Fitness Journey Phase 1

My Fitness History

Fitness and I have rarely been on speaking terms. I was a husky kid growing up and I struggled in PE and sports for as long as I had to endure them. When I got out on my own I lost a ton of weight and spent the majority of my late teens and early 20’s very skinny. That was a blur in my life so I don’t remember those times well and if given the chance I would go back and appreciate that time more and I would have gotten to the gym and tried my hand at bodybuilding. When I got to college I started slowly putting on weight and I found myself as a Soldier in the US Army by 27. The army helped me slim back down for a while. When I got to Iraq the Commander put us on a training program that helped to build the foundation of my Nutrition and Exercising skills and I achieved a pretty decent fitness level. Once we returned stateside I found a way to finagle a means by which to train with a fellow soldier who gave me my first taste of bodybuilding and I’ve loved it ever since. I’ve always been a huge Arnold and The Hulk fan so bodybuilding was something that was always brewing in the back of my head. I’ve just never gotten to the point to where I was able to put it all together.

Fast Forward to 2020. I had been working out off and on for years and gotten my weight down to 287 while living in Washington State using a Jay Cutler workout off of Bodybuilding.com called “Cut Like Cutler”. So I had the tools to put it all together I just needed that “Click”. My PRE Covid weight was about 330 and during the months the gym was closed I put on 8 pounds. I had read about Jay Cutler around 2010 when I was scouring through Bodybuilding.com trying to find a workout routine that I could stick to. I found out about Cutlerclub early in 2020 but I was hesitant to join because I didn’t have the determination to make it work. I turned 42 in June of 2020 and I finally had enough. I was tired of being overweight and struggling to get simple things done such as housework and tying my shoes. My son is now 7 and having similar weight problems and I was unable to be a good role model for him and that was tearing me apart. So I joined cutler club and started the “Shred Routine” week 1. It was rough for a couple months I was huffing and puffing and struggled to do simple exercises but I stuck at it. I never left week 1 I would just do it again the next week and the next. It was good I was exercising not every day but I got out there at least 3 times a week if not more and did the routine. All the while what I was learning was how to eat. Jay’s Nutrition plan called for Macros to be hit and multiple meals a day which I was not accustomed to. I would bing eat once or twice a day and that was it. So my BMR was low and so were my energy levels. When the Gyms opened back up I did the workouts on week 1 and I really focused on eating effectively and often. Towards the end of July I starting getting really good at the diet and the exercises were getting easier to follow and the overall pounds I could lift were rising steadily.

Then I got an ear infection. Everything grinded to a halt and I wasn’t able to go to the gym but the eating schedule had become routine. I was out of commission for 2 weeks maybe longer. I ended up having to go to the hospital because of how intense the ear infection was. Around July 29th I was able to go back to the gym and I remember only working out twice that week and giving myself a 3 day weekend to plan how I was gonna attack the month of August. I am fortunate to have a gym that’s open and has all the equipment I need to do Jay’s Shred Routine. So I decided 2 things, 1: I would make a positive change every week that affects my routine or habits that will better my overall health, 2: I would follow the Shred Workout program to the letter and progress every week to the next step. Since I had only experienced week 1 I had no real clue what I was in for.

With the Earache finally subsiding I was able to start fresh on August 3rd. Basically this is the day I will remember as everything finally coming together with one “BIG CLICK”. I had been on top of my Diet and Nutrition for months now and I had found a routine that works for me and I was able to hit my macros every day with a bi- weekly cheat meal which I still tried to work into my macros for the day. I started with the intention of doing ten minutes of cardio prior to my 4 day Lifting Split and 30 minutes of fasted cardio on weds and Saturday with Sundays resting completely. As you can see the second week I had to take Saturday off because I was having knee problems that I was able to overcome with a knee wrap in the following weeks. As I finished off the first 4 weeks I pushed forward into a second “phase” of my workout routine where all the exercises had changed and I started to implement a 10 minute post workout Cardio Session. My goal is to Cardio for 10 minutes prior to Lifting and 30 minutes post workout and stick with 30 minutes of fasted cardio on Every Non lifting day.

September 14th is an important day for me as I am going to ramp up my program for personal fitness reasons and my gym is going to 24 hours a day so I would like to revamp my workout schedule. Since August 1st I have been waking up at 4 am, having coffee and then out the door at 0445, first dude in the parking lot waiting for the gym to open virtually every day since August 1st. Starting September 14th 2020 I will be waking up at 0250 and out the door by 0305 so I can walk into the gym by 0315. Why so early? Tons of reasons, the most important being I have the free time and the sleeping schedule to pull it off without incident. I wake up without an alarm at about 0310 for the past week and pushing that to 0250 should be a piece of cake. I like the fact that more then likely there will be little if any foot traffic at the gym and most importantly if no one is there I can Grunt and Growl to my hearts content! Kind of hard not to Grunt and Growl at the gym when you’re workout music has tons of Death Metal on it! My weekly change for this week in addition to going to the gym at 3 am is going to be adding 30 minutes of fasted cardio on Sundays. One of the main reasons I was not pursuing Sunday Cardio was the gym didn’t open till noon on Sundays. Now that excuse is gone and I’m more then ready to step up another level in my training.

Starting a new phase of my routine. Doing a 2 hour round trip commute to a second gym so that I can work out with my BFF Vertigo. This new routine requires me to get up at 0145 so I can have an hour to wake up! Have Coffee and Pet my cat while I watch the news. Out the door at 0245 to commute one way for an hour to the BFIT Gym. Having Vertigo as a training partner has changed the entire game. Im no longer afraid to lift heavy and I’m much more motivated having someone with similar goals to compete against. The plan is to do 3 a week full body workouts for 3 weeks followed by a DELOAD week and then starting the first week of November switch to Jay Cutlers Shred Program on the CutlerClub.com.

Our first month working out went really well, We work efficiently and are able to spot each other very well. With that said it’s time to start doing the Cutlerclub.com Jay Cutler Shred Program. We both want to lose fat while retaining as much muscle as possible. I am going to do the Shred Program to the letter and really focus on keeping my diet strict and hitting my macros every day.

Dec 16th check in. We are flying through Jay Cutlers Shred program. I’ve lost 17 pounds and Vertigo has lost 25. 1 pound away from my goal weight of 299. Doing well with the diet and doing well with the workout routine. Even made some nice friends at the gym. So with that I put an end to PHASE 1 and it’s time to move forward to Phase 2. Come a long way from 363 but there is much more work to be done

This is the way.