see a post from me for a day or so, write a comment in the comments section. Encouragement always helps too! Below are my before pictures, I will share more as I progress. Until then, it is off to the gym!
