I'm going to come out and say that I have a bit of fat-phobia. I grew up in the South surrounded by fat food and fat people, and I never found it that appealing. As a result I'm more than a little concerned about becoming fat myself. I'm a 26 year old guy, about 6'1/2" tall, and I hover around 175 pounds normally although if I run daily I go down to a low of around 162 and if I eat constantly and lift heavy I can get up to 206.
At the moment I'm working a job that by its nature is essentially construction 20% of the time, and requires little more than walking around and climbing ladders the other 80%. I mention that just to bring in that the people I work with have the physique of typical construction workers: big belly, but strong. Looking at my coworkers doesn't inspire my appetite.
I'm quitting in 6 and a half weeks at which point I'll get to go home and see my wife, family and friends for the first time since the end of February. I am trying to stay in reasonable shape for just that long, and I suspect that I can't make much of an improvement in that time frame, although I think if I sat around and ate Haagen-Dazs for six and a half weeks I could probably deteriorate pretty far.
I work a 14 hour shift during which I eat around 900-1200 calories of food, spread out in small 300 calorie snacks. When I get off work I run for an hour on the elliptical for about 850 calories at my typical pace. I'm usually dead by then so I go to sleep without eating. I get up six hours later and eat around a 1,000 calorie meal although sometimes I eat out and I'm not sure what I'm getting, maybe 1,500. I'm definitely at a calorie deficit, so I don't have to worry about turning into one of my coworkers, but I also know that I can't maintain this indefinitely. I'm starting to see some veins on the side of my head I never saw before and my cheekbones are getting impressive. Actually, I'm kind of a zombie but I have to keep lurching along the same way or I think I'll feel even worse.
I guess my question is this: knowing that the end is near, do I mellow out for six weeks or do I go for broke and try to recover later? More hypothetically and for my brother who works with me here and isn't quitting, what's the solution when you're only off work ten hours a day for weeks on end? How much sleep can a person trade for exercise or is it better to just be well-rested and watch your gut expand, or try to control things entirely with diet? I'm not exactly surrounded by healthy-looking people, so I don't think anybody has found the solution up here yet. I don't even know what my workout goals are anymore other than try to maintain my current condition and not look like I'm 40 by the time I go home in July.
At the moment I'm working a job that by its nature is essentially construction 20% of the time, and requires little more than walking around and climbing ladders the other 80%. I mention that just to bring in that the people I work with have the physique of typical construction workers: big belly, but strong. Looking at my coworkers doesn't inspire my appetite.
I'm quitting in 6 and a half weeks at which point I'll get to go home and see my wife, family and friends for the first time since the end of February. I am trying to stay in reasonable shape for just that long, and I suspect that I can't make much of an improvement in that time frame, although I think if I sat around and ate Haagen-Dazs for six and a half weeks I could probably deteriorate pretty far.
I work a 14 hour shift during which I eat around 900-1200 calories of food, spread out in small 300 calorie snacks. When I get off work I run for an hour on the elliptical for about 850 calories at my typical pace. I'm usually dead by then so I go to sleep without eating. I get up six hours later and eat around a 1,000 calorie meal although sometimes I eat out and I'm not sure what I'm getting, maybe 1,500. I'm definitely at a calorie deficit, so I don't have to worry about turning into one of my coworkers, but I also know that I can't maintain this indefinitely. I'm starting to see some veins on the side of my head I never saw before and my cheekbones are getting impressive. Actually, I'm kind of a zombie but I have to keep lurching along the same way or I think I'll feel even worse.
I guess my question is this: knowing that the end is near, do I mellow out for six weeks or do I go for broke and try to recover later? More hypothetically and for my brother who works with me here and isn't quitting, what's the solution when you're only off work ten hours a day for weeks on end? How much sleep can a person trade for exercise or is it better to just be well-rested and watch your gut expand, or try to control things entirely with diet? I'm not exactly surrounded by healthy-looking people, so I don't think anybody has found the solution up here yet. I don't even know what my workout goals are anymore other than try to maintain my current condition and not look like I'm 40 by the time I go home in July.
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