This blog project is dedicated to you:
the bodybuilder, the unhappy eater, and the average want-to-but-never-willing-to
couch potato. Week one, the beginning of the end of my lethargic lifestyle,
consisted of the hallowed “3-square-meals per day” diet. To clarify this
further, I was allowed three meals that were nutritious and covered all bases
of the food pyramid without the addition of snacks; in retrospect, the detraction
of snacks from my diet was a smart choice. TC Luoma, considered an expert on
the hormone Testosterone, mentioned in a blog post the dangers of increasing
one’s meal rate per day,
“The logical question that follows is, what causes one to have
perpetually high blood sugar? Well, aside from someone who just eats the
typical American diet, the individual most prone to high blood sugar would be
someone who ate large amounts several times a day and who never allowed himself
to go hungry– who, perhaps deliberately, on the advice of hundreds of diet
experts, kept his blood sugar levels “steady” – over a period of several years”
(Luoma).
Week one also consisted of two visits
to the gym to test the effects on different areas of the body and a daily
jogging routine that would unfortunately prove rather disappointing.
Previously,
before the start of this blog project, I had been accustomed to eating gargantuan amounts of unhealthy snacks
– whether it was because of my boredom or my lustful, unadulterated American
appetite was dependent on the day. However, let one fact be clear: I love
snacking. Therefore, one of the toughest things about this project was the
removal of snacks from my life. My usual daily diet consisted of eggs for
breakfast, a sandwich with a salad or fruit for lunch, and a meat or poultry
dish with vegetables and carbohydrates for dinner. This basic meal plan
satisfies the criteria of the food pyramid, but it did not satisfy my
insatiable hunger. The subsequent effects of this diet led me to become a bit
more sluggish in terms of both thoughts and physical activity. It also made me
constantly think of the next available mealtime because of the limited times
that I am able to eat during the day. Oh, I tried. Believe me, I tried.
However, those little bite-sized bunches of deliciousness kept calling out to
me to cheat, and I followed their orders. Go ahead and criticize me if you will,
but it’s hard going cold turkey.
“Spaghetti
noodle” would be the most accurate description of my body after attending the
gym and jogging regularly during the past seven days. Each day, I decided to
run around the Santa Clara University campus and time myself to see the effects
of the diet on my body. The results were shameful: it took me, on average, 28
minutes to jog 1.8 miles around the school. During the time of actual running,
I was out of breath to say the least. My body felt as if all oxygen had
abandoned me, leaving me gasping for air every few minutes. My legs faired no
better, as they occasionally crumbled against the cold, hard sidewalk due to
pure exhaustion. As I neared my end destination each and every time, I would
take a huge gulp of water and thank my body for not giving up halfway. I
believed that my weightlifting experiment would prove easier: I was wrong.
The
first day that I visited the gym, I decided to work on my Biceps and Lats in
order to test my limits and set them as my basis of comparison for the upcoming
weeks. The bicep is the smaller but most noticeable part of the arm used for
lifting, and the Lats – short for Latissimus Dorsi – is the muscle seen on the
upper sides of the back and is used for extensions. The amount of people that
had extremely toned and muscular bodies somewhat discouraged me, but I pressed
on through the pressure. I could sense determination and burning fat as soon as
I had walked through the door – it sickened me to think that I would have to
spend hours of my week in this iron prison. However, I knew that this plan was
for the greater good of my health, and I shrugged the depressing thought off.
The workout that I had used is as follows:
Three sets of Bicep Curls (10 reps at 15Ib, 8 reps at 15Ib, and 10 reps at 10Ib,
respectively), three sets of Seated Bicep Curls (8 reps at 20Ib, 6 reps at
20Ib, and 8 reps at 12.5Ib, respectively), one set of Barbell Curls (10 reps at
35Ib), and three sets of Lat Pulldowns (10 reps each at 60Ib). Each grueling
set of workouts superseded its previous one, causing my arms to constantly
wiggle and subsequently give out under the weights. My second workout day
proved to be much worse, as I attempted to improve my triceps and deltoids. The
Tricep is the largest muscle in the arm used for the extension of the elbow,
and the Deltoid muscles are used during the raising of the arms. The workout
that I had used is as follows: four sets of Shoulder Press (2 sets w/12 reps at
15Ib and 2 sets w/6 reps at 15Ib), two sets of Side Shoulder Raises (8 reps at
12.5Ib), two sets of Tricep Kickbacks (10 reps at 10Ib and 12 reps at 7.5Ib,
respectively), two sets of Overhead Tricep Extensions (10 reps at 7.5 Ib), two
sets of alternating Deltoid Raises (8 reps at 7.5Ib), one set of Reverse Deltoid
Flys (8 reps at 7.5Ib), and one set of Arnold Shoulder Raises (8 reps at 10Ib).
The amount of pain and exhaustion that I had gone through after each workout
day could be compared to the pain that the Greek Titan “Atlas” felt after holding
up the world for an eternity. Though this might seem like a hyperbole, one
would think otherwise after an exhausting day of “pumping iron”.
In conclusion, the
three meals per day plan could not be fully assessed because no other diet has
been brought in to compare. Therefore, I will reserve judgment on its
efficiency until the latter half of this project. However, I am able to assess
the way that it made me feel from day-to-day from just this diet plan alone. I
feel that three meals per day without snacks is a bit too spaced out for my
appetite, and therefore made me feel a bit on the sluggish end of things in
comparison to when I have extra sugar and carbs from other snacks. I really
don’t know how long my psychological and emotional states can take with these
diets, so wish me luck on my continued, albeit treacherous, journey.
Works Cited
·
Luoma,
TC. “T Nation | A New Way to Eat” A New
Way to Eat. TC Luoma, Feb. 24, 2012.April 25, 2013, < http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/most_recent/a_new_way_to_eat>
