An Average Guide to Fitness

My aim is to show that you can get fit, without changing your life, and that ultimately the average person, with the average life can better themselves.

[myaveragefitnessjourney]

Week 3 - Day 2 - Monday

Today was a fairly easy day for me. I walked to work and back as my exercise. Nothing to punchy to start the week, I like to ease myself in. 

However what i did today which is rare, is eat three meals and drink a lot of water. 

When i'm at work, I fall in to a habit, I guess that's why my midweek performance is much better than the weekend. It's easy to fit a schedule around working hours, rather than lie ins and poor meal decisions. 

I started today with a glass of water, before having a bacon and sausage sandwich an hour later with a coffee. 

This was then followed up by a few more glasses of water throughout the day. 

At lunch I had a Peri Peri Chicken Breast with Rice and a bottle of lemon and lime flavoured water. I also had a cheeky galaxy bar, but shhhhhh. 

The afternoon just consisted of more water, before going home having a glass of red wine with braised steak, mash and carrots with a lovely gravy. 

Tomorrow it's back to the gym, question is do I get up really early and hit the gym at 6.30am or do I go after work and risk it taking ages to get around everything.  I value the sleep, but I also value not wasting my time waiting for lifting platforms. 

Decisions Decisions. 

[myaveragefitnessjourney]

Week 3 - Day 1 - Sunday

I wish I hadn't started this blog on a Sunday, as it always seems  I will have a rubbish start to the weak in terms of diet.  This is something what needs to massively improve as my weekends are a joke compared to what is much better mid week. 

I would normally play football however today's game was cancelled. 

What this means, is that due to the team we were due to face forfeiting, we won be default. So we have now won the league. It feels great to achieve something I have worked hard all season for, and so this just spurs me on to reach another target which is getting myself in a much better shape for the future. 

That being said, Sundays are shit for food, and so I had the other half of last nights curry feast, a few cups of tea, a couple of chocolate biscuits, a can of coke and a couple of large glasses of red wine. 

Exercise for the day consisted of the 1 minute walk to the shop, and the 1 minute walk back.  I'm getting good at this.....

[myaveragefitnessjourney]

Week 2 - Day 7 - Saturday

Another day to just chill out and be hungover. It started with a Lucozade and the remainder of last night's Pizza. I then had a nice chilled can of Coke, always a winner that one. 

The rest of the day consisted of a couple of cups of tea and a couple of cheeky chocolate hobs nobs. At around 9.30pm it was time to order a Chicken Tikka Korma with Rice and Keema Naan. I had half of that so I could save the rest for tomorrow, had a couple of beers to go with it.  Simples. 

I think my thoughts for the week are mixed. It started well, but veered off heavily towards the end. I managed to get my 2 gym sessions in, however I failed to do anything else worthy of note and I also didn't swim which isn't good considering my target is a mile by the end of February. 

In terms of moving towards my goals, surprisingly my body is starting to look slightly better, however more on the arms and the chest than the belly. Hoping to keep working, and powering through. I'll start uploading some pictures soon hopefully. Might make this blog a little more interesting.......

[myaveragefitnessjourney]

Week 2 - Day 6 - Friday

After yesterday, I awoke feeling a lot better than I thought I would. Didn't really fancy doing a lot as I was still a little worse for wear, however all being taken into account, I wasn't too bad. 

I did very little today, as I needed a day to just kind of do nothing. I played a lot of FIFA, ate a spiced chicken breast around 2pm, drank some more beers and a can of coke a little later on. Had around 2/3 of a Large Dominos Pizza and then went out for a dance. 

In doing so I drank a fair few beers and a fair few Vodka and Cokes. 

I told you....... Tough week.

[myaveragefitnessjourney]

Week 2 - Day 5 - Thursday

Ok today I had the day off work the same of which I have tomorrow, so i think you know what to expect here. 

I woke up late around 11am - then went on down to Wetherspoons for an all day brunch.  2 eggs, 2 bacon, 3 sausages, some chips and a lot of ketchup. 

From here on in, I drank alcohol, a lot of alcohol and that's it. 

I think over the course of the day, the pub crawl was easily a good 5 mile round trip. So i'm counting that for exercise, however I drank a fair few pints of beer, around 7 cocktails and then a few more bottles of beer and a couple of jaager bombs.  All in all, a happy, but expensive, drunken day.

[myaveragefitnessjourney]

Week 2 - Day 4 - Wednesday

Once again a nice early rise and off to the gym for a 7.30am start. 

