How does my lifestyle look?

**RaiNnyX4** · Posted On: 8/09/2008 10:16pm

I'm 24, 6'2 180-185lbs 18% body fat.

I just graduated in May and my health was really suffering from school. I was around 200lbs. 23% body fat and had pre-hyper tension. Basically, I was eating terrible, rarely got any exercise and under tons of stress because my schedule was so strenuous (Chemistry major Japanese minor), and had a terrible sleep schedule.

Since I graduated I have been doing the following:

1st month: 3 days of Aikido (1.5hrs). 3 days of jogging (1.5miles) push-ups (1X10 Basic push-up, 1X10 Judo/Wrestling push-up, 1X10 Knuckle push-up) and 3X20 sit-ups. 1 day rest.

2nd month: My Judo and Aikido schedule conflict with each other this summer so it changes to 1 day Aikido (1.5hrs) and 2 days Judo (1hr). 3 days of jogging (1.5miles) push-ups (1X10 Basic push-up, 1X10 Judo/Wrestling push-up, 1X10 Knuckle push-up) and 3X20 sit-ups. 1 day rest. I begin changing the jogging distance to 4miles as I get into better shape. By the end of the month all days were 4mile jogs.

3rd month: Prior to this time I was doing private tutoring for money so I got little exercise other than walking the dog twice a day and the stuff mentioned above. I recently began working as a Chemist which has increased my activity (lots of standing in front of the lab bench). Because my legs were sore after work I cut out the running but added an extra day of Judo. So now I'm at 1 day Aikido (1.5hrs) and 3 days Judo (1hr). 3 days rest.

My diet:

I'm a vegetarian but I eat a pretty balanced diet (I eat eggs and dairy). A typical day would look like the following: Fruit at 6:45am (banana, kiwi, apple, or grapes), whole wheat bagel and goat cheese at 9-10am, two sandwiches (all of my grains are whole wheat and I alternate between egg salad + romaine lettuce/spring mix, swiss and muenster cheese + romaine lettuce/spring mix + tomato + mustard, and banana and peanut butter) and fruit (banana, apple, or grapes) at noon-1pm. Dinner varies as I might have anything from pasta or ravioli with vegetable sauce to a couple of humus wraps. I try to drink as much cold water as possible throughout the day. I try to eat out as little as possible and never really consume junk food and rarely drink alcohol. On the weekends my diet varies a lot more. I don't eat the sandwiches and will instead have things like granola+milk+fruit, vege-burger+cheese+romaine lettuce/spring mix+tomato+onions+mushrooms+ketchup/banana sauce/hot sauce, or vegetable omelet and toast. I take a multi-vitamin everyday along with a glucosamine/chondroitin pill. It says to take the glucosamine twice a day but I always forget to take it at night.

I'm definitely continuing to get in better shape. I'm rarely sore the next day after a workout now and my stamina during class is increasing. I'm thinking in September, I'll start doing BJJ twice a week which would put me at 1day Aikido, 3days Judo, 2days BJJ, 1day rest.

**Rancid Pantaloons** · Posted On: 8/09/2008 11:47pm

you are doing something positive for yourself. that's good.

**odorblocker** · Posted On: 8/11/2008 7:53pm

Looks like you read mad books on the subject of nutrition. High five.

**RaiNnyX4** · Posted On: 8/11/2008 9:54pm

Originally Posted by odorblocker

Looks like you read mad books on the subject of nutrition. High five.

Really? I was honestly a little worried that I might be missing some vital aspect in my diet and not know it until it was too late.

I think I need to start jogging again until I start BJJ. My abs were starting to feel pretty tight lately. But in the past few days not so much so.

One question I have is will my training alone get me in good enough shape to be competitive? I've always been on the skinny side and I feel like a lot of the guys at Judo beat me just because they're stronger than me. At least during the standup. On the ground, the small amount of BJJ I did while at school has given me a pretty good advantage. Even against the stronger and higher ranking guys, they recognize me as a legitimate threat.

**A.D.D** · Posted On: 8/12/2008 8:26am

Well, if you want to get bigger and/or stronger you might want to getting into weight lifting.

I am also willing to bet that you aren't getting sufficient calories, certain kinds of fats and proteins to support an increased amount of training. Especially weight training.

In the precisionnutrition.com forum there is a vegetarian section you might want to check out. That would probably be a good place to get advice on a diet for a vegetarian.

