Dying to Diet?

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>