It is now starting to get easier, at first I hated waking up early, as i'm normally a late riser, however once in the habit, it's starting to get rather rewarding.

So after a tough back day yesterday, it is now up to the shoulders. I forgot to mention the walking on the day before, so to and from the gym and work and then back to home, so 4 miles in total. Same again today.

Free Weight Shoulder Press - 8kg Warm up followed by 12kg - 3 sets of 10.

Front Plate Raises - 10kg - 3 sets of 10

Crucifixes - 6kg - 3 sets of 10

Free Weight Front Raises - 4kg - 3 sets of 18 (9 each arm)

Upright Row - 15kg Bar - 3 sets of 10.

Reverse Seated Delts - 8kg - 3 sets of 10.

In terms of food today was a little less well done. I've kept up with the water intake to roughly the same level, and had the same breakfast after my workout of a bacon and sausage sandwich with a coffee. I'm now starting to get into a post work out habit which is good. The more I stick to a routine and start making little changes to it, the easier it will become to improve in the long terms. 

At lunch I had some chicken penne pasta (again) the choice of food is kind of limited due to my lack of vegetable intake, and so I tend to have the same thing far too often. However Wednesdays are usually a very long day for me, as I train in the morning and then play football in the evening.  I usually finish work around 5.30/6pm at which point my eating window is limited due to training at 8. Therefore I tend to eat high carbs during a Wednesday lunch time and have a mars bar before football. 

After football, I went up to the bar for a couple of beers with the lads, and then came home and had a few more with my housemate. A hard day thoroughly rewarded with a crisp cold one or six.

[myaveragefitnessjourney]

Week 2 Day 3 - Tuesday

Ok, firstly let me apologise as I have been a little lazy in writing this blog. I don't like to make excuses, but i've had a pretty tough week and to be honest I really haven't thought about writing much. 

However although i've had a tough week, I've still done some exercise and i've still made some terrible dieting decisions, and so if you're still interested, i'd like to share them with you. 

So then today started off with a getting out of bed nice and early and off to the gym for 7.30am.  Tough day to start the gym week off with but I thought it was time to give the back a good work out and so here it is: 

- 5 sets of Bent Over Rows - 10kg with a 30kg bar. 10 reps.

- One Arm Row - warm up - 14kg - 9 reps.

   1 set of 18kg - 9 reps 

    3 sets of 22kg - 6 reps.

- Lateral Row - 30kg - 1 set - 9 reps

   Set sets of 50kg - 9 reps 

- Front Lat Pulldown - 1 set - 30kg - 9 reps 

  3 sets - 50kg - 9 reps.

Food Diary 

I've decided I need a little more water during the day and so I didn't really count as to how many 1/2 pints I had throughout the day. I would have had 3 - 500ml bottles whilst in the Gym, and then possible another 5 or 6 glasses throughout the day.

In light of that, i'm normally extremely hungry after a gym session and in need of a good coffee, therefore a bacon and sausage sandwich at 9.30am and a cup of coffee =). 

12.15pm - Chicken Penne Pasta. 

7pm - Spiced Chicken Breast and Rice and a Glass of White Wine.

[myaveragefitnessjourney]

Week 2 - Day 2 - Monday

Mondays are usually a non exercise day for me, I will occasionally make an exception, however my body usually hasn't made a recovery from the previous days Football, and i'm quite susceptible to injuries of many kinds, so I tend to rest. 

So exercise wise I walked to work and back home again (2.8 miles) 

In terms of food:

8am - Nespresso Coffee 

9.30am - Starbucks - Vanilla Spiced Latte (Grande) 

11am - Cup of Tea (white no sugar)

12pm Cup of Tea (white 2 sugars)  - I started to crash at this point. 

2pm - 1/2 pint of water. 

3pm - Chicken Penne Pasta 

7.30pm - Large Glass of Red Wine 

9pm - Braised Steak with Mashed Potato, Carrot and Gravy. 

I shall be returning to the Gym tomorrow morning, with the hope of a really tough workout. I think after my first week, I am starting to feel like i'm moving in the right direction in terms of getting more exercise, however by diet is still atrociously bad. Hopefully I can improve this as I go along, so I can't start providing my body with the fuel it deserves. 

I have a habit of being extremely lazy and rather than cook, i'll go hungry and end up putting my body into conservation mode, which is completely the opposite of what I want to be achieving. Hopefully  I can sort this out in the near future, but as i said at the beginning, it's little changes along the way which will help me stick to this plan rather than trying and then failing to do it all at once. 