I can see potential holes in your diet and you will probably get some good reading there.

Read the stickies here if you haven't. I am sure others will give you much more detailed answers but you definitely could do with some improvements.

**BudoMonkey** · Posted On: 8/12/2008 8:42am

Seconding what was said about fats. Peanut butter is a great source of dietary fat.

I would also look into whey protein and mix it with skim milk. They have alot of good flavors out there.

Is the aikido provided any sort of real workout for you? Is there a decent warmup/conditioning part of class?

**TheRuss** · Posted On: 8/12/2008 11:36am

I highly recommend keeping a food diary.

Reason: You've listed what you're eating, but not how much of it or its nutritional values. I use a spreadsheet to add up the macronutrients (fats/carbs/protein and I also track fiber) for what I eat daily, but there are websites that will automate a lot of it for you. (Don't have any URLs offhand, but if someone else doesn't volunteer a good one in the next day or so, I'll track one down for you)

If you estimate how much you eat and what nutritional content you're getting, and then you start keeping a food diary, you'll probably be amazed at how far off your estimates were.

**RaiNnyX4** · Posted On: 8/12/2008 6:40pm

Thanks for the intelligent replies guys. I was expecting a lot of "Eat meat." responses.

@A.D.D.

I would like to pick up weight training. I started doing some with a friend of mine during college and I really enjoyed it and saw surprisingly quick results, but with 6 days of martial arts, work, and a social life, I'm not sure where that would fit in.

I don't think I'm getting insufficient calories. I eat whenever I'm hungry and sometimes do a little bit of overeating. As for the protein: eggs, dairy, nuts, soy, and beans isn't enough?

I checked out the vegetarian section of precisionnutrition.com briefly but didn't see anything that useful. I'll check it out again when I've got more time.

@BudoMonkey

Peanutbutter and banana sandwiches is part of my sandwich rotation so I do get peanutbutter in my diet. Also, I grab a handful of peanuts as a snack after work occasionally.

The Aikido I study actually provides a really good workout. Like most of the Aikidoka on this board, I don't train in the wussy Aikido. I've been to other dojo where I've literally not broken a sweat the whole class. We're left pretty spent at the end of class at my place, and people will often stay after class to work on Judo with me or some Boxing with our Sensei.

I've thought about getting some protein supplements but I wasn't sure if I really needed them. I'll dissect my diet and see exactly how much I'm getting.

@TheRuss

A food diary is an excellent idea. I think I'll start one next week.

**BudoMonkey** · Posted On: 8/13/2008 7:35am

Rainy, regarding your food diet- check this out:
www.thedailyplate.com

It's a great website.

And I only asked about the aikido because I couldn't imagine why you would need to do any serious conditioning to practice it. Before I came to this board, I thought aikido looked frickin awesome, but I never got into it because it seemed like something that required too much finesse for me. I never knew about the whole compliant partners bullshit.

**A.D.D** · Posted On: 8/13/2008 7:55am

Originally Posted by RaiNnyX4

@A.D.D.

I would like to pick up weight training. I started doing some with a friend of mine during college and I really enjoyed it and saw surprisingly quick results, but with 6 days of martial arts, work, and a social life, I'm not sure where that would fit in.

I don't think I'm getting insufficient calories. I eat whenever I'm hungry and sometimes do a little bit of overeating. As for the protein: eggs, dairy, nuts, soy, and beans isn't enough?

I checked out the vegetarian section of precisionnutrition.com briefly but didn't see anything that useful. I'll check it out again when I've got more time.

Well there isn't really a way to tell what anything is going to do for you OR how much it is going to benefit you vs. other ways you can spend your time until you have very clearly outlined goals.

You should probably start with outlining those and doing what TheRuss said and keeping a food journal in some way. While it looks TO ME like you aren't getting much protein from your "typical day" that you outlined there isn't really a way to tell. You say you eat this or that but not (like TheRuss was saying) how much. You say you eat eggs. Well maybe that means two eggs in a day or maybe ten. No real way to measure.

The best thing to do now is probably to read and really figure out what you are doing now, what you want to accomplish and then what steps you need to take to accomplish those things.

I am sure smarty people here will be helping you with that along the way.

Also don't just read the vegetarian section of the Precision Nutrition website read a lot of the articles by John Berardi and other contributors. One of the first suggestions to almost everyone who starts asking about nutrition here is to read the 7 habits of highly effective whatever what not eating that John Berardi wrote.