I'm a 37 year-old French bloke leaving near Manchester since 2011, and I've been a vegan for 2 years now.
I'm 1.75m and 69kl.
I'm quite active, so a typical week would be: weights 4 to 5 times, running twice (2 hours in total), swimming twice (1 hour-ish in total). I'm pretty average in everything (half-marathon time = 1.45 for instance) but really enjoy my sport and doing various things.
However I've been stuck for a while when it comes to weight lifting, so I'm taking a 12 week challenge to seriously work on that, and improve a slew of other things (sleep, hydration, coffee addiction) on the way.
They say you must have a goal when you start a plan, I'm not sure what mine is right now. I suppose that at the end if I see improvements in major lifts, it will be a success. So say, if I progress from my usual 15-16 hammer grip pull-ups to 20, I'll be happy. Need to think more about it.
So starting this Monday 28.03.16, I'm committing to:
Weights: follow the program created by trainer Nick Mitchell, as detailled in the book:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Your-Ultimate-Body-Transformation-Plan/dp/0008147914?ie=UTF8&psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=ox_sc_act_title_2&smid=A3BY5A3P8V9XJD
I'll provide more details later, but to sum things up it involves per week:
2 days focusing on a specific area (arms, chest, etc) and 2 days for 2 different areas.
Do that for 3 weeks, then start another cycle, focusing on a different area.
Switch again after 3 weeks, and do that for 12 weeks.
Program and exercises don't focus a lot on the weight you can lift, and give priority to proper form and correct timing.
Nutrition: follow the following nutrition macros every day.
2800 kcal (conservative estimate for weight gain, might take it up if need be), spread as follows:
- prot 25% 170g / 680 kcal
- fat 25% 80g / 720 kcal
- carb 50% 350g / 1400kcal
I'm a small eater, so spread that out over 7 meals. Still dreading it a bit though.
Hydration:Drink a couple extra pints of water every day
Sleep:Get at least 7 hours of quality sleep every night.
My sleep as been quite bad, I wake up at night or very early (3/4am) and not getting enough rest.
Anyway, to improve that I will:
- get darker curtains

- get to bed at regular times 9.30 -10 pm
- get pc and phone out of the bedroom.
Caffeine addiction: Drink only 1 cup/coffee day, and switch to decaff green after 5pm.
Quite a change from my daily 5-6 cups of black battery acid

So the daily cup is kept as a pre-workout boost.
Post here at least a weekly update with
- 1 photo
- stats update like bodyweight.
- report on the work done at the gym, nutrition, hydration, sleep and caffeine intake.
So there, thanks for reading! Any advice or feedback along the way will be appreciated.