Peace Out x

[myaveragefitnessjourney]

Week 2 - Day 1 - Sunday

Ok so Sunday is a mixed bag. As I mentioned previously Sunday is always football day. 

So Sunday morning I played a total of 60 minutes, 1 goal and an assist to go with it, we won 5-0 and we need another 4 points to win the league - with 4 remaining games.  Happy Days =). 

Food Diary - 9am - Mars Bar.  (This is quite a good source of energy, and considering I hadn't eaten anything for 21 hours, the best I could get before I played. 

9am -12pm - Bottle of Vitamin Water (500ml) - Bottle of Lucozade Sport (500ml)

12.30pm - 2 pints of Peroni in the pub to celebrate our 5-0 win. 

1.30pm - A Rustlers Chicken burger, I also added an extra slice of cheese. 

4pm - A Chicken and Bacon Pasta Bake

7pm - Large Glass of White Wine

9pm - Sausage, Chips and Curry Sauce from the Chippy - Beer (330ml) 

I really need to do better on weekends.......

[myaveragefitnessjourney]

Week One - Day 7 - Saturday

Saturday was an absolute write off and will be extremely easy to write and by far my worst day so far on this journey. 

10am Cup of Tea (2 Sugars) 

12pm - Leftover Pizza - 5 slices. 

5pm - Coffee 2 Sugars (Nespresso) 

6pm - 8pm - 3 beers - 330ml

That's it.  Genuinely quite disgusted by myself on this one. Absolutely shocking. 

And by that's it i mean that's it in total. No exercise.   Disgraceful. 

[myaveragefitnessjourney]

Week One - Day 6 - Friday

Ok so the weekends are usually quite bad for me, my consumption of takeaway goes up, as does my consumption of beer, and my exercise levels drop significantly. 

Friday was an ok day though, however it goes downhill the further into the weekend. So first up exercise diary. 

I mentioned I wanted to start swimming again with the goal to swim one mile before the end of February. So I went to the pool and got my swim on. 

- Walk to the sports park - 2 miles. 

- Swim 12 lengths of a 50m pool - 600m in total. 

- Walk to work - 1 mile. 

- Walk home from work - 1.4 miles. 

So all in all a decent attempt on the exercise front. 

Food Diary 

9am - bottle of water - 500ml

10am cup of tea (white no sugar)

12pm - Glass of water (1/2 pint)

3pm Lasagne and Chips - glass of water (1/2 pint)

6pm - 1am - Beers - lots of beers. I think it's fair to say probably around 10 bottles (330ml) 

Also throw in a Large Dominos Margherita Pizza at around 9pm. 

So all in all a good day of exercise and a pretty poor day for everything else haha.

[myaveragefitnessjourney]

Week One - Day 5 - Thursday

So then after the rigours of Wednesday, today was a little quieter on the exercise front. Probably the least amount of exercise so far in this process so it should be pretty easy to get out of the way. 

9am - I walked to work - 1.4 miles 

I got a lift back home as it was snowing, and so the only exercise i've done today is walk to work.  Shameful, however I did say that there would be days i will be a little lazy and I wouldn't be at the Gym everyday. 

In terms of food, today was a little easier. 

10.30am - Cup of Tea (White no Sugar) - Strawberry Iced Donut (Thursday is tea and cake day at work, so every Thursday at 10.30. We never miss it)

11.30 - Cup of Tea - White no Sugar 

3pm - Chicken Penne Pasta - Glass of Water 

8pm - Cajun Spiced Chicken Breast with Jasmine Thai White Rice - Glass of Water. 

Really simple day today, I feel the meals are healthier than usual, however looking at my daily routine, there is a huge lack of water intake on days I don't train, so I should really look to correct this moving forward. 

Tomorrow is the start of a journey within my 12 week fitness programme. Throughout my whole life, I have always been able to swim at leisure and so never trained to do any particular length. We are promoting a "Get Fit February" event across Campus throughout the whole month of February with lots of different challenges.  I decided as part of the spirit that I would swim 1 mile. I've never achieved it before and so decided that it may be a good time to accomplish this. 

So from tomorrow morning, I will start training to Swim 1 Mile.  Wish me Luck =) 

[myaveragefitnessjourney]

Week One - Day 4 - Wednesday

Wednesday was a pretty busy day for me with quite a lot to do. I'm a firm believer that if you really want to do something you can either make time, or make excuses. 

I knew in advance Wednesday evening would be really busy for me, so I decided to go to the gym in the morning. So here is my exercise diary for Wednesday. 

7am - Walk to the gym (2 miles) 

7.30am - Hit the gym with the following exercises:

Free Weight Shoulder Press - 8kg Warm up followed by 12kg - 3 sets of 10.

Front Plate Raises - 10kg - 3 sets of 10

Crucifixes - 6kg - 3 sets of 10

Free Weight Front Raises - 4kg - 3 sets of 18 (9 each arm)

Upright Row - 15kg Bar - 3 sets of 10.

Seated Bent Over Rear Delt - 4kg - 4 sets of 10. 

Reverse Seated Delts - 8kg - 3 sets of 10. 

Front Leg Raises - 1 set of 20 followed by 2 sets of 10. 

9am - walk to work - 1 mile. 

5.15pm Walk to town - 1 mile.

I want to point out that on quite a few of those exercises I was using a very low weight. The main reason is that for many of those exercises I am a first timer and so I have yet to learn my body's limit as to how much I can take on each exercise. I also want to make sure that in doing the exercises I am using the correct muscles and therefore using correct form. 

It's so easy to go for the biggest weight you can lift, but you end up spreading that weight across different muscle groups to lift it, and therefore defeating the purpose of training a particular muscle group.  It might impress your mates, it might impress some women, but all you're doing is cheating yourself.  Lift small and get your form right, it's the most important thing you can do, and when you move up in weight you will see real, true progress. 

On to the food for the day: 

As i mentioned in a previous blog i'm usually not one for breakfast, but after a gruelling work out I needed to eat early. So:

7.30am - 9am - 3 bottles of water (500ml)

9am - Bacon Sandwich from Starbucks

10.30am - Cup of Tea 

12.15pm - Chicken and Bacon Burger with Chips

3pm - Cup of Tea and Glass of Water.

5.30pm - A small Coke from the Cinema. 

7.30pm - Shared Fresh Bread with Butter (2.5 slices)

10oz Sirloin Steak with Chips and Peppercorn Sauce. 

2 Large Glasses of Red Wine

A Creme Brulé for Dessert. 

Pretty busy day, some real nice food in the evening from Côte restaurant in Guildford. I also saw Taken 3 at the cinema which I really enjoyed. 

So there we have it - Day 4 all done and dusted. 

[myaveragefitnessjourney]

How much 'stand alone' cardio are you interested in doing, and would you use something like distance in running, rowing or cycling (or anything else) to see how your fitness performance improves over the 12 weeks (as well as the fat/muscle test)?

In terms of "Stand Alone" Cardio - I play football twice a week, so I guess I would class that as a Cardio session, I'm also planning on swimming every Friday morning. I've never swam a mile, and so I want to achieve this by the end of February. Training starts tomorrow =)

[myaveragefitnessjourney]

Week One - Day 3 - Tuesday

So then, Day two. 

After looking at the post yesterday, I have to admit I was rather ashamed at my diet and skipping dinner, I thought I would try and eat a little more today. Today was also the day I started my gym routine and so I will explain my thoughts on that below. 

First thing up then is my food diary: 

9.15am - 11.30am - 3 cups of tea (White - No Sugar)

12.15pm - Chicken Curry with Chips.

1pm - 3pm - 2 glasses of water

5.15pm - 7pm - Lucozade Sport (500ml) - 2 bottles of water (500ml)

7.45pm - Cajun spiced Chicken Breast, Beef and Pork Tortellini with Tomato and Basil Sauce - Bottle of Budweiser (330ml)

9pm - Bottle of Budweiser (330ml) 

So then a little better than yesterday on the basis that I have had actual water and i've eaten more than one meal. In terms of lunch I have the benefit of working in a place where I have a restaurant downstairs, so my lunches are always cooked for me. Many will argue that it makes a huge difference as I don't need to prep meals, but to be honest prepping meals isn't hard at all and I just take advantage of what I have available. 

In speaking of prepping meals, my dinner is what I would say is relatively healthy, and from out the packaging to on my plate took 8 minutes. That's fresh pasta, fresh chicken breast, off the shelf spices and a pre-made sauce.  

Secret - My George Foreman Lean Mean Grilling Machine.  If you don't have one, get one.  Here is a link: http://www.amazon.co.uk/George-Foreman-18471-Portion-Family/dp/B0055429GO/ref=sr_1_1/277-8815915-7557252?ie=UTF8&qid=1422398382&sr=8-1&keywords=amazon+george+forman 

At £20 it's an absolute bargain, unbelievable at cooking meat quickly and it's healthy due to it's fat reduction process. 

I also find that cooking sauces are easiest to cook by putting them in a plastic container (the free ones you get from the chinese will do) and stick it in the microwave for 1 minute.  Nice and warm and pour straight on.

So that's my food options for today, plenty of protein in there and some carbs as well. 

On to my exercise regime for the day: 

8.45am - I walked to work (1.4 miles) 

5.15pm - I walked to Surrey Sports Park (1 mile)

5.30pm - 6.30pm (Chest Day) 

Bench Press - 10kg weight, 20kg Olympic Bar - 30kg total weight - 4 sets of 10 reps. 

Incline Bench Press - Same total weight same total reps.

Chest Press - Total weight 20kg (10kg each side) 3 sets 9 reps. 

Cable Cross Over - 6.75kg each side - 3 sets 10 reps

Free Weight Fly - 8kg each side - 3 sets - 7 reps.

6.30pm walked back home (2 miles) 

So gym day and 4.4 miles worth of walking. Decent effort to be fair.

My aim is to be as explosive as possible within my training and so I usually do my exercises as quickly as possible with very little rest period between each set and exercise. 

Really glad to be back in the gym and getting myself in shape. It took an extra hour out of my day, which to be honest is nothing if you manage your time correctly. 

I will be back in the gym first thing tomorrow morning as I am going out for my anniversary with the missus. 

I shall report back tomorrow with another update.

Much Love x

[myaveragefitnessjourney]

Week One - Day 2 - Monday

Today is a short day as I didn't really do a lot. I'd like to mention early on that you may see an improvement in my diet as the days go by. 

I'd like to say that I do not aim to prove that I can get ripped whilst eating pizza and drinking beer every day, my diet may improve, as the more I train, the more my body will need certain fuel to provide to it's needs. 

Exercise: 

9am - I walked to work 

5.30pm I walked back with a slight detour to see The Missus. 

Google Maps makes out that my walk to work is 1.4 miles and we will take the same for the walk back.  So therefore total exercise not including mooching from office to office at work is 2.8 miles of walking. 

Food: 

9.30am - A Cup of Tea - Milk no sugar (There was no sugar available I would usually have 2) 

10.15am - Another Cup of Tea 

12.15pm - Lasagne and Chips 

2pm - A Can of Coke and a Cadbury's Crunchie 

3pm - A Grande Caramel Macchiato from Starbucks

8pm - A bottle of Budweiser (330ml) 

Reading this back and taking it in as I write I have to admit that is pretty shocking, one meal and a chocolate bar. I would normally eat dinner, but ironically enough I got distracted writing all of this and it is now 10.38pm and too late to eat. 

I'm not going to lie and say this doesn't happen often, as I estimate I probably skip dinner once a week, mainly out of laziness. 

I will also be honest and say I skip breakfast every day, as I prefer to sleep longer. I think this may change over the course of this programme, but for your understanding, I never eat it before going to work, occasionally I may have a bacon sandwich upon getting there. 

Back tomorrow with another update which will include THE GYM!

[myaveragefitnessjourney]

Week 1 - Day 1 - Sunday

Ok so first day up Sunday. 

For those of you who don't know me Sunday is Football Day. At 10.30am every Sunday morning, hungover or not, you will find me on a football pitch somewhere within the Surrey and Hampshire Border League. Here is a picture of me looking smug as you like in the famous Mayford colours (Currently Top of Division 3, Unbeaten in the League)

Now then Exercise Diary: 

90 minutes of running around in the cold and the mud.

If anyone is interested we lost on penalties, and yes, you guessed right, sadly I missed one. However I fully blame the pitch and the fact that the mud was so thick if you stood still you would sink in it. 

Food and Drink Diary: 

9.30am - Pain Au Chocolat (Chocolate Croissant)

10.30-1pm - A bottle of Vitamin Water and a Lucozade Sport

2pm - Half a leftover Keema Nan and 2 poppadoms (I had an Indian the night before)

4pm - a bottle of Budweiser - 330ml

6pm - A Chinese takeaway - Chicken Fried Rice, Jumbo Sausage and a Can of Coke

8pm - Another bottle of Budweiser. 

Now you are starting to get an idea for my diet and how it really is quite shocking. It doesn't get much better on day 2 but stay with me. 

I'd also like to point out that I go went to bed at 11.30pm and that I awoke Monday morning at 8am and snoozed until 8.30am. Sleep is a huge factor in recovery and training and so I highly recommend at least 7-8 hours a night. This is one thing that I am absolutely solid on and very very rarely do I get